Struggles of big dairy companies in India!!!

India is that the world’s biggest producer and consumer of dairy. In 2018 alone, India produced 186 million metric tonnes of milk — about 410 billion pounds and 22 percent of the milk produced globally. Almost all of that is consumed domestically thanks to India’s dairy-heavy diet — think creamy curries, yogurt drinks, and a popular type of butter called ghee. A quick note before we proceed: this includes milk from buffaloes, which are an important source of milk in many developing countries. the point is that India loves milk.

In 2011, the French dairy company Danone hoped to capitalize on this by opening a division in India. Danone opened its own processing plant in Haryana and tried to capture some of India’s 1.2 billion dairy lovers. But less than a decade later, Danone shuttered their dairy business in India. That same year, the corporate made 28 billion dollars worldwide and was within the top three global dairy companies. With all this success, elsewhere, why did Danone’s dairy business sour in India? Let’s start with some background on Danone. Their business is broken down into three categories:

1.specialized nutrition, like supplements and formula for babies;
bottled waters and seltzers;
dairy and plant-based alternatives.

That one makes up over half of their global sales, but it’s also the one that failed in India. Danone does still sell specialized nutrition products in the country, but they don’t break out those sales figures separately. This is the same company as Dannon in the U.S. The company decided to rebrand to make the spelling less confusing for American consumers. Anyway, now for some background on India’s dairy industry. There are about 75 million dairy farmers in India. Most of them are women who own one or two buffaloes or cows to supplement the family’s income. Nearly half of India’s milk is not sold, but consumed by the farmers household. This makes India’s dairy industry much more fractured and localized than other countries where Danone operates. Take the company’s native France and one of its biggest customers, the U.S. Each has far fewer dairy farms with herds that dwarf India’s one or two animal average. This was Danone’s first big problem in India: sourcing milk is difficult. Of the half not consumed by farmers’ households, only about 15 percent goes to big organized companies or government run cooperatives. The rest goes to hundreds of small, local milk processors.

The largest companies like Amul, Mother Dairy, and Nestlé have tiny percentages of the market, and they’ve been there for decades. Market research firms Mintel and Euromonitor declined to release specific market share numbers to CNBC. However, a 2016 piece in The Economic Times of India citing Euromonitor put the figures at about 7 percent for Amul, 3.7 percent for Mother Dairy, and 2.9 percent for Nestlé. In short, tapping into the existing dairy infrastructure is effective but time consuming. Imagine the effort of contacting dozens or hundreds of local and regional dairies, processors, or individual farmers. But establishing a separate supply chain altogether is very expensive — a lesson Danone learned the hard way. And when Danone did get milk, the company focused on the wrong products. Danone pushed plain yogurt and flavored yogurt drinks — popular in places like the U.S. and France with high profit margins to boot. But in India around the time when Danone arrived, yogurt comprised only 7 percent of the dairy consumed.

The real money was in ghee, a type of clarified butter, and plain old fluid milk, a product with razor-thin margins dominated by those hundreds of local small-scale producers. Analysts explained to CNBC the simple reason why Indian consumers shunned Danone’s prepackaged yogurt. And if Indian consumers did want to buy premade yogurt, they had a slew of cheaper options than Danone. Dairy never accounted for more than 10 percent of Danone’s sales in India, a far cry from its global 50 percent. Its specialized nutrition arm picks up the slack, and the company announced a renewed focus on that division when it shuttered its dairy operation. Meanwhile, two of their biggest competitors, Amul and Nestlé, made nearly five billion and 750 million from dairy, respectively. But not all hope is lost for Danone’s dairy in India.

In January 2018, the same time that Danone ended its dairy production there, the investment arm of the company announced its part in a 26.5 million dollar investment in Epigamia, an Indian yogurt startup. This could be a sustainable move for Danone in India’s dairy industry because Epigamia offers consumers products that add value onto the plain yogurt they will make cheaply reception . But perhaps most importantly is this: while much of the population still makes yogurt the old-fashioned way, analysts predict that a growing number of consumers will want to buy premade options as they move into corporate jobs in developing urban centers. Very large numbers indeed. If only 5 percent of India’s 1.35 billion people decides to buy prepackaged yogurt, that’s over 67 million consumers — more than the entire population of Danone’s native France.

