Business Today 10-Mar-19

TOP-PERFORMING CEOs come in all shapes and sizes and personalities. There are the highly gregarious extroverts who love talking and interacting with employees, customers, shareholders and industry peers. Then there are others who prefer to keep themselves away from the limelight and say no to many public engagements. And though they all work exceptionally hard, their work hours and habits vary widely. Many tech CEOs take pride in getting up at 4.30 am, starting the workday at 5-5.30 am, and then working till late in the night. Tim Cook of Apple and Elon Musk of Tesla are both known for their insane work hours. Equally, the billionaire business magnate from Mexico, Carlos Slim Helu, and his British peer, Richard Branson, have been advocating three- or four-day work weeks, pointing out…

STAY CONNECTED WITH US ON www.facebook.com/BusinessToday@BT_India PERSPECTIVES Why Sterling Holidays Is Pivoting Its Business Sterling looks at expanding its offering beyond food and accommodation, catering to holiday customers in a more focussed way businesstoday.in/sterling-strategy RBI Policy Preview: May Be Right, But Not Perfect Conditions to Cut Interest Rates The RBI has already changed the inflation projections six times. And inflation should be low and stable for a long time for a cut in interest rates businesstoday.in/rbi-inflation Who Will Buy ZEE? Zee Entertainment is desperate to sell its stake. The names doing the rounds are Comcast and Tencent. Who is going to have it? Only time will tell. businesstoday.in/zee-stake.sale NEWS Loan Default Concerns Loom Large over Real Estate To meet debt obligations, developers need to increase their EBDIT by 1.92 times. And to make…

FIRST, IT WAS A ‘farmer-friendly’ Interim Budget, and now clearly, the Reserve Bank of India’s new Governor, Shaktikanta Das has stepped up. Betting on a benign inflationary scenario, the RBI expects the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or retail inflation to remain below 4 per cent in 2019. Based on the lower inflation outlook, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to reduce the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25 per cent; and given the inflation trajectory, there may be another cut this April. Domestic economists and global observers alike were surprised by this rate cut since they expected a ‘hold’. While the move certainly supports growth, the RBI’s inflation projections are quite optimistic. To begin with, the RBI has been consistently missing its inflation projections for the past one…

IS THE NEW TRAI regulation on TV channel pricing really consumer friendly? Ostensibly, the intent was transparency in the television distribution eco-system and allowing consumers to pay for what they watch. The very first week, cable TV networks discarded pay channels in Tier II & III markets, and left consumers wondering whether it was worth the effort to draw up their own subscription lists and call the cable operator. Ironically, broadcasters, for their part, had been aggressively promoting their respective bouquets for over a month. For instance a consumer who buys multiple Star Plus a-la-carte channels would pay ₹19 per channel while a basic Star package with its standard definition channels costs only ₹45 – making the bouquet a more cost-effective option if the person wants more than two…

WITH NOTHING in the Budget and the country headed for elections, an unpredictable regime for Indian pharma could hurt long-term investments in the sector, say industry representatives. Speaking to Business Today, D.G. Shah, Secretary General of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance – which has leading Indin pharmaceutical companies as its members – sees problems on three fronts: pricing, regulatory and exports. Pricing – no clarity on what will be covered by the price control mechanism; On the regulatory side, unpredictability through sudden decisions such as the ban on manufacture of oxytocin injection and allowing only Karnataka Antibiotics to make it; Exports – not enough done to help firms deal with globally emerging tariff and non-tariff barriers. “The United States of America is reviewing inbound duty free access for certain products…

MORE STRINGENT CAR safety norms that kick in between July and October this year in India will mean the end of the road for a number of older nameplates including Maruti Omni and Gypsy, Tata Nano and Safari, and Mahindra Xylo. New norms mandate that every car is fitted with a driver side airbag, speed warning system, seatbelt reminder, rear parking sensors and better structural stability to with stand crash test norms. These cars would then be unviable. With the exception of the Omni, among the oldest running cars in India, which continues to sell in decent numbers, most manufacturers have opted out of up-grading other cars due to poor sales. The safety norms will also herald the gradual collapse of the Fiat brand in the country as the Turin-based…