FIRST ORDER 25%

We recommend

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

INDIA: GDP growth near 3-yr low of 6.1%


RBI Comes Under Pressure To Cut Interest Rates

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 


New Delhi: The economy grew 6.1% during October-December 2011, the slowest pace of expansion in 11 quarters, due to a slowdown in the manufacturing sector and contraction in mining activity. Although the latest data has not prompted a reduction in the annual growth projection of 6.9%, it is expected to put further pressure on the Reserve Bank of India to cut interest rates as investment has declined. 
    A part of the moderation from 
8.3% GDP growth in the third quarter of the last financial year was on account of consumers deferring purchases due to high interest rates and elevated price levels. The crisis in Europe and the slowdown in the US also took a toll on exports, and impacted manufacturing activity in the country. 
    In case of mining, the ban on ir
on ore mining in certain parts of the country and the impact of environmental clearances on coal took a toll. Even agriculture grew at a slower pace than a year ago but that was due to a high base in the third quarter of 2010-11. Data released by the Central Statistics Office showed that the farm sector expanded by 2.7% during October-December 2011 compared to 11% a year ago. 
    Economists at Citibank and ratings agency Crisil predicted that the economy was on course to achieve 7% growth in the current financial year as the service sector was still recording a strong growth. Three of the four sectors clocked over 9% rise in activity, with construction too growing by over 7%. 

Cabinet may take up divestment plan today 
    
The Centre is set to provide a major push to disinvestment in the coming months to bolster its financial position and generate funds for its social sector programme. Sources said the Union cabinet could take up a proposal on Thursday to sell stake in state-owned companies, with buyback on top of the agenda.P 23 

Pak moves to grant MFN tag to India 
    
Pakistan on Wednesday moved closer to granting most-favoured nation status to India by switching to a system of "negative lists" that will restrict the import of around 1,200 items from India. Pakistan will now permit import of around 6,800 products from India compared to 1,900 products earlier.  
RBI faces inflation, deficit dilemmas 
    In order for the government to meet its first advance GDP estimate of 6.9% for 2011-12, growth in the fourth quarter is likely to be 6.9%," Citibank economists Rohini Malkani and Anushka Shah said in a note. 
    "We would expect this to be the bottom or close to the bottom and Q4 is likely at 6.1% too. RBI is expected to factor in these growth dips and start cutting rates from April, first cut of 25 basis points. But RBI might not be able to cut the policy rates aggressively as inflation concerns persist, especially with international crude oil prices remaining firm," said Kotak Mahindra Bank chief economist Indranil Pan. 
    The continued fall in 
growth rates promoted industry chambers to argue for a rate cut to boost economic activity. CSO data estimated investment at 30% of GDP as compared to 32.3% a year ago. This was the fourth quarter in a row when it had declined. At the same time, private consumption also remained constant. 
    RBI, however, faces twin dilemmas. One inflation, especially in the manufactured good segment, remains high and there are signs of fresh pressure on oil prices due to tension in Iran. Two, it has already made public its concern over the Centre's fiscal situation. With tax collections and disinvestment targets expected to be missed and subsidies projected to be higher than the budgeted level, fiscal deficit is projected to be over 5.5% of GDP as compared to the 4.6% target. 
    Separate data from the finance ministry showed that the government's fiscal deficit in end-January was more than the level budgeted for the full financial year.





State-run Refiners Scale Down Crude Imports from Iran

Diversify oil basket to cut down dependence on Tehran in the event of more sanctions

 India's imports of Iranian crude oil are expected to fall further as state refiners reduce their exposure to the country facing US sanctions, even as the shift is being officially explained as a drive to diversify the country's crude basket to avoid offending major oil suppliers such as Iran. 

