Indian Economy-News & Updates

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India approves two semiconductor wafer plants worth $10 billion| Reuters

 

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[SpArK]

Infosys to set up SEZ in Indore with Rs 400 crore investment - The Economic Times

 

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IMF lauds India’s monetary policy to control inflation - Economic Times

 

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February manufacturing expands at fastest pace in year: HSBC - The Economic Times

NEW DELHI: India's manufacturing sector expanded in February at the strongest pace in 12 months, driven largely by growth in new business orders and an improved macroeconomic situation, an HSBC survey said.

The HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), a measure of factory production, stood at 52.5 in February, up from 51.4 in the previous month, signalling a solid and stronger improvement in business conditions across the country's manufacturing sector.

Activi ..

Read more at:
February manufacturing expands at fastest pace in year: HSBC - The Economic Times

 

[Bharat Mata ki Jai]

Manufacturing should see boom as there will be much demand after the projects got cleared worth of 20 billions and more.

 

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India poised to bounce back? 5 factors that may make magic for economy - The Economic Times

India February manufacturing, services growth outpaced China: HSBC - The Economic Times

 

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Rupee will hit 59, say experts; next stop for Sensex 24,000 - The Economic Times

India's February trade deficit narrows to $8.1 billion: Trade ministry - The Economic Times

 

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India’s trade deficit narrows to $8.1 billion; exports shrink

New Delhi: Indian exports contracted marginally in February for the first time in seven months, though a steep fall in imports, especially non-oil imports, helped narrow the trade deficit.

According to data released by the commerce ministry on Tuesday, while exports contracted 3.7% to $25.6 billion as against $26.6 billion in the year-ago period, imports were down 17% to $33.8 billion from $40.7 billion.
This helped in narrowing the trade deficit by 42% to $8.1 billion.

The government is hoping to control the current account deficit to less than $40 billion this fiscal year, mainly on the back of a sharp reduction in gold imports due to the high customs duty of 10%.

In February, while oil imports were down 3% at 13.7 billion, non-oil imports fell 25% to $20.1 billion.

India’s trade deficit narrows to $8.1 billion; exports shrink - Livemint

 

[luckych]

Deutsche Bank opens new back office in Pune

Pune is the new back office destination for foreign banks. After Citibank and Barclays opened their offices in the city over the past three years, Deutsche Bank has followed suit.

The Germany-based bank has signed a deal with Panchshil Realty for lease of a plush 2.5-lakh-square-feet office space at Pune’s Airport Road at ₹55 a square-feet, which is about a 60-70 per cent higher than the normal market rate of ₹30-35, according to industry sources.

Set to handle about 2,000 employees now, the office space, according to the contract, is scalable to 3.5 lakh square feet over a year to house about 3,500 employees (about 35 per cent of Deutsche’s total head count). The inauguration of the office took place on March 11 in the presence of Deutsche Bank’s bigwigs, including Ravneet Gill, India CEO, and Gunit Chadha, Head of Asia-Pacific operations. Set to function as the bank’s fourth back office in India after Mumbai, Bangalore and Jaipur, the Pune office will house fresh hires as well as employees from its Mumbai office for carrying out functions related to transactions processing, reconciliation, financial intermediation and other back office settlements.

Significantly, after this deal, four foreign banks — HSBC, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Barclays — jointly have sewn up deals for leasing about 1.5 million square feet of office space in Pune for ₹150 crore annually from Panchshil Realty alone, said an industry source.

HSBC set up a base in Pune nearly a decade ago followed by Citibank, Barclays and Credit Suisse. “Now Pune is fast emerging as a preferred office destination given the clear cost advantage in terms of 30-40 per cent lower rentals and talent costs compared to Mumbai, apart from better infrastructure and close proximity to Mumbai,” said Ramesh Nair, Chief Operating Officer, Jones Lang Lasalle.

