It has been in the pipeline for awhile. Communication and information technology minister Kapil Sibal announced the broad direction of India's telecom policy that will come into effect from April 2012. It looks to simplify licensing, bring transparency to the sector and encourage consolidation. Most of the changes will help incumbent mobile telecom service providers.This is the third time that India has come up with a telecom policy. The first was in 1994, followed by the NTP '99.As a first step, all future licences will be unified licences and allocation of spectrum will be delinked from the licence. Spectrum will have to be obtained separately. However, Sibal has not gone into the issue of spectrum pricing since the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is currently in the process of finding a base price for the auction of 2G spectrum.To encourage consolidation in the industry, the government announced that ‘merger up to 35 per cent market share (subscriber base and adjusted gross revenue) of the resultant entity will be allowed through a simple quick procedure.' The earlier limit was 30 per cent. The government is also open to considering allowing mergers where the combined entities can hold up to 60 per cent of market share. However, the merged entity cannot have more than 25 per cent of the assigned spectrum in a circle. Says a Bharti official: "The announcement on merger & acquisition is an encouraging step from the point of view of the long-term health of the telecom industry and will pave way for consolidation in an over-crowded market."In a move that is welcomed by incumbent operators, it has hiked the prescribed limit of spectrum from the current 6.2 MHz to 8 MHz across the country. In Delhi and Mumbai, it has been hiked further to 10 MHz. As a result, operators will exceed the new limit in only a handful of circles.The government has specified a flat 8 per cent licence fee across the country—the current rates vary between 6-8 per cent depending on the circle. Bharti Airtel said the uniform licence fee across different telecom licences and service areas will help avoid any arbitrage opportunity. It hopes the government would consider lowering the licence fee to 6 per cent over the next couple of year, as recommended by the TRAI. Vodafone officials welcomed the introduction of a uniform licence fee across all telecom licenses and service areas regime starting from April 2012 saying that this has been a long standing request of the industry.The first steps to the clean-up have begun. Once Trai comes up with its recommendations, the auction of 2G spectrum should begin.
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Many FMCG, telecom and insurance companies face a simple problem. The managers they hire do not want to work in small towns. But these companies find it hard to find employable candidates from these areas. Despite the scores of business schools in non-metro regions, most MBA graduates remain unemployable. This lack of uniformity in the quality of management education continues to vex recruiters. Most companies have launched their own training programmes for entry level positions while some prefer to stick to tier-1 B-Schools. But since the number of companies chasing graduates of such schools is higher than the supply, recruiters end up paying more than their real value. This also inflates the entry level salary of some B-Schools while the average for the rest remains low. Such is the politics of the hiring policy that recruiters go for branded B-Schools, even if the quality is below expectations. While quality may exist in B-Schools lower in the profile order, recruiters find it risky to hire from such campuses. In the end, nobody really comes away happy. New business schools suffer as their students do not have any legacy advantage. They may be good, but recruiters tend to be sceptical. To tackle this, a new initiative was launched by the All India Management Association (AIMA) in September last year. This was based on feedback from HR heads who said that they want employable candidates who can live and work in non-metro towns and cities. Testing EmployabilityAIMA launched a test to assess the industry readiness of the students who graduate from B-schools. Known as Management Aptitude and Skills Test (MAST), it is a filter that will rank students from different schools on common parameters. MAST has already been endorsed by over 100 recruiters including, Britannia, Nokia, Fab India and HDFC Standard Life. These companies have offered over 500 positions to students based on MAST score. The way it works is this: students participate in MAST in regional centres across the country. These scores are sent to the companies that have endorsed the test. These companies are now calling students for interviews and are using MAST score as a parameter for hiring. The HRD Ministry and the education system do not really assess the outcome of a teaching process. Indian B-Schools that have chosen to be accredited by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have a common syllabus. But what they don't have is a common