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Padamshree
Joglekar began her ‘Bhajan Yatra’ with Vandana
and the melodious journey of bhajans and devotional songs made the audience spell
bound bringing unbound joy to them. When asked
about her journey from a common Padmaja to Padamashri Padmaja, She told in an innocent and
simple way that it was the songs coming out of her heart which took her upto here.
Padamshree Joglekar, a renowned singer of Ghazals, bhajans, thumri ,tappa,
classical and semi- classical songs has presented many shows in
BHEL continues on Double-digit growth
trajectory, Turnover crosses Rs.10,000 Crore, Pre-Tax profit crosses Rs.1,500
Crore; Dividend enhanced to 80% Strategic
Roadmap in place to ensure long-term growth
Bhopal,
September 29: During fiscal 2004-05, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)
has accelerated the momentum of double-digit growth achieved in the previous year,
with an all-time high turnover at Rs.10,336 Crore,
growing by a healthy 19% and net profit at
Rs.953 Crore, soaring 45%. Consequently, an
enhanced equity dividend of 80% - the highest so far, has been proposed by the
company. This was disclosed by Mr. A.K. Puri, Chairman & Managing Director, BHEL at
the 41st Annual General Meeting of the company today. Addressing
shareholders, Mr. Puri said that BHEL once again posted a sterling performance notching
up the
highest growth rate achieved in the last two
decades, besides sizeable gains in all
areas of its activity and reaffirming its
commitment to ‘Brightening Lives & Powering Progress’. Significantly, in line with its
vision – ‘committed to enhancing stakeholder value‘, BHEL
recorded a surge in Economic Value Addition
(EVA), which catapulted to Rs.504 Crore from
Rs.366 Crore in the year before, he said. Notably, BHEL
secured the highest-ever orders worth Rs.18,230
Crore in a single year, despite
operating under intense competitive pressure in domestic & international markets. With an all-time
high order book of
over Rs.32,000 Crore, at the close of the financial year, the company expects to
achieve healthy top and bottom line growth in 2005-06 and beyond, said Mr. Puri. Dwelling upon the fiftieth
year of the company’s Bhopal plant, the CMD said that the setting up of the
plant marked the beginning of the heavy electrical industry in India as also the inception
of BHEL – a great company that the country is proud of. The reason that the company
stood the test of time has been that it has been able to re-calibrate itself to meet
the challenges it faced. Now, BHEL is at a threshold where it needs yet another
re-calibration. For the last couple of years, this has been engaging the attention
of the management and a process has already been set in motion to position the company for
accelerated growth. Outlining the trends
in the global power plant equipment industry, Mr. Puri said that the sector has
started looking up since 2004. The world’s original equipment market is
forecast to grow with the maximum gains in developing economies like India and China
with relatively slower growth in USA and Europe. While gas-based plants took a lion’s
share of orders in the last 6-7 years, conventional steam-based plants are expected to
be back in demand for the next few years, due to volatility in pricing of gas,
emergence of more environment-friendly clean coal technologies and growing demand from
Asian countries rich in coal reserves. Enumerating BHEL's
milestones in international business, he said
that in 2004-05, the company secured several prestigious orders, each one of which
signifies a major step forward towards consolidation in international business. The
momentum has picked up pace in the current year (2005-06) and BHEL has already
booked physical export orders worth Rs.1,175 Crore. Major achievements include a
landmark turnkey contract for two power projects from PDO Oman. These
are the sixth and seventh such projects being set up by BHEL in Oman. In addition,
the company has made inroads into two new markets namely Ethiopia and Surinam, he
said. For further enhancing
overseas business, BHEL will continue to pursue new initiatives / strategies like
thrust on identified target countries/ regions, enhanced focus on product sales and spares
& services, local tie-ups and joint ventures for manufacture/assembly/ repair and
servicing of equipment, positioning itself as an EPC contractor in the global market,
setting up overseas joint ventures, etc., he added. Reflecting on
the country’s economic scenario, Mr. Puri said that India is emerging as an
engine of global growth along with China. Effective macroeconomic management during
the year ensured that India remained one of the fastest growing economies among the
emerging economies and the overall GDP growth was almost 7% during 2004-05. For sustained
annual economic growth in the region of 8% and above, an energy policy is being drawn up
for the country. The challenge is to secure adequate, reliable and quality supplies of
energy needed to meet India's stated growth imperatives. As per the Planning Commission, to
sustain 8% annual GDP growth, India’s energy needs must rise by at least 5.2%
annually under the low-energy-growth scenario and by 5.9% annually under the
high-energy-growth scenario. The CMD apprised
shareholders that the Indian power sector is on the threshold of witnessing
a transformation and business in the
sector indicates high growth potential. India's current commercial energy mix is
dominated by coal with a share of 51% compared to 26% for the rest of the world. It is
expected that coal would continue to be the most important domestic energy resource for
India even under aggressive assumptions about the level of contribution from domestic
hydro, nuclear and gas resources. This would continue to be the fuel for the power
generating stations in the future. What is of significant interest to BHEL is that the
capacity and investment needs in generating capacity are projected to rise by 4.8 to 5.9
times the 2003-04 level (131,424 MW) to reach a level of 6,27,000 – 7,78,000 MW by
2031-32. In the near future, projects
are under various stages of finalization for the 11th Plan capacity addition
programme of over 60,000 MW, he added. He stated that BHEL
is fully equipped to capitalise on these emerging opportunities. This has also mandated
BHEL to rise to the challenge, re-align with fast changing market requirements and evolve
strategies to tackle issues related to growth and value creation. As a part of this, BHEL is investing
Rs.1,000 crore to enhance its equipment manufacturing capacity to 10,000MW per annum.
