Written By Sulekha Nair

Many experts feel by giving the startup sector the required boost and making the entrepreneurs’ life easier, Modi will be able to meet his election promise

With less than two years to go for the next general election, the government’s report card has become too unpleasant with failures at multiple levels. The economic situation is so bad that State Bank of India in a recent report pointed out that slowdown that is now experienced is real and not technical. Many economists have called for more public spending to arrest the slide.

Clearly, the biggest blot on the government as of now is the miserable failure in keeping the promise to create millions of jobs. According to Mahesh Vyas of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, about 1.5 million jobswere lost during January-April 2017.

The estimated total employment during the period was 405 million compared to 406.5 million during the preceding four months, September-December 2017. You need not look elsewhere for the reasons for this grim situation. It is the government’s own policies – especially the demonetisation and a hasty rollout of goods and services tax. Both have broken the back of the small and medium enterprises, which form the biggest employers in the country.

This shoddy record on jobs is likely to come back to haunt Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he returns to the people seeking votes in 2019. And the fear of a backlash is palpable in the party. That is precisely the reason why the government is now planning a stimulus package for the economy.

When the government announces the stimulus, one sector that is looking up for a handholding is the startup sector, which has been facing a lot of pain-points despite the government’s Startup India, Digital India programmes. Analysts feel this sector, which has potential to create jobs, needs to get more than a mere dekko from the package, said analyst.

Startups solve many problems that the big companies are loathe to and are also job creators. The environment has not been ‘friendly’ despite the claims to the contrary, observed industry experts.

Startups deserve a lot more than what has been given so far, said Devanghsu Dutta, chief executive of Third Eyesight, a consulting firm focused on retail and consumer products sectors. He says the best stimulus package the government could offer is to create an environment in which it is easy to do business. The number of compliances required to run a business is humongous.

“How do you expect a startup that is running with minimal staff to find the time and resource to finish this lengthy process? A disproportionate time, money and resources are spent to get all the compliances. This only affect companies that want to remain compliant though,” he remarks.

A recent NITI Aayog report said the average time taken to incorporate a company in the country is 118 days. This is against the claims that this has now been reduced to less than a week.

Another issue is not only starting up but also about shutting down. Startups find that even after they have shut shop, there are detailed processes that takes a couple of years before they can shut down.

Harish HV, Partner, India Leadership Team, Grant Thornton India LLP, wants the government’s package to make it easier for startups to shut down so that they can work on a new idea and startup again. “Do you know how difficult it is to shut down a business and start up again? Many big businesses did that before becoming the huge companies that they are now,” he said, adding that bankruptcy is not the best way to do it.

Many experts say that by giving the startup sector the required boost and making the entrepreneurs’ life easier, Modi will be able to meet his election promise.

The country is not short of labour, says Ashish Kohli, CEO, SME Finance at Anand Rathi Global Finance Ltd. “The government should come with reforms that give work if only as volunteers in government NGOs so that people can contribute,” he said. He says reforms package announcements and what happens on the ground are two different things.

“The government should take away the unnecessary laws that make it difficult for startups and SMEs to function. You have the bankruptcy law, the debt tribunals and NCLT. But who will educate small entrepreneurs about them? This is a country where the Mallyas will run away taking huge loans from banks while the small entrepreneurs find it difficult to get loans.”

The government’s ease of doing business has been anything but that for entrepreneurs. A few of them even told Firstpost on condition of anonymity about the difficulties they face when they try to log in online or talk about the various compliances that take away their time and energy. All these when they have left their comfortable jobs only to pursue their business ideas. Though taxation has been simplified, there are a few states in the country where warehouses and logistics are still taxed separately, they said.

The government should consider giving incentives to products that are made in India, said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst, founder and CEO of Greyhound Knowledge Group, a global strategy and transformation research, advisory and consulting group.

“Excise duty makes products expensive. Subsidies around excise duty is crucial,” he said. With manufacturing sluggish, giving subsidies and incentives to products made in India would help manufacturing and startups, he said.

While the government has not yet revealed which all sectors are likely to get the boost from the government, clearly expectations are soaring. Finance minister Arun Jaitley and the prime minister will have to do a fine balancing act to do minimum justice.

Source: firstpost

Written By Maria Thomas

A number of Asian countries are well known for their obsession with stationery, but India, for the most part, has not been one of them.

While notebooks and other paper products of every shape, size, and colour are widely available for cheap, they’re a far cry from the sumptuous, stylish options on offer in countries such as South Korea or Japan, where locals are known to line up to purchase meticulously crafted notebooks.

Source: qz

Written By Kavya Kothiyal, Reghu Balakrishnan

Mumbai: PremjiInvest, the family investment arm of Wipro chairman and billionaire Azim Premji, is in talks to acquire a 10-15% stake in Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd, a Bengaluru-based adventure equipment and outdoor gear firm, said two people familiar with the development.

