Etihad Airways Partners (EAP) airlines Etihad Airways, which also includes India's Jet Airways, have appointed Starcom, part of Starcom Mediavest Group, as the airline group’s new global media agency, following a joint tender sent to several leading agency networks.Starcom was selected by EAP to deliver scaled benefits by aligning media spending power across key markets and to provide added value and centralised strategic advice and planning to meet the unique commercial needs of the airline grouping.Shane O’Hare, Etihad Airways’ senior vice president marketing, said: “Starcom demonstrated that they fully understand the emerging media scene which has digital media at its core. Their highly experienced team, resources, planning tools and buying clout in all the key EAP markets gave them a clear edge in the tender."“The depth of the relationships within the EAP allows us to go even further with our joint media strategy alignment, and will allow Starcom to maximise returns on our collective investment and to ensure that each unique brand experience is brought to life with optimum exposure on a global scale,” added O'Hare. The appointment of Starcom will allow the EAP to benefit from a superior knowledge and skill base within one agency to service all partners with market and industry insights and to provide access to leading edge global thinking and proprietary technology with consistency across all partners.Starcom will service the EAP airlines in key hubs in the United Arab Emirates and India.Matt Blackborn, president, investment and diversification at Starcom Mediavest Group, said: "We are the foremost innovators in the precision media space and very much welcome this exciting challenge of working with the Etihad Airways Partner airlines across all their communications platforms."“This is a unique client brief and relationship as it brings together multiple brands from the same industry and is ground-breaking in the agency world. We look forward to servicing Etihad Airways Partners through a unified approach that integrates connections, content, data and technology,” added Blackborn.Gaurang Shetty, senior vice president commercial at Jet Airways said: “Starcom showed their ability to add value to our media investments and demonstrated their thorough understanding of the evolving media scenario. Starcom’s solution was backed with data, insights and relevance to the brand’s core values. We look forward to partnering with Starcom to develop synergies along with other Eithad Airways Partner airlines.”
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Over the past year, a massive bubble brewed up in Chinese assets, even as growth slowed. That bubble is now bursting. Leading experts on financial markets say that while there has been a knee jerk reaction to the crash in all Asian markets, India may not suffer in the long run.However, policymakers around the world are looking on with growing concern that turmoil in the stock markets will spill into China's real economy, the second-largest in the world and a huge engine of global growth.Some market analysts have likened China's boom-to-bust market to the dot-com bubble in the US, when furious, irrational buying eventually led to a Nasdaq burst in 2000.In 12 months, China's stock markets rose enough to create $6.5 trillion in value - enough to pay off Greece's debt 20 times over. No other stock market has ever grown that much in dollar terms. The real mystery of the Chinese stock market boom is its disconnect with the real economy. While the stock market has surged, the Chinese economy has finally begun to slump after decades of strong growth, according to a report in The Washington Post.Since June 12, the Shanghai Composite has lost an unnerving 32 per cent. For China, this isn't just a financial crisis, it's a political one. That's why the Chinese government is doing everything it can to try to stop the bleeding. China has tight control over capital flows and restrictions on foreign participation in its stock market. Market analysts say India's markets aren't too closely connected to fortunes in China. At present, India remains insulated from any direct impact from crisis in China. Here's a guide to understanding the China's stock bubble and its possible impact1) As China's record-breaking equity boom goes bust, President Xi Jinping is intervening in an attempt to prevent the rout from eroding confidence in his leadership. The main reason for the Chinese government reaction to the stock market could be that it has routinely taken credit for the stock market's bullish performance, often claiming that this was attributable to the economic reforms. The state media publications had urged the public to invest in stocks, and other government initiatives opened up markets to foreign investors.2) Unlike most other stock markets, where investors are mostly institutional, more than 80 per cent of investors in China are small retail investors. They made risky investments often bypassing rules, according to analysts. Estimates say that borrowed money helped push the stock market 150 per