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USA to repeal steel
tariffs this week India on the rise:
BusinessWeek Maruti Udyog sales in top
gear
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Dabur forges alliance in
Bangladesh
Fresh bids soon for two
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USA to repeal steel
tariffs this week
Washington, December 1 Quoting administration and industry sources, the newspaper said in Monday editions President George W. Bush would likely announce the decision this week. The officials said they had to allow for the possibility that Bush would make some change in the plan, but a source close to the White House said it was "all but set in stone," the Post reported. A spokesman for the White House denied a decision had been made to repeal the tariffs. "The matter is still under review and we'll make announcements when there are announcements to make," the spokesman told Reuters. Ending the tariffs 16 months ahead of schedule could spark a political backlash against Bush in next year's presidential election in the pivotal steel-producing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The Washington Post sources said Bush's aides concluded they could not run the risk that the European Union would carry out its threat to impose sanctions on citrus fruit from Florida, farm machinery, textiles and other products. A source involved in the negotiations said White House aides looked for some step short of a full repeal that would satisfy the European Union but concluded that it was "technically possible but practically impossible," according to the Post. Speculation had mounted that Washington would scrap or roll back the controversial tariffs after it last week sought and obtained an effective delay in retaliatory sanctions by countries opposed to them. The European Union, one of a number of trade partners to take action at the WTO over the levies, had warned it was ready to hit Washington with sanctions on up to $2.2 billion of goods within five days of the WTO approving the court ruling. —
Reuters
Brussels: The European Commission said on Monday it had not been informed that the US was set to lift steel duties as reported in US newspapers. "Unfortunately we have not had any confirmation of the lifting of the safeguards (US steel tariffs)," Commission trade spokeswoman Arancha Gonzalez told the European Union body's daily news briefing. The Washington Post reported on Monday that the United States was ready to drop 20-month old tariffs on imported steel this week to avoid international retaliation. —
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India on the rise: BusinessWeek New York, December 1 “India has always had brilliant, educated people,” the four-part story quoted tech-trend forecaster Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future, based in Menlo Park, California, as saying. “Now Indians are taking the lead in colonising cyberspace.” China at one time drove down costs in manufacturing and Wal-Mart Stores Inc in retail. India may, in some cases already, depress costs in the services sector. “What happened in manufacturing is happening in services” said Azim H. Premji, Chairman of Wipro Ltd. “That raises a lot of social issues for the USA.” By some estimates, there are more IT engineers in Bangalore (1,50,000) than in Silicon Valley (120,000). About one-third of new IT development work for big US companies is done overseas, with India taking the lion’s share, the weekly said in its December 8 issue. Despite last month’s move by Indiana, a mid-western state in the USA, which cancelled a $ 15 million IT contract with the Tatas, other states are increasingly using India to manage everything from accounting to food-stamp programs. Even the US Postal Service is considering taking work there. These moves are expected to have a positive effect on the USA. “Harnessing Indian brainpower will greatly boost American tech and services leadership by filling a big projected shortfall in skilled labour” the magazine said, with the cover story titled “The Rise of India.” American companies outsourcing to India pay about $ 10,000 a year to a top engineering graduate from any IIT. “Outsourcing work will spur innovation, job creation and dramatic increases in productivity that will be passed on to the consumer,” Rajat Gupta, an IIT-Delhi graduate and senior partner at consulting firm McKinsey and Co, said. By 2008, McKinsey forecast, IT services and back-office work in India will swell five fold, to a $ 57 billion annual export industry, employing four million people and accounting for seven per cent of India’s GDP. That growth is inspiring more of the best and brightest to stay home rather than migrate. This year about 20,000 tax returns of Americans were prepared in India and the number is expected to go up to 2,00,000 next year. The magazine warned that the country’s transformation is still a work in progress. The problems of illiteracy, poor infrastructure and bad governance persist. But a commentative piece concludes the cover story by citing the Indian peoples newly acquired self-confidence. By 2015, some 55 per cent of Indians will be under the age of 20, and this generation will have grown up in an economy where roads like the Pune highway are a rule — not an exception. “Unlike the generation before them, young Indians are no longer obsessed with India’s poverty, but with its future,” the commentary noted. “They give India a fighting chance.” —
UNI |
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Maruti Udyog sales in top
gear
New Delhi, December 1 The company sold 36,137 units during November 2003 as compared to 25,471 units recorded in the same month last year, a company statement said here. Cumulative (April-November 2003) sales also grew by 27.7 per cent to 2,59,636 units. Exports during November, however, declined by 31.6 per cent to 3,608 units as compared 5,281 units of last year. Sales of Maruti 800 went up by a robust 33 per cent to 14,671 units in November, 2003, while that of Omni and Versa by 23.7 per cent to 4,945 units.
