 |
|
What is UK’s
worth?
FLASHBACK ’03
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
200 pipe-fitting
units face closure Barclays taps
Indian labour to cut costs
ICICI Bank’s
Eurobond declared best
|
|
What is UK’s worth? London, December 30 Latest official figures show that as a nation, Britain is rich "beyond our wildest dreams". Britain's exact price tag: 4.983 trillion pounds. "This is the first time we have been able to say what UK plc is worth," said a spokesman for the Office for the National Statistics (ONS), which released the figures. "It's the first year we have sat down and added everything up to come up with a magic figure." More than half that amount — 2.7 trillion pounds — is accounted for by the value of people's homes. But the total also includes personal, commercial and public assets such as vehicles and machinery; and financial assets such as shares and the money in bank accounts. Even intangible assets, such as the value of patents, are included. Commercial and public property accounted for a further 565 billion pounds, making it the country's second most valuable asset, while parts of the national infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and pipelines, were valued at 537 billion pounds. If the assets could be divided evenly among the British population, each person would be worth almost 85,000 pounds. "We found five trillion pounds was the current market value of the UK, including the value of the land," said Ian Hill, one of the ONS statisticians, who compiled the figures. "That's risen a lot over the last few years because property prices have shot up." In 1994, when residential property was worth only around 1.2 trillion pounds, the country's net worth was 2.8 trillion pounds. People's homes accounted for 43 per cent of the nation's capital, compared with 55 per cent last year. "Information like this has been produced since the 1950s but we now have a much more robust system that enables us to publish in a lot more detail," Hill told The Guardian. "By law, companies are obliged to have balance sheets. In the same way, if we want to know the wealth of the nation, we need a national balance sheet, and that's what these figures really are," said Martin Weale, Director of the independent National Institute of Economic and Social Research. "It's nice to have figures that bring this all together because more frequent indices tell us what changes there are, but not how land and housing (values) relate to factories and roads and things like that. "Once you have got a balance sheet you can think of a number of questions you might want to ask; for example, is the country saving enough." However, Weale warned that Britain's rising "price tag" was not necessarily a sign that Britons were better off. "Sharp increases in house prices crowd out productive investment. The country as a whole cannot become better off by pushing up house prices, whereas it can by building roads and factories and things like that," he said. "We should be cautious. It's nice for the people who own their homes, but not those who haven't bought them yet — including those who have not been born. In a sense it's paying for the present by robbing the future." The statistics also show that the government is deeply in the red, with
a net worth of minus 124 billion pounds when the national debt and other obligations have been deducted from its assets. "It's in a bad position compared to the period up to about 1980," Weale said. Elliott Frisby, spokesman for the British Tourist Authority, said the country would be worth every penny of the five trillion pounds to a prospective buyer. "We've got so many selling points, from our history and heritage to our coastlines," he said.
— IANS
|
|
Punjab economy revives Credit to monsoon, not govt: industry Manoj Kumar Tribune News Service Chandigarh, December 30 Officials in the Department of Industry admit that the government has played little role in almost doubling of the exports from about Rs 4,400 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 7,014 crore in 2002-03, from the state and the recovery of a segment of the industry, including textile, bicycle and bicycle parts industry, besides high growth rate in the service sector. But the government’s initiatives to simplify the rules and regulations to govern the industries, beginning of the unbundling process in the Punjab State Electricity Board, successful implementation of disinvestment process in the Punjab Tractors Ltd, MoU signed with the Quark Inc to set up a multi-purpose parks are some of the achievements. Further the government has taken initiatives to restructure the cooperative sugar mills and the winding of the Spinfed mills. However, tax collections remained stagnant at around Rs 4,000 crore annually, and the state debt was about 43,000 crore at the end of the year. Mr Satish Dhanda, National Chairman, Engineering Export Council, claimed, “The state brought out the best ever Industrial Policy in the country during this year, but it failed to provide the desired results because of almost zero implementation. The state government remained a silent spectator while the majority of industrial units and the common man were hit by an increase in the steel prices by over 50 per cent within a year. It could have announced relief in power tariff to the industrial units.” With the closure of over 50 per cent of total 2 lakh small-scale industrial units and a number of units in the government sector, the unemployment has reached alarming proportions. Says Mr Dhanda, “The government should have focussed on creating more jobs by creating environment for investment and by training the youth to acquire right sort of training instead of migrating to other countries through illegal channels.” The industrial and trading community, which played a significant role in installing the present government, has been crying foul that the state government has done little for them. They claim that neither the state government has taken initiative to cut down the fiscal deficit, size of the bureaucracy or started the privatisation of loss-making state units like Punjab Roadways and various corporations.
