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The <keyword id="20163832" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="society-of-indian-automobile" source="keywords">Society of Indian Automobile</keyword> Manufacturers (<keyword id="108827" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="siam" source="Orion">SIAM</keyword>) and big auto players have hailed the Cabinet decision of PM e-DRIVE schemes aimed at promoting electric mobility across the country. The Rs 10,900 crore scheme will support 2,479,000 electric 2-wheelers, 316,000 electric 3-wheelers and 14,028 electric buses, along with 88,500 <keyword id="186291" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="ev" source="Orion">EV</keyword> charging sites. Shailesh Chandra, President of SIAM and Managing Director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd &amp; Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd, expressed strong support for the government's forward-thinking initiative. Chandra said, "This forward-thinking initiative reflects the Government's unwavering support for <keyword id="19895063" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="india" source="keywords">India</keyword>'s transition to electric mobility, fostering innovation and investment within the sector. We believe this scheme will not only enhance the growth of the EV ecosystem but also strengthen India's leadership in the global movement towards environmental sustainability." Dr Anish Shah, Group CEO &amp; MD, Mahindra Group also commended government's efforts, specifically highlighting the comprehensive nature of the PM e-DRIVE scheme. Shah said, "We applause the government for launching the PM e-drive scheme. With continued focused support on 2Ws, 3Ws, e-buses and thoughtful addition of e-ambulances, the scheme will drive higher EV penetration in the country." M&amp;M noted that schemes like <keyword id="21028" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fame" source="Orion">FAME</keyword> and <keyword id="48070" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="emps" source="Orion">EMPS</keyword> have already driven penetration of electric three-wheelers in India. "Investments laid out for fast charging infrastructure for all segments will help in increasing consumer confidence for faster adoption of EVs. FAME and EMPS have helped in 20 per cent e-3W penetration in the country. With PM e-drive, we foresee India becoming the first country to achieve 100 per cent electrification in this segment by 2030", he added. The Union Cabinet, on Wednesday, cleared the 'PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM e-DRIVE) Scheme,' with a total outlay of Rs 10,900 crore over two years. It includes Rs 3,679 crore in subsidies and demand incentives for e-2Ws, e-3Ws, e-ambulances, e-trucks, and other emerging electric vehicles. It is expected to support the deployment of 24.79 lakh e-2Ws, 3.16 lakh e-3Ws, and 14,028 e-buses, providing a significant push to India's EV ecosystem. A critical aspect of the scheme is the introduction of e-vouchers for EV buyers. At the time of purchase, an Aadhaar-authenticated e-voucher will be generated, which will enable buyers to avail of demand incentives. Additionally, the scheme allocates Rs 500 crore for the deployment of e-ambulances, marking a new initiative to integrate electric vehicles into essential public services. Another Rs 4,391 crore has been earmarked for the procurement of 14,028 e-buses, with a demand aggregation process led by CESL in nine major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. Intercity and interstate e-buses will also be supported in consultation with states. Furthermore, Rs 500 crore has been set aside to incentivize the adoption of e-trucks, a critical move given that trucks are one of the largest contributors to air pollution. The scheme encourages those with a scrapping certificate from <keyword id="19897457" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ministry-of-road-transport" source="keywords">Ministry of Road Transport</keyword> and Highways-approved (MoRTH) vehicle scrapping centres to participate in this transition. With an allocation of Rs 2,000 crore, the scheme will support the installation of 22,100 fast chargers for four-wheelers, 1,800 fast chargers for e-buses, and 48,400 fast chargers for two- and three-wheelers. These chargers will be installed in cities with high EV penetration and along selected highways, making long-distance EV travel more viable.

Automobile industry hails PM e-DRIVE scheme to promote EVs

Up to 3.72 lakh <keyword id="19895203" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="electric-vehicles" source="keywords">electric vehicles</keyword> will be supported under the four-month <keyword id="20961992" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Electric-Mobility-Promotion-Scheme" source="keywords">Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme</keyword> (<keyword id="20951149" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="EMPS" source="keywords">EMPS</keyword>) being implemented between April and July with an outlay of Rs 493.55 crore, the government said on Tuesday. Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) - 2024 will provide further impetus to the <keyword id="20156633" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="green-mobility" source="keywords">green mobility</keyword> and development of electric vehicle (EV) <keyword id="20071405" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="manufacturing-ecosystem" source="keywords">manufacturing ecosystem</keyword> in the country. The maximum number of electric vehicles to be supported under the scheme stands at 3,72,215, including 3,33,387 electric <keyword id="20201345" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="two-wheelers" source="keywords">two-wheelers</keyword>, 13,590 e-rickshaws or e-carts and 25,238 electric three-wheelers in the L5 category, according to figures shared by the <keyword id="20021346" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ministry-of-Heavy-Industries" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Ministry of Heavy Industries" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Ministry of Heavy Industries">Ministry of Heavy Industries</keyword>. "EMPS 2024 is fund limited, with restricted number of vehicles and a term-limited Scheme, i.e., the <keyword id="19977665" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="subsidies" source="keywords">subsidies</keyword> for <keyword id="22519910" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="demand-incentive" source="keywords">demand incentive</keyword> are eligible for e-2w and e-3w sold and registered until the funds are available or the number of vehicles supported reaches the maximum number defined category-wise (shown in para above) or until July 31, 2024, whichever comes first," the ministry stated.

Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme to support up to 3.72 lakh EVs: Govt

Emissions from residential cooking and heating, power generation, and industries together contribute up to 60 per cent of India's PM2.5 pollution, with about 80 per cent of this coming from <keyword id="23824528" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fossil-fuel-combustion" source="keywords">fossil fuel combustion</keyword>, a new study has found. The peer-reviewed study, published in MDPI's "Air" journal, suggests dividing India into 15 airsheds based on regional climate and pollution sources. An airshed is a geographic area where <keyword id="53848" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="air-quality" source="Orion">air quality</keyword> is influenced by common factors such as wind patterns and pollution sources. Since pollution can spread across regions, the <keyword id="22077484" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="airshed-approach" source="keywords">airshed approach</keyword> promotes coordinated action among states. "Residential cooking and heating, power generation, and all other industries together are responsible for 40-60 per cent of the PM2.5 pollution in all the airsheds, and approximately 80 per cent of the pollution comes from fossil fuel burning sources," said Sarath Guttikunda, lead author of the study and founder of UrbanEmissions.info. The study said biomass burning, including post-harvest crop residue burning, contributed less than 3 per cent to annual PM2.5 levels while transport accounted for 5-10 per cent in all airsheds. PM2.5 are fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less, about the width of a human hair. These are so small that these can penetrate deep into the lungs and even enter the bloodstream, posing significant health risks. An analysis of PM2.5 trends from 1998 to 2020, along with state-level data on fuel consumption, energy demand and emissions, revealed that 11 of the 15 airsheds were critical for India's air quality management and required coordinated interventions. The Indo-Gangetic Plains remain the most polluted region, with significant emissions from residential cooking and heating (especially in winter), power plants, brick kilns (driven by construction demand), waste burning, dust and vehicular movement for passengers and freight. The plateau region between the Eastern and Western Ghats, India's second most populated area, has seen the highest rise in annual PM2.5 pollution during this period, the study said. "This is an indication of the growing urbanisation and demand for transport, industrial, and commercial amenities," it said. Coastal areas, vital to India's industrial economy, have also experienced rising pollution despite the moderating effects of land-sea breezes. This increase is attributed to growing shipping emissions and overall industrial growth in cities such as Mundra, Surat, Mumbai, Goa, Mangalore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Haldia.

Study traces 60% PM2.5 pollution in India to residential cooking, power generation, industries

How do you choose the right people to be in charge? It's a question that businesses have wrestled with for as long as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/job-title-inflation-gen-z-great-resignation-overtime-pay-resume-2023-2">corporate hierarchies</a> have existed. Back in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, factory owners had a pretty crude system: They just chose male family members to supervise things, even if their sons or nephews knew absolutely nothing about the trade. That was obviously a bad idea, and since then, we've spent a century and a half honing the art and science of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/promotions-salaries-cut-career-advancement-stagnation-2024-7">promotions</a>. The days of blatant nepotism have been replaced, for the most part, by a system that strives for meritocracy: a deliberative process involving search committees, job descriptions, performance ratings, and reference checks that gets more complicated by the year.But what if we're still going about it all wrong? That's the conclusion of a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w32699">new study</a> published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. In some cases, researchers found, the dominant practices that businesses use to promote <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-jobs-middle-managers-return-to-office-burnout-pressure-2024-9">managers</a> are so bad that they'd actually be better off picking names out of a hat. The way we pick supervisors, it turns out, is worse than the whims of chance.To study promotions, the researchers conducted a series of clever experiments. They divided people into groups of three — one manager and two workers — and gave them various problems to solve collaboratively. The manager's job was to assign tasks, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-millennials-boomers-low-employee-engagement-jobs-productivity-wfh-2023-3">motivate workers</a>, and monitor the group's progress; the workers' job was to complete the tasks they got from their manager.Then came the variable. In some groups, the managers were chosen at random, by lottery. But in other groups, managers were selected based on their own preferences. The researchers call this self-promotion: The people who most wanted to become managers became the managers.Self-promotion, as it happens, is one of the primary ways companies select managers in real life. Employees who want a bigger title and more responsibility express their interest in moving up the corporate ladder and do the requisite lobbying to clinch the role. The louder you are about your ambitions, the more likely you are to realize them.But the study found that the groups in which managers were selected by self-preference actually performed worse than the groups in which managers were chosen by lottery. And therein lies an irony at the very heart of corporate life: The people who most want to become managers end up being bad managers.To understand why, the researchers looked at the traits of the people who were eager to be in charge. These self-promoters, as the study called them, turned out to be pretty full of themselves. They tended to overestimate their ability to perceive other people's emotions — a key component of good management. And the more extroverted they said they were and the more highly they rated their own political skills, the worse the teams they led performed."It boils down to some people being overconfident about their own managerial abilities," says David Deming, one of the authors of the study and an economist at the Harvard Kennedy School. "You might think you're really good with people when actually you're not." And in what will come as a surprise to absolutely no one, self-promoters in the study tended to be male. It's the Dunning-Kruger effect for management: In corporate America, few things are as dangerous as the overconfidence of mediocre men.So that's how we wind up with the wrong people running the show. And it matters a lot for how companies perform. Because despite all of the nonsense that the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are spouting these days, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/middle-managers-great-flattening-organization-meta-tech-layoffs-firing-2023-3">middle managers</a> actually play a huge role in things like productivity, collaboration, and morale. Good supervisors, the study found, have nearly twice as much impact on team performance than good rank-and-file workers — which means companies are losing out on quite a bit of productivity by choosing the wrong managers.But that doesn't mean Deming and his coauthors think companies should choose managers via lottery. There were some measures in the study that successfully predicted whether someone would make a good manager. One was the person's performance as a rank-and-file worker, as measured by their individual score on the kinds of problem-solving tasks each group was given. The better they did as workers, the better they did as managers.That's precisely how a lot of businesses select managers — by elevating their most talented line workers into positions of leadership. But in the study, teams overseen by supervisors who did well as workers performed only slightly better than those overseen by lottery-selected managers. That still leaves a lot of potential productivity on the table.What did much better at predicting good managers was intelligence, as measured by a common IQ test. And what did best of all was measuring a manager's competence at decision-making. Researchers administered a quick test, which the Harvard Skills Lab has <a target="_blank" href="https://game.skillslab.dev/tasks/assignment">made available online</a>, to measure how a potential manager would allocate resources. (I scored at the 85th percentile, which Deming says is good, even though I don't think I was a particularly good manager back when I was one.) The best managers, it turns out, are those who are actually good at one of the primary responsibilities of a manager — assigning the right projects to the right people.That might sound like a no-brainer — selecting managers based on their ability to manage — but unfortunately, it isn't. Deming, who has spent more than a decade studying performance, notes that companies seldom assess potential supervisors based on the actual tasks they'll be expected to perform. "It sounds really obvious," he says. "But we don't do it."Deming points to the decade or so after Congress passed No Child Left Behind in 2001, when foundations sank huge sums into studying how to screen for effective teachers. Only one measurement worked: actual classroom performance. Teachers who did well in their first year, researchers found, also performed well in their subsequent years. The best tests for selecting teachers involved having them give short lessons and then grading them based on their performance. The best way to choose teachers, in other words, was to watch them teach.Testing candidates for their core competence is something businesses routinely do in hiring for many jobs. Tech companies ask software engineers to take <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-software-engineer-leetcode-coding-interview-prep-advice-2024-8">coding tests</a>; media outlets require reporters to write a memo pitching story ideas. Some companies even pay job candidates to work as part-time contractors for a few weeks to evaluate how they perform the actual tasks they'll be expected to do.But here's the thing: Companies rarely deploy any kind of formal test, let alone a trial period, to decide who to promote internally as managers. That process, by and large, still remains largely informal and subjective. Employers tend to pick managers based on their track record as workers — things like how hard they hustle and how well they collaborate with their colleagues. But that process evinces a profound misunderstanding of what makes for a good manager. Ambition, as Deming's study demonstrates, is a lousy indicator of effective leadership. And "plays well with others" is a completely different skill set than "gets others to play well with others."It's long past time for companies to recognize that managing is a distinct skill of its own — one that, given the right approach, can be effectively measured and evaluated. That might be as simple as giving managerial candidates a resource-allocation test, like the one Deming used in his research. Or companies can design assessments that are more specific to the supervisor roles they're looking to fill. Either way, we need to recognize that it's not enough to hand out promotions to extroverted men who mistakenly assume they'll be great leaders."The very simple — almost too simple — lesson is: If you want to predict who's going to be a good manager, have them manage a few people and measure their performance in some kind of systematic way," Deming says. "Don't think, well, they like to talk, and therefore they're going to be a good manager."<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/aki-ito">Aki Ito</a> is a chief correspondent at Business Insider.

