Sales domain has potential to create 2.5 million jobs in three years
The sales domain has the potential to spearhead India’s transition from farm-to-non-farm, according to a TeamLease analysis. The study estimates that sales has the potential to create 2.5 million jobs in the next 3 years. It further adds that the domain has the ability to create more than 10 million jobs in a span of three years if certain regulatory reforms are undertaken.
These reforms include consolidation of 44 central labour laws into 4 labour codes, Unique Enterprise Number, Employee Salary Choice, PPC Compliance Portal, The Factories Amendment Bill 2016, Small Factories Act, Amendments in Contract Labour and Regulation Act 1970, Amendments in Industrial Disputes Act 1947, Amendments in Trade Union Act 1926 and Adoption of the Model Shops and Establishment Act.
The study states job creation in sales will be largely driven by organized retail sector (50%) and FMCG/FMCD (30%). According to the analysis, a combination of macro-economic, strategic and technological factors like GST, FDI, digitization and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will help in realizing the exponential opportunities the domain presents.
Rituparna Chakraborty, EVP and Co-Founder, TeamLease Services said, “By just doing 10 regulatory reforms we can create 10 millions sales jobs and this is an opportunity India which is at a critical demographic crossroad, simply can’t lose out on. The urbanization, rising middle class and a free-spending younger generation coupled with business-friendly government reforms have made India to be one of the world’s fastest-growing emerging markets. Increased adoption of digital technologies, as well as government’s initiatives around GST, regulatory simplification, increasing FDI inflows will further boost the economy.
The ability of companies to take advantage of this opportunity will depend on their capability to sell more, sell better and sell faster which in turn will stimulate the demand and make sales the inevitable and most potent profile.”
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Government launches biodegradable sanitary napkins, priced at Rs 2.50 per pad
The government on Thursday launched biodegradable sanitary napkins, priced at Rs 2.50 per pad, on the eve of International Women’s Day, which will be available at Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana Kendras.
The sanitary napkins will be available in a pack of four pads for Rs 10 across over 3,200 Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) Kendras by May 28, 2018, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar said.
On the eve of Women’s Day, the Department of Pharmaceuticals under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers is introducing sanitary napkins under the name ‘Suvidha’, he added.
At a time when average market price of four sanitary napkins is around Rs 32, the government has launched these oxo-biodegradable pads priced at Rs 10 for four pads for health security of women, specially for those who are under privileged and are in rural areas, Kumar said.
While other sanitary napkins available in markets are non-biodegradable, these are biodegradable, he added.
The launch is in line with the aim of the Prime Minister to make quality drugs available at affordable prices to common people, Kumar said.
According to the National Family Health Survey 2015-16, about 58 per cent of women aged between 15 to 24 years use locally prepared napkins, sanitary napkins and tampons, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers said in a statement.
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India inc working towards improving workplace diversity
In a bid to attract and retain women employees, India Inc is willing to go an extra mile and has adopted initiatives including maternity benefit, cab facility, sabbatical leave policy, flexi-work policy to improve diversity at workplace.
HR managers believe women’s roles and responsibilities have changed over the last decades and there has been an increasing female representation across industries as employers are promoting diversity within the organisation and building a pipeline of women leaders.
As per LinkedIn-WEF Gender Gap report, in India, the average female hiring has increased by 6 per cent across the 12 industries surveyed, with Energy & Mining, Manufacturing and Real Estate showing the highest change in percentage of female hiring rate in the last ten years.
As per LinkedIn Recruiting Trends 2018, diversity is a top trend affecting how talent is hired and it is no longer just seen as an aspect to improve company culture, but as a lever to boost productivity.
Software giant Adobe recently said that it has closed the pay gap between its male and female employees in India. Adobe India has also discontinued the practice of using a candidate’s prior remuneration to determine the starting salary offered, an important step to help counter the gender wage gap that candidates may have experienced in prior jobs.
Radhika Ghai, CBO and Co-founder, ShopClues, said, “Last 12 months have also seen a significant increase in the number of women employees hired in our organisation. We jumped from 24 per cent to 35 per cent women employees in the last 12 months due to focused initiatives in talent acquisition”.
Armaan Seth, Head of Human Resources, Indian Sub-continent at Philips said the company has women centric HR policies like flexible work schedules, flexible maternity leave, and late night travel assistance. “These help our employees to build careers at their own pace,” he said.
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Bandhan bank to launch up to Rs 4,473 crore IPO on March 15
Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank said it will launch an initial public offering (IPO) of up to Rs 4,473 crore on March 15.
The private sector lender will sell over 119.28 million equity shares valued between Rs 4,430 crore and Rs 4,473 crore at a price band of Rs 370-375 per share.
The IPO, which will close on March 19, will comprise a fresh issue of 97,663,910 shares, an offer for sale for up to 14,050,780 shares by World Bank-controlled International Finance Corp (IFC) and up to 7,565,804 shares by the IFC FIG Investment Co.
The bank’s holding after the IPO will be diluted to around 82 per cent, from around 89 per cent at present.
“The entire proceeds of the offer, which will close on March 19, would be utilised for capital requirements,” the banks’ founder, managing director and chief executive officer Chandra Shekhar Ghosh told reporters.
He added that as per the RBI licensing commission, “we must be listed within three years”.
