Showing posts with label IIPM INDIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IIPM INDIA. Show all posts

Saturday, September 01, 2012

Despite a fall in profits in the last fiscal

Despite a fall in profits in the last fiscal, nmdc is still among the top 20 profit makers in the country. But will the honeymoon continue for the mining giant? Deepak Ranjan Patra finds out... 

Meanwhile, considering NMDC’s ambitious expansion plans, the first quarter results seem to be just the beginning of another era for it. With intentions to diversify, the company at present is setting up a 3 MTPA steel plant in Chhatisgarh and two pellet plants with installed capacity of 1.2 MTPA and 2 MTPA in Chhatisgarh and Karnataka, respectively with a capex of `26.5 billion to be spent over the next five years. As expected, once the plants become fully functional, NMDC will witness huge rise in its cash flows from FY2013 onwards. Moreover, in order to securitise its position and expand its reach in the global arena, the company is currently looking forward to acquire mines in regions like Africa, South America and also Australia.

But then, before stepping into the future, NMDC has to deal with the biggest problem of iron ore pricing. While metal prices are on rise in the global market, the company has so far passed on only two-third of the increased cost to its customers. So, the question remains that for how long can NMDC sustain the same stand without getting its bottom-line affected?

Nevertheless, the company sounds confident to sail through the odds as Raghavan says, “The year ahead holds much promise for NMDC. It will excel its performance through the next three quarters and achieve all-time high records.”


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, August 10, 2012

CONTINUE STIMULUS

THE MOVE WILL SURELY BOOST THE INDUSTRY DEMAND

The biggest point of worry for the automotive industry from the budget is the withdrawal of the stimulus package that was offered by the Government in the time of the slowdown last year. We believe that if the Government continues with the package it will be a very positive sign for the growing demand in the industry. But if it really wants to withdraw the stimulus then it should phase it out gradually so that the impact is not severe.

We are very much sure that whatever decision they take will keep in mind the interest of the automakers. However, even if the Government withdraws the stimulus in a single go, we will welcome it with open arms. Further, the recommendations of the Kirit Parikh’s report are nothing more than a report so far. There is no denying that Rs.80,000 per car as duty will be a lot for the Indian small car industry but we will have to wait and watch how the Government reacts to it.

Whatever be the case, with the start of April we will be withdrawing Maruti 800 from 13 cities where BS-IV norms will be applicable as at Maruti, we believe that it doesn’t makes a lot of sense to make it a BS-IV compatible. The withdrawal of Maruti 800 is a painful decision as it has been associated with the company for a long time and has played a role of one of the major driving forces for the company since the time of its inception. But there isn’t much we can do about it.


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Are the greenshoots for real?

Gyanendra Kumar Kashyap explains why rural India will be the next battleground for the insurance players and why will the growth come from there…

Year 2009 saw the Indian insurance industry face an extraordinary confluence of testing macroeconomic trends along with unique challenges & opportunities. As revenue growth went downhill, margins came under pressure and capital requirements surged, and with it increased the urgency for the insurers to reduce their costs, strengthen their risk management and stabilise capital positions. And if one goes by a latest report from Swiss Re (the second largest reinsurer globally), one sees that, “reduced demand, low interest rates and the need for many companies to recapitalise are some of the challenges that the industry will face in 2010.” Notwithstanding the challenges, the untapped potential of life insurance in India (whose penetration level still stands at a miniscule 4%) is certainly that one thing which can alone make the insurance industry prosper in the near future. Learning bitter lessons during the slowdown, players are now increasingly focusing on operating efficiencies and are looking at right sizing their frontline sales force and making them more efficient. As per the latest available numbers, while the annualised premium earnings (APE) for the private life insurance players has increased by a healthy 29.6%, the same was pegged at a whopping 45% for the state-owned LIC. The general insurance segment too witnessed a 16% (y-o-y) growth of the gross premium underwritten.

These numbers bear testimony to the fact that insurers are now evaluating economic returns before making any new investment. Aware of the shifting landscape, the insurance regulator IRDA too is in the process of framing guidelines for M&As in the sector. Not only this, the regulator also plans to come out with IPO guidelines for insurance companies by February-end which will allow them to raise funds from the capital markets (Reliance Life could be the first life insurance company in the country to come out with an IPO). These guidelines will further protect the policyholders’ interests and also ensure transparency and corporate governance.

Considering all this, one can say that the insurance industry in India is certainly ready for a fresh start. In fact, industry leaders like Deepak Sood, CEO of Future Generali India Life Insurance Co, believe that with rising optimism in the Indian stock markets, it’s time that customers reap the benefits of a market that has shown stability and resilience and is poised for a long-term positive run. Further, as private players take on public sector behemoths by having strategic tie ups with regional rural banks, rural India will be the much wanted battleground. Harpal Karlcut, CEO, Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Co agrees with the recent development as he tells B&E, “Given that the market is inadequately insured, rural areas offer great potential. We are aided by our strong distribution model that will enable us to take life insurance to large sections of the society and help meet every Indian’s need for insurance.” With India’s poorest sections living in rural areas, it’ll be interesting to see how the insurance giants finally end up making money.



UP AND COMINING

Since the stock market lows last March, the life insurance stocks have recovered dramatically. In 2010, capital concerns will be largely behind the industry and investors will return their focus on the underlying business fundamentals of the sector. Though the fundamentals of the industry are expected to improve in 2010, the sector will still face some headwinds. In addition, while one can anticipate investment income to increase over the 2009 levels as insurers put more money to work in the debt markets, most insurers will continue to maintain defensive liquidity positions, which will act as a drag on earnings growth. It is also expected that the overall sales volumes, especially those of higher premium products, will remain depressed versus the levels seen in most of this decade. Although merger and acquisitions were virtually non-existent in 2009, the situation is all set to change in 2010.

Read more....

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, July 27, 2012

Why Isn’t Japan being Sanctioned by IAEA?

Had Iran been the purveyor of a nuclear disaster, IAEA and most definitely US would have jumped on to the bandwagon to issue global sanctions against the nation. Today, Japan – a nation which criminally failed to make a fail-safe nuclear plant and has continued to lie to international communities about the amount of radiation leakage from Fukushima – is not even being castigated for its abhorring mistakes, leave alone being sanctioned

Years ago, a war was suddenly ended, and yet a grave crime was committed on humanity with the twin atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What made it worse was the nuclear race it initiated among nations, putting the entire mankind under serious threat. Not surprisingly, Japan, the first (and hopefully the only one forever) victim of a nuclear attack; stayed away from nuclear weapons, while it continued to judiciously use nuclear energy for peaceful ends. However, the country perhaps did not realise the perils of using nuclear reactors not insulated against the laws of nature. March 11, 2011 proved to be a day of mourning for Japan when it was hit by an earthquake followed by a tsunami; events that subsequently exacerbated the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plants.

Yes, the lives lost are mourned. But what cannot be forgiven is Japan’s deliberate and criminal behaviour towards two critical issues: Firstly, it is unfathomable that a nation can claim that a tidal wave ensured that its nuclear reactors went out of control. Given the infinitely exponential danger levels of nuclear radiation, wasn’t it Japan’s primary responsibility to operate only fail-safe reactors that automatically shut off at the first instant of a natural disaster? Or is Japan, which experiences some of the maximum frequencies of earthquakes, peddling to us the theory that it didn’t know what a natural disaster was? Secondly, what Japan did by deliberately lying to the world about the nuclear radiation leakage levels from its four damaged nuclear reactors at Fukushima is not just a crime against humanity, but should immediately invite global sanctions by both the IAEA and the Western world. This irresponsible doublespeak from Japan is unpardonable – especially when the world is going to suffer hugely due to Japan’s intransigence, which includes its act of releasing radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean that killed millions of sea animals in a matter of one week.

The Fukushima incident is considered now to be the second-most severe nuclear plant disaster after the Chernobyl incident 25 years ago on April 26, 1986. But what was really surprising was that, despite knowing the extent of havoc that nuclear radiations can cause, Japan deliberately manipulated the information about radiation levels since the beginning of the incident. While the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) is the regulator of Japan’s nuclear industry, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station was operated by The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Immediately after the disaster on April 12, 2011, NISA’s radiation estimate was 370,000 terabecquerels. Global agencies accepted NISA’s estimate as being true and honest. How wrong they were? Firstly, all climactic data on radiation levels was going against NISA’s fraudulent estimations – regions as far as Canada and United States were detecting radiation due to the Japan disaster. Secondly, while Japan had evacuated people in an area of 20 km around the plant, all radiation surveys showed high radiation exposure to people even 60 km away from the plant. On June 15, Japanese government shamelessly accepted this fact and issued new evacuation advisories for people living in the 60 km radius. More pathetically, NISA, in a report to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), accepted that their initial estimates were completely off the mark and increased the radiation leakage estimate to 770,000 terabecquerels. In the report, Japan admits that “it was unprepared for a severe nuclear accident.”

As per the World Nuclear Association, 100 millisieverts nuclear radiation a year is the limit that one can be exposed to, and exposure above this limit leads to a serious risk of cancer. As per present reports, radiation levels went as high as 400 millisieverts per hour, which could have been as lethal as a nuclear bomb! More surprisingly, Japan rated this terrible nuclear crisis at five out of seven on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) initially. France’s nuclear safety authority ASN warned that the minimum should have been rating the disaster at level-six. Later, under extreme pressure, Japan raised the score to 7, indicating a ‘major nuclear incident.’

Clearly, the radiation impact on the environment and on humanity will remain much longer and worsen too. There are over 100,000 tons of highly radioactive water inside the buildings. Its decontamination is very lengthy, expensive and exhausting work. Radioactive particles are spreading through the air, which will also impact other nations. Three months since the incident, the nuclear plant is still leaking radioactive material.

Yet, if you go by the Japanese government’s claims, no direct death has occurred due to nuclear radiation; over 10,000 people have died in the earthquake so far and it cost around $250 billion to the Japanese economy. Over 180,000 people were evacuated from within a 20-30 km. radius of the accident. So far, only 160 people, as per the Japanese government, have been found exposed to radiation.


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Most of the American citizens do not earn enough to shell out for the costly premiums of healthcare insurance

Even for America’s bete noire Cuba, healthcare has been a shining achievement of the country’s long-running socialist regime. Cuba has been more than successful in providing cheap and quality health cover to its 11 million citizens (it’s constitution under Article 50 empowers its citizen to have universal and free healthcare). With about 60 doctors per 10,000 population, Cubans enjoy the highest life expectancy in the whole of Latin America (about 77 years). The United Nation’s erstwhile Secretary General, Kofi Annan, recently complimented Cuban Healthcare System, calling it ‘world’s best public services’.

It would then be worthwhile for the American administration to emulate Cuba or Canada for ameliorating the plight of its hapless citizens.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Professor Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)