The truth about promotions 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Eric Schmidt partly credits his time in the office for his promotions.</li><li>Schmidt said in-person work offers experiences crucial for career advancement.</li></ul>Want a promotion? Get into the office and soak up the knowledge within its walls, Google's former CEO says.While some companies have <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-open-letter-aws-ceo-office-return-rto-2024-10">faced resistance</a> after requiring staff to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-requiring-return-to-office-rto-mandate">return to the office</a>, Eric Schmidt said asking workers to come back is partly for "their own benefit."Schmidt, who ran Google from 2001 to 2011 as CEO, said in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zg--ouGl7c">a recent episode</a> of "The Diary of A CEO" podcast that he has a "strong view" that staff should work in person to gain the types of experiences that remote work can't offer."When I was a young executive, I knew nothing of what I was doing," Schmidt said. "I literally was just lucky to be there, and I learned by hanging out at the water cooler, going to meetings, hanging out, being in the hallway."The knowledge acquired from being in office was "central" to his later promotions, Schmidt said."If you're in your 20s, you want to be in an office because that's how you're going to get promoted," he said.Live Data Technologies conducted an analysis of 2 million white-collar workers and found that, over the previous year, the fully remote workers were promoted 31% less often than their hybrid or fully in-office peers, The Wall Street Journal <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/remote-workers-are-losing-out-on-promotions-8219ec63">reported</a> in January.Schmidt said he wanted to "acknowledge" that, in some industries that have been studied, the flexibility of working from home can increase productivity. Many people who want to be remote have legitimate commuting or family concerns, and there is data indicating that productivity is "slightly higher" when remote work is allowed, he added."At least for the industries that have been studied, there's evidence that allowing that flexibility from work from home increases productivity," he said. "I don't happen to like it, but I want to acknowledge the science is there."Researchers have studied the hot-button topic with conflicting results. A 2023 Goldman Sachs report that examined multiple studies suggested the varying conclusions could be due to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-work-wfh-productivity-impact-no-consensus-goldman-sachs-2023-8">differences in study design and how researchers measure productivity</a>.Studies have also suggested that being fully remote decreases workers' productivity. A 2023 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/working-paper/evolution-working-home">study</a> published by Stanford's Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) indicated that fully remote work led to a 10% decrease in productivity compared to fully in-person work, though hybrid work appeared to have "no impact on productivity."Although many execs praised the flexibility of hybrid schedules during the pandemic, several have <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-work-rto-billionaire-ceo-threaten-fire-workers-wfh-2023-8">backpedaled</a> in the years since. Companies, including Amazon, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs, have ditched their remote work policies for full return-to-office mandates, with some even threatening to track performance or terminate those who don't comply.Others have moved to a hybrid model. Mark Zuckerberg said in 2023 that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-update-meta-staff-remote-work-policy-lay-offs-2023-3">performance data</a> from Meta showed that "people who work from home are not efficient, and engineers who come to the office get more work done." Meta now requires employees to work at least three days a week from the office.Last year, <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-chatgpt-openai-ceo-career-net-worth-ycombinator-prepper-2023-1">OpenAI CEO Sam Altman</a> told Fortune Magazine one of the tech industry's "worst mistakes" was to allow employees to go "full remote forever."Schmidt expressed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-google-ceo-losing-ai-race-staff-work-from-home-2024-8">similar sentiments</a> in an April lecture at Stanford University, saying that Google is losing out to AI rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic because of its remote work policies."Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning," Schmidt said at the time. "And the reason the startups work is because the people work like hell." He said that if a tech giant wants to remain competitive against other startups, "you're not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week."After video of the lecture was published online in August, Schmidt walked back the remarks, with his spokesperson telling Business Insider that "Eric misspoke about Google and their work hours and regrets his error."Google told staff in 2022 that they were to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-to-bring-workers-back-to-office-three-days-week-2022-3">return to the office</a> for at least three days a week, later doubling down on RTO expectations the following year in an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-monitors-attendance-to-get-workers-back-to-office-2023-6">email to employees</a> that said attendance would factor into their performance reviews. However, Google <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-hybrid-work-policy-amazon-rto-employees-workplace-remote-2024-10">assured workers</a> in October that it would not follow Amazon's expectations for staff to come into the office five days a week.

Get to the office if you want a promotion, ex-Google CEO says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Idris Elba has shared more on his plans to help build the entertainment industry in Africa.</li><li>The Golden Globe winner has said he planned to build film studios in Ghana and Tanzania.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/idris-elba-in-therapy-workaholic-2023-10">Idris Elba</a> has set his sights on relocating to Africa, he said in an interview published this week.Speaking to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98yz7pxrlko">BBC</a> in Accra, Ghana, the 52-year-old actor, known for his roles in hit shows such as "The Wire" and "Luther," said he was committed to promoting the continent's blossoming film industry."I think [I'll move] in the next five, 10 years," he said. "I'm here to bolster the film industry — that is a 10-year process. I won't be able to do that from overseas. I need to be in-country, on the continent.""I would certainly consider settling down here; not even consider, it's going to happen," he continued, adding: "I'm going to live in Accra, I'm going to live in Freetown, I'm going to live in Zanzibar. I'm going to try and go where they're telling stories."Elba, who was born in London to a Sierra Leonean father and a Ghanaian mother, previously announced plans to build a film studio in Tanzania — and he has been granted land on the Tanzanian archipelago of Zanzibar to do so, the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8808gyxr8jo">BBC</a> reported in August.He also reportedly spoke last year about plans to build another studio in Ghana."Currently, we call it West African Studios, but that's a working title. We've been working on this for three or four years to raise a plan that puts a facility at the center of African filmmaking," he said.Africa's film industry is growing rapidly, and certain major streaming successes, such as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/the-black-book-nigerian-hit-movie-topped-netflix-2023-1235766628/">Netflix's Nigerian crime thriller "The Black Book,"</a> offer increasing optimism for the sector.With the digital revolution enabling creators to directly distribute work and increasing access to more affordable filming equipment, more and more people across Africa are becoming interested in the industry, with new generations of filmmakers "now able to live from the online revenue generated by their work," according to a 2021 UNESCO <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379165.locale=en">report</a>.And that interest seems to be filtering through to audiences. A Digital TV Research report from 2023 said that Africa was expected to reach 18 million Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) subscriptions by 2029, up from 8 million at the end of last year.The sector could also be key for creating jobs and boosting local economies, according to the UNESCO <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/10/1102232">report</a>.The report said that Africa's film and audiovisual industries had the potential to create more than 20 million jobs and add $20 billion to the continent's combined GDP.But the industry has also been hampered by issues such as piracy, limits on freedom of expression, and a lack of theaters. In 2021, there was one cinema screen per 787,402 people in Africa, according to the UNESCO report."The film and audiovisual sector in Africa remains historically and structurally underfunded, underdeveloped and undervalued," the report said.Elba, however, believes that's about to change for the entire entertainment industry in Africa."It will grow, and it can grow," he told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/20/economy/idris-elba-entertainment-industry-africa/index.html">CNN</a> earlier this month.

Africa's film industry is ripe to boom. Idris Elba wants to be there for it.

Travelling across India is safer and easier for tourists, <keyword id="20130044" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-tourism" source="keywords">Indian tourism</keyword> industry leaders have said, promoting the country, especially <keyword id="19894922" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Uttar-Pradesh" source="keywords">Uttar Pradesh</keyword>, as a premier tourist destination for Singaporeans. Their remarks came as they participated in the <keyword id="23693812" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ITB-Asia" source="keywords">ITB Asia</keyword>, a travel trade show held in Singapore From October 23 to October 25. "We need to educate <keyword id="21866171" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="global-travellers" source="keywords">global travellers</keyword> about the attractions in Uttar Pradesh and make UP known more and above the iconic <keyword id="20045918" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Taj-Mahal" source="keywords">Taj Mahal</keyword> in Agra," said Rahul Wadhwa who leads CAL India Tours and Travel. He estimated a growth of 10 per cent across the UP travel agency business. Further, Wadhwa said his Agra-based travel business was seeking collaborations globally to tie up travel arrangements and promote the state as well as India as a tourist destination. There are a growing number of five-star hotels and continuing investments in highways that make travelling across India, including UP, as seamless as the tourists expect, said the <keyword id="20181038" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="travel-industry" source="keywords">travel industry</keyword> veteran of 33 years. Technology-wise, the travel industry has also done well, moving away from the telex-based phone-call booked communications to speedier online-offline as well as mobile phone app-led bookings and arrangements for globe trotters. Travelling across India is also safer and easier, added Sushil Kumar Singh, managing director of Jatak Travels, dismissing all notions and misunderstandings about <keyword id="20415307" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="safety-and-security" source="keywords">safety and security</keyword> in India. "We have <keyword id="23693813" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tourist-friendly" source="keywords">tourist-friendly</keyword> people and highly rated facilities across the country and in UP," assured the head of the Varanasi-based travel group. The destinations and facilities in India are world-class. "We are no less than any other tourist destination," he stressed. "International tourists are visiting India freely," underscored Singh, who reported 200 per cent growth for his business post-Covid.

Indian tourism industry leaders spotlight Uttar Pradesh as safe and diverse travel destination

The department for promotion of industry and internal trade (<keyword id="19952901" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="DPIIT" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="DPIIT" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="DPIIT">DPIIT</keyword>) on Monday asked <keyword id="19957196" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="white-goods" source="keywords">white goods</keyword> manufacturers to participate in large numbers to avail fiscal benefits under the <keyword id="19952889" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="production-linked-incentive" source="keywords">production linked incentive</keyword> scheme for the sector as the response has been muted so far. Additional Secretary in the DPIIT Rajeev Singh Thakur said that the department has again reopened the application window for the PLI (production linked incentive) scheme for white goods (<keyword id="20360726" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ACs" source="keywords">ACs</keyword> and LED lights). The application window is open from July 15 to October 12. "In the PLI in white goods scheme, somehow the response has been muted. ...Probably due to various reasons not sufficient response has come. So I request (the industry) to have a look and probably this time, you can consider (applying)," Thakur said at the CII Consumer Electronics and Durables Summit 2024 here. So far, 66 applicants with committed investment of Rs 6,962 crore have been selected as beneficiaries under the PLI scheme. The Union Cabinet had given approval for the PLI scheme for white goods for <keyword id="19914449" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="manufacturing" source="keywords">manufacturing</keyword> of components and sub-assemblies of Air Conditioners (ACs) and LED lights on April 7, 2021. The scheme is to be implemented over a seven-year period, from 2021-22 to 2028-29, and has an outlay of Rs 6,238 crore. He added that the department can hold talks with the industry separately on issues like quality control orders and logistics. Thakur told the industry that the time is right to increase investments into the country as the government has enhanced its capex and taken steps to promote <keyword id="19996629" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ease-of-doing-business" source="keywords">ease of doing business</keyword>. The public capex in the last 10 years is growing at a fast pace in areas like highways, expressway, ports, airports and railways, but the commensurate response of the private sector "somehow is not up to the expectation", he said. Earlier speaking at the event, DPIIT Secretary Amardeep Singh Bhatia said that a lot of steps have been taken to promote ease of doing business, cutting down compliance burden and decriminalisation of minor offences. The government has also recently approved 12 industrial townships and the industry can look at investing there. He added that capital availability is not an issue now and the government has also provided protection to the industry from predatory imports. Schemes like PLI and semiconductor mission have been rolled out to promote manufacturing and "now we want the industry" to ensure that they have necessary collaborations in place for technology and investments. The industry should do collaborations not only to target the domestic market but also become part of global value chains. "That is an expectation we are having from the entire industry and I think industry will rise to meet these expectations... We have a huge demographic dividend and the industry should take advantage of this otherwise we will miss it," Bhatia added. He also said that there is no paucity of adequate skilled labour in the country and logistics costs too are coming down. On logistics, he cited examples of Amazon and Flipkart selling goods in the remotest part of the country. "I don't think industry should look at the current domestic demand only for collaborations. They should look at the future and export market also in addition to the domestic market," he said, adding expenditure on research and development is "abysmally" low and that needs to be enhanced. 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Govt asks white goods industry to apply for manufacturing sops in large numbers

