Business Today 17-Nov-19

The kirana apocalypse – that dreaded wipe-out by e-tail of your friendly neighbourhood grocery store – never took place. And now, probably, never will. With barely 3 per cent share of India’s $795 billion retail market after plodding through two decades, e-tail hardly turned out the kirana killer it was made out to be. Call him Lala, Pansari, Parchun or grocery, your neighbourhood kirana – the equivalent of American mom-and-pop stores – has not just survived but flourished. Now he’s the centre of attraction as e-tail and consumer firms realise that “If you can’t beat them, join ’em”. In our cover story this week, some of India’s consumer giants, including HUL, Reliance Retail, Amazon and Walmart-Flipkart, are vying with each other for the kirana’s undivided attention. They are getting kiranas…

STAY CONNECTED WITH US ON www.facebook.com/BusinessToday@BT_India How Consumer Durables Brands Are Wooing Millennials Brands have not only started segmenting their offerings as per consumer profiles, they have also become more careful about ensuring that there isn’t much difference between their online exclusive and regular offerings businesstoday.in/consumerdurables-brands PERSPECTIVE Why OYO Hotels’ Recent Funding Round Is Like a Face-saving Act of SoftBank The existing investors, including SoftBank, Airbnb and Greenoaks Capital, want to plough another $800 million in the start-up. They see more potential in OYO’s valuation, as it has doubled from $5 billion to $10 billion in just over a year businesstoday.in/oyo-investment NEWS Insurers’ Honeymoon with Fasal Bima Yojana Seems to Be Getting Over The insurance companies initially raked in good profits, but things are changing now. The first one to…

EVEN AS THE Indian automobile industry grapples with an unprecedented demand slowdown, a war over data has ensued between two industry bodies—Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) that represents OEMs (original equipment makers) and Federation of Automotive Dealers Federation (FADA), the body of over 15,000 dealers. SIAM releases auto sales figures in the first fortnight of every month. Over the past 12 months, FADA has been releasing its own data, sourced from the government’s Vahan website. The SIAM data is on the number of vehicles dispatched from factories to dealers while Vahan provides the actual number of vehicles registered in the country in a month. Typically, the two should even out over a period of time. In the last six months, as the slowdown has deepened, there has been a divergence.…

THE RESERVE BANK Of India’s (RBI’s) interest rate easing window is narrowing with a sharp rise in consumer price inflation (CPI) by 71 basis points to 4 per cent in September. There are also concerns of higher fiscal deficit after the recent corporate tax rate cut where the government is expected to suffer revenue losses of ₹1.45 lakh crore. The fiscal deficit target for the Centre is 3.3 per cent for 2019/20. Another looming danger is from state finances which are not in good shape. India Ratings last week said the combined fiscal deficit of states for 2018/19 will be 2.9 per cent instead of the budgeted 2.6 per cent due to expansionary policies followed by state governments. Farm loan waivers and social schemes for the poor are being promised…

THE GOVERNMENT is finally realising that the insolvency and bankruptcy system has been choked by frivolous and unnecessary cases and that it needs an alternative resolution mechanism to rescue the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). Right from ministers and the MCA secretary to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India Chairman, everyone has been saying that all default cases should not be referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the adjudicating authority under the IBC. The refrain now, it seems, is that since it is a rigorous process, only cases which involve large outstanding amounts should be referred to the IBC. According to the government, so far, 21,000 default cases have been referred to the NCLT. Of that, 10,000 cases have been settled — 8,500 cases settled prior to admission…

THE WORLD HEALTH Organisation Expert Committee on Biologic Standardization is looking to update its 10-year-old Guidelines on Evaluation of Similar Biotherapeutic Products at its upcoming meeting in Geneva. The Committee will take into account the technological advances for characterisation of biotherapeutic products and may look into the possibility of demonstrating the quality of the medicine through well-designed pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies instead of expensive large-scale clinical trials. If the jury is convinced of the robustness of this method, it will bring down the cost of developing biosimilar drugs significantly. Indian biogeneric manufacturers will definitely benefit, but more than that, it will be a critical step to expedite access to biologic medicines, especially those included in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. Given the prohibitive cost of life saving biologics, it…