IOC to join NTPC, CIL for fertilizer projects
Indian Oil Corp. is set to join a consortium of Coal India Ltd and NTPC Ltd for setting up three fertilizer factories with a total investment of Rs.200 billion. The investment is expected to help improve the financial health of ailing state-owned Fertilizer Corp. of India Ltd (FCIL), which will provide land for the factories at Sindri in Jharkhand and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, and that of ailing state-run firm Hindustan Fertilizer Corp. Ltd which will provide land at Barauni in Bihar. The existing production facilities at these places are archaic. Coal secretary Anil Swarup said that the petroleum ministry has informed the coal ministry of its support for IOC joining the project. The board of directors at IOC will consider the proposal by the end of July. An email sent to IOC on Wednesday morning remained unanswered at the time of publishing. NTPC had on 17 May said that it has formed an equal joint venture with CIL to set up two urea factories on the premises of FCIL, with provision for a third partner to join in. “Now there is a clear roadmap for the project. All the three proposed factories will be operational by December 2020. The joint venture will have a debt equity ratio of 1:3,” said Swarup. The partners together will bring a little more thanRs.60 billion of equity. Each of the natural gas-based factories will require an investment of roughly Rs.65 billion. The project also entails state-owned Gail India Ltd supplying natural gas for the factories by connecting them with its Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline. Natural gas is a more efficient and cost-effective feedstock for urea production, compared to naphtha, which is used in older fertilizer plants. India produces a little over 21 million tons of urea and imports about 8 million tons. Since adverse currency movements and price of the feedstock in global markets influences the import price, the government has been trying to achieve self sufficiency in this plant nutrient. Subsidy is given to companies for selling urea at below their actual cost of import or production, based on their audited sales figures. The government wants to leverage profit-making public sector enterprises in the energy sector to turn around the ailing ones in the fertilizer sector. Reviving the three units is expected to create about 1,200 direct and 4,500 indirect jobs, minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers Hansraj Gangaram Ahir informed Parliament on 4 March. He said a total of 10 defunct fertilizer units will be revived. Zemgus Girgensons Authentic Jersey
World’s biggest natural gas producer Gazprom eyes bigger share in India
Russia’s Gazprom PJSC, the world’s biggest natural gas producer, is stepping up supplies to India. Last week, Alexey Miller, chairman of the Gazprom management committee, and Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s petroleum minister, discussed the modalities for increasing Gazprom’s gas sales in St Petersburg. Pradhan was accompanied by top executives from Petronet LNG, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and other public sector firms. “During the visit to St Petersburg, (we) discussed various routes to bring Russian gas to India and cooperation in third countries. Also, (I) met Alexei Miller, CEO Gazprom, world’s largest gas company. Gazprom is keen to work various gas projects with India,” said petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Pradhan also met top executive from Novatek, the second largest gas producing company of Russia, which also express interest to participate in Indian gas sector. Gazprom, which supplies nearly 30% of Europe’s demand, interest to expand business here comes at a time when its domestic rival Rosneft has offered equity stakes in two Siberian hydrocarbon assets – Vankor and Taas-Yuryakh to Indian firms including ONGC Videsh, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Oil India (OIL) and Bharat PetroResources (BPRL). “The perception of India has changed. Earlier, if any foreign firm wants to do business with India and particularly public sector companies, it used to take atleast two years for the first response. Now, diplomatic push is helping India get energy deals overseas,” a senior petroleum ministry official told FE. In the past two years, India and Russia have agreed to collaborate for $5.5 billion worth oil and gas projects. New Delhi’s interest in increasing economic co-operation with Kremlin is seen as an extension of several rounds of talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Talking about the affordability of natural gas ferried from Russian fields, the petroleum ministry official said that there are options to swap the LNG with other supplies mid-way. “This would make the LNG affordable for Indian market. These technicalities would be discussed between the companies,” the official explained. In the full year of 2015-16, the LNG imports by India