ASBM Business Updates is a Weekly Selective Compilation of Business News from Various Sources. To find details follow the link.
BANKING
" Over a decade after the state-run banks launched Kisan Credit Cards, private sector lender Axis Bank today introduced its own card which is aimed at helping farmers access liquidity round-the-clock.
The bank, the third largest from the private sector space in the country, launched the "Kisan Card" through which a farmer can withdraw up to Rs 1 lakh per day from automated teller machines ( ATMs), it said in a statement. The card will be offered to agrarian customers on their cash credit crop loan accounts and will also help them reduce the interest burden as the interest payments start after drawal of the money, it said.
The bank's executive director and head of retail banking, R K Bammi, said at present 90-95 per cent of such customers come to the bank branch for transactions and the bank expects 30-40 per cent farmers to migrate to this alternate channel.
It can be noted that the Kisan Credit Cards scheme was introduced in August 1998 and since then, a host of banks, a majority of them in the state-run space, have launched such cards.
In the statement, Axis Bank claimed it is "first new generation private sector bank to launch an electronicKisan Card on the RuPay platform."
INSURANCE
Financial services provider ZENMoney has launched insurance broking services in the life and non-life segments.
“We have received a broking licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority and almost completed tie-ups with life, non-life and health insurance companies,’’ Pratap Kantheti, Managing Director of Hyderabad-based ZENMoney told newspersons here on Thursday.
On the rationale behind entering into insurance, Satish Kantheti, Joint Managing Director of the 27-year-old company, said it was a ‘logical step’ to offer its clientele the entire suite of financial solutions.
The company plans to focus on term insurance and health insurance policies where there was potential for expansion. “We have 150 branches and 70,000 customers in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and Bangalore,’’ he added.
The present share of broking in life and non-life insurance was at 5 per cent and 15 per cent respectively and there was considerable scope for expansion, Satish said.
Cigna TTK Health Insurance today launched a health insurance product “ProHealth” with an add-on Critical Illness option.
CIGNA TTK is a joint venture between US-based global health service leader, Cigna Corporation, and Indian conglomerate TTK Group.
ProHealth offers immediate benefit to the policy holder through Cigna TTK Health Maintenance Benefits that will cover the cost of diagnostic tests, drugs and doctor’s fees prescribed by the physician for minor ailments. In addition, Cigna TTK facilitates a Healthy Reward Programme that allows its customers to earn reward points on the premium paid and accrue additional points by opting for Cigna TTK’s ProLife - an online wellness programme.
One of the significant features of this product is that it offers worldwide emergency health cover to the policy holder. Through this facility, a customer is covered for health emergencies anywhere across the world.
Sandeep Patel, CEO and Managing Director, CignaTTK Health Insurance said, “We strongly believe that different consumers have different requirements, hence we have developed ProHealth to be flexible to consumers' unique needs. The product has four variants and multiple customisation options to cater to all consumer segments.”
The plan has a Smart Restoration feature that has been designed in a way that restores the entire sum insured in case the balance is insufficient for the subsequent claims, within the same year.
ProHealth will enable customers to avail of insurance sums ranging from ₹2.5 lakh to ₹100 lakh. ProHealth aims to address multiple customer requirements through 4 plan options - ProHealth Protect, ProHealth Plus, ProHealth Preferred and ProHealth Premier. The plan also allows ProHealth Protect, Plus and Preferred customers to opt for an add-on Critical Illness cover.
LOGISTICS
The mobile internet has changed our lives, from chatting, shopping and hailing a taxi through a mobile phone, to using a mobile device to access banking services. This trend has also impacted the traditional retailing, financial and transport industries and even the logistics sector to various degrees, reports the Chinese-language National Business Daily.
With the creation of mobile app solutions for logistics, a new type of express delivery model has appeared in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan province. By downloading such an app, every mobile phone user can become a tentative express delivery person and be paid 10 to 30 yuan (US$1.6-$8) for such services.
Industry experts are of the view that "everyone participating in express delivery" is a brand new business model that can pool resources from various aspects of society. However, since the threshold for entering the industry is low, regulations will be needed for its positive development.
The model in fact is based on using the mobile internet and peer-to-peer (P2P) concepts in the logistics industry, the report said.
This would allow mobile phone users to check information about mails and parcels to be delivered through the app before arranging their schedule and itinerary for the delivery of such items. A person could deliver these parcels en route to or from their workplace, according to the report.
The intense debate over which city is best suited to be capital of Andhra Pradesh should invariably draw one’s attention to Vijayawada’s potential to be developed into a ‘logistics hub’ in the event of some other place being chosen to be the new capital.
