Maruti introduces performance pay
New Delhi: With increasing competition forcing companies to be efficient and cost-effective, leading automobile manufacturer, Maruti Udyog, has implemented a significant change in the way its employees will be remunerated.

After several months of discussions with the company’s senior management and directors, the company has decided that henceforth, pay packets of all executives and managers will be based entirely on performance.

While the company had already introduced a performance-based component of 30 per cent earlier on, this time round, it has decided that all increments in the employee’s base salary and perquisites will be based on the executive’s performance.

The new move is likely to affect over 1,000 executives, middle and senior managers.

The company has taken care to ensure that this decision had been discussed extensively within the organisation and all feedback from the employees has been factored into the new system. For the implementation of the new system the company has also developed a new performance measurement and development method along with noted consultant M B Athreya. The new performance appraisal system has been communicated to all employees through a series of workshops conducted by the consultant.

The new performance measurement system involves an interactive process of goal setting, review and counselling by managers throughout the year and will also incorporate qualitative aspects along with the quantitative targets.
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Zee digital pay channel to go on air from June 1
New Delhi: With the company claiming that nearly 50 per cent of their base of cable operators agreeing to their new digital channel, Zee Network is aggressively foraying into the pay channel mode.

This follows the footsteps of rivals like Star, Turner channels and Discovery.

Despite the hike in rates that this new mode is likely to bring about, Zee claims that most of its cable operators have agreed to move on to the new method and the company now plans to introduce its pay-channel digital bouquet of services from June 1. The channel is planning to charge a rate of Rs. 30 for a bouquet of 15 Zee- channels.
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Delayed payments forces Bechtel to consider pull out
Mumbai: US-based engineering and construction giant, Bechtel, which is also a minority shareholder in the Dabhol Power Company, is said to be considering a pull out from the project and calling all its civil works at the power company’s site to a halt. This follows payment defaults by DPC.

DPC is said to be going through a severe cash crunch with lenders stopping all loan disbursements and the Maharashtra government not releasing any payments towards the dues from its state electricity board, the MSEB.

While senior officials of Bechtel rule out immediate cessation of activities and pull-out, they do not rule out such a possibility in the near future.
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Hyundai hikes Santro price
Bangalore: Despite a reduction in the excise rates for automobiles, Hyundai Motors, which had initially held in abeyance a price hike, announced a price hike in its popular Zipdrive model by Rs. 7,000.

The company declared that it was merely carrying out a price correction in certain select southern and western markets for its hot-seller, Euro II model.

The current price hike does not impact the company’s Accent or Euro I models. Further, there will be no changes in the price for the Delhi market, which is by far the largest market for Hyundai.
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Max India in divestment mode
Hyderabad: With a view to focusing on its newly formed life insurance business, Max India has announced plans to exit from some of its business areas.

The company also plans to pump in a further Rs. 350 crore into its joint venture, Max New York Life Insurance Company.

The company, however, declined to give details of which areas it was exiting. Max India has business interests in healthcare, information technology, bulk pharmaceuticals, telecom services, electronic component distribution, chemicals, and speciality products.
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Tata Chem to exit detergent business
Mumbai: With the sale of its Pithampur-based detergents unit to Jyothi Laboratories, Tata Group company, Tata Chemicals will finally exit the detergents segment totally. The detergents business contributed a mere Rs. 20 crore to the total turnover.

The deal with Jyothi is however subject to the approval of the board of Tata Chemicals, which is due to meet on 1 June 2001.

The company had stopped production at its Pithampur unit, which has a capacity of 8,000 tons per annum, since October 2000.

As part of its ongoing restructuring exercise, Tata Chemicals has also decided to exit the cement business, as it does not form part of its core business. Talks are said to be on with Gujarat Ambuja for this divestment.

The company will also start looking for growth opportunities in terms of launching new products, cost-cutting and optimisation of the Mithapur production facility. The company is also understood to be taking a second look at the caustic soda business.
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Yamaha in exclusive tie-up with Ashok Leyland Finance
Kolkata: The Japanese joint venture two –wheeler manufacturer, Yamaha Motors Escorts, is said to be shortly announcing an exclusive tie-up with finance company, Ashok Leyland Finance to offer retail finance to its customers.

It is expected that the finance company will tailor specific schemes for Yamaha in a fortnight. The finance schemes, exclusively for Yamaha, will offer a lower rate of interest and lower down payment to customers compared with the existing ones.
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Tata Power bids for 10 projects abroad
Mumbai: India’s largest private sector power company, Tata Power is making serious attempts to enter the global arena. As part of its new long-term strategy the company is understood to have bid for some ten greenfield power projects overseas including some in Bangladesh, the Middle East and Africa.

The company has also branched out to the transmission infrastructure business with the acquisition of the transmission towers division of Tata International, which is currently executing orders in Thailand, Nepal and Bangladesh.

According to the company’s managing director, Tata Power has already been pre-qualified for five of the 10 projects and is awaiting the result for five more.

In the transmission business, the company is likely to face stiff competition from RPG Transmission and KEC International, the two RPG group companies, which are the leaders in the sector.

Tata Power has also entered into a joint venture with Total of France and GAIL for a LNG terminal and power plant with a total proposed investment of Rs 2,600 crore in the first phase.
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Rallis subsidiaries to be merged into parent
Mumbai: Tata group company, Rallis India, has decided to merge five of its subsidiaries into itself in a move aimed at bringing all agri-related activities under one roof.

The subsidiaries are Ralchem, Rallis Finance & Investments Co, Rallis Hybrid Seeds, Rallis Farm Management Services and Sankhya Garments.

This merger is part of the restructuring exercise being undertaken under the direction of its new executive director, Rajeev Dubey.

The company recently exited from its fledgling pharmaceuticals business to focus on the core operations of seeds and agrichemicals.
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Sun Pharma’s Caraco unit gets FDA approval
Mumbai: US-based Caraco Pharmaceuticals, in which domestic pharma company Sun Pharmaceuticals acquired a 48 per cent stake recently, has obtained the US FDA approval for its facilities.

The US drug regulator has also permitted the company to file abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) with USFDA.

The Caraco facility had earlier been cited by the FDA authorities for certain cGMP deficiencies mainly for record keeping, testing standards, staff training and quality systems. In response to the FDA citation, the company scaled back manufacturing and new drug development to focus on FDA cGMP.

With substantial changes initiated at the facility, and the addition of professionals to quality control and quality assurance, the facility has managed to get the FDA approval. The appvoal will allow Caraco to resume full scale manufacturing and drug research and to receive FDA approvals for new drugs.
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