Indian Economy-News & Updates

[kkacer]

India's puny monsoon sparks fears of drought‎

4 Aug, 2012

Annual downpour is a lifeline for about two thirds of the 1.2-billion population who depend on agriculture for their incomes. The rains have been so poor that some farmers have decided not to sow crops, spelling more bad news for a slowing economy buffeted by its worst power crisis this week following massive blackouts.

“My fields are completely dry. There have been no rains and I have no artificial irrigation facility to be able to grow food grains,” Dayal told AFP from his village, Kherikhummar, in the northern state of Haryana.

India

 

[rcrmj]

India's puny monsoon sparks fears of drought‎

4 Aug, 2012

Annual downpour is a lifeline for about two thirds of the 1.2-billion population who depend on agriculture for their incomes. The rains have been so poor that some farmers have decided not to sow crops, spelling more bad news for a slowing economy buffeted by its worst power crisis this week following massive blackouts.

“My fields are completely dry. There have been no rains and I have no artificial irrigation facility to be able to grow food grains,” Dayal told AFP from his village, Kherikhummar, in the northern state of Haryana.

India

their economy is defined by WIPO as primitive factor driven economy, like weather will affact their economy in big deal``lets wait for their 2012 GDP growth which will be low because of the bad weather````

 

[DARIUS]

Kashmir Valley is the new investors' paradise
Mufti Islah, CNN-IBN

Srinagar: Kashmir for once is in the news for all the right reasons. While the guns in the valley are yet to be fully silenced, the last three months alone have seen half a million tourists visiting the state. For Kashmiris, this is a rare opportunity, especially with hotel, houseboat and airfare charges going up.
As opposed to the five flights-a-day earlier, as many as 30 flights now fly in excited tourists every single day.
A busy tourist season has ensured a huge upswing of economic activity even as after many years, an army of jobless youth are getting absorbed in an industry that is set to touch two million mark.
Industry pundits hope that if peace holds for a few more years, a target of five million is easily achievable.
And hoping to profit on the upswing are new players from both within the state and outside. Twenty three-year-old Saddam Zaroo runs a new hotel in Srinagar and is planning two summer resorts. The MD of Khizer City Forests says, "This place has great potential. Here we can explore water rafting, mountain climbing, skiing, para-gliding. There is so much we can do which is not possible anywhere else. Apart from that there is the yatra which is going to come in some time. We can keep ourselves busy for 365 days and when we are busy, that means a lot of investment would eventually come."
JHM Interstate, which runs 400 hotels across the world, is set to manage a six-star hotel that has been set up by a local business group in Gulmarg. Other leading hotel chains will set up boutique hotels as far as Drass and Kargil in Leh.
Lloyd Lauland, Executive Director of JHM Interstate, says, "We are here to operate Khyber mountain resort in Gulmarg for next several years. We will be launching the resort in November. We will be accepting guests from Dipawali period onward and getting ready for the upcoming ski season."
Ayesha, a young tourist says, "There is so much to enjoy... We went to the gardens and they are so beautiful and boating is nice..."
After many dreary seasons, the mood in the valley right now is upbeat.
Kashmir Valley is the new investors' paradise - India News - IBNLive

 

[kkacer]

A poor monsoon worsen inflation of food prices.

“If the government doesn’t help us we will die of hunger. There’s no water to drink and no food to eat,” said Bharat, the farmer from western India.

Scarce rain in India hurts farms, power supply | The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper

 

[Boson]

NSE becomes world's top bourse in number of equity trades - The Economic Times

NSE becomes world's top bourse in number of equity trades

NEW DELHI: The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has become the world's largest bourse in terms of the number of trades in equity segment for the first six months of 2012.

As per the latest global ranking compiled by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), a total of 7,35,474 trades took place in the equity segment of NSE during January-June 2012, making it the world's largest exchange on this parameter.

