ASBM Business Updates is a Weekly Selective Compilation of Business News from Various Sources. To find details follow the link.
ASIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
ASBM organises free health camp
As a part of its corporate social responsibility, ASBM Institute of Professional Studies in association with Utkal University NSS bureau and ARKRAY Health Care Pvt. Ltd, organized a free health check-up camp. On this occasion a team of doctors examined and treated beneficiaries. About 300 villagers of nearby Bhola and Kantabada along with staff and faculty members of ASBM and ASBM Institute of Professional Studies availed the health care facilities. Free medicines were distributed to the patients who complained of various ailments. Inagurating the programme, Director, ASBM, Prof. Biswajeet Pattanayak said, “Our purpose is to improve the quality of life of the communities. CSR is an ever-developing term. We will continue our efforts in these areas. Principal of ASBM Institute of Professional Studies, Prof. Hemanta Kumar Panda said “Necessary medical tests were done and according medicines were given to the beneficiaries. Dean ASBM Prof. Kalyan Shankar Ray, NSS Coordinator Prof. Nihar Ranjan Agasti, Asst. Branch Manager, Odisha circle ARKRAY Health Care Pvt. Ltd. Sri Rashmi Ranjan Jena and faculty members of ASBM were present.
ASBM’s Fashion Retail Management Course
Keeping in view the fastest growing retail market of the globe, Asian School of Business Management (ASBM) in association with Shoppers Stop Limited (SSL), one of the leading retail stores of the country is all set to start Fashion Retail Management Course at ASBM. Designed and developed by Centre for Retail, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, the course aims to provide large number of employment to the youth. The course offers fourth-month classroom teaching and 12 months internship as trainee fashion assistant at Shoppers Stop Limited. During the process of 12 months Internship, students will be given Rs. 9000 (per month) as stipend by Shoppers Stop Limited. Students with Plus Two from any recognized Board can apply for the course.
BANKING
Banking pain a gain for technology stocks
Indian banks failed to boost the confidence of equity fund managers through 2013. The sector, which accounted for a little more than a fifth of equity assets at the start of the year, witnessed a decline of about four percentage points in allocation.
Equity assets’ exposure to banking stocks dipped as low as 15.7 per cent in August against 21.15 per cent at the start of the year. While fund managers kept their fingers crossed on their investment calls on banks, they heavily and steadily kept buying information technology (IT) stocks.
At the start of 2013, allocation to the IT sector was a little below eight per cent of overall equity assets. This was close to 14 per cent in September. After that, it declined a bit to 13.2 per cent recently.
In other words, pain in banks turned out to be a gain for IT, as fund managers shifted investments. No other high -profile sectors, including pharmaceuticals, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and automobile, could see such a large diversion of investments. At a time when the benchmark Sensex has gained 8.25 per cent thus far in the current calendar year, the BSE’s IT Index galloped a whopping 58 per cent. Shares of Infosys, despite having high profile exits, are hitting all-time highs. Those of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have gained around 50 per cent since it hit its a 52-week low. More, fund managers feels there is still more upside in the IT sector and probability of re-rating of IT stocks may not be ruled out.
Central Bank of India launches new mobile banking app
The Central Bank of India, which is celebrating its 103rd Foundation day today, has launched a new Mobile Bankingapplication and EMV (Europay, Mastercard,Visa) compliant 'RuPay' debit card.
Finance Minister P Chidamabaram launched the scheme, along with 103 branches and 103 ATMs of the bank through video conferencing.
Rajeev Rishi, Chairman and Managing Director of the Bank, said the card would help traders to draw Rs 40,000 a day or Rs 1 lakh in case of International transactions.
The card would be accepted at all channels including- ATMs, PoS machines, e-commerce. Now EMV chip and pin cards with enabling global acceptability had been introduced, an official of the bank said.
The EMV compliant RuPay Debit Card is based on the Swadeshi Platform and is more secure with in-built security chip, he said.
The Mobile Application intended to promote greener and eco-friendly channels of banking while at the same time facilitating all types of customers to avail banking services on the go.
Rishi said the bank had always been a common man's lender and chose the occasion to focus on the rural and under privileged sector as well.
