China-Japan Relations

This was the first interaction between the two countries in the past four months. Relations between the two countries had turned cold during past five years because of Koizumi’s visits to Shinto shrine where convicted war criminals are honoured. China sees it as lack of remorse for its brutal occupation of much of China during the early 20th century. Though the new prime minister has dropped hints that his policies may not deviate too much from his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi’s. He wants to build a stronger Japan which distances itself from the post-World War II guilt by amending the Constitution. Japan is in a precarious situation. China is threatening Taiwan. North Korea is testing missiles. It is thus, imperative for Japan to set up its own defence mechanism.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

CDMA

Well, the story is the same for all other players as Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson & LG, which have established their manufacturing base in India to embrace the cost effectiveness and fight the market share battle more effectively. Interestingly, there is no clear trend as to where the mobile handset market is moving. Some players are focusing on tie-ups with service pro viders, others are busy focusing on developing a USP for their phones and there are others which are adopting both strategies. While Nokia has a year old partnership with Airtel, Motorola & Samsung have tie-ups for CDMA with Tata Indicom. These partnerships are resulting in humungous sales figures for these manufacturers.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

STILL, THE KING OF GOOD TIMES...

UB Group, world’s number three spirit company is busy charting out plans to sell its wine in the overseas market. And the first destination is China where the company is thinking of foraying within the next two to three weeks. Unlike its earlier projects, this time around the company is not looking forward toany acquisitions in the near future. The entry plan would require an investment of Rs.4 billion which would be used in increasing its capacities in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, and the wine produced would be sold in China.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

Annual Ranking

Are the next in the annual ranking with third, fourth and fifth ranks, respectively. Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd. tops the chart among the BSE 500 companies in terms of the absolute amount of dividend paid by various companies during the financial year 2005-06 alone. The company paid an aggregate dividend of Rs.300 per share of Rs.100 each during the period. It’s followed by the IT giant, Infosys, and the most valuable company of India, ONGC – both paid a dividend of Rs.45 each, for shares with face value of Rs.5 (Infosys) and Rs.10 (ONGC), respectively. Dividend yield might be out of sight, but surely not out of mind; it still rules the charts of many intrepid investors. Finally, it’s the divid-end that firms are afraid of, aren’t they?!

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

FORTIFYING BATTLEMENTS

Down, yes! But, certainly not out It’s true that Swiss major Holcim has literally rocked the Indian cement sector with its aggressive takeovers of Gujarat Ambuja and ACC, but the Birla flagship company Grasim industries is bracing itself to regain its hitherto unchallenged dominance. On August 28, 2006, at Ultratech Cement’s AGM, Chairman K. M. Birla announced a capex of Rs.14.24 billion, to be employed over the next three years. Elaborating further on the investment, Birla stated, “Of this (investment), Rs.844 crore is towards the installatio of captive power plants at units in Gujarat and Chhatisgarh... we will additionally invest Rs.1,274 crore towards a 4 mtpa capacity expansion at UltraTech’s plant in Andhra Pradesh.” The group plans to ramp up its cement capacity to 45 mtpa by the financial year 2009.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

NIIT's Alliances

NIIT’s alliances include those with Oracle, Sybase, Cincom Systems, Singapore Airlines, et al, for providing cohesive technologies and product development across the world. And despite the recent slowdown, NIIT is looking actively at reinforcing its education business alongside other forays. Says MD, Rajendra Pawar, “We are not looking at any restructuring for our education business. What we are looking at is just reinforcement. In the near term, we want to increase the size of the pie for ourselves. We want to focus our energy on getting a larger share of the pie when it starts increasing in size.” A salute to the pioneers of private IT education!

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

Sensex Crash

Says Vivek Kudva, President, Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India) Pvt Ltd: “We believe that the growth story of India is intact and a GDP growth of 7-8% is quite achievable.” The Sensex closed the week ended September 22 on 12,236 only, 376 points away from its previous all time high of 12,612. The downturn in May saw the Sensex crash to a low of 8,929, putting an end to its marathon bull run. But things have improved since then and the Sensex has recovered by almost 37% from the lowest point of the May downturn. Definitely, markets are recovering from the mayhem of May and the mood seems to be perfectly set for bulls to stretch the limits once again. Of course, one can never say with any certainty that the upswing in Dalal Street is a durable phenomenon.

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006

Marketers

The report is pertinent for marketers across products & services. In fact, these revelations should push marketers to change their strategy according to the changing dynamics and spending habits of this group. The report points out that a company has to guard its brand very carefully and never let it deteriorate in the minds of the customer, making the ordinary, extraordinary and finding new ways to offer luxury and focus on building long term relationships with customers. It’s an all new mindset, and is here to stay and only grow with time. The trick, for marketers, is to adapt quickly and cash in!

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Source:- IIPM-Business and Economy, Initiative:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri - 2006