India Business

An Indian team comprising IITians and a Nigerian team promoting low-cost farm products have triumphed at an India-Africa business competition held here.

Genrent do Brasil has been awarded a concession to build a 70 MW thermoelectric plant and temporarily supply electricity to the Peruvian Amazon city of Iquitos, authorities said.

Footwear major Woodland, owned by the Aero Group, is looking to re-position its sub-brand 'Woods' in the luxury footwear segment, focusing primarily on women's footwear, a top company official said Friday.

State-owned energy major ONGC Friday said it is at present "examining" whether to bid for cash-strapped Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) as the West Bengal government has recently invited expressions of interest for selling its stake in the beleaguered firm.

Skoda is all geared up to pull out Fabia from the Indian market. Fabia was the only hatchback offered by the company in India. However, Skoda is yet to finish the assembling to the Fabia and clear the inventory. So, it is expected that Fabia will remain on sale until its stocks are exhausted which may be by the end of this year. Skoda’s decision to stop Fabia comes in lure of the huge loss company has been witnessing over Fabia. Regular price cuts over the year on Fabia have forced company to cut its price almost by 40 percent of its original price in 2008. This price reduction has badly affected the margin on the vehicle. Fabia with very little local component was quite costly to produce and the problem was amplified with the declination of the value of Indian rupee by 36 percent since 2008, which uplifted the cost. According to the sources company was losing as much as about Rs. 1.5 lakh per car, which restricted the company from taking any aggressive marketing strategy for Fabia. Fabia was sold only 3,343 units in the fiscal year 2012-13. Last month Skoda sold only 115 units. Earlier this year Honda too refrain Jazz from production as it was becoming too costly to produce and the sales were not adequate. Skoda is likely to re-launch Fabia before the end of 2015 but company has not made it clear if the new vehicle will be the modified version of the existing one or it will be an all new Fabia that is also due for an international launch for next year. However, in lure of the low demand of the Fabia in Indian market all the plans for re-launching of Fabia in Indian market has been put on hold for sometime. The decision to discontinue the loss recurring Fabia will now help Skoda to focus mainly on the current product and the launch of new products in Indian market. Skoda is riding with high hopes on its new Octavia that company believes will become the segment leader once it is released in August this year. According to one of the company officials Skoda will now concentrate its resources on brand building and network expansion rather than on loss making Fabia.

In an initiative to expand its user engagement, Indiamart.com, an online business to business (B2B) marketplace, has introduced their mobile site — m.indiamart.com and Android App on Google Play Store. By using the website and Android app, prospective buyers can now find suppliers in specific locations or cities. It also allows them to send business enquiries and SMS directly from their mobile phones. Buyers can even call suppliers directly by clicking on their displayed number. Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, IndiaMART.com, said: “Gauging the growing inclination towards mobile Internet and apps, we have introduced the mobile-optimised version of our site and also our Android App. We felt that it was imperative to introduce these initiatives and ease the business possibilities for SMEs. Considering buyers and suppliers are mostly on the move.” I gave the app a spin and found it fast and it gave out results quick even on a normal 2G speed. The app has a simple and clean user interface and does not feel cluttered even with a large number of categories. Indiamart App operates on all mobile devices having Android Version 1.5 or above installed. The company claims that it connects users to 1.2 million suppliers and 6.5 million buyers on its platform. The online information & E-commerce portal recently launched a new Search feature that helps finding suppliers relevant to the location of operations. Currently there are few good B2B marketplaces in India like Amazon, eBay and latest addition getitBazaar. Such marketplaces are a boon for startups and SMEs. More such dedicated platforms should be launched to expand the ecommerce ecosystem. Meanwhile, the move by IndiaMart is thoughtful considering the rampant use of mobiles. We might see such other marketplaces take a que from this and introduce their own app. You can download the app here. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Commerce, Industry and Textiles Minister Anand Sharma, addressing the “India Investment Roundtable” jointly organized by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) of Ministry of Commerce and Confederation of Indian Industry in Tokyo today, invited leading Japanese companies to invest in India and become partner in the growth story of India for mutual benefit.

Leading Turkish private bank Turkland Bank has deployed Finacle software product of Indian IT bellwether Infosys for its core banking, customer relationship management and treasury operations.

Global ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) Friday said its outlook on India remained negative and there is a one-in-three chance of a downgrade within the next 12 months.

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