Cover Story

United Phosphorus: Agri Aggressor
United Phosphorus has made 26 acquisitions in 15 years— and in most of them it has recovered the investment made in three years.

Rain Commodities: It's raining cash
Calcined petroleum coke may sound esoteric, but not for Rain Commodities, which has emerged as the world’s largest producer of this raw material.
Jubilant Organosys: Crams caper
Jubilant Organosys is currently in a sea of red, but two acquisitions in North America hold the promise of transforming the company’s fortunes over the longer term.
Sintex: Labour gains
Sintex is riding on a cost arbitrage opportunity as it goes about making three buyouts in its core business of specialised plastics.
Bilcare: Right place for the right price
Bilcare buys its way into high-growth developed markets for pharmaceutical packaging.
Bartronics: Raising the bar
Overseas acquisitions have helped Bartronics scale up from being a local player to one that’s bagging bigger-ticket international projects.
Rolta India : Mapping the globe
Rolta India has used buyouts to carve a unique niche for itself in a high-end technology arena.
Allied Digital: Remote control
Allied Digital rides on the next big opportunity in IT services with a buyout in the US.
Binani Cement: Concrete gambit
Binani Cement has gone where no Indian cement maker has gone before—overseas, via two strategic buyouts.
Plethico Pharma: Inorganic prescription
Plethico Pharma has used acquisitions to foray into new markets—and into a high-growth area of medicine.

2009-04-19

Digital

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Editors note

From the Editor

It's the basic law of nature: big events impact big entities more. So, a storm is more likely to damage a tree than a plant. Yet, a fundamental irony guides public perception.

Letters

Jai Ho India!

As urban consumers, neck-deep in debt and over-their-ears in mortgage, are forced to embrace frugality, marketers and companies are gravitating to the rural consumers (BT cover, April 5) .

In This Issue

Most of the millions who stagger into Mumbai with nothing else but a dream quickly learn how to survive.That art, however, gets mighty Herculean when the commercial engine of the country slows down. BT catches up with six men and women in the street who live life under the middle-class radar, but who are never totally out of it. Rachna M. Koppikar reports.

Satyam: Unravelling the fraud

It’s still unclear whether B. Ramalinga Raju siphoned money out of Satyam. Investigations, though, have uncovered how the former chairman was cooking the books. Here’s the inside story on the accounting fraud.

Mini Global champs

A clutch of smaller Indian companies has gone international by making a number of small acquisitions the world over. The best part: They seem to be working, unlike some multi-billion-dollar buyouts. United Phosphorus: Agri AggressorRain commodities:It'sraining cashJubiliant Organosys: Crams caperSintex: Labour gainsBilcare: Right place for the right priceBartonics: Raising the barRolta India:Mapping the globeAllied Digital: Remote controlBinani Cement: Concrete gambitPlethico Pharma: Inorganic prescription

Current

&#2013265922;There is no recession in the United States&#2013265922;?

Lean manufacturing, just-in-time or toyota Production System (TPS) are hallmark management philosophies that have dominated production practices since the 1950s.

Crisis in the desert

Dubai gorged itself on a decade-long construction boom that has imploded now. A recovery will mean giving up its opulent habits and focussing on real drivers of growth.

A political web

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani was the first to start a blog. But have the other political parties caught onto the Internet? We take a look.

Russian Roulette

Sistema wants to be one of the top players in the crowded Indian telecom market. Can this latecomer actually pull it off?

Console-ing mission

Sony’s launch of the first console title developed wholly in India and for India could be a major milestone for the gaming industry.

Special

Roads: Race to High-growth

Getting the highways sector back on track can be the surest way of beating the slowdown.

Railways: Right on track

There is much by way of investments in the railway sector that are waiting to happen.

Ports: Safe harbour

Port investments are continuing apace—for now.

Wanted: Models

Urban infrastructure is a multi-billion dollar opportunity, but just who’s coming to the party?

Lights, action!

In 10 years, demand for power will touch three times its existing capacity. That poses a challenge for policymakers and an opportunity for investors.

Shortfalls as opportunities

Infrastructure is one sector where opportunities missed aren’t opportunities lost—not at least for the investors. BT presents a snapshot of prospects across a few key sectors.

Trends

Branded for profit

Indian marketers are exploring new ways of targeting audiences, ensuring greater profit through ‘branded entertainment’ techniques.

Deflation or Disinflation?

Now that high inflation seems to be a thing of the past—at least for the time being—a new confusion over the rate of price rise is dominating the public debate.

To be precise

“We really don’t want customers to wait for the car. As my friend (Fiat Chairman) di Montezemolo said in Paris, waiting to buy a car is like waiting for a pretty woman. If you wait too long, she might get old and fat,” says Ratan Tata.

How good are company boards

A recent Grant Thornton-FICCI study reveals most Indian companies do not give enough freedom to their board members.

Teaching the techies

Tech giants are setting up ‘universities’ to train engineers and techies to suit their business needs.

Hitting an air pocket

Belt tightening by many foreign airlines has resulted in a sharp drop in international flights to and from India.

Back to the hindu rate of growth

At least 3 research reports predict a sub-5 per cent growth in ’09-’10.

Numbers of note

$50tn lost by global financial markets across the world in 2008, including $9.6 trillion in the developing Asian market, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The worst is yet to come

A government economist and a regulator eschew optimism to give more reasonable growth estimates.

Instan tip

The fortnight’s burning question. Is the manner in which the Satyam investigation is being conducted giving India Inc. a bad name?

Top Mind

Move with your number

Mobile Number Portability gives subscribers the ability to keep the same phone numbers when changing from one mobile provider to another. The subscriber’s mobile number and the recipient’s network ID are paired and updated in a centralised database.

Noted

Google

Signed a deal between Sony and Google for making half a million copyright-free books available for Sony’s Reader device, a rival to the Amazon Kindle.

Deal Watch

Largest private equity deals announced this year

3i India Infrastructure Fund established by international private equity firm 3i Group Plc. has invested around Rs 800 crore ($161 million) for a minority stake in Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd. (KPCL).

Treadmill

Yes, cheaters can prosper too!

Cheating is natural and cheating works. No, not examination cheating. If you’re a guy and in a relationship, we don’t mean the she’ll-neverfind-out cheating either. We’re talking about Gym Cheating that can actually help you build the body you want.

Features

Setting the tone

Reliance Communications has maintained its position as by far the largest CDMA operator and amongst the top two wireless operators in the country. Its GSM launch was part of a well-crafted strategy to increase the market share. With an aggressive pan-India launch of its GSM services, it has put rivals on notice. Rishi Joshi reports.

Can Tata put India on wheels?

Ratan Tata has changed the game in car manufacturing by producing the world’s most affordable car. Now he’s got to make it a money-spinner.

Will rivals ride on pent-up demand?

The wait for the Nano could spur competitors— of the four-wheeled and two-wheeled variety— into action.

Beyond Windows

Two decades after entering India, Microsoft is changing tack. Though its renewed push has coincided with the economic slowdown, the changes in the company’s strategy are for the long term. Rahul Sachitanand reports.

Let the games begin

After some hard-nosed bargaining, IPL 2 buries the hatchet with the sponsors and the broadcaster.

Protection for protectors

Private sector life insurance firms have expanded rapidly. But mounting losses and a cash crunch suggest that many are feeding on the future.

Live in the cloud

Cloud Computing is impacting your life and changing the dynamics of the software and hardware industries. But what on earth is the ‘cloud’?

60 minutes

People, will miss newspapers when they are gone?

Stephen J. Dubner is the Co-author, along with economist Steven D. Levitt, of the 2005 international best-seller Freakonomics. The arguments of the book, which uses anecdotal information and shows how even the most innocuous things can be explained by simple economics, have been kept going via a blog.

Back of the Book

Inking money

A small PSU in Mysore, the only firm in India to produce the indelible ink used in elections, is certain to profit from the polls. It is burning the midnight oil to meet this incremental demand. The company will supply 20-lakh bottles of 10 ml each to states this time, as against 16-lakh bottles of 5 ml each in 2004. K.R. Balasubramanyam reports.

Book

Consumer follies

In Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely shows that humans are easily manipulated and predisposed towards chasing worthless options, says Rajiv Rao.

Jobs

Salary cut vs job cut

Can salary cuts save jobs? Perhaps, but they co-exist in times of downturn.

Leadership Spotlight

&#2013265922;Admit to mistakes&#2013265922;?

Most problems that companies face can be traced back to the failure of the management and the top leadership of those firms. So believes Dr Ashok Ganguly, one of India’s foremost management experts and a recent Padma Vibhushan recipient.

Money

A back-up for retirement?

Reverse mortgage, a scheme designed for senior citizens to help them tide over their golden years with ease, has not taken off in India. A lack of loan culture is a big reason.

People

Boardroom to ballot

The boardroom is their familiar turf, but for the moment they are both gunning for the 15th Lok Sabha. Aviation entrepreneur Captain G.R. Gopinath and CEO of ABN AMRO Bank’s India operations, Meera Sanyal, have taken up the gauntlet to fight the election as independent candidates from Bangalore and South Mumbai, respectively.

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