Air India may give wings to Reliance Fresh

Reliance Fresh, the retail venture of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is seeking to acquire one of ageing cargo aircraft of National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil)—formed by the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines—to service its network of retail outlets.

While both companies have denied any such plan, a source close to the developments said RIL is open to either buying or leasing one aircraft from Nacil’s fleet. Reliance Fresh is likely to invest more than Rs 25,000 crore over the next four years in its retail business.

The reserve price for each of the older Boeing aircraft in Air India’s stable is approximately $60 million, while that of old Airbus aircraft is pegged at $20 million each. Of the 147 aircraft in the Nacil fleet, eight are freighters (all from Air India), including four Boeing 737-200s and four Airbus A310-300s. Reliance Fresh wants to source its aircraft from among these.

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Maruti rolls out A-Star

Maruti Suzuki, India's largest passenger carmaker launched its much-awaited hatchback A-Star on Wednesday. The car is the company's fifth global model, which would be manufactured only in India. It is also the company's fifth launch in the A2 segment.

Manufactured completely out of Maruti's Manesar facility, the company has set a target of selling 50,000 units in the domestic market. It also plans to export the car to 150 countries across Europe, Middle East, Latin America, Asia, Australia and Africa.

Keeping the car's export target at 1-lakh units, the company will start exporting it to Europe first by early 2009. The company has set an export target of 2 lakh units by 2010-11.

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Intel launches new desktop processor

Chip maker Intel launched its advanced desktop processor, Intel Core i7, the first member of a new family of Nehalem processor designs, in Bangalore on Tuesday. The release comes days after its rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) launched Opteron, built for server platforms, in Bangalore.

Built on 45nm processor technology, the i7 processor is energy efficient. Intel claims that it enhances processor speed for video editing, immersive games and other internet and computer activities by up to 40%, without increasing power consumption. Intel is targeting animation, gaming and digital content space verticals for the i7 processor.

Prakash Bagri, director, marketing, Intel, South Asia, said, "These are the relevant verticals we are looking at immediately. However, technology opens up new possibilities. Thus, going forward, a number of new verticals and areas are likely to come up."

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Plastics units appeal for sops

Due to diminishing demand in the Rs 25,000 crore plastic processing industry, many industrial units in this segment will become non-performing assets and will face at least 40% to 50% of job losses. This was stated by the members of All India Plastics Manufacturers’ Association (AIPMA) while addressing a conference titled `Global Economic crisis affecting plastic industry’,held here.

While addressing the conference, AIPMA appealed to the finance ministry, commerce ministry and the parent ministry of plastics industry to consider and approve various demands which will save the industry from losses.It includes among other encouraging imports of raw material and finished goods of plastics as they are cheaper. Also, reducing excise duties from 14% to 8% on polymers and articles of plastic is imperative so that investments by domestic players come down.

According to Kailash Murarka, president, AIPMA, “The Chinese government provides 9% subsidy to exporters of plastics from China to other countries.

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Ads could go off repeat Television shows

Starting Monday, the worst fears of television channels might turn true. Media planners feel that given the ongoing cine workers’ strike, which has led to general entertainment channels (GEC) telecasting repeat programmes, advertisers may now be compelled to either cancel their ad spots on the channels or ask for compensation.

In the current standoff, Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) had written to key advertisers requesting them to stand by the broadcasters and give them an interim period of 10 days to resolve the matter, which is ending Tuesday. Media planners feel that if the dispute is not resolved within this time, advertisers will ask for a rebate from the broadcasters.

Every broadcaster in the country today is dependant on revenues from advertising. According to a Price water house Coopers report on the Indian media & entertainment industry, the Indian television industry, estimated at Rs 22,600 crore, is projected to grow to Rs 60,000 by 2012 on the back of advertising revenues, especially in GECs.

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Meltdown to slow worldwide IT spending in 2009

On a day when British Telecom announced 10,000 outsourcing job cuts, research agency IDC painted a grimmer scenario for the IT sector, predicting a sharply lower growth in worldwide IT spend. It said IT spending would grow only by 2.6% in 2009, down from 5.9%, with 0.9% growth in the US.

With the global financial crisis creeping into most sectors of the world economy now, worldwide IT spending is expected to grow by 2.6% in 2009, down from the pre-crisis forecast of 5.9% growth. According to the revised forecast from the research agency IDC, IT spending growth in the US is expected to be 0.9% in 2009, while that of Western Europe and Japan are expected to hover around the 1% range. Considering that the Indian IT industry derives around 90% of its revenues from the US and the UK market, this could mean greater pressure on revenues.

"Firms cutting their budgets by half does not mean that revenues of Indian IT companies will also go down by that number. As companies try to get the maximum bang for their buck and optimise their costs, there could be more work coming the Indian way," said Ganesh Natarajan, chairman, Nasscom. He added there could be a 15-20% impact on the revenues as the demand slows down to some extent.

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Bharti Wal-Mart to go on with launch plans amid slump

Despite the US economy slowdown, the Bharti Wal-Mart joint venture plans to start its business-to business (B2B) wholesale cash-and-carry stores in Punjab in the first quarter of 2009. The managing director and CEO of Bharti Wal-Mart India Pvt Limited, Raj Jain, said that despite the difficulties of economic meltdown, there was no change in the plans and the stores will be rolled out from Punjab.

Talking to FE, Jain said, “We are committed to start this venture of carrying out wholesale stores and we have already opened a distribution centre near Chandigarh which will cater to facilities located within the distance of 100-150 km. If need arises then more distribution centres will be opened. The distribution centres will service both the cash-carry stores as well as large retails like Bharti Retail. Besides, we have already announced membership registration for selfservice cash and carry stores by bonafide business owners in Punjab and between 50,000-60,000 owners are expected to get registered.”

A typical cash-and-carry store will stand between 50,000 to 100,000 sq ft and will sell a wide range of fruits, vegetables, groceries, footwear, clothing and other merchandise items. The joint venture is expected to open 10-15 stores in seven years and will employ over 5,000 people.

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