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Natural Mineral Water Indian Industry Analysis

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Natural mineral water
According to American and European Regional Codex Standard, natural mineral water:
is obtained directly from natural or drilled sources from underground water – bearing strata.
is collected under conditions which guarantee the original natural bacteriological purity.
is bottled at the point of emergence of the source with

particular hygienic precautions is not subjected to any chemical treatment.

Indian bottled Water Industry

The bottled water industry in India is estimated at about Rs 1,000 crore and is growing at 40 per cent. “By 2010, it will reach Rs 4,000 – 5,000 crore with 33 per cent market for natural mineral water.

The formal bottled water business in India can be divided broadly into three segments in terms of cost: premium natural mineral water, natural mineral water and packaged drinking water.

It is estimated that the global consumption of bottled water is nearing 200 billion litres – sufficient to satisfy the daily drinking water need of one-fourth of the Indian population or about 4.5 per cent of the global population at the fourth World Water Forum held in Mexico City in March 2006.

In India, the per capita bottled water consumption is still quite low – less than five litres a year as compared to the global average of 24 litres. However, the total annual bottled water consumption has risen rapidly in recent times – it has tripled between 1999 and 2004 – from about 1.5 billion litres to five billion litres. These are boom times for the Indian bottled water industry – more so because the economics are sound, the bottom line is fat and the Indian government hardly cares for what happens to the nation’s water resources. Since 1991-

1992 it has not looked back, and the demand in 2004-05 was a staggering 82 million cases.

Mineral Water Market in India

For example, the per capita consumption of mineral water in India is a mere 0.5-liter compared to 111 liter in Europe and 45-liter in USA.

But over the last ten years, it has witnessed tremendous growth. The change is very much evident. Once a product found mainly at railways stations, mineral water today occupies a place on the shelf in most superstores, grocers and even paanwalas. From a mere 60 towns in the year 1997, it is predicted that mineral water is today available in more than 1000 towns and cities across India. With a compounded annual growth rate of close to 30% over the last decade, the mineral water market has witnessed a large growth in terms of volumes.

The market is highly competitive with the entry of MNCs like Pepsico and Coke. There are a lot of brands available in the market, each with its own proclaimed differentiation.

2.2 Player in the market

In natural mineral water there are very few company like Himalayan, Aava, Evian is playing in the market. 50% of the market is captured by Himalayan.
While a thousand bottled water producers, the Indian bottled water industry is big by even international standards. There are more than 200 brands, nearly 80 per cent of which are local.
Most of the small-scale producers sell non-branded products and serve small markets.
Despite the large number of small producers, this industry is dominated by the big players – Parle Bisleri, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Parle Agro, Mohan Meakins, SKN Breweries and so on.

Consumption of bottled water in India is linked to the level of prosperity in the different regions. The western region accounts for 40 per cent of the market and the eastern region just 10. However, the bottling plants are concentrated in the southern region – of the approximately 1,200 bottling water plants in India, 600 are in Tamil Nadu. This is a major problem because southern India, especially Tamil Nadu, is wate starved.

Mineral water business is restricted only to big hotels & Restaurants. This field has lot of scope because of unawareness in the market and people are becoming health conscious.

Penis Size Fixation — A Medical Condition Or An Industry It Is A Major Cause Of Ed.

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Are you one of the hundreds of millions of men out there who worries about the size of his penis on a daily bases? If you are, then at least you have lots of historical and anthropological good company. Do not be fooled. Penile size fixation is as old as time itself and a male obsession that seems evenly spread across all cultures and civilizations down through the ages. Moreover, to judge by the number of contributions on the subject in these pages, it is an obsession showing very little sign of going away. Indeed it is, if you will pardon the pun, something of a growth industry even during these recessionary times.

The earliest written references to penis size obsession perhaps date back as far as 1400. When it came to sex and how it should be done, The Kamasutra of Vatsyayana was a right Jack the Lad. The illustrations that accompanied his writings show men with stallion sized phalluses performing feats of copulating gymnastics that would make even the editor of Playboy Magazine blush today. Pursuers of this medieval pornography could hardly have felt other than slightly inadequate as they thumbed their way feverishly through these pages.

But the Kamasutra was something of a late arrival in the art of how to make your fellow man feel inadequate through distorted images of penis size. Judging by some of the images left behind them on cave walls, our Stone Age ancestors were no shrinking violets either when it came to depicting penis size in man and animals! And so it goes on to this very day. Today, no self-respecting pornographic star would be found dead on stage sporting anything less than a shillelagh- sized erection. That this thing had been pumped up with inter-penile injection of alprostadil is hardy the point. No, in matters pornographic size does indeed matter, in fact it is all that matters. Thus, the myth is perpetuated for all time.

No religious sect, culture or ethnic group can escape. Indias holy men or Sadhus are known to attach weights to their penises in order to make them appear longer and fatter. This perhaps is understandable since they have a tendency to parade themselves around town wearing very little cloths from the waste down. The practise does make one wonder though if their holiness is very holistic. Ah well, it is not for us to judge now is it?

