Badla rates hover around 15%: Carryforward rates on the BSE moved up to touch a high of 19 per cent before stabilising at 15.25 per cent weighted average for a total vyaj badla position of Rs 645.39 crore. Of the 145 securities offered for the carryforward session, only five attracted backwardation charges. They were EIH, Indian Hotels, Glaxo, Mastergain and Tata Hydro.Export firms may rethink on pricing post euro: The introduction of the euro from January 1, 1999, is likely to put pressure on the prices of Indian exports to Europe,especially in sectors like textiles. According to a presentation made by Deutsche Bank, the introduction of the euro will force corporates to rethink on their pricing, distribution and packaging in the European market.

Full-fledged VAT regime in the offing: The revenue department is gearing up for implementation of a value-added tax regime by converting excise duties into the VAT format at the level of manufacturers. Central Board of Excise and Customs chairman and special secretary SD Mohile said on Saturday that there were certain constraints in introducing a full-fledged VAT. The board is therefore trying to convert excise duties into VAT.

JCT appoints Knight Frank for office sale: Property consultant Knight Frank has been given the mandate to find out a buyer for MM Thapar-controlled JCT Ltd's corporate office in Mumbai. The company had earlier announced that the corporate office in Mumbai will be put on the block as part of a larger restructuring exercise. A senior JCT official said thecompany is pitching for a price of Rs 25 crore for the corporate office.

HP unveils servers for ISPs: Hewlett-Packard India introduced two rackable, performance-dense enterprise servers for Internet Service Providers in Bangalore. The two new products -- HP 9000 A-Class and R-Class servers -- offer higher Unix(R) system performance density per rack, Stacy Plemmons, vice-president (enterprise accounts organisation), Hewlett-Packard, said.

India Excel Fund emerges top Canadian performer: A Canada-based mutual fund, partly managed by the Aditya Birla group of companies, has been declared the best-performing fund in Canada for May and August, 1998. India Excel Fund, launched on April 15 by Excel Funds Management Inc, has appreciated almost 9 per cent since, with August alone accounting for a 5 per cent rise.

Steel sector to get Rs 150 cr for R&D: The centre has decided to spend Rs 150 crore every year for promoting research and development activities in the steel industry. Disclosingthis in Bangalore on Saturday, union minister for steel and mines Naveen Patnaik said that an empowered committee had also been set up for approval of suitable research proposals.

Rise in train fares likely: Railway minister Nitish Kumar said in Chittaranjan on Saturday that passenger fares were bound to increase in the near future to save the Indian Railways from massive losses. He said the government had no way but to reduce gradually the cross-subsidisation in passenger freight that registered a whopping overall loss of Rs 2,800 crore last year.

`Launch campaign against criminals': Senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar has called for a `Quit Mumbai' movement against gangsters to bring back the city's glory. "Today there are reports about restaurant owners, shopkeepers, diamond merchants and even doctors leaving the city as they feel insecure here. This would severely affect the city's economy and capacity to create employment." He said that the indifference on the part of ordinary citizenswas shocking and worrisome.

US says shrimp import law not discriminatory: The US, which lost a case to India and three other nations at the World Trade Organisation, still denies that its shrimp import norms are discriminatory. A WTO appeals body reversed a lower panel's ruling on the US law aimed at protecting turtles from shrimpers as it found the implementation discriminatory against India, Malaysia, Thailand and Pakistan. US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky disagreed with the criticism.

Balayogi addresses Russian parliament: In an unprecedented gesture of goodwill towards India, Lok Sabha speaker GMC Balayogi became the first head of a foreign parliament to address the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament.

Draft text on accidental use of nukes adopted: A draft text submitted by India on reducing the risk of accidental use of nuclear weapons has been approved by the Disarmament Committee despite opposition from four of the five permanent members of theSecurity Council. Except China, which abstained from voting, all the other permanent members of the Security Council -- the US, France, Britain and Russia -- voted against the resolution.

IRA to push through supporting legislations: The Insurance Regulatory Authority will push through two supporting legislations in the parliament soon after the enactment of the IRA Bill which is expected to be tabled in the winter session. IRA chairman N Rangachary said the two supporting legislations were required to set up institutes for actuaries and surveyors, which was necessary for the orderly growth of the Indian insurance industry.

CBI to probe Romesh Sharma's links with scamsters: The CBI has set up a special team to probe the links of Romesh Sharma, an alleged Dawood Ibrahim frontman, with some of the prime accused in the multi-crore fodder scam, CBI sources said on Saturday. The team has been constituted following a directive from union home minister LK Advani to the agency to go into RomeshSharma's links with politicians and the underworld.

`Government to seek deportation of gangsters in Dubai': Prime Minister AB Vajpayee on Saturday said his government is seeking deportation of gangsters holed up in Dubai for which an extradition treaty is proposed to be signed with the United Arab Emirates. This is part of urgent measures being taken by the government to curb mafia activities in the country, he said. Vajpayee said the government will also convene a meeting of all political parties to discuss the mafia menace.

Tremor in Maharashtra: An earthquake of slight intensity hit some areas of Maharashtra on Saturday. The tremor recorded 3.0 on the Richter scale was reported from the Koyna region, the meteorological department said.Record $206 bn tobacco deal expected: The tobacco industry and state attorneys general expect to complete a $206-billion plan to resolve health care claims on Saturday, in the largest settlement of a civil lawsuit in the US.

BSE clarifies: Thisrefers to a news item titled `Adjust your seat belts to the 171-point leap' which appeared in the Saturday's edition of FE Investor. The BSE has clarified that the Sensex would open at the same level where it closed on Friday evening at 2,976.12 points. During the continuous trading session, the index calculation would take into account the four incoming scrips (Novartis India, Infosys Technologies, NIIT and Castrol India and exclude the outgoing scrips of Arvind Mills, GE Shipping, SAIL and IPCL).