Cover Story

Who wins now?
Just when you think the advantage is with one of them, a few thrusts and parries later, it swings to the other. As equations change at the Centre, the battle between Anil Ambani and Mukesh Ambani gets shriller—and more desperate. BT's Suman Layak reports. Chronology of war between the Ambani brothersMukesh Ambani meets Manmohan on windfall taxIs it advantage Anil at Dalal Street?Ambani rivalry compared to Archer's potboilerAmbani brothers: The battle to be No. 1 is on

Chronology of events
How it started, and how it’s showing few signs of ending.

2008-08-10

Digital

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Editors note

From the editor

As the fight between the Ambani brothers shows no signs of abating, our cover story examines how while the protagonists have become more desperate, the impact of India Inc.'s worst battle could queer the pitch, not only for each of their companies but for Indian business, in general, and, well, even politics.

Current

It's never too late

Unisys, has morphed from devising the world’s first commercially viable typewriter to building adding machines and ENIAC, the world’s first large-scale business computer. It looks to play catch-up in a competitive IT services market.

Prescription for transcription

Certification is a slow process and Indian transcriptionists can take up to two years to become one-third as efficient as an American. Cbay will have to face huge challenge including talent crunch for a smooth growth.

Play safe and win some

It pays to hedge in volatile times—at least banks offering the option of investing in structured products will agree with that. And at last count there were quite a few offering this service.

No borders for risk

KZen Equities, the Pune-based firm enables Indian investors to diversify their portfolio globally. The RBI regulations have permitted overseas equity investments for some time, but actual investments will take time to pick up due to a lack of India-based service providers in this area.

Shanghai stopover

A motley crew of policy makers, regulators and market experts set out on a trip to China to find out how different the Chinese financial markets are from the ones back home.

What the patient ordered

It is a billion-dollar market with hardly any national-level player. Outsourcing in the Indian healthcare sector is a huge but highly scattered activity with most players opting for outsourcing services locally.

CUMI gets aggressive

Two international acquisitions and commencement of operations of its Chinese joint venture—all in a year’s time— have catapulted Carborundum Universal Ltd from just being India’s largest abrasives maker to a global player. The Murugappa Group company is aiming for a global top slot.

Niche hunting

IDG Ventures seeks to find its niche in a crowded VC market.

Gulf connection

Ras Al Khaimah wants to strengthen its bonds with India. It  has big plans in India: these range from $4-billion investment in IT and hospitality in Tamil Nadu to a $2-billion aluminium smelter in Andhra Pradesh to expansion of its ceramics business with a new plant and then a $2-billion real estate venture.

His please-all budget

BJP government’s first budget in Karnataka is a damp squib. It has no bold reform initiatives of the kind the NDA reign piloted. Instead, it’s a bundle of freebies—a few reasonable, many unjustifiable.

Buying on the cheap

As stock prices crumble, M&A activity begins to pick up. Investment bankers say several cash-rich corporates are on the hunt for companies in high-growth sectors, but whose stocks have taken a battering.

Banking on India

Losses in the West haven’t deterred global banks. French bank along with Citi, Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers, and Goldman Sachs are in investing mode in India.

The dairy milky way

Cadbury wants to double the size of its operations. The company, which holds a dominant 70 per cent in the Rs 1,600-crore Indian chocolate market, has ambitious plans.

Wrong medicine

Following the strategic sale by the Singh family to Daiichi Sankyo, Ranbaxy Laboratories falls into a regulatory imbroglio with multiple agencies in the US.

Editorial

Inclusive growth

While the grant and subsidy culture distorts markets (and disincentivises the small producers from standing on their own feet and becoming savvier), the government interventions have also done a bad job of linking the rural producers with markets.

The voter will decide

The result of the trust vote will be out by the time Business Today hits the stands. Going by news reports in the media, the vote is more about elections to the 15th Lok Sabha than about the merits of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Brothers at war

Corporate family battles are rarely amicable. After all, internecine conflicts can get ugly and if the fight happens in the public gaze like the battle between the two Ambani brothers—Mukesh and Anil—it can get even more unsavoury.

Letters

Pinch of a lighter wallet

Don’t touch my wallet” (BT cover story, July 27) was a timely reminder of the inflationary crisis that is upon us. But what is different this time around is the level of our preparedness and our ability to tackle this hydra-headed monster.

