HAL to pursue growth opportunities despite challenges
Bengaluru, Sep 28 : State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will pursue growth opportunities despite facing challenges, said a top official of the aerospace major on Friday.
"We are committed to pursue growth opportunities in spite of the challenges," HAL's new Chairman R. Madhavan told the shareholders at the company's 55th Annual General Meeting (AGM) for fiscal 2017-18 here.
Addressing the institutional and retail investors of the city-based defence behemoth, Madhavan said the company had posted consolidated net sales of Rs 18,624 crore for the fiscal under review.
"The company recorded the highest sales turnover of Rs 18,624 crore in fiscal 2017-18, as against Rs 18,553 crore in fiscal 2016-17, registering a 0.4 per cent annual growth despite challenges," said Madhavan.
The AGM was the first the company held with the participation of the retail shareholders after it went public in March, divesting 10.2 per cent of its equity holding to raise about Rs 1,400 crore.
The company's consolidated net profit for the fiscal, however, declined 21 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 2,073 crore from Rs 2,625 crore year ago.
Profit before tax also declined 7.5 per cent YoY to Rs 3,326 crore from Rs 3,592 crore year ago.
"We produced 40 aircraft and helicopters, including Sukhi-30 MKI fighters, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas and Dornier Do-228 in fixed wing and Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv and Chetak choppers in rotary wing," said Madhavan.
The company also made 105 aero engines, overhauled 220 aircraft/copters and 550 engines during the last fiscal.
"We have also produced 146 aero-structures for the space programmes of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) during the period," added Madhavan.
The company's scrip with Rs 10 face value lost Rs 44.10 per share on Friday's trading, ending at Rs 781.85 on the BSE against Thursday's closing rate of Rs 825.95 and opening price of Rs 818.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Modi govt wants to put caste census in cold storage: Congress
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Sunday alleged that the government wants to put the caste census in "cold storage" and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to amend the women's reservation law with the agenda of "misleading" the country.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed the Modi government wants to amend Article 334-A on the grounds that the "caste census results will not be available for a few years", overlooking the fact that both Bihar and Telangana completed the comprehensive caste survey in less than six months.
Article 334-A includes the provision that reservation of seats for women would take effect following an exercise of census and delimitation. The government has, however, decided to delink the implementation of the women's quota from the census exercise, which will include caste enumeration, to fast-track it.
"It is clear that the Modi government wants to put the caste census in cold storage," Ramesh claimed on X, dubbing it the "hidden agenda".
There was no immediate response from the government to the Congress' allegations.
Ramesh said that the government had been averse to a caste case and pointed out that on July 20, 2021, it answered a question in Lok Sabha stating that it decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in the Census.
On September 21, 2021, the Modi government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that it has taken a conscious policy decision not to conduct a caste census, Ramesh said.
"On April 28, 2024, in a television interview, the Prime Minister accused the Congress of having an urban naxal mindset for championing the cause of a caste census," the Congress leader said.
On April 30, 2025, as the country was still in shock after the Pahalgam terror attack that occurred a few days earlier, the Modi government suddenly announced that the caste census would be conducted as a part of the upcoming census, he said.
Ramesh pointed out that in a widely-reported press conference on March 30, 2026, the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner said most of the results of the ongoing Census 2027 would be available in 2027 itself since the entire Census is being conducted digitally.
"But now the Modi government wants to amend Article 334-A, saying that the caste census results will not be available for a few years - overlooking the fact that both Bihar and Telangana completed the comprehensive caste survey in less than six months," he said.
The prime minister is, as usual, "misleading" the country and engaging in massive deception, Ramesh said.
"He now wants to amend what the Parliament had unanimously passed in September 2023. The hidden agenda is simply not to have the caste census," the Congress general secretary said.
The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, at the presser on March 30, had asked people to provide accurate information to census enumerators, asserting that individual data will remain confidential and cannot be used as evidence or to obtain any benefit under any scheme.
Asked about caste being included in the Census and the apprehension that people may not furnish correct information, Narayan said at a press conference the data related to caste will be collected during the second phase, and the questions will be decided after exhaustive discussions.
"Earlier, data was collected on physical paper, which took a lot of time in digitisation. We will start collecting digital data from the outset, so we will be able to issue it very early. Many data sets will be published in 2027," Narayan had said.
The Congress' attack on the government comes days ahead of the three-day sitting of Parliament, during which the government is set to bring bills to implement the Women's Reservation Act before the 2029 parliamentary polls and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816, with 273 reserved for women.
The Congress has accused the Modi government of playing politics in the name of the women's reservation law and asserted that the proposed delimitation exercise linked to it was "not constitutional" and could have "grave consequences" that warrant thorough deliberation after the ongoing assembly polls.
At a Congress Working Committee meeting, it was decided that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge would call a meeting of top leaders of all opposition parties, most likely on April 15, to discuss and formulate a joint strategy for the "special session" of Parliament from April 16 to 18.
In a letter to the prime minister, Kharge has said it would be "impossible" to have any useful discussion on the women's quota law without details of delimitation and other aspects, and demanded that an all-party meeting be called on the matter after the current round of state polls gets over on April 29.
Kharge said that calling Parliament's special sitting amid state polls reinforces the belief that the government is hurrying the implementation of the women's reservation law for "political mileage".
