The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Saturday, October 11, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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Infosys profit grows 33 pc
Bangalore, October 10
Riding on the increased “outsourcing wave” and beating market expectations, Infosys today reported a robust 32.9 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 300.16 crore for the second quarter triggering a bull run on tech shares in stock markets.

To be a billion dollar firm
To open centre in China
Sexual harassment suit not to hit firm

India to double trade with Thailand

Bangkok, October 10
In an effort to double Indo-Thai trade to $2 billion, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today highlighted five areas of convergence and offered rights to Thai Airways to operate daily flights from four Indian metros.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee greets the gathering on his arrival at the Indo-Thai Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok on Friday. — PTI photo Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee greets the gathering on his arrival

HDFC Bank logs 30.6 pc net growth
Mumbai, October 10
HDFC Bank Ltd has posted a 30.6 per cent rise in the net profit at Rs 117.14 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2003, compared to Rs 89.69 crore in same period last fiscal.

All 2004 Toyota Prius gas/electric hybrids will have as standard equipment a 7-inch LCD screen information display

All 2004 Toyota Prius gas/electric hybrids will have as standard equipment a 7-inch LCD screen information display. This model, shown to the automotive press on Thursday in Dearborn, Michigan, includes the optional Navigation System and JBL premium audio system. The second generation Prius, with an preliminary EPA rating of 60 MPG City and 51 MPG highway, will go on sale in the US this month. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

Bollywood actress Amisha Patel at the launch of a classic jewels showroom in Bangalore on Friday.
— PTI

EARLIER STORIES

	India, Thailand sign free trade pact October 10, 2003
	Govt expects 8 pc growth October 9, 2003
	India’s steel exports to China grow by 101 per cent October 8, 2003
	No decision on splitting IOC, says Ram Naik October 7, 2003
	Good export potential for electric cars, says Maini October 6, 2003
	Investment not linked to abolition of quotas, says Oswal October 5, 2003
	ONGC pays Rs 3,598 cr dividend to government October 4, 2003
	Cabinet meeting to decide fate of oil PSUs today October 3, 2003
	Exports clock 8.99 pc growth October 2, 2003
	Economy grows at 5.7 pc October 1, 2003

Infosys profit grows 33 pc

Bangalore, October 10
Riding on the increased “outsourcing wave” and beating market expectations, Infosys today reported a robust 32.9 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 300.16 crore for the second quarter triggering a bull run on tech shares in stock markets.

Revenue during the period July to September, 2003, increased by 29 per cent at Rs 1,134.75 crore over Rs 879.57 crore recorded during the second quarter last year. The net profit in the corresponding quarter of last year was Rs 277 crore.

The company announced an interim dividend of Rs 14.50 per share (290 per cent on an equity share of par value of Rs 5 for each).

“Growth continues to be strong driven by outsourcing by customers. Pricing is showing signs of stability,” Infosys CEO, President and Managing Director Nandan Nilekani told reporters on the company campus.

Infosys added 29 new clients with one net addition and hired 2,025 employees during the second quarter, Nilekani said, adding that the firm would recruit 3,000 more professionals in the next six months.

“Our initiatives to increase offshore revenue are yielding results,” Infosys Director S D Shibulal said, adding that the IT firm was expanding both in India and overseas.

To be a billion dollar firm

Increasing its revenue guidance, Infosys Technologies said it aimed to exceed revenue of $ 1 billion during the current financial year.

Income from software development services and products is projected to be between Rs 4,550 crore and Rs 4,778 crore. Earnings per share is expected to be between Rs 178 and Rs 178.40, Infosys said in a statement to the Bangalore stock exchange.

For the third quarter ending December 31, Infosys said income from software development services and products is projected to be between Rs 1,153 crore and Rs 1,162 crore. Earnings per share is expected to be between Rs 45.30 and Rs 45.40.

On its BPO subsidiary Progeon, the company said it projected its revenue to be between Rs 18 crore and Rs 19 crore in the third quarter between October and December, 2003.

Progeon projects revenue between Rs 73 crore and Rs 80 crore for the current financial year.

“Growth continues to be strong. Pricing is showing signs of stability,” Nadan M Nilekani said, adding that it was making investments in order to enhance its end-to-end solution capability.

To open centre in China

Making China a hub for its software services in the Asia-Pacific market, Infosys Technologies today announced plans to set up a software development centre in Shanghai for 200 professionals.

“The subsidiary will be capitalised at $ 5 million,” Infosys said in a statement to the Bangalore stock exchange.

The China subsidiary will be offering end-to-end software services to domestic companies in China, and multinational companies operating in China and serve as a hub for software services in Asia-Pacific, it said.

