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| INX Group’s Mukerjea:
In the news |
Over the past four decades
the Delhi-headquartered Triveni Group has earned its spurs for the
machinery it manufacturers for the sugar industry and the plants
it puts up for sugar producers. Now the Rs 3,000-crore group is
diversifying into the media business, for which it has set up a
company called Triveni Media. Speaking to BT from Singapore Madhur
Mittal, Joint Managing Director, Triveni Group, explains the reason
for this foray. "There is lot of vacuum in the entertainment
and news genre." The group plans to invest Rs 200 crore-via
internal accruals and via debt-to launch 18 channels in the next
two years, 12 of which will be news and six entertainment. The first
channel, for news, will be flagged off on August 15. "We have
also entered into two international strategic tie-ups-one purely
for packaging and branding and the other for content and production,"
adds Mittal. For the time being, the group is busy revamping a 'socio-spirtitual'
channel, Sadhana TV, it recently acquired.
Meantime, Indrani Mukerjea, promoter of the INX Group, has floated
INX Media and INX News, which in turn will launch a bouquet of
channels in the general entertainment, news and music space. By
the year-end Mukerjea-who will be later joined by her husband
Peter, the former CEO of star TV India-says: "INX will launch
channel for Hindi general entertainment, music and English news.
Nine more will be launched in two years. INX Media has received
funding of nearly $300 million (Rs 1,320 crore).
Existing broadcasters are also in expansion mode. NDTV has recently
got approval to raise Rs 585 crore for its proposed channels NDTV
Imagine (General Entertainment) and NDTV Lifestyle through its
UK-based subsidiary. And Ronnie Screwvala's UTV has joined hands
with Malaysia's Astro Measat to launch a youth broadcast venture
'Bindass' which will include youth entertainment channels. Says
Smitha Jha, media analyst with PricewaterhouseCoopers: "With
the economy on an upswing, the allocation of ad revenues is getting
larger. Television will be one of the major mediums where this
ad spend will get diverted."
-Anusha Subramanian
New,
Improved and National
Nirula's has a fresh team and a countrywide
rollout plan.
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| Nirula’s Kuckreja: New
order |
A new logo, swanky interiors
with comfortable dining space, designer uniforms and Disney toys
are just a few of the obvious additions that one notices when entering
the new Nirula's outlet in Connaught Place's K block in the capital.
The company's flagship restaurant changed more than just the address
since its takeover last June by Malaysian private equity firm Navis
Capital Partners and Samir Kuckreja, Nirula's 40-year-old Managing
Director. Almost 10 months after it took over Nirula's in June,
Navis has invested Rs 20 crore in the chain. Another Rs 80 crore
will be invested over three years. Along with the new look, also
significant is the new team of heavyweights managing Nirula's. These
include Ajit Chauhan, Vice-President hr (ex-ITC Marriott); Roger
Narula, Head Operations Training (ex-Burger King and Yum! USA);
Sanjay Sachdeva, Head Business Development (ex-Pizza Hut); and Sudpita
Sengupta, Senior VP, Marketing and Sales (ex-Cafe Coffee Day).
Kuckreja has also set the ball rolling for the chain's national-wide
foray. "We will open 25 more outlets this year, reaching
a total of 70 outlets by December," says Kuckreja. The chain,
which has 45 outlets, 35 of which are in the national capital
region, plans to grow to 150 outlets in the next three years with
shops in cities as small as Pathankot and Moradabad. The outlets
will vary in size and formats-from family-style restaurants, ice-cream
kiosks to express counters. The company plans to open shops in
hypermarkets (already one in Spencer's in Gurgaon), petrol pumps,
convenient stores, highways and transit points like railway stations
and airports. "Localisation is the key," says Kuckreja.
"For our outlets in different parts of the country, we will
introduce different menus."
-Pallavi Srivastava
Massacre
at Nandigram
The killings set back the government
and industry.
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| SEZ saga: Protestors
in Nandigram |
March 14, 2006 might have
been just yet another day for the rest of the world, but for Rosomoyee
Bagdi, Pupendu Mondal, Rana Sardar and many more in Nandigram (in
the East Mednipur district of West Bengal, 183 km off Kolkata),
the day changed their world. Some of them lost their sons, some
their wives, and some their brothers in the bloodbath in Nandigram
over a battle over land acquisitions for a special economic zone
(SEZ). The official death toll varies between 14 and 18, but the
locals claim the figure is much higher. Last fortnight, when the
administration decided to "restore normalcy" in Nandigram,
a 4,000-strong posse of policemen, armed with Insas and Kalashnikov
rifles, set out to "liberate" Nandigram from the clutches
of the Jami Uchched Pratirodh Committee (Save Farmland Committee).
This body was floated by farmers resisting forcible land acquisition,
and who launched a three-pronged protest from Tekhali, Bhangabera
and Nandigram. Villagers, too, had gathered in large numbers, forming
a defensive cordon with women and children in the front. At first
sight, the police fired several rounds of tear-gas shells. Next,
they began shooting at the villagers who retaliated by hurling stones.
Eyewitnesses claim that bodies have been thrown into the Haldi river
to destroy evidence of police barbarity.
The Calcutta High Court has ordered a CBI probe into the incident,
which is being labelled a state-sponsored massacre, reminiscent
of the slaughter at Tiananmen Square. Under mounting pressures
from the Left Front and from political opponents, the state government
has scrapped the SEZ plans in Nandigram. Clearly, this is an acid
test for the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government's industrialisation
endeavours. Post-Nandigram, there has been fresh violence in Singur,
the site for Tata Motors' Rs 1-lakh car unit. Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee accepted the onus but has justified the police action
at Nandigram. Time will tell whether the cm is made a scapegoat,
and whether industrialisation in West Bengal has taken a step
backward into the dark ages.
-Ritwik Mukherjee
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