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ASIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Two-day National Youth Festival–Markfest and Ignite- 2014 concluded here today at Asian School of Business Management (ASBM) with the closing-cum-prize distribution ceremony.
Kicked off on Friday, the event was inaugurated by Chief Whip, Government of Odisha, Shri Pravat Kumar Tripathy and Member Parliament Prof. (Dr.) Prasanna Kumar Patasani.
Inaugurating the event, Chief Whip, Government of Odisha Shri Pravat Kumar Tripathy said, " The future of any country depends on its educational development. For country like India with a sizable youth population, we should focus on development of higher education."
Lauding the efforts of ASBM he further added, " ASBM is one of the best management institutions of the country and it should be declared as a university. This two-day event Markfest & Ignite will surely ignite the minds of young talents to accept the challenges ahead in their life."
Addressing the budding management professional Member Parliament Prof.(Dr.) Prasanna Kumar Patasani said, "ASBM since its inception has been nurturing and grooming the young minds."
Gracing the occasion, at the valedictory ceremony, Shri Tathagata Satpathy, Member of Parliament said, "I am very happy that management institute like ASBM exists in Odisha. Educational institute should encourage the students to hone their skills and showcase their talents through such types of cultural fests."
"ASBM has a prestigious accreditation that is SAQS. This rare distinction was given for its outstanding contribution to the management education. We have rich art and culture. Which should be taken to the nook and corner of the society. Extracurricular activities should also be accorded priority along with the academic activities," Shri B.P. Rayaguru, Sr. Project Manager, OUIDF.
Financial literacy should spread among all the stakeholders to restrict the intervention of unregulated players in the financial market as their activities are adversely affecting large number of consumers, said Shri BK Bhoi, Banking Ombudsman here today.
He was speaking at the one-day National Financial Conclave 2014 on "Financial regulation in a changing world", organized by Asian School of Business Management (ASBM) here today.
"Regulation means control and supervision. Financial regulation brings a change in the economic scenario of the country," he added.
While addressing the budding management professionals, Shri Shantanu Mukherjee, Chief General Manager (Commercial Banking), State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur said, "There is nothing called as a perfect regulation. Regulations are made to regulate any type of crisis in financial market. In a country like India, over regulation harms innovation and stability in financial market."
"There should be proper institution to design and regulate the regulations. Regulation should be confined to the capital adequacy only," said Shri CC Mitra, Former Director, IIBM Guwahati and RD, RBI.
Stressing the need of financial regulation in commodity market, Prof. (Dr)Prabina Rajib, Professor, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT-Kharagpur said, " Commodity market is not regulated which leads to major scams. If regulation is not there, the situation will be worst and will lead to various scams."
BANKING
“If you are a customer, press one; if not, press two…” Over the years, customers interacting with the call centres of banks have got used to these recorded messages. Sometimes, however, the difficulty in obtaining information or getting through to a human being can be frustrating. Some people even find ATM transactions vexing and confusing if they are applying for a loan or a high-end service.
But that may change soon — the mechanical electronic voice on the phone will be replaced by a human face on interactive TVs, which will guide customers and help resolve their issues.
Andhra Bank is preparing to introduce interactive televisions in the e-lounges of its branches in about two months to make transactions simpler and easier.
Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda are also working on similar plans to enhance customer comfort, according to sources.
“We are lining up seven types of transactions for these interactive televisions,” said C. V. R. Rajendran, Chairman and Managing Director, Andhra Bank, on the sidelines of an insurance summit here on Wednesday.
These will be connected live to a central studio, where bank personnel will be available round-the-clock to interact with customers.
The RBI-appointed committee on financial inclusion has recommended that the central bank should set up specialised banks called Payments Bank to provide payment services and deposit products to small businesses and low-income households.
The committee, headed by Nachiket Mor, said that since the new bank will be dealing with poor customers, such a bank must be allowed to accept a maximum deposit of not more than Rs 50,000.
Such a bank will earn from the payment services it offers, such as money transfers and online payments, as well as by deploying the deposits in secure government securities (G-secs).
