India now has three companies in the global top 100 list in terms of market value: Reliance Industries (RIL) ranks 72, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is at 86 and HDFC Bank at 99.
Investors became richer by over Rs 6.34 lakh crore on Monday as markets gave a big shout-out to the Budget 2021-22, which analysts termed as 'unprecedented' against the backdrop of the pandemic-induced slowdown. Cheering the Budget proposals, the BSE benchmark Sensex zoomed 2,314.84 points or 5 per cent to close at 48,600.61. During the day, it jumped 2,478.63 points to 48,764.40. This was the best Budget-day gain for the markets since 1997, analysts said. Following the extremely positive market sentiment, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies rallied Rs 6,34,069.67 crore to Rs 1,92,46,713.70 crore.
One of the oldest living brands in the country, Horlicks has been innovative in its approach, which helped it survive intense competition
Experts point to the higher contribution of rural from the north for the growth reported by the region, a point endorsed by companies who've been pushing their presence aggressively there.
The one-minute-long ad features a young Hindu girl, dressed in a white t-shirt, who chooses to get stained in Holi colours in order to protect her young Muslim friend who has to go to the nearby mosque to pray. The advertisement ends with its classic tagline, 'Daag achche hain' (stains are good).
Wrapped in blue and orange wax paper, it's a familiar sight on the shelves of kirana stores across the country. Given how well travelled and mobile it is - starting its journey in Chennai, then turning to Singapore and now landing in Mexico - you could say it lives up to its name: Modern. Modern Food Enterprises, the company that manufactures and sells the bread in question as well as other bakery products under the "Modern" brand name, has recently been sold to the world's largest baking company, Grupo Bimbo, for an undisclosed amount. This latest transaction is the second change of guard at Modern within five years and third since the government divested the company at the turn of the century. At a time, when the National Democratic Alliance government has decided to privatise, or shut down, public sector enterprises except for those deemed strategic, Modern makes for a promising case study of how divestment led to the brand's growth, both in revenue and reach.
Stock markets squandered early gains but managed to end in the green on Friday, propped up by heavyweight Reliance Industries which announced another stake sale deal for its digital platform. A strengthening rupee and firm global cues also supported the domestic bourses, traders said.
This stupendous success of Indian talent for Unilever globally is in no small measure on account of the strong foundations that were laid in the early years of the organisation, which is celebrating its 75th year in India.
The market valuation of Reliance Industries, the country's most valued firm, is fast nearing the Rs 10 lakh crore mark, surpassing British energy major BP Plc.
Employees of some top Indian companies were in for a pleasant surprise when they received a mail from their HR team announcing a hike in salaries and bonuses. Led by IT firms and start-ups, HR managers say that while some have offered cash and stock options, others are in a wait-and-watch mode and add the trend will pick up in other sectors. For example, IT giant Cognizant - which had an attrition rate of 19 per cent in the December quarter - has established a $30-million employee retention fund in order to bring down the high attrition rate.
While sales momentum from rural areas may last another three to six months, sales growth in urban areas could stage a comeback by next year's June quarter as people learn to live with the coronavirus and economic activity gradually improves in the cities.
About 50,000 truckers, most of whom are single-truck owners, could be thrown off their businesses due to the recent fuel price hike. "Already the vehicle supply on the road is higher than the requirement. "With the fuel price hike, fleet owners will look to cut down fleet size wherever needed and due to this, small single-truck owners could be at the receiving end," Ashok Goyal, managing director at BLR Logistiks (I) Ltd said. The company has a fleet of 500 vehicles of all types-small, medium and large with pan-India presence.
The liquidity-fuelled rally will continue for some time, however, fundamentals are getting stretched.
Most of the changes have come about in the last four years and ITC is now reaping the dividends - standalone revenues from the non-cigarettes FMCG business have grown 40 per cent from FY17 to Rs 14,728.21 crore in FY21 and pre-tax profits 30 times to Rs 823.69 crore. The business accounted for 30.58 per cent of gross revenues and 4.85 per cent of pre-tax profits in FY21. "In the last four years, our margins in FMCG have gone up by 640 basis points (bps) and EBITDA margins have been moving up consistently. "We created levers that enabled a sustained growth trajectory," said ITC chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri. Puri took charge as the chief executive officer in 2017; in 2018, he was redesignated managing director and effective May 2019, he became chairman.
