Indian Economy - News & Updates - Archive

[Bushroda]

Jet-pace growth for Indian tourism
By Raja M

MUMBAI - India's recent federal budget offered little to the country's US$12 billion tourism industry, but its practitioners could take comfort from the immediately preceding annual Economic Survey for 2007-08, which predicted continued bright prospects after more than 25% growth over the previous year.

Last year's record earnings could be merely scratching the surface of a gold mine if India backs up its "Incredible India!" promotional campaign - which won the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award last year - with better tourist infrastructure and if the government capitalizes on the country earning the coveted world number one top travel destination ranking in the latest Conde Nast Traveller UK awards.

India jumped ahead of Italy, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand in the world's top five most-preferred tourist destinations from

fourth a year earlier and 10th in 2004. A Lonely Planet survey of 167 countries also ranks India among the world's top five most popular destinations.

Last financial year, when more than 5 million tourists arrived, was the fourth running that India's growth in arrivals picked up pace, with an increase of 13% from 2005-06, according to governmental data. India expects to host 6 million tourists in 2007 and 10 million by 2010.

"Tourism has high potential for generating both income and employment across the country," President Pratibha Devsingh Patil told Parliament on February 25. "The 'Incredible India' campaign has given a thrust to tourism in India, with foreign tourist arrivals touching 5 million for the first time. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism touched US$12 billion in 2007."

Businesses at the tourism frontline are seeing more than just an increase in numbers.

"Compared with five years ago, we are seeing more arrivals of higher-spending tourists," says Suresh Pundir, a hotelier in the north Indian tourist hot-spot state of Uttarakhand, at present host to an international yoga conference in the Himalayan town of Rishikesh. His guests are also coming from an increasingly diverse range of countries.

"Earlier we primarily had tourists from the USA, UK and Israel, but now there is a sudden huge increase in visitors from Russia, Brazil, South Korea and France," he said. At the same time, they are seeing a greater variety of experience, looking for adventure such as white-water rafting, trekking and mountaineering.

India is also this month (March 21-24) hosting the second international conference on "responsible tourism", in Cochin, in the southern state of Kerala, with 400 delegates and speakers from 20 countries expected to attend. The first conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2002. The conference aims to create greater involvement in making the industry sustainable in terms of local economies.

India is sharing in a broader travel boom, with the region expected to lead world tourism growth this year, according to the World Travel Trends Report last month from the ITB Berlin travel fair and researcher IPK International. China, with the Beijing Summer Olympic Games, and India are touted to lead the way.

The World Travel Trends Report says Asia-Pacific continues to lead expansion of the world's tourism trade, with international arrivals in the region increasing by over 10% in 2007, following an 8% growth in 2006.

Outbound tourism is also buoyant, according to Asian Travel Monitor, with China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Malaysia and Thailand scoring over 70 million outbound trips combined, with a total annual spending of over $147 billion.

The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Travel confirms that Asian-Pacific outbound traffic will continue soaring, with an estimated 79.5 million outbound tourists in the next six months. More than 25% of the region's outbound tourists will be from the Chinese mainland, according to MasterCard, which estimates a 12.4% year-on-year increase to 21.6 million outbound Chinese tourists from January to June 2008.

A stronger rupee, which has appreciated more than 10% against the US dollar in the past year, is having an impact, making travel abroad cheaper for Indians while inbound tourist operators are reporting a drop in business as the country becomes a more expensive destination for overseas visitors.

India led growth in visitor numbers to the US in 2006-7, with a 45% increase on a year earlier, ahead of China (26%), Mexico (18%) and the Middle East (18%).

India's growing economy and increased affluence are also encouraging domestic tourism, which is growing 25% annually. Combined with the growing number of overseas visitors, that is adding to the strain on the country's infrastructure. Industry sources, for example, estimate that India has a shortage of 100,000 hotel rooms.

Neither did the federal budget grant the demand for the hospitality industry to be given infrastructure status that would enable easier flow of investments.

Even so, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram disappointed tourism-related businesses when his February 29 budget largely ignored the industry while offering exporters government sops to offset the impact on them of the strengthening rupee.

The industry, according to the India's Tourism Ministry, employs over 42 million people and contributes 6.11% of India's gross domestic product.

 

[Bushroda]

Indian economy on track for higher growth
By Joseph George
Emirates Business 24/7, United Arab Emirates
Thursday, March 6 , 2008

The Indian economy seems poised to take off on a higher growth path supported by rising foreign exchange reserves, a booming capital market and a rapid rise in foreign direct investment, according to a report by the research and consultancy firm Deloitte Haskins and Sells.

With parliamentary elections lined up next year, India’s Finance Minister P Chidambaram unveiled on February 29 what is being termed a “populist” budget that provided for a loan waiver of Rs500 billion (Dh46bn) to small farmers and Rs100bn debt settlement scheme for other farmers.

The budget has raised education spending by 20 per cent to Rs344bn and health spending by 15 per cent. Defence expenditure continued to squeeze spending elsewhere, with the military’s budget expanding by 10 per cent to Rs1.056 trillion from Rs960bn last year. The budget has earmarked a total planned spending for 2008-2009 at Rs2.4trn and non-planned spending at Rs5.07trn.

While many have praised the budget’s focus on outcomes instead of outlays, several economists and industry leaders have expressed disappointment their hopes for attention to be paid to India’s dilapidated physical infrastructure were not adequately addressed and have criticised the loan waiver as setting a bad precedent.

The proposal for a tax on commodities future transactions has been slammed as it would make the system globally uncompetitive and would make it difficult to use the transactions for risk management.

