CII show on rural enterprise Saturday, October 20, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Gujarat, along with the state department of rural development will organise a three-day Rural Enterprise Summit - Conference and Exhibition - at Sanskar Kendra from November 1.
The summit will be attended by a delegation, headed by chief ministers of neighbouring states - Vilasrao Deshmukh and Digvijay Singh, according to a CII press release.
The Ministry of Rural Development, Maharashtra will be partnering the effort by show-casing various technologies, products and innovations by artisans across Maharashtra and also companies from central/public and private sectors.
According the CII Gujarat officials, the multi-fold mission of the summit was to bring together key players involved in development of rural sector in India and co-ordinate the available blueprints, expertise, finance and planning for smooth development of Indian rural sector, especially in Gujarat.
At a curtain-raiser programme organised by the CII, it said that basic objective of organising the summit to bring about development, improve standard of living and self sufficiency in rural sector of Gujarat through planned and co-ordinated efforts.
The summit was expected to be attract 700 delegates comprising rural entrepreneurs, self help groups, NGOs, official from banks and micro finance institutions and organisations, including CSIR, IRMA, ICICI and Abhiyan.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Rana urges Modi to speed up Surat projects Saturday, October 20, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: Union textiles minister Kashiram Rana has urged Chief Minister Narendra Modi to expedite pending problems of Surat, including construction of new air port complex and setting up of garment park in the city.
Rana called on Modi in Gandhinagar and submitted a detailed note on various proposals. Some of them have been cleared by the state government, while many others were still lying undecided. He also discussed organisational issues with the chief minister.
The textiles minister drew Modi's attention towards the inordinate delay in the execution of the airport project under which only the fencing task has started. The state officials have not yet taken any decision on upgradation of operational facilities at the existing air strip. Once such vital facilities were installed, private airlines could launch flight operations from Surat to Mumbai and other places in Saurashtra.
Despite several reminders from the Union textile ministry, the state industries commissionorate has not prepared the feasibility report on the proposed garment parks for Surat and Ahmedabad. At least 70,000 unemployed persons could be employed in these two parks for which several private textile groups had shown willingness to put up units in the proposed parks. The minister also pleaded to the chief minister to convene a separate meeting of concerned officials and institutions to discuss the developmental projects of Surat and other cities of south Gujarat.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Laghu Udyog Bharati led by Vallabhbhai Savalia and Nikhil Patel met the chief minister and requested him to solve the problem of unemployment in the state. For this, the state government, the delegation members said, should accord high priority to small-scale units which could provide employment to large number of educated unemployed youths.
They also met energy minister Kaushik Patel and urged that power staggering for industries should be only for one day, as new norms for two-day staggering would adversely affect industries. The minister assured them that he would visit Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot to know for himself the problems faced by the industries.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Rana urges Modi to speed up Surat projects Saturday, October 20, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: Union textiles minister Kashiram Rana has urged Chief Minister Narendra Modi to expedite pending problems of Surat, including construction of new air port complex and setting up of garment park in the city.
Rana called on Modi in Gandhinagar and submitted a detailed note on various proposals. Some of them have been cleared by the state government, while many others were still lying undecided. He also discussed organisational issues with the chief minister.
The textiles minister drew Modi's attention towards the inordinate delay in the execution of the airport project under which only the fencing task has started. The state officials have not yet taken any decision on upgradation of operational facilities at the existing air strip. Once such vital facilities were installed, private airlines could launch flight operations from Surat to Mumbai and other places in Saurashtra.
Despite several reminders from the Union textile ministry, the state industries commissionorate has not prepared the feasibility report on the proposed garment parks for Surat and Ahmedabad. At least 70,000 unemployed persons could be employed in these two parks for which several private textile groups had shown willingness to put up units in the proposed parks. The minister also pleaded to the chief minister to convene a separate meeting of concerned officials and institutions to discuss the developmental projects of Surat and other cities of south Gujarat.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Laghu Udyog Bharati led by Vallabhbhai Savalia and Nikhil Patel met the chief minister and requested him to solve the problem of unemployment in the state. For this, the state government, the delegation members said, should accord high priority to small-scale units which could provide employment to large number of educated unemployed youths.
They also met energy minister Kaushik Patel and urged that power staggering for industries should be only for one day, as new norms for two-day staggering would adversely affect industries. The minister assured them that he would visit Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot to know for himself the problems faced by the industries.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Apologise to citizens for many failures, BJP tells mayor Saturday, October 20, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: Leader of opposition in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) Dharmendra Shah, has decried Congress' 'ineffectiveness' to focus on its civic duty.
Shah's statement was in response to mayor Himmatsinh Patel's tom-tomming his 'achievements' on Wednesday after completing a year in office. Shah termed the Congress rule as one pandering to the whims and fancies of the political wing instead of being people-centric. He wanted the Congress to apologise to Amdavadis for its failure.
"The Congress' inefficiency and lack of drive has brought the corporation to the brink of financial disaster. Even their so-called waiver of 18 per cent penalty on pending property tax is a sham," said Shah.
Listing out Congress' failures Shah pointed at: incomplete work of the railway underpass near Income Tax circle, no work on the Behrampura-Khodiyar-Vasna bridge though approved at AMC's annual budget, non-payment of contractors and raw material suppliers bringing many departments to a standstill.
Shah talked of 18 such half-complete or incomplete jobs that, he said, had come to a standstill because 'the Congressmen are busy serving self-interest and have scanty respect for the people's well-being'.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
In three months, Amul pizzas touch the 1 m sales mark Saturday, October 20, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: In the next couple of days, Amul would have touched a sales figure of one million pizzas across the country. And this landmark has Amul brand manager for pizzas and frozen foods Pawan Kumar all exited. "We are already leaders in the organised pizza market. This is a big achievement within three months of launch", he gushes.
Since its low-key launch in mid-July, Amul, is currently selling 25,000 pizzas a day from its 680 outlets in 29 cities. Add to that sales of another 12,000 frozen pizzas a day and one gets a total daily sale of 37,000 pizzas out of a total pizza market of one lakh pizzas of the organised sector. "This is way above the no. Two, Dominos, which is selling 15,000 pizzas a day", says Kumar. Of course, while Amul is the market leader as per volumes, it would still be next to Dominos as far as value goes because its pizza, with mozzarella cheese as the main ingredient, is priced at Rs 20 each.
But it is the competitive price advantage that has encouraged Amul to set its targets high - at 3000 outlets in 100 cities by December 31. By the turn of the year, Amul hopes to be selling three lakh pizzas a day. And guess what it would be doing to its market share of cheese which already stands at 68 per cent out of a demand for 5,500 tonnes in the country. Kumar said the first outlet in Ahmedabad had clocked sales of 1800 pizzas on the very first day and, quite expectedly, the sales had tapered off since then.
Basically, the pizza venture was a bid to move up the value chain of cheese and create demand for the product where Amul is way ahead of its nearest competitor, Britannia. Next in the line of launches are frozen sandwiches, parathas and burgers which are still in the developmental stage and are being readied for launch after Diwali.
Kumar said a team of specialists is working on the spree of opening new outlets to reach the 3000 mark by the year-end. In the next few weeks, an average of 30 outlets will be opened every day to meet the target by December-end. Amul already has a sizeable presence in the north and the west. It is now spreading across to the east and the south. "In states where we have captured the market in the major cities, we are now moving into the smaller towns", said Kumar. Changing the taste of the semi-urban area, so to speak, because pizzas have remained a largely urban phenomenon in the country.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
