Dell India celebrates the 10th Anniversary of its India R&D center |

By: Dell India (Business Wire India)
Source: http://www.moneylife.in


Dell today announced a significant milestone for its India business - the 10th anniversary of its India research and development center based in Bangalore. Dell India R&D has been through an eventful decade and significant investment has been made in building its enterprise business & creating a team of technologists and senior engineers. Dell continues to reap benefits by moving up the value chain of product development. More than 1600 invention disclosures, over 150 published article/papers and 50 enterprise software products exhibit far-reaching capability of the team and great commitment towards quality and schedule.

“Dell plans to make India a hub for the development of enterprise products such as servers, storage, and software,” said Mr. Brad Anderson, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Product Group, Dell. He added, “Dell today has its strongest-ever portfolio of solutions, intellectual property and differentiated products, backed by new skills and capabilities in our India team, serving the local as well as global markets. Dell India R&D center is especially critical to enterprise business of Dell with the capability to own end-to-end products. We will continue to build capacity and further invest in India on Research and Next Generation products.”

Maintaining a steady pace of growth, Dell India R&D center has taken ownership of products ranging from servers, storage, data centers, systems software, hardware design, validation and testing, new features enhancement and continuous optimization and building its core competence for the global market. With this solid foundation, Dell India R&D center has enhanced its market technical support activities and in the recent years embarked on providing system integration solutions for operators worldwide.

Dell R&D center hosts seasoned management team with deep rooted Dell culture for rigor & drive for innovation. Some of the upcoming plans from the India R&D center towards futuristic projects/programs are:

-- Increased focus on next generation of servers and data centers which will help integrate and align the enterprise technologies across its product portfolio to help companies simplify and manage their organizations’ IT infrastructure
-- Major development is in progress to deliver cutting-edge virtualization software product to manage future data center
-- Research is already in progress towards top-end embedded systems management product, yet to be launched

“Our India R&D center growth has been encouraging and contributed immensely to the enterprise business of Dell. We will continue to build the ecosystem in Bangalore to engage with our worldwide partners and going ahead the center will also play a huge role in delivering top-end products and solutions.” said Mr. Rudramuni B, Executive Director and Head of Dell India R&D.

Source: http://www.moneylife.in/business-wire-news/dell-india-celebrates-the-10th-anniversary-of-its-india-rd-er/28948.html

GE, Greenko Plan $115 Million Investment in India Wind Farms

By: Boomerang
Source: http://www.businessweek.com


Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co., the world's third-biggest supplier of wind turbines, announced its first investment in Indian renewable energy generation with plans to build $115 million of wind farms with Greenko Group Plc.

GE Energy Financial Services will invest $50 million and Greenko $65 million to create 500 megawatts of wind projects, enough to power 875,000 Indian homes, according to a statement on GE's website. The deal expands GE's $6 billion portfolio of global clean-energy investments into a country that added the most new wind capacity last year after China and the U.S.

The first 65-megawatt project, in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra state, will use Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE's 1.6-megawatt turbines and be completed by December, it said. They will come from GE's plant in Pune.

Greenko estimates that the country has harnessed less than 25 percent of its wind-energy potential to date, the statement said. India had about 15,000 megawatts of wind capacity as of Aug. 31, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

GE was the third-largest supplier of wind turbines in 2010, behind Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems A/S and China's Sinovel Wind Group Co., according BTM Consult ApS, a Denmark-based wind industry researcher.

Greenko, based in Douglas, Isle of Man, and backed by private equity firm TPG Capital, has plans for 1-gigawatt of Indian wind capacity by 2015. It's putting up farms in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan states, the statement said.

Source: http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LSU6HB6K50XX01-5JG7165RC08108HAS0N83E2N9N

India May Ease Rules Next Week to Allow Wal-Mart, Tesco Entry

By: Unni Krishnan
Source: http://www.businessweek.com


Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- India may consider a proposal next week to allow Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Tesco Plc and Carrefour SA gain access to the $396-billion retail market in Asia’s second- fastest growing economy.

The cabinet will discuss a plan to permit overseas companies to own as much as 51 percent of stores that sell more than one brand, said four government officials with direct knowledge of the matter. Full foreign ownership of companies that sell a single brand will also be considered, one of the people said. All four declined to be identified, citing government policy.

India bars overseas companies from owning retail outlets that sell more than one brand and allows 51 percent holding in single-brand retail. Wal-Mart and Carrefour, who operate wholesale stores in the country, are among companies vying for a share of a market that Business Monitor International estimates will double to $785 billion by 2015.

“India is a huge market that will attract the interest of foreign investors,” said Deven Choksey, managing director at Mumbai-based K.R. Choksey Shares & Securities. “Food prices will be under check when organized retail comes in because it is accompanied with infrastructure development at the back end.”

Pantaloon Retail Ltd., India’s largest retailer, surged 7.4 percent in Mumbai today, while Trent Ltd., Tesco’s local partner, rose 0.2 percent. The benchmark Sensitive Index declined 1.9 percent.

