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| Maruti, Bajaj marketshare falls NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Passenger car and medium and heavy vehicle sales.....more FDI during 1999 BANGALORE, Oct 22: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.....more Hindusthan Copper CALCUTTA, Oct 22: Hindusthan Copper Limited has managed to...more ITC net profit up CALCUTTA, Oct 22: Tobacco giant ITC Ltd today reported a net...more |
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Indian
universities going all out to patent intellectual properties NEW DELHI, Oct 22: With India becoming a member of World ....more Alstom Ltd reports CALCUTTA, Oct 22: Power equipment manufacturer, Alstom Limited has....more Sanctions hurt WASHINGTON, Oct 22: The US sanctions slapped on ...more Entry of foreign, NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The All India Agricultural Workers’ Union...more |
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Maruti, Bajaj marketshare falls NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Passenger car and medium and heavy vehicle sales recorded an impressive 47 per cent growth during September even as domestic heavyweights like Maruti and Bajaj continued to lose marketshare to competition. Sales of medium and heavy vehicles and motorcycles recorded impressive growth rates at 79.6 per cent and 16.63 per cent respectively during the month, while that of scooters fell by 14.7 per cent, according to latest figures released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) today. Maruti Udyog and Bajaj Auto failed to keep pace with the growth rates and ended the month with reduced marketshare. Maruti lost its marketshare to new entrants like Santro, Matiz and Indica but maintained its number one position cornering 66.73 per cent of the car market in April-September. The company had a marketshare of 68.7 per cent in April-July. Bajaj Auto’s scooter sales during the month fell by 20.8 per cent, while sale of motorcycle grew by a marginal 3 per cent compared to 16.63 per cent growth in the segment. In medium and heavy vehicle segment, market leader TELCO recorded an impressive 120.7 per cent growth in September selling 7,199 vehicles compared to just 3,262 vehicles in the same period last year. Despite the 47 per cent growth in the overall passenger car market during the month, manufacturers of luxury segment like Ford and General Motors suffered negative growth in sales. (PTI) |
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FDI during 1999 expected to remain stagnant BANGALORE, Oct 22: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country in the current calender year is likely to remain stagnant at US dollar 3.5 billion, a top Government official has indicated. "FDI up to September-end from Janauary this year was almost three billion US dollars. We will reach US dollars 3.5 billion (at the end of the year)...Almost same as last year", Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ajit Kumar, said here last night. Kumar, speaking to reporters after participating in an interactive session organised by the Greater Mysore Chamber of Industry (GMCI), however, said industrial growth had lately picked up. "We are happy about manufacturing and capital goods segments, which are looking up....Cement has also looked up", he said, expressing hope that the steel sector would witness signs of higher offtake in view of infrastructure projects, especially road construction which was ready for contracting. Asked about the industrial growth rate expected this fiscal, Kumar said "initially we were thinking of six per cent compared to three per cent last year.... But it seems it would go up to seven or eight per cent by February". (PTI) |
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Hindusthan Copper Ltd reduces its net loss by 50 pc CALCUTTA, Oct 22: Hindusthan Copper Limited has managed to reduce its net loss by almost 50 per cent to Rs 41.68 crore during the quarter ended September 30, 1999 against Rs 83.06 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous year. Net sales came down to Rs 111.78 crore from Rs 192.91 crore last year while other income remained more or less stable at Rs 2.10 crore. Gross loss stood at Rs 36.40 crore against Rs 77.79 crore in the same quarter previous year after interest payment of Rs 12.72 crore (Rs 18.18 crore). Provision for depreciation during the quarter was Rs 5.28 crore against Rs 5.27 crore last year. (UNI) |
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ITC net profit up by 14.67 pc in second quarter CALCUTTA, Oct 22: Tobacco giant ITC Ltd today reported a net profit of Rs 206.74 crore in the second quarter of current financial year which was 14.67 per cent higher compared to Rs 180.29 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal. Board of Directors of the company after a meeting to consider second quarter result disclosed that during the first half of the current fiscal net profit stood at 400.32 crore against Rs 350.08 crore last year. Net sales during the quarter increased to Rs 944.48 crore from Rs 863.03 crore after payment of Rs 1011.47 crore (Rs 1036.90 crore last year). Gross profit during the quarter increased by more than 20 per cent to Rs 359.61 crore (Rs 297.07 crore) after interest payment last year of Rs 32.22 crore(Rs 42.71 crore last year) Provision for depreciation during the quarter came down marginally to Rs 27.68 crore while that of taxation increased significantly by more than 42 per cent to Rs 126 .71 crore last year However, during the first half of the year net sales turnover stood at 1832.75 crore (1778.18 crore last year) and gross profit at Rs 689.56 crore against Rs 570.47 crore last year. (UNI) |
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Indian universities going all
out to patent NEW DELHI, Oct 22: With India becoming a member of World Trade Organisation(WTO) four years ago, a new thinking about protecting intellectual properties and inventions has emerged in the academic institutions of the country which is reflected in about 400 per cent increase in patent applications filed by them since 1995. According to a report of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the number of patent applications, which were only 35 in 1995, has touched a figure of 152 in 1998 with maximum of 26 patents being filed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras followed by 22 from IIT Kharagpur, 16 from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 15 from IIT Mumbai and 15 from IIT Delhi. Besides, 25 other universities and institutions have also filed patent applications numbering from one to six. This increase was due to change in the outlook of these institutions as until recently the culture of protecting scientific investigations legally through patents was almost non-existent in the country. These institutes used to share their inventions with Indian industries and research and development institutes through publications and seminars as most teachers and researchers believed in age old Indian tradition of free flow of knowledge. Keeping in view the little infrastructural support and funds available to most of the Indian universities and institutions for carrying out R and D, such an increase in number of patent applications being filed by them is being considered as a paradigm shift in the university culture. ‘Academicians should not publish their research work without first filing patent applications’, cautions Mr Devinder Sharma, an expert on patenting, while citing an example of the Standford University, us where one patent attorney was there after every ten researchers. The increase in number of patent application being filed in India was also attributed to patenting facilities now being extended by some universities and institutions. The DST has also set up a Patent Facilitating Centre(PFC) and the Department of Biotechnology and Electronics providing technical and financial support for inventions emerging from projects funded by them. Interestingly, the PFC support has led to filing of a patent application on inventive work done at a higher secondary school in the Churu district of Rajasthan. (UNI) |
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Alstom Ltd reports net fiscal profit of Rs 3.32 cr CALCUTTA, Oct 22: Power equipment manufacturer, Alstom Limited has reported a net profit of Rs 3.22 crore during the quarter ended September 30, 1999 against a net loss of Rs 1.56 crore in the corresponding period last year. However, during the first six months of the current financial year, the company continued to remain in red though the net loss came down to Rs 2.43 crore from Rs 13.65 crore during the same period last fiscal. Net sales during the second quarter came down to Rs 102.11 crore from Rs 108.37 crore while other income jumped to Rs 2.17 crore from Rs 1.22 crore last year. Gross profit increased significantly to Rs 6.98 crore from Rs 2.30 crore and after making a provision of Rs 3.76 crore (Rs 3.25 crore) for depreciation, the company managed to report an operating profit of Rs 3.22 crore against an operating loss of Rs 0.95 crore last year. No provision has been made for taxation and employees voluntary separation scheme during the quarter while in the previous year it has made a provision of Rs 0.61 crore for the latter. (UNI) |
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Sanctions hurt US more than India, Pak WASHINGTON, Oct 22: The US sanctions slapped on India and Pakistan following their nuclear tests last year had a negative impact on American companies, a high-ranking official of the US International Trade Commission has said. The impact of Glenn Amendment economic sanctions and the likely impact of the reimposition of these sanctions on the US, India and Pakistan is relatively small. However, US industry has expressed concern that the main impact of these sanctions is increasing perception that US companies could be unreliable suppliers, Arona M Butcher, chief of the Country and Regional Analysis Division, Office of Economics of the Commission said. Deposing before the House Bereuter Subcommittee yesterday, she said, that sanctions had generated a negative impact on US business in India, with companies reluctant to pursue business opportunities because of uncertainty over sanctions. On the other hand the effect of these sanctions on India and Pakistan were minimal, she said. (PTI) |
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Entry of foreign, private insurance companies opposed NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU) has criticised the the Union Cabinet’s decision to introduce the Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill in the current session of Parliament saying that it would have disastrous effect on the rural development and create insecurity among urban masses. The bill, allowing the entry of foreign and private insurance companies as competitors of the public sector Life Insurance Company (LIC), would prove to be disastrous as the LIC invests thousands of crores of rupees in rural development banks, programmes to reclaim land and for rural education and health. "However, with the entry of competitors, the lucrative urban market of the LIC will naturally contract, forcing it to close down its financial support to rural development schemes which would be disastrous for an agrarian country like India," AIAWU joint secretary Suneet Chopra said in statement here yesterday. Urban India would also suffer due to this move as there was a high rate of bankruptices of private insurance companies even in countries like the US but LIC is immune from it. By attempting to pass the bill in Parliament, the BJP led Government at the Centre was undermining the food, financial and social security of hundreds of millions of Indians, the statement said. The AIAWU would fight against a measure that "will lead to greater misery for the rural masses and increase insecurity on a mass scale," he said and urged "all those concerned with national security and the removal of poverty in the country to oppose the bill by every means at their disposal and not allow it to pass in Parliament. (UNI) |
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