Deutsche Bank opens new back office in Pune | Business Line

 

[Daedalus]

Sensex scales new highs, Nifty tests 6750; Top ten stocks in focus - The Economic Times

 

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Japan pledges Rs 15,000-cr loan for five Indian projects

Japan on Monday announced a Rs 15,000-crore official development assistance ( ODA) loan for five projects in India, including expansion of D

elhi Metro and works related to wind and solar energy. Japan and India signed the ODA loan agreement for five projects totalling more than Rs 15,000 crore.
"This is the largest amount ever signed on a single occasion in the history of Japanese ODA," a Japanese Embassy statement said.

Elaborating on the projects, the statement said that the ODA loan has provided approximately Rs 8,933 crore to Delhi Mass Rapid Transport System Project ( phase 3) in order to enhance its transportation capacity.

This project intends to link the existing 190 km radially developed network with additional 116 km belt line, including six routes and six intervals which connect Indira Gandhi International Airport and Noida district and construction of heritage line connecting Central Secretariat, Delhi Gate, Lal Qila and Kashmir Gate.

The completion of the project will extend the length of network to 329.4 km and transform Delhi Metro into a global standard urban transportation system comparable to the Tokyo metro, the statement added.

The loan agreement will include three energy sector projects- New and Renewable energy, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Energy Saving, and Haryana Distribution System Upgradation.

The development comes after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met at a summit in January. The loan agreement was signed by Takeshi Yagi, ambassador of Japan to India, and Rajesh Khullar, joint secretary, department of economic affairs in finance ministry.

The statement said that for New and Renewable Energy Development Project- phase 2, Rs 1,800- crore loan has been granted to power producers through Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited for the development solar and wind power succeeding Phase I of the project. The ongoing project includes a loan of Rs1,160 crore for wind power projects in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka and Rs 220 crore for solar power project in Andhra Pradesh.

 

[Daedalus]

India's forex reserves under Chinese level uncomfortable, says Raghuram Rajan

Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has said unless foreign exchange reserves rise to the level of the Chinese, the economy cannot be said to be insulated from external shocks.

"We have a lot of forex reserves. Right now, it is USD 300 billion plus. So, the key question is at what point you feel safe. I think, if you focus only on reserves, there is really no point at which you feel safe.. 400, 500, 600...any level of reserves, until you get to Chinese level, it is probably not enough," he told researchers and analysts in the customary post-policy concall.

He was answering a question on whether the RBI was comfortable with the current level of reserves.

The comments assume importance as the traditional position of the central bank has been not to set a forex reserves target.

China's foreign exchange reserves stood at staggering USD 3.66 trillion as of end 2013, making it the largest in the world, while at the best of times, India could not shore up more than USD 322 billion.

The country's forex reserves rose to USD 298.6 billion in the week ended March 21. But on March 31, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the reserves had crossed USD 300 billion by that day. RBI would release the formal numbers tomorrow.

Since Rajan assumed office on September 4, the reserves have gone up by over USD 25 billion. On August 30 last, the reserves stood at USD 275.5 billion which crossed USD 300 billion as of March 31. The reserves had surged to an all-time high of USD 322 billion in September 2011.

Rajan said instead of building just reserves, there is a need to focus on creating policy environment which boosts investor confidence. "We, at the RBI, have been trying to provide this confidence and I think this is a far better way."

The Governor said the central bank's intervention in the foreign exchange market is only to curb volatility caused by the higher inflows or outflows.

"Our intervention in exchange market has historically been to reduce exchange rate volatility. And that's not just the volatility today but also the anticipated volatility if the exchange rate becomes unduly strong because of extreme inflows or unduly weak because of extreme outflows. So, to the extent we have to intervene to prevent that kind of volatility, we have plenty of reserves," he said.

India's forex reserves under Chinese level uncomfortable, says Raghuram Rajan - Financial Express

 

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Honda to manufacture Mobilio, Jazz in India

Honda has been experiencing tremendous sales success with the launch of the new City that is further emphasized by the option of a diesel engine. The Japanese car maker is now gearing up to manufacture it’s new Mobilio multi-purpose vehicle at its Greater Noida facility in Uttar Pradesh to take on the MPV/MUV market in the country where the likes of the Toyota Innova and Maruti Suzuki Ertiga rule the roost at the moment.

