Pre-monsoon hard on soft drinks
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 28 — The soft drinks managers, affected by the pre-monsoon showers, are smiling again with the heatwave back during the past three days. Strategies, which had gone awry, are being hammered out afresh to make out on the lost time so that the loss does not figure on the bottom line.

The sales of soft drinks in the country are miniscule as compared to the developed countries but in our case they are lower than a country like China and even Pakistan. The annual average consumption in former is 10 bottles per person and about six bottles per person in case of the latter. America tops the list of the highest guzzlers of the stuff with about 787 bottles per persons annually.

The sale of soft drinks is a seasonal affair and the major players slog it out to make the most of the peak season — April, May and June. With almost 10 to 12 days lost on account of the weather, "hardsell" would be required to make up for the lost time.

May is the make or break month with the sales targets during this month alone projected at 18 to 20 per cent of the sales during the whole year. In the words of an old hand in the sector, "When clouds appear, executives in the sector look heavenwards and pray that nothing happens as no amount of hard work would recoup the losses ".

Senior executives of the local Coca Cola and Pepsi franchises, while dispelling rumours of a major slump, however, admit that the sales have dipped due to the pre-monsoon showers. Though the registered dip in volumes is in the vicinity of 10 to 15 per cent, but things are looking up at present and would continue to do so if the weather remained clear (read scorching).

The overall growth has been encouraging and the market is expanding fast. As compared to previous years the growth rate last year was 35 to 40 per cent. People are growing more conscious about brands and associate with everything that promises uncompromising quality.

They said the temporary reverses are being felt in certain areas, particularly the rural segments. Small shopkeepers, with slender profit margins, stop stocking the drinks as they report lower sales and do not want their money to be blocked for longer durations.

It is basically a psychological thing, if the weather is overcast or it is raining one prefers to sip some hot beverage instead of going in for a soft drink. However, in the urban segments things have remained rosy and the sales are picking up more than ever.

The growth rate projected this year would, in view of the setback, be, however, lower by almost 10 per cent as compared to the previous year, they revealed.

The sale of squashes and other related drinks have also cast their shadow on their market share. Their clientele is totally different and there is so much scope in the soft drink sector that even if the indigenous market were maintain a sustained growth rate of 10 per cent per year they still would be nowhere near them.

While their prime target is the young generation, which hopefully would reap rich dividends in the years, the dream is selling at least half the number of bottles sold in America, they remarked.

On the other hand, there has been an increase in the number of people selling locally bottled aerated drinks and even sugarcane juice.

A large number of people can been seen enjoying these "coolants" at numerous roadside stalls. By far, the most popular is the sugarcane juice. The freshly extracted juice is readily gulped down parched throats. The price is also easy on the pocket of the average man.

The number of such stalls have gone up with almost every roundabout and roadside boasting of them.

According to a market survey, the sale of sherbets, squashes and other concentrates has registered a steep increase.

Punjab handicrafts in sorry state
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 28 — A state-level Selection Committee, called by the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), met at the Institute of Design, Punjab, Sector 10, here today to recognise master craftspersons of the state. It was also to recommend select entries for the national level.

The committee, with 10 nominated members, including artists, art historians and office 'babus', could manage an attendance of only 6 members. Only 19 items had been received for selection.

The number of entries for selection for the national level awards, especially since the state-level awards were discontinued after 1992-93, came down drastically. In 1995, 58 entries were received. The number went down to 50 in 1996. In 1997, the entries trickled down to 23. The low number of entries causes less awards at the national level.

Mr D.S. Guru, Director, Small Village Industries (SVI), Punjab, who holds the additional charge of the Institute of Design, Punjab, said, "Every year we advertise in the media and invite artisans to enter their crafts for the national level. We cannot ask the artisans to participate at our own level because we want to have a fair selection of crafts."

The 19 entries this year consist mainly of durries, phulkaris, embroidery works, wall-hangings, wooden items and a piece of a 'tilla-jutti'. These items have been hung haphazardly in a room for want of space in the institute, with some phulkaris and durries hanging with bricks placed on them.

Mr R.L. Bhagat, Deputy Director, Northern Region, the Office of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), said, "Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir do fairly well at the national level and manage to win the maximum awards. Punjab has only phulkari, panjhaduri and 'tilla jutti' as the main handicraft products. There is not much variety to choose from."

