Rs 1,400 crore may fizz out of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo coffers as Tamil Nadu traders mulling to ban products.

A section of Tamil Nadu traders' decision not to sell products of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo starting March 1 is likely to cost Rs 1,400 crore in annual sales to the two US beverages giants.
If the traders' ban includes food products such as chips, salty snacks and oats sold by PepsiCo, the loss would be significantly higher, industry sources said.

Major trade associations Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangam and Tamil Nadu Traders Federation earlier this week said they have instructed over 15 lakh members, spanning across 6,000 smaller associations, not to sell PepsiCo and Coca-Cola products starting March 1, accusing the firms of "exploiting the state's water bodies to manufacture aerated drinks while farmers were facing severe drought".

   PepsiCo's flagship brand Pepsi leads the TN market with over 60% share and both firms put together have five plants in the state. Both firms spend heavily on local promotions in the state and PepsiCo's celebrity brand ambassadors include Tamil super star Dhanush, the face of its drink 7 Up.

"It is extremely unfair on the part of certain individuals and organisations to propagate misinformation," Arvind Varma, secretary general of industry body Indian Beverage Association (IBA), said in a statement on behalf of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

"These actions are detrimental to the image of the country and to the long-term interests of the Indian economy," he said.
Banning sales of any product is a government subject. The TN trade associations' decision to stop selling Coca-Cola and PepsiCo's products on their own comes at a time when makers of sugary drinks are witnessing single-digit growth and the government is considering a fat tax on sugary drinks and packaged snacks high on salt in the upcoming budget.

An inter-ministerial committee headed by the health secretary is already in place to discuss matters such as increasing taxation and restricting marketing and advertising of sugary drinks.
India's carbonated drinks industry, estimated at over Rs 14,000 crore, is dominated by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Coca-Cola's bottling operations in TN are run by Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages along with an independent co-packer.
PepsiCo has three plants in the country's sixth most  populous state.

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/56799928.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Facts about National Anthem

National Anthem

The National Anthem of India is played or sung on various occasions. Instructions have been issued from time to time about the correct versions of the Anthem, the occasions on which these are to be played or sung, and about the need for paying respect to the anthem by observance of proper decorum on such occasions. The substance of these instructions has been embodied in this information sheet for general information and guidance.

The National Anthem - Full & Short Versions

The composition consisting of the words and music of the first stanza of the late poet Rabindra Nath Tagore's song known as "Jana Gana Mana" is the National Anthem of India. It reads as follows:

Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka jaya he
Bharata-bhagya-vidhata
Punjaba-Sindhu-Gujarata-Maratha
Dravida-Utkala-Banga
Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Ganga
uchchala-jaladhi-taranga
Tava shubha name jage, tava shubha asisa mage,
gahe tava jaya-gatha.
Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he
Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.
Jaya he, Jaya he, Jaya he,
jaya jaya jaya, jaya he.

Download National Anthem (817 KB, 0:52 Sec.)

Source: Ministry of Home Affairs

The above is the full version of the Anthem and its playing time is approximately 52 seconds.

A short version consisting of the first and last lines of the National Anthem is also played on certain occasions. It reads as follows:

Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka jaya he
Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.
Jaya he, Jaya he, Jaya he,
jaya jaya jaya, jaya he.

Playing time of the short version is about 20 seconds. The following is Tagore's English rendering of the anthem:

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,
Dispenser of India's destiny.
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind,
Gujarat and Maratha,
Of the Dravida and Odisha and Bengal;
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges and is
chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.
They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.
The saving of all people waits in thy hand,
Thou dispenser of India's destiny.
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

The occasions on which the full versions or the short version will be played have been indicated at the appropriate places in these instructions.

