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ASIAN BUSINESS
Management consulting firm McKinsey & Company
has launched a centre to help companies understand Asian consumers.
The Asia Consumer Insights Centre (ACIC) joins the
ranks of several research agencies and businesses which have set up shop in
Singapore.
The centre is an initiative under the McKinsey
Innovation Campus, a partnership between McKinsey & Company and the
Economic Development Board.
A virtual factory tour is one of McKinsey's new
practical training tools to help businesses adopt more efficient practices.
But it is also important for companies to have the
right knowledge to meet changing Asian consumer demands.
The centre hopes to help businesses adapt their
strategies to specific countries by closer research into the beliefs and
attitudes that motivate customer behaviour in Asia.
Oliver Tonby, managing partner for Southeast Asia at
McKinsey & Company, said: "Historically, we talked about you need an
Indonesia strategy, or you need a China strategy. They need to shift away from
that into a much more granular level, looking at specific cities, looking at
specific pockets of consumer segments."
McKinsey said the decision to locate the centre in
Singapore was due to the country's conducive business environment and healthy
government institutions.
Mr Tonby said: "There are multinationals that
are present, there are local companies that are present that are already
thinking global... You look at the availability of talent in Singapore, it is
very good. "
ASIAN MANAGEMENT
HSL is a new
joint venture set up with founding partners Michael Garrow (formerly of
Blackstone) and Johannes Kaps (formerly of Goldman Sachs).
Gottex, which has one of the largest and most experienced hedge fund teams in Asia with 21 employees and significant capital committed to Asian hedge funds, will provide infrastructure, risk analytics, research and institutional services as well as take an equity interest in the company. The founding partners of Headland will constitute a majority of Headland’s ownership. V-Nee Yeh, co-founder and honorary chairman of Value Partners, and other prominent investors in Asia will complete the owners’ circle and commit cornerstone capital to Headland.
Headland’s mandate is to partner selectively with top-tier investment teams to establish institutional quality hedge funds in Asia. It aims to provide meaningful long-term capital, strategic guidance on industry best practices, and value-added relationships to Asia’s new generation of independent hedge fund leaders. Headland anticipates the diversification of its partnerships to broadly reflect Asia’s hedge fund industry potential over the next ten years.
Michael Garrow, founder and chief investment officer of Headland Strategic Limited, says: “History shows that emerging hedge funds typically outperform their larger peers. There is a large pool of talented hedge fund managers in Asia where we see a notable supply and demand imbalance. We have a proprietary pipeline of highly compelling candidates with respected institutional pedigrees and impressive individual track records, who are looking to partner with Headland Strategic.”
Gottex, which has one of the largest and most experienced hedge fund teams in Asia with 21 employees and significant capital committed to Asian hedge funds, will provide infrastructure, risk analytics, research and institutional services as well as take an equity interest in the company. The founding partners of Headland will constitute a majority of Headland’s ownership. V-Nee Yeh, co-founder and honorary chairman of Value Partners, and other prominent investors in Asia will complete the owners’ circle and commit cornerstone capital to Headland.
Headland’s mandate is to partner selectively with top-tier investment teams to establish institutional quality hedge funds in Asia. It aims to provide meaningful long-term capital, strategic guidance on industry best practices, and value-added relationships to Asia’s new generation of independent hedge fund leaders. Headland anticipates the diversification of its partnerships to broadly reflect Asia’s hedge fund industry potential over the next ten years.
Michael Garrow, founder and chief investment officer of Headland Strategic Limited, says: “History shows that emerging hedge funds typically outperform their larger peers. There is a large pool of talented hedge fund managers in Asia where we see a notable supply and demand imbalance. We have a proprietary pipeline of highly compelling candidates with respected institutional pedigrees and impressive individual track records, who are looking to partner with Headland Strategic.”
State-Owned Enterprise Airways New Zealand has
signed a Heads of Agreement to set up a new aeronautical information company to
be called GroupEAD Asia Pacific.
The agreement has been signed with GroupEAD Europe
S.L., a Spanish-based Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) provider whose
area of expertise includes the management of the European AIS Database (EAD) on
behalf of Eurocontrol.
