Innholdsfortegnelse for 21 August 2022 i Business Today

For regular international travellers, particularly to Europe, IKEA is, quite literally, a household name. The $42-billion Swedish home furnishings giant has been known for its massive stores and trademark furniture style. So it was no surprise that, given India’s booming aspirational economy, the opening of its first store—called the Blue Box because of its look—in Hyderabad in 2018 saw massive crowds eager to see what was on offer. Four years and five stores later, IKEA, which in a sense was testing the Indian waters so far, has decided to amp up its India play. The reasons are not far to seek. With a huge millennial population that is keen to live well, India is a lucrative market for IKEA. Besides, internationally, despite its global presence, the company is still heavily…

The auction of 5G telecom spectrum—which concluded recently—has yielded the government over ₹1.5 lakh crore. In a process spread over a week and after 40 rounds, it emerged that Reliance Jio had spent the most at ₹88,078 crore to pick up airwaves, which includes the expensive 700 MHz band, followed by Bharti Airtel (₹43,084 crore) and Vodafone Idea (₹18,799 crore). For the consumer, access to 5G translates to better voice and data services. The bigger question is how much the customer will pay on the back of companies having coughed up such large amounts. Companies are expected to launch 5G services by October.…

India has so far recorded at least four cases of the viral Monkeypox disease. Currently, smallpox vaccines and some antiviral drugs such as Tecovirimat are used in its treatment. The Indian pharma industry is considering developing new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics to counter Monkeypox. There are no manufacturers of the smallpox vaccine in India as the country has eradicated the disease, but Serum Institute of India is planning to develop an mRNA vaccine with its global partner Novovax.…

The debt-laden Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Retail will now have its lenders initiate insolvency proceedings. After a protracted battle for ownership between e-commerce major Amazon and Reliance Retail, this is a fresh twist. Interestingly, the latter already has possession of a large number of Big Bazaar and Central outlets belonging to Future Retail. How the battle will play out from this point onwards will be interesting as a bruised Amazon may not be in any mood to give up.…

▶ IT IS WISE not to be overtly adventurous during a storm, say the wise. This also holds true when the markets are in churn. Ask Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (pictured), often referred to as the Warren Buffett of India. The billionaire investor has largely kept his portfolio unchanged in the first quarter of the current financial year, amid the volatility in the market. That was wise: the benchmark indices—the BSE Sensex and the Nifty50—tanked over 9 per cent each because of rising concerns over inflation and heavy foreign outflows, with investors losing around ₹20 lakh crore. Watch-to-jewellery maker Titan Company was Jhunjhunwala’s biggest bet in Q1FY23. The big bull (as Jhunjhunwala is often called) and his wife Rekha continue to hold 5.05 per cent stake in the company, according to corporate…

It was a typical June morning in Bengaluru. The garden city showed off its best weather—temperature at a cool 23-25 degrees, marginally overcast sky, slight drizzle at times, the sun peeking through now and then to spread warmth and cheer. Traffic, though, was quite the opposite. Crowded. Exasperating. Especially on NH75 near Nagasandra. Traffic had come to a standstill. But the reason was not only rush hour. If you looked closely, you could see cars queued up to enter a new, elegant, blue building bearing the legend “IKEA”. Once your car got in and got parked, you had to endure another serpentine queue of smiling, curious folks. The store opened at 10 am, but chances are you spent three hours in various queues before you finally got inside the building.…

WORRY. DEEP WORRY. That’s the clear vibe seeping through the latest edition of the Business Today-C Fore Business Confidence Survey, for the first quarter (April to June) of 2022-23. While the Business Confidence Index (BCI) settled above the halfway mark of 50 (on a scale of 100) at 51.2, it was way lower than the 55.2 of the previous quarter, which was the highest level it attained in seven years. The sentiment echoed across industry types and sizes (see charts ‘On a Slippery Slope’). That the survey encapsulates the views of 500 companies across all sizes and industries only underlines India Inc.’s sense of unease with the current economic environment. The broad reasons are well known—the Russia-Ukraine war, rising inflation, fuel prices on a rollercoaster ride, commodity prices shooting up…

For what started off in 1999 as a company that was into earthworks, stone-crushing operations, supplies of aggregates, and other construction works KR Construction Company has surely crossed the rubicon. The proprietorship firm of Mahipal Singh is now considered amongst the renowned heavy civil construction companies of India. Under his leadership, the company has metamorphosed into KRC Infraprojects Private Limited, achieving various milestones due to an unerring focus on continuous innovation and relentless pursuit of growth and excellence. KRC Infraprojects Private Limited was incorporated in 2010. KRC Infraprojects Private Limited specializes in highways, bridges, tunnels, mass transit and airport systems. Their expertise lies in the fields of construction project management, engineering and procurement. They provide resources and innovative solutions, with an emphasis on safety and quality control, which produce high-quality…

Dr. Sule is an accomplished Computer Engineer who has completed his Post graduation & Doctorate in Management. A natural leader and an acknowledged man manager, he is well known for his self-awareness, situation awareness, effective communication and delegation. His effective negotiation skills, conflict resolution skills, collaboration and intercultural sensitivity have enabled him to make a mark in the world of education. His versatile ability to work with different personality styles and approaches, innovative, out of box thinking, quick decision making have helped him rise in the ranks to the helm an institution. His dynamic nature, dedication to work, highest level of loyalty, IT skills, professional project management approach, multitasking ability and excellent time management skills have held in good stead as he has ensured a place of pride for The…

➜ Sustainable investments account for 10-15 per cent of the total AUM being managed by PE/VC firms in India ➜ The total value of these investments in 2021 was estimated to be $18.80 billion. It is expected to grow to $125 billion in the next five years ➜ It includes ESG and sustainability investments across offline/infra companies and digital firms ➜ Renewable power, e-mobility, agri-tech, and waste management are the sectors attracting investments in India ➜ Key challenges include a lack of quality data, measurement criteria, traditional mindsets, a limited record of sustainable funds, and a lack of awareness SOURCE: SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENTS REPORT BY BENORI KNOWLEDGE…

FOR ASSAM-BASED Bhavjot Kaur, 34, the motivation to innovate on the healthcare experience in India came from personal suffering. Her father was diagnosed with diabetes in 2006 and even after months of hospitalisation, they could not save him; he passed away in 2010. Not only did the ordeal strain her family emotionally, but also drained their finances. “We did not have any health insurance to take care of the financial impact. So, the family was emotionally and financially torn,” she says. The incident was a moment of realisation for Kaur, an IIT Roorkee student then. It showed her how broken healthcare was in India. Eight years later, along with her husband, orthopaedic surgeon Suraj Baliga, she set up Clinikk. “For me, it was important that I work on something that…

Global and domestic institutional investors turned gung-ho on the stock of beaten-down Paytm’s parent One 97 Communications in the June quarter. Latest shareholding data with the BSE show that FIIs upped their stake to 5.45 per cent in the company from 4.42 per cent on March 31. Likewise, MFs raised their holdings to 1.14 per cent from 1.05 per cent in the same period. On July 27, shares of the company traded at ₹713.65, down nearly 67 per cent, against the issue price of ₹2,150. Is there light at the end of the tunnel?…

THE NITI AAYO G, the government’s think tank, says the country’s gig workforce is expected to shoot up to 23.5 million by 2029-30, from 7.7 million in FY21. At present, around 47 per cent of the gig work is in medium-skilled jobs, 22 per cent are in high-skilled ones, while low-skilled jobs make up the balance, says the report, titled ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’. It adds that the trend shows that the concentration of workers with medium skills is declining gradually, while that of those with low skills and high skills is increasing. “It may be expected that while the domination of medium skills would continue till 2030, gig work with other skills will emerge,” the report says.…

ASHISHKUMAR CHAUHAN took over as MD & CEO of the NSE on July 26, a day after relinquishing his corner office at the BSE. It would be interesting to see how Chauhan, who was with the NSE earlier, manages the country’s largest bourse known for its monopoly in various segments, including equity derivatives. Chauhan—an avid proponent of wealth creation and capital formation via stocks—has often referred to the country’s high equity-to-derivatives ratio as encouraging speculative activity.…

A SLEW of changes has been introduced in the insurance sector since Debasish Panda became Chairman of regulator IRDAI. The latest is to empower insurers to empanel hospitals that meet the standards and benchmarks set by their boards. Earlier, hospitals had to register for empanelment with the Insurance Information Bureau’s Registry of Hospitals in the Network of Insurers (ROHINI). The move will help health insurers broaden their spectrum of healthcare networks.…

▶ IT WAS JUST ANOTHER MONDAY FOR THE STOCK MARKETS, but for online food delivery major Zomato, July 25, 2022 turned out to be a day of reckoning. Its stock price fell over 14 per cent during the day’s trade to touch a low of ₹46. It had listed at ₹76 last year. So, what happened? The crash was triggered by the fact that the digital platform’s stock had completed a year of listing, and hence, the lock-in period for its pre-IPO shareholders had come to an end. As per the guidelines of markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), all investors who buy a company’s stock through pre-IPO placements and anchor allotments are subject to certain lock-in periods—such as a month for anchor investors, and a year…

111th Annual General Meeting, ITC Limited, July 20, 2022 ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR, MR SANJIV PURI We meet today as the world traverses a very challenging journey. While it is heartening that India has responded to the pandemic with admirable resilience, global risks have got accentuated with geo-political tensions and severe economic stress caused by untamed inflation and supply-side disruptions. Worsening food and energy security, together with the growing inequities world-wide, poses new threats to society. Amidst all this, the stark sustainability challenges continue unabated, with climate change becoming an existential threat, and livelihood generation a daunting task. Yet, never before has so much transformation taken place in such less time. A tectonic shift is being driven by an exponential pace of digital adoption and futuristic innovation. The…

1 IKEA is bullish about growth in India amid slowing western economies 2 It is ramping up store expansion with big-ticket investments targeted at millions of Indian millennials 3 A fast-growing furniture market and investments by branded players have led to growing interest among consumers 4 Local players—both branded and unbranded—remain IKEA’s biggest hurdles 5 The Swedish home furnishings giant has changed its go-to-market strategy with a ‘closer to the customer’ approach and increasing local sourcing…

Ruban Memorial Hospital can simply be called a story of one man’s deepest desire to give back to society. Dr. Satyajit Singh’s motivation to come home and establish a multispecialty and superspecialty hospital after spending decades abroad resonates with his strong sense of belonging to Bihar and its needy people. The journey of Ruban Group started with the return of Dr. Satyajit Singh from England after 17 years, to start a lithotripsy centre with 2 beds in 1996. At that time, it was the first such facility in Bihar & Jharkhand. Growing by leaps and bounds, it had performed the first Kidney transplant in Bihar by 2010. By 2014, Ruban Memorial Hospital had grown into a multi-specialty hospital located in a bigger premises boasting of a state of art ICU…

When Rajesh Kumar set out to form TRPW, he knew what he was doing. A Chartered Accountant and an MBA, he holds a PGD in Strategic Finance & Control and is a certified global leader from Harvard Business School. With over 2 1 + years of corporate work experience, having held senior management and finance controller positions in companies like Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, Biotronik amongst others, he has experienced the global markets along with an Indian domain expertise. The outcome is an ISO 9001:2015 certified consulting firm that works extensively in the field of finance, accounts and audit serving the India and USA markets. Consisting of a team of dedicated experts TRPW Strategic Partners provide customized business solutions aiding entrepreneurs or CXOs, helping them manage their financial and business…

RAMBA SINGH, A DELHI-BASED medical equipment distributor, is eagerly waiting to free up space in his warehouse, now occupied by over a dozen oxygen concentrators that he bought in March 2021 when India was reeling under the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Chinese concentrators, which Singh had bought from domestic companies for ₹25,000 each and rented out for at least ₹10,000 a day to Covid-19 patients, haven’t been used for over a year. “Since there is no demand, I offered these to small local hospitals at throwaway prices, but they didn’t want them,” says Singh, who plans to donate them to charity since he has already recovered their cost. Ventilators, oxygen concentrators, personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, oxygen cylinders and many other items that were considered life-savers during…

After scaling new heights in the first half of 2022, prices of key agri-commodities are expected to fall and bring relief to consumers. In fact, the price of palm oil has already halved in the international market. This, coupled with softening prices of crude oil and a normal monsoon in India, is bringing down the cost of packaging and logistics, apart from raising hopes of a better crop yield. As packaged food majors are planning to increase grammage, experts anticipate the return of a volume-led growth cycle in the second half of FY23.…

