Inflation at 5.74 pc on March 31

NEW DELHI: India's wholesale price index rose 5.74 per cent in the 12 months to March 31, lower than the previous week's increase of 6.39 per cent, data showed on Friday. The figure was below a forecast of an annual 5.81 per cent in a Reuters poll of analysts but above the central bank's projection of 5.0-5.5 per cent for the end of the financial year. March 31 was the last day of the 2006/07 financial year.

The annual inflation rate was 3.98 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

The wholesale price index is more closely watched than the consumer price index, which is published monthly, because it covers a higher number of products and is published weekly.

Karnik to exit Nasscom

NEW DELHI: Raw treatment meted out to Indian information technology sector by Union Finance minister P Chidambaram in his Annual Budget 2007 seems to have taken a toll upon the main lobbying body for Indian software, Nasscom with its president Kiran Karnik bowing out of office.

The decision, formally announced by Nasscom on Thursday, confirmed what was being talked about in hushed tones by the industry captains for the past few weeks.

In a terse statement, Nasscom said it had appointed search firm Korn Ferry to look for Karnik’s successor in consultation with him and key organisation members. This, it said, was part of the mission to “institutionalize” Nasscom through appropriate structures, systems and processes “for which well-defined HR policies had been laid down”.

Read more at Economic Times

Nandan Nilekani to become co-chairman of Infy

BANGALORE: The Board of Directors of Infosys Technologies Limited today approved changes at the senior level management, with Nandan M Nilekani becoming Co-Chairman of the Board, effective June 22.

S Gopalakrishnan would assume the role of Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, and S D Shibulal the Chief Operating Officer of the NASDAQ-listed software major.

Jet, Sahara seal deal, finally

Tribunal's nod for Rs 1,450cr merger; Jet to make staggered payments stretching till 2011.

Settling its ten-month-old dispute, Jet Airways has agreed to buy out Air Sahara for Rs 1,450 crore. The three-member tribunal headed by British judge Lord Stein today approved the proposal by the two airlines.

The terms of the deal, signed at 1.20 pm today, were announced at two separate press conferences in Mumbai and New Delhi by Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways and Alok Sharma, president of Air Sahara, respectively.

Jet Airways has already paid Rs 500 crore as a deposit to Air Sahara which, in turn, has accepted a generously staggered payment schedule stretching till 2011. Jet will pay only Rs 400 crore on or before April 20. The remaining Rs 550 crore will be paid in interest-free equal instalments (Rs 137.50 crore each) from March 30, 2008, to 2011.

Taking the savings on interest (at existing rates), the net present value of what Jet will pay is Rs 1,200 crore. After the deal was signed, Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet, said, “We have got the airline for 40 per cent less than the original price offered in January 2006.” Read more at Business Standard

BCCL acquires 17% stake in Bangalore firm LLIS

BANGALORE: Bennet Coleman & Co Limited (BCCL) has acquired close to 17% stake in Bangalore-based Leisure & Lifestyle Information Services (LLIS), which owns the travel community portal — Holiday IQ.

The investments by BCCL will constitute both equity and convertibles. This will be the second round of institutional funding for Holiday IQ as it has earlier received investments from Erasmic Ventures and Vireet Investments.

According to Holiday IQ CEO Hari Nair, the portal serves as a neutral and independent information provider on various tourist destinations. The portal was set up to fill the multiple gaps in sourcing good quality information in the leisure travel sector, Mr Nair added.

Read more at Economic Times

Spice sells 48% stake in SSL to McorpGlobal

MUMBAI: Spice Ltd has sold its 48.22 per cent stake in Spice Systems Ltd (SSL) to B K Modi controlled MCorpGlobal.

The move would give MCorpGlobal 96.27 per cent control in SSL, engaged in office automation.

McorpGlobal acquired 81.50 lakh shares of Spice Systems through 'inter-se transfer' on March 31, a regulatory filing on the BSE shows.

Spice Ltd (formerly known as Spice Net) manufactures servers, PCs and other equipments.

McorpGlobal's focus and strategy is on expanding the scope of its operations to various businesses like real estate, health care, telecom & IT, finance & asset management,

Earlier on April 2, Spice Ltd in a meeting had said that its Board of Directors has approved the sale of 81.50 lakh shares, constituting 48.22 per cent holding in SSL at Rs 13 per share.