India maintains its declared policy that it will keep buying crude from Iran and maintain friendly relations with it unless there are UN sanctions against the country. But the oil ministry is quietly nudging state refiners to explore new grades of crude oil from Africa and Latin America, which are cheaper and can improve refining margins of complex refineries. State firms said import of Iranian crude oil from term contracts has fallen to 13.1 million tonnes in the current fiscal from about 22 million tonnes in 2008-09, and is expected to decline further in 2012-13 as refiners gradually buy more barrels from other regions. "Diversification of crude basket is must for India's energy security and it is an ongoing thing. We can't put all eggs in one basket," said a government official who did not wish to be identified. 
The biggest buyer of Iranian crude, state-run MRPL, is also courting new suppliers. "We are talking to various suppliers in Africa and Latin America for long-term supply of crude," a company executive said. Government and industry officials 
say recent developments in the Middle-East are a matter of concern for a country that imports 80% of its oil requirements. The Middle-East supplied 65% of the 163.6 million tonnes of crude India imported in 2010-11, making the country vulnerable to supply shocks if cargo movement in the region is blocked. 
"So far, turmoil in Libya, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Egypt has not adversely affected India. While Libya, Syria and Egypt constituted only about 2% of our total imports, there is no supply disruption from Iran or Iraq," another government official said. State-run refiners are also taking steps to equip their plants to process new grades of crude oil. "We have already started processing high-sulphur crude and are now preparing to process heavier oil sourced from Latin America and Africa," IndianOil Chairman RS Butola told ET.


Monday, February 27, 2012

Investors of Sterlite, Sesa Resist Merger

Vedanta Aluminium's debt pile, violations worry institutions

Some shareholders of Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries have opposed Anil Agarwal's plans to create a mining behemoth by combining the two companies with Vedanta Aluminium, a loss-making, debt-laden company struggling to build a controversial mining project in Odisha's tribal region. 

Franklin Resources with 9.79%, Templeton Emerging Markets (2.44%) and Vanguard Group (1.46%) have told the management of Vedanta Resources they are uncomfortable with the transfer of . 48,500 crore of debt from the London-listed company to Sesa-Sterlite. 
Last Saturday, Vedanta Resources announced that it will combine its two key listed companies in India with the privately held Vedanta Aluminium, creating a diversified metals and mining giant ranked 
seventh in the world on the basis of operating earnings. The combined unit will also be the third-biggest private sector company by profit in India after ONGC and Reliance Industries. Vedanta's stake in Cairn India and the debt taken on to buy the Indian exploration unit of the Edinburgh-based Cairn Plc will be transferred to the new company. 
But what has irked shareholders is the transfer of debt amounting to . 48,500 crore. "They are mainly unhappy about the debt. The (Vedanta) management is talking to them on the matter and discussions are going on," one person privy to the development said. 
The institutions did not respond to queries mailed by ET. 
According to a senior group executive, some investors had questioned the company's ability to service the debt. "We have had regular discussions with them since Saturday and have explained to them the synergies of the structure. I don't see any issue now with the institutional shareholders," said the executive, who refused to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media. 
Questions Raised Over $3-b Bond Issue Too 
Questions were also asked about the $3.1 billion in bonds that Vedanta had issued for the Cairn acquisition. Since the bonds cannot be issued to a step down subsidiary, Sesa-Sterlite may be forced to pay Vedanta Resources $3.1 billion when the bonds come up for redemption. 
Unhappy shareholders dumped stocks of both the companies on Monday, though the general weakness in equity markets due to the surging oil prices and fears of a war in the Middle East could also have contributed to much of the fall. Sesa Goa plunged 10% to . 203 while Sterlite Industries fell 2.5% to . 115.65. The Sensex slipped 2.6%. Under the terms of the merger plan, investors will get three shares of Sesa Goa for five shares held in Sterlite Industries. The merged entity will have a debt of $14 billion (about . 68,600 crore). "Vedanta Aluminium seems to be the main problem for the institutional shareholders. It has been a loss-making venture with no major turnaround in sight as it doesn't have a captive bauxite mine and has to 
buy (the key raw material) from the open market," said the person quoted earlier. A report by Kotak Institutional Equities was more scathing. "We value Vedanta Aluminium at EV (enterprise value) of . 90 billion (. 9,000 crore), lower than debt transfer of . 220 billion (. 22,000 crore) in this transaction. This results in negative equity value of . 131 billion, the cost of which will be borne by Sterlite and Sesa shareholders. Vedanta Resources shareholders (and promoters) have got a nice deal in the process," Kotak said in a note to clients. "Sesa shareholders also get a raw deal courtesy unfavorable valuation for VAL and we expect the stock to correct," it said. According to ET NOW, the business channel of this newspaper, Sesa Goa's institutional shareholders have demanded that Vedanta Resources forgo interest cost on the debt given to Vedanta Aluminium. The shareholders want Vedanta Resources to give the interest cost relief till Vedanta Aluminium gets access to captive bauxite mines. 
Speaking to ET on Saturday, Vedanta Resources Chairman Anil Agarwal had said he was confident 
that government approval for a captive bauxite source would come soon. Finance Director Tarun Jain said the group would benefit from the low-cost greenfield aluminium unit that had cost about $6 billion, including the smelter, refinery and power plant. "A similar unit today would cost not less than $12 billion," he said. 
A Deutsche Bank research report on Monday termed the transfer of ownership of Vedanta Aluminium to the new entity as 'disappointing'. "The key positive lies in the attempt toward untangling the group's complex corporate structure reducing the scope for future conflict between minority and majority shareholders," the report said. 
Another area of concern is the environmental violations in Orissa. "Large foreign investors in Sesa Goa are very concerned with the image that Vedanta Aluminium has globally ," said another person aware of the development. 
In 2010, the government clamped down on Vedanta Aluminium's mining venture in Niyamgiri, Odisha, citing environmental violations and dealing a major blow to Agarwal's plans of building an aluminium smelter.

SENSEX PLUNGES 478 POINTS

Street Slips on Spiralling Oil, Profit-booking

After an uninterrupted rise in stocks since January, investors needed an excuse to take home some profits. Higher oil prices offered them the perfect reason to dump stocks, resulting in benchmark indices posting their highest single-day fall in four months. 

Till last week, India was the best performer among global markets, and surprisingly even on Monday, when the market tanked, foreign portfolio managers were net buyers. 
Though Brent crude slipped below $125, snapping five days of gains, after touching 10-
month highs, worries persist that tensions between Iran and Israel could lead to supply disruptions. 
"The rise in crude oil prices is the single reason for the fall in the markets today. It is difficult to know how long it will persist because these are geopolitical developments," said Nandan Chakraborty, MD-institutional equity research at Enam Securities. 
"That said, market has gone up a lot recently and it was waiting for a trigger to take a pause. The market was highly vulnerable to fall and would have fallen for any reason at all," he said. 
Market could Start Worrying 
On Monday, the Sensex dropped 477.82 points, or 2.67%, to close at 17,445.75 while the Nifty fell 148.10 points, or 2.73%, to end at 5,281.20. It was triggered by local institutions, which sold stocks worth Rs 700 crore. Though FIIs bought Rs 330 crore of equities, it was significantly lower than their recent purchases. 
Shares of Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries led the declines in BSE's metal index after the Vedanta group spelt out the terms of the merger between the two companies over the weekend. The index fell 5.6% on Monday on account of profit booking after recent gains. India's benchmark indices have surged 17% between January 1 and February 25. 

The rally was driven by $5 billion worth of foreign portfolio inflows after the European Central Bank launched the first round of fund infusion. Indian stocks benefitted as they had underperformed US stocks in 2011. But, with the stock valuation advantage receding after the recent rally, analysts said the market could start worrying more about events that could interrupt the rally. 
"There may be multiple reasons — elections, budget, Food Security Bill etc. Some may think that inflation will take longer to soften. You can pick any one... There was no definite reason why the market surged since January, and there is no definite reason why the market should fall now... I don't think Iran will escalate the issue beyond a point," said Anand Tandon, CEO of JRG Securities.


General strike set to hit nation, may spare city



New Delhi/Mumbai: Having rejected the Centre's belated bid to persuade them to drop their plan for the 24-hour general strike on Tuesday, central trade unions commanding the allegiance of lakhs of workers stepped up their efforts to turn the protest into a crippling nationwide shutdown. 
    Life will be severely impacted across the country for 24 hours if the trade unions succeed in pulling off the show of strength and solidarity in support of their demands: an end to contract labour, amendment 

to the Minimum Wages Act, an increase in gratuity payout and compulsory registration of trade unions within 45 days. 
    Among the sectors that are likely to be affected by the strike are the oil and gas industry, banks and insurance, aviation, defence (ordnance factories), posts and telecom, ports and the I-T department. 
    However,the impact on Mumbai is likely to be mixed. Local trains will run as scheduled. While BEST's King Long airconditioned buses will not ply, some auto drivers may choose to attend a morcha at Azad Maidan, inconveniencing regular commuters. Automen's 
union leader Sharad Rao and taxi union leader A L Quadros have reassured citizens that autos and cabs will ply as usual. While public sector banking services will be hit, the markets, as also schools and colleges, are expected to function normally today. 
WHAT MUMBAI CAN EXPECT TODAY 
WHAT WILL BE AFFECTED 

• Attendance at some central govt offices 

• BEST AC King Longs fully, other BEST buses partially 

• Autorickshaws in some suburban areas 

• Branch transactions in public sector banks 

• Cheque clearing in RBI 
WHAT WON'T BE AFFECTED 

• Essential services 

• Civic, state govt offices 

• Black-and-yellow, fleet cabs 

• School buses 

• Trains and flights 

• Schools and colleges (both private & public) 

• Retail shops, malls, petrol pumps, hotels and restaurants 

• Markets & ATMs 
IN OTHER METROS 
Normal life will be hit. But airports, trains, bus stations will be open in Delhi, Kolkata Bangalore. Transport will be affected in Chennai 
We've been forced to go on strike: TUs 
New Delhi/Mumbai: Cities across the country are bracing for the strike today. For the first time, Bharat Electronics and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will be taking part in the strike, according to trade union (TU) leaders.
    Apprehending that the strike will send out a wrong message against the government and its reforms agenda, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called Intuc leader G Sanjeeva Reddy on Friday evening for talks. While it seemed like an attempt to 
break the Congress's union away from the array of striking unions, Reddy refused to meet the PM unless he invited other TU leaders who have joined hands to call the strike. "My message to the government is that it won't make a difference by talking to me alone. If all the leaders are called then there is a possibility of finding a solution to this," Reddy told TOI. 
    "We could achieve this unity when all the trade unions and workers realized over the last two years that going on their own has not helped since the government has refused to pay heed to our demands," said Gurudas Dasgupta, Aituc chief and senior CPI leader. The date was decided last November to coincide with the tabling of the Union budget, but that got postponed. "We want industrial peace. We have been compelled to go on strike. Workers also lose their wage. Strike is the last option for us," Dasgupta said. 

In U-turn, Didi calls bandhs 'retrograde' 
Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee was in a combative mood on Monday, calling bandhs and strikes "retrograde politics", as CPM's trade union wing Citu feared law and order problems because of the government's "aggressive posture". "The government cannot support bandhs. Whatever is needed will be done. One can't attend office with party badges," the CM said. "If the CPM had actually worked for 35 years instead of resorting to strikes and bandhs, Bengal would have reaped gold. The treasury wouldn't be empty. Strikes and bandhs are expressions of frustration and they serve only vested interests." she said. TNN

Sunday, February 26, 2012

‘Prized Catch’ Ispat Weighs Heavy on JSW

As Ispat's losses mount, analysts blame the haste Sajjan Jindal showed in wrapping up the deal for some of his current financial problems

Steel magnate Sajjan Jindal's financial troubles are spreading. Already burdened by the woes of iron ore sourcing, the Mumbai-based billionaire and promoter of JSW Steel is now realising that his acquisition of Ispat Industries is not quite turning out to be the "prized" catch it was once touted to be. 

Jindal had cut the deal for Ispat with brothers Pramod and Vinod Mittal at lickety-split. The . 2,157-crore transaction was sealed in just a week in December 2010, surprising other suitors like Tata Steel. Jindal had then promised shareholders of Ispat that he would revive the loss-making company's fortunes in less than 18 months. He could not keep his word as new problems kept creeping up with Ispat's financials. 
Already struggling to live up with several "unviable" decisions of Ispat's previous board, Jindal is now finding his hands full with the Maharashtra-based steelmaker's "sticky assets". 

"We have made a provision of . 1,292 crore for sticky assets in Ispat," JSW's joint managing director Seshagiri Rao told ET. "These include advances to group companies, receivables, overseas investments and for old power equipment." Vinod Mittal, a director on Ispat board, did not respond to calls from ET. 
With Ispat's losses mounting—the company slumped to a net loss of . 1,806 crore in the year to March 2011 and . 308.6 crore in the quarter to December — Jindal is getting ready to loosen his purse strings yet again. 
JSW is drawing up a . 2,000-crore plan to turn the clock back at Ispat. The fund injection, via the equity route, would be in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) and not in the steelmaker directly. This will ensure that JSW's stake in Ispat does not rise beyond the current 
47%, firewalling Jindal's flagship company from the losses of the acquired entity. 
"Ispat's operating profit for every tonne of steel made in the quarter to December was about . 3,600, which is far less than the 
. 6,500 that JSW Steel earns," said a Mumbai-based analyst. "If JSW's holding goes beyond 50%, then the accumulated loss of Ispat would also have to be accounted for in the consolidated statement. This would reduce JSW's operating profit." JSW posted a consolidated net loss of . 47.9 crore on account of the losses in Ispat. This was after considering . 500 crore as exceptional item on account of a forex loss. Under the turnaround plan, JSW will invest . 700 crore as equity in Amba Coke, an SPV that will sell coke and pellets to Ispat. The SPV will raise . 1,300 crore in debt, insulating JSW from any future concerns on account of Ispat. 
Amba Coke, which already has environmental clearances, will bring in cheaper coking coal for Ispat. The SPV was earlier formed with global trading major 
Stemcor and has a long-term agreement for sourcing coking coal from Australia. The unit will also generate captive power for Ispat, besides sourcing power from JSW Energy. This will bring down Ispat's operating cost. 
Analysts blame the haste Jindal showed in wrapping up the deal for some of his current problems. "JSW had been looking for acquisitions in India to scale up and Ispat seemed the perfect fit," said Jagdish Agarwal of Mumbai-based Emkay Global Financial Services. "Since the deal was completed swiftly, some of the items in the due diligence were not captured." The deal was more between Jindal and the Mittal brothers. 

Among the pitfalls was the . 104.8-crore worth of raw material that Ispat had procured against aletter of credit. The raw material has been lying in transit overseas with a stevedore since March 2010. Then there were investments, loans and advances aggregating to . 118.4 crore for development of mines, and sales of hot rolled coils worth . 319.4 crore that the purchasers had refused to pay for.


Guest Column COMPANIES & FACEBOOK Using ‘Likes’ to Measure Brand Value of a Firm

Brand value has always been a rather elusive metric. To measure the strength of a brand, most marketers use combinations of financial metrics, consumer research and other qualitative measures. But these techniques require studies and can be expensive and time consuming without necessarily yielding desired results. So, is there an easy way out? Is there any readily available metrics that companies can use as a dynamic dashboard to monitor brand value? 

The answer is yes. Thanks to proliferation of digital social media, companies can use Facebook "Likes" to gauge their brand value, as proposed by Nicholas Hodson, Partner, Booz & Company in Strategy-+Business, December 2011. 
With 42 million users, India has the second highest Facebook population. Many brands today manage "organization" pages or fan groups on the world's most popular social networking site. Consequently, a company's Facebook page is a destination for brand fans and such social network statistics are vital indicators of brand engagement. 
However, when considered on their own, Facebook "likes" can be unreliable. Intuitively, a larger firm with a bigger customer base may draw greater number of "likes". So normalising the likes by the company's revenue provides a more valuable measure. Hence, likes per $1 million of revenues or likes per million (LPM). 
Admittedly, brands may run campaigns to artificially attract, or buy, "likes". While this causes some delink between real world brand value and LPM, anecdotal evidence suggests that such "purchased likes" are relatively small. To test the efficacy of this metric, we performed an analysis in the US and in India. 
For the US, the LPM analysis is quite fascinating—who would have thought that Subway would out-engage the auction website eBay and the consumer electronics outlet Best Buy? It also confirms that scale is no guarantee of online brand engagement. Walmart garners an impressive 10.6 million Facebook "likes". 
But set against the company's $400 billion+ revenues, this translates to a not-so- impressive 25 likes per million, well below the LPM of smaller retailers like Macy's and Kohl's. We asked ourselves if the LPM metric is unfairly skewed to young social-network savvy 
audiences, or does the model serve as a generic metric for brand engagement? A plot of LPM against other metrics of brand value, like Interbrand's annual survey of leading brands indexed to revenue, reveals a strong correlation between the two. 
In the Indian context, the Facebook LPM metric needs to be analysed with a more specific lens. Facebook in India is overwhelmingly dominated by the urban consumer and, therefore, LPM is only a good measure of the strength of "urban- focused" brands. 
Currently, this measure can be used to track discretionary consumer goods, restaurant chains, apparel and retail brands, automobiles, airlines and a few other sectors with similar appeal. With the rising uptake of Facebook, this basket will expand. Moreover, since only overall revenues are available in public domain, the preliminary statistics might be slightly biased against companies with businesses in both rural and urban India. 
Even with these limitations, the metric shows that Indian companies have leapfrogged global benchmarks in digital engagement. More than half of the 23 Indian brands we looked up have LPMs of 1,000 or more. 
By comparison, the global study revealed only 10% of the brands with a similar score. Scale is no guarantee of online brand engagement. While some consumer brands, restaurant chains and cafés have done well, Indian apparel brands have relatively low LPM, especially compared to global clothing-makers like Zara and Burberry. This indicates the need for more groundwork in consumer engagement and building loyalty. Similarly, while Reliance Communication seeks to attain a distinctive youthcentric brand status, its online engagement is lower than Vodafone and Idea. 
When companies use Facebook to foster an online community, launch products and embark on marketing campaigns, the growth in LPM can help them track the success of their efforts. 
Also, LPM can be measured dynamically—an option unavailable with conventional brand valuation metrics. Spikes in LPM set against competition can be a real-time indicator of brand strength. 
Abhishek Malhotra is Partner and Raghav Gupta is Principal at Booz & Company



