While margins contracted by 30 basis points on y-o-y basis, they fell a sharper 120 basis points on a sequential basis to 16.8 per cent. Profitability was impacted adversely due to subdued demand, tepid realisations in commodity sectors, and negative operating leverage.
The employees, who took part in this study, agreed that monetary transaction at 39.2 per cent is the most prevalent form of corruption.
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.
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.
There has been a sharp improvement in the productivity of most of the companies, thus making the bottomline growth even stronger.
India Inc said the Foreign Trade Policy would give a significant push to manufactured goods and agriculture- and labour-intensive exports.
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.
Industry sources told India Abroad they wouldn't shed any tears if the legislation died in the House.
India Inc has expressed disappointment over the Reserve Bank of India's decision to keep interest rates unchanged. This, according to various industry associations, would result in huge capital inflows leading to further appreciation of the rupee.
Corporate India is more dependent than before on exporters of IT services such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, and Wipro for earning foreign exchange. Such companies account for nearly 43 per cent of the forex revenues of listed firms, up from 22 per cent a decade ago. The listed IT services companies earned nearly Rs 4.2 trillion through exports in FY22, up 15 per cent from the Rs 3.65 trillion a year earlier. In comparison, the forex revenues or exports of the rest of the BSE500 companies were down 11.9 per cent to Rs 5.6 trillion last financial year.
The Year of India in Russia - as 2009 is officially known - has helped India Inc get into a long bear hug with the Russian consumer. They are lapping up everything - from Ratan Tata's marquee cars to Vijay Mallya's whisky.
India Inc preferred to tap other sources of funds - a cheaper option - even though bank funds were available in plenty.
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.
The textile and apparel sector is India's second-largest employment provider, after agriculture, and it is now caught in a wave of uncertainty following the Donald Trump administration's tariff policy.
Green shoots evident, but worries remain.
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.
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.
The earnings of India Inc hit a record high in the 2022-23 (FY23) January-March quarter (fourth quarter, or Q4), compared with their poor showing in the previous two quarters of the financial year. The rise in earnings, however, is exclusively led by banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) companies. A better-than-expected showing by banks and non-bank lenders in Q4FY23 more than compensated for the earnings contraction in the non-BFSI space.
The post-Covid pandemic boom in corporate revenues appeared to have faded away in 2023-24. Yet, companies have reported a sharp recovery in their profits in FY24, driven by high margins. Their combined net sales, including gross interest income for lenders, rose by a modest 4.8 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in FY24.
Hailing Narendra Modi's victory, India Inc hopes the incoming government would boost economic growth and create jobs.
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.
Index measuring this at six-quarter high; however, economic & political volatility a concern.
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'.
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.
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.
The net sales growth declines 4.4% in September quarter, the second worst in eight years.
Brokerages expect India Inc to report an upturn in earnings for the March quarter of 2022-23, after a relatively muted showing in the previous two quarters. This growth is expected to be led by banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) companies, FMCG firms, and automobile makers. The combined net profit of the Nifty50 companies (excluding Adani Enterprises) is expected to have grown 15.6 per cent to Rs 1.77 trillion in Q4FY23, from Rs 1.53 trillion a year ago.
Capex plans for the next six months imply a 20 per cent increase in calendar 2010.
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 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 first such interaction would be in Mumbai on Monday.
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.
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.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances