CONNECTING

ONE OF INDIA'S LARGEST CABLE COMPANIES

TO THE WORLD
FOR 60 YEARS

Paramount Communications
Ltd, part of the Paramount group
of companies, is one of Indias
leading cable manufacturing
companies. Mr. Sanjay
Aggarwal, Chairman and CEO of
Paramount, talks to the editors
at AIM Global about the parallel
growth of the country and
company, the companys current
operations, and its future growth
plans.
Paramount Communications Ltd.
was started by my father Mr. Shyam
Sunder Aggarwal in 1955. It began
with an investment of a few hundred
dollars, and today, more than 60
years on, it has grown into an
internationally recognized brand
with clients across multiple
countries. In the last 15 years, we
have become one of Indias largest
cable manufacturing companies.
Paramounts products are now used
in a wide span of Industries such as
Power, Railways, Telecom, I.T and
Communications, Construction,
Defense and Space Research. Mr
Sanjay Aggarwal says. We have two
plants in India, one in Rajasthan and

the other in Haryana.

Discussing the scenario when the
company started, Mr Aggarwal talks
about how the country was a very
different place. When we started in
1955, India was newly
independent, and industrially
manufactured products were
difficult to obtain in the country due
to constraints such as import
restrictions and lack of foreign
exchange. The model at the time
was for micro enterprises with small
capacities to act as import/export
substitutes. Our company began with
simple products such as the single
core house wiring cable for electrical
wiring of homes.
In the year 1978, the company
established a new unit under the
name Paramount Cable Corporation,
which started supplying telecom
cables to the Department of
Telecommunications. The company
began its diversification with the
manufacturing of special cables
in the early 1980s, supported by
a dedicated team of engineers,
marketing and finance experts. In
1995, the company went public and
became listed on the national stock
exchange.
Indias national priorities changed,
a booming industrial sector is now in
place, and our company has grown
hand in hand with the country so
that it is well placed to compete in
the industrial scenario.

Paramount Communications Ltd manufactures a

diverse range of cables, including Power Cables,
Instrumentation and Control Cables, Thermocouple
Cables, Telecom Cables, Railway Cables, Building
Wires and Special Orders

Products

Paramount Communications Ltd

manufactures a diverse range of
cables, including Power Cables,
Instrumentation and Control Cables,
Thermocouple Cables, Telecom
Cables, Railway Cables, Building Wires
and Special Orders. Mr Sanjay
Aggarwal takes us through the
companys capabilities and clientele.
Our product range as well as our
client profile is pretty well spread out.
Besides manufacturing Power Cables,
Instrumentation Cables etc, we also
have special products that very few
companies in the world produce. To
give an example of our special
products, we create fire performance
cables manufactured to LPCB
approvals (LPCB is UKs loss prevention
certification board). There are very few
companies in the world approved to
the highest category and we are proud
to be one of them.
Talking of the role of technology in
furthering the business, Mr Sanjay
Aggarwal says, Technology plays a
pivotal role in the Industry. However,
because of the high capital involved,
the pace of change in the cable
industry is not very fast. What clients

appreciate is, and what we specialize

in is continuously updating product
design and improving raw materials.
Practically, the processes themselves
dont change that fast in the cable
industry. However, product
improvement and product design are
areas we constantly work on and
Paramount is on the forefront in
bringing new designs and changes,
new performance parameters etc to
the market. Our plants are equipped
with state of the art technology to aid
this. Besides, at Paramount, we have
around 1000 employees. Our
engineers and technicians are
invaluable to us in developing and
maintaining the high standards of the
Company. For us, training is an
ongoing process- constant training in
the form of production and quality
workshops, from both internal and
external faculty ensure that our
employees are equipped with the
latest skills and knowledge, in order to
deliver complete customer
satisfaction.

