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Thursday,
May 17, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Sinha’s plan to reverse economic slowdown
Foreign investment in India safe
Price increase not to hit car sales Reliance top wealth creator Seven
firms bid for power distribution |
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Composite
licence in telecom services? Wipro
gets Rs 13.5 cr contract Slip of finger costs stock market £ 40b
SEBI’s initiative good for
long-term ramification
Otis Consortium offers shares
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Sinha’s plan to reverse economic slowdown New Delhi, May 16 The plan, based on the Keynesian models, is being pushed by none other than Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha himself. In an
exclusive interview with UNI, the Finance Minister revealed his plans to inject a massive dose of expenditure to build roads, ports, irrigation and power projects in the near future. “There will be quite a lot of action within the next few months on this front,” he said. New power projects, which the Centre, till recently was hoping to be taken up by the private sector, will now be a thrust area for the government. Public sector power giants — the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the National Hydro-Electric Power Corporation (NHPC) — have been asked to implement their
greenfield power projects at the earliest. Mr Sinha has even promised central funds for these projects with the government planning to add at least 8,000 megawatts of power over the next two years. The Finance Minister said contracts for a total of 6,000 km of the golden quadrangle of express highways will be given out by
end-June. The government also plans to build a network of rural roads linking up the hinterland, at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore. Another Rs 1,000 crore has been earmarked for state highways, he added. The government will also extend liberal help to the states for irrigation projects, he said. This bout of high dose public spending, apart from creating fresh capital assets, will increase spending power and create new jobs, Mr Sinha said. Industrial growth in 2000-01 was 4.9 per cent as compared to over eight per cent in 1999-2000. A worried central government consequently decided to put this ‘spend your way out of the morass’ plan into action. Mr Sinha said slow agricultural production had also adversely affected the industrial growth. In an economy of the continental size of India, poor agricultural growth meant low rural purchasing power which led to slower demand for industrial goods. Mr Sinha expected better performance of the economy this year and seven to eight per cent GDP growth in the next three to four years. Part of this would accrue from the large government spending. Satisfied by an extremely fruitful meeting he had with the Captains of Industry representing the automobile, cement and construction sectors, Mr Sinha said he planned broadening the consultations and would soon invite representatives
from other industrial fields. The Finance Minister said while there would be no further tax sops, his ministry would go into specific difficulties the industrialists highlighted. He said the suggestions given by the industry were being examined and whatever changes possible would be incorporated.
UNI |
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Foreign investment in India safe Hong Kong, May 16 “Investments made in India are not only safe, but also provides returns better than any other country in the world,” Sinha said last night at a dinner hosted in his honour by the Asia Society here. The fundamental economic polity of India is strong and sound, which has been proved by the fact that the South East Asian economic crisis had little or no effect on the country’s economy, he said addressing an elite gathering of the Society members, including special invitees, captains of industry and commerce of Hong Kong and NRIs. Sinha, who is visiting Hong Kong as part of the government’s efforts to woo more foreign investment from the East Asian region, especially Hong Kong, urged NRIs here to contribute to India’s economic efforts by investing in its core and priority sectors. Speaking on ‘Resurgent India — Vision an Agenda for Growth,’ he pointed out India was a country where science and technology flourished. Referring to the recent GSLV launch, he said it was at times like this the world sat up to notice India. “The emergence of India at the frontier of technology and knowledge was not an overnight phenomenon, but planned and built up over the last several decades,” Sinha said. “Right down history, India with its message of brotherhood and cooperation believed in peace and tranquillity,” he said. Sinha lashed out at the manipulations of developed countries which hurt the interests of developing countries. Developed countries were manipulating the global economy by ensuring that their agenda was considered up front while agendas and concerns of the developing nations were relegated to inconsequential status, he said. “Such an approach would be unacceptable to the majority of developing countries,” he said while emphasising the need for a new world order which should be equitable and which ensured dignity to even the smallest nations.
