New Delhi: Prasar Bharati gave the Rs 246-crore telecast rights of the Commonwealth Games to an illegal entity which gave a fake registration number and had no service tax number,raising doubts about the motives of the top brass who overruled objections and speedily paid out 80% of the contract fee even before the Games concluded.
The broadcast deal was bagged by a UK-based company,SIS Live,which came into being in January 2010,four months after the bidding formalities were over,according to the findings of the Income Tax department.
The I-T survey conducted on the broadcasting firm has found that the firm was given the contract despite having no valid service tax number nor having filed any tax returns in previous years a prerequisite for bidding for big ticket contracts.
Prasar Bharatis own member (finance) had raised questions about the antecedents of SIS on September 15 this year.
CVC finds 200cr loot in overlays
Overlay providers allegedly helped the OC inflate bills by at least 30%,by charging two different prices for the same item at different Games venues,the Central Vigilance Commission found in its preliminary probe.Initial estimates put the organized loot at 200 crore or more on a net spend of 665 crore
PRABHAKAR MANI
PGDM 1 SEM
Friday, October 22, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
THIS DIWALI CARMAKER TO SKIP BIG DISCOUNTS
CARMAKERS have cut festival discounts to the lowest levels in at least three years this season,thanks to booming sales that have led to waiting periods of up to five months for popular models.
Maruti Suzuki,Hyundai Motor India and Tata Motors have all drastically cut their discounts to push sales in the third quarter of the financial year,normally considered best period of the year.
At a time when we are trying hard to meet the market demand,discounts dont seem to be an viable option to boost sales, said Mayank Pareek,managing executive officer (marketing & sales),Maruti Suzuki.
Maruti is currently unable to keep pace with customer demand for nine out of its dozen models.
While the discounts would stay,it would be around 20% less over the same period of last year, said Mr Pareek.
Several cars including the Maruti Alto,Wagon R,Hyundai Santro,Tata Indica,Fiat Palio and Ford Fiesta were discounted up to 15-20 % of their price during the festive season until last year.
This year,its a different story.Santro,for instance,had a discount of more than 50,000 during the festival season in 2007,which went down to 40,000 in 2008 and 37,000 in 2009.The discount is expected to be lower this year.
Where is the room for discounting when we are desperately trying all means to meet market demand, Hyundai director sales Arvind Saxena said on the launch of the new i10 hatchback.
Toyota Innova is another case in point.After increasing price by up to 29,000 on its complete range,Toyota is giving a discount of 30,000 on its Innova MUV this year.The same vehicle carried a rebate of 60,000 in 2007,which came down to 52,000 in 2008 and with a new variant being launched in 2009 carried a discount of 35,000 in 2009.
However,there is one exception to the drive to cut discounts.Honda Siel Cars is offering freebies and discounts of up to 55,000 on its Jazz hatchback.The company is also offering free insurance covers for the City,Civic and Accord models this festive season.
Car sales have increased more than 30% in the first six months this fiscal year,changing the market condition completely and forcing long waiting periods on several models including Maruti Swift and Eeeco,Hyundai i20,Volkswagen Polo,Ford Figo,Toyota Fortuner and Tata Nano.
And carmakers are busing ramping up production capacity to keep pace with demand and ensure peeved customers dont turn to rival models.
The rise in demand this year is despite increase in car prices.Vehicle prices are higher due to excise duty and road taxes;interest rates are also higher, said Mahantesh Sabarad,auto analyst,Fortune Financials.
PRABHAKAR MANI
PGDM 1 SEM
Maruti Suzuki,Hyundai Motor India and Tata Motors have all drastically cut their discounts to push sales in the third quarter of the financial year,normally considered best period of the year.
At a time when we are trying hard to meet the market demand,discounts dont seem to be an viable option to boost sales, said Mayank Pareek,managing executive officer (marketing & sales),Maruti Suzuki.
Maruti is currently unable to keep pace with customer demand for nine out of its dozen models.
While the discounts would stay,it would be around 20% less over the same period of last year, said Mr Pareek.
Several cars including the Maruti Alto,Wagon R,Hyundai Santro,Tata Indica,Fiat Palio and Ford Fiesta were discounted up to 15-20 % of their price during the festive season until last year.
This year,its a different story.Santro,for instance,had a discount of more than 50,000 during the festival season in 2007,which went down to 40,000 in 2008 and 37,000 in 2009.The discount is expected to be lower this year.
Where is the room for discounting when we are desperately trying all means to meet market demand, Hyundai director sales Arvind Saxena said on the launch of the new i10 hatchback.
Toyota Innova is another case in point.After increasing price by up to 29,000 on its complete range,Toyota is giving a discount of 30,000 on its Innova MUV this year.The same vehicle carried a rebate of 60,000 in 2007,which came down to 52,000 in 2008 and with a new variant being launched in 2009 carried a discount of 35,000 in 2009.
However,there is one exception to the drive to cut discounts.Honda Siel Cars is offering freebies and discounts of up to 55,000 on its Jazz hatchback.The company is also offering free insurance covers for the City,Civic and Accord models this festive season.
Car sales have increased more than 30% in the first six months this fiscal year,changing the market condition completely and forcing long waiting periods on several models including Maruti Swift and Eeeco,Hyundai i20,Volkswagen Polo,Ford Figo,Toyota Fortuner and Tata Nano.
