Paytm Report

Now Make IRCTC Payments Through Paytm Wallet!
Posted: 29 Apr 2015 05:09 AM PDT
Next time you try to book tickets through IRCTC portal, it will be that much easier for you as you will be
able to make payments through Paytm wallet.
Paytm wallet and IRCTC integration happened a few days back, however Paytm officially announced it
today. We spotted this integration around a week back, and tweeted about it as well.
@vijayshekhar Nice.. Now IRCTC supports @Paytm wallet for paymentsThis should given a good
bump in transactions! pic.twitter.com/RBpBPdJqou
Arun Prabhudesai (@8ap) April 24, 2015
Over last couple of years, IRCTC has added many different channels for making payments, including
their own wallet. The site also supports other wallets and cash cards like ITZ cash card, OXi cash card
however, these are not used widely as people have to go through tedious registration process. Paytm on
the other hand is extremely simple and used by millions of users in India.
Earlier this month, Paytm announced that they have crossed 50 million digital wallets making them the
largest mobile commerce platform in India. Now, with integration with IRCTC, the number is surely going
to rise in coming months.
Mr. Amit Lakhotia, VP-Paytm said in regards to this tie-up, We are delighted to partner with IRCTC and
offer the added convenience of Paytm Wallet to IRCTC customers. This is a major partnership for us as it
allows users to book train tickets via Paytm wallet. IRCTC is the second biggest consumer-transacting
platform today. Launched recently, the service has received positive response from our customers, with
the usage of Paytm wallet on IRCTCs website crossing our expectations in just a few days. We are
elated with this association and we wish to take more such worthwhile strides in the future to make lives
simpler and easier for our customers.

Launched in 2014, Paytm wallet has grown quite rapidly and now has nearly 60 million wallet holders and
a network of 21,000 merchants where Paytm wallet can be used.
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IRCTC Starts Mumbai Darshan By Air On Helicopter For INR 5580

Approximately three million tourists visit Mumbai every year to soak in the legacy of Indias economic
capital. But the greatest hindrance to road based tour packages is that it consumes time and leaves you
exhausted.
How about an aerial tour, which takes 15 minutes to complete and gives you bird-eye view of the
megapolis?
IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) has understood the problem, and have
come up with an innovative and exciting offer for tourists: Mumbai Air Darshan.
This special, one of its kind tourist service has been launched in collaboration with a private helicopter
service provider, and starts with Rs 5580 per person for a 15 minute ride.
As per the official portal: Helicopter joy ride 1000 feet above the city or the coast is an unforgettable way
to experience the breathtaking beauty of Mumbai and its surrounding areas.. Enjoy the panoramic views
of the Mumbai and its coastline from your armchair in the sky.
As of now, the service would be available between April 22 to October 21 (Monday to Saturday, 11 AM to
4.30 PM) .There are only 39 available slots between this period.
As per the itinerary, there are two routes: North Mumbai and South Mumbai; for both the routes, Juhu is
the central hub.
North Mumbai tour will start from Juhu and in the next 15 minutes, tourists would be able to fly over Juhu,
Varsova Malad, Gorai, Pagoda, Essel World. South Mumbai tours itinerary covers: Juhu, Bandra-Worli
Sea Link, Haji Ali and back. The North Mumbai Route.
As per reports, there can be another package which is currently not displayed on the website: a private,
chartered tour for Rs 20,000 covering 15 minutes of flight time.
Some interesting pointers:

Children below 2 years of age would not be allowed on this joy ride
Mobile or camera photography is not allowed (this can be a major deterrence)
Passengers sitting next to pilot should not wear sarees; besides that there is no other dress code
Only those pilots who have more than 2000 hours of flying experience would accompany tourists
in the helicopter
Only three passengers would be allowed inside the helicopter at a given time
Passengers are encouraged to carry a medical certificate while boarding the flight
IRCTC would not be responsible for any air crash or accident (???)
This is the first city based aerial tour package started by IRCTC. Some other air packages which are
currently offered by IRCTC includes: Bengalore-Goa, Shirdi-Chennai, Shrdi-Delhi, Golden Triangle of
Karnataka and Himanchals Delight packages.
Besides their official portal, tourists can SMS HELI to 09004082742 for registrations & bookings.
The post IRCTC Starts Mumbai Darshan By Air On Helicopter For INR 5580 first appeared on Trak.in .
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Cyanogen Ends OnePlus Partnership, Now Seeking Tie-Ups With

Other Vendors
Everyone out there would be surprised to know that Cyanogen has decide to end its partnership with
OnePlus. At the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing, Kirt McMaster, the CEO of Cyanogen said
that, Without Cyanogen, OnePlus would have sold like one device in international markets. Essentially
they built their brand on the back of Cyanogen.
This statement from the CEO was a clear indication about the end of the partnership. Kirt was not happy
to end it up, but he did wish OnePlus the best for the upcoming releases.
The Chief Technology Officer of Cyanogen, Steve Kondik, said that, The two companies ultimately had
different goals for its software and, as a result, there were collisions between personal as the two
attempted to proceed with their own visions. He further added that, Thats probably the last you will
see from that partnership, unfortunately.
There are around 100 smartphone companies in China which include small and large ones. And
Cyanogen is aiming to work with few of those to scale at much quicker pace. However, as of now, there is
no such confirmation about Cyanogen working with other Chinese manufacturers. It doesnt matter whos
going to partner them but with this, the Chinese brands will surely boost their presence all over the world.
On this note, Kirt said that, Its a great way for them to build some identity outside of China using a
brand thats already reasonably well known.
OnePlus Ones OS and Its Controversies in India:

OnePlus has been designing its own Android based OS since few months and it released OxygenOS at
the start of April for OnePlus One users. And thats one of the reasons why this partnership came to an
end. There were many controversies when OnePlus One was launched in India. Right from OnePlus One
ban in India to theCyanogen being unfair for both OnePlus and Micromax,. Even with all the
controversies, OnePlus One sold quite well in India. In first couple of months since launch in India, they
were able to sell sixty to sixty five thousand units in India
What About OnePlus One Users with Cyanogen OS?

The users who have already received the CM12s Lollipop update for OnePlus One phones would be
worried that whats next if the partnership ends. Will the Cyanogen provide support for the OS which is
already installed in lakhs of OnePlus One phones? Theres no need to worry because Cyanogen will be
providing the support to the users who have already installed their latest OS.
It would be interesting to see whether and how the new users will adopt OxygenOS in the upcoming
OnePlus smartphones or will they shift their choice to new newer brands giving Cyanogen OS.
Whats your choice?
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$100M In 4 Years! IoT Startup Happiest Minds Aiming To Break

Records In India
Very seldom you come across stories when a 60 year old entrepreneur establishes a start-up, which is
aiming for $100 million revenues within 4 years!
Happiest Technologies, which was founded in 2011 by 60 year old Ashok Soota is well on its way to
create some new records. Last year, they reported annual revenues of $50 million and achieved breakeven last quarter. As of now, they are clocking revenues of Rs 26 crore every month, with 100+ clients
and a team of 1450 specialists.
Last year, this company was ranked # 2 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2014 and ranked
#13 as Asias fastest growing technology firm in the Deloitte Annual ranking.
Ashok Soota, founder of Happiest Minds Technologies is a veteran entrepreneur. He co-founded
MindTree in 1999, which rose to become a 9000 employee behemoth with annual revenues of $350
million. He left MindTree in 2001 to launch Happiest Technologies in an entirely new niche: Internet of
Things & Cloud technology.
By selling his stake in MindTree, Ashok was able to raise $52.5 million as Series A capital.
Happiest Minds use technology to offer a comprehensive IT services platform for businesses, which
includes business intelligence, Unified communication, Mobility solutions, Cloud based technological
innovations, Social Media and Big Data. Ashok Soota has been able to form a solid team which
comprises of Sashi Kumar, CEO (who was earlier CSC India Head) & Narayanan Venkatraman who was
the CFO of Sonata Software and more.
As of now, 64% of its revenues comes from USA and they have operations in United Kingdom,
Singapore, Canada and Australia. Interestingly, they have plans to clock 25% of their revenues from
Intellectual Property solutions, which means that they are not completely into services but focusing on
their own customized products as well.
Happiest Technologies has plans to go public within 2 years.
Fastest $100 Million Startups In India

Flipkart was probably the first Indian startup from eCommerce niche which crossed fastest $100 million
revenue mark. They breached this milestone within 5 years of their birth.
Redbus was founded in 2006, and they crossed $100 million revenues during 2012-13 financial
year
Snapdeal clocked $100 million revenues somewhere between 2012 and 2013
Myntra was founded in 2007, and they crossed $100 million revenues in 2013
Ola Cabs was founded in 2010, and they crossed $100 million revenues in 2014
Mu Sigma breached $100 million annual revenue mark in 2012
This success story of a technology based startup, once again proves the fact that Indian startup is right
now at an exciting stage of growth. Already declared as third fastest growing startup eco-system in the
world, around 800 startups are founded every year in India, and in the last three years, more than $1
billion worth of mergers and acquisitions have taken place.
It is estimated that by 2020, more than 2.5 lakh people would be hired by startups.
The post $100M In 4 Years! IoT Startup Happiest Minds Aiming To Break Records In India first appeared
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Airtel, Idea Profits Surge On High Mobile Data Usage. Low Profits
Due To OTTs Theory Debunked
One of the major arguments proposed by telecom players supporting their discriminatory Internet
plans was revenues. They claimed that they have invested heavily into telecom infrastructure and due to
the OTT players, their revenues are dropping; hence they justified their anti-net neutrality plans for
balancing it off.
But these claims of low profits have been totally debunked now as both Airtel and Idea, which are Indias
top telecom companies have reported record profits for the quarter which ended in March, 2015.
And the majority of this increased revenue came from mobile data usage!
Airtel:
Sunil Mittal led Bharti Airtel announced their quarterly report for the period January-March 2015, and
there is no reason they should seek shelter of decreased profits to impose anti-net neutrality plans.
As per the records, their net profit increased by 30.5% to reach Rs 1255 crore. In the same period last
year,they had net profits of Rs 962 crore. Total revenues for this period stood at Rs 23,016 crore, which
is again 3.6% more than Rs 22,219 crore revenues for the same period last year.
If we analyze the annual revenues then again Airtel has posted record growth. Compared to Rs 2773
crore of net profit in the financial year 2013-14, Airtel posted net profit of Rs 5183 crore for the
financial year 2014-15,which is an increase of whooping 86.9%. Revenues also increased 7.3% to reach
Rs 92,039 crore this year.
Now the most interesting part: Revenues from Data Usage on Mobile.
Total revenues which Airtel clocked for the mobile usage during the period January-March 2015 was Rs
3085 crore, which is an increase of 59.1% compared to the same period last year. As this data contain
Africas revenues as well, we will focus only on India, and now, its even more.
For Indian mobile data usage, their revenues increased 70% to reach Rs 2324 crore. Airtels Indian
customers are now using more data than voice. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for data usage
increased to Rs 176 from Rs 43 last year, which is an increase of 309%!
Data usage per customer increased to 41.2%. Overall, Internet usage accounted 17.6% of overall
revenues for Airtel, up from 11.5% last year.
We are still not able to understand why Airtel is trying to kill this Golden Goose, which is only increasing
in its size, every year. Airtel Zero will only contribute to finish this data usage, as the options would
reduce, and users would feel trapped.
Idea:
Idea Cellulars results for the quarter ending March is mirroring Airtels results.
Overall, their consolidated net profit stood at Rs 941.8 crore against Rs 589.9 crore in the same
period last year; hence an increase of 60% YoY. The revenues increased to Rs 8422.5 crore, an increase
of 19.5% compared to last year.
Data usage on Ideas network exploded in this quarter, as their users consumed 18.3% more data
compared to last year. Total of 54.5 billion Mega Bytes were consumed during the last quarter as
revenues from Internet usage increased to 24.5%, compared to 16.5% last year.
ARPU of Idea Cellular now stands at Rs 179, one fourth of which comes from Data!
As evident by the quarterly results of Airtel and Idea, data usage is now at an all time high. And the major
reason for the same is fair Internet accessibility. Users are free to choose and access the website which
they want and love, and that is why they are consuming Internet like never before.
Once they have the restriction of free access to few websites and paid access to the rest, then not only
the overall data consumption will decrease, they will start avoiding Internet as a whole.
And this can put some severe dent in telecom players growth plans.
[Header Image: Shutterstock.com]
The post Airtel, Idea Profits Surge On High Mobile Data Usage. Low Profits Due To OTTs Theory
Debunked first appeared on Trak.in . Trak.in Mobile Apps: Android | iOS.
Google Wants to Buy Your Patents, Launches A Marketplace!

Posted: 28 Apr 2015 11:31 PM PDT
Do you have a dream to work with the leading company in the world? Do you have a brainstorming idea
but unable to find the right way to implement it? Heres is a chance for you! Google has launched a
marketplace which gives you a chance to sell your patents and inventions
Google made an announcement that, The Patent Purchase Program is an experimental marketplace
for patents that are simple, easy to use and fast. Patent owners sell patents for numerous reasons (such
as the need to raise money or changes in a companys business direction). Unfortunately, the usual
patent marketplace can sometimes be challenging, especially for smaller participants who sometimes
end up working with patent trolls.
If you have something special to showcase and believe that the idea is unique, you can file your patent to
Google from May 8, 2015 to May 22, 2015. Google will open a streamlined portal for these 15 days
where you can tell Google about your patent and the price at which you want to sell it.
Right after the closing of portal, the patent will be reviewed by Google and most probably by June 26,
2015, Google will let the Patent submitters know whether they are interested to buy the patent or not.
And, if selected, the transaction will be done for the amount decided by the end of August.
Why Did Google Do This?

There are only a few platforms where you can sell your patents, but often it is seen that they never fetch
a right price. To solve this issue and let the patent owners get the right price, the search engine launched
this program. However, the main reason obviously is to unearth some patents and inventions, which
Google could actually convert into real products in future. Some patents may also help them with their
existing products. IP is priceless and Google understands it, and hence a platform like Google Patents!
Startup or Sell a Patent, Which One is Worth?

Now, this is tricky! If you have an idea to implement something new, you can do that on your own. But the
fact that, you need a lot of resources and time to do that might be a major hindrance to most people. Its
quite hard to say that you should sell the patent or implement it yourself. Yes, if you have the resources
and believe in your idea, you should start on your own rather than selling patent to Google.
But, if you dont have the resources or skills to bring the idea to fruition and have patented your idea,
Googles patent platform is something you should seriously look at
Flipkart acquires mobile

automation company
Appiterate
Post the acquisition, Appiterate's mobile marketing
automation platform will be integrated into Flipkarts mobile
app.OUR BUREAU | 29 April 2015, 7:10 PM IST
NewsletterA AShare on email
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NEW DELHI: Flipkart, the

country's largest online retailer, has acquired Appiterate, a mobile engagement and marketing
automation company based in Delhi, in line with its 'mobile first' strategy.
Appiterate has helped leading ecommerce companies combine the power of mobile apps and
big data to allow them to do one-on-one targeting of their users though push notifications and inapp messages, Flipkart said in a statement on Wednesday.
It did not disclose the size of the deal.
"In a short span of one-and-half years, Appiterate has carved out a niche in the industry as
being one of the most disruptive companies in its space," said Nishant Verman, senior director
for corporate development at Flipkart. "We are really excited to have them on board."
Post the acquisition, Appiterate's mobile marketing automation platform will be integrated into
Flipkart's mobile app. This will help in precise targeting of users based on their activity on the
app and website.
Flipkart plans to invest in and acquire other companies in this domain and help in building the
mobile ecosystem in India.
Snapdeal, another major online marketplace, plans to make up to 10 more investments this
fiscal year after its acquisition of Freecharge and is rapidly stocking up on ammunition to take
on Flipkart and Amazon in India's $3-billion ecommerce industry.
Paper Boat, Indo Nissin ink

distribution tie-up
Gautam Sharma, MD at Indo Nissin which makes Top Ramen
noodles, said: This first of its kind distribution tie-up and it is
a cultural fit between the two firms.ET Bureau | 29 April 2015, 5:15 PM
IST
inShare
NEW DELHI: Beverage maker Paper Boat has inked a strategic tie-up with Japanese
food giant, Indo Nissin Foods, aimed at strengthening distribution and brand
presence in tier II cities and rural markets. Through this partnership, Paper Boat will
distribute new packs of 200 ml exclusively through Indo Nissin across the country
and will help to unlock potential of differentiated niches in consumer spaces, a joint
statement issued by the firms said.
Gautam Sharma, MD at Indo Nissin which makes Top Ramen noodles, said: "This
first of its kind distribution tie-up and it is a cultural fit between the two firms."
Paper beverages are available in variants like aamras, jaljeera, and kokum.
NewsletterA A
As retailers spend on
technology to counter
ecommerce, tech firms like
IBM, SAP brace for revenue
growth
Sales analytics, customer analytics and web analytics lead the
way in priority order for retailers with marketing analytics not
far behind," said an expert.Jochelle Mendonca&Neha Alawadhi | 30 April
2015, 8:00 AM IST
inShare3
MUMBAI|DELHI: Brick-and-mortar retailers are

beginning to spend more on technology and omni-channel strategies to combat the growing
threat from ecommerce, a boon for tech firms who had seen revenue growth from retail
decelerate in the last few years.
About 39 million Indians shop online, according to an April report by research firm AT Kearney.
Though it is a small proportion of overall population, it is growing fast. Traditional retailers are
realising it is a market they cannot afford to miss. Technology firms such as IBM, Oracle and
SAP are gearing up to win new business.
"In last two years, since the recent ecommerce business started, we are seeing brick-andmortar stores are realising the need for omni-channel offerings. They have started making
investments on omni-channel strategies," Kamal Singhani, executive director - enterprise
applications and mobility leader at IBM India, told ET. Singhani added that Indian retailers would
need another 12-18 months before strategies become competitive.
An omni-channel strategy implies that a retailer's customers get the same buying experience
and treatment in both physical stores, online and through mobile devices. It requires significant
investment in the back-end to tie-in inventory and logistics to make it work.
Future Group has been the most vocal with its plan to spend Rs 100 crore on its omni-channel
strategy over the next year. CEO Kishore Biyani has said that to implement the strategy, the
retail business would have to become more technology and big data-focused. Future Group
partnered with SAP to drive its omni-channel venture. Reliance Retail, Shoppers Stop,
Pantaloons, and even the Tata Group are investing to win a slice of the online shopping space.
But experts say these are baby steps and retailers still have work to do on technology to
compete with deeppocketed online players such as Flipkart and Amazon. "While retailers are
investing in systems, the kind of capital expenditure required to actually build the whole omnichannel experience has not happened yet," said Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at retail and
consumer products consultancy Third Eyesight.
"One of the first things is that they should look to move away from in-house hosted systems to
cloud-based solutions. Otherwise it is very, very large investment, and time taken is significant.
Flipkart ropes in Sriram

Venkateswaran from
McDonalds as supply
chain Director
Venkateswaran was working with McDonalds Indias western
and southern franchisee Hardcastle Restaurant as director for
national supply chain for the last eight years.Rasul Bailay | 29 April
2015, 5:35 PM IST
NewsletterA A
inShare
New Delhi: Flipkart.com, the country's largest ecommerce company, has hired Sriram
Venkateswaran, who was handling supply chain at McDonald's India, as a senior director in the
supply chain.
Venkateswaran was working with McDonald's India's western and southern franchisee
Hardcastle Restaurant as director for national supply chain for the last eight years.
Hardcastle, which operates more than 200 McDonald's-branded fast-food outlets in about two
dozen cities, announced earlier this week that it is promoting Vikram Ogale to replace
Venkateswaran.
Corporate bigwigs like Amazon's Amit Agarwal, Google's Rajan Anandan invest in Dazo
By Madhav Chanchani & Malavika Murali, ET Bureau | 29 Apr, 2015, 10.31AM IST
7 comments |Post a Comment
READ MORE ON TaxiforSure | Sumit Jain | Rajan Ana ..
Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47092158.cms?
utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Corporate bigwigs like Amazon's Amit

Agarwal, Google's Rajan Anandan
invest in Dazo
MUMBAI/BENGALURU: Amazon's country manager Amit Agarwal and Google India chief Rajan Anandan are among
a who's who list of people who have invested in Dazo, an app-based service that curates and delivers meals.
Commonfloor founder Sumit Jain, TaxiForSure founder Aprameya Radhakrishna and former FreeCharge CEO Alok
Goel, too, are among those who have invested undisclosed amount in the Bangalore-based startup.
Dazo, e ..
Read more at:
Dazo, earlier known as Tapcibo, aggregates meals from different partners but does delivery on its own to ensure a
seamless process.
"We have been partnering with restaurants which have spare capacity and can make special meals for our
customers," said its 29-yearold co-founder & CEO Shashaank Shekhar Singhal, who set up the company with ..
Read more at:
Dazo, earlier known as Tapcibo, aggregates meals from different partners but does delivery on its own to ensure a
seamless process.
"We have been partnering with restaurants which have spare capacity and can make special meals for our
customers," said its 29-yearold co-founder & CEO Shashaank Shekhar Singhal, who set up the company with Monica
Rastogi in October 2014. Dazo has had over 4,000 mobile app downloads and gets more than 150 orders a day,
which it hopes to increase to 1,0 ..
Read more at:
StartupsCorporate bigwigs like Amazon's Amit Agarwal, Google's Rajan Anandan invest in Dazo
READ MORE ON TaxiforSure | Sumit Jain | Rajan Ana ..
Read more at:

How aerospace startups

like NavStik, Aero360 are
building improved drone
applications
Bengaluru-based Edall Systems, which trains students in
making drones, said its hardware unit helps reduce research
time and quickly develop new applications.Krithika
Krishnamurthy&Malavika Murali | 30 April 2015, 8:34 AM IST
inShare
BENGALURU: Heralding a
second wave of drone-making in India, a few startups have advanced to commercialising the
brain that controls these remote-controlled flying robots. Making drones these days is akin to
assembling Lego blocks, which could take a day or two. But getting the pieces to work in
harmony takes a couple of years - precious currency for startups.
To that end, aerospace startups such as NavStik Autonomous Systems, Edall Systems and
Aero360 are building software and hardware solutions, plug-and-play units that can condense
research and development time by a couple of years.
Drones, banned for commercial use in India, are mostly used by government organisations and
police in applications such as surveillance in disaster management, wildlife surveys, as well as
tournaments such as the Indian Premier League.
Startups are now pushing the envelope for drone applications with deeper analytical and
decision making capabilities, while crunching development time.
With a readymade controlling unit and software to sell to drone-makers, Pune's NavStik counts
almost all premier aerial-robotics research labs in India as clients, including those at state-run
Defence Research and Development Organisation, National Aerospace Laboratories and
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of
Science.
"Customers are excited about getting started with development immediately. It saves them at
least a couple of years," said NavStik chief executive Nitin Gupta, whose one-year-old company
clocked Rs 40 lakh in revenue in 2014-15.
"Our USP is that our hardware is one of the lightest in the world," said the 34-year-old, who has
published white papers related to unmanned aerial vehicles in several international journals.
NavStik's 4-gram hardware packs in sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes and global
positioning systems.
Combined with software, it becomes an autopilot system, sensing surroundings to decide thrust
required from rotors or the turn of the rudder, among other things. The firm competes with
USbased 3D Robotics and Airware, the latter funded by venture capital firms Google Ventures
and Andreessen Horowitz. The global market for drones is expected to reach $10,573 million by
2020, according to research firm MarketsAndMarkets.
In India, the market size for small UAVs, weighing not more than 50 kg, is expected to reach
$33.53 million by 2019. Bengaluru-based Edall Systems, which trains students in making
drones, said its hardware unit helps reduce research time and quickly develop new applications.
The six-year-old drone-maker said for commercial purposes, they would prefer to sell the whole
package, not just a controller unit, to thwart theft of intellectual property.
Toonz Retail targets Rs

100cr revenues this fiscal,
to open retail portal
We have around 10,000 SKUs but on an average only 3,500
SKUs can be offered at the store level due to limited space.
With online foray, Toonz aims at giving better customer reach
and maintain price sanctity between online and offline
channel, said Sharad Venkta, managing director at Toonz

Retail.Avinder Batra | 29 April 2015, 5:20 PM IST
inShare
New Delhi: Toonz Retail, a one-stop shop for products for kids from 0-12 years, plans to open its
own online retail shop to push sales and post revenues of Rs 100 crore this financial year.
"We have around 10,000 SKUs but on an average only 3,500 SKUs can be offered at the store
level due to limited space. With online foray, Toonz aims at giving better customer reach and
maintain price sanctity between online and offline channel," said Sharad Venkta, managing
director at Toonz Retail.
The site would be live in May first week, he said.
Sharad said the company will continue promoting its private labels WowMom (0-3 years) and
Super Young (3-12 years) on other online portals such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Jabong, while
other offerings would be exclusively available through its own portal only.
Toonz Retail also plans to expand its offline presence, increasing its store count to 100 by the
calendar yearend. The company added around 30 stores last financial year to take its total
count to 70 stores.
Flipkart to remain Motorola

Indias exclusive partner
Motorola will continue its exclusive partnership with e-tailer
Flipkart to sell its devices in India.PTI | 30 April 2015, 8:17 AM IST
inShare2
KOLKATA: Motorola will continue its exclusive partnership with e-tailer Flipkart to sell its devices
in India, even as its Chinese rival Xiaomi ramps up presence through online and offline
distribution channels.
"We have an exclusive tie-up with Flipkart and it will continue in the foreseeable future,"
Motorola Mobility senior marketing director (Europe, Middle East and Africa and India) Marcus
Frost said.
He added that since its re-entry into the Indian mobile market, it has been selling its devices
through Flipkart only and has no plans of tapping other e-commerce portals or foraying into
brick-and-mortar model as of now.
Chinese handset maker Xiaomi, which had also begun its India journey through Flipkart, is now
selling its products through other e-tailers like Snapdeal and Amazon as well as physical outlets
such as Airtel stores and The Mobile Store.
Frost said India ranks third in global priority markets but shied away from giving 2015 sales
projections.
The company said it had sold three million units in February-December 2014 period.
Pepperfry homes in on 11
cities to open 20
showrooms
be furniture (where sales are higher by value)," he said.PTI | 30
April 2015, 8:05 AM IST
inShare
Mumbai: Leading furniture and home product marketplace Pepperfry will open 20
showrooms across 11 Indian cities from next month, a top official said today.
"We opened our first 'Studio Pepperfry' in Mumbai in December and will open 20
stores in 11 cities by year-end, starting in May," founder and chief operating
officer, Pepperfry.com, Ashish Shah told .
The next showroom will be in Bangalore, he said followed by other top cities,
including NCR, Hyderabad and Pune.
'Studio Pepperfry' is a concept showroom manned by designers that will feature
Pepperfry furniture to serve as design inspiration for the customer before they
ultimately make the purchase online.
Globally, the online to offline (O2O) commerce model is gaining traction globally,
he said.
Pepperfry is present in 200 cities currently, and will double the presence to 400
Indian cities, including tier-II and tier-III towns, Shah said.
The company is cash-positive, and has set out to raise another USD 60-80
million (around Rs 300-500 crore) over the next "two to four months", he said.
Pepperfry has raised USD 28.5 million (around Rs 176 crore) over three fundraising rounds so far, which are "being deployed to increase the reach through
studios, offline marketing, and distribution over 400 cities", he added.
"Presently, up to 30 percent of furniture orders come from smaller cities, and we
are focusing on seamless logistics and delivery to all centres," Shah indicated.
"The company's focus is and will strongly continue to be furniture (where sales
are higher by value)," he said.
Price capping takes sheen

off condom sales following
government decision
Its condom makers turn to seek protection as sales of male
contraceptive have plunged drastically following a government
decision to dub it essential drug and cap its price. Sagar
Malviya&Soma Das | 30 April 2015, 8:24 AM IST
inShare
BENGALURU | NEW DELHI: It's the condom

makers turn to seek protection as sales of the male contraceptive have plunged drastically
following a government decision to dub it an essential drug and cap its price more than a year
ago. The contraceptive segment was growing at double digits until the government in Novembe
r2013 included condoms in the list of essential medicines and fixed their ceiling price in the Drug
Pricing ControlOrder (DPCO).
As a result, from around 15% expansion then, it has consistently slowed each quarter and has
now hit a negative growth number, a first for the segment. Generally, if products become
cheaper, they should sell more. But not for the range of dotted, ribbed,flavouredandevenglowing
contraceptives that were promoted as away of spicing up users' lives, said companies.
"Condoms were promoted for pleasure enhancement instead of as family planning tools. For
investment on advertising spends, new launches and even innovation,we need profitability.
And consumers were driven by excitement over the product, which isn't happening any more,"
said Ranju Kumar Mohan, director, JK Ansell, which sells KamaSutra condoms. The price point
mandated by the government has gone up from Rs 6.56 a piece in 2013 toRs 8.35 now. But
that's still not enough considering that most value-added condoms, which form the bulk of all
condoms sold, were priced at Rs 30 earlier.
In the first few months, sales were hit by de-stocking due to the price correction.
Volumes or actual units sold slumped to negative 1.4% growth in the October-December 2014
quarter compared with 8%growth a year ago.Value growth, mainly due to price cuts, was hit
harder and is now shrinking at 3% compared with 14%growth a year ago.
Mankind Pharma, the company that owns brand leader Manforce with almost 30% market
share, said that even though products from its stable didn't witness negative growth, they didn't
clock the high growth they were expected to.
"Once the prices of luxury condoms are capped, it leaves very little room for any promotional
expenses. Reduced advertising and marketing across the industry could have had an adverse
impact on the condom segments," said Ramesh Juneja, founder and chairman, Mankind
Pharma.
The government move has squeezed the industry, experts said.
"There is a need to 'Robin Hood-ise' the condom market by asking private players to market a
fixed limit to the bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers. Commoditising the entire sector would be
detrimental in the long run. At this price, India will be the cheapest place to buy condoms," said
Harish Bijoor, brand consultant and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Indians use close to 2.4 billion condoms annually, of which about 600 million are given away
free, while another 800 million are subsidised through some form of government intervention.
The size of the commercial market is only around Rs 800 crore. Manforce is the market leader,
followed by KamaSutra, which commands about 18%.
Next in the pecking order are Kohinoor and Moods, with 13% and 12% market share,
respectively. According to industry estimates, a packet of 12 premium condoms on average
costs about $7-9 in the US, $6-8 in Australia and $5-7 in Dubai.
In India, premium condoms were priced at Rs 16-20 per piece. The priciest, Durex Real Feel,
costs about Rs 50 a piece (the exact rate depends on pack size). Surprisingly, even masspriced condoms mainly government promote dones areal so showing declining sales numbers.
"The overall awareness campaign for condom usage run by the government has also weakened
a bit over the last three years or so and that also plays a role in determining consumption of
condoms in the country," Juneja said.
Snapdeal hires Jayant Sood from Amex to lift

prepayment
Sood will report to Snapdeal co-founder and chief operating officer Rohit
Bansal
Digbijay Mishra | New Delhi
April 30, 2015 Last Updated at 00:46 IST
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Snapdeal has hired former American Express executive Jayant Sood as its chief
customer experience officer to push prepayment at the online marketplace.
Sood will report to Snapdeal co-founder and chief operating officer Rohit Bansal. "We
are looking to boost prepayments at Snapdeal by creating a single platform for resolving
the consumer experience," Sood said.
Indian e-commerce sells 60 per cent of products by cash-on-delivery (COD), says
Morgan Stanley.
Snapdeal recently bought online mobile recharge payment platform FreeCharge for
$450 million in one of the biggest e-commerce mergers in the country.
According to Kunal Bahl, co-founder and chief executive of Snapdeal, the 20 million
consumers from FreeCharge all pay online. "The percentage of Snapdeal's COD will drop
by 20 per cent over six months, with the FreeCharge merger," he said.
"The cost of returns goes down and logistics problems are solved. So, it increases
efficiency," Bahl added.
Localbanya enters Delhi

The company had launched a highly visible advertising
campaign in Delhi, which also helped it build a database of
potential customers.OUR BUREAU | 29 April 2015, 1:25 PM IST
inShare
KOLKATA: Online grocer Localbanya.com has started its services in Delhi, its third
city after Pune and Hyderabad. The company plans to roll out its services to an
additional city every month.
Rashi Choudhary, co-founder of Localbanya, said the firm is already averaging close
to 300 orders per day after just a few days of operations in the capital. "While this
has been a challenge to execute, our teams have received the necessary training
and are able to cope with this surge. We always knew Delhi would be a key city to
operate in," he said.
The company had launched a highly visible advertising campaign in Delhi, which
also helped it build a database of potential customers. The addition of Delhi has now
pushed the amount of daily deliveries by Localbanya to close to 1,200 and the
company aims to hit an average of 2,000 per day be the end of May.
NewsletterA A
Flipkart, Snapdeal's rival, sells 50 per cent of its products COD; fashion e-tailer Jabong
60-65 per cent, and Foodpanda 50 per cent, Morgan Stanley says.
Read
When MNCs are deep-freezing yogurt brands,

home-grown start-ups are churning it up big
PURVITA CHATTERJEE
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Local sourcing of raw materials helps domestic players expand rapidly
Mumbai, April 29:

Home-grown frozen yogurt start-ups, including Cocoberry and Yogurt Bay, are preparing to raise
fresh capital at a time when MNC brands are on the verge of putting their Indian operations into the
deep freeze.
Indian players have been able to sustain business through lower costs by local sourcing of raw
materials and equipment, unlike MNC brands, such as US-based Pinkberry and Red Mango, which
rely on expensive imports.
As a result, market leader Cocoberry with 31 stores is all set to receive its second round of funding of
about Rs. 6 crore from US-based Henry Kleins fund Cherry Capital.
Rahul Deans, CEO, Cocoberry Retail, said, Henry Klein invested in Cocoberry in 2011 and is now
ready to infuse fresh equity and increase his stake to 74 per cent with a second round of aboutRs. 6
crore through a special purpose vehicle in Mauritius. We are cash positive and profitable at the store
level today after starting out six years ago. The balance stake in Cocoberry is owned by its promoters
(GS Bhalla and his family), Brand Capital and certain HNIs (high net worth individuals).
Yogurt Bay, promoted by entrepreneur Robin Chatterjee, is getting ready to invest more before
approaching PE funds for fresh funding. Last year, the Mumbai-based family of Pittie Group picked
up 50 per cent in Yogurt Bay.
Aditya Pittie, belonging to the Pittie Group and now CEO of Yogurt Bay, said, In the next three-six
months, I would be increasing my stake by another 10 per cent and investing another crore into the
company. Roping in PE funds would happen only after we have reached about 20-25 stores. For the
next round of funding, we have valued Yogurtbay at Rs. 10 crore. Of the 20-odd frozen yogurt
brands, most of the MNC ones have been forced to scale down operations. US-based Pinkberry and
Red Mango as well as Koreas Yogurberry have reduced their store count due to high costs.
Local sourcing
However, it is local sourcing of ingredients and equipment that has made players like Cocoberry
survive and even acquire assets of some of the distressed players.
MNC brands depend on imported raw materials that are subject to high duties. They believe in
American costs and Indian revenues which does not work, said Deans
Digital payment firm PayU

plans Rs 60-crore
advertising campaign
PayU,which started operations in India in 2011, will spend 60%
of the campaign money on television while the rest will be
split between digital and outdoor.Shambhavi Anand | 30 April 2015, 8:23
AM IST
inShare
NEW DELHI: Digital payment company PayU has earmarked Rs 60 crore for its first ever brand
campaign, to be launched in a few weeks as it looks to more than double its user base in a
couple of months.
PayU, which is backed by Nasper, has appointed Leo Burnett as its creative agency following a
multi-agency pitch.
It has signed Mindshare as the media agency. Nitin Gupta, co-founder & CEO of PayU India,
said the firmintendsto increase its user base to 8 million from 3.7 million in two months and the
number of merchants to one lakh from 65,000, with the help of this campaign.
PayU,which started operations in India in 2011, will spend 60% of the campaign money on
television while the rest will be split between digital and outdoor. It provides payment solutions
to several ecommerce companies, including Snapdeal, Jabong, Bookmyshow, Cleartrip and
Groupon.
Alibaba's Jack Ma says

freezing hiring after
growing 'too quickly':
Report
"Alibaba has really developed too quickly ... this year our
entire group headcount will not go up by one person," Ma said,
according to a transcript of the April 23 speech carried on
Alibaba's official messaging app Laiwang.29 April 2015, 4:17 PM IST
inShare14
SHANGHAI:
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is freezing hiring for the rest of the year
because it has grown "too quickly", Executive Chairman Jack Ma told staff.
"Alibaba has really developed too quickly ... this year our entire group headcount will not go up
by one person," Ma said, according to a transcript of the April 23 speech carried on Alibaba's
official messaging app Laiwang.

He, however, said the company will replace employees who leave. "When one leaves, we'll
bring one in," Ma added.
The hiring freeze came to light about a week ahead of Alibaba is due to report March quarter
earnings on May 7. In January, Alibaba, which handles more online commerce than
Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc combined, reported slowing revenue growth.
Headcount had been growing quickly at Alibaba. As of Dec. 31, 2014, the company had 34,081
employees, a 63 per cent increase from a year earlier, the company said in January.
As long as gross merchandise volume was under 10 trillion yuan ($1.6 trillion), headcount
should be below 50,000, Ma said. A headcount of "over 30,000" was already enough for now, he
added.
Gross merchandise volume in the quarter to Dec. 31, 2014, was 787 billion yuan, a 49 per cent
increase from the same quarter the year before. For the whole year, it totalled about 2.3 trillion
yuan.
Ma also that Alibaba would consolidate its businesses into seven segments - e-commerce, Ant
Financial, Cainiao logistics, big data and cloud computing, advertising, cross-border trade and
other internet services.
Global B2B e-commerce

market will reach $6.7
trillion by 2020
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Future of B2B Online
Retailing, reveals that B2B online sales will account for close
to 27 per cent of total manufacturing
trade.ECONOMICTIMES.COM | 30 April 2015, 8:12 AM IST
inShare
Business-to-business (B2B) online

retailing has been witnessing strong growth due to the rapid migration of manufacturers and
wholesalers from legacy systems to open, online platforms. As legacy systems involve the use
of electronic data interchange, which is expensive and cumbersome to handle, B2B models will
continue to move towards ubiquitous online platforms that allow buyers and sellers from
anywhere in the world to transact goods and services with ease. In fact, the B2B online retail
market is expected to reach double the size of the business-to-consumer (B2C) online market,
generating revenues of 6.7 trillion $ by 2020, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Future of B2B Online Retailing, reveals that B2B online
sales will account for close to 27 per cent of total manufacturing trade, which is likely to hit 25
trillion $ by 2020. Geographically, China and the United States will lead the B2B online retailing
market. The latter is anticipated to double its revenue contribution to 1.2 billion $ by 2020.
As marketplaces and cross-industry public platforms such as Alibaba and Amazon become
popular, B2B online relationships are likely to move from a one-to-many to many-to-many
business model. Instead of a model where one company invests and builds an e-platform for its
suppliers, the preference will be for a solution in which anybody integrates an e-procurement
process and facilitates the purchase of goods online.
"As such, private industrial networks, where specific companies come together to exchange
products, and public market places that are employed for on-the-spot purchasing, have gained
prominence over the last decade," explained Frost & Sullivan's Visionary Innovation Group
Analyst. "With businesses buying more than selling online, these seller-driven B2C-type open
public networks will help provide more visibility and storefront capabilities to sellers."
Retailers will, however, face certain challenges while implementing B2B e-commerce strategies.
Unlike the B2C setting, in the B2B e-commerce setup, prices are variable and order volumes
are high and of a wide range, necessitating a flexible shipping and logistics solution. Tax and
regulatory concerns also impact sales highly, and providers typically employ large staff whose
only responsibility is delivering products and services within these restrictions. Moreover,
executing marketing or educational initiatives in the B2B setting is complex, as clients need to
understand the way products work and interact with other systems that they already have or are
considering for purchase. The black box effect, wherein a customer buys a device without a real
interest in learning how it works, barely exists in the B2B context.

"Nonetheless, with technological advancements facilitating the procurement of goods on the
move through smartphones and tablets, business use of online platforms will rapidly grow,"
noted the analyst. "The emergence of cloud platforms that offer more scalability, both as a
software and infrastructure service, too is pushing businesses towards B2B online retailing."
Welspun India Q4 net profit

jumps 97.39% to Rs 161.37
crore
Textile firm Welspun India today reported a 97.39 per cent
increase to Rs 161.37 crore in its consolidated net profit for
the fourth quarter ended on March 31, 2015.PTI | 30 April 2015, 8:40
AM IST

inShare
NEW DELHI: Textile firm Welspun India today reported a 97.39 per cent increase to Rs 161.37
crore in its consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter ended on March 31, 2015.
The firm had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 81.75 crore during January-March quarter
of the last fiscal.
Total consolidated income from operation of the company also increased 15.26 per cent to Rs
1,365.80 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 1184.96 crore of the same period
previous fiscal.
Welspun Group Chairman B K Goenka said that company's focus on innovation as well as
strategic partnership with its clients has helped it increase the market share.
Over the future outlook of the company, Goenka said: "One of our key focus areas in the coming
year will be the domestic market through our brands Spaces and Welhome."
In the year ended March 31, 2015, Welspun's consolidated net profit grew over four folds to Rs
539.79 crore as against Rs 92.07 crore of the previous fiscal year.
Company's consolidated total income from operation also increased 21.25 per cent in FY 2014215 to Rs 5,302.51 crore as against Rs 4,373.02 crore of FY 2013-14.
The company's board also recommended a final dividend at the rate of 75 per cent (Rs 7.50 per
share), taking the total dividend for the year to 105 per cent (Rs 10.50 per share).
Shares of Welspun today closed at Rs 448.25 per share on the BSE, up 8.39 per cent from
previous close.
Citizens connect through

Whatsapp for fair milk
prices
The battle against overcharging by milk retailers has found
strong support from common Mumbaikars. Scores have signed
up for a WhatsApp group on the issue and roped in the
department of weights and measures as well, leading to a
winning partnership.Bella Jaisinghani | 30 April 2015, 8:18 AM IST
inShare
MUMBAI: The battle against

overcharging by milk retailers has found strong support from common Mumbaikars. Scores
have signed up for a WhatsApp group on the issue and roped in the department of weights and
measures as well, leading to a winning partnership.
The core group is also planning a PIL against milk firms and the distribution network.
One member is a brand consultant while another is a Diva lawyer who arrives for every meeting
in south Mumbai. Yet another is an ALM member from Goregaon, who says, during this past
fortnight, he has turned "from citizen to activist".
Even Sanjay Pandey, controller of legal metrology, who is spearheading this initiative against
overcharging, is proud of this WhatsApp group. Its members report unscrupulous vendors,
conduct field research and argue articulately before aggressive dealers and dairy owners. "They
strategize, plan, volunteer and arrive for meetings at the cost of their work. It is heartwarming to
see their wholehearted participation," says Pandey.
Young Adesh Bhagat arrived all the way from Diva to voice his anger at Saturday's public
meeting called by the department of legal metrology. "Every retailer who is overcharging has
complaints with dairy farms or the government. None of them has a grievance with the common
man. Why are they then venting their anger on us helpless people?" he said to applause.
Fifty-year-old computer software entrepreneur Sanjeev Agarwal says he was inspired by the
Jaago Grahak Jaago campaign on TV. "I have been observing the price of petrol and diesel
reduce several times over the past year but the cost of milk continues to rise. And then to have
to pay Rs 2 more than MRP is terribly unfair. How can dairies and retailers justify this?"
Agarwal says milk is already too expensive for a basic commodity. He says, "As we began to
debate on the group, we discovered the MRP includes storage, refrigeration and transportation
costs. Residents of all areas highlighted instances of overcharging. We also found retailers have
genuine grievances because their margins have not improved in years. The big fish are the
dairies who have the bargaining power against farmers and retailers."
A WhatsApp member from Bangur Nagar, Goregaon, Abhijit Banerjee, says, "We plan to
educate consumers and monitor the overpricing in our area. We plan to collect in groups in the
morning to check the distribution pattern as milk lays on the streets and chances are
adulteration starts from here. We will also inform buyers to pay only MRP and there are no
refrigeration or transportation charges."
Wal-Mart to build 115 new

stores in China by 2017
US retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc will build 115 new stores in
China by 2017 and upgrade 50 stores this year, the company's
chief executive said on Wednesday.Reuters | 29 April 2015, 3:50 PM IST
inShare
BEIJING: US retailer Wal-Mart

Stores Inc will build 115 new stores in China by 2017 and upgrade 50 stores this year, the
company's chief executive said on Wednesday.
"China is a key strategic market for Walmart. Over the next three years wee will increase
investment across our diverse business operations in China," Chief executive Doug McMillon
said in a press release issued on Wednesday.
The company said it would open 115 new stores in Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen
and Wuhan between 2015 to 2017, and also plans to invest more than 370 million yuan ($59.64
million) to remodel more than 50 stores this year.
The giant U.S. retailer has been changing tack in China to stave off slower growth, closing some
under-performing stores and giving more emphasis to the faster-growing online grocery market
through its Yihaodian.com platform
Global Consumer Products

eyes $200 mn turnover in
five years
"We are looking at five-year basis. We expect turnover of $200
million over the five years," A Mahendran, Chairman and
Managing Director, Global CP told.PTI | 30 April 2015, 7:57 AM IST
inShare
HYDERABAD: FMCG start-up

Global Consumer Products is aiming to achieve $200 million in turnover over the next five
years, a top company executive said here today.
"We are looking at five-year basis. We expect turnover of $200 million over the five years," A
Mahendran, Chairman and Managing Director, Global CP told reporters.
Global Consumer Products, which today launched chocolate under the brand LuvIt, is set to
foray into the FMCG market with product offerings in confectionery, beverages and snacks.
The company will foray into beverages segment including fruit juice, water packaging, packaged
tea and coffee, in the next couple of months, he said, adding "We will start with fruit juices."
Global CP was incepted by Mahendran in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Mitsui Ventures
with a capital of Rs 315 crore.
"We have three dedicated (contract) manufacturers--two in Hyderabad and one in Mangalore.
Depending on market, we may go for another two in Kerala and Tamil Nadu," he said, adding
that "investment will be aggressive and as per need".
How to Network When

You're an Introvert
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APRIL 28, 2015

In todays workplace environment, we use more technology than ever
before. As new businesses become more technology and information
driven, the quieter an office becomes. How do we set ourselves apart in
a world full of successful and smart introverts?
We become great at networking.
The advice to reach out to others in order to improve the outlook of your
business is well-known, but for those who are introverted, it's much
easier said than done. Even if you feel that your strengths lie in being a
player behind the scenes, you can still benefit from networking. Heres
how to do it as painlessly as possible:
Network and make connections online

Connecting with people online before you meet them can be really
helpful. Connect with other event attendees on LinkedIn, Twitter,
Facebook and social media platforms before an event. Connecting prior
to meeting allows for you to feel less alone when you arrive. Familiar
faces, even if they belong to a stranger, can be really comforting. You
can also use this to find new events by connecting with people who are a
part of or work at organizations that you belong to.
In my role as Assistant Director, Alumni

Marketing and Communications at the Harvard
Business School (HBS), we stay connected with
alumni through four social media channels -Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. -Robert Bochnak, Harvard Business School
Talk about your accomplishments
This one is hard for introverts. By definition, introverts often stay in the
shadows and seldom celebrate their achievements publicly. Its not a bad
thing to let people know what youve done and what youve
accomplished and talking about these achievements can help you to
make connections that you are able to help.
Related: 3 Tips to Better Use the Social Networks You Use Every
Day
Discuss your goals and ideas

Theres no need to prattle on about 100 different ideas that are floating
through your head, but if youre looking for something to talk about when
you meet someone in the industry, bring up an opinion that you have or
an idea that is specific to your industry to jumpstart the conversation.

Ask the person what their goals are and take time to see if you know
anyone that could help them. Sharing your connections is a great way to
gain new strong connections.
Dont overthink it
When you go home, leave your interactions and networking attempts
alone emotionally. No need to go over and over what you said, how the
other person responded, or whether or not you were well received. Even
if you feel like you made a few social blunders, dont dwell on it.
Concentrate your energy on the positive things that came out of your
networking attempt and let your mistakes inform your choices next time.
Maintain strong relationships

Every so often, youll make a strong connection, and when that happens,
it will help you with your networking to maintain that connection and
create a solid relationship. This person may be likely to speak up on your
behalf, introduce you to others, and make your networking easier. This
goes both ways. Make sure to speak for your other connections and
listen for opportunites for them as well.
Takes notes
It's important to remember the faces and names of the people you meet
after attending a networking event. When someone hands you their card,
look at the card and then at them. When they walk away, type a small
note into your phone or on a notepad so that you can remember them
later. After the event, send an email to them and let them know that you
enjoyed meeting them.
Networking is dificult for anyone and for introverts, it can be painful.

However, as you start to make connections, the benefit will soon
outweigh the work. Do you have any additional tips?
Chipotle Becomes the First

National Restaurant Chain
to Go GMO-Free
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APRIL 27, 2015

Chipotle has finally reached its goal of going GMO-free.
The burrito chain announced today that all restaurants will now only cook
with non-GMO ingredients. This makes Chipotle that first national chain
to completely strip genetically modified items from the menu.
The company explained the decision by pointing to inconclusive
research on the long-term effects of genetically modified food, the
potential negative impact of GMOs on the environment and customer
demand for non-GMO offerings.
"We believe everyone should be given enough information about where
their food comes from and how it was raised to choose for themselves
what they feed their families," reads the company websiteexplaining the
decision. "We hope these principles of transparency and honesty extend
beyond consumers to everyone who has a stake in the food system, and
Chipotle respects the right of every farmer, rancher and grower to follow
practices that make sense for their business, even if they do not make
sense for ours."
Related: Meet Dos Toros, the NYC-Based Burrito Chain That's Not
Afraid of Your Chipotle Comparisons
Chipotle began labeling menu items that contained GMOs in 2013. Two
major culprits were corn, which was an ingredient in tortillas, and soy,
which was used in tortillas and cooking oil. While most corn and soy
products made in the U.S. still come from genetically modified crops,
Chipotle has now either removed these ingredients or turned to GMOfree variations, such as sunflower or rice bran oil.
There are a few exceptions. Most animal feed, including those fed at
farms that produce Chipotle's meat and dairy, contains GMOs.
Additionally, beverages that contain corn syrup, such as sodas, will still
not be GMO-free. However, last summer, Chipotle began testing an
organically sweetened root beer in select location a test that suggests
the future may bring more GMO-free beverages for the chain.
In addition to testing GMO-free soda, the chain has stated that its next
area of focus in terms of boosting food quality is stripping additives and
preservatives from the tortilla.
Chipotle's stringent food quality standards are currently cutting into sales
at the chain, due to a pork shortage caused by a supplier's violation of
the company's animal-welfare standards. Last week, the company
revealed that fans of carnitas had, instead of ordering a new type of
burrito, simply stopped visiting Chipotle until pork returns to the menu.
Chipotle plans to gradually increase its pork supply over the summer, but
will not be able to offer carnitas at all locations until the fall.
This Simple Psychological

Trick Can Make You Feel
More Productive
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Productive

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HERB AXILROD
APRIL 28, 2015This story originally appeared on Business Insider
Imagine you had complete freedom to structure a single hour of your

workday for maximum productivity and happiness.
Would you labor uninterrupted over a single project or would you
divide the hour into a few different slots, one for a client phone call, one
for weeding through your inbox, and one for making headway on that
project?
If you were like most people, you'd choose the latter option. But you
wouldn't be doing yourself any favors.
According to research from professors at Duke University's Fuqua
School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton
School, we generally assume that multitasking will make us happier than
focusing on a single activity. And we're right sort of.
"We are told over and over again that variety is the spice of life, the key
to happiness," study coauthor Jordan Etkin tells Business Insider. "But
we don't always experience variety as positive."
When we're engaged in different tasks over the course of a long period
of time say, a day or a week we do in fact feel happier. But when
we're constantly switching up our activity within the span of 10 minutes
or an hour, we actually feel less happy.
In one telling experiment, researchers instructed some college students
to spend an hour studying for a bunch of different classes and told
others to study for a single class. When the hour was up, the first group
said they felt less productive, and therefore less happy, than students in
the second group.
The researchers suspect that it all boils down to how productive you feel,
which in Western cultures is key to happiness. Switching back and forth
between different tasks over a short time period is "costly in terms of our
cognitive resources," Etkin says. That leaves us feeling stressed and
limits our ability to perform well on any single task.
"Even if we accomplish what we set out to, we don't feel as productive,"
Etkin says.
Of course, the easy solution would be to divide the day into hour-long
slots in which we focus on single tasks. But few of us actually have the
liberty to do so, not when the boss needs a project update in the next 15
minutes and there are 12 urgent emails in our inbox.
Fortunately, the researchers suggest a simple psychological hack to
overcome this problem. If you're obligated to perform multiple tasks at
once, mentally bucket them under a single category.
So, for example, while you're responding to those emails and banging
out that project update, tell yourself that everything you're doing is workrelated. Or you could imagine that all those tasks are helping you get a
promotion. Simply reducing the perception of task variety, without
changing anything about the tasks themselves, is enough to make us
feel happy and productive.
Then, when you've got a whole Sunday to spend as you please, you can
bounce around between working out, cooking, and socializing with
friends a surefire recipe for feeling happy and energized when you're
back at the office Monday morning.
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LINDA LACINA
APRIL 24, 2015

If you've just started a business, you need sales, right? Trouble is, you
may not be sure how to put together a sales approach. And, the truth is,
there is no magic formula for sending your sales through the roof. So,
stop looking.
Related: Close More Deals Faster Using This 5-Step Approach
Also, stop buying the popular belief that sales is a profession where you
either have it, or you dont. As with any job, effective sales techniques,
tactics and skills can be taught. With that in mind, here are five
strategies for entrepreneurs looking to improve sales at their newly
started businesses:
1. Understand when a "yes" is really a "no."

When you run a startup, your most precious resource -- even more so
than capital or product -- is time. Customers will often lead you to believe
theyre interested in what youre offering when they actually arent; and
this can be a significant drain on your time. For example, many
entrepreneurs spend a fair share of time at trade shows and events and
collect dozens or even hundreds of business cards from potential
customers.
The reality is, however, that many of these prospective customers
offered their card as a way of excusing themselves from the
conversation. The key is to decipher who is truly interested. When

someone is, that person will likely ask a lot of questions. He or she
wants more of your time and will inquire about your pricing, ways in
which you deploy your product, etc.
2. Talk about the problem, not the solution.

Sounds counterintuitive, right? It wont when you put this strategy into
action: When it comes down to it, people are interested in their own
problems, not your solutions. If you detail your products five most
impressive features, the customer will fade in and out of focus waiting for
you to finish. However, ask about customers' problems and they will be
happy to tell you all about their issues. This will make them feel more
invested in your solution and provide clues as to how you should be
positioning your wares. Maybe its your ninth and tenth most impressive
features that will actually benefit them.
Related: 6 Secrets to Sales Success Hidden in a Girl Scout Cookie
3. If prospective customers don't reply, do it for

them.
Say a client hasn't responded to your message. Rather than send a new
email and change the wording to make it seem like a first
communication, reply to your own. This accomplishes two things: It
allows the recipient to view the content of your original email and glean
the intended information. Second, it allows you to inquire directly about
receipt of your initial correspondence. If recipients then respond that they
did receive your first email and arent interested, you dont need to waste
any more of your valuable time selling them.
Some, though, will just bounce back and say theyre sorry
and areinterested. If you dont hear back at all, give it a few more days
and reply to your email one more time -- this time asking directly if the
recipient prefers you to end the contact. This direct approach has an
extremely positive success rate with customers responding for two
reasons: 1) They are interested and for whatever reason haven't been
able to get back to you yet; or 2) They accept the out you've offered to
stop contacting them. Either way, you know where you stand and can
proceed accordingly.
4. Personalize your communications.

