Innholdsfortegnelse for 27 August 2017 i Business Today

The past 12 months or so have not been the best of times for startups in India. Easy funding had dried up while competition in the popular e-commerce categories increased burn rates. New regulations on the discounts that could be given by e-commerce players, and the demonetisation of high currency notes at the fag end of 2016 created its own set of problems. A number of food and grocery commerce startups closed down in the second half of 2016. In other areas as well, reality was creeping in. Mergers and takeovers increased in pace as many players realised that there could only be one winner in each market segment – and that player would inevitably be the one with the deepest pockets or the biggest scale of operations. The Business…

RENAULT-NISSAN ARE NOW WORLD NO. 1 The alliance of Renault and Nissan has emerged as the number one car maker in the world in the first half of the year. It beat German group Volkswagen. The Renault- Nissan alliance sold 5,268,079 vehicles compared to 5,155,591 by Volkswagen. Toyota came third with 5,129,000. $2 TRILLION The likely valuation of Saudi oil major Aramco after its initial public offering INDIGO TO SHED SALE-AND-LEASEBACK MODEL IndiGo, the country's most profitable airline, is planning to change the traditional sale-andleaseback model for financing aircraft. It will now opt for outright purchases. The model is popular in the industry as it lowers the upfront equity that promoters have to put in an airline. The airline said this would reduce ownership costs. QUOTE “We’re really happy with how…

On July 27, official weather forecaster Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that the country, as a whole, received 5 per cent more rainfall than the long period average (LPA) since the onset of the southwest monsoon on June 1. The analysis was in sync with the prediction IMD had made immediately after the onset of the rains when it said the rainfall for the entire June- September season was likely to be between 96 per cent and 104 per cent of the LPA. What it did not factor in were the floods and the resultant loss of agricultural crop in Gujarat, Assam and West Bengal. It is too early to quantify crop losses in various states, but early estimates point to significant damage where kharif sowing was happening. In Gujarat,…

It’s the norm these days. One start-up that applied for Business Today’s Coolest Start-ups survey described its performance in two words: “5X Growth”. The jury, which included four venture capitalists, cracked up. “From what base”, a jury member asked. There wasn’t a base number. Another start-up wrote it could not disclose revenues. The jury refused to spend time discussing such a company. “It often means their revenues are embarrassingly small,” a jury member quipped. All of them mostly thrashed copycat ideas, consumer businesses that wouldn’t scale up or those where building a brand would involve too much time and money. Instead, they preferred companies with simple ideas executed well, where product innovation was palpable, teams were strong, and which had demonstrated resilience in a tough competitive or operating environment. The…

In a Linkedin post that went viral last year, Jeff Immelt, the outgoing CEO of General Electric, declared that all employees of the conglomerate would need to know coding, irrespective of whether they functioned in sales, finance or operations. While not everybody would end up becoming a coder, the ability to do so is increasingly seen as a prerequisite in the 21st century job market and is the new form of literacy. Coding requires mathematics, or maths, skills. India has a history of contribution to the global development of maths, right from Aryabhata inventing the zero to the contribution of mathematical genius Ramanujan. Today, however, a large chunk of Indian students end up disliking the subject. Manan Khurma, founder of Cuemath, believes this is because of the manner in which…

No matter how fancy your new phone, how superior the camera or how bankable the battery is, not being able to find the app you are looking for, even after scrolling sideways multiple times can be exasperating. As an Android user, you may have grappled with custom UI every time you bought a new phone or even upgraded to the latest OS. This is because, unlike Apple iPhones – that have a fixed user interface with apps across home screens – handset manufacturers and developers are able to customise the whole experience on the open source Android OS. Bloatware that may consume memory and slow down your phone, and a whole new user interface are the avoidable outcomes. Apart from Google Pixel and Motorola smartphones that run on stock Android,…

