Modern retail to touch Rs1,71,800 crore by 2019: Report

New Delhi: Modern retail in India is expected to double in size in three years to Rs 1,71,800 crore from the current Rs 87,100 crore across the top six retail markets of the country, largely driven by omni-channel retailing, said a report jointly published by property consultant Knight Frank India and lobby group Retailers Association of India (RAI).
These six markets include NCR (national capital region), Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.
According to the report titled ‘Think India. Think Connected Retail’ based on a survey of 45,000-50,000 shops (including malls and shopping streets) across top six cities, retail stores across the country (online and offline) are reinventing themselves to embrace the idea of omni-channel retailing. Consequently, penetration of modern retail is expected to “see a substantial rise from the current 19% to 24% in three years.” Omni-channel retailing extends to brick-and-mortar stores, smartphones, computers, tablets, direct mails and television.
The emergence of technology and increased use of plastic money and mobile wallets have been the key drivers behind the growth of omni-channel retailing, the report said.
Moreover, with initiatives like foreign direct investment (FDI) retail policy and state-level retail policies where “government is taking up the role of a facilitator to create an environment conducive to the retail business” has further helped the cause.
“The concept of shopping has undergone a tremendous change in terms of retail format and consumer buying behaviour thereby bringing in a new era of modern retail across the country. With the boundaries between offline and online stores blurring, omni-channel retailing is an idea whose time has come,” said Aditya Sachdeva, director, retail at Knight Frank India in a statement.
According to the report, brands which maintain an offline presence across the country have adopted or aspiring to adopt omni-channel strategy in the near future. Department store operator Shoppers Stop Ltd recently launched a Shoppers Stop mobile application and had re-launched its online shopping portal. The company is also looking to increase the contribution of online sales from current 1% to 10% in the next three years.
“Today’s time-poor customers are demanding a seamless navigation across channels. We are working proactively towards delivering an omni-channel experience to the customers,” said Govind Shrikhande, managing director at Shoppers Stop Ltd, in the report.
While brands like GAP, Woodland and Bestseller India-owned Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, Only & Selected Homme are following the same strategy, there are others like Swedish fast-fashion brand Hennes and Mauritz AB (H&M) who have decided to focus on just offline stores right now.
“With H&M offering online shopping in 35 markets out of the 64 markets that we are present in, online platform is a natural expansion of our business. We see a great potential for future growth in India in the online space but prefer to focus on retail stores for the moment,” observed Janne Einola country manager, H&M India Retail Pvt Ltd, in the report.

Manohar Parrikar pledges innovation fund to encourage defence start-ups

Bengaluru: The government will create a new technology innovation fund for defence aerospace aimed to prop up start-ups, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said while inaugurating the 11th Aero India show here on Tuesday.
“We are initiating a defence innovation fund with an initial contribution from HAL and BEL,” Parrikar said referring to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), “ The fund will support innovation and technology development in identifying areas and will be open to both Indian and foreign firms,” Parrikar said. He hoped that the fund will propel start-ups.
“The focus will be on start-ups to enable a culture of innovation,” Parrikar said without specifying the quantum.
The government, he said, is committed to revitalizing public sector defence firms.
“The government is committed to an environment for defence. The PSUs are being revitalized,” he said adding the role of private sector is also being expanded.
He said additional steps are underway to support the role of private sector in defence manufacturing as is apparent from several licences given out to the private sector, which is a “clear indication of the trend”.
He said he also expects foreign defence manufacturers to invest in this space and while a lot of liberalization has taken place already “more steps in coming few months” will be taken.
Around 270 Indian and 279 foreign firms are participating in the Aero India show, Asia’s largest.
Parrikar opened the air show with a traditional lamp ceremony followed by fly past and air display by fighter jets including Sukhoi Rafale Tejas and F16s besides other military helicopters.

Isro creates record, launches 104 satellites

New Delhi: India’s space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) successfully launched 104 satellites in a single mission on Wednesday, setting what it says is a world record of launching the most satellites at one go. Of the 104, 101 are foreign satellites to serve international customers as the South Asian nation seeks a bigger share of the $300 billion global space industry.
“This is a great moment for each and everyone of us. Today we have created history,” said project director B. Jayakumar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his congratulations on the launch conducted by the state-run Isro that went off smoothly and was carried live on national TV news channels. “This remarkable feat by ISRO is yet another proud moment for our space scientific community and the nation,” he said. “India salutes our scientists.”
Modi is bullish on India’s space programme and has repeatedly praised the efforts of scientists who three years ago pulled off a low-cost mission to send a probe to orbit Mars that succeeded at the first attempt.
Isro’s low prices attracted international customers to launch 75 satellites last year from Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
The launch of PSLV-C37 in a single payload, including the Cartosat-2 series and 103 co-passenger satellites, together weighed over 650kg. Out of 101 nano satellites, 96 were from the United States and one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

Economy to grow at 7.4% next fiscal: Ind-Ra

New Delhi: Indian Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) expects the Indian economy to grow at 7.4 per cent year-on-year in fiscal year 2017-18. The growth will be backed by consumption demand and government spending, leading to a growth of 3 per cent in agriculture sector, 6.1 per cent growth in industries and 9.1 per cent growth in the service sector. The final consumption expenditure is expected to grow at 8.9 per cent for the private sector and 9 per cent for the government. The Current Account Deficit (CAD) is expected to be 1 per cent of the GDP in 2017-18, as compared to 0.9 per cent in 2016-17.

Cairn India to invest US$ 1 billion in five projects to ramp up production

Mumbai: Cairn India Ltd (CIL), part of the Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group, will invest $1 billion in five projects that the company plans to develop shortly, acting chief executive officer, Sudhir Mathur, told analysts after the company's results were announced on 9 February.
"There are about five projects that we are very, very keen to initiate—the Raageshwari Deep Gas (RDG) project; the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) programme at Aishwariya fields, the EOR programme at Bhagyam and Barmer Hill and Aishwariya Barmer Hill, which is a tight oil. The cumulative capital spend could definitely be in excess of a $1 billion," said Mathur.
These projects constitute about 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent to 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent at peak production.
The investment, however, hinges on the extension of the production-sharing contract (PSC) of the Barmer oil and gas block in Rajasthan.
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is a partner in the block with 30% stake. Cairn India holds the rest (70%) in the block.
“Much as we believe that we should get it very soon now, but the projects cannot be viable till 2020, any one of these projects. So that's the only marker that stands in between,” Mathur added.
The Delhi high court had in November had directed the government to take a decision regarding extension of the (PSC) with Cairn India, to produce oil from a Rajasthan block till 2020.
“The government is supposed to come back on February 28, but the hearing subsequent to that is planned for March 31, if required,” Mathur told analysts.
Cairn is also scouting for oilfield service providers who could bring in technology as well as and provide an end-to-end solution or service in order to develop these fields.
“This will help Cairn optimize costs further by attracting a larger number of global oil field service companies with their niche expertise and technologies; provide a better coordination between vendor partners allowing efficient and time bound project execution and targeting a large number of projects simultaneously. The business opportunity is immense,” said Mathur.
The gestation of these projects would range between 16 and 24 months. "So to kick start, we could—possibly all of them at the same time, you could see peak production levels of 70,000 barrels from day one within about 18 months to 19 months," he added.
An analyst with a Mumbai-based domestic brokerage said financing these projects would not be an issue for Cairn India as the company is sitting on an impressive cash pile. Cairn’s free cash flow for the third quarter stood at Rs 15 billion.
Cairn’s revenue for the quarter increased 5% sequentially to Rs 21 billion on account of pickup in the Brent crude prices and improved discount to Brent for Rajasthan crude.
Average Brent price was up 8% over the quarter to $49.3 per barrel, resulting into 10% increase in our overall realization to $46 per barrel.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) stood at Rs 11 billion, highest in past six quarters with a 50% margin. Ebitda is an indication of a company’s profitability.
Net profit after tax stood at Rs 6 billion, a drop of 22% quarter-on-quarter. “The decline was largely due to foreign exchange and higher effective tax rate, which is only partially offset by the higher ebitda and lower depreciation,” the company said on the analyst call.