|
|
200 pipe-fitting units face closure Jalandhar, December 30 The price of pig iron, a vital raw material for pipe fittings, cocks, valves and various categories of hand tools, had risen from Rs 10,000 to Rs 17,000 per tonne thus resulting in panic among the SSI units, particularly pipe-fitting manufacturing units, which cut down their production to avoid losses. “Most of the SSI units fall under unorganised sector and there is no set mechanism to hike sale price of finished products to maintain profitability in wake of a rise in the cost of industrial inputs. We are still selling the finished products at old rates as market is very competitive due to availability of imported Chinese goods, said Mr Harsh Gupta, general secretary of the Pipe-Fittings Manufacturers Association. Around 200 pipe-fitting units were facing closure due to alleged failure of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to meet the demand of pig iron in the domestic market while the iron merchants were taking full advantage of the situation by charging a hefty amount for supply of the pig iron. Similarly, hand-tool exporters are facing the heat as it will be difficult for them to meet the export obligations within the stipulated time. “We have booked export orders, keeping in mind the old rates of the raw material, while the situation had changed drastically in the past about one year while ironically we cannot ask the foreign buyers to hike the price of a product after getting a confirmed order. The Central Government should instruct the authorities to step in to save the export industry, which is already facing stiff competition from China in the international market,” maintained Mr Mankaran Bhandari, Managing Partner of Ambika Forgings. Meanwhile, it is learnt that SAIL, in its bid to come out of losses, had started exporting steel and pig iron resulting in shortage of iron in the market. Punjab, being a land-locked state, was the worst sufferer, as industrialists here could not afford to even import the iron ore. On the contrary, the SAIL authorities here maintained that it was an open market now and they were following the directions of their superiors in this regard. “SAIL has become a profit-making PSU only after it started exporting about three years back.
|
|
Barclays taps Indian labour to cut costs
London, December 30 Britain’s third-biggest bank by assets has about 550 contract workers in India now, compared with 150 at the end of June, a spokeswoman said. “(Hiring people in India) is a tool we will continue to use,” the spokeswoman said. The bank did not have a target for the number of jobs it wanted to move to India, she added. UK banks and insurers are increasingly moving jobs to India, where they can employ educated, inexpensive workers to answer phones and enter data. HSBC Holdings Plc, Britain’s biggest bank, said in October it would move 4,000 UK jobs to service centres in India and China. Most of the Barclays workers in India work for its British business banking unit. Their tasks include recording changes of address and sending audit letters that were previously sent by client managers, the spokeswoman said. Barclays is also in talks with consultancy firm Accenture about contracting out about 1,000 permanent computer system jobs. Those jobs are likely to stay in the UK, and if they were later moved to India the contract would rule out Accenture making compulsory job cuts, the spokeswoman said.
— Reuters
|
|
India poised for major economic gains New Delhi, December 30 That's the near unanimous conclusion of economic forecasters for the near term based on a string of indicators like growing industrial output, buoyant tax revenues, large foreign exchange revenues and spiralling consumer spending. If 2003 proved to be busy for the Indian economy, Asia's third largest, the country has more than a bagful of good news to bank on for next year. The most bountiful monsoon rains in a farm-reliant country, a significant pick up in industrial activity, increased outsourcing of jobs by overseas companies and a booming stock market — there has been a steady stream of positive news. Experts here believe that with the solid foundation laid down in 2003, the country of over 1 billion persons will benefit from a recovery in the global economy and acceleration in domestic industrial activity in 2004. But a slow-moving bureaucratic system, sputtering infrastructure, ballooning fiscal deficit and an on-again-off-again reforms process can put roadblocks in the way of achieving sharply higher economic growth. "The kind of optimism that we witnessed in the Indian economy in 2003 had been missing for quite some time now," said Subir Gokarn, chief economist of the independent credit rating firm Crisil. "There is a sense of bullishness in the market, in the industry...everywhere. Consumers are also spending more money and purchasing things ranging from houses to cars and mobile phones like never before," Gokarn told IANS. "I think this will only get accelerated in 2004 with the growing strength of the industrial sector and signs of a recovery in the global economy. These factors will result in continued domestic spending and a sharp surge in exports." In addition, a long-awaited upturn in the US economy — India's biggest export market — rising technology spending by global corporations, and expectations of lower oil prices all bode well for India's economic expansion in 2004. But the general election next