CAG becomes member of UN audit panel

New Delhi, Nov. 3:  

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India Shashi Kant Sharma has been elected to the coveted United Nations Board of Auditors for a six-year term. India defeated the Philippines with a convincing margin in the election to the panel. India got the support of China and Pakistan in the elections.

A statement from the CAG’s office said out of the 186 votes cast, India got 124 votes and the Philippines got 62.

India will replace China beginning July 1, 2014. The CAG of India will now get access for audit of the UN organisations, including the UN Headquarters. “He, along with other two members of the board will also be responsible for audit of UN bodies like UN Peacekeeping Operations, UN Development Programme, UNICEF, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UN Environment Programme, UN Human Settlements Programme, UN Women and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,” the release said.

It added that Sharma took keen interest for the post and canvassed the Ambassadors and High Commissioners and briefed them about the Indian Auditors. India was earlier in the Board for six years from 1993.

The United Nations Board of Auditors audits the accounts of the United Nations organisation and its funds and reports its findings and recommendations to the UN General Assembly through the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. The Board of Auditors is completely independent and is solely responsible for the conduct of the audit.

The General Assembly appoints three members to the Board of Auditors. The members of the Board have joint responsibility for the audits. The present members of the Board of Auditors are from Britain, Tanzania and China.

Delhi entrepreneur finds success in a mug of beer

Why would an apparel retail professional with a textiles degree raise a mug of beer and say cheers? "Destiny is not a matter of chance; it's a choice. It took 20 years of working with lifestyle and sportswear companies to realise that I was destined to become an entrepreneur. By chance, I met another professional-turned-entrepreneur who came from the world of beer. The idea of beer clicked and we launched The Beer Cafe in Delhi," explains 43-year-old Rahul Singh. The venture kick-started in 2010 with an initial investment of Rs 1 crore with partner Pradeep Gidwani but Singh bought the brand a year later.

Betting His Life On It
This may sound dramatic, but Singh mortgaged his house against a bank loan to see him through the first phase of his business. It was a huge gamble and, fortunately, it paid off. "You have to work like your life depends on it because, sometimes, it does," remembers Singh.
The biggest challenge while launching The Beer Cafe was finding the right location. "I wanted it closer home in Gurgaon and was able to jump the queue and get a store at Ambience Mall. So, the first Beer Cafe opened in April 2012." The diverse and eclectic mix of customers from the Delhi-NCR region looking to unwind after a hard day's work saw the cafe buzzing very soon. Ecstatic with the response, Singh quickly rolled out five more beer cafes in the first year of operation, four in Delhi and one in Chandigarh.

What's So Special?
The Beer Cafe serves 50 varieties of beer from 17 countries along with Indian and Italian cuisine. The outlets have special RFID (radio frequency identification)-activated PYOB (Pour Your Own Beer) cards, draught beer taps and beer tanks. The RFID-activated card is prepaid and works on any of The Beer Cafe locations in the country. All one needs to do is pick a pre-cooled beer mug and use the card to pay for it. The beer enthusiast is only charged for the amount of beer he pours (minus the froth).





















       Rahul Singh, owner of The Beer Cafe

Store Dynamics
The Beer Cafe has six outlets in Delhi/NCR (Connaught Place, Vasant Kunj, Kirti Nagar, Saket, two in Gurgaon) and one in Chandigarh. The plan is to launch 13 more locations this year (four more in Delhi, four in Punjab and five in Mumbai, Thane and Pune). All Beer Cafe outlets are COCO (company-owned, company-operated) and Singh has no plans to take the franchise route.
The Beer Cafe prefers heavy footfall locations as it's not an indulgence- or an occasion-based restaurant but more impulse-led. Malls, high streets around other cafes and commute points like the airport and metro stations are preferred locations. The average store size is 1,200-1,500 sq ft and the investment is between Rs 60 and Rs 80 lakh. A large part of the investment goes into technology and equipment. Break-even takes 15-24 months.

Revenue Model
Around 65-70 per cent of the revenue comes from beer. Of this, 50 per cent of sales are from draught beer. About 20-25 per cent is from food sales and 5-10 per cent comes from the sale of other beverages. The average spend is Rs 1,000 plus taxes (inclusive of beer).
The Beer Cafe received its first round of VC funding of Rs 25 crore within a year of operation from Mayfield, a California-based venture capitalist. "They believed in the concept as much as we did and were convinced of its potential to grow. The fund is being utilised to roll out outlets and setting up a robust backend team. In phase two, we will enter small towns. We think there is a huge potential there," says Singh. The first year brought in Rs 5 crore in revenue. Singh says he expects the figure to quadruple this year. "The target is to cross Rs 300 crore in top line in the next three years."
 













