A break-up of India Inc.’s finances shows that while companies headquartered in the western states contribute over 50 per cent of total assets and income, infotech giants lead the pack when it comes to employee benefitsClick here to view graphicCompiled by Anup Jayaram; Graphic by Prashant Chaudhary(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 17-11-2014)
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At the Digital India Summit 2014, organised by BW | Businessworld on 1 October at Le Meridien, New Delhi, policy makers and leaders from the government and industry talked about the new government’s vision regarding the delivery of citizen-centric services by the Centre and states. Panellists discussed the recent initiatives of Digital India Programme and MyGov platform and the way forward for bringing about a digital revolution in India.Click here to view slide show(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 17-11-2014)
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The 10th edition of the BW | Businessworld Marketing Whitebook 2014-15 was launched on 11 June at Taj Lands End in Mumbai. Coinciding with the launch, BW organised a marketing conclave spread across seven sessions that looked at various aspects of marketing to different generations. The book was unveiled by Anurag Batra, chairman of GBN Media, Prosenjit Datta, editor of BW | Businessworld, D. Shivakumar, chairman and CEO, Pepsico India, Rama Bijapurkar, marketing strategy consultant, and Sanjay Mani, COO of Dainik Bhaskar. The who's who of the marketing and advertising fraternity attended the event, the highlight of which was insightful keynotes by Shivakumar and Bijapurkar.(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 28-07-2014)
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You have to give the devil his due. Cricket is still the best run sport in the country,” states Vimal Kumar, a former chief coach of the national badminton team. The remark, coming a year after cricket witnessed its worst phase — betting allegations against several franchise owners of the Indian Premier League — may sound ironic, but is not entirely untrue.
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The BW | Businessworld SME Whitebook was launched on 10 December at The Leela Ambience Gurgaon. The event witnessed a lively panel discussion on the subject, 'Growth Despite The Liquidity Squeeze'. This was followed by the unveiling of the book by Dr Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Development, who was the chief guest for the event.Click here to view slide show(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 13-01-2014)
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How does an organisation tackle periods of slowdown? That was probably the question on everyone’s mind as they gathered to celebrate the finest in corporate India at the BW Real 500 awards on 26 October at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai. The topic was discussed threadbare by a panel moderated by Pratip Chaudhuri, the just-retired chairman of the country’s largest bank, SBI. Some of the brightest minds from corporate India shared their thoughts on the topic. Sheshagiri Rao, joint MD at JSW Steel, kick-started the discussion saying growth has to come from maintaining profitability. Dr Habil Khorakiwala, chairman of Wockhardt, underlined the need to focus on long-term survival irrespective of the state of the economic cycle. Rashesh Shah, chairman Edelweiss, who spoke next, stressed that companies should pay particular attention to cash flows in the current cycle, where capital is hard to come by. He said it was ‘good to see’ that companies were not giving up on toplines, but the focus should be on profitability and cash flows. Shekhar Bajaj, chairman and MD of Bajaj Electrical brought in an additional aspect of how companies should not make the mistake of going for higher sales at the cost of tighter margins. According to Kaku Nakhate, president and country head at Bank of America, it is important to envisage that a downturn is coming and to increase market share ahead of it. Click here to view slide showThe panel then took questions from the audience. Most questions pertained to the slowdown such as entrepreneurship during periods of dull growth, sectors that lead during such times, and the kind of role that the government should play.Then came the highlight of the evening, with chief guest Praful Patel, minister for heavy industry and public enterprises, delivering his address ahead of the awards presentation. Patel said that India’s biggest push was coming from the rural markets, with aspirations having shot up in a relatively short span of time, putting the onus on the government to do much more. The minister then presented the awards to India's biggest and best companies to cap the evening's proceedings. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-12-2013)
