PM to address CPSE Conclave
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the CPSE Conclave at Vigyan Bhawan on Monday, according to an official statement. Senior officers of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and top ministry officials will also attend the conclave, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in the statement. “The conclave will feature presentations on best practices in CPSEs,” it said. In the afternoon, thematic presentations will be made to the prime minister on subjects such as corporate governance, human resource management, financial re-engineering, and innovation. He will later address the conclave, the statement added. Last month, officials had said that the prime minister will chair a meeting of heads of top state-run enterprises in April to chalk out a strategy for the functioning and role of CPSEs to realise the vision of a ‘new India’. “The deliberations in the Conclave will lead to formulation of an actionable roadmap to achieve the target of a New India 2022,” a senior government official had said.
ASICS prepares to comply with FDI norms to launch single brand retail
New Delhi: Sportswear brand ASICS is slowly increasing the share of its products manufactured in India to comply with foreign direct investment norms for single brand retail and open its own stores in the country. “After meeting 30 per cent sourcing norms for FDI in single brand retail, we can go for bigger stores. We will apply for FDI in single brand retail. With our own stores, we will have a better brand governance. “The moment we will reach 30 per cent of sourcing/ manufacturing from India, we will have our own stores...we will look at operating a mix of both partner stores and as well as our own retail stores,” ASICS India MD Rajat Khurana told PTI. At present, ASICS India sources about 10-12 per cent of its total products sold from India. “We started local production of apparel in 2017. Later, we started footwear as well, but only entry point products. It will take time to manufacture high performance products in India... gradually we are scaling it up,” he added. The company, which sells its footwear and apparel products through franchise model, plans to open 13-14 more stores in the current year. At present, ASICS India gets about 75 per cent of its sales from mono brand stores, multi brand retail outlets and distributer driven business channels. Khurana said the company is looking at tripling revenue to over Rs 200 crore in the next two-three years. For the year ending March 2017, it reported a turnover of Rs 73 crore. ASICS India, which is a step down subsidiary of ASICS Japan, at present has 27 mono brand stores in India.
VLCC to open 50 institutes in India; plans to go international
New Delhi: Beauty and wellness firm VLCC is on the expansion spree with a target to add 50 new training institutes in India over the next five years. The company, which has about 70 institutes in India, has also chalked out plans to foray into international markets such as Canada, Malaysia, Srilanka, Kenya, Oman and Bangladesh. With the opening of more institutes, VLCC is eyeing a 35 per cent year on year revenue growth. In FY 2018, it had a turnover of Rs 55 crore for the skilled business. “We will add 50 new institutes in India and also in countries such as Canada, Malaysia, Oman and Srilanka with a target to train approximately 15,000 students,” VLCC Group Director Sandeep Ahuja told PTI. The company offers about 100 courses and workshops in the beauty and wellness space and has trained over 1 lakh students so far. The institutes have crossed Rs 50 crore target and is set to go over Rs 100 crore with international expansion by this fiscal end, as per the company. With regard to retail expansion in the personal care category, Ahuja said VLCC has recently added close to 100 new distributors and is betting on the modern trade across national and regional customers besides giving leverage to the e-commerce. The contribution from e-commerce was close to 15 per cent in FY 2018. Total turnover from personal care category stood at Rs 400 crore in the last financial year. The company has 197 wellness centres in India and markets over 169 skincare, haircare, bodycare, functional foods and fortified food products.
SBI Gen Insurance expects to wipe out losses in FY19
New Delhi: SBI General Insurance, a subsidiary of the country’s largest lender SBI, expects to wipe out accumulated losses during the current fiscal and may go in for listing next year. “The company has already achieved break-even but some accumulated losses are still there, which should get wiped out during the current fiscal,” SBI General Insurance Managing Director Pushan Mahapatra told PTI. After wiping out losses, the company would look at listing on bourses, he added. When asked if the listing would happen in the next fiscal, Mahapatra said it may happen depending on the board’s decision. SBI General Insurance, a joint venture between State Bank of India (SBI) and Australian insurance major IAG, turned in its maiden profit for fiscal 2016-17, its seventh full year of operations. The company reported a net profit of Rs 153 crore as against a loss of Rs 120 crore in the previous year. Mahapatra said the company has registered a growth of 36 per cent in the premium for the fiscal ended March 2018. Talking about the proposed Ayushman Bharat scheme of the government, he said it is going to change the entire dynamics of health insurance in the country. Last month, the Cabinet cleared the launch of the Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM), which was announced in the Budget. The scheme will provide a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family per year and benefit more than 10 crore families belonging to the poor and vulnerable sections of the society.