Wednesday, May 12, 1999
today's calendar
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B U S I N E S S | Wednesday, May 12, 1999 |
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Industrial output falls
to 3.8 per cent, courtesy mining |
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 Come May and wheat arrivals at Chandigarh's Sector 26 grain market have slumped. Workers clean the crop before the daily auction on Tuesday afternoon. — A Tribune photograph |
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PM presents award to
Shantha Biotech on Technology Day Don't cheat to make money, says
Pitroda Mass fraud trial in Vietnam Ernst and Young floats awards Bajaj Auto to pay 80 per cent |
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Industrial
output falls to 3.8 per cent, courtesy mining NEW DELHI, May 11 — Indian industry continued to be in the grip of a slowdown with industrial production plummeting to a paltry 3.8 per cent growth in 1998-99 from 6.6 per cent in the previous year, mainly due to a negative growth in the mining sector. Overall industrial production in March slipped further to 2.5 per cent compared to 4.9 per cent in February and 4 per cent a year ago, according to the latest index of industrial production (IIP) released by the Central Statistical Organisation today. The poor performance of industrial production has been on account of a negative 1.7 per cent growth in mining during the year compared to 5.9 per cent in 1997-98. During March, the mining sector registered a negative growth of 4 per cent compared to 3.2 per cent growth in the same period last year. The manufacturing sector, which accounts for about four-fifth of the total weight of IIP (base:1993-94=100), also slipped during the year to 4.1 from 6.7 per cent in 1997-98. The sector grew at a paltry 2.8 per cent in March compared to 3.8 per cent in the same period last year. Electricity was the only sector which recorded growth figures comparable to the previous year. The sector grew at 6.5 per cent in 1998-99 compared to 6.6 per cent in the previous year. The electricity sector grew at 6 per cent in March compared to 7.1 per cent in the same period a year ago. Among the use-based classification of IIP, capital goods sector recorded an impressive 10.2 per cent growth during the year, despite a poor performance in March. In comparison, the capital goods sector had grown at 5.3 per cent last year. In March the sector registered a growth of 1.9 per cent compared to a negative 3.8 per cent a year ago. Intermediate goods sector posted a growth of 6 per cent during the year compared to 8.1 per cent in the previous year. In the last month of the fiscal year, the sector grew at 5.3 per cent as against 5.8 per cent in the previous year. Consumer and basic goods sectors fared poorly during the year, recording growth rates of 2.1 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively. Both consumer goods and basic goods sectors continued their poor performance in March also registering growth rates of 2.0 per cent and 1.0 per cent respectively compared to the same period in the previous year. In March consumer
durables registered a growth of 5.6 per cent, while
non-durables posted a growth rate of 1.1 per cent. |
PM presents award to Shantha Biotech on Technology Day NEW DELHI, May 11 (PTI) — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today presented a Rs 10 lakh cash award to Shantha Biotechnics Pvt Limited of Hyderabad for indigenously developing and commercialising a low cost recombinant vaccine against Hepatitis-B. The award has been instituted by the Technology Development Board (TDB) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for encouraging home-grown technologies. Mr Vajpayee gave away the first TDB award to Vara Prasad Reddy, Managing Director of the company at the Technology Day function here organised by the Science Ministry to celebrate the first anniversary of the nuclear tests at Pokhran on May 11 last year. DST Secretary Valangiman Ramamurthy announced that Shantha Biotechnics was selected for the award from 97 nominations by a committee headed by the Defence Science Adviser, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. The Hepatitis-B vaccine, based on an innovative technology, has already captured 46 per cent of the Indian market since its introduction two years ago. Till then the country was dependent on imported vaccine. The TDB had given a loan
of Rs 5 crore to Shantha Biotechnics to help the company
scale up its technology for commercialising. |
Don't
cheat to make money, says Pitroda CHICAGO, May 11 — World Tel Chairman Sam Pitroda and U.S. Airways CEO Rakesh Gangwal have asked Indian students in the USA not to worry about being Indian but to persevere beyond their capacities to get ahead in the competitive business environment. The two were among three top executives of Indian descent who gave students of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management practical business advice. The third speaker was Narayana Murthy, CEO of Infosys Technologies. Pitroda exhorted the students to "dream beyond your capacity, go beyond self, look beyond title and privileges, have passion and perseverance and understand other people." “Most important," he noted, "you have to have character. Don’t cheat anyone to make money." Gangwal, who has turned around the airline within a short time and is said to be "the most talented executive in the U.S. aviation industry", set the tone by asking the students not to worry about being "Indians in America. More and more corporations are becoming race blind," he said. Drawing a parallel with Chicago’s basketball great Michael Jordan, he said, "If you are the top of the line, you can choose your own ball team." He asked the students to "take the challenges you are comfortable with and do it better than anyone else." Pitroda, here on a visit, recalled that he had never used a telephone till he came to the USA at the age of 21. He said he entered the field of digital switching, quite by accident. "I had a physics background," he said, "and naturally thought differently from electrical engineers, with the result that everything I did turned out to be an innovation." Pitroda has several patents to his credit. Pitroda said that shortly after he made 50 million dollars from the sale of his company to Rockwell, he decided to go back to India to "do something in telecom." He made a presentation to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the presence of her entire cabinet. "I met Rajiv (Gandhi) at the meeting. He was young and enthusiastic and we clicked immediately,". With his encouragement, Pitroda said he set up C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics.). "Everyone expected me to head the organisation, but I was not interested. I told them appoint me as an adviser on a salary of one rupee a year. I had decided that on a project like this you can either make money or make a contribution. You could not do both," he said. Speaking on how he turned around the once ailing U.S. Airways, Gangwal said it was through a "change in work culture, achieving competitive cost structure and fleet rationalisation. The airline, which had cumulative losses of $ 3 billion had a billing revenue of $ 8.7 billion last year. Gangwal said the new management under him had focussed on making U.S. Airways "a carrier of choice rather than a carrier of convenience." Narayana Murthy spoke on the growth of Infosys Technologies and stressed on "good corporate governance. No one believes me when I say I am a middle class person," he said, adding "to us respect means more than money." A good corporation needed "predictability and sustainability of revenues, profitability and de-risking. Depending too much on a set of vendors or customers, or on one technology can be risky." —
IANS |
Mass fraud
trial in Vietnam A HUGE fraud trial opened yesterday in Vietnam with a total of 77 businessmen, bankers and government officials appearing in court dressed in striped prison clothes and accused of a series of scams in which State loans were illegally obtained. The frauds allegedly netted nearly $300m (£183m). The prosecution said that business ventures were funded with the help of corrupt bank officials in a conspiracy that took investigators two years to untangle. The principal defendants in the courtroom in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) are a businessman, Tang Minh Phung, and his partner, Lien Khiu Thin. They are accused of “playing tricks to acquire State property”. Eighteen former bank officials and six civil servants are also on trial. The most serious charges could result in the death penalty. Last month two people were sentenced to death after an anti-smuggling trial of 74 defendants, including 31 customs officials. The trials are intended to show that the Vietnamese government is tackling corruption, which has increased with economic liberalisation. Hanoi wants to entice foreign investors who have been put off by official graft. An official report last October said corruption had become more sophisticated. Government jobs were bought and sold and law officers were bribed to avoid prosecution. The State complains about corruption, but outspoken critics of official crookery have been jailed and peasant protests against corruption and arbitrary taxation have been suppressed by security forces. Two banks, Vietcombank and Incombank, are involved in the latest allegations in which loans were provided on dubious security, including government-owned property. A former partner of the chief defendant, Mr Phung, was found dead, slumped against an electric switchboard with wire around his neck. The prosecution alleges
