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Saturday,
June 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Premji on Forbes richest list
Council to
help check cyber crime Honda Siel
ranks highest |
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BSNL
opposes Calling Party Pays regime Roaming
facility by Bharti Mobile Naik:
oil depots in Chandigarh soon Car,
MUV, two-wheeler sales up in May HDFC
Bank opens ATM
Kesoram
Ind to go ahead with buyback
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Premji on Forbes richest list New York, June 22 The list shows that the downturn in the sector and Wall Street's rocky ride has affected even the wealthiest people. As far as Indian Americans go there has been a predictable unseating of IT pioneer Gururaj Deshpande and the appearance of the venture capital world's blue-eyed boy, Vinod Khosla. Deshpande of Sycamore Networks fell off the list. Last year he had been valued at $3.9 billion in Forbes 2000 list of richest people. While it has been a rough ride for the richest, most of the richest of the rich "managed to hang in there," Forbes said, this time making one of its longest lists numbering 538 billionaires from 46 countries this year, with an average net worth of $3.2 billion. About 46 per cent increased their wealth last year, but 37 per cent saw a fall. Others remained the same. This is the first time in the last 15 years that Forbes says it has done a comprehensive list covering everyone worth at least $1 billion. Several like Navin Jain of InfoSpace have not appeared on the list though he was listed in the Billionaires Under 40 category by the magazine last year. Predictably, Bill Gates remained on top of the list for the seventh time. In these last seven years he has increased his billions by a factor of five, reaching $58 billion. The collective worth of the 538 billionaires is $1.7 trillion. India's leading light Wipro founder Azim Premji, whom Forbes calls the "software magnate with global ambitions" "remains bullish." This is despite an 84 per cent drop in Wipro's market cap since its high in February 2000, and the slowdown in the USA, Wipro's largest market. Premji owns 84 per cent of the company founded by his father in 1945 to make cooking oil. The self-confessed workaholic and Stanford dropout's family ranked the highest among Indians from any country coming, 42nd with a value of $6.2 billion. He is followed by Dhirubhai Ambani, "an ambitious visionary, "who founded the company and owns 40 per cent of Reliance Industries, whose recent market cap of $8.4 billion classifies it as one of India's most valuable companies. He is now venturing into the $5.3 billion IT sector in India. He is ranked 124th and worth $3.4 billion. The "self-made infotech pioneer" Shiv Nadar's HCL group, a garage startup 25 years ago and India's biggest PC maker today, came in 202nd at $2.2 billion, and youthful Kumar Mangalam Birla 292nd with $1.7 billion. The Aditya Birla group, has a $6 billion (assets) global commodities empire. It has joint ventures with AT&T in telecom and Sun Life of Canada in financial services. There were several more on this list last year from India, including Subhash Chandra, Vinay Rai and Family, B. Ramalinga Raju, and the Hinduja family. Indian Americans who have generally fared well over the last two years on this list, had a poor showing this year. Sanjiv Sidhu of i2 Technologies, valued at $3.7 billion, ranked 109th is according to Forbes, "is one of the few survivors from the "business-to-business" boom, selling supply-chain management software." Today, his company is beset with shareholder lawsuits and has been blamed by Nike for lower sales due to glitches in i2 software. Sidhu has dumped approximately $400 million worth of his stock this year. Lakshmi Mittal at $1.8 billion, ranked 272nd operating from the Britain owns the world's fourth-largest steel group, including $5.1 billion in revenues from Ispat International. That company's stock tumbled 65 per cent in one year though the Kazakhstan based Ispat Karmet is doing better. The famed venture capitalist with Kleiner Perkins, Vinod Khosla just slipped into the list ranking 490th with many others and valued at $1 billion. The cofounder of Sun Microsystems, Forbes calls Khosla "now one of the movers and shakers of the tech world" as a general partner in Kleiner Perkins.
