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Biztro

Business in bitesizes

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1. A needlessly meaty matter

Maneka Gandhi, Union minister for women and child welfare, claims meat exports fund terrorism, and this, she specifies, isn’t limited to one community but all Indians. Agricultural export promotion body APEDA data shows India exported 17 metric tonnes of “animal products” in 2012, and 21 lakh MT (worth Rs 32,000 crore) in 2014. These are absolutely legal exports. Since Maneka shares no details of the illegal exports, one can assume that these are of the methane variety. In fact, India’s animal product exports can grow further. It currently include eggs, dairy, poultry and animal casings, not just “meat”. NSSO surveys show malnourished India is voluntarily moving to non-vegetarian sources of protein.

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2. Trouble in Amazon’s jungle

Authorities in Karnataka have cracked down on Amazon’s merchants in India, stopping them from storing products at the global e-retailer’s warehouses. India does not permit FDI in e-retail or maintaining of warehouses. The authorities believe Amazon is directly selling to Indian customers violating FDI rules and that their “facilitation centres” act as warehouses. This could affect other e-retailers like Flipkart which also have FDI and warehouses. The Enforcement Directorate, which earlier sent notices to some e-retailers on this, is looking into this. Amazon has seven fulfillment centres in India which stock products from various sellers after orders are booked. It pays service tax to the government while the merchants pay VAT. Authorities are questioning this model.

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3. The PTA integrated effect on RIL

The UPA government’s parting gift in March ahead of elections—imposing anti-dumping duty varying from $19 to $117 per tonne of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) import—is causing much heartburn. It has hit profit margins of many of the small, medium and big companies (but not so for Reliance Industries). That’s because unlike other domestic companies utilising PTA for production of polyester yarn, fibres, PET raisins, film among other products, RIL produces the raw material—both naphtha and its derivative paraxylene (PX)—and the finished product. Indus­try bodies are crying hoarse about this ano­m­aly. Strangely, latest data shows PTA imp­orts have gone up—and this will affect user industries and, ultimately, consumers.

Math

512 GB The highest-ever storage capacity in an SD card, released recently by memory specialist SanDisk. Postage stamp-sized card retails for $800.

Top 10 districts for car ownership

  • Panchkula, Haryana 26.8%
  • Chandigarh 25.7
  • West Delhi 25.7
  • Gautam Buddha Nagar, UP 24.9
  • North Goa 24.8
  • East Delhi 24.7
  • South Goa 24.4
  • New Delhi 23.9%
  • South West Delhi 22.8%
  • South Delhi 22.9%

Source: Census, Mint

10,000 Number of subscribers paying $5 a month to Aegis Mobility to selectively block texts, phone calls, or e-mail to a phone.

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Advertising revenues in media, 2013

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Mojo

How not to spread some (solar) cheer

Freebies are out, at least to journalists, say BJP sources. It appears Prime Minister Narendra Modi made clear his displeasure at Union power minister Piyush Goyal’s gesture of distributing solar lamps (the offending article is shown here) to those who attended his marathon press conference on the completion of 100 days of the NDA regime.

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Mind

This week we learnt about Jain insurance

Is it a marketing gimmick or the community spirit of giving? Moving beyond giving a helping hand to community members for education, medical care or starting a business, the Jain International Organisation has now joined hands with the state-owned National Insurance Company to offer health and accident insurance. The act of providing subsidised insurance makes sense for JIO which helps out thousands of young and old followers. For National Insurance, it is group insurance going by another name. This may be a first in customised insurance products for a community—but will an insurance holder be moved enough to switch his/her health or accident cover?

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