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Wipro, too, joins the billion-dollar party Bangalore, April 16 Wipro became the third IT company (after TCS and Infosys) to formally cross the billion dollar mark, announcing revenues of $ 1.2 billion for the year ended March 2003, with revenue from IT services alone amounting to $1 billion.
Growth may dip to 6 pc, says UN survey
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Venture capitalists and SIDBI may prop up small firms
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Wipro, too, joins the billion-dollar party Tribune News Service Bangalore, April 16 Wipro Chairman Azim Premji also announced issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 2:1 (including to ADS holders), a one-time dividend of Rs 25 per share/ADS on existing paid up capital, and a normal cash dividend of Rs 4 per share/ADS. Global IT services and products revenue, at Rs 43.58 billion, was an increase of 43 per cent over last year, with profit after tax increasing by 26 per cent to Rs 10.32 billion. In the last quarter, global IT services and products revenue was Rs 12.55 billion ($ 276 million), an increase of 44 per cent, with 35 new clients, including four in its IT enabled services operation. “We expect revenue in the quarter ending June 2004 to be $ 292 million, approximately,” Mr Premji said. Net profit stood at Rs 1,031 crore, a jump of 26 per cent over Rs 820 crore in 2002-03. Wipro has 232 million shares outstanding, with Chairman Premji owning 84 per cent of them. An additional 3.16 million are in the form of American Depository Receipts. Top Wipro officials, including Vice-Chairman Vivek Paul and Wipro Spectramind CMD Raman Roy said they expected the outsourcing backlash to be temporary. Mr Paul said the battle for the mind, where globalisation’s benefits were being articulated and understood had been won, but the battle for the heart was still going on. He said many companies in the US were adopting a wait-and-watch attitude towards outsourcing, saying: “We waited for two decades so let us wait for six months more,” especially in times when the US media were carrying reports about which company was outsourcing what and how much, how many jobs were lost, and the like. “Much of the backlash is because of election rhetoric, and that should change soon.” Wipro’s IT-enabled services (call centre) operation, the largest in the country with more than 9,300 employees, were indeed facing a challenge to hire and retain good people, Mr Raman Roy said. To arrest high attrition rates, Wipro was negotiating with 11 more companies (in addition to the existing nine) to come to an anti-poaching agreement. Commenting on the income tax notice for Rs 261 crore slapped
on the company by the Income Tax authorities, Wirpo Corporate Executive
Vice President, Finance, Mr Suresh Senapathy said they would appeal the
order within the given time line. “We feel Rs 230 crore out of the claim
is not sustainable, and so we will appeal. The remaining Rs 31 crore has
been provided for.” |
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Growth may dip to 6 pc, says UN survey
New Delhi, April 16 The ESCAP survey had earlier projected a 7.5 per cent growth
in 2003, and subsequently revised it upwards to 8.1 per cent. At the
same time, the report noted that GDP growth in India is expected to
accelerate to 6.6 per cent in 2005 and 6.7 per cent in 2006. Though
India’s economy grew faster than the Asia-Pacific region, taken as a
whole during 2003, ESCAP said the country would lag behind the average
6.2 per cent growth in 2004. Despite an estimated deceleration in the
growth rate in India’s economy, the country will still clock higher a
growth rate than its immediate neighbours. While Pakistan’s GDP rate is
estimated to grow at 5.3 per cent in 2004. According to the report, in
2005 and 2006 India’s growth rate will be higher than the average growth
of the developing economies of the Asia Pacific region. The average
growth for developing economies of the region is estimated to be 6 per
cent both during 2005 and 2006. Interestingly, Bhutan’s GDP growth rate
is estimated to be higher than that of India’s during all the years till
2006. Bhutan’s GDP rate is estimated to grow at 7.5 per cent in 2004, 8
per cent in 2005 and 8.5 per cent in 2006. Sri Lanka is also estimated
to grow at 6 per cent in 2004, 6.5 per cent in 2005 and 7 per cent in
2006. The report, however, noted that the rate of inflation in India is
expected to fall progressively from an estimated 4 per cent in 2004 to
3.5 per cent in 2005 and 3 per cent in 2006. “The economy experienced a
significant recovery in 2003, with aggregate production going up by 7.5
per cent. Among the causal factors was the rebound of agricultural
output growing by 9.5 per cent on the back of bumper foodgrain
harvests”, the report said. The industry sector also sustained its
strong performance, expanding by 6 per cent in 2003. “Another positive
influence came from several monetary and fiscal incentives in the Budget
for 2003 to boost industrial production and infrastructure development”,
it said. These incentives included rationalisation of both direct and
indirect taxes on industrial products, a reduction of peak customs duty
to 25 per cent (and subsequently to 20 per cent in January, 2004) and a
further decrease in prime lending rates by the commercial banks and
financial institutions. “The service sector improved its growth to 7.5
per cent owing to the revival in agricultural growth and sustained
industrial growth”, it said. |
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Boost agro economy, says US envoy
Chandigarh, April 16 Mr Mulford was in the city today to address a session on 'US - India
Partnership: Creating Economic Opportunities in Agriculture,' organised
by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He stressed that food
and agriculture would form a critical part of the expanding trade and
investment between the two countries. "India and the US could be the
world's two largest economies'' he said, expressing his commitment to
lift strategic partnerships to a higher plane of a comprehensive
alliance in the spheres of economic progress and agricultural growth.
New generation reforms to restructure and open the Indian economy are
required to integrate India more fully into the global marketplace, Dr
Mulford said . The new partnership would focus on next generation issues
in agriculture. Meeting the nutritional needs of a burgeoning population
and the diversifying tastes of consumers would require a reinvigorated
effort in terms of improved seed quality, biotechnology for plant
breeding, developing high value horticulture crops and livestock
enterprises. He said such value-added activities draw in small-scale
farmers and ranchers, drive up the need for rural labour to produce and
process commodities and stimulate ripple effects in rural, non farm
economies. He disclosed that the USAID had announced US $300,000 grant
to support joint work by PAU and Ohio State University on market
diversification and value added products. `` No investor will however
come forward for investing in India, if the people here do not change
our habits,'' he added. |
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Venture capitalists and SIDBI may prop up small firms
New Delhi, April 16 “About $1.5-2.0
billion are expected to be invested by private equity funds this year.
Many new players are entering the country,” Citigroup Venture Capital
India head Ajay Relan said at the Nasscom-SME forum here
today. Citigroup’s venture fund alone plans to invest about $ 100-200
million in start-ups, he said. The group has so far invested $ 200
million so far in equity of small companies. Other funds like
ChrysCapital are also eyeing India as a potential investment
destination. In 2003, the country witnessed a slump in venture funding
at $ 530 million compared to $ 1.1 billion in 2002. “This year, we
expect surge in VC funding,” Nasscom member and All E Technologies CEO,
Ajay Mian, said. Apart from foreign equity funds, SIDBI has started
lending money to small companies from the newly set up SSI Fund. “We
are looking at services related to infrastructure telecom along with
biotech, pharma and various outsourcing services for the funding,” a
SIDBI official said. He said the Rs 10,000 crore SSI fund would be used
to restructure debt of small and medium-sized companies. SIDBI also
plans to increase the corpus of its venture capital fund — India Growth
Fund — to Rs 500 crore from the present Rs 100 crore. The fund would
invest in equity of companies and enable them to carry out expansion.
Although venture capitalists are optimistic of the small companies in
India, the industry experts said that there has been no major gain to
them due to a variety of reasons. Mr Relan said VC funds want easy exit
route but most of the software companies do not offer that
opportunities. Moreover, there has been no major mergers and
acquisitions
in the IT sector, which might have given the VC funds opportunities to
gain from their initial investments, he said. — PTI |
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Gujarat Ambuja net jumps 104 pc
Mumbai, April 16 The consolidated net profit was posted at Rs
161 crore as against Rs 79 crore posted in the corresponding period of
the previous fiscal while consolidated sales for the reporting quarter
were up by 18 per cent at Rs 767 crore as compared to Rs 650 crore
during the previous fiscal, the company said in a release here. The
standalone net profit for the Q3 ended March 31, 2004, rose by about 106
per cent at Rs 145.23 crore as against Rs 70.63 crore posted in the Q3
of the previous fiscal. Reliance Energy Reliance Energy has posted a
net profit of Rs103.79 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2004 as
compared to a net profit of Rs 25.07 crore for the quarter ended March
31, 2003. — Agencies |
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Jet offers 11 Delhi-Mumbai flights daily
New
Delhi, April. 16 A release issued by the airlines said that with
the operation of a daily Boeing 737-700 flight in the morning between
Delhi and Mumbai, the airline would offer a choice of three flights
between Delhi and Mumbai within a period of one hour in each direction.
Now the airline will be operating out of Delhi to Mumbai at 6.50 am,
7.30 am, 8.00 am, 9.35 am, 11.05 am, 1.45 pm, 4.40 pm, 5.25 pm, 7.40 pm,
8.30 pm and 10.30 pm (all existing flights) with almost simultaneous
departures from Mumbai to Delhi. The additional Boeing 737 flight
between Chennai and Port Blair will give convenient connections for
passengers in the morning from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to travel the
same day to Port Blair and also give immediate connections for outbound
travel from Port Blair via Chennai to these cities. Effective April 22,
Boeing 737 flights between Chennai and Delhi and Kolkata and Mumbai will
also be rescheduled.
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Passenger vehicle sales zoom past one million mark
New Delhi, April 16 Total passenger vehicle sales in FY 04, including
exports, stood at 10,30,068 units, a growth of 27.3 per cent over the
7,79,203 units sold in the previous fiscal. While year-on-year sales
grew 27.3 per cent in the domestic market to 9,00,752 units, exports
grew 79.5 per cent to 1,29,316 units, up from 72,005 units in
FY’03. The heavyweight in the segment, passenger cars, saw year-on-year
sales jump as much as 28.5 per cent to 6,96,207 units in the domestic
market, led by strong performances by Maruti Udyog Ltd, Hyundai Motor
India Ltd and Tata Motors. Export of passenger cars were also up a
massive 78.3 per cent to 1,25,327 units against 70,263 units shipped in
FY 03. The growth was palpable in other segments of the auto industry
as well. Riding on the demand generated due to the massive
infrastructure projects underway across the country, domestic commercial
vehicle sales in FY 04 shot up 36.5 per cent to 2,60,345 units against
1,90,682 units sold in the previous fiscal. While sales of Medium and
Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCV) were up 39.5 per cent 1,61,414 units
(1,15,711), that of Light Commercial Vehicles jumped up by 31.9 per cent
to 98,931 units against 74,971 units sold in FY 03. In the two-wheeler
segment, motorcycles fuelled the growth with demand as well as numbers,
year-on-year bike sales standing at 41,70,459 units (36,47,493) in the
domestic market at a growth of 14.3 per cent. — UNI |
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SBI ties up with Reliance for ATM connectivity
Mumbai, April 16 According to a
release issued here, this is the largest migration of ATMs in wireless
connectivity mode and marks an important milestone in the banking and
wireless communication fields. The agreement follows the successful
pilot installation of new ATMs by SBI using Reliance Infocomm’s wireless
connectivity over the last four months. — UNI |
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