Business

Seoul, Sep 19 (IANS) Samsung Electronics expanded its market share of the global semiconductor industry in the second quarter, maintaining its top spot, a research report showed on Monday.

Samsung's chip revenue for the April-June period came in at a record quarterly high of $20.3 billion on the back of solid server demand, taking up 12.8 percent of the global total of $158.1 billion, according to research firm Omdia.

Samsung's Q2 share was slightly up from the 12.5 per cent it logged the previous quarter, reports Yonhap news agency.

In the second quarter, Intel's market share decreased to 9.4 per cent from 11.1 per cent the previous quarter.

The chipmaker reported $14.8 billion in revenue, down 16.6 per cent on-quarter.

Samsung and Intel have been locked in a fierce rivalry for many years.

In 2017, Samsung surpassed Intel as the world's biggest chipmaker by revenue for the first time, and it maintained the spot for two years in a row.

Intel overtook Samsung in 2019 and remained at the top until 2020, before it was beaten by Samsung again last year.

Meanwhile, SK hynix ranked No. 3 with a 6.8 percent market share for the three months ending in June, followed by Qualcomm with 5.9 percent, Micron with 5.2 percent, Broadcom with 4.2 percent, Nvidia with 3.6 percent and MediaTek with 3.3 percent.

Seven out of the global top 10 semiconductor companies were American.

--IANS
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By IANSlife
New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANSlife) In a crowded hospitality sector with big chains offering luxury and aspiration, starting an independent boutique hotel is a brave step and a risky one. But, if done right it is a huge opportunity. In the current scenario, travellers look increasingly for 'experience' but choose on the basis of photos and videos online while choosing an accommodation. Instagram has become one of the major platforms for this splash.


Boutique properties are a way to create something so beautiful and define success in your own unique style. Keeping in line with the way travellers consume, the class and the exquisite experience that is exclusive needs to be communicated through Instagram more than other social media platforms. Here are things that boutique hotels can do to make their hotels shine on Instagram and gain an edge, says Roop Pratap Choudhary, Executive Director, Noor Mahal and Founder Colonel Saab, London (UK).

Establish your brand - A brand is beyond comfort, luxury, logo and colours. It is the personality and identity that differentiates the boutique hotel from competitors. It is important to not just attract potential guests but also strive to create aspirations. It is important to build a unique selling point. The whole packaging needs to be such that the boutique hotel becomes a fascinating option that guests feel they should not miss.

Know your guests - It is important to understand your guests and curate the most customised experience as per their preferences. Syncing the hotel's offering to best suit the taste and expectations of the guests guest a long way in making them feel welcomed. Understand what they prioritise, what they expect and what they desire. Translate the same things through your Instagram to stay connected with them.

Highlight themed spaces - capture beautifully the themed spaces that you have created and share them on Instagram. Highlight not just the space but also encourage guests to share their happy moments enjoying the novelty.
Inspire with food- Food should be delicious but the presentation should be inspiring. Build plates that not only invite appetite but also are photographic delights. Food images are a great share for Instagram, beautiful and interesting plates encourage guests and dinners to also post on Instagram and share their moments with their connections.

Lighting for effect - a very basic yet underrated idea to enhance Instaworthyness is to focus on lighting at the hotel. A professional photoshoot can amplify decor elements by adjusting light and even using extra lights. But, for the photos that guests take need the assistance of good lighting that would give good results. The lighting used to enhance the look of the hotel may not necessarily translate into good lighting for photographs. So make changes to support that requirement.

By following these simple steps, one can easily win the hearts of the new Millennial and Gen Z Guests who are seamlessly setting new rules for Indian Hospitality.

(N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe can be contacted at lothungbeni.h@ians.in)

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) In order to meet the criteria for performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, 'Make in India' smartphone shipments grew 16 per cent year-on-year to reach 44 million units in the first quarter of this financial year, according to a new report.

The Indian government's push with multiple PLI schemes has been showing a positive impact and "we saw increased local manufacturing share in product segments like smartwatch, TWS, neckband and tablet", said Counterpoint Research.

OPPO led the 'Make in India' smartphone shipments with a 24 per cent share, followed by Samsung and Vivo.

Lava led the feature phone shipments with 21 per cent share.

