Implementation of Goods & Service Tax (GST) will lead to increased tax compliance and attract more foreign direct investments across sectors due to tax transparency and ease of doing business, says a survey.
According to a survey of corporate India by Feedback Business Consulting Services, which covered 67 companies from various sectors, GST rollout will be positive for the economy.
Around 72 per cent respondents felt investments will rise across sectors and a significant portion of this will come in the form of FDI especially in heavy engineering and automotive sectors.
Some of the other major benefits of GST implementation include, reduced logistics cost, supply chain efficiency, reduction in costs for tax and regulatory compliance, better penetration of markets and export effectiveness.
However, companies are concerned about the timing of implementation of GST and fixing of rate at which tax will be charged, the survey said.
“There might be some heartburns like inflation in the early days of implementation but GST will improve GDP of the country in the long run,” it added.
The report mentioned that states where the goods and services are consumed will benefit more as GST is consumption-based tax and not production-based. “This may be a cause for concern for unorganised states,” it said.
The survey was initiated immediately after the passage of GST Bill in parliament and the response were collated by 31st August.
The response were later analysed through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, a software package used in statistical analysis of data, to draw inferences.
Implementation of GST to attract more FDI: Survey
PepsiCo on mission to dial up nutrition, says Indra Nooyi
As PepsiCo reshapes its portfolio to focus on health and wellness category, its Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi visited a local restaurant here to stir up a conversation on how to make familiar food healthy.
According to a PTI report: Nooyi, on a two-day visit to India, visited a traditional south-Indian eatery here with PepsiCo’s nutrition ambassador Michelin star chef Vikas Khanna.
The two discussed plans and ideas for PepsiCo to make familiar traditional foods healthy as part of the company’s aim to expand its offering to include whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
Speaking about her experience and nostalgia of eating at a local eatery, she was quoted by PTI as saying, “As lifestyles continue to change, PepsiCo is on a mission to dial up the nutrition in our portfolio.”
In April, she had stated that PepsiCo’s trademark Pepsi soft drink account for just 12 per cent of the company’s revenue as the US firm focuses on the health and wellness category.
“Chef Vikas has provided great inspiration for the company here in India and has played a key role in developing new recipes that are convenient, affordable, delicious and healthy,” she was quoted by PTI as saying.
“We had a great time sitting down at a local eatery and enjoying some of my favorite traditional dishes, while exchanging ideas on how we can adapt these time-honored recipes with a knowledge of nutrition informed by the latest science,” she was quoted by PTI as saying.
Khanna said talk was on how health with taste in familiar Indian food can be combined.
“Indra’s commitment and passion to drive its nutrition credentials at PepsiCo is stellar! It was fun to add nutritious ingredients like Oats and beetroot into familiar South Indian dishes for a special breakfast. Am glad that she enjoyed her experience and excited to know that some of these flavours will be hitting the Indian market soon through infusion of Quaker Oats and grains,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
HomePunch launches loyalty programme on online platform
HomePunch has announced launch of first-of-its kind loyalty programme on its online platform.
According to a ANI report: With the programme, HomePunch consumers will be able to earn loyalty points on largest spectrum of products available on its online platform.
The initiative emulates the benefits of offline shopping on the virtual format which customers could so far enjoy only at established brick-and-mortar branded stores.
The programme allows a consumer to earn loyalty points for each and every purchase made on the platform. The points get accumulated on the user’s account profile.
These points can be earned on purchases across 500 brands and over 25,000 products available on the platform. The accumulated loyalty points can be redeemed as a payment option on products for future purchases on HomePunch.
Consumers can also earn loyalty points by referring a friend and their successful registration as a consumer on HomePunch.
“As the festive season approaches, we want our customers to enjoy as many benefits as possible when they shop for their homes with us. Keeping this core value in mind, we have launched this unique Loyalty Programme that gives shoppers more reasons to come back to HomePunch and fulfill all their festive buying needs while enjoying rewards. The programme offers the kind of gratification that was, until now, only associated with offline loyalty schemes,” CEO, HomePunch, Sachin Goel was quoted by ANI as saying.
HomePunch also aims to promote popular products with special points to drive further engagement with consumers.
