The crowded FMCG space, where big brands — national and international — are jostling with a growing bunch of private labels and feisty regional players, has now got one more challenger.On August 15, real estate to financial conglomerate Sahara jumped into the FMCG fray in characteristic grandiose fashion in an attempt to take a juicy bite of the Rs 130,000-crore sector.Chairman Subroto Roy said the group is investing Rs 3,000 crore in its FMCG retail foray, branded Sahara Q Shop. The UP headquarted Sahara has launched 73 branded products in categories ranging from packaged foods to personal and home care. It will begin its foray in 60 towns and cities in Uttar Paradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajashtan , Bihar and Jharkhand.A large part of the sales would be based on “direct to home delivery” model for which Roy said they would be employing a lakh plus people. Roy also talked about setting up neighbourhood Sahara Q Shop outlets to support these sales. Initially 800 such outlets will be opened but the scope was to take it up to 60,000 outlets through the franchise route. According to Divyaroop Bhatnagar. Managing Director, YFactor, a marketing consultancy , “Sahara's entry is good for the consumer, as the consumer can get better prices and availability. The advantage of Sahara is its vast network of own agents and distribution strength in rural areas,” he said. But to offset this, he also pointed out that Sahara had no track record in marketing consumer goods, which was a fairly challenging sector. And the direct to home model Sahara was talking about was an untried one. “It will not be an easy entry,” warns Bhatnagar. While at the moment, the big FMCG brands are viewing Sahara’s entry with more amusement than worry, the action for them is undeniably getting more competitive in India. Despite the sector growing at a CAGR of 12-15 per cent annually, and a projected market size of Rs 230,000 crore by 2015, no longer can big brands afford to sit pretty. For one thing, there is the growth of private labels. Although current penetration of private labels are fairly low still in India – it's 11 per cent of organised retail sales as opposed to 46 per cent in Switzerland and 40 per cent in UK, according to a report by CII-Y-Factor – they are a growing force. Private labels have particularly done well in categories that are low involvement – such as home cleaning products, pulses and spices - where consumers are not particularly brand conscious. Going forward, FMCG manufacturers could face another challenge, warns retail consultant Harsh Bahadur, former GM, TESCO (wholesale India), as Modern Trade gets more muscle. Currently in India, the supply chain is controlled by the FMCG manufacturers and they dictate terms to the retail trade. At the recent CII FMCG summit in Delhi, Bahadur mentioned how even a biggie such as HUL was able to only deliver 77 per cent of the Modern Trade's orders, putting them in a quandary. However, he said, as modern trade grows, control of the supply chain will be wrested by the retailers, as has happened in the US. “I foresee that an adversorial position will be taken by retailers against FMCG manufacturers here with bargaining over margins and shelf placements,” says Bahadur. So what is the lesson in this for FMCG players? Bhatnagar feels they will need to invest in making their brands stronger and exploit their brand power to the hilt, as well as develop better relationships with their retail partners.
