UB toasts the French ties

After a failed attempt to buy French champagne group Taittinger, India’s leading distiller, United Breweries Group, is now eyeing winemaker Bouvet-Ladubay, a subsidiary of Taittinger. United Breweries, the world’s third-largest spirits producer, has offered around $15 million to acquire Bouvet -Ladubay. Founded in 1851, the French winemaker is recognised as one of the most respected wine-producing firms in France’s Loire Valley. The proposed acquisition would enable the Vijay Mallya-promoted group to foray into the growing wine market in the country. This will also give the group’s spirits subsidiary – United Spirits Limited – the much needed thrust to enter into the high-quality premium wine segment.

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Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006

Editor:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

When Honda strikes....

When Honda strikes, others just see and surrender. And the success story has been the same, wherever the company has gone, whatever it has sold, be it giving nightmares to US majors like GM and Ford or its half-brother Toyota. Honda’s entry into global markets has been characteristic of its predator lineage – moving silently into the competitor’s arena, hunting them down without a signal, and taking no prisoners; and that’s precisely the same objective with which Honda – a name derived from a ruthless Samurai killer general – entered India in 1997. So what has been their India war count till now in the two segments they operate?

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Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006,

Editor:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

Tsavo: stalked by a primal fear!!

East Africa, 1898. And in this remote corner on the banks of the river Tsavo, I set foot on land that is damp with the blood of more than 140 human victims, a land whose nights are nightmares come to life, a land that reverberates with the twin roars of two maneless man-eating lions that did what no army could do – stall the British Empire in its tracks, literally. It is a strange feeling, this primal fear of being eaten alive, to be reduced to just another notch on the food chain, and I saw this fear grow in the eyes and whispers of a whole community who’d christened them the ‘The Ghost and the Darkness’. Disembodied spirits of long dead tribal chiefs who’ve come to fi ght the white man’s iron snake, some said. “The lion’s den… marking its entrance were human bones, metal bracelets and assorted trinkets of natives, all eaten.” (The End of the Game)

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Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006

Editor:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

INDIAN OBSES‘SEZ’ION

Started in the year 2000, Indian Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have been built after looking at the tremendous success of Chinese SEZs. But unlike its counterpart, Indian SEZs were developed with idea of increasing exports from the country and were part of India’s Export Promotion Policies. Today there are 14 operational and 61 approved SEZs across the country. Export Promotion Council for Export Oriented Units and SEZ said in a recent release that it has received 175 new proposals for development of SEZs in India in 2006, seeking an investment of Rs.1 lakh crore over the next five years.

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Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006