The BT 50 Index

BT vital signs

The BT 50 index

Features

Where is Citibank headed in India?

The world's largest bank is gasping for breath. Will it now cut back operations globally to put its house back in order, or will it expand in India and China to offset its losses elsewhere?

The elusive transformation

Software product firms, understandably, do take a while to turn profitable, but for the Chennai-based ERP vendor Ramco Systems the gestation period has been rather too long. This doesn't perturb MD and CEO P.R. Venketrama Raja, who armed with new products is determined to take his company forward and emerge successful. Nitya Varadarajan spells out the plans that Raja has up his sleeve. A report.

Banking at your fingertips

Telecom operators, banks and a clutch of service providers are jostling for what is likely to become a massive market in mobile payment. The question is: can it do to banking what mobile phones did to communications? Kushan Mitra finds out.

The biggest bull of all

With investments of a little over Rs 44,000 crore in 2007-08—up from a meagre Rs 5,400 crore two years ago—the Life Insurance Corporation is easily the single-biggest shopper in Indian stocks. Rachna Monga tells us how the largest and the only public sector life insurance company has been re-inventing itself.

Inclusive capitalism

Handicraft retailer Fabindia is turning thousands of its supplier-artisans into shareholders in a unique experiment that seeks to empower and enrich some of India’s poorest people. "Supplier-region companies" set up across India by the Rs 260-crore retailer are part of this ambitious programme. Kapil Bajaj reports.

In This Issue

Deal Meister

Chinnakannan Sivasankaran (or ‘Siva’ as he is better known) has one consistent thing going for him: he almost unfailingly makes a substantial killing when he exits the businesses that he acquires.

Healthcare for the other India

Six years since ISRO launched a national telemedicine project to reach quality healthcare to rural India, there are four states that have “wired up” all their district hospitals. So, what has been the impact on the lives of the poor in these states?

Tirupuri's nemesis?

The ghost of child labour has returned to haunt this textile industry hub, 50 km from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. N. Madhavan chose to find out the situation after Primark, a UK retail chain, cancelled orders worth Rs 2.52 crore and blacklisted three exporters. He came back convinced that the exporters have realised their credibility will be at stake if they do not act in time. A report.

Money

The futures game

There’s nothing like buying stocks for the long haul. Small investors are warming up to futures trading regardless of the risk. But is the futures market for you?

Still no pit stops for realty

The drubbing of real estate stocks may go on some more time.

"Valuation is cheaper now than before"

The boom in the mutual fund business has prompted many foreign institutions to set up joint ventures in India. Among them, Pioneer Investments, a global investment manager with a presence in 25 countries, tied up with Bank of Baroda’s mutual fund arm to form the Baroda Pioneer AMC.

No relief in sight

Inflation threatens to spiral upwards, according to a report.

No deliverance in debt

Debt may offer a safe haven in a falling stock market, but fails miserably to deliver in times of scorching inflation.

Must-have covers for all seasons

Here are five insurance policies that take care of all your insurance needs.

Honey, I shrunk the card

Credit card companies have reduced the free credit time and increased interest rates. Customers had better watch out.

People

In the driver's seat

Starring Rod Wallace, MD, Porsche India; SpiceJet’s former Executive Chairman Siddhanta Sharma; Contract Advertising’s Ravi Deshpande; Aditya Birla Group’s Sumant Sinha; Sun Microsystems India’s Anil Valluri and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories’ Kallam Anji Reddy.

Special

Regulated to death

Corrupt and hide-bound regulators are the bane of education in India. There’s a crying need to revamp the regulators.

Technology in education

Technology is transforming education across India from primary schools to technical universities. However, it’s early days yet.

Billion-Dollar babies

Private services providers are finding gaps, plugging them and growing decent businesses in the process. Many of them aspire to be at least a billion-dollar big in the next few years. Flawless execution, however, will remain the key to realising these dreams.

India Inc. goes to school

Education is a goldmine not just for entrepreneurs but also for the country. With the education industry set to grow, the next wave of entrepreneurial activity is going to be education centric.

Trends

Mumbai on a budget

Hotel accommodation in Mumbai may soon be more conducive to your wallet, courtesy the arrival of branded budget hotels in the city.

Just wondering ...

