BUSINESS TODAY: January to June 2001
June 21,
2001 The New
ITC: It's Smoking!
From apparel-retailing to web-enabled rural marketing; from canned ready-to-eat
dal to sugar-boiled confectionery; and from greeting cards to high-end
IT services, the tobacco major is unleashing a welter of new businesses.
Unlike its first wave of disastrous diversifications, though, these leverage
unique competencies in ITC’s existing businesses. BT goes behind
the scenes for an exclusive report of the company’s hush-hush revolution.
June 06,
2001 The Great
Jobs Drought
It isn’t on, but will soon be. Over the next few years, the 150 million
people the country added to its population in the 10 years between ’75
and ’85, enter the workforce after gaining some sort of education.
But there may be few jobs going. The agriculture sector is in a mess.
Small industries are either dead or dying. And companies are loath to
add to their workforce given the country’s archaic labour laws. Even
if the economy marches on at its steady 6+ per cent rate of growth, the
ranks of the unemployed will increase by at least 70 million in the coming
decade. Seventy Million…. Welcome to the decade of jobless growth.
May 21,
2001 The Golden
Cusp
As a worldwide race to sift through genes, proteins, and create cellular
libraries cranks up, a clutch of start-ups heads for a new frontier of
opportunity on the cusp of biology and infotech, called bioinformatics.
Nobody knows when most of these companies will hit pay dirt. But that
isn’t stopping 30-something scientists or IT entreprenuers from taking
the leap. Who are they, what do they do, and why do they think bioinformatics
is the next big thing? All revealed for the first time..
May 06,
2001 Can You
Trust The UTI?
More than four crore investors swear by it. But is the Unit Trust
of India, which is the oldest asset management company in India and also
the biggest operator in the stockmarkets, abusing their trust? Just how
deep is the rot in UTI? BT investigates.
April
21, 2001 The Empire
Strikes Back
They’re late, but they’re here. Now Reliance’s Anil and Mukesh Ambani
plan to launch a full service offensive that could make them the only
real threat to India’s public sector telecom monopolies..
April
06, 2001 Cancer!
There's malignancy in the markets: Unscrupulous operators, an exchange
rife with insider trading, bulls out to make a quick buck, bears out to
smother the bulls, and a regulator that often ends up looking helpless.
March
21, 2001 Budget
2001-02 Is Sentiment = Growth?
Consumers are happy; the markets are buoyant; and business
confidence is up. But can a surfeit of positive sentiment translate into
growth?
March
06, 2001 India's
Biggest Wealth Creators
The Second BT-Stern Stewart survey on the country's biggest wealth creators
has a sting in its tail: the usual tech and FMCG suspects populate the
honours club in terms of market denominated wealth; but less than 15 per
cent of India's finest added any real wealth in Year 2000.
February
21, 2001 What
The Quake Means For Gujarat Inc.
7.9 on the Richter = Rs 30,000 crore. The Bhuj Equation, as this will
come to be called in the future, may well be the best measure of the grim
business implications of the earthquake that rocked one of India’s richest,
most industrialised, and most investment-friendly states.
February
06, 2001 What
Should He Say?
On February 28, when Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presents his budget,
here’s what must do to talk up the economy: Step up public spending. Bring
more services into the tax net. Rationalise excise and customs duties.
Privatise a few PSUs. Wind up some government deptts. Will he?.
January
21, 2001 The Best
Employers: The Top 5
What makes them the dream employers? BT goes inside India's best companies
to work for the investigate their people systems, how we did it.
January
06, 2001 HDFC's
New Growth Architecture
Deepak Parekh always wanted to make HDFC a financial services supermarket.
Now with a federal kind of structure and diversifications into mutual
funds, brokerage services, insurance, call centres, and credit intelligence,
he's finally doing so.