NMC plan to procure German machine to asphalt roads even during rains
The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), in order to overcome the nagging handicap in asphalting roads during rainy season. Now, the local body is planning to procure micro surfacing road asphalting technology machine which can asphalt the road even in rainy season. Such asphalted roads withstand the accumulation of water. NMC will be the first civic body in Maharashtra if it deploys the machine. The only authority engaging the machine is National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for repairing national highways for last six years. City-based Anjani Logistics, operator of road jetpatcher, gave a demo of the machine a couple of days ago by asphalting a 100 metre stretch on RPTS Road between Surendra Nagar and Ajni Square. Mayor Pravin Datke, Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar, Chief Engineer Ulhas Debadwar and other engineers from NMC witnessed the demo. Debadwar said the machine can be beneficial for NMC in various manners. It is also a cold mix technology. The best part is that polymer is used in it. Hot mix tar is destroyed when water accumulates on it. Polymer prevents seepage of water into the road. Therefore, life of road increases with this technology, he said and added the machine can be useful in case NMC borrows it and operates it on its own. Narendra Jichkar of Anjani Logistics said the cost of road asphalting reduces by 50% in the technology. “Hot mix tar costs 400 per sq m while micro surfacing costs only 200 per sq m. Layer of 40-50mm is laid in hot mix while only 4-6mm is laid in micro surfacing. It saves cost and also nature, since lesser material is required, and also does not result in increase in the height of roads,” he said. The machine is from Germany and costs around Rs 3.50 crore. Another issue is that the adhesive used in the technology is available only in Germany. Tre Madden Authentic Jersey
No diesel cess plan, but car makers must think electric: Gadkari
Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the government had no plans to levy a cess on diesel, adding that levy of any kind is a legislative decision and the right of the government, not the judiciary. It may be recalled that the Supreme Court in December 2015 had banned registration of diesel vehicles with over 2000 cc engines in the National Capital Region. In May, the apex court said it could modify its order banning the registration of luxury vehicles but it could impose a small environment cess. Gadkari was speaking at the Auto CEO Summit hosted by CNBC-TV18. “Our interest is to create new technology and give more opportunity to manufacturers to create maximum….I am always trying to convince them why you are not going for electric,” he said, adding that the auto industry needed to take a bold bet on electric cars. Gadkari said the auto sector must step up its research on electric vehicles, and find ways to bring down the cost of an electric vehicle on par with diesel and petrol vehicles. “Their (auto makers’) problem is: we are ready to manufacture it and reduce the cost, but what will be the demand,” Gadkari said. His view was that there will be takers for new technology which is pollution free and cost effective. Once prices came down, demand would increase, he said. Gadkari said the government would try to give subsidies to encourage production of electric cars, but there will always be limitations on how much subsidy could be given. He said the government had no plans to disincentivise use of diesel for now. “For the future, we can make the policy for diesel vehicles that the judiciary and society is making from us,” Gadkari said, adding “But if we take a decision immediately, what will happen to industry, employment.” Speaking at the event, Pawan Goenka of Mahindra and Mahindra said it was essential to have a automobile policy which did not change every now and then. RC Bhargava of Maruti said a continued dialogue between the government and auto industry was important for the growth of the sector and that there must be a scientific method in order to overcome the problem of pollution. Gadkari said that his ministry had submitted the vehicle scrapping policy to the Finance Ministry. The proposed ‘Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Plan’ provides incentives worth 8-12 percent of the cost of a new vehicle against the surrender of the old vehicles. Through the policy, the government aims to get around 28 million 11-year old vehicles off the road, which will create fresh demand for the industry as well as reduce pollution. Timothy Liljegren Jersey
Over ₹5-lakh cr locked up in infra sector disputes: Srei Infra’s Hemant Kanoria