Why Apple was not so popular in India???

Apple sells millions of iPhones every year. In the year 2018, the tech giant reported selling close to 47 million units worldwide. But not all markets are created equal. India has been one of the hardest countries to crack for the Cupertino giant. Although it’s been over a decade since Apple began selling iPhones in India, the company can’t seem to get a big bite of the world’s second-largest smartphone market. India is a very price-sensitive market, which means that people pay a lot of attention to what value they are getting out of the price that they are paying for a particular product.

In the case of Apple, there’s a lot of premium being paid for the brand itself, and that’s where the price-conscious Indian consumer thinks about that if they are getting the same kind of features or specs from another phone that they can get a lower price, that makes it tougher to sell something at a much higher premium. Apple is definitely feeling the pressure. Samsung and Xiaomi accounted for the majority of smartphone sales in India in quarter three of 2018, garnering 22 percent and 27 percent respectively of the smartphone market. In contrast, Apple made up only about 1 percent of India’s smartphone market share, trailing behind Chinese phone makers Vivo and Oppo. It’s also worth noting that the premium smartphone market in which Apple operates still makes up less than 5 percent of the overall smartphone market in India.

Most of the smartphones in India that sell, they are below $200 and Apple does not have any play in that segment. This environment is one that competitors like Samsung have begun to adapt to. The South Korean powerhouse is launching its Galaxy M series budget smartphones to appeal to the Indian market. In contrast, Apple doesn’t seem too keen on changing up its India strategy. I got some ideas for you, OK? I talked to some people at Walmart yesterday. An arrangement with Walmart Flipkart to take over India with a budget phone rather than doing it piecemeal? For us, we’re about making the best product that enriches people’s lives. And so, we’re not about making the cheapest. For us, what we’ve seen is, there’s enough people in every country in the world that we play in that we can have a really good business by selling the best phones. Still, some tech investors see Apple as being out of touch with the India market. You think they are going to slash prices? I think they have to. How can you sell a $1,000 phone in a market like China where the GDP per person is $10,000? In India it’s $2,000. And if you go back to the September earnings release, they talked about the fact that India was way below where they thought.

Well, if your average GDP person is $2,000 and you’re trying to sell a $1,000 phone, it’s gonna be probably pretty hard to sell it. They probably want to eat. Another issue for Apple: stiff tariffs. I think iPhones have a specific disadvantage in the India market because of the local regulation. There is a very high import duty on the phones that are not manufactured locally in India. So for most of the big players in the India market, they are manufacturing locally so they do not have to pay that high import duty. Samsung has been manufacturing phones in India since 2007 and just last year opened the world’s largest mobile phone factory on the outskirts of New Delhi. Chinese phone makers Xiaomi and Oppo have also invested millions of dollars to build manufacturing plants in the country. That’s not to say Apple has completely ignored India.

The tech giant already manufactures its lower-cost iPhone SE and iPhone 6s models locally, through a partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer Wistron. This year, Apple is also expected to move its production of the iPhone X series into Foxconn’s plant in southern India. If you look at how we’ve done over the years, we’ve gone from a $100-$200 million business to last year we had we exceeded $2 billion. That $2 billion was flat year over year after a rapid rapid growth. And so we have more work to do. We’d like to put stores there. We would like some of the duties and so forth that are put on the products to go away. But even with its local hardware production push, Apple still fails to provide Indians with a robust software experience.

Apple has introduced turn-by-turn navigation for the India market. Before that, that significant part was missing. And beyond that, there’s not a lot of customization that Apple has done for the India market. There are not a lot of apps that specifically cater to the India market. Past complaints for Apple Maps also included missing major landmarks and having very sparse data of cities and towns. But again, Apple is working on a solution. The company has hired thousands of engineers at its mapping facility in Hyderabad to improve its services. Apple Pay is also not an option in India, though similar payment services from Samsung and Google have already been rolled out. Finally, unlike in most other markets, Apple can’t rely so much on its brand recognition to sell devices in India. The other challenge for Apple in India is that it cannot have its own retail stores or own Apple stores because of some regulatory issues, which means it has to have partners on the retail side, whether it’s the Apple premium resellers, which you see in many other countries as well, or with the third-party resellers. In order to have a larger presence in the market.

Apple has to have partnerships with thousands of these resellers, which in a country as big as India, can be challenging. Apple is still a premium status symbol for many Indians, but one that is out of reach for the majority of the population. With phones from Chinese brands like OnePlus, which was India’s best selling premium smartphone brand for the second quarter in a row, offering similar features at a fraction of the cost, Apple may have a very tough time getting a bigger slice of the India market.

Why Australia is least affected by recession!!!

America’s economy is approaching a big milestone. If it keeps humming until July 2019, it’ll be the longest expansion in U.S. history. It would be exactly one decade and one month old by then. But there’s another country with an even more impressive run It’s even called the ‘lucky country’ Three big lessons from Australia.

Be smart.
Be organized.
Be lucky.

So, if I’ve got any advice for other countries, it’s try and be as lucky as Australia That luck has to do with Australia’s treasure trove of natural resources. You know Australia is on the other side of the world and sitting on tremendously valuable minerals right at the point where the Chinese economy is just around the corner and exploding. Australia and every one its natural resources were within the right geographic neighborhood even as the Chinese economy began to begin . And it just so happens that China did a big fiscal stimulus in 2008 and spent a great deal of money building new cities. So all of these resources were drawn from places like Australia. So that also served as a huge tailwind at a time when developed markets were in a whole lot of trouble.

The year 2008 was a time of economic turmoil The Global Financial Crisis hit and markets crumbled around the world. But as it turns out this was also a year for Australia’s economic management to really show off At the time the government had a very helpful and very low level of debt. One reason? Pension reform in the 1990s. Australia set up a compulsory retirement system called the superannuation system. It requires employers put money into its employees’ retirement savings.

Since companies and citizens have to build up retirement savings, some of the financial burden to pay off pensions was taken off of Australia’s government As other economies reeled in the wake of the 2008 crisis, the Australian Government was then able to put money directly into people’s bank accounts This boosted consumer spending in order to stimulate growth In 2008, the Australian Government unlike some other developed market governments actually jumped in very quickly with fiscal stimulus, so that helped to kind of minimize the effect of the crisis The country’s numbers continued to look sluggish after the financial crisis. But they never quite dipped low enough or for long enough to satisfy the definition of a recession. It takes two quarters of negative growth to fall into a recession. Australia’s economy did post a couple of negative quarters since 2008, but no country’s perfect. Overall Australia’s economy has been managed pretty much in recent years partly due to a robust and stable financial institution.

Australia has an independent financial institution and it is a very well-run financial institution . It also has a floating exchange rate and the exchange rate helped it adjust to international shocks. Australia’s economic reforms gave it flexibility in times of hardship. For example, floating the Australian dollar In 1983, Australia’s government moved the dollar onto a floating exchange rate This meant that the dollar would be valued by supply and demand instead of being subject to influence from its government or its central bank It allows the economy to react to shocks as well Typically when an economy is hit by some sort of negative shock. The currency will adjust. It will depreciate and that helps promote exports. Another reason behind Australia’s economic diary lies in its immigration policy. Since the late 1990s, Australia has seen growth in temporary migration, many arriving to the country on student or temporary work visas. The number of temporary migrants peaked in the year 2000. However a recent change to immigration law in 2018 gave visa applicants more hurdles to get through if they wanted to come to the country Even when our GDP per capital average incomes aren’t rising by much because the number of people continues to rise that means the total GDP continues to rise at even more rapid pace Part of that’s underpinned by much faster population growth Most experts think Australia’s economy remains strong in 2019, but it’s not without risks.

Australia’s suffering at the instant from pretty weak wage growth. That’s worrying a lot of people. There’s a lot of fear right now that China is hitting a wall. That will hit demand for Australian products. The good news is to the extent that the Chinese are buying commodities hopefully will find buyers from overseas for many of those commodities if the Chinese are not there The bad news is the rest of the world economy is not doing that well.

How Jack Ma inspired me!!!

