Monday, September 10, 2012

Now ‘Grab’ Water along with land for development

Water was shimmering almost all the way to the horizon. The gates of the Hirakud dam, more than 50 years after it was built, stood as sentinels guarding the Nehruvian legacy that dreamt of the ‘modern temples of India.' I am on a trip to Orissa to work on a story for the year end issue of our sister publication The Sunday Indian. I recall how we used to feel proud as children when the Hirakud dam was touted as the longest dam in the world; and along with Bhakra Nangal Dam, the Nehruvian thrust that would propel India towards becoming an industrialised and prosperous nation.

But, like so many other Nehruvian dreams and legacies, the Hirakud dam too is now becoming a mute testimony to the cruel joke that ‘development’ is playing on the common citizens of India. For decades, the irrigated fields near Hirakud dam produced record harvests and made the farmers of this area genuinely prosperous. Many of these farmers are migrants from Andhra Pradesh who have toiled hard for generations to leverage irrigation and water to build economic security - and even prosperity. Now, many of these farmers are committing suicide.

The reason is simple: this part of Orissa is witnessing rapid industrialisation and steel plants plus other industrial projects are mushrooming with amazing speed. They are all hungry for water, and lots of it. What better source than the Hirakud dam. Local farmers are already realising with dismay that ‘industry’ almost always gets preference over ‘agriculture’ when the state machinery is concerned. So these huge steel plants and other projects have started taking away water that for generations irrigated the fields of the farmers and generated golden harvests. Of course, they are protesting; but then the state is making its priorities very clear. It wants industry. One of the most ironical and cruel aspects of this is that the original ‘oustees’ of the Hirakud dam now face ‘displacement’ yet again because the state now wants the land they were forced to resettle in for ‘industry’.

This is not very different from the manner in which land has been snatched away from common citizens in the name of development. Virtually, all over India, places like Nandigram and Singur have become symbols of the tyrannical manner in which the State compels local people to hand over land for industrial projects and so-called SEZs without paying adequate compensation. Something similar is happening with water. Local farmers have depended on the water discharged by Hirakud dam for decades to irrigate their fields. Now that the same water will be diverted for industrial projects, who will compensate them for the loss of livelihood? Mark my words, this issue of the State forcibly diverting water for ‘industry’ is going to trigger violent protests.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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Saturday, September 08, 2012

“From day one we are selling one cayenne everyday”

Porsche doesn’t have its manufacturing unit in India and doesn’t participate in major auto shows either. But Ashish Chordia, MD, Porsche expresses satisfaction with the growth to Angshuman Paul

Driving a car is passion, but driving a Porsche is a dream. The luxury car makers have ambitious plans for Indian operations. In an exclusive with B&E, Asish Chordia, MD, Porsche India shares the German car maker’s plans for India. 

B&E: Apart from Delhi and Mumbai, what are the cities where you are planning to open outlets?
Ashish Chordia (AC): Our strategy for India has been the same since day one. We plan to have 10 dealers in India, out of which at least seven should be operational by the end of 2010. New Delhi and Mumbai are already operational and this year we will be foraying into Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi. In addition, as the official importer for Porsche in India, our major investment will always be in human resources. We have made substantial investments in online training systems for all our dealers and we also facilitate their training by experts from Porsche AG.

B&E: Compared to players like BMW or Audi we have never seen Porsche participating in hyped events like the Auto Expo. Please comment?
AC: We never undertake any activity just because other premium brands are doing so. Participation in motor shows is decided by Porsche AG well in advance. Just to give you an example, despite the US being a major market for Porsche, they have not participated in the Detroit Motor Show for the last 3 years. We regularly participate in events which directly cater to our target audience and if we see such an opportunity in India, we will definitely participate.

B&E: In our earlier interaction with Rod Wallace (official importer, Porsche Cars India), he has accepted that sales figures are very miniscule for Porsche in India but it has a bright market post slowdown. What’s your take on this, as the slowdown is over?
AC: Indian demand for luxury cars has been growing from the past few years and I expect this trend to to continue in the future as well. When compared to other premium luxury car makers, we are a niche player by choice. With the launch of the new Cayenne and the strong response we have received, we are confident of surpassing the targets we have set for ourselves. Since the launch, we have received orders for over 140 cars, which makes it almost one car per day. 


