MeraPahad Community Of Uttarakhand Lovers

MUMBAI: Bajaj Auto has begun production of the XCD 125 at its new plant in Pantnagar, Uttarakhand.
The bike is already being manufactured at the company’s Waluj facility in Auranagabad.

The idea of the second plant is to ensure that the targeted numbers of 75,000 units a month are met soon. Indications are that this could well happen in a couple of months.

The XCD is an important growth driver for the company in the executive segment where Hero Honda is the clear leader with its Splendor and Passion models. Bajaj believes its product has all the right ingredients in place, especially price, power and mileage, to be a worthy competitor.

The Pantnagar plant, which was commissioned in April this year, is already home to the 100cc Platina.

It has a cluster of 16 vendors nearby, including big names like Pricol, Endurance, Varroc, Minda Industries etc, which meet over 75% of its needs.

The facility has been planned for a capacity of a million bikes and makes tremendous financial sense to Bajaj Auto because of the generous tax incentives granted by the State.

This has helped Uttarakand to attract other big automakers like Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland and Hero Honda despite the fact that it is not the most ideal location in terms of access from Delhi.

Bajaj is betting big on this state-of-the art plant which boasts of high employee productivity and is tipped to do even better than its model Chakan facility near Pune. Thanks to the fiscal sops, bigger profits are also assured for the XCD.
This does not mean, though, that operations will eventually stop at Waluj.

It is the manufacturing base for the three-wheeler autorickshaw and the company will need the additional capacity to satiate demand for the XCD.

Bajaj recently stopped operations at its Akurdi facility and is in the process of commissioning a new unit in Chakan for its light commercial vehicle project. This, sources say, could also house the $3,000 small car which is being planned jointly with Renault and Nissan in 2010.

Conference on national security in Dehradun
Religion not greater than nation
 

RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan has described the cultural attack as an internal security concern that has to be combated through greater awareness. “There is an urgent need to teach Indian values and culture to the children at home, so that they could face the attack without much problem. No religion is greater than the security of the country. Prevention of infiltration is necessary. There is an urgent need to keep an eye on the activities of the neighbouring countries also,” he said while speaking at a seminar organised by Forum for Integrated National Security in Dehradun on December 22. Besides Shri Sudarshan, Lt. General (retd) Shri D.B. Shekatkar, Shri Ashok Sahu, Shri Bali Desai and Br. (retd.) V.K. Agarwal were also present on the occasion.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Shri B.C. Khanduri asserted that his government was fully aware of the security concerns in the state and was doing its best to ensure adequate security arrangements.

Lt.-General (retd.) D.B. Shekatkar observed that Uttarakhand had its borders along China and Nepal and faced the grave danger of Maoism making inroads here. It was felt that development should be speeded up in remote and difficult to access areas in Uttarakhand before Maoism could make its impact felt. If development did not reach there, Maoism would. Unrest in Nepal could force more migration towards Uttarakhand. People as well governments had to be fully aware of such possibilities and know how to deal with the problem.  (R.S.)

Cumi on integration mode news 
 
29 December 2007 
 

 file it to cabinet

 attach label to it

 bookmark it

 share it

 save note

 add it to tracker

 print it

 informachine tools

   
 my profile 
   
 my cabinet 
   
 my tracker 
   
 my labels 
   
 my bookmarks 
   
 my notes 
   
 RSS feeds 
   
 
Chennai: It is integration time at the Indian abrasives major Carborundum Universal Limited (Cumi) which acquired and set up plants in Russia, India and China.

The last two years saw the Rs526 crore turnover Cumi going on shopping and expansion binge within and without India.

In September this year, the company acquired $54 million turnover Volzhsky Abrasive Works (VAW), Russia. Cumi acquired a 96 per cent stake in VAW for $37 million through its special purpose vehicle Cumi International Limited, Cyprus. An open offer to acquire the balance from other shareholders is on and would close on 23.1.2008. 

In August, Cumi acquired the Rs12 crore revenue industrial ceramics division of IVP Limited at Aurangabad, Maharashtra for around Rs6.25 crore on a slump sale basis.


In China, the Indian company's joint venture company Jingri Cumi Super Hard Materials Company Limited has started commercial operations of its new 3,000 tpa bonded abrasives plant.

The fag end of 2006 saw Cumi buying two units in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh for Rs3.2 crore.

While one unit manufactures monolithic refractories, the second is engaged in the manufacture of high quality refractory cement, an input for the former. The acquisition provided Cumi an additional monolithic manufacturing capacity of 12,000 tonne per annum (tpa) catering to markets in Central India.

According to company officials, these are exciting times as they are in the process of integrating the new acquisitions in their supply chain dynamics and chalking out which plant would supply where.

In order to interact with the two companies located in the non-English speaking countries of Russia and China, Cumi has hired three Russian and one Chinese translator to facilitate communication. This apart, top Cumi officials have started learning Russian and Chinese languages.

VAW-It is wow

Like a newly married couple, Cumi and VAW are excited and are eagerly exploring and evaluating different integration possibilities. The Russian company is the world's second largest silicon carbide manufacturer with capacity of 65,000 tpa. The first is Saint Gobain, said to have a capacity of around 1.1 lakh tpa globally.

According to Cumi officials, the Russian acquisition has come at the right time when globally there is a capacity shortage in the grains segment.

''We can now become a global player in the micro grains segment,'' said one official.

Western countries discourage new plants in this field. Plants in Europe are closing down and even China that contributes 50 per cent of the alumina grains is tightening its environmental laws.

Hence no major new investment has taken place in this segment.

According to Cumi officials, alumina grains are short in supply and the prices have gone up by 35 per cent recently. Cumi's alumina grains needs are around 12,000 tpa and it sources majority of that from China with long term deals.

VAW also makes bonded abrasives (capacity 35,000 tpa) and specialised refractories (3000tpa) similar to what Cumi has in India.

According to Cumi officials, the Russian company sells around 9000 tpa of bonded abrasives and there is a good scope to increase the capacity.

Interestingly nearly 52 per cent of VAW's workforce is women.

For Cumi, the immediate focus is to improve efficiencies and fitting VAW in with its global supply chain.

The Indian company is handling its first overseas acquisition with utmost care. Finding the existing VAW management capable of handling the Russian end, Cumi didn't disturb the set up there. Nor did Cumi post its official there to oversee. According to Cumi officials the operational integration between Cumi and VAW is happening SBU wise.

Presently different teams - production, marketing and technology - from Cumi are meeting their Russian counterparts. While the Indian team imparts production efficiency techniques in Russia, they also learn the way huge capacities are handled with minimum work force.

The results have already started showing. During the first nine months of operations VAW has posted a turnover of $50 million. For the whole year the company is expected to have a turnover of $60 million. Additional investments in Russia will happen only after consolidating the existing operations and scaling up of capacity utilisation.

In the abrasives segment, Cumi now has a total capacity of around 50,000 tpa (VAW 35,000 tpa, new bonded abrasives plant in China 3,000 tpa and Cumi's own in India 12,000 tpa). The new Chinese plant which makes resinoid products, will also make vitrified products soon. As per indications, the Chinese plant will cater to the Middle East market.

Similarly in the refractories segment Cumi will align its Indian operations with that of VAW.

Cumi is also expanding its domestic refractories capacity with a new 3000 tpa plant at Ranipet in Tamil Nadu, at an outlay of Rs25 crore.

Land to the extent of 18 acres has been acquired for the purpose, and the plant is expected to start operations in June 2008.

The company is also setting up a Rs37 crore metallised cylinder plant at Hosur, which is expected to go on stream next year.

Recently Cumi's major projects like expansion of industrial ceramics capacity at its Hosur plant to 6,000 tpa, bonded abrasives plant at Uttarakhand with a capacity of 3,000 tpa and the power tools plant at Bangalore went on stream.

According to officials, the full benefits of these investments will accrue from next fiscal onwards, when all its new plants stabilise operations and reach better capacity utilisation.

For Cumi the third quarter results will be sober. The bottomline growth may not be commensurate with growth in the topline, on account of higher depreciation and interest costs starting to kick in.

The company has raised $5 million from external commercial borrowing to meet the acquisitions and other investments. Cushioning the interest burden is the revenue of Rs57 crore from the sale of land in Chennai, which was used for settling some bank loans.

The company is also seriously looking at disinvesting some of its non-core investments and also synergising operations of its subsidiaries.

Meanwhile the officials expect the consolidated turnover to for this fiscal to be in the region of Rs1000 crore
 

देवीधुरा महाविद्यालय में एनएसएस इकाई स्वीकृतJan 02, 02:16 am

लोहाघाट(चम्पावत)। देवीधुरा स्थित संस्कृत महाविद्यालय में राष्ट्रीय सेवा योजना की इकाई को स्वीकृति मिल गयी है। एनएसएस के जिला समन्वयक श्याम दत्त चौबे व महाविद्यालय के प्राचार्य भुवन चंद्र जोशी ने बताया कि वर्ष 2007-08 में प्रारम्भिक स्वीकृति 50 की इकाई होगी। साथ ही शिविर कार्यक्रमों हेतु अनुदान भी स्वीकृत हो गया है। उन्होंने बताया कि कई वर्षों से संस्कृत महाविद्यालय का परीक्षा परिणाम उत्कृष्ट रहता आया है, किन्तु पाठय सहगामी व राष्ट्रीय कार्यक्रमों से वंचित छात्र-छात्राएं अपना श्रेष्ठ प्रदर्शन नहीं कर पाते थे। यहां एनएसएस की इकाई स्वीकृत होने पर अभिभावकों व छात्र-छात्राओं के अलावा क्षेत्र प्रमुख पुष्पा लमगड़िया, कीर्ति बल्लभ शास्त्री, लक्ष्मण सिंह लमगड़िया, जोध सिंह बिष्ट, पूर्व कनिष्ठ प्रमुख गोपाल मनराल, विनोद गड़कोटी आदि ने प्रसन्नता व्यक्त की है। योजना के कार्यक्रम इसी वित्तीय वर्ष से शुरू हो जायेंगे।

Tourism point of view. This is a very good initiative taken by the Govt of UK.

Hope a lot of tourist from  south will visit to UK.

Uttarakhand Tourism Office In The City : Anam

 
 Hyderabad, January 01: Minister for information and public relations and tourism Mr. Anam Ramanarayana Reddy today announced about setting up of a office of Uttarakhand state tourism department here in the city to facilitate state tourists to visit above place (Uttarakhand).

According to a press release here, Uttarakhand Minister for tourism and endowment Mr. Prakash Panth met Mr. Anam Ramanarayana Reddy at secretariat here. They discussed about having tourism relations between the two states. Mr. Reddy informed the visiting dignitary about the problems faced by the state's tourists during their visit to religious places like Manasa Sarowar, Haridwar etc.

He urged for setting up a tourist office of Uttarakhand in the city to avert problems of the pilgrims of the state. "Andhra Pradesh stood at number one position in respect of tourism sector. The number of visitors to the state has been increasing year after year. About 11.5 crores visitors from various parts of the country and another six lakh foreign visitors have come to the state during 2006", he informed.

Mr. Prakash Panth explained about the services offered by the Uttarakhand Government to the tourists coming from within and outside India. He thanked Mr. Anam Ramanarayana Reddy for giving permission to set up their state's tourist office in the state.

Principal secretary to tourism Mr. G. Sudheer, director of cultural affairs Mr. R. Kavitha Prasad were also present.