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JRD
memorial lecture: Premji calls for a five point strategy
for national renewal
New Delhi: Wipro Chairman, Azim Premji on Tuesday
advocated the adoption of a five pronged strategy to economically
and socially transform India. He asked for an immediate
initiation of land reforms, the overhauling of India's
power sector and its health and primary education, besides
pushing forward the interlinking of rivers.
Delivering
the JRD Tata Memorial Lecture, organised under the aegis
of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of
India (ASSOCHAM), Premji also sought rationalisation in
property taxes to boost up economic activities in housing
and retail sector which will create immense employment
opportunities.
"We
need to overhaul our land related laws, taxation and information
system. It is estimated that 90 per cent of land in India
are subject to legal disputes over the ownership. Stamp
duty ranges between 8-15 per cent of the property value,
encouraging avoidance. On the other hand, property tax
rates are low and collection is inefficient. All this
has led to Indian lend prices being the highest among
the Asian nations related to average incomes and low tax
collections is hampering our ability to maintain urban
infrastructure. Effective land reforms can really boost
housing and retail sectors, two of the largest sectors
of the economy outside of agriculture and generate huge
employment opportunities,' said Premji.
The
power sector, he said, was by far the biggest resource
drain on the economy. Therefore, the government needed
to eliminate power thefts and improve efficiency of generation,
distribution and transmission as these changes will have
a major impact on the fiscal deficit of the states, apart
from bringing down cost of doing business.
The
Wipro Chairman also stressed the need for executing innovative
projects like interlinking of rivers. `Less than 40 per
cent of the cultivable land is under assured irrigation.
Underground water table is declining at the rate of 5
per cent every year. In the medium term, water shortage
will create a significant barrier to growth - whether
agriculture, industry or urban infrastructure', said Premji.
Primary
education and healthcare is another neglected area which
needs to be immediately addressed to, he said.
In
his own area of expertise, i.e. IT, Premji observed, `there
are three kinds of drivers with varying amplitude and
different time horizons, which I feel will dictate the
future of economy and business. The first are the short
term or immediate drivers. These are primarily various
kinds of arbitrage opportunities that exist across various
national economies and regions. Remember the growth experience
of Indian software industry. The salary differential among
software professionals between US and India was a great
arbitrage opportunity on which initial success of the
industry was built. Similar opportunity has arisen today
in BPO industry and in pharmaceutical and biotech research'.
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Oil
India, Indian Oil and ONGC likely to enter into JVs with
Norwegian companies
Oslo:
The Oil India-Indian Oil combine and ONGC are considering
tie-ups with Statoil Norway, and Norsk Hydro, a smaller
Norwegian state-owned company, for technical collaboration
and joint ventures in the upstream sector. These Norwegian
companies have cutting-edge technology in deep-sea oil
exploration.
Ministry
sources have said that Aiyar is scheduled to hold talks
with his Norwegian counterpart today to pave the way for
an MoU between the Indian and Norwegian companies.
These
companies could then jointly scout for oil and gas exploration
opportunities in Africa, Latin America and Russia and
the Caspian region.
Ahmed
said discussions were also being held on the safety aspects
of offshore operations in view of the Mumbai High tragedy
so that Indian companies could get an exposure to the
best global practices. The minister will be visiting a
Norwegian offshore oil platform tomorrow to get a feel
of operations there. ONGC and OIL officials are accompanying
him.
V.K.
Sibal, director-general of hydrocarbons, will be holding
talks with his Norwegian counterpart to improve the Indian
regulatory mechanism by drawing on features of that country's
regime.
The
petroleum minister will also be visiting Iceland as the
country has made considerable headway in using hydrogen
as an alternative to fossil fuels.
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Trent
picks up 76 per cent of Landmark for Rs.103 crore
Chennai: Noel Tata managed Trent, a retail subsidiary
of the Tata group, has acquired a 76 per cent equity stake
in the Chennai-based Landmark, a privately owned retail
chain selling books and music, in an all-cash deal worth
Rs103.6 crore.
Trent
picked up the entire 75 per cent stake held by Nataraj
Ramiah, partner of Landmark, besides a one per cent stake
from Hemu Ramiah, Landmark's managing partner. Hemu Ramiah
will continue to hold the balance 24 per cent stake and
will also continue to be the CEO of Landmark.
The
agreements were signed here on Tuesday.
Trent
is a large-size retailer with two formats - Westside and
Star India Bazaar. While Westside has a national presence
with 18 stores, Star India Bazaar launched its first hypermarket
recently in Ahmedabad.
Landmark
started off with a single store in Chennai in 1987. It
now has four stores, three in Chennai and one in Bangalore,
and also operates one in Kolkata through a joint venture
with Emami.
Landmark,
together with its two distribution and online books retailing
subsidiaries, clocked a turnover of Rs95 crore in 2004-05.
Its turnover is projected to touch Rs130 crore this fiscal.
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Bajaj
Hind. and Dhampur Sugar announce acquisitions and expansion
plans
Mumbai:
Bajaj Hindusthan and Dhampur Sugar Mills have announced
acquistion and expansion plans, with Bajaj Hindusthan
aiming to buy out 55 per cent of the promoters holding
in Pratappur Sugar & Industries Ltd for a consideration
of Rs10.89 crore, and Dhampur Suagar deciding to increase
existing capacity.
Pratappur Sugar informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)
of the sale decision of its promoters today. It added
that the sale of shares was conditional upon the purchaser
complying fully with Sebi (Substantial Acquisition of
Shares & Takeover) Regulation 1997 and other applicable
laws. It indicated that Bajaj Hindusthan would come out
with a mandatory 20 per cent open offer for the shareholders
of Pratappur Sugar.
