Mark-to-market losses, oil & gas companies drag profits; sales growth moderates
As per Hewitt's annual Salary Increase Survey 2009-10, the double-digit hike in salaries are anticipated for this year led by sectors like telecom, engineering, pharma and energy.
India Inc's investment spirit is down. A majority of leading CEOs expect domestic investments and money infusion abroad by Indian companies to grow by less than 10 per cent or to decline during 2012, in view of the current economic slowdown.
Jobs are back and India Inc is witnessing an upsurge of 15 per cent in hiring trend, thanks to the improving economic climate. However, experts say it is too early to say that the situation has returned back to 'normalcy'.
Industry chamber Ficci said, Japan as a nation would overcome the calamity to reassure its place in the comity of most prominent economies of the world.
A survey of CEOs shows corporate India is unsure about the party's ideology, with some feeling its left-of-the-centre politics can be detrimental in the long run.
India Inc (excluding trading and financial services companies) was sitting on a cash mountain of Rs 456,700 crore (Rs 4,567 billion) as on September 30, up 21 per cent from the same time a year before.
According to the quarterly report, hiring sentiment saw a marginal improvement with the employment outlook index for the January to March quarter standing at 47 index points, one per cent higher than the previous quarter.
Volatility in local share markets have hit India Inc's equity fund-raising plans, with the total deal value this year set to fall below the level seen in 2008.
As the world celebrated International Day of Persons with Disabilities (PwD) on December 3, corporate India has kept up with efforts to make workplaces more inclusive and accessible. Organisations across sectors are taking initiatives such as equipping offices with practical work tools like Braille-friendly and voice-enabled lifts and screen readers. While inclusion has gained pace, only 11.3 per cent (or 3.4 million out of 30 million) Indians with disabilities have jobs.
Expressing concern over high debt exposure of many companies in India, global rating agency Standard & Poor's on Tuesday warned India Inc that high oil prices can trigger inflationary pressures, trim corporate profits and slow down industrial activit
Under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, close to 1 million apprentices will be trained in FY24.
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.
RBI has cut the rates thrice so far in 2015 by 25 bps each.
Sonia Gandhi's publicly-aired concern over the acquisition of fertile farmland for special economic zones has evoked a prompt response from corporate India, which does not want to delay showing its farmer-friendly face.
Corporate India has raised over 8 billion dollars through syndicated loans by way of 33 deals in the first half of this year led by Reliance Industries, which alone mopped up a whopping 2.7 billion dollars.
Talking corporate heads are a barometer of the business community's engagement with the economy. If they have nothing to say now there should be cause for concern.
Industry believes economy could grow well but worries about hampering by lack of infrastructure.
In 2001-02, demand recession had clipped the sales growth rate of corporate India to 2.6 per cent from the double-digit one of the earlier years.
The combined dividend payout by early-bird companies -- those that have declared their results for FY21 -- is up 8.9 per cent, lower than the 21.9 per cent rise in in FY20 but ahead of the underlying growth in India Inc business last year. Combined net sales of these early birds were down 1.8 per cent last financial year while net profit was up 27.3 per cent in FY21. Some top companies that have stepped up dividend payout in FY21 include Hindustan Unilever, Indus Towers, Tata Steel, Ultratech Cement, Larsen & Toubro, Dabur, Asian Paints, and UPL. In contrast, banks have skipped dividends under an RBI diktat while companies such as Marico, TCS, Maruti Suzuki, and Godrej Consumer are paying lower dividends for FY21.
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.
India Inc is seeking at least quarterly interactions with senior government representatives to establish a channel of communication and help change the opinion at the highest level.
The first such interaction would be in Mumbai on Monday.
The net sales growth declines 4.4% in September quarter, the second worst in eight years.
Capex plans for the next six months imply a 20 per cent increase in calendar 2010.
Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the US, India Inc. has revealed it has high expectations from the tour, which it also felt would firm up strategic ties between the two nations.
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.
The issue regarding remuneration of company CEOs will be debated by the parliamentary standing committee.
The Ficci Survey for the second quarter of 2008-09, which was carried out during November and December 2008, revealed 52 per cent of companies feel that the overall economic conditions would weaken further in the coming six months. Further nearly 90 per cent of the 412 companies surveyed in the report feel that the economic situation has deteriorated over the last six months.
Index measuring this at six-quarter high; however, economic & political volatility a concern.
Hailing Narendra Modi's victory, India Inc hopes the incoming government would boost economic growth and create jobs.
The private security industry expects to grow manifold in the next five years, with India Inc enhancing the protective measures after the Mumbai attacks.
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.