Hero Honda
Hero Honda said today its motorcycle sales during November, 2003, grew 26 per cent to touch 2,04,533 units and this growth was spread across all major segments, including Splendor+, and Passion Plus. “Passion Plus has got back the “style” customer, leading to an increase in our market share in the executive segment... Following this incredible performance, the company’s outlook for the year looks great,” a company statement said here, quoting Managing Director Pawan Munjal. The company had sold 2,07,472 units in October this year, 26 per cent higher than sales in the same month in 2002.
Bajaj Auto
Aided by growth in executive and premium segments, Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) has clocked a 17.4 per cent rise in motorcycles sales at 91,257 units in November over 77,732 units sold in same period last year. In the executive segment, the Caliber 115 and Wind 125 together accounted for 21,855 units, up by 77 per cent compared to last November sales of 12,319 units while in the premium segment the Pulsar twins recorded a 45 per cent rise in sales to 26,572 units over last November’s 18,327 units, the company said in a release here today. The total two-wheeler sales stood at 1,13,164 units (1,12,874 units in November 2002).
TVS Motors
TVS Motor Company reported a 30 per cent decline in motorcycle sales during November, 2003, at 48,052 units compared to 68,631 units recorded in the same month last year. The company expects the declining trend to continue in December. “The growth last month (November) was lower due to drop in sales of the two-stroke Max motorcycles,” a company press release said here today. —
PTI |
Dabur forges alliance in
Bangladesh
New Delhi, December 1 Dabur has acquired a majority 74 per cent stake in the new company, which had a total equity base of about Rs 2 crore, a Dabur India spokesperson told PTI here. He said having set an aggressive growth target, the company had also identified other overseas markets where similar joint venture operations would come up in the near future. Among the other markets where the prospects of starting similar JV operations have been found include the US, Britain, Pakistan, Nigeria and the Middle East. On entering the Bangladeshi market, the pact will initially begin manufacturing hair care products of Dabur and then expand into oral and skin care segments. In the USA, Dabur was looking for distribution alliances, whereas in Britain it was keen on forging an equity alliance, the spokesperson said. —
PTI
Aurobindo Pharma
to issue shares
Aurobindo Pharma (APL) has said it will issue 31,000,00 equity shares of Rs 5 each at a price of Rs 302 per share on a preferential basis, totalling up to Rs 93.6 crore. It was decided in the recent meeting of the APL Board of Directors, which approved it subject to the approval of the shareholders of the company and other regulatory approvals. The price of Rs 302 is in accordance with SEBI’s guidelines for preferential issue considering the date 30 days prior to the date of the shareholders meeting as the relevant date for the purpose of issue of equity shares. —
UNI
Cipla told to pay
Rs 76.7 crore
Cipla Ltd said today it had received notices from the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to pay Rs 76.7 crore being 50 per cent on account of alleged overcharging in respect of three drugs from July, 2000, till July 2003. The amount is demanded to be paid on or before December 26, 2003. The pharma major had challenged the inclusion of the drugs — Salbutamol, Theophylline, Ciprofloxacin and Norfloxacin — within the ambit of price control. The petition filed by the company had been decided in favour of Cipla by the Bombay High Court which held that the said drugs were outside the ambit of price control. However, on an appeal filed by the government, the Supreme Court had remanded the matter to the Bombay High Court for further and more detailed examination in light of the principles laid down by the Supreme Court. The apex court had also permitted the government to recover 50 per cent of the amounts they claimed to have been overcharged. —
UNI |
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