DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, APRIL 18
BUSINESS
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Hyundai drives on quality path FSS to supply UPI New Delhi, Apr 17: Hyundai's strategic shift towards quality push, coupled with its cuttingedge vehicle design policy, will help the South Korean chaebol roll out products free of defects, according to a top company official. The company had earned rewards through its increased focus on product quality and supply chain industry, besides its design approach called 'Fluidic Sculpture', said Y.K. Koo, Managing Director of Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL). Among all automakers in India, Hyundai's recall of vehicles was the lowest, indicating significant strides in improving the quality of
Exim Bank opens entries for BRICS Economic Research Annual Award ANI Mumbai, Apr 17: As India has assumed the Chairmanship of BRICS Forum in 2016, the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank), being the nominated member development bank from India under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, has assumed the chairmanship of the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism. To mark the occasion, Exim Bank of India has instituted the BRICS Economic Research Annual Award. The objective of the award is to encourage and stimulate advanced research on economics related topics of relevance to the member nations of BRICS. The award comprises of prize money of Rs.15 lakh and a citation. The award would encourage scholars to undertake focused research studies on topics of contemporary relevance to the BRICS nations. "We are very happy to announce the BRICS Economic Research Annual Award under the guidance of the Government of India. As India's premier financial institution in promoting the country's international trade, Exim Bank takes pride in recognising intelligent and meaningful research in the areas of international economics," said Yaduvendra Mathur, Chairman and Managing Director of Exim Bank. "The award will recognise and felicitate one of the best researchers in the field of international economics during the BRICS Annual Summit. We encourage and invite people who have done research in this area to proactively send in their entries for the Award," he added. Eligible entries for the award are doctoral theses written by nationals of any of the five member nations of BRICS, who have been awarded a doctorate or accepted for award of a doctorate from any recognized nationally accredited university or academic institution globally, during the period January 2011 to December 2015. The broad focus of the eligible theses could be International Economics, Trade, Development, and related aspects of Financing, which may also have particular relevance especially to BRICS nations/ member development banks of BRICS. The award will be presented at the Annual BRICS Summit in Goa in October this year in the presence of Heads of States of the five BRICS nations. Entries for the award are open till June 15, 2016.
vehicles. Most of the cars produced are based on the fluidic design policy that incorporates flashier looks. These offerings have met with success and created a niche across segments. As an endorsement of its transformation, independent assessment providers such as J.D Power Asia Pacific have acknowledged the improved quality of Hyundai's fluidic models. Mr. Koo attributed the growing sales of the company in India to the fluidic vehicles and its powerful vendor base that kept pace with the company's quality and new product initiatives. "At least twice a year, Hyundai engineers from
QUALITY HYUNDAI Hyundai's strategic shift towards quality push, coupled with its cutting-edge vehicle design policy, will help the South Korean chaebol roll out products free of defects. The company had earned rewards through its increased focus on product quality and supply chain industry, besides its design approach. Korea meet our suppliers and discuss the areas that need improvements, product plans and localisation,"
As an endorsement of its transformation, independent assessment providers such as J.D Power Asia Pacific have acknowledged the improved quality of Hyundai's fluidic models. The geographical proximity of suppliers and vendors had been a key factor in the company's localisation efforts. he said. "Hyundai is the only company in India to provide two times PDI (pre-delivery inspection)
before delivery." In its quality and design, the company has adopted a cooperative approach with its suppliers under which it provided technology support and also helped them access international standards. Such efforts had led to achieving localisation effectively without compromising on the quality of vehicles. Also, the geographical proximity of suppliers and vendors had been a key factor in the company's localisation efforts. A major chunk (78 per cent) of vendors is located within Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts and the rest too are not very far from the plant. (Agencies)
solution for 6 banks Mumbai, Apr 17: Financial Software & Systems Pvt. Ltd. (FSS), a Chennaibased payments technology and transaction processing company, has inked agreements with six banks to provide UPI (Unified Payment Interface) solution across the country on a hosted platform. UPI facilitates easy and seamless person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions for end-customers. Suresh Rajagopalan, President (Software Products), FSS, said UPI supported all transactions. Typically, it will see FSS develop custom-built
