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Companies

� Govt to Make PuducherryInt’l Destination of Tourism

PUDUCHERRY Union Minister of

State for Culture, Tourism and Civil

Aviation Mahesh Sharma on May 4

said the “Centre is committed to

make Puducherry an international destination

of tourism”. Declaring open the .̀ 5.5 crore Pu-

ducherry Science Centre and Planetarium es-

tablished jointly by National Council of Science

Museums (NCSM) here, he said Puducherry has

a rich heritage, culture and natural beauty. “I

assure that at the Central level we are commit-

ted to make Puducherry an international desti-

nation of tourism,” Sharma said. Appreciating

the setting up of the Science Centre, the minis-

ter said it was high time that the traits of

exploration is kindled and encouraged in

young children. “There is a need to ignite the

trait of exploring among children in the coun-

try,” he said. — PTI

� In 3-4 yrs, Miele India mayContribute 4% to Global Sales

NEW DELHI Driven by increase in

sales turnover, Miele India, a unit of

German high-end domestic ap-

pliances maker Miele, expects to

contribute up to 4% in its global sales in next

three to four years. In 2013-14, Miele had a

global turnover of ¤3.22 b and India’s contri-

bution in it, at present, is less than 1%. “Miele

India would contribute between 3% and 4% of

its global sales in next three to four years. The

kind of orders we have now from our project

business, it has potential to reach (target) in

the coming years,” he said. To achieve the tar-

get, the firm plans to increase its points of sales

from 37 to 47 and would add Rajkot, Jaipur and

Chandigarh in its network by 2015-end, he

added. He said the firm’s project development

business, in which it supplies high-end domes-

tic appliances to luxury flat makers, is increa-

sing and would contribute half of its total reve-

nue by the end of next year. “Last year, Miele’s

90% revenue came from retail and rest 10%

from project development business. This year

it would be 65:35 and next year we are expect-

ing it to be around 50:50,” he added. — PTI

� Mylan Launches SovaldiTablets in India

HYDERABAD Pharma giant Mylan

NV on May 4 said its subsidiary My-

lan Pharmaceuticals has launched

Gilead Sciences’ Sovaldi (sofos-

buvir 400mg tablets) in the country. Sovaldi is

indicated for the treatment of chronic hepati-

tis-C infection as a component of a combina-

tion antiviral treatment. It is estimated that

around 12 million people are chronically in-

fected with hepatitis-C in India, Mylan said. In

Feb this year, Gilead appointed Mylan as its ex-

clusive distributor of Sovaldi in India. Mylan

president Rajiv Malik said they have a history

of partnering with Gilead to tackle key public

health issues in India and around the world, be-

ginning with expanding access to high quality

and affordable HIV/AIDS antiretrovirals. “We

are proud to continue our work together with

the launch of Sovaldi as it supports our joint

commitment to meeting the unmet medical

needs of patients in India,” Malik said.— PTI

� Glenmark Gets USFDA Nodfor Psoriasis Cream for Now

NEW DELHI Glenmark Pharmaceu-

ticals has received tentative ap-

proval from the US health regulator

for generic Calcipotriene cream,

used for the treatment of plaque psoriasis. It

said that Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, USA, a

subsidiary of the company, has been granted

tentative approval by the United States Food &

Drug Administration (USFDA) for Calcipotriene

cream, 0.005%. The product is the therapeutic

equivalent of Danish pharma firm Leo Pharma

A/S Dovonex’s topical cream of the same

strength, it added. “Glenmark will market this

product upon receiving final approval of its

Calcipotriene cream, 0.005%, abbreviated new

drug application (ANDA),” the firm said. The

patents listed for Dovonex cream are sched-

uled to expire on June 9, 2015, it added.— PTI

Short Takes

Our Bureau

Mumbai: TimesPro, the Times Centre forLearning, has been given the Best Upcom-ing Educational Institute Award by Asso-cham at its National Education ExcellenceAwards 2015, for its unique professionaleducation programmes offered to freshgraduates.

The award was presented by Ram Shan-kar Katheria, Minister of State for HRDMinistry, and accepted by Nagendra Chow-dary, head of academics at Times Pro. Thenominated institutes were evaluated by ajury of educationists on the criteria of in-novation, scalability, ability to overcomechallenges, achievements and impact po-tential.

Deepak Lamba, TimesPro President,said, “The courses lay emphasis on provid-ing hands-on training to students throughsmart-classes, projects, guest lectures,group discussions and simulations. Essen-tially we make them job ready from day 1,hour 1.”

TimesPro, which offers courses in bank-ing, finance and business analytics at 21training centres across the country, hastrained close to 2000 students and placedthem with leading corporates in India, hesaid.

“I am happy that our vision to offer theyouth career-oriented education is takingshape and I’m sure the skills that they havelearned here will give them an accom-plished professional life,” Lamba added.

TimesPro Wins atAssocham NationalExcellence Awards

No investor in the

world believes that

India is a tax haven

and the large tax de-

mands on Cairn and FIIs have rattled in-

vestors and must be resolved quickly, said

Patricia Hewitt, head of the UK India Busi-

ness Council backed by the British govern-

ment. With industry sentiment about the Mo-

di government moving from irrational

exuberance to ‘rational optimism’, she said it

must move from its campaign poetry to gov-

ernance prose. In an interview with Vikas

Dhoot, Hewitt, who was a minister in the To-

ny Blair government, said the changes in the

land acquisition law are critical for turning

India’s economy around, and many British

firms are keen on initiatives like Make In In-

dia. Edited Excerpts:

Where do you see India nearly a year into

the Modi regime?

That’s been the central theme of my dis-

cussions with my board and business leaders

in India and the UK, after the extra-ordinary

election victory of the Modi government. We

have started in more recent months, in both

the British and the Indian media, to hear (usu-

ally anonymously): “Oh, business is dis-

appointed and there hasn’t been a big-bang

reform” sort of comments.

Certainly, in the business community, senti-

ment has moved from almost irrational exu-

berance and huge expectations that nobody

could possibly meet, to rational optimism.

That’s very good. Narendra Modi is brilliant at

campaigning in poetry, as one of the world’s

great political campaigners. But the govern-

ment is both about the vision and strategy

and about the execution, which is governing

in prose.

Could you elaborate on this mood swing in

businesses about India?

After the election, expectations were sky

high. The PM himself made it very clear that

there had to be a more rational understand-

ing of what it would take to transform the In-

dia narrative.

Now, as a former minister, I think that (in-

dustry’s disappointment) reflects truly unre-

alistic expectations of what a new govern-

ment can actually do. But I also believe, it

reflects an underestimation of what had

been done, not only on the institution build-

ing side, but also the Make In India, rapid pro-

gress of GST with a firm date for its introduc-

tion, the increase in FDI limits in

insurance...With the changes now being

made to land acquisition, which I hope the

government would be able to translate from

an ordinance into a law very quickly, is also

critical to advancing infrastructure. There’s

been a great deal already done, including the

energising of the bureaucracy.

Of course, not everything has happened in

exactly the way that every business leader,

investor or employer would like, but the re-

cord is impressive.

You are saying everyone expected a

catharsis from the government?

Catharsis is a good word. When there is such

an overwhelming electoral victory, it is a sort

of catharsis. From expectations, then dis-

appointment, and now, what I have heard in

every conversation has been ‘Of course, we

are optimistic. Look at all that’s happening. Of

course, some things are not moving as fast as

we would like’. But the direction is absolutely

clear and right.

Is taxation still a touchy issue?

Yes. I have discussed this privately with the

finance minister. We welcome the public

comments about retrospective taxation not

being used in any new case. But there’s con-

cern on the recent issuing of tax assessments

against Cairn and FIIs. I hope things would be

resolved very quickly, because anything that

creates uncertainty is not good for invest-

ments. We are huge backers of the Indian

economy and there is a great deal of in-

vestment more to come from the UK. At the

end of the day, the more investment India

can mobilise, the faster it will grow and gen-

erate the jobs that make the best pro-poor

policy for any country.

But the FM has explained that India is not

a tax haven…

I don’t think any investor in the world would

regard India as a tax haven. These individual

corporate issues would have to be resolved

in courts and in arbitrations and they should

be fixed as quickly as possible.

Have hopes of FDI in multi-brand retail

evaporated?

The fact that they have simply left the (multi-

brand retail) policy where it is rather than re-

verse it, is an important signal. That will be

plenty to go on with. We are seeing some in-

teresting investments via collaborations fo-

cusing on the back-end and logistics supply

chain and that’s going to be absolutely critical

for delivering real food security for India.

‘Changes in Land Law Key to Economy’s Turnaround’Q&A

PATRICIA HEWITTHead, UK India Business Council

Sentiment has moved fromalmost irrational exuberanceand huge expectations thatnobody could possibly meet,to rational optimism. That’svery good.

RaviTeja.Sharma@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: Private equity funds are onceagain raising their investments in the Indianreal estate sector, but this time they are seek-ing more control, according to Stuart Ro-berts, chief executive for Asia Pacific at prop-erty advisory firm DTZ.

