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^^ I also hope the winter session goes on uninterrupted. Hoping for Lokpal to be also passed.
 
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Trade deficit widens to worrying levels:

New Delhi, Nov 8 (PTI) India's exports grew year-on-year by 10.8 per cent to USD 19.9 billion in October while imports expanded at a sharper rate, leaving a big trade deficit of USD 19.6 billion.

Imports increased by 21.7 per cent to USD 39.5 billion in October, according to data released by Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar here today.

For the cumulative April-October period, exports aggregated to USD 179.8 billion, showing a handsome growth of 46 per cent, thanks to sterling trend witnessed in the previous months of the current fiscal.

Imports for the seven-month period stood at USD 273.5 billion growing by 31 per cent, while leaving the trade gap of USD 93.7 billion.

"Exports growth continues to look good and every sector is posting good growth," Khullar told reporters here. However, he said, the balance of trade "is something to be very worried about because at this rate you are going to breach the USD 150 billion mark (for the fiscal 2011-12)." PTI

Business News, International Business, Latest India Business,Markets News, Stock Markets, Finance, Mutual Funds,Finance And Forex Market In India And World,Sensex, Nifty, Commodities, Personal Finance, Insurance & Economy News -NBTVLIVE
 
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Spain's CaixaBank ventures into India

NEW DELHI: One of the largest banks in the Eurozone, CaixaBank, Wednesday announced it would be setting up a representative office in India to help Spanish companies interested in tapping into the fast growing Indian economy.

Based in Spain, CaixaBank is one of the leading players in the retail banking space in that country, having more than 10.5 million individual customers.

"The bank's presence in India is a further demonstration of our willingness to move with our customers as they grow internationally, as well as to contribute towards the development of a country that is now being looked to as a driver of the global economy," said Isidro Faine, chairman, CaixaBank.

Trade between India and Spain in 2010 was to the tune of Euro 4 billion, with India importing mostly engineering goods from the European economy.

Foreign direct investment from Spain (April 2000-March 2011) has invested a total of around $800 million in India, making it the 13th largest FDI source for the South Asian economy.

In the first half of 2011 CaixaBank handled 10 percent of all trade flows between Spain and India.

"We plan to increase our market share of the trade transactions between Spain and India to 15 percent in the next couple of years," Ignacio Alvarez-Rendueles, head of the bank's international operations told reporters here.

Spain's CaixaBank ventures into India - The Economic Times
 
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India pharma exports to double


India is expected to double pharmaceutical exports in the next two years, with the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) eyeing overseas sales worth Rs 1,22,500 crore ($25 billion) by the end of 2013-14. The figure stood at around $10 billion in 2010-11. To achieve this


ambitious target, exports would need to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 34%, which is much above the 15% growth rate in the last five years.
"We will have to explore new markets other than US and Europe to meet the $25-billion export target," said NR Munjal, chairman, Pharmexcil and president, Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association.

At present, the US is India's largest market for pharmaceutical export with a 22% share, followed by the UK (4%) and Germany (3.5%).

"The focus will be on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and we will encourage them to export their products," said Munjal.

There are around 10,500 drug manufacturers in the pharmaceutical sector and around 70% of them are SMEs. However major drug makers such as Dr. Reddy's, Sun Pharmaceutical, Lupin, Ranbaxy, Zydus Cadila dominate the Indian pharmaceutical export market due to their strong marketing network and better knowledge of rules and regulations.

"Countries such as Japan and China and regions such as North Africa, West Asia and Latin America offer immense potential for Indian exporters," said a pharma analyst at a global consultancy. "High healthcare expenditure and rising population make these countries a lucrative market for Indian drug exporters."

09_11_buz03.jpg


http://www.hindustantimes.com/busin...pharma-exports-to-double/Article1-766513.aspx
 
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IT cos records 19% growth in revenue to Rs 438,296 cr in FY'11

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...94.cms?curpg=2

The Indian IT industry recorded 19 per cent growth in revenues in the 2010-11 financial year to Rs 438,296 crore ($96.1 billion).

