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Industrial
production jumps high in February BEL’s
voting machines for Mauritius, radars for Sudan
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Hero
Honda net up 25 per cent
Diesel
demand grows Singapore
NRIs’ contribution ONGC
staff put to school
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Industrial production jumps high in February As per the quick estimates of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) here today, the overall growth in the first 11 months of April to February of 2003-04 was also higher at 6.7 per cent as compared to 5.8 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. The quick estimates of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released here today showed that mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors registered a growth of 9.6 per cent, 6.7 per cent and 12.1 per cent as compared to February 2003. The cumulative growths during April to February 2003-04 over the corresponding period of 2002-03 in the three sectors have been 5.2 per cent, 7.2 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively. As many as 12 of the 17 two-digit industry groups have shown positive growth during the month of February 2004 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. ‘Machinery and equipment other than transport equipment’ have shown the highest growth of 34.7 per cent followed by 17.6 per cent in ‘Wool, Silk and Man-made Fibre Textiles’ and 16.8 per cent in ‘Basic Chemicals and Chemical Products (except products of petroleum and coal). On the other hand, ‘textile products (including wearing apparel)’ have shown a negative growth of 15 per cent followed by a decline of 14.4 per cent in ‘food products’ and 13.4 per cent in ‘Leather and Leather and Fur Products’. As per use-based classification, the growth in February 2004 over February 2003 is 9.7 per cent in basic goods, 24.7 per cent in capital goods and 5.7 per cent in intermediate goods. The consumer durables and consumer non-durables have recorded growth of 20.1 per cent and ( -) 2.6 per cent respectively, with the overall growth in consumer goods being 2.1 per cent.
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BEL’s voting machines for Mauritius, Bangalore, April 12 BEL had already supplied 200 simputers, the first indigenously developed hand-held computer, to the Karnataka Government for its ‘Bhoomi’ project. Launched jointly by BEL and its partner in the joint venture, Pica Peta, in March this year, BEL had come out with the fourth version of the simputer and the governments of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and other states have expressed a desire to use simputers for various e-governance initiatives, Mr Rao told reporters here. He said BEL had come out with two versions of the latest generation simputers and planned to sell about 50,000 in the first year and double the sales in the second year. While the top-end product, priced at Rs 19,950, was estimated to corner 80 per cent of the market share, the company was planning to increase the first Linux-based hand-held computer usage to diverse fields. The indigenously developed simputer was the only computing device on which Linux operations development was on and could be used for different languages, he added. After producing electronic voting machines (EVMs) for India’s general elections, public sector Bharat Electronics Ltd is now eyeing export of its customised EVMs to Malawi, Mauritius, Malaysia and Sri Lanka and has demonstrated it in the USA. “Some of the countries we are in discussions for export are Malawi, Mauritius, Malaysia and Sri Lanka,” Mr Rao said. He said the EVMs had been demonstrated in the United States, but clarified that BEL was not expecting any orders in the short run from America. BEL has applied for a patent for the indigenous EVMs to be used for the Indian general elections this month and has supplied 2.31 lakh EVMs to the Election Commission this year. “We have so far supplied close to five lakh EVMs to the Election Commission,” Mr Rao said. Mr. Rao also said an indigenous set top box for cable TV and Direct to Home (DTH) applications have been developed by BEL, and was gearing up for large volume production, based on the progress on the Conditional Access System. BEL is eyeing exports of an indigenous short range Battle Field Surveillance Radar (BFSR) and will soon demonstrate the product in Sudan and Indonesia, a top official said today. “We are demonstrating the BFSR in Sudan and Indonesia soon. There have been enquiries for the radar from Uzbekistan and Mauritius,” BEL Director (marketing) S. C. Khanna told reporters. The company is the prime production agency for the BFSR, designed and developed by the Bangalore-based Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), a DRDO outfit, used for surveillance in border areas by soldiers. Mr Rao said BEL had bagged the first commercial order for BFSR from the Indian Army valued at Rs 551 crore. BEL officials however declined to specify the number of units to be procured by the Army. BFSR can be carried on a back of a soldier and is used for intrusion detection. Mr. Rao said the firm had received orders for 8,000 units of VPS MkIII, a hand-held radio for use by the defence forces. — Agencies
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HPCL plans Asia’s largest LPG storage facility Shimla, April 12 Stating this at a press conference here today, Mr M.B. Lal, chairman-cum-managing director of the corporation, said the facility with a capacity to store 60,000 million tonnes was being set up in collaboration with a French firm at a cost of Rs 350 crore. It would provide safer and cheaper storage for the highly inflammable product. It would become functional by 2006. The LPG would be stored at a depth of 600 ft by the seaside. Pipelines were being laid on Vishakhapatnam - Hyderabad and Mudra – Delhi routes, which would considerably reduce the transportation cost and time and ensure easy availability of LPG in the North. Referring to future plans, he said the corporation planned to globalise its operations and was already pursuing some proposals in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal in this regard. The corporation, which had so far limited its activities to oil refining and marketing of petroleum products also wanted to diversify into power generation, crude oil and some other areas. The turnover of the corporation increased from Rs 25,995 crore in 1999 to Rs 52,685 crore in 2003 and the net profit also shot up from Rs 901 crore to Rs 1537 crore over the period. The volume of sales increased from 13.92 to 14.35 million tonnes. The stress was on opening new retail outlets and last year 640 outlets were
opened. In Himachal it had 36 retail outlets and planned to add another 32 during the current year. Similarly, it had six LPG outlets with 1.6 lakh consumer and 25 crore outlets in the state.
