ASBM Business Updates is a Weekly Selective Compilation of Business News from Various Sources. To find details follow the link.
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
ASIAN SCHOOL OF
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
The three-day 4th International
Management Convention-IMC'2014, organized by Asian School of Business
Management (ASBM), kicked off here today. Intellectuals from across the globe
including countries like USA, Nepal, and France have come together to attend
the 4th International Management Convention-IMC'2014-'The Business of Being in
Business: New Prospective' at ASBM.
BANKING
UTI Mutual Fund has launched a new fund named as UTI
Banking & PSU Debt Fund, an open ended income scheme. The investment
objective of the scheme is to generate steady and reasonable income with low
risk and high level of liquidity from a portfolio of predominantly debt &
money market securities by Banks and Public Sector Undertakings (PSU). The New
Fund Offer (NFO) is open for subscription from January 27, and will close on
January 30, 2014. The scheme will re-open for continuous purchase and
redemption from 6 February 2014 onwards. The New Fund Offer price for the
scheme is Rs 10 per unit. The scheme offers regular and direct plan. Both plans
offer growth option and dividend option with dividend payout and dividend
reinvestment facility. The minimum application amount is Rs 5000 and in
multiples of Rs 1 thereafter. Entry load charge will be nil for the scheme.
Exit Load: 0.25% if exit less than or equal to 30 days from the date of
allotment, and Nil if exit greater than 30 days.
Last week, when Sughosh Moharikar, managing director
and head of mergers and acquisitions at Deutsche India Equities moved to boutique
firm Mape Advisory, he joined a long trail of i-bankers who have recently moved
from larger and global investment banks to smaller mid-market or boutique
outfits. A few are even setting up entrepreneurial ventures. Ashok Mittal, who
moved from Rabo to KPMG, Pankaj Kalra and Prahlad Rao, both of whom left Credit
Suisse to join Kotak and Venkat Narayan, who hopped from Lazard to Aavishkaar
are among the dozen or so heavyweight i-bankers who have moved from larger
firms to smaller outfits in the past year.
More autonomy at smaller firms, the lure of a wider
client universe of medium-sized companies and newer challenges are only one
part of the reason for the flow of talent from big i-banks to small.
The second reason: global i-banks are shrinking
their teams in India in line with a decline in deal flows in 2013. Domestic
M&A volumes plunged 49% to $16.3 billion, while India-targeted volume fell
22% to $32.1 billion.
BUSINESS
The Tata Group is
set to ink an agreement with the government to sell 1,200 trucks to the defence forces
in a deal valued at close to Rs 1,000 crore. In addition, it has emerged as the
lowest bidder for a contract for mini-unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) from the
Indian Army's Northern Command, although the terms of the deal are yet to be
finalized.
The twin deals come at a time when the group is looking to ramp up its presence in the defence segment through several of its group companies and has managed to generate an order book of close to Rs 8,000 crore. The salt to software conglomerate saw revenues of close to Rs 1,700 crore during the last financial year and is expecting a growth of around 40% during the current financial year, Mukund Rajan, member - group executive council and brand custodian, Tata Sons told reporters.
While Tata Motors is expected to sign the deal for the 6x6 trucks after Tatra was blacklisted over its alleged involvement in the irregularities, Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) is the top contender for the mini-UAV contract. TASL vice-president Sukaran Singh said that the company has been approached by several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) work related to aircraft components.
The twin deals come at a time when the group is looking to ramp up its presence in the defence segment through several of its group companies and has managed to generate an order book of close to Rs 8,000 crore. The salt to software conglomerate saw revenues of close to Rs 1,700 crore during the last financial year and is expecting a growth of around 40% during the current financial year, Mukund Rajan, member - group executive council and brand custodian, Tata Sons told reporters.
While Tata Motors is expected to sign the deal for the 6x6 trucks after Tatra was blacklisted over its alleged involvement in the irregularities, Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) is the top contender for the mini-UAV contract. TASL vice-president Sukaran Singh said that the company has been approached by several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) work related to aircraft components.
