The Italian major Piaggio on Thursday launched the iconic brand Vespa in the Indian market with a whopping price tag of Rs 66,661 (Ex-showroom Mumbai).Though it is the third comeback, the company is bullish on the niche segment they are playing in and expects India to outsell Vespa's global sales across various markets in the next two to three years. In 2011, Piaggio sold 1,50,000 units of the Vespa globally. The company earlier sold Vespa in collaboration with Bajaj Auto which ended in 1980's and later with LML in 1999."There is no baggage from the past. We are positioning ourselves in the premium category where no other scooter manufacturer is present," says Ravi Chopra, chairman and managing director of Piaggio India. Though the Vespa is priced at 15-25 per cent higher than scooters such as Honda Activa, Suzuki Access and Mahindra Duro, the company believes that it is still 40-50 per cent cheaper than the rest of the markets because of the country's lower production cost. Other scooters sell for between Rs 38,000 and Rs 45,000 in India. The top selling Honda Activa, is priced at Rs 43,000.Talking about the investment numbers, Piaggio already invested 30 million Euros in the current Baramati plant on two-wheelers and expecting an additional investment of 20 million Euros by mid 2013. The company has also started working on doubling the capacity of it's plant to 3,00,000 units by mid of 2013, which currently produces 150,000 units annually. The company also manufactures its commercial vehicles and four-wheelers in the Ape range in the same plant.
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Despite a double digit rate of growth over the last five years, the Indian biotechnology sector is finding it difficult to launch new products that match global growth trends, the annual biotech report of consultancy Ernst & Young points out.The 26th edition of the report, Beyond Borders: global biotechnology report 2012 released on 10 July, stated that even with a CAGR 19.2 of per cent during 2007–2011, Indian biotech industry has concurrently been facing diverse challenges that have prevented the industry from transcending to the next level.Within the domestic market, companies have not been able to launch new products at a pace that they would have liked. Dealing with multiple regulatory bodies typically results in serious delays, the report says."Companies focused on innovation have not been able to make a sizeable impact on the industry. Many of them are facing funding constraints as the investor community has shied away from investing in early stage ventures. With the lack of funding, many innovative companies will be forced to shut shop or become service providers rather than innovators", it said."India is already facing stiff competition from China, Korea, Singapore, and more recently Malaysia, in terms of attracting investments from MNCs. This has been enabled due to better technological and scientific competence, better infrastructure, tax and duty exemptions, and easier regulatory procedures as compared to India", Ajit Mahadevan, Partner, Ernst & Young said.The report also listed out various government initiatives, including the setting up of biotech parks and fiscal sops that have been initiated to strengthen the industry in the country.According to E&Y estimates, Indian biopharmaceutical industry constitutes 60 per cent of the biotech industry in India and grew at 21 per cent y-o-y to reach $2.3 billion in 2010–11. Vaccines, insulin, erythropoietin and monoclonal antibodies have been the mainstay of the biopharma segment."There is strong call for action for the government to act swiftly to carry out regulatory reforms, develop infrastructure and provide more incentives to the biotech industry to remain competitive and spur growth in the industry. The industry, on its part, needs to come up with a concerted action plan to utilize the available infrastructure and resources more efficiently and focus on nurturing innovation to take the biotech industry to new heights", Mahadevan states.