Infy investors to make moolah with 130% dividend

BANGALORE: IT bellwether Infosys Technologies Ltd Friday declared a final dividend of Rs 6.50 per share, 130 percent on par value of Rs 5 per share for fiscal 2006-07, amounting to Rs 3.71 billion ($86 million).

In a notification to the stock exchanges here, the company said with an interim dividend of Rs 5 per share (100 percent of Rs 5 per share), amounting to Rs 2.78 billion, the total dividend for the entire fiscal (FY 2007) would be Rs.11.50 per share. This would be 230 per cent on par value of Rs 5 per share, with a payout of Rs 6.49 billion.

The decision to reward its shareholders handsomely was taken by the company's board of directors, which met here to approve the financial results for the fiscal under review.

For the previous fiscal (FY 2006), the blue-chip firm rewarded its investors with a silver jubilee dividend of 600 percent and a 1:1 bonus issue.

Forex reserves up $1.43bn at $199.18bn

Foreign exchange reserves increased $1.43 billion to $199.18 billion during the week ended March 30, according to the weekly supplement released by the RBI today.

Foreign currency assets rose $1.53 billion to $191.9 billion. While gold reserves declined $99 million to $6.78 billion, SDRs were unchanged at $2 million.

The Reserve Tranche Position with the IMF was unchanged at $469 million.

Future Group plans 55 Brand Factory stores

Brand Factory, the discount store format of the Future Group that runs retail business chains like Central and Big Bazaar, is planning to open 55 outlets in 40 cities by 2010.

The group launched its first Brand Factory store in Pune (the fourth in India) on Friday, and is planning to open store each in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad next week.

Vishnu Prasad, president and chief executive officer, Central Bazaar and Brand Factory business for Future Group, said the company is planning to invest about Rs 500 crore by 2010 for the 55 stores. The stores will offer 15-25% discount round-the- year on a wide range of national and international brands. "These will be in the apparel, footwear and jewellery segments," he said.

Biyani launches Future Money

he Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group today launched Future Money, a consumer finance company, that will initially provide credit of up to 70-80% for purchases made by customers at the group’s retail stores.

Future Money will subsequently look to extend its services outside the retail outlets of Future Group and even enter the home loan and car loan segment.

Future Money falls under the Future Capital Holdings (which has three private equity funds under it) and will be headed by former Citifinancial banker Rakesh Makkar.

While Makkar refused to comment on the initial capitalisation of Future Money, he said funds were currently being raised from Future Capital Holdings (FCH). "We are still working out all the details. For instance, we are in talks with some banks to come on board for the back-end. Let us see whether we do everything on our own or whether a bank joins us in this initiative," he said.

Read more at Business Standard

Royal Bank of Scotland eyes India licence

NEW DELHI: The 280-year old British banking giant Royal Bank of Scotland is learnt to be considering applying for a banking licence in India.

Sources in the industry say that the $71 billion financial powerhouse, which is among the top 10 financial services groups in the world, is keen to roll out its retail and corporate banking operations in India.

“The group is looking to apply for a banking license in India. India is on its radar for its banking operations,” said a source close to the development. Besides a 1,000-people IT development centre in India, the group, is yet to have a presence in India. The group currently provides retail banking, wealth management, consumer finance and insurance to its customers.

“I can confirm that we are recruiting to spearhead our strategy of organic growth in India. This recognises the growing importance of this region to our corporate, institutional and wealth management customers. RBS has not applied for a banking licence from the RBI at this time and we don’t speculate on the future,” a Royal Bank of Scotland spokesperson said.

Read more at Economic Times

Hershey leaves Amul with a bitter taste

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Chocolate maker Hershey has left a sour taste in Amul’s mouth. It seems that the US choco maker was wooing India’s premier milk co-operative for a possible distribution alliance even as it was seeking government permission to strike a joint venture with Godrej Beverages and Foods.

What has outraged a section in Amul is the fact that when its senior officials met the Hershey team as late as February 28 (the day ET reported details of Hershey’s application dated February 19 to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board seeking permission for the JV with Godrej) and asked if the report was true, Hershey officials rubbished it saying “don’t trust media reports”.

