Innholdsfortegnelse for 12 June 2022 i Business Today

Axis Bank’s MD & CEO Amitabh Chaudhry has a spring in his stride these days. The 57-year-old banker has recently completed an important acquisition that has the potential to catapult Axis Bank—the third-largest private sector bank in India—to the next level in retail banking. Axis has just picked up the consumer banking business of Citi in India for $1.6 billion, edging out rivals like Kotak Mahindra Bank. The acquisition is part of Axis’s ambition of becoming No. 2 among private sector banks by balance sheet size, a spot currently occupied by ICICI Bank. HDFC Bank is at No. 1. To be sure, Axis has narrowed the gap with ICICI Bank in terms of assets to ₹2.36 lakh crore in FY22, down from ₹3.68 lakh crore in FY20. But as Chaudhry…

A SMALLER SIP NET INFLOWS through systematic investment plans or SIPs registered a notable dip for the first time in over a year in April. According to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), SIP contributions fell to ₹11,863 crore in April—₹465 crore lower t ₹ han the previous month’s ₹12,328 crore, which was an all-time high. The previous fiscal saw ₹1.25 lakh crore pour in through SIPs, with month-on-month growth every month except February. —ASHISH RUKHAIYAR ₹2 LAKH CRORE TOTAL ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT OF ALL EXCHANGETRADED FUNDS AND INDEX FUNDS TRACKING THE NIFTY 50 INDEX, AT THE END OF APRIL 2022 YES, IT’S SMBHAV In its efforts to capture India’s large offline kirana network, US retail giant Amazon has announced a new initiative, Smart Commerce, at its flagship…

▶ BRING all the bank’s businesses and subsidiaries under one umbrella for cross-selling ▶ FOCUS on highrated corporates across large, medium and small enterprises ▶ DEPLOY an asset-led strategy in semi-urban and rural markets ▶ SEPARATE underwriting function in retail and wholesale from business function ▶ INCULCATE a culture of conservatism across verticals, and bring in a new management team with outside talent ▶ CARVE OUT separate verticals for mid-corporates and MNCs, Bharat banking and high-yield businesses ▶ CREATE a separate vertical for sourcing and servicing depositors; focus on granularity and premiumisation ▶ FOCUS subsidiaries on attaining size and scale, and big jump in profitability ▶ UPGRADE core technology big-time to prepare for a digital world ▶ MOBILISE capital to strengthen the balance sheet ▶ ACQUIRE to grow in select…

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE’S SAVINGS VANISHES IN A PUFF OF SMOKE? OR, WHEN YOU CAN NO LONGER ACCESS THE MONEY YOU HAVE PAINSTAKINGLY SAVED FOR A RAINY DAY? NETFLIX’S LATEST DOCUMENTARY—TRUST NO ONE–THE HUNT FOR THE CRYPTO KING—ANSWERS PARTS OF THESE QUESTIONS AND SERVES AS A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR PEOPLE INVESTED IN THE CRYPTOCURRENCY MARKET. WATCHING THE DOCUMENTARY AND UNDERSTANDING ITS IMPLICATIONS CAN MAKE YOU GRASP YOUR BITCOIN A LITTLE CLOSER TO YOUR CHEST OR WITHDRAW FROM THE MARKET ENTIRELY. THE TRUE CRIME DOCUMENTARY DEPICTS THE STORY OF A 30-YEAR-OLD CANADIAN, GERALD COTTEN, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO OF QUADRIGACX—A CANADA-BASED CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE—WHO DIED UNDER MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES IN JAIPUR. COTTEN’S DEATH DUE TO COMPLICATIONS FROM CROHN’S DISEASE, WHILE LEAVING HIS CUSTOMERS IN A FINANCIAL LURCH, RAISED AS MANY…

SACRED GAMES SEASON 1 was the talk of the town when it came out. The eight-episode adaptation of Vikram Chandra’s novel got Indian subscribers to sign up to Netflix. Content producers wanted to take their shows to Netflix and it seemed like the California-headquartered video streaming service had made its mark in India. That was 2018. Cut to four years later and the global streaming giant is in need of a similar game-changer in India—one of the largest markets with scope to grow at scale, but also one that frustrates Founder and Co-CEO Reed Hastings. “In every other major market, we’ve got the flywheel spinning. It frustrates us that we haven’t been as successful in India yet,” he said during the Q4 earnings call in January, weeks after announcing an…

While giving the keynote presentation at the Microsoft Business Forward event in 2017, Microsoft’s Executive Chairman & CEO Satya Nadella went back in time to the mid-1990s, when the company was about to launch its first server product. Back then, Nadella was coding on screen, showing a scenario that speaks of today’s digital transformation (DX) needs. And all the technology deployed allowed him to pull the data into a spreadsheet for storing inventory, and then use automation to drive a document that could create a purchase order to deal with the back-order situation. While he thought the innovation was going to change the world, it took about two decades to realise how the digital transformation revolution is not just about transforming industries, but powering every part of the economy. “Digital…

IN MARCH, when the results for the International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC) were announced for 2022, the Indian single malt whisky industry rejoiced. Of the 10 awards that went to India, four were for single malts. Leading the pack was John Distilleries—with breweries in Goa—that has been making Indian single malts under the name Paul John since 2012. Three of its variants—Mithuna, Oloroso, and Pedro Ximenez won awards. With a spectacular score of 95 out of 100, Mithuna by Paul John was the only Indian spirit to be conferred a gold medal. Part of the Paul John Zodiac series, Mithuna—named after the Gemini sign—is no stranger to awards, having been declared the third best whisky in the world by famed reviewer Jim Murray in the 2021 edition of his…

BUSY LADY IT HAS BEEN a hectic first three months for Madhabi Puri Buch as the chairperson of Sebi. The capital markets watchdog is now reviewing the IPO allotment framework, which, as per the government, is letting institutional investors and HNIs exploit loopholes to artificially inflate subscription numbers. The signal came following the IPO of LIC, where some investors put in bids knowing well that they would get cancelled due to lack of funds in their bank accounts. —ASHISH RUKHAIYAR DEAL DONE. NOW WHAT? For Debashis Chatterjee, the mandate has got much larger. From being the big boss at Mindtree, he will now be in charge of the “LTI Mindtree” entity, India’s fifth-largest IT services company. The IT industry veteran will bank on all his experience to propel growth in…

YOU ARE ALWAYS asking us, ‘why is the glass half empty?’,” a senior Axis Bank team member quizzed MD and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry at a strategy offsite. “What happens when we fill the glass?” asked another member in a lighter vein. Pat came the response: “Well, I will go find a jug.” The response is emblematic of the pugnacious approach of the 57-year-old Chaudhry, who was previously credited with turning around the struggling life insurance subsidiary of HDFC. The honcho believes that India’s third-largest private bank is capable of doing much more than what it is doing today. And he is moving multiple blocks around to ensure that he and his nine-member senior management team—mostly poached by Chaudhry from other private banks—deliver to that promise. “We are hungry for business;…

IT IS LIKE SAILING IN THE ocean. Once you are out in the water, you have to complete your journey. You cannot afford to return; neither can you abandon it. No matter what, you need to move forward.” This is how Deepak Kapoor, Director at Noida-based real estate major Gulshan Group and President of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), Western Uttar Pradesh chapter, describes the business of real estate construction. A veteran of various ups and downs of the real estate market over the years, and a firm believer in this apt metaphor, Kapoor says that once a developer has initiated construction of a project, seeing it through to completion is the only option available, irrespective of the circumstances. Determined as he is to complete…

KITCHENWARE, a small utensils shop in old Gurugram’s Sadar Bazar, recently digitised its inventory. Every product in the store was barcoded, easing the billing process. But the data wasn’t used to analyse fast-moving and rarely moving products, which could have simplified inventory management—for example, which item to stock more, or which item to reorder at more frequent intervals, among other things. Now, munch on this. When India went into its first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, GCMMF (Amul) was able to successfully deploy a frozen food supply chain to deliver dairy products overnight, R.S. Sodhi, MD of Amul had earlier told Business Today. By maximising the use of data, software and digital infra, Sodhi was able to manage inventory in a way that the retailers never ran out of stock…

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What was the problem you were grappling with? When Audi India decided to bring the Audi e-tron to India, I was excited but equally anxious. Electric vehicles (EVs) are a shift in personal mobility, and customer concerns like charging infrastructure, range anxiety and the overall awareness quotient were fundamental areas to be addressed. Who did you approach for advice and why? I took inspiration from a book. The book that helped me was Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons in Life by Richard Branson. It’s hard to read about the journey of a storied businessman like Richard Branson and not catch the motivational bug and zest for life. What was the advice you received? Reading about Branson’s life allowed me to view the problem or challenge in a more positive…

Welcome to the world of rising interest rates and soaring inflation. On May 4, the Reserve Bank of India increased the repo rate by 40 basis points, hinting at some trouble in the economy due to rising inflation. Let’s take a look at the rate trend and its impact on your finances BACK TO SCHOOL What is repo rate? How does a rate increase affect you? Repo rate is the rate of interest at which commercial banks borrow money from the RBI. An increase in repo rate raises their borrowing costs from the central bank, which in turn raises their lending rates. This has a cascading effect on the economy, visible in increased interest rates for other retail and commercial loans. How does increasing repo rate contain inflation? A rise…

IF THERE IS ONE word that can describe the strategic moves of India’s cement industry in recent times, it is this: consolidation. The latest instance of this strategy has seen Swiss cement major Holcim exit India, and the Adani Group, which had no presence in the space earlier, become the second-largest cement maker in the country overnight. The exit of Holcim has substantially altered the form and dynamics of the cement industry in India. After being around for close to two decades, the international major thought it wise to instead focus on markets where the opportunity in solutions and products was more attractive. In that scenario, India figured low in the pecking order, with Holcim already calling it quits in Brazil, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Russia. In a…

WHAT’S UP AT AXIS AMC? AXIS AMC INITIATED AN INVESTIGATION IN FEBRUARY FUND MANAGERS CHANGED FOR SEVEN SCHEMES WITH EFFECT FROM MAY 4 TWO FUND MANAGERS—CHIEF TRADER & FUND MANAGER VIRESH JOSHI, AND ASSISTANT FUND MANAGER DEEPAK AGRAWAL—FIRED AXIS AMC HAS HIRED ALVAREZ & MARSAL TO CONDUCT A PROBE AND FORENSIC AUDIT “Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Please read all scheme-related documents carefully before investing.” SOUNDS FAMILIAR? Well, this is the standard disclosure that every fund house or financial advisor has to give while pitching a mutual fund product to investors. This has been mandated by capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which is known for its tight and stringent regulatory framework for the country’s asset management companies (AMCs). In fact, the oftrepeated…

NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER of invention. This is perhaps best exemplified by the innovative solutions being developed by start-ups to tackle Covid-19. From drones for delivery of vaccines and medicines, to robots instead of guards at hospitals, to on-the-spot Covid-19 testing, to smart stethoscopes that shield doctors from the virus, and much more, India’s start-up story in health, pharmaceuticals, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based medical technology is gaining momentum. There were 7,128 healthtech start-ups in India as on March 24, 2022, according to Tracxn Technologies, a global platform to track innovative companies. There has been greater investor interest in these start-ups after the Covid-19 pandemic when healthcare took centre stage in all aspects of life. An indication of their success is the fact that these startups are increasingly becoming unicorns. According…

THE ONGOING digital transformation across the world presents India with a big economic opportunity, which it can take advantage of only if it has a skilled workforce. The Government of India is working on a plan to not just skill the workforce at the district level, but to also upskill, reskill and multiskill it. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship says the government is spending ₹4,000-5,000 crore every year on skilling and has trained 30 million citizens over the past five years. Excerpts from an interview: While India is known for its engineering talent, the Indian workforce was believed to be amongst the least skilled in 2019. The situation has improved but there is a long way to go. What is…

KEY TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL FUEL DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ACROSS SECTORS Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI is the fusion of vast data and availability of computing power and memory, which can make sense of collated data and help derive value from it Next Generation Communications (5G): 5G goes far beyond faster connectivity for smartphones to connect billions of smart devices with various applications to a seamless network designed to manage and utilise them Rural Connectivity Solutions: Connectivity in rural areas will enable the people there to access the global economy, thereby steering growth. It requires the technology ecosystem to collaborate and develop innovative solutions in broadband technology with wider reach Industry 4.0: Digitalisation is at the heart of Industry 4.0. This would require innovation and advancement of key technologies like machine vision, robotics,…