The infrastructure sector is yet to get back on the growth path. The Government needs to sort out some of the major issues such as liquidity and project delays, Hemant Kanoria, Chairman and Managing Director of Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd, said. While the Government has addressed most of the concerns of the road sector over the past two years, public, private partnership (PPP) projects, which play a crucial role in the growth of the country’s infrastructure, have not gathered pace. The Government needs to revive investor and developer interest in PPP projects, he said. Speaking at Indian School of Business here, Kanoria said, “More than ?5,00,000 crore is locked up in disputes relating to infrastructure. While there have been efforts to bring about changes in various arbitration clauses, the Infrastructure Disputes Redressal Tribunal could make a big difference.” “While all the players in the infrastructure sector are facing liquidity concerns, imagine the impact of such a huge amount being unlocked. Even if there is half of what is disputed, it could be a major boon to the sector,” Kanoria told BusinessLine. Referring to the road sector where there was a huge interest in the past, he said developers, of late, have become wary of taking up PPP mode projects due to uncertainty and possible delays. Instead they are focussing on EPC contract with assured returns. Kanoria said, “The power sector, which has been a major thrust area for the Government over the past two decades, continues to face problems of fuel supplies, both coal and gas. A number of projects are stranded and funds locked. While some concerns have been addressed, the free power model for agriculture is something that requires a fresh look.” On the black money declaration drive, he said instead of the Government asking people to pay up 45 per cent upfront, it could have considered another model where infrastructure or agriculture bonds are issued with the funds thus declared. In return, they can be issued 10-year bonds with no returns for five years. Pavel Bure Womens Jersey
Paytm to pump Rs 350cr into payments bank
Digital payments and commerce platform Paytm is infusing Rs 350 crore in its payments bank arm, which is looking to start operations by Diwali this year, a company executive said. The capital will be primarily utilised to build the platform’s technology infrastructure and physical branch presence in rural areas, chief executive of Paytm’s payments bank Shinjini Kumar told TOI. “Our plans show this initial capital is adequate for rolling out a payments bank as we are not looking to open too many branches in one go. We have got separate solutions to address urban and rural consumers as both have different sets of challenges,” Kumar said. Paytm has already entered into an agreement with Infosys to use its Finacle platform for the payments bank. According to Kumar, the company is working on partnerships with financial service providers as it plans to sell financial products such as insurance and mutual funds to consumers of its payments bank. Paytm’s payments bank launch has been delayed multiple times, but Kumar said a Diwali start is likely. For Paytm, selling the financial products would be critical and a key revenue steam as payments banks cannot lend money and earn interest on it. Leading industry players like Tech Mahindra, IDFC Bank and businessman Dilip Shanghvi dropped out of the race to open payments banks recently. Sources in Paytm said that with internet connectivity not being the best in rural areas, the company plans to come up with an instrument similar to debit cards with which an account holder can withdraw cash at ATMs. A person aware of the plan said, “We can’t expect an overnight change in behaviour in tier III or IV towns, especially when internet infrastructure still needs a lot of improvement. We are talking to banks and ATM providers to integrate the service for people to withdraw cash.” Kumar said, “Paytm’s existing O2O (offline-to- online) footprint will be quite important for us as users can pay for their purchases using the payments bank’s money. This is why the company is aggressively adding offline merchants in these areas on our payments platform.” Rickey Henderson Jersey
Why many Indians startups have not been successful at retaining senior talent
He had been a senior executive at Hindustan Unilever before he joined the six-year-old startup as chief financial officer. Then, in 13 months, he quit. Apparently because it wasn’t how any company should be operating. The finance professional poured out his frustration at the exit interview. Every day, the former CFO said, the three promoters would think up new ideas, many of which would be scrapped in the coming weeks or days and be replaced by other new ideas. He complained that he couldn’t get an edge in for his opinions and findings. Another senior hire at a startup complained in his exit interview that he had become unsure about who the company’s actual chief executive was. The designated CEO would give an instruction and the company would begin moving in that direction. But shortly after, the other promoter would say ‘no, this is not how it should be done’ and change or reverse course. “It was not as if the promoters were fighting among themselves but this was how they worked,” he had said. Given the startup boom in India the past few years, seasoned corporate executives jumped at any chance to get on the bandwagon. Primarily lured by the excitement of doing something great and entrepreneurial and the huge potential to create wealth for themselves from stock options. Recently, though, a string of management-level exits at India’s biggest technology companies has raised a red flag calling attention to their hiring and retention policies, and become the biggest malaise the industry is grappling with. Among the high-profile resignees: Anand Chandrasekaran (who was chief product officer at Snapdeal); Punit Soni (chief technology officer, Flipkart); Tanmay Saksena (chief product officer, Zomato); and Vikas