Industry okay with expat Tata leader, but swears by cultural fit
Proud Indians who were earlier boasting to the world about a Muslim President, Sikh Prime Minister and an Italian-born leader of the ruling coalition got another reason to coo about India's diversity this week from Ratan Tata, chief of India's second largest corporate group by market capitalisation.
In an interview to a foreign daily, Tata said he was open to the idea of an expatriate heading his diversified group, itself a product of India's freedom struggle and the Swadeshi (use-only-the-local) movement. But industry captains and experts are not surprised, considering the $70.8-billion (about Rs 3.25 lakh crore) group's culture and "rich diversity".
They believe the Tata culture would as the deciding factor for any leadership from outside the company . Janmejaya Sinha, chairman for Asia region of The Boston Consulting Group,
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Hyundai India sales set to beat China
Hyundai Motor India, the country’s second largest passenger car manufacturer, is very close to being the largest contributor to its parent company, Hyundai Motor Corporation (HMC) of Korea, in terms of sales and may soon overtake the company’s subsidiary in China. Currently, Hyundai’s cumulative sales in China between January and September stood at 4,12,399 and India is close behind at 4,05,689 units, a difference of mere 6,710 units.
“India contributes 15-17% to the total sales and revenues of HMC and the growing demand for small cars will help us increase our profits further in 2010,” HW Park, the newly-appointed managing director and CEO of Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) said. Hence, given the pace of growth, India is likely to outpace China by next year.
According to Park, after the scrappage incentives that have been doled out by various countries in the West,
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Obama calls for stronger yuan, but Hu remains tight-lipped
US President Barack Obama called on Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to make good on a commitment to allow the yuan to appreciate to help prevent trade imbalances that exacerbated the global economic crisis.
“I was pleased to note the Chinese commitment, made in past statements, to move toward a more market-oriented exchange rate over time,” Obama said during a joint appearance with Hu after a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday. “Doing so based on economic fundamentals would make an essential contribution to the global rebalancing effort.”
America’s trade deficit with China widened to a ten-month high in September, raising concern that the combination of a recovering US economy and a fixed yuan exchange rate against the dollar will worsen global imbalances.
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Blueprint for green car development in works
By the time the Indian contingent leaves for the global climate change summit in Copenhagen next month, the government will be ready with a holistic strategy for promoting environment-friendly vehicles.
The idea is to not just incentivise more research by industry but also help build the infrastructure that would make it easier for petrol and diesel car users to switch to greener options like electric and solar vehicles.
“Every additional car produced is adding to carbon emissions and other air pollutants. Blending ethanol with petrol only reduces the pollution.
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UltraTech merger gets nod; swap ratio at 4:7
The consolidation process of cement business within the Rs 1.34 lakh-crore Aditya Birla Group crossed a significant milestone on Sunday, with the boards of directors of both UltraTech Cement and Samruddhi Cement, a wholly owned subsidiary of Grasim Industries, approving Samruddhi’s merger with UltraTech. The exchange ratio for the merger was pegged at 4:7. Samruddhi shareholders will receive four shares of UltraTech at a face value of Rs 10 each for every seven shares of face value Rs 5 each. UltraTech will also issue 14.95 crore new shares, thereby increasing its equity capital to Rs 274.20 crore.
The deal will make UltraTech, already the largest cement company in India, the 10th largest in the world. The merger will take UltraTech into the big league of cement makers such as Lafarge, Holcim and Heidelberg. The merged entity will have 48.8 mtpa of grey cement across 22 plants and 11.7 million cubic metres of ready-mix concrete across 68 plants, along with captive thermal power plants generating 504 mw. Prior to the merger, UltraTech had a capacity of 23.10 mt, and Samruddhi 22.55 mt. Samruddhi will also commission a grinding unit at Kotputli in Rajasthan by the third quarter of FY10. Domestically, UltraTech leads the pack, followed by ACC (22.7 mt) and Ambuja Cement (21.9 mt).
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Microsoft crosses swords with pirates, to offer cloud software
In what will be a first for the country, technology giant Microsoft will offer its software suites like MS Office on rent over the Internet. The move is aimed at reducing software piracy, as the packages will be available for as low as Rs 120 a month. Allied with the offer of a low-cost personal computer at Rs 3,000 from Microsoft s partner in this venture, Airtel, the combination is expected to appeal to retail consumers weaned on pirated software.
The aim is to make the offerings so attractive that consumers will bypass the cheap, but pirated, stuff and go for original offerings. It will be something like Apple did with iTunes and the music industry, said Sachin Duggal, CEO & president at Nivio, the technology company that claims credit for bringing Microsoft and Bharti Airtel into the venture. Though it is still early days, Duggal says SMEs could benefit hugely from this offering as it could significantly reduce their IT spend.
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Yahoo! sees India as next wave of growth
CEO Carol Bartz's mantra for positioning Yahoo! at the 'centre of people's online lives' is simple: "Go where the Internet population is growing." And India is 'central' to her plans to revamp the struggling Internet giant's operations after signing a long-term search deal with once arch-rival Microsoft.
On a three-day, two-city trip to India, her strategy for the country is focused on mobile phone platforms and partnering content providers who serve relevant content in local languages. "India is the next wave of growth," she insists, while confirming plans to hire in India even as the company has cut more than 2,000 jobs globally in the past one year.
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