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Deveshwar:
CII against reservation in private sector
Chennai: Opposing job reservation in the private sector,
the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday
said the Government must, instead, strengthen the organised
sector, which would help in generating more employment
in the unorganised sector.
"Organised sector provides only a small fraction
of the employment. We feel that reservation in organised
sector would weaken this sector. The CII is of the view
that the principle of meritocracy should be supported,"
CII president, Y C Deveshwar, told reporters here.
He said the organised sector should be allowed to be competitive
as it supported the informal or the unorganised sector,
which accounted for majority of employment.
He said, the organised sector could provide for only a
limited number of jobs by way of reservation.
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Assocham:
CEOs prefer only quarter of the board as Independent Directors
New Delhi: As many as 85 per cent of the country's
Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors favour
the strength of independent directors in listed companies
to be not more than one-fourth of the Board's strength,
a study by Assocham has said.
According
to the Assocham Business Barometer Survey, which sought
the opinion of about 200 CEOs and MDs on the issue, Corporate
India felt that the one-fourth strength of IDs in any
corporate body will make its board an ideal one as also
ensure effective functioning with maximum yield.
Releasing
the findings of the survey, Assocham president Mahendra
K Sanghi said, "It highlights that majority of the
top brass of Indian industry is neither in favour of J
J Irani Committee's recommendations which suggests that
the number of IDs should be one-third of the board strength
nor does it concur with Sebi guidelines which say that
the number of IDs should be 50 per cent of the board's
strength".
The
remaining 15 per cent of top CEOs say that the decision
for deciding the numbers of IDs in the board of listed
companies should be left entirely in the hands of Department
of Company Affairs as controversy has arisen on this issue,
the study said.
"The
1/4th strength of IDs in any corporate body will make
its board an ideal one as also ensure effective functioning
with maximum yield", felt 85 per cent of CEOs,"
said Sanghi.
When asked whether IDs should be made responsible for
acts of omission and commission of the management, 50
per cent were in favour and fifty per cent against it,
the study said.
A
majority of CEOs said the new Company Law should be immediately
enacted as corporates have been waiting for the new legislation
for several years and henceforth, the Department of Company
Affairs should put an end to its consultation process
as more the consultation process is intensified, the longer
will be the delay for the new act to be put in place,
it said.
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India
Inc. asks FM to improve investment climate
New Delhi: India Inc. has asked the government to
improve the investment climate through infrastructure
development, which would ensure easy access to fuel and
mineral ores and has also asked for financial reforms.
In
a meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the Chief
Financial Officers of leading business houses also pitched
for a better Intellectual Property Right regime to lure
more foreign investments into the country.
Chidambaram
assured the CFOs that the government would carry out procedural
improvements and remove the bottlenecks coming in the
way of investment and growth.
The
minister would meet the CFOs again after three to four
months to discuss threadbare, ways of streamlining the
tax structure further to create a more conducive environment
for investment.
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India-Iran
trade to touch $5bn by 2008
Chandigarh: The Ambassador of the Republic of Iran,
interacting with trade and industry members here said
that on a conservative basis the India-Iran bilateral
trade was projected to reach five billion dollars, against
the current 3.2 billion dollars, within the next three
years.
Addressing
PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) members
the Ambassador, S Z Yaghoubi, invited entrepreneurs of
Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh to set up joint ventures in
Iran particularly because "for India there is no
red tape in Iran".
He
said that cheap energy and access to Central Asian markets
made investments a viable proposition. He revealed that
Hindujas are developing a port in Iran, which should provide
access to these markets. Currently projects in the petro-chemical
sector of 1.5 billion dollar are being finalized with
Indian companies.
The
ambassador said that total investments in projects being
discussed were in the range of 5 billion dollars - 11
billion dollars.
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