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| October 10, 2024 | | 'Can We In Our Businesses Set An Example?'
'I think some of us, like Mukesh Ambani, myself and those of us who head industrial units, ought to really focus on what we can really do to make the world a safer place, maybe 50 or 100 years from now.'
'We Have An Indian Tiger That Needs To Be Uncaged'
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
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| September 24, 2024 | | 'IPOs Are In A Sweet Spot'
'IPOs have performed exceptionally well, with a notable increase in average ticket size from Rs 800 crore in the last financial year to around Rs 1,300 crore in this financial year.'
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| September 21, 2024 | | 'The EV Market Is Hotting Up'
'A lot of players such as Maruti and Hyundai are entering the market in the first and the second quarters of 2025.'
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| August 01, 2024 | | 'We Want Chinese Style Growth'
'We have essentially tried to set out an agenda for the next five years and it, in essence, represents the political commitment to that agenda.'
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| July 25, 2024 | | 'No Sunset Clause For Old Tax Regime'
'We have now drastically simplified it, primarily to two rates in long-term capital gains: 20% and the applicable rates. Similarly, in short-term capital gains.'
'Jobs Have To Be Created Everywhere'
'I found it unbelievable that L&T said 45,000 jobs were waiting to be filled because of unavailability of suitable skillsets.'
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| July 17, 2024 | | Will Nirmala<em>ji</em> Cheer The Markets?
'We are confident that over the next few years the government will strike a fine balance between populist measures and growth, and manage coalition partners well.'
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| June 13, 2024 | | 'We Are Frittering Away The Demographic Dividend'
'it's not just youth in India who are left behind because of their inability to find jobs; nearly two-thirds of Indian women of working ages do not participate at all in the paid labour force.'
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| May 10, 2024 | | 'Markets Could Crash 40-50% If...'
'If the NDA comes to power with 320-330 plus seats, then we could see some correction. We could possibly see a level of 19,500 to 20,000.'
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| March 21, 2024 | | 'Midcaps, Smallcaps: Exercise Caution'
'While Indian markets are indeed not inexpensive, the valuations of largecap stocks are still a considerable distance from being overstretched.'
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| February 12, 2024 | | 'There's a de-emphasis on divestment'
'We now look at divestment as an opportunity for maximising the value of public assets, not necessarily as a short-term resource-raising measure.'
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| January 19, 2024 | | 'We are going to be an AI-first company'
'GenAI has democratised the AI conversation. I do not know of a single client who is not interested in that conversation.'
'New Investors Won't Digest Such Falls'
'If individual stocks start falling 25% to 30% or more, then I doubt how many of them will be able to withstand that (kind of selloff). That is when you'll see panic coming in.'
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| January 09, 2024 | | 'Public AI infrastructure we create would help startups'
'Similar to the case of the digital payment system where the government created a public platform and others joined in, we are exploring a similar structure to create a PPP platform where the compute required for AI could be accessed by the small player.'
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| January 04, 2024 | | 'I am addicted to entrepreneurship'
'We look at the opportunities that are going to come in various fields in the next 5 to 10 years, do some research and come up with business plans.'
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| December 31, 2023 | | 'The agenda is 'insurance for all by 2047''
'If you want it to grow well and serve the true needs of the economy, it needs a lot of freedom and flexibility, which comes in terms of the reform objective set by the regulator.'
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| November 21, 2023 | | 'Challenge for us is resource management'
'The fact still remains that we will have to deliver, so the pressure is now on us to make sure we get our resources, our supplies lined up at acceptable costs.'
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| October 17, 2023 | | 'Adani has deep pockets...'
'Adani can attract vessels at a much lower cost to Vizhinjam as he has the financial muscle to do so.'
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| October 13, 2023 | | How Amazon Works With Indian Railways
'Building a whole product with the railways was challenging; we had to figure out how to load and unload a train when it stops for only about five minutes at a station.'
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| September 15, 2023 | | 'We are not going back to licence raj'
'I'm pitching India for the strengths we offer, including the English language, engineers, doctors, nurses, professionals, innovative talent of startups.'
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| August 21, 2023 | | How Ather Energy is taking on its rivals
'Our expectations are that we will be able to double our market share from 14-15 per cent currently to around 30 per cent by the end of the financial year.'
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| August 16, 2023 | | Maruti's Goal: Hybrid, Not EV, Cars
'We are going to have hybrid cars, which, as far as I know, none of our competition is working on, and this includes ethanol.'
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| July 11, 2023 | | 'Growth is fragile'
'If all goes well, we may well hit or even surpass the forecast growth rate.'
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| May 11, 2023 | | 'Build portfolio in mid-, small caps via SIPs'
'As the Indian economy continues to expand over the next three years, mid- and small-caps should do well as they have higher exposure to the domestic economy than large-caps.'
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| April 14, 2023 | | 'Aim to make FAME scheme more transparent'
'The aim is also to probe how the ministry and testing agencies made negligence in examining these OEMs, so that such negligence is avoided in the future.'
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| April 01, 2023 | | 'India has far exceeded our expectations in EVs'
'The Indian govt's initiatives on EVs are very strong and customers want to buy EVs. This will make the country's conversion to EVs faster than other markets, and I hope even faster than the US'
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| March 28, 2023 | | 'SIP Inflows Remained Robust'
'Although mid- and small-cap funds have the potential for higher growth, they come with inherent higher volatility.'
'Growth Rate May Come Down To 3-4%'
'The government should act proactively to instil confidence in the private investors, and also boost the purchasing power of people directly or indirectly by ensuring minimum wages.'
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| March 17, 2023 | | 'Fed rate cut appears unlikely'
'The Fed rate will peak in the range of 5.1-5.3 per cent during the second quarter of CY23 and will most likely stay there for a while before rate cuts start in CY24.'
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| January 24, 2023 | | 'Pent-up demand in real estate to continue in 2023'
'The inflection point that really happened in the sector was during the pandemic when buyers' perception changed towards consumption and that gave a trigger to pent-up demand with the increased affordability.'
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| January 10, 2023 | | 'India is on a good wicket now'
'The pitch for India is flat, the ball for India is old, the sun for India is out, and the bowlers are not bowling too well.'
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| January 04, 2023 | | 'Keep booking profits when market makes fresh highs'
'We suggest investors with suitable risk appetite to consider allocating 40-50 per cent in large-caps, 25-30 per cent of funds in quality mid and small-caps and the rest in debt and high yield products.'
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| January 02, 2023 | | When R K Krishna Kumar Spoke To <em>Rediff</em>
Few people know Ratan Tata as well as R K Krishna Kumar does. Widely perceived to be among the managers closest to Tata, Krishna Kumar assesses Ratan Tata, the man and business leader, in this exclusive interview to Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
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| December 27, 2022 | | Market Fall: What Investors Should Do
'Investors should continue to invest because you are looking at the long-term; in the next four to five years, we are bound to outperform (the rest of the world equity markets).'
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| October 26, 2022 | | 'When the rates of interest fall, EMIs will come down'
'Marginal rates will definitely affect the consumer's decision in entering a new transaction, but in reality, they don't affect much because banks/financial institutions have come up with step-up EMIs: 50% of home loans which exceed 15 years in India are prepaid, within 7-8 years.'
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| October 06, 2022 | | 'Global Slowdown Would Be Positive For India'
'If you look at the order books of capital equipment companies or money deployed on the ground, there is forward movement in terms of actual investment by the private sector.'
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| October 04, 2022 | | 'A Global Recession Can Be Avoided'
'We continue to believe that the global economy will narrowly avoid a recession, despite expecting the US, Canada, and most of Europe to fall into recession at some point over the next year or so.'
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| August 16, 2022 | | 'Our rate of growth will fall further'
'The finance ministry and the RBI will never admit to the difficulties in the economy because if they do so, it will adversely impact the financial markets, etc.'
'Data protection bill veered away from core issues'
'There were two options before the government -- create a complex, cumbersome law, which will cause a tremendous amount of compliance challenges for startups or say let's go back and do a clean slate, where we do a framework of laws and policies'
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| July 29, 2022 | | 'Small Caps Look Attractive'
'The potential headwind is that the Indian economy is likely to see a slowdown in growth rates over the next two years.'
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| April 11, 2022 | | A Good Time To Buy Large Caps?
'Large-caps are better placed to withstand the impact of higher input cost inflation, rising rates and withdrawal of excess global liquidity.'
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| March 09, 2022 | | 'Perhaps they want MSMEs to die'
'The finance minister said, the MSME is the backbone of the economy. My question is, what have you done for the sector?'
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| February 28, 2022 | | NSE Mess: 'Chitra was wrong'
'She violated NSE procedures and rules, corporate governance norms; Chitra acted maybe within her capacity as MD and CEO, but not in the right spirit.'
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| February 25, 2022 | | Market Crash: Advice For Investors
'This is a good time to restructure your portfolio because the sectors and stocks that performed in the last bull market may not perform as much now.'
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| February 24, 2022 | | In 8-10 months, stage will be set for India's semiconductor biz: Minister
The government will undertake a detailed evaluation of applications it has received in response to the mega semiconductor scheme and expects to complete the entire process and sign agreements with companies in next 8-10 months, according to Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw.
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| February 23, 2022 | | 'Decision to sell LIC is more political than economic'
'How can you explain the necessity of selling an institution that has been delivering regular returns to the government, that has never asked for any capital from the government, that has invested Rs 38 lakh crores in the Indian economy and that owns 4 per cent of the market capitalisation in India?'
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| February 17, 2022 | | 'Government is selling people's trust in LIC'
'The entire value of LIC is created by its shareholders because after the initial invest net of Rs 5 crores in 1956, the government has not given any additional capital to the LIC.'
'International factors are a bigger risk to equity markets'
'Higher than expected inflation in the US or the European Union, faster than expected tightening by the major central banks, break out of a war in Europe, and withdrawal of portfolio equities from the emerging markets are factors which can result in equity market corrections.'
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| February 11, 2022 | | 'I am bullish on India'
'India has many attractive features for the long-term investor; it combines: A low per capita income, a young population, and a heavier presence of high margin, asset-light firms in the technology sector.'
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| January 29, 2022 | | '2022 will be a year of volatility'
'Making money in such markets is typically harder and investors need to put in considerable effort to identify stock ideas over the year.'
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| January 18, 2022 | | 'Huge impact on livelihoods over two years'
'It's important to find that balance between lives and livelihoods, make sure that we protect lives while ensuring that the economic recovery is back on track.'
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| December 30, 2021 | | 'What we need now is spending'
'The classic thing we need as a country is the virtuous cycle where you have robust demand which leads to more capital spending which in turn leads to more job creation and more money in the hands of people.'
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| December 16, 2021 | | 'Key risks to markets in 2022 are...'
'Overtightening of monetary policy by central banks and the spread of new Covid variants, which may force governments to restart lockdowns or restrict mobility.'
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| December 08, 2021 | | 'Sebi won't interfere with IPO valuations'
'Sebi has to make sure that investor interests are protected and at the same time, there isn't over-regulation so that companies don't get discouraged to list here.'
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| September 13, 2021 | | 'Key risks on the stock market are...'
'Earlier-than-expected tapering from the US, followed by rate hikes, and locally, a potential third wave, which mimics the second wave in terms of severity.'
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| September 09, 2021 | | 'Economy is Recovering Well'
'Even if there is a third wave or a fourth wave, it is hard to see the economy will suffer like that (during the first wave).'
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| July 14, 2021 | | Anjali Sud's BIG plans for Vimeo
'I am most excited about a new video production solution for large organisations -- think Fortune 500 companies -- that have distributed teams, many of which are based in India.'
2 Biggest Risks for the Equity Markets
'Q1 is going to bear the brunt of the second wave, exposing full-year GDP forecasts to downward revisions, unless phase-3 of vaccination is executed quickly.'
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| July 10, 2021 | | 'GST execution has been extremely bad'
'From the tiniest to mid-level organisations and even some at the lower end of the large-scale ones would say that computerisation and the extensive documentation and regulatory requirements for GST have made the compliance process worse in many cases.'
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| June 15, 2021 | | 'Inflation is the biggest threat right now'
'For equities, inflation trending upwards but within the range of expectations can actually be a big positive as it helps earnings and may shift flows from bonds to equities.'
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| June 04, 2021 | | 'Economy is getting a Covid 2.0 shock'
'I would recommend two parts to fiscal support. One, support the lower end of the society by direct intervention through ways such as direct benefit cash transfer. Second, give fiscal support to the stressed sectors in line with the Rs 3-lakh crore (Rs 3 trillion) emergency credit line guarantee norms'
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| April 20, 2021 | | 'Scrapping centres will be an industry'
'Our automakers export 50 per cent of what they manufacture and once the policy comes into play, which is in the next 2-3 years, we would become a Rs 10 trillion industry.'
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| April 01, 2021 | | Why are equity MFs continuously selling?
'Money that came into mutual funds near the previous peaks -- the second half of 2017 and 2018 -- has in most cases experienced unflattering returns.'
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| March 19, 2021 | | 'Make in India for India and the world'
'With nearly double the market share of our nearest competitor, we are shaping the digital transformation journey of close to 1,000 clients in India.'
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| February 11, 2021 | | 'Rating agencies are like Bollywood'
'Rather than cutting and pasting from advanced economies, we should use basic economic principles to think about what is right for India at the stage of development at which we are,' says Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian.
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| February 09, 2021 | | 'No magic bullet to agriculture reforms'
'Agri reforms need to go beyond the limited concerns of these three laws in improving agriculture productivity in cereal and crop diversification and production patterns.'
'Economy needs animal spirits'
'Kindling the private sector's animal spirits is more important than focusing on how government can give jobs on its own.'
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| February 01, 2021 | | 'Soon there will be time to be greedy'
'It is going to be a buyers' market and you will get a good number of companies at reasonable valuations and that's when one has to be very greedy.'
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| January 15, 2021 | | 'This is not growth; this is de-growth'
'It will be only in fiscal year 2023 when the size of the Indian economy will be bigger than what it was in 2020, you will see demand and employment rising.'
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| November 12, 2020 | | 'Modi has no excuse not to run trains'
'The central government is putting conditions on farmers organisations, that they have to allow passenger trains to ply, only then will they allow goods trains to ply.'
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| October 21, 2020 | | From Microsoft to Jackfruit 365!
'I knew there was a huge business opportunity, but it was Dr Kalam who made me jump into it as an entrepreneur.'