If you are taking the time to write a personalized message to a
prospective client, make sure he or she knows it. Include private
anecdotes, discuss how your product or service would benefit this
person specifically or perhaps touch on personal experiences that can
be applied to this person's business. Dont ever let a customer assume
an email is just an automated direct marketing outreach if it isnt.
5. Dont pit your sales team members against one

other.
The best sales teams are the ones that work together. Competition can
spur hard work, but individually that work often operates to the detriment
of the team as a whole. There are direct and ancillary benefits to
cultivating a positive dynamic within the team. Creating synergy within
your sales force will lead to increased communication, peer teaching,
information sharing as it pertains to customers and leads and, ultimately,
sales. Whether your small business is just you and an employee
handling sales, or if you have a more robust team in place, teamwork will
always trump rivalry in the long run.
And so now you know the truth. Inflated sales arent a result of trickery or
some mystical strategy, but rather a product of the details: investing a
personal touch, working together, listening to the customers
difficulties and utilizing your resources correctly with the right leads.
Focus on doing the small things right and leave your competitors to
wonder where your magic comes from.
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ADIAT DISU
APRIL 28, 2015

As a startup owner who receives resumes daily, Ive noticed an
interesting advantage most startups have over corporations.
Theyre magnets for prospective recent graduates and a fair number of
ex-entrepreneurs!
There's no doubting the reputation startups have acquired over the past
decade or so: the rock star-like young professionals; the hip offices; the
(eventual) perks.
Startups are prime workplace real estate these days for every
prospective new-hire, and they continue to set the trends in hiring tactics
and practices.
The startup world is an attractive prospect for ex-entrepreneurs in that it
allows them to work as pseudo-entrepreneurs -- they still get to flex their
entrepreneurial muscles while gainfully accepting the consistency of a
paycheck. Although ex-entrepreneurs may not like to admit it, the need
to re-enter the workforce could happen for different reasons.
Related: 3 Ways to Be Constantly Recruiting Star Talent Through

Social Media
Turns out new businesses have a high failure rate.
According to a recent Harvard business school study by Dr. Shikhar
Ghosh, three out of every four venture-backed businesses fail to provide
investors any return. When failure knocks on the door, one of the options
entrepreneurs might entertain would be to going back to work for
someone else -- at their startup.
Startups need workers who are eager to take the initiative and make
decisions that others wont. Only those that succeed in making these
essential hires, who arent afraid to set trends, have any chance of
survival. Mark Zuckerberg once said in an interview, I will only hire
someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person." This is
where you, as an ex-entrepreneur, will be invaluable.
Here are three factors that have big impacts on who gets hired at a
startup.
1. What have you done?

Clearly state what you've accomplished either working for yourself or for
someone else.
Many candidates are guilty of overstating events and accomplishments
on their resumes. On the other hand, many others make a different
fundamental mistake: They never state, in clear language, what theyve
done for a previous employer or in their academic pursuits.
No one has the time to decipher the finer points of your resume. Youre
trying to say why you're the best person for the job. If it's hard to read,
your resume will be thrown aside. Explain clearly, in as much detail and
jargon-free language as possible, what you successfully did in a
previous role.
If you broke sales records for software sales by selling a million units in
two weeks via a sales method you derived yourself, state it clearly with
figures included. Another key thing to do is to frame points on your
resume as tangible achievements instead of responsibilities.
Related: Google's Head of HR: It Doesn't Matter Where Candidates
Went to College
2. Placement matters
Do list your accomplishments as close to the top of your resume as
possible.
How many prime candidates have made the fatal mistake of letting their
finest achievements get lost in the clutter of words that is their resume?
As previously stated, a hiring manager at any organization is sifting
through thousands of emails to find that one gold nugget -- a daunting
task.
If that's the case, you want your nugget as close to the top of that pile of
dirt as possible. Let your finest achievements be listed as close to the
top of your resume as possible. Most hiring managers will spend less
than 10 seconds on each resume -- something has to catch his or her
eye before that window of time runs out.
Your best bet is to maximize the space and really make an impact on
your resume at the top and the bottom of the page.
3. Look the part

To swing things in your favor when meeting the hiring manager for the
job, look like you fit the job.
Numerous studies have proven the human mind and eye have a bias
toward more attractive-looking individuals, and it would be smart to take
advantage of that small glitch in the human psyche. Startups have
earned the reputation of being much more laid back in attire choice than
your traditional corporate workplace. However, many candidates have
taken this to mean they don't need to try hard to look their best at a
startup interview.
No matter what the culture the organization favors, individuals that are
more attractive will always be favored when it comes to offers, salaries
and compensation. Candidates need to make an effort to look their best
to subconsciously influence the hiring manager's decisions.
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ANDREW COHEN
APRIL 28, 2015

Being a startup founder who is obsessed with my own personal growth, I
frequently get sucked into blog posts with titles like The top 5 traits of all
successful entrepreneurs. These articles tend to cite characteristics
such as passion, persistence, inspiration, an eye for talent, a data-driven
mindset, great communication skills, and the ability to galvanize team
members toward a common long-term vision.
Yet theres one extremely critical skill that I never seem to hear anyone
talking about: list management.
This skill may not sound sexy, but there is absolutely no way an
entrepreneur can succeed without obsessively maintaining updated lists
of all resources and projects that will contribute to his or her endeavors
success. Such lists may be in the form of spreadsheets, Evernote files,
contact lists, Salesforce files, Dropbox folders, Trello boards, paper to-do
lists or any number of other accessible formats.
Related: 5 Traits All Successful Startup Entrepreneurs Have
Whatever the preferred style of list management, leaders of all types

must constantly be able to recognize three things:
1.
When to make a new list
2.
What should be sporadically added to each list
3.
How to prioritize and act upon list items

Below are several examples of lists that I have built over the past few
years at Brainscape. Ive divided them into two types: People Lists and
To-Do Lists. If you don't have these lists going already, get started now.
1. Existing investors' and advisers' skill sets

It is important to maintain a list of your existing investors skill sets to
help you remember whom to ask for particular advice or favors
(Example: If one of your investors used to work in media, you can ask
them for PR help.). Keeping your investors engaged, and remembering
to catch up with them individually from time to time is your secret
weapon to multiplying your army of evangelists.
2. Potential investors
Over the course of running your business, you will likely hear about
many potential angel investors or venture capitalists who would be
perfect candidates for your company. These people should be added to
a potential investors list as soon as you hear about them! Even if you are
not currently fundraising (or if you are too early for particular later-stage
investors), keeping a log of your conversations with potential investors
will make your life much easier once you are ready for your next
fundraising blitz.
3. Existing partners
If your business has any content or distribution partners, it is important to
maintain great communication with them. A simple spreadsheet -- listing
all your partners, the nature of your partnership, the key champions
within the partner company and any additional notes about the
relationship -- can help you remember when to send them exclusive
company updates, holiday cards or any other helpful correspondence.
4. Potential partners
Are there companies youd like to partner with in the future? Did
someone just mention a great potential future partner during a meeting?
This is a job for the potential partners list. Whether youre logging ideas
for dream introductions, or just keeping track of conversations youve
already had, a central list of potential partners can keep all your
corporate development activities organized. Just be sure youre targeting
the right person within the potential partner organization.
5. Potential acquirers
Companies are almost never acquired as the result of a single
discussion. Most successful acquisitions are actually the result
ofongoing conversations between the startup and the acquirer.
Maintaining a list of your potential acquirers, getting introduced to the
right people in their organizations and logging your conversation notes
are important activities to prepare your company for an eventual exit.
Note that many of your current or potential partners could also be
potential future acquirers of your business, so you may want to
condense these two lists into a single corporate development

spreadsheet.
6. Journalists you know

You never know when your company may do something that is story
worthy. Keeping an updated list of all your journalist buddies can help
you quickly get the word out when the time is right. Just be sure to stay
in touch with them (and even do occasional favors for them) so that they
pay attention to your next email!
7. Journalists you want to know

There may be a handful of influential journalists who regularly write
about your industry. Keep a list of them! Ive found Twitter lists to be a
particularly helpful tool for this. If you regularly comment on their posts,
retweet them and favorite them, theyll eventually notice and engage you
in a conversation about what you do.
8. CEO friends
Your fellow entrepreneurial buddies can be among your most important
assets. They can help with confidential advice, they can serve as
potential partners on key initiatives, they can attend your startups
parties and they can introduce you to your target investors when youre
ready for the intros. I tend to just use a Gmail contacts list for this.
9. Awesome talent you know

Did you just meet an amazing engineer who you'll eventually want to hire
as an Android developer (once you raise some money)? Or perhaps an
amazing future vice president of sales who loves your company and
wants to stay in touch?
Dont lose touch with these people. Keep them in a separate contact list.
You never know if you may need them -- or if you may want to refer them
to opportunities at your friends companies.
10. People to update

Sometimes you just want to blast a whole bunch of relevant contacts
with an important update about your company (particularly while building
hype for PR or fundraising blitz). Having an up-to-date master list of
these people -- which might include investors, entrepreneurial friends,
journalists, friends and even your family -- will make this update process
much easier.
I maintain my own version of this list by simply tagging all my relevant
Gmail contacts with a label called General Updates.
Related: An Efficient and Effective Way to Ask for an Introduction
The second type of lists that startup founders should maintain is to-do
lists. Startup to-do lists come in many flavors:
1. Short-term CEO tasks

Things you need to do in the next few days. I personally use Gmails
built-in Tasks feature for this, and I have an iPhone app that allows me to
access this list on the go.
2. Long-term CEO projects

Things you need to do eventually. I use a Trello board for this. I
generally sit with my executive team each month to re-prioritize this list
and to make sure Im working on the right things.
3. Short-term product tasks

Things your product team is currently working on. This helps you
remember whats important before you bother them with a trivial new
idea. If its not an emergency, add it to the product backlog.
4. Product backlog
Features that you hope to eventually build. At Brainscape, we
generally dont have a detailed long-term road map, since we prefer to
re-assess the product backlog every few weeks and determine which
items should be added to the short-term tasks.
5. Pending conversation agendas

Talking points for your upcoming weekly team and/or individual
meetings. I like to have at least two to three bullets ready for all my
scheduled discussions. I tend to just keep these talking points on a
written notepad by my desk.
6. Your email inbox

Correspondence that requires action. The most successful
entrepreneurs are obsessive about archiving emails that have already
been addressed, so that anything still in the Inbox is essentially a form of
short-term to-do list.
Any emails representing longer-term projects should either be

immediately transmitted to another form of to-do list, or should be
snoozed to come back to later (by using a tool such
as Boomerang,Mailbox or Google Inbox). My personal goal is to
reach inbox zero at the end of each day (although that rarely happens).
7. Blog posts to write

Ideas for articles youd like to write, either for your blog, LinkedIn and/or
for a major publication as a guest author. You should add to this list
whenever a good blog post idea pops into your head. You can chip away
at this list either by scheduling some regular weekly writing time or by
just saving the list for whenever you have some down time.
8. Marketing ideas
Ideas for slogans, ad campaigns, giveaways, contests, promotional
videos, email blasts, brand ambassador activities and any other
marketing initiatives that you might want to explore at some point.
Brainscape maintains a shared Google spreadsheet where everyone on
the marketing team can add their ideas and review priorities at our
weekly meetings.
9. Books to read
Novels or nonfiction books that will somehow make you a better
entrepreneur. This list often tends to grow faster than you can attack it.
One useful tool is to record the person who recommended the book to
you, so you can remember to thank them once you do read it (even if it
is years later). I keep this list in the standard Notes app on my iPhone.
See this link for other tips on how entrepreneurs should read business
books.
10. Future business ideas

Ideas for companies that you might want to start one day, when or if you
ever exit your current company. As James Altucher writes, your idea
muscle can get weak when youre in a groove, so be sure to write down
the ideas when they come to you! My own list currently has several
dozen business ideas (most of them pretty dumb, but still worth
recording).
Having spent a lot of time with entrepreneurs over the past few years, I
have found that the most successful founders tend to be those who are
most obsessed with keeping such lists for everything in their lives.
Even founders who have suffered from ADHD (which actually tends to be
a common entrepreneurial trait) are typically very good at maintaining
organized lists -- possibly because they once had to compensate for
forgetfulness as a student. If you dont think you are good at lists
yourself, feel free to copy some of my list ideas as a starting point, and
youll find that it gets easier and easier over time.
Have an entrepreneurial list type of your own? Feel free to share it in the
comments section below!
This article was written by a member of the AlleyNYC contributor
network. AlleyNYC is one of the worlds largest innovation hubs, helping
foster the growth of startups in its flagship location in New York City.
Entrepreneur Media is a partner and investor in AlleyNYC. If you would
like to learn more about AlleyNYC and how to apply for membership visit
here.
Related: 5 Valuable Concepts I Learned Working for a MultibillionDollar Firm
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Career, Motivational
There are only a few good definitions for the

word success; there are however thousands of interpretations. Success is achieved by
accomplishing your goals or desires. The process for truly achieving success in work,
home, or social settings contains several moving parts, all of which must be equally
considered. If you follow the recipe or guide in this article, you can achieve just about
any goal you desire.
1. Doing Less Creates More

Most people believe that the harder you work, the more you gain. Yet the opposite is
true. The people that figure out ways to get more done by exerting less power are the
ones that truly get ahead big time.
2. Act Out The Things You Desire
Act as if you already have the things you desire. Doing this will allow you to be and see
things from the perspective of the person (or position) you desire to be. Acting it out,
leads you to it by taking the precise steps for getting there.If you study a person who is
successful and follow the way they do things, then you are learning what it takes to be
successful.
3. Respect Your Expectations
If you expect that doing something will not provide you with what you need or desire, do
not do it. If you expect that going to a job everyday for the rest of your life will not get
you anywhere, do not do it. If you expect that living your passion would be the highest
joy, do it. If you respect your expectations, you will be led to success.
4. Inspiration Fulfillment
Inspiration is an emotional charge that drives you to take action. More times than not,
when the inspiration settles, people tend to stop taking action in the direction that
inspiration leads them. In order to keep being inspired, you must keep the things that
inspire you close.
5. Direction of Abund
Successful people always realize that there is enough of everything to go around. When
you see that there is enough, you will have more than enough
6. Keep Your Intelligence Up
Successful people always grow. Do crosswords, play chess, read a book that will help
you grow, go out and meet more people, etc. Intelligence is not something people are
born with, intelligence is created. Albert Einstein was not born a genius; he was a genius
because he stuck with the problem longer.
7. Act On Desire
The moment you have a desire to achieve something, act on it. If you obtain the desire
to own a sports car, do something in that moment that will push your motivation levels
higher. Even if you cannot afford the car, go talk to a dealer, or go test drive one. When
you walk in the direction of your goals, your goals will start walking towards you too.
8. Make a Win-Win Situation
When you share something of value, people will naturally desire to share with you as
well. Long-term success is only achieved, activated, and found through the process of
giving value.
9. Tell Yourself Positive Things
The subconscious mind believes everything it is told without question, it does not have
the ability to reason the difference and make decisions on logic. The subconsciousness
makes decisions based on memory through the day and carries out things like habits. In
other words, even if you do not consciously believe the positive things you tell yourself,
your subconscious picks up on it. Eventually the subconsciousness will turn positive
things into a belief, from the consciousness through habit.
10. Be a Leader
Success comes from going against the grain.The majority of people are not successful
because they are followers. A leader is a person who is willing to test something new.
11. Use Imagination
Through imagination, you open a window to more choices. If you feel that youre stuck
in a job because you have no choice, use imagination to allow yourself to see more
opportunity. It is only through imagination that one can find a solution.
12. Be Flexible
Being fixed, set, un-open, and inflexible limits opportunity. Limiting opportunity, limits
experiences. Limiting experiences, limits success.
13. See Opportunity Everywhere

See opportunity in everything you do. Even in the worst of negative situations, there is
an opportunity to grow and learn something. When you start seeing opportunity
everywhere, you start seeing more.
14. Express Ideas
Ideas enter your mind and leave your mind just as fast. The mind can only retain a
limited amount of information.Therefore, when you get an idea, write it down
immediately.
15. Optimize Your Success
You can optimize your success by not putting things off for later. When reading your
email, respond to the ones that need responding. Whatever it is, while it is there, take
care of it or do not allow it to be there.
16. Stay Out of Perfection
Perfecting everything slows down success. Stop organizing and perfecting everything,
just allow things to flow their course. If you must correct, organize, and perfect; allow
the natural successful flow first. Get things out first, then optimize.
17. Do the Big & Important First
To keep from procrastinating,get the big things out of the way first. Doing the most
important things first, will gain you the most benefit. Optimizing success is about not
letting the little things distract you.
18. Do Successful By Being Successful
Being successful is not a one-time thing, you must continue to be successful everyday
to see results. Therefore, do at least two things everyday that move you in the direction
of your desire
is career.
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70 things one should know while starting

career and during his career.
Career, Interviews
After years of experience in job and feedbacks from friends in other Company
led to following list of things that we should have known and should know when we start
our career.
Just add your thoughts on the same to make the list comprehensive guide for better
Career.
70 things one should know while starting career and during his career take off
time.
Continue reading
1. The career you think youre going to have? This is not the career youre
going to end up with. The job you went to college for? Thats not the job
youre going to end up with.
2. You will spend a good portion of your work day with nothing to do.
3. Meetings almost never solve anything and never end on time.
4. You will seriously embarrass yourself, and possibly endanger your career at
at least one (and maybe more) of your office Christmas parties.
5. Trusting co-workers can be bad for your career.
6. The movie Office Space isnt just a comedy.
7. Pay is really about sitting or standing. The more you are sitting, the more
you get paid.
8. Having a passing knowledge of current sports events is a critical skill for
office small talk.
9. Youre probably way, way overeducated for the job youre in. A good 30
thousand of those student loans youre still paying off were wasted.
10. There are plenty more important things in life than your career.
11. You know that 401 k matching plan? It was really a pretty good idea. Grab
a calculator. Calculate how much more money youd have today if you had
started contributing the day you were hired instead of 2 years ago when you
finally broke down and did it. Now faint.
12. Some workplaces function EXACTLY like high school.
13. The companys stock will not always go up.
14. Learning to look busy is a valuable survival skill.
15. Youre unlikely to ever meet a happy accountant.
16. No one really takes the time to adequately train you. All new employees
are inadequately trained.
17. Upper management is more focused on improving their golf game than
improving their companys bottom line.
18. The mistakes you make are sometimes more valuable than the things you
did exactly right.
19. When your career is the only good thing youve got going in your life, its
time to reassess your life.
20. That temporary job you settled for is it really temporary if youre still in
it after all this time?
21. Tuf wars and office politics exist in every office, no matter how small.
22. Be nice to the administrative assistants; they are the key to everything
because they keep the world turning. 23. Its rare that your colleagues are
actually smarter than you; its all confidence.
24. Old white guys are not old and wise guys.
25. Dear lord, office bathrooms can be gross.
26. You never really get to rest. A career is about always building, always
moving forward.
27. Your boss is a human being too.
28. No one will believe in you more than you.
29. And if you dont believe in you, youre not going anywhere.
30. Office gossip can be positively deadly.
31. Sometimes the game is rigged.
32. Lunch try to never skip it. You do not earn points for working through it
and it helps you stay sane.
33. It Is possible to one day wake up and realize you hate your dream job.
34. You fear taking your eye off the ball, but sometimes that is really what
you NEED to do.
35. The car you drive to work is very important. Office workers put a lot of
value judgments on fellow workers vehicles. After years of experience in job
and feedbacks from friends in other industry led to following list of things
that we should have known and should know when we start our career. Just
add your thoughts on the same to make the list comprehensive guide for
better Career.
36. Timing, like location, is literally EVERYTHING.
37. Networking is not just a buzzword: its the most valuable thing you can do
for your career.
38. Take the lowest paying job with the best job description and title, rather
than the best paying job with the worst job title.
39. Follow-through is a great characteristic to be known for when you are
first hired.
40. Do what you love, even if it pays less than something youre good at.
41. Set personal goals.
42. Stay away from those who say You Cant.
43. Plan and prepare for the long haul. 44. To land a meaningful job, prepare
for a really tough interview.
45. Keep improving through the job search and beyond.

46. Develop a personal board of advisors for support.
47. Surround yourself with a diverse group of people with diverse thoughts.
48. Develop a backbone. Even successful careers can have disappointments
49. Think around, outside and under the box. The way forward may not
necessarily be clear or straight ahead
50. Dont expect your career paths to be logical to everyone looking on.
51. Dont burn your bridges behind you. You may need a reference or two
eventually
52. Be mindful of what your associations can say about who you are.
53. You dont need to have all the experience in the job description to apply.
54. Job descriptions get rewritten all the time.
55. Be open to the fact that you might be underestimated.
56. Some people will like you for the job and some will not.
57. Some will laugh behind your back when they find out you are applying for
a certain job.
58. The real work begins after you land the job. 59. Know your competition
and do not underestimate them.
60. Think transferable skills.
61. You may have to say things during an interview to impress your future
boss.
62. You have to build consensus to move ideas forward.

63. Keep track of your accomplishments; no one else is obligated to do that
for you.
64. You may find people want to hang around you, just because you are
successful not because they care.
65. Education and training mean something.
66. Hard work and discipline pays off eventually.
67. It is not a shame to strategically plan your career.
68. Many people are not working in their college majors.
69. The more people who support you and your ideas, the more successful you
will be.
and last
70. You are always preparing for your next career opportunity, regardless of
what you are doing.
20 Tips for Self Management l

Mbahotspot.com
Management, Motivational
You are responsible for everything that happens in your life. Learn to accept
total responsibility for yourself. If you do not
manage yourself, then
you are letting others have control of your Life. These tips will help you
manage you.
Here is a list of things that help you in self management and which will
in turn lead you to the path of success:

1. Look at every new opportunity as an exciting and new-life experience.
2. Be a professional who exhibits self-confidence and self-assurance in

your potential to complete any task.
3. Agree with yourself in advance that you will have a good attitude
toward the upcoming task.
4. Frequently ask, Is what I am doing right now moving me toward my

goals?
5. Do it right the first time and you will not have to take time
later to fix it.
6. Accept responsibility for your job successes and failures. Do not look
for a scapegoat.
7. Do not view things you do as a job. View all activities as a

challenge.
8. Use your subconscious mind by telling it to do what you do want.

Instead of telling yourself, I cant do that very well, say, I can do this
very well.
9. Give yourself points for completing tasks on your to-do list in

priority order. When you reach 10 points, reward yourself.
10. Practice your personal beliefs. It may be helpful each morning to

take 15 minutes to gather your thoughts and say a prayer.
11. Make a commitment to show someone a specific
accomplishment on a certain date. The added urgency will help you feel
motivated to have it done.
12. Practice self-determination, wanting to do it for yourself.
13. Believe that you can be what you want to be.
14. Never criticize yourself as having a weakness. There is no such

thing. You are only talking about a present undeveloped skill or part of
yourself that if you so chose, you can change. You do not have any
weakness, only untapped potential.
15. Be pleasant all the time-no matter what the situation.
16. Challenge yourself to do things differently than you have in the

past. It provides new ideas and keeps you interested.
17. Talk to yourself. A self-talk using positive affirmation is something

that is common among all great achievers. They convince themselves that
they can accomplish their goals.
18. Create your own

motivation board by putting up notes of things you need to do on a
bulletin board or special wall space. It is an easily visible way to see what
you need to work on. When an item is done, remove the note. Also keep
your goals listed and pictured on your board.
19. Stay interested in what you are doing. Keep looking for what is
interesting in your work. Change your perspective and look at it as
someone outside your job would.
20 .Establish personal incentives and rewards to help maintain your

own high enthusiasm and performance level.
Hope this will help you for self managenent and motivation.
Be Happy , Keep Happy
How to get more tax breaks this year

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May 03, 2015 09:57 IST
Use deductions introduced in the Budget to save additional Rs 24,000 in tax
Most employees look forward to a new financial year in anticipation of a pay hike.
What they dont realise is that pay hikes often lead to a higher cash outflow in the form
of taxes.
This can be avoided with a little planning and right communication to employers. If the
payroll policy permits, one can explore the option of revising the compensation package
to include tax-free components or modify the limits for each of the components as well
as invest in tax deductible schemes.
Budgeting for a change
The Budget 2015-16 presents new avenues to save tax, which can be factored in while
computing the monthly salary/tax deducted at source (TDS).
Transport Allowance: The limit has been enhanced for transport allowance from Rs
800 per month to Rs 1,600 per month. One needs to ensure that the enhanced limit is
part of your compensation.
Section 80CCD: One can contribute to National Pension Scheme, or the NPS, to take
advantage of an additional deduction of Rs 50,000 over and above the limit under
section 80C. Those in the 30 per cent tax bracket will especially benefit, as they can save
about Rs 15,000 in tax annually just by using the additional limit.
Please note that 10 per cent of the salary contributed towards NPS is eligible for a tax
deduction up to Rs 150,000 under section 80CCD of the Act. Contributions by your
employer are tax deductible in the NPS under Sec 80CCD(2). The total benefit under
NPS can go up to Rs 2 lakh.
Section 80C: This section allows a maximum limit of Rs 1.5 lakh across investments
such as provident fund, PPF, infrastructure bonds, five-year fixed deposits, Sukanya
Samriddhi Account, NSC, insurance/pension plans, equity linked savings scheme. It
also includes tuition fees of your children and the repayment of principal on your
housing loan.
Sukanya Samriddhi Account has been introduced this year and enables parents of a girl
child less than 10 years old to claim deduction under the section. The scheme will earn
9.2 per cent for FY16 and is exempt-exempt-exempt, meaning the interest earned and
the withdrawal amount will be exempt from tax.
Healthcare: Deduction under section 80D on health insurance premium has been
raised to Rs 25,000 from Rs 15,000 for individuals. For senior citizens, the limit has
been raised to Rs 30,000 from the existing Rs 20,000. Deduction of Rs 30,000 is
allowed toward medical expenditure for very senior citizen above the age of 80 years
who are not eligible to take health insurance.
Charity: Donations made to certain institutions, are eligible for deduction subject to
specified limits under section 80G. From this year, donations made to Clean Ganga
Fund and Swachch Bharat Kosh will be eligible for 100 per cent deduction. There is no
deduction available for donation made in excess of Rs 10,000 in cash.
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Using existing options