This prompted Amul to consider Hershey’s proposal for a possible distribution alliance so seriously that a team of senior executives had even planned a visit to Hershey’s manufacturing facility in the US sometime in May.

Read more at Economic Times

Honda hikes car prices by up to Rs 5,000

NEW DELHI: With the central sales-tax holiday enjoyed by Honda Siel Car India in Uttar Pradesh coming to an end, it has hiked the price across different models by up to Rs 5,000.

Post the price hike, the company's popular mid-sized sedan "City" will be costlier by Rs 2,000 while the other model "Civic" will be dearer by Rs 3,000.

The company's premium luxury car "Accord" will see the highest hike of Rs 5,000, a company official said.

The company had been given a 4 per cent central sales tax exemption since its inception at its plant in Greater Noida.

The company has absorbed most of the increase in the prices of vehicles, following the expiry of the tax holiday.

Read more at Economic Times

Arcelor-Mittal, Birlas in final leg of Sesa takeover

MUMBAI: The race for Mitsui Corp’s 51% stake in iron ore major Sesa Goa has reached the home run with Aditya Birla group and LN Mittal’s Arcelor-Mittal as the top contenders. According to people in know, the two companies lead the group of possible final bidders that also includes Vedanta Resources and Brazilian mining major CVRD. Sesa Goa is India’s largest private exporter of iron ore.

The bids by the two leading contenders are believed to be near Rs 2,000 per share. This is much below the range of Rs 2,500 per share that prevailed in second round of the bidding. “The Budget proposal to levy a duty of Rs 300 per tonne on iron ore exports has had an impact,” said sources. “In fact, Rio Tinto, which was earlier a front runner for the stake, backed out after the announcement,” they added.

Read more at Economic Times

Indian Hotels in $60m buyout overseas

MUMBAI: Indian Hotels, a Tata group company, has informed the BSE that it has approved the proposal to acquire, through its 100% subsidiary company, San Francisco based Hotel Campton Place for $60 million (including estimated transaction costs).
The hotel is intended to be acquired in partnership with financial investors, company officials said. While the sale-purchase agreement has been signed on April 2, 2007, the transaction closure is scheduled for April 30, 2007. The share price of Indian Hotels closed marginally lower by 0.7% on BSE on Tuesday.
West coast based Hotel Campton Place is a 14 storey, 110 room luxury boutique hotel situated in Union Square in San Francisco. Renamed Campton Place Hotel in 1983, the hotel occupies two historic and picturesque buildings dating back to the early 1900s.

Read more at Economic Times

Chandra does a Packer with India Cricket League

Sets up body with Rs 100 crore corpus to rival BCCI.

In a daring move reminiscent of Australian media giant Kerry Packer, the Subhash Chandra-promoted Essel Group today announced the launch of India Cricket League (ICL), a body parallel to the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), to promote cricketing talent in the country.

The Essel Group had lost out on the rights for all cricket matches, one-dayers as well as Tests, organised by BCCI in India up to 2011. Today’s move will help it develop cricketing content for its fledgling sports channel, Zee Sports.

The venture will initially have a corpus of Rs 100 crore and will have six teams, each comprising four international cricketers, two Indian cricketers and eight young talents. The number of teams will grow to 16 within three years. ICL will also set up nation-wide residential cricket academies that will nurture young talent. Read more at Business Standard

M&M-Renault Logan @ Rs 4.28 lakh - Video

The much awaited product from the Rs 700 crore joint venture of utility vehicle maker Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) and Europe's leading car brand Renault today launched the Logan sedan into the domestic market.

The car will be built at the company's Nasik facility which will have a annual production capacity of 50,000 cars a year. By July, the JV intends to bring the production under optimal utilisation, depending on the market response. The company, however, could even hike the figure.

Renault will initially import the engines for the Logan from Romania and Spain, but the company has already started its work to localise it here in India.

The car, targetted at the existing customers of the B segment and the first time buyers of the entry level C segment, is available in the price band of Rs 4.28 lakh to 6.51 lakh. It will be available in three variants; the 1.4 litre and the 1.6 litre petrol priced between Rs 4.28 lakh to Rs 5.69 lakh. The 1.5 litre diesel variant will be available between Rs 4.35 lakh to Rs 5.76 lakh. Rajesh Jejurikar, MD of the Logan project has however cautioned that the current price is just the launch price and the company may be forced to hike it if there is change in input prices.

