Articles by Nishtar

Stock Market Aflame Nishtar THE stock market is aflame. Its pre- budget optimism has been fully vindicated. Equities which had already registered impressive gains in the fortnight preceding the budget have soared. Last weeks rise is perhaps the sharpest move for any single week for a few years. Post-budget happenings lend colour to the suspicion widely entertained in market circles that the sustained influential buying which preceded the budget had been of an informed character.

have a minimum distortion effect on relative prices. Since transport costs form only a small part of the prices of most goods, especially of the high value traffic which is best suited for transport by trucks, they have relatively little impact on overall economic activity and can be in any case easily passed on to the consumer. Given a basically buoyant economy, increase in the costs of transport would have little effect on demand for transport services. But in a situation where the large capital investment in the railways is seriously underutilised, tax concessions or any differential subsidy to road transport would only lead to diversion of traffic to the roads. The public revenues will then suffer twice over through reduced tax receipts and reduced profits on railways.

Nishtar NEW Delhi has turned down the cotton mill industry's demand for the upward revision of realisation multipliers for controlled varieties of cloth in order to compensate for the rise in production costs

January 27, 1968 Wished procedures under the industrial law.
The year under review has thus been particularly unfortunate for your Company from the employee- relations angle. I can assert with out fear of contradiction that your Company is among the best employers in India, and the earnings of its employees are well above the average in every region of the country. We attach great importance to maintenance of cordial relations with the employees and are always eager to remove their genuine grievances. It is my earnest and sincere hope that thoughtless and irresponsible action on the part of the employees, often motivated from outside by political considerations, will yet be halted so that the continuance of the earlier cordial relationship of mutual trust and respect between them and the management staff built over many years may not be prejudiced. The employees must also realise that loss of production in an important industry like ours, especially in these days of recession, does incalculable harm not only to the Company but also to the many industries we serve. It is essential, therefore, as much in their own best interest as in the wider interests of the country, that the employees should adhere to constitutional methods for redress of their legitimate grievances.

the year. There is at present no ship under construction. I have already indicated the difficulties in acquisition of more vessels.
With the closure of Konkan Services the activities of the Bombay Steam Navigation Co (1953) Ltd, have been confined to chartering only. The suit filed by the company lor recovery of compensation from the State and Central Governments has not yet come up for hearing.