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Global markets traded firm in the last fortnight on expections that the central bankers of major economies like the US and China might adopt stimulus measures to boost growth. Furthermore, expectations that European leaders might take steps to curtail the eurozone debt also created upbeat market sentiments. This led to a rise in risk appetite and a decline in the demand for low yielding currency i.e. the US dollar index (DX). Result: an upside in commodity prices.Spot gold prices increased by 3.1 per cent taking cues from the firmness in global markets. The weakness in the DX also acted as a supportive factor for rising gold prices. In the domestic markets, MCX gold prices rose 2.7 per cent touching a historical high of Rs 30,899/10 gms due to depreciation in the Indian rupee.Spot silver prices registered maximum gains in the non-agri space of around 9.6 per cent eyeing firmness in spot gold prices, strength in the base metals pack and weakness in the DX. In the domestic markets too, MCX silver prices surged 6.5 per cent and settled at Rs.56,971 per kg after touching a high of Rs 57,024 per kg on 24 August. The base metals pack traded on a positive note as LME inventories declined along with expectations that European finance ministers will take steps to solve euro zone debt crisis. Weakness in the DX also acted as a positive factor for the prices. Copper prices gained by more than around 2 per cent on a fortnightly basis on the back of upbeat global market sentiments coupled with weakness in the DX. The 2.4 per cent decline in LME copper inventories supported the upside in the prices. In the Indian markets, prices increased by 2.7 per cent as a result of depreciation in the rupee and closed at Rs 425.90/kg on 24 August. Nymex crude oil prices gained around 3.5 per cent taking cues from more than expected decline in US crude oil inventories, tensions in Middle East which led to supply concerns coupled with weakness in the DX. Additionally, expectations that three storms are building in the Caribbean Sea which will enter Gulf of Mexico also supported upside in the prices. In the domestic bourses, prices rose 4.7 per cent as the Indian rupee depreciated. OutlookIn the coming fortnight we expect precious metals, base metals and crude oil prices will remain volatile ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting at the end of the month on August 31, 2012 and outcome of the meetings held by the European leaders to resolve the Euro zone debt crisis. Amidst rising uncertainty in the global markets, gold prices in particular are likely to head upwards in the coming fortnight. Weakness in the DX might also support an upside for the non-agri commodities. Crude oil prices might take cues from the developments with respect to the Middle East tensions, decline in the US crude oil inventories along with any build up of hurricanes and progress in the Gulf of Mexico region thereby disrupting supplies may provide support prices on the upside. In the domestic markets, depreciation in the Indian rupee may, however, support an upside in the prices on MCX. Agri Commodities Sentiments remained cautious for most of the Agri commodities during the last fortnight on uncertainty over monsoon and thereby concerns over next years productivity. Rains in the month of August have recovered significantly compared to the last two months and thus average deviation from long period average which was around 22 per cent till July is now narrowed down to around 14 per cent below average. This has also been mirrored in the sowing figures of Kharif crops where the gap has narrowed significantly with acreage so far down by only 6 per cent compared to last year. Among the oil complex, ref soy oil and CPO gained 2.6 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively, on expectations of possible return of El Nino in south East Asian nations that would hurt palm oil output in top producing nations. However, gains in soybean were comparatively lower on improved rains over soybean growing states and increase in area under cultivation by 4 per cent at 106 lakh hectares, thereby raising hopes of better output. Spices witnessed mixed trend with Turmeric posting gains of around 4.6 per cent amid concerns over lower acreage and poor yield while Pepper and Jeera declined by 4.9 per cent and 5 per cent respectively on account of lacklustre overseas demand. Uncompetitive domestic pepper prices have turned buyers towards Indonesia and Brazil. Improved rains and hopes over better sowing coupled with weak overseas demand have exerted pressure on the Jeera prices.Grains complex witnessed a significant jump in the previous fortnight with wheat witnessing highest gains of around 13 per cent as prices rose in international markets, making exports attractive for the domestic exporters. Maize price continued with its upward trend amid US drought that has hit the corn crop. Kapas declined marginally during the last fortnight on account of improved rains that raised hopes of better sowing and yield. Area as on 24th August under cotton stood at 111 lakh hectares, down by 5.2 per cent compared to the same period last year. Sugar prices declined on account of improved supplies after government released additional quota to meet the festive season demand. Also, ISMA kept its initial output estimates for 2012-13 unchanged at 25 mn tn and estimated higher ending stocks, thus pressurizing prices. Chana, made a new high during the initial week of the fortnight amid tight supplies of the pulse crop. However, prices declined sharply last week as good rains in the past 2 weeks have led to improved sowing prospects. OutlookWith better rains in the domestic markets, we expect prices to consolidate around the current levels. However, September rains are crucial which are forecast to remain below average. If the same happens, prices may again bounce back and vice versa. Edible oil complex may not decline much amid supply shortage in both the domestic and global markets. Gains on the other hand, would continue to trade firm amid firm international markets that are making exports attractive. Strong fundamentals in the global markets may cap the upside in domestic cotton and sugar prices. Spices would remain under downside pressure amid weak overseas demand. (The author is Associate Director, Commodities and Currencies, Angel Commodities)
