Indian Economy-News & Updates

[NSG_BlackCats]

Auto cos race to record monthly sales

The buoyancy in the automobile industry continues, with car makers and two-wheeler companies bettering their sales even post the festival months.

The highlight of November was Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor India reporting their highest ever monthly sales at 87,807 units and 55,265 units respectively.

Maruti showed 67 per cent growth while Hyundai registered 29 per cent growth over the same month last year.

While Maruti's exports more than doubled to 11,448 units, the country's largest car exporters Hyundai said overseas sales dropped 5 per cent to 27,100units.

Tata Motors' passenger vehicles segment reported 29 per cent growth at 18,480 units, the highest for any month this fiscal. The company delivered 3,406 Nanos in November.

In the two-wheeler segment, market leader Hero Honda's sales crossed the 3 lakh mark for the 11th consecutive month.

 

[jaunty]

What is our projected GDP in 2015 and 2020? I couldn't find any reliable stats, Thanks.

Not exactly projected GDP in 2015 and and 2020, but still a very good read, from a well respected source such as Carnegie Endowment ---

The G20 in 2050 - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

 

[jaunty]

India to grow 8-9 per cent in next two years: World Bank​

Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, December 04, 2009


India's growth rate over the next couple of years will be 8-9 per cent, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said in New Delhi on Friday.

"India's growth rates could over the next one to two years see a return to the 8-9 per cent envisaged in the country's 11th (Five-Year) Plan," said Zoellick.

The government has been pegging the economy's growth rate for this fiscal around 6.5-7 per cent.

"India has emerged from the economic crisis with a clear vision of what it will take to accelerate back to earlier growth rate and beyond," said Zoellick.

"Its strong fiscal and monetary policies had helped counter the decline in exports and withstand some of the external shocks brought on by the multiple food, fuel and financial crisis," he added.

 

[EjazR]

India -ASEAN free trade agreement to come into force in January 2010

India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have signed a trade in goods Agreement in August, which is envisaged to come into force with effect from January 2010.

Union Minister of State for Trade and Commerce, Jyotiraditya Scindia informed the Lok Sabha about this on Monday.

In a written reply Scindia said : "During the ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations, domestic consultations were held through various rounds of inter-ministerial meetings and stakeholder dialogues."

"The Agreement will lead to growth in bilateral trade and investment resulting in economic welfare gains to India. Indian exporters of machinery and machine parts, steel and steel products, oilcake, wheat, buffalo meat, automobiles and auto components, chemicals, synthetic textiles, etc. would gain additional market access into the ASEAN countries," he added.

Indian manufacturers would be able to source intermediate products at competitive prices from the ASEAN markets for further reprocessing and export, Scindia said

 

[idea123]

Modi is setting up standards for other CMs as well. People from other states are evaluating their CM's work with Modi. Example being M.P

 

[NSG_BlackCats]

India emerges as UAE’s top trading partner

India was the UAE’s top trading partner last year with non-oil trade totalling USD 32.11 billion, the data by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs has showed.

India was the UAE’s top export destination with exports valued at USD 15.24 billion while the UAE’s imports from India amounted to USD 16.87 billion in 2008.

India’s two-way non-oil trade with the UAE jumped 53.45 per cent to USD 44.53 billion in India’s fiscal year that ended March 2009, enabling the UAE to retain its status as India’s largest trading partner.

India’s exports to the UAE comprise mainly petroleum products, finished precious and semi-precious jewellery, machinery, textiles, apparel and cereals. India’s imports from the UAE consist primarily of crude oil, petroleum products, raw pearls, precious metals, electrical machinery and equipment and iron and steel.

 

[ssheppard]

Myanmar-India gas pipeline on card
14 Dec 2009 : India hopes a gas pipeline from neighbouring Myanmar can be built through Mizoram despite China stealing a march when it signed a pact for a similar project with the military junta some time ago.Sources said a pipeline through Mizoram could be a possibility going hand-in-hand with the Kaladan multimodal transport project that will link the northeastern state with Myanmar.

If the output from Essar Oil's stakes in Myanmar's offshore block A-2 and onshore block L is commercially viable then a pipeline could be possibility, the sources added.Essar hopes to start production by 2013. The blocks are ideally located between proven gas blocks and aligned along the regional corridor of gas discoveries south of Bangladesh, including the highly productive Sangu gas field in Bangladesh.