     The Beer Cafe, Vasant Kunj, Delhi

Burps & Bumps
The biggest challenge was the regulatory system. Beer, with an alcohol content of 5 per cent, is considered liquor in India, and lack of a uniform excise policy makes things difficult. Compliance and paperwork is both time-consuming and complicated. The multiple licences (tourism, music, food safety, fire, pollution and health) is also a huge challenge.
Taxes and other levies are another knotty issue. "Being a low-on-alcohol beverage, beer should not be taxed as hard liquor. WHO recommends that countries wean people away from hard liquor and move towards healthier alternatives like beer and wine. The regulatory authorities in India should align themselves with global standards," says Singh.
Beer is the third-largest beverage consumed in the world, after water and tea. Industry estimates put India's per capita annual beer consumption at 1.5 litres, whereas it is 35 litres in China, which is by far the largest consumer of beer (20 per cent more than the USA in second place). With beer consumption in India growing in double digits, The Beer Cafe feels it is on the right track.

The story of Jumboking

"My family was flabbergasted when I told them I wanted to sell vada paav with my MBA degree," laughs Dheeraj Gupta. But his dream paid off and it's the young entrepreneur who is laughing all the way to the bank. Gupta is the owner of the Jumboking brand of vada paav in India and is now on the verge of opening his 54th outlet.
But becoming the 'king' of vada paav wasn't a cake walk. Hailing from a business family, it was a foregone conclusion that Gupta would become a businessman. Soon after he acquired an MBA degree from a Pune institute, he decided to brand Indian mithai overseas. Unfortunately, the idea didn't catch on and Gupta learnt an expensive lesson.

Big Bite
Then, he ran into a franchisee of Burger King while on a trip to London and he figured he would take another bite out of the food business. "I was reading up on entrepreneurship and was particularly inspired by a book on the founder of McDonald's," recalls Mumbai-based Gupta.

So he decided to promote the vada paav as the Indian equivalent of the burger and set about researching the market. "Mumbai and Thane consume over 2 million vada paavs every day. At a market price of Rs 10 apiece, that's a market of over Rs 700 crore per annum in these two cities alone. It is a very large but unorganised market, and this is where branding the vada paav as 'Jumboking' came in," Gupta reveals. He figured that branding the product and serving it in a hygienic setting, with a transparent kitchen and stainless steel equipment would do the trick. It didn't.
With Rs 2 lakh borrowed from his father and a spot near Malad railway station which belonged to the family, Gupta took the plunge in 2001. He operated the outlet with his wife and four employees, but in the first six months, experienced a turnover of only Rs 3,000-4,000 a day. "It was very frustrating as we were unable to convince customers that we were hygienic and different," remembers Gupta. 

Second Time Lucky
Not one to give up, he decided to have a second go at the vada paav -- this time serving it in a wrapper just like the McDonald's burger it was modelled after. Sales doubled, and Gupta launched his second store in Malad after 18 months and the third one in Andheri. The fourth store became Jumboking's first franchised store and, ever since, the brand has followed the franchise model. Next, Gupta infused further innovations, with automation, wrapping, using round bread, a bigger and flatter vada instead of the traditional round one, and a variety of flavours.

Revenue Model
Jumboking has 53 stores in eight cities including some metros and smaller cities. The company runs a 100-per cent franchise system. Products across all outlets are standardised as as they are manufactured in a central kitchen and transported to the outlets, where the vada paav is assembled using standardised equipment.
Jumboking is essentially a vada paav brand and the product and its variations contribute 80 per cent to the total sales. The balance comes from beverages like colas and lassi. The average spend at a Jumboking store is Rs 25-30 per customer.



 














Dheeraj Gupta, Founder, Jumboking
An average Jumboking store measures 200-250 sq ft and the investment per store is Rs 12 lakh, plus a property deposit. The stores earn an ROI starting at 33 per cent and break even in three years. Gupta's strategy of sticking only to railway-connected locations in Mumbai has paid handsome returns since the vada paav is targeted at the working class. "The idea is to choose areas where people are constantly 'on the go' and looking for a quick snack rather than a full meal."
Jumboking has had two rounds of funding so far. "We are now a profitable company and are not looking at raising funds in the near term. We will be closing this year with a turnover of Rs 30-35 crore," says Gupta.
Thinking out of the box comes naturally to this innovator, who has tempted the palate with versions of the vada paav like schezwan, tandoori paneer, corn palak and butter grilled vada paav. Creating a Vada Paav Day (August 23, the day Jumboking launched) is an effort to create hype around the humble snack.