TOP EXECUTIVES of leading technology start-ups including Flipkart, Paytm, Zomato, Swiggy, OYO, Ola and MakeMyT rip met a group of parliamentarians to discuss anti-competitive practices by the Big Tech firms. The domestic e-commerce leaders brought a slew of issues to the notice of the parliamentarians, including predatory pricing and the lack of a level-playing field. The Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Meta and Twitter are expected to meet the committee to present their side of the story soon.…

Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, who joined the German automaker in 2018 when it was recovering from the 2015 Dieselgate scandal, will step down on September 1, three years before completing his term. Industry insiders say his failure to turn around Cariad, the company’s software unit—that led to delays in launches of several new models of Porsche, Audi and Bentley—seems to have cost him his job. The failure to turn around the carmaker’s software unit Cariad may have cost Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess his job…

▶ THROUGH THE TURMOIL of the past few months, one thing has remained constant: the slide of the rupee against the US dollar. In recent months, the Indian currency has touched new all-time lows and experts say the downward ride is not over yet. The rupee has declined by about 25 per cent against the dollar since December 31, 2014, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha recently, citing data from the Reserve Bank of India. On December 31, 2014, the exchange rate stood at ₹63.33 against the dollar, while on July 11 this year, the number was at ₹79.41, Sitharaman had said in Parliament in response to a question. Why did the rupee depreciate, especially in recent months? According to Sitharaman, global factors such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict,…

AUG 2013 IKEA India incorporated in Delhi-NCR NOV 2013 ₹21-crore equity infusion by Ingka Group JUL 2014 ₹49-crore equity infusion by Ingka Group JUN 2015 ₹50-crore equity infusion by Ingka Group AUG 2015 ₹332-crore equity infusion by Ingka Group JAN 2016 ₹423-crore equity infusion by Ingka Group APR 2016 ₹890-crore equity infusion by Ingka Group DEC 2016 ₹300 crore via masala bonds by IKEA Asia Treasury Centre Ltd (Hong Kong, China) JAN 2018 ₹1,370 crore via NCDs by IKEA Asia Treasury Centre (Hong Kong, China) FEB 2018 ₹700 crore via NCDs by IKEA Asia Treasury Centre (Hong Kong, China) APR 2018 ₹750-crore equity infusion by Ingka Group AUG 2018 First Blue Box in India (Hyderabad) MAR 2019 Authorised share capital raised to ₹10,000 crore from ₹2,655 crore FY20 ₹1,790 crore…

“IN THE LONG RUN, WE ARE ALL DEAD.” The author of this widely quoted sentence is celebrated 20th century economist John Maynard Keynes, who is often referred to as the father of macroeconomics—the branch of economics that deals with interest rates, government spending and taxes to manage an economy’s growth. The sentence is also perhaps best suited to reflect the current mood of the stock markets, wherein everyone, as always, is bullish on the long-term India growth story. But, there is a wide consensus among market participants on the near-term concerns related to interest rates, inflation and economic growth. If data is anything to go by, there are strong headwinds in the stock markets that also explain the tumultuous movement of Indian equity benchmarks that were, till recently, down over…

Rakesh Kumar, the Founder Chairman of India Exposition Mart is a visionary. He conceptualised India’s first state-of-the-art infrastructure for Exhibition and Mart at Greater Noida, popularly known as India Expo Centre & Marl Strategically located in Greater Noida, it has developed into a prominent MICE destination in India. With a covered area of 2,35,000 square meters, it is a world dass venue with state of art facilities to host any business event. The India Expo Centre & Mart houses around 900 permanent showrooms of Indian exporters with 14 multi-purpose halls, 29 meeting rooms, 4 open areas and 4 speciality restaurants. It has a buyers' lounge, foreign exchange outlet, logistic support, extensive parking and Wi-Fi with modem security & safety features. The venue will soon have a 128-bed hotel too. The facility has…

‘The strength of any business is people power’ What was the problem you were grappling with? Otis India installed the first elevator in the country in 1892, but by the late 1990s, it was losing its edge. At the same time competition had gained considerable momentum. We even made losses in 2011. All arenas of operations were under stress and employees were demoralised. Who did you approach for advice? I had discussions with my leadership team who gave me the various dimensions we needed to solve the problem together. I continued to lean on a distillate of previous and current advice from my family, bosses as well as ancient scriptures and learnings from spiritual and management gurus. I also turned to lessons from my previous assignments. What was the advice…