The well-established network of roads, railways and airport at Gannavaram are considered distinct advantages for Vijayawada to be developed on a par with other major Indian cities. Besides this, the Machilipatnam port is just about 60 km away and development of National Waterway-4 connecting Kakinada and Puducherry in which the Vijayawada stretches of river Krishna and Buckingham canal form a crucial link, gives the city greater importance.
It is a know fact that National Highways 16 (Chennai-Kolkata), 65 (Pune-Machilipatnam) pass through the city and NH-214 that links Pamarru to Katthipudi in East Godavari district is just 40 km away. The city has been a major junction for lorry operations for several decades with thousands of vehicles carrying goods through the length and breadth of the country everyday.
Coming to railways, Vijayawada station is the largest junction in South India with over 300 express, passenger and freight trains passing through it every day. It has a very bright chance of being made headquarters of the proposed South Coastal Railway Zone located as it is on Chennai-Howrah and Chennai-Delhi lines. The expansion of Gannavaram airport at an estimated cost of Rs. 200 crore is bound to give a fillip to growth of not only the city but the entire south coastal A.P.
MANAGEMENT
Gemalto, the digital security vendor, has introduced the Coesys Border and Visa Managementsolution to meet the combined needs of securing borders and simplifying travel procedures. The end-to-end solution integrates service platforms, secure software and on-site services to significantly reduce waiting times through the use of automated document verification and border control at land, sea and airport check points. Gemalto's visa and border management technology enables government authorities to implement an electronically connected system for easy deployment of immigration policies. This new, entirely computerized system enhances security and provides a more efficient set of tools to monitor border entries and exits. It also delivers higher rates of detection and prevention through official international databases to check if the travel document has been lost or stolen. Coesys Border and Visa Management can easily incorporate automated e-gates at border immigration check points. These highly secure, two-stage traveler verification systems first verify that the e-passport is authentic and then performs facial or fingerprint recognition to match the holder to the electronic data securely stored on the e-passport.
MARKETING
Only a few years ago, Google was a cool search engine looking for a revenue model. In 2002, four years after launching 'search', the company launched a pay per click(PPC) model on its Adwords platform where marketers paid for clicks instead of impressions. PPC has since been a cornerstone of Google's success and currently contributes significantly to its $50 billion annual revenues that is more than the combined revenues of Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, Wipro and HCL.
Marketers adopted PPC widely because they paid only for clicks and could sharply target audience and had better control over budget. PPC is now a norm on Bing, Yahoo and Google that account for more than 90 per cent of the global search traffic (except China). As consumers we are all familiar with text ads placed alongside search results. (WHO GETS THE CREDIT). We are now spending more of our lives surrounded by digital media with smartphones, tablets, and PCs that are always connected to the internet. Marketers have kept pace with their audience and are spending more than 20 per cent of their ad budget on digital marketing. While the total market for advertising is growing at 3 per cent per year, digital advertising is growing by more than 10 per cent and mobile advertising by more than 50 per cent every year.
RETAIL
Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Retail has raced ahead of competition to become the largest player in India’s organised retail segment this year. The company is set to overtake India’s oldest and leading market leader Future Retail. Reliance Retail reported a turnover of Rs 10,857 crores for the nine months ended December 31, 2013, while Future group Chairman Kishore Biyani had said in January that his group expects to clock revenues of about Rs 11,000 crores for the full year, but Reliance has already achieved that figure in the first nine months of the year itself. Experts feel that the company would be easily able to move ahead of the competition by March 31, 2014.
Parent company Reliance Industries, with strong financial backup of Rs 90,000 crores, plans to carry out aggressive expansion plans for the retail business. The company is looking to achieve a turnover target of Rs 50,000 crores from this segment by 2016-17. “Reliance Retail will be one of our important growth engines in the next few years and will have amongst the highest growth rates and earnings potential,” Ambani had said at the company’s last AGM in June last year.
Reliance entered the retail segment in 2006-07 but the venture was not immediately a success. In fact, it had to bear losses for the first five years, which finally turned around in 2012-13 when it posted a profit of Rs 78 crores. This year, it has earned a profit of Rs 278 crores in the first nine months of 2013-14.
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Source of Information for this issue : Google alert accessed on 31st Mar and 4th Apr 2014
We welcome your suggestions in improving this information updating service.
Knowledge Is Power. Be Informed, Be Knowledgeable, Be Powerful.
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
Source of Information for this issue : Google alert accessed on 31st Mar and 4th Apr 2014
We welcome your suggestions in improving this information updating service.
Knowledge Is Power. Be Informed, Be Knowledgeable, Be Powerful.
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
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