The Indian economy’s growth has been impressive. It has joined the elite club of 12 countries with $1trn (Dh3.67trn) economy.

FDI inflows have jumped by almost three times to $15.7bn in 2006-2007 as compared to $5.5bn in 2005-2006. India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) ranks first in the stock futures trade in the world. The number of companies with a market capitalisation of $1bn or more has increased 40 per cent to a total of 209 at the end of November 2007 compared to 148 at end of 2006.

The fiscal deficit in 2008-2009 is being projected at 2.5 per cent of GDP along with a revenue deficit of one per cent of GDP. The government, however, seems confident of GDP growth of 8.8 per cent in 2007-2008.

According to the Deloitte analysis, in the recently released “Budget 2008: Analysis and Commentary”, the GDP growth for 2007-2008 represents a deceleration from the high growth of 9.4 per cent and 9.6 per cent during the past two years. Last year saw growth slowing across most sectors, including manufacturing and agriculture.

The report’s authors expressed concern that with the Indian economy globalising rapidly, it can no longer remain totally immune to the cyclical nature of the world economy, especially the slowing down of the US economy and the upheavals in the global financial markets. The appreciation of the rupee, inflationary pressures caused by rising prices and the large capital inflows in excess of the current account deficit are also worrying.

International developments continue to have a direct impact on several key sectors of the Indian economy. There has been a robust increase in foreign exchange reserves, moderate levels of current account deficit, changing composition of capital inflows and sustainable external debt with long-term maturity profile.

“All of these collectively indicate a strong, stable and vibrant state of the external sector. The impact of external events on the Indian economy can also be gauged from the impact of such events on the country’s financial markets,” said the Deloitte report.

There has also been a slight decline in production in the manufacturing sector in 2007-2008.

The appreciation of the rupee against the US dollar has affected the production of the textiles industry and the export performance of Indian textiles continue to lag substantially behind China in the post-quota era in terms of rate of growth of exports and share in world textile exports.

Growth rates in the agricultural sector fell sharply during 2007-2008 (at 2.6 per cent) while industry and services maintained their moderate growth momentum.

 

[Bushroda]

Beating India’s downside
By Nick Ferguson
Finance Asia, Hong Kong
7 March 2008

A new fund from ICICI Prudential offers equity upside on the Nifty index as well as downside protection.

ICICI Prudential Asset Management launched a first-of-its-kind equity-linked fund in January that offers Indian investors significant upside participation and very little downside risk.

The Fixed Maturity Plan – Series 33 is linked to the National Stock Exchange’s Nifty index, which comprises 50 leading stocks traded on the exchange, and is the first fixed-maturity fund to provide exposure to equity markets.

The idea is to provide the low risk of a typical fixed income-style product, but with the juiced-up returns that equity investors want. In the long run investors are probably better off buying the index directly, but, with a three-year maturity and downside protection, this product is aimed at investors who are dabbling in stocks for the first time – an attempt to tease Indian savings away from gold and property.

The Nifty’s history suggests why nervous investors might worry. Looking back at hypothetical three-year investments in the index since its launch in July 1990 shows that one-in-four ended with negative returns. The potential upside, however, helps to balance those fears – when the three-year period ended in positive territory it averaged a 17.4% yearly rate of return.

Corporate earnings are forecast to grow at up to 20%, which should mean that even a US economic slowdown will not be catastrophic for Indian companies’ profits – particularly as the economy does not rely heavily on exports. Falling interest rates also help to make equities more attractive and some big-ticket offerings scheduled for 2008 could also attract more local investors to the market, which should create greater stability. Reliance Power has already completed a record IPO and UTI, State Bank of India and Oil India are all slated to issue new shares as well.



Downside risks do exist, say analysts. Most worry about the effect of a possible recession in the US, although the January rate cuts have tempered these fears and are generally thought to be positive for emerging markets. A populist budget could be expensive and hinder the government’s attempts to solve its finances, threatening another sovereign downgrade that would be bad news for the market in general.

Back-tested data for the fund’s performance, using the index’s full 17-year history, shows how the strategy offers the opportunity to capitalise if the bullish view prevails, but also protects against a bearish outcome. During bull markets since 1990 the fund did a good job of tracking the Nifty – for three-year periods when the index has returned between 15% and 25% a year, the fund has averaged 19.5% compared to 19.9% for the index. And when Nifty has given negative returns the fund has never given negative returns – for funds that closed during the bearish three-year period starting in May 2004, the index’s worst loss was 16.4%, compared to a 1% gain for the fund.

The indicative coupon is calculated based on the initial value (the average of the Nifty value at the start of the first three months) against the closing value (the average of the Nifty value at the end of the last three months). The maximum upside is capped at 200% of the start level.

To achieve the equity upside the fund is invested mostly in equity-linked notes. Up to 80% can be invested in these products, but the manager says that it expects to limit the allocation to 65%. The manager is restricted to investing no more than 50% in derivatives or securitised debt. Although the product aims to deliver at least 100% at maturity, there is no assurance that investors will get all of their capital back.

The minimum investment amount is just Rs5,000 ($127) and there is a 5% fee for early redemption. Investors can sell the fund through a repurchase facility provided at six-monthly intervals.

 

[Bushroda]

India Dominates Billionaires’ List
Wall Street Journal
March 6, 2008, 12:21 pm

The most surprising news in Forbes’s latest Global Billionaire list isn’t that Bill Gates has been toppled as the world’s richest man. We knew that was going to happen months ago.

