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Copper in Search of Ashlands Author(s): S. R. Tikekar Reviewed work(s): Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Jan.

20, 1968), pp. 185-186 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4358146 . Accessed: 25/01/2013 17:33
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ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY duction, sales and despatches of HMT have gone up. It now produces a range of over 17 families of standard machine tools and a steadily widening range of special purpose machine tools. That the range of diversification is still limited is, however, clearly indicated by the continuing large volume of imports. The impact of the recession has been felt not by sales but by profits. Profitability in 1966-67 has been halved as compared with 1964-65, though it is fractionally higher than in 1965-66. The proportion of cost of sales to salles has increased steadily and the turnover of capital has been declining. Stock of finished goods and work-in-progress have also increased as a proportion of sales. At the beginning of the Third Plati, HMT had a scheme to set up one new machine tool plant every year. Starting with only one plant at Bangalore during the period 1953 to 1960, it went on to add the second Bangalore plant in 1961, Pinjore in 1963, Kalamassery in 1964 and Hyderabad in 1966. It also set up a watch factory at Bangalore in 1962. The recession has dampened this straight line expansion; plans for diupli. cating Pinjore and Kalamassery lhave been deferred. Instead, the accent now is on diversification. Foundries are expected to be commissioned in Kalamassery and Hyderabad shortly. The watch factory is being expanded and a new company is being form'ed in collaboration with Verson of US for the manufacture of medium and heavy presses for automoble and other engineering industries. Another company with the participation of Albert of West Germany will mamnfacturecylinder letterpresses and offset presses for single and multi-colour printing. This will represent the country's first venture in large scale manufacture of printing machinery, which has made very little progress so far. in the corresponding period of the previous year. Thrice during the year, the company had to lay off abotit 1,000 workers for a total period of 10 weeks. To make its trucks more popular, the company has introduced a new high-powered engine and also intends to make certain changes in sheet metal components. Part of the idle capacity of the plant has been utilised for the manufacture of Fiat cars whose production during 1966-67 rose to 8,661 against 5,739 in the previous year and in the four months ended October last to 3,724 against 2,471 in the same period of the previous year. Car production is expected to rise still fuirther but the price is still fixed at an "unreasonably low" level. PAL hopes that its Fiat 600 may find acceptance in the elusive search for a "small car". It is a four-seater, rearengine car with a maximum speed of 70 miles an hour and fuel consumptioii of 45-50 miles per gallon. Commcnting on its price, chairman Lalchand Hirachand says that a car of this type

January 20, 1968 costs Rs 7,700 to 8,100 in foreign countries and that in India it would cost more owing to the low volume of production and the high cost of imported materials and equipment. Since the price limit for the "small car" (which was originally fixed at Rs 6,000) is Rs 7,000, PAL, has little chance of getting Fiat 600 accepted by Government. PAL's results for 1966-67 are disappointing. No surplus is available for depreciation and development rebate; arrears on these accounts come to Rs 1.67 crores and Rs 89 lakhs, respectively. The 6 per cent dividend declared for 1965-66 was challenged by a member in the Court and the mnatter is sub judice. US AID has informned the company that the divid nd distribution of Rs 45 lakhs would violate the conditions of the loan granted by it and that the company should not pay a dividend in excess of Rs 19 lakhs. For payment of this amount, too, it has first to obtain the written consent of the Indian guarantor bank.

LETTERS TO EDITOR

Copper in Search of Ashlands


WE should be grateful to K V Subrahmanyam for drawing attention to the copper muddlq that the National Mineral Development Corporation has landed itself in ("Copper in Search of Ashlands", November 11). The NMDC's Khetri-Kolihan project which is expected to supply 31,000 tonnes of copper per annum, is likely to end up as a white elephant. The original estimate of capital cost of Rs 24.44 crores has now soared to Rs. 78.52 crores. This is a serious matter and Members of Parliament would do well to look into the affairs of this project closely. Along with the rise in total cost, the foreign exchange compo. nent must also have gone up substantially. The Annual Report for 1965-66 on the Working of Commercial and Industrial Undertakings of the Union Government is, however, silent on the actual amount of foreign exchange required for the project. The foreign exchange component was estimated at Rs 13 crores in the Report for 1964-65, but then the total cost was expected to be only about Rs 38 crores. Production is now scheduled to commence in 1969-70, but the date has been pushed forward every year. The NMDC's credentials for undertaking the project are far from satisfactory, if one is to judge by its performance so far. It has two rich iron ore mines at Bailadila and Kiribluru. Bailadila is being developed on the basis of a contract for supplying 4 million tonnes of ore annually to Japan for 15 years from 1966. Kiriburu also has an assured offtake of 2 million tonnes of ore for 10 years from 1964, again by way of exports to Japan. But, in spite of the assured market, the performance of Bailadila and Kiriburu mines has been dismal. With total capital employed of Rs 9 crores, the
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Dodge into Fiat


