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SEBI plans reform in IPO process
Hero Honda opens Hardwar plant
Volatility in steel prices hits industrial output
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Chandigarh region tops in sale of Maruti vehicles
Unorganised Sector
Hudco to market loans through post offices
AMD to lay off 1,600 staffers
Aerodrome India 2008 from tomorrow
IMF agrees to sell gold, broaden investments
VAT panel’s report on GST by month-end
SBoP records all-time high growth
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SEBI plans reform in IPO process
Mumbai, April 8 Speaking at a seminar on IPOs organised by Ernst & Young here today, SEBI chairman C B Bhave said there is no reason why an investor's money should leave his bank account when he is not assured about allotment of shares. "What do you do with this money for 21 days," he asked of intermediaries who handle the IPO process. "We need to take what is required. Technology will take care of how it should be done," the SEBI chief said indicating investors should pay only for the shares alloted rather than waiting for refunds for unalloted shares". However, this reform may not happen immediately. He told reporters SEBI was talking to different people. Initially, it might be done on a voluntary basis. SEBI would take a decision in this regard in about three months, he said. As regards the actual allotment time, which takes about 21 days at present, he said to start with it would be a good target to bring it down to seven days. Meanwhile, he said a SEBI board meeting would be held sometime by middle of this month. — PTI
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Hero Honda opens Hardwar plant
Hardwar, April 8 The company has so far invested Rs 450 crore in the plant. It had last year announced that along with its ancillaries, a total investment of Rs 1,900 crore would be made in the project, which would have an overall production of 1.5 million units by 2010. "This plant sets new benchmark in terms of lay-out, processes, supply-chain management, human resource management and most importantly environmental consciousness," Hero Honda Motors managing director Pawan Munjal said here. The initial production level of the new plant would be 2,000 vehicles per day, which would be ramped up to 4,000 units a day by the end of this year, he added. In the next two years, 100 ancillary firms would be setting up their manufacturing bases here. To begin with, 40 ancillaries would have their plants in the area. Hero Honda had completed construction of the plant last year but delayed operations to avail the full 10-year tax holiday from the Uttarakhand government. — PTI
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Volatility in steel prices hits industrial output
Ludhiana, April 8 Industrial production has come down by almost 30 per cent in the major steel consuming industry of hand tools, forging units, auto parts manufacturers, fasteners and bicycle and cycle parts manufacturing industry. Reeling under the impact of the fluctuating steel prices, these industrial units claim to have lost their competitive edge over other global players in their respective category. Even as they are coming to terms with their losses as production levels decline, they now face a threat from their Chinese counterparts, who are likely to flood the market with their cheaper goods. On the other hand, the steel furnaces and re-rolling mills are making a neat profit. Industry sources say that the furnaces have hiked their conversion charges from Rs 5,000-6,000 per metric tonne to Rs 9,000 to Rs 10,000 per metric tonne. Similarly, the re-rolling mills have increased their re-rolling charges from Rs 2,800-3,500 per metric tonne to Rs 5,000-5,500 per metric tonne. Together, this has led to a hike of Rs 6,000 per metric tonne of steel for the steel-consuming units. "The instability in prices is forcing us not to book orders. The production activity is only need-based. We are buying steel in case an order is in hand, and have stopped buying steel in bulk and no steel inventory is being maintained," says S.C. Ralhan, president of Ludhiana Hand Tools Association, and regional chairman of the Engineering Export Promotion Council. Till a few months ago, Ludhiana was the largest steel consuming industry in the region. However, because of the volatility in steel prices, the steel consuming industry here claims that they have brought down their steel purchase by almost 80 per cent. Says Anil Kumar Sood, director of Kumar Industrial Corporation, "The industry has reached a stage where it cannot honour long- term contracts, because of the fluctuating steel prices. The sudden price hikes cannot be passed on to our consumers, so we are suffering huge losses. Like many other units here, we too, have been cutting down on the labour employed in the unit". Kumar adds that the worst hit is the exporters, and their own export sales have been cut down by 20 per cent since December 2007. Figures available with the Engineering Export Promotion Council reveal that the hand tool exports have declined by almost 10 per cent, while the total turnover of the cycle parts manufacturing units have come down from Rs 850 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 700 crore in 2007-08. Rohit Pahwa, director of Avon Bicycle Components, says that with a rise in input costs by over 50 per cent in the past four months, the production has gone down by 30-40 per cent. "The small cycle parts manufacturers here are the worst hit and their production has come to a virtual standstill as their working capital remains the same, but input costs have doubled," he says. P.D. Sharma, president of Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry, says that if the government does not act immediately to control the steel prices and appoint a regulator, the small industry could be on its last leg.
