22 * THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI College dropout, shy of ... · zon and Snapdeal did not comment on...
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* THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017 22 TIMES BUSINESS Bengaluru: Leading e-tai- lers like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal are not comp- lying with the RBI notifica- tion of March 9 which direc- ted them to provide details of sellers on their respective platforms. The guidelines come at a time when online seller asso- ciations have been asking for a redressal system where e- commerce vendors can put forward their concerns. “Goods and services ma- de available for sale electro- nically on websites should clearly provide name, add- ress and other contact details of the seller,” said the notifi- cation under foreign ex- change management (trans- fer or Issue of Security by a person resident outside In- dia) regulations, 2017. As of now, none of the above men- tioned details of sellers is made available on either of the prominent online mar- ketplaces. E-commerce web- sites usually, mention the na- me of the sellers on a product page but further details are not provided. In case of product ex- change or returns, consu- mers usually have to get in to- uch with etailers who notify the sellers. Flipkart, Ama- zon and Snapdeal did not comment on the issue. Reac- ting to the RBI notification, the online seller community, All India Online Vendors As- sociation (AIOVA), has writ- ten to the central bank comp- laining about this violation by e-commerce players. TOI reviewed a copy of the letter sent to the RBI. AIOVA, which has about 2,200 sellers as its members, has been raising concerns over alleged malpractices by e-commerce companies. In its latest communication to the foreign exchange department of the RBI, the association po- inted out that certain sellers having close relations with e- commerce companies end up making significant chunk of sales on these marketplaces. “Prices are bring indirect- ly influenced by these related sellers, and level playing field is not maintained within the marketplace,” the letter said. Similar to the guidelines of department of industrial poli- cy and promotion (DIPP), the RBI notification also notes that no single vendor or group companies of marketplaces should get over 25% of total sa- les in a year. AIOVA has been writing to multiple authorities in In- dia, including commerce mi- nister Nirmala Sitharaman, requesting to address their concern like payment dues from troubled e-tailers, as re- ported by TOI earlier. E-tailers yet to comply with RBI norms on sellers Digbijay.Mishra @timesgroup.com Mumbai: In an attempt to help students build a successful ca- reer in digital marketing, Ti- mes Centre for Learning Ltd (TCLL) and Dentsu Aegis Net- work have announced an exclu- sive collaboration to offer a ‘Post Graduate Diploma in Di- gital Marketing’ in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. This pro- gramme is available for gradu- ates and working professio- nals, especially from marke- ting, retailing and advertising. Ashish Bhasin, chairman and CEO South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network, says, “Digital segment is a fast growing seg- ment of the Indian advertising scenario. It is by far the most happening and exciting indust- ry to be for the next 5 to 10 years. At present, there is a limited ta- lent pool for digital marketing industry. Hence, we have tied up with TimesPro, to launch a digital marketing course in In- dia. The course will offer prac- tical knowledge and education by industry experts.” Lucrative pay packages have made this a highly viable indust- ry for fresh graduates and expe- rienced professionals. The futu- re will be rooted in how marke- ters and platforms create ways for innovation to help their busi- nesses stand apart, and it looks very promising for skilled pro- fessionals in this domain. TCLL, Dentsu Aegis offer PGDM in digital mktg TIMES NEWS NETWORK Mumbai: Percept, a media, en- tertainment and live events company, will see a manage- ment rejig as Harindra Singh takes full control of the Mum- bai-based group post a family settlement with his brother Sha- ilendra Singh (below). Both the brothers we- re till now joint managing direc- tors of the firm, famous for orga- nizing events like the Sunburn music festival. In a state- ment on Tuesday, Harindra Singh said: “.....with the assi- stance of family elders and members, Shailendra and I ha- ve executed a family settlement and arrangement in relation to the business of the Percept Group companies and its pro- perties. While Shailendra will continue as a passive sha- reholder in Percept, he will not be involved in the