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.