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Saturday,
December 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Inspector raj stifling business
More foreign savings must for growth target
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Maruti, Hyundai, Ford to hike prices
Peerless to focus on Punjab
Cable TV products’ show at CII today
Change of guards at PepsiCo
A new gel to kill HIV
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Inspector raj stifling business New Delhi, December 20 “While the big can still afford to deal with rules and rulings, those whose business comprises only over 10 or even lesser number of persons, cannot afford to have even one of them tied down in filing forms and ‘managing’ the system”, he said while inaugurating the two-day global summit on “SMEs-business partnership meet 2002,” organised jointly by FICCI and the Ministry of SSIs in association with the Small Industries Development Bank of India and the National Small Industries Corporation. Dispelling the popular misconception that small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) do not play a significant role in developed nations, Mr Vajpayee pointed out that in the USA, they account for 99 per cent of all businesses and employ half of the work force. In India’s case SMEs are the second biggest employment generators after agriculture, providing jobs to over 9.2 million people. This sector accounts for 39 per cent of industrial production and 34 per cent of exports. He said necessary changes in the legal and administrative framework should be made to help this sector compete globally. The rules and procedures which pose hurdles in the path of growth should be simplified and amended after taking the SMEs into confidence. “This sector is at the crossroads today in our country and in the world over”, he said, adding that “It has the flexibility to adapt to changes much better than its larger counterparts. It is also true that the globalisation has affected SMEs much more than business enterprises”. Ms Vasundhara Raje, Minister of State for SSIs, underscored the need to educate SMEs and more importantly those organisations which support this sector in meeting global competition. She said while newer markets were being opened, this sector was now exposed to greater competition from overseas. Ms Raje said in the next five years the SME sector was likely to generate 4.5 million net new jobs. FICCI President A C Muthiah said the SME sector faced new challenges and threats but these could be converted into opportunities by adopting innovative policy measures. |
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More foreign savings must for growth target New Delhi, December 20 The study points out that a major concern facing the economy is ‘near stagnancy’ in the domestic savings. Apart from the fact that investment requirements in infrastructure are enormous according to estimates, around US $ 150 billion worth of investment will be required in infrastructure over the next five years, over 15 per cent of which is expected to come from foreign sources. Ultimately, the desirability of FDI will have to be judged with the employment it generates and with the national interest over-riding the individual interest. The study which emphasises
flexibility, consistency and transparency in FDI Policy, points out that in India the attitude towards foreign investment has radically changed. “While in some components of the infrastructure sector, lack of transparent guidelines and government delays are acting as bottlenecks to the entry of MNCs. India will have to rely heavily on external capital to bridge the foreign trade gap. A current account deficit estimated to be over 2.8 to 3 per cent of the GDP over the next plan period would require a total net foreign capital inflow of 3 per cent of GDP. A current account deficit estimated to be over 2.8 to 3 per cent of the GDP over the next plan period would require a total net foreign capital inflow to the tune of 3 per cent of GDP. Therefore, the ability to attract non-debt creating inflows of equity investment from abroad to the extent possible will greatly help in relaxing the domestic resource constraint. Even a 2 per cent GDP contribution of FDI, therefore is critical considering the close linkages between infrastructure and economic growth in the country. Highlighting the importance of the food processing industry, experts stress on encouraging FDI in harvest technology, infrastructure and support systems. The another area which has immense potential is the services sector which is one of the fastest growing sectors with tremendous employment generation potential. There is need to attract more FDI into this sector. India should also develop an offshore financial centre in its territory through which it can attract funding for domestic investment as well as export funding to other countries. The study states that India’s intellectual property regime is perceived to be weak by foreign investors and a strong IPR is likely to boost the flow of FDI into some industries. Similarly, there is an urgent need to put in place a modern competition policy. While external liberalisation has more or less continued, domestic liberalisation is being undertaken in fits and starts. There is an urgent need to take up in right earnest the unfinished agenda of modification or complete replacement of India’s archaic economic legislation to bring it in tune with the changed environment and the second generation of reforms, including the privatisation of public sector units, fiscal consolidation, labour laws, exit policy and agricultural reforms.