The bank, which had transferred its entire microfinance business to Bandhan Financial Services in 2009, received RBI approval to start banking operations in April 2014 and started its operations in August 2015.
As of December 31, 2017, Bandhan Bank’s deposits stood at Rs 25,293 crore, and advances at Rs 24,463 crore.
On the microfinance side, the bank has a networth of 2,600 doorstep service centres and 9.6 million micro-loan customers.
It also has general banking customers of about 2.13 million and 98 per cent of the bank’s net advances were in the priority sector as of financial year 2016-17.
The net interest margins of the bank stands at 9.9 per cent, current account savings account (Casa) at 3.32 per cent and cost to income at 35.4 per cent.
“Around 88 per cent of the bank’s credit is micro credit and 12 per cent is non-micro credit. In future we would like to keep both of them intact,” said Ghosh.
Sunil Samdani, chief financial officer, Bandhan Bank said the bank will continue its focus on microlending.
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PNB fraud: CBI’s fresh summonses to Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi
The CBI on Thursday sent fresh summonses to billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi to join investigations as early as possible and made it clear to the duo that they were “obliged” to cooperate with the probe agency, officials said.
The agency had sent three summonses on February 19, 23 and 28 asking them to join the probe at the earliest. They were asked to appear on March 7.
Gitanjali Gems promoter Choksi, in his seven page letter which was released by his lawyer, has said it was impossible for him to return to India and join the investigation due to the suspension of his passport and ill-health.
In a detailed e-mail reply to the CBI’s notice seeking his appearance, Choksi said his passport has been suspended by the authorities and he was undergoing medical treatment.
He said that on February 16, he received an e-mail from the passport office which stated that his travel document has been suspended due to the reason ‘security threat to India’. However, the Regional Passport Office, Mumbai, did not give him any explanation for suspension of his passport or as to how he was a security threat.
“I am also not in a position to travel due to my persisting health problem. I had a cardiac procedure which was conducted in the first week of February 2018 and there is still pending work to be done on the same. The entire procedure could not be completed on all veins due to danger to kidney and therefore I am not allowed to travel for at least a period of four to six months,” he said.
A response on similar lines was received from Nirav Modi citing that he could not travel to India to join the probe.
In a terse reply, the CBI “directed” him to approach the Indian mission in the country where they were residing so that immediate arrangement can be made for their travel to India, officials said.
The agency has told him that they were “obliged to join the investigations”, they said.
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Jet airways expects to close order for 75 narrow-body planes this month
Jet Airways is likely to close the order for another 75 narrow-bodied planes by the end of this month, chief executive of the airline Vinay Dube said on Thursday.
“We hope to close deal with one of the manufacturers shortly,” Dube said at the sidelines of the Hyderabad aero show.
The deal is likely to be finalised by March 31.
In October last year, the airline’s chairman Naresh Goyal had said that the carrier could purchase another 75 aircraft to help it expand in the fast growing domestic market.
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ICAR, agri universities prepare strategy for doubling farmers’ income
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and agri universities, along with central and state agencies, have developed strategy document on doubling farmers’ income by 2022, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said.
This strategy document for different states would immensely help in achieving the prosperity of farmers, he added.
The minister was addressing vice chancellors of state agriculture universities and directors of ICAR institutes.
Singh said the government’s policy initiatives in the last three years have led to record foodgrain production this year.
The minister said the total food grain production in the country stood at 275.68 million tonnes in 2017-18, which is about 10.64 million tonnes (or 4 per cent) more than what was produced in 2013-14.
“In fact, the production of foodgrain this year is 19 million tonnes more than the average production between 2011-12 and 2015-16,” Singh was quoted as saying in an official statement.
The minister said state agriculture universities and ICAR have been working to make agriculture sustainable and beneficial for farmers.
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Nifty snaps 6-day fall, jumps 88 pts
The Nifty rebounded on bargain hunting after a sell-off in the last six sessions, rising by 88 points to 10,242.65 backed by short-covering in last hour of trade mainly in banking and financials, realty, energy, infra and auto sectors.
Gains in Asian stocks amid news of potential US tariff exemptions also boosted sentiment on the domestic bourses.
Overseas, Asian stocks closed higher on developments related to planned metals tariffs. Japan’s Nikkei, China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.5 to 1.5 per cent. European stocks were trading mixed.
The Nifty 50 index rose 88.45 points, or 0.87 per cent to end at 10,242.65, before moving in a range of 10,270.35 and 10,146.40. It saw an intra-day movement of about 123.95 points.
On the sectoral front, Nifty PSU bank rose by 2.80 per cent, followed by finance service 1.54 per cent, realty 1.43 per cent, energy 1.43 per cent, bank 1.42 per cent, private bank 1.18 per cent, infra 1.03 per cent, auto 0.98 per cent, media 0.26 per cent and IT 0.04 per cent.
While, Nifty pharma, metal and FMCG index fell by 0.33, 0.45 and 0.41 per cent, respectively.
The Nifty mid-cap and small-cap indices rebounded 0.49 per cent and 0.39 per cent, respectively.
Major index gainers were SBIN, ICICI Bank, Adani Ports, Reliance, M&M, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.
Among the losers were Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Yes Bank, TechM, GAIL, TCS, Cipla and Tata Motors.
The market breadth, indicating its overall health, remained negative. A total of 835 scrips advanced, 959 declined, while 57 remained unchanged.