Ludhiana, September 4
The rupee’s depreciation has led to increase in steel prices and hit the steel consuming industry of Punjab. The production cost has risen, resulting in decline in profits of exporters and manufacturers.

Steel companies are left with no other option but to pass the buck to buyers. Due to the depreciation of rupee against US dollar, the cost of raw materials has increased. Prices have been raised between Rs 2,000 and Rs 2,500 a tonne.

The coal, which is a prime raw material, is being imported by major steel makers and this is adding to input costs.

“The input cost is increasing and as a result, the price of finished product is also taking an upward swing. The depreciation of rupee is adding to the woes of not only steel makers but also to the steel consuming industry," said Jatin Kalra, an auto parts manufacturer.

For the time being, the industry has stopped taking long-term orders. "The orders booked last month have to be delivered at the previous price. Keeping in view the fluctuating value of the rupee, we have stopped taking long-term orders and waiting for the rupee to stabilise," said Santok Singh, an industrialist.

“Due to the declining value of rupee, the price of steel is going up. On the one hand, international buyers are asking for discounts due to decline in the rupee value, on the other, the input cost has taken an upward trend," said another industrialist Rajan Kalra.

“Since steel manufacturers mainly rely on imports of coking coal, it is likely to hit them. A 15-20 per cent dip in global input prices has been more or less similar to the fall in rupee exchange rate," said a market expert. 

New Delhi, September 4
Looking to diversify into other fields, the BM Munjal-led Hero Group today announced its entry into renewable power generation business.

It unveiled Hero Future Energies, which the group said, would venture into executing the clean energy projects. The group will pump in over Rs 7,000 crore into this venture by 2016-17.

Announcing the launch, the group said, "Hero Future Energies, an independent power producer, plans to develop over 1,000 MW of renewable energy projects by 2016-17."

The company will operate across various verticals of renewable energy viz. wind, solar and hydro. Of these, wind and solar are the initial focus areas.

Rahul Munjal, managing director, Hero Future Energies, said, “In the wake of significant power shortages currently being witnessed in our country, we are making a strategic move into the renewable energy sector. Aligned to the Hero Group’s core philosophy of excellence, quality and innovativeness, we aspire to become a global power producer in the long run. Focused on domestic as well as international markets, our vision is to revolutionise the way energy is delivered, through a cleaner and more affordable alternative to utility energy.”

"Every megawatt of wind power requires close to Rs 7 crore and solar power about Rs 8 crore per megawatt," he added.

Registered in October 2012, the company has already commissioned a successful wind pilot project of 37.5 MW in Rajasthan in a short span of four months. Implemented in collaboration with the Government of Rajasthan, the project will offset 72,000 tonne of carbon emissions annually. The project is estimated to provide clean energy to 70,000 domestic households. This year, the company plans to develop 100 MW of wind and solar and 1 MW of roof-top solar.

“With Hero Future Energies, our endeavour is to contribute towards reducing carbon footprint, preserving natural resources and creating consciousness towards ‘Green Discipline’”, added Munjal.

Chandigarh, September 4
Despite economic slowdown, Haryana has topped the country by registering the highest investment implementation rate of more than 82 per cent. As per an analysis by industry body Assocham, Punjab ranks third with the implementation rate of 79 per cent and Gujarat appears to be in the last rung with low rate of 46 per cent.

“Out of total investments worth over Rs 4.6 lakh crore attracted by Haryana as on March 2013 from various public and private sources, projects worth over Rs 3.8 lakh crore are being implemented, while about 18 per cent of the investments remained non-starter,” says the study.

In Haryana, more than 11 per cent of investment projects are in the announcement stage, while implementation of over 4 per cent investments is stalled due to various reasons. There is no information about more than 2 per cent projects, says the analysis.

Haryana with 82%, J&K (81.4%), Punjab (79%), Assam (72%) and Chhattisgarh (69%) are among the top five states which are currently witnessing a high rate of implementation of investment proposals. Punjab attracted live investments worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore as on March 2013, out of which investments worth over Rs 1.7 lakh crore are in the implementation stage, and the rest of the investments remained non-starter. While over 17 per cent of investments were in announcement stage, implementation of more than 1 per cent projects was stalled and there was no information of about 2 per cent investment projects. “A staggering 43 per cent of total investment projects worth a humongous Rs 52 lakh crore attracted by states across India remained non-starter as on March 2013. While over 34 per cent of these investments are stuck at the stage of announcement, implementation of about 6 per cent of projects has been stalled and there is no information on the remaining (3%) projects,” said National secretary-general of Assocham, DS Rawat while releasing the study.

“Investments worth over Rs 69.5 lakh crore, i.e. just about 57 per cent of the total investments of over Rs 122 lakh crore attracted from various public and private sources are under implementation stage as on March 2013,” said Rawat. 

Chandigarh, September 4
Videocon Telecommunications is likely to launch its mobile services in the three telecom circles of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (East) and Uttar Pradesh (West) next year. The company will also roll out its 4G services in the coming year.

The company, which presently has its operations in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, is also strengthening its subscriber base in these four circles.

Talking to The Tribune here yesterday, Arvind Bali, director and CEO, Videocon Telecommunications Ltd, said post 2G scam, when the company’s telecom licences had been cancelled, it was on a comeback trail. “We resumed our operations in the beginning of this year in three of the six new licence areas. Now, we are operational in four telecom circles of Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and MP, and will launch operations in the rest of the three circles shortly,” he said, adding the company already has 2,000 installed BTS sites in these states.

Talking about the 4G long-term evolution (LTE) rollout plans, Bali said the company was in talks with Nokia Seimens Modem (NSM) to conduct study on the company’s network and assess the changes required to roll out 4G services. “We have a 5 MHz spectrum and plan to roll out 4G services on 1.4 MHz of this spectrum initially,” he said.

The company will also open 500 new stores in its telecom circles called as Videocon Connect Stores. These will be opened in Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh-Chattisgarh circles. 

Chandigarh, September 4
The Chandigarh division of LIC has achieved first position in the North zone in percentage achievement to annual budget by earning first premium income of Rs 74.42 crore by selling 93,656 policies as on August 31. This was revealed by senior divisional manager of LIC, LC Meena.

He said the division stood second in the zone in the growth of first premium income. Total first premium income in the year 2012-13 amounted to Rs 235.81 crore. On the claims front, the division paid Rs 79.18 crore by settling 7,178 death claims and Rs 500.53 crore on 1,53,143 maturity claims for 2012-13.— TNS