This year will be a Dull Festive season for Electronic Goods

India's consumer durable industry is unlikely to have an exciting festive season this year, thanks to the recent hike in prices of consumer electronics and the uncertain economic conditions in the country as well as internationally.

"Last year was very good for us in terms of sales. This year we do not expect high sales. There are no visible discounts and EMI has gone up considerably. Certainly people are not so enthusiastic in spending due to the uncertain economic scenario," a Samsung showroom owner in West Delhi said.

The interest rate on loans for consumer products has shot up by about four percentage points in the last two years, from 13 per cent per annum in September 2009 to 16-17 per cent now.

According to Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) data, consumer durable industry grew at just 4.2 per cent between April and July this year against 18.5 per cent in the year-ago period.

Korean consumer durable giant Samsung has increased the prices of many of its products by 1.5 per cent due to the depreciation of the Indian rupee. The other Korean consumer durable giant LG Electronics too, has announced a hike in prices of between three and six per cent for its products citing rupee depreciation as the cause.

LG hiked the prices of its IT products by six per cent and rates of washing machines, microwave ovens and flat cathode ray tubes are up by three per cent. "Due to continuous rupee depreciation, it has become imperative for us to consider the price hike in India," Sanjoy Bhattacharya, product group head, IT, LG Electronics India, said.

Consumer durable firms claim price hikes will affect sales. "Indian middle class consumers are price sensitive. Price hike and inflation will certainly have an impact on the purchasing decisions of consumers. We expect sales to grow by 10-12 per cent as compared to 25- 30 per cent last year. The impact will be more on the premium category products," a senior marketing executive from Sony India said.

Despite input costs gnawing at the profit margins of consumer durable companies, they are postponing their decision to hike prices till after the festive season.

According to Manish Sharma, director, marketing and sales, Panasonic India, the festive season is an important period for consumer durable companies as it accounts for 30-40 per cent of their total annual sales.

In the run-up to the festive season, firms are trying their best to ramp up sales with the help of aggressive marketing and promotional campaigns. Panasonic is investing Rs 100 crore for marketing besides a slew of promotional offers. Samsung is doling out Rs 150 crore just on giving away gifts to consumers, excluding the budget on advertising.

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Blues won the match by 28 for five to beat Mumbai Indians

Chennai, Oct 2 (IANS) New South Wales recovered brilliantly from 28 for five to beat Mumbai Indians by five wickets for their second win in the Nokia Champions League T20 tournament, here Sunday.

On a pitch that was at once a hero and villain with its inconsistent and slow bounce, the Mumbai Indians crashed to 100 for seven in their 20 overs and then had the Blues on the ropes, but Steve Smith (45 not out) and Ben Rohrer (26 not out) put on 73 runs for the sixth wicket as the Australian outfit made 101 for five in 17 overs.

Blues now have four points after three games while Mumbai Indians remain on five and have completed their league engagements.

It was new ball bowler Abu Nechim who did the early damage as he picked up three wickets to leave the Blues in a precarious position before Smith and Rohrer scripted a fine rescue act.

The Blues could not have asked for a worse start as they lost three wickets in a matter of 11 deliveries with just 17 runs on the board in three overs.

Abu Nechim, who opened the bowling with Malinga, removed openers Shane Watson and David Warner in his very first over. A Malinga toe-crusher then trapped skipper Simon Katich plumb in front to put Mumbai on top.

Watson was a trifle unlucky as the ball struck his pads and then rolled on to the stumps while Warner, after two consecutive boundaries, fell prey to the inconsistent bounce as he drove uppishly to extra-cover where Harbhajan held an easy catch three deliveries later, and Katich had no clue to Malinga's yorker in the next over.

Harbhajan persisted with Malinga and Nechim, giving each a third over. The move paid off as Nechim had Daniel Smith edging behind to Ambatti Rayudu as Blues slid to 24 for 4 in the sixth over. Nechim ended his three-over spell with figures of 3 for 13.

Worse was in store for the Blues as Moises Henriques departed in the seventh, adjudged leg before to young leggie Yuzvendra Chahal who had replaced Malinga.

The dismissal brought Steve Smith and Rohrer together and the duo batted sensibly, eschewing risk. The two batsmen battled quite brilliantly, knocking the ball around and building up a partnership that eventually turned the tide in Blues' favour.

Earlier, it was a most tame going for the Mumbai Indians as there was neither momentum nor much aggression as the score dawdled along while wickets fell at regular intervals.

As well as the Blues bowled and showed great discipline in sticking to the basics of line and length, the Mumbai batsmen, almost without exception, struggled.

Franklin's fighting 42 was the saving grace for Mumbai Indians whose total just about reached three figures with the lower-order batsmen Rajagopal Sathish (14 off 16) and Harbhajan Singh (15 off 14) knocking the ball about for some useful runs.

Yet again, the two big-hitters in Mumbai ranks, Andrew Symonds and Kieron Pollard barely made an impression, neither being able to get going and getting out playing injudicious shots.

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Akhtar could make batsmen nervous: Gul

Karachi, Oct 2 (IANS) Pakistan fast bowler Umar Gul said Shoaib Akhtar, when at his best, could ruffle the best batsmen in the world including West Indian great Brian Lara.

Akhtar, who retired after the World Cup earlier this year, had created a stir by claiming in his autobiography that the Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was scared to face him.

Gul did not directly comment on Akhtar's remarks on Tendulkar but said the former quick with his sheer pace could make even the best in the business nervous.

'I can't say specifically that I saw Tendulkar running away from Shoaib, but no one can deny that when Shoaib was at his fastest and best, the world's best batsmen were nervous against him. There is no batsmen who is not nervous or ruffled when facing a pure fast bowler,' Gul was quoted as saying in espncricinfo.com

'Even Brian Lara, who I rate as the world's best batsman, admitted to feeling ruffled when he was hit on the helmet by a bouncer from Shoaib.'

Gul said he is opposed to legalising ball tampering as against Akhtar, who in the autobiography suggested to 'set rules' for tampering.

He feels if the ball tampering is made legal, it would make it too easy to bowl reverse swing, which is an art, and some of the beauty of the game would be lost.

'I don't think the way is to legalise it. Leave cricket with its traditional ways rather than making changes that would take all the charm out of it,' he said.

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Kapil Dev has shouted on the media's obsession..........

New Delhi,: Former India great Kapil Dev has shouted on the media and said that the focus should be on the whole team not only on the single person and it’s wrong that we always expect that Sachin Tendulkar to achieve  100 international centuries.

During India's recent tour of England, speculation reached fever pitch about Tendulkar reaching the landmark figure. But the star failed to fulfill his fans' hopes and was left stranded on 99 hundreds - 51 in Tests and 48 in one-day internationals.

India were blanked 4-0 in the Test series, conceding their number-one ranking to the hosts, and also lost the one-dayers 3-0. "You seem more keen about Sachin's 99 hundreds and not about how we are going to win the next series," Kapil said while delivering the Dilip Sardesai lecture in memory of the former Test batsman in Mumbai on Thursday.

"I am not saying don't give credit to individual performances, but the country should come first. Everyone knows Sachin has 99 centuries, but how many know which of those have ended in victories? Out of Sachin's 99 hundreds, 60 have ended in wins. If anyone reports that I'll be happy. We have to change our mindset. If we lose the match, what's the use of statistics? To hell with that!"

Kapil, 52, regarded as one of the best all-rounders of his era, claimed a then-world record 434 Test wickets, besides taking 253 one-day wickets, before quitting the game in 1994. He also scored 5,248 runs in Tests and 3,783 in one-dayers.

Kapil, who became India's first World Cup-winning captain in 1983, also blamed tight scheduling for the team's disastrous show in England. The Indian players figured in the lucrative Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL) a few days after winning the World Cup in April before leaving for the West Indies and England tours.

"The players did not get time to unwind and enjoy their World Cup victory. They had worked four years for it. But they just got four days before the IPL began," Kapil said.

"They should have got more time to enjoy the moment. If you don't give time to unwind, you lose the passion to play. That's what happened in England." Kapil also wanted players to be paid more for representing the country than their IPL franchises. How can you give more money to play for a club and not for playing for the country?" he said.

Kapil, who played 131 Tests and 225 one-dayers over a 16-year career, wanted the burden on seamers to be reduced in order to avoid injuries, like the ones to current spearheads Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel.

"The cricket board should understand how much burden the fast bowlers can take," he said. "They can't bowl for 365 days."

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