NSE was followed by NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX at the second and the third positions. While NYSE Euronext recorded a total of 7,34,154 trades, Nasdaq was close behind with 7,11,779 trades in their respective equity segments during the same period.

Another major Indian bourse, BSE Ltd, recorded a total of 1,87,824 trades during this period in its equity segment. While the total number of listed companies is much larger in case of the BSE, the exchange lags behind NSE significantly in terms of volume and value of trades.

The WFE data further showed that NSE is the second largest exchange globally after Korea Exchange for index options. The Korea Exchange and NSE were followed by Eurex as third largest exchange worldwide in terms of total number of index options traded during the first six months of 2012.

Experts said that a growing investor base, use of latest technology and new products have helped NSE reach top positions globally. NSE's platform is connected to two lakh trading terminals in more than 2,000 towns and cities across the country.

The latest data shows that investors from tier-three cities contributed more than 45 per cent of total cash market retail turnover in the financial year 2011- 12. Besides, the tier-three cities account for more than half of the total retail investor base on NSE platform.

In the recent past, NSE has launched several new asset classes for different kinds of investors. These include investment products linked to global indices, a dedicated SME platform, currency derivatives, mobile trading, mutual funds trading platform and several sectoral indices.

 

[Boson]

Monsoon rains 4% below average in past week - Reuters

Monsoon rains 4% below average in past week

India's monsoon rains were 4% below average in the week to August 1, the weather office said on Thursday, improving from a fifth below average in the previous week as rainfall revived in soybean and rice growing areas of India.


India is facing its second drought in just four years and on Tuesday took steps to cut irrigation costs and increase fodder supplies for livestock farmers. But it held off from imposing any curb on exports of agricultural products or a ban of futures trading in them.


The June to September rains were 19% below average from the start of the season to July 31, indicating an improvement in the key planting month of July in comparison with the first month of the season when the rains were 29% below average.


In July, the rains were about 13% below average.


Rains below 90% of long-term averages in the entire season are considered "deficient," or a drought in layman's terms.

 

[cloud_9]

Indian miners' consortium Afghan Iron & Steel Company close to getting mining project in Afghanistan

NEW DELHI: A consortium of Indian miners and steel companies that calls itself Afghan Iron & Steel Company, or AFISCO, has just completed its fifth and possibly final negotiations on Tuesday.

A final contract prepared by lawyers from both sides will be passed by Afghan cabinet, as soon as their new mineral policy is drafted and approved, according to a senior Afghan official.

In November, AFISCO was chosen as the preferred bidder for three of the four concessions at Hajigak, that lies 130 west of Kabul in the Bamian district.

The Indian consortium will now have rights for 30 years to develop the mine and put up a steel and power plant that it has promised to the war torn country.

Sources involved in the negotiations say Afghanistan has given the consortium three years of exploration and another couple of years to put up a steel plant while promising energy and water resources for its running.

An export cap of 6 mtpa is to kick-in if there is any delay in setting up a steel and power plant. Officials from the country point out that AFISCO's bid was considered for the promised downstream infrastructure - a steel plant, a power plant, a 200-km railway line linking them to the mine that Indian consortium estimated could cost about $11 billion.

Afghanistan has also proposed a sliding royalty of 3-12% charged on international benchmark prices for a more equitable share in the ups and downs of iron ore prices.
AFISCO consists of governmentpromoted Steel Authority of India, NMDC, RINL and private players that include Jindal Steel & Power, JSW Steel, JSW Ispat and MONNET Steel and Power.

A joint venture company respecting each firm respective share will be registered soon. A similar public-private consortium is now pursuing its chances with copper deposits on the block in Afghanistan, and will be making a commercial bid for a copper block by August 6.

Hajigak is Afghanistan's second serious international investment in the mineral sector. In 2010, the US Department of Defence revealed that Afghan mineral riches could total $1 trillion. Afghanistan believes it's closer to $3 trillion.

