India, Europe 6G bodies to ink deal
India’s Bharat 6G Alliance and European telecom industry body Industry Alliance 6G are set to form a partnership that will pave the way for cooperation in developing 6G technology, two people aware of the matter said.
One of the persons said Bharat 6G and Industry Alliance 6G would sign an agreement soon. The second person said both sides were looking to define the contours of the collaboration quickly, but the actual agreements would be signed in the coming quarter.
The partnership could be in the form of a memorandum of understanding, similar to the one Bharat 6G signed with the US last September, the persons added, requesting not to be identified.
Launched in 2023 by the department of telecommunications, Bharat 6G Alliance was set up to bring industry players, academia and research organisations together to advance the Bharat 6G mission.
In September 2023, the Bharat 6G Alliance signed an MoU with America’s Next G alliance to work on 6G wireless technologies and build resilient supply chains. The two countries had said in a joint statement that they shared a vision of creating secure and trusted telecommunications and enabling global digital inclusion.
Both countries endorse an ambitious vision for 6G networks, including cooperation on standards and a desire to work together to promote research and development in 6G. Now, India and the European Union are expanding cooperation on high technologies under the EU-India Trade and Technology Council. The two entities signed an MoU on semiconductor co-operation just a few months ago.
The telecom department announced last year, “B6GA aims to bring together Indian startups, companies, and the manufacturing ecosystem to establish consortia that drive the design, development and deployment of 6G technologies in India. By accelerating standards-related patent creation within the country and actively contributing to international standardisation organisations such as 3GPP and ITU, B6GA seeks to position India at the forefront of 6G innovation.”
It also aims to open market access for Indian firms in foreign nations, the department said. The government is looking to forge coalitions with other 6G global alliances to better understand the business and societal needs of 6G beyond technical requirements, foster consensus on these needs, and promote R&D. Bharat 6G Alliance has also solidified India’s presence in the International Telecom Union, which has accepted India’s 6G vision document. This will give India a voice in setting standards, among other things.
Nine months into the role of CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), Rohit Jawa is clear about the job at hand, which is to nudge India’s largest consumer goods company to move “faster than the clock speed of India”. In an interview a day after HUL announced its March quarter earnings, Jawa expressed surprise at the pace of change in India. Comparing his stint in China—where he was Unilever chairman for five years —with India, Jawa said, “Quick commerce is an example of how quickly the channels change. When I was in China, these changes happened like one big event a year. But here, they’re almost all happening at the same time.”
These are early days for Jawa in India, who described his challenge thus: “How do we become more agile and stay big? How can we atomize our organization, because we are now a very big company?” Atomizing a very big company may sound like an oxymoron, but HUL will constantly be looking for targets that make a “strategic fit”. On the ice-cream business, which parent Unilever plans to hive off, its Indian subsidiary will look for cues before deciding on the next course of action. Till then, HUL will take advantage of the hot summer to sell more Magnum ice-cream in India.
Edited excerpts:
mWhat is your projection of mid- to long-term volume growth for HUL ?
We should disaggregate our performance in the last quarter where we delivered about 2% volume growth. We had a miss in skin cleansing, which dragged volumes down. However, you need to keep in mind that 75% of our business grew volumes, and half of our business grew mid-single digits. On the whole, there is inherently higher volume growth in the business when you disaggregate the portfolio.
If you look back more as a trend rate, we were growing volumes around 4% and price at about 3-4%, excluding M&A. So, that’s been generally the norm because consumers also upgrade in value terms; volume is not the only way to grow the market. But it’s a good indicator at this point because prices have been negative to flat.
So, volume is a good thing to chase at this time. It is the most virtuous thing to do to get more consumers, more consumption, and premiumizing them through product mix. That strive is making our company stronger. We are focused at this stage on what we can really control, which is to drive more volume and go to fastgrowth spaces. Growth is, however, unevenly distributed. It’s somewhat slower in the rural markets, although they’ve come back. It’s higher in the premium end of the market and organized trade.
Basically, we’re moving our funds, resources and innovations into spaces with tailwinds. Overall, I do expect volumes to improve as we go forward. If the monsoons are good, that will also give us another bump on the agri side and clearly help the rural markets. Investors appear to be dissatisfied with the results, and despite being a heavyweight in the index, HUL has barely moved during the recent market rally. However, you seem quite optimistic. Can you please explain what investors might be overlooking?
I’m optimistic about the consumer goods industry. I can speak on that first, but I cannot speak on the larger investment thesis—where the money is going, small caps, mid caps, and large caps. I think that’s not an area of my expertise. We are focused on serving our shareholders, and the best way we can serve them is by doing them right in the long term, which is by being multi-stakeholder and remaining true to our belief—what is good for India is good for HUL. So, as India grows, we will grow. The second is that the per capita consumption of all the categories we play in consumer goods is one-fourth to one-sixth compared to that of countries such as Indonesia and Thailand. They are all going to inflect. They have done so in the last 10 years; they will do for the next 10 years. Because growth is not smooth and straightforward, it is lumpy.
We, as the largest consumer goods company in this country with the deepest distribution and brand reach, with the highest capacity of R&D and supply chain, in what can be quite a complex market to navigate, with deep roots in communities, and a Unilever parent with a lot of brands and technology to transfer, are very well poised
Are there any missing pieces in your portfolio?
We’re always looking at targets that meet a strategic fit to that question. The preferred spaces are in beauty care and, perhaps, food. We have already made a big acquisition in foods with GSK. This must be a target with strong commercial logic, and it must offer us a niche segment or a capability we don’t have. So, we have very strict guidelines, and much rigour is done. We are always on the lookout, and when something is appropriate, we have
But if it is no longer part of Unilever’s portfolio, would it make sense to have it in HUL’s portfolio?
This is exactly what we are discussing. What form Unilever takes is still to be clear because they are evaluating various options. What is quite clear is it will have a separate entity and what form that entity takes is under consideration at Unilever. At the same time, we are also evaluating options of what would be the best way forward for our shareholders. Then we will go through the process, consultation, agreement and, if required, approval from the shareholders. So, there is some path to cover here. It’s too early and too premature. At this stage, we focus on selling (more ice creams) this summer and growing the business.