IDBI Bank to Focus on Raising Capital, Retail Lending and Recovery of Loans During FY 2017-18

IDBI Bank has crafted a comprehensive turnaround strategy, with a focus on augmenting the capital base and recovery from NPAs.  Its prime focus includes restricting corporate loan book growth, raising additional capital and non-core asset sales to reduce operational costs.

Aggressive recovery and prevention of further slippages is a priority area for IDBI Bank. Given the stress in the corporate sector, the bank will restrict growth in the corporate loan book and focus on increasing retail and priority sector asset base. This will help the bank to reduce risk weighted assets and improve CAR in the short term.

The bank is also planning to raise additional capital in the medium term. It has received a capital infusion of Rs 1900 crore through the Government of India’s subscription to its preferential share allotment earlier this year, which enhanced its Common Equity Tier 1 Capital. Furthermore, Life Insurance Corporation of India has also subscribed to the bank’s preferential equity issue. Additionally, CAR would be improved through sale of non-core assets, continued GoI support and churning of corporate loan book to reduce risk weight of the portfolio.

The bank will look at reducing its operational cost and sell non-core assets over a period of time. The exact schedule and quantum of such a sale will depend on market conditions and the Bank has already initiated the process.

“We are looking at all avenues to improve our capital position and bring the bank on the recovery track. We will look at aggressive recovery and cost cutting measures and plan on churning our corporate book and risk weighted assets which should also ease the pressure on capital. The Government of India, our Principal shareholder, continues to support the Bank,” said V. Narayanamurthy, Field Chief General Manager, IDBI Bank (Bengaluru Zone). 

Besides, the bank will reduce its exposure to corporate sector and instead focus aggressively on retail lending, adds Narayanamurthy.

Cisco VNI Forecasts Internet Users in India to Double to 829 Million Users in 2021, Up from 373 Million in 2016

Digital transformation will continue to drive IP traffic in India with the projected increase in Internet users from 373 million in 2016 to 829 million or 59 percent of the Indian population in 2021. In addition, there will be 2.0 billion networked devices in 2021, up from 1.4 billion in 2016 and the overall IP traffic is expected to grow 4-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 30% and reach 6.5 Exabytes of data per month in 2021, up from 1.7 Exabytes per month in 2016, according to today’s release of the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Complete Forecast.

According to the report, M2M connections will represent 22 percent of the total 2 billion devices and connections and will account for five percent of IP traffic by 2021.  Advancements in IoT applications such as smart meters, package tracking, digital health monitors and a host of other next-generation M2M services is driving this incremental growth—nearly 21 percent increase in the next five years.

Video will continue to dominate IP traffic and overall Internet traffic growth—representing 76 percent of all Internet traffic in 2021, up from 57 percent in 2016. India will reach 84 billion Internet video minutes per month by 2021, which is one hundred and sixty thousand years of video per month, or about thirty two thousand video minutes every second.

“Mobile networks, devices and connections in India are not only getting smarter in their computing capabilities but are also evolving from lower-generation network connectivity (2G) to higher-generation network connectivity (3G, 3.5G, and 4G or LTE). Combining device capabilities with faster, higher bandwidth and more intelligent networks is leading to wide adoption of high bandwidth data, video and advanced multimedia applications that contribute to increased mobile and Wi-Fi traffic” said Sanjay Kaul, Managing Director, Service Provider Business, Cisco India and SAARC. 

He added “We are witnessing a burgeoning rise in usage of mobile applications and connectivity by end users.  The need for optimized bandwidth management, network automation, e2e security and ultimately network monetization through cost efficient data production is fuelling the growth of network automation, mass market 4G deployments and adoption, soon to be followed with 4.5G and 5G. Service providers around the world are busy architecting their networks to be more autonomous and capable of handling high bandwidth to help them meet the growing end-users demand for more bandwidth, higher security, and faster connectivity on the move. Many providers have also started field trials for 5G and are gearing towards rolling out 5G deployments towards the end of the VNI forecast period.”

India Internet Growth and Trends:

1.     Increase in  Internet Users, devices and connection

·         In India, there will be 829 million total Internet users (59% of population) in 2021, up from 373 million (28% of population) in 2016

·         In India, there will be 2.0 billion networked devices in 2021, up from 1.4 billion in 2016

2.     Increase in IP Traffic and Internet Traffic

·         In India, Consumer Internet video traffic will reach 3.0 Exabytes per month in 2021, the equivalent of 756 million DVDs per month, or 1 million DVDs per hour

·         In India, Consumer Internet video traffic was 535 Petabytes per month in 2016, the equivalent of 134 million DVDs per month, or 183,261 DVDs per hour

·         In India, Internet video traffic will be 77% of all consumer Internet traffic in 2021, up from 58% in 2016

