Showing posts with label IIPM SATBARI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IIPM SATBARI. Show all posts

Saturday, October 06, 2012

Can Ratan Tata Salvage his Nano Dream?

The Small Wonder has been Struggling to Match The Demands of its Target Group after The Settlement of the Initial Hype. The Storm is over. B&E gives a Detailed Analysis of The Past Issues and The Future that Lies Ahead for The Nano

Though the small nano uses less gasoline than many larger cars, the enormous potential numbers could mean an equally enormous environmental impact, an exponential rise in carbon emissions as well as other kinds of pollutants. The United Nations’ top climate scientist, Indian economist Rajendra Pachauri has said he is already “having nightmares” about precisely this scenario

”This was a prominent blogger writing soon after the launch of the Nano in January 2008

And of course, there was the brouhaha over the traffic jams, the pressure on Indian roads and what not. I remember my Editor-in-Chief Arindam being slightly baffled by the extraordinary hype generated in Indian as well as global media in January 2008 when a proud and beaming Ratan Tata wowed everyone by saying “A Promise is a Promise” while unveiling the Nano at the Auto Fair. The promise he was referring to was the one to keep the price of Nano at Rs.1 Lakh(0.1 million). Arindam was baffled because he was perhaps the only person who had written a stinging article in 2007 lambasting Tata and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya for the ugly mess at Singur, the original site chosen for the Nano factory. He had also logically argued how and why a Rs.1 Lakh(0.1 million) car was actually a chimera. Of course, not many alleged pundits of corporate India paid much attention back then. I remember journalists – who otherwise display better sense on some rare occasions – forecasting that Indians will buy more than 1 million Nanos a year very soon.

Sooner or later, reality has a nasty habit of catching up with hype. In early October this year, I sent a fairly long SMS to the Editor-in-Chief basically saying that it is perhaps time for a big story on the Nano since there were persistent and unflattering reports about the actual volume of sales of the Nano. In my SMS, I pointed out that July 2010 was the best month ever for the Nano with sales of 9,000 units. And sales started heading south after that – even though the Indian auto industry was in the midst of an unprecedented boom. We both agreed that it was time for an analytical story on the seemingly inexplicable inability of Tata Motors to increase volume sales of the Nano despite the hype around the brand.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Saturday, September 01, 2012

MINING ITS WAY AHEAD

Despite a fall in profits in the last fiscal, nmdc is still among the top 20 profit makers in the country. But will the honeymoon continue for the mining giant? Deepak Ranjan Patra finds out...

It operates in the remotest of the areas in the country, surrounded and obstructed by Naxals and struggling with problems that the big bosses of corporate India can hardly imagine. But still, it gives its competitors a run for their money. Backed by such undying zeal, NMDC is one of the best mining companies in the country and it ranks 18 in the B&E Power 100 list, despite having a year that can be called disastrous for the company.

On the face of it, the results announced by NMDC for the last financial year may seem deceptive for many as profits for the particular fiscal year stood at `34.47 billion, down by over 21% from `43.72 reported in the previous year. But then, the fall in profits resulted more due to external disturbances that caused operational roadblocks for NMDC. As Kumar Raghavan, Executive Director (L & CC), NMDC, says, “In the beginning of the financial year (May, 2009), the Essar pipeline was blasted by the Maoists at several places, placing NMDC under great strain on evacuation of iron ore.” The kind of pressure that was created by the event could be understood from the very fact that the particular pipeline was one of the evacuation means for nearly one-third iron ore for the company’s largest projects at Bailadila, Chhatisgarh. Though the company tried its best to run the show smoothly, the event resulted in a drop of around 12% in the company’s iron ore sales to 25 million tonnes from 28.52 million tonnes in the previous fiscal.