IANS
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Council to help check cyber crime Chandigarh, June 22 This NGO includes Mr G.S. Pirzada, Managing Director ECP, Mr CSR Reddy, DIG, Vigilance, Mr A. Didar Singh, former MD of ECP and Mr Rajesh Bali, Mount Shiwalik Breweries as its members. “Being the NGO we will not have the power to ensure implementation, but we will try to put forward our suggestions in an effective manner to the authorities concerned so that they may be implemented”, said Mr G.S. Pirzada. In two to three months, the CAC will be a fully grown organisation where general public will also be invited to participate. As per the plans, the council will handle aspects of promotion of IT, cyber crime, etc. The CAC will also play an advisory role in implementation of e-governance. The functioning will not be restricted to a particular state and the members say they would try to extend the operations to maximum area. To create awareness, guest lectures, programmes by experts, and seminars will be organised. The council, at present is in the process of forming separate cells for separate functions. For instance, an experts’ division to help the authorities check cyber crime. This cell will suggest measures to prevent cyber crime, invite suggestions from the public. For e-governance, the CAC will collect data to be passed on to the government so as to help implement it effectively. “One of the cells will be a repository of valuable data information that can be used for implementation”, said an official. It would be the presence of the top officials in the council that would ensure effectiveness of the operations of this council. The council is likely to be of immense benefit to nearby states where IT awareness level is not satisfactory. Not only will the CAC play an advisory role, mass IT awareness would be created so that the public may also come forward to help council in its operations. Public is invited for its membership , which would be free of cost. The formation of such council, one of the first ones in the country, gains importance in view of a spurt in cyber crimes, a majority of which go unrecorded. After the formation of the IT Act by the government, such organisations can help implement law in its true sense , say the members of the council.
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Honda Siel ranks highest
New Delhi, June 22 Top-ranked Honda Siel illustrates this general trend, recording an SSI score of 109 with above industry average performance on all factors except price evaluation. Hindustan Motors, Mitsubishi which tied Honda Siel for the top SSI rank in 2000, falls one point behind Honda Siel. Sales experience one of the most important factor accounts for 37 per cent of the SSI score. Five other factors in order of importance are explanation at delivery, price evaluation, delivery timing, salesperson knowledge and post delivery contact. “Trends for the Indian automotive industry in terms of sales satisfaction are positive... Performance has improved for five out of the six factors that customers say influence their sales experience’’, Director, JD Power Asia Pacific, Chris Bonsi said. Power tariff
hike opposed
Chandigarh In a joint memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, the Ambala Cantt Traders Federation, the Scientific Apparatus Manufacturers Association (SAMA), Ambala Scientific Apparatus Manufacturers Association (ASIMA), Ambala Industrial Area Association, Ambala General Merchants Association and Scientific Instruments Manufacturers Association (SIMDA) has said that since the last revision of power tariff took place on January 1 last, it would be unjustified to revise the tariff again in the same year.
HFCL Nine Broadcasting
New Delhi HFCL holds 48 per cent equity in the venture, with another 49 per cent with Packer and the remaining 3 per cent with financial investors. The total paid-up capital of this company is just over Rs 25 crore and it has been a loss-making venture since its inception a year ago.
TNS, Agencies
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BSNL opposes Calling Party Pays regime
New Delhi, June 22 In its comments to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) BSNL has argued that some of the issues listed by the telecom regulator for consultation were no longer valid in the present context. Under the CPP regime, the cellular mobile subscriber does not pay for an incoming call. Instead, a supplementary charge is levied on the party making the call and a share of this is passed on to the mobile operator. Implementation of a CPP policy for cellular mobile would affect a large number of existing subscribers presently provided on a wide scale, namely, basic telecom services and cellular mobile services. BSNL in its comments to TRAI has said that the incoming call rates have substantially come down over the past few months. BSNL has said that the issue that cellular subscribers were not accepting incoming calls due to higher tariffs is not valid in the current context. The incoming calls were not being taken by subscribers more due to inconvenience to take the call at a particular moment, than owing to high tariffs. TRAI, which has already received comments from various sections of the telecom industry, would now proceed further to complete the process of making recommendations on the important issue of CPP which would have an impact on the affordability of mobile telephone services in the country.
UNI
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Roaming facility by Bharti Mobile
Bangalore, June 22 BML said this was the first time in the country that roaming was being offered on pre-paid services and added that it would be available across Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. BML was also looking at Chennai, as well as the whole of South India, to introduce such services, but it would take some time, CEO of BML, Karnataka, Jagdish Kini, told reporters. Roaming previously was available to the post-paid segment only, it was noted. Meanwhile, in a presentation, Kini said India’s cellular industry had almost doubled in the last one year, which witnessed reduction in tariffs and handset costs. Pre-paid segment propelled the growth in the latter part of the year.
PTI
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Naik: oil depots in Chandigarh soon New Delhi, June 22 The assurance was given to the Chandigarh Administrator and Punjab Governor, Lt.Gen. J.F.R.Jacob. During his meeting with Mr Naik, the Chandigarh Administrator said apart from the early commissioning of an oil depot of Bharat Petroleum Corporation, there was also need to start work on the depot being set up by IndianOil Corporation. General Jacob informed the Minister that after the enhancement of sales tax by all states following its rationalisation, the city residents have suffered the most due to lack of oil depot. In the case of petrol alone they were paying Rs 1.66 paisa more per litre as compared to residents in Panchkula and 55 paisa more per litre as compared to Mohali. The Governor said Chandigarh has to bear the Central Sales Tax incidence as there was no petroleum depot within Chandigarh where stocks could be brought on stock transfer basis by the oil companies. He said there was an urgent need to expedite the setting up of oil depots in Chandigarh. The Petroleum Secretary and the Additional Secretary along with officials of BPCL and IOC were present at the meeting.
