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Sunday,
September 21, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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‘Innovative’
scooter models on cards, says Bajaj Cancun turning
point in WTO, says Jaitley Maruti True Value
to accept other cars Low use of potash
affecting crop quality,
New Delhi, September 20 State-owned MTNL, which provides telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai, has suffered whopping 32.56 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 877.15 crore last fiscal against Rs 1300.67 crore a year before.
AAI union opposes
airport privatisation |
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Income
repatriable after tax
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‘Innovative’ scooter models on cards, says Bajaj New Delhi, September 20 The product realignment exercise has primarily been necessitated by the changing consumer preferences, and once market leaders, BAL was eventually relegated to lower ranks in the competitive two-wheeler market. In an exclusive interview to The Tribune, group Vice President Sanjiv Bajaj said that it means a “lot” to lose the numero uno status to Hero Honda. “It (losing the market leadership status) certainly does mean a lot. With consumer preference changing from scooters to
motorcycles we were unable to hold onto the number one position and had to relinquish its to a company (Hero Honda) that had only motorcycles in its product portfolio”, Mr Bajaj said. Sanjiv Bajaj is the second son of Rahul Bajaj. Motorcycles presently account for 76 per cent of the two-wheeler industry sales. “We have realigned our focus and portfolio in the past few years towards motorcycles, which today constitute more than 75 per cent of our two-wheeler sales. This focus has taken us from a weak number four player in the motorcycle category to a strong number two position today”, he said. Mr Bajaj said that of the three sub-segments in motorcycles Bajaj were leaders in two — the Entry level segment with the Kawasaki Bajaj Boxer Series and in the Premium segment with the Pulsar twins. “We are now focussing our efforts now in the Executive segment, where we are relatively weak. We have two top class performers in this segment — the Kawasaki Bajaj Caliber 115 and the recently launched World Bike Wind 125”, he said. He maintained that with shifting consumer interest, the company has successfully managed the transformation “from a scooter major to a major player in motorcycles”. He indicated that more “innovative” models could be expected to be rolled from the scooter stable in the coming one to two years. “We are currently developing new scooter models to be launched over the coming one to two years. These products will have entirely new features, styling and identity as compared to the existing products available in India. We hope to revive interest in the scooters market in India with these innovative new products”, Mr Bajaj said. Bajaj Auto has also embarked on a major vendor rationalisation exercise, perhaps to drive growth and control costs. In fact the company has pruned vendors significantly over the last few years. From a vendor base of 1100, the company has brought it down to 285 in 2003 and the target is to touch 199 by 2004. As a policy, the company reduced the
number of vendors to 2 per part. The company now has a single-source supplier for 60 per cent of its input parts, while for the remaining 40 per cent it has two sources. “The advantage of having just one or two sources is that it reduces development effort and investment — which translates to less effort and better quality control”, he said. Even the big volume bike makers felt the pinch in August. Market leader Hero Honda saw a modest 6 per cent increase in sales and Bajaj Auto has fared no better. The company clocked a modest 2 per cent growth ( although bike sales increased by 16.8 per cent) in two wheeler sales this August. Mr Bajaj acknowledged that the two-wheeler industry has seen growth tapering off in the first few months of the current year. “Though scooters as a category declined, Bajaj Auto at 14.6 per cent continues to record above industry growth ( 10.6 per cent) rate in motorcycles. With very good monsoons, it is expected that the growth rates in the second half for industry would be substantially higher”, he said. He, however, declined to comment on the proposed overseas plant in Indonesia but said that the company’s exports have been growing at a significant rate — a whopping 112.7 per cent — during 2002-03. The company has recently opened its first marketing office in Dubai at the Jabel Ali Free Trade Zone and presently has over 45 distributors across the globe. “This office is expected to strengthen Bajaj Auto’s existing markets of Iran and Egypt and explore opportunities for entering new markets in the region. In addition, Bajaj Auto has licences in these markets, which are assembling Bajaj products under a technical know-how agreement”, he said. He explained that to stay ahead in competition it was necessary to build technological competence within the company. This was the reason why, Bajaj Auto was rolling out indigenously developed models such as Pulsar even though the company has technical collaboration with Kawasaki. “We have a very strong technology partnership with our technical collaborators, Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The product development programme with our technology partner, together with our own in-house development offers a clear edge over the competition and also helps the company to spread the technological innovation across all product categories including three-wheelers”, he said. Mr Bajaj did acknowledge that steel price increase will affect prices of automobiles and two-wheelers as the “affect is severe and cannot be absorbed on permanent basis by automobile industry... we (Bajaj Auto) will be affected in the current fiscal year”. He said that prices of steel have increased much more in India than in the international market, as Indian steel have booked substantial export orders, from China. “In the prevailing situation, the government should substantially reduce import duties to protect Indian consumers”, Mr Bajaj pointed out.