After supermarket giant Walmart, it is online retail
major Amazon which has begun lobbying with the US lawmakers to seek their
support for facilitating its "foreign direct investment in India".
According to lobby disclosure reports filed with the US Senate, Amazon.com and its group entities including Amazon Corporate LLC have been lobbying on various issues since at least year 2000.
However, it was only in the last quarter, which ended on December 31, 2013, when its lobbying issues included "foreign direct investment in India", shows the latest disclosure report dated January 22, 2014.
During this quarter, Amazon spent a total amount of $960,000 (over Rs. 6 crore) on numerous lobbying issues, which included "issues related to free trade agreements", "Transaltantic Trade and Investment Partnership", as also matters relating to various Acts and proposals in the US.
Among others, Amazon lobbied with the US Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce, the Department of State and the US House of Representatives on these issues.
During entire 2013, Amazon spent a total amount of $3.45 million on lobbying, while such expenses have been mostly rising since the year 2000 when it began lobbying, shows the disclosure reports filed with the Senate.
According to lobby disclosure reports filed with the US Senate, Amazon.com and its group entities including Amazon Corporate LLC have been lobbying on various issues since at least year 2000.
However, it was only in the last quarter, which ended on December 31, 2013, when its lobbying issues included "foreign direct investment in India", shows the latest disclosure report dated January 22, 2014.
During this quarter, Amazon spent a total amount of $960,000 (over Rs. 6 crore) on numerous lobbying issues, which included "issues related to free trade agreements", "Transaltantic Trade and Investment Partnership", as also matters relating to various Acts and proposals in the US.
Among others, Amazon lobbied with the US Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce, the Department of State and the US House of Representatives on these issues.
During entire 2013, Amazon spent a total amount of $3.45 million on lobbying, while such expenses have been mostly rising since the year 2000 when it began lobbying, shows the disclosure reports filed with the Senate.
BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
With smartphone penetration increasing, analysts believe that
machine-to-machine communiaction in the consumer space will soon be reality.
India will be test market of several such applications that will allow M2M communication in future, said a Deloitte study.
Deloitte predicts that a sizeable number among the approximately 350 million Internet-enabled but unconnected devices in India would be connected to the web. With technology providers coming up with more applications that would facilitate smart connectivity among devices and standardization of communications protocols, there is a strong case for the development of a large set of interconnected machine clusters that would be marketed as integrated electronic lifestyle solutions.
Deloitte predicts that a sizeable number among the approximately 350 million Internet-enabled but unconnected devices in India would be connected to the web. With technology providers coming up with more applications that would facilitate smart connectivity among devices and standardization of communications protocols, there is a strong case for the development of a large set of interconnected machine clusters that would be marketed as integrated electronic lifestyle solutions.
INDIA BUSINESS
India is set to become the first country since World War
Two to buy a military aircraft from Japan, helping Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dismantle a ban on
weapons exports that has kept his country's defence contractors out
of foreign markets.
The two countries are in broad agreement on a deal
for the ShinMaywa Industries <7224.T> amphibious aircraft, which could
amount to as much as $1.65 billion, Indian officials said on Tuesday.
However, several details need to be worked out and
negotiations will resume in March on joint production of the plane in India and
other issues.
New Delhi is likely to buy at least 15 of the planes, which
are priced at about $110 million each, the officials said.
"Its a strategic imperative for both sides, and
it has been cleared at the highest levels of the two governments," said an
Indian military source.
For the moment, a stripped-down civilian version of
the US-2i plane is being offered to India, to get around Japan's self-imposed
ban on arms exports. A friend or foe identification system will be removed from
the aircraft, another defence official said.
The two countries are discussing assembling the
aircraft in India, giving India access to Japanese military technology, Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said.
Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola could be bad news
for Indian mobile phone brands currently dominating the Android market.
The deal comes at a time when Indian phone makers,
including Lava and Karbonn, are trying to transition from the cheap low-end
feature phone segment to the mid-end smartphone space with slew of devices in
the ₹10,000-15,000 price.
