Ford cuts 3,000 jobs as it shifts to a software future

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August 23, 2022

As it restructures to keep up with Tesla Inc. in the race to develop software-driven electric vehicles, Ford Motor Co. announced it would cut 3,000 salaried and contract jobs, mostly in North America and India.

Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, has been indicating for months that he believed the Dearborn, Michigan-based carmaker had too many employees and that not enough of them have the skills required to succeed as the auto industry shifts to electric vehicles and digital services.

“We are eliminating work, as well as reorganizing and simplifying functions throughout the business. You will hear more specifics from the leaders of your area of the business later this week,” Farley and Ford Chairman Bill Ford wrote in a joint email.

Indian banks find a way to raise cheap funding

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August 22, 2022

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As funding in the banking system continues to decline, Indian banks have expanded their fundraising activity through the issuance of certificates of deposits, according to analysts.

“Banks are not raising deposit rates, as they are able to get funds easily from money market by issuing CDs, and that too cheaply, and they may continue to opt for this route of fundraising for next few weeks,” said Raju Sharma, head of fixed income at IDBI Mutual Fund.

Indian private and state-run banks have raised around 300 billion rupees ($3.76 billion) through two-month to one-year CDs in the two weeks to Aug. 19, sharply higher than the roughly 50 billion rupees in the previous two weeks, data compiled by Reuters showed.

Larger lenders have also jumped on board and are aggressively borrowing money through three-month and one-year notes, including Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda. These lenders are willing to lock up money for a year at a rate of 6.60% to 6.74% in anticipation of impending policy tightening.

The Reserve Bank of India’s repo rate stands at 5.40%.

Having averaged around 1.40 trillion rupees in August, India’s banking system’s liquidity surplus has now fallen below one trillion rupees, down from 1.90 trillion rupees in July and 2.92 trillion rupees in June.

“With liquidity getting drained out of the banking system, we expect banks to continue to raise funds through CDs as well as bonds,” said Venkatakrishnan Srinivasan, founder and managing partner at debt advisory firm Rockfort Fincap.

Market participants also said that banks would require a consistent supply of capital as credit expansion picks up when the economy recovers. Mutual funds have been delighted to park funds in CDs simultaneously, making it advantageous for investors and issuers.

“Debt funds that are mandated to invest in shorter duration are always on the lookout for investment opportunities, and that is the major reason, banks are able to get large quantums without any major difference on rates,” IDBI Mutual Fund’s Sharma said.

“We expect the liquidity tightness to lead to an effective policy rate hike of 60-75 bps,” Upasna Bhardwaj, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank, said.

Vodafone to sell Hungarian business for $1.8 billion

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August 22, 2022

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British Vodafone announced on Monday that it would sell its Hungarian business for 715 billion forints ($1.8 billion) in cash, resulting in the creation of a locally-owned telecoms industry leader in the country of central Europe.

The Hungarian 4iG and state-run Corvinus Zrt, the buyers, and the British mobile phone and broadband group claimed to have reached non-binding terms.

The transaction, which excludes Vodafone’s shared services company VOIS, is expected to establish Hungary’s second-largest telecom operator.

“The Hungarian Government has a clear strategy to build a Hungarian owned national champion in the (Information and Communications Technology) sector,” Vodafone Chief Executive Nick Read said in a statement.

The sale is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

Kochi to organize 2-day FSSAI meet from tomorrow

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August 22, 2022

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The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will hold its 37th edition of the central advisory committee meeting in Kochi on Tuesday and Wednesday. The advisory committee meeting of FSSAI is hosted in the state for the first time.

The 37th edition meeting’s objective is to develop policy-related recommendations and submit them to the FSSAI. The food industry and the administrative community will create these proposals jointly. The meeting, which is being held at the Kerala Food Safety Commission, is being organised by the CEO, the Chairperson of FSSAI, the respective state food safety commissioners, and specialists on the scientific panel and scientific committee.

On Monday at 7 p.m., St. Teresa’s College will assist a flash mob at a mall in Edapally to promote the message about food safety. On Wednesday morning, a rally to raise awareness of food safety will take place from Rajendra Maidan to Marine Drive.

The rally will include cycling, walking, skating, and a traditional percussion extravaganza. It will be sponsored by St. Teresa’s College, Maharaja’s College, and the Ernakulam Roller skating club.

On Wednesday night, Eat Right Fest will be organized with the assistance of Kudumbashree and two other private businesses.

IHCL announces the launch of Vivanta in Ahmedabad, Gujarat

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August 20, 2022

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Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) has launched its first Vivanta hotel in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The hotel boasts a contemporary design that reflects the city’s vibrant spirit.

Deepika Rao, the executive vice-president of IHCL, said, “The opening of this hotel is in line with IHCL’s strategy of strengthening its presence in India’s key cities. Ahmedabad has emerged as an important economic and industrial centre and we believe that it has tremendous business and tourism potential. We are delighted to launch Vivanta Ahmedabad SG Highway, making it a part of the city’s rapid evolution in partnership with Leela Group of Companies.”

