Success in my Habit

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Not just for Railways: Now, 24x7 IRCTC kitchen in Noida

NEW DELHI: Railway passengers, executives and managers living in and around Noida can now avail of hygienic Indian and Chinese fare at an affordable rate.

Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has set up a central kitchen in Noida, with a capacity of preparing 25,000 meals every day.

Besides Railways, IRCTC aims to cater to PSUs, MNCs, BPOs and several educational institutions in and around Noida, where there is a huge demand for fresh food at a reasonable price.

The 24x7 kitchen will serve both vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals. Initially, the cuisine will be restricted to Indian and Chinese, but the menu will be expanded to Continental dishes in the second phase.

After the catering job in trains was snatched from IRCTC and was given back to railways, the PSU is trying to diversify its business to keep itself afloat. It seeks to capture the fast growing food & beverage market by setting up more such kitchens in other parts of the country.

IRCTC will ensure that all relevant statutory compliances for preparing food will be adhered to in its state-of-the art kitchen. Medical tests for food-handlers, microbiological tests of food samples will be rigorously followed along with use of branded raw materials and ingredients to maintain high quality of the foodstuff. The PSU says the best of industry professionals will man its kitchen. It will adhere to HACCP/ISO 22000 (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) standards, and will also have in-house state-of-the-art lab and R&D facilities.

Buoyed by reasonably priced fare coupled with stringent hygienic standard, IRCTC is hopeful that it will give stiff competition to major airline catering units. "It will be providing a tailored catering service for all corporate occasions with a focus on quality and presentation....Anything from a simple sandwich luncheon to a formal executive boardroom spread," said an official.

According to its preliminary survey, there are around 250 offices and educational institutions located in and around Noida that will be catered by the central kitchen. "There is a great potential for the catering business in the satellite town since a large number of managers, executives and BPO employees are working in the area," said an official.

Kavveri Telecom completes Rymsa acquisition

BANGALORE: Kavveri Telecom on Saturday said it has completed its acquisitions in Europe with the purchase of Rymsa Telecom Business of Radiacion y Microondas.

It will invest euro 20 million in Rymsa and the acquisition coincides with the launching of 3G in India, Kavveri Telecom MD Shivashankar Reddy told reporters here.

The acquisition significantly enhances Kavveri's antenna product portfolio and expands the existing sales channels for its group of companies in Europe and Latin America, the two key geographical markets, he said.

Adding that Rymsa has technology that would enhance tower handling capacity of operators, which help bringing down cost, Reddy said Kavveri would create separate manufacturing facility for Rymsa requirements at its existing plant in the city.

Kavveri achieved revenue of Rs 315 crore in 2010-11 and profit before tax at Rs 38 crore, he said.

Rymsa Director General Miguel Sanchez Morga said the firm was already supplying 4G equipments in Europe.

Ranbaxy Laboratories falls on payment concerns to Teva Pharmaceuticals, delay in settlment with FDA

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: A day after Ranbaxy Laboratories launched its low-cost version of the world's best selling drug Lipitor in the US, its share price fell 1.66% due to concerns about payment to Teva Pharmaceuticals and delay in settlement with US authorities.

A Teva spokesman on Friday clarified that his company was not supplying ingredients to Ranbaxy for making the Lipitor clone, resulting in some analysts criticising the Indian drug maker for its profit sharing agreement with the Israeli company.

"Teva is getting the money for the security they assured, but without any services,'' said Centrum Broking's Ranjit Kapadia. But a Citigroup report said 'the disquiet over profit sharing to Teva is overdone'. "We believe Ranbaxy's agreement with Teva was an insurance policy to safeguard against the uncertainty surrounding Ranbaxy's generic Lipitor ANDA approval," said the report.

A similar point was made by Kotak Securities who in a note on Thursday said Ranbaxy had allied with Teva as a backup in case it approvals were held back because of its manufacturing issued with the US Food and Drug Administration. Some analysts had reduced their estimates about how much Ranbaxy would make from the drug on assumptions that it may have to pay as much as $130 million to Teva.

" But the amount will be quite small compared to what is being speculated because Ranbaxy is not using Teva's services," an industry analyst said. Analysts are disappointed that a comrehensive settlement on all of Ranbaxy's outstanding issues with the drug regulator had not come through.

"We expected clarity on the settlement along with the generic Lipitor approval. That would have allowed Ranbaxy to resume selling drugs from its two Indian plants," said Kapadia In 2008, the FDA banned 30 drugs and halted approval of new ones from two Indian plants after it found the Daiichi Sankyo-owned firm guilty of violating US drug manufacturing rules.

This had threatened the company's ability to get regulatory approval for manufacturing atorvastatin (chemical name for Lipitor), as the ban included the plant where it had originally planned to manufacture the drug. The Gurgaon-based firm closed at. 436.75 on Friday at the BSE. Meanwhile, the aggressive marketing tactics of Lipitor's original drug maker Pfizer Inc have come under the scanner of some US senators.

