Business Today 27-Dec-20

Knives — and wallets — are out in full measure as three of the world’s richest businesses vie for supremacy of India’s $850 billion retail market, an industry that is projected to present an even greater business opportunity of $1.3 trillion as soon as 2025. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail, Jeff Bezos’s Amazon Inc. and the Walton family’s Walmart-Flipkart combo are pitching themselves for the long haul in Indian retail. With $33.3 billion (₹2.46 lakh crore) already invested, they are digging into their deep pockets to ready an arsenal that will endure a multi-year battle for leadership. And the Tatas — one of India’s oldest business houses and among the most conservative — have also thrown their hat into the ring by bidding for India’s biggest grocery retailer Big Basket. With…

THE FOUNDATION OF THE THE INDIRA IVF EMPIRE WAS IDEALLY LAID THEN. Just 10 years later, in 1988, Dr Murdia founded the country's first sperm bank and Indira Infertility Clinic & Research Centre (IICRC), a basic fertility treatment centre in Udaipur. Fast-forward to 2011, his sons Nitiz Murdia and Dr. Kshitiz Murdia came together to co-found Indira IVF. This bandied to together a host of services dealing with infertility, under one roof. Pune played host to the second Indira IVF centre 2014. Since then, in just a span of 6 years, Indira IVF has grown from strength to strength, boasting of 93 centres throughout the country today. When the two Murdia brothers began their entrepreneurial journey, they were met with one major obstacle - a very low awareness of infertility…

GDP Contracts by 7.5% in Q2 Real Gross Domestic Product (Y-o-Y, in %) Real Gross Domestic Product (₹lakh crore) Analysts Had Predicted a Worse Quarter GDP projections for Q2 FY21 Consumption, Investment Hit Growth in expenditure of GDP (at constant prices) in % Sectors Feel the Heat Too Sectoral growth (at constant prices) in % India vs the Rest GDP growth of key economies (Y-o-Y, in %)…

↘ Fund raising by governments (Centre and states) was way higher in October than a year ago, though it was smaller than September ↘ Sluggish borrowing by companies indicates they are not hopeful about pick-up in demand despite easing of lockdown across the country SDLs: State Development Loans GSecs: Government Securities T-bills: Treasury Bills BORROWINGS: GOVERNMENT (₹lakh crore) BORROWINGS: PRIVATE SECTOR (₹lakh crore) Discom Dues Rise More Than 1.5 Times in a Year ↘ Amount owed by power producers to distribution companies rose more than 1.5 times between September 2019 (₹94,597 crore) and September 2020 (₹1.42 lakh crore) ↘ The share of central power producers was 37.18 per cent; among central public sector power generators, NTPC owed ₹22,240 crore, followed by NLC India at ₹6,770.20 crore and Damodar Valley Corporation…

"Oriflame India, entered the Indian market in 1995. Buoyant at the company's 25 years of achievements in empowering millions of lives with beauty and wellness, Mr. Naveen Anand, Senior Director Regional Marketing South Asia shares with BT the high optimism with which the company views its future journey of doing business. A gala digital celebration shall mark Oriflame's landmark moment." Oriflame is celebrating it's 25 years in India. How would you sum up the journey? Celebrating 25 exciting years in India is truly a proud moment for Oriflame, which was amongst the first few companies to establish business when the Government of India allowed FDI ushering in a whole new global perspective to building economies. Oriflame was also the founding members of Indian Direct Selling Association for our industry to…

Ostensibly, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries, and the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, are engaged in a court battle over ownership of the ₹26,000 crore debt-laden Future Group. But at the core of the fight is the struggle for supremacy in the $850 billion (₹62.8 lakh crore) Indian retail industry. Having been pushed into a corner by Alibaba, not only in China but also in South East Asia, Amazon sees India as its only hope of achieving scale outside the US. Bezos is doing all he can to ensure that the opportunity to buy India’s second-largest retailer does not go out of his hand easily. But this isn’t a two-way fight. There’s a third, perhaps, even a fourth, player vying for leadership of what is projected to…