The online e-commerce platform has carved a solid niche for itself by bridging the void in the online e-commerce eco-system by empowering consumers to make informed decisions and helping them buy genuine and latest products. It also bolsters the business prospects of brands and retailers by addressing their concerns with respect to e-commerce in India.
LeEco to host epic online shopping festival in India
Global internet and technology conglomerate, LeEco is all set to bring its Epic online shopping festival to India. It is a one-of-a-kind event and will be as grand as any other global online shopping festivals like Cyber Monday, Black Friday and Singles Day. Through this festival, LeEco is looking to strengthen its customer loyalty across platforms.
LeEco has been hosting this festival in China for a while now and this will be the first time that the Indian Superfans will be able to experience it. In 2015, the Epic 919 festival had become the third largest B2C online shopping festival in China, covering 20.69 million users in the week from September 14 to September 20. It has set the single-brand one-day TV sales records in China’s e-commerce industry.
READ MORE: LeEco breaks record with second Super TV flash sale, triggers price war
Now that Epic sale is coming to India and it is slated to be even bigger and better! The sale is expected to break many records in the Indian market as well, and hence, is call LeEco EPIC 919 SuperFans Festival in India.
As part of this epic online shopping fest, LeEco will be offering never before offers on its existing Superphones, Super TVs, and range of accessories. Apart from deals, there will be plenty of freebies and loyalty bonus that the company will be offering to its users. These EPIC offers will be available for a period of 24 hours only starting from midnight on September 19, 2016. Consumers can avail these offers exclusively online on Flipkart through its App, M-Site and Website, and LeEco’s own online commerce platform, LeMall.com.
READ MORE: LeEco partners with regional offline retailers for pan India expansion
The cold war: India's evolving ice cream market
The ice-cream market is evolving with new and unusual flavours, textures and fusions, while a growing consumer base, product acceptability, and stiff competition is pushing operators to strive for competitive advantages through innovations in product offerings and delivery of service
The ice-cream/frozen dessert category has witnessed substantial growth in the recent past. Up to a decade ago, the category was largely limited to ice-creams with traditional flavours such as vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, along with some variants like kesar pista, mango, elaichi, traditional kulfi , etc. During the past decade, the category has grown with an array of innovations in ice-creams – now the main subcategory – and new subcategories like frozen yoghurt are coming up.
Indulgent Category
Ice-cream, which was considered an indulgent category in the past, has now evolved to a stage where it is largely and happily perceived as a snacking option by consumers. This change in perception has come about thanks to increasing disposable incomes and greater discretionary spending. Also, the growing reach of the media has allowed operators in this category to expand their range and recall value.
The change in the perception of consumers has allowed the category to grow in volume. Ice-cream, as a category, has been growing at a healthy CAGR of ~10-15 percent.
Growth of the industry can be attributed to large investments in advertising and infrastructure development, diversification and widening of product portfolio to target different consumer segments, and entry of multinationals. The category’s growth has provided impetus to international and regional players to foray into the market.
National operators like Amul and Mother Dairy, and international players like Unilever, Cream Bell, Movenpick, etc, occupy the center stage, and are followed by many regional operators. Amul is the market leader in the ice-cream category making up almost one-third of the market, followed by Hindustan Unilever and Mother Dairy.
The growing consumer base, product acceptability, and stiffening competition has pushed operators to strive for competitive advantages through innovations with respect to product offerings and delivery of service.
Innovations
Today, the plain, good old ice cream is being consumed alongside boutique offerings such as gelatos. Consumers are willing to experiment with unusual flavours and combinations. These quality conscious consumers also want smoother, creamier products.
Simultaneously, gourmet flavours are gaining in popularity and are also the triggers for brands seeking premium positioning. The premium ice-cream market has been expanding on the back of growing disposable incomes of consumers and their desire to try out newer, richer, tastier products.
READ MORE:Â Retailers freeze ice-cream market share before it melts
Pegged at Rs 500 crore within the overall ice-cream market, the premium segment is occupied by international brands such as Häagen Dazs and London Dairy.
Brands are offering better, tastier, and unique flavours and variants; their efforts are matched by the rising aspirations of consumers and their willingness to pay a premium. Besides ice-cream, frozen yoghurt is stepping up as a category within the frozen desserts segment.
Baskin Robbins serves more than 25 flavours in their exclusive stores. Popular flavours include Rum Punch, Mississippi Mud, Banana Caramel, etc. Nestlé’s Movenpick offers tropical fruit sorbets and sorbet-and-ice-cream combinations, while Amul has a wide range of mid-market and premium products, and has recently introduced the super-premium Crème Rich.
Vadilal has the largest range of ice creams in the country with over 150 fl avours, sold in a variety of more than 300 packs and forms. Th e range includes cones, candies, bars, ice-lollies, small cups, big cups, family packs, and economy packs.
Gujarat-based Havmore features flavours such as caramel biscotti, fresh mango, pink currant, pistoria, Tiranga ice candy and a truffle bar, in turbo cones, besides flavours with white chocolate, in addition to its paan and matka ice-creams, bubblegumflavoured, lollypop ice-cream, Nutty Belgian Dark Chocolate, Kesar Malti, Classic Caramel, and Berry Blast.
Cream Bell leads the ice cream market with its innovative creations every summer, and its wide range of variations. Early this year, it introduced Saffron Creamballs with an authentic Indian taste in its portfolio of flavours such as Raj Bhog, Shahi Kulfi and Shahi Kheer.
Kolkata-based Fresh & Naturelle has introduced sandalwood, Japanese green tea, and Kolkata meetha paan flavours. Natural Ice Cream, which is largely marketed in Maharashtra and Karnataka, offers custard apple, and the festival-oriented Makar Sankranti Special containing sesame seeds and peanuts.
Movenpick has plans for a masala chai flavoured ice-cream. Another innovation is the introduction of diet-friendly ice creams (as part of brands’ premium range) such as low-fat and sugarfree ice cream, as well as ice cream cakes.
HUL, a key player in the organised ice-cream market rolled out its premium ice cream brand Magnum nationally after test marketing it in Chennai for almost a year. Mother Dairy has introduced fruit-based drinks and fruit juices that have 17 to 40 percent fruit content, and is set to launch frozen desserts called sorbet made from sweetened water, flavouring and fruit pulp.
Internationally, General Mills has launched veggie-flavoured Haagen-Dazs ice cream in Japan. These include Tomato Cherry and Carrot Orange flavours. Japan’s Mikawaya of the Mochi Ice Cream brand, has introduced Black Sesame, Cookies & Cream, Matcha Green Tea, Mint Chip and Plum Wine, bringing the company’s total to 12 flavours.
USA-based So Delicious® Dairy Free replaced the traditional wooden sticks with plant-based, lickable, compostable sticks developed by Cardia Compostable technology.
Frozen Yoghurt
The frozen yoghurt category, estimated to make up 10-12 percent of the Frozen Desserts/Ice-cream market, is witnessing faster growth than the overall market at a CAGR of 15-16 percent, and is expected to more than double in size over the next five years. Th e entry of multinational players like Red Mango, Pinkberry, Yogurberry, etc, is likely to widen the market and push its growth beyond current estimates.
Consumers changing their preference, and being more inclined towards healthy and premium options, have encouraged international brands like Red Mango and Yogurberry, which have ticket values approximately double the ticket value of domestic brands in the similar segment.
Similarly, in the ice-cream space as well, players like Swensons, with premium ticket value, are confident of further expansion within the Indian market.
Costs &Â Efficiencies
Increasing dairy costs are ramping up transaction costs for traditional ice-cream players, which are in turn pushing up prices at the consumer end.
However, traditional preferences, such as milk-based and candy ice creams, and the wide distribution network of the milk-based ice-cream players keeps them stable enough to sustain their market share despite the new and emerging trends of gelatos and frozen yoghurts.
Also, as the ice-cream business is volume-driven, the price shift is widely distributed and does not majorly pinch the consumers financially. Mother Dairy, the third largest ice cream maker after Kwality Walls and Amul, has invested heavily in increasing capacity, upgrading technology, and in ice cream carts to increase reach.
Ice creams and frozen desserts are a fastemerging segment is retail service with brands like Cocoberry, Red Mango, Kiwi Kiss, and
Yogurberry selling flavoured/frozen yoghurt in signature flavors through exclusive/standalone outlets. Such outlets are present in the premises of colleges, schools, office canteens, airports, five-star hotels, and as independent kiosks.
