Indian Economy - News & Updates - Archive

[Bushroda]

Skilled Indian workers shunning Bahrain jobs
By MARK SUMMERS
Gulf Daily News, Bahrain

MANAMA: India's booming economy could have severe consequences for Bahraini firms as skilled Indian workers stay home for better wages, experts have told GDN.The former president of the Bahrain-based Kerala Engineers Forum and consultant at a top engineering firm T M Haridasan has already revealed shortages of engineers are leading many firms to increase their prices to customers in order to offer better salaries - a practice he said is becoming necessary in a number of fields including IT and healthcare.

"We are facing a lot of problems nowadays - not on the unskilled side where the payment is less but on the skilled side.

"I currently have a requirement for about 12 engineers in Bahrain in various fields. Also in the IT field, the payment is good back in India.

"Many Indians are simply not willing to come to the Gulf now - we went there and offered them (jobs) but the payment structure here is not attractive and expenses are rising very sharply. If companies are ready to pay more then they may opt for that," he explained.

Mr Haridasan said Bahrain's policy of pegging the dinar to the US dollar was not helping matters.

"The present situation is the dollar has devalued a lot but the Bahrain currency is still pegged with the dollar and that also affects us and means I am losing around 15 to 20pc of my income.

"In India it was 47 rupees for a dollar and now it is less than 40 - but here it is still pegged with the dollar and I don't get to take advantage of that benefit. Only Kuwait has been bold enough to come out and revalue their currency against the dollar - and the expatriates there are getting the benefit of that," he said.

He also revealed as the numbers of Indian workers coming to the region starts to dwindle shortages of skilled workers is forcing those currently in the Gulf to shuttle between locations as and when their expertise is needed.

"Those are in the Gulf are shuttling between. They are switching from Dubai to Bahrain and Bahrain back to Dubai. But new entrants in the Gulf are very limited in the promotional and technical fields because India is fast developing in these areas - even in the construction field people are getting good offers as well as other benefits and they have the advantage of working in their own country," he said.

Such shortages are starting to impact on the bottom line of many firms in Bahrain, he said.

"There is a knock on effect as workers raise wages to try and tempt workers - in our industry we have a situation we have an escalation in our tenders of 20pc compared to two years back," he said.

Labour Ministry assistant undersecretary for training Ahmed Al Banna also acknowledged attracting skilled Indian workers was proving more difficult - but said this situation would offer more opportunities for Bahrainis.

"We have difficulties in technical areas - accountants, IT technicians, engineering, quantity surveyors, and in the ministry we have a lot of problems providing civil engineers for companies," he admitted.

"In the coming period there are a couple of issues going to take place in the job market which are going to provide opportunities for Bahrainis.

"In India, they are trying to upgrade salaries and this could lead to a scarcity of Indian nationals in the fields of IT, healthcare, engineering, and accountancy.

"What is happening with regard to the work permits in Bahrain, with the new LMRA taking over will start a new trend. The Labour Fund is working hard in investing more money in the development of Bahrainis. All these issues plus the demand with the continued growth of the economy will make some of these jobs really attractive to Bahrainis and there will be more opportunities for Bahrainis to take over from Indian workers," he said.

However, he acknowledged that among some Bahrainis there was little understanding of the rewards that some technical disciplines could offer.

"If you look at the unemployed, if you break them down, there are not many university graduates and if there are they are in the humanities fields not engineers and accountants and so on.

Bahrainis have to be very aware - normally when we tell them about the technical programmes they just see the job of a technician. But if you start as a technician you might be a GM one day," he said.

 

[Bushroda]

We can't afford to miss New Delhi express
Greg Sheridan
The Australian, Australia
August 20, 2007

AUSTRALIA'S turn towards India is as important and nationally defining as were the pioneering of a trade relationship with Japan in the 1950s and the opening towards China in the 1980s.

It is the new frontier of Australia in Asia, and its potential is vast. Unlike Japan, India is not a former enemy. Unlike China, India is a parliamentary democracy. Then there's cricket.

India lies at the heart of all the great issues of our time -- globalisation, the fight against entrenched poverty, global warming, the fight against Islamist extremism, nuclear weapons proliferation, democracy in Asia, democracy in poor countries.

Geographically, India's surging economy, military strength and huge population -- it will in a few short years overtake China as the world's most populous nation and its age profile is substantially younger than China's -- makes it a strategic player in South and Central Asia. It is increasingly engaged in the Middle East and, of course, in East Asia.

If India, already a global leader in IT, pulls off its peaceful nuclear co-operation deal with the US, it will leap ahead even further in technology transfer.
India has undergone a domestic and foreign policy revolution every bit as profound as that which China has undertaken since 1979.

But there is less intellectual glamour in studying the open, accessible, necessarily untidy processes of Indian democracy than there are in apparently unlocking the gnostic secrets of Sinology, so the Australian foreign policy commentariat is way behind the curve on India and its growing economic and strategic importance.

