Rolls-Royce First Asian Defence Services Delivery Centre Comes Up in Bangalore

Rolls-Royce has opened a new Defence Service Delivery Centre (SDC) in Asia, located at the Manyata Embassy Business Park in Bengaluru. Co-located with the Rolls-Royce Engineering Centre, the SDC will offer localised engineering support to improve frontline capability of Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian Navy (IN) aircraft, and to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

The Centre was officially inaugurated by Dominic McAllister, British Deputy High Commissioner, Bengaluru, in the presence of Rolls-Royce executives including Kishore Jayaraman, President – India and South Asia; Lee Doherty, Senior Vice President - Defence, Asia Pacific; and Shaun Agle, Vice President Customer Services India Defence.

According to Doherty: “We put our customers at the heart of our business, and the opening of our first Service Delivery Centre in India demonstrates our commitment to be closer to our customers to ensure they get the best possible aftermarket support and outstanding customer service which they have come to expect from us. With a highly skilled team, fully trained in engineering services, supply chain and operational support, we will continue to provide maximum engine readiness and availability.”

The Centre will be providing defence customers in India with services such as fleet management, services engineering and supply chain co-ordination. It will also be the base from which Field Service Representatives can be rapidly dispatched to frontline bases, subject to contract coverage, to provide on-ground technical support. The aim is to deliver the optimum support possible to over 750 aircraft engines which power the Indian Armed Forces, including: the Adour, which powers both the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer and the Jaguar combat aircraft; the Gnome engine, which powers the Sea King; and the Dart, which powers the HS748. It also provides coverage for AE2100 and AE3007 engines that power the C-130J and the Embraer 145, respectively. The SDC also will have the capability to support new engine fleets.

Additionally, the SDC will support HAL by enabling “state of the art” supply chain management that will also combine with improved in-country support for manufacturing, assembly and test & repair capabilities.

This SDC is based on a highly successful model operated by Rolls-Royce at Royal Air Force Marham, UK for RB199 and also in use for the US Navy Adour F405 in Kingsville. The support system puts engineering and services staff on-base, working closely and collaboratively with the service to increase efficiency and communication. 

Agle explained “This Service Delivery Centre has been configured specifically for the Indian Armed Forces and HAL with Bangalore being a logical location close to Engine Division. Overall this contributes to the broader Make in India agenda through skills development and increasing self-sufficiency. The overriding goal is to improve availability of ‘engines-on-the-wing through a step change improvement of in-country responsiveness for current fleets as well as for future Defence programmes.”

Jayaraman explained what it means to India’s growing aerospace capabilities: “The opening of this Service Delivery Centre marks the beginning of a new chapter in the strong partnership that has existed for over eight decades between India and Rolls-Royce. It demonstrates our commitment to support India’s growth capabilities by encouraging knowledge transfer, building highly skilled teams and developing the Indian aerospace ecosystem.”

Indian Smartphones Represent 62% of all Mobile Phones Sales in 2018

As the Indian cellular market goes through consolidation and aggressive 4G roll out, demand for smartphones will continue to grow. With smartphone penetration maturing in many developed markets (see Table 1), continued growth in the world’s third largest smartphone market makes India an attractive market to device manufacturers. Smartphones in India are expected to account for 62 percent of all mobile phones sales in India in 2018.

Analyst Take: “With the slowdown in sales in major markets, including the U.S., China and mature Western Europe, India represents the largest opportunity because it is the second-largest mobile phone market after China,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner.

In addition demonetization in India through the elimination of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes caused an increased push from the government for digital currency, as well as people becoming more open to using digital payment methods. The rise of digital currency is bringing a new use case for smartphones, which, in turn, is set to trigger higher demands for smartphones. This opens the opportunity for service providers to launch mobile wallet solution or even vendors to launch their exclusive mobile payment solutions like Android Pay or Apple Pay to build an ecosystem.

Leading global vendors, Samsung and Apple, have made exclusive plans to grow their shares in the market. Major Chinese manufacturers, such as Gionee, Huawei, Oppo, BBK (Vivo), Xiaomi, Lenovo etc., have committed big investments to exploit the growth opportunity.

Ever rising competition from Chinese manufacturers has not only troubled top local brands such as Micromax, Intex, Lava and Karbonn mobile but also resulted in a decrease in smartphone market share for Samsung in India (see Table 2).

“With an exclusive focus on the market from the device manufacturers, we expect more customized smartphones to come to market and remain key to win in this highly competitive market,” said Gupta.

As opposed to earlier falling mobile phone average selling price (ASP) trends led by the rush to low cost mobile phone, we have noted a change in consumer spending. Our recently concluded consumer survey showed, users are willing to spend more to get a smartphone with better features than simply rushing for lowest price smartphones.

“The growing ASP trend will be maintained in the coming years with the increasing middle class population and rising per capita income leading to more disposable income to be spent on electronic goods,” Gupta said.

At Annual "performance appraisal", Wipro Fires Over 600 Employees

The country's third largest software services firm Wipro is learnt to have fired hundreds of employees as part of its annual "performance appraisal".

According to sources, Wipro has shown the door to about 600 employees, while speculation was rife that the number could go as high as 2,000.

At the end of December 2016, the Bengaluru-based company had over 1.79 lakh employees. 

When contacted, Wipro said it undertakes a "rigorous performance appraisal process" on a regular basis to align its workforce with business objectives, strategic priorities of the company, and client requirements.

"The performance appraisal may also lead to the separation of some employees from the company and these numbers vary from year to year," it added.

The company, however, did not comment on the number of employees that have been asked to leave.

Wipro said its comprehensive performance evaluation process includes mentoring, re-training and upskilling of employees. The company is scheduled to report its fourth quarter and full-year numbers on April 25.

The development comes at a time when Indian IT companies are facing an uncertain environment given the curbs being proposed on worker visa norms by various countries like the US, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

These companies use temporary work visas to send employees to work on client sites.

With visa programmes in these countries becoming more rigorous, Indian IT companies are likely to face challenges in movement of labour as well as a spike in operational costs.

Indian IT companies get over 60 per cent of their revenues from the North American market, about 20 per cent from Europe and the remaining from other economies.

Besides, higher adoption of technologies like automation and artificial in also reducing the need to have a large number of employees at client site.

Shoppers Stop & ToneTag Partners for Sound-Based Contactless Payments

Following in the footsteps of Digital India mission, leading fashion retailer, Shoppers Stop has partnered ToneTag, a proximity communications firm, to integrate and deploy ToneTag sound-based contactless payments at its stores. This technology will use sound-waves from mobile phones to enable customers to make ‘cardless’, ‘cashless’ and ‘contactless’ payments at all 84 Shopper Stop stores spread across the country.

“Our collaboration with ToneTag is yet another step in the direction of digitising all our Shoppers Stop stores. Our paramount focus is to offer our customers a convenient, fast and enhanced shopping experience. With ToneTag’s sound-based technology, our customers will now have multiple payment options for a smooth, fast and convenient shopping experience,” said Govind Shrikhande, Customer Care Associate & Managing Director, Shoppers Stop Ltd.

With ToneTag’s sound pay technology, customers can make secure payments within a matter of seconds and experience a faster check out.

“Shoppers Stop’s contribution towards digitisation has been exemplary. I am a strong believer that Shoppers Stop and ToneTag will continue to strive for best consumer experience.

“Shoppers Stop’s contribution towards digitisation has been exemplary. I am a strong believer that Shoppers Stop and ToneTag will continue to strive for best consumer experience by bringing great retail technology with simple user interface,” said Kumar Abhishek, CEO, ToneTag.

ToneTag’s technology uses audio signals or ‘tone tags’ for data exchange between devices. Payment instructions can be transmitted, using a sound signal, through a traditional phone line, without any additional hardware or software requirements or dependencies. This makes highly inter-operable and secure cashless payments possible from any mobile phone to another phone or computing device.

Japanese Major SoftBank Likely to Invest $1.5 Billion in Paytm

If the discussions materialise, the deal could value the One97 Communications Ltd-owned company at $7-9 billion, the report says, citing three people aware of the matter.