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Cancun turning point in WTO, says Jaitley New Delhi, September 20 “With the European Union
wavering on three of the four Singapore Issues and agricultural negotiations going our way, we were about to get a dream declaration” Mr Jaitley told newspersons here. The Minister held certain developed countries responsible for breakdown of the talks as they displayed lack of will to remove
distortionary policy measures for cross-border trade in agricultural products. Mr Jaitley, however, maintained that the talks did not fail and was successful to the extent that it brought to the fore many issues which were of critical importance to many developing countries, including India and other developing countries. He termed the Cancun meeting as the “turning point” in WTO negotiations as “instead of being driven by the rich nations, it asserted participation of the developing countries”. “We not only argued our case extensively but we carried our
arguments into the camp of the rich nations since the entire western media and the NGOs supported us”, Mr Jaitely said, adding that another major outcome was the fact the G-21 led by India was successful in highlighting the issues pertaining to agricultural subsidy which were
trade-distortionary. Mr Jaitley, who has received accolades from several quarters for successfully negotiating India’s position at the multi-lateral trade forum, criticised the text of the draft agreement as proposed by the US and the EU. The draft had sought a shift from cotton cultivation to some other crop by farmers of Africa even the US did not appear willing to cut subsidy amounting to $3.7 billion to its own cotton farmers. He wondered on what basis the EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy had described the WTO structure as “medieval” and observed if would be “ancient” if the big powers were allowed to continue with their monopoly status. Mr Jaitley said India would continue to highlight the issues of unequal farm trade when the WTO negotiations resume at Geneva.
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Maruti True Value to accept other cars New Delhi, September 20 In a release issued here MUL said that the owners of any car brand can now bring their vehicles to Maruti True Value outlets and exchange them for a new Maruti Suzuki car, after paying the difference. “The facility is being launched in Bangalore on a pilot basis and will be rolled out in phases in the rest of the country,” the company said here. Maruti True Value currently provides transparent evaluation, convenience and attractive exchange options to owners of Maruti cars. “Now these benefits will be extended to owners of all non-Maruti cars as well,” MUL said. Company Managing Director Jagdish Khattar said, “We are delighted to extend the True Value service to owners of non-Maruti cars. We had feedback from many of them that they were apprehensive of dealing in the unorganised pre-owned car market”. Mr Khattar said that after having stabilised the True Value business for Maruti brands, the company was now ready to address a problem that affects all customers of our industry. “While making it convenient for them to dispose off their vehicles, this initiative will give them the opportunity to come into the Maruti fold,” he said. Maruti, which had launched True Value in Bangalore in October 2001, also announced the opening of its 100th True Value outlet in the country at Abhran Motors in Udupi, Karnataka.
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Low use of potash affecting crop quality,
say experts Chandigarh, September 20 Speaking at a seminar on "Potassium in balanced fertilisation in Punjab and Haryana," he said though the Centre subsidy bill for fertiliser is on the rise and there is zero per cent import duty on potash fertilisers, due to lack of awareness and adverse price ratio farmers are still using urea and nitrogen based fertilisers. Mr Viren Kaushik, Director General, the Fertiliser Association of India, claimed that the industry has now adopted area-specific strategy to promote the use of potash in agriculture. Mr S.K. Bansal, Joint Director, Potash Research Institute of India, said," Fertiliser use in Punjab and Haryana has been highly unbalanced. Mr K.N. Tiwari, Director, Potash and Phosphate Institute of Canada, said," Soil nutrition depletion, by itself may not ring an alarm in the short run.”
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New Delhi, September 20 MTNL CMD Narinder Sharma attributed the dip in net profit to “higher tax provisions,” remaining silent on the reported dent in the company’s subscriber base due to the entry of private players. MTNL’s profit before tax also slid by 30.10 per cent at Rs 1802.31 crore, he disclosed at the annual general meeting here. The company, which registered a turnover of Rs 5806.53 crore last fiscal, declared a dividend of 45 per cent for shares of face value of Rs 10 each.
— UNI
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New Delhi, September 20
