Ninja readers -Group B5- Source - Economic Times

Marico to Spin off Salon Biz Kaya into Listed Co

By Shorya

Packaged consumer goods firm Marico plans to demerge its services business Kaya into a separate listed firm. “Kaya requires a completely different mindset to grow. So we have taken off the Marico hat from Kaya and unshackled it from the Marico rules,” Harsh Mariwala, chairman at Marico, said.  Saugata Gupta, who currently heads domestic consumer business, will lead the overall FMCG firm as CEO, while international business head Vijay Subramaniam will take over as CEO of Kaya, effective April 1.

Marico Kaya will be listed separately on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange and will have its own board of directors distinct from Marico's board.

A decade-old Kaya offers skincare solutions through 106 clinics, contributed around 7% to Marico’s consolidated revenue of 4,000 crore in 2011-12, but had a loss of 29.1crore at the EBIT level. Company officials said there were strong cultural differences between Marico and Kaya that limited the growth prospects for Kaya.

Maruti’s Market Share Dips to New Low in ’12

By Shorya

 India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki continued to lose ground in 2012 when its market share slipped to a new low because of factors including declining sales of entry-level petrol cars, increasing competition and, mostly, labour trouble at its Manesar plants. Company officials and most analysts attribute the slip in Maruti’s market share to 37.76% in calendar 2012, down from 44.64% in 2010, to violent labour troubles at Manesar, but some also point to the falling demand at the firm’s stronghold of entry-level macro car segment as customers turned to diesel powered cars on rising petrol prices. A bigger problem in 2012, though, was falling demand for micro cars such as the Alto, WagonR, Ritz and Zen Estilo. Alto, the country’s top-selling car, reported a 8% fall in sales, while WagonR slipped to fourth in the pecking order, down from being second in 2011, with 8.5% dip in sales

After Airtel, Vodafone hikes 2G data rates by 30%

By Priyanka

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/after-airtel-vodafone-hikes-2g-data-rates-by-30/articleshow/17955271.cms

Consumers will now have to pay up to 30 per cent extra for data services as leading telecom players Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are hiking tariffs and others may soon follow suit. Bharti Airtel recently increased 2G data rates and rivals are expected to take similar steps to cover costs and improve margins, said industry officials. Airtel recently revised its 1GB 2G data plan from Rs 100 to Rs 125.The nominal price revision is subject to rate elasticity, customer demand and supporting cost structures. The recent revision is an increase of only 2-3 paise per MB. Vodafone too has made similar changes in the monthly plans and has reduced data limits available under various prepaid plans. While the Rs 95 plan (28 days validity) is now available for Rs 124, others plans allowing 250 MB data usage and 150 MB usage have been reduced to 150 MB and 100MB, respectively. Bharti Airtel has maintained for long that prices of voice and non-voice services need to be hiked for the telecom industry to remain healthy, invest in future technologies and generate returns for shareholders.

"The current tariffs do not even cover marginal costs for most operators. So from an economics perspective, do we need to increase prices? The answer is yes," Bharti Airtel CEO (India and South Asia) Sanjay Kapoor had said earlier.

Virat Kohli bags International Cricketer of the Year award

By Priyanka

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/Virat-Kohli-bags-International-Cricketer-of-the-Year-award/articleshow/17890763.cms

Young India batsman Virat Kohli was today bagged the International Cricketer of the Year award while Pakistan was named as the Best International Cricket Team in the 2011-2012 season at the CEAT cricket awards, here. Kohli, also the Vice Captain of the side, beat the likes of Australian captain Michael Clarke, former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara and consistent South African opener Hashim Amla to clinch the top honor at a glittering function. 
Kohli, however, could not make it to the event and former Pakistan captain and bowling legend Wasim Akram collected the award on his behalf. Another former Pakistan batting great Zaheer Abbas received the Lifetime Achievement Award. In the special India-Pakistan award category, legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar lifted the Best Test Batsman trophy while former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq was honored with the Best ODI Batsman award. The 1983 India's World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev was adjudged the Best Test bowler,  Akram received the award Best ODI bowler award. CEAT Audience Choice Awards 2011-2012 went jointly to former Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar and Indian opener Virender Sehwag.  Kapil, while awarding the International Best Cricket Team award to Pakistan said, "They deserve the award as they played good cricket." 

News article – Indian women wont work in India’s capital

By Shreya

9^th January 2013

After the 16^th December gang rape on a 23 year old girl, female employees and the ones searching for a job refrain from looking out for a job in the capital city and the ones who are already employed want to shift base from the city and its surrounding areas like Gurgaon and Noida. The main reason for this is due to the lack of safety of women in Delhi. Employers in Delhi and NCR are to brace themselves for an acute shortage of female talent as women at all levels of the corporate pyramid are beginning to shun the city. Women who are seeking for a job from Mumbai and Lucknow are avoiding job offers that would place them at Delhi. One of the female employees, Aparna Roy Choudhary (name changed), an operations manager with a leading BPO, said that she in under pressure from her parents from Kolkata to move out of the city soon and is now looking for a new job in other cities. One of the employee named Lakshana K, has already quit her job as an assistant marketing manager, citing security problems.

