Mumbai: Firstsource Solutions, a Mumbai-based business process outsourcing (BPO) provider, on Thursday announced a five-year outsourcing partnership with Barclaycard, the UK-based credit card and consumer lending business of Barclays PLC.
The five-year customer service contract would involve Firstsource managing Barclaycard’s credit card and payment businesses beginning November 1, the company said in a statement. Firstsource will manage the majority of the services currently provided by the Teesside centre, as well as a related payment servicing team located in Wavertree, Merseyside.
Derek Allgood, global sales and service director, Barclaycard, said, “Firstsource have given us a commitment to establish a long-term presence here in Teesside and, with their global footprint, they are also well placed to meet the current and future needs of our growing international customer base.”
In June, Business Standard had reported that Firstsource is in talks with Barclaycard for an outsourcing contract. In February 2008, Firstsource signed a five-year outsourcing agreement with Barclays’ US credit card business. Under the terms of the agreement, Firstsource is managing and operating Barclays’ operations centre in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which includes providing customer care and collection’s support to Barclays US cardholders.
Success in my Habit
Saturday, October 16, 2010
CIS region invites Indian investments
Hyderabad: A panel of diplomats from CIS countries threw open opportunities for Indian exporters and business houses for export of various products and setting up joint venture units at a seminar on ‘Focus CIS Region' organised by the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) here on Friday.
The Centre has already taken a string of initiatives to enhance trade between India and CIS region, including Government Lines of Credit (LOC), inter-banking relations, Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement and Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement.
Mr Oleg Laptenok, Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Belarus, said exports of engineering goods from India to Belarus increased from Rs 10.13 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 43.90 crore in 2009-10. These included products such as iron and steel bar, machine tools, residual engineering items and transport equipment.
Trade items
India's major items of exports to Belarus include fish filet, extracts of coffee, raw tobacco, compounds of carbon acid, antibiotics, footwear and electric transformers, while its imports from Belarus included potash fertilisers, polyamides, tyres, artificial threats, intermediate iron or alloy-free steel and electric integrated circuits.
Belarus's total exports were of the order of $21.41 billion, while its imports touched $28.39 billion.
On trade between India and Azerbaijan, India imported goods worth Rs 1,335.72 crore, while exported products worth Rs 142 crore in 2009-10. While India's major items of import from Azerbaijan included aluminium and related products, organic chemicals and vegetables, export included products such as pharma, apparel, machinery, paper, tobacco, medical instruments, dye and paint.
In a presentation, it was pointed out that Azerbaijan made only limited progress on instituting market-based economic reforms, with public and private sector corruption remaining a drag on long-term growth, especially in non-energy sector. Therefore, the need for stepping up foreign investment in the non-energy sector was being increasingly felt in that country.
Mr Sergey B. Mikhalev, Consul, Consulate General of Russian Federation, said there was a 7.5 per cent increase in Indo-Russian trade in 2009 to $7.46 billion, with both the countries targeting $10 billion by the end of 2010.
While India's major imports from Russia included fertilisers, non-ferrous metals, coal, coke & briquettes, newsprint, rubber and organic chemicals, its exports to that country included drugs, tea, coffee, tobacco, machinery, transport equipment, electronic goods and readymade garments.
As far as Kazakhstan is concerned, Indian-Kazakh trade increased from $60 million in 2002 to $196 million in 2007, with almost all major pharma companies having operations in that country. India exported engineering goods worth Rs 75.58 crore to that country in 2009-10, including items such as machine tools and transport equipment.
The Centre has already taken a string of initiatives to enhance trade between India and CIS region, including Government Lines of Credit (LOC), inter-banking relations, Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement and Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement.
Mr Oleg Laptenok, Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Belarus, said exports of engineering goods from India to Belarus increased from Rs 10.13 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 43.90 crore in 2009-10. These included products such as iron and steel bar, machine tools, residual engineering items and transport equipment.
Trade items
India's major items of exports to Belarus include fish filet, extracts of coffee, raw tobacco, compounds of carbon acid, antibiotics, footwear and electric transformers, while its imports from Belarus included potash fertilisers, polyamides, tyres, artificial threats, intermediate iron or alloy-free steel and electric integrated circuits.
Belarus's total exports were of the order of $21.41 billion, while its imports touched $28.39 billion.