"OPPO recently announced the Vihaan initiative under which it plans to invest $60 million in the next five years to empower the local supply chain. Samsung also increased its manufacturing with the premium segment smartphones, especially the Galaxy S series," said senior research analyst Prachir Singh.

In the smartphone segment, in-house manufacturing contributed to almost 66 per cent of the total 'Make in India' shipments in the June quarter, while the rest of the 34 per cent shipments came from third-party EMS (electronics manufacturing services) players.

Among the third-party EMS players, Bharat FIH, Dixon and DBG were the leading players during the quarter.

Padget Electronics (396 per cent YoY), Wistron (137 per cent YoY) and Lava (110 per cent YoY) were the fastest growing smartphone manufacturers during the quarter in terms of shipments.

"Also, we may see disbursement of PLI incentives during Q3 2022, which will further boost the local manufacturing sentiments," said the report.

Optiemus leads the Made in India shipments for smartwatches with more than 75 per cent share.

In the wearable segment, TWS led in terms of domestic manufacturing with a 16 per cent contribution, followed by neckbands and smartwatches.

In TWS, Optiemus, Bharat FIH and Padget are the top three manufacturers.

In the neckband category, VVDN and Mivi have a 90 per cent share in the 'Make in India' shipments.

In the tablet category, Wingtech, Samsung and Dixon are the top players while in the TV category, Dixon, Radiant, Samsung and LG have a 50 per cent share.

"The government aims to make India an electronics manufacturing hub in the next four to five years. To help drive more initiatives under the themes of 'Make in India' and 'Digital India', the government, in its last budget, pushed the total allocation to $936.2 million," said research analyst Priya Joseph.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 17 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is ready to bring its card-on-file tokenisation norms into effect from October 1 after various complaints were filed regarding the misuse of debit or credit cards.

Several people were cheated in the last few years by cyber frauds because they have stored their card data on the merchants website for future payments.

Lets us understand what these new norms are and why you should tokenise your card.

Firstly, tokenisation means the details of your cards such as 16-digit number, names, expiry dates and codes which you used to save earlier for the future payments will now be replaced by a token. The token is used by the merchant's website for the transaction.

The RBI is implementing these norms of tokenisation in order to secure the card details of the customers. Currently, the bank card details are saved by a merchant during a transaction. If, the merchant's website is hacked, the details of the customers will be exposed.

Post implementation of these norms all the customers data will be with the bank and not with the merchant website.

Securing/Tokenisation also helps you save the hassle of inputting your complete card details each time.

Customers need not have to pay any charges for availing this service.

Post implementation of these norms, customers have to follow below mentioned steps to get their cards tokenised.

Step 1: Visit your favourite online application/website to purchase grocery, pay bills or order food and initiate a transaction.

Step 2: In the check-out page, select HDFC Bank Credit/Debit Card and provide CVV

Step 3: Tick mark the check box "Secure your Card" or "Save Card as per RBI guidelines"

Step 4: Enter the OTP received on your registered mobile number

Step 5: Congratulations!!! Your card details are now secured.

Once the customer tokenised their cards they will be able to recognise their details on the merchants website using the last 4 four digits of the cards, which is the only data the merchant will be able to save on their portal.

Further banks will provide a portal to their customers to view or manage their tokenised cards.

--IANS
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By Nishant Arora
New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) As the Indian government pushes for electric vehicle (EV) adoption and installing the public charging infrastructure, German industrial manufacturing major Siemens has stressed that it has proven capabilities to help the government realise its passenger EV mobility dream too.



The company is currently working on the commercial EV mobility side in India, working with leading players like Ashok Leyland's EV arm Switch Mobility.

Sunil Mathur, Managing Director and CEO, Siemens Limited, told IANS that they are continuously in touch with the government as well as multiple stakeholders.

"The direction of the government is very clear, and the performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme is also very consequent to their strategy of driving e-mobility. Now is the time for the Indian industry to get its act together," Mathur said.

According to him, on the commercial EVs, there's definitely a lot of traction happening in India.

"On passenger vehicles, there are a couple of other companies who have entered the charging infrastructure space. We have not entered that space currently on the charging side. But we have the required capabilities for that market too," Mathur informed.

According to Dr Peter Koerte, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, Siemens AG, the company has charging infrastructure outside India.