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| October 12, 2020 | | 'Economy is constantly on PM's mind'
'I would like to convey the message to your readers that the prime minister himself is directly seized of the situation on the ground. He periodically reviews the situation on the ground and how it is moving forward, taking inputs from economists, business leaders, chambers of commerce.'
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| September 01, 2020 | | 'The contraction in GDP is the result of COVID-19 and the lockdown'
Prof Ananth Narayan, well known financial expert who works as a faculty member at the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research and the RBI's nominee director on the board of Yes Bank, expects a double-digit contraction in India's GDP this fiscal year.
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| August 26, 2020 | | 120 million Indians will be unemployed!
'Just see what kind of political, social and economic impact it will have when the number of unemployed goes up four times in one year suddenly.'
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| August 24, 2020 | | Can India's defence sector be <em>atmanirbhar</em>?
'We see the defence industry as one of the leading sectors, which will significantly contribute to the growth of the Indian economy, but more importantly, bring <em>atmanirbharta</em> to national security.'
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| August 19, 2020 | | 'There is a need for more supervisors at the RBI'
'Those who come from outside are surprised at the relatively small strength of the RBI supervisory cadre, relative to the needs of the country and the needs of the financial sector.'
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| August 06, 2020 | | Want to invest? Tips from a Master
'Investors need to diversify at least 30% to 50% of their liquid wealth across different markets, asset classes, and instruments across the world.'
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| June 03, 2020 | | 'The fiscal stimulus is zero'
'If the government spends Rs 10 lakh crore this year then you would be looking at a GDP growth of minus 5 per cent.'
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| April 27, 2020 | | 'We are finished!'
'There are a lot of companies that have been struggling really hard expecting to do better year after year.'
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| March 07, 2020 | | Yes Bank: 4 warning signs retail investors ignored
Independent market analyst Ambareesh Baliga points out the red flags that retail investors should not have ignored and lists three scenarios -two of these scenarios offer a glimmer of hope to retail shareholders of Yes Bank - that could play out in the coming days.
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| March 06, 2020 | | 'The financial system is shaken, but safe'
Tamal Bandyopadhyay, columnist and author of several books like From Lehman to Demonetisation: A Decade of Disruptions and Sahara: The Untold Story, tells Rediff.com why Yes Bank depositors should not panic and the current crisis at India's fifth largest private lender does not pose any systemic risk.
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| February 14, 2020 | | Anand Mahindra: 'I'm not vanishing!'
'Family businesses have to put competent people in charge who believe they can get to the top.'<br>'If you don't remove the glass ceiling, you won't get the best talent.'
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| February 13, 2020 | | 'Getting rid of tax exemptions is a right move'
'If you do quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, someone earning Rs 10 lakh can get a benefit of anywhere between Rs 35,000 and Rs 45,000, even if s/he is availing exemptions.'
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| February 03, 2020 | | 'Budget's tax rates are a laughing matter'
'The economy needed 3 or 4 major fixes. The major one was, of course, the direct tax structure, but we ended up complicating the existing convoluted tax structure,' says M R Venkatesh, chartered accountant and lawyer.
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| February 01, 2020 | | 'FM has not been brave, but acted safely'
There have been some benefits to the corporate sector, agreed they also need support, but the government should realise that the economy is not suffering from lowering investment -- people are ready to invest but where is the demand?
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| January 30, 2020 | | 'We want Air India to keep flying'
'Whether it is the unions or the politicians, they don't have to do politics over Air India, but be guided by a solitary factor -- that we don't want Air India to fly into oblivion.'
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| January 16, 2020 | | 'Markets have peaked out'
'Four times in Indian history, in 1992, 2000, 2007 and now, markets are at 25 times price-earnings.'
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| January 13, 2020 | | What Modi Told the Coal Minister
'The day I took charge, the PM told me you do the following -- stop imports, talk to all stakeholders and involve them to make mining more industry-friendly without affecting the environment.'
'Economy is already in recession'
'The economy will pick up in 2020 or a little later... When it picks up, will it reach 10%, 8% or still lower? It all depends on how realistic are the diagnosis and the prescriptions that follow,' says Professor K J Joseph.
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| January 09, 2020 | | Why Enfield CEO feels economic downturn is a blessing
'Our vision is to be a global consumer brand, so we are not much worried about the short-term. Downturn sometime is blessing. If you want to change few things, this is the right time,' says Vinod K Dasari.
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| January 08, 2020 | | 'Quality mid-caps can outperform this year'
'We expect gradual recovery in the demand environment in 2020, driven by low interest rates, government spending, and rural recovery,' says Swarup Mohanty, chief executive officer, Mirae Asset Global Investments (India).
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| December 13, 2019 | | 'Corporate tax cuts will affect tax collection'
'The corporate tax cuts will obviously result in lower tax payments by companies,' says Central Board of Direct Taxes member Akhilesh Ranjan who retires after 37 years in government service.
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| November 22, 2019 | | 'Big guys r**e the economy'
'When you forgive a farmer's loans there is this ideological economists lobby which says: 'That's socialism. And that's bad'.'
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| November 01, 2019 | | Why Kerala's start-up ecosystem is unique!
'We have integrated start-up space created in almost all the 14 district headquarters of the state.'<br>'They have incubation facilities providing entrepreneurs common facilities like shared software, legal support, fab labs, hardware, manufacturing facilities and services like chartered accounting facilities, etc, enabling the start-ups to concentrate on technology R&D and product development.'
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| October 22, 2019 | | Infosys' deal pipeline remains strong: Salil Parekh
After posting double-digit growth for the fourth consecutive quarter, chief executive officer and managing director Salil Parekh tells Yuvraj Malik and Debasis Mohapatra that the firm is not facing any delay in ramping up of large deals.
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| October 20, 2019 | | Shyam Srinivasan on Federal Bank's vision, and more
It has been a decade since Shyam Srinivasan took over as managing director and chief executive officer at Federal Bank. He wants to ramp up the bank's unsecured lending going ahead even as it homes into the space vacated by competition. Reappointed for a fresh three-year term as the bank's helmsman, he spoke to Hamsini Karthik on the plot ahead.
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| October 10, 2019 | | Economy: 'Modi's the right man for the job'
'The expectation was that Modi would become even bolder in his approach, and after only four months into his second term, we are starting to see evidence of this.'
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| September 17, 2019 | | 'Devalue the Rupee by 24%'
'You need to devalue the currency, ignite inflation, which then begins to oil the wheels of the economy.'
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| September 06, 2019 | | What ails the Indian economy?
Dr Rakesh Mohan, former RBI deputy governor, and Dr Pronab Sen, former chairman of the Indian Statistical Commission discuss the issues facing the Indian rural and manufacturing sectors and what the government must possibly do to improve demand and perk up the Indian economy
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| September 03, 2019 | | Ritesh Agarwal on OYO's global ambitions and more
Ritesh Agarwal, founder of Oyo Hotels and Homes, seems to be making all the right moves. In a quick chat with Karan Choudhury and Neha Alawadhi, Agarwal explains the moves he has made in the past 12 months to make his operations global.
Read this interview before investing in stocks
Being one of the early commentators to flag economic slowdown and caution investors on corporate earnings, Gautam Chhaochharia, head of India research, UBS Securities, in an interview with Hamsini Karthik says the markets remain in an expensive zone despite the recent correction.
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| August 30, 2019 | | How must govt use RBI's Rs 1.76 lakh crore
'The Jalan Committee has now provided very clear guidelines on how the (RBI's) balance sheet should be looked at, what kind of disclosures should be made, what are the principles on which the Contingency Risk Buffer should be maintained, what should be the revaluation reserves, and the market risk to the Contingency Risk Buffer.'
'Rs 1.76 lakh cr transfer no way an attack on RBI's autonomy'
'90 per cent of Indian banks' deposits are retail in nature and this is one of the most important factors why Indian banks insulated from any global crisis,' says SBI chief economist Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh
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| August 29, 2019 | | 'We need India-centric solutions, not Harvard-centric'
'The government is sincerely working on employment generation. Unfortunately, they are depending on these people from Harvard. Their wrong policies are killing jobs. The government has to come out of the Western framework on which they depend upon a lot.'
Want to earn 4.5% more than what your SIP earns?
'Investors buy more when markets are cheap and sell when markets are expensive and the same gets replicated in our SmartSIP while keeping all the discipline of SIPs,' says Omkeshwar Singh, head, RankMF, about their flagship scheme.
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| August 27, 2019 | | 'We are overdrawing water, depleting aquifers'
Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has the task of bringing clean tap water to all households by 2024.
'Stagnation in real wages is the surest sign of rural slowdown'
The implication of a slowdown in the financial services sector are very different (eg, likely to affect fewer people directly, and even that affecting those at the top of the income distribution) from that of a slowdown in construction, one of the most employment intensive sectors in the Indian economy (that will affect aggregate demand much more).'
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| August 19, 2019 | | 'This government is socialist in Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai mould'
Chandu Nair, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad with three decades of experience as a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, venture capitalist and strategic adviser, talks to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com on whether wealth creators are being increasingly hounded in India.
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| August 09, 2019 | | '$1.37bn pumped into real estate in smaller cities in 2015-18'
'The fact that housing units worth a whopping Rs 4.5 lakh crore in top seven cities are stuck under various stages of non-completion indicates that there is a dire need to create stress-asset fund which will help bail out lakhs of distressed homebuyers,' says Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants, a real estate services company.
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| August 07, 2019 | | 4 lessons to learn from CDD's Siddhartha's life
VG Siddhartha's story 'will be a good case study and not a deterrent to those who want to be entrepreneurs. I don't think it will scare young entrepreneurs. I think these cases will make them sensible. They will understand that they have to be very careful about certain things, otherwise, they will have to pay a heavy price.'
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| August 02, 2019 | | 'Entrepreneurship in India is looked at with mistrust'
'I don't think Siddhartha has done anything wrong. He has not managed his debt well. In any case, he is not the best example of the system going wrong or the system pushing him hard. I think on that particular day, he was depressed and took an impulsive decision. It will be unfair to blame the system.'
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| July 30, 2019 | | What is the future of GST?
With less than five months left for the report of the Fifteenth Finance Commission to be submitted, its chairman N K Singh said the report will have fiscal road map for states, depending on their current situation.
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| July 29, 2019 | | Salil Parekh on how Infy beat TCS' growth rate in Q1
In his second year at the helm, Infosys CEO & MD Salil Parekh looks optimistic about the company's growth prospects. With stability back in the industry, Parekh, in an interview with Bibhu Ranjan Mishra and Debasis Mohapatra, says turbulence is over and Infosys is on its way to regaining its old glory.
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| July 19, 2019 | | The past, present and future of TCS
'When it comes to efficiency measures TCS will bank on a right mix of projects, skill sets, and methodologies like agile, experience levels as well as adopting more collaborative technologies.'
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| July 11, 2019 | | 'Budgets are becoming irrelevant'
'If you look at this Budget, except for the Rs 2 increase in petrol and diesel, there is no positive or negative impact from the Budget for the common man.'
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| July 06, 2019 | | This is a reform-oriented Budget: Piyush Goyal
'Are all roads in India privatised? Are governments not playing a role in airports or ports? If they (private players) want to set up lines for a specific requirement, I see no reason to object. It will expand the opportunity and passengers will also benefit.'
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| May 27, 2019 | | 'There's real interest in India right now'
People are interested in the strength of India's economy, the country's stability, and the opportunities, says Stuart Tait, regional head of commercial banking, Asia-Pacific at HSBC.
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| April 10, 2019 | | Economy-wise, Modi's re-election will be favourable: Marc Faber
With the frontline Indian benchmark indices trading near all-time highs ahead of the general elections that begin later this week, Marc Faber, Editor and Publisher of "The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report" tells Puneet Wadhwa that the Indian stock market is relatively expensive, especially the index (large-cap) stocks.
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| March 16, 2019 | | How Skoda plans to make India its 5th-largest market
With a presence in the value segment, better service quality, and lower ownership cost, Skoda India's director of sales and marketing Zac Hollis aims to make important changes. He tells Arindam Majumder how he plans to make India the company's fifth-largest market by 2023.
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| February 21, 2019 | | वंदे भारत एक्सप्रेस का शलाका पुरुष
'यह सिर्फ मेक इन इंडिया नहीं है; यह इससे बहुत अधिक है। डिजाइन से लेकर डिलीवरी तक, सब कुछ भारत में किया गया था। '
'We are betting big on OYO Living'
'Co-living is a phenomenon that is bound to strike the right chord with young people everywhere and India will lead the charge as the testing ground for all such ideas.'
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| February 19, 2019 | | The man behind Vande Bharat Express
'This is not just Make in India; this is much more than that. Right from design to delivery, everything was done in India.'
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| February 14, 2019 | | 'Farmers will give response to Mamata govt'
'A sum of Rs 6,000 a year is very significant for a small farmer whose land holding is very small and whose produce is very small. All these calculations on a daily basis are extremely unfortunate and an insult to farmers.'
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| February 08, 2019 | | 'We have a 40,000 year-end Sensex target'
2019 appears a story of two halves for Indian equities - a more difficult first half might precede a stronger second half, said Abhiram Eleswarapu, bottom, left, Head of India Equity Research, BNP Paribas in an interview with Ashley Coutinho.
Telcos: Beware Chinese bearing gifts!
'When an enemy country is looking for information to sabotage a system from a remote location, they can access your data, they can stop the functioning of our power plants, they can stop the functioning of critical systems in the network.'
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| February 04, 2019 | | '11 out of 10 for Budget's politics'
'The finance minister has told the BJP's core voters we are hearing you and we are sensitive to your aspirations.'
'Farm income will double in 2024'
'To bring about a paradigm shift in farmers's income, we need to change our approach to agriculture, and transit from the narrow prism of cultivation to a full-fledged enterprise, by building all associated supply chain linkages.'
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| January 31, 2019 | | 'What matters is good returns for our investors'
'In India, most funds have one or at most two platforms, but we are the only one which has four -- growth equity practice, real estate practice, a special situation and credit platform, and infrastructure.'
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| January 23, 2019 | | Fighting for cheating-free petrol pumps
'There exists a 'brotherhood' of sorts for a very long time and corrupt dealers and corrupt OMC officials are in it together,' Ashwani Attrish, founder, Empowering Petroleum Dealers Foundation, tells Sudhir Bisht, a veteran of the petroleum industry.
