Innholdsfortegnelse for Sep-11-16 i Business Today

India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru called them temples of modern India and envisaged Central public sector enterprises (CPSES) as vehicles to bring about socio-economic transformation in India. Almost every subsequent prime minister and government – no matter what political dispensation they belonged to – fell in love with the idea of government-owned companies and strove to increase their number. The sole exception, perhaps, would be Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who tried his best to get the government out of being involved in too many businesses and actually created a ministry of disinvestment to sell off CPSEs. Indira Gandhi was the other extreme because she went about ‘nationalising’ flourishing private sector companies and banks, and drastically increased the number of companies that the government ran. In 1951, India had all of…

A THIRD OF THE FALL IN INFLATION WAS EXPLAINED BY RAJAN’S MONETARY POLICY REGIME – HIS POLICY ANNOUNCED IN ADVANCE THAT INTEREST RATES... WOULD DEPEND ON INFLATION Manmohan Singh is a man of history today; but for a long time he was in the centre of economic policy making. When she was Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi had once told him to control inflation, for letting prices go out of control was the surest way of losing power. He could have done nothing then to control oil prices, which Arab countries raised steeply to punish industrial countries for supporting Israel; she lost power, though oil prices were a minor factor in her loss of popularity. But he had a much longer political life; a quarter century after her assassination, he himself…

RINGING FALSE • Since 1995, critical issues such as spectrum usage charges were influenced by leading players • Ad-hoc approach to policymaking has affected players of all sizes • Agencies failed to foresee emerging trends that led to confusion India’s telecom sector can be broadly classified into three phases: 1994 -1999, 2000-2010 and post-2011. Each period is marked by controversies or scams. The sector’s fortune revolves around spectrum. In the first phase, despite the absence of dominant players – given that the sector was still at a nascent stage – some telecom operators rigged the system by bribing the then telecom minister Sukh Ram. The first major change was brought about in 1999 when the NDA government introduced a liberal New Telecom Policy, which allowed private operators to migrate from…

A recent HubSpot study showed that people clicking on interesting articles/ videos in their Facebook feed as a way to catch up on news/ lifestyle stories had undergone a 57 per cent increase in the past two years. Catching up on such stories through mobile notifications had undergone a 34 per cent increase from two years ago. This is a global study and while numbers for India are not available, the content consumption explosion in India through social and mobile has followed a similar path. Terms like curation and storytelling have become part of our lexicon. But it’s not a channel or -platform-based approach that can be successful. Given the seamless consumption of content across devices, we need to approach the creation of content as a continuous stream and not…

In early January, the telecom regulator TRAI organised an open-house discussion in Gulmohar Hall at New Delhi’s India Habitat Centre. The aim was to take the opinion of stakeholders before finalising the blueprint for the year’s spectrum auction from which the government expects to net $87.1 billion (`5.6 lakh crore). The issues discussed included the quantum of spectrum to be auctioned, block size, rollout obligations and reserve price. The auction is scheduled for September-end. Those representing telecom companies wanted the government to delay the sale of the 700 MHZ band, the focal point of the auction, says an executive of a telecom company. They argued that their companies were financially strained and would find it difficult to pay for this expensive band. Plus, the device and equipment ecosystem for this…

When The Walt Disney Company acquired Ronnie Screwvala’s UTV Software Communications for 2,000 crore in 2012, its intent clearly was to fulfil its Bollywood ambitions. UTV was a loss-making entity, but it had an impressive pipeline of films such as Jodhaa Akbar, Rang De Basanti, Kai Po Che! and Barfi!. Disney’s plan was to ride on their success. But the dice has not quite rolled that way. In 2013/14, Disney’s 747-crore studio business (UTV) posted losses of nearly 297 crore (overall company revenues are 1,500 crore, according to the annual report of UTV Software). And, four years on, the news doing the rounds is that The Walt Disney Company has written off its Indian studio acquisition. What happened? “Soon after the acquisition, when the Pandora’s Box opened, the parent company…

DORAEMON PRODUCER: TV Asahi Co. CHANNEL : Disney 478.5 MILLION MOTU PATLU Cosmos Entertainment Nick 427.1 MILLION CHHOTA BHEEM Green Gold Animation Pogo 362.7 MILLION NINJA HATTORI TV Asahi Corporation Nick 345.2 MILLION OGGY Xilam Nick and Sonic 293.3 MILLION ROLL NO 21 Cartoon Network Cartoon Network 195.4 MILLION MIGHTY RAJU Green Gold Animation Pogo 182.7 MILLION SHIVA Nick-Viacom18 Media Sonic 148.3 MILLION HADDI MERA BUDDY Cartoon Network Cartoon Network 92.7 MILLION SHINCHAN TV Asahi Corporation Hungama TV 83.8 MILLION Note: Impressions '000s is a calculation used in the sector to look at the number of people of a particular target segment who watched a show and the amount of time that they spent watching it. Figures are for Jan-July 2016; TG: All India, 4-14, NCCS All…