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Shehan Karunatilaka is an adman, writes basslines and travel stories and is also the author of Chinaman. The Commonwealth Book Prize winner says the book is not just about cricket but of failed genius, which is an universal story that will appeal to any reader across the globe. In an interview with BW Online's Sanjitha Rao Chaini, Karunatilaka recounts his journey of writing the book, and finding a publisher. Why should a reader pick up Chinaman? It's a mystery tale, a classic detective quest plot, which at its heart has a very human story of genius and loss. You can also learn interesting trivia on Sri Lanka and cricket. It’s also a lot of fun. What does the book mean to you? It was my first attempt at sustained concentration. It occupied my life for three years and has taken me around the world. I just still enjoy the concept of it, the characters and where they took me. You are in Singapore now. What took you there? I was born in Galle, Sri Lanka, grew up in Colombo, and attended university in New Zealand. I studied English literature and business administration. My dad wanted me to do an MBA, but I secretly studied arts. I did not tell him until the third year. Then I ended up doing a diploma in business. I came back to Sri Lanka and worked in advertising and later worked in London for a little while. I returned to Sri Lanka and wrote this book and then moved to Singapore. I moved there to take up a job in advertising since I hadn’t yet found a publisher for my book. Does advertising contribute to your style of writing? Yes, maybe. In advertising, one is taught to write short sentences. I was asked to read Hemingway and the Bible while studying as a copy writer. And the idea of having pictures in the book, perhaps, my advertising back ground did influence me. In advertising, you always write in someone else’s voice. You are writing in the voice of the brand. You don't really have a great deal of room while doing that. In the 1990s, we used to write long copy ads. These days no one reads that. Sometimes, we don't even write copies. There is just one visual and a logo and it works. So, yes, the training in advertising did have an influence. How did you finally get down to writing this book? All ad guys, all creative guys — pretty much without any exception — dream of something big. A copy writer dreams of writing a screenplay or a novel. You talk to art director, he dreams of being a great artist. So, it's like their current job in creative field is like something one is doing until you get do the real thing — what they have been dreaming of becoming. I was no exception and I also had ideas to write book, do movies and all that. I tried writing a book quite a few times. But I never managed to sustain interest in a project — I never went beyond 20-30 pages. The idea for Chinaman came to me in 2007. I had been in advertising for 10 years then and I was ready for a break. I quit my job and took six months off. A lot of people, including my parents, thought I was crazy. I was the creative director at McCann Erickson in Colombo. But I did not want do the book part time and not do justice to it. I wanted to research and then write it. That said, I was not totally unemployed. I did some freelance feature writing and copy writing. I was making enough to pay the bills. break-page-break What was the kind of research you put in for the book? Cricket is well-documented on the internet. The history of the game, the scorecards are all available on the Web. For the behind-the-scene actions, I interviewed a lot of players and former players from the 1980s. I was not talking to people in the establishment, but interviewing guys who were on the fringe — those who had played just a couple of games, basically guys who were willing to gossip. The people in the establishment will always give me the official-speak. So, I went to ex-coaches, ex-writers, ex-players, ex-commentators, and asked them to tell me stories about Sri Lankan cricket and players who should have made it to the top but never did. I also spoke to a lot of old uncles and drunks in bars. In advertising, not much happens during afternoons, not many meetings to win. And when you are stuck for ideas, one tends to go to bars, hang out there and have a drink, perhaps. These are quite dodgy bars where many old pensioners come in. I was familiar with the territory. I used to write in the mornings, and in the afternoons I would go to these bars and chill out there. The bars had a TV screen with the cricket on. After a while, once you become a familiar face, you can go and talk to them and join them. I asked them about cricket stories, what happened in the 1960s and 70s. After a while, I started noticing their mannerisms, their patterns of speech, phrases they use and so on. I started getting interested in these people themselves than the stories they told. As long