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There is trouble brewing on another front for corporate India. Even as it is buffeted by global and domestic economic slowdown, the manufacturing sector is now worried about trouble within. Labour unrest is rising across industries and states. A recent report flagged the rise of militant fringe groups creeping into benign trade unions in Tamil Nadu. The southern state is home to more than 20,000 factories, mostly in the automotive sector. Up in north India, the industrial hub of Pantnagar has suffered a series of labour disruptions in the last few months. This is only an escalation of trouble that auto industry has been facing for the last three years. It reached a peak last year when Maruti Suzuki had to close its plant in Gurgaon, near New Delhi for weeks. The shutdown halved the company's profit for the quarter and caused a serious dent in its annual results. The rise of fringe groups means that labour unrest could become more intense and spread to other sectors. Part of the problem lies in the way workers are employed by companies. Most companies tend to hire contract workers to save on costs. Contract workers are paid 20-30 per cent less than regular workers. Also, they don't get welfare benefits like the regular workers. The companies resort to contract workers not so much to save cost but to maintain flexibility in labour costs. Indian labour laws allow easy hiring, but make firing almost impossible. Companies thus are forced to maintain a contract labour force that can be removed at a short notice. The contract labour laws are more relaxed, to the detriment of workers. This is a vicious cycle. Without flexible labour policy, companies fire contract workers. These contract workers then feel cheated and exploited compared to the regular workers. The result is strikes and unrest. Extreme leftist leaders are exploiting this deepening fissure in factories. The solution lies mostly with the government policies that are encouraging wage apartheid in manufacturing sector. Unfortunately, labour policy reforms are rarely mentioned in the list of urgent reforms needed for the economy. The employers though seem to have realized the dangers of alienating workers. There are encouraging signs though that employers are changing their attitude to ensure that they give more to workers than is required by law. The Employers Federation of India (EFI) is a body of over 300 large and medium companies that employ millions. EFI says it is no longer the champion of employers alone. The interests of employers lie in interest of the workers. So the EFI is now pursuing a new agenda. "We are promoting competitiveness, equity, fairness, flexibility, productivity and inclusion within the industry," says Rajeev Dubey, President of EFI. Dubey is also President Group HR and member of Group Executive Board of Mahindra and Mahindra. By creating a more caring and inclusive labour ecosystem, the sting can be taken out of complaints and protests of workers. Large and small employers will have to treat workers with more care. They will have to reduce the divisions among them and be fair to all. So far the management and worker talked only during times of strife in tense conditions. EFI hopes to create new a new dialogue between workers, employers and government to foster a healthier atmosphere of faith and prosperity. Labour laws will take a while before they change. Until then, it's the responsibility of employers to improve the conditions of workers. Investing in skills and assuring them of welfare benefits will help increase trust and loyalty. The aim is also to prepare workers for new technologies and processes.Militant groups will then find lesser traction in labour unions.(Pranjal Sharma is a senior business writer. He can be contacted at pranjalx@gmail.com)
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Power to the people is easily announced at political rallies and government speeches. It is much tougher to deliver. And this shows in India's energy policy that has failed to provide for the needs of growing economy.India has to prepare for depleting fossil fuels, rising demand for energy and environmentally sustainable supply. Instead of rising to the challenge of the green new era, India is still struggling to efficiently generate and distribute all forms of energy to its users.A recent report on New Energy Architecture by the World Economic Forum, has emphasized the need for radical changes in the way energy is managed in India. The report says, "Inability to meet energy demand could be the single biggest constraining factor to India's growth story."It further adds, "India must bring new forms of supply online, deliver it more effectively to consumers (both rural and urban) and do so at market-based prices."Indian policy makers have been unable to deliver on this simple but critical objective. And the reason is not difficult to see. Energy policy in India is decided by five ministries. Ministry of Coal, Power, Petroleum and Natural Gas; New and Renewable Energy; and Atomic Energy.Not only do these ministries don't coordinate with each other, they are often at logger heads. The recent crisis of coal supply to power generators is a great example. Each of the ministers and departments focus on the interest of their own sector. But none looks at the overall energy needs of the country. There is a lot of policy making, but little power generation.There is a gigantic bureaucracy that aims to serve the sector through various central organizations. But each works independent of each other and focuses only a small part of the energy picture. Under the Ministry of Power, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency is a body that coordinates energy conservation measures; the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) acts as an advisory body to the central government on matters of national electricity policy, and specifies technical standards and norms for grid operation and Maintenance among other issues;There is a semblance of independent regulation in the power sector. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) regulates central and interstate level power-related activities, while the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) work on state level licensing, state level electricity tariffs and competitive issues. But the problem is that either the regulator is too close to the government or too weak to be able to take strong decisions on market based tariffs. Despite reformist efforts, state governments continue to protect loss-making distribution companies. Few states have been able to convince the electorate of the benefits of paying for power.Petroleum does not even have a regulator. The only body that seems to be overseeing the work of private and government owned petroleum companies is the Director General of Hydrocarbons. But this body is a division of the ministry.The record on renewable energy is also patchy. Some states like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have made some progress, but again a lack of comprehensive vision on energy hampers generation of green energy.More than 40 per cent of energy demand is based on coal. More than 80 per cent of power generation depends on coal. Petroleum is fuelling transport while renewable play a minor role. A majority of Indian still use traditional agri waste and firewood for cooking and heating.India needs a comprehensive energy policy, a unified ministry and a common regulator to deliver on the promise of power to all.(Pranjal Sharma is a senior business writer. He can be contacted at pranjalx@gmail.com)