Many states now provide feed-in tariffs for wind energy for two to three years to make projects lucrative for investors The government has allowed wind projects to qualify as expenditure under the CSR obligation of companies The NDA government has reinstated accelerated depreciation and generation-based incentive for the wind sector BUT... Availability of land continues to be a big challenge Investment in green corridor is fine, but at present evacuation of renewable, especially wind, is challenging Wind projects peak during monsoon and night, a lean time for grid demand…

Few countries understand the nexus between mining and environmental responsibility better than Canada. With over 60 commodities produced at more than 200 mines in the country and $170 billion assets in more than 100 countries, the Canadian mining industry is a world leader in innovation, environmental stewardship, indigenous engagement and corporate social responsibility. This reputation for innovation excellence extends to operations abroad, where high ethical standards have established a strong brand of sustainable development. At the heart of Canada’s approach to achieving its COP21 commitments is a recognition that we have to find greener ways to develop our resources. Between 2005 and 2014, energy use in Canada’s mineral industry fell 7 per cent, the result of efficiency gains in downstream mineral processing and manufacturing sub-sectors. Greenhouse gas emissions fell 8…

The book points out not only what has changed since liberalisation, but also what has not The book covers various facets of social change, but the absence of telecom revolution is somewhat glaring What’s Changed: 25 Years of Liberalized India Edited by Kartikeya Kompella PAGES: 230 PRICE: 399 Random House India If India redeemed its first tryst with destiny on August 15, 1947, this book suggests it did so for a second time with the announcement of the New Industrial Policy in the third week of July 1991. If the first tryst was primarily political – albeit with major economic consequences – the second was primarily economic, with crucial social consequences. It is the different facets of this social change that the 14 essays in this book seek to explore,…

Created in China: How China is Becoming a Global Innovator By Georges Haour and Max Von Zedtwitz PAGES: 200 PRICE: 699 Bloomsbury Publishing I read this book on my way to China for a business meet. I looked at the country with a different lens afterwards. That is the impact the book has on you. From the foreword, which emphasises that “never before in history has such a large country grown economically as fast as China in the last 30 years”, the book grabs your attention. Interestingly, the book never steers away from figures and facts – in that order – and also at places seems to stick just to the positive side of the country’s journey. The fact is that China is fast transitioning from low-cost manufacturing to a…

 Namal Nawana, CEO of US-based diagnostic firm, the $2.6-billion (2014 revenues) Alere, talks to “Our priority is access as a company” Joe C. Mathew about the role of technology in making medical products affordable. How do you see India’s decision to regulate the prices of stents? I think governments need to do what is required to make their healthcare systems work. Stents are fabulous technologies. And if you don’t allow these kinds of technologies, you will not see innovation and improvement, and access to medical devices. This is specific to stents. But we have seen price pressure in diagnostic devices for many, many years in several countries. I have the view that we have to demonstrate the value, and I don’t think the value is understood well enough by the…

Building Castles in the Air This refers to your cover story on Railways (Mission Impossible?, August 28). A well balanced review by the author. The hurdles in the administrative structure of the Railway Board, unproductive hierarchy, rickety recruitment system, labyrinth of inter-departmental procedures, formation of unviable divisions on political compulsions, and faulty administrative zones on regional parochialism are to be blamed for the Indian Railways’ sorry state of affairs. No railway minister so far has run trains for the betterment of the nation. They only cater to their states and constituencies, unmindful of the economically unsound demands. Abruptly changing its business model will certainly put the nation out of gear. The Chinese model is not a globally benchmarked one for straight adoption. Aping them without structural changes will derail the…

308,805 FARMERS COMMITTED SUICIDE BETWEEN 1995 AND 2014, NEARLY 14 PER CENT OF ALL SUICIDES IN THE COUNTRY 52% OF THE AGRICULTURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN THE COUNTRY WERE STRUGGLING WITH DEBT THE GAP Food prices rise faster than wages PROFITING FROM CROPS While expected profit per quintal in 2016/17 is negative for some crops, it is positive for crops covering major cultivable area MORE CASH, YET LESS CASH SUPPORT RICES HAVE BEEN RISING Increase in MSP of major crops also does not seem to have helped much…

