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Launched just a few years ago in India, E-Pharmacies have grown from strength-to strength and have re-hauled the drug-dispensing business in the country. Through this note, we take a deep dive into the Indian pharmaceutical network to understand how online pharmacies have reshaped India’s retail medicine-distribution landscape. –      The Indian pharma trade channel is transforming, thanks to the advent of online pharmacies and consolidation of distribution network, which we believe is a win-win combination for manufacturers and patients. Currently, E-Pharmacies have ~17m registered customers; of this, ~3.8m are already active and making purchases. The number is estimated to grow exponentially in the coming years. –      Online pharmacies provide real-time detailed data, which will reduce opaqueness in the current system. Data analytics helps manufacturers to forecast demand more accurately and to understand target customers better. –      Further, even distributor consolidation has s

INDIA, 31 st   October, 2019 –  Gleneagles Development Pte Ltd (“GDPL”), a subsidiary of IHH Healthcare (“IHH”) , has appointed Ashok Bajpai as the new Chairman of Continental Hospitals in India, effective 24 October 2019. Bajpai is currently Group Head of Operations and Integration at IHH, where he is responsible for integrating the Group’s business processes by leading cross-functional and organisational teams across IHH to ensure alignment while building a culture of accountability. He brings with him close to 30 years of experience with leading multinationals across South Asia and Asia Pacific, including in other hospital groups. He will fulfil this role concurrently with his latest appointment with Continental Hospitals. As Chairman of Continental Hospitals, Bajpai will work with the rest of the Board of Directors to guide and advise the management team as it delivers on its business strategy, while ensuring alignment and continual improvement in its service development, physici

  A s Neel neared 45 years of age and both his children enthusiastically made plans for college, he reflected back on his younger days and wished he could go back in time and advise his younger self on financial matters. While his first job at an MNC had ensured he and his family receive life insurance, investments were something he had only begun concentrating on when he turned 35. His children’s plans for college was definitely going to cause a dent in their savings, and he fervently wished he had begun investing much earlier when he had lesser responsibilities. He now knew that investments could range from across equity, debt or even to cover elements like gold which acted as a hedge against inflation; but he wished he had known that much earlier. Now, he knew about mutual funds and the various ULIP benefits he could gain from investing with a reliable insurer. With the Easy Invest Online Plan, he was reaping benefits by paying premiums as low as Rs. 4,000 a month and getting both

TATA MOTORS: JLR recovery visible, India bottoming out; upgrading to Buy (TTMT IN, Mkt Cap USD5.6b, CMP INR127, TP INR185, 46% Upside, Upgrade to Buy) –      Consol. revenue declined ~9% YoY to ~INR654.3b (est. of ~INR632.2b) in 2QFY20. EBITDA grew ~8% YoY to ~INR71.6b (est. of ~INR44.9b). Adj. net loss was at ~INR1.9b (est. of ~INR14.8b) v/s ~INR5.6b in 2QFY19. For 1HFY20, revenue/EBITDA fell 8.5%/13% YoY; net loss was at ~INR37.9b. –       JLR – mix, low VME/warranty boost margins:  JLR’s performance was strong, with the EBITDA margin at 13.8% (est. of 7.7%) – one of the highest in four years. This reflects (a) a recovery in China and resilient US/EU, (b) a better mix, (c) Project Charge delivery, (d) lower D&A and (e) favorable FX. PBT before EO stood at GBP166m (est. of GBP77m loss). FCF was negative at GBP64m (v/s GBP623m in 2QFY19). –       S/A – operating deleverage, write-off in PV business hurt margins:  India business was impacted by inventory reduction, resulting in re

A report on Bosch from Motilal Oswal Institutional Equities: According to the management of Bosch (BOS) to understand the evolving regulatory, technological and competitive landscape in the sector. Increasing complexity due to stringent regulatory changes augur well for a technology-focused player like BOS, though the seamless translation of LoI is important for BS6 business. BOS is confident of leveraging its global knowhow at the parent level for EVs and would offer solutions from strong hybrids to BEVs. Key highlights: Changing regulatory/technological landscape augurs well for BOS –       Given the changing regulatory context over the next few years, several technologies are expected to emerge. While there are numerous different technologies available for the requirements of OEMs, BOS has all the necessary solutions to offer to OEMs. –       As a company, BOS is a technology-agnostic player and offers solutions such as future compliant ICE solutions, Battery EVs and futuristic fue

