B U S I N E S S

Wipro reports highest net profit
Bangalore, January 21
Beating market expectations and its own, software major Wipro today reported its highest ever quarterly net profit of Rs 274.30 crore for the third quarter ending December 2003, a 17 per cent jump
year-on-year.
In Video (28k, 56k)

• Wipro hires 2,872 persons

SBP in top 5 Asian banks: MD
Jhabal (Amritsar), January 21
The State Bank of Patiala (SBP) has emerged as one of the top five banks in Asia. This was stated by Mr A.K. Das, Managing Director of the bank, while talking to The Tribune at the inauguration of the building of the Jhabal branch here today.

Mr A.K. Das, Managing Director of the State Bank of Patiala (extreme right) donates a wheelchair to a physically challenged person during the inauguration of the Jhabal branch in Amritsar on Wednesday. — Photo by Rajiv Sharma

Federal Bank profit up
Chandigarh, January 21
Federal Bank has posted a growth of 37.40 per cent in net profit for the nine months period ending December 31, 2003 at Rs 113.30 crore as against Rs 82.46 crore registered in the corresponding period last year.

Tax Information Network launched
New Delhi, January 21
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh today launched the National Tax Information Network (TIN) — a system aimed at ensuring better tax administration and checking evasion. 

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh
launches TIN. — PTI 

World Bank President James Wolfensohn gestures as he answers journalists' questions during his news conference on the results of his visit in Moscow, on Wednesday. Wolfensohn said Russian President Vladimir Putin was firmly committed to pursuing economic reform in the wake of the YUKOS affair.
— Reuters

	Bharti Tele profit soars January 21, 2004
	No tax on pension contribution of new staff January 20, 2004
	Father of fibre optics may manufacture in India January 19, 2004
	Fedders Lloyd focuses on transport AC January 18, 2004
	Govt concerned as inflation hits 6 pc January 17, 2004
	Advani for Rs 1 lakh people’s car January 16, 2004
	Costliest Maybach unveiled January 15, 2004
	Norms on FIs’ investment in debt securities issued January 14, 2004
	IFCI likely to be merged with PNB January 13, 2004
	Success depends on business solutions, says Nirvik January 12, 2004

Textile units demand relief in Budget
Ludhiana, January 21
The National Textile Committee of the CII has called upon the Union Government to support competitiveness of the textile industry. In a memorandum submitted to the Finance Ministry, Mr S.P. Oswal, Chairman of the committee, has pointed out that the textile industry had been passing through a difficult period in view of the fragmented industry structure and increasing global competition. 

Ranbaxy goes herbal
New Delhi, January 21
Domestic pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd (RLL) today forayed into the one-billion dollar domestic herbal market with the launch of three new products under the brand ‘New Age Herbals’ and said it will introduce six more in the current calendar year.

Tata group into DTH
Mumbai, January 21
Tata Sons today announced the formation of a joint venture with the Star group for launching a Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform in India. Star is a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of News Corporation.

GAIL prospectus by tomorrow
New Delhi, January 21
Draft prospectus for the upcoming mega public offers in oil PSUs — GAIL and ONGC — are expected to be filed with SEBI within a week even as a host of exemptions were sought by the government to make the issues slated for this fiscal a grand success.

Airtel quiz
Chandigarh, January 21
Airtel today launched a mobile a cricket quiz — Airtel Hit a Century— for its customers in Punjab and Haryana. The SMS-based quiz will pose cricket-related questions predominantly on Airtel’s brand ambassador, Sachin Tendulkar, stated a company press note.

Graphics:
Net Profits of Public Sector Banks for 2002-03
Gross NPAs of Foreign Banks in India
Tourist Arrivals

CORPORATE NEWS

BSES Q3 net up at Rs 93.3 cr, gives 10 per cent dividend
Mumbai, January 21
Reliance group entity BSES Ltd has reported a massive jump in net profit at Rs 93.3 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2003, compared to Rs 14.6 crore posted in the same period the previous fiscal.