management of the Percept group and I will hereafter exclusively manage the operations.” Founded in 1984, Percept has a team of over 700 people and 42 offices in India and the Middle East and a capitalised billings of Rs 1,726 crore as of fi- nancial year 2016. Percept companies create content, assets and solutions, as per its official website. Harindra sole in charge after brother leaves Percept TIMES NEWS NETWORK U nlike many high-profi- le retail chains, D- Mart has focused on value-retailing, limited its range of categories, and loca- ted itself mostly in suburbs and non-metros. Damani, whose family was in the ball bearings busi- ness, dropped out of com- merce college after his first year. He entered the stock market as a broker and tra- der in the late 1980s and was frequently seen in the BSE’s erstwhile trading rink. But outside the market he was barely known, unlike the wi- dely feted ‘Warren Buffett of India’, Rakesh Jhunjhunwa- la. When it came to making money on the market, the Street always looked up to Jhunjhunwala. But that may now change, a veteran of the Street said. The media-shy Damani is also known for being a tena- cious fighter. About two de- cades ago, he took ITC head- on for control of Hyderabad- based VST, the makers of Charminar. His 25% stake in the cigarette company, acqui- red at a cost of about Rs 63 crore, is now worth about Rs 1,200 crore. A few years ago, when DHL, the owners of Blue Dart, offered to sell sha- res in its Indian subsidiary at much than the then market price, causing investors to panic, it was Damani, opera- ting from the shadows, who assured investors about the stock’s long-term value. He now holds 3.4% in the couri- er company, worth about Rs 400 crore. Dalal Street veterans like Alok Churiwala, Deven Chok- sey, Dharmesh Mehta and Arun Kejriwal variously desc- ribe ‘Radhakishanji’ the soft- spoken investor as “brilliant” and “a legend on the Street”. As a rookie broker in late 1980s-early 90s, Churiwala would often see Damani “flo- ating across the trading floor with cool composure”, while for Choksey it was Damani’s sharp analysis that caught the attention of many. Damani withdrew from active trading after vyaj bad- la (a form of financing) was replaced by derivatives in the early-to-mid 2000s, and refocused his energies on long-term investing. It was around that time that he also launched his first entrepre- neurial venture in the form of D-Mart. College dropout, shy of media, but a fighter From P 1 Damani, whose family was in the ball bearings business, dropped out of commerce college after his first year. He entered the stock market as a broker and trader in the late 1980s New Delhi: Coca-Cola India is getting ready for a shift in strategy keeping in line with its global initiatives. The company that sells a be- vy of sugary carbonated be- verages here, including Thums Up, Coke, Limca and Sprite, has embarked on an exercise to align itself to changing consu- mer preferences. At present, around 65% of Coca-Cola Indi- a’s sales come from fiz- zy drinks, while the rest comes from still beverages such as Maaza, Mi- nute Maid and others. But the company that was once ob- sessed with pushing colas, has decided to widen its port- folio of low-sugar drinks, sin- ce consumers are opting for healthier beverages. “We are going to be a con- sumer-centric beverage company. We will satisfy a consumer’s beverage needs, based on his or her preferen- ce and not based on what we want to sell,” Venkatesh Ki- ni, president of Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, told TOI. “Ten years from now if product ‘A’ is my lar- gest selling product, I am fi- ne as long as that is what consumers want. We will go with the consumer.” This signals a big miles- tone for the Atlanta-based beverage company that has been present in India since 1993, depending on its best-selling products such as Thums Up and Sprite (both market leaders in their categories). However, business for the Rs 14,000 crore soft- drink category has been rocky lately. “Last two or three years have seen a number of things that are unusual and unique,” said Kini. “Rural demand declined on bad monsoons; excise taxes have gone up by 80%; in some sta- tes VAT has gone up by 50- 100%. So, that caused us to increase prices. Demoneti- sation is the latest factor.” Coca-Cola India to reduce focus on fizzy drinks John.Sarkar @timesgroup.com New Delhi: The Vodafone-Idea merger could be one of the first few cases that would test the ro- bustness of the proposed me- chanism that would replace the quarter-century-old Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the inter-ministerial agency to clear FDI proposals. The two entities, which are merging to create the country’s largest telecom company, are expected to move FIPB, along with the Competition Commis- sion and other regulatory bodi- es, for permission as the entity will have significant level of fo- reign investment. It will come around the time when the government will dis- mantle FIPB, headed by econo- mic affairs secretary, and move to a new system where indivi- dual ministries or regulators such as the Reserve Bank of In- dia (RBI) and Sebi would be em- powered to clear investment proposals and will be tasked with coordinating with agenci- es such as the home ministry for security clearances. Sources said that the finan- ce ministry proposal entails that the proposals pending with FIPB would be moved to the ministries or the regulators once the inter-ministerial body is dismantaled. So, the onus of clearing the proposal would shift from the finance mini- stry-driven body to the telecom department (DoT). The big worry is that once FIPB is dis- mantled, agencies such as DoT could find it tough to get the ho- me ministry to quickly decide on security clearances, which is always a sensitive issue. “We are not stipulating a ti- meframe and there will be no mechanism for a deemed app- roval since security clearances cannot have a fixed timeframe. But the endeavour will be to cle- ar the proposals quickly,” said an officer, who did not wish to be identified. Vodafone and Idea are expecting the merger process to be complete in aro- und 18 months.In the Budget, the government opted to do away with FIPB, which was set up as a platform for single-win- dow FDI clearances at the cen- tral level, as over 90% of the ca- ses were no longer routed thro- ugh the agency. Voda-Idea deal to test post-FIPB mechanism Sidhartha@timesgroup.com NEW REGIME Mumbai: The country’s lar- gest digital wallet company Paytm has said that RBI’s draft norms requiring full KYC on pre-paid instru- ments (PPIs) will make it more expensive to do busi- ness. However, the higher li- mits of Rs 1 lakh and propo- sals on interoperability is seen as recognition of wal- lets as a viable business. “The proposed norms do make the pre-paid business more expensive for stand-alo- ne players, as KYC is now bro- ught in par with that for bank accounts. But it also shows that RBI recognises pre-paid instruments as a stable, long- term business that is scalab- le,” said Vijay Shekhar Shar- ma, founder Paytm The draft norms, anno- unced by RBI late on Tues- day, allows for PPIs to accu- mulate a balance up to Rs 1 lakh, bringing them almost on par with payment banks, but Sharma says that banks still have an edge. “Payment banks can issue debit cards, cheque books and provide wealth management servi- ces, which cannot be done by pre-paid issuers. Also you cannot offer interest on de- posits nor can proceeds of any investment be credited to a wallet account,” he said. Paytm is one of the success- ful applicants for a pay- ments bank licence and is awaiting final nod of the Central bank. Paytm claims to have over 10 crore e-wallet customers and will need to approach them for full KYC if new norms are enforced. KYC to make biz expensive: Paytm Mayur.Shetty @timesgroup.com NEW NORMS New Delhi: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday hit back at Reliance Jio over its allegations to- wards the company’s ‘fastest network’ campaign, and accu- sed the telco of engaging in a “campaign of misinforma- tion” to “malign” its brand. “We are rather amused by the allegations being made against our campaign. We be- lieve this is a deliberate at- tempt to misguide customers through a campaign of misin- formation, which is somet- hing we now come across on a regular basis,” said Rajiv Mathrani, chief brand officer for Bharti Airtel. TNN Airtel hits at Jio’s network campaign New Delhi: Investing in cus- tomer service makes more bu- siness sense in India than per- ceiving it as a cost. Eight out of 10 Indians said they are wil- ling to spend an average of 21% more for better service, according to a recent survey. Furthermore, 84% Indian consumers said the quality of customer service is very im- portant when they’re deci- ding to become or remain a customer, revealed the fin- dings of the American Ex- press 2017 Global customer Service Barometer. TNN ‘Indians willing to pay more for better service’
Transcript of 22 * THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI College dropout, shy of ... · zon and Snapdeal did not comment on...
* THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAIWEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 201722 TIMES BUSINESS
Bengaluru: Leading e-tai-lers like Flipkart, Amazonand Snapdeal are not comp-lying with the RBI notifica-tion of March 9 which direc-ted them to provide details ofsellers on their respectiveplatforms.