The company will be a joint venture business
delivering next-generation aeronautical information management services and
procedure design services to the Asia Pacific region. The new business will be
based in Wellington, and is expected to start operations early in 2014.
The joint venture will have initial revenues of
around $4 million a year, with the majority secured by long-term contracts.
The 23 staff currently working at Airways head
office in the aeronautical information management (AIM) and procedure design
services teams will work for the new joint venture. Their current work includes
managing New Zealand’s aerodrome, airspace, and route information as well as
the design and maintenance of Instrument Flight Procedures.
Trent Clarke is Airways Manager Aeronautical
Information Management. "Today’s generation of aeronautical information is
still largely provided to the aviation sector in the form of hardcopy charts
and publications. We’re looking to the next generation, the data generation.
There is a global aviation roadmap and upgrade programme which outlines the way
to the future.
"The implementation of this roadmap will
require significant investment in new systems and new processes. Pacific and
Asian nations, including New Zealand, can minimise their investment by
utilising the services of the new business when it is up and running.
"Safety is always paramount in aviation, and
ready access to high quality and up-to-date information is the key to safety in
this business," says Trent.
BANKING
Customers of six banks will
now be able to transfer money from one bank account to the other by keying in the
receiver’s 12-digit Aadhaar number.
The
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched the Aadhaar-based
remittance system in association with Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI) and six banks.
Customers,
who have linked their Aadhaar number with their bank accounts, will be able to
transact through their mobile phones by just using the receiver’s Aadhaar
number, thereby obviating the need to go through the Internet-based transfer
process like NEFT.
Nandan
Nilekani, Chairman, UIDAI, said, “The launch will make remittances simpler for
migrants.”
The
“instant transfer” process is just another step to take the economy towards a
more cashless society, he said.
Even
customers who have a simple mobile phone would be able to transfer the money
using the Aadhaar number by sending a message.
Co-incidentally
on Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India set up a technical committee on mobile
banking to go into the advantages and challenges of having a single application
across all handsets in an SMS encrypted format, among other things.
The
committee will submit its report by December.
Six banks
- State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Punjab
and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank and Mehsana Urban Co-operative Bank - have signed
up for this Aadhaar based Remittance System.
“We expect
more banks to sign up for this in future,” said A.P.Hota, Managing Director and
CEO, NPCI.
Nilesh Gupta, managing director at Mumbai's biggest
retailer Vijay Sales, felt as if the roof was coming down when weeks before the
festive season began, the Reserve
Bank of India banned banks from offering 0 per cent lending for purchase of
goods.
To his delight, he realised in a couple of days that
finance
companies could fill the void created by banks' exit. Business is booming as
usual during the Navratri and Diwali festival season and televisions and
iPhones are flying off the shelf. Consumers are almost unaffected, but the
beneficiaries of the demand will be the non-banking
finance companies, and banks have come out losers. "There was a slight
worry initially, but the RBI ban is
mostly for banks and credit cards," says Gupta of Vijay Sales, which has
been selling consumer durables for more than four decades in Mumbai.
The regulator feels consumers have been fooled by 0
per cent or discounted interest rate schemes into believing that bank funding comes for
free and it wants them stopped. Consumer durable manufacturers make the 0 per
cent facility available mostly on high-value products such as smart phones, LED
televisions and premium home appliances. "We have a regulatory function
and a consumer protection function," said Raghuram Rajan, the governor of
RBI, in an interview to ET.
"Though 0 per cent financing looks very
attractive, the costs are either back-ended as interest
rates move up later on or hidden at the front-end. So, the point of that
was basically to say, be transparent."
Finance companies, which are also regulated by the
central bank, are not yet banned from indulging in such a practice, leaving the doors wide
open for companies such as Bajaj Finance and Shriram City Union. But the
central bank's argument that customers may benefit does not seem to be true.
Because at many retail outlets, complete payment by the buyer does not fetch
him a discount.
BUSINESS
The World Bank's private sector arm, International
Finance Corp., plans to launch a $1 billion rupee-linked bond programme within
weeks to raise money internationally for private projects in India.
