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Saturday, April 20,
2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Wipro posts higher revenue, profit
Setting up of regulatory board okayed
Govt tells CCI to close
non-operational units |
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DSE gets SEBI nod for BSE membership Fertiliser industry should gear up for post-APM phase: Dhindsa
Create single economic zone: Chief Secretaries
NFL registers record annual sales turn-over
PSB plan on rural credit
HCL Infosystems PAT falls 44
pc
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Wipro posts higher revenue, profit Bangalore, April 19 Admitting “intense pricing pressures” in the year gone by, the New York Stock Exchange listed company, however, said it grew ahead of the industry average growth rate in the IT sector, with its revenue scaling up to Rs 2,300 crore and net profit to Rs 790 crore. Wipro Ltd, of which its global IT services company, Wipro Technologies, is a part, reported a 12 per cent revenue increase to Rs 3,500 crore and posted a net profit of Rs 890 crore, up by 32 per cent over the previous fiscal. “In the year gone by, we have seen intense pricing pressure across all service segments”, Wipro Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Azim Premji told a news conference to announce the financial performance of company for the year ended March 31, 2002 at its campus here. Maintaining that Wipro Technologies grew ahead of the average industry growth rate, he said it expected revenue from the global IT business segment to be around $ 123 million for the quarter ending June, 2002, up marginally from $ 120 million for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2002. Wipro Technologies accounts for 66 per cent of the revenue and 90 per cent of the net profit of Wipro Ltd. Nasscom had projected a growth rate of 45 per cent for the IT sector but scaled it down to 35 per cent in the post- September 11 terrorist attacks in the US and again to 30 per cent in its conclave in Mumbai in February. Wipro to enter China IT market Wipro aimed to enter the Chinese market through Japan, Group Chairman Azim Premji and Chief Executive Officer Vivek Paul said today. Talking to newsmen, after announcing the company’s results for the year 2001-02, they said Chinese were also aggressive in Japan and utilising its client base in Japan, Wipro aimed to enter China. Mr Premji said there were a few proposals on card. But he declined to disclose them stating that as and when they fructify, the proposals would be announced. Wipro also planned to jointly work with its alliance partners Sun Microsystems, IBM and Cisco for projects in China. On the threat from China, Mr Premji said, over the next two years, India would continue to have a major say in view of its relative strength in quality. However, the country needed to improve its business practices as well as move up in value-chain to meet the challenge. Nearly 6 per cent of the IT revenue of Wipro was contributed by Japan.
PTI & UNI
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Setting up of regulatory board okayed New Delhi, April 19 The Union Cabinet approved the creation of the Petroleum Regulatory Board through an Act of Parliament but authorised Petroleum Ministry to function as a regulatory body till the passage of the Bill. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan briefing newsmen here today on the Cabinet meeting yesterday, which was presided over by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, said the Petroleum Regulatory Board Bill, 2002 will be introduced in Parliament in the current session itself. The Board will regulate refining, processing, storage, transportation, distribution, marketing and sale of petroleum and petroleum products excluding the production of crude oil and natural gas. “The Board is formed with the purpose of protecting the interest of the consumers and ensuring uninterrupted and adequate supply of petroleum and petroleum products in a competitive market,” Mahajan said. The Regulatory Board will regulate the downstream oil refining and marketing sector while the incumbent Directorate General of Hydrocarbon would function as regulator for the upstream oil exploration and production. Reports here said that while the Board would have sweeping powers to check profiteering, the government has retained powers to lay down broad policy framework from time-to-time, intervene in “public interest” and “issue directions” to the Regulator as and when it deems fit. “The bill is likely to be sent to a Parliamentary standing committee for detail scrutiny,” he added. The Bill would be converted into an act, after the Parliament’s approval and then the Regulatory Board will be set up. The mechanism would ensure that oil companies did not indulge in undue profiteering on petroleum products, prevent exploitation of consumers, promote competition and encourage investments. The Regulatory Board, likely to set up by the middle of 2003, would have eight major features including ensuring retail service obligations by retail outlets. The Petroleum sector had already been liberalised with effect from April 1 with the dismantling of Administered Price Mechanism (APM) and it had also been resolved by the Government that the regulatory framework would ensure competitive framework in the hydrocarbon sector, Mr Mahajan said. The Regulatory Board will enable entry of new players by issuing authorisation to market notified petroleum products and facilitate laying, building, operating or expanding a pipeline as a common carrier on a non-discriminatory basis for all petroleum products. It will also regulate establishment of LNG terminals in the country to ensure easy and equitable supply of natural gas.