T. Rowe Price slashes value of its Flipkart New Delhi, Apr 17: Mutual fund T. Rowe Price has cut the value of its holding in Flipkart, India's most valued Internet firm, by 15 per cent - the second fund to resort to such a move after Morgan Stanley. The development comes at a time when Indian start-ups are finding it difficult to raise funds as lack of profits raise concerns over valuations. T. Rowe cut the value of its Flipkart holding to $120.69 per share, according to its filings made for March quarter, as compared to the value of $142.26 assigned to them at the end of December 2015. The fund earlier cut the value of global Internet giants like ride hailing start-up Uber Technologies and AirBnB by six per
Image for representational purpose only (Photo: livemint) cent each and also Dropbox by 16 per cent, as per its disclosures for the March quarter. The T. Rowe mark-down would reduce the valuation of home grown e-commerce giant Flipkart to $13 bil-
lion from the $15.2 billion it was valued during its last round of fund-raising in July 2015. The markdown by T. Rowe Price is not as sharp as Morgan Stanley's, which cut the value of its holdings by 27
per cent to $103.97 a share from $142.24 a share, which brought down the valuation of Flipkart to $11 billion. T. Rowe Price had first invested in the Bengaluru-based firm in December 2014, when the company raised $700 million, which also saw participation from sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority and Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital. Flipkart's other shareholders are New York-based investment firm Tiger Global Management, South African media giant Naspers, Singapore sovereign wealth GIC, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global and early stage investment firm Accel. The markdown also comes at a time when
Indian government has tightened its rules on ecommerce firms. The most important rules are that online marketplaces cannot influence product prices and no group company or seller on a marketplace can contribute more than 25 per cent of the sales generated. A spokesperson from T. Rowe Price had recently told that the fund is seeing a 'bifurcation in the funding environment' with those delivering on their business promises being able to maintain valuations. Others, who do not, are seeing valuations fall and may find it challenging to raise further capital, while declining to comment on specific holdings. (Agencies)
Quakes dislocate Sony output of image sensors in iPhones Chennai, Apr 17: Electronics giant Sony Corp said a factory producing image sensors for smartphone makers will remain closed while it assesses the damage from two deadly earthquakes which hit southern Japan. One of its major customers is Apple, which uses the sensors in its iPhones. Sony said it would extend the closure of its image sensor plant in Kumamoto, which is in the southern island of Kyushu, after major tremblors on Thursday and Saturday rocked the key manufacturing region. The PlayStation maker said operations at its image sensor plant in Nagasaki, also in Kyushu, would be partially suspended and it does not yet have a timeline for full resumption of operations. Sony controls about 40 per cent of the market for complementary metaloxide semiconductor
(CMOS) image sensors, a type of integrated circuit that converts light into electrical signals. In smartphones they are used to convert images into digital data. "We are not expecting any immediate supply disruption as we have some inventories right now," a Sony spokesman told Reuters on Saturday. "We will make an announcement promptly if any supply issues emerge." He said the company was hoping to resume operations as soon as aftershocks end, and would probably provide an update on late Monday afternoon. "We are still checking for potential damage to the plants, which usually operate on a 24-hour basis," he said. Sony has two other CMOS image sensor plants in Japan. Samsung Electronics says it has diversified its sources for image sensors used in its smartphones and the quakes will have no im-
Image for representational purpose only (Photo: ndtv )
pact on its flagship products. A devastating earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan in March 2011 temporarily knocked out part of Japan's auto supply chain. Some companies have since adjusted the industry's "Just in Time" production philosophy to limit any repeat of that costly disruption. Other electronics makers were also forced to stop production in Kyushu, which has grown as a manufacturing hub over
the past two decades. Kyushu accounts for roughly 25 per cent of semiconductor output in Japan by some estimates. Renesas Electronics Corp closed its Kumamoto plant, which produces microcontroller chips for automobiles. It will not resume production until it completes its damage assessment. Mitsubishi Electric Corp halted production at its two Kumamoto plants, which produce liquid crys-
tal display modules used in display panels for car navigation systems and semiconductor chips used in power inverters for various electrical products, including air conditioners and hybrid or electric vehicles. It uses some of the products itself and provides others to customers. "We are still assessing the situation as we continue to have aftershocks," said a Mitsubishi spokesman. Recent natural disaster also impacted major automakers, which had just stopped their production lines to inspect for any damage from Thursday's earthquake. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. halted production at its Kumamoto motorcycle plant, which has annual production capacity of 2,50,000. It said it would keep production on hold through Monday. Toyota Motor Corp halted production at three plants producing vehicles, engines and trans axles in Fukuoka. (Agencies)
Adani mine gets traditional owner consent Kolkata, Apr 17: Adani said its 21.7 billion dollar coal mine project in Australia has finally received authorisation by traditional land owners, which the Indian mining giant termed was a "clear mandate" that the community supports the venture, which is the world's largest. The Indian energy giant said that "W&J (Wangan and Jagalingou) community voted overwhelmingly today at a properly convened, independently-chaired meeting in accordance with established statutory process to deliver intergenerational opportunities to their communities
and their children, and grandchildren". The company said that today's decision was indication that the traditional owners - the Birriah, Juru and Jangga traditional owners - were determined to work with Adani in building sustainable and ongoing partnerships that see the benefits of these projects are shared by all in the broader community. However, the antiAdani group of W&J representatives slammed the "sham meeting" and said it was funded by Adani. They added that they will challenge Adani's "phoney" land use deal in the Federal Court. Confident that the
project in Queensland was on the right track, Adani Mining Australia CEO Jeyakumar Janakaraj said that the company finally received authorisation for Indigenous land use agreement (ILUA) by the traditional owners of Queensland. "This is an extremely positive development as it has reconfirmed that Adani has been working very closely with W&J (Wangan and Jagalingou) and the entire community supports the project. The level of support which has been shown in the voting by the community owners has given us lot of confidence," Janakraj said, add-
ing that this proved that there was a lot of support for energy security in India. He further said that the meeting was the largestever authorisation meeting of the W&J, with over 300 attendees, organised by the community itself as per the legal framework. However, there were still some minority groups present within the community. "It is a clear mandate and we are very happy that the community has supported the Adani project," Janakaraj said. "We are taking all the steps in the right direction." It said that the decision reflected a commitment to work with
Adani to ensure that the W&J people benefit from the jobs and economic opportunities that will flow from the construction and operation of the mine at Carmichael - just as communities such as Clermont, Charters Towers, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton and Bowen will enjoy the benefits of Adani's mine, rail and port projects from proceeding. Recently W&J representative group said it has filed an interlocutory application in the Federal Court of Australia challenging the leases granted to the controversyhit venture in Queensland's Galilee Basin. (Agencies)
Nagaraj Mylandla, MD, FSS (Photo: bankingtech ) UPI app for each bank. A bank customer can download this app in his/her mobile devise, register the account number and take a virtual address. "This virtual ad-
dress is mapped to some identified parameters,'' Mr. Rajagopalan saidUPI is an initiative undertaken by National Payment Corporation of India (NCPI). (Agencies)
Eli Lilly to introduce new drug every year Chennai, Apr 17: U.S. drug major Eli Lilly and Company is planning to strengthen its presence in India by introducing at least one drug every year for the next four years in the areas of diabetes, oncology, osteoporosis and growth disorder, said a top official. Eli Lilly and Company (India) Pvt. Ltd. Managing Director Edgard Olaizola said: "About 50 drugs are under various stages of trials out of which seven are undergoing phase three of clinical trials. It is difficult to say which drug will be released when as we have to get regulatory/agencies' approvals. We will roll out a diabetic drug by the
year end and an oncology drug next year." Mr. Olaizolasaid the pipeline of new drugs included thoseprescribed for stomach and breast cancer and pain management.About 80 per cent of revenue for the Indian unit comes from diabetes drugs and the balance from those prescribed for cancer, osteoporosis and other conditions. "Trulicity, a oncea-week single dose diabetic injectible drug, is being imported from the U.S. and is priced Rs.2,499 per injection. It is an important addition to our diabetes portfolio in India and Tamil Nadu is one of our key markets," he said. (Agencies)
Government to launch 'Twitter Seva' for start-ups
Commerce and Industry Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman (Photo: newindianexpress )
Mumbai, Apr 17: As part of its steps to support budding entrepreneurs, the government on April 21 will launch a new service, Twitter Seva, to address various queries of start-ups in a time bound manner. "On April 21, we will be launching a 'Twitter Seva' Any start-up, which wants to access government irrespective of any department, they can (put their queries). The process is on. We would have a place where you can virtually contact us, tell us your issues. We have a team that will divert the things or issues to the particular ministry and then come back to you and try to reply in 24 hrs," Com-
merce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the launch of new service during an interaction with over 70 startup firms here at a coworking place. During an hour-long interaction, the minister heard their issues and responded to their queries. On the matters related to other departments, she assured them to take that up with the concerned ministries. Ms. Sitharaman said that as part of follow-up of the action plan announced for start-ups by the Prime Minister in January, the ministry would be "meeting with you as in what exactly is happening in the start up place." (Agencies)
TWITTER SEVA As part of its steps to support budding entrepreneurs, the government on April 21 will launch a new service, Twitter Seva. Twitter Seva address various queries of start-ups in a time bound manner. The team will divert the things or issues to the particular ministry and then come back to you and try to reply in 24 hrs. The launch of new service during an interaction with over 70 start-up firms here at a co-working place.