From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalisation Through Ten Extraordinary Lives There is a big debate on currently about whether the relentless march of globalisation has done more harm than good. In several countries, the backlash against globalisation has seen the rise of leaders who advocate protectionism. In the middle of this debate comes the book From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalisation Through Ten Extraordinary Lives by Jeffrey E. Garten. This is the most unusual book on the topic because it completely sidesteps the contentious debate. (Though, in the introduction, Garten says clearly that globalisation is among the most powerful forces in the world and will become even more important in the coming decades.) Garten tells the story of nine men and one woman who played an…

Jyoti Gupta, 30, is a homemaker. She used to work as a real estate agent until slowdown hit the industry. While she was struggling to make ends meet, Bitcoins caught her fancy. Given the digital currency’s speculative nature, she earned good returns in a short period. “I have made good money over the past one year. I will continue to invest in Bitcoin,” she says. Many people in India have started buying and selling crypto currencies, a digital currency where encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units and verify transfer of funds. These operate independently of a central bank. India has over one million Bitcoin users; the country accounts for almost 10 per cent trading in volume terms. According to a recent report by PHDCCI, combined trading…

Amit Rochlani and Surashree Degwekar, hailing from Pune, got married recently. Both are 26, chartered accountants by profession, and just starting their financial journey together. They want to do everything as soon as possible – buying a house, owning a car (they have already purchased one), overseas travel once a year and the first kid in a couple of years. The house they want to buy in 2019 would be upgraded as well. Weighed against their goals and aspirations, their cash inflow may not seem adequate unless some meticulous financial planning is done. Between them, the Rochlanis bring home Rs 16.8 lakh a year while their annual expenses, including insurance premiums and EMI (for loans), amount to Rs 8.6 lakh. The family goals are well-thought-out and given their current phase…

Bank Defaulters: No Concrete Results to Show This refers to your cover story on top defaulters of Banks (Zeroing in on the Dozen, Aug 13). The sad part of our banking system is that things move very slowly and by the time defaulters are brought to book, their assets have dwindled down. It is all talk with no concrete results to show. Take the example of the Kingfisher Airlines. Despite a total debt of more than ₹9,000 crore to pay to banks, Vijay Mallya has just become the self-proclaimed “poster boy” of defaulters. In a series of tweets, Mallya had offered to negotiate with banks for onetime settlement of dues. He is stated to have said that “public sector banks have policies for onetime settlements. Hundreds of borrowers have settled,…

09-11 IMPROVING GOVERNANCE WHAT: ADB-ADBI Forum on Governance and Institutions WHEN: August 9-11, Seoul WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Despite the recognised importance of good governance and effective public management for achieving country- and sector-level development results, capacity in governance remains weak across Asia. This event aims to promote policy and programme reforms to enhance governance and public sector management 10 ALL ABOUT ICT WHAT: Adopting ICT Solutions for Digital Growth & Transformation WHEN: August 10, Hyderabad WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Information, communication and technology (ICT) solutions are key to rapid development of countries. Innovation in ICT technologies is set to boost India’s global position in manufacturing, healthcare, banking, tourism, retail and agricultural sectors. A FICCI event will discuss threadbare the latest ICT trends. 17 ADOPTING FINTECH HAT: FinTech – Shaping…

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), country’s apex food standards watchdog, has the mandate to ensure that every food item, processed or fresh, remains safe. There are close to 35 lakh food businesses registered with the entity. In an exclusive interview with Business Today’s Joe C. Mathew, FSSAI CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal talks about the broad mandate the agency has, and how his 350-member team is trying to transform the nation’s food safety and nutrition landscape. Excerpts Globally, food product recalls are a common practice. Why is it so rare under FSSAI’s watch? The famous one that we had was Nestle’s Maggi (instant noodles). The learning – from that episode – was that we have to be very cautious while dealing with businesses in terms of product recalls as…