Based on the compact Honda Brio platform, the Mobilio is considerably larger than the Brio in profile and has a wheelbase of 2,650mm, which is 245mm longer than the Amaze’s and 305mm longer than the Brio’s. This combined with the large boot makes the Mobilio extremely practical, be it for carrying loads of luggage or seating seven passengers in total.

Whats more, the Honda Mobilio will come with a choice of the company’s 1.5 litre petrol and diesel engines, that will capitalize on the excise duty benefits for diesel engines smaller than 1,500cc and under 1,600 cc for petrol engines. Due to its seating capacity of seven people, the Mobilio is longer than four meters in length, as a result it will not be able to avail the excise duty benefits on small cars, much like the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and Chevrolet Enjoy. As a result, expect prices for the new Honda Mobilio to range between when it is launched here in India.

And that’s not it for the year either as Honda will be launching the new Jazz towards the later part of the year in India. The new Honda Jazz is indeed a looker and will be even more premium than its predecessor. While this is a good thing, what Honda has to keep in mind is it’s pricing as the car has to be priced competitively in its segment, unlike last time.

Honda will be manufacturing the third generation Jazz in the country at its new Tapukara plant in Rajasthan. Like the Amaze and City, the new Jazz too will be available with the company’s 1.5 litre i-DTEC diesel engine developing 100PS of power and 200Nm of torque that will make it one of the most powerful diesel hatchbacks in its segment.

The Honda Mobilio is slated to go into production in June 2014 while the third generation Honda Jazz is likely to hit the production lines a month later in July 2014. Honda should be looking to offer both cars with an aggressive marketing strategy that translates into attractive prices after the success it has tasted with both the new Amaze and City.
Honda to manufacture Mobilio, Jazz in India | Gaadi News - Part 2

 

[Tshering22]

Currently the core problem in our country in my limited knowledge, is the ease of doing business. This was exemplified when we saw the POSCO case going on. This was the single largest investment by a single player in India which despite the so-called PM overseeing, failed to materialize. Imagine the kind of job creation that would have happened if they were allowed.

In the GLOBAL COMPETITIVE RANKINGS India is the poorest at rank 132 in the South Asian countries with Sri Lanka being the most advanced at 81. Even Pakistan and Bangladesh are well ahead of us if we keep Nepal and Bhutan out of it. And we are talking about two countries rocked by violence and tumult. Despite such a shaky foundation, they are doing well ahead of us.

Also there is a serious problem with our steel production capability. Till now we don't have the ability to manufacture all the industry grade steel types that we need. We continue to export pig iron while importing steel from abroad, which is a serious flaw in the making of a country's industrial base, aspiring to be a world power, let alone be a superpower.

Whether it is USA, Russia, Japan, Korea or now China, all have a very strong industrial prowess in developing every grade of industrial steel required compared to us.

For a nuclear power plant, there are mass protests where ignorant people who cannot make out the difference between two simple things protest and shout let by foreign NGOs who dominate our power establishment as was seen in Kudankulam plant row.

Another problem is the power-production situation in Maharashtra. While the state's capital enjoys full benefit of being India's financial centre, there is absolutely no focus on power production of the backward areas in other cities of the state. If this is the rate at which we go for nuclear power plants with each deal taking 10 years to simply clear through, then I feel we are in deep pile of turd.

Remember, we are talking about competing with a country that was behind us in economics but now is three times our size in every way and has achieved 100% power production capability. This is something we need to learn from.

Protests and NGO work in the matter of national security, national power building, national infrastructure and strategic interests must be declared illegal and any actions against such engineered protests by shady organizations must be crushed with extreme prejudice.

If we don't focus on all these crucial matters and work in the old socialist ways in which our industries were being set up in the 50s and 60s which is even today the case, then we will become a relevant power only in 2100s forget this century.