McCormick & Company Ups 15% Stake to Own 100% of ‘Kohinoor’ Branded Basmati Rice in India

McCormick and Company, Inc., a global leader in flavor, is set to acquire remaining 15% equity ownership in Kohinoor Speciality Foods India Private Limited (KSF), i.e. ‘Kohinoor’ branded Basmati Rice business in India, from Kohinoor Foods Ltd (KFL), thus becoming 100% owner to Indian business of ‘Kohinoor’ branded basmati rice, one of the country’s best basmati rice brand. Earlier in September 2011, McCormick purchased the ‘Kohinoor’ brand and other trademarks along with 85% ownership in KSF.

This development places the company in prime position to accelerate its growth and investments plans in India - ethically, sustainably and with no compromise on its commitment to the highest standards of quality.

McCormick has invested more than $150 million in India since 1994 through four ventures which employ over 2000 people today.

The company’s two joint ventures in South India are equipped with the latest processing technologies and produce high quality spices products for India and international markets.

In 2014, it set up a corporate services entity based out of Gurgaon, India, leveraging on India’s IT talent to serve the company’s global needs.

“As a key emerging market, India presents exciting growth opportunities for McCormick.  We have invested in India continuously for over two decades and are deeply committed to the ‘Kohinoor’ brand in this market. Our goal is to leverage ‘Kohinoor’ brand from a Basmati rice brand to a “Rice and Spice” leader in this market through our passion for flavor” said Malcolm Swift, President of McCormick’s International Business.

Quality to consumers remains a priority and in establishing a stronger operating model, McCormick has ceased operating arrangements with Kohinoor Food Limited and its promoters, by way of an amicable settlement agreement. Both parties have initiated the process to withdraw all legal proceedings.

“Our recent infrastructure enhancements, the building of stronger RnD capabilities at our Food Factory in Haryana and our plan to expand our offerings under the ‘Rice and Spice’ platform are building on our decades of commitment to this market,” said Amit Mehta, Managing Director, Kohinoor Speciality Foods India Private Limited. “We’re here to stay and we are set on our mission to provide the ‘Best quality food products for our Indian consumers’ as we believe India deserves the best”.

Honeywell Selects 17 Indian Students to Train Like An Astronaut At US Space & Rocket Center

Honeywell has announced that 17 Indian children joined 320 students from 45 countries for a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience at the Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy (HLCA). The unique leadership program was run for two consecutive weeks at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (USSRC) in Huntsville, Alabama.

Ansh Bhagania, from Pune, who attended HLCA said, “Launching model rockets and flying a fighter jet on a simulator was terrific. I never thought I could do that too. The more interesting part was to meet students of my age from different parts of the world. We are all great friends now. What could be better than this?”  

HLCA aims to encourage excitement and engagement around science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects for students between the ages of 16-18. Activities are delivered in fun and innovative ways to bring STEM studies to life.

“The act of bringing this global Honeywell community together with Space Camp allows these students to plan for a future of improving life on our planet and beyond,” said Dr. Deborah Barnhart, CEO and executive director, USSRC. “They bring the best of their diverse cultures to Space Camp, where they will use teamwork and technology to prepare them for a future they have yet to imagine.” 

Interactive and experiential sessions around rocket designing, building, and testing; participation in simulated astronaut training, shuttle missions and a moon walk, infuse vigor and expands students’ learning curve. They also meet scientists, engineers, and former astronauts, who reinforce core leadership competencies and share their first-hand professional experiences. The program is designed to educate students on the importance of STEM in an ever-changing connected world.

Naomi Varghese, a 17-year-old student from Bangalore, said, “Standing next to a rocket, the step-by-step demonstration of rocket-building, and moonwalking like an astronaut were life-changing. I almost felt like I was in space.”

Echoing a similar sentiment, Pranav Kaushik from Delhi, said, “Meeting students from around the world who share the same passion for rockets, jets, space shuttles, and the moonwalk was extremely exciting. We learnt a lot from the experiences of scientists and astronauts. What’s really great is that the program combines science and engineering with fun and friendship for life.”

Since its launch in 2010, Honeywell, in partnership with the USSRC, has awarded 2,090 such scholarships to students. Scholarships are granted after a rigorous application and review process based on academic achievement and community involvement. Financial contributions from Honeywell and its employees fund the scholarships, which cover the cost of tuition, meals, accommodation, and program materials.

Crescent School of Business Invites Application for the Academic Year 2017-18

Crescent School of Business (CSB), Chennai’s new, unique management school is inviting applications for its one year PGDM in Strategy and Leadership for the academic year 2017-18. Designed to enable young professionals with skills required to excel in today’s dynamic work environment, this one-year, full-time, residential program offers a customizable MBA course as part of its pedagogy.  The application window for the one-year PGDM will remain open till May 30.

Tailor-made to support career transitions, CSB has designed a contemporary curriculum, comprising relevant pedagogical practices and blended learning to meet the growing needs of the industry. The course is structured to accommodate the interests of every student and delivers personalized instruction based on the strengths, weaknesses and career aspirations of each student. While pursuing the course, students will also have an opportunity to undertake certificate programs in Business Analytics offered in collaboration with the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

Designed for working professionals, the program aims to further enhance skill-based education in the country by preparing industry-ready talent. Monitored and mentored by a CXO Advisory Board, comprising some of the most respected thought leaders from the industry, the program offers students an opportunity to work closely with both entrepreneurs and academicians to further sharpen the skill set.

Scheduled to begin in July 2017, the method of instruction includes a combination of visiting faculty, periodic guest lectures, seminars, workshops and industry visits. Faculty members are experts and thought leaders in their respective fields, and will enrich the students’ education, keeping in mind the core philosophy of the PGDM Programme.

The total fee for the course is Rs 7.65 lakhs, inclusive of food and accommodation in fully furnished serviced apartments. http://www.csbedu.in/

William O’Neil Unveils Stock Research Platform MarketSmith to India

William O’Neil, has launched its flagship global brand MarketSmith for the Indian investor community. MarketSmith is a comprehensive stock research platform that provides data, analysis tools to support the investors making informed investing decisions. MarketSmith India is available to the investor community through internet platforms such as website and Apps, which can be downloaded from various platforms like Amazon, Google Play, Opera Mobile Store and APTOIDE currently.

Steven Birch, President, William O’Neil + Company, while formally launching MarketSmith India said, “We are excited to bring MarketSmith to India at a time, when the whole world is looking at India as one of the growth engines of global economy. India’s vast telecom-enabled population and very low exposure to financial markets currently presents a very big opportunity for us to remain present in the fintech space like never. William O’Neil’s global expertise in stock picking through innovative research tools is sure to build further a great deal of knowledge-driven investment culture in India among the market participants.”

MarketSmith India has four key sections to support investment decisions viz. Idea Lists, Evaluation, Market Outlook and Model Portfolio. The App provides institutional quality data and efficient stock quality analysis and helps a user to simplify the stock search process.

Anupam Singhi, Chief Operating Officer, William O’Neil India said, “MarketSmith India empowers the investors with knowledge enabling them to make better profits in uptrends and protect their capital during downtrends. It facilitates strengths and weaknesses of Indian stocks based on data-backed research almost instantaneously. The App works on a growth-oriented research methodology based on last 50-years of experience and delivers pattern recognition, stock reports, market commentary apart from offering a model portfolio to the subscribers.”

MarketSmith India App is based on the O’Neil Methodology (OM), which uncovers stocks with the potential to generate alpha. In 1960s, William O’Neil noted certain characteristics like accelerating revenues and earnings growth, high relative strength, increasing trading volumes, new products or management and the industry group strength repeatedly emerge before the stocks made their big moves.

For more than 50 years, William O'Neil has been educating U.S. investors on the proven investing method he created. His investing classic How to Make Money in Stocks has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide and his perfected method (CAN SLIM), rooted in historical precedent, which has been evolving with the market for more than 40 years.

William O’Neil India is part of the O’Neil companies, a family of businesses dedicated to providing industry-leading financial services and information. William O’Neil India focuses on individual equities, mutual funds, ETFs and indices across the globe. Their professional teams are passionate about stock market research and the development of services that support all O’Neil brands.

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.