This pipeline through North-East, though costly, is being contemplated as the proposed trination gas pipeline involving Myanmar, Bangladesh and India.However, it is still a non-starter.However, both Myanmar and Bangladesh have evinced interest in the pipeline in recent months.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had asked her foreign ministry to begin parleys with both India and Myanmar.Myanmarese ambassador to India U. Kyi Thein too said the pipeline could be a reality within "two to three years" with Indian companies such as GAIL, Essar Oil, ONGC and Indian Oil Corporation exploring gas in Myanmar.

http://www.prdomain.com/companies/B/BharatPetroleum/newsreleases/2009121581599.htm

 

[haywards]

NEW DELHI: India's economic expansion could exceed 7.75% during the current fiscal, helped by high GDP growth numbers recorded during the July-September quarter, the government informed Parliament today.

"The growth outlook for the next two quarters and for the whole year is likely to be in the upper bound of the range (7.75%) predicted; and may exceed it", said the Finance Ministry's Mid-Year Review tabled in Parliament.

The economy expanded by 7.9% during the second quarter, beating expectations and forecasts by analysts and think-tanks.

The economic survey in July had projected a growth of 7%, give or take 0.75%.

The review further said that the government should observe the recovery process in major sectors, before exiting the stimulus provided to the industry to combat the impact of the global financial meltdown.

"The timing of the exit and the pace at which it should be carried out will depend on the strength of the recovery and its sustainability without fiscal stimulus", the Review added.

On inflation, the Mid-Year Review said, "The rise in prices of primary articles of consumption of the common man that has been occurring in the recent times is indeed a cause of concern, and this needs to be attended to on an urgent basis."

 

[NSG_BlackCats]

Mukesh Ambani ranked fifth best CEO in the world

Mukesh Ambani, who heads India’s most valuable company Reliance Industries, has been ranked among top five best performing CEOs in the world by the prestigious Harvard Business Review.

Mr. Ambani, the only Indian to feature among top 50 CEOs, is in the same league as Steve Jobs of Apple, Yun Jong—Yong of Samsung Electronics, Russian energy firm Gazprom’s Alexey Miller and John Chambers of Cisco Systems.

He is also ranked number two among the top 10 emerging market CEOs with Miller at the top.

K. V. Kamath of ICICI Bank is the other Indian in the list of Top 10 Emerging Market CEOs. He is ranked at number 9.

The Harvard Business Review said it ranked CEOs of large public traded companies in a study conducted over 2000 CEOs worldwide. The entire group represented 48 nationalities and companies based in 33 countries.

 

[BlackSonic]

 

[hembo]

Reliance makes 3rd gas discovery in KG basin block
Wed, Dec 23 05:45 AM

Reliance Industries has made a third successive gas discovery in the D3 deep-sea block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, off the east coast. RIL holds a 90 per cent participating interest (PI) and Hardy Exploration and Production India Inc holds 10 per cent in the block.

Reliance found three gas reservoirs in the KGV-D3-R1 well drilled on the block KG-DWN-2003/1 (or D3), a company statement said. The block, located about 45 kilometres off the coast in the Bay of Bengal, is in the vicinity of its prolific D6 block where three of the 19 oil and gas finds have already been put on production. "This discovery (in D3) supplements RIL's understanding, of the petroleum systems within the block," it said.

"Three reservoir zones were encountered at Miocene level having gross thickness of 4, 23 and 16 meters," the statement said adding the discovery has been named Dhirubhai-44. The first two exploratory wells (KGV-D3-A1 and KGV-D3-B1) resulted in gas discoveries (Dhirubhai 39 and 41) and are presently under appraisal.

"Besides the above discoveries, several prospects have been mapped at different stratigraphic levels," the statement added. Reliance said the potential commerciality of the Dhirubhai-44 discovery was being ascertained through more data gathering and analysis.

The D3 licence is located in the Krishna-Godavari basin on the east coast, covers an area of about 3,288 square km and provides for the drilling of a minimum of six exploration wells within the first exploration phase. "3D seismic has been acquired over the entire block area," the statement said.

The exploratory well KGV-D3-R1 commenced drilling on November 2, with the Transocean rig Deepwater Expedition, in water depth of approximately 1,964 meter. RIL is likely to drill three additional exploration wells on the block before the end of 2010. In August 2005, Reliance and HEPI were awarded D3 block under NELP-V. Reliance is the operator of the block. Exploration drilling commenced on this block in 2008.

