GODREJ ACQUIRES RAYMOND'S FMCG.

Godrej announced the acquisition of the consumer products business of Raymond Consumer Care which is a subsidiary of Raymond. The acquisition was for 2825 crore rupees in all cash deal. The acquisition through this transaction includes Raymond’s marquee brands such as Park Avenue (for the consumer products category), KS (deodorants), Kamasutra and Premium. Though the Park Avenue was acquired by Godrej, the same as a clothing brand will remain with Raymond. Thus RCCL will be a listed entity with a pure-play consumer-focused lifestyle business and therefore sells the FMCG business to GCPL in a slump sale, which means the transfer of undertakings for a lumpsum consideration without values getting assigned to the individual assets and liabilities.

                                                       According to Sudhir Sitapati, the CEO and Managing Director of Godrej Consumer Products Limited, the reason behind this acquisition is the expansion of the addressable market. This acquisition allows Godrej to complement their business portfolio and growth strategy with the under penetrated categories. Also, through this acquisition CGPL enters into two new categories. The size of the male deodorant category is about 5000 – 6000 crore rupees and the commercial latex category is about 1200 crore rupees. The GCPL will fund this acquisition with an all- cash deal and they have paid 2725 crore rupees net for the deal, the real value is 2325 crore and they will have 400 crore lower cash due to the slump sale. The CEO added that as both the brands, the Park Avenue and Kamasutra, have strong brand equity GCPL won’t be renaming them.

                                                      This acquisition will enable RCCL to be free of net debt. For RCCL, there was a reported revenue of 633 crore rupees for 2022-23, from which 85% was from the business which is now being sold to GCPL. Raymond will be into real estate with investment in the engineering and denim businesses. According to Amit Agarwal, the Chief Financial Officer of Raymond, the selling of the brands was because they needed a partner to take the brand they had created to the next level.

In the Cloud-GOOGLE

 

In the cloud - GOOGLE

                                        Googles parent Alphabet was astonished by the first quarter results which exceeds their estimations. Google has a tough match with its competition and faces threats from Microsoft and Open AI, which literally challenged the search giant with the help of Artificial intelligence through chatbots. Alphabet had done a dominant business research to anticipate their future profits but shockingly, to the contrary to their expectations, it made profit for the first time.

 

                                            Amazing results came from company’s cloud unit which is significantly smaller than competitive offerings from Microsoft and Amazon.com. Now google sees cloud as a growth area. Google cloud runs on the same infrastructure as that google use for its other services like YouTube, Gmail, Google drive, Google search engine as well. Google provides a series of modular cloud services including computing, data analysis, storage, Machine learning.

 

                                                Like other cloud services, google cloud platform also provides infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and serverless computing environments. For the registration to this platform, valid details of credit card or bank account details is needed. Now the company yield a profit of $191 million. On the reference of the results, Alphabet said its investors that it had shifted the reporting of some costs from Google Cloud to Google Services.

 

                                                 The net income also exceeds the estimation made by Wallstreet which was $1.09 per share and actually resulted in $15 billion or $1.17 per share. The company’s share rose to 5.9 percent after closing at $103.85. The estimations of Wallstreet were also beaten by Microsoft for quarterly revenue and profit driven by the growth in its cloud computing and office productivity software business. Artificial intelligence products are enhancing the sales of the company. This is according to the data of Refinitiv, that Microsoft’s growth at its cloud business Azure was 27% in the latest reported quarter, beating analyst expectation for 26.6% growth.

 

                                                    Google and Microsoft are becoming strong opponent for the future of search and Google executive s have very well encouraged its investors to believe in the company’s long term track record of being the world’s leading search engine and AI act as a catalyst for the evolution of business.

Maruti Q4 net profit jumps 42% to Rs 2,670 cr, plans to set up a new plant

                    Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) on Wednesday reported a 42 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase in net profit at Rs 2,670 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2023, The increase in net profit is due to the recovery of sales and the ease of supply chain disruptions . For the full year (FY23), the company’s bottom line more than doubled to Rs 8,211 crore from the year earlier . Maruti Suzuki also announced its new plant setup to increase its annual production capacity to 1 million units . Chairman R C Bhargava , told reporters that the company’s board was yet to decide on the location and necessary investment for the plant . 

                       Another plant in Kharkhoda, Haryana, with a proposed capacity of 1 million units, is already under construction and soon will finish the construction . With the board approving one more on Wednesday, the company plans to have a total annual manufacturing capacity of 4.25 million units. Bhargava said the company would not borrow to construct the new plant, but would use its internal resources.   

                   The company had cash reserves of more than Rs 45,000 crore as of April 1, 2023. “The Kharkhoda plant’s construction will be completed ahead of the new plant, wherever it comes up,” he noted . 

                        

                    On investments needed for the new plant, he said, “If the Kharkhoda plant is going to cost X, the new plant will cost slightly more than X, because it will come a bit later. It can’t be very much different.” MSIL had stated in May 2022 that it would invest about Rs 18,000 crore to set up the Kharkhoda plant. Bhargava said MSIL’s total revenues in FY23 had crossed the landmark Rs 1-trillion mark. “I can’t readily think of many other Indian companies that have done it,” he added.

                     The total income surged was 33%  that is around 1.19 trillion for the year 2023 . while it rose 20.6 per cent to Rs 32,802 crore in the March quarter

          

                      Bhargava said that the compnay could not meet the target of selling 2 million units in the last fiscal year 2022 mainly because of shortage of semiconductor chips . “In 2023-24 (FY24), the shortage will remain. The kind of improvement we were hoping for has not happened. Q1 of FY24 has been worse as compared to the previous quarter (Q4 of FY23) when it comes to the chip supply. Hopefully, the situation will be better in the next three quarters of FY24,” he added . He said the company’s loss of production due to chip shortage was about 170,000 units in FY23. “It should be less than 170,000 in FY24 as we are expecting a better supply situation this fiscal year,” he mentioned . 

                        The Maruti chairman said the company had planned a capital expenditure of about Rs 8,000 crore in FY24, as against Rs 6,329 crore in FY23. He said the company would launch a hybrid vehicle this year, and this model would be sourced from Toyota. Since this will be a top-of-the-line vehicle, MSIL does not expect its volumes to be large. 

In 2018, the two Japanese companies, Toyota Motor Corp and Suzuki Motor Corp, signed a global agreement that involved sharing and cross-badging of models and technologies.

MSIL’s domestic market share, in terms of volumes, stood at 41.3 per cent in FY23. Bhargava said the company intended to get close to the 50 per cent target, but it was difficult to predict when it would happen. 

In FY23, the company witnessed an 8.8 per cent increase in exports, reaching 258,333 units. Bhargava is optimistic that the company’s exports could reach 750,000 units by 2030. He said the sales in FY23 were much better despite multiple headwinds such as the Ukraine-Russia war, rising inflation, and chip shortage.

     

                         

Govt sticking to target of 5k CBG plants by '24-25

 

India has become the fast-growing economy in the world and their energy consumption is at its peak. According to Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had found out that, India had a reserve of 763 million metric tons of crude oil and 1,488 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Countries import are nearly 77% of crude oil and 50% of natural gas requirements and the country had planned to reduce their import by 10%. As India going to be a sustainable country, they more focus on waste and biomass energy where cattle dung, solid waste and sewage treatment plants which produce biogas through anaerobic decomposition. The gas is processed to remove hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, water vapors to compressed biogas which has more than 90% of lead content. CBG has similar properties as CNG and it also has calorific value, which can be utilized as a green renewable automobile fuel. So, it will replace CNG in automobiles and all other areas.

India had announced the launch of 200 small scale compressed biogas (CBG) projects which will help in the growth of states and also it will provide higher commercial rates to the country. Not only that after the launch of CBG, country will have separate measures for CBG and also it will act as a central scheme to push country to a CBG producers and can cut down pollution. They also claimed that they will step up 5000 commercial CBG plants in India by 2024-2025 under the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transport (SATAT) scheme. In 2008, SATAT had started their vision by incentivizing the production of CBG plants in India by natural substances including food waste, biomass sources and so on. But they were not able to attain their vision due to some issues, they were only able produce 46 CBG plants till date. The time has come, and they are able achieve their vision for that they had tied up with 100 retail outlets worldwide. The government will also take preventive and effective steps to implement the CBG plant and also, they will offtake guarantee on CBG and bio- manure and also low-cost financing, fiscal plans and also accounting systems. The Union territory administration in Ladakh also has plans to set up CBG plants and community cluster-based biogas plants. Oil and Gas markets had signed long term agreement for procuring CBG from them after the plants started working. They are planning to work under GOBARdhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Argo Resources Dhan) scheme to produce 200 CBG plants. The scheme aims at converting cattle dung and solid waste from farms and house into compost, biogas and bio-compressed natural gas (CNG). CBG comes under white category status where they are clustered with non-polluting industries because of the white category label they are subjected from getting green clearance. They are planning to charge 54 per kg which was raised in June 2022.

By starting this CBG production, it will reduce the import of crude oil and natural gas and also it will reduce the emission of pollutants into the environment as CBG is a natural product with zero percent effluent. By using CBG, we can control the climatic changes which are currently occurring in the world. It also lowers pollution and carbon emission. It will also provide additional resources to farmers.

                  Contaminated cough syrup made in India found in West Pacific

                  According to the latest report by World Health Organisation, contaminated cough syrup made in India was found in the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.  Even though , any case of illness for children who consumed the syrup, has not been reported, it is the third time that India's pharmaceutical companies are being warned for importing dangerous medicines. The Guaifenesin syrup had been found to be spiked with an " unacceptable level" of two contaminants that are not safe for human consumption. The samples were tested by quality control laboratories of the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia. It was found by TGA that the product contained unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants. These which are toxic to humans when consumed can prove fatal. it's toxic effects cause abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, headache, altered mental state and acute kidney injury which may lead to death. This syrup's manufacturer is QP Pharmacem Ltd, Punjab and its marketer is Trillium Pharma, Haryana. According to QP Pharmacem's managing director, the sample from the exported batch was tested and they couldn't find any contaminated issues. The company also said that they couldn't find any issue or complaints in India with the same medicine.

                This is the 3rd time WHO alert on issues caused by Indian cough syrups. Earlier the Indian manufactured cough syrup that was exported to THE Gambia, even caused children's death in October 2022. It brought in the attention of the whole world. The WHO citing the incident linked to Indian made cough syrups, made the governments and regulations to improve inspections, market surveillance and more on with other measures to combat the manufacture and distribution of substandard medicines with the purpose of detecting and removing any substandard medical products that had been identified by the WHO as the potential causes of deaths and disease. In Gambia, the cough syrup was contaminated with Diethylene Glycol and Ethylene Glycol and led to acute kidney injury cluster among   children. The cough syrup manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceuticals of India led to the death of 66 Gambian children. As per the joint probe report by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) of the US and the Gambian health authorities, there was a strong link between the death of the children and the consumption of Indian manufactured cough syrup. It was the first in which the Diethylene Glycol contaminated medication were imported into a country rather than being domestically manufactured. Also these low-resource countries do not have the human and financial resources to monitor and test the imported drugs. The WHO issued an alert that the four cough syrups manufactured by the Maiden pharmaceuticals Ltd were of substandard quality.

               Meanwhile three employees of another pharmaceutical company in India, Marion Biotech, whose cough syrup was linked to the deaths of 18 children in Uzbekistan were arrested in 2022. On testing, it was found that the medicines were not of standard quality ( adulterated and spurious). All these led to the less reliability and trust on Indian manufactured medicines. The alert by WHO to stop using these medicines has affected the pharmaceutical companies and the import of medicines. The WHO has urged the manufacturers of liquid dosage form to test for the presence of contaminants such as Ethylene Glycol and Diethylene Glycol before use in medicines. 

Serum Doubles Biocon investment to $300 Million

The Serum Institute of India (SII) is an Indian biotechnology and biopharmaceutical company based in Pune. It was founded by Cyrus Poonawala in 1966 and is a part of the Cyrus Poonawalla Group. Serum has decided to invest in Biocon's Biocon Biologics (BBL) to the tune of $300 million, which is said to be double the previous investment. Before this, the Serum Institute of Life Sciences (SILS) had invested $150 million. Being the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines, the additional investment would bring the total valuation to $6 billion, whereas the initial investment valuation was $4.9 billion. BBL is Biocon's biosimilar subsidiary, which was founded by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

The investment made by Serum includes the complete portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines and also other non-CoVID vaccines under development," said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. For Serum Institute, they respect and admire the business that BBL has created and will hold close to a 5 per cent stake in BBL," said Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India. The current investment is said to be the largest investment made by Serum so far for any strategic alliance. Poonawalla made clear that the current investment is not about having a board seat; at the moment, he will be executing his right after meeting his preoccupations. Serum Institute is looking for a long-term horizon of 15 years with BBL. They had also agreed on profit sharing based on the vaccination.

The additional investment would help to avoid inequitable access to vaccines and combine the strengths and resources of both companies to build a strong relationship. The partnership will open the door for Biocon to access Serum Institute Life Sciences' current development ideas to address the issues of other communicable diseases. Biocon Biologics will also establish a vaccine R&D division to support the strategic alliance in developing both vaccines and biologics for communicable diseases at its own cost. Vaccines provide a good strategic fit for Biocon's business and would open up a dimension for improving global health care. The new arrangement will provide BBL with access to 100 million doses annually, along with distribution rights. The two companies will enter into service level agreements (SLAs) for manufacturing and distributing the vaccines and antibodies. This alliance would enable them to derive revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) in a year's time. This collaboration is likely to provide good growth opportunities for Indian pharma entrepreneurs.

IT CAMPUSES BACK TO HIRING LEVELS AT 70%

 

IT Campuses to hire 70% of what industry was hired in 2018-19 financial year.  The information technology is into boom. New altering the balance between humans and machines. For the last three decades emergence of technology has made a drastic change. It also helped in the upcoming of new technologies and these vacancies of technologies has also helped in more employment opportunities. India’s largest IT firms like Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech are yet turning towards pre covid levels. According to media reports TCS are looking for 30,000 graduates, Infosys enrolled 20,000. S Pasupathi, chief operating officer, Hirepro investigated an assessment and stated that 2024 financial year will be the year of consolidation. He also said that Indian companies are facing challenges like over hiring, low absorption levels of graduates, and pressuring large numbers weakening the quality of hires.

  

                                           During covid time the only sector was in boom was medical and IT field. Everyone was doing there work as online, work from home. Services through online, online business also was a good exposure for technology. As the need for technology increased the need for employers also increased. Hiring teams also states that the quality of hired is also decreased as it was a large rush. Hiring process now has become more and more stricter. At present Indian software services has increased to annual growth rate of $3 billion in financial year 2000 to $181 billion in financial year 2022. Hence it is an important sector to be considered.

 

ELON MUSK AND HIS NEW PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

 Starting with his new focus on bringing a totally new start-up on AI and ending with a focus that he brought out by bringing a plan for sustainability. So the billionaire is recruiting engineers and AI researchers from everywhere to bring out a startup in this sector that can compete with ChatGPT. He has been busy attracting investors and even brought half a dozen of researchers from DeepMind along with the famous former employee Igor Babyschkin. Not just this but also he has secured more than thousands of processors which are high-powered GPUs that from Nvidia. these chips are mainly needed to build large language models and to bring humanistic characters like wordings and contents and writings, which is similar to the technology of ChatGPT. 

     The next focus that he has given out to the world is on the previous month during an Investor Day event at the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, where he announced the MASTER PLAN 3. This mainly focused on the sustainability of the world by reducing the use of fossil fuels and bringing high-tech vehicles and other equipment which use hydrogen and renewable resources. high-temperature heat delivery and hydrogen used in the industrial application level, boats and planes which are sustainably fueled. this project is worth 10 trillion dollars and carries out a future that is driven by renewable energy.

The Great Nicobar Trade-off

 In November 2022, an extremely large development project amounting to ₹72,000 crore  project, on the Great Nicobar Island got a green signal. A big port, a swanky airport, a renewable energy power plant, and a luxurious township were part of the great plan.

But in April 2023, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) gave a pause button on the project. They claimed that they received complaints where they said that the environmental clearances were rushed through.

The reason why the government wanted to develop this region in the first place.

Firstly, the point to be highlighted is the strategic aspect of national security. The report states that the ‘foreign power’ has been creating a presence around the Indian peninsula. Which evidently stated that it’s China. The work wasn’t completely for the trade purpose. The setup of a port in Djibouti and began converting it not being acknowledged naval base. It has pleasant ties with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and has engaged in setting up ports in those areas. These things are a cause of concern for India. Having our own strong naval presence in the Great Nicobar Islands could be a discouraging factor to any other ulterior motives that China might have.

Secondly, it’s economic benefits. In total if we take an account 50% of the global container traffic and 70% of the world’s oil trade passes through the seaways of the Indian Ocean. The southern tip of the Great Nicobar Island which is known as the Indira Point is right in the midst of this action. It’s actually 150km from Indonesia. It’s like a hop, skip and jump. Not to forget the closeness to other countries such as Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand too. Having a trading port here could mean we get facilated of a good chunk of trade that passes through as well.

Thirdly, it’s about the tourism aspect. The virgin beaches, evergreen rainforests, and scenic hills are something that is dreamt off but yet to be developed. The new airport would change the scenario. And it is expected that the tourism will generate revenue of ₹4,700 crores annually by 2052. That’s when the project is expected to be up and run in a full fledged manner. And there will be a huge job opportunities that will be created.

As we can see drastic change government is also very supportive.

But wile taking about the environmental aspect, the question is whether the Great Nicobar Island is a biosphere reserve.

Now here comes the negative aspects.

The project will require clearing up 8,50,000 trees in this ecological hotspot. Even though there will be compensatory afforestation. The shelter of rare and endemic creatures such as the Nicobar tree shrew, the Great Nicobar crested serpent eagle, and the Nicobar megapode will be threatened.

And detailing the project, the government apparently decided that the Galathea Bay Wildlife Sanctuary would be denotified. That the sanctuary which is not considered for any conservation anymore, will be used for port activities.

Tribes will get affected — the Shompen and the Nicobarese.

The Andaman Islands to see the impact of development on the tribal communities.

Sure, you could ignore all this and still say — but we need development.

The islands lie along a seismic fault line. Which means that the area is prone to earthquakes.

So, it’s evident that inorder to carry on the development there are lots of hurdles. Therefore careful actions should be taken.

THE RISE AND FALL OF NOKIA

 Nokia was once a leading mobile phone manufacturer that dominated the mobile phone manufacturing industry for over a decade. The company’s story is not about its ups and down, let's take a closer look at the rise and fall of Nokia.

Rise of Nokia

In 1865, Nokia was founded as a paper pulp mill in Finland. It takes 15 years for the company to venture into the mobile phone market. Nokia's first mobile phone, the Mobira Cityman, was released in 1987 and was an instant hit. The company's expertise in electronics, coupled with its strong focus on innovation and quality, helped it quickly establish a reputation for producing high-quality mobile phones.

