Monetary Policy - A "sweet" masala mix !!

Report on Monetary Policy - A “sweet” masala mix by Mr. Sujan Hajra(Chief Economist-  AnandRathi Financial Services Ltd)

Governor Rajan once again surprised the market with a 50-bp rate cut, against the consensus 25-bp cut. The RBI now expects inflation to fall to 5.8% in Jan’16 and 4.8% in Jan-Mar’17. If this downshift plays out, there is room for another 50- to 75-bp rate cut in 2016. The Governor also indicated a shift in focus from policy rates to greater transmission of these rates. The move will be positive for interest-rate-sensitive segments: durable and capital goods, but negative for the public-sector banks. 

Policy rate slashed rate by 50bps. Governor Rajan continued with his approach of surprising the market, with a 50-bp cut in the policy rate today. As forecasts suggest, the RBI is expecting a modest softening in growth and a prolonged period of low and falling inflation in 2016. With these views, he “front-loaded” the rate cut. Incidentally, this is the first 50-bp rate cut in three years (since Apr’12). In addition, the RBI maintained a largely dovish stance in its monetary-policy statement. 

Downshifts growth and inflation projections. With the cumulative 125- bp policy rate cut in 2015 so far, we feel that further lowering of the policy rate this year is unlikely unless inflation and/or unexpectedly growth soften. At the same time, the RBI expects CPI inflation to fall from 5.8% in Jan’16 to 4.8% in Jan-Mar’17. If this pans out, we expect another 50- to 75-bp rate cut in 2016.  

Outlook. The equity market immediately cheered the reduced policy rate. The governor indicated a shift in focus from policy rate cut towards greater credit market transmission of the cuts already effected. This too would lead to further gains in the equity market, especially in interest-sensitive segments such as construction, capital goods, consumer durables including auto and real estate. The stance could potentially be negative for banks, however, particularly public-sector ones with, inter alia, high cost-to-income ratios, higher credit costs and mounting employee compensation due to the recent 15% wage hike.   

Recommendation. The announcements today also largely support the debt market, with the raising of the foreign investment ceiling for Government of India securities and a separate cap for foreign investment in state government securities. There are liberalisation measures for foreign investment in corporate debt as well. The reduction of SLR requirement is a potentially negative factor for the government-securities ratio; the progressive increase in the liquidity-coverage ratio under the Basel III requirements is a positive factor. And this impact is likely to be trivial.

Lenovo brings its ‘Start up with Lenovo’ to Karnataka

 

           Aims to increase computer penetration by making it easy for consumers to buy a PC

  

Bangalore, 29 Sept 2015: Lenovo, the world’s No.1 PC player and an emerging PC+ leader, has announced the launch of its ‘Start up with Lenovo’ initiative to increase PC usage in Karnataka. This is part of the ongoing initiative by Lenovo to jumpstart India’s computer penetration, which is currently at 10% and is the lowest among developing countries like South Africa (18%), Turkey (49%) and Malaysia (64%). This program is a significant step by Lenovo tying in into the ‘Digital India’ program of the current Government that aims to transform India into a digitally empowered society. 

    Through ‘Start up with Lenovo’ campaign’s successful pilot phase in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat,Punjab andMaharashtra, Lenovo is now widening this initiative to benefit and empower the youth in tier-2 markets across India. Even though Bangalore is the silicon valley of India, Karnataka only has 13% computer penetration which is even lower than states likes Kerala (16%) and Chandigarh (33%). This offers a huge opportunity to increase the computer penetration in the state owing to its large youth population. This initiative is primarily aimed to bridge the urban-rural digital divide in the state and to empower and educate the youth on the benefits of technology adoption. Lenovo is also providing an end-to-end package to make computers more accessible and affordable to the youth across the market. This includes an attractive finance scheme, PC accessories and huge-scale promotion to drive awareness. 

    Speaking about the initiative, Bhaskar Choudhuri, Director Marketing, Lenovo Indiasaid, “As the global PC leader, we want to address the problem of computer penetration and adoption in India. Lenovo, through its continuous India-centric research and insight mining, has managed to effectively identify the key barriers of PC adoption and is all set towards sparking change. The program has already shown significant success in Andhra Pradesh & Gujarat and we want to extend this to the rest of the country including Karnataka, which is an important state for us. This will be a continued, long term initiative from Lenovo that addresses the youth and is geared towards complementing the states’ focus on education, owing to the high student population. 