How the 2019 poll ad campaigns will be different
'Last time, there was an incumbent and a challenger. This year, the roles have been reversed.'
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| January 05, 2019 | | Tanishq is expanding to Bharat
'We are opening stores in towns that are unheard of where the attachment to jewellery is strong and accompanied by the Tata brand pull.'
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| December 13, 2018 | | 'India should have broad and deep capital markets'
Henry Kravis, co-Chairman and co-CEO of private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (KKR), which has over $195 billion assets under management and a balance sheet of $16 billion visited Mumbai recently for a closed conference where he shared his views on the new governor at RBI, what India needs to fix, and PE's prospects for the long term.
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| December 12, 2018 | | Which is going be the biggest hotel complex in India?
Dipak Haksar, bottom, left, chief executive, ITC Hotels and WelcomHotels, tells Ajay Modi that FY19 is going to be a year of strong growth, and tariffs are likely to see a substantial improvement in the fourth quarter
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| December 11, 2018 | | 'Governors come and governors go'
'When there is no middle ground possible between the government and the governor, the governor has to go.'
'RBI won't overcome trust deficit'
'If Urjit Patel had resigned after the five-state elections results people would have taken a different view. So this was the right time for him to resign.'
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| November 14, 2018 | | 'Comfort zone for the market will be 5-10% below current levels'
Mahesh Nandurkar, executive director and India Strategist at CLSA, talks to Puneet Wadhwa ahead of their 21st India Forum on his interpretation of how the markets have played out over the past few months, the road ahead, and his sector preferences in this backdrop.
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| October 12, 2018 | | IKEA chief: 'India is a colourful country'
Two months after the launch of its first store in the country, Swedish furniture retail giant IKEA says it has seen some surprising behaviour from shoppers and is tweaking its business model. Peter Betzel, chief executive of IKEA India, speaks to Bibhu Ranjan Mishra & Alnoor Peermohamed.
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| September 25, 2018 | | 'Invest in mid-caps very selectively'
Even as rising crude oil prices, trade war fears and a sliding rupee cast a shadow on market sentiment, Nischal Maheshwari, chief executive officer for institutional equities and advisory at Centrum Broking, tells Puneet Wadhwa that in the next one year, the outcome of the 2019 general election is a bigger challenge for the market.
Salil Parekh: 'Infosys is building a business for the future'
With Infosys emerging out of an uncertain phase, the new management, led by CEO & MD Salil Parekh, is trying to catch up with market leaders, with the new strategy in place.
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| August 27, 2018 | | 'Mallya is a phenomenal character'
'The three tycoons I deal with in the first chapter -- Ambani, Mallya and Adani -- in their own way represent the change that has come over India.'
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| August 23, 2018 | | 'The system is holding Indians back'
'I went to slums in India which were quite destitute, where people were clearly really struggling, but typically there is a sort of sense of purpose.'
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| August 21, 2018 | | 'Differences between the two GDP series are minimal'
N R Bhanumurthy, professor of economics at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, and the author of the series, presented in a report to the National Statistical Commission, explains to Abhishek Waghmare various aspects of the methodology.
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| August 17, 2018 | | 'GST rate cuts will help the durables market': Shekhar Bajaj
Shekhar Bajaj, chairman and managing director of the firm, explains to Viveat Susan Pinto on what led to this sales jump, besides throwing light on the benefits accruing to the sector on account of the GST rate cuts in appliances.
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| August 14, 2018 | | 'Stay away from large-caps': Mark Mobius to investors
Mark Mobius, co-founder, Mobius Capital Partners, tells Puneet Wadhwa that investors should concentrate more on "value" rather than momentum, and on good small- and medium-sized companies rather than large-caps.
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| July 10, 2018 | | 2 core skills a good leader must possess
After 42 years at Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and different roles across Unilever's global operations, Harish Munwani, 65, retired as HUL's non-executive chairman.
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| July 03, 2018 | | How Dabur scripted a smart turnaround
After being cornered by Patanjali and macro-headwinds, ayurveda major Dabur is pulling up its socks. With better sales and improved margins, the firm is now looking to leverage the renewed popularity of ayurveda, mostly ignited by rival Patanjali. Sunil Duggal, bottom, left, chief executive officer, Dabur India, shares his plans and insights with Arnab Dutta.
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| June 21, 2018 | | He exposed the Rs 2,043 crore DSK scam
'The amount involved could as high as Rs 3,500 crore as there are a lot of depositors.'
Metro Man wants to change how we shop
'The best way to make an impact in this market is by focusing on three things: Unmet customer need, unarticulated customer need, and emerging customer need,' Metro's Arvind Mediratta tells Sangeeta Tanwar and Alokananda Chakraborty.
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| June 05, 2018 | | 'AI will be a technology like Excel'
'Artificial intelligence works best on unstructured data. And no other country has the amount of unstructured data like India has.'
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| June 01, 2018 | | How Ujjivan plans to give shape to Modi's financial inclusion dream
A well-run non-banking company has better margins than a bank, but the objective of setting up Ujjivan was to provide comprehensive financial inclusion, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank MD & CEO Samit Ghosh tells Anup Roy in an interview.
Fascinating story of how Tata Steel sealed the Bhusan deal
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) got a leg-up with Tata Steel's acquisition of Bhushan Steel, the first big case to be resolved. Tata Steel CEO & MD T V Narendran tells Ishita Ayan Dutt how this deal moved so quickly while others are still mired in controversies.
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| May 21, 2018 | | 'Investing in India is like joining the mafia'
With Karnataka election results out of the way and as several key states, including Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, prepare for assembly polls later this year ahead of the 2019 general election, Shankar Sharma, vice-chairman and joint managing director, First Global, advises investors to ignore all the noise around the elections.
'Whatever I have is because of India'
'15, 17 years back we were not even in existence in the US. Today nearly 1/3 of prescriptions written comes from India.'
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| May 14, 2018 | | 'Demonetisation was illegal'
'I want the prime minister to be punished because he put our country in difficulties as he took this decision without Cabinet approval.'
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| May 05, 2018 | | From defence to insurance, GE is banking on tech to boost growth
Six months into his new role, Vishal Wanchoo, president and chief executive officer, GE, South Asia, speaks to Jyoti Mukul about how its horizontal business lines of additives and digital are playing across its verticals.
A peek into the future plans of Coca-Cola
Since he took over as president of Coca-Cola's India and Southwest Asia business a year ago, T Krishnakumar, popularly known as KK, has focused on bringing agility to the company amid heightened competition.
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| April 23, 2018 | | TCS' 3-pronged strategy to sustain growth
N Ganapathy Subramaniam, chief operating officer (COO), discusses the strategy to concert digital opportunities to larger deals, focus on reskilling own people instead of acquiring a company to get access to skillsets and demand from newer verticals in an interview with Romita Majumdar
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| April 22, 2018 | | 'The RBI is producing less cash'
'The current crisis is a result of a clash between a coercive attempt by the government to justify demonetisation and rising digital transactions against the market and the economy fighting the unexpected pressure from atop.'
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| April 20, 2018 | | De Beers chief on the future of diamond trade in India
Despite various challenges, the past year was a good one, says Bruce Cleaver, chief executive officer of the De Beers Group, the global corporation that has been the leading one in all aspects of the diamond trade for over a century.
Why Modi visits so many countries
'He is seeking to harness the power of Indian Diasporas to national (support for India in global capitals) and political (enhance the Bharatiya Janata Party's support base) ends.'
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| April 09, 2018 | | 'Markets are expected to be range-bound for some time'
As markets enter the new financial year and the long-term capital gains tax on the sale of stock investments kicks in, Abhinav Khanna, head of equities, Citi India, tells Puneet Wadhwa that he remains optimistic on the medium-to-long term growth of India, led by consumption recovery and the green shoots visible in the capex cycle.
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| March 19, 2018 | | Is there a great deal of trust in the private sector?
With certain quarters demanding privatisation of public sector banks in the aftermath of the alleged fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister chairman Bibek Debroy tells Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Ishan Bakshi and Indivjal Dhasmana that reducing government equity even to zero would not mean giving up of government control over these banks.
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| February 21, 2018 | | 'More S&P companies are going to disappear in the next decade'
nternally, Wipro has been pushing for 'automation'. However, when it comes to profitability, the Bengaluru-based company has a long way to go. Wipro chief executive officer Abidali Neemuchwala says while the benefits are going mostly to clients, they would start reflecting in the company's bottom line.
Reskilling is core to our strategy at Tech Mahindra: C P Gurnani
C P Gurnani, CEO & MD of Tech Mahindra, India's fifth-largest IT services company, tells B Dasarath Reddy that the company is exploring both ways as it looks at bringing in best of the breed technologies to offer to global clients.
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| January 05, 2018 | | 'CAG report ruined lives, destroyed reputations'
'As someone who has had the opportunity of cross examining Vinod Rai, extensively over three days as part of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, many of us included I had concluded at that point of time that this report rests on the foundation of sand.'
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| December 22, 2017 | | 'DB Realty will be back with a big bang'
Soon after a special CBI court acquitted all those accused the 2G spectrum allocation case, Somesh Jha spoke to DB Realty Managing Director Vinod Goenka at the crowded Patiala House premises.
'Rising oil price is an important risk factor for India'
Demonetisation was not a good idea and the time should have been utilised instead to fine-tune the Goods and Services Tax before it was introduced, said Gita Gopinath, John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics at Harvard University, in an interview with Advait Rao Palepu.
'I would love to see a weak rupee'
'Obviously, there is always an argument that a weaker rupee could push up, to some, extent exports.'
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| December 16, 2017 | | Why Motilal Oswal sees over 20% equity return in 2018
Motilal Oswal, chairman and managing director, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, tells Puneet Wadhwa that with Moody's upgrading India's sovereign rating and earnings growth coming back, the country will remain a hot destination for foreign investors.
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| December 12, 2017 | | 'If Congress wins Gujarat, markets could tank 10%'
A'Market valuation is another concern.'<br>'India is trading at steep valuations and there have been a number of IPOs, especially in the insurance sector, that have had an impact on secondary market liquidity.'
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| November 23, 2017 | | 'Indian economy can never go to ICCU'
'No finance minister has the capacity to put the economy in an ICCU just like no finance minister has the capacity to take it for 10% growth!'
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| November 21, 2017 | | How the super rich stash money abroad
'Tax dodging through tax havens is one of the ways multinational corporations and the super-rich in India are using to evade taxes.'
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| November 14, 2017 | | 'Why is no one questioning the RBI?'
'If the RBI reduces the rate of interest, housing demand can pick up, investment can pick up, automobile demand can pick up...'
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| November 12, 2017 | | More GST cuts at next meeting
'At the end of the day, we want to see maximum items out and only few items remaining in the 28 per cent slab.'
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| November 08, 2017 | | Why Nadella is a fan of Sourav's leadership
'The leadership values I learnt while playing cricket in India helped me compete vigorously in the face of uncertainty -- putting the team first and bringing out the best in everybody.'
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| October 23, 2017 | | 'India's consumer market will touch $4 trillion by 2025'
In an interaction with Viveat Susan Pinto, Thomas Lutz, head of the consumer and retail practice at The Boston Consulting Group. highlights some of the top consumer trends in India and the way forward for companies.
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| October 05, 2017 | | 'Bond market likely to see a major correction'
It was a roller-coaster week for the markets, amid talk of a fiscal stimulus by the government. Saurabh Mukherjea, chief executive officer, and Prashant Mittal, strategist, at Ambit Capital tell Puneet Wadhwa the recent flows into equity mutual funds are largely speculative in nature and pose a risk of reversal.
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| October 04, 2017 | | 'Babudom has successfully checkmated Modi'
M R Venkatesh, chartered accountant turned political commentator tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com that Modi's war is not against the opposition parties or the Congress but against the bureaucracy and the establishment.
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| September 14, 2017 | | 'The bullet train can be Modi's legacy'
'The politician in him saw to it that the foundation stone was laid in Ahmedabad in the run-up to the assembly election in Gujarat in 2017.'
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| September 12, 2017 | | 'Yatra should be able to make profits by 2019'
Dhruv Shringi, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Yatra, tells Ajay Modi that Indian online travel market is definitely moving into a duopoly situation.
How ITC plans to stay ahead of its peers
Once heavily dependent on the cigarettes segment, corporate behemoth ITC has diversified over the past two decades into many businesses that now generates 58 per cent of its revenue. Sanjiv Puri, chief executive officer, ITC, shares his plans with Arnab Dutta.
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| September 01, 2017 | | 'There will not be a messiah'
'There will only be an institutional solution between the board and the founders to take Infosys forward.'
Why JLR may reconsider launching new cars in India
A hike in cess on luxury cars will not only hinder Jaguar Land Rover's network expansion but also prevent it from introducing new technologies in India, JLR India managing director Rohit Suri tells Shubham Parashar in an interview.
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| August 23, 2017 | | 'The pain that trade faced due to GST will ease'
On Tuesday, Bajaj Electricals extended its brand licence agreement with UK-based kitchen appliances major Morphy Richards, launching a new range of products. Chairman & managing director Shekhar Bajaj, cousin of industrialist Rahul Bajaj, tells Viveat Susan Pinto the company will increasingly focus its attention on its consumer products business.
'Kris Gopalakrishnan may head Infosys'
'60 per cent of the board will not like to have Narayana Murthy.'
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| August 01, 2017 | | GST is actually good news for Mercedes
Roland Folger, managing director and chief executive officer at Mercedes Benz India calls the calendar year (CY) 2016 a year of 'lost opportunities' as NCR diesel ban and demonetisation led to a flat performance.
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| June 29, 2017 | | 'GST is going to be tax jihadism'
'If my understanding is correct, one has to file not less than 37 returns per year for every ordinary business, and that too per state.'
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| June 23, 2017 | | 'Can GST function without a glitch? The answer is NO.'
It takes eight to nine months for developing a robust software from the time the rules are decided, warns Bharat Goenka, managing director of Tally Solutions, one of the entities entrusted as a 'Suvidha Provider' with developing ready software for customers to get them ready for the coming Goods and Services Tax.
IT workers union: 'We will never go on strike'
'We know that if the IT industry goes on strike even for a day or two, the repercussions will be international, and we will suffer as a country.'
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| June 19, 2017 | | GST will accelerate growth: Adi Godrej
Godrej group Chairman Adi Godrej describes in an interview to Viveat Susan Pinto the way forward for the conglomerate after the implementation of the GST.