Govt allocates Rs 13,000 crore to DoT for BharatNet and NFS

New Delhi: As per the Output-Outcome Framework for Schemes 2017, 150,000 gram panchayats (GPs) will receive high speed broadband connectivity in 2017-18 on account of Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.94 billion) allocation by the government to the Department of Telecommunication (DoT). In addition, Rs 3,000 crore (US$ 448 million) has been set aside for laying optical fibre cable (OFC) and procuring equipment for the Network For Spectrum (NFS) project in 2017-18.

Early-stage start-ups will look to raise US$ 800 million in 2017: report

Bengaluru: Early-stage start-ups will seek to raise at least $800 million in 2017 as they stop blindly chasing growth and start looking for profitability, a report by venture debt firm InnoVen Capital said.
Venture capital funding in Indian start-ups last year plummeted by almost one-third from the heydays of 2015 and 2014, when venture capital firms queued up to invest at high valuations. According to a separate report by KPMG and CB Insights, a start-up intelligence firm, Indian start-ups raised $3.3 billion in 2016 across 859 deals, as against $8.2 billion across 890 deals in the previous year.
According to the survey by InnoVen Capital, the slowdown in funding was palpable with about 63% of the 175 respondents—founders of bootstrapped, angel-funded or series A and B start-ups—described the fund-raising experience last year as “unfavourable”. About 7% of the start-ups raised a bridge round, 9% ended up raising a sub-optimal round from new investors while 15% of the start-ups failed to raise any money.
“The environment is clearly pointing out that investors are becoming cautious about where to invest. This year won’t be too much different. Investors will invest in companies which have a path towards profitability or at least understand how to move towards profitability. Money is there and will continue to be there for companies which have scaled,” said Ajay Hattangdi, group chief operating officer and chief executive officer (India) of InnoVen.
About 94% of the respondents said they will try to raise money in 2017.
“There is also money available for great ideas. Where there will be relatively less money is companies which have missed milestones or me-too models which will have difficulty to differentiate,” he added.
Apart from demanding that start-ups slow expansion, slash costs and cut discounts, many venture capital firms are setting performance milestones; some investors are only releasing funds in instalments, Mint reported in January last year.
The slowdown in funding has also prompted many start-ups to shut shop or sell out to larger rivals. According to Tracxn, a start-up tracker, as many as 212 start-ups closed down in 2016, including grocery delivery start-up Peppertap and food delivery start-up Tinyowl, against 140 the previous year.
According to the InnoVen Capital report, about 53% of the start-ups with annual revenue of more than $1 million will focus on profitability this year, while the corresponding number for start-ups with more than $10 million in annual revenue stands at 75%. About 80% of the start-ups expect to turn profitable in the next two years.
The report also states that about one-third of the respondents expect to give an exit to investors through mergers and acquisitions, an indication that consolidation is likely to be the flavour of the season in 2017. To be sure, there were about 162 M&As in 2016, including Flipkart’s acquisition of fashion portal Jabong and MakeMyTrip’s acquisition of Ibibo Group’s India travel business, and 150 the previous year, according to Tracxn,
“Consolidation will happen. India until now hasn’t been an acquisitive market. At this point, there is a certain level of maturity among the companies. When they see a competitor being available for a particular price, it is a matter of time that people will see an opportunity in buying them out,” said Hattangdi.

Aero India starts in Bengaluru today, to focus on Make on India

New Delhi: The 11th edition of the Aero India air show which starts in Bengaluru on Tuesday is expected to be one of the largest in recent years, with a focus on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative.
Around 270 Indian and 279 foreign firms are slated to participate in the event where some major companies, including Airbus and Boeing Co, are expected to sign deals under the Make in India banner.
“It is expected that two lakh business visitors will attend the show. The gross area (of the show) has also increased from 2,50,000 sq. m to 2,60,000 sq. m,” the ministry of defence said in a statement.
While Modi had inaugurated the previous Bengaluru air show in 2015, defence minister Manohar Parrikar is likely to open it this year as the event coincides with election activity in several states.
The highlight of the show at the city’s Yelahanka Air Force Station will be fighter jets that make up a large part of the 72 aircraft being showcased. Among these will be Rafale fighter jets made by French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation SA. India bought 36 of these aircraft for an estimated $8.9 billion last year in a deal that has been negotiated several times over the years.
Dassault Aviation said three fighter jets will participate—one single-seat Rafale C and two of the two-seat Rafale B.
Rafale planes have been used by the French armed forces in combat operations for more than a decade. They entered service with the French Navy in 2004 and the Air Force in 2006. Some of the 152 planes delivered so far have been used in combat in Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq and Syria.
India had started hunting for multi-role fighter jets in 2007 but later decided to scrap that tender, instead announcing that it would buy Rafale jets from France under a government-to-government deal agreed during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Paris in 2015.
The combat aircraft—delivery of which is expected to begin in September 2019 and be completed by April, 2022—come equipped with state-of-the-art missiles such as Meteor and Scalp, according to the defence ministry.
With the air-to-air Meteor missiles, the Indian Air Force will be able to hit targets as distant as 150km, compared with the 80km it was so far capable of targeting. Scalp, an air-to-ground cruise missile with a range in excess of 300km, will also give IAF an edge over adversaries.
“Demonstrating Rafale’s capabilities in Aero India reaffirms our total commitment to India’s sovereignty. We have had a long standing relationship with Indian Air Force and industry and, thanks to the unmatched capabilities of the Rafale and to our full involvement in the innovative approach of the “Make in India” initiative, we are entirely dedicated to partner India in meeting its strategic defence and economic needs,” Eric Trappier, chairman and chief executive of Dassault Aviation said in a statement.
The Russian Sukhoi 30MKI, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Advanced Jet Trainers (AJT) Hawks are also likely to be present at the show.
But all eyes will be on American F-16s and Swedish Saab fighter jet Gripen E and its naval variant Gripen Maritime. Both companies are vying to bag the next multi-billion order from India under the so-called strategic partnership model according to which the manufacturer will be asked to set up an assembly line in India.
Airbus said it will showcase its H130 chopper ambulance on static display.
“The future of Indian aerospace and defence industry rests on the realization of the ‘Make in India’ vision. I look forward to having conversations around the topic at Aero India,” said Pierre de Bausset, president and managing director at Airbus India.
“We have partnered with Tata and Mahindra and are working with a host of other companies to script ‘Make in India’ success stories,” he added.
The firm said it procures about $500 million (about Rs3,400 crore) worth of products from India annually from around 45 suppliers, generating local employment for more than 6,000 people.
The Tata Group said all its key firms will participate in the event, including Tata Advanced Systems Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Advanced Materials Ltd, Tata Motors Ltd, Titan Co. Ltd, Tata Steel (Specialty Steel business in Europe), TAL Manufacturing Solutions Ltd and Tata Power Strategic Engineering Division.
The five-day show will have exhibitors from the US, France, UK, Russia, Israel, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Ukraine, Singapore, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, Italy, the UAE, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, Poland and Greece.
Indian Air Force’s Sarang Team,the Surya Kiran Team, the Scandinavian Air Show Team from Sweden and the Evolvkos Aerobatic Team from the UK will perform aerobatics at the show.
Aero India, which began in 1996, has become one of the largest air shows in Asia. This show is followed by one in Abu Dhabi and most international players move on to showcase their military ware there over the weekend.