On trade between India and Azerbaijan, India imported goods worth Rs 1,335.72 crore, while exported products worth Rs 142 crore in 2009-10. While India's major items of import from Azerbaijan included aluminium and related products, organic chemicals and vegetables, export included products such as pharma, apparel, machinery, paper, tobacco, medical instruments, dye and paint.
In a presentation, it was pointed out that Azerbaijan made only limited progress on instituting market-based economic reforms, with public and private sector corruption remaining a drag on long-term growth, especially in non-energy sector. Therefore, the need for stepping up foreign investment in the non-energy sector was being increasingly felt in that country.
Mr Sergey B. Mikhalev, Consul, Consulate General of Russian Federation, said there was a 7.5 per cent increase in Indo-Russian trade in 2009 to $7.46 billion, with both the countries targeting $10 billion by the end of 2010.
While India's major imports from Russia included fertilisers, non-ferrous metals, coal, coke & briquettes, newsprint, rubber and organic chemicals, its exports to that country included drugs, tea, coffee, tobacco, machinery, transport equipment, electronic goods and readymade garments.
As far as Kazakhstan is concerned, Indian-Kazakh trade increased from $60 million in 2002 to $196 million in 2007, with almost all major pharma companies having operations in that country. India exported engineering goods worth Rs 75.58 crore to that country in 2009-10, including items such as machine tools and transport equipment.
Two-wheeler sales to cross 12 million units in 2010-11
New Delhi: The sales in the two-wheeler segment for 2010-11 is projected to exceed 12 million units, an increase of 20 per cent from around 10 million units in 2009-10.
According to sources say Hero Honda and Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India will together account for nearly 55 per cent of the projection at 6.5 million units, followed by Bajaj Auto with over 3.5 million units and TVS Motor with nearly two million units. Yamaha and Suzuki will further add to the overall segment.
"This would be a remarkable achievement considering that growth is taking place on a much larger denominator of ten million bikes and scooters reported last fiscal. At this rate, it is only a matter of time before India overtakes China to emerge the world's most important two-wheeler market," as per sources.
Furthermore, Hero Honda is expected to finish the year at over five million units and still maintain its top position. Bajaj Auto is also experiencing a heady run and its Discover brand has finally got the company the big break in the executive segment, which has been Hero Honda's bastion with its Splendor and Passion motorcycles. The Discover 100 and 150 today account for sales of 150,000 units each month and Bajaj could be looking at increasing this to 200,000 units by end-March 2011. Hero Honda's Splendor is still doing 170,000 units a month and continues to be a big draw in smaller towns and cities.
Similarly, TVS Motor has been on a steady run with its Jive auto-clutch motorcycle and the Wego scooter. The company has targeted sales of two million units this fiscal with plans to enhance this further in the coming years. Additionally, HMSI, Honda's wholly-owned subsidiary, is expected to close this year at a little over 1.5 million units, with its Activa scooter continuing to be the key growth driver. The company has a fair portfolio of bikes but the real big numbers are still not coming in at the desired pace.
According to sources say Hero Honda and Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India will together account for nearly 55 per cent of the projection at 6.5 million units, followed by Bajaj Auto with over 3.5 million units and TVS Motor with nearly two million units. Yamaha and Suzuki will further add to the overall segment.
"This would be a remarkable achievement considering that growth is taking place on a much larger denominator of ten million bikes and scooters reported last fiscal. At this rate, it is only a matter of time before India overtakes China to emerge the world's most important two-wheeler market," as per sources.
Furthermore, Hero Honda is expected to finish the year at over five million units and still maintain its top position. Bajaj Auto is also experiencing a heady run and its Discover brand has finally got the company the big break in the executive segment, which has been Hero Honda's bastion with its Splendor and Passion motorcycles. The Discover 100 and 150 today account for sales of 150,000 units each month and Bajaj could be looking at increasing this to 200,000 units by end-March 2011. Hero Honda's Splendor is still doing 170,000 units a month and continues to be a big draw in smaller towns and cities.
Similarly, TVS Motor has been on a steady run with its Jive auto-clutch motorcycle and the Wego scooter. The company has targeted sales of two million units this fiscal with plans to enhance this further in the coming years. Additionally, HMSI, Honda's wholly-owned subsidiary, is expected to close this year at a little over 1.5 million units, with its Activa scooter continuing to be the key growth driver. The company has a fair portfolio of bikes but the real big numbers are still not coming in at the desired pace.
RBI permits corporations to work as rural agents of banks
According to the guidelines, BCs will raise deposits; disburse tiny loans; recover bad loans; sell micro insurance, mutual funds, pension products and other third-party products; and receive and deliver small value remittances
New Delhi/Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday allowed firms to play the role of an intermediary to spread banking in rural areas, in a move aimed at making banking services available to the unbanked.
RBI, in its guidelines for business correspondents (BCs), allowed individuals, non-governmental organizations, cooperative societies, post offices and companies with “large and widespread retail outlets” to become BCs, but kept non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) out of it.
One reason behind the move, according to people familiar with how NBFCs work, could be that these firms, including microfinance institutions, lend money in rural India. If they are allowed to mobilize deposits on behalf of banks and at the same time continue with their business of lending money, there could be a conflict of interest.
Telecom companies, fertilizers and oil marketing companies, and fast moving consumer goods makers with exposure to rural markets are likely to take the plunge following RBI’s move.
According to the guidelines, BCs will raise deposits; disburse tiny loans; recover bad loans; sell micro insurance, mutual funds, pension products and other third-party products; and receive and deliver small value remittances.
Their activities will be “within the normal course of banking business”, but conducted at places other than the bank premises and automated teller machines.
The distance between the BC and the base bank branch should not exceed 30km in rural, semi urban and urban areas, and 5km in metropolitan areas, RBI said.
RBI’s guidelines did not specify the fee structure, but noted the banks may pay “reasonable commission, which may be reviewed periodically”.
“Commission structure, or incentive mechanism, should be devised in a manner that mere increase in the number of clients served or the transaction volume does not drive the commission,” it said, adding that the remuneration should combine fixed and variable parts.
Experts familiar with BC activities are not very excited about the model as yet.
Bindu Ananth, president of IFMR Trust, a non-profit organization promoted by ICICI Bank Ltd, said the big challenge for BCs in India is to find a product mix that makes business sense.
“I think it will move the needle only if NBFCs and people who specialize in this business are allowed. Manufacturing companies have long stopped taking public deposits and will continue to concentrate on their core business,” said D. Muthukumaran, head (group corporate finance) at Aditya Birla Management Corp. Pvt. Ltd.
Abhishek Sinha, chief executive officer (CEO) of Eko India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd, a BC for the country’s top two banks—State Bank of India and ICICI Bank—said this move will bring in investments and expand scale of operations of BCs.
Currently, about 36,000 BCs are being employed by banks, besides less than a dozen institutions such Eko India and Financial Inclusion Network and Operations Ltd (Fino). Banks manage the individual BCs on their own. Once corporations are allowed to enter this space, they will be able to organize them better and take care of the security aspects as the job involves collection and disbursement of money.
The banks will, however, continue to be “fully responsible for the actions of the BCs and their retail outlets/sub agents”, the RBI guidelines said.
Access Development Services, a not-for profit organization that provides technical assistance to microfinance firms, had some time back carried a survey on viability of BCs and found them struggling.
“It was because of high operating costs,” Vipin Sharma, CEO of Access, said.
“Banks also need to look at ways to make the whole BC model more viable. The recent move to free up lending rates for small ticket sizes can serve as a catalyst to make the BC model more viable by allowing correspondents to cover costs,” he added.
About 50% of India’s population does not have bank accounts. In rural India, the coverage among the adult population is 39% against 60% in urban India. This doesn’t necessarily mean that 60 out of every 100 Indian adults in cities have bank accounts as many people operate multiple accounts.
Only 5.2% of the country’s 650,000 villages have bank branches even though 39.7% of the overall branch network of Indian banks, or 31,727, are in rural India.
Only 34% of people with annual earnings less than Rs. 50,000 in urban India had a bank account in 2007. The comparative figure in rural India is even lower, 26.8%.
To handle this, banks have been aggressively opening “no-frill accounts”, that require very low or zero minimum balance.
However, a 2009 study by Skoch Development Foundation, a strategy and management consultancy, says only 11% of 25.1 million such basic banking accounts, opened between April 2007 and May 2009, are operational.
New Delhi/Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday allowed firms to play the role of an intermediary to spread banking in rural areas, in a move aimed at making banking services available to the unbanked.
RBI, in its guidelines for business correspondents (BCs), allowed individuals, non-governmental organizations, cooperative societies, post offices and companies with “large and widespread retail outlets” to become BCs, but kept non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) out of it.