PTI |
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Price increase not to hit car sales Chandigarh, May 16 Maruti Udyog (MUL), which has already implemented the increased prices has , infact, witnessed a 30 to 40 per cent increase in sales in the region during the two days. While officials in the regional office of Daewoo Motors say an increase between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,000 is expected however, the exact figures have not been worked out as yet. Similarly, in case of Hyundai— the other company which has announced hike in the car prices, information about new prices will be available only after a week or so. The prices of different models of Maruti have been increased by nearly Rs 2,500. Maruti Standard, which was available for Rs 1,98,699 (ex- showroom, Chandigarh) is now available for Rs 2,01,198. Wagon R and Zen LX have also been increased by an almost similar amount. The price of Alto VX has been increased by around Rs 4,000 whereas a marginal increase is witnessed in Esteem LX model. The price of Baleno is not increased. Considering the sales tax, while prices in Punjab will be marginally high (less than Rs 100), these will be slightly lower in Haryana as compared to those prevalent in Chandigarh. To make up for the hike, the company will adopt a new strategy by providing more value additions to its customers. "We have decided to increase the warranty period to two years (which was earlier one year ) or 40,000 kilometers whichever is earlier", said Mr Vikram Mehtani , Regional Manager, MUL "This is likely to increase the demand". The car industry, reportedly, witnessed an overall decline of nearly 20 per cent last month. There was a drop of approximately 4 per cent in Maruti sales in the region. Despite the recession the decision of a further
increase (there already has been an increase two to three times in car prices by during last seven - eight
months) by Maruti, Daewoo and Hyundai has been taken. Talking about Daewoo's position in the market, he said it is unlikely to be affected "since our prices in our segment of cars are already one of the lowest. Even if we increase, due to an almost equal increase by our competitors, the difference is still going to be in our favour", he said. While Matiz price is likely to increase by Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 Cielo and Nexia prices can be higher by Rs 10,000 to Rs 13,000. According to officials, exact prices are yet to be calculated and information regarding it for the region will be available within 10 days. |
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Reliance top wealth creator New Delhi, May 16 Market data reveals the Ambani group companies — Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum, Reliance Capital and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure — posted a 9.6 per cent rise in market cap over Rs 61,392 crore even as the BSE sensex shed 28 per cent. Apart from Reliance, only ITC and the HDFC group companies posted rise in market cap by over Rs 1,000 crore while Sahara India Media Communication increased its wealth by an astronomical 1,100 per cent, as per latest available data. The other groups, including VP Singhania, MS Oberoi, GE Shipping, OP Jindal and Wadia’s Bombay Dyeing groups, also increased their m-cap by over Rs 100 crore. Surprisingly, old economy icons the Tata or AV Birla groups did not figure among top-10 wealth creators in the year which was gripped by industrial slowdown. The ITC group companies — ITC Ltd, ITC Bhadrachalam, ITC Hotels, VST Industries and International Travel House — instilled investor confidence to become second largest wealth creator with about a Rs 2,160 crore rise in m-cap last fiscal. HDFC and HDFC Bank together posted a 12.2 per cent (about Rs 1,310 crore) rise in m-cap to Rs 12,085 crore in March-end as against Rs 10,771 crore in the previous year. Sahara India Media, whose m-cap crossed Rs 570 crore last fiscal from a meagre Rs 46 crore in 1999-2000, was perhaps an exception over major ICE scrips of Wipro, Zee and Infosys, which shed over 50 per cent of their m-cap. Not all old economy companies bore the brunt of industrial slowdown as Vijaypat Singhania, M S Oberoi, GE Shipping, Jindal and Nusli Wadia groups increased their m-caps by over Rs 100 crore. The Singhania group companies, including Raymond Ltd and JK Chemicals, posted a whopping 74 per cent rise in m-cap (about Rs 350 crore) from the previous Rs 474 crore. The MS Oberoi group, which runs the Oberoi hotels, was close to the Singhanias with a Rs 349 crore rise in m-cap last year as compared to Rs 770 crore in the end of 1999-2000. The GE Shipping group companies — Great Eastern Shipping and Prime Securities — logged about Rs 190 crore rise in m-cap last fiscal from Rs 500 crore in March-end 2000. Surpassing the rough weathers in the steel industry, the OP Jindal group companies, including Jindal Strips and Jindal Vijayanagar Steel, came up with a Rs 118 crore rise in m-cap over previous year’s Rs 1,178 crore. The Bajoria bout came as a boon to Nusli Wadia’s Bombay Dyeing group companies whose prices soared and pushed up aggregate m-cap by 5.4 per cent to about Rs 2,160 crore last fiscal as against Rs 2,045 crore in the previous year. The Welspun group emerged a dark-horse amid the well-known business houses to post an over 100 per cent rise in m-cap to Rs 259 crore. The overall m-cap of top-10 wealth creators stood at Rs 1,20,000 crore, where the contribution of the Reliance group was over 50 per cent, posting a 14.4 per cent growth over previous year’s level of Rs 1,04,530 crore.
