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did INR just touch the 55 line?

turning scary, isn't it?

Dont mind, there are tough times ahead of us. We already had bigger problems. Anyway, I appreciate the concern for our economy by some Chinese and Pakistani forum members....
 
Dont mind, there are tough times ahead of us. We already had bigger problems. Anyway, I appreciate the concern for our economy by some Chinese and Pakistani forum members....

you speak like an official in your gov.

innocent people will get lose huge. Panic happens when it cross 55 level, which already did.
 
Indian rupee breaks below 55/U.S. dollar to record low


By Swati Bhat
MUMBAI | Mon May 21, 2012 1:11pm BST
(Reuters) - The Indian rupee fell below the key psychological level of 55 to hit a new record low on Monday, setting up the prospect of further falls unless the central bank takes measures or intervenes more aggressively, traders said.

The rupee has now hit four consecutive record lows in as many sessions, at a time of intense turmoil over the euro zone, but traders saw no major signs of intervention from the Reserve Bank of India either on Friday or on Monday.

Despite the absence, traders are bracing for new measures from the RBI. The central bank has largely failed to prevent the rupee's falls this month despite selling dollars and taking steps to attract inflows via deposits and exporters' foreign currency holdings.

Traders say the Indian rupee, which is Asia's worst-performing currency this year, has proven particularly vulnerable to the global risk aversion given the steep fiscal and economic challenges facing the country.

"With just six months worth import cover, twin deficits, lack of confidence in the coalition government with regards to reforms, and also failure to attract foreign flows, suggests the INR is likely to hit 56-56.50 in the next two months," said Pramod Patil, a FX dealer at United Overseas Bank.

The partially convertible unit hit a life-time low of 55.05 per dollar during the session, before [B]closing at 55.03/04[/B], according to SBI data, well below its 54.42/44 close on Friday.

Also weighing on the rupee was dollar demand from oil firms and corporates, dealers said.

Although profit-taking in the USD/INR cross could temper the pace of falls in the local unit in the near-term, the outlook for the rupee still remains very weak unless global risk aversion eases, traders said.

The one-month NDF was quoted at 55.45 while the three month NDF was at 56.10, both indicative of the expectations for further falls.

In the currency futures market, the most-traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange all ended around 55.09 on a total volume of $4.35 billion.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/uk-india-rupee-idUKBRE84K0KY20120521?type=GCA-ForeignExchange

Its not the end of the fall as all data indicate. indians to hold breath for another nosedive!
 
you speak like an official in your gov.

innocent people will get lose huge. Panic happens when it cross 55 level, which already did.

this economic fluctuation,
a) due to the crisis in greece, and a flight of currency to dollars from euros
b) phucked up policy paralysis.

not systemic...sorry for interrupting your wet dreams
 
Gold demand drops as price rally continues
Published on Mon, May 21, 2012 at 17:46 | Source : Reuters
Updated at Mon, May 21, 2012 at 18:24

Demand for gold in India, one of the world's top consumers, remained subdued on Monday as local prices rose tracking overseas gains and as the rupee hit a new all-time low against the dollar.
* The most-active gold for June delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) was up 0.54% at Rs 29,129 by 5:02 p.m. The contract hit a low of Rs 27,855 on May 16, the lowest level since April 4.
* "In a week, the prices have risen over Rs 1,000. Buyers are finding it difficult to adjust with the price rise. They are waiting for a correction," said a Mumbai-based dealer with a private bank, which imports bullion.
* Global gold inched up towards USD 1,600 an ounce on Monday, tracking a steady euro after world leaders pledged to combat financial turmoil, although worries about Greece and the euro zone debt crisis continued to feed caution in the financial markets.
* The rupee plays an important role in determining the landed cost of the dollar-quoted yellow metal. The rupee hit a new record low of 55 per dollar on Monday, from Friday's closing of 54.42-44.
* "The festival season is already over. The wedding season is coming to an end. We are now heading towards a traditionally lean demand season. Jewellers will do restocking only if prices fall sharply," the bank dealer said.

