International lifestyle brand Esprit has a global turnover of $5 billion and is the 7th largest apparel brand worldwide. In India, Esprit targets the middle-to-upper-middle clientele and has a presence in 12 cities through a partnership with Madura Garments since 2005. American motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson will begin locally assembling some models in India in 2011 to gain a foothold in the growing Indian premium bike market dominated by Japanese brands. Vodafone Essar, India's third largest cellphone operator, plans to sell its 7,000 towers across 7 circles for over Rs. 2,000 crore.

1. ET NEWS (1st – 5th NOV)

2.  International lifestyle brand, Esprit is present in 45
countries and is the 7th largest apparel brand in the world
with a global turnover of $ 5 billion.
 Esprit India's revenue for 2009-10 stood at Rs 80 crore.
 Targets the middle-to-upper-middle clientele.
 Entered India in a tie-up with Madura Garments, a wholly-
owned subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo, in 2005.
 Currently, present in 12 cities in India.

3.  Iconic American motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson will start
assembling select models in India.
 To crack the booming Indian premium bike market dominated by
Japanese brands.
 The upcoming facility at Bawal in Haryana will become
operational in the first half of 2011 with an initial capacity to
assemble 200 bikes per year.
 Completely knocked-down (CKD) kits attract a lighter net duty
and taxes of around 60% compared to the 110% tax being levied
on imported bikes.

4.  A cheaper price tag will help Harley-Davidson make
deeper inroads in the world’s second-largest two-wheeler
market.
 The super bike market in India was estimated at around
1,000 units last year and is growing 20% a year.
 Dominated by Japanese companies Suzuki, Yamaha and
Honda with Suzuki’s Hayabusa in the lead.
 Hopes to gain an edge over BMW's Motorrad with its
assembly plant.
 Harley sells bikes with engine capacities of 883cc to
1500cc and priced in the range of Rs 7.8-38 .7 lakh.

5.  Vodafone Essar, India’s third-largest cellphone operator by
subscribers.
 Plans to sell its 7,000 towers across 7 circles.
 GTL Infrastructure and Tata Quippo are learnt to have evinced
interest in acquiring Vodafone Essar’s towers in these 7 circles.
 Vodafone Essar’s towers and other physical infrastructure in rest
of the country are held by Indus Towers.
 The deal size could be over Rs 2,000 crore.
 Indus Towers is the largest tower company in the country with
over 1,10,000 towers in its portfolio.

6.  India’s largest consumer products company, HUL, is
set to counter P&G’s anti-ageing cream, Olay.
 HUL is launching more than half-a-dozen premium
products from the Ponds Gold Radiance portfolio.
 Anti-ageing segment accounts for 10% of the total skin
care market.
 In Sept, Ponds had a 16.5% share, Garnier 18.9%
share.

7.  Olay with 36.7% share tops the anti-ageing segent.
 Ponds Gold Radiance, priced between Rs. 500-
Rs.1,000 will be most expensive brand in HUL’s skin
care portfolio, a business that is the most profitable
segment for the company.
 Skin care segment is worth of Rs. 3500 crore.
 HUL is the market leader controlling over half the
market with popular mass brands such as Fair &
Lovely and Vaseline.

8.  Present limit is Rs 1 lakh.
 New limit will come into effect from Nov 15 onwards.
 The RTGS system facilitates high-value transfers of money
from one bank to another on a real-time and gross basis.
 On an average, the central bank handles around 60,000 RTGS
and around 50,00,000 cheque clearing transactions per day.
 For electronic transactions valued between Rs 1-2 lakh, the
RBI has created a new value band in its 'near real-time'
National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) system to cater to
retail bank customers.

9.  Fund transfers up to Rs 1 lakh through the NEFT mode,
will continue to attract a service charge of Rs 5.
 For fund transfers valued between above Rs 1 lakh and
Rs 2 lakh, the RBI has revised the customer charges
downward to Rs 15 from Rs 25 earlier.
 The fee for fund transfers worth more than Rs 2 lakh
remains unchanged at Rs 25.
 The NEFT has been a highly successful service ever
since it was launched in late 2005. More than 60 lakh
transactions are estimated to take place every month
through this route.