
‘Goal to enter the developed world’
Harsh Goenka, Chairman, RPG Enterprises
Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprises, sits in an office that betrays his interest in the world of art, sculpture and paintings. The artefacts in the waiting area outside his chamber makes your wait interesting in many ways, but this is a man who does not make you wait too long. Goenka spoke to Suman Layak on Valentine's Day about the group's businesses and the way forward.
Power is the mainstay of RPG Enterprises isn’t it?
CESC Limited is our biggest play in power and in any other field and we are operating with very high plant load factors. Our transmission distribution losses are now below 14 per cent. We are coming up with a new plant in Haldia and Budge Budge, besides plans are afoot for new power generating units in Jhakhand and Orissa. KEC is our transmission play that we intend to use to get a global footprint. We are working on projects in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq where there are a lot of issues, including security. We are also in countries like Tunisia, Algeria, middle east. We have a joint venture with an US company called Power Engineers and are looking at growing the business in sub-stations, telecom towers and railway infrastructures. We want to become a world leader in the business. The goal now is to enter the developed world.
What is the latest in growth areas like retail and entertainment?
We are learning the ropes in movie making now. We have just released a new album with Sonu Nigam called 'Classically Mild' that has some classical touches to the music. We are also into DVD and VCD distribution. Spencers is expanding fast and we have upgraded the ambience. We are introducing new items. Some toys from the United Kingdom would be put on our stores, which were never sold before in India. We are opening a story a day and in different formats. We are also rolling out 500 RPG Cellucoms for mobile retail in the near future.
What about Infotech and Life Sciences?
Zensar is our vehicle for the infotech business. We bought out the stake held by Fujitsu in the company, besides acquiring two companies in the US and another in Japan. The Japanese acquisition has allowed us get a much better hold in the market where we grew by 55 per cent. The Oracle practice of Zensar is now among the top 10 in the business globally. We have also targeted the retail sector and now have Marks & Spencers, Target, Selfriges as clients.In life sciences, we have restructured the business into a life sciences company and an investment company. Our life sciences business will focus on biotech products.
Are there any plans to enter any new businesses?
No. We are not looking at any new businesses and rather trying to focus on our existing businesses at the moment.

96% people faced drop in earnings during lockdown: Survey

Women make inroads on Wall Street, but many mountains yet to be moved
- Employment figures demonstrate the mountains that still have to be moved to achieve parity between men and women in the financial services sector.

UK govt to set $7 billion program to help struggling firms

US Prez Biden urges quick Senate action on huge stimulus package

US SC to look into system that lets corporations like Apple kill patent lawsuits
- In an argument at the intersection of intellectual property and the separation of powers, the justices on Monday will consider a challenge to a congressionally-created board that critics have dubbed a “death squad” because of its tendency to toss out patents.

Warren Buffett says 'never bet against America' in annual letter to shareholders

Reliance partners with Google, Facebook for digital payment network bid
- Facebook and Google are already partnered with Reliance and own stakes in Jio Platforms

ByteDance to hire 13k new employees, explore China's education technology

Texas’s power market is $1.3 billion short after energy crisis

McDonald's to sell part of its artificial intelligence start-up

Mukesh Ambani is again richest Asian as China’s Zhong loses $22 billion

Weekly wrap: After early surge, gold prices fall for last 3 days
- Gold set off to a brighter start at the beginning of the week as the price of the precious metal went up by ₹278 to ₹46,013 per 10 grams on Monday.

RBI in favour of retaining inflation target for 5 years

Telecom sector revenues back at pre-Jio levels