No, the biggest surprise is the rise of the Indian rich — four of the top eight billionaires in the world are from India. Topping the ranks is steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, whose worth Forbes puts at $45 billion. Next up are the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, with $43 billion and $42 billion repsectively, largely from petrochemicals. Rounding out the list is KP Singh, the real-estate magnate, at $30 billion.

This is an encouraging sign for the Indian economy. It shows that a country long known for brutal poverty can now compete with the U.S. and others in creating personal wealth. The Merrill Lynch/Cap Gemini report says that India’s population of millionaires grew 20% last year, to about 100,000. That rate of growth was more than twice the growth of millionaires in the U.S.

This proves a point I’ve made before about the future of global wealth — that a greater and greater share of the world’s millionaires and billionaires will come from India, China, Brazil, and Russia. That’s not to say the U.S. won’t keep producing rich people of its own. Rather, it’s that the most rapid growth, and the billionaire “market share,” will move to emerging markets.

Clearly, Indian wealth has a different flavor than American wealth. All four of the Indian billionaires inherited substantial fortunes, suggesting that in India, wealth is still determined more by your parents than by your career or your ideas. While that’s changing, the number of large fortunes made by purely self-made entrepreneurs still lags far behind the U.S. And many of the biggest fortunes in India come from old-fashioned industries such as oil, steel and real estate.

Yet over time, I wouldn’t be surprised if an Indian — or a Russian or a Mexican — takes over Warren Buffett’s spot atop the list.

 

[Neo]

Power outages paralysed Delhi for hours over weekend ​

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

NEW DELHI: Two 12-hour-long power blackouts shut factories and businesses, disrupted trains and left millions of people without power in and around India’s capital over the weekend.

The outages on Friday and Sunday in New Delhi and several neighbouring states were blamed on heavy fog and pollution that settled on transmission lines, tripping them when their insulation proved insufficient to handle the conditions, said Shailendra Dubey, chief engineer of the state-run Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation.

Dozens of trains came to a standstill or ran behind schedule, said Amrish Saxena, a railroad official in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state. Federal Power Secretary Anil Razdan ordered replacement of conventional insulators with polymer insulators in transmission lines to prevent collapse of the power supply in the region, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

India faces regular power shortages, particularly in the hot summers when demand rises, sometimes outstripping supply by 25 per cent. Despite more than a decade of rapid economic growth, India’s infrastructure still lags far behind, particularly the energy sector needed to fuel the economy, raising concerns it could slow further development.

India needs to build hundreds of new power plants over the next five years to end the massive electricity shortages that threaten the country’s rapid economic growth rate. The government has set a target of generating at least 200,000 megawatts of power by 2012. Currently, the country has a total capacity to produce 130,000 megawatts.

The power sector in the country is mostly run by state governments, which have been slow in adding new capacities because of lack of funds. Although the sector was opened to private capital more than a decade ago, few companies have invested in building new plants because of regulatory bottlenecks.

Power outages paralysed Delhi for hours over weekend

 

[Neo]

India’s car sales slow sharply ahead of budget ​

NEW DELHI: India’s domestic car sales grew a sluggish 2.3 percent in February from a year earlier, far slower than in previous months, as customers put off purchases expecting a cut in taxes in the federal budget.

In the month, 94,756 cars were sold, up from 92,618 in February 2007, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Monday showed.

“The industry had witnessed muted growth in January and February, primarily due to postponement of purchases by consumers in anticipation of sops extended for the industry,” brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher wrote in a note to investors. In both December and January, annual growth stood at about 9 percent.

On Feb. 29, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram reduced the excise duty on small cars, two-wheelers and buses to 12 percent from 16 percent in his budget speech. That prompted automakers to cut prices on some models.

Small cars less than 4 metres in length make up nearly three-quarters of all cars sold in India.

Top carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, which is 54.2 percent owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Ltd, saw domestic car sales expand 2.2 percent on the year to 51,762 units.

“We expect strong volume growth March 2008 onwards (for Maruti), boosted by the excise duty reduction,” brokerage Kotak Securities wrote in a note.

Analysts added that a further budget proposal to raise the income tax threshold, and an expected salary increase for government staff by March-end would leave people with more disposible income and spur demand, especially for small cars.

The local unit of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co, the second-largest carmaker in India, saw sales dip 5.5 percent to 14,591 units, while those at No. 3 Tata Motors Ltd fell 16 percent to 13,451 units. Sales at Tata Motors continued to be hurt by a lack of new models to replace its Indica compact car and Indigo sedan. The fall in February follows a 13.6 percent decline seen in January. Motorcyle sales continued to sag in the world’s largest market after China, as tight financing weighed. Firms sold 425,089 bikes in February, 17.7 percent less than in the same month a year ago. reuters

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[Neo]

India’s economic miracle losing its lustre: analysts​

NEW DELHI: Booming India is reeling from a flurry of bad financial headlines, suggesting the outlook for the world’s second fastest-growing major economy is not as rosy as it was, analysts say.

Economic growth is losing pace and inflation is on the rise, meaning India’s central bank — which has hiked interest rates nine times since 2004 to tame prices — has little room to loosen monetary policy to spur activity, they say.

“The picture of very strong growth and low inflation in India is starting to give way to one of slowing growth and rising inflation,” said Robert Prior-Wandesforde, an economist at HSBC in Singapore.

Last Friday, inflation in Asia’s third-largest economy hit a nearly 10-month high of 5.02 percent, pushing through the central bank’s ceiling of five percent for this fiscal year.

Adding to the gloom has been a 25 percent slide since January 10 in India’s benchmark Sensex share index — whose 47 percent jump last year made it one of the world’s top performers — as foreign investors have bailed out.

