ICC attempts going pan-national

It’s now Vikram Thapar the scion of the Delhi-based Thapar family who has been short-listed to take over the helm of the Indian Chamber...

It’s now Vikram Thapar the scion of the Delhi-based Thapar family who has been short-listed to take over the helm of the Indian Chamber of Commerce. Thapar it is learnt will give the Chamber a make over and remove the perception that it is just a Kolkata-based trade body. What is interesting is that after 22 years the Chamber will have a president who is not based in Bengal. Vikram stepped down from being joint managing director of Ballarpur Industries after the split in business holdings in the family. The son of I.M. Thapar, Vikram now controls Karam Chand Thapar Coal Sales, Water Base and India City Properties. Vikram has in the past year been spending a lot of time in Kolkata. But this is not all. Vikram is known to have his connections in political and corporate circles both in Delhi and Kolkata—probably the edge he has over mere Kolkata-based industrialists. Not just this, professionals will be brought in as vice-presidents to give the chamber that extra touch of professionalism as well as to give the 10 per cent professional members of the body a larger role in the committees. Vikram of course comes in because of another departure from the usual norm of the vice-president becoming the president. This norm has been done away with and the current VP H. V. Kanoria will concentrate on the ICC’s activities in the Northeast. So it is now up to Vikram Thapar to take the Chamber ahead, become a major player in the East and the Northeast as well as generate more revenue for the chamber. Is he capable of facing the challenge or will the task be too daunting for him only time will tell.

The face-lift

Komal C Wazir, executive director of Shaw Wallace has chalked out a three pronged strategy to give Shaw Wallace a much-awaited face-lift. Working in accordance with McKinsey’s recommendations, Komal is now just waiting for the right evaluation before she will offload a lot of non-core businesses. Shaw Wallace will then emerge as a liquor company only, hence fortifying its core competence. Komal has gone on an acquisition overdrive. She has acquired four new strategically positioned breweries, including Malabar Breweries in Kerala, Buckingham Brewery in Jabalpur, Sangam Brewery in West Bengal and one in Goa, with an investment of Rs. 100 crore. Step three will see the tycooness getting her feet wet with everything fluid. Shaw Wallace has recently launched projects like sparkling water and soda. We may have here, a liquor baroness in the making.

Hairless wonders

One of the tycoons, currently involved in a frenzied attempt to grow the Indian television news market has acquired a sudden aversion. Apparently the word has been put out that the new news channel will, completely abjure two kinds of characters on the small screen. These two categories are the hairsuite and the heavyweight. Given the fact that these were never considerations that news channels were concerned about , there is a lot of speculation as to the origins of this specific aversion. Suspicions focus on the possibility that the shrinking advertising catchment area for news may require some of these channels to tap new sources of revenue. Among those being targeted by this channel are likely to be the mushrooming and cash rich slimming centres. Some clever marketing person has also added on , rather obviously the new laser treatment centres that promise to make hairless wonders out of even the most hairsuite. Balding cures and their purveyors, are obviously not rich enough to be targeted yet. Just kidding. However, please note that these instructions are rather categorical. Wonder whether this will result in a news channel that has just the bald facts in a lean and mean format or whether viewers will no longer be tormented by hair raising news stories in our language that is too heavy for the lighthearted, and vast numbers of ornery viewers. But for those of you who are in the guessing game, tycoon tattler promises to buy lunch for the first person who can correctly guess the tycoon behind this new trend in channel choice and the logic for it.

(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)