Whatever happened to the central bureau of Investigation’s probe into Tehelka’s expose on defence deals? Apparently, the agency has filed nine chargesheets in the case involving former Defence Minister George Fernandes, Jaya Jaitley and former Chief of Navy, Sushil Kumar.

To be precise

“India cannot be held to any emission control target. They (developed countries) should get off our backs. We are an expanding economy. How can we levy a cap when millions are living with deprivation?”R.K. Pachauri, Head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to IANS

Economic oracles

A snap poll of five economists on inflation, credit growth, and a host of parameters likely to worry you, me and India Inc. in 2008-09.

Numbers of note

$40 billion (Rs 1.72 lakh crore): Estimated annual loss to India Inc. due to corporate frauds by company insiders, according to a survey conducted by India Forensic Research

Talebearer

With the UPA government formally parting ways with the Left, the buzz is that the government would try to push ahead with its reformist agenda.

Our two cents, their billions

If you suddenly have thousands of crores staring at you out of your bank account, the entire world becomes your oyster. That’s what industrialists Malvinder Singh (and Shivinder Singh), erstwhile promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories, and B.K. Modi, former promoter of Spice Telecom, have landed with after selling their businesses in June.

Dented by derivatives

There’s a tentative sense of relief on Dalal Street. The April-June quarter results of several companies are in, and the good news is that there are no nasty surprises.

Goldman's gold rush

Wall Street firms may be still reeling under the subprime crisis and cutting back on investment, but not Goldman Sachs. The venerable firm is out shopping with a vengeance—at least in India.

Railways to the rescue

If Indian Railways has its way, then steel prices in the domestic market could soften a bit. The Ministry has decided to give 25 per cent discount on tariffs on domestic iron ore freight booked to ports.

Gold: Losing its lustre

 A leading jeweller in Bangalore says the demand is dipping due to soaring prices, which stood at Rs 13,285 per 10 grams (on July 17). He puts the drop at around 30 per cent in the south and over 50 per cent in the north over last year.

"Nordic IT spending is $40 billion"

Tom Scharning, Senior Vice President (Business Development), EDB Business Partner, an Oslo-based $1.5-billion IT services company, was in Bangalore recently.

Instant tip

The fortnight’s burning question. Is this a good time to be a contrarian and start buying value stocks once again?

Bye, bye reforms

There’s plenty the UPA government can still do, subject to several ifs.

Policy Watch

PN-1 may be scrapped

Moves are afoot by the government to scrap Press Note 1 to make it easier for foreign firms to invest in India. PN-1 protects the interests of domestic companies from their foreign joint venture partners by mandating that the foreign companies would have to obtain their approval before making a fresh investment in the same sector in India.

Interest rate muddle

Rising inflation continues to worry the UPA government. North Block now feels that further fiscal measures are unlikely to stem inflation and the ball is now in the RBI’s court to intervene once again.

3G on the backburner

As the rest of the world switches on to next generation telecom networks, India seems to stay well behind the curve, largely due to warring authorities who can’t seem to agree on what should be done and a hysterical defence establishment who guard ‘their’ spectrum zealously.

News Maker

Wilbur L. Ross Jr.

When Wilbur L. Ross Jr decided to invest in distressed Delhi-based low-cost carrier SpiceJet that has been bleeding due to skyrocketing fuel prices, he was once again betting on something that defied the prevailing logic: he sees the sharp spike in oil prices reverting to sub-100 dollar levels in a year from now.

Noted

Appointed: R.S. Pandey, as the new Petroleum Secretary. He replaces M.S. Srinivasan, who retires on July 31. Pandey, a 1972-batch IAS officer from the Nagaland cadre, is the Steel Secretary at present. Pandey will have a 17-month stint as the Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

BT More

Bag 'em all!

Shoes, bags, neckpieces, luxurious bedroom accessories and even state-of-the-art furniture —there’s a lot that’s new this fortnight in the world of luxury.

Green conscience

The new Civic Hybrid from the Honda stable is a noiseless car that costs a bomb but promises better fuel efficiency and lesser emissions. But, is it worth the dough? We drove it across town to find out.

Footloose in magical Mykonos

Whether it’s a suntan on a golden beach, some great food or just a pleasant walk through whitewashed stone alleys that you are looking for—Mykonos has it all. Sanjoy Narayan discovers the well-kept secrets of this Greek island.