“With the (global) economic turbulence, you’re seeing a lot of risk aversion,” said Amitabh Chakraborty, equities president of Mumbai’s Religare Securities.

Also, the Congress-led government, which faces general elections in little over a year, is storing up fiscal trouble with its 15-billion-dollar loan bailout for farmers, big civil service pay hikes and tax cuts announced late last month in its populist, poll-geared budget, economists say.

“We think the fiscal deficit will increase due to the spending pressures,” said Goldman Sachs economist Tushar Poddar.

Economic growth is forecast by the government to slow to 8.8 percent in this fiscal year to March 31, 2008 from 9.6 percent last year — the first deceleration in three years.

Some economists project growth could fall to as low as seven percent next year due to the US-led global slowdown, aggressive monetary tightening and a sharp rise in the rupee’s value against the dollar, which has hit exports.

Seven percent growth would still be enviable by anemic Western levels but is too low for India, where analysts say double-digit expansion is needed to help hundreds of millions escape a grim poverty trap.

The stock market’s slide has also cast a cloud over plans by firms to raise a projected 15 billion dollars in IPOs this year — nearly double the record 8.3 billion raised in 2007.

Already, two high-profile firms have pulled their IPOs, including Emaar MGF — a joint venture of Dubai’s Emaar, the world’s biggest property developer —- which abandoned its bid to raise 1.6 billion dollars, citing “indications of a US recession and global meltdown.”

The IPOs are key to expansion as much of the funds raised would be invested in plant and machinery, and improvements in India’s dilapidated infrastructure such as its potholed roads, shabby ports and unreliable power.

Economists as major growth constraints routinely cite lengthy blackouts even in big metropolitan centres such as New Delhi.

While India’s economy is better insulated than many other Asian nations from the global slowdown because it is not so heavily dependent on exports, it is not immune to the chill financial headwinds, analysts say.

A lot of economic growth has been driven by risk capital, especially from the United States, which is slowing as foreign investors repatriate funds amid fears of a US recession, said Religare’s Chakraborty.

For the time being, the government and central bank are making checking inflation their priority.

The central bank and the government are “signalling the risk to inflation is a bigger worry than the risk to growth,” said JP Morgan analyst Rajeev Malik.

Soaring world commodity and crude oil prices have alarmed the central bank while the government sees cutting inflation as crucial to its political fate, analysts say.

Inflation has been blamed as a key factor in several state poll drubbings for Congress, which owes its 2004 general election win to support from India’s poor masses — hardest hit by price rises.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month called inflation “the cruellest tax” as it hits the poor the hardest. afp

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[Bushroda]

Examining India
By Peter Walker for CNN
March 7, 2008 -- Updated 0310 GMT (1110 HKT)

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Amid all the talk about China's recent transformation, it's sometimes easy to forget that Asia is home to another fast-emerging economic superpower -- India.


India has a strong business education tradition

The country's rapid development has been matched by an explosion in top quality business education, marked most recently by the appearance of the Hyderabad-based Indian Business School in the top 20 of the Financial Times ranking of leading global MBAs.

A key part of India's development of business education has been close ties with Britain, the country's former colonial ruler and home to more than a million people of Indian origin, not to mention a partner in bilateral trade worth nearly $15 billion last year.

Many UK schools, having long ed out student exchanges and the like with India, are now taking links a step further with special business centers dedicated to researching and furthering economic ties with India.

The latest of these involve the UK's most venerable universities, Oxford and Cambridge, both of which have historic ties to India.

Oxford has just announced a new India Business Center and professorship in Indian Business Studies, based at its highly-rated Saïd Business School and funded by a $15 million donation from Indian tycoon Ajit Gulabchand, chairman of the Hindustan Construction company.

Oxford University's vice chancellor -- a position equivalent to dean -- Dr John Hood, said India had a lot of valuable lessons for the world.

"The primary objective of this research center is to learn from India's business success," he said in New Delhi, where the new center was announced.

"A clear understanding of the issues faced by India and their innovative solutions, as India transitions from poverty to prosperity, will form a guide to future generations of countries attempting similar transitions."

Oxford, he noted, had a long tradition of links with India, with the first students from that country coming to study at the university in 1871.

Professor Colin Mayer, Dean of the Saïd school, said the new center would also be about teaching as well as research, and aimed to develop a series of executive education programs to be taught in India.

Also just announced is a new professorship of Indian business and enterprise to be established at Judge Business School, part of Cambridge University.

This is being financed with a $6 million bequest by the Indian government to mark the centenary of the arrival at Cambridge of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, later India's first post-independence prime minister, who studied for a degree in natural sciences.

The professorship -- the first incumbent is still being chosen -- is intended to assist closer links between India and other international economies, and to promote understanding of the country.

"India and the UK are on the path to a healthy bilateral economic and commercial relationship, arising from a common democratic outlook in both the countries," said Professor Arnoud De Meyer, director of the judge school.

 

[Bushroda]

Where is the focus in IT education?
Roger B Silberberg
MyADSL, South Africa
11 March, 2008

Good IT education is essential if a country is to create jobs, be internationally competitive, and prosper.

I would like to question the focus in South Africa on skills training and education in the field of information and knowledge management.

Strongly developed capacity in these technologies is clearly essential if a country is to create jobs, be internationally competitive, and prosper. A clear example is given by industry in India, where its considerable success and growth over the past years is attributed, according to Business Report, to their ability to "leverage white collar skills in the knowledge economy to have a global impact on blue collar manufacturing".

This has been achieved chiefly through mastery of the global knowledge economy and the combination of value and volume, skills and scale that characterises their industrial operations. Information technology, engineering, design and manufacturing are integrated as close cousins to produce, for example, the new Tata Nano car at under R20 000.

