Incense is the answer

ITC8217;s Y.C. Deveshwar has for some time now been shifting his focus to other areas away from cigarettes. This is partly because it was l...

ITC8217;s Y.C. Deveshwar has for some time now been shifting his focus to other areas away from cigarettes. This is partly because it was losing its shine, and also because of the ban that was introduced on them. After shifting into pastes and biscuits, the tycoon has now got into retailing 8212; of incense sticks. For this he will enter the 30 lakh outlet incense sticks business by seeding 5 lakh outlets of his own. The tycoon hopes his plan will fall into place in about five months time.

The agarbati or incense sticks market at present is an approximately Rs 1,000 crore per year market, out of which the Deveshwar wants to grab 5 per cent, and that too within a year. Aiming too high? He certainly doesn8217;t think so. Primarily, because incense sticks are a part of Deveshwar8217;s packaging and printing unit, which also turns out matchsticks, greeting cards etc. and happens to be a very profitable sector for ITC. It contributed sales of around Rs 375 crore in the last year alone. Another point in Deveshwar8217;s favour is that the tycoon will be able to easily distribute the products through ITC8217;s growing grocery distribution infrastructure.

In the meantime Deveshwar8217;s pet project, the e-Choupal initiative, recently won him the Enterprise Business Transformation Award for Asia-Pacific by Infosys Technologies and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His efforts were recognised by Human Resources Development HRD Minister Arjun Singh, who assured him that his position as Chairman of IIM Calcutta still holds. Is it a phase of good luck, or a case of good planning for the future? Whatever the reason, Deveshwar8217;s life certainly is not incensed at all.

UTV 8217;s lucky year

The latest craze in the entertainment world is the kids8217; channels, in which many a tycoon is preparing to be a part of it. One of them is Ronnie Screwvala. So after POGO, and Little Big Mouse, the entrepreneur8217;s Hindi channel Hungama will also be making an appearance. A part of the proceeds from his IPO will be utilised for this channel itself.

The tycoon also wants to set up a complete studio on the lines of Hollywood studios such as Miramax and Fox Searchlight. The tattle is that he is doing all this because he has much bigger plans. These include creating new film distribution channels both within the country and outside.

This will be achieved by some expert coordination between his offices in London, New York and India. Screwvala is already co-producer of Swades and Lakshya 8212; both second ventures of first time successful directors, Ashutosh Gowariker and Farhan Akhtar. The film projects are worth Rs 30 crore and Rs 35 crore, respectively. But the tycoon really has no need to worry. Thanks to India8217;s superior technological expertise at lower costs compared with the West, the tycoon8217;s animation outsourcing projects are going on rather successfully. The way things look. And it seems Screwvala will have a very great year ahead. If only his films were to do as well as his cartoon characters tend to!

Dilip Cherian, runs a public relations firm Perfect Relations. He is an economy watcher and a tycoon tracker. None of the people he writes about are his clients. Your insider tales are welcome at dilipcheriannow-india.net.in