In order to protect the money of the poor customer, such a bank will not be allowed to lend in the market.
“(The bank) will not be permitted to assume any kind of credit risks,” the report said.
The bank will have to set aside a slice (the same as any other bank) of its total deposit with the RBI in the form of cash reserve ratio.
Also, the bank will be required to deposit the balance money in approved G-Secs within a period of three months, the report said.
The report pointed out that since such a bank will have a near-zero risk of default, it must be allowed to be set up with a minimum capital of Rs 50 crore against the regular norm of Rs 500 crore.
The report also said that existing banks should be permitted to create a Payments Bank as a subsidiary.
BUSINESS
Infosys's sales force is being reoriented into what it calls a pyramid structure to scale up certain accounts to help clients solve their business problems, rather than just sell IT services.
India's second largest IT company is reinvigorating its sales force following a string of exits last year raising concerns about its sales effectiveness in client markets. "Our sales force is fully on site and they are compensated as per the market compensation. We are investing into sales. We added sales force last year. Right now, we are looking at adding another set of people into the sales force. We want to have a pyramid structure for our sales force and that means that we will add a lot more people at the lower level, at the lower grade, than at the upper end," said company CEO SD Shibulal in an investor call, the transcript of which is available on Seekingalpha.com.
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
MINDBODY, the largest global provider of web and mobile business management solutions for the wellness and beauty industry, has released its mobile app, MINDBODY Express, to its Australian client base, encouraging the region’s business owners to manage on-the-go.
MINDBODY Express serves as an extension of the company’s core business management software, which is used by over 500,000 practitioners spanning 90 countries. The mobile app enables on-the-go management, increasing the personal nature of business by taking the front desk out of client interactions completely. Class and appointment check-in, client sign-up, point of sale, mobile credit card payments, digital signatures, and client photos can all be completed on a Smartphone, anywhere and anytime, improving the quality of staff-to-client interactions and providing Australian business owners the flexibility to manage from any location.
“We’re thrilled to continue providing mobile management to our clients around the world,” said Rick Stollmeyer, MINDBODY’s cofounder and CEO. “MINDBODY Express is designed to provide the flexibility and efficiency that every business owner dreams about.”
Mobile usage is predicted to overtake internet usage by 2014, according to American venture capitalist Mary Meeker in her 2012 Internet Trends Report. MINDBODY is readying its client base around the world to capitalize on the mCommerce revolution from all angles, both internally and externally.
INDIA BUSINESS
In its first acquisition in India, social media giant Facebook has bought Little Eye Labs, a Bangalore-based software productstart-up, for an undisclosed amount. The spokesperson for the US-based company confirmed this on Wednesday but did not divulge details.
According to industry sources, the deal could be between $10 million and $15 million (Rs 62 crore and Rs 93 crore). Business Standard had last month reported the companies were in talks for a likely buyout.
Incorporated in May 2012, Little Eye Labs builds performance analysis and monitoring tools that identify and rectify performance problems for Android app developers. In a blog posted on the company’s website, Little Eye Labs co-founder Kumar Rangarajan said: “Today, we’re very excited to announce that Facebook is acquiring our company. With this acquisition, Little Eye Labs will join forces with Facebook to take its mobile development to the next level!”
Little Eye Labs had last year received investment between $100,000 and $200,000 from GSF Accelerator, an early-stage start-up incubator.
Industry experts say the acquisition shows Facebook’s seriousness about its mobile strategy — an increased number of users now access Facebook through mobile devices, but the social media platform still lags like microblooging website Twitter.
“At Facebook, we remain focused on producing useful and engaging mobile apps. The Little Eye Labs technology will help us improve our Android code base to make more efficient, higher-performing apps,” said Subbu Subramanian, Facebook’s engineering manager.
Micromax has been thinking of expanding operations in more countries for a while but January 2014 is going to be the month when this finally happens. At Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma told TOI that his company would start selling phones and tablets in Russia from January 24.