PTI |
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Seven firms bid for power distribution New Delhi, May 16 Dr Nath said the companies which have filed the Requisite for Qualification (RSQ) for the joint-sector companies are Reliance Power, Tata Electric Company, A.B. Birla group, Bombay power distributor BSES, Calcutta-based CESC. Hong Kong-based China Light and Power (CLP) and the Indian arm of American firm AES. The applications were opened yesterday. Dr Nath said a high-powered committee has been formed by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary P.S. Bhatnagar to scrutinise the applicants’ eligibility for the bidding. Asked about the time the committee is likely to take to complete the process, the Power Minister said, “it will be about a month before we know the real bidders.” He said once the committee gives its decision, proposals will be invited from the selected companies who will then bid for majority stake in the three joint-ventures.
UNI |
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Composite licence in telecom services? New Delhi, May 16 Speaking at a seminar organised by Assocham here Sikdar said the government will not succumb to the pressure of entering into a controversy of providing limited or unlimited telecommunication services. The pace at which technology is driving convergence will offset many problems when existing service providers operating under one set of licensing will be allowed to migrate to a different set of licence conditions after composite licences are permitted. Mr Sikdar said the revised Convergence Bill will facilitate and provide multiple competition to provide the subscribers the lowest tariff. Investors will also enjoy optimum capital investment and possibilities of full utilisation of capacities, the Minister said adding that the Bill will bring in a truly self sustaining dynamic telecommunication sector and motivate considerable participation from private industries, both foreign and domestic. Chief Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal underlined the need for a level playing field between the cellular operators and the basic telephone operators by re-examining the tariff difference. |
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Wipro gets Rs 13.5 cr contract New Delhi, May 16 The Electronic Commerce Gateway involves development and setting up of an EDI application at the trading gateway to enable a transparent and centralised processing of all customs trading documents which are interchanged between customs departments and the trading community
comprising importers, exporters, custom house agents, banks and other Government departments. The EDI Gateway will enable filling of all import and export documents over the Internet.
UNI |
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Slip of finger costs stock market £ 40b London Lehman Brothers, a big US firm based in London's Square Mile financial district, is having to provide an urgent explanation to the stock exchange and the financial services authority, the city watchdog, who want to know the reason for a mistake that caused a 120 point fall on the FTSE 100 index on Monday afternoon, temporarily wiping almost £ 40bn ($ 57bn) from the value of Britain's top companies. The bank was in the process of completing a complicated share trade, which involved the simultaneous computerised sale of almost all shares in the Top 100 index. According to city sources, the trader inadvertently entered details to sell shares in leading companies such as oil company BP and pharmaceuticals group Astra Zeneca which were 100 times bigger than he had intended. The deal amounted to £ 300m ($429m) rather than £ 3m and flashed across stock market screens just as the stock market was about to close, causing a precipitous fall on the Footsie, the barometer of British corporate health. While computer keyboard errors have affected the market before, they have not had the extreme consequences of Monday when the FTSE 100 index will forever register a close some 200 points lower than had been expected. It closed at 5,690 on Monday but yesterday had recovered to 5,892 as share prices corrected themselves. Lehman Brothers was said to be nursing losses of between £ 5m ($ 7.1m) and £ 10m ($14.3m), having been forced to buy back shares it had not intended to sell. The exact scale of the losses is difficult to quantify because they increased as the stock market rose yesterday. One city source said the error occurred when a trader had tried to input a fraction — expressed as a decimal — such as 0.5, but had input 50 instead. Lehman Brothers refused to comment but other investment banks confirmed that an error on its trading desk late on Monday had been the cause for the stock market decline. The US bank faces a hefty fine from the stock exchange if its investigation concludes that it failed to have systems in place to prevent an erroneous deal being executed. The FSA has the powers to censor individuals involved. Even if the loss was caused by a genuine mistake, city regulators want to establish why Lehman's internal computer systems did not ring alarm bells and prevent the trade taking place. One source described it as a case of ``fat fingers'' —pressing too many keys. The stock exchange said: ``We are talking to the member firm concerned and treating it as human error. We want to know how the error slipped through the Net.'' The FSA said it was monitoring the situation but neither it nor the stock exchange would confirm the offending firm was Lehman Brothers.
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Broker's version Chandigarh, May 16 |
Otis Consortium offers shares The Otis Consortium has made an open offer to the shareholders of Otis Elevator Co (India) to acquire up to 31.10 per cent of the paid-up equity share capital of the company at a price of Rs 260 per share payable in cash. The offer is not conditional on any minimum level of acceptances, an official release said. The Consortium consists of Otis Mauritius, Otis Elevator
Com (New Jersey), Otis Elevator Com (S) Pte and Otis Elevator Company
(K.K) Ltd. Satyam Computer Service’s American Depositary Shares (ADS) rose 21 per cent on the opening day of trading at the New York Stock Exchange as international investors gave the Indian software giant a highly encouraging response. Merrill Lynch, the underwriters, said the offering, launched last week, was oversubscribed more than seven times at trading yesterday. As the trading opened, Satyam raised $ 140.8 million offering 14.5 million shares at $ 9.71 each. Within an hour, they were up 15 per cent and ended 21.5 per cent higher at $ 11.80. At one point, they were trading at $ 11.93 which was 25 per cent higher. Exide: In the face of cheap imports putting pressure on its margins, Exide Industries (EIL) is all set to tighten its belt and streamline operations targeting a 10 per cent reduction in overall expenses to boost up its sagging bottomline this fiscal. The company, in consultation with its strategic and technology partner Shin Kobe of Japan, has set up separate task force and a multi-disciplinary team to carry out the massive cost reduction exercises, EIL Managing Director T.V. Ramanathan told PTI here. The largest lead-acid battery manufacture in the country, which suffered a 15 per cent decline in the net profit at Rs 41 crore last fiscal, has targeted to reduce the total expenses (excluding materials) by 10 per cent from last year’s Rs 300 crore, he said. Biocon India is planning to enter the capital market by the middle of next year to raise money for its proposed expansion and to get listed at domestic bourses. “We are hopeful of listing on the domestic bourses by mid next year,” Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw told PTI, adding that the company would consider an overseas listing eventually. Escorts: The Board of Directors of Escorts has approved the selloff of remaining 25 per cent of its equity holding in Yamaha Motor Escorts Ltd to Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd, Japan at its meeting held yesterday, according to a release. Clariant (India) has recorded a rise of 5.2 per cent in its net profit at Rs 16.3 crore for the financial year ended March 2001. The Board has recommended a dividend of Rs 6 per share against Rs 4 in the previous
year, according to a news release here today. The company has maintained its growth momentum by recording the sales turnover of Rs 280.2 crore for the financial year 2000-01 up by 10.8 per cent over previous year turnover.
UNI, PTI |
Toyota posts 12.1 pc profit Indians top innovation competition Patnaik had shaped a high-temperature superconducting wire with the potential to alleviate energy supply problem.
PTI
Raw gas export to benefit B’desh EU trade plan to reduce poverty C-DoT offers exchanges to Indonesia |
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PAIC seminar SBI ATM HSIDC New IT policy Electra fridge Bharti group |
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