A top Finance Ministry official favoured free ATM services as existing now, saying if they are priced, customers could flock to bank counters which is more expensive than running the money dispensing machines.

Stating that no banks have so far approached the government seeking approval to raise ATM fees, financial services Secretary Rajiv Takru said a final decision will have to be taken by the Reserve Bank in this regard.

“As far as I am concerned I would very much like ATM services to be free. If banks make the services expensive then customers will probably end up at the bank windows. A teller service is far more expensive than ATM service,” said Takru.

He also called for a re-look at orders of some state governments asking banks to have round-the-clock security at ATMs.

However, admitting that ATM services should be sustainable, he said banks will have to look at the economics of this and encourage customers to use ATMs more is one of the ways to make them profitable.
Notably, after an attack on a Corporation Bank employee at an ATM in Bangalore last November, many states want round-the-clock security at all the ATMs.

Banks’ umbrella body IBA met last month and calculated that this will incur an additional Rs 40,000 per ATM per month and will push this vertical of banks into more losses.

The IBA has asked RBI to cap the number of free transactions to five per month across any ATM network from the current practice of giving them unlimited transactions at own bank ATMs and five at other bank ATMs. From sixth transaction onwards, the banks charge a customer Rs 20 per transaction.

Banks net-off the transactions at the back-end and pay Rs 15 plus taxes for every transaction, which is the interchange fees.

Following this, the National Payments Corporation, which is the national body handling the payment switch system, convened a meeting of banks last week and formed a committee of six banks to offer suggestions around cost management and charges for use of the ubiquitous machines.

The members of the panel are State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank, and will submit their report in a month.

Holding that it was a case of an infringement of copyright and passing off goods in someone else’s name, the Bombay High Court has restrained M/s Jubilant Agri & Consumer Products Ltd from using the registered trademarks of M/s Pidilite Industries Ltd.

The order was passed on January 13 by Justice S J Kathawala on a suit filed by Pidilite Industries Ltd seeking to restrain Jubilant Agri and Consumer Products Ltd from using its registered trademark as its own.

The infringement alleged by the plaintiff (Pidilite) related to three registered trademarks (two word marks “Fevicol Marine’ and one label mark showing two elephants pulling an object in opposite directions).

According to Pidilite, the defendant company, by using the mark ‘JIVANJOR MARINE PLUS’ was infringing upon its (Pidilite’s) registered mark and was also guilty of passing off their goods as that of the Plaintiff.

Jubilant Agri & Consumer Products Ltd contended that the Pidilite’s mark is ‘FEVICOL MARINE’ and their (Jubilant’s) mark is ‘IVANJOR MARINE PLUS’ and that both the Plaintiff and the Defendant are using the word ‘MARINE’ in a descriptive manner.

The main defence of the Defendant was that the word ‘MARINE’ is inherently descriptive, is devoid of any distinctive character, is incapable of being registered as trademark and, therefore, cannot be claimed to be a trademark of the plaintiff even though it formed part of the registered trademark/label mark ‘FEVICOL MARINE’.

“Upon perusal of all the three registered marks, I am prima facie satisfied that the word ‘MARINE’ forms a prominent and essential part or feature of all the three registered trademarks set out in the plaintiff’s suit”, said the Judge.

The court held that the defendant had tried to take advantage of the reputation of the plaintiff not only by the use of the mark ‘MARINE’/’MARINE PLUS’ but also by the use of the copied impugned label and hence cannot be allowed to rely upon the alleged use of the mark ‘MARINE’ on other grounds.

Actor Sanjay Dutt, whose wife Maanyata is currently undergoing medical treatment at a hospital, visited a temple to pray for her recovery.

Earlier this month, Maanyata was admitted to a private hospital in Mumbai after being diagnosed with a tumour in liver and a suspected heart ailment.

Dutt, who is under emotional distress because of his wife’s ill-health, recently visited Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Mandir in Dadar and the holy Sayyed Haji Abdul Rehman Shah Baba Dargah in Dongri to pray for her recovery.

On December 21, the 53-year-old Bollywood actor and 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case convict was granted a month’s leave from Yerwada Jail in Pune after he filed an application citing his wife’s illness.
Earlier this week, the Maharashtra government extended his parole by another 30 days on the ground of his wife’s illness.

“My wife has a tumour of the liver. There have been many cancer instances in my family. Doctors are investigating. Please pray for my wife. We will follow medical course after the investigation,” Dutt had said earlier.

Dutt had been convicted by the Supreme Court last year and sentenced to five years in prison for illegally possession of arms in a case related to the 1993 bomb blasts.

He had already served 18 months of his term and is currently undergoing the remaining 42 months of his sentence.

A single live specimen of rare Eel fish was found inside a well near bungalow at Borivali (E). The well in which the fish was found was 50 years old.

Doctor Manish Pingle who informed about this species said, “A rare species of fish was found while cleaning the well. In the year 2002, the blind Eel was described by K.C Gopi in a book. Later, no evidence of this species was found anywhere. The scientific name of this species is ‘Monopterrus digressus’ and it belongs to swamp Eel family. Further information of this species was not available.”

The Eel is said to be 6 inch in length and its body resembled like a worm or snake. The whole vertebral column was visible while there eyes were found missing. Research on the population status, ecology, and threat to this species has to be established.

The dead body of 23 year old youth was found half burned for six hours in a crematorium ground at Bhayandar. Mira-Bhyander Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has issued a show cause notice to the sweeper and security personnel.

The victim has been identified as Rohit Yadav a Bhayandar resident and he passed away after diagnosed with fever. On Wednesday night Rohit’s dead body was taken to crematorium ground at Kashimira. However, no officials were present at the ground to assist the deceased’s relatives as they had to perform the final rites themselves.

MBMC officials had found the dead body of Rohit early in the morning as they informed the deceased’s relatives. They then complained about this incident with MBMC commissioner Sambhaji Pampate.

Sambhaji Pamapati, Commissioner of MBMC said, “I received information about the half burned dead body. Strict action will be taken against the erring officials for shunning responsibility.”