"Yes, we have global ambitions and I can promise you that we are going to take Russia by storm. We are going to show that an Indian company can also succeed on the global scale," said Sharma.
This is first time Micromax, or for that matter a big Indian phone company, is showing its products at CES, considered to be the biggest consumer electronics show on earth. Micromax is introducing a new tablet for the first time at CES. The tablet, called LapTab, is a hybrid device that runs full version of Windows as well as Android, allowing users to switch between laptop-like functionality and tablet-like functionality. While the initiative to create this kind of hybrid device is spearheaded by Intel, Micromax is one of the first companies in the world to partner with Intel for the hybrid device. LapTab is likely to be launched in India in February. According to Micromax, it will be priced less than $500.
In Russia, Micromax will use the same strategy that has enabled it to become India's second biggest smartphone seller.
INDIA MANAGEMENT
An unveiling in November and many teaser ads later, HondaCars India launched the fourth-generation Honda City today. After Honda's Amaze debuted the Japanese carmaker's diesel technology, i-DTEC, it is time for the City to flaunt it in India.
Once the lord of the mid-sized segment, Honda's sedan had been usurped by Hyundai's Verna. With time, the Volkswagen Vento too picked up pace and pipped the City to score more sales (please see chart). The City, now reinforced with a diesel variant, would squarely take on the market leader Verna, which accounts for one of every three cars sold in the mid-sized sedan segment. The new City is priced almost at par with comparable variants of Hyundai Verna (chart). Honda claims the new City would offer best-in-class fuel economy with its 1.5 litre i-DTEC engine, running 26 km per litre, and the 1.5 litre i-VTEC (petrol) operating for 17.8 kmpl. The Verna offers mileage of 17.01-17.43 km and 22.32-23.05 km per litre for the petrol and diesel variants, respectively, depending on the engine option (1.4 or 1.6 litre).
"With the fourth-generation City now available in diesel, Honda is shifting gears to significantly expand its operating universe in the Indian market", says Yoshiyuki Matsumoto, managing officer and representative of development, purchasing and production (Asia & Oceania), Honda Motor Company (Honda Cars India is a subsidiary).
Deutsche Asset Management India on Wednesday became the first fund house to launch an inflation-indexed fund that aims to provide inflation-adjusted returns to investors.
The scheme - DWS Inflation-Indexed Bond Fund - is an open-ended debt fund and will open for subscription on January 16, and close on January 27.
"The new scheme will offer investors an opportunity to earn inflation-adjusted returns. While globally investors have seen benefits of inflation linked instruments, we believe these instruments are specially relevant for India, given the persistent high inflation level," managing director and chief executive Suresh Soni told reporters.
Inflation-indexed bonds are instruments where interest payment and principal are linked to whole sale price index (WPI) inflation and these bonds are currently available at an attractive yield of 3.6 per cent above WPI.
The government has been issuing IIBs on a monthly basis since June, 2013 and the current outstanding issuance stands at Rs. 6,500 crore as of now.
INSURANCE
Private life insurer Reliance Life Insurance today said it plans to launch nine products, which are complied with the new product guidelines, by the end of this month.
"We had received approvals for 29 plans from the regulator, of which we have already launched 20 new and restructured products in compliance with new Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) guidelines. We will launch the rest nine products by the month-end," Reliance Life Insurance CEO Anup Rau said in a release issued here.
The products largely focus on traditional insurance plans with a view to promoting protection and long-term savings across the country, he added.
These plans, which include both individual and group insurance, will address the consumers' need of protection, savings and growth, retirement and health.
Last year, in February, IRDA had issued non-linked and linked life insurance products regulations to ensure that all products are consistent in design and are focused on meeting policy holders' expectations.
Rau further said the private insurance company is eyeing over Rs 4,000 crore premium income by March 31, 2014.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Microsoft Corp said it would buy cloud-based software maker Parature Inc, which helps businesses manage help desks and provide other customer support services.
Parature's software helps businesses provide automated customer service, manage online discussion boards and forums, and conduct online surveys.
The company's customers include Ask.com, the US Environmental Protection Agency, International Business Machines Corp and Saba Software Inc.
