Economic Survey 2009-10
Economy posted a remarkable recovery expected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2009-10 against 6.7 per cent in 2008-09. Survey hopes the Indian GDP can be expected to grow around 8.5+/- 0.25 per cent, with a full recovery, breaching the 9 per cent mark in 2011-12. Manufacturing growth more than doubled to 8.9 per cent in 2009-10 from 3.2 per cent in 2008-09. Survey recognizes food inflation as major concern. Per capita income increased to 5.3 per cent in 2009-10 from 3.7 per cent in 2008-09. Gross Fiscal deficit stands at 6.5 per cent of GDP. Liquidity condition remained comfortable during 2009-10. Bank credit grows by 13.9 per cent on year-on-year basis. Non-food bank credit recorded an increase of 8.7 per cent on financial year basis till January 15, 2010 as per the latest available data. Agricultural credit disbursal exceeds target. At sectoral level, there has been a rebound in the growth rate of investment in the agricultural sector, which grew at 16.5 per cent and 26.0 per cent in 2007-08 and 2008-09 respectively against 1.4 per cent recorded in 2006-07. Investment Deposit Ratio increases to 32.52 per cent. Balance of Payment situation improves due to surge in capital flows and rise in foreign exchange reserves, which have been accompanied by rupee appreciation. Net capital flows to India at US$ 29.6 billion in April-September 2009 remained higher as compared to US$ 12.0 billion in April-September 2008. During fiscal 2009-10, foreign exchange reserves increased by US$ 31.5 billion from US$ 252.0 billion in end March 2009 to US$ 283.5 billion in end December 2009. Recommendations of the Thirteen Finance Commission needs to be taken on board in shaping the fiscal policy for 2010-11 and in the medium term. Momentum in telecommunication sector continues with monthly additions exceeding 17.6 million connections. Share of central government expenditure on social services including rural development, in total expenditure, plan and non-plan gone up to 19.46 per cent in 2009-10 which was only 10.46 per cent in 2003-04. |
MUMBAI, September 10, 2009: Pipavav Shipyard will enter the capital market with its IPO of 85,450,225 Equity Shares of Rs 10 each, with a price band of Rs 55-60, on September 16, 2009.
The IPO closes on September 18, 2009.
Of the 85,450,225 Equity Shares, up to 600,000 Equity Shares have been earmarked for employees. The total issue, including the Employee Reservation Portion, will constitute 12.83 % of the post-issue equity share capital of the company. The net issue, i.e., the issue less the Employee Reservation Portion, will constitute 12.74% of the post-issue equity share capital of the company.
JM Financial Consultants Private Limited, Citigroup Global Markets India Private Limited, Enam Securities Private Limited and SBI Capital Markets Limited, are the book running lead managers and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited and Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Private Limited are the co-book running lead managers.
The issue is on a 100% book building process. The company plans to use the proceeds of the issue for the construction of facilities for shipbuilding, ship repair and the Offshore Business, margin for working capital and general corporate purposes.
Pipavav Shipyard will have India’s largest dockyard (upon completion and based on information available on the shipyards’ websites as to their actual capacity and their capacity under construction and assuming no further increases in such capacity).
The company has commenced construction of four vessels, the first of which is expected to be delivered in April 2010, with subsequent deliveries expected to occur at intervals ranging from one to three months thereafter, said Mr Nikhil Gandhi, Chairman, Pipavav Shipyard.
Pipavav Shipyard currently has 10 firm order agreements for Panamax size vessels, 8 firm order agreements for Panamax size vessels subject to renegotiation, 4 firm order agreements for Panamax size vessels subject to arbitration and a notification of award of contract for 12 OSVs from ONGC. It has also submitted bids for seven naval vessels – five naval offshore patrol vessels and two cadet training ships.
The Pipavav Shipyard is located on the west coast of India adjacent to major sea lanes between the Persian Gulf and Asia. Upon completion of construction, the Pipavav Shipyard will be capable of ship construction and repairs for a range of vessels of different sizes and types, including naval vessels and coast guard vessels, as well as the fabrication and construction of products such as offshore platforms, rigs, jackets and vessels (but excluding sub-sea pipelines) for oil and gas companies.
