States want AI to fly new routes between cities
Several State governments have asked Air India to look at launching virgin routes connecting different cities. These governments have also asked the airline to consider connecting their States with others, and begin routes from their cities to new global destinations. “Nagpur-Nashik, Raipur-Kolkata, Kolkata-Indore-Jabalpur, Kolkata-Raipur-Indore-Ahmedabad, Chandigarh-Dubai, Kolkata-Ahmedabad and connecting Andaman to Singapore and Bangkok are virgin routes, and were requested for in the meeting that we had with representatives of 16 States,” said Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India. The meeting was held here on Wednesday at the initiative of Air India as it looks to lease more small aircraft as part of plans to enhance its fleet to 100 aircraft in the next four years. The airline plans to lease the smaller propeller-driven ATR aircraft to enhance regional air connectivity that some States have requested. At the meeting, Karnataka requested the airline to look at connecting Mysore to Bengaluru, Puducherry and Goa, apart from connecting Chennai and Hubballi. State government officials pointed to the huge tourist interest in these cities to push their case. Lohani said the States were willing to provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) or their own funds so that the State-owned carrier does not operate these flights at a loss. “We will not require VGF for all the flights as potential does exist for many of the routes suggested. But where VGF is required, the States are willing to provide us funding,” he said. Andaman also requested that an ATR aircraft be stationed there so that it could be used to operate flights between the various islands which make up the Union Territory. Terron Armstead Womens Jersey
Jet Airways back in black in FY16
Riding on reduced expenses, Jet Airways has posted a profit of ?397 crore on a standalone basis for the quarter ended March 31, against a loss of ?1,728 crore in the comparable quarter of the previous year Income from operations increased 4 per cent to ?4,842 crore (?4,626 crore). For FY16, net profit was ?1,173 crore against a loss of ?1,813 crore in the previous year. Income from operations stood at ?19,556 crore (?18,044 crore). The company in a media statement said that the cost per available seat kilometre (CASK) excluding fuel dropped 3.2 per cent, which helped achieve operational efficiencies throughout its business. The better financial performance has enabled the company to reduce its debt by ?1,680 crore during FY16. Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal said in a statement that the airline has been revitalised over the past two years. The company’s focused efforts have resulted in significant improvement in operational performance. The Indian aviation industry is witnessing a growth phase but the competitive and structural challenges in the domestic market continue to exist. The induction of capacity and the enhanced competitive scenario are creating a constant pressure on yields, he added. John Greco Authentic Jersey
Air India to achieve fiscal targets two years in advance?
Air India hopes to report an operating profit in FY 2015-16, two years earlier than what had been envisaged in the original Turnaround Plan (TAP) approved by the Centre in April 2012. The airline has also advanced its projections for reporting a cash profit to 2017-18 from 2019-20, and hopes to report a profit after tax (PAT) in 2018-19, two years earlier than what was envisaged earlier in TAP (2021-22). While the operating profit is likely to be in the region of ?8 crore, sources indicated it would not be possible to share the other profit figures as these may change. The revised TAP and actual performance vis-a-vis TAP for the state-owned carrier were reviewed by its Board at its meeting here last week. During 2015-16, the airline’s yields were higher at ?5.02 in the domestic sector and ?3.66 in the international sectors than what had been laid down in the TAP. The Board asked the airline to work on increasing yields by 2-3 per cent annually, starting from fiscal year 2017 onwards. The revised TAP envisages an addition of 43 new aircraft between 2016-17 and 2019-20, apart from 12 wide body aircraft that would comprise six 787, three 777-300 Extended Range, and another three aircraft on dry lease. While the induction of the wide body aircraft will be substantially from the order placed by the airline with Boeing in 2005, the narrow body aircraft will be leased from the market. The airline is also planning to add 18 Boeing 737-800 and 35 ATRs in its subsidiary companies on dry lease. The acquisition plan envisages a net addition (after phase out) of 100 aircraft for AI and its subsidiary companies, to increase its market and capacity share both in the domestic and international markets. “The fact that global crude prices are down, the airline’s operating efficiencies have improved, and passenger loads are better than what was envisaged in TAP – have all helped advance the target date for achieving the financial goals, than what was earlier envisaged,” said a senior airline official, who wished not to be named. Besides, the decision to hive off the Air Transport Services Limited (AITSL) and Air India Charters Limited (AICL) has also paid dividends for Air India. AITSL, which provides ground handling services at airports around the country, reported a PAT of ?100 crore in 2014-15 and contributed ?62 crore to AI’s revenues. AICL is an Air India subsidiary that operates Air India Express. AI Express has a revenue share agreement with AI, which earned the parent ?325 crore in revenue, in 2014-15. The Board also noted that while Air India’s ‘On Time Performance’ on a network wide basis at 78.4 per cent was lower than the TAP target of 90 per cent, it was in line with what Star Alliance members were able to achieve. The airline was able to report a better passenger load factor of 75 per cent on its network during 2015-16, higher than the TAP target of 73 per cent. The domestic load factor was even higher at 79.8 per cent. The revised TAP has reset the target at 85 per cent on domestic routes and 80 per cent on international routes going forward. Jacques Plante Womens Jersey
ONGC Q4 profit jumps 12%
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s fourth quarter profit jumped 12% mainly on reversal of impairment loss as well as lower provisioning for dry wells. The state-run oil and gas producer’s profit rose to Rs 44.16 billion in three months to March despite a 24% contraction in revenue that slid to Rs 164.24 billion due to a sharp fall in oil prices. The company realized a net crude oil price of Rs 2354 ($34.88) per barrel in the quarter compared with Rs 3,463 ($55.63) a year ago. The fourth quarter profit was primarily driven by write backs of some impairment losses taken last quarter, lower provisioning for dry wells and the government taking over the burden of oil price discounts ONGC had provided to fuel retailers in the first half of 2015-16, A K Srinivasan, director (finance) said. ONGC wrote back about Rs 8.50 billion of impairment losses it took in the previous quarter as oil prices rebounded, boosting the value of the company’s assets. The company has used a crude oil price range of $40-54/barrel for valuing its assets for the purpose of impairment. The provision for dry wells was lower by Rs 6 billion while the government decision to take over most of ONGC’s oil subsidy burden for 2015-16 boosted quarterly profit by Rs 3.50 billion. An impairment of Rs 30 billion also swung ONGC’s overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, to a loss of Rs 20.94 billion for 2015-16, chairman Dinesh Sarraf said. This was probably the first loss for ONGC Videsh in a decade, Sarraf said. Sarraf declined comment on whether ONGC was in talks to acquire Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) or its key project in the KG basin off the eastern coast. ONGC currently has a cash reserve of Rs 140 billion. Sarraf said the company would evaluate marginal fields’ data and bid in the auction that was launched on Thursday. Most of 67 marginal fields were discovered by ONGC but not developed for years, prompting the government to take over these fields and put up for auction. Glen Rice Authentic Jersey
LNG Deals: India, Qatar Made For Each Other
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is slated to become a commodity in the coming ten years with multiple sources and FOB prices converging. India needs LNG in large quantities to fuel its economy and its success depends on how it negotiates the deals. India has botched up negotiations on long-term supply contracts for LNG with such alarming regularity that it raises serious questions about its negotiators ability to read and anticipate trends in the volatile world of oil and gas. Is it just a case of bad luck, or are there integrity issues involved as well, given the consistency with which the Indians have ended up on the wrong side of a long-term LNG contract every single time? One reason is certainly because the country’s so-called “energy experts” who negotiated the deals were mostly bureaucrats who had no knowledge of the LNG business. The business executives who were associated with the negotiations were equally unfamiliar with the intricacies of the relatively new LNG trade. Moreover, Indians have never been known to be a tough or shrewd negotiators. Naturally, India bungled in LNG deals at regular intervals. India’s tryst with LNG began in the late 1990s with the creation of Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL). The only company that had any knowledge about the LNG business was the state-owned GAIL, whose management was upset that a business that should have legitimately belonged to it had been forcibly taken away. To rub salt into its wounds, it became one of the four state-owned promoters of PLL. Even though it did not receive primacy among the PLL promoters on the strength of its knowledge base, it did not sulk and sincerely prepared the tender specifications for supply of LNG at the proposed terminal at Dahej in the state of Gujarat. The specifications were so framed that the two offers it got for the tender turned out to be quite attractive. The bidders were Petronas of Malaysia and RasGas of Qatar. PLL accepted the offer of RasGas which offered LNG at