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| New India Assurance Company’s CMD visits Jammu Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 30: Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of the New India Assurance Company Limited- India’s largest general insurance company and second largest in Afro-Asian......more Honda
contemplating NEW DELHI, Oct 30: Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) today said that the it would ...more Honda
launches NEW DELHI, Oct 30: With mileage as the USP, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI)....more Govt
rules out downward NEW DELHI, Oct 30: Government today ruled out any downward revision of the 12 ...more |
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GAIL may get 2 blocks in NEW DELHI, Oct 30: Public sector GAIL India Ltd is likely to get two blocks under the fourth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) even it had submitted bids for five oil and gas exploration blocks........more GAIL
to gain 161 cr NEW DELHI, Oct 30: Despite the Government direction to upstream companies including GAIL to share the burden of under recoveries of LPG and kerosene as per the modified subsidy scheme of both products, the.....more Per
capita milk CHANDIGARH, Oct 30: There has been a perceptible increase in milk production ....more Govt
mulls 5-million NEW DELHI, Oct 30: The Government is considering to build and maintain...more |
New India Assurance Company’s CMD visits Jammu Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 30: Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of the New India Assurance Company Limited- India’s largest general insurance company and second largest in Afro-Asian, R Beeri today visited City of Temples. During his day long stay in Jammu, Mr Beeri interacted with officers of the Company. Dr A P Mittal, RM Chandigarh region, Dr H K Murabia and his team of officers from J&K welcomed him on his arrival at Jammu airport. Mr Beeri highlighted the facts that New India is rated as ‘AM Best Company Crisil A+++ and showed his satisfaction on half yearly results of the company. The New India Assurance Company Limited has sold 1.5 lakh policies of recently launched Universal Health Insurance Scheme. This scheme was launched by the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the weaker section of the society. He emphasised the need of discipline in competing the changing scenario and assured that the cadres of the company will take care of the better customer service. Mr Beeri also informed the gathering regarding successful business alliance with the India’s largest banking industries including State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Corporation Bank, Union Bank of India, Citizen Co-op Bank and Central Cooperative Bank. He reiterated the role of employees in profitability with growth and customer delight. |
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Honda contemplating developing a small car for Indian market NEW DELHI, Oct 30: Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) today said that the it would launch a small car for the Indian market to capture about ten per cent of the Indian automobile market by 2010. Honda motor company general manager (southwest Asia operation office) Yukihiro Aoshima told UNI that the Indian subsidiary, which currently offers the Sedan Honda city, luxury Honda accord and Suv Honda CR-V, would launch a small car in order to further consolidate the company’s position in the Indian market. "We understand that small car is the volume car in India and we are currently studying how and when should we enter the segment," he said on the sidelines of the HSCI’s launch of a new model of the city. The Japanese car major currently owns more than 95 per cent in hsci. Mr Aoshima said Honda currently had a small car ‘life’ in its stable. "However, it is a 660-cc model which is sold in Japan. "Before introducing anything in the Indian market, where small cars range between 800-cc and 1100-cc, things have to be studied," he said. HSCI currently has made Rs 450 crore investments in the Indian market and has its plant at Greater Noida. The plant has a capacity of 30,000 units. The small car market, though the most weighty in terms of volumes, is also where most of the competition lies. It has players like market leader Maruti Udyog Ltd, Korean Hyundai Motor India Ltd, Tata motors, Fiat and general motors. Ford has also hinted that it was contemplating launching a car in the segment to increase its volumes. Of the total 600,000 unit sales in the Indian passenger car market last fiscal, HSCI had sales of only around 13,000 units. HSCI president and CEO said the company expected the Indian car market to cross the one million mark by 2010. "We aim to capture about 10 per cent of the market by then with the introduction of new models," he said. (UNI) |
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Honda launches mileage-friendly city at reduced cost NEW DELHI, Oct 30: With mileage as the USP, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) today introduced an all-new version of its model ‘city’, the base model priced at Rs 6.67 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The new model, with a new 1.5 litre intelligent dual and sequential ignition (I-DSI) engine and Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) system, promises a mileage almost 40 per cent higher (under test conditions) than that of the exisiting models. "Under the test conditions we adopted, the new model gave us a stupendous mileage of 17.5 Km per litre," HSCI president and CEO H Yamada told newspersons here at the Sedan’s launch. The company, which has so far sold 60,000 models of the city since its launch in 1998, has completely redone the car. "The new city will expand the brand’s dominance and will be targetted at C and D segment customers as well as those looking at moving up from small cars," he said. The new model will be available in seven colours and three variants, including the automatic transmission version. Mr Yamada said HSCI was looking to sell about 12,000 