Purohit (senior vice president, Paytm). The magnitude of the problem seems life-threatening to any business. On average, as per industry estimates, employees with corporate pedigrees and at CXO roles in startups last only about a year. “The disenchantment starts setting in after the first five-six months itself,” said Suresh Raina, managing partner at executive search firm Hunt Partners. “Then both parties try to make it work because a lot is at stake, but often it does not work.” While about 80% of the hiring at startups is through referrals, companies say they have specific policies for hiring and retaining people in key roles. At Paytm, the human resources department holds initial talks with a senior candidate as an ice-breaker, which is followed by the company’s senior leadership holding multiple meetings with this person before reaching a decision. Often, the hiring idea is to offer a potential senior hire multiple roles to find their fit. “We don’t want people who have been there, done that, but those who want to come in and are excited to build something new,” said Amit Sinha, vice president-business and people, at Paytm. The biggest retention policy, not counting stock options, is the potential for fast career growth, he said. “A guy who joined a year ago and was handling a business worth a few crore rupees might be handling a business worth hundreds of crores of rupees today. We need people who can scale up to that.” Online classifieds company Quikr, which became a billion-dollar company last year, believes that while functional expertise is a given, chemistry and cultural fit are of greater significance for senior employees. “We have had a few instances wherein people who were extremely well-qualified did not fit in with the company’s culture,” said CEO Pranay Chulet, who is closely involved in such hiring. As a retention policy, Quikr has created a matrix structure with people having dual reporting roles. The seniormost employees are handed responsibilities under business verticals such as C2C or customer-to-customer, cars and homes, as well as under functional heads such as marketing, legal and human resources. Despite these and other measures, there are a few overarching reasons causing the high-profile exits. The biggest factor contributing to executives with corporate backgrounds callingit quits at startups is the complete lack of training on how to cope with the high pressure of a quick results-driven, chaotic work environment. This requires a different sort of personal maturity and professional integrity to survive and perform. “A startup is risky and you are expected to be a contributor from day one. But there is no major orientation period and you don’t get enough time to begin producing results,” said Anand Chandrasekaran, Snapdeal’s former chief product officer who quit in May after a year-long stint. The pressure is “even more so in India where there is so much media attention on these companies. It’s just not possible to just go and do quietly what you are doing as you are under the full glare of competitive dynamics,” he said. Many startups are helmed by young people with little or no experience at being in a job or running a business. And that’s a recipe for a clash of personalities, even if other things are going fine. “Everything else is bearable for me as long as you know that the folks who are driving the company and are the decision-makers have strong values, principles and the ability to keep a stable mind in times of uncertainty,” said Tanmay Saksena, who left Zomato in February after about a year there. “That is essentially the core thing that makes or breaks a startup and binds the folks in a startup especially when times are tough.” Saksena quit Zomato about a month after he was promoted to chief product officer from global business head. He later joined healthcare startup 1mg as chief operating officer. “A lot of times people don’t see light at the end of the tunnelwhether this company will go for IPO or whether I will see a huge upside in terms of variable pay and stock options,” said Shailja Dutt, managing director at leadership hiring-focused search firm Stellar Search. “Rewards that were promised six months or one year later may actually now look like happening three or four years later.” Corrective actions
Snapdeal sees all the deals are in services now
Snapdeal is expanding the list of services offered on its platform, as the online marketplace works on new revenue streams at a time when growth in product sales is slowing across the country’s ecommerce industry. The company, which sees a million service-led transactions a month now on this vertical that it began piloting in March this year, is planning to grow this segment significantly this year by forging partnerships with third-party players. Services is estimated to be a $100-billion industry in India by 2020 and to tap the opportunity, Snapdeal is aggressively ramping up its technology. “We are expanding the scope of Snapdeal from selling products to enabling consumers to buy many more things and build a marketplace for services as well. We aim at providing a seamless experience to consumers so they would not need to log into different apps to avail of different services,” co-founder Rohit Bansal told ET in an interview. “We have always strongly believed and stated that over the next five years, 10% of India’s consumption can