a price of $ 4/mmbtu with negligible escalation. However, RasGas soon came up with a crude- linked pricing formula that was deceptively attractive but decidedly risky. In the initial years of the contract, it offered a price that was lower than $ 4 per mmBtu but in later years would be linked to the price of crude. Before accepting the crude-linked formula, the energy experts in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG ) decided to seek expert opinion on the likely price of crude in 2015. Through the international trade division of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the petroleum ministry obtained expert opinion from a London-based petroleum consultant which certified that the crude price in 2015 would be $ 20 a barrel. The deal was signed and included the crude-linked price proviso without setting a floor or a ceiling. The result: the price of RasGas’ LNG last year soared to $ 13-14/mmBtu even as the spot market price crashed to $ 7/mmBtu. In 2009, an official team hurriedly negotiated a deal with Gorgon Project of Australia for the supply of 1.4 million tons per annum of LNG to PLL’s Kochi terminal which turned out to be among the costliest in the world. Four years ago, the then petroleum secretary went on record saying that the delivered cost of Gorgon LNG to Indian consumer would work out to $ 20/mmBtu at the then prevailing crude price. That deal has not yet been renegotiated. P. DasguptaThe third long-term contract was signed by GAIL for a total quantity of 5.8 million tons per annum with two US companies. That deal is also in trouble as it is indexed to the Henry Hub price. According to International Energy Association (IEA), the Henry Hub price, which is around $ 2.5/mmbtu now, is expected to rise go to $ 3.50 in 2017. This will effectively push up the cost of GAIL’s US LNG to $ 9.5/mmbtu. The 25-year contract with RasGas for 7.5 million tons per annum of LNG was on the verge of collapse. GAIL, which marketed 60 per cent of the imported LNG, refused to lift the promised quantity. RasGas had no option but to renegotiate. True to form, India once again botched up the renegotiation. The LNG price now stands lowered because the crude price is low. If the crude price rises to the previous level, the price of LNG from RasGas will go up accordingly. The renegotiated deal has saved the contract from collapse. Both sides heaved a sigh of relief but this can only be temporary situation. International energy experts acknowledge that the chapter can be reopened if India plays its cards well. There is still time to do it. Qatar is the largest LNG producer in the world with an annual production capacity of 77 million tons. It had ramped up capacity to cater to the US market. But it has now run into trouble as the US itself has emerged as a significant LNG exporter amid a boom in shale gas production. Europe prefers to depend on the piped Russian gas. Demand in China has slowed down sharply and Japan threatens to go back to coal. India is the only economy which is growing which will need more and more LNG to fuel its growth. Qatar needs India desperately to sell its LNG. Equally, India will benefit from sourcing gas from Qatar because of its proximity which reduces transportation costs significantly. Experts say it will be a mutually beneficial arrangement if India can negotiate a comprehensive deal to source LNG from Qatar. This can cover the existing contract as well. A contract that is linked to the price of crude need not be dangerous if the proviso provides for a floor and ceiling price for the linkage mechanism. This will give both the buyer and the seller some comfort in terms of a more or less stable price regime for LNG. This is always done when an LNG contract is negotiated. But
Pay hikes slide from up to 40% to almost nothing at startups
Things have altered quite perceptibly in a year’s time for the ever-changing startup ecosystem. From doling out 30-40% increments to top performers just a year ago to giving minimal or no increments, new-age internet companies have come a full circle as they battle a funding crunch and pressure to monetize their businesses. TOI has learnt that food-discovery and ordering platform Zomato told its employees last month that it may freeze increments for the year 2016, amid mounting pressure to rationalize its operations. Others like mobile advertising startup InMobi have delayed their appraisal cycle while biggies like Flipkart and Snapdeal are being extremely conservative in giving hikes this year. Flush with funds, India’s startup superstars flashing billion-dollar-plus valuation tags lured young talent, offering them fat salaries and increments. But in the past six-eight months, investor sentiment turned globally, affecting the environment here. “A few months ago, Zomato asked its employees to take a pay cut in lieu of Esops. Post that, they informed employees about no increments for this year. All this is to cut wage costs at a time when their losses are shooting up,” said a person privy to the developments at the company. Valued at $1 billion, Zomato said in an emailed response to TOI, “We were prudent in how we did increments last quarter. We spoke to our teams and were very transparent with them about this decision. Our people are here for the long term, and understand the reasoning behind it. To add to this, we have not seen any attrition on account of this.” Gurgaon-based Zomato saw its revenues double to Rs 185 crore for financial year 2015-16 compared to the year before while its losses rose 262% to Rs 492 crore, the company’s largest shareholder InfoEdge said in its annual results filings to the BSE. Deepinder Goyal, its founder, said the company had cut its operating costs from $9 million to $1.7 million by shuttering operations in countries like the US and the UK. “This was somewhat expected. Most of the leading internet startups handed out an average of 20% hike last year when adequate funds were available. That 20% has come down to less than 5% across the leading e-commerce firms,” said Kris Lakshmikanth, CMD at Head Hunters India. “This had happened post the 1999-2000 dotcom bust and during the IT slowdown in 2008-09. It’s the same situation with these e-commerce companies now as most of them have not raised fresh capital but had gone ahead with aggressive hiring last year,” he said. Flipkart and Zomato have led from the front in hiring talent. A Snapdeal spokesperson had said last year that the average hike at the company was 20%. Flipkart did not comment when asked about their annual increments. Besides attractive hikes, these companies offered Esops as another way of getting on board talent, not only from India but also from Silicon Valley. Flipkart, Zomato and Snapdeal went on a tear and hired product and engineering heads from Google, Facebook, and other tech giants. In the past few months though, a string of high-profile and expensive hires have left, including Flipkart’s chief product officer Punit Soni and Snapdeal’s product head Anand Chandrasekaran. JuJu Smith-Schuster Womens Jersey
Give sops to multi-brand retailers investing 20% in agriculture: Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is pushing hard for incentives for multi-brand retailers who promise to make 20% of their investments in farm infrastructure. In an interview with ET’s Himangshu Watts and Madhvi Sally, Badal also said she wants to put her ministry on “auto-pilot” with an empowered new body. Edited excerpts: How have the first two years been, and what lies ahead? I came into a ministry which I think was paralysed, dysfunctional (and) starved for funds. There were lots of payments piled up from the previous years which had to be cleared. So, the first year went in just setting the house in order. It was only in the second year that we actually got to work on the ground. Now we are going to see the results of the work done. It’s also probably a time to see the fruits of the work done begin to flourish and also to see what is ahead after that. On the one side we are pushing for projects, trying to bring tieups, FDI in multi-brand retail, open up the markets. Another point of focus is to look at value addition for farmers to supplement their income. Also one starts thinking about whether there has to be an authority to map all this together, so it goes on an autopilot mode in the coming years. The roadmap is set so that wherever shortcomings are, there is an overarching authority to look at it…no matter who is the minister and who is the government. So, it will be a new authority all together? I am thinking about it. It will look at all the shortcomings throughout the country, be it in the cold chain, cold storage, in processing parks, cluster scheme… Any other thing connected with food processing from what needs to be grown, processed, etc. will be looked by the authority. Looking at the shortcomings of the earlier schemes I realised we were either creating humongous infrastructures like food parks of 50 acres…(or) cold chains. There was nothing in between. So we need a body which starts planning what after that. I am mulling over that now. Read more at: Allow multi-brand food retail stores to sell soaps, shampoos: Harsimrat Kaur Badal Will this authority also monitor projects? The ministry will continue to do the monitoring. Over the past one year I have tried to ensure that everything is online. It has something to do with ease of doing business, for which I got the maximum resistance in my ministry. I managed to push it through and I hope that in the completion of two years I will launch it. So all interface will be removed. All applications coming, all grants going, all papers which are required to get grant…it’s all going to be online. It will start with all the mega food parks and then extend to other schemes. This will eliminate corruption and can be easily monitored. On the click of a button I will know what paper has been filed, how long it has taken for my ministry to clear the project…it can be all seen online. What kind of resistance did you face on going online? Typical. I got to know why my food parks were getting delayed when promoters came to me saying that they had applied for grant three months ago, but there has been no response from my ministry. So now when a company wants a grant, it will have to upload the papers and once it’s uploaded, then it’s received. Officials will be given a set period to check the papers. This project will be launched soon. I am aiming that at the end of my five years in the ministry the level of food processing in the country should improve from 10% to close to 20%. What progress has been made in allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail? The policy is yet to come and I am still waiting for it to happen. I floated the policy but unfortunately it is made by the commerce ministry. FDI is something which they decide. So after having stakeholders’ meeting, I have given my suggestions, but it is now a different ministry which has to come up with the guidelines. Have they indicated when it will come? In the last couple of cabinet meetings it was heard that it was coming, but it didn’t come. Why I envisioned this entire thing of bringing in multi-brand was that it should create infrastructure at farmers’ level. This was something that was missing. It was not my aim to ensure that our people open their wallets to the multinationals who would have become richer themselves. My aim was to use videshi paisa to help our swadeshi farmer for creation of swadeshi infrastructure. That was my whole aim. I was very categorical that certain percentage of FDI that was coming in should be mandatory for creating infrastructure at farm level. After talking to all stakeholders and foreign cos, they said that they had no issue, as in food retail they would anyway have to do that. I think the commerce ministry probably just thought let’s bring in a policy that will be very popular as it will have no riders. This is what I have written and I am pushing for… I am very clear that if the policy doesn’t help our farmers and if it’s middlemen…and multinationals that become richer, then we have defeated the whole purpose of bringing in a policy. What all do you want in this policy? Minimum of 20% of your FDI should be at your farm gate level. It can be forcreation of primary processing, cold storage or even for upgrading agriculture meaning modern technology, seed, ways of doing farming…anything which impacts farmers. Western countries are so scientific. They tell you the time you need to do planting, how many millimetres apart, how much water, drip irrigation, what to grow in between…. We are still stuck up in wheat,
High-level committee of Karnataka clears investment proposal of Biocon and PepsiCo
The high-level committee on industrial investments, headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on Wednesday cleared the proposed investments of Biocon in Bengaluru and PepsiCo India in Mysuru. Biocon sought to invest Rs 1,060 crore in an injectable monoclonal antibodies and OSD production unit at Jigani in Anekal taluk of Bengaluru Urban district. The project, according to the company, will create 750 new jobs. “We made this proposal around the time of the global investors meet, and things seem to be happening in an expeditious manner. The project will come up in about 18 months,” Biocon Chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw told ET. The government, she said, is keen on promoting approvals. PepsiCo India has proposed an investment of Rs 590 crore in the chief minister’s native district of Mysuru. It plans to set up a unit to make beverages and snacks at Adakanahalli industrial area in Nanjangud taluk. The project promises to create 900 new jobs. The developers of Manyata Tech park have proposed a big ticket expansion at its property spread across Nagawara, Rachenahalli and Thanisandra areas, off the outer ring road. The committee approved the proposal to invest Rs 561 crore, which the company said will create 7,170 new jobs. According to the proposal, the developer will build infrastructure such as a new IT park, hotel, convention centre, retail malls and commercial space in the 125 acres, allotted to it by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB). In all, the committee approved investment proposals worth Rs 1,621 crore for Bengaluru andRs 590 crore for Mysuru. The IT/BT sector got the highest number of proposals worth Rs 1,621 crore. Charles Clay Womens Jersey
Joining delay: Amazon, Paytm keen on hiring graduates who got offers from Flipkart
Flipkart’s loss may well turn out to be a gain for other ecommerce companies. Rival Amazon and Paytm are among companies that are keen on hiring the B-school graduates who were offered jobs by Flipkart but were later told to wait until December to join and not in June as was promised. Amazon, Paytm and other companies such as fashion marketplace app Voonik have been in touch with top business schools even as Flipkart continues to maintain its stance of not shortening the deferment period or increasing compensation for the students as sought by the institutes. Meanwhile, the students who got offers from Flipkart are looking for other options as most don’t want to wait until December, said placement sources at the B-schools. “We are very much open to hiring these guys,” Amazon HR head Raj Raghavan told ET, while adding that the American ecommerce major is on track with its own campus hiring. “From our side, we are honouring all the offers we made, onboarding people as per plan and are happy to look at these CVs,” Raghavan said. “These are all campuses we have relationships with.” Amit Sinha, HR head at Paytm, said campuses reached out to it and since it is growing at a fast clip, “we took the opportunity to review the candidates who may have received deferred joining dates and are keen to join Paytm”. This year, Paytm hired in two batches of 25 students each and most of its campus hires from IIM, XLRI and Indian School of Business have already joined. “We have positions open for another 40-50 people across commerce, events, bank, etc who can join as soon as August beginning, basically one month after selection,” said Sinha. Apart from the IIMs, MDI Gurgaon placements chairperson Kanwal Kapil also said Paytm had contacted the school. Companies from other sectors too have shown willingness in taking on board these students as the institutes swung into action to help them. Four IIMs Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Lucknow confirmed to ET that they have reached out to their recruiter base to line up alternative jobs for those affected. Flipkart made offers to 45 students on these four IIM campuses: 18 at Ahmedabad, 11 at Bangalore, nine at Calcutta and seven at Indore. “All our students who had offers from Flipkart told us that they want to consider alternative jobs,” said Sapna Agarwal, head of career development services at IIM-Bangalore. “Right now, they are our primary concern.” IIM-Ahmedabad’s placement committee chairperson, Asha Kaul, who had dashed off a letter to Flipkart on the joining date deferment issue on Monday, confirmed this. “We have reached out to recruiters and have companies contacting us as well,” she said. At IIM-Lucknow, campus coordinator Rishabh Gupta said Amazon and Voonik had reached out to the institute, along with companies from other sectors. IIM-Indore said though candidates haven’t actively started looking out yet, they too have received an email from Voonik stating that the company has openings. Sujayath Ali, cofounder and CEO at Voonik, confirmed its interest. “We have been approaching students. We have told them that while it’s okay if they want to wait for Flipkart, we have openings as well. Afew have already expressed interest in our offers,” he said. Though Flipkart has provided assurance that it will honour its job offers in December, campus sources said many students would prefer not to wait if they got something good in the interim. “I think Flipkart is hoping that the six-month deferral period will lead to some students dropping out on their own,” said a placement team member at a top IIM. “Right now, their focus on trimming costs and containing burn rate is more important to them than reputation management.” Paul Richardson Authentic Jersey
Snapdeal plans to scale down operations in regional offices
Online marketplace Snapdeal plans to scale down operations in its regional offices including Bangalore, Mumbai, Calcutta and Hyderabad, according to multiple people within the company. The Delhi-based company–which launched a performance improvement plan for certain employees in February– may even shut down a few offices in the next six months, if Snapdeal doesn’t raise a fresh funding round, the sources said. “The accounts and vendor management teams in Bangalore have already been cut to about 45 people from 85 people a year ago,” said one of the people quoted above. “The focus has moved to the ads business,” the person said. Category managers, account management executives and seller onboarding team managers who spoke to ET on condition of anonymity said few employees have been asked to relocate to Snapdeal’s head office in Delhi, prompting them to resign. “In some cases (employees) have even been given severance packages for two months,” said one senior executive directly involved in the retrenchment plans. In February, ET reported that Snapdeal has placed around 200 employees on notice. These employees had been asked to undergo a 30-day performance improvement plan (PIP). Most opted out as the demands of the company’s performance improvement plan were almost impossible to meet said those aware of the developments within the company. A spokeswoman for Snapdeal denied reports of any scaling down regional operations. “We are relocating all our NCR-based team members to our Gurgaon campus, as the lease on other smaller NCR based locations comes to an end. The capacity in the Gurgaon campus has been designed accordingly,” in an email response to a questionnaire from ET. “Any team members choosing to leave for their individual reasons receive all payments due to them per their employment contract,” she wrote in the statement. Backed by Japan’s SoftBank, Snapdeal is engaged in a battle with two major competitors– Flipkart and Amazon– for market share in India’s competitive online retail market. In April, ET, citing industry estimates reported that Amazon was India’s second-largest online marketplace by shipments dislodging Snapdeal. According to Shreedhar Prasad, Partner – Management Consulting, KPMG, “E-commerce players are still trying to figure out the right metric to hire. Since it is a relatively new concept, they are still learning the art, which is adding to their profitability concern.” Jersey