Innholdsfortegnelse for 10 July 2022 i Business Today

Celebrities may be forced to take a long, hard look at what they choose to advertise. The new, legally binding guidelines set by the consumer affairs ministry say they need to declare their stakes in the brands they endorse and that their endorsement “must be based on adequate information about, or experience with the identified goods, product or service”. Violators face a ₹10-50 lakh fine and can be prohibited from making any endorsement for three years.…

How do automation solutions providers align themselves as growth drivers of the Indian economy? After the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world affecting it in many unprecedented ways, the demand for automation got expedited and we see a multi-fold demand in terms of machine or processes, the customers are exploring automation across their requirements for enhancing productivity and efficiency. More and more companies and corporates are looking to expedite their investment in the automation sector because nobody wants any disruption in their manufacturing processes. A certain level of support can be extended from a distance enabled with more adoption of automation, which we see propelling the Indian economy. The government is giving extra focus to sectors such as infrastructure development and technology, integral for enhancing industry production capacity across industry sectors.…

▶ EVEN AS THE CIVIL AVIATION MINISTRY looks to push India’s budding drone sector to become a $30-billion industry by 2030, disruptions caused by pandemic-induced lockdowns and geopolitical risks have led domestic players to seek self-reliance. One area hit hardest by these headwinds is the supply of lithium-polymer and lithium-ion batteries, resulting in manufacturers migrating to graphene-based cells, whose weight weighs on the drones’ efficiency. “We explored solar but it results in a trade-off with the payload capacity. There needs to be support on battery technologies, where we can produce newer batteries in India,” says Samriddhi Pandey, Founder and CEO of drone-making start-up Defy Aerospace. Similarly, Indian manufacturers are reliant on Chinese imports for avionics such as motors and flight controllers. “It’s difficult to get them from India. The ones…

In an evolving society, development is an inevitable process of growth. The moot question is whether progress is happening at the cost of the environment impacting the lives of fringe population struggling for survival, a looming socio-economic crisis slowing down progress. Studies have indicated that the built environment is estimated to contribute close to 40% of the global energy consumption and approximately 33% of the global carbon emissions, which is huge and critical for the earth and lives on it. Quick to recognise these challenges, Nucleus Office Parks, as an asset management company, is committedly pursuing growth that is environmentally and socially sustainable and has ingrained sustainability as a key focus that drives business decisions, organizational resilience, and future-readiness. For ensuring safety and well-being of all its stakeholders, NOP has…

THE GOVERNMENT has been on a mission to raise revenues by divesting its stakes in public sector enterprises. The man in the centre of all the action is Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM). Pandey says that for DIPAM, capacity building is a priority as it doesn’t have too much institutional memory of privatisation. And while the Bharat Petroleum Corp. (BPCL) divestment has been put on the back-burner, there is a steady pipeline going forward. In a chat with Business Today, he talks about the challenges on the disinvestment path and the way ahead. Edited excerpts: On the challenges to privatisation The first challenge is, are the people [employees] ready? They are the stakeholders in the corporation; the first challenge is employees asking…

WEF 2 0 22: SHOWCASING MAGNETIC MAHARASHTRA “We made a strong presence at Davos and tried to attract the opportunities to give the state new heights.”Shri Subhash Desai, Hon’ble Minister Industries “At WEF, We are all Indians. We are trying to charm investors, of course. But in the end, we are all bringing it [investments] home to India.”Shri Aaditya Thackeray, Hon’ble Minister Environment “Investors looked at Maharashtra as a potential destination as we have a conducive ecosystem for the industries”Shri Dr. Nitin Raut, Hon’ble Minister Energy This year WEF 2022, a platform to raise global issues, was organized for the first time after the global hiatus in an in-person format, where countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America came together to work on the…