The recent investment summit on Afghanistan hosted by New Delhi is to be seen as an example of India's serious efforts in this regard. Counting on this, consortium members are hoping to get financial assistance from the central government.

India isn't the only country risking the volatility of the war torn Afghanistan for its rich mineral deposits. With an investment commitment of nearly $4 billion, China is developing the Aynak copper mines in the Logar district that it won rights to in 2007.

NSEL kickstarts imported coal trade, 3000 MT traded on day one

MUMBAI: About 3000 Metric tonne of imported coal was traded on Mumbai-based National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), which recently launched delivery-based imported coal contracts with delivery on export location Mangalore.

This facilitates power sector companies, cement manufacturers sponge iron manufacturers, sugar mills and other industries to source imported coal electronically through NSEL platform. The platform also enables large importers to sell imported coal directly to end users without any intermediary.

These imported coal contracts have net calorific value in the range of 5800 to 6000 kcal/kg, volatile matter is less than 21%, sulphur is below 1% and moisture content is between 8% to 13%. The quality is certified by Inspectorate M&L (PTY) LTD and Mitra S K Private Limited.

The minimum trading lot is 500 MT and the price quotation is in INR (Indian Rupees) per MT. The first trade of 3000 MT recorded on July 24, 2012 was at Rs. 7,300 per MT. At present, 80,000 MT of coal is lying at the Mangalore port, which will be sold through NSEL platform over the next 1 month.

Oil India keen to take stake in HPCL's Barmer refinery

After Vedanta Resources plc and Engineers India Ltd, state owned Oil India Ltd has evinced interest in taking a stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd's planned 9 million tonnes a year refinery in Rajasthan.

Cash rich OIL is keen to take up to 10 to 15% stake in refinery HPCL plans to build near the Barmer oil finds of Cairn India. Sources said preliminary discussions have been held but nothing has been finalised so far.

HPCL is to hold 51% stake in the USD 4 billion project while state-owned engineering consultancy firm EIL would take 5%

Vedanta Resources, which last year acquired Cairn India for USD 8.67 billion, is interested in taking a small equity of up to 5% in the project.

State explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp which owns 30% interest in the Barmer oilfields of Cairn India, had in 2005 committed to building the refinery in Rajasthan but later had a change of heart.

Sources said after HPCL decided to take up the project, ONGC, which originally had the authorisation from the government for processing the Barmer crude at the proposed refinery, too evinced interest in taking 26% stake.

However, HPCL is not keen on giving anything more than 16.96% to ONGC. This being equivalent to the stake that ONGC has allowed HPCL to hold in Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.

HPCL was equal promoter of MRPL with Aditya Birla Group but its stake was pruned after ONGC bought out the ABG.

Cairn India, which holds 70% interest in the Barmer oilfields, currently produces 175,000 barrels per day of oil (8.75 million tons a year) from the Rajasthan fields and has plans to take it up to 300,000 bpd (15 million tonnes).

 

[cloud_9]

NTPC to spend Rs 1.38 lakh crore on adding capacities

NEW DELHI: Country's largest power producer NTPC is looking to spend more than Rs 1.38 lakh crore over the next few years on projects with a total capacity of over 27,000 MW.

The capital expenditure has been envisaged for capacities that are either under construction or being awarded or at tendering/planning stage.

The state-owned power producer plans to shell out Rs 47,169 crore for capacities that are currently being constructed, involving 12,428 MW generation capacity.

Another Rs 91,353 crore will be spent for projects "under award/tender/planning", with a total capacity of 15,100 MW, according to the company's latest analysts and investors presentation.

Together, the capital expenditure would be Rs 1,38,522 crore for establishing 27,528 MW additional capacity.

Out of the total capex amount, Rs 96,965 would be funded through debt.

The upcoming projects include Mauda II, Vindhyachal IV and V (all have 1,000 MW capacity), 800 MW Kudgi, 1,320 MW Barh-I, 500 MW Rihand-III and 800 MW Koldam.

