Business Today 4 June 2017

Coca-Cola and Pepsi have not exactly had a peaceful existence in India. In the 1970s, Coke was the only game in town bar a few small regional brands like Duke, but the per capita consumption of soft drinks was minuscule and India was not a big market of beverages by any stretch of imagination. Then the Janata Dal came to power and George Fernandes threw out Coke from India quite unceremoniously in 1977. (IBM was the other big name casualty.) This allowed a number of local players – Parle (of Thums Up, Limca fame), Campa Cola and others – to develop strong brands and good market share. Pepsi started looking at India in the 1980s, but its negotiations with the government were slow and prolonged. It first tried to enter…

Igniting Passions for Developmental Strides This refers to your cover story on pharma industry (Pharma’s Next Gen, May 21). The strategic plans and actions of the youngsters in successfully taking the baton of responsibilities involving diagnosis of issues, entrenching prognosis of market conditions, and practical wisdom and expertise will help other companies to revisit their portfolio of products and catalyse positive interventions accordingly. The new-age industrialists offer a healing touch to their operations, lead the lamps of insightful ideas of their forefathers-cum-founders and ignite innovative passions for developmental strides. They get to the bottom of the issues and show a clean pair of heels in the midst of the business risks and market difficulties. The isolation of Indian pharmas by the US Food and Drug Administration’s conditional obligations, including their…

QUOTE “Experts often refuse to speak truth to power. After policy actions, they try hard to endorse the decisions already taken. As a result, we in the government do not really benefit from their wisdom” Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian NOD FOR SNAPDEAL SALE Japan’s SoftBank is reported to have got approval from Nexus Venture Partners for sale of Snapdeal to Flipkart. SoftBank, which is the largest shareholder in Snapdeal, had secured the go-ahead from the founders last month. However, Nexus had problems with the valuation. ESSAR-ROSNEFT DEAL IN TROUBLE? Russia’s oil firm Rosneft is finding it tough to close its $12.9 billion acquisition of Essar Oil Ltd, according to media reports. Six of Essar’s Indian creditors are yet to approve the deal, they said. The deal is important for…

16 A DIGITAL FUTURE WHAT: CII Webinar on Digital Finance for MSMEs WHEN: May 16 WHAT TO LOOK FOR: MSMEs along with various financial institutions are taking various initiatives in formulating policies and exploring new avenues and strategies for finance. CII is organising an online session on ‘Digital Finance for MSMEs' which will focus on how the digitisation of finance is enhancing MSME growth by catering to their financial needs in the most efficient and timely manner. 17-18 ALL ABOUT TEAMWORK WHAT: Workshop on 'Building Effective Teams' WHEN: May 17-18, Mumbai WHAT TO LOOK FOR: No organisation has ever been able to sustain its leadership and growth without strong and effective teams. This CII workshop aims at enabling leaders and managers get insights into effective team building. The two-day workshop…

The government’s much-awaited announcement of ‘radical measures’ to deal with ₹14 lakh crore of stressed assets turned out to be a damp squib as it doesn’t offer any quick-fix solutions to the vexed problem. What it does essentially is provide powers to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to facilitate faster decision making by forming oversight committees (OC), and also push bankruptcy in cases of rogue borrowers. But bankers are not enthused because bankruptcy is not a solution for a majority of the stressed cases. Besides, while the new ordinance makes the job of the banks easier in taking a call on deep haircuts for restructuring the debt, stressed assets have to fit into the existing resolution schemes like strategic debt restructuring (SDR), scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets…

It is not the best of times for public sector banks (PSBs) in India, neck deep in trouble due to deteriorating asset quality. In an unprecedented rejig, the government has transferred the heads of three large PSBs to smaller banks even though they have spent less than two years in their current roles. This means they were struggling to cope with legacy issues and capital constraints, but the government was in no mood to show leniency. The heads rolled because they did not deliver and failed to tackle the huge accumulation of nonperforming assets or NPAs. Bank of India’s Chief Executive and Managing Director Melwyn Rego, who was handling assets over ₹6 lakh crore, will now head Syndicate Bank with assets of ₹3 lakh crore-plus. Usha Ananthasubramanian, MD and CEO…