witnessed a surge of 14.96% at 21,309.28 mmscm against 18,535.73 mmscm in FY15. “While Gazprom has been boosting gas exports to its most lucrative market, Europe and Turkey, its dollar-denominated revenue from the region may drop this year to lowest since 2004 as most of contracts linked to oil with a time lag of as much as nine months,” Bloomberg said on April 28. This could led Gazprom to expand its footprint in India, where economy is poised to grow at 8%. Between 2009 and 2016, Gazprom Group delivered 26 liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes to India totaling 1.7 million tonnes. In 2012, Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore, which is part of Gazprom Group, and GAIL signed a long-term agreement for LNG. The 20-year agreement provides for LNG supplies in the amount of 2.5 million tons per year on a free-on-board basis, with potential for renewal. Imports of LNG have steadily risen over the years, albeit at varying rates of growth from about 7 bcm in FY06 to about 21 bcm now. Overall gas consumption, has increased, especially FY14 onwards, to compensate for the decline in domestic production. Paul Kariya Jersey
Nikesh Arora’s resignation is unlikely to hurt India’s startup ecosystem much. Here’s why
With Nikesh Arora’s resignation as president of SoftBank, India’s startup ecosystem may have lost one of its biggest champions but it’s unlikely to hurt much. At least half a dozen industry executives ET spoke with said the impact of Arora’s exit was unlikely to be as drastic as it might have been had the decision been taken about a year ago, as the Tokyobased investor has slowed investments in the country and not made any fresh deals in the past eight-nine months. SoftBank, led by Arora, pushed India’s startup growth into high gear closing three back-to back investments worth nearly $1 billion (Rs 6,700 crore) during October-November 2014. The money went into some of the country’s most high-profile companies India’s biggest taxi aggregator Ola; its secondlargest online marketplace Snapdeal; and a fast-growing and highly visible real estate website, Housing.com. SoftBank’s aggressive pace of investments made it, along with New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global, the biggest investor in Indian startups. Tiger Global, too, has slowed its pace of dealmaking in India. “I don’t think that Nikesh stepping down will have any long-term impact on the Indian startup ecosystem because the market is compelling in its own right and (SoftBank CEO) Masayoshi Son has enough access without being reliant on any one person,” said Ashish Gupta, managing partner at Helion. “The Indian exploration may go slower temporarily as the SoftBank effort will need a leader. They may find someone local who is on the ground and hence better equipped to dig deep,” he said. Arora’s abrupt decision, nonetheless, sent shockwaves across India’s startup ecosystem, with investors, entrepreneurs and even the founders of SoftBank’s portfolio companies here caught unawares. Especially as the announcement came a day after Arora was given a clean chit by SoftBank in allegations made by unnamed stakeholders. SoftBank has invested nearly $2 billion across six Indian companies, the other three being mobile advertising network InMobi, grocery delivery startup Grofers and budget hotels aggregator OYO. Except InMobi, all the investments were made over the past 20 months after Arora came on board. SoftBank has announced plans to invest $10 billion in India. For all this, several investors blame SoftBank and Arora for excesses in India, accusing it of pouring too much money into startups that were not ready for it. Some of SoftBank’s aggressive bets here were made without proper due diligence or monitoring and rather on gut feeling, they said, resulting in cases like Housing whose founder Rahul Yadav had to be fired for misconduct eight months after the investment. In an earlier interaction, Yadav told ET that “Nikesh bet on me. I don’t think he even saw the Housing website before investing.” SoftBank said Arora would continue to support various investments as an adviser, but did not specify which companies he would work with. Arora is not on the boards of any of SoftBank’s portfolio companies in India. Instead, SoftBank executives Jonathan Bullock (Snapdeal, Ola, Housing) and Deep Nishar (Grofers) are more actively involved in these companies. “It’s the changing of a friendship (with the startup ecosystem) and there will be some anxiety but life goes on,” said Vani Kola, managing director at venture capital firm Kalaari Capital, which has co-invested with SoftBank in Snapdeal. “Nikesh… cares deeply about Indian startups. But the ecosystem is resilient and companies have to build their own business.” Investors tracking India’s startup ecosystem expect to see some impact on SoftBank’s portfolio firms in the country when these firms set out to raise fresh capital in a challenging fund-raising environment, when companies