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Wednesday,
October
8, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
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India’s steel exports to China
grow by 101 per cent Punjab signs
agreement with HFCL Infotel Strike in DCM unit hits
supplies Air Canada
flights resume from Oct 18 Vijaya Bank IPO
opens on Oct 9 Iraq may import 1
m tonnes of wheat |
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J&K Bank net
rises 35 per cent
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India’s steel exports to China grow by 101 per cent
Beijing, October 7 During the January-July period, India exported iron and steel products worth $ 709 million to China compared to $ 64 million during the same period last year, registering a whopping growth rate of 1008 per cent. With construction work for the 2008 Beijing Olympics picking up, China’s demand for steel has surged, allowing top Indian steel companies to find unprecedented opportunities in the huge Chinese market, industry sources said. According to statistics released by China’s General Administration of Customs, Indo-China bilateral trade during the first seven months of 2003 crossed the $ 4 billion mark, well on target to break the $ 4.96 billion achieved in 2002. The total trade during the period amounted to $ 4.087 billion up 62 per cent. Of this, India’s exports amounted to $ 2.331 billion, up 101 per cent while the country’s imports from China totalled $ 1.756 billion, up 29 per cent. India also enjoyed a favourable trade balance of $ 575 million during the period. Based on the current trade figures, one can safely assume that the two-way trade will cross $ 7 billion by December, 2004, senior director and head of East Asia Representative Office of the CII Industries, Piyush Bahl said. Bahl said if this trend persists, the targeted bilateral trade figure of $ 10 billion by the end of 2004 is also attainable. The basket of Indian exports to China comprised mainly iron and steel, ores, plastics, organic chemicals, cotton, mineral fuels, natural or cultured pearls, fish and paper. Apart from the excellent performance by the iron and steel sector, the ores, slag and ash exports from India also contributed to its impressive export growth to China. Ores, slag and ash exports during the first seven months amounted to $ 644 million, up 77 per cent over the same period last year. Plastics was another star performer, with its exports reaching $ 173 million compared to $ 128 million last year, registering a steady growth rate of 35 per cent. The organic chemicals sector exported goods worth $ 167 million, up 25 per cent over the same period last year. The exports of inorganic chemicals to China netted $ 79 million, registering an impressive growth of 229 per cent. The major items in the Chinese export basket to India are electrical machinery, organic chemicals, mineral fuels and silk. China’s top export item to India continued to be electrical machinery. Exports from this sector were worth $ 376 million, up 38 per cent over the first seven months of 2002.
— PTI
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Punjab signs agreement with HFCL Infotel Chandigarh, October 7 This connectivity will facilitate communication between state headquarters, district headquarters, sub-divisions and blocks. The agreement was signed by Mr B.R.Bajaj, Principal Secretary, IT, Punjab and Mr Sunil Batra, Chief Operating Officer, HFCL Infotel, at a function which was presided over by the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh. The e-Governance project will help the government improving revenue collection, delivery of citizen services, increase government accountability and transparency thereby increasing citizen trust in government, besides providing effective MIS for government decisions. This will effectively involve stakeholders, including NGOs, business, and interested citizen in new ways of meeting public challenges. Capt. Amarinder Singh said “Our mission is to make Punjab the most favoured industry destination in IT and knowledge industry in the next three years.’’ In this connection, he put on record his appreciation of the great help being extended to the government by HFCL. Mr Mahendra Nahata, Chairman, the HFCL group, announced the company's mega expansion plans for the state. He said: “We have initiated mega expansion plans for our basic telephony services in Punjab and in nine months, “We are confident that this modest contribution from Connect will help the government in achieving its goals of citizen convenience and cost-savings. We are proud to assist Punjab in facilitating it’s e-Governance project and contribute to this social cause,” said Mr.Nahata. “TRAI has rated Connect as the No. 1 telecom service provider in Punjab in its latest survey on customer satisfaction with overall service,” said Mr Sunil Batra, Chief Operating Officer, Connect.