Guru Gyaan
* If you don't have the money to advertise, don't waste your money on single advertisements in newspapers. That won't work. Instead, give something back to your customers. At Jumboking, our first main marketing initiative was to hand out railway passes to our customers.
  
* Location hunting is crucial. We focused on railway lines -- one each on the east and west. We have perfected this strategy to a science.
* We decided to focus on a single product instead of offering a range of snacks. We passed up on samosas to improve our cost-efficiency on the vada paav.
* Dream big, don't be afraid. Get a team in place that will be able to share your dream.

* Share your business plan with a mentor. I was lucky to meet a mentor who asked to me wind up my sweets business. On that dull day, when you think of winding up, you need that one person who will say 'let's keep going'.
  
* Do not hanker after aggressive growth on an annual basis. This results in disappointment when you don't meet your goals.

NEW DELHI: FMCG firm Dabur India today said it has roped in Bollywood actor Madhuri Dixit as brand ambassador for its brand Dabur Chyawanprash.

Madhuri will be seen endorsing the brand in all television, print and digital campaigns. A new TVC and print campaign featuring Madhuri would be launched soon, the company said in a statement.

Commenting on her association with the brand, Madhuri said: "I am really excited to get an opportunity to endorse an iconic healthcare brand like Dabur Chyawanprash, which has been trusted by millions of Indians, generation after generation."

"Madhuri Dixit exemplifies the modern day Indian mother who successfully balances her professional and family life. This makes her a perfect choice as the brand ambassador for Dabur Chywanprash," Dabur India Ltd Marketing Head?Health Supplements Rajeev John said.

SMAC

Smac, the acronym for Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud is becoming a business reality

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In the fast-paced, jargon-filled world of the Indian information technology industry, a new acronym is being marked in bold. "Smac", the acronym for social, mobility, analytics and cloud, is not just the latest buzzword but it's also quickly becoming a business reality.

"The chief executive has not written it on the door yet, butSmac occupies most of the conversations these days," said Naresh Nagarajan, a top executive at India's fourth-largest technology company, HCL Technologies.

By 2020, the Indian IT industry is slated to collectively rake in over $225 billion (Rs 12.5 lakh crore) in revenue, thereby riding the wave of emerging technologies and new innovations, according to Nasscom. Experts feel that to reach this target, the traditional IT companies, which focus on cutting costs and managing IT infrastructure, need to move into higher-margin projects that help clients' businesses grow.

In three to four years, emerging technologies will become a major component of revenue for Indian companies and will separate the "wheat from the chaff", says Nagarajan, senior vice-president and head of Ecosystem Business Incubation at HCL Technologies.

These technologies also offer companies an opportunity to move to higher-margin business by offering solutions that help businesses grow instead of increasingly cutting margins for typical IT services contracts. "If you don't do these things, then maybe you'll start falling out of the market," warned Biswajeet Mahapatra, research director at Gartner.

Indian IT service providers traditionally provide services that support clients by creating and maintaining their software and hardware. Existing services are now becoming commoditised, forcing companies to seek newer projects that are transformative in nature and work closer to the client's business.

The team Nagarajan heads at HCL Technologies was formed two years ago to identify disruptive technologies, invest ahead and create an ecosystem of partners and solution providers for the company. Similar efforts are underway at other technology companies as well.

At Infosys, the country's second-largest IT company, Infosys Labs plays a key role in identifying new and emerging technologies. At Labs, the company looks at various technologies and figures out if it needs to do further research, build competency, invest in capabilities and prepare for commercialisation. "Once the technology is ready to be productised, there is a smooth handshake between the Labs and my team," said Sanjay Purohit, senior vice-president, global head of Products, Platforms and Solutions.

At Infosys, the ambition is to get one-third of revenue from platform, product and solutions business, which presently account for only 6% of the company's business. There is a clear recognition of the fact that there is a fundamental disruption happening, says Anurag Srivastava, chief technology officer and senior vice-president for Wipro's Global IT Business.

The change, according to Srivastava, is not only limited to technological changes but also includes changes in the business model as well. "The next 7-10 years are very crucial. Speed of innovation is very high. Connectivity and mobility-based solutions will change the underlying dynamics of business processes significantly," said Srivastava.

About a year-and-a-half ago, Wipro picked various divisions in the company and grouped it under Analytics and Information Management Services, which focuses on data analytics, visualisation and big data. The 8,000-strong service line grew 30% in revenue over the previous year on the back of transformative deals, says Sanjiv KR, senior vice-president, Analytics & Information Management Services.