This is a segment where Motorola has been strong
player. For example, it is launching its latest devices Moto G in the next
couple of weeks priced at around ₹15,100. But over the past 3-4 years, Motorola
had lost steam in the Indian market as its fortunes slipped globally. Now with
Lenovo’s backing, brand Motorola could make a comeback into the Rs. 7,000 crore domestic phone market.
INSURANCE
Reliance Life Insurance, part of Reliance Capital,
today launched Super Money Back Plan, a traditional non-participating plan that
offers periodic guaranteed money back pay-outs and a monthly income along with
life cover.
"Super Money Back Plan is aimed to provide a
guaranteed regular income and security for the family. Even as the guaranteed
periodic lump sums ensure financial support at crucial junctures of life, the
increasing guaranteed monthly income provides an additional support to take care
of increasing expenses," Reliance
Life Insurance Chief Executive Officer Anup Rau said
in a release issued here. It offers guaranteed money back benefits every five
years throughout the policy period along with an increasing monthly income that
starts after the premium payment term.
The guaranteed money back payouts start from the
fifth year and are paid every five years for the policy term. At the end of the
premium payment term of 25 years, the policy holder enjoys a guaranteed
increasing regular monthly income till the end of the policy term.
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS
Twitter Inc has
bought 900 patents
and signed a cross-licensing agreement with IBM, making peace with Big Blue and
bulking up on its intellectual property portfolio as it takes on larger rivals Google and
Facebook.
The agreement announced on Friday comes after International
Business Machines Corp accused Twitter in November - on the eve of its
high-profile initial
public offering - of infringing three of its patents. At the time, it
underscored how few patents the six-year-old social media company possessed in
relation to more established rivals. A cross-licensing agreement will help
safeguard Twitter against similar claims in the future.
IBM is one of the
industry's largest research spenders and stockpilers of intellectual property,
a consistent leader in US patent filings and the owner of some 41,000 patents.
Twitter is following on the heels of Facebook, which
itself faced similar claims before its own 2012 IPO. The world's
largest social network has since gone on a patent-buying spree, acquiring
intellectual property from tech bellwethers, including Microsoft Corp and IBM.
"This acquisition of patents from IBM and
licensing agreement provide us with greater intellectual property protection
and give us freedom of action to innovate on behalf of all those who use our
service," Ben Lee, Twitter's legal director, said in a joint statement
with IBM on Friday.
ODISHA BUSINESS
With a target to double trade with India to 23
billion pounds by 2015, Britain today said
there is tremendous potential for expanding business in Odisha in areas like
infrastructure, mining and advanced engineering.
"The two countries are on course to meet the
target set in 2010 by the Indian and UK Prime Ministers of doubling trade by
2015 to 23 billion pound," said British Deputy High Commissioner to
Eastern India, Scott
Furssedonn-Wood while addressing a seminar on "UK and Odisha in
Partnership" . British
High Commissioner to India, Sir James Bevan,
is also here coinciding with the major business event in a bid to strengthen
bilateral co-operation.
"Odisha is a state where things are happening.
It's a state where good governance is delivering real results, and where the
huge potential of its natural and human resources is - more and more - being
realised. I see here examples of world class excellence, in medicine, research,
business, education, creative arts," Bevan said in a statement during his
visit.
While there is active engagement between Odisha and
UK, the focus areas identified for the seminar included infrastructure,
education and skills, advanced engineering, environment, water, and mining.
The Odisha government has entered into fresh memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with five independent power producers (IPPs) to extend the validity of their
lapsed pacts.
New MoUs were signed after the law department opined that lapsed MoUs cannot be renewed retrospectively. The IPPs who signed fresh agreements with the government are Ind-Barath Energy (Utkal) Ltd, NSL Nagapatnam & Infratech Pvt Ltd, Maa Durga Thermal Power Company Ltd, Visaka Thermal Power Ltd and Monnet Power Company Ltd. Their MoUs have been extended keeping in view the strides made in implementation of their coal-fired power plants. The new MoUs are valid for a period of two years from the date of agreement. There have been no major changes in the new MoUs except that the state government will no longer recommend coal blocks in favour of the companies. Also, the free power clause has been done away with. As earlier, the IPPs will contribute 12-14 per cent of power to the state grid at variable cost,” said a senior official of one of the power companies. According to the fresh MoUs, the IPPs cannot dilute their stake holding to below 51 per cent for at least three years from the date of commencement of their operations. Also, any stake sale beyond this lock-in period will need prior permission of the state government.
