Japanese auto major Nissan is recalling around 12,000 units of various models, including mid-sized sedan Sunny and small car Micra, manufactured between June 2013 and March 2015 in India as part of its global campaign to rectify engine switch and airbags. The Japanese company has announced recall for around 270,000 cars worldwide on certain models. When asked about impact on India, a company spokesperson said, “Nissan is conducting a voluntary recall campaign for about 2, 70,000 vehicles on the certain models, including 12,000 vehicles in India.” Authorised Nissan retailers will rework the engine switch at no cost to the customer to avoid excessive interference, the spokesperson said. The units impacted by faulty airbags constituted a very small fraction of about 12,000 units being recalled, the spokesperson added. The airbags were made by Japanese parts maker Takata, whose airbags have sparked a global recall crisis. “Nissan is committed to a high level of customer safety, service, and satisfaction and is working with its dealers to promptly address this issue,” the spokesperson said. Last month, Honda Cars India had recalled a total of 11,381 units of Accord, CR-V and Civic, manufactured between 2003 and 2007, to replace a faulty part in the passenger and driver side airbags. The recall is part of Honda’s global campaign of fixing potential defect related to airbags. Ever since the auto industry body SIAM started voluntary vehicle recalls for safety related issues in India in July 2012, over seven lakh vehicles have been recalled by various manufacturers in India. (PTI)
Read More
The sales of high-end cars are growing rapidly in India; it was 35,000 in 2014 as compare to 30,926 vehicles sold in 2013 and it is expected that the luxury car market is all set to touch $14.72 billion by 2015. Each one wants to come under the list of luxury car owners; however, it is a costly affair. Do not kill your desires; just step into Eco Rent a Car, a national car rental company to fulfill your dream to ride a luxury sedan.Eco Rent a Car, specialising in the premium and corporate car rental segment has come up with an exciting monsoon offer on one of the most powerful and expensive Limosuines and other luxury cars. Now everyone can enjoy a luxurious drive in the grand vehicle that dominates the roads, at affordable prices.The current price for Chrysler Limousine service is being offered Rs 15,000 for two hours and Rs 3,000 for every additional hour. For Mercedes S-Class/BMW 7 Series one needs to pay Rs 6000 for four hours and Rs 1,000 for every additional hour, on the other hand one need to pay little less for BMW 3 Series and Mercedes E Class that is around Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,000 for eight hours, respectively.However, hiring an Audi for full day can become a whole day luxury in just Rs 22,000 (per day rental).A professional car rental and ground transportation company, ECO Rent a Car has offices in 9 cities with its services spread across 79 cities pan India. A brick and mortar company that is built on the part-owned/part-aggregation model, with its proprietary technology and processes is delivering the best-in-class user interface across mobile and web platforms. ECO Rent a Car happens to be the only company in India to own cars and coaches across all categories including Stretched Limousines catering to the needs of a smorgasbord of travelers.