On The Right
Group Chairman & CEO
Mr Sanjay Aggarwal
On The Left
Group MD
Mr Sandeep Aggarwal

Quality

Moving on to the importance of

Quality, Mr Aggarwal opines, When
it comes to quality, we are the
leaders. Quality has always been of
primary importance at Paramount.
We realize that cables being a vital
infrastructural input should be of the
best possible quality. The
manufacturing process of our cables
is scrutinized right from the
procurement of raw materials until
the final dispatch of our finished
goods. Our products conform to the
strictest of national and international
specifications.
Among the Indian standards it
follows, Paramount manufactures
cables as per Bureau of Indian
Standards (BIS), Indian Railway
Specifications (IRS), Indian Telecom
Department (ITD), Telecom
Engineering Centre (TEC) and
Engineers India Ltd. (EIL).
Internationally, Paramount has been

awarded ISO 9001:2008 and ISO

14001:2004 certifications by KBS
Certification Services Pvt. Limited for
its complete range of cables.
Paramount was the first cable
manufacture in India to have been
awarded the ISO 9001:2008
certification by BASEC UK (British
Approvals Service for Cables).
Paramount also manufactures cables
as per British Standard Specifications
(BSS), American Standard for
Testing Methods (ASTM),
International Electro Technical
Committee Specifications (IEC),
Vereingte Deutsche
Elktrotechniker (VDE), Deutsches
Institut fr Normung e. V. (DIN),
International Electrotechnical
Committee Specifications (IEC),
Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS),
French Standards (NFC) and Russian
Standards (GOST).

Clients

Our largest consumers are in the

power sector, accounting for 60-65%
of our sales, this is followed by the
Telecom sector with 25% sales, and
the railway sector which accounts for
15% of our sales. Our highest selling
products are Power cables, control
instrumentation cables for wiring
instrumentation which are generally
used within heavy industrial works
such as thermal power plants, oil
plants or steel factories. In Indias
infrastructure all the major epc
contractors are our customers. To
give a few examples, BACS which
controls 2/3rd of power distribution
in Delhi buys cables from us. L&T a
heavyweight EPC company is also
our customer. Siemens from
Germany, which is another major
EPC player in India is a customer.
Additionally, our satisfied customers
include EMC ltd, ABB etc as well as
BHEL (Bharat heavy Electricals) a

When it comes to quality, we are the leaders.

Quality has always been of primary importance at
Paramount.

major company which sets up power

plants in the country and is a major
provider of heavy equipment to
customers. Some of Indias largest
state utility companies from states
like Rajasthan, UP, Haryana,
Gujarat have long been our
customers. However, within the
Indian economy, the market for
Power and Infrastructure companies
in the last 4-5 years has been a little
stormy, which has led to a slight dip
in some of our sales. We are
currently consolidating our strength
in the area. He notes. We foresee
that it will pick up again soon,
however we are also planning to
expand our focus in the telecom
sector.
Speaking of the telecom sector, Mr
Aggarwal enthusiastically speaks of
the growth he anticipates. We are
looking to build capacity in the
telecom side of our business.
Although it is currently 25% of our
sales, we think there is a huge
market opportunity in the field. We
are in the business of selling
Optical Fiber Cables. The
Government of India has plans to
wire up each village in India, and
connect them through
telecommunications. This means
that 250,000 villages across the
country will need our cables to
connect them. Besides this, the
quality of connectivity is one that
telecom companies constantly need
to upgrade- we foresee huge
demands in this area too, and plan to
expand and put more products in the
market. This will be a diversification
considering the huge demand is not
just for the cable itself. Clients will
need a reputable company to ensure
that the cable is laid in the right
configuration. Theres a need for
system integration services, laying
cable, installation etc and we at
Paramount are trying to emerge as a
major player in the system
integration and laying along with
the optical instrumentation that are
needed. In the next 5 years we see
telecom, optical fiber cable system
area as a huge opportunity to grow.
Mr Sanjay continues, In the Telecom
sector we currently work with almost

all the big names in India. BSNL

or Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd- the
largest state owned telecom utility,
which operates pan India, is one of
our customers. MTNL, which is the
local state owned telecom utility for
the metros of Delhi and Bombay is
another. Bharat Broadband, which is
the government agency responsible
for wiring up 250,000 villages across
India, is also our customer. Besides
this, we export telecom cables
direct/indirectly through import
houses or EPC contractors.
Speaking of export, Mr Sanjay
Aggarwal talks of the companys
practice of exporting cables.

