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| Tuesday, August 29, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Slash expenditure & improve revenue NEW DELHI, Aug 28 — The Board of Directors of Maruti Udyog Limited today met under a cloud of secrecy to take stock of the current demand crunch and the eroding market share starting the country’s largest carmaker. The Board, among other routine matters, discussed the sales pattern in the current fiscal, company sources told UNI here today. HFC eases loan terms Infosys profit to soar with rupee slide Not just for English Matiz production
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MOI Engineering justifies
closure of operations
Slash expenditure & improve revenue MUMBAI, Aug 28 (PTI) — The Reserve Bank of India today said a multi-pronged effort was necessary to improve revenue buoyancy in tax collections, effecting necessary expenditure reductions and raising proceeds from divestment of selected public enterprises. Expenditure management also holds the key to achieving overall fiscal prudence, the RBI said in its annual report 1999-2000. The fiscal imbalance of the central and state governments as reflected in the combined gross fiscal deficit (GFD) touched a high level of 9.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1999-2000. The slippage between the revised and the budget estimates was high as 2.5 percentage points of GDP. While the high level of the government sector deficit is attributable to some unavoidable expenditure commitments as well as unanticipated shocks, any further erosion of the fiscal position could turn out to be unsustainable since the financial saving rate of the household sector was only moderately higher than the ratio of overall fiscal deficit to GDP, the report said. Expenditure: The report said defence expenditures and statutory grants were exogenously given but in respect of others, strong policy actions were needed to be put in place. The interest burden could over the time be reduced by containing fiscal deficits and by plugging leakages and misappropriations while subsidies could be oriented to operate as “social safety nets”, it said. The expenditures of government on wages, salaries and pensions seem to be the most important area where reforms have to be
focused. For instance, the expenditure of the Central government towards wages and salaries has grown at an annual average rate of 14.8 per cent to Rs 32,433 crore in 1999-2000 from Rs 11,069 crore in 1991-92, which was higher than the 12.5 per cent growth in the overall expenditure of the central government. Unless the size of the government is pruned, the wage bill would pose a significant burden on fiscal management, the RBI warned and said there was an urgent need to ensure the solvency of public finances in respect of pensions and other unfunded liabilities was attained. Tax concessions: Moreover, there is a need for further reform and reorientation of levies such as stamp duties and registration fees, which need to be made “tax payer-friendly”. It should be ensured that they do not impede the volume of transactions and reduce, in the process, the total revenue from these sources. State of economy: Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 6.4 per cent while the annual rate of inflation, on a point-to-point basis, was 6.5 per cent (or 3.8 per cent excluding the impact of the rise in the administered oil prices). The accretion to foreign exchange reserves was about US $ 5,546 million and the external current account deficit was below 1 per cent of GDP. The average real growth rate of the economy at 6.4 per cent during 1992-93 to 1999-2000 was higher than 5.9 per cent during the 1980s and 6 per cent during the second half of 1980s. External debt: The shift in emphasis from debt to non-debt flows has underscored the importance of monitoring the stock of total liabilities (debt as well as non-debt) as also the total servicing of liability as opposed to the traditional emphasis on servicing of debt liabilities. Even with this criterion, a downward trend in servicing of liability was seen with the liability service ratio falling from 19.1 per cent in 1998-99 to 16.8 per cent in 1999-2000. India’s external debt increased by 0.8 per cent from
USD 97,666 million as at the end of March 1999 to US $ 98,435 million as at the end of March 2000, the RBI said. Market borrowings: At this level, the gross market borrowing, as per Reserve Bank records, amounted to Rs 99,630 crore as against Rs 93,953 crore during 1998-99. Of the total gross borrowings, mobilisation through dated securities amounted to Rs 86,630 crore, while short-term borrowings (364-day treasury bills) amounted to Rs 13,000 crore. |
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NEW DELHI, Aug 28 (UNI) — The Board of Directors of Maruti Udyog Limited today met under a cloud of secrecy to take stock of the current demand crunch and the eroding
market share starting the country’s largest carmaker. The Board, among other routine matters, discussed the sales pattern in the current fiscal, company sources told UNI here today. The company’s management, however, refused to comment stating it to be a routine Board meeting. The Board, which met for over six hours, also assessed the current market situation and the company’s performance in the first four months of 2000-01. “The first four months of the year have not been very encouraging and going by the sales pattern, we do not see a major growth this year. We have to find ways of overcoming the situation”, the sources added. The company’s
bottom line will also be under pressure this year due to its decision to absorb the production cost hike resulting from the softening of the rupee. Some of the company’s recently introduced models have high import content and the cost of producing these models have gone up following rupee depreciation. “In the present market conditions, we have decided not to pass on the cost hike to consumers and absorb the entire hike. The rupee devaluation has increased the landed cost of the vehicles by 2.5 to 3 per cent. We have not sold too many vehicles in the first five months and so there is no reason to further burden sales with a price hike”. The recent market borrowings and heavy depreciation on its investment would also take a toll on Maruti’s profits. The company had last month raised Rs 200 crore from the market by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of seven-year duration.
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HFC eases
loan terms CHANDIGARH, Aug 28 — The Haryana Financial Corporation (HFC) today liberalised terms for financing industrial concerns. Stating this here, Mr P.K. Chaudhery, Chairman of the Corporation, who is also Commissioner, Industries, said that the Board of Directors today decided to dispense with upfront fees of 1 per cent on the sanctioned loan amount. This concession would be available to units which had been sanctioned loans on or after June 1,2000. He said that the HFC would now provide enhanced equity assistance to the entrepreneurs setting up industries under the modified national equity fund scheme of SIDBI. Under the scheme, the projects cost ceiling had been enhanced from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh. Equity assistance had been raised from a maximum of Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs 6.25 lakh per project. The Chairman said that the corporation had sanctioned and disbursed loans to the tune of Rs 43.12 crore and Rs 18.23 crore respectively. |
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Infosys profit to soar with rupee slide NEW DELHI, Aug 28 (PTI) — Infosys Technologies said today that the rupee depreciation would improve the company’s profit as Infosys earned about 98 per cent of its revenue in foreign exchange. “I am not happy about the situation as the depreciation of the rupee is bad for the country...for Infosys which earns 98 per cent of its revenue in dollars, pounds and yens and incurs 30 to 35 per cent as expenses, the company will certainly become more profitable when the rupee goes down,” N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman and CEO of Infosys said here. He, however, declined to give details about the expected improvement in the company’s results for the next quarter. Infosys’ revenue for quarter ended June, 2000, stood at $ 80.2 million against $ 39.7 million in the corresponding period last year. The company clocked a revenue of $ 203.44 million in 1999-2000. The net income was pegged at $ 26.83 million for the quarter ended June 30 against $ 13.31 million in the previous quarter. Mr Narayana Murthy further reiterated that the shooting down of $ 10 billion blanket approval for acquisitions by the Finance Ministry earlier this year would not spike the company’s plans for high value acquisitions overseas. Stating that while the government’s announcement to this effect allowed Infosys to go for an acquisition worth $ 2 billion recently, Mr Narayana Murthy expressed confidence that the government would consider the company’s proposal beyond the specified amount for the right kind of acquisition proposal. “The rules currently state that the company can go for a acquisition limit which is 10 times the company’s last year’s exports ($ 2 billion) but given the right candidate for acquisition, we are confident that the government would not be a bottleneck,” Mr Narayana Murthy said. While the big IT companies in the USA were looking at acquisition of small companies with tremendous strength in technology, Infosys would look at a high value acquisition of a large company. However, Infosys is yet to zero-in on such a company he added. Mr Narayana Murthy said the recent RBI directive for dollar denominated exchange earners foreign currency account holders to convert 50 per cent of their account into rupees, would not hit Infosys as the company was not heavily on onsite business model. Elaborating on his upcoming visit to the USA on September 7, where he would head the CEO’s forum, he said the delegation would look at sorting out issues such as H1B Visa and totalisation agreement. Centre in UK by November:
In addition, the company would also pick up minority stake in overseas IT companies operating in the area of wireless and broadband technologies for about $ 3.5 million. “Infosys will look at growth through strategic investments and plans to pick up stakes in technology companies outside India,” he said. On the upcoming centre in the UK, he said the “proximity” development centre in London would support front end development with back-end operations in India, but declined to comment on the investments earmarked for the upcoming centre. The company has proximity development centres in California and Boston currently with a full-fledged centre in Toronto. While the proximity centres only take up front
end-development, the Toronto facility was looking at proximity development in Canada and Northern USA and also full software development lifecycles. Infosys will also set up a leadership institute in Mysore to train management professionals for the company, he added.
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Not just for English LONDON: James Murdoch, the youngest son of the media magnet Rupert Murdoch, has warned that English will not become the language of the Internet by default, and international businesses had to take account of the decline in its status. Speaking at the Guardian Edinburgh international television festival, on Sunday, Mr Murdoch, an executive Vice-President of his father’s News Corp who also runs the Asian pay-television business Star TV, said that while English remains a key language employed by Internet users, others are on the increase, such as Mandarin, Hindi and Spanish. He pointed to research carried out in the US which predicted that although half current Internet users are American, that figure would drop to one third by 2004. — The Guardian |
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Matiz production
set to be doubled CHANDIGARH, Aug 28 — Daewoo Motors India Limited (DMIL) today announced the launch of two variants of Matiz saying it will double production of this car during the current fiscal year. “We produced 35,900 Matiz cars last year. This fiscal, 80,000 will be produced,” according to
DMIL Deputy Managing Director B.S. Min. Asserting that the sale of Matiz has increased following a change in customer perception, Min said the two new variants have been launched in tune with customer demands after extensive market research. Research has suggested the consumer’s desire to drive a power steering car. “We also learnt that affordability was a deterrent here. With Matiz SG and SA variants, we have tried to meet these requirements with an attractive price,” he said. The ex-showroom price of Matiz SG in Chandigarh is Rs 3.47 lakh, while that of Matiz SA is Rs 4. The SG version is cheaper by Rs 46,000 than Zen VX without power steering and by Rs 39,000 than Santro LS, claimed a Daewoo release here. To ensure the increase volume of sales, the company is in the process of expanding its nationwide dealer network to 150 from the present 121 by next month. |
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MOI Engineering justifies
closure of operations CHANDIGARH, Aug 28 — Blaming some “misguided elements” for indiscipline and confrontation between workers and management, the management of MOI Engineering (formerly Mollins of India ) said today that due to less than 50 per cent of average productivity in the past three years, nearly 750 lakh of accumulated losses for the past seven years, Rs 32 lakh of operational cash loss for the first four months in the current year and certain other reasons, the company had no other option but to suspend the operations in the plant. A press release said to maintain good industrial relations , the management had entered in to a
three-year settlement with the workers from April, 1997 to March, 2000, and had increased the wages by more than 60 per cent. However, despite the increase , no improvement was witnessed in the productivity and the disturbances like go-slow, strikes and stoppage of work continued, the company said.
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Laptop — essential tool for students GREAT chunks of the Guardian newspaper’s British edition recently have been devoted to information for the upcoming university student — page upon small-print page of courses still with vacancies. The choice is mouth-watering — football and science at Liverpool JMU, for example, but no degrees in knitting that I could see. Once the young hopeful has made the fateful decision, what should the proud parent give as a going-away present? My mother, who supported us through my childhood as a shorthand-typist, came up with a typewriter. An indestructible Olympia portable that lasted 20 years. The only complaint I had was that you couldn’t change the cloth ribbon without ending up as smudged as a coalminer after an eight-hour shift. And pounding the wire-sprung keys was hard work. My biceps are nothing, but I still have finger muscles to rival Arnold Schwarzenegger. Being able to type in a pen-and-pencil dominated academic culture gave one an edge. How, in 2000, can you give your child an edge? Look at America, the last remaining superpower. At Chapel Hill, one of the three big universities in the “Research Triangle” in North Carolina, no undergraduate will be admitted to class this year without a laptop computer — a machine powerful enough, that is, to hook into the university network. Other American colleges have done the same. It’s rational. Teaching in America increasingly uses the continuous and interactive information flow that computers permit. Teaching in Britain doesn’t. There is, I observe, one big difference between the American and British undergraduate populations. In America, all my students are in immediate computer contact (no picking up e-mail once a week). Few have mobile phones. In Britain, it’s the other way round. The British mobile phone culture has its administrative advantages. You can get on to students within minutes if they’re late for a tutorial or with the delivery of an essay. And, observably, the mobile has enhanced the social life of the campus. Used with flair, it’s as smart as the cigarette (which, to my despair, is chic again among British students). But the handheld phone is no use for teaching. So should you give your child a laptop as they fly the nest for the university of wherever? Talk to your bank manager first. A state-of-the-art machine is dauntingly expensive — not far off $3,000. And, with the way speed things are going, an upgrade will be needed in two years or fewer. You should then, if you are dream parents, put aside $7,500 for your child’s computer requirements. Comparably, the kind of computer this year’s undergraduate needs costs as much as a good second-hand car, twice the annual tuition fee (about which so much indignant ink has been spilt), 20 times as much as a Nokia phone, and 10 times as much as a Mini-Disc player (the toy of choice among current undergraduates). What is happening, of course, is that university education is becoming a high-maintenance, high-cost, high-skill operation.
— The Guardian |
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Shopping for the bride NEW DELHI: If you are planning a perfect wedding and do not quite know where to start, then Bridal Asia is a good place. The event, to be held between September 30 and October 2 at New Delhi’s Taj Palace Hotel, promises to bring together “whatever a bride could ask for” under one roof, making all those wedding shopping woes disappear. So you can design your Swarovski crystal-studded lehnga (traditional wedding skirt), choose from a collection of jamdhani and kotha saris, get the ideal design for your wedding card, select diamonds from Mumbai and emeralds from Jaipur, and, buy zardozi-edged linen all at the same time in the same place. The event will showcase South Asia’s best in the areas of bridal attire, jewellery, designer bags, shoes, silverware, linen, wedding packaging, cards and nightwear.
— IANS Portal on CHENNAI: It is about ageing, ageing gracefully with planning and relationships the aged have with their family and society at large. Seniorindian.com is not just about the senior citizen but the portal is about everyone who undergoes the process of ageing at some point in life, Dr Suresh Bhimsingh, the author of the portal told reporters here. Dr Bhimsingh, a specialist in geriatrics, said the portal is a comprehensive site which aims at inculcating a
positive attitude towards ageing. — UNI Life Isn’t All SAN
FRANCISCO: After penning an “impressive” first book, Meera Syal, a well-known Indian face on the British TV and theatre circuit, has done it again with “Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee.” This time, the Britain-born Syal’s book is on the lives of second generation women of Indian origin. A multifaceted artiste, Syal’s first book “Anita and Me” had won the Betty Trask Award in 1997. In “Life. . .” Syal lets each character speak for herself in the first person, at times stepping back as a simple narrator, so we meet the women through the eyes of their friends and also in their own words. Three friends — Chila, the good Punjabi girl; Sunita, an ambitious and intelligent social activist; and Tania, glamorously single — navigate the labyrinths of work, marriage and betrayal in “Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee,” a new novel by British actress, screenwriter and author of Indian origin Meera Syal.
— IANS |
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CII competition Haryana Steel Certificate Padmini Tech ICICI fund |
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