Business Today September 27, 2015

In 2003, Business Today started a new survey – to identify the most powerful women in Indian business. The idea was to choose and celebrate women who had reached the pinnacle of corporations and banks and were directing their destinies. Since then, this annual survey has become one of our most popular listings. Over the years, we have refined our methodology and have also started applying far more rigour to choose our final 25 winners from a list of over 150 women achievers in the corporate world. Every year, the list sees several new entrants as more women make it to the pinnacle of their organisations. A few women drop out of the list because they have either retired or moved away professionally. And in some cases, some ladies have…

Mind-boggling Collections This refers to your special issue on luxury (September 13). Well, luxury means different things to different people. I tried a Google search on “luxury” images and the results included a gold-plated shower-head, Rolls-Royce Phantom, a jewel-studded palm tree and a villa exterior – just to name a few. “Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity,” according to Coco Chanel. Says US fashion designer Michael Kors: “For me, true luxury can be caviar or a day with no meetings, no appointments and no schedule.” All said and done, I feel when the common man is feeling the pinch of high inflation, the BT team seems to be enjoying an awesome sense of humour by coming out with…

INTERVIEW “Online education is casual, that is the challenge” Serial entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar, former investment professional at venture firm Bertelsmann India Investments, speak with Taslima Khan about their new education venture UpGrad. businesstoday.in/upgrad-screwvala “Will take on India when we consider ourselves ready” Neeraj Chauhan, co-founder and CEO, Obi Worldphone, and a serial entrepreneur who has run IT and telecom distribution companies, explains the strategy of the new Obi brand to Manu Kaushik. businesstoday.in/obi-chauhan NEWS Mega trade pact RECP to miss 2015 deadline businesstoday.in/recp-deadline Chinese smartphone vendor Meizu MX5 launched for `19,999 businesstoday.in/meizu-mx5 Plantronics launches two wireless Bluetooth headsets in India businesstoday.in/plantronics-headsets Odisha unveils new industrial policy businesstoday.in/odisha-policy Mercedes to launch AMG GT later this year for `3 crore businesstoday.in/mercedes-amg Alcatel OneTouch launches its first tablet POP 8S…

9,379 CRORE The amount mopped up by the government from the recent Indian Oil share sale, the biggest this fiscal. LIC pumped in an estimated `8,000 crore to pick up IOC shares in the divestment programme. Its stake in the company has gone up to 11.11 per cent from 2.52 per cent earlier UNDER PRESSURE Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is in the dock for allegedly doctoring government accounts last year to hide the deterioration of the country’s finances. She is alleged to have delayed 40 billion reais ($11.50 billion) in social payments to artificially bolster fiscal accounts. If found guilty, she faces impeachment £950 MILLION It’s a Beautiful Day indeed for Bono whose Facebook shares fetched nearly £1 billion, more than his earnings in a career spanning nearly four decades.…

15 SKILLING INDIA WHAT: Report on jobs generation WHEN: Mid-September WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The NITI Aayog’s sub-group of chief ministers on skill development will submit a report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The report is likely to suggest ways on improving credit and marketing linkages to improve job generation. There is a big support for overcoming shortage of trainers by involving the industry and national level institutions such as IIT, IIM and universities. 15 DRAFT LEGISLATION WHAT: Goods and Services Tax legislation WHEN: By September 15 WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The government will ready the draft legislation – central GST law, state GST law and integrate GST law – by September 15, said revenue secretary Shaktikanta Das. 1 FOCUS ON SMALL BANKS WHAT: Small bank licences WHEN: September WHAT…

4.5% The Indian rupee depreciated between January 15 and August 25, 2015 One year ago, the Russia-Ukraine conflict had put the global financial markets in a tizzy, sending shivers down the spine of currency investors. The Greek crisis, which had thrown the currency markets out of gear almost six years ago, also came back to haunt the markets three months ago, but a last-minute bail out by the Eurozone countries somewhat salvaged the situation. Now, Asian economic powerhouse, China, is the epicentre of a fresh crisis that has rattled the currency and stock markets the world over, with its decision to devalue the yuan. And China is no Russia, Ukraine or Greece. “It consumes half the world’s base metals. Its share of iron ore, for example, is at 70 per…