“The market has been pruned and that is agood thing. That is why people are comingback,” Roberts said comparing the pace of PE investments in the sector with the previous years, when several funds had towrite off their investments after projectsfailed to take off.

The market today is in a different state ofmaturity, he said, adding, “PE funds too are

more educated about India now”. Competi-tion for the Indian real estate has also in-creased since 2005 when the government be-gan allowing foreign investments in thesector. India was earlier among the few goodopportunities globally, Roberts said. But to-day, it is one of the many.

Roberts, who joined DTZ in February, saidthe Narendra Modi government has man-aged to restore international confidence inthe country. “India was not even part of theconversation internationally in 2013. It hadfallen off the map but in the last 12 months, it’sback,” he said. “Today, there isn’t a corpora-tion in the world which doesn’t have India inits strategic plan.”

This is reflected in the growth of commer-cial office space leasing in the country.

‘PEs Upbeat About Realty,but Want more Control Now’

Nabeel.Khan@timesinternet.in

New Delhi: For Motherson SumiSystems, a .̀ 15,400-crore order it justwon from Daimler will take it closerto a cherished goal: achieving 30% ofconsolidated revenue from theAmericas in the next five years. Un-der the deal, the Noida-based compa-ny will set up two plants — one eachin the US and Hungary — close to theGerman auto giant’s manufacturingfacilities in those countries. Oncethese factories start production, it isexpecting orders from other automanufacturers as well.

Increasing orders from the Ameri-cas is part of Motherson’s strategy toreduce overdependence on Europe,from where the company got 58% ofits consolidated revenue of over $5billion in the fiscal year ended on

March 31, 2014. North and SouthAmerica accounted for 10% of fiscal2014 revenue and 14% in the firstnine months of fiscal 2015.

“We have been trying options toincrease our business in Americasfor the past two years,” chairmanVC Sehgal said. “With this new or-der from Daimler, we will have abackup to further push the journeyof growth in this region.”

Under the order announced lastweek, Motherson’s unit Samvardha-na Motherson Automotive SystemsGroup would supply a range of exte-rior and interior systems for severalfuture generations of Mercedes-

Benz vehicles over a period of aboutfive-and-half years. To supportDaimler’s expansion activities,Motherson would increase capacityat its existing plants in Germany, be-sides setting up the new factories.

Supplies are expected to start in2018. The company has alreadyshort-listed land for a plant at Tusca-loosa in Alabama near Daimler’splant. The plant in Hungary will belocated close to Daimler’s oper-ations at Kecskemet.

The US plant will be first off theblock. Construction is expected tostart by the end of this year and trialproduction, by 2017-end.

Motherson Closes in on US Dream Mega Daimler order to

bring co closer to the

target of 30% of

revenue from Americas

Going Great Guns

Source: Company

Top 3 countries- revenue wise in FY14

Germany

Spain

India

33%

18%

16%

Top contributor to consolidated revenue in FY14

Europe

India (Home)

Asia Pacific

America

Africa

58%

16%

15%

10%

1%

Timex Plans to TapWearables Market

Danish.Khan@timesinternet.in

New Delhi: Timex Group is planningto tap India’s wearables market with itssmartwatches and fitness bands. It’slooking at gaining a share of as much as15% of the market.

“We are aiming to sell more than 5lakh wearable devices in India by theend of the ongoing financial year,”Anupam Mathur, head of sales andmarketing at Timex Group India, toldET. This would account for 10-15% ofoverall volume and value sales in In-dia, he said.

Timex launched the Ironman Runx20 GPS smartwatch and IronmanMove x20 fitness band, priced at.̀ 11,995 and .̀ 8,995, respectively, onMonday. Amazon will be the sole dis-tributor of these devices in India inthe current year. Chinese smartphonemaker Xiaomi recently launched fit-ness device Mi Band, which will go onsale May 5, via its own ecommercewebsite. With a .̀ 999 price tag, the MiBand is expected to provide a much-needed push to the country’s weara-bles market.

In India, the market is at a nascentstage, selling a handful of productssuch as smartwatches and fitnessbands launched by handset makerssuch as Samsung, Sony, Motorola and

Alcatel OneTouch. Sales of wearabledevices such as smartwatches and fitness bands totaled 1 lakh units in Indiain 2014and is es-timatedto rise toslightlyabovehalf amillionin 2015,accord-ing toCoun-terpointRe-search.

The beginning of a new fitness regime