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VO LU M E 1

I SS U E 2

Elixir Newsletter
CONTENTS
International 2
PHARMA 3

NATIONAL
Money in banks abroad: Cannot disclose names,
Centre tells SC

E-COMMERCE.. 4
SUDOKU .... 5
FROM HBR

..... 5

POWER ..... 5
Manufacturing... 6

TOON CORNER
By
Abdul Wahid
On Page 5

The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court (SC) that it could
not disclose the names of those who have deposited money in
banks abroad as it this would jeopardise tax agreements with
nations providing those names to India.
This echoes the line taken by the previous UPA government,
which the BJP had slammed and made into an election issue
earlier this year while promising to bring black money back if
elected to power.The SC had in May given the Centre an
ultimatum to constitute a Special Investigation Team to probe
black
moneyaccount
cases. It number
also ordered
the Centre provident
to disclose the
Universal
to facilitate

fund portability
Winner of
SUDOKU
(Published in
12/10/2014 magazine)
Amaresh Krishna

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched a


universal account number (UAN) for provident fund
subscribers that will enable you to link your PF account to this
number. This will, thereafter, allow easier portability as well as
ease of transfer directly to your bank accounts in the months
ahead.An EPFO officer explained that the retirement savings
body has already generated over 4.2 crore UANs and
employers have been asked to provide the Aadhaar numbers,
bank account numbers and permanent account numbers of
employees. These will be then seeded into the 12-digit UAN.

Jayalalithaa gets bail with caveats


Taking former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on her word
that there will be no attempt to delay criminal appeal proceedings
in the Karnataka High Court, the Supreme Court on Friday
suspended her four-year sentence in the disproportionate assets
case and granted her bail.
A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices Madan
B. Lokur and A.K. Sikri also suspended the sentences of the three
other accused Sasikala, Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi and granted them
bail. All the accused have to furnish two solvent sureties to the
satisfaction of the Special Judge, Bangalore .Jayalalithaas lawyer
and senior counsel Fali S.

Oct, 2014

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ELIXIR

PAGE 2

ISIS jihadists
training pilots to fly seized jets
INTERNATIONAL
The terrorist group Islamic State (ISIL) may have now got their hands
on fighter jets and are being trained to fly them. Iraqi pilots who have
joined Islamic State are training its members in Syria to fly three
captured fighter jets, according to a UK-based activist group that
monitors the conflict.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said witnesses had
seen the planes being flown around a military airport in Aleppo. At
present, the Western military forces led by US and UK have been using
air power to push back ISIL. The latest development comes as a major
worry for the coalition forces.

We

will

respond

to

Ebola

in

more

aggressive

way':

Barack

Obama

President Barack Obama vowed on Wednesday that his administration


would respond in a much more aggressive way to cases of Ebola in the
United States and warned that in an age of frequent travel the disease
could spread globally if the world doesnt respond to the raging
epidemic in West Africa. In his most urgent comments on the spread of
the disease, Obama also sought to ease growing anxiety and fears in the
U.S. in the aftermath of a second nurse being diagnosed with Ebola after
treating a patient in a Dallas hospital. He said he had directed the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to step up its response to
new cases.

Suspected ISIS militants in London police net


Four men who were suspected of pledging allegiance to the Islamic
State(IS), setting up 'methods of secret communications' and entering into
'covert discussions', have been charged with intending to commit terrorist
attacks on British police and army barracks in London, the Metropolitan
Police said on Friday. The charges included alleged "hostile reconnaissance"
of the Shepherd's Bush police station and the White City Territorial Army
Barracks in the city.
The suspects were remanded in custody after appearing at Westminster
Magistrates' Court, according to the police.

FB may become top video sharing site

Videos on Facebook are fast catching up with YouTube in terms of number of


shares and the social networking site may overtake YouTube in video sharing
through its news feed soon, say researchers.
An analysis based on 20,000 Facebook pages and 180,000 posts over one
year found that Facebook is now a real threat to YouTube in terms of video
consumption.
The content marketers are directly uploading video content to Facebook,
meaning that Facebook is retaining the traffic at the expense of YouTube,
reported Socialbakers, a social media analytics company, on its website.

Oct, 2014

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PAGE 3

PHARMA
No CCI directive to sell business for merger nod with Sun Pharma: Ranbaxy

Ranbaxy Laboratories, which is in the process of a $ 4 billion merger


with Sun Pharma, today said the two firms as on date have not
received any direction from the CCI to sell parts of their businesses
as a pre-condition to approve the deal.
Reacting to reports that CCI may ask the parties to sell parts of their
businesses as a pre-condition to approve the merger, Ranbaxy said
in a filing to the BSE: "We wish to clarify that as on date we have not
received any such communication from the CCI to divest any part of
the business(s)." In August, CCI had asked Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy to make
public details of their proposed transaction in what was probably the first instance where

Cygnus

Medicare

the competition watchdog ordered a public scrutiny of a proposed merger and

raises

Rs60

crore

from

Fidelity,

current

investors

Fidelity has picked up around a 28% stake in Cygnus and Somerset


will hold a 23% stake, which takes the joint holding by the two private
equity funds to 51%. Cygnus Medicare, which was founded in 2011,
has nine hospitals in locations such as Panipat, Sonipat, Nangloi and
Dwarka among others, with a total bed strength of 550 beds, and
plans to invest Rs80 crore to add 10 more hospitals in the next two
years, taking the number of beds to 1,800.

Pfizers AstraZeneca pursuit knocked by Shire deal collapse


The chances of Pfizer reviving its pursuit ofAstraZeneca have been
greatly diminished after the collapse of AbbVies 32bn acquisition of
Shire, according to several people close to the situation. Pfizer, the
biggest US drugmaker, would be free under UK Takeover Panel rules
to make a new approach for AstraZeneca from next month when a
mandatory cooling-off period ends following its failed 69.4bn bid in
May.
Pfizer and AbbVie are among more than a dozen American companies
that have sought deals this year to shift their tax domicile overseas to
escape the 35 per cent US corporate tax rate the highest in the
developed world. Pfizer had hoped to cut its average tax rate from 27
per cent to 21 per cent by buying AstraZeneca and moving to the UK.

WikiLeaks: US pushes to extend drug monopolies in secret proposed trade deal


Excerpts from a proposed international trade agreement leaked to the web this week suggest
that the United States is pushing for changes that would make it more difficult to get life-saving
drugs overseas.
On Thursday, transparency group WikiLeaks published a draft chapter from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) agreement which 12 countries, including the US, have been negotiating in
near total privacy for years
According to the secret-spilling organization, the latest leaked chapter an excerpt from May
Oct,proposed
2014 intellectual property, or IP, rules indicates that
VOLAmerican
1 ISSUE trade
2
2014 detailing
reps

PAGE 4

ELIXIR

E-Commerce
PayPal

spinoff

seen

critical

for

eBay

amid

e-commerce

weakness

A recovery in eBay Inc's core e-commerce business will take longer


than expected and any gains for investors would have to come
from the separation of its PayPal unit, analysts said, a day after the
company trimmed its full-year revenue forecast. The stock fell as
much as 7.8 percent to $46.34 on Thursday, its lowest in two
years. At least 16 brokerages cut their price target on eBay's
shares by as much as $7 to a low of $48."We believe the pending
spin-off of PayPal will help to unlock shareholder value as investors
are able to value each business," BMO Capital Markets analysts
wrote in a note. The brokerage cut its price target on the stock to
Indian e-commerce market to touch $6 billion in 2015: Gartner
$58 from $64 but reiterated its "outperform" rating.
The India e-commerce market will reach $6 billion in 2015, a 70
percent increase over 2014 revenue of $3.5 billion, Gartner Inc. said
here Thursday.
Digital commerce is at a nascent stage in India. However, India is
one of the fastest-growing eCommerce markets in Asia/Pacific,
Praveen Sengar, research director at the research firm, said. India
represents a $3.5 billion market, growing at approximately 60-70
percent every year. It represents less than 4 percent of the total
retail market.

Alibaba's Alipay expands into local payments, courts U.S. merchants


Alipay's mobile app (Alipay Wallet) is being updated to support a
car rental service that will allow users with good credit (as
determined by Alipay's transaction data) to rent cars without a
down payment.
Going forward, the Chinese online payments giant sees itself
handling many other types of local services payments, including
hotel bookings, apartment rentals, and hospital fees. "This car
serviceCoca
is likeCola
a pilotuncork
project,"plans
says ato
product
manager.
From e-commerce to ads,rental
PepsiCo,
woo consumer
PepsiCo India and Coca-Cola India are tweaking their distribution
strategy, retail initiatives and advertising plans to fight
competition in the Rs 30,000-crore domestic beverage market.
While PepsiCo India's game plan includes launch of new price
packs, retail initiatives and brand activation programmes, CocaCola India is sharpening its focus on e-commerce activities, new
ad campaigns and consumer connect programmes.
On the company's new retail initiative, Coca-Cola India's
spokesperson said, E-commerce platforms are a part of the
product distribution mix. We have faith in it and we will continue
to increase our reach and offerings. Putting the product on
Amazon for the first 15 days of launch was part of the strategy
to build preference and anticipation for the beverage. Coca-Cola
India sold Coke Zero for only 15 days on Amazon and sales
crossed 1 lakh
cans
within two weeks.
Oct,
2014

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ELIXIR

PAGE 5

SU DO KU

TOON CORNER

Send us the answers by 25th Oct, 2014 (in the specified excel sheet). First three people to solve it will be declared
as winners in next magazine.

