Mark-to-market losses, oil & gas companies drag profits; sales growth moderates
"We created a sense of a team, not individuals. We designed team measurable and not individual measurable. At the end of the day, we created a happy environment," said Gary Kirsten, coach of the World Cup-winning Indian cricket team.
Several fiscal and monetary incentives since December 2008 helped the industry to recover into a growth trajectory. The 10 per cent plus growth in manufacturing, basic goods, mining, electricity has been buoyed by these measures, Confederation of Indian Industry said.
India Inc's hiring activity witnessed a marginal decline in the month of April, owing to the ongoing appraisal season, but overall industries are upbeat about their hiring sentiment and 2011 is expected to be a landmark year for job creation, job portal Naukri.Com says.
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.
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.
'Given that India underperformed emerging markets by 28 per cent in 2025, the worst performance in over 30 years, the timing of the sharp STT hike could have been better.'
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Green shoots evident, but worries remain.
Industry sources told India Abroad they wouldn't shed any tears if the legislation died in the House.
India Inc is staring at significantly higher compliance and governance costs, following the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) latest tightening of disclosure norms and regulations around the filling of key positions, the materiality of information, and third-party transfers. Recently, the securities market regulator amended the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) to introduce a raft of changes that will affect how listed companies go about transparency and disclosures. The new framework will further empower public shareholders and soon move towards a 'comply or be penalised regime or comply or explain' in the case of high-value debt-listed entities.
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.
Chief executive officers (CEOs) across sectors have expressed intentions to expand capacities, expecting the government's target to invest a record Rs 11.11 trillion on infrastructure development will act as a catalyst for a jump in consumer demand. "With the government planning a capex of Rs 11.11 trillion, private sector investment will come in a big way. Companies will be preparing for it right from today," H M Bangur, chairman of Shree Cement, told Business Standard. For the past few years, the investment scene in India has been dominated by government capital expenditures; private investments in the manufacturing sector have remained muted.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hailing Narendra Modi's victory, India Inc hopes the incoming government would boost economic growth and create jobs.
Index measuring this at six-quarter high; however, economic & political volatility a concern.
The net sales growth declines 4.4% in September quarter, the second worst in eight years.
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.
Capex plans for the next six months imply a 20 per cent increase in calendar 2010.
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.
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.
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.