'Demonetisation was a destructive distraction'
'If the government had not spent an incredible amount of energy on demonetisation it may -- may, because it had not done anything the previous six months either -- have been able to pay attention to the deeper problems of low investment and job creation.'
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| June 16, 2017 | | 'The economy is showing signs of life'
Jonathan Garner, chief Asia and emerging markets equity strategist, Morgan Stanley, gives Samie Modak his assessment of the Indian economy after 3 years of Modi Sarkar.
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| June 15, 2017 | | Want to buy your dream Mercedes? Just wait for GST to kick in
The domestic luxury car segment is a key beneficiary of GST within the automobile space as prices are set to come down by up to ten per cent in most cases. Roland Folger, MD & CEO, Mercedes Benz India, speaks to Shubham Parashar on the significance of these changes on the industry and other issues.
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| May 29, 2017 | | How SpiceJet managed to turn around from the brink
SpiceJet, on the verge of a shutdown two years ago, is now looking at joining a burgeoning global league of low-cost long-haul airlines by providing a Rs 30,000 to-and-fro fare to western European destinations. Chairman and managing director Ajay Singh elaborates.
'Never send back Mahalakshmi when she comes to your house'
P S Jayakumar, managing director and chief executive officer, Bank of Baroda, speaks to Abhijit Lele & Hamsini Karthik about loan recoveries, sounding more confident than a year before.
Is India Inc prepared for GST?
In a conversation with Vishal Chhabria and Hamsini Karthik, Gautam Chhaochharia, executive director & head, India Research, UBS, explains why implementing goods and services tax (GST) may not be as disruptive as many perceive it to be. But, he warns investors shouldn't have high expectations on corporate earnings.
'The need for a no-fly list is critical'
'The DGCA may require airlines to install CCTV cameras on all flights and retain the footage in case of unruly behaviour.'
To make Indian Railways work like a corporate
'You can never bring about a change if you only bring in outsiders. Consultants will never feel what changes are necessary and where,' says Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.
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| May 24, 2017 | | The NPA problem: 'There is no silver bullet'
Resolution to the bad loans problem has to be incremental, and the RBI has to ensure NPAs are not swept under the carpet, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh tells Joydeep Ghosh.
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| May 19, 2017 | | 'Our philosophy is we shall NOT grow at any cost'
Avenue Supermarts, which runs D-Mart, posted a 47 per cent jump in net profit in the March quarter and its revenue and operating profit went up 41 per cent. The company's chief executive and managing director, Neville Noronha, talks to Raghavendra Kamath about strategy.
Shikha Sharma on the new NPA rules and the future of Axis Bank
Axis Bank Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer Shikha Sharma on the new mechanism for non-performing loans, the bank's loan portfolio, industry outlook and the bank's future plans.
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| May 18, 2017 | | Xiaomi's India strategy: Go offline
The move to push offline sales will be led by opening Mi Home stores, Xiaomi India managing director Manu Jain tells Alnoor Peermohamed.
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| May 17, 2017 | | 'Make in India will have to be worked on'
In the run up to three years of the National Democratic Alliance government, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) Nirmala Sitharaman says it is time to consolidate some of the major initiatives as well as take new steps.
The huge opportunity for India in machine learning and AI
Microsoft Research India's MD Sriram Rajamani tells Alnoor Peermohamed & Raghu Krishnan how India can reap the benefits of the changing industry.
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| April 17, 2017 | | 'We used Gandhigiri to shame defaulters'
Punjab National Bank has made a name for itself in recovery of bad loan dues. Usha Ananthasubramanian, managing director and chief executive officer of the government-owned lender, explains how it has achieved this reputation.
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| April 13, 2017 | | 'The economy is turning for the better'
'India easily remains one among the more attractive large economies, with high growth and stable/improving macros, as a top investment destination.'
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| April 10, 2017 | | 'India going to be one of the largest economies in the world'
Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics and political science, University of California, Berkeley, analyzes the transparency of the Reserve Bank of India, the growth rate of the Indian economy and why he feels globalisation can never be rolled back.
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| March 29, 2017 | | 'Stay invested in the equity markets'
'If I had to highlight one area that will do well, it is the financial assets -- that is the private sector banks, insurance and mutual funds.'
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| March 01, 2017 | | Hyperloop One: The future is here!
Hyperloop is a new way to move people and things at airline speeds for the price of a bus ticket. It's on-demand, energy-efficient and safe.
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| February 27, 2017 | | 'The Budget was a triumph'
'The Budget targets are achievable, but they require continued discipline and that the government sticks with the efforts to cut red tape and make business in India more efficient.'
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| February 08, 2017 | | 'Demonetisation is theft'
'Demonetisation, is in principal, a mistake, because it involves a theft -- a taking of private property by the State.'
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| February 01, 2017 | | 'FY18 will be tough for India's economy'
'It will take a long time for the effects of demonetisation to wear away, and I am not even sure that a year lost, can at all be even recovered.'
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| December 01, 2016 | | 'India is one of our most exciting operations'
'As the world changes, we will be on a constant change programme too,' advertising agency J Walter Thompson Global Chief Executive Officer Tamara Ingram and South Asia CEO Tarun Rai tell Viveat Susan Pinto.
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| November 17, 2016 | | 'Why will black money get purged?'
'Even with the restrictions of depositing more than Rs 2.5 lakh in a bank, people will find new methods to convert this cash hoard into legal tender.'
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| November 09, 2016 | | 'This is also a war against Pakistan'
'This is not only a fight against corruption and black money, this is also a fight against terrorism and counterfeit currencies.'
'Any surgical procedure will create some discomfort'
'The common man in India who doesn't have anything to hide will have to put up with this short period of discomfort.'
'In one shot, three or four major issues are taken care of'
'Ultimately if your aim is that you need to be able to deal with a security situation, you need to deal with a black money situation, you need to deal with a counterfeiting situation then, to that extent, I think everyone will need to able to tolerate a little bit of inconvenience.'
'Come December 31, we will be a better nation'
'This wipes out the entire black money in the nation in one stroke. Ninety per cent plus of the black money is kept in Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes. What they have done is a brilliant move.'
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| October 28, 2016 | | What Tata's new leader must do
'The Tata group will need for its new leader to show the same foresight and willingness to go against conventional wisdom at times to keep the group's aspirations high and uphold the values of innovation, ethics, corporate responsibility, trust and leadership that are frequently associated with the Tata name.'
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| October 13, 2016 | | Adi Godrej: Parmeshwar's life is a big triumph
'She adds value to life in many commendable ways. Apart from her many contributions to our consumer products business and Godrej Properties, she dedicates her energies and resources to charity, to philanthropic causes and most of all how she has managed her time as a wife, mother and entrepreneur brilliantly,' says Adi Godrej.
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| October 05, 2016 | | 'India is a space power'
'India has got a unique opportunity to get more and more business from outside as India is cost-effective and reliable.'
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| September 21, 2016 | | Mittal's battle cry: Bring it on Jio, Airtel is ready for the challenge!
Sunil Bharti Mittal, bottom, left, says he is fond of Bill Gates' famous quote: "Success is a lousy teacher." Back from a long foreign business trip, the founder-chairman of Bharti Enterprises talks to Malini Bhupta and Kiran Rathee about the challenges posed by Reliance Jio and how he is determined to come out on top once again. Mittal says , today, Airtel is as ready as Jio in pure-play 4G operations.
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| August 26, 2016 | | 'I hope Dr Urjit Patel thinks beyond continuity'
'When a soldier becomes a king, he better be a king. He should now just forget the past and move beyond continuity. He should catch the potential of India's moment and play a leader's role,' says Vallabh Bhansali of Enam Group.
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| August 25, 2016 | | An agenda for Dr Urjit Patel
Unless Dr Urjit Patel starts clearing the balance sheets of banks, the investment cycle will not start. Unless the clog in the drain is cleared, further lending cannot happen. If further lending doesn't happen, the investment cycle also will not happen, writes M R Venkatesh.
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| August 24, 2016 | | How Nitin Gadkari plans to make Indian roads safe and pollution-free
The Centre has accorded top priority for cost-effective, pollution-free transportation modes, such as waterways, which reduce logistic costs and increase road safety. Union minister of roads, highways, ports and shipping Nitin Gadkari speaks to Sanjay Jog about the government's strategy.
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| July 05, 2016 | | 'The change from pessimism to confidence is a major achievement'
'This has to be seen in the context not only of the legacy we inherited, but also of global economic weakness.'<br />'If after inheriting the very bad situation we have reached this level despite consecutive years of drought and no growth in the world economy, it is no accident.'
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| June 17, 2016 | | 'The start up scene in India is unbelievable'
'Over the next 10 years we expect more than 100,000 new start ups to come up and create more than $500 billion in value and 3.5 million to be employed in these start ups.'
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| May 24, 2016 | | 'We're optimistic about Modi govt's ability to deliver'
US-based $40-billion industrial goods giant Honeywell has just launched its 16th plant, a hydrocracker unit with application in oil refining, in India. The two years of Modi government have been full of optimism and energy, Anant Maheshwari, president, Honeywell India, and Steve Gimre, managing director, UOP India, tell Sudheer Pal Singh.
'No anti-worker steps will be taken by the government'
'Now, we have a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 annually.'
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| April 25, 2016 | | Banks: 'No need to press panic button'
'These are only passing clouds. The banking industry is a century-old industry and this is not the first time it is going through such a crisis.'
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| April 04, 2016 | | 100% FDI in e-commerce exposes BJP's double standard
"Not a single step has been taken by this government to empower small businesses in India," says Praveen Khandelwal, national secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders and former treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Delhi unit.
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| March 08, 2016 | | Wall Street, Silicon Valley excited about India: Michael Schlein
Enthused by India's financial inclusion drive, US-based Accion, one of the biggest micro finance organisations in the world, has renewed its focus in India. Michael Schlein, bottom, left, chief executive officer of Accicon, tells Namrata Acharya in an email interview the Wall Street and Silicon Valley are eager to participate in opportunities presented by the issuance of the small finance and payment bank licences, the expanded banking correspondent opportunities, and the Jan-Dhan Yojna.
'Vistara looks at doubling flights by summer'
'There are smaller cities, which are very attractive to fly'.
Jim Rogers: If Mr Modi can't reform India, who can?
'Maybe, India will never be reformed and maybe India will continue to have a quagmire for the rest of history.'
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| February 26, 2016 | | 'India's macros are one of the best in the world'
Assessing the shape of the Indian economy just a couple of days ahead of the Union Budget for 2016-17, Saugata Bhatacharya, senior vice president and chief economist, Axis Bank, speaks about his budget wishlist and suggests measures that can help finance minister Arun Jaitley achieve the targeted fiscal deficit of 3.5 per cent of India's gross domestic product.
'Railways were facing severe challenges'
'The core sectors have not done very well in the past one year.'
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| February 02, 2016 | | The Man Who Launched 100 Start Ups
'Students tell me their parents are fine with them either joining a start up or even starting one. This was not the case 10 years ago.'
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| June 19, 2015 | | Bandhan CMD: 'We have 28 million MSMEs to who we can lend'
'If 99.99 per cent of these micro borrowers are good at repaying their loans, why can't we look at the SMEs and MSMEs and replicate the same model for them with our stringent risk management system,' Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, chairman and managing director of India's newest private sector bank, tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com.
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| May 29, 2015 | | 'The prime minister will have to take tough decisions'
The biggest achievement of the Modi government in the past one year was it could bring positivity in the minds of people and industry, says V P Nandakumar, executive chairman of the Manappuram Finance Ltd, in an interview to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com.
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| March 31, 2015 | | RBI is seen to cut rates by another 75 bps
Growth acceleration will be gradual and it is still early days for a sharp recovery, says Gautam Chhaochharia, executive director and head of India research, UBS.
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| March 18, 2015 | | 'India cannot survive without coal'
In the second and final part of this interview, energy and coal industry expert Sunjoy Joshi tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com that we need to take a comprehensive view of the entire energy sector and how piecemeal reform won't take us very far.
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| February 17, 2015 | | 'The Indian economy will putter along'
'I don't see India emerging as a global demand engine. Until India sorts out its domestic problems, nothing much is likely to happen in India.'
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| January 22, 2015 | | The interview Narendra Modi MUST read!
'Narendra Modi has had very good luck. Firstly, the fall of oil prices. You don't get that very often in your life and you certainly don't get that often when you are in government.'
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| November 04, 2014 | | 'India might get sick before it gets rich'
In his first interview after taking over as Philips India's vice-chairman and managing director, Krishna Kumar speaks to Business Standard on how the company is readying itself for the next few decades and the increasing importance of India to Philips' global operations.
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| September 03, 2014 | | No founder's exit is a loss: Mindtree chief
In an email interview with Business Standard, Mindtree's co-founder and chairman says the company was designed to outlive the founding team and no such departure is a loss.
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| August 12, 2014 | | Tata SIA chief on how the airline plans to strike it big
Phee Teik Yeoh, the recently anointed chief executive officer of the airline, speaks to Business Standard on his aim of changing the rule of the game in the aviation sector by redefining service and operational experience for travellers accustomed to mere functionality.
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| November 13, 2013 | | Abolish income, corporate taxes to boost growth, says Swamy
The best way to put the economy back on track is to abolish income and corporate taxes, as this will not only raise confidence but also increase savings and boost growth, the Bharatiya Janata Party's Subramanian Swamy tells Faisal Kidwai.
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| November 12, 2013 | | 'Indian elites are out of touch with the poor'
The disparity between the outlook of the rich and poor was greater in India than in any other emerging economy. Indians might want to be worried about this because this suggests that the rich are really out of touch with the poor, Bruce Stoke, Director of Pew Research Center, tells Faisal Kidwai in an interview.
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| September 18, 2013 | | What the Trai chief has to say on spectrum pricing, ad cap and growth
Within a week of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India giving its final recommendations on the valuation and pricing of spectrum, Chairman Rahul Khullar speaks to Business Standard on the process the regulator followed in finalising the much-debated issue.
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| September 16, 2013 | | Ambitious plans of the new SKS chief
As the chairperson of SKS Trust, the largest shareholder in SKS Microfinance, Biksham Gujja created a stir by announcing they wanted to nominate Vikram Akula, the ousted boss who had founded the company the latter founded, as its representative on the board.
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| August 29, 2013 | | 'Some people don't want the poor to get food'
The stock and foreign exchange markets have had a negative reaction to the government's biggest social security programme, the National Food Security Bill. Food minister K V Thomas questions the rationale behind such a response
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| August 13, 2013 | | 'We have committed Rs 1,300 cr initial capital for a bank'
A healthy track record and 17 years of experience in financial services would be the key strengths of Edelweiss Financial Services in setting up a bank, says chairman and chief executive officer Rashesh Shah, in an interview with Business Standard.
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| August 01, 2013 | | Europe is a difficult market: HCL Tech chief
HCL's president & CEO Anant Gupta talked to Business Standard about the demand environment, its in the European market and Roshni Nadar's induction into the company's board of directors.
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| July 29, 2013 | | We are trying to develop the rural markets: Maruti CMD
The recently anointed managing director and chief executive officer at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd tells Business Standard how he intends to get back to over 50 per cent share in the domestic market, apart from a larger role in the parent's global operations.
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| July 12, 2013 | | 'Don't expect legislative reforms progressing till elections'
For returning to trend growth of over eight per cent GDP growth and sustained low inflation of four per cent, removal of supply-side constraints and investor-friendly policy reforms are key, says Rajesh Cheruvu, Chief Investment Officer, India, RBS.
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| June 25, 2013 | | 'Foreign funds are unlikely to exit India'
Nobutaka Kitajima, chief investment officer -- equity, LIC Nomura Mutual Fund, tells Business Standard the reaction to the Fed's statements has been overdone and the current downturn has punished certain stocks much more than their inherent economic worth and business potential.
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| June 11, 2013 | | More than 6% growth is still possible: Rangarajan
C Rangarajan, chairman, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council tells Business Standard that the measures taken by the government will lead to economic growth of at least 6 per cent in FY14 against a decadal-low growth of 5 per cent in FY13.
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| June 03, 2013 | | 'Real estate sector should grow at 30% annually'
With projects ranging from affordable to premium, Tata Housing Development Co Ltd says it expects to be among the top three real estate entities in the next five years.
'Market conditions likely to remain volatile'
Dhananjay Sinha, co-head, institutional research, Emkay Global Financial Services tells Business Standard in an interview that even as global commodity prices have softened in response to expectations of weaker global demand, the stronger performance of equities is seemingly pre-empting stronger growth.
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| May 07, 2013 | | 'We have restructured for greater agility'
Polaris Financial Technology Ltd , the Chennai-based information technology major which provides products, solutions and services for the financial services sector, has appointed five CEOs, one for for each distinct line of business.
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| May 02, 2013 | | 'RBI does not have clear inflation objective'
Richard Illey, chief economist, (Asia, ex-Japan) at BNP Paribas, talks to Business Standard on inflation and related issues ahead of the Reserve Bank's annual review of monetary policy.
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| April 18, 2013 | | Hiring will become more periodic: HCL chief
Anant Gupta, president and chief executive officer, HCL Technologies, says while the company is strong on the non-discretionary front, the discretionary side continues to be challenging.
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| March 12, 2013 | | The biggest threat is finding leadership talent: L&T chief
In an interview with PricewaterhouseCoopers, A M Naik, chairman of Larsen & Toubro Limited, talks about the company's strategies, opportunities and the challenges facing it.
'Passion, team effort keys to AirAsia Bhd's success'
In an interview with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Aireen Omar, chief executive officer of AirAsia Bhd, talks about the company's strengths, opportunities and challenges.
We will decide on price hike soon: CIL chief
In an interview with Business Standard, CIL Chairman Singayapally Narsing Rao attributes the performance to volume growth but adds a decision on price hike will be taken at an appropriate time.
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| January 23, 2013 | | These are challenging times: HUL chief
Hindustan Unilever, the FMCG major, has posted disappointing numbers for the December quarter on weak consumer sentiment, specially in discretionary categories.
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| January 18, 2013 | | We will now be more aggressive: HCL chief
After spending 20 years at HCL Technologies and heading various service lines, Anant Gupta on Thursday assumed the role of president and chief executive officer.
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| January 11, 2013 | | 'Mobile, not TV, will become the first screen'
Mobile commerce is on the cusp of taking off in India and the growth curve would be a hockey stick shaped one, says Shubhradeep Guha, Global Capability Lead and Country Manager, SapientNitro (India), an integrated marketing, commerce and technology services firm, part of the $1.02billion Boston-based Sapient Corporation (2011).
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| January 02, 2013 | | 'Ratan Tata, a happy brand ambassador for India Inc'
'What he has done has really been to give his time to go outside India, to reach out to governments, important countries, to meet world leaders. And I am sure when he is meeting them, he is not only presenting a Tata group message, he is presenting an India message. Therefore, he has become a kind of quasi-ambassador for us which is, of course, why the government values and respects him so much as well.' Top corporate lawyer Zia Mody assesses Ratan Tata's legacy.
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| December 31, 2012 | | 'Individuals cannot fight corruption, you need collective action'
Avinash Dixit, John J F Sherrerd '52 University Professor of Economics, Princeton University, is a pioneer of the game theory and a major influence on Nobel laureate Paul Krugman's acclaimed work on international trade. Dixit, who spoke at the Delhi Economics Conclave on December 14, in an interview with Business Standard, talks about importance of collective action and social ostracism in fighting corruption.
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| December 18, 2012 | | 'We are investing in unconventional oil and gas'
As it gets ready for disinvestment of 10 per cent government equity through the offer-of-sale route in January, T K Ananth Kumar, director (finance), tells Jyoti Mukul the company is one of the cheapest explorers and producers of oil and gas, but awaits more predictability in the government-subsidy sharing mechanism.
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| October 08, 2012 | | 'R&D and innovation find little place in Indian industry'
J G Kulkarni, executive vice-president at Crompton Greaves and newly appointed president of the Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers' Association speaks to Businsess Standard on the challenges and opportunities.
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| August 08, 2012 | | 'India is the most difficult transfer pricing destination'
Sean F Foley, global leader of KPMG Transfer Pricing Services, who has also been an APA tax administrator for the American government agency, tells Business Standard companies are optimistic but cautious about the development.
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| August 06, 2012 | | 'Bankers must be careful on IPO pricing'
In an interview with Santosh Tiwari, Sebi Chairman U K Sinha also says he is not against consent orders, but is in favour of a predictable and transparent process.
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| July 26, 2012 | | 'Airlines will have to spend 14% profits on DIAL charges'
Tony Tyler, director general and chief executive officer of the International Air Transport Association, a global industry trade body, says the European Union-Emission Trading Scheme is a regional programme, which cannot be imposed on the rest of ther world.
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| July 05, 2012 | | Tamil Nadu's ambitious plans to improve its power situation
New lines and sub stations are already in the pipeline. Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) worth of projects have already been approved. It will take 3 to 4 years for all of them to come into operation. Till then we will try our best to divert wind power through other lines.
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| June 15, 2012 | | Why state electricity boards are facing a big crisis
<B>Anil Sardana</B>, managing director of India's largest private power producer, says though the tariff freeze by some states is causing tremendous stress, the company will go ahead with the expansion of the Mundra project.
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| June 05, 2012 | | 'We are slowly inching towards GST'
Sushil Kumar Modi tells Business Standard the spirit of collective federalism needs to be heeded by all sides if the key reform is to become a reality.
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| May 23, 2012 | | 'Rupee depreciation is a key risk to FII flows'
Jayesh Gandhi, executive director, Morgan Stanley Investment Management in an interview with Business Standard, says Indian equities continue to remain a long-term bull story based on the growth prospect for the country and, hence, in a way cannot be ignored by global investors.
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| April 02, 2012 | | Secret recipe of a successful ad firm
Ranjan Kapur has been country manager of WPP in India for the last eight years. But he gets back to actively managing operations at an agency with the additional responsibility of Bates India as its chairman.
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| February 08, 2012 | | I am disappointed with the numbers: Rangarajan
In an interview with Business Standard, he says investments would pick up and inflation would fall in the next financial year, providing the Reserve Bank of India the room to cut rates.
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| November 24, 2011 | | 'I carry Prahalad's intellectual curiosity in my heart'
Dr Venkatram Ramaswamy, Hallman Fellow of Electronic Business and Professor of Marketing at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, is in India to speak at Guruspeak, an annual event organized by IIM-Calcutta.
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| October 19, 2011 | | What ails Maruti's Manesar plant
Maruti chairman R C Bhargava tells Sharmistha Mukherjee that there won't be a reduction on its dependence on the facility in Haryana.
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| July 19, 2011 | | 'India is the core market for RBS'
In an interview with Malvika Joshi and Somasroy Chakraborty, Madan Menon, RBS' chief executive for Singapore and Southeast Asia and head of global banking and markets in India, shares the bank's plans.
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| June 07, 2011 | | 'IT sector provides a defensive bet'
Given the recent weakness in the rupee and the high forward premium, information technology companies can prove to be good defensive stocks with low downside risks in the prevailing market conditions, Moses Harding, head (global markets group), IndusInd Bank, tells Puneet Wadhwa.
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| May 11, 2011 | | Mining: What the govt plans to do
Formulating changes in any law having wide-ranging social consequences is bound to be a tightrope walk for the government.
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| April 27, 2011 | | 'Companies should be headed by young people'
We need to first give priority to some other important issues such as affirmative action, skill development, growth of manufacturing and getting the mega projects off the ground, says Muthuraman.
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| March 30, 2011 | | 'UBI plans incentive scheme for staff'
Bhasker Sen, chairman and managing director of UBI, discusses the bank's plan in the areas of business growth and human resources with Parnika Sokhi and Manojit Saha.
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| March 11, 2011 | | We are strongly capitalised: HDFC
In an interview with Manojit Saha and Somasroy Chakraborty, executive director Paresh Sukthankar says the bank is adequately capitalised to meet the growth targets for at least a couple of years.
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| February 07, 2011 | | 'MNP churn will stabilise in next nine to 12 months'
Vice president and CEO Sanjay Kasturia talks about the initial trends in mobile number portability, launched all across India on January 20, and other issues in an interview with Mansi Taneja.
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| January 25, 2011 | | Lending rates to rise, loans to grow by 16%: ICICI
Chanda Kochhar, managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank Ltd, the second biggest lender, expects loans to grow 16 per cent in the year to March and sees lending rates rising during the year.
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| January 20, 2011 | | Exclusive! Why the eminent citizens wrote the open letter
In a few weeks, the 14 eminent citizens who wrote 'An Open Letter to our Leaders' this week will propose concrete suggestions how 'our leaders' can tackle the problems of governance deficit and corruption, reveals Dr Ashok Ganguly, one of the 14 signatories.
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| January 11, 2011 | | You can't operate in Silicon Valley if...
Protiviti Inc, one of the world's largest independent business and risk consulting firms, specialises in internal audit, estimated to be a Rs 1,35,000-crore (Rs 1.35 trillion) business globally.
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| January 05, 2011 | | '2011 will be tough for markets'
Arun Kejriwal, founder, Kejriwal Research and Investment Services, tells Krishna Merchant that with the second round of quantitative easing on, the US economy is likely to receive higher allocation of funds.
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| December 24, 2010 | | 'Metal firms took environmental approvals lightly'
In conversation with Shubhashish and Arijit Barman, Rakesh Arora, managing director and head of research, Macquarie Capital Securities (India) Pvt Ltd and among the most authoritative metal analysts in India, says companies should start taking environmental laws more seriously.
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| November 29, 2010 | | 'We understand Indian consumers, in and out'
At a time when Emami Ltd is hitting the headlines with news on acquisitions and foreign ventures, Aditya V Agarwal, a director and one of the younger scions of the group, shares his thinking with Shine Jacob.
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| November 16, 2010 | | 'There's no shortage of deals for bankers'
Mergers and amalgamations will grow and deal sizes increase as the Indian economy expands, Venkat Anantharaman, managing director responsible for mergers and amalgamations, leveraged finance and equity corporate finance at Standard Chartered Bank in Mumbai, tells Sumit Sharma in an interview.
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| November 15, 2010 | | '10% inflation means the economy is overheating'
Gita Gopinath, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, says the monetary policy in India is not transparent and it would be nice to know very clearly from the central bank what steps it has to control inflation and what impact the rate hikes had on controlling inflation.
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| October 28, 2010 | | 'Prepaid customers our thrust area in India'
While the brand is facing stiff competition from Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platform in the consumer market and is likely to come face to face with renewed competition in the enterprise market from Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 in early 2011, Frenny Bawa, managing director, RIM India, is confident of staying ahead of the pack.
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| October 08, 2010 | | Indian markets will give strong returns: Morgan chief
The India story is on a roll. The country's benchmark indices are on their way to touching historical highs, aided largely by inflows from foreign institutional investors. But Ridham Desai, managing director, Morgan Stanley (India), still thinks there's "some reticence" in FII participation.
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| October 07, 2010 | | 'India strong enough to weather external shocks'
Emerging markets guru Mark Mobius believes the Indian market is no longer cheap but the country has been enjoying a premium over peers due to its growth prospects. In an interview with Business Standard, the executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group says India's relatively strong fundamentals and accumulation of foreign exchange reserves put it in a much stronger position to weather external shocks.
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| October 05, 2010 | | 'Future Group to focus on maintaining No 1 postion'
Raghu Pillai, former director and CEO (operations, strategy and business development) of Reliance Retail, today took over as the chief executive of Kishore Biyani's Future Value Retail. An industry veteran, Pillai talks about his new role with Business Standard.
'We are hungry for business in India'
Ever since MindTree, the mid-sized information technology and research services firm, acquired Aztecsoft in 2008, it has had a clear strategy in mind.
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| October 04, 2010 | | Nilekani explains the objectives of UID
In an interview with Sanjay Jog, Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani explains the objectives of the UID scheme and its challenges.
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| September 30, 2010 | | Anand Mahindra on key challenges for Satyam
By wonderful coincidence, the first UID card handed out today by the Prime Minister and Mrs Gandhi was backed by Mahindra Satyam technology, says Anand Mahindra.
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| September 24, 2010 | | 'FMC to gain financial autonomy soon'
The Cabinet cleared amendments to the Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act, giving the FMC autonomy and including various provisions aimed at developing the market. Business Standard spoke to Khatua on how the amendments will impact the markets once it comes into force.
