Saturday, November 27, 1999
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B U S I N E S S | Saturday, November 27, 1999 |
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Small cars log 48.9 pc
growth in sales
Blessing Wipro babies Are NRIs a threat to security ? |
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1.8 million more pay
taxes now CII paints a rosy picture ‘Globalisation changes
rules’ Modi GBC plans to buy back shares |
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Small cars log 48.9 pc growth in sales NEW DELHI, Nov 26 (PTI) — Automobile sales continued to grow at a feverish pace with passenger car and commercial vehicle sales recording impressive growth rates of over 30 per cent in the first seven months of the current fiscal. Riding on the success of the new small cars in the market, passenger car sales recorded a 48.9 per cent growth in sales, while commercial vehicles and the motorcycle segment grew at 31.62 per cent and 23.90 per cent respectively during April-October, according to the latest figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) today. Maruti Udyog Ltd registered a 16.34 per cent growth during the period selling 2.29 lakh cars compared to 1.97 cars in the same period last year. However, scooter sales were down by 6 per cent in the first seven months to 7.23 lakh scooters as against 7.69 lakh a year ago. The growth in sales of the passenger car segment was even more impressive in October at 66.04 per cent compared to last year, mainly thanks to new entrants like Daewoo’s Matiz, Hyundai’s Santro and Telco’s Indica. Most of the players in the mid-size and luxury car segment suffered serious setbacks as their sales continued to slide. The largest automobile companies in the world General Motors and Ford Motor Company recorded negative sales growth of 29.6 per cent and 25.27 per cent respectively in April-October. In contrast, Daewoo, Hyundai and Telco increased their sales during April-October by 311.45 per cent, 145.49 and 1637.6 per cent respectively compared to the same period last year. Motorcycles continued to eat into the marketshare of scooters as both Bajaj Auto and LML finished with lower sales figures of 3.31 lakh scooters and 1.7 lakh in April-October compared to 3.67 lakh and 1.94 lakh a year ago. Hero Honda, the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the country, increased its lead over its competitors growing at over 40 per cent to 4.04 lakh motorcycles compared to 2.87 lakh in the same period last year. Bajaj, which recorded a 8.12 per cent growth in sales at 2.13 lakh motorcycles during April-October, finished a distant second. Sales of TVS Suzuki and Escorts Yamaha grew at 25.22 per cent and 10.74 per cent. Reflecting the revival in the economy, commercial vehicles recorded a 31.62 per cent growth in sales during April-October, mainly on account of a 53.19 per cent growth in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment. Sales of light commercial vehicles, however, grew at a modest 5.3 per cent over last year selling 30,864 vehicles. In medium and heavy commercial vehicles, Telco recorded 67.01 per cent growth in sales at 36,682 vehicles during the period compared to 21,963 vehicles. Sales of Ashok Leyland, the second largest player in the medium and commercial vehicle segment, grew by 32.62 per cent to 18,010 vehicles as against 13,580 vehicles sold in the same period last year. The company sold 14,397
cars in April-October compared to 11,280 in the same
period of last year. |
Blessing
Wipro babies CHANDIGARH, Nov 26 — Rock Garden creator Nek Chand, Haryana Speaker Ashok Arora and artist Shiv Singh signed on certificates to be presented to the families of selected millennium babies at a function organised by Wipro here today. The event titled “Wipro Millennium Baby” is a nationwide drive to welcome the first generation of the new millennium, said Mr Nagendra Arya, Regional Manager-North, Wipro Consumer Care, at a press conference here. Parents expecting babies from December 15, ‘99 onwards can fill participation forms available at maternity homes and chemist shops in main cities. Individuals can also participate online by logging onto the Wipro Corporation website: wiproindia. com and clicking on the Wipro Millennium Baby Event icon. Five babies each at the city, State and national levels will get free education cover. Important personalities and key social figures will bless the babies by signing certificates. Trophies will be presented to the families of the selected babies. Doctors and paramedics concerned will also be honoured. All participants will get a token of best wishes and blessings from Wipro Baby Soft while babies born closest to December 31 midnight will receive special gifts. The response from Chandigarh has been encouraging, said Mr Arya. In Punjab forms are available in main towns like Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Patiala. The participants from Himachal will be treated as part of Punjab for selection purposes. Wipro Baby Soft will
share with expecting mothers interesting tips on
childcare, hygiene, nutrition, and must-dos for the
child, the mother and the entire family. |