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Govt tells CCI to close
non-operational units New Delhi, April 19 “The Cabinet yesterday permitted the CCI to take advance action to close seven non-operational units. The modalities for meeting the expenditure on VRS would be worked out by the Ministries of Finance and Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan told reporters. The seven non-operational units are the Mandhar Cement Plant in Chhatisgarh, the Kukunta plant in Karnataka, the Nayagaon plant in Madhya Pradesh, Akaltara in Chhatisgarh, the Charkhi Dadri Cement Plant in Haryana, the Adilabad plant in Andhra Pradesh and Delhi Grinding Unit of the Delhi. The CCI was incorporated in 1965 and it has 10 units with a total installed capacity of 38.48 lakh tonnes. The company has continuously been making losses since 1992-93 and has accumulated loss of Rs 1425.92 crore at the end of March, 2001. The government has also decided to release grants for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme for universalisation of elementary education directly to the State Implementation Societies rather than the state governments. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) last evening. The move is aimed at speeding up the transfer of funds to such societies. The funds will be released in instalments in keeping with the release by the state governments to the societies. The abhiyan was approved by the Cabinet in November, 2000. Under the scheme, the resources are shared between the Centre and the states in the ratio of 85 per cent to 15 per cent in the Ninth Plan and 75:25 in the Tenth Plan and 50:50 thereafter. Since its inception the funds were transferred directly from the ministry to the respective state governments. The government has decided to close the case for the formation of the controversial Sankhya Vahini India Ltd. The Cabinet was informed that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has decided to close the case for formation of Sankhya Vahini India Ltd, Mr Mahajan said. The other decisions taken by the government were the financial restructuring of Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) by writing off the company’s frozen past interest, including penal interest the repealing of the outdated Imperial Library (Indenture Validation) Act 1902 and granting Kuwait Airways the permission to provide direct connectivity to the Gulf nation from Chennai and Kochi.
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DSE gets SEBI nod for BSE membership
New Delhi, April 19 “The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has given its permission last evening to DSE to enable its members trade on the BSE terminals as sub-brokers,” DSE officials told PTI here today. DSE had applied to SEBI under its plans for merger with BSE through its new subsidiary, DSE Financial Services Ltd, a few weeks ago, they said. The designated directors of the subsidiary — Vijay Bhushan, Parveen Kumar Singhal, Satish Kumar Bajpai, Ramesh Goel and Mahender Kumar Gupta — had launched the new subsidiary for the merger of the two exchanges as DSE was losing business significantly. They said the subsidiary received initial subscription of Rs one lakh each from 113 members who decided to take the trading facility on the BSE terminals. Alarmed by the dipping volumes of business, the DSE had opted to join BSE as sub-brokers and had launched the connectivity with BSE in November, last year. “Technically we have done the initial work and rest of the things would be finalised in board meeting of the subsidiary on April 22,” they added. About 40 terminals in old DSE building have already been networked to the BSE through satellite and the trading facility would be provided to the members at a nominal cost of about Rs 700 per month each. The DSE officials said the move was aimed at the smaller DSE brokers and BSE sub-brokers who ran out of business as volumes dipped in Delhi to touch Rs 5 lakh per day from more than Rs 75 lakh before the ban was imposed on carry-forward trading July, last year. The merger of BSE and DSE would grab the market share from the country’s leading bourse National Stock Exchange and the merged entities would become second largest equity market, they said. With the gradual decline of DSE business, most of its members had acquired membership of NSE and shifted their trading and volumes there. Both the exchanges are expected to appoint an independent valuer for valuation of the DSE assets based on which the value of trading rights would be extended to DSE members. The merger proposal had come from the BSE last year, but at that time, DSE could not pursue the matter as it had already entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Calcutta Stock Exchange, the officials said.
PTI
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Fertiliser industry should gear up for post-APM phase: Dhindsa New Delhi, April 19 He said the dismantling of APM in the energy-marketing sector in general and petroleum products in particular was an indication of the government’s commitment to phase out controls. He was delivering the keynote address at a conference on “Regulation in Energy Markets — Post APM and its impact on the core sectors of the economy,” here. Mr Dhindsa said petroleum products constituted a significant part of the total cost of production of urea. While the cost of gas constituted half the cost of urea in gas-based plants, the percentage could go up to 80 per cent in some naptha-based plants. “Over the years, the government has been examining the need to decontrol the marketing of urea, which can be done only in a phased manner. In the interim, therefore, the fertiliser industry will have to come to terms with a situation where the output remains controlled, though the input cost would be market determined,” he said. Mr Dhindsa pointed out that in the short term, the fertiliser industry might be faced with operating in a sellers’ market. “This could severely strain the margins of the urea manufacturers, considering the high percentage of cost of feed stock on the total cost of production,” he said, adding, “it would be imperative that the industry creates an environment where it would have multiple choice in terms of source of energy to be able to maximise the benefits of globalisation and a market-driven economy.”
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Create single economic zone: Chief Secretaries Faridabad, April 19 It also called for strengthening inter-state coordination and partnership between governments in the private sector to provide a boost to the economics. The meeting organised jointly by the PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) and the Haryana government at Surajkund Tourist Complex here today and it was inaugurated by the Chief Minister Mr Om Prakash Chautala. Chief Secretaries of Haryana, Punjab, Himachal, Delhi, Uttaranchal, and Rajasthan took part in it. Secretary Industries of UP, Mr Laxmi Chand, Mr J.S. Malhi, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce of J&K and Mr Karan Singh, Secretary, Finance, Excise and Taxation of Chandigarh, represented their states on behalf of their Chief Secretaries in the summit. While Mr Chautala, who was chief guest assured the Participants that his government was ready to do its job for the betterment of trade and industry in the region and the proper development of the National Capital Region as 40 per cent of the region was covered by Haryana. The organisers (PHDCCI) stressed upon the implementation of the plans in a serious manner. Mr Ashok Khanna, past president of the PHDCCI said that the summit offered an opportunity to discuss Industry and trade related issue at the highest level to evolve a consensus. He said the PHDCCI had constituted ‘Task Forces’ to prepare the reports and their recommendations had been ready and all was required was their implementation. The experts in the meeting were unanimous over the need of quality infrastructure for accelerating the pace of economic growth and since states face a resource crunch, alternate means to develop new projects including public private partnership was desirable but states need to
create conditions for facilitating the process. Mr Arun Kapur, President, PHDCCI in his address stressed on work on hydroelectric projects with assistance of private sector, if required. The Chief Secretary of Haryana, Mr L.M. Goyal said that while power situation in state had improved drastically, several irritants need to be removed for development of a common economic zone.
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NFL registers record annual sales turn-over New Delhi, April 19 The company produced 31.91 lakh tonnes of urea and 41,565 tonnes of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate and has contributed 13.7 per cent towards Nitrogenous Fertilisers production in the country. The Panipat, Bathinda and Vijaipur plants achieved 100 per cent installed capacity utilisation during the year. The Vijaipur plants not only achieved the production target for the year, but also made record despatches of 17.13 lakh tonnes urea.
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PSB plan on rural credit Chandigarh, April 19 He emphasised that the bank would issue its Zimidara Credit Card (Kisan Credit Cards) to all eligible farmers in the service area of the bank’s branches. The process of identification of eligible farmers is in the final stage. The bank has plan to deploy Rs 900 crore in agriculture sector during the year which would enable the bank to achieve the target of 182 per cent credit to direct agriculture, as stipulated by the RBI.
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