ASBM organises free health camp
As a part of its corporate social responsibility, ASBM Institute of Professional Studies in association with Utkal University NSS bureau and ARKRAY Health Care Pvt. Ltd, organized a free health check-up camp. On this occasion a team of doctors examined and treated beneficiaries. About 300 villagers of nearby Bhola and Kantabada along with staff and faculty members of ASBM and ASBM Institute of Professional Studies availed the health care facilities. Free medicines were distributed to the patients who complained of various ailments. Inagurating the programme, Director, ASBM, Prof. Biswajeet Pattanayak said, “Our purpose is to improve the quality of life of the communities. CSR is an ever-developing term. We will continue our efforts in these areas. Principal of ASBM Institute of Professional Studies, Prof. Hemanta Kumar Panda said “Necessary medical tests were done and according medicines were given to the beneficiaries. Dean ASBM Prof. Kalyan Shankar Ray, NSS Coordinator Prof. Nihar Ranjan Agasti, Asst. Branch Manager, Odisha circle ARKRAY Health Care Pvt. Ltd. Sri Rashmi Ranjan Jena and faculty members of ASBM were present.
ASBM’s Fashion Retail Management Course
Keeping in view the fastest growing retail market of the globe, Asian School of Business Management (ASBM) in association with Shoppers Stop Limited (SSL), one of the leading retail stores of the country is all set to start Fashion Retail Management Course at ASBM. Designed and developed by Centre for Retail, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, the course aims to provide large number of employment to the youth. The course offers fourth-month classroom teaching and 12 months internship as trainee fashion assistant at Shoppers Stop Limited. During the process of 12 months Internship, students will be given Rs. 9000 (per month) as stipend by Shoppers Stop Limited. Students with Plus Two from any recognized Board can apply for the course.
BANKING
Banking pain a gain for technology stocks
Indian banks failed to boost the confidence of equity fund managers through 2013. The sector, which accounted for a little more than a fifth of equity assets at the start of the year, witnessed a decline of about four percentage points in allocation.
Equity assets’ exposure to banking stocks dipped as low as 15.7 per cent in August against 21.15 per cent at the start of the year. While fund managers kept their fingers crossed on their investment calls on banks, they heavily and steadily kept buying information technology (IT) stocks.
At the start of 2013, allocation to the IT sector was a little below eight per cent of overall equity assets. This was close to 14 per cent in September. After that, it declined a bit to 13.2 per cent recently.
In other words, pain in banks turned out to be a gain for IT, as fund managers shifted investments. No other high -profile sectors, including pharmaceuticals, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and automobile, could see such a large diversion of investments. At a time when the benchmark Sensex has gained 8.25 per cent thus far in the current calendar year, the BSE’s IT Index galloped a whopping 58 per cent. Shares of Infosys, despite having high profile exits, are hitting all-time highs. Those of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have gained around 50 per cent since it hit its a 52-week low. More, fund managers feels there is still more upside in the IT sector and probability of re-rating of IT stocks may not be ruled out.
Central Bank of India launches new mobile banking app
The Central Bank of India, which is celebrating its 103rd Foundation day today, has launched a new Mobile Bankingapplication and EMV (Europay, Mastercard,Visa) compliant 'RuPay' debit card.
Finance Minister P Chidamabaram launched the scheme, along with 103 branches and 103 ATMs of the bank through video conferencing.
Rajeev Rishi, Chairman and Managing Director of the Bank, said the card would help traders to draw Rs 40,000 a day or Rs 1 lakh in case of International transactions.
The card would be accepted at all channels including- ATMs, PoS machines, e-commerce. Now EMV chip and pin cards with enabling global acceptability had been introduced, an official of the bank said.
The EMV compliant RuPay Debit Card is based on the Swadeshi Platform and is more secure with in-built security chip, he said.
The Mobile Application intended to promote greener and eco-friendly channels of banking while at the same time facilitating all types of customers to avail banking services on the go.
Rishi said the bank had always been a common man's lender and chose the occasion to focus on the rural and under privileged sector as well.
BUSINESS
A three-way joint venture between Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. (RINL) and MOIL (formerly known as Manganese Ore India Ltd.) to produce ferro alloys is on the cards with the earlier two separately proposed between SAIL-MOIL and MOIL-RINL having virtually been scrapped.
MOIL had inked two separate joint venture pacts with SAIL and RINL to set up two ferro alloy plants with a total outlay of Rs.600 crore.