Clearly this is a winning formula.

A recent survey conducted by Isett Seta of some 700 organisations in the IT sector provides illuminating insight. These companies identified some 1450 candidates requiring end user computing-type training. The organisations also identified some 1200 candidates at CEO, CIO, programme and project manager, business development manager and business analyst level that required educational intervention.

These latter candidates are all in highly skilled and senior management roles. In other words, the perceived need for educational intervention at senior management level is numerically almost as high as it is at more junior levels, and is proportionally far higher, given the much smaller population at that level. In contrast, the survey identified 80 candidates in the "software engineering" category.

Other interesting figures derive from an IBM survey. This revealed that fully 84% of CIOs internationally believed that information technology was significantly and profoundly transforming their industries, yet only 16% believed that their company was taking full advantage of its potential. No survey has been conducted locally, but it is doubtful that the results would be very different.

Taken together, these figures suggest that while the need for adopting transformational information technologies is recognised and is accepted at senior management level, it is not happening in practice. Also, while it is the decisions made at senior management level that will ultimately determine if the organisation takes full advantage of the potential of information management technology, there is a substantial and quantified need for management education at that level. Can optimal decisions be made in this environment?

Yet, when the weaknesses of our knowledge economy are reported, most publications and media stress the need for specific technical computer skills and computer literacy. While it cannot be denied that these skills are essential in a modern economy, and that the population at large needs to be comfortable with interacting with information devices, it is clear that growth and the ability to compete internationally and boost productivity will come from organisations that have the managerial capacity to embrace fully 21st century information technologies.

This is a management issue. What educational paths are open to management that will provide them with the understanding and knowledge to direct an organisation that is critically dependent on its information resources? If the Indian example described above is representative, this cannot be achieved through short courses and seminars by visiting experts and consultants. Rather, a radical revision of management educational programmes is overdue, much as a radical revision of business processes is required to keep business competitive.

The conclusion is inescapable; much more focus must be given to upgrading senior management with regard to understanding, accepting and internalising the opportunities offered by emerging information management technologies.

Newly-designed international qualifications are coming on stream to address this need, and the writer would value readers’ input and comment.

 

[Bushroda]

Leisure Boating Business Set for a Boom in India
Construction of marinas to give boost to big-spending tourists

Armstrong Vaz (armie)
OhmyNews International, South Korea
2008-03-12 11:20 (KST)

Queen Mary 2 set sail on its 23-night cruising journey from Sydney to Dubai, on Feb. 26 and will be visiting Yokohama, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore and Goa with a night's stay in Dubai.

The fare pegged at US$7,899 per person twin-share is a figure well above the reach of the rich Indian a few years ago. But things are changing in India, with a booming economy, Indians keen in splurging their extra fads of cash have varied options in the holiday market and cruising is one of them.

For many Indians, owning a luxury yacht is one dream they cherish. Jeriton Dias, an Indian from western state of Goa is one of them. He is sailing on Queen Mary 2. He has not bought a cruising holiday but he is one of the 1,200 odd staff. For him the cruising holiday does not entice him and his family anymore. He is looking to own a yacht, both for leisure and business option and park it in Goa and explore more of the rural Goa.

Owning a luxury yacht and parking it in a designated marina in Indian waters is a dream most Indians look forward to. Now question arises whether India has sufficient marinas? Optimistic Indians have dreams for leisure boating in India.

But is India ready for a leisure boating boom? Can a country, which does not have any marinas along its coast, rival to overtake up market destinations like French Riviera?

In the absence of marinas, parking can be a nightmare for yacht owners in India and Goa is one of them.

But, the leisure boating industry is set to change if entrepreneur's plans to set up marinas in Goa and on the Konkan coast get the mandatory environmental green signals from the government.

One of them is a business tycoon from Goa and a keen water sports lover, Umaji V Chowgule, MD, Goa Yacht Haven Pvt Ltd. Chowgule, whose family business interests range from mining to brewing the popular Arlem beer in Goa, is planning to build a 300-boat marina in Sancoale village, in Mormugao Taluka, at the mouth of the Zuari river in Goa with an investment of Rs 100 crore (US$2.5 million).

The construction of the marina is set to give Goa's aim to get high-spending foreign tourists a shot in the arm, which the tourism authorities and ministers have trying to push albeit unsuccessfully over the last few years. Goa, as of now, as a tourist destination, has been a favourite haunt for back packers and low and middle budget foreign tourists.

The berthing facility for marinas is also likely to create around 1,000 to 2,000 jobs directly or indirectly related to industry.

A marina is a berth's facility where boats are anchored and are safe from mischief mongers and from the uncertainties of the weather. The marina can also provide facilities like fuel stations, boat servicing, restaurants, bars and other recreational activities.

"If you need to protect the leisure boat in the sea along Mumbai's coast, you need to construct a marina. We need to construct amenities like marinas so that people can sail and even stay away from the coast for a weekend," says Robin Walters, chairman of Walcon Marine Ltd, a worldwide expert in marina building, in a report in the Times of India. And he also allays the fears of environmental degradation due to the dredging operations.

"The concrete piles erected for a marina have adequate gaps for the water to flow beneath. In fact, in the UK, we have an award for the best marina every year," said Walters.

The Dubai International Boat Show (DIBS), which is into its sixteenth year and will be staged this year from March 11 to 15, at Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC), Mina Seyahi and is a place where rich Indians buy their yacht.