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What is tecchnology trend but technology put to practical use. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Private Limited every year predicts the technology trends and for 2012 it has chosen the theme 'Elevate IT For Digital Business' which examines the broad impacts of five technology forces — analytics, mobility, social, cloud and cyber security — that have influenced businesses over the past several years. The report identifies and predicts the top ten trends for 2012 into two categories - "Enablers" and "Disruptors". "As we head into 2012, many CIOs are evaluating the various aspects of IT, looking ahead to the new technologies that can help them drive business growth in the years ahead," said Mark White, principal and chief technology officer, Deloitte Consulting LLP and co-author of the report.In discovering trends, Deloitte selects technologies that are actionable, that is, one can do something to the business to achieve improvement. They are relevant today, not in the "flying car future." And they have measurable value to the enterprise. Enablers and Disruptors Enablers are five technologies in which many CIOs have already invested time and effort, but which warrant another look this year because of new developments. Disruptors are five additional technologies that can create sustainable positive disruption in IT capabilities, business operations and sometimes even business models. Enablers are technologies Enablers may be more evolutionary than revolutionary, but the potential is there to elevate the business game with technology.Enablers:Geo-spatial Visualization: Within the world of visualization, geospatial takes advantage of an explosion of geographical, location-aware data. Sources feeding this growth include new semi-structured data from mobile devices, geo-tagging of existing enterprise structured data and tapping into new streams of location-aware unstructured data.Digital Identities: The digital expression of identity is growing more complex every day. Digital identities should be unique, verifiable, able to be federated and non-repudiable. As individuals take a more active hand in managing their own digital identities, organizations are attempting to create single digital identities that retain the appropriate context across the range of credentials that an individual carries. Digital persona protection is becoming a strong area of cyber focus.Data Goes to Work: Organizations are finding ways to turn the explosion in size, volume and complexity of data into insight and value. This is occurring across structured and unstructured content from internal and external sources. This is expected to complement but not replace long-standing information management programs and investments in data warehouses, business intelligence suites, reporting platforms and relational database experience.Measured Innovation: CIOs can help facilitate the discovery of the next wave of true disruption--and continuously improve the business of IT and the business of the business. Measured innovation offers an approach to managing both disciplines by providing a pragmatic way to identify, evaluate and launch potential innovations with a focus on aligning opportunities to areas that can fuel disruption and create measurable, attributable value.Outside-in Architecture: Flexibility in operating and business models is proving more important. As a result, need to share is colliding with need to know and shifting solution architectures away from a siloed, enterprise-out design pattern and into an outside-in approach to delivering business through rapidly evolving ecosystems.Disruptors:Social Business: The emergence of boomers as digital natives and the rise of social media in daily life have paved the way for social business in the enterprise. This is leading organizations to apply social technologies on social networks, amplified by social media, to fundamentally reshape how business gets done. Some of the initial successful use cases are consumer-centric, but business value is available – and should be realized – across the enterprise.Hyper-hybrid Cloud: Cloud-based and cloud-aware integration offerings are expected to continue to evolve, and many organizations face a hybrid reality with a mix of on-premise solutions and multiple cloud offerings. The challenge becomes integration, identity management and data translation between the core and multitenant public cloud offerings, and offering lightweight orchestration for processes traversing enterprise and cloud assets.Enterprise Mobility Unleashed: Mobility is helping many organizations rethink their business models. Consumer-facing mobile applications are only the beginning. With the explosion of mobile use cases, organizations should make sure solutions are enterprise class – secure, reliable, maintainable and integrated to critical back-office systems and data.Gamification: Serious gaming simulations and game mechanics such as leaderboards, achievements and skill-based learning are becoming embedded in day-to-day business processes, driving adoption, performance and engagement.User Empowerment: User engagement remains a key doctrine for enterprise IT with consumerization setting expectations for solutions built from the user-down, not the system-up. Compounding the need, IT is becoming increasingly democratized, with empowered end-users able to directly source solutions from the cloud or app stores – on a mobile device and increasingly on the desktop."The next 12 months will see several technologies including the outside in architecture, social business, cloud, big data and mobility continue to grow, while a topic like gamification is just starting to emerge at the enterprise level," said Rajarshi Sengupta, Senior Director in Deloitte in India.