Paramount is the
largest supplier for
Indian Railways. We are
proud to have developed
the railways most
important signaling cable
International markets count for
about a quarter of our sales, with
our major customers being in UK,
Africa and the Middle East. He says.
For the last 20 years we have
regularly exported our products
abroad. We are one of the largest
north Indian exporters and have
received several awards from the
export council of India for our work
over the years. Currently, there has
been a bit of a dip in the export
markets- the reason is that we
acquired a company in the UK as a
subsidiary in 2007 but exited the
company last year. By next year we
expect this to pick up again.
Finally, one of the sectors that
Paramount services is Indias Railway
sector, which is one of the world's
largest railway networks, comprising
115,000 km (71,000 mi) of track over
a route of 65,808 km (40,891 mi)
and 7,112 stations. In 2014-15 alone,
Indian Railways carried 8.397 billion
passengers annually or more than 23
million passengers a day along with
1058.81 million tons of freight in the
year.
Mr Sanjay Aggarwal says,

Paramount is the largest supplier

for Indian Railways. We are proud to
have developed the railways most
important signaling cable (which is a
4 quad Axle counter cable) about 30
years ago. In view of the
stringent usage and safety
requirements, these cables have
extremely low capacitance
unbalance and reduction factor
values. We are among the few Cable
companies who manufacture the
following types of cables for Indian
Railways: Underground Railway
Signaling Cables, Underground
Railway Quad Axle Counter Cables,
Optical Fiber Cables, Power Cables,
and Specialized Instrumentation
cables for underground and elevated
Metro Projects.
Speaking of the companys large
customer profile, Mr Sanjay says,
One aspect of our company is that
even though we service the top
buyers from across the various
sectors, no individual customer is
more than 5% of our sales, (except
for the railways which are 10% of our
sales). I consider that our customer
profile is pretty well spread out.

Corporate
Social
Responsibility

Paramount firmly believes in giving

back to the country and
community that has played a vital
role in its success. Mr Sanjay
Aggarwal sheds some light on this
aspect of the company. We
believe in being responsible
corporate citizens. One way is to
be conscious of our environmental
impact. We have ensured that the
best waste treatment facilities exist
in our factories, so that no effluent is
produced or goes untreated. Besides
this we endeavor to work socially
by trying to help out nearby schools
and institutions to maintain their
facilities in various ways, either by
giving equipment or land or involving
our people to help them. Electricity,
fans, furniture, toilets, water pumps
and playground equipment have
been donated to schools near our

Founder Chairman,

Late Mr. Shyam Sunder Aggarwal

factory by the Company. Writing

books, stationary, school bags and
uniforms are also donated annually
to the school children. Paramount
also encourages and supports sports
programs in the area, including an
Inter Village Cricket Tournament
and an Inter School Sports Meet
of Government schools. One more
example of our community projects
is in Rajasthan. Since Rajasthan has a
large desert area, we try to help out
by building check dams to create
water generation, and in the span of
2 years, we have seen the water
table rise in this area. This is
something we hope will be a long
term boon for the villagers, and
something we are proud to have
done.
In Closing, Mr Aggarwal looks to the
things that matter most to the
company, The sector we are a part
of is so important to the nations
entire infrastructure, and we are
proud to be a part of the companies
that are responsible for building
India. In the end, one thing we really
have great appreciation for is the
relationships the company has
fostered. We really appreciate our
vendors, creditors and customers,
who have stood with us through
the highs and lows of the company.
Within the next two years, once the
power sector of the country has
gained traction, we are confident
that the company will grow even
stronger. We have been around for
the last 60 years, and we hope to be
around for the next 100.