examination system. As a result, comparing the scores of students from different B schools is a futile exercise. "Until now, recruiters had no choice but to assume that students with similar scores in the management degree have similar capabilities. Now with MAST, they can assess which student has the potential to be a better manager," says Rekha Sethi, Director General of AIMA. MAST promises to change that. The data from the inaugural test in September has been analysed now and the results confirm the experience of recruiters. Only about 23 per cent of the 1000 students who took MAST were found employable. Most of these students are from tier 2 or 3 B-Schools. The top recruiters now can pick and choose the best students with help of a uniform parameter without fretting about the quality of education imparted. It will widen the talent pool from where they access entry level managers. This clearly opens up options for the students graduating from such schools. Earlier they had to struggle to prove their worth. But a MAST score will boost their self confidence and credibility in the eyes of the recruiter. The Key To SpecialisationMAST is now creating industry and campus specific solutions. On the main MAST platform, it is adding sector specific testing. So there would be a MAST variant for retail sector, another for insurance sector. Some B-Schools have asked AIMA to create a Campus MAST. This will boost the college's credibility and also make it convenient for the students to take the test. For campus recruiters, this would offer a procedural and time-saving convenience. Most students who took the MAST were from the NCR area, Bangalore, Kolkata and Pune. There is scope for it to be expanded to other regions. About 85 per cent of the candidates had been working for up to a year after graduation but wanted a better break. What MAST does is assess the student's readiness on parameters like industry domain knowledge and psychometric test that checks their emotional and ethical values. What MAST does not do is improve the quality of education provided at B-Schools. This will now depend on B Schools. Since MAST has created an industry backed platform, B-Schools would benefit from taking the scores of their students from MAST to assess their own teaching processes. This is critical feedback for the B-Schools to ensure improved employability of their students. As the test evolves, it should review its relevance in consultation with B Schools and industries. Unless the educators, examiners and recruiters close the loop, MAST would serve a limited purpose. The recruiters' relationship with colleges should grow beyond annual hiring visits. They must hold deeper interaction with the B-Schools using parameters such as the MAST scores to improve the quality of talent being created. With more initiatives like these, the challenge of employability can be tackled successfully. Pranjal Sharma is a senior business writer
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Direct Taxes Code (DTC), which seeks to modernise tax laws in the country, is expected to come into force from April 1, 2012. The proposed Direct Taxes Code brings together the policy initiatives on direct taxes. In a bid to modernise the tax system, the government has proposed to replace the Income Tax Act, 1961, with a new legislation and is expected to raise the exemption limit. But till then and certainly this year, old rates apply. Kalpesh Ashar, Certified Financial Planner - CFPCM, and associate partner with VCare Investment Services Pvt Ltd simplifies income tax to Tanushree Pillai. What are the kind of instruments that individuals can use to save tax on their income? There are various instruments available for individuals when it comes to saving tax on their income. Salaried and Self Employed / Professionals utilise these financial instruments as per the respective features and their requirements. Certain expenses, incomes and investments are eligible for deductions from an Individual's gross total income and thus induce tax savings. How do these differ from each other?The threshold limit of Rs 1,00,000 - is applicable for deduction under Sec. 80C for Individuals and HUF ( Hindu Undivided family )under which the following are included ( most commonly used ) : a. Life Insurance Premiums (for self / spouse / children). b. Recognised Provident Fund / EPF c. Public Provident Fund d. ELSS Fund – Equity linked Saving Schemes of Mutual Funds. e. Tuition Fees paid – To any university, college, school or other educational institution situated within India for full-time education of any 2 children of the individual. f. Payment for purchase or construction of a residential house the income from which is chargeable under Income from House Property, in respect of-i) Instalment or part payment towards cost of House Property allotted to him ii) Repayment of Loans g. Term deposit of tenure of 5 years or more issued by a scheduled bank. h. Senior Citizen Savings Scheme ( Post Office ). i. 5 year Time Deposit ( Post Office ) j. National Savings Certificate – VIII k. NPS ( New Pension Scheme ) •Deduction under Sec.80D :-Mediclaim :- Deduction up to Rs 15,000 paid as premiums paid towards health of an individual, his spouse and dependent children is allowed. If the individual or the spouse is a senior citizen, the limit is higher at Rs 20,000. An additional deduction of up to Rs 15,000 is available to an individual on premiums paid for his parents, dependant or otherwise. If the parent is a senior citizen, then the limit is enhanced to Rs 20,000. •Deduction under Sec.80CCF: Long Term Infrastructure Bonds: An amount of up to Rs 20,000 - is allowed as deduction under this newly introduced section. This will be over and above the overall limit of Rs 1,00,000 - eligible u/s 80C. •Deduction under Sec.80DD :Handicapped Dependant: An individual having a dependant suffering from a permanent physical disability or mental retardation is entitled to a deduction for medical treatment of the dependent. An amount of Rs 50,000 is allowed for non-severe disability and Rs 1,00,000 is for severe disability. •Deduction under Sec.80G: Donations An Individual is entitled to a deduction of 50 per cent and in some cases 100 per cent of donations made to approved charitable purposes. What the biggest misconceptions about taxation? There are a couple of misconceptions about taxation that individuals have: 1)The general misconception or shall I say perception of taxation is that by investing or contributing in certain Financial products in last leg of the Financial year, your tax savings are taken care of. This last moment panic invariably results in the wrong selection of financial products for the individual. In reality these tax saving instruments whether they are expense oriented or investments can be channelized and planned for definite financial purposes and goals through the year peacefully with the help of a Financial Planner or advisor. 2) Taxation is "complicated and taxing " -The general notion is that minimal tax has to be paid and it is the domain known only by CA's. Though a Chartered Accountant would obviously understand the taxation laws and features, the actual simplification and implementation of an Individual's personal taxation has to be done by the individual himself or with the assistance of a financial advisor or planner who will guide the investor on his taxation after analysing and understanding his financial profile first. Do women tax payers enjoy any special benefits? What are they? Apart from the minimum tax slab for women which begins at Rs 1,90,000 — in comparison to the male tax payers who have a minimum tax slab which is Rs 1,80,000, — all the other Tax provisions for women tax payers are more or less the same as for individuals. What kind of loans that an individual has taken can be used to save taxes? Home Loans and Loans on Higher Education are the only loans that can be used to save taxes. Under home loans, the principal amount and the interest on loan repayment during the year are eligible for tax deduction. In Loan for Higher Education, the Interest paid on loan taken by an individual from a bank, a notified financial institution, or any approved charitable institution for higher education is deductible for 8 successive years starting from the financial year in which the individual starts repaying the interest. Throw a little light on filing of taxes in brief. Taxes are now mainly filed online as it is faster and the response time from the IT authorities is quicker too if the mode is online. Individuals still have the option of also filing taxes and returns physically if their businesses do not come under tax audit. Employers do manage the TDS (Form 16) disclosures of their employees, but the onus of filing of taxes lies with the individual to do it individually or through his Chartered Accountant.
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If 2011 was the year the world discovered Twitter's real power, 2012 seems to be the year many have taken fright. It was with some shock that I took in the reports of Sky News, BBC, and CNN saying their journalists had better watch what they tweet. Honestly, I thought news institutions had figured out by now that something in the way information and communication -- including news -- moves across the world, has changed forever. Journalists were early adopters of Twitter because they realised that they needed to adapt or even reinvent -- or be overrun. And today many journalists are among the most followed people on Twitter. So, to see a sudden crackdown, is a surprise. Of course, the relationship between Twitter and news publishes has always been uneasy. That is not surprising as Twitter came along and disrupted traditional ownership structures. News organisations no longer had sole control over news -- but then never before did they have such access to local news in real time, with an idea of its impact on real people, as they do via Twitter. News publishers have lost a lot of their clout and exclusivity but the world also recognises that they are the ones who put out credible and verified news. Much of this bag of mixed blessings is what businesses face as well and that's why they should take