New MoUs were signed after the law department opined that lapsed MoUs cannot be renewed retrospectively. The IPPs who signed fresh agreements with the government are Ind-Barath Energy (Utkal) Ltd, NSL Nagapatnam & Infratech Pvt Ltd, Maa Durga Thermal Power Company Ltd, Visaka Thermal Power Ltd and Monnet Power Company Ltd. Their MoUs have been extended keeping in view the strides made in implementation of their coal-fired power plants. The new MoUs are valid for a period of two years from the date of agreement. There have been no major changes in the new MoUs except that the state government will no longer recommend coal blocks in favour of the companies. Also, the free power clause has been done away with. As earlier, the IPPs will contribute 12-14 per cent of power to the state grid at variable cost,” said a senior official of one of the power companies. According to the fresh MoUs, the IPPs cannot dilute their stake holding to below 51 per cent for at least three years from the date of commencement of their operations. Also, any stake sale beyond this lock-in period will need prior permission of the state government.
RETAIL
Online retail marketplace Snapdeal is
shifting to a multi-lingual platform. Customers can now access the site in
Hindi or Tamil, apart from English.
In the next three months the site will introduce
Kannada, Telegu, Bengali and Marathi options as well.
"Our aim is to make our customers' transaction
experience as comfortable as possible," said Ankit Khanna, vice president
of product
management at Snapdeal. "We are doing this in multiple ways." For
now, it is Snapdeal's desktop site that will have this additional option. But
within four months, Khanna said, the mobile site and apps will also be
available in regional languages.
This is not the first time that an online retailer
has gone regional. Web-only brand Yepme had attempted to do this in 2012 when
it introduced Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil options. However, low
customer interest resulted in the company abandoning the move in a few months.
Yepme is now planning to relaunch vernacular language desktop and mobile sites
and apps.
Snapdeal's Khanna believes that the site's large
user base, most of who reside in the non-metros, will take to the local
language version.
"We are targeting 'middle India'—customers who
are price and value conscious, many of whom reside in non-metros and prefer to
access online content in their local language," said Khanna. About 50% of
all sales on Snapdeal is from smaller cities and towns.
Major U.S. retailers, including Wal-Mart and Kroger,
already have checkout systems that work with the smart cards that are widely
used internationally.
It’s harder for hackers to extract personal
information and account numbers that are stored in a computer chip.
But U.S. consumers don’t have the cards yet, making
the hardware unusable against the criminal world for now.
Retailers aren’t waiting for a credit card industry
deadline to upgrade their checkout hardware. The credit card industry has asked
stores to comply with EMV — for Europay, MasterCard and Visa — chip card
reading hardware by October 2015.
The incentive to upgrade is high. After the
deadline, MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express have said they are
shifting liability for fraudulent charges onto retailers and banks if they
haven’t complied.
Wal-Mart spokesman Randy Hargrove said the company’s
checkout terminals are already capable of accepting EMV cards. The world’s
largest retailer says the technology is more effective in safeguarding
payments.
“So if card technologies are upgraded to EMV chip
cards, our systems will be able to process transactions,” Hargrove said.
_________________________________________________________________
Source of Information for this issue : Google alert accessed on 3rd Feb 2014
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Best wishes
Compilation
Sabita Sahu
Junior Librarian
Concept, Layout and Editing
Syamaghana Mohanty
Chief Librarian
Information and Documentation Division, Chanakya Central Library
Asian School of Business Management
Shiksha Vihar Bhola,
Barang Khurda Road, Chandaka
Bhubaneswar-754012
www.asbm.ac.in
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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