·         In India, Internet traffic will grow 4.0-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 32%

·         In 2021, the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross the Internet every 54 minutes

·         Indian Internet traffic in 2021 will be equivalent to 291x the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2005

3.     Increase in Per capita Usage

·         In India, IP traffic will reach 5 Gigabytes per capita in 2021, up from 1 Gigabytes in 2016

4.     Internet users & Faster Broadband Speed

·         In India, there will be 829 million total Internet users (59% of population) in 2021, up from 373 million (28% of population) in 2016

·         In India, the average fixed broadband speed will grow 2.8-fold from 2016 to 2021, from 6.6 Mbps to 18.2 Mbps

5.     Increase in Mobile, Internet Video

·         In India, mobile data traffic will grow 7-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 49%

·         In India, mobile data traffic in 2021 will be equivalent to 88x the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2005

·         In India, IP video will be 83% of all IP traffic in 2021, up from 69% in 2016

·         In India, Internet video traffic will grow 5-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 40%

·          In India, total Internet video traffic (business and consumer, combined) will be 76% of all Internet traffic in 2021, up from 57% in 2016

·          In India, HD will be 51.4% of Internet video traffic in 2021, up from 12.0% in 2016 (87.9% CAGR)

·          In India, 84 billion minutes (159,201 years) of video content will cross the Internet each month in 2021. That's 31,840 minutes of video streamed or downloaded every second

·         In India, Internet video traffic will grow 5-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 40%

6.     Increase in Networked Devices

·         In India, there will be 2.0 billion networked devices in 2021, from 1.4 billion networked devices in 2016, and 1.3 billion in 2015

·         In India, 67% of all networked devices will be mobile-connected in 2021

7.     Growth in Internet video & gaming traffic

·         In India, Internet video traffic will be 77% of all consumer Internet traffic in 2021, up from 58% in 2016

·         In India, gaming traffic will grow 7-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 49%

Key Findings & Milestones from Global Traffic Projections and Service Adoption Trends

1.     Strong Growth in IP & Internet Traffic

·         Global IP traffic is expected to reach 278 exabytes per month by 2021, up from 96 exabytes per month in 2016. Global IP traffic is expected to reach an annual run rate of 3.3 zettabytes by 2021.

·         Busy hour Internet traffic is increasing faster than average Internet traffic. Busy hour Internet traffic will grow 4.6-fold (35% CAGR) from 2016 to 2021, reaching 4.3 Pbps by 2021, compared to average Internet traffic that will grow 3.2-fold (26% CAGR) over the same period reaching 717 Tbps by 2021.

·         Content delivery networks (CDNs), will carry 71 percent of all Internet video traffic by 2021 (up from 52 percent in 2016).

2.     Average DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks size increasing steadily and approaching 1.2 Gpbs— enough to take most organizations completely offline

·         DDoS incidents can paralyze networks by flooding servers and network devices with traffic from multiple IP sources.

·         The peak attack size increased 60% Y/Y and represents up to 18 percent of a country’s total Internet traffic while they are occurring.

·         Average DDoS attack size increased to 22 percent which is relatively the same rate as Internet traffic at 29 percent Y/Y.

·         The DDoS attacks grew 172% in 2016 and will increase 2.5-fold to 3.1 million by 2021 globally.

3.     Globally, total public W-Fi hotspots (including homespots) will grow 6-fold from 2016 to 2021 from 94 million in 2016 to 541.6 million by 2021.

·         Globally, total Wi-Fi homespots will grow from 85 million in 2016 to 526.2 million by 2021.

·         Globally there were 91 percent of public Wi-Fi hotspots in 2016 and by 2021 it is projected to reach 97 percent.

·         Leading hotspot countries: China (170M by 2021), US (86M by 2021), Japan (33M by 2021), and France (30M by 2021).

4.     By 2021, more than half (56 percent) of connected flat panel TV sets will be 4K up from 15% in 2016

·         Installed/In-service 4K TV sets will increase from 85M in 2016 to 663M by 2021.

5.     Cord-Cutting household traffic is 86 percent higher

·         A global cord-cutting household generates 117 GB per month in 2017, compared to 63 GB per month for an average household.

6.     Global Enterprise SD-WAN Traffic

·         SD-WAN traffic will grow at a CAGR of 44% compared to 5% for traditional WAN SD-WAN will increase 6x and will be 25% of WAN traffic by 2021

·         End-User Internet traffic is moving closer to the Edge. Nearly half of traffic will bypass core completely by 2021.