Are NRIs a threat to security ? NEW DELHI, Nov 26 (UNI) — Non-resident Indians today asked the Government to give them due share in sectors like insurance and manufacturing in the second generation of reforms.“As India launches the second generation of reforms, time is ripe for a clearly defined role for NRIs in building India. The NRIs can make substantial contribution to the financial and industry’s savings,” a resolution passed by them said. The resolution was passed at a seminar organised by NRI institute here. The seminar on opportunities to NRIs was addressed by eminent NRIs, Dr L M Singhvi, a former High Commissioner to the UK, Mr Omar Abdullah, Minister of State for Industry and Commerce, Mr Joginder Singh, a former CBI Director and Chairman of the institute, Dr S P Sharma and Mr Jagmohan Singh, Secretary General of the institute. The institute is a voluntary organisation which furthers the cause of NRIs. The resolution said a single window clearance for NRI projects will go a long way in promoting their investments. The NRIs had said they are treated like step-sons and step-daughters in India, despite their proven good intentions. “As and when the issue of granting right of dual citizenship to NRIs is raised, some vested interests, argue that NRIs is a security risk as a majority of them are foreign citizens. The frivolous objection is a crude attack on NRIs love and loyalty towards their motherland,’’ they said. A large amount of money can flow into the country if the dual citizenship is granted to NRI’s, which was the natural next step towards the PIO card. Both public and private sectors operate under monopolist conditions and even the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission has failed to break the monopoly. Instead of free competition, business and industry still function under sheltered conditions. They thrive on protection, subsidies and bank credits with the controllers having little stake of their own. Even internal competition is scuttled in an organised manner. That is the reason as to why there is high industrial sickness in both public and private sectors, that is also the reason why NRIs are virtually debarred from entering business and industry in any form and even collaborations with them are shunned. Overseas Indians, nurtured in quite different business culture of competition and professionalism are neither welcome nor can they achieve much here despite their earnest desire to become partners in India’s progress. Their indirect investments were encouraged because the Government needed their money to stave off a crash on the foreign exchange front. Besides, they did not
threaten in any manner the protected monopoly of big
business, in which now foreign capital is a major
partner. If reasonable returns and security are the
criteria then indirect investment is welcome by NRIs as
the profit is assured and this is generally hassle-free.
However, the country needs much larger direct investments
from NRIs. |
1.8 million more pay taxes now NEW DELHI, Nov 26 (PTI) — The number of income tax assesses in the country crossed the 20 million mark at the end of October, with an addition of nearly 1.8 million new assesses during the first seven months of the current fiscal. The number of new assesses is expected to touch the 25 million mark by March 31, 2000, an increase of 37 per cent over the tax base as on April 1, 1999, an official release today said. This increase was because during the current financial year, widening of the tax base was accorded top priority and the 1/6 criteria which was in operation from 1998-99 was extended to 19 new centres. Simultaneously, the
effective utilisation of PAN data, TDS provisions and the
investigative machinery resulted in the increase in the
number of new assesses during 1999-2000. |
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NEW DELHI, Nov 26 (PTI) — Forecasting a revival of industry, CII today said that majority of industries, including basic, capital goods and consumer goods, would record moderate to high growth during the current financial year. Assessing performance of 125 industry segments in terms of production, sales and exports, CII in its industry survey ‘Ascon Industry Monitor’ termed production of 24 groups as ‘excellent’ with over 20 per cent growth and another 43 groups as ‘high’ with growth ranging between 10 to 20 per cent. The high growth trend is led by telecom cable industry, power transformers, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, colour picture tubes, sugar, personal computers, softwares and hardwares. Striking an enthusiastic note, Ascon said that only 14 groups including scooters, black and white televisions, cigarettes and tobacco recorded negative growth during April-October this year. One of the core infrastructure industry, steel, which grew at 10.8 per cent during the first seven months of the current financial year, is likely to grow at between 5 to 10 per cent during the second half of 1999-2000. The Ascon Industry Review, however, pointed out stagnating demand and poor offtake by consuming industry as one of the major constraints in the growth of steel industry. Steel exports registered a growth rate of 33 per cent during April-October this