The Vivanta Ahmedabad SG Highway is ideally situated near the airport, Gandhinagar, the state capital, and major city landmarks. The hotel includes 176 stylishly designed rooms and suites with a range of unique culinary offerings and a spectacular skylight in the lobby.

The versatile banqueting space, measuring 540 square metres, is perfect for gatherings and social events. In addition, the outdoor pool and exercise centre is ideal for relaxing after a hectic day.

Plaka- a Greek-themed, fine dining destination opens in Gurgaon

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August 20, 2022

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Simpatico Hospitality Pvt Ltd has announced the opening of their Greek-themed restaurant, Plaka, at Cyber Hub Gurgaon, Haryana.

In addition to other cuisines and cocktails, the restaurant will feature Greek, Turkish, and Continental food.

Priykant Gautam, the company’s director, is highly experienced in the hospitality sector, even though this is Simpatico Hospitality’s first operation. His previous ventures, Smoke Factory, Skyhouse, The Knot, and Karigari, are well-known in the restaurant business and have enjoyed the flavours of success while reaching new heights.

Gautam said, “We aimed to introduce the city to Greek Mediterranean-themed hospitality & cuisine, complete with a splendid and timeless dining experience.”

He added, “Detailed importance has been rendered to keep the ambience very authentic and Greek, with its interiors and exteriors soothing non-monotonous surrounding spaces in blue and white soft colours and live vibrant corners”.

The company plans to open more outlets of Plaka across the country in the future.

Hospitality, retail industry hiring on the rise

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August 20, 2022

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On the strength of rising demand and a bullish outlook for the upcoming holiday season, hiring for customer-facing roles in sales and commercial operations and other divisions is gaining momentum across the hospitality and retail sectors.

Given chains’ revenge spending and expansion plans through new outlets and inventories, hiring is surging across restaurants and hotels.

“Ahead of the festive months, we see a shortage of staff for roles in customer service and kitchens. Since the unlocking in March, recovery has exceeded pre-Covid levels in many instances and now that the festive season is around the corner, demand and consumption are expected to increase even further,” said Kabir Suri, president of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) that represents more than 500,000 restaurant operators.

“There is a talent crunch as many workers had lost their jobs during Covid-19 and went back home or changed their profession,” Suri added. “Many (restaurateurs) are now training raw talent which is a lengthier process. We are also simultaneously looking at other industries such as retail, or anything that is customer facing.”

Retailers are also feeling the pinch of reverse migration that happened during Covid-19.

“Many of them never came back. This led to a shortage of staff across segments in the retail industry as it requires a special skill set where the attitude is very important,” said Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of Retailers Association of India (RAI). “Because retailers are witnessing growth in sales, hiring has also picked up at every level and this will continue till the festive season.”

Rajagopalan said hiring in the retail industry might cross pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year.

Nikhil Sharma, regional director for Eurasia at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, said the company is expanding its commercial team and hiring a head of sales and marketing in India, besides expanding its global sales team by adding additional resources in Bengaluru.

The hotel chain is on an “exponential growth journey” in India, according to Arif Khan, regional vice president of human resources at Hyatt, and the business is hiring employees in various roles and divisions for the commercial function.

“One of the major changes brought about by the pandemic was the digitisation of businesses, and therefore we introduced new positions in the digital and social media departments,” Khan said. “We have also created new positions in sales in order to target particular markets and segments as we continue to expand across India and in Southwest Asia. Additionally, we are also consolidating our cluster setups spread all over the country to improve functional efficiency across locations.”

Neha Rana Dutta, chief human resources officer at Espire Hospitality Group, said the company currently has around 500 people, but the numbers will ‘comfortably double’ by 2022-23.

A new premium boutique resort brand called “Zana” will be introduced in India by Espire Hospitality. This company owns the luxury “Six Senses Fort Barwara” resort and the mid-range resort chain Country Inn Hotels and Resorts.

“We shall have 11 operational hotels and resorts across brands by the end of 2022 and should be able to achieve our goal of 20 operational hotels and resorts in India, by 2023,” Dutta said. “The hiring approach is aggressive, but this is mostly to combat the positive pressure of the new openings scheduled this year. The first resort of our new brand Zana Lakeside Resort, Udaipur opens in September,” she added.

Yogeshwar Sharma, chief executive of Select Citywalk, one of the most popular malls in New Delhi, said hiring has picked up as new malls are coming up. “Since the leasing has also picked up with more brands looking for expansion, malls have to strengthen the sales team,” he added. Mukesh Kumar, chairman of the Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI), said malls are back to 100% staffing levels, but there is a shortage of people, especially at the lower levels. “We are hiring people wherever required but there is a scarcity of manpower,” he added.

According to Rajan Bahadur, chief executive officer of the Tourism and Hospitality Skill Council (THSC), which the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has promoted to help close the skills gap in the tourism and hotel industries, hiring in the hospitality sector is increasing at all levels due to retaliation tourism and spending as well as new supply entering the market.

“A lot of restaurants had closed down during the Covid-19 pandemic, but with spending coming back, chains have expansion plans and quite a few new restaurants are opening now,” he said. “We are also looking at training people for new roles in adventure tourism or food photography.”