The utility has said that the major issues being faced by it include fuel linkages for new capacities, financial health of power distribution companies and acquisition of land for various projects.

For the April-June quarter, the company declared 2,320 MW of new commercial generation capacity.

Presently, the NTPC Group has a total installed capacity of 39,174 MW.

New York's Plaza Hotel sold to Sahara for $570 million

EL AVIV: Sahara Group has agreed to buy a controlling stake in New York's landmark Plaza Hotel for $570 million, Elad Properties, an Israeli-owned real estate company, said on Monday.

The 105-year-old luxury hotel overlooking New York's Central Park, is jointly owned by Elad Properties, an Israeli-owned real estate company, and Saudi-based Kingdom Holdings Co.

Elad, controlled by Israeli businessman Yitzhak Tshuva, said it would receive 1.6 billion shekels ($400 million) for its 60 per cent stake, while Kingdom will receive the rest.

Kingdom, the investment vehicle of Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, will hold a 25 per cent stake once the deal is completed, Elad said in a statement.

 

[cirr]

their economy is defined by WIPO as primitive factor driven economy, like weather will affact their economy in big deal``lets wait for their 2012 GDP growth which will be low because of the bad weather````

Definitely sub 5.5% growth for the 1st half of FY 2012-2013. And if the international situation remains what it is today or gets worse over the coming months，India's growth this year will be a lot closer to 5% than 6%。

 

[DARIUS]

^^^U guys just dream on!!India has never been a steady grower in her entire history. . . Our growth has been a more sustained one which actually is pretty healthy to an extent!!Instead of worrying about India and worry about ur own country!!

 

[TopCat]

their economy is defined by WIPO as primitive factor driven economy, like weather will affact their economy in big deal``lets wait for their 2012 GDP growth which will be low because of the bad weather````

Very primitive indeed.

 

[cloud_9]

India instructs private firm Gesco to ship Iranian oil

The shipping ministry has told private company Great Eastern Shipping Co (Gesco) to supply tankers to import Iranian oil for state-run refiner MRPL, which had to slash imports from Iran in July because the shipper was unwilling to carry them.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) , Iran's biggest Indian client, has an annual contract with Gesco through Transchart, an agency of the federal shipping ministry.


But Gesco refused last month to lift cargoes for MRPL because of the lack of insurance cover after European sanctions came into effect barring insurance and reinsurance for Iranian shipments.

An industry official, with access to a letter sent by the shipping ministry to Gesco on Monday, said it made clear India had now allowed state-run insurers to provide some cover for Iranian shipments and told the company to provide vessels for MRPL.

"Finance ministry has notified insurance policy for Iran oil imports on July 30, 2012," the industry official said.

"You (Gesco) are requested to arrange for the necessary insurance cover immediately and nominate suitable vessels to MRPL/Transchart for loading Iran crude oil under the CoA (Contract of Affreightment)," the official quoted the letter as saying.

Gesco, the country's biggest private shipper, said it has not yet received the letter and had told MRPL that insurance in its current form was inadequate for voyages to Iran.

"We have conveyed to MRPL that we will not be able to lift cargoes from the sanctions-hit country due to inadequacy of the insurance cover offered by the Indian insurer United India Insurance Co," Gesco spokeswoman Anjali Kumar said.

Indian insurers have agreed to provide cover of $50 million each against pollution and personal injury claims, also known as protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance, and for hull and machinery to protect ships against physical damage.

Desi animation catches up with global industry

India is gradually moving away from the shadow of being a destination for outsourcing animated content into a location capable of creating quality content for the global audience.

“In the recent past, Indian animation companies and animation studios have been moving up the value chain to create their own intellectual property rights with projects such as The Jungle Book, Feluda , Roadside Romeo and partnering with international studios to co-produce animated properties for the global audience,” says Tapaas Chakravarti, Chairman and CEO, DQ Entertainment International. Till now, animation is seen as kids’ genre in India. “This mindset needs to change. If we look at the international scene, animation films are among the highest grossers at the box office there and are considered family entertainment content. It is mainstream there.” says Ashish S.K., CEO, Reliance Animation.
Lower cost

“The cost of animation production in India is one fourth of North America and about 35 per cent lower than countries such as Korea and the Philippines. The key countries outsourcing animation production work to India include the US, the UK, France, Italy and Spain,” points a FICCI-KPMG report.

According to the report, Indian animation, VFX and post production industry achieved estimated revenues of Rs 31 billion in 2011, a robust growth of 31 per cent over 2010.

Growth in the sector has been achieved on the back of increased contract work, higher VFX content in movies, 2D/3D conversion projects, demand for local animated TV serials, licensing and merchandising of popular characters. The rising dollar in the second half of the year also supported this growth, says the report.

It seems clear from what appears that although the animation industry in the West has at least 3-4 decades of a head start, Indian counterparts too are fast playing the catch-up game.

Some of the popular locally-produced animation films were Koochie Koochie Hota Hain, Alibaba Aur 41 Chor and Delhi Safari and serials such as Chhota Bheem and Krishna Balram.

Recently, Reliance Animation released Krishna aur Kans. Sons of Ram and Delhi Safari are expected to follow. Their Shaktimaan series in animation is currently being broadcasted on NICK and Sonic Channel every Monday to Friday.

BMM Ispat to spend Rs 6,700 cr on Hospet plant expansion

BMM Ispat Limited is adding capacity at its Hospet plant at a cost of Rs 6,700 crore. This is to set up additional 3 million tonnes of steel per annum at the plant.

“BMM Ispat is adding capacity adjacent to its existing facility and has plans to focus on producing long products, alloy steel for automobile sector and increase captive power production to 675 MW from 235 MW produced currently,” said Dinesh Singhi, Managing Director BMM Ispat Ltd.

“When capacity addition is competed in 2014, BMM will be a 5 million tonne per annum company,” he added.

According to Laxmipat Dudheria, finance director BMM Ispat, “The total steel production capacity addition cost is Rs 6,700 crore. The promoters are bringing in Rs 2,500 crore as their share and the balance Rs 4,200 crore is debt financed by a consortium of 16 banks led by State Bank of India.”

The company, located in Hospet, in Karnataka’s Bellary district, currently produces 2.5 million tonnes of pellets, one lakh tonnes of TMT bars, seven lakh tonnes of sponge iron for domestic market and 235 mw of captive power.

SBI’s corporate accounts group has committed Rs 1,010 crore for the project. “SBI has taken a bold step to fund the company despite its size. Also in the last few years it has been challenging for the steel industry. It is expected to continue for few more years as legal issues are being addressed,” said S. B. Nayar, Deputy Managing Director and Group Executive Corporate Banking, SBI.

 

[Zeeshan360]

Kkacer should be made India's official weather reporter

 

[cirr]

Now Citi, CLSA trim India's growth to 5.4%

August 8, 2012

Two more institutions joined the growing list of analysts expecting sub-6 per cent growth for India this fiscal, with American banking major Citi and global brokerage CLSA on Wednesday cutting their estimates to 5.4 and 5.5 per cent respectively.

"The stars just don't seem to be aligning for India, with almost all the growth drivers being hit. . .the government needs to get down to serious business with more action to stem a further deceleration in growth," a note from Citi said, adding that it is scaling down its FY'13 growth estimate to 5.4 per cent from the earlier 6.4 per cent.

The report, authored by Citi India chief economist Rohini Malkani, further said if the drought conditions worsen, growth may slip further to 4.9 per cent.

China CPI: Inflation hits fresh low - Aug. 8, 2012

 

[Hulk]

Very primitive indeed.

Yeah we should learn from Bangladesh, right. Some people settle abroad and start talking as if they are natives, we know how great you guys are actually.