IFC officials said the bonds' maturity had not been
finalised but the programme could include tranches of two or three-year paper
initially followed by long-term bonds.
The coupon and settlement of the bonds will be in
dollars but the proceeds will be converted into rupees and allocated to private
sector projects in India, IFC officials told Reuters by telephone.
"The bond coupon and the FX exchange rate will
all reflect the Indian rupee's fundamentals," said Jingdong Hua,
vice-president, Treasury and Syndications at IFC, World Bank Group.
The rupee has rebounded by more than 11 percent
since hitting a record low of 68.85 against the dollar on August 28 after being
hammered earlier this year on concerns about India's gaping current account
deficit and expectations for reduced capital inflows to India once the U.S.
Federal Reserve starts to scale back its stimulus programme.
Priced between Rs 2.40 lakh and Rs 2.65 lakh
(ex-showroom, Delhi), Tata Motors on Tuesday launched a new version of its small
car Nano, which has dual fuel option of petrol and CNG.
The new variant of Nano comes with an Engine Management System (EMS) for switching between CNG and gasoline fuel systems.
"This allows the vehicle to sense when the driver needs more power and thus automatically shifts to gasoline mode," the company said.
The Nano CNG emax, which comes with a CNG and petrol bi-fuel system, is the first of the five brands in the emax series of CNG cars, Tata Motors Ltd said in a statement.
The Tata Nano CNG emax price range starts at Rs 2.40 lakh for the Nano CX and goes up to Rs 2.65 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the Nano LX, it added.
The company said the new Nano variant will be available across CNG markets like Delhi, Gujarat, parts of Maharashtra and Lucknow.
Commenting on the launch, Tata Motors Ltd Senior Vice President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit (Commercial) Ankush Arora said: "From its inception, the Nano has been a path-breaking invention. The CNG version only adds to that and also underlines our commitment to be a sustainable automotive player."
The company has been trying hard to boost the sagging sales of the Nano, once dubbed as the world's least expensive car.
In September, the company sold 2,104 units as against 5,491 units in the same month last year. For the fiscal 2013-14, the company has sold 10,202 units in the April-September period as against 39,623 units in the year-ago period.
The new variant of Nano comes with an Engine Management System (EMS) for switching between CNG and gasoline fuel systems.
"This allows the vehicle to sense when the driver needs more power and thus automatically shifts to gasoline mode," the company said.
The Nano CNG emax, which comes with a CNG and petrol bi-fuel system, is the first of the five brands in the emax series of CNG cars, Tata Motors Ltd said in a statement.
The Tata Nano CNG emax price range starts at Rs 2.40 lakh for the Nano CX and goes up to Rs 2.65 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the Nano LX, it added.
The company said the new Nano variant will be available across CNG markets like Delhi, Gujarat, parts of Maharashtra and Lucknow.
Commenting on the launch, Tata Motors Ltd Senior Vice President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit (Commercial) Ankush Arora said: "From its inception, the Nano has been a path-breaking invention. The CNG version only adds to that and also underlines our commitment to be a sustainable automotive player."
The company has been trying hard to boost the sagging sales of the Nano, once dubbed as the world's least expensive car.
In September, the company sold 2,104 units as against 5,491 units in the same month last year. For the fiscal 2013-14, the company has sold 10,202 units in the April-September period as against 39,623 units in the year-ago period.
BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
Instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp have fuelled a new form of group communication
over mobile. Japanese instant messaging app LINE believes this could spur
social networking among small communities.
“Mark Zuckerberg wants to bring the whole world together. That includes strangers and many others. We have no intention of doing that. We would want to bring people who are already close, closer,” said Akira Morikawa, chief executive officer of LINE. The company is focused on personal communication to social groups, which it claims is what smartphone users look for.
Morikawa tells stories of how the application, launched recently in India, has already become one such medium of friends and even family to stay in touch with. “Grandchild keeps in touch with the grandfather online. Keeping in touch with small groups is relevant to everyone's life,” he said.
With specialised stickers, LINE hopes to give a richer experience than the apps that already exist and have garnered a large subscriber base. “We get compared with WhatsApp but we offer voice as well. We get compared to Viber as well but we have gone much beyond simple stickers and allow communication via video and voice,” said Morikawa.