Sexual harassment suit not to hit firm

Infosys said the second sexual harassment lawsuit filed against the company and its former director Phaneesh Murthy in a US court by a former employee Jennifer Griffith, will not have any impact on its financial position.

“Management is reviewing the allegations. Based on its present knowledge of facts, management estimates that the lawsuit will not have material impact on the result of operation of financial position of the company,” Infosys said adding that the suit has not been served on them. — PTI

India to double trade with Thailand
Sujit Chatterjee

India offers

* Rights to Thai Airways to operate daily flights from four metros.

* Expertise in space technologies for developmental applications

* To promote cross-regional tourism linkages

* Huge domestic market and low-cost, high-skilled manufacturing base

* Usefully support the hardware capabilities of Thailand with its software skills.

Thailand offers

* Help in developing infrastructure, including ports, airports and highways

* Outstanding skills in developing tourism facilities.

* To be India’s “commercial bridge” to South-East Asia

* Immediate tariff reduction on some products

Bangkok, October 10
In an effort to double Indo-Thai trade to $2 billion, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today highlighted five areas of convergence and offered rights to Thai Airways to operate daily flights from four Indian metros.

Declaring that Thailand can be India’s “commercial bridge” to South-East Asia, Mr Vajpayee told a business meeting here that Thai Airways could also consider operating to-and-fro flights from 18 other cities.

Both India and Thailand have agreed to promote cross-regional tourism linkages and as a beginning “we will set up a twin city relationship between Port Blair in Andaman and Phuket in Thailand,” he said addressing the Indian and Thailand Chambers of Trade and Industry here.

Elaborating on the five areas of cooperation, Mr Vajpayee said “Thailand can be India’s commercial bridge to South Asia while India provides a huge domestic market and low-cost, high-skilled manufacturing base for Thai businesses, for their global access.”

While Thailand could help India develop its infrastructure, including ports, airports and highways, Mr Vajpayee said, India could usefully support the rapidly-developing hardware capabilities of Thailand with its software skills.

The Prime Minister also offered expertise in space technologies for developmental applications.

“India is among six countries with ability to provide end-to-end capabilities in space — from design and fabrication, tracking and control, to the launching of satellites,” he said.

Mr Vajpayee said India could benefit from Thailand’s outstanding skills in developing tourism facilities. “We are maritime neighbours. It is, perhaps, not so well-known that Andaman and Nicobar Islands are much closer to Thailand coast than the Indian mainland. It is, therefore, natural that India’s look-east orientation should have a sharper focus on the country which lies just beyond our eastern island,” he said.

Responding to Mr Vajpayee’s offer, Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin agreed to reciprocate, which was welcomed by India. The Prime Minister said the two-way investment figures showed a mismatch between potential and reality. “When we look at our current trade turnover of about a billion dollars, we can only be astonished at the under-achievement”.

India, which was a net capital-importing country, had invested about $1 billion in Thailand. The figures of Thai-approved investment in India were only about $700 million.

The two sides signed the Framework Agreement to establish a free trade area in 10 years.

“We have worked out an “early harvest programme” for immediate tariff reductions for some products,” he said. — PTI

HDFC Bank logs 30.6 pc net growth

Mumbai, October 10
HDFC Bank Ltd has posted a 30.6 per cent rise in the net profit at Rs 117.14 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2003, compared to Rs 89.69 crore in same period last fiscal.

The total income for the period under review also increased to 726.5 crore as against Rs 607.28 crore in Q2 of the previous financial year, the bank said in a release here today.

The net revenue in Q2 of 2003-04 grew to Rs 424.1 crore (Rs 316.8 crore in same period of FY-03), it said, adding that, net interest income rose by Rs 148.6 crore at Rs 337.8 crore.

For the half year ended September, the net profit and total income increased to Rs 224.4 crore (up by 30.4 per cent) and Rs 1,433.2 crore (Rs 1,161.7 crore).

The private sector bank has registered a loss on sale of investment of Rs 18.8 crore mainly due to mark to market losses of around Rs 44 crore on debt mutual fund units post receipt of dividends.

As of September, 2003, the total deposits were Rs 25,197 crore (Rs 19,606 crore in September, 2002). The bank’s core customer assets increased from Rs 10,956 crore to Rs 15,822 crore. — PTI

ROUND-UP

Review of credit policy on Nov 3

Mumbai, October 10
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will carry out a mid-term review of monetary and credit policy for 2003-04 on November 3.

RBI Governor Y.V. Reddy, who took over last month, will hold a meeting with chief executives of major scheduled commercial banks for the mid-term review on November 3, the apex bank said in a statement here today.