Govt Prods PSU Banks to Cut Loan Rates by March

BANKS IN A SPOT AS FUNDS STILL COSTLY

Finmin seen trying to revive investor sentiment before close of fiscal year


The finance ministry is nudging state-owned banks to cut lending rates before March-end, though most lenders had initially taken a stand to review interest rates only next financial year. 
This has not been communicated in writing, but at a recent meeting, senior ministry officials asked bank chiefs to consider lowering interest rates. 
Even after the Reserve Bank of India cut banks' cash reserve ratio (CRR) in January, signalling a reversal in its monetary policy stance, bankers had said it would take a while for lending rates to soften. Since CRR is the slice of customer deposits that banks have to keep as cash with the RBI, a cut in the ratio following repeated rate hikes was perceived as the onset of a dovish monetary policy. But since no bank has lowered returns on deposits since the RBI action, their cost of funds continues to be high. Banks are reluctant to lower deposit rates in February and March because they do not want to miss their annual deposit mobilisation targets. 
"It's a Catch-22 situation…Cost of resources has actually gone up for banks," said the chairman of a large commercial bank. 
Senior bankers declined to go on record on the matter. However, DK Mittal, secretary, department of financial services, said: "We have suggested banks to bring down rates in whichever sector and to 
whatever extent possible, and as quickly." The intention, he told ET, "is to create a positive environment and not to interfere with banks' operations". 
Ministry officials expressed their views to bankers about a fortnight ago. Following this, Bank of Maharashtra cut its base rate — the minimum rate charged from best customers — by 10 basis points to 10.60% and Central Bank of India lowered home loan rates by 25 basis points across various maturities. Last week, Union Bank Chairman MV Nair told ET that the bank is exploring if there is scope to lower rates in certain categories. 
A month before the RBI cut CRR, Union Bank had announced a token rate cut of 10 bps to 10.65%. 
Sending a Message to Industry, Borrowers 
According to Mittal, some rate cuts by banks may help to send across a message to industry and borrowers in general that the "investment environment will turn conducive sooner than expected". 
While banks may lower rates in some segments, more meaningful rate cuts can happen once bulk money becomes less expensive. Interest rates on certificate of deposit (CD) — an instrument banks sell to raise bulk deposits — have risen in the last one month. For instance, interest rates on one-year CDs are up to 10.15% from 9.80% a month ago. After the CRR cut, Aditya Puri, CEO of HDFC Bank, had said, "The RBI move enforces that interest rates are on downward trend. But if you want an immediate satisfaction…that would take some time. In general, cost of money should come down first." 
Industry circles said the finance ministry is looking at ways to revive investment sentiment, particularly after several economists in the private sector lowered their growth forecast for the year. The central bank too has revised its growth forecast to 7% for this fiscal from 7.6% projected earlier.


Thursday, February 23, 2012

India loses $20bn/yr to mishaps

Estimate Enough To Feed 50% Of Malnourished Kids, Cellphone Use Top Culprit

New Delhi: India loses $20 billion (Rs 4919 crore approx) due to road accidents annually, which the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates is enough to feed 50% of the nation's malnourished children. Officially, at least 1.34 lakh people died on Indian roads in 2010, while experts claim the figure could be about 1.5 lakh considering the under reporting of such cases. 

    WHO representative in India Dr Nata Menabde while addressing international road safety experts, including the senior IPS officers at a convention held at College of Traffic Management (CTM) in Faridabad, said there is a dire need to save the vulnerable road users to reduce the huge annual financial loss. She urged that strategies have to be devised to save lives, particularly pedestrians, cyclists and two-wheeler riders besides putting curbs on drunk driving and stricter enforcement of wearing of helmets and seat belts. 
    "We need to see how we build our 
road, investigate properly how accidents occur and police probe these cases. There should be one group or body that should bring all sectors together, and it should announce a plan to reduce fatalities," Menabde said. 
    International experts felt that the high use of mobiles while driving is increasing the accidents globally. "The chance of accidents increase four-fold in such cases," said Adam Briggs, former chief constable of the UK. 
    CTM president Rohit Baluja said that to reduce the accidents and fatalities on Indian roads, there is a need to have proper probe to unearth the cause of accidentsEven senior traffic officials from Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Haryana, Rajasthan admitted that the investigators often have little training to probe accident cases. "The usual course of investigation is on predictable lines: bigger vehicle is the culprit, dead is the victim and alive is the accused. We need to find the reasons behind such accidents as it is done in other countries," said Vivek Phansalkar, joint commissioner of Mumbai Traffic Police. 

Road accidents reduce in US, increase in India 
New Delhi: While the number of road accidents and fatalities has reduced in developed countries such as the US, the UK and Germany between 2008 and 2010 due to financial meltdown, the toll has increased significantly in India. Global road safety experts said the recession is linked to reduced miles travelled by vehicles and that has a direct impact on accidents and deaths. However, in India, the fatalities have increased from 1.20 lakh in 2008 to 1.34 lakh in 2010. TNN


Tuesday, February 21, 2012

SOUTHERN RECOVERY Cement despatches grow 9.4% in January

Chennai: Cement dispatches—an indicator of construction activity across sectors—recorded a 9.4% growth in January 2012, third straight month of high growth due to low base effect. Dispatches in January 2011 witnessed a meagre 1.1% growth. 