the two main defendants built up a network of more than
40 largely bogus companies. — The Guardian
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Ernst and
Young floats awards NEW DELHI, May 11 — Successful first generation Indian entrepreneurs can now look forward to international recognition with Ernst and Young, a $ 10.9 billion professional services firm, launching its globally successful “Entrepreneur of the Year” (EOY) programme in India. The award will be presented in four categories, including the Entrepreneur of the Year with less than eight years of business and the Master Entrepreneur of the Year with more than eight years old business. Apart from this, one award each in manufacturing and service sector has also been constituted. Announcing this here yesterday, Ernst & Young (India) Chairman K.N. Memani said: “India’s entrepreneurs have been prospering and contributing even though they have constantly been on the run from systemic hurdles”. The winner of the award
will be inducted as a lifetime member into the
entrepreneur of the Year Hall Fame and will be invited to
the USA for E & Y entrepreneur international
conference. |
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NEW DELHI, May 11 (UNI) — The Board of Directors of Bajaj Auto Limited today announced an 80 per cent dividend for 1998-99 having recorded a 16.6 per cent surge in net profit during the year. The net profit stood at Rs 541 crore as against Rs 464 crore in the previous year. Its sales during the period was 3,642 crore, up 11.3 per cent from Rs 3,271 crore a year ago. Other income for the year stood at Rs 265.15 crore from Rs 232.79 crore while total expenditure was Rs 3,011.39 crore, up from the previous year’s Rs 2,662.95 crore. Hitech Drilling Hitech Drilling Services India Ltd, a Tata group company, has recorded a 79 per cent increase in the net profit during 1998-99 at Rs 35.47 crore from Rs. 19.8 crore in the previous year. The Board of Directors have recommended a higher dividend of 45 per cent for the year as compared to 30 per cent in the previous year. The company’s income from charter hire operations jumped up to Rs 150 crore for the year from Rs 107 crore of the previous year. Other income also rose to Rs 6.04 crore from Rs 4.83 crore. There was no mobilisation fee and correspondingly no mobilisation expenses which was Rs 45.7 crore and Rs 44 crore respectively last year. Salora Intl Salora International Limited has recorded an 80 per cent surge in the net profit during the year ended March 1999 to Rs 9.82 crore from Rs 5.44 crore in the previous year. The net sales from operations has improved from Rs 133.11 crore in 1997-98 to Rs 162.60 crore in the current financial year ended March 1999, registering an increase of 22 per cent. Kinetic Motor The Board of Directors of Kinetic Motor Company Limited (erstwhile Kinetic Honda Motor Company Limited) today recommended 15 per cent dividend for 1998-99 having registered a 70 per cent growth in net profit during the period. Net profit during the period stood at Rs 3.69 crore as against Rs 2.17 crore a year ago while gross profit was Rs 10.33 crore, up 35 per cent from Rs 7.64 crore in 1997-98, a statement issued here today said. The company plans to launch a 73cc scooterette and a four-stroke scooter during the current fiscal, company Chairman and Managing Director Arun H. Firodia said today. The 73cc scooterette would be called ‘Kinetic Style’. These new introductions are expected to contribute to higher sales and higher profitability of the company, Mr Firodia said, in a statement issued here. HCL tie-up HCL Infosystems today announced the setting up of an enterprise software organisation (ESO) in association with SAP India to address the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution market in the country. Indo Rama Indo Rama Synthetics
suffered a further setback in the year ended March 1999
with the net losses touching Rs 159.63 crore. The
company’s earnings could not even meet its huge
interest burden of Rs 160.07 crore. — (PTI) |
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| No dumping, this! WASHINGTON, May 11 (PTI) — In a major setback to US steel manufactures, the US International Trade Commission has dropped anti-dumping charges against stainless steel round wire imports from India, Japan and four other countries. Reversing a final ruling by the Commerce Department, the independent federal agency yesterday unanimously ruled that there was “no injury of threat” to US industry despite allegations that steel-makers from there countries were dumping hot-rolled steel in the US market. Gold falls PVC products Office-bearers |
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