Gold demand drops as price rally continues - Reuters -
 
Its not the end of the fall as all data indicate. indians to hold breath for another nosedive!

shuttler, let us have a constructive discussion here shall we? The Global Economic Net is interconnected. The fall of one economy will affect others as well.

Muacks :laugh:
 
Drop in gold demand is good for our economy. Perhaps you don't know that !!!

Dont mind dude, everything that includes Indian economy with verbs like: drop, decrease, fall etc is a good news for him and thus has to be posted ASAP. I wonder whether this person is doing nothing else in his life than desperately trying to google any bad news about our economy to scare some Indians on PDF
 
Why UPA-2 has failed: Voodoo politics and economics

by R Jagannathan May 21, 2012


How did UPA-2 pull disillusionment (and potential defeat) from the jaws of thumping victory in 2009? What went wrong? Why didn’t anything go right? And why do we think that UPA-1 did better than UPA-2?

As the media gets ready to evaluate UPA-2’s performance on the third anniversary of its return to power today (21 May), we shall seek to answer these questions.

At the risk of oversimplifying the analysis, I would say UPA-2 failed by following voodoo politics and voodoo economics, based on voodoo belief that politics and economics can be permanently divorced.

In UPA-2, both the things that ensured cohesion in UPA-1 disappeared. Sonia and Manmohan seemed to be on different planets, and the Big Three were busy trying to undercut one another on the assumption that the top job may be up for grabs as Manmohan Singh seemed to falter.

To make matters worse, the BJP continued to remain in self-destruct mode, with no leader, no policy ideas, and no plan to capture power in 2014. It is this vacuum created by the BJP that enabled the regional parties to fill the opposition space – accentuating the voodoo-politics syndrome.

The BJP’s failure has facilitated the emergence of voodoo politics, where governance has been given the go-by on the assumption that the First Family’s magic and heavy social spending are enough to give the party a win.

This is why when corruption emerged as a major concern among the urban middle-classes – the classes that put the Congress on top in 2009 - the Congress tried to brazen it out with the Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare movements. Luckily for the Congress, both Anna and Baba embraced voodoo ideas like the Jan Lokpal Bill and bringing back black money as some kind of panacea for corruption. Both scored self-goals and became less of a threat to the Congress.

At the core of voodoo politics is the First Family’s reluctance to play a political role in UPA-2, with both Sonia and Rahul surfacing in public only when it suited them. Leaving politics to sycophants and trusted retainers like Ahmed Patel or Digvijaya Singh meant that neither Sonia nor Rahul engaged with politics directly – except at election time.

Voodoo politics in UPA-2 was aided by voodoo economics – where no reforms are ever deemed needed. This was partly the result of UPA-1’s undeserved economic success. Thanks to a successful first term where the economy averaged over 8 percent growth, the Congress developed a naïve belief that everything will fall into place due to our demographic advantage or social spending. One merely has to keep redistributing income (to the poor, the rural areas) and things will work out fine.

At the end of UPA-1, the Congress party wrongly assumed that the buoyant economy was the result of its own policies rather than dumb luck. But this is what really happened.

The economic uptick, which came after years of small reforms carried out during the United Front and NDA years, and which was aided by very high global growth during the George W Bush years, started in the last year of the NDA and continued till 2007-08 – five solid years.

If the initial buoyancy was pure luck that had nothing to do with the UPA’s own policies, what followed in 2008-10 was even more luck. This is how it played out. The UPA’s spend-spend-spend policies created rampant inflation and by 2008 (August 2008) the wholesale prices index (WPI) was hitting a 13-year high of 12.44 percent. The Reserve Bank was feverishly pushing up interest rates. If this had continued, UPA would certainly not have won its big mandate in 2009.