The guidelines come at atime when online seller asso-ciations have been asking fora redressal system where e-commerce vendors can putforward their concerns.
“Goods and services ma-de available for sale electro-nically on websites shouldclearly provide name, add-ress and other contact detailsof the seller,” said the notifi-cation under foreign ex-change management (trans-fer or Issue of Security by aperson resident outside In-dia) regulations, 2017. As ofnow, none of the above men-tioned details of sellers ismade available on either ofthe prominent online mar-ketplaces. E-commerce web-
sites usually, mention the na-me of the sellers on a productpage but further details arenot provided.
In case of product ex-change or returns, consu-mers usually have to get in to-uch with etailers who notifythe sellers. Flipkart, Ama-zon and Snapdeal did notcomment on the issue. Reac-ting to the RBI notification,the online seller community,All India Online Vendors As-sociation (AIOVA), has writ-ten to the central bank comp-laining about this violationby e-commerce players. TOIreviewed a copy of the lettersent to the RBI.
AIOVA, which has about
2,200 sellers as its members,has been raising concernsover alleged malpractices bye-commerce companies. In itslatest communication to theforeign exchange departmentof the RBI, the association po-inted out that certain sellershaving close relations with e-commerce companies end upmaking significant chunk ofsales on these marketplaces.
“Prices are bring indirect-ly influenced by these relatedsellers, and level playing fieldis not maintained within themarketplace,” the letter said.Similar to the guidelines ofdepartment of industrial poli-cy and promotion (DIPP), theRBI notification also notesthat no single vendor or groupcompanies of marketplacesshould get over 25% of total sa-les in a year.
AIOVA has been writingto multiple authorities in In-dia, including commerce mi-nister Nirmala Sitharaman,requesting to address theirconcern like payment duesfrom troubled e-tailers, as re-ported by TOIearlier.
E-tailers yet to complywith RBI norms on sellers
Mumbai: In an attempt to helpstudents build a successful ca-reer in digital marketing, Ti-mes Centre for Learning Ltd(TCLL) and Dentsu Aegis Net-work have announced an exclu-sive collaboration to offer a‘Post Graduate Diploma in Di-gital Marketing’ in Mumbai,Delhi and Bengaluru. This pro-gramme is available for gradu-ates and working professio-nals, especially from marke-ting, retailing and advertising.
Ashish Bhasin, chairmanand CEO South Asia, DentsuAegis Network, says, “Digitalsegment is a fast growing seg-ment of the Indian advertisingscenario. It is by far the mosthappening and exciting indust-ry to be for the next 5 to 10 years.At present, there is a limited ta-lent pool for digital marketingindustry. Hence, we have tiedup with TimesPro, to launch adigital marketing course in In-dia. The course will offer prac-tical knowledge and educationby industry experts.”
Lucrative pay packages havemade this a highly viable indust-ry for fresh graduates and expe-rienced professionals. The futu-re will be rooted in how marke-ters and platforms create waysfor innovation to help their busi-nesses stand apart, and it looksvery promising for skilled pro-fessionals in this domain.
TCLL, DentsuAegis offer
PGDM indigital mktg
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: Percept, a media, en-tertainment and live eventscompany, will see a manage-ment rejig as Harindra Singhtakes full control of the Mum-
bai-based grouppost a familysettlement withhis brother Sha-ilendra Singh(below). Boththe brothers we-re till now jointmanaging direc-tors of the firm,famous for orga-nizing eventslike the Sunburnmusic festival.
In a state-ment on Tuesday, HarindraSingh said: “.....with the assi-stance of family elders andmembers, Shailendra and I ha-ve executed a family settlementand arrangement in relation tothe business of the PerceptGroup companies and its pro-perties. While Shailendra will continue as a passive sha-reholder in Percept, he will notbe involved in the managementof the Percept group and I willhereafter exclusively managethe operations.”
Founded in 1984, Percepthas a team of over 700 peopleand 42 offices in India and theMiddle East and a capitalisedbillings of Rs 1,726 crore as of fi-nancial year 2016.
Percept companies createcontent, assets and solutions,as per its official website.
