Innholdsfortegnelse for May 22, 2016 i Business Today

We have had an early onset of summer this year, and after two years of bad monsoons, the water crisis has become acute in all parts of the country. The Marathwada region of Maharashtra is experiencing severe drought, and so are Telangana, large parts of Rajasthan and Odisha, among others. Even some parts of the country, which are technically not under the grip of drought, are facing severe water shortage. A recent newspaper report says that some of Mumbai’s posh apartment complexes depend on water tankers for their daily supply. Water rationing has become the norm in many parts of the country, and factories in some of the worst-affected areas have had to close down or at least work in only one shift as they do not get the water…

09 - 10 SMART FACTORY WHAT: CII IQ Anniversary Day & National Business Excellence Conclave 2016 WHEN: May 9-10, New Delhi WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The event will seek to recognise key strategies and opportunities that smart manufacturing brings to a company, learn about new technologies such as 3D printing, robotics, and new software solutions to bring about the fourth major industrial revolution, through the eyes of the CEOs, COOs, VPs, directors and business leaders. 13 GO GREEN WITH PLASTIC WHAT: 5th National Conference on Potential of Plasticulture in India WHEN: May 13, New Delhi WHAT TO LOOK FOR: India currently supports nearly 17.50 per cent of world’s population and 4 per cent of water resources. And, Indian agriculture consumes 80 per cent of available water. Plasticulture can play an…

IT IS PRESUMED THAT DEALS THAT DO NOT BREACH THE THRESHOLD HAVE LITTLE ADVERSE EFFECTS ON COMPETITION By revising the minimum threshold for mandatory notifications of merger and acquisition deals upwards last month, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has outlined the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) priorities – more investigative powers to curb anticompetitive practices and less merger control. According to the new framework, companies of a certain size must notify a potential deal to the CCI, which then decides whether it has an adverse effect on competition. Firms – either the acquirer or the one being acquired – with minimum assets of 2,000 crore or a turnover of 6,000 crore must notify the CCI of their M&A plans. For global firms, the minimum threshold has been revised to…

Reliance Industries (RIL), India’s largest private oil refiner, is in the final stage of its biggest-ever investment cycle for launching a digital 4G business (Jio), expanding petrochemical facilities and making its refineries more efficient. For RIL, a large capital expenditure cycle is not unusual. However, the sheer scale of the investments this time, and the unusually high debt it is taking for that — remember that founder Dhirubhai Ambani built RIL on the strength of small shareholders and singlehandedly made equity investing popular in India — is making investors jittery. Especially as newer investments such as in shale gas in the US and retail are not adding much to the bottom line, leaving it dependent, some say over-dependent, on refining and petrochemical verticals. In the last financial year, for instance,…

India’s reservoirs now hold 39.7 billion cubic metres of water, down from 65 two years ago, and far below full capacity of 157.8 billion cubic metres Droughts have wreaked a cumulative loss of $1.49 billion on the Indian economy since year 2000 India charges $0.4 per kl for domestic water, compared to $3.41 for Brazil and $1.5 for the US Per capita water availability is down from 5,177 cubic metres per annum in 1951 to 1,545 cubic metres today Allocation for water resources ministry has increased 19 per cent to `6,431 crore in 2015/16 from 2014/15 60% respondents in an industry survey by Ficci say water availability is impacting their business; 87% feel it would get worse by 2021…

P.J. Nayak Committee’s Key Recommendations • The govt should set up a Bank Investment Company (BIC) to hold its stake in PSBs • Banks Board Bureau is a temporary arrangement; BIC should take over banks finally • The tenure of a chairman should be at least five years • Government should stay away from issuing instructions to PSBs for development objectives • Government should reduce its holding in PSBs below 50 per cent A.K. Khandelwal Committee’s Key Recommendations • Succession planning for critical leadership positions • Improve quality of HR performance systems • Train people in critical areas like treasury, corporate banking, risk management • SBI be granted Maharatna status on the lines of SAIL, NTPC, IOC and ONGC…

As a working woman in current times, you cannot help but notice and respect Hillary’s resolve to have it all Karen Blumenthal’s biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hillary, clearly proves that she is an award-winning children’s writer and journalist. The book is engaging, to-the-point and a fast read. In an effort to establish who Hillary is, Blumenthal chronicles her life events, identifies her key influencers and adds perspective on her primary motivations. In the bibliography, Blumenthal reveals that she never actually interviewed Hillary. Notwithstanding this, she is able to deepen our understanding of a leader who has both “fascinated” and “divided” people. As a mother of daughters and as a career woman, I find Blumenthal provides excellent insight into the complexity and challenges of being and “becoming” Hillary. Blumenthal divides…