2QFY20 report on Bajaj Finance and L&T Finance holdings: BAJAJ FINANCE: Strong performance, fee traction robust –       Bajaj Finance’s (BAF) PBT grew 41% YoY in 2QFY20, while PAT increased 63% YoY to INR15b owing to the lower tax rate. The quarter was characterized by continued strong AUM growth and stable margins/asset quality. –       Consol. AUM increased 38% YoY to INR1.4t, led by strong growth across segments, barring commercial lending. BAF continues being cautious on digital products, auto finance and SME finance. The share of new loans to existing customers increased YoY from 66% to 70%. –       The company continues financing a large share of Bajaj Auto’s 2Ws (52%) and 3Ws (46%) compared to the historical average of 30-35%. –       Margins (calc.) were stable QoQ at 12.1%, with CoF too largely stable at 8.0%. The share of bank borrowings increased 500bp QoQ to 38%. –       Fee income continues growing faster than the balance sheet – it was up 66% YoY to INR6.3b. Manageme

–        Volumes decline, realizations decrease sequentially:  2QFY20 consolidated volumes (including white cement) declined 1% YoY to 18.7mt. Realizations decreased 3% QoQ due to weaker prices in the southern and eastern regions of India. Net sales grew 4% YoY to INR96b. Cost/t declined 1% YoY to INR 4,121/t. Thus, EBITDA/t rose 36% YoY to INR1,026/t (-25% QoQ). While EBITDA grew 35% YoY to INR19b, margin expanded 4.6pp YoY to 19.9%. PAT stood at INR5.8b (+62% YoY). –        Ex Century, EBITDA in line:  Excluding Century, volumes increased 3% YoY (in-line). Realizations increased 5% YoY (-3% QoQ) to INR5,163 and net sales grew 7% YoY to INR88.6b (in-line). Cost/t declined 3% YoY but increased 3% QoQ due to higher other expenses/t. EBITDA/t increased 42% YoY (down 22% QoQ) to INR 1,132/t (below est. of INR1,188/t due to higher other expenses). EBITDA stood at INR19.2b (v/s est. of INR20b). –        Management commentary:  (1) All India demand reduced by 2-2.5% YoY in 2QFY20 led by 3-4

Ambuja Cements 3QCY19 results brief synopsis: –        Volumes decline but realizations improve:  Volumes declined 5% YoY to 5.23mt in 3QCY19, as demand was impacted by heavy rain and floods in various states. Realizations increased 6% YoY, but were down 2% QoQ to INR4,887/t due to price roll back post May’19 in core markets. Revenues grew 1% YoY to INR26.3b, vs our estimate of INR25.3b. –        EBITDA/t impacted by higher costs:  Cost/t increased 2% YoY to INR4,180 (our estimate: INR3,963) due to higher other expenses/t and power & fuel cost/t. EBITDA/t came in at INR841 (+29% YoY). EBITDA grew 23% YoY to INR4.4b (our estimate: INR5.0b), translating into a margin of 16.7% (+3pp YoY, -6.7pp QoQ). PAT stood at INR2.3b (+31% YoY; our estimate: INR2.8b). –        Key highlights from management presentation:  (1) The board approved the amalgamation of Dirk India Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary, with effect from 1st Jan’20, subject to regulatory approvals. (2) Premium product sales

Reliance Industries (RIL) reported in-line standalone revenue of INR871.4b (-9% YoY, flat QoQ) in 2QFY20. EBITDA came in at INR136.7b (-8% YoY, flat QoQ) versus our estimate of INR136.4b owing to the lower-than-expected refinery throughput of 16.7mmt, despite a better GRM of USD9.4/bbl (flat YoY, +16% QoQ). Lower depreciation, combined with higher other income and higher interest cost, resulted in a beat of 9% in standalone PAT of INR97.0b (+10% YoY, +7% QoQ). The company recognized the entire MAT cut in the quarter with an effective tax rate of 20.8% versus 25.4% in 1QFY20. At the consolidated level, RIL reported EBITDA of INR221.5b (our estimate: INR213.2b; +5% YoY, +4% QoQ), primarily led by the better-than-expected performance of the digital and retail segments. Higher other income led to consol. PAT of INR113.5b (+19% YoY, +12% QoQ; our estimate: INR107.8b). In 2QFY20, the tax rate on a consolidated basis stood at 24.7% versus 29.5% in the previous quarter, as the company maintai

Operational performance largely in line:  Revenue grew 3.8% YoY CC (our estimate: 4.1%) in 2QFY20. IT Services’ EBIT margin expanded 310bp YoY to 18.1% (our estimate: 18.7%), while PAT rose 12% YoY to INR25.6b – a 14.4 % beat, mainly led by a lower-than-expected ETR (18.3% v/s our estimate of 22.5%). Sequentially, revenue was up 1.1% CC (our estimate: 1.3%; company guidance: 0%-2%), while the margin contracted 30bp led by lower utilization and the two-month impact of wage hike. Cautious outlook on BFSI:  After remaining in double digit for around two years, WPRO’s BFSI revenue growth decelerated sharply to 5.9% YoY CC owing to the completion of some large programs and the weakness in capital markets (in the US and Europe). Macro uncertainty translated into cautious commentary on this vertical. Apart from this, HPS in healthcare remained another pocket of concern and is built in the company’s revenue growth guidance of 0.8%-2.8% QoQ for 3QFY20. Growth is likely to be led by communicati

Family’s brave decision to offer their child’s kidneys for donation gives new lease of life to a father Bangalore, 15 October 2019:  In a rare case of pediatric to adult kidney transplant, sixty year old Sadanand, suffering from end stage kidney disease received a new lease of life at Aster CMI Hospital. The donor was a four year old child who had been declared brain dead at the hospital. Doctors at Aster CMI conducted an en-bloc kidney transplant (EBKT), a procedure where both kidneys are transplanted from the donor to the recipient, a common technique used in pediatric-adult kidney transplant cases. The four year old donor had been suffering from prolonged, irreversible seizures, which led to a cut off in the oxygen supply to the brain, thus causing brain death. Not many people are aware that even young children can be potential donors for those who are in need of organs. Despite the tragic loss of their child, his family readily agreed to put up their child’s organs for donation in

Hyderabad, 14 th  October 2019 : Osmania General Hospital (OGH), the largest tertiary care hospital in the state got its emergency lab upgraded in corporate style and two new waiting areas for patient attenders with the help of its collaboration with city NGO,  Helping Hand Foundation . The new corporate style emergency lab located in the QQDC block on the ground floor will be accessible to patients round the clock and will have a wide range of test from pathology, biochemistry and microbiology available to meet the requirements of the emergency cases. The Emergency lab at OGH caters to about  24- 25k  samples at an average every month – the lab is highly beneficial for emergency cases that come particularly during late night and helps in early diagnosis and treatment of patients. The Upgraded emergency lab was formally inaugurated today by the  Dr. B. Nagendar , Superintendent OGH, in the presence of  Dr. Trieveni Bhopal , HOD & Professor of Pathology,  Dr. Rama Devi , Professor

Mumbai, 12 th  O ctober 2019: Only one in five patients, suffering from spinal disease, need to undergo a surgery, said leading spine surgeons from Nanavati Institute of Spine Surgery (NISS), ahead of World Spine Day (October 15). The team has performed over 1000 spine surgeries in past two years and said majority patients neglected back pain and lacked awareness about the spine management programs. The spine rehabilitation program at Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital, spearheaded by eminent spine surgeon, Dr Mihir Bapat cited spinal diseases as one of the most feared and common diseases today. “There is a huge economic, psychological and physiological burden in terms of loss work due to frequent leaves and decreased quality of life. Fear of spinal diseases tends to drive these people towards opting for traditional treatment methods rather than seeking a professional spine rehabilitation program,” said Dr Bapat, Director NISS who recently accomplished the feat of completing 8000 spi

Carries out the country’s first minimally invasive interventional radiology guided orthopaedic surgery of a bone tumour   in the CT suite Innovation backed minimally invasive techniques to be the future of treatment with care, control and precision Chennai, October 10, 2019: MGM Healthcare , a quaternary care hospital in the heart of the city, has successfully carried out India’s first minimally invasive interventional radiology guided orthopaedic surgery of a bone tumour in the CT suite, an approach that can excise bone and soft tissue tumours with the highest levels of accuracy. By bringing in this futuristic approach to India, MGM Healthcare hopes to take holistic and minimally invasive medicine in the country to the next level. The procedure was performed on 30-year-old  Mr Sridhar  from Chennai on 25 th  September. Dr Prashanth Rajagopalan, Director, MGM Healthcare said, “At MGM Healthcare, we are all about amalgamation of specialties and present a true multi-disciplinary approac

Mumbai, 10 th  October 2019:  InsureNearby will embark on a journey to train their vast network of 7.5 lakh retail agents, registered under its sister organization PayNearby, and convert them into POS agents. The geographical reach of these last mile retail outlets will enable the company to provide insurance to marginalized customers in the most far flung towns and villages of the country. The aim is to create a force multiplier, where people who have never sold insurance are trained to sell to people who have never before bought the product. The objective is to Insure India and make protection available for all. In 2018, around 1.5 lac people lost their lives in road accidents and 25% of those were on motorcycles. Two-wheelers are the cause of 34% of road accidents and 98 helmetless riders die every day.  Most fatalities in road accidents are young Indians, with 72% falling in the age group of 18-45 years and 14% of these are pedestrians, making a strong case for mandatory third par

The Medical Device Innovation Camp (MEDIC) at IIT Bomb ay that was inaugurated on 28 th  September and concluded on 2 nd  October had 60 participants from Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Kolkata, Guwahati, Kanpur, Chandigarh, Patiala, Jodhpur, Goa, Surathkal, Cochin, Bengaluru, Chennai, Bhimavaram and other parts of India. They formed 15 inter-disciplinary teams, each led by a doctor, and created proof-of-concepts of innovative solutions for various medical problems provided by top doctors from various hospitals. The Biomedical Engineering and Technology incubation Centre (BETiC) of IITB along with 5 engineering and 5 medical institutes across Maharashtra who have set up BETiC cells, organized the five day Camp. “I had accumulated two treasures over many years of my life but lost them within four days at the Medical Device Innovation Camp in IIT Bombay. One was my ego and the other was being judgemental” said Dr. Chitra Lekha from Chennai. Other participants also shared their experience during

  W ith a plethora of  Mutual Fund schemes to choose from, arriving at a decision of ‘which one to pick’ can seem to be difficult. However, after having decided to invest in Mutual Funds, selecting the funds is just a case of conducting your own due diligence, which is reasonably easy to do if you follow a structured approach. Ideally, you should be aware of your risk tolerance and also your goals, objectives and the duration  within which you would want to reach your goals in.   Time Frame Mutual Fund  Type Up to 1 Year Liquid & Ultra Short duration Funds 2-3 years Short duration funds 3-5 years Hybrid Funds 5 years & above Equity Funds   Mutual Funds offer a ‘complete investment package’ to the investors. The benefits include diversification, flexibility, ease of investment, liquidity and professional management. Goal or Objective Any investment should start with the objective in mind. The goal or objective makes the investment journey easier for an investor. The goal shoul

Warangal, 1 st  October 2019 :  Infertility is becoming an epidemic for young Indians. More and more young couples are seeking treatment for infertility. Infertility is a medical condition with high prevalence affecting nearly 10 to 15% of married couples in India. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that one in every 4 couples in developing nations is affected by infertility. India has nearly 27.5 million infertile couples, and out of which only 1% of the couple come forward to get themselves treated.  This is primarily because of the low awareness levels and the myth that the success rate in IVF/Fertility treatment is very low. The total fertility rate, which is the number of children who would be born per woman if she were to pass through the childbearing years bearing children according to a current schedule of age-specific fertility rates, has declined from 3.9 in 1990s to 2.3 in 2013. It is estimated that while female factor accounts for 40-50% of infertility among couple

Chennai, October 1, 2019:   MGM Healthcare has reiterated its global vision by becoming the meeting ground for both global and Indian expertise and innovation. On September 28, 2019 two complex cardiac interventional procedures were performed by Dr. Madan Mohan B ., Senior Consultant and Clinical Lead, Department of Cardiology, MGM Healthcare and  Dr. Atsunori Okamura , Director of Cardiology and Coronary & Peripheral Intervention, Sakurabashi Watanabe Hospital, Japan. The two doctors worked together at MGM Healthcare’s technologically advanced monoplane cath lab. The first patient is a 51-year-old who was diagnosed with a complex chronic total occlusion (CTO), which is a complete obstruction of a coronary artery; and the second patient is a 70-year-old who was diagnosed with a complex coronary left main artery disease. Generally, these conditions require surgical intervention due to the complexity of the procedure. However, the two cardiologists chose to go ahead with the rarely