News Broadcasting
Essel Propack FY03 group net up 9.8% YoY, Indian ops down 16%
MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra promoted Essel Propack Ltd has posted a year on year (YoY) growth in its consolidated FY03 bottom lines even as its Indian operations have slipped in the red.
The Indian operations of Essel Propack have posted a net profit of Rs 388 million for the year ended 31 December 2003, which is down 16 per cent from the previous fiscal’s net profit of Rs 463 million. Revenues from Indian operations have slipped from Rs 2421 million to Rs 2302 million for the year 2003.
While the YoY profits have taken a hit, net profit for the fourth and last quarter ended 31 December 2003 stands at Rs 123 million vis-?-vis Rs 81 million for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The tumble in the YoY net profit is largely due to a slow down in the Chinese local customers’ off-take and the planned relocation of a key customer’s manufacturing plant from Shanghai to Hefei during the third quarter of 2003.
However, the consolidated results for Essel Propack’s global operations sing a different tune. The consolidated net profit for the group is up 9.8 per cent to Rs 692 million from previous fiscal’s net of Rs 630 million. For the quarter ended 31 December 2003, the company recorded a net profit of Rs 178 million against the Q4 net of Rs 137 million in the previous fiscal.
The group net sales have also seen a healthy YoY growth of 20.6 per cent. Revenues for the year ended 31 December 2003 stood at Rs 5732 million vis-?-vis net of Rs 4750 million in the previous fiscal. The net sales for the quarter ended 31 December 2003 have grown to Rs 1554 million over the previous corresponding quarter’s net income of Rs 1153 million.
Essel Propack Ltd is a specialty packaging company headquartered in India. It provides packaging solutions to toothpaste, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and Industrial sectors all over the world. The company has manufacturing operations in 11countries across the globe.
The increase in sales during the year 2003 mainly reflects the startup of operations in USA and increased sales in China.
During 2002, the company had transferred its shareholding in subsidiaries in Egypt and China to its 100 per cent subsidiary in Mauritius. The company had received a dividend income of Rs 122 million during the previous year ended 31 December 2002.
The board of directors has approved an interim dividend of 70 per cent for the year ended 31 December 2003. In absolute terms, the dividend translates into Rs 7 per share.
Essel Propack has also approved a reshuffle at the senior management level. R Chandrasekhar, the erstwhile chief financial officer -global (CFO- Global), has been re-appointed as chief operating officer-global (COO-Global) while R Ramakrishnan who was heading treasury and taxation will now be the vice president finance – global.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