a good look at what is happening with these news organisations and figure out their own social media policies before a crisis makes it important to come out with one reactively rather than proactively.So Sky News, reports The Guardian, has asked its journalists not to retweet anyone else, specially not rival news sources. They want their people to stick to tweeting about their assigned area of news. Does that mean a journalist can't say, post a picture of an architectural marvel he happens to come across in the course of duty? The Draconian guidelines also say breaking news should go to the Sky newsroom first and only then to Twitter.What happens here is that Sky News gets a few seconds of extra lead time in a world where news sources are in cutthroat competition with each other. But it loses out on being able to build up its journalists as the human face of the organisation, a brand ambassador, and a source of timely news, no matter where it comes from. Today, we can all think of television and news personalities who are celebrities and brands. To take away their freedom to be who they are would only harm the news institution.And much the same can happen in companies where news is not necessarily the business. Companies need to decide, as part of their approach to their people, whether they want employees to be synonymous with the organisation, whether they want the unique skills and personality of each employee to work for them or separately. Rules that decree that employees are free to be themselves on their own time and on their own social accounts, are also saying, fit into a fixed mould and stay right inside the box when you're at work. This can hardly benefit the company in the long term.As long as employees are trained and made aware of what is important to the company, trusting them to present an appropriate face to the outside world is important in a world gone social.BBC has not been quite as autocratic and sweeping and has asked journalists to remember that BBC's aim, after all, is to reach BBC's audiences. And so, tweet at the same time as filing a story. That may really not be a bad thing, particularly for BBC, which holds its own where credibility is concerned. BBC has a dedicated audience that may not be all online and has a duty to keep that audience as its priority. The priority may change in the years ahead, but for now, the organisation is clear on who and what comes first.Many businesses may find themselves in a similar position and can make deliberate decisions on the importance they need to give right now to their followers and customers on social networks.CNN has recently suspended analyst Roland Martin because of tweets that could possibly be offensive and homophobic, specially to the gay community. I think it has a right to. But here again, companies should think these things out and state them in a policy -- or brief their employees. This will go a long way to avoiding a social media crisis.There are of course companies that find all of this just too much trouble and ban social media altogether. Or create watertight closed-wall internal networks, negating the very possibility of a problem happening on social networks. That's fine if you're the defence services. But if yours is an organisation that prides itself on innovation and progressive thinking -- forget it.
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Robotic technology has been around for some time now, it has helped Indian companies in industrial units for welding, cleaning and transportation but the technology now will be seen in domestic front as well.Consumer durable major LG Electronics and a fairly new entrant in the consumer durable space Milagrow HumanTech have come out with domestic robots for doing everyday chores like cleaning, vacuuming.Currently there exists no market for domestic robotics in India and these products are first of its kind that is being made available in the market. However, the vacuum cleaner market has always existed in India.In 2011 about 400,000 units of domestic vacuum cleaners were sold in India. Globally, the robotic vacuum cleaner market is growing at a very fast pace. "In the US, out of all the vacuum cleaners sold last years, 25 per cent were robotic vacuum cleaners," says Rajeev Karwal Founder and CEO, Milagrow.While Milagrow is targeting to sell 10,000-15,000 units this year, for LG this is just an exercise to enter the new premium category and to showcase the new high-end technology."The basic objective is to create a premium image in the Home Appliances category, and to bring in the latest technology in every segment," says Y.V.Verma, Director, Home Appliances, LG India.LG ‘s robotic vacuum cleaner Hom-Bot, which comes in at a price of Rs Rs.43,990, does cleaning and moping by its two cameras on both top and bottom of the body.Milagrow has come out with three different products and are ranged between Rs. 9,990 and Rs. 16,990."By 2015 we expect to grow the Indian market to about 100,000 units," says Karwal.These robots can clean without anyone's presence and even returns to the base to recharge itself when necessary.
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Explosive global business growth has raised a huge cry for talented top leaders, and with that, the need for highly skilled coaches. Professional coaches, who can prepare leaders to come through as peak performers over and over again, are in demand as never before.The question often asked by dozens of senior executives and HR professionals who attend developmental programs at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), is this: "What qualities should I look for in a coach"? Some common but misguided assumptions are that qualified coaches should have 'significant leadership experience', 'experience in my industry', 'experience in my functional area'. The truth is that many coaches who meet these criteria are simply not very effective. Why not? Let's explore what highly effective leadership coaches do, in order to understand the qualities you would want to look for in a coach. It would be good to start by defining coaching, since a Google search for 'definition of coaching' returned over 23 million results. Business Leadership Coaching is a series of engaging formal discussions between a coach, coachee and their key stakeholders intended to increase the coach's leadership capacity. Think of a time when you had a good experience where someone helped you learn a new skill and you were clear that this person had your best interests at heart. With that experience in mind, reflect on which of the following coach behaviors were most helpful to you: problem solving, listening, giving advice, challenging you are thinking, providing feedback, or making suggestions? Chances are the behaviors you selected as more helpful to you as a learner were providing feedback, challenging your thinking, and listening. These three behaviors put the onus on the learner to do the work. While it can certainly be helpful to have someone solve problems, give advice, and make suggestions, this does not help to develop leadership capacity. Instead, these behaviors reinforce dependency on the expert. So one caution that must be followed when you are looking for a leadership coach is to avoid the person who overplays the "expert" card, does more telling than asking, and offers advice and recommendations freely. Leaders who have left organisations and hung up coaching shingles may be much too directive in their approach, with the result that the coachee misses out ondoing the work that would stimulate his or her learning and growth.Based on the Coaching Effectiveness 360 assessment instrument (CE360) which has been mapped to the CCL coaching framework, here are five questions you can ask to guide your selection of a coach:Is your coach trustworthy? Trust is critical to an effective coaching relationship. Effective coaches build trust by making sure that the objectives for the coaching are clear. They discuss what is or is not confidential with their coachee in advance so that personal information is not shared inadvertently with the coachee's stakeholders. Trustworthy coacheshave the reputation of being ethical, patient, fair, and someone who follows through on promises.Will your coach help you to assess yourself honestly and accurately? Lookfor a coach who is adept at providing feedbackby asking questions thatcreate self-awareness. This is less about telling and more about collaborative exploration toencourage reflection, self-discovery, and a realistic appraisal of gaps between current and desired leadership performance. A good coach spends time on helping their coachee look at whether theirintention, actions, and impact on others are in sync. To illustrate, consider themanagerwho wants to delegate more, build up her team's skills and show that she has confidence in them. Her coach would explore how she can talk with team members so that they feel good about the additional responsibility, rather than feeling that she is just piling more work onto their already full plates. Will your coach challenge yourthinking and assumptions? By asking powerful questions, a coach helps the manager think through the consequences of what they want to do, and practice different approaches they may not have considered. Effective coaches work with the manager to design small experiments which produce new ways of thinking about people and situations. For example, the managercould start to compliment subordinates for their achievements much more than before, see how that plays out, and discuss this "experiment" during their next coaching session. After all, we know that leaders learn best from their own experience.Is your coach a curious and supportive listener? He or she must not be "too helpful", or prone tooffering themselves as a support,while ignoring yourresources as well as that which others in your environment can provide. Supportive coaches also explorehow self-improvement can continue over time, by managers setting up ways of getting feedback and staying accountable. Does your coach establish early on what "success" would look like once the engagement is complete? Clarity aboutthe results wanted from Business Leadership Coaching is the key to success. Look for a coach who will collaborate to set goals with significant impact.This might mean that he or she will take more time to ask questions sothat you, the manager, aredoing the work to come up with goals. This results in buy-in and "ownership" of goals. If it's the coach's goal, how likely is it that the manager will be motivated enough to do the work to achieve the goal? An effective coach ensures that the manager's behavior changes can easily be observed. For example, if three ten year olds were asked to rate a manager on whether they have achieved a goal, would they all say "yes" based on observing the manager's behavior? Business leadership coaching is a highly customised process for learning and growth that can have tremendous impact — on the individual, their team, and the organisation. Top leaders, managers and HR stakeholders need to be well-informed about what to expect from a coach. Next time you are on the lookout for a leadership coach, keep the five pointers in mind and you'll be well equipped to make wise choices when selecting a coach. The author is Coaching Talent Manager at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)