    Dispatches grew to 20.4 million tonnes in January as against 18.6 million tonnes in the year-ago period. Cement production registered an increase of 10.6% at 20.6 million tones, according to data from the Cement Manufacturers Association and Holcim Group, promoter of ACC and Ambuja Cement. In April-December 2011 cement consumption grew 17% in the western market, 10% in the northern market, 8% in the central region, and 3% in eastern market. Consumption fell 14% in Andhra Pradesh, 8% in Jharkhand, 6% in Himachal Pradesh, and 4% in Bihar. Gujarat recorded a 20% rise in offtake, Punjab and Orissa, 15% each, and Maharashtra witnessed a 14% growth. 
    "We are witnessing first signs of growth after a twoyear lull in South India. 

Housing demand from Bangalore is strong, while state government-funded projects in Andhra Pradesh are starting out. Tamil Nadu is also seeing growth," said Rakesh Singh, president (marketing), The India Cements, south India's largest cement maker by volume. 
    Capacity utilization lev
els in January rose to 82% as against 80% in January 2011. 
    "This (growth) was due to the low-base effect and a pickup in demand. The low base effect will fade off in February and March. Dispatches during January grew 15.8% in the north, 11.5% in the south and 1.9% in the east," analysts at Anand Rathi Securities said in a note. "In the first half of February, prices have increased by Rs 5 to Rs 15 a 50kg bag in the western, the eastern and the central regions, while they were stable in the north and the south." 
    Demand in February has picked up and been better than in January. Most dealers expect prices to firm up this quarter, led by controlled supply and a pickup in demand, the note said.

FII inflow crosses $5bn so far in 2012

Sensex Gains 139 Points To Close At 18,429, Seven-Month Closing High


Mumbai: Boosted by a strong rally in Reliance Industries and buying by foreign investors, which crossed the $5-billion mark for the year, the sensex gained 139 points on Tuesday to close at 18,429, a 7-month closing high. 
    The rally on Dalal Street, which has added about 3,300 points since the index touched a recent low at 15,136 level on December 20, was also boosted by expectations of rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and an investor-friendly budget, both the events are scheduled 
over the next one month. 
    Talks of announcement of a joint venture in the petrochemicals space, RIL rallied nearly 3% to close at Rs 842. The other sensex stocks that aided the day's gains were BHEL, up 4.8% at Rs 318, ONGC, up 3.7% at Rs 292 and Hindalco Industries, up 3% at Rs 156. Of the 30 sensex stocks, 19 ended higher, 10 were in the red while one closed unchanged. 
    The day's gains also came on the back of a Rs 1,400-crore net buying by FIIs, taking the year's total net foreign fund inflows through the stock market to over $5 billion. 
    On Tuesday, consumer 
price inflation data released by the government showed that it was moderating which further added to investors' expectation that the RBI would cut key policy rates in its next meeting in mid-March. This, in turn would boost the economy's growth, which has slowed down over the last few quarters. 
    The day's trading also witnessed Kingfisher slide nearly 20% on fears that the struggling private airlines may not get funds to survive. The stock, however, closed 0.8% higher at Rs 27 after hopes surfaced that its lenders may agree to infuse additional funds for its bailout. 
    In the international mar
ket, late on Tuesday, the Dow Jones index in the US crossed the 13,000-mark again after nearly four years (see box). 
    Among other markets, oil prices continued their northward run up with Nymex crude trading at nearly $105 per barrel. Earlier in the day crude had touched an intraday high at $105.44. 

Wall St up on Greek deal, Dow hits 13,000 
New York: US stocks rose on Tuesday, with the Dow briefly topping 13,000 for the first time since May 2008, after Greece secured a bailout, but gains were limited as investors had priced in expectations of a deal. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 43 points, or 0.33%, at 12,993 after rising to 13,005. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up nearly 5 points, or 0.36%, at 1,366. REUTERS


 

blogger templates | Make Money Online