Rs 30,000-crore tied up for western freight corridor project

NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways has tied up with Japanese bank for funding of Rs 30,000 crore for its dedicated western freight corridor project that would connect Mumbai to Delhi. The ambitious Rs 4,23,000-crore project involves building of nine large industrial zones, high-speed freight line, three ports, six airports, a six-lane intersection-free expressway connecting Mumbai with Delhi and a 4,000-MW power plant.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL), a special purpose vehicle under the railwaysministry, has signed an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency for its upcoming western corridor project. The 1,490-km project would be executed in two phases. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said last week that the project would be completed on schedule by 2016-17.

The 1,000-km Phase-I would stretch between Rewari in Haryana to Vadodara, whereas Phase-II would connect Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai to Vadodara and Rewari to Dadri in UP. The contract work for the civil works and laying tracks has already been awarded. "The government is vigorously pursuing the availability of funds for the progress of the projects," said an official from the ministry.

The work for 1,800-km eastern freight corridor that would connect Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal has already begun and the government is in advance stage of talks with the World Bank for funding of the project. "To give thrust to the projects, work on the 120-km line connecting Mughalsarai in UP to Sonnagar in Bihar has already started by railways by funding 700 crore from its internal resources," the official confirmed. Both the corridors are targeted for commissioning in 2016-17 and would ease the freight movement as the existing trunk routes between Delhi to Mumbai on Western corridor and Delhi to Howrah on Eastern corridor are highly saturated.

Secret of success: Get the mind-set of an ant

All of us tend to look up to big people for lessons on how to get better. We are keen to learn the secrets of their success. But we forget that sometimes the biggest lessons in life come from the smallest folks around us. Now that’s a good lesson to remember!


Take ants for instance. Would you believe those small creatures can teach us how to live a better life? Jim Rohn - the great motivational guru – developed what he called the ‘Ants Philosophy’.

He identified four key lessons from the behaviour of ants that can help us lead better lives. Jim Rohn is no more – but his messages continue to inspire. Here then, are the four lessons from Rohn’s ‘Ants Philosophy’.

1. Ants never quit. Have you noticed how ants always look for a way around an obstacle? Put your finger in an ant’s path and it will try and go around it, or over it. It will keep looking for a way out. It won’t just stand there and stare. It won’t give up and go back.

We should all learn to be like that. There will always be obstacles in our lives. The challenge is to keep trying, keep looking for alternative routes to get to our goals. Winston Churchill probably paraphrased the ant’s mindset when he offered this priceless advice: “Never give up. Never, never give up!”

2. Ants think winter all summer. Remember the old story of the ant and the grasshopper? In the middle of summer, the ant was busy gathering food for the winter ahead – while the grasshopper was out having a good time. Ants know that summer - the good times – won’t last forever. Winters will come. That’s a good lesson to remember. When the going is good, don’t be so arrogant as to believe that a crisis or a setback cannot happen to you. Be good to other people. Save for a rainy day. Look ahead. And remember, good times may not last, but good people do.

3. Ants think summer all winter. As they suffer through the unbearable cold of the winter, ants keep reminding themselves that it won’t last forever, and that summer will soon be here. And with the first rays of the summer sun, the ants come out – ready to work, ready to play. When we are down and seemingly out, when we go through what looks like a never-ending crisis, it’s good to remind ourselves that this too shall pass. Good times will come. It’s important to retain a positive attitude, an attitude that says things will get better. As the old saying goes, tough times don’t last. Tough people do.

4. Ants do all they possibly can. How much food does an ant gather in summer? All that it possibly can! Now that’s a great work ethic to have. Do all you can! One ant doesn’t worry about how much food another ant is collecting. It does not sit back and wonder why it should have to work so hard. Nor does it complain about the poor pay! Ants just do their bit. They gather all the food they can. Success and happiness are usually the result of giving 100% - doing all you possibly can. If you look around you, you’ll find that successful people are those who just do all they possibly can.

Follow the four simple steps of Jim Rohn’s ‘Ant Philosophy’ – and you’ll see the difference. Don’t quit. Look ahead. Stay positive. And do all you can.

And there’s just one more lesson to learn from ants. Did you know that an ant can carry objects up to 20 times their own weight? Maybe we are like that too. We can carry burdens on our shoulders and manage workloads that are far, far heavier than we’d imagine. Next time something’s bothering you and weighing you down, and you feel you just can’t carry on, don’t fret. Think of the little ant. And remember, you too can carry a lot more on your shoulders!

Prakash Iyer is MD, Kimberly-Clark and Executive Coach.

Zen Mobile eyes doubling market share, revenue

Mumbai, Feb 23: Zen Mobile aims to double its market share and revenue by the end of this year on the back of new product launches and customer base expansion.

“We aim to more-than-double our market share and revenue from 3 per cent to 7 per cent and from Rs 45 crore to Rs 100 crore, respectively, by December 2011,” the company Managing Director, Mr Deepesh Gupta, told PTI here.

The Delhi-based firm, a part of the 15-year-old Teleecare Group, has so far sold 4 million handsets and plans to sell another 5 million by March 2012.

“We plan to sell 5 million more handsets by March 2012,” he said.

The company has already launched 18 handsets and more models are on the anvil. “We will continue to launch at least two new models every month,” Mr Gupta said.

Zen Mobile recently launched its Zen X414 model for Rs 1,799. “We have received a good response from customers for our Zen X414 model. This has multimedia features such as an mp3 and mp4 player, FM radio with recording, a powerful torch and a battery back-up of 40 days on stand-by mode,” Mr Gupta said.

At present, the company has a presence in 80 per cent of the markets. It will have a footprint in all districts of the country in the next three months, he said.

Vodafone Essar, Airtel, Idea Cellular still a hit in MNP regime

Mumbai: It’s been a month since mobile number portability (MNP) kicked in, and as expected, older GSM operators like Vodafone Essar, Airtel and Idea Cellular continue to lure the bulk of subscribers to their network. Latest numbers indicate Vodafone Essar gained as many as 1.7 lakh customers while Idea Cellular ranked second with a net gain of 1.5 lakh. The figures denote the difference between the number of customers porting in and porting out. The country’s largest operator , Bharti Airtel , on the other hand gained 1.35 lakh subscribers of February 20. However, most operators stick by the theory that MNP will not be a game-changer for the industry.

“The revenue impact of new customers who have come on to Vodafone is yet to be ascertained as we need to study a few billing cycles of the post-paid customers to figure how much these new customers are spending,” said Samresh Parida, strategy director- Vodafone Essar. A large proportion of subscriber movement in India is seen in the prepaid segment , which accounts for a monthly churn rate of 4-5 %. “Early analysis also indicates that among MNP portins , we are getting a disproportionate share of highvalue customers from other operators,” said Atul Bindal , president- mobile services , Bharti Airtel. The mobile operator, besides advertising around the MNP, also introduced several freebies such as giving away pizza vouchers and offering discount on monthly bills to retain customers.

Idea Cellular said it had benefitted from its high-decibel advertising campaign . “We had a strong rural footprint but with the launch of MNP, we also wanted to grab the opportunity to strengthen our presence in the big cities and metros and this brand campaign helped us get noticed,” said Himanshu Kapania , deputy MD, Idea Cellular.

On the CDMA front, there has been a large exodus with RCOM being the worst-hit , followed by Tata Teleservices and BSNL. But RCOM said it is looking to gain value and is not worried about the volumes coming in. “Our focus is to get high-spending customers as we are only interested in the value churn,” said Mahesh Prasad , group president, wireless business, RCOM.

The new entrants were also expected to be hit by MNP roll-out . To combat this, these operators lowered tariffs along with doling out freebies. “For us, it’s been the introduction of a unique dynamic pricing product, which gives discounts and it changes from one mobile tower to the next, that is attracting customers to our service,” said a Uninor spokesman. It registered a net gain of 0.3%.

Regional operators have also upped the ante as they feared losing customers. Mumbai-based Loop Mobile said it had an incremental churn of 0.7%, which was one of the lowest among the incumbent operators in the circle as it refurbished its brands identity and launched aggressive

McDonald's India franchisee to open 30 new stores in 2011

MUMBAI: McDonald's Corp's Indian franchisee plans to set up 30 new restaurants in the southern and western parts of the country this year, as part of the restaurant chain's expansion plans in Asia's third-largest economy, a top executive said.

Speaking to Reuters in an interview, Hardcastle Restaurants Private Ltd Vice Chairman Amit Jatia also said the franchisee would invest $111 million in India over the next three to four years.

Hardcastle will have a total of 250 McDonald's restaurants in three to four years in the two regions, up from 106 now, Jatia said.

Hardcastle Restaurants is now a licensee of McDonald's in India, after the world's biggest restaurant chain sold its 50 percent stake in the joint venture to its local partner last year, Jatia said.

Canon pegs office imaging solutions rev at Rs 350 cr in 2011

NEW DELHI: Canon India today said it expects 20 per cent growth in its office imaging solutions division's revenues to Rs 350 crore in 2011.

"India continues to build strong consumption, as well as investment momentum. With sustained 9 per cent GDP growth, we should begin to witness higher level of entrepreneurial depth," Canon India Senior Vice-President Alok Bharadwaj said in a statement.

Bharadwaj mentioned that India Inc prints and copies over 60 billion documents a year, translating into a cost of Rs 10,000 crore a year, which is growing at 20 per cent per annum.

Canon India recently announced plans to merge its enterprise solutions division for large enterprises and channel network for the SME segment into one division, called the office imaging solutions ( OIS )) division.

"We expect this division to grow revenues by 20 per cent to touch Rs 350 crore in 2011. This newly formed division will have 162 sales and marketing staff," Bharadwaj said.

The company today announced the appointment of K Bhashkar as the director of the office imaging solution (OIS) division.

This business-to-business division was one of the major contributors to Canon's overall business in 2010, contributing more than 25 per cent to the total revenue.

Cadbury India reports its highest-ever 27% revenue growth under Kraft

NEW DELHI: Cadbury India has reported its alltime high revenue growth in the first year after Kraft Foods took over Cadbury in a $19.7-billion deal, thanks to decentralised operations and sharp focus on core brands Cadbury Dairy Milk and Perk, a top official said.

Cadbury India has reported a record revenue growth of 27% last year, Kraft Foods Executive Vice-President & President, Developing Markets, Sanjay Khosla said. It ended December 2010 with Rs 2,500 crore in sales.

“I have given a blank cheque to our top performing markets; the idea was to get away from the control system in Chicago where we are headquartered,” he said. This means independent country heads can invest the way they want to—in sales, infrastructure, advertising and promotions. “This has worked well,” said Khosla, who is in charge of $14 billion worth of business in 60 markets including India. He, however, said the company is in no hurry to launch Kraft products such as Oreo biscuits and Toblerone chocolates in India.

Khosla is in India for a two-day workshop along with 90 Cadbury-Kraft sales directors from all over the world. They are here to imbibe learnings from Cadbury India’s diverse retail and distribution strengths. He attributes the record growth in India to three pillars – focus on the core business, adopting a ‘glocal’ strategy (that is, following a global model, but through decentralised operations), and tapping people's potential.

Core business, in Kraft’s world, includes brand development, sales, supply chain, cost efficiencies , right pricing, availability, campaigns , presence on social media, and so on. The country heads third-party manufacturing deal with Ludhiana-based Cremica Foods , Khosla only said that the $50-billion US giant is in no tearing hurry to bring its brands to India.

“I would prefer to do a few things simply; and do them well,” he said. “There is so much to do with brands that exist. The per capita consumption of foods we are in is still so small in India,” he added. The bullishness on India explains why Kraft has absorbed 16 Indian managers in the past eight months to take care of functions in places such as Singapore and Zurich.

Some of these officials are based in India, but are handling projects for other countries. Khosla said Kraft does not intend to phase out smaller brands in Cadbury’s portfolio. “Every brand plays a role. How does a local brand enter the top 10, is the question we are asking,” he said.

The India arm, which has 2,700 employees, is one of Kraft’s top 10 priority markets among the 170 countries it operates across.

Mukesh Ambani PE Fund to join hands with Intel

BANGALORE: The multi-million dollar private equity firm being set up by Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries , will be the first Indian fund to join a global co-investment programme led by US-based Intel Capital, the venture arm of chipmaker Intel Inc. The two funds are in the process of signing an agreement, a person with direct knowledge of the development said.

Intel's Global Syndicate Programme launched in December 2009 is an elite group of over 20 global private equity investors who collaborate on technology-led deals. Globally, Intel Cap has backed firms such as Research In Motion , makers of BlackBerry phones, Actions Semiconductors in China and RedHat in the US. In India, the fund has invested in communications company Sasken, technology education provider NIIT and a range of emerging firms such as mobile services firm, One97 and smart TV company Althea Systems .

Ambani is looking to back innovation across the technology and lifescience space and has built up a fund with a corpus of up to $250 million. An email questionnaire sent to the spokespersons of RIL did not elicit a response.

Intel Capital, which invests out of a dedicated $250-million fund in India, was one of the most active private equity investors in the country in 2010. The fund closed about eight deals investing a total of $45 million in both existing firms such as July Systems as well as new investments in start-ups such as Buzzintown and Omnesys.

The agreement, when it comes through, will help the Ambani-led fund gain access to investment opportunities in a range of new technology start-ups in areas such as IT infrastructure, mobile technology, digital health and the internet - sectors that Intel Capital focuses heavily on.

Also as these emerging firms have already have received initial funding from Intel Cap, they will have undergone a rigorous process of due diligence. Allowing the newly-minted Indian PE firm to invest in start-ups with a dual advantage-disruptive technology and a proven business model.

"The two funds are yet to close a joint deal in India but they are in the process of evaluating an investment," said an industry source.

The PE fund is supported by the Reliance Innovation Council which includes scientist RA Mashelkar, Ambani and other industry experts from science and business who are expected to whet possible investments made by the PE fund.

Intel Capital typically picks syndicate partners for their deep pockets and for additional technology inputs they can provide to portfolio companies. "Syndicate partners such as the Ambani-led fund will provide additional rounds of capital to fast-growing technology firms that do not need to go out into the market in search of more money," said a senior professional with direct knowledge of the development. Last year, some of Intel Capital's top investments included educational gaming company Tabula Digita , Carrier Ethernet solutions provider Overture Networks and advertising technology company BlackArrow. It also co-invested in video technology firm Kaltura where another India-focused fund Nexus Venture Partners also invested.

Intel Cap is also looking to seal a similar partnership with Japanese electronics major, Toshiba Corp , according to a senior professional in the private equity industry. "Such partnerships provide a dedicated pool of follow-on funding for fast growing companies in the Intel Cap portfolio while syndicate partners get access to strategic technology deals," he added.

SBI plans to merge 5 subsidiaries in 12-18 months

NEW DELHI: State Bank of India proposes to merge its five remaining subsidiaries with itself over the next 12-18 months.

In its deposition before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, the country's largest lender said the consolidation exercise has been systemically planned as part of a logical step to bring in economies of scale, reduce administrative overheads, redeploy and channelise trained manpower to business development and, in the process, also reduce avoidable competition from different arms of the same group.

While the bank has already merged State Bank of Saurashtra and State Bank of Indore with itself, it would require a government go-ahead to merge the remaining five - State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala , State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur , State Bank of Travancore and State Bank of Mysore .

SBI chairman O P Bhatt told the committee headed by former finance minister Yashwant Sinha that the merger of State Bank of Saurashtra with SBI "went as smooth as silk". As for State Bank of Indore's merger, an online poll of employees showed that over 90% were in favour of the merger, he said.

"A number of corporates are pushing growth opportunities abroad. All these require that SBI and a few other Indian banks grow in size and financial muscle to cater to the growing needs of such corporates, failing which such clientele and their business would be taken over by foreign banks," the government told the standing committee.

A merger of all associate banks has been in the works for several years but SBI is taking it one by one as it wants to build a consensus around it first. A major attraction for SBI subsidiary employees is the offer of getting a pension, in addition to provident fund benefits. SBI is the only public sector player in the country where employees get both the benefits. In addition, employees of the subsidiary banks are being given the same treatment that is available to SBI employees.

To make sure that the merger is not legally challenged, SBI has got the process legally vetted. SBI management is now contemplating getting a blanket approval from the government to merge all the banks and then decide the sequence. The merger will help SBI steal a march over its nearest rival ICICI Bank .

Maruti Suzuki to supply A-star to Volkswagen

NEW DELHI: India's largest automobile company Maruti Suzuki will supply its latest compact car A-Star to Volkswagen AG . The car, which will undergo some modifications and design changes, will be sold in India and Asian markets under a new brand, according to senior officials in the automobile industry.

The agreement to supply A-Star, Suzuki's fifth global model after Swift, Ritz, SX4 and Grand Vitara will be inked soon. Volkswagen holds 20% stake in Maruti's parent company Suzuki.

Volkswagen's decision to choose A-Star comes after two years of Maruti's success of supplying A-Star to another Japanese carmaker Nissan Motors, which re-badges the same car as Pixo for sales through its own network in Europe. A-Star sold as Alto in overseas markets is exclusively made by Maruti Suzuki at its Manesar plant in Haryana. It's a futuristic product specifically developed by parent Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) for developed markets meeting all its stringent crash safety tests, emission norms and environment regulations.

Maruti's engineering team would work closely with VW to tweak the car as per its global market needs, said a senior official from the automobile industry. "There could be some changes in the basic design though the overall technical specs won't be altered," the official added.