“Indian publishers were easier to convince than those in developed markets” With over 7,800 magazines and 1.6 million subscribers, Vijay Radhakrishnan, Co-founder and President, Magzter, tells Sapna Nair Purohit that he now plans to tap advertising revenues. What were the initial hiccups in getting publishers, especially in India? In 2011, publishing on a tablet or smartphone was the buzzword. Many big publishers wanted to explore it themselves, but did not understand the nuances of marketing or adapting to changing technology. Then we arrived as a self-service publishing platform with the knowhow of marketing and, despite the initial resistance, managed to rope in big players. Indian publishers were easier to convince than those in developed markets, including the US. Today, India contributes around 30 per cent to our subscription revenues. Why…

The Needle of Suspicion This refers to your cover story on Tata Group (Trophy Buy, Distress Sale, May 8). The in-depth study of the Group’s performance in the European market is worth publishing. It’s quite interesting to read. And also, it’s quite unimaginable that a steel plant was sold for peanuts – £1! In India, it is below the price of a half broiler chicken. No doubt the distress sale has dented the image of the group and Ratan Tata’s dream of “good times in steel industry” has been belied. But who is behind this disaster? Who is the needle of suspicion pointing at? It is high time the patriarch of the Tata empire traced the troublemaker and found a troubleshooter before his empire vanishes into the blue. B.S. Acharya,…

Urvesh Goel appears thrifty on professional networking site LinkedIn where he talks about how his company, Syberplace, is different from other online electronic stores. “The key differentiation is that we do not give away anything for free,” he writes. His thriftiness is apparent in the way he promotes his company – by watching every return on investment (ROI). “About 22-30 per cent of our advertising spending is on Google and about 1-5 per cent on Facebook,” he says. “Facebook is on and off.” Why is that? Goel’s loyalties towards Google came from a gradual realisation. Social media giant Facebook is great for building a brand, he figured out. But, unlike Google, it falters when it comes to sales or ROI. On the other hand, Google helps businesses capitalise on existing…

“Had UDAY bonds not come, the power exposure of some of the banks would have become NPAs. The banks would have been in bigger trouble”PRAVEEN KUMAR GUPTA, MD (Compliance & Risk Management), State Bank of India In early 2000, state-owned power producers such as NTPC were forced to sign a 40,000 crore one-time settlement with state-owned power distribution companies (discoms). The states issued tax-free bonds to power producers as recommended by the group of experts headed by former member of planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia. In less than a decade, the discoms were back with a begging bowl before the banks to restructure over 2 lakh crore outstanding loans. Banks did restructure the loans, but not without setting stringent conditions for revival including increasing power tariffs, cutting distribution losses and…

“In one bank the taxi fare reimbursement policy gets the same coverage in a board deliberations as the NPA recovery policy. Other non-strategic issues discussed include purchase of office premises at Bhopal... (and) details of a lecture by a bank’s CMD at a college” Excerpts from RBI-appointed P.J. Nayak Committee report on governance of boards of banks (2014). “HR function is very weakly monitored at the board level and in fact strategic issues relating to talent management, succession planning and leadership are rarely discussed. By the admission of CEOS themselves, they are not able to allocate time to HR issues” Excerpts from the Central government-appointed A.K. Khandelwal Committee report on HR issues of public sector banks (2009). Vijay Mallya’s default on Kingfisher Airlines’ 9,000 crore loans has put the spotlight…

There may not have been an improvement in the living condition of a truck driver in India, but the cabin where he spends the majority of his time on the road has seen significant changes in the past decade. Partly due to changes in emission and safety norms, today’s truck is more powerful than before while offering better driveability. Further, it is no longer difficult to find air-conditioned cabins, GPS tracking devices and Bluetooth connectivity in the vehicles. Sample this. While the average engine of a truck in 2001 had a maximum output of about 160 horsepower (hp), it has now gone up to almost 230 hp. In fact, for specialised mining operations, Volvo even offers a 400 hp engine. More power means better load-carrying capacity and higher speed that…

Superbosses By Sydney Finkelstein Price: 699 The book, a leadership guide, shows the incredible impact that great managers can have, both on their employees and on entire industries. BUSINESS BESTSELLERS* ELON MUSK By Ashlee Vance Virgin Books Price: 699 Thinking, Fast and Slow By Daniel Kahneman Penguin Price: 499 Steve Jobs By Walter Isaacson Little, Brown Book Group Price: 550 IIMA - Day to Day Economics By Satish Y. Deodhar Random House India Price: 299 Chanakya in You By Radhakrishnan Pillai Jaico Publishing House Price: 299 *Top books by sales for Apr 3 - Apr 17, 2016; Includes only books released after Jan 1, 2015; Information provided by…

