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IDC:
Indian IT market to touch $65 billion by 2009
New Delhi: The
Indian IT market is estimated to touch $65 billion by
2009, posting a compounded annual growth rate of 21 per
cent, according to research firm IDC.
"The Indian IT market crossed the $25-billion mark
in 2004. This included a contribution of $16.7 billion
from exports and $8.5 billion from the domestic market.
This is the best performance by the domestic industry
after the technology market bounced back from the slowdown,"
Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC (India), said.
The IT exports grew by 32 per cent in 2004 (in rupee terms)
touching Rs75,477 crore in revenue. Services exports clocked
Rs51,047 crore whereas ITES and hardware exports clocked
Rs24,430 crore. The growth came primarily from BPO services,
which grew by 42 per cent (in rupee terms) in 2004.
The domestic market grew by 22.9 per cent over 2003 and
the growth primarily came from IT services (26 per cent),
PCs (25 per cent), data-com products (32 per cent) and
multi-function devices (48 per cent).
"Thus, year-on-year growth rate is expected to peak
at 23.3 per cent in 2005, the highest during this business
cycle (2004-2009). The domestic market will grow at an
average rate of 17 per cent for the period 2004-09 and
will move from Rs38,303 crore in 2004 to Rs84,878 crore
in 2009," IDC said.
The high growth categories for the five-year period identified
by IDC are hardware comprising notebook PCs, digital cameras,
smart handheld devices, wireless LAN equipment and other
new kinds of peripheral devices; software comprising security
software, business intelligence software, system management
software, information and data management software and
storage software; and services including enterprise-wide
outsourcing, network consulting and integration, software
support, and system integration.
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India
Inc. hikes salaries of CEOs
Mumbai: India Inc. is taking good care of its CEOs
wallets with all round hikes in their pay and perquisites
packages.
S Ramadorai, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS), will more than double his pay packet in
2005-06. TCS has proposed to raise his salary from Rs2.25
lakh per month to Rs5 lakh per month with effect from
April 1 this year. He will also get incentives up to 200
per cent of his salary and other remuneration like commission,
perquisites and allowances.
Crompton Greaves will increase the salary of its Managing
Director SM Trehan from Rs4 lakh per month to Rs6 lakh
per month this year.
The number of CEOs drawing an annual salary of over Rs1
crore has already crossed 200 in 2004-05 compared with
162 in the previous year. The list will be even longer
as several large companies, including Reliance Industries,
have not yet released their annual reports.
Just five years back, the number of crorepati CEOs was
only 41. The figure swelled to 96 in 2002-03 and 162 in
2003-04. As many as 40 CEOs joined the list in 2004-05.
The gross remuneration of Yash Mahajan, Vice-Chairman
and Managing Director of Punjab Tractors, rose from Rs30
lakh in 2003-4 to Rs1.26 crore in 2004-05. Kaushik Sagar
V, business leader with Bayer CropScience, got Rs1.32
crore in 2004-05 against Rs44 lakh in the previous year.
The basic pay of Jalal Ashwin Dani and Manish Mahendra
Choksi, both directors of Asian Paints, has gone up from
Rs1.56 lakh per month in the last financial year to Rs2.62
lakh in 2005-06. Sajjan Jindal, Vice-Chairman and Managing
Director of Jindal Vijayanagar Steel, who had taken home
Rs83 lakh in 2003-04 as CMD of Jisco, earned Rs8.12 crore
in 2004-05, including commission of Rs6.81 crore as Vice-Chairman
and Managing Director of his now merged entity.
Vivek Paul, who left Wipro last week, took home Rs7.15
crore as Vice-Chairman of the company last year. Former
Ranbaxy Laboratory CEO Davinder Brar earned Rs4.17 crore
and A Hieronimus, MD of Motor Industries, took home Rs3.25
crore. Wockhardt promoter Habil Khorakiwala was paid Rs7.01
crore and Blue Dart Managing Director Clyde Cooper got
Rs9.94 crore with one-time retention compensation of Rs6.80
crore.
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Oil
companies discuss subsidy sharing mechanism
New
Delhi:
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)
has urged the government that the under-recoveries it
suffered on the sale of natural gas be made a part of
the subsidy pool.
The under-recovery can be benchmarked to the market price
of gas being sold by private or joint venture producers,
or being sold as regasified natural gas.
ONGC was suffering a Rs2,800-crore annual loss on account
of selling natural gas at unremunerative prices prior
to July 1, 2005. The gas price has since been revised
to Rs3,200 from Rs2,850 per thousand cubic metre but it
is still about 40-50 per cent less than the price at which
gas is being sold by other companies.
The
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, one of the four marketing
companies bearing the brunt of non-revision of petroleum
prices, in its representation to the petroleum ministry,
has suggested that the share of upstream companies, including
ONGC, should be revised to 50 per cent of the total loss
incurred on the sale of subsidised kerosene and domestic
LPG as also petrol and diesel.
Upstream companies, ONGC, Gail India and Oil India, were
sharing one-third of the subsidy loss during 2003-04 and
2004-05. Another one-third was borne by oil marketing
companies and the remaining one-third was built into the
price of petrol and diesel.
The non-revision of petroleum prices this year has resulted
in the oil marketing companies suffering negative margins
on petrol and diesel.
The suggestions are in response to discussions among oil
companies on evolving a subsidy-sharing mechanism for
the current year.
The under-recoveries on account of retail sales of the
four petroleum products were Rs9,370 crore in 2003-04.
They rose to more than 100 per cent to Rs19,910 crore
in 2004-05 and are projected to rise to Rs42,700 crore
during 2005-06.
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Thomson
may hike stake in Videocon
Mumbai:
Thomson Electronics may hike its stake in the merged entity
of Videocon International Ltd and Videocon Industries
Ltd, sources said, with the French electronics giant settling
for 26%.
The
Videocon group will also evaluate a merger proposal Videocon
Industries and Videocon International, at its board meeting
to be held on Thursday. ICICI Securities has been appointed
to advise the merger ratio.
Sources
said fresh equity from Thomson would aid Videocon Industries
in its bid to buy some of the consumer electronic units
of AG Electrolux.
Thomson has 14% stake in Videocon Industries, after the
latter acquired Thomson's picture tube businesses.
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IA
revamps fare structure — to be slab based
Mumbai: In a complete revamp of its fare structure
to compete with low-cost carriers, Indian
Airlines has launched slab-based fares, branded 'Easy
Fares', doing away with the advance purchase fares, called
apex fares.
The
lowest fare slab in the scheme is about 60% lower than
full economy fares. The new fares are a modified version
of Fly select fares, apex fares and Positioning flight
fares. Unlike apex fares, there is no need for a time
limit on advance purchase.
Reservations
can be made under the different levels, each of which
will have a different fare and class name. The classes
are K, T, V and I. The number of seats available under
each class will be dynamic. Once the allocation for a
particular level has been met, the next higher-level fare
will become applicable.
The
number of levels could vary, like only two levels of Easy
fares are available on the Mumbai-Kozhikode sector, where
Rs5,521 will be the highest fare and Rs3,721 will be the
lowest level.
Another
advantage to customers is that while the earlier Apex
fares attracted a 50% cancellation charge, passengers
using the Easy fares will be charged Rs500 as cancellation
charge.
Frequent
fliers will be allowed 75% and 50% of the normal mileage
points on the two higher levels respectively. No mileage
points will be allowed on the other levels.
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M&M
rolls out new pick-up vehicle
Pune: Mahindra
& Mahindra on Wednesday set off fresh action in
the pick-up utility vehicle segment by announcing the
launch of its Maxx Pik Up Flat Bed.
The Flat Bed would first be launched in Maharashtra, which
is the biggest market for this category, and where the
company commands over 60 per cent of the market. It would
be launched elsewhere in the country after three months.
The new model has an absolutely flat cargo-box, opening
on three sides for effortless loading and unloading. The
Maxx Flat Bed, powered by a 63-HP DI turbo diesel engine,
is priced Rs4.22 lakh, ex-Pune, and offers the highest
payload of 1,160 kg in its category.
M&M sold 32,000 pick-ups last year and the company
expects the Maxx Flat Bed to add another 500 units every
month.
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WB
govt. refutes Purnendu Chatterjee's charge on Basell fiasco
Kolkata: The West Bengal government has denied Purnendu
Chatterjee's charge that it was responsible for the exit
of the TCG boss from the $5.7 billion Basell deal.
"His
(Chatterjee's) allegations are baseless. He did not even
talk to us about HPL's participation when he went to negotiate
with Basell in the first place. Even the HPL board was
kept in the dark about his plans," State Commerce
and Industries Minister, Nirupam Sen said.
"Why
is he suddenly crying hoarse? The decision to participate
in negotiations with Basell was his, not ours. We will
not expose HPL to risks and a possible loan exposure of
nearly Rs2,500 crore by being a part of consortium formed
to take-over Basell as long as we remain a shareholder
of HPL," Sen added.
"Let
him bring the money and buy out our stake, and then we
will not say anything about what he intends to do with
HPL."
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ITI's
facility at Mankapur to make mobile
equipment
New Delhi: United Progressive Alliance Chairperson,
Sonia Gandhi, will inaugurate on Thursday the mobile equipment
manufacturing facility of Indian Telephone Industries
(ITI) at Mankapur in Uttar Pradesh.
The inauguration will mark the rejuvenation of the largest
telecom company as part of the Government's National Common
Minimum Programme of reviving public sector undertakings,
said official sources.
This is the first among six units earmarked for revival
through a large number of transfer of technology agreements,
mostly with foreign companies including one from China.
The Government has already allocated Rs1,000 crore for
the phased revival of all the units.
At Mankapur, the existing infrastructure has been augmented
with a capital expenditure of Rs38 crore. The capacity
will be further enhanced with incremental capital expenditure
of Rs7 crore by September. Alcatel of France is the technological
partner for the Mankapur unit.
In addition, the Government plans to set up a three million
line GSM equipment manufacturing facility at ITI's Raebareli
unit. It will also take up production of towers, shelters
and power plants used for setting up mobile networks.
The Bangalore unit will make CDMA infrastructure equipment
and handsets (in collaboration with ZTE of China), the
Palakkad plant would fabricate the next-generation network
products (technology transfer with Tekelec of the U.S.)
and the Naini plant (U.P.) would make optical equipment
in collaboration with Tejas.
ITI has set its sights on manufacturing wide band wireless
mobile equipment (Wimax) at Naini and has shortlisted
Siemens for technology transfer.
Alactel's Belgium company has been approached for making
ADSL equipment at the Raebareli unit.
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ISMT
set for merger with India Seamless Steels
Mumbai: India Seamless Metal Tubes Ltd (ISMT) is all
set to merge into the India Seamless Steels and Alloys
(ISSAL), which will create a Rs1,000-crore engineering
company.
The Bombay High Court has convened a shareholders' meeting
of both the companies on August 1 to approve the merger.
The shareholders of ISMT will be offered five equity shares
in ISSAL for every four held in ISMT.
The merged entity, to be named ISMT Ltd, will be one of
the largest seamless tube manufacturing companies in the
Asia-Pacific region.
ISMT will offer a broad range of seamless tubes to tier-1
suppliers in auto, bearing and other engineering sectors.
It will also continue to use its surplus capacity for
manufacture of specialised steels.
The company's product mix is undergoing a rapid shift
towards high-end products. In the current fiscal, only
about 15 per cent of its sales will come from low and
commodity business, against 40 per cent in 2003-04.
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Jabra
Bluetooth handsets launched
Mumbai: Jabra, the Danish brand of Bluetooth headsets,
was launched in India on Wednesday. Jabra is part of GN
Mobile, Denmark. The headsets will be distributed through
Faxtel Systems India Pvt Ltd.
The company is offering four Bluetooth-enabled headsets
for hands-free talk. Jabra headsets are available in more
than 56 countries and 80,000 retail outlets worldwide.
The company has manufacturing facilities in China, Denmark
and the US.
"India has a very high GDP growth rate of 6.2 per
cent. It is the fourth largest economy in the world. Therefore,
we are launching our products here and plan to have long-term
investments," said Henry Tai, Vice-President of Sales
& Marketing, Asia Pacific, GN Mobile.
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