    Dinesh Nair, Sub-Regional General Manager West & South India, Lenovo India further added, “We understood the consumers’ key barriers towards computer adoption and designed a campaign to address the same. Lenovo is looking at a comprehensive 360 degree outreach that includes student engagement through college activation and advertising. There were fragmented initiatives earlier, however with this campaign we want to address the multi-sectoral challenges and focus on increasing PC penetration in the state.
Program details 

    The main bottlenecks affecting computer penetration in India are the lack of awareness of PC usage, as well as the availability and affordability of PCs. Through this program, Lenovo is aiming at educating the youth about the importance and benefits of PC’s as well as providing the financial support to purchase one.
     Lenovo is offering financing support on a wide range of fully loaded, great value computers across AIOs and laptops starting at INR 24,990 with interest free EMIs as low as INR 3000.
    For the finance scheme, Lenovo has tied up with Bajaj Fin Serv to offer customers a 9 EMI scheme, divided into a down payment of 2 months EMI, a processing fee of INR 749; and payback balance in 7 EMIs with 0% interest on EMIs.
    Lenovo has tied up with Tata Docomo for easy internet access by providing free dongle
Lenovo has also signed an MoU with IIT-Bombay Entrepreneurship cell and will be engaging with local home-grown start-up heroes as well as launch college activations and outreach programs to spread the message.

Nutrela ties up with PFNDAI to enhance awareness on the benefits of Soya

 

Bengaluru, 29 sept , 2015: India’s leading FMCG Company Ruchi Soya Industries Limited has tied up with PFNDAI to advise it on Soya brand Nutrela. Dr Pai is Executive Director of Protein Foods & Nutrition Development Association of India and he will also propagate the benefits of Soya to other nutritionists.
    Nutrela and PFNDAI will be implementing a nutritionist outreach programme in the states of Karnataka and Maharashtra. The two sides will be jointly reaching out to more than 200 nutritionists each in Mumbai and Bangalore alone in the next two months. 

   The initiative comes at a time when health has emerged as a growing concern in India. India is home to a majority of the heart patients in the World. A major cause of this is a sedentary and stressful lifestyle. This has prompted many Indians to move away from a traditional Indian breakfast towards a healthy breakfast. This is where soya food can play a huge role with their strong protein content. 

    The Nutrela brand has been in existence for over two decades. It straddles the entire spectrum of Soya offerings including chunks, mini chunks and granules.
    Ruchi Soya Industries will also be rolling out its School Contact Programme in more than 400 schools in Karnataka and 3000 schools in Maharashtra. The objective of this programme is to educate children around nutrition, specifically the goodness of soya and the advantages of soya over other foods like milk/egg/meat. The campaign will feature sampling and contests.

TRIO World Academy to organize E-Waste Collection

Bengaluru,  29 Sept 2015: To help spread the awareness on the dangers of reprehensible disposal of electronic waste generated, students of TRIO World Academy in association with Bin Bag will organize E-waste collection & awareness drive inviting citizens to dispose their e-waste responsibly from 1^st October till 10^th of October 2015. A temporary bin will be installed in the Academy premises where people could dispose their electronic wastes like old computers, discarded appliances, outdated gadgets, busted electronics, etc.

With this initiative, TRIO is hoping to do its bid in saving the environment from the toxic hazards like lead , arsenic, cadmium, etc which are dangerous for people & the planet.

PHILIPS REVOLUTION IN HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS

-Aim is to create meaningful innovations that will achieve healthcare that is accessible to all.

Healthcare in India revolves around acute care. 70 percent of the costs of healthcare are spent on long-term, chronic conditions such as heart failure, cancer or dementia. If we can preempt symptoms for chronic diseases and monitor people before deterioration, fatality of the condition can be put to hold in a much larger extent. Philips Innovation Campus, Bangalore is at the forefront of bringing in this revolution and change the healthcare system in India. 

Philips has embarked to apply mobile, digital and cloud technologies to improve patient outcomes through care coordination and patient empowerment across the health continuum, from wellness, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management in the hospital and further extending this to the home or primary care centers for chronic disease patients. Philips Innovation Campus (PIC) in Bangalore has deployed several such solutions across India which is making a significant impact to society.  

Mobile Obstetrical Monitoring

As high maternal and fetal mortality rate remains one of the biggest challenges for the healthcare system in the world, especially in developing countries. The lack of access to health services and professionals such as skilled doctors or midwives is a key contributing factor to such health hazards. Philips Mobile Obstetrical Monitoring is an application which has been deployed on a pilot basis, remotely monitors pregnant women for early high risk identification via a new tele-health solution. With approximately 96% of the world’s population having access to mobile phones, Philips Healthcare has developed a prototype scalable tele-health platform which can be adapted to suit specific rural and urban needs, using a mobile phone application. With this app, midwives (‘Asha workers’ as called in India) can build a relevant health profile of pregnant women by collecting data from physical examinations and tests at local nursing clinics or even at the soon-to-be-mother’s home. Through the integration the local risk score guidelines, Philips aims to support obstetricians or gynecologists to determine if a pregnancy might be high- risk, in which case immediate and adequate help can be provided. 

Mobility Sanjivini

Philips Innovation Campus, Bangalore developed Android based mobile application, namely, Mobility Sanjivini, to eliminate the paper based system and help the Auxilliary Nurse Midwives (ANM) working in the field to capture data for each family. The system is user-friendly and data can be transmitted using internet/GPRS (or) SMS (or) USB.This solution enables Field ANMs to enter data using an Android smart phone. The application has provisions to enter data for each family in separate folders. Unlike the earlier Field ANMs who had to carry heavy paper folders, these ANMs carry a small smartphone for their visit. This saves time and paper. The entire process is just a few steps. 

Intellispace Consultative Critical Care Solution ( ICCC)

Several studies in recent years have shown that digital remote monitoring solutions have a dramatic impact in treating patients with chronic diseases. One such study over five years examined the impact of Philips' remote intensive care unit (eICU) programme on nearly 120,000 critical care patients. The programme enables healthcare professionals from a centralized eICUcentre to provide around-the-clock care for critically ill patients using bi-directional audio/video technology, and a clinical decision support system. The study found that eICU patients, compared to patients receiving usual ICU care, were 26% more likely to survive the ICU, and were discharged from the ICU 20% faster.      

Philips IntelliSpace Consultative Critical Care (ICCC) is a cutting edge tele solution that enables transformation of clinical care in an intensive care setting. Using the ICCC solution, one can now monitor multiple intensive care units from a central command center that may be located in a geographically separated area. The solution enables the establishment of a “hub-and-spoke” model where the central command center acts as the hub and the peripheral ICUs act as the spokes. The central command center has multiple “monitoring stations”. Each monitoring station has a high end computer system connected to an array of high resolution computer monitors. Clinical data (coming in from patient monitors / ventilators/ infusion pumps connected to the patient) of patients admitted to the peripheral ICUs is displayed as a “dash board view”, enabling continuous monitoring of vital data and lab values.

Healthsuite Digital Platform

To deliver healthcare to every household, Philips created the HealthSuite Digital Platform (HSDP). The HealthSuite digital platform represents a new era in connected care for both patients and providers. HealthSuite, supported by salesforce.com, is an open, cloud-based platform, which collects, compiles and analyzes clinical and other data from multiple devices and sources.With a focus on patient/physician relationship management, the Health

Suite Digital Platform enhances the clinical decision making ability of caregivers by enabling collaboration capabilities in support of their patients, and empowers patients to take a more active role in managing their personal health.

      Philips digital solutions are focused at improved workflow in hospitals, reduction of infrastructure costs by leveraging the cloud, point of care devices to help in faster and early diagnosis, appropriate applications and remote monitoring that can help in extending the reach of doctors and specialists to areas where care was not available before. This mission aims to touch more than 3 billion lives by 2025. So our aim is to create meaningful innovations that will achieve healthcare that is accessible to all.

ANOTHER ‘5STAR’ FEATHER IN THE CAP OF BENGALURU!!

    Shangri-La Hotel, Bengaluru set to be the city’s premier destination for dining, entertaining and business

Bengaluru, 24 September 2015 – Shangri-La Hotel, Bengaluru opened today and is set to be the city’s leading destination for business and pleasure, offering a dynamic array of restaurants and bars and arresting public and meeting spaces. The 397-room Shangri-La sited on nearly two acres of land in the central business district overlooking Bangalore Palace and Cubbon Park.

    Located 30 minutes from the international airport, Shangri-La Hotel, Bengaluru stands 19 storeys tall on Palace Road.

 ‘‘Shangri-La’s expansion on the Indian subcontinent marks an exciting third quarter for the group. We are excited to reveal a new luxury landmark in Bengaluru that adds to our international presence and will welcome our loyal and new guests for business or leisure,” said President and CEO Greg Dogan.
“Our diverse portfolio of accommodation, dining destinations and meeting space means we are perfectly positioned to set new standards and provide an elite urban lifestyle for our guests from the community and all over the world.”said Jens Corder, general manager of Shangri-La Hotel, Bengaluru. 

   The hotel’s 30 suites  awash in colours of gold, plum and green  range from 98 to 274 square metres, and include three Governor Suites and the palatial Shangri-La Suite, guests can marvel at the panoramic views and enjoy full access to the Horizon Club Lounge. Also catering for Horizon Club guests, the lounge is a sophisticated space providing breakfast, tea, evening cocktails and the services of a concierge team.

   Making its mark on Bengaluru’s social scene are the hotel’s eight wining and dining venues offering spectacular settings, and indoor and outdoor seating to maximise the unobstructed vistas.
Spread over two levels are the hotel’s function rooms.  The Grand Ballroom, with its own pre-function area and a ceiling height of 9.5 metres, covers 739 square metres and is one of the largest meeting spaces in the city.  The flora-inspired venue holds up to 900 guests for weddings and grand events,and is supported by five additional and versatile function rooms on level two.

   To celebrate Shangri-La Hotel, Bengaluru’s opening an introductory rate at INR 9,500 per night is available until 31 December 2015.  The rate includes an INR 3,000 credit, which can be redeemed against the hotel’s food and beverage and spa services.  Excluded is the 8.40 per cent service charge and 12 per cent government tax.  Email reservations.slbl@shangri-la.com or visit www.shangri-la.com/bengaluru.

# # #