"Dubai is a leading marine hub in the Middle East for the rich Arabs from the region to buy yachts. Market analysts in the leisure yachts industry point out that the GCC Arabs are the biggest buyers of the yachts in the world. And all the yachts are not parked in their home countries, but in holiday destinations in the Mediterranean countries. But new buyers are emerging from India and Russia," says Helen Wyand, project director, DIBS.

"Indians buying yachts at the DIBS are increasing. Those buying are the rich Indians based in Dubai and also from India who fly in especially for the show with a range of choices available for placing orders in Dubai for the luxury yachts," she said.

A luxury yacht, which is made according to customer specifications, takes eight months to one year to be delivered and the most expensive one costs five million euros.

In the next five years, the leisure boating industry will be worth at least US$1 billion (around Rs4,000 crore) in India, says a report in the livemint.com of The Wall Street journal.

"Elsewhere, entrepreneur Andrew Farkas, founder and CEO of Island global Yachting, is keen on developing a worldwide network of luxury marinas that will change the way yachtsmen and their crew experience the world's most sough-after yachting destinations from the Caribbean to the Middle East," says a report in Yachts Emirates.

How India with its 7,600 km of virgin coastline fits into his plans remains to be seen, but one thing is sure with the projected sales figures of Rs150 crore (US$3.75 million) this year - development of marina, along the coastline, is an urgent necessity to give the industry a kick start it is looking for.

 

[Bushroda]

IIM-A grad gets Rs1.44 cr job offer, sets new record
Jumana Shah
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 03:32 IST

AHMEDABAD: Overriding speculation about the sub-prime crisis trickling into the hiring pattern of MNCs in India, a student at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been offered a record salary of Rs1.44 crore by an international finance corporate for a location abroad. This beats the Rs1.36 crore offer posted by IIM, Calcutta, early this week.

The highest domestic package has gone up to Rs70 lakh – up by 17% from Rs60 lakh last year and the average salaries have increased by a whopping 30% from Rs13.7 lakh to Rs17.85 lakhs.

The average international salary is $119,000 – again a significant jump from the previous year.

The most striking trend in what students opted for this year reiterates the fact that the future is in the emerging economies of Asia and Europe. Of the post-graduate programme batch of 255 students, 87% have taken up offers in India and other Asian countries.

“The increase in the number of students preferring placements in the Asia Pacific region as compared to Europe and the US is indicative of the balance of economic power shifting from the West to the East. Despite the subprime crisis and slowdown in the US economy, the placement at IIM-A has not been impacted,” said IIM-A director Samir Barua.

At a time when the economic crisis in the US is fuelled by the realty sector, real estate players made a high-profile entry into the recruiting list at IIM-A. Lodha Group, DLF and JLL group recruited three students each for domestic positions.

While the director and professors maintained there was no discernible impact of the US meltdown, students conceded that the number of students picked up by international investment banks has decreased and they are indeed being cautious.

Going up, up, up

The highest salary of Rs1.44 crore ($360,000) has been offered to only one student by an international finance company

Several students were offered between $280,000 and $300,000 for international positions

Highest domestic salary is Rs70 lakh

Consulting remains the top draw for students with over 30 of the batch placed in the sector

11 students opted out of the placement process to start their own ventures

112 students participated in the lateral placements; average salary offered increased by 13% from Rs16.2 lakh to Rs 8.3 lakh

 

[Bushroda]

Cool and green in an Indian architectural desert
By Dominic Whiting, Asia property correspondent
Guardian, UK
Tuesday March 11 2008

HONG KONG, March 11 (Reuters) - In a sizzling property market, architect Manit Rastogi at MD Morphogenesis has created some of India's coolest buildings, using recycled water, wells, wind tunnels and sun screens to chill work places and slash energy costs.

Thanks to his designs, students in a Jaipur fashion school mill around classrooms cooled to around 25 degrees Celsius (77 F) without air conditioners, while the desert bakes at nearly double that temperature outside.

And guests at the Swabhumi Hotel in Kolkata feel a breeze as they step out of a building resembling sliced mushrooms fused together, and inspired by the way trees trap wind.

But although developers and investors are coming under the environmental spotlight because buildings account for half the world's carbon dioxide emissions, Rastogi says few in India are going green.

"In India's booming real estate market, there are not enough professionals. And because mediocrity sells, it's easier to do that," Rastogi said in an interview in Hong Kong.

"Architects are just doing what developers want. If you start taking them down the sustainable route, people start getting nervous," he said. "They see it as wasted expense."

Building sites have churned up India's dusty cities since 2005, when rules on inward investment in construction were eased, sparking huge land speculation and a near quadrupling in prices.

An economy growing at more than 8 percent annually has drawn over $12 billion from global property investors, including funds run by Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, and enriched Indian developers such as DLF Ltd.

Morphogenesis, co-founded by Rastogi a decade ago "in a garage", has grown into a conglomerate of 100 architects and interior designers. With land prices soaring, it sells its designs as cost-saving, rather than green.

"When they move away from the standard box, we have to tell them it's more efficient," Rastogi said. "Many say fine, you've convinced us, but how do we convince the market?"

RE-INVENTING THE OLD WAYS

The sales pitch has worked on auditors Ernst and Young. Morphogenesis designed an office block for the company in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon, with a ship's hull design cutting direct sunlight on the sides of the eight-storey glass building.

Computers, gauging temperature and the presence of staff, control air conditioning, and natural light and ventilation dominate. The block costs about 20 percent less to build than a conventional office and saves about a quarter of running costs.

Rastogi said it was the hardest job yet for his company, which has worked on about 40 projects, partly because of the unique nature of the workplace.

"The biggest challenge was to be able to achieve a sustainable yet iconic building," he said.

