Innholdsfortegnelse for 09 April 2017 i Business Today

India’s “demographic dividend” is often cited as a major reason for India becoming an economic superpower in the next couple of decades. The term refers to the fact that the country is in that sweet spot where the bulk of the population is in the working age group (15-64), and is expected to remain so over the next decade or more. By 2020, India is expected to have the world’s largest population of working people, and the average Indian will be 29 years old compared to a 37 for China and US, 45 for Western Europe, and 48 for Japan. According to the labour ministry data, roughly one million Indian youth are joining the workforce every month. The demographic dividend is expected to increase economic activity and production rapidly, thus…

21 LABOUR REFORMS WHAT: Summit on Labour and Product Market Reforms in Advanced Economies WHEN: March 21, Tokyo WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Cohosted by the IMF and Asian Development Bank Institute, the meet will discuss new empirical analysis, numerical simulations, and case studies for assessing the fiscal impact of labour and product market reforms in advanced economies. It will also evaluate the case for complementing reforms with fiscal support. 21-23 BACK TO BASICS WHAT: Jakarta Basic Education Conference 2017 WHEN: March 21-23, Jakarta, Indonesia WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The World Bank forum will aim to share lessons from best practices and “excellent systems” in basic education globally as well as to facilitate new networks and partnerships. Participants at the conference will include government officials and education, experts from the World…

There isn’t a single day when fashion designing student Alina Mehta does not coordinate her outfit with matching nail paint. The 18-year-old has a collection of over 100 nail paints, including Lakme, L’Oréal and Maybelline, besides many unheard-off online brands. One of her favourites is Stay Quirky, which offers her over 500 shades to choose from. “They have shades such as fluorescent orange and paints with glitters that none of the big brands offer,” says Mehta, displaying her freshly painted fluorescent orange nails, which perfectly matches her bright orange outfit. Mehta’s best riend Anaya Raj, not just buys nail paints but shops for her entire beauty needs online. Her favourite skincare brand is neither Garnier nor Olay, but online brand Plum Goodness. Raj, who has recently bought a four-in-one face…

Santosh Nirwal, a 37-year-old sugar cane farmer, has been growing the crop for the past nine years. In the current sugar year (SY2016/17), spanning from October to April, the yield from his farm in Shamli district of West Uttar Pradesh, has been excellent, thanks to improved seed quality and a good monsoon. It is expected to fetch him a good price as strong demand, coupled with a tight supply situation, has kept sugar prices high. Moreover, states like Uttar Pradesh often raise sugar cane prices based on production costs, yields and sugar recovery rates. This state-advised price can be way above the fair and remunerative pricing determined by the central government. A bumper crop like the one Nirwal has raised would have normally led to a sugar glut and pulled…

Philps Hue Sync the light with movies and music; control the bulb from almost anywhere Belkin WeMo This smart plug socket can be used for home appliances such as ACs and TVs, too Syska Sonic A combination of a smart light and a Bluetooth speaker; offers three million colours Belkin’s WeMo: This is a Wi-Fi-enabled smart switch designed as per international specifications, and comes with a WeMo Motion kit. Plug your lamp into WeMo and control it through the WeMo app. It can be used for home appliances such as ACs and TVs as well. The app monitors electronics and sends energy usage details on the user’s smartphone. Price: 4,306 D-Link’s DSP-W215: This has a thermal sensor that prevents the plug from overheating. Other than controlling devices through the app,…

Unicorns Hurtling Helter-skelter This refers to your cover story on start-ups (The Fall of the Unicorns, March 26). It was a unique study of Indian unicorns explaining in detail what failed them, what turned them frail, and what should be done on priority to resuscitate them and revitalise their operations. The unicorns have largely failed to read the writing on the wall regarding revenue realisation, increasing operational costs, meagre cash flows and profit impact. In fact, it is a case of chasing the mirage of progress, with unicorns hurtling helter-skelter and caught in the trap of growth tantrums. Instead of growing profitably on the back of high demand by customers, the unicorns dictated their own terms in the deals, and have hit mounds of business difficulties. Their puerile belief that…

BOTH THE CONGRESS IN PUNJAB AND THE BJP IN UP HAVE PROMISED TO WAIVE OFF LOANS TO SMALL & MARGINAL FARMERS AND PROVIDE THEM INTEREST-FREE LOANS... ON MARCH 16, IN THE LOK SABHA, AGRICULTURE MINISTER RADHA MOHAN SINGH SAID THE UNION GOVERNMENT WOULD BEAR THE BURDEN OF THE UP GOVERNMENT. BUT THERE IS SILENCE ON PUNJAB UTTARAKHAND High unemployment rate (6.1%) Crises: Low investments in infrastructure, hydro-power projects hit by court cases PUNJAB Debt: 1,25,320 crore ( 31.4% of GSDP) Crises: Agriculture growth is slowing while industry has lost competitiveness GOA Debt-to-GSDP ratio has been rising sharply. Crises: Mining sector is down; need for better coordination with the Centre UTTAR PRADESH Debt: 3,27,470 crore (30.1% of GSDP) Crises: Bundelkhand has been facing drought year after year; industrial clusters in places…

THE GOVERNMENT IS YET TO QUANTIFY THE OUTCOME OF ITS DEMONETISATION EXERCISE On March 13, all restrictions that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed on cash withdrawal after the demonetisation of high-value currency (accounting for 86 per cent cash in circulation four months ago) came to an end. The apex bank and the central government, however, continue to stall all information regarding the decision, its purpose and its real impact. In response to an RTI query by Business Today, the RBI has said that it cannot disclose the date when it had instructed currency printing presses to stop printing the now withdrawn 500 and 1,000 notes as the information is confidential and sensitive in nature. To a related query meant to understand the quantum of those old high-denomination…

When Archana, a travel enthusiast, tweeted to a telecom company about how good the phone network was throughout her week-long travel to rural Punjab, the response she got was befuddling. Instead of a heartfelt acknowledgement from the company, she received this: “Thank you for your message. Our executive will reach out to you shortly. We regret the inconvenience.” Thanks to automation, such mismatched (bordering on inane) replies have been on the rise on social media platforms. Digital marketers laud automation for the speed and scalability it offers. But generic responses, such as the one above, under the garb of ‘always listening to consumers’ usually backfire and do more harm to the company than good. “Machine learning is in its early days, so it is important to bring in the right…

“Havells invests in technology and manufacturing of every product category it enters. Lloyd will also have to do the same. Over time, we do not want to be considered as an air-conditioner firm but a full-fledged consumer durables player.”Anil Rai Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, Havells IN 2010 , a group of distributors and dealers asked Anil Rai Gupta, the Chairman and Managing Director of Havells India, if he had any plan to manufacture air-conditioners (ACs). Havells had by then transformed itself from a pure industrial to a consumer business and established itself in the premium ceiling fan category. It was these fan buyers who were enquiring about ACs. The dealers decided to put the thought into Gupta’s mind. The company, which has a long history of making acquisitions to…

Skills are finally gaining recognition and there is a new appreciation of the importance of performing tasks in a culture that has put a premium on theoretical knowledge in the past. The growing pressure to create jobs for millions of youngsters, combined with increasing demand for talent, has put skill development at the centre of economic policymaking. The latest data on unemployment have only stressed the need for rapid skill development. The Labour Bureau report puts the national unemployment rate at 5 per cent, the highest since 2010. Moreover, it is nearly equal in the supposedly booming urban economy and the laggard rural economy. In fact, this situation is an extension of the long-term trend. According to the Census and the National Sample Survey (NSS) numbers, the aggregate employment growth…

Early this year, the Indian arm of Pfizer decided to discontinue the manufacture and sale of Corex cough syrup, the crown jewel in its domestic portfolio. Corex was its biggest revenue generator and among the country’s top five drug brands. What made the decision more surprising was that Pfizer had fought a legal battle against a March 2016 Central government ban on sale of this fixed dose combination, or FDC, medicine, along with 333 others, and won. The decision to discontinue the syrup came a month after the court ruling. The government had banned these FDC drugs in March 2016 after a committee of experts found that they were likely to pose a risk to patients and safer alternatives were available. An FDC drug includes two or more active pharmaceutical…

The Founder’s Mentality BY CHRIS ZOOK AND JAMES ALLEN PAGES: 214 PRICE: 1,095 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING New companies are fragile; one wrong move and everything can fall apart, while the race to become a global force is always on. On the other hand, while established organisations are always under pressure to maintain their stature and grow bigger, they strive to have the spirit of a start-up. The Founder’s Mentality is a note of advice on how to become a ‘scale insurgent’ company. Zook and Allen have focused on internal factors that make a company successful for everyone – from the founder to the employees. According to the authors, the ultimate goal of all organisations is growth. But, as observed, every company witnesses a certain dry period where the fast…

Tête-à-tête The last fortnight saw several business honchos meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo, met him and offered the MNC’S participation in the government’s efforts for development in the country and for the upliftment of farmers. “PepsiCo is well positioned to help the government deliver on the national development goals he has outlined for farmers, supporting their livelihoods,” Nooyi said after the meeting. Nooyi also discussed with the PM the launch of new Quaker Oats products and the company’s plan to use more Indian-grown fruits in their beverages. Nooyi has signed a letter of intent with the Maharashtra government for mutual collaboration in skill development of workers in food processing plants, besides modernising industrial training institutes. In a separate development, Toyota’s President Akio…

Bots Invasion A study by the University of Southern California and Indiana University suggests that about 9-15 per cent of active accounts on Twitter are bots. Twitter currently has 319 million monthly active users and 15 per cent of this figure would amount to 48 million profiles on the social networking site. The research used more than 1,000 features across six categories and analysed user accounts for profile appearance, content produced and retweeted, and interactions with other users in terms of retweets and mentions, to decide whether the profile was used by a bot or a human. In a recent filing to US Securities and Exchange Commission, Twitter had said that about 8.5 per cent (27 million) of its users are automated accounts – a figure it had given in…

When Shruti Malik drives past farmland being ploughed on the outskirts of Yamunanagar, Haryana, she has reason to feel proud. She knows one of the men on the tractors at work was once her student at IRIS Learning, the skilling institute she runs in the town, which has so far trained 2,400 young people in sugarcane cultivation, polyhouse farming and the use of different kinds of agricultural implements. After a month-long training stint at IRIS, Rakesh Sandhu bought a tractor with a loan from the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna – a scheme to facilitate micro business ventures begun in 2016 – which he hires out (with himself as driver) for a fee to farmers around Yamunanagar who need their fields ploughed. “After the training, my students command a premium,” says…

By March next year, micro loans doled out by banks and non-bank entities without any collateral – Mudra loans as they are called – would cross the 5 lakh crore mark. It’s huge, given that the outstanding loans of micro and small medium enterprises (MSME) add up to 12 lakh crore. The Mudra loans have an alarmingly high level of exposure to small borrowers including women entrepreneurs, SC/STs, tribals and other minorities. Indeed, the doubling of exposure in the risky micro loans category of less than `10 lakh in three years by the end of 2017/18 raises eyebrows. There is actually negligible ‘refinancing’ as promised by the newly set up Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd (Mudra). Out of the 2.5 lakh crore loans disbursed so far by banks…

The global aviation market is booming. A strong growth in passenger traffic in 2016, especially in India, has prompted both domestic and foreign airlines to focus more on the Indian aviation sector. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), passenger traffic rose 6.3 per cent in 2016, which is above the 10-year average annual growth rate of 5.5 per cent. The fourth-largest carrier in terms of total passengers carried on international routes, as per IATA, Lufthansa, which is the largest foreign carrier group operating between India and Europe – with a market share of 15 per cent, recently made Delhi its first global destination to launch the commercial service of its most modern long-haul aircraft, Airbus A350-900. In a conversation with Business Today’s Rajeev Dubey and Manu Kaushik, Carsten…

THE CODE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY MIND By Vishen Lakhiani Price: 499 This book teaches you to think like some of the greatest non-conformist minds of our era, to question, challenge, hack and create new rules for your life so you can define success on your own terms. BUSINESS BESTSELLERS* Tools of Titans By Timothy Ferriss Random House Price: 799 Bulls, Bears and Other Beasts By Santosh Nair Pan Macmillan India Price: 499 The Unusual Billionaires By Saurabh Mukherjea Penguin Price: 499 You Can Be Rich Too: With Goal Based Investing By P.V. Subramanyam, M. Pattabiraman TV18 Broadcast Limited Price: 399 Invincible Arjuna By Debashis Chatterjee Westland Price: 175 *Top books by sales for Feb 27 - Mar 12, 2017; Includes only books released after Jan 1, 2015; Information provided by…

 How does OIN work? “India should not allow foreign companies to have patents” OIN is designed to be inclusive for every country and company around the world. It provides a protective cover to all participants from an intellectual property (IP) standpoint. OIN members sharing the core functionality of Linux-based open source inventions cannot sue each other. Even if someone from outside the community does, we provide support to the members. Apart from Reliance and Infosys, not many well-known Indian companies are part of OIN… Community participation is linked to the level of open source project participation undertaken by the companies. Indian companies are lagging dramatically in their participation in global open source projects. The perception is that they are only using open source technology to develop solutions for their customers.…