Harindra solein charge afterbrother leaves
PerceptTIMES NEWS NETWORK
Unlike many high-profi-le retail chains, D-Mart has focused on
value-retailing, limited itsrange of categories, and loca-ted itself mostly in suburbsand non-metros.
Damani, whose familywas in the ball bearings busi-ness, dropped out of com-merce college after his firstyear. He entered the stockmarket as a broker and tra-der in the late 1980s and wasfrequently seen in the BSE’serstwhile trading rink. Butoutside the market he wasbarely known, unlike the wi-dely feted ‘Warren Buffett ofIndia’, Rakesh Jhunjhunwa-la. When it came to makingmoney on the market, theStreet always looked up toJhunjhunwala. But that maynow change, a veteran of theStreet said.
The media-shy Damani isalso known for being a tena-cious fighter. About two de-
cades ago, he took ITC head-on for control of Hyderabad-based VST, the makers ofCharminar. His 25% stake inthe cigarette company, acqui-red at a cost of about Rs 63
crore, is now worth about Rs1,200 crore. A few years ago,when DHL, the owners ofBlue Dart, offered to sell sha-res in its Indian subsidiary atmuch than the then marketprice, causing investors topanic, it was Damani, opera-ting from the shadows, who
assured investors about thestock’s long-term value. Henow holds 3.4% in the couri-er company, worth about Rs400 crore.
Dalal Street veterans likeAlok Churiwala, Deven Chok-sey, Dharmesh Mehta andArun Kejriwal variously desc-ribe ‘Radhakishanji’ the soft-spoken investor as “brilliant”and “a legend on the Street”.
As a rookie broker in late1980s-early 90s, Churiwalawould often see Damani “flo-ating across the trading floorwith cool composure”, whilefor Choksey it was Damani’ssharp analysis that caughtthe attention of many.
Damani withdrew fromactive trading after vyaj bad-la (a form of financing) wasreplaced by derivatives inthe early-to-mid 2000s, andrefocused his energies onlong-term investing. It wasaround that time that he alsolaunched his first entrepre-neurial venture in the formof D-Mart.
College dropout, shyof media, but a fighter� From P 1
Damani, whosefamily was in theball bearingsbusiness, droppedout of commercecollege after hisfirst year. Heentered the stockmarket as a brokerand trader in thelate 1980s
New Delhi:Coca-Cola Indiais getting ready for a shift instrategy keeping in linewith its global initiatives.The company that sells a be-vy of sugary carbonated be-verages here, includingThums Up, Coke, Limca andSprite, has embarked on anexercise to align itselfto changing consu-mer preferences.
At present, around65% of Coca-Cola Indi-a’s sales come from fiz-zy drinks, while therest comes from stillbeverages such as Maaza, Mi-nute Maid and others. But thecompany that was once ob-sessed with pushing colas,has decided to widen its port-folio of low-sugar drinks, sin-ce consumers are opting forhealthier beverages.
“We are going to be a con-sumer-centric beveragecompany. We will satisfy aconsumer’s beverage needs,based on his or her preferen-ce and not based on what we
want to sell,” Venkatesh Ki-ni, president of Coca-ColaIndia and South West Asia,told TOI. “Ten years fromnow if product ‘A’ is my lar-gest selling product, I am fi-ne as long as that is whatconsumers want. We will gowith the consumer.”
This signals a big miles-tone for the Atlanta-basedbeverage company that has
been present in Indiasince 1993, dependingon its best-sellingproducts such asThums Up and Sprite(both market leadersin their categories).However, business
for the Rs 14,000 crore soft-drink category has beenrocky lately.
“Last two or three yearshave seen a number ofthings that are unusual andunique,” said Kini. “Ruraldemand declined on badmonsoons; excise taxes havegone up by 80%; in some sta-tes VAT has gone up by 50-100%. So, that caused us toincrease prices. Demoneti-sation is the latest factor.”
Coca-Cola Indiato reduce focuson fizzy drinks
New Delhi:The Vodafone-Ideamerger could be one of the firstfew cases that would test the ro-bustness of the proposed me-chanism that would replace thequarter-century-old ForeignInvestment Promotion Board(FIPB), the inter-ministerialagency to clear FDI proposals.