Playing of the Anthem

1. The full version of the Anthem shall be played on the following occasions:
   1. Civil and Military investitures;
   2. When National Salute (which means the Command "Rashtriya Salute Salami Shastr" to the accompaniment of the National Anthem is given on ceremonial occasions to the President or to the Governor/Lieutenant Governor within their respective States/Union Territories;
   3. During parades irrespective of whether any of the dignitaries referred to in (ii) above is present or not;
   4. On arrival of the President at formal State functions and other functions organized by the Government and mass functions and on his departure from such functions;
   5. Immediately before and after the President addresses the Nation over All India Radio;
   6. On arrival of the Governor/Lieutenant Governor at formal State functions within his State/Union Territory and on his departure from such functions;
   7. When the National Flag is brought on parade;
   8. When the Regimental Colours are presented;
   9. For hoisting of colours in the Navy.
2. The short version of the Anthem shall be played when drinking toasts in Messes.
3. The Anthem shall be played on any other occasion for which special orders have been issued by the Government of India.
4. Normally the Anthem shall not be played for the Prime Minister, though there may be special occasions when it may be played.
5. When the National Anthem is played by a band, the Anthem will be preceded by a roll of drums to assist the audience to know that the National Anthem is going to be played, unless there is some other specific indication that the National Anthem is about to be played, as for example, when fanfares are sounded before the National Anthem is played, or when toasts are drunk to the accompaniment of the National Anthem or when the National Anthem constitutes the National Salute given by a Guard of Honour. The duration of the roll, in terms of marching drill, will be 7 paces in slow march. The roll will start slowly, ascend to as loud a volume as possible and then gradually decreases to original softness, but remaining audible until the seventh beat. One beat rest will then be observed before commencing the National Anthem.

Mass Singing of the Anthem

1. The full version of the Anthem shall be played accompanied by mass singing on the following occasions:
   1. On the unfurling of the National Flag, on cultural occasions or ceremonial functions other than parades. (This could be arranged by having a choir or adequate size, suitably stationed, which would be trained to coordinate its singing with the band etc. There should be an adequate public audition system so that the gathering in various enclosures can sing in unison with the choir);
   2. On arrival of the President at any Government or Public function (but excluding formal State functions and mess functions) and also immediately before his departure from such functions.
2. On all occasions when the National Anthem is sung, the full version shall be recited accompanied by mass singing.
3. The Anthem may be sung on occasions which, although not strictly ceremonial, are nevertheless invested with significance because of the presence of Ministers etc. The singing of the Anthem on such occasions (with or without the accompaniment of an instruments) accompanied by mass singing is desirable.
4. It is not possible to give an exhaustive list of occasions on which the singing (as distinct from playing) of the Anthem can be permitted. But there is no objection to the singing of the Anthem accompanied by mass singing so long as it is done with due respect as a salutation to the motherland and proper decorum is maintained.
5. In all schools, the day's work may begin with community singing of the anthem. School authorities should make adequate provision in their programmes for popularising the singing of the Anthem and promoting respect for the National Flag among students.

General

1. Whenever the Anthem is sung or played, the audience shall stand to attention. However, when in the course of a newsreel or documentary the Anthem is played as a part of the film, it is not expected of the audience to stand as standing is bound to interrupt the exhibition of the film and would create disorder and confusion rather than add to the dignity of the Anthem.
2. As in the case of the flying of the National Flag, it has been left to the good sense of the people not to indulge in indiscriminate singing or playing of the Anthem.

Nokia Just Launched Its Own Voice Assistant “MIKA”

Short Bytes: At this year’s Mobile World Congress, Nokia will demonstrate their new digital assistant called MIKA or Multi-purpose Intuitive Knowledge Assistant. Not a regular voice assistant like Siri, Cortana, and Alexa, MIKA is specially crafted for the telecommunication sector where it will be able to help the engineers with voice-activated access to information and save their time.

We recently heard about Nokia with the launch of the Nokia 6 smartphone, but it is a work of HMD Global carrying the Nokia brand name. The original Nokia has been living a low profile since it sold its smartphone business to Microsoft. However, last year, the company made news with some internet speed records and lawsuits against Apple.

In 2017, Nokia has arrived with something new, a voice-activated digital assistant. Although, it is not something we haven’t seen in the past. The digital assistant, known as MIKA (Multi-Purpose Intuitive Knowledge Assistant), is designed with a different utility in mind.

Instead of being a commercial voice assistant for everyday users to make online bookings and play music, MIKA will be used by engineers and operators in the telecom sector. It will help them access information using voice commands reducing their focus on less important things.

Nokia AVA, a cognitive service platform, is the driving force behind MIKA. The digital assistant leverages augmented intelligence and automated learning. It facilitates a plethora of tools, documents, and data sources. MIKA – accessible on web and mobile – can suggest network problem solutions based on what it has observed on other networks.