Read More
It is high time that the Competition Commission of India took cognisance of the predatory pricing taxi aggregators indulge in, weighing taxi aggregators and taxi operators through the same scale, says Kunal LalaniWith billion-dollar valuations and the financial muscle of global VCs, taxi aggregators have been waging price wars to win over customers in India. Low taxi fares are attractive for sure, but are they favourable in the longer run, or are they just a short-term trap to woo customers and monopolise the market?With the taxi business in India growing at a healthy rate of 20-25 per cent every year, the organized taxi sector alone, which accounts for just 4-5 per cent of the taxi industry in India, is expected to grow to $7 billion by 2020. For a share of the pie, there has been a surge in the emergence of new players in the market. Backed by global venture capitalist funds, the new players operateas taxi aggregators who act as a conduitfor connecting consumers with taxis through technology such as mobile apps. Ola, Uber and TaxiforSure are a few companies that operate as taxi aggregators. With the breakneck speed with which they are expanding their business, their modus operandi begs to be analysed.The purported revenue model of taxi aggregators is such that they donot employ the taxi drivers or own a fleet of cars, but earn a commission in the range of 10-20% of the journey's fare a cab hailer hands out to the taxi driver. Let us analyse their revenue model a bit further. Compared to normal taxi fares, the prices quotedby taxi aggregators are abysmally low, for example, Rs 8 per kilometre. Considering that most of the aggregator taxis run on diesel-which is a violation of the Supreme Court's order fornot using non-clean fuel for plying in the city-the fuel cost alone turns out to be Rs 4-5 per kilometre, based on current diesel prices, which when added to the overheads of the car's purchase value, maintenance and insurance costs, amounts to a lot more than Rs 10 per kilometre. If you further subtract the commission of the aggregators, the taxi driver is left with nothing and has to pay from his own pocket with such fares.And that is the reason why taxi aggregators supplement taxi drivers' earnings in the form of a bonus or incentive, which exceeds Rs 15 per kilometre and clearly leads to a huge hole in the aggregators'pockets.Surviving on VC funds, most taxi aggregators are incurring huge losses for every trip executed, which makes clear that the intent of their pricing strategy is not to earn profits in the short-term but to establish market presence by luring customers through low fares. The above chart has a sample price (in INR) a typical taxi aggregator charges per kilometre, which is simply not sustainable in the long-run as the actual expenses incurred are almost double!One may ask, so what is the taxi aggregators' long-term strategy for making profits? Market monopolisation, is the answer. Through abysmally low taxi fares, normal radio taxi cabs and other neighbourhood taxi operators will be unable to match the pricing for long, slowly fizzling outof the market. The aggregators will then establish a monopoly and will have the freedom to charge unreasonably high prices, perhaps even form cartels, and exploit consumers-taking them for a ride! There is no free lunch in business. Once customers get used to these services, the aggregators will be free to charge as much as three to four times the fare to recover the losses.But what about fare price regulations by the government and the transport authority? Unfortunately, taxi aggregators masquerade as technology companies, which is grossly misleading, and go scot free of the regulations governing regular taxi operators.The technology quotient of taxi aggregators is a misnomer since radio taxi cabs were the first ones to adopt hi-fi technology-employing radio networks, GPS-enabled tracking, and bookings through not just the telephone but also websites and mobile apps. Bymasquerading as technology companies operating from different jurisdictions, much like e-commerce companies, taxi aggregators avoid paying service tax, too.It is evident that the taxi aggregators indulge in unregulated, unfair practices ofpredatory pricing, which some might object to as an insinuation. However, per the competition law, predatory pricing can be proved by establishing the dominance of the market player, and the dominant position of taxi aggregators-in both revenue and market share-can easily be proven by looking at their cash reserves and phenomenal rate of market expansion. For example, Ola Cabs already has 60,000 cabs in 52 Indian cities-with 34 cities that were added in the past three months alone-and intends to expand to 200 cities by the end of 2015. Ola is able to expand because of its deep VC-funded coffers-with multiple rounds of funding, Ola is sitting on rich cash reserves and a valuation of more than $1 billion.It is high time that the Competition Commission of India took cognisance of the predatory pricing taxi aggregators indulge in, weighing taxi aggregators and taxi operators through the same scale. The means of enablement hardly matters as long as they are in the business of providing the same service-that of taxis. Hence the call for reasonable fares thatpromote fair competition and benefit the consumers in the long run.The author is chairman association of Radio Taxi India
Read More