move online and with the same vision we moving towards the goal of achieving 20 million daily transacting users by 2020.” Snapdeal, which is aiming to build much higher user engagement with services, had been over the last few months piloting integration of services on its platform in partnerships with companies like Zomato, Urban-Clap, redBus and Cleartrip. These services flight and bus ticket bookings, hotel reservations and food ordering are now fully live on the Snapdeal app. Earlier this year, the company introduced recharges and bill payments on its platform. The move from Snapdeal comes at a time when Snapdeal and Flipkart are under threat from Amazon, which is fast increasing market share. As reported by ET in April, Amazon dislodged Snapdeal to become the second-largest online marketplace by shipments, becoming the only major player to increase its share of shipments in the market from a year ago. While Flipkart’s share of shipments fell to 37% in March from 43% in the same month in 2015 and Snapdeal’s fell to 14-15% from 19%, Amazon India’s unit market share surged to an estimated 21-24% from 14%. “The move to diversify is coming from the desperation to generate more and more revenues since in terms of GMV and other value terms seems to have stalled substantially,” said Arvind Singhal, chairman at retail consultancy Technopak. Adding services on the platform, though makes for astrong business case, may not necessarily work out feasibly for these players since different services businesses such as fin-tech or food ordering need entirely different approaches and expertise. “Although there are global precedents of e-tailers making more money from their core merchandise-led sales, say Amazon making more money from its cloud services than physical goods sales, Alibaba having built a very successful payments business with Alipay and its logistics business, Indian e-tailers are extremely challenged at present since their core business are yet not stable enough for further diversification,” Singhal said. Bansal said it is too early to say how big a revenue contributor services will be to Snapdeal but labelled its efforts on the space as “investments for the future.” “It’s not been tried in India. We are unravelling a lot of things for the first time. We are extremely gung-ho about it and the early traction is very solid but it is too early to project what this number will become,” he said. For Snapdeal, over the last three quarters, the biggest area of investment has been in building up its back-end technology platform to integrate the offerings of multiple service providers on a single app. Teez Tabor Jersey
Apple wants more clarity on sourcing rules before opening retail stores in India
Apple Inc is not rushing to open retail stores in India, despite the government ostensibly relaxing sourcing norms for single-brand retail. The government last month said foreign single-brand retailers can comply with the controversial 30% local sourcing requirements over the first five years of operations, and not from the first year itself, as was originally proposed in the policy. It also said these rules will not apply for the first three years of operations to foreign companies that sold products with ‘cutting-edge’ and ‘stateof-the-art’ technology. When these rules were announced last month, it was perceived that they would benefit Apple. But the Cupertino-based maker of iPhones and iPads does not think so, said two persons familiar with the developments. “There is a certain opaqueness regarding the rules. In addition, the company does not want to commit to complying with local sourcing requirements. It can only start manufacturing in or begin sourcing from India once it attains a certain scale of business which is difficult to estimate right now,” said one of these persons. To begin with, this person said, Apple wants the government to clearly define what it means by ‘cutting-edge’ and ‘state-of-theart’ technology. One arm of the government, the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), had earlier said that Apple met the criteria and should not be subject to local sourcing norms. But the Foreign Investment Promotion Board had refused to grant any exemption as it felt DIPP had not properly defined ‘cutting-edge’ and ‘state-of-theart’ technology. The iPhone-maker does not want a repeat of this confusion. Second, under the original rules, the local sourcing condition was being altogether waived off for companies that were deemed to sell products having ‘cutting-edge’ and ‘state-of-theart’ technology. But the new norms will only result in a threeyear waiver. After that, these firms will have to comply with the provision stipulating that 30% of the average value of goods purchased by them over the subsequent five years be procured locally. After year eight, this local sourcing requirement will have to be met annually. “Actually, the earlier policy was more conducive (for Apple),” said the person quoted earlier. THIRD-PARTY PRODUCTS This person pointed out that Apple sells third-party products in its stores. The company wants clarity on whether the 30% sourcing norm will also apply for the value of third-party products. Apple’s proposed retail initiative in India is being led by Angela Ahrendts, senior vice-president of retail and online stores, who reports to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. A cross-functional team from Cupertino was in India last week to evaluate the new policy and is learnt to have met government officials. The Apple spokesperson did not respond to an email. The Narendra Modi government, which is vigorously pursuing foreign investors, is keen that Apple set up manufacturing facilities in the country. The iPhonemaker does not plan to manufacture in India as of now, but is keen to open retail stores. Cook, during his recent India visit, had told his local team how company-owned stores are vital for Apple’s longterm plans in the country. But the company does not want to commit to sourcing obligations. “Apple ideally wants ‘noconditions-attached’ FDI approval from the government. It has plans to expand operations in India and invest more in the country, including manufacturing or assembling at a later stage. But it does not want to agree to any conditions, since a lot will depend on how sales actually pick up in India,” said the second person. Apple also wanted to sell company-certified pre-owned iPhones in India, which would have lowered its entry price point. But the government indicated that it was not in favour of the proposal. Apple was ready to commence assembling activities in India by refurbishing old iPhones here. But these plans too are in limbo. Derek Barnett Authentic Jersey
New airline to connect capitals in Northeast likely
The Modi government is going to launch a new airline based out of Guwahati which would connect all state capitals in that part of the country, a move that’s going to give a big fillip to connectivity in Northeast India. The company will be a subsidiary of Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd and is likely to operate a fleet of 6 fixed-wing planes and 5 helicopters. The subsidiary, with an equity base of Rs 150 crore, will be 51 per cent owned by Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd and the rest will be owned by North Eastern Council (NEC). The decision to create a new airline was taken at a meeting of all state chief ministers from the Northeast and Department of North Eastern Region minister Jitendra Singh. “A proposal has come to the aviation ministry and has also been sent to NEC for approval,” said a government official, who did not want to be identified. This is the first time that the government is launching a subsidiary to provide connectivity within the Northeast. Currently, Alliance Air provides air connectivity to select cities in the region, which is based on the viability gap funding from the government. Analysts believe that the model is a proven one and will surely fetch money for Pawan Hans. “Pawan Hans’ plan is path-breaking and based on a proven model that countries like Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Chile and many others have tried,” said Mark Martin, CEO and founder of Martin Consulting, an aviation advisory firm. Ross Stripling Authentic Jersey
Mumbai Man Falls Sick After Being Served Cockroach In Meal On Flight
Jet Airways’ breakfast platter served to business class flier Birju Salla yesterday had a variety of dishes – paratha, croissant, fruits and, last but not the least, chana masala with cooked cockroach. A vegetarian, Salla claimed that he immediately fell sick but the flight crew instead of offering him medical help, just apologised and offered to replace his food. Salla (35), a Peddar Road resident, had boarded the airline’s flight 9W 7129 from Mumbai to Rajkot for a business trip yesterday morning. But on reaching Rajkot, he was not able to work due to immense stomachache. “I have never seen such an act of gross negligence from an airline crew. All they could offer was a replacement meal. Pathetic!” said Salla. “I had to eventually consult my Mumbai doctor over the phone and he prescribed medicines. My plans for the day went for a toss because of their negligence,” he added. Salla then complained to the airline authorities via email. “I am a regular premier JP Platinum flyer. You just can’t imagine the state of my mind. I have been harassed by your so-called esteemed airline,” the complaint read. “Sometimes there are safety issues like your own crew forgets to lock the cart in gallery. I always try to ignore and assume we are humans and mistakes do happen but not this time,” he added. He also wishes to raise this issue before food safety and quality department. Eric Bledsoe Jersey
Emergency runways planned on Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway
The state government, which is constructing a six-lane expressway between Mumbai and Nagpur, plans to develop three special stretches on the highway where aircraft can make emergency landings for rescue operations during a calamity or a major accident. Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has asked its consultants to identify sections on the highway that can be used as a runway. A normal runway is at least 5 km long, and there can be no obstructions (electricity or mobile towers) in its vicinity. The Uttar Pradesh government has created such emergency runways on the six-lane Yamuna Expressway between Lucknow and Agra. In May last year, the Air Force landed a Dassault Mirage 2000 on the expressway near Mathura, a first in the Indian aviation’s history. Germany, South Korea, Finland, Switzerland and Singapore have dedicated highway stretches where aircraft can land during emergencies. Luke Stocker Womens Jersey