This is where dumb luck helped again. When the Lehman crisis broke cover in September 2008, the world economy went into a tailspin and oil prices crashed. Even though GDP growth fell, UPA-1 reaped a huge windfall in the form of a dramatic fall in inflation (despite huge spending) that had nothing to do with any policy effort. By June 2009, inflation, in fact, turned negative (and let’s remember, May 2009 was when the UPA won re-election).

The year 2008-09 was the UPA’s sweet spot that coincided with election-time. Thanks to fears of recession, the government did what it does best – spend mindlessly – and several spending or economic giveaway schemes were unleashed: a Rs 1,80,000 crore stimulus package (which was needed, of course), a Rs 70,000 crore farm loan waiver, huge increases in pre-election minimum support prices for farm products, and huge spends on schemes like NREGA. To top it all, UPA-1 also provided urban and rural consumers huge subsidies in petro-products and fertiliser.

If you take the combined effect of oil and fertiliser subsidies so far, the farm loan waiver, the post-Lehman economic stimulus, the big increases in social spending, and the proposed spending on the Food Security Bill in the run-up to 2014, the amount spent would not be less than Rs 10,00,000 crore – yes, ten lakh crore – since the UPA was first elected in 2004.

No government can spend so much – most of it wastefully – and still avoid the charge of economic mismanagement. Voodoo economics was rescued from its consequences – high deficits and high inflation – in 2009 by the global meltdown. But the real impact remains on our account books in the form of huge fiscal and current account deficits.

With a fiscal deficit of 5.9 percent in 2011-12 and a current account deficit estimated at 4 percent of GDP (the highest ever, which is sending our rupee crashing), UPA-2 is reaping the whirlwind on its voodoo economics.

The Indian political-economy follows a dialectical pattern where reform is balanced by redistribution in turn. The late 1980s fiscal crisis resulted in the reforms of 1991. When electoral needs forced Narasimha Rao to shift the focus back to spending, inflation soared and growth slowed down during the UF and NDA years – which forced them to push the envelope on reforms.

UPA-1 reaped the benefits of both domestic reforms and global growth. But UPA-2 needed to push reforms at least for the initial two to three years to reap the rewards in 2014. This is why it failed. It said a pass on reforms, and is about to pay the price.

By focusing on 2014 in 2009, and refusing to acknowledge the role of luck in 2004-09 in its economic performance and political rejuvenation, UPA-2 compounded voodoo politics with voodoo economics.

The result is stagflation – which we have called Rahul-flation in the past since voodoo economics has been unleashed by the need to elect him PM in 2014.

But without reforms and the abandonment of voodoo political-economics, UPA-2 is likely to bite the dust.

Far from seeing 2009 as a mandate to govern, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul saw 2009 as an incentive to start planning for 2014.AFP

The term voodoo economics was coined by George Bush Sr to attack Ronald Reagan’s economic policies that prescribed tax cuts as the best solution to the country’s problems. In India, of course, voodoo economics is the reverse – it stems from the opposite belief that you can go on spending and taxes will somehow come back to the coffers and rescue the economy.

But what we now have is falling growth, falling rupee, falling UPA credibility, rising inflation, rising government expenditure, and a rising sense of unease about where India is heading.

For UPA, it all began with voodoo politics – politics without internal consistency, vision or governance. To understand this, we need to go back to 2009, when the Congress party was celebrating its huge victory. The party increased its Lok Sabha seat-count to 206 – the highest tally by a national party since 1991 – barely 65-70 seats short of an absolute majority on its own. That’s where voodoo politics began in right earnest.

The 2009 results confirmed two things to the Congress party: that heavy social spending is the way to install Rahul Gandhi in power in 2014; and that the country may soon be ready to give one party complete control of government. What started as a brief dalliance with aam aadmi politics in 2004 (which the Congress unexpectedly won) gathered more steam after 2009.

What remained unchanged after UPA-1 was the belief that the Sonia-Manmohan division of power – where the former influences all major political-economic decisions and the latter keeps a semblance of administration going without doing much – was good enough to ensure a Rahul Gandhi victory in 2014.

