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Wednesday,
October 30, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Cabinet approves 10th Five-Year Plan
USA hesitates to invest
NRIs to invest $ 100m in Punjab
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Punjab
decides to restructure dairy
Natural gas to ‘power’ Punjab economy
Punjab Tractors net profit dips
Wockhardt net up 21.6 per cent
Bharti Tele loss jumps Centurion Bank cuts net losses
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Cabinet approves 10th Five-Year Plan New Delhi, October 29 Speaking to newspersons after the Cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister’s residence here, Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission K C Pant said the Plan will have an outlay of Rs 9,21,291 crore and the outlay for states and UTs will be Rs 6,71,009 crore. Mr Pant refused to be drawn into any kind of comparative analysis with projections by economic think-tank National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER). “There is no relevance in comparing the two targets. One bad agriculture year can disturb the overall growth targets,” Mr Pant said even as he expressed confidence that the growth targets were achievable provided some hard decisions were taken by arriving at a political consensus. “We have achieved the 5.5 per cent growth in the last two years despite low performance of the industry and the agriculture sectors”, he said. “What if the agriculture sector improves... we can then see an economic growth of 7.5 per cent to 8 per cent annually,” he said. The NCAER has projected a 4.8 per cent growth during the current fiscal year while the RBI has made a downward revision of the growth target to 5.5 per cent. The bulky Tenth Plan document runs into three volumes and envisaged reduction of the poverty levels, population growth, gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by 50 per cent and providing potable drinking water in all villages by the end of the Plan period. The three volumes of the Plan document are “Dimensions and Strategies”, “Sectoral Policies and Programmes”, and “State Plans- Concerns and Strategies”. It identifies agriculture as an engine of growth and proposes to generate 50 million jobs over the next five years and sets an FDI inflow target of $ 7.5 billion annually. For efficient fiscal management, the Plan has recommended widening the tax base and improving collections, removing tax incentives and concessions and introducing an integrated Central and state VAT, downsizing the government, cut in subsidies and administrative overheads, Pant said. He, however, evaded questions on the proposed Rs 78,000 crore disinvestment plan set out by the Plan during the five-year period and said : “I am not putting myself in the position of the Finance Minister.” The commission was more concerned about the gross budgetary support to achieve the target and mobilisation of funds through the disinvestment route accounted for about 2 per cent of the GBS. |
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USA hesitates to invest New Delhi, October 29 Mr Blackwill was addressing a meeting on “Doing Business with India”, with the industry representatives, organised by FICCI in the capital today. Comparing the Indian and the Chinese economies, he said despite Indian claims of remarkable performance over the last decade, the fact remains that China has forged ahead on most economic measures in the last 10 years. The GDP growth over the last 20 years — while in China has been around 10 per cent per annum, in India, the same has been only around 6 per cent. Similarly, factors like per capital income (China $900, roughly double than India), tourism revenues, manufacturing activities, exports and various other comparative trends do have a considerable effect on the investment decision of the private companies. Consistent implementation of the policies will assure high growth rate in country without compromising its democratic governance, said Mr Blackwill. Talking about the commercial potential between USA and India, he said the total US-India trade last year was only $ 15 billion and there is a long way to go before India moves up from the 25th place on the US bilateral trade list. Mr Amit
Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI and Mr Y.K. Modi, Vice-President, FICCI were also present. |
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NRIs to invest $ 100m in Punjab Chandigarh, October 29 They said they were fully convinced with reformative policies of the new government and hoped that Punjab would soon emerge as a front-runner state. Addressing the delegation, the Chief Minister urged them to invest in Punjab in information technology, bio-technology, agro-processing and power. By doing so they would not only render financial support to the state but also serve their own motherland. He assured the delegation that they would not face harassment from bureaucracy. They would feel comfortable because his government had recently introduced certain radical reforms to dispose of the pending cases of the NRIs with regard to the clearance of industrial projects which they intended to set up in Punjab. The visiting delegation assured the CM to promote the industry, the state by investing capital in a big way. It promised to invest upto $ 100 million in the various ventures, including hydro-electric power, health, education and tourism. Mr Lakhbir S. Gill and Mr Vikram J.S. Bajwa, Chairman and Secretary, NRI Entrepreneurs, said the delegation was overall impressed with the performance of the government. Responding to the call given by the CM to complete the Khalsa Heritage Complex at Sri Anandpur Sahib which was launched by the Akali-BJP regime during the celebrations of birth tercentenary of Khalsa and remained incomplete due to the paucity of funds, the delegation promised to raise requisite funds to complete it. |
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Punjab decides
to restructure dairy Chandigarh, October 29 He was speaking at the inaugural session of the Rural Enterprise Summit, organised by the CII, North Region. He disclosed that the state government was determined to give a big boost to the production of milk and milk products as per international standards. The Act would take a holistic view, he said, to restructure the dairy sector. Since, the dairy sector was contributing about 20 per cent to the state GDP, but due to lower quality of milk and higher production costs of the cooperative milk plants, the share of state in exports was limited. The share of India, in the total US $12000 million world trade was just one per cent, despite the fact India was the largest milk producer in the world. Earlier, Mr D.S. Jaspal, Secretary, Animal Husbandry, said: “It is unfortunate that the cost of milk processing in cooperative sector is as high as Rs 5 to Rs 6 per litre, resulting in lower margin of milk producers. |
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Natural gas to ‘power’ Punjab economy Chandigarh, October 2 The Punjab state industrial development corporation Managing Director, Mr Viswajeet Khanna and GAIL’s Director, Planning, Mr H P Chandna, signed the MoU in the presence of the Chief Minister, Capt. Amarinder Singh and Minister for Industries, Mr Avtar Henry, and GAlL Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Mr Proshanto Banerjee. The MoU envisages undertaking of a techno-economic feasibility survey of the state to assess the demand and potential for the natural gas. This survey is slated to be completed in two months and, thereafter, the joint venture between PSIDC and GAIL would give shape to the proposed identified sectors of the economy. A joint committee will monitor the projects. A short presentation made by GAIL showed that company had a 95 per cent share in the gas market, countrywide, a net-work of 4,500 km pipelines and catered to key cities. Mr Banerjee said that countrywide, power and fertilizer sectors each consumed 40 per cent of the available gas, whereas, 15 per cent was used by the industrial sector and barely 5 per cent by the auto-mobile sector. |
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Punjab Tractors net profit dips 65 pc Chandigarh, October 29 The company’s net sales have decreased by 43.4 per cent to Rs 132.9 crore in the second quarter of the fiscal (Rs 238.5 crore). Expenditure too has seen a decline primarily because the consumption of raw material was reduced by almost half during the second quarter this year. The company’s operating profit margin has also fallen from about 21.34 per cent to about 17.81 per cent. PTL’s earnings per share for the half-year ended September 2002 works out to Rs 4.1 (not annualised). The fall in the company’s profits comes at a time when the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC), PTL’s largest single shareholder, is working towards disinvesting its stake in the tractor company. The financial performance of the company is likely to affect its valuation. |
Wockhardt net up 21.6 per cent
Mumbai, October 29 The company’s income from operations for the reporting quarter were up by 19.1 per cent at Rs 205.3 crore over Rs 172.4 crore in the Q3 of 2001, Wockhardt chairman Habil Khorakiwala said in a statement here today.
Reliance Capital Reliance Capital Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs 26.7 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2002, registering a rise of 7.15 per cent compared to Rs 25.52 crore in the corresponding period last year. The total income of the company decreased from Rs 138.06 crore in the second quarter of 2001 to Rs 101.5 crore in the second quarter of 2002.
Gabriel’s India Gabriel India Ltd, a leader in shock absorbers and the flagship company of the Anand group, has registered a net profit of Rs 5.76 crore during the first six months of the current fiscal, a jump of 306 per cent over Rs 1.42 crore earned during the corresponding period last year.
Merck Merck Ltd has reported a 25.29 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 10.84 crore for the third quarter ended September 30 as compared to Rs 14.51 crore in the same period of the previous year. Net sales for the reporting quarter decreased to Rs 89.36 crore as against Rs 94.43 crore in the Q3 of 2001. The other income too decreased to Rs 1.79 crore as against Rs 1.95 crore in the same period of previous year, it added.
Subex Systems Bangalore-based telecom software company Subex Systems Limited today reported a 161 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 3.25 crore for Q2 of 2002-03, over the corresponding period of previous year (Rs 1.24 crore). Revenue grew by 28 per cent from Rs 14.31 crore to Rs 18.36 crore, a company release said.
GE Shipping Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd has reported a 45.23 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 56.73 crore in the second quarter ended September 30 as compared to Rs 39.06 crore in the same period previous year. Total income in the reporting quarter has decreased to Rs 261.55 crore as against Rs 310.79 crore in the same period previous year.
IPCL Reliance Industries Controlled Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd’s (IPCL) net profit has soared by 87.5 per cent at Rs 45 crore for the second quarter ended September 30 as against Rs 24 crore in the same period of the previous year. Net sales too increased to Rs 1,252 crore in the current quarter as compared to Rs 1,198 crore in the Q2 of 2001.
Philips India Philips India Limited has posted an increase in the net profit by 56 per cent for the third quarter ended September 30, 2002 at Rs 13.6 crore compared to Rs 8.7 crore in the July-September period of 2001.
Asahi India Automotive glass maker Asahi India Glass Ltd said today its net profit has increased by 29.4 per cent to Rs 4.92 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2002 from Rs 3.80 crore in the same quarter last year.
Digital GlobalSoft Digital GlobalSoft has reported a negative growth of 4.1 per cent in the net profit at Rs 21.37 crore for Q2 of 2002-03, over the corresponding period of the previous year (Rs 22.29 crore). However, the total revenue increased to Rs 97.91 crore from Rs 83.58 crore, up 17.1 per cent, a company release said today.
Essel Propack Essel Propack, has registered a net profit of Rs 47.6 crore during the first nine months of this calendar year, an 8 per cent increase over Rs 44.1 crore earned during the corresponding period last year.
Nilkamal Plastics Nilkamal Plastics has posted a 44 per cent growth in the net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2002 at Rs 2.93 crore as compared to Rs 2.03 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Agencies
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Bharti Tele loss jumps New Delhi October 29 Bharti’s loss for the quarter ended September, 2002, stood at Rs 129 crore against a net profit of Rs 12 crore in the same period the previous year, according to Bharti’s consolidated profit and loss statement as per the International Accounting Standards. However, Bharti’s total revenue increased a whopping 89 per cent to Rs 657.6 crore during the July to September quarter, 2002, from Rs 348.6 crore in the corresponding period the previous year.
PTI
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Centurion
Bank cuts net losses New Delhi, October 29 The bank showed an operating loss of Rs 12.54 crore during this period as during the quarter ended September 30, the bank had disposed of certain non-banking assets as a part of re-structuring of its assets and liabilities for better returns which had resulted in a one-time extraordinary loss of Rs 13.96 crore booked as operating loss. Centurion Bank also sold a part of its equity investments at a loss of Rs 10.36 crore while a provision of Rs 9.43 crore held against the portfolio was credited below the line as per accounting procedure. |
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Spice facility Treatment plant Oriental Bank Bill Gates’ visit
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