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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th July 2014
Dear Financial Voice Reader,
It’s summer and the Indian invasion has begun. I even bumped into Abhishek Bachchaan outside my office. I’ve been asked to give some tips to a top UK Government Official on addressing a delegation of Indian CEOs. My top tips when dealing with India and Finance: They tend to be very senior experienced business people with businesses in the UK and will have heard the common statistics many times before, so I would caution against the same line unless the statistic is likely to be lesser known. Ones which surprise and therefore should be used include EU is about the size of the US in terms of GDP and population. Do go beyond the simple selling the UK. The best speeches to this audience will be passionate, inspiring ones about how their colleagues have done extraordinary things in the UK with their investments. When I addressed them, including the Birlas, at Chatham House – I made the case that in the UK you have a Government with a ‘blank sheet of paper’ for you. Imagine that. A whole Government saying work with us, tell us what you want and we will do whatever it takes. You are the entrepreneurs. You are the business people – you tell us. It is the opportunity of a lifetime for any business for any Government to say that. So consider that. Mr Birla invited me to his home after that – ie inspire them and you will be remembered. Take the risk of not doing the same old same old speech. Sell the benefits of UK NOT the features. I want to tell you a story about a country in which everyone said manufacturing of cars is dead. They said the country lacked the infrastructure, the know-how, the skills, the factories, the supply chains, the commitment from the workforce to the Government, the ability then to export thereafter, the scientists to innovate, the Universities to produce the R&D and add to that unhelpful labour laws. A real basket case. There was at this time another country, of which it was said they could not do manufacturing. They had no brand in car manufacturing, no international global leadership in management and certainly no expertise in foreign acquisitions. Companies from both these countries got together. In 365 days their joint company made a profit in making cars of $1 billion. Those countries were the UK and India of course and I am speaking about Jaguar Land Rover. NEVER ever underestimate what Britain and India can do together. I am asked – okay we see that success – so how can the UK Government help us in our industry replicate that? Make us our billion pounds too. Well I can’t make you call billionaires in just one year – but I can tell you the support and help UKTI gave Tata is the same support we can give you. The profit that one Indian company made from one British acquisition over one year was greater than the profits made last year by Amazon and Twitter! I’m speaking of Jaguar Land Rover of course. But it’s not just traditional manufacturing where the UK beats American giants – King – the makers of Candy Crush are as British as you can get. Made in Britain – investors from the US. If you want to know where to find the next $7 billion dollar giant – because that’s what the Company behind Candy Crush is – just visit TechCity – or Liverpool, or Belfast for that matter. If you are looking at genius at work and undiscovered, undervalued – we have them here – without the hype and the overprice tag.
DGCA scraps all objections against Tata- SIA service
The Tata-Singapore Airlines (SIA) JV domestic carrier is all set to take to the skies by September, making it the third domestic full service carrier along with Air India and Jet Airways. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) disposed off all the objections against the airline's application for grant of flying licence. This effectively paves the way for the airline to now get all the required
infrastructure to start the airline, get the flying licence from the DGCA and start flights. However, the order will be subject to the final verdict of the Delhi High Court where the purview of the government's FDI policy has been challenged. The objections against Tata-SIA came from the Federation of Indian airlines (FIA, an umbrella organization of existing domestic carriers) and an individual.
