Monday, February 1, 2016

Flex Sponsored IESA VISION Summit 2016 to Focus on Make In India & Internet of Things


Flex, a leading sketch-to-scale solutions company that designs and builds intelligent products for a connected world is sponsoring and taking part in the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) Vision Summit from February 3 - 5, 2016 at Leela Palace, Bangalore.

 The three-day summit will bring together industry leaders from across the globe to discuss latest topics and trends relating to electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) ecosystem, “Make in India” initiative, and Intelligence of Things (IoT), among others.

During the event, Dhawan will deliver a keynote address on how our world is changing with the advent of IoT that will connect everything in the physical world to the internet, using wired or wireless devices.  Dhawan will also highlight how India’s ESDM ecosystem comprising global & local technology companies, start-ups, and incubators can capitalize on the explosive growth of IoT especially in the areas of healthcare, agriculture, education, automotive and energy.

NASSCOM’s India Leadership Summit Will be Held in Mumbai from February 10-12, 2016


The National Association of Software and Services Company (NASSCOM) is all set to host its annual three-dayflagship event – NASSCOM India Leadership Forum [NILF] from February 10-12, 2016, at the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai. 

NILF is an annual event where thought leaders and global influencers congregate to address, deliberate and exchange ideas on the emerging themes of the future. This time, the forum’s deliberations will be around the theme – ‘The Smart Enterprise – transformative to disruptive’. 

PIKKOL & Zoom Cars Partner for Relocation Mobility Services In India



Bengaluru based relocation services aggregator PIKKOL has partnered with self drive car rental company Zoomcar. This tie up between Pikkol and Zoomcar is valid across all cities in India and it aims at providing hassle free mobility for consumers opting for Pikkol’s relocation services.

On the occasion, Deepu Chandran, CEO, Pikkol said “This partnership with Zoomcar will help us enhance our customers' moving experience. In addition to helping our customers with a hassle free relocation experience, we also want to lend a hand in helping them settle down in a new city”

Greg Moran, CEO, Zoomcar said “ We could see a lot of potential in our partnership with Pikkol right from the outset, as both our companies are trying to provide convenience and hassle-free mobility to people staying in Indian cities today. This, coupled with a lot of synergy in customer demography, made it a win-win alliance for both of us”

As a part of the tie up, PIKKOL customers can opt for Zoomcar services and get a 16% discount on all cars .

Apart from Zoomcar, Pikkol also has tie ups with Faasos and Tata Croma retail.

Nucleus’s FinnOne to Support Digital Transformation Program at BOQ


Nucleus Software, the leading provider of lending and transaction banking solutions to the global financial services industry, further strengthens its global presence by announcing the successful launch and roll-out of its lending software at Bank of Queensland (BOQ), in Australia. BOQ, a leading Australian challenger Bank, has implemented Nucleus Software’s award winning flagship lending product, FinnOne for its retail loan origination operations.

Established in 1874, today Bank of Queensland has more than 200 branches across Australia, including a majority of owner-managed branches, ensuring a commitment to deliver exceptional personal service to their customers. To power its ongoing transformation program, BOQ selected Nucleus Software’s FinnOne for its home and personal lending markets. With FinnOne, Nucleus Software is helping BOQ to increase its business agility and become paperless. FinnOne is revolutionizing multi-channel retail loan processing at the Bank across the front and middle offices.  The advanced solution is also reducing process complexity in a range of ways, including replacing inflexible, hard copy rules with sophisticated, automated credit policies and process checklists. FinnOne will enable BOQ to get closer to its customers and help to speed up its “Time to Yes”.

“Nucleus Software is a key partner and is assisting us in digitizing our home and personal lending operations. Their global expertise is helping us to achieve our vision of having a Bank that is much closer to our customers, and is assisting us to develop digital capabilities that will eventually allow our customers to transact anytime anywhere. FinnOne will streamline the Bank’s retail loan operations as well as make us more nimble, providing us with the ability to introduce innovative, tailor-made products and customer-oriented services to meet the growing demands of our customers. Nucleus Software is at the centre of our mission to create Australia’s most loved Bank”, said Jon Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, BOQ.