As per the deal, SoftBank will not only buy some shares from existing Paytm investor SAIF Partners and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma but would also be investing money in the company. The payments company may also buy out Snapdeal-owned mobile wallet firm FreeCharge in a “fire sale, though the fundraising is not contingent upon the proposed buyout,” the report added.

With SoftBank on board, Paytm could also be seeking a way to balance out the control of China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, currently its largest shareholder. Interestingly, the Japanese company was an early backer of Alibaba and its initial investment of $20 million turned into a stake worth more than $60 billion when Alibaba listed its shares in 2014.

SoftBank has been re-strategizing its plans in India after its investments in the county failed to yield encouraging returns. With a total investment of over $3 billion in the country, 

SoftBank is now pushing mergers and acquisitions to consolidate its portfolio. The Japanese major has reportedly been spearheading the talks for a possible merger of Snapdeal with rival Flipkart.

Google’s ‘Areo’ App for Food Delivery & Home Services for Indian Market

Without much hullabaloo, Google has launched a new food delivery and home services aggregator called Areo for the Indian market. The Android application for hyperlocal delivery and home services provides users with one-touch access to restaurants, beauty salons, and other home maintenance or cleaning services.

The app that was first spotted by The Android Soul,  is available as a free download on the Google Play store and is currently operational in Bangalore and Mumbai.

For the food delivery service, Google presently has three startups on board to allow Indian masses to order food — Freshmenu, Scootsy, and HolaChef. Any of these will be available to serve you based on your location. As for the beauty, personal care, fitness, and home maintenance services, Google has got on board Urban Clap to lend a helping hand.

One can either search for any specific dish or choose any specific partner to browse through dishes and schedule deliveries by paying online or use cash on delivery. Notably, Google has partnered with TimesofMoney’s DirecPay for online payments on Areo rather than using its own payment solution.

The USP of the app is that its fast and the experience is a lot simpler than having to go through multiple apps in one’s smartphone.  Well, this could also be some bad news for other local delivery startups who have some new competition from tech titan itself.

Google has launched a couple of India-centric app in recent weeks. First, it debuted beta version of YouTube Go app in India and then of course the music streaming subscription packs on Google Play Music for as low as Rs 89/month.

SC Orders Auction of Sahara's Rs 34,000 Cr Aamby Valley Properties

Supreme Court has ordered auction of Sahara's Rs 34,000 crore Aamby Valley properties over the business conglomerate's failure to deposit money for refunding to its investors.

The Supreme Court bench also directed that Sahara Group's Subrata Roy be personally present in the next date of hearing on April 28th in the case.

"Enough is enough. You cannot say something today and resile tomorrow," a bench, comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri, said, taking strong note of non- submission of over Rs 5,000 crore by the Sahara group.

The bench also cautioned Roy from playing with the court's order and said non-compliance of its order would invite the wrath of the law and ultimately he will be at his own peril.  If you can't pay, go to jail, the top court said.

The Supreme Court had earlier warned the Sahara Group that it would auction its prime property worth Rs 39,000 crore at Aamby Valley in Pune if Rs 5092.6 crore is not paid by the company by April 17 as promised.

Last month, a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra directed the international real estate firm, which had shown willingness to buy Sahara's stake in New York- based Plaza Hotel for $550 million, to deposit Rs 750 crore in the SEBI-Sahara refund account instead of the apex court registry to show its bonafide.

"We will auction your (Sahara) Aamby Valley project if the money is not deposited within the stipulated time period as promised," the bench, also comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri, observed.

The apex court had also asked Sahara Group to provide it within two weeks the list of "unencumbered properties" which can be put for public auction to realise the remaining over Rs 14,000 crore of the principal amount of around Rs 24,000 crore that has to be deposited in the SEBI-Sahara account for refunding money to the investors.

SC on May 6, 2016 granted a four-week parole to Roy to attend the funeral of his mother. His parole has been extended by the court ever since. Roy was sent to Tihar jail on March 4, 2014.

Besides Roy, two other directors -- Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary -- were arrested for the failure of the group's two companies -- Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL) -- to comply with the court's August 31, 2012 order to return Rs 24,000 crore to their investors. However, director Vandana Bhargava was not taken into custody.