Potential for a reintroduction of Re1 cigarette – ITC
According to ITC, the vacuum created by the exit of the popular low priced micros and plain nonfilter cigarettes (in the wake of the heavy imposition of excise duties last year) has been occupied by duty-evaded illegal regular size filter cigarettes which are sold at Re1 per stick.
Mr. Kurush Grant Divisional Chief Executive, ITC said,
these low priced tax-evaded illegal cigarettes account for about 12-13% of cigarette industry today (~5% in 1HCY08).
Industry has represented to government to consider the introduction of Read more
Hindustan Construction bags order from Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves
Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) has informed us in a message that the company just a while ago received a prestigious contract worth Rs 374.66 crore from Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves (ISPRL), New Delhi.
The company has bagged the order for construction of civil works for an underground rock caverns for Strategic Storage of Crude Oil Project at Padur in Karnataka. The project will be completed in 3 years.
HCC is already constructing India’s first strategic crude oil storage of 1.33 million tonnes capacity in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
Investor confidence empowers FDI inflows a y-o-y growth of 60% in November
India has garnered foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of $1.74 billion during November 2009, a 60% increase over the $1.08 billion recorded in same month last year. This surge in FDI inflows is significant because India continued to be held as a safe destination for investment despite global recession and financial crises in world’s largest economies.
According to the Department of Industrial Planning and Policy, India has received $23.82 billion up to October 2009 as against $30.58 billion in the fiscal year of 2008-09. In the month of October this year, FDI inflows have notched $2.33 billion as against $1.49 billion during the same month in 2008. However, FDI inflows during April-November period of the current fiscal year declined marginally to $19.38 billion from $19.79 billion a year ago on the backdrop of the impact of global financial crisis felt in earlier months of FY 10. Read more
ICICI Bank – Image makeover – Learning from Mistakes
In a recent meeting, the management highlighted its initiatives to change the general perception about the bank. Some of these aspects are very important and quite commendable as well, in our view.
ICICI Bank is trying to build personal relations with its customers and has been increasing its branch banking focus, compared to its earlier strategy of pushing customers towards ATMs and internet, which never allowed any relationship to be built between the customer and the bank. The management is trying to project a very soft image of itself across all customers and different from its earlier “know all” approach. Read more
Value of Indian Currency Notes + Coins Induced into Circulation in last 10 years
In one of the Macro Economic Research we are undertaking, we wanted to know what is the total value of currency in circulation in India. We spent quite some time and money to gather this information from RBI [India's Central Bank and Highest Authority on Banking]
The duty of the RBI is to place its indent for supply of fresh banknotes and coins every year with the Government Press / Mints and the Indian Government fulfill those requests. Here is the record as obtained directly from the records Read more
How Indians Can Settle Credit Cards + Loan EMIs – A Relief Package
Indian Banks in a bid to expand their market share in Housing Loans, Auto Loans and Credit Cards, lent recklessly over 2004 to 2007 to any consumer without even verifying the credentials. Now, they are facing rapid defaults and are causing a misery to the Indian borrower. The RBI aware of this situation, has instructed BCSBI an independent body [it is as good as Government as it was formed by the RBI, so your data is safe with them] that looks into the functioning of Banks and Financial Institutions has started a separate counseling wing to identify genuine cases and negotiate a relief package. Read more
Indian Rice Export Scam of Rs 2,500 Cr – Courtesy Pranab Mukherjee + KamalNath
If you read the Outlook magazine dated Dec-21st, you will notice that despite objections raised by then Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram and Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies Minister – Mr. Sharad Pawar, empowered group of ministers headed by Mr. Pranab Mukherjee under the controversial leadership of then Commerce Minister Mr. Kamal Nath pushed for Rs 2,500 cr Rice Export Scam when India itself was facing food inflation and rice shortage. So now you know why prices of food and essential commodities rise 
Read more
Big Bazaar likely to be Hived off by Feb-2010
Pantaloon Retail’s (PRIL) planned hive-off of Big Bazaar is on track and is likely to be consummated by February 2010, according to management. Pantaloon’s management indicates that hive-off of Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar is on track. The hive-off will pave the way for fund-raising at the Big Bazaar level and induction of a foreign food retailer. The latter, which management has hinted at in many forums, is likely to provide the next leg-up to Big Bazaar’s growth trajectory. Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar account for 70% of PRIL’s (standalone) revenues and 67% of its total retail space. Read more
Nifty closes below the 5000-mark; RIL slips 2.77%
Domestic equity markets witnessed heavy selling in the last hour of trade on Friday which resulted in the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) 50-share Nifty shutting shop below the psychological mark of 5000. After spending most part of the day in a tight range markets came under pressure in late afternoon trades on concerns over likely monetary tightening measures by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Weak Asian markets also weighed on sentiments in trade. Investors opted to take some profit off the table ahead of the holiday season, which starts next week. Sell-off was led by realty, oil & gas and banking sector stocks while selective buying was witnessed in healthcare, consumer durables and auto shares. Read more
GSM Subscriber Addition at 11 mn Plus in November
India’s GSM operators (excluding RCOM and TTSL) reported another month of strong SIM card sales adding 11.1 mn SCIU versus 10.32 mn in the previous month. Increasing multi-SIM usage makes any inference on underlying industry trends based on this monthly data (mostly) meaningless.
Bharti Airtel – Bharti reported an increase in net adds in Nov 2009 to 2.8 mn, from 2.7 mn in Oct 2009. The company’s net adds market share, however, continues to dip – now down to 25.3% (among the GSM players excluding RCOM and TTSL) from 34% as late as May 2009. Bharti Airtel has bid for Warid Telecom in Bangladesh.
Vodafone – Net adds decline to 2.8 mn from 3 mn reported in the previous month. Read more
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