Arti Singh, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart’s India operations, declined to comment on speculation. Mohan Shukla, director of corporate affairs for Carrefour India, gave no comment.

Local Purchases

The approval may include conditions such as purchasing at least 30 percent of goods locally, two of the people said. The decision may come as early as Monday, they said. Foreign retailers will need to invest at least $100 million in the country, with half that amount going to develop the supply chain, one of the people said.

Bharti Walmart Pvt., the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company’s joint venture with Bharti Enterprises Pvt., operates fourteen wholesale stores in India. Carrefour, based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, opened its first such store in December.

Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain, will set up its India operations once the government allows foreign ownership, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, a director at the company, said on Nov. 14. The Cheshunt, U.K.-based retailer has a franchise agreement with Trent, a Tata Group company.

“We have a long-term plan given that India is going to have about 25 percent of the world’s population,” Neville- Rolfe, said in the interview in Mumbai. “So it is good for us to invest more.”

Fighting Inflation

Raj Jain, who heads Wal-Mart in India, said last year foreign retailers can help slow inflation by helping improve the quality of the local supply chain. About 40 percent of India’s fruit and vegetables rot before they can be sold because of a lack of cold-storage facilities and poor transport infrastructure, according to government figures.

A panel on inflation in a report recommended easing rules for multibrand retail to help moderate food prices, Kaushik Basu, chief economic adviser in the finance ministry and a member of the group, said in May.


Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-18/india-may-ease-rules-next-week-to-allow-wal-mart-tesco-entry.html

PizzaExpress to Open in India

By: RUMMAN AHMED
Source: http://online.wsj.com/


BANGALORE – Gourmet Investments (P) Ltd. and PizzaExpress HoldingsPvt. Ltd. Friday entered into a 50-50 joint venture to launch the privately held U.K.-based Gondola Group's PizzaExpress chain of restaurants in India.

Gourmet Investments is owned by the Bharti Family Office, an entity that handles the personal investments of the founders of Bharti Enterprises Ltd.

The first restaurant is expected to be launched some time next year, Bharti Enterprises said in a statement.

The deal comes as foreign food companies seek to capitalize on the growing propensity among India's middle class to dine out and spend more on beverages and processed foods.

Dunkin' Donuts, a unit of U.S.-based Dunkin' Brands Inc., signed an agreement with India's Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd. in February to open 25-30 Dunkin' Donuts outlets over the next three years.

U.S. coffee shop chain Starbucks Corp. is also likely to announce shortly an alliance with Tata Coffee Ltd. to open outlets in the country.

Bharti Enterprises is the parent company of Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest telecommunications company by users. It has interests in retail through Bharti Retail Ltd. and Bharti Wal-Mart Ltd., a joint venture with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The group has also expanded into the insurance, financial services, realty and higher-education sectors.


Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203687504577003754015158544.html

Dominos to reach 500 store counts by 2012

By:India Retailing
Source:http://www.indiaretailing.com


Dominos Pizza, one of the market leaders in organized pizza home delivery segment, has announced its plans to open 500 outlets by 2012. The pizza chain has 411 outlets in India and plans to open 80 new outlets every year, to strengthen its presence in the country.

“Our performance as an organization is already reflected in our financial performance in the last few quarters. Currently, there are 411 Domino’s stores in India and plans are afoot to expand the brand’s footprint further into the Indian heartland. If all goes as per our plan to add at least 80 stores annually, we should be opening our 500th Domino’s Pizza outlet sometime next year,” said Shyam S Bhartia, Chairman, Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd.

Ajay Kaul, CEO Jubilant FoodWorks Limited, added: “Our success stems from not merely growing the number of stores but more importantly on focusing on our customers. Our growth is fueled by customer’s love for our products. With the addition of 100 stores in last 15-16 months, we are now amongst top 5 globally in the Domino’s network in terms of absolute number of stores.”

Jubilant Foodworks (JFL) and its subsidiary operates Domino’s Pizza brand with the exclusive rights for India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The company claims to be the market leader in the organized pizza market in India with over 50 percent market share and 70 percent share in the Pizza home delivery segment. The Company has also strengthened its portfolio by entering into an alliance with Dunkin’ Donuts, for developing the Dunkin’ Donuts brand and operating restaurants in India.

Domino’s Pizza was established in 1960 and currently operates in 65 countries. The brand has 9064 outlets worldwide.


Source: http://www.indiaretailing.com/news.aspx?topic=1&Id=6267

Telephonics and Mahindra and Mahindra to Form Joint Venture

By: Press Release
Source: www.marketwatch.com


NEW YORK, Nov 17, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Telephonics Corporation, a subsidiary of Griffon Corporation GFF -1.13% , and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., a $12.5 billion multinational group based in Mumbai, India, announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to form a Joint Venture (JV) to provide the Indian Ministry of Defense (MOD) and the Indian civil sector with radar and surveillance systems, Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) devices and communication systems. In addition, the JV intends to provide systems for Air Traffic Management services, Homeland Security and other emerging surveillance requirements.

