A reading of this year's Brand Finance India's Top 50 (Company) Brands list with last year's throws up some important lessons for Indian businesses.
With 11 debutants in the Top 50 list edging out some of the erstwhile corporate biggies, the message for India Inc., is quite clear--that history and financial heft alone won't guarantee a strong brand--a prerequisite to business success in an environment where tangible differentiators in land, capital et al are fast becoming parity.
For a host of companies, who barely managed to hold on to their positions and valuations this year, the writing on the wall is clear too.
A brand can easily whither in the paucity of strategic, sustained investments, as it seems to have happened with as many as eight companies, primarily from the oil sector, which witnessed a drop in their Brand Power Rating (BPR), a critical measure of brand health.
The latest Brand Finance study finds that companies in sectors like telecom, finance and auto have shown healthy signs of growth this year.
The czar of India Inc., Reliance Industries (RIL) once again flaunted muscle by emerging as the most valuable brand, at Rs 26,801-crore, on BF Top 50 list.
However, the increase in valuation is only marginal, and its BPR too slipped from A to BBB+ this year.
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Read more in The Economic Times
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
Subbarao: The Next RBI Governor 'a surprise.'
India unexpectedly appointed Duvvuri Subbarao as governor of the central bank, putting in place an economist who called raising rates the 'obvious' choice to tackle the steepest inflation since 1992.
Finance Secretary Subbarao, 59, will serve for three years, replacing Yaga Venugopal Reddy, 67, whose term ends on Sept. 5, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi today.
Eight of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expected the government to extend Reddy's term because of his decade-long experience at the Reserve Bank of India.
Subbarao may have to follow Reddy's four-year-old policy of raising borrowing costs as inflation has shown few signs of easing.
Subbarao said on July 28, a day before Reddy's last monetary policy, that raising interest rates was the 'obvious' solution to curb rising prices, a month after calling monetary policy ``the first line of defense'' against inflation.
'There has to be a continuation of the monetary policy,' said Sonal Varma, a Mumbai-based economist at Lehman Brothers Inc. 'Moderating inflation has to be the new governor's top priority followed by ensuring growth.'
Reddy has been raising borrowing costs since 2004 to prevent the world's fastest growing major economy after China from overheating.
Still, inflation in India surged to 12.63 percent last month after the government raised fuel costs to reduce its subsidy burden. That was the biggest gain in prices since the South Asian nation started to open its economy to foreign investors in the early 1990s.
Big Challenge
'That's the big challenge for any central bank governor in India -- it's hard to figure out when a sudden price spurt hits the economy,' N. R. Bhanumurthy, an economist at Institute of Economic Growth in New Delhi, said before the announcement.
Subbarao, who was an economic adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before he became the top bureaucrat in the finance ministry, is an engineering graduate from the elite Indian Institute of Technology.
He joined the civil service and was later deputed to the World Bank, where he was the lead economist between 1999 and 2004 on issue of public finance in Africa and East Asia.
Subbarao has a masters in Economics from Ohio State University and was a Humphrey Fellow at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. He holds a doctorate from Andhra University.
Soviet-Style
India practices Soviet-style price controls, subsidizing oil and ordering cement and steel companies to keep prices unchanged even as costs go up globally.
That complicates monetary policy, because it makes the economy vulnerable to unpredictable price shocks, as happened in June when the government was forced to cut fuel subsidies to protect refiners from going bankrupt after oil prices surged.
India's inflation rate jumped to more than 12 percent from 8.75 percent in three months, forcing Reddy to raise the central bank's key repurchase rate by 125 basis points to 9 percent.
Cumulatively, Reddy has increased the repurchase rate by 300 basis points since October 2004. He also raised the cash reserve ratio, or the proportion of funds that lenders need to set aside as reserves, by 400 basis points to 9 percent, since December 2006 to check money supply from stoking inflation.
The repurchase rate will climb to between 9.25 percent and 9.5 percent by the end of October, according to eight of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News after the last monetary policy announcement on July 29.
Little Scope
'There is little scope for an easing of monetary policy now,' said D.H. Pai Panandiker, president of RPG Foundation, an independent research group.
'Growth may suffer in the near term, but there is a lot of liquidity in the system that could be potentially inflationary.'
Government expenditure not been included in the budget, such as the $17 billion farm loan waiver, has risen to 5 percent of gross domestic product, and can stimulate consumer demand and fan inflation, Chakravarthi Rangarajan, a former central bank governor, said before the announcement.
Inflation can win or lose elections in India, where more than half the population of 1.1 billion people live on less than $2 a day.
Singh, who announced a 21 percent salary increase for about 5 million government employees last month, is reaching out to voters with pre-election handouts after losing ground in nine of the 11 state polls since January 2007 because of rising prices.
*******************************************
As reported in the Bloomberg.
Finance Secretary Subbarao, 59, will serve for three years, replacing Yaga Venugopal Reddy, 67, whose term ends on Sept. 5, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi today.
Eight of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expected the government to extend Reddy's term because of his decade-long experience at the Reserve Bank of India.
Subbarao may have to follow Reddy's four-year-old policy of raising borrowing costs as inflation has shown few signs of easing.
Subbarao said on July 28, a day before Reddy's last monetary policy, that raising interest rates was the 'obvious' solution to curb rising prices, a month after calling monetary policy ``the first line of defense'' against inflation.
'There has to be a continuation of the monetary policy,' said Sonal Varma, a Mumbai-based economist at Lehman Brothers Inc. 'Moderating inflation has to be the new governor's top priority followed by ensuring growth.'
Reddy has been raising borrowing costs since 2004 to prevent the world's fastest growing major economy after China from overheating.
Still, inflation in India surged to 12.63 percent last month after the government raised fuel costs to reduce its subsidy burden. That was the biggest gain in prices since the South Asian nation started to open its economy to foreign investors in the early 1990s.
Big Challenge
'That's the big challenge for any central bank governor in India -- it's hard to figure out when a sudden price spurt hits the economy,' N. R. Bhanumurthy, an economist at Institute of Economic Growth in New Delhi, said before the announcement.
Subbarao, who was an economic adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before he became the top bureaucrat in the finance ministry, is an engineering graduate from the elite Indian Institute of Technology.
He joined the civil service and was later deputed to the World Bank, where he was the lead economist between 1999 and 2004 on issue of public finance in Africa and East Asia.
Subbarao has a masters in Economics from Ohio State University and was a Humphrey Fellow at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. He holds a doctorate from Andhra University.
Soviet-Style
India practices Soviet-style price controls, subsidizing oil and ordering cement and steel companies to keep prices unchanged even as costs go up globally.
That complicates monetary policy, because it makes the economy vulnerable to unpredictable price shocks, as happened in June when the government was forced to cut fuel subsidies to protect refiners from going bankrupt after oil prices surged.
India's inflation rate jumped to more than 12 percent from 8.75 percent in three months, forcing Reddy to raise the central bank's key repurchase rate by 125 basis points to 9 percent.
Cumulatively, Reddy has increased the repurchase rate by 300 basis points since October 2004. He also raised the cash reserve ratio, or the proportion of funds that lenders need to set aside as reserves, by 400 basis points to 9 percent, since December 2006 to check money supply from stoking inflation.
The repurchase rate will climb to between 9.25 percent and 9.5 percent by the end of October, according to eight of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News after the last monetary policy announcement on July 29.
Little Scope
'There is little scope for an easing of monetary policy now,' said D.H. Pai Panandiker, president of RPG Foundation, an independent research group.
'Growth may suffer in the near term, but there is a lot of liquidity in the system that could be potentially inflationary.'
Government expenditure not been included in the budget, such as the $17 billion farm loan waiver, has risen to 5 percent of gross domestic product, and can stimulate consumer demand and fan inflation, Chakravarthi Rangarajan, a former central bank governor, said before the announcement.
Inflation can win or lose elections in India, where more than half the population of 1.1 billion people live on less than $2 a day.
Singh, who announced a 21 percent salary increase for about 5 million government employees last month, is reaching out to voters with pre-election handouts after losing ground in nine of the 11 state polls since January 2007 because of rising prices.
*******************************************
As reported in the Bloomberg.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Who is misleading Muslims on the Amarnath Land Issue?
Please click on the
ORIGINAL ORDER
on the Links List
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
'Simi' Threat to Hindu Places
A prominent ashram of Haridwar has received a letter purportedly written by the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
It threatens to blow up places in Haridwar, Rishikesh and other religious spots in Uttarakhand.
Authorities of the Shantikunj ashram have informed the police.
The handwritten letter was received two days ago by post.
'Simi' Threat to Hindu Places
A prominent ashram of Haridwar has received a letter purportedly written by the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
It threatens to blow up places in Haridwar, Rishikesh and other religious spots in Uttarakhand.
Authorities of the Shantikunj ashram have informed the police.
The handwritten letter was received two days ago by post.
Monday, August 25, 2008
'Simi' Threat to Hindu Places
The Shantikunj ashram of Haridwar has received a threatening letter purportedly written by the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
It threatens to blow up places in Haridwar, Rishikesh and other Hindu religious spots in Uttarakhand.
Authorities at the ashram have informed the police about the handwritten letter.
They received it two days ago by post.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Judge delivered a packet of Rs.15 lakh by 'mistake'
Neat bundles of crisp currency notes adding up to Rs 15 lakh, were delivered at the door of a high court judge in Haryana. A munshi working with Haryana's additional advocate general brought the money in a packet.
A police inquiry has got under way in the matter. The concerned judge, however, claimed she herself reported the matter to the authorities and police. Justice Nirmaljit Kaur said on Friday that she had told the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court about what has happened. Kaur is the second woman judge of the High Court.
The munshi who delivered the money is working with Haryana's additional advocate general. Kaur claimed there was no case before her in which the Haryana additional advocate general Sandeep Bansal was appearing.
What’s the real story?
Repots say that Parkash, a munshi working with Bansal went to Kaur's Sector 11 home on Wednesday night and handed over the "parcel" to the guard there. The guard, wary it could be a bomb, thought it fit to open the bag and see what it contained.
What if the guard would simply have delivered the parcel to his master?
Bansal had a different story to tell. He said the packet was meant for one Nirmal Singh, who lives in Sector 18. It was meant to be advance money for a property deal. It was only by mistake that my clerk reached the house of Justice Kaur.
Will you like to have a similar packet delivered to you by mistake? Contact Bansal for further details.
A police inquiry has got under way in the matter. The concerned judge, however, claimed she herself reported the matter to the authorities and police. Justice Nirmaljit Kaur said on Friday that she had told the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court about what has happened. Kaur is the second woman judge of the High Court.
The munshi who delivered the money is working with Haryana's additional advocate general. Kaur claimed there was no case before her in which the Haryana additional advocate general Sandeep Bansal was appearing.
What’s the real story?
Repots say that Parkash, a munshi working with Bansal went to Kaur's Sector 11 home on Wednesday night and handed over the "parcel" to the guard there. The guard, wary it could be a bomb, thought it fit to open the bag and see what it contained.
What if the guard would simply have delivered the parcel to his master?
Bansal had a different story to tell. He said the packet was meant for one Nirmal Singh, who lives in Sector 18. It was meant to be advance money for a property deal. It was only by mistake that my clerk reached the house of Justice Kaur.
Will you like to have a similar packet delivered to you by mistake? Contact Bansal for further details.
Humiliation complete for Georgian President
Humiliation for Georgian President Saakashvili was completed today as he was forced to sign a peace agreement that gives the Russian Army the right to patrol on Georgian territory.
In a critical amendment to the ceasefire drawn up by President Sarkozy of France, the Kremlin forced Saakashvili to accept that Russian troops could control a buffer zone of Georgian territory up to 10km beyond the border of the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Saakashvili was humiliated further when the final text of the agreement, removed a reference to Russian recognition of Georgia’s territorial integrity. It referred only to independence and sovereignty. Only yesterday Ser-gei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, had said that the world could forget about Georgia’s territorial integrity. The copy of the agreement was delivered personally by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State
After signing the peace agreement, an emotional Saakashvili said defiantly: “A significant part of Georgian territory remains under foreign military occupation. Never, ever will Georgia reconcile itself with the occupation of even one square kilometre of its territory.”
In a critical amendment to the ceasefire drawn up by President Sarkozy of France, the Kremlin forced Saakashvili to accept that Russian troops could control a buffer zone of Georgian territory up to 10km beyond the border of the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Saakashvili was humiliated further when the final text of the agreement, removed a reference to Russian recognition of Georgia’s territorial integrity. It referred only to independence and sovereignty. Only yesterday Ser-gei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, had said that the world could forget about Georgia’s territorial integrity. The copy of the agreement was delivered personally by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State
After signing the peace agreement, an emotional Saakashvili said defiantly: “A significant part of Georgian territory remains under foreign military occupation. Never, ever will Georgia reconcile itself with the occupation of even one square kilometre of its territory.”
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