"We are providing high-performance charging all the way to 250 KW roadside charging when you travel a longer distance. We provide solutions for destination charging, workplace charging and home charging, etc," Koerte told IANS.

In India, the company has laid its eyes first on the commercial EV business first, but "what I am trying to convey is that we have capabilities on the passenger side too," Koerte emphasised.

Siemens India has already signed an MoU with Switch Mobility to deliver cost-effective e-mobility solutions for commercial electric vehicle customers.

Last year, ride-hailing company Ola partnered with Siemens to rapidly build its electric vehicle manufacturing facility.

Ola had access to Siemens' integrated Digital Twin design and manufacturing solutions to digitalise and validate product and production ahead of actual operations.

According to Mathur, the bigger challenge in the passenger EV mobility is paying infrastructure for the entire drivetrain, propulsion systems and the rest.

"That is the government's vision and I think industry is jumping into that. We are talking to a couple of players who are actually going to be manufacturing all this, and there is a lot of pressure on them from the government to start delivering. So, I am hopeful that it will happen soon," said Mathur.

The company has a unique project called 'Digital Twin' which is a virtual representation of a physical product or process, used to understand and predict the physical counterpart's performance characteristics.

'Digital twins' are used throughout the product lifecycle to simulate, predict, and optimise the product and production system before investing in physical prototypes and assets.

According to Mathur, nearly 600 mid to small companies in India are already engaging with 'Digital Twin' product to eliminate the need for physical prototypes, reducing development time, and improving quality of the finalised product or process.

"A large automotive company cannot achieve the levels of productivity unless all the ancillary players downstream are also in the same loop, so to speak," said Mathur.

"We are talking to the players in tier 2, 3 and 4 towns and cities, helping them become much more productive with the 'Digital Twin' solution," he mentioned.

(Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) In an endeavour to promote ease of doing business, the Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has notified new rules to simplify and streamline the Trade Certificate regime under the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989.

Due to certain anomalies in the existing rules, the applicability of the Trade Certificate was open to interpretation in many cases, leading to harassment of many business establishments.

Moreover, an application was required to be filed physically at the RTO which was a time-consuming process.

The key provisions of the new rules say that a Trade Certificate will be required only in case of vehicles which are neither registered nor temporarily registered.

Such vehicles can only be in the possession of a dealer/manufacturer/importer of motor vehicles, or a test agency specified in rule 126.

It also said that the application for Trade Certificate and Trade Registration Marks can be made electronically on the Vahan portal, without the need to visit the RTO.

Further, the applicant can apply for multiple types of vehicles in a single application.

The time period for grant or renewal of trade certificate has been fixed at 30 days, wherein applications not disposed within 30 days shall be deemed approved. The validity of the Trade Certificate has been increased from 12 months to 5 years as per the new rules.

Besides, a dealership authorisation certificate (Form 16A) has been introduced to bring about uniformity across dealership authorisations.

The Trade Certificate has been made co-terminus with the dealership authorisation. Display of dealership authorisation certificate in showrooms/godowns has also been mandated.

The date of implementation is proposed with effect from November 1. The existing trade certificates will continue to be valid till their renewal is due.

--IANS
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Islamabad, Sep 17 (IANS) Devaluation of the Pakistani rupee (PKR) against the US dollar continued as the greenback traded at 236.84 rupees in the interbank, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The US dollar closed at 235.88 PKR on Thursday, and on Friday opened higher, after the local currency devalued by 0.96 PKR, or about 0.41 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported citing official figures issued by the SBP.

The dollar, since its recent low of 213.90 PKR, has now gone up by 22.94 PKR.

According to money market analysts, the depreciation of the local currency is taking place due to rising import bill.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 16 (IANS) The Adani Family, through Endeavour Trade and Investment Ltd, a special purpose vehicle, has successfully completed the acquisition of Ambuja Cements Ltd and ACC Ltd.

The transaction involved the acquisition of Holcim's stake in Ambuja and ACC along with an open offer in both entities as per SEBI Regulations.

The value of the Holcim stake and open offer consideration for Ambuja Cements and ACC is $6.50 billion, which makes this the largest ever acquisition by Adani, and also India's largest ever M&A transaction in the infrastructure and materials space.