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Hero Honda net up 25 per cent New Delhi, April 12 The company’s total turnover (sales turnover plus other income, net of excise) increased to Rs 5,997 crore, a growth of 15 per cent over Rs 5,195 crore in the previous fiscal. The company announced a final dividend of 500 per cent. With the interim dividend of 500 per cent paid earlier, the total dividend for the year is 1000 per cent. “We expect the growth to be in the region of 10 to 20 per cent this fiscal too and expect demand in the market to continue,” managing director of the company Pawan Kant Munjal told newspersons here. The company, which clocked a market capitalisation of over Rs 10,000 crore, is planning to launch two new models within this fiscal year. “The first of the two models is expected to be launched by the end of this calendar year,” Mr Munjal said. The company had launched four models last fiscal year (2003-04). On the plans for the scooter segment, he said that scooter was “definitely part of the company’s five-year roadmap”. However, Mr Munjal said that higher prices of inputs, especially steel, had put a pressure on the company’s margins. “There is going to be even stronger pressure on margins this year”, he said. The operating margin of the company was 15.56 per cent against 15.52 per cent in the previous fiscal. The performance of the company in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2003-04 was strong. Motor cycle sales for the period January to March 2004 grew by 50 per cent as compared with the corresponding period in the previous fiscal year.
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Diesel demand grows
New Delhi, April 12 Diesel demand, an indicator of the state of economy, grew 1.6 per cent to 37.2 million tonnes as against 36.6 million tonnes consumed last year, Petroleum Secretary B. K. Chaturvedi told PTI here. “Domestic demand is growing. After a slack period, the demand has picked up on growth in the economy. If economy continues to grow at the current pace, we expect petroleum product consumption to rise by close to 4 per cent in 2004-05,” he
said. India consumed 104.1 million tonnes of petroleum products in 2002-03. Petrol demand rose 5 per cent to 7.9 million tonnes but naphtha consumption fell 2.5 per cent to 11.66 million tonnes in 2003-04. — PTI
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Singapore NRIs’ contribution
Singapore, April 12 The monthly remittance to India was the second highest after Singapore $ 72 million sent to China by about 80,000 Chinese workers, said the report, which was based on information from embassies, remittance agents and foreign workers. Some 60,000 Indian workers are employed in the construction and shipyard sectors while the rest are IT professionals. The Indians earn about Singapore $ 900 a month and remits between Singapore $ 200 and 600. Citing the International Labour Organisation, the report said India was also the top recipient of money, totalling US $ 10 billion in 2000 out of about $ 100 billion remitted by the world’s 86 million migrant workers.
— UNI
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ONGC staff put to school
New Delhi, April 12 After introducing full-time diploma and degree courses for skill enhancement of its technical personnel, ONGC today tied up with Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) for launching a special MBA course in international business for its middle-level executives. “We are not only drilling more wells and acquiring oil and gas fields aboard, we are also working in a very deliberate and planned way in capacity building - both in reserve accretion and human resource development,” ONGC chairman and managing director Subir Raha said at the launch of the first MBA programme. In the globalised scenario, the process of converting input to output should also be of international standards, he said. — PTI
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New Delhi, April 12
