TIMES BUSINESS THE TIMES OF INDIA, | FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016 DAIMLER CEO DIETER ZETSCHE SEES NO US MARKET US FED CHIEF JANET YELLEN HINTS FED COULD DISRUPTIONS ONCE DONALD TRUMP TAKES OFFICE RAISE INTEREST RATES NEXT MONTH | 24 Mistry avoids face-off, skips Rajat Gupta Jeep plans Scoot eyes assumes role mini SUV for long-haul two Tata board meetings as chairman flights of non-profit under `10L from India TCS Calls EGM On Dec 13 To Remove Cyrus As Director New York: India-born former Saurabh.Sinha SL Shanth Kumar Goldman Sachs director Rajat @timesgroup.com Reeba.Zachariah After the TCS board mee- Gupta has assumed a new role as @timesgroup.com ting, Hussain and the compa- chairman of a US- May Rope In New Delhi: With budget airli- ny’s MD & CEO N Chandrase- based non-profit nes controlling almost 65% of Mumbai: on karan attended the organisation, a For Engines, Transmissions domestic skies, it is now the Thursday skipped two crucial board meet chaired by Ratan gradual return to a turn of foreign low-cost carri- board meetings, of Tata Sons Tata that lasted for nearly two normal life after Pankaj.Doval Tata Motors beyond the ers (LCC) with wide-body pla- and Tata Consul- hours. This was Chandraseka- completing a two- @timesgroup.com Ranjangaon joint venture nes to eye the lucrative long- tancy Services ran’s first board meet as a Tata year prison term (signed by parent Fiat- haul traffic to-and-from India. (TCS), his first such Sons director. on insider trading charges. Los Angeles: Iconic Ame- Chrysler ) that produces Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) absence since he Mistry had informed Tata Gupta, 67, is chairman of rican SUV brand Jeep is vehicles for both the long-haul LCC Scoot wants to was ousted as cha- Sons and TCS that he be granted the WHEELS Global Founda- planning a sub Rs 10-lakh companies. “Our rela- operate its Boeing 787 Dream- irman from both companies. ‘leave of absence’, sources said. tion (WGF), a nonprofit organi- global off-roader for India to tionship with Tata Motors liners on Singapore-India-Eu- The board of directors of Ta- Before the formal board mee- sation focused on applying take on the likes of Ford Eco is good… I would be very rope/Gulf routes under so- ta Sons did not discuss issues ting, had called an technology to uplift rural com- Sport and Renault Duster. It open to discussions with mething known as “fifth free- linked to Mistry, Tata executi- informal board meeting of Tata munities and provide techno- is also looking at a partners- Tata about opportunities dom” of aviation. Under this ves said. However, at the TCS Sons directors where Mistry logical solutions to global chal- hip with Tata Motors for where collectively we co- freedom, an airline can fly meeting, which was chaired by was not invited. This, sources lenges in six areas; water, he- engines, transmissions and uld win,” Manley told TOI from its home country to a se- , it was decided said, prompted Mistry to skip alth, education, energy, lifesty- possibly new products. when asked about possible cond nation and take passeng- that the company will convene the crucial board meeting in the les, and sustainability. Mike Manley, head of joint product-develop- ers from there to a third count- an extraordinary meeting afternoon. Vijay Singh, a Tata The non-profit was founded the Jeep brand, which is ment and vehicle platform ry and same on return. (EGM) on December 13 to remo- Ratan Tata (left) outside , and TCS chairman Ishaat Sons director, denied to PTI any in 2013 by a group of alumni part of the Fiat-Chrysler strategies. ve Mistry as a director from its Hussain at the company’s headquarters in Mumbai on Thursday such meeting, jokingly saying Automobiles’ (FCA) stable, SIA’s long-haul LCC board. On November 10, Tata that all board meets are them- The non-profit, said India is one of the FUELLING COMPETITION Scoot wants to Sons had said Hussain will re- Mistry’s continuance as chair- man, ICan Advisors. Singhvi selves “informal”. WHEELS Global “most critical” markets for operate its Boeing place Mistry as TCS chairman. man while in , the six wondered how directors who Besides Mistry, two other Foundation, was the company as it looks at a 787s on Singapore- TCS is the first company independent directors were di- had come on board recently and directors, Farida Khambata founded in 2013 by a greater and stronger push from the to fix the vided for and against him. It were yet to acquaint themselves and , too skipped group of alumni from into emerging countries, India-Europe/Gulf EGM date. In the next few we- remains to be seen how share- with the group’s businesses, the Tata Sons board meet. including Brazil and China. routes eks, boards of Tata Steel, Tata holders factor in the views of had agreed to go along with the A Tata executive said the Ta- IIT, all prominent The mini SUV, which is Motors, Indian Hotels and Ta- these directors. decision to replace Mistry. ta Sons board meeting was a ro- entrepreneurs and still in the drawing stage, “There is a market for long- ta Chemicals will also consi- Mistry’s dismissal as Tata Singhvi’s reference was to Venu utine meet “with discussions will be the smallest in the haul LCCs to come into India or financial executives hJeep plans to take on Ford der convening similar EGMs. Sons chairman and attempts Srinivasan, Ajay Piramal and revolving around company’s ac- company’s line-up and In- Eco Sport and Renault Duster be based here. If allowed, our Despite opposition from pa- to remove him from other group Amit Chandra who had joined counts, administrative matters, from IIT, all prominent entre- dia could be a global manu- with mini SUV fare (basic, with everything el- rent company Tata Sons, Mist- companies has raised questions Tata Sons months before Mist- assessment of business and the preneurs and financial executi- facturing hub for right- se like baggage check-in, me- hIconic American SUV brand ry remains chairman in these about governance practices ry’s removal. way ahead.” The executive also ves. A source said Gupta assu- hand drive markets. The will also launch Compass SUV als, beverages and Wi-Fi cos- four group firms. To remove at the Tata Group. “It’s (the Barring Mistry, Thursda- added that there was a revamp med the role of chairman in country is expected to take ting extra) could be Rs5,000 and Mistry from boards of listed TCS EGM) the most regrettable y’s board meeting, which was of the audit committee. Earlier, October this year. Gupta’s na- a lead as Jeep is targeting a hJeep made India debut in Rs10,000 on Delhi-London and August this year through Tata companies, a majority of step by the Tatas and murder of Hussain’s first as chairman of the audit committee, during me appears among WGF’s bo- sub four-metre version, Wrangler and Grand Delhi-New York, respectively, shareholders have to agree. In corporate governance as till da- TCS, was attended by all the di- Mistry’s chairmanship, was he- ard of directors with the title of which attracts lower exci- Cherokee, priced upwards one-way,” said Bharath Maha- Tata Motors, Indian Hotels te they have not spelt out why rectors with Ron Sommer and aded by Ronen Sen, with Farida chairman on WGF’s web page. se tax and thus can be pri- of 70 lakh devan, India head of Scoot. The and , indepen- Cyrus was replaced as chair- Clayton Christensen joining Khambata and Vijay Singh as According to his profile on the ced more aggressively. LCC flies from Amritsar, Jai- dent directors have supported man,” said Anil Singhvi, chair- in via videoconference. other members. website, he “serves on its board Manley said at the Los Jeep will be launching pur and Chennai to Singapore. as a key strategist in defining Angeles Motor Show that a new SUV Compass in a It will soon merge SIA’s short- direction and focus of the non- the vehicle will be positio- few months and this will haul LCC Tiger into it and then profit organisation”. It said ned “on top of the Eco be the first vehicle manu- fly from eight Indian cities to Banks cut FD Cash flow woes to raise Gupta brings his “considerable Sport” and will be “very factured from its factory at Singapore. skills to WGF, along with his le- close” to the Ford vehicle. Ranjangaon. While Com- However, airlines from adership associations and ad- Manley said that a pass is likely to be positio- Singapore have used up the bi- rates by visory roles to many other non- partnership with Tata Mo- ned at Rs 15-20 lakh, Man- lateral (flying rights) with In- profits such as the Bill & Melin- tors could be explored, but ley said the company may dia, while Indian carriers are up to 100 bps dues in microfin sector da Gates Foundation and The did not answer queries on launch a locally-built Re- still using about half of their Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tu- whether he was eyeing a negade off-roader below share. So, an increase in bila- New Delhi: Taking advantage TIMES NEWS NETWORK berculosis and Malaria”. tie-up with the Indian com- Compass. teral that could enable Scoot of the surge in deposits follo- Growth may fall 1 percentage pt: HSBC Gupta was one of the hig- pany’s British SUV brand to have low-cost flights to Eu- wing demonetisation, several Mumbai: Microfinance insti- hest-profile defendants convic- Land Rover. (The writer is in rope may not happen in a hur- Mumbai: banks including ICICI Bank, tutions (MFIs) would be hit if HSBC has said in a report that over a year, economic ted in crackdown on insider He said he is open to Los Angeles at the ry. Lufthansa is also planning HDFC Bank and Canara Bank money flow does not normali- growth can fall by 0.7-1.0 percentage point, with the maximum trading and was sentenced to “discussions” on explo- invitation of Fiat- for some time to have its long- have slashed their fixed deposit se by the first quarter of impact in the immediate two quarters, which will see a large two years in prison. AGENCIES ring “opportunities” with Chrysler Automobiles) haul LCC flights to India. rates by up to 1percentage point. 2017 and borrowers find it dif- contraction in ‘effective’ money supply due to demonetisation. The Lower fixed deposit rates ficult to repay loans. Accor- report also said that inflation would be may herald reduction in lending ding to a report by India Ra- around 20 basis points (bps, where 100bps = rates as well in the next few days. tings, demonetisation will in- 1percentage point) lower over a year due to For fixed deposits between culcate banking habits once fall in aggregate demand. 