'Sensex likely to hit 21,000 by Diwali'
Ramesh Damani, stock broker, Bombay Stock Exchange, is known for prudent stock-picking. Though he prefers to be cautious while talking on individual stocks due to regulatory issues, in an interview with Business Standard, he drops a few hints about the current rally and the sectors he is betting on.
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| August 31, 2010 | | 'India will be among the top three markets'
For Steve Bertamini, group executive director and chief executive officer, global consumer banking at Standard Chartered, India is one of the most important markets.
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| August 19, 2010 | | 'We may look at an India-focused fund'
In a chat with Business Standard, Blackstone India chairman and managing director Akhil Gupta says the PE player is eyeing investment opportunities in infrastructure and personal consumption-driven sectors and may raise an India-focused fund.
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| August 06, 2010 | | How CAG plans to do corporate audits
With over half the Plan funds that Parliament approves being spent through non-government channels, to cite the figure in CAG Vinod Rai's presentation to the Planning Commission, members of the Parliament have no way of knowing whether the money is properly spent.
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| August 05, 2010 | | 'Inflation: Answer lies in right price mechanism'
If the government takes a progressive view and the industry co-operates for arriving at a pricing mechanism, it will be a win-win for all, Raju Barwale, managing director of Mahyco (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd), tells Dilip Kumar Jha.
'Demand for residential property is sound'
Bangalore-based Sobha Developers had a two-fold rise in its net profit to Rs 34.3 crore (Rs 343 million) in the April-June quarter. J C Sharma, Managing Director, spoke to Business Standard on the revival in demand and the company's growth plans.
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| July 22, 2010 | | 'RBI needs to encourage capacity expansion'
Stuart A Davis, the chief executive officer at HSBC India, expects the Reserve Bank of India to increase repo and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points in its quarterly monetary policy review on July 27, as concerns over accelerating inflation and uncertain monsoon linger.
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| July 20, 2010 | | 'The government is killing the telecom dream'
In an exclusive interview to NDTV Profit, chairman of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Mittal, hit out at what he called the irrational pricing of spectrum between older and newer players.
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| July 15, 2010 | | 'Petrol price deregulation is not enough'
In an interview with Ajay Modi & Jyoti Mukul, ONGC chairman R S Sharma says uncertainties continue in the business even after decontrol of petrol prices.
'Teaser rates are not good for the banking industry'
Anoop Pabby, managing director of Deutsche Postbank Home Finance Ltd, spoke to Atanu Kumar Das about the challenges faced by home finance companies and how profitability is linked to customer satisfaction.
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| July 07, 2010 | | 'Valuation is key to success of divestment'
Ravi Kapoor, head of global banking at Citi India tells that the success of the Centre's divestment programme hinges on attractive valuations
'Base rate not to affect home loans'
Anuj Puri, chairman and country head, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, tells Business Standard that high prices and hardening of mortgage rates may act as a dampener.
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| July 02, 2010 | | M S Banga on life as a fund manager
Banga has hung up his Unilever boots and moved on to private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) as an operating partner.
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| June 23, 2010 | | 'Boeing is comfortable about its positioning in India'
Back in India nine years after his initial stint in the country, Boeing India president and Boeing International vice-president Dinesh A Keskar stresses that India is an important market for Chicago-based Boeing.
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| June 21, 2010 | | 'Easy image-sharing will drive Kodak's growth'
Sayantani Kar speaks to Eastman Kodak Company vice-president & general manager (digital capture & imaging devices) John Blake and Kodak India managing director Ravi Karamcheti about the changes the company has brought about and its ambitions.
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| June 10, 2010 | | Meet the man behind 1298 ambulance
Shaffi Mather, founder of the yellow ambulance or the 1298 service, was one among the six Indians who were invited by US President Barack Obama to participate in the entrepreneur summit which was held in recently in US.In an interview with rediff.com, Shaffi Mather speaks about his enterprise and the summit.
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| June 07, 2010 | | 'Overwhelming demand hiking home prices'
In a chat with Raghavendra Kamath, the group's co-founder and managing director, Niranjan Hiranandani, talks about the company's plans and the property market in the country.
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| June 02, 2010 | | 'We soon want to be a $1-billion company'
Managing director and global chief executive officer, Aparup Sengupta, is working on being a $1-billion company in the next 12-18 months (current turnover is $700 million or Rs 3,150 crore) and believes acquisitions will be a major way of achieving this.
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| May 31, 2010 | | Women make better managers: IIM-K director
The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, which raised its fee to Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) from Rs 800,000 this year, gave away over Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) as scholarships to students last year.
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| May 25, 2010 | | 'There could be massive sell-off if crisis worsens'
The current crisis in the euro zone will not create any major problems for India, but a 10-15 per cent correction in markets is not ruled out if it worsens, says Ridham Desai, managing director and head of equities at Morgan Stanley India.
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| May 18, 2010 | | All about Iffco's Vision 2015
While planning significant consolidation of its vast expanse of business in the next five years, the Rs 17,000-crore (rs 170 billion) Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd (Iffco) has demanded "physical support by the government" through excise and Customs exemptions and income tax holidays.
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| May 14, 2010 | | 'India's English edge not there in hardware'
Although still behind India's $60 billion-equivalent, many Chinese companies are increasingly confident that India's days as king of software outsourcing are numbered. Business Standard spoke to Dr Liu Jiren, founder and CEO of Neusoft, China's largest outsourcing company, about how Chinese outsourcing firms evaluate themselves against Indian counterparts. Edited excerpts:
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| May 11, 2010 | | 'SC verdict won't affect any project of R-Infra'
Reliance Infrastructure, part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has said the recent Supreme Court order on gas supply to sister firm Reliance Power (45 per cent owned by R-Infra) will not impact its projects.
'Divestment may take time, but diversification is on'
While the government is banking on divestment of its stake in the country's biggest trading giant MMTC Ltd to meet its Rs 40,000-crore (Rs 400 billion) disinvestment target for 2010-11, MMTC chairman and managing director Sanjiv Batra believes it may take more time, as the government is yet to appoint independent directors on its board.
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| May 10, 2010 | | 'The case of RNRL has been strengthened'
A short-term (five-year) price is not relevant beyond a point when power plants have a life of 15-20 years, says J P Chalasani, CEO, Reliance Power.
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| May 04, 2010 | | Job-hunting NRIs turn to astrology
To explore the reasons behind this 'reverse brain drain' as also the company's way of functioning, rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra spoke to Meena Kapoor, founder and chief executive officer, Netway India Pvt Ltd, company that owns Astroyogi.com.
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| April 27, 2010 | | Tesco's retail plans in India
The six-year-old Tesco Hindustan Service Centre, the Bangalore-based support centre of Tesco Plc, the world's third largest retailer, is gearing up for the retail giant's cash-and-carry outlet opening by year-end.
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| April 20, 2010 | | N-tech: US firms want level playing field in India
Ron Somers, president, US-India Business Council, which lobbied to get the US-India nuclear technology deal approved, like the rest of the American business fraternity, is upset by India's recent purchase of nuclear reactors and sophisticated technology and weaponry from Russia.
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| April 15, 2010 | | 'Private banking in India is at take-off stage'
Private banking in India is still at a nascent stage and can absorb all the lessons learnt the hard way in developed markets, according to Jane Fraser, the global head of Citi Private Bank.
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| March 30, 2010 | | 'India's patent policy is discouraging innovations'
US-based Eli Lilly has planned to continue its focus on innovation-driven products, instead of opening up to opportunities in off-patent generic drugs, being tapped by its larger competitors like GSK and Pfizer.
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| March 25, 2010 | | 'Number of inbound travellers is quite less'
In an interview with Ruchika Chitravanshi, executive director Rakshit Desai says, while the company does offer high-end products, it also has products that are cheaper than competitors.
'Net-ready tablet PCs to flood market in 2010'
Global consulting firm Deloitte has come out with its predictions on the technology trends that are expected to be seen across technology, media and telecommunications sector
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| March 23, 2010 | | 'India is a good place to acquire talent'
In an interview with K Rajani Kanth, Synopsys global president and chief operating officer Chi-Foon Chan says the company sees India as an emerging market for intellectual property and systems business.
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| March 10, 2010 | | 'We think IT spends will pick up this year'
Bangalore-based information technology services firm MindTree has set up an ambitious target of becoming a $1-billion (around Rs 4,600-crore) company over the next five years.
'Our Indian operations are a great success story'
Andrew Witty, chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the world's second-largest drug company, was in India this week as part of the dedication of an albandazole manufacturing facility at Nashik to the World Health Organization (WHO)'s global programme to eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis.
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| March 05, 2010 | | 'The 3G money raised may be more than estimated'
There is scepticism in some quarters that the Budget for 2010-11, while spreading cheer, may be skating on thin ice. For instance, some of its assumptions will give way if the non-tax revenue projections turn out to be castles in the air.
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| March 04, 2010 | | Revenue Secretary on the govt's challenges
By partially rolling back the stimulus that was provided through fiscal incentives in the excise duties and by retaining the service tax at 10 per cent, we are primarily signalling that we are going back to a unified goods and services tax, says Sunil Mitra.
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| February 22, 2010 | | 'Industry not at the cost of nature'
The Uttarakhand government is not keen to promote tourism at the cost of flora and fauna.
'India gets leg into Bermuda tax havens'
A tax information exchange agreement will give OECD-mandated exchange to Indian tax authorities and their requests in cases of special inquiries will be better equipped to tackle tax evasion.
'I will be cautious about buying equity now'
Marc Faber, legendary contrarian investor and author of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, talks to Jitendra Gupta on recent market correction, road ahead for Indian markets, global economic recovery and whether there is a bubble in China or not.
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| February 10, 2010 | | 'Foreign investors prefer independent managers'
Newly-formed Ascent Capital, which is a separate investment entity carved out of UTI Ventures, recently raised $350 million (Rs 1,575 crore) for its first fund.
Capgemini sees recovery in 2010
Paul Hermelin, group chief executive officer of Europe's largest IT services firm, Capgemini, is one of the earliest proponents of the offshoring model.
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| February 09, 2010 | | 'Jobs to dalits is private sector's social duty'
Positives like dalit music and literature should be promoted while reservations for the community can continue, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Mukul Wasnik, tells Business Standard.
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| February 01, 2010 | | '2010 is going to be a difficult year'
Given the inflation across most economies, especially India, I believe inflation beneficiaries should do well and sectors that are interest rate-sensitive should not do so well, says Punita Kumar Sinha, Senior MD, Blackstone Asia Advisors.
Sectors that will do well in 2010
We continue to remain bullish on the telecom and financial services space, says Manish Kejriwal, Country Head (India), Temasek.
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| January 27, 2010 | | 'Coal mine development is a long-drawn process'
After the government scaled up the power capacity addition target in the current Plan period multi-fold, NTPC embarked upon a major diversification drive in the entire energy chain.
NPAs may rise further: SBI
Though the economy is recovering, the non-performing assets (NPAs) may rise further because the asset quality will improve only with a lag effect, says O P Bhatt.
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| January 21, 2010 | | 'PSUs as an asset class is good investment'
With the government planning to mop up Rs 24,000 crore (Rs 240 billion) through disinvestment this financial year, investors have once again become interested in public sector companies.
Everybody is in a mood to spend: Wipro CEO
In an interview with Mahesh Kulkarni and Archana Prasanna, Wipro's joint chief executive officer Girish Paranjpe says the company expects uniform growth in information technology spends, despite flat to marginally positive IT budgets in 2010.
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| January 20, 2010 | | 'We will start a third shift at Halol for LCV'
In a chat with Sohini Das, GM India president and managing director Karl Slym says, with the launch of the new compact car, Beat, and a positive response to the Cruze, GM plans to cross the 100,000-unit mark this year in sales.
'Double-dip in the US economy is inevitable'
Robin Griffiths, technical strategist at Cazenove Capital, shares his opinion on why India and Brazil are a better bet than China in the current economic scenario, crystal gazes the strength of the US dollar and believes that if all goes well then the Indian stock market benchmark, Sensex, could test its earlier peak set in January 2008.
'Small investors don't make money from stocks'
Interview with Shankar Sharma,VC & Joint MD, First Global.
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| January 15, 2010 | | Food price inflation is temporary: Montek
There is no doubt that economic growth has picked up. It's also true that inflation has edged up. We had said at the beginning that sometime in the course of the year we would begin to slowly wind it down and what has happened is on course for that decision but exactly what, it's too early to say, says Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
'Kyoto is in intensive care'
In the first of a three-part interview, Jairam Ramesh, MoS, Environment and Forests, speaks about the meaning of the Copenhagen Accord.
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| January 07, 2010 | | 'We don't want MNCs to patent Indian traditional knowledge'
Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Prithviraj Chavan says in an exclusive interview that India has digitized all traditional knowledge of medicine available in India and has shared it with the US President and United States patents office so that nobody benefits unduly by using Indian knowledge and files for patents on such products.
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| January 05, 2010 | | The secret behind Paramount Airways' success
Today, Paramount is the market leader in the South with a 27 per cent share.
'One should not expect a blockbuster year'
Equity markets enter the new year with a good 2009 behind them. This year, a record number of initial public offerings and disinvestments in public sector undertakings are expected. Rajesh Bhayani spoke to Rashesh Shah, chairman, Edelweiss Group, on what can be expected.
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| December 31, 2009 | | 'India has some of the most promising entrepreneurs'
For India, we continue to believe that the market and clients here require flexible pools of capital that can address their financing requirements across the capital structure, says Sanjay Nayar, CEO and Country Head for India, KKR.
'Stock markets may not do well in 2010'
Historically, such large years are not followed by another huge year. So, strictly going by that, we should be less enthusiastic, says Pankaj Vaish, MD, Nomura Financial Advisory.
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| December 30, 2009 | | 'Core sector will be at the top in 2010'
3i is a global private equity fund based out of UK and invests across buyouts, growth capital and infrastructure deals. It has a $1.2 billion India dedicated infrastructure fund which has made investments in Soma Enterprises and Adani Power.
Sectors that will do well in 2010
We continue to remain bullish on the telecom and financial services space, says Manish Kejriwal, Country Head (India), Temasek.
Renuka Ramnath on her new venture, challenges
India is still a capital-starved economy where long-term capital can be put to work to create valuable enterprises and successful entrepreneurs, says Renuka Ramnath.
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| December 29, 2009 | | 'We are reinventing the economics of computing'
US-based NComputing creates virtual desktops that allow multiple users to simultaneously share one computer. Stephen Dukker, chairman and CEO of the company, says PCs today are so powerful they can easily support multiple users working on multiple applications.
