Kudremukh connection with Iran finally laid to rest

Playboy Takes A Gamble"Playboy is not run by playboys," said Victor Lownes. Rs 50-lakh-a-year head of Playboy's British operation, just before he was dramatically sacked by Hugh Hefner last month. Not that Lownes' well-publicised lifestyle with its lavish parties, girls and high living was the reasons for his abrupt removal. This was caused by problems on the London gaming scene, a vital source of income for Playboy, which owns three casinos there. Playboy is showing signs of age and the transition from bunnies to balance-sheets is not proving easy.Between 1972 and 1978, circulation of the magazine dropped from 6.9 million to 4.8 million and is now around the 5 million mark. In contrast to other magazines, Playboy is only mildly erotic and is not as profitable as it used be. So Hugh Hefner, the 54-year-old founder, has gone into gambling casinos and hotels but profit-wise he has not made much headway. On sales of nearly Rs 290 crore last year - same as Tata Steel's in 1979 - Playboy made a profit of Rs 11 crore after tax, but most of this came from the gambling business. For this reason. Playboy is anxious to keep its casino licences in London and also its image as a clean-cut business house with only the slenderest connection with bunnies.Kudremukh's Italian ConnectionThe Kudremukh connection with Iran has been finally laid to rest with the recent announcement in Tehran that the Bandar Abbas steel plant for which the Kudremukh iron ore was meant has been shifted nearer Esfahan where a Soviet-built steel mill is in production. The original Bandar Abbas steel project will now be set up at Mobarakeh some 20 kilometres from the Esfahan mill.One clear effect of the decision to move the plant to Esfahan will be the abandonment of the original plans to export up to 40 per cent of its output. Kudremukh thus holds no attraction for Iran; in fact. Iran has shown little or no interest in Kudremukh ever since the mine was completed. Special berths for ore carriers at Bandar Khomeini were never built, and the Gulf War, plus the decision to move the plant to Esfahan have further cut the mine's value to Iran.The new plant will now be built by Italian companies - Finsider, the engineers and talimpianti, the constructors - who have scored a major success in landing the valuable Rs 2,500-crore contract, roughly the same size and value as the proposed steel plant at Paradip. The plant aims to produce 3 million tonnes of steel a year by the direct reduction process. Originally this was an oil-for-equipment barter deal but payments are now reportedly to be made in cash. There should be good scope for Indian firms supplying equipment for the project as the Italians are said to be quite keen to use Indian plant and machinery in their contracts in this part of the world.UK-USSR Tie-UpA trade agreement signed by Britain's Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) with Soviet Russia may cut into India's exports of detergents to that country. The agreement, worth about Rs 120 crore by 1985, will enable ICI to sell a range of products to the Russians, notably dyes, pigments, pesticides, plastics, silicon compounds and surface-active agents. The latter can be used in the manufacture of detergents which a number of Indian companies headed by Hindustan Lever have been exporting to Soviet Russia. According to ICI sources, the surface-active agents bought by the Russians will mainly be used in the making of oil drilling muds which are used to extract extra quantities of crude from oilfields after the maximum amount has been obtained using conventional drilling methods.The Russians will also export a number of chemicals to Britain, the most interesting of such products being methanol which has a wide variety of uses including as feedstock in the id's production of Pruteen, the brand name for a new synthetic protein which can be used in such things as animal feeds. The Russians are also about to sign an agreement with Fiat of Italy for setting up a tractor plant. Fiat helped the Soviets in the installation of a passenger car factory some years ago and may assist Moscow in launching a big programme for making earth moving machinery for use in Siberia and Central Asia. A number of US firms including International Harvester are also said to be quite active in this programme and may be able to clinch some deals with the Soviets in the near future.Poor Growth RatesFor the last two decades. India has averaged a per capita yearly growth rate of around 1.5 to 1.6 per cent, which is about a fifth of the equivalent rate in Japan and a quarter of that in Hong Kong and Singapore. A growth rate of less than 2 per cent a year is not much to write home about, but then it is much better than a negative growth rate which, according to no less an authority than the World Bank, has been the fate of 38 out of 175-odd countries during the eight-year period 1970-78. Surprisingly, 9 out of 10 top, or bottom, countries with a negative growth rate are located in Africa, nearly all of them with per capita gross national product(GNP) ranging between Rs 1,200 and Rs 4,000 a year, that is, higher than India's GNP. A negative growth rate arises from consistent falls in output. both agricultural as well as industrial, either as a result of man-made problems or due to natural calamities. But a negative growth rate for eight long years cannot be the result of natural calamities unless the governments have ceased functioning or are powerless to do anything.The country with the worst growth rate is Angola, a former Portuguese colony, whose government has apparently been more interested in supplying arms and guerrillas to the former Southern Rhodesia than looking after its own development. Angola - leads if that is the right world - with a per capita growth rate of minus 10.5 per cent a year, followed by Mozambique (minus 5.5 per cent), Ghana (minus 3.0 per cent) and Uganda (minus 2.8 per cent). The only non-African country among the top 10 is Jamaica (minus 1.4 per cent).And which is the country with a consistently high growth rate? The list is headed by Japan (7.8 per cent), followed by Iraq (7.7 per cent), Hong Kong (6.9 per cent) and Singapore (6.6 per cent). All these countries are incidentally located in Asia.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Feb 25, 2014 11:58 IST--- ENDS ---

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Kudremukh connection with Iran finally laid to rest

The Kudremukh connection with Iran has been finally laid to rest with the recent announcement in Tehran that the Bandar Abbas steel plant for which the Kudremukh iron ore was meant has been shifted nearer Esfahan where a Soviet-built steel mill is in production.

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