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Government move to push through retail reforms was welcomed by business. "India will open the country's retail industry to foreign supermarkets", Food Minister K.V. Thomas told reporters on Thursday, a much delayed reform expected to help unclog supply bottlenecks and ease inflation over time.Raj Jain, CEO & MD, Bharti Walmart said retail can be an engine of growth all over India offering more job opportunities and helping families save money so they can live better. FDI would help accelerate this process. Bharti will invest in back-end infrastructure that will help reduce wastage of farm produce, improve the livelihood of farmers, lower prices of products and ease supply-side constraints that contribute to inflation. Organized retail and kiranas can very easily co-exist, as they do in both developed and developing economies around the world. In fact, our wholesale cash-and-carry stores "Best Price Modern Wholesale" allows literally thousands of kiranas to flourish through access to quality, low-priced merchandise and produce, business training and much more.Rakesh Biyani, Joint MD, Pantaloon Retail India Ltd welcomed the government move, saying it is a move in the right direction as investment in retail is important to ensure further growth in consumption. Retail sources more than 50 per cent of its products from within the country. Thus, new jobs will be created in front and back ends leading to a positive impact in regional economy. With better integration from Farm to Fork, reduction in supply chain times, costs & wastage prices will come down over a period. The Mom & Pop stores will benefit from a better backend and larger product offering and will continue to grow. There will be more choice of products, better quality & lower prices. Sanjiv Goenka, CII and Group Chairman, RP Sanjiv Goenka Group, said retail FDI will help consolidate back-end services and introduce better retail management practices, thereby bring down costs and improve viability. With this announcement, the government has sent strong signals that Reforms are back on the agenda. This is positive for the economy. Thomas Varghese, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd said the move would open up significant opportunities in India for expansion of organized retail and allow substantial investment in backend infrastructure like cold chains, warehousing, logistics, expansion of contract farming and development of small and medium enterprises. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Bharti Enterprises Ltd, said FDI in multi brand retail can be a game changer by making Indian agriculture more competitive by addressing our infrastructural constraints and reducing losses across the value chain. CII President B Muthuraman said the industry body strongly supported the introduction of FDI in multi-brand Retail recognizing that it would benefit the consumers, producers (farmers) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and generate significant employment. This would open up enormous opportunities in India for expansion of organized retail and allow substantial investment in backend infrastructure like cold chains, warehousing and logistics. India with an 8–9 per cent growth in GDP is a consumer driven economy and modern retail has to step up, to be able to meet consumer aspirations not only in metro cities and towns, but across the Indian sub-continent.Chandrajit Banerjee, DG, CII said the biggest beneficiary of this announcement of FDI in Retail would be the small farmers who will be able to improve their productivity and realization by selling directly to large organized players and therefore do away with the intermediate parties in the current value chain.
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The economy may be slowing, but business opportunities are not. There is a hot new sector where entrepreneurial energy is being unleashed. While much has been said about the new dotcom boom, a rather prosaic sector holds a $20 billion opportunity that entrepreneurs are beginning to exploit. The business of converting raw human capital into industry ready manpower is seeing a combination of large corporations and start-ups rushing to set up units. About 500 million people will need professional skills in the next 10 years. And about 2 million trainers will be needed to train the new work force. After many false starts, the government and industry has been able to create financially sustainable model for skill creation activity. The model is simple. Entrepreneurs, corporations and NGOs create a project that feeds into a specific industry. They seek funding from the National Skill Development Corporation(NSDC). The NSDC connects them with the companies within the industry to ensure that the workers find placement after the course. NSDC has already committed about $230 million to many projects. "With a sustainable model in place, skilling has emerged as a bigger opportunity than ever for existing and new entrepreneurs," says Dilip Chenoy, CEO and MD of NSDC. The surprise is that it took such a long time for this model to mature. The government had been running vocational training institutes. But these were outdated, badly administered and had no linkage with the companies that would finally hire them. The effort to connect skilling institutes with industries has made the real difference. Despite the rush of activity, the pace of growth of the skilling business is slower than it expected. A couple of unexpected challenges remain. Many companies continue to rely on their in-house training programme. These companies prefer to impart skills that are relevant to their own specific needs, rather than the need of the sector. The problem with this attitude is that the rate of attrition remains high. Most of these workers feel they need to change jobs to learn more. While CEOs welcome trained workers from external institutes, the HR departments often want to maintain their relevance by insisting on in-house skilling. As a result the overall level of skill in the sector does not improve. The skilling effort remains isolated and industry standards remain uneven. The second issue is the mindset of the students who are finishing school and seeking jobs. All of them want to get a bachelors degree hoping that it would improve their job prospects. But most such graduates remain unemployed or under-employed. The real challenge for industries and the government is to convince them about the advantages of vocational training. State government level effort at raising the social status of skilled workers will boost the presence of students in training institutes. An educational advertising campaign can help change this mindset. To put things in perspective, these challenges are more manageable than the ones in other sectors. The need is so huge that there is a killing to be made in skilling. Pranjal Sharma is a senior business writer. He can be contacted at pranjalx@gmail.com
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