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Wednesday,
April 30, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Economy to grow at 6 pc: Jalan
REACTION
1,500 cr infrastructure plan for Punjab Ranbaxy net jumps 77 pc
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Samtel to raise production
Mahindra is CII President
Banana faces extinction
Oil prices at year’s low
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Economy to grow at 6 pc: Jalan
Mumbai, April 29 “The circumstances in the country are quite comfortable for continuation of growth in FY-04. With prospects of a normal monsoon and an expected decline in the crude and edible oil prices, there is a general view of confidence”, Jalan said, addressing the customary press conference after announcing the Monetary and Credit Policy for 2003-04 here. The RBI would continue with its stance of providing adequate liquidity to meet credit growth and support investment demand while keeping a vigil on price level, Jalan said. The bias of the soft interest rates would continue and “we have a stance which is not in favour of tightening of the interest rates”, he said. The interest rates would not fall as rapidly as witnessed in the last year when the yields on the 10 year government securities fell by 2 per cent. The inflationary situation on an average basis remained low except in the fourth quarter of 2002-03 despite drought. It is expected to be in the range of 5-5.5 per cent during this fiscal, he said, adding that the inflation rate looked higher on the low base of last year. About the confidence in the banking system in light of panic deposit-run faced by ICICI Bank, the RBI Governor said, “It was a shortlived problem and tackled effectively. This should instil confidence in the system”, he added. No relaxation in
forex borrowings
The RBI ruled out relaxation favouring any increase in the unhedged foreign exchange borrowings by corporates and banks to meet the demand for “borrowed” dollars arising from expectations on the future movement of the dollar-rupee exchange rate. Reacting sharply to the suggestions made by banks to the RBI for meeting the demand for borrowed dollars from their corporate clients, arising from expectation of continued rupee appreciation against the US dollar, the RBI said, for a developing economy like India, currency exposures by corporates and others are largely hedged or covered against anticipated foreign currency earnings.
Stringent norms for coop banks
Coming down heavily on the style of functioning of urban co-operative banks (UCBs) in the country for the first time, the RBI barred them from granting loans and advances to bank directors, their relatives, companies and any concerned entities in which they were interested. The RBI said in line with the recommendations of the JPC on preventing irregularities in the operation of UCBs, all such banks, with immediate effect, had been asked to stop granting loans and advances, both secured and unsecured, to the directors, their relatives and their interest companies. However, the existing advances extended to the directors and their relatives might be allowed to continue up to the date of full repayment and these advances should not be renewed, the RBI directed. The RBI also decided to invoke penal provisions on UCBs if any of them failed to eliminate the irregularities as pointed out in the RBI inspection report in all aspects. The UCBs were given six months to address the irregularities from the date inspection report of the RBI.
PTI, UNI |
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Govt monitoring inflation rate New Delhi, April 29 Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour, Mr Jaswant Singh said the rise in inflation was primarily due to the Iraq war. He also underlined the need for increasing the current domestic savings rate and citizens need to invest their money in productive savings rather than in non-productive savings instruments.
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REACTION New Delhi, April 29 “The move will reinforce RBI’s commitment to further rev up the economy at a time when it is showing signs of recovery”, said PHDCCI President, Mr P.K. Jain. However, the Phdcci said the RBI should have prescribed the maximum ceiling on export interest rate in absolute terms instead of linking it with PLR and should have taken more effective steps to control high transaction cost of banks. The President of Ficci, Mr A.C. Muthiah, said the 6 per cent growth rate projected by RBI Governor Dr Bimal Jalan in the policy was eminently
achievable and would instill fresh confidence in the economy. “This will, however, depend on the reform measures adopted by the government and also on monsoon”, Dr Muthiah said. Mr Muthiah, however, hoped that the move of the RBI would translate further reduction in the lending rates of banks, which had remained sticky despite regular reduction in bank rate. Mr Muthiah said “The RBI’s expectation on inflation of 5 to 5.5 per cent should keep enough buoyancy in the economy. Ficci believes this to be an optimal level of inflation which will give industry enough incentive to produce and at the same time does not hurt the consumers.” Mr R.K. Somany, President of Assocham, said the Credit Policy (2003-04) does not address the high real interest rate which was a cause of concern for the retired and other fixed income persons depending on interest rate income. He said while the RBI Governor had given special attention to agricultural sectors, micro-financing and boosting infrastructure financing, the policy was unlikely to really unshackle the economy and generate growth. The Assocham chief said the macro-economic fundamentals in the economy were healthy and the liquidity position excellent, in addition to a well-performing external sector, despite the weakened external demand situation internationally. He said the RBI should look at ways to reflate the economy rather than trying to control the economic activity through the monetary policy tools alone. Welcoming the continuation of export credit refinance facility and the decision of the RBI to provide adequate liquidity to meet credit growth and support investment demand, President of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Vinod Chandiok, said the policy would permeate growth impulses across the economy.
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1,500 cr infrastructure plan for Punjab Chandigarh, April 29 He made this announcement at a presentation on the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board activities and projects that are proposed to be taken in hand during the current year, which he described as ‘’Year of Development’’. The projects proposed to be taken up include high-traffic road corridors, including state highways, river and railway overbridges, bypass, transport sector (bus stands), urban infrastructure (water supply, sewerage and solid waste management), power (thermal plant extension, phase two at Lehra Mohabat, Shahpur Kandi project) and health (privatisation of operations and managements of civil hospitals), housing, industrial infrastructure, technical education, etc. The PIDB already has projects worth Rs 520 crore from the time of the previous government. Its activities are now being widened and strengthened.
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Ranbaxy net jumps 77 pc The Ranbaxy group today reported a 77 per cent jump in the net profit at Rs 173 crore for January-March 2003, even as the domestic earnings softened owing to uncertainty over VAT and declining trends in the anti-infective market. Ranbaxy Labs along with its subsidiaries also saw a 51 per cent growth in net sales at Rs 1,110 crore for the first quarter ending March 2003, a company release said. Ranbaxy also declared a final dividend of Rs 10 per share while an interim dividend of Rs 5 per share was declared earlier. Grasim Grasim Industries Limited today announced a steep decline in the net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2003, at Rs 49 lakh against Rs 79.23 crore for the comparable quarter of the previous fiscal. Grasim said the decline in the net profit was due to exceptional items like loss on sale of MRPL shares at Rs 208.62 crore and the writing back off tax provision of earlier years amounting to Rs 40 crore. The Grasim Board, which met here today, recommended a dividend of 100 per cent against last year’s 90 per cent. Ind-Swift Ind-Swift Limited today reported a 58 per cent increase in its profit after tax for the quarter ended March 31st, 2003, from Rs 13.14 millions to Rs 20.82 millions. The turnover, however, registered a dip of 5 per cent from Rs 484 million to Rs 458 million. The net profit for the year rose by 26 per cent from Rs 83 million to Rs 104.92 million Aptech Aptech today reported a 78 per cent increase in its profit after tax to Rs 1.94 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2003, as compared to Rs 1.09 crore in the corresponding period previous year. Tata Chem Tata Chemicals Ltd has, for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2003, recorded a 150 per cent improvement in its net profit at Rs 60 crore compared to Rs 24 crore in the corresponding period in the last fiscal.
Agencies
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Samtel to raise production Chandigarh, April 29 ‘‘If we develop it by the fixed time, it will be an achievement as a few firms, including Philips, Sharp and Samsung, are the competitors in this field. Companies don’t manufacture it because the project is not viable commercially due to the high cost of plasma TV which is priced at more than Rs 1,00,000’’, he said. Mr Sandeep Tandon, Deputy General Manager, Deflection Yoke division of Samtel, informed the mediapersons that the unit would also raise the capacity of deflection yoke, an important component of colour picture tube, to 50 lakh in 2004 against the capacity of 31 lakh now. Recently the local unit has bagged the order from Thailand to supply 50,000 pieces per month. Throwing more light he said the research was on to develop organic light-emitting deflection yoke and once it was developed it would render plasma, LCD and other technology useless. Samtel is the largest exporter of colour picture tubes. It exports 7 lakh tubes to Europe, Asia and a part of Africa. The firm’s main competitor is China.
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Mahindra is CII President Chandigarh, April 29 Mr. Mahindra had earlier been the vice-president of the CII and chairman of the CII Western Region. Mr. Munjal headed CII's Economic Affairs Committee and has been the Chairman of the CII Northern Region. India Today named him as one of the "Faces of the Millennium".
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Banana faces extinction
New Delhi, April 29 Two diseases — Panama disease and Black Sigatoka — have struck banana in Africa, South America and Asia, giving rise to apprehesions among farm scientists that they might prove fatal for the fruit. In this context, a report in the international journal “New Scientist” had already warned that “banana is on the verge of extinction” as these diseases could wipe out the fruit.
UNI
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Mumbai, April 29
Store worker Sam Issa walks past rows of herbal, vitamin and mineral pill products at a suburban pharmacy in Sydney
on Tuesday. Australians were urged not to panic over the biggest medical recall in the nation's history which could spread to thousands of over-the-counter drugs and exports of non-prescription medicines in Asia and Europe. Pan Pharmaceuticals, Australia's largest maker of herbal, vitamin and mineral pills (better known as 'complimentary medicines'), is accused of potentially harmful safety and quality breaches in making its own products and goods for other brands. The government's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has warned Australians to delay taking vitamin and herbal supplements, and the Pharmecy Guild of Australia said confusion reined as to which products they had to advise their members to remove from their shelves until they new which ones contained Pan ingredients.
— Reuters