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Why does it seem that the states have stopped competing for investment? Remember the 90s when Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka fought tooth and nail to upstage Maharashtra and Gujarat? How the Chennai region managed to get all the auto sector investment even though Pune region had a legacy advantage. The continuing sense of gloom among investors has been fed largely by the increasing lethargy of state governments to push growth. State governments and chief ministers make half hearted attempts to hold investor conferences. More effort is spent on organizing a summit than in clearing hurdles for projects. Chief ministers hold the occasional photo-op meeting with business leaders to show their commitment for growth. But soon after the flash bulbs move away, the chief minister and the government turns its face away from pending problems. Frustrated by such behaviour business groups are getting specific about project clearances. The Confederation of Indian Industry recently sent a list of 62 large projects to central government that are waiting to start operations. The total investment in these projects is over $13 billion. Of these most are in power and petroleum sector while the rest are in transport and township. The clearances they are waiting for are mostly from the state governments. While the central Ministry of Environment has held up a few, the local approvals are proving to be more frustrating. A project management group set up at the central government is trying to push states into getting the clearance done. Read More articles by Pranjal SharmaIn another time and era, state governments would have fallen over each to provide the clearances. Today, investors have to struggle. Part of the reason for this is the sheer increase in number of proposals. States are running out of land but they are also severely short of innovative ideas to resolve issues. Generous compensation, structured employment in projects and removal of archaic rules will automatically speed up the approvals. But the local political leadership is loath to take the effort or to give appropriate direction to the bureaucracy. Not surprising then that an increase number of investors are planning life without India. Even as the central government relaxes foreign direct investment rules, domestic investors are flying away. Much hope is being placed in Raghuram Rajan, the governor designate of Reserve Bank of India. Low growth, falling rupee and high inflation can’t be controlled by the central bank alone. Nor can the central government alone shoulder the responsibility. States will have to pull their weight to ensure that job creation and fund generation for welfare schemes is enabled. Where the central government has failed is to creating a positive sentiment of growth and action. Even if the central ministries don’t control state level issues, they can be proactive in chasing clearances. Political parties must push their Chief Ministers to focus on improving growth. States have to be able to convince citizens that if land and other resources are being allotted for projects, the returns will be better jobs and wealth for all. India needs a fresh batch of chief ministers in states who are eager and hungry for growth and development. Tough to say when this batch will graduate and take charge. (Pranjal Sharma is a senior business writer. He can be contacted at pranjalx@gmail.com)
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Shares of Financial Technologies, which owns a series of exchange platforms, gained over 30 per cent on Monday, 5 August, after the senior management proposed an “agreeable” staggered payment schedules for parties who defaulted on payments after punching trades on Financial Technologies’ subsidiary National Spot Exchange Ltd.The exchange brokered peace between parties involved in the trades and hammered out a three-point settlement to meet outstanding payments worth Rs 5,600 crore on due contracts. As per the agreement, eight members, who dishonoured the contract, agreed to pay close to Rs 2,181 crore with immediate effect. Another 13 members have agreed to pay 5 per cent of the total dues every week, which after 20 weeks would add up to Rs 3,107 crore. Three other members have asked for more time to pay the remaining Rs 311 crore, said a Financial Technologies spokesperson.“We’ve received assurances for over 95 per cent of the payment,” the spokesperson said.As a second option, National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) had asked non-payers to issue post-dated cheques amounting to Rs 4,900 crore against their settlement obligation.Read Also: Financial Technologies Crash: Sebi Begins Probe“While PDCs are a commitment, the payout process may not roll out smoothly in a month’s time. Hence, the market participants have proposed the first option (of staggered payments) as a safer alternative,” said a press note issued by NSEL.NSEL, which is an electronic trading platform for buying and selling of metals and agri-commodities, ran aground after it issued a circular that reduced the settlement cycle to less than 11 days (T+10) and barred intra-day square-off facility. Till that time, the exchange had larger settlement cycle often extending upto four weeks in the case of rare agri-commodities traded on the exchange. When the cycle got shortened, the market could not adjust to the new payment schedule. This gave rise to a mammoth payment default situation, triggering a massive drop in the shares of Financial Technologies.The stock fell over 79 per cent in two trading sessions, from Rs 584 on July 30 to Rs 120-levels at close on August 2. Financial Technologies shares ended trading at Rs 197.97 on the BSE on Monday.“FT shares may gain some more in the short-term, but it is going to be a pure trading play. Investors should keep proper stop-loss while trading on the stock. A better buy at this juncture would be MCX shares as there is more value there. Financial Technologies, over a longer term, may have systemic issues,” said Kishor Ostwal, CMD of CNI Research, a stock research firm.alertsmenon@gmail.comTwitter:@alertsmenon