Indian companies, which count the world's largest banks, retailers and Fortune 500 companies as clients, have seen them demand solutions that leverage social, cloud, mobile and analytics. For instance, Walmart, the world's largest retailer, is combining its brick and mortar stores with commerce, over mobile phones and the internet, to create multiple channels of revenue.

"We recently created a digital kiosk for an Australian bank," said Nagarajan, explaining that the kiosk uses data from the social profiles of customers and uses it to serve customers. These are potentially large deals."

NAMO...

HUL's Distribution Network....

The evolution of HUL's Distribution Network:-

The first phase of the HUL distribution network had wholesalers placing bulk orders directly with the company. Large retailers also placed direct orders, which comprised almost 30 per cent of the total orders collected. The company salesman grouped all these orders and placed intent with the Head Office. Goods were sent to these markets, with the company salesman as the consignee. The salesman then collected and distributed the products to the respective wholesalers, against cash payment, and the money was remitted to the company.

The focus of the second phase, which spanned the decades of the 40s, was to provide desired products and quality service to the company's customers. In order to achieve this, one wholesaler in each market was appointed as a "Registered Wholesaler," a stock point for the company's products in that market. The company salesman still covered the market,

canvassing for orders from the rest of the trade. He would then distribute stocks from the Registered Wholesaler through distribution units maintained by the company. The Registered Wholesaler system, therefore, increased the distribution reach of the company to a larger number of customers.

The highlight of the third phase was the concept of "Redistribution Stockiest" (RS) who replaced the RWs. The RS was required to provide the distribution units to the company salesman. The RS financed his stocks and provided warehousing facilities to store them. The RS also undertook demand stimulation activities on behalf of the company.

The second characteristic of this period we realized that the RS would be able to provide customer service only if he was serviced well. This knowledge led to the establishment of the "Company Depots" system. This system helped in transshipment, bulk breaking, and as a stock point to minimize stock-outs at the RS level.

In the recent past, a significant change has been the replacement of the Company Depot by a system of third party Carrying and Forwarding Agents (C&FAs). The C&FAs act as buffer stock-points to ensure that stock-outs did not take place. The C&FA system has also resulted in cost savings in terms of direct transportation and reduced time lag in delivery. The most important benefit has been improved customer service to the RS. The role performed by the Redistribution Stockiest has also undergone changes over the years. Financing stocks, providing manpower, providing service to retailers, implementing promotional activities, extending indirect coverage, reporting sales and stock data, screening for transit damages are some of the functions performed by the RS today. HUL has grown manifold over the years. In the process, the number of factories and the number of SKUs too have increased. In order to rationalize the logistics and planning task, an innovative step has been the formation of the Mother Depot and Just in Time System (MD-JIT). Certain C&FAs were selected across the country to act as mother depots. Each of them has a minimum number of JIT depots attached for stock requirements. All brands and packs required for the set of markets which the MD and JITs service in a given area are sent to the mother depot by all manufacturing units. The JITs draw their requirements from the MD on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. At present, HUL's products, manufactured across the country, are distributed through a network of about 7,000 redistribution stockiest covering about one million retail outlets. The distribution network directly covers the entire rural population.

In addition to the ongoing commitment to the traditional grocery trade, HUL is building a special relationship with the small but fast emerging modern trade. Our scale enables us to provide superior customer service including daily servicing, improving their range availability whilst reducing inventories. We are using the opportunity of interfacing more directly with our consumers in this retail environment through specially designed communication and promotions. This is building traffic into the stores while yielding high growth for our business. An IT-powered system has been implemented to supply stocks to redistribution stockiest on a continuous replenishment basis. The objective is to catalyse HUL’s growth by ensuring that the right product is available at the right place in right quantities, in the most cost-effective manner. For this, stockiest have been connected with the company through an Internet-based network, called RS Net, for online interaction on orders, dispatches, information sharing and monitoring. RS Net covers about 80% of the company's turnover. Today, the sales system gets to know every day what HUL stockiest have sold to almost a million outlets across the country. RS Net is part of Project Leap, HUL's end-to-end supply chain, which also includes a back-end system connecting suppliers, all company sites and stretching right up to stockiest. RS Net has come as a force multiplier for HUL Way, the company's action-plan tomaximise the number of outlets reached and to achieve leadership in every outlet, by unshackling the field force to solely focus on secondary sales from the stockiest to retailers and market activation. HUL Way has also led to implementing best practices in customer management and common norms and processes across the company. Powered by the IT tools it has further improved customer service, while ensuring superior availability and impactful visibility at retail points. HUL, has been at the forefront of experimenting with innovative methods to reach the rural consumer.