One reason behind the move, according to people familiar with how NBFCs work, could be that these firms, including microfinance institutions, lend money in rural India. If they are allowed to mobilize deposits on behalf of banks and at the same time continue with their business of lending money, there could be a conflict of interest.
Telecom companies, fertilizers and oil marketing companies, and fast moving consumer goods makers with exposure to rural markets are likely to take the plunge following RBI’s move.
According to the guidelines, BCs will raise deposits; disburse tiny loans; recover bad loans; sell micro insurance, mutual funds, pension products and other third-party products; and receive and deliver small value remittances.
Their activities will be “within the normal course of banking business”, but conducted at places other than the bank premises and automated teller machines.
The distance between the BC and the base bank branch should not exceed 30km in rural, semi urban and urban areas, and 5km in metropolitan areas, RBI said.
RBI’s guidelines did not specify the fee structure, but noted the banks may pay “reasonable commission, which may be reviewed periodically”.
“Commission structure, or incentive mechanism, should be devised in a manner that mere increase in the number of clients served or the transaction volume does not drive the commission,” it said, adding that the remuneration should combine fixed and variable parts.
Experts familiar with BC activities are not very excited about the model as yet.
Bindu Ananth, president of IFMR Trust, a non-profit organization promoted by ICICI Bank Ltd, said the big challenge for BCs in India is to find a product mix that makes business sense.
“I think it will move the needle only if NBFCs and people who specialize in this business are allowed. Manufacturing companies have long stopped taking public deposits and will continue to concentrate on their core business,” said D. Muthukumaran, head (group corporate finance) at Aditya Birla Management Corp. Pvt. Ltd.
Abhishek Sinha, chief executive officer (CEO) of Eko India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd, a BC for the country’s top two banks—State Bank of India and ICICI Bank—said this move will bring in investments and expand scale of operations of BCs.
Currently, about 36,000 BCs are being employed by banks, besides less than a dozen institutions such Eko India and Financial Inclusion Network and Operations Ltd (Fino). Banks manage the individual BCs on their own. Once corporations are allowed to enter this space, they will be able to organize them better and take care of the security aspects as the job involves collection and disbursement of money.
The banks will, however, continue to be “fully responsible for the actions of the BCs and their retail outlets/sub agents”, the RBI guidelines said.
Access Development Services, a not-for profit organization that provides technical assistance to microfinance firms, had some time back carried a survey on viability of BCs and found them struggling.
“It was because of high operating costs,” Vipin Sharma, CEO of Access, said.
“Banks also need to look at ways to make the whole BC model more viable. The recent move to free up lending rates for small ticket sizes can serve as a catalyst to make the BC model more viable by allowing correspondents to cover costs,” he added.
About 50% of India’s population does not have bank accounts. In rural India, the coverage among the adult population is 39% against 60% in urban India. This doesn’t necessarily mean that 60 out of every 100 Indian adults in cities have bank accounts as many people operate multiple accounts.
Only 5.2% of the country’s 650,000 villages have bank branches even though 39.7% of the overall branch network of Indian banks, or 31,727, are in rural India.
Only 34% of people with annual earnings less than Rs. 50,000 in urban India had a bank account in 2007. The comparative figure in rural India is even lower, 26.8%.
To handle this, banks have been aggressively opening “no-frill accounts”, that require very low or zero minimum balance.
However, a 2009 study by Skoch Development Foundation, a strategy and management consultancy, says only 11% of 25.1 million such basic banking accounts, opened between April 2007 and May 2009, are operational.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Bharti enters mobile handset business
NEW DELHI: In what could give jitters to players like Nokia, Samsung and other such stables, Bharti on Sunday announced its entry into the fast-growing mobile handset business as group firm Beetel launched eight handsets in the price range of Rs 1,750-7,000.
Bharti is India’s number one mobile service provider with over 140 million subscribers and the company recently acquired Zain Telecom in Africa to expand its footprint in 16 countries.
Making an announcement, Beetel Teletech (a Bharti Group firm) executive director and CEO Vinod Sawhny said, “The market is huge and there is a room for Indian players... Phones in the price range of Rs 2,000-6,000 are witnessing 30% growth and we plan to offer a good combination of feature-rich phones at affordable prices.”
India is one of the fastest growing markets with annual shipments of about 130 million mobile devices, he said, adding, “It was important for a group company Beetel to enter the market with a product for masses that is different from others.” Asked whether Beetel would bundle its handsets with Airtel services, Mr Sawhny said, “We shall be talking to all the GSM players for bundling our handsets and it will not be restricted to only the group’s flagship company.”
