The Right Mix

Jawahar Goel, the Siti Cable chief may be Subhash Chandra’s brother but he sure needs to sort out a number of issues in the difficult city of Kolkata. The cable television business in the city is ridden with blackouts, sub-standard service, undercutting and under-declaration. Goel who was in Kolkata recently had an informal session with representatives of all the broadcasters. The average consumer in Kolkata pays merely half of what consumers do in Mumbai and Delhi. Obviously one of the main points for discussion in the agenda was how increased revenue could be generated. Everybody who knows Cal knows its going to be tough. Goel’s big idea is that instead of blacking out certain channels and demanding rate hikes, it would be better to have token strikes of an hour or so during prime time. Goel feels that this would be better for the image of the industry and would also not antagonise viewers. Lets see if this tycoon idea works with the hard-to-tackle Calcuttans who take all strikes in their stride.

A Gold Mine

Surender Gupta, the head of the Aerens group of companies is certainly thinking out of the box. This tycoon is all set to bring an exclusive jewellery mall, the first of its kind, to India. He says he has even got the backing from the World Gold Council for this. The Aerens Group one of Delhi’s aggressive builders and behind the mushrooms of multiplexes in the city, is also into entertainment, health resorts and property management. This mall is in fact a coming together of a large number of jewellers. Gupta says he is merely providing the infrastructure, but that is of course where his competency lies. This mall would give customers access to jewellery from all regions in India under one roof and to the jewellers and he hopes it also means a world-class retail platform. However Gupta does have the arduous task of making the mall attractive enough for many retailers to jostle alongside their competitors. Gupta claims he has intentions of targeting only a section of the jewellers, namely the very best. The likes of Jhaveri and Cartier are the labels doing the rounds. A gigantic store with 70 shops and 10 outlets is his plan. Now if this sounds suspiciously like a Dubai gold souk, nobody’s arguing. Gupta hopes this concept is going to change the face of jewellery shopping in a big way in the country. The tycoon intends to launch this state-of-the-art mall in less than two years from now. But with a bigger store comes greater threat to security. Realising that this could be a big worry in the badlands of Delhi, Gupta has plans of making that aspect also world class. All in all getting India’s largest gold jewellery market is certainly giving this tycoon his chance of getting the glitter in the deal.

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