typically count on existing investors. But portfolio companies are not worried for now. “SoftBank Chairman Son-san has already reached out expressing his support for Housing.com, and we look forward to a similar, direct relationship with him as we continue to transform the business,” said Jason Kothari, CEO of Housing.com. October 2014: Joins Japan’s SoftBank Group as vice-chairman from Google, where he was chief business officer. Holds additional post of chief executive of SB Group US (previously known as SoftBank Internet and Media) October 2014: Leads SoftBank’s $627-million investment in Snapdeal and $210-million funding in Ola; SoftBank says its India investments may cross $10 billion in a decade November 2014: SoftBank leads $90-million funding round in real estate website Housing April 2015: Quits the boards of Soft-Bank portfolio companies in India – Snapdeal, Ola and Housing May 2015: Is named representative director, president and COO of SoftBank Corp. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son says Arora the “primary candidate” to succeed him as CEO August 2015: Buys Soft-Bank stock worth $483 million using savings and debt, establishing his commitment to the company. Becomes SoftBank’s second-largest individual stockholder January 2016: Unnamed investor group asks SoftBank board to investigate Arora and possibly dismiss him for questionable transactions and poor investment performance February 2016: SoftBank forms a special committee comprising independent board members to review the allegations against Arora May 2016: Arora’s pay package for 2015-16 estimated at $73 million, making him one of the highest-paid corporate executives globally for the second year in a row June 2016: SoftBank-constituted panel concludes no merit in the allegations against Arora June 2016: Arora steps down as President and COO of SoftBank Corp For Nikesh Arora, joining Japan’s SoftBank Group in 2014 was the crowning moment of his storied career. The 48-year-old joined the Tokyoheadquartered telecom, internet and media giant from Google, where he was among the highest-compensated executives. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son not only poached Arora from the Mountain View-based tech giant but a year later also declared that the Ghaziabad-born executive was his “primary candidate” to succeed him as CEO when he retired. Arora’s rise through the global corporate ranks has been dizzying. The IIT-BHU graduate and Boston University alum, who arrived on US shores with just $200 in his pocket, joined Google in 2004 and led its European operations, rising to chief business officer. He married Delhi businesswoman Ayesha Thapar, daughter of Indian City Properties CEO Vikram Thapar, some months before joining SoftBank. A keen
Govt okays Rs. 10,000 crore corpus for startups
The government on Wednesday approved Rs. 10,000 crore ‘Fund of Funds for Startups’ to support them with an aim to generate employment for 18 lakh persons. “The fund is expected to generate employment for 18 lakh persons on full deployment… A corpus of Rs 10,000 crore could potentially be the nucleus for catalysing Rs. 60,000 crore of equity investment and twice as much debt investment,” an official statement said. The decision was taken in the Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The Cabinet has approved the establishment of ‘Fund of Funds for Startups’ (FFS) at Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for contribution to various Alternative Investment Funds (AIF), registered with SEBI which would extend funding support to startups,” it said. This is in line with the ‘Startup India Action Plan’ unveiled by the government in January. The corpus shall be built up over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles, subject to progress of the scheme and availability of funds, it said. “This would provide a stable and predictable source of funding for startup enterprises and thereby facilitate large scale job creation,” it added. An amount of Rs 500 crore has already been provided to the corpus of FFS in 2015-16 and Rs 600 crore earmarked in the 2016-17. Further provisions will be made as grant assistance through gross budgetary Support by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) which will monitor and review performance in line with the ‘Start up India Action Plan’, it said. Further, the statement said the expertise of SIDBI would be utilised to manage the day-to-day operations of the fund. The monitoring and review of performance would be linked to the implementation of the action plan to enable execution as per timelines and milestones. The move assumes significance as startups face several challenges such as limited availability of domestic risk capital, constraints of conventional bank finance, information asymmetry and lack of hand holding support from credible agencies. A majority of successful startups have been funded by foreign venture funds and many of them are locating outside the country to receive such funding, it said. “A dedicated fund for carrying out ‘Fund of Funds’ operations would address these issues and enable flow of assistance to innovative startups through their journey to becoming full fledged business entities,” it added. This would encompass support at seed stage, early stage and growth stage, it said. Josh Bellamy Authentic Jersey