House Rent Allowance (HRA): If the HRA is not part of your compensation
structure yet, swapping a portion of other components with HRA could be a good tax
saving option. The HRA component should especially be looked at by employees who
have recently been transferred to new cities or shifted to rented accommodations.
The salaried employees staying in rented apartments can claim exemption under
Section 10(5) of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) in respect of house rent allowance
by making the HRA a component of their salary. The Act provides for exemption for
HRA subject to specified conditions and there could be a situation when the entire
allowance is tax-free. If your annual rent exceeds Rs 100,000 you will need to submit a
copy of your landlords PAN card to your employer.
Under section 80GG, an individual can claim deduction for the rent paid even if he does
not get HRA, subject to certain conditions. The individual, his spouse or minor child
should not own any house within the city limit or where he ordinarily resides or
performs duties of his office, business or profession. The deduction will be the least of
rent paid less 10 per cent of total income or Rs 2,000 a month or 25 per cent of total
income.
Owned car versus leased car: In case an owned car is used partly for official
purpose and partly for private purpose and where the employer reimburses expenses of
Rs 10,000, the value of the perquisite is Rs 6,700 per month (for cars with engine
capacities above 1.6 litres).
In case a company leased car is used partly for official purpose and partly for private
purpose and the expenses are reimbursed by the employer, the value of perquisite is Rs
3,300 per month. Most of the employers have a car scheme for their employees and if
the vehicle is company-owned, this could result in significant tax savings for the
employees though there would be some cash outflow towards the lease rentals, which is
mostly a little less than the equated monthly instalment (EMI) for a car loan in case of
an owned car.
Leave Travel Concession (LTC): Plan a holiday within India, take leave and save
taxes, by claiming tax exemption on reimbursement of your travel expense. You can
claim exemption for two journeys in a block of four calendar years. The amount is
limited to the economy-class airfare for the shortest route available to your destination
and does not include expenses such as hotel bills, local conveyance, etc. The current
block of four years ends on December 31, 2017.
Rakesh Nangia & Neha Malhotra are managing partner and manager taxation, Nangia & Co
0 valuable things you won't learn in

business school
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April 29, 2015 08:57 IST
It does not matter you went to one of the leading business schools in the
country and have a fancy MBA degree to your merit.
What is really required to survive the corporate rat race is patience,
humility, gratitude and focus, says Prof RSS Mani.
A leading business school may well teach you the basics of management principles and
perhaps even train you to deal with difficult life situations.
However, in real life, the corporate habitat demands you tackle challenging situations
and individuals in a far superior way.
Here are some skills you must acquire in order to make it to the top.
1. Listening skills
Every MBA programme emphasises on presentation skills BUT overlooks this important
aspect of communication.
Most people tend to believe that speaking is the most important aspect of
communication and listening is an inferior activity restricted to the ignorant.
Thus the common tendency is to HEAR and not LISTEN.
Needless to say effective listening skills is the hallmark of a successful manager.
2. Being goal-focused
MBAs are rightly perceived to be people in a great hurry.
They are seen as extremely impatient professionals who want to achieve all laurels in a
great hurry.
However they are unfortunately not ready to invest in time and commensurate efforts to
achieve these goals and laurels.
As a consequence the quality of work suffers and they gradually lose focus.
Not being focused on the goal often results in constant job hopping and poor quality of
performance.
For the initial few months the best strategy to be followed is to learn as much as you can,
complete all allocated tasks on time and display a high level of enthusiasm.
No task should be perceived as mundane or routine and must be completed
meticulously.
3. Computer and Internet skills
In todays computing and internet age, mastery of these skills are expected by most
employers.
However the problem is that most MBA graduates have mastered PowerPoint but have
poor skill level of Microsoft Excel.
Similarly, they are comfortable with emails and Facebook but are unable to use search
engines and LinkedIn effectively.
4. Corporate business etiquette
It is often noticed that most MBAs lack the finesse and grooming that is actually
required in a corporate assignment.
They often come across as being casual, rude and snobbish and this ruins their
interpersonal relations at the workplace.
Business etiquette skills seems to be lacking and this creates a bad impression at the
workplace.
Basic manners, etiquette and appropriate grooming are often overlooked. This could
ruin their credibility.
5. Humility
One of the most important attributes we seek in an MBA is humility.
More than often we hear that the new joinees come with chip on their shoulder and tend
to be over-confident.
They should learn to respect their seniors and indulge in active listening and not show
off their power of theories and concepts.
Let us appreciate and accept that indifference, resistance and resentment would get you
nowhere; in fact some humility would help you cross several hurdles.
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6. Patience and persistence

Patience is one virtue that can help MBAs done a lot better in their organisations.
Very often MBAs who join as management trainees complain that the training appears
to be an extension of their MBA education.
If you think that you are doing an extended MBA; DO IT; don't forget you are now being
paid a salary to do so. Hence do not complain!
7. Teamwork skills
This is one of most important skills that an MBA needs to develop.
Our competitive environment makes us very self focused and we begin to believe that we
know it all.
If you think you are great; then prove it.
This should be the sole objective of the new incumbent MBA into the organisation.
Do take up projects and assignments and complete them successfully.
Ensure that deadlines are met and quality is of the highest standards.
Prepare for every meeting you attend. This will increase your confidence and also
impress your superiors.
Let us realise that the blue chip company you have joined has been running successfully
without you. Concentrate on how to add value and not fault finding.
Let us always remember the acronym that TEAMS means together each achieves more
success.
8. Gratitude
We must be conscious of and admit that there are many people who contribute to our
success.
These include family members, our professors, guides, mentor and such.
Hence it is our duty to recognise their contributions and keep in touch with them.
Very often many people take a very opportunistic approach and tend to overlook their
contributions.
This not only speaks of indifference but also displays a poor sense of character.
Do remember that the attitude of gratitude will ultimately determine your altitude.
9. Resilience
If you are a high profile MBA then have the guts to stay on and contribute to the
organisation.
It is very easy to show off your mettle by boasting that you have another job offer within
three months. But the real challenge lies in your ability to combat the odds and
contribute.
You must prove your loyalty and commitment to your current organisation first.
By loyalty, I am not referring to the number of years you have spent in an organisation
but to the contribution you have made to that organization.
10. Practice ISR
Every one of us must learn to practice individually socially responsibility (ISR).
In todays world everyone talks about Corporate Social Responsibility.
However we must remember that each one of us must be responsible citizens of society
and contribute to its well being at all points in time.
We need not wait till we retire to start contributing to the society.
We may contribute towards causes such as education for the underprivileged,
cleanliness, afforestation, support for geriatric patients , and such to name a few.
Through ISR we can all contribute to making the world a much better place.
To summarise, let us work towards being better human beings contributing towards a
better society and a better nation and be successful HR professional too.
The author of this piece Prof R S S Mani is Vice President-Institutional

Development, ITM Group of Institutions.
Do you understand 'risk' in investing?

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May 03, 2015 09:00 IST
Let's find out...
Risk is one of the least understood subjects in investing. We all keep saying that it is
the other side of returns and such vague statements, but there is no proof that we
understand risk. Let us look at some myths regarding risk...
1. Risk management means we must have an ability to SEE TOMORROW: Too many
people think that risk management means that we should be able to predict where the
market is headed. This obviously means we know the direction of the market, the speed
at which it will reach a new destination, how long it will be there, when it will go up or
down again...
Believe me like John Templeton says 'I do not know anybody who knows anybody who
knows how to time the market'. Seriously you need to know the long term trend of the
market, and have a good UNDERSTANDING of the market, but the ability to predict the
next trend is surely not needed.
2. Risk is NOT with a product, but with how your co-investors will react to a given
circumstance: The risk is with a product and at a particular price. Proctor & Gamble was
LESS risky at a price of Rs 1200 than it is today at Rs 7200. This is simply because the
PE (price earnings multiple) has got higher.
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3. Your risk appetite will remain constant: This never happens, because risk is a
dynamic concept. Big institutions constantly analyse their need to take risk, their need
to grow their corpus, need for cash flows, etc. However individuals do not pay enough
attention to their risk profile. Many events -- losing a job, having a baby, divorce,
marriage of a kid, kid's education, kid moving out of the house, etc. impact your risk
profile. Pay attention to this and alter your portfolio accordingly.
4. A risk model will save you: A risk model is exactly what it says it is -- a model. No
business model or risk model can understand human behaviour for long periods of time.
In economics we assumed that we have considered all the factors and kept saying 'other
conditions remaining neutral' -- this NEVER happens.
Far more importantly we CANNOT predict how our co-investors will behave. It is clearly
a survival of the fittest..
How petrol, diesel prices varied under

Modi govt
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May 02, 2015 07:54 IST
The latest round of petrol and diesel price increase, on Thursday, met with
opposition from many corners
Typically, state-owned oil marketing firms - Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Bharat

Petroleum Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) - revise the prices of diesel
and petrol around the first and 15th of every month, taking into account the average cost
of import and the rupee-dollar exchange rate the previous fortnight. The latest round of
petrol and diesel price increase, on Thursday, however met with opposition from many
corners. Heres a look at the variation in petrol and diesel prices since the Narendra
Modi government took office in May last year:
2014
May 31: In the first fuel price change under the new government, the retail selling price
of diesel was increased by 50 paise a litre in Delhi (excluding state levies)
Jun 30: The price of petrol was raised by Rs 1.69 a litre in Delhi (excluding state
levies), and that of diesel increased by Rs 0.50 a litre. A statement issued by IOC cites a
significant increase in international oil prices in the previous two weeks owing to the
geopolitical unrest in West Asia as the reason.
Jul 15: The prices of high-speed diesel for bulk consumers (such as state transport
corporations) reduced by Rs 1.09 a litre (in Delhi).
Jul 31: The price of motor spirit reduced by Rs 1.09 a litre in Delhi and that of highspeed diesel for bulk consumers by 72 paise a litre (including VAT). The price of
domestic non-subsidised liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) reduced by Rs 2.50 per 14.2-kg
cylinder, and that of commercial LPG reduced by Rs 4 per 19-kg cylinder in Delhi.
Aug 15: The retail selling price of petrol reduced by 2.18 a litre in Delhi (including state
levies)
Aug 31: Petrol prices cut by Rs 1.82 a litre in Delhi (including state levies). But diesel
prices raised by 50 paise a litre (excluding VAT), resulting in an increase of 57 paise a
litre in the retail selling price in Delhi. Selling price of non-subsidised LPG cylinder cut
by Rs 19 per 14.2-kg cylinder and that of commercial LPG by Rs 32.50 per 19-kg
cylinder.
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Sep 30: Retail selling price of petrol in Delhi reduced by 65 paise a litre (including
VAT), taking advantage of a change in the rupee-dollar exchange rate.
Oct 14: Selling of petrol cut by Re 1 a litre (excluding state levies). With this price
revision, the retail selling price of petrol in Delhi comes down by Rs 1.21 a litre
(including VAT).
Oct 18: Retail selling price of diesel in Delhi cut by Rs 3.37 a litre (including VAT).
Oct 31: The price of petrol cut by Rs 2.41 a litre, while diesel prices cut by Rs 2.25 a
litre, in Delhi (including state levies)
Nov 30: Retail selling price of petrol reduced by 91 paise a litre in Delhi (including state
levies). Retail price of diesel lowered by 84 paise a litre.
Dec 15: Retail selling price of petrol and diesel cut by Rs 2 a litre each in Delhi
(including state levies).
Jan 16: Retail price of petrol cut by Rs 2.42 a litre in Delhi (including state levies),
diesel price by Rs 2.25 a litre.
2015
Feb 3: Petrol prices lowered by Rs 2.42 a litre in Delhi (including levies) and diesel by
Rs 2.25 a litre.
Feb 16: Petrol prices raised by 82 paise a litre, diesel prices by 61 paise a litre, in Delhi.
The increase comes on the back of a notable rise in global crude oil prices.
Feb 28: Petrol and diesel prices up by Rs 3.18 a litre and Rs 3.09 a litre, respectively.
The price revision is ascribed to a steep rise in international prices.
Apr 1: International prices decline marginally and are reflected in a price drop of 49
paise a litre for petrol, and Rs 1.21 a litre for diesel, in Delhi (including state levies).
Apr 15: Retail selling price of petrol reduced by 80 paise a litre in Delhi (including state
levies), and diesel price slashed by Rs 1.30 a litre.
Apr 30: Petrol prices increased by Rs 3.96 a litre in Delhi (including state levies). Retail
selling price of diesel hiked by Rs 2.37 a litre. Explaining the reason, IOC in a statement
cites a sharp increase in international prices in the past fortnight and the rupee-dollar
exchange.
5 easy ways to learn new skills every day

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April 30, 2015 08:30 IST
Do not let your busy schedule come in the way of learning a new skill.
Read on for easy hacks to use your time and resources more productively.
Most career experts will advice you to 'learn a new skill'. But 'how' you will learn is the
question.
Given the busy and tightly packed schedules, how can one sneak out the time to learn a
completely new skill, you may ask.
Well, if there is a will, then there is a way.

Read on for simple things you can do so that you learn a new skill every day.
1. Explore the internet
You have easy access to training material on internet. Have you ever tried using it?
Use online learning resources to learn on your own terms.
Benefit from online training library and online book service
2. Use your breaks productively
Instead of taking out time for Facebook or Twitter, use those breaks to learn something
new.
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Watch a training video on your gadgets.

Devote 20 minutes from your lunch break to watch and learn something you do not
know.
3. Sharing is expanding
Be like a crow and learn while sharing knowledge with colleagues.
Share courses and watch them together. This way you can benefit the team.
You can let others take the lead on training topics on different days.
4. Learn during workouts
Prop up your gadget and watch or listen to a course while sweating it out on a stationary
bike or treadmill.
You can also involve and engage others in this process.
5. Utilise your weekends
Find time during weekends and holidays for professional growth.
Learn a new technology online or listen to a podcast to solve office problems.
The new learning will provide you enough inspiration for Monday.
11 important points investors must know

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May 02, 2015 15:00 IST
Before you enter the big, bad world of investing, trading, etc., beware...
When I see people trying to invest I see them make many mistakes. Clearly as an
amateur you will not know how to hit sixes and fours... all you need is to know where is
your off stump and spend long hours at the crease. The runs will follow.
Let me enumerate:
1. On free sites/blogs/groups people come and talk like experts. Let me repeat just
because you have access to all the tools that Pattabhiraman Murari offreefincal.com has
made, it does not mean you know how to apply the calculators. It is not easy. How many
people can use it honestly?
2. Costs are important, but they are NOT everything: One swing of the bat and it could
be a home run. This of course is a baseball saying. Please understand that a good fund
manager is worth paying the money.
3. It is not easy to know when to shift and why to shift. So if you have found a decent
comfort with the way a fund works, it is not too bad to stick around even during bad
times. Sadly there are people who will suggest jumps, but if you do not know how
reversion to the mean works all such jumping could be futile.
4. For 99 per cent of the people reading this post, SIP works. If you were 100 per cent in
debt and have now moved to 10 per cent in equities reading about equities is NOT going
to help. In fact in your overall portfolio, there is going to be very little impact.
5. Almost all literature in the investing field is from the US. Almost all the good writing
is from the 1930s to 2015. Remember such a Golden Period -- when US was (is) a
military power, controlled oil prices, currency rates, world political view, had cruel
policies of exporting cancer (tobacco, McD, acid drinks), had NOBLE investors like
Warren Buffett (his health is luck and his personal life is not really exemplary)... and
controlled the press. So what you read has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Look for
literature from other free markets too.
6. Confirmation bias: Once you decide something, the Internet will throw you tons of
literature that will make your brain look good. So the 'selecting' part of your brain
selects stories that you WANT to read rather than stories that you MUST read.
Dangerous zone.
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7. Recency bias: The latest sounds best. This is sad because I get 50 research reports a
week ATLEAST in my inbox. I do not read anything outside my range of about 75 stocks.
I read nothing about the economy, oil, gold, interest rates. It helps. The latest report is
not necessarily the best.
8. The best share may already be there in your portfolio. With Cholamandalam in my
portfolio I did not look to invest in M&M Financial services and L&T Finance (except for
some trading opportunities). Many of the 'investors' I am meeting churn as much as
traders. Not knowing whether you are a trader or an investor is harakiri.
9. Politics: I am not at all sure that the press is telling us the truth. We are hearing what
they want us to hear. I actually have no clue whether NaMo is doing a good job or a bad
job. For me to find this out (no frankly I do not care, but just giving an example) I have
no clue what to do. Reading newspapers is ONE SURE WAY TO GET IT WRONG. So
stop spending time on the political situation.
10. Cherished myths: ITC is a good company, if you had done SIP in a single stock like
L&T you would have got better returns than many mutual funds; a SIP in stocks will
work as well as a SIP in a big fund. All are absolutely true, but we do not know whether
it will be true over the next 20 years that you are planning to invest.
11. Do your homework: As a blogger I can say that I offer no solutions, so go and find it
yourself. Most 'solution offerring' websites are here to sell something. Nothing wrong
with that, but know that personal finance sites which do not sell do not exist. So do your
homework. Learn, do not copy.
'As a nation we don't learn lessons from

our past'
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Last updated on: April 28, 2015 10:19 IST
Image: Muslims in Meerut stage a protest demanding justice in the 1987 Hashimpura massacre case.
Photograph: PTI Photo
'Communal killings take place routinely in our country and yet we don't
ever convict the offenders.'
'The riots of 1993 and 2002 would not have happened if justice was given to
the 1984 Delhi riot victims.'
One of the longest legal trials extending over 27 years saw Additional Sessions Judge
Sanjay Jindal of the Tees Hazari court in Delhi acquit the 16 surviving personnel of the
Provincial Armed Constabulary accused of killing 42 Muslims in Hashimpura, Uttar
Pradesh in May 1987.
Senior advocate Rebecca John has been associated with the case from 2004 along
with advocate Vrinda Grover, and appeared on behalf of five Hashimpura survivors and
the families of those killed. They were among the around 50 Muslim men rounded up on
the night of May 22, 1987, allegedly by PAC personnel, and taken to the upper Ganga
canal in Murad Nagar and the Hindon river to be shot and their bodies thrown into the
canal.
It took a nine-year struggle for 19 PAC personnel to be chargesheeted by a Ghaziabad
court in 1996. The court significantly listed 161 people as witnesses to this case.
In September 2002, on the initiative of the Supreme Court, the case was transferred to
Delhi's Tees Hazari court following a petition by families of the victims and survivors.
Following Rebecca John and Vrinda Grover's intervention, the Delhi court framed
charges against the 17 surviving accused in July 2006.
John conducted the final arguments in the case in mid-January 2015, having followed
the case in its long and final struggle.
Speaking about the challenges she faced, John told Rashme Sehgal, "I had a chance to
meet and interact with the incredible men and women of Hashimpura who reposed so
much hope in the system. Though deeply disappointed with the judgment, they have
decided to go in appeal."
"All I can say is that it has been an incredibly humbling experience for me. People lose
so much and ask for so little in return, but we fail them again and again and again."
To put the Hashimpura massacre in perspective, were these killings a
fallout of the riots that had taken place earlier in Meerut? Former chief
information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah made some reference in

the public deposition held recently in New Delhi that then prime minister
Rajiv Gandhi visited Meerut following the riots there.
Yes, Meerut was in the grip of communal frenzy, which the state administration was
unable to control. But what happened on the night of May 22, 1987, was a crime against
humanity, when men in uniform proceeded to execute innocent citizens, in a
premeditated and calculated manner without the slightest provocation on their part.
Why should it have taken 27 years for a judgment on such a crucial case?
The incident took place on May 22, 1987. The chargesheet in the case was filed in 1996.
Had the accused been in custody, the law would have required the filing of the
chargesheet within 90 days. The local police and the CB-CID (Crime Branch-Criminal
Investigation Department) chose not to arrest the culprits, although within the
department the identities of the accused were known.
After the chargesheet was filed, the 19 accused chose to ignore the summons as also the
non-bailable warrants issued against them by the court in Ghaziabad, till 2000. They
were all serving in the Uttar Pradesh police at the time.
The victims, seeing the lackadaisical pace of the trial, moved the Supreme Court and got
the matter transferred to Delhi in 2003. The UP government appointed under-qualified
special public prosecutors and they had to be removed as their appointments did not
fulfil the mandatory requirements of the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure).
Finally, at the request of the victims, a qualified special public prosecutor was appointed
in 2007-08.
Witnesses, other than the five survivors, failed to appear despite repeated summons
from the court. The three investigating officers in the case died during the long trial of
the case. Final arguments in the case commenced from the middle of 2014 and
concluded in January 2015.
Trials like these take 28 years to conclude because the agencies entrusted with the
investigation of the case have no interest in placing true and correct facts before any
court.
They collude with the accused and ensure that the case dies a slow death. Delay ensures
that prime witnesses die and the record of the case disintegrates.
Image: A survivor of the Hashimpura massacre shows the bullet wound he received on the night of May 22,
1987, when the PAC shot him. Photograph: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com
How will you describe the judgment acquitting the PAC personnel in the
massacre?
I will answer the question in two parts. One -- it is not the job of a judge to produce
evidence. It is his job to examine the evidence placed before him. In that sense, the
judge has marshalled the evidence and has come to a finding that, in his opinion, the
evidence raises some suspicion, but suspicion not being a substitute for proof, cannot
become the basis of conviction.
Two -- while doing that, the judgment could have listed the culpable failure of the
investigating agency in not collecting material evidence. The judgment has not
attempted to fix responsibility on any officer or officers for these failures.
The judgment failed to take note of criminal lapses on the part of the agencies
investigating the case, it failed to record the finding that the accused were hand in glove
with their investigating team and for these reasons a shocking case of custodial killings
was going unpunished.
Sometimes it's important to record these findings and shame those responsible for the
deliberate suppression of evidence. This judgment, sadly, failed to do that.
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The judge cited 'lack of sufficient evidence regarding their identity' as being
the ground to let the 19 PAC accused go scot free. But should not the
evidence of the five survivors have been given more weightage?
The five survivors did not identify any of the accused men and they have given truthful
and credible reasons why it was impossible for them to identify them.
These were not men previously known to them, they were in uniform, they were wearing
helmets, the complainants were in a state of terror, it was the middle of the night, and
hence they were in no condition to identify the accused.
Also, had the prosecution attempted to put them through a test identification parade in
the summer of 1987, some identifications could have been made. That was not done.
The survivors saw the accused for the first time after the incident 20 years later, in
court. It was humanly impossible to make identification then.
The firsthand account of the survivors has been further corroborated by the
then superintendent of police Vibhuti Narain Rai who has also given a first
hand account of the bodies he saw in the Upper Ganga Canal in
Muradnagar. Why would this evidence also not have been given more
weightage?
Please understand, the judge has completely believed the five survivors and has given a
judicial finding that the incident of custodial abduction and murder took place in the
manner in which they had testified.
But on the question of fixing criminal responsibility on the persons who committed this
crime, the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to conclusively establish that
these men were the same officers responsible for the crime.
V N Rai, who was the SP of the area, threw no light on the identity of the accused either.
On May 24, 2007, some 613 RTI applications were filed by members of the
43 affected Muslim families to find out if the accused PAC men had been
suspended from service. The RTI results highlighted that no adverse
comments had been made in their annual confidential report. Why was no
departmental inquiry initiated against them?
No action was taken against the accused because they had the backing of successive
governments. The political establishment and the police protected each other and as
part of this quid pro quo arrangement, the men responsible for these heinous crimes
were not vigorously prosecuted.
No departmental action was initiated because I believe it served the interests of the
political class to bury the truth. It shows how deeply communal our system is because it
is unthinkable that a crime of this nature could have escaped departmental action.
Image: A policeman out on patrol in Lucknow. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
What kind of compensation has been given so far to the survivors as also to
the families who lost their bread-earners?
The trial court has directed the payment of compensation to victims and their families
under Sections 357 and 357A of the CrPc. The matter has been referred to the Delhi legal
service authority to determine the quantum of compensation and the manner of its
distribution. Some meagre compensation was given to the victims by the administration
in 2007.
The Supreme Court has been looking at the entire issue of compensation in
custodial killings.
As I have already stated, the court acted as per law and directed that compensation be
paid to the victims. The subject of reparations is of critical importance to victims of
crimes.
Do you think we as a nation have not given enough weightage to the kind of
harm that custodial killings can do to the psyche of a democracy. If stricter
action were taken by the State, we would not be doomed to repeat them.
We as a nation have not learnt any lessons from our past. Communal killings take place
routinely in our country and yet we don't ever convict the offenders. The riots of 1993
(Mumbai) and 2002 (Gujarat) would not have happened if justice was given to the 1984
Delhi riot victims.
When we acquit, we send out a message that future offenders will also be protected.
The nexus between the State, its agencies and the accused is so strong in cases of
communal crimes that investigations are thwarted at the very beginning. In all of this
the politician and the law enforcement agencies act in unison.
In your experience fighting cases of victims from the minority community,
do you feel that a lot of custodial killings continue to be directed at
members of the minority community?
That is a sad reality of our times. It reflects very poorly on the system of checks and
balances we claim to have established in our country.
All the survivors are planning to go into appeal to a higher court. What kind
of timelines do you see such an action taking, given that it has taken them
27 years to receive this verdict?
We are planning to appeal to the Delhi high court. We are going into appeal not just to
have this order overturned by a superior court but also because we believe that a
superior court can examine the evidence and give findings that may have a direct
bearing on other cases where the State and the police have acted with impunity.
Hashimpura is a rallying point for so many affected people. We believe it is a fit case for
the introduction of guidelines to ensure that no police force is allowed to act in this
manner in the future and no administration is allowed to protect its rogue officers from
the law
Eyeing a comeback, landline players offer

freebies
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May 02, 2015 07:53 IST
BSNL, MTNL launch free night calling to win back consumers lost to mobile
boom
Indias fixed-line telecom service providers have seen major erosion in their user base
in recent years, thanks to the rise of wireless technology and mobile revolution. In a bid
to revive their fortunes through winning back some of their customers, state-run
landline players Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam
Ltd (MTNL) have introduced some attractive schemes, such as unlimited free night
calling.
Starting Friday, BSNL, which provides telecom services across the country except in
Delhi and Mumbai, started this free fixed-line calling offer between 9 pm and 7 am. The
plan, initially applicable for six months, will be reviewed depending on response.
Following BSNLs move, MTNL, which offers fixed-line services in Delhi and Mumbai, is
also introducing unlimited free local calling at night for its landline and broadband
customers to any network.
MTNL has decided to introduce unlimited free local calling for its landline and
broadband customers (combo) between 10 pm and 7 am to any network. The free
unlimited calling facility is also available for Delhi MTNL landline customers to any
network to Mumbai and vice versa during the same hours, it said in a statement. STD
call charges have been made local by making call charges rate at 180 second per pulse, it
said.
A few days ago, Airtel had also announced free voice calls to both mobiles and landlines
for its broadband customers. The company had launched special plans priced at Rs 49
and Rs 99 a month, using which its broadband customers could make free voice calls to
any network. The Rs 49 pack is only for local calls, and Rs 99 one for both STD and local
calls.
Though similar night packs were introduced earlier too where wireless providers
slashed rates or offered free minutes this is the first time that landline operators are
aiming to attract new customers and, more importantly, retain the existing ones.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of Indias (Trais) telecom subscription
data for February, BSNL, which dominates the landline market, was the biggest loser of
fixed-line customers. The company, which lost 162,556 users in February, still had over
16.6 million landline connections at the end of month and dominated the market with a
62.26 per cent share.
Apart from the drop in the number of landline domains, the number of wireline
subscribers declined from 26.87 million at the end of January to 26.72 million at the end
of February.
The overall wireline teledensity (Number of landline telephones in use for every 100
individuals living within an area) also declined from 2.14 in January to 2.13 in February
urban wireline teledensity and rural wireline teledensity stood at 5.54 and 0.60,
respectively.
BSNL and MTNL together control 75.44 per cent of the wireline market.
The changing trend of dropping numbers shows the landline operators losing battle
against mobile connections in the past few years, as more Indians now opt for the
wireless mode of communication. Given this, the fixed-line service providers fresh
attempt at reviving fortunes might help them get back some of their customers.
Note: Image used for representation purpose only.
Image: Amateur contestants pose in telephone booths during the annual
European Elvis Tribute Artist Contest and Convention in Birmingham,
central England. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters
Uber Introduces Real Time SOS Alert

System For A Safer Ride plus 1 new trending
articles!
Uber Introduces Real Time SOS Alert System For A Safer Ride
Posted: 02 May 2015 04:15 AM PDT
In a latest blog post, Uber has announced the introduction of an Integrated SOS Alter Solution for Law
Enforcement, which promises a better, robust and integrated security system for riders.
Deval Delivala, Ubers India Safety Lead, said in the blog, We welcome the opportunity to partner with
more Police departments around the country to ensure your safety, and encourage law enforcement
agencies to embrace new technology and improve accountability and traceability in urban mobility.
How Will It Work?

