Business Today October 23, 2016

The Indian pharmaceutical industry has spawned many fascinating stories of entrepreneurs, who started out with limited or no resources but went on to build multinational operations and highly profitable companies, seizing opportunities in India and abroad as they came along. Two of the more fascinating stories are those of Ranbaxy Laboratories, and Dilip Shanghvi’s Sun Pharmaceuticals. Over the past two years, the two stories have become intertwined after Shanghvi took over Ranbaxy in 2014 from Daiichi Sankyo, which had bought it from the Singh brothers – Malvinder and Shivinder – in 2008. But to start with, Ranbaxy was the much older and more prominent name in the pharmaceutical industry, and until about a decade ago, it was also the bigger and more profitable of the two. Ranbaxy was started in…

A Big Salute to the Role Models of 2016 This refers to your special edition on women in business (The Most Powerful Women in Business, October 9). You have appropriately highlighted the achievements of the select 30, who have reached glorious heights. They have risen to the top against all odds. You are reminded of the lines coined by William Congreve, an English playwright and poet: “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” These women were initially not given their due place and respect, but later proved their mettle to reach their exalted positions. Right from the start of their lives, women are asked to play multiple roles in their lives. I believe women are far superior to men because…

QUOTE “Right from the beginning we have kept a very precise focus on security” – Navin Kumar, Chairman, Goods and Services Tax Network, revealed that an eight-layered security wall has been built by Infosys to ensure data of 8 million taxpayers from across 29 states, UTs and the Central government, is protected. TAPER FADE The 20-member consortium of lenders to loss-making Essar Steel has decided to recast the 44,000-crore worth bad loans instead of taking a 50 per cent haircut by selling it to Asset Care and Reconstruction Enterprise. Private sector lenders HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Federal Bank have already sold their Essar Steel NPA exposure worth 2,200 crore. CENTRAL BANK TURNS DOVISH In his first interaction with senior economists, RBI Governor Urjit Patel downplayed the risk of inflation,…

12 MARK TO MARKETING WHAT: Marketing Led Commerce in the Digital Age WHEN: 12 October, Bengaluru WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The webinar organised by CII will discuss technology trends shaping digital marketing and have insights around how best to design key performance indicators in marketing and track return on investment. 13 GREEN STEPS WHAT: Smart Cities Conference 2016 WHEN: 13 October, Lucknow WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The conference aims to create awareness and encourage decision makers from the government, industry and the citizenry to integrate services and measures that will reduce environmental footprint of cities, increase their appeal, and safeguard quality of life without any adverse effects on the efficiency of utilities. 13 MANUFACTURING CONNECT WHAT: CII WR Digitizing India Summit 2016 WHEN: 13 October, Hyderabad WHAT TO LOOK FOR:…

23.7 % The external debt-GDP ratio in March 2016 $85.7bn Absolute growth in NRI deposits over nine years 74.5 % External commercial borrowings, NRI deposits and multilateral debt as a percentage of total external debt (the longterm debt components) 32,23,020 crore The external debt stock in rupee terms (2015/16) UNDER CONTROL WELL PLACED A HEALTHY TREND BETTING ON DOLLARS…

Indian banks, especially public sector banks, have often been criticised for giving a long rope to the likes of Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher, Nitin Kasliwal of S Kumar’s or Manoj Tirodkar of GTL. Reams have been written about how large corporations and their high-and-mighty promoters have used the system to their advantage, which has resulted in the rise in gross non-performing assets (NPAs) from 2 lakh crore a few years ago to `6 lakh crore now. However, an analysis of NPAs in the banking system provides a very different picture. Sample this: gross NPAs in the large corporate segment – loans of 500 crore, or more – is just at 2.9 per cent of the advances, compared to 9.7 per cent for the mid-corporate segment and 9.9 per cent for…