Jack Ma- every 5 years we have a review for our strategy now our strategy is always to look at the 30 years and 10 years every strategic decisions we make we have to ask one question this decision we make solve society problem because we believe the biggest social property you solved the most successful you are so if we do it this cannot solve any social problems we don’t do it second is this project is going to be successful in 10 years. If it’s it’s going to be successful in 10 years let’s do it if it’s going to be successful in one year or one month normally we forget about it because why you can be successful in one year or one month.

We all have to put parham and 5 years ago we had a big debate about 10 years later 20 years what are the things this china society the world leave want so we say happiness and health strategy to happiness and health we believe Holly do you know the movie industry bring people happy because today nobody is happy rich people are happy poor people not happy you know at least when I watch movie after you’re happy but right. So, I think we should have partner with the Hollywood especially like a lot of you know we have a different way of living and in China the movie we have a lot of heroes but China movies heroes always dead the American me movie here will never die if all the heroes die who want to be the hero so my movie I want to make the hero live right so this is this is I think we should learn a lot and it’s all about two years so we have another eight years ago I want to make our company that it’s it’s not ecommerce it’s something that giving people inspirations given people.

In the eBay model why about this model I told myself for is the gum set or a hat that will care about what the other people and the other thing Forrest Gump said nobody make money out of the catching whales people make money by catching shrimps so

We serve small business or not if you want to win in business you have to think bigger than the service or product you

They also teach all the tricks all the turns all the dips all the tosses in the air did it matter as much as the experience we provided to students every person wants to feel loved every person wants to feel like they belong but they want to feel wanted appreciated validated and see and so we’ve always at our school thought bigger. We thought about they may come in for a service but they come back and they refer others because we enrich their lives we focus on the essential human needs like love like care like belonging that across cultures across demographics everybody wants to feel or experience.

I love Jack Ma’s message thinking five or 10 years from now because what people are worried about let’s say right now for the next six months it’s going to come and go but what stands the test of time are the deep down worries and fears that we all share so if you want to have a successful business you have to think bigger than the service or product you provide because people may come to your dance school people may come to your coffee shop by random chance but that’s not what’s going to keep them there and that’s not what’s going to make them refer clients to you now I’ve got a special bonus clip for you but before we get to it today’s question is how have you been thinking small in your business and what can you do to change that to really make an impact on your customers.

Rajya Sabha to form an informal group of MPs to discuss challenges posed by social media- Vice President

The Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu today advised media to provide more coverage to the substantive work being done by the parliament rather than only focusing on sensational remarks or disruptive behavior by some members.

Presenting the first ‘TVR Shenoy Award for Excellence in Parliamentary Journalism’ to veteran political journalist Shri Vinod Sharma, Shri Naidu called the press as the extension of parliament as it holds the elected representatives accountable to the people whom they represent.

The Vice President called the parliamentary committees as a beautiful system within our parliamentary system. All members discuss and debate there constructively as there is no media glare, he said.

However, Shri Naidu expressed concern that the Chairman of the several parliamentary standing committees now complain of only one third of the members attending the meetings on an average. This is a worrying trend, he said. He also said that he is planning to write to all political parties regarding this.

The Vice President called the role of a parliamentary journalist of critical importance, as people form their opinions based on the information provided by the press. With this information, they analyze and evaluate the performance of their elected representatives and the government.

Therefore, VP urged the media to not color news with views and stressed the need to maintain objectivity, fairness and accuracy in reporting. “Impartiality and objectivity of press is of supreme importance for a democracy to survive and flourish”, he said.

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, who described journalism as ‘service’, Shri Naidu expressed concern over politicians and business groups setting up newspapers and TV channels. “This erodes the credibility and core values of journalism”, he observed.

He also called upon media bodies to come up with some sort of self regulation to ensure that credibility and reliability of press remains steadfast.

Highlighting that press fought hard for its freedom, the Vice President called for using this freedom judiciously. He also drew media’s attention towards its responsibility to provide people correct information and educate them on their rights.

Further, Shri Naidu appealed to media to demystify parliament’s procedures and work, insisting that “people should be able to understand parliament’s functioning in easy and friendly language”. This will inspire them to become active stakeholders in the political processes, he opined.

Talking about the growing volume of parliamentary data, the Vice President felt a need to invest more in creating infrastructure, tools, capacity and skills for ‘data smart’ journalists.

“A good data journalist can help the citizens better understand the institution of parliament”, he said, adding that this may also improve the output of MPs as they would become more aware of their performance.

Shri Naidu also advocated for unhindered access to the important information generated by parliament on a day to day basis in a user friendly format.

Calling the people’s ‘right to know’ as a vital component for an informed society, Shri Naidu called for a good working relationship between the parliamentarians and journalists. If their relationship becomes too adversarial or too close, it would undermine the public’s ‘right to know’, he added.

Talking about the impact of social media on the institution of parliament and parliamentarians, VP said that it enables MPs to reach their constituencies directly and is also a good medium for obtaining public feedback.

However, he also cautioned the parliamentarians to be aware of social media’s potential to spread fake news and misinformation. In this regard, he called for the creation of a system of checks and balances to curb the possible misuse of social media by anti social elements.

In this regard, Shri Naidu said that Rajya Sabha will form an informal group of MPs to discuss various challenges posed by social media, such as the spread of pornographic content.

He expressed worry that this trend on social media is misleading the children and posing the biggest challenge to Indian values by devaluing our age old family system.

Appreciating the initiative by Prof. K.V. Thomas Vidyadhanam Trust to institute an award to honour late Shri T.V.R. Shenoy, Vice President said that Shri Shenoy was an illustrious journalist and editor who served the public cause through his writings for five decades.

I also congratulate Shri Vinod Sharma, Political Bureau Chief, Hindustan Times on being conferred first TVR Shenoy Award for Excellence in Parliamentary Journalism.

Shri A.K Antony, former Defence Minister, Prof. K.V. Thomas, Chairman, Trust, Dr. Omcheri NN Pillai, Chairman of Jury and Smt. Sarojam, wife of late Shri TVR Shenoy were among the dignitaries present at the event.

Following is the full text of the speech –

“Dear Shri A.K Antony Ji, former Defence Minister

Priof. K.V. Thomas, Chairman, Trust,

Shri Vinod Sharma, Political Chief of Bureau, Hindustan Times

Dr. Omcheri NN Pillai, Chairman of Jury

Mrs. TVR Shenoy

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am very happy to be among you on this special occasion of presenting the TVR Shenoy Award for Excellence in Parliamentary Journalism.

Friends,

Shri T.V.R. Shenoy was an illustrious journalist and editor who served the public cause through his writings for five decades. A reporter par excellence, he wrote extensively on issues ranging from politics, economy to international affairs and wars.

In early nineties, his investigative journalism led to the expose of several banking and stock market scams including the Harshad Mehta scam.

Shri Shenoy was honored with the Padma Bhushan in 2003 for his services to the nation.

I appreciate the initiative by Prof. K.V. Thomas Vidyadhanam Trust to honour late Shri Shenoy by instituting an award in his name.

I also congratulate Shri Vinod Sharma, Political Bureau Chief, Hindustan Times on being conferred first TVR Shenoy Award for Excellence in Parliamentary Journalism. Shri Sharma is a very familiar face to me as he has been reporting on the parliament for more than 25 years.

Dear friends,

The importance of a parliamentary journalist can not be overemphasized in a parliamentary democracy.

Our parliament debates and discusses various issues of national importance everyday.

It is a place where major policy decisions are taken.

It is the place where governments form and collapse.

It is the source of valuable political ideas and points of view.

And the people as important stakeholders in democratic process have a right to know how parliament is functioning, what it is discussing and debating.

They want to know what their elected representatives are saying or doing.

A parliamentary reporter has crucial responsibility of reporting all of this to the public.

People form their opinions based on this information provided by the press. With this information, they make up their minds whether or not to support a candidate in next election …. They analyze and evaluate the performance of their government.

That is why the role of a parliamentary journalist assumes critical importance in the way he decides which issues to publicise or what angle to give to a new story. His work and orientation plays an important role in scrutinizing the functioning of the parliament, government and the oppostion.

That is why press is often called as the extension of parliament. It holds the elected representatives accountable to the people whom they represent.

Therefore impartiality and objectivity of press is of supreme importance for a democracy to survive and flourish.

Friends,

Time and again, I have urged the media to not color news with views and stressed the need to maintain objectivity, fairness and accuracy. The neutrality and sanctity of newsrooms should be upheld at all times.

Our Father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who was an eminent journalist is his own right had said that, –

“I realized that the sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper press is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole countryside and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within.”

But today we see even many politicians and business groups setting up newspapers and TV channels. With these mediums under their control, the reporting can become distorted. This erodes the credibility and core values of journalism.

Therefore, I feel that media bodies need to come up with some sort of self regulation to ensure that credibility and reliability of press remains steadfast.

Friends,

The cardinal principle of journalism is to present fair, objective, accurate and balanced information to the reader and viewer without journalists assuming the role of the gatekeepers. This is particularly true while reporting on a political controversy. Rather than opining which argument is the strongest, a good political reporter should lays out all the arguments and facts without bias, and let the people take a decision on the relative merits of the arguments.

Dear friends,

Press fought hard for its freedom and this freedom should be used judiciously. Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution guarantees to the citizen, the right to “Freedom of speech and expression”. With regard to parliamentary privileges also, press has full protection as long as reporting is true, without malice and for public good.

However, freedom and responsibility cannot be considered as inseparable. There can not be unfettered freedom without any responsibility.

The media has the onerous responsibility to not only provide unadulterated and correct information, but also educate the people on their rights as well.

Friends,

When it comes to reporting on the parliament, media has one more special responsibility.

It should uncode and demystify parliamentary proceedings and procedures to the larger public. People should be able to understand parliament’s functioning in easy and friendly language.

I appreciate that many news organizations are already doing good work in this direction, specially while reporting the budget, but more needs to be done.

Many parliamentarians do a lot of research and put forth their views in the parliament. This should be covered more extensively rather than only some sensational remarks or disruptive behavior.

This will enable a deeper understanding of the functioning of Indian parliamentary system among the masses inspiring them to become active stakeholders in the political processes shaping the destiny of their lives and the nation.

I suggest that similar efforts need to be made with respect to the growing volume of the parliamentary data.

Friends,

Recently, I saw a new story titled as ‘Rajya Sabha records 90% productivity in first week of winter session’.

This is the power of data.

A good data journalist can help the citizens better understand the institution of parliament. The members of parliament may also become more aware of their performance. The output may improve as a consequence.

Therefore, I feel that there is a need to invest in creating infrastructure, tools, capacity and skills for ‘data smart’ journalists.

At the same time, there should be unhindered access to the important information generated by parliament on a day to day basis in a user friendly format. This would help masses in gaining better understanding of the functioning of Parliament, participation of MPs and various legislative proposals under consideration.

Dear friends,

For a democracy to thrive, it is desirable that there should be a good working relationship between the parliamentarians and journalists.

The media on one hand, communicates parliamentary activities to the citizens, and on the other it also provides valuable feedback on public opinions.

Thus media creates a two-way flow of information which is vital for the healthy functioning of democracy and good governance.

Dear friends,

If this relationship between the parliamentarians and journalists becomes too adversarial or too close, it would undermine the public’s ‘right to know’.

And this ‘right to know’ is a vital component in our quest for an informed society and informed democracy.

This is important for empowerment of our citizens.

But at times it is observed that adjournments and commotion tend to make news rather than substantive debates on important issues.

Therefore, I would urge my friends in media to not focus on sensationalism and ‘bite journalism’ and impartially report the multiplicity of views expressed by Members in the parliament.

Friends,

In the end, I come to the impact of latest technological developments – such as social media – on the institution of parliament and parliamentarians.

It is true that social media has enabled parliamentarians to reach their constituencies directly, bypassing journalists. Social media also provides a good medium for obtaining public feedback.

But, the parliamentarians have to be aware of the pitfalls of the social media which has tremendous scope to spread fake news and misinformation. We need to create a system of checks and balances to curb the possible misuse of social media by anti social elements.

Dear friends,

In the end, I once again congratulate Shri Vinod Sharma for the prestigious award.

Wishing you all the best.

Jai Hind!”

*****

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