The JV envisages establishing a plant in India which would manufacture and service airborne radar systems that are already being supplied to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and to support airborne maritime surveillance systems for the Indian Navy and Coast Guard. The JV will license technology from Telephonics for use on a wide range of products that have both defense and civil applications.

Approval is being sought from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board of the Government of India (GoI) for the establishment of the JV in accordance with the current defense sector Foreign Direct Investment regulations of the GoI.

Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra Group, said "We are delighted to partner with Telephonics and are committed to supporting the Indian MOD's requirement of having a capable indigenous defense private sector. We will continue to strive to deploy niche technologies that support a stronger nation, such as our JV with Telephonics."

Brig Hai, Chief Executive of Mahindra Defense Systems, a division of Mahindra and Mahindra, said "By partnering with Telephonics, Mahindra will become a 3-dimensional force providing products for Land, Maritime and Air platforms. Telephonics is an acknowledged leader in the field and will allow us to achieve our ambition to be a leading systems integrator for defense and civil applications."

"We are very pleased to be partnering with Mahindra, a leading player in the defense sector" said Joseph Battaglia, CEO and President of Telephonics. "The defense market in India is an important part of our international expansion plans and Mahindra is the right company for us to grow with in India."

Telephonics has already established a presence in the Indian defense and civil markets. For example, Telephonics supplies RDR-1400 weather avoidance radar systems for helicopters being built in Bangalore, India. It is also contracted to supply Boeing with APS-143C(V)3 Multi-Mode Radars (MMR) for India's P-8i Maritime Surveillance aircraft, and is responsible for installation of a sophisticated intercommunication systems for the C-17 Globemaster contracted for by the Indian Air Force.


Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/telephonics-and-mahindra-and-mahindra-to-form-joint-venture-2011-11-17
 

Awarded As The Best Car Hire Company In India By Times Travel Honors

By: Announcement
Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/


Wins “Asia’s Leading Car Hire” Title For The 6th Year at Regional World Travel Awards

Avis India, the leading International car rental brand in India has been awarded as the best Best Car Hire Company by the Prestigious “Times Travel Honours”,. These awards are aimed at recognizing and honouring outstanding achievements of individuals / companies who have created a positive impact in Indian Tours and Travel Industry.

Avis in Asia too has again been awarded as “Asia’s Leading Car Hire” company at the regional World Travel Awards ceremony this year. The World Travel Awards is a prestigious organization of travel professionals around the world that recognizes excellent customer service in the international travel and tourism industry. Avis at the awards was named Europe's Leading Business Car Rental Company, Asia’s Leading Car Hire Company, Africa’s Leading Business Car Rental Company, Indian Ocean’s Leading Car Rental Company and Egypt’s Leading Car Rental Company. The awarding ceremony was recently held at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.

This is the sixth consecutive year that Avis Asia has brought home the “Asia’s Leading Car Hire” accolade from the esteemed institution. Avis has been honored as the top car rental company in Asia since 2006 for its excellent delivery of customer service and reliability amidst tight and growing competition in the industry.

Speaking about the awards Mr Sunil Gupta, CEO, Avis India, said, “Providing a high quality service on an odd occasion may be possible for some other operators but the real differentiator for Avis is that it does this consistently, time after time, across all 17 cities and from all 39 locations that we operate in. An Avis customer is getting into an Avis car somewhere in India once every 45 seconds. Providing a consistently high service on each of these occasions demands an investment in people and technology, which we have been doing consistently. Receiving these awards for the sixth year in a row proves that our constant endeavor to understand customer needs and invest in processes to meet these needs has proved successful. This is really a proud moment for us”.

The World Travel Awards highly regards excellent customer experience as the main differentiator to lever commercial advantage. Since founded 18 years ago, the World Travel Awards has always aimed to acknowledge, reward and celebrate achievements in all sectors of the global travel industry. As a benchmark for industry excellence, the World Travel Awards prides itself on identifying companies that consistently excel beyond expectation to offer a world-class service, making it the most coveted and sought after awards in the industry.

Avis’ success at the World Travel Awards and all these prestigious award shows only proves how Avis can make a difference in the service industry. Through its steadfast commitment to world class service and customer satisfaction, as well as its relentless goal to provide flexible mobility solutions to travellers around the world, Avis remains unparalleled in this realm despite tough competition.

Furthermore, Avis has also been awarded as the Best Car Rental Company Worldwide by UK-based international travel publication, Business Traveller; and the Silver Lions during the much acclaimed Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for its commitment to environmental sustainability through its “Carbon Neutral” status in South Africa. This noble effort has also been recognized in the Climate Change Leadership Awards where it won top prize in the Corporate Services Category followed by recent results on the Top Brands Survey of the Sunday Times (South Africa) wherein it gained top ranking in the Business to Business Car Rental Category.

Its impressive accomplishment in the service industry is all the more exemplified with its recognition as the Leading Car Rental Company in Customer Loyalty in the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index in India.

Avis India, which has received numerous prestigious awards and recognitions, has also earliuer been recognized as a ‘Super Brand’ for the year 2008 – 2009 as well as the Category One Best Tourist Transport Operator Award by National Tourism Awards 2008-09.