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The European Parliament on Wednesday rejected the proposal for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which, if passed, could have had an adverse impact on generic medicine exports from countries such as India through European ports.Even in the absence of a law similar to ACTA, there were several instances when genuine Indian medicines in transit got confiscated in European ports on grounds of intellectual property violations. For long, India has been lobbying hard for the smooth passage of Indian generic medicines to developing countries in Africa and Latin America through European ports of transit.Developing nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa had expressed concern over provisions of the proposed ACTA as they feared the movement of genuine low-cost medicines through Europe could get affected. Welcoming the European Parliament decision, International medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said the agreement could have limited access to quality generic medicines."We are relieved that the EU Parliament has struck down ACTA", said Aziz ur Rehman, Intellectual Property Advisor for the MSF Access Campaign. "The way it was written, ACTA would have given an unfair advantage to patented medicines, and restricted access to affordable generic medicines to the detriment of patients and treatment providers alike."ACTA was purported to be a shield against counterfeiting across a number of industries, including medicines, where it was held up as a means of blocking potentially harmful ‘counterfeit' medicines. MSF strongly supports efforts to ensure that generics meet accepted international standards. However, ACTA's overbroad definition of ‘counterfeiting' and its excessive enforcement provisions left too much room for error. Legitimately produced generic medicines could have been seized and detained, hindering access for people who rely on these medicines to survive, an MSF statement said.The stringent provisions in ACTA would also have targeted third parties — including treatment providers like MSF – by exposing them to the risk of punitive action in trademark and patent infringement allegations, it added.Following the rejection of ACTA, the European Commission should review similarly harmful intellectual property provisions being pursued in other agreements, including in free trade negotiations. One such current negotiation is with India, one of the world's biggest exporters of generic medicines, often referred to as ‘the pharmacy of the developing world', the statement said.
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Software as a Service (SaaS), is heralded by many as the new wave in application software distribution. The term software as a service (SaaS) is now considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). While the prediction by some analysts that packaged software will cease to exist has been proved wrong, yet the spirit of this change – the delivery, management and payment of software as a service rather than a product — is affecting all participants in the software industry.What Do We Mean By Software As A ServiceSoftware as a service or SaaS, sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally (typically in the (Internet) cloud) and are accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet. SaaS has become a common delivery model for most business applications, including accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), content management (CM) and service desk management. SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of all leading enterprise software companies.In the software as a service model, the application, or service, is deployed from a centralized data centre across a network - Internet, Intranet, LAN, or VPN - providing access and use on a recurring fee basis. Users"rent," "subscribe to," "are assigned", or "are granted access to" the applications from a central provider. Business models vary according to the level to which the software is streamlined, to lower price and increase efficiency, or value-added through customization to further improve digitized business processes.The core value of software as a service is providing access to, and management of, a commercially available application. The Gartner Group estimates that SaaS revenue will be more than double its 2010 numbers of $10 billion by 2015 and reach a projected $21.3 bilion. Customer relationship management (CRM) continues to be the largest market, with SaaS CRM revenue forecast to reach $3.8 billion in 2011, up from $3.2 billion in 2010.What SMBs Need To Know About SaaSSaaS is no longer a trend, but an accepted business reality. For SMBs, outsourcing their IT activities such as Microsoft Exchange that are not part of their core business can allow them to considerably save on costs and remain competitive. They can also reallocate some of the capital expenditures and payroll costs by choosing the SaaS model rather than internal data centre and traditional software licenses and maintenance—all while improving productivity. Smaller companies who lack the financial and/or technical expertise can find themselves competing on the same playing field that larger corporations do in terms of their technology solutions. While SaaS adoption continues to grow amongst SMBs, evaluation of the many options in the market can be overwhelming. However, the key items for consideration by both IT and business decision makers include: Necessary features for your business Security and scalability Time for implementation and service expectations Integration of SaaS services with your existing applications Other details to be considered include: IntegrationAs growing businesses increase their use of SaaS technology, the need for integrating the businesses' applications is critical. SMBs want to retain legacy systems, so key characteristics for integration include: Simple to implement Out-of-the box connectors with cloud and legacy systems Ability to configure without customization PartnersWhile the comfort level with cloud computing is growing, many businesses are still wondering where to begin and need to find a partner to simplify the selection and implementation process. There is a new class of experienced partners who offer an end-to-end solution and who are capable of delivering multiple SaaS applications, plug and play integrations, cross application analytics and turnkey services. These partners can stand behind their solutions. The value-proposition a partner can bring is significant for a small- or medium-sized business who may need an end-to-end solution with implementation, integration, business process consulting and support across multiple applications.SaaS Licensing ModelsToday's Software as a Service pricing and licensing models can be confusing to say the least. Options include: Subscription-Based Model: Monthly payment is calculated on the software actually used, and includes acommitment as to the actual number of users. Subscriptions are usually written on a per-seat or nameduser basis.Usage-Based Model: Payment is determined by application usage and is typically related to peak or near peak levels of usage. Payment may be tied to the number of CPUs (customers are charged for every computer that runs the hosted application). It may also be a written for number of concurrent users.Transaction-Based Model: Service providers that provide online scheduling and similar products sometimes charge customers for each business transaction: purchasing one introductory relational database class is one service; two classes are two services, and so on.Value-Based (a.k.a. Shared Risk or Revenue) Model: Premised on the provision of whatever software isneeded to achieve business goals, and payment is linked to the achievement of those goals.The Fixed-Fee Model: An emerging option, users generally pay a predetermined monthly fee based onnumber of users supported, which application modules are rented and service and support levelsspecified by the customer.In The End...Many questions remain on where the Software as Service market is heading and all signs suggest that the "supply side" of the software as a service market is vibrant and has a high momentum. The massive influx of venture capital, investment in infrastructure, the growth of the value chain and the entry of established vendors indicate that the model has staying power.But for those focused on entering the SaaS market, one overarching question surrounds customer acceptance and adoption -- the demand side of the equation -- of software services. It is clear that the large companies and dotcoms have been the key near-term drivers of software service demand. However, the large number of SMBs in India would prove to be valuable market for SaaS adoption. As the industry matures, the providers with true staying power will emerge.(The author is CEO, GlobalOutlook)
