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Tata mulls driving into Korea
Petroleum Ministry, four firms tie up
Rs 5.25-cr Maybach launched in Mumbai
LG ready with below Rs 5,000 refrigerator
Prices of notebook PCs crash |
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RBI to rationalise overseas borrowings
ICICI Bank issue opens on April 2
Glide’s Net service skids due to virus
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Tata mulls driving into Korea
Gunsan (South Korea), March 29 “If the market is large enough to do it, that is what we want to do”, group Chairman Ratan Tata said after taking over Daewoo’s commercial vehicles operations here. “If there is a market for cars in Korea, we should look at assembling in Korea”, he said. This would be the group’s first such venture outside India if it went through. The Tata group company manufactures cars at its Pune plant and has a tie-up with the UK-based automaker MG Rover to sell compact car Indica in Britain and Europe. Asked about other ventures the group was planning in the some Korean peninsula, Tata said the company was in talks with some Korean firms across various sectors for forging alliances. Tata, however, declined to give details about the prospective partners. Queried whether today’s Korean foray was a precursor to entry into China, Tata said he had no specific plans for China at this stage but preliminary talks had been held in that country. “We will like to make it (DWCV) globally visible and if that includes China then it will be so”, he said. Analysts said the Daewoo
takeover would give a fillip to Tata Motors China strategy. Tata Motors has a 15 per cent market share in the Indian car market and is the third largest producer after Maruti and Hyundai. It sold 1,04,155 cars last year recording a 17.5 per cent rise. Tata Motors has commenced work on ‘people’s car’ costing under Rs 1 lakh. Besides, having acquired the truck making arm of Korea’s failed automaker Daewoo, Tata Motors said it also plans to introduce its existing small and medium commercial vehicles in Korea and bring heavy trucks from the Korean firm to India. Ruling out any merger of the DWCV with Tata Motors for the time being, Tata said the takeover would add to Tata Motors’ profitability from next year itself. On the future plans of the company, Tata Motors Executive Director (Commercial Vehicle Unit) Ravi Kant said the idea was to increase market share through new products which were in pipeline besides tapping new markets. Asked whether DWCV would exclusively source its diesel engines from another group company, Tata Cummins, Kant said no decision had been made and the company (DWCV) would have to decide as the Tatas wanted Daewoo to remain a Korean company. The DWCV was formally taken over by Tata’s today for $ 102 million, funded equally through a mixture of debt and equity. — PTI
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Petroleum Ministry, four firms tie up
New Delhi, March 29 The MoUs signed by Petroleum Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi on behalf of the Government with the chiefs of the companies, an official release issued here today said. HPCL has been earmarked a crude throughput target of 6.02 million tonnes at Mumbai refinery and 7.5 million tonnes at Visakhapatnam refinery. The company proposes to complete Green Fuels and Emission Control Projects at a cost of Rs 1,152 crore at Mumbai refinery and at Rs 1,635 crore cost at Visakh refinery by August, 2004, and March, 2005. The target for sales turnover has been increased to Rs 55,805 crore against the 2003-04 target of Rs 53,780 crore. To enhance customer satisfaction, greater emphasis will be laid on educating customers on all quantity and quality measures and a message “Sample Testing and Measuring Facilities Available” here will be prominently displayed at retail outlets for greater customer confidence and assurance. The initiative to brand retail outlets as “Club HP” will be implemented at 1,800 outlets offering a promise of outstanding care for the vehicles and customers. OIL has been set a target to produce 3.21 million tonnes of crude oil during 2004-05 as against the current year’s target of 3 MMT. Similarly, the target for gas production is higher at 2,059 million cubic meters (MCM) as against a target for the current fiscal of 1,815 MCM. Meanwhile, Cairn Energy has discovered fresh oil deposits in two more zones of the Barmer-Sanchore basin of Rajasthan, with preliminary production estimates of more than 4,000 barrels of crude per day. — UNI
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Rs 5.25-cr Maybach launched in Mumbai
Mumbai, March 29 Speaking at the launch ceremony here, Mr Sanghi said, “Daimler Chrysler has allotted 11 saloons to be sold in the first year and we have already received booking for three in Mumbai and another three from Delhi. As such we don’t see any problem in marketing the first year allotments.” Replying to a question, Mr Sanghi said, “on-the road price of Maybach, including octroi at 4 per cent and 12 per cent registration charges would be close to Rs 6-crore.’’ Each Maybach is custom-built car, Mr Sanghi said, “the customer will be flown to Germany for incorporating his each and every specification in terms of interior to colours, etc. In other words, the customer gets a top-of-the-line-luxury car.” Responding to another query, Mr Sanghi said, “more than the volume of sales, what is pertinent with the launch of Maybach in India now is the thinking of Daimler Chrysler that Indian customers be treated on par with customers of other developed markets. In the sense, India would get new models at least two years after they were released in the global markets but not any longer. Now India gets simultaneously like any other global customer.”