Regional IP Traffic Growth Details

·         APAC: 107.7 exabytes/month by 2021, 26% CAGR, 3.2-fold growth

·         North America: 85 exabytes/month by 2021, 20% CAGR, 2.5-fold growth

·         Western Europe: 37.4 exabytes/month 2021, 22% CAGR, 2.7-fold growth

·         Central Europe: 17.1 exabytes/month by 2021, 22% CAGR, 2.75-fold growth

·         Latin America: 12.9 exabytes/month by 2021, 21% CAGR, 2.6-fold growth

·         Middle East and Africa: 15.5 exabytes/month by 2021, 42% CAGR, 5.8-fold growth

GST to Help India Achieve 9 Percent Growth Rate: Amitabh Kant

The Goods and Services Tax, to be rolled out next month as the biggest tax reform since independence, will help India achieve 9% growth rate, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Tuesday. He said GST will simplify India's taxation system and help deal with tax evasion.

“GST is India's biggest tax reform since 1947...GST will help India in achieving 9% growth rate,” Kant said at an event here. Noting that the implementation of GST is a dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NITI Aayog CEO said it will bring a big revolution in India's taxation structure.

Several experts have also said that GST is estimated to boost GDP by 1% to 2% and bring down inflation by over 2% in the long term.

Kant’s comments come against the backdrop of India losing the fastest growing economy tag to China for the March quarter with the GDP growth slipping to 6.1%. China recorded a growth rate of 6.9% during the January-March quarter.

However, on an annual basis, India grew by 7.1% in 2016-17.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday reviewed the preparedness for the new indirect tax regime, slated to be rolled out from July 1. The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and senior officers from the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).

This was the first review by the PM after the GST Council finalised the rates, and the second since May 2.

The GST Council, chaired by Jaitley and comprising his state counterparts, has already finalised tax rates on almost all goods and services. It will meet again on June 11 to review some of the rates and discuss other pending issues.

All goods and services have been put in slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28%, with the exception of gold and precious metals, which will attract 3% GST, and rough diamond at 0.25% GST. 

Wipro Chief Azim Premji Denies Media Report on Sale of Stake

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji has denied a media report that promoters of the IT company were evaluating sale of their holdings and said he “remains committed to Wipro.”

In his letter to Wiproites, he had termed the news article reportedly published in this regard as "baseless and malicious."

A news website had quoted banking sources reported that the promoters of the India's third-largest IT services company are in the early stages of evaluating the sale of the company or some of its units, and have even approached investment banks.

In the letter sent out on Monday late night to its employees, Premji said he continued to be “incredibly excited” about the potential of the IT industry and Wipro.

“Over the past 50 years, I have seen Wipro grow from a small regional player in vegetable oils to a global leader in technology. I continue to be incredibly excited about the potential of the IT industry and Wipro. I see enormous energy within the company to power the success of our clients and therefore the success of Wipro,” he said.

“I remain as committed to Wipro as I have ever been.. The news article about promoters of Wipro evaluating sale of their holding in the company is baseless and malicious.. There is no truth to these unsubstantiated rumours,” he added.

Premji along with his family own about 73.25 per cent shares in the company. 

Agencies

KONE Corporation CEO Sees Huge Potential for the India Market

As the global population continues to grow, particularly in India, people continue to move to cities. A large proportion of the world’s urban population growth will take place in developing countries, with India taking a significant share. This creates the need for innovative and eco efficient people flow solutions and in many cases, the need to create taller buildings, which is gaining significant grounds across the country.

The Indian Elevator and Escalator market is presently the second largest new equipment market in the world, representing approximately 5% of the world’s new elevator and escalators. Despite recent market uncertainty, the increasing rate of urbanization is expected to support the growth of the elevator and escalator market in the coming years.

“While the market declined slightly last year and the beginning of this year, mainly due to demonetization, we are confident in the long-term outlook for the industry. Several steps taken by the Government in recent times—from the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, to the changes in the Goods and Services Tax system, and the introduction of Real Estate Investment Trusts—will further improve transparency and increase confidence in the Real Estate market. Looking at the increasing need for infrastructure and tall building developments, we see good growth prospects over the next few years” says Amit Gossain, Managing Director, KONE India.

With the affordable housing segment being given infrastructure status, which will provide more flexibility for developers, there is potential for growth in the residential sector. Trends in the building industry and the elevator & escalator industries continues to be driven by urbanization and other needs, such as providing reliable, efficient infrastructure and improving living standards and convenience. Above all, technology will enable new products and services which benefit customers, and it is this is one of the areas where KONE is leading the industry.

KONE’s NEW Plant at Sriperumbudur will be a state-of-the-art facility that is expected to be fully operational by 2019. The company’s India Technology & Engineering Centre (ITEC), based in Chennai, will continue to provide a boost to innovation, bringing further value to customers in line with the market trends. With stronger R&D and engineering collaboration in India, KONE will be able to serve the growing Indian market with even more innovative People Flow® solutions.

New types of innovations include bringing connectivity and Internet of Things technologies to elevators and escalators, which provide totally new types of services to KONE’s customers.

“There is a lot of potential in the Indian market and Amit’s team in India has the ability to identify and develop opportunities in a fast changing environment. There is a wealth of talent across the country and I was greatly impressed with the wide range of capabilities and skills on show at KONE India Hackathon, held earlier this year”, says Henrik Ehrnrooth, President and CEO, KONE Corporation.

As buildings get taller and taller with the capacity to serve tens of thousands of users simultaneously, there is increased pressure on elevators and escalators to keep people moving smoothly. KONE is leading the way in bringing together technology and innovation to meet the requirements of some of the world’s most ambitious and iconic buildings.

Tata Elxsi’s ‘Autonomai’ Driverless Car Platform Selected by Leading OEM

Tata Elxsi, a global design and technology services company and a leader for automotive electronics and software development, announced the licensing of its advanced autonomous vehicle middleware platform “AUTONOMAI” to one of the world’s top 5 automotive OEMs for their driverless car R&D.

The Autonomai platform provides carmakers and Tier 1 automotive suppliers with a comprehensive and modular solution covering Perception, GNC and Drive-by-wire systems, to quickly build, test and deploy autonomous vehicles.

This solution supports sensor fusion with a variety of sensors from cameras to Radar and Lidar, and leverages sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning based algorithms to deliver the complex use-case scenarios expected of driverless cars. 

Autonomai also allows rapid region specific adaptation through its pre-integrated validation datasets and AI & deep learning capabilities.  

“We are delighted with this latest win for AUTONOMAI by one of the world’s top 5 car OEMs”, said Nitin Pai, Senior Vice President Marketing for Tata Elxsi. “Car makers will need to ensure that self-driving cars are able to communicate with each other through technologies such as V2X, adapt to different driving conditions, receive real-time maps and over-the-air software updates. As importantly, OEMs need to transform the current HMI to one that leverages AI, multi-modal interfaces and sensors to ensure passengers are not only safe, but feel safe too. The value of AUTONOMAI is further enhanced by Tata Elxsi’s world-class automotive software integration and validation capabilities, its portfolio of complementary next-gen solutions including V2X, e-cockpit and automated validation, and an award-winning HMI design team. This makes Tata Elxsi a truly compelling partner for OEMs and suppliers in driverless car development.”

ExxonMobil Completes New Grease and Synthetic Lubricants Facilities in Singapore

ExxonMobil announced has that it has completed its expansion project in Jurong to increase production of grease and synthetic lubricants, including Mobil 1, the company’s flagship synthetic engine oil. The milestone was recognized at an opening ceremony attended by Singapore Economic Development Board managing director Yeoh Keat Chuan.

The expansion of the Jurong lubricant plant further strengthens the company’s manufacturing capabilities and its ability to meet the growing demand for grease and synthetic lubricants products in the Asia Pacific region.

“These new grease and synthetic lubricants production facilities are strategically located close to key Asia Pacific markets, ensuring the reliable supply of these premium products to our customers,” said Teoh Song Ping, Asia Pacific lubricant sales director at ExxonMobil. “Our advanced lubricating oils and greases contribute to society’s broader sustainability objectives by helping to increase equipment operating efficiency and engine fuel economy, which contribute to reduced energy and resource use, as well as lower emissions.”

The grease plant started production in January 2017, and the synthetics plant, which was completed in March, started production in April following a successful commissioning.

“The expansion of ExxonMobil’s Jurong lubricant plant is a good example of companies taking advantage of Singapore as a strategic base to capture growth opportunities in Asia,” Yeoh said. “The synthetic lubricants and grease plants underscore Singapore’s emphasis on higher value-added manufacturing activities as we continue growing the chemicals sector in a competitive and sustainable manner.”

“These new production facilities demonstrate the company’s commitment to long-term investments here in Singapore,” said ExxonMobil Asia Pacific chairman and managing director Gan Seow Kee. “The expansion of our Jurong lubricant plant both strengthens ExxonMobil’s integrated manufacturing base and helps improve the competitiveness of our business and the industry in Singapore.”

“India’s economy continues to grow with significant opportunities across industries. One of the biggest market opportunities is within the automotive sector fueled by the growing middle class consumer segment who look for high quality lubricant solutions for their vehicles. Other industries such as general manufacturing also stand to benefit from increased product demand. The proximity of the new synthetic lubricants and grease plants in Singapore offer our customers in India an enhanced value chain with reliable supply and more efficient delivery.” – Deepankar Banerjee, Chief Executive Officer, ExxonMobil Lubricants Pvt Ltd,