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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Thursday, September 06, 2012

“ We are not looking at any bank acquisition right now”

For Karur Vysya Bank (KVB), the loan portfolio is spread across retail, big ticket corporate and the SME; the bank is getting adequate share of business from all services. P T Kuppuswamy (PTK), MD and CEO, KVB, talks to B&E’s Mona Mehta on various challenges and the growing importance of adopting technology in order to make best use of ATMs, mobile and internet banking services.

B&E: Globally the banking industry was rattled in the last two fiscals; did the global meltdown have an impact on the financials of Karur Vysya Bank (KVB)? What has been the difference in terms of financial performance of KVB in the last two fiscals?

PTK: KVB registered a total business of Rs.329.46 billion as on March 31, 2010, recording a y-o-y growth rate of 28.38%. Deposits increased by 27.62% from Rs.151.01 billion to Rs.192.71 billion. CASA (Current Account and Savings Account) segment registered a 37% growth year-on-year. The gross advances increased from Rs.105.62 billion as of March 31, 2009 to Rs.136.75 billion as of March 31, 2010, a surge of Rs.31.13 billion (a growth of 29.46%). Net profit for the fiscal was at Rs.3.36 billion up from Rs. 2.35 billion for the previous year. The Net Owned Funds (NOF) of the bank improved from `135.01 billion as on March 31, 2009 to `161.99 billion this year. During Q1 of the current financial year, the bank’s net profit increased to Rs.844.8 million, as against Rs.703.5 million for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal, registering a growth of 20.09%. Total business touched Rs.329.46 billion with deposits at Rs.192.71 billion and advances at Rs.136.75 billion.

B&E: ‘Economic recovery’ is the buzzword with banks back to doing what they do best - brisk business. How much of business is KVB planning to achieve in the current financial year vis-a-vis last year?

PTK: We are planning for a total business of Rs.420 billion with a deposit base of Rs.245 billion and advance base of Rs.175 billion. As of date, KVB has already crossed the Rs.350 billion mark, and we are positive of achieving our targets. During fiscal 2009-10, we had reached the total business mark of Rs.329.46 billion with a deposit base of Rs.192. 71 billion crore and advances level of Rs.136.76 billion. In effect, we are planning for about 27.50% year-on-year growth.

B&E: The Indian banking industry is already witnessing inorganic growth stories; is KVB also eyeing any small bank as a possible acquisition target in the near future?

PTK: As of now, we are not looking at any bank acquisitions and are relying on organic growth only. Should any suitable opportunity arise at a later date, we may not be averse to consider the same after careful due diligence.

B&E: Inflation is a cause of concern and banks have recently hiked their deposit rates. So, how will KVB protect its margins keeping in mind the demand and supply ?

PTK: At present, we have a comfortable resource base and hence have not revised our deposit interest rates. We are closely monitoring the situation and a suitable decision on the same will be taken once there is a good take off in advances during the upcoming busy season.

B&E: The growing size of non performing assets has been a cause of concern for the Indian bankers. How did KVB fare on this parameter?

PTK: As of June 2010, we had a low net NPA level of 0.17% which is one of the lowest in the industry. Our gross NPA was at 1.67%. As on March 31, 2010, it was at 0.23%. Moreover, as of March 31, 2010, our provision coverage ratio was at a high level of 87.53%. It is pertinent to note that while the credit portfolio of the bank grew four fold since 2003 from Rs.34.24 billion to Rs.136.75 billion, as of March 31, 2010, the Gross NPA during the same period had declined from Rs.2.55 billion to Rs.2.35 billion.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Bruce Clay, Internet Marketing Guru and Founder of Bruce Clay Inc.

Bruce Clay, Internet Marketing Guru and Founder of Bruce Clay Inc. Talks to Virat Bahri of B&E on search engine OPTIMISATION (SEO) – and on how is it like working with Lindsay Lohan and CNN at the same time

B&E: What is the potential that you see in India, and how are you going about with your internet expansion?

