As you see off 2003, either by dancing the night away or having a quiet dinner at home while watching the wrap-up shows on TV, make sure you feel good about what?s to come next year. Because the year gone by may have been a turbulent one with wars and blow hot-blow cold diplomatic wranglings, but one thing it?s done is to make most of us feel pretty satisfied about the way things have worked out on some fronts.
Corporates have been on a roll, with most in the circuit talking of how they have been able to replace old costly debt with cheaper new ones. The bottomlines of the major companies have, consequently, become much healthier. India Inc has finally begun to come into its own, whether in terms of seeking acquisitions globally or making world class products ? including cars ? for a global market.
The biggest groups in Corporate India, whether Reliance, Tatas or the Birlas, have all made major moves forward this year. While Reliance has firmly entrenched itself in the energy sector by securing management control of power utility BSES, and also aggressively played the telecoms game, the Tatas have come up with amazing turnaround-cum-success stories in companies like Tata Motors and Tata Steel, propelling the group further ahead. Putting past problems like that of Tata Finance well behind it, the group is now preparing, quite literally, to take on the world once the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime comes into force.
Kumar Mangalam Birla, the quietly efficient supremo of the Aditya Birla Group, has proved just why corporate-watchers are betting on him to do big things in the coming years. By striking an intricately-carved deal with Larsen & Toubro and picking up L&T?s cement division after months of protracted negotiations, Mr Birla has emerged as the big daddy of cement. All three groups have performed well as a result on the stockmarkets, with market capitalisations reflecting the overall bullishness in fortunes.
The year had begun with complete uncertainty over the erstwhile UTI?s fate, as it became clear it would have to be split in order to be restructured. But by the end of 2003, the chairman and managing director of the freshly carved UTI Mutual Fund was talking of going into 2004 as a zero-NPA fund and the assets under management had touched Rs 19,000 crore. The new Act to transform the troubled IDBI has been passed, paving the way for it to become a development finance-oriented banking company, which will address its asset-liability mismatch aggressively.
On the policy side, the telecoms wrangle has been sorted out with unified licensing, with both wireless in local loop (WLL) and cellular players appeased, at least for now. Mobile telephony is on a roll, and all players are getting ready for further growth as subscribers come in hordes. The stockmarkets, despite the Sensex going from strength to strength and crossing the 5,800 mark this year, shows no signs yet of any major scam (thank heavens!) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) can take more than just a little credit for that. The markets are safer and stronger today than ever before. Foreign institutional investors have pumped in unprecedented funds and forex reserves have clocked $100 billion.
And before we forget, this infectious feel-good has percolated even into the Mumbai film industry, which recorded some big hits after years of prolonged drought and some soul-searching. As footfalls increase in shopping malls and multiplexes which go along with it, both Amitabh Bachchan (Baghbaan) and Shah Rukh Khan (Kal Ho Naa Ho) have had mega successes this year, while Hrithik Roshan has bounced back with Koi Mil Gaya. Even innovative smaller films like Jhankaar Beats have raked in money, pepping up media stocks in their wake. And, of course, in cricket Sourav Ganguly?s boys have brought back the magic in Australia.
So what if it?s still not clear when the mega divestments of HPCL and BPCL will happen? So what if China continues to be the big Asian economic superpower? So what if 2003 will also go down as the Year of the CAT (Common Admission Test)? India is standing up to be counted. Enough for you to celebrate the onset of a spanking new year. Happy 2004!