Marico Industries Birla Sun Life D-Link Q3 net up

OM Kotak Life Jindal Steel

 

 

 

Wipro reports highest net profit

Bangalore, January 21
Beating market expectations and its own, software major Wipro today reported its highest ever quarterly net profit of Rs 274.30 crore for the third quarter ending December 2003, a 17 per cent jump year-on-year.

Wipro showed a 37 per cent jump in its revenues at Rs 1,521.40 crore and upped the revenue guidance for the fourth quarter ending March 2004 to $ 269 million from $ 241 million.

The New York Stock Exchange listed Bangalore-headquartered Wipro had reported a net profit of Rs 230.60 crore and revenue of Rs 1,108.30 crore during the third quarter of the previous fiscal.

Announcing the results at the company’s campus on Bangalore outskirts, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji attributed the highest ever quarterly net profit to sustained volume growth and stable pricing environment and operational improvements.

“Business momentum continues to be strong”, Premji said.

During the October-December period, Wipro added 24 new clients and hired 2,872 people increasing the headcount to 27,137.

For the nine-month period ending December 31, 2003, it posted a net profit of Rs 710 crore and revenue of Rs 4,094 crore, up by 19 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively, over the corresponding period of last financial year.

Wipro Vice-Chairman Vivek Paul said with customers willing to spend more, “large deals” were happening after a long time. US firms, he said, wanted to leverage the India advantage but kept it a low profile as it was an election year in the US.

Wipro hires 2,872 persons

Wipro Ltd today said it added 2,872 people during the third quarter ending December 2003, taking its total employee strength to 27,137.

“We added 1,908 people for our global IT business and 964 for our BPO arm, Wipro Spectramind,” Wipro Vice Chairman Vivek Paul told reporters here.

He said about 30 per cent (780 people) of the 2,600 people hired during the quarter for the IT business were freshers from campuses.

Wipro, he said, had a high 17 per cent attrition rate and attributed to junior people leaving the organisation, due to low salary hikes.

“We gave a higher hike to people in the senior level, and it has resulted in high attrition in the junior level. We are going to address that, it is an issue,” Paul said.

During the quarter, Wipro added 24 new customers comprising eight customers in R&D services, 14 in enterprise services and two in the IT enabled services business.

He said lower utilisation rates of the company was due to hiring of new recruits from campuses, who had to be put on training. — PTI

SBP in top 5 Asian banks: MD
Our Correspondent

Jhabal (Amritsar), January 21
The State Bank of Patiala (SBP) has emerged as one of the top five banks in Asia. This was stated by Mr A.K. Das, Managing Director of the bank, while talking to The Tribune at the inauguration of the building of the Jhabal branch here today.

Mr Das said the SBP had contributed 15 per cent of its total advances for building infrastructure in Punjab. He said the bank was committed to provide more funds for various development projects and for improving infrastructure in the state.

The bank has participated in the crop diversification scheme and provided funds to make contract farming a success in the state. It provides facilities to farmers engaged in potato cultivation and has also tied up with Pepsi for enhancing the area under contract farming for various crops.

The non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank are almost negligible as the bank has vigorously pursued recovery of old dues which has borne excellent results during past few years. He hoped that the bank would soon be able to bring NPA to zero level.

The bank has shown excellent results and achieved record Rs 950 crore as not profit during current year. The profit is expected to rise while its gross profit stood at Rs 1000 crore.

The bank has embarked upon an ambitious project to connect about 740 computerised branches in country through internet and provide online banking services to its customers throughout the country. The bank has launched mobile banking services at its 31 branches in the country besides providing internet banking at 15 branches. The bank has already tied up with the SBI and the ICICI bank for offering joint ATM operations at 3000 sites in the country besides having their own 115 ATM sites.

The SBP has also issued about 28,000 Kisan Credit Cards out of targeted 34,000 cards to the farmers under the Central Government and Reserve Bank of India scheme. He said the remaining cards would be issued soon.

Earlier, Mr A.K. Das distributed 10 gold cards among farmers and donated four wheelchairs to physically challenged persons.

