Innholdsfortegnelse for 29 May 2022 i Business Today

AT LEAST ONE-FIFTH of the country’s IT workforce has been walking in and out of jobs as attrition at the tech majors is at an all-time high of 20 per cent-plus. The 12-month attrition numbers have been rising steadily, taking a toll on companies’ margins. At 27.7 per cent, the second largest IT firm Infosys witnessed the highest attrition among peers. Leader Tata Consultancy Services reported industry-best numbers of 17.4 per cent, but it was still a record-high figure for the company. This is set to go on for a few more quarters as the war for technology talent continues. The good part? Jobs are available for the right skills.…

▶ THE ERA OF low interest rates is finally over. The Bank of England has raised short-term interest rates for the fourth time in the past five months. The US Federal Reserve has raised rates twice. And back home, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently raised its repo rate—the rate at which it lends to commercial banks—for the first time in two years. That’s not the end of it, though. Expect more hikes from the RBI and other central banks in the days to come. The reason: surging inflation. Since interest rates are inversely correlated with economic growth, there is a danger that the nascent economic recovery post the pandemic may falter. “The bigger picture is that the monetary experiment [low interest rates and surplus liquidity] which the developed…

▶ AFTER THREE FAILED attempts, the Union government has finally found a suitor for its loss-making helicopter service company Pawan Hans. The winning consortium, Star9 Mobility—comprising Big Charter, Maharaja Aviation and Almas Global Opportunity Fund—made a bid of ₹211.14 crore. As per procedure, the reserve price for the sale was fixed at ₹199.92 crore, based on a valuation carried out by SBI Capital Markets and RBSA Advisors. Coming nearly three months after the sale of the national flag carrier, Air India, the sale of Pawan Hans, a 51:49 joint venture between ONGC and the Union government, is being seen as yet another milestone for the government’s disinvestment programme. “Pawan Hans’ disinvestment is definitely positive news for the government’s disinvestment exercise as well as the Indian aviation sector,” Akshay Nagpal, Partner…

THERE IS A TRACE OF DISCOMFORT on Ajay Piramal’s face as he sits in a sprawling room on the first floor of his luxurious home in Mumbai’s upmarket Worli Sea Face. A speck of dirt on his glasses refuses to go away. He tries to knock it off with his tie, but in vain. Finally, he asks one of his assistants for another pair. Once that sits well, he flashes a broad smile. In many ways, a lot is known about Piramal, yet he remains an enigma. The soft-spoken demeanour conceals the aggression of the feisty businessman. Quite rightly, he has earned the title of the M&A man. The growth story through the 1980s and the period beyond has been characterised by spotting that little nugget in a huge pile…

It is a self-developed knitwear cluster of 13-km radius that came up in the 1980s A city of 1.2 million people, located some 500 km to the south-west of Chennai $4 billion worth of knitwear garments exported from India in FY22; the US (40%), Europe (30%), UAE, Canada, Australia and some African countries are the main buyers Tiruppur accounts for 1 per cent of India’s total annual garment exports of $400 billion It is home to 3,000 garment making units and 3,500 allied units The cluster has a garment production capacity of 1 million pieces per day Employs around 700,000 people, mostly migrant labourers…

WHAT ARE MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (MSMES)? MICRO ENTERPRISE Investment in plant and machinery or equipment does not exceed ₹1 crore and turnover does not exceed ₹5 crore SMALL ENTERPRISE Investment in plant and machinery or equipment does not exceed ₹10 crore and turnover does not exceed ₹50 crore MEDIUM ENTERPRISE Investment in plant and machinery or equipment does not exceed ₹50 crore and turnover does not exceed ₹250 crore NUMBER OF MSMES REGISTERED IN INDIA Of the 63 million MSMEs in India, 8.01 million are registered with the government, and among these, 95% are micro enterprises, 4% are small enterprises and 1% comprises medium enterprises Number of companies in ’000 units; Source: India Brand Equity Foundation STATES WHERE MSMES ARE REGISTERED Most MSMEs in India are located around…

For 38-year-old Suhasini Sampath, CEO and Co-founder of Yoga Bar, a nutrition-led food start-up, music and dance is a way of life. “I am crazy about music. I listen to it all my waking hours,” says the accomplished singer who has learnt Carnatic music for over 10 years. However, it is hip-hop that gets her really moving. A trained dancer, Sampath has been moving to the African-American beats for the past decade and a half. “I was exposed to hip-hop music as a child by my parents. Hiphop is universal. You hear it all over the place, so effectively you can dance anywhere,” says the Bengaluru-based entrepreneur. Earlier, she learnt salsa but that is not easy to practise as very few places play salsa music. For the past six years,…

SOURCE: MEDIA REPORTS 340,000 TOURISTS Number of tourist arrivals the valley witnessed in the first three months of this calendar year 62,488 BEDS Total number of beds to accommodate tourists in Kashmir; this includes all hotels, guest Business houses Today and 26 December houseboats 2021 8.51 PER CENT The annualised rate at which J&K’s GSDP grew between FY16 and FY21…

Covid-19 vaccine makers and private sector healthcare providers are stock-piling jabs that are about to expire. With adult India largely vaccinated, Covid-19 vaccine stocks are not flying off the shelves any more. Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, recently urged the government to reduce the gap between booster doses from nine months to six months to increase their usage, and also slashed the price of Covishield from ₹600 to ₹225. Association of Healthcare Providers (India) has said that private vaccination centres are either discarding expired jabs or are ready to provide vaccines free of cost.…

GST collection for April 2022 reached a record ₹1.68 lakh crore, significantly surpassing the March figure of ₹1.43 lakh crore. The sharp growth is based on all major states reporting 9-25 per cent increases, with a total of 10.6 million GST returns filed, and 77 million e-way bills generated. Strong economic recovery? Well, yes, but the taxman’s gotten smarter, too, using stricter norms on input tax credit, and technologies such as artificial intelligence and analytics to great effect.…

▶ ON APRIL 22, when Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced a decision to stop exporting palm oil derivatives, it sent the world of crude edible oil and derivatives into a tizzy, with prices of crude palm oil surging 10 per cent within days. Indonesia, after all, is the world’s largest producer and exporter of crude palm oil and various derivatives, exporting 2.2 million tonnes every month. Malaysia, which exports 1.5 million tonnes per month, is second. Widodo was unclear on whether the ban would cover all palm derivatives, so edible oil makers in India were hoping for a partial ban. But their hopes were dashed on April 27. Jakarta put a blanket ban on exports of crude palm oil, refined palm oil, refined, bleached and deodorised palmolein, palm oil mill…

▶ AS SUMMER temperatures soar, a power crisis threatens India. The situation was in the works with an abrupt change from winter to summer, faster-than-expected economic recovery, and global supply lines of gas and coal being impacted by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. While electricity demand has risen, supply has not. “Power demand grew nearly 13 per cent year-on-year in April, or by nearly 16 billion units (BU), due to the early onset of summer. Further, the economy has picked up compared with the same month last year… and industrial activity has increased. Power demand was higher in the northern region, which is facing a higher number of heat waves compared with the rest of India,” says Manish Gupta, Senior Director of CRISIL Ratings. The spike in demand led to prices shooting…

HEAPS OF LEATHER are stacked over one another, and an overpowering, pungent smell from a concoction of chemicals hangs in the air at Homera Tanning Industries’ office in Jajmau area of Kanpur. Asad Rizwan, one of the founders of the company, is busy checking the quality of leather produced at his tannery, where raw hides are converted into leather. “Nubuck leather, aniline leather, and burnishable leather are good quality leather, while haircell leather is a midrange leather,” Rizwan tells someone on the phone, ensconced comfortably in his corner room. On this reporter’s query, he gazes out the window and says, “The leather industry in Kanpur is booming post the pandemic. That is reflected in the strong order book of the companies. But in this industry, quality is key. Whoever will ace…

ALMOST ALL BILLBOARDS in the two-lane industrial corridor of Chakan, Pune, advertise ambitious real estate projects. All thanks to the suburban town’s growth as an auto manufacturing hub after hosting global automotive giants like Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen (VW), Bridgestone, Bosch, etc., earning Chakan the tag ‘Detroit of India’. Battered by the pandemic, the automotive micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) of Chakan and adjacent areas like Talegaon and Pimpri-Chinchwad are pinning their hopes of revival on pent-up demand, growing exports and the electric vehicle (EV) disruption. Today, there are about 40,000 to 50,000 small and large companies in the area. More companies continue to make investments here, especially since the demand for electronics and software-enabled components is rising. In June 2019, Harman—a fully-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics—invested ₹350 crore in its…

IMAGINE GOING TO THE toilet in the morning and as you sit down comfortably for your daily ablutions, your phone pings. “Your diet seems unbalanced. The recommended recipe is: ‘Salmon/Chicken Avocado Salad.” No, the message is not from your nutritionist, but from your toilet. Yes, that’s right, your toilet doubles up as a health monitoring device. Welcome to the future where your toilet does the talking. Japan-based Toto presented the Wellness Toilet concept at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, giving us a glimpse into the bathroom of the future. Using “multiple cutting-edge sensing technologies”, each time a person sits on the toilet, it will track and analyse a person’s “mental and physical status”, says the company. This data will then be sent to an app to provide…

New York-listed Genpact is a global professional services firm What was the problem you were grappling with? Early in my career, I was presented with an opportunity to lead a team of people much older and experienced than me. I knew from the word go that I had to tactfully earn their respect and trust. Who did you approach for advice and why? I connected with a few people in leadership positions whom I regarded highly. Since this was new territory for me, I wanted the best advice on how to navigate a challenging situation. What was the advice you received? I received some amazing advice. I was told to approach the situation with curiosity and humility, to nurture a cognitively diverse team—which is essential for success. At the centre…

AMID THE CONTINUOUS blitzkrieg by offshore fashion and apparel brands, indigenous Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has emerged as the champion of Indian fashion. KVIC raked in ₹1.15 lakh crore in sales in FY2021-22 to become the first consumer goods company in India to clock a yearly revenue of ₹1 lakh crore or more—beating other consumer companies like Maruti Suzuki (₹88,295 crore), Samsung (₹75,886 crore in FY21) and Adani Wilmar (₹54,214 crore). KVIC, which posted 20.6 per cent YoY growth last fiscal, has also made inroads into overseas markets such as Germany, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a recent event.…

Two cheques with a cumulative value of $2.4 billion have firmly established James Murdoch and Uday Shankar on the Indian M&E landscape. Routed through Bodhi Tree Systems, the duo, who oversaw the growth of Star India before the global sale to Disney in 2018, now have a play in Indian television broadcasting and digital through a $1.78-billion equity infusion into Viacom18, a venture where Reliance Industries will be the largest shareholder. The other deal is worth $600 million in Allen Career Institute, a test prep business. It is only fair to say there will be more to follow.…

▶ MUCH LIKE THE SORDID saga at BharatPe, the embattled Singapore-based start-up Zilingo, too, suffers from dodgy accounting practices, mistrust and disagreement between founders, and strained investor confidence. Moreover, allegations of harassment and abuse make this an even more pressing concern for all stakeholders. Skeletons tumbled out of Zilingo’s closet when discrepancies were observed during a due diligence process for a new funding round, thanks to a whistle-blower who raised the alarm on financial wrongdoings in which its Co-founder and CEO Ankiti Bose was allegedly involved. As per sources Business Today spoke to, a slew of allegations around opaque accounting practices—including inflated revenues, improper vendor transactions and internal corruption—were brought to the notice of the board and investors. Taking cognizance of the matter, the board placed Bose on suspension and…

MANY BUSINESSES in India have aligned themselves with the idea of Aatmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India. Now, it is the turn of the stock markets. How can they be self-reliant? By not depending on foreign investors to drive a rally or a bull run. And the markets are well on their way. Let us consider some hard numbers. The overall stake of mutual funds (MFs) in the universe of companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) moved up for the third straight quarter in December 2021 to touch 7.4 per cent. If one takes into account only the elite Nifty 50 universe, then the stake inched up to 8.5 per cent—the highest level in two decades. Individual retail investors have also upped their overall stake in the Nifty 50…

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NEW ECOSYSTEM Many start-ups such as Onsurity, Pazcare and Plum have started enabling insurers to leverage digital and analytics in new ways. From quote issuance to claim settlement, they act as a digital intermediary layer between a customer and an insurance company BETTER CLAIM EXPERIENCE This includes reimagining processes using AI and ML for better customer servicing, claims, renewals, etc. Insurers such as ICICI Lombard and Digit General Insurance use AI and ML for quicker claim settlements PRODUCT INNOVATION Technology helps in addressing niche segments’ needs through innovative products such as bite-sized policies. For instance, you no more need to buy insurance cover for your mobile phone; instead you can just opt for screen insurance DATA-DRIVEN INNOVATION This includes building a rich data repository to target new segments and build…

OVER THE PAST MONTH, Pankaj Gadgil has been very busy. Work has seen him spend a lot of time moving between cities. As Head of Self Employed Segment, SME and Merchant Ecosystem at ICICI Bank, he is constantly in touch with customers and looking for ways in which he can be more relevant to them. This is in addition to the constant pressure of increasing the customer base. Perhaps for the first time in his career, he sees a big cultural shift in SMEs (small and medium enterprises). “A lot of things are being shown with greater levels of transparency in the books. One is seeing the clear emergence of the next generation and that is a good sign,” he says. And in at least eight of every 10 entrepreneurs running…

COTTON YARN PRICES have been shooting up like the soaring mercury levels in Tiruppur, driven up by the relentless April sun. Both have been making the city’s knitwear garment exporters sweat bullets. A candy (356 kg) of cotton can now leave a one-lakh rupee-sized hole in a yarn spinner’s pocket. That hole was only half the size 18 months ago. Cotton yarn prices have followed suit too, with a hike of more than 100 per cent to upwards of ₹400 a kg—a big problem for yarn spinners, because the fine thread is really the backbone of this industrial city. Nearly 500 km to the southwest of Chennai, Tiruppur is the largest knitwear hub in the country. The self-started cluster generates an annual turnover of $4 billion and employs around 700,000…

For Swati Bhargava, the Co-founder of CashKaro—India’s largest cashback and coupons site with over 15 million registered users—her morning yoga ritual is sacrosanct. No matter where she is or how it was the evening before, her day starts with an hour-long yoga session comprising Surya Namaskar, Ashtanga and Hatha yoga poses for a stronger back, and Pranayam. “A lot of people at work often ask me how is it that I am so upbeat every morning. They say, don’t you ever have a bad day? Of course, I do too. But because I have a morning routine and it is so sacrosanct, it really sets me up for the day. I feel as you become a leader, you have to find ways to charge your own batteries, only then can…