For the Love of Ads Facebook has introduced new tools to customise ad viewing experience, letting users choose the kind of ads they want to see on their news feed. If a user is not interested in seeing car advertisements, he can remove that interest from the ad preferences setting and those ads won't appear on his feed. "We’ve introduced tools to help people control their experience, improved how we decide which ads to show and created new ad formats that complement, rather than detract from, people’s experience online," the company said in a blog post. Earlier, the only way for a Facebook user to not see an ad was to block it, but the new feature would push ads to users even if they have enabled their ad blockers.…

The high-speed railway project from Mumbai to Ahmedabad will be an important milestone in India-Japan collaboration... we hope to report the progress when Mr Modi visits Japan during the year We have 1,229 companies operating in India. They are basically into manufacturing. They are employing people and transferring technology, which is much needed for the success of the 'Make in India' campaign Bilateral ties between India and Japan have seen consistent improvement in the past decade. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe built on this momentum through a “Special Strategic and Global Partnership” in 2014. Japan has committed an investment of $35 billion over five years in India as part of this collaboration. As Modi gets ready for yet another visit to Japan during the year,…

The Walt Disney Company India TOTAL REVENUE: 1,500 crore REVENUE OF UTV SOFTWARE: 747 crore LOSS INCURRED BY UTV SOFTWARE: 297 crore While films such as The Jungle Book (around 200 crore revenue) and ABCD2 ( 100 crore revenue, the cost of production was around `60 crore) were the saving grace for the studio, the misses outnumbered the hits. Tamasha, with a 80 crore budget, barely made 60 crore. Fitoor yet another disaster. While the cost of production was around `60 crore, the film managed to barely earn `10-12 crore. Eros International TOTAL REVENUE: 1,604 crore (films contribute over 51 per cent of the total revenue) PROFIT: 337 crore Eros International, despite having blockbusters such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan (over 300 crore revenue) and Bajirao Mastani ( 200 crore revenue), saw…

Born: May 1, 2008 Film Releases: three so far: in 2012, 2013 and 2016 Current Shows: 266 episodes of Chhota Bheem completed so far on Pogo Channel; is watched by 60 million people (mostly children) every month According to Green Gold, Chhota Bheem is worth 300-400 crore as a brand So far, the company has entered into 100 licensing deals – from biscuits to cycles to infant wear, chocolates, tiffin boxes and confectionery Of these, between 40 and 50 are active today…

Globally, each year there are 6.5 million deaths linked to air pollution, according to IEA Nearly 200 GW of India’s power generation capacity is based on coal currently New 1,000-MW ultra super-critical technology can cut CO2 emission by another 15 per cent India is targeting 62 GW generation capacity from nuclear-based power by 2032 Some 86 per cent of mitigation potential in India comes from energy efficiency measures, building better cities and encouraging behaviour changes among consumers Rest 14 per cent comes from deploying low carbon technologies in the electricity and the energy sectors 35,000 km of railway tracks to be electrified in the next three years, cutting down on diesel usage 1,000 MW would come for Railways from solar and wind power by 2020…

From around 2005, solar PV (photovoltaic) installations on rooftops were booming in Germany. The trend was driven by high feed-in tariffs, providing households an attractive and stable business opportunity. The extra cost of solar power was spread over the electricity bills of all. Banks, trusting in the government’s commitment to the industry, were willing to give consumers highly-leveraged credit lines, in some cases even offering a loan for 100 per cent of the system cost. The solar power was not consumed by the household but fed into the grid. Matching solar generation and household’s load profile was, therefore, not necessary. Thus, if a household had rooftop space and did not mind the aesthetics of PV panels, going solar was a no-brainer. Banks, keen on providing the loans, as well as…

Do Indians care about cleantech, greentech and energy enough to part with their money for it? You may think they would, just for the economics. India is energy-starved. We consume more energy than the grid can supply. A lot of the energy we use depends on expensive oil imports. And because we – consumers and businesses – don’t get all the energy we need from the grid, we generate some of it. This ‘power back-up’, usually from diesel-gensets, is expensive – costing two to three times the already-high public utility charges of, for instance, over 7 a unit in many Gurgaon residential complexes, and higher for office or commercial users. But here’s the problem (that I discovered when I was apartment hunting in Gurgaon five years ago and wanted a…