units of the new model by the end of this fiscal. "We expect to sell over 2,000 units of the city every month and are aiming at sales of 21,000 units, including the accord and CR-V, by the end of this fiscal, up 61.5 per cent from the 13,000 units sold last fiscal. Both the new-launched accord and CR-V are leaders in their respective segments. The new accord sold 237 units in August, followed by 256 in September, a quantum jump over the 144 units sold by the old accord in July. Nearly 200 units of the CRV have been sold during the August-September period, leading the pack by a good margin. The city sales have hovered around 1,000 units plus a month this year, though sales fell in September with customers awaiting the new model. The Honda city has sold 9,575 units between January and September compared with 8,877 units last year. However, with the launch of the new model, the numbers are expected to pick up substantially, giving competition to C-segment makers like Hyundai accent and Tata Indigo as well as like Toyota Corolla and Chevy Optra. Mr Yamada said HSCI, more than 95 per cent owned by the Japanese auto major, was looking at capturing 10 per cent of the Indian car market by 2010 when they expected the volumes to cross the one million mark. He said the new model had around 70 per cent of local content. Mr Yamada said the company, which has so far invested Rs 450 crore in the Indian market, was contemplating additional investments of Rs 200 crore over the next three years, primarily aimed at new models and increasing capacity at its Greater Noida plant. The company currently has a capacity of 30,000 units and on expectations of good market response and future roll outs, plans at further expansion. The Honda city 1.5 GXI model is priced at Rs 7.07 lakh while the top-end CVT model at Rs 7.67 lakh. (UNI) |
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Govt rules out downward revision of 12 pc export target NEW DELHI, Oct 30: Government today ruled out any downward revision of the 12 per cent export growth target set for this year and was confident that the RBI’s credit policy next week will address exporters concerns of appreciating rupee and credit availability. There will be "no revision of target" in the face of falling exports growth during the last two months, outgoing Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee said, adding "we are keeping a watch and the downslide (on exports growth) was not any undue cause for worry." Commerce Ministry has brought to the notice of Reserve Bank the exporters’s concerns of appreciating rupee and non-availability of credit and "we expect the Reserve Bank to address these concerns in the credit policy," said Chatterjee who quits his post after 21 months stint on october 31 to takeover as Chairman of newly-constituted competition Commission of India. Regarding export credit, Chatterjee told PTI that all that the Commerce Ministry wanted was that the Central Bank should ensure that credit was made available as per the guidelines already laid down by RBI. Chatterjee, who was an important member of the Indian negotiating team at the WTO ministerial at Cancun, said Government was working on a comprehensive legislation on Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to make a "single window" clearance a reality. This umbrella legislation encompassing several rules and regulations on SEZ is expected to be passed in the winter session of Parliament, he said. On Exim Policy, he said there was a school of thought that it should be dispensed with but Government felt this tradition should be continued to address the emerging issues in a dynamic situation. It was true that many countries in the world did not have an exim policy but having such a policy in India has been appreciated and "we hope to continue as it provided the necessary guidance." But he did not favour a medium-term export strategy for services exports as in the case of merchandise exports, saying they were growing quite well without any Government intervention. After the free trade agreement with Thailand, he said India was also working on a simillar agreement with South Africa. Once inked, it would form a trade tri-axis of India, South Africa and Brazil. India has already signed a trade agreement with Mercosur countries comprising Brazil, Argentina Uruguay and Paraguay. (PTI) |
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GAIL may get 2 blocks in fourth round of NELP NEW DELHI, Oct 30: Public sector GAIL India Ltd is likely to get two blocks under the fourth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) even it had submitted bids for five oil and gas exploration blocks. GAIL consortium is favourably placed to win two onland blocks, according to website of GAIL. The blocks, which GAIL consortium is expected to get are aa-onn-2002/1 (in Tripura) and CY-ONN-2002/1 (in Cauvery basin). In the Tripura block, GAIL has a participating interest of 80 per cent and enpro finance 20 per cent. In the Cauvery block, GAIL has 50 per cent participation, while enpro finance and GSPCL have 30 per cent and 20 per cent participating interests, respectively. Enpro fianance is the operator in both the blocks, which are considered to be highly prospective as far as gas potential is concerned. GAIL has already been awarded two blocks under first round of NELP, six blocks under second round and with the expected addition of two more blocks under fourth round, GAIL will have a kitty of ten NELP blocks in the area of oil and gas exploration. Besides the eight NELP exploration blocks, GAIL has participating interests in two more blocks, namely, CY-OS/2 in the Cauvery offshore with hardy oil and in the A-1 offshore block in Myanmar along with Daewoo, Kogas and ONGC Videsh Ltd. (UNI) |
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GAIL to gain 161 cr despite sharing under recoveries burden NEW DELHI, Oct 30: Despite the Government direction to upstream companies including GAIL to share the burden of under recoveries of LPG and kerosene as per the modified subsidy scheme of both products, the flag-ship gas carrier company will stand to increase its revenue to an extent of Rs 161 crore in the current financial year. "We stands to increase our revenue by about Rs 161 crore for the financial year 2003 - 04 despite forgo of Rs 320 crore towards the sharing of under recoveries with oil marketing companies under the head of LPG," GAIL Chairman Mr P Banerjee told UNI. As per the decision of sharing under recoveries of kerosene and LPG, the expected share of subsidy to be borne by GAIL for the financial year 2003 - 2004 is around Rs 320 crore. After the dismantling of administered pricing mechanism with effect from April 2002, the LPG prices for ex-fractionation units were to be fixed on import parity basis, as per the agreed terms between GAIL and the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs). However, pending the finalization of the subsidy scheme, the OMCs have been fixing the prices on provisional basis without including the freight element in LPG prices and reimbursement of CST on the inter state sale of LPG. Further, even the provisional prices were kept frozen at the October 2002 level and the cap remained imposed till May 2003 even though the international prices saw steep increase during this period. Now that the subsidy scheme has been finalized for the current financial year, GAIL is expecting to realize accrued revenue of Rs 340 crore for the financial year 2002 - 2003 on this account. The expected additional realization on account of freight and CST would be around Rs 141 crore for the year 2003 - 2004. GAIL is producing around 1.1 million tonnes of LPG every year and selling in bulk to public sector companies for retail sale. GAIL has not accounted for the expected revenues in the books of accounts in 2002 - 2003 as well as up to the period 30th of September 2003 during the current financial year. (UNI) |
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Per capita milk consumption risesin Haryana CHANDIGARH, Oct 30: There has been a perceptible increase in milk production in Haryana, with the availability per capita going up from 620 grams in 1998-99 to 650 grams during the last financial year, as against the national average of 217 grams per capita per day. This was disclosed in a meeting convened by Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala here today to review the functioning of the Animal Husbandry Department. Chautala directed the senior officers of the Animal Husbandry Department to evolve ways and means so as to motivate the people to rear cattle, especially the milch cattle as it would help in further increasing the production of milk in the state. Apart from this, he said, research should also be carried out to further increase the milk yielding capacity of the milch cattle. He also stated the need for checking the number of stray cattle and directed that in view of the financial assistance being given to the ‘Gaushalas’, it should be ensured that they utilise financial assistance judiciously and maintain their gobar gas plants to get energy as well as manure. (PTI) |
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Govt mulls 5-million tonnes oil storage tanks NEW DELHI, Oct 30: The Government is considering to build and maintain underground rock cavern or concrete tanks for storing five million tonnes of crude oil as a measure to strengthen energy security of the country. The five million tonnes crude strategic reserves will be sufficient to meet the demand of around 18 days. The five million tonnes reserves may be expanded further in the future as the Government has proposed to create a strategic reserves of around 45 days at later stage. "The modalities of operating the proposed storage and financing the costs are under consideration of the Government," Petroleum Minister Ram Naik told a conference on "Energy Security of India" here this morning. The capacity of strategic reserves will be over and above the storage capacity, available with Indian oil companies, who have the capacity to store up to two months stocks. "The necessary decisions on all aspects are likely to be taken soon as to facilitate an early execution of the proposed project," the minister said and added that the modal of strategic reserves was proposed after considering the international experience, available storage with the oil companies, various possible scenarios of supply disruptions, projected growth in oil consumptions and costs involved. Mr Naik said the Government had adopted a multi pronged strategy to provide oil security to the country and one of the major decision was to buy oil equity abroad. ONGC Videsh Ltd, which had equity of 45 per cent in Vietnam gas project in 1999, has added many portfolios in past four years. The company has 20 per cent equity in Sakhalin-I oil and gas project in Russia and invested Rs 8,100 crore. The current production levels, which stands at four million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas is envisaged to increase over 13 million tonnes by 2007. The product value will be Rs 10,000 crore. OVL holds prospective offshore exploration blocks in Iran and Myanmar and onland blocks in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Sudan. Besides this, the Government has undertaken extensive exploration of domestic reservoirs and also higher oil and gas recovery from the producing fields by using new methods. The minister said ONGC and Oil India Ltd (OIL) have identified 15 major fields including Mumbai high for re-development involving an investment of about Rs 11,000 crore. The scheme till now has added incremental reserves of 103.5 million tonnes and has resulted in increase in daily production rate of Mumbai high by nine per cent for crude oil and four per cent of gas between January 2001 and June 2003. The actual production gain due to increased recovery has been 4.57 million tonnes, worth Rs 4,700 crore. Mr Naik said that it had been projected that demand in Asian region will be much higher than demand, leading to tighter oil market. The general political instability in the middle east region is a further cause of anxiety from the oil supply security perspective, he added. (UNI) |
