Btt Jan 10

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� Business and Travel Times January 2010

ContentsEditorial............................................................................................................. 3CovEr storyIndustrial growth beyond all expectations......................................................... 4EConomyoECD wants India to further liberalise FDI policy ...........................................11InFrastruCturEHighways expansion by 35,000 km in five years ............................................ 13stEElEasier route for global steel giants to set up base in India ............................. 15GsBa- top rankers Excellence award to saIl Finance Director .................. 16InsuranCElIC business up by 35 per cent ..................................................................... 17life Insurance Industry registers robust growth.............................................. 18BankInG & InvEstmEntnewgen asv system to reduce bank transaction risks .................................. 19CapitalVia’s new service schemes ................................................................. 19It InDustryHow ramco onDemand ErP caters to growing smE sector needs ............. 20- By s. sunderaraj, ramco systemssalEs & markEtInG‘value creators key to propel growth in marketing’ ......................................... 22EnvIronmEnt‘End to extractive relationship with nature unavoidable’ ................................ 24PowErWind industry viewed as strategic sector for Europe’s future ......................... 25CorPoratEreliance autozone forays into Bangalore....................................................... 26Rane Groups’ ambitious turnover target of Rs. 1,500 crores this year ........... 27metalman-Cellino Jv to make components for global market ........................ 28WABCO-TVS ABS focus on vehicle safety and steerability ........................... 30HNG Group foray into float glass making ....................................................... 31kBl’s yamuna awarded lEED Platinum rating for green buildings ............... 32Siemens partners EKO Diagnostics to provide PET biomarkers in Kolkata ... 33Philips’ focus on healthcare products ............................................................ 34High output water purification system from Shivsu......................................... 35Electrotherm launches largest induction melting furnace ............................... 36Raj Petro launches India’s first branded speciality lubricants ......................... 37towers Perrin-watson wyatt merger complete .............................................. 38Zen mobile launches QwErty Z 77 ............................................................. 39avIatIonQatar Airways extending service to Copenhagen and Barcelona .................. 40Paramount airways joins hands with Budget rent-a-Car ............................... 41tourIsmChina tourism award for InorBIt tours ....................................................... 42EvEntsversatile allma CC3 Combi will be on show at tire technology 2010 ............ 43CeBIt 2010 to attract new target groups ....................................................... 44tourIsmHoward Plaza Hotel Taipei focus on business traveller comfort .................... 45mEn at tHE HElm ....................................................................................... 47

January 2010

4industrial growth beyond all expectations

41

Paramount airways joins hands with Budget rent-a-Car

relianCe auTozone forays into Bangalore

26

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�Business and Travel Times January 2010

Of late there are clearer signs of econom-ic revival, the most notable among them be-ing the country’s exports turning positive for the first time in November 2009 after a pro-tracted downtrend for 13 months. Besides the surprise GDP growth of 7.9 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal, the export growth of 18.2 per cent at $13.19 bil-lion in November against $11.16 billion in the same month of 2008-09 marked a dis-tinct reversal of the falling trend. At the same time, imports during the month declined by 2.6 per cent at $22.88 billion, resulting in a

narrower trade gap of $9.69 billion against $12.32 billion in November last fiscal. The overall trade deficit in the current fiscal is estimated at $66 bil-lion which is much lower than that of $100.15 billion in April-November 2008. FIEO is confident that exports would pick up further if the UPA Government continues with its stimulus packages for industry, particularly the interest subsidy for the export sector.

The general mood is really upbeat, going by the steady rise in share prices and the accelerated activity in stock markets. Buoyed mainly by the higher influx of both foreign institutional and direct investment, market opera-tors are sure that India would remain a preferred destination for equity investors across the world. Minor daily fluctuations notwithstanding, the Bombay Sensex keeps rising. It closed the year just gone by at 17464.81, up 7817.50 points from the year ago level. According to market analysts, it won’t be unreasonable to expect the gradual return of stock market prices to the January 2008 level when the Sensex touched 21000. All indication is that, with the ever growing trade volume, the index will pierce the 17500-mark sooner than later and soar further.

It is against this backdrop of robust industrial revival that the Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, has predicted that the economic growth this fiscal won’t be less than seven per cent. With a fresh push to reforms as proposed by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and the resilient fiscal system capable of providing funds for general industrial expansion, particularly infrastructural development, a growth of 10-12 per cent in a couple of years is also well within reach. All this presupposes retention of the stimulus packages as desired by all the leading industry associations. In fact, they have gone a step further and have sought additional excise and other tax reliefs in the forthcoming Budget. The Government will neces-sarily have to concede their demand if it is really serious about growth sustenance.

exports turn positive

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cover story

industrial growth beyond all expectationsThe Indian econ-

omy recorded a growth of 7.9 per

cent in June-Septem-ber 2009, the highest in six quarters, triggering hopes that the recovery has all come and the Reserve Bank should now turn its focus on combating inflation.

However, it would be too early to come to such a defini-tive conclusion, as economists worldwide warn that any strat-egy to withdraw from monetary and fiscal stimuli should be a cautious decision and must not be based only on one data.

Catapulted by stimuli-pow-ered strong industrial growth, the Indian economy grew not only higher than a mere 6.1 per cent in Q1, but also more than the previous six quarters. The growth rate was much higher than 5.8 per cent recorded in the last two quarters of 2008-09 when the global financial crisis deepened after the collapse of the US financial services major Lehman Brothers in the middle of September 2008.

Besides industry, the services sector is on an upswing with community, social and personal services expand-ing by 12.7 per cent during the reporting quarter and the farm sector logging in a growth of 0.9 per cent against a contraction that was projected due to the weak monsoon.

The significance of the num-bers could be gauged from the fact that the Government as well as the Plan panel ex-pected slower growth in the second quarter than the first quarter, and most economists pegged it in the range of 6.1-6.6 per cent. For the first half, the economy grew by seven per cent against 7.8 per cent a year ago, prompting the Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukher-jee, to expect over 7 per cent growth this fiscal.

For the current fiscal, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, had expected the econ-omy to grow by 6.5 per cent, RBI by 6 per cent and the Plan-ning Commission by 6.3 per cent.

“...this performance does suggest that there may well have to be an upward revision in GDP growth of 6.5 per cent, which has been projected so far”, the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said.

While Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn said “clearly this is better news than we could have expected and we will have to review the forecast for the year as a whole,” the Prime Minister’s Economic Council Chairman, Mr. C. Rangarajan, too said the target of 6.5 per cent GDP growth for the current fis-cal may have to be revised upwards following the ro-bust second quarter numbers.

Mr. Anand SharmaMinister for Commerce and Industry

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With this, India continues to be the second fastest growing large economy in the world after China, which recorded 8.9 per cent in July-September of 2009.

Even as growth seems to be reviving, food inflation continued to surge ahead beyond 19 per cent. The climbing food inflation has its economic connotations, but also implifications for society at large. It might lead to cynicism among the larger public as food inflation affects them the most, while the benefits of growth are not easily understandable. On the economic front as well, there is always a danger that food inflation might spread to manufactured items.

Apprehending this, the Prime Minister’s economic advisory panel has said monetary actions are required

to prevent food inflation from having a contagion effect on manufactured items. “Food prices must be controlled, otherwise they have a tendency to lead to manufac-turing inflation...this will require monetary action by RBI, especially (money) supply management”, Mr. Rangarajan added.

In fact, the RBI Deputy Governor also said it would reassess its soft policy stance. “Clearly now going forward, it (accommo-dative monetary stance) will have be to re-assessed.

According to HDFC Chief Economist Ab-heek Barua, a case for an interest rate hike remains. “With respect to monetary policy action, clearly this strong GDP number gives a green signal for some tightening, and we maintain our earlier call of a CRR hike by 50 bps by December-January”.

However, industry is not impressed with these talks. In a pre-Budget meeting with Revenue Secretary P V Bhide, a FICCI delegation suggested that RBI should not restrain money supply as economic recov-ery is still at a nascent stage. The FICCI President, Mr. Harsh Pati Singhania, said the current food inflation should be tackled with supply side management and not with tightening money supply, as it would choke the growth process.

Mr. Montek also said RBI’s traditional monetary tools may not be effective in curbing food inflation, Mr. Singhania cautioned the Government not to roll-back stimulus measures unless recovery is on a firm footing. Any reversal of duty cuts would also push up inflation further.

The Government has cut excise duty by six per cent and service tax by two per cent in phases, besides stepping up Plan expenditure to prop up the economy. However, many economists feel that the government may now think of withdrawing the fiscal stimulus. “The government could withdraw stimulus (excise duty cuts) for fast-growing sectors as the Centre’s revenue posi-tion does not look too good,” Crisil principal econo-

cover story

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mist DK Joshi said.But the Government has given the assurance that

fiscal stimulus would be there at least for some time. “My views have always been that we should look at the position (stimulus) at close to February,” Mr. Montek observed.

In fact, some believe that the stimulus should be withdrawn with a caution as GDP number might seem quite encouraging there are some indicators of per-sisting weakness in the economy which is still propped up largely by the step-up in government expenditure and not private consumption.

Private final consumption, in fact, fell to 54.9 per cent in the second quarter of this fiscal against 55.5 per cent a year ago.

In this situation, any raising of interest rates might further curtail private demand and again push the economy back to slow growth.

As such, the Govern-ment has to do a tight-rope walking to keep propping up the econ-omy and manage food inflation. It should, in fact, concentrate on the supply side management of food items, instead of RBI tightening money supply as credit offtake anyway is not picking up much i n the economy.Global economic scene

The year 2009 has panned out quite well in terms of how the world has picked itself up within a year of this century’s worst economic crisis. India too has done remarkably well so far, although these are early days to assess the impact of a credit crisis brewing in the Middle East. Like aftershocks that fol-low earthquakes, every crisis is bound to have ripple effects and the crisis in Dubai could be one such. One sure sign of global recovery is that the pace of vanishing employment has come down as against an average 9,000 job losses daily in the beginning

of this year.India has been witnessing sensational growth in fac-

tory production, which reflects in its stupendous 7.9 per cent GDP expansion in the second quarter. The quarterly growth numbers have fuelled optimism that economic growth would top seven per cent.

The country’s GDP expansion had declined to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09 after three straight years of over nine per cent growth. This poor showing was attribut-ed to the global recession, which hit the export sector the hardest. Overseas shipments have been falling for 13 straight months, but the consolation is the pace of decline is slowing down.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told Parliament that exports would clock 15 per cent growth next fiscal,

giving a sneak peak into the shape of things to come. This is exactly

why the country’s top econo-mists, including Mr. Ahlu-walia, believe that recov-ery is here to stay.Great depression days

Compare this with the 1920s, the decade of the Great Depression that stretched until the late

1930s. The recession ac-tually started in 1920 when

the government decided to cut back on spending (which was thrice the

size of its revenue collections).The years that followed saw skewed growth and the

bubble was punctured on October 24, 1929, when the stock markets crashed. In the 1920s, an average of 600 banks failed each year. In fact, 1932 and 1933 turned out to be the worst years of the reces-sion, with the economy witnessing severe contrac-tion. It was not until 1934 that the first turnaround was seen.Us exits recession

Given this backdrop, the US, the world’s largest economy, surprised pundits in the July-September

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10 Business and Travel Times January 2010

quarter when its GDP expanded by 3.5 per cent. A quarter before that, the world’s second largest econ-omy, Japan, had posted 0.9 per cent growth to exit recession.

While the initial days of recovery were one of jobless growth, even this situation has started correcting. The rate of unemployment is falling in the US.

Elsewhere, Australia’s central bank hiked key policy rates saying the worst of the recession is over. The Re-serve Bank has too hinted it is time to exit the easy money policy unleashed in 2008 to cushion the econ-omy from the global financial crisis.

Although the recovery is largely due to the $4-5 tril-lion worth stimulus measures, it is acknowledged that these are early days to remove the prop.

Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has made it clear that he would watch the situation before taking a call on exit-ing the stimulus measures announced during Decem-ber-January last. The Government’s stimulus steps had shaved off thousands of crores from its indirect tax revenues, thus inflating the country’s fiscal deficit to an ugly 6.8 per cent of GDP.

But not all of this growth is using the crutches called ‘stimulus’. The country’s auto industry, which was consumed by fear at the height of the crisis that peo-ple would shun cars, posted a stunning 61 per cent growth in November. This followed the 10.3 per cent growth in factory production in October.

Mr. Ahluwalia said: “To get a growth rate well above 10 per cent is not just a base effect. There is an ele-ment of growth that is taking place which I hope will be sustained.”

For the first seven months of the fiscal, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which measures industrial growth, expanded by 7.1 per cent against 4.3 per cent

a year ago.Inflation trouble

Just as aftershocks are certain to follow earthquakes, inflation will follow rapid growth. Although Indians saw the cost of living contract, on paper, for the first time in over three decades, the low inflation numbers couldn’t conceal high food prices for long, as the common man cut back on potato, onion and pulses now and again during the year.

Food inflation touched 19.05 per cent as of the fourth week of November, largely due to supply side constraints, first caused by drought and then floods across many parts of the country. The Congress-led UPA, which returned to power for the second term on the plank of “Aam Admi”, was naturally concerned by political parties both inside and outside Parliament for the rising cost of living – a development that may prompt RBI to tighten money supply.