However, the management of NMDC showed extreme character to brush aside the external hurdles during the year resulting in one of the best quarterly results in the company’s history during this period of the current fiscal. NMDC’s Q1 profit increased by a mind-boggling 94% to `15.04 billion from `7.74 billion in the year-ago period. Sighting significant rise in domestic sales as the key reason, Rana Som, CMD, NMDC said, “Improved physical performance coupled with higher prices, transparent pricing systems and improvement in evacuation resulted in the company posting a high net profit in the first quarter.”

Another reason for its success in the recent years has been NMDC’s tremendous ability to operate at the lower end of the cost curve. As explained by Paresh Jain, Analyst, Angel Securities, “At $7.2 per tonne, NMDC’s operating cost is one of the lowest in the global iron ore industry. The major reason for such low costs is the proximity of the company’s mines to ports and railways.” Moreover, to strengthen the advantage further, NMDC is now planning to build a 10 million tonne slurry pipeline from its Bacheli project to the Vizag port, which, as expected by Paresh, would help the mining company maintain its margins.



 
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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Style Police catches Sonam!

Sonam Kapoor’s co-star in Saawariya, Ranbir Kapoor, consciously toyed with the imagination of women as he danced with just his towel on, but Sonam herself recently came close to some inadvertent skin-show. At a promotional event organised for her upcoming film Aisha, Sonam nearly had a wardrobe malfunction incident, when it was noticed that she was having a rather tough time keeping her pants on. For someone who has been working very hard on being a style diva, such an event would’ve been disastrous!


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Friday, August 24, 2012

Fathers in India are still pitted against rigid ancient laws

A hundred years after Father’s Day was commemorated, fathers in India are still pitted against rigid ancient laws and struggling for equal right over their children...

“It is almost impossible for Indian fathers to get custody of their children,” said Satya Kumar, Founder of 498a.org. “The Hindu Marriage Act is of 1955. The laws are very ancient. When the laws were written, only 1% of the women worked while now about 25% work. Kids in the custody of working mothers are no better taken care of than kids living with fathers. The mindset of people needs to change. There should not be women’s right and men’s right but the government should implement common family rights,” suggests Kumar.

“Father’s day, Mother’s day or any other such day is just another opportunity to show your love for each other. At times, the occasion can present a chance to patch-up things, to clear the muck and start things afresh,” says Dr. Sanjay Chugh, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist. Perhaps that’s why one of the demands being made by AIMWA is that ‘when a person or couple approaches court for divorce, counselling of the parents by professional counsellors should be given first priority.’

This Father’s Day, let’s hope that it doesn’t take another hundred years for fathers to get their due.


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Monday, August 20, 2012

Big, fat, hairy & audacious...

Quite a few global IT giants have proved that it takes just one big killer product or application to enter the Fortune 500 league. Finacle was supposed to be that for Infosys! Today, it contributes just about 4% to Infosys’ revenues. What went wrong? by Virat Bahri

The reputation of a thousand years could be built in one hour, as per an old Japanese proverb. Or one product, when you look carefully at the leaders of the technology industry today. Consider this: Microsoft for Windows, Google for search engine, Oracle for its database application, Apple for its iPod (whose success led to their latest killer product – the iPhone) and SAP for its SAP ERP software.

If one analyses the contribution of these iconic products to the revenues of these companies, one can conclude that while a diversified product portfolio is important, one big, formidable and audacious play is all a company needs to move from being good to being great.

Apple to apple comparisons (pun unintended) with Infosys may be a tough call, since the company has charted a different growth path. But when the company’s core banking product Finacle (launched in 2000) begin to gather rave reviews in the Indian, and the global banking space, many speculated that this was the killer application that would take Infosys into the league of greats.

If you measure Finacle by that yardstick, you are liable to be disappointed; since in revenue terms, the product’s contribution to Infosys’ total revenues is just around 4% for FY 2009-10! So it is not Google Search or Microsoft Windows. But a combination of vision and a certain degree of good fortune have been instrumental in Finacle reaching a turnover of $208 million in 2010 from $48.6 million in 2005, a CAGR of 33.74%. Meanwhile Infosys’ revenues are $4.804 billion for the year ending March 2010, and growing at a CAGR of around 23.7% over the past four years. But amidst the growing clutter, can Finacle retain its growth trajectory for the long term. B&E engaged in an exclusive interaction with Infosys Finacle global head Haragopal M., who discussed Finacle’s evolution and future ambitions.

