Business Today 19 November 2017

I have always believed what the iconic American President John F. Kennedy once said: “Those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” Magazines must be harbingers of change. For the past two and a half decades, Business Today has chronicled the ebb and flow of the Indian economy and the corporate sector. It has established itself as the gold standard in business journalism bagging major awards in the country for the rigour of its reportage, the depth of its analyses and the relevance of its coverage. It had, however, become imperative that Business Today keep pace with the unparalleled change we are seeing in the technology and business arena. We are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution. Artificial Intelligence is upturning…

When people think of Artificial Intelligence, they tend to recall the most spectacular examples. How IBM’s Deep Blue defeated Gary Kasparov in chess, for example. Or, how Google’s Alpha Go defeated world Go champion Ke Jie. Go is supposed to be the most complicated game and far more complex than chess, but the machine trumped man comprehensively. Worse, Google has just released the news that its AI has developed to a stage where it no longer needs human instructions to learn how to play. Its Go-playing AI is now capable of learning by playing thousands of games with itself and needs no human inputs to learn how to win. But while these are news-grabbing examples, the real AI revolution is taking place elsewhere. Dozens of companies in all sorts of…

STAY CONNECTED WITH US ON www.facebook.com/BusinessToday@BT_India iPhones to Come with International Warranty, but Apple Yet to Announce The international warranty will affect India sales as there is a huge gap in India pricing. businesstoday.in/globalwarranty-apple US to Monitor India’s Dollar Accumulation Over the first half of 2017, there has been a notable increase in India’s net forex purchases worth around $42 billion. businesstoday.in/monitoring-india.forex How MF Classification Will Impact Your Portfolio Fund houses get two months time to review the classification and submit the proposal with SEBI for approval. businesstoday.in/mutualfund-classification Global Cloud Providers, MNCs Driving the Data Centre Boom Service providers generate efficiencies of scale and pass on cost benefits to customers. businesstoday.in/cloudservice-datacentre Aadhaar Is Not Bipartisan, Mired in Authoritarianism The claim of bipartisan support is an exercise in factual misrepresentation, says…

31-1 THE HR CHALLENGE WHAT:CII National HR Conclave 2017 WHEN: October 31-November 1, Mumbai WHAT TO LOOK FOR: HR professionals are being called upon to enable profound transformation and deliver significant and sustained value to businesses. The conclave would debate the new DNA of HR leadership and what it takes to deliver organisational success. The focus would be on managing and engaging multi-generational workforce. 3 THE BOTTOM LINE WHAT:Round Table Conference on “Profit Leadership” WHEN: November 3, New Delhi WHAT TO LOOK FOR: In these changing and challenging times, the overall sustainability of the organisations is driven by board room strategies. The goal is to keep operating effi- ciently, defying limits and achieving benchmarks. To analyse the levers that impact operational efficiency, cost, revenue, and ultimately profits, ASSOCHAM is organising…

NETFLIX RAISES $1.6 BILLION IN JUNK BONDS Netflix Inc, the world’s largest online TV service, has sold bonds worth $1.6 billion, its largest-ever dollar-denominated sale, to produce a new hit series. It, like other over-the-top content players such as Amazon Prime, is burning cash to invest in programming and subscriber growth. XI JOINS MAO, DENG'S HALL OF FAME China’s Communist Party has elevated President Xi Jinping to the same status as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, writing his name into its Constitution and setting him up for an extended stay in power. The vote to enshrine “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era” in the Constitution came on the final day of the week-long 19th Party Congress. ABE WINS BIG IN POLLS Japan's Prime Minister,…

₹2.11 LAKH CRORE The amount government plans to infuse in PSBs over two years A ₹2 lakh crore booty is making its way to the coffers of public sector banks (PSBs). The fresh capital infusion from the government will not only boost their ability to write cheques but also help deal with the ever rising provisioning requirement for the deteriorating asset quality. But capital alone cannot fix the troubles of PSBs. They need more functional autonomy, lesser interference, succession planning, ESOPs, incentives, etc. Currently, there is no performance management or culture of meritocracy in state-owned banks. Barring State Bank of India, the CEOs/Chairmen of PSBs are drawn from other banks. They have short tenures and are not particularly effective in driving change. Most PSBs are mirror images in terms of…