Source: livemint

Written By Chandni Mathur

Still in their infancy in the growing QSR segment, doughnut chains in India are looking to offer an expansive product range to operate feasibly

Still in their infancy in the growing QSR segment, doughnut chains in India are looking to offer an expansive product range to operate feasibly

Fancy consuming a cinnamon-sprinkled doughnut and coffee for breakfast? Not quite? While doughnuts are a part of daily consumption in mature markets like the US, India is still opening up to this new dough-filled world. Although consumption is gradually increasing with the young generation willing to experiment, the doughnut segment is still in its infancy in the country.

As per a market research report by Technavio, the global doughnut market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5% from 2017-2021 due to an ‘increasing number of retail stores, rising urbanisation and changing lifestyles of consumers’. The APAC market in particular is expected to fall in line with global growth.

Major players like Dunkin’ Donuts, Mad Over Donuts (MOD) and Krispy Kreme have penetrated the Indian market by launching several stores, but the frequency of consumption is still far from desired numbers. Players in the space have identified the need to serve doughnuts in sweet and savoury options. Even within sweets, doughnut chains are attempting to position the product in the same bucket as traditional Indian sweets and build it up as a gifting option for special occasions.

Tarak Bhattacharya, COO, Mad Over Donuts says, “Over the years, people have started turning to doughnuts as a perfect gifting option — an alternate to the common confectionery at celebrations, a go-to place for sweet cravings, a snack at corporate gatherings or simply for enjoying tastefully handcrafted gourmet doughnuts.” Recent marketing campaigns by Dunkin’ Donuts India for Raksha Bandhan positioned the sweet treat in competition with traditional sweets by launching doughnut flavours like motichoor laddoo, kesar badaam and saffron cream to not just increase consumption but also build habit by pricing doughnuts for as less as Rs 39.

“The challenge is to get masses onto the category,” mentions Tarun Bhasin, president and chief business officer, Dunkin’ Donuts India. “We see a huge jump in sales during occasions. On occasions like Valentine’s Day and Friendship Day, we have seen an increase in sales of 70-80% from the base on weekdays.”

Interestingly, marketing strategies of doughnut chains have been limited to innovations within the product itself or within the store. Brands thrive on the outcome of pull marketing rather than push marketing. For example, MOD has never advertised to sell its products, and marketed itself as India’s Most Loved Donut Brand which makes people fall in Love at First Bite. But the chain conducts BTL events like Orange Tee which gives away free supply of doughnuts for a month, National Donut Day where doughnuts are offered at a special price and observance days like Women’s Day where a discount is given equivalent to the age of the woman.

Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at Third Eyesight states, “Doughnut is still fairly new to India. Thus, the presence and accessibility is limited to markets where consumers have consumed them or are well-travelled.”

Scalability is the crux of any QSR business. Being a modern consumption product, the retail presence of doughnut chains is limited to metros/big cities, where the cost of real estate is an added challenge. In order to cut costs and attain profitability, Dunkin’ Donuts recently exited a few cities and chose to concentrate more on metros. It currently has 55 stores in 15 cities.

Currently with 50 stores in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Delhi NCR, MOD aims to have 250-300 stores in a span of five years. Moreover, the flexibility of its store format allows the brand to operate in 80 sq ft kiosks up to 800 sq ft cafés.

K A Madappa, VP and business head, Citymax Hotels, which runs Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in India informs, “High street doesn’t make sense in terms of the rental component. We are now focussing on introducing products in high traffic locations like airports and metro stations.” Although the inflection point in the doughnut segment is yet to come, players are already identifying the need to offer more than just the flavoured treat to run profitably. And that is the philosophy Dunkin’ Donuts seems to be following. The brand, which was originally Dunkin’ Donuts, now operates outlets in India under the name Dunkin’ Donuts & More. While having more items such as coffee and burgers makes the model more viable, if one has ‘doughnuts’ in its name, that has to be the key proposition. But Dunkin’ wants to be known for more. Its recent launch of the Rs 89 combo (doughnut and coffee), has seen coffee sales increase by 30-40%. It aims to reduce losses by 50% and break-even by the next financial year.

Similarly, Krispy Kreme has included variety in its menu, from beverages to milkshakes to complement the sweetness of the doughnut. Madappa adds that Krispy Kreme has always been a doughnut and coffee player, but made lateral introductions like milkshakes and saw positive traction for these. This is to ensure customers don’t give it a skip as only a dessert or an occasional snack option. MOD has similar plans in the pipeline to expand its product range beyond doughnuts.

Source: financialexpress

Foreign retailers, big and small, are scrambling to make a mark in the big Indian bazaar

It’s the company that’s showing foreign entrants how to succeed in the Indian retail maze. Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz has been on the fast track from when it opened in September 2015. This month, it’s moving further into India’s second-tier cities and launching in different corners of the country — Indore, Coimbatore, Amritsar and Kolkata. In just two years, H&M has opened 17 stores and expects to end 2017 with 25. In the Indian market, that pace represents lightning speed.

When they first came to India in the early noughties, many foreign retailers floundered, flummoxed by complex market conditions. They also found their way

Source: thehindubusinessline