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Govt mulls 5-million tonnes oil storage tanks NEW DELHI, Oct 30: The Government is considering to build and maintain underground rock cavern or concrete tanks for storing five million tonnes of crude oil as a measure to strengthen energy security of the country. The five million tonnes crude strategic reserves will be sufficient to meet the demand of around 18 days. The five million tonnes reserves may be expanded further in the future as the Government has proposed to create a strategic reserves of around 45 days at later stage. "The modalities of operating the proposed storage and financing the costs are under consideration of the Government," Petroleum Minister Ram Naik told a conference on "Energy Security of India" here this morning. The capacity of strategic reserves will be over and above the storage capacity, available with Indian oil companies, who have the capacity to store up to two months stocks. "The necessary decisions on all aspects are likely to be taken soon as to facilitate an early execution of the proposed project," the minister said and added that the modal of strategic reserves was proposed after considering the international experience, available storage with the oil companies, various possible scenarios of supply disruptions, projected growth in oil consumptions and costs involved. (UNI) |
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Northern Ireland trade delegation woos Indian investors MUMBAI, Oct 30: A 15-member trade delegation from northern Ireland on a visit here, today invited Indian businessmen to invent and formulate joint ventures for exploring opportunities for trade and technology transfer. This is the second time in a year that a trade delegation organised by invest northern Ireland is visiting India. The delegation invited trade and technology transfer in areas like software development, biotechnology, electronics, screening and recycling machinery. (UNI) |
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Instanex Skindia DR, P/E premium
indices MUMBAI, Oct 29: The Instanex Skindia Depository Receipts (DR) index recovered smartly on October 28, 2003 by 1.13 per cent to 84.16 points from the previous day’s 834.74 points. According to the daily update provided by city-based Instanex Capital Consultants Pvt Ltd, Instanex Skindia DR Index P/E also gained slightly by 0.95 per cent to 16.64 points from 16.48 points. Similarly, the Instanex Skindia DR Index Premium, also hiked sharply by 2.44 per cent to 23.14 per cent from 22.59 per cent during the same period, the release stated. Out of 15 adrs and GDRs, there were eight (nine) gainers and six (five) losers, while only one scrip (one) was unchanged. Hindalco (GDRgdr), DR Reddy’s lab (ADR) and Infosys tech (ADR) were the top gainers, while Ranbaxy labs (GDR), Itc (GDR) and MNTL (ADR) were the major losers, the release added. (UNI) Industry asks representation in
Govt multimodal MUMBAI, Oct 30: The shippers and port users criticised the National Coordinating Agency (NCA) constituted by ministry of shipping to monitor the activities connected with the multimodal transportation of goods as there was no representation for the ultimate end users of multimodal transportation services. "There is no representation for the trade, IE, shippers, who are the ultimate end users of the services provided by various agencies in this Government body. The only representative from the trade, viz., the Association of Multimodal Transporters Operators of India (AMTOI) is an organisation of service providers (MTO’s) and cannot be deemed to represent the interests of the shippers," Western India Shippers’ Association (WISA) secretary S R L Narasimhan told UNI. The shipping ministry has constituted a panel following the recommendation made by the Xth plan sub-group on multimodal transport. The NCA, to be chaired by the secretary (shipping) comprises official representatives drawn from various ministries like finance, commerce, civil aviation, railways, central board of excise and customs, transport and highways and the director general of shipping. The director general of shipping has been nominated as the convenor of this NCA. "Since wisa was a nominated member, representing the shippers’ interests, on the Xth plan sub-group on MT, we have addressed the secretary (shipping) to nominate the wisa representative on the NCA," Mr Narasimhan said. . According to sources from the freight forwarding community, the nca body has become irrelevant since it lacks the representation from actual user. "We have already requested the Government to reconstitute the body by including the representatives of trade IE actual users to this multimodal transportation services," he told this correspondent. Speaking to UNI, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Principal Adviser A C Patankar informed that CII would approach the Government to ensure the representation of user community in the NCA body. "Certainly, the idea of appointing an authority to monitor multimodal transportion is a good move. But the representaion of end user of these services in the panel of service provider makes sense to the NCA body," he said. This body would expedite the multimodal transportation activities in the country as it is aiming at coordinated efforts to make service efficient, Mr Patankar said. According to the Government official, the NCA was set up to achieve the stated objective of the Multi-Modal Transportation of Goods Act (MMTG) and it was proposed that a duly empowered body be set up at the national level for regulating and coordinating the activities of different governmental and Non-Governmental Agencies involved in the multimodal transport chain for achieving synergic practices to serve the overall logistical objective. The agency could regulate, coordinate and help it develop to its true potential. It could also serve an advisory function and suggest certain guidelines, (including rate structures for certain charges levied on the users of services). (UNI) |
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