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HFCL to divest 10 pc stake in HFCL Infotel Chandigarh, October 7 Mr Nahata announced that out of Rs 200 crore planned investment, HFCL Infotel will invest Rs 170 crore from internal accruals and Rs 30 crore will be invested by the company promoters. He claimed that despite stiff competition from other telecom operators, the annual revenue of Connect has increased to Rs 225 crore during 2002-03 from Rs 150 crore during the previous year. The company was expecting an annual turnover of Rs 300 crore during the current fiscal from its Punjab operations. The management of the HFCL group is seriously looking at the option of splitting the company, one concentrating on hardware sector and other on services. The final decision in this regard, he said, will be taken by the Board of Directors and cleared by shareholders. The company is hopeful that by March 31, 2005, the number of connections will increase from 1.25 lakh to 3.5 lakh in Punjab. The company will expand its operations from 26 cities to 250 towns, he added. Reacting to the lower share value quoted in the market, Mr Nahata said,"The share market is not reflecting the true performance of the company. That is the reason that we are considering to split the operations in the two companies. Despite good business in the hardware sector, the telecom services operations with long gestation period are pulling down the company's image." Do you have any plan to enter into GSM services, he clearly said no. He admitted that in the changing scenario, it is becoming difficult for the “stand alone’’ companies to compete with telecom giants. But due to higher purchasing power of the people in Punjab, where company has a significant presence, it is hopeful that it will be able to run its operations successfully. The company will soon achieve the “break even’’ point, at 1.50 lakh connections, a marginal increase from present 1.30 lakh connections. He said if allowed by the government, Connect will offer national roaming service to its WLL customers, currently offered by the Reliance.
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Strike in DCM unit hits supplies Chandigarh, October 7 The company is a major supplier of castings of engine blocks, cylinder heads and differential gear box housings to nearly all automotive and tractor manufacturers in the country. It is also supplying high-quality castings to customers in the USA, the UK, South Korea, Malaysia and currently has an export orders worth more than Rs 30 crore for such castings. However, it is finding difficult to fulfil its commitments owing to labour unrest. According to the management, the problem began in February, when four existing labour unions in the factory went on strike on the issue of giving employment to 72 apprentices. After several parleys with the unions, several in the presence of representatives of the Labour Department and the district administration, the strike was called off on April 6. However, after joining duty, the unions continued “go slow” tactics, though these had assured the management of
making good the production loss. The management took disciplinary action against some union leaders, who were allegedly involved in the beating up of some senior executives. The police has also registered a case and criminal proceedings are in progress in the court. Later the workers went on strike on June 26. Mr Kesav
Sachdev, President and CEO of the company, in a signed statement issued here today claimed that the Punjab and Haryana High Court had also dismissed the plea of the unions, which had challenged the legality of the actions taken by the management and the Labour Commissioner, Punjab. The Labour Commissioner had prohibited the continuance of the strike on August 11. The union leaders who had apparently gone on strike demanding wage revision also insisted on taking back their suspended colleagues before entering into any negotiations. Only 300 of the 1100 workers have so far joined duty. The management has appealed to the workers to join duty immediately so that the orders of domestic and international clients could be taken care off. It has threatened to engage temporary workers if they failed to resume duty, appropriate action, including the termination of services. The strike has already been declared illegal by the government.
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Air Canada flights resume from Oct 18
New Delhi, October 7 The flight (AC051) will leave Toronto at 5.15 p.m. and arrive here 5.45 p.m. the next day with connections to Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Colombo. On the return leg, the flight (AC052) will depart at 1.10 a.m. and arrive in Toronto at 6.10 a.m. the same day. Retindra Jang, General Manager, India for Air Canada, said Air Canada is also planning to hold road shows in remote villages of Punjab. Air Canada plans to educate travellers through these road shows and also explain to them that travelling on a direct flight was simpler than breaking their flight enroute. More importantly the airlines also has at least four Punjabi speaking crew members on board every flight to ensure travellers from Punjab face no problem. After pulling out in 1999, Air Canada had planned to come back here in 2001 but after the September 11 attacks in the US it decided to hold on till such time the aviation industry around the world was back on feet. He said although at present the incoming traffic was higher than the outgoing from New Delhi. But that will change by December as the airlines already has its flights overbooked.