On the market, which has a mix of leading global players like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola and home-grown companies like Micromax, Karbonn and others, he said the company was a long-term player and has set an ambitious target of being among the top five players in the next three years.
To begin with, Beetel will have an in-house design facility in India and operating on a business model under which manufacturing is being done outside India, but with innovation done locally.
The entire range of Beetel phones has features like dual SIMs, FM and cameras, thus ensuring the range is contemporary. The individual models have many firsts, highlighting Beetel’s focus on innovative technology.
Some of these include the first gaming QWERTY phone, a triple SIM offering GSM + GSM + CDMA, the first phone to house a complete movie and a 3G phone with an exceedingly well-designed and easy user interface, he said.
Additionally, Beetel will offer a bouquet of VAS features to appeal the youth, ranging from popular social networking applications (Facebook and Nimbuzz) to partnering with mobile commerce partner (NgPay), mobile portal (Yahoo), internet browser (Opera Mini), added with offers of free call and free SMSes powered by Ibibo. This exclusive tie-up will give Beetel customers an opportunity to make free calls and short messaging services (SMS) through GPRS technology enabled on the phones.
The company plans to establish its presence across India by the end of the current fiscal.
In the first phase of the launch, Beetel mobile phones will be available through a nationwide distribution network of over 4,000 outlets across Delhi, Haryana, UP and Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Punjab and the seven northeastern states. In addition, Beetel phones will be supported by an extensive service network of 400 service centres, backed by an SMS facility for locating the service centres across six states.
Asked whether company plans to manufacture mobile phones at its existing facilities, Mr Sawhny said, “We are open to this,” but did not elaborate on plans. Currently, it will outsource manufacturing operations. He said China is one option, but the company was looking at other destinations from where it can source the handsets.
Tata Sky crosses six million subscriber mark
NEW DELHI: Direct-to-Home major Tata Sky on Thursday said it has crossed the six million subscriber mark.
"We have received tremendous repsonse from the market and have crossed six million subscribers. We are poised for further growth in the coming months, especially on the back of interactive services that we have launched," Tata Sky Chief Marketing Officer Vikram Mehra told reporters here.
Tata Sky is one of the seven operators in the country. Dish TV, Sun Direct, Airtel digital TV, Reliance Big TV, Videocon d2h and DD direct are the other players in the over 20 million subscribers Indian DTH market.
The company on Thursday also launched 'Actve Games' service on its platform in partnership with Hungama Digital Media.
"Gaming on Tata Sky till now was more about quizzes and kids' games. Now with this partnership we will be able to offer games across age categories," he said.
He, however, declined to comment on the expected number of subscribers for the service.
"We are expecting a huge number of people to opt for this service. In the last 15 days, as part of the soft launch itself, we have had 35,000 people subscribing to the service," he said.
Tata Sky will offer about 50 games in a year under the 'Actve Games' service and charge Rs 40 per month. The offering would include arcade, strategy, action, sports and celebrity games.
Mehra added that the company was looking at interactive services such as games, cooking and education as a major contributor to revenues.
According to a FICCI-KPMG study, the Indian gaming industry revenues are expected to grow from Rs 800 crore in 2009 to Rs 3200 crore in 2014, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 32 per cent.
"We have received tremendous repsonse from the market and have crossed six million subscribers. We are poised for further growth in the coming months, especially on the back of interactive services that we have launched," Tata Sky Chief Marketing Officer Vikram Mehra told reporters here.
Tata Sky is one of the seven operators in the country. Dish TV, Sun Direct, Airtel digital TV, Reliance Big TV, Videocon d2h and DD direct are the other players in the over 20 million subscribers Indian DTH market.
The company on Thursday also launched 'Actve Games' service on its platform in partnership with Hungama Digital Media.
"Gaming on Tata Sky till now was more about quizzes and kids' games. Now with this partnership we will be able to offer games across age categories," he said.
He, however, declined to comment on the expected number of subscribers for the service.
"We are expecting a huge number of people to opt for this service. In the last 15 days, as part of the soft launch itself, we have had 35,000 people subscribing to the service," he said.
Tata Sky will offer about 50 games in a year under the 'Actve Games' service and charge Rs 40 per month. The offering would include arcade, strategy, action, sports and celebrity games.
Mehra added that the company was looking at interactive services such as games, cooking and education as a major contributor to revenues.
According to a FICCI-KPMG study, the Indian gaming industry revenues are expected to grow from Rs 800 crore in 2009 to Rs 3200 crore in 2014, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 32 per cent.
British market research firm Lafferty enters India
MUMBAI: Lafferty Group, the London-based market research (MR)firm that specialises in the financial services industry space, on Thursday launched its operations in the country to tap the rapidly growing banking and financial services market here.
"Lafferty Group has a strong historical presence in providing cutting-edge research to the financial industry and we look forward to bringing these expert services to India. It shows our confidence in this rapidly growing market and our commitment to the dynamic needs of our clients here," Lafferty Group chairman Michael Lafferty said in a statement.
Lafferty India will provide market insights and intelligence in retail banking, cards and personal financial services. The group's cards and consumer finance intelligence covers 65 markets worldwide and has invaluable research reports, market overviews, trend analyses, regulatory updates etc.
"Given the current growth in the domestic banking and finance industry, this is the right time to establish and develop our operations here and to offer hands-on support, advisory services and quality market intelligence to banking professionals," Lafferty India head Arvind Agrawal said.
"Lafferty Group has a strong historical presence in providing cutting-edge research to the financial industry and we look forward to bringing these expert services to India. It shows our confidence in this rapidly growing market and our commitment to the dynamic needs of our clients here," Lafferty Group chairman Michael Lafferty said in a statement.
Lafferty India will provide market insights and intelligence in retail banking, cards and personal financial services. The group's cards and consumer finance intelligence covers 65 markets worldwide and has invaluable research reports, market overviews, trend analyses, regulatory updates etc.
"Given the current growth in the domestic banking and finance industry, this is the right time to establish and develop our operations here and to offer hands-on support, advisory services and quality market intelligence to banking professionals," Lafferty India head Arvind Agrawal said.
Sweden's Ikea pitches to enter India
NEW DELHI: Swedish home furniture giant Ikea pitched on Monday for fast-growing India to open up its huge retail market to foreigners and said it planned more stores in emerging market giant China.
India's tight investment rules restrict overseas retail firms to "back-end" wholesaling -- except for single-brand outlets such as Nokia or Reebok -- to protect local, family-run stores which fear being driven out of business.
Ikea chief executive Mikael Ohlsson urged the government to relax the strict regulations to allow the company to open its superstores in India, saying there was "room for all players."
The furnishings chain, which sources 500 million euros (655 million dollars) in textiles and other goods from India annually, plans to boost that figure to one billion euros "within three to four years," he said.
And if Ikea -- famed for its flat pack stylish furniture -- could open up stores in India it could supply at least half the volume of goods from Indian production sources as it does in China and Russia, he added.
"We believe we can create employment -- jobs in cities and outside cities, we can be part of transforming industry," Ohlsson said in New Delhi.
The privately-held Ikea, which uses its profits as a means to invest in social programmes, could also help with upgrading Indian production technologies in such areas as textiles, plastic goods and other products, Ohlsson said.
Ikea sees huge potential in India's burgeoning middle class, estimated at around 300 million and set to climb, whose "wallet is still thin" but who want "inexpensive but nice home furnishings," Ohlsson said.
Ikea believes it could replicate in India its success in neighbouring China where Ikea stores are "highly appreciated," said Ohlsson who is visiting India to inspect Ikea's 125-million-euro South Asia development programme helping children and women.
"If you go to Ikea stores in Beijing or Shanghai, they are as busy as London," he said. "That's a scenario I can see in India."
Ikea, which has annual global sales of around 30 billion dollars, already has 10 stores in China and is looking at opening around five more in the next few years to meet demand, Ohlsson said.
Foreign retailers are seeking to develop new sales outlets in the face of saturated Western markets, and India and China with populations of more than one billion loom large in their sights.
Ohlsson met with India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma during his visit to press for changes in the retail ownership legislation.
"It was fantastic to have an opportunity to describe what we could see for the future and how we could participate," he said.
The left-leaning Congress party-led government recently kicked off public debate on opening up the 500-billion-dollar-a-year retail market to foreign investors.
Ikea has a long-term business model which makes it hard to conform to Indian rules requiring foreigners to set up joint ventures, Ohlsson said.
