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Women
entrepreneurs' Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU,
Nov 10: The
Industries Minister, Mr Bodh Raj Bali today said the
demand for reservation in Parliament and legislative
bodies in the country for women cannot be delayed for
long. Speaking at a function held after the inauguration of the first 6-day women entrepreneurs exhibition here this evening, the Minister said, Jammu and Kashmir has taken lead in reserving 33 per cent seats in Panchayats for Women. No other State in the country has not done so, he added. Mr Bali said, the people's Government under the dynamic leadership of Dr Farooq Abdullah.....more BMW still bullish on India |
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Leadership
Foundation organises seminar Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 10: Leadership Foundation conducted second seminar on ‘‘Management-A Career Option’’ for undergraduate students of Engineering yesterday at GCET, REC Campus Jammu.. ....more FIEO expresses concern MUMBAI,
Nov 10: The
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) today
announced guidelines for buyback of shares by companies,
permitting corporates to buy back shares through tender
offers, book building or direct purchase.....more |
| BMW still
bullish on India NEW DELHI, Nov 10: German luxury carmaker BMW AG is still bullish on India despite the delay in receiving approvals from the Indian Government. BMW is still awaiting for some approvals from the Indian Government and there is no question of pulling out of the country, BMW Asia spokesman Ramesh Divyanathan told. On the delay in going ahead with the project, Mr T Divyanathan said, "consistent and committed investments such as whether to invest in a country’s auto industry always takes time. This is partly because of the numerous parties involved and the legal framework one is required to work within. If the legal framework changes, this requires new discussions with virtually all parties again. Initially, India had a developing auto policy, with a case-by case discretionary approach. But with the new MoU policy, there exists a binding framework. However, any subsequent changes in regulations means that BMW and its partners again need to make changes in its own calculations and proposals. BMW now awaits for some approvals from the Indian Government." He further stated that the long term potential of India remains bright and BMW still sees a high potential for the passenger car market here. "The decision to set up a plant is a long-term strategy and should not be based on a current economic climate." Citing some examples, Mr Divyanathan said BMW’s plant in Dingolfing, Germany, was built in the early 70s in the midst of a recession and the first oil crisis. And the decision for the plant in the United States was made when the German and other European economies were weakening. Finally, just last month, BMW announced the investment of 43 million Deutsche Mark to build a manufacturing plant in Thailand. BMW is planning to set up a 50-50 joint venture with the Hero Group to manufacture the BMW AG and rover group range of cars in India. Initially, the company would be producing the BMW 5-series here. Besides, it is also exploring the feasibility of rolling out the 3-series and the 7-series in the country. BMW’s Indian partner — the Hero Group — had recently stated that the German car maker has shelved the project for the present due to the persistent delays in getting the approvals. In an application to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), BMW had sought permission to lower the minimum level of foreign equity investment to 35 million dollars from the existing 50 million dollars as proposed in the auto policy. This seems to be only bone of contention with the DGFT rejecting the proposal. Under the original application filed with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), BMW had sought a majority stake in the venture. It was seeking a 51 per cent holding in the company which has now been reduced to an equal joint venture. The joint venture company — BMW India Limited — also intends to purchase components from the country and export cars from the country subject to the condition that they meet BMW standards. As per the original application submitted on March 29, 1996, the joint venture company will be a complete production base with an authorised equity capital of Rs 240 crore just for the BMW 5-series. The capital investment for the 5-series was stated to be Rs 270 crore and plant was supposed to have an annual capacity of 10,000 units. Besides, 520 jobs were likely to be created by the project. BMW AG would be providing the technical support for making the cars in India. Besides the 5-series, the joint venture company will also look into manufacturing the 3-series and other models in the BMW stables as well as the