The best wine bars

Want to try out that great Sauvignon Blanc from Meerlust that you have just read about? We tell you where to go for your next meal if you are a true wine connoisseur.

'Spirited' to the core

“Hunt elephants, don’t shoot ants,” says Asif Adil as we discuss life’s many mysteries over a drink. And the MD of Diageo India gives us many fascinating insights into his colourful life.

A suite in the sky

Lying on a Givenchy-designed flat bed inside a first class suite on Singapore Airlines’ inaugural Airbus A380 flight to Tokyo, one gets a taste of true luxury in the air. The food, conceived by Michelin-starred chefs, and the wines from around the world make it a truly magical experience.

High five

Fancy yourself as a true whisky connoisseur? These five rare whiskies are a must in your home bar, says Mahesh Mishra.

India's most sought-after faces

In a crowd of wannabe models waiting to walk the ramp, a few beautiful women still hold their own. We met these fabulous models to find out what makes them tick.

Million-dollar babe

Four years after this dusky beauty rocked the Indian modelling industry with her “young and innocent” looks, Vipasha Agarwal continues to be among the country’s highest-paid models. We spent a couple of days in her company to discover what makes her so desirable.

Five things you didn't know about Selvage Denim

It’s the most expensive denim in the world. We tell you why it’s also the best.

Definitely a first!

Is India’s newest fitness club really worth all the hype? Jamal Shaikh does an anonymous review.

The Chocolate Man

Man Mickael Besse has created magic with chocolates for over a decade. He tells you a few tricks from his armoury.

A Funny Thing Called Life

The first, a funny and racy story from an acclaimed writer. The second, a mesmerising and heart-wrenching debut novel. This fortnight’s offerings, based on the lives of different sets of young women, promise to make your weekend enjoyable.

Bring out the riesling

It used to be said that a wine of a region pairs best only with its food, so the ease with which a Riesling, a cold-weather grape, marries with North Indian staples is a divine mystery, because no two cooking styles are as different from each other as German and ours.

Changing sounds

In the career of every platinum-selling artiste comes a time when they reinvent their sound in an attempt to stay creatively alive. And at such times they turn towards a maverick producer for help. We take a look at three modern makeovers.

Beyond the pod

There is the Apple iPod. And then there are the rest. Here are four of the best gadgets you can buy, which can, in fact, do things the Pod cannot.

Cars of tomorrow

There are some hot wheels already on the road, which nearly drive by themselves, maintaining distance from the car in front, and slowing and accelerating when required.

The million-dollar event

You can have as many multimillion dollar events as you want, but there is no taking away from the national open. Call me oldfashioned, but for me that is ‘the’ tournament because it packs history and there is a certain amount of prestige attached to winning your national championship.

Back of the Book

Surat's lost lustre

Although more than 90 per cent of the world's diamonds are processed in this port city of Gujarat, the industry is facing a multitude of challenges in an ultra-competitive market. The latest: workers are asking for better wages. Business Today's T.V. Mahalingam says the all-pervading joie de vivre among diamond-makers is misleading.

Book

Risk capitalist

The incredible story of a Harvard professor who gave rise to the venture capital industry.

Event

On the ball

Out of the eight finalists who made it to the presentation round of the TiE-Canaan Entrepreneurial Challenge, three emerged ultimate winners. Check them out.

Jobs

Make a career out of solar

Solar industry, though in its infancy, offers some bright job options.

Your future is in the cards

Thanks to Korn/Ferry, companies are now literally tossing the cards to find business leaders. The methodology helps to substantially reduce the chances of a "misfit" candidate and is based on sound research. Believe it or not, this idea isn't as crazy as it sounds. Business Today's Saumya Bhattacharya goes into the details.

Printed Circuit

An enterprising trio

Three new “enterprise” phones are on the market. Are they worth it?

Treadmill

All about Omega-3 fatty acids

You’ve probably heard a lot about their value to your health, but do you really understand the ways in which omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial to you and which foods to get them from? Here’s a quick check on them.

Climbing a plateau

In weight training, there comes a time when you hit a plateau and discover that no matter what you do you’re not gaining strength or muscle mass. This typically happens if you have been following the same regimen for a while, exercising your muscle groups in the same pattern or sequence.