The company shelved plans to enter India's retail market in 2009, saying it would wait until the country allowed it to "fully own its retail operations."
Ikea is one of a slew of global retailers that include France's Carrefour and Wal-Mart of the United States pushing the Indian government to open up its retail sector to serve consumers in the country whose economy is growing by nearly 9 per cent.
Azure Power plans Rs 300-cr investment
New Delhi: Azure Power, an independent power producer in solar energy, is targeting an investment of Rs 300 crore to set up about 20 MW power capacity under phase-I of the National Solar Mission (up to 2013).
“We are looking at a total investment of Rs 1,500 crore to set up 100 MW capacity by 2015. Out of this, an investment of Rs 300 crore for a capacity of 20 MW, is what we are targeting under the phase-I of the National Solar Mission,” Mr Inderpreet S. Wadhwa, Chief Executive Officer, Azure Power said.
PV projects
He told Business Line that the company will remain focused on solar photo-voltaic (PV) projects.
“We are not looking for any outside investments. We have already tied up our funds. The funding would be met through internal accruals, private equity, besides assistance from International Finance Corporation (IFC),” he said.
Photo-voltaic devices are arrays of cells containing a solar PV material that converts solar radiation into direct current electricity.
Under the phase-1 of the National Solar Mission, Azure proposes to make an expression of interest (EoI) for a 5 MW project in Rajasthan. The other States on the radar are Punjab, Haryana, and Karnataka.
NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), which is the power trading arm of NTPC, has been designated as the nodal agency to purchase solar power generated by independent solar power producers, at rates fixed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), and for a period of 25 years.
NVVN will procure the solar power from the project developers, and the developers offering the best discount on a tariff notified by the CERC will figure higher in the pecking order for the allocation of identified projects.
The tariff rate notified by the CERC for 2010-11 for PV projects is Rs 17.90/ unit.
In phases
The National Mission envisages implementation of solar programmes including utility grid solar power in three phases – first phase up to 2013 (1,100 MW), second phase up to 2017 (4,000 MW), and third phase up to 2022 (20,000 MW).
Maruti Suzuki to invest Rs 1,925 cr on third plant
New Delhi: To capitalise on the rapid growth of the Indian auto industry, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) announced on Tuesday an investment of ¥35 billion, or Rs 1,925 crore for setting up its third plant at Manesar. This new production line – Maruti's sixth overall would have 2.5 lakh units annual capacity.
With the new plant, the car market leader hopes to increase its total capacity 46 per cent to 17.5 lakh units a year. Facing a major capacity constraint and huge demand for its products, MSIL currently manufactures 12 lakh units a year. However, the installed combined annual capacity across the existing Gurgaon and Manesar facilities is around 10 lakh units.
Addressing a shareholders' meeting, Mr Osamu Suzuki, Chairman and CEO, Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), said that the company had earlier not correctly estimated the current pace of growth of the Indian car industry. Japan-based SMC owns a 54.2 per cent stake in MSIL.
Mr R.C. Bhargava, Chairman, MSIL, told Business Line, “Now that the in-principle approval has been given by Mr Suzuki, the investment will have to be approved by the board at its meeting in October. Some work will already start now though.”
Manesar Expansion
He added that the Rs 1,700-crore ongoing expansion project for a second line at the existing Manesar plant will be accelerated by about six months. It was earlier expected to be operational only by April 2012. This expansion project will be completed before the new third plant opens at Manesar and will provide Maruti a similar annual capacity of 2.5 lakh units.
“We are trying to start the assembly line in the expansion of Manesar by September 2011. Since there is so much demand, we are trying to advance it as much as we can,” he said.
As part of its plan to increase production capacity, Maruti is also upgrading and modernising its Gurgaon facility. This is expected to help by adding further capacity and in meeting the 17.5 lakh production target of the next few years. No investment for this was, however, announced.
“Out of the three plants (production lines) at Gurgaon, the machinery at the first and the oldest plant is being scrapped and modernised,” said a company official.
The Indian auto market – Asia's third largest and the second fastest growing globally – accounted for sales of 15.26 lakh units of passenger cars in 2009-10, marking a growth of 25 per cent.
Of the total, Maruti's share was around 50 per cent with sales of 7.65 lakh units. Industry body SIAM predicts annual car demand to grow to 30 lakh units by 2015.
Maruti Suzuki's Rs 5 shares closed nearly one per cent up on the NSE on Tuesday at Rs 1,314.90.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)