India Inc on Friday expressed the hope that the robust 17.6-per cent industrial growth in April will help the economy grow by 8.5 per cent in this fiscal, even though factory output growth may moderate after June.
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
Operating margins improve, but sales still sluggish
According to a mid-year survey on 'Performance & Reward Trends' by Hewitt Associates, companies across industries are strongly differentiating rewards on the basis of performance but majority of them are not considering any layoffs or severe salary cuts in current fiscal. The survey revealed that 16 per cent of the companies surveyed have a salary freeze and were mainly organizations in the financial services, IT and ITeS sector.
In a pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the corporate leaders highlighted several issues, including certain income tax matters which were coming in the way of mergers and acquisitions or slowing them down and roles that need to be played by state businesses to prosper at the ground level.
India Inc is likely to witness a continuing surge in merger and acquisition activities after a record number of M&A deals in the first half of 2006 -- aggregating to more than $25 billion.\n\n
Some companies say they will pass on the cost to customers.
India Inc has raised a whopping Rs 237.3 billion (Rs 23,730 crore) through initial share sales in April-January, which is nearly 10 times than that mobilised during the corresponding period last fiscal.
"Outsourcing is also a concern and I hope it will be addressed soon," Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on India in Gurgaon.
'Das is friendly, but he finally does what he does. The quality of engagement is very good.'
India Inc has given the United Progressive Alliance government a 65 per cent score, a shade better than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's
With the third and final round of layoffs implemented by Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms, Inc. in process globally, India, too, has seen its impact, with some senior executives being asked to leave. Some of the executives to have been impacted are Avinash Pant, India's director of marketing; Saket Jha Sourabh, director and head of media partnerships; and Amrita Mukherjee, one of the directors on the legal team. An email sent to the company did not elicit any comment on the development until the time of going to press.
India Inc's deal making saw a sharp decline in 2009 with just $24 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions and private equity deals taking place, but 2010 is likely to be a year of "opportunity," according to a report by a consultancy firm.
A total of 635 companies have declared their third-quarter results and reported 22 per cent rise in revenue and 47.3 per cent growth in net profit on an average.
The issue regarding remuneration of company CEOs will be debated by the parliamentary standing committee.
According to staffing company Teamlease for the first quarter of this fiscal year, the overall net employment outlook index made a smart turnaround to recover lost ground.
Events to keep an eye out for...
Industry body Confederation of Indian Industry said with the government having announced a clear road map for fiscal consolidation and non-food inflation demonstrating a secular decline, conditions are conducive for RBI to have intervened with a repo and cash reserve ratio reduction.
Major Indian automobile companies like Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Mahindra & Mahindra seem to have put up a robust performance in Q3 FY 10, paying advance tax of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), Rs 320 crore (Rs 3.2 billion) and Rs 195 crore (Rs 1.95 billion), respectively.
India Inc's initiative to adopt Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across the country is facing problems because of low level of cooperation on the field as well as red-tapism, industry lobby groups have claimed.
Equity investors should thank cash-rich biggies such as TCS, ITC, HUL, Nestl, and Bajaj Auto for this.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday admitted the Reserve Bank of India's move to hike short-term lending and borrowing rates will hurt growth in the near-term, but exuded confidence that economic expansion will gather pace later as a consequence.
'More than investors, fund houses, and advisors have raised caution and limited flows on small-and mid-caps.'
Recovery from the second wave of the pandemic in April-May is expected to be swifter as compared to the first wave in 2020, according to the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) chief executive officers (CEOs) poll of 119 top corporate. During the second wave, the lockdowns were largely designed to limit social gatherings and impact on economic activities was restricted. This helped arrest the impact of the second wave on economic growth, according to a survey conducted by the industry lobby group Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). About 59 per cent of the CEOs polled expect the recovery in sales to be better than in the first wave for their companies, while 46 per cent of them expressed a similar trend for their respective industry sectors.
Senior bankers point out that while they will eventually attract qualified professionals, onboarding them takes time.
The manufacturing sector (excluding petroleum sector) would report a 24.3 per cent PAT growth mainly on account of low raw material prices and soft interest rates, CMIE said, adding PAT of the financial and non-financial services would rise by 32.2 per cent and 20.4 per cent, respectively.
Even as India Inc talks of increasing corporate governance norms after the Satyam scam, a study by global consultancy firm Ernst & Young has said that more than half of the companies surveyed do not take into account risk of frauds in their annual audit plans.
In peace and at war, firms remain tethered to promoter families in a uniquely Indian way.
No business delegation has been cleared yet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's visit to America from Friday.
Tatas top the losers' list, wiping out more than Rs. 50,000 crore of investors' wealth.
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