LINE also has a version that can be downloaded and used on the personal computer. It also offers a platform for games and posts. One of its features includes adding a friend by shaking devices together.
The Japanese app has already clocked in 10 million users in India three months before the official launch. It plans to double this number to 20 million by the end of the year. To aid rapid increase in users, the application has taken up extensive marketing and has even hired Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif as the brand ambassador.
“We are going to take up marketing and promotion of the application to position it and enhance usage. We also plan to promote the application on television too, said Morikawa. It is also partnering with major Bollywood films which are yet to be released, like Krrish 3 and Dhoom 3, to provide exclusive content from these movies to its users. It has also tied up with Sony India, which plans to pre-instal the application on its handsets.
“Mark Zuckerberg wants to bring the whole world together. That includes strangers and many others. We have no intention of doing that. We would want to bring people who are already close, closer,” said Akira Morikawa, chief executive officer of LINE. The company is focused on personal communication to social groups, which it claims is what smartphone users look for.
Morikawa tells stories of how the application, launched recently in India, has already become one such medium of friends and even family to stay in touch with. “Grandchild keeps in touch with the grandfather online. Keeping in touch with small groups is relevant to everyone's life,” he said.
With specialised stickers, LINE hopes to give a richer experience than the apps that already exist and have garnered a large subscriber base. “We get compared with WhatsApp but we offer voice as well. We get compared to Viber as well but we have gone much beyond simple stickers and allow communication via video and voice,” said Morikawa.
LINE also has a version that can be downloaded and used on the personal computer. It also offers a platform for games and posts. One of its features includes adding a friend by shaking devices together.
The Japanese app has already clocked in 10 million users in India three months before the official launch. It plans to double this number to 20 million by the end of the year. To aid rapid increase in users, the application has taken up extensive marketing and has even hired Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif as the brand ambassador.
“We are going to take up marketing and promotion of the application to position it and enhance usage. We also plan to promote the application on television too, said Morikawa. It is also partnering with major Bollywood films which are yet to be released, like Krrish 3 and Dhoom 3, to provide exclusive content from these movies to its users. It has also tied up with Sony India, which plans to pre-instal the application on its handsets.
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Mahindra & Mahindra on Thursday announced its
move to shift management of the loss making two wheeler business to its
automotive and tractor businesses.
The announcement closely follows its recent
restructuring of its loss making trucks and buses business by merging it with
its flagship tractors and utility vehicles businesses. Even as the management
realignment was kicked off, M&M infused an additional equity worth Rs 180
crore into the company to beef up capital for its currently bleeding two
wheeler business ahead.
The announcement coincides with the retirement of Anoop Mathur,
the president of two wheeler division and member of Group Executive Board, who
will serve his last day on 31st March 2014. Starting 1st April, 2014, Rajesh
Jejurikar, chief executive, tractor and farm mechanisation will take
additional charge of the two wheeler division and will report to Pawan Goenka,
ED and president of Automotive & Farm Equipment Sector.
Unlike Mahindra Trucks and Buses entity, which was
merged into Mahindra & Mahindra, the movement of Mahindra Two Wheelers is a
"management realignment" and will become a part of the Automotive
& Farm Equipment Division, under the leadership of Pawan Goenka
and Rajesh Jejurikar.
The statement issued by the company on Thursday
said, this realignment would help the two wheeler business to take advantage of
synergies of the automotive and farm equipment division across the value chain
including R&D, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and the
human capital.
M&M acquired Kinetic
Motors in 2008 for an acquisition price of approximately Rs 100 crore, but
since then has infused over Rs 500-800 crore in the business. The business is
yet to breakeven. ET learns, over the last 6 months, Mahindra & Mahindra
has infused fresh equity twice of Rs 80 crore and Rs 100 crore respectively.
FINANCE
Paychex, Inc. announced its new
software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that combines innovative technology with
superior customer service to provide human resource administrators with a
streamlined and integrated approach to workforce management.
With all Paychex services - payroll, time and
attendance, HR, benefits, training, and performance management - accessible on
a single cloud-based platform with Paychex single sign-on; users can do what
they want, where they want, when they want, and how they want with greater
efficiency and productivity.