Avis in India is a one-stop shop for all car rental needs with Safety, Quality, Timely Service delivery & customer delight as some of its important benchmarks. Avis in India offers chauffeur and self-drive services across a wide range of cars including Economy Segment Cars, Mid Segment (Suzuki Swift Dzire, Ford Fiesta & Honda City), Premium Segment (Toyota Corolla, Toyota Camry, Mercedes E & S class) and MUV/SUV (Toyota Innova, Ford Endeavour & Mitsubishi Pajero).



Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/avis-reaps-success-in-travelmedia-awards/455665/

Honda Motorcycle likely to set up two more plants

By: Amrit Raj
Source: http://www.livemint.com


Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (Pvt.) Ltd (HMSI) plans to set up at least two more plants in the country in pursuit of its ambition to become India’s largest selling two-wheeler company in the next 10 years, according to three people familiar with the development.

The company is already in exploratory talks with the Gujarat and Uttarakhand governments for setting up the plants over the next three-four years.

The proposed plants will add another 2.5 million units to HMSI’s capacity.

“The idea is to become a leader in the Indian market in another 10 years,” said a person familiar with the development. “The two-wheeler industry is expected to double in another four years, and by 2020 it may double again. This expansion plan is keeping such demand in mind. In the longer term, HMSI aims to have a capacity of 10 million units.”

The Indian two-wheeler industry will grow at an average annual growth rate of 14%, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. At this rate, the market is expected to double every four years till 2020. The industry sold 11.8 million units in 2010, registering a growth of 26% over the previous year.

HMSI’s market share in the first seven months of this fiscal to October stands at 13.4%. It trails Hero MotoCorp Ltd, which dominates the two-wheeler market with a 45% share, and Bajaj Auto Ltd, which has a 20% share. While Hero MotoCorp has a total capacity of 6.4 million units, Bajaj has a capacity to produce 5.5 million units a year.

Japan’s Honda Motor Co. Ltd exited its joint venture with the Hero Group—Hero Honda Motors Ltd—in December 2010 and is now focused on HMSI, its two-wheeler subsidiary, for its plans in the Indian two-wheeler market.

HMSI already has two plants in Gurgaon (Haryana) and Tapukara (Rajasthan) with a capacity of 2.8 million units. It is already building a third factory in Narsapuram in Karnataka, which will add another 1.2 million to its capacity in 2013.

HMSI executives have visited Gujarat a couple of times in the past three months and held preliminary-level talks with government officials for setting up a new plant in the state. The company is looking for250 acres of land for its new factory, said a government official on condition of anonymity.

“Honda officials told us that they have been asked by the top management to survey potential sites in the country for setting up a new project. Gujarat has emerged as a new auto destination with companies like Ford and Peugeot deciding to set up their new plants here, and Honda was keen to know about the incentives offered to these auto companies,” he said.

While Honda has not submitted a detailed proposal, the company plans an investment of Rs.500 crore in the plant, according to the government official.

The state government offers incentives including soft loans and some tax benefits to companies aiming to invest at least Rs.1,000 crore on a project. “If Honda wants to avail these benefits, they have to invest Rs.1,000 crore or more,” the official said.

The company is also in talks with the Uttarakhand government for another plant in the country, said the person cited above.

“We have laid the foundation of a third factory at Narsapuram, Karnataka. With the three plants, we shall have a capacity to produce four million units by 2013,” the company said in an emailed response. “Any further expansion is not decided and it depends upon market demand.”

Shinji Aoyama, a former chief executive of HMSI, had told Mint in March that the company wants to emerge as the leader in the country’s two-wheeler market. “Our target is to become the No. 1 company in the next 10 years,” Aoyama had said.

In line with its expansion plan, the company also plans to put in place a cost-effective supply chain for delivering products. “As our dealer sales and service network is expanding rapidly, we have created five regions for sales operations from 2007. The Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata regional offices were already set up between 2007 and 2010. However, the Lucknow office started in 2011 for the central region,” the company said in the email. “This plan is to speedily build network to respond to customer requirement quickly.”

It’s an ambitious step taken by HMSI to take on Hero MotoCorp, said an analyst with a leading brokerage firm, who declined to be named. “They have been very aggressive in the country and with this kind of expansion plan, the intent is very clear,” said the analyst. “But as far as Honda dominating the market is concerned, I have some doubts as the other three (Hero, Bajaj and TVS Motor Co. Ltd) are seasoned players in this market.”

Source: http://www.livemint.com/2011/11/13192050/Honda-Motorcycle-likely-to-set.html?atype=tp

Coke in $2bn push to boost India share

By: Alan Rappeport
Source: http://www.ft.com


Coca-Cola, the world’s largest soft drinks company by revenues, said on Monday that it would invest $2bn in India over the next five years, as it looks to deepen its presence in fast-growing emerging markets amid slowing US demand for carbonated beverages.