— TNS & UNI
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Vijaya Bank IPO opens on Oct 9 Chandigarh, October 7 The bank will utilise the equity proceeds to augment the capital base of the bank to meet its future capital adequacy requirements and augment the long-term resources of the bank. This public offering will increase the bank’s equity capital to Rs 433.52 crore from Rs 333.52 crore as on March 31, 2003. After this issue, the holding of Government of India will come down to 53.87 per cent from 70.02 per cent said Mr S. Laxmikant Hedge, General Manager of the bank. The bank’s capital adequacy ratio (CAR), which is currently at 12.66 per cent as on March 31, 2003 will go up to 15 per cent, at the current levels of business. The bank has paid a dividend of 12 per cent each for the past two consecutive years. The earnings per share increased to Rs 11.30 from Rs 4.87 in 2001-02. The NPA level had already come down to just 1.69 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal from 2.61 per cent. Mr Hedge said the gross profit of the bank increased by 71.22 per cent to Rs 432.36 crore in 2002-03 from Rs 252.51 crore in 2001-02, while the net profit increased by 50.16 per cent to Rs 196.56 crore in 2002-03 from Rs 130.90 crore in 2001-02. Vijaya Bank has a well-spread distribution network of 843 branches spread over 28 states and four Union Territories and will increase to 1,000 by the end of this fiscal. Mr Hedge said the bank will set up its regional office in Chandigarh soon with more branches at Bathinda, Moga, Sonepat and Karnal.
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Iraq may import 1 m tonnes of wheat New Delhi, October 7 He said that this would also include pending import order of 600,000 tonnes for the last two years. According to him, the import of wheat from India had to be stopped on account of Karnal Bunt (a viral disease which affects wheat) that had infested the crops in India. He further stated that the problem has now been attended to by the Agriculture Ministry and the exporters in Iraq, thus resuming imports. Mr Al-Ani, who was addressing Indian industrialists at a meeting organised by FICCI, said that his government has amended the Letter of Credit (LoC) to obtain wheat from other sources and instead decided to buy it directly from Indian exporters. The Iraqi officials outlined some of the thrust areas which hold potential for Indian companies in Iraq. These were agricultural products and equipments, heavy machineries, health care products and equipments including pharmaceuticals, oil fields and refinery equipments etc. On the current economic slowdown in Iraq, he said that oil production is expected to touch two million barrels per day by the end of 2003. Of this, 1.3 million barrel per day would be earmarked for exports.
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J&K Bank net rises 35 per cent
New Delhi, October 7 The net profit jumped to Rs 198.50 crore in the first half of the current financial year against Rs 146.99 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, JKBL said in a statement here. The operating profit surged to Rs 332.81 crore during the same period against Rs 263.06 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, up 26.51 per cent. While the net worth of the bank increased by 33 per cent, the total income registered a Rs 88-crore increase to Rs 920.85 crore in the first half of the financial year 2003-04, it added.
— UNI
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Tendulkar is AirTel brand ambassador Chandigarh, October 7 On this announcement, Sachin said “I am really happy to be associated with AirTel, the country’s largest mobile brand, which is making mobile communications a way of life. I look forward to a long and fruitful association.”
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Cotton crop
Chandigarh, October 7 |
bb
Organic farming BoP branch Leyland sales up BHEL awarded ICICI Bank |
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The Punjab Government today signed an
agreement with HFCL Infotel for providing free data connectivity for the
government’s e-Governance and citizen services projects.