BAG IT OR JUNK IT: One of the best and most powerful Android smartphones around PRICE: 59,990 RATING: 4.5/5 PLUS: Design, built, performance, camera MINUS: TouchWiz user interface The first Galaxy Note phablet launch in 2011 had raised many eyebrows, questioning the very existence of this form factor. Now, the Note is one of the much-awaited devices every year. And, the Galaxy Note 7 has not disappointed us. Samsung skipped the Note 6 to launch the Note 7 in an effort to sync it with the Galaxy S series – the design and innards of the handset mirror the Galaxy S7 Edge. Crafted in metal and glass with rounded corners, it has a 5.7-inch super AMOLED display with 1,440 pixel resolution, and is protected with the latest Corning Gorilla Glass…

Network18 By Indira Kannan Price: 699 Starting from a small room in New Delhi, TV18 grew into Network18, one of India’s biggest media conglomerates. It’s a story of a media empire that could only have been Made in India. Thinking, Fast and Slow By Daniel Kahneman Penguin Price: 499 The Rise and Fall of Nations By Ruchir Sharma Penguin UK Price: 799 ELON MUSK By Ashlee Vance Virgin Books Price: 699 IIMA - Day to Day Economics By Satish Y. Deodhar Random House India Price: 299 Bhujia Barons By Pavitra Kumar Penguin/Portfolio Price: 399 *Top books by sales for July 31 - August 13, 2016; Includes only books released after Jan 1, 2015; Information provided by amazon.in…

8,000 CRORE is the estimated net loss for state power distribution companies for 2016/17, says an India Ratings and Research report. Cumulative losses for discoms as of 2014/15 stood at `58,275 crore. BREXIT EFFECT Infosys faced its first Brexit challenge with the loss of a five-year £300-million Royal Bank of Scotland deal, which will set the Indian IT major back by an estimated $40 million. The RBS recently called off its plans to set up a separate bank in the UK. CONNECTING THE DROPS Maruti Suzuki saved `1.36 lakh in logistics cost, or 4,000 for each of the 34 cars transported through the 1,620 km stretch of Ganga between Varanasi and Haldia. Linking of waterways under the Jal Marg Vikas project will help movement of larger volumes of goods at…

A credit officer of a non-banking finance company, or NBFC, was baffled by a young woman’s response to a question about the end use of a personal loan for which she had applied. “I need it to buy a Louis Vuitton bag,” she said, without blinking an eye. Louis Vuitton handbags cost between `50,000 and `3 lakh. Gone are the days when a personal loan was a social taboo and taken only in an emergency. Today, people are borrowing for child’s birthday, foreign travel, purchasing white goods, home improvement, in fact every spending that would seem discretionary to most. And why not? Loans are, after all, a click away. If a bank slams the door on you, there is always an NBFC you can turn to. And if they, too,…

Government think-tank Niti Aayog created a record of sorts when it came out with a report for a disinvestment strategy for India’s PSEs in just two months. Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, talks about the broad recommendations given by its PSE Committee and their rationale, in an interview to Joe C. Mathew. Excerpts: Niti Aayog was asked to identify the PSEs that should be considered for strategic disinvestment and suggest a future path for loss-making and sick units. What was your recommendation? This has been driven with passion and conviction by Mr Panagariya (Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog), because of his belief that governments should only be (running PSEs) in strategic areas and that, too, if it can be done profitably. So, we began with a broad view…

Super Bheem, which came in movie form in May 2016, will be launched as a television show next year Chhota Bheem won’t be stopped but the plan is to eventually transition to Super Bheem Green Gold Animation, producer of Chhota Bheem, is investing about $1 million to open a small studio in Los Angeles, US, with a six-member team this September The team will work on developing content for the international audience Focus will be on children in the 4-9-year age group, which the company claims to understand well In six to eight months, the company plans to develop the content and then look for local tie-ups and take up co-production, first for television there and later for theatres abroad Later, plans to get into mini theme parks, first in…

Reduction of emission intensity to GDP by 33-35 per cent by 2030, compared to 2005, is India’s commitment India to create additional Carbon Sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030 40 per cent of electricity would come from non-fossil fuels by 2032; currently it is 30 per cent India has promised a focus on less polluting Super Critical technology units for coal-based power generation *Intended Nationally Determined Contribution…

BAG IT OR JUNK IT: Goqii is not just another wearable but an ecosystem focusing on healthy living PRICE: 1,999 (for three months subscription; band comes free) RATING: 4/5 Fitness bands are in abundance, but the Goqii, along with its coaching service, was in a league of its own. However, though it kept a count on how many steps the user is walking, had coaches to help you develop good eating habits and do the right exercises, besides donating karmas for social causes, it wasn't flawless. But the Goqii 2.0, with an improved core that captures data, has further expanded the ecosystem. The band and the core continue to look the same, but the company has done away with its proprietary charger. A USB had been added to the core,…