TTSI's Schalk: Her next target is India

This is another vote of confidence for the captive outsourcing model in the Indian it industry. The $52-billion (Rs 2,44,400-crore) Target Corporation, plans to utilise Indian it skills to improve efficiencies at its 1,300-plus stores in the US.

Says Janet Schalk, Senior VP & CIO of Target: "We will continue to work selectively with Indian vendors (like TCS, Wipro, etc.), but most of the top-end work-like applications development to support and maintenance, business analytics, pay by cell phone technology, interactive kiosks and RFID-will be done at the Bangalore-based Target Technology Services India (TTSI)." TTSI plans to take its workforce to 1,200 over the next 18 months from the current level of 280. Adds Lalit Ahuja, MD, TTSI: "We will now handle mission critical applications."

Target is also stepping up the sourcing of apparel, sheets, towels and small accessories from India. The target this year: $500 million (Rs 2,350 crore), up 100 per cent over last year's figure.

-Venkatesha Babu

Fast Food, Faster Growth
No beef, a dash of health and dollops of innovation.

Yum Restaurant's Mediratta: New menu

Idli sambar, wadas and chaat may have still not made way for burgers, chicken lollipops and stretchable cheese, but that would appear to be the goal of three big global fast food brands in India. McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut, which collectively have some 350 outlets across the country, plan to add another 110 by the year-end alone. McDonald's will open another 30 (taking its total to 125), Yum Restaurants, which owns the Pizza Hut and KFC franchises in India, will have another 40 outlets (currently 125 Pizza Hut and 17 KFC), and there's also Domino's Pizza, which with 40 additional outlets, will have a total of 165 stores nationwide.

A decade after these brands set foot in India, they appear to have made some progress. "The key has been understanding that India is a value market, where it is important to localise the menu to suit Indian tastes and absolutely essential to have a variety for the 35 per cent vegetarian population," says Arvind Mediratta, Chief Marketing Officer, Yum Restaurants, whose company has seen a 40 per cent growth over the last four years. The next 10 years will see the companies adding outlets and grabbing the explosive opportunity arising from the increasing number of malls and the growing trend of eating out in India. "At McDonald's, we have spent Rs 800 crore and 10 years laying the foundation, in terms of establishing the supply chains, distribution networks and building a talent pool. The next 10 years will see various product innovations on the menu and also a complete revamp of our current outlets," says Amit Jatia, Managing Director, Hardcastle Restaurants, which has a joint venture with McDonald's for the southern and western markets in India.

Innovations there have been aplenty, without straining consumer purse-strings. While two pieces of KFC's chicken sold for Rs 60 about 10 years ago, today they sell at a minuscule increase of Rs 5. McDonald's, meanwhile, has not increased prices since three years, "despite the fact that input costs have hit the roof in that time," says Jatia. Pizza Hut has launched a Rs 50 pizza, the Rs 75 treat (a combination of soup, pizza and ice-cream) and Domino's Pizza has launched the Fun Meal for four for as low as Rs 180.

To keep pace and be in control of the 'fast food equals junk food' debate that threatens to derail business, the companies have diversified quickly to include 'healthy' products in their menus. While Pizza Hut has added salads and pastas and lemonade for those who don't want to eat pizza or drink carbonated beverages, McDonald's says its milks shakes take care of 60 per cent of a child's per day calcium need and its ice-creams are the lowest in fat content at 3 per cent. "From the very beginning we had no beef or pork on the menu. Very soon, we will be doing innovations at our outlets which will enable children to exercise to promote the concept of healthy living," says Jatia. Now some parents could do with that too.

-Shivani Lath

Schools for Stock Brokers
SEBI and the exchanges are launching training institutes.

SEBI's new class: A place to clear your stock market fundas

It's a new revenue stream for stock market players-from the regulator to the stock exchanges themselves to rating agencies and broking firms. All of them are cashing in on the boom in the market, and the consequent public interest in it, to offer courses in stock picking and trading.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is setting up the National Institute of Securities Market (NISM). "We've struck a deal with the Maharashtra government and have already acquired a 60-acre plot at Patalganga, near Panvel in Mumbai for building the institute," says a SEBI spokesperson. It has also roped in G. Sethu, Professor at the Indian Institute of Capital Market, a training institute for stock market intermediaries, to design and implement the curriculum. The catchment area: India and the neighbouring countries.

The Inter-connected Stock Exchange (ISE), meanwhile, launched its training institute, ISE Training and Research Center, at the exchange in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, six months ago. And it already accounts for 5-8 per cent of the exchange's total revenues. Says V. Shankar, Managing Director, ISE: "The training institute is expected to generate 20-25 per cent of our revenue in three years."

Similarly, rating agency Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) also expects its financial education services (FES) business to account for 12-15 per cent of its projected 2006 revenues of Rs 50 crore. "We expect the revenues in financial education service to grow exponentially-at 50-80 per cent per year. Having said that, FES is much more than just a revenue business line; it is our contribution to Indian financial markets," says Manoj Vaish, President & CEO, India, D&B, who says only 2-3 per cent of the country's requirement of 100,000 trained stock market professionals is now being met, thus, creating a massive backlog of pent-up demand. "Rapid changes are taking place in the securities market; so there is a huge need for quality programmes that will upgrade skill and knowledge of investors," says Shankar.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) have also been conducting training programmes for the past eight and 15 years, respectively (the former offers only online programmes). The BSE Training Institute has also launched courses on international financial markets at centres in Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, in addition to the ones it conducts in Mumbai.

The budding stock broker is clearly spoilt for choice.

-Mahesh Nayak

Team Game?
Sony and Ten Sports are in a huddle.

Sony's Dasgupta: High stakes

Will Sony Entertainment Television pick up a majority stake in Ten Sports, the channel operated by the Dubai-based Taj Entertainment Networks? "A 50:50 joint venture is being talked about but Bukhatir (Abdul Rahman Bukhatir's Bukhatir Investments is the owner of Taj) is not willing to relinquish control and Sony is looking for a controlling stake," says Thomas Abraham, Managing Editor, Indiantelevision.com.

With bidding rates for cricket properties sky-rocketing, Ten Sports is said to be looking for a strategic investor and Sony might just fit the bill. Sony, for its part, doesn't have a strong sports property, on the lines of the Star Network's Star Sports and ESPN. There's also talk in investment banking circles of Sony going in for an initial public offering (IPO), and an acquisition/joint venture would go a long way in making valuations look attractive. Both Sony and Ten Sports refused to comment when contacted by BT. Analysts point out that a 50 per cent stake would cost Sony around $50-60 million (Rs 235-282 crore), with Ten Sports valued at $100-120 million (Rs 470-564 crore). Now how much would that prop up Sony's valuation by is a million dollar question.

-Ahona Ghosh