In the 1990s, Nokia became the market leader in mobile phones and dominate the industry. Its phones were well known for their reliability, long battery, and user-friendly interface. They also account for the development of several technologies such as the first GSM call, the first WAP browser, and the first camera phone. Nokia’s success lasts until the early 2000s.In 2005, Nokia accounted for almost 40% of the global mobile phone market. The company was also the first to introduce smartphones with its Symbian operating system.

Fall of Nokia

Success was not meant to last forever; the company began to face stiff competition from the competitors like Apple and Samsung. Nokia's response to this competition was slow, and it was unable to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation in the smartphone market.

Nokia’s decision to continue with the Symbian operating system proves to be a costly mistake for the company, while its competitors move to more advanced platforms like iOS and Android. The company's lack of investment in software development and ecosystem building also hurt its chances of competing with Apple and Google.

In 2011, Nokia decided to partner with Microsoft and decided to use its Windows phone operating system, but this proves to be too late. By the time Nokia launched its first Window phone, the market was already dominated by Apple and Samsung.

In 2014, Nokia sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft, effectively ending its time as a major player in the mobile phone industry. Nokia continued to exist as a separate company, focusing on telecommunications infrastructure and technology licensing.

Lessons from Nokia

Firstly, innovation and adaptability are crucial for any industry.

Secondly, neglecting the importance of software and ecosystem building can be costly.

Finally, Nokia's failure to recognize the importance of user experience, particularly in the smartphone market, proved to be its undoing.

In summary, Nokia's journey from a pulp mill to a mobile phone giant and then to a tech licensing company is a fascinating story that offers several important lessons for businesses today.

WILL THRIVE KNOCK OUT SWIGGY AND ZOMATO

 During our childhood times, the only way we could order food was just by going through the pamphlets which the restaurants left on our doorstep. The only option was to make a call to the respective restaurant. But the only caveat or provision was that we couldn’t order a single samosa or cutlet. If required it should have been ordered in a specified quantity or else the restaurant would scoff at the request that is been made as there was no option to send their delivery person for a single small order that is been made.

By the mid of 2010, things rolled around and everything flipped. There was the emergence of Swiggys and Zomatos which people never imagined of. They got involved with the restaurants and the food was delivered at a very small fee. The emergence of Swiggy and Zomato brought convenience to our fingertips. Just a search, scroll, and click, we’d get the menu as per our desire

It was a bonanza for small restaurants too.

Because earlier restaurants had to send pamphlets to their targeted customers. Or they’d have to hope that people who go for an evening walk would stop to pick up a pamphlet or make some sort of enquiry. And then go back and ring the phone whenever they feel so.

But the emergence of the technological era made a huge difference. The aggregators opened up a whole new way to the audience so that people could scroll and find new restaurants which helped restaurants to grow their business and gradually pamphlets disappeared.

Everything was going great for a while. But as we know, the circumstances keep on changing.

Restaurants started began to hate to show the inconvenience of the 20–30% commission they paid to the aggregators. Restaurants felt like they were being fleeced. And their restaurants started to inflate the prices of the menu on Swiggy and Zomato. Eg: Restaurants would charge ₹100 for a paneer masala if it was directly ordered through a restaurant. But it might cost ₹125 if you order it using the aggregators.

People noticed this drastic difference and they weren’t happy. And the blame was directly on the aggregator rather than blaming the restaurants. But taking into consideration the convenience, people continued to order. And during the pandemic, they played a huge role.

Entry of Thrive to the play:

Thrive have decided to keep things simpler. They business model is to be a tech company and do nothing else. They offer a platform to restaurants where they can start their own micro-websites in which they can accept orders that is been made. According to the business model of Thrive, it integrates third-party logistics companies into the delivery process delivery. They’d even make marketing easier for the restaurants to  plan giving offers and also to reach more customers. It was Software-as-a-Service (Saas). And restaurants would have complete access to the datas of their customers.

Thrive charges 3% and extra for the marketing as a commission. 3% versus the 20% charged by Swiggy and Zomato makes a drastic difference. Extra paid for marketing depends upon the restaurants whether to market or not, but the idea clicked. And within two years, Thrive now claims to have helped 14,000 restaurants. Primarily, for the time being it’s now focusing on Mumbai restaurants.

Will Thrive replace Zomato and Swiggy is a question.

Well recent reports shows that Thrive is growing well in a potential manner. But of course, there are area to be concentrated.

Firstly, when we have direct access to customer details there are chances of getting spammed, so customer loyalty should be taken care of.

Secondly, most restaurants won’t build out their own fleet. They would integrate third parties for the delivery of orders. And when restaurants delay orders, This, would lead to an issue with customer service and blame will obviously points on Thrive

Why does this happen?

This would be because restaurants still don’t get direct bulk orders. Most of it still comes from Zomato and Swiggy. And if there is no proper central system to update about the inventories across all platforms, it can lead to disruptions.

Coca-Cola India invested its monies in Thrive:

Coca-Cola thinks this is the perfect opportunity for them as they can bundle its beverages with the food. Get people to order its fizzy drinks and juices exclusively. One of their core strategies seems to be to get people to pair its beverages with meals more often. And Coca-Cola feels that Thrive seems to fit into that strategy perfectly.

RBI to come up with new rules on classification of accounts as fraudulent

The new rules introduced by the RBI will reportedly give the borrower a personal hearing before they are declared as a wilful defaulter . The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon develop a set of rules and regulations that will govern the declaration of a bank account as fraudulent, a report by The Economic Times (ET) said. This comes nearly a month after the Supreme Court asked banks to hear the borrower before declaring their account as fraudulent. 

"Banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) are keen to put out their views to the apex court as to why a personal hearing in all these cases is not practical, but the RBI does not want to drag on the case in the Supreme Court and is preparing a new updated notification clarifying all the points raised in the court," a person aware of the matter was quoted as saying in the ET report.

According to the report, the new rules will give the borrower a personal hearing before they are declared as a wilful defaulter. The RBI will come up with a new notification in a few weeks. The norms will standardise the process of declaring a fraudulent account and will align with the wilful defaulter norms. The central bank had come up with a circular in 2015 on wilful default. It stated that the power to declare any account as a "wilful defaulter" lies entirely in the hands of the bank.

On March 27, a Supreme Court bench comprising chief justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli said that “banks must hear the borrowers before classifying their accounts as fraud”. They said that classifying accounts as fraud results in serious civil consequences for the borrowers, including "blacklisting" of the accounts.

The apex court upheld a judgement passed by the Telangana High Court in December 2020 stating that the principles of "audi alteram partem" must be applied before declaring a party as "a fraudulent borrower" or "a holder of fraudulent account".

"Audi alteram partem" means "hear the other side" or "no man should be unheard, both the parties have an opportunity of being heard". 

"Declaration of fraud entails penal and civil consequences, amounts to blacklisting from accessing institutional finance...Bank order must show reasons behind the declaration of fraud, reasons will keep banks from exercising powers arbitrarily," the court said.

The borrowers had argued that the circular violates principles of natural justice and said that it "hurt the ability to raise fresh credit after declaration". Banks, however, reportedly want a middle path which will not hamper the recovery process while incorporating SC's observations.

SBI, represented by solicitor general Tushar Mehta, also sought clarifications from the court after the order. "SBI has made some points on behalf of banks like why the full forensic audit report of the borrower should not be shared because it could give crooked borrowers an escape route," an official told ET.

Immigration services to be hit as 155,000 Canadian govt employees on strike

 

The union representing federal workers, went on strike on April 19 after they failed to reach an agreement with the government . Delays and disruptions can be expected in processing applications and passport services because of the strike by a labour union representing over 155,000 employees that will impact most government departments and the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced.

          The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the union representing federal workers, went on strike on April 19 after they failed to reach an agreement with the government on issues related to wages and decent working conditions.

"During this labour disruption, certain services may be delayed or not delivered at all. As well, the public may have trouble accessing some Government of Canada buildings where services are delivered," the IRCC said in a statement.

         The Canadian immigration body said to the public that the disruptions and delays can be expected in processing applications, immigration-related appointments, contacting IRCC via email, phone or social media, consular citizenship and passport services, citizenship ceremonies, and extending one's stay in Canada because of the occurence of the strike . 

However, some IRCC services, like applying online, mailing applications to IRCC, using one's online accounts, accessing emergency services, will remain available during the time of the  labour disruption.

In addition, services offered by non-governmental organisations, including settlement services from IRCC partner organisations, healthcare through the Interim Federal Health Program, and visa application centres outside of Canada, will also remain available.

       The Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), which plays a key role in the country's immigration system, is also expecting disruptions to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the collection of biometrics.

COCA-COLA'S GENIUS MARKETING

Coca-Cola is one of the most recognized brands in the world, with a presence in more than 200 countries. The marketing of Coca-Cola has been so successful that the company’s name has become so synonymous with soda and the brand is used as a benchmark for effective marketing.

The marketing of Coca-Cola is so effective because of :

First, Coca Cola marketing is very consistent. The company can maintain its iconic logo, font, and color scheme for more than a century. The slogan of Coca Cola  "Taste the Feeling," is also consistent across all of its marketing. This consistency helped Coca-Cola to build a brand image, which is essential for building brand loyalty and has helped to establish Coca-Cola as a trustworthy and reliable brand.

Coca-Cola's marketing is also emotionally resonant. The company has a long history of creating advertisements that tug at the heartstrings. From the iconic "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" campaign to the more recent "Share a Coke" campaign, Coca-Cola has consistently used storytelling to create an emotional connection with its audience.

The company’s marketing team is so genius to use high visual aids such as eye-catching graphics and images in their advertising campaigns. From the iconic red and white logo to the polar bear and Santa Claus featured in their holiday ads has helped to make Coca-Cola one of the most recognizable brands in the world.

Coca-Cola marketing is highly social. The company always quickly adapts to the latest technologies and platforms, from radio and television to social media and mobile phones for their marketing. Coca-Cola has consistently used these platforms to engage with its audience and build a community around its brand.

Finally, Coca-Cola’s marketing is highly innovative. The company is never afraid to take risks and try new things. The introduction of Diet Cola in the 1980s to the recent launch of Coca-Cola Energy shows that the company is highly innovative. This innovative spirit has helped Coca-Cola to stay relevant and adapt to changing consumer trends. 

               Musk's Truth GPT in the works to counter Chat GPT's liberal bias

           Elon Musk has announced that he plans to make an alternative to the popular AI chatbot , Chat GPT, known as " Truth GPT" .  Musk believes that  Chat GPT  is liberally biased and he promises that his new Truth GPT will be a maximum truth seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe. Elon Musk has come up with a new business called X.AI Corp . He was an early investor in Open AI - the startup behind Chat GPT and co chaired its board , where it was a non profit AI research lab founded in 2015. He resigned from the board in the early 2018 when he started working on building Tesla , automated driving system. These Artificial Intelligence are mere warning signals to human beings. It will affect human life to a great extent , even creating large unemployment in the future. Even though all are aware of those risks , the AI systems are gaining more popularity in today's world.

              Chatbots are software applications that allows humans to conduct an online conversation with digital devices as if they are interacting with a real human agent. This computer program uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing(NLP) to understand and respond to the human conversations. All the AI related researches are conducted at Open AI. Open AI is an Artificial Intelligence research and deployment company and its mission is to ensure that Artificial Intelligence benefits all of humanity. It's headquarters is at San Francisco and was founded in 2015. Elon Musk was one of its founders and then later he left Open AI.  Chat GPT  is an AI chatbot , which was developed by Open AI and was released in November 2022. Open AI had first GPT-3.5 and GPT-4  before the introduction of Chat GPT. The original release of Chat GPT was based on GPT-3.5 and the release of Chat GPT ,has increased the Open AI's values to a large extent. It's main feature include human conversation, write and debug computer programs, compose music, teleplays , fairytales and student essays , answer test questions, write poetry and song lyrics, stimulate entire chat rooms, play games and stimulate an ATM. Unlike most chatbots , Chat GPT remembers a limited number of previous prompts. But there are certain limitations of Chat GPT, where it may give incorrect or non sensed answers sometimes. Also , it is found that Chat GPT has limited knowledge of events that has occurred recently. A few days prior to the launch of Open AI's software developed support service , Snapchat came up with it's paid Snapchat plus userbase , a custom chatbot called ' My AI '.

              The wide acceptance ,and unexpected strength of Chat GPT after December 2022, and its high potential to disrupt the search engine business, triggered Google. Google  started working more on Artificial Intelligence and their employees tested a chatbot called " Apprentice Bard", which Google later unveiled as its Chat GPT competitor, Google Bard. It was released for US and UK users with many limitations. Also the Chinese Corporation, Baidu released a Chat GPT style service called  "Ernie Bot" based on a large language model. Likewise South Korea and Russia too are moving ahead to launch Chat GPT style services before the end of 2023. The advent of Chat GPT and its introduction to the wide public, increased interest and competition in the introduction of new various other Chat GPT styles services all over the world. Thus machines gradually alter the fabric of reality and thereby the dependence on machines will produce a new future that we do not yet understand and for the exploration and leadership of which we must prepare.

             

Indian firms to make key components for Apple

As Apple opens its first India store, the manufacturing sectors are provided with lots of opportunities. Apple is focusing on obtaining two key components for its iPhone by working with local suppliers in India. Apple is working with Tata for the iPhone casing, and the camera module will be produced by a Chinese manufacturing company, Sunny Opotech. According to vendor data, approximately 12–15 per cent of the domestic value addition of iPhone components is obtained from its three vendors: Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron. Once these are manufactured from Indian plants, the domestic value addition will reach 27–30 per cent. Domestic value addition could be said to be the difference between gross output at basic prices and intermediate consumption at the purchaser's price. By the financial year 2026, the government expects all the players in the market to reach 40 per cent under the production-linked incentive (PLI). Production-linked incentives are a scheme that focuses on boosting domestic manufacturing, investments, and exports of telecom and networking products. Sunny Opotech said it is investing $300 million to manufacture iPhone camera modules.

About 14 Chinese companies have obtained initial clearance to set up a joint venture in India from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, given that they have applied to the government under the Foreign Direct Investment Policy. Tata and Apple have been working together in the manufacturing of the iPhone's mechanical parts at Tata's Hosur plant in Tamil Nadu. Tata is said to be the first Indian firm that is part of Apple's supply chain.

The government focuses on a target of 40 per cent, which is more or less at the same level as China. Some models had already reached that level, and some have reached 50 per cent. The domestic value addition of Vietnam stands at around 30 per cent.

According to the estimates of the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), mobile phone exports will reach $11 billion in the financial year 2023, which is double the figure of the previous year. During 2023, component imports stood at around $30 billion. The total production of phones for exports as well as domestic use came to $44 billion. In the case of Apple, the total value of phones assembled in India for exports as well as domestic sales stood around Rs 60000 crore, of which Rs 40000 crore was from exports. It is noted that the strategies opted for by India in its quest for growth in mobile device assembly were different from those of China and Vietnam. India chose to increase domestic value addition (DVA) when the scale of production was low. After the exit of Nokia from the country, the scale only declined further. Whereas in China, growth came from scale and later from DVA. It is recommended to also focus on the scale rather than DVA in the case of India. Component manufacturing may bring up employment opportunities, and increased localization would result in the growth of the manufacturing sector.

India to surpass China as most populous nation in '23: UN

 

Population is one of the most important factors which balance the environment, which means the balance in the means and resources. Population is a set or group of people who share common characteristics.

India has set a new record to be the most populous country in the world by the mid of this year to about 1.429 billion people, overcoming China which was about 1.426 billion. this record was released by United Nations (UN) population fund (formerly United Nations Fund for Population Activities, or UNFPA. India surpasses China with about 3 million counts. the Asian nation contributes to the world population with about one by third of the overall population. when they count the China population, they didn’t include Hong Kong and Macao, the special administrative regions of China, said by the state of world population report. But India didn’t surpass China’s socio-economic parameters. They also claimed that the life expectancy of birth of women in India is 74 years, but China stands at 82 years. however, the per capita income of China is still in the highest position that is to be 5X times India’s per capita income in 2023 by International Monetary Fund (IMF). More than 50 percent of India’s population below 25 years old which will benefit them the demographic dividend.  Demographic dividend means that the economic growth potential that can result it in the shifts in a population’s age structure, mainly when the working population (15-65 years old) share is more than that of the non- working population share. they also reported that the national fertility rate below falls down to 2.1, by that India is witnessing an historical opportunity that is the demographic transition as a youthful nation, by this the economy can benefit such as additional investments in health, education, and quality jobs for young people including investments to improve employment opportunities for women and girls. this can lead to some impact on megatrends such as climate change, urbanization, migration, and agency into policy initiatives.  in 2021, there was no decadal census, because of this India lacks accurate estimates of its population. By 2023, India will surpass China and will become the most populous nation.

There are many negative impacts occur because of overpopulation which are more people needs more food, water, housing, energy, healthcare, transportation and more which will lead to economic degradation, pollution, increased conflicts, and higher risk of occurring pandemics.

Govt to spend $200 million on AI, build better e-governance apps: Minister

Government of India will spend  $200 million to develop an Artificial Intelligent (AI) ecosystem that will make e-governance platforms more accessible and reliable , said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, at the Business Standard TechTalk in Bengaluru. The country will prioritise using AI for governance applications on India Stack, language model Digital India Bhashini, and also healthcare. It will also encourage the private sector and start-ups to develop AI use cases, said Chandrasekhar on Friday.

                           India Stack comprises open-source software application programming interfaces (APIs) of government-backed services like Aadhaar, unified payment interface (UPI), and DigiLocker. The open-source model has a mix of computer languages, architecture, APIs, libraries or lexicons, user interfaces, and the apps themselves. 

“We will bring in learning and intelligence into that stack, which will sit on all these huge amounts of data we have about consumer behaviour and what citizens are consuming,” said Chandrasekhar, adding that AI will take the duplication and fraudulent use of subsidies to almost zero.

The government will create guardrails for the emerging technologies like AI. “I can share with you one of the big areas the new Digital India Act, which will be replacing IT Act, 2000, will be the framework of guardrails for ethical use without disrupting innovation,” he said, referring to legislation proposing to regulate the country’s fast-growing digital market. 

Under India’s AI programme, the government has conducted consultations with the industry stakeholders for launching a datasets programme . The huge datasets held by the government, which when organized and made available in a curated form, will become a game changer for the AI ecosystem in the country.

               One of the biggest concern about AI is the fear of bias and the lack of diversity in the underlying datasets that are fueling these (AI language) models. “ One of the big reasons that the India datasets programme is so powerful is that we represent one of the most diverse collections of datasets of citizens from all parts of the country,” said Chandrasekhar. 

