As part of his newly launched blog, PE industry professional Varadharajan has a post on the reasons why:Lack of focus/segmentation: I am yet to see more than 6-8 funds that pridethemselves on their focus - geography, verticals or deal types (venture, growth, buy-out, restructuring). Everyone's favourite sector seems education, healthcare and all else where India's per capita consumption is woeful

The Deal has an interview with Reid Hoffman on why he signed up as a partner with the Silicon Valley VC firm, rather .We both believe that the key thing is the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur is the person who is massively driving the business. The venture firm's role is to be a really good partner -- not a softie that's asleep in the back seat, but someone who is fundamentally collaborating on

Economic Times has an article on how Indian medical devices companies have started to make a mark on the global market.The US produces half of the world's medical devices and consumes approximately 40 % of the world's output. Indian manufacturers have leveraged their cost advantage to offer world-class quality at affordable prices. Opto, for instance, makes most of its monitors and sensors at its

The Mint has a profile of VC-backed MapmyIndia.The company today has 500 enterprise customers including Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd, ensuring a steady stream of revenue as it works on improving maps for consumer applications...As India’s younger generation gets more comfortable using location-based services on cell phones

Arvind Singhal of Technopak has an article in the Business Standard comparing India and China.Both got their independence around the same time, had similar scale of economies and challenges, and then both lost a few decades due to misplaced ideology. China started its reform process in 1978, while India did it in 1991. Yet, today, even the most optimistic on India would not claim that India in

In an article for Businessworld, Omkar Goswami provides one of the stronger opinions - by a business/economics person - on China-India relations.Let’s have no doubt about a few things. China will always support Pakistan, come hail or high water. It will sooner or later start damming the Tsangpo (which becomes the Brahmaputra in India) and the Sutlej. My unlettered guess is that the work is about

IIMA is organizing a Business Plan Showcase as part of its Finance Conclave 2010.Entrepreneurs from following sectors are invited to submit their entries:Clean Tech & Renewable Energy Telecommunications and Mobile Services E-commerce & Web Portals Electronics IT/ITES Services IT Software PowerRegistrations for the Showcase Registrations start on the 10th November 2009. To register your team,

In the wake of IT Product companies like Xerox and Dell buying their way into the IT Services world through multi-billion dollar deals, Reuters - quoting industry analysts - has an article that lists significantly India-based companies like Cognizant, WNS, ExlServices among the list of "attractive acquisition candidates". (Other companies on the list include Sapient, CSC and Amdocs.)Possible

The New York Times has an article on electric car maker Reva.Last month, the company won an important stamp of approval when General Motors said it would use Reva’s technology in the electric version of its Chevrolet Spark, a small car whose conventional gasoline version G.M. sells here already. The electric version of the Spark is expected to go on sale in India by the end of next year,

Forbes India has a profile of Speciality Restaurants, the company behind Mainland China and other restaurants.(Anjan Chatterjee) has 52 restaurants (spread across eight brands including Mainland China, Sigree and Oh! Calcutta) across 11 cities including three abroad — Beijing, London and Dhaka. Now he wants to spread to tier-II towns and in some ways be a pan-Indian fine-dining restaurant

ContentSutra interviewed Nimbus Communications' Chairman Harish Thawani, in the context of the PE-backed firm's renewal of its contract to broadcast test and one-day cricket matches played in India.What is the per match rate you are paying and is the case that this time there are fewer matches?Again, it depends on the exchange rate and other factors, but it is about Rs31 crore. The number of

From the Forbes India profile:He is aiming to be the world’s biggest jewelry retailer, growing bigger than Tiffany, which had net sales of $2.86 billion last year and has over 200 exclusive stores; at the same time, create a group full of well known brands, something on the lines of LVMH, which owns 50 brands netting it over 17 billion euros in revenue in 2008. For Gitanjali, Choksi unabashedly

Edited Extracts from Press Release: TVS Capital, via its TVS Shriram Growth Fund I, is taking a significant minority equity stake with an investment of Rs.65 crores in Landmark Limited, a leading book and music retail chain. Landmark, which is a subsidiary of the Tata Group retail firm Trent Limited., currently operates over 20 stores over 2 lakh square feet of retail space. For the year

As part of its Cover Story on Education, Business Today has an article on how private ventures are now increasingly targeting the K-12 segment. Six months ago, Manipal K-12 broke new ground by taking over Sharada School, Mysore. “We offer two choices to managements of schools that fit our business model. They can either pay us to manage their schools professionally or transfer management

In an article for Business Standard, Unitech Wireless's Chairman Sanjay Chandra says that despite the profitability issues in the short-term, the industry's size will double in five years. ARPU numbers as reported by players currently are understated. The historical subscriber-linked spectrum allocation methodology used by the regulator in India incentivises operators to take advantage of

The Associated Press (via NY Times) has an article explaining how so many US companies regularly manage "to beat analysts' estimates":Corporate America has a habit of low-balling the earnings forecasts used by analysts to determine their estimates. That way, the bar is lower, and companies can easily jump over when the quarter's results are announced -- even if profits and revenues have fallen

From The New York Times:Naissance Capital, based in Zurich, will start the Women’s Leadership Fund in January, which will invest in companies whose boards include women. It also plans to take minority stakes in companies without women on their boards and to use its ownership to encourage changes.R. James Breiding, a co-founder of Naissance Capital and a former director of Rothschild Corporate

At a time when Education has become the hottest sector for private investment, Raghav Gupta of Technopak Advisors highlights, in an article for Business Today, the key issues to evaluate when venturing into this field.Market Assessment: A pragmatic assessment of the “catchment” in each segment of education is important, from the standpoint of achieving required student enrollment, before planning

Edited excerpts from Press Release:Gurgaon-based facilities management and EPC firm A2Z Maintenance and Engineering Services has acquired a controlling stake in CNCS Facility Solutions, a Mumbai-based facilities management services company. One World Resources acted as the sole financial advisor to CNCS in this transaction.The investment will allow A2Z, whose investors include India Equity

Venture Intelligence recently spoke to Rishi Navani, co-founder and Managing Director at Matrix Partners India. The firm, which has a special focus on domestic consumption, has announced three investments in the past 12 months – a new Rs.100 crore investment into education firm FIITJEE and follow on investments into online classifieds firm Quikr (a spin out from eBay India) and prepaid cash card