India's packaging industry will grow 20-25 per cent annually over the next few years, helped by changing retail patterns, Uflex group president for corporate finance and accounts R.K. Jain tells BW Businessworld's Shakir Husain Leading flexible packaging company Uflex is investing Rs 1,800 crore (about $284 million) to grow its output and add new products as demand for packaging material rises in India amid changing retail patterns. The Noida-headquartered company will invest Rs 550 crore in setting up a plant in Sanand, Gujarat, to make packaging materials for liquid products. R.K. Jain, Uflex Ltd's group president for corporate finance and accounts, said land has been acquired for the facility, which will be operational in April 2017 and employ about 800 people. "We are now entering the liquid market," he said. The Gujarat factory will produce seven billion packs per year for liquid products such as energy drinks, milk and juices, and about 90 per cent of the output will be used for the domestic market, Jain told BW Businessworld in an interview. Uflex manufactures both packaging materials and equipment and is a market leader in India in the segment. A big chunk of its supplies goes to the food and beverage industry. Uflex has manufacturing facilities in Noida in Uttar Pradesh, Malanpur in Madhya Pradesh and in Jammu. Overseas facilities are located in Dubai, Egypt, Mexico, Poland and North America. Jain said the company is growing its overseas business as well. "We are becoming an emerging player in the international market. We have a sales network in 140 countries," he said, adding that the company's revenues are evenly divided between domestic and overseas markets. The company employs 7,500 people, of whom 6,300 work in India. Growing Domestic DemandThe Indian packaging industry has been growing at 15-17 per cent annually, but this growth rate is expected to rise significantly with organised retail expanding and changes happening in Indian consumption patterns. "Now changes are taking place (in the economy). Demographics is changing, lifestyle is changing, more organised retail is coming," Jain said. He expects the packaging industry to achieve an annual growth rate of 20 to 25 per cent per over the next several years. Traditional retail in India is conducted through kirana shops with many goods being sold loose, but the trend of shopping malls and an expansion of modern organised retail are expected to create huge demand for packaging products. Jain said as packaging penetration is low at present, the industry would continue to see strong growth "for at least the next 10 years." Uflex will spend Rs 1,800 crores, including the investment in Gujarat, over the next three years to achieve its growth plans. The company plans to raise its capacity for making plastic film and other products from 425,000 tonnes to 575,000 tonnes by 2018. Target For Profit Growth"As business grows, we will require more capacity," Jain said. He said Uflex aims to grow its net profit for the current financial year by 30-35 per cent. The company's net profit grew 26 per cent to Rs 255 crore in the financial year 2014-15. The revenue target for 2015-16 is 7,500 crore compared with Rs 6,180 crore achieved in the previous financial year. Uflex, which supplies packing material to Nestle, does not see any negative impact on its revenue growth due to the sales ban on the Maggi instant noodles brand. "Our packaging portfolio is evenly spread out among several top notch brands and Maggi as part of our portfolio does not add significantly to our bottom line," the company said in statement. "The recent banning of Maggi noodles will have no negative impact on Uflex's turnover as the company is on a higher growth trajectory both in India and overseas market," it said.
Read More
A top Indian-origin executive at micro-blogging site Twitter has resigned, the latest in a recent string of departures from the company including that of CEO Dick Costolo.Rishi Garg, the Vice President for Corporate Development and Strategy at Twitter, a role that put him in charge of the Mergers & Acquisition strategy, has announced his departure after a tenure of 13 months."After an amazing ride as Twitter's VP Corporate Development and Strategy, I'm saying farewell today," he tweeted."Our team has built a stronger Twitter with a dozen acquisitions in the last year. Hats off to @dickc for admirable leadership, humour, energy, and trust," Garg said, using Costolo's Twitter handle to thank him."I can't wait to witness the company's next chapter. I'm off to pursue some exciting new projects; more soon! #staytuned," the tweets read.Twitter did not immediately announce a replacement for Garg, whose departure comes just two week after Costolo announced he was stepping down as the company's CEO.Costolo has been replaced by co-founder Jack Dorsey on an interim basis.Other high-level departures over the last 18 months include product chief Daniel Graf, COO Ali Rowghani, and CFO Mike Gupta.Before joining Twitter, Garg was the M&A chief for fellow Jack Dorsey company Square.According to his online profile, Garg received a BA in Economics and MS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.(PTI)
Read More
