|
A
MOTLEY COLLECTION OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC NEWS |
|
|
 Murthy is now chairman of Asia Business Council
In yet another recognition to India Inc’s growing prowess, Infosys Technologies founder N.R. Narayana Murthy takes over as chairman of the prestigious Asia Business Council (ABC). The Asia Business Council announced key leadership changes at its Spring Forum held in Hong Kong on March 15-17, a press release said.
Murthy, who takes over as the chairman of the organisation with immediate effect, promised to take the Council to the ‘next level’. “I am pleased to be taking over at the Council at this time and I am confident that the new team will help us take leadership on important business issues affecting Asia,” He said. Murthy is the chairman and chief mentor of Infosys, one of India’s leading technology companies. Murthy, who had been vice-chairman of the council, replaces Stan Shih, the former chairman and CEO of Acer who is now group chairman of iD Softcapital. Shih remains as a Council member.
China Merchants Group Ltd Chairman Qin Xiao replaces Murthy as vice-chairman. The Editor-in-Chief of Hong Kong’s leading newspaper, the South China Morning Post Mark Clifford has joined the Council as executive
director.
|
|
|
 Indian mutual funds bag 22 best fund awards
Indian mutual funds have bagged as many as 22 awards for best performance across various categories in the Gulf region, with Anil Ambani Group entity Reliance MF stealing the show with highest number of accolades. Franklin Templeton was also named as the overall best fund house by globally acclaimed fund tracking firm Lipper Inc among all the mutual fund companies doing business in Gulf region, while HDFC was selected as best company in the mixed-assets categories in terms of three-year returns.
Reliance MFs have bagged best fund awards in six categories, while the country’s largest fund house ICICI Prudential managed to get just one award. Franklin Templeton grabbed the second slot among Indian funds with five awards, followed by HDFC and UTI with three each and DSP Merrill Lynch and Birla Sunlife MF getting two awards each. The awards were presented at Lipper Fund Award Gulf 2007 ceremony in Dubai late on Monday night, criterion for which was to recognise best performing funds registered for sale in the Gulf States.
Reliance MF said in a statement that it has bagged awards across six sectors for their consistent and outstanding performance across 3 and 5 year time periods. Reliance Banking Fund Growth Plan bagged the best fund award for 3-year return in the equity banking segment, while Reliance Growth Fund was named as best equity funds in 3-year as well as 5-year return categories.
|
|
|
 34 Indian companies in Forbes 2000
ONGC leads a pack of 34 Indian companies which find place on the elite Forbes list of 2000 global corporate giants. In the rankings based on sales, profits, assets and stock market value, there are five Indian oil and gas companies, four software giants, three each dealing in materials and capital goods, two utilities, and one each in foods, consumer durables and telecom.
At the top of the Indian list is ONGC at 239, followed by Reliance Industries (258), SBI (326) and Indian Oil (399). TCS (1047) tops Indian IT, followed by Infosys (1130), Wipro (1233) and Satyam (1874). Bharti is the only Indian telecom company to find a spot with a rank of 1149. SBI heads Indian banks at 326 in the overall list. It is followed by ICICI Bank (536), HDFC-Housing Development (1197), PNB (1308), Canara Bank (1360), HDFC Bank(1376), Bank of Baroda (1585), Bank of India (1691), IDBI (1767), Union Bank of India (1772), UCO Bank (1931), Syndicate Bank (1943), Indian Overseas Bank (1946) and OBC (1974).
|
|
|
|
 IBM to invest $6 billion in India by 2009
US technology giant IBM said it will invest $6 billion in India by 2009. “We have invested $2 billion (in the last three years). We will spend $6 billion by 2009,” Frank Kern, the IBM President of Asia Pacific, told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a roundtable organised by The Economist. Kern, who sought to know India’s strategy to build a skilled workforce, came in for mild embarrassment when Singh said in a lighter vein that the company left India when he was Finance Secretary in the 1970s. Singh said India had targeted earmarking 6 per cent of GDP for education in the next five years against the current level of 3.9 per cent. IBM had in June last year announced plans to invest $6 billion in India. IBM has about 43,000 employees in 14 cities across the world and India is one of its important centres outside the
US.
|
|
|
|
 BMW rolls into India
High-end BMW cars are set to formally roll out on March 29 at the company’s assembly facility near Chennai. The company will initially roll out the BMW 3 series from the new assembly plant.
BMW’s plant has come up in Mahindra Global City, about 40 km south off Chennai. The company has initially invested close to $26 million in the plant, which will be used to assemble completely knocked down kits, imported from Europe. It is expected to provide direct employment to about 200 people. “Trial production has started and cars have been rolled out to achieve stabilisation of assembly process. To begin with, the company intends to roll out six cars a day,” company sources said. At present, over 90% of the components are imported as part of the CKD kits. However, this is expected to be gradually reduced.
|
|
|
|
 Cement companies may get 5-year tax holiday
Unable to put pressure on cement manufacturers to slash prices, the government is planning to offer them a five-year tax holiday to set up more capacity to end the current demand-supply mismatch and consequently soften prices. According to a source in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, the government may give a five-year tax holiday to cement units announced on or after April 1 with a caveat that they have to commence production within three years.
Cement makers and the government have been at loggerheads over prices, which have risen over 40 per cent to a peak of Rs 255 per 50 kg bag in the last 12 months. Manufacturers have so far not paid heed to the Centre’s call to roll back prices, but have promised not to raise them further for a year.
Official sources believe that cement manufacturers are currently in a commanding position as far as prices are concerned, due to a major demand-supply gap. Various infrastructure and real estate projects have seen construction activity growing at an unprecedented pace, and this has led to growing demand for cement. It is understood that the proposed policy move is also aimed at incentivising participation of new companies.
|
|
more... |
|
|
|
|
May 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