And carmakers are busing ramping up production capacity to keep pace with demand and ensure peeved customers dont turn to rival models.
The rise in demand this year is despite increase in car prices.Vehicle prices are higher due to excise duty and road taxes;interest rates are also higher, said Mahantesh Sabarad,auto analyst,Fortune Financials.
PRABHAKAR MANI
PGDM 1 SEM
Friday, October 1, 2010
CWG: Delhi children to enjoy extended vacation
New Delhi, Oct 1: While children across India have already missed several days of school in view of the Ayodhya verdict, kids in Delhi will be enjoying an extended Dussehra vacation this year due to the Commonwealth Games.
The CWG 2010 will end on Oct 14. So the early holidays along with the customary eight-day Dussehra vacation add up to 17 days.
The state government decided to shut schools in a bid to ease traffic and to ensure a smooth event. Besides this, the holidays will also enable the children enjoy the mega sporting event.
The schools also planned several activities to build enthusiasm and instill interest in the children about the event.
"We have asked them to collect memorabilia of the event during their vacations, and right before the autumn break set in, we organized a number of activities to instill interest in them.They are after all children of the city that is the host.
"We have asked the older children to go and watch at least one game, and report back to us when they return," said Nandita Shankara, officiating principal of the Summer Fields school told a news agency.
The children have also earned their extra leaves by turning up early to school during the summer as their summer vacations were cut short early this year to compensate for the loss of working days due to the Games
ROHIT KALIA
PGDM 1ST SEM
With the Delhi Games set to begin on Oct 3, several schools in the national capital declared holidays starting from Friday, Oct 1 while the remaining will close on Saturday, Oct 2, which also happens to be Gandhi Jayanti.
The CWG 2010 will end on Oct 14. So the early holidays along with the customary eight-day Dussehra vacation add up to 17 days.
The state government decided to shut schools in a bid to ease traffic and to ensure a smooth event. Besides this, the holidays will also enable the children enjoy the mega sporting event.
The schools also planned several activities to build enthusiasm and instill interest in the children about the event.
"We have asked them to collect memorabilia of the event during their vacations, and right before the autumn break set in, we organized a number of activities to instill interest in them.They are after all children of the city that is the host.
"We have asked the older children to go and watch at least one game, and report back to us when they return," said Nandita Shankara, officiating principal of the Summer Fields school told a news agency.
The children have also earned their extra leaves by turning up early to school during the summer as their summer vacations were cut short early this year to compensate for the loss of working days due to the Games
ROHIT KALIA
PGDM 1ST SEM
Maruti to increase capacity to reduce waiting period
New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki is trying to quickly ramp up production as longer waiting periods for some of its models can impact sales adversely.Huge backlog is an area of concern, Maruti Suzuki said on Thursday.The companys market share has been eroding after new launches by rivals in the small car segment.
Except A-Star,Estilo and M800,all our models are on waiting list.Nearly 20-25 % of our customers have to wait to get their cars, said Mayank Pareek,executive officer for marketing and sales.Marutis Dzire sedan has a waiting period of four to five months,the Swift has about three months,while the Eeco has about five months.Maruti will invest about $1.3 billion by 2013.It hopes to make 1.75 million units annually by that time against the current capacity of around 1.3 million.
Chairman R C Bharghava admitted that Maruti Suzuki could not anticipate that the market would regain momentum at such pace after the lull due to the slowdown in late 2008 and early 2009.In hindsight,we can say that we were conservative.Nobody had expected this type of a boom to happen. The company is also watching the spate of new model launches by rivals.We are not focused fundamentally on retaining market share.We want to meet demand of customers as much as possible.But for that we need production, Bhargava said.While many customers still stayed with the brand despite the waiting lists,some did migrate to other players,he added.Marutis share of the Indian car market at the end of August was 51.8%,he said.This is down from 53.2% in the previous fiscal year and 55.1% in 2008-09.On sales,he said demand is likely to remain strong throughout this year.
Except A-Star,Estilo and M800,all our models are on waiting list.Nearly 20-25 % of our customers have to wait to get their cars, said Mayank Pareek,executive officer for marketing and sales.Marutis Dzire sedan has a waiting period of four to five months,the Swift has about three months,while the Eeco has about five months.Maruti will invest about $1.3 billion by 2013.It hopes to make 1.75 million units annually by that time against the current capacity of around 1.3 million.
Chairman R C Bharghava admitted that Maruti Suzuki could not anticipate that the market would regain momentum at such pace after the lull due to the slowdown in late 2008 and early 2009.In hindsight,we can say that we were conservative.Nobody had expected this type of a boom to happen. The company is also watching the spate of new model launches by rivals.We are not focused fundamentally on retaining market share.We want to meet demand of customers as much as possible.But for that we need production, Bhargava said.While many customers still stayed with the brand despite the waiting lists,some did migrate to other players,he added.Marutis share of the Indian car market at the end of August was 51.8%,he said.This is down from 53.2% in the previous fiscal year and 55.1% in 2008-09.On sales,he said demand is likely to remain strong throughout this year.
PRABHAKAR MANI
PGDM 1 SEM
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