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For Chester (Chet) J. Pipkin, technology solutions should ideally revolve around "peace of mind"; more specifically, the ability to lead the kind of life you want, physical environment and geographical boundaries notwithstanding. Therefore, even if he is at a business meeting in New Delhi, he wants to be able to watch live television from his house in California — irk his son by switching channels, in the process — or turn off the lights in the kitchen and switch on the fan in the bedroom. He also doesn't want to lose an $800 smartphone even if it ‘accidentally' falls into a lake. As the Founder CEO and Chairman of Belkin International (a US-based, multinational manufacturer of computer hardware, software and connectivity devices since 1983) Pipkin acknowledges that there are "gaps between " and the focus at Belkin has been to try and close the gap to whatever extent possible, through the development of home automation, lifestyle apps and electronics the two aforementioned scenarios are indeed realisable. WeMo, is a simple home automation product that allows household electronics to be controlled remotely from a mobile app on a smartphone or tablet. It comprises two initial products, the WeMo Home Control Switch that requires only a wi-fi® network and free smartphone app to set up and control, and the WeMo Motion Sensor, which works with the WeMo Home Control Switch to make the concerned device react to motion. The free WeMo app can be downloaded on iOs and Android platforms. It will be launched this month in the US and by the end of 2012 in India. The next product on the roadmap is a WeMo baby monitor that works through a smartphone app using an internet connection. Belkin's water resistant smartphone technology is still in the process of incubation but will be made available soon.In September this year, Belkin's mobile TV player — a device that helps the user to view television from any part of the world using wi-fi network and is controlled by the concerned set top box — will also be launched in India. The ScreenCast AV4 that allows users to wirelessly stream full HD content has been popular with Indian consumers. "It is very complicated to make things simple. We help to input our own personality in terms of lifestyle, in our applications & app-accessories," Pipkin explains.Mohit Anand, MD, Indian Sub continent of Belkin India admits that the company's entry into the Indian market in January 2009 was rather late. But their growth story has been far from disappointing. Their YoY growth was 60 per cent (globally it has been 15 per cent in the last seven months) and their turnover, last September, (which marks the end of their financial year 2011) was Rs 150 crore. Belkin India is expecting revenues of about Rs 250 crore in FY 2012. The company is present across 243 cities in India with 102 service centres and 24 sales managers who handle operations as Belkin is now expanding into tier 2 and tier 3 cities and towns. Belkin has 7 full fledged offices all over the world. The company's operating expenditure is about Rs 30 crore and its products are available across 37 e-commerce portals inclusing major e-tail stores in India such as FlipKart, Infibeam and Indiatimes among others.In order to achieve an impressive top line in the financial quarters to come, Belkin India is relying on its wireless technology solutions. Earlier this month, they launched a Wireless Dual-Band Travel Router and are planning to introduce a wireless keyboard very soon. Although they face some competition from companies such as Asus, Digisol and Netgear in India (especially in the routers segment) Belkin is currently the leader in the consumer wireless technology domain with a market share of 24 per cent. Anand is also optimistic about their new smartphone screen overlays that have introduced as a branded counterpart to the fragmented options that exist in the Indian market today while working on supply chain optimisation initiatives to increase revenue.The company is however, present (both globally and in India) across a number of verticals: wireless technology, car accessories, smartphone apps, HDMI cables, chargers, iPad cases and rather popular surge protector (an 8 socket power accessory that safely provides multiple outlets for electronic equipment). "Three screens play an important role in our life: the (smart) phone screen, television screen and the pc screen (laptops and ultra books etc). That's where we've structured ourselves in India as well and done so successfully; we're currently shipping about 1 lakh Belkin products to India every month. More than 54 per cent consumers bought a Belkin case for the iPad 2 that they purchased," informs Anand. Tata Croma sold 18,000 iPads last year. This year they estimate a sale of 40,000 iPads, since Belkin has 54 per cent sales attached to that, they have good reason to keep their expectations high.Alan Sparks, Vice President, Belkin Asia Pacific believes India is strategically, the most important market in the APAC region for Belkin at the moment —it is also the highest revenue grosser in the region and the second largest (after Australia) in size. "The ASEAN market and South Korea are very important to us as well. We do very well with Samsung and Apple," says Sparks highlighting the strategic relationship with both companies, particularly as they now aim to fortify their global accessory partnership the former. A number of Belkin apps will sport a designed for Samsung tag to display their partnership. Sparks remains diplomatic in not choosing between China and India and which shall emerge the leader, in the near future Belkin might open a product development centre in India. Currently, all products are manufactured in production facilities in China.(Tanuja Chatterjee contributed to this story)
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