The monitors will be manufactured at Kinetic Communications' existing production facilities at Akurdi, near here. They will be be in the 14-inch and 15-inch sizes. The 17-inch sets will be imported as fully built units.Motwani said that though they have the capacity to manufacture the 17-inch sets here, the volumes and logistics do not justify such a move.

Kinetic Communications will aim to bring Indian usage in line with the world wide practice of using 15-inch monitors, with flat square picture tubes instead of the curved picture tubes used in the 14-inch sets.

The price sensitive Indian market has chosen to use thesmaller monitors due to a substantial price difference -- up to Rs 5,000 per set, between the two. The company is set to bring down this differential to the Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500 range.

Motwani did not rule out the possibility of the technical collaboration becoming a joint venture at a later date, although Daewoo is believed to have expressed its inability to pump in funds at this juncture. While this could become a convenient sourcing point to service Daewoo's Middle East markets for 15-inch colour monitors, Motwani said the technicalities would have to be worked out.

Kinetic Communications has been manufacturing colour monitors under licence from Daewoo for the past 18 months and selling them in the OE market as a Kinetic product. It will now target both the branded and OE segment as a Daewoo product which could at a later date become Kinetic-Daewoo. The company expects higher sales in the branded market, since none of the PC manufacturers make their own monitors.

Motwani insisted that no newinvestments had been made for the colour monitor line as they have used the existing TV manufacturing facilities. It may be recalled that Kinetic Engineering's television sets, under the brand name Merlin, had been unsuccessful, with the company discontinuing production.

According to projections, Kinetic Communications is expected to sell up to 36,000 sets during the current year, most of them in the 14-inch size. Priced at around Rs 7,500 this should account for a sales turnover of Rs 25 crore in the current year.

The company, set up in technical collaboration with Orion Electric Company of the Daewoo group, had earlier been engaged in the manufacture of set top converters for television sets. This was discontinued since demand for the product was found to be poor. Kinetic Communications was spun off as a separate company in 1996-97, although it began operations only the following year.

It was expected to transfer to itself the auto electronics line from Jaya Hind Sciaky Ltd last year, a move whichdoes not seem to have materialised.