The dry dock, measuring 662 meters in length and 65 meters in width, is capable of accommodating ships of up to 400,000 DWT and/or multiple combinations of smaller vessels including vessels catering to offshore activities such as offshore supply vessels (OSV), anchor handling tug supply vessels and multi-purpose support vessels. Installation of two Goliath cranes, each having a lifting capacity of up to 600 tonnes, is also in progress.
The Pipavav Shipyard was originally promoted by SKIL Infrastructure Limited and Grevek Investments and Finance Private Limited. These original promoters have been joined by Punj Lloyd Limited through its acquisition of 129,361,538 Equity Shares of the Company, which represents approximately a 22.29% pre-Issue shareholding in the company. SKIL has a track record of promoting infrastructure projects in India, and is experienced in owner-managed construction of infrastructure projects including the Pipavav Port, which received its first vessel in 1996, the Pipavav Railway and the Pipavav Link Road. Punj Lloyd is an engineering and offshore construction company in India providing integrated design, engineering, procurement, construction and project management services for energy and infrastructure projects.
Pipavav Shipyard is led by a team of qualified and experienced managers, both from India and abroad, who are focused on different aspects of shipbuilding. The company has also executed cooperation agreements with various companies that have substantial experience in the shipbuilding business.
For instance, it has entered into agreements with KOMAC, a Korean ship design consulting firm, to provide the Company with ship design, drawings, plans and documents, procurement support for supply of non-Indian sourced shipbuilding materials, shipboard machineries and equipments, production management services related to the start-up and initial operation of the Pipavav Shipyard, and technical support services related to the construction of the Panamax bulk carriers.
It has also entered into agreements with PILS Co. Limited of South Korea, a procurement and logistics firm, to assist it with the procurement of certain component parts for production, and has also executed a technical assistance agreement with SembCorp, a company which operates shipyards and offshore construction and fabrication facilities in Singapore.
Apart from focusing attention on the serial construction of large vessels built to standard specifications and widely used by ship owners, such as the Panamax bulk carriers, Pipavav Shipyard also intends to capitalize on expected growth in offshore oil and gas exploration and production activities by providing offshore fabrication facilities at the Pipavav Shipyard.
As a co-promoter, Punj Lloyd has agreed to conduct all of its offshore business (excluding the construction and fabrication of sub-sea pipelines) in India through the company and is expected to provide the company with access to opportunities in the Offshore Business industry.
Pipavav Shipyard also intends to focus on building ships for the military and the government, initially focusing on vessels for the Indian navy and coast guard. In addition, Pipavav Shipyard intends to utilize its shipbuilding facilities to repair a wide range of vessels, including VLCCs and OSVs, as well as naval, coast guard and other specialty vessels such as LNG carriers.
The Pipavav Shipyard is located adjacent to the Pipavav Port, a modern seaport. The Pipavav Port has connecting rail and road links, including a 273 km railway completed in 2003 and a link road completed in 2001.
The company’s subsidiary, E Complex, is involved in the development of a sector-specific Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Pipavav Shipyard Limited has established a unit in the SEZ developed by E Complex.
“Pipavav Shipyard Limited is proposing, subject to market conditions and other considerations, a public issue of its equity shares and has filed a red herring prospectus (“RHP”) with the Registrar of Companies, Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Ahmedabad. The RHP is available on the website of SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in and on the websites of the book running lead managers at www.jmfinancial.com, www.citibank.co.in, www.enam.com and www.sbicaps.com, and the co-book running lead managers at www.kotak.com and www.motilaloswal.com. Any potential investor should note that investment in equity shares involves a high degree of risk. For details, potential investors should refer to the RHP that has been filed with the Registrar of Companies including the section titled “Risk Factors”.
This announcement has been prepared for publication in India and may not be released in the United States. This announcement is not an offer for sale or solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. The securities of Pipavav Shipyard Limited have not been registered under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the Securities Act.
by Ashok Handoo*
Is the Indian economy showing early signs of revival or a turnaround? It may be too early to say yes, but the figures thrown up in recent days certainly point to that. And that should be good news for the managers of the Indian economy. Despite that there is no room for complacency as the challenges ahead are indeed, enormous.