landrover, rover cars and motorcycles. In the first phase, a limited number of cars would initially be assembled after importing them as Completely Knocked Down (CKD) kits. In the second phase, the joint venture would start locally manufacturing these cars. According to the original proposal, the project was expected to be up by 1996 with Assembly of 100 cars from CKD units having ten per cent local content. It intended to produce another 700 units in 1997 from CKD imports with a ten per cent local content. Besides, another 700 cars were to be made locally with a 45 per cent local content. From 1998 to 2003, it intended to increase production from 3,400 to 6,000 units with local content increasing from 45 per cent to 64 per cent. The company had proposed to keep the indigenisation level at 64 per cent. It had also stated that with the introduction of additional BMW and Rover products, an additional investment of Rs 190 crore was intended to be made in India. (UNI) |
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| Ozasa calls upon
Govt to review tax policy NEW DELHI, Nov 10: Foreign consumer electronic companies are finding difficult to locate component manufacturers who can deliver required quality products at competitive prices, according to an expert. Mr Y Ozasa, Managing Director of Matsuhita Television and Audio India Limited (MTAIL), said a strong component manufacturing base is essential for the growth of Indian audio visual industry in 21st century. He called upon the Government to review its tax policy so that the component sector can come up and enable the country to become a major player in audio visual field. "The Government authorities must implement necessary changes to simplify procedures pertaining to various taxation levels with special consideration towards the component sector." Mr Ozasa said Matsuhita would transfer the latest technology from Japan whereby Indian consumers will have access to the best products sold worldwide. "As a second fold, we will contribute to the society by building a local base for developing the products specific to Indian customers’ needs." For boosting the demand of colour televisions, Mr Ozasa said, the broadcasting infrastructure must be improved. It has been noticed that broadcasting signal quality through terrestrial or even cable transmission is not quite upto the mark. "This, if improved, will make more people glued onto their TVs. Another field where India needs to improve is voltage stability." There are frequent voltage fluctuations here, he said. This results in additional cost for designing circuits to withstand voltage fluctuations. "Acceleration towards digitalisation will also speed up the improvement of broadcasting infrastructure," he said adding the industry is keenly waiting for the Government regulations on direct-to-home broadcasting and is prepared to launch digital set-top boxes at an appropriate time. Mr Ozasa said India has several types of taxes which not only build up the cost but also reduce the efficiency and cause delays. Most other countries follow a simple value added tax system with a total incidence of taxation to certain percentage of the total end product. According to the Consumer Electronics and Television Manufacturers Association (CETMA), South Korea has 10 per cent, Thailand has seven per cent and Taiwan has only five per cent value added tax. "This has resulted in easier and better complaince of tax laws and promoted healthy industrial growth in these countries." Mr Ozasa said India could well improve its position in the colour television market from nine to three or five in the world as it surges into the 21st century because of its high growth rate. (UNI) |
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| RBI to
bring down Govt securities from next year MUMBAI Nov 10: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to bring down the ratio of Government securities in the permanent category to 30 per cent for the year ending March 1999. According to the RBI’s report on trend and progress of banking in India (1997-98), the Apex Bank would endeavour to ensure that the banks increasingly mark-to-market (reprising of securities on the basis of their market value) their investments in Government papers to the current category to facilitate valuing all the investments on fully marked to market basis. The monetary and credit policy of April 1998 has pointed out the need to increase the ratio of current investments in approved securities progressively to 100 per cent in the next three years, in line with international norms. The ratio of investments in permanent category was brought down to 40 per cent for the year ending March 1998. Also, new private banks are required to mark-to-market their entire investments in approved securities from end-March 1997. (UNI) |
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| ‘Banks performance reflects
