A break-up of India Inc.’s finances shows that while companies headquartered in the western states contribute over 50 per cent of total assets and income, infotech giants lead the pack when it comes to employee benefitsClick here to view graphicCompiled by Anup Jayaram; Graphic by Prashant Chaudhary(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 17-11-2014)
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At the Digital India Summit 2014, organised by BW | Businessworld on 1 October at Le Meridien, New Delhi, policy makers and leaders from the government and industry talked about the new government’s vision regarding the delivery of citizen-centric services by the Centre and states. Panellists discussed the recent initiatives of Digital India Programme and MyGov platform and the way forward for bringing about a digital revolution in India.Click here to view slide show(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 17-11-2014)
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The 10th edition of the BW | Businessworld Marketing Whitebook 2014-15 was launched on 11 June at Taj Lands End in Mumbai. Coinciding with the launch, BW organised a marketing conclave spread across seven sessions that looked at various aspects of marketing to different generations. The book was unveiled by Anurag Batra, chairman of GBN Media, Prosenjit Datta, editor of BW | Businessworld, D. Shivakumar, chairman and CEO, Pepsico India, Rama Bijapurkar, marketing strategy consultant, and Sanjay Mani, COO of Dainik Bhaskar. The who's who of the marketing and advertising fraternity attended the event, the highlight of which was insightful keynotes by Shivakumar and Bijapurkar.(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 28-07-2014)
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You have to give the devil his due. Cricket is still the best run sport in the country,” states Vimal Kumar, a former chief coach of the national badminton team. The remark, coming a year after cricket witnessed its worst phase — betting allegations against several franchise owners of the Indian Premier League — may sound ironic, but is not entirely untrue.
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The BW | Businessworld SME Whitebook was launched on 10 December at The Leela Ambience Gurgaon. The event witnessed a lively panel discussion on the subject, 'Growth Despite The Liquidity Squeeze'. This was followed by the unveiling of the book by Dr Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Development, who was the chief guest for the event.Click here to view slide show(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 13-01-2014)
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How does an organisation tackle periods of slowdown? That was probably the question on everyone’s mind as they gathered to celebrate the finest in corporate India at the BW Real 500 awards on 26 October at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai. The topic was discussed threadbare by a panel moderated by Pratip Chaudhuri, the just-retired chairman of the country’s largest bank, SBI. Some of the brightest minds from corporate India shared their thoughts on the topic. Sheshagiri Rao, joint MD at JSW Steel, kick-started the discussion saying growth has to come from maintaining profitability. Dr Habil Khorakiwala, chairman of Wockhardt, underlined the need to focus on long-term survival irrespective of the state of the economic cycle. Rashesh Shah, chairman Edelweiss, who spoke next, stressed that companies should pay particular attention to cash flows in the current cycle, where capital is hard to come by. He said it was ‘good to see’ that companies were not giving up on toplines, but the focus should be on profitability and cash flows. Shekhar Bajaj, chairman and MD of Bajaj Electrical brought in an additional aspect of how companies should not make the mistake of going for higher sales at the cost of tighter margins. According to Kaku Nakhate, president and country head at Bank of America, it is important to envisage that a downturn is coming and to increase market share ahead of it. Click here to view slide showThe panel then took questions from the audience. Most questions pertained to the slowdown such as entrepreneurship during periods of dull growth, sectors that lead during such times, and the kind of role that the government should play.Then came the highlight of the evening, with chief guest Praful Patel, minister for heavy industry and public enterprises, delivering his address ahead of the awards presentation. Patel said that India’s biggest push was coming from the rural markets, with aspirations having shot up in a relatively short span of time, putting the onus on the government to do much more. The minister then presented the awards to India's biggest and best companies to cap the evening's proceedings. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-12-2013)