Studies show going green can pay off quickly.

Spending $264,000 on energy-saving for a 30,000 sq m Sydney office block worth $145 million would be paid back in cost savings in three years, say consultants Jones Lang LaSalle.

Some Asian countries, including Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and India have introduced green building ratings along the lines of systems operating in Britain and the United States, but they are catching on slowly.

According to a Jones Lang LaSalle survey of 414 companies, 12 percent in Asia said they were willing to pay premiums of over 10 percent for "sustainable" buildings, compared to 3 percent in North America and Europe.

Rastogi, who learnt his architecture in New Delhi and London, said he is most influenced by how the average Asian has dealt with searing temperatures over the centuries.

"It might be more fashionable today, with reports on global warming and climate change, but it's always been part of Asian architecture," Rastogi says of energy saving cooling techniques.

"It's only in the last 50 to 100 years that the approach seems to have gone off core values."

The Jaipur fashion school, for example, is built around step wells, inspired by 1,500-year-old works by masons in Gujurat and Rajastan villages who wanted to store ground water and monsoon rains for the parched nine months of each year.

Toilet water is recycled, cleansed by reed beds, and dripped on to external walls for an evaporative cooling effect.

Rastogi also mimics old village roofs, pocked with vents that channel air onto clay pots holding plants inside the rafters.

"We take basic principles plagiarised from thousands of years of human building," Rastogi said.

"We're not looking at great works, but human settlements, communities -- not a great king doing great palaces, but the strategies of the common man." (Editing by Kim Coghill)

 

[Bushroda]

Where the Glitterati Go to Listen, Hip-Hop Meets Indian Classical
Time Zones: Friday Night at a Mumbai Hot Spot

By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

A series of occasional stories and pictures looking at life in foreign countries through the prism of time.

MUMBAI It's 10:30 on a Friday night and already a big, breathless crowd is trying to get into a former warehouse here. Inside is the Blue Frog, one of this city's few live music venues, which six nights a week hosts a stream of international rock and hip-hop acts that often fuse their sounds with Indian classical music.

People who make it through the door squeeze up to the bar. Apple martinis, cranberry flirtinis, cosmos and mojitos are all on offer, the usual libation lineup on the globalized lounge scene.

Nearby there's bright white pod seating, surrounded with glowing blue lights. Positioned around the stage, each pod looks something like a giant lily pad tinged in blue. Patrons are left to imagine the blue frog that might be resting on it.

Those lucky enough to score a pod -- heroes and heroines from Bollywood films, models and modelizers, plus a few literati -- settle in for the evening. They eye the crowd. But this is not a place where people come just to see and be seen. They come to listen.

Around them beats one of India's most powerful sound systems. Concert-size speakers are bolted to the rafters. The off-white walls are bubbled, as if beach balls were trying to squeeze through, the contours cutting the acoustic bounce that can muddy the music.

A sound engineer from Los Angeles designed the system, and high fidelity extends from the nightclub to the recording studios next door, which produce some of the up-and-coming acts that take the stage here.

Pushing through the crowd at 10:46 is Mahesh Mathai, a popular Bollywood filmmaker who co-founded the three-month-old club, along with a few musicians, a restaurateur and an MBA.

Mathai, who sports a sleek Caesar haircut, delivers a quick double-kiss hello to a pretty female friend. Then, raising his voice to be heard above the din, he explains that the club is "every boy's dream. . . . We wanted music to be the soul of the club. Everyone in Bombay thought it was time for a place that broke all the cliches of listening to classical Indian music in a conference hall. We wanted our sound to be fresh, to break down global boundaries."

As India's economy rises, it seems, so does the quality of its music scene.

The Blue Frog provides visual stimulation, too. On giant video screens suspended above the stage are streaming psychedelic montages of animated dancing babies, 1960s-style light-show shapes pulsating to the beat and cartoon-like figures rocking out with air guitars.

Since this is India, where people love to eat when they drink, there's a full kitchen with an award-winning chef, dishing up plate after plate of chi-chi foods -- ricotta and tangerine tortellini pot stickers with saffron aioli, perhaps, or duck breast with maple, mustard and coffee marinade.

Sucking down a cold beer and biting into some sweet chicken wings, Shiram Misra, 32, sits in one of the pods, which hold five to 10 people and are positioned so that the stage is always visible over the heads of others.

"The place is stunning and the food is a hit. But this place has music at its heart," said Misra, who does marketing for a liquor company. "We were so desperate for this in India, to find a place that really centers around the acoustics. It's a gift to India and anyone who appreciates sound."

At 11:15, the evening's live band explodes onto the stage. It's a six-man Austrian hip-hop group called Bauchklang, which might be translated as "tummy tones." They have no instruments.

They do bass with ultra-fast roars from the gut, they whistle, they blow out puffs of air -- all the time holding microphones close to their lips. They make keyboard sounds with blips and burps and mouth clicks. The group's latest CD describes one member as "mouth percussion," another as "human beatbox."

All of the sounds are amplified; the bass makes the whole room tremble. Clubgoers, in awe, pour onto the dance floor. Everyone is grooving and moving.

But the highlight of the night comes at 11:45, when classical Indian crooner Shilpa Rao, who sings for Bollywood movies, joins the band onstage. The resulting blend of hip-hop sounds and her velvety voice is smooth and magical.

Soon another Indian artist joins the Austrians to imitate the Indian tabla drum with his mouth. Tak, dada, tak, tak. The Austrians add their own beats. The crowd cheers, camera phones click, cocktails are polished off.

"We are in Bombay, the new India. Why not have this kind of club?" exclaimed Sarah Jane, one of the country's several Miss Indias. "When we hear the music of young India we feel more alive."

