Major Business News Stories This Week

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has slashed tariff duty on 200 IT products, over this the body has signed a trade deal of $1.3 trillion.

Reliance Industries’net profit up 4.4 % in the first quarter of 2015-16 at Rs.6,222 crore.

Not a good news from bullion market, as gold price tumbled heavily this week. The gold price in Chennai down to Rs 2,344 per gram on Friday.

TVS Motor Company Ltd reported on Friday that the net profit for the first quarter grown by 24.8% .

Automobile majro Maruti Suzuki launches Premium Showroom range Nexa on Thursday.

Top 10 Indian companies listed in Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 list. While China topped the list with 25 companies in this.

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd, (NSE), leading stock exchange, issued notice to 260 companies for not appointing a woman director, on Wednesday.

Rajya Sabha Select Committee presents Report on Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill on Wednesday.

The Union Cabinet approved interest subvention on crop loans for farmers on Tuesday.

BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa- countries launched New Development Bank in Shanghai on Tuesda.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) appointed Maurice Obstfeld as the IMF’s economic counsellor and director of the research department, on Monday.

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Mukesh Ambani’s RIL receives a Plethora of Awards

Mukesh Ambani

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is the largest privately owned company in India. The Mukesh Ambani owned conglomerate recently won many awards in different fields for its outstanding achievements.

The Hazira Manufacturing Division (HMD) of RIL has won three Platinum Awards, the highest possible level, amid fierce competition from industry stalwarts at the 2nd Lean Six Sigma Convention of the CBE (Concept Business Excellence Pvt. Ltd). The event was held at the FGI (Federation of Gujarat Industries) Business Centre, Vadodara, on October 26, 2013. The three HMD projects that caught the eyes of the panel of eminent judges related to elimination of HTM (CL2), reduction in chilled water consumption in the POY plant and reduction of caustic consumption in the PTA-1 plant. That’s not all; the Hazira Manufacturing Division (HMD) of RIL has also won the Excellence Award, the highest honour of the International Convention on Quality Control Circles 2013 (ICQCC’13) amid stiff international competition from 280 QCC teams from 12 countries on October 25, 2013. ICQCC’13 took place at the Taipei International Convention Centre, Taiwan, from October 22-25, 2013. HMD has received this award for ‘Improvement in throughput at Polyester Auto Warehouse’. The theme of the event was: ‘Continuing implementation of QCC activities, moving towards a brighter future of the world’. The team has earlier won the Gold Award at VCQCC-2012 in Vadodara and the Par Excellent Award at NCQC-2012 in Kanpur.

A company’s strength can be measured by how its employees perceive it and how happy they are while working for the same. RIL has won the runner-up award of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in the category ‘Employer with Best Employee Health and Wellness Initiatives’, on September 19, 2013. SHRM’s ‘HR Awards 2013’ are given away at its Annual Conference every year. The conference took place at Hotel Hyatt, Gurgaon this year and was attended by more than 600 senior HR professionals from India and abroad. SHRM is part of the world’s largest professional, not-for-profit Human Resource association and has over 260,000 members in 140 countries. The Award seeks to recognize organizations which understand the linkage of employee health to business productivity and have therefore proactively identified or designed specific health and wellness programs, which support the needs of their employees.

The Nagothane Manufacturing Division (NMD) of RIL has bagged the prestigious Golden Peacock Award for Sustainability 2013. The selection rounds and the award ceremony were held at London from October 1- 4, 2013. The Golden Peacock Award for Sustainability has been instituted to encourage sustainable development. It recognizes the urgency and magnitude of the risks and threats to collective sustainability, alongside increasing choices and opportunities, and mandates transparency in economic, environmental and social impact corporate initiatives lead to. The Golden Peacock Global Award for Sustainability aims to stimulate organizations to rapidly accelerate the pace of stakeholder oriented improvement process.

Corporate Social Responsibility is very important; it’s a way of giving back to society. RIL has been adjudged the Corporate Social Responsibility Company of the Year at Oliver Kinross’s Asia Oil & Gas Awards 2013 ceremony for demonstrating commitment to the communities in which it operates, as well as excellence in all ethical and environmental aspects of its business operations.

Summary:

Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is not just a market leader in a variety o field, but also a driver of innovation. The company as a whole is also recognised for its human resource development, its efforts to increase sustainability and its corporate social responsibility.

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RIL invests in Reverse Osmosis to expand its Desalination Plant

Mukesh Ambani

MukeshAmbani owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has invested in its first seawater reverse osmosis solution (SWRO). The Indian company has ordered its first such unit from IDE Technologies, a market leader in this sector. IDE Technologies is a global provider of water treatment solutions and apart from being a market leader specializes in the development, engineering, construction and operation of some of the world’s largest and most advanced thermal and membrane desalination facilities and industrial water treatment plants.

Commenting on the renewed partnership with Reliance Industries, AvshalomFelber, CEO of IDE Technologies said, “Over the past several years, we’ve established a strong partnership with Reliance built on trust and success with our reliable desalination solutions. With Reliance’s first installation of our SWRO solution, we look forward to taking our partnership to the next level of success and growth.”

Reverse Osmosis as a process is fairly simple to understand. The world right now is facing water shortage. Clean, potable water is not abundantly available. However, the seas and oceans present a great opportunity. What reserve osmosis does is remove all the salts and minerals from sea water, treat it using advanced chemical processes and this results in water which is clean, potable and can be used for a variety of industrial applications.

The new SWRO plant commissioned by RIL will produce pure water. The need for this was apparent considering the needs one of the largest refineries in the world. With increased capacity and rapid expansion of the Jamnagar Oil Refinery, it became obvious that RIL needed better resources to meet the increased capacity demands. Also, the fact that the plant is located in close proximity of the sea will reduce the length of piping and in turn lead to reduction in costs related to pumping.

“We are excited that one of India’s largest seawater desalination plants is to follow in the tradition of our other large-scale SWRO plants, including our leading projects at Ashkelon, Hadera, Cape Preston, Sorek and Carlsbad,” said Mr. Felber. The move to SWRO is a sign of the ambitious growth plans of RIL as a company. The company clearly wants to invest in a sustainable future and ensure that all the variables with regards to supply issues and raw materials in its Jamnagar Refinery are taken care of and pose no problems for the foreseeable future.

Summary:

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has commissioned Israel-based IDE Technologies to supply their refinery in Jamnagar with seawater reverse osmosis solutions (SWRO. This will allow the MukeshAmbaniowned refinery to use sea water and treat it to make it usable in the refinery.

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RIL, Dassault may join forces to Produce Wings for the Rafale

The Indian Air Force (IAF) selected the Dassault Rafale as its new multi-role fighter after a lengthy selection process in early 2012. The competition was fierce and the French Manufacturer was delighted to have been selected as the preferred bidder. Shortly after this Rupees 60,000 crore deal was announced by the IAF, Dassault signaled that a deal with Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) that would be highly beneficial as far as local manufacturing of the advanced fourth-generation fighter’s components was concerned. Now, many months after the intent, RIL and Dassault are likely to collaborate on the manufacture of the multi-role fighter’s wings.

The IAF has a deal for a total of 126 fighters with 18 of them to be brought in fly-away condition from France. However, the remaining 108 planes will be manufactured in India and this is where RIL comes in. Looking forward to high-quality local manufacturing with no compromise in quality the French and Indian industry giants are planning to set up an Rs 1,000-crore facility for producing the wings of the combat aircraft and it is most likely to come up in Bangalore. The plan is that RIL would create factories and an assembly line similar to the facility in Southern France. Also, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) paving the way for a private company in the air superiority and air combat sector is a landmark development.

Dassault originally wanted RIL to be in charge of the actual manufacturing of the aircraft in India. However, this proved to be a roadblock as the IAF tender had specified Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as the executioner of the aircraft’s assembly in India. However, with clearance from the MoD and the IAF, RIL is keen to begin production of the advanced fourth-generation fighter’s wings.

Summary:

Private players in the Indian Defence Industry haven’t been allowed too much of freedom by the government. However, with the MoD and IAF clearing the way for RIL’s entry into this sector, things seem to be changing for the better. A joint manufacturing plant set up by RIL and Dassault would mean greats news symbolizing the same.

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RIL Responds to Online Petition Regarding its Chicken Business

MukeshAmbani owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has come out to deny claims that it has tied with a foreign partner for its chicken restaurant business. Reliance Industries Limited in a statement on Monday, October 28, 2013 said, ‘We wish to put on record that the story is factually incorrect and that we have not tied up with a foreign partner for chicken restaurant business. We also confirm that we are neither planning nor desirous of pursuing setting up of plants to process chicken as articulated in the media story.’

The news that MukeshAmbani, a strict vegetarian setting up a chicken restaurant chain as well as selling chicken products through Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited spread like wildlife during the past week. The fact that Reliance Retail considered venturing into the QSR segment was not a surprising one; the sector is expected to grow at 30% YoY and would represent a very healthy revenue stream and could generate huge profits. The local QSR market is dominated by globally present brands. This market, at 63%, or 3,400 crore, projected to grow by 30% due to growth in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. CRISIL estimates annual spending on restaurants in these cities to grow by up to 150% to Rs 3,750 crores per home. However, that MukeshAmbani, a strict vegetarian setting up a chicken restaurant chain as well as selling chicken products did raise some eyebrows.

An online petition asking Mr. Ambani to reconsider his decision on ethical and moral grounds was seen soon after this story did the rounds. The petition claimed animals will suffer by means of ‘Cruelty & Abuse’ and the founder of RIL ShriDhirubhaiAmbani would not ‘approve nor appreciate this kind of business.’ Refuting the allegations made in the petition, a RIL statement said, ‘The story should not generate any misconceptions in the minds of our stakeholders and well-wishers. We therefore request everyone to ignore the story and its unsubstantiated information.’

Summary:

MukeshAmbani owned Reliance Industries Limited has released a statement categorically denying setting up of chicken processing plants. It also refuted claims that it has tied with up a foreign partner for its chicken restaurant business.

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