Let us first talk of the turnaround indicators. The official data shows that the cement sector has grown 9.97 percent in December 2008 as compared to November and the year on year increase is 11%. Steel, which declined from September onwards last year, has shown a recovery in December last and January this year. It has now touched 22.86 million metric tones, a figure it achieved in May 2008 when the sectoral growth rate was 4.1%. This may not be quite impressive but the very fact that the sector is growing is a matter of some satisfaction. Passenger vehicles grew at 32% in January 2009 compared to December 2008. Commercial vehicles grew at 23%. These are all encouraging signs.
Job losses are an area of immense concern to all of us. Labour Minister Oscar Fernades informed Parliament recently that half a million jobs had been lost in India due to the economic slowdown. That certainly is a cause of concern. But there is a silver lining too. A recent survey conducted by the HR consultancy firm Hewitt says that less than 13% companies in India were considering retrenchment while 60 % are still hiring. India is at the lowest of the ladder of layoffs, with the US topping the list at 55 %. It is followed by China at 30.6%. Japan, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia also are higher up in the ladder.
On the other hand, the survey shows that India is at the top of the ladder with 8.2% in year on year projected salary hike in Asia- Pacific. Even the US and Japan are expected to have a salary hike of only 3.2 % and 2.3 % this financial year. The projected salary hike is indeed far less than 13.3 % India witnessed in 2008 but in these hard days the picture is not all that gloomy. Hewitt says the survey was conducted in December and January for 480 Indian companies.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has already urged the Indian Industry not to cut down on jobs and salary cuts could instead be effected to tide over the present turmoil.
By all accounts therefore, the pro-active fiscal and monetary measures taken by the Government and the Reserve Bank of India seem to be showing results. But there is a long, long way to go.
Clearly, the key to deal with the present economic crisis is to increase demand domestically, as we have no control on the demand in other countries which are facing a far worse situation than we do. This is precisely why Indian exports have been suffering a big blow as the US, UK the European countries and Japan, which account for more than half of India’s exports, are in the grip of a recession. The downside is that we may have to wait longer than expected in the export sector until these economies revive.
That also explains why the Government is focusing on stimulating domestic demand by ensuring flow of credit to trade, industry, investment in Infrastructure, Housing and Real Estate. Flagship programmes like NREGS and Bharat Nirman too are being allocated adequate resources. But as Shri Pranab Mukherjee pointed out, this is a global crisis and “Global crisis requires a global response and India is playing its own role in fashioning it.”
The Government, on its part, has been injecting huge amounts into the system through stimulus packages and duty cuts. The 3rd package announced by the Finance Minister in Parliament means pumping another 29,000 crore into the system by way of duty cuts in excise and customs as well as service tax. He also announced that the 4% cut in central excise duties made in December 2008, would continue for the next fiscal as well. In the interim Budget also, Shri Mukherjee projected higher spending in the next fiscal year.
The RBI too has reduced the CRR, the portion of deposits banks are required to keep with the RBI, from 9 percent to 5% during the last 4 months. The Repo Rate, at which RBI lends cash to banks, too has been cut 4 times to 5.5%. The reverse repo rate has also been brought down from 6 to 4 percent.
The question now is whether these rates can be further reduced to put more liquidity in the system. The RBI Governor D. Subbarao says there certainly is room for rate cuts. It is now considering whether the rates should be cut, when and by how much.
Fortunately, the situation on the Inflation front is encouraging. The latest figures show that it has dipped to below 4%, 3.92% to be precise, and is heading towards a further fall in the days ahead. It is estimated to touch the low of 2% by the end of current financial year and continue to fall further, thereafter. So, there is no price pressure on the government to work against pumping more money into the system. Despite this one has to take note of Shri Pranab Mukherjee’s words of caution while presenting the interim Budget. “We have weathered the crisis (from inflation) but there is no room for complacency.” The fiscal deficit which was initially estimated to be around 2.5 percent of the GDP is now likely to be in the range of 6% and could thus be a record high in seven years. Higher deficit has also increased government’s borrowing target from Rs. 2.61 trillion to Rs. 3.06 trillion.