Outside, just after midnight, the line is growing longer, with the young Indians bobbing their heads to the beat filtering out.

 

[Bushroda]

India, US to double trade to $60 bn by 2008 end

India and the US have set the goal of doubling their trade to about $60 billion by the end of 2008 while agreeing to begin exploratory talks on a possible bilateral investment treaty. Budget 2008-09. The goal is set out in the Bush administration's 2008 Trade Policy Agenda and the 2007 Annual Trade Report to the US Congress released here Tuesday.

Though trade has expanded rapidly, the current total amount of bilateral trade is not consistent with the size and potential of both the US and Indian economies, and both governments agree that trade and investment flows should be greater, the report said. Noteworthy developments in 2007 included finalising arrangements for Indian mangoes to enter the US market for the first time, and agreement to initiate exploratory discussions in early 2008 on a possible bilateral investment treaty.

Another development in 2007 in the bilateral US-India trade relationship was the creation of a Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG). The group's key purpose is to provide strategic recommendations and insights to the India Trade Policy Forum (TPF). The discussions under the TPF, which is part of the overall economic dialogue between India and the US, cover bilateral trade and related issues and also address multilateral issues such as the ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Development Round negotiations. The membership of the PSAG includes trade experts and representatives of private sector organizations in the US and India with in-depth knowledge of international economic and trade policy.

The group will provide US Trade Representative (USTR) Susan C. Schwab and Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath with analyses and recommendations for potential building blocks for bilateral economic relationship. Commensurate with India's dynamic and growing economy, the bilateral agenda continued to expand with respect to the significant opportunities for bilateral trade that US and Indian companies are aggressively pursuing, as well as the challenges US investors continue to face as India gradually opens its markets. However, India continues to limit market access in various sectors, including through high taxes and tariffs, non-transparent procedures, discriminatory treatment of imports, and non-tariff barriers, said the report.

Noting the two countries completed another year of active dialogue on trade policy in 2007, the report said India is working to improve its protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. "We continue to work with the government of India to address issues related to India's copyright law and patent law, protection of undisclosed pharmaceutical test or other data, as well as high levels of piracy, including book piracy, and counterfeiting", it said. The USTR's efforts included the identification of new areas for cooperation, including with regard to India's tariff and tax regime, intellectual property rights, investment climate and regulatory hurdles.

As part of their trade dialogue, Schwab and Kamal Nath convened the fourth ministerial-level meeting of the TPF in April 2007. Through regular dialogue under the TPF, the US and India seek to remove impediments to bilateral trade by anticipating potential trade problems and jointly resolving concerns early.

The TPF serves as the umbrella for five focus groups: Agriculture, Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers, Services, Investment, and Innovation and Creativity (in particular intellectual property rights issues). Deputy USTR Karan Bhatia and Indian Commerce Secretary Gopal Pillai oversaw ongoing focus group discussions throughout 2007 to address priority issues such as foreign direct investment caps, intellectual property rights protection, telecommunications policy and market access for a wide range of manufactured and agricultural products and services.

Schwab and Kamal Nath met on several other occasions in 2007. They participated in the US-India Economic Dialogue and US-India CEO Forum events held in New York City in September. These events included discussions among US and Indian Cabinet-level and other senior government officials focused on trade and economic affairs. Top government officials from both countries also met with CEOs from major US and Indian corporations with the goal of reviewing progress, and building momentum for our bilateral trade and investment relationship.

Schwab and Kamal Nath also met a number of times in the context of the Doha Development Round negotiations in an effort to find common ground in the pursuit of an ambitious outcome. Multilaterally too, the US continues to lead efforts towards concluding an ambitious Doha Development Round, the report said. Concluding an ambitious Doha Round is President George Bush's top trade negotiating priority and will generate economic growth through new trade flows in agriculture, industrial goods and services, helping to lift millions of people in developing countries out of poverty, it said.

"The administration realises that a window of opportunity exists to conclude the Doha Round this year and looks forward to working with our trading partners to achieve the ambitious and balanced outcome that will be necessary for a successful agreement," the report said.

 

[Neo]

JPMorgan cuts India growth forecast to 7% ​

MUMBAI: JPMorgan has cut its forecast for India’s economic growth in the fiscal year starting April 1 to 7 percent from 7.5 percent, which would be the country’s slowest pace of expansion in six years.

Asia’s third-largest economy grew an average of 8.75 percent in the past four fiscal years and the government estimates growth of 8.7 percent in 2007-08, which runs to the end of March. “India’s GDP revision owes to expectation of moderation in growth in industry and service sectors that will likely be greater than what was reflected in the prior forecast,” JPMorgan economists Rajeev Malik and Gunjan Gulati said in a report. “Growth is poised to pick up to 8 percent in 2009-10, and the medium-term favourable structural dynamics remain in place,” the economists said. Their forecast for 2008/09 is much lower than the expectations of the government and the central bank. In January, central bank governor Yaga Venugopal Reddy said India should aim for a growth of at least 8.5 percent in 2008-09, and Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said this month he expected the economy to grow by at least 8.8 percent.

JP Morgan said India was better insulated against a downturn in the global economy than other emerging Asia economies because it was relatively less open. “Admittedly, some sectors such as information technology services are more heavily dependent on the US, and will likely suffer more,” the report said. The economists did not change their forecast on official interest rates. They expect the central bank to cut its repurchase rate by 25 basis point at a policy review in July. The repo rate, the central bank’s short-term lending rate through which it injects cash into the banking system, has been at 7.75 percent for almost a year.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan