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| Saturday, January 20, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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AirTel, Essar too slash cell phone rates
SIDBI scheme for composite loans
Wipro net zooms 121 pc
India holds second roadshow for
oil Party over, says top Asian Internet
analyst Help students, Badal to
banks Remove bottlenecks for 9 pc growth:
CII |
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Power Regulatory Authority not yet
Father don’t preach! Married women
surf more
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AirTel, Essar too slash cell phone rates NEW DELHI, Jan 19 — Cellular phone subscribers could not have had it better. Competition, triggered by MTNL’s entry, has forced cellular companies to cut down tariffs to hold on to their respective market shares. AirTel and Essar, the two private cell phone operators in Delhi, have announced reduction in tariffs following MTNL’s decision to offer cellular services at rates much lower than those currently charged by the private players. The new tariff plan announced by AirTel today, entails that incoming calls will be charged at Rs. 1.60 per minute while outgoing calls will be charged at Rs. 2.85 per minute. The monthly rental will stand revised down to Rs 400 from the earlier Rs 475. In a similar knee-jerk reaction, Essar, the second private mobile phone operator in the Capital, slashed its per minute tariff to Rs 1.60 for incoming calls and Rs 2.80 for outgoing calls with the monthly rentals being Rs 395. Consequently, the industry-wide average tariffs will witness a over 30 per cent reduction in outgoing and approximately 60 per cent reduction in outgoing calls. MTNL, which is scheduled to commence its services from January 26 this year, has pegged the incoming calls at Rs 1.50 per minute and Rs 2.70 per minute for outgoing calls. Effectively, the new tariff plans of AirTel and Essar, which will come into force from February 1, have put them at par with those of MTNL. While for consumers the new developments come as a bonanza, those within the industry point out that this might eat into the already narrowing margins of the existing operators. “The strongest impact of this severe undercutting will be felt by the fourth operator which is yet to join the fray”, industry sources said. In Delhi alone, the private cellular operators have a combined subscriber base of approximately 4,50,000, with MTNL targeting to build a base of three lakh subscribers
within a short period. The private players are pinning their hopes on gaining a competitive edge over MTNL on the quality of service. However, given the extreme price sensitivity of the Indian consumer this may not be as potent a weapon to take on the government-owned operator. “Our mantra is acceptance and affordability and this is something that we have done while investing Rs 300 crore for network upgradation and improving service quality”, the Chief Executive Officer of Essar, Mr Sudarshan Banerjee, said. The CEO of Bharti Cellullar Limited, the promoters of AirTel, told The Tribune that with the rebalancing of the tariff structures, the focal point will be service. Moreover, with the entry of the third operator, operators are expecting an increase in the size of the cake which in the final analysis will be beneficial for all the players. “Internationally it has been established that the entry of a new operator increases the size of the cake significantly”, Mr Kapoor said adding that this may lead to plummeting of prices as consequence. “While the availability of larger capacities and more players invariably draw down price positions in any market, the real parameters of success get tested on grounds of product and service performance”, Mr Kapoor pointed out. As operators rework their revenue streams following the tariff realignments, the cosumers now have better choice options. Observers said that the price undercutting has, to a great extent, helped in a image conversion of the cellular phone as an expensive commodity.
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SIDBI scheme for composite loans CHANDIGARH, Jan 19 — The PHD CCI today organised an interactive session with Mr SS Kohli, Chairman, PNB and the Indian Banking Association (IBA). Mr Kohli expressed concern at the level of NPAs which stand at Rs 85,000 crore and stressed the need for quality lending and proper utilisation of bank loans by the corporates. He said SIDBI has floated a scheme where composite loans up to Rs 25 lakh are available with no collateral security required by the banks. Mr Kohli suggested that India could follow the “Onida model” of Italy where the industries associations take subscription from their members and this money is used as guarantee by the banks. The associations can get a counter guarantee from SIDBI. Mr Ashok Khanna, Chairman, Northern Regional Development Council (NRDC), PHDCCI, expressed anxiety over the high rates of interest charged on lending to small and medium enterprises. Different rates of interest are being charged on the basis of credit rating of borrowing units and despite the recent measures by RBI to ease the liquidity and soften the lending rates, there is no perceptible change in the offtake of bank credit because of the high cost and hesitation on the part of the bankers to lend, particularly to its SMEs. The banks’ credit-deposit ratio has declined from 79.3% in 1970-71 to 54.2% in May, 2000 and is still lower in the northern belt. For public sector banks it is 48.3% against foreign banks at 64.7%. Even India’s private sector credit-GDP ratio is at 23.7% which is among the lowest and is less than half of China’s (53.4%) and even lower than Pakistan’s thereby, adversely affecting the competitiveness. Earlier, Mr Amarjit Goyal, Chairman, Punjab Committee, PHDCCI, said that although the economy is showing signs of recovery and there has been growth in GDP in the last two years, there are grey areas which are of concern to the industry. Exports have yet to reach the desired level of growth and the current account deficit is on the higher side. Due to a slump in demand and infrastructure bottlenecks, new investments are not picking up and there is considerable industrial slowdown. Banking sector is flush with sufficient lendable resources but banks observe that quality borrowers are not available as the capital market and credit off take have constrained industrial production. Mr RS Sachdeva, Co-Chairman, Punjab Committee, PHDCCI, said bankers should not treat service charges as a source of income but it should be a facility to customers and bankers should increase their productivity, diversify their non-fund activities to raise additional income rather than revert to hike in service charges.
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Wipro Ltd on Friday reported a 121.7 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 450.5 crore in the first nine months of the current fiscal as against Rs 162.6 crore in the same period last year. Sales increased by 39 per cent to Rs 2132.7 crore in April-December 2000-01 as compared to Rs 1534.5 crore made in the first nine months of the previous fiscal, a compay statement said. Wipro posted a handsome 325.225 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 188.8 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2000 as against Rs 44.4 crore in the corresponding period the previous year. Sales increased 40.7 per cent to Rs 773.8 crore in October-December 2000-01 when compared to Rs 549.6 crore sales made in the same quarter in 1999-2000. HCL Technologies HCL Technologies on Friday reported an increase in its net income by 177 per cent for the second quarter. The firm said its offshore revenues accounted for 63 percent of its total revenues and it had added 18 new clients in the October-December quarter. ITC Bhadra ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards has registered a net profit of Rs 10.51 crore during the third quarter ended December, 2000, against a net loss of Rs 3.56 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal. Melstar Melstar Information Technologies’ net profit for the third quarter was 2.41 crore, which is up by 130 per cent from the net profit recorded in corresponding period of the previous year. Pritish Nandy Com Pritish Nandy Communication, has reported a 13 per cent increase in its net profit at Rs 1.99 crore during the quarter ended December 31, 2000, as against Rs 1.76 crore recorded in the corresponding period a year ago. Centurion Bank Centurion Bank has posted an increase of 101 per cent in the net profit at Rs 33.18 crore during the nine months ended December 31, 2000, as against Rs 16.50 crore recorded in the same period in the previous year. J&K Bank Jammu and Kashmir Bank has posted a net profit of Rs 124.39 crore after the second quarter registering a 37 per cent growth from the corresponding period of the previous year when the PAT stood at 91.10 crore. Balarampur Chini Balarampur Chini Mills reported a net profit of Rs 12.74 crore during the third quarter of the current fiscal depicting a jump of about 71 per cent over Rs 7.46 crore in the corresponding quarter previous fiscal.
— Agencies
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India holds second roadshow for oil LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) — India yesterday kicked off the second leg of roadshows aimed at attracting foreign investors to oil and gas blocks offered under its new exploration licensing policy (NELP). Oil Minister Ram Naik said 25 blocks, including eight deep water blocks on the west coast and nine onland blocks, were on offer. Eight shallow water blocks are also seeking investors and the last date for submission of bids is March 31. “India is hungry for oil and whoever comes to our hydrocarbon sector will benefit,” Naik told a news conference. “Earlier, investing in India meant delay and red tape but over the past year we have considerably streamlined procedures.” He said deals had been finalised with winners of the first tender round in 2000 just seven months after bids were received. Fiscal incentives under NELP include 12.5 per cent royalty rates on crude from onland blocks and 10 per cent for offshore crude and natural gas. The royalty for the first seven years on deep water crude has been set at 5 per cent. NELP exempts successful bidders from upfront payments, project import duties and discovery bonuses and also allows them to recover full costs before the start of production sharing. Domestic production accounts for just 30 per cent of India’s energy needs and oil import costs have soared in the past year. Naik said the petroleum import bill would likely to hit $17.5 billion in 2000-2001 up from $12.3 billion the previous year. “India is one of the fastest growing economies and energy consumption is growing by 6 to 7 per cent per year as compared to 2 per cent in developed countries,” he said adding that high oil import costs were hurting the economy. “Therefore the government has decided to give a new impetus to increase domestic production.” The roadshow coincides with an announcement on Thursday by Britain’s Cairn Energy PLC that it had made its third hydrocarbon find in India just off the country’s western coast. The discovery tested natural gas at a rate of 39.2 million standard cubic feet (1.110 million cu metres) per day while oil flowed at 1,039 barrels per day. Roadshows, launched in New Delhi last week, will go on to Houston on January 22-23, Tokyo on February 5-6 and Singapore on February 8-9.
