Voices

``Though oil prices are beyond OPEC's upper limit of $22-28 a barrel, it does not mean we will increase supplies because the dangers of increasing supply for instability of market are big and we want to avoid market instability.''-- Mr Al al-Naimi, Oil Minister, Saudi Arabia.

``Of course, we will do badly in meeting this year's disinvestment target of Rs 1,000 crore.''-- Mr Pradip Baijal, Disinvestment Secretary, Government of India.

``The effects of the improvement in technology would be seen very shortly.'' -- Mr Janaki Ballabh, Chairman, State Bank of India.

``The DotEx Plaza is a convergence of financial products to one distribution channel.'' -- Mr Ravi Narain, Managing Director, National Stock Exchange, on the launch of a service portal facilitating Internet trading.

``Benefits of a growing market will always filter down to both the market players as well as investors.'' -- Mr D. R. Mehta, Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India, on the rising trading volumes on stock exchanges.

``Jeff Immelt is a natural leader and ideally suited to lead GE for many years. He brings keen strategic intellect, cutting-edge technology background, strong leadership and unique set of team-building skills.'' -- Mr Jack Welch, Chairman, GE, announcing his successor.

``Trading on index future contracts of the Nifty had witnessed growing interest though it is only a very small percentage of trading in the capital market segment.'' -- Mr M. Sundararaman, CEO, Futures and Options Segment, NSE.

``We would leverage our entire knowledge base and core competencies of complex project management, motivation/retention of knowledge workers and unique financial engineering capabilities to enhance leadership in existing business and capture growth opportunities in new areas.'' -- Mr Anil Ambani, Managing Director, Reliance Industries.

``All 5,700 non-union employees of Daewoo Motors will submit their resignations in the hope of saving the company through restructuring.'' -- Comment by Daewoo Motors.

``Short of dealing in forex, an ATM can do all that a branch does.'' -- Mr P. J. Nayak, Chairman and Managing Director, UTI Bank.

``The Government should intervene and co-operate as a shareholder in public sector banks and maintain strict discipline between ownership and management.'' -- Mr P. S. Subramanyam, Chairman, Unit Trust of India.