indian stock market anchors need transperancy

Media needs to be more transparent
Switch on any business channel on television and you have the same picture. An anchor sits in a plush studio with two “experts” gleefully telling the viewers which stock to buy, and which to dump. By the way of exposure you have a half a second clip which tell you that the said “expert “ holds stock in the very company he is pontificating about. This has clearly irritated the country’s stock exchange watchdog the securities and exchange board of India. Its out going chairman Mr. Damodaran made this much plain in a recent interview to the Indian Express. When a regulator held in wide esteem as a sensible overseer takes notice of the media it raises several questions.
In the United States, especially post Enron, there are specific provisions that channels have to follow including a detailed discourse of number of stocks and likely investment positions in the futures markets before they come on television and speak on a particular stock. None of this alas is in existence in the Indian media.
The lack of such disclosure has the potential to create a herd mentality in bull runs. It can also hurt the retail investor given the fact that some of the large business houses hold a significant percentage as ownerships in business channels. Thus if an industrialist has a major stake in a media house that owned a television channel and comes up with an IPO it can be a case of conflict of interest for him to manipulate a stock.
The real concern is that although SEBI has made two attempts to work out a self-regulating code of conduct for the media there has been no response from the media. This arrogance may cost the media some of its dearly loved freedom. When self-regulation is absent, inevitably governments find ways to impose their will.The media needs to heed this wake up call and line up a code of conduct that makes their manner more transparent. Such a move will help them, their viewers and the retail investors. Not so doing could cost the media its credibility and some of its freedom.

book publishing is big business in india

Publishing gains currency
On the face of it thin crowds at the world book fair underway in Delhi would point to a dampener in sales. Nothing could be far from the truth as far as the publishing industry in India is concerned. . The 3000 crore Indian publishing industry is thriving.

Three factors are driving the growth of publishing in India. The first is the retail revolution some of the stores such as landmark and Oxford have sprawling bookshops in access of 10,000 square feet. This was unheard of in India even three years ago. The footfall is at the malls and the bookshops and only the die-hard bookworm or the industry associate needs to make the trip to the book fair.

The second important driver is the rise in literacy in India. It is estimated that 200 million Indian have access to books in at least one language. A Ficci Pwc study showed that book readership grew at an average of 20 per cent per year since 2000.
The third driver is outsourcing. The global out sourcing market for book publishing is $2.5 billion. India accounts for a minuscule percentage bit the growth are robust. The labor arbitrage is obvious - it costs 50 % less to design typeset and print books in India when compared to the west. . However the industry is unable to fully leverage the biggest opportunity. For one thing the tariffs on paper are prohibitive making the industry uncompetitive for large-scale projects. Compared to India the free port of Singapore offset much higher labor costs by having a tariff structure that has made it a global publishing hub.
The book industry is also hampered by poor distribution as well as inventory management techniques. The time for books gathering dust on the shelf are coming to an end in the retail chain. If the publishing industry shapes up it can ship out a large volume of books though the off shoring model.
To fully employ the opportunity the publishing industry will need to introduce automation and bring to book lacuna such as inventory miss management and distribution hiccups. Not doing so could result in India loosing out to other countries in this segment.

soros looks @ indian entertainment sector

When billionaires come together industries shake. The decision by billionaire investor George Soros top put $100 million for a three percent staked in Anil Ambani’s Reliance Entertainment has indeed shaken up the sector .

Go to any film studio in Mumbai or a gaming café in Bangalore and you can see that consumer interest and easy availability through retail is allowing for a boom in India’s entertainment sector. The Indian leisure classes love their movies and their TV shows and there are more then 150 million of these willing to pay for content.
According to Price Waterhouse coopers, a consultancy, Indian entertainment industry has a turnover of $10 billion. It is estimated that the industry will be worth $13 billion by 2010.

The crucial difference this time is that this industry is moving away from fragmentation. Mr. Ambani’s enterprise for instance has under its roof more then 100 theaters across India and an equal number planned in the US. It also has film production firms that have signed upon big names in bollywood. Add to the menu gaming portals, postproduction faculties, an animation firm, TV programming companies, DVD distribution, FM channels with a pan Asian presence and music. What emerges is a media conglomerate in the making that can do the famed end-to-end operations Ambani style.
The larger industry too is growing exceptionally. New television channels are multiplying like rabbits similar growth is there in sectors such as movies and magazines. The Indian consumer is growing richer and more literate and there is also the back up of the foreign residing Indians hungry for content from back home. The annual growth of 18 % in this industry is looking to get bigger.
In all this growth however there are real issues distribution still remains a bottleneck though direct to home access will in time change that. The entertainment industry is heavily taxed making film tickets expensive even in small towns. Revenue models from entertainment avenues including FM radio and the Internet are in its infancy. However investors like Soros have taken a bet that a foot n the door now will ensure rich rewards as the market matures. This appears to be a good bet.

river rafting hampred by dams in india

Rafting may fall overboard in rapids of dam projects
Business worth Rs 60 crore, at least 4,000 jobs and the priceless thrill of white-water rafting are at stake with the on-going construction of two dams on the river Alakananda and Ganga. Damming the Ganga upstream from Shivpuri, as well as diversions resulting from the massive dam at Tehri, has impacted the flow of water to the 24-km stretch. If the construction work continues and further tunnels and barrages are opened, some of the country's most popular rapids will be transformed into little more than tepid pools.
The first to fall overboard will be the 40-odd adventure firms that organise rafting expeditions. Says Ajeet Bajaj, president of the Adventure Sports Association of India: "The professional stretch on the Alakananda river has reduced considerably making rafting difficult. There is also a clear danger that the Shivpuri area could become unviable with two new dams coming up upstream and on tributaries. This is a pity because the Ganga is the best rafting river in India and now firmly on the world rafting map."
Explaining their predicament, one operator with two of the several camps that dot the Shivpuri shoreline says, "What dams do is reduce the flow of the river at times when reservoirs are filled and make it too deep at other points when water is released. In both cases, the two dams could make the stretch unviable and shorten-or even curtail-the rafting season."
However, the government does not seem to share the anxiety of the tourism industry. Says Indu Pandey, additional chief secretary, Uttarakhand, who also heads the state's tourism department: "Yes, dams are coming up on the rivers. These are run-of-the-river dams and are not going to affect the flow significantly. I think the industry can live with these dams and should not panic."

free the business of inteernet commerce inindia

Scrap B2C curbs
The proposed curbs on business to consumer firms that sell goods through the Internet are a retrograde idea. Anything that the Internet firms sell from abroad has to go through the tariff and duty regimes of the Indian government. That ensures the government revenue. Currently it is a 2500 crore market and growing at robust clip.

Unwarranted curbs on this growing business could lead to constriction of revenues and loss of jobs. At the heart of the issue is the fact that selling though Internet is not a vending matter but that of commerce. Put differently, it is in the realm of tariff and not retail policy.


What is more, the move could lead to retaliation from foreign countries and impact sourcing of goods from India thought the internet - which is a far larger business.
In fact the government would do well to encourage this business by simplifying norms for warehousing, logistics and the cold chain since. It should be borne in mind that the “at the door step” industry globally generates a substantial number of jobs and in time could compare with the growth of pure play retail. The potential for business to customer industry is enormous given the increase in broadband connections and greater online security in commercial transactions.

There is need for the government to allow greater equity in e commerce ventures that are pegged at 51 per cent and to libralise the current regime that does not allow any equity in foreign firms wanting to business to customer e commerce in India.

This is not to say that the Internet based businesses do not need regulation. There are cases of fraudulent and late delivery and also of banned goods making there way into India through the Internet based e commerce model. These should be regulated and not the system of supply and selling.

Internet based business to customer model is good for another reason. It is at the cutting edge of information driven business and add to the competitive capabilities of an economy. An Internet based model cuts waste and inventories and invests in technology for speedy delivery. This is turn ensures that even off line firms become leaner and more competitive. It is an industry that needs to be encouraged and not – as the proposed measures could – nipped in the bud.