Microsoft did not disclose the terms of the deal.
The acquisition will boost Microsoft's Dynamics unit, which makes business software and counts Mattress Firm Holding Corp , Pandora Media Inc and Nissan Motor Co as customers.
Cloud computing, a broad term referring to the delivery of services via the Internet from remote data centers, is a favorite with businesses because it is faster to implement and has lower upfront costs than traditional software.
MARKETING
Chipmaker Intel Corp is taking its long-running Intel Inside marketing campaign into cloud computing in a bid to head off competition from smaller rivals designing low-power chips for servers.
Intel said on Wednesday that providers of data-center services would begin offering their customers details about the Intel chips used to power their servers - helping those customers make better buying decisions.
Intel controls nearly all of the server market and is determined not to cede ground to Advanced Micro Devices and other companies developing energy-efficient server chips based on technology from Britain's ARM Holdings.
"Strengthening awareness of the quality, features and impact of Intel technologies within (cloud providers') infrastructure highlights the challenge competing vendors and architectures will have," Intel marketing director Raejeanne Skillern said in an interview.
The "Intel Cloud Technology" campaign expands on an agreement last year with Amazon Web Services to provide the specifications about the various kinds of Intel chips used in services offered by AWS.
Last week, Qualcomm Inc's soon-to-be chief executive, Steve Mollenkopf, said data centers presented an opportunity for the smartphone chipmaker and hinted that the company might develop components for low-power servers.
Rackspace, Virtustream and other data center service providers have signed onto Intel's cloud marketing campaign, the chipmaker said.
ODISHA BUSINESS
Ahead of the second edition of the Hockey India League matches here, Odisha Chief Secretary today launched a website of Kalinga Lancers Hockey, one of the franchises in the league.
This website www.Kalingalancers.Com has been launched with an aim to promote and develop hockey activities in the state and link to social media like twitter and facebook.
It also provides for online booking of the tickets.
Through the website any person can avail all the details of the matches, sponsorship, list of players with their respective expertise.
To a query, state Sports and Youth Affairs Secretary Saswat Mishra said, "For the first time in India, the Government of Odisha has taken initiative to launch a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under the name Odisha Sports Development and Promotion Company and has acquired the sixth Franchise of Hockey India League."
The SPV has been formed in joint partnership among state owned IDCO (Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation), OMC (Odisha Mining Corporation), MCL (Mahanadi Coalfield Limited) and other industrial houses.
In the second edition of the Hockey India League, five matches will be played here in the newly built Kalinga Stadium from January 28 to February 14, 2014.
RETAIL
India’s top organised retailers including Future Group and Reliance Retail are roping in local kirana-walas to expand operations and widen product reach, but small traders remain sceptical of their moves.
While Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail has quietly speeded up expansion of its wholesale cash-and-carry stores, Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group is running its Big Bazaar Direct Programme, under which a small grocery shop owner can become a franchisee for the big retailer.
Industry analysts say big organised retail stores may not be successful everywhere, especially in small catchment areas, and therefore, pushing products, especially higher margin private brands, through other channels such as local trade helps growth.
Small traders, however, are not too optimistic on being co-opted by the big boys.
“Organised retailers are in the business for making profits and are least bothered of the small traders. They use predatory pricing tactics to ultimately wipe-off the smaller guys. Even their wholesale stores are nothing but retail in disguise, since they are giving membership to anyone, when it was only meant to be for traders,” said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary-general, Confederation of All India Traders.
Reliance Retail, which opened its first wholesale store in 2011, has opened around 12 more such stores in the last 10 months, and the pace of expansion is expected to continue, according to a source close to the company. “We are catering to institutional consumers, hotels, resorts, cafes, catering companies etc, but kiranas are among the biggest target group,” the source added.
Reliance Retail has 1 million partners (institutional customers) signed up for its wholesale store business, and the company is organising member meetings, especially involving small shop owners, to understand their needs.
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Source of Information for this issue : Google alert accessed on 13th and 17th Jan 2014
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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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