reduction in level of NPAs’ MUMBAI, Nov 10: The improved performance of banks during the year 1997-98 essentially reflects the gains arising from financial sector reforms and also successful reduction in the level of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs), according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In its report on trend and progress of the banking sector in India for the year ended June 30, 1998, the RBI said that there was clear evidence of prudent management of investment portfolios as reflected in the bank’s participation in primary auctions of Government securities and in significant interest income from Government securities. The focus of further reforms as suggested by the Narasimham Committee Report (1998), has rightly been on improving efficiency and accountability and on further improving the functioning of financial markets. The meeting of higher capital adequacy ratio in the future is essential in the light of the significantly high cost of servicing of the loans, the RBI has said. The RBI said that the recommendations of Narasimham Committee needs to be seen in the context of an emerging view that basle capital adequacy accord is no longer adequate and needs to be modified. The basle accord sets a minimum capital ratio, not a maximum insolvency probability and also is not a static framework but is developed and improved continuously as is evident from the January 1996 amendment to introduce capital changes to market risk. In this context, the RBI said, the recommendation of Narasimham Committee report for recording a five per cent weight to investment in Government and approved securities requires to be examined. However, an increase in capital standards would be the right signal from supervisors to banking industry. In a scenario where banks are increasing their non-traditional banking and off-balance sheet activities substantially, capital is the only resource available to banks to absorb any adverse effects on account of such activities. Citing the recent turmoil in South-East Asian markets, the RBI report said that lack of transparency resulted in an incentive to "evergreen" loans thereby affecting the performance of assets in this region. Transparency and availability of timely information facilitate markets to form their own expectations in a more rational and realistic manner. Emphasising that in many respects the NPA norms in India are considerably tighter than international best practices, the RBI said that in most of the developed nations, there was a distinction between collateralised and non-collateralised NPA and accordingly, lower provisions are allowed in for collateralised NPAs. In India, the concept of NPA does not allow such concessions. Citing the Narasimham Committee report on moving towards international norms in maintaining NPAs, the Central Bank said while moving towards international best practices is desirable, it is also necessary from the point of view of stability of the financial system to move in a gradual manner. In this context, the RBI observed that the prudential norms in India were tighter than some of the international best practices in a very substantial way and the provisions made were beyond the requirement of prudence. Highlighting the performance of banks, the RBI said that the net profit ratio of public sector banks increased from 0.57 per cent in 1996-97 to 0.77 per cent in 1997-98 as against the fall of net profit ratio among the foreign banks from 1.19 per cent in 1996-97 to 0.96 per cent in 1997-98. The net profit ratio of old Indian private banks also decelerated from 0.91 to 0.80 per cent during the year. The net interest income (spread) of scheduled banks as a percentage to assets has shown a decrease of 27 basis points from 3.22 in 1996-97 to 2.95 in 1997-98. In case of public sector banks, net interest income decreased by 25 basis points from 3.16 to 2.91 in 1997-98 while for old private banks there was a decline of 37 basis points, from 2.93 to 2.56 during the same period. While mergers and acquisitions provide an opportunity for banks to share resources, reduce intermediation costs and expand delivery platforms and improve chances for economies of scale to operate, banks are required to develop adequate expertise in assets and liabilities management. The experience of Asian crisis has reiterated the need for sound regulatory and supervisory system in the course of financial liberalisation. The role of supervision is to promote financial market stability and minimise systemic risks. (UNI) |
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| India has good prospects of increasing