In another development for the sugar industry, Dhampur
Sugar Mills Ltd has decided to increase its existing capacity
by way of a greenfield expansion. The company is planning
to set up a sugar plant of 6000 TCD, which will also have
a power generation capacity of 25 MW.
The company will also be enhancing its sugar, distillery
and power generation capacities in the existing units.
The expansion activity will be borne with an investment
of Rs425 crore.
Dhampur Sugar has informed the BSE that along with the
expansion plans, the company's board of directors have
also approved the change in the company's authorised share
capital from Rs75 crore to Rs100 crore, which includes
changing equity share capital to Rs75 crore and preference
share capital to Rs25 crore.
The company will raise funds by either issuing Global
Depository Receipts (GDR) and Foreign Currency Convertible
Bonds (FCCB) or a public offering to the tune of US$55mn.
The company's board of directors has also approved the
increasing of the foreign investment limit from 24 per
cent to 49 per cent and has also called for an Extra Ordinary
General Meeting (EGM) on September 26 for getting shareholders'
approval of the same.
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BMW
opts for Chennai for its car assembly plant
Chennai:
German car major BMW has announced that it will set
up its car assembly plant at Maraimalai Nagar, near Chennai,
at an investment of US$40mn or about Rs180 crore.
An
eight-member high-level BMW team headed by board member
Dr Norbert Reithofer called on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister
J Jayalalithaa, at the state secretariat here today, to
brief her about the project to be implemented at the Mahindra
Industrial Park, about 60 km from here.
The
company undertook a detailed evaluation of various sites
in the country and held discussions with many state governments
including Tamil Nadu. "Based on this evaluation,
BMW has concluded that Chennai is the best location for
establishing its car assembly plant", said an official
release.
The
BMW team informed the Chief Minister that the choice of
Chennai was due to the "favourable investment climate,
abundant availability of skilled labour force, matured
auto components industry base, reliable supporting infrastructure
and logistics, besides support from the government."
Norbert
Reithofer had indicated to Jayalalithaa that his company
was awaiting certain approvals from the Union government.
Once they were received, it proposed to begin the project
construction immediately and start commercial operations
in the third quarter of 2006.
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M&M
to pump Rs.430 crore into dedicated
R&D facility
Mumbai: By way of integrating its entire research
and development (R&D) efforts under one roof, auto
major Mahindra & Mahindra is mulling plans to pump
in close to Rs430 crore in a dedicated facility.
Company
officials have said that the company was in the process
of finalising the location for the proposed facility and
were looking at Chennai and Pune as possible sites. They
also said that the company would independently fund the
whole project. Officials said that the need for an integrated
facility was felt as the company was doing R&D at
various locations on many products, including tractors,
utility vehicles and its new international projects.
They
indicated that the Mahindra research valley would have
various facilities such as a test track, crash facility,
engine and polymer labs and engine research departments.
Once begun, the project would take about two years for
completion, at the end of which they plan to have a total
of 1,500 engineers working at the facility.
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MERC
decides to grant parallel licences to private power companies
Mumbai:
Maharastra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) on
Tuesday decided to grant parallel licences to Tata Power
Company (TPC), Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) and the newly
formed Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company
(MSEDC).
MERC, as per Section 14 of the Electricity Act 2003, has
asked these companies to submit revised proposals within
two weeks. TPC has sought parallel license in Pune, New
Mumbai, Nashik and Aurangabad, which are currently serviced
by MSEDC.
On
the other hand, REL had made a plea for parallel license
in areas currently serviced by Brihan Mumbai Electric
Supply and Transport (BEST), Nashik, Aurangabad, Pune,
Nagpur, Vashi and Bhandup.
MSEDC, in order to increase its presence in Greater Mumbai,
had also applied for parallel license in certain sections
of the area currently serviced by REL. MSEDC, with 39
distribution circles, provides power to over 1.23 crore
consumers, while REL has over 20 lakh consumers. TPC supplies
power to over 23,000 users largely from the industrial
and commercial categories with few residential ones.
The
sixth provision to Section 14 allows grant of license
to two or more persons for power distribution via their
own distribution system within the same area subject to
the applicant complying with norms prescribed by the Centre.
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Tata
International ties up with German footwear major Lloyd
Mumbai: Tata International, the largest Indian leather
exporter, has tied up with Lloyd, a leading German footwear
maker whose shoes will retail in Indian showrooms in a
range stretching from Rs9,000 to Rs45,000 a pair for men.
The women's range starts from Rs8,000.
LloydGmbH plans to hawk its top-of-the-line footwear through
multi-brand luxury retail outlets and by the year-end
will introduce an exclusive Lloyd store in Delhi.
According to Tata International officials the company
is getting a lot of offers from global majors. They said
that the size of the premium market in the country is
to the tune of Rs500 to Rs600 crore.
Lloyd is a well-established lifestyle brand part of the
Ara group and sells close to 14 million pairs of shoes
a year.
Tata International officials said that the company is
free to tie up with other major shoe brands if the offer
is attractive enough. Tata International is an unlisted
company within the Tata group and exports leather products
to many of the large footwear brands.
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Tatas
Steel seek Govt. nod to pick up Bharat Coke mines
New
Delhi:
Tata Steel has approached the government with a proposal
to acquire some of the mines of the loss-making public
sector unit, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL).
The government is willing to lease out unviable mines
to private players for captive purposes, but according
to ministry officials the Govt. was not planning to sell
its share in BCCL. As a steel producing company, Tata
Steel is already eligible for captive mining of coal.
The Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises
is considering reviving BCCL. It is expected to recommend
that BCCL be handed over to a private or a public sector
company on a management contract.
BCCL
suffered a loss of Rs592 crore in 2004-05.
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