News Article – Fitch’s threat of rating downgrade fails to ruffle govt

By Shreya

9^th January 2013

After Standard and poor, now Fitch a credit rating company has threatened India to downgrade India’s credit rating. The current rating of India is BBB. If it downgrades India’s rating, India would be the first BRIC nation to lose the coveted investment grade rating. According to Fitch the macro economic trends have been a bit disappointing, real GDP has slowed down to five, five and a half percent range in previous quarters, wholesale price inflation has remained the elevated….A downgrade would send India’s sovereign debt to junk status, which would weaken capital flows and raise the cost of borrowing overseas for Indian companies. But despite these warning the government has brushed it, saying that it has taken the necessary steps to address the concerns of rating agencies. It took steps like raising fuel prises, brought in reforms like allowing FDI in multiband retail and it also revised its fiscal deficit target by bringing it down to 5.3% of GDP.

M&M re-enters 2-wheeler space with Pantero & Centuro

By Amar

9^th January 2013

Mumbai: After a start-stop entry into the motorcycles space with the Stallio in 2010, India’s largest utility vehicle player Mahindra & Mahindra is re-entering the motorcycle segment with feature-packed, two 110 cc motorcycles called Pantero and Centuro. 

According to our research, the market is not looking for a ‘me too product’ like the market leaders, they are looking for options and that is exactly what we are trying to serve through both these models.

Mahindra says it looks to have presence across all categories in the highly competitive two-wheeler space. It will launch at least 2-3 new products every year. The next in line is a 300 cc premium motorcycle Mojo, which will be launched in the next fiscal along with two scooters, including a micro hybrid one.

Indian Tablet Market Likely to Double in ’13

By Amar

9^th January 2013

India’s tablet PC market is expected double to around six million units in 2013, led by increased enterprise adoption and availability of Windows 8-based devices, research firm CyberMedia said. 
“Over 100% growth expected in 2013 as OEMs (original equipment manufacturer) eye India market for consumer, enterprise demand and government business,” CyberMedia Research said. 
Samsung led with a 23.9% share, followed by Micromax at the second position with 15.3% share and Datawind at third position with a 12.3% share, in terms of sales during 3Q (July-Sept) 2012

Further, the market is expected to increase by at least 100% in 2013...the forecast number of tablet sales for 2013 could easily exceed 6 million units

Cyber Media said 2013 will see markets crystallize around three price points, which include. 5,000-10,000; . 15,000-20,000 and over . 35,000. 
“Some vendors might have to undertake price corrections to fit their devices within these three price segments, to serve the market aptly and participate in these high-volume price levels as well,”

HUL and Nestle to battle it out for share of Rs 200-crore oats market

By Nikhila

4^th January 2013

Two of the country's largest food companies, Hindustan Unilever and Nestle India, will soon launch oats, extending their battle in readyto-cook food category from noodle and soup to the healthy cereal. Hindustan Unilever and Nestle plan to launch oats under Knorr and Maggi brands, respectively, as healthy extensions of their noodle segment this year, two people familiar with the development said. While PepsiCo's Quaker Oats, which calls itself the World's No. 1 Oats brand, entered India over seven years ago, more than half a dozen food companies including GSK Consumer, Kellogg India, Britannia and Marico have entered the Rs 200-crore oats market, which is growing more than 40% annually, over the last few years. That's because when they have had to make a choice, Indians have always preferred health to taste. For example, Nestle's Maggi noodles alone is estimated to be more than Rs 1,100-crore brand, almost double the size of overall breakfast cereal market. Now, some experts say marketers have found a way to bring taste and health together with flavored oats. PepsiCo's Quaker is by far the market leader with share of over 35% ahead of Marico's Saffola and GSK Consumer's Horlicks. Traditionally, companies were focused on South India, which accounts for more than three-fourth of the total market but recently began expanding nationally.

Quaker, which has been selling the masala variant since last year, has extended the brand to Indian ready-tocook mixes such as upma and poha this week. Industry officials said that Kellogg and GSK Consumer too plan to launch masala oats soon.

Google Android makes its leap to rice cookers and refrigerators as manufacturers

By Nikhila

9^th January 2013

Google Inc.'s Android software, the most widely used smartphone operating system, is making the leap to rice cookers and refrigerators as manufacturers vie to dominate the market for gadgets controlled via the Internet.

Android products ranging from Royal Philips Electronics NV's PicoPix pocket projector and LG Electronics Inc.' Smart Thinq refrigerators to Parrot SA's Asteroid car stereo systems and Samsung's Galaxy Camera will be on display this week at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Android also is an easy to-use-platform that helps appliance makers like Samsung and Philips add product features and benefit from demand for Internet-connected devices -- a market IDC predicts will reach more than $2 trillion in 2015. Since the first Android-based phones went on sale in 2008, devices based on the mobile operating system have surged in popularity. Smartphones running the software held 72 percent of the market in the third quarter, while Apple had 14 percent, according to Gartner Inc. Building Android directly into devices can make it easier for electronic equipment and appliances to exchange information with less human intervention. A television, for example, might show a pop-up message from a clothes dryer in the basement, indicating that the homeowner's jeans are not yet dry. A connected rice cooker could determine what type of rice is being used and set cooking instructions accordingly.