The two entities, which aremerging to create the country’slargest telecom company, areexpected to move FIPB, alongwith the Competition Commis-sion and other regulatory bodi-es, for permission as the entitywill have significant level of fo-reign investment.
It will come around the timewhen the government will dis-mantle FIPB, headed by econo-mic affairs secretary, and moveto a new system where indivi-dual ministries or regulatorssuch as the Reserve Bank of In-dia (RBI) and Sebi would be em-powered to clear investmentproposals and will be taskedwith coordinating with agenci-es such as the home ministry
for security clearances.Sources said that the finan-
ce ministry proposal entailsthat the proposals pendingwith FIPB would be moved tothe ministries or the regulatorsonce the inter-ministerial bodyis dismantaled. So, the onus ofclearing the proposal wouldshift from the finance mini-stry-driven body to the telecomdepartment (DoT). The bigworry is that once FIPB is dis-mantled, agencies such as DoTcould find it tough to get the ho-me ministry to quickly decideon security clearances, whichis always a sensitive issue.
“We are not stipulating a ti-meframe and there will be nomechanism for a deemed app-roval since security clearancescannot have a fixed timeframe.But the endeavour will be to cle-ar the proposals quickly,” saidan officer, who did not wish tobe identified. Vodafone andIdea are expecting the mergerprocess to be complete in aro-und 18 months.In the Budget,the government opted to doaway with FIPB, which was setup as a platform for single-win-dow FDI clearances at the cen-tral level, as over 90% of the ca-ses were no longer routed thro-ugh the agency.
Voda-Ideadeal to testpost-FIPB
NEW REGIME
Mumbai:The country’s lar-gest digital wallet companyPaytm has said that RBI’sdraft norms requiring fullKYC on pre-paid instru-ments (PPIs) will make itmore expensive to do busi-ness. However, the higher li-mits of Rs 1 lakh and propo-sals on interoperability isseen as recognition of wal-lets as a viable business.
“The proposed norms domake the pre-paid businessmore expensive for stand-alo-ne players, as KYC is now bro-ught in par with that for bankaccounts. But it also showsthat RBI recognises pre-paidinstruments as a stable, long-term business that is scalab-le,” said Vijay Shekhar Shar-ma, founder Paytm
The draft norms, anno-
unced by RBI late on Tues-day, allows for PPIs to accu-mulate a balance up to Rs 1lakh, bringing them almoston par with payment banks,but Sharma says that banksstill have an edge. “Paymentbanks can issue debit cards,cheque books and providewealth management servi-ces, which cannot be done bypre-paid issuers. Also you
cannot offer interest on de-posits nor can proceeds ofany investment be creditedto a wallet account,” he said.Paytm is one of the success-ful applicants for a pay-ments bank licence and isawaiting final nod of theCentral bank. Paytm claimsto have over 10 crore e-walletcustomers and will need toapproach them for full KYCif new norms are enforced.
KYC to make bizexpensive: Paytm
NEW NORMS
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel onTuesday hit back at RelianceJio over its allegations to-wards the company’s ‘fastestnetwork’ campaign, and accu-sed the telco of engaging in a“campaign of misinforma-tion” to “malign” its brand.
“We are rather amused bythe allegations being madeagainst our campaign. We be-lieve this is a deliberate at-tempt to misguide customersthrough a campaign of misin-formation, which is somet-hing we now come across on aregular basis,” said RajivMathrani, chief brand officerfor Bharti Airtel. TNN
Airtel hits atJio’s network
campaign
New Delhi: Investing in cus-tomer service makes more bu-siness sense in India than per-ceiving it as a cost. Eight out of10 Indians said they are wil-ling to spend an average of21% more for better service,according to a recent survey.
Furthermore, 84% Indianconsumers said the quality ofcustomer service is very im-portant when they’re deci-ding to become or remain acustomer, revealed the fin-dings of the American Ex-press 2017 Global customerService Barometer. TNN
‘Indians willingto pay more forbetter service’
