India is blessed to be the third-largest start-up economy in the world. Unfortunately, there is a curse that comes with that blessing. That is, as indicated in a 2016 report issued by the IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics, 90 per cent of Indian start-ups fail within five years.

The question is what can be done to reduce the number of failures? What are the secrets to success for India’s budding entrepreneurs and its business start-ups? There are many. But, based upon research findings and my own experience as an entrepreneur, I would like to highlight a critical few.

The IBM/Oxford report cited the lack of innovation as the primary reason for failing start-ups. A 2017 report by KMPG India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) cited innovation, along with scalability and digitisation, as one of the three pillars for building a sustainable business.

So, what does an entrepreneur do to innovate? Here is the surprising answer that Vivek Wadhwa, a noted American IT researcher, academic, writer and entrepreneur, gave in an article in the Washington Post on April 30: “In a video-conference hosted by Indian start-up website Inc42, I gave Indian entrepreneurs some advice that startled them. I said that instead of trying new things, they should copy and steal all the ideas they can from China, Silicon Valley and the rest of the world.”

Wadhwa goes on to explain that the reason that Silicon Valley is the international leader and hotbed for information technology is that there is considerable “knowledge sharing” as engineers move from company to company. He observes that tech giants such as Facebook and Apple borrow and build on the ideas of others.

The KPMG/CII report makes a similar point on innovation, stating: “Not all innovation is radical or breakthrough. Innovation can also be incremental, yet small materially significant changes to the current operating model or products or services.”

I would extend that even further to recommend that the focus for entrepreneurial innovation should be encompassing — considering potential improvements in the areas known as the 7 P’s of services marketing: Product, Pricing, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical Evidence.

In addition, based upon my experience as an entrepreneur who took an information technology firm, the QSS Group, that I purchased in 1994 for $45,000 and one employee — me — to sales of over $300 million and 3,000 employees when I sold it to Perot Systems in 2007, I would offer the following advice that I gave in the keynote address to the participants at US-India Start-Up Forum sponsored by American Bazaar in Mumbai, in February 2017:

* Believe in yourself and your business. Pursue your end goal with drive, determination and a passion to succeed.

* Find and focus on your niche market. Figure out early on who will be your target customer segments and key customers within those segments and build your business model around them.

* Deliver quality products and services that exceed customer expectations. Merely satisfying your customer is not good enough. They need to receive the unanticipated in order to become loyal. This is as true for the neighborhood kirana stores as for Apple and Google.

* Surround yourself with talented people. Pay them well. Listen to them. Learn from them. And work closely with them. Remember, business is a team sport and not an individual one.

* Have no fear of failure. India is a market where investors have little tolerance for failure. But fear can be crippling. Put your faith in your plan and yourself and carry on.

While the strategies and tactics will differ given the nature of the business, I believe that addressing those five factors, along with the need for ongoing innovation, are cross-cutting and can be used by an entrepreneur to provide the framework for becoming successful in any start-up line of business.

There is no single formula for success, however, and the future is promised to no-one. Therefore, I will close with this final thought.

In a commencement address at Stanford University, Steven Jobs advised the graduates: “Your time is limited; so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

For budding entrepreneurs and owners of start-ups, I would modify Jobs’ advice and say: “Your time is limited; so don’t waste it trying to emulate someone else’s business. Don’t be a mere ‘me too’ business. Don’t be a clone. Find your inner entrepreneur. Chart your own path. Create a mission, vision and set of values that are unique to your enterprise. In other words, make it your journey. By doing so, you will define those secrets to success that will enable you to grow your small business of today into the big business of tomorrow.”

Broadly negative global cues along with caution ahead of the RBI’s monetary policy review depressed the key Indian equity indices on Tuesday.

According to market observers, heavy selling pressure was witnessed in the capital goods, consumer durables and IT stocks.

Around 3.30 p.m. the broader Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) provisionally closed at 10,593.15 points — down by 35.35 points, or 0.33 per cent — from its previous close.

The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), which opened at 35,029.45 points, provisionally closed at 34,927.09 points — lower by 84.80 points, or 0.24 per cent — from its previous session’s close of 35,011.89 points.

Sensex touched a high of 35,073.12 points and a low of 34,784.68 points during the intra-day trade.

On Monday — the previous trade session — both the indices closed in the negative territory as caution prevailed over the Reserve Bank of India’s second monetary policy review.

Consequently, the NSE Nifty50 closed at 10,628.50 points — lower by 67.70 points, or 0.63 per cent — from the previous close.

Similarly, the barometer S&P BSE Sensex settled in the red. It had opened at 35,503.24 points and closed at 35,011.89 points, 215.37 points or 0.61 per cent lower from the previous session’s close at 35,227.26 points.

Former IDBI Bank MD and Chief Executive M.K Jain was on Monday appointed a new Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a period of three years, an official statement said.

The appointment was made by the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee, which includes the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, the Financial Services Secretary, besides other independent members.

The post of one of the Deputy Governors at the Central bank fell vacant after the retirement of S.S. Mundra on July 31, 2017.

Jain has been at his current post at state-run IDBI Bank since April 2017 and has previously served as the Chief Executive of Indian Bank. A career banker, he has also been a member of the Indian Banks’ Association Committee on risk management.

The government had advertised for the post of RBI Deputy Governor in January this year and as many as 40 applications had been received in response, according to sources.

Top officials of both public and private banks will brief the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance in New Delhi on Monday (June 04) on the issue of mounting Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) and bank frauds.