The industry began to upgrade its practices even before the NGO alleged Indian tea contained harmful pesticides.
While reforms may translate into new opportunities for firms like ITC, Adani Wilmar and Reliance Retail, farmers are unlikely to use it for fear of upsetting commission agents.
Tata Steel (then Tata Iron and Steel), the most valuable index company in 1991, is now the least valuable.
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.
The possibility of harassment by cops and fear of the unknown have forced a large number of truck drivers to abandon vehicles at the transport centres and flee home. Transport of goods remains badly hit as confusion remains among various stakeholders and road transport becomes the victim of disconnect between policy makers and local authorities.
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever on Friday reported 23.43 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 1,019.25 crore (Rs 10.19 billion) for the first quarter ended June 30, 2013.
The first to see price hikes will be soaps. In the past six months, domestic palm oil prices have increased by 46 per cent. Palm oil is a key input going into soaps.
An interview with HUL's managing director and CEO Sanjiv Mehta.
Tea estates across Assam and West Bengal, which were hitherto closed owing to the lockdown, opened in April.
The haircare brand, acquired for Rs 330 crore, fetches HUL around Rs 400 cr of revenue annually.
HUL global CEO, Paul Polman, on his third visit to India in little over a year, said his company's 170,000 employees across the globe and he were fast learning "how to climb mountains, as the market place was no longer a smooth surface".
While a merger means HUL taking over GSK Consumer's assets, including its employees, any mention of retention of employees beyond the merger is missing in the deal.
Banga has hung up his Unilever boots and moved on to private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) as an operating partner.
In the past four months, $7.5 billion has flowed back into domestic stocks, helping the benchmark indices bounce back more than 40 per cent from their 2020 lows.
At market close, the oil-to-telecom conglomerate's market capitalisation (m-cap) zoomed to Rs 10,01,555.42 crore on BSE.
Kataria, 49, an IIT-XLRI alumnus, was quick to implement a number of initiatives during the Covid-19 crisis including launching D2C initiatives such as mobile stores, WhatsApp messaging, video calling and home deliveries. Kataria was also swift to recognise that stay-at-home consumers were keen to buy informal rather than formal footwear, launching new collections quickly to take advantage of this trend, says Viveat Susan Pinto.
Personal care products, the firm's most profitable segment, has been losing market share consistently over the past several quarters. The first quarter of this financial year hasn't been too exciting either. Domestic sales grew by 12.8 per cent, with underlying volume growth of about 2 per cent.
"If at all Godrej plans to buy out the global household business of Sara Lee, there will be strong competition from multinationals like Unilever and P&G. So, it is unlikely that GCPL will go ahead with it," a research analyst from Religare Capital Markets said.
Companies whose products have not been picked up for distribution in Gujarat under a "non-cooperation movement" include Marico, Dabur, Emami, Britannia, Reckitt Benckiser, and Godrej Consumer Products.
The footprints of Indian-origin corporate executives at multinationals is expanding, with Sandeep Kataria taking over the reins of footwear major Bata as its global chief executive officer. From FMCG majors to IT titans, Kataria joins the league of Indian-origin executives who have climbed the highest echelons of corporate across diverse sectors globally. From Nooyi to Pichai to Nadella, the list of such people at the helm of multi-billion dollar enterprises is long.
The 50-share NSE Nifty stayed in the positive zone and retook the 9,900-mark to hit a high of 9,905.05 as buying paced up towards the fag end. It settled higher by 72.45 points, or 0.74 per cent, at 9,899.60.
147 domestic and international recruiters -- including Ola, Amazon, Flipkart and Xiaomi -- hired all 460 graduates.
The Sensex ended up 98 points at 19,927 and the Nifty gained 18 points to end at 5,973.
Clearly, the domestic market has taken sharp knocks in April, which is likely to be visible in May as well, said analysts tracking the market, as FMCG companies are grappling with improving capacity utilisation and dealing with labour shortage.
After 42 years at Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and different roles across Unilever's global operations, Harish Munwani, 65, retired as HUL's non-executive chairman. A day before Manwani bid adieu at HUL's 85th annual general meeting on Friday, he spoke to Viveat Susan Pinto & Vishal Chhabria on what kept him going at the firm and the challenges that await HUL.
T Thomas, former chairman of Hindustan Unilever, passed away March 2.
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