In the month of February this year, Uber had introduced a series of security measures to ensure that their
customers are safe during a ride. SOS feature was part of this new strategy.
From now on, whenever a Uber customer will press that SOS button:
The rider would be able to connect with the police via call, immediately
A real time SOS alert is generated, which is sent to the nearest police control room
This SOS Alert will contain the exact vehicle location, tracked via GPS which is projected on a security
devices monitored at the police control room. This will enable the law enforcement agencies to act swiftly
and precisely incase of any mis-happening.
Interestingly, Uber has installed such monitoring devices across all major police control rooms, at their
own expense. Deval said, Yes, weve paid for the equipment weve given to police control rooms across
the country,
Uber & The Issue of Security

Last year, the online taxi service industry in India was rattled after an incident of rape happened in a Uber
cab. There was a huge public outrage over this incident, which prompted the Govt. to immediately ban all
such apps such as Uber, Ola and TaxiForSure. Although Uber re-entered the market with a radio taxi
license in the month of January, Delhi Transport Department rejected their license, and the question of
survival loomed large over them. Infact, Govt. even thought about banning their IP address to stop people
from using their apps and to book cabs.
After the General Budget, Uber and other taxi aggregators were included in the service tax bracket, which
helped them to legalize their standing. They immediately increased their fares after adding this service
tax, and now as they are paying taxes and recognized as a radio taxi aggregator, their operations are
running without any hiccups.
Uber is one of those disruptive business models which has changed everything. And now with enhanced
security measures such as map based security and real time SOS alert with GPS, Uber is well on its way
to charm their customers once again.
The post Uber Introduces Real Time SOS Alert System For A Safer Ride first appeared on Trak.in .
Trak.in Mobile Apps: Android | iOS.
SEBI Is Working on Alternate Capital Raising Platform For Indian

Startups
Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is working on a new set of guidelines which will allow
startups to raise funds from the market, without opting for an IPO or Initial Public Offering. Termed as
Alternate Capital Raising Platform, this new protocol of raising funds will provide an option for angel
investors, Venture Capital funds, HNI etc to make informed decision about investments.
In March this year, SEBI had published a discussion paper titled: 1. Alternate Capital Raising Platform
and 2. Review of other regulatory requirements which sough publics opinion on their proposals. The
deadline for sending in reviews expired on April 20th, and as per PTIs notification, SEBI will introduce the
new norms by end of this month or early next month.
Need for a new platform for raising funds in India

SEBI observed that due to tough rules of listing, which startups are not able to meet, foreign locations
such as Singapore and Hong Kong are fast becoming a preferred location for raising funds. To stop this
outflow, some drastic changes have been proposed for Alternate Capital Raising Platform for SMEs,
which would be way different from IPO, but would act like one.
Similarly, SEBI acknowledged that the new age, knowledge based products are not understood by a
large majority of investors, which deter them from investing. Citing examples of USA, Europe and China,
where such products receive greater acceptance and investments, SEBI has highlighted the need for a
similar capital market which recognizes and encourages entrepreneurs and innovators.
The New Listing Rules for Startups
Some of the major changes announced:

Pre-issue capital is expected to be locked-in for a period of 6 months, against 3 years which
is the norm for normal IPOs. This will allow the promoters to use the funds quickly and easily
Disclosure of objectives and business model will be made easier for startups. Only the
broader objectives need to be shared, as against a detailed and pro-longed documentation
which is currently required.
Retail investors would not be allowed to invest in these startups, considering the risks
involved. Only HNIs, Venture Capitals and Angel Investors would be eligible to invest in this
alternate platform
Raising of capital would be allowed on Institutional Trading platform (ITP). This new
proposed platform will have two categories of investors Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB)
and Non-Institutional Investors (NII).
IPO Route Is Complex & Crowded

This is certainly one of the most exciting news for an entrepreneur, as raising funds via IPO route has
some of the most stringent and tough rules, and the complexity of rules and regulations often deter small
and medium sized startups from listing their firms.
However, having said that, India is witnessing a flurry of IPO offers this year. As per the number of
applications for IPO submitted to SEBI this year, it is expected that Indian companies are looking to raise
close to Rs 25,000 crore worth of funds from IPO this financial year. In the next 3-4 months, 11
companies will offer their shares to the public via IPO route, which is expected to raise close to Rs 5000
crore.
However, small and medium sized startups are left out due to the norms and regulations. Last year,
around 38 SME IPOs were able to generate only Rs 250 crore, whereas more than Rs 13000 crore worth
of investments were executed by VCs and Angel Investors in this sector last year!
We hope that the new guidelines for listing and capital platform for startups help the entrepreneurial
community and enable more innovations and more success
4 things to do before you take up a new job

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May 04, 2015 08:30 IST
Have you tested the waters? Do you know what you're signing up for?
Before taking up a new job or career, be sure you're not jumping out of the
frying pan in to the fire.
Very few people enter the workforce and immediately land their dream job right out of
the gate.
Getting there usually takes years of building skills and experience, often through
multiple jobs, and sometimes even across multiple industries.
At some point, you may find yourself considering a career change -- a dramatic shift in
the type of work you do or the type of organisation you do it for.
Whether you want to course-correct your career path back toward your dream job or
you're simply not sure your current job is right for you, here are some tips to help you
avoid common career change missteps.
Look before you leap
A career change is not a move to be taken lightly.
That means doing your research and, ideally, gaining some experience before actually
making the move.
"You may think your new career is perfect for you, but until you get some real
experience, you're just guessing. Don't succumb to 'grass is greener' syndrome," warns
Christie Garton, CEO of social commerce company UChic and author of Marketing to
Millennials.
"Test the waters before you jump. Volunteer over the weekend, take classes in the field
and network with people in the industry to find out the pros and cons of the career
you're considering."
This kind of preparation will not only help you be sure this new industry is right for you,
it will also make the transition easier by making you a more attractive candidate to
potential employers.
"Many career changers assume that they just need to revamp their CVs to highlight their
'transferrable skills' for the new career field and start applying for jobs," says Kelly
Donovan, job search specialist and principal of executive resume writing firm Kelly
Donovan and Associates.
"However, if you lack experience and training in the new field, you need to take extra
steps to make yourself a viable candidate. You need to demonstrate that you have a
passion for the new field, are committed to it and are up-to-speed on the industry."
Get the right education
If you're considering switching careers, you've likely already thought about some of the
new skills you'll need to gain in order to make the transition.
However, you should also be conscious of how you pick up those skills and what that will
mean to employers.
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Don't just sign up for the first class or conference you find -- do your research. Look into
alternatives, free and paid alike.
You can also put your professional network to use.
Ask your contacts about training programs or classes they are aware of or would
recommend. Use informational interviews to determine how companies weigh the value
of a completed training course on a candidate's CV.
Once you've settled on a program, don't assume it will be enough to convince potential
employers of your ability -- find ways to practise and hone your newly acquired skills.
Look for ways to incorporate them into your current job or outside opportunities to
display your new skills.
Employers may be impressed that you took the initiative and gained some education,
doubly so if you go the extra mile to add experience as well.
Be realistic about money
One of the most dangerous traps workers considering a career change can fall into is not
taking enough time to carefully evaluate their financial situation.
"Before you switch careers, ask yourself the tough financial questions," says Garton.
"Is your new career offering less money?
"Can you afford to live on a revised salary?
"Will you need to work two jobs to make ends meet for a while?
"It's one thing to follow your heart, but if you're not prepared for the changes you'll need
to make, you'll already be on the wrong foot."
But don't over-value it

While certainly worth factoring into your decision, money should not be the main
impetus for a career change.
"Just because a job's pay is more competitive, doesn't necessarily mean it will make you
happier," says Michael Lan, senior resume consultant at Resume Writer Direct.
"If your new job doesn't suit you, it is only a matter of time before you become
discontent and want to change careers again."
Ultimately it comes down to caution.
Changing careers is unquestionably a bold move, but that doesn't mean you can't be
smart and careful about it.
Transitioning to a new field doesn't have to start with quitting your current job. It takes
preparation.
Do your research and lay some groundwork so that you can start your next career phase
off right.
Future Retail surges on

merger of retail businesses
with Bharti Retail
Future Retail rallied over 18% in intraday trade while Future
Lifestyle Fashions surged 14.56 per cent in intraday
trade.ECONOMICTIMES.COM | 04 May 2015, 2:57 PM IST
inShare45
MUMBAI: The Kishore Biyani-owned Future

Retail has agreed to merge its retail operations with Bharti Retail to create one of India's biggest
chain with more than 570 stores across the country.
As per the scheme of arrangement, the retail business of Future Retail will be demerged into
Bharti Retail. Meanwhile, the retail infrastructure business of Bharti Retail will be demerged into
Future Retail.
The deal will result in two-listed companies which will operate in front-end & back-end
operations. The front-end retail operation is proposed to be known as Future Retail while the
second entity is proposed as Future Enterprises. It will host the infrastructure, investments and
assets of both the companies.
Future Group operates over 17 million square feof retail space in different formats and
categories across 166 Indian cities.
Bharti Retail operates a network of over 200 'easyday' stores in multiple formats across 114
cities with presence in key markets like Punjab, Haryana, National Capital Region, Western
Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bangalore.
The combined entity will have over 570 retail stores in 243 cities with operational retail space of
over 18.5 million square feet. It will operate 203 Big Bazaar and 'easyday' hypermarkets, 197
Food Bazaar and 'easyday' supermarkets, and 171 other stores comprising of Home Town,
eZone, FBB and Foodhall.
Bharti Retail will issue 1 fully paid-up equity share of Rs 2/- each, for every one fully paid-up
equity share held in Future Retail. Meanwhile, Future Retail will issue 1 fully paid-up equity
shares of Rs 2 each, for every one fully paid-up equity share held in Bharti Retail.
"Bharti Retail's strengths and network compliment perfectly with that of Future Retail. It will bring
us closer to millions of consumers and provide new opportunities for our supply partners. The
operational efficiencies that can be derived from the merger will create significant value for our
shareholders," said Kishore Biyani, Founder and Group CEO, Future Group.
Bharti Group will hold about 10 per cent stake in both listed companies formed.
At 02:40 p.m.; Future Retail was at Rs 132.15, up 14.22 per cent, on the BSE. It rallied 18.40
per cent to touch intraday high of Rs 137.
Future Lifestyle Fashions was at Rs 84.70, up 9.64 per cent, on the BSE. It rallied 14.56 per
cent to touch intraday high of Rs 88.50.
What to Say in Your 1, 5,

10, or 20 Minute Pitch (+
Tips from Successful
Entrepreneurs!)
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When youre pitching your business, the time allotted will impact a great deal of what you should do
and say. If youre going to have a five minute time block followed by a Q&A, you will need to
approach that differently than if youre giving a one-minute presentation.
So how do you know what to include in pitching opportunities for varying lengths of time? Weve got
you covered. In this article, Ill review:
What to include in a one minute, five minute, ten minute, and 20

minute pitch
Tips from entrepreneurs who successfully pitched their

businesses for funding
How much time do you have?

The one minute pitch
This very brief time slot is a little brutal as far as pitches go, but if youre nervous about speaking in
front of people, theres one big benefit: its over quickly. The challenge of course lies in using the time
as wisely as possible.
Think of a one minute pitch as the absolute heart of your business: What problem is your business
solving? Projecting confidence and having the clearest, most concise explanation of your product or
service possible is key. Jackie Wu of Jackie, a company that makes flying security cameras and
received funding after pitching an incubator, says: The biggest thing is, you have to know what the
problem youre solving is and how your product/service will solve it. We articulated that very clearly
to the investors. That is the one minute pitch.
Palo Alto Software founder Tim Berry shares a great example of an impactful one-minute speech
from the Rice University business pitch competition. Theres no better way to learn than mimicking
something that worked!
SEE ALSOBad Body Language Ruining Your Pitch? Heres How to Fix It
The five minute pitch
A five minute pitch is when you can start branching out from your core message. In it, youll cover the
problem your business solves and how youll solve it, but you can include other important details like
what your competitive advantage is and why your team is the best for the job.
Forbes has a great example of a winning five-minute pitch from a pitch competition. The winning
entrepreneur offers some important advice: avoid unrealistic financial projections (youll look like an
amateur), and always copy edit your pitch deck. A typo or misspelling in such an important event
says to investors that you arent detail oriented. Not exactly the message you want to be sending.
The 10 minute pitch

Palo Alto Softwares VP of Business Development Caroline Cummings has successfully raised
nearly a million dollars in angel investment. In order to help entrepreneurs achieve funding success,
shes distilled the process into a series of manageable takeaways, and has even created a great
format for a 10 minute pitch.
In terms of the structure of the pitch, Caroline suggests you do the following:
Tell a story
Explain your solution
Describe your successes
Define your target market
Explain your plan for customer acquisition
Outline your competition
Describe your revenue model
Provide your financial projections
Introduce your team
Clarify your funding needs
State your exit strategy
In order to present a polished and professional pitch, know the key points youre going to mention
and have an order in mind for them, whether this is a physical structure in the form of slides or just
the highlights of what you plan to say.
The 20+ minute pitch

If you have the opportunity to pitch for 20 minutes, its safe to assume you probably have a larger
block of time, like 40 minutes or an hour, in which to cover both the pitch and the Q&A. Guy
Kawasaki, Apples former chief evangelist, has what he refers to as the 10/20/30 rule, which is a
good guideline when it comes to longer pitches.
It goes like this: If you have a pitch deck of slides for your presentation, use no more than 10,
you should be able to pitch from these in 20 minutes, and you shouldnt be using a font
smaller than 30 points.
If you start from the heart of your pitchthe one minute versionthen each longer iteration allows
you to provide more detail expanding from that point. 20 minutes gives you plenty of time to not only
hit those high points listed under the 10 minute pitch, but also time enough to really flesh them out.
You could include a brief product demo that shows off your technology, or more details about your
smart and efficient business model that you might not otherwise have had time for.
SEE ALSOWhat to Include in Your Pitch Deck
Advice from the trenches: Pitch to win

I talked to entrepreneurs who had successfully pitched their businesses and received funding, and
collected their advice on how to prepare for your pitch and what makes a pitch successful. Heres
what they learned from their experiences:
Assemble a solid team

Have a great team working with you and know why they are the best people for their jobs. Jackie Wu
says that your team is one of the most important things to mention in your pitch. She recommends
answering questions like, Why are you guys uniquely capable of doing this? Do you have a lot of
experience? Be able to concisely say why you and your top people deserve funding.
Plan and structure

Jasmin Augustin of Swift Logistics, Inc., a shipping company, won the Liftoff Houston Business Plan
Competition after a four minute pitch and 10 minutes of Q&A, but she says she never would have
gotten to that point without writing her business plan first. You wont need to submit a business plan
before every pitch you make, but you can bet that having a plan in place will make your pitch that
much easier to create, and youll have something to direct investors to should they ask.
Bring a backup
It sounds old school, and it is, but its also a guarantee: If you have a hard copy of your pitch deck on
hand, no amount of technical difficulties will stop you from using it. I would highly recommend that
you print a copy of the slides in case the projector or computer fail. This happened to me, says
Roman Diaz, president of Touchstone Compliance.
Practice
Practicing, especially if youre the nervous type, is a must. Its common to be a little jittery, but you
dont want it to distract from the great idea you have for your business. So the more you can get used
to explaining your business to people, in a cohesive and relaxed manner, the better chance you have
of staving off nerves when you really need to.
Remember that practice doesnt mean memorized; this can make you sound robotic or mean that an
interruption could throw you off. You just want to get so familiar with all of the pertinent material that
you could answer relevant questions in your sleep, so that theres little risk of drawing a blank when
the pressure is on.
In the words of Palo Alto Softwares VP of Business Development Caroline Cummings: If theres one
thing I cant stress enough, its the importance of rehearsing your pitch.
Make them say, Tell me more.

I heard this one from quite a few people; piquing the interest of your audience is a worthy goal. Greg
Archbald of Greasebook, an oil and gas technology company, says that this can be done in one of
two ways:
1) talk about all the traction youre getting, or 2) not only inform but entertain. Remember, investors
want to see any kind of external validation of the usefulness/coolness of your product or service. The
more traction you can show, the less youll require investors to take a leap of faith.
The next best way to stimulate interest is to entertain. You can do this with penetrating new insight,
humor, or controversy. Not only will the investor appreciate this, but youll stand out from the crowd,
be memorable, and above all else, stimulate interest, he says. Here is an example video of his pitch
during Greasebooks participation in Surge Ventures accelerator.
Tell your story

Every startup has a story. Lida Zlatic of ClassTracks, a language learning company that has won two
pitch competitions, advises thinking of your pitch as a compelling story you have to tell. Every story
has characters (who is your product helping), a problem, a pathway (a general suggestion for solving
the problem. We start this section with, If only), and a solution (our product). Longer pitches
spend more time explaining the product. Stats and humor are also helpful, she notes.
SEE ALSOHow to Develop Your Business Strategy

Have you used any of these tactics during a pitch? Do you have a pitch-related question? Let
us know in the comments or on Twitter!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Angelique is a copywriter at Palo Alto Software. She is interested in
business ethics, social enterprise and nonprofit ventures, and likes to envision innovative ways
businesses can make a positive impact in the world. She has a background in anthropology and
performing arts. Follow Angelique on Google+ Read more
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Uber Launches Pune-Mumbai InterCity Services

Uber is steadily expanding its wings in India On the Maharashtra Day weekend, they have, for the first
time, launched inter-city services. Called UberINTERCITY, the service has been launched for travel
between Mumbai and Pune.
Since launch, Uber had been plying cars Intra-city (within the city), but this is for the first time that they
have launched a service for travel between 2 cities. Sanil Bhatia, Ubers Pune General Manager said,
Since our launch in Pune, our riders & partner drivers have often asked us to connect the two cities
through our app. And we are excited to present uberINTERCITY, which further strengthens our
commitment to building an efficient, seamless & sustainable urban mobility network between
Maharashtras financial and industrial hubs at the push of a button. We will continue to create &
implement innovations suited to the local market & take learnings from India to our other markets
globally.
The service will work, just like normal services. The users will just need to pick uberINTERCITY rather
than normal UberGo or UberX. Unlike based-on-distance pricing, the Pune-Mumbai or vice-versa ride
rate will be fixed at Rs. 3999/-. Like in the normal rides, the app will have Send Status and SOS
Button for safety of passengers.
How Does the pricing compare?

Pune-Mumbai is one of the busiest roots for road travel and hence demand is high. Many travel
companies offer Pune-Mumbai transport services. Generally the charges for travel in normal hatch-back
car is around Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 3000. If you need better and bigger sedans, the costs can rise upto Rs.
5000.
Uber in its announcement has not mentioned the kind of car that will be available, however, the pricing is
definitely on the higher side if normal hatch-back or sedans is provided for riders. Generally, Uber
is known to price their rides quite competitively, but thats not the case with Uber InterCity.
Availability?
We tried looking out for uberINTERCITY rides, but we could not find a single car on the map. As the
service is just launched, cars plying on Mumbai-Pune route might be less, but we were quite surprised to
see no cars available!
The post Uber Launches Pune-Mumbai InterCity Services first appeared on Trak.in . Trak.in Mobile
Apps: Android |iOS.
Internet.org Becomes Open Platform, Any App / Website Can Now

Participate
It seems Facebook has heard the cries of Net Neutrality campaigners They have now opened up their
much talked about Internet.org platform for all developers, who can now bring their apps and websites to
become part of the platform as long as they adhere to certain guidelines.
Internet.org has been facing much flak, especially in recent times, after it was launched in India. The
protests were so strong that some of their partners in India decided to ditch internet.org in support of Net
Neutrality. Cleartrip was one of the first startups to move out of Internet.org, and then others like Times
Group, NDTV and Newshunt also decided to get off the boat.
While Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg tried valiantly to defend Internet.org stating that Net Neutrality
and Internet.org can co-exist, very few actually bought his reasoning. Here are 5 reasons we stated
why Mark Zuckerberg was completely wrong about Internet.Org.
After such a backlash, it seems Mark has listened and has now made Internet.org free for all! While
anyone can join Internet.org, they will still need to adhere to 3 basic guidelines, which are:
1. Explore the entire internet Services on Internet.org should encourage the exploration of
the broader internet wherever possible.
2. Efficiency the apps on internet.org should use data very efficiently. Websites that require
high-bandwidth will not be included. Services should not use VoIP, video, file transfer, high
resolution photos, or high volume of photos.
3. Technical specifications Websites must be built to be optimized for browsing on both
feature and smartphones and in limited bandwidth scenarios. In addition, websites must be
properly integrated with Internet.org to allow zero rating and therefore cant require JavaScript
or SSL/TLS/HTTPS and must meet these technical guidelines.
So, any apps that are closed in nature or have high bandwidth usage will not be accepted. If developers
want their apps/websites to be part of Internet.org, they will have to make them efficient and less data
consuming.
Does it Break Net Neutrality Now?

If the participation of apps and websites is open and their acceptance is done transparently, it theoritically
will not break Net Neutrality.
Prima Facie, with this platform opening up, even the startups and smaller outfits will get equal chance to
get on theinternet.org bandwagon, and hence it may not break Net Neutrality principles.
Mark Zuckerberg in his video has also reiterated the fact that they do not receive or offer any
compensation to either telecom operators or the participating sites, which seems to be fair.
However, internet.org is only available on Reliance network right now. Hopefully, it will be available on
other networks as well.
Id like to give benefit of doubt here to Facebook and say that they are not breaking Net Neutrality
principles ifinternet.org is implemented in open and transparent manner!
What are your thoughts?
The post Internet.org Becomes Open Platform, Any App / Website Can Now Participate first appeared
on Trak.in . Trak.in Mobile Apps: Android | iOS.
The Top Tech Trends in Employee Engagement

It turns out that what they say is true there is indeed an app for that. And employee engagement is no
exception. In this article, I cover some of the recent tech trends employers are using to make employees
happier and more engaged.
A quick disclaimer before I move on: I work for an employee engagement company named TINYpulse.
But while Id be excited to tell you all about our product, Ill keep that to a minimum. In this article Ive
selected tools from across the employee engagement industry. Some of them I use everyday. Any of
them Id recommend. But first
Why You Should Take Employee Engagement Seriously

TINYpulse has collected over 200,000 anonymous survey responses from employees at more than 500
organizations. What weve found is shocking!
Employers using TINYpulse send out a weekly one-question survey to their employees.
Heres just one statistic: 64% of all employees do not feel that they have a strong working culture.
Sadly, the bad news doesnt end there. 49% of employees are not satisfied with their direct
supervisor and only 21% of all employees feel strongly valued at work.
When employees are this dissatisfied, it affects everything. Happier employees are nearly 20% more
likely to see themselves working for their employer in one year than their unhappy counterparts. Not
particularly concerned about attrition? You should be. The costs associated with replacing an employee
can be substantial. It takes time and money to recruit top talent. And until the new employee is fully
trained, productivity sinks.
But the effects of employee unhappiness do not stop there. Unhappy employees are less likely to go the
extra mile in the office and provide poorer customer service than their satisfied counterparts.
Fortunately, there is a new generation of leaders who are leveraging new technology to improve
employee engagement. There are many different tools out there but, generally, they serve two distinct
functions:
1. Improve Communication and
2. Facilitate Recognition.
Tools that Improve Communication

In our research weve discovered that peers not money are the #1 influencer of colleagues. In fact,
20% of employees responded that their peers are the primary motivation for them going the extra mile.
Its critical then that organizations do everything they can to create a cooperative, friendly culture. There
are several tools which employers have used to increase communication in the workplace. Heres just a
few examples:
Slack: In spite of its counter-intuitive name, this tool facilitates real-time communication. Additionally,
it delivers this functionality with the sleek, format which younger workers desire.
At TINYpulse we use Slack all the time to keep the team communicating with each other regularly.
Yammer: Modeled after the social-networking site, Facebook, this tool is an easy and fun place for
colleagues to collaborate and share creative ideas.
Tools that Facilitate Recognition

I included this statistic at the beginning of this article but it deserves repeating: only 21% of all
employees feel strongly valued at work. This lack of recognition is a huge contributor to employee
happiness, and it could easily result in an employee leaving.
Again, there are a variety of tools which employers are using these days to increase the amount of
recognition in the workplace. Heres just a few examples:
WooBoard: With this tool youre only one click away from recognizing a peer. This cloud-based platform
also includes a points system where employees can compete against each other for fun.
Bonus.ly: Using this program, each employee is given a monthly allowance which they can use to
reward their peers. Its not a large sum, but who doesnt enjoy a little extra cash.
Cheers for Peers: Built-in to TINYpulse, this tool allows co-workers a simple way to Cheer a co-worker.
The extra dose of recognition can become infectious.
Of course, by themselves none of these technologies are enough to completely solve the employee
engagement issue. But coupled with a genuine commitment from management to increasing
communication and feedback, these tools can make a big difference.
About the Author: Zachary Sisco is a communications associate at TINYpulse. He spent five months
living in Hyderabad/travelling through India and loved every minute of it. In fact, that picture of him is in
front of Golconda Fort in Hyderabad. And yes, in case youre wonderingit is a selfie. He can be
reached by email atzachary@tinypulse.com and his twitter is @zacharysisco1
The post The Top Tech Trends in Employee Engagement first appeared on Trak.in . Trak.in Mobile
Apps: Android |iOS.
Do 40 Lakh Users Who Supported SabkaInternet Know What They

Really Supported?
Posted: 03 May 2015 11:52 PM PDT
COAI or the Cellular Operators Association of India announced that their SabkaInternet, Sab ka Vikas
campaign received support from over 40 lakh Indian mobile users in under a weeks time.
Interestingly, the press release states that SabkaInternet is actually a campaign for Net Neutrality, Net
equality and consumer choice.
We have published articles earlier that clearly points that the basic premise of SabkaInternet is actually
against Net Neutrality. Infact, it is a deliberate attempt by COAI to confuse people about a subject that
already not understood by majority of users.
The real question is Whether these 40 lakh people who supported for SabkaInternet Campaign
know what they have approved of ?
First the backdrop..
On 22nd April, COAI launched a hurried campaign called SabkaInternet, and every statement and
content that came out from this campaign was carefully engineered to disguise actual reason behind it.
Even as of today, the campaign has a single page website that only has phrases that give a impression
that this is a initiative for everyones benefit. Have a look at this page.
The entire page has phrases like Support #sabkainternet for a Digital Bharat or I believe that people
should have right to affordable internet. For 99% of people, these statements are clearly positive and
something that they will not think twice to extend their support.
Whats even more is, COAI has time and again said that #SabkaInternet campaign actually supports net
neutrality.
Reason Why #SabkaInternet is against Net Neutrality

Its very simple if you read the telecom operators responses (except Reliance Jio) to TRAI consultation
paper on OTT services and Net Neutrality, it is clear that they want to charge separately for OTT services
with premise that these OTT services are eating into their revenues. In other words, it means, they want
to charge separately for WhatsApp, or Facebook or Twitter and other services. While they may give it
even free or at very affordable rates, they are discriminating (positive or negative) between different
services on the internet and hence breaking Net Neutrality.
So, COAI saying that they support Net Neutrality is completely a hogwash. Do remember, COAI is
association of these Cellular operators, so While Sabka Internet speaks of Net Neutrality and Net
Equality, in reality they want to break up internet, which may prove to be too costly for consumers in
coming years.
Airtel Zero and Internet.org are prime examples of such discrimination which were initiatives launched by
Airtel and Reliance respectively.
Interestingly, Airtel had slammed Internet.org initiative exactly for the same reason and who incidentally
went on to launch a very similar service just few weeks later.