From HBR
Six Basics for General Managers
Great coaches stress fundamentals-the basic skills & plays that make a team a consistent
winner. Similarly great general managers do the same thing. They know that sustained superior
performance cant be built on one-shot improvements like restructurings, massive cost
reductions, or reorganizations. Sure, theyll take such sweeping actions if theyre in a situation
where thats necessary or desirable. But their priority is avoiding that kind of situation. And they
do that by focusing on the six key tasks that constitute the foundations of every general
managers job:

shaping the work environment,

setting strategy,

allocating resources,

developing managers,

building the organization, and

Oct, 2014

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ELIXIR

POWER
NTPC firming up plans to enter into power distribution business
NTPC is firming up plans to enter power distribution, an
area the state-run company has mostly stayed away from
so far despite producing more than a quarter of India's
total electricity output.
It plans to bid for distribution rights in cities that may open
up the segment to the private sector. Just a handful of
Indian cities at present have private distributors, all in
joint ventures with state utilities, a model that NTPC too is
considering. "Many states are likely to open up distribution
business for private or public participation to bring in
efficiency in this sector. NTPC finds opportunity in entering
into distribution business through participation in these
bids," a senior NTPC official told ET.

ADB to Invest $100 Million in Acmes India Solar Projects


The Asian Development Bank plans to invest $100 million to
help Electricite de France SA-backed Acme Solar Energy Pvt.
build 200 megawatts of solar projects in India.
The board of the Manila-based lender is set to meet tomorrow
on the investment, Don Purka, a director in the ADBs private
sector infrastructure-finance division, said by phone today.
Acme Solar a venture between EDFs renewable unit,
Indias Acme Group and Eren SA expects to build the
capacity by 2016, according to project information included in
the funding proposal.

Revive

lakh

MW

plants

to

tackle

power

problems:

Advisory

group

CitigroupInc.,ETradeFinancialCorp.,AutomaticDataProcessingInc.andRegionsFinancialCorp.wereattackedbythesamehackers
India's electricity problems can be solved within a short time by
Muchabouttheattacksontheseinstitutionsremainsunclear,includingthemotivesofthehackersandwhetheranyoftheattacksweresuc
reviving the 1 lakh MW thermal power capacity plants that are lying
idle, Chairman of the Advisory Group for Integrated Development of
Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Suresh Prabhu said.
Within 18 months the country can solve energy problems by putting in
place thermal capacity of about 1 lakh MW, which is lying incomplete,
blending it along with about 2,50,000 mw capacity available as of
today, said Prabhu who was power minister in the previous NDA-led

Oct, 2014

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PAGE 7

Manufacturing
Tata JLR only Indian company in world's 100 most valuable brands
Tata group's Land Rover has forayed into an elite club of
world's 100 most valuable brands as the only Indianowned entity, while iconic Apple has retained its top slot
with nearly $119 billion valuation.
Land Rover, an iconic British car brand owned by Indian
conglomerate Tatas, has been ranked 91st with a brand
value of $4.47 billion and is one of the five new entrants
on this annual list compiled by leading brand consultancy
Interbrand.
Apple - maker of iPhone mobiles, Mac computers, iPad
tablets and iPod music players among others - is followed
Mahindra & Mahindra ties up
Snapdeal
for pre-booking
Scorpio
bywith
Google
on the second
position ($107 of
billion).
These are
After books, mobiles, sundry electronic items and clothes,
now comes a car. E-commerce firm Snapdeal on Thursday
started accepting prebookings for the new variant of
Mahindra & Mahindra's (M&M) mainstay SUV Scorpio,
making it the first time automobile bookings have
debuted on a third-party electronic marketplace in India
and marking another maturity milestone for the country's
fledgling e-retail sector.On Thursday evening, the
homepage of Snapdeal, usually home to small-ticket
merchandise such as shoes, perfumes and clothes, had
the silhouette of M&M's new Scorpio utility vehicle against
a dark backdrop along with the announcement that the
Samsung
to increase
investment
in India's 4G market
website would
take bookings
for it.
Korean technology major Samsung has committed to scale
up its investments in India's 4G market in a meeting with
telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, while LG expressed
great faith in the 'changed investment climate.' "Met CEO
Samsung. Discussed NOFN and Smart city projects. They are
keen on India's 4G mobile market. (They) want to increase
investment," Prasad tweeted after his meeting met CEO
Samsung.discussed NOFN &Smart City projects.they r keen
Editorial Team
VC
solar
crosses $1increase
billion investment
onfunding
India's4Gin
Mobile
market.want2
Indias
solar industry
a favourite
investment
destination
for venture capitalists and
Major Indian
telecomremains
operators,
including
Reliance Jio,
plan
Maruthappan S (2014-16)
private
(PE) funds
the sector
number
of merger and acquisitions.
to startequity
4G services
fromeven
nextasyear.
Bharti sees
Airtela and
Aircel
Nirbhay (2013-15)
have already launched
these
high-speed
services
some Energy, which provides solar
Hyderabad-based
renewable
energy
company
FourthinPartner
Harsh Marodia (2014-16)
parts of the country. Prasad is on a 5-day visit to South
products and turnkey services for off-grid solar power installations, raised
3 crore
from venture
Sanjayan
S (2014-16)
Korea to woo investments in the country in the field of
capital
firm, manufacturing
The Chennai Angels.
Boond Engineering
and
Development, a provider of clean
electronics
and under
the 'Make In
India'
Oct, and
2014
2
energy
products
services, recently closed an equity investment roundVOL
led 1
byISSUE
Opes Impact
program.
Fund.

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