In a bid to reduce the risk of heart ailments from intake of trans fat (TFA) packaged foods, the government is mulling a cap of 10 per cent on TFA in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, an autonomous statutory body administered by the ministry of health and family welfare, has come up with a draft on this that it has presented to the stakeholders. It plans to introduce the cap by January 2010.
Outlets of telecom companies such as Airtel and Vodafone may soon double as bank kiosks for financial services like funds transfer or bill payment, especially in parts of the country where there are very few banks or none at all.
The finance ministry is likely to drop the proposal to tax religious trusts. The proposal formed part of the direct taxes code and had raised eyebrows both within and outside the finance ministry. Under Section 10 (23C) of the Income Tax Act, any trust or institution that works wholly for public religious and charitable purposes and is approved by the chief commissioner or director general, is tax exempt.
The government has said that public sector banks have asked for much more capital than it can give.
Recently, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had assured industry that the government was open to re-examining proposals in seven key areas.
In addition, bankers also told Business Standard that they did not expect the central bank to hike policy rates or the cash reserve ratio in the third quarter review scheduled for October 27 as inflation was not rising fast though inflationary expectations were there.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority will consider a proposal to manage the pension funds of companies at its board meeting on Wednesday, extending its role from being manager of individual pension plans.
Though private labels comprise 10 to 12 per cent of the overall FMCG volumes, analysts said they were recording double-digit growth annually and could pose problems for the big players in the near future.
Globally, companies like Coca Cola, P&G and Unilever have adopted the performance-based model. In India, the trend is gradually catching on. A Coca Cola India spokesperson said the company is in the process of moving from an input-cost based compensation system for its agency partners towards a value-based one. This model is about paying agencies for results, not activity. HUL refused to comment, citing policy constraints on speaking about remuneration.
Job portals like Monster.com and Naukri.com affirmed the observation.
But the fear of less-than-normal rain hitting rural demand continues to haunt the industry.
Kellogg claims to have cornered 70 per cent market share of the breakfast cereals market in value terms.
"The December and February stimulus packages, which included a cumulative 4 percentage point excise duty cut, have helped the industry register this growth," said Nandi, adding that the festive season would bring more cheer, unlike last year, when the slowdown was taking effect.
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.
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 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.
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."