Flipkart’s venture arm to invest in six startups

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August 18, 2022

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Under its accelerator programme, Flipkart Leap Ahead, Flipkart Ventures, the $100 million venture capital arm of the e-commerce company, announced that it would invest in six startups.

Among them are the startup Dopplr, which focuses on the metaverse, the insurtech firm Livwell, the logistics startup LogisticsNow, NeuroPixel.AI, robotic fulfilment startup Rightbot Technologies, and e-commerce seller-enablement venture Sellerapp.

Flipkart will make an equity investment of up to $500,000 in the selected startups, and Bain & Company will design a mentorship programme for them.

According to the company, entrepreneurs participating in the mentorship programme will have sessions with Flipkart leaders in business, products, technology, and finance. In addition, the startups will present their ideas to potential investors at the end of the programme.

Following a selection procedure that included multiple rounds of evaluation by executives at Flipkart and Flipkart Ventures, the startups were selected.

“Through this endeavour, we aim to be a catalyst in the growing startup community by continuing to expand our programme each year and presenting growth opportunities to emerging entrepreneurs,” said Ravi Iyer, senior vice-president, and head, of corporate development at Flipkart.

Eight startups that presented their business plans to investors and raised funding made up the first cohort of the Flipkart Leap Ahead programme, which graduated in July 2021. ANS Commerce, a seller e-commerce SaaS company, Entropik Tech, a fintech company focused on investments, and others were part of the cohort.

Later, in April of this year, Flipkart acquired ANS Commerce.

Like Flipkart, Amazon has a $250 million venture capital arm called Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund. It funds entrepreneurs that are digitising SMBs and making advances in agriculture and healthcare.

Amazon has made multiple startup investments, including a $40 million investment in the fintech startup Smallcase in August 2021 and a $12 million investment in the digital therapeutic startup Fitterfly most recently.

CapitaLand promotes 2.6 million sqft IT Park in Chennai

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August 18, 2022

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A leading global real estate investment manager (REIM), CapitaLand Investment, announced on Wednesday that it is promoting a 2.6 million sq ft international tech park in the city on the Pallavaram – Thoraipakkam Radial Road for a cost of 1,400 crores.

The project will be built in two 1.3 million sq ft phases, the first of which will be completed by the end of March 2023 and the second by the end of 2024.

“Connecting the OMR, Chennai’s IT Corridor and the GST Road, the Radial Road is fast emerging as the new IT corridor with several IT Parks being promoted by leading developers, besides largescale residential apartments by prominent players. Located close to several catchment areas like Velachery, Pallikaranai, Pallavaram and Chromepet for IT professionals, the Radial Road has become the ideal location for IT/ITeS services,” said Gauri Shankar Nagabhushanam, CEO, India Business Parks, CapitaLand Investment.

The company has the scope to develop an additional 2.5 million sq ft at the same location on its approximately 25 acres of property, he added.

He claims that with investments in IT Parks, industrial townships, warehousing, and lodging spread across nine assets, Chennai is one of CapitaLand’s key markets and is the company’s most diversified market in India. It made its initial foray into Chennai in 2005 by opening the International Tech Park Chennai in Taramani as a joint venture with the state-owned Tidco.

“Chennai and Mumbai is a key market for us to establish data parks due to the submarine cable landing facilities in these two metroes. While the company has already committed 1,200 crore for a large data centre park in Navi Mumbai, new data centres would come up in Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad,” Nagabhushanam said.

“Keeping in mind the focus on sustainability, the Radial Road project is being developed as a green building with thrust on natural lighting. We are in talk to attract green funds to enable its development in tune with the company’s global Net Zero commitments. The Radial Road is well connected with all modes of transport,” C Velan, Head – Chennai Operations for CapitaLand Investments, said.

Razorpay acquires Ezetap to tap into offline payments

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August 18, 2022

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The Sequoia Capital-backed Indian company Razorpay said it had acquired the offline payments company Ezetap. A source with knowledge of the transaction estimated the deal’s value at $150 million.

The acquisition was the biggest one made by Razorpay, a company that provides payment gateway services for online merchants and is valued at over $7 billion, according to a release.

It said the agreement would strengthen initiatives to reach the offline sector, which still represents the majority of electronic payments in India. Point-of-sale devices are made by Ezetap, which also processes over $10 billion in transactions annually in India.

Razorpay co-founder Shashank Kumar said Ezetap would help it develop in this area. “There is still a large portion of offline payments and in-person payments that we don’t cover,” he said.

According to the source, Ezetap will continue to operate independently following the acquisition. The agreement involves a $150 million payout to the company, with an additional $50 million payment possibly contingent upon how well it performs over the next year.

According to Kumar in an interview, the agreement will also enable Razorpay to cross-sell its services, such as loan offerings, to offline businesses. Razorpay presently provides services to over 8 million businesses and has handled payments totalling $80 billion since its launch about eight years ago.

The acquisition comes as solution providers in India try to secure a tight grip on online and offline payments.

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