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Maruti, Hyundai, Ford to hike prices
New Delhi, December 20 The automakers were reacting to reports hinting that they might have to hold back the price hike or even reduce the prices after the launch of Tata Engineering’s debut mid-size car ‘Indigo’ at a starting price of Rs 4.35 lakh. A spokesman of Maruti, told PTI that the company “will go by our earlier decision and hike prices by 2-3 per cent from January”. He said the hike ranging from about Rs 4,000 to Rs 12,000 might impact all the models starting from the entry-level ‘Maruti-800’ to the mid-sized sedan ‘Baleno’. A Hyundai Motor India spokesman said the company was going ahead with its plan to hike prices by 2-3 per cent of all variants of compact car ‘Santro’ and mid-size car ‘Accent’ from next month. He cited increased input costs, especially automotive grade steel as the reason for the price hike. Hyundai had earlier this month increased price of a version of the ‘Accent’ car.
PTI
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Peerless to focus on Punjab New Delhi, December 20 The Kolkata-based largest residuary non-banking company (RNBC) of the country, Peerless has made a remarkable turnaround in the last four years after overcoming its operational problems in the first half of the nineties. Now after gaining full confidence and trust of the people of the eastern region, Peerless is giving a massive marketing thrust for its deposit schemes in the urban, semi-urban and rural areas of Punjab in view of the huge still untapped potential. In Punjab, the company is strengthening its marketing organisation focusing on development of new products and adding value to the existing products. The distribution network of Peerless creates self-employment opportunities in the areas and centres where Peerless operates. As a part of this, a programme is underway to recruit, train and develop a large number of agents for Punjab alone. In fact, Peerless is planning a massive marketing thrust in the northern region based on its results in 2001-02 and the likely achievement in the current fiscal. The collections of the company totalled Rs 639 crore in 2001-02 as against Rs 442 crore in 2000-01 and during 2002-03, the management is pitching for about Rs 1,000 crore collections. The cost of collection funds has been brought down to about 5 per cent to 6 per cent of collections now as against the extraordinarily high level of 22 per cent in 1995-96. The company, with its improved profile, is now set to capture a higher share of the deposits market. As of now, more than 90 per cent of the Peerless funds lies invested in government and other approved securities, being utilised for nation building activities and also ensuring total safety and security of the depositors money. According to the Peerless group managing Director S.K. Roy, the company’s aim is to emerge as the country’s largest financial super market in the private sector for doorstep retail distribution of not only the company’s own products but all kinds of financial products under one umbrella.
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Cable TV products’ show at CII today Chandigarh, December 20 They will discuss and explain confusion and myths in the people about the Conditional Accessibility System (CAS) Bill passed recently by Parliament. The issues of attempts by politicians, mafia and foreign capital to control the cable business might also come up for discussion, Dr. K. S. Rastogi, the promoter of the Avishkar Business Network, told a press conference here today. The discussions will be part of the 6th Cable India Show and Cable TV Operators’ Sangam which is likely to feature Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Prasar Bharati K. S. Sharma, Zee Telefilms Director Subhash Chandra, Star TV Chief Executive Officer Peter Mukherjee, Nasscom President Kiran Karnik, Times of India Group Managing Director Arun Arora, Sahara TV’s Subroto Roy, Director-Producer Yash Chopra, Yash Johar and IPS officer Kiran Bedi during the two-day deliberations. There will also be an exhibition of an array of products related to cable business like set top boxes and instruments for convergence. Dr Rajtogi said the cable service providers, who are the most important part of the industry, did not enjoy a respected position because of lack of unity, awareness and finances. They are faced with allegations of under-declaration of the subscriber base, exorbitant demand of broadcasters, unhealthy professional relationship with subscriber, imposition of service tax and fear of Copyright Act. The show will bring together broadcasters, Multi-System Operators, cable operators and subscribers for forging better cooperation between the players of the industry. Dr Rastogi said a new industry of set top boxes would soon come up in the country. He said initially the CAS would be possible in four metros. It is likely to operate between January 1 and June. He said the Task Force was working on a bouquet of free-to-air channels at a rate of Rs 5 per channel.
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Change of guards at PepsiCo Chandigarh, December 20 The company also announced Mr Shashi Kalathil as the successor to take over from Ms Vibha Paul Rishi, Executive Director (Marketing), responsible for the company’s South Asia business marketing operations. Mr Shashi Kalathil, who is currently Executive Vice-President of PepsiCo India’s South Market Business Unit operations based in Chennai, will take over from Vibha Rishi who has been with PepsiCo India since its inception over thirteen years ago. Vibha is moving to PepsiCo New York to join the International Marketing Team.
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Oriental Bank Nitcon gets ISO Surya Roshni AirTel tower |
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New Delhi, December 20
KVIC show