LOWERING CARBON emissions is serious business. Serious enough to draw financing of $94.8 trillion over the next 38 years to meet the climate goals of just eight emerging economies—China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa, the UAE, Nigeria and South Africa—says a report by Standard Chartered. Of this, China needs $35.1 trillion, while India’s requirement is pegged at $12.4 trillion till 2060. However, an independent study by the CEEW Centre for Energy Finance estimated that India will need investments of $10.1 trillion by 2070, says Divya Datt, a Programme Management Officer at the India Office of the UN Environment Programme. “Of this, $8.4 trillion is required to scale up power generation, integration, distribution and transmission infrastructure. Another $1.5 trillion is required for green hydrogen production capacity.” While different reports point to…

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Source: Economic Survey 2021-22 713,789 SQ. KM The area under forest cover in India, in 2021. The country has the third-fastest growing cover in the world 24 PER CENT of India’s geographical area is under forest cover; it makes up 2 per cent of global forest area 11 PER CENT of India’s total forest cover is in Madhya Pradesh, which has the largest share in the country…

Putting an end to all speculation, the US Fed went for an aggressive rate hike of 0.75 per cent, the biggest hike in the past 28 years, to tame inflation. The Fed, while announcing the rate hike, said it is “strongly committed” to returning inflation to 2 per cent. It also projected a slowing of the US economy. Such aggressive monetary policy has ramifications for India, too. It could spook investors in India’s stock markets, and also lead to more FPIs pulling out, and lead to further depreciation in the rupee’s value. That, in turn, would stoke inflation further, which is already above the Reserve Bank of India’s target band of 2-6 per cent.…

INDIA WILL SOON announce a new space policy that will define areas open to private entities, including start-ups. “We will be mindful of certain things to ensure our international commitments. Other than that, we aren’t putting any barriers on the private sector,” says Pawan Goenka, Chairperson, Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre. This will mean involvement of private players in manufacturing highly specialised equipment. Deliberations are also underway on finalising the FDI policy for the sector.…

TO CURB e-waste, EU lawmakers have mandated USB Type-C as the default charging port across smartphones, phones, tablets, cameras, etc., by fall 2024. The European Parliament says this will promote the re-use of chargers, saving up to €250 million a year on unnecessary charger purchases, and prevent up to 11,000 tonnes of e-waste annually. While most Android smartphones have embraced Type-C ports, the rule will also apply to iPhone giant Apple, which has been shipping phones with the proprietary ‘Lightning’ port. Not a difficult move as Apple has already adopted Type-C for iPads (except the iPad Mini).…

MUKESH AMBANI wants a bigger piece of the consumer’s wallet. From staple foods to fashion brands to electronics, he is everywhere. Now, reports say Reliance is looking to acquire cosmetics giant Revlon, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Reliance boss wants a play in the beauty space and this will give him an international footprint. Revlon, with a $3-billion debt, needs help. Will Reliance extend its hand?…

▶ THE LISTING OF Life Insurance Corporation of India, or LIC, on May 17 was a momentous occasion for the Indian stock markets. Since then, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex has lost a little over 5 per cent, while the LIC stock is down nearly 30 per cent from its issue price of ₹949. Policyholders and employees of the insurance major, in which the government still owns 96.5 per cent, can take solace in the fact that they were allotted shares at a discount of ₹60 from the issue price. But, if they still hold those shares, then nearly one-fourth of their wealth has already been wiped off. Even if the government and LIC have said that “there is value in the company” and “LIC is a long-term bet,” stock…

IF YOU’RE LOOKING to change jobs, now may be a good time because the Indian white-collar job market has well and truly shed its Covid-19 blues to turn red hot. In April 2022, job portal Naukri.com’s JobSpeak Index grew 38 per cent year-on-year to 2,863, hovering around a lifetime high. A revival to the pre-pandemic levels also seems well within reach. In the same month, competitor Monster.com recorded the highest level of engagement and job activity on its portal seen during the two pandemic years with its Employment Index hitting 295. It was 296 in March 2020. The frenetic pace of digital transformation across organisations after the first wave of Covid-19 and the ensuing rush for IT talent in the country drove most of this hiring demand. The IT/tech sector…