When it comes to tribal ingenuity in the penis-size-fixation department, the highland people of Papua New Guinea would be a hard act to follow. They still wear their beloved penis guards or Koteka as they are locally known. These cool little numbers, made from hollowed out dried gourds, are worn to cover the entire length of the penis and sometimes scrotum. The trick is to procure a Koteka that is about four sizes too big and it must be pointing upwards too of course. Into this, the wearer hides his flaccid penis while at the same time outwardly suggesting very generous endowment of a straight standing nature. It is hardly surprising that attempts to discourage this practise of wearing phallocrypts in Papua New Guinea have always fallen flat.

However, the surprising aspect to the small penis fixation industry is the fact that not one of the proffered remedies actually works. Vacuum pumps, weights, hand exercises, pills, herbs and potions are all of them a total waste of money and time. Not one of them would stand up to even the most cursory scientific scrutiny. However, does this deter men from lashing out their hard-earned money on these sham products? Not at all. When it comes to having a small penis, hope seems to spring eternal.

The sad reality though is that there are, as always, those waiting in the short grass ever eager to exploit the vulnerable and the weak. Men with small penis fixation are vulnerable and easy prey. You might as well try taking the Koteka from a New Guinean tribesman as expect some men to have a bit of sense. It is indeed a sad world we live in.

Five Emerging Trends for the Insurance Industry

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Five Emerging Trends for the Insurance Industry
Over the past few months, I have delivered a number of insurance oriented keynotes and, later this week, Ill be addressing a conference on Emerging Technologies for the insurance industry. While I cover a wide variety of trends in the information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology sectors, here are five trends already impacting the insurance industry and which will only grow more prevalant over the coming years:

1. Genomics: Since 1998, the price of sequencing a base pair of genes has plummeted 100 million-fold. An individual can now have his or her genome sequenced for about $10,000. Obviosly, this still isnt practical or affordable for the average person but the price will soon decrease to $1000 and then $100and eventually even lower. The impact on human health will be profound and the implications for the insurance insurancein terms of life expectancy alonewill be immense.

2. Gaming Dynamics: The ability for smartphones to monitor everything from a persons heart rate and blood pressure to their glucose levels is impressive. To date, however, most of this data was just collected and then transferred wirelessly to healthcare providers who helped the patient make sense of it. This is about to change and gaming dynamics will lead the way by providing users new ways to engage, interact and, ultimately, control their own healthcare. Imagine, for example, receiving a lower insurance rate because you could verify that you exercised for 40 minutes and burned 400 calories. The potential for gaming dynamics to unleash new, innovative business models for the insurance industry is real.

3. Locational Intelligence & Pervasive Connectivity: Due to the exponential advancement of GPS technology and sensors, it is now possible to know a persons location to within a few feet. While this has made it easier for the “directional-challenged” to find their friends house a little quick, the technology is poised to revolutionize the insurance industry by making it feasible to monitor a persons driving habits. For instance, if a person is going too fast, braking too suddenly or driving or parking in a crime-ridden area, itll be possible to adjust that persons insurance rates accordingly. Undoubtedly this raises significant privacy concerns which might ultimately doom the technology, but it is just as feasible that cost-conscious consumers will be willing to provide access to such information in return for lower rates.

4. Computational Analytics and Data Mining: When a mild earthquake hit Washington, DC this past August, the first Twitter report reached New York 40 seconds ahead of the quakes shock waves. An impressive feat to be sure but itll pale in comparison to the type of information that will soon be delivered by data-mining Twitter and numerous other social networking sites. Officials at Southeastern Louisiana University recently reported they could track influenza outbreaks by collating the rise of Twitter texts from people complaining about flu symptoms. Other researchers have discovered there is a strong correlation between a persons physical health and the health of their friends. One future possibility is that publically-available social network data can be data-mined by insurance companies to offer discounted rates to individuals who travel in healthier social circles. (Again privacy concerns and regulations may prevent such uses but, then again, maybe not.)

5. Hyper-Personalization: The foundation of the insurance industry is based on the idea of pooling risk. This strategy has worked well for centuries but in the not-to-distant future it is entirely possible that many individuals will prefer to be insured based on their individual actionsand not the statistical average of a large group. This is especially true if the person in question is healthier, a better and safer driver, and cost-conscious to the point that they arent concerned with sharing certain data with the insurance provider in return for securing a lower premium for themselves.
This future is coming. The only question is whether you, your business, your association or your industry is ready.

His latest book is Higher Unlearning: 39 Post-Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future.

Indian Technical Textile Industry Will It Have A Swift Take Off

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Indian Technical Textile Industry: Will it have a swift take off?

Will the Indian textile industry be able to take off now, or will it only be a
Dawdling progress?

