The Financial Times, or FT has released its latest survey of the world's corporate giants.
Here is how India fared. Reliance emerged as the highest ranking Indian company at 182nd position compared to 284th last year. ONGC now stands at 187th, down from 158th position last year. Bharti sits at 257th position, up from 443rd.
NTPC is at 313th. TCS bagged the 319th spot, Infosys is at 345th and Wipro is ranked 500th.
The requirement of having a Permanent Account Number, or PAN, for investing in a mutual fund may have been deferred till December. But the mutual fund industry fears losing out to unit linked insurance plans, or ULIPs,.
Just when the Indian mutual funds were hoping to grow their investment portfolios, they face a bigger challenge. While market regulator Sebi has made it mandatory for mutual funds to allow only those investors who have a PAN card to invest, come December, insurance ULIPs have no such requirement. And since ULIPs almost mirror mutual funds in their structure, funds fear big money flowing away from them to the ULIPs.
"On the one hand, it is good to know your customers and to take all the precautions. But at the same time, it should be made applicable across financial service industries, because the challenges are the same," said Mukul Gupta, CEO, Birla Sun Life MF.
With Sebi's rule on PAN card requirements for investments in mutual funds, fund managers fear ULIPs may now attract more equity from their potential lower-income customers. Out of the total customers buying ULIPs, only 20% submit a PAN card for identification. But insurance companies say that 40% of their customers come from small towns compared to 2-3% for mutual funds. But those fund houses launching micro systematic investment plans, or SIPs, and wanting to penetrate deep into the lower income groups in smaller cities, may get hit hard.
"There is a concern - a situation where there is in a way discriminatory treatment. I hope the government appreciates it and this is harmonized," said AP Kurian, Chairman, Association of Mutual Funds in India, or AMFI.
Mutual funds say a higher commission structure and the advantage of being able to use celebrities to endorse products, already puts ULIPs at an advantage. And now, PAN could be the latest and perhaps the most potent threat to them in their fight for investor wealth.
India's largest small carmaker is finally making a dent in the premium mid-size market.Maruti Suzuki's SX4 has broken Honda City's stranglehold and the fight promises to intensify. However, Honda is hitting back to regain market share.
Honda City's six-year dominance of the mid-size premium car segment has been dented by Maruti-Suzuki's latest offering, the SX4. According to June sales figures, the SX4 and Maruti Esteem sold almost 4000 units vs 2656 of the Honda City.
From 14.7 per cent in May last year, Maruti's market share in the A3 segment has virtually doubled to 25.2 per cent in may this year. During the same period, Honda City's market share has fallen from 22 per cent to 14.2 per cent. Reports suggest that Honda recently circulated a 12-page document to its sales force, giving eight reasons why the City is a better buy than SX4. Maruti sees this as an acknowledgement of the SX4's success.
In FY '06-07, Honda City was the market leader in the mid segment selling over 40,000 cars, followed by Ford India. Honda is targeting a sales growth of 5 per cent for the City and hopes to sell 42,000 units this year. Honda says the disturbance is only 'transitional'.
Suzuki introduced the SX4 at a very competitive price, keeping the base variant Rs 50,000 cheaper than Honda City.
The battle for supremacy between the Japanese automakers is likely to intensify with both sides expected to increase their sales tempo in the coming months. Honda is gearing up to upgrade its city by October this year to fight for its leadership position. But for Suzuki, it will be a fight to create a presence in the premium sedan category, a segment in which the company hasn't had much success.
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