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| December 28, 2009 | | 'Only tax breaks may not draw investors'
'If I were in the Indian government, I would look at the growth projections in the next year. If it is a good and normal growth number, I would go for roll back.'
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| December 24, 2009 | | 'Indian regulatory regime has brought us a world of good'
Rating agency Standard & Poor's is using the experience of working with the Indian rating agency, Crisil, a subsidiary of S&P, to its advantage. Deven Sharma, president, Standard & Poor\'s, spoke to Rajesh Bhayani
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| December 23, 2009 | | '2009 was a good year, next will be brighter'
Vedika Bhandarkar, managing director & head of investment banking, recounts how even in a supposedly bad year, the bank raised about Rs 1,00,000 crore (Rs 1,000 billion).
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| December 21, 2009 | | 'We are happy being a small company'
Trident Hotels, the premium business hotel brand which belongs to the Kolkata-based East India Hotels, is now looking at tapping the leisure travel market. The brand would thus extend beyond metros, and will now be seen at leisure destinations, too, Trident's president Rattan Keswani tells Swaraj Baggonkar.
'Samuelson was the pre-eminent economist of our times'
'The only competition he would get is from Kenneth Arrow and to some extent from John Hicks.'
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| December 17, 2009 | | 'The Boeing 787 actually benefits airlines'
The 787 Dreamliner aircraft is 20 per cent more fuel-efficient than other comparable aircraft, which means it will reduce costs and offer potential to increase revenues, says Dinesh Keskar, President, Boeing India.
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| December 15, 2009 | | 'Stimulus withdrawal can bring double-dip recession'
As the global economic scenario is improving, Ajay Chhibber, regional director (Asia and the Pacific) for the United Nations Development Programme, believes employment will be the major indicator to gauge the firmness of the economic recovery.
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| December 14, 2009 | | Maharashtra debt huge, but under control, says Ashok Chavan
Though we have a debt burden of Rs 180,000 crore, the economic condition of the state is stable and healthy. This is due to efficient fiscal management and effective monitoring of expenditure, says the Maharashtra chief minister.
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| December 04, 2009 | | Reliance Brands' plans more new stores
Reliance Brands, a group company of Reliance Industries, began operations two years earlier to launch premium-to-luxury domestic and international brands and also set up retail stores for them.
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| December 03, 2009 | | Wipro to review compensation factor
Wipro Ltd, a provider of IT solutions and services including systems integration, information systems outsourcing and IT-enabled services, says it has not been affected by the crisis in West Asia and will continue to invest in the region.
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| November 27, 2009 | | 'China will snatch our market from us'
'It might take 10 years before medicines of decent quality and price reach right down to the last village of India. Ranbaxy, with its India focus, intends to get there in five years.'
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| November 09, 2009 | | 'WNS back to focusing on finding a CEO'
WNS, an NYSE-listed business process outsourcing company, recorded good second quarter numbers, reflecting the improving market conditions in global markets. Neeraj Bhargava, Group CEO, attributed the performance to better volume growth and a robust pipeline. In a chat with Business Standard, he spoke about the recent stake sale talks with Warburg Pincus, appointing a new CEO and other issues.
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| November 04, 2009 | | 'We expect corporate buying to return'
Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and CEO, HCL Infosystems, tells Kirtika Suneja the environment may improve in three to six months, as the economy has bottomed out.
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| November 03, 2009 | | 'All markets are now recovering'
On a short trip in Mumbai for a board meeting, Nick Thomlinson, chairman of Knight Frank, the global residential and commercial property consultancy, shares his insights and forecasts with Byravee Iyer.
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| October 30, 2009 | | 'We cannot regulate gas prices'
Two years after it was first constituted, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board continues to move ahead in a patchy manner -- it is inviting bids for 2,800 km of cross-country pipelines and 1,200 km of spurlines next week; it is in the process of fixing tariffs for the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Gas Transportation India Limited pipeline. Its chairman L Mansingh spoke at length on several of these issues to Sunil Jain.
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| October 29, 2009 | | 'China should be India's economic partner, not rival'
China should be an economic partner and not a rival. China is the most suitable location to setup center to back-up operations in India because with India, China has the largest talent pool in the world.
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| October 27, 2009 | | 'I think we should lecture less to the world'
In an interview with Suman Guha Mozumder, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh says a little less superiority and a little more humility on the part of India will serve us very well in the future.
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| October 26, 2009 | | 'We will not sell Piramal Healthcare'
Nandini Piramal, heir apparent to the Piramal business empire as the elder child of Ajay Piramal and Swati Piramal, became the executive director of Piramal Healthcare in April this year.
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| October 23, 2009 | | 'Full-service airline costs are double of ours'
The Indian aviation industry, which accounts for 2 per cent of the global aviation industry, suffered losses of Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in 2008-09. The industry is, however, now looking up, feels SpiceJet chief executive officer Sanjay Agarwal.
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| October 21, 2009 | | 'Hiking realty prices will be a huge mistake'
Red Fort Capital, an international real estate fund founded by GB Singh, Parry Singh and Subhash Bedi, has invested nearly Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) in the Indian real estate sector and claims that it is one of the few funds to have invested even in the downturn.
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| October 15, 2009 | | 'Anil Ambani is targetting me, my family'
In a free-wheeling interview with Jyoti Mukul, Sibal makes a case for his innocence and blames the media campaign by the Anil Ambani group for the current controversy.
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| October 09, 2009 | | 'India will have 1 billion mobiles by 2013'
T V Ramachandran, former director-general of the Cellular Operators' Association of India, iterates his wish that the differences in technologies would blur.
Telenor chief eyes 70 mn customers from India
Sigve Brekke, vice president and Asia-head of the Norway-based mobile major Telenor has played a big role in Telenor's aggressive Asian foray. Brekke spoke of his plans for Telenor's joint venture with real-estate firm Unitech.
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| October 08, 2009 | | Axis Bank CMD hints at small changes ahead
Sharma who took over as the chief executive officer and managing director in June is, however, confident that the bank will continue to beat the industry growth rate and sustain the margins and return ratios.
How Kishore Biyani plans to expand business
Kishore Biyani, the founder of Future Group, plans to more than double retail space to 30 million sq ft by 2013 and push the private labels business.
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| October 07, 2009 | | 'We want to make TCS a bigger and better firm'
'With a strong customer base, we will continue to focus on customer-centric services, offer integrated full services, a global delivery model, tap emerging markets and increase our non-linear capabilities.'
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| September 30, 2009 | | 'Housing prices will not fall'
Greed is coming back. So, developers can increase prices. I am sure that prices will not go down from here onwards.
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| September 29, 2009 | | 'An upturn is clearly visible'
Korn/Ferry is a global leader in executive search. For the quarter ended July 2009, its fee income fell over 40 per cent to $116 million from a year ago and the company reported a net loss of $14.3 million as against a profit of $15.3 million in the year-ago quarter. Its chief financial officer, Michael A Digregorio and managing director for India, Deepak Gupta, spoke to Bhupesh Bhandari and Amit Ranjan Rai on the emerging opportunities and challenges.
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| September 25, 2009 | | We plan to take NPS online: Pension body chief
The pension regulator, the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority, is taking various steps to boost the numbers, cairman D Swarup tells Vrishti Beniwal in an exclusive interview
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| September 24, 2009 | | Takeovers at right price welcome: ICICI Pru chief
Nimesh Shah, managing director & CEO of ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company, tells Chandan Kishore Kant that he is bullish on the Indian market.
'India to be a test-bed for global roll-outs'
In an interview with K Rajani Kanth, NCR Corporation's managing director (India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) Pradeep Sen outlines the company's road map for India, including its plans to scale up its research and development efforts, manufacturing capacity expansion and taking the partner-ecosystem route to penetrate the petroleum and general retail segment.
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| September 23, 2009 | | What BASF plans to do in India
Germany-based BASF, the world's largest chemical manufacturer, acquired Swiss chemical maker Ciba last year in a $3.27 billion transaction.
Matrix Partner MD on investment environment
A successful entrepreneur and now an investor, Avnish Bajaj, the managing director of Matrix Partners India, has seen both sides of the investment cycle.
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| September 18, 2009 | | 'Retail investors must be careful now'
Business Standard discussed the primary market scenario and changing equations in the IPO market with Enam Group chairman Vallabh Bhanshali. Excerpts:
GE Healthcare bullish on growth in India
Price becomes a challenge in a country like India and, hence, we are trying to halve the cost and give higher outcome, says V Raja, CEO, GE Healthcare India.
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| September 10, 2009 | | Fake currency: 'RBI, banks in denial mode'
'The RBI obviously gets to know when an entire series of currency notes has been faked. I fail to understand why they continue with the series despite it being faked,' former CBI director Joginder Singh tells Vicky Nanjappa.
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| August 21, 2009 | | Global warming woes? Let's go back to khadi
Sailesh Kumar Bandyopadhyay firmly believes that Khadi movement alone can offer solutions to two knottiest problems of the present times: global warming and economic meltdown.
'IDFC's business model remains robust'
"I don't think the only solution for us is a bank, though it could be a bank. On the other hand, if the financial system continues to grow at 20-25 per cent, there's no reason why in our current construct, we can't comfortably keep growing at that same pace," says Rajiv Lall, CEO and Managing Director, IDFC.
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| August 18, 2009 | | 'TV is a hits and misses business'
Rakhi Ka Swayamvar worked for NDTV Imagine. Bidaaiis working on Star Plus. So both reality and fiction are working on prime time, says Sunil Lulla, Director, Real Global Broadcasting.
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| August 10, 2009 | | Tips on how to keep cyber attacks at bay
'The constant evolution of the Internet is providing new avenues for malware authors and cybercriminals to exploit innocent users for financial gain.'
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| August 07, 2009 | | 'We are aiming at 10% of our revenues from India'
Zensar Technologies, the Rs 900 crore RPG Group's software services company, expects Rs 200 crore from its domestic business this fiscal, up from Rs 40 crore last year. In an interview with Pradipta Mukherjee, Vice-Chairman and CEO Ganesh Natarajan says the company is on an expansion and hiring mode, defying the freeze in the industry
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| August 04, 2009 | | 'We intend to cover 50,000 villages soon'
Godrej Consumer Products, the hair colours and soaps major, intends to increase its contribution from rural sales to 50 per cent in one year, from 38 per cent right now. In an interview with Pradipta Mukherjee, GCPL vice-chairman Hoshedar K Press says that among other plans, the company is targeting consolidation of its FMCG businesses and is banking on goods and services tax implementation, which would enable it to have common depot and supply chain strategies.
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| July 24, 2009 | | How 'Colors' jumped into the top league
As the CEO of Colors, the Hindi general entertainment television channel from the Network18 group, the 35-year old Rajesh Kamat, is in an enviable position.
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| July 21, 2009 | | Cognizant to focus on Asia, Latin America
Francisco D' Souza, president and chief executive of Cognizant Technology Solutions (earlier called Dun and Bradstreet Satyam Software), believes Asia and Latin America would be the nearly $3-billion New Jersey-based offshore IT service major's focus areas of growth.
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| July 13, 2009 | | 'Broad range of reforms will get done in time'
The Union government's response to the many comments and criticisms of the 2009-10 Budget was explored by Karan Thapar for Devil's Advocate, the CNN-IBN channel programme, with deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
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| July 08, 2009 | | 'Venture capital is not hot money'
The venture capital/private equity industry needs to be encouraged as such investments create jobs and help establish companies in new sectors. There is also a strong case for incentives for investors in these funds, says Saurabh Srivastava, chairman of the Indian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association.
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| July 04, 2009 | | 'We can use land to catalyse development'
Staunchly declining to comment on personalities, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee says there are enough assets with the organisation to enable a sustained improvement in operations which will also push development. Edited excerpts:
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| July 03, 2009 | | 'India's growth rate would be around 7%'
India should continue with the pending reforms in many sectors to get the economy back on track and take it to a high growth rate, says Arvind Virmani, chief economic advisor to the government, in an interview with Business Standard
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| June 26, 2009 | | 'We are seeing a huge demand for home loans'
'Loan approvals have increased at a much higher pace. And this growth has been driven by retail, not project finance,' says R R Nair, director and chief executive, LIC Housing Finance.
'IT firms' smaller deals have not gone slow'
Wipro Technologies CFO Manish Dugar tells Ravi Menon that smaller deals are coming in use to gain mindshare and pave the way for the big-ticket contracts.
'Infosys will continue to run as usual'
Nandan Nilekani is stepping down to take up a bigger cause -- heading a government project to provide a unique identity to each of India's citizens. S Gopalakrishnan, the CEO and MD of Infosys and a co-founder of the company, tells Bibhu Ranjan Mishra what Nilekani's exit means for the company.
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| June 25, 2009 | | 'Ford is passionate about India'
'We announced a $500 million investment plan for India. I have not received a single call from either the US or Bangkok (Ford's Asian centre of operations) asking me to freeze the investment programme or to scale it down,' says Michael Boneham, MD, Ford India.
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| June 23, 2009 | | 'Small businesses spell big opportunity'
Yes Bank Founder, Managing Director and CEO Rana Kapoor is confident that the potential is huge and risks close to none. The bank has around 8,000 relationships in this segment and claims to have mapped about 150,000 such relationships.
'Too early to say if economy has bottomed out'
In an interview with Business Standard's Devika Banerji, he says the monitoring of rural spending should be on top of the new government's priorities.
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| June 12, 2009 | | 'Jazz should give us double-digit growth'
Masahiro Takedagawa, president and CEO of HSCI, feels his company can record double-digit growth this year, owing to an improving economy and continuous government effort to boost spending.
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| June 05, 2009 | | 'The days of tax havens are over'
Switzerland only provided information on tax fraud that led to criminal activity. But the Swiss definition of tax fraud is quite narrow, which means that a false invoice is not a crime. Now, any tax abuse will be covered.
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| June 04, 2009 | | 'Fiscal deficit higher than 6% of GDP? Imprudent'
In an interview with Business Standard's Sapna Dogra Singh and John Samuel Raja D, C Rangarajan says there are some encouraging signs in the economy, but the real recovery will come only in 2010-11.
'The real surprise in Asia could be India'
'India has got a large collection of world-class companies, extraordinary entrepreneurs, well-developed markets and an educated workforce that will act in its favour. What's been missing between this micro and macro is political impetus to reforms. The recent election changes the prospects for reforms,' says Stephen S Roach, chairman, Morgan Stanley Asia.
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| June 03, 2009 | | 'Our nuke programmes will gain momentum now'
The country is planning to increase its nuclear power generation by about 60,000 mega watts (Mw) within the next 25 years. This planned capacity addition is being executed by the state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). Its head, Chairman and Managing Director SK Jain, tells P B Jayakumar about his plans and expectations.
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| June 01, 2009 | | '3G technology as cost-effective as 2G'
With the state-owned BSNL's 93-million-line tender once again the subject of a controversy, it's but natural to elicit the views of Ericsson's global president and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg on this
'We've handled crisis much better than anyone else'
In this interview, Rakesh Mohan spoke on a range of issues about the challenges he faced during his stint at the central bank and the journey from handling the real economy sectors to monetary economics
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| May 29, 2009 | | What L&T learnt from Satyam
Sudip Banerjee, CEO, L&T Infotech talks about business post-Satyam, expansion plans and bigger acquisition targets.
'Legal action is the only way to protect revenue'
Bhushan Kumar, chairman and managing director of the Rs 350 crore (Rs 3.5 billion) Super Cassettes Industries, the country's leading music company that owns the T-Series label, spoke to Shuchi Bansal on the challenges facing the music industry and his company's initiatives to keep its head above water.
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| May 25, 2009 | | Forbes on the troubled newspaper industry
The newspaper industry in the West may be reeling under the onslaught of the web but Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, Forbes, and grandson of the founder of the magazine, believes there is a market for value-added content that people will pay for.
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| May 22, 2009 | | 'I've been waiting for this government for 12 years'
The new government will have to act quickly to maintain the momentum, Andrew Holland, CEO institutional equities and equity proprietary trading, Ambit Capital, tells Business Standard's Rajesh Bhayani.
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| May 18, 2009 | | Canon bullish on growth in India
Canon has been annually launching around 100 products in India. The year 2008 saw a 31 per cent growth rate, to touch a top line of Rs 665 crore (Rs 6.65 billion).
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| May 15, 2009 | | 4G technology on priority list, says Trai boss
Another priority is to prepare the country for the fourth generation (4G) technology. It will not only improve teledensity and improve data services, but also ensure that the country is prepared for all the future developments, says J S Sarma.
'We are having a relook at buyback regulations'
There are some difficulties in bringing changes in buyback norms and we are having a relook at the regulations, says C B Bhave.
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| May 13, 2009 | | 'Mutual funds do not have an unblemished record'
While stock market indices are rising, UTI Asset Management Company chairman and managing director U K Sinha says that risk appetite at the retail level is low.
Y V Reddy on how to tackle the crisis
As governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) till September last year, YV Reddy was in-charge of monetary policy at a time when the economy grew at its fastest pace ever
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| May 12, 2009 | | 'If businesses focus on core, outsourcing will stay'
Having spent the first 90 days meeting employees and key clients, Jeya Kumar, new CEO of Patni Computer Systems, is clearly in control. While he acknowledges concerns due to the current slowdown, he has started restructuring the company. He details the growth plans in a chat with Business Standard's Shivani Shinde.
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| May 11, 2009 | | How Oracle's acquisition will impact Sun
This is a period fraught with uncertainty for the employees of the wholly-owned Indian subsidiary of Sun Microsystems after database giant Oracle announced the acquisition of its parent for $7.4 billion on April 29.
'Indian customer is the most discerning in the world'
Giorgio Armani SpA, the Italian fashion company which designs fashion accessories, apparel, cosmetics, fragrances, home interiors, eyewear and watches, among other things, opened its store in India in the middle of a slowdown. The company's deputy managing director John Hooks who has considerable experience in luxury retail in Asia was in India some time ago and spoke to Business Standard's Anoothi Vishal on Armani's India plans.
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| May 05, 2009 | | Overseas spending affected us: Amex CEO
Rajesh Saxena, CEO, American Express Banking Corp, India, tells Business Standard's Bhupesh Bhandari how he is fine-tuning American Express' credit card strategy.
'SBI brand will help grow business by 50 per cent'
Brand SBI is very strong, while people may be generally cautious about some other brands. We can not only tap the potential better but can also provide a safe and transparent insurance alternative to the public, says US Roy.
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| May 04, 2009 | | 'India to recover faster than developed nations'
Recession here is not as drastic as what you might see in the developed world because the hole that is dug is not that deep in countries like India; thus, they can recover much quicker, says S Somasegar.
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| May 01, 2009 | | 'Aamir Khan is the highest-paid brand ambassador today'
It is natural that the endorsement price is heavily skewed in favour of icons like Aamir Khan, SRK, Akshay Kumar, Sachin Tendulkar and M S Dhoni. These five, on average, get roughly three times what the next 10 get, says Manish Porwal, CEO, Percept Talent Management.
'Growing the top line will not be easy this year'
This financial year will not be easy, mainly due to lack of pricing opportunities. Still, if volume growth remains robust, profit expansion will be good, says Dabur India CEO Sunil Duggal.
We are cash-rich, looking at acquisitions: Adi Godrej
In an upbeat mood on good results, Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej group, tells Business Standard's Sapna Agarwal he is looking forward to a good year, as the fast-moving consumer goods sector remains unaffected by the general slowdown.
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| April 30, 2009 | | 'There has been a decline in poverty in India'
"The rest of the world should pass a motion of thanks to India for keeping its emission at a level which actually is below the level required to achieve climate sustainability," says Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a key member of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's economic team.
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| April 28, 2009 | | Infosys CEO on the lessons he learnt
Infosys employees understand the environment in which we are operating. They interact with the clients, they see the situation, says Kris Gopalakrishnan.
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| April 27, 2009 | | Vaidyanathan on his plans for ICICI Prudential
With more players, products and rising consciousness about the need for insurance, the market has to grow. As for the team, the existing management team continues (at ICICI Prudential) to be there. The team has built a solid business, an excellent brand. The systems are in place, so it is a good stepping stone, says Vaidyanathan.
Chanda Kochhar on ICICI Bank's asset base
The proportion of retail assets is higher, so NPAs from that part would be higher, says Kochhar.
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| April 22, 2009 | | Management tips to survive the economic slowdown
According to Jason White, leader of Hewitt's business performance improvement, cost-cutting and layoffs are amongst the biggest concerns of companies today. He urges struggling firms to change the way people are organised, utilised and managed.
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| April 23, 2009 | | We do not have a pink slip policy: HCL
"HCL's employees know that bill tightening has to happen, but in a collaborative manner. There is a trust factor between the employees, the company and the customers and we do not have a pink slip policy. That is why we squeezed utilisation up to 75 per cent and our hiring in the last two quarters has not been much," says Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies.
Work 10 days a month, Wipro tells benched employees
"We found value in people being given flexibility instead of asking them to come to work when there is no work. We have also given them a choice of coming to office 10 days at a stretch in a month, rather than coming two days every week," says Girish Paranjpe, joint CEO of its information technology business.
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| April 21, 2009 | | Management tips to survive the economic slowdown
According to Jason White, leader of Hewitt's business performance improvement, cost-cutting and layoffs are amongst the biggest concerns of companies today. He urges struggling firms to change the way people are organised, utilised and managed.
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| April 14, 2009 | | 'We made a rational bid which we can defend'
For Tech Mahindra, the successful bidder for Satyam Computer Services, it was "a game-changing day," according to Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman & MD of Mahindra & Mahindra.
'Satyam is a very valuable company'
The board -- which includes, Kiran Karnik, T N Manoharan, former chief, ICAI, and HDFC chief Deepak Parekh, appeared relieved after a marathon run of selecting a bidder for the scam-tainted firm.
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| April 09, 2009 | | 'This is the worst crisis in our lifetime'
"The credit turmoil that the world is seeing now is clearly the worst in history," says Habil Khorakiwala, executive chairman, Wockhardt. He should know, as his company finds itself in trouble over a Rs 3,400 crore debt burden.
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| March 30, 2009 | | 'Outsourcing industry is here to stay'
Countries that adapt to change and are on the cutting edge of IT innovation will come out of the recession stronger than before. Any number of countries could emerge stronger but that's up to their governmental leadership and the strength of their IT industry.
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| March 26, 2009 | | 'India, not US, will lead global economic recovery'
Sheeroy Desai, CEO of PAC, was in India recently. In an interview to rediff.com, he made some interesting observations on the recent recession and its impending recovery.
'Good time to execute large infrastructure projects'
Lalit Jalan, the younger Ambani's Wharton classmate and CEO of R-Infra, tells Nevin John that the company will put in Rs 2,800 crore (Rs 28 billion) over the next three years as equity in various projects.
'The slowdown won't affect good talent'
'The demand is not there for those who are not following industry standards. And this is true for the 10 per cent of employees who are now being asked to leave. It is a good course correction from the long-term perspective for the industry,' Ninad Karpe, CEO and MD, Aptech.
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| March 24, 2009 | | How Arvind Brands plans to tide over the crisis
After much speculation and dithering, Ahmedabad-based garments giant Arvind Limited recently spun off its brands and retail business in an effort to realise valuation and raise funds for aggressive expansion.
'Loan demand has improved in fourth quarter'
"We are already restructuring viable accounts, which are facing temporary cash flow problems," says S Sridhar, Chairman & MD, Central Bank of India.
'A very sad day for West Bengal'
'The land is partly with the government, partly with the company. In the changed economic scenario, I cannot say how quickly another plant will come up there,' said West Bengal's Industry Minister Nirupam Sen.
'We don't bother about Nano or No-No'
'We are bothered about the people's problems. The government forcefully and illegally occupied the land at Singur -- that's why we opposed the forceful occupation of the land,' said firebrand political leader Mamata Banerjee, who forced the Nano project to move out of Singur.
'It has been a nightmare getting the Nano out'
Among other things, Ratan Tata also said, 'All I can say at the moment is that the project is highly profitable. After all, I am not doing it for philanthropy.'
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| March 23, 2009 | | 'Recession is a time to build brand equity'
During recession, consumers tend to vouch for safer choices, and that is where Nokia can build its brand during the downturn, says D Shivakumar, MD and VP-markets, Nokia India.
'There is room for plenty of new players'
'The idea of modern retail is to drive consumption and grow the economy. If international retailers can do that and add new categories, why not?' asks Kishore Bayani of the Future Group.
'EPF: The more subscribers the better'
K Chandramouli, commissioner, Employees Provident Fund, tells Business Standard's Sreelatha Menon that expansion of the fund will make it sustainable.
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| March 20, 2009 | | 'We've just won the Volkswagen order'
Apollo Tyre's vice-chairman and joint managing director Neeraj R S Kanwar speaks about the company's global foray and its plans to compete with global majors who're slowly increasing their share of the local market as well
'No need to cut jobs in India'
Given the economic slowdown, Masaru Tamagawa, managing director, Sony India, believes India will be better suited to help Sony meet its worldwide target.
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| March 18, 2009 | | 'High fiscal deficit, biggest risk to India'
Anjalika Bardalai, senior economist and editor at Economist Intelligence Unit says fiscal deficit is the biggest downside risk to India's growth story.
'Employee referrals have worked for us'
"We have never done much lateral hiring since we promote from within the company. Given the GE legacy, Genpact has always believed in performance appraisals. This period is no different," says V N Tyagarajan, COO, Genpact.
'We've got to get more investment from India'
Last month, Industry Minister Tony Clement became the fourth Canadian federal minister to visit India this year. His main mission was, he told Rediff India Abroad's Ajit Jain in an exclusive interview, to "encourage foreign direct investment by Indian entrepreneurs and companies into Canada" and also to woo Indian tourists to Canada.
'We're looking for firms that can survive the crisis'
We look at strong companies. We tell them to conserve liquidity and conserve cash so that they can survive this period of downturn and come out stronger, says Shahzaad Dalal.
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| March 17, 2009 | | 'Buying Satyam will catapult us into a different league'
"Satyam will give us the scale. This will make us stronger," says Phaneesh Murthy, CEO of the Freemont (California)-based IT services provider, iGate Corporation, and one of the suitors of the beleaguered IT corporation.
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| March 16, 2009 | | 'In a recession, governments have to spend'
'If money is spent on good projects, then it is explainable, especially in deflationary circumstances. To boost demand, there is a need to increase spending,' Justin Yifu Lin, chief economist, World Bank.
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| March 13, 2009 | | 'Pay Commission hikes are not productive'
Pradip Shah, the forthright chairman of IndAsia Fund says government spending should have targeted infrastructure such as roads and power projects so that productive assets would have been created and at the same time it would have provided a living for low-income labourers and less-qualified people. 'They, in turn, would have spent the money on essentials and some long-term assets for themselves,' he says.
'In India, mega projects face initial hurdles'
'In India, mega projects in any sector face initial hurdles. That's a reality for all companies or sectors. We need to have the tenacity and perseverance, which we have,' says Koushik Chatterjee, CFO, Tata Steel.
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| March 09, 2009 | | MphasiS CEO on the company's growth strategy
MphasiS, the IT and business process outsourcing service provider, has seen some changes in recent years. First, the Bangalore-based company promoted by Jerry Rao was acquired by EDS. Then, HP acquired EDS last year.
'West Bengal still among top investment destinations'
At ground level, Trinamool leaders are quite reasonable and supportive. But TC is such a party where opinions of the grassroot-level people don't matter. The party has decided to oppose whatever development work we undertake, says
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| March 03, 2009 | | 'Building a startup is a marathon, not a sprint'
At the EmTech India 2009 Conference in New Delhi, Sanjay Swamy, CEO of mChek, spoke about mobile bill payment technology, his participation at the IT conclave, his journey as an entrepreneur, global downturn and other issues.
Of Dimagi and smart healthcare
Dimagi is a dedicated group of clinicians and programmers looking for ways to improve the quality of life and the quality of care across the globe. Dimagi has led development on SmartCare, the electronic national medical record system in Zambia.
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| March 02, 2009 | | 'Economy will return to trend growth rate after 2009-10'
Putting forward the government's view on the high level of fiscal deficit, Arvind Virmani, chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, claims the 6 per cent deficit is reversible.
'Nimbus' market share expected to grow by 50%'
Harish Thawani, Nimbus Communications' flamboyant CEO, wants to take the Neo sports channel to such new markets as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia Europe and North America. The aim, he says, is to achieve an over 50 per cent growth in market share next financial year.
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