This is why one of the federal cabinet's most promising decisions is to fund a full-scale Indian studies centre at an Australian university.

There are already some good university resources devoted to studying India but they need a massive infusion of resources if Australia is to have the intellectual firepower to match its national needs.
Similarly, the Government has decided to increase consular resources in the southern Indian city of Chennai, and to increase diplomatic resources to India generally. This should be followed by an immediate decision to make Hindi a priority language in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

All of this presents a serious dilemma for Labor. The most important part of our new engagement with India will be selling India uranium for its peaceful nuclear industry.

Labor's anachronistic opposition to this, on the mistaken basis that it will weaken nuclear non-proliferation even though India has never engaged in any nuclear proliferation to a foreign nation, puts it against a fundamental interest of Australia in Asia.

It is as though Labor has reversed what it believes are the historic positions of itself and the Coalition. Now Labor is standing against a fundamental new engagement in Asia which the Coalition is championing.

This partly results from Labor being so long in Opposition, which breeds a reliance on ideology rather than being fully in touch with the world as it really is. It also tends towards opposition to any change to the status quo.

But the Indian express is leaving the station. The only good place for us is on board.

 

[alamgir]

China BPO to overtake India: Nasscom

PTI[ TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2007 04:59:32 PM]

Surf 'N' Earn -Sign innow
NEW DELHI: China could overtake India as the most preferred outsourcing destination in the next 3-5 years on the back of an educated workforce coupled with strong government emphasis on IT-BPO sector, according to a study.


"The IT-BPO industry in China is still in its early phase of evolution but it has the potential to develop a large IT-BPO industry," the study on 'Tracing China's IT Software Services Industry Evolution' by industry body Nasscom said.

The software and services revenues in China is estimated to grow at 22 per cent to reach 28 billion dollar by 2010 including domestic market at over 20 billion dollar, the study said. China has recorded 12.3 billion dollar of revenues in this sector in 2006.

India's IT software and services revenues are likely to reach $50 billion in 2007-08, according to Nasscom. The current industry landscape in China bears some resemblance to earlier years of Indian IT-BPO industry but systemic weaknesses and comparatively evolved demand and competitive environments are some of the challenges.

Nasscom also suggested a collaborative partnership between Indian and Chinese companies.

Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said that the Indian expertise in IT sector combined with manufacturing dominance of China could be one of the possibility for a partnership.

Indian IT-BPO exports are mainly serving the US and the UK markets, which together account for over 80 per cent of the total exports.

On the other hand, China's key export market areas are Japan and Korea, where it has certain inherent linguistic/cultural advantages, the survey noted.



It’s Indiatime

 

[Bushroda]

Indian Pharmaceutical Companies Have Demonstrated That They Possess the Ability to Engage in Commercially Viable Research and Development Activities
BUSINESS WIRE
DUBLIN, Ireland

Research and Markets (Indian Pharmaceutical Industry SWOT Framework Analysis - Market Research Reports - Research and Markets) has announced the addition of “Indian Pharmaceutical Industry – SWOT Framework Analysis” to their offering.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is one of the fast growing sectors of the Indian economy and has made rapid strides over the years. From being an import dependent industry in the 1950s, the industry has achieved self-sufficiency and gained global recognition as a producer of low cost high quality bulk drugs and formulations. Leading Indian companies have developed infrastructure in over 60 countries including developed markets like US and Europe. In the recent past, several pharmaceutical companies have demonstrated that they possess the ability to engage in commercially viable research and development activities and become significant players in the international market.

SWOT Analysis, is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective.

The aim of any SWOT analysis is to identify the key internal and external factors that are important to achieving the objective. SWOT analysis groups key pieces of information into two main categories:

Internal factors – The strengths and weaknesses internal to the organization.

External factors – The opportunities and threats presented by the external environment.

 

[Bushroda]

India Software Trade Group Eyes Chinese Competition
Ruth David
FORBES, NY
08.22.07, 5:17 AM ET

Amid a slew of global reports on China’s growing attractiveness as an outsourcing destination, India’s top technology trade group has warned in a report that the country needs better infrastructure and educational facilities if it wants to stay ahead of China.

"While India continues to be the most favored destination--by far … we need to ensure that we maintain this position in the years to come. This will require a favorable policy and tax environment, a huge thrust in education and human resources and vastly better infrastructure," said Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, known as Nasscom.

Software and services is still a fledgling sector of the Chinese economy, accounting for about 0.5% of the country’s GDP in 2006, with estimated sales of $12.3 billion. By contrast, the Indian industry racked up sales of $39.6 billion last fiscal year, accounting for 5.2% of GDP.

China’s technology market is heavily tilted toward hardware, which accounts for 90% of business.

"The Chinese information technology sector is a matter of concern for India," acknowledged Karnik. "However, it cannot be considered a threat." China’s industry is still in an early phase of evolution, and frequent comparisons with India and "commentary positioning China as a substitute destination is quite misplaced," said the report released by Nasscom.

"China’s growth is being driven by its domestic market while India is a predominantly export led growth story. The scale of the overall sector in China is still less than a third of that in India," it said.

There’s tremendous potential in China, but it first needs to overcome challenges like lack of global recognition, complex tax and investment incentive systems across different provinces, highly restrictive financial systems and intensifying regional competition, Nasscom found.

China’s domestic market accounts for more than 85% of sales, making its software and services exports less than a tenth of those from India. With both countries witnessing strong and continuing growth, it is unlikely that this differential will go away in the foreseeable future, the report suggested.

But India could take a leaf out of China’s book. "China’s systematic and planned approach to rapidly developing key sectors of its economy and especially its strong focus on education and infrastructure offer [lessons] that may be usefully adapted to the Indian context," Karnik said.

Indian software majors predominantly do business in the U.S. and the U.K. markets, which together account for more than 80% of its total exports. By contrast, China’s critical export markets are Japan and Korea, where it has certain inherent linguistic and cultural advantages, the report noted. "There is a strong case for increased partnership between the two countries as global corporations strive to strike a balance in their Sino-India co-sourcing models."

 

[Bushroda]

Dedicated railway freight corridor enters crucial phase
22 Aug 2007, 0939 hrs IST,PTI

NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways is trying to put the much-touted Rs 28,181 crore dedicated freight corridor (DFC) project on track amid roadblocks.

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JBIC), which has agreed to provide about Rs 18,000 crore for the construction cost of the proposed 2,763-km freight corridor, has raised questions about the technology to be used and the cost of the project in its interim report submitted to the railway ministry.

The DFC project aims to link Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata with high speed connectivity for exclusive freight movement. The project consists of 1,483-km Delhi-Mumbai route, also known as western corridor and 1,280-km Delhi-Kolkata route, known as eastern corridor. While the construction of the western corridor is estimated to cost Rs 16,592 crore, the cost of building the eastern corridor is estimated to cost Rs 11,588 crore.

While the railways want to run double stacked containers in Delhi-Mumbai corridor by diesel locomotive, the JBIC has suggested electric locomotives because it is environment-friendly. The JBIC has also estimated in its interim report, the total cost of the DFC at a whopping Rs 50,000 crore, almost double than the railway's estimate.

"We have received the interim report of the JBIC in which they have raised certain issues. We are examining it and we would respond to it accordingly. Anyway it is only an interim report and the final report would be submitted in October only," RN Verma, Advisor, Railway Board (Infrastructure), said.

The JBIC is also not in favour of double-stacked containers to run on the western sector while for Indian Railway it is a key component of the project.

While the eastern corridor is to carry mostly iron ore and coal, the western corridor is meant to carry high value goods for which double stacked containers are the best medium.

The Railway Ministry has already got the approval for the DFC from the Cabinet Committee of Economy Affairs. Railways aims to carry 785 million tons of revenue earning traffic this year and expects to carry more than 1,100 million tons of freight traffic by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan.

The railway has run the double stacked containers in the 800-km Mundra-Jaipur link on a trial basis and it wants to extend the operation in other sectors as well.

"The project is definitely on as the government is committed to constructing dedicated freight corridor for speedier movement of goods trains between major cities," Verma said adding "we have already completed the final location survey for 600-km of the project."

While the proposed eastern corridor is to connect Ludhiana with Sonanagar via Ambala, Saharanpur, Khurja and Allahabad in the first phase and later extend to Kolkata, the western corridor will start from Tughlakabad connecting Rewari, Jaipur, Palanpur, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and finally Jawarharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai.

Development of exclusive freight corridor for carrying additional traffic is essential in view of high growth in demand. The high density network of Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata has got saturated at most locations. The dedicated corridor would increase the traffic and also the speed of goods trains.

Industrial development particularly in the eastern sector is likely to generate enough transport demand. For example, production of steel is likely to go up from the present level of 33 million tons to 100 million tons in the next 15 years. The finished steel from eastern region is likely to flow to other regions.

 

[Contrarian]

Happy feet, Neo did not ask you to stop posting here man, why have you stopped??
We'r missing your posts here dude!

 

[Bushroda]

OK!! relax guys. I havn't abondoned the efforts to keep updating the section. Just that I have been caught up in some thick of things at the office. Still I've updated here as recently as 6 days back. Check the dates.

 

[Bushroda]

SAP doubles India clients, reaffirms investment plan
By Unni Krishnan
Reuters, UK
Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:23 AM BST

NEW DELHI, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Software maker SAP AG (SAPG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it has doubled its number of customers in India to 2,000 in the past year, and reaffirmed that it planned to invest $1 billion in the country by 2010 to boost growth.

SAP, the world's biggest maker of business software, said India and China would play a central role in its drive to sign up 100,000 customers by the end of the decade.


"Markets like India are at an inflexion point when it comes to the adoption of technology by businesses of all shapes and sizes," Henning Kagermann, chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"For instance, it took us nine years in India to reach the 1,000 customer mark and only one to double it."

The German group generated about 13 percent of total revenue in the Asia-Pacific region in the second quarter to the end of June, well behind Europe's 52 percent contribution and the 35 percent in received from the United States.

In August last year, SAP, which competes against its United States-based arch-rival Oracle (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research), had said it would invest $1 billion over the next five years in the fast-growing Indian market to expand operations and double its headcount.

SAP's planned investment underscores the growing importance of Asia's third-largest economy as a global hub for technology outsourcing and research for multinational companies like IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Intel Corp. (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

Companies like SAP and IBM also vie with Indian firms for a share of outsourcing deals from domestic banks, small- and medium-sized enterprises and government departments.

 

[solid snake]

That skybus transport option looks nice. If the saftey standards can be met, it would be a good choice to solve some of the traffic congestion problems.

 

[Bushroda]

SolidSnake, this is for you

At the moment a Skybus prototype is running in Goa on a 1.5km long testrail. Safety procedures are being developed.

This is a National Geographic documentary(dubbed in Hindi). If you are unable to understand Hindi it speaks about the principles on skybus works. It is similar to conventional rail but is upside down and hangs 10 metres above the ground thereby avoiding any bloackades. The designer speaks of the safety approach which is much safer than conventional rail. The average speed is 100km/hr and the lines can carry container and cargo cars aswell.

[YOUTUBE]

Here is the presentation by the Skybus designer himself
[YOUTUBE]

Another one.
[YOUTUBE]

 

[Contrarian]

Do you know when Skybus will properly start running in Goa? I know why it was stopped, the accident during the test run, i went to Goa as well. But do you know when the safety tests will end and services actually start?

They eventually plan to connect north and south goa with it.

 

[Contrarian]

OK!! relax guys. I havn't abondoned the efforts to keep updating the section. Just that I have been caught up in some thick of things at the office. Still I've updated here as recently as 6 days back. Check the dates.

6 days is a long time not seeing your updates here happy feet!

Anyway, i have a request for you. COuld you please post the actual day to day plans and business expansions about Indian economy, what you normally post are generic articles and analysis's. for example in TOI's website, they post the daily business news.

 

[Bushroda]

Malay, its hard to keep a tab of each & every news item. Also this being a Pakistani forum, I doubt if general readers would be too keen on knowing the daily rates of onions, potatoes in the local mandi. I only try to post articles that show the general direction of the Indian economy & cover the core economic disciplines primarily being IT, Biotech, large scale manufacturing, retail. Indian economy is so diverse that we would probably need a section for everything not to mention Infrastructure, finance, investment, banking. But then it would be too hard to maintain so many threads. But, if anybody is following the thread from the first post he'll get a basic idea about the developments happening. I remember I briefly posted every news development of Tata-Corus deal in the last Indian economy thread here. I have tried to do the same for all major developments but one has to dig in for the posts.

 

[Bushroda]

Indian Tech firm to bring 500 jobs to Atlanta
By MARIA SAPORTA, DAN CHAPMAN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, US
08/27/07

For critics of U.S. jobs outsourced to India, Azim Premji — oddly enough – may be your new hero.

Premji, who has spent most of his career building a leading technology conglomerate in India, came to town Monday to announce a reversal of fortune: his Bangalore, India-based company, Wipro Technologies, plans to locate 500 to 1,000 jobs in metro Atlanta within the next three years.

Better still, economic development officials say the kinds of jobs envisioned — software developers and engineers — are just what Georgia wants.

"These are exactly the right kind of jobs we've been working on for a number of years," said Hans Gant, a senior vice president for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. "And Wipro is exactly the right kind of global company we have been trying to recruit. This could open the door to other companies from India."

The Wipro announcement is the latest globalization wave to hit U.S. shores – the so-called "in-sourcing" of jobs that the United States lost over the last decade and didn't expect to regain.

Blue-collar work was the first to go as the auto, steel and textile industries shifted jobs to China, Korea and India. A tsunami of white-collar, back-office jobs – information technology, software design, call center operations – have disappeared from the United States since the turn of the 21st century, again finding low-wage homes in Asia, primarily India.

Now, the Indians are repaying the favor. Altruism, though, plays no role.

Stung by wage inflation for engineers in Bangalore, and no longer beneficiaries of a cheap rupee, India is now acquiring U.S. firms and establishing manufacturing and research centers across the country.

Premji, