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Malted milk drinks, which are as much as one-third sugar, have been breakfast staples of upwardly mobile families in India since soldiers brought GlaxoSmithKline's Horlicks back with them after WW1   For a century, children in India have been brought up on malt-flavored powdered milk drinks that they thought would help make them healthy and strong. Now the $1 billion industry is set for a shake-up after two of the biggest producers, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Kraft Heinz Co. put the businesses up for sale and consumers switch to drinks with less sugar. Malted milk drinks, which are as much as one-third sugar, have been breakfast staples of upwardly mobile families in India since soldiers brought GlaxoSmithKline’s  Horlicks  back with them after the First World War. Now, after a decade of double-digit growth, sales in India rose 8.6 per cent in 2017 and could drop to half that this year. By 2022, the market will expand by only 2.7 per cent, Euromonitor forecasts...

Under the present framework, instructions for blocking of websites or URLs are issued by the DoT to internet service licensees, based on the directions of Meity and according to directions from courts In a bid to check the spread of  fake news  through social media and messaging platforms — leading to mob lynching in some cases — the government is exploring the possibility of blocking mobile applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram. The government is also trying to curb child abuse and pornography spread through these platforms. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had written to telecommunications service providers (TSPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) on July 18, seeking inputs about options for blocking mobile applications, especially when national security and public order are under threat. According to officials, the DoT had a meeting on July 4 with telcos and ISPs to discuss measures. “Issues have been raised by the M...

Tech giant's India unit is developing blockchain-based solutions for global oil & gas majors Companies News  :  Global IT services giant Accenture will soon see the roll-out of its blockchain solutions by two oil and gas majors in Asia-Pacific and North American regions, and most part of the implementation is being done by the company’s advanced technology centre in India. Though blockchain has grabbed a lot of attention globally as a transformational technology post its use in crypto currencies, the large-scale implementation by enterprises is still a far cry. The company had already piloted the solution in these companies, which would soon see enterprise-level implementation. “After a year of discussion and co-innovation with one of our oil and gas clients, proof of concept and solutions have been signed up. Now, they are going for full-scale global implementation. It will happen soon," according to Mohan Sekhar, Senior managing director and lead at Accentu...

The payments bank ran into a controversy after it allegedly opened savings accounts for existing customers without their express permissions Airtel Payments Bank  , which was stopped by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from getting new customers on board, received approvals from the central bank to add new accounts, the company said on Thursday. Also, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has allowed it to use the 12-digit Aadhaar-based e-KYC, the company said. The payments bank ran into a controversy after it allegedly opened savings accounts for existing customers without their express permissions. These accounts allegedly led to government LPG subsidies worth Rs 1.68 billion being transferred to Airtel Payments Bank accounts even as many of the customers weren’t aware of that. “We thank the authorities for the approvals. We remain committed to the Government’s vision of financial inclusion and banking for all,” a spokesperson said. Artic...

The ICICI board, which consists of 12 members, is divided on whether Kochhar should be on leave during the internal enquiry ICICI Bank Chairman M K Sharma has written an email to board members seeking their opinion on whether Managing Director (MD) & Chief Executive Officer (CEO)  Chanda Kochhar  should be asked to go on indefinite leave until the internal enquiry is concluded, said people in the know. “ In an email sent to board members last week, Sharma asked board members whether they agreed that Kochhar should go on indefinite leave until the ICICI Bank-constituted enquiry is completed to have a fair outcome,” said one of the persons cited above. Kochhar is on her planned annual leave, the bank had said on June 1. The ICICI Bank board had come out in support of Chanda Kochhar on March 28, quashing allegations of a quid pro quo and favouritism in giving a loan to the Videocon group, which, in turn, had invested in Chanda’s husband Deepak Kochhar’s ...

If things fall in place, then a deal with a major offline retailer might happen by the end of this year, according to a source Amazon might be the most visited shopping site in India, but for Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of the technology giant, it is still Day 1 in what may be the second-most important market for the firm outside the US. Bezos, in a letter to customers, said that Amazon now has customers in 100 per cent serviceable pin-codes in the country and is shipping packages from more than 50 fulfillment locations in 13 states. From talking about how Alexa plays devotional songs in local Indian languages to Amazon India working closely with communities in rural areas, Bezos said that the online marketplace has now become part of the country's culture and has adapted all its services and offerings accordingly. Stressing that Amazon India has captured the top spot for the last two years, Bezos pointed out that Amazon is the most visited site in the cou...

The companies may also face censure action by the market watchdog for alleged lapses Sebi will soon take action against some market operators and senior staff members of about a dozen listed blue-chip firms for their alleged involvement in leak of price-sensitive information through WhatsApp. The companies may also face censure action by the market watchdog for alleged lapses in safeguard mechanism to check leak of unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI), including financial results before they were made public for all investors, regulatory sources said. The regulator is close to completing its probe into the matter, including for suspected unlawful gains through insider trading on the basis of leaked information, and is collating the details it had sought from all concerned companies, the officials said. Almost all the companies have replied to Sebi's queries in this regard. According to top officials, the regulator is taking a tough stand on the c...

The sale of Flipkart is not just the sale of one company. It is the beginning of a new tomorrow. It is just that one cannot be sure whether that tomorrow will be better for India than today When Carl Douglas McMillon, president and chief executive officer of Walmart Inc, arrives at the Embassy Tech Village headquarters of Flipkart in Bengaluru later on Wednesday to acquire India’s first-to-a-billion-dollars-startup, he will be accompanied by Walmart International’s Judith McKenna and CEO (commerce) Marc Lore. It will be a triumphal return to India for the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer which will be partnering Google’s parent Alphabet Inc in a deal estimated at $18-20 billion enterprise value – Walmart will own about 60 per cent stake, and Alphabet will get to own about 15 per cent of the online market place. The passage of the past five years has obviously dulled memories. All recent media reports seem to have conveniently glossed over the history of Walmart’s prev...

Infosys gave a low key welcome to Parekh, unlike the aggressive marketing exercise it undertook to welcome Sikka Salil Parekh will earn an annual salary of Rs 162. 5 million ($ 2.55 million) as the CEO of Infosys, which is a quarter of what Infosys had signed up with his high profile predecessor Vishal Sikka, who quit the firm after three years in turmoil. The compensation also reflects the reality at Infosys and its chairman Nandan Nilekani who would like the low profile senior executive to execute a vision of focused delivery for customers than over promise and under delivery that would be in contrast with the company's culture. Parekh, the soft-spoken executive who was poached from global rival Capgemini, will get an annual fixed salary of Rs 65 million and variable pay of Rs 97.5 million that would be compensated based on achieving metrics set by the company. Infosys has also offered stock options worth Rs 97.5 million that would be vested over two years, the ...

Firm to prune domestic costs through initiatives such as voluntary separation Cognizant Technology Solutions plans to sharply increase local hiring in the US this year with increased demand for co-innovation and on-site presence from clients. The Nasdaq-listed technology services major said it would look at talent across local community colleges to big management universities to man different projects in the US. Last month, when the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services opened the window for applications,   Cognizant   applied for "less than half" H1B visas compared with last year. "We are evolving our workforce and delivery in the United States. Cognizant hired 4,000 US citizens in 2016, and in 2017 and beyond, we expect to significantly ramp up our US based workforce by hiring experienced professionals in the open market and by making more use of university programmes. We are shifting our workforce largely in response to clients' increasing n...