Launched in 2000, Finacle was a right product at the right time for the Indian market at least. That was because Indian banks did not have any integrated platform at that time, and there was a strong need for providing anytime anywhere banking. This was in contrast with the developed world, where legacy systems were in place, which is why the core banking transformation started in Asia Pacific. That has provided Indian banks with an advantage as well, since their efficiencies have gone up quite phenomenally. Hargopal cites the transformation that core banking solutions have brought for Indian banks with some figures, “Average bank spending per capita of customer is around $76 in global banks, whereas a bank in India spends around $11-14. Indian GDP increased by 184% from 2000-2010, bank deposits rose by around 500%, lending increased by about 300-350%, but scale of banking staff has gone up by a mere 5%.”

Finacle has positioned itself on the propositions of scalability, richness of its functional software, flexibility, efficiency and execution capability. The company upgraded itself very quickly from being an ISV to a one stop consulting partner for all the needs of the clients. The major challenge was to integrate the system, piece by piece, even as the client’s regular operations were going on. As Hargopal puts it, “It’s like changing the engine of a Boeing during a transit landing flight!”


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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Sun’s Wonder Drug!

Despite litigations, Sun Pharmaceuticals has managed to give its investors the largest m-cap growth by steven philip warner
 
This is bad news for those sceptical about investments in pharmaceutical stocks, and a bigger disappointment for those doubting the potential of profits contributing to shareholder value. Sun Pharmaceuticals, after becoming the highest profit-making pharmaceutical company in FY 2008-09 (with net profits of Rs.38.76 billion), became the largest wealth creator in the sector in FY2009-10: its m-cap increasing by 41.4% to touch Rs.373.01 billion (as on March 31, 2010).

Uday Baldota, VP – Investor Relations, Sun Pharma talked to B&E, “Customers, employees and society are at the core of our existence. Having extremely satisfied customers, being served by high performing employees meeting the unmet and evolving needs of the society have been key to delivering superior returns to our shareholders...” Notwithstanding that, there have been some negative reactions to the company stock, considering that just a few days back, it lost the right to market one of its top-selling drug, Pantoprazole in US (which as per a New Jersery district court was infringing Wyeth’s patent rights).

Sun has even battled out many such litigations in US in the past one year. All this should have wreaked havoc on the Indian pharmaco in the US market (which contributed to 35.4% of its annual revenues in FY2008-09)... It didn’t! Rather, Sun’s stock has for many years now, outperformed both the Sensex and the Nifty.


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Friday, August 10, 2012

EXTEND TAX HOLIDAY

A NEEDED STEP TO MAKE HOUSING A REALISTIC PROPOSITION

In order to support developers’ efforts of promoting LIG/MIG housing projects, there is an immediate need for a tax holiday under section 80-IB (10) to make LIG/MIG housing a more realistic proposition. For the same, the cut-off date for eligibility should be further extended and tax holiday eligibility, based on project completion condition, should be restored. Even the tax holiday benefit under section 80-IA (4) (iii) is only for industrial parks notified up to March 31, 2011. We suggest that the time limit for notification of industrial parks under the New Industrial Park Scheme 2008 should be extended up to March 2015 as during the slowdown in 2008–2009, there were certain delays in the execution of the projects.

Integrated townships projects should be given incentives at par with infrastructure and single window clearance mechanism should be introduced for such integrated townships to ensure efficient execution. Integrated township projects deserve infrastructure status since while developing integrated townships, developers also develop the infrastructure comprising of roads, lighting, water drainage systems, et al, in and around the township.