Coke’s India investment matches what the company has spent there in the past 18 years and the funds will be used to develop manufacturing and distribution capacity and on consumer marketing.

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“The opportunity in the packaged beverage segment is immense, and our efforts in India are focused on being the beverage of choice all day, every day,” said Ahmet Bozer, head of Coke’s Eurasia and Africa group.

“If we continue to do the right things each day and at all times, it would not surprise me if India becomes one of the top five markets for the company globally by the end of this decade.”

Coke employs 25,000 workers in India and has been engaged in a tough battle for market share there with rival PepsiCo since re-entering the market in 1993.

Both companies have been stepping up efforts in emerging markets as concerns about obesity in the US have softened demand for carbonated soft drinks.

The new commitment to India marks a big shift from the contentious relationship between the company and the country in the 1970s. Coke abandoned the Indian market in 1977 after the government demanded that the company partner with an Indian company and share its secret formula.

Coke and Pepsi have also faced challenges in India more recently. In 2005, the companies launched campaigns to convince Indian consumers that their products were safe, after several states enacted partial bans on the beverages because of fears that they contained pesticides.

Coke accounts for 56 per cent of India’s carbonated soft drinks market, while Pepsi has 40 per cent, according to data from Beverage Digest.

In 2008, Pepsi announced a $500m investment in India and said it wanted to triple its revenues from the country within five years.

In India, Coke’s top-selling brands are Thums Up, Sprite and Maaza, a popular juice drink. Growing demand for Maaza has created a mango shortage in India and the company is working with low-tech farmers to teach them new mango-growing techniques. Monday’s announcement followed Coke’s decision in August to invest $4bn in China during the next three years.

That was added to a $3bn investment it announced in 2009.


Source: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/32a67f42-0ee7-11e1-b585-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1dqQH3Uq3

Intel Capital Invests US$40 Million in 10 Asian Companies (Including in India)

By: Financial
Source: http://finchannel.com


The FINANCIAL -- Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment and M&A organization announced US$40 million worth of investments in 10 Asian companies, reflecting the rapid spread of technology innovation across Asia.

The investments include eight new investments in companies from China, India, Japan and South Korea, and two planned investments in companies from Taiwan.

The 10 investments were announced at the 12th annual Intel Capital Global Summit in Huntington Beach, Calif. Formerly known as the CEO Summit, the Intel Capital Global Summit brings together approximately 900 portfolio company CEOs, corporate technology decision makers and industry leaders from around the world.

“Technology adoption and innovation is an accelerating global phenomenon, and Asian entrepreneurs from both mature and emerging markets are on the cutting edge of this trend,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. “These 10 companies offer unique technology – from remote security solutions to interactive cloud-based services – that enhances productivity, security and the online experience for consumers and businesses around the world.”

The 10 investments cover a range of innovative technologies, including semiconductor design and manufacturing, green technology, software, security, social gaming and cloud-based services. Details of each investment, including the amount to be invested, were not disclosed.In addition to the new investments, Intel Capital announced that International Finance Corporation joined the Intel Capital Global Investment Syndicate. Initiated in 2010, the Intel Capital Global Investment Syndicate is a select group of investors around the world that co-invest in select deals with Intel Capital. The program objective is to help companies grow faster by providing global market reach, technology expertise, board members and advisors along with a ready access to additional growth capital over time.

IFC is one of the largest global development institutions with a focus on dozens of countries in the developing market worldwide. By co-investing with Intel Capital in international companies such as China’s HiSoft Technology and Russia’s Yandex, IFC is helping to support the development of innovative technology companies.


Source: http://finchannel.com/Main_News/Tech/97716_Intel_Capital_Invests_US$40_Million_in_10_Asian_Companies/

 

GM product chief knocks down barriers

By:Christina Rogers
Source:http://detnews.com

Mary Barra, General Motors Co.'s product chief, has little patience for needless impediments.

Her first week on the job, she took one look at all the layers of security doors standing between her office and the engineering staff, and knew immediately they had to go.

"We were creating a barrier that didn't need to be there," said Barra, sitting in her ground-floor office at GM's Technical Center in Warren.

"To me, getting rid of the extra card swipes was like 'Hey, we're part of a team, we should all be accessible.'"

The security doors are now gone, but Barra — named head of global product development at GM in February — continues to knock down barriers and subvert convention in efforts to shake up GM's staid corporate culture in the place where it counts most: the company's laboratory for new cars and trucks.

Less than a year on the job, she's eliminated an entire layer of engineering management, brought marketing execs into the product design fold and is working to liven up GM's in-car entertainment. "The back seat is a whole new ballgame," Barra said, on this last point.

She's working to simplify GM's vast global operations, as well as get GM leaders to make decisions quickly and then stick with them.

"We're not going to do this up-and-down investment," Barra said, in an hour-long interview with The Detroit News.

"We're going to say 'These are the key products'" she said.

"Let's set up the organization to execute them."

As product chief, Barra's job is among the most important at GM.

She manages 36,000 engineers and designers worldwide. The cars and trucks designed under her watch — those likely to hit showrooms over the next three to four years — will largely determine whether GM sustains its still fragile turnaround.

"They have to keep the hits coming," said Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst with Edmunds.com.

"Because the competition isn't letting up, the company with the best product wins."

The world's largest automaker faces other challenges as well. It's about a year behind on its timetable for new car and truck launches, meaning some models are starting to look dated on dealer lots.

The company is trying to bring consistency to its engineering budget and insulate it against market swings. Prior to bankruptcy, GM was losing about $1 billion annually by starting new vehicle projects in good times, only to stop them when the market turned bad. It's an approach Barra likened to a "roller coaster."

Adding to this challenge are new federal fuel regulations, which could require automakers to boost fuel economy of their lineups to an average of 54.4 mpg. That's about double what it is now.

Given this, Barra has no time for the old GM's plodding culture.

"I'm not tolerating it," she said tersely.

Under her leadership, 50-page PowerPoint presentations are banished and engineers are expected to arrive at meetings having reviewed the necessary material.


Source:: http://detnews.com/article/20111115/AUTO01/111150325/GM-product-chief-knocks-down-barriers#ixzz1dlKaZZz1

India: The World's Secret Silicon Valley

By: Reuters
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com

For many firms, developing new products for consumers around the world is the most visible manifestation of innovation - the "real deal." But many people still see India as a place where other people's ideas are made or executed and not where innovation begins. (After all, you don't hear about an Indian equivalent to Google, iPod or Viagra.) Bu they're wrong. In more than 600 captive research and development (R&D) centers across India today, corporations are designing and building amazing new things.

For example, GE's John F. Welch Technology Center has developed a string of technological marvels. A transparent roof spanning 300 meters without any central supports. Adevice to display integrated anatomical information from a CT scan with live functional information from a PET scan. A car bumper that self-destructs on impact (rather than destroying, say, the leg of an unlucky pedestrian). The markets for these wonder products are truly global, encompassing the United States, Europe, Asia and, of course, India itself.

Similarly, Intel's R&D center in Bengaluru is its largest unit outside the United States, having recently overtaken the much older Israeli unit. Some of its work is truly "blue-sky" research. For example, the center delivered the world's first tera-scale experimental chip capable of one trillion operations per second.

In addition to GE and Intel, other global companies are also taking advantage of India's innovation skills. Indian R&D units are present in AstraZeneca, EMC, Microsoft, Philips, Pfizer and Alcatel-Lucent - providing striking evidence that Indians can "do" innovation. But global consumers rarely recognize India as the country of origin because most of this innovation is invisible. How so? The innovation occurring in these Indian captive units is visible only to other business units and is not revealed to end consumers.

To understand the nature of this invisibility, consider how new complex multicomponent products such as engines, IT hardware, or even major software are currently developed in multinational companies. Using horizontal segmentation, the various components involved are often developed in parallel, in different countries, only to be assembled at a later date. And India plays a large role in this multi-country orchestration of development of new products.

Because no country unit is solely responsible for the final result, it's difficult to associate any particular place with the innovation. Thus, the head of the GE unit in Bengaluru took great pains to state clearly that the unit in Bengaluru helped develop everything, but would not take sole credit for the aircraft engines and wind turbines. Equally important, no other R&D unit in the GE network can claim sole credit, either, which begs the question: "Where was it really innovated?"

One thing is clear: the availability of high-quality talent is a key innovation driver, and in fact, confidence in the capabilities of India's talent pool has increased. When we look to Microsoft, Bill Gates has noted: Microsoft's India center has exceeded expectations in terms of how quickly it became a contributor to the company's R&D network. This example among others indicates India has become an "unavoidable destination" for R&D and innovation centers.

Given India's historic absence from the innovation arena, many might ask how the country has contributed to outsourced innovation. The global services delivery model was invented in the late 1990s by many Indian IT companies, and this model allows for a key transformation: tightly integrated tasks formerly performed by workers in one location working for a single company now take on a distributed format, such that different parts of the work are executed in different geographies. The advantages are obvious, including the ability to (1) execute work where the best expertise exists at the lowest possible costs, (2) take advantage of time zone differences for round-the-clock efforts, and (3) achieve some level of risk diversification by building redundancy across locations.

These factors and the global delivery model have become fundamental to India's transition to an innovation destination. This process should work well for fairly routine, standardized tasks (e.g., booking flights and making restaurant reservations) as well as high-value-added knowledge work or creative work such as R&D because the global delivery model focuses not on the task itself, but whether the subtask links can be managed across distances.

With this efficient model and high-quality talent in place, India is positioned to be recognized not just for successful offshore services, but as the next global innovation hub.

Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/india-the-worlds-secret-silicon-valley/248341/

Volkswagen to bring more small cars to India to raise market share

By: Shally Seth Mohile
Source: http://www.livemint.com
Following a spat with its international partner Suzuki Motor Corp., German car maker Volkswagen AG​ wants to introduce more small cars in India on its own to increase market share.