REMOVAL of control on the distribution and prices of commercial vehicles is little consolation to Premier Automobiles, which has been finding it increasingly difficult to sell Dodge trucks. Its production in the year to June last dropped to 3,765 trucks from 6,726 in the preceding year and in the subsequent four months to 817 from 1,583

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January 20, 1968 NMDC made a loss of almost Rs 70 lakhs in 1965-66. In the circumstances, one wonders whether a project of the size and technical sophistication of the KhetriKolihan scheme is not beyond the NMDC's capacity to shoulder. Bombay December, 11 S R
I 1KEKAR

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY classical music. In the USA, almost all major cities have the 'good music stations' which relay classical music. Should not AIR use commercials to finance such programmes instead of only to bolster up existing stations and programmes? Bombay December, 15
P MI

CAPITAL VIEW

The Great Conspiracy


Romesh Thapar
IF the Hyderabad session of the Congress party has done anything, it has brought inlto sharp focus the kind of politicking which is likely to dominate our affairs if we continue to tolerate manipulation and opportunism at every level. It is not a pattern for behaviour confined to Congressmen alone. A spate of conferences, held and abouit to be held by so-called Right and Left formations, all seem to be designed to underline the unprincipled approach whatever its verbal rationale. Lohia's leaderless socialists, determined to agitate for the sake of agitating, the corrupt and divided Jan Sangh, too anxious to be the revanchist unifiers of the sub-continent, the fuddled and muddled CPls, lost in the maze of caste, class and power, and the Swatanitras, free-booting as always, are the sorry alternatives to the decadent Congress. No wonder nothing moves. party's shattered position in the country. But there was no such attempt. In this kind of state, it is doubtfui whether the Prime Minister will be able to control the trends which have been let loose and which can only create serious collisions with political opponents. Many pertinent questions are beingi asked in political circles in the Capital. Has the Prime Minister decided that it is no longer possible to forge rational decisions when the government is at the mercy of tiny factions within the party, factions which threaten floorcrossings whenever something tangible is attempted? Have the tactics of her colleagues - particularly Morarji Desai,
Y B Chavan and Jagjivan Ram -- con.-

AIR Commercials

SO now we can hear LIC on AIR's 'Vividh Bharati' programme asking people to take out a life insurance policy and the State Bank asking theni to open accounts with it in company, of course, with the headache pills and cough drops ubiquitous in advertising in all its forms all over the world. And as commercials go, the AIR com. mercials are no more unintelligent than those on Radio Ceylon or on broadcasting services in other countries and its ditties, whether extolling State-owned life insurance or privately-owned throat pastils, are no more jarring or silly than ditties on other commercial services. The unfortunate part is that the Indian public has, as in most products, in radio advertising as well the worst It is ironic that the communist and of both the worlds: it pays a tax and socialist parties should be so disturbed yet gets a shoddy product. In most countries, radio advertising is in lieu by the tough talk at Hyderabad and by the return of the old Congress of radio licence fees; we have both! dadas who had been written off as It is reported that, encouraged by its politically irrelevant. Any intelligent success, the Government proposes to survey of the post-election months extend advertising to other stations of would indicate that the opportunist and AIR. If this is to be done, two changes thoroughly unprincipled anti-Congress mnaybe considered. AIR now does not compacts between the most committed permit sponsored programmes, so that elements of the Right and Left have we are left to the mediocrity of AIR, managed to spark a hawk-like response with the commercials wedged in between in the AICC. This response has been programmes. However, sponsored proslow in developing, but the Hyderabad grammes like that of Cluett and deliberations suggest that those who Peabody (Sanforised) or, in short films, for a more liberal view Burmah Shell's documentaries, can be were fighting of opposition tactics have either been interesting and intelligent. The Governor converted to a policy of conment should consider their introduction silenced frontation. on AIR on a selective basis. Secondly, AIR is weak on relaying public conPresumably, Indira Gandhi has taken certs. The Government should take a note of this new mood and has decided greater interest in this field to improve for the moment to let the Congress the quality of its programmes. party flex its muscles. There would Finally, while 'Vividh Bharati' serves be logic in this approach if the AICC popular music, there is no similar pro- had also hammered out an actiongramme for continuously relaying oriented programme to restore the
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vinced Indira Gandhi that she is not able at the moment to push her views irrespective of the consequences to poiitical stability at the Centre? The recent events in Bengal and the language agitation hold many lessons. Irue, Indira Gandhi has always relied on her capacity to outmanoeuvre her opponents in the party. She has shown great skill iri this exhausting game, but victory has never been hers entirely. Invariably, the opponents have been able to recover lost ground and to hit back. May be, the instruments she uses for the politicking -men who are new to the game and inclined to be over-ambitious - are not up to the task and very often create the openings for counter-attacks. May be, she has also remained rather aloof from necessary involvements within the party and has overvalued the need for national acceptability which cuts across political boundaries. Mlay be, in the process, she has permitted her own image and her commitments to get too diffused - an ever< present risk in the business of consensus politics and much more so in a multi-party battle for power.

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