fdi inflows WASHINGTON, Nov 10: India should be able to attract much higher amounts of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) than the present levels if it maintains its current policy, a senior UNCTAD official has said. Karl P Sauvant, leader of the team which prepared the world investment report 1998 for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said, India has certainly made increasing efforts to be open to FDI investment. Data indicates that it has succeeded in the sense that inflows are increasing, Sauvant said at a press conference here yesterday. At the same timen if you compare India with other countries, not only with China but, let us say, with Brazil, you see the country is attracting less Foreign Direct Investment than one would expect, he said. Investors are still testing the waters to a certain extent and are cautious in terms of moving in to a larger degree into India, Sauvant said adding that if the Government maintained its current policy, it should be quite successful in attracting considerable amounts of Foreign Direct Investment. Foreign Direct Investment flows increased by an impressive 37 per cent to India last year despite poor performance of other countries in South Asian region, the UNCTAD report said. The report showed that FDI flows to Asia rose to a record level of 4.4 billion dollars last year, mostly reflecting gain in flows to India and putting it among top ten recipient economies in South, East and Southeast Asia. India received 3.3 billion dollars in 1997, but even than, it was less than FDI flows to much smaller economies, like Chile, it said. India had ranked last in 1996 in receiving Foreign Direct Investment (2.4 billion dollars) while the U.S. headed the list, receiving 76.5 billion dollars of FDI. China was second with 40.8 billion dollars and U.K. was at third position with 26 billion dollars. Its ranking is in chemicals and its foreign assets total 801.7 million dollars, and total assets 5,440 million dollars. The top firm is Daewoo of South Korea with foreign assets in 1996 totalling 14,933 million dollars and total assets 32,504 million dollars. The report highlighted that that Foreign Direct Investment goes into countries and stays there for the long term, unlike portfolio investment and commercial bank lenders who flee when they encounter problems which could prove to be short-term. (PTI)
FIEO said the restrictions which could be imposed under the provisions of the proposed Bill when deemed necessary while entering into current account transactions are likely to stffle the attempts of Indian entrepreneurs to become global players. FIEO President Ramu S Deora said Clause 1(3) of the Bill, which provides for application of FEMA to all foreign branches, and offices controlled by a resident of India, will hinder the smooth operations of such units even with self-generated forex. It is noteworthy that such overseas offices are an important source of export orders, Mr Deora said and called for a more clear-cut definition of a ‘person resident in India’ as the proposed criterion of ‘more than 182 days’, as provided in Clause 2(T), is vague and not practical. To avoid AM biguities in this regard, the person concerned should instead be allowed to declare his intention on whether to be treated as a resident, or otherwise, subject to necessary conditions. Drawing attention to Clauses 7 and 8, which provides for realisation and repatriation of full export proceeds. The FIEO Chief has suggested that in the event where proceeds cannot be realised fully or partially due to reasons beyond the control of the exporter, a specific provision should be inserted into the clauses to authorise RBI to waive realisation of proceeds in such genuine cases. The exporter should also be provided some flexibility to exercise his commercial judgement while finalising export prices with buyers in different countries and should not be penalised merely because he had quoted or agreed on varying prices to international buyers. Further, the quantum of penalty upto twice the sum involved for contravention of any provision in the proposed act, contained in Clause 13, is too excessive and leaves a wide range of discretion in the hands of the adjudicating authority. The extent of penalty should be made more reasonable and restricted to a maximum of 20 per cent. The Government should set up an appropriate review committee involving representatives from the export community, to consider all such cases, and initiate penalties only if a contravention takes place with the connivance of the Indian entrepreneur. Mr Deora has also maintained that it was not desirable in a progressive legislation that ‘suo moto’ powers should be vested with Enforcement Directorate to investigate contravention. The directorate should
look only at cases referred to it by the RBI, as is the
current practice under FERA. Moreover, the seniority and
type of official who would adjudicate on FEMA-related
cases should be clearly spelt out, which should not be
below the rank of superintendent. This would be crucial
in preventing the return of the ‘Inspect Raj, and
the misuse of FEMA, Mr Deora said in a statement her.