Creating avenues for stronger UK- South India trade relations
Following the successful business meets over the years, British South Indian Chamber of Commerce (BSICC) hosted its annual business meet, UK- South India Business Meet 2014 at the House of Commons on 10th July 2014. Chaired by Virendra Sharma MP, Patron of BSICC, Lord Swraj Paul was invited as a special guest. The audience included representatives from British Indian community and South Indian states, MPs and Peers and representatives from other countries. The business meet commenced with Virendra Sharma starting the proceedings and formally welcoming the delegates. Following this Philip Abraham, BSICC Vice Chair - Kerala provided a brief overview of BSICC and its activities. Alister Jones, Deputy Director Global Operations at UKTI gave an overview on how it supports overseas companies to invest and grow in the UK. Mike Knowles, who is part of British Business Group, Delhi spoke about the lessons that India can learn from the UK of 1964 in his talk titled "India 2014 - UK 1964. Lessons to be learnt." Bradley Starr, Founder of Bizantra.com, who has extensive experi-
ence in pursuing cross cultural business activities between UK and India offered his perspective on what is required to successfully pursue IT business between UK and India. Srinivas Rao Jalakkam, BSICC Vice Chair for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and Radhakishore Pandrangi, who was Office Director of US Commercial Service in Hyderabad spoke about various opportunities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Promising Telugu actor Rahul Venkat provided insights into the business opportunities available in the Telugu film industry. Veteran journalist Rani Singh, delved deeper into PR and media relationships that are required for Indian companies in the UK. Julian Marwitz, CEO of Arineos UG, spoke about "Affordable housing and energy efficiency - smarter ways for
housing." Salman Ahmed, Presidency college, Bangalore spoke about educational opportunities in Karnataka. Prof KP Haridas, Chairman and Managing Director, Lords Hospitals, Kerala talked about new models in healthcare relevant to South India. Akash Nahar, Director, Yes We Can Foundation, Bangalore spoke in detail about making impactful social investments in South India. Sowri Manoharan, Priya Shah and Aneesha Ramani from UKTNCC spoke about the business opportunities in Tamil Nadu. Jayant Nadiger and Filippe De Potter from Belgium investment and trade body took a bi-thematic approach for their talk titled "Karnataka, gateway to IndiaBelgium, gateway to continental Europe." Kurinjivenden of Bharathidasan Govt College, Pondicherry
Central University spoke about business opportunities in Puducherry. Harish Haridas, an entrepreneur from Kerala, spoke about business opportunities in Kerala. BSICC Director Pius John spoke about ongoing and upcoming mega projects in Kerala. Noted singer from Kerala, Franco, also interacted with the audience. Jacob Ravibalan, BSICC Vice Chair - Tamil Nadu delivered the vote of thanks. Sujit S Nair, the Chief Coordinator/Director of BSICC was the MC for the day. During the business meet, BSICC celebrated the achievements of few individuals and organisations from South India who have not only made a huge difference to the lives of the people in the South India but have also contributed to the economic development of their respective states. Prof KP Haridas, Chairman and Managing Director, Lords Hospitals was honoured with "Lifetime Achievement Award". Presidency Group of Institutions was honoured with "Most Promising Education Institute" for their amazing work in the field of education. Noted dancer Tony Vanchinthanam was honoured with Young Talent Award.
date. Negotiations to create the bank dragged on for more than two years as Brazil and India fought China's attempts to get a bigger share in the lender than the others. The stark economic and political differences between the BRICS countries has made it difficult for the group to turn rhetoric to concrete action in coordinating policies. Russian and Indian officials have signalled that China's business hub, Shanghai, was the frontrunner in the race to land the headquarters.
Standard & Poor's said the budget would not have an impact on India's sovereign ratings until the agency could see how the measures will be implemented, especially regarding meeting the fiscal deficit target. India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said last week India would stick to the fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product for the year ending in March 2015 unveiled by the previous government. "We think the budget is favourable to credit fundamentals to the extent that fiscal debt and interest ratios are expected to continue to improve," said Agost Benard, an associate director, at Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. "But it remains to be seen how and to what extent will the various measures proposed be implemented and in particular how the deficit targets will be met," he added.
No decision yet on launching BRICS bank
On the eve of the signing of a deal to launch a joint development bank, the BRICS nations have still not agreed on where the lender will be headquartered, a senior official involved in the talks said. The leaders of the five emerging market economies are expected to sign a deal that creates the $100 billion bank and a reserves fund of the same size to challenge Western dominance over global finance. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was keen on the creation of the bank. The five nations are Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa. Negotiations have stalled for now on a dispute between China, India and South Africa over who will host the bank. The disagreement has also delayed a decision on which of the countries will hold the first 5-year presidency of the bank. "This should be easy to resolve but we have this
dispute. If it doesn't move forward, we may have to leave the decision for another meeting," said the official. Another negotiator confirmed that no decision has been reached. A delay could be an embarrassment for the BRICS, which see the creation of the bank as a major step to gain more influence in the shaping of the world's financial architecture. The official said that if no deal was reached on Tuesday, the leaders could still sign off on creation of the bank and decide on the headquarters and its president at a later
Budget has no impact on ratings: S&P