In 2008, any question about job offers drew grim looks from B-school students and professors. This year, the smiles are back. The premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other prominent B-schools like XLRI Jamshedpur are confident that 2009 will be better than 2008.
For 33-year-old Amit Lakhmani, the chief executive officer of Kolkata-based wireless and internet value-added service provider Max Mobility, embarking on a business outside of the then booming manufacturing and services sector was a natural choice.
With the rural segment accounting for 60 per cent of sales for fast moving consumer goods companies and 40-50 per cent for consumer durables manufacturers, the government's admission of sowing having fallen almost 20 per cent due to the weak monsoon, and declaring 161 districts as drought-prone, has put these sectors under a cloud.
These companies are also reinforcing their product line, changing product offerings, focusing on 'recession-proof' sectors like pharma and healthcare, education, telecom and utilities to tide over the dip in volumes.
Wary of the policing by the All India Council for Technical Education -- the body that regulates technical education in the country -- more and more management schools are going the Indian School of Business way, opting for one-year management programmes and registering themselves as private limited entities under the Companies Act, 1956.
McKinsey, RBS postpone placements by three to six months
Reliance Gas Transportation India Ltd, the pipeline company wholly owned by Reliance Industries promoter Mukesh Ambani, has decided to write to the finance ministry, seeking a restoration of profit-linked tax benefits the Budget has replaced with an investment-linked tax break.
After the initial struggle, ITC Foods is finally making its presence felt through its parent's distribution muscle.
GE India, the $2.8 billion industrial giant, plans to invest $6 billion till 2015 in medical systems, services and IT tailor-made for rural India. Also, GE, the parent company, is looking at making India the sourcing hub for aerospace parts and healthcare products and is in the process of developing a supply chain for this.
Given the cut-throat competition in the FM radio space, radio companies are always on the look out for newer, untapped areas. And perhaps that is the reason why major radio stations such as Big FM, RadioCity and Fever FM have descended on the World Wide Web as well as the mobile platform.
With the monsoon season to begin and hotels hoping for a robust business at leisure destinations, swine flu could play spoilsport for the hotels, said industry players. At leisure destinations, international tourists form around 35 per cent of the clientele, with around 20-25 per cent coming from the US alone. Last year, tourist arrival in the country was 5.37 million, a fifth of whom stayed in five star hotels.
IIT Bombay, for instance, recently joined hands with Intellectual Ventures to seek support in marketing and licensing patents the institute holds.
The Indian government, said a senior official, wishes to take talks forward on the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
Cairn India is open to buying the 30 per cent stake that government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation owns in its oil block in Rajasthan. Cairn India is the operator of the block, with 70 per cent ownership currently.
Both IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta confirmed the development. "We have received placement requests from some students from the 2006-08 batch. We are trying to approach companies at a personal level and help these students get placed," confirmed a professor from IIM Bangalore.
The government-owned Indian Oil Corporation is tying up with US-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory for a pilot project to produce second generation biofuel. This biofuel -- essentailly bio-ethanol -- would be produced from cellulosic biomass or degradable agricultural waste or wood.
Experts say the biggest expenditure for a retailer is real estate, followed by manpower and sales and advertisement expenses.
In an attempt to reduce costs, India's biggest wine producer, Indage Vintners, has started closing its regional offices, while centralising all sales and marketing activities at its headquarters in Mumbai.
According to Mayank Saksena, head -- transactions, Kolkata, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, "From January onwards, we have been tackling an increase in live enquiries in Kolkata. The rate of enquiries is significantly higher than in cities such as Hyderabad. Chennai, Pune and Bangalore, primarily because Kolkata has a large number of old business houses that have been occupying prime spaces in the central business district."
After dropping "Kolkata" from Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders, actor Shah Rukh Khan has started discussions with Nokia, Sahara, the Anil Ambani group, and several other companies to sell the team he bought just over a year ago for Rs 300 crore, and exit the business.
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