Government IT spending in 2017 to grow 9.5% to US$ 7.8 billion: Gartner

New Delhi: The government in India is forecast to spend $7.8 billion on information technology (IT) in 2017, an increase of 9.5% over 2016, according to IT researcher Gartner Inc. This forecast includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data centre systems, devices and telecom services. Government comprises state and local governments and the central government.
The software segment includes enterprise resource planning , supply chain management, customer resource management, desktop, infrastructure, vertical specific software and other application tools. The software segment is expected to grow 15.7% in 2017 to reach $1 billion. Desktop will be the fastest growing segment with 16% growth in this category.
IT services (which includes consulting, software support, business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, implementation, and hardware support) is expected to grow 14.6% in 2017 to reach $2 billion, making it the largest segment within the IT spending category.
“Government spending on IT services will total $2,093 million in 2017, a 15% increase from 2016,” said Moutusi Sau, principal research analyst at Gartner. “The IT services market is led by growth in business process outsourcing.”

For Suzuki, India revenues beat Japan's

New Delhi: The strong double-digit ride is set to make India a bigger market for Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) in value than Japan, its home market. SMC’s Indian subsidiary, Maruti Suzuki, already sells more vehicles than SMC in Japan, and enjoys a greater market capitalisation over its parent. SMC is faced with a declining market in Japan, whereas its Indian subsidiary is seeing a capacity constraint, leading to a waiting period of several months for some of its best-selling models.
On overtaking SMC’s Japan revenue in the near future, Maruti Suzuki chairman R C Bhargava said, “This is not something that will come as a surprise to us. The home market of Suzuki (Japan) is stagnant. Our numbers will continue to grow faster.”
The sales revenue gap between Suzuki’s Japan and India operations narrowed down to $600 million in FY16, from $2.55 billion in FY15. In these two years, SMC’s Japan revenue grew 2 per cent to $9.29 billion, while Suzuki’s India net sales went up 33 per cent from $6.55 billion to $8.69 billion, data from SMC showed. This reduced the gap in revenue between Japan and India. Both SMC and Maruti Suzuki follow the April-March financial year.
SMC’s Japan revenue and India revenue also include its two-wheeler business, though Maruti Suzuki only operates the passenger vehicle business and the two-wheeler business is a separate subsidiary. The two-wheeler business is much smaller in India and accounts for annual revenue of about Rs 1,900 crore or about $280 million.
In the first quarter of the current financial year, SMC’s Japan revenue grew by a mere 1.1 per cent to 250 billion yen. This translates to Rs 15,625 crore. Maruti Suzuki’s net sales in the same quarter rose 12 per cent to Rs 14,654 crore. If we include the quarterly two-wheeler revenue of Rs 500 crore (approximately), the India revenue exceeds Rs 15,000 crore in Q1.
The Indian subsidiary’s net sales in the first half (H1) increased 21 per cent to Rs 32,280 crore as it sold 10.4 per cent more vehicles than the previous year. Other than the volume increase, a better product mix and lower discounts improved Maruti’s average realisation per vehicle in H1, FY17 to Rs 4,21,000, up 9.64 per cent from FY16, and contributed to higher sales revenue.
While SMC is yet to announce its Q2 results, Maruti Suzuki’s Q2 net sales have surged over 29 per cent to Rs 17,594 crore. SMC’s production in Japan declined 10.6 per cent during H1, due to declining sales in both domestic and export markets. With this decline, the H1 revenue from Japan is estimated to be at par or even lower to the India.
The H2 of the year will be more interesting and Maruti Suzuki’s capacity constraint will get eased with the commencement of production at its Gujarat unit in January next year. The new plant, in the first phase, will add an annual capacity of 250,000 units to the existing capacity of 1.5 million units between the company’s two plants at Gurgaon and Manesar in Haryana. The third plant will further expand Maruti’s volume and sales revenue.