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Taylor Swift is self-publishing "The Eras Tour Book" and releasing it exclusively at Target.</li><li>By excluding traditional publishers, Swift ensured she would get more of the book's revenue.</li></ul>Taylor Swift is in her author era. With her latest announcement, the singer is back to her business-disrupting playbook with "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book."Swift announced on "Good Morning America" Tuesday that the $39.99 commemorative book, set for release on Black Friday, would offer a behind-the-scenes look at her <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-eras-first-concert-tour-gross-over-1-billion-2023-12">record-breaking Eras Tour</a> and include musings from the star.The twist? The book will be self-published under Swift's new imprint, Taylor Swift Publications.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-reaches-billionaire-status-amid-monumental-eras-tour-bloomberg-2023-10">billionaire</a> is bypassing traditional publishers and distributors, releasing it exclusively with Target. At a time when celebrity titles <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prince-harry-spare-smashes-records-selling-14m-copies-first-day-2023-1">can bring in millions of dollars for publishers</a>, Swift ensured she's getting more of the revenue share.The move shouldn't come as a surprise. She has a history of making her own business rules — and squeezing every penny out of her superfans. Whether it's her album rereleases or her <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-making-millions-from-eras-mini-residencies-la-toronto-2023-8">touring strategy</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-chiefs-games-photos-2024-1">Swift</a> has repeatedly shown an ability to maximize her earnings."She understands how her fan base operates, and she is able to create a lot of different deal structures that just haven't existed," Clayton Durant, an adjunct professor at Long Island University's Roc Nation School of Music, Sports and Entertainment, told Business Insider. "There is so much business acumen here you could teach an entire MBA or business-level course on what she's doing."Swift has made clear that any industry she wants to explore is hers for the taking.<h2 id="191d2ca6-f73f-46de-8db0-25a2bdf0dae3">Swift doesn't need the resources publishers provide</h2>For decades, budding authors have had the same goal: Get a major publisher — the five biggest in the US today are Penguin Random House, Simon &amp; Schuster, Macmillan, HarperCollins, and Hachette — to release their books.But that dream has felt far-fetched in recent years as these companies focus on investing in what they see as "sure bets" like celebrity books, Erik Hane, the founder of Headwater Literary Management, told BI."The celebrity deal is sort of warping publishers toward really being less interested in supporting and fleshing out a writer's career before they're a sure thing with a huge following," he said.It's becoming increasingly difficult for new writers to break into the traditional publishing industry, leading some to consider <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sell-ebooks-kindle-amazon-self-publishing-author-2022-12">self-publishing</a> an alternative.<div type="image" title="Taylor Swift Eras Tour in Singapore on March 2, 2024." height="3244" width="4325" msid="114322814" hostid="261" sizebytes="190930"></div>There are benefits to the self-publishing model — the most important being that you can keep more of the money your book makes.Authors who work with traditional publishers earn money through advances and royalties on book sales, which, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://publishdrive.com/what-is-the-typical-royalty-rate-for-an-author.html">PublishDrive</a>, usually fall between 10% and 15%.Self-published authors can get a much larger percentage of sales and maintain creative control over their projects. They can also be more nimble, getting books published sooner than the two years it often takes to publish traditionally.There are still advantages to using the traditional publishing model, most notably access to printing presses, distributors, the media, and staff who can promote the book for an author.But Swift, arguably the most famous person to ever buck the traditional publishing path, doesn't require the resources that a typical self-published author, best associated today with an unknown name releasing an e-book on a shoestring budget, needs.As a self-published author, she can reap the rewards of the model without much risk because the money it takes to takes to write and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-make-money-and-build-you-audience-as-a-self-published-author-2023-7">market a book</a> — which can go up to $30,000 — will barely make a dent in her bottom line.Plus, in Target, she has a built-in distributor for her book that she trusts.Swift has a long-standing relationship with the retailer, often releasing Target-exclusive versions of her albums that feature songs her fans can't listen to anywhere else. The store warned fans that the book was likely to sell out quickly.Most important, she has the Swifties.<h2 id="981c3b20-7cdc-427e-8ea3-0b0979bc01de">Swift's loyal audience is her greatest asset</h2>As Swift's album and concert sales have shown, her social-media followers are prepared to buy whatever she's selling — and that's likely to remain true for her book."Taylor Swift is truly, I think, the one celebrity whose actual follower count correlates to sales," said Courtney Maum, an author and publishing expert who has worked in the industry for 20 years.Jessica Maddox, an associate professor of digital media at the University of Alabama who is a self-described <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-tortured-poets-department-album-lyrics-criticizing-fans-swifties-2024-4">Swiftie</a>, told BI that Swift's online power was evident in the fact that social media sites have actually changed to accommodate the singer — what she calls "the platformization of Taylor Swift."<div type="image" title="Taylor Swift wears a blue and yellow bodysuit during the &quot;Lover&quot; segment of the Eras Tour." height="3000" width="2000" msid="114322811" hostid="261" sizebytes="303622"></div>When Swift was set to release "The Tortured Poets Department" in April, X banned searches for leaks of the album, helping to ensure people didn't listen to pirated versions of it. And after Universal Music Group's music was removed from TikTok in early 2024, Swift was able to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-music-back-on-tiktok-despite-umg-ban-2024-4">strike her own deal to get her music back on the app</a>.Swift's relationship with the sites is mutually beneficial. Swifties flock to them to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-tortured-poets-department-easter-eggs-lyrics-explained-2024-4">share theories</a> about coming projects or what lyrics in her songs may mean, and she has a built-in marketing network.Maddox said Swift would most likely leverage her organic audience and free marketing from social-media platforms for her coming book, which she described as "a new take on marketing that the Big Five publishers could not provide her.""If someone at this scale has the resources at her disposal and the platform at her disposal, there's no reason to give up controlling that much of a cut," Hane added.<h2 id="0ec05052-b6b0-4860-a85b-aaf877afb69d">Taylor Swift has a history of innovating in business</h2>Swift's success — and how she's made her <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tortured-poets-department-taylor-swift-new-album-earnings-eras-tour-2024-4">billion-dollar fortune</a> — has relied on a series of moves that break from how artists have traditionally conducted business.The most obvious and biggest cash cow is her rerecordings, which she began releasing in 2021. Last year, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-taylor-swift-net-worth-billionaire/?sref=PKlsHl88">Bloomberg</a> estimated that the value of her catalog was $400 million — and that was before she released "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-tiktok-taylor-swift-beyonce-muse-streaming-quantity-over-quality-2024-7">The Tortured Poets Department</a>."Swift owns the majority of the masters and most of the publishing rights to the rerecorded versions. She earns money whether it is streamed, played on the radio, or purchased.<div type="image" title="Taylor Swift singing into a mic and wearing a white high-low gown onstage at the Eras Tour." height="5140" width="3427" msid="114322821" hostid="261" sizebytes="422514"></div>Swift wasn't the first artist in history to rerecord music — albums have rerecording clauses that allow artists to do just that after a certain period — but she is the first to find such success.She used a winning PR narrative — a female artist taking back power from a label — and her strong relationship with fans to make those rerecordings just as, if not more, popular than the original versions."Once you eclipse a certain amount of superstardom, it's being savvy enough to understand how these clauses work and how they're flexible," Durant said.The industry has been forced to adapt. Rerecording clauses, which were "very much passive deal points" in recording contracts, are now some of the "most toughly negotiated deal points," Durant added.Swift has extended this business savvy to all aspects of her career.Take something straightforward, like vinyl sales. Rather than just releasing one vinyl for each album, <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/taylor-swift-eras-tour-merch-vinyl-hotels-credit-cards-sales-2023-8">Swift has turned her records</a> into collectibles by releasing multiple versions with different cover art. Last year, nearly one out of every 15 vinyls sold was a Taylor Swift album, according to the entertainment data firm Luminate.In what most closely resembles her book deal, Swift self-produced last year's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-eras-beyonce-rennaissance-earn-concert-film-business-deals-2023-10">"Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" film</a>. She had to swallow the production costs but reaped financial rewards.<div type="image" title="taylor swift eras tour movie premiere" height="3335" width="4447" msid="114322818" hostid="261" sizebytes="407192"></div>Those profits were high, considering she also brokered her distribution deal with AMC, cutting out the intermediaries. The film grossed $260 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo. She pocketed eight figures from the theatrical run, plus whatever Disney+ paid for streaming rights.Beyoncé followed suit with a similarly structured deal for the film of her <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/beyonce-renaissance-concert-movie-review-2023-12">Rennaissance tour</a>. It's been widely speculated that she was inspired by Swift."Not every music star can pull this off," Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore's senior media analyst, told BI at the time. "Taylor Swift ignited the spark."Swift's coming book deal, done in a way that leaves her in control of the product and the profits, might inspire other authors to follow her example."Obviously, Taylor Swift is sort of a case under herself for this stuff in terms of just her reach," Hane said. "But there are a lot of people who aren't as famous as her but are still doing pretty well who this kind of thing might make sense for as well."And Swift's latest venture will likely just keep her fans coming back for more."There is no artist," Durant said, "creating more intrinsic value to the superfan than Taylor Swift."

Taylor Swift shook off publishers for her new book. That could spell trouble for the rest of the industry.

India’s electric vehicle (EV) sector, often seen as a key player in the country’s clean energy transition, has been called “irrelevant” without government <keyword id="20231384" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="incentives" source="keywords">incentives</keyword> by a recent Bernstein research report. The report highlights the serious challenges automakers face in achieving profitability and scaling operations in the EV segment, which remains heavily reliant on financial support from the government. <h2>Struggling to achieve profitability</h2>The Bernstein report reveals that generating profitable margins in the Indian EV sector is proving to be an uphill battle for automakers. “It is tough to generate sufficient margins and get scale in EVs. Even with hefty incentives, incumbent OEMs are still unprofitable,” the report stated. This underscores the fact that even with <keyword id="20022183" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="government-subsidies" source="keywords">government subsidies</keyword> aimed at promoting <keyword id="20138204" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="electric-mobility" source="keywords">electric mobility</keyword>, automakers are struggling to make EVs financially viable. High production costs, limited infrastructure, and relatively low consumer demand all contribute to this issue. Traditional automakers, particularly in India’s two-wheeler market, are facing significant financial losses. According to Bernstein, while some niche startups may survive, their long-term market share will likely remain limited, and competition will primarily be between established original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The key challenge for these OEMs is achieving the scale and cost reductions required to compete with the well-entrenched internal combustion engine (ICE) sector. <h2>Reliance on incentives</h2>One of the most striking conclusions from Bernstein’s analysis is the deep reliance of the EV sector on government subsidies. Without these incentives, the <keyword id="19952060" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="EV-Industry" source="keywords">EV industry</keyword> would be unable to compete with traditional ICE vehicles. “The EV Industry is not relevant without incentives currently, and to break the ICE sector, it needs intense focus, scale, and continued cost downs,” the report emphasised. This indicates that while government schemes like GST benefits have helped reduce the cost difference between EVs and ICE vehicles, they are not enough to ensure the long-term sustainability of the EV sector. Bernstein estimates that the overall EV two-wheeler industry in India generates around USD 1.3 billion in annual revenues, but without government support, the sector incurs an EBIT loss of approximately USD 300-400 million. The high cost structure of EVs, combined with the relatively low sales volumes, makes it difficult for companies to operate without subsidies. <h2>Established players face mixed fortunes</h2>Among India’s leading two-wheeler manufacturers, Bernstein noted that <keyword id="19897354" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bajaj-Auto" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Bajaj Auto" meta.hostid="265" meta.entityid="Bajaj Auto">Bajaj Auto</keyword> and <keyword id="20326963" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="TVS-Motors" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="TVS Motors" meta.hostid="265" meta.entityid="TVS Motors">TVS Motors</keyword> are on a similar footing in terms of their performance in the EV space. Bajaj Auto received an "Outperform" rating from Bernstein due to its lower valuations, while TVS Motors was rated "Market Perform" after it was found to be losing approximately 7.5% in EBITDA, or Rs 11,000 per vehicle, despite generating a gross profit margin of 7% without subsidies. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="113631992" title="Tata Nexon EV with a bigger battery launched starting at ₹13.99 lakh" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Hero MotoCorp, a major player in India’s automotive market, lags behind both Bajaj and TVS in terms of its EV offerings. Bernstein also pointed out that Eicher Motors, which is expected to launch its own <keyword id="19895203" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="electric-vehicles" source="keywords">electric vehicles</keyword> soon, is likely to remain “sub-scale and less relevant” in the competitive EV landscape. Interestingly, <keyword id="19897349" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ola-Electric" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Ola Electric" meta.hostid="265" meta.entityid="Ola Electric">Ola Electric</keyword> (Ola-E) stands out as a startup that has been able to generate positive operating earnings (EBITDA) from its premium models like the S1 Pro and S1 Air, even as it incurs losses on its mass-market model, the S1X. “Our analysis indicates that Ola-E is generating positive operating EBITDA from its premium models, such as the S1 Pro and S1 Air while incurring a loss on its mass-market model, the S1X,” the report said. While Ola has shown some promise, it too remains heavily dependent on subsidies to maintain its financial health. <h2>Long-term outlook</h2>Bernstein’s report paints a challenging picture for the future of India’s EV sector, suggesting that while dominant startups may survive, the majority of the competition will come from traditional automakers. However, without significant scale and continued cost reductions, the EV industry will struggle to become self-sustaining. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="113315022" title="Waiting for the festive season to buy an EV? Cabinet approves PM E-Drive subsidising most EVs, sans electric cars" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Bernstein emphasised that to truly compete with ICE vehicles, the EV sector needs to focus on scaling up operations, reducing costs, and maintaining long-term commitment. Until these conditions are met, India’s EV industry will remain highly dependent on government support and may continue to face an uphill battle for relevance. In conclusion, while India’s EV sector is seen as a vital part of the country’s clean energy future, Bernstein’s analysis highlights that it is far from being self-reliant. The industry’s heavy dependence on government incentives raises questions about its long-term sustainability and relevance, particularly in the face of ongoing challenges with profitability and scale. (With inputs from ANI)

Why has Bernstein called India’s EV sector 'irrelevant'?

India's <keyword id="20884491" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cement-industry" source="keywords">cement industry</keyword> is heating up faster than a kiln! If one’s tracking the sector, the war-like situation between the existing and emerging cement giants is pretty evident. For the uninitiated, Aditya Birla Group-backed <keyword id="19963567" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ultratech-Cement" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Ultratech Cement" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Ultratech Cement">Ultratech Cement</keyword> and <keyword id="19955648" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adani-Group" source="keywords">Adani Group</keyword> have been at loggerheads for increased market share in recent years. And now, JSW Cement also seems to be gearing up to challenge the potential duopoly. As conglomerates aggressively acquire smaller players to achieve market domination, the cement industry in India right now resembles an eighteenth-century battlefield. The battle has significantly escalated this year, but this trend of acquiring regional cement companies can be traced back to 2018 when Ultratech acquired Binani Cement. Since then, both Adani Group and Birla Group have been capturing checkposts all over India, one by one. Ultratech acquired Binani Cement to strengthen its base in the western region and this week, India Cement, for the southern states. Adani has also acquired the Hyderabad-based Penna Cement this year, after acquiring majority stakes in Ambuja Cements and ACC in 2022. But why the obsession with cement? <h2>Why are the Titans clashing for…cement?</h2>India's infrastructure boom is in full swing, and whoever controls the cement supply holds the key to this construction kingdom. Adani Group has been known to follow an acquire &amp; dominate strategy for capturing market segments. <keyword id="19907441" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aditya-Birla-Group" source="keywords">Aditya Birla Group</keyword>, however, has dominated the cement industry in India through Ultratech for a while now. The answer to the above question may simply lie in establishing the leadership moat for themselves. With even-growing public and private spending on infrastructure, both players want to capture the majority share to dominate the supplies of cement, which is essential for construction. <h2>Where is the sector heading?</h2>While both Adani and Aditya Birla groups have locked horns to acquire CK Birla’s Orient Cement for a while now, a new hurdle threatens their dominance. As per an Economic Times report, Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Cement has now started to evaluate the acquisition of the promoter stake in Orient Cement. As an emerging front, JSW Cement also aims to reach 50 MT per annum by 2030. However, two other major players, Shree Cement and Dalmia Bharat, already have 53 MTPA and 43 MTPA capacity. <div type="image" title="Birla Vs Adani" msid="112196675" hostid="261" sizebytes="284160" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Look back at major acquisitions in the cement sector&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> However, with over a dozen acquisitions over the last decade, both Ultratech and Adani Group are by far the largest players in the sector eyeing over 200 MT per annum by 2030. <h2>What about the prices?</h2>Will consumers benefit from this cutthroat competition to industry domination? In the short term at least, yes! While lower prices might sound appealing, it's essential to keep an eye on quality as consolidation in the manufacturing sector is always tricky. We don't want to end up with buildings crumbling like cookies. And let's not forget about the little guys. This consolidation of power into a few mega-corporations could squeeze out smaller players, reducing competition and potentially leading to higher prices in the long run. <h2>I think I’ve seen this film before….</h2>The current atmosphere of the cement industry feels reminiscent of what happened in the telecom industry in India in 2016 i.e. the infamous tussle of tariffs. As Reliance Industries launched Jio, it disrupted the entire segment and forced other telecom companies to compete on their terms. As a result, the tariffs fell sharply, companies shut and brands merged, but Jio still claims 40% of the market share in India in terms of subscriber count. Moreover, experts feel that the change in power dynamics in both these industries, cement and telecom, have direct ties to the current government’s industrial policy. Government policies seem to favour companies that have acquired a dominant position in distinct sectors of the economy, which in India’s case are led by two of the richest men in Asia — Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani. This strategy of adopting ‘<keyword id="1327299" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="national-champions" source="Orion">National Champions</keyword>’ is seemingly inspired by South Korea’s <keyword id="4933297" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chaebols" source="Orion">Chaebols</keyword> and Japan’s Zaibatsu conglomerates that came into existence decades ago. <h2>From corporate drama to k-drama: Chaebols</h2>The term Chaebol might ring a bell if you've watched K-dramas. They are family-owned business conglomerates in South Korea. This business structure originated in the 1960s and got so popular that it made its way into Korean pop culture. While chaebols have fueled the rapid growth of the Korean economy, concerns about their opaque governance and controlling shareholder interests often deter external investors. Japan’s zaibatsu were also similar financial and industrial conglomerates that were major forces in Japan during World War II. Korea’s Hyundai and Japan’s Mitsubishi are some prime examples of this structure. <h2>Growth of the Goliaths</h2>Viral Acharya, the former Deputy Governor of the RBI, highlights the decade-old trend of the central government achieving economic growth outcomes by working with large conglomerates in part, rather than with state governments. In his conference paper for the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity in March 2023, he demonstrates this pattern with examples from multiple sectors. “By way of specific examples, the share of the Top 5 groups by sales in Civil Engineering and Construction rose from 31% in 2016 to 42% in 2021, in Telecommunications from 65% to over 84%, and in the Retail trade sector from under 44% to over 65%. Similarly, the share of Top-5 groups by Assets rose sharply by 2021 to 68% in the Manufacturing of Basic Metals, 26% in the Manufacturing of Chemicals, 90% in the Manufacturing of Refined Petroleum and Coke, and 47% in the Manufacturing of Non-metallic Mineral Products (including cement and other building materials),” writes Acharya. While this strategy of ‘National Champions’ has benefitted the telecom sector, it has its caveats. The acceleration in the growth may lead to an oligopolistic economy, thereby restricting the entry of new players and stifling innovation. Additionally, a multi-dimensional concentration of power poses the threat of crony capitalism. <h2>National champions: checks and challenges</h2>There’s more to this debate. Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman, in their paper titled ‘India’s Stalled Rise’ note that the collective impact of this strategy could be more adverse in India, more than anywhere else. They explain that the two big conglomerates — Adani Group and Ambani-led Reliance “have interests that extend throughout the economy, in defence production, ports and airports, energy, natural gas, petroleum, digital platforms, telecommunications, entertainment, media, retail, textiles, financial payments, and education.” Chaebols and Zaibatsu have/had their demerits that range from autocratic decision-making dubbed as ‘imperialistic management’ to the slow inclination of the market towards an oligopolistic structure. However, they weren’t shielded from international competition, nor was this strategy of creating ‘national champions’ shaped using government regulation. They were prevalent in sectors that faced competition internationally, like Hyundai in automobile manufacturing, keeping them in check. The lack of a similar system of checks and balances in India may lead to deeper implications of this strategy of ‘national champions.’ Viral Acharya further notes that they “grew not just at the expense of the smallest firms, but also of the next largest firms” and empirically established a causal link between market power and markups (broadly, profit). At a point when India has seen a monumental shift in infrastructure and looks to capture the market share that China could evacuate, the implications of a tilted policy could prove detrimental. While consolidation can improve performance and catalyse growth, we need to be very careful as a country of the direction we will set ourselves in at this crucial juncture. <h2>Also read:</h2> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112159576" title="India Cement employees to lose jobs after UltraTech acquisition? Chairman Srinivasan answers" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"><payload><![CDATA[seealso]]></payload></div> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112163130" title="Ambuja Cements Q1FY25 profit at Rs 789.63 crore; revenue at Rs 8,311.48 crore" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"><payload><![CDATA[seealso]]></payload></div>

Cementing dominance: Birla vs Adani, of Chaebols, conglomerates, and National Champions

Shares of Anil Ambani-led group firms -- <keyword id="20367971" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="reliance-home-finance" source="keywords">Reliance Home Finance</keyword> Ltd, <keyword id="6360089" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Power" source="Orion">Reliance Power</keyword> and <keyword id="46907" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Communications" source="Orion">Reliance Communications</keyword> -- hit their <keyword id="10112182" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="lower-circuit-limits" source="Orion">lower circuit limits</keyword> on Monday as investors continued to desert the counters after markets regulator <keyword id="19901201" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sebi" source="keywords">Sebi</keyword> barred the industrialist and 24 others from the securities market for five years on charges of diversion of funds from <keyword id="19936674" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance" source="keywords">Reliance</keyword> Home Finance Ltd. The stock of Reliance Power dropped 4.99 per cent to hit the lower circuit limit of Rs 32.73 on the BSE. Shares of Reliance Home Finance Ltd tumbled 4.93 per cent to Rs 4.24 -- the lowest trading permissible limit for the day. Reliance Communications dived 4.92 per cent to touch the lower circuit of Rs 2.32. Reliance Infrastructure also declined 2.90 per cent to Rs 205.55. Shares of Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Home Finance and Reliance Power had slumped on Friday also. Sebi has imposed a penalty of Rs 25 crore on Ambani and restrained him from serving as a director or Key Managerial Personnel (KMP) in any listed company or Sebi-registered entity for five years. Besides, a fine ranging Rs 21 crore to Rs 25 crore has been levied on 24 entities. Also, the regulator barred Reliance Home Finance from the securities market for six months and slapped a fine of Rs 6 lakh on it. After receiving multiple complaints alleging the diversion/siphoning of funds of Reliance Home Finance Ltd, Sebi conducted an investigation for the period of FY 2018-19 to ascertain any regulatory violations. In its probe, Sebi found that <keyword id="19902194" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Ambani" source="keywords">Anil Ambani</keyword>, with the help of RHFL's KMPs -- Amit Bapna, Ravindra Sudhalkar and Pinkesh R Shah -- have orchestrated a fraudulent scheme to "siphon off" funds from RHFL by disguising them as loans to entities linked to him. Although the board of directors of RHFL had issued strong directives to stop such lending practices and review corporate loans regularly, the company's management ignored these orders. Sebi, in its 222-page order on Thursday, noted the cavalier approach by the company's management and promoter in approving loans worth hundreds of crores to companies that had little to no assets, cash flow, net worth, or revenue. This suggests a sinister objective behind the 'loans'. The situation becomes even more suspicious when considering that many of these borrowers were closely linked to the promoters of RHFL. Eventually, most of these borrowers failed to repay their loans, causing RHFL to default on its own debt obligations. This led to the company's resolution under the RBI Framework, leaving its public shareholders in a difficult position.

Reliance Home Finance, Reliance Power shares hit lower circuit limits

Prime Minister Narendra <keyword id="19899684" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Modi" source="keywords">Modi</keyword> on Friday said the government is making necessary <keyword id="20861068" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="policy-changes" source="keywords">policy changes</keyword>, like removal of <keyword id="20279287" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Angel-Tax" source="keywords">Angel Tax</keyword>, to promote the <keyword id="19945816" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="fintech" source="keywords">fintech</keyword> sector, even as he asked the <keyword id="19962476" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="regulators" source="keywords">regulators</keyword> to take additional measures to check cyber frauds which can have a crippling impact on startups. Lauding the fintechs for democratising <keyword id="19976433" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="financial-services" source="keywords">financial services</keyword>, Modi said the sector, which has attracted USD 31-billion investment in the last 10 years, has played a key role in denting the parallel economy. The Prime Minister was addressing the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2024, jointly organised by the Payments Council of India, the National Payments Corporation of India and the Fintech Convergence Council. He said the domestic economy and the capital market are in a celebratory mood at a time when the nation is also going through a festive period. Modi underlined that the government is making all necessary changes on the policy level to assist the fintech sector and gave examples of doing away with Angel Tax, allocating Rs 1 lakh crore to encourage research and innovation in the country and implementing the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. Broadly, fintech refers to entities utilising technologies for providing financial services. Expressing the need to put an end to <keyword id="19901142" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cyber-fraud" source="keywords">cyber fraud</keyword>, he urged the regulators to take major initiatives to boost digital literacy. It is equally important to ensure cyber fraud does not come in the way of the growth of fintech and startups in the country, Modi said. In his speech, the Prime Minister also cautioned about the dangers of a parallel economy for the world. Fintech, he said, has played an impactful role in denting such a system and credited the emergence of transparency. He said that digital technology has introduced transparency in India and gave the example of the implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer used in hundreds of government schemes that has prevented leakages in the system. "Today, people can see the benefits of aligning with the formal banking system," he said. Modi further said the trinity of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile have broken down the mentality of 'Cash is King' and made way for approximately half of the <keyword id="20004116" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-transactions" source="keywords">digital transactions</keyword> in the world taking place in India. "India's <keyword id="19900911" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="upi" source="keywords">UPI</keyword> has become a major example of fintech in the world," he said, adding that it has enabled 24X7 banking services in every village and city in all weather conditions. Underlining the role of fintech in democratising financial services, the Prime Minister gave examples of readily available loans, credit cards, investments and insurance. He said that fintech has made access to credit easy and inclusive, and gave the example of PM SVANidhi scheme that has enabled street vendors to avail collateral-free loans and further expand their business with the help of digital transactions. "Sustainable <keyword id="19900794" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="economic-growth" source="keywords">economic growth</keyword> is India's priority today," he said and emphasised that the government is creating robust, transparent and efficient systems to strengthen financial markets with advanced technologies and regulatory frameworks. About 800 speakers, including policymakers, regulators, senior bankers, industry captains, and academicians, from India and other countries are participating in the fest.

Removed Angel Tax, taking policy measures to promote fintech sector: PM Modi

The <keyword id="19987636" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bihar-government" source="keywords">Bihar government</keyword> is making serious efforts to give a fillip to <keyword id="23049947" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="small-scale-and-medium-enterprises" source="Orion">small-scale and medium enterprises</keyword> which would play a crucial role in the overall <keyword id="352701" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="economic-development" source="Orion">economic development</keyword> of the state, a top official of the Industries department said. Around Rs 2,900 crore have been disbursed to nearly 74,540 beneficiaries under two schemes, one of which was launched only last year, for promoting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises ( <keyword id="19910977" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="MSMEs" source="keywords">MSMEs</keyword>) in the state, the official said. <keyword id="19903647" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bihar" source="keywords">Bihar</keyword> has a strong MSME base. To promote innovation ecosystem and unlock the enormous entrepreneurial potential of the state, the Mukhya Mantri Udyami Yojana (MMUY) and <keyword id="23049946" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bihar-Laghu-Udyami-Yojana" source="keywords">Bihar Laghu Udyami Yojana</keyword> (BLUY) were launched in 2018 and 2023 respectively focusing on promotion of MSMEs in the state. "A total of Rs 2,697 crore was disbursed to 34,441 beneficiaries from 2018 till now under MMUY. Similarly, till date Rs 200 crore of the first instalment has been disbursed to 40,099 beneficiaries under BLUY", Secretary, Department of Industries, Bandana Preyashi told PTI. On the one hand, Bihar is getting big ticket investments for major manufacturing units and on the other hand, the state government is also enabling an ecosystem where the MSMEs can thrive on the ground level for the benefit of the rural economy, Preyashi said. The Bihar Laghu Udyami Yojana aims to provide job opportunities to at least one member of poor families whose monthly income is less than Rs 6,000 a month, she said. The state government is providing Rs 2 lakh to each beneficiary in three instalments to set up and run micro and small industrial and processing units, Preyashi said. The government's objective is promotion of MSMEs through awareness, training and handholding support, the Industries secretary said. The state government is encouraging entrepreneurs and investors through the provision of a safe and sound work environment and basic infrastructural facilities which include land, roads, electricity, and water availability, she said. The Industries secretary further said, "With new policies of the state government, Bihar is witnessing significant investment promotion activities, reinforcing its position as an emerging business and industrial hub in the country. During the Bihar Business Connect 2023, 278 companies signed MoUs, committing to investments totalling Rs 50,530 crore." the secretary said. The state government has implemented the Bihar Industrial Investment Promotion Policy (BIPP), Bihar Logistics Policy 2023, Ethanol Production Incentive Policy 2021 and Textile and Leather Policy 2022 to promote industrial growth and investment in the state. "Under these policies, stage-1 clearance was given to 481 applications, with a proposed investment amount of Rs 4,512.85 crore. A total of 175 units were given clearance for financial incentives with an investment of Rs 2,195.10 crore, an all-time high, since the inception of the state investment promotion policies," she said. In 2023-24, 255 startups were recognized in the state and a total of Rs 11.92 crore has been disbursed as seed funding to these startups. From April 2023 to January 2024, Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) allotted plots/sheds to 427 units having a total investment size of Rs 6,145 crore covering 492 acres of land and also creating 35,224 employment in the state, said the secretary. "Infrastructure development in industrial areas was given top priority. Funds of Rs 409.33 crore were approved under Part I and Rs 212.68 crore for construction of unity mall under special assistance to states in 2023-24. In the current financial year of 2024-25,149 units have been granted stage I clearance for a proposed investment amount in Rs 3,950.48 crore in Bihar State Investment Promotion Board", she said. At present, Bihar's proposal to establish a multi-sector Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Nawanagar and Kumarbagh has been approved by the Government of India. "Authorities concerned are also working on the establishment of Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) in Bihar that will help Bihari Exporters to expand their businesses to international markets", said the secretary. Bihar Chief Minister <keyword id="19907431" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nitish-kumar" source="keywords">Nitish Kumar</keyword> on August 3 this year laid the foundation stone for Rs 1,600 crore cement grinding unit of Ambuja Concrete North Private Limited, a subsidiary of Adani group's Ambuja Cements, in Warisaliganj block in Nawada district. This is considered the largest investment in the state by a cement industry player. "The project is expected to create 250 direct jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs on the site. The project will meet the growing infrastructure needs of Bihar. Adani Group has decided to invest additional Rs 5,500 crore in Bihar in various sectors, including cement manufacturing (in Muzaffarpur), logistics (near Patna) and projects related to agro-industry in Araria, Kishanganj and Begusarai. A total of 40,000 employment will be generated by these investments", said the statement issued by the CMO after the conclusion of the event on August 4.

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