Commenting on the successful launch, Vishnu R. Dusad, Chief Executive Officer,Nucleus Software said, “The collaboration with BOQ is significant in two ways – it is FinnOne’s first customer in Australia and it further demonstrates our global expertise in lending. With more than 150 customers across the globe, we are delighted to welcome BOQ to our growing family. BOQ is on a major digitization drive in order to deliver par excellence customer experience and satisfaction. I am happy to see the confidence that they have placed in our advanced and functionally rich solution. I know that our three decades of expertise will help BOQ meet its business objectives, deliver better service to its customers and drive higher business value. I am confident that this partnership with one of Australia’s leading challenger Banks will bring greater levels of customer satisfaction and I know that it will help to prove that it is possible to love a bank.”

He further added, “Australia is an important market for us and in line with this ongoing commitment, we have also established our regional headquarters covering sales, professional services and support in Sydney.”

Nucleus Software’s flagship lending product, FinnOne has been ranked as the ‘No. 1 Best Selling Lending System’ by International Banking Systems (IBS) for the 7th year in a row.  FinnOne is designed to support seamlessly integrated applications, provide operational support, risk management and decision-making capabilities to banks and financial services companies. FinnOne focuses on both, retail and corporate loans, thereby emerging as a comprehensive solution to back any line of the lending business.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Himalaya & Smile Train Partner for ‘Muskaan’ to Enable First Smiles to 100 cleft patients in 2016


The Himalaya Drug Company, India’s leading Herbal Health and Personal Care Company has announced the launch of a cleft lip initiative –“Muskaan” in association with Smile Train India, an international NGO dedicated to spreading awareness on cleft deformities and providing free corrective surgeries for the under-privileged.

As part of the initiative, Himalaya Lip Care will enable a minimum of 100 cleft surgeries through Smile Train India through the first year of this partnership. So far, 55 cleft surgeries have already been completed. A contribution of Rs. 2 from the purchase of every Himalaya Lip Care product will be made towards the cause. While it’s just the beginning, Himalaya’s aim is to ensure children in need of cleft surgeries get access to treatment at the earliest, and at a tender age when healing is faster.

Rajesh Krishnamurthy, Business Head-Consumer Products, The Himalaya Drug Company commented on the initiative, “We are extremely happy to associate with Smile Train India for this initiative. They have the operational excellence and network of skilled doctors to carry out the surgeries and have shown genuine empathy towards the cause. As a leading brand in the Lip Care category, one of the core brand objectives for Himalaya Lip Care is to ensure Healthy and Nourished lips for ALL. But it just doesn’t end here. We understand lips are conduit to expression of one’s emotions and confidence, a cleft condition hinders both. As a leading brand, we have taken this initiative to support the patients suffering from cleft-lip and help make a difference in their lives.”

“The treatment of cleft is hampered more due to the economic and perception constraints thus the need to provide access to free surgeries and spread awareness becomes more pressing. The launch of Muskaan and association with Smile Train is aimed at meeting these.”he further added.

To put the issue under the spotlight, the company has shot and unveiled a beautiful film on the life transformation journey of Jyothi from Darbur Village, Chikkaballapur, Bengaluru who had been living with cleft for 14 years. The film brings alive the emotions and aspirations of the girl born with a cleft lip and palate as she undergoes a cleft lip surgery that gives her, her first real smile and leaves her with the promise of a better life.

The renowned composer Karan has crafted the music and Sona Mahapatra has lent her soulful voice to the background score. The track has been composed by lyricist Amit that captures this real story sublimely.

At the eventMamtaa Carrol, Smile Train’s Vice President and Regional Director for South Asia said, “It’s hard to imagine not being able to smile, but over ten lakh children in India live with untreated clefts. This birth defect also impairs eating, speaking and breathing and can lead to a life filled with shame and social isolation for the children and their families. In the last 16 years, we have helped provide new smiles and second chances in life to over 4,50,000 children in India and are excited that Himalaya has joined us in this journey of transforming lives. We are sure that the film on Jyothi will help raise awareness about clefts and its life-impacting treatment.”

“Support from corporates like Himalaya is a critical aspect of our work. It not only helps us continue and sustain our work but enables us to extend it, add greater value to it and spread awareness on a far greater scale. We look forward to a long and mutually fulfilling partnership with Himalaya which’ll add value to both the organizations as well as our common constituency of cleft patients.” she added.

Rahul Bharti, Creative Director, Roadrunner – the video production house, commented on the film, “The brief given to us emphasised on bringing alive the difference that a simple corrective cleft surgery can make in the life of a cleft patient. Simple things that we take for granted like smiling to express happiness, socializing with friends and wearing makeup to look as well as feel good, was a big challenge for this young girl and this is something we discovered in our first meeting with Jyothi. While it is impossible for a 3 minute film to do justice to her everyday challenges, we have tried to capture a glimpse of her experience and aspirations.

Sona Mohapatra, the singer also present at the launch event commented, “This cause is extremely close to my heart thus singing the track was emotionally overwhelming. Everyone has a right to smile and I would like to encourage all of you to spread awareness on this initiative Muskaan.”

New Strategies & Brands Will Enable Myntra to Touch $1 Billion Target During FY 2016-17


Myntra, India's leading platform for fashion brands and pioneer in m-commerce play, has clocked $800 million in annualized GMV in January 2016, taking it closer to the target of reaching $1 billion GMV by FY 2016-2017. Sales volumes for the month were propelled by growth of Myntra Fashion Brands, increased contribution of international brands including new marquee brands such as MnS, Forever 21, high growth in women's wear category and a hugely successful End of Reason sale. Also, discounts have dropped by 6% and supply chain cost reduced by 5% in the last quarter.

According to Ananth Narayanan, CEO, Myntra, “January has been the biggest month ever for Myntra. I am happy to share that we have achieved an annualized GMV of $800 million. Our focus for the year will be to attain positive gross profit while maintaining scale during the year. We plan to build on the momentum in the first month to touch $1 billion GMV by FY2016-17.”

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE IN 2015
In 2015, three key strategies were adopted which has helped the company to clock growth of 70 % YoY.  First, there was a focus on brand mix that appealed to the price conscious as well as the fashion & brand conscious. Second, the company worked towards greater efficiencies arising out of increasing scale and better management of business processes. Finally, better cost management through a series of rationalization measures have ensured better bang for the buck, be it in marketing or infrastructure.
PERFORMANCE OF BRANDS AND CATEGORIES

The focus for 2015 was on building a large portfolio of domestic and international brands. “Online fashion consumers are largely brand seeking. Brands will grow and define future of fashion. We expect the branded fashion market to grow twice as fast as the overall fashion market in the next 5 years. We now plan to be profitable at scale in FY 2016-17, with consistently high growth rates,” says Prasad Kompalli, Head – eCommerce Platform, Myntra.

By the end of December 2015, there were over 2000 brands on the Myntra platform, of which 800 new brands had been on-boarded in 2015. The top brands for the year were Roadster, Puma, Nike, Vero Moda and UCB.

The year also saw a growth in Myntra Fashion Brands, led by Roadster, which became the highest performing brand on the platform.  Roadster aims to clock Rs.400 crore in 2015-16 and become a $100-million or Rs 650-crore brand by end of 2016.The in-house brands saw an increase in contribution in overall revenue to 20% in 2015. The focus area for FY 2016 is to increase contribution of in-house brands to ~25%.

Currently, on Myntra there are more than 30 international brands on the platform, including Scotch and Soda, Harley Davidson, Ferrari, Desigual, Forever 21,The North Face, Timberland and Marks and Spencer out of which 25 were added in 2015 alone.

The overall contribution by December end was 5%, which will increase to 15% by FY 2017. The leading international brands were Forever 21, Mango, Antony Morato, Scotch and Soda and MnS.

WOMENSWEAR
Among categories, the womenswear category grew by 73% in 2015.In January 2015, Myntra had a total of 995 womenswear brands and 90,000 styles catering to the women consumer. A year later, in Jan 2016, Myntra has approximately 1250 womenswear brands and 141,000styles. This represents a 25% increase in brands, and a 55% increase in the women’s wear catalog. In the women's category, Western wear has been the top performing category which was followed by lingerie.
Some of the key brand launches in the past one year include All About You (MFB), Guess, Label by Ritu Kumar, Chumbak, Emporio Armani innerwear, Calvin Klein innerwear, ALDO, Nine West, Accessorize, FURLA and Kenneth Cole.

MENSWEAR
Menswear brands on the platform went up from 263 brands in 2014 to 419 brands by the end of 2015 and the category grew overall by 70%. Shirts, Jeans/Denims and Winter wear were the top 3 menswear products.

In the menswear category, the top performing market brands were UCB, Jack and Jones, Wrangler, US Polo Assn and Levi’s. Among the in-house brands, Roadster and Mast and Harbour were the top performers.Wrogn, which was launched in February last year, is among the top 10 brands in this category.

SPORTSWEAR
The category saw the addition of Adidas NEO,Timberland, The North Face, Columbia Sportswear- Exclusive Real Madrid, Barcelona, DC, among others. For the category, the top 5 brands were Nike, Puma, adidas, Reebok, Fila and Vans. In the sports category, products for running , training and fitness (especially those for women engaged in dance, yoga, aerobics and zumba etc.) continues to do well. Sporty lifestyle footwear and winter wear are also doing well. New categories like outdoor, skateboarding and basketball are picking up faster than other categories.

Slump in Q3 Results for Syndicate Bank During FY 2015-16


The PSU bank, Syndicate Bank fell 5% to Rs 70.35 at 14:34 IST on BSE after the bank reported a net loss of Rs 119.67 crore in Q3 December 2015 compared with net profit of Rs 304.99 crore in Q3 December 2014.

The result was announced during trading hours today, 28 January 2016. Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 59.67 points, or 0.24%, to 24,552.06.

On BSE, so far 9.24 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 1.61 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 75 and a low of Rs 69 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 127.50 on 4 March 2015. 

The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 68.50 on 21 January 2016. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 27 January 2016, sliding 14.79% compared with 5.21% decline in the Sensex. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, falling 23.82% as against Sensex's 10.13% fall.

The mid-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 662.06 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10. Syndicate Bank's total Income rose 4.50% to Rs 6188.25 crore in Q3 December 2015 over Q3 December 2014.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPA) edged higher to Rs 9602.80 crore as on 31 December 2015 from Rs 7734.41 crore as on 30 September 2015 and Rs 6723.99 crore as on 31 December 2014. The bank's ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 4.61% as on 31 December 2015, compared with 3.72% as on 30 September 2015 and 3.60% as on 31 December 2014.

The bank's ratio of net non-performing assets (NPAs) to net advances stood at 3.04% as on 31 December 2015, compared with 2.37% as on 30 September 2015 and 2.38% as on 31 December 2014. Provisions and contingencies rose 201.38% to Rs 875.23 crore in Q3 December 2015 over Q3 December 2014. The provisioning coverage ratio as on 31 December 2015 stood at 58.67%.

The bank's Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) as per Basel III norms stood at 10.91% as on 31 December 2015, compared with 10.46% as on 30 September 2015 and 10.46% as on 31 December 2014. CASA (current and savings account) deposits (domestic) increased 9% to Rs 68036 crore as on 31 December 2015 compared with Rs 62445 as on 31 December 2014. Domestic CASA deposits stood at 30.22% of total domestic deposits as at 31 December 2015. Government of India holds 69.24% stake in Syndicate Bank (as on 31 December 2015).

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