Kamal Nandi is a relieved man. As vice-president (sales & marketing) of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing, Nandi has been seeing sales back on track for the last two months.
E-tailing, or online retailing, is catching up in India with major retailers setting shop online.
It is bonanza time for international travellers yet again, with foreign carriers like Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Cathay Pacific cutting fares almost 50 per cent.
Telecom operators in India appear to be gung-ho over the prospects of value-added services which help them to differentiate, add substantially to their margins while simultaneously be a precusor to third generation or 3G regime. The recent creative campaigns of majors like Vodafone (ZooZoos), Airtel (R Madhavan and Vidya Balan), Virgin Mobile (music download) and Aircel's (Internet applications) are a case in point.
A Nielsen research states that it's the network quality which is on top of the consumer's mind. The research, carried out in the top 10 Indian cities, says that 42 per cent of Indian subscribers rate network performance as very important for selecting their mobile operator. In fact, with 34 per cent votes, network-driven choice is ahead of price-driven choice.
Amul, non-government organisations reach out to buyers through the virtual world, which is free.
The airline, which was formed through a merger of international carrier Air India and domestic carrier Indian Airlines announced in 2007, has accumulated losses of Rs 4,334 crore till March 31, of which fiscal 2008-09 will account for almost Rs 3,000 crore.
With Arvind Jadhav, principal secretary, in the department of infrastructure development of the Karnataka government, emerging as the frontrunner in the race to replace Raghu Menon as the chairman and managing director of the state-owned National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs Air India, informed sources said Menon lost the coveted job because of his opposition to the airline's proposed joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).
The size of the accessories market ranges from Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 3,000 crore and has been growing at 15 to 18 per cent, according to Anand Ramanathan, manager, business performance services, KPMG. Within this, he said, the branded accessories segment is growing 25 per cent, against a growth rate of 35 to 36 per cent for apparel. Margins, however, are 10 to 15 per cent higher on accessories than apparel.
Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines said they found it unnecessary to shell out an extra Rs 10 crore for the new terminal, especially since they would have to shift to the new integrated terminal -- T3 -- in less than a year. T3, when it begins functioning in March 2010, will be an integrated terminal for all operators. Kingfisher, Kingfisher Red and IndiGo have already started operations from the new T1D terminal, while Jet Airways, JetLite and SpiceJet are yet to shift.
After failing to get bids for over half of its highway projects last year, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to put up 19 highway projects worth Rs 23,805 crore for rebidding next month through a new short-listing process.
A severe squeeze on margins has prompted leading international airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, Sri Lankan Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Delta, KLM, Syrian Airlines, Aeroflot, All Nippon Airways, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Finnair to withdraw over 100 flights in the last six months.
With the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation pushing electronic booking of tickets and scores of online travel portals entering the business, the share of tickets sold online in the total ticket revenues of the railways has doubled to nearly 30 per cent this year.
Kingfisher, Jet and state-owned Air owe Rs 4,000 crore to oil companies and airports. Dues to the Airports Authority of India, private airports and oil companies IOC, BPCL and HPCL were to have been cleared by March 31, under the government's mandate. Industry figures show that the three airlines are collectively projected to make operating losses of Rs 5,000 crore.
DIAL, the GMR-led consortium modernising Delhi airport, had projected it would get only a Rs 800 crore-Rs 1,000 crore deposit for the entire 45 acre land in the hospitality district, leaving a gap in funding for the modernisation plan. The aviation ministry allowed it make up the shortfall by levying an ADF on passengers. With DIAL managing to persuade bidders for the hospitality district to increase security deposits by close to 50 per cent, the ADF may now be reduced.
These claims by beverage companies have never been verified as the government is yet to put in place a system to test and validate them. S B Dongre, Director, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI, which issues the FPO licence), admitted: "No laboratory test report is required at the time of granting a licence. We don't conduct any test. If there's a complaint, it has to be taken with the company first through a consumer court."
Differences have cropped up between the civil aviation ministry and Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) over the closure of the airport's main runway.
Many travel companies said customers are waiting and watching. "People are holding on to see if better deals come their way. So although advanced bookings are down, we might see people booking during the summer months themselves," said Richa Goel Sikri, director of Delhi-based STIC Travels.
"The airlines failed to respond to the falling market. While there was a cut-down in capacity by around 25 per cent in September, the airlines brought back the flights starting from January and replenished capacity in all sectors. So we have a clear case of oversupply," said DP Singh, general manager, corporate planning, AAI.
The CEOs met late last month to discuss the agreement. Industry experts said one advantage would be the fact that GoAir was looking at increasing its fleet to 20 aircraft by 2011. "If SpiceJet acquires the airline, it will gain access to slots for the aircraft orders which it can sell," said an industry expert. Selling order slots has emerged as a lucrative revenue stream for several Indian airlines that are feeling the pinch of falling passenger traffic.
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