All of this provides an opportunity for frozen yoghurt and gelato brands not only to educate consumers on the merits of their products, but also to expand their manufacturing and distribution capabilities, and thus capture an untapped market. However, to increase their market share, ice-cream manufacturers need to optimize their production systems, packaging technologies and cold chain management, ensure compliance with quality standards, and get their marketing mix right.
Prospects
Although the per capita ice-cream consumption is lower in comparison to other major markets, it has gone up to 300 ml against the world average of 2.3 litre.
The industry is growing at a CAGR of 10-15 percent. This growth is, and will, supply momentum to ice-cream consumption, especially in the branded and new/innovative categories. With the growing consumer base, increasing disposable income, and greater trend toward eating-out, the market stands poised to incorporate bigger players and more novel concepts.
The influx of international brands in the country is driving competition, and the industry is set to grow on the back of partnerships and franchises of brands to widen reach and distribution.
An overview of 'convenience food' in India
In India, earlier most food was consumed in its fresh form and only a small quantity is processed for value addition. However, with this trend changing gradually, the market for processed food products is expanding in India. Increased mobility and aspirations, exposure to and availability of a wider range and products, credit facilities and higher disposable incomes have resulted in greater spending and consumption.
Among the affluent and middle-income classes, the share of expenditure on food vis-Ã -vis other consumption categories has declined, despite the fact that the total expenditure on food has increased across all classes.
Initially, food expenditure was concentrated on basic items like grains, vegetable oils, and sugar. However, there is now an increase in the inclusion of fruits, vegetables, eggs, meats, beverages, and processed foods, thanks to both increased availability and affordability. There has been an accelerating shift from food security to nutritional security and convenience foods in the recent past.
Food processing activities can be broadly classified into two categories:
- Commodity-based: this includes primary processing of commodities like wheat, rice, sugar, spices, etc. Value-added: includes such secondary and tertiary processing as done for bakery items, milk products, honey, Ready-To-Eat/Ready-To-Cook, etc.
- Commodity-based processing: which includes value-added processing, although currently low and is experiencing faster growth. The high growth sectors are dairy, health foods, RTE, organic foods, fruit juices and convenience foods, among others.
Key Issues &Â Challenges
The potential of the Indian Agriculture and Food Processing Industry for growth cannot be disputed. However, certain challenges need to be tackled in order to unleash this potential; these include:
- Decreasing land holdings: The continued decline in the average size of land holdings has put Indian agriculture under immense duress. India’s 140 million hectare-wide farmlands are now worked upon by 14 crore farmers, up from 7 crore farmers forty years ago. The costs associated with necessary inputs and bank loans have also shot up in this period, making it difficult to sustain livelihoods
purely through agriculture. - Poor market linkages: A fragmented supply chain, along with inadequate forward integration, has resulted in suboptimal quality, lower prices, and high wastage of produce at the farm level. For smaller and distant farmers, it is still a stiff challenge to directly access markets and get the desired price for their produce.
- Inadequate farm and marketing infrastructure: The lack of adequate storage and market infrastructure like weighting, auction platform, and packaging has added to the complexity of the problems facing Indian agriculture.
- Lack of processing-worthy produce: Indian agriculture is still dominated by the practice of production-driven market supply instead of market driven production, which leads to an inconsistency in the quality of produce and the supply thereof. Thus, there is a severe need to focus on processingworthy varieties of produce and ensure a year-round supply of the same.
- Processing equipment and latest technology: The quest is on to discover newer methods, technology, and machinery for the food processing industry, with least impact on sensory qualities – color, texture, etc. Therefore, technological progress is necessary for the growth of the food processing sector. The development and diffusion of quality-enhancing and yield-increasing technologies remains a key challenge.
- Lack of adequate manpower: At each level in the food processing value chain, there are marked deficiencies in technical knowhow and support. Further, in comparison to the amount of research carried out in this field, there is still a gap in the transference from laboratory to industry. Knowledge flows from academic centers to the centers of commercial manufacturing are very critical.
- Inadequate infrastructure and supply chain: Th e non-availability of such core infrastructure as hightech controlled production facilities, grading and packaging units, cold chain logistics, warehousing and integrated processing units, besides an inefficient supply chain, poor transportation, and erratic power supply, are major concerns across the food value chain. The lack of specialized distribution companies for perishable produce and processed food products is another problem that the sector urgently needs to address.
- Growth of SMEs: SMEs provide the essential link between the agricultural and industrial segments of the economy by enhancing the value of agricultural production. Th e main challenges faced by SMEs are the increasingly rigorous quality standards demanded by export markets, and a shortage of technical grade manpower. In addition, SMEs are also facing survival challenges given the highly competitive market environment.
FLO, Shopclues tie-up to bring women entrepreneurs online
FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), the industry body’s women wing and online marketplace major Shopclues have announced their tie-up to kick-start the ‘Women Entrepreneurship (WE) in e-commerce’ initiative.
“As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between FLO and Clues Network Pvt. Ltd., Gurugram for e-marketing of products of the beneficiaries of FLO the Shopclues will educate, enable and empower women these entrepreneurs/ members of FLO to use the online platform for exploring avenues to increase their business and enhanced market access,” President, FLO, Vinita Bimbhet was quoted by ANI as saying.
“India is the fastest growing e-commerce market in the region and we need to further encourage women to foray into this area. This initiative will facilitate the process of women empowerment by providing them a digital platform to promote their businesses,” she was quoted by ANI as saying.
“There is an enormous opportunity to market products made by women – at small or medium scale, to be sold in wider markets through the e-commerce. The objective of the workshop is to facilitate the process of women empowerment by providing them a digital platform to promote their businesses,” Bimbhet was further quoted by ANI as saying.
According to a ANI report: The workshop is being organized under the aegis of FLO WE in e-commerce initiative, which is a part of the WE Initiative women’s employment, empowerment and entrepreneurship, encompassing various sectors.
Business needs and social good are in synergy: Director Hamdard
You want to help. Your heart is in the right place. You come with a pedigree. You are talented. You want to live with a spirit of generosity and integrity. Now what?
First, we must accept and concede that the technology to feed, cure, educate, transport and sustain 1.3 billion Indians does not exist yet. We cannot declare victory on a social cause. All we can hope for is to keep shifting the equilibrium through a series of small upgrades.
The pivotal challenge is to decide on the best ways to accomplish these upgrades — access to food, water, healthcare, safety, dignity and freedom. Where do we look for solutions? So far, we have found hope in the energy and enthusiasm of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), gracious government programmes, generous philanthropists, and other noble social outfits. Their abundant generosity has seen a consistent rise paralleling India’s economic growth. This has not translated into the results we hoped for, at least not at the pace we expected.
Whether you are an individual or an established social organisation, a corporate management approach to charity can help organise and simplify the process.
India is home to the largest number of registered NGOs. The heroic efforts of the government’s various projects like village outreach and childhood education initiatives are admirable. Social organisations are at the forefront of both social welfare and social reform. The altruism of our movie stars and cricketers eclipses their performances on the screen and the field. Yet, progress is neither proportionally fast nor sustainable because the cycle of fundraising has to be repeated periodically with unpredictable results, with no resources to scale. Scale is what business does best.
Many see business as the problem rather than a solution. Think of banking, the drug industry, the fast-food industry, the furniture industry or any other kind of manufacturing and you can see the justification for this attitude. Greed and exploitation mark most people’s perceptions of business operations — but that is a gross distortion of the role of business. It is true that profit motivates businesses to create resources. All wealth is created by business and only business can create, sustain and scale resources. It is this very repetition and scalability that moves the mass of humanity forward.
Donations, subsidies and exemptions can never be enough to solve extreme poverty. Moreover, it is disheartening that we tend to turn a blind eye towards the results after we receive our tax exemptions and accolades. Programmes like Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which urge businesses to give more and get more involved in social issues, have started yielding benefits in finite silos. For all its limitations, a business solution to social issues is the only self-sustaining one and by far the fastest one, considering that the cost of improving lives in India is startlingly low compared to other countries.
Far from being out of sync with each other, business needs and social good are in synergy. Lacking is the knowledge and awareness on ways to address social issues with a business model. Business owners must take the responsibility of good fortune and see themselves as agents of change and see philanthropy as the market for love and care. The most effective changes so far have come from partnerships between NGOs, governments and businesses to collaborate and share knowledge and techniques to scale.
The activist Dan Pallotta urges that in addition to businesses seeing themselves in a new light, the rest of us also need to look at non-profits differently, letting go of our many biases concerning their management.
Making money in the non-profit sector is uncomfortable for many. While we understand completely the need to make money in the for-profit sector, we treat the pursuits of doing well for oneself and doing well for the needy as mutually exclusive. Why is that?
Another bias is our stringent intolerance of operational costs and overheads in the use of our charity money. Advertising and marketing are as important in the non-profit sector as in the for-profit sector; yet our attitude becomes tight-fisted when we hear of money spent on promoting non-profits. How else will a non-profit raise awareness and donations?
Overhead costs have long been cursed for taking a percentage away from actual charity, but there is no distinction between the two. When we stop looking at overheads and start looking at impact, we realise that overheads allow charities to scale. Without overheads, charities would only have the seed capital collected from donations. Fundraising is an overhead and it allows charities to multiply seed capital.
Lastly, innovation in the non-profit sector is curbed because failure can put your character into question. Prohibiting failure kills innovation. An encouragement to take risks can generate new revenue ideas just like in the for-profit sector.
Our ability to solve social ills has not kept pace with our ability to create them. We need business leadership to step up in finding a cause and to support it consistently, because sustainable funding is a problem for all non-profits. As with any new venture, a savvy investment is one that yields maximum impact. Corporations can encourage accountability by requesting annual reports from the charities they support — and then measure effectiveness and impact, giving priority to numbers.
Corporations will have to take the entrepreneurial risk to fuse business and social issues. We need leaders who understand the new reality, and are audacious enough to break the mould of traditional thinking, to use the scientific method to test new ideas for social change and, above all, to use reason and empathy.
Centre issues model guidelines on direct selling
Following consistent demand by customers of e-commerce business, the Centre on Monday said the “model guidelines” of direct selling had been formulated and the states informed accordingly.
According to the guidelines, any direct selling entity conducting sales activities shall submit an undertaking to the Department of Consumer Affairs within 90 days, stating that it is in compliance with these guidelines and shall also provide details of its incorporation, official sources said here.
We are confident these guidelines will certainly help in bringing in regulatory clarity for the sector – Secretary General, FICCI, A. Didar Singh
By definition, direct selling includes demonstration and sale of products and services to consumers, usually in their homes or at their jobs.
Officials say in the era of internet and e-commerce, direct selling would mean sales made through e-contact arrangements as well as internet sales.
Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters that “The state governments and union territories should now take necessary actions to implement the same”.
It is envisaged in the guidelines that the state governments will set up a mechanism to monitor and supervise the activities of direct sellers, direct selling entity regarding compliance of the guidelines for direct selling.
Lisa Ray to launch perfume line for a cause
Actress Lisa Ray will be launching her first range of fragrances on September 21, which also marks the United Nations’ International Day of Peace.
She is coming out with the range of fragrances in association with The 7 Virtues, sales of which contribute to the cause of Indian farmers.
Based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, The 7 Virtues sources natural essential oils from regions impacted by war or strife in an effort to rebuild through the power of scent.
In partnership with Lisa, The 7 Virtues will be introducing Lisa Ray Jasmine of India, inspired by India’s rich and diverse culture.
The range blends awakening notes of orange blossom, cardamom, ginger, frankincense and myrrh with the exotic jasmine flower, designed to blend beautifully with any of the fragrances.
Lisa, who has also been recognised as a ‘Woman of Action’ by the Israel Cancer Research Fund and participates in numerous charitable efforts, is humbled with the association.
She said: “Our new jasmine fragrance takes me back to my childhood, where jasmine adorned temples and decorated women’s hair. It acts as a reminder to slow down, breathe and recognise the divine in everyday life. I am humbled to have been part of a project that gives back to the Jasmine farmers of India with the purchase of every bottle.”
Lisa Ray Jasmine of India is the sixth fragrance from The 7 Virtues Collection, whose other notable fragrances include Afghanistan Orange Blossom, Noble Rose of Afghanistan, Vetiver of Haiti, Middle East Peace and Patchouli of Rwanda.
