RIP Indian Hockey?

With yet another failure at the Olympics (India’s worst ever) the Indian hockey team continues to be showered with brickbats. India lost all their matches to finish last, including hammerings from lowly placed teams such as New Zealand and Belgium. So do the players really deserve all this criticism? Did they not try their best? Were they not good enough? A thousand questions are being asked. But very few answers are being offered by the Hockey bosses.

Our national game has been suffering due to the ongoing dispute between rival hockey governing bodies - Hockey India and Indian Hockey Federation. The infighting in hockey relates to recognition from the concerned International Federation and the Indian Olympic Association, amalgamation of the two bodies, conducting fair proper elections and holding of regular National tournaments. This decline of Indian hockey, and the inability by India to win a single world class tournament in the last thirty years, has resulted in the loss of a generation of hockey fans, drying player base, shrinking of corporate sponsorship, and other sports like cricket and tennis rising up in popularity to take hockey’s place.

The facilities for hockey in comparison to other sports like cricket are pretty substandard. India has just about 20 astro turf grounds for hockey compared to more than 200 that a small nation like Netherland has. Ministry of Sports had invested about USD 3.25 million in Indian hockey ahead of this year’s Olympics. That’s a miniscule amount compared with the money that flows in Indian cricket. Hockey needs much more investment to raise the standard of coaching in domestic hockey and having quality physiotherapists helping the players. There is also a glaring need to involve the right people, like professional administrators, paid professional marketers and ex-players as they understand the sport well. Unless our politicians get out of sports and there is a concrete positive effort to restructure our national sport, the national players will find themselves being made scapegoats after every debacle!

Electronic ballasts: Master blasters of the Indian control gear industry

With incandescent bulbs dying a slow death, the Indian electronic control gear industry is set for a surge as all other alternate lighting sources like CFLs, HIDs, etc use either integrated or external ballasts. 

Currently the overall control gear market in India is estimated to be ~INR 12bn (excluding integrated ballasts) and is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~16% from 2011 to 2015. Historically magnetic ballasts have been the most popular category of electronic control gear in India and currently account for more than 60% of the overall control gear market. On the other hand, electronic ballast market currently accounts for less than 40% of the market but is expected to account for more than 65% of the market by 2015 (CAGR of more than 20%) with advancement in technology and government support for replacement of all magnetic ballast.

To read the entire article visit: http://blog.valuenotes.biz/electronic-ballasts-master-blasters-of-the-indiancontrol-gear-industry

The 2011 Indian M&A chronicle – ‘India growth story’ stumbles

The calendar year 2011 saw M and A deals in India fall by more than 50% over the last year, as only 195 deals were announced.  Compared to this nearly 400 deals were announced in the calendar year 2010. Even the net deal value fell to ~USD 18bn as compared to ~ USD 45bn in the previous year.

To read more about how the M and A scenario unfolded in the calendar year 2011, follow the below link:

The 2011 Indian M&A chronicle – ‘India growth story’ stumbles

Notes: Includes deals announced in the period of January-December 2011; Includes acquisitions, joint-ventures and stake sales.

Source: ISI Emerging Markets Database