KACHARAGADLA

The world's largest aftermarket services provider iQor plans to invest $200 million in building an expanded, pan-India service network in the next 3-5 years.  "India is the world's fastest-growing major economy and is projected to be the second largest smartphone market by 2016," Hartmut Liebel, iQor's CEO said. "With infrastructure and staff already in place throughout the country, iQor is perfectly positioned to meet India's increasing demands for skilled, immediate product support."  The plan   The plan is to build India's largest After Services network with direct presence in more than 300 cities in 29 states. They are not going for a franchise model.  iQor plans to provide full portfolio of its services including contact center, premium/exclusive OEM branded walk-in-service centers, on-site support, complex component-level Repair, spare part management across multitude of industry segments including mobility, IT, Telecom

Among BRICS nations, India is the only country to have witnessed an increase in its brand value with all others --Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa -- seeing a dip in their respective brand valuations.  India has moved up one position to become the world’s seventh most valued ‘nation brand’ as per the annual report on world’s most valuable nation brands compiled by Brand Finance. The report says that India has registered an increase of 32% in its brand value to 2.1 billion dollars. The US remains on the top with a valuation of 19.7 billion dollars, followed by China and Germany at the second and the third positions respectively. The UK is ranked 4th, Japan is at fifth position and France is sixth on the list. While India and France have moved up one position each since last year, all the top-five countries have retained their respective places. However, the surge of 32% in India’s ‘nation brand value’ is the highest among all the top-20 countries on the list. Ch

Concepts such as incubation, early stage start-ups and others are at a nascent stage in India and mostly confined to urban areas and much can be done to strengthen their scale, scope and efficiency, said a report of the expert committee on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The committee, headed by noted academician Tarun Khanna, comprises eminent persons from India Inc and experts. It was constituted under the NITI Aayog. In the report, which was made public a few days ago, the panel said a survey commissioned by it showed that approximately 50 per cent of respondents feel the need to improve formal networking within their sector through associations, and to enhance their ability to work cooperatively with the government. "Approximately 60 per cent of the respondents stated that access to global markets needed to be strengthened - another area where incubators can help. Surveys also highlight that widespread investment, rather than focused investment in urban are

India’s efforts to create a more conducive climate for business activity were "remarkable" and "substantial", says the World Bank’s Chief Economist Kaushik Basu. It is possible for India to break into the top 100 rankings in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business listing within one year, according to the Bank’s Chief Economist Kaushik Basu. KACHARAGADLA: Here's why World Bank thinks India can make it in top 100 of ease of doing business index India’s efforts to create a more conducive climate for business activity were “remarkable” and “substantial”, Professor Basu, who was the Indian government’s Chief Economic Adviser between 2009 and 2012, said in an exclusive conversation with  The Hindu . Still, the nation’s absolute rank in the Bank’s 2016 Doing Business report was 130 and it had “no business being there,” he said. The report’s release comes just as the Narendra Modi government has begun its 18th month in power. Questions persist as to w

Not only consumers but even Apple is quite unhappy about the pricing of its iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, which launched in India on October 16. The high cost of the phones, given foreign exchange fluctuations, have had an impact on their sales. However, Apple said it wants to make long term investments in the country. A reason why, the impact of the high costs of the new models and their harsh impact on demand is being viewed seriously by the company top brass. "We've adjusted some prices around the world for the launch of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus... Obviously when we increase prices around the world, it's normal to see some impact on sales rates," Apple's CFO told ET. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are available in India between Rs 62,000 and Rs 92,000 depending on memory and model. This pricing is nearly Rs 9, 000 more than the last year's launch price of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and also Rs 14,000-16,000 costlier than their prices in global markets.

India improved its ranking in  ease of doing business index  and jumped 12 ranks to 130 th  spot, the  World Bank  said it is not impossible for the country to be in the top 100. World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice President Kaushik Basu said if India continues with its economic reforms, like the Goods and Services Tax, and erases bureaucratic cost of doing business, it would not be impossible for India to rank in top 100. "There are countries which have moved 30-40 places at one go, but usually these are small countries. For a big economy like India, it is difficult, but from what we have seen thus far, it is not impossible," Basu. While Basu lauded the reforms in India and said India had a reasonably substantial movement in the first year itself, he felt the country has a long way to go. "There is a lot of serious interest in India to cut down bureaucratic costs of doing business for small and medium-sized firms. It is important however to r

By solving local problems while keeping in mind reverse innovation possibilities, start-ups can help take India global There are three key factors that have created the right conditions for a start-up boom in India: > There is huge, latent demand; an intensive need for disruptive, low cost solutions that can reach the masses, in order to meet challenges on many fronts - education, health care, water, and agriculture to name just a few. Start-ups are designed to create disruptive solutions. > With the success of start-ups like Flipkart, there is a large supply of eager entrepreneurs that want to make an impact and make it big. The millennials are not driven by getting a 'steady job'  . They are more independent and willing to take risks. > The barriers to entry have never been lower with respect to infrastructure (easy to get in, elastic, cloud-based infrastructure such as Amazon Web Services), and global reach (ability to leverage Google, Apple a

India comfortably ranks third globally in the number of startups according to the latest Nasscom report. The number of startups in India is crossing  4,200 and still counting.  The report further says that the Indian startup ecosystem  will see funding worth $5 Bn by the end of this year.  Out of these thousands of startups, some are poised to completely redefine their sectors. Customers are readily accepting the new ways to travel, shop, make payments etc. Technology based innovative startups are seeing much traction from both the investors and customers. Having said that, the success metric for your startup is based on how you are not only improvising but also improving the existing mechanism. In today’s startup scenario, the word innovation & disruption is akin to survival. A true disruption is a business model innovation riding on the back of a technology innovation. So while this innovation is attracting investor attention and positively impacting the lifestyles of custome

India is offering relative value in a slow growth world and it's faster growth is allowing the country to emerge as the second largest emerging market after China, noted a recent report by Bank of America Merill Lynch.  "India is a rare economy in today's world in that it is not in stagflation. It is poised to overtake Brazil this year after having overtaken Russia last year in nominal GDP terms to emerge as the second largest emerging market after China," the report added.  The country is expected to register a GDP growth of 7.4 per cent this fiscal, according to the global brokerage firm.  "India still offers relative value in a slow-growth world. In our view we see a shallow recovery at home, we estimate growth at 5.5 per cent in FY16 and 6.5 per cent in FY17 (old GDP series)," BofA-ML said in a research note today.  According to the old series, the base year for calculation of national accounts was 2004-05.  The Central Statistic

With 32% international investors rating India as the best place to do business, the country is the world's most attractive market for investment, according to a report by Ernst & Young. Around 60% investors placed India among the top three investment destinations.  This report is a response to the question asked to the international investors "Which will be the most attractive market for investment in the next 3 years?" The investors highlighted improvements in the macroeconomic and political status, FDI policy and ease of doing business which is more attractive this year compared to last year's survey of Ernst & Young. Following India is China in second position where 15% investors rated the country as the best place to do business and 47% said China is among the top three investment destinations. With 12% and 38% rating in the two sectors, Southeast Asia is placed in the third position.  Russia and Japan have been voted last in the list with

India remains a net gainer from the slump in international commodities, even as exports take a knock A fall in global commodities prices and slowdown in China have changed growth equations, capital flows and foreign trade globally. India is no exception. India will be a net gainer, even as lower commodity prices have shrunk exports. It is also likely to attract a greater pie of the shrinking global capital flows. In the first half of FY16, the average price of Brent crude oil was down 47 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) and steel lost 30 per cent. India's merchandise exports in FY15 are likely to be the lowest in the past five years. Export of agri commodities, including basmati rice and buffalo meat, were also down in the first five months of FY16. A sharp fall in export of gems & jewellery, cotton and apparel, and steel was either due to unviable prices or lower demand. Aditya Narain, equity strategist, Citigroup Global Markets, says, "India looks to be a n