Hong Kong Bazaar in the heart of old Bangalore is a warren of small shops – some as small as 50 to 100 square feet. Started in an era when electronic goods were scarce, it earlier used to mainly have goods which were not easily available like audio cassette players, VCRS and film roll cameras. Now, of course, in an age where you could sit in the comfort of your home and order anything online, the Bazaar has reinvented itself in tune with the times. On a recent Sunday, 16-year-old Rashmi Hegde – a recent entrant to a college – was in the Bazaar, giddy with excitement as her parents had consented to purchase a cell phone for her. Hong Kong Bazaar today is mainly filled with cellphones, related accessories,…

It is not often that academic projects evolve into innovative companies. Or probably they do when academics take charge and conceptualise them. Amarjeet Singh, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Zenatix Solutions, an energy management start-up, was a faculty member at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), New Delhi, before he became an entrepreneur. Between 2010-13 he was working on an energy efficiency model that would map the power usage patterns of buildings and help reduce energy costs. As part of the research, he deployed sensors across the campus to collect five million data points on a daily basis. Insights from the data helped IIIT reduce its energy consumption by 15-20 per cent. Singh wanted to launch the model commercially for large energy consumers. The benefits would be manifold, right…

Industries across sectors are adopting artificial intelligence and machine learning in a big way. Insurers, too, have started automating their claim-handling processes. Here are some technological advances the industry has been adopting to give customers a hassle-free claim experience. BLOCKCHAIN Bajaj Allianz General has launched Travel Ezee, a travel policy that uses Blockchain technology. Earlier, in case of a flight delay, you had to file the claim and then submit the certificate of delay from the airline along with the claim form. But with new technology, it is not you who starts the claim process. Rather, it is the insurance company that keeps track of the claim event and initiates the payout. In this three-step process, you just have to scan your boarding pass and passport using the app, and…

Returns are as of 14th July’17 Equity funds are ranked on the basis of 5-year performance Fixed Income funds are ranked on the basis of 3-year performance AUM filter of minimum Rs 500Cr is applied for Liquid fund category AUM filter of minimum Rs 100Cr is applied for rest of the categories All portfolio related data is as of June’17 end, unless specified Returns of time period more than one year are annualised; Source: Morningstar IT’S A DEAL The most competitive loan and deposit rates in the market…

STAY CONNECTED WITH US ON www.facebook.com/BusinessToday @BT_India NEWS Unevenly Distributed Monsoon a Challenge for Modi Government Rainfall in the country, during this year's south-west monsoon season, has so far been 5 per cent above the long period average businesstoday.in/monsoon-rainfall Why NSE Needs to Become More Transparent It's time for NSE to act and preserve its legacy businesstoday.in/nse-limaye Why the Indian Government Can't Bail Out Banks Can the government buy out the bad assets or buy equity in them, particularly the state-run? businesstoday.in/bank-bailout Merc Brings Glamour to Its SUV Range with New GLC 43 Coupe The GLC 43 leads the luxury space where global rivals like Audi, BMW and JLR also compete Modi's Policies Boost FDI The cumulative FDI in April-May stands at $10.02 billion, compared with $8.12 billion in the…

When Swati, an architect, joined Facebook in 2010, she was thrilled at the prospect of reconnecting with old friends from school and college. Today, her timeline shows posts from people she does not recognise and utterly distracting ads of products. As a result, she seldom checks her Facebook account. A lot of users echo similar thoughts. Even Twitter, once hailed as the decentralised platform for people to follow celebrities and be heard, has lost its utopian charm. Prathap Suthan, Managing Partner and Chief Creative Officer, BangInTheMiddle, quips that the ‘social’ part of these platforms has disappeared and the ‘media’ has taken over. So just like in any media business, the end motive is profit. “Now the organic reach of the content is low which means merit has no place on…

The writer is a senior economist and was chief consultant in the finance ministry from 1991 to 1993 Hope does not turn into profits, but business groups with fat reserves could afford to wait Teledensity reached 88 per cent at the end of 2016. For villages it was 52 per cent – just over half a telephone for every villager. That sounds plausible; one may not see every other villager fishing out a mobile, but it is possible that he carries one. In cities, there are 65 per cent more phones than townsmen. When the phone numbers started outrunning townsmen, there was much incredulity. But, then people were seen carrying a number of phones – one for the boss, one for the boyfriend and one for the maid – so…