(UNI) MUMBAI, Nov 10: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) today announced guidelines for buyback of shares by companies, permitting corporates to buy back shares through tender offers, book building or direct purchase. The regulations, which would come into effect from next week, would however, not allow buyback through negotiated deals, spot transactions or private placements, SEBI chairman D R Mehta told reporters here after SEBI’s board meeting. "In order to prevent the promoter from having an undue advantage, it was decided that he (promoter) should not be allowed to tender his shares through the stock exchanges", Mehta said adding that promoters would have to declare pre and post buyback holdings so that there is no manipulation. He said the board was of the view that SEBI should not play a role in pricing which would be determined by shareholders through a special resolution. In order to ensure strict
compliance, SEBI has made it mandatory that merchant
bankers have to be associated in every offer for buyback
for which they will have to give a "due
diligence" certificate. (PTI) Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 10: Leadership Foundation conducted second seminar on ‘‘Management-A Career Option’’ for undergraduate students of Engineering yesterday at GCET, REC Campus Jammu. As per a release talking to the students, the counsellor of the foundation, Mr Vivek Sharma (MBA 1995 Batch), appraised the students of the college about the carrers in management. He informed the students about the academic curriculum of MBA course, the expectations from an MBA and the admission procedure to various institutes. He emphasized that an MBA is an almost unavoidable couple to the professional degree of Engineering. He pointed out that BE- MBAs have higher induction levels, higher salaries and better promotion prospects as compared to just BEs. Talking about the competition he suggested early and focussed preparation, when it comes to clearing the entrance tests of top level institutes like IIMs, XLRI, FMS Delhi, NMIMS and IRMA etc. He also announced a Self
Assessment Test, to be conducted on November 22, for
those students who wish to make it to these places in
future. Foundation would also be assisting the aspirants
of CAT 98 by arranging a MOCK CAT on November 29. Women entrepreneurs' exhibition inaugurated Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 10: The Industries Minister, Mr Bodh Raj Bali today said the demand for reservation in Parliament and legislative bodies in the country for women cannot be delayed for long. Speaking at a function held after the inauguration of the first 6-day women entrepreneurs exhibition here this evening, the Minister said, Jammu and Kashmir has taken lead in reserving 33 per cent seats in Panchayats for Women. No other State in the country has not done so, he added. Mr Bali said, the people's Government under the dynamic leadership of Dr Farooq Abdullah has taken several steps for women empowerment. Women, he said, have to play a leading role in the economic development in the State. It is in this backdrop that several schemes have been tailored to encourage women for taking up income generating units. Women's economic independence is imperative for healthy society, Mr Bali said. The Minister announced that a delegation of women entrepreneurs of the State is shortly participating in the Trade Fair being held in New Delhi. Such events would prove immensely benefit the women entrepreneurs in having on-the-spot feel of progress achieved by their fellow entrepreneurs of various parts of the country. Interaction between the women entrepreneurs is essential for their progress. He said, the Government is taking all possible steps for providing marketing cover to the produce of these entrepreneurs. He said, steps have already been taken to provide them technical know how and expertise for setting up of units and stressed the need for timely availability of loans and other facilities not only to urban women but also to those living in far flung areas. He said, various agencies like KVIB has several schemes for the women entrepreneurs. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister for Medical Education, Dr Mustafa Kamal reminded the women of their role in the socio-economic development of the State. He said, the empowerment of women is necessary and they can supplement their family income by setting up of various units. He said, the handicrafts have tremendous potential all over the country and the women have much talent to achieve excellence in this sphere of economic activity. Dr Kamal said, the State Government would provide all assistance to the women entrepreneurs for setting up of their units. Lauding the holding of sale-cum-exhibition of the produce of women entrepreneurs, he said, this will give much needed exposure to their talent. The Minister of State for Industries, Aga Syed Mehmood said, in a democratic set up the women have equal opportunity to progress and excel in various fields. They cannot remain confined to the four walls of their homes, he said adding that, their participation in economic activity in a big way will pave the way for all round development of the State. He said, the employees of the Industries Department have to work hard for educating women about various schemes launched by the Government for their welfare. The Minister urged the youth to channelise their energies in nation building activities and regretted that some elements were trying to misguide the youth for their vested interests. The Additional Chief Secretary, Industries, Mr Mohd Shafi Pandit and Ms Reeta Jitendra also addressed the gathering. The Minister for Revenue, Mr Ali Mohd Naik, Minister of State for Revenue, Mr Safdar Ali Beg, Minister of State for Social Welfare, Ms Sakina Itoo, Minister of State for Power, Syed Abdul Rashid and the Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Ghulam Hassan Bhat, senior officers a large number of women entrepreneurs were present on the occasion. Some women entrepreneurs from Kashmir valley also participated in the exhibition. Earlier, the Ministers went round the stalls set up by the women entrepreneurs. Mr Bali released "sidco spectrum" published joinly by the SIDCO and Industries Department. |
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