The growth is a significant recovery for the industry, which recorded just 8 per cent growth in 2009-10 in the wake of the global recession in 2008, which made both global and Indian companies cut back on their IT spending.

The figures were compiled by IT industry magazine Dataquest, the flagship publication of media house CyberMedia, which conducts an annual research study on the state of the industry.

According to the findings, exports accounted for two-thirds (66.4 per cent) of the industry's revenues, while the domestic market accounted for the remaining one-third (33.6 per cent) in 2010-11.

However, revenues from the domestic market experienced higher growth than exports in the financial year. Domestic IT revenues grew by 23 per cent to Rs 147,152 crore in FY'11, while exports clocked 17 per cent growth to Rs 291,144 crore.

While IT services exports grew by 21 per cent in FY'11 (compared to 6 per cent in FY'10) and engineering services exports grew by 22 per cent (compared to 6 per cent in the previous year), BPO exports growth slowed down to just 7 per cent, compared to 13 per cent in the previous fiscal.

Total services exports from India stood at $64 billion in FY'11, including IT software/services and BPO.

"The slowdown in 2009 and 2010 made the industry more efficient and mature. With the growth now back, the Indian IT industry can look forward to more depth, innovation and global spread in 2011-12," said Pradeep Gupta, the Chairman of CyberMedia India.

Hewlett-Packard India was the largest IT player in the domestic market, while TCS was the largest exporter from India and also the largest company across all categories.

Within the Indian domestic market, computer hardware sales jumped by 28 per cent. Software and services revenues grew by 19 per cent each, clearly indicating that enterprises have resumed their spend on new infrastructure creation and hardware replacement.


However, certain segments within software, such as business intelligence (BI), did particularly well. BI grew at 38 per cent.

The segment, which had grown by 44 per cent in FY'10, is the new focus for investment among large enterprise CIOs, as top executives are now relying more and more on analytics to take business decisions, Dataquest notes.

The research also reveals that most of the consumer technology segments, such as laptops, smartphones, and storage devices (MP3 players, digital cameras, consumer storage media), recorded impressive growth in FY'11.

Smartphones (revenues of Rs 8,796 crore) experienced the maximum growth in revenue terms across all categories, at 97 per cent. Computer hardware sales of Rs 29,151 crore included servers (Rs 2,709 crore), desktop computers (Rs 13,341 crore) and laptop computers (Rs 13,301 crore).

The Top 7 IT companies notched up revenues of over Rs 10,000 crore each, namely TCS (Rs 29,801 crore); Infosys (Rs 25,477 crore); Cognizant (Rs 21,393 crore); Wipro (Rs 19,421 crore); Hewlett-Packard (Rs 19,022 crore); HCL Technologies (Rs 13,264 crore) and HCL Infosystems (Rs 11,773 crore), totalling Rs 140,151 crore.
 
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India-Russia forum on trade, investment opens in Moscow.
Vladimir Radyuhin

Russia still hopes the Kudankulam power plant can be started up this year despite continuing protests by local residents. “The commissioning of unit one of the power station is scheduled for the end of this year, and unit two should go online six months later,” said Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov. He added that talks are being finalised on a contract to build units three and four at Kudankulam.

Mr. Ivanov co-chaired the opening session at an Indo-Russian forum on trade and investment in Moscow on Thursday with Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma. The Russian deputy premier apparently was using outdated information on Kudankulam. Atomstroiexport, the Russian company building two reactors at Kudankulam, said the commissioning of the Kudankulam reactors was likely to be rescheduled because of the protests.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India, which partners Atomstroiexport in the Kudankulam project, said on its website the new deadline for operationalising unit one is March 2012 and unit II is December 2012. Mr. Ivanov regretted the fact that India had not yet joined Russia as a full-fledged partner in the GLONASS space navigation system. “We see India as a strong and leading partner, but regrettably still a potential partner, in the commercial uses of GLONASS,” he told the Indo-Russian forum.

