As the world celebrated International Day of Persons with Disabilities (PwD) on December 3, corporate India has kept up with efforts to make workplaces more inclusive and accessible. Organisations across sectors are taking initiatives such as equipping offices with practical work tools like Braille-friendly and voice-enabled lifts and screen readers. While inclusion has gained pace, only 11.3 per cent (or 3.4 million out of 30 million) Indians with disabilities have jobs.
The expansion into smaller towns is coming at a time when the online retail space has not only seen consolidation but is actually looking to collaborate with physical stores. Abhineet Kumar reports.
Earnings growth, attractive valuations and change in FPI flows from negative to positive over the next 12 months are some of the key triggers for an upside. "A poor monsoon, high inflation and further rate hike are some of the key risks
Four new retailers from US, two from Germany may have shown interest in setting up shop in India.
Warehousing and logistics segment has been among the most resilient asset classes in the pandemic.
Global investment firm Blackstone-sponsored Nexus Select Trust has filed the draft paper with market regulator Sebi to launch India's first public issue of retail REIT to raise around $500 million (about Rs 4,000 crore), sources said. Nexus Select Trust has a portfolio of 17 operational shopping malls across 14 major cities, covering about 10 million square feet of area valued at around $3 billion. As per the sources, Nexus Select Trust has on Thursday filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and is looking to hit the capital market with India's first retail REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) public issue in the first half of the 2023 calendar year.
The proposed information technology (IT) projects of Wipro Technologies, Mumbai-based Raheja Corporation and the Kolkata-based Apeejay Surrendra Group in Orissa, which had suffered delay on account of the prevailing economic downturn, are expected to make headway within two to three months.
In a pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the corporate leaders highlighted several issues, including certain income tax matters which were coming in the way of mergers and acquisitions or slowing them down and roles that need to be played by state businesses to prosper at the ground level.
The Raheja-owned Shoppers Stop, which was so far an up market department chain, is becoming a full service retailer soon. It is increasing its stake in the promoter group's hypermarket chain Hypercity from 19 per cent to 51 per cent.
In a break from the recent trend, retailers, led by Kishore Biyani's Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, Raheja-owned Shoppers Stop Ltd and the Lalbhai Group's Arvind Ltd, are experiencing strong growth in the fashion segment, thanks to positive consumer sentiments during the current festive season.
Almost all the big mall developers/investors - such as Raheja-owned Inorbit Malls, Xander-APG joint venture Virtuous Retail South Asia (VRSA), property developer Prestige Estates Projects, and Blackstone-owned Nexus Malls - are looking to double their space in a year or two.
K Raheja Corp Group company HyperCITY Retail India on Saturday its first HyperCITY Argos, a catalogue shopping retail format in Thane. HyperCITY Retail, along with its group company Shoppers' Stop, recently entered into a franchise agreement with the Home Retail Group, UK, to launch the Argos format in the country.
The group had protested against K Raheja corp's project at Verna industrial estate, 20 km away from Panaji. The reaction stems from recent statement by senior Congress leader Shantaram Naik disclosing that Chief Minister Digamber Kamat will meet three SEZ promoters to discuss alternate land proposal to set up industry (not SEZ).
A simple look at the prices of 10 media stocks during the tenure of the current government tells an interesting tale, says N Sundaresha Subramanian.
From helping their employees infected with the Covid-19 virus to vaccinating them or supporting the families of those who might have succumbed to the infection, several companies in India are trying to do their bit in this difficult time. Some have even widened their support net to include all stakeholders as well as an extended community. To the families of the employees it lost to Covid-19, Noida-headquartered IT services and consulting company HCL Technologies is, for instance, paying salary for a year, medical insurance for three years and extending support for their children's education for five years.
Hurun Report and GROHE India named Lodha Developers' M P Lodha and family as India's richest real estate entrepreneur with a wealth of Rs 31,960 crore, followed by DLF's vice chairman Rajiv Singh and Embassy group founder Jitendra Virwani in the second and third position respectively. Total wealth of top 100 Indians in the real estate sector stood at Rs 2,77,080 crore -- up 17 per cent against 2018. While Mumbai accounted for six of the top 10 and 37 of the 100 names, Delhi and Bengaluru had 19 residents each who featured on the list. Smita V Crishna of Godrej Properties featured as the richest woman.
The growing margins suggest that the belt tightening is paying off. For example, the margins of Pantaloon Retail, the country's largest listed retailer, have gone up from 9.2 per cent in June last year to 10.6 per cent in June 2009.Others such as the Raheja-owned Shoppers Stop and Tata Group's Trent, Reliance Retail and Spencer's Retail aren't far behind.
Noel Tata likes to relax at his Alibaug beach home on weekends, but he is equally passionate about driving on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway at a speed of over 100 kilometres per hour.
Mannapuram Finance, Mahindra and Bharti Axa are some of the firms known to have bought office spaces worth more than Rs 100 crore
The latest trigger has been Future group's buyout talk with the retail unit of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's family-owned Heritage Foods
Raheja has unveiled Krishna Housing Scheme in sector 14 at Sohna and the homes will be priced at Rs 15,00,000-23,00,000.
Shoppers Stop returns to its core business after divestments. The retailer plans growth through web and private labels.
Realty sector is facing a huge slowdown for last 3-4 years, leading to a significant delays in possession of flats to customers.
Their success stories will inspire you too.
Shoppers Stop plans to open five or six department stores and 10-12 beauty stores this year
French giant might apply for multi-brand retailing if UK rival gets nod.
In Mumbai, developers like the R K Jatia and Lodha groups have launched or reopened ultra luxury residential projects, complete with limousine and concierge services.
Local traders are evaluating other options rather in FDI.
Business is down to such an extent that last year these firms could not even meet RBI's capital norm of Rs 50 million for partnerships and Rs 100 million for public and private firms in this line of business.
Shakila's seductive performances in the ever-popular club number Babuji Dheere Chalna and the fabulous torch song Hoon Abhi Main Jawaan made filmmakers sit up and notice this new talent.
While office and mall properties enjoyed revival and saw some big PE deals, residential real estate was hit by double whammy - stagnating prices and demonetisation
News media takes a beating from the economy, advertisers and the rupee. To stay afloat, publishers are reacting by folding up businesses and axing staff.
The new law would boost home buyer confidence as well as investment in the realty sector.
Aditya Birla Retail set up seven years earlier, posted a 20% growth in sales over a year earlier for 2013-14.
Reit as an investment vehicle has a huge opportunity as the country has a rent-yielding office inventory of 537 million square feet valued in excess of $70 billion.
Raghavendra Kamath reports on what ails India's real estate sector.
Today, they can't meet even the piffling capital norm set by Mint Road - Rs 5 crore for partnerships and Rs 10 crore for public and private firms in this line of business. Bulk of the trades are put through e-platform offerings of Reuters, Bloomberg, JPMorgan, Barclays or Deutsche Bank. And they have the web-based FXall, FXconnect, Atriax, Hotspotfx and LavaFX for company.