Post the transaction, Adani will hold 63.15 per cent in Ambuja Cements and 56.69 per cent in ACC (of which 50.05 per cent is held through Ambuja Cements).

"What makes cement an exciting business is the headroom for growth in India, which exceeds that of every other country well beyond 2050," said Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group.

"Cement is a game of economics dependent on energy costs, logistics and distribution costs, and the ability to leverage a digital platform to transform production as well as gain significant supply chain efficiencies. Each one of these capabilities is a core business for us and therefore provides our cement business a set of unmatched adjacencies.

"It is these adjacencies that eventually drive competitive economics. In addition, our position as one of the largest renewable energy companies in the world will help us manufacture premium quality green cement well in line with the principles of a circular economy. All of these dimensions put us on track to become the largest and most efficient manufacturer of cement by no later than 2030," he added.

Currently, Ambuja Cements and ACC have a combined installed production capacity of 67.5 MTPA. The two companies are among the strongest brands in India with immense depth of manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure, represented by their 14 integrated units, 16 grinding units, 79 ready-mix concrete plants and over 78,000 channel partners across India.

The Board of Ambuja Cements approved an infusion of Rs 20,000 crore into Ambuja by way of preferential allotment of warrants. This will equip Ambuja to capture the growth in the market. The actions will significantly accelerate value creation for all stakeholders, in line with the Adani Group's business philosophy.

Both Ambuja Cements and ACC will benefit from synergies with the integrated Adani infrastructure platform, especially in the areas of raw material, renewable power and logistics, where Adani Portfolio companies have vast experience and deep expertise.

Ambuja and ACC will also benefit from Adani's focus on ESG, circular economy and capital management philosophy. The businesses will continue to be deeply aligned to UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) with clear focus on SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 13 (climate action).

In line with the Adani Portfolio's governance philosophy, the board committees of both Ambuja Cements and ACC have been reconstituted. The audit committee and the nomination and remuneration committee now comprise 100 per cent independent directors.

Further, two new committees have been constituted – the Corporate Responsibility Committee and the Public Consumer Committee – both comprising 100 per cent independent directors to provide assurance to the board on ESG commitments and maximise consumer satisfaction. Also, a Commodity Price Committee has been constituted, comprising 50 per cent independent directors, to strengthen risk management.

The transaction was financed by facilities aggregating to $4.50 billion availed from 14 international banks.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Indigo flew ahead of other airlines during August with 57.7 per cent share in the domestic aviation sector, while Vistara secured the second slot with a market share of 9.7 per cent.

As per the latest data from the aviation regulator, Indigo carried 58.32 lakh air passengers during the month while Vistara carried 9.81 lakh air passengers.

Go First was at third position with 8.7 lakh passengers and 8.6 per cent market share. Air India, with 8.61 lakh air passengers, had a market share of 8.5 per cent during August.

As per the latest data released by aviation regulator DGCA on Friday, nearly 1.01 crore passengers were carried by the domestic airlines during August in the country as against 67.01 lakh during the same period last year.

The passenger load factor or occupancy of the airlines remained on the higher side in the range of 70 to 80 per cent.

Newly-launched Akasa Air marked occupancy of 52.9 per cent during August.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Riding on its premium segment offerings, Samsung on Friday said it expect 45 per cent growth in its consumer electronics sales during the festive season.

Mohandeep Singh, Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics Business, Samsung India, told IANS that across its consumer electronics portfolio, "we are expecting a growth of 80 per cent in the premium segment".

"Consumers are back in stores and the festive buying sentiment along with upgrade trend is at an all-time high. We have doubled our retail investment to enhance the shopping experience of our consumers," he added.

In its premium TV business, Samsung expects 45 per cent growth by the end of the festive period.

The company said that the demand for its Neo QLED TVs has seen a 4X growth since last year.

In the UHD segment, Samsung registered a 65 per cent growth in the first half of the year.

Singh said that Samsung is setting up premium products across more stores, training 5,000 small partners and also in-store executives.

As India enters the festive season, online sales during the festive month are expected to reach $11.8 billion, a 28 per cent increase from last year.

In the first festive week, the sales are estimated to reach $5.9 billion, projecting a 28 per cent increase from $4.8 billion last year, according to Redseer Strategy Consultants.

--IANS
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