cent since June last year.3) The government has taken many extraordinary steps to halt the collapse, including cutting interest rates, using government pension funds to buy stocks, halting initial public offerings and relaxing terms for margin borrowing.4) China is one of India's largest trading partners, accounting for about $70 billion in two-way trade. India sells iron ore, metals and metal alloys, auto parts, textile yarn, chemicals, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals and tobacco worth about $27 billion to China. This market is now under threat by a looming slowdown, which has triggered a massive meltdown on the bourses.5) The Chinese market regulator has barred big shareholders and executives of listed companies - who have stakes exceeding 5 per cent - from selling their shares for the next six months.6) Some long-term investors are cutting their exposure. Many have made good profits over the long term (the market is up 150 per cent on a year ago) and so as things get rocky, they are getting out.7) The Chinese economy seems to be losing momentum, despite a string of market interventions by the authorities. A new $40 billion (250 billion yuan) plan announced on Wednesday to foster growth in areas of the economy that need it most. China will also speed up infrastructure spending that the government was already planning to do such as building roads and utilities.8) China's central bank has cut rates to a record low in an effort to pump more money into the system.9) Investors now have more options to back their margin trades. Many investors speculated on stocks -- they would borrow money to buy stock because they thought the stock would go up and they would make enough money to pay back the loan and make a profit. Chinese investors can even pledge their homes as collateral, according to Bloomberg.10) The China Securities Regulatory Commission said separately that China Securities Finance Corporation, a government-backed fund, would provide "abundant liquidity" to help steady the market. State-owned enterprises have also been directed towards share buybacks. So far, 292 companies have pledged to buy their own stock, according to state media.
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Hiring activities in sectors like accounting and finance industry has seen an increase according to a new survey. The Naukri Job Speak Index for the month of June 2015 stood at 1749 recording an 11 per cent increase in hiring activity over June 2014.V. Suresh, Executive Vice President and Chief Sales Officer, Naukri.com said, “Job market continues to sustain the momentum gained in April and May with an impressive 11 per cent growth in June. Sectors like IT, Banking and Pharma lead the show right now and we can expect the other sectors to start looking up in the next few months or so. Looks like Jobs are back and exciting times ahead!!".While the maximum increase in hiring was recorded in the Banking, IT-Software, IT-Hardware and Telecom industries too showed an upsurge in hiring activity. However, hiring activity in sectors such as oil and gas, auto and real estate witnessed a year-on-year decline in the June’15 index over June’14.While the hiring sentiment in the metros like Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata recorded an upward movement. While Delhi-NCR was stagnant in hiring activity in the June’15 index.Industry Wise AnalysisApart from the Accounting /Finance industry, which led the pack in terms of Y-o-Y growth in hiring activity. BFSI industry reported a Y-o-Y growth of 49 per cent in the June’15 index. The IT- Software and Hardware industries witnessed a Y-o-Y growth in hiring activity to the tunes of 23 per cent and 19 per cent respectively in the June 2015 over June 2014.Pharmaceutical and Healthcare industries too saw a Y-o-Y increase in hiring activity to the tunes of 14 per cent and 16 per cent respectively. Core sectors like Oil and Gas, Real Estate and Auto continue to witness a decline in hiring activity to the tunes of 31 per cent, 19 per cent and 16 per cent respectively in June’15 over June’14Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai registered a Y-o-Y increase of 19 per cent and 5 per cent respectively in hiring activity in the June’15 index. The hiring activity in Delhi-NCR remained stagnant according to the June’15 over June’14.Functional Area Analysis:The demand for IT-Software professionals saw an increase in the June’15 index. The demand for consulting professionals recorded the highest Y-o-Y increase, to the tune of 28 per cent, in the June’15 index.Demand for professionals in accounts/finance, banking/insurance and marketing also recorded a Y-o-Y growth of 22 per cent, 18 per cent and 10 per cent respectively in June’15 index. The demand for professionals in Pharma also witnessed a Y-o-Y growth to the tune of 5 per cent June’15 over June’14.The demand for professionals in IT-Hardware witnessed a stable trend in June’15 index. ITES and Packaging professionals saw a decline in demand of 4 per cent and 10 per cent respectively in June 2015 over June 2014.
