Saturday, June 12, 1999
today's calendar
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B U S I N E S S | Saturday, June 12, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Food item, medicine
prices soar
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High court go-ahead to
‘Diet Pepsi’ |
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PSB to issue 5,000 new
credit cards UTI withdraws fund unit scheme H-P cuts home PC price by 30 per
cent HCL Infosys holds meet for
customers DoT issues 116 Internet licences Rhone-Poulenc net up |
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Food item,
medicine prices soar NEW DELHI, June 11 — Consumers paid nearly three times more for food articles and five times more for drugs and medicines in 1998-99 as compared to the previous year. As against the inflation levels projected on the basis of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for 1998-99, which fell to 5 per cent as against 5.3 per cent in 1997-98, the Consumer Price Index based inflation level in 1998-99 was almost twice that in the same period in the previous year. According to a study released by Assocham, the prices of primary food articles increased by 11.7 per cent in 1998-99 as against 4 per cent in 1997-98, 9.6 per cent in 1996-97 and 9.8 per cent in 1995-96. The non-food articles had increased by 7.5 per cent during the period under review as against 8.5 per cent in the previous year. The increase in the prices of foodgrains was the highest at 17.1 per cent in 1998-99 since 1995-96. Vegetables witnessed 24 per cent increase in 1997-98 as against a decline of 20.6 per cent in 1998-99. According to Assocham, the reason for this disparate trend was the differences in the components of the WPI and the CPI. The main factor contributing to the increase in wholesale price was the food prices whose share in the CPI is much larger than in the WPI. The Assocham study has observed that the prices of fuel, power, light and lubricants had declined by 1.2 per cent in 1998-99 as against the 11.4 per cent growth in 1997-98. The increase in the prices of manufactured goods had been 3.8 per cent as against the previous year’s 4 per cent. The lesser increase in prices of manufactured goods had a negative impact on the profit margins of industry. Cereals, however, witnessed 20.4 per cent growth in 1998-99, highest since 1995-96. There was a downswing by 4.2 per cent 1997-98 as against an increase of 18.4 per cent in 1996-97 and 4.3 per cent in 1995-96. Assocham said the highest growth in prices had been in the case of drugs and medicines and fruits in 1998-99. Drugs and medicines witnessed a growth of 37.6 per cent in the period under review as against 8.3 per cent in the previous year. In the case of fruits
there was an increase of 34.8 per cent in 1998-99, as
against a minus growth rate of 6 per cent in the previous
year. |
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NEW DELHI, June 11 (PTI) — Colour television (CTV) market is yet again abuzz with the numbers game, with leading brands BPL, Videocon and AIWA claiming market leadership, riding on the cricket World Cup fever. Videocon, which was at number two slot till April this year, claims to have outsold even market leader BPL last month. Interestingly the other two big players in the CTV market - BPL and AIWA - also claim the market leadership. “Videocon sold 85,000 CTVs during the World Cup, which is far higher than both BPL and AIWA. We sold 1,33,000 sets in all, if all the other brands Videocon sells are considered. This makes us an unquestionable leader in the CTV market,” Director (Sales) of Videocon International Nobi Gupta said. But BPL refutes the claim. “There is absolutely no question about the fact that BPL is the number one CTV brand. In fact, in the recent past, we have further consolidated our position and increased our lead over competition,” Senior Vice-President of BPL V Shekhar said. Baron Electronic’s CEO Kabir Mulchandani says Videocon sale figures included black & white (B&W) sets as well whereas AIWA is only in CTV business. “Videocon’s claim of being the leader is debatable and their figures might include sales under Sansui and Toshiba brands as well,” BPL’s Shekhar adds. Videocon manufactures and markets CTVs for Sansui and Toshiba brands and has recently begun doing so for Akai also, which was till recently a Baron electronics brand. Shekhar says BPL has sold over 1,23,000 sets in May with a growth of 95 per cent over corresponding month last year. This was definitely the single highest sales of one CTV brand, he adds. Videocon has gone one step ahead and claims a global leadership in CTV market. “Videocon manufactured 1,33,000 CTVs during May which is at least one third of the total production in the country. This quantity of production puts Videocon on the global market of being the 10th largest manufacturer during May 1999,” Gupta said. Recent reports of AIWA
dislodging Videocon from the number two spot were
completely false. “We are the market leader, with
BPL lagging at the second position. So in no way AIWA can
dislodge us,” Gupta said.
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High court go-ahead to ‘Diet Pepsi’ NEW DELHI, June 11 (PTI) — Pepsico India Holding Ltd today got a nod to continue selling “Diet Pepsi” with the Delhi High Court restraining the Health Ministry from taking any action against the drink till the next date of hearing on July 29. The order came on a petition filed by Pepsico India challenging the Ministry’s June 3 press statement which made it mandatory to have 5 per cent of sucrose content in all kinds of carbonated water and soft drink concentrates. Pepsico approached the court as the Health Ministry’s latest directive would have affected its one calorie diet Pepsi, which was launched in India on May 29. Justice S.K. Mahajan also issued notices to the Health Ministry and Assistant Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration of Maharashtra asking them to file their replies within two weeks. The government counsel accepted the notice on behalf of the Health ministry. Justice Mahajan cited a
Supreme Court judgement which ruled that for merely
“aerated water’’ it was not necessary to
have 5 per cent sucrose content as per the prevention of
Food Adulteration Rules, 1955. |
Industrial production up in April NEW DELHI, June 11 (PTI) — Indian industry has started to show signs of recovery in the current fiscal with industrial production growing at 6.8 per cent in the first month compared to 4.8 per cent in the same period last year. The recovery has come mainly on account of rebound in the manufacturing sector growing at 7.8 per cent in April, 1999, as against 4.9 per cent in April, 1998-99, according to the latest IIP figures released by the Central Statistical Organisation. The manufacturing sector accounts for about 80 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The growth in the electricity sector declined to 4.8 per cent in April, 1999, from a robust 11 per cent last year. The growth in the mining sector continued to be subdued posting the negative growth rate of 0.3 per cent in April as against negative 2.9 per cent last year. The overall industrial production grew at 3.9 per cent during 1998-99, the IIP said. The consumer goods segment continued to grow at four per cent in April, 1999, compared to 4.1 per cent in April, 1998, and the overall growth rate being 2.3 per cent during 1998-99. The consumer durables grew at 18.4 per cent in April, 1999, as against 4.9 per cent in the corresponding period last year. In the manufacturing sector, the best performance was posted by the machinery and equipment (other than transport equipment) sector growing at 25 per cent in April. The machinery and
equipment sector was followed by non-metallic products at
23.9 per cent, paper and paper products and printing,
publishing and allied industries at 20.02 per cent and
beverages, tobacco and related products at 11.7 per cent. |
PSB to
issue 5,000 new credit cards CHANDIGARH, June 11 — Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) organised two-day all-India workshop on agriculture credit concluded at Kisan Bhavan today. It was attended by about 100 key functionaries engaged in agriculture financing. Mr B.D. Narang, Executive Director, PSB, while inaugurating the workshop, stressed the need to enhance credit flow to agriculture and to provide credit cards to the farming community. The bank has increased the target by 25 per cent for the agriculture sector during 1999-2000 and decided to issue 5000 new Zimidara credit cards to farmers during the current year. Mr S.C. Vohra, General Manager (Agri.) said the bank has already established 19 rural development divisions and eight new rural development divisions will start functioning during the year.
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UTI withdraws fund unit scheme MUMBAI, June 11 (PTI) — UTI has decided to withdraw the proposed Institutional Investors Fund Unit Scheme (IISFUS), a top official of the trust said. UTI has asked SEBI to keep the proposal in abeyance soon after it launched its monthly income plan (I) and was assured of mobilising at least Rs 1000 crore from it. However, when the MIP scheme looked set to cross even the Rs 2000 crore mark the Trust decided to withdraw the IISFUS for the moment. In fact, the success of MIP(I) (it ended up with a corpus of Rs 2700 crore) also prompted the Trust to postpone its MIP(II) scheme which was also sent to SEBI for approval. When asked whether UTI would think of launching IISFUS later in the year, the official said that it was “premature to say anything now”. For all practical purposes the scheme has been withdrawn. The scheme was offering 11.5 per cent assured return in the first year while the returns for following years were to be decided at the beginning of each year. The total corpus of the fund was set at Rs 100 crore. While UTI officials deny
it, the trust seems to be going slow with its schemes,
with the downturn in the fortunes of its flagship scheme
US-64 and the huge responsibility it has towards
restructuring the scheme. |
H-P cuts home PC price by 30 per cent NEW DELHI, June 11 (PTI) — Intensifying the price war in the Indian home PC market, Hewlett-Packard (HP) India today announced a 30 per cent reduction in its Pentium III home PC and the Pavilion 4403 models. Following the latest price slash, HP Pavilion 4403, a fully featured multimedia personal computer, will be available for Rs 45,999 and the Pavilion III home PC at Rs 89,999. HP’s pavilion home PCs come with free Satyam Internet package. With the Dian home PC market expected to grow at an astonishing 96 per cent during the current fiscal, Compaq India had in April introduced its ‘Presario 4010’ at below Rs 50,000 to take on HP’s ‘Pavilion 4402’ launched in January. More multinational
brands are waiting in the wings to enter this segment as
it has posted an impressive 70 per cent growth in the
first quarter of 1999, according to a survey by US-based
agency, International Data Corp. |
HCL
Infosys holds meet for customers CHANDIGARH, June 11 — HCL Infosystems Limited held a “customer meet” today which was attended by customer from Central and State Government organisation, PSUs and companies. Mr Prem Nath Bhaskaran who presided, said the objective of holding customer meets was to enhance after-sales concept initiated by HCL. Mr R.C. Saini, Regional Sales and Service Manager, explained in details the operational aspects, extent and scope of after-sales support from Chandigarh regional office. Presentations were made on the latest technology in -focus LCD projector. A vote of thanks was
given by Mr Vishnu Sharma, Area Customer Engg Manager. |
DoT issues 116 Internet licences NEW DELHI, June 11 (PTI) — The Department of Telecom has issued 116 licences for Internet service providers ever since the Internet policy was announced in November last year. The maximum number of licences have been issued for category ‘C’ (small and medium cities) service providers at 59, followed by category ‘C’ (metros and states) at 39. All India licences (category ‘A’) have been issued to 18 service providers, an official release said. The companies which have
been issued all India licences are Sukharta Finance,
Satyam Infoway, Indusind Distribution, Wipro, Zee
Telefilms, Global Electronics, Dishnet, Ircon, CG
Faxemail, CMC, STPI, Ernet, Punjab Wireless, Sprint RPG,
Bharati BT Internet, Nano Technology, BPL Telecom and
Sigma input output. |
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Rhone-Poulenc (India) Limited has recorded a 136.6 per cent surge in net profit during the 1998-99 financial year to touch Rs 30.54 crore as against Rs 12.91 crore a year earlier. Rhone-Poulenc’s sales stood at Rs 212 crore, up 29.3 per cent from Rs 164 crore in the previous year. The Board of Directors has recommended a 140 per cent dividend for the year. The company had incurred an expense of Rs 9.69 crore towards an employees’ Voluntary retirement Scheme this year. However, write-back of depreciation on the revalued portion of fixed assets was Rs 12.96 crore while write-back of depreciation arising from change in the method of computation was Rs 2.56 crore. J&K Bank net up 70 pc: Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd, a leading private sector bank, today announced a 70 per cent growth in its net profit to Rs 85.45 crore in 1998-99 compared to Rs 50 crore in 1997-98. While deposits of the bank increased by 32 per cent to Rs 6,444 crore from Rs 4,882 crore last year, advances were up by 37 per cent to Rs 2,951 crore from Rs 2,154 crore in 1997-98. Addressing a press conference here, the bank’s Chairman and Chief Executive M.Y.Khan said the Board of Directors has recommended a higher dividend of 30 per cent from 25 per cent last year. —
Agencies |
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