The comprehensive, cloud-based offering gives users
the flexibility to complete all payroll and human resource functions
themselves, or grant their employees and business partners permission to
perform tasks in a secure environment. Users can also customize their desktop
and create custom workflows to work how they want and with greater
productivity.
Paired with Paychex Mobile for smartphones and
Paychex Online for tablets, the new platform gives users the flexibility to
work across devices and pick up on one where they left off on another. Now,
clients can start, edit, and submit payroll on the go and at any time.
Clients can also easily access the features they
need and use the most with the ability to customize the platform's landing
page. For example, users can view or download their favorite reports from the
reports widget, without having to launch the Report Center application.
INDIA BUSINESS
The Indian subsidiary of Nissan Motor Company of Japan targets to sell 100,000 units this year in the
domestic market, and 3,000 units per month of its new sports utility vehicle
Terrano, said a top company official.
"This fiscal we plan to sell 100,000 units in
the domestic market and 100,000 units for export. We will make 3,000 units per
month of Terrano," Kenichiro Yomura, managing director and CEO at Nissan
Motor India told reporters here.
He said Terrano would be the last new model to be
launched by the company this year.
It will also be the last cross badged model in the
near term to be launched.
Nissan and Renault have a joint car manufacturing
plant near here with a total capacity of 400,000 units per annum.
The plant rolls out near common models which are
sold by Nissan and Renault under their own brands.
"But Nissan and Renault share vehicle platform
(architecture) for several models," Yomura added.
While bulk of the vehicles made for Nissan at its
Indian plant here are exported, Yomura does not agree that the company is an
export oriented unit.
According to him, the company sold 37,000 units last
year in the domestic market and exported around 100,000 units. During
April-September this year, the company sold 13,000 units in the domestic
market.
Yomura said early 2013 Nissan would be launching
Datsun model which would be sold through the existing dealerships.
There would be around 145 Nissan dealerships by end
of March 2013, and 300-plus dealers by 2016.
Asked about the capacity expansion at the plant near
here, which is nearly reaching the maximum capacity, Yomura said: "The
production capacity can be increased by 80,000 units with minor investment and
an additional shift."
INDIA MANAGEMENT
For the last few years, Italian confectionery major
Perfetti van Melle has been adapting its Indian campaigns for brands like Alpenliebe and Big Babol for the
European market. Pond's and Cadbury's employ their agencies in India to produce
creative ideas for other Asian markets. In 2007, Chinese computing giant Lenovo
made the Indian city of Bengaluru its global headquarters for advertising and marketing. And even as you read this, a small company in
Chennai, Rage Communications, is putting finishing touches to work for global
clients in London, Singapore and Australia. And these are just a few of many
examples. The fine print is, India is poised to become the outsourcing
powerhouse for advertising. Until about a decade ago, the only markets where
India exported advertising ideas and finished creatives were those of its
neighbouring countries. "Ads for Sri Lanka, West Asia, even Pakistan, used
to be made regularly in Mumbai," recalls MG Parameswaran, executive
director and CEO, Draftfcb Ulka. For example, Fair & Lovely ran its Indian
ads in Sri Lanka and Pakistan. In fact, India was always asked by a whole host
of FMCG and consumer electronics companies to adapt global creatives.
INSURANCE
Shriram General Insurance has become the first
private insurer to make a foreign acquisition with the purchase of a large
chunk of share in Philippine non-life company Monarch Insurance. This is the
first overseas insurance transaction after the insurance regulator in May 2013
allowed domestic companies to do business in other countries. The Shriram Group
earlier held a stake in the Philippine company through Bharath Investments a
Singapore-based holding company, which has investments from Ceylinco group - a
Sri Lankan conglomerate. "The group earlier held a stake in Monarch
through Bharat Investments.
We had planned to infuse Rs 35 crore to meet capital requirements, of which Rs 10 crore was already invested. The remaining Rs 25 crore has been invested by Shriram General Insurance after due approval from IRDA," said G S Sundararajan, group director, Shriram Group.
