NCDEX’s Kumar: Commodity check

But almost a fortnight after the ban the spot prices were still spiraling, tur by 30 per cent and urad by 50 per cent, at the time of writing. According to Rajesh Verma, Senior Research Analyst at Agriwatch, a Commodity Research and Market firm, the prices will take at least a year to come back to their normal level. So, will delisting really help? "Not at all," says P.H. Ravi Kumar, Managing Director & CEO, NCDEX. "A medium/long-term solution would have been to come up with an agriculture policy that takes care of the supply side issue. The short-term solution would be to cut import duty on such commodities."

Verma attributes the price rises to a simple chemistry of supply and demand. "The soaring levels seen last year-when urad prices hit a high of Rs 4,125 per quintal and tur prices rocketed to Rs 2,090 per quintal -were not the result of futures trading but due to the news of weak crop prospects due to poor weather. In fact, tur might see higher prices this year even in the absence of futures trading," says Verma. Similarly, he adds, poor production of pulses last year resulted in supply crunch, which in conjunction with soaring prices in international markets resulted in the high domestic prices of pulses. "This had nothing to do with speculative trading," explains Verma.

Tur prices found wings once the harvest of this season started in January, as the stockists bought aggressively to encash the expected shortage of the commodity. The crop is expected to touch production of 20-21 lakh tonnes this year against last year's 23 lakh tonnes. "By the second half of March, we will get a clear indication to this year's crop situation and it is possible that the Commission might want to review the decision in April again," says NCDEX's Kumar.

-Pallavi Srivastava

Rebel With A Cause
Investors love the controversial Harish Thawani.

Nimbus’ Thawani: Taking on DD Taking on DD

In early February, however, Thawani got a rude shock when the Union Cabinet approved the promulgation of an ordinance making it compulsory for private broadcasters to share the feed of sporting events of national importance with the public broadcaster. If Thawani's distressed, his company Nimbus isn't showing it. An official spokesperson for the company blandly says: "We welcome a law that lays down fair and equitable rules for sports rights sharing. We can only comment in detail after the law or ordinance is actually made public. Meanwhile, we are glad that a Committee has been formed to agree to a road map for encryption of DD signals as encryption will put an end to piracy and to unauthorised broadcasts abroad and in India."

Such controversy and setbacks notwithstanding, Thawani is a clear favourite amongst private equity investors. Some 18 months ago he got his first round of PE investment, of $45 million (Rs 202.5 crore) from UK firm 3i. The second round of 3i's funding, along with new investors Cisco and Oman International Fund (OIF), together amounts to a total of $125 million (Rs 562.5 crore) into Nimbus. Thawani says: "Nimbus' consistent year-on-year hyper growth estimated at 70 per cent (for the last three years)-depth of management and aggressive expansion plans were key to attracting the highest quality investors." Till date, Nimbus has attracted approximately Rs 900 crore ($200 million) of private equity investment.

The new round of funding will be largely deployed towards sports rights acquisitions, developing global sports events, financing Indian language and international film production and distribution, developing further digital content production for wireless and VOD/IPTV platforms and expanding broadcasting operations. Thawani plans to launch a movie channel and some other niche channels in the areas of women and cooking. According to him, the investment required by the company for a niche channel would be in the range of Rs 60 crore and for a movie channel it would be around Rs 150 crore. "We are well on track to achieving our goal of being a billion-dollar company by 2010. For the fiscal year ending March 2006-07, our revenue forecast is in the excess of $250 million (Rs 1,125 crore)," says Thawani. He expects the sports channel Neo Sports to achieve an operational breakeven by first quarter of calendar year 2008.

-Anusha Subramanian

No Poverty of Ideas
Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has more miles to go.

Nobel winner Yunus: Powering women

The success of the Grameen model, particularly that of micro-credit, has been emulated in over 20 countries. "We lend a lot of money to women and our average loan size is $130 (Rs 5,850). Every year, we give out around half-a-billion dollars." Yunus and Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize for "their efforts to create economic and social development from below." Apart from micro-credit, the bank offers loans in the areas of housing, education and irrigation, amongst others.

Bringing Groupe Danone into Bangladesh has been Yunus' key achievement. The French foods major has launched its brand of yoghurt in Bangladesh for malnourished people. "This was a difficult assignment and the challenge has been to ensure that it is not visible in large stores," says Yunus. He adds that the next project with Danone could be related to water since water in Bangladesh is quite acidic.

What has perhaps impressed the larger nations about Grameen Bank's model is the low proportion of non-performing assets (NPAs). "The trick is to get people to repay in small denominations," he says. Yunus, who was educated in Bangladesh and the us, where he received his Ph.D in Economics, has also been credited with the launch and success of the Grameen Phone model which today has brought wireless telephony to the rural areas. "Today, we have over 300,000 telephone ladies-women subscribers who use the phone-and the next step is to have internet ladies," says Yunus.

Yunus, and Grameen Bank, have achieved plenty but, as far as Yunus is concerned, there is plenty more that needs to be done. "By 2010, we want to reduce poverty by half (in Bangaldesh) and by 2020, we are looking to get across to 100 per cent of our population with the micro-credit programme.
-Krishna Gopalan When 66-year-old professor Muhammad Yunus received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, he was joined by nine women from the villages of Bangladesh at the ceremony in Oslo. That was hardly surprising since Grameen Bank, the institution that he founded in 1976, has a large proportion of its loans going out to women-that number is as large as 96 per cent. The women at the Nobel Prize awards ceremony were those who had borrowed money from Grameen Bank. "We work on a very simple model. Unlike large banks, we have no paper work and no collaterals," says Yunus who was in Mumbai last fortnight.

The success of the Grameen model, particularly that of micro-credit, has been emulated in over 20 countries. "We lend a lot of money to women and our average loan size is $130 (Rs 5,850). Every year, we give out around half-a-billion dollars." Yunus and Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize for "their efforts to create economic and social development from below." Apart from micro-credit, the bank offers loans in the areas of housing, education and irrigation, amongst others.

Bringing Groupe Danone into Bangladesh has been Yunus' key achievement. The French foods major has launched its brand of yoghurt in Bangladesh for malnourished people. "This was a difficult assignment and the challenge has been to ensure that it is not visible in large stores," says Yunus. He adds that the next project with Danone could be related to water since water in Bangladesh is quite acidic.

What has perhaps impressed the larger nations about Grameen Bank's model is the low proportion of non-performing assets (NPAs). "The trick is to get people to repay in small denominations," he says. Yunus, who was educated in Bangladesh and the us, where he received his Ph.D in Economics, has also been credited with the launch and success of the Grameen Phone model which today has brought wireless telephony to the rural areas. "Today, we have over 300,000 telephone ladies-women subscribers who use the phone-and the next step is to have internet ladies," says Yunus.

Yunus, and Grameen Bank, have achieved plenty but, as far as Yunus is concerned, there is plenty more that needs to be done. "By 2010, we want to reduce poverty by half (in Bangaldesh) and by 2020, we are looking to get across to 100 per cent of our population with the micro-credit programme.

-Krishna Gopalan