The effect of the global recession on India has been “much sharper” than expected. It therefore calls for more measures to stem the tide of low growth and layoffs. The figures reveled by the Central Statistical Organization say that the Indian economy will grow by 7.1% in the current financial year against 9 percent in the three previous years. The Deputy Chief of the Planning Commission Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia believes that it would continue to grow at 7 percent in the next fiscal as well despite the impact of the global financial crisis. Some economists however feel that it may come down to 6 percent.
On balance, the economic situation does seem to be looking up. Things are better than what it was 2 months ago. As Shri Ahluwalia puts it “banks are now willing to lend to good companies with a strong financial position. What is now needed is to get credit flowing to the lot of companies in the middle.” The risk perception in banks, which is very high at this point of time, must go. That may, however take some time. Boosting of demand and investment continue to remain the mantra to deal with the current economic crisis.(PIB Feature)
(Disclaimer : The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of PIB)
by Sudip Bandyopadhyay*
Financial crisis have, by and large, exhibited a repetitive pattern, demonstrating the inability, or unwillingness, of financial market participants to learn.
Charles Mackay, in his book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of the Crowds, says that while episodes of panic and disasters have their own distinctive features, they exhibit a common feature – that they are all preceded by a period of apparent prosperity when it is possible to rapidly acquire fortunes ‘otherwise than by the road of plodding”. In their study of 18 financial crises in the US, economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard Business School found that there were ‘stunning qualitative and quantitative parallels across a number of standard financial crisis indicators’. Ahead of each big financial shock, house prices rose rapidly, as did equity prices; current account deficits ballooned; and capital inflows accelerated.
Financial crises, either global or domestic, transform ‘something close to universal trust into something akin to universal suspicion’ as Galbraith remarked in his book The Great Depression. Under these conditions, it becomes difficult for regulators and legislators to make the wisest decisions or take the best measures. Regulations originating in a crisis tend to be extreme and such measures often lead to expensive regulation. The Sarbanes Oxley Act is one such example. The question is: if the financial crisis could not be detected despite the expensive disclosures and risk management requirements of this act and NYSE rules, are such rules serving the purpose? The recent banning of short sales in the US, Europe and Australia is another example. Banning of short sales is an extreme measure which has not worked in any market. It does little to arrest the decline in prices; on the contrary, when the ban is removed, a flood of pent up sales push the market down further. This was tried in India too on a couple of occasions, and with little effect. We ought to refrain from taking any quick-fix regulatory measure – either as a precautionary or prophylactic step or for lifting the market sentiment. Market sentiments cannot be talked up or down and when fear grips the market it would be futile to try and impact the prices by comforting statements for example, the famous Greenspan speak of ‘irrational exuberance’ had affected markets only for half a day. Markets are known to respond to the casual market-reviving measures only casually, as they did to the recent SEBI Participatory Note-related policy changes. What works are measures that ensure that liquidity never dries up. That is the responsibility of the central banker.
*CEO & Director, Reliance Money
• BSLI to offer micro Insurance solutions to over 100,000 people
• Part of a DFID funded Asian project
• To be implemented in UP, Bihar & MP
MUMBAI: In a major development that will see Birla Sun Life Insurance making inroads into micro insurance, the company has been selected to partner a prestigious international development project for promoting a sustainable livelihood program in three states of India – Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
This 4.6 million pound development project has been initiated by the UK-based Research Into Use (RIU) project and funded by Department for International Development (DFID) and spans across the next three years.
GY Associates Ltd, UK is the lead partner for this project with RIU. For the project, G Y Associates has a contractual agreement with Centre for Promoting Sustainable Livelihood (CPSL), a Patna based NGO to form 10,000 Self Help Groups (SHGs) and ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) to provide technical support to the project. CPSL has identified BSLI as a coalition partner to provide micro insurance to the SHG members.
The project will directly benefit 2,000 villages and around 10,000 Self Help Groups and over 100,000 group members. It will cover a total of 500,000 direct beneficiaries in the rural areas.
“We are extremely delighted at this unique opportunity to partner a prestigious international project and to work at the grass root level. With this New Year gift, we are positioned to begin a new era in our service. As a partner, BSLI will create awareness of the need of life insurance among the Self Help Group Members formed under the project and thus generate demand for Micro Insurance Products and make the insurance plan accessible and affordable to that segment. Our objective is to provide social and financial security to the SHG members,” said Ajay Srinivasan Chief Executive, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group.
Indian Railways have drawn up plans towards the upgradation of rail infrastructure and procurement of new assets of rolling stock during the current financial year with an estimated expenditure of Rs. 30,000 Crore to shore up the infrastructural development and upkeep. The move will go a long way in boosting the Indian Economy. Some of the projects under execution are as follows:
· Indian Railways have set a target of through rail renewal over 2941kms which will require 3,39,288 MT of rail steel.
· Through sleeper renewal over 2382kms which will require 38.59 lakhs pre-stressed concrete sleepers (approx.).
· A target of renewal of 44.5 lakhs of PSC sleepers has been fixed for open line works.
This will require 88200 MT of steel.
· In addition, 5000 MT of steel is likely to be used towards the manufacture of steel channel sleepers during the current financial year.
· During 2008-09, 5294 MT of steel bridge girders have already been produced up to the month of October 2008, and the total production in the financial year is likely to exceed that of 2007-08 i.e. 8615 MT of steel bridge girders.
· It has been decided by Indian Railways to manufacture 3000 coaches this year which is an increase of 12.5 % over the previous year.
· It is planned to acquire 2873 EMUs, 1091 MEMUs, 216 Kolkatta Metro Coaches and 3 – phase propulsion system for 200 motor coaches with an expected outlay of about 9200 Crore rupees.
· Production of diesel locomotives and high horse power EMD Design Locomotives would be enhanced at the Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi. DLW has been able to produce 152 locomotives during the first seven months of the current fiscal as against 137 in the corresponding last year i.e. an increase of 10.9%.
· The production of wheels & axles is being increased by 60% in comparison to the last year which will also help in saving foreign exchange.
· Work is in progress for the development of 300 railway stations into model stations. Besides, Indian Railways have envisaged development of 23 world class stations of which four are being taken up in first stage.
· Indian Railways are setting up a 1000 MW thermal power plant through a joint venture with NTPC at Nabi Nagar, Bihar with a total cost of Rs. 5352 Crore.
· Indian Railways are also seeking an allocation of a coal block of 300 MT which is proposed to be utilised for setting up a 2000 MW power plant.
· About Rs.300 Crore will be spent during the next three months for commissioning modern electronic signalling systems at about 400 stations, intermediate block signalling in about 200 block sections and 400 route kms of automatic block signalling.
· Rs.1800 Crore will be spent during the next year (2009-10) for the modernisation/ upgradation of signalling systems such as Electronic Interlocking, Centralised Panel Operation(500 stations), on board train protection/ train collision avoidance systems (1800 route kms), automatic signalling (500 route kms) and intermediate block signalling system (200 block sections).
· Railway electrification target for the XIth Plan has been enhanced to 3500 Kms. Similarly, the electrification target for the current year has been increased from 700 Kms to 1000 Kms.
· Next year, electrification is likely to be undertaken over 1200 Kms with Rs. 1000 crore, between Ghaziabad-Moradabad, Shoranur-Mangalore and Gondia – Ballarshah etc.
· The high density network of Indian Railways, including DC-AC conversion in Mumbai, is being strengthened for carrying heavier trains and the requirement of fund for these works in 2009-10 is Rs.500 crore.
· Acquisition of electric locomotives has been enhanced from to 220 in 2008-09 at a cost of about Rs.1740 crore. Process is underway for acquiring 200 electric locomotives from BHEL at an approximate cost of Rs. 5.5 crore each.