“A couple of round discussions has already taken place between the three parties for jointly setting up the ferro alloy plant along with a captive power plant. Final decision will be taken in a couple of months’ time,” a source said.
Ferro alloys are used in steel-making for de-oxidising purposes.
The Rs.400-crore joint venture between SAIL and MOIL was proposed to be set up in Chhattisgarh with an annual capacity of one lakh tonne per annum. The Rs.200 crore venture between RINL-MOIL in Andhra Pradesh was supposed to manufacture 50,000 tonnes of ferro alloys a year.
While power shortage was the primary reason for scrapping the RINL-MOIL joint venture; till recently SAIL was maintaining that the proposed venture with MOIL was not yet scrapped.
Meanwhile, a committee has been set up comprising members from all the three state-run firms under the Steel Ministry to work on the shareholding pattern, proposed capacity and likely investment for the three-way venture, a top management in one of the three firms said.
Power Grid Corporation of India has received shareholder approval to increase the limit of holdings by foreign institutional investors to 30 per cent from 24 per cent currently.
FIIs can acquire and hold, on their own account and on behalf of each of their Sebi-approved sub-accounts, shares of the company up to an aggregate limit of 30 per cent of the paid up capital, the state-owned company said in a filing to the BSE on Friday.
Shareholders also approved a proposal to increase the company's borrowing limit to Rs 1,30,000 crore from the current cap of Rs 1,00,000 crore.
Both proposals were cleared through postal ballots. The plans had been approved by Power Grid's board of directors at a meeting on October 23.
Last month, Power Grid had said that increasing the limit would provide more headroom for FII investments in the company. FII holdings have been on the rise since the company's first follow-on public offer in 2010.
Power Grid had hit the capital market with an initial public offering in October 2007.
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Researchers have said that the completion of the 30-day Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration or LLCD mission has revealed that the possibility of expanding broadband capabilities in space using laser communications is as bright as expected.
Hosted aboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer known as LADEE, for its ride to lunar orbit, the LLCD was designed to confirm laser communication capabilities from a distance of almost a quarter-of-a-million miles.
In addition to demonstrating record-breaking data download and upload speeds to the moon at 622 megabits per second (Mbps) and 20 Mbps, respectively, LLCD also showed that it could operate as well as any NASA radio system.
Tata Communications has presented its outlook for 2014.
Sumeet Walia head of Global Enterprise Business for Tata Communications, said: "The year 2013 witnessed the growth of advanced technology solutions such as cloud computing, smart devices and collaboration tools within enterprises. In 2014, these trends will continue and the year could see an encouraging adoption of advanced technologies to meet the changing demands of enterprises.
"With mobility gaining prominence, we will see an increase in demand for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) in the coming year. Leveraging this growth in the UCaaS market, we recently launched jamvee, an easy-to-use, on-demand business video service for enterprises.
"Jamvee enables, for the first time, anyone, anywhere to access a video meeting via any device - be it desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, Telepresence or video conferencing rooms. Furthering the growth in the UCaaS market is another trend of open API-based tools, such as WebRTC.
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
HDFC Mutual Fund, the country’s largest asset management company, has acquired the schemes of Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund India.
The acquisition — HDFC Mutual’s first in over a decade — will add Rs 3,290 crore to its assets under management (AUM) of Rs 1.03 lakh crore. The MF sector has assets of about Rs 8 lakh crore.
HDFC did not disclose what it was paying. Sector officials guessed the deal could be two to three per cent of Morgan Stanley’s AUM. At three per cent, HDFC would have paid close to Rs 100 crore.
HDFC MF’s chief executive officer, Milind Barve, in a chat with Business Standard, declined to disclose the size of the acquisition but said it would bring in about 400,000 retail accounts. “We have got a good quality business. Around Rs 1,400 crore of assets is equity, which is extremely valuable. The equity schemes of Morgan Stanley were good performing funds,” he said.
Barve clarified the deal wasn’t to acquire an asset management company (AMC). Asked if HDFC would absorb the employees at Morgan Stanley, he said, “We will evaluate and take a call on it with an open mind.”