Federal Bank profit up 
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 21
Federal Bank has posted a growth of 37.40 per cent in net profit for the nine months period ending December 31, 2003 at Rs 113.30 crore as against Rs 82.46 crore registered in the corresponding period last year.

The bank’s total income during the nine-month period increased by 9.61 per cent to Rs 1,102 crore as against Rs 1,006 crore in the corresponding period previous year. The operating profit of the bank increased by 27.12 per cent to Rs 334 crore during the period.

The total deposits of the bank have reached Rs 12,154 crore and advances to Rs 6,978 crore during the reference period. According to a press note of the bank, the net NPAs have fallen to Rs 277 crore from Rs 346 crore last December. In percentage terms, the net NPA has come down to 3.97 per cent even after following the 90 day norms for asset classification and provisioning.

The cost of deposits has fallen to 6.45 per cent from 7.96 per cent during the corresponding period in the previous year. The net worth of the bank now stands at Rs 643 crore, and its book value per share has increased from Rs 244 to Rs 296 during the first nine months of the current fiscal.

Tax Information Network launched

New Delhi, January 21
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh today launched the National Tax Information Network (TIN) — a system aimed at ensuring better tax administration and checking evasion.

Launching the network, the Finance Minister said the system would eventually create a dematerialised system of tax payment and ensure faster and easier payment of research. Besides, it will create a more efficient system of record keeping, dissemination and retrieval.

The system will be managed by the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and 11,000 bank branches, which are collecting taxes on behalf of the Income Tax Department, would be connected to TIN.

TIN would receive on-line information about the collection of taxes from bank on T+2 (transaction plus two days) basis.

NSDL has been appointed e-TDS intermediary for filing of TDS returns electronically and has set up 42 centres for this purpose.

NSDL has also been authorised to issue Permanent Account Numbers apart from the UTI Investors Services (UTIISL), which is already in the business. — TNS

Textile units demand relief in Budget
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, January 21
The National Textile Committee of the CII has called upon the Union Government to support competitiveness of the textile industry.

In a memorandum submitted to the Finance Ministry, Mr S.P. Oswal, Chairman of the committee, has pointed out that the textile industry had been passing through a difficult period in view of the fragmented industry structure and increasing global competition. However, the industry held a high potential for growth and generating employment taking into consideration the availability of raw material, low labour cost and growing market for textile products. The memorandum said the focus in the new Budget should be to strengthen the fiscal policy support for rejuvenation of the textile industry keeping in view the removal of quotas in the international market and the impending threat of large-scale imports in the domestic market under WTO provisions.

The industry has sought retention of central excise duty on cotton yarn at 8 per cent and reduction in excise on blended yarn from 12 per cent to 8 per cent. Excise duty on woollen yarn should be reduced to 8 per cent from 12 per cent.

For garments the industry had sought excise duty for woven cotton, blended/non cotton garments, 8 per cent excise duty instead of 10 per cent.

Abolition of textile committee cess has also been demanded. The import on cotton should be reduced to 5 per cent and on wool and coarse animal hair top from 20 per cent to 10 per cent and waste wool from 15 per cent.

The memorandum had emphasised that the world-class machine park to make the international standard of productivity is a pre-requisite for the competitiveness of the industry at the international level. Textile machine and other spares should be allowed at concessional import duty of 5 per cent. The industry has sought to increase subsidy from 5 per cent to 7 per cent on shuttleless looms, modern processing fabric for the next five years. 

Ranbaxy goes herbal

New Delhi, January 21
Domestic pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd (RLL) today forayed into the one-billion dollar domestic herbal market with the launch of three new products under the brand ‘New Age Herbals’ and said it will introduce six more in the current calendar year.

The new herbal products — Olesan oil for cold, Olesan cough syrup for adults and children and Eat-Ease for children — will be marketed through RLL’s over-the-counter (OTC) division Ranbaxy Global Consumer Healthcare (RGCH).

The city-based drugmaker had entered the Indian OTC market through RGCH in October, 2002, with the launch of four brands.

Pointing out that these herbal products have been scientifically developed in-house by Ranbaxy’s research and development team, Ranbaxy Joint Managing Director and CEO designate Brian W Tempest said they will strengthen the product portfolio of RGCH.

Dr Tempest claimed that the new age herbals bring with it difference of highly-standardised products, ensuring optimum dose delivery with minimum number of herbal ingredients.

When asked about Ranbaxy’s entry in the herbal business, he said, “We entered the herbal segment after carefully assessing the global consumer trends and market potential. In fact, this segment has a huge untapped market in India and we are eyeing a significant share.’’— UNI

Tata group into DTH

Mumbai, January 21
Tata Sons today announced the formation of a joint venture with the Star group for launching a Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform in India.

Star is a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of News Corporation.

Tata Sons would hold 80 per cent in the joint venture entity. The joint venture proposal is subject to requisite government approvals.

“The Tata group and Star group look forward to building India’s largest digital television platform and offering a range of channels including exclusive channels, with interactive features and services,” a release said. — UNI

GAIL prospectus by tomorrow

New Delhi, January 21
Draft prospectus for the upcoming mega public offers in oil PSUs — GAIL and ONGC — are expected to be filed with SEBI within a week even as a host of exemptions were sought by the government to make the issues slated for this fiscal a grand success.

While the prospectus for sale of 10 per cent government equity in oil exploration major ONGC would be filed on January 27, the same for GAIL issue would be placed before the capital markets watchdog by January 23, sources associated with the deal said here.

Sources said the government had sought a host of exemptions, including declaration of price band a day before the bids were opened. — PTI

Airtel quiz
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 21
Airtel today launched a mobile a cricket quiz — Airtel Hit a Century— for its customers in Punjab and Haryana. The SMS-based quiz will pose cricket-related questions predominantly on Airtel’s brand ambassador, Sachin Tendulkar, stated a company press note.

To participate in the quiz, the customers will have to send an SMS to 606 and answer the questions. They will be charged Rs 3 per SMS and have a chance to win prizes till February 3. 

BRIEFLY

Cane price
Karnal, January 21
Mr Lajbir Singh Managing Director of Karnal Cooperative Sugar Mill, today announced the minimum price for sugarcane as Rs 110 per quintal. He told mediapersons that while the first installment at the rate of Rs 80 per quintal will be given on the delivery of the cane to the sugar mill, the remaining Rs 30 will be paid in May . — TNS

Morepen offer
New Delhi, January 21
Morepen Laboratories Ltd has decided to offer an equity option to fixed deposit (FD) holders where they will be offered fully convertible debentures (FCDs) equivalent to their total outstanding amount, including interest. The proposal is subject to approval by shareholders in the forthcoming AGM, Company Secretary P.K. Singh said in a statement here. — UNI

HBO manager
New Delhi, January 21
HBO has promoted Shruti Bajpai to the newly created position of Country Manager (India), HBO South Asia. Earlier, Ms Shruti was Director of Marketing. Ms Shruti Bajpai joined HBO in November 2000 and has been involved with HBO since its launch. — UNI

Online tickets
Mumbai, January 21
ICICI Bank.com, the online banking channel of ICICI Bank today announced the launch of online booking and payment for tickets by Air Deccan. For the first time in India, an individual can do online booking, an ICICI press note issued here said.
— UNI

Grain to J&K
New Delhi, January 21
The Ministry of Rural Development has released 163 tonnes of common wheat and 1,286 tonnes of common rice as second installment of foodgrains to the seven districts of Jammu and Kashmir under the “Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana.” 
— TNS

Mitsubishi chief
Tokyo, January 21
Mitsubishi Corp, Japan’s top trading house, said on Wednesday Senior Vice-President Yorihiko Kojima, 62, would take the helm of the company, effective April 1. Current President Mikio Sasaki will become the company’s chairman. — Reuters

Dollar rate
Mumbai, January 21
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 45.39 per dollar, three paise lower from the previous day’s fix of 45.42, a spokesperson of RBI said here. — UNI

Gold dearer
Mumbai, January 21
The gold 99.9 purity grade and standard mint 99.5 purity variety prices once again opened positive at Rs 6,180 and Rs 6,145 per ten gm respectively. — UNI