The group had picked up a 40% stake in Monarch in June 2007 for a consideration of about Rs 7 crore. According to sources, the promoters had brought in representatives on the board. Monarch's website describes the company as a 50-year-old Philippine SEC registered and Insurance Commission licenced non-life insurance company. In May this year, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority had said that Indian insurance companies can set up businesses abroad if they meet certain conditions. The guidelines required that life insurance companies have a net worth of Rs 500 crore and non-life companies a net worth of at least Rs 250 crore before making overseas investments. It also said that the companies with global ambitions should have a three-year profit track record.
We had planned to infuse Rs 35 crore to meet capital requirements, of which Rs 10 crore was already invested. The remaining Rs 25 crore has been invested by Shriram General Insurance after due approval from IRDA," said G S Sundararajan, group director, Shriram Group.
The group had picked up a 40% stake in Monarch in June 2007 for a consideration of about Rs 7 crore. According to sources, the promoters had brought in representatives on the board. Monarch's website describes the company as a 50-year-old Philippine SEC registered and Insurance Commission licenced non-life insurance company. In May this year, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority had said that Indian insurance companies can set up businesses abroad if they meet certain conditions. The guidelines required that life insurance companies have a net worth of Rs 500 crore and non-life companies a net worth of at least Rs 250 crore before making overseas investments. It also said that the companies with global ambitions should have a three-year profit track record.
Insurance
Noodle, part of Willis North America, a unit of Willis Group Holdings plc WSH -0.35% , the
global risk advisor, insurance and reinsurance broker, today announced the
launch of its newly redesigned online quoting platform for commercial
insurance. The platform, Insurance Noodle Plus (IN+), is powered by a new
technology partner, and delivers cutting edge connectivity to the insurance
marketplace for its insurance agent and broker members.
Insurance
Noodle is the distribution vehicle for the Willis Commercial Network North America,
which provides products and services to small insurance agents and brokers
nationwide.
IN+ gives
agents access to the admitted commercial lines marketplace, for BOP, commercial
auto, workers compensation, umbrella, and professional liability. The platform
links agents to real-time quotes from seven insurance carriers (additional
insurance carriers are being added in coming months) via a single online entry
point and provides many enhanced features such as the option to obtain a quick
rate indication or a fully-bindable quote. Insurance Noodle member agents can
access the non-admitted commercial lines marketplace through its wholesale
partner when standard markets cannot provide terms. The sleek user interface
also offers an easier binding process and includes more user assistance
throughout the application.
"Insurance
Noodle Plus delivers total solutions for the small agency from a single
resource, saving significant time and effort while expanding their ability to
write more business," said Ralph Blust, Managing Partner of Willis
Commercial Network. "The platform provides more solutions from new
carriers - particularly in workers compensation. And, the improved user
experience is what our clients have been asking for - they can easily check carriers'
appetite, utilize the streamlined classification process, and get user help
tips at every turn," Blust added.
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS
Beijing
Construction Engineering Group Co. formed a venture with Manchester
Airports Group and other partners to build an international business
district in the UK's second biggest city. The buildings on the 150-acre
(61-hectare) site in the north of England will be worth about 800 million
pounds ($1.3 billion) when they're completed and fully leased, the partners
said in a statement today. Carillion Plc and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund are
also part of the project, known as Airport City. It will create as many as
16,000 jobs and the development will be managed by Argent LLP, the group said.
Chinese developers including ABP Chinese (Holding) and Greenland Holding Group
Co. are expanding overseas as the government maintains curbs on residential
housing to cool price increases. ABP is involved in the development of a third
financial district in London focused on Asian businesses after the UK and China set a target
three years ago of doubling trade to $100 billion by 2015. "Our aspiration
as part of this international joint venture is to create a world-class business
destination that will open up new connections on a global level," David
Partridge, managing partner at Argent (Property Development) Services LLP,
said in the statement.
Manchester Airport, Britain's busiest hub outside
London, is used by more than 20 million passengers a year. The airport plans to
open a direct airline service to China, according to the statement. "We
see our involvement in Airport City
as an extension of the memorandum of understanding between China and the UK,
where we have been looking to further explore joint infrastructure
opportunities for some time," Xing Yan, managing director of Beijing
Construction Engineering, said in the statement.