Russia regards India as a key market for its nuclear energy technologies and equipment, the Russian deputy premier said. He noted good prospects in bilateral cooperation in pharmaceuticals and invited Indian pharma companies to set up production in Russia. Mr. Ivanov also identified telecommunications and machine-building as priority areas for Indo-Russian cooperation.

The Hindu : News / National : India-Russia forum on trade, investment opens in Moscow
 
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SAARC: India slashes sensitive list for LDCs

In a major trade liberalisation effort in South Asia, India on Thursday drastically slashed the sensitive list for Least Developed Countries under South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) from 480 tariff lines to just 25 under which zero basic customs duty will be given for all the removed items.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made this declaration to a thunderous applause from the Heads of Government and State at the inauguration of the 17th Summit of the eight-nation SAARC grouping. Leaders of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal which comprise the Least Developed Countries (LDC) in South Asia were among those present to hear Dr. Singh’s announcement.

In his speech that was heard with rapt attention, Dr. Singh also said that he recognised that non-tariff barriers were an area of concern and India was committed to the idea of free and balanced growth of trade in South Asia.

Emphasising that integration of SAARC economies should move faster at a comfortable pace, he said India has special responsibilities that flow from the geography of the region and the size of its economy and market.

“I am happy to announce that, in a major trade liberalisation effort, the Government of India has issued a notification to reduce the Sensitive List for the Least Developed Countries under the South Asian Free Trade Area Agreement from 480 tariff lines to 25 tariff lines. Zero basic customs duty access will be given for all items removed with immediate effect,” he said.

With ‘Building Bridges’ as its theme, the Summit hosted by Maldives in the southern most point of the island lying south of equator, is being attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina among others.

The Hindu : Business / Economy : SAARC: India slashes sensitive list for LDCs

---------- Post added at 07:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:09 PM ----------

India, Korea to begin negotiations to tweak comprehensive economic pact

The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and Korea came into force on January 1, 2010, but now both sides are getting ready for fresh negotiations.

The reason: lot of things have happened on both sides that the tariffs agreed under the pact have lost their relevance.

On a number of items covered by the pact, agreed tariffs are higher than what India has offered on Most Favoured Nation basis to many other countries.

On its part, Korea has since concluded free trade pacts with the US and the European Union at better terms, Korea's Ambassador to India, Mr Kim Joong Keun, told Business Line today.

Looking at the CEPA afresh is also likely to address the issue of the skew in trade against India.

In 2010, India imported goods worth $11.4 billion and in the first eight months of the calendar 2011, bought $8.5 billion. But India's exports to Korea in 2010 was $5.6 billion, which rose to $5.5 billion in the first eight months of 2011.

A research paper presented at a Indo-Korea dialogue conference organised here today by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) notes that a further 10 per cent reduction in tariff on all items except agriculture and fishery products would increase Korea's exports to India by $180 million. But it will also lead to increase in India's exports by $ 600 million.

KOREAN RE-UNIFICATION

Asked when a reunification of North and South Korea would happen, Ambassador Mr Kim said, “not long from now.”

Asked about the effect of the merger of the two countries on India, he said that a unified Korea would give Indian companies huge opportunities to invest.

Korea was split into two in the 1950s and the North went into the communist fold during the Cold War.

After the Cold War ended in the late 1980s, North Korea ceased to get concessions from the Warsaw Pact countries, such as cheaper crude oil and as a result, the North Korean economy went into a tailspin.

However, North Korea is a resource-rich country. Ambassador Mr Kim noted that the country had in abundance two of the three factors of production — land and labour. “You (India) can bring in capital,” he said.

Business Line : Industry & Economy News : India, Korea to begin negotiations to tweak comprehensive economic pact
 
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