Good Morning Ishan

Monday, January 12, 2015

News

230 hotels join Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Clean India drive

Vikramjit and Arjun, heirs of the Oberoi Group, picked up brooms and pushed wheelbarrows along with some of their employees the other day to collect all the garbage along the streets of Civil Lines in Delhi. "For our general managers, it wasn't a choice," said Vikramjit Oberoi, chief operating officer and joint MD of the group's flagship EIH Limited. "And we went beyond just the cleaning process.

We even started to paint walls in the areas in the vicinity." While he and his cousin didn't venture out on any such exercise after that day, hundreds of employees of Oberoi and several other luxury and mid-market hotel chains, including the Taj, ITC, Leela, Carlson and the Park, have started cleaning roads around their hotels as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Mission.

In what the industry calls a firstof-its-kind initiative, 230 hotels, including 170 major ones, under the Hotel Association of India, have pledged that more than 500 of their employees will clean about 230 km of road around their hotels and clean up around 53 monuments in the country. "It is a big country and the only way a movement resonate beyond just lip service, is, when everybody embraces it," said Oberoi, who is also the president of the Hotel Association of India.

Ahead of Barack Obama's visit, big sales pitch awaits US for Make in India

Ahead of President Barack Obama's visit, the government is readying a big sales pitch in the US for its Make in India initiative and simultaneously holding parleys with officials in Washington to unveil some big announcements during the trip later this month.

Department of industrial policy and promotion ( DIPP) secretary Amitabh Kant will head the team travelling to the US for an outreach on Make in India in Washington to drive investments in smart cities, industrial corridors and defence manufacturing. In New Delhi, a series of official-level talks, including video-conferences on intellectual property rights and investment in manufacturing are planned to show progress on key issues."

The fact that the US is holding talks signals improving ties, which will provide a big boost to the Prime Minister's economic vision. A series of meetings is planned to fast track discussions on various issues, including intellectual property rights, investment in manufacturing, totalisation pact, market access for agri products, easier visa regime etc.," a government official said.

Article

Birth of a new institution

In line with the Government of India’s approach of less government and a move away from centralised planning, the NITI Aayog with a new structure and focus on policy will replace the 64-year old Planning Commission that was seen as a vestige of the socialist era. The new body, conceived more in the nature of a think-tank that will provide strategic and technical advice, will be helmed by the Prime Minister with a Governing Council of Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors, similar to the National Development Council that set the objectives for the Planning Commission. The NITI Aayog seeks substitute centralised planning with a ‘bottom-up’ approach where the body will support formulation of plans at the village level and aggregate them at higher levels of government. In short, the new body is envisaged to follow the norm of cooperative federalism, giving room to States to tailor schemes to suit their unique needs rather than be dictated to by the Centre. This is meant to be a recognition of the country’s diversity. The needs of a State such as Kerala with its highly developed social indicators may not be the same as that of, say, Jharkhand, which scores relatively low on this count. If indeed the body does function as has been envisaged now — and the jury will be out on that — States will, for the first time, have a say in setting their own development priorities.

Consumer demand, capital flows to push e-tail growth in new year 2015

The year witnessed a flurry of activity with online majors like Flipkart acquiring online portal Myntra and raising fund over $2 billion. Japan’s SoftBank invested $627 million in Snapdeal and Ola, which offers car rentals through its mobile platform along with website and call centres.

Not to be left behind, US-based Amazon announced that it will invest $2 billion in the e-retail segment in India. Exclusive partnerships with online players for launch of brands like Xiaomi and Motorola reflected the growing popularity of the segment.

With a sharp increase in the participation of consumers from non-metro cities and the huge investment that was pumped into the sector, e-commerce came of age in 2014, when people ordered exotic products like Newby Flowering tea with as much enthusiasm as traditional goods including consumer electronics and books.

News

Personal care drives FMCG business on rural push

If you are stuck in a remote village in India, dusty and hungry, chances are you will find more options to wash your hair than fill your stomach.

For decades, food items have been the most widely distributed FMCG products in the country. But that rule of thumb is changing. Indians are more likely to find more personal care products than food in a shop these days—a result of consumer goods players pushing the distribution of an entire range of their products in the face of wary consumer spending.

Latest data from market research firm Nielsen reveals that on the list of the top five FMCG product categories, only one food product—biscuits— finds place. The category with the maximum reach, or penetration as it's called in market parlance, is shampoos at 79 per cent, followed closely by biscuits at 78 per cent.