$250 BILLION Apple’s cash reserves and marketable securities, out of which $200 billion – a whopping 93 per cent – are stacked overseas. CEO Tim Cook has made it clear that the company has no plans to bring the proceeds home and sacrifice roughly 40 per cent of that stash to pay taxes in the US. VAULT-FACE Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, is in trouble for allegedly owning benami assets worth thousands of crores across the world. According to reports, Income Tax and Enforcement Department raids have found Wills executed by benami holders, purportedly in favour of his daughter, in Karti’s vault. TOO ODD TO EVEN OUT BJP MP Ram Prasad Sharma arrived on horseback, while Manoj Tiwari rode a bicycle to Parliament to protest…

Search n' Watch Those painstaking moments of scrolling through channels looking for something to watch on TV could be history. Google has decided to simplify this process for us. In a blog post, the search engine announced that it would soon have live TV listings, which means when a user searches for a particular show on Google it won’t just lead you to apps and sites where you can watch the latest episode, but will also display its TV airing time and channel. “What we're seeing is that more and more viewers are turning to their phones to find out what to watch, where to watch it and when it’s available," Google said in a blog post. “In fact, searches for TV shows and films on mobile have grown more…

AS ECONOMIC POWER SHIFTS TO ASIA, CHINA WILL FIND THAT COUNTRIES LIKE INDIA HAVE NEW STRATEGIC OPTIONS AS BIG POWERS WHO INDULGED CHINA DURING ITS RISE, NOW PERCEIVE IT AS A THREAT TO INTERNATIONAL ORDER AND SECURITY The cancellation of visa of Dolkun Isa, secretary of the World Uyghur Congress, wishing to attend a conference at Dharamsala organised by the US-based group, Initiatives for China, alternatively called Citizen Power for China, which Dr Yang Jianli heads, raised a furore in India on social media and television. He is a former Berkeley University student who returned to China to join student protests at Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in 1989. Escaping the clampdown, he turned activist for bringing, as his group proclaims, a “peaceful transition to democracy in China through truth, understanding, citizen…

Water trains have begun rolling into Maharashtra’s Latur to combat the severe drought. Such trains have been seen in past droughts, too – in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and elsewhere. It is, therefore, ironic that the Railways should be accused of perpetrating a water crisis. But it is. Allegedly by overcharging water. According to a petition filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) by the Society for Protection of Environment and Biodiversity (SPENBIO), the Railways have allegedly overdrawn groundwater in all 73 divisions across 16 zones, including in ‘notified’ areas where they should have taken the Central Ground Water Authority’s (CGWA) sanction, but did so at only three places in the past 10 years. Notified areas are where groundwater has already been excessively exploited, and further extraction is allowed only for drinking…

MALARIA 6,500-10,000 CEREBRAL MALARIA 12,500-18,500 DENGUE Depending on the complications, could be around 15,000 CHIKUNGUNYA Depends on the complications but could range 6,500-10,000 JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS Depends on the complications but could range 32,000-40,000 Industry estimates of costs in tier II towns – include tests, hospital admission charges (about 3 days for malaria, 5 days for celerbral malaria and 7 days for japanese encephalitis) , drugs and doctor’s charges. The estimates will vary depending on the gradation of hospitals and from town to town, and city to city. Source: Industry estimates and BT research…

Figures of overall growth for the last financial year are some weeks away; but meanwhile, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) has published the February figures of industrial growth. They continue to be unmistakably modest. For the 11 months ending in February, industrial growth was a mere 2.6 per cent – a figure that may look normal in some ailing European country, but stands out as uncharacteristically low for our country, which only a few years ago was clocking figures around 10 per cent. Capital investment in the same period was 1.4 per cent below the previous year, which points to a deficiency of hope amongst entrepreneurs who invest for the future. The growth figures of 3.6 per cent for basic goods and 2.6 per cent for intermediate goods are well…

On July 9, 2007, Chuck Prince, then the CEO of Citigroup, made a comment that was to become notorious: “When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing.” Prince meant well. He wanted to reassure reporters in Japan that signs of weakness in the US sub-prime mortgage market would not cause Citigroup, a major player in that market, to pull back from further lending there. A mere two months later, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy as a result of its losses on subprime mortgages, triggering a meltdown in the global financial system. As the mortgage market collapsed, millions of Americans lost their homes. The US taxpayers had to bail…