Category Archives: Business & Economy

Marine police academy to come up at Machilipatnam

Business & Economy, Education

Vijayawada :

If all goes well, Andhra Pradesh  could become one of the two states in India to house a national-level marine police academy. The chances of a marine police academy to be set up in the state brightened on Monday when a high level delegation, headed by principal secretary (home) T P Das, visited the proposed site for the academy at Pedapatnam near Machilipatnam. Inspector General of Police (Marine), K Srinivasa Reddy and Krishna district SP J Prabhakara Rao accompanied Das during his field inspection.

The Union home ministry had decided to fortify coastal security after the terror attack in Mumbai in 2008 and as part of it allotted massive funds to the coastal states to set up special marine police units along their coastlines. Although many states, including Andhra Pradesh, have dedicated marine police stations, the police personnel are not properly trained in combat operations at sea.

Initially, the Union government had asked the coast guard wing to impart training to the marine police personnel in their respective areas. But later, the central government decided to establish two specialized marine police training academies which, according to sources, would be set up on the East Coast and West Coast respectively.

Accordingly, the Centre has reportedly agreed for the national-level training academy to be set up in Andhra Pradesh on the East Coast. The marine IG K Srinivasa Reddy pursued the matter with the Centre and state authorities. Sources said the Union home ministry reportedly sought about 300 acres for the training academy and the revenue officials at Machilipatnam proposed to allocate a 200-acre site near Pedapatnam village.

“We have visited the site and verified the documents. We have to send a detailed report to the Centre for the grant of the training centre,” TP Das told the media after the field visit. He said a team from Delhi too would visit the proposed site before taking a final call. If granted, the academy at Machilipatnam would be the first on the East Coast.

Sources said Tamil Nadu and Kerala too were lobbying for the training centre.

It was learnt that the Centre would take into account the upcoming rocket launching centre near Nagayalanka in Krishna district, ISRO centre in Nellore and KG basin of Rajahmundry before setting up the training centre near Machilipatnam as it’s also important to safeguard these highly protected institutions.

At present, there are around 15 marine police stations in the state with about 200 police personnel working in the wing. Along with the AP marine police, the staff from marine police wings in other states too would be provided training at this national academy on subjects like strengthening the intelligence network in the waters, utilization of communication network and surveillance.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad> Training Centre / TNN / October 22nd, 2013

Furniture World opens outlets in Bangalore

Business & Economy

Bangalore :

Furniture World, a Hyderabad-based furniture retailer, has forayed into Bangalore by opening four stores.

The company has partnered electronic retailer Pai Electronics for entering Bangalore market.

Sunil, Director of Furniture World, said: “To begin with, we are now ready with outlets at Banerghetta Road, JP Nagar, Rajaji Nagar and Dickenson Road.”

Rajkumar Pai, Managing Director, Pai Electronics, added: “We have a joint plan to serve many more cities in Karnataka. Shortly, we will soon be opening a store each in Mangalore and Hubli. Working on a plan to open a store in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.”

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> News> National / by Anil Urs   anil.u@thehindu.co.in / October 12th, 2013

ACCI seeks steps for Vijayawada airport expansion

Business & Economy

The Andhra Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has urged the Krishna district administration to initiate the process of acquiring land for expansion and modernisation of the Vijayawada airport.

In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, ACCI president M. Muralikrishna pointed to the fact that the Department of Infrastructure and Investment had given approval for acquisition of 491.92 acres in Buddhavaram, Kesarapalli and Ajjampudi villages for the purpose. “Now that the way is clear, we hope the district administration will act immediately without any further loss of time and hand over the land to the Airports Authority of India (AAI),” said Mr. Muralikrishna.

The ACCI president also recalled the chamber’s oft-repeated plea to grant international airport status to the Vijayawada airport, as it serves the needs of at least seven districts. There was a substantial NRI population (around 4 lakh) hailing from this area and mostly living or working in the US and some of them in European or Gulf nations. Provision of full-fledged facilities would result in growth in the passenger traffic, both domestic and overseas, he said. Vijayawada was strategically located and a modern and developed airport was a long-felt need of the people here. The need assumed greater significance in view of the impending bifurcation of the State and the subsequent necessity to create airport infrastructure of international quality, he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – October 12th, 2013

HyperCity opens second store in Hyderabad

Business & Economy

HyperCity Retail, a part of the K Raheja Corp Group has opened its second store in Hyderabad. It’s a part of its strategy of opening smaller sized store, the new store is spread over 50,000 square foot but offers finest range of products across categories such as apparels, personal care, small appliances et al. The second store is located in Manjeera Trinity Mall, a shopping destination in the busy Kukatpally area near the IT hub of Hyderabad.

During the first quarter HyperCity’s losses had widened to Rs 24.72 crores from Rs 21.35 crores a year ago due to a write-off of Rs 3.3 crore for the closure of a store in Ludhiana. Sales grew to Rs 228.33 crores from Rs 204.75 crores in the same quarter a year ago. Tweaking HyperCity’s format to make it turn profitable, the retailer had then decided to launch a new compact HyperCity format of 30,000 square foot in Bangalore, during the quarter. Further it had planned to resize three stores in Cyberabad, Vashi and Thane.

Apart from tweaking the store size, the company has tried to re-build its image as a value player. Hypercity has now increased contribution of apparels to 15 percent from 10 percent, while eliminating low value SKUs (stock keeping units). Along with change in image and prduct mix, the company is also offering hyper deals through aggressive marketing to attarct footfalls.

source: http://www.fashionunited.in / Fashion United / Home / Tuesday – October 15th, 2013

Hyderabad’s YNew wants to take refurbished gadgets business national

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

YnewsHF18oct2013

With the increasing costs of acquiring new smartphones and other devices, many entrepreneurs are seeing an opportunity in the refurbished gadgets business. But while most of these new ventures have been online, Hyderabad-based Dasaradh Ram Nutakki has his hopes set on an offline model. With the first YNew store in Hyderabad, Nutakki thinks he is at the start of what will be a very successful franchise model.

While the first store set up under the Sloyd banner is six months old, Nutakki says there will be nine such stores by the end of this year – four in Hyderabad and five in Bangalore. “The idea is to have 50 stores across India by 2016,” says Nutakki, who likes to call his a made-for-franchise model. “I want to blend the concept of start-ups and franchising to do something different. Every YNew franchisee will be a start-up and we will create the ecosystem to make them profitable,” he added in a telephone interaction from Hyderabad.Nutakki likes to call YNew a “re-commerce business model”.

Dasaradh Ram Nutakki
Dasaradh Ram Nutakki

“If someone has a phone or a laptop to sell, he or she can hand over the product to us. We put the device through a 360-degree test after which we assign a price. The product is then put up on the display shelf. The seller is paid only if the product is bought by someone,” he says. Since the second-hand phone market is full of stolen devices, Nutakki has thought of a unique way to stop unscrupulous elements from using his shop. “We pay the seller only through a bank transaction and that puts off most criminals. Plus, EMIE numbers of the phones are checked on the stolen mobile registry and kept on for 48 hours before sale,” he adds.

Since April, the only YNew shop has seen 600 footfalls a month and sold goods worth Rs 15 lakh. “About half of these are smartphones, 40 per cent are computers and the rest televisions,” he says.  YNew charges a nominal transaction and service charge for all sales, ranging from five per cent for anything above Rs 20,000 to 12 per cent for devices priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. The company does not deal in phones cheaper than Rs 5,000 and also has reservations about certain brands. Plus, customers within a 4km range have the option of availing repair services. Nutakki’s Sloyd group wants to create a franchise conglomerate by slowly venturing into other sectors where such models will work. “In the US there are at least 300 sectors that have franchise models. We have just a fraction of that number here,” he says, adding that he has started taking franchisee applications. “I do not want to stereotype the kind of people who can apply. Frankly, anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit can adopt this,” he adds. The big opportunity, according to Nutakki, is the fact that smartphones have the highest replace and upgrade frequency. “The automobile sector has already institutionalised this model. But in gadgets it has to be a local model as the logistical costs can be too much,” he says.

source: http://www.businesstoday.intoday.in / Business Today / Home> Biz Wrap> Corporate> Story / by Nandagopal Rajan / October 15th, 2013

Virtusa partners Pega to offer upgrade innovation centre

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Programme to provide dedicated upgrade resources, services to customers around the world

Virtusa Corporation, a US -based IT consulting, technology implementation and application outsourcing services provider which has its global delivery centres at Hyderabad and Chennai in India, has partnered Pegasystems Inc to introduce its mega-partner upgrade innovation innovation centres.

The programme provides dedicated upgrade resources and services to customers around the world and helps organisations stay current on major Pega platform releases, providing expertise and best practices through teams devoted to operationalising the upgrade process.
As part of the initiative, Virtusa will be enabled to upgrade clients to the recently-introduced Pega 7 platform. Pegasystems is a Cambridge-based provider of business process management (BPM) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. The company recently expanded its Hyderabad facility to accommodate close to 250 people, taking its total employee count in India to 501.
“Pega 7 enables our clients to improve their customer experience and optimise business processes in ways previously not thought possible,” Frank Palermo, senior vice-president (technical solutions group), Virtusa, said in a press release on Monday. //
source:  http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News / by K. Rajani Kanth / Hyderabad – October 07th, 2013

Second company to set up shop at Hyderabad airport Free Trade Zone

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

HyderabadAirportHF16oct2013

Hyderabad airport FTZ had earlier signed Turbo Jet Engines as its maiden client

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) has signed a second client for the airport-based Free Trade Zone (FTZ) at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here.

SAS Applied Research & Lab Materials Private Limited, a supplier of rare and high end research chemicals along with equipment and consumables to  Indian and multinational companies, will set up operations at the FTZ. SAS clients include Dr Reddy’s Lab, Biological E Ltd, E.I DuPont, United States Pharmacopeia, ITW Performers & Polymers, Syngenta Bio Sciences and Lupin Pharmaceuticals.
“The sign off with our second client at FTZ, reiterates the airport’s commitment and credibility in expanding business avenues and also the growth potential at RGIA.” GHIAL chief executive officer, SGK Kishore, stated in a press release.
The FTZ, which had earlier signed its maiden client, Turbo Jet Engines , has facilities ranging from servicing, distribution, trading  and warehousing, and several other value additions, he said.
source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News / by Prashanth Reddy Chintala / Hyderabad – October 08th, 2013

TiE entrepreneurial summit to be held in Hyderabad

Business & Economy, Nri's / Pio's, Science & Technology

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) has announced that TES 2013 (TiE Entrepreneurial Summit), Asia’s largest and premier annual conference of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, would be held here Dec 18-20.

TES is a platform that brings together the entire ecosystem of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, policy makers, thought leaders and other stake holders and acts as a catalyst to fast track ideas into action.

The theme for TES 2013, ‘Yes, You Can! Dream-Think-Achieve’, was launched by Srini Raju, Chair of the conference and Managing Director of investment firm Peepul Capital.

“This year’s theme is symbolic of what every enterprise is all about – never give up and pursue the dream. We are excited to bring TES for the first time to Hyderabad ,” said Murali Bukkapatnam, president TiE Hyderabad.

Bukkapatnam is also the managing director and CEO of getdomestichelp.com.

“Such global event will provide an opportunity to entrepreneurs to explore more growth possibilities for their business through networking.

“It will also help budding entrepreneurs to overcome the challenges in funding and incubation,” said Ananth Rao, convener TES and managing director- Focus Ventures.

This summit might lead to attracting investors to consider Andhra Pradesh and India as the prime geographies for their business expansion plan, he added

TiE was founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley by a group of successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and senior professionals, with an aim to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking and education.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-IANS> Business-Economy / IANS / Hyderabad – October 09th, 2013

Telugu film industry MoU with Motion Pictures Association of America

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Records, All, World Opinion

The Telugu film industry, the second largest in India after Bollywood, has bolstered its defences against pirated content, by entering into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

The MoU envisages waging a joint war against video piracy, apart from exchanging best practices. It may be recalled that the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce (APFCC) was the first in the country to set up an Anti-Video Piracy Cell (AVPC) in 2005 with the State Government’s support.

With the onset of online piracy, the AVPC began monitoring internet activity 24/7. The anti-piracy body has achieved moderate success, with professionals tracking content including new film songs and the like and cracking the pirates using Internet Protocol numbers.

The MPAA’s six member companies include Paramount Pictures Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox film Corporation, Universal City Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Warner Bros. Entertainment. The APFCC’s MoU was achieved through MPAA’s Indian arm, the Motion Picture Distributors Association (India) with the objective of protecting content and intellectual property.

At an interactive session, Michael D. Robinson, Executive Vice-President, Contention Protection and Chief of Operations of the MPAA and Edward B. Neubronner, Vice-President and Regional Operations Officer, Asia-Pacific for the Motion Picture Association International underscored the need for cooperation across the borders of the East and West.

They recalled a U.S. – India Business Council/Ernst & Young 2008 report on ‘the Effects of Counterfeiting and Piracy on India’s Entertainment Industry’ and said the Indian film industry had lost U.S. $ 959 million in revenue and 5,71,896 jobs due to piracy.

The APFCC was represented by its President, D. Suresh Babu and producer Allu Arvind, while Chairman of the AVPC’s Governing Council, Rajkumar made a presentation on anti-piracy activities here, outlining the way forward and strategies to be adopted in the global war against piracy.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Cinema Plus / by Suresh Krishnamoorthy / Hyderabad – March 23rd, 2013

L&T Hyderabad Metro gets first rail coach from Hyundai-Rotem

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology

 

The Hyderabad Metro Rail coach./ Photo: P.V. Sivakumar /
The Hyderabad Metro Rail coach./ Photo: P.V. Sivakumar /

Trains to run from a central monitoring system

Hyderabad :

L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd today put on display the first rail coach it received from the Hyundai-Rotem consortium.

It announced that the elevated rail system would be fully managed remotely. These trains will be driverless and run from a central control system. And the ‘driver’ in the metro train coach will only help facilitate entry and exit of passengers and ensure their safety.

This coach is part of the large order the metro project placed on the consortium for supply of rail coaches for the 72-km elevated metro rail project being developed by L&T.

The coach was formally unveiled here today by the State Chief Minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, in the presence of officials of L&T and metro rail officials.

Reddy described the Rs 14,300-crore project as the largest public-private partnership project in the country which has potential to transform Hyderabad into a megapolis.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, with L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail Chief Executive and Managing Director, V.B. Gadgil, and Managing Director, N.V.S. Reddy, in the newly unveiled Hyderabad Metro Rail coach./ Photo: P.V. Sivakumar
The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, with L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail Chief Executive and Managing Director, V.B. Gadgil, and Managing Director, N.V.S. Reddy, in the newly unveiled Hyderabad Metro Rail coach./ Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

Once completed, this will be a jewel in the crown of Hyderabad along with Outer Ring Road and other infrastructure being developed in the fourth largest and fifth populous city.

Each air-conditioned coach will have capacity to seat about 330 people and a train of six coaches is expected to carry about 2,000 passengers. While these trains have capability to manage a top speed of 80 km per hour, the average speed is likely to be 38-40 km per hour. Initially, 171 coaches for 57 trains will be supplied by Hyundai-Rotem and the rest in a phased manner, N.V.S.Reddy, Managing Director of Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd, said.

Initially, it is proposed to run each train with three coaches and later this will be ramped up to six coaches for one train. The gap between each train will be 90 seconds. All the trains will have CCTV cameras inside and outside the cars. There will be mobile and laptop charging sockets inside the cars. The supply of coaches will be in a phased manner as the project is ready for commissioning.

First phase will be operational by March –April 2015.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Industry> Logistics / by The Hindu Bureau  rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in / Hyderabad – October 02nd, 2013