Distribution of categories has undergone a dramatic transformation in the last 15 years. FMCG is available in 8.8 million outlets and shampoo is available in 80 per cent of those outlets, says D Shivakumar, chairman and CEO, PepsiCo India.

PM Modi Asks Bank Chiefs to Travel in Bus for Retreat With Him

At Prime Minister Narendra Modi's behest, top bankers will travel together in a Volvo bus from Mumbai to Pune, where the PM will meet them at a retreat to brainstorm and prepare a blueprint for an action plan to reform the banking sector.

Sources said among those on the bus is likely to be State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, and top officials of the Finance Ministry will also attend the off-site next weekend, being called a "Gyan Sangam" or knowledge meeting.

The PM, said the sources, has asked the bankers - the chiefs of public sector banks or PSBs, insurance companies and organisations like NABARD - to make presentations to him at the retreat, the venue for which he reportedly asked to be shifted from Delhi to Pune.

All the bankers have been asked to stay at the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) campus in Pune, sources said.

News

Patel Logistics Wants to Triple e-Commerce Revenue

Most domestic logistics players have been struggling over the last four years because of tepid growth in the manufacturing sector. But the e-commerce boom in India has boosted local logistic companies too.

Patel Logistics, an integrated logistics player that focuses on express delivery, e-commerce and warehousing, told NDTV that it expects to triple its revenue from the e-commerce segment in the near future.

"The company is looking to increase its revenue from e-commerce to 15-20 per cent of total revenue from 4-7 per cent now," said Areef Patel, vice-chairman at Patel Integrated Logistics.

Patel Logistics, which had reported a net profit of Rs 2.34 crore for fiscal year 2013-14, is looking to increase its profit to over Rs 3 crore in 2014-15 fiscal year, said Mr Patel.The company had reported a net profit of Rs 1.03 crore in the quarter ending September 30, 2014, a year-on-year growth of nearly 300 per cent.

Article

How Tourism Supports EU Economy

The EU is a major tourist destination with five member states among the world's top ten destinations for holidaymakers. According to the well-evaluated data submitted in front of global researchers, the tourism simply holds a major share in EU's economic development, since it holds the potential to contribute towards employment and economic growth.The growth in turn drives the development in rural, peripheral or less-developed areas. These characteristics are driving the demand for reliable and harmonized statistics within this field as well as within the wider context of regional policy and sustainable development policy areas.

Seasonal predictions in tourism

The tourism is growing dramatically in the past two decades since it is seen as a tool in promoting the global business. Especially the tourism demand in Europe is growing among the residents as well as the international visitors. The study on tourism reported a 2.4 times higher trips than the trips made on the previous decade. When taking into account the duration of the trips made by the international visitors, the seasonal pattern plays a major role in deciding thetraffic. For long trips, the seasonal pattern was more pronounced than for short breaks and the EU residents made more than 89 million long trips of at least four overnight stays.

Investor consortium led by Indigo Partners to invest Rs 1400 crore in SpiceJet

Sources with direct knowledge share that US based private equity firm Indigo Partners, which specialises in operating airlines globally, is the anchor investor in Ajay Singh-led consortium to buy SpiceJet. TPG Capital and JPMorgan Infrastructure Fund are the other two funds in the consortium. Sources indicate that the consortium could be investing a total amount of Rs 1400 crore.

Indigo Partners' involvement is key to the deal, said a source, as it has investments in global airlines and understands the operations. Other funds will go ahead with the deal if Indigo Partners signs up for it, a source shared. The US based equity funds are currently conducting due diligence on SpiceJet. ET Now also learns that Indigo Partners may back Ajay Singh to own 26 per cent in SpiceJetBSE 4.78 % to have considerable authority in the company.

Amazon joins India startup story, backs gift cards company

E-commerce giant Amazon has led a $10-million (over Rs 60-crore) funding round in QwikCilver Solutions for a stake believed to be just under 15%. The investment marks Amazon's maiden investment in India's startup ecosystem, having invested in over two dozen companies globally over the past decade.

Existing investors Helion Venture Partners and Accel Partners also participated in the fund raise of Bengaluru-based QwikCilver, which provides end-to-end gift card solutions for retailers and corporate customers.

In June, TOI had reported how the Seattle-based Amazon had begun identifying startups in the tech and internet space in India.

Confirming the fund raise, Kumar Sudarsan, founder and director of QwikCilver said: "The motivation to get Amazon on board was that they will be able to bring in best practices and global strategies to help us scale the sector to the next level." He, however, declined to comment on the quantum of funds raised and the stake that Amazon has picked up in the company.