In short, far from seeing 2009 as a mandate to govern, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul saw 2009 as an incentive to start planning for 2014. Stated differently, the political efforts for winning 2014 began as early as 2009. This was how UPA-2 squandered its mandate.

We all know how policy-making turns populist whenever parties see elections round the corner, but Sonia and Rahul smelt it five before 2014.

This is why the National Advisory Council (NAC), which had been disbanded in 2006 after the office-of-profit controversy, was revived in March 2010 to devise pork-barrel entitlement schemes that would pay off politically in 2014. Whether it was the land acquisition bill or the mining bill or the food security bill, the NAC was reactivated to give Sonia the political platform to start planning for 2014 from 2009 itself.

This was also why Rahul Gandhi kept playing compulsive populist at regular intervals – turning up suddenly among Orissa’s tribals to claim he was their soldier in Delhi in August 2010, announcing a Muslim quota before the UP elections. Lessons from the Bihar elections, where the party was trounced by Nitish Kumar and the BJP in 2010, were ignored as aberrations.

The Congress also underestimated the impact of the Left’s bullying in UPA-1 in keeping its own coherence intact. When the Left was seen as the frenemy (a friend and enemy), it gave both Sonia and Manmohan an incentive to back each other up. It also kept the ambitions of the top three in the UPA government – Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, and P Chidambaram – in check.

Why UPA-2 has failed: Voodoo politics and economics | Firstpost
 
Meanwhile in other news....

5 auto majors to invest Rs. 5,700 cr in TN

As part of efforts to tap more investments in the state, Tamil Nadu government on Monday signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with five automobile majors with an investment of at least Rs. 5,700 crore to create 9,530 jobs.

The MoUs with Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Private Limited, India Yamaha Motor Limited, Ashok Leyland-Nissan Motor Company Limited, Eicher Motors Limited and Philips Carbon Black Limited were signed in the presence of chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

Making the suo motu statement in the assembly, Jayalalithaa said German luxury car maker Daimler has decided to double the investments proposed in the state. “During the previous (DMK) government Daimler said it will invest Rs. 3000 crore at the time of signing the MoU. But in 2010, it reduced it to Rs. 2000 crore. Now, it has planned to double the investments in the state to Rs. 4000 crore. The MoU was signed today”, she said.Through these new investments, she said 3000 direct employments would be made in the plant.
Daimler India manufactures truck at their 400 acre plant at Oragadam near here. Jayalalithaa inaugurated the manufacturing unit in April.

Similarly, two-wheeler giant Yamaha has proposed to make investments of Rs. 1500 crore for their third manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu spread across 125 acre, Jayalalithaa said.

The state government signed MoU with top officials of India Yamaha Motor, she said, adding with the proposed investments, 3000 new job opportunities would be made and an additional 20,000 indirect employments would be created, she said.

Government also signed a fresh MoU with Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland and Japanese-automajor Nissan for setting up a Rs. 4,150 crore light commercial vehicle manufacturing plant here, Jayalalithaa said.

Though the two companies had signed an agreement with the previous government in 2008 for the project, it did not take off as the land was not allotted.

The land was allotted only in February 2011, she said, adding, even some of the requirements made by the company were not met by the previous Government. The project would provide 3,000 jobs.

The AIADMK government also signed a MoU with makers of Royal Enfield motor cycles, Eicher Motors Ltd, for setting up a new plant at SIPCOT Industrial Park in Oragadam at an investment of Rs. 350 crore. The government has allotted 50 acre land for it, the Chief Minister said, adding, it would create 300 new jobs.

Eicher Motors already have a plant in Ennore near Chennai to manufacture Royal Enfield brand of motorcycles.

Philips Carbon Black Ltd, promoted by industrialist R P Goenka also exchanged documents with the government for setting up a manufacturing plant to produce carbon black (an essential ingredient for manufacturing tyres), she said.

The Rs. 350 crore plant will come up in SIPCOT Industrial Park at Thervoykandigai in Thiruvallur district and would generate 230 new jobs, she said.

Jayalalithaa said the Government was examining proposals from various companies and would sign MoUs in the coming days.

http://www.livemint.com/2012/05/1415...est-Rs-57.html

TVS to invest in Hosur

TVS Motor and Sundaram Clayton Limited (SCL), part of the $5-billion TVS Group, together are planning to invest around Rs 770 crore in their facilities at Hosur in Tamil Nadu. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect is expected to be signed with the Tamil Nadu government shortly, according to sources.

Meanwhile, TVS Motor has pumped an additional $5 million into its Indonesian subsidiary – PT TVS Motor Company, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s data.

When contacted, a TVS Motor Company spokesperson declined to comment saying that “the company is currently in a silent period.” Officials of Sundaram Clayton were unavailable for comment.

SCL is one of the largest auto components manufacturing and distribution group in India. It is a leading supplier of aluminium die castings to the automotive and non-automotive sector.

Recently, the company has said that it had received new orders from companies like Daimler and that the new orders accounted for 10-12 per cent of its total business. The company has witnessed good volume growth – from 32,000 tonne last year to 36,000 tonne this year.

SCL has one plant at Hosur and two in Chennai. The proposed investment by the company will be for brown-field expansion, sources said.

Investments by TVS Motor, the third-largest two-wheeler manufacturer in the country, will be for a brown-field expansion at Hosur, which will support its growth target of eight to 10 per cent for the whole year. The investment comes at a time when the company has lined up some new launches, including a 125-cc motorcycle during the July-August time frame.

The company has reported a seven per cent growth in domestic sales during the month of April at 151,181 units, as against 141,619 units in April 2011. Total sales of the company grew four per cent in April 2012 with sales of 174,455 units, as against 167,744 units registered in April 2011.

TVS Motor, Sundaram Clayton to invest Rs 770 cr in Hosur

More Halal from India

Islamic branding is an idea whose time has come, as brands tracking a broader consumer base get accustomed to Muslim sensibilities. It’s not just about halal food alone, for it’s at the forefront of the branding repertoire that resonates deeply with Muslim consumers around the globe.

Homegrown brands like CavinKare, Daawat, Bikano, Goldwinner oil, Vadilal ice cream, Amrutanjan Health Care and Gujarat Ambuja Exports are embracing halal-certification to get a better foothold in markets like Singapore, Malaysia and Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries.

CavinKare has got a halal certification from Halal India, an apex body for halal certification, for three of its products – Fairever, Nyle herbal shampoo and Ruchi pickle – to expand its footprint in Singapore, Malaysia and GCC.

“The certification is a reason-to-belief for customers on quality parameters. The certification will also give an edge over our competitors,” said R S Vijay Kumar, GM of international business at CavinKare, a Chennai-based personal care company.

Nyle shampoo, for instance, cornered a 26.7% share in the Singapore halal-compliant market and 22% in Malaysia for the same segment last fiscal, he added. The Rs 1,100-crore company expects its international business to touch the Rs 100-crore mark in the current fiscal from Rs 70 crore earlier.

Bikano, the sweet and the namkeen brand from Bikanervala Foods, has seen a 30% jump in soan papdi and cookies sales in Malaysian market in the last one year, partly due to the halal-certification that gave a higher visibility on retail shelves there.

“Halal signifies highest standards of quality and hygiene in ingredients, processes and products,” said Sachin Anand, head (international business), Bikanervala Foods.

Amrutanjan has obtained a halal certificate for all its pain balm products exported to Singapore, Malaysia, West Indies and a few African markets.

“Islam in many ways is a way of life. To that extent, Islamic branding is all about using brands as good deeds. What starts with halal foods, can move on to halal practice in every industry, be it the pharmaceutical or the cosmetic industry. Islamic branding can embrace broader pastures that cover business practices too,” said Harish Bijoor, CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults.

“With many brands embracing halal, Indian brands may look at an export market opportunity of about $200 billion in the next ten years,” said Mohamed Jinna, CEO of Halal India.

The halal stamp can be extended to those brands tuned into the principles of Sharia in faith, good practice and spirit. Globally, the halal market is worth a staggering $2.1 trillion a year, says a report by brand consultancy firm Ogilvy Noor.

The market opportunity for halal products is still untapped in India, but brand consultants are not dismissing its potential in a country with 160 million Muslims. Paul Temporal, founder and MD of Temporal Brand Consulting, feels that there is a lot more room for brand managers to adapt these values for different markets and cultures, whether Islamic or not.

“If you look at Islamic values, most of them are emotional and this makes for good branding and marketing. A more careful look reveals that a lot of these values do not just suit Islamic audiences, but are of a universally appealing nature. The issue or challenge is to find where these people are and to reach them with suitable products,” he added.


To woo Muslims in global markets Indian brands get ‘halal’ stamp | ummid.com
 
INDIAN Currency's Greek tragedy continues, Rupee falls to all-time low of 55.02

MUMBAI: The Indian currency's Greek tragedy continued on Tue, as the rupee falls to a new all-time low of 55.02, marking a 23% fallalready this year.


India inflation jumped to 7.23 %


Food prices climbing by over 10 per cent, the commerce ministry said. The disappointing numbers helped push India's currency to a record low of 55.02 rupees to the dollar while the stock market shed half a percentage point to finish at a four-month trough of 16159 points.
 
India's economic growth to quicken in 2013 - OECD

PARIS (Reuters)- India's economic growth is likely to rise to more than 7.5 percent in calendar year 2013 but continued government policy uncertainty could erode the country's longer-term growth prospects, the OECD said on Tuesday.

A cyclical upturn in investment, stronger external demand and the effects of recent monetary easing will boost growth, the report said, although it warned that high inflation would dampen the investment climate.

The prediction of higher growth in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's outlook report should cheer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government - which has faced an avalanche of criticism over how it has run Asia's third-largest economy and its scant progress making key reforms.

The upbeat OECD forecast stood in stark contrast to the pessimistic view offered on Monday by Morgan Stanley, which cut its growth forecasts for India, citing a high budget deficit and slowing private investment. It said it now expected the economy to grow by 6.8 percent, instead of 7.5 percent, in 2013.

Standard & Poor's rating agency cut its outlook for India's credit rating to negative from stable in April, reflecting worries about high deficits and political paralysis that has stalled progress on major economic reforms.

India's economic growth slowed to 6.1 percent in the three months to December, the weakest annual pace in almost three years, while the rupee slumped to record lows against the dollar on Tuesday.

"A moderate cyclical pick-up in investment is projected in the near term," the OECD said. "Later this year and into the next, growth is set to pick up to around trend rates, supported by the delayed effects of the recent monetary policy easing."

"However, still high inflation will limit the room for significant further relaxation," it added.

POLICY UNCERTAINTY

India has had rapid economic growth after opening up its economy in 1991. But investors fret that Singh's government is now squandering a chance to tap the country's potential.

The current account deficit is the highest since 1980. Reforms such as opening India's supermarket sector to foreign chains like Wal-Mart (WMT.N) stuttered as the government failed to convince powerful coalition allies. Inflation is the highest among the so-called BRICS group of major developing nations.

Costly subsidies have pushed the fiscal deficit to 5.9 percent from a target of 4.6 percent of GDP in the fiscal year that ended in March 2012. The government must push consolidation to help reduce inflation and the current account deficit, the report said, warning that an expected rise in global oil prices could again force New Delhi to overshoot its spending target.

Continued policy uncertainty and more fiscal slippage "would weaken investment sentiment and result in softer near-term growth and an erosion of longer-run prospects," the OECD said, though adding that India's pace of growth could overtake China's by 2020.

(Reporting by Matthias Williams in NEW DELHI; Editing by Richard Borsuk)



India's economic growth to quicken in 2013 - OECD | Reuters
 
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