No Brick and Mortar business will survive post 2023 : Amitabh Kant

Chief Architect of startup India campaign and CEO of Niti Ayog feels that brick and mortal businesses will be dead by 2023.  Speaking at an event organized by TIE, Mr Kant Said “India is the only country with a billion mobile phones and biometrics. In the last 6-7 months we have added almost 28 crore bank accounts. In the last 45 years we have given license to 19 banks but in the last nine months we have given license to 23 payment banks, and many of them are telecom companies including Paytm and Airtel. The brick and mortar sector will go dead”.

According to Kant Banking sector will be see a major hit with the launch of many payment banks like PAYTM and Airtel.  According to him it will be more of a technology show and technology will take the driver’s seat. Currently 350 million people use internet via mobile and internet and 1 billion people will be online by 2023.  According to him “It will all be mobile, telephonic transaction. India will leap frog again. This is because today we are about 350 million using the Internet but 2020-23 there will be about 1 billion people in India using the Internet. Similarly, usage of the Internet will increase with more people on smart phones. A billion Indians with access to the Internet, biometric and using the smart phones we will radically alter the world.”

He added that “Across the world, whether you look at trends in Japan, US or Germany, everywhere is getting digitized. It is inevitable.”

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Dewan housing to buy Andromeda for $37 million

Dewan housing finance limited has decided to buy  Andromeda’s loan distribution , mortgage , financing and financial instruments business.  Mumbai based holding company CASA holding holds 80% of Andromeda’s stake . The total deal value will be amounted somewhere between 200 and 250 crores.

Altamount capital is advising CASA capital for the deal . The deal comes  4 years after Malaysians capital fund Navis Capital sold Andromeda for Rs 180 crore to CASA capital holding.  Andromeda currently operates in 16 cities across India and has disbursed loans worth more than Rs 5000 crores.

Andromeda is facing tough competition from competitors like Bank Bazar and Loan adda. These two banking and financial platform boasts more than 9 million visitors per month and offer more than 11 financial products with a collaboration of 40 banking partners

1.5L Crore Capex For Reliance Jio

In a move that would surprise and excite many telecom honchos , Reliance Jio announced a total CAPEX of 1.5 Lakh Crore. The companies group Chairman Mukesh Ambani made an announcement while reporting the highest operating profit for Reliance Insdustries in 8 years.  According to group’s deputy CFO “Our capex in the reporting fiscal year stood at Rs 1.20 trillion and this will go up to Rs 1.5 trillion in the ongoing fiscal year. The money will be spent to complete the ongoing expansion projects at Jamnagar and the rollout of the telecom network.”

The announcement would push the oil major’s telecom initiative to the next level.  According to the Deputy CFO 50,000 to 60,000 crore will be used to expand the Jamnagar refinery while 60,000 crore will be used for Reliance Jio and rest will be used for company’s retail arm.  Around $150 million which is around 1,000 crore will be used for US shale gas operations

It is interesting to see that with a record decrease in crude oil price , Reliance industries has seen the highest increase in profit in eight years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please welcome “Baby Uber “.

So we have the first baby Uber in town. Yes you heard it right , a woman gave birth to a child in an Uber cab last week. The lady who was going towards Safdarjing Enclave in Delhi went into labour . The cab driver initially panicked but then took the matter in his hands and delivered the baby in the can itself. It was a difficult situation for the cab driver, Shahnawaz, and the onlookers but it all ended well when a healthy baby was born.

“I asked them to get an ambulance”, says Shahnawaz. But even after repeated calls no ambulance was seen in sight and the driver had to take the important decision.

This is a positive news for the cab provider after the unfortunate rape incident in an uber cab last year. The woman wanted the cab the driver to name the baby and the cab driver decided to name him Uber.

After this news we wish to hear about the ‘OLA’ baby soon :).

Indian slated to be a double digit economy soon.

According to Home minister Rajnath Singh India is slated to become a double digit economic power soon. Speaking at a press conference Mr Singh said that India has become one of the hottest destination for Foreign Investors. According to him the present government has taken substantial steps to improve the economic condition of the country and followed the path set by Atal Bihari Government in 2004. Taking a dig at previous government , Mr Singh said that he was confident that India would reach a double digit growth soon and bureaucracy in financial matters was a thing of past .

But after 2004, even though there was growth initially, the momentum lost gradually. The country could not achieve the desired growth. They could not match the momentum achieved by the Vajpayee government. By 2014, the economic condition of the country further deteriorated. When the Modi government assumed charge, you all know what was the economic condition of the country. “India has become the hot favorite destination for foreign investors. I am sure in a few years, India’s economic growth would in double digit”

The government has made many structural and procedural reforms in order to crub corruption and bureaucracy from financial matters and have ensured that the government is in a path of economic growth in the coming years.

There is a sense of confidence among investors. This government means business, this government is business friendly, this government is investors friendly, a decisive government, India will soon become one of the five top economies in the world. We are trying to make common people part of the development process,” he concluded.

Inland waterways can help save Rs 10000 crores in Coal transportation.

Modi government flagship project of transporting goods through inland waterways can help the government save Rs 10000 crores , according to Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari. The ministry is trying to convert 11 rivers across the country as Inland waterways and plans to invest in this direction .

According to Nitin Gadkari ” Inland waterways will help in saving logistics costs and boost movement of goods and passengers across the country. Besides, they will also save around Rs 10,000 crore per year while transporting coal, a crucial resource. I am hopeful that Parliament will approve the bill to convert 111 rivers across India into National Waterway. We expect the ports to register a profit of Rs 6,000 crore this fiscal, which the government will invest to create assets to spur growth.”

It is a cheaper and Eco friendly medium of transportation of goods as one Horse Power of Energy can be utilized to transport 150 kg on road, 500 kg on rail and 4,000 kg on water besides one litre of fuel moves 24 tonne/km on road, 85 tonne/km on rail and 105 tonne/km on water.

He also added that there will be a massive change in the infrastructure in near future as government is planning to convert many 4 lane highways into 8 lanes and large number of express highways will be turned in express ways. The move is controversial though as there was an uproar in parliament on land acquisition by the government . It will be interesting to see what turn does the government takes in recent times in this direction .

Snapdeal makes Aamir Khan the 19th most viewed Ad personality.

E-commerce giant Snap deal has helped Aamir Khan to grow his ad volume by 441% in last one year. His rank improved from mere 57th to 19th in terms of total amount of time he was seen in Television . The actor has endorsed 10 brands from January to October 2014 while this year he endorsed only 2 brands Incredible India and Snapdeal in the same period .

It was not easy for Snap deal to rope in Khan as they had to convince the actor with various factors and trust quotients before he signed with them. According to a senior snap deal executive “We wanted to change Snapdeal’s branding and Khan was the right candidate for the job. He decided to do it after a very long presentation.”  It is believed that the actor charged 15 crores for a four day shoot with the company. According to sources he is one of the highest paid endorser of the country .Salman Khan is the costliest as he charges Rs 6 crore a day for a brand campaign.

The current controversy made Snap deal’s story a bit difficult as he people took on google play store and social media to decrease the app Star rating and also uninstall the application. People started a campaign naming #appwapsi and uninstalled the application in the protest to what the star said about growing in tolerance in the country .Snap deal later issued a statement stating that they distance itself from the star and his opinion in this topic.

The controversy won’t affect the star much as he has said that he will stand by his words. According to brand expert Harish Bijoor “Contrary to public opinion, Aamir Khan’s brand value will not suffer because of this one incident. He did a good thing by standing by his statement. People expect their heroes to do the same. One more hit, and he will be up there. The share in ad volumes for Aamir Khan in 2015 between Incredible India and Snapdeal is around 55:45”.

Indian Aviation stock on a high with Spice Jet Leading The Show.

Spice jet has becomes world’s top performing aviation stock in last one year by increasing four fold from its current value. Aviation industry has benfitted to a greater extent in recent times due to lower crude oil prices and a big boost in passenger traffic.

The company outperformed its international customers like El Al Israel Airlines, Hawaiian Holdings, China Southern Airlines and Qantas Airways. Among other aviation players , the freshly listed Indigo also realized a 42% increase in its stock from the day of its filing on the stock exchange. All the aviation companies are positive that they will have a happy end to the year with increase in passenger traffic and advance booking numbers which are on a high. The management is on high because of the surge but various research companies advice not to go on a buying spree as the stock has risen sharply in recent times and would correct soon.

In an interview given to ET G Chokkalingam, founder and managing director of Equinomics Research & Advisory said “I would advise existing investors to book profits in phases in SpiceJet stock, while newcomers should avoid this company because the stock has already run up sharply. Some of the global airline stocks have seen re-rating because of lower jet fuel prices, while domestic airlines are benefiting from the fact that India is becoming the fastest-growing airline market.”

Lets hope that this blue run continues for a longer period and help investors earn some good money in the near future.

 

Rosneft to invest in Essar Oil.

Russain Oil major Co Rosneft is  planning to invest in India by acquiring 49% stake in Essar oil. The company is ready to pay $2.4 billion for the same at by paying Rs 190-195 per share. Formal announcement is this direction is expected soon .

Roseneft is the world’s largest public traded Oil cooperation and by buying a stake in Essar would help them consolidate their position as a Oil major in International market. Essar is controlled by the Ruia family in India which hold 73% of the total company .The deal would conclude once the parent company match the delist price and post that , Ruia’s stake would reduce to 51%. They plan to use the funds raised to reduce the debt that the parent Essar global has accumulated.

Essar has already signed a 10 year pact with Rosneft to supply 10 million tonnes of crude oil.

Air India sells its aircraft to reduce debt.

In a move to reduce its  debt burned , Air India sold 9 of its Boeing dream liner aircrafts for a whooping 7000 crores. The company sold these aircrafts in order to reduce the bridge loan the company has raised in order to buy these aircrafts. This is a modern day strategy followed by many airlines where the company sells its aircraft to lease it back for a longer period so that it can use it. The company followed the strategy in order to reduce its debt burden which it has accumulated over a very long period.

Air India has 131 aircrafts in total from various manufacturers like Boeing , Airbus, ATR and CRJ’s. In a statement given to PTI Air India sources said “Air India has sold all the nine Dream liners to one Singaporean lessor for a little over Rs 7,000 crore. These planes have now been taken back on lease by the same firm.” The company said that it will use Rs6,000 crore to repay the bridge loan while the remaining amount will be used for other purposes.

Air India is currently suffering from a huge debt situation due to increase in competition and a total debt of Rs 40000 it has accumulated in last few years. The silver lining to this story is that the company will show a positive quarter with Rs 6 crore operating profit. The company is surviving on a bailout package provided by the Indian government and hopes to make some profit in the near future.