Nokia notes that their digital assistant can save around an hour of productive time in a day. The company is prepared to demonstrate their ambitious digital assistant tech at the Mobile World Congress 2017.

Source: https://fossbytes.com/nokia-mika-digital-assistant-telecom/

IndiaPost becomes 3rd entity to receive licence to start payment bank operations

IndiaPost has become the third entity to receive a final license last week from the Central Bank to start its payment bank operations. Country’s largest telcom service provider Bharti Airtel and digital payments firm Paytm are the other two to have received the license while only Airtel has started operations so far.

The government has also appointed AP Singh has interim MD and CEO of the India Post Payment Bank. A 1986 Indian Postal Service Officer he was earlier Joint Secretary in the department of disinvestment, ministry of Finance and Deputy Director General incharge of financial inclusion and payments systems at Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Singh was one part of the founding team that launched Aadhaar and was stationed at the department of Post prior to UIDAI.

As per the initial road map, each post office in the country will offer the post bank services. The department of post has an existing network of around 1,55,000 post offices currently. ET had reported earlier that IndiaPost plans to open 650 new branches for the payment bank. The branches will be co-located with the existing post offices. The idea is that the 650 branches will be in located in postal district headquarters and all the branches under that particular head post office will be enabled by the payment bank services. This will cover the entire network of 155,000 post offices in the country.

Earlier this month, Airtel Payments Bank launched nationwide operations, offering 7.25% interest on savings bank balances, which is more than the maximum 7% paid by SBI on its fixed deposits. Bharti and Kotak Mahindra, which holds a 20% stake in the payments bank, would invest Rs 3,000 crore in the venture.

Payments banks can accept deposits from individuals and small businesses of up to Rs 1 lakh per account. And RBI had set a condition that formal license has to be obtained before 31 March.

Alibaba backed Paytm also said early in January that it has received the final license from RBI and the company hopes to launch operations in February with the first branch coming up in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

While operation of Payment Banks such as Paytm are likely to be focused on technology based differentiation, IndiaPost is banking on its huge reach especially in the rural areas to be successful.

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/56817032.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Loss making Indian Railways to rent out hill trains to private players

The Indian Railways will soon start leasing out its standalone passenger corridors and branch lines to private companies for operations and maintenance, marking the beginning of corporate participation in the running of the world's fourth largest railroad network.

Narrow and metre-gauge tracks linking the colonial era hill stations are set to be the first of the 108,000-kilometer rail network to be run privately, a senior railway official told ET.

Largely unprofitable routes linking Kalka and Shimla, Siliguri and Darjeeling, the Nilgiri mountains with the plains, Neral and Matheran, and the Kangra Valley railways would be among the first the government will likely choose to bid out to private operators, which may include overseas companies as the existing policy on investment in railways allows 100% foreign ownership.

"We keep getting queries from private players who want to run their own operations. We want to be completely out of operations from these standalone corridors and branch lines and would only assist private players in running operations," a senior railway official said.

"All these railways are on the international tourism map and Darjeeling Himalayan railways is a Unesco world heritage site. There's a huge opportunity for private sector, and for railways also it will be profitable. "

The Indian Railways, with a 1.54-million workforce and about 6,800 stations, runs about 7,000 trains every day to ferry passengers, an activity that is generally unprofitable. In the financial year ending March 31, 2017, the losses from the passenger segment of the railroad operations are set to be about Rs 33,000 crore, about 10% higher than the losses for the previous financial year.

To minimise operating losses from a venture that also helps the government achieve part of its social objective of subsidising mass transportation, the Indian Railways is using tourism to attract private companies, particularly those from the hospitality and infrastructure industries.

"It will help us cut some flab as well as we lose a lot of money on these lines. Maintenance is also a problem since all of them are heritage lines," the official said. If the experiment meets specified benchmarks for success, these leases could be the future templates for enhanced private participation.

Winning bidders will be offered long-term concession agreements, making the leases more viable. The ministry has worked on both upfront-payment and revenue sharing models for leasing standalone passenger corridors and branch lines.

Companies will also have the flexibility to maintain and own stations on these proposed private lines. They may also be allowed to set different fares on these lines after the approval of the upcoming Rail Development Authority of India, which will be free to recommend fares. 

 

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/56820685.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst