India Inc finally fixes its roof

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 26: Corporate India appears to have come of age with a general improvement in most of the sectors. After a lot of intr...

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 26: Corporate India appears to have come of age with a general improvement in most of the sectors. After a lot of introspection and reconciliation to a liberated market economy, the corporate sector8217;s signs of rejuvenation was the most remarkable development in the past year.

And the crowning glory was when a few among them could get access to the capital of free market economythe stock exchange in the US. Riding the crest wave of information technology boom, homegrown heroes like Infosys Technologies and Satyam Infoway were immediately accepted at the Nasdaq in the latter half of the year. Along with them was the financial major ICICI.

However, the upswing was not just confined to the IT or pharma companies, the manufacturing sector which was reeling under a three-year long demand slump, also finally showed signs of recovery.

As the craze in IT stocks continued unabated, it also placed several new icons in the pedastal of corporate heroes. Defying the conventional widsom thatcorporate empires are built on manufacturing, entrepreneurs like NR Narayan Murthy, Naresh Goyal and Ramalinga Raju carved their own niche based on nothing more than ideas.

Back home in the manufacturing sector, the changes were best reflected by what was happening in one of the oldest business housesthe Tatas.

Bombay House changed top to bottomfrom its corporate logo to business focusto break away from its image as a conservative and risk-weary industrial house to dynamic and aggressive market mover. Tisco sold its cement division to French Lafarge for Rs 550 crore. India Cements after the heady takeover of Raasi Cement got deeper into the business by wresting control of Sri Vishnu Cement, a strong brand in Andhra Pradesh.

The churning in the cement industry continued with Gujarat Ambuja Cements agreeing to buy DLF Cement.

Story continues below this ad

The Tata group also sold its stake in Nerolac Paints, the second biggest paint company in the country, to Kanai Paints, Japan as part of its strategy to get out of unrelatedbusiness. On the acquisition side, Tata Tea was close to finalising the buy out of Tetley of United Kingdom, an acknowledged brand in tea business.

Young boy among industrial houses, Reliance group, forced its way through all core areas of its activities. Reliance Petroleum, the downstream project became operational this year. The fibre division of Reliance acquired Orissa Synthetics, a Singhania company to consolidate the market share in PSF and PFY segments.