Three senate members have sought details of the deal between Pfizer, Pharma Benefit Companies and Insurance Companies, who had asked pharmacies not to sell generic versions. "By working with manufacturers to push brand-name drugs, PBM may be abusing Medicare to boost their profits and denying generic alternatives to patients," said Max Baucus chairman Senate Finance Committee in a press statement.

Andrew Levermore, the expat CEO of Bharti Retail puts in his papers

He's moved out of Bharti, and Bharat too. In a sudden move, Andrew Levermore, the expat CEO of Bharti Retail, has put in his papers and is headed back to home country, South Africa. Levermore had joined the fully-owned subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises as chief operating officer in July 2010.

Says a Bharti spokesperson: "We can confirm that Andrew Levermore has moved on from Bharti Retail as he wanted to return to South Africa to start his own business venture. The company will appoint an appropriate replacement in due course." This is Levermore's second exit from India. The first was in mid-2008 when he quit K Raheja's HyperCity Retail after a four-year stint. Any bets on whether he will be back a third time?

Infra Sector faces huge shortage of engineering and managerial talent

BANGALORE: India's real estate, construction and infrastructure industry, which is set for big investments over the next five years, faces a huge shortage of engineering, architectural and managerial talent.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), a professional body which regulates property professionals and surveyors, in a recent report, spells out a big demand-supply gap for qualified professionals. Nearly 45 million core construction professionals are required to meet the demand between 2010 and 2020, but there is a cumulative demand-supply gap of 44 million core professionals over the decade.

This demand-supply gap could seriously hamper the growth of real estate, construction and infrastructure sectors in India. "By 2020, India will need over 5 million civil engineers, architects and planners, but will be able to produce less than 1 million," the report says.

"The projected shortage of various built-environment professionals becomes cause for concern as it threatens the sustainability of high growth sectors of real estate, construction and infrastructure," said Sachin Sandhir, MD, RICS South Asia.

With India's population estimated to increase to 1.38 billion, with 36% of this comprising the urban population, 95 billion s ft of real estate space across residential, commercial, industrial and civil amenities will be required by 2020. "To deliver potential real estate space and planned infrastructure, India would need nearly 4 millioncivil engineers, 3,96,000 architects and 1,19,000 planners on an average over the next decade. However, the corresponding average supply would only be 6,42,000 civil engineers, 65,000 architects and 18,000 planners," the report said.

While real estate and infrastructure projects have seen a big pump-in, lower salaries compared to other sectors results in a lack of interest among students, thus creatingshortage. Further, fewer colleges and shortage of trained faculty coupled with formalised incentive structures for construction professionals have added to the industry's woes..

Of the nearly 50 million working in the sector now, only 2 million are professionally qualified, with the rest being primarily unskilled workers.

"Over the last 3 years, while working on urban renewal issues, a challenge that has come to light is the lack of capacity at every level," said Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson, High Powered Committee on Urban Infrastructure, Ministry of Urban Development.

Khana Khazana plans to operate 150 restaurants in three years

NEW DELHI: Celebrity chef and entrepreneur Sanjeev Kapoor is expanding operations of restaurant business with plans to operate 150 outlets under different brands in the next three years.

The chef, who is the promoter of Khana Khazana India Pvt Ltd, plans to launch three new bands of restaurants in different formats.

"Going ahead, in the next three years we would want to have 150 restaurants under various brands by way of joint ventures, franchise and company-owned outlets," Kapoor told PTI on the sidelines of Franchise India summit here.

Currently, the company operates 20 restaurants under two brand names -- Khazana and Yellow Chilli, most of which are franchise operated.

Asked about investments for the expansion, he said the total required would be around Rs 100 crore but did not provide the break-up of the portions to be made by the company and its partners.

Commenting on the new brands, he said a Chinese cuisine eating joint under the Pinyin Cafe brand will be first opened in Mumbai.

Another fine dining restaurant branded ' Signature by Sanjeev Kapoor' will be opened at a 5-Star hotel in Dubai in the next one month, he said.

A third one, 'Fure Vie', a lounge is also ready for soft launch in Delhi, Kapoor added.

He also said the firm, which is already running a food channel called 'Food Food', has got license for another channel and is at present working to launch it. He, however, did not share details.

ITC to build $300 million hotel in Lankan capital

COLOMBO: ITC Ltd of India is to invest USD 300 million to set up a luxury hotel in Colombo, the government here today said.

The government has approved a USD 300 million foreign direct investment enabling the hotel to be built on 5 acres of land in close proximity to military headquarters in Colombo's famous Galle Face landmark beachfront on a 99-year lease.

"ITCL is a reputed hotel investment group in India, with investments and hotel in India. The government hopes that its presence in Sri Lanka will be a significant contribution toward promoting FDI and the tourism industry in the country," the government information department said.

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka is to enter a Memorandum of Understanding with ITCL enabling the firm to execute the project under concessionary tax terms with permitted exemptions on investments.

This block of land was earlier allocated to China Aviation Technology Import Export Corporation (CATIC) for USD 73.5 million for a similar project.

The Chinese firm later withdrew and the Sri Lankan government is in the process of reimbursing USD 54.4 million dollars already paid by CATIC for the lease of land.