The Volkswagen Group India, which sells the premium Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda cars in the country, wants to more than double market share to 11% in four to five years, said John Chacko, the group’s chief representative in the country.

Volkswagen sold 81,360 cars in the nine months to September compared with 32,359 a year earlier, and hopes to end the year selling 100,000 cars. Its Chakan factory, near Pune, has a capacity to turn out 110,000 cars a year.

India’s 2.5 million unit passenger car market expanded by more than 25% in the past two fiscal years but is expected to slow down to single digits in the year to March 2012 due to an economic slowdown.

Two years after launching its compact car, the Polo, Volkswagen plans to introduce another compact car, Volkswagen Up, next year that will be priced below the Polo. It is also considering bringing the Skoda Citigo to India.

“The way things are being played out in the volume segment, is very interesting,” Chacko said.

“But we are not even present there. So any step into the future means we have to enter this segment, otherwise there’s not much scope of being further competitive,” he said.

The re-think of Volkswagen’s India strategy has been prompted by its tie-up with Suzuki, which owns Indian market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, going astray, an analyst said.

“The tie-up would have offered Volkswagen an automatic advantage as they would have got a strong local partner in Maruti Suzuki,” said Colin Couchman, a European automotive analyst at IHS Automotive, a sales forecast and market research firm, in a phone interview from Germany.

“The Indian market is skewed towards low-cost cars while Volkswagen’s expertise lie in the premium cars. The (market share) target looks ambitious,” said Couchman.

Volkswagen and Suzuki formed a tie-up in December 2009 to bolster Volkswagen’s presence in India for small cars and give Suzuki access to latest hybrid and diesel technology. But Suzuki now wants to end the partnership.

Chacko admitted Volkswagen is a late entrant in India’s intensely competitive small car segment. A number of auto makers have been launching low-priced small cars that account for 70% of total car sales.

Car companies have been slicing the segment by launching models at varied price points. Hyundai Motor India Ltd launched the Eon this month to take on Maruti Suzuki’s largest selling model, the Alto. Honda Siel Cars India Pvt. Ltd launched the Brio in September at a higher price, its first bet in the entry level compact car segment.

Competitiveness will depend on localization, which brings down costs, Chacko said. The company hasn’t localized the engines and gearbox, the most expensive units.

“The right thing to do is to make further investment into the segment and we then have the chance of solving some of the cost issues we have at the moment,” he said.

However, investments in Maharashtra, where the group is based, will depend on the state government’s policy on value-added tax (VAT).

“We shopped around before setting up a base here. While we have held our promises in terms of investment and employment generation, they (govt) are not,” Chacko said. The Chakan factory was set up with an investment of Rs.3,800 crore and employs 2,500 people.

Maharashtra may soon withdraw a notification that restricts the benefits of VAT refunds to consumers in the state and excludes those sold to the distribution and sales arms of car makers, Mint reported on 10 August. The state government is yet to take a decision on the matter.

An executive at a rival firm said Volkswagen has been more market savvy and flexible in its approach to the Indian market than some rivals.

“They have also managed to expand sales and distribution network at a much faster pace. We consider them a very strong competitor, ” the executive said on condition that neither he nor his firm be named.

Source: http://www.livemint.com/2011/11/01215938/Volkswagen-to-bring-more-small.html?atype=tp

India meets latte and latches on

By: Pia Heikkila
Source: http://www.thenational.ae

Coffee shops in Mumbai are hip, happening places. There is all the latest Bollywood gossip to be shared, deals to be made and the internet to be surfed.

And then there is, of course, the coffee - and sandwiches and cakes.

Comfy sofas, muzak and armchairs invite guests to linger. And linger they do.

One of them is Neha Punjabi, an advertising director, who is sitting hunched over her laptop, sipping a latte and nibbling on a bagel.

"'I've been here for about four hours today and come here at least three times a week," she says. "I mainly come here to use the internet for work and meet my friends. For me it's the extension of my living room."

It is people such as Ms Punjabi whom the US coffee shop giant Starbucks wants to court as the Seattle-based company is believed to be weeks away from opening its first outlet in India, to be based at the renowned Taj hotel in the Mumbai district of Colaba.

Starbucks wants its slice of the juicy pie that India can potentially offer. The country's coffee shop market is worth a modest US$200 million (Dh734.6m) but in just four years it could be worth five times as much, according to Research In India. This is against the mature US market, which last year was worth about $18bn, according to the market research company Mintel.

Starbucks is not landing in India a moment too soon. The thirst for coffee is growing.

Market sources say Starbucks and the Indian multi-industry giant Tata have carved a joint venture that would allow the US company to operate in India. The country's foreign direct investment regulations would allow Starbucks to hold up to 51 per cent in the joint venture. Starbucks and Tata declined to comment on their plans.

The US company is clearly keen to boost its overseas revenue as it currently receives a fifth of its sales from non-US operations. Its net income for the three months to July 3 stood at $279.1m, up 34 per cent on a year earlier, with international revenue rising by 20 per cent versus 9 per cent in the US, according to the company's figures.

