Cover Story
- Welcome to the brave new world of local deals, where marketers are trying to drive people online to buy offline. Read on to know three key things that set this market apart.
- The investment momentum in Indian start-ups rocketed over the past five years. PE activity in 2015 touched an all-time high - investments totalled 1,049, over 600 of them in start-ups. The stars of Indian e-commerce became super stars.
Solar Under Cloud
At present India has just over 10 GW of solar projects under development, with cumulative solar installations of 5,632 MW and about 8.4 GW expected to be auctioned off over the next few months. One major reason companies are tapping outsiders for even important work is high wage inflation and rising costs and complexity of training people and providing infrastructure."Create the right environment for start-ups"
John T. Chambers, former CEO of Cisco who nowadays tours the world building relationships with governments and helping countries digitise, is excited about the NDA government's Digital India initiative that he says is "beginning to take off". Declutter your SMS inbox or add a dash of perfection to your pictures with these easy-to-use apps. It is like a chat/messaging app that can be used across multiple platforms and devices, with features such as one-to-one and group messaging, file sharing plus integration into several popular apps and web services. The declining efficacy of responses notwithstanding, the rising popularity and increasing awareness of RTI shows it is here to stay. Experts believe the act is strong enough to withstand any attempts to throttle it, but information commissioners need to be firm. This memoir of the author's time as India's chief economic adviser is loaded with lessons in economics and has fascinating stories. Building National Competitiveness being the theme for this year's CII National Conference , expect attendance of a galaxy of leaders from industry and government."Oligopoly is on the rise in the AC business"
Kojin Nakakita, MD, Hitachi India, tells Business Today about tapping the premium segment in India and expanding the brand's footprint globally.Japan's Culture of Craftsmanship
What Indian manufacturing can learn from Monozukuri - the latest import from Nippon. Have great ideas but lack deep pockets? Pitch your ideas on crowdfunding platforms and let the people get your ideas off the ground. The Supreme Court recently asked SEBI to sell off Sahara group properties worth an estimated Rs 40,000 crore in order to recover dues that it owes investors.
Stop the Money Spill
Institutions in the public and private sector, globally, have adopted technology to improve operations and management. A recent World Bank study has documented the benefits of centralised e-payments in government systems. After weeks of public outcry and intense media scrutiny, embattled UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya has made an offer to settle outstanding loans of his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA). The bank consortium may find it hard to accept Mallya's offer for a couple of reasons. It's the annual increment season in corporate India but an indifferent business environment may once again prove to be a spoilsport. The Vijay Mallya saga gets curiouser every passing day even as the investigations in the cases against him are making little progress. While the govt has given 'stern' warnings to Mallya to pay dues honourably or face action - the latest from Arun Jaitley - many call it just political posturing. Battlelines getting drawn between local biotech firms and MNCs over the new guidelines on biosimilars. The unexpected government ban on FDCs has Indian pharma companies scurrying to courts. Tata Steel's move to get out of the UK shows it is getting realistic about its global ambitions. Investors hoping for better days must be cautious.
Security Breach
Law enforcers, too, fail as perpetrators usually operate from foreign shores and use 'jurisdictional arbitrage' - which means operating from jurisdictions with lax laws such as Africa and Eastern Europe - to get away. Gautam Adani's port empire has expanded dramatically in the past decade. But it also faces challenges.
Trevor Bull, CEO & MD, Aviva Life Insurance Co. India
"Persistency is a concern in the Indian market"
peoplebusiness
Recently, Dhirubhai Ambani was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the government for leaving a deep imprint on India's corporate history.
Nurturing Talent
Two power-packed panels met for a brainstorming session at the BT Knowledge Forum on HR in Pune.Delivering Double-digit Growth
The India Today Conclave of 2016 got off to a roaring start with a discussion between Union Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley and a group of leading economic thinkers.