FDI in retail: India awaits world's biggest furniture manufacturer 'Ikea'

Sitting on the toilet seat, Edward Norton in the 1999 film Fight Club is browsing through the Ikea catalogue. In a narrator's voice he observes, "Like so many others, I had become a slave to the Ikea nesting instinct. If I saw something clever like a little coffee table in the shape of a yin-yang, I had to have it."

It's this feeling, the 'Ikea nesting instinct', that Indians haven't experienced till now. Simply because we don't have an Ikea here. And going by president and CEO of Ikea, the Scandinavian home products giant, Mikael Ohlsson's quiet visit last week, it will be some time before we know that feeling.

The moment the floodgates opened for 100% FDI in single-brand retail, all eyes were on Ikea, which has been playing the waiting game to launch its India operations for some years now.

On November 27, PTI reported that Ohlsson will be visiting India to "announce strategic initiative for Indian market". The furore over retail reforms has mainly been addressing the 51% FDI in multi-brand retail. The move to increase FDI to 100% in single-brand retail largely went unnoticed. Yet, Ohlsson, probably persuaded by the current political climate, came and went last week, without any "strategic" announcement.

An Ikea spokesperson said, "Ikea has decided to take some more time to plan its India strategy." Yet, Ikea is not exactly alien to India. How can it be? It's a brand that has 326 stores in 38 countries. And a catalogue print run that rivals Harry Potter books (197 million catalogues in 29 languages and 61 editions in 2010).


In 2009-10, it showed a profit of $23.1 billion, a 7.7% jump from the year before. Many Indians have managed to have Ikea furniture, ordering their local carpenter to copy iconic Lack tables, Billy bookcases or Malm dressers from the Ikea catalogue.

What's the Big Ikea?

In the West, Ikea has become the first furniture of any individual. The October 3, 2011, issue of The New Yorker had Lauren Collins dissect the brand, its philosophy and culture. Collins describes it as "Legos for grown ups, connecting the furniture of our adulthoods with the toys of our childhood." It's currently the world's biggest furniture and furnishing manufacturer and the third largest consumer of wood ahead of Walmart but behind Home Depot and Lowe's.

Did you know that one in 10 Europeans is conceived on an Ikea bed?

Furniture industry insiders in India too are waiting for Ikea. The industry joke is that local carpenters will get new ideas to copy after Ikea comes in. More seriously, and as Manish Parekh. executive director of @home by Nilkamal, a furniture & furnishing retailer . says, Ikea's entry will help the segment grow more organised.

"Our study shows, wherever Ikea has opened a store, it has helped to grow the market and all players flourish." Launched in 2005, @home is now 19 stores across 13 cities, the brand achieved its break-even last year. "There is definitely a shift towards organised furniture retailing. Growth rate of organised retail is much higher than the overall furniture industry," he says, "But in India, we need Ikea to educate customers about readymade furniture."

NTIPL closes its Chennai unit, shifts to new facility in Goa

PANAJI: NETZSCH Technologies India Pvt Ltd (NTIPL), a subsidiary of a German firm, has shifted its pump manufacturing facility from Chennai to Goa's Verna Industrial estate, a senior official said today.

Vivek Norman, Managing Director, NTIPL, told reporters here that the company has closed the Chennai plant, which had capacity to manufacture 300 pumps per annum and has shifted in a new facility at Goa, with a capacity to produce 1500 units per year.

NTIPL is into progressing cavity pumps, industrial rotary lobe pumps, macerators and griders. It is the subsidiary of the German based NETZSCH Group of Companies, which has a global turnover of 400 million Euros.

Norman said that the India turnover is 2.5 million Euros and it will grow by more than 30 per cent for this Financial Year (FY) due to the Goa facility.

"The key factor for success is that we should be close to the local market," he said adding that 800 units per year is the Indian sale of the company, which could be achieved with the new plant.

Norman said the company in India enjoys a market share of 25 per cent with a compounded annual growth rate of 32 per cent. The company has its sales and service offices across eight towns in India.

KEC International wins new orders worth Rs 147 crore in water, railway businesses

MUMBAI: KEC International (KEC), the flagship company of the RPG Group, today said it has won new orders worth Rs 147 crore in its emerging businesses - water and railways.

In the water business, the company has secured three new orders for construction of canals for irrigation projects in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh worth Rs 98 crore, the global infrastructure engineering, procurement and construction ( EPC) major said in a release issued here.

With this addition, the order book of this business has increased to Rs 178 crore.

In the railway business, the company secured an order for supply of railway track materials, tools and railway signalling equipment worth Rs 49 crore from the Kenya Railway Corporation. With this, the order book of this business has touched Rs 400 crore.

"We are delighted to secure these orders in our emerging businesses - water and railways. We see large opportunities in both these businesses. We started our Water business early this year and today we have total order book of Rs 178 crore," KEC International Managing Director and CEO Ramesh Chandak said in a release issued here.

In addition to this, the company is leveraging its strong international presence in T&D business for its emerging businesses, he said.

"This is the second international order in the railway business. Last year, we secured a railway order from Malaysia," he said.