Business Today February 2016

The past one and a half years probably saw more changes taking place in the banking industry than the previous decade and a half. Many of those changes were initiated and pushed through by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan. The central bank chief always had a reputation for speaking his mind, and for his fine understanding of the global financial markets. He is also developing a reputation for pulling a fairly reluctant banking system in India to change, though many bankers and bureaucrats are trying to slow down the process. Among the big changes the banking system in the country saw last year was the 10 licences given out to small finance banks and the in-principle approval given to 11 players for setting up payments banks. If…

Online Grocery: Will It Attract Crowds for Long? This refers to your cover story on grocery wars (The Perishable Business, January 31). It is a very interesting read. No doubt, there is a lot of hype around online grocery shopping in India. But will it attract huge crowds for a long time? Will it face the same fate as dotcoms some years ago? For me, the hype won’t last long, because, in the long run, certainly there is no fun of shopping from home. In a broader sense, I will say online grocery shopping is boring, it creates complexity in your lifestyle, it’s quite expensive and also not competitive. In fact, if I have access to good consumer markets, what’s the need for going online shopping? Let’s wait and watch.…

PERSPECTIVES The Day Start-ups Arrived The start-up “revolution” for NaMo’s action plan businesstoday.in/startup-modi A Challenging Year Awaits Indian IT Sector The growth could be a few notches lower than what Nasscom expects the IT industry to cobble up this year businesstoday.in/IT-challenge Wipro’s New CEO Has a Challenge on His Hands Abid Ali Neemuchwala is less than a year old in the company and he needs to quickly put his stamp on the company businesstoday.in/ wipro-neemuchwala NEWS The Bad and the Good for India Behind China’s Slowdown The steep fall in value of the Chinese currency Yuan in recent weeks has once again emboldened the naysayers businesstoday.in/china-slowdown BT COLUMN US Mission Is to Cure Cancer. What Is Ours? In health care, there are several other ailments, too. But all we need…

TYING THE KNOT, AGAIN! Media moghul Rupert Murdoch (84) got engaged to former model Jerry Hall (59). The announcement was made by taking out an advertisement in the Births, Marriages and Deaths section of Murdoch’s Times newspaper. HEARD IN DAVOS “My view of China is that it will have a bumpy landing, not a hard landing” NYU economics professor Nouriel Roubini “Men still run the world and it's not going that well” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg “We are in a world where we do not know the fundamental value of any asset” RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan “We can do better. The potential of higher growth of 1-1.5% more than the current 7.5% is definitely there” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley RICH VS POOR $1.76 trillion Combined wealth of the 62 richest…

27 ETHICAL CHOICE WHAT: Going Beyond Compliance—Code of Conduct for Ethics WHEN: January 27, CII-Gurgaon WHAT TO LOOK FOR: While companies have already documented Code of Conduct and Ethics Policies, are they being complied with? Are these being effectively adopted and used by the various stakeholders? That’s where it’s essential to hear about best practices from companies that have gone beyond compliance. 28-30 LEADERSHIP LESSONS WHAT: Board Leadership Programme WHEN: January 28-30, 2016, ISB Hyderabad WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The three-day residential programme is an in-campus initiative. Besides a structured programme, participants can expect best practices and experience sharing, apart from valuable interaction with board members, both from family enterprises as well as independent professionals. 25-27-29 NEXT-GEN FARMING WHAT: Sustainable Agriculture: Harnessing Technologies—Harvesting Prosperity WHEN: January 25, 27, 29; Hyderabad,…

You don’t catch a falling knife. Therefore, most investment bankers are unwilling to go on record and hazard a guess on whether there will be a sustained slump in the secondary market. But they are concerned all right. A prolonged bear run will hit the primary market hard. “The current uncertainty in the global economy has made things look difficult. Forget valuations coming down, the concern is whether issues will sail through in this falling market,” says a senior banker. Concurs Ravi Sardana, Executive Vice President at ICICI Securities. “The market volatility and bearish outlook in the short term on account of global issues will impact the primary market. Issues will be launched only when there is confidence on the confirmed demand.” The Indian equity market plunged over 8 per…