Forget macro, look at micro

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

The surprisingly robust Q1 GDP growth figures did not receive any coverage in the Hindi press. Most newspapers chose to focus on other business stories.

In its September 6 edition, Dainik Bhaskar quoted Tata Motors MD Ravi Kant on how the price of the company's Rs 1 lakh car was likely to cross the initial estimates. Speaking on the sidelines of the annual convention of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Kant said rising interest rates and a strong rupee will affect the project adversely, though he declined to cite a new price, the paper reported.

In its September 5 edition, Rajasthan Patrika took as the business lead, a story on how defects in Nokia batteries were proving to be a windfall for other mobile manufacturers like Motorola and Sony Ericsson. Reports of exploding Nokia batteries have been coming in from West Bengal, UP and Gujarat, as a result of which the company reported poor sale figures, the paper reported. It further said that the Cellular Operators Association of India and the Indian Cellular Association were working overtime to contain the damage this might have on the market, though both desisted from blaming the exploding batteries as a cause for the fall in handset sales.

Reliance Industries CMD Mukesh Ambani's humongous salary "" Rs 24.51 crore for the fiscal ended March 2007 "" is not only the highest among all CEOs but also monumentally edges younger brother Anil Ambani's package by a multiple of 10. This caught the attention of Dainik Jagran (September 3). With an annual remuneration of Rs 2.42 crore from three group companies, the younger Ambani does not figure even in the list of the top-100 highest-paid CEOs of corporate India, the paper added.

The only Marathi newspaper which carried a repport on the 9.3 per cent Q1 GDP growth was Maharashtra Times, that too a translated copy of a story that appeared in its sister publication. None of the other prominent Marathi newspapers carried any story on the GDP growth.

In fact, Loksatta and Samna didn't carry a single business or economy-related story in the last week. However, reports on the feud between TVS and Bajaj Motors over the use of DTSi technology, the Kalyani group acquiring a German windpower equipment manufacturing company, and the failure of the talks between the Bajaj brothers over the splitting of the group, appeared in the business pages of Maharashtra Times, Lokmat and Sakal. Reports on the Prime Minister's visit to Mumbai last Friday when he reviewed the progress of the package announced for the farmers of Vidarbha, were also carried prominently.

The 9.3 per cent Q1 GDP growth and the export growth received routine coverage in the business section of the Kannada newspapers. Most leading dailies "" Vijaya Karnataka, Praja Vani and Kannada Prabha "" carried news agency reports.

The newspapers chose to concentrate on local business issues. The government has sanctioned new sugar mills in the state. However, the demarcation of the cane cultivation area has caused unrest among the farming community. The state also announced a minimum support price of Rs 10 per kg of arecanut. Arecanut growers in the state are in distress. Newspapers covered the issue extensively as Karnataka is one of the main arecanut-growing regions.

The GDP growth and the low inflation numbers ended up as two-column stories on the business pages of most frontline Telugu dailies. With headlines that read "Inflation at 15-month low" and "GDP up, inflation down," along with a chronicle graph indicating the GDP growth from 4.4 per cent in 2001 to 9.3 per cent in 2007, leading Telugu newspapers Eenadu and Vaartha said that the GDP growth rate was driven by the manufacturing, construction and services sectors. "The growth, however, was likely to slow down in the next three quarters," Eenadu added in its report.

Andhra Jyothi's five-column lead, "GDP growth rate on a roll," said agriculture and allied activities witnessed a higher growth of 3.8 per cent during the three months this year. "The GDP growth rate in the current fiscal is expected to decline to 8.5-8.8 per cent on the back of low velocity in capital inflows and high interest rates," the newspaper quoted HDFC chief economist Abheek Barua as saying. Export growth figures found no mention in the copies carried by the Telugu print media.

Tamil daily Dinamalar carried reports along with photographs on the successful launch of Insat-4CR and how this would give a major boost to the broadcasting and satellite communication plans of a number of players such as Bharti, ONGC, the Railways and half-a-dozen television channels for digital satellite news gathering.

The paper also carried reports on new power projects for Tamil Nadu and a special feature on the drop in sales of eggs and chicken following the bird flu scare. A report on telecom regulator Trai asking telecos not to impose compulsory charges on caller-line identification services was also carried on the business page.