B U S I N E S S

Commerce Minister rules out FDI in multi-brand retail
New Delhi, September 8
The government will not allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today. “We are clear that FDI will not be allowed in multi-brand retail trade. We shall not entertain FDI in multi-brand retail trade (MBRT). There is no ambiguity. There is no confusion on this,” she said while addressing a press conference to mark 100 days of the new government.

Cherry Hill Interiors eyes over 20% growth
With a turnover of around Rs 180 crore, Cherry Hill Interiors Ltd. is a pan-India player in the corporate interiors sector specialising in large-scale LEED-certified projects for Fortune 100 companies. Some of the Cherry Hill’s clients include British Telecom, Bennett Coleman, Delphi Automotive, El Dupont, Microsoft, Mitsui, Electrolux, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Sony, Mindtree, SKF, Shell and others. Rajiv Mohan, managing director and founder, Cherry Hill Interiors, talks to Girja Shankar Kaura about the growth of the sector.

Sensex, Nifty hit new peaks on fund inflows
Mumbai, September 8
After a short breather, Sensex and Nifty today scaled new peaks by surging 293 points and 87 points, respectively, as overseas funds increased bets on growth optimism and a lower oil price gave a boost to sentiments.

Airtel sells over 3,500 towers in Africa
New Delhi, September 8
Airtel has sold over 3,500 telecom towers in Africa to Eaton Towers in a deal expected to be above $1 billion.

New smartphone: Micromax CEO Vineet Taneja (C) along with professionals at the launch of Canvas Nitro A310 in New Delhi on Monday. It is priced at Rs 12,990 and will be available exclusively on Snapdeal.com. It comes with a 1.7GHz Tru octa-core processor, 5-inch HD IPS display and runs on Android 4.4 KitKat software. The phone has 2 GB RAM, 13 MP rear and 5 MP front camera and 8GB ROM. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Commerce Minister rules out FDI in multi-brand retail
Says govt will set up a think tank on IPR issues soon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 8
The government will not allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today.

“We are clear that FDI will not be allowed in multi-brand retail trade. We shall not entertain FDI in multi-brand retail trade (MBRT). There is no ambiguity. There is no confusion on this,” she said while addressing a press conference to mark 100 days of the new government.

Sitharaman said her party, the BJP, has clearly articulated its position on the MBRT and had won the elections on the basis of the manifesto.

The UPA government had opened the multi-brand retail sector for foreign investment and allowed up to 51% FDI in the sector. The BJP had opposed the policy.

While the new government is against FDI in the sector, it has not yet initiated any move to scrap the policy of allowing FDI in multi-brand retail approved by the UPA government.

With developed nations such as the US raising issues over India’s Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime, the minister said it will come out with a policy framework within a few months to make IPR more robust.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharama said her ministry will soon have a think tank that will enable it to handle the IPR issues more firmly. “India does not have an IPR policy. This is the first time we are coming out with an IPR policy. IPR policy issues have been hanging for quite a long time,” Sitharaman said.

She said the policy will help in dealing with issues being raised by developed nations and protect interest of India on IPR-related matters.

Outlining the initiatives taken by the ministry, she said development of a robust manufacturing sector is the priority of the government. It has the potential to not only take the economic growth to a higher trajectory, but also to provide employment. The government is committed to remove all bottlenecks and develop India as a manufacturing hub.

The government said the perceptible improvement in the economic performance in the past three months is a reflection of the improved business environment and market sentiment, an outcome of the series of initiatives taken by the government to bring about positive changes to revitalise the industrial sector in general and manufacturing sector in particular.

No to foreign investment The UPA government had opened the multi-brand retail sector for foreign investment and allowed up to 51% FDI in the sector While the new government is against FDI in the sector, it has not yet initiated any move to scrap the policy framed by the previous govt

Cherry Hill Interiors eyes over 20% growth
Rajiv Mohan
MD, Cherry Hill Interiors Ltd,
talks to Girja Shankar Kaura

A. The workplace is fast changing with employees demanding healthier, technologically advanced and flexible workplaces. According to industry reports, today the corporate interiors, which is a part of the soft infrastructure sector in India, has a market size close to 26-30 million sq ft space demand annually in metros and certain emerging cities in India with revenues of over Rs 2,700-3,000 crore. It is estimated that by the year 2017 the area is going to become almost 140 million sq ft. With 8.31 million sq ft of cumulative office leases, Delhi-NCR is the second highest in terms of office space absorption after Bengaluru in 2013. India is emerging as one of the rapid adopters of sustainable building practices with a third place ranking in the latest US Green Building Council report having 11.64 million GSM of LEED-certified space.

A. With a gross turnover of around Rs 180 crore and having created over 20 million sq ft of workspace seating more than 2.5 lakh professionals across the country, we’ve been able to establish ourselves as one of the top three players in the sector in India specialising in large-scale projects. We have also recently secured a CARE Credit Rating A/A1 for long/ short-term bank facilities and have also entered into an alliance with OPC Asset Solutions Pvt Ltd., an equipment rental company to provide operating lease solutions to our customers in India around their capital investment in corporate interiors, thus establishing a new trend in the market and setting up higher standards of operations.

A. We are targeting expansion at a yearly growth rate of over 20% over the next 4-5 years with emerging corporate hubs in and around Delhi NCR like Sohna (Gurgaon), Neemrana, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Bangalore, Telangana, Pune, Coimbatore and Kolkata making significant contribution to business growth. We’re also doing large spaces in SEZs for companies like Dell and see that as a strong growth area to business growth. North India contributes to 40% of our annual revenues and we anticipate the figure to grow by 10% in the near future. We also intend to take leadership position and be a key support player for Japanese corporates on the emerging India Japanese Business Corridor along Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor in the future and have created a special Japan Service Desk (JSD) for Japan-based companies planning to enter the Indian market.

A. Major office hubs like Gurgaon are expected to witness significant number of lease renewals in 2014 and 2015, as companies that set up offices in 2004-06 (the "first wave" of occupiers) approach the end of their lease terms. After a lull of almost two years, office space absorption has witnessed positive growth in the first half of 2014. Over a 1-3 year horizon, we are likely to see an improvement in demand and absorption due to a fairly optimistic Budget 2014, a stable government and relative stabilisation of economic conditions in the US and western Europe which is likely to increase outsourcing business into India resulting in improved performance of the office sector.

Sensex, Nifty hit new peaks on fund inflows

Airtel sells over 3,500 towers in Africa