· A factory is to be set up at Madhepura for manufacturing 100 electric locomotives per year through JV route. Bid process is presently underway.
· Indian Railways is seeking an outlay of Rs.2800 crore towards undertaking telecommunication works till 2011-12.
· These telecommunication works include replacement of more than 10,000 route Kms. of overhead alignment in the optical fibre communication and Quad Cable network, provision of a very high capacity DWDM network, modernise the switching and networking structure and Mobile Train Radio Communication.
PUNE (IndiaPRwire.com):Nitman Software today announced the launch of Talentscout, a new product for recruitment firms that helps them boost revenues, increase recruiter productivity and create their own, easily searchable resume database. Talentscout provides a single platform that helps owners, managers and recruiters work together effectively as a team.
“When we launched Talentpool, arecruitment software for corporates about an year back, we got a lot of requests from recruitment firms to modify it to suit their needs”, said Nitin Shimpi, CEO of Nitman Software, “but in line with our philosophy of creating specific products to solve specific business problems, we decided to build a separate product from ground up.
“Talentscout was designed with inputs from many recruitment firms, small and big. As a result,not only does it give firm managements a bird’s eye view of the recruitment progress, but also reduces workload of the recruiters by providing them productivity tools and taking care of mundane tasks.Some main features of Talentscout are:
- Common resume database: Talentscout frees recruiters from unwieldy excel spreadsheets and resumes distributed across multiple file folders.Its search engine helps recruiters find candidates on the basis of skills, location, education, years of experience and many other criteria.
- Automated data capture: With Talentscout’s resume parser, new candidates can be imported into the database quickly. Resumes can be imported singly or in bulk from hard disks, email folders or via email.
- Candidate and recruitment funnel tracking: Talentscout can be configured so that companies continue to follow their time tested processes for candidate submission to customers, tracking of candidate progress, placement and billing.
- Communication: Talentscout maintains the entire interaction history for candidates and customers -including phone logs, sms’s and emails.
Talentscout is available in two flavours – as a licensed product that is installed on a server at the customer end, and as a SaaS (software as a service) that is hosted and maintained on central servers at Nitman and may be accessed by customers via internet. Every installation of Talentscout comes with a no questions asked 30 day money back guarantee.
Reliance is offering calls at 50 paise a minute in a prepaid package. Virgin has already offered 10 paise for incoming calls. This is just an indication of the windfall gains that a mobile subscriber can expect in the days to come.
The race among mobile telecommunication service providers translates in to a growing opportunity estimated at more than 700 million by 2012 from the current 300 million, at a CAGR of 21%, says strategic research company IndusView that advises multinational companies on business opportunities emanating from India’s fast growing economy.
IndusView says in an email response that “Communication is a necessity.” “The related costs of owning a handset and usage charges (tariffs) in India are among the lowest in the world. To add to that, the service providers are offering innovative tariff packages even while touching the lowest band and are willing to further lower the packages to bring new subscribers in to their fold,” says Mr. Bundeep Singh Rangar, Chairman of IndusView Advisors Ltd.
Apart from the vanilla voice and text services that the mobile services are widely associated with, the advent of next generation platforms like 3G and progressively 4G, will exponentially accelerate the possibilities of innovative applications that can be bundled on to the networks and delivered at the subscribers’ finger tips in the hi-tech mobile handsets, Mr Rangar says.
The subscriber growth targets and evolving technology landscape calls for corresponding high capital investments which is pegged at about $73 billion over the next five years. And, a major chunk of the investment is expected to be realized through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), particularly in the area of mobile communication.
The recent string of investments in Indian telecom companies, including, Tata Teleservices Ltd by NTT DoCoMo, Inc; Unitech Telecom, the telecom arm of India’s second largest real estate developer Unitech Ltd by Norwegian telecom firm Telenor ASA, world’s seventh largest telecom service provider at $1.36 billion; and Swan Telecom, a start-up GSM telecom service company of a Mumbai-based real estate developer Dynamix Balwas Group by Dubai-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) at $900 million; or, South Africa’s largest telecom company MTN Group’s attempts to enter the Indian market are examples of overseas companies that have exhibited confidence in the potential of the Indian market.