A mobile operating system (OS) supporting vernacular languages – an Indian version in line with Google’s Android – was considered unviable until three IITians from Mumbai put their heads together and created an OS in Gujarati three years ago. The trio imported around 5,000 devices from China, loaded the OS and distributed them across 370 stores in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, in March 2014. The phones, called Firstouch, were priced ₹400 higher than the then prevailing models that boasted similar features, and yet managed to create a flutter in the market. The handsets went off the shelves in just two months. While this provided a huge impetus to founders Rakesh Deshmukh, Akash Dongre and Sudhir Bangarambandi, they did not wish to focus on the handset business. The trio stayed…

Amotorbike insurance in four minutes and a car insurance in less than seven minutes. The Mumbai-based Coverfox has made buying insurance as easy as online shopping. One just needs to make a few clicks. Though not the first insurance aggregator, nor the biggest, its technology-driven process aims to ensure complete transparency in the buying process, apart from helping in claim settlement. This in a market that was, till a few years ago, completely driven by agents, who used to push products with highest commissions. Though Coverfox’s bouquet mostly has general insurance products such as car, bike, travel and health covers, it plans to expand its life insurance product basket too (at present, in life insurance, it offers mostly term plans). The Genesis Launched by Devendra Rane and Varun Dua —…

If you use Google Maps to locate Bengaluru-based NoBroker Technologies, you are unlikely to find its office. It is not Google’s fault. NoBroker deliberately misleads those trying to reach its headquarters. That is because in September 2015, its office was attacked by angry brokers who were losing their commissions paid by landlords and tenants. In the melee, an employee was injured and the office was ransacked. Akhil Gupta, co-founder and Chief Executive, remembers the dark day. “What happened was atrocious, but it vindicated the work we are doing. Brokers felt threatened enough to attack us, showing that our work was having an impact and we had arrived.” NoBroker has moved to a different location since that incident. The company was set up by three friends from IIT-Bombay – Akhil Gupta,…

The Black Berry Key One may be unconventional looking, but true to BlackBerry’s legacy, it has a powerful amalgamation of touch screen and physical keys. In its candybar design, the display measures 4.5 inches with a physical QWERY keyboard. The three touch navigation keys for home, back and multitasking are placed just above the keyboard, on the screen, making them intuitive to use. Those of us used to the 5.5-inch display will, perhaps, not appreciate the smaller display, especially when reading and watching videos. But when it comes to work, the KeyOne means business. While it took some time to familiarise myself with the keyboard, typing e-mails, texting and chatting was a breeze. The physical keyboard has been made ‘smarter’ by BlackBerry. Scrolling through e-mails and web pages is possible…

Q. India has been a relatively small market for Jack Daniel’s. Were you not keen on this market earlier? Brown-Forman was focused on the US market where we had 80 per cent of the whisky market in the mid-1980s. The strategy changed in the early 1990s led by our then chairman and CEO Owsley Brown II. We began our India investment in the mid-1990s, but focused on embassies and dutyfree stores given the high import duties. In the early 2000s, we set a long-term strategy to develop the Jack Daniel’s trademark as a premium brand for India’s middle class. Today Jack Daniel’s has a strong brand recall, but is still quite small compared to competition. Q. What are your learnings from the Indian market? Indians love their whisky. It is…

Narendra Pal, a government school teacher in Zirakpur near Chandigarh, got the shock of his life when he received an sms just before midnight that Rs 10,000 has been withdrawn from his account through an ATM in Surat. By the time he could realise what was happening, he got two more messages about withdrawal of Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000. He had fallen victim to online fraud. As the first debit happened a few minutes before 12 midnight, the fraudster was able to transact again immediately as withdrawal limit for the next day set in. As more and more people use online banking services, which are now reaching the unbanked under the financial inclusion programmes of the government, banking frauds are rising. Also, post demonetisation, there has been a sharp…