— UNI
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LG ready with below Rs 5,000 refrigerator New Delhi, March 29 The new refrigerator with a capacity of 150-160 litres will be aimed at to tap the vast middle and lower-middle class market, especially in the rural and semi-urban areas across the country. At present, the average price of 165 litre capacity refrigerator is above Rs 7,000. The company has also plans to launch one tonne capacity air conditioners priced at below Rs 10,000 by next year, said Mr Kwang-Ro Kim, Managing Director of the Company here today. In an interview to The Tribune, on the sidelines of launch of TV-DIOS, a
digital Refrigerator-cum-TV priced at Rs 2 lakh, he disclosed that LG India was targeting both the
premium segment through high-end and lower-end markets by launching high quality products at the lowest price. Mr Kim said,” We would have launched the refrigerator in below Rs 5,000 segment by now had the price of steel and plastic not increased. We had to postpone the launch of this revolutionary product due to sharp increase in raw material costs by 15-20 per cent. However, we are hopeful that in the next three-four months we will be able to come up with a refrigerator in 150-160 litre capacity priced below Rs 5,000.” Allaying the fears of the entry of cheap Chinese home appliances in India, Mr Anil Arora, Head of the Marketing of the company, admitted some dealers were importing Chinese air-conditioners of 0.6 to 0.75 tonne capacity and selling below Rs 10,000 prices in some parts of the country.
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Prices of notebook PCs crash Chandigarh, March 29 Thanks largely to the recent cut in the excise and import duty w.e.f. February this year, notebook PC sellers have witnessed a quantum jump in the sales of these sophisticated machines. A Celeron-processor-based machine can be had for as less as Rs 45,000 now, a price that a desktop PC commanded just two years ago. Laptops sold in India during the second quarter of 2003 were nearly 18,000, with IBM and the market leader HP taking more than half the share. No one makes a laptop in India right from the scratch. Branded manufacturers actually assemble the imported components in the country. International Data Corporation (IDC), a market research organisation, expects the Indian notebook segment to grow by about 55 per cent in 2004, over the current year. The research agency also says that at 21.9 per cent CAGR (compounded annual growth rate), India is the third fastest growing market in Asia. Mr Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, Manufacturers’ Association for IT (MAIT), hopes to end this fiscal on a happy note. “The market for 2002-03 was 51,000 units. I am confident that we will close this fiscal higher by another 50-60 per cent.” He says that the growth in the notebook PC market has predominantly been due to drop in prices. “Earlier the entry level was between Rs 75,000 and Rs 80,000. This has dropped to Rs 45,000 nearly. Notebooks, which were once only a corporate product are finding their way into the SOHO (Small Office Home Office) segment, especially the individual entrepreneurs like the CA, architects etc. Further, the recent relaxation in import of notebooks — one can bring in a notebook without any duty if one is returning from overseas, has facilitated its penetration in the upwardly mobile. Also, with Wi-fi, a significant number of educational institutions and campuses are encouraging their students to buy notebook PCs. Easy finance from banks has also helped deepen the market. Mr Gurpreet Singh, an IBM representative in Chandigarh says that there has been a rise of 10 to 15 per cent in IBM’s notebook segment just within a month. The price cuts have also been introduced to do away with the older configuration machines and introduce the new Centrino-based notebook PCs. When market is lucrative, can local assemblers be far behind. Already a few of them have popped up in the national Capital and their role in bringing the prices down by posing stiff competition cannot be ruled out altogether. A Hewlett-Packard (HP) sales manager, who did not wish to be named, says that assemblers as of now have not been able to reap in the dividends because they operate at component level if sales volume are high, which in this case is not so presently. Heat of competition, new technology, lower duties and wily assemblers. The heat is on in the notebook PC segment and the purchaser is enjoying every moment of it.
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RBI to rationalise overseas borrowings
Mumbai, March 29 Accordingly, the facilities available under the existing master circular dated July 1, 2003, will now be replaced by a single facility in terms of which all categories of overseas foreign currency borrowings, including existing External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) and overdrafts in Nostro accounts that are not adjusted within five days, and do not exceed 25 per cent of their unimpaired Tier-I capital as at the close of the previous quarter or $10-million, whichever is higher. Any fresh borrowing above this limit shall only be with the prior approval of the Reserve Bank of India, said a RBI notification. However, ADs may avail of loans in excess of the limits prescribed above solely for replenishing their rupee resources in India.
— UNI
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Rupee rises sharply
Mumbai, March 29 Resuming on a buoyant note at 44.44/ 45, the domestic currency continued its surge ahead, supported by strong capital and trade dollar inflows, a senior dealer at the Development Credit Bank said. State-run banks which bought dollar briefly in the morning, also stayed away from the market later in the afternoon, allowing the rupee’s free rise, he added. Rupee closed at 44.05/ 07, the strongest closing since May 23, 2000, and gaining sharply by 42 paise from last Friday’s close of 44.47/ 48.
— UNI
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ICICI Bank issue opens on April 2 Chandigarh, March 29 ICICI Bank corporate head Balaji Swaminathan said the bank had reserved 25 per cent for retail investors, 50 per cent for institutional investors and 25 per cent for non-institutional investors. The Rs 450 crore shares under green-shoe option will be allocated to qualified institutional buyers, non-institutional bidders, retail bidders and retail shareholders of the bank. He said the retail investors will have the option of paying 50 per cent of the amount on application and the balance on allotment.
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Glide’s Net service skids due to virus
Chandigarh, March 29 “Users having their e-mail addresses on our servers were not able to send or receive mails properly since Friday last,” ISP ‘Glide’ spokesperson said adding complaints of the customers were being attended to and was expected that system would normalise by tomorrow. He said a large number of dummy mails, almost four times the actual, were being created by the virus resulting in a long queue in their system. A similar situation was prevailing in respect of our out-going mails, he added. Computer systems in a number of organisations that are dependent on e-mail service was affected, the spokesman said.
— PTI
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