Read more at Business Standard

Import duties on portland cement abolished

n the latest attempt to contain inflation, the government today made cement imports duty-free. It also indicated its willingness to remove the dual excise duty structure on cement announced in the recent budget.

The government has also abolished with immediate effect the countervailing duty of 16% on 65% of the import price and 4 % additional customs duty on the remaining 35% of portland cement, which is widely used in construction. The countervailing duty has been removed to make cement imports cheaper so as to contain domestic prices.

At the moment, cement imports are insignificant. The duty cut is expected to increase cheaper imports, thereby increasing supplies.

Meanwhile, the government has kept an open mind on rolling back the dual excise duty structure, said Hema Ambika Priya, spokesperson, Central Board of Excise and Customs.

Read more at Business Standard

RBI hikes CRR by 50bps, repo by 25bps

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today abandoned its monetary policy stance of equal emphasis on price stability and growth, and decided to remain solely focussed on inflation containment. As part of its further monetary tightening, the central bank raised the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for third time since December 2006 by 50 basis points to 6.50% with effect from April 28 and also raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.75%, the rate at which it lends to banks against securities. “The stance of monetary policy has progressively shifted from an equal emphasis on price stability along with growth, to one of reinforcing price stability with immediate monetary measures, and to take recourse to all possible measures promptly in response to evolving circumstances,” RBI said. RBI MOVES AGAINST INFLATION Date Action March 30, 2007 CRR hiked by 50 bps to 6.5%; Repo rate hiked by 25 bps to 7.75% Feb 14, 2007 CRR hiked by 50 bps to 6% Jan 31, 2007 Repo rate hiked by 25 bps to 7.5% Jan 31, 2007 General provisioning on standard commercial real estate loans, personal loans & capital market loans doubled to 2% Dec 11, 2006 CRR hiked by 50 bps to 5.5% Oct 31, 2006 Repo rate raised by 25 bps to 7.25% July 25, 2006 Reverse repo and repo rates hikes 25 bps each to 6% and 7% respectively June 8, 2006 RBI raises reverse repo and repo rates by 25 bps to 5.75% and 6.75%, respectively The central bank’s monetary tightening measures came even as the banking system was reeling under severe liquidity strain, with call rates having in recent days shot up to ridiculously high rates of 70-80% and year-on-year inflation at around 6.5% for the third week in succession up to March 17, 2007. Since the February 13 measures, when CRR was raised by 50 basis points, RBI said data has shown that industrial production increased by 11% during April 2006-January 2007 as against 8% a year earlier and the year-on-year money supply (M3) growth up to March 16, 2007 was 22% as against 16.9% a year ago. At a disaggregated level, prices of primary articles, fuel group and manufactured products registered a year-on-year increase of 12%, 1% and 6.6% as on March 17, 2007 as against 3.7%, 8.9% and 1.7% a year ago. The year-on-year growth in non-food bank credit of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) was 29.5% as on March 16, 2007 as against 32.7% a year ago. The third increase in CRR in five months will drain Rs 43,000 crore from the banking system. The RBI has also reduced the interest it will pay on CRR balances to 0.50% from 1%. The RBI release issued this evening:

In the recent period, monetary policy has been engaged in managing the transition to a higher growth path while ensuring that pressures on actual inflation and inflation expectations are contained. At this juncture, it is important to reinforce the measures already taken for maintaining price stability and anchoring inflation expectations in order to sustain the growth momentum. The role of monetary policy is to maintain stability and so contribute to growth on an enduring basis.

As indicated in the Third Quarter Review of the Annual Statement on Monetary Policy for the year 2006-07, "the outlook for inflation assumes criticality in terms of policy monitoring and action" (paragraph 76). Furthermore, "a judicious balancing of weights assigned to monetary policy objectives would accord priority to stability in order to support growth on a sustained basis" (paragraph 82). Accordingly, it is necessary to reinforce the emphasis on price stability and well-anchored inflation expectations, as set out in the stance of the Third Quarter Review, with a demonstrated commitment in terms of credible policy monitoring and actions. The conduct of monetary policy should continue to demonstrate that inflation beyond the tolerance threshold of the Reserve Bank is unacceptable and that the resolve to ensure price stability is always backed by timely and appropriate policy responses.

