Showing posts with label MNC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MNC. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Towards More Globalised Highways

The Booming Indian CV market has been Seeing a slew of MNCs Lining up to be Among The Numbers. Can they do an Encore of The Script that played out in The Passenger Vehicle Segment?

Just months after the world saw the banking sector in developed countries in a hell bound state, slowdown blues made their way into the Indian market. However, much before the cautionary signals were made public, the commercial vehicle (CV) segment was already feeling the heat and the months ahead took the sector deeper into the woods. This gave credence to a well accepted viewpoint in the industry; that commercial vehicle sales are a barometer of economic activity.

The industry showed a decline in sales by 21.69% yoy for FY 2008-09 with the so-called highly profitable M&HCV segment dipping by 37.01% to record sales of 1.48 lakh units as compared to the 2.35 lakh units sold in FY 2007-08. While Ashok Leyland managed to sell only 47,632 vehicles in the same period with a decline of 37.34%, market leader Tata Motors also felt the heat and its sales declined by 22% to 2,33,843 units.

However, to the respite of CV makers and supporters of the ‘barometer’ analogy, the market took little time in taking a U-turn, as the economy stabilised and started moving back on the growth charts; well in time before the economy also made a strong rebound.

“There is a lot of scope in the CV segment and the projected healthy GDP growth rates also suggest the same,” says Rakesh Kalra, CEO, Mahindra Navistar. The recent budget highlighted the strong investment push needed to develop infrastructure in India and this would boost the demand for M&HCVs (16T & above) & LCVs (less than 3.5T). Domestic sales figures show a yoy growth of 34.18% for M&HCVs and 24.08% for LCVs for the period of April 2010-February 2011 as per SIAM. Three wheelers displayed a rise of 19.96% yoy for the same period. By all counts, such numbers do not hurt! In addition, taxes have not been increased on CVs in this year’s budget. It is not surprising, therefore, that a number of global players have made their entry recently, or are looking for a foothold in this space. Over time, MNCs have virtually dominated the passenger vehicles segment in India. Will they be able to do an encore in the CV segment?

When you look at the incumbents, it looks to be quite a daunting challenge, for the market is dominated by three large players. Tata Motors still holds the pole position with sales of 3,48,544 units and a growth of 22.36% during the April 2010-February 2011 period, followed by M&M that dispatched 92,768 vehicles towards Indian roads with a growth of 23.13%. So far, Tata Motors, M&M and Ashok Leyland account for more than 80% of the total market in India. When it comes to MNCs, the leading company is SML Isuzu (Swaraj Mazda’s alliance with Japanese player Isuzu) posted the best performance with sales of 10,444 followed by Piaggio with sales of 8,444 units. The Volvo-Eicher JV came next with 932 units, while Volvo Buses posted sales of 488 units.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The Property Burst in the Wake of the 2008

Irish Economy was on a High Growth Trajectory for more than a Decade now. But the Property Burst in the Wake of the 2008 Financial Crisis sent Ireland into its Worst Sovereign Debt Crisis. Kenneth Thompson, The Irish Ambassador to India, In an Exclusive Interview, Shares the Larger Picture of the Ireland Economy

B&E: Do you believe that the Irish government can face the kind of backlash from government employees and unions as seen in Greece and Spain?
KT: The public servants in Ireland have had pay cuts since 2008 between 5 to 15%. Despite that, there have been no major protests as the people understand that we had a property bubble that burst and the second biggest problem is the deflation that Ireland is facing right now. Unemployment has risen sharply as many people have been laid off in the construction sector. The prices have sharply come down with electricity prices falling by 25% and gas prices by 23%. Housing prices have come down by 35-40% while office rents have fallen by 50%. So the positive side to all this has been that the average expenditures on an individual level have also come down.

B&E: Ireland has one of the lowest tax rates in the world with the corporate tax rate at just 12.5%. How do you justify such low tax rates in the current situation of such high public debt?
KT: Ireland not just has a very low corporate tax rate but one of the lowest personal tax rates as well. Our basic personal tax rate is 20% while it is 41% at the higher end which is paid by a very small number of people. Such low tax rates give the government the flexibility to raise the tax rates in times of crisis. In terms of justifying such rates, the tax rate is uniform for every business be it your corner shop or for every individual. It is the same for foreign investors as well. So, it has helped in bringing huge foreign investment in Ireland over the years. In fact, according to a latest research, Ireland had the highest per capita investment in 2008 in the world. MNCs account for a huge proportion of jobs in Ireland and they also contribute to 80% of our exports. Hence, the people realize that the low corporate tax rates result in job creation and high overall tax revenues which the government then spends on welfare programs.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Stratagem-TELECOM: MANUFACTURING

Depite a Humongous Growth in The Telecom Sector, The Country has failed to build an Ecosystem that Promotes Telecom Manufacturing, Forcing Operators to Import most of The Equipment for their networks.

Telecom equipment manufacturing in India took off just after Independence. In 1948, the first Public Sector Unit (PSU) – ITI– was formed. In the initial stages it met 50% of the domestic demand for telecom equipment. However, in 1993-94, the government withdrew the defrayment of its R&D expenditure. ITI, which had six manufacturing facilities then, was hit hard by the government decision. That was the time when telecom sector had started opening up and demand for telecom equipment had begun to grow considerably. ITI was not able to match the rising demand.

Today, handset is the only telelcom device, which is manufactured in India. Top MNCs, including Nokia, Samsung and LG have manufacturing facilities in the country. Some domestic players, including Mircomax, Karbonn and Lava have plans to start manufacturing in India. But for them manufacturing only make sense when they can sell 1 million units per month or have at least 10% of the total market share, which seems a difficult target for them to meet in the next few years.

On the other hand, telecom service providers in India are not happy with the recommendations of the regulator. Service providers are against putting a cap on the telecom equipment purchase from foreign vendors. They fear that it will kill competition in the market and inflate equipment prices. Telecom service providers’ industry body Cellular Operator Association of India (COAI) has expressed concern over TRAI’s recommendations. “It is good that the government is promoting equipment manufacturing in India. But there should be no binding obligation on telecom operators to buy from them. If the standard of equipment manufactured by local players matches the global standards and prices there is no question of not buying from them” says R.S. Mathews, Director COAI.

Apart from the dearth of local telecom equipment manufacturers, there are other reasons that have held down manufacturing. The law of the land itself supports imports over home manufacturing. Manufacturing needs the support of various electronic components but ironically duty is levied on the import of components as against there being no duty on import of finished products. Testing of wireless equipment is another problem. Spectrum is needed to test a wireless equipment of which there is again scarce availability. “Testing of equipment is one of the biggest challenge that we are facing. We need to test equipment for months before commercial launch. However, Indian authorities allocate testing spectrum for a maximum for 30-day-period, which is not enough. Besides, the entire process of getting spectrum is painful and lengthy,” says a senior official of a telecom equipment manufacturing firm, pleading anonymity. His company test its equipment in a foreign location.

Numerous challenges lie ahead before telecom equipment manufacturing can be pushed from its present abysmal level. The biggest is getting the Department of Telecom’s approval on TRAI’s recommendations in its present form. Also, other than rolling out incentives and tax waivers, the government has to make the entire process of setting up manufacturing units hassle-free. At present one has to take several NOCs to set up an unit, unlike in the East-Asian countries where it is a single window operation and takes a maximum of one week to fifteen days. If the existing roadblocks are not removed then making India a manufacturing hub will forever remain a distant dream.


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