Government approves Rs 2,272 crore highway project in Karnataka
The government today approved a Rs 2,272 crore highway project in Karnataka. “CCEA approves development of four-laning of Hubli-Hospet Section of NH-63 in Karnataka,” an official spokesperson said after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meeting. The project pertains to widening of the 144 km stretch. “Four-laning would cost Rs 2,272.20 crore, and the total length is approximately 144 km,” he said. Ryan Allen Womens Jersey
E-retailers focusing on unit economics, customers: Report
E-retailing companies are focusing on turning unit economics positive and customer retention as opposed to the prior focus on gross merchandise value, a recent report said. “We believe this may be a function of limited availability of capital, leading companies to focus on cash generation. Post government regulations that curtailed discounts, companies seem to have done away with the same; most discounts being seen online are being offered by sellers or brands themselves,” a study by Kotak Institutional Equities said. Gross merchandise value is the total sales value of goods sold through a marketplace. Most companies surveyed are also evaluating other revenue streams such as advertising and online content to better leverage their platform, it added. Customer retention, recall and loyalty are key metrics monitored by companies now, the report said. Companies are also focusing on improving customer satisfaction by shortening delivery times, offering wide product assortments and improved service, in a bid to keep customers engaged to their platforms. Delivery is another substantial cost component for most e-commerce companies, and hence its optimization is a key area of focus, the report noted. Demand prediction, delivery-linked payments to delivery staff, as well as infrastructure sharing are various options evaluated by companies to rationalize delivery costs. Cash on Delivery, and tier II and III cities remain big for e-retailers. Tier II and tier III cities constitute a sizable chunk of sales of e-retailers, and hence remain a key focus area, the report noted. Further with discounts being curtailed, e-retailers will need sustained focus on product assortment, delivery and service to distinguish themselves from competition, it added. Grady Jarrett Womens Jersey
New PAN rule hurts sale of luxury goods
Mails are flying thick and fast at most luxury stores across the country as harried sales staff face a tough time trying to coax people to part with their permanent account number (PAN) details. By the looks of it, they are not accomplishing much, resulting in poor sales of luxury goods. Furnishing of PAN details has been made mandatory by the government for any transaction above Rs 2 lakh in a bid to weed out black money . However, the move has deterred many wealthy shoppers from spending lakhs of rupees on luxury products such as handbags, watches and writing instruments. “Our bags start at Rs 2 lakh. Sales at our store have been hit badly because our regular customers have stopped coming,” said a senior executive of a French luxury brand. Earlier, most of them would pay in cash. But now, instead of giving their PAN details, they are opting to shop abroad.” Most people in the luxury industry TOI spoke to complained about similar issues. For instance, at a store selling high fashion French leather goods in the capital, executives are tearing their well-groomed hair out to convince customers to reveal their PAN card number. “We have taken a hit of several lakhs of rupees over the last few days but have not been able to figure out a way around the problem,” said an executive at the store. The other day, a lady who had come to buy a bag said she wouldn’t risk getting her husband into trouble by furnishing his PAN card details. Eventually, she walked out without buying anything.” Nikhil Mehra, CEO of Genesis Group that has marketing and distribution arrangements for several luxury brands such as Jimmy Choo, Giorgio Armani, Em porio Armani and Tumi among others and is the JV partner for Canali, Burberry and Villeroy and Boch in India, said consumer sentiment here has been affected by this ruling. “However, for most of our brands it is not a challenge because prices are within the Rs 2 lakh limit,” he said. The Indian luxury market has been pegged at Rs 16,300 crore in 2015 by market research firm Euromonitor and is expected to touch Rs 39,000 crore by 2020, with an annual growth rate of 19 per cent. Dallas Goedert Authentic Jersey
PM Narendra Modi’s dream project ‘Startup India’ to be revamped to woo more participants
Five months after its launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government’s Startup India initiative is due for an overhaul to improve participation. The government recently held a review after fewer-than expected startups applied for recognition and only one made the final cut for the incentives that are available under the programme. Subsequently, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) chalked out a strategy to upgrade the action plan and get more enterprises to take part, said a senior official. About 200 companies had applied for recognition, of which, 30 were shortlisted for consideration last month by the inter-ministerial board formed by DIPP. Only Hyderabad-based Cygni Energy was selected while most others failed to provide the required paperwork, officials said. In order to attract more startups, DIPP is designing a learning module to “educate the startups in areas, including incorporation of a company, business models,” said the person cited above. The government will examine all applications within a day and ask those that haven’t furnished the required documentation to provide these for counselling and training. Companies that want to avail of the tax and intellectual property rights-related benefits will have to wait for the approval of the inter-ministerial board. Besides this, startups will no longer need a certificate of recognition from the government to access legal help for filing patents. The service is being provided free to startups through an empaneled group of advocates. The industry department also plans to impose a cap on fees that can be charged by incubators for certifying a startup as an “innovative business.” This has been done after several companies complained of exorbitant charges for providing recommendation letters. DIPP is hoping that increased outreach programmes and the upcoming national startup festival in Hyderabad will draw the attention of the community to the programme. However, startups feel the government should only focus on scrapping regulations that are an irritant for businesses trying to get off the ground, often pushing them to leave India and set up shop elsewhere. “Government is caught up in the role of being a beneficiary and incentive provider. It need not become a coach but a facilitator by reducing compliances,” said a senior executive at a think tank who did not wish to be named. To be sure, some of the government’s initiatives have borne fruit. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) has approved Rs 930 crore in disbursals from the Rs 2,000 crore fund-of-funds it launched in August to support venture capital funds for startups. The startup corpus of Rs 10,000 crore announced in the Startup India Action Plan is also expected to be put to use soon. A proposal to extend the tax holiday to five years from three for startups is also under consideration. The self-certification scheme in respect of nine labour and environment laws has also been initiated by various government departments in order to reduce the regulatory burden on startups as per the action plan. Red Schoendienst Authentic Jersey
‘Niksit’ delivers bad news to fund-starved desi startups
“Why o why? That’s a big setback for Indian startup ecosystem,” Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s wailing tweet, succinctly sums up the reaction in India to the unexpected news of Nikesh Arora’s abrupt exit from SoftBank. SoftBank has been a prolific investor in Indian startups for nearly two years, and Arora’s exit couldn’t have happened at a more inopportune moment. The e-commerce, or broadly the consumer internet, engines in the world’s fastest growing economy have been searching for a new investor with ability to write big cheques, of late. Bulge-bracket investors have shied away from placing fresh bets on India’s aggressively valued startups, some of which have been marked down already. Arora, riding on incredible media hype, played a big role in boosting Indian startup valuations when he struck back-to-back deals in 2014. Arora and Tiger Global’s Lee Fixel, the top shareholder in Flipkart, who has invested in about 25 startups, were fueling Indian unicorns (privately funded companies valued at $1 billion or more) with their investment binge. Both slowed down late last year as frothy valuations and concerns about the real base of India’s e-commerce users tripped global investors. “The way he (Arora) played up the market gave some of us self-doubts about our own investment thesis,” said a partner with one the US-based venture capital funds on condition of anonymity. Arora’s exit could pose difficulties for online marketplace Snapdeal on which SoftBank has placed nearly $1-billion bet. Sources said Arora had offered to support Snapdeal with quarter-on-quarter investments in a bruising e-commerce war with two formidable rivals, Flipkart and Amazon. The troubled real state portal Housing.com is seeking a buyer after its founder Rahul Yadav exited following a boardroom spat. Grofers and Oyo Rooms (where SoftBank may lead a new round) are still work in progress. Taxi hailing service Ola may be the bright spot in SoftBank’s Indian portfolio, as the Chinese peer Didi Kuaidi strengthens its worldwide anti-Uber alliance through investments. A section of the venture capitalists now wonder whether SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son will allow his most storied discovery, Jack Ma of Alibaba, to take lead in chasing Indian consumer internet story. India is proving to be a far more challenging market for internet entrepreneurs, where operational management expertise is crucial in steering high-profile investments. This could lead to a more synchronized play between SoftBank and Alibaba going forward, sources added. Alibaba’s current Indian investments include 40% stake in digital payments and commerce platform Paytm and a 5% stake in Snapdeal. Son had mandated Arora to find the next Alibaba. The jet-setting Arora had a $3 billion annual war chest to invest globally, though the former Google executive’s focus remained on India until recently. But Arora’s sudden exit may force SoftBank to change course in India. “I won’t be surprised if they take more time to write any new cheques, at-least in the immediate future,” said a fund manager who did not wish to be named. Kashyap Deorah, a serial entrepreneur and the author of The Golden Tap, the story of the hyper-funded Indian startups, said that SoftBank would look to consolidate power at boardrooms of existing companies given the substantial capital invested in them. The Japanese investor had burnt fingers when it wrote down $200 million investment in ad tech startup Inmobi, which happened before Arora stepped into SoftBank. “Nikesh or not, tourist investors like SoftBank and Tiger will realize India is not as fertile as China where they can fly in, plant startup seeds and watch them grow from a distance. In a way, the party unravelling faster is better since it is better to fail fast and early in the startup world,” Praveen Chakravarty, an early stage investor, and a co-founder of Mumbai Angels, argued. Alexander Mogilny Authentic Jersey
Once duped online, it is not possible to retrieve amount
Modernisation in banking sector and widespread use of debit and credit cards and online transactions has also led to rise in financial frauds. Sources revealed that the use of technology by large number of people has given opportunities to criminals who use the loopholes and cheat the gullible customers. “Customers mainly holding debit and credit cards are losing lakhs of rupees because they share important information with the frauds over phone,” said a source. A bank official said hackers or gangs of criminals are involved in duping customers by calling them over the phone while disguising as bank officials to know their card details and PIN. “They extract the card details to use for online shopping, tickets and bill payments,” he said. Most of the time the con men mislead the customers by telling that their card is being blocked or would get expired or else has expired and some customers reveal the card number, CVV code, PIN. “Most importantly, even police fail to nab people involved in the fraud. Once the amount is debited from the account, it can’t be retrieved even by the bank,” said a bank official. “Either they extract the OTP or PIN from the customer. In case they get to know the PIN, OTP is not required. Most of the victims are villagers,” he added. He said the only help the bank can do is to provide the details of the vendor where the money was either transferred online or the purchase was made as the POS (point of sale) reflects in the bank account statements. “The connivance of these con men with the vendors where cards are manufactured or with the call centres where banking data is available, could not be denied,” revealed a senior manager of Punjab National Bank. He said all these facilities are nowadays outsourced. “We have cases when the con man has directly told the card serial number to customers resulting in winning their confidence,” he added. An assistant general manager level officer of the State Bank of India said the state government should introduce financial literacy at the school level. “At present, 75% of the bank transactions in the country are being done online,” he said and added that account holders lack awareness about dealing with the frauds. He said the extent to the online fraud could be understood from the fact that an IG of the Bihar police and an officer of the Patna Municipal Corporation have also been their victims. Neither police could arrest the con man nor could they retrieve the duped amount of Rs24,898, a part of which was used to pay telephone bill in Mumbai. City SP (Central) Chandan Kushwaha said large number of such frauds are reported across the state every day but there are only two or three dedicated persons in the cyber cell of the state police to handle such cases. Matt Bartkowski Jersey