Dr Alka Pande, art historian and one of the members of the committee, who absented herself from the meeting, disagreed with Mr Bhagat. "Punjab has a very rich heritage of crafts, and it has not being given its right due. The design centre for Punjab is an important centre for our craftsmen. If Gujarat and Rajasthan can come up, why is it that the art and culture of Punjab are relegated to levels where it starts dying a slow death? One has to have a look at the centre itself to see the plight it is in today."

During the meeting, the committee members were served water and cold drinks in cut glasses that were kept under lock and key for their design value for craftspersons of Punjab. An employee said, "We create whatever designs are given to us but these are not being sent to craftsmen. I do not know the reason."

When asked about not attending the meeting, Dr Pande said, "The letter which I got for the meeting stated that it would be held at 12:30 pm. It was at 11 am today that I got a telephone call that the meeting had been postponed to 1 pm. One can see the seriousness of the whole matter, when even the scheduled time is not adhered to. I do not go for a cup of tea or biscuits alone. I care about the crafts of the region but I do not like this approach."

This opinion was shared by other artists, two of whom had also absented themselves from the meeting. They questioned why no TA or DA was given to the members invited by the institute. "The departments give TA and DA to their members. The nominated members could ask their departments to provide them with TA and DA," said Mr Guru.

"This time we nominated 10 members to the selection committee for the 19 entries. We keep a margin for those who are unable to make it to the meeting," said Mr Bhagat.

A state craftsman, Joginder Singh, was also present at the meeting. His hand-embroidered wall-hanging, which was rejected last year, which he later entered for the Vishwakarma Award, was lying at the centre for the last one year. He said, "I now want to take back this piece of work. I am an ex-serviceman and hand-embroidery is my hobby. I do need encouragement from the government."

Meanwhile the government, busy celebrating the 300 years of Khalsa, is being asked to release the funds for the various awards instituted to honour artisans. "We are trying our level best to encourage the artisans of Punjab by instituting the awards and creating such committees to give them a chance even at the national level," said Mr Guru.

Indica commands high premium
By U.K. Bhanot
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 28 — While most customers of the small car are still undecided about which car to buy, the inability of the manufacturers of Indica, particularly its diesel air-conditioned version, to make the committed supplies, has pushed up the car premium in the black market.

In spite of the fact that the original charm of the car has somewhat diminished because the cars has, perhaps, not yet come up to the customers’ expectations and hundreds of original applicants in the city have even cancelled their bookings, the car is still a hot item in the black market — commanding a premium of, some say between Rs 40,000 and Rs 50,000. The reason is that the booking is not open. The local dealer had a total booking of 6,000 cars with full payment. It will take some years for the manufacturers to wipe off the waiting list. This is in spite of the fact that the car has yet to be fully tested in the hot weather conditions. However, this is the only car which has been crash-tested.

Those who purchase the car on premium, in spite of its not-so-good finish, feel that once so much money is spent on acquiring the vehicle on an out-of-turn basis only a part of it can be retrieved because of the low cost consumption of diesel. The car complies with Euro-I norms. Is spite of cancellations, says Mr Ashish Gupta of Indica, it is clear that the vehicle is very much in demand as is shown by the premium that the car commands.

The other car commanding premium, a part of it in a managed situation, was the Trend model of Uno. This version was not booked for quite some time and it was entirely left to the dealer to dispose off the stocked cars in the manner in which the dealers liked. The supplies of this model have now fully stopped and the premium of the old stocked cars which are still with some dealers in some towns command a premium of Rs 30,000 plus. Earlier, Uno cars were not very much in demand but after the company reduced the prices by offering a stripped version called Trend, the sales picked up.

Although the outstanding booking of the de luxe version is not much, the delivery time is reported to be between four and six months. While the petrol version of this car is not very much in demand, the non-airconditioned diesel version costs Rs 3.15 lakh and the AC de luxe version Rs 3.59 lakh. The AC power steering de luxe car will cost still higher — Rs 4.11 lakh. The car is reported to be non-compliant of Euro norms.

Although not readily available and the delivery time being three weeks Santro which is available in both versions of Euro-I as well as Euro-II compliant appears to be gaining customer acceptance. A single dealer of the car has so far sold 450 cars — 80 per cent of these in the standard version costing Rs 2.94 lakh. Its managing director, Mrs Geeta Talwar, claims that customers’ major concern being safety, comfort and hassle-free registration, most of them prefer to buy the Euro-I compliant as it costs Rs 15,000 less than the Euro-II compliant model.

She argues that lakhs of cars already in the market cannot be discarded so quickly. These old and used cars also cannot be easily converted into Euro-II compliant vehicles at a reasonable cost.

Although the sale figures do not bear it out much, the Matiz enjoys the “blessing-in-disguise position” by being the first and still the only Euro-II compliant car readily available to the customers. The reason is that the car is being made as per European norms and is still being by and large assembled in India.

Maruti which has ruled the small car segment for more than a decade with monopoly sales is still non-compliant with Euro norms. It is facing a situation of dwindling sales and is hence fast losing customer preference till it upgrades its technology.

Mr Sanjay Passi of Passco Automobiles says that cars compliant with Euro norms will not be sold in Chandigarh so long as the Euro norms are not made applicable here. These norms are applicable only in the national capital region. The cars compliant with Euro-I norms will hence be sold only in the NCR, including Delhi, at no extra cost to the customer. He admits that there is a 15 to 20 per cent decline in the sale of Maruti cars. Both ordinary and de luxe versions are readily available, he says.

It is because of the monopoly situation that Maruti enjoyed for such a long time that the second-hand car market now belongs almost entirely to Maruti cars. However, with new cars being easily available, the second hand car market is also facing a slump with prices looking downwards.

However, customers should realise that price tags even in the ever-sprawling car bazars are no indication of their real prices. Generally, sellers of good cars rarely have faith in a clean deal in the car bazars where the chances of being duped in the case of both buyer and seller are much higher than ever before. Of course, there are also exceptions among the car bazar dealers. But in general most of these dealers try to earn much higher margins than mere commission they profess to take. Some of the car bazar operators/mechanics themselves rush to the houses of those who advertise for the sale of their personal cars individually. In several such cases, sales are organised outside the car bazars in most cases without letting the buyer and seller come face to face.

Animal-driven carts overloaded
By Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 28 —'Rehrawallahas' overloading their animal-driven carts in the city are being challaned.

A major factor contributing to the problem of overloading, which is also a major traffic hazard, is the 'outdated' Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, wherein a fine of just Rs 50 can be imposed on the first time violators, and an absence of the registration of such vehicles in the city.

According to the statistics available with the Society for Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (SPCA), which has been empowered by the UT Administration to challan the persons indulging in violation of the Act, as many as 49 'rehrawallahas' were challaned in 1998-99, and as many as 11 were booked during the past two months. This is a considerable hike in number of violations compared to the figures of past few years. Only 22 persons were challaned between January 1994 and October 1995, followed by 18 during 1996. The number rose in 1997 as between February and July, 26 persons were booked for the offence. Most of the offenders use horse-driven carts for the purpose of transportation of goods.

The maximum permissible limit according to the Act is 750 quintals.

The SPCA and People for Animals (PFA) authorities have suggested that to prevent the violation, the fine amount should be increased considerably and a process of registration of animal-driven carts should be initiated in the UT as is in Punjab.

"Actually, an amount of fine of Rs 50 is too little to make people realise that they have violated a rule. It is nothing for 'rehrawallahs' and they go on violating the law," feels Mr Jasbir Ralhan, President of the local unit of the SPCA. He said the absence of registration of carts has added to the problem. "In case the vehicle is registered, we can book the cart owner with the help of registration number, even if he flees the scene, which is a normal thing while the process of challaning is on," he said. Mr Ralhan, said to curb the menace, the Animal Welfare Board of India, of which he is a member, has recommended to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment that the minimum fine amount should be raised from Rs 50 to Rs 500-Rs1000 by amending the Act which has not been amended after it was introduced in 1960.

"In absence of any registration number, and to ensure the identity of rehrawallah, we had to devise a system of wherein we take some other rehrawallah as a witness. This has to be done as quite a few violators would not disclose their correct identity, " said Mr J.K. Sukhija, Field Inspector of the SPCA. He said emboldened by such a situation, some of cart drivers, in their quest to earn more money, were overloading their vehicles.

"In fact, most of the people driving vehicles are not the owners and were just drivers of these vehicles. So they want to earn as much money as possible, even at the cost of the health of the animal."

Similarly, Ms Payal Sodhi of the PFA favoured enhancement of amount of fine so that the menace of overloading could be checked. Giving reasons behind the violations, she said," Actually, the rehrawallahs try to compete with trucks as far as weight of goods is concerned. They just ignore the poor animal to earn a few more bucks."