FINANCE
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) commissioned the Steel Melt Shop (SMS)-2 Continuous Caster Complex at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) here on Saturday. RINL chairman-cum-managing director A P Choudhary said that RINL will be producing the highest quality 350mm dia rounds for the first time in its history. With the commissioning of SMS-2 CCC, RINL will be manufacturing products ranging from 220 to 350 mm dia rounds in addition to the billets of various sizes from the new caster. Mentioning that the new caster had adopted one of the best technologies, Choudhary said that the automated SMS-2 continuous casting machines were built with two billet casters and one billet-cum-round caster along with associated facilities at a cost of Rs 800 crore.
ISRO to shift satellite launch boundary for oil exploration
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would be shifting the northern boundary of its satellite launch range at Sriharikota to allow a consortium of Cairn India, Tata and Oil & Natural Gas Corp to explore oil and gas in the Bay of Bengal.
The Department of Space (DoS) wrote to the petroleum ministry on Tuesday that ISRO would shift the boundary of the "prohibited zone" seven kilometers south to permit exploration drilling by operator Cairn which claims that a site in the zone has "best chance of establishing petroleum system".
The consortium has put in $31 million in exploring block PR-0SN-2004/1 in Palar basin and has stopped "effective exploration" in last two years as DoS refused to give drilling permission as the site was within 10-km radius of Satish Dhawan Space Centre — a strategic zone in terms of national security.
INDIA BUSINESS
India Kawasaki Motors (IKM) is eyeing a one-fifth share of the superbike pie in the country in two years, and plans to add new showrooms as well as new models to its portfolio, which stands at four after the launch of two new 1000 cc bikes on Monday.
The Japanese motorcycle maker says it will introduce another bike in this segment next month, and is studying the market for off-road bikes.
The new products introduced on Monday are the Ninja 1000 and the Z 1000. Both are being brought in from Japan as completely built units and have been priced at Rs 12.5 lakh (ex-showroom).
The large bikes will be retailed through the existing standalone showroom of Kawasaki in Pune and a second showroom in Delhi due to open later this month.
IKM’s initial target for sales is 100 units per model per year.
Currently, with its focus on Maharashtra and Delhi, the company plans to expand its business territory in a phased manner.
Leighton, the Australian unit of the world's fourth largest building company ACS, is buying out its Indian partner Welspun Group's 40% stake in the construction venture for about $100 million (Rs 620 crore). Leighton's move is part of its strategy to consolidate operations in Asia's third-largest economy, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
The deal also realigns Welspun's infrastructure interests, with particular focus on road assets and projects synergistic with the $4-billion group's businesses. In 2011, Welspun, the B K Goenka-controlled pipes-to-home textiles enterprise, had acquired a 40% stake in the construction venture for Rs 470 crore to capitalize on the country's infrastructure opportunities.
However, the foreign partner wants to secure complete control over the Indian unit. Sydney-based Leighton owns a 60% stake in Leighton Welspun Contractors (LWC), which is among India's top 10 construction firms. The company is valuing LWC at over 18 times its operating profit - a lucrative valuation amid an infrastructure slowdown, with Welspun making handsome gains from its two-year-old investment.
INSURANCE
Insurance policy document will become digital and paperless like shares in the new year and the policyholders would be saved from preserving the physical copies of their insurance policies.
From April onwards, policy document would come in electronic form for all the new insurance policy sold.
Over 25 crore policy holders owning close to 37 crore policies would get their e-insurance in phased manner, CAMS Repository Services Ltd CEO S V Ramanan said.
The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) is likely to announce the roadmap to make it mandatory, by which insurance companies would have to compulsorily issue policies to their customers only in electronic form, he said.
According to an estimates, the current cost to insurer to service policies is over Rs 600 per annum per policy. However, with insurance repository, the initial incidental cost would come down to less than Rs 100 per annum per policy, he said, adding, the initiative shall benefit both policy holders and insurance companies from convenience and cost front.
Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance plans to launch individual and group insurance plans under the new product guidelines.
The company plans to launch two individual life insurance plans, Save Assure and Invest Assure with a guarantee element and one whole life plan Life Long Assure, Bajaj Allianz Life said in a release issued here today.
"We are launching three new insurance plans, which will cover the needs of individuals at their different life stages," Anuj Agarwal, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Managing Director & CEO, said.