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Party over, says top Asian Internet
analyst HONG KONG, Jan 19 (Reuters) — Matei Mihalca has a regret or two, but Merrill Lynch’s star Asian Internet analyst does not apologise for being one of the louder bulls during the region’s brief dot-com boom. Acknowledging that he has lost sleep and sprouted white hair over the last nine months, Mihalca says nevertheless: “fundamentally, I believe our work has been sound.” Amid the smouldering remains of the global Internet stock craze, sell-side analysts have come in for a share of blame from critics accusing them of unbridled industry boosterism. Mihalca cut a swath through Asia’s late-blooming dot-com culture, making himself media-accessible, sprinkling humour through his research reports and forging close ties to companies — many of which Merrill hoped to take public. He told Reuters this week that while some investment bank researchers may be deserving of criticism — he refuses to name names — Merrill’s team was not among them. “Clearly, I think there were people involved in this process who were more willing to promote companies that maybe were not the best companies, or to write research that was subservient to other interests,” he says. In a New York Times profile nearly a year ago, Mihalca defended his close ties with companies from whom Merrill sought underwriting business: “In many places people see this as a conflict ... I see it as working together.” Asked by Reuters this week if he stood by the quote, Mihalca said: “Yes I do. I see less of a conflict in research and banking working together and more of a necessity. In that process, in that cooperation, I’m guided by my integrity.” The word “integrity” comes up often in conversation with the 31-year-old Mihalca, as do references to his homeland of Romania, where he was once a member of the Communist party. Mandarin-speaking and married to a Taiwanese, Mihalca likes to talk about the Internet’s encouragement of free expression in culturally conservative societies such as China and Korea. Noting that both Merrill Lynch and regulators have checks and balances to prevent conflicts of interest and protect investors, Mihalca believes entrepreneurship should be allowed to flourish and regards ‘’opportunism’’ as a positive concept. Who’s to blame? Asked if analysts should bear some responsibility for the feverish atmosphere that saw many investors lose huge amounts of money in Internet stocks, Mihalca says: “The answer is yes.” But he quickly adds that responsibility must be shared. What drove the boom was “human nature as reflected in the public at large,” he says. Despite a spate of “buy” ratings on stocks that later fell to tiny fractions of their
IPO prices, “I don’t think we ever glossed over the risks or nuances,” he says. “It may be difficult to see this now, when we’re in the midst of another black-and-white environment just as a year ago, only in the opposite direction.” he says. Mihalca has grown increasingly bearish in his near-term outlook. The only stock he rates a “buy” is South Korea’s Internet Auction Co which this month sold a controlling stake to U.S. auction giant Ebay Inc. Merrill hasn’t dropped coverage on any Net stocks yet, but Mihalca said he would do so if they continued to underperform. In future he expects to do more in-depth cover of fewer companies. “We believe the Internet is here to stay, no matter what this current downturn looks like,” he says.
— Reuters |
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Help students, Badal to
banks CHANDIGARH, Jan 19 — No stamp duty will be charged on kisan credit cards in Punjab, announced Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at the 75th meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee, Punjab, convened by Punjab National Bank here today. Stressing the need for human resource development, he asked the bankers and state officials to work out a scheme to extend financial help to deserving students from poorer families so that they can pursue studies and stand on their own feet. “It is better to help 50 such students than set up one industry”. He cited the example of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav who set up “charvaha” schools to educate cattle grazers in Bihar which became quite successful. Regretting that the rate of interest charged by banks was so high, he asked them to provide cheaper credit to occupations like agriculture which were not profit oriented. The Punjab farmer was not only poor, but also debt-ridden, he observed. Talking to media representatives later, Mr Badal said he had taken up the issue of potato glut in the state with the Union Agriculture Ministry and hoped some remedial steps would be initiated. It was a national issue. Addressing the diamond jubilee meeting of the SLBC (Punjab), Mr S.S. Kohli, CMD, Punjab National Bank, said that from October 1, 1999, to September 30, 2000, aggregate deposits registered a growth of 20.4% as against 14.4% during the same period last year, gross credit grew by 23% and the overall CD ration by 0.5%. Referring to advances to SSIs during this period, he said these had shown an increase of 360 crore to Rs 3,265 crore, showing a growth of 12.4%. As regards the kisan credit cards, he said banks in the state had issued 62,624 cards amounting to Rs 317.15 crore during the quarter ended June, 2000, as against 19067 cards issued during same period last year. Mr P.N. Khurana, G.M. PNB, Mr R.S. Mann, Chief Secretary, Punjab, Mr Surinder Kumar, Regional Director, RBI, also addressed the meeting. The meeting was also over by Sh. S.S. Kohli, Chairman & Managing Director Punjab attended by Mr K.R. Lakhanpal, Principal Secretary, Punjab. Mr A. Ramanathan, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Mr D.S. Guru, Special Secretary Commerce-cum-Director Industries, Punjab, Mr C. Roul, Director Institutional Finance & Banking, Mr S.K. Awasthi, General Manager, PNB and Mr P.N. Khurana, General Manager, PNB Punjab zone.
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Remove bottlenecks for 9 pc growth:
CII NEW DELHI, Jan 19 — CII today called for removing infrastructure bottlenecks for achieving the proposed target of 9 per cent growth rate of the economy. “The single biggest bottleneck to higher growth is the lack of proper infrastructure”, CII President Arun Bharat Ram told newspersons here today. Mr Bharat Ram said the Budget for 2001-02 presents difficult challenges to the Finance Minister, considering the fact that the manufacturing sector has shown definite signs of slowdown. Moreover, it is imperative that this year’s Budget acts as an anchor for five-year time frame to attain a more open economy, lower fiscal deficits and 9 per cent GDP growth, President observed. “A higher GDP growth will require the framing of a comprehensive policy package with a credible and well-defined time-table, that can help generate at least 7.5 per cent growth in 2001-02, rising to 9 per cent by 2004-05”, Mr Bharat Ram said. Presenting the recommendations for the Union Budget for the next fiscal year, the Chief Economist of CII, Dr Omkar Goswami, said the services such as legal advice, medical and health services, banking, rail travel passenger booking, selling of television software, etc should be brought under the tax next to augment the tax-GDP ratio. Dr Goswami said higher investment in infrastructure is possible only by stepping up the savings rate and actively encouraging foreing direct investment.
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Power Regulatory
Authority not yet CHANDIGARH, Jan 19 — The Punjab Government has not yet set up a Power Regulatory Authority. Only a committee has been constituted with Justice J.S. Sekhon as its Chairman to identify persons suitable for appointment as Chairman and members of the proposed Power Regulatory Authority. Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of a meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee here today, Mr R I Singh, Principal Secretary to the CM, said that he was misquoted in the PHDCCI press release.
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Father don’t preach! CHICAGO: The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who counseled President Bill Clinton on his White House sex scandal and preached to generations of American youth on the value of self-worth, admitted that he fathered a child born out of wedlock 20 months ago. The girl, born to a former Jackson aide, lives with her mother in Los Angeles and Jackson is paying $3,000 a month in child support, a Jackson spokesman said. The former aide was pregnant with the child when Jackson made visits to the White House to counsel Clinton on the Monica Lewinsky affair in the weeks before the scandal growing out of the President’s relationship with the former intern triggered his impeachment in December 1998. The child would have been conceived earlier that year, the same summer that Clinton admitted the Lewinsky affair, with Jackson acting as his public and private confessor. The National Enquirer published a photo on Thursday showing Jackson in the Oval Office with Clinton and the then pregnant aide, identified as Karin Stanford, on Dec 3, 1998. The Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid, had planned to publish the story exclusively, but Jackson issued a statement early on Thursday admitting the affair, and a number of publications, including the New York Post, printed their own versions. The 59-year-old Jackson, himself born out of wedlock, said he was “truly sorry” and was seeking forgiveness from his wife of 38 years and his supporters.
— Reuters Married women
surf more NEW DELHI: If you thought that the largest segment of Internet users among women were the college going teeny-bopper, think again as 66 per cent of them have been found to be working. Moreover, the usual perception that female netizen is not married and is perhaps a younger looking woman was also found to be incorrect by a recent survey which revealed that 61 per cent of them were married and 75 per cent over the age of 25. Many such myths were broken by the survey, conducted by the Internet marketing consultancy firm Brainquiver.com, that shed light on the life-style, vocationing patterns, eating and reading habits of female netizens. It revealed that 42 per cent of women surfers have purchasing power or at least influence the buying decision. This was also against the myth that since the female netizen is a college-goer, she has no purchasing power. Contrary to popular belief, nearly 87 per cent of women spoken to used the Net very specifically and purposefully to download information and also for entertainment, the study pointed out. Though 98 per cent use it largely for mails, 65 per cent visit sites for women and 59 per cent visit entertainment sites and an equal number spend time on search engine portals. They generally surf the Net at least once a week. The survey was conducted among female netizens, 75 per cent of whom were residents of Mumbai and Delhi and rest of mini metros.
— UNI |
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Indian wheat GM best for Daewoo Boeing plans new jet Jobless claims plunge Mitsubishi Board John Keells profit Samsung net drops |
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Zurich fund HMT machines Spice Com Overbridge SRF net dips HCC net slips Paramount Com |
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