HR strategy is to reinforce organisational strategy through long-term goals, says Vidur Gupta, Spectrum Talent ManagementThe primary role of HR is to build the foundation of an organisation with right kind of people. It is involved in diverse activities that assist in smooth functioning of the company. Growing willingness and enthusiasm among employees is a major objective of HR. The department is also responsible to propagate necessary changes in employees to cope with workplace dynamics. HR roles within an organization are changing rapidly from a transactional to transformational role. The department now, has to focus on internal processes and business of the organization building up new thinking models, practices and competencies.Transition of HR practices is gradually being adopted throughout the industry. Transactional HR comprised of a set of monolithic processes such as revising workplace policies and investigating workplace issues. The change to strategic concept has made its realms wider. Now, HR strategy is to reinforce organisational strategy through long-term goals. Process oriented activities are being shifted to organization-oriented activities. The newly emerging strategic concept in HR is with a number of features that are noted as follows:Greater Focus On standardisationHiring process and HR practices need to follow standardized procedures and methodology. Various aspects within the organization need scrutiny to map better success strategies. Moreover, HR practices should follow a global standard specific to any industry. This helps candidates and employees to have proper idea of workspace and a level of competency they need to have in an organization. Industry specific standardization will also help employees to understand the actual requirement of an organization and scale up their skills to the required level. To formulate effective HR strategies a greater focus on standardization is required.Quality HiringIn startups, people who are hired in the first round of recruitment or the first batch of employees becomes the core formation to draw a road map of success, transforming it to a large enterprise with exponential turnovers from a neoteric venture. Improvement in recruitment process will ensure quality of hiring and hence, ultimately the quality of workforce.Less Capable ExpenseWhile forming new set of strategies, the department should take into account financial aspect of the organization. Emphases should be on reducing expenditure of the company rather than increasing it as investment in HR fronts. HR should be competent enough to adapt the workforce to the changing dynamics of business environment.ComplianceA number of compliances should be formulated, which will act as a central constitution guiding the diverse verticals of HR. To align HR strategies to Business strategies, focus should be on a number of specific aspects. Leadership, Culture, Communication, Engagement, workplace planning, talent, Retention, Performance management and team management should be emphasized upon by HR.Use of TechnologyLeveraging technology will help the department to induce progressive features in hiring and managing workforce. For instance, Enterprise Social Networks are becoming popular in enterprises for effective HR practices. Moreover, hiring processes are now shifted from conventional methods to new strategies such as social hiring leveraging social media.Higher ScalabilityHR should be scalable enough to adapt itself to changing business scenarios. While HR shifts to strategic concepts, the basic transactional features must be handled properly even if functional developments are induced to the process. It should be understood that the road map of HR from transactional to strategic concept is more about expansion rather than a change. HR strategies need to orient themselves to the overall business and objectivities of the organization while hiring and sustaining the workforce.A Holistic Approach Towards Internal ApproachDevising policies and practices with a holistic approach towards the internal mechanism of the organization is crucial. The work culture of the organization should align with the business culture of the company. For instance, if the company promises delivery of services with speed and agility, HR should ensure that the same parameters are being followed internally forming the work culture of the organization.The author is director at Spectrum Talent Management
Read More
Green architecture and design offers a sustained environment, which is in harmony with nature, says Pradeep MisraPublic Health and hygiene is the first concern in any society or locale. Health is related intrinsically with intellectual and physical development of human and hence with productivity. In the backdrop of a deteriorating environment simulated by surging pollution and facets such as global warming, the concept of Green Building is emerging on the mainstream. Construction, maintenance, operation and design of Green Buildings reinforce a sustainable environment, thereby impacting health and hygiene in a harmonious way. As the positive effects of Green Construction on health is becoming increasingly clear, its advocacy of productivity in human resource also becoming evident. Healthy body connotes a healthy mind increasing competency and hence, productivity of human resources.Green Environment has profound impact on human as well as environmental health. Buildings and community spaces can be used as protection from diseases promoting health. Building material, designs, location and maintenance are key aspects of safety of people living in them. The modern society is largely dependable on these aspects that define lifestyle and living of people holistically. Performance of people is also a product of their localities and especially the environment. It is imperative to create a sustainable environment to ensure better human