Secondly, it is pursuing introduction of new technologies for 800-1,000MW thermal sets
with supercritical parameters, Advanced Class Gas Turbines of above 250 MW and
higher-rating Hydro sets. BHEL is also taking steps to strengthen the engineering
and R&D functions and is presently carrying out R&D in emerging new technologies viz.
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), Fuel Cells, etc. Elaborating
further on BHEL’s growth strategies, the CMD said that in order to enhance its
competitive edge, integrated operations’ improvement strategies like
Design-to-Cost, Purchasing and Supply Management, IT effectiveness, Focus on project
deliveries, Structured product development, Enhancing system design capability, etc., are being
pursued with vigour. Having obtained ISO-9001 certification and upgrading the same
to the latest ISO-9001:2000 version, the company has also taken several initiatives
for Business Excellence under CII-EFQM model. In addition, with services emerging as
the economy’s new growth engine, BHEL is adopting a renewed approach to tap
opportunities in the area of after-market services. Mr. Puri informed
shareholders that to keep pace with the demand for
compression of time cycles, enhanced quality and productivity, the ongoing process of
holistic modernisation of facilities would continue to result in manufacture of
state-of-the-art products. As part of this, to
enhance BHEL’s competitive market positioning, an investment of Rs.155 Crore was made under capital programmes,
during fiscal 2004-05, to enhance the competitiveness of key products/areas. Notably, in the
same period, BHEL once again demonstrated its commitment towards the nation’s
power development programme and added 21 sets of
3548 MW. With this, BHEL has far exceeded CEA’s target for capacity addition for the
first three years of the tenth five year plan, even making up for the shortfall of others.
BHEL sets now account for 74,780 MW, maintained
its share of 65% in the country's total installed capacity, which contributed 73% of the
total power generation in the country, said Mr. Puri. On the performance
of BHEL equipment, the CMD said that during the year, BHEL-built thermal sets ranging
from 500 MW to 195 MW, which form the backbone of the country’s power generating
capacity, registered the highest-ever PLF of 80.8 per cent, which
continued to be higher than the national average. In recognition
of the reliability and quality of performance of BHEL equipment, out of the 27 power stations awarded with the Govt.
of India’s Gold Shield for excellent performance, BHEL had the privilege of supplying power
generating equipment to 23 stations, he added. As part of R&D
efforts, Mr. Puri said that a significant
highlight was the in-house development of the largest
size 60 MW Bubbling Fluidized Bed Combustion Boiler. Also, an indigenously designed
Bowl Mill named ‘BHEL 280’, for pulverizing coal in thermal power plants was
successfully commissioned at MSEB’s Chandrapur 500 MW site. This optimized
mill can reduce the number of mills required for thermal power stations. Also, following
the setting up of a Centre of Excellence for
Simulators in 2003-04, similar world-class Centres of Excellence for Computational
Fluid Dynamics and Permanent Magnet Machines have been established – creating
an enabling environment in crucial technology areas. As a continuing
process of linking HRM policies to growth strategies, several new HR initiatives were
put in place during the year. Aimed
at encouraging individuals to take up improvement projects for capability building and for
continuous improvement in every sphere of activity, an Improvement Projects Rewards
Scheme (IMPRESS), has been introduced company-wide. The e-network based
scheme has a well-defined, structured modus operandi and is expected to enhance the culture of
excellence in BHEL by motivating its human resources, said Mr. Puri. The
CMD told the shareholders that there is a growing momentum in BHEL’s activities
and growing confidence in its future and the best is yet to come for BHEL. |