It is acknowledged that monetary policies cannot do much about stepping up supply of essentials, but the central bank feels tightening the policy would help put the lid on inflation. RBI Governor D Sub-barao had said that while monetary policy is an “in-effective instrument” to rein in growth in food prices, such tools may be needed to dampen inflation ex-pectations.

Not long before the economic crisis set in, the Gov-ernment and the central bank had outlined controlling inflation as their priority. However, this took a back seat despite a steady rise in food prices all through the crisis days. Now that growth appears to be back on road, the authorities have the luxury of using the lasso on inflation.

- PTI Economic Service

cover story

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11Business and Travel Times January 2010

economy

oecD wants India to further liberalise FDI policy

India has managed to attract huge foreign equity despite “poor infrastructure” and ceiling on FDI inflows in certain sectors. OECD’s investment policy review of India says New Delhi has designed poli-cies to encourage investment as part of market-oriented reforms since 1991 that have paved the way for improved prosperity.

“Restrictions on large-scale in-vestment have been greatly re-laxed. Many sectors formerly re-served to the public sector have been opened up to private enter-prise,” the OECD report notes.

But further reforms are needed, the report prepared by the club of 30 rich nations said. “India’s policy framework for FDI still remains re-strictive compared with most OECD countries.”

In recent years, India has be-come a major global player with high economic growth rates and is today an important destination for FDI. However, OECD suggests removal of “red tape” for more investments. “India’s FDI perform-

ance and progress in the past year has been particularly strong, even in a very tough global environ-ment. This is a vote of confidence in India.”

While OECD and global retail giants like Walmart Stores want In-dia to open its multi-brand retail for FDI, it does not appear that New Delhi would make any change in the policy, at least in the near fu-ture. “The policy on multi-brand retail (i.e., ‘no FDI’) acts as a so-cial security net for millions of small retail traders in the country,” Com-merce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma had said while launching the report along with OECD Sec-retary General Angel Gurria in the first half of December.

A parliamentary panel has al-ready suggested a blanket ban on FDI in the retail sector.

On OECD’s suggestion of open-ing up of the banking sector for FDI, Mr. Sharma said foreigners can invest up to 74 per cent in the sector. “Isn’t it enough,” he asked.

Officials in the Commerce and

Industry Ministry said India has al-ready indicated its willingness to liberalise the FDI policy in the in-surance sector. A Bill to raise the ceiling on FDI from the present 26 per cent is lying in Parliament.

The investment policy review lists a series of recommendations for India:

l Further relaxing restrictions on inward FDI in sectors such as bank-ing, insurance and retail trade.l Regularly reviewing the remain-

ing FDI restrictions in other areas to ensure that their costs do not out-weigh their expected benefits.l Developing a system of com-

parable FDI statistics for the States and Union Territories as a basis for cross-State monitoring of FDI per-formance.l Strengthening corporate trans-

parency and responsibility to align India more closely with the interna-tionally-recognised standards and practices.India’s special steps

The first OECD Investment Pol-icy Review of India shows great

the organisation of economic cooperation and Development (oecD) wants India to liberalise its foreign investment pol-icy, especially in retail, banking and insurance sectors, the

key areas of interest to global investors. the demand comes on the back of India’s FDI in equity touching $125 billion in september last since 2000.

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progress in building a successful policy environment to encourage investment and the resulting ac-celeration in FDI inflows and eco-nomic growth.

India has taken huge steps for improving its regulatory investment environment: the “license raj”, which shackled industry with nu-merous unnecessary permits, has been largely dismantled. Crucial issues for investors have started to be tackled by the Indian Gov-ernment, such as IPR protection which has been strengthened. The Competition Commission has just started work this summer, and the corporate governance framework has been improved.

Much of the economy has been opened to foreign investment. Since 2000, the FDI regime has been an OECD-type “negative list” approach in which all sectors not on the list are open to foreign investment.

Public ownership of industries has been substantially reduced as many sectors which were previ-ously reserved for the public sec-tor have been opened to private enterprises, including foreign in-vestment.

Experimental economic zones have been set up to test further in-vestment liberalisation measures. The Government has concluded

many bilateral investment promo-tion agreements and double taxa-tion avoidance agreements since the mid-1990s. Foreign-owned companies are now taxed the same as domestic enterprises.

However, according to OECD, many challenges remain. The de-velopment of high-quality infra-structure is an essential require-ment for India’s rapid growth. The Investment Policy Review suggests a further easing of the remaining FDI curbs to support the Gov-ernment’s important social and development goals. Many of the remaining FDI restrictions apply to sectors where productivity and growth need to be enhanced, such as banking, insurance and retail distribution.

Another major challenge in In-dia is to realign economic growth with equality perspectives. “While national economic growth has been impressive since 1991, the gap between the richer and poor-er Indian states has widened.” This trend needs to be reversed if the Government is to reduce inequali-ties.

While the Central Government has reduced the number of ap-provals needed for new invest-ment, administrative procedures need to be streamlined at the State level.

Last but not the least, India is rightly proud of its long tradition of the rule of law. But for inves-tors, both domestic and foreign, significant delays in justice can mean bankruptcy, and hence a risk too big to take. Strengthening the capacity of the judicial system could make a big difference to in-vestment.

India is doing a lot to bring in more FDI. It is continuously sim-plifying it FDI policy. Invest India, a non-profit making joint venture of the Government and industry, has been launched to help foreign investors, especially those in the small and medium enterprises.

Different ministries like Road and Textiles are holding roadshows in different parts of the world to at-tract foreign investment. A Bill to liberalise FDI policy in the insur-ance sector is in Parliament.

The Government is in the proc-ess of relaxing FDI norms for the promising real estate sector by do-ing away with the three-year locks in period for foreign investments. An e-project has been launched to integrate the FDI procedures in-cluding approvals.

There are also plans to set up a panel of State industrial ministers to encourage State-level reforms to attract FDI.


economy

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InFrastructure

Highways expansion by 35,000 km in five years

Unrolling one of the most ambitious plans for the Indian highways, the Government, it seems, wants a complete make-over of the roads indicating that the country could add impres-sive 35,000 km of highways in the next five years, besides long stretches of expressways, if all goes well as per plans.

Taking a string of measures to remove regulatory and other bottlenecks besides to ensure financing for the sector, the Government says it is close to getting $3 billion from the World Bank while looking at an additional $2 billion.

An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) compris-ing the Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, the Road Transport and Highways Min-ister, Mr. Kamal Nath, and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has already started deliberating on financing plan for the ambitious National Highway Development Project (NHDP).

The EGoM at its maiden meet on December 7 deliberated on getting a $2 billion further bor-rowing from the World Bank for road projects spread over the next two-three years.

The EGoM was constituted fol-lowing the Prime Minister-ap-pointed B K Chaturvedi Commit-tee recommending its need for fast-tracking highways projects in the country. At the same time, the

Ministry is also looking at various options to raise Rs. 3 lakh crores that would be invested in road development projects over 2010-11.

The World Bank has already agreed to look at newer ways to raise its funding commitment for the highways projects. Mr. Kamal Nath had said after meeting the Bank chief Robert Zoellick on De-cember 2. “The World Bank has agreed to look at funding viability gap and in the annuity projects not only in terms of financing but in terms of institutional support as well”, Mr. Nath had said.

The Ministry has sought a $2.96-billion World Bank fund-

ing for double-laning of 6,300 km of single-lane highways, out of a total of about 19,000 km single-lane highways in the country.

Under the viability gap scheme, funds and concessions are provided to the developers to make the projects viable, while annuity is a financing model where the developer fi-nances, builds and maintains the highways contract in ex-change of annual grants by the government.

The World Bank chief, in-teracting with the media, had said the agency could increase funding for India after con-sulting shareholders and is in talks with the Finance Ministry for funding highways. “There are so many different projects

in India... but there is even more that we can do for India. My chal-lenge is to go back to some of our shareholders so that we can give more in India. We know that the national highways programme is very important. So we are also in talks with the Ministry of Finance,” he said.

Responding to Mr. Nath’s re-quest for assistance from the World Bank and IFC in formu-lation of mega projects, he had said, “as he (Nath) said it is partly a question of financing and it is also a question of trying to apply the experience being followed in projects around the world recog-nising, of course, that India has

Mr. Kamal Nath, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways

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its unique circumstances.”“We propose working with the

International Finance Corpora-tion for our Expressway Authority right from the beginning on what should be viable projects because it is new to us”, Mr. Nath had said earlier.

The Government plans to take advantage of the World Bank’s and IFC’s experience in projects not only in terms of financial re-sources but also on a wide spec-trum of issues which they have dealt with globally.

The Transport Ministry has set an ambitious target of construct-ing 35,000 km of highways in five years and has already announced Rs. 2 lakh crore investments in the sector in the next two years. In addition, the Government is also considering the options suggest-ed by the Chaturvedi Committee to raise finances by issuing bonds with longer tenure, and availing a line of credit from LIC and pen-sion funds for raising finances.

The Ministry is looking at issu-ing a new type of bonds and rais-ing money from banks for financ-ing road projects. Apart from this, it is looking at long-term sources of finance such as pension funds and insurance funds for post-con-struction risks like maintenance of roads.

Meanwhile, the Government

plans inviting bids for 10 mega highways projects under public-private partnership, and is in the process of making feasibility re-ports.

“The National Highways Au-thority of India (NHAI) has made initial identification of 10 mega projects in various States for im-plementation in a phased man-ner,” the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Mr. R.P.N. Singh, told the Lok Sabha.

Sources said that these mega projects, under the public-private partnership, entail an investment of Rs. 45,000 crores to build more than 4,800 km of modern highways. The projects include six-laning of highway stretches in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, four-laning of highway stretches in Gujarat, Maharash-tra and Madhya Pradesh and two-laning with paved shoulders of stretches in Punjab and Rajas-than. The other stretches to be built under the mega projects are in Goa, Bihar and West Bengal.

The development of highways would cost about Rs. 3,76,000 crores in the next four years, and about 50-60 per cent of this is ex-pected to come from the private sector, according to government estimates.

Meanwhile, to remove the bot-

tlenecks in land acquisition, the Government has already set up 61 special land acquisition units (SLAUs) and is in the process of constituting more such units to address the problems relating to delays in land acquisition for highway projects.

The said units under NHAI have been delegated power for prepa-ration of notification for land ac-quisition and finalising the com-pensation package, disbursement of compensation to land owners and mutation of land acquired under the Act. So far 61 SLAUs have been constituted in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand. Over 100 more such SLAUs will be set up across the country and would be for a specific period of one year, headed by ADM/SDM level officers and will have 20-25 members.

With the new system, senior lev-el revenue officer (ADM level) will be required to co-ordinate with SLAUs in the States, the Minister said, adding that the States have also been requested to constitute high-level committees under the chairmanship of chief secretar-ies to remove the bottlenecks for the projects and expedite the land acquisition process.


InFrastructure

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steel

easier route for global steel giants to set up base in India

Partnering a domestic company to set up base in India is the best option available to the global steel giants in the current scenario, in-dustry experts say.

Visa Steel, promoted by the Kolk-ata-based Visa Group, which is partnering China’s Baosteel Trad-ing Co. for its ferro-nickel plant in Orissa, says the inorganic route of expansion would be an attractive option for global steel companies mulling setting up a base in India.

“If you are hungry and want to join the India party, this is the route for you,” Visa Group Chairman Vi-shambar Saran told PTI Economic Service.

According to him, any steel com-pany would like to invest in a ven-ture where it finds “more value”, and in such a scenario the ongoing projects of a domestic company would be more attractive than set-ting up a new project. “Its hard to fork out value in greenfield projects immediately in India. There are numerous delays,” he added.

The diversified Kolkata con-glomerate claims to be the leader in bringing a foreign company to India and says that its move showed the way to the peers in the industry.

On November 19, the coun-try’s largest private steel firm by domestic capacity, JSW Steel, joined hands with Ja-pan’s JFE Steel, to jointly tap the growing market for auto-grade steel in the country. The tie-up gave JFE entry into the burgeoning Indian market and JSW a world leader as a

partner to enhance its position at the global podium. There is more in the offing. The companies are exploring options of mutual stock holding, a move likely to fetch JSW the much-needed cash to reduce its debt among other things.

“The option of mutual sharehold-ing is part of our larger discussion, which will evolve over time,” JSW Steel Vice-Chairman and Manag-ing Director Sajjan Jindal said.

JFE Steel Chief Executive Officer Hajime Bada observed that the company wanted to secure a local production base in India, which is now possible through JSW Steel. The Japanese firm is also consid-ering other options of investing in India, but nothing has been final-ised as yet. The company is also likely to partner JSW in developing its Rs. 35,000-crore West Bengal project.

Recently, steel behemoth Arcelor-Mittal bought stake in secondary

steel maker Uttam Galva, to mark its first operational presence in In-dia. The company has been strug-gling to give shape to its Rs. 1-lakh crore projects in Jharkhand and Orissa amid problems in acquiring land and regulatory hurdles. Fed up with the pace of the progress in the two States, it has even ap-proached Karnataka for setting up a plant.

The world’s fifth-largest steel producer Posco has also failed to kickstart its Rs. 54,000-crore India project due to widespread tribal protest against its acquisition of land in Orissa for the proposed venture. It is also awaiting clear-ance of the mining lease.

Both the steel giants have even threatened to move out of the cur-rent sites of the proposed green-field projects.

Against such a backdrop, industry experts say the global firms would look at the inorganic route to en-

ter the growing Indian market. Companies like Outokumpu and Japanese Steel Works too have evinced interest in having an Indian partner.

The Tokyo-based Japan Steel Works is focusing on emerging economies like India to expand its overseas operations as ma-jor markets like the US are yet to recover from the blues of the global economic slow-down. “In our overseas focus, India is very important to us,” the company’s Representative Director and President Ikuo Sato told PTI Economic Serv-ice. The company is famous

BTT-Jan-10.indd 15 1/12/2010 4:50:25 AM


for its forging and engineering equipment supplies.

Asked if the company plans to set up a manufacturing base in India, Sato said: “It all depends on de-mand volumes. Presently, India op-erations of the Japanese firm are carried through JSW India Pvt. Ltd. The global economic slowdown and its impact on the Japanese economy has weakened the per-formance of several global steel giants.”

He maintained that tying up with an Indian company, may be a steel partner or a vendor, could be a dis-tinct possibility in future. Stainless

steel major Outokumpu, which had scrapped its India plans last year, is again planning its India entry.

Experts see the trend continuing in times to come and also antici-pate reforms furthering foreign di-rect investment (FDI) in the country. Also, industry observers say India will see more foreign players plan-ning new integrated projects in the country with the announcement of the new mineral policy, possibly by the next financial year. The policy is aimed to remove regulatory hur-dles delaying such projects.


GsBa- Top rankers excellence award to sail Finance director

Mr. Soiles Bhattacharya, Director (Finance), Steel Au-thority of India Ltd. (SAIL), was conferred the GSBA- Top Rankers Excellence Award 2009 under the ‘Best Finance Professional’ category at a function held in New Delhi re-cently.

Mr. Saugata Roy, Minister of State for Urban Develop-ment, presented the Award to Mr. Bhattacharya in rec-ognition of his multi-faceted entrepreneurial skills and for his contribution in helping SAIL register a spectacular per-formance setting new landmarks in physical and financial performance.

Instituted by the management consultant, Top Rankers, in association with the Graduate School of Business and Administration (GSBA), Greater Noida, the Award is con-ferred annually to top industry professionals for their out-standing contribution in the fields of HR, marketing and finance.

During the meltdown in 2008-09, converting challenges into opportunities, Mr. Bhattacharya helped SAIL to earn a respectable profit before tax of Rs. 9,403 crores. Under his able guidance, SAIL and its plants received a number of awards for excellence in cost management in 2008. The company also received commendations from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for better financial re-porting practices and an annual report for 2007-08 in the category of the manufacturing and trading enterprises.

Mr. Saugata Roy, Minister of State for Urban Develop-ment, (left), presenting the GSBA- Top Rankers Excel-lence Award 2009 to Mr. Soiles Bhattacharya, SAIL Di-rector (Finance)

steel

saIl’s record December sales

Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) achieved sales in the domestic mar-ket of 1.3 million tonnes during December, registering a growth of 32 per cent over December 2008 and a growth of 23 per cent in the third quarter over the corresponding period last year. Sales of SAIL TMT grew by 33 per cent in the quarter, while plates registered a growth of 36 per cent.

SAIL also registered record sales of 1.16 lakh tonnes through its dealer distribution network in December.

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insurance

liC business up by 35 per cent

Led by the country’s largest insurer Life In-surance Corporation (LIC), the life insur-ance industry grew by 13 per cent in the

first half of the current fiscal by mopping up Rs. 30,047-crore first year premium in April-September period against Rs. 34,599 crores in the corresponding period last year. The rise in the new businesses of life insurance space is mainly due to the robust 35 per cent growth registered by LIC.

The largest insurer’s market share increased by over 10 per cent to 66 per cent by garnering new busi-nesses of Rs. 25,814 crores in the first half. Its share improved by 11 per cent from 55 per cent at the end of September last year.

During April-September 2008, LIC had mopped up first year premium of Rs. 19,091 crores against the industry collection of Rs. 34,599 crores, accord-ing to IRDA figures. On the other hand, the private life insurance industry has registered a decline of 15 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal. The 21 private insurers collected Rs. 13,232-crore first year premium during April-September against Rs. 15,507 crores during the corre-sponding period in 2008-09.

Private insurer ICICI Prudential was the worst hit as its premium dipped by 40 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal from the cor-responding period last year. ICICI Prudential has in the April-September period of this fiscal mopped up first year premium of Rs. 2,128 crores against Rs. 3,464 crores col-lected in the corresponding period last year.

SBI Life, an insurance venture promoted by the country’s larg-est lender SBI, has regained the top position among private players with a premium income

of Rs. 2,391 crores in the first half of this fiscal.SBI Life mostly benefited from the huge insurance

premium that it mopped up in September. The com-pany’s new business during the month stood at Rs. 686 crores against ICICI Prudential’s Rs. 402 crores. However, when compared to last year, SBI Life’s pre-mium declined by around one per cent. In the first six months of the last fiscal, its premium income stood at Rs. 2,405 crores.

In the private insurers’ league, Bajaj Allianz emerged third with new business collection worth Rs. 1,439 crores in the first six months of this fiscal. However, the insurer saw a de-growth of 29 per cent. On the other hand, Reliance Life collected premium of Rs. 1,249 crore in the April-September period against Rs. 1,473

crore garnered during the corresponding period last year.

Private life insurers, despite their lacka-daisical performance during April-

September, are hopeful that the second half would be better

than the first six months.According Reliance Life

Insurance President Malay Ghosh, “the average pre-mium per policy has im-proved during the month (September) and our focus

on retail and non-single segment, reduced cost and

enhanced profitability contin-ues.”

Private life insurer Max New York Life expects 20-30 per cent growth in new businesses in the current fiscal, the company’s Chief Operating Officer Rajit Me-hta said. “In the second half of the current financial year, business has started looking up. We are hoping to report a good growth.”

In 2008-09, Max New York Life collected Rs. 1,843 crores

BTT-Jan-10.indd 17 1/12/2010 4:50:55 AM


first year premium. In the first six months of the current fiscal, rise in premium collection was also seen in the non-life insurance space.

Non-life insurers have collected Rs. 16,819 crores as premium dur-ing the April-September period, up by eight per cent over what was mopped up in the same period last year.

According to figures released by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (NRDA), four public non-life or general insurers grew by 10.29 per cent during April-September and per-formed better than the private players.

Public insurers have raised Rs. 9,991 crores as premium in the first half of this fiscal against Rs. 9,059 crores during the corresponding period last year. Among them, New India Insurance collected the maximum. It mopped up Rs. 3,027 crores against Rs. 2,790 crores, growing by 8.51 per cent.

In the private non-life insurance space, the largest private non-life insurer, ICICI Lombard, registered a decline of 16.28 per cent with to-tal premium collection of Rs. 1,611 crores in the first six months of the current fiscal against Rs. 1,925 crores. Bajaj Allianz premium de-clined by 14.01 per cent. It col-lected Rs. 1,217 crores as against Rs. 1,416 crores during the same period last fiscal.

However, Reliance General grew by six per cent by collecting pre-mium worth Rs. 1,045 crores in the first six months. Overall, private non-life insurers have registered a growth of 4.86 per cent.


Life insurance industry registers robust growth

The Indian life insurance indus-try appears to be coming out of recession if the robust growth in the total premium data in the first seven months of 2009-10 is any indication. As a matter of fact, the industry grew 18 per cent in the first six months, while in the first seven months the life insur-ance industry has reported a 21 per cent growth in total premium (new business + renewal), ris-ing to Rs. 1,20,503 crores in the April-October 2009 period from Rs. 99,310 crores in the corre-sponding period last year.

As per latest data released by the Life Insurance Council, re-newal premiums increased by around 24 per cent to Rs. 73,952 crores compared to the same pe-riod the previous year, while new business premiums increased by around 18 per cent year-on-year to Rs. 46,551 crores. Total renewal premiums for regular unit-linked insurance plans (UL-IPs) witnessed a growth of 42 per cent to Rs. 29,738 crores as compared to Rs. 20,878 crores. While non-linked premium stood at Rs. 44,214 crores, up from Rs. 38,897 crores, total non-linked premiums increased by 27 per cent to Rs. 67,685 crores, up from Rs. 53,215 crores. Total linked premiums rose by 15 per cent to Rs. 52,818 crores, from Rs. 46,094 crores.

“The growth in the industry is propelled by low commission

single premium policies. For the April-October period, single pre-mium policies witnessed a surge of around 42 per cent, with inves-tors preferring non-linked policies signifying a clear trend towards traditional policies,” said Mr. S.B. Mathur, Secretary General, Life Insurance Council, while disclos-ing the cumulative data for the seven-month period ended Oc-tober 2009.

Total benefit paid to policy-holders was Rs. 34,021 crores, an increase of over 25 per cent as compared to Rs. 27,179 crores the previous year. Private life companies paid total benefits of Rs. 6,996 crores, an increase of over 101 per cent from Rs. 3,469 crores.

Life insurance companies have more than 11,890 branches, of which 8,729 branches were set up by the private sector. The number of agents employed stood at 29,94,856 as of October 2009 compared to 27,64,528. The capital deployed at Rs. 26,734 crores by life insurance compa-nies has seen almost 25 per cent jump from Rs. 21,498 crores the previous year.

The Council’s mission is to play a significant and complementary role in transforming India’s life insurance industry into a vibrant, trustworthy and strong sector contributing to the overall devel-opment of the economy.

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insurance

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banking & investment

newgen asv system to reduce bank transaction risks

Newgen Software Technologies has announced introduction of a new feature in its cheque truncation system (CTS). The innovative aspect called automatic signature verifica-tion (ASV) is the latest feature of the system which comes with increased operational efficiency and reduced risks for banks.

ASV is a unique method to han-dle the bank mandate scenarios for the verification of signatures. It extracts the signature from the cheque and verifies it against ref-erence signatures using more than 65 parameters.

This feature discovers intra-per-son variations in a signature and enables banks to intelligently dis-tinguish between an authentic and

a fake one. It automatically iden-tifies changes in a person’s signa-ture and updates these changes in a database to verify the legitimacy of the signature. ASV ensures that all cheques undergo the verifica-tion process.

Outlining the benefits of ASV, Mr. Diwakar Nigam, Managing Direc-tor, Newgen, said this flexible solu-tion can handle multiple reference signatures and manage a variety of cheque formats. This would not only reduce operational costs but also lead to reduced frauds.

Newgen has successfully de-signed this system in line with the client needs and requirements. It has reiterated its position as an or-ganization which believes in quick

response to the needs of its clients. The company is recognized by dis-tinguished analyst firms like Frost and Sullivan as ‘A Hot Company to Watch for’ in their global ECM Market report 2009 and by IDC in its exclusive report “Newgen Soft-ware: Global Leader in Business Process Management and Docu-ment Management Solutions”.

With HSBC and SAP investment, Newgen is one of the rare product companies to have the backing of both leading financial and tech-nology companies of the world. Its Quality Systems are certified to ISO 9001:2008 and the Infor-mation Security Standard to ISO 27001:2005.

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capitalvia’s new service schemesAfter recently launching its ‘Analysts Speak’, the

Indore-based CapitalVia Global Research Ltd. has now come out with two new services free of charge for the benefit of traders in stock and commodity markets. They are Know your Stock (KYS) and Live Support on the Website.

KYS is a free service that combines the internet technology, magic of computer programming and the creative mind of the CapitalVia team. This is the first time that traders will be able to see the levels of their stocks they are interested in just by means of Google Talk. What one has to do to avail oneself of this service is to log onto Google Talk and add [email protected] to the chat list. Once the request is accepted, they simply have to type the name of the stock they are interested in, and KYS will give all technical details like moving averages, important

breakout levels, etc. KYS is yet another milestone achieved by Cap-

tialVia regarding the customer support and clients satisfaction. After all, satisfying the clients is its pri-mary goal.

The company’s live online support can be availed of by visiting the website. By using the online sup-port, a person can chat with the company’s experts and can come to know about the market conditions, trends, positive stocks and levels of different stocks and commodities. The company experts answer their queries by taking personal attention.

Using the online support will not only provide you the assistance of the company during trading hours, but even after trading hours.

For details, access www.capitalvia.comw

BTT-Jan-10.indd 19 1/12/2010 4:50:55 AM


it industry

How ramco Ondemand erP caters to growing sme sector needs

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have become a key

focus area for a major-ity of IT service provid-ers who want to tap the growth potential of this market. A report by AMI partners early this year has revealed that the SMEs in the country are likely to spend $9.7 bil-lion on IT this year, an increase of 22 per cent over the previous year. The dynamic growth in the vibrant SMB seg-ment has also made a significant contribution to the GDP, industrial production and exports.

With the aim of creating glo-bally competitive enterprises, this particular sector plays a domi-nant role in increasingly acquir-ing foreign companies to gain the advantages of quick scale-up, technology acquisition and inno-vation. Since SMEs play such an important role in global mergers & acquisitions, strengthening the sector domestically is essential so that they can leverage the ben-efits of globalization.business challenges

The SME sector is expected to

grow at 12 per cent and gen-erate additional employment of 4.4 million in the current fi-nancial year. However, some of the recent developments emerg-ing out of the challenges of in-creased competition due to glo-balization, liberalization and the pandemic global financial and credit crisis put the targets un-der stress. SMEs have complex business scenarios irrespective of their size. One of the most challenging tasks is to lower the total cost of operations and ad-dress the market issues and de-velopments.

For most of the smaller SMEs, monitoring global issues and dealing with complexities such as multiple currencies, standards and languages prevailing in the

market is a major challenge.In the current scenario, for an

SME to sustain in the market and remain successful, it is impor-tant to work meticulously towards streamlining business processes which need to be innovative and efficient enough to adapt to the market and business require-ments. These integrated process-es need not only include internal departments but also partners, suppliers and customers, and it can only be attained by using in-formation technology which can support and drive business ob-jectives. Consequently, this also renders it possible to innovate and respond faster and adapt to the globally changing business condition – a must for small and mid-sized businesses.

The growth and evolution of the SME sector has led to an increase in demand for IT solutions. Many smaller companies are not satis-fied with their existing disparate solutions and legacy systems and are showing a keen interest in IT solutions which provide maximum business benefits.

Many of the CIOs in the SME sector feel that hosted IT services would help them to work more, spend less and gain remarkable benefits by concentrating on their

By S. Sunderaraj, Senior Vice President - Enterprise Solutions & Indian Operations, Ramco Systems

BTT-Jan-10.indd 20 1/12/2010 4:50:55 AM


businesses, rather than on man-aging IT. Standard applications enable them to integrate cus-tomers and suppliers, streamline the supply chain, reduce time for project deployment and optimize portfolio management. Last but not the least, integrated solutions facilitate better management of business complexities. key trends

Studies reveal that SMBs that outsource their IT infrastructure are utilizing the technology re-sources that bring in additional top-line revenues while improv-ing bottom-line results. SMBs are mostly likely to use cutting-edge technologies and approaches such as Software as a Service (SaaS). Analysts are of the opin-ion that the increase in use of hosted infrastructure models is enabling smaller companies to compete on an equal IT footing with bigger enterprises.

SMBs are choosing a hosted in-frastructure model as it provides organizations with software so-lutions that can be implemented quickly, while avoiding the incre-mental infrastructure costs and eliminating the recurring adminis-trative resources as in traditional on-premise applications.

The other area where SMEs are focused is on the issue of com-pliances. Software as a Service offerings ensure compliance with the current statutory require-ments. For a solution to meet these requirements, it should be quick and easy to deploy and in-tegrate smoothly and help keep the cost of ownership as low as possible.

The new generation of Soft-ware as a Service offerings have standard features and have been designed to integrate all the busi-ness processes. The software has all the standard applications and industry-specific functions which otherwise have to be procured at a high cost and take a lot of time and effort to deploy. As already mentioned, success for most of the small and mid-sized busi-nesses depends a lot on IT. Small companies cannot afford to make inappropriate investments in IT as a failure may also affect the prof-itability of the company.

The new generation SaaS of-ferings will enable SMEs to inte-grate and streamline the business processes and reduce the internal dependency on IT departments. There is no huge capital expendi-ture involved while installing the software, and there is an increase in ROI as the model facilitates “pay per user”. Usage of hosted applications is gaining momen-tum in the current scenario. In-troduction of ERP under the SaaS model with enough functionality, robustness and high level secu-

rity for mission-critical enterprise applications has already enabled several organizations to reap their benefits.

Ramco OnDemand ERP is a powerful and proven growth ena-bler available on a subscription basis, giving you the power to grow. The solution is within reach and easy to deploy. Available for small to mid-sized businesses looking for a low initial invest-ment and reduced overhead and maintenance, it is used by cus-tomers in over 1,000 locations every day.

Best practices built into the business processes in the Ramco OnDemand ERP solution ensure companies leverage the experi-ence of hundreds of Ramco ERP deployments. Configuration of the application to tailor it to specific company requirements typically takes less than a week. And, as the company expands, the solu-tion can expand to accommodate multiple locations, currencies and organizations.

For details, visit www.ramcoon-demand.com

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it industry

Mr. Sunderaraj heads Ramco Systems’ Business Consulting Group (BCG) and Indian Operations. BCG provides sales and business consulting serv-ices of enterprise application solutions and business analytics for different industries.

Prior to joining Ramco, he was heading the Retail - RFID Practice in Wipro and has also worked in Oracle Corporation heading applications sup-port, industry consulting, development & product management and sales consulting functions.

Mr. Sunder has over 20 years of experience in the enterprise application software market with the last 10 years focusing on Supply chain & Emerging technology solutions like RFID, GPS, Mobile solutions for Global customers in Retail, CPG, Manufacturing and Logistics Industries.

He holds a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics with specialization in Computer Science from the Madras Institute of Technology, Anna Univer-sity.

BTT-Jan-10.indd 21 1/12/2010 4:50:55 AM


saLes & marketing

‘value creators key to propel growth in marketing’

There is need for more creators of ideas in the marketing industry than managers themselves, according to Mr. Santosh Desai, Managing Director & CEO, Future Brands.

In his keynote address at the S’ Marketing Convention 2009 or-ganized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Chennai, Mr. Desai said marketing is all about giving meaning to a product which will change the life of people. Cus-tomer behavior has to be studied very extensively, and marketing should play a key role in bridg-ing the gap between the customer and the industry. Further, marketing professionals should understand the symbolic presence associated

with each product, which is a key function of marketing.

Marketing is perceived to be small, and there is an urgent need to redefine the central purpose of marketing. A sense of meaning has to be created in people’s life through brands which will help the company to grow, he added.

Mr. B. Santhanam, President - Flat Glass South Asia, & Managing Director, Saint Gobain Glass India Ltd., who was the chief guest on the occasion, said that incrementalisa-tion in marketing has to end, and there has to be a shift in focus from engaged to non-engaged custom-ers in order to explore new avenues for growth.

Marketing needs to reinvent it-self though we have added a few more Ps to the existing four four Ps (product, price, place and promo-tion), but that will not help market-ing have its rightful place in any organization. Marketers have to necessarily collaborate and co-ex-ist to grow in the industry.

In the current environment, busi-ness strategists are filling the space of marketing, and there is an ur-gent need for a shift in mindset of marketing professionals to re-in-vent ideas to move beyond com-petition.

Mr. K.S. Ramesh, Chairman – S’ Marketing Convention, CII Tamil Nadu, in his address, said that

Mr. B. Santhanam, President - Flat Glass South Asia, & Managing Director, Saint Gobain Glass India Ltd., addressing the convention

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marketing is going through tough times - the growth rates are slow, little innovation is happening, and hence there is an urgent need for marketers to innovate and re-in-vent to reclaim their right place in industry.

Mr. C.K. Ranganathan, Chair-man CII - Tamil Nadu, in his ad-dress, emphasized the need for a fundamental shift in thinking among marketing professionals as consumers have become more in-telligent.

A few basic principles of market-ing, however, remain the same, like basic commonsense to market the product considering the consumer needs and the attitude towards marketing. The other important tools are being cohesive by keep-ing the consumer at the centre as

customer satisfaction is utmost for any company, and being simple to the point where marketing helps gain more consumer acceptance,

he added. Ms. Anita Gupta, Senior Vice

President & Managing Partner, JWT, proposed a vote of thanks. w

saLes & marketing

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A group photo of the industry dignitaries taken on the occasion

BTT-Jan-10.indd 23 1/12/2010 4:50:56 AM


environment

‘end to extractive relationship with nature unavoidable’

“There is an urgent need to make sustainability the mantra for the next 100 years, to create a new civilization that does not extract resources from the earth, use and then discard them as waste. We must change this extractive en-gagement with nature to an enrich-ing one,” according to Dr. Partha Ghosh, Managing Director, Partha S. Ghosh & Associates, a renowned strategic policy advisor.

Addressing the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) on the theme, ‘To-wards a New Relationship Between Humanity and Nature’ in Mumbai, he said: “At an individual level, we are currently putting self over so-ciety and society over nature, and this is damaging nature. We are deeply hooked to the ‘buy three get one free’ model of marketing and industrial production. This is dam-aging the earth, because we need only a quarter of what we buy and consume. It is now crucial to stop

celebrating scale-oriented thinking at the industrial level”.

He pointed out that there are currently three kinds of meltdown in progress – global economic crisis, an ecological crisis and an ethical meltdown. To stop the meltdown, it is necessary to go beyond short-term macro-economic and techno-logical fixes.

The whole world is looking for a new leadership. India has to recog-nize that “we are at a point of inflec-tion, where everything that we have done over the past couple of dec-ades is quite meaningless”. A new renaissance in economic thinking, similar to the waves of renaissance and reformation that happened in the 19th Century Bengal and post medieval European society, should set in.

“The last 500 years of human en-deavour have been human-centric. It has all been about how to tinker with nature to serve the growth of

humanity. Our mindset is similar to the one that prevailed before Co-pernicus, when it was universally believed that the whole universe revolved around the planet earth. For the survival of our planet, and our civilization, we will now have to think differently, engage with the world differently, re-energize some of our Vedic thoughts and make them relevant to the 21st century,” Dr. Ghosh added.

Welcoming Dr. Ghosh earlier, Mr. Dilip Dandekar, IMC Vice Presi-dent, pointed out that the Cham-ber motto for the year was ‘A Sus-tainable Ecology for a Sustainable Economy’.

Proposing a vote of thanks, Mr. Jitendra Sanghvi, Dy. Director General of the Chamber, remarked that sustainability and development have always been pitted against each other.

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At the IMC session in Mumbai are seen (from left) Dr. Partha Ghosh, Managing Director, Partha S. Ghosh & Associates, Mr. Dilip Dandekar, Vice President, Mr. Arvind Pradhan, Director General, Mr. P.N. Mogre, Chief Advisor, Mr. Jitendra Sanghvi, Dy. Director General, and Mr. Dhananjay Samant, Chief Economist, Indian Merchants Chamber

BTT-Jan-10.indd 24 1/12/2010 4:50:57 AM


power

wind industry viewed as strategic sector for europe’s future

The Euro 565 million investment in nine offshore wind energy projects and infrastructure, approved by the European Commission as part of its European Economic Recovery Plan, shows that the European Un-ion sees the offshore wind industry as a strategic sector for its future.

Said the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA): “Measures such as these can contribute to strengthening Europe’s competitive lead in wind energy at a time of economic uncertainty and in which strong financial measures are be-ing taken by governments outside Europe to challenge European companies’ leadership position”.

Said Christian Kjaer, CEO of EWEA, “as Europe’s largest un-tapped energy source, offshore wind can contribute significantly to Europe’s economic recovery, re-duce import dependence and slash CO2 emissions.”

The announcement also helped Europe edge closer to European Commission President Barroso’s vision for an electricity supergrid, with the Commission’s announce-ment that over half of the Plan’s Euro 565 million for offshore wind projects will be spent on offshore electricity interconnections.

The cables between the Nether-lands and Denmark, an offshore platform on the planned HVDC link between Shetland and the Scottish mainland to connect offshore wind, as well as Krieger’s Flak in the Bal-tic Sea, are key to the development of a new offshore wind industry, enabling new offshore wind farms to hook up to the cables. These in-

ter-connections will not only enable a greater cross-border flow of the electricity produced by the many offshore wind farms in the North Sea, but will also further the inte-gration of Europe’s power markets, improve competition and lower prices for the European consumer.

Three more projects that were re-cently advanced would link Norway with the UK, Norway with Germany and the UK with the Netherlands.

“There is still much work to do, but all these projects are significant steps towards the construction of a European supergrid, as envisaged by President Barroso in his political guidelines for the next Commission. A European offshore grid would be good news for the consumer as it would dramatically improve com-petition and move us a step further towards a real internal market in electricity”, added Kjaer.

EWEA research shows that exist-ing and planned European offshore wind projects would, if implement-ed, supply 10 per cent of Europe’s electricity whilst avoiding over 200

million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. EWEA recently pub-lished a master plan for building a North Sea Grid, and urges the Commission and transmission sys-tem operators to take on board its recommendations.

Recent days have seen a growing momentum for developing offshore wind and an electricity supergrid in the North Sea with a political dec-laration between nine countries at the EU Energy Council, a major EIB investment, and the latest Commis-sion announcement.

EWEA, the voice of the wind in-dustry, is actively promoting utilisa-tion of the wind power in Europe and worldwide. It now has over 600 members from almost 60 coun-tries, including manufacturers, with a 90 per cent share of the world wind power market, plus compo-nent suppliers, research institutes, national wind and renewables as-sociations, developers, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies and consultants.

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BTT-Jan-10.indd 25 1/12/2010 4:55:14 AM


corporate

reliance autozone forays into Bangalore

Taking forward the initiative to bring world class auto retailing facilities in India, Reliance Auto-zone has forayed into Bangalore with two of its automotive specialty stores. Spread over 3,000 sq. ft. and 3,100 sq. ft. of retail area re-spectively, the stores match the glo-bal auto retailing standards.

The product offerings at Reliance Autozone include a comprehensive range of car and bike accessories, tyres, batteries, electric scooters and many more useful accesso-ries. After the successful launch of its stores in Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Jamnagar, Jaipur and Hyderabad, these two stores increase the Auto-zone store footprint to six cities.

Announcing the opening of the stores in Bangalore, Mr. Arun Dey, Chief Executive, Reliance Autozone, said the assortment at the store is planned in such a way that it fulfills the needs of different budget cus-tomers. It is a one-stop destination for a wide range of accessories un-der one roof.

The product offering includes utility, audio / video, safety, secu-rity, car care, roof carriers, reverse parking system, reverse camera, sun film, GPS and upholstery, etc. The stores have a basic range of two-wheeler accessories such as helmets, grip covers, hand gloves, side cabinets, seat covers, etc. Also offered are car care services like in-

terior & upholstery cleaning, poly-mer coating and paint restoration and many more.

The most unique aspects of the stores are the personalized serv-ice to customers and a competi-tive price positioning. Quality is a key differentiator of the stores. For example, the sun films are CMVR approved and the helmets are ISI approved.

Reliance Autozone has a strong supply chain network and is posi-tioned at convenient locations. It is also one of the few auto retail-ers investing in SAP for tracking of customer’s vehicle ownership life cycle.

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BTT-Jan-10.indd 26 1/12/2010 4:55:15 AM


corporate

rane Groups’ ambitious turnover target of rs. 1,500 crores this year

The professionally man-aged and quality conscious Rane Group of Chennai

has been constantly maintain-ing its lead in most of its areas of specialisation, thanks to the enlightened stewardship of its Chairman, Mr. L. Ganesh. He has not only managed to suc-cessfully tackle the crisis in the wake of the global recession and the accompanying slowdown by taking a number of initiatives, but has set a higher turnover target of Rs. 1,500 crores for the current year against Rs. 1,350 crores of last year. His optimism is purely based on the group’s competence to face all emerg-ing challenges.

Outlining the broad group strate-gy in an exclusive interview to MO-TORINDIA, Mr. Ganesh observed that the overall idea is to sustain growth even during turbulent times. In the current year, though the ex-port market remains sluggish, the company’s performance has so far been fairly good as far as the do-mestic and OE segments are con-cerned. This is mainly attributed to the different steps taken by it three years ago, such as lean manufac-turing, policy adaptation to chang-ing market needs, benchmarking on lean structure and, above all, increasing the productivity of the white-collar people. All this has paid off even during the worst-ever crisis during October-March 2009.

In this context, the company’s proposal to set up a Polytechnic in Trichy, where it has already several units, with an eye on CSR assumes special significance. This is in line with the overall group policy of making it “A Great Place To Work” and keeping those serving its differ-ent units happy and feel at home. This also implies the overall group concern for those associated with it and their welfare, as reflected in the retention of the workforce even during a recessionary phase.

Referring to the group’s invest-ment plan, Mr. Ganesh pointed out that the outlay for expansion for the current year is expected to be raised to Rs. 75 crores from Rs. 60 crores in view of the overall in-dustrial performance since last few months, particularly in November. Capacity expansion will mainly be at Rane Engine Valves Ltd. (REVL), Trichy, Rane Brake Linings Ltd. (RBL), Hyderabad, and Rane (Ma-dras) Ltd. (RML), Uttarkhand and Pondicherry.

Asked about the future of the automotive industry, he said the growth prospects are bright pro-vided the Government continues with its stimulus packages as an-nounced in December and Janu-ary last. The only concern today is the significant drop in medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales as compared to the better show put up by the car and two-wheeler seg-ments.

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By R. Natarajan, Managing Editor

Mr. L. Ganesh, Chairman

BTT-Jan-10.indd 27 1/12/2010 4:55:16 AM


corporate

Metalman-cellino JV to make components for global market

The Ludhiana-based Metalman Auto, a leading manufacturer of sheet metal & tubular automotive components and one of the largest suppliers to auto majors like Bajaj Auto, Eicher Volvo, Force Motors, GM, L&T and Renault, has entered into a joint venture agreement with Italian auto component major Cel-lino SRL, a Euro 45 million com-pany and major auto component supplier to Mercedes, Fiat, Renault, Volvo, Iveco, Man, GM and CNH.

The new JV, Metalman Cellino Pvt. Ltd. will manufacture medi-um-sized sheet metal components primarily for cars, commercial ve-hicles and heavy equipments, ca-tering also cater to the needs of the European automotive market through Cellino. Both the compa-nies will hold an equal stake in the joint venture.

Commenting on the joint ven-ture, Mr. Nishant Jairath, Director, Metalman Auto, said: “After making strong footprints in the two-wheeler and heavy equipment component industry, we were planning to enter the cars and commercial vehicles component segment and at the same time looking for a partner to enter the Indian market, so nothing could be better than joining hands with a partner who has access to latest technology, state-of-the-art manufacturing set-up, wide cus-tomer base and products range in sync with our requirements”.

Sharing the JV details, Mr. Jairath said: “A strong technical & finan-cial collaboration with Italy’s Cel-lino Group will give Metalman access to cutting edge technology

to not only manufacture but also to design. It would be all types of sheet metal and tubular compo-nents and sub-assemblies required by commercial and car manufac-turing companies. As of today most companies manufacture products as per designs from customers and have no inputs in the design of the product. Therefore this JV compa-ny will be an integrated a solution provider and not just a component supplier”.

While elaborating the expansion plans of Metalman, Mr. Jairath added: “The Metalman Group with the technical support of Cellino is in the process of setting up a new

state-of-the-art manufacturing fa-cility in Aurangabad with an invest-ment of Rs. 20 crores which would be invested in the period of 2 years. Commercial production is likely to start in the next financial year. The new JV targets to achieve a turno-ver of Rs. 20 crores within one year of establishment of the company and is expected to register a 20-25 per cent annual growth.

Metalman has already taken over a local company in Aurangabad which was involved in stamping business and supplying complete three-wheeler cabins. It was mutu-ally agreed upon with Cellino to shift this activity in the JV company

Mr. Nishant Jairath, Director, Metalman Auto, (right) signing the JV with his Italian counterpart, Cellino SRL

BTT-Jan-10.indd 28 1/12/2010 4:55:17 AM


so that production could be started immediately.

The JV will be beneficial for both companies as they will get the same quality of parts at low cost as pre-ferred by maximum OEMs around the globe, and in turn Metalman will receive business from the Eu-ropean and other markets and the technological knowhow.

Commenting on exports, Mr. Jairath observed: “We also have a buy back arrangement with our partner which would contribute atleast 30-50% towards the turno-ver. We see a good future in exports in view of our joint strength, i.e., JV partners popularity with their Euro-pean customers and our low cost productivity.”

Metalman Auto with its registered head office in Ludhiana has manu-facturing units in Indore and Au-rangabad which are being profes-sionally managed by different unit heads. Out of two manufacturing

units in Indore, one is supplying various sheet metal and tubular compo-nents to Eicher Volvo and the oth-er one is supplying complete assem-bled cabins and heavy fabricated items to L&T case for their back hoe loaders in Pithampur.

The Aurangabad unit is manufacturing motor-cycle frames and other sheet metal and tubular components for Bajaj Auto. It employs modern manufacturing methods and strin-gent quality control checks. The Waluj plant has a production ca-pacity of 1,000 metric tonnes a month.

Besides, the JV, the Metalman Group is also going for capacity increase in its existing manufactur-

ing facilities due to higher demand for components. It is planning to invest another Rs. 10 crore for the proposed expansion. The group employs over 1,000 persons and is looking at becoming a Rs. 500-crore player in the next five years.

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corporate

BTT-Jan-10.indd 29 1/12/2010 4:55:18 AM


corporate

waBco-tVS aBS focus on vehicle safety and steerability

WABCO-TVS (India) Ltd., jointly with the Indian Institution of Plant Engineers, TN chapter, conducted a safety program for the Plant En-gineer Society in Chennai on De-cember 12.

Inaugurating the programme, Mr. D.S.L. Prasad, Executive Direc-tor, Indian Oil Corporation, South-ern Region, stressed the need for strict safety norms to be followed by medium and heavy commercial vehicles while moving hazardous goods.

Mr. R. Ramalingam, ex-CMD, CPCL, (Patron, IIPE), in his key note address, explained the several safety norms to be followed by oil companies.

Mr. S. Balachandran, Vice Presi-dent, Marketing of WABCO-TVS, and Chairman, TN – IIPE, made a presentation on road safety cover-ing various safety norms, brake sys-tem technology and the advantag-es of anti-lock brake system (ABS) in medium and heavy commercial vehicles.

The program was followed by a live demonstration on the test track of WABCO-TVS situated in Thiru-

vallur district, 40 km from Chen-nai. The cross-section of audience from various industries witnessed the demonstration.

The ABS for commercial vehicles from WABCO-TVS, a technology leader in the field, prevents vehicle skidding and tractor-trailer jack-knifing, reduces stopping distance, improves stability and steerability and enhances the life of the tyre, brakes and suspension.

With ABS, the vehicle remains completely stable even when the driver continues to press the brake pedal during panic brake situations.

The vehicle also remains steerable during braking, thus avoiding accidents.

The working principle is simple and clear. ABS is known for its perfect func-tioning. It easily detects when the wheels are about to lock and momentarily releases the brake pres-sure on the locking wheel. The brakes are reapplied

as soon as the wheels have recov-ered. A toothed wheel (polewheel) is fitted to the rotating wheel hub. A magnetic sensor mounted on each wheel in close proximity to the teeth, generates electrical pulses when the polewheel rotates. The rate at which the pulses are generated is a measure of the wheel speed. This signal is read by the electronic con-trol unit (ECU).

Further, when a wheel is about to lock, the ECU sends an electri-cal signal to the modular valve solenoid, which releases pressure from the brake chamber. When the wheel recovers sufficiently, the brake pressure is reapplied again by the ECU by switching off the sig-nal to the modulator valve.

The modulator valve has an addi-tional ‘hold’ state which maintains pressure in the brake chamber, thus optimising the braking proc-ess. The cycling of the modulator valves (five-six times per second) is continued till the vehicle comes to a controlled stop. w

Picture taken on the occasion of the safety programme organised by the Indian Institution of Plant Engineers, TN chapter

BTT-Jan-10.indd 30 1/12/2010 4:55:19 AM


corporate

HNG Group foray into float glass making: Halol plant operations begin

With its aim to further strengthen its leadership in the glass industry, the Rs. 1,500-crore HNG Group entered the float glass segment with the firing up of its first float furnace at Halol in Gujarat. Starting up with a production capacity of 600 tonnes per day, the group has aggressive plans for this new business. It aims to capture 25 per cent market share in the next two years. For further upscaling, the plant has provi-sion for a second float line which can support an ad-ditional 850 tonnes per day.

Signed at the Vibrant Gujarat meet in 2007, the plant was completed in a record time of 22 months. The plant has been financed by its parent company HNGIL, International Finance Corp., a subsidiary of the World Bank, and DEG, Germany, with a debt-eq-uity ratio of 60:40

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Mukul Somany, Joint Managing Director, HNG said: “The HNG Group is on a high growth path through strategic diversifica-tion. The group today has over five decades of manu-facturing experience; expertise and excellence which has helped it become the undisputed leader in the container glass business with a 60% market share in India. Our foray into the float glass segment is to fur-ther expand our horizons in the glass industry. The first set of production is expected to be ready by the end of December 2009.”

He added: “There is a huge expanding market for float glass in the country resulting from the growing re-alty and auto sector. Also, the extremely low per capita consumption of only 0.7 kg in India as compared to average of 8-10 kgs in other developing economies gives a tremendous potential for growth of this indus-try.” HNG Float intends to aggressively target all the medium of sales such as dealer network as well as institutional and shall manufacture products from the thickness of 2mm to 12mm.

To ensure best-in-class products and services, HNG Float has tied up with Toledo Engineering Co. (TECO) of the US for design, engineering, installation and commissioning of the float glass plant and has also joined hands with global players like CNUD (Belgium) and Bottero (Italy) for procuring essential equipments.

The plant will start with manufacturing clear float glass and will also make available tinted glass in grey, bronze, green and blue, heat reflective glass (soft coat & hard coat), LowE glass, low iron solar glass, ultra clear glass and automotive quality glass.

Headquartered in Kolkata, the HNG Group was founded by C.K. Somany, a visionary entrepreneur, in 1952. It is the parent company of Hindusthan Nation-al Glass and Industries Ltd. (HNGIL or HNG) which is the largest container glass manufacturer in India with over 60 per cent market share and an annual income of more than Rs. 1,500 crores. The other companies under the HNG wing are Glass Equipment (India) Ltd. (GEIL), Ceramic Decorators Ltd. (CDL), Somany Foam Ltd. (SFL), Quality Minerals Ltd. (QML) and AMCL Ma-chinery Ltd.

HNGIL, the flagship of the group, was founded with the inauguration of India’s first fully automatic glass container manufacturing plant at Rishra, near Kolkata. HNG’s pan-India manufacturing operations are spread over six centres – Rishra, Bahadurgarh, Rishikesh, Puducherry, Nashik and Neemrana – and its products are available in more than 20 countries.

The company has an operational capacity of 11 fur-naces and 44 production lines with fully-automated IS machines sourced from reputed global technology providers of glass industry from Europe and the US. w

Mr. Mukul Somany, Joint Managing Director, HNG

BTT-Jan-10.indd 31 1/12/2010 4:55:19 AM


corporate

KBL’s Yamuna awarded LeeD platinum rating for green buildings

‘Yamuna’, the corporate office of Kirloskar Broth-ers Ltd (KBL), a leading global water management solution company, was awarded the prestigious LEED Platinum rating for green buildings. KBL’s corporate office ‘Yamuna’ was inaugurated earlier this year in Pune. The ratings came in the backdrop of the recent ongoing Copenhagen summit.

Yamuna has successfully set eco-friendly standards. The structure that is spread over three acres of land housing 500 employees is able to save 50 per cent of energy and 30 per cent of water purely by use of technology and effective design. It uses water-cooled VRV air-conditioning system with sensors for monitoring CO2 levels and optimizing intake of fresh air. The structure has photovoltaic panels to generate electricity for meeting 2.6 per cent of power consumption.

Yamuna has maximum use of glass panels along walls that allow natural light inside the building, thereby saving on electricity. Most of the illuminat-ing lights have CFL fixtures that are extremely energy efficient. It uses other energy efficient gadg-ets like LCD monitors and also derives a substantial amount of water from the recharge pits it has from rainwater harvesting.

Says Mr. Sanjay C. Kirloskar, KBL Chairman and Managing Director: “We are very happy that our corporate office has been awarded the LEED Plati-num rating. KBL will continue to deliver environment and energy conservation initiatives. I would like to congratulate all employ-

ees on making this platinum rated green building and abiding by the group philosophy of total commitment towards our planet and ‘enriching lives’ at large.”

It is built as an extremely employee-friendly structure. The aesthetically designed building delivers facilities that help boost employee morale, productivity and a cheerful working environment. The building follows a decade-long tradition of hosting the Indian flag as per the standard protocol. It delivers the true essence of ‘enriching lives’ of its employees, customers and the society it belongs to. Landscape terraces, atriums

with indoor plants and the use of glass provide a scenic view to people at work acting as a stress buster. Adequate parking facility extended to visitors ensures no usage of public road as park-ing space. Other amenities like an auditorium, library, a well-equipped gymnasium, badmin-ton court, swimming pool and an amphi-theater extend an op-portunity for employee engage-ment and networking.

Leadership in Energy and En-vironment Design (LEED) is an Indian rating system complying with the green standards of the US Green Building Council (US-GBC), Washington. It specifies stringent norms to be met for the greenest, most energy-efficient and high performance build-ings. Primarily, a ‘green build-ing’ is one which encompasses the use of renewable energy, ef-ficient use of natural resources as water and recyclable materi-als and providing healthy indoor air quality.

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BTT-Jan-10.indd 32 1/12/2010 4:55:21 AM


corporate

Siemens partners eKo Diagnostics to provide pet biomarkers in Kolkata

This facility will be designed to support Siemens Eclipse-HP cyclo-trons, enhancing production reli-ability and PET biomarker capac-ity. The facility will be operated by Siemens with support from PETNET Solutions, Inc. a fully-owned sub-sidiary of Siemens Healthcare and a world leader in the manufacture

and delivery of high quality PET bi-omarkers.

The cyclotron facility will be lo-cated in the Nuclear Medicine Department newly established by EDPL. PET biomarkers manufac-tured here will be distributed to hospitals, clinics and research insti-tutions in Kolkata and other centres

in the region. Speaking on this initiative, Mr. D.

Ragavan, Sector CEO, South Asia Cluster, Siemens Healthcare, said: “In India, over a million people are diagnosed with cancer every year, and there is a growing need for the latest technologies for combating potentially life-threatening diseas-es. PET.CT imaging improves the accuracy of cancer diagnosis and allows for more accurate staging of the disease. It also reduces the cost and improves the accuracy of cancer treatment. The cyclotron investment will help the people of eastern India have assess to this important medical technology and allow future application of PET.CT imaging in cardiac and neurology diseases”.

Since PET biomarkers like FDG have a shelf life of less than 12 hours, due to the half life of the cyclotron produced isotopes, these need to be produced locally and distributed faster and efficiently.

Dr. S.K. Sharma, Director, EDPL, observed: “We at EKO are com-mitted to quality delivery of diagno-sis and will continue to set bench-marks. We are known to bring the latest in technology to the eastern region, and to the people of Kolk-ata in particular. With this facility, along with Siemens, we are making yet another significant contribution to strengthen healthcare infrastruc-ture in the country.”

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Siemens has signed a collaborative agreement with eKo Diagnostic private Ltd. (eDpL), Kolkata,

to set up a cyclotron facility to manufacture positron Emission Tomography (PET) biomarkers. This first-of-its-kind facility in the eastern and north-eastern re-gion will produce fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and other biomarkers that are used along with pet.ct scanners, helping to diagnose and stage diseases like cancer, cardiac and certain neurology disorders.

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corporate

philips’ focus on healthcare products

The Netherlands-based consumer durable major Philips, which is operating

in the country for more than 80 years, is now strategically shifting its focus on healthcare and lifestyle segment to pro-mote its products in the coun-try.

“Voluntarily, we have taken a po-sition that Philips would be working towards projecting itself as a health and wellness company,” Philips Electronics India Managing Direc-tor and CEO Murali Sivaraman told PTI Economic Service.

Philips which has dominated the Indian consumer electronics space for over five decades after Inde-pendence has now decided not to go aggressive in the durables seg-ment. Consumer electronics is con-trolled by Asian firms such as LG, Samsung and Panasonic. Keeping that in mind, the company is now balancing its portfolio with a robust product pipeline with such offer-ings, Mr. Sivaraman said.

Philips has chalked out a plan for the purpose which includes setting up a healthcare facility, introducing new products in the segment and increasing the number of products in the lighting segment. Increasing its focus on India as a strong growth market, the company is planning to set up a healthcare equipment manufacturing plant in the country which would cater to both domes-tic and overseas markets. The pro-posed unit will integrate two Indian firms acquired by it last year. Be-sides expanding the company’s lo-cal operations, the plant will make India a major supplier for global markets.

Mr. Sivaraman said: “For the first time, Philips is setting up a green-field site for the healthcare segment in India. The plant is expected to be ready in 18 months.”

Philips will develop the proposed unit as a centre of excellence and use it as base for exporting health-care products. The unit, which will make cardiovascular and X-ray equipment, is likely to come up in southern or western India.

Last year, Philips acquired two medical equipment firms, Alpha X-rays and Meditronics, and is work-ing on synergising their operations with the parent company.

The healthcare division contrib-utes around Rs. 500-600 crores to its revenues. However, the com-pany is now trying to aggressively work to increase the contribution of the division to overall revenue.

In the lighting segment, Philips Electronics has also decided to double CFL manufacturing capac-ity at its Mohali plant in Punjab. However, he declined to share the investment details, but said: “We will be investing big money in ram-

ping up our production capacity and leverage on the two compo-nents which we have acquired... For me it is a strategic move with a 15-20 year vision. We are still stud-ying whether it should be in south-ern India or western India. What is important for us is to leverage the eco-system that we acquired.”

During the course of the current year, Philips India has already dou-bled the annual CFL capacity at the Mohali plant to 40 million units, and is all set to double it again over the next six to nine months. The company is investing to double the capacity again, to 80 million units, within 6-9 months.

Mr. Sivaraman also declined to provide investment and expansion details, but said, “we are investing at the Mohali plant to expand the capacity, and my aim is to grow minimum 15-20 per cent in all the categories that we are operating.”

Lifting business accounts for about 50 per cent of the Dutch subsidiary’s revenues, which were in the region of Rs. 3,100 crores in 2008-09. Industry estimates place Philips India’s market share at around 30 per cent in the to-tal lighting business of around Rs. 4,500 crore. The consumer or home segment accounts for 60 per cent of the company’s lighting business.

The company has also added a new line recently for making thin-ner tube lights, called T5, at the Mohali factory. “It saves about 40 per cent energy... We are making a big play there... We have started manufacturing these at our factory in Mohali”, Mr. Sivaraman added.


Mr. Murali SivaramanManaging Director and CEO

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corporate

High output water purification system from Shivsu

The Chennai-based Shivsu Canadian Clear International

Ltd. has launched Sil-ver Stream, a high out-put reverse osmosis (RO) system. With the produc-tion capacity reaching 10 lakh litres per day, Silver Stream finds applications in commercial establish-ments, water bottling plants, residential com-plexes, amusement parks, hospitals, etc., where high volumes of drinking water are required.

Silver Stream systems are fully automatic RO systems designed to process water with typical lo-cal characteristics in terms of iron content, salinity, impurity, turbid-ity, brackishness, etc. For instance, sea water or feed water with up to 12,000 parts per million of to-tal dissolved solids can be treated effectively to give quality drinking water. The RO plants are equipped with large commercial type sedi-ment filter to remove micro-sized suspended solids, even as small as 5 microns.

Silver Stream RO water is safe for babies, pregnant women and aged people. Certified as diuretic and nutritive, it serves as a product for excellent hair care, dental hygiene and skin and facial care. Available in a range of standard sizes and capacities, the RO water will be a boon for pharmaceutical and food

industries.The state-of-art design of the

Silver Stream high output RO sys-tems ensures that all components, including pumps, membranes, complete instrumentation, regulat-ing valves, etc., are of the highest quality and arranged on a single compact frame to save space. This is imperative in the face of escalat-ing real estate costs and the need to maximize utilisation of available floor space.

The product is fitted with an analogue water quality meter to display the characteristics of the treated water and a unique built-in membrane cleaning and preserva-tion system.

Shivsu Canadian Clear is the only company in India which offers a wide choice of stainless steel tanks. The RO systems comply with all the requirements as laid down by the Bottled Water World and Quality Water Association. The system pro-vides fresh drinking water free of any harmful chemicals. In addition to installation, Shivsu also takes up post-installation maintenance.

The new product carries a war-ranty for one year. Available in a range of standard sizes and ca-pacities, it is affordably priced from Rs. 1.25 lakhs for an RO system with high grade stainless tank, and a dispensing capacity of 250 litres per hr. w

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corporate

electrotherm launches largest induction melting furnaceElectrotherm (India) Ltd. has an-

nounced the launch of the world’s largest medium frequency induc-tion melting furnace of 40T capac-ity most ideal for economic steel making in India. The launch after the success and encouraging re-sults from the 25T and 30T furnac-es from Electrotherm will help bring down the cost. Billet making will be cheaper by a comfortable Rs. 800 per ton.

Mr. Sunil Kulkarani, Vice Presi-dent (Marketing), Electrotherm India Ltd., said: “During tough times like the present one, cost reduction is a life saver for steel plants, and we believe our prod-ucts will go a long way in helping achieve the same. In addition to

the Indian market, Electrotherm has also been actively marketing its products in the global market. It has been a key player in execut-ing turnkey projects for producing steel through the induction furnace route. Of late, we are using the ex-perience of the international mar-ket for executing turnkey projects in the country. The Indian commu-nity has now realized the impor-tance of experienced detailed en-gineering, and as of date we have already executed one such project in central India, apart from having concrete executable orders from some clients in south India.”

Apart from furnaces of larger ca-pacities, the company has played an instrumental role even with fur-

naces for foundries. After conduct-ing seminars in the foundry town-ships of Jaipur, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Rourkela, the company is busy educating the clients in Chennai on the various options available for their applications.

“We have always been expending more energy in understanding our clients’ needs and addressing their requirements for ferrous as well as non-ferrous applications. We have a host of equipment to offer, and each one of them is a customized solution within itself. The testimo-nies and patronage that we enjoy from our Indian as well as overseas customers are exemplary enough”, Mr. Kulkarani added.

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Gmi-Oriental Bank agreement for vehicle financingGMI and Oriental Bank of Commerce have

signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to finance sale of GM India vehicles both at wholesale and retail levels. The agreement was signed by Mr. Ankush Arora, Vice President, Sales, Marketing and After sales, GM India, and Mr. A.K Tangri, Gen-eral Manager (RDRPSCD), Oriental Bank of Com-merce, in the presence of Mr. Karl Slym, President & Managing Director, GM India, and other officials of the bank.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Arora said: “We are extremely pleased to partner with Orien-tal Bank of Commerce because of its wide network across the country. Its extensive reach will help our customers to get loan facilities to buy our products. Low interest rates and low processing charges are some of the benefits of opting for Oriental Bank of Commerce as the preferred financier for our vehi-cles”, he added.

As per the MoU, Oriental Bank will now provide retail financing to customers for purchase of GM India vehicles across the country. Both the bank and the company will promote schemes to offer easy finance options to valued customers through all branches of the bank. With a network of over 1,400 branches across the country, Oriental Bank is one of the largest public sector banks in India.

It may be recalled that GMI has already signed agreements with several banks for vehicle financ-ing. The financing arrangements are helping the company to provide auto loans to its customers in over 200 cities where its dealers are located. With its major drive to further consolidate its position in the automobile market, the company is now ap-pointing more dealers and authorized service out-lets in urban, semi-urban and other cities to widen its network.

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corporate

Raj Petro launches India’s first branded speciality lubricants

The Chennai-based Raj Petro Specialities Pvt. Ltd.

(RPSPL) of the Raj Group has launched ONWO, India’s first branded speciality lubricants, to cater to the food, pharma-ceutical, chemical and heavy engineering industries. The range of speciality products would include food grade and high-performance greases and oils, maintenance prod-ucts and specialities.

The Rs. 850-crore RPSPL is the only full-line supplier in India with a comprehensive range of indus-trial lubricants and process oils, including transformer oils, white oils, petroleum jellies, additives and a range of industrial oils & greases, as well as automotive lu-bricants. Its ONWO range of spe-ciality lubricants are designed to address the unique requirements of the niche industry segments and are environment-friendly.

Developed in technical liaison with a UK-based company spe-cialising in high performance industrial lubricants, the ONWO products include a comprehen-sive range of food grade lubri-cants, certified to category HI by NSF, USA. These products are certified to be used for inciden-tal food contact and can also be used for pharmaceutical and per-sonal care industries.

The group has created a com-

petent team for supporting the technical and service require-ment of this segment, along with support from highly experienced technical associates. All ONWO products withstand extremes of temperatures, high shock load-ing, vibrations and high speed under dusty, wet, saturated and chemically corrosive environment. By extending the service life of lu-bricant as well as components, these products ensure substantial maintenance cost savings and in-creased production.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Amit Nanavati, RPSPL Direc-tor, said that speciality lubricants required by the niche segments are currently being imported at high costs. It is expected that the local production will improve the availability of these products and will also result in substantial cost reductions and savings for the user industries. The Raj Group has

set up a state-of-the-art facility in Chennai for local production of ONWO lubricants matching the best international standards.

RPSPL is a market leader in the field of process oils and conven-tional lubricants for industrial and automotive applications and has a 7 per cent share in the Indian market for lubricants and process oils. “We have been notching an average growth of 30 per cent for the last 4 years which is sub-stantially higher than the average growth rate of the lubricant indus-try. Over the next five years, Raj projects to more than double its turnover through organic growth and deeper penetration in the do-mestic as well as export sectors”, he added.

Raj Petro has manufacturing lo-cations in Chennai, Silvassa and Ankleshwar, and its business op-erations spread across India and 56 countries. w

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corporate

Towers Perrin-Watson Wyatt merger completeTowers Watson & Co. has been set

up after completion of the merger of Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt. Watson Wyatt Chief Executive Of-ficer John Haley will serve as Tow-ers Watson’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Towers Per-rin Chief Executive Officer Mark Mactas will serve as Deputy Chair-man, President and Chief Operat-ing Officer.

“We are delighted to finalize the merger and look forward to bring-ing a broader portfolio of services to our clients,” said John Haley. “When it comes to managing costs, risks and people, the world is grow-ing more complex every day. Tow-ers Watson is uniquely positioned to help our clients gain the per-spective necessary to take the right actions to drive business results.”

The merger follows receipt of all necessary regulatory authoriza-

tions and approval of the transac-tion by the companies’ respective shareholders on December 18 last. Towers Watson’s Class A com-mon stock has been listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ under the ticker sym-bol “TW” as of January 4, 2010. Trading of Watson Wyatt’s Class A common stock under the previ-ous ticker symbol (WW) is discon-tinued. Based on the closing price of Watson Wyatt common stock on December 31, 2009, the implied value of the transaction is $4 bil-lion.

“Towers Watson builds on shared values of integrity, professional ex-cellence and collaboration with a strong clients-first orientation,” said Mark Mactas. “With our combined experience, and breadth and depth of skills, we will be able to provide greater insight as we work with our

clients and greater opportunities for our people and our sharehold-ers.”

As a result of the merger, Tow-ers Watson expects to issue ap-proximately 46.9 million shares of Class A common stock, as well as approximately 29.5 million shares of Class B common stock, which will be subject to transfer restric-tions and will generally convert into freely-tradable shares of Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis over the next four years. Towers Watson will also pay $200 million in cash and issue one-year promissory notes in an aggregate principal amount of $200 million to certain former Towers Perrin shareholders who have voluntarily elected to terminate their employ-ment with Towers Watson.

w

environment excellence award for ion exchangeIon Exchange (India) Ltd. has emerged the winner

of the Frost & Sullivan 2009 Environmental Excellence Awards for the Best Company of the Year in the Indian water & waste water treatment segment. The Awards in the various categories were presented at its first Annual Environment Industry Awards Night held on December 15 in Mumbai, which brought together a galaxy of eminent industry experts and leaders across market segments.

Receiving the Award, Mr. Rajesh Sharma, Vice Chair-man & Managing Director, Ion Exchange, said: ”It is our company’s continuous endeavor to use technol-ogy innovatively to offer solutions to improve the qual-ity of life and protect our earth’s most vital resources for a sustainable future. This has led us to develop products and technologies to create a capability to provide integrated, cost-effective solutions for all sec-tors – industrial, institutional, municipal, homes and

communities. It has led us to extend our capabilities to encompass water, air, waste and renewable energy. We have pioneered solutions for recycle of industri-al effluent and domestic sewage, to conserve water and natural resources. Our Zero B purifiers provide safe drinking water to all consumer segments at every price point and include innovative solutions to treat water contaminated with fluoride, iron, arsenic and nitrates”.

The Frost & Sullivan Environment Excellence Awards recognise the exemplary achievements, business win-ning strategies and innovative best practices of compa-nies operating in the highly dynamic and competitive environment. The Award to Ion Exchange follows sev-eral other prestigious Water Awards by Water Digest in association with UNESCO, such as for Best Water Company, Best Domestic RO Purifier, Best Water Treat-ment Chemicals and Best Water Conserver. w

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corporate

Zen Mobile launches QWertY Z 77Revolutionizing the Indian mobile

market, Zen Mobile of the Teleecare Group has launched the QWERTY Z 77, a sleek phone designed with the best features. Available at a competitive price, it will become popular amongst today’s tech-savy youth.

The Z 77 is equipped with a preloaded opera-mini browser which delivers quick and hassle-free browsing while its large 2.2” screen calls for easy internet surf-ing. One can watch movies and videos on the widescreen as it of-fers the benefit of the real mp4 playback and recording.

Special moments and memories can now be captured and cher-ished on Z 77’s 1.3 mp camera. A track of one’s daily life can be kept the directing reminders of ap-pointments, birthdays and the lat-est events with notes.

Other impressive features are the mp3 playback, wireless FM radio and the expandable memory of the phone. Add-ing to it are headphones or attached speakers which come equipped with a 3.5mm jack and music presets. You can now keep yourself online with Z 77’s nimbuzz

where all the instant messaging ap-plications appear on the screen at one time, and each can be ac-cessed simultaneously.

Commenting on the new mod-el, Mr. Vaibhav Shastri, CEO, Zen Mobile, said: “India is one of the key markets for any mo-bile manufacturer. With our new model Z 77, we intend to pro-vide the smartest features which will cater to all the requirements of the customer. Our forte is to bring in the best available servic-es within an extremely affordable price range of Rs. 3,299. With such a product in hand, we plan to catapult the concept of mobile manufacturing onto a whole new level.

With the launch of the Z 77, Zen Mobile is all set to provide the Indian mobile users a chance to experience state-of-the-art

technologies which will leave them mesmerized. The phone offers

the latest in advanced design and technol-ogy which is evident in its dual SIM facilities (GSM + GSM), amazing battery back-up and expandable memory. w

merger of BasF and Ciba entities in india approvedAt a meeting convened by the High Court of Ju-

dicature in Mumbai on December 16 and 17, the shareholders of BASF India Ltd. (BIL) and Ciba India Ltd. (CIL) approved the scheme of amalgamation of the three Ciba Group companies in India with BIL.

BASF announced its plans to merge the three In-dian Ciba companies – Ciba India Ltd., Ciba Re-search (India) Pvt. Ltd. and Diamond Dye-Chem Ltd. – with BASF India at its Board meeting held on Sep-tember 12 last. The merger proposal, including the

share-swap ratio, was approved by the Board of the respective companies on the same date.

Accordingly, equity shareholders of Ciba India Ltd. and Ciba Research will receive shares in BASF In-dia Ltd. The share exchange ratio is determined at 90 equity shares of BIL of Rs. 10 each fully paid for every 100 equity shares of Ciba India of Rs. 10 each fully paid, and 18 equity shares of BIL of Rs. 10 each for every 100 equity shares of Ciba Research (India) of Rs. 10 each fully paid. w

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aviation

Qatar Airways extending service to copenhagen and Barcelona

Qatar Airways has announced that Copenhagen and Barce-lona will join the airline’s ever-expanding route network during its summer schedule which be-gins at the end of March next.

The announcement follows months of industry speculation over the Doha-based carrier’s plans to launch two new un-named European destinations.

Commencement of four week-ly flights to Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, will see the airline significantly increase its Scandinavian presence. It currently serves t h e ne ighbour ing Swedish capital Stockholm non-stop from Doha, a route l a u n c h e d two years ago.

Qatar Airways re-cently announced that it will boost capacity on its Stockholm route with frequency increas-ing to daily from March. With Copenhagen being added, the airline will further strengthen its operations in Scandinavia, ce-menting its place in the market as the only GCC carrier to serve the region.

With the largest airport in Scandinavia, Copenhagen

ranks as a popular hub for re-gional headquarters of large international companies. Last year, Copenhagen was singled out as the Most Liveable City in the World by leading interna-tional lifestyle magazine, Mono-cle, and is also considered one of the world’s most environ-ment-friendly cities.

Barcelona will become Qa-tar Airways’ second city served in Spain, after Madrid, when daily services commence to the popular port city. The new route underscores a growing commit-ment by the airline to the Span-

ish market.News of the two

route an-nounce -

m e n t s c a m e just days after Qatar Airways unveiled plans to launch flights to Ben-galuru (Bangalore) in southern India, the Turkish capital Ankara and Japan’s capital city of To-kyo over an eight-week period starting in February. The airline also plans to launch flights to Sydney, its second Australian

destination, during the year.With six new routes on the

horizon, Qatar Airways will in-crease its global portfolio from 85 to 91 diverse business and leisure cities across Europe, Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Far East, North America and Australasia. The carrier current-ly operates a modern fleet of 76 aircraft.

Qatar Airways Chief Execu-tive Officer Akbar Al Baker said: “The addition of the European cities of Copenhagen and Bar-celona, along with Ankara which we announced a few days ago, follows the airline’s strategy to expand its operations to d i v e r s e and under-

s e r v ed

cities from the Gulf. By adding these three cities to our route network, we are demon-strating our commitment to ex-panding our presence in Europe and introduce new travellers to our award-winning Five-Star services, as well as provide our existing passengers with even more destinations and conven-ient travel options”. w

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aviation

Paramount airways joins hands with Budget Rent-a-Car

Paramount Airways has an-nounced a strategic alliance with Budget Rent-a-Car with a view to benefiting the members of its fre-quent flier privilege programme – Paramount Royale. The pro-gramme has now additional prod-uct benefits. Effective January 4, Paramount Royale members can earn 4 Partner RoyaleMiles for every Rs. 100 spent with Budget Rent-a-Car in India.

In addition, they are also entitled to a host of special benefits and privileges based on their tier status in the programme. These benefits include special rates for guests who opt for Maruti Swift, Ford Fi-

esta, Toyota Corolla, Skoda Laura and Toyota Innova. Self-drive rates will be offered to the Royale guest at a discount of 20 per cent off the rates available in India.

Commenting on the develop-ment, Mr. M. Thiagrajan, Man-aging Director, said: “Paramount Airways today commands one of the highest load factors and one of the most prestigious product of-ferings in the Indian skies. In our commitment to reward our loyal customers, this strategic alliance with Budget Rent-a-Car is anoth-er way of bringing ease of travel, convenience and comfort that complement the Paramount ex-

perience and extends far beyond air travel. Budget Rent-a Car is an established partner with a large presence across the world and a promising presence in India, and I look forward to a successful air to ground alliance that will benefit our Royale members.”

Mr. Ross O’Donnell, CEO of Budget India, commented: “Budg-et Rent-a-Car is extremely excited about the alliance with Paramount and sees this a tremendous oppor-tunity for the traveller to experience two travel partners who share the same focus on quality and comfort for their guests.”

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touRism

China tourism award for inoRBit toursThe Mumbai-based INORBIT

Tours & Travels has been reck-oned as one of the top four tour operators in India for promotion of China and given the China Tourism Award by the China National Tour-ism Administration. The Award was received by Mr. Narayan Kabra, Business Head of INORBIT Tours, at a special function organised in Delhi by Ms. Alice Wang, the Ad-ministration Director.

Commenting on the Award, Mr. Om Prakash, Director, INORBIT Tours, said in a press release that he is the pioneer in promotion of tours for Indian businessmen to participate in trade exhibitions in China since last 12 years. As a result, thousands of Indian indus-trialists, businessmen, importers, exporters, traders and profession-

als have visited China. Apart from visiting trade exhibitions, tours to various commercial and historical cities of China are also arranged. He has thus been instrumental in boosting Indo-Chinese economic relations and tourism.

By virtue of the opening up of its economy, China has built up world class infrastructure for host-

ing of international trade exhibi-tions in cities like Shanghai, Bei-jing, Guangzhou, Nanjing Ningbo, Hongzhou, Harbin, Shenzhen, He-fei, Chengdu and Suzhou. All these cities have exhibition & convention centers, backed by a large number of star hotels and excellent con-nectivity by road, rail and air. Such facilities help both the domestic and international visitors to reach their destinations safely and con-veniently.

INORBIT will promote over 60 trade fairs in China in 2010 related to all industries. The focus of the visits arranged will be an imports, exports, joint ventures and tech-nology transfer, Mr. Om Prakash added.

For details, emial: [email protected] w

Mr. Om Prakash, Director, INORBIT Tours

itzCash Card ties up with Cox & Kings tooCash cards have emerged as the preferred mode of

payment in the rapidly growing online travel booking market. ItzCash Card Ltd., India’s leading cash card company, has tied up with Cox & Kings to facilitate on-line air ticket booking. With this tie-up, all Cox & Kings customers can now avail themselves of the benefits of booking their tickets online by using ItzCash card.

This tie-up is a part of Itz-Cash’s plans to expand its market reach in the travel segment where it has tie-ups with promi-nent travel portals and agencies like Yat-ra.com, Cleartrip.com, Makemytrip.com, Thomas Cook and others to provide better travelling experi-ence to people. ItzCash, in a short span of five years, has expanded its reach to service millions of custom-ers in the travel segment, thus indicating its leadership

position.According to Mr. Naveen Surya, Managing Director,

ItzCash Card Ltd., “the dynamics in the Indian travel industry are fast changing with the online travel book-ing segment emerging as a fast growing market, and to tap this opportunity we have tied up with leading travel portals and agencies, thus expanding our reach

across India.”In India, 54 per cent of air ticket booking is done online, with cash cards cornering

a 28.8 per cent share of the total online ticket

booking.ItzCash World, the ItzCash

franchisee with presence even in Tier II and Tier III cit-ies in India, has largely been successful in reaching out to a large number of people by providing them a simple, easy and convenient option of ticketing. w

BTT-Jan-10.indd 42 1/12/2010 4:52:23 AM


events

versatile allma CC3 Combi will be on show at tire technology 2010

The world’s most important trade fair for the tyre and sup-ply industry – Tire Technology 2010 – will be held in Co-logne during Febru-ary 9-11.

Oerlikon Saurer will make its presence felt at the show by displaying its prod-ucts. Allma Product Line will present the innovative Allma CC3 Combi ma-chine with its unique two-for-one twisting package and assem-bling unit.

About two-thirds of the worldwide tyre cord production is based on the Allma cabling and twisting sys-tems. To put it in figures, 165,000 cabling spindles in renowned companies are processing the full range of materials into top-qual-ity tyre cord. With the Allma CC3 Combi, Allma Product Line offers the market’s most advanced and successful cabling machine.

The machine is equipped with two-for-one package and assem-bling unit. In addition to cabling symmetrical 2-ply tyre cord, you can now twist single yarns and asymmetrical 2-ply constructions as well as symmetrical and asym-metrical 3-ply constructions ac-cording to the two-for-one twisting principle on the same machine.

The new machine concept allows yarn manufacturers to cover niches such as 1-ply, 3-ply or asymmetri-cal 2-ply with just one machine.

With the Allma CC3 Combi, 2-ply and 3-ply tyre cord, cap ply, chafer and other technical yarns can be very economically cabled or twisted as required on the same machine.

With its future-oriented e-save technologies, the Allma CC3 Combi ensures reduction in energy consumption of more than 10 per cent compared with competitor machines. The unique two-for-one package allows for the processing of all materials, including the deli-cate aramid and rayon with enor-mous economic advantages. This is also supported by the take-up

speed of up to 120 m/min.On the Allma CC3 Combi,

changing to the new production process requires just a few easy steps. Customers can compensate production fluctuations and opti-mally cover niche markets with just one machine. In addition, the high production flexibility guarantees an ideal capacity utilization of the ma-chine.

Allma Product Line takes care of its customers worldwide quickly and comprehensively, and its reputa-tion as a competent and innovative partner for the tyre and tyre cord industry is backed up by first-class products and a world-encompass-ing network with comprehensive services.

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events

CeBit 2010 to attract new target groups Come March, the who is who of the

Information, Communications and Tech-nology (ICT) industry worldwide will con-verge in Hannover for CeBIT, the world’s leading ICT trade fair from March 2 to 6.

Many countries are now recovering from the global recession. The economic recovery invariably boosts demand for information and communication technol-ogy equipment and softwares.

Leading ICT companies around the globe prefer CeBIT to introduce their new technologies and equipment. In fact, since the economic recovery begins, more companies are expected to come out with new products.

CeBIT covers all the products, services and solutions that enhance digital lives, both at work and home. This year’s theme is ‘Connected Worlds’, with major em-phasis on Business IT, Green IT, Internet & Mobile So-lutions, Webciety, Destination ITS, TeleHealth, Security, Banking & Finance, Communications, ICT Infrastruc-ture and Planet Reseller.

CeBIT is one of the most important trade fairs for India, as the country already has shown its might in the ICT sector to the world. The regular Indian participants make good business out of the fair. In the 2009 fair, 25 Indian companies participated.

“Preparations for CeBIT 2010 are already in full swing, and global ICT markets are responding in a highly positive manner,” said Mr. Ernst Raue, Board Member of Deutsche Messe, the fair organiser.

Talking to the press in Madrid, at the contract-sign-ing ceremony with the CeBIT Partner Country, Spain, he observed: “Opportunities for new and expanded business relations are going to arise not only for Span-ish exhibitors at CeBIT 2010 but for all other enterpris-es as well. In some regions, the economy is already beginning to pick up. Additional regions will follow, so that by spring 2010, CeBIT will assume an even greater international role. Anyone who wants to achieve new growth has to come to CeBIT. Only an international business hub like CeBIT can take a positive mood and turn it into tangible orders and business deals”.

The ICT industry would be among the greatest ben-eficiaries of an economic upturn. “New advances in

ICT will help drive the upturn in virtually every user industry, since the new solu-tions developed by the ICT industry are progressively more efficient, allowing the user enterprises to develop new growth potential in turn. The innovative dyna-mism of the ICT sector is an enabler for the user industries,” he added.

CeBIT 2010 will feature new content and subject areas. The additions will definitely attract new target groups. “Machines and devices are becoming progressively more sophisticated, which is leading to the con-tinued convergence of different applica-

tions,” according to Mr. Raue.The technical availability of established and new

offerings on the Web is now possible, thanks to in-creasingly high-capacity networks. A new Broadband Forum at CeBIT will reveal the latest developments.

India has many things to look forward in the next CeBIT as the country is going ahead with the na-tional e-Governance programme on a war footing. Over 55,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) of the 1,00,000 planned have been rolled out by various State Governments under the National e-Governance Plan. The Department of Information Technology has prepared a plan to position an additional 1,50,000 CSCs to cover all panchayats, bringing the total number to 2,50,000.

The CSCs will deliver services under Bharat Nirman and provide support to other flagship programmes such as the National Rural Employment Guaran-tee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, National Rural Health Mission, etc.

Currently more than 100 public services are avail-able online, including services pertaining to registra-tion and filing of returns by corporations under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, e-filing of income-tax re-turns as well as refunds by the Department of Income Tax, e-Payment of Direct and Indirect Taxes through 28 National Banks, e-services for pensioners through pensioners’ portal. In addition to these national serv-ices, several States have computerised land records to deliver computerised Record of Rights, registration of property and conversion of paper-based driving li-cences to Smart Cards. w

BTT-Jan-10.indd 44 1/12/2010 4:52:24 AM


touRism

Howard Plaza Hotel taipei focus on business traveller comfort

Howard Plaza Hotel Taipei, the flagship of the Howard Hotels Resorts & Suites Group of Tai-wan, is centrally located in the city’s financial

and government districts. It is within walking distance to Zhongxiao Fuxing and Daan MRT Stations and a 10 minutes drive to Taipei World Trade Center, Tai-pei International Convention Center and 101 Financial Center.

The hotel offers its business travellers the comfort of a home away from home. It features 606 tastefully deco-rated rooms and suites furnished with elegant rosewood furniture. Incorporating the latest technology, broadband internet, pay movies, dual line telephone, voice mail, mini-bar and in room tea/coffee making facilities it makes your stay there most comfortable.

The hotel has a 663 m2 fully equipped Grand Ballroom, with seating capacity for 600 guests, and there are 12 ad-ditional meeting rooms well supported by the state-of-the-

art audio-visual equipment and a sophisticated team of experienced convention service personnel.

Howard Plaza Hotel Taipei has 10 distinctive restaurants serving French, Shanghainese, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Japanese and Europe-an cuisine. In 2009, the hotel was awarded ISO 22000 & HACCP Certification, the first Taiwan local property to receive such accredi-tation. In other words, it strives to maintain the highest food service and hygiene standards.

As a business hotel, Howard Pla-za understands what it takes to cre-ate the right environment to assist you with your business need. The Rosewood Club Lounge with its two private meeting rooms offers the Rosewood Club Business Suites guests a professional and person-alized service.

wA majestic front view of the Howard Plaza Hotel

The Rainbow Terrace

BTT-Jan-10.indd 45 1/12/2010 4:52:25 AM


aCHievement

tamil Chamber honours Chief minister Mr. Chozha Naachiar Rajasekar,

President of the Tamil Chamber of Commerce, recently met the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karu-nanidhi, at a formal function held in Chennai and presented him a memento in appreciation of his receiving the “Tamizh Thalai Ma-gan” Award from Bharathi Tamizh Sangam, Kolkatta, in the presence of the State Minister for Electricity, Mr. Arcot Veerasamy, Kavi Perarasu Vairamuthu, Mr. T.K.S. Elangovan, MP, and Dr. R. Sivakumar, Presi-dent, Bharathi Tamizh Sangam, Kolkatta.

Representatives of the Tamizh Sangam of Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, Malaysia and Thailand as well as from other Indian cities also attended the function. w

Mr. Chozha Naachiar, TCC President, presenting the memento to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi. The others in the picture are Dr. R. Sivakumar, President, Bharathi Tamizh Sangam, Kolkatta, Kaviperarasu Vairamuthu and Mr. T.K.S. Elangovan, MP.

BTT-Jan-10.indd 46 1/12/2010 4:52:27 AM


men at tHe Helm

Zen Mobile has appointed Mr. Vaibhav Shastri, who previously served as the head for mobile business in Micromax, as its CEO. He has nine years of work experience in the mobile industry and a successful track record in helping build profitable brands as well as brand management.

Mr. Shastri said: “The Indian mobile indus-try is undergoing a gradual change. The Cel-lular Operators Association expects that the number of mobile phone subscribers will rise to 525 million by 2010. I am looking forward to establishing Zen Mobile as one of the lead-ing brands in India.”

Mr. Shastri will lead the national launch of Zen Mobile and look towards strengthening the position of the company across the coun-try. This is particularly important given that the company has recently launched its pan-India operations under the Zen Mobile brand.

Mr. V. Ramagopal has taken over as Executive Direc-tor of Indian Bank. He was General Manager of Andhra Bank since June 2005.

Mr. Ramagopal is an M.Sc. (Biochemistry) and CAIIB. He started his career as Probationary Officer in Indian Bank in April 1973 and worked in its various branches in Mumbai. In 1976 he joined Andhra Bank as Sub Manager and, after elevations, became General Man-ager in June 2005.

With his rich experience in the field of funds manage-ment & investments and forex, he had handled various responsibilities in Andhra Bank. w

Mr. Hareendranathan. E.P. has taken over as Airport Director, Chen-nai Airport. Prior to this, he was General Man-ager (Technical) at the corporate headquarters in New Delhi.

Mr. Hareendranath-an, a graduate in Mechanical Engineering, joined Airports Authority of India in 1985. He has 24 years of service in the aviation sector and served in various capacities at major air-ports like Mumbai and Kolkata.

Mr. Nakul Anand, Divisional Chief Executive - Hotels, ITC Ltd. has been elected President of the Hotel Association of India. He succeeds Ms. Priya Paul, Chair-person, Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Ltd.

While Mr. Ajoy Misra, Senior Vice President (S&M), Taj Group of Hotels, was elected Vice Presi-

dent of the Association, Mr. Vikramjit Singh Oberoi, Joint Managing Director of East India Hotels Ltd., was elected Honorary Treasurer. Mr. Rupak Gupta, Executive Direc-tor, U P Hotels Ltd., is the Honorary Secretary of the As-sociation.

After his election Mr. Nakul Anand said: “There is no doubt that 2008-09 was extremely challenging owing to the cataclysmic events that occurred for the hospital-ity industry as for other sectors, be it global economic downturn or terrorism. We managed to navigate through the rough times and now look ahead to entering the new decade fully committed to triple bottom-line objectives: economic, environmental and social”.

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Business and Travel Times January 201048

BTT-Jan-10.indd 48 1/12/2010 4:52:31 AM

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