Daily Pulse India: Mallya May Sweeten Offer, Uber Battles Surge Price Ban, And Gurugram, Seriously?

Show me the money: Vijay Mallya plans to make yet another offer to banks to settle his 90 billion rupee debt, which involves staggered payments till September. Banks want to see some money first. His previous offer, which was for a 40 billion payout in September followed by 20 billion if a lawsuit he is fighting ends favorably for him, was rejected a few days ago. The pressure is building on the former King of Good Times, as the ED, an investigation agency which is probing a bank fraud case against him, has asked the government to revoke his passport, in an attempt to bring him back to India.

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Battle On: Uber is objecting to the Karnataka government’s move to ban surge pricing saying it’s an essential part of its business model. In a blog post explaining its move, Uber called it Economics 101, where pricing depends on supply and demand. In an email to all Bangalore Uber customers, including this author, the company has explained how much money each customer has saved using Uber’s pricing formula, vis-a-vis the government’s formula. Bangalore as a market would have paid 250 million rupees more in 2016 alone, according to Uber. Effective marketing, but is the government listening?

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Spicing it up: They were launched with much fanfare by Prime Minister Modi when he visited London. Masala bonds, modeled on Chinese dimsum bonds, were the safest route for foreign investors to buy Indian debt. But five months on, the masala bonds haven’t really taken off because of a bunch of issues from withholding tax and poor liquidity. Now the RBI has cut the maturity on those bonds to three years from five years, to make them more appealing. But, whether this tweak will improve matters is anyone’s guess.

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The Patanjali effect: The herbal brand of consumer products has taken the market by storm, giving giants such as Hindustan Unilever and ITC sleepless nights. An unexpected fallout of this trend is the sudden demand for Ayurveda specialists in consumer companies to help them gain a foothold in the herbal business. Ayurveda, an age-old Indian medical science, uses herbs, metals and minerals to cure ailments. It hasn’t been very popular until recently, when Patanjali bucked the trend.

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Cement Merger: The world’s biggest cement merger is stuck in India as a smaller Indian company - Dalmia Cements - has moved the court against the competition commission’s approval of Lafarge merging with Holcim.

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It’s official: After months of speculation, Flikart’s product head has finally made it official. Punit Soni has left the e-tailer in the wake over a top level restructuring, following Myntra head Mukesh Bansal and chief business officer Ankit Nagori, who left in February.

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Cover Image: Haryana’s plan to change the name of the Delhi suburb Gurgaon to Gurugram has met with protest and disdain from companies and residents alike. Can’t help but remember the furore when Bombay became Mumbai.

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