                        “Currently our thinking is that the access to India datasets programmes will be offered to essentially either Indian researchers or start-ups. Nothing precludes the Indian start-ups from collaborating with big global companies, but certainly, we will allow direct access only to the Indian start-ups.” 

In the union budget for 2023-24 in February, the government announced establishing three centres of excellence for the AI systems. These centres will be connected with academic researchers, the industry and start-ups. The minister said there will be a networked model for AI.

“Just like UPI was built to solve a government problem and has created one of the most vibrant process fintech ecosystems in the world, we believe AI can make governance smarter, the process of scheme planning much more intelligent, data-led with build-on models. At the same time it will create an adjacent ecosystem of innovation around AI, for which we are building a framework,” Chandrasekhar said.

Serum Institute of India to restart vaccine production

 Serum Institute of India to restart the production of covid vaccines (COVISHIELD). At present, they have an inventory of 6 million doses of Covovax. Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer of SII said that they are planning to restart the production after a year. They are planning more supply of doses to hospitals. Batch by batch they are planning to make about 5-6 million doses. They say people are likely to take Covishield as a third dose. SII’s Covovax (Novavax vaccine supplied to US) got the regulator’s assurance as a heterologous booster few days ago. 

 

                             SII are also into new experiment on human blood samples for neutralizing antibodies against Omicron and XXB variant of Omicron. Private hospitals have more demand for these vaccines. After the first and second doses of vaccine everyone is into booster dose. Presently slumped in US and Europe. They also quoted that government has already done with first and second doses and now they are into booster dose, which has been done for half of the population, so they don’t expect government to buy more. SII is mainly focusing of private hospitals.

 

                            SII has also launched vaccine against cervical cancer to begin from June. It will cost about Rs. 300 and Rs 350 in private hospitals. It is named as Cervavac. The imported version of Cervavac can increase from Rs 3500 to 4000 per dose. The vaccine is concentrated and offered to girls of 9-14 age groups. The first dose will be offered to primary school students. The aim is to protect girls against cervical cancer caused by human papillomavirus.

                               

                          

               Indian Semiconductor Mission : Centre invites more companies to set up units  

                     Semiconductors are used in electronic devices like mobile phones, laptops, television , refrigerators, digital cameras, washing machines and LED bulbs. A semiconductor chip is an electric circuit that contains transistors and wiring formed on a semiconductor wafer. Today it is an essential part in the everyday life of man and are in high demand across the world. India imports most of its semiconductors from China, United States, Japan. India is the second largest importer of semiconductor in the world. Semiconductor market has great opportunities to offer its manufacturers and is called as the ' brain ' of modern electronics by some and 'heart' of modern electronics by some others. Also the rise in OTT content and the work from home concept after covid has increased the demand for electronic devices made of semiconductors. Also with the coming of 5G , the semiconductor consumption has increased all over especially in India . When compared with the global market, the size of the the Indian semiconductor market is small as it imports most of the semiconductors. China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Korea are the major suppliers of semiconductor in the world. Since it is a capital intensive industry and needs reliable access to power and water, which was not adequately available before, led to the import of semiconductors by India earlier. 

                    But now India is moving into self reliance realizing the importance of semiconductors and understanding their high demand has decided to move into chip making with localised manufacturing. The  Government of India has launched a comprehensive programme for the development of a sustainable semiconductor and display ecosystem. The ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in December 2021 notified four new schemes to reduce India's dependency on imports and build an ecosystem for the production of semiconductors. The programme has made India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), the nodal agency which will instil confidence in investors.

                   As the government of India has come forward with such an initiative of Make In India of semiconductors, it has received various proposals for new investments to set up electronic chipboard display manufacturing plants. One of the major investor Vedanta Foxconn Joint venture, IGSS ventures and ISMC(International Semiconductor Consortium) have come forward to set up electronic chip manufacturing plants. Also the officials of India government are having meeting with representatives of copper, aluminium, water and gases industries to explore their needs for establishing units near the semiconductor manufacturing units. The semiconductor manufacturing process requires around 1200 different types of raw materials. The government is inviting these firms to set up plants in India near semiconductor plants to promote chip manufacturing in India rather than importing these raw materials. This will also help to lessen any disruptions in the global supply chains. Except some rare earth minerals which need to be imported, others can be produced within the country. This would give a support to the $10 billion package of central government to stimulate semiconductor production in India. Also the state governments , where these units will be placed, are providing additional incentives, bringing the total value of subsidies and incentives to around 70-75 percent of the overall project cost.

                  The semiconductor technology has now become an essential part of the world as it has enabled researchers to develop bomb detectors to smart glasses and has impact on data centres, smart homes and cities to high speed networks and the automotive industry. Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things have sparked a new wave of innovation in the semiconductor industry, along with the launch of 5G networks recently. Thus semiconductor market has great opportunities to offer for their manufacturers.

                     

UPI to charge on transactions

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is real-time payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. UPI is regulated by RBI.

There are 3 ways in which we can initiate UPI payments today.

First Method: In this method, we can link the bank account to a UPI app and scan a QR code. In order to make the payment we have to enter the pin and the money gets debited from the bank account. These transactions are free of cost. The person who receives the money or the person who makes the payment does not have to pay any charges. And the fact that it’s ‘free’ really gave a fillip to UPI payments.

Second Method: You load up a prepaid wallet likewise in Paytm or Amazon. And by scanning the QR code we can make payments. On 29^th march 2023, NCPI released a new rule, saying that if you make any payment of more than ₹2,000 in a store, there’s going to be a 1.1% charge attached to this transaction. It’s a charge that the storeowner will have to bear.

Third Method: In the case of Rupay Credit card from a banks, we can link that to the UPI and pay on credit. When you swipe a card at a shop, the merchant has to pay a fee to the bank. But since Rupay is a ‘Made in India’ product that competes against Visa and Mastercard, it got some leeway. Even in this case if the transaction value is less than ₹2,000, there wouldn’t be any extra fees charged.

Each day 36 crore transactions take place in UPI. It’s getting bigger each day. In February 2021, UPI had just had a share of 11% in all kinds of retail payments. By February 2023 it raised to 22%.

NPCI also want to introduce a direct credit line on UPI means a direct loan from a bank that can be used for payments using this app.