year over the corresponding period last year and is likely to grow at between 10 to 20 per cent for the remaining part of the year. Infrastructural bottlenecks and trade actions in terms of imposing anti-dumping duties by the United States and seven countries of European Union is likely to affect steel exports adversely, the industry survey pointed out. In case of telecom cables, the industry survey said that outlook for this industry was positive during the second half of 1999-2000 projecting a growth rate of 10 to 15 per cent. On exports of telecom cables, Ascon Industry Review said that prices of Indian cables were not competitive in the international market. Aluminium industry which grew at 14 per cent during the first seven months of 1999 was likely to register a moderate growth rate of five to 10 per cent during the rest of the financial year. The review pointed out liquidity crunch, power shortage and high power tariffs, inadequate Government spending on infrastructure beside low rate of customs duty on scrap as major constraints or key issues in the development of aluminium industry. Painting a rosy picture of export growth of aluminium industry in the range of 15 to 20 per cent during the second half of 1999-2000, the industry review, however, said that inadequate road or port facilities and low demand for extruded products were key issues. Cement industry which registered a growth rate of 19 per cent during April-October this year was expected to grow at between 10 to 15 per cent during the next six months, the industry review said. In the information
technology sector, software, hardware and personal
computers were likely to register excellent growth rate
of 50, 30 to 40 and 50 per cent respectively during next
six months, the industry review said. |
‘Globalisation
changes rules’ CHANDIGARH, Nov 26 — Globalisation changes the “rules of the game” in five ways: global products, global suppliers, global R&D processes, global manufacturing concepts and global standards. This was stated by Mr Alan Nicholas, Managing Director, Avon Rubber Plc (UK), while delivering the keynote address at a two-day seminar on “New technologies in plastics & rubber: moving towards the next millennium”, which started here today. Citing the example of the world automobile industry, Mr Nicholas said that the world’s major vehicle manufacturers are adopting global strategies. By using global platforms, global car manufacturers achieve maximum scale-effects as well as a wide model range. The world’s major vehicle manufacturers are coming to India and they are constantly looking for world class suppliers on a world-wide basis. A world class supplier has to adopt state-of-the-art technology and continuously innovate, improve operations, add value, improve quality and offer solutions to customer problems at competitive prices, Mr Nicholas added. A number of leading experts from top organisations like Reliance Industries, GE Plastics, Larsen & Toubro, Cincinnati Milacron, IPCL, Hilton Roulunds, JK Industries, Machino-Montell etc. will make presentations on recent advancements in the field of plastics and rubber technologies. The seminar is being
attended by over 70 representatives from industry from
all over the country. |
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MUMBAI, Nov 26 (PTI) — HDFC Bank and TimesBank today announced the first ever private sector merger in the Indian banking sector, to come into effect from December 1. The boards of the two banks met separately this morning and decided to proceed with the merger, to be worked out at a share swap ratio of one HDFC Bank share for every 5.75 shares of TimesBank. The merged entity will be known as HDFC Bank, while the licence issued to TimesBank would be extinguished or surrendered back to RBI, HDFC Bank Chairman Deepak Parekh told newsmen after the board meeting. He said the two banks would soon apply to RBI for permission for merger adding they would also approach their respective shareholders in extraordinary general meetings (EGM) early next year. HDFC Bank would have its EGM on January 1 and TimesBank, on January 7. HDFC Bank would make a preferential issue to its shareholders so that their stakes remain unchanged after the merger. HDFC Bank would pay an
acquisition premium of about 11 per cent to the
shareholders of TimesBank, Parekh said. |
Modi GBC
plans to buy back shares NEW DELHI, Nov 26 — An innovative office automation product “Mimio” which captures the output from a whiteboard and transfers it to PC and printer, was launched by Modi GBC, a joint venture between ModiCorp and GBC of USA. Mimio is a 24-inch bar with infra-red detectors and a microprocessor in serial interface which fits into any conference room whiteboard and can be used to record in real time and playback everything that is written or drawn on it in four colours, Mr Sutendra Kumar, MD of Modi GBC said. He said the JV company
would de-list from the stock exchanges by March 2000. The
company intends to buy back its Rs 10 share at par.
During the past one year, the share, which is currently
traded around Rs 11 a share, had reached a high of Rs 12
and a low of Rs 4. |
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