If India's Australia tour gets cancelled, advertisers will ask the broadcasters for a refund.
India is likely to see the addition of at least 400 restaurants, fast food outlets and coffee joints in 2008. Food chains such as Yum Brands, McDonald's, Domino's and Caf Coffee Day have earmarked an estimated investment of over Rs 300-400 crore (Rs 3 to 4 billion) this year in expanding their retail presence across the country.
Reliance ADAG's Big Music and Home Entertainment is looking at garnering close to 40 per cent market share of home and music entertainment business in India.
According to Gibson G Vedamani, CEO of RAI, "We have urged Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to allow shops to stay open till at least 11.30 at night, if not overnight. In Mumbai and Delhi, a few retailers had approached the government individually and got permission to keep their shops open till late." At present, all retail outlets in West Bengal have to shut by 8.30 pm, making it difficult for people who work late hours to manage their shopping during the week.
Indian small and medium enterprises are expected to emerge as major buyers of the information technology products by 2008. According to Joydeep Datta Gupta, executive director of Deloitte & Touche Consulting, any IT-led SME business transformation project could succeed only if the project was sustained.
In a first of its kind initiative and available only in Kolkata, mobile services provider Vodafone Essar, has launched the 'Sambhav' prepaid card, targeted at customers with hearing and speech disability.Available at Rs 151, the prepaid Sambhav card will enable the hearing impaired to communicate effectively using a cellphone. The card enables customers with hearing and speech disability to use mobile phones primarily for sending SMSes.
Lack of uniform parameters while ranking them is what irks B-schools. At last count, there were at least seven different rankings in print.
Saswat Chakraborti, head of G S Sanyal School of Telecommunications at IIT-KGP says: "We offered three short-term courses so far in 2007, and would introduce one more this December. We are planning several new courses targeted at B-tech graduates, industry professionals, as well as teachers from engineering institutes."
Information technology giant IBM is taking computer education to students from weaker sections of society in Kolkata. Five NGOs, CiniAsha, Divya Chaya, Calcutta Rescue, SPAN, and Pratyush identify and bring in students from various parts of Kolkata for training at the IBM centre.
The Nandigram fracas is taking a toll on placements at the oldest Indian Institute of Management (IIM), in Kolkata, with top-notch recruiters like Goldman Sachs deciding not to visit the campus this year for summer placements.
Although exports of gold jewellery have increased from Rs 5,220 crore (Rs 52.20 billion) during FY 2001 to Rs 23,516 crore (Rs 235.16 billion) during FY 2007 (source: Icra industry monitor), the export business has been constrained by an inability to compete in global markets on basis of price and superior design capabilities.
In an attempt to combat competition from local beauty and wellness salons, companies like Lakme, Habibs and VLCC are gearing up to offer specialised and upgraded services. According to market data, the beauty and wellness industry, which stands at Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) right now, was only Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion-)-strong in 2004.
It was the first company to launch sub-10,000 PCs five years ago forcing major PC makers to offer ultra-low cost entry-level models. Then it launched India's first laptop to be priced under Rs 20,000. And now, it has launched a 100cc motorcycle for under Rs 20,000. Xenitis has launched the mobike for Rs 19,990, with equated monthly instalments (EMIs) fixed at Rs 490.
Corporate sponsorships for B-school festivals are set to double and almost touch the Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) figure in 2008. While established annual festivals of B-schools in eastern India are likely to see a 20-30 per cent increase in sponsors and sponsorships, the newer B-school fests are likely to receive double the sponsorship amounts they received last year.
Indian business conglomerate Tata Group is mulling a listing at London bourses for a new entity, a British media report has said. But the group's headquarters in India on Monday dismissed any such move.
Hyundai Motors India hopes to export over 250,000 cars next year from India, twice this year's number. Yet, Managing Director H S Lheem said this performance will not be without its problems. In fact, ebullient exports may end up denting the company's bottom line.
Cyber criminals are targeting enterprises and consumers based in tier-III cities. Internet bots (derived from the word web robots) are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. They are used for both commercial as well as malicious purposes.
Carlos Ghosn, the iconic CEO of Nissan Motors and Renault, is on a whistle-stop visit to India on Monday to finalise a joint venture and small-car blue-print with India's second-largest two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto. Renault, Nissan and M&M also have a three-way equity tie-up to make passenger vehicles in Chennai, for which the facility is yet to be built.
Indian IT service providers are increasing their exposure in the healthcare and pharma segments. Multi-million dollar deals in this space by IT firms over the past three-four months only buttress this trend. Healthcare outsourcing has moved away from just undertaking medical transcription and business process outsourcing (BPO) work to core functions such as drug discovery, testing, research and development.
This is the company's third international buyout in the last 12 months. Last year in October, the company had acquired Pinewood, the largest generic firm in Ireland and the biggest supplier of liquid generic products in the UK. Wockhardt had also bought Negma, the fourth largest independent pharmaceutical firm in France in May.
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