year adds an element of political uncertainty to the economic outlook. "The slow pace of reforms in key sectors like labour laws and the power sector and infrastructure bottlenecks are clearly the factors that can inhibit economic growth in the year ahead," said economist D.H. Pai Panandiker. "The reforms process may face a setback ahead of the general election next year. No government would like to take tough economic decisions and be seen as anti-people in a poll year," he added. The year, 2003, started on a cautious note with the country struggling to come out of the widespread impact of a severe drought in recent memory. The slowing global economy and border tensions with archrival Pakistan also added to India's woes. A "feel-good" financial Budget for 2003-04, presented on February 28, managed to lift the industry sentiment a bit with the government announcing mega plans to boost the infrastructure sector and financial markets. The impact of the "feel-good" Budget was, however, short-lived with the spectre of US-led military action against oil-rich Iraq haunting the nimble-footed Indian economic recovery. Fears of a long and messy military campaign in Iraq, resulting in soaring oil prices and instability in the global market, threatened to quash the domestic economy's attempt to right itself. For months, the prospect of military action against Iraq, which has the world's second-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia, has driven up oil prices and weighed heavily on the financial markets across the globe. Although the war in Iraq drew to a close sooner than expected, a fast-spreading acute pneumonia that had hit many countries, mostly in Asia, came at a bad time for the already jittery Indian economy. The deadly SARS sapped investor confidence and hurt domestic economic recovery prospects. Although India largely remained untouched by it, the virus dealt a blow to the industry as firms cancel business trips, conferences and product launches. "The impact of the Iraq war and SARS was more than offset by the widespread rains that resulted in increased consumer spending in both rural and urban areas and, consequently, a pick-up in industrial production," said Gokarn. More than five decades after the country's independence and all-round technological leaps, the weather god is still the chief provider to the India economy where agriculture remains the mainstay for millions. The quantity of rainfall in the June-September period is crucial for the farm sector that accounts for nearly a quarter of the gross domestic product and employs 70 per cent of the country's over one billion population. India's economy grew by a moderate 4.3 per cent in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003, mainly due to a 3.1 per cent fall in agriculture produce, as the worst drought in three decades ravaged large parts of the country. Enthused by the better-than-expected rains, the government as well as leading think tanks have projected a 7 per cent growth in the current fiscal year. A 7 per cent growth will be the strongest full-year expansion after six years. The last time India's economy grew over 7 per cent was in 1996-97, when it touched 7.8 percent. On the downside, the government's ambitious privatisation drive managed to make little progress in 2003 after a court verdict halted the sell-off of two blue-chip public sector oil companies. The Supreme Court on September 16 restrained the government from selling its stake in HPCL and BPCL without Parliament's approval. The government had planned to sell 35.2 per cent equity in BPCL through public offer in domestic and international markets and 34.01 per cent equity shares of HPCL to a strategic buyer. Although the court last month agreed to take a fresh look at its judgement, the verdict threw a spanner in the government's plans to privatise a host of other state-run firms in the current fiscal year. The government planned to raise Rs.132 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2004, through this route. So far, it has managed to raise only a fraction of that. Indian exports were also adversely impacted in 2003 due to a sharp surge in the value of the rupee against the US dollar. The rupee has risen over4 per cent against the dollar this year due to the dollar's global weakness and persistently strong foreign fund investment in India that has taken the country's foreign exchange reserves to a whopping $100 billion.
— IANS
|
|
ICICI Bank’s Eurobond declared best
New Delhi, December 30 While Finance Asia named the bond issue of ICICI Bank as “India - Country Deal” of the year, another magazine IFR termed it as the “Emerging Asia Bond Deal”. “ICICI Bank priced the 5-year bonds in such a way that the deal not only priced inside the Indian offshore loan market but also repriced the Indian credit curve. This was the deal that put India firmly back on the map with global fixed income investors,” Finance Asia said in its recent issue. DSP Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank were the joint lead managers to the 300 million debt issue of ICICI Bank. “ICICI Bank’s $ 300 million Eurobond issue reopened the international markets for the Indian borrowers,” DSP Merrill Lynch Chairman Hemendra Kothari said in a statement.
— PTI
|
bb
Aftek to pay 50 pc New camera phones
Kajaria Ceramics Orange plans TRAI on Net Reliance awarded Corp Bank to pay Tata Motors |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
