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MOTLEY COLLECTION OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC NEWS |
 Online business gets a leg-up
Paysignet e-Transactions Pvt Ltd, recently launched its Integrated Online Payment Gateway, a world-class portal comprising of multiple options to complete payments using Master Card and Visa Card under Credit Cards or ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, UTI Bank, IDBI Bank under Online Bank Transfers.
This coupled with a complete and comprehensive set of tools and customization options, Paysignet.com aspires to enable over 3 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India to sell their products over the Internet in a simple, secure and cost efficient manner.
Online sales in India are in their absolute infancy but have seen staggering growth in the past several years. According to estimates provided by IOAI, online shopping in India crossed Rs 430 crore to Rs 570 crore in 2005-05. The turnover is further expected to increase to Rs 1180 crore in 2005-06 and shall cross the Rs 2,000 crore mark (2006-2007) which translates into an increase of over 300% from financial year 2004-05. According to research by IAMAI, the number of Indians paying bills online is expected to increase from the current 0.3 million in 2005-06 to 1.8 million by 2007-2008.
Paysignet.com offers entrepreneurs and merchants, flexible and customisable payment options to sell their products online under various flexible interfaces. These interfaces include fixed product interface, variable product interface, auction interface, e-mail bill interface and virtual terminal interface. Paysignet offers two setup packages: ‘Gold’ and ‘Silver’ comprising of a variety of tailor-made combinations.
Entrepreneurs can register for any of these accounts with absolutely no upfront setup cost. As the merchant company starts selling online, it would pay the annual charges starting as low as Rs 1,500 for the Silver and Rs 2,500 for the Gold from its online earned sales proceeds.
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 44 per cent Fortune 500 firms do business in India
India’s growing middle and upper middle classes are fuelling broadbase growth in the country and 15 key sectors are creating opportunities in the domestic market, says Rajiv Aggarwal, partner of KPMG. He was talking at the inauguration of ‘PRAYAAG’ 06’, the three-day management conclave at the Nirma Institute of Management.
“There are over five crore people employed in the organised sector, half of which is in private sector. There is a complete shift in the paradigm—from buying products to buying services which should form the basis for all business decisions and strategies,” said Aggarwal.
“Forty-four per cent of the Top 100 Fortune 500 companies are present in India. Unlike China, which largely depends on exports, India has both domestic consumption and export potentials,” Aggarwal added. He said lack of long-term vision as the biggest roadblock to India’s progress.
Deepak Taunk, Executive Director, GNFC Ltd, while elaborating on ‘Contemporary Issues in Finance’ took up cases of successful entrepreneurs like Karsanbhai Patel, Capt Gopinath and L.N. Mittal to showcase how passion and perseverance can go a long way towards building a successful business.
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 Revving op: Auto majors line up big investments
The Indian auto sector saw a slew of big-ticket announcements in September, including a fresh $650.3 million investment from Maruti and a $200-million investment plan from Honda Siel. Both auto majors are eyeing the small car market, with Maruti planning a new model and Honda Siel poised to make a debut in the segment. The turnover of the Indian automobile sector could grow to $145 billion by the year 2016, according to Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Santosh Mohan Dev.
O. Suzuki, chairman and CEO of Suzuki Motor Corporation, said the company will make additional investments of Rs 3,000 crore and launch a new small car for the domestic and export markets by 2008. The company had earlier announced an investment of Rs 6,000 crore, which takes its total investment to Rs 9,000 crore by 2008. “The new small car will be launched in late 2008. We will manufacture two lakh units a year,” Suzuki said.
Meanwhile, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI), the Indian arm of Japan's Honda Motor Corporation, said that it would set up a second plant in India, which could involve an investment of $200 million over a period of five years. HSCI said that it is also looking at introducing a small car.
“We are expanding capacity to one lakh units, following which we will set up a new plant with similar capacity,” said the HSCI President and CEO, M. Takedagawa. He added the proposed plant would primarily be used for building small cars in India, though the company is currently studying the market for launching the product. However, Takedagawa said the new plant “is a little time away”.
The Indian automobile sector currently generates revenues of $34 billion a year, around 3-4 per cent of GDP, and this is expected to increase to more than 10 per cent by 2016.
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October 2006
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