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There are many reasons why students from India (and elsewhere) are flocking to study in Singapore but the opportunity to study courses offered by universities in the UK, US, France and Australia in a Singapore campus is definitely a strong motivator. The Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) is one such international educational destination which is a de facto overseas campus for a number of international universities whose courses are taught here. Shivajee Dewangan currently working with MDIS as a country manager possesses more than 6 years of experience in field of International Education and has counselled more than 1000 international students to study in Singapore during this period. In an interview with BW|Businessworld's Alokita Datta, Dewangan talks about why MDIS steers clear of a recognised university status, the popularity of their management programmes, and what is enabling more Indian students to come to Singapore. Would you consider MDIS a popular destination for (international) students primarily from Suoth Asia?Our international students hail mostly from South Asian countries but India is a very big market for us. I focus on the admission processes of Indian students. MDIS is one of the oldest educational institutes in Singapore which was established in 1956. We run on a not for profit business model; the institute is run by a council whatever profit is earned is invested back for the growth of the company. We have about 12,000 students (8000 local and 4000 international students from 76 countries across the world) in our Singapore campus, across various disciplines. The fact that we have such a large number of local students gives us a lot of confidence that locally we are very strong and well recognised. Our international students come mainly from China, India, Myanmar and Vietnam but we also have a good number of students coming from European countries as well. What according to you are the factors that attract Indian students to MDIS?Just two years ago the exchange rate of Singapore dollar against Indian rupee was SGD 33-34 now it has gone up to 47. Even though we haven't increased our fee but the cost of education for Indian students in Singapore has increased significantly. In order to help students we have come up with new short duration programmes during which students save a lot of time and money (particularly in living expenses). For the MBA programme(awarded by the University of Sunderland) , the effective cost after grants and scholarships comes to Rs 9.25 lakh which is almost as much as the cost of pursuing your MBA in India (if not less). We offer programmes that are accredited by various universities based in the UK, US, France and Australia. From day one, a student studying the Sunderland MBA programme, for instance, will be a student of that university but studying in Singapore in the MDIS campus. Do you feel the one year MBA has more takers, particularly from the point of view of cost effectiveness? We have always offered a one year MBA programme even on campus. It is only for our bachelor's programmes that we have used our advanced diploma into the BA programme. Every year we get more than 200 students from India for our undergraduate programmes. We have many schools within MDIS among which the biggest is the MDIS business school (with 8000 students) then there are schools of engineering, fashion technology, media and communication, life sciences, e-learning, tourism and hospitality as well as psychology. We have 6 intakes in a year for business programmes. We have noticed that the number of Indian students have been increasing since the past 5 years progressively. The reason, in my opinion, is that Singapore is still a new destination for international education, if you compare with the UK and the US especially. The Singapore government started marketing the country's educational institutes only since 2004. Indian students who have studied in Singapore or are settling here, their word of mouth information about educational opportunities in Singapore is also good, and is helping us. A small country but it is the hub of more than 7000 MNCs. Another advantage for us is the geographical location; we are only 5 hours away from Delhi and 3 hours away from Chennai. When Indian students study or live in Singapore, they don't really feel they are away from family. Singapore is also known for its physical and cultural safety which is greatly reassuring to parents. We are seeing an increase in our intake of students from Delhi in particular for our undergraduate programmes. They usually enrol in course during the period of September and October.Which are some of the other post graduate programmes in management you offer? At the post graduate level we offer different programmes: we offer MBA, MIB (Masters in International Business) as well as MSc programmes in business, finance, healthcare management. Typically in any MBA programme, 60-70 per cent of the students are from India but for MSc. Programmes the number would be 10 or 20 per cent. And for the MIB programme, which is offered by the French business school, Grenoble Graduate School of Business (GGSB) 40 to 50 per cent of the students are from India. Every year we also have 8 to 10 French students who come all the way from France to study in MDIS.Has the MIB programme gaining popularity over the years? Since the MIB course is offered by GGSB, which is a Triple Crown university (it has accreditations from AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS) and as part of their quality requirement, 70 per cent