In recognition of the cumulative and lagged effects of monetary policy, the Reserve Bank began a graduated withdrawal of accommodation in mid-2004. Since September, 2004 repo/reverse repo rates have been increased by 150 basis points each, the CRR has been raised by 100 basis points, risk weights have been raised in the case of housing loans (from 50 per cent to 75 per cent), commercial real estate (from 100 per cent to 150 per cent) and consumer credit (from 100 per cent to 125 per cent) and general provisioning requirement for standard advances in specific sectors has been raised to 1.0 per cent of standard advances. On February 13, 2007 a further two-stage increase of 25 basis points each in the CRR was announced, effective from the fortnights beginning February 17 and March 3, 2007. Liquidity management was modified on March 2, 2007 to put in place an augmented programme of issuance under the market stabilisation scheme (MSS) with a mix of treasury bills and dated securities in a more flexible manner. In view of the enhanced MSS programme and the need to conduct LAF as a facility for equilibrating very short-term mismatches, daily reverse repo absorptions were limited to a maximum of Rs.3,000 crore, effective March 5, 2007. The stance of monetary policy has progressively shifted from an equal emphasis on price stability along with growth to one of reinforcing price stability with immediate monetary measures and to take recourse to all possible measures promptly in response to evolving circumstances

Since the monetary measures that were announced on February 13, 2007 there have been some notable developments, namely,

(a) The general index of industrial production increased by 11.0 per cent during April 2006 to January 2007 as against 8.0 per cent a year ago, as per the release of the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) of March 12, 2007.

(b) Year-on-year inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI), has ruled around 6.5 per cent for the third week in succession up to March 17, 2007 as per the data released today. At a disaggregated level, prices of primary articles, fuel group and manufactured products registered a year-on-year increase of 12.0 per cent, 1.0 per cent and 6.6 per cent as on March 17, 2007 as against 3.7 per cent, 8.9 per cent and 1.7 per cent a year ago.

(c) inflation based on the consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW), urban non-manual employees (CPI-UNME), agricultural labourers (CPI-AL) and rural labourers (CPI-RL) showed year-on-year increase to 7.6 per cent, 7.8 per cent, 9.8 per cent and 9.5 per cent in February 2007, respectively, from 5.0 per cent, 4.8 per cent and 5.0 per cent and 4.7 per cent, a year ago.

(d) The year-on-year growth in non-food bank credit of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) was 29.5 per cent as on March 16, 2007 as against 32.7 per cent a year ago.

(e) The year-on-year growth in aggregate deposits of SCBs was 24.8 per cent as on March 16, 2007, over and above 18.0 per cent a year ago.

(f) The year-on-year money supply (M3) growth up to March 16, 2007 was 22.0 per cent as against 16.9 per cent a year ago.

(g) Continuation of accelerated external inflows has resulted in accretion of US $ 18.6 billion to the foreign exchange reserves, taking their level from US $ 179.1 billion at the end of January, 2007 to US $ 197.7 billion on March 23, 2007.

(h) Additional liquidity amounting to Rs.23,894 crore was absorbed under the market stabilisation scheme (MSS) during February 1 - March 30, 2007.

(i) Globally, the process of withdrawal of accommodation in monetary policy is being vigorously pursued. Since mid-February, 2007 among the leading central banks, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan have raised key policy rates by 25 basis points each, while the People’s Bank of China raised one year lending rates by 27 basis points and the reserve requirements by 50 basis points. There has been no change in the policy rates of the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand all of which had undertaken prior policy action.