 

[ssheppard]

India – king of small cars

India has emerged the leader in small cars, overtaking Japan, as declining sales in Western markets coupled with robust growth in Asia redraws the global map of the auto industry faster than many expected.

It’s well known that China will overtake the US as the world’s largest car market this year. Less noticed is the fact that India will top Japan for the first time in sales of super-compact cars. It overtook Japan as the world’s number one producer of basic cars in 2007.

Automakers like Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen, General Motors, and China’s Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp. are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the country, hoping to capture a piece of the growing market for tiny, inexpensive passenger vehicles.

As they do so, they are quietly transforming India into an export hub for small car manufacturing.

‘From a small car production hub perspective, India is right in the centre of the radar,’ said Michael Boneham, head of Ford India, which plans to roll out its first India-made compact, the Figo, in the first quarter of next year.

More than 892,000 basic cars – the smallest category of passenger vehicle – will be sold in India this year, up 14 per cent from last year and surpassing the 708,034 forecast for Japan, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

Unlike China, Russia and Brazil, where consumers buy a range of cars, from basic to luxury, Indians overwhelmingly prefer small, affordable cars.

Nearly half of all cars sold in India – like Maruti Suzuki’s Swift, GM’s Spark and Hyundai’s Santro – fall into the basic category. These are cars so small they’re almost nonexistent in the US market. Think of them as sub-sub-compacts.

Drive down the streets of a typical Indian mega city, where the bulk of car buyers live, and it’s easy to see why. Millimetres count. Drivers squeeze through any remotely plausible opening on the clogged streets, grazing handcarts, bicycles, cars, pedestrians and livestock in the process.

And price matters. Executives say most Indians won’t spend more than $8,000 on a car.

To manufacture these low-margin vehicles profitably, carmakers must localize production to cut costs and ramp up volumes.

For now, they can’t sell enough cars in India alone to make the numbers work. The market is too consolidated – Maruti Suzuki sells half of all cars in India – and too small. India ranks 10th globally for total car and truck sales. J.D. Power expects Indian car and truck sales to hit 1.9 million this year, a far cry from China’s 12.3 million.

Hungry for scale, carmakers must count on exports.

‘The margins are slim to say the least,’ said John Parker, Ford’s executive vice-president for Asia Pacific and Africa. ‘We see exports as an opportunity to expand the volume base. The key thing in this area of the marketplace is to create scale.’

Ford Motor Co. has invested $500 million in India and its factory in the south Indian city of Chennai can make up to 200,000 cars a year. Even if sales more than double, to 60,000 vehicles next year as executives hope, they’ve got capacity to spare.

Parker said the company has not ruled out shifting production of the Fiesta and Focus from Europe to India.

Nissan Motor Co. plans to shift production of its Micra cars for the European market from the UK to Chennai, which it also aims to use as an export hub for Africa and the Middle East. The company plans to roll out its first made-in-India compact in May, part of a seven-year, $920 million India investment it made with partner Renault.

Volkswagen AG has invested Euro 580 million in India, and this month started production of its first India compact at a factory that can make up to 110,000 cars a year.

General Motors Co. opened a second, $300 million factory in India in September 2008, boosting annual capacity to 225,000 vehicles. This month, it teamed up with China’s SAIC to launch an India joint venture, with fresh investment of up to $350 million.

Analysts caution that India’s emergence as an auto hub still faces headwinds like bureaucratic red tape, labour unrest, inefficient ports, poor infrastructure and competition from Thailand and South Korea, which recently signed a free trade agreement giving carmakers duty-free access to Europe.

‘It’s not a foregone conclusion despite the high demand,’ said John Bonnell, director of automotive forecasting at J.D. Power and Associates in Bangkok. ‘Compromising that is a lot of red tape, bureaucracy and unions.’

Still, the global appetite for basic cars is growing. Sales of such cars will hit 4.9 million vehicles this year, up 13 per cent from last year, while total car and truck sales will shrink by 6 per cent, to 62.9 million vehicles, says J.D. Power and Associates.

The Indian government has encouraged small car production with tax incentives, and, unlike China, it allows foreign companies to fully own their Indian subsidiaries.

The Indian government has encouraged small car production with tax incentives, and, unlike China, it allows foreign companies to fully own their Indian subsidiaries.

That control over production and revenues is part of what convinced South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co., the largest car exporter in India, to shift small car production to India 11 years ago, said H.S. Lheem, shortly before he stepped down as chief executive of Hyundai Motor India.

Nowadays, India is Hyundai’s largest operation outside Korea. So far this fiscal year, Hyundai has exported about half of the 377,019 cars it manufactured in India, 65 per cent of them to Europe.

‘Chennai could be a good Detroit in India,’ Lheem said.

DAWN.COM | Business | India ? king of small cars

 

[grey boy 2]

Indian super-compact car market overtakes Japan - People's Daily Online
09:08, December 24, 2009

India has emerged the leader in small cars, overtaking Japan, as declining sales in Western markets coupled with robust growth in Asia redraws the global map of the auto industry faster than many expected.

It's well known that China will overtake the US as the world's largest car market this year. Less noticed is the fact that India will top Japan for the first time in sales of super-compact cars. It overtook Japan as the world's number one producer of basic cars in 2007.

Automakers like Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen, General Motors, and China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the country, hoping to capture a piece of the growing market for tiny, inexpensive passenger vehicles. As they do so, they are quietly transforming India into an export hub for small car manufacturing.

"From a small car production hub perspective, India is right in the center of the radar," said Michael Boneham, head of Ford India, which plans to roll out its first India-made compact, the Figo, in the first quarter of next year.

More than 892,000 basic cars - the smallest category of passenger vehicle - will be sold in India this year, up 14 percent from last year and surpassing the 708,034 forecast for Japan, according to JD Power and Associates.

Unlike China, Russia and Brazil, where consumers buy a range of cars, from basic to luxury, Indians overwhelmingly prefer small, affordable cars.

Nearly half of all cars sold in India - like Maruti Suzuki's Swift, GM's Spark and Hyundai's Santro - fall into the basic category. These are cars so small they're almost nonexistent in the US market. Think of them as sub-sub-compacts.

Drive down the streets of a typical Indian megacity, where the bulk of car buyers live, and it's easy to see why. Millimeters count. Drivers squeeze through any remotely plausible opening on the clogged streets, grazing handcarts, bicycles, cars, pedestrians and livestock in the process.

And price matters. Executives say most Indians won't spend more than $8,000 on a car. To manufacture these low-margin vehicles profitably, carmakers must localize production to cut costs and ramp up volumes.

For now, they can't sell enough cars in India alone to make the numbers work. The market is too consolidated - Maruti Suzuki sells half of all cars in India - and too small.

India ranks 10th globally for total car and truck sales. JD Power expects Indian car and truck sales to hit 1.9 million this year, a far cry from China's 12.3 million.

Hungry for scale, carmakers must count on exports.

"The margins are slim to say the least," said John Parker, Ford's executive vice-president for Asia Pacific and Africa. "We see exports as an opportunity to expand the volume base. The key thing in this area of the marketplace is to create scale."

Ford Motor Co has invested $500 million in India and its factory in the south Indian city of Chennai can make up to 200,000 cars a year.

Even if sales more than double, to 60,000 vehicles next year as executives hope, they've got capacity to spare.

Parker said the company has not ruled out shifting production of the Fiesta and Focus from Europe to India.

Source: China Daily

 

[ssheppard]

India adds record 17.65 mln mobile users in Nov

Mobile firms in India added a
record 17.65 million users in November, taking total users in
the world's fastest-growing, and second-largest, wireless
market to 506.04 million, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India said.

TABLE-India adds record 17.65 mln mobile users in Nov | Reuters

 

[ssheppard]

India Foreign direct investment crosses $19 bn this fiscal

New Delhi: Foreign funds inflow into India touched USD 19.38 billion during the first eight months of this fiscal ending November, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said here Thursday.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in November stood at USD 1.74 billion, an increase of over 60 percent from the USD 1.08 billion the country received in the corresponding month last year.

"India's share of world FDI has jumped from 0.78 percent in 2005 to 2.45 percent in 2008," said Sharma.

The 2009 survey of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, conducted among Japanese investors, continues to rank India as the second-most promising country for overseas business operations after China, said a statement issued by the commerce ministry.

Foreign direct investment crosses $19 bn this fiscal