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Chandigarh region tops in sale of Maruti vehicles
New Delhi, April 8 According to company officials here, the Chandigarh region, which comprises of cities of Chandigarh, Mohali, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda, Jammu and Srinagar, has posted a growth of 11.7 per cent between April 2007 and March 2008 over the last financial year’s figures. This, incidentally, is in line with the growth figures of the MSIL’s domestic growth of about 12 per cent over the last financial year. According to officials, MSIL enjoys a staggering 55 per cent of the market share in the region and also sells the largest number of entry-level Maruti-800 models in the country after the NCR region. According to statistics, while MSIL sold a total of about 53,000 vehicles in the region last year, as many as 8,850 cars were Maruti-800. However, Alto has emerged as the flagship vehicle in the region with the sale of as many as 23,950 cars followed by Wagon R (over 5,900 units), Swift (around 6,800 units), and SX4 (over 2,800 units). Moreover, the company has already sold over 750 units of the newly launched DZire in just a week after its launch. The company sold over 764,800 vehicles in 2007-08, the highest- ever in the history of the company. This marked a growth of 13.3 per cent over the previous year, including exports. As part of its efforts to maintain the market leadership, MSIL plans to invest about Rs 9,000 crore till 2010 towards developing new models, setting up new world-class facility at Manesar, including a diesel engine plant, and a new engine plant at Gurgaon. It is also looking at expanding the capacity of the Manesar plant to about 3-lakh units a year by October 2008 from present 1.7-lakh units. MSIL is also looking to put in place an expanded dealership network and has put in place a three-year blueprint for a massive expansion of service network across the country. It is looking at increasing the number of service stations and workshops by a whopping 45 per cent in three years. This would lead to total number of service stations and workshops crossing the 3,800-mark from about 2,600 at present. It also plans to almost double the dealer workshops by 2011 and the number of cities where the MSIL would be present with its models would increase to more than 1,700 from the present over 1,200.
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Unorganised Sector
New Delhi, April 8 Sources in the ministry say there have been many welfare schemes that are being announced by the government under the Bill, but none is answering the basic question as to what is the minimum benefit that a worker will receive on subscribing to this scheme. Labour minister had, while introducing the Bill in Parliament, said it would enable the centre to notify welfare schemes from time to time. However, the shortcoming with the welfare schemes is that it does not answer what benefits are intended for the unorganised sector worker, like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) which specifies a minimum of 100 days employment and a stated minimum wage. In the Budget, the finance minister has introduced three schemes to provide social security: the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojna, Rashtriya Swasthiya Bima Yojana and the Indira Gandhi Old Age Pension Scheme and the budgetary allotment has been increased from Rs 2,392 crore to Rs 3,443 crore. According to reports, 422.6 million workers out of the total workforce of 457.5 million belong to the unorganised sector. Even in the organised sector, around 29.2 million workers are out of the net of job security or social security benefits.
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Hudco to market loans through post offices
New Delhi, April 8 Hudco Niwas scheme is a housing finance instrument that offers loan assistance to individuals for constructing or buying a house or a flat. Similar loan assistance is also extended to extend or improve an existing house or flat. Hudco managing director K.L. Dhingra said today the organisation was in advanced stage of negotiations for tie-up with Indian Post officials. “Modalities are being worked out. The aim is to popularise the scheme, which offers loan assistance to individuals belonging to middle and lower income groups and economically weaker section,” he said. He added that Hudco was planning to market the scheme in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, stressing that the rate of interest of the loans offered would be highly competitive. Hudco is also seeking funding support from the World Bank to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore for the housing scheme for weaker sections. Meanwhile, the organisation is likely to post profit after tax to the tune of Rs 370 crore during 2007-08 as compared to Rs 308.38 crore during the last fiscal.
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AMD to lay off 1,600 staffers
Silicon Valley, April 8 AMD, the second largest American chipmaker which has been facing problems largely because of a resurgent Intel, will begin reducing its workforce this month and the process is expected to be completed by the end of September, it said. However, details regarding the locations of job-cuts by the company, which has offices at Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi, were not given. The reduction will be "global and will span all groups and all levels within the company and be based on business needs," AMD spokesman Drew Prairie said. —
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Aerodrome India 2008 from tomorrow
New Delhi, April 8 This will be the third edition of “Aerodrome India” since it made its debut in the Indian civil aviation sector in 2005 at Bangalore. The three-day event starts on April 10 at Pragati Maidan here. The show will be supported by Airports Authority of India along with the other leading industry players that includes GMR and GVK. Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways and Air India have also confirmed participation. A three-day seminar on “Sustainable strategies for consolidation and growth in the Indian civil aviation sector” will see over 50 key speakers. |
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IMF agrees to sell gold, broaden investments
Washington, April 8 IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn described the agreement to overhaul of the IMF's 62-year-old financial mechanism as ''a landmark decision''. Until now, the IMF, which played a central role in bailouts of countries in Asia and Latin America in the 1990s, has relied on lending to countries to fund its operations. But with fewer crises over the past few years, the IMF has lost income and faced a growing income deficit. ''We have made difficult but necessary choices to close the projected income shortfall and put the fund's finances on a sustainable basis, but in the end it will make the fund more focused, efficient and cost effective in serving the needs of our members,'' Strauss-Kahn said in a statement. Under the proposal, still to be approved by the IMF's 185 member countries, an endowment will be created with the sale of 403.3 tonnes of the fund's 3,217 tonnes of gold stocks, an IMF official said. Approval of the US Congress will be needed before any gold sales could begin. An IMF official said the gold would be sold on the market or offered to central banks to acquire at market prices. The sales would be coordinated within an existing European central bank gold agreement, which allows for the sale of about 500 tonnes of gold a year. ''We would either sell to the market or, if we can, sell it to a central bank,'' the official said, adding: ''It will start as soon as we get the green light for the sales and will be spaced over several years.''
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VAT panel’s report on GST by month-end
New Delhi, April 8 Finance minister P Chidambaram has announced that the GST will be implemented throughout the country with effect from April 1, 2010. "GST model and its roadmap is being finalised by the Empowered Committee and we will submit it to the finance minister by the end of this month," Empowered Committee chairman Asim Dasgupta told reporters after the panel's meeting with the finance minister here. Dasgupta, who is also the finance minister of West Bengal and has been instrumental in the implementation of VAT, said, "It (GST) will be a dual VAT," while declining to give further details of the recommendations. — PTI
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