Bruce Clay: Four years ago, I opened an office in Australia. I have an office in Tokyo, Milan, Delhi, and I am working to have more. When I came to Delhi, there was more of a mission of entering a market that was technologically advanced but very large. I am going to open in Brazil shortly and likewise, it is a very very large market; and ultimately, open in China. Personally, I feel India is far bigger than China from the standpoint of computer usage. Around 95% of all computers in China are within 80 miles of the coast. In the inland part of China, they don’t use computers. The other interesting part is that in China, and I have had people say this to me, why would I use software/tools when I can just hire people for a penny? Why do I need a computer? I will just get 20 people add it up for me. It may work for them, but this orientation will depress China in the long term. It means they aren’t going to embrace computers. On a per capita basis, India is phenomenally technology rich compared to other emerging markets. While India is massive for what I do, China isn’t.

B&E: Tell us about your approach to your accounts, particularly CNN.

Bruce Clay: At CNN, we moved from number 3 to number 1 for news. That generated 50 million page views for that term each month. A by-product was that individual journalists found their articles performing better, which help them become stars, just like actors or some of the more visible careers in entertainment space. That changes not just the traffic for the company but also changes the stature of individuals that work for that company, particularly in the journalistic world. We assess the site first – find out what is broken. We target your key words and figure out who your users are. We figure out what kind of words they might use to search for you and make sure you have content that matches them. Then we improve overall content and change the way your pages/navigation are connected together through links, so that the users can find more pages on topics. We establish themes. So if the theme was coffee cups, we would have all the coffee cup related information together. And by aligning parts of your website with coffee cups, when someone searches for coffee cup, your website goes up in the rankings. This is a process. It can take a year, 2 years or even as less as 2 months.

B&E: Another interesting instance is reputation management. How can you absorb the impact of negative results, as you did in the case of Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan?

Bruce Clay: We have a combination of software, monitoring and awareness tools called web optimisers. We back that up with SEO. Sometimes, the best attack is to write content using the negative words, If the negative words were Lindsay Lohan and drug addict, you can write an article which says ‘Lindsay Lohan speaks out about drug addicts’. Reputation is not easy. There are people whose mission in life is to hurt people. It’s a shame. Most of the time, from the SEO point of view, we know how to just outposition them so that they show on page 2 or at the bottom of page 1. We can do video for instance. When you look at Google search results, videos often come at position 3 and 4. We can take your picture and optimise it in images. Many times you can put the images on the top or middle and push the negative results to the bottom. As an SEO we can do that, an average businessman cannot.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Time Dilation Down South

A uniquely fused culture and legacy makes Pondicherry a place where time seems to come to a standstill, or better yet, rendered irrelevant

Pondicherry (now rechristened Puducherry) may appear to be a quaint place, but many worlds thrive inside this town at the southern frontier of India. An amalgamation of architectures, heritage that is unique and a ‘hub’ for the real art of living – yoga; all this makes Pondicherry a must see on any visitor’s itinerary. It would not be wrong to call Pondicherry the place where time stops, or at least dilates anyway. Its laid-back streets and people, the lovely beaches stretching endlessly against the backdrop of heritage architecture and a spiritual overtone make it the perfect ‘getaway’.

In Pondicherry you can lose yourself and suspend the ‘rush’ of life as you soak in the unmistakably ‘French’ vibe leftover by the occupiers of this maritime territory who ruled for almost three centuries. Pondy, as the place is referred to affectionately by the locals, has a history that stretches back thousands of years. In the early years (about the 1st century) it was a trade route for Roman merchants, followed by the Arabs but it was the Europeans, beginning with the Portuguese in late 15th century who saw the strategic significance of this town. The French followed, and even the Dutch and their periods of rule over the territory developed it, and briefly even the British Empire took over. It finally integrated into India (as a Union Territory) in 1954 when the French relinquished control, but they had left behind a rarely seen fusion in architecture and culture. Pondicherry has two distinct quarters – the French and the Tamil ones. And it has gorgeous beaches – those that seem to spread endlessly; any place having beaches named ‘paradise’ and ‘serenity’ has to be good, and once you have visited them you’ll know why.

Once you are done admiring the tree lined boulevards and the beaches, and the French War memorial, the 19th century lighthouse and The Church of Our Lady of the Angels on Dumas street it’s time to turn the spiritual button on because no trip to Pondicherry is complete without a visit to the Aurobindo Ashram or Auroville – a community that was conceived as a utopian paradise by the Mother, the spiritual successor of Sri Aurobindo and designed by the French architect Roger Anger. People live there in ‘communes’ and sustain themselves through handicrafts, agriculture and developmental projects. The ideal of living in the communes is that ‘one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness’ and that’s how it has been for the past four decades at this institution conceived as ‘a symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s inspiration for perfection’. Given its strong pull as a yoga hub, which houses two of the world’s leading yoga institutions – the Aurobindo Ashram and the ‘International Center for Yoga Education and Research’ (also known as Ananda Ashram), Pondicherry plays host to the International Yoga festival every January, when yoga practitioners from around the world descend here.


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Monday, September 03, 2012

Can virtual life substitute your real one?

Suggna (name changed) shares, “I was completely addicted to Second Life. I also had a virtual partner, whom I married too in the game. I would love to teleport myself over mountains and shuttle from one mall to another. Picking expensive accessories and clothes and changing my look every now and then was my favourite way to kill time. Soon I was so involved that I longed to go home from work and often real life didn’t seem as interesting as the one onscreen. I had to make a conscious effort to pull myself out of Second Life because I realised I was so drawn towards it that I would skip lunch and instead of digging into my food I would huddle in front of my computer screen and live my virtual life during office hours.” Not that there isn’t an option of an alternative virtual career, but risking your real-life job for it wouldn’t be among the best of ideas. Hence a majority of offices have blocked such sites, which divert employees’ attention from work. But pros like Suggna always find proxy servers and alternate IP addresses!

Simulation techniques are good, but mostly for training purposes, learning and entertainment. How far can one continue to live a virtual life in a computer generated world? With Internet speeds getting faster by the day the virtual world will seem more and more real. Games are fun as long as they don’t spill into a territory where one is forced to question one’s sanity. Strokes of creativity and ingenuity are best appreciated when painted on the screens of our real lives…


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Saturday, September 01, 2012

ON “CLOUD SEVEN”

Uncertainty in the global environment persists, but Infosys has tremendous confidence due to the fact that the spends of clients are now back on track. Besides strengthening its global delivery model, the company is now looking at new avenues of growth. Will it be able to take the next leap forward?

Brevity wouldn’t be something that you would credit Infosys’ latest repositioning for, but there are also undeniable signs of the company’s will for a radical future-centric transformation. From being the company that helps its clients “win in the smart world”, the broad and comprehensive shift is towards “building the enterprises of tomorrow”. That, in turn, includes seven broad areas – improved engagement with digital consumers, setting up innovation hubs in emerging economies, IT for a sustainable tomorrow, smarter organisations, new commerce, pervasive computing and healthcare economy.

So how has the progress been for Infosys in these new endeavours? The company has gained some ground, if you see some of the orders they are getting. With structured and unstructured analytics, Infosys is aiming to be a partner to its clients and to help them be more future ready. A global auto major has taken their help to enable it to be more responsive to customer’s demands and to boost efficiency. A leading beauty care products manufacturer has sought Infosys’ services to assist in promotion, pricing as managing its portfolio in a better way. In the healthcare space, Infosys launched the iTransform product suite and is also helping a biotechnology company in drug discoveries. They have launched consulting and system integration operations in Australia and New Zealand and added a development centre in Mexico.The green focus is more towards conservation of resources at the moment, as the company claims to have already achieved a 17% reduction in per capita energy consumption. In the realm of pervasive computing, the company is in the process of making Finacle available on the Software as a Service (SaaS) platform for the convenience of its customers.

While the slowdown compelled Infosys to make several adjustments in the short term to protect its margins, it has also inspired it to look at ways to improve the portfolio of services it offers its clients and also look to get the high end businesses. When you look at results for FY 2009-10, Infosys, which was ranked 8th this year compared to 7th in 2009, posted net profits of Rs.62.66 billion, a yoy growth of 4.6%. Revenues were at Rs.227.42 billion, a yoy growth of 4.8%. Considering that the IT sector is just on its way to recovery, and Infosys had given a flat guidance in advance this year, the results were a reason for celebration. Commenting on the results, Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan comments in an exclusive with B&E, “Given the recessionary conditions and general slow recovery post the recession, Infosys has witnessed good growth over the last three quarters. The ‘New Engagement Models (NEM)’ have made a good impact and are accounting for almost 5 per cent of our revenues. Offshoring received sound endorsement for its value and Infosys has focused on being a trusted transformation partner to our customers.” The NEMs, i.e. outcome based and platform based pricing are expected to drive profits in the upcoming quarters, as the company endeavours to have an enduring, non-linear relationship between growth and headcount.


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