There are about 1,700 to 1,800 coffee-shop chain cafes operating in India, and the market can easily absorb more than twice those numbers in the top 50 to 60 Indian cities, says the research firm Technopak.

"The initial effort and work required to familiarise people with the concept has been done over the last decade," says Saloni Nangia, the senior vice president at Technopak.

"Now, meeting or spending time at a coffee shop or seeing coffee shops as an option for a quick bite is very much a part of the consumer's lifestyle in the top 15 to 20 cities. It would percolate further quite steadily as the smaller cities have fewer options currently."

As the trend for coffee shops spreads outside the big cities, it seems Indians of all ages are steadily developing a taste for cappuccinos, macchiatos and espressos instead of their traditional chai.


Source: http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/industry-insights/retail/india-meets-latte-and-latches-on

Hyundai Motor seeks steelmaking advantage

By: Christian Oliver
Source: http://www.ft.com


Henry Ford’s epiphany came as he sifted through the wreckage of a French sports car at a Florida race track. He extracted a mangled strip of light metal he did not recognise but instantly knew he needed: Vanadium alloy.

At that moment, Ford determined he had to build his own steelworks to produce tailor-made, lightweight metal for his revolutionary Model T, which entered production in 1908.

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In-house steel mills are not a standard feature of the modern auto industry, but one big carmaker is breaking the mould with its own blast furnaces: South Korea’s fast-growing Hyundai Motor Group.

The family-run group comprises units Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Hyundai Steel. Chung Mong-koo, the group’s chairman, holds a 13 per cent stake in Hyundai Steel and Kia holds 21 per cent.

The conglomerate’s motive for boosting steel production for Hyundai and Kia – which combined are the world’s fifth largest maker of cars by sales – is the same as Ford’s was a century ago, as it looks to forge special alloys to slash the weight of its cars.

The goal is to reduce weight by 10 per cent by 2015 and in so doing, make its vehicles more fuel-efficient and more attractive to buyers fretting about high fuel prices. Hyundai believes it will also gain a speed advantage in manufacturing by tailoring specialist steels for its own designs, breaking its dependence on traditional suppliers such as Japan’s Nippon Steel and South Korea’s Posco.

“Every major [automobile] manufacturer wants to have steel-making in-house but the investment is just too huge,” Cho Won-suk, Hyundai Steel’s senior executive vice president, told the Financial Times at the company’s steelworks in the west coast port of Dangjin. “Nobody else out there can decide to invest that amount but Hyundai made the decision to enhance quality.”

Currently only India’s Tata Group shares Hyundai’s interest in both steel and cars.

Hyundai Steel has invested $8bn over the past five years in three blast furnaces at Dangjin, each with a capacity of about 4m tonnes per year. Two have come online since 2010. About a quarter of this 8m tonnes is earmarked for Hyundai-Kia, meaning Hyundai Steel supplies 30 per cent of the carmakers’ needs. It wants to raise that to 45 per cent by 2013, when the third furnace comes online.

The steelmaker is now eyeing a move into the ranks of the world’s top 10 producers by tonnage, targeting output of 24m tonnes by 2013, up from last year’s 20m tonnes and just 4.8m tonnes in 1998.

Mr Cho said the furnaces give Hyundai greater flexibility and speed to forge its own advanced high-density steel for specific designs. Giving the YF Sonata sedan as an example, he said Hyundai Motor plans to improve fuel efficiency by making half the parts from the lighter, specialised steel by 2015, more than double the current 20 per cent.

Despite the benefits to Hyundai and Kia from the steel production push, however, the move poses challenges for the Hyundai Motor Group.

Analysts expect Hyundai Steel’s net profit to sag in the near term as global market turmoil undermines the South Korean won, iron ore prices remain high and prices for construction steel fall. These concerns have pushed Hyundai Steel’s share price down 40 per cent since April.

Currency issues are a particular bugbear for Hyundai Steel as it imports raw materials but makes 72 per cent of sales in the domestic market. Last year, net profit fell to Won1,014bn ($900m) from Won1,152bn in 2009. Kim Kyung-joong, analyst at Eugene Securities, predicts a further decline to Won828bn this year.

By contrast, Hyundai Motor last week turned in another solid quarterly performance in spite of global economic uncertainty, reporting a 21 per cent rise in net profit for the July to September quarter from a year earlier to Won1,920bn.

Some stakeholders grumble that the Hyundai companies risk being distracted by the group’s investments in steel and the construction business. They argue Hyundai Motor Group should focus more on cars because a steel mill is also exposed to the battered shipbuilding and construction sectors.

Fears that Hyundai Motor was bulking up excessively in a sector far from its core were kindled by the group’s $4.7bn purchase earlier this year of Hyundai Engineering and Construction.

“It is positive that Hyundai Steel has stable customers in Hyundai and Kia. The whole group can expand fast thanks to the steelmaking unit but it could also have had more room for investment in auto manufacturing if [it] had not moved into steelmaking,” Mr Kim says.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0f08c6e6-f3ba-11e0-b98c-00144feab49a.html#axzz1dMeaxDya