Measures such as tax incentives should also be extended to developers who take initiatives for improving social infrastructure through Slum Redevelopment Projects/ Dilapidated Housing / Social Housing. Growth in commercial space during 2007 and 2008 was driven primarily by IT and ITeS sectors. But following the slowdown over the last two years, IT spending, particularly in the BFSI sector, has been hit. Therefore the minimum tenant requirement should be reduced to 10 units. Also, the time limit for notification of industrial parks under the New Industrial Park Scheme 2008 should be extended up to March 2015 and benefits under section 80-IA should be extended to developers.

Further, section 56(2) – section 56(2) of the Act should not be made applicable to the transfer of immovable property. In addition to the existing deduction of up to Rs.100,000, a separate limit up to Rs.200,000 deduction should be permitted for repayment of principal portion of housing loan for self occupied residential property.

Read more....

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Saturday, July 28, 2012

2010 was theirs! Is 2011?

FMCG Saw Some Heavy action on the M&A front last year. But, as The Industry matures and valuations rise, It’s The small-ticket Strategic Acquisitions that will drive the sector in 2011

If there was one sector that saw some heavy action on the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) front last year, it was fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). For the uninitiated, the total value of M&A deals ($797.83 million) in the sector in 2010 went up 16 times when compared to the 2009 figure ($47.94 million), and in fact, a whopping 23 times from the 2008 number ($33.97 million). Reason: India’s Rs.460 billion FMCG market remains highly fragmented with over 50% of it dominated by non-branded, unpackaged home made products. This certainly presents a tremendous opportunity for established brands, both domestic and multinational, to expand their reach across the country by pursuing inorganic growth strategies.

Several FMCG companies such as Dabur, Marico, Godrej Consumer Private Ltd. (GPCL) and Emami have already been snapping up companies or brands since 2010 to expand their sphere of activity. While GCPL did five outbound deals and one domestic deal in 2010, rivals Dabur and Marico forged two outbound deals each. In fact, a significant contributor to the growth registered in 2010 were outbound deals (domestic companies making acquisitions abroad). There were 18 outbound deals worth $506.90 million in 2010 as against four deals worth $45.5 million registered in 2009 and two deals totalling just $2 million in 2008. It was high valuations of local assets that drove the homegrown companies abroad. Considering this, there was certainly a rebound in M&A activity levels in FMCG in 2010. Companies which had postponed M&A activity in the past two years were clearly making up for the lost time in 2010. Sounds logical! But then, what about M&A’s in the sector in 2011? Does M&A activity in the sector continues to experience the same momentum as it was witnessing some six months ago?



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Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Gold & The Beautiful!

What if on your next wedding anniversary, your well read wife quite sweetly tells you to gift her jewellery in the form of a mutual fund, & that too in a demat form?!?! Yes, we know, you’ll think she’s finally gone off her rockers completely. Not that you would have required such an intellectual reason to accuse her of that infirmity, but we’d still advise you to delay calling your marriage lawyer that fast dear cowboy Clint, for your horses might quite not be that well lettered.

For it’s not just investing in gold with mutual funds that’s jiving up the domestic Indian markets currently, but also that of doing the same in a dematerialized form. And for starters, there are three in a row to do the honours for your wife in the gold Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) arena – Benchmark Asset Management Company (the first to launch a gold fund), UTI Asset Management Company, followed by Kotak Asset Management Company.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click here

Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

DesirÉE

Hublot’s Big Bang Watch -- 40,550,000 INR





Did you say 'watch'? Functionally, it's probably that, but at the given price tag, how do you convince someone it's only that?! The timepiece, a culmination of efforts by brilliant clock maker Hublot and exquisite diamond setters Bunter SA, would require a minimum level of social standing to even look at it! Covered with innumerable diamonds, it renders the surface of the dial in absolute sheen, making the base metal impossible to see. The strap is made of vulcanised rubber and the clasp is encrusted with diamonds too! So you know what's your sour-grapist excuse if you can't afford it – too bling-bling!

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

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