390 days and 2 years, biggest pri- the immediate pressure eases. “In the short run, India’s drive to withdraw vate lender ICICI Bank has lowe- But in this short term, borro- and replace high-denomination currency red the interest rate by 15 basis wers will reprioritise their ex- notes will bring some benefits, some losses,” points effective Wednesday (100 penses due to cash shortages, said Pranjul Bhandari, chief economist, HSBC, India. According to the basis points = 1 percentage po- resulting in an increase in report, the government’s decision to abolish pre-existing stock of ints). ICICI Bank will pay 7.10% one-month overdues. high-denomination currency will have a mixed impact on the macro as against 7.25% earlier. “If money flow does not ful- economy over a year. “Long-term gains will be realised if this bold HDFC Bank has reduced in- ly normalise by Q4FY17, tier-1 move is followed up by other reforms like incentivising digital terest rates by 25 basis points capital (equity capital) of a few adoption and tackling other centres for unaccounted money.” On the across all tenures on bulk depo- MFIs could near regulatory current account side, the impact is expected to be mixed. “While we sits ranging between Rs 1 crore minimum levels. Ind-Ra’s ana- expect imports of consumer goods to fall, this could be easily offset by and Rs 5 crore. The new rates are lysis indicates that most MFIs higher gold demand.” TNN effective Thursday. HDFC have liquidity in the form of Bank’s one-year fixed deposit unencumbered cash and una- ir asset quality, especially with new customers coming in. will attract an interest rate of vailed bank lines to meet debt growth in new-to-microfinan- “Wage rate-based annual inco- 6.75% as against the 7% earlier. obligations for 30-60 days in the ce borrowers. me to annual EMI ratio stands For fixed deposits between 3 ye- event of business disruption,” at 1.8-2.0x for the highest levera- ars, 1day and 5 years, the rate has said the agency.  ‘New `500 notes to ease ged states such as Karnataka, been lowered to 6.5% from 6.75%. Demonetisation comes at a currency shortage’, P 24 Madhya Pradesh and Odisha Kolkata-based state-run Uni- time when the MFI industry and at 5x for the lowest levera- ted Bank of India reduced its ra- was seeing a surge in lending. According to the report, ged states such as Kerala,” the te by 1percentage point for short- According to the rating agency, growth in the gross loan portfo- report said. India Ratings has term deposits. Its public sector a section of joint borrowers co- lio (GLP) of MFIs in nine of the pointed out that nine of the peer Canara Bank has lowered uld be over-leveraged. Also, top 10 states was driven more by top 12 MFIs need high capital deposit rates in the range of 5-25 overcrowding of MFIs in some an increase in loan size to exis- to account for low-quality ge- basis points. AGENCIES states may adversely affect the- ting borrowers rather than ographical mix. WOW: Artificial intelligence is coming soon, to a device near you [email protected] IBM conventional computers, which have to be program- Las Vegas: Marvin is just a med, Watson understands the few inches tall, but he has a world in the way that humans big mouth. “What do you do: through senses, learning think of that, human?” he and experience, but at a speed sneers as he ties the scores 1-1. no human can match – it can “Is that the best you can do?” read more than 800 million he jeers as he takes a 2-1 lead. pages per second. Moments later, his tone swit- Unsurprisingly, India pla- ches to pleading. “Oh no, IBM ys a key part in IBM’s plans, will fire me if I lose,” he says, both as potential market and as the score is tied 2-2. The de- talent pool. “The biggest de- cisive move comes up, and veloper conference that hap- Marvin is beaten. “My robot pened (for the company) this mind is officially blown,” he year was in Bengaluru. We’re intones, making a fizzing so- planning another one there und as the audience laughs soon. There is just amazing and claps. talent that we see, so I am very The game the cute little ro- excited about it (India),” said bot was playing — Rock, Pa- IBM Watson GM David Ken- per, Scissors — has been play- IBM CEO Ginni Rometty (left) with GM CEO Mary Barra at the IBM ny. “We see a lot of innovation ed by children for genera- World of Watson conference in Las Vegas coming out of India... There tions. But when this seeming- isn’t much legacy that needs ly simple game is played truth to it. attended by over 17,000 peo- to be adopted, so people are hundreds of times, it throws Marvin is one of several ple, was essentially a showca- immediately deciding cogni- up a wealth of data that can be devices, including Pepper, a se for Watson, IBM’s ambitio- tive systems,” he added. crunched to come up with robotic concierge, Olli, an in- us, multi-billion dollar bet on Watson first shot to fame complex strategies. Marvin teractive, self-driving mini- artificial intelligence, the in 2011 when it beat two hu- has played it over 600 times bus made of 3D printed parts, new frontier that every major man champions in the quiz with human rivals already, and Rita, an intuitive white- tech giant — from Amazon to show, Jeopardy. More recent- and every time he plays, he le- board that provides trans- Google to Microsoft — is ra- ly, it assisted Grammy-win- arns. “You won’t beat me aga- cripts of meetings taking pla- cing to explore. ning music producer Alex Da in,” he tells one of the hu- ce in the room, and also offers IBM, though, insists that Kid in creating a song called mans who is walking away translations on request, that Watson is more than just AI, “It’s Not Easy”, which was re- triumphantly. It’s meant as a were on display at IBM World and prefers to use the term leased last month. joke, but one suspects that of Watson (WOW). ‘cognitive’ when referring to there may be an element of The three-day conference, Watson’s capabilities. Unlike  Continued on P 24