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Car, MUV, two-wheeler sales up in May
New Delhi, June 22 Total sales increased to 54,202 cars from 52,593 cars sold in the year-ago month, figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed today. Maruti Udyog, a joint venture between the Indian Government and Japan’s Suzuki Motor Company, posted a 16.7 per cent sales growth at 32,176 units against 27,533 units sold in May last year. Cumulative car sales (April-May 2001-02) went up by 5.9 per cent at 99,752 units over 1.06 lakh cars sold in the same period last fiscal. All the other sectors of the industry like two-wheelers, multi-utility-vehicles (MUVs) recorded a rise in sales even as commercial vehicles and three-wheelers sales dropped during the month under review. Sales of commercial vehicles, a good indicator of economic growth, declined by 28.1 per cent month-on-month at 8,294 units over 11,545 units sold in May last year. MUV sales, however, increased by 9.8 per cent at 11,124 units in the review month as against 10,131 units a year ago. Sales of two-wheelers went up by 7.5 per cent at 3.36 lakh units in May 2001 over 3.12 lakh units last year due to growth in motorcycles and scooter sales. Three-wheelers sales went down by 8 per cent at 15,567 units from 16,921 units in May 2000. Hyundai Motor India, a 100 per cent arm of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co., recorded a 7.5 per cent rise in car sales at 8,134 units in May 2001 over 7,561 units sold a year ago. Its native rival, Daewoo Motors India’s sales fell by a massive 61.2 per cent to 2,340 cars from 6,033 cars last year. Ford India, a subsidiary of US-based Ford Motor Company, registered a 118.2 per cent jump month-on-month at 3,475 units as compared to 1,592 units sold in May 2000. General Motors India sold 623 cars in May 2001, up 11.2 per cent, as against 560 cars sold in the year-ago month. Car sales of Telco and Hindustan Motors, however, declined by 8 per cent and 34.4 per cent at 4,775 units and 1,346 units during the month under review. Sales of Honda Siel Cars fell by 21.3 per cent at 710 units while luxury car maker Mercedes Benz posted a 174.6 per cent rise at 173 cars in May this year. In the commercial vehicles segment, medium and heavy vehicles sales fell by 23 per cent at 4,741 units while sales of light commercial vehicles increased by 33.9 per cent at 3,553 units during the reference month. The drop in commercial vehicles sales can be attributed to a huge dip in market leader Telco’s sales in both segments. Multi-utility-vehicles sales rose mainly due to a 23.3 per cent and 5.2 per cent rise in Toyota Kirloskar and Telco’s sales even as market leader Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) posted a 6.5 per cent drop in May 2001. Both the companies sold 2,503 units and 2,616 units respectively while M&M sales stood at 4,667 units during the month under review. Sales of scooters, which has been witnessing a sluggish trend, increased marginally by 0.8 per cent at 86,149 units in May 2001 due to rise in sales of Bajaj Auto and TVS-Suzuki. Bajaj sold 42,096 scooters, up 29 per cent against 32,621 units sold in the year-ago month, while TVS-Suzuki’s scooter sales increased by 7.8 per cent at 13,231 units. In the motorcycles segment, Hero Honda continued to lead the pack with a 27.7 per cent rise in sales at 1.05 lakh units as against 82,280 units sold in May 2000. Total motorcycles sales rose by 27.8 per cent month-on-month at 2.17 lakh units over 1.69 lakh units sold a year ago. Sales of Bajaj Auto went up by 18.9 per cent at 50,029 motorcycles from 42,045 units sold in the year-ago month. TVS-Suzuki recorded a 15 per cent jump at 32,048 units during the month under review. Mopeds sales dropped by 7.5 per cent at 32,807 units in May 2001 from 57,389 units a year ago due to drop in sales of all manufacturers including Bajaj Auto, Kinetic Engineering and TVS-Suzuki. Sales of three-wheelers went down by 8 per cent at 15,567 units with Bajaj Auto posting a 14.4 per cent decline at 12,062 units in the reference month.
PTI
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HDFC Bank opens ATM Chandigarh, June 22 The other off-site ATMs in the city are in Sectors 37, 22, 15, 10 and Manimajra. HDFC Bank now has 13 ATMs in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. This takes the total number of ATMs in Punjab to 21. There are over 250 ATMs throughout the country, and over 130 branches. HDFC Bank customers can now access their accounts through some more locations with the launch of this ATM. They can now withdraw cash, deposit a cheque or cash, request a mini statement, make a balance inquiry, transfer funds, change their PIN, request a cheque book or account statement and pay their utility bills through the ATMs. |
cr
Kesoram Ind to go ahead with buyback
Kolkata, June 22 The company Board of Directors on May 4 had approved the proposal to buy back 78,42,280 ordinary shares at a total outlay of Rs 31.37
crore. At the 82nd Annual General Meeting of Kesoram Industries, Chairman
B.K. Birla said “we are trying to upgrade our plant facilities with fresh investments to remain competitive in the changed economic environment.” The company, Birla said, had spent over Rs 35 crore on upgrading facilities. The Chairman said, in future the company would not hesitate in increasing its borrowings as long as it helped in improving
profitability. “Though heavy borrowing increased the interest burden, it helped in improving performance.”
Birla said buyback would be effected in the next 12 months and begin after formalities relating to merger of Birla Century Finance Limited, Hindustan Heavy Chemicals Limited and Bharat General and Textile Industries Limited with the company were complete. The Kesoram Board had approved a proposal for merger of these four companies with itself in May. Consequently, the Calcutta High Court ordered for convening separate meetings of shareholders of the all the five companies. The separate meetings of shareholders held today approved the proposed Scheme of Amalagamation of Bharat General and Textiles Industries
(BGTIL), Hindustan Heavy Chemicals Limited (HHCL) and Birla Century Finance Limited
(BCFL) with Kesoram Industries. The Chairman said the amalgamation would enable the business of Kesorman industries to be carried on and conducted more economically and efficiently with better utilisation of
resources.
Indal’s strategy
Indal, an Aditya Birla group company, has drawn up a five-pronged strategy to ensure higher profitability and better market position in the coming years. President and CEO
Indal, S.K. Tamotia, said in a management discussion and analysis paper that the first leg of the strategy would aim at improved presence of Hindalco-Indal combine in the downstream segment besides reaping the benefits from the latter’s strength in alumina and the former’s dominance in primary metal sectors. The papers, incorporated in the 2000-01 annual report of the company, also said that while ensuring better market position, the company would also make efforts to improve
realisation and reduce
costs. Tamotia said that the second part of the strategy would be to focus on further improvements in assets utilisation across plant locations. He said that return on capital employed has already gone up from 11.8 per cent to 15.7 per cent while return on assets employed had simultaneously increased from 11.4 per cent to 14.5 per cent. In the year 2000-01, the company’s net turnover had risen 22.3 per cent at Rs 1283.3 crore and post-tax profit by 38 per cent at Rs 116 crore over the previous year.
ITC
Infotech
ITC Infotech India Ltd, which was the first organisation in India to be conferred by Microsoft as a COE (Centre of Excellence) in e-commerce technologies, has now earned the unique distinction of being the “Microsoft E-Commerce partner of the year’’ for 2000-01. ITC Infotech is now closely working with e-commerce group of Microsoft partner in providing B2B and B2C solutions using NET technologies. The Centre for Excellence involved workshops conducted by Microsoft consulting service personnel for knowledge transfer in technology and best practices followed by the application of these into a full cycle
project.
Modi Consortium
Promoters of Modi Rubber Ltd have revised the open offer price to Rs 90 from Rs 81.50 per share to acquire up to 35 per cent equity in the company. The consortium of
V.K. Modi, B.K. Modi, Mod Fashions and Securities Private Ltd and Modikem Ltd in concert with Witta International Inc and Sidh International has revised upwards the offer price to Rs 90 per share to acquire up to 87,64,186 shares. The open offer is scheduled to close on July 3.
RPG business
Rs 7,500 crore RPG group today announced further consolidation of its retail business with the launch of a chain of hyper market stores countrywide and said that retail would be the group’s biggest business in the next few years. Unveiling the future retail business plan, the group’s Vice-Chairman Sanjiv Goenka told newsmen here that the first hyper market store under the brand name, “Giant” would be inaugurated at Hyderabad on June 27.
Agencies |
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S. Koreans top users of Internet OPEC output hike looks unlikely US trade deficit narrows Indo-US pact in fuel systems Honda recalling 11,624 mini cars |
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ICICI bonds Spice services NPA scheme BlackBerrys Arun Ghosh dead Lakme India |
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