resource. Green Buildings, in this context, is the juxtaposition of every aspect that fosters healthy lifestyle.Human performance, in present times, must be considered as important as energy performance and the increasing paradigms of technological development. A survey by International Energy Agency indicated that existing buildings across the globe contributes to more than 40% of total primary energy consumption and 24% of global Carbon Dioxide Emission. With the emergence of technological amenities, human beings seem to stray away from their actual level of competence, both mentally and physically. Prioritizing this issue is crucial and development pattern that supports human abilities to grow should be initiated, rather than rendering further depreciation of performance. For instance, obesity is considered as a byproduct of modern development. This problem can be addressed by propagating a healthy lifestyle that supports bodily fitness and physical activity. The modern enigmas of human health and chronic issues such as heart related diseases, psychological issues, panic attacks and so onare intrinsically related to eco system and environment. Only a holistic change in public lifestyle can make an impact on such conditions. Habitat that supports a sustainable environment is a pragmatic way to address this issue.Sustainable environmental can be created through Green Building practices. The practices of green building are incorporated right from the first stage of construction. Since any construction always affects the environmental aspects of a site, the first objective of green construction is to reduce these adverse effects. Green buildings are constructed to coincide with the best possible unitization of space. Another major objective of green building is to reduce wastage of energy and resources. Methods and materials utilized in construction of Green Buildings are environmentally sound. Maintaining Environment Friendly construction is among the prime aspects of Green Buildings. Obtaining structural efficiency, water efficiency, energy efficiency, material efficiency are the objectives of these buildings. Furthermore, optimization of indoor environment, operation, maintenance and reduction of waste and toxins are the integral features. These aspects together synthesize a cumulative effect that optimizes the environment to be human friendly. Such environment promotes optimal development of human health both physically and mentally.The aesthetics aspects of Green Building are paramount to promote human productivity. Green architecture and design offers a sustained environment, which is in harmony with nature. Such surroundings guarantee reduction of noise and thereby propagate peace of mind. This feature is substantial to induce productivity in human mind and develop quality human resources. A proportional relation exists between a peaceful mind and creativity. Natural environment supports innovation and creative thinking, which has been the backbone human civilization.Worker Productivity is among the most important aspects of Green Building. Increased productivity and employee's positive approach to workplace are directly correlated. Certain aspects of Green Building such as lighting, reduced pollution, proper ventilation and reduced toxins have direct impact on worker's productivity. A research by US Green Building Council proved that level of indoor pollutants can be higher than that of outdoors by 10 times. Green buildings are healthier as they provide cleaner environment and hence, health benefits. Studies have indicated that these buildings yielded $53 to $71 per square foot back on investment over an average period of 20 years. It is also found out that industry sectors could save up to $130 Billion only by saving electricity through Green Buildings. Investment risk in these buildings is much less than conventional construction.Organisations around the Globe are gradually adopting the concept of Green Building over traditional workspaces. Apart from optimal utilization of human resource these allows to save cost and contribute towards holistic development. Corporations such as Ford, Pepsico and so on are emerging as pioneers to adopt the idea and in realty sector; Green Building is becoming a strong USP. Many companies across the globe are now opting for Green workspaces to leverage its benefits.The author is director at REPL
Read More
Shares of Tech Mahindra Ltd dropped almost 7 per cent to a more than one-year low on Monday (29 June) after the IT firm warned of a weak first quarter, partly due to higher U.S. visa sponsorship costs for its employees. Local IT services companies send hundreds of workers to the United States to work on client projects, making them among the top applicants for U.S. visa. Applications for H-1B visas allowing U.S. businesses to hire foreign workers in science, engineering and computer programming have already reached a record 233,000 in the financial year 2016. Higher costs of H1-B visas will be a drag on first-quarter margins, Tech Mahindra said earlier in the day without elaborating. The company also said its mobility business would be a seasonal drag on results in the first quarter. "Organisation-wide there is renewed focus on improving operational levers and cost-control parameters, however the impact is expected to be visible only from Q3 FY16," the company said in a filing to the exchange. Tech Mahindra shares were down 7.6 percent at 482 rupees on the NSE as of 1:23 a.m. (Reuters)
Read More
