Xiaomi largest exclusive brand network in India's offline market: Study

Xiaomi, a Chinese electronics-maker, has the largest brand network in the Indian offline market with 2500+ Mi store, 75+ Mi homes and 20+ Mi studio, as per the survey of 700 brands which was done by industry player, Channelplay.

In a study of 11 products-based industries, South-Korea's electronics major Samsung emerged as a second most dominant player, followed Café Coffee Day (CCD), Dominos India and Bata which made up the top five.

The study indicated that among these top 5 brands with the largest exclusive retail network in India, Xiaomi was 44 per cent bigger than the Samsung and 48 per cent than CCD.

"The growth in offline retail is largely motivated by the increasing need of experiential buying by Indian consumers. A large proportion of consumers prefer a physical product experience before buying while some are reluctant in making financial transactions online, especially for high value products. This has largely established the need for brand experience store," said, Mr. Sundeep Holani, CEO, Channelplay, a retail and channel solution provider.

In Indian smartphone market, Xiaomi has grabbed the top spot with the share of 26 per cent, followed by Samsung’s share which is of 20 per cent.

Finance Minister Launches two new IT Initiatives -ICEDASH & ATITHI for improved monitoring and pace of Customs clearance of imported goods and facilitating arriving international passengers

Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman today unveiled two new IT initiatives – ICEDASH and ATITHI – for improved monitoring and pace of Customs clearance of imported goods and facilitating arriving international passengers by electronic filing of Customs baggage and currency declarations. Minister of State, Finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Secretary (Revenue), senior officials of CBIC and members of trade and industry were present.

Speaking on the occasion at the CBIC's DG Systems office here in New Delhi, Finance Minister lauded the measures taken by CBIC to leverage technology for providing better taxpayer services. She was particularly appreciable of the work being done in the Network Operation Centre and Security Operation Centre. Finance Minister also mentioned that the significant improvement in India's global ranking in the Trading Across Border is in no small measure on account of the IT and other reforms carried out by CBIC. She also expressed optimism that both ICEDASH and ATITHI would be key drivers for further improvement especially as they reduce interface and increase transparency of Customs functioning. She added that ATITHI would create a tech savvy image of India Customs and would encourage tourism and business travel to India. Finance Minister further urged the officers to develop IT based insights for focused policy making.

Shri Anurag Thakur commended the work being done by officers of DG Systems, CBIC and noted that the ATITHI app will facilitate hassle free and faster clearance by Customs at the airports and enhance the experience of international tourists and other visitors at our airports. He added that the CBIC must strive to use technology in each sphere of its activity and while facilitating genuine business it must identify ways to detect and stop frauds especially in GST.

Dr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Secretary (Revenue) stated that technology is key to improving governance in today's times and acknowledged CBIC’s efforts in bringing technology to the forefront while also being serious about information security. Shri P.K. Das, Chairman, CBIC informed about CBIC's steps to make the Department more IT savy with an aim to further improve the ease of doing business.

About ICEDASH & ATITHI:
ICEDASH is an Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) monitoring dashboard of the Indian Customs helping public see the daily Customs clearance times of import cargo at various ports and airports. With ICEDASH, Indian Customs has taken a lead globally to provide an effective tool that helps the businesses compare clearance times across ports and plan their logistics accordingly. This dashboard has been developed by CBIC in collaboration with NIC. ICEDASH can be accessed through the CBIC website.

With ATITHI, CBIC has introduced an easy to use mobile app for international travellers to file the Customs declaration in advance. Passengers can use this app to file declaration of dutiable items and currency with the Indian Customs even before boarding the flight to India. ATITHI is available on both, iOS and Android.

Prime Minister Meets Japanese PM Shinzo Abe

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi met the Prime Minister of Japan, H.E. Mr. Shinzo Abe on the margins of India-ASEAN and East Asia Summit 2019 at Bangkok on 04 November 2019. The two leaders have met with each other thrice in the last about four months, and their previous meeting was in Vladivostok in September 2019.

The Prime Minister congratulated Prime Minister Abe on the recent coronation of the Emperor of Japan. Prime Minister Abe recalled warmly the participation of the President of India in the ceremony.

Prime Minister Modi said that he eagerly looked forward to welcoming Prime Minister Abe in India next month for India-Japan Annual Summit. He also said that he was convinced of the success of the forthcoming Annual Summit in further deepening the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership.

The leaders welcomed the increasing economic engagement between the two countries, propelled by high-level exchanges. The leaders also reviewed the progress on Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project and reaffirmed their commitment to advance mutual efforts to facilitate the smooth implementation of the project.

The leaders welcomed that the inaugural 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue will take place later this month in India. They agreed that the Dialogue will help provide impetus to the bilateral security and defence cooperation between the two sides.

The two Prime Ministers also reaffirmed their commitment towards a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region based on a rules-based order. They agreed to further strengthen the bilateral cooperation, including in third countries, for achieving the shared objective of peace, prosperity and progress of the Indo-Pacific region.

Greater momentum to cooperation with Japan.

Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and AbeShinzo met in Bangkok. Their talks were extensive and productive.

Aditya Birla Group celebrates 50 years in Thailand

Aditya Birla Group, a diversified conglomerate, celebrated its 50 years of operations in Thailand on Sunday.

The event was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with various other dignitaries from Thai and Indian Government. In Thailand, Aditya Vikram Birla had made a foray by setting up a spinning unit.

In Southeast Asian country, Aditya Birla Group has propelled to become one of the largest diversified enterprises with its nine plants spanning diverse sectors such as textiles, carbon black and chemicals.

Addressing a gathering here, Mr. Narendra Modi stated "We are here in Thailand with whom India has a strong cultural linkage. And, we are marking 50 years of a leading Indian industrial business in Thailand. This reaffirms my belief that commerce and culture have inherent powers to unite".

In the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Aditya Birla Group Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla said, it was a matter of great pride to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Aditya Birla Group (ABG) in Thailand. He further added, "We are grateful to the Kingdom for their unflinching support over the years. The last 50 years have continually reinforced the richness of Thai talent and the support of the government for business, and our commitment to Thailand is demonstrated by the US$ 2 billion dollars of investment we have made over the years".

As per Birla, the success of Aditya Birla Group in Thailand has been predicated on the commitment and dedication of close to 4,000 employees and added, "As a group, we continue to remain deeply invested in Thailand’s growth and development".

The presence of Aditya Birla Group is in 36 countries and has more than 1.2 lakh employees from 42 nationalities. More than 50 per cent of the ABG's global revenue comes from the overseas operations.

Siemens signs MoUs with NTPC, TERI on decarbonisation, energy transition

In order to identify, evaluate and set up reference use cases of hydrogen sector-coupling for various upstream and downstream application, Siemens Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NTPC Limited.

The alliance is targeted at developing innovative technologies, solutions and techniques to reduce the dependence on hydrocarbons in India.

For the collaboration on technologies to support the energy transition in India including sector-coupling, Siemens has also signed a separate MoU with TERI. The aim behind signing the MoU with TERI is to realise the research and technology development projects to enable the energy transitions across electricity, transport and industrial sectors.

Mr. Sunil Mathur, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Limited stated that, "One of the most important challenges today is the decarbonisation of the global ecosystem. We take great pride in collaborating with NTPC and TERI as we believe technology will be a key contributor towards creating a carbon neutral society in India. This is also a huge step towards the sustainable development of existing and future power systems enabling efficiency, flexibility and sustainability".

Assets under management of MFIs to grow 40-45 per cent in FY20: Report

Irrespective of the challenges faced by the NBFC sector, the Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), which offer financial services to the low-income population, is expected to record healthy growth for the second year in a row in FY20.

According to the Brickwork Ratings, the MFI segment will witness a growth, as it is expected that the assets under management (AUM) will grow in the range of 40-45 per cent in the current fiscal.

Major drivers for the growth in this fiscal year include availability of credit, expectations of reduced interest rates and a disciplined collection and recovery model. Also, the RBI has recently proposed to increase the household income limit for eligible borrowers and has raised the permissible indebtedness of borrowers, which augurs well for the growth momentum.

The AUM of the microfinance industry has seen a growth of 47 per cent y-o-y in FY19 aided by an increase in the client base (up 34 per cent to 3.17 crore), coupled with disbursement of higher ticket size loans (up 13 per cent). In contrast, other NBFCs have struggled with liquidity since September 2018.

The presence of MFIs has been increased by expansion of their client base in under-penetrated states such as Rajasthan, Assam, Jharkhand and Gujarat along with expansion in new districts in states where they were already present.

Eastern India has witnessed growth at a much faster rate as compared to the overall growth rate (47 per cent) as the AUM in Bihar (77 per cent), Odisha (40 per cent), West Bengal (83 per cent), Jharkhand (53 per cent) and Assam (167 per cent) grew rapidly. These five states contributed almost 40 per cent to the total AUM, the report said.

The demand for credit in rural areas has seen an increase and accounts for around 75 per cent of the total AUM. The average loan amount disbursed per account has increased to Rs 25,543 (US$ 365) in FY19, as compared to Rs 15,419 (US$ 220) in FY16. This increase in ticket size of loans is also a driving factor for growth of AUMs.

Mature markets that have historically seen growth in client additions such as Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal, are expected to witness a higher ticket size loans. Thus, the growth in near future is likely to be driven by client additions in new under-penetrated geographies, and higher ticket size loans in states with a big presence.

In FY19, MFIs raised an important proportion of their liabilities through securitisation in order to keep their liquidity position in-check.

Although, there was a slowdown in growth from 35 per cent in FY16 to 20 per cent in FY17 mainly due to demonetisation, the growth in FY18 rebounded. Since then, the growth momentum has continued in FY19 and is expected to sustain in FY20 as well.

The small ticket size loans that are mainly given to the poor in rural, semi-urban and urban areas are known as microfinance loans. The borrowers eligible for the loans disbursed by an MFI are those whose rural household annual income does not exceed Rs 1,00,000 (US$ 1430) (proposed to be increased to Rs 1,25,000(US$ 1788)), or those whose urban and semi-urban household income does not exceed Rs 1,60,000 (US$ 2290) (proposed to be increased to Rs 2,00,000 (US$ 2862)). These are unsecured loans i.e. given without any collateral.

First ever movement of container cargo on Brahmaputra (National Waterway -2)

In line with Government's focus on improving connectivity to the North Eastern Region (NER), a landmark container cargo consignment will sail on inland waterways from Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) to the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) terminal at Pandu in Guwahati on 4 November 2019.

Shri Gopal Krishna, Secretary (Shipping) will flag off the inland vessel MV Maheshwari carrying 53 TEUs (containers) of petrochemicals, edible oil and beverage etc. The 12-15 days voyage will be an integrated IWT movement via National Waterway-1 (river Ganga), NW-97 (Sunderbans), Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route and NW-2 (river Brahmaputra). This is the first ever containerised cargo movement on this Inland Water Transport (IWT) route. The 1425 km long movement is expected to establish the technical and commercial viability of IWT mode using these multiple waterways even as a series of pilot movements are planned on the stretch. The latest IWT movement is aimed at providing a fillip to North East Region's industrial development by opening an alternate route for transportation of raw material and finished goods.

Taking ahead the Government's vision of promoting IWT, the first consignment of containerized cargo on National Waterway-1 (Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system) was received by the Prime Minister on 12 November 2018 when he dedicated to the nation, the Multi Modal Terminal at Varanasi. IWT on NW-1 has witnessed healthy growth with the augmentation of navigation capacity of Ganga under Jal Marg Vikas Project. The traffic on NW-1 has grown from 5.48 million tonne in 2017-18 to 6.79 million tonne in 2018-19. Out of the total traffic of 6.79 million tonne on NW-1, approximately 3.15 million tonne is the EXIM trade between India and Bangladesh using the Indo Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) routes.

The Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT) between India and Bangladesh allows mutually beneficial arrangements for the use of their waterways for movement of goods between the two countries by vessels of both countries. The IBP route extends from Kolkata (India) on NW-1 to Silghat (Assam) on NW-2 (River Brahmaputra) and Karimganj (Assam) on NW-16 (River Barak).Two stretches of Bangladesh inland waterways viz. Sirajganj-Daikhawa & Ashuganj-Zakiganj on the IBP route are being developed at a total cost of Rs 305.84 Cr. on 80:20 cost sharing basis (80 per cent being borne by India & 20% by Bangladesh). The development of these two stretches is expected to provide seamless navigation to and from North East India through waterways via the IBP route. The contracts for dredging on the two stretches have been awarded for achieving and maintaining requisite depth.

In addition to the above, India and Bangladesh have taken major steps to enhance utilization of waterways in the recent past. These include agreement on declaration of additional Ports of Call under PIWT&T at Kolaghat, Dhulian, Maia, Sonamura in India, and Chilmari, Rajshahi, Sultanganj, Daukhandi in Bangladesh. Both countries have also agreed on the following : -

i. Badarpur as an extended port of call of Karimganj (Assam, India) and Ghorasal of Ashuganj in Bangladesh.

ii. Tribeni as an extended port of call of Kolkata, India and Muktarpur of Pangaon in Bangladesh.

iii. Protocol route no.5 & 6 i.e. Rajshahi-Godagari-Dhulian to be extended upto Aricha (Bangladesh).

iv. Inclusion of Daudkhandi-Sonamura stretch on Gumti river as new route no. 9 & 10.

An SOP to facilitate the movement of goods to and from India through Chattogram and Mongla Ports in Bangladesh has been signed by the two countries on 5th October 2019. The proximity of these two ports will reduce logistics cost and improve trade competitiveness of North East states.

AYUSH Minister Inaugurates National Research Institute of Unani Medicine for Skin Disorders

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH Shri Shripad Yesso Naik inaugurated today National Research Institute of Unani Medicine for Skin Disorders (NRIUMSD) upgraded from Central Research Institute of Unani Medicine (CRIUM) at AG Colony Road, Erragadda, Hyderabad. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri G. Kishan Reddy was also present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Naik lauded success of the CRIUM in the treatment of vitiligo and other chronic and stubborn diseases and said that it's perhaps the only medical institution in the world which has treated more than 1.5 lakh patients of Vitiligo alone.

In his address, Shri G. Kishan Reddy called the researchers to find safe and viable solutions to prevalent health challenges, such as vector borne diseases, non- communicable diseases, cancer and tuberculosis.

Addressing the audience, Additional Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH Shri Pramod Kumar Pathak highlighted current health challenges and urged all to exploit the potential of Unani Medicine in addressing them through its cost-effective remedies.

Earlier in his welcome address, Prof. Asim Ali Khan, Director General, Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) said that the NRUMSD has been upgraded from the Central Research Institute of Unani Medicine (CRIUM) to a premier institute under the CCRUM.

Indian Oil to open retail outlets in Saudi Arabia in JV with Al Jeri

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has entered into an equal joint venture with the Riyadh-based Al Jeri Group in order to expand its retail presence in West Asia. The first retail outlet is expected to be set within six months in Saudi Arabia.

At least 200 retail outlets are planned to be initially set by both companies. This comes at a time when the Saudi's national oil company Saudi Aramco is planning to enter into the Indian downstream market through a tie-up with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries.

The agreement was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, between IOC's West Asian unit and the Al Jeri group, which is a local company having specialisation in transport and delivery of bulk petroleum products as well as other bulk transports.

Mr. Gurmeet Singh, IOC's director (marketing) said, "This will be a 50:50 joint venture as local regulations require a partner from Saudi Arabia for retail entry. We will also sell our lubricants in that country; we currently do that through an agent." He added that the within next six months the first outlet should be set as for now the companies are waiting for some local clearances. "We have not decided on the number of outlets that we are going to come up with," Singh further added.

Al Jeri is the biggest transporter of Aramco products in the region and at present carry more than 28 per cent of the company's products. The cross-border service is also provided by the company at all major Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) border crossings. Mr. Singh added, "There is enough local demand in both fuel and lubricant space in Saudi".

Currently, IOC has marketing subsidiaries in countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and Mauritius and was also looking to enter into fuel marketing and retail business in Myanmar. Myanmar Petroleum Products Enterprise (MPPE) earlier invited private companies to form a joint venture for import, storage, distribution and sale of all petroleum products and thus IOC planned its entry in the country. IOC is also in the process of laying a pipeline between Raxaul in Bihar and Amlekhgunj in Nepal for an annual capacity of 1.3 million tonnes.

Indian market has attracted many other companies including Russian giant Rosneft, French major Total, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) apart from Aramco. Many foreign players, including Saudi Aramco, BP, ExxonMobil and Total, are also likely to show their interest in the proposed strategic sale of government-controlled Bharat Petroleum Corporation.

PepsiCo India wins US award for saving more than 17 billion litres of water

US Secretary of State, Mr. Mike Pompeo presented the prestigious Award for Corporate Excellence to PepsiCo India in order to acknowledge the efforts of the company, as it saved more than 17 billion of litres of water through community water programs that has a positive impact on thousands of community members.

The ACE was Established in 1999 and recognizes those US companies that act as a responsible member of their communities where they do business and maintain those high standards.

"Today we honour one of PepsiCo's regional arms, PepsiCo India. It is India's largest purchaser of potatoes. And it uses this to power good, sourcing sustainably from 24,000 small Indian farmers. It also has a program aimed at replenishing water in stressed areas, through which it has restored nearly five billion litres of water", said Mr. Pompeo.

Chambers Federation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Procter and Gamble Asia Pacific in Singapore and Agilis Partners in Uganda were the other recipients of the award.

Mr. Pompeo added, "Our four winners today demonstrate the power of free enterprise. They demonstrate to our foreign partners that working with our businesses is a path to prosperity and stability."

According to him, these companies highlights the America's free market values by producing good jobs in the United States and around the world, investing sustainably, operating transparently, and providing the highest quality products and services in the world.

PepsiCo India won globally for its sustainable operations in the multinational enterprise category for its sustainable farming initiative in India.

The company has worked with community water programs in order to save more than 17 billion litres of water and also replenishing over 5 billion litres of water, affecting positively around 60,000 community members.