During the past few years, market for
Technical textiles has been sizzling at the global range. The industry is growing at a
Very fast pace, especially in the Asian region. In India, the potential of this segment is
Still untapped. India has the capability to become a leader in the manufacture and trading
Of technical textiles with a potential to acquire 10% share in the global market. Despite
The rosy hopes, the industry is foretelling, investments in India continue to remain a
trickle

Indian Technical textile sector

Recent figures of the revenue generation of technical textiles industry amounts to Rs.260
Billion. Industry analysts positively assert that the growth of the industry will thrive to
Reach around Rs.520 billion in the next 3 to 4 years. Consumption of non-woven is expected
To grow from 100 gm to 250 gm by 2012 in tune with the increase in GDP

Growth of technical textiles in India can be augmented with various programmes of national
Mission and encouraging foreign direct investments. The Government and Union Textile
Ministry is showing interest in this lucrative and fully unexplored sector. The Government
of Gujarat state in India has announced special subsidies regarding the same. In the
Industrial Policy-2009, the Government of Gujarat has announced 6% interest subsidy on plant
And machinery for technical textile. Adding to this, the Central Government is also giving
10 % credit-linked subsidy and 5% interest subsidy

To get a more precise idea about the industry happenings, Fibre2fashion spoke with Mr. Chandan Chatterjee,
Director, iNDEXTb. He remarked that almost 10 to 15 technical textile units are on
Starting stage, with some companies functioning already. According to Mr. Chatterjee, the
total investments in this sub-sector are expected to touch Rs 12 billion in Gujarat
Alone

He further added, “Center for Excellence in Technical Textiles is likely to be set up in
Surat very soon for which details are been worked out by the Government of Gujarat in
collaboration with South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SGCCI). These units
will manufacture medical textiles, parachute textile, geo-textiles, laminated fabrics
, fabric material for bullet proof jackets and for applications in agriculture,
automobile and packaging”

Industry experts further state that there have not been many happenings in the industry
apart from South India. They have also identified four sectors of the technical textile
Industry that require immediate attention. They are meditech, geotech, protech, and
agrotech

Constraints for the Industry

4)Almost 85-90% of the fibres used in the industry are synthetic, and specialty fibres
which has to be only imported

5)There is lack of awareness among the entrepreneurs, and consumers regarding the
Market size, domestic and global scenario of the sector

6)Marketing is one of the main focus areas which need to be worked upon. Despite the
Fact that the Government is taking appropriate actions and coming up with new subsidies, and
Policy measures, still there is lack of results due to less focus on the marketing
Part

With tremendous growth in manufacturing and retail sectors and Government policies geared
Up, India is posed to have a double digit growth in this segment. Technical textile sector
has numerous end use applications with various items of the industry developing gradually in
The country. However, there is less awareness among the prospective entrepreneurs and
Consumers

Examination of the Problems Facing the Transport Industry

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The transport industry is facing up to wide spread problems all the way across the board, from same day courier services through to heavy goods haulage firms. How the industry deals with these problems is a vital question in how we can move forwards beyond the difficulties posed by rising fuel prices, environmental concerns being levied on the industry and also the potential prospect of winters as harsh as the one that the UK recently experienced.

The recent cold snap has a massive effect on the transport industry, and continues to do so, as it presented multiple problems that courier services and those in the industry had to work around and deal with. First and foremost amongst these problems was the over-abundance of ice on the roads during this period. Many local councils were woefully unprepared for a winter as harsh as the one we had last, leading to salt supplies being much too low. This in turn led to many roads simply becoming unusable, especially in smaller suburbs or urban areas. Needless to say this had the potential to strike a crippling blow to the transport industry and, for many, it did just that. The industry, and Britain as a whole, was simply caught unawares by the difficulties posed by such a nasty winter, and this led to major problems for many businesses, however the transport industry was amongst the most prominently affected. Vehicles were forced off the roads and many companies simply had to shut up shop for a number of weeks, drastically affecting income.

This is something to we simply can’t afford to happen again, especially due to the potentially catastrophic effect it can have on smaller businesses and urgent courier services, who rely on their ability to get from A to B quickly. As such we need to ensure that local councils all over the country have adequate salt supplies should we face the same issues in the future. Not only this, but salt supplies need to evenly spread around. We, as an industry, simply can’t afford another winter like the one we just experienced and knowing that supplies could have been available in places that needed them simply rubbed salt into the wounds.

Some are attempting to take measures to minimize the impact of this problem. The Freight Transport Association (FTA) has already recommended a number of potential solutions to the problems that the industry faces from a harsh winter. Amongst these are the obvious, such as ensuring there are larger salt supplies available to reduce the time queuing at salt production sites.

Another, less obvious recommendation is to provide drivers with a little more leeway when it comes to their hours. The FTA calls for a greater flexibility in the handling of a drivers time on the road, as well as calling for a modest increase in the amount of time they can spend driving when they are able, to compensate for the periods during winter when they may be forced off the road.

This call, however, comes into direct conflict with recent rulings by the European Parliament (EP). An attempt to permanently exempt owner drivers from the 48 hour week imposed by the EP failed, meaning that soon self-employed courier drivers will now have to limit themselves to 48 hours of working per week, alongside the workforce that they may employ.