Stating that the country’s tele-density has jumped to about 30% now from less than 1% in the 80s, Mr Rangar points out that there is still a large population that needs to be offered the benefits of the basic communication services – that is how the target of achieving a tele-density of about 45% is set for the next five years by the government of India. The service providers – both the state owned and the private sector – would be aiming to surpass that target and garner the maximum possible chunk of that potential subscriber base.
PANJIM, Goa:The 39th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-08) started today in star studded Kala Academy at Goa in a colourful function with the legendary bollywood Actress Rekha ighting the ceremonial lamp.
The inaugural lamp was lit with the assistance of Telugu Actress of Goan origin Illina D.Cruz. Amrita Rao, an upcoming Actress hosted the Inaugural Function as the Master of Ceremony. The luminaries present were, inter alia, the Speaker of the Assembly, Shri Pratap Singh Rane, Panjim Mayor Tony Rodrigues bollywood doyens Randhir Kapur, Sachin, Tabu and Tisca Chopra.
The Indian film industry is believed to be the largest in the world – producing over a thousand films a year in different languages. At a time when every sector of our economy is being influenced and in most cases taking the benefits of the currents of globalization, our film industry can utilize this opportunity too, the Minister added. He assured the film fraternity of all possible support from the Government that would lead to promotion of good cinema.
The Indian programming at IFFI – 2008 would be under seven different segments with screening of 83 films. Besides the section Indian Panorama wherein 26 Feature and 21 Non Feature films will be screened. The Indian programming would have Retrospective of Legendary Director Bimal Roy and L.V. Prasad. Udayer Pathe, Devdas, Bandini, Gautama the Buddha, Remembering of Bimal Roy and Do Bigha Zamin will be screened in Retrospective on centenary of Bimal Roy. Other Retrospective on legendary Director and Producer L. V. Prasad on his birth centenary will have the screening of Dadi Maa and Ek Duje ke Liye.
Under the Lifetime Classics, Mughle- A – Azam of Dilip Kumar, Hum Aapke Hai Kaun & Dil Ek Mandir of eminent singer Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar, Anbe Vaa and Kittur Channamma of eminent Kannada Actress B. Saroja Devi and Kabuliwala of Tapan Sinha will be screened. G. P. Sippy, B. R. Chopra, F. C. Mehra, Jayshree Gadkar, Raghuvaran, Mahendra Kapoor, Jeeva, Sridhar, Vijay Tendulkar and Nabendu Ghosh will be paid tribute under Homage section.
The Jury members of Competition Section, Peter Chan, Mr. Marco Mueller, Ms. Niki Karimi, Mr. Lav Diaz and Ms. Tabassum Hashmi were felicitated during the Inaugural Function. Chinese film ‘Warlords’ was screened as the opening film. The Director of the opening film Mr. Peter Chan and the crew of the film were introduced to the audience before the screening of the film.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today expressed the confidence that India will survive the current global financial crisis and emerge stronger “if we have the imagination, sense of unity and the will to work together as a united nation”.
Addressing the HT Summit 2008 in New Delhi, Dr Singh noted that the global economy is today, going through choppy waters. “Our century I sincerely believe will be shaped by how we respond to the global economic crisis today. If nations look only inwards and imagine that they can solve their problems on their own, they will fail and fall. The world has become more integrated and inter-dependent. In both good and bad, in prosperity and peril, in opportunity and crisis we must recognise the new inter-dependencies of nations and no nation is an island into itself,” he said.
Competitive politics must not be allowed to divide our people on the basis of religion, caste or region. At home and globally we seek an inclusive growth process.
He recalled that at the recent G-20 Summit last week he has urged world leaders to recognise these inter-dependencies and our stake in our collective future. We need a global safety net so that the poor of the world do not pay a price for the profligacy of the rich, and the delinquency of a few.
He said: “Global problems require global solutions. This is the most important lesson of the past century for the present century. But global institutions of governance must be made more inclusive and more representative. The voice of the developing world must be heard in the high councils of global decision-making.”