In the light of the current macroeconomic, monetary and anticipated liquidity conditions, and with a view to containing inflation expectations, it is critical to take demonstrable and determined action on an urgent basis. Accordingly, the following monetary measures are being taken consistent with the stance of the monetary policy:

i) It has been decided to increase the fixed repo rate under the LAF by 25 basis points from 7.50 per cent to 7.75 per cent with immediate effect.

ii) The other arrangements regarding the operations of LAF announced on March 2, 2007 will continue until further notice.

iii) The policy of withdrawal of semi-durable and durable elements of liquidity through treasury bills and dated securities under MSS will continue. Accordingly, the Reserve Bank would, subject to variations in liquidity conditions, announce auctions of MSS covering issuances of treasury bills and dated securities on a weekly basis. The auction for Treasury bills under MSS would continue to take place by notifying the amounts under MSS every week along with the regular auction calendar as has been the existing practice. The Reserve Bank would retain the flexibility of reviewing the schedule of auctions under the MSS from time to time, in response to evolving circumstances.

iv) The cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), regional rural banks (RRBs), scheduled co-operative banks and scheduled primary (urban) co-operative banks is being increased by one-half of one percentage point of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) in two stages, effective from the fortnights indicated below:

Effective Date (i.e., the fortnight beginning from) CRR on net demand and time liabilities (per cent)

April 14, 2007 6.25%

April 28, 2007 6.50%

As a result of the above increase in the CRR, an amount of Rs.15,500 crore of resources of banks would be absorbed.

v) The interest rate applicable on eligible CRR balances (i.e., the amount of reserves between the statutory minimum CRR and the CRR prescribed by the RBI) shall be reduced to 0.5 per cent per annum from the present 1.0 per cent per annum with effect from the fortnight beginning April 14, 2007.

Active monitoring of macroeconomic, overall monetary and liquidity conditions will continue and all monetary policy actions would be considered in response to the evolving situation.

India 4th largest market for Oracle in APAC

India is the fourth largest market for Oracle in the APAC (excluding Japan) region, according to its third-quarter results for the region, while China is the first followed by South Korea and Australia.

Oracle equates the market size in tandem with the nation's economy. So while Oracle has been in China for just about 17 years and in India for 19 years, China has been growing at approximately 9% per year. However, within two years, India has jumped to fourth position from fifth, while 5-6 years back it was in the 10th position.

Though the company denied giving any exact numbers, it registered 89% growth from its new license revenues in Asia Pacific & Japan whereas the database and middleware new license revenues went up 26% in Q3FY07.

In the past few years, Oracle has made 30 acquisitions in view with its focus on vertical markets. "Acquisitions in APAC region in the financial services, retail, telecom and utilities is not off-limits for Oracle," said Brian Mitchell, senior vice president, Asia Pacific while announcing Oracle’s third quarter results for APAC (Q3FY07).

On the Indian operations side, the company has 19,000 employees, a majority of which are in its development centre. This quarter also saw Oracle completing its first phase of expansion into 17 cities of India, which brought the total number to 23. Apart from the focus on education, healthcare, construction and real estate verticals the company increased its focus on small and medium enterprises (SME).

With 4,500 customers already in the SME segment, it increased its momentum by launching Oracle Accelerate Programme. To tap into the growing SME segment Oracle recently rolled out its CRM (customer relationship management) on-demand platform. According to Krishan Dhawan, managing director, Oracle India, though the software-as-a-services concept is yet to catch up with the Indian organisation CRM is one application that is easy to deploy and manage.

While speaking on its Q3FY07 performance Dhawan pointed out that the company has continued its momentum in acquiring customers and entered some new industry areas including cement, paints, construction, real estate, retail, education and healthcare. Some of the wins of the company are-- Godfrey Philips, LG Electronics, Gujarat Electricity Board, ICICI Prudential life Insurance Company, Shree Cement, and Tube Investments of India among the others.

Apart from this, Oracle is also planning to tap into the growing utilities segment and the media sector. "The Indian media sector has not been technology intensive and hence is a virgin territory for Oracle. Similarly with the SPL acquisition we are now in a better position to offer solution to the utilities segment," remarked Dhawan. Other than Malyalam Manorama and Amar Bazaar Patrika Oracle recently had a win in the media segment with Amar Ujala Publications.

With the Indian retail segment hotting up, Dhawan felt that the coming years will see an increase uptake of IT in this segment. Oracle plans to focus on the retail segment through its recently acquired company Retek. It has already set up a centre of excellence (COE) at Bangalore. The centre with 300 people will help retailers who want to increase their profitability through IT deployment.