The meeting is being called after the RBI Governor Urjit Patel said, the central bank does not have adequate powers to deal with public sector banks.

The panel has also called Patel to brief on the same issue later this month.

According to official data, gross NPAs of state-owned banks has touched 8 lakh crore rupees at the end of last year.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

India will today (Monday, June 04) receive the first ever cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia.

State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd will bring the shipload of LNG from Gazprom, a Russian supplier, at Petronet LNG Ltd’s import terminal in Dahej, Gujarat.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will receive the first consignment at the terminal.

New Delhi is diversifying import basket to meet its vast energy needs.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

 Banking majors SBI and PNB on Friday hiked their benchmark marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) for its one-year loans by 10 basis points, effective from June 1.

A basis point is equivalent to 0.01 percentage point.

Prices of petrol and diesel fell around nine paise in the four metro cities on Saturday.

In the national capital, petrol was sold at Rs 78.20 per litre, down from Rs 78.29 on Friday, data on the Indian Oil Corp’s website showed.

In Mumbai and Chennai, petrol prices were at Rs 86.01 and Rs 81.19 a litre respectively, down nine paise from Friday’s levels.

In Kolkata, petrol price fell by eight paise to Rs 80.84 per litre.

Prices of the key transportation fuels have been cut marginally on a daily basis, under the dynamic pricing system since May 30, as global crude oil prices began to ease. Currently, the Brent crude oil is priced around $76 per barrel.

In tandem with petrol prices, diesel prices also witnessed a downturn. In Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, the fuel was sold at Rs 69.11, Rs 71.66, Rs 73.58 and Rs 72.97 per litre, all prices down nine paise from Friday’s level.

Revenue collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in April crossed Rs 94,000 crore and was higher than the average monthly collection of Rs 89,885 crore during 2017-18.

“The total GST collection for May (April revenue collected in May) is Rs 94,016 crore, which is higher compared to average monthly collection of Rs 89,885 crore of 2017-18,” Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said in a tweet.

“This reflects better compliance after introduction of e-way bills,” he added.

Adhia said the number returns filed for the month of April upto May 31 was 62.46 lakh as against 60.47 lakh filed for March till April 30.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas increased by Rs 2.34 and Rs 48 for subsidized and non-subsidised cylinders respectively in New Delhi on Friday.
In yet another blow to the common man after the continuous hike in fuel prices in the past few weeks, the prices for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) increased by Rs 2.34 and Rs 48 for subsidized and non-subsidised cylinders respectively in the national capital on Friday.

The new price for subsidized (Rs 14.2 Kg) cylinder in Delhi is Rs 493.55, while that of the non-subsidised cylinder is Rs 698.50.

Besides Delhi, the new rates for the subsidized cylinder are Rs 496.65 in Kolkata, Rs 491.31 in Mumbai and Rs 481.84 in Chennai.

Meanwhile, the new prices for the non-subsidised cylinder are Rs 723.50 in Kolkata, Rs 671.50 in Mumbai and Rs 712.50 in Chennai.

This comes after the Central government got slammed for hiking the fuel prices for 16 consecutive days until May 30, when the common man finally got some respite with a mere decline in the petrol and diesel prices.

On Friday, prices for petrol and diesel fell by 6 paise and 5 paise per liter respectively. In Delhi, Petrol now costs Rs 78.29 per litre, while diesel price has been revised to Rs 69.20 a liter.

Prices for petrol and diesel have fallen marginally for the third consecutive day. On Friday, petrol prices were cut by 6 paise and diesel prices by 5 paise per litre. In Delhi, petrol now costs Rs 78.29 per litre, while diesel price has been revised to Rs 69.20 a litre.

Besides Delhi, the revised Petrol prices in other metro cities are – Rs 80.92 in Kolkata, Rs 86.10 in Mumbai and Rs 81.28 in Chennai. Meanwhile, the revised diesel price was Rs 71.75 in Kolkata, Rs 73.67 in Mumbai and 73.06 in Chennai.

The fuel prices were marginally reduced for the third day after it remained high for 16 consecutive days. The oil companies had on Thursday cut the prices further by 7 paise per litre for petrol and 5 paise per litre for diesel. It came after a day of confusion when it was announced that fuel prices were slashed by 60 paise per litre but was later corrected to 1 paise.

While in morning there was an announcement about petrol prices going down by 60 paise in Delhi and 59 paise in Mumbai, and diesel prices going down by 56 paise in Delhi and 59 paise in Mumbai, it was later clarified by the Indian Oil Corporation that the reduction was of merely 1 paisa per litre.

“There was a technical glitch in posting the selling prices of petrol and diesel. The selling prices of petrol and diesel with effect from May 30, 2018 have been rectified. Today, there is a minor reduction in fuel prices,” the IOC clarified shortly before noon.

Oil companies use 15-day rolling average of Singapore gasoline prices and Arab Gulf diesel prices to arrive at daily rates and so the fall in international oil rates seen in the last few days would be factored in for the revisions in the coming days.

The reduction comes after 16 consecutive price increases since May 14 when fuel retailers ended a 19-day pre-Karnataka poll hiatus to pass on a spike in global oil rates. In all, petrol price was increased by Rs 3.8 per litre and diesel by Rs 3.38 in that fortnight.

Prices vary from state to state depending on local sales tax or VAT. Delhi has the cheapest price among all metros and most state capitals.