as you get them to speak to you before 6 pm, it's fine. Once they are drunk, they just ramble on. Part of it was research on the Web and book research. How did you find a publisher? Once I completed the book in 2010, I started my search for a publisher. So, every Friday, I used to send out at least five publishing queries to different publishers and agencies in cricket playing countries — India, South Africa, New Zealand. And I did not get any response — a couple of publishers asked for the manuscript, but I did not get any offers. I got polite rejection notes from several. I waited for 10 months. Well, Sri Lankan writers generally don't get published outside the country. Most of us get published locally, or we self publish. I did not give up totally. I self- published it and moved to Singapore with a job offer. In 2008, Chinaman won the Gratiaen prize. I used the money to self publish 2,000 copies of the book and moved to Singapore. And then a query I had sent six months ago to Random House India got through. And it happened quite quickly after that. Within a week that I sent the manuscript, I got a response for an offer. Everything happened so quickly. And within that week, I even got response from other publishers. So, the lesson here is you should not give up even after five rejections. You should just keep going. I sent a lot of queries out there. Any new author needs to understand that it takes time for publishers to get to your manuscript. If I had known that this would happen, I would have probably not moved out of Sri Lanka and would have kept writing. How has it been after Chinaman, after winning several awards? It seemed like I had spent about three years writing a book. It made sense to me to take up the job in Singapore and get back into advertising. I just did a tour of the US and talked about a cricket book there. Well, it was quite strange. Essentially, the story is about wasted genius and not just about cricket. It's more about an old man who tries to make something out of his life. That's how I talked about the book over there. Because, people don't care about cricket there and they don't have an understanding of it. So, I drew a few parallels between baseball and cricket. Generally, I was telling them it is a detective story and it is tale of failed genius and why certain talent go unnoticed. That's how I spun it when I was in the US. Will publishing your next book be easier? I started writing my second book about a year ago. I write every day, say, for about three hours. But that's not really enough. I write only part time since I also freelance in advertising. At the moment, I don't want to talk about what it is about. It is set in Sri Lanka and is dealing with the country's past. So, no cricket. I am sick of writing about cricket now (laughs). And no drunkards. Now that I have got an audience for my current book, I don't think it will be a difficult process to get it published. The trick now is to make sure that the next book is of quality. And for that I have to spend time in Sri Lanka and do my research. The book probably won't be done for a couple of years. And by that stage, who knows if there will be publishers at all. With the Kindle and digitisation, who knows what the landscape will look like. How has been the response towards your book outside cricket-crazy India and Sri Lanka? Readers will respond to an interesting story and an interesting character. I did not consciously look to write for an international audience. I wanted to write a story that I would like to read — I was writing for Sri Lankans who had grown up with the war and with cricket. Maybe, it's a good thing not to think too much about who is going to read it. You should simply write and see if you would like to read that book. I just toured Seattle. And I don't know if someone there would understand half the cultural references in the story. But the story is a universal one. Also, international readers are interested in reading experiences from other countries. I like reading Latin American and African literature. So I don’t think it's a problem if the story is written honestly. As an author, are you able to better articulate the political and economic issues vis-a-vis a reporter? In advertising, you are basically telling lies pretending them to be true. Whereas in fiction, you are telling a true story, but dress it up as fiction. In my second book, I don't know if I will write about the current political scenario or the end of the (civil) war in 2009 — I may write about that in 10 years time, perhaps. In fiction, it is good that you can look at the past, you can see how history has unfolded, and you get a bit of a perspective. But in journalism, it's written at the moment. I don't think I am qualified to write about, say, how the War ended and what the current scenario is — I am not comfortable writing about the present now. Maybe, in 10-20 years there will be clarity. A fiction writer has all those tools at his disposal and he can look at the current scenario through the gaze of history and construct a story around it. One is not a replacement for the other in any case. I am not trying to make any political or historical statements through my books. My intention is to write a story and get characters working. For me, the historical, political and sociological scenario is a by-product of the story. A movie or a book is only trying to entertain. You cannot watch Kingdom Of Heaven and think you know all about the Crusades. That's dangerous. break-page-break Tell us about literature from Sri Lanka... Apart from writers such as Carl Muller, Michael Ondaatje and Romesh Gunasekera, I love reading works of new authors such as Ashok Ferrey, who writes funny, short stories. There are lot of good playwrights and poets in Sri Lanka — Ruwanthie de Chickera, a very exciting playwright in English; Vivimarie Vanderpoorten, another great poet; Shyam Selvadurai who writes kind of gay fiction... these are some of the most accomplished names in Sri Lanka. Most of them have self published their works. Is there a lacuna in the Sri Lankan publishing? Yes. I would like to see a lot of Sri Lankans writing and they should write international quality work. That’s when (global) publishing houses will come to the country. It's an easy excuse for authors in Sri Lanka to say “oh, we don't have publishers, so what's the point?”. The onus is on the writers to bring out good works. If you do good writing, publishers will come to you. There are a lot of good writers in Sri Lanka. Among publishers, we have Perera Hussein, Vijitha Yapa and a few other independent publishers, but they don't have international networks. But before we have a good publishing industry, we have to have a good writing industry — in English as well as in the vernacular language. There are a lot of stories to be told in Sri Lanka. Coming back to ads, will social media make advertising redundant? No, not redundant at all. Advertising has to change its approach. Earlier, when a brand does a press ad or a TV ad, we spend a lot of money on it and really don't know whether it worked or not. Now, we have measurements to show that our communication is working. You put something up and you immediately have a conversation with your consumers. That not only makes it challenging but effective as well. With the data available on social media, advertisers can target specific demographics with specific data with specific communication tools. Technology still has changed advertising but advertising still mean the same thing — a brand communicating in whatever medium claiming to be superior than any other brands. Tell us a bit about your writing habits - for your first novel and for the second one you are currently writing. When and where do you write? I start writing at 4 am. On good days I do 10 hours, on bad days 3. I spend the evenings reading, researching, watching movies and playing bass. I do this every day, for as long as it takes, until it is done. What according to you makes a book a really good read or a bestseller? Those two things aren’t necessarily the same thing. In fact, too often they’re not. For me a good read is something that has a voice that captivates, a plot that transports and that teaches you something you didn’t know before. A bestseller is a book that shifts units. So these days it’s erotica and teenage vampires. What are you reading now? I read five books at once. A comic, a fun read, a non-fiction, short stories and a literary read. At the moment it’s Maus by Art Speigelman, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Incognito by David Eagleman, Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver and Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid. Note: The Gratiaen Prize was founded in 1992 by the Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje with the money he received as joint-winner of the Booker Prize for his novel The English Patient. The prize is named after Michael Ondaatje's mother, Doris Gratiaen Karunatilaka was in India on a three-city tour to promote his book Chinaman as part of DSC Prize WInner's Tour 2012. sanjitha (dot) bw (at) gmail (dot) com
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The fresh furore over the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on coal block allocation is yet another reason why slow decision making in government could get even slower.The CAG has used some strange accounting to put a figure of loss on coal block allocation. Several questions can be raised on the policy of coal block allocation to private companies. Issues of transparency can be raised. But all this does not point to a scam or a loss.At one level, reformists seek out-of-the-box solutions to resolve matters of pressing concern. The fact is that the government allocated coal blocks to private power producers on recommendations of chief ministers. This policy was followed for more than 15 years.This was done to ensure speedy linkages for power projects that were desperate for fuel. Public money was lent to these power producers on the basis of these coal block allocations.At a time when Coal India is not meeting the demand for fuel, it made sense for the government to allow private use of coal. The coal blocks allotted to private companies had been neglected by Coal India for years.It's not as if the coal given to companies was resold to a third party. In the telecom scam, companies acquired licences at cheap rates in a fraudulent manner and then sold it for a profit.Nothing like that happened in the coal sector. Coal was allocated to produce power that is sold at rates decided by the state power regulatory body. The companies that got the coal allocation paid a nominal price for the blocks. Some of them had to promise to sell a certain percentage of the power produced to the state government at controlled rates. The rest could be used to sell to the national grid.So the scope of the companies to make undue profits was severely limited.Most importantly, the irony is that coal has not been extracted from most of the blocks that were allocated to power producers. The reason? Many clearances including those from the environment ministry have not come through.The so-called loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore has been calculated by CAG for coal that still lies buried in the ground.Now let's examine the issue of auction of coal blocks. Now this is worth a healthy and informed debate. Should coal be auctioned to get the maximum market price from power producers? If so, then can the power producer recoup its cost from the consumers? Will the electricity regulatory authorities allow power producers to hike tariffs if the cost of fuel is high?If the cost of fuel is at market rates, then shouldn't the price of power be also at market rates? Will retail, agricultural and industrial buyers of power accept rates that have been boosted by high price of coal?The UPA government is at fault for not putting a robust and transparent coal allocation policy in place. It is at fault for not creating a comprehensive energy policy that would leave no scope for scam or scandal.But the UPA government has not caused a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore by allocating coal blocks. If there is a whiff of corruption, the blocks can be cancelled. The coal is still in them. And if there is corruption, then chief ministers of states that recommended the allocations are also likely to be implicated.(Pranjal Sharma is a senior business writer. He can be contacted at pranjalx@gmail.com)
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Chinese whispers, a Tibetan youth being murdered outside of Mysore this week and fear of violence in Assam spreading across the country seemed to have caused a major exodus of citizens from the north east working in major cities such as Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad. These people are the backbone of the hospitality and retail industries; without them many such businesses have come to a standstill.Arjuna Raju, CEO of the Eden Park chain of restaurants in Bangalore, had a rude shock when he visited his office. Around 30 staff members, hailing from the north east were standing with their luggages packed. "They wanted to go back home fearing security issues and they wanted to protect their families," says Raju. He had to close one of his restaurants, but he fears that it would be difficult to replace them. Same is the case in other major restaurants, saloons and major hotels.The situation became much worse when reports of violence meted to the north eastern community, on 16 August morning in Mumbai, spread like wildfire. Around 7,000 people left Bangalore on the same day. Retailers in Bangalore had to serve their customers with one or two local employees. Even a larger outfit like the Mantri Square Mall was not spared. "We have had our labour contractors bring in new people quickly and it is difficult to comprehend why this sudden exodus happened," says Jonathan Yach, CEO of Mantri Square Mall.The sight at the Bangalore Central Railway station was unlike anything seen in the city. The police tried to control a mob of youngsters jumping on the trains going to Kolkata and Guwahati.A source at the Central Railway says that only five per cent of their workforce were from the north east, but complaints kept pouring in about their safety. "We have had to assure them of their safety and let our store managers across the city to rubbish the rumour and keep them from feeling insecure," says the source. The chief minister of Karnataka Jagadish Shettar tried to calm things down, but more people were pouring in to the train stations as the evening went by.By evening, many hospitality centres such as spas and saloons in posh areas of Cunningham Road, Kormangala and Brigade Road, were working at 50 per cent capacity. Also shops in high street M G Road had lost most of their staff. Each of these service centres need to make at least 25,000-30,000 a day to pay their expenses and remain profitable. The problem will worsen if these people do not return as over the last six years, new retail and hospitality busineses in the city have depended on the people from north east. The reason being, as employees they could speak in English and naturally took to the service industry, tasks which local populations could not perform or fulfil for a business.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured migrants from the northeast of the country that they were safe as thousands fled Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities on 17 August, fearing a backlash from violence against Muslims in Assam. The government has also banned bulk SMS and MMS messages to stop spread of rumour-mongering.Railway authorities have laid on extra trains from Bangalore and other cities for the two-day journey back to Assam, a northeastern state famous for its tea and oilfields. Some media reports said that by 17 August as many as 15,000 had left cities in the south and west."What is at stake is the unity of our country. What is at stake is communal harmony," Singh told parliament.Two people were killed and dozens wounded last week when about 10,000 people rioted in Mumbai, the country's financial capital, following a protest by Muslims against the violence in the northeast.Rumours of revenge attacks by Muslims have been swirling, many of which have been carried on social media and mass mobile phone text messages.
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If you use a Tata Photon dongle for connecting to the Internet or, let’s say, have booked a holiday through travel agency Cox & Kings, chances are that you have agreed to an arbitration clause as part of the Terms of Service set forth by these companies. Yes, that long document filled with legalese that you probably did not bother to read. The clause would state that if a dispute arises between you and the service provider, the dispute will be settled through arbitration.
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As more and more highly talented young women enter the workforce, corporate across the globe need to create a sustainable competitive workplace, says a study.An independent research report from Quora Consulting, commissioned by global work-place solutions provider, Regus, says that the issue of talented young women joining the workforce and challenging male domination, needs to be tackled seriously.Authored by John Blackwell, the report “Meeting the Future of Work” showed that this circa, a third of today’s new hires are women; however, when only the Generation Y intake was considered, more than half of new hires turned out to be women. Blackwell is widely recognised as the world’s foremost thought leader on the changing nature of work and effective business operation. The study further says that higher academic achievement among younger new female hires was particularly notable. Some 6-8 per cent more young women have a degree compared to their male counterparts — trend that’s clearly accelerating, the study says.The results of the study were obtained after conducting in-depth interviews and surveys among 25,000 people hired in the past two years from across all geographic regions globally. Prompting this research is the compelling need for accurate comparator data required to create workplaces that are engaging, innovative, high-performing and continually delivering the productivity and financial competitiveness to stay ahead of the fast-chasing pack.The contributors came from all geographic regions: UK 17 per cent, Americas 14 per cent, Asia 12 per cent, Russia 11 per cent, India 11 per cent, Germany 8 per cent, France 6 per cent, Africa 5 per cent, Middle East 4 per cent, Nordics 4 per cent, Australasia 3 per cent, Italy 3 per cent and Iberia 3 per cent. They came from a wide range of industry sectors and organizational size – from large global corporates to SMEs and start ups.The study also highlighted the fact that education has changed the attitude of women towards life and career. It’s the workplace with its flexibility and environment which allows a woman to grow.Changes in traditional work practices are essential and it plays a vital role in attracting women to work.flexible workplaces bring a wide range of benefits, including improved work-life balance, reduced stress and improved productivity for the employee, as well as cost-effectiveness, capability and reduced property commitment for businesses. Many organisations are now focusing on making their workplaces more facilitative with better, improved services which provide the employees with a healthy environment. Well-organised offices and catch the fancy of new age modern female professionals.As women enter the labor market in unprecedented numbers, they are demanding a new deal, driven by:Economic necessity: in the wake of the recent economic turmoil, society as a whole is under intense financial pressureFar easier access to work: over the next two to three years, 97 per cent of all jobs will involve the Internet in some formExpectations of a highly educated talent pool: in three years, 70 per cent of graduates leaving university will be women eager for a careerSmarter talent: women are leaving university five to six points higher in academic achievement than their male counterparts.
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Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd launched the updated executive sedan Camry in India on 24 August. The new Camry will cost Rs 23.8 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).This makes the new Camry a steeper price proposition as compared to Hyundai Sonata, priced at Rs 20.7 lakh and the Accord, costing Rs 21.7 lakh.The price is high despite the fact that the car will be assembled in India. “Pricing is difficult now, especially given the Rs depreciation, and the consequent rising costs of imputs,” said Sandeep Singh, managing director (marketing), Toyota Kirloskar.The upgrades in the new Camry include a replacement of the 2.4-litre engine used previously with a 2.5-litre petrol unit belonging to the 2AR-FE family. It is supposed to give a mileage of 12.5 kilometres per litre.Interestingly, Toyota will not offer a diesel variant despite the rising diesel market in India on account of lower price as opposed to the petrol variant. “The headquarter is not in favour of a diesel variant right now,” Singh explained. “We do not have a diesel engine for India. Neither do we plan to bring in a hybrid version,” he said.By way of explanation, Toyota said that the policy on diesel is still hazy and it’s possible that the prices might just increase, referring to the pending diesel decontrol policy proposition.Camry does not sell in diesel anywhere in the world.At present, the booking amount for the car is 50,000. Toyota said people have shown substantial interest in the car with 50 confirmed bookings before the price was even announced.The car will be assembled in Toyota’s plant in Bangalore. However, Toyota refused to comment on the target sales in the first year, saying they will await exact customer interest before arriving at a target.Also, the company plans to ramp up its production capacity in the Bangalore plants from the current 2,10,000 cars to 3,10,000 cars by the end of 2013.
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