A mythological series is not a religious series!!

As I see it, we should not categorise mythological series as purely a religious series. Of course, it draws its primary elements from the religious beliefs and practices, but fundamentally it tries to communicate mostly common messages and values. The way characters are portrayed, how a situation unfolds are all perfected with a nip of excitement, which would entertain audiences. Most of the animated contents that we see in the Indian market scrounge its storylines from mythological stories. Then there are exceptions like ‘Hanuman Returns’, which borrowed only the characters while the storyline was contemporary. Our recent production ‘Siva’, which was aired by Cartoon Network, was again a portrayal of a contemporary situation linked to the tales of Lord Siva. To sum up, there definitely exist a market for these kind of series provided we don’t overkill mythology and add a fresh breath of life to them.

Every effort from Toonz Animation based on mythology was an experiment as well as a challenge to raise our quality benchmark. In 2002 we set the pace with the ‘The Adventures of Tenali Raman’, which was India’s first Animated TV series. For mythological flicks we aim to slot in young and old alike. The strategy would be to present a theme, which is exciting, engaging and educating. It would need to draw elements of the past and the subtleties of the present. We are currently in production of the second series of the TV feature film ‘Siva’ and another TV feature film on Hanuman titled ‘Hanuman Immortal’.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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SIZE AND AGILITY MATTERS

Given the credit market crisis gobbling iconic Wall Street banks, Indian banking regulator, through its farsighted vision, has taken a much graded and extremely cautious approach in opening the doors for the foreign players...

The English dictionary defines bank as ‘store’, ‘depository’, ‘reservoir’, among others. It naturally implies that this ‘reservoir’, meant to be tapped on a rainy day, be protected by strong hands if that is to be used for the betterment of the society in general and industry and commerce in particular. Who could provide more strength to this bank than the might of the sovereign government?!

However, much to chagrin of large global banks, Indian banks are sizing up. In fact, many of them have almost shaped up already. The largest of the Indian banks, State Bank of India (SBI), is scaling up in size by merging its second subsidiary, the smallest among the six – State Bank of Indore – after amalgamating State Bank of Saurashtra last year. The merger would take SBI much ahead and inspire awe among competitors as the next in line would hardly be half in terms of assets and credit book size. Many other banks are scaling up too by infusing capital after almost all of them have achieved very high level of computerised banking system.

April 2009, which feared for opening of foreign banks’ jaws trying to gobble up Indian banks, is already a past and soon April 2010 will be knocking on the doors. So far, no casualty is reported on the Indian side, while many of those that were trying in predator’s boot are themselves starved of cash and are looking for state capital transfusion in return for greater regulation and oversight.

Even the recent global credit market crisis and resulting failure of iconic investment banks in the western world has only reinforced the belief that the banks must remain in strong hands, else they will be at the mercy of the adventurous managers who, in order to earn fat bonuses, would not mind drilling holes in those strong walls guarding the depositors’ ‘trust’ and permanently damaging the ‘reservoir’.

Moreover, as the Indian banking industry is very fragmented, therefore the moves by SBI are watched closely not only by the ministry mandarins, but also by the banking hawks. After the successful merger of two subsidiaries, other five might just go in one large chunk, lock stock and barrel. Eventually, all its subsidiaries are set to merge to form a colossal bank. At the same time, other PSU banks are also being capitalised to meet the challenges ahead.

Under such circumstance, it is highly probable that the regulator, the Reserve Bank of India, would come forward with a road map for consolidation, especially among the PSU banks, and allow mergers and amalgamations, which would further strengthen the banks and at the same time rationalise the duplication of bank branches. This would also make our banks strong enough before foreign banks gain muscle to compete effectively.

Moreover, when large global banks worldwide are struggling to cope up with investment losses, increasing delinquencies and shrinking asset book, Indian banks are busy building muscle. Therefore, in such a scenario, Indian banks need not bear any fears from the foreign banks that may not be in a position to commit long term funds for takeovers/amalgamations in a hurry.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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GUNNING FOR THE SUN

Sun Pharma’s two-pronged strategy – of making low-priced acquisitions and its cost control mechanisms – enabled it to run effortlessly ahead when others in the sector were panting during FY09!

Once considered ‘destined for greatness’, Wockhardt and Ranbaxy are bed-ridden today when it comes to operational excellence and India’s pharma sector, once considered immune to downturns, stands battered. So is it all bad for the bigwigs in the sector? Not really. Sun Pharmaceuticals has surprised everyone with its mind-boggling performance even in a recession- hit FY09!

Here are some numbers that stand testimony – while most players saw a dip in revenues and profits, Sun Pharma grew its topline by a smashing 27.3% y-o-y to garner Rs.4,272.3 crore, and its bottomlines by another handsome 22.2% y-o-y to touch Rs.1,817.8. So what enabled this $4.5 billion giant to take control in a situation when goliaths around the world were crumbling to the ground? We asked Uday Baldota, VP – Investor Relations, Sun Pharma, about the most critical strategies that help Sun Pharma beat the beatdown and he outlined two of them, “Success at acquisitions and cost leadership…”

True. In the recent past, Sun Pharma has proven critics of M&As wrong, having acquired 14 distressed assets over the years (at low prices) and turning them into profit-churning machines. And these turnarounds, which helped Sun to diversify into new drug segments, are showing signs of being the key drivers of revenues for the pharma major today. For example, when it laid hands on Dadha Pharma (Tamil Nadu), Sun entered the oncology space. With purchase of Milmet Labs, they acquired expertise in the opthalmological space and with Valeant, gained entry into the controlled substances niche. And if its $454 million Taro deal comes through (as per Baldota, “The deal is still on, with some court decisions awaited.”), Sun will get another headstrong entry into the dermatological market.

Besides, Sun has always remained a cost leader in the generics drugs platform. As Baldota reveals, Sun’s net operating margin is a tremendous (43%), which for the other top ten pharma players, is only a modest 10%! Sun also doesn’t believe in over investing in R&D (its R&D budget allocation is only 8% of revenues, while that figure for the industry stands at a much higher 14-15%)! Further, unlike major drug majors, it faces no danger of patent expiry, as Baldota clarifies, “We don’t have any problems of patent expiries as ours is a generics company…” Yes, one can claim that cost-control has been a key reason for Sun’s ultra-superior bottomlines even as the slowdown monster was gobbling-up profitability all around. “Focus on costs has remained a top priority for us (even) in good times…” confesses Baldota. For some, the year gone by looked duller than ever, but we guess that for others, the ‘Sun’ just didn’t stop shining!

Steven Philip Warner

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Why Finmin fears El Nino?

Pranab mukherjee is in a dilemma these days – should he allow the fiscal deficit to soar high or should he apply brakes and impose some degree of fiscal discipline. It’s a tough choice for all that the aam aadmi wants is a popular budget (not using the term populist budget as it sends negative connotation). Thanks to the accelerated public spending and a dwindling revenue collection, the fiscal deficit for the first month of FY 2009-10 has shot up to 16.3% of the projected full year budget deficit of Rs.3.32 trillion. The irony is that even this figure is elusive as it doesn’t take into account the off budget liabilities like the fertilizer subsidy and compensation to state-run oil companies. On a comparative basis, the total spending in April 2009 amounted to Rs.662.17 billion (up 43% from Rs.463.33 billion in CPLY) while the net tax receipts fell 32% to Rs.74.62 billion from Rs.109.63 billion last year. In fact, the tax GDP ratio, which had seen a steady rise through the boom years slipped to 11.4% in FY 2008-09 from a peak of 12.3% a year earlier. Economic think tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) attributes the lower tax collection to post-budget announcement of cuts in excise duty and service tax. The government, in its interim budget, had pegged the gross fiscal deficit at 5.5% of the GDP (lower than the 6.1% ratio in 2008-09); but given the scenario, the ratio is expected to remain higher than the budgeted estimate in 2009-10. “There is a possibility that India’s fiscal deficit would increase by 1% of GDP from the level expected by the interim budget,” forecasts the S&P report. El Nino can possibly favour the Aussies in the upcoming Ashes Series but for the finance minister, it can possibly shower fresh bout of trouble as he strikes to balance fiscal prudence and populism.

Gyanendra Kashyap

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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