China seeks reopening of trade route to India

Kolkata:19 November-China is keen on reopening the Steelwell Road that runs from Lydo in Assam to Yunnan province of China via Myanmar. “The Chinese government will send a formal proposal to its Indian counterpart,” said Li Jiashou, chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), Yunnan Sub-council.

He was speaking during a ceremony to mark the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indian Chamber of Commerce and CCPIT, Yunnan province on Wednesday. The MoU was signed to promote economic cooperation between Yunnan and the eastern regions of India within the framework of the bilateral agreements between the two countries. The MoU also stipulates provisions for exchange of economic data and information between eastern India and Yunnan.

“The reopening of the road will facilitate more trade between these regions of the two countries. The Indian government has already widened the road on the Indian side and our government has built an expressway on our side. We have already talked to Myanmar through which 400 km of the road runs,” the Chinese official said.

Land a stumbling block on way to industrialisation, says Industries Secy.

Kolkata: November 19- Even as West Bengal is receiving a lot of investment proposals, procurement of land is proving to be a big hurdle in implementing these projects. Sabyasachi Sen, Principal Secretary, Department of Commerce and Industries, on Wednesday said responding to questions at Biz Bridge, a workshop organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to showcase the eastern region.

“Land procurement is becoming a major hurdle in the industrialisation process. States like Gujarat do not face this kind of problem because in the ‘50s and ‘60s the Gujarat government bought lots of land near the highways. But this did not happen here,” Sen said.

He said the state government is trying to simplify the procedure for facilitating faster sanction of business proposals. “At present there are 20 to 25 windows and we want to cut down the number to six to seven so that investment proposals are processed faster,” Sen added.

He also said the government wants to set up a project to store water. “We will take the help of the Jadavpur University to conduct a feasibility study of this project,” he said.

Sen said the state government was working on a new incentive scheme for industries that will focus on employment generation. “For instance, If a person gets incentive to the tune of Rs 100, 50 per cent will be for the volume of investment he is making and 50 per cent for the number of employments it will generate. We are going to take the help of the regional providend fund commissioner in this regard,” Sen added.

Biotechnology park on anvil in Bengal

Kolkata: November 19 (UNI)- West Bengal Principal Secretary for Commerce and Industry Sabyasachi Sen today said a bio-technology park would come up in the state in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur.

Speaking on the sidelines of ''Biz Bridge'', organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry(CII), Dr Sen said the project would come up on a land area of 100 acre at Kharagpur, which had already been acquired. However, he declined to quote any timeframe for its completion, saying it would be finalised only after the bidding process would be over.

According to him, the state would attract an investment to the tune of Rs 1,00,000 crore in the next five-six years in the iron and steel sector. Earlier, delivering the inaugural address, the principal secretary also said efforts were on to bring the automobile sector into the focus of the state.

''We want West Bengal to be an automobile-hub in line with Gurgaon and Pune. We are ready to extend our support. Foreign tie-ups are also welcome,'' Dr Sen said.

Ess Dee & Vedanta Group will infuse Rs 261 crore in ailing India Foils

Kolkata: 20 November, 2008-Ess Dee Aluminium Ltd, a leading manufacturer and supplier of Aluminium foil-based flexible packaging laminate products, has acquired nearly 90 per cent stake, valued at around Rs130 crore, in Kolkata-based aluminium foils company, India Foils, which is part of the Vedanta group.

"Ess Dee Aluminium and Vedanta group entity Madras Aluminium Company (Malco) have joined hands to revive India Foils. As a part of the rehabilitation plan, we both partners will infuse about Rs261 crore in India Foils in the form of equity and preferential shares, to repay all existing lenders of IFL, thus making it debt-free," Ess Dee chairman and managing director Sudip Dutta said at a media briefing.

Ess Dee and Vedanta will jointly revive the sick company, India Foils in a rehabilitation scheme approved by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR).

Ess Dee will hold around 90 per cent stake and the remaining will be owned by Vedanta's Madras Aluminium Co. The two will plan to make IFL debt free by repaying all its debts with a joint infusion of Rs261 crore, in the form of equity and preference shares.

Dutta, said that for 2008-09, the company will keep growth levels to the same as in the last quarter, and the IFL acquisition will boost the company's rolling capacity from the existing 18,000 tonnes to 37,000 tonnes within a year. An addition 12,000 tonnes capacity will be created by March 2009 and the rest by December next.

Dutta said the additional capacity will also help Ess Dee as it was planning to launch innovative and new anti-counterfeit packaging products, especially aimed at the pharma industry.These new products could not be launched earlier due to lack of capacity, although many pharma companies had shown keen interest in buying the anti-counterfeit packaging.

IFL which was manufacturing, processing and selling aluminium foil and foil-based products has three manufacturing plants in West Bengal and has a foil rolling capacity of 19,000 tonnes, out of which two are shut. The company has a good front-end conversion capacity that enables it to offer value-added products to its customers. With the funds, Ess Dee will now restart two units in the next five months and the third unit some time later.

"This acquisition will also place Ess Dee on track towards achieving self sufficiency in raw material requirements once the foil stock plant at Hoera is restarted. Additions to IFL's manufacturing facilities in West Bengal would raise strength to Ess Dee's successful hub-and-spoke model of manufacturing and printing foil-based products with plants spread across the country," Dutta said.

One of the main reasons for IFL declaring sick in 2006 was its location, as it did not have manufacturing facilities outside West Bengal, which hampered fast delivery as also it made a substantial investment in latest technology when the industry was not prepared to absorb it.
''IFL lost out by location. Now Ess Dee will provide the spoke and IFL the hub, as together our facilities are located at strategic places, this is a primary synergy through the acquisition,'' Debdeep Bhattacharya, director of Ess Dee, said.Vedanta director Tarun Jain said his company was exiting IFL because it wanted to focus on its core business of mining.

With 37,000 tonnes manufacturing capacity in 8 sophisticated plants spread across India and with the addition of 3 plants of IFL, Ess Dee will be India's largest pharmaceutical foil manufacturing company.

Three CPI(M) leaders injured in JKP backed armed miscreants attack

BANKURA (WB), 20 November,2008: Three CPI(M) leaders were injured when Jharkhand party-Trinamool-Maoist backed armed miscreants attacked them with bows and arrows in West Bengal's Bankura district, police sources said today.

The three CPI(M) leaders - Ranjit Hembran, a former pachayat samiti sabhapati and Ramu Duley and Tulu Hembran, zonal committee leaders were on their way back home to Sarulia when they were struck by arrows at Sarenga area last evening, Superintendent of Police Vishal Garg said.

The three have been admitted to hospital, sources added. Tribal organisations in Bankura district had yesterday obstructed Bankura-Midnapore state highway by placing tree trunks on the road to protest alleged police excesses meted out to tribal in Lalgarh area of neighbouring West Midnapore district.

The three CPI(M) leaders were passing through the area where the tribal had but up road blockade when they were attacked, sources added.