<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
								<rss version="2.0">
									<channel>
									<title>Business & Economy</title>
									<link>http://www.fropper.com/ezBlog/arth_16c</link>
									<description>World of Business</description>
									<language>en-us</language>
									<pubDate>Wed,  7 May 2008 19:21:20 +0000</pubDate>
									<lastBuildDate>Thu,  1 Jan 1970 05:29:59 +0000</lastBuildDate>
				
					<item>
						<title>25 Capsules</title>
						<link>http://www.fropper.com/post/14988</link>
						<description><![CDATA[          Date: 7th May,2008&nbsp;   1. Aircel of India which is a 74:26 JV between Maxis Communications Berhard of Malaysia and Apollo Hospital Enterprises is planning to raise about $1.6 billion by issuing an IPO.   2. Financial engineering course will be launched by Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad along with University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for middle level and senior level executives who are in the financial services from July 2008; the course fee will be Rs 5 lakh per participant.   3. DLF, a real estate player in India, to enter into a JV with Piquadro, an Italian luggage and leather accessories maker, as a part of its retail strategy.   4. Air India is planning to increase its domestic fare by 10%.   5. Tata motors Indigo sedan sale has increased by 43% to 3763 units in April 2008 as compared to April 2007.   6. French Luxury watch and jewelry maker Cartier&nbsp;to open a boutique in Delhi.   7. Reliance communications has signed a deal with GSM handset players Samsung, Spice, Sony Ericsson, LG, Fly Mobile, Motorola and HTC for handset retailing in the existing 8 circles in India; agreement with Nokia will also be signed shortly.   8. The handset market in India is all set to cross 100 million in 2008 as against last year&rsquo;s 70-75 million units.   9. Reliance Communications is planning to sell 15-20 million GSM handsets in its 2500 retail outlets.   10. From January to March 2008 about 27 million new mobile subscribes were added in India.   11. Koutons Retail of India is planning to open about 30 stores in Middle-East by the end of 2008.   12. Techled and the consumer durable industry in India is estimated to be Rs 35,000 crore; the organized sector contributes Rs 2500 crore.   13. In spite of rupee becoming stronger against dollar in India, total exports may still rise by 25-30%.   14. 65% of leather products are exported to European countries from India.   15. Despite high inflation consumption of products by Indian consumers is growing.   16. Recruitment in sectors like retail, FMCG, entertainment and media is growing rapidly in India.   17. The growth in the world economy will slow down to 3.7% according to International Monetary Fund (IMF).   18. The number of BlackBerry service users in India are 1, 14,000.   19. Research-in-motion (RIM), a Canadian firm, is the maker of Blackberry.   20. RIM has total subscriber base of about 14 million worldwide.   21. BlackBerry services in India are provided Vodafone Essar, Bharti Airtel, BPL Mobile and Reliance Communications.   22. There were 261.09 million wireless subscribers in India according to Trai by the end of March 2008.&nbsp;  23. Vodafone to sell Apple&rsquo;s iPhone in 10 countries including Greece, South Africa, Australia, Italy, Egypt, India, Turkey, New Zealand, Czech Republic and Portugal.   24. Spice Visa Status launched by Spice telecom will provide visa status to its subscribers.   25. Subscribers can get the Visa status on Spice by sending an SMS; the charges per SMS will be Rs13 and both the prepaid and the post paid customers can avail the service.&nbsp;   Purushottam Kumar ]]></description>
						 <pubDate>Wed,  7 May 2008 19:21:20 +0000</pubDate>
					</item>
					
					<item>
						<title>25 Capsules</title>
						<link>http://www.fropper.com/post/14908</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Date: 6 th May,2008  1. The processed food industry of India will attract an investment of Rs 95,000 crore in coming three years.   2. BG India which is a part of British Gas group is to spend $1 billion for oil exploration.   3. Educomp Solutions of India to spend Rs 125 crore in setting up 500 tutorial centers by the year 2010.   4. Berkshire Hathaway of United States registered a loss of $1.6 billion in the derivatives in the Q1-2008.   5. Rites, an Indian public sector undertaking, to spend Rs 200crore in the rolling stocks in coming 18 months.   6. Profit After tax of PTC India for Q4 2007-08 was Rs 19.22 crore, an increase of 231% when compared to Q4 2006-07 which was Rs 5.80crore.   7. Microsoft withdraws its bid to acquire Yahoo.   8. Network 18&rsquo;s in-house unit Cell will now be a separate division and will be known as Cell 18&nbsp;  9. Inox leisure, a multiplex chain, to spend Rs 400-450 crore to increase its screen from 76 to 264 by the year 2011.   10. IT and BPO revenue of India to reach $132 billion by the year 2012.   11. IT export to Mideast is set to grow by 30%.   12. To rein inflation RBI, India&rsquo;s central bank, increased CRR by 25 basis point (8.25%) to suck out Rs 9000 crore from the system.   13. Reserve Bank of India to launch an India Pay credit card by 2009.   14. Wadhawan group of India which is in real estate and retail business is to spend Rs 3500 crore to launch new restaurants and open luxury retail outlets.   15. Steel Authority of India (SAIL) pulls out of Indian Steel Alliance (ISA) to distance itself from the controversy of forming cartels.   16. State governments of India along with retail and real estate players is to invest Rs 1000-1500 crore in the financial year 2009 on the self &ndash;serve technology.   17. Every year about two million obsolete computer units originate in India.   18. Actuarial process outsourcing (APO) in India will grow by 100% by the end of year 2008.   19. Department of Telecommunications (DOT) of India favors existing telecom operators for 3G license.   20. ULIP sale in India decreases in the year 2007-08.   21. Private life insurance companies in India registered a growth of 74% in 2007-08.   22. Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and TCS posted profit (PAT) of more than $1 billion in the financial year 2008 according to Economic Times.   23. Spice Mobile of India to invest Rs 100cr in brand building.   24. Telekom Malaysia which at present has 39.2% stake in Spice Communications (India) wants to increase it to 51%.   25. Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) to use IT to automate its process to improve delivery.&nbsp;   Purushottam Kumar  ]]></description>
						 <pubDate>Tue,  6 May 2008 10:43:44 +0000</pubDate>
					</item>
					
					<item>
						<title>Business Updates</title>
						<link>http://www.fropper.com/post/14851</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Videocon&rsquo;s New Move:   Owing to increase in purchasing power Indian consumers are now consuming more and more. Venugopal Dhoot, chairman Videocon Group, does not want to be left behind. He has decided to foray into new markets in India like power, retail, DTH and telecom. How much success he gets only time will tell?   One of the biggest ambitions of Videocon is to become one of the top five brands in the consumer electronics segment. The group is to face stiff competition from Sony, LG and Samsung.   &bull; Videocon (India): $2.74billion.&nbsp;  &bull; Sony (Japan): $52.87billion. &nbsp; &bull; Samsung (South Korea): $63.4 billion.&nbsp;  &bull; LG (South Korea): $47. 45 billion.   Business of Steel&nbsp;  &bull; The demand for steel is growing very rapidly in India. It is estimated that by 2012 India will require 124 million tones of steel as against 50 million tones which is being consumed annually now.   &bull; ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel, BlueScope Steel and Essar Steel are planning to buy a stake in the PT Krakatau Steel of Indonesia.   &bull; ArcelorMittal, Luxembourg based world&rsquo;s largest steel producer, sold 509.8 million shares (17.4%) of China Oriental to Deutsche Bank and ING Bank NV. The move was meant to ensure that the company remains listed in Hong Kong. It is mandatory for any company to make a quarter of their shares available to public to remain listed in Hong Kong.   Foreign Direct Investment For Financial Year 2007-08  &bull; India: $ 24.57 billion&nbsp;  &bull; China: $82.70 billion. &nbsp; &bull; Brazil: $ 37.40 billion&nbsp;  &bull; Russia: $27.80 billion.   Microsoft vs. Yahoo&nbsp;  &bull; Microsoft gives up its plan to buy Yahoo. Microsoft had offered to pay $47.5 billion i.e. $33 per share.&nbsp;  &bull; However Roy Bostock, Yahoo Chairman demanded $37 per share which Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive of Microsoft, refused.&nbsp;  Business of Banks (SBI)&nbsp;  &bull; Net profit of State bank of India (SBI) was Rs 6729 crore in the financial year 2007-08 as against last years Rs 4541 crore.&nbsp;  &bull; SBI declared a dividend of 215% for the year 2007-08.&nbsp;  &bull; Deposits in the year 2007-08 was Rs 5, 37,406 crore as against Rs 4, 35,521 crore in the year 2006-07.&nbsp;  &bull; The credit card business is a 60:40 JV between State Bank of India and GE.&nbsp;   Purushottam Kumar    ]]></description>
						 <pubDate>Mon,  5 May 2008 01:23:52 +0000</pubDate>
					</item>
					
					<item>
						<title>Business Updates (India)</title>
						<link>http://www.fropper.com/post/14807</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Godrej Logo gets a new look   &bull; The signature of Ardeshir Godrej, the founder of Godrej Group, was the logo of the Godrej Brand which is 110 year old.   &bull; The signature which was red in color will now comprise of three different colors maroon, blue and green.   &bull; The new logo will make the brand more contemporary and will be more appealing feels Adi Godrej, Chairman of Godrej Group. .   &bull; Interbrand, a UK based brand consultant, has designed this new logo.   &bull; The move has cost the company Rs 4 crore.   &bull; For the fiscal year 2007 Godrej Group had a turnover of Rs 8800 crore.&nbsp;  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  Business of Gold   &bull; Tanishq: Jewelry business group promoted by TATA group.   &bull; Tanishq: It was started in 1995.   &bull; Is present in 61 cities and has 103 outlets in India.   &bull; Tanishq designed about 400 jewelry pieces for the movie Jodhaa-Akbar.   &bull; In India only 4 %( Rs 4000 crore) of jewelry business is organized.   &bull; Tanishq has a market share of about 50% in the organized sector in India.&nbsp;     Business of Books   &bull; Landmark book store sold to Tata promoted retail chain Trent.&nbsp;  &bull; Landmark was established in 1987 in Chennai.&nbsp;  &bull; In Bangalore, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Lucknow, Pune and Vadodara Landmark has a single store whereas in Chennai it has 3 stores.&nbsp;  &bull; The area of the store ranges from 12,000 square feet to 45,000 square feet.&nbsp;  &bull; Apart from books these stores also contains music albums, stationary, gifts and greeting cards.&nbsp;    &nbsp;&nbsp; ]]></description>
						 <pubDate>Sat,  3 May 2008 13:12:54 +0000</pubDate>
					</item>
					
					<item>
						<title>Entering US Market</title>
						<link>http://www.fropper.com/post/14799</link>
						<description><![CDATA[Opening up of the Indian economy in the year 1991 made Indians wealthier. But it was a tough time for many Indian companies. When the automotive sector was opened for the foreign players in 1993 then many Indian companies had to fight for survival.   M&amp;M (Mahindra and Mahindra) better known for its prowess in tractor making too had to face stiff competition. Perform or perish was the mantra. M&amp;M sensed the opportunity in the Utility Vehicle (UV)&nbsp;and Sports Utility Vehicle(SUV) segment and came up with Scorpio and Bolero. Undoubtedly the move has paid and today these two vehicles have occupied numero uno position in the UV/SUV segment in India.  Just look at the statistics:   &bull; Total number of UV and SUV sold in India till March 2008: 288,601.  &bull; M&amp;M sold 148,761 i.e. 51.54%.  &bull; Out of these Scorpios sold were 39,935.  &bull; Automotive division of M&amp;M contributes 61% in the company&rsquo;s revenue.    M&amp;M&rsquo;s Boleros, Scorpios and Scorpio pick-ups have gained popularity in South Africa.  In the last three years M&amp;M has sold around 9000 vehicles in South Africa worth Rs 301 crore.   Total number of vehicles exported by M&amp;M to Egypt, South Africa, Chile, Sri Lanka, Europe, Brazil and Nepal in the fiscal year 2008 was 12,000.   M&amp;M now wants to enter the US market as it believes that there is a niche for them in the mid-size SUV segment.   New Move:  &bull; M&amp;M is set to foray into the US market.  &bull; Target: To sell 10,000 vehicles in US in the year 2009.  &bull; Will spend Rs 200 crore to upgrade Scorpio for the US market.  &bull; Vehicle will be powered by mHawk engine  &bull; Vehicles will be T2B5 i.e. Tier 2 Bin 5 compliant-the emission standard which automobiles have to comply with in USA.  &bull; Will position itself in mid-size SUV market.  &bull; Will spend Rs 200 crore on promotional campaign.  &bull; Wants to create a niche for them in the US automotive market   Honda&rsquo;s CR-V and Toyota&rsquo;s RAV4 will be the main competitors for M&amp;M. The US consumers are very demanding. They are brand conscious. How enthusiastically they will accept a product that to from India only time will tell.    ]]></description>
						 <pubDate>Sat,  3 May 2008 10:01:43 +0000</pubDate>
					</item>
					
					<item>
						<title>How to make IPL a Brand</title>
						<link>http://www.fropper.com/post/14785</link>
						<description><![CDATA[IPL has generated lots of debate not only among the marketers but also among the common people. One thing is for sure-you can love IPL or you can hate IPL but you cannot ignore IPL. Since day 1 IPL has been in limelight. Be it the cheerleaders or the infamous &lsquo;tamacha&rsquo; incident-all these have ensured that everyone is talking just about IPL.   Remember those old days when people patiently used to watch a cricket match for complete five days and at the end of the fifth day they were informed that neither side has won. It was the &ldquo;one day&rdquo; format which made cricket popular. &ldquo;Twenty 20&rdquo; is the shortest version of the game and today its popularity is increasing every day.   The IPLT20 format is a new product which has been launched for the existing customers. In order to be relevant it is important that a product adapts itself to the changing circumstances. Today people lead a very busy life so spending 5 day or even one complete day just for watching a match is not possible. So there was a need for the shorter format. In fact this shorter version of the game will find wider acceptability in the American and European market in the future.&nbsp;  Initial excitement of the tournament can be gauged by the TV ratings and packed stadiums. IPL has the potential to become a brand (may be an iconic brand).   The marketer should focus on four important elements if they want IPL to become a Brand.   Differentiation  Relevance  Esteem  Knowledge    DIFFERENTIATION:   The IPLT20 tournament can be easily differentiated from the other version of the game. The IPLT20 tournament is different from test or one day because it has speed, glamour, action, drama, excitement-all these in just 3 hours. Here the players do not play to save their wickets instead they play to score more and more runs. Fours, sixes and quick singles make the match interesting. In fact action is there whenever a ball is bowled. It suits people&rsquo;s hectic lifestyle.   RELEVANCE:  In order to make the brand more relevant it is important that the club players should participate proactively in the local activities. This would help them to get connected to the people. The club players should give a feeling to the people that they are committed to the club for which they are playing.   Club Issuing Shares:   &middot; However I have a different opinion on this matter. In my view each club can act as an individual company and should issue shares. People should be allowed to purchase the shares. Market capitalization of the club will depend on the valuation of the shares which in turn will depend on the performance of the club.   &middot; Once people purchase share of a particular club then they will be easily able to associate themselves with that particular club. The player&rsquo;s compensation will also depend on the valuation of the company which in turn will depend on the performance of the club.   &middot; Moreover a resident of Delhi will always prefer purchasing shares of Delhi Daredevils. He will definitely not go and purchase share of a rival club. However people of cities like Patna, Lucknow, Ranchi etc. which do not have a team will be open to back any club depending on their personal preferences.   &middot; If money will be involved then definitely a desire will be there that their club does the best. This will help in developing loyalty for the club. The players too will become more accountable and will endeavor hard to produce better results.     ESTEEM &amp; KNOWLEDGE:   This talks about the past performance and hence will start playing a major role once IPL gets older.   Differentiation and Relevance which constitutes the brand strength helps in determining the brands future value. Esteem and knowledge constitutes the Brand Stature. Since the brand is new so emphasis on differentiation and relevance should be more and in due course of time esteem and knowledge about the brand will develop.   Along with the above mentioned measures better promotional strategy is a must. These steps will definitely make IPL an iconic brand.   ]]></description>
						 <pubDate>Fri,  2 May 2008 19:47:22 +0000</pubDate>
					</item>
					</channel>
								</rss>