MARKETING
The Coca-Cola Company has reported third quarter and
year-to-date 2013 results, with continued global value share gains in total
non-alcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) beverages.
The Coca-Cola Company reported worldwide volume
growth of 2 per cent in Q3, against the backdrop of increasing volatility in
several emerging markets. The company’s India business delivered 6 per cent
volume growth, while the China business grew 9 per cent in terms of volume,
driving sequential improvements for both countries compared to last quarter due
to a focus on execution amidst normalised weather. Incidentally, this marks
Coca-Cola India’s 29th consecutive quarter of growth, 19 of which are in double
digits. Worldwide brand Coca-Cola saw growth in the quarter across diverse
markets, including Thailand (+27 per cent), India (+22 per cent), Russia (+11
per cent), the Philippines (+9 per cent), Germany (+8 per cent), and North
America (+2 per cent).
ODISHA BUSINESS
In a bid to provide quick governance to the people
in rural areas of Odisha, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has planned
to launch a village level mobile governance system, officials said today.
Acting DG of NIC CSR Prabhu informed this to the Odisha's Chief Secretary J K Mohantra during a discussion on Saturday, sources said today.
Mohapatra said, as the mobile use was rapidly becoming popular in many remote parts of the state, a separate technology can be devised to communicate with people over mobile about their entitlements, developmental interventions of Government and to receive their feed backs.
Prabhu said that the NIC would soon come out with a separate technology to roll out for village level mobile governance in Odisha, sources added.
Acting DG of NIC CSR Prabhu informed this to the Odisha's Chief Secretary J K Mohantra during a discussion on Saturday, sources said today.
Mohapatra said, as the mobile use was rapidly becoming popular in many remote parts of the state, a separate technology can be devised to communicate with people over mobile about their entitlements, developmental interventions of Government and to receive their feed backs.
Prabhu said that the NIC would soon come out with a separate technology to roll out for village level mobile governance in Odisha, sources added.
RETAIL
Expanding its retail presence across the country,
Taiwanese handset maker HTC on Wednesday said it will be adding about 3,000
outlets in the next six months.
The company, which currently has about 3,500-4,000
retail outlets, will also be strengthening its service delivery network by
adding 100 service points in the next three quarters.
“We are planning to increase our retail outlets to
7,000 in next six months and 100 additional service points will be put up in
the next three quarters,” HTC country head Faisal Siddiqui said.
The company currently has 250 service points.
Mr. Siddiqui said the company is changing its
distribution model and has more national distributors now.
“We are reworking our distribution model. Earlier,
we used to have one national distributor but now we have four distributors
nationally,” he added.
Meanwhile, the company on Wednesday launched a
device under its Desire series at market operative price (MOP) of Rs 21,490.
The phone features a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 8
megapixel camera and 4.3 inch display.
“The Desire range has become renowned for bringing a
premium mobile experience to the mass market... the Desire 500 is no different.
It is perfect for people who are always on the go,” Mr. Siddiqui added.
The company now has 6-7 models in its Desire series,
priced between Rs 12,500 to Rs 30,000.
Mr. Siddiqui said the company wants to achieve 15
per cent market share in the domestic smartphone market but refused to share a
time-frame for it.
_____________________________________________________________
Source of
Information for this issue: Google alert accessed on 14th Oct 2013
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Compilation
Sabita Sahu
Sabita Sahu
Junior Librarian
Concept, Layout and
Editing
Syamaghana Mohanty
Chief Librarian
Chief Librarian
Information and
Documentation Division, Chanakya Central Library
Asian School of
Business Management
Shiksha Vihar Bhola,
Barang Khurda Road,
Chandaka
Bhubaneswar-754012
Tel:0674-2374832, 2374833
E-mail:library@asbm.ac.in, chieflibrarian@asbm.ac.in
Sabita Sahu :Junior Librarian and Syamaghana Mohanty : Chief Librarian, Knowledge and Information Services Unit, Chanakya Central Library, Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneswar. chieflibrarian@asbm.ac.in ; www.asbm.ac.in
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