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Why does it seem that the states have stopped competing for investment? Remember the 90s when Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka fought tooth and nail to upstage Maharashtra and Gujarat? How the Chennai region managed to get all the auto sector investment even though Pune region had a legacy advantage. The continuing sense of gloom among investors has been fed largely by the increasing lethargy of state governments to push growth. State governments and chief ministers make half hearted attempts to hold investor conferences. More effort is spent on organizing a summit than in clearing hurdles for projects. Chief ministers hold the occasional photo-op meeting with business leaders to show their commitment for growth. But soon after the flash bulbs move away, the chief minister and the government turns its face away from pending problems. Frustrated by such behaviour business groups are getting specific about project clearances. The Confederation of Indian Industry recently sent a list of 62 large projects to central government that are waiting to start operations. The total investment in these projects is over $13 billion. Of these most are in power and petroleum sector while the rest are in transport and township. The clearances they are waiting for are mostly from the state governments. While the central Ministry of Environment has held up a few, the local approvals are proving to be more frustrating. A project management group set up at the central government is trying to push states into getting the clearance done. Read More articles by Pranjal SharmaIn another time and era, state governments would have fallen over each to provide the clearances. Today, investors have to struggle. Part of the reason for this is the sheer increase in number of proposals. States are running out of land but they are also severely short of innovative ideas to resolve issues. Generous compensation, structured employment in projects and removal of archaic rules will automatically speed up the approvals. But the local political leadership is loath to take the effort or to give appropriate direction to the bureaucracy. Not surprising then that an increase number of investors are planning life without India. Even as the central government relaxes foreign direct investment rules, domestic investors are flying away. Much hope is being placed in Raghuram Rajan, the governor designate of Reserve Bank of India. Low growth, falling rupee and high inflation can’t be controlled by the central bank alone. Nor can the central government alone shoulder the responsibility. States will have to pull their weight to ensure that job creation and fund generation for welfare schemes is enabled. Where the central government has failed is to creating a positive sentiment of growth and action. Even if the central ministries don’t control state level issues, they can be proactive in chasing clearances. Political parties must push their Chief Ministers to focus on improving growth. States have to be able to convince citizens that if land and other resources are being allotted for projects, the returns will be better jobs and wealth for all. India needs a fresh batch of chief ministers in states who are eager and hungry for growth and development. Tough to say when this batch will graduate and take charge. (Pranjal Sharma is a senior business writer. He can be contacted at pranjalx@gmail.com)
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Shares of Financial Technologies, which owns a series of exchange platforms, gained over 30 per cent on Monday, 5 August, after the senior management proposed an “agreeable” staggered payment schedules for parties who defaulted on payments after punching trades on Financial Technologies’ subsidiary National Spot Exchange Ltd.The exchange brokered peace between parties involved in the trades and hammered out a three-point settlement to meet outstanding payments worth Rs 5,600 crore on due contracts. As per the agreement, eight members, who dishonoured the contract, agreed to pay close to Rs 2,181 crore with immediate effect. Another 13 members have agreed to pay 5 per cent of the total dues every week, which after 20 weeks would add up to Rs 3,107 crore. Three other members have asked for more time to pay the remaining Rs 311 crore, said a Financial Technologies spokesperson.“We’ve received assurances for over 95 per cent of the payment,” the spokesperson said.As a second option, National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) had asked non-payers to issue post-dated cheques amounting to Rs 4,900 crore against their settlement obligation.Read Also: Financial Technologies Crash: Sebi Begins Probe“While PDCs are a commitment, the payout process may not roll out smoothly in a month’s time. Hence, the market participants have proposed the first option (of staggered payments) as a safer alternative,” said a press note issued by NSEL.NSEL, which is an electronic trading platform for buying and selling of metals and agri-commodities, ran aground after it issued a circular that reduced the settlement cycle to less than 11 days (T+10) and barred intra-day square-off facility. Till that time, the exchange had larger settlement cycle often extending upto four weeks in the case of rare agri-commodities traded on the exchange. When the cycle got shortened, the market could not adjust to the new payment schedule. This gave rise to a mammoth payment default situation, triggering a massive drop in the shares of Financial Technologies.The stock fell over 79 per cent in two trading sessions, from Rs 584 on July 30 to Rs 120-levels at close on August 2. Financial Technologies shares ended trading at Rs 197.97 on the BSE on Monday.“FT shares may gain some more in the short-term, but it is going to be a pure trading play. Investors should keep proper stop-loss while trading on the stock. A better buy at this juncture would be MCX shares as there is more value there. Financial Technologies, over a longer term, may have systemic issues,” said Kishor Ostwal, CMD of CNI Research, a stock research firm.alertsmenon@gmail.comTwitter:@alertsmenon
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