of the course is offered by the visiting faculty from France's on campus faculty. The experience of studying in Singapore under the guidance of renowned faculty from GGSB makes a lot of difference to a student in terms of value addition and class room learning. We only have one intake for the course in October and accept only 40 students. Could you elaborate on the eligibility criteria for your MBA programmes?We offer different MBA programmes; we have the fifteen month MBA from The University of Bradford (UK) which is among the top 20 business schools in Europe, for which we require students to have a 3 year full time work experience. However, the University of Sunderland and University of Wales MBA programmes are open to fresh graduates. As an institute, we are not a degree awarding body (since we are not a university) which are given to students by the respective universities. We had the opportunity to change our status to that of a university but our management body decided not to since, being an institute gives us a lot of flexibility to work with renowned universities and offer their programmes in our campus, instead of becoming a small university. Do you offer any programmes in the field of executive education?Very soon we will be starting with an executive education programme for which we have partnered with a university from the UK (name yet to be revealed) either by the end of this year or in early 2014 for students with more than 8 years of corporate experience.Does MDIS have plans to start operations in India?We are looking for educational partners in India and expanding our operations. But at the moment there isn't enough clarity in terms of rules, regulations and policies so we have currently withheld our plans for India. We have an overseas campus in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) which is 5 years old, where many of the programmes offered here (Singapore) are offered, and another campus which is under construction in Malaysia. We will start offering courses in Malaysia this year and the campus will be ready by 2016 where we have invested 130 million Malaysian ringgit in developing that campus. We would want to work with Indian b-schools in the next few years but we are still in the process of exploring possibilities right now.
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At first instance, it is difficult to think of the United Nations and economic growth in the same breadth. The era of rapid globalisation that we live in has been shaped and driven by multinational corporations with some support from governments. UN agencies have played a limited role in globalisation, while other multilateral agencies like World Trade Organisation, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had their moment in the sun. The last two decades saw globalisation peak and then falter. The world saw the best and the worst of globalisation. While the best remains, it is the worst of globalisation that is dominating debates on the future of growth and capitalism. At a time of continuing distrust between civil society, industry and government, an unlikely agency, the UN, is trying to bridge the disruptive divide. Will it work? Exactly a year ago in 2012, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon set up a high level panel (HLP) of eminent personalities to prepare an agenda for growth. This agenda was to be created by the 27 member panel that included members of industry, government and civil society. This effort build on the Global Compact launched in 2000 to urge industry to adopt socially responsible policies. UN is stepping up its presence to bridge the trust gap between these three stakeholders. Since 2008, government and industry have been barely on talking terms worldwide. Political parties and industry leaders blame each other for the growing fiscal crisis across the globe. Civil society and citizens hold the government and business responsible for falling jobs and incomes. In this environment, the UN’s efforts hope to calm frayed nerves. The HLP finalized a report last month that sought five transformative shifts for global growth. These include sustainable development, open & accountable institutions, creating jobs through inclusive growth to ensure no one is left behind. These sound like slogans but gain importance if adopted by business. Industry leaders have been focused rapid increase in profit. For most, social issues were the government’s responsibility. Under the new framework, industry leaders will have to opt for sustained profits that benefit society and not just shareholders. For the government, the new thinking involves closer cooperation with industry to ensure transparent processes that ensure sustainable development. This also means allowing civil society and local communities to have a say in policy making. Some of these ideals may slow the decision making process and reduce the pace of growth. But hopefully, this growth will be more consistent and less disruptive. If the UN can achieve this, it would reclaim its position as the premier body that guides global well-being. In the post world war era, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, the International Labour Organisation and United Nations Development Programme supported industrialization of many countries. As global growth crawls, the UN’s efforts may again offer a slender chance to rebuild hope and optimism by bridging the trust deficit. (Pranjal Sharma is a senior business writer. He can be contacted at pranjalx@gmail.com)
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