It will be possible to take a short-term loan to make a UPI payment. Banks don’t have to get bothered about the costs and hassles of issuing physical credit cards. But the is a pre-sanctioned loan limit. There will be some sort of data analytical test to know the creditworthiness of the person. And based on it they will be allowed to draw credit when they make a purchase. Transactions can be made through a swipe or through scanning a QR code

Now, banks can easily get into this network and open the way for small credit lines. The credit amount will be an amount around Rs,10,000 and Rs.20,000. It could spur consumption. Help people recover from financial issues. Come in handy for any emergency situations. And basically, improve the quality of life of the users.

But there is a dark side to this kind of credit too.

Because UPI is so ubiquitous, people can quickly fall into the trap of borrowing. They could get tempted by easy access to credit. And when the limit runs out, they get into a crisis and could soon end up going to money lenders who don’t care about their financial position. It can end up being a vicious trap and creates a terrifying situation.

STORY OF KODAK

 

The story of Kodak begins in late 19th century, when young George Eastman begins interest in photography. George Eastman was a clerk in Rochester, New York at that time. At that time photography was an expensive process which requires heavy equipment and specialized knowledge. Eastman considers this as a problem and saw an opportunity to simplify it and make it accessible to large people.

In 1880, Eastman introduced a new type of photography which is a type of dry plate photography, that was more sensitive to light and able to produce sharper images than the previous methods. He called his invention "Kodak," a name he made up because he liked the sound of it.

Eastman wasn't content with just creating a better type of photography but he wants to revolutionize the entire photography industry. In 1888, he invented first kodak camera, which is a simple box with a lens and a roll of film. The camera costs about $25 at that time which is equivalent to $700 today. The camera is quite expensive but it is preloaded with film which can take up to 100 photographs.

The main idea behind Kodak is its simplicity, a person with no photographic experience can easily take decent pictures. The operation is so simple and easy.  After taking 100 pictures, the user would send the camera back to Kodak, where the film would be developed, prints made, and the camera reloaded with fresh film. Eastman’s marketing slogan for the Kodak camera was "You press the button; we do the rest." It was a huge success, and Kodak quickly became a household name.

Over the next several decades, Kodak continue to innovate and dominate the photography industry. Kodak introduces new types of films, including colour films and various other types of cameras with varied specifications. The camera they invented were smaller, more portable and easier to use.

In the 1970s Kodak was at the peak of success, with a dominating market share of 90% in the US film market. But the success didn't last, as the digital revolution was just around the corner.

In 1975, an engineer at Kodak named Steve Sasson created the first digital camera. The camera was large and clunky, and it took 23 seconds to record a single image onto a cassette tape. But Sasson saw the potential of digital photography, and he knew that it would eventually become the future of the industry.

Unfortunately, Kodak's leadership shows no interest in Steve's vision and they were too focused on their existing film photography business and didn't invest into digital photography technology. soon they realised their mistake, competitors like Sony , Canon and Nikon had already establish themselves as the masters of digital photography and Kodak was left behind.

In 2012, after years of declining sales and mounting losses, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. The company that had once revolutionized the photography industry was now a story for management professionals and for people interested in business.

Today, Kodak still exists, but not in its glory. The company has shifted its focus to printing and imaging technology, and it's trying to reinvent itself as a player in the digital world. But the legacy of George Eastman and the Kodak brand lives on, a testament to the power of innovation and the importance of adapting to change.

 

The marketing lesson from the story

 

The story of Kodak provides several valuable marketing lessons:

Innovate products: Kodak success was built continuous innovation and invest heavily in research, but the reason for their downfall is that they failed to adapt to the new technology. The lesson here is that companies that fail to innovate and adapt to change risk being left behind by competitors.

Focus on customer needs: Kodak became a success because it can meet the needs of the customers. It was simple and easy to use, making photography accessible to a wider audience. The lesson here is that companies that focus on meeting the needs of their customers are more likely to succeed.

Branding matters: The branding matters, Kodak was built on innovation, quality, and reliability. The iconic red and yellow logo of Kodak was easily recognizable. This strong brand identity helped Kodak to dominate the photography market for decades. The lesson here is that companies that invest in building a strong brand are more likely to succeed in the long run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serum restarts making Covishield after over a yr

Serum Institute of India (SII) is a biopharmaceuticals and biotechnology company based in Pune, India. SII is the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines. It was founded by Cyrus Poonawalla and the parent company is Cyrus Poonawalla Group. It is a private company. Their manufactured product is served over the world. Their products are vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, generic drugs, over the counter drugs and the subsidiary companies are Bilthoven Biologicals BV, Vakzine Projektt Management GmbH. It was founded in 1966. In 2009, the company developing an internal swine flu vaccine. As of 2020, they were the largest manufacturer of vaccines by number of doses produced, manufactured around 1.5 billion doses of vaccine.

To develop covid vaccine, the company has partnered with the British- Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company named AstraZeneca, which is developing AZD1222 (covishield) partnered with University of Oxford. They had also put an agreement with Novavax to produce Covovax and manufacturing Sputnik V vaccine in India in collaboration with Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology after getting approved from DCGI (Drug Controller General of India). Serum Institute of India has restarted their production of its covid vaccine, Covishield. As the cases were less as compared to earlier times, they had 0nly put 146 vaccination sites in India and a few hundred shots per day. There was an inventory of 6 billion doses of Covovax. Only 446 doses were used within 24 hours. As the CEO Adar Poonawalla said to Business times that they had restarted the production of covishield and going to maintain an inventory piled up to 5-6 million covishield to supply to hospitals as per needs. They had restarted their production about more than a year back. He also claimed that some people are comfortable to take covishield as their third dose. They are also ready with their new Covovax vaccine to deliver. As the vaccine had supplied to US and they had given approved it and stated that it is a mix and match booster shot (heterologous vaccine). As they had tried their new samples over human blood to find out whether they work against Omicron variant especially XXB variant and this test was success that they eliminate these variants from the blood. Their new vaccine has a shelf life of 6 to 9 months. He also added to his statement that negligible demand from private hospitals as well. Even though the hospitals have vaccine shortages, the hospitals never came forward for procurement. So, he added that people should come forward to take booster doses unless the situation will become bit odd.

The government has already given first and second doses of covid vaccination to peoples and booster for significant population and they also claim that they don’t expect anymore orders from government and that had talks with private hospitals to start with small quantity orders to begin with. They had tie up with EU to supply around 5-10 million vaccine doses of Covovax. Also added that the precaution shot (Covovax) has priced at 225 rupees and hospital charges in between 100 and 150 rupees.