The apex bank will review the gross domestic product and inflation outlook, which it has pegged at 6 per cent and 5-5.5 per cent for the fiscal respectively, in April last. — PTI

Industrial growth dips to 5.2 pc

New Delhi: Industrial growth fell to 5.2 per cent in August this year primarily due to not-so-impressive performance by key sectors. This is lower than the 6.2 per cent growth registered during the corresponding month of the previous year.

However, the cumulative growth during April-August this year showed a small improvement to 5.6 per cent as compared to 5.2 per cent in the corresponding period in 2002-03 due to manufacturing putting up a good performance, the Quick Estimates of Index of Industrial Production released by the government said today. — TNS

CMIE pegs GDP growth at 7.4 pc

Mumbai: Buoyed by the prospects of a strong recovery in the agricultural sector, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has revised upwards its growth forecast for the country’s economy to 7.4 per cent for 2003-04 from the earlier estimate of 6.5 per cent.

The growth in the real GDP will be led by 10.7 per cent rise in agriculture and 7.3 per cent in the services sector during the current fiscal, CMIE said in its monthly economic review here today. — PTI

Reliance Info ties up with Microsoft

Mumbai: Microsoft Corp and Reliance Infocomm today announced that the two companies plan to work together to jointly create, test and deliver next generation internet protocol (IP)-based television services using an upcoming IPTV solution being developed by Microsoft TV.

According to Reliance Infocomm statement here, this new technology was designed to enable Reliance Infocomm to leverage its nationwide high-speed infrastructure to deliver a unique set of next generation television services that take full advantage of its state-of-the-art network. — UNI

Govt to modernise Dhariwal mill

Gurdaspur: The government has decided to modernise New Agerton Women Mills, Dhariwal, in this district. Mr B. Parshotam, Officer on Special Duty, Ministry of Textiles, visited Dhariwal Mills today to assess the situation in this regard.

Leaders of various employees unions, including the clerical staff union, IFTU and INTUC met Mr Parshotam and apprised him of their problems. The employees also demanded release of salary for the months of February and March, 2003, and review on the deduction of bonus. — OC

United Bank cuts deposit rates

Kolkata: The United Bank of India (UBI) today said it had decided to bring down interest rates on domestic term deposits of various tenures by 25 to 50 basis points with effect from tomorrow.

For deposits of 7 to 14 days, the rate of interest will be 4 per cent and that of 15 days to 29 days and 30 days to 45 days 4.50 per cent. The other rates are as follows : 4.75 per cent for 46 days to 90 days, 5 per cent for 91 days to 179 days, 5.25 per cent for 180 days to less than one year, 5.50 per cent for one year to less than two years, 5.75 per cent for two years to less than three years and for deposits of three years and above interest rate will be 6 per cent. — PTI

Oil rises on supply worries

LONDON: Oil prices held above the $30 mark on Friday as the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned of potential supply tightness heading into the northern winter.

Benchmark London Brent crude, up more than 17 per cent in barely two weeks since Opec's surprise decision to cut production from November 1, was off 16 cents at $29.98 a barrel, having topped $30 for the first time in six weeks on Thursday.—Reuters

India to upgrade Algeria railways

New Delhi: India and Algeria have agreed in principle to revive the joint working group on railways which became defunct in '93.

At a meeting with Railway Minister Nitish Kumar here, Algerian Minister of Transport and Co Chairman, Indo-Algerian Joint Committee, Abdemalek Sellal, discussed measures for participation of Indian Railways in modernising rail services of Algeria. —TNS

BRIEFLY

Inflation rises
New Delhi, October 10
A sharp, near 8 per cent, rise in vegetable prices, coupled with costlier manufactured items and edible oils pushed up inflation for the fifth consecutive week to tick over 5 per cent for the week ended September 27. The point-to-point Wholesale Price Index inflation rose by 0.31 per cent to 5.03 per cent from 4.72 per cent in the previous week. — PTI

SBI scheme
Solan, October 10
The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rajesh Kumar, yesterday launched a group insurance scheme in the local branch of the State Bank of India. This super suraksha scheme is slated to benefit the low income group and provides insurance cover up to Rs 1 lakh for natural death and Rs 2 lakh for unnatural deaths. — OC

Timex offer
New Delhi, October 10
Timex Watches has entered a marketing tie-up with Reliance India Mobile under the scheme a customer on purchase of Timex watch above Rs 845 can get a Reliance India Mobile handset with connection free of cost, a release said. — TNS

Nabard chief
Mumbai, October 10
Rajana Kumar, Chairperson and Managing Director, Indian Bank, will take over as chief of Nabard in a week’s time, Minister of State for Finance Anandrao Adsul said here today. — OC

Samsung outlet
Jalandhar, October 10
Mr R. Zutshi, Director, Sales, Samsung India Limited, today inaugurated Samsung Digitallhome brand shop here. — OC