WHEN THE WORLD’S richest person says something, everyone listens. So, when Elon Musk said that he had acquired a significant stake—9.2 per cent, to be precise—in Twitter and planned to acquire the microblogging company, everyone took it seriously. While some analysed his actions from the angle of “free speech”, there were many—including a large number of average Indian investors—who looked at it from an investment perspective. For, they rightly thought that news about the world’s richest person buying one of the most influential microblogging platforms will send the company’s stock zooming. It did indeed. Shares of US-listed Twitter jumped alittleover28percentinasingledayonApril 4—a day after Musk made his stake public—even as a number of Indian investors placed their bets on Twitter. Such investors are part of a growing tribe of Indian retail…

This special planning body operates through a broad network of local offices and has created 289 industrial parks around the state on 2.25 lakh acres of land. MIDC has spent the last few years focusing on developing commercial partnerships with nearly all of the world’s main trading partners. The most important role of MIDC is to ensure the availability of encumbrance-free land to entrepreneurs and manufacturers - helping Maharashtra in taking the leap to become India’s most industrialised state, with the highest contribution to the country’s GDP. The key objectives of the MIDC are to set up industrial areas for planned and systematic industrial development, to function as a special planning authority in the development of industrial areas and with a corporate philosophy of prosperity for all through industrialization. Key…

According to the India Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, road crashes kill about 80,000 people every year. This startling statistic accounts for about 13% of the total fatality all over the world. How can vision-based technology really help in resolving this concern and bringing that number down? To what extent can this technology help in preventing some of these accidents? Durgadutt Nedungadi: Netradyne was set up as a company with the mission to bring down accidents, save lives, save cargo, and so on. Accidents are a huge part of the problem. If you look at what causes accidents, unfortunately, it is because of driver error. So, our aim, using vision-based technologies, is to pre-emptively alert the driver on many factors. It could be on how close his vehicle is…

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INDIA’S TRADE WITH GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL (GCC) NATIONS HAS GROWN MANIFOLD (Figures in $ billion) Note: Numbers have been rounded-off Source: Ministry of Commerce and Industry IMPORTS FROM GCC NATIONS OUTSTRIP EXPORTS BY A HUGE MARGIN (Figures in $ billion) Note: Numbers have been rounded off; Source: Ministry of Commerce and Industry AMONG GCC COUNTRIES, THE UAE IS THE BIGGEST TRADE PARTNER FOR INDIA (Figures are for 2021 in $ billion) Source: Ministry of Commerce and Industry NEARLY 60% OF INDIA’S IMPORTS FROM GCC COUNTRIES COMPRISES CRUDE OIL AND NATURAL GAS… Figures for 2020 in per cent; Source: OEC …WHILE REFINED PETROLEUM IS THE MOST-EXPORTED COMMODITY Figures for 2020 in per cent; Source: OEC THE UAE, SAUDI ARABIA, QATAR, KUWAIT AND OMAN ACCOUNT FOR OVER 50% OF TOTAL REMITTANCES TO…

▶ THE PROCESS OF monetising cricket has been a big story in the game for many years. For about a quarter of a century, segments such as broadcasting rights and players’ endorsements, among others, saw big money flowing in. But nothing comes close to the Indian Premier League (IPL), a tournament that took shape in 2008 with the objective of a quick-fire game and lots of entertainment. At 20 overs a side, it was possible to host two games in a day at different venues without any time overlap. Be it the players, team owners or advertisers, it made for a great proposition for all. It has been repeatedly proven that the IPL is today in a league of major international sporting events, and the recent media rights auction has…

▶ A NEW DIRECTIVE by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has directed digital service providers to record and keep users’ logs for 180 days, and store customer data such as their validated names, allotted IP addresses, email addresses, and the purpose of hiring these services among other details for five years. The directive is applicable for individual users of data centres, virtual private servers (VPS), clouds, and virtual private networks (VPN), and not enterprise users. Industry players explain that the directive is against the core business of these players as they have a “no logs” policy. Plus, storing data for five years involves a lot of additional costs which would require investments. In that context, and even before the directive is implemented, two global players—ExpressVPN and Surfshark—have announced…

The COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow stressed the importance of achieving net-zero emissions while encouraging investment in clean technology. India is aiming to achieve its target of Net Zero emissions by 2070, with a vision to meet 50% of energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030. In alignment with India’s plan to combat climate change, and adhere to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Tata Power is committed to its sustainability vision, while emphasizing responsible growth, driven by decarbonization, renewable energy, and innovation. Transition to Green Energy As one of India’s largest integrated power companies, Tata Power aspires to be the ‘Most preferred Green Energy Company’ by proactively investing in the green portfolio and innovating with smart technologies for a future-ready business. With its ‘Do Green’ message, the company believes…

Peyush Bansal believes that as an entrepreneur, choosing the right partners early on makes a big difference to a company’s fortunes. The Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief People Officer of Lenskart, an e-commerce portal for eyewear, is on a mission to provide spectacles to 50 per cent of the people in India and says the country presents a huge opportunity as 90 per cent of the eyewear market is unorganised. And while the Indian market has undergone a huge transformation, the former Microsoft employee says that Lenskart does have international ambitions in the long term. In a freewheeling interview with Business Today’s Global Business Editor Udayan Mukherjee, Bansal talks about his journey, how Lenskart wants to create a global impact, and his Shark Tank experience. Edited excerpts: Q: Peyush, you were…

THE NUMBERS are impressive: As of October 2021, more than 1.3 billion Aadhaar cards had been issued to residents of India; monthly digital transactions on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) were in excess of $100 billion as of November; and over 100 million unique DigiLocker users had uploaded 5 billion documents as of March 2022. The numbers would suggest that India is going digital with a vengeance. And citizens across the country have logged on to government-provided e-services. While Indians in general have taken to e-services as ducks to water, they’re struggling to negotiate the labyrinthine maze of multiple portals, repetitive registration processes for various services, and uploading the same credentials again and again. The government is aware of its citizens’ pain and is working to ease it. “The data has…

BACK IN 2004, when the term ESG (an acronym for environmental, social and governance) was coined under the guidance of the UN in a report titled “Who Cares Wins”, it was just a fad. Now, 18 years later, it is at the heart of every decision made by the government, large businesses and even industry bodies. Investors and stakeholders pay special attention to a company’s ESG rating to make sure their investments are future-proof, safe and stable. Challenges like climate change and Covid-19 have reiterated the importance of ESG. “Research increasingly shows that investors, employees and customers (led by millennials) care deeply about sustainability, and value well-governed companies that positively impact the environment and society, more than organisations that do not account for their environmental and social impacts,” says Niranjan Banodkar,…

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE or ESG has become ubiquitous in recent years, finding a mention in almost every discussion in the financial world. Increasingly we keep hearing questions about whether ESG compliance can help companies drive better returns. In our understanding, ESG ‘compliance’ is a misnomer, or better yet, an oxymoron. We say this because there is currently no specific set of rules that describe ESG and, importantly, it is more than just compliance. The term compliance infers a mandate to do something, whereas ESG initiatives are undertaken proactively. There is a possibility that ESG will become a market-driven or regulator-driven mandate soon. Then the question around better returns becomes moot since everyone will need to be compliant. The more relevant question is, what purpose does ESG serve? ESG should be…

What was the problem you were grappling with? Hitachi Energy became a standalone listed legal entity in India amidst the pandemic. We had to halt operations at many of our factories to protect our people. This was clearly not how we were aiming to start off a newly created enterprise. Whom did you approach for advice? I approached Claudio Facchin, the Global Chief Executive Officer of Hitachi Energy. What was the advice you received? His advice was that we ensure people remain at the centre of what we do and their welfare must come first. Second, as we supply mission-critical technology to essential services and critical core sector industries, the show must go on. Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. How effective was it in resolving the problem?…