"We have plans with a guarantee element, with a feature of premium payment for limited period and extended cover for few more years. We will be launching a suite of online and channel specific insurance plans by end of Jan 2014," he said.
The plans also offer flexibility to choose the policy and payment term and come with an option to take policy benefit in monthly installments.
MARKETING
It seems BlackBerry’s big bet on the BB10 platform has not transformed into the success that the company was hoping for. In its recent Q3 FY14 earnings report, the company admitted that sales of BB10 devices continued to decline through Q2 and Q3 FY14. An effect of this was a build-up of inventory, which has led to a primarily non-cash, pre-tax charge against inventory and supply commitments of approximately $1.6 billion in the third quarter of FY2014, said the company, attributing this charge primarily to its BlackBerry 10 devices. The company also cancelled the launch of two new devices and said that it will “reassess and revise” its future demand assumptions for finished products, semi-finished goods and raw materials. The BB10 stable currently consists of four smartphones – Z10, Q10, Q5 and Z30. exchange4media had earlier written about how the company was offering various schemes and offers to entice customers (BlackBerry sets festive offers as market share falls ) and it seems that this strategy is set to continue through 2014. Currently, the Z10, Q10, Q5 and Z30 retail at Rs 25,000, Rs 36,000, Rs 23,000 and Rs 40,000, respectively, in online stores (all prices are approximate). The Z10, in fact, has seen its price slashed by around 40 per cent since the time of its launch. Prices of other models have also been reduced heavily in recent months.
ODISHA BUSINESS
With reference to the MoU signed with Ministry of Mines, Government of India, Navratna PSU National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) has got ‘Excellent’ MoU score of 1.5 by the Department of Public Enterprises for its outstanding performance in 2012-13. NALCO had last achieved the ‘Excellent’ MoU score in FY 2006-07. Besides, during the FY 2012-13, NALCO has also been rated as ‘Excellent’ with a score of 97.5 for compliance with guidelines on Corporate Governance for CPSEs. During the financial year 2012-13 NALCO has reported a highest ever net sales of Rs.7247 crore against a target of Rs.7073 crore. This represents an increase of 2.46% against the MoU target. The company reported a net profit of Rs. 593 crore with metal sale of 4, 03,102 tonnes and alumina sale of 9, 84,722 tonnes in the financial year 2012-13. NALCO also produced highest-ever bauxite of 54.19 lakh tonnes and highest-ever alumina of 18.02 lakh tonnes in 2012-13.
The Odisha government today entered into an agreement with technical consultant WAPCOS to carry out a feasibility study to set up the state's first riverine port in the Mahanadi near Paradip.
The port to be developed in public private partnership (PPP) at an estimated to cost of Rs 500 crore would be a common one for different industries.
"If found technically feasible and financially viable, the project will be awarded to the successful bidder selected through a competitive bidding process," an official of the commerce and transport department said.
Both private players and major port trusts could participate in the bidding process, he said.
After completion of the feasibility study the report would be submitted by March 15, 2014.
The total cost of the undertaking the work would be about Rs 1.40 crore, he said.
Meanwhile, the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) has shown interest in setting up a satellite port and identified Bahuda Muhan near Gopalpur as a suitable location.
PPT was likely to develop the satellite port through joint venture with the state government.
RETAIL
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail is converting some of its big hypermarkets into wholesale cash-and-carry stores, in an apparent sign of modern retail's inability to effectively take on neighbourhood stores in India.
The Reliance Mart hypermarket in Bhopal's Aashima Mall is currently under renovation and getting refitted to be reopened in February in a new avatar, as a cash-and-carry store.
This 44,000-sq-ft hypermarket is among Reliance's big-box stores, including one in Ludhiana and another in Aurangabad, that are being converted into cash-and-carry formats. The company has realised that in some locations, low-frills wholesale stores have better prospects of making money sooner than consumer-centric hypermarkets, which have wide margins but also are more expensive to operate, two people with knowledge of the development said on condition of anonymity.
So, in order to convert the adversaries — the mom-and-pop stores in this case — into allies, Reliance is adopting a simple strategy: It is courting them.
______________________________________________________________________
Source of
Information for this issue : Google
alert accessed on 30th Dec
2013 and 3rd Jan 2014, Indian Express accessed on 14th
Dec 2013 and Telegraph accessed on 28th Dec 2013.
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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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