Bottom line is Out of 40 lakh people who supported #SabkaInternet campaign, most of them have little
idea about the reality of this campaign.
Thoughts welcome!
You can read our coverage in regards to Net Neutrality here.
The post Do 40 Lakh Users Who Supported SabkaInternet Know What They Really Supported? first
appeared onTrak.in . Trak.in Mobile Apps: Android | iOS.
Weekly Wrap-Up: Google Search Update, iGate Acquisition, OLA

Groceries & More
Posted: 03 May 2015 09:42 PM PDT
Its Monday morning and time to do a quick wrap-up of posts published on trak.in last week. If you were
offline for any reason, this wrap-up is a good way to catch-up with everything that happened in Tech-Mobstartup space in India.
Now, Google Search has integrated few more features that should be tremendously helpful to all Android
phone user.According to new update, you can now send directions, send notes and even set alarms and
reminders directly from your desktop computer to you Android Smartphone.
WOW! TRAI has offered over 10,50,000 Net Neutrality supporter email IDs of users all across India to
Spammers and advertisers on a platter.
Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan & Chairman Emeritus of $100 billion Tata Sons, Ratan Tata,
has become the first Indian to invest in the Chinese mobile startup Xiaomi.
Nepal experienced one of the worst natural disasters ever and While one company Lenskart botched it
up, manyTelcos and startups extended genuine help to affected victims
It seems that landline is slowly making a comeback in India, as top telecom players have introduced
sizzling plans, which can give mobile plans a tough fight.
Lenovo has unveiled a power-packed smartphone K80 with 4GB RAM and humongous 4000 mAh
battery. While it is currently available only in China, it is soon expected to come to India priced around Rs.
18000.
Capgemini is acquiring iGate for $4 billion, which makes it the largest merger and acquisition of any IT
company founded by Indians. Globally, this will be the largest acquisition of any IT Services based
company.
Quikr, Indias leading online classified listing platform is now slowly taking steps to get into eCommerce
marketplace business where users can directly make purchases of products listed. They have now
introduced a Buy button through which a visitor can directly pay cash to Quikr representative for making
purchases.
300 million gadgets which can access Internet will be sold in India during 2015, but sadly only 44% of
Indians can afford to buy one as of today according to research reports by 2 leading agencies.
Ola is everywhere Literally. Just a few days back they announced launch Ola Caf, an online food
delivery business and now it seems they are also entering into a vertical in which more companies have
entered the space in last 3 months than previous 10 years The Online Grocery business.
The basic premise that a video generates more buzz than a simple text post is universally
acknowledged. Video Marketers are using this syllogism world over to alleviate their brands by rightly
syncing social media and online video presence
After Samsung, Sony and Ford, reports are coming in, Worlds largest software company Microsoft and
one of the biggest phone vendors Motorola are planning to set up their manufacturing base in India very
soon.
On the occasion of World Labor Day, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) introduced a major reform for
entrepreneurs in India. Effective May 1st, incorporation of a new business will require only one form to be
filled, against 8 earlier.
Indian born Micromax, which has recently overtaken Samsung in India and have sold more than a million
units in the last 12 months, are now looking for diversification. And the ever green Personal Computer
market seems to have caught their fantasy.
In a latest blog post, Uber has announced the introduction of an Integrated SOS Alter Solution for Law
Enforcement,which promises a better, robust and integrated security system for riders.
Google has launched a platform which gives you a chance to sell your patents and inventions. They
made an announcement that, The Patent Purchase Program is an experimental marketplace for patents
that are simple, easy to use and fast.
Very seldom you come across stories when a 60 year old entrepreneur establishes a start-up, which is
aiming for $100 million revenues within 4 years! We are talking about Happiest Mind Technologies
Government seems to be on mega urbanization drive, they have approved Rs. 48,000 crore rupees for
building 100 smart cities across India.
Good news for Indian Entrepreneurs SEBI is Alternate Capital Raising Platform For Indian Startups.
Major telecom operators in India including Idea, Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance communication have
decided to reduce mobile roaming charges by upto 75 percent.
Although India is the second largest mobile market in the world, 65% Of Smartphone Users Face
Network Issues,while 48% Cant Differentiate Between 3G & 2G!
Indias largest Digital and mobile wallet company Paytm has partnered with IRCTC, and going forward
users will be able to book their train tickets to Paytm wallet.
In another initiative, IRCTC has announced that they are launching Mumbai Darshan tours by Air. Now,
you can cover entire Mumbai in Helicopter for a price of Rs. 5580.
The long standing partnership between Cyanogen and OnePlus has ended. Future Oneplus phones will
not come with Cyanogen on it!
Airtel and Idea cellular announced their quarterly results last week and their Profits have Surged On High
Mobile Data Usage. So all the talk of Low Profits Due To OTTs has been completely Debunked!
Do not forget to check out our Indian Startup Funding page that is updated daily and also, check out
our trak.in toonsfor some fun!
The post Weekly Wrap-Up: Google Search Update, iGate Acquisition, OLA Groceries & More first
appeared onTrak.in . Trak.in Mobile Apps: Android | iOS.
Micromax Yu YUREKA Available at Rs. 8999 [Open Sale Details]

[Update2: May 4th 2015]

Here is something that will make many users who have been waiting for Micromax Yu yureka very happy!
The much sought after phone will be available in an open sale on May 6th and May 7th. Yes, that is right,
you will not need to wait for flash sales on every thursday. It will be available freely to everyone without
any registrations. Now, you do not need to worry about device getting out of stock in mere seconds, so
you can buy it at your own convenience.
You can check all the details at the bottom of the page.
Also, Yu Yureka now comes with with the latest updated Cyanogen OS The CM 12 OS
[Updated1: 7th April 2015 Check at the end of the post for Flash Sale details]
Micromax Yureka (yes, it is not YU but YUREKA) has been launched and suprisingly the phone is
priced below what most would have expected. At Rs. 8999/- the phone probably has one of the highest
Value For Money quotient!
While most of the details we put up yesterday (read below) are bang on, we expected a 3GB RAM phone
with higher storage space. But at Rs. 8999, there is nothing much to complain about. The phone is firmly
targeted at mid-range users and competes with likes of Redmi Note 4G and second generation Moto
G.
The registrations for the phone open tomorrow and will be exclusively available on Amazon.in
Here are the official specifications of the Micromax Yureka phone.:

1. Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Cortex A-53 64bit SOC ARMv8 clocked at 1.5GHz Octacore and
Adreno 405 GPU.
2. Full 4G LTE CAT4 Support.
3. Cyanogen OS 11
4. 5.5 inch HD IPS Display With Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
5. 13MP shooter with Sony EXMOR sensor with f/2.2 aperture with a blue filter.
6. 5MP front facing selfie camera.

7. 1080p at 30fps and 720p at 60fps video recording with 120fps coming soon.
8. 16GB Internal with 2GB RAM.
9. Expandable storage.
10. 2500 mAh Li Po battery.
11. Dual SIM
12. Warranty will still be there if u root ur YUREKA.
13. Doorstep replacement/repair.
The phone is definitely going to appeal to millions of Indians, as it checks most of the boxes that
people want. It is dual Sim, has expandable storage and comes with decent 2GB RAM, which means it is
not going to stutter even with some heavy applications running.
What we expected was that Cyanogenmod OS would launch their Lollipop CM12 update, but that did not
happen. Once this phone is updated to CM12, the phone is really going to shine with their 64bit SOC
support!
The only downside we see with this phone is the battery. The 5.5 inch screen on Yureka is going to
guzzle battery like crazy and it should just about pull through the day with normal usage. Thankfully, it has
CyanogenMod on it, which should help with battery life.
Overall, it is an excellent phone for the price
We will post a detailed review as soon as we get our hands on it!
[Earlier 17th December]
Finally, the much talked about Micromax Yu Branded phone will launch on Thursday, December 18th.
And from what we know, the phone is not only going to be a beast, but will also come at a price point that
is extremely competitive!
Yes, something very similar to OnePlus One (or even better). The launch will be in New Delhi on 18th,
followed by events in Mumbai (19th) and Delhi (20th). Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma is expected at
all the 3 events. Here is the invitation we have received from Micromax.
Kishore Biyani is a good

strategic partner: Rajan
Mittal
"I don't need foreign funding, there are enough funds in India.
I am relieved only in the sense that I have got a good strategic
partner"Rasul Bailay&Chaitali Chakravarty | 05 May 2015, 7:49 AM IST
inShare3
Five years ago, Bharti Enterprises vice chairman Rajan Mittal andKishore
Biyani met to discuss a possible alliance among Walmart, Bharti Retail and Future
Retail. Walmart would provide the backend infrastructure and Biyani's Future Retail
would be the downstream, front-end partner. That plan didn't get off the ground as
the Mittals sealed a deal with Walmart. In October 2013, the Bharti-Walmart joint
venture split. FDI in retail hasn't found too many takers and the Mittals had a
noncore, cash-guzzling business. "The intention is to merge into a larger entity for
us to grow at a certain pace," Rajan Mittal said in an interview to ET. Edited
excerpts:
Are you relieved that Bharti Retail has finally found a home?
I was never stressed. It is not my lifeline, where I have to buy spectrum that is gulping billions of
dollars. Retail business takes a certain number of years to grow. I don't need foreign funding,
there are enough funds in India. I am relieved only in the sense that I have got a good strategic
partner who will handle business and people well. When I was a partner with Walmart, I was
happy; with Kishore, I am happier.
Bharti was expecting retail to be the fastest billion-dollar earner for the
group. What went wrong with your retail business?
Nothing went wrong. We have been running this business on our own since we split with our
partners. It is a merger. It's not that I am selling out. I could have understood if I were taking a
cheque from Kishore Biyani and walking out. It's not the intention. The intention is to clearly
merge into a larger entity, (making it) a larger piece because for us as well as for them to start
growing it's better to be on a larger scale. Kishore has seen our retail business and he knows
best how we have done.
Were you disappointed that FDI in retail didn't take off?
This deal has got nothing to do with lack of FDI. For us, we always work with partners and
strategic partners. I know Kishore for many years, so there is a personal equation. From the
business point of view, I would say, his group and Kishore himself is the retailer which has been
in the country for ages. It's a strategic fit for us. FDI is only one piece which stands out. Who
knows whether FDI will come or not? FDI is allowed in India on paper. You have Tesco there,
but when foreigners are struggling back home, even if you open up, it's hard to say whether
they will come.
Your retail business struggled compared with your other businesses?
You don't see the labour pain of the baby that has grown up and looking beautiful. Do you think
telecom was less struggle, do you think insurance was less struggle? Every business around
the world is struggling. Only timings can be different. Even in telecom, the struggle never ends.
If someone were to ask Kishore, why did you sell Pantaloons--were you struggling? No, it was
just a strategic way of thinking what he wants to do in his retail business. When we took over
from Walmart, we shut unviable stores in different territories and the footprint and management
team fits well with Future Retail. If I am saying I am struggling in this business then I should not
be staying in this business.
The Mittals have always taken pride that in any partnership that they have
forged, the foreign partner always made money, be it BT or Singtel. What
went wrong in Bharti-Walmart?
Retail is a long-haul business. I think any foreign player that comes to India should stay here for
a long time. Cash and carry is a good structured business and profitable too. I don't think
anyone has gone back unhappy.
Is there an exit clause for the Mittals in this merger deal?
I asked Kishore to keep a Bharti nominee on the merged entity's board but he has invited me to
join the board. We have a part in pushing growth of this business
How Kishore Biyani's

Future Group sealed the
deal with Bharti Retail
Biyani has been the script writer of Indias retail story: He was
the first to dream big in retail when most thought it was
another fad.Arijit Barman | 05 May 2015, 7:46 AM IST
inShare8
MUMBAI: Right after Bharti and Walmart parted ways in 2013, Kishore Biyani sensed an
opportunity to join forces with the Mittals of Bharti. Always a votary for consolidation, especially
among domestic players, a Biyani-Bharti combination would have been an ideal platform to
scale up. More so, just a year back, Biyani was forced to let go of apparel and fashion retail
chain Pantaloons to the Aditya Birla Group, to generate resources for a diverse retail empire
hamstrung by debt. Ever since, Biyani has been waiting for a big bounce back.
Biyani has been the script writer of India's retail story: He was the first to dream big in retail
when most thought it was another fad. Over the years, as debt rose and the retail story
occasionally faltered, Biyani looked around for partners.
The Mittals were cold to the idea at that point, said sources who have been keeping tabs on the
two groups and the exploratory discussions fizzled out quite early on. Some said they were
hoping the sector would open up post elections and a new foreign partner would replace
Walmart. After all, Tesco too had flirted with them before. Many of the foreign players who had
set up shop despite the restrictive regulatory environments were struggling too. So perhaps it
was better to wait and watch.
But both sides kept in touch, formally through various industry forums and also as old business
associates. Old timers recall Rajan Mittal had made a courtesy call on Biyani when Bharti first
ventured into the space. Rajan - the younger brother of Bharti group chairman & Group CEO
Sunil - has been driving the group's retail operations.
Patience pays and certainly did for Biyani. By March this year, both sides were back at the
discussion table. But this time Biyani got a call from Bharti's Rajan Mittal. Retail never really
became core to Bharti's conglomerate ambitions and has been loss making throughout. Led by
Biyani and Rajan Mittal, both sides wanted to act fast as the industry landscape has been
changing rapidly. Online retailers - though still dismissed as non-competition by large chains have been winning over shoppers with heavy discounts and were already consolidating even
though they were less than five years in business. Bold, strategic steps were essential as
profitability of large retail chains across the country continues to remain under pressure due to
higher overhead expenses such as rentals and low product margins.
Biyani has always been a sharp dealmaker. This will be his sixth retail M&A in as many years.
However, this time around he didn't want to splurge on a mega cash deal and was more
comfortable swapping shares. "After painstakingly deleveraging his balance sheet and
restructuring his empire into a clutter free format of three separately listed companies, he has
become far more conservative and careful," said a source who has worked with him in the past.
In the past three years, Biyani has streamlined his retail empire into three separately listed
entities Future Retail Ltd, Future Consumer Enterprises Ltd and Future Lifestyle Fashion, a pure
play apparel retailing company. The hyper and supermarkets food and grocery retail chains Big
Bazaar, Food Bazaar and Food Hall are included in listed flagship Future Retail. The
convenience stores Nilgiris, KB's Conveniently Yours, Big Apple and Aadhaar are part of Future
Consumer, also listed. Future Consumer also owns food parks and more than three dozen
FMCG brands.
The Mittals too didn't want to cash out yet but ride any future upside, even as a junior partner of
a much bigger entity. "When we met first, Kishore (Biyani) told me let's together make a larger
piece. The option was not to exit but have a larger role as the sector itself keeps evolving," said
Rajan Mittal, vice chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises.
In came the lieutenants - cousin Rakesh Biyani and CP Toshniwal, group CFO at Future on one
side and Manoj Kohli and his team - the Mittal family brains trust for all things strategic. They
were subsequently joined by the top legal team from AZB who chipped in with their inputs on tax
and structuring as did the advisors from Edelweiss and PwC to tick all the boxes.
Most of the meetings took place in Delhi and Gurgaon with Biyani flying north to attend. As the
discussions progressed, the complementarities emerged--economies of scale, cost efficiencies
and a footprint of 570 stores in multiple formats across 243 cities and an overlap in only four.
Biyani gets access in the north in states such as Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh, the National
Capital Region and Haryana. The telecom template - to keep the back-end infrastructure in one
company under one consolidated entity just like tower operators and the customer-facing,
brand-focused, service offering in a separate front-end company - was a key input that came
from Bharti.
Most were expecting an announcement earlier but family engagements had kept the Mittals
busy. Those out of the way, it was time for another marriage: on the business front.
In the end, as it was said in the press conference, it was all about "increasing the pin codes that
we could cater to." Three years ago this month, Biyani parted with Pantaloons. It still bothers
him at a subliminal level. But now, he's back in the headlines with the biggest deal retailers have
ever seen in India.
Future-Bharti merger to lead to further

consolidation in retail
Consolidation began when Aditya Birla bought South-based Thrinetra Super
Retail for its retail foray in 2007
Raghavendra Kamath | Mumbai
May 5, 2015 Last Updated at 00:50 IST
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Future-Bharti merger to lead to further consolidation in retail

Future Retail, Bharti Retail to merge
Retail arms' merger: Multiple gains for Aditya Birla Nuvo
Aditya Birla group plans mega retail merger via share swap
Future Retail posts Rs 8 cr net loss
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The Future Retail-Bharti Retail merger is expected to lead to further consolidation in the
$500-billion retail sector, which is starved of funds.
Indian retailers have always found peculiar problems regarding funding lack of depth
in Indian markets for the segment and global retailers staying away due to policy issues
and trouble in their own markets.
"Consolidation is long awaited. While new international firms are yet to come in, existing
ones have gone away. It is a question of who blinks first," said Rachna Nath, leader,
retail, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India.
Carrefour of France had exited and Britain's Tesco is treading slowly. US-based Walmart
is only in cash-and-carry operations.
AISLE BE THERE FOR YOU

The Future Retail-Bharti Retail merger is
expected to lead to further consolidation in the
$500 billion retail sector, which is starved of
funds
Indian retailers face funding problems,
partly due to a lack of depth in Indian markets
for the segment
Said Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak Advisors, a retail consultant: "We haven't
had many billion-dollar retail companies. Indian retailers require some kind of scale to
allow them to grow faster. The merger will encourage many more such deals in 12-18
months in fashion and supermarkets.
Consolidation began when Aditya Birla Group bought out south-based Trinethra Super
Retail for its foray into the segment, in 2007. Kishore Biyani's Future Retail recently
bought Bengaluru-based Nilgiris supermarkets to strengthen its footfold in the south.
Sanjay Badhe, a consultant here, says its too early to comment. "Most of them are
making losses. There could be some natural synergies but I cannot see these," he said.
Aditya Birla Retail (ABR), Spencers Retail, Raheja-owned Hypercity and Tata-led Star
Bazaar, all of which either launched or started serious expansion during 2006-07, are
still making losses.
ABR, set up seven years earlier, posted 20 per cent growth in sales over a year earlier
for 2013-14. Its losses widened from Rs 583 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 596 crore in FY14.
With 490 supermarkets and 14 hypermarkets under the More brand, it was looking to
break even in FY13.
Spencers Retail, an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company, which opened stores under the
Spencers brand in 2006, posted eight per cent growth in FY14 sales numbers. Thee
chains losses came down from Rs 209 crore in FY13 to Rs 166 crore in FY14, according
to its parent CESC's Qualified Institutional Placement documents.
Spencers missed its break-even targets on a couple of occasions in the past and is
looking to slip out of the red in the next couple of quarters.
We feel privileged that Bharti has chosen us:

Kishore Biyani & Rajan Bharti Mittal
Interview with Founder and chief executive of Future Group, and vicechairman of Bharti Enterprises, respectively
Digbijay Mishra & Nivedita Mookerji
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We feel privileged that Bharti has chosen us: Kishore Biyani & Rajan Bharti Mittal
Future Retail, Bharti Retail to merge
Future-Bharti merger to lead to further consolidation in retail
It will be a new extension for us in South India: Kishore Biyani
The Mittal way
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On Monday, Future Retail and Bharti Retail announced a merger. Kishore Biyani,
founder and chief executive of Future Group, and Rajan Bharti Mittal, vice-chairman
of Bharti Enterprises, spoke to Digbijay Mishra & Nivedita Mookerji. Excerpts:
How has the journey in Indian retail been? Mittal, what does this merger mean
to you? Biyani, what does the Bharti deal mean to you, as you were reportedly
in talks with many companies, including Carrefour?
Biyani: We feel privileged that after Walmart, they (Bharti) have chosen us (laughs).
Mittal: It's an evolving process We had a partnership and that's over. We always
want and look for a strategic partner that would bring value to the board in our
businesses. I don't think I can find a better partner than Future Group in India.
Though it is being touted as a win-win deal for both, who is the real winner?
Biyani: The consumer is the winner in every way. There will be a price advantage. You
will be the ultimate winner, if you can give the price advantage. The scale and efficiency
of this merger would enable that.
Bharti built a retail business and got foreign investment from Walmart (for
cash-and-carry business). Isn't this merger a step back for the Bharti group?
Mittal: These are strategic decisions, depending on the time of the business. Also,
there are structural challenges within this sector Let's say they got 180
hypermarkets. I don't know how long it would take to build that in India, because there
is no real estate. If you see the entire sector, there are 60-70 hypermarkets. So, there
are structural challenges and issues. It's a great story from our point of view ... Look at
how we built the telecom business We started in Delhi Now, we have a national
footprint. Today, it's the other way round, as we have merged with a larger entity. It
looks great at this point.
Could Bharti exit at any point? Has that been discussed?
Mittal: We have just entered. Why are you making us exit? You need another
conference for that Why are you wasting your pen on that today?
Bharti Retail has over 5,000 employees. What happens to them after the
merger?
Mittal: All store employees will remain with the stores. Employees are not an issue.
There is no cannibalisation of stores.
Biyani: We are a growing organisation Big Bazaar is growing 20-25 per cent a year
and when you are growing at that rate, you need more people. We aim to open 4,000
stores in five years. So, that would require more people.
What investment would the expansion of stores require?
Biyani: Quite a lot will be franchise-based. But whatever surplus we generate, it will be
invested in retail.
Is the merger meant to give you more strength to compete with other bricksand-mortar companies or is it to fight e-commerce firms?
Biyani: For us, it is all about selling a product to the consumer by whichever means.
You could use technology or physical stores. Globally, the best models that are scalable
and profitable are a combination of physical and digital.
Is the growing online business a threat?
Biyani: How could we grow 25 per cent every year if online was a threat? It has been
hyped up lately.
Fashion is becoming a key segment for online and offline retailers. How do
you plan to take that forward?
Biyani: For us, fashion is growing about 25 per cent a year, and we will continue to do
that. Fashion runs on brands. Whether these are e-commerce or traditional retail, we
keep adding and deleting brands.
Housing.com co-founder
Rahul Yadav resigns as
CEO, board to meet on
Tuesday
ET had reported on March 12 that investors were considering a
plan to remove Yadav, who studied at IIT-Bombay along with
the other co-founders.Aditi Shrivastava | 05 May 2015, 8:04 AM IST
inShare51
BENGALURU: Rahul Yadav has resigned as the CEO of Housing. com, capping several weeks
of drama at one of India's most watched startups and leaving investors with the challenge of
restoring normalcy at the online real estate services company.
Yadav, 26, wrote a scornful resignation letter on April 30 to board members and investors
denigrating their "intellectual capability" and giving them a one-week deadline to "help in the
transition". The investors responded a day later through the law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP
acknowledging the resignation. ET has seen both letters.
ET had reported on March 12 that investors were considering a plan to remove Yadav, who
studied at IIT-Bombay along with the other Housing co-founders, due to concerns over strategy
and his conduct.
The board of Housing will meet on Tuesday to discuss the resignation and chart a new plan for
the company.
Housing shot to fame as one of India's startup success stories after Japan's SoftBank led an
investment of $90 million ( Rs 550 crore) in December, valuing it at Rs 1,500 crore. Since then,
Yadav has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons he became embroiled in a social media
dust-up with Sequoia Capital Managing Director Shailendra Singh and later the Times Group,
which publishes this newspaper.
Late last month, SoftBank's Vice-Chairman Nikesh Arora resigned from the board. SoftBank
executive Jonathan Bullock will take his place.
"I don't think you guys are intellectually capable enough to have any sensible discussion
anymore. This is something which I not just believe but can prove on your faces also!" Yadav
wrote in the opening paragraph of his letter resigning as CEO, chairman and a member of the
board.
Documents accessed by ET show that Yadav owns 4.57% stake in the company. Nexus
Ventures owns 19%, SoftBank 32%, and Helion Ventures and Falcon Edge about 10% each.
Yadav, Housing co-founder and board member Advitiya Sharma and investors including
SoftBank's Arora, Helion's Ashish Gupta and Nexus' Suvir Sujan did not reply to separate
emails.
The Housing board consisted of three directors Yadav, Sharma and Arora. On Tuesday, sources
told ET that the first item on the board's agenda will be the appointment of two new directors
Ritesh Banglani of Helion and Sujan of Nexus and formalising the appointment of Bullock in
place of Arora.
SoftBank has asked all shareholders including Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture
Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, Nirvana Ventures, Falcon Edge Capital to be present for the
meeting which will be held at the office of the law firm AZB & Partners in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Crowded board agenda
People familiar with the investors' thinking said the majority shareholders would like to have
Yadav remain in the company and involve himself with technology development. The view is
that there is no perceived threat of a boardroom fight because Yadav's shareholding is
minuscule, but how he reacts is still a matter of concern.
According to the sources, the board will discuss reporting structure, recent marketing
expenditure and acquisitions, the resignation of Arora as well the events involving the Times
Group and Sequoia.
Housing has spent nearly Rs 120 crore on its "Look Up" promotional campaign while the original
budget was much lower, people aware of the details said. The company has also made some
acquisition bids without the consent of investors, the sources said.
Housing competes with CommonFloor, 99Acres and MagicBricks, owned by the publisher of this
paper.
Sharad Sharma, a co-founder of software products think tank iSpirt, said developments at
Housing will be watched closely for their impact on the startup industry.
"Everyone is waiting for a valuation correction to happen. Housing was a poster child for a
dramatic run-up to sky-high valuations, so this may be the trigger that ends the valuation
bubble, especially in Internet commerce," said Sharma.
(With inputs from Madhav Chanchani in Mumbai)
The Rahul Yadav saga: A tale in two letters

Text of the letter written by Rahul Yadav
Dear board members and investors, I don't think you guys are intellectually capable enough to
have any sensible discussion anymore. This is something which I not just believe but can prove
on your faces also!
I had calculated long back (by taking avg life expectancy minus avg sleeping hrs) that I only
have ~3L (hours) in my life. ~3L hrs are certainly not much to waste with you guys!
Hence resigning from the position of Directorship, Chairmanship and the CEO position of the
company. I'm available for the next 7 days to help in the transition. Won't give more time after
that. So please be efficient in this duration.
Cheers,
Rahul
Text of the letter acknowledging his resignation
Dear Rahul,
In a discussion among the Investor group, I was requested to send you an express
acknowledgement, on their behalf and without any other effect on the terms of our agreements,
of your April 30 resignation from your positions (1) on the board of directors (including as
chairman and managing director) and (2) as CEO.
Thank you.
With best regards Noah Carr Morrison & Foerster LLP
Big Box Retail forced to think out of

the box
Bharti-Future merger illustrates change in strategies to cope with high
rents, competition from e-commerce firms
Sapna Agarwal
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| P.R. Sanjai
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Mumbai: Around a decade ago, modern retail (or organized retail, or big box retail) was the new
new thing, but the going hasnt been easy for companies in the business that have been forced to
cut, chop, merge and change strategies to cope with issues such as inefficient supply networks, high
rents, and increasing competition from well-funded e-commerce firms.
On Monday, Bharti Enterprises announced the merger of its retail business Bharti Retail Ltd with the
retail operations of Kishore Biyanis Future Retail Ltd. The conglomerate will end up with only a 10%
stake in the two retail companies created by the union, Future Retail Ltd and Future Enterprises Ltd.
Its stake could potentially increase to 15% in both over 18 months.
On Sunday, Aditya Birla Group announced the merger of all its branded apparel businesses
with Pantaloons Fashion and Retail Ltd to unlock shareholder value and give investors an
opportunity to invest in the fast-growing fashion space through Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd,
the name of the new entity that will house the groups apparel business.
This is the start of consolidation, we will see similar moves going forward, said Abheek Singhi,
senior partner and director at The Boston Consulting Group.
Such consolidation results in larger scale, creates a larger network of stores that is more visible and
boosts the efficiency of warehousing and logistics operations, he explained. And it also will help
them to raise money.
Future Retail operates around 350 stores spread over 11 million square feet of retail space. Bharti
Retail currently operates a network of over 200Easyday stores in multiple formats across 114 cities.
The combined entity will have annual revenue of Rs.15,000 crore, making it the countrys largest
hyper- and supermarket chain.
In March, Aditya Birlas value retail unit Aditya Birla Retail Ltd acquired Jubilant Retails Total
hypermarket chain in Bengaluru. In November, Future Group acquired grocery chain Nilgiris.
The burst of consolidation doesnt come as a surprise to experts. Now that foreign direct investment
(FDI) has not happened in multi-brand retail, the Indian retail sector consolidating was just a matter
of time. Its happened with the Aditya Birla Group within its own group companies and with Biyani
across the value format, said Rachna Nath, leader, retail and consumer, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Pvt. Ltd.
In September 2012, India allowed 100% foreign ownership in single-brand retail, opening the doors
for fashion retailer Hennes and Mauritz AB (H&M) and furniture vendor Ikea. It also allowed for up to
51% overseas investment in supermarkets and hypermarkets (termed multi-brand retail), but only in
states that were amenable to foreign-owned outlets.
The resulting confusion resulted in the exit of Carrefour SA and the break-up of the BhartiWalmart joint venture. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. remains in India in the so-called cash-and-carry
segment, or wholesale retail, which allows for 100% FDI. The current government is opposed to any
foreign investment in hypermarkets and supermarkets.
That has shut off a source of capital for modern retailersat a time they need it most.
E-commerce companies, flush with venture capital, are offering consumers huge discounts.
Think India. Think Retail, a February report published by property advisorKnight Frank India Pvt.
Ltd and lobby group Retailers Association of India, estimated that the share of modern trade in retail
would slip from 17% in 2013 to 13% in 2019, while that of e-commerce companies would jump from
2% to 11% in the same period
All the same, the retail opportunity in India is big. The overall retail market will double from around
$500 billion this year to $1 trillion in 2020, another report by Boston Consulting Group and Retailers
Association of India said.
Older and larger retail companies are behind the curve of online retail companies, said Harish H.V.,
partner at audit and consulting firm Grant Thornton India Llp. Such firms are restructuring or
consolidating their retail operations to gain financial muscle and scale, he added.
And e-commerce itself will help the cause of modern trade, said Damodar Mall, chief executive
officer, value format, Reliance Retail.
The Mahindra Group and Godrej Group are making early inroads into the online space. In February,
the Mahindra Group acquired babyoye.com while restructuring its retail business. In the same
month, the Godrej Group acquired Ekstop.com, an online groceries ordering and delivery platform
that it merged with its retail chain Natures Basket.
Even as the quest for market space, at any cost, has moved online, retailers are becoming more
conscious about the profitability of their real world chains. Mahindra Retail Pvt. Ltd is reducing the
number of Mom & Mestores by a fourth, churning staff, and relocating to less expensive
premises, Mint reported on 26 March.
Reliance Retail, which turned profitable last year, has seen at least three shifts in strategy and two in
leadership since its inception in 2006. In September the company started opening its so-called value
format stores again, one a week, after a three-year break.
Modern retail 1.0 phase, which was the land grab, is over. Retailers now know what works and what
does not work, said Mall of Reliance Retail.
sapna.a@livemint.com
On Birla's Mega Merger:

We don't need a strategic
partner, says KM Birla
E-commerce is here to stay. It's a global phenomenon. Even
the new company will look at selling its products through ecommerce.Piyush Pandey | 04 May 2015, 3:00 PM IST
inShare
MUMBAI: Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group, on Sunday

announced the creation of India's largest branded apparel company , Aditya Birla
Fashion & Retail. In an interaction with TOI, Birla unveiled his retail dreams, ecommerce play , while giving the Narendra Modi government full marks on close to
a year of its term and dismissed talks of takeover of Century Textiles' cement
business. Excerpts...
Where does the retail business now stand in the Aditya Birla Group's
scheme of things and what's its future?
The merger will create the country's largest branded ap parel business under the new
company . The growth of this segment is de-linked from the growth of the economy . We plan to
invest between Rs 400 500 crore every year for the next three years by adding be tween 250 to
300 retail outlets for Madura and about 35 out lets for Pantaloons each year Madura has been
growing faster than the industry average.As of now, retail is significantly small but will emerge
as a significant business for the group in the next 3-5 years.
What's your take on the growth of e-commerce? Isn't it a potential threat
to traditional retail? What are your plans to enter the ecommerce
segment?
E-commerce is here to stay. It's a global phenomenon. Even the new company will look at
selling its products through e-commerce but we don't want our brands to be sold at discounted
prices. The growth rate of retail stores will slow down with ecommerce. We are evaluating an ecommerce foray but it's too early to talk about it.
Post the demerger, what will Aditya Birla Nuvo be left with to grow?
Doesn't it get discounted by investors as a conglomerate?
Aditya Birla Nuvo will keep on investing in its existing businesses of NBFC, housing finance,
mutual funds and insurance. We have also applied for a payments bank licence. This
transaction will do away with the conglomerate discount as each Nuvo shareholder will get a
stake in the new company.
Can we expect the 'More' supermarket chain to be merged with this new
company in future and when can we expect it to be profitable?
'More' is a different segment and will continue to grow as it is under a different holding structure.
In another two years, 'More' will become profitable.
There were talks of bringing in a strategic partner for your retail
business...
That was one of the options initially. But with today's transaction, we don't need any strategic
partner. We are looking for organic growth, so no acquisitions in this space.
Will you please clear the air on the demerger of Century Textiles with UltraTech getting the
former's cement business to become India's largest cement player?
I categorically deny this. They are all rumours and UltraTech is already the country's largest
cement player.
The Modi government will complete a year in office this month. Has it lived
up to your expectations?
Yes, 100% to my expectations... It's not possible to expect that a full change will happen in a
year. The focus is in the right area and he (PM) is doing the right things.It will take another year
to see things moving.
How 'try and buy' allows

niche online retailers like
Lenskart take on giants
like Amazon
'Try and buy as a scheme is costly for niche retailers but helps
them convince people to buy even products of high individual
preferences online.Evelyn Fok&Harsimran Julka | 05 May 2015, 7:57 AM IST
inShare
BANGALORE | NEW DELHI: For niche online retailers, allowing product trials at home is
proving to be lucrative and more than a defence against electronic marketplaces such as
Amazon.
By allowing buyers to try items before placing an order, companies such as online eyewear
retailer Lenskart and jeweler BlueStone have been able to push through higher value purchases
while significantly lowering product returns, a standard industry good practice but a drain on
ecommerce firms.
'Try and buy' as a scheme is costly for niche retailers but helps them convince people to buy
even products of high individual preferences online, earning their loyalty. This gives them an
advantage over ecommerce giants such as Flipkart and Amazon in the specific category they
operate, because offering home trials would complicate the inventory-light business models of
these electronic marketplaces.
Lenskart has been offering home trials in 42 cities the past five months, with delivery boys
taking to customers' homes five selected frames to pick from. The initiative has translated to
over 8% of the company's 150,000 monthly shipments.
"Home trials work for specialized categories where people want to be sure they make a right
decision," said cofounder and chief executive Peyush Bansal. "We have seen that about 6070% of the user send up placing an order. The conversion rates are higher and results in half of
regular return rates of 7% for items ordered online."
On average, 10-12% of products

sold online are returned by buyers for various reasons, according to various industry estimates.
Each return costs an additional Rs 70 for ecommerce firms, excluding shipping costs. Home
trials cost Rs 70-100 per visit, incurred mainly on transportation for online retailers who own
their own delivery networks in major cities, but they have their eyes trained on potential longterm benefits.
For billionaire Ratan Tatafunded BlueStone, returns have dropped to zero from buyers trying on
replicas of their solitaires and necklaces at home ahead of placing an order. "Since it's a highvalue category with the average price of an item sold on our site around Rs 20,000 per piece, a
'home try on' more than covers the cost of bringing the samples to a customer's doorstep," said
CEO Gaurav Singh Kushwaha. This has also helped bump up transaction value, with home trial
items having a higher than average value, he said. Bangalorebased online furniture retailer
Urban Ladder last month began allowing customers to choose from swatches of colors and
fabric to customize furniture such as sofas, charging Rs 299 for the service. Tiger Globalbacked Caratlane sends jewelry consultants for home trials on request.
But online lingerie retailer Zivame ended its 'try at home' scheme after a threemonth pilot and
now instead offers fit assessments in person and via its call centre, at no cost to the customer.
"Try and buy policies will work for specialized companies that deal in high-value and highmargin products to lock in the customer. The cost of exchange can be recovered from the high
margins in these products," said Seema Gupta assistant professor of marketing at the Indian
Institute of Management, Bangalore. "Inventory players have better quality control and hence try
and buy is likely to be more successful in them than a marketplace." Flipkart, Amazon and
Snapdeal, the country's largest online marketplaces, do not offer home trials.
Globally, 'Try at home' schemes have long been deployed since ecommerce began to help
bridge the 'experiential shopping' gap. For example New York-based online eyeglasses retailer
Warby Parker, estimated to be valued at $1 billion, lets customers pick five eye-frames to be
shipped over for a five-day home trial, all free of cost.
In India, industry experts predict a faster phase-out of retail stores in branded categories such
as electronics and books, where the touch and feel is not that important.
"Over time, outlets will only be needed to test the look and feel," said Aamir Jariwala, member at
industry body Ecommerce Coalition of India and founder of Karma Recycling, an online seller of
refurbished electronic products. "For products where touch and feel is less important today such
as smartphones, tablets and other electronics, the opportunity to phase out large offline
locations quickly will be even greater."
E-tail market booming,

may hit $50 billion by
2020: Report
"E-tail is the most recent segment, but its highest growth
rates and success will be the key driver of the overall eCommerce market."PTI | 05 May 2015, 8:14 AM IST
inShare2
MUMBAI: The country's e-tail market is expected

to grow 10 times from its current level to $ 50 billion by 2020, primarily driven by better Internet
penetration and higher incomes, said a report today.
"E-tail is the most recent segment, but its highest growth rates and success will be the key
driver of the overall e-Commerce market," said a UBS report.
The Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) estimates that the overall Indian eCommerce market, of which e-tail is a segment, is currently worth $ 16 billion.
The report made a specific mention of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
(IRCTC) as "the best example" of a successful Indian e-Commerce venture.
"We estimate that IRCTC had an estimated total sales of $ 3 billion in 2014 with an online
penetration level of 43 per cent. Its success indicates that the Indian consumer is willing to
accept technology if it is a compelling value proposition," the report stated.

The marketplace model of e-tailing will gain prominence "as it is scalable and requires less
capital and time than other models".
"Current regulations and the presence of large unorganised sellers (mom-and-pop shops) also
support this model," it added.
Multi-product e-tailers (Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal) are moving towards the
marketplace model while e-tailers in niche categories such as furniture, baby products and
grocery have hybrid business template, the report pointed out.
At the same time, it played down investor concerns about e-Commerce being a bubble in India
are "misplaced".
"Analysis of the supply chain for offline retail by category implies adequate margins for e-tail in
future," the report stressed.
Homeshop18s CEO
Sundeep Malhotra quits,
Sanjeev Agrawal of
Skechers to succeed him
Sanjeev Agrawal, MD of Skechers South Asia will be
succeeding Malhotra. Agrawal has over 14 years of experience
in the retail industry.Dearton Thomas Hector | 04 May 2015, 5:10 PM IST
inShare
Television shopping and e-commerce firm Homeshop 18's CEO Sundeep Malhotra has decided
to step down, from the company he had founded seven years ago.
Sanjeev Agrawal, MD of Skechers South Asia will be succeeding Malhotra. Agrawal has over 14
years of experience in the retail industry. He has been the CEO of Pantaloon and later joint
CEO of Future Value Retail.
According to people with direct knowledge of the resignation, Malhotra would still be part of the
company for three more months as part of the succession plan.
Malhotra has confirmed the development, when ET contacted him, but refused to provide further
details. Sources said that he wants to pursue other entrepreneurial ventures.
Malhotra who is considered to be one of the pioneers in the industry, has over 20 years of retail
and FMCG experience. Prior to Homeshop18, he was the Executive Vice President, Sales for
PepsiCo India.
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) of Mukesh Ambani owns Homeshop18 through the acquisition
of Network18 which happened last year.
Homeshop18 had plans of listing on NYSE to raise $75 million, before the acquisition by RIL,
but later scrapped the proposal as part of re- evaluating its capital raising strategy.
Mondelez India slows down

to mid-single digit;
Cadbury Dairy Milk share
tops 40%, its highest ever
Mondelez's Indian arm, that has been growing more than 15%
annually since the last few years, saw its March growth
tapering down to mid single digit.Sagar Malviya | 04 May 2015, 12:16 PM
IST
inShare
Price increase in chocolates impacted the category growth in India in the second consecutive
quarters ended March, Mondelez CEO Irene Rosenfeld has said, adding that the Cadbury Dairy
Milk maker expects the trend to improve as consumers adjust to the industry-wide price
increases implanted last year.
Mondelez's Indian arm, that has been growing more than 15% annually since the last few years,
saw its March growth tapering down to mid single digit.
"In India, our second-largest emerging markets chocolate business, although the category
slowed, revenue was up mid single-digits and we held share," Rosenfeld said in an investor
earnings call last week. "However, chocolate price increases tempered consumer demand. We
expect category and revenue growth in India to improve as the year progresses."
The maker of Oreo cookies has faced higher cost for its chief commodity, cocoa, prices of which
went up by 20% in India last year.
Yet, Mondelez in its first quarter analyst call also said Cadbury Dairy Milk share topped 40%, its
highest ever. This is despite aggressive product launch and marketing stance by both rivals Nestle and Ferrero India.
e-Commerce IPOs may

build up, consolidation
ahead
Private Equity and VC funds turned towards the Indian market
around 2008-09 after the sub-prime crisis hit the US and the
debt problems.PTI | 05 May 2015, 8:26 AM IST
inShare1
NEW DELHI: The over $ 6-billion e-Commerce

market in India will see IPOs gaining traction, preferably in the US, as well as see several
consolidation moves in the next 2-3 years, experts said.
Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) funds turned towards the Indian market around
2008-09 after the sub-prime crisis hit the US and the debt problems in Europe.
These funds started investing in the nascent online shopping market, where they expected huge
returns in the medium-to-long term, they added.
The PE and VC funds usually have investment commitments in the range of 6-10 years, after
which they have to return the amount with assured benefits to their Limited Partners (LPs). The
funding varies on company-specific circumstances as well as market conditions.
Considering the investment cycle in India, these funds could look for a closure in 2016-18,
experts said.
However, the investment scene is certainly not drying up as the e-Commerce market is
attracting huge attention from investors globally and there will be more funds and companies
coming into the country to invest in this space, they noted.
"When investors put in money, they also have a commitment that is generally around 7-8 years
after which they have to return it to their LPs. Considering many funds invested around 2010,
we will see either these e-Commerce firms going for IPOs or we will see consolidations to shore
up value," Aristotle Consultancy Director Deepak Dhamija told PTI.
Aristotle provides financial and legal solutions to e-Commerce firms such as Jabong, GoJavas,
FoodPanda India, FabFurnish, Printvenue and the like.
Dhamija added that funds look at a 6-10 year window, but generally VC funds consider 7-8
years as the average age for RoI (Return on Investments).
An investment banker who did not wish to be named said these funds now are also selling or in
the process of selling some of their stake to other funds.
"The e-Commerce market is booming for VC and PE funds. So, to keep the value of their
investments high, many funds will look for IPOs or consolidations, going ahead. But many would
wish to stay and will sell some stake to maintain their RoIs as well wait for valuations to go up,"
he added.
Without giving a timeframe on exits, KPMG India Accounting Advisory Services (Partner and
Head) Sai Venkateshwaran said: "We could potentially see exits for these PEs happening
through a number of routes -- IPOs, sale to strategic investors, other PEs, etc."
India Venture Capitalist Association President Arvind Mathur said: "It is not as if only the current
funds will be there in the next few years and then taper off. New funds will most likely enter the
market, given the strong potential for e-Commerce in India and its demographic profile and vast
rural areas where further penetration will occur in coming years."
Mathur said there are other options like M&A deals leading to high-quality, value-added exits.
On the funding scenario, he expects more funds to enter the Indian e-Commerce market, given
the positive outlook for India in the foreseeable future.
"Let's not forget that there is a very strong engineering talent base in India and we will see a lot
more innovative solutions and products coming into the market... Also, the new government is
focusing on lowering barriers for ease of business. All this augurs well for the e-Commerce
sector as well as other industries in India," he added.
However, investors will look to diversify among existing and promising new players as well,
Mathur said.
KPMG's Venkateshwaran feels that with evolution of e-Commerce ecosystem, there have been
numerous investments in recent months in this space across various start-ups as well as more
established players.
"As this space evolves and grows in coming years, there will be more value creation through
both consolidation as well as back-end and front-end integration, for instance, payment
platforms or supply chain and logistics management, etc," he added.
Start-ups with good ideas and business models will continue to attracts investments,
Venkateshwaran said.
He tied the possibility of exit through IPOs to many factors, including the market conditions at
that point in time.
The choice of market for an IPO would also depend on the existence of a favourable regulatory
environment as well as a suitable investor base, Venkateshwaran pointed out.
"This sector has generally viewed the US markets as more suitable, considering the depth of
those capital markets and also because investors in those markets are perceived to understand
this sector better. The US has also tried to make its markets more attractive for emerging growth
companies by relaxing the regulatory and compliance requirements," he opined.
Aristotle's Dhamija feels that despite the future growth projection of the e-Commerce sector, the
firms in this space have so far not been able to produce profits or have given an indication of the
timeframe of benefits to start pouring in.
"We are talking only of discounts. There is no sound profit generating model. So, firms are
burning cash fast. This does not mean that the sector is going down, but the investors will in
some time look at the RoI dimension and start pressurising the firms for results," he added.
Major funds that have invested heavily in e-Commerce firms in India are Tiger Global, DST
Global, Kinnevik, Naspers, Steadview Capital, Accel Partners and the like.
According various analyst estimates, VC and PE funds have invested over $ 5 billion in the
online retail sector since 2011.
Branded jewellers like

Gitanjali and Tara tie up
with Amazon, Snapdeal to
cheaper products sell
online
These jewellers are tying up with etailers like Amazon,
Snapdeal, Flipkart to sell smaller items that cost anything
between Rs25,000 and Rs40,000.Sutanuka Ghosal | 05 May 2015, 7:53
AM IST
inShare
KOLKATA: Branded jewellers are tweaking their marketing strategy to cope with high rentals,
thin margins and competition from neighbourhood shops that a section of the trade claims,
source gold from the grey market where it is available cheaper since the 10% duty is not there.
These jewellers are tying up with etailers like Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart to sell smaller items
that cost anything between Rs25,000 and Rs40,000, and are opening stores only for high-value
products which customers want to touch and feel before buying.
"We have reorganised our retail business format to check the threat of cheap gold that enters
the market through illegal route. Earlier, we had tied up with Amazon to sell our products, and
now we have tied up with Snapdeal. For every footfall, we have seen that there are 100 website
visits. We are selling products worth Rs5,000 to Rs25,000 through these etailers," Rajeev
Sheth, CMD, Tara Jewels, told ET.
Tara Jewels is also focusing on the shop-inshop format to sell products ranging from Rs15,000
to Rs40,000. "We have 19 brick-n-mortar stores which sell high-value products whose ticket
size starts from Rs65,000," Sheth said.
The company gets 15% of its revenue from the retail business in India. About 85% of its
revenues come from exports and it has tied up with chains like Walmart & JC Penny to sell
diamond and diamond-studded jewellery.
According to industry estimates, the online jewellery market may be worth as much as $2.5
billion in the next 5 to 10 years. Currently, it accounts for less than 0.1% of the $55-billion
jewellery market.
Mehul Choksi, chairman of Gitanjali group, said they have become careful about opening new
stores. "The rentals are inching up and the market isn't very vibrant. People nowadays prefer
light jewellery unless there's a wedding or some important occasion in the family. We too are
giving more emphasis on the ecommerce platform and shop-in-shop concepts. We have tied up
with all the major etailers. Of our Rs6,000 crore sales, nearly Rs150 crore comes from the
ecommerce platform it is fast growing and will benefit jewellers as their overhead costs will
come down."
Pune-based PN Gadgil Jewellers said they too have tied up with leading etailers to sell their
products.
"This is emerging as a major parallel marketing model for us. In online business, there are no
intermediaries which reduce our cost. The young crowd is a major buyer of jewellery through
online. The ticket size is also low now but it will increase in the next couple of years," said
Saurabh Gadgil, managing director, PN Gadgil Jewellers.
Timex Group plans to tap

wearables market with its
smart watches and fitness
bands
Timex launched the Ironman Run x20 GPS smartwatch and
Ironman Move x20 fitness band, priced atRs 11,995 and Rs
8,995, respectively, on Monday.Danish Khan | 05 May 2015, 8:19 AM IST
inShare
NEW DELHI: Timex Group is planning to tap India's wearables market with its smart watches
and fitness bands. It's looking at gaining a share of as much as 15% of the market. "We are
aiming to sell more than 5 lakh wearable devices in India by the end of the ongoing financial
year," Anupam Mathur, head of sales and marketing at Timex Group India, told ET. This would
account for 10-15% of overall volume and value sales in India, he said.
Timex launched the Ironman Run x20 GPS smartwatch and Ironman Move x20 fitness band,
priced atRs 11,995 and Rs 8,995, respectively, on Monday. Amazon will be the sole distributor of
these devices in India in the current year. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi recently launched
fitness device Mi Band, which will go on sale May 5, via its own ecommerce website. With a Rs
999 price tag, the Mi Band is expected to provide a much-needed push to the country's
wearables market.
In India, the market is at a nascent stage, selling a handful of products such as smartwatches
and fitness bands launched by handset makers such as Samsung, Sony, Motorola and Alcatel
OneTouch. Sales of wearable devices such as smartwatches and fitness bands totaled 1 lakh
units in India in 2014 and is estimated to rise to slightly above half a million in 2015, according
to Counterpoint Research. The smart wearables market in India during the first quarter of 2015
was 0.08 million units with smart watches contributing to 40% of shipments and smart bands
contributing to 60%, according to Counterpoint Research.
DKNY announces new

creative directors
Fashion brand DKNY have announced design duo Public School
as their new creative directors.IANS | 04 May 2015, 4:57 PM IST
inShare
Fashion brand DKNY have announced design duo Public School as their new
creative directors.
The New York-based label has welcomed Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne into its team to
oversee all the brand's collections, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
The pair will split their time between their own Public School label and DKNY, and have said
they are "extremely proud" to be joining the company, which was founded by Donna Karan in
1988, reports Vogue.com.
Chow and Osborne, who will report to the label's CEO Caroline Brown, said in a statement: "We
both grew up in New York and DKNY has always been part of the landscape of this city in our
formative years as designers and New Yorkers. It is one of the brands that helped change the
game for us and for American fashion.
"We are extremely proud and excited to be joining the company and to contribute to the next
chapter of DKNY, one of the most iconic brands created by Donna Karan, a true inspiration."
Donna, 66, left her position as CEO of the label in 1997 before it was bought by LVMH in 2001,
although she continued to oversee the production of all the collections after stepping down.
Kishore Biyani's Future

group acquires Bharti
Retail in an all-stock deal
valued at Rs 500 crore
The Mittals will get an immediate stake of 9% each in the BSElisted Future Retail as well as in the yet-to be-created entity of
Biyani.ET Bureau | 05 May 2015, 8:10 AM IST
inShare1
NEW DELHI: There was a

time, about two decades ago, when Rajan Bharti Mittal used to get his trousers from
Kishore Biyani's Pantaloons store in south Mumbai. Since then, Bharti Airtel has
become India's biggest telecom company while Biyani has built one of India's
largest retail empires.
On Monday, Mittal and Biyani announced the sewing up of a deal. Biyani's Future
Group will acquire Bharti Retail in an all-stock deal, valuing the latter at Rs 500 crore
in equity after adjusting for accumulated losses of Rs 1,800 crore of the virtually
debt-free Delhi-based retailer.
The Mittals will get an immediate stake of 9% each in the BSE-listed Future Retail as
well as in the yet-to be-created entity of Biyani and a board seat in Future Retail.
Bharti Enterprises will also receive Rs 250 crore worth of milestone-linked
convertible debentures that can be converted into equity in future, eventually
taking Mittal's stake in both the entities to about 15%. The transaction, the largest
consolidation in India's retail segment, will create an entity that may outpace
Reliance Retail as the country's largest brickand-mortar retail company.
ET had reported on April 16 that Bharti and Future were in advanced talks for a
possible deal.
The transaction could pave the way for other deals between the two groups such as
Biyani leveraging Bharti's telecommunication network and Airtel getting a retail
footprint in Future Group besides possible synergies in payment gateways and
mobile wallets, analysts said. Both companies can take advantage of their existing
businesses to possibly rival the linkages that Reliance Industries Ltd could build
between retail and the telecom network that the country's largest company is
setting up under Reliance Jio, they said.
Biyani creating two separate

units
Parallel to the deal, Biyani is also restructuring his flagship retail business by
creating two separate entities. Future Retail will have the front-end stores such as
Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Home Town, eZone and other retail chains that will be
clubbed together with Bharti Retail's Easyday chain. The other unit - to be named
Future Enterprises Ltd -- will house Future's back-end assets and investments as
well as back-end infrastructure of Bharti Retail.
While Future Retail is already listed, Future Enterprises will be listed at some time in
the future.
As part of the restructuring, Biyani will also shift Rs 3,500 crore of Future Retail's Rs
4,700-crore debt to Future Enterprises, leaving the flagship retailing arm with a
more comfortable Rs 1,200-crore debt on its books.
With the latest deal, Future Retail will enhance its footprint with more than 200
Easyday stores in 144 cities. Biyani's company currently doesn't have a presence in
77 of those cities. In November, Future Group acquired Chennai-based supermarket
chain Nilgiris in all-cash transaction for about Rs 300 crore, giving Biyani a muchneeded presence in the southern states. The Bharti deal will help Biyani open up in
new areas including Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
"Consolidation is the way forward and everybody has to build scale so we are joining
hands to build scale," Biyani said in an interview. "This is the merger of minds
(rather) than body and soul." He denied that the merger was in reaction to the rapid
growth of online retail.
D-Street cheers move
Investors cheered the development. Future Retail rose 12.06% to Rs 129.65, while
Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd advanced 6.08% to Rs 81.95 on the BSE. The Sensex
ended 1.77% up at 27,490.59 points.
Biyani said a chance meeting with Mittal in The Chambers at the Taj some weeks
ago led to the merger discussion, which culminated in a deal. Manoj Kohli,
managing director of Bharti Enterprises and a company veteran, will oversee the
integration for the Mittals. PwC was the transaction advisor and Edelweiss Financial
Services was the independent valuer.
"We have great comfort level, which is important for any deal. I have taken a
commitment from him that he will not exit the business," Biyani said. "For me, he
(Rajan Mittal) is FDI (foreign direct investment)." Biyani was referring to India's
inability to attract much interest from overseas retail companies even after the
rules were relaxed for multi-brand retail.
"Obviously there is no foreign investment coming into groceries, therefore this

allows people to kind of make investments," said Abhishek Malhotra, a partner with
management consulting firm AT Kearney.
Mittal said the merger will help his company be part of a "large picture" retail play.
"Our intention is to merge into a larger entity to grow at a certain pace," he said.
Biyani said the acquisition will further boost his grand omni channel plans as Future
tries to leverage its pan-India network of physical stores to deliver goods to
consumers' doorsteps.
While Biyani said sales per square foot at Bharti-run Easyday stores is high, a retail
sector veteran who has worked at Future Group in a top position said margins are
narrower for grocery heavy shelves.
"You need a margin of above 20% to be viable and Bharti's small stores are doing
only about 13%. But things could change for the larger stores as Biyani will bring
higher margin products, including apparel and fashion products," he said.
With annual sales of Rs 14,000 crore, Future Group is the country's second-largest
retailer after Reliance and operates 17 million square feet of retail space. Reliance
Retail overtook Future Group in terms of revenue last year.
Future Retail, which houses Big Bazaar, posted a total income of Rs 7,569 crore with
a net profit of Rs 64 crore for the nine months ended December. This includes
revenue from consumer durables and home retailing.
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Amul owner tastes Rs 20k-cr mark in annual

turnover
FY15 sales ahead of combined food business revenue of Nestle, HUL and ITC
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Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), owner of Amul, has hit a top
line of over Rs 20,000 crore for the first time in the financial year ended March 2015 equivalent to the combined revenue of the food businesses of its three closest rivals
Nestle, Hindustan Unilever and ITC (based on their figures for FY14).
The Anand-headquartered major reported a top line of Rs 20,735 crore for the year
ended March 2015. The co-operative does not disclose bottom line figures.
Nestle's CY14 top line, according to its latest annual report, was Rs 9,806 crore. HUL's
revenue from beverages and packaged foods was Rs 5,043 crore (or 18 per cent of its
FY14 top line of Rs 28,019 crore, according to its last annual report), while analysts peg
ITC's foods business at around Rs 5,700 crore of its Rs 8,100-crore FY14 turnover for the
non-cigarette FMCG business (called FMCG others by the company). If combined, the
total top line works out to Rs 20,549 crore. The three companies have not announced
their FY15 numbers.
Speaking to Business Standard, R S Sodhi, GCMMF's MD, said, "Yes, we are ahead of
these companies. But our top line growth for FY15 was 14.28 per cent over the previous
year's. While this rate of growth was lower than what we had achieved in FY14, the
domestic consumer business grew at the rate of 21 per cent during the period under
review."
GCMMF, for the record, derives the bulk of its revenue from the domestic market. In
FY14, GCMMF's top line grew at the rate 32.1 per cent, ahead of its five-year compound
annual growth rate of 23 per cent. This was on account of soaring milk prices, which the
co-operative could pass on to consumers, resulting in better value growth, FMCG
analysts said. In FY15, however, milk prices crashed by as much as 20-25 per cent, as
private dairies cut purchases resulting in excess supply to co-operatives such as
GCMMF. The latter was therefore unable to raise prices, they said.
This up and down movement of milk prices has prompted GCMMF in the last few years
to shift its attention to value-added products, which, according to industry sources, give
the co-operative about 35-40 per cent of its top line today. The balance comes from
liquid milk. Five years ago, liquid milk was 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the company's
top line, say experts tracking the sector.
However, categories such as as UHT milk (or milk in tetra packs), dahi, butter, milkbased beverages and ice-creams have seen higher growth, Sodhi says, in the region of
about 25-35 per cent per annum. In contrast, liquid milk has been stagnant, growing in
low single digits, experts say.
Youth products, in specific, is something that the dairy major, Sodhi explains, has been
focusing attention on aggressively this year. "Products such as Amul Cool, Epric icecream, a malted beverage called Amul Pro and an energy drink called Stamina are some
of the products that we are counting on," he said.
Of the above four, Epic ice-cream, Amul Pro and Stamina were launched in the last two
months. While Epic ice-cream has been launched in metros such as Delhi and Mumbai,
GCMMF is expected to take it to more cities and is expected to begin promoting Amul
Pro and Stamina in the next few months. The co-operative will also launch Amul Cool in
PET bottles shortly.
Urban consumers
avoid cutting
lifestyle spending:
IMRB study
Average monthly expenditure of
households up by 14% in 2014 on
higher costs of goods, increased
spending on segments like education,
says study
Suneera Tandon
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The share of household expenditure on food and groceries fell to 36% in 2014 from 40% in the previous year, leaving
consumers with more money to spend on non-food essentials. Photo: Mint
The share of households monthly spending on personal care products and household items held
steady in 2014, and the share of education went up by 6 percentage points, showing that urban
consumers remain in pursuit of an aspirational lifestyle, according to a study by market researcher
IMRB International.
Average monthly spending went up by 14% in 2014, on higher costs of goods and increased
expenditure on categories such as education, according to the Wallet Monitor study, which covered
36,000 households in 190 cities. In line with the trend that emerged in 2013, the share of household
expenditure on food and groceries fell to 36% in 2014 from 40% in the previous year, leaving
consumers with more money to spend on non-food essentials.
The study suggested that urban consumers refrained from cutting back on lifestyle spending in 2014,
with the share of expenditure on entertainment and eating out holding steady, although the
frequency of such consumption dipped. Priorities remained clear, said Deepa Mathew, group
business director at IMRB International. They dont want to compromise on an aspirational lifestyle.
On average, the total household expenditure of consumers targeted by the IMRB study increased by
29% between 2010 and 2013. Incomes rose by 46% in 2010-2014, the study said.
Despite rising costs, consumers were not willing to sacrifice spending on goods that they have
become accustomed to, said Mathew. The share of spending on household products dipped only
slightly from 6% to 5%. Growth in personal-care spending held steady at 5%.
Bhavna Chaturvedi, 35, a Delhi-based homemaker, found newer ways to stretch her budget. Weve
started consuming cheaper variants of packaged rice for the house and even curbed spends on
certain toiletries, said Chaturvedi, who saw the cost of her childs education rise by 10%.
Her family now either watches a movie together or eats out. We avoid clubbing the two. Its a
conscious decision, the taxes are only spiralling, she said.
Spending on non-food items has been rising steadily year-on-year, emulating consumption patterns
in more developed markets. Its a natural progression, said an executive at a top retailer, who was
not authorized to speak to the media. Once your basic needs are fulfilled, you will look at spending
more on other items. The executive predicted that over the next five years, spending on leisure,
services and healthcare will grow faster than expenditure on food and groceries.
The proportion of consumers eating out at restaurants at least once in an month fell from 22% in
2013 to 18% in 2014. Even the percentage of consumers visiting fast food restaurants declined from
34% in 2013 to 30% in 2014.
Education seemed to garner the highest share of the wallet. Overall spending on education
increased by 61%.
Average inflation in 2014 cooled to 6.37%, down from 10.92% in the year-ago period.
The report comes at a time when news of a weak monsoon has rattled consumer firms, which are
concerned about a slump in rural consumption.
According to a 6 April report by Mumbai-based brokerage Edelweiss Securities, growth in coming
quarters will be more volume-led as firms pass on some benefits of benign raw-material prices to
consumers.
The research for Wallet Monitor was conducted at the end of 2014 across 18 states. Housewives
aged 25-55, across socio-economic categories, were interviewed for the study.
McDonald's set to give

Indian customers a choice
to choose burger buns
The burgers with the healthier Focaccia buns, which
McDonald's introduced over the weekend, will cost an
additional Rs 15 over the regular ones.Sagar Malviya&Richa
Maheshwari | 05 May 2015, 8:01 AM IST
inShare
MUMBAI|BENGALURU: McDonald's is giving its customers in India an option to choose their

own burger buns, in a global first for the world's largest restaurant chain, as it looks to expand
its customer base with healthier options and revive stagnating sales.
Customers across western and southern India can now choose from two buns, whatever burger
they order. The burgers with the healthier Focaccia buns, which McDonald's introduced over the
weekend, will cost an additional Rs 15 over the regular ones.
"These premium buns provide tremendous taste and flavour for the consumers. With olive oil as
one of the ingredient, it is also healthier and has less sugar than existing buns," said Amit Jatia,
vice-chairman at Westlife Development Ltd, operator of over 200 McDonald's and 30 McCafe
outlets across western and southern India.
Some experts and analysts feel the move will help McDonald's woo health-conscious young
customers who currently prefer restaurants that serve healthier food such as Subway, at a time
when leading chains have been reporting negative or singledigit growth for at least six quarters.
"For a consumer, a burger is considered junk food and McDonald's needs to innovate its health
quotient," said Abneesh Roy, associate director at Edelweiss Securities. "Also, a premium
offering will improve margins at a time when sales are under pressure," he said. For the past
four years, McDonald's in India has been building its menu towards the healthier side. It has
rolled out an all-grilled product breakfast option, added egg burgers and introduced ice-creams
with less than 3% fat. It also cut almost 50-60 calories on an average from all burgers, about
40% fat content in sauces and roughly 20% sodium in fries.
The chain's latest offering takes a cue from its new global programme of 'Create your own taste'
or 'Build your Burger' where consumers can choose sauces, fillings and a bun-less burger
option. While McDonalds offers varieties of buns globally, each one is restricted for a specific
burger.
McDonalds India has nearly 370 restaurants and plans to open another 175-250 in the next 3-5
years, by investing about Rs 750 crore.
While there is a common supply chain and product development team for McDonald's outlets
across the country, the two burger option will be restricted to west and southern India for the
time being.
The eating-out market in the country is estimated to be $94 billion, or about Rs 5,85,000 crore,
but only 2% of it is organised with national and international food retail brands. With major
chains such as McDonald's, Yum's KFC and Pizza Hut and Jubilant FoodWorks, which operates
Domino's Pizza and Dunkin' Donuts, all struggling to grow amid an economic slowdown, the
industry is under pressure to increase volumes and profitability.
How Ipay is converting

local kirana shops into etail shopping stores
Ipay, via its brand Dukan Line, taps consumers who are
unaware of e-retail or uncomfortable buying online due to lack
of trust, or for want of assistance.Vinay Dwivedi | 04 May 2015, 12:05 PM
IST
inShare
Does shopping online while visiting the neighbourhood mom-and-pop store make sense? For
the smartphone-hooked urban population, the idea may seem bizarre. However, for Krishna
Lakamsani, it was a breakthrough idea, one that made perfect business sense. Lakamsani, 37,
founded Ipay, a one-of-its kind, assisted e-commerce platform in 2013, to tap the millions not
part of the traditional e-commerce companies' customer list. Lakamsani, who founded his first ecommerce company at the age of 21 in the US, is a serial entrepreneur. He has founded and
exited three businesses. Ipay is his newest project, and also his first in India.
"Ipay, via its brand Dukan Line, taps consumers who are unaware of e-retail or uncomfortable
buying online due to lack of trust, or for want of assistance," says Lakamsani. Basically, the
customers of the kirana store, using Dukan Line business boxes, identify the item they want to
purchase, and pay cash to the store owner. Ipay places the order on their behalf to the
distributor/manufacturer, who delivers it to the customer.
Thus, the customer is able to avail of the benefitsdiscounts, free delivery, etcof online shopping.
Manufacturers, stockists and distributors, who did not have access to this section of consumers,
by listing their wares on Dukan Line, are able to expand their consumer base. And, the
shopkeepers who instal the business boxes, assist in shopping and serve as Ipay cash points,
benefit from the commission they get from Ipay. "It's a win-win-win," says Lakamsani. Given that
in less than two years, the company has grown its gross transaction value (total value of
merchandise sold) to more than Rs 45 crore, it is actually a win-win-win-win. The firm's 2014-15
revenue stands at Rs 3.3 crore. Ipay is present in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it has
a network of 3,305 kirana shops. "Our brand Dukan Line now contributes an average of 22% to
these kirana stores' monthly earnings," says Lakamsani.
This is because besides selling goods from his own shop, the store owner now sells goods from
19 virtual shopsDukan Line offers goods across 19 categories, ranging from home appliances to
footwear.
Ipay has a tie-up with 60 sellers who offer more than 7,000 products via Dukan Line. The firm
has spent a lot of time understanding the need of local mom-and-pop stores, the sellers and the
consumers, and their purchase behaviour. "All of this went into writing and rewriting our
software," says Krishna. The research has been key to the company's growth. Its GTV grew
21% quarter-on-quarter in 2014-15. "Currently, we are acquiring a new customer every five
seconds," says Lakamsani.
The strategy of using the neighbourhood corner shop to bring in customers has worked. Of the
2 lakh-odd customers that visit the stores with Dukan Line business boxes every day, 26,250
make online purchases a conversion rate of 10.5%. Ipay's performance and potential has won it
a place among the top 10 emerging businesses in India, rated by industry body Nasscom.
Buoyed by the response, Lakamsani expects to expand the company's presence to Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, Maharashtra and Gujarat over the next two years. "We have laid a
strong foundation and now is the time to build on it," he says.
McDonald's to detail latest

turnaround plans
The plans are to be detailed just two months after CEO Steve
Easterbrook stepped in to take charge of the world's biggest
hamburger chain.AP | 04 May 2015, 7:23 PM IST
inShare
NEW YORK : McDonald's is sto

unveil its latest plans to revive its sputtering business on Monday.
The plans are to be detailed just two months after CEO Steve Easterbrook stepped
in to take charge of the world's biggest hamburger chain.
McDonald's is fighting intensifying competition from a variety of players and has
admitted that it failed to keep up with changing tastes. Sales in Asia took a big hit
after a controversy over a major supplier this past summer, and business in Europe
has been weak.
In its flagship U.S. market, executives said the menu got too complicated and
gummed up operations. Customer visits at established locations declined for two
straight years.
Already, McDonald's has tried a number of moves to inject some life back into its
brand.
Back in December, it said it would start trimming its menu to simplify operations
and make room for new offerings. More recently, it began testing an all-day
breakfast menu in San Diego, revamped its grilled chicken recipe and said it would
curb the use of antibiotics.
The company also said last month that it would double its planned restaurant
closures this year to roughly 700. It hasn't yet revealed its updated plans on overall
restaurant count growth. At the end of last year, McDonald's Corp. had more than
36,200 locations around the world.
Easterbrook, who previously headed up the U.K. business, says he wants to turn
McDonald's into a modern, progressive burger company'' and has described himself
as an internal activist.''
NewsletterA A
Pepperfry to double
headcount by 2016,
targets to add 2,500
staffers
The online furniture and home products company, which has
raised a total of $29 million so far, is also in the process of
raising another Rs 500 crore.Prachi Verma | 05 May 2015, 8:29 AM IST
inShare
NEW DELHI: E-commerce

company Pepperfry is looking at more than doubling its headcount by 2016. It is targeting to add
around 2,500 people (including delivery operations) to its existing headcount of 1,100. Flush
with funds, Pepperfry is also increasing its delivery vehicles from 150 to 450 in the same time
period.
The online furniture and home products company, which has raised a total of $29 million so far,
is also in the process of raising another Rs 500 crore. "We are in a massive ramp-up mode.
Also, we are raising $60-80 million and are not in a hurry to close this till we find the right
investors. We still have plenty left from our last rounds to fund our operations," Pepperfry's
founder and COO Ashish Shah said. He added the company will break even by mid-2016.
Work is on to launch 'Studio Pepperfry' all across key cities. It is shortly opening one each in
Delhi and Gurgaon and two in Bangalore in the next two months. For this year, it is aiming to
launch 20 such studios. The company is also hiring designers from premier institutes for these
stores to get direct feedback from customers while designing furniture and other products.
Currently, its core team has about 500 employees, besides 650 in the delivery team.
Most members of the senior management team at Bertelsmann India Investments and Silicon
Valley-based Norwest Venture Partners-funded Pepperfry are from premier institutes like the
IITs and IIMs.
Pepperfry has about 25% of its workforce in the top performer category. Apart from the annual
appraisal, the company also goes in for mid-year appraisals. "We call this an exceptional midyear cycle where we give bonuses to only a few deserving employees based on the last sixtoeight-months' performance," Shah added.
JOIN TO BOOKMARK
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5 ELEMENTS OF A
GREAT CHROMA KEY
In the greenscreen history lesson I talked about the processes filmmakers have used to
make traveling mattes in this lesson Ill dive into the necessary elements you need to
pull off a great chromakey.
SPACE
The first element in pulling off a key is the type of space you have to work with. Your
space will determine what kind of chromakey shot is possible. When shooting against a
greenscreen or a blue screen, youll want to pull you subject away from the background
far enough so that shadows dont fall on the screen and youll want to minimize the
reflection of the screen on your subject.
GET SUBJECT AWAY FROM SCREEN TO MINIMIZE SHADOWS AND SCREEN

SPILL ON SUBJECT.
With smaller spaces you should be able to pull off a reasonable talking head shot
thats where the shot is just the head and shoulders of the subject speaking. For a full
body shot, youre not only going to need a larger space for a screen, but some distance
to place the camera so that your subject looks natural and isnt distorted by a wide
angle lens.
BLACKMAGIC CINEMA CAMERA SHOOTING 24MM LENS ABOUT 10 FEET FROM

ACTOR ED COSICO
Shooting outdoors is also a possibility especially for certain shots, just keep in mind
youll have to deal with all the issues that come shooting outdoors including wind, noise,
and shadows.
OUTDOOR GREENSCREEN SHOT
THE SCREEN
The first question youre going to ask is green or blue? Blue screen was a traditional
color in the film days and is still used today for many productions, but green is the
preferred color for digital keying. Why? Because many digital cameras use a Bayer
pattern of Red Green Blue photosites where there are twice as many green photosites
as there are red and blue. This makes digital cameras much more sensitive to green
coloring. Green screen also requires a lot less light than blue screen and is less likely to
match the clothing of your actors.
Still you may want to use blue screen in certain cases say youre shooting a green
monster. In fact on the Sam Raimis Spiderman, The Green Goblin had to be
photographed on a bluescreen because the suit would have been lost on a
greenscreen. Spiderman on the other hand had to be shot on a Greenscreen, because
his suit was red and blue..
When it comes to the material of your screen you have several options. The first is to
paint your background using a chroma key paint. This is the most permanent although
labor intensive way to create a chromakey background though certainly necessary if
you are planning on installing a cyclorama.
SAMPLE SHOT OF AGREEN CYCLORMA ALSO CALLED AN INFINITY CYC

The other option is to hang your screen Youll need background stands and clamps to
hang your screen on. The screen itself can be made out of paper, or muslin background
clothe, but I prefer foam backed cloth because it scatters the light more evenly so you
can avoid hotspots and the foam keeps the screen from wrinkling when not in use.
For small setups, foldable chorma key screens are available. These kits are really
handy for quick portable setups or outdoor use and built in frame keeps the screen from
getting too wrinkled.
LIGHTING
When lighting for chroma key you have to think of lighting first for the screen itself and
then for the subject. In tight situations you can combine the lighting but you could end
up with shadows on your screen and that will make for a much more difficult task of
pulling a good key.
Start by focusing on getting a clean and even light on your screen without your subject.
Here Im using 2 ikan IDMX1500 dual color fixtures part of the ikan 5 piece dual color
chroma key kit. These are hung in front of the screen using a truss system. These are
awesome LED lights that put out a lot of soft even light which is an absolute must
properly lighting a greenscreen.
Now if youre an avid DIYer you may try to use long fluorescent tubes to light the screen.
Another DIY option, is the Hollywood strip lighting fixture this one I found on a street
curb being thrown out and it made a nice shadowless screen light.
To check to see the quality of our lighting on the greenscreen, Im using the ikan MD7s
built-in waveform monitor.
WAVEFORM SHOWS A RELATIVELY TIGHT BAND AN OVERALL EVEN LIGHTING

ON THE SCREEN.
Notice the tight band.. This means that are screen is evenly lit and theres not much
variation on the screen itself. You want to get this band as tight as possible, not slanted
or have spikes which are hotspots..
If you cant get your hands on a waveform monitor, you can use your cameras zebras
settings. Zebras tell you what part of your image is overexposed, if you lit your screen
properly you should see the entire screen turning into zebra stripes at once as you open
your iris to over expose the screen.
Once we have a well lit screen its time to put our subject in place and work on the
subjects lighting. Keep in mind the final composition and try to light your subject that will
match the scene youre attempting to composite.
Here Im using the ikan IB1000 LED lights part of their chroma key kit. These lights
can be set to 3200k which will match great with the tungsten lights I already own. Just
take care when lighting your subject to avoid casting shadows on your screen.
THE CAMERA
When I first started experimenting with greenscreen, I was working with DV in standard
definition. You had to be exact in order to get an acceptable key, and even then there
were some funky artifacts. But Im happy to say that with HD, getting a reasonably
acceptable key is much easier because the pixels are so much smaller. But the type of
compression can be a detriment to quality greenscreen.
Most consumer cameras use a 4:2:0 compression for handling color I talk more what
color compression is in the lesson on Non-Linear editing if you want a refresher. 4:2:0
throws away a lot of color data data that can be very useful for achieving a quality key.
In this demonstration, Im using the Blackmagic Cinema Camera decked out with ikans
Tilta Rig. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is capable of recording in 4:2:2 compression
using ProRes or DNxHD formats or even recording 4:4:4 uncompressed 12 bit raw.
My tests have shown that the compressed 4:2:2 is pretty good for pulling a good
chroma key but the RAW is simply unbeatable in terms of ease and quality. If you want
the best chroma key, by all means shoot RAW just know that it is expensive in terms
of the amount of memory it eats up. Im not saying you cant pull a decent key using
anything less than 4:2:2 color compression or RAW as in the Blackmagic Cinema
Camera, but a camera like this with its compression or lack thereof sure makes a the
key a heck of a lot easier.
POST PRODUCTION
Most of the basic keyers you find inside NLEs behave like hardware chroma keyers in
that youll most likely be let down by the results. But there are a lot of professional
keying software solutions available out there that can help you pull pretty good keys
even out of so-so footage. My favorite. happens to be one that comes bundled inside of
Adobe After Effects called Keylight made by The Foundry. This plugin is incredibly
robust with all kinds of features like matte choking, spill removal, de-spotting- and even
masks that you can apply to fix little chroma key mistakes here and there. Plus After
Effects is just a good platform to be working doing your compositing in the first place.
Keylight is also available for purchase for other editing platforms.
Now if you cant pull a perfect key off the entire frame dont worry as there is a
technique called garbage matting. Using After Effects, you can create a rough mask
around your subject and throw away all the other junk in your frame thats unimportant.
This is a great way to work in smaller spaces just make sure you subject does cross
into the garbage matte
Once you have a good clean key, its a matter of compositing the subject into your
background plate adjusting the color to match, and compositing foreground elements to
really sell the effect.
By considering your working space, using a quality screen, lighting it evenly, using a
camera with as little compression as you can get, and finally using a good software
keyer, you should be able to pull off a great key. Good chroma keying is a skill, and it
will take a little practice, but the reward for your patience and experimentation can be
quite liberating. Another tool for you use in your quest to make something great.
Shooting for Chromakeying

SUBSCRIBE
COW Library : Lighting Design Pros Tutorials : Barend Onneweer : Shooting for Chromakeying
inShare2
by Barend Onneweer, Gouda/Rotterdam, The Netherlands

2001 by Barend Onneweer. All rights are reserved. Used at CreativeCow.net by kind permission of the author.
ARTICLE FOCUS:
In addition to his tutorial on how to pull a usable matte from badly lit blue or green screens,
Barend Onneweer has put together a list of things to consider when shooting for
chromakeying.
INTRODUCTION
As many posts on various forums have shown here on the COW, the difficulty and complexity of decent
chromakeying is often underestimated. Until the footage is taken into post-production that is Badly shot
screens often result in huge disappointments (and post-house bills) and rotoscope-jobs.
I have also written a tutorial for the COW on 'procedural matte creation', a technique that allows for
extensive control over the matte, using multiple layers of the footage to create a combined matte.
However, there are some things to consider when shooting for chromakeying, that will make postproduction a lot less depressing, and in combination with my other tutorial, will allow you to produce highquality results. The tips below have been collected over the years, from all kinds of sources. I've compiled
and rewritten them for this article. Most of these are common knowledge for the seasoned professionals,
but I thought it would be a valuable resource for the less experienced.
DV OR NOT DV - THAT IS THE QUESTION

First of all, DV is far from ideal for chromakeying. The DCT compression produces JPEG-like artefacts,
and sometimes even motion blocking. Not good. The artefacts may seem almost invisible at first glance,
but during the process of chromakeying the compression results in jagged fluttering edges around the
foreground objects.
If at all possible, shoot on Betacam or Digibeta, if only for the shots that involve chromakeying. Make sure
to capture the footage uncompressed, or with as little compression as possible, when using Betacam or
Digibeta, otherwise you're not really better off than shooting DV. If you have to shoot with DV, but have
the possibility to capture uncompressed from a good DV-player, it's recommended to capture from the
analog (preferably component) output of the DV-deck. This may seem strange, but a good DV-deck
features highly advanced filtering algorithms that will reduce the damage done by the in-camera
compression.
I left High Definition Video and 35mm film out on purpose. Of course the higher resolution and better color
depth of these formats will allow for extremely high quality compositing, but when working with these
kinds of budgets, I suggest you hire an experienced Visual Effects supervisor
It is possible however to create high quality mattes from DV footage, so if your budget won't allow for
anything else, don't be afraid and read on.
SETTING UP THE CAMERA

Video cameras often feature image enhancing circuits that artificially increase image detail. This results in
overly sharp edges between the foreground and the background (screen), which is often accentuated by
the compression. This feature is often called 'contour' or 'aperture control' or just 'sharpness' or 'detail'. If
possible on your camera, turn this feature down or even off.
Besides this, you can use depth of field to create a focussed image of the foreground, but leave the
screen as blurry as possible. This will effectively hide the inevitable imperfections in the screen, making
keying much simpler.
THE COLOR OF MONEY UHM

Traditionally blue has been favored as the color for the screen. Blue is the complimentary color to
(caucasian) skin tone, so is easiest to separate from actors. Film also used to be most sensitive to blue
light, although this is less true today.
Basically with current video effects software any color can be keyed out. Blue, red or green, all channels
can been used. Most important to the choice of the screen color is what you want to shoot in the
foreground. Make sure your background screen is a color that is opposite to the colors in the foreground.
And avoid the screen color in any foreground objects. It sounds simple, but if the wardrobe is not carefully
selected, socks, shirts or even eyes can disappear in the key, as will anything that reflects the background
color (especially whites and metallics).
GREEN GRASS TASTES THE BEST

That said, green screen is better for video. Green is represented in the luminance channel of the YUV
signal. In 4:1:1 or 4:2:0 compression ratio's, green is sampled 4 times because most images have a large
component of green. This means more information is used in the green channel then in blue or red, which
makes it more suitable for extracting a high-quality matte.
The television and movie industry use special blue and green paint, if you use some other paint, use a
vivid hue, that comes in the direction of pure green, blue or red. Check for instance your Photoshop color
palette and look up pure green as (0,255,0). Make sure your screen material is not glossy or too
reflective, this will cause the green light to contaminate the edges of the foreground to the point where
you cannot extract a decent matte.
USE A BIG BARN AND GIVE YOUR COWS SOME SPACE

It's best to keep your talent or foreground objects as far away from the screen as possible. You may need
a pretty big screen for this, although it's not always necessary to fill the entire frame with screen: you only
have to place the screen behind your foreground, no more than necessary. Reducing the size of the
screen will reduce the amount of reflection of the screen color on the foreground (spill). And it will prevent
your subjects from casting shadows on the screen.
Just make sure none of the talent move out of the screen, or its rotoscoping time
LIGHTING THE SCREEN

It's important to light the screen evenly. If you are using textile, make sure to get the wrinkles out of the
background. If possible, give the screen surface a slight curve on the vertical axis. This will help soften
the light and lessen visible highlights on the screen.
If at hand, use a video waveform monitor to measure the brightness and color of the screen to make sure
the screen is lit consistent from corner to corner.
A professional lighting kit is best of course, but it's quite possible to use 500W worklights from the
hardware store to light your screen. In that case you're best off bouncing the light onto the screen (using
foamcore boards or styrofoam) , to achieve a more even and diffuse screen than when lighting the screen
directly.
Don't over light the screen, though. You want an even, saturated color, but an over lit screen often results
in serious spill of the background color into the foreground.
LIGHTING THE FOREGROUND

When lighting the talent or foreground, make sure the light doesn't hit the screen. This is achieved partly
by keeping distance between the talent and the screen. You can also use 'flags' and, which can be a
piece of cardboard on a stand, or the barn doors on the lights to keep the light away from the screen. If
you add color your lighting, make sure to stay away from the keying color. So if you're shooting against a
green screen, do never use a green gel on the foreground lighting!
It's common practice to use a color filter on the 'kicker' or backlight when shooting for keying. When
shooting against green screen, use a magenta gel on the backlight. For blue, use an orange or amber gel.
This effectively separates the foreground from the screen, and reduces spill: the reflection of background
color you get around the edges of your subjects. This will make keying a lot easier and prevent the hair
and fingers from disappearing in the key. Don't overdo it, though. If your backlight is too heavy, you'll end
up with a white halo around your subject. Depending on the background you're going to place the actor in,
this might look very odd. I always try to create my background so that there is a source for the backlight in
them. Which brings us to the next issue
MATCHING FOREGROUND AND THE BACKGROUND LIGHTING

No matter how successful your keying efforts are, if the foreground doesn't look as if it belongs to your
digitally inserted background, the effect is going to look pretty bad. If the lighting setup of the foreground
does not match the inserted background at all, even the cleanest composite will look fake. If possible, use
a reference image of the background footage when setting the lights for the foreground. If your
background footage is an exterior, consider to shoot the foreground in sunlight also, this will make the
overall look much more consistent and convincing.
If the background is going to be a 3D animation, make sure to pass on a diagram of the lighting setup and
camera setup to the animator.
Well, those were the tips and tricks that I wish I had known a lot earlierhappy keying! And remember,
the grass is always greener
Barend
Barend Onneweer is a leader in the Adobe After Effects Creative COW . Drop by and discuss this or other
effects. Like to see who Barend is? Click here.
If you'd like to see Barend's Procedural Matte Creatiion tutorial which was mentioned above, click here. In
that article, Barend Onneweer explains Procedural matte creation by combining multiple keying types into
a single matte for extensive control over the final matte. This is essential for pulling those difficult mattes
from badly lit greenscreens.
If you have a question regarding lighting, drop by the Pro Lighting Cow where we have two award winning
lighting directors leading the forum.
This tutorial is for the use of Creative COW members and visitors and may not be reproduced without
permission by the author and CreativeCOW.net

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