Subrata Roy has started to rally his huge human resource pool for help. Out on parole from Tihar Jail, Roy has been travelling to different cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, etc) for specially arranged meetings with thousands of Sahara employees and agents. The cities were plastered with Sahara ads to announce his arrival but the meetings were behind closed doors with only his employees, especially the fund agents who were given special identity cards for the event. Meanwhile, HDFC Realty and SBI Caps have begun liquidating some of Sahara’s properties to collect the debts which landed him in jail. But it seems Roy has not yet packed his bags. He will try to rejuvenate his business.
This is called converting a disaster into an opportunity. After a fire at one of Maruti Suzuki’s key air-conditioner vendors Subros’s Manesar unit last week, India’s largest carmaker had to suspend production at both its Gurgaon and Manesar plants. This also forced Maruti Suzuki’s other vendors to shut down operations as production in the main unit was suspended. While this is not an ideal scenario at a time when many of MSIL’s new cars have a waiting list, the carmaker has advanced its annual maintenance shutdown of its plant from the end of the year to now and is utilising this unscheduled stoppage of production for maintenance of the plant.
Apple chief Tim Cook’s India visit seems to have had its desired effect in the corridors of power. After tossing around the proposal to exempt Apple from the 30 per cent local sourcing norm before allowing them to open exclusive stores in India, the government is understood to be mulling the idea of a partial exemption: the iPhone maker can run its stores unfettered for 2-3 years after which it will have to source locally. But Apple is far from taking a final decision on making in India.
Waiting With Bated Breath
Scientists at North Carolina State University are working on a wearable asthma warning system called Health and Environmental Tracker (HET). A wristband and chest patch, it monitors patients, alerting when an attack is imminent.