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The Catalyst study showed that narrowing down culture gap would help in talent retention, especially women, reports Simar SinghThe narrower the gap is between employees’ desired workplace culture and the reality, the more likely are they to stay with the organisation, indicates a survey of both male and female MBA graduates. This revelation made by the report, ‘Mind Your Culture Gap’, is important as hiring and retaining talent is increasingly becoming one of the biggest challenges employers are facingUndertaken by the research organisation, Catalyst, the study showed that narrowing down this gap would particularly incentivise women to stick on with only 3 per cent of the respondents reporting that they would be likely to leave if this happened. This is a significant decrease from the 44 per cent who were likely to leave if the culture gap was wide.46 per cent of the male respondents claimed that they were likely to leave if the culture gap was wide and only half of them reported to be likely to stay if the gap was significantly narrowed down.“This is important news for company leaders who are increasingly concerned about finding and keeping top talent and driving organizational performance,” said Deborah Gillis, President and CEO, Catalyst. “Women and men will seek out and stay at companies that demonstrate the behaviours that previous Catalyst research has linked to inclusion and innovation: empowerment, accountability, courage, and humility.”According to the researchers, the closer the work place culture was to employees’ expectations the more satisfied they would be with their pay, work and advancement, supervisors and the organization’s commitments to work-life quality and diversity.More On Talent RetentionThe study also explores how companies can move away from their tendency to overlook the “people side” of change, as a second report titled, ‘Think People, Not Just Programmes, to Build Inclusive Workplaces’, indicates. Suggestions include connecting employees to the company’s core values, promoting transparency portraying a socially responsible image by sharing philanthropic and volunteer efforts and how they benefit customers and the broader community and creating pathways for dialogue by encouraging communication and feedback.All the suggestions have been backed by statistical indicators of their effectiveness. For example, more than 62 per cent of employees who strongly felt that their company was making a meaningful impact also felt included.A preference for constructive organisational behaviour which encompassed an emphasis on integrity, collaboration and support was reported as opposed to aggressive behaviour which emphasised on perfectionism, power, competition, and opposition. There was largely a consensus among both the male and female respondents that the biggest gap in their workplace cultures was that they were not constructive enough and creating such an environment was key to retaining top talent.
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Bangalore-based Practo, an online platform for doctor search, has acquired Genii, a product outsourcing firm to strengthen tech team and help accelerate time to market across enterprise segments.The founders of Genii, Varun Vohra and Aditya Anand, along with the 11-member team will join Practo and move to Bangalore. Genii founders will lead product teams and accelerate Practo’s march towards the enterprise space with products focused around hospitals, diagnostic centers and others.Practo listed in over 8,000 hospitals on its platform and will expand this to over 20,000 by end of this year.Shashank ND, Founder & CEO, Practo, said, “This is the second of several acquisitions we are exploring. It is the next step in our mission to make Practo your health app. We believe acquisitions are a fantastic way to add world class like-minded talent to our team. It gives us a fast way to scale and the ability to further accelerate our roadmap. We continue to look at acquiring great talent and technology. I’m very excited to have the Genii team join us and look forward to building exciting products with them".
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China is the second biggest market in terms of market capitalisation and it's fall is bound to hit India, reports Paramita ChatterjeeIt’s so far been a roller coaster ride for the capital markets on Thursday. Sensex, the benchmark index of Indian equities markets, tanked 26.95 points in the afternoon trade, while Nifty was 0.09 per cent down at 8,355.15 in the backdrop of negative news prevailing in the global markets in Greece and China.Both the indexes continued to trade on a sluggish note, weakness in IT stocks, even as they did recover in between. This is despite China’s markets recovering on Thursday and on the commodities front base metal prices stabilising after cracking yesterday.On a positive note, however, the small-cap stocks have witnessed some buying interest.Typically, when one market falls, especially that of the size of China, it’s natural for other markets to follow suit. The impact on India will be there as after all China is the second biggest market in terms of market capitalisation. Besides, if the Greece-eurozone crisis escalates and results in the nation crashing out of the eurozone, the impact will certainly be felt on Indian shores too and make inventors more risk averse! Also, what's adding to negative sentiment is the impact on the rupee. In the short term, there is a possibility of a devaluation in the Indian currency.
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Dell on Thursday (9 July) launched its new television commercial that is crafted around the theme for youth in 2015 – Learn. Share. Inspire.Ritu Gupta, Director-Marketing, Consumer & Small Business, Dell India said, “Through this TVC we are realising our vision of delivering technology which enables youth to reach beyond basic academic learning and enhance the quality of content, leading to the ‘sharing’ of creative ideas, expression and knowledge.”“Karo Kuch Bhi' is a reiteration of this year’s theme for the Back to College campaign – Learn. Share. Inspire – which motivates students to express themselves using the power of technology and thus create and share on multiple online & offline platforms.Conceptualised and executed by GREY group India, the commercial 'Socho Toh Karo, Karo Kuch Bhi' is a testimony to Dell’s belief that aspiring youth of today can not only express their creativity, but also inspire others by sharing their knowledge and creations with the use of personal technology.College students armed with ambition, and the desire to assert individual identity, are looking to perfectly balance their academic and social lives, and technology gives them the platform to do this. As students step into new college semesters, this year’s ‘Back to College’ campaign sets the tone for youth to be motivated about their personal ambitions. As part of the campaign , Dell showcases its exciting new range of Notebooks from its flagship Inspiron brand, the Inspiron 5000 series, which is designed to play multiple roles in a college students’ life - be it for college assignments, skill and knowledge development, or for connecting with people and entertainment. An added bonus is these laptops is that they are also available in 4 colours, that allow for added personalization and individuality.The TVC addresses the meaning of the word ‘sharing’ among today’s social media savvy generation. In an environment where people are thirsting for captivating and inspirational content, the objective is to highlight the shift towards how youngsters are following their dreams and are producing innovative and thought provoking ideas and content, even as they inspire their others by sharing their journey. The TVC conveys that by creating something new, one can have a meaningful impact and inspire many others to create something of their own.A runner from a small town, inspires an entire community to run through his blog, a group of food loving friends start a night time food truck and find their customers using technology to map customer locations, a designer uses technology software to create a block print design that she uses to give her T-shirts an ethnic and unique twist, a young filmmaker explores the dualities in nature in a montage of moving images – each evocative and intriguing, by playing around with optical illusions, each of these stories run with the theme of how they are using technology to follow their passions and connect with others.Ram Jayaraman, Executive Creative Director, GREY group India, Bangalore, said, "The previous Inspiron Notebook TVC we created for Dell was about all about passionate inward pursuit – following your dreams till they become achievements. This one is more outward. It is about touching others with the force of your conviction. It is about passion snowballing into inspiration. Because when passionate youngsters learn and share ideas and beliefs, they make things happen."
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IT czar Azim Premji has given away almost half of his stakeholding in Wipro, India's third largest exporter of software services, to philanthropy.Wipro's billionaire founder has given away an additional 18 per cent of his stake in the IT company for charity, thus earmarking 39 per cent of stake (worth Rs 53,284 crore) for a charitable trust.The latest philanthrophic initiative by Premji would pump in an additional Rs 530 crore by way of dividends into the Azim Premji Trust's corpus this year.Premji, 69, is the first Indian to sign the Giving Pledge, sponsored by billionaires Warren Buffett and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to invite the world's wealthiest to donate majority of their wealth to charity."Over the past fifteen years, I have tried to put this belief into action through my personal philanthropic work...," Premji said in a letter to shareholders published in the company's annual report for the year ended March 2015.Premji said, "Over these years I have irrevocably transferred a significant part of the shareholding in Wipro, amounting to 39 per cent of the shares of Wipro, to a Trust (of which ownership in 21.14 per cent was transferred and for the balance the Trust is entitled to beneficial interest of dividends and sale proceeds)."The previously transferred 21 per cent stake was estimated at $4.3 billion. The promoter group led by Premji holds 73.39 per cent stake in Wipro.Premji was considered the 'most generous Indian' of 2014 according to the Hurun India Philanthropy List.He said the Trust supports the work of The Azim Premji Foundation and Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiative and thus a very significant part of the value created by Wipro, goes towards social causes.Premji also stated in the report that economic value is sustainable only if created on a foundation of ethics and responsibility."For us, this is the driving force in the form of our values and is something that we will continue to remain completely committed to," he added.The company's Social and Sustainability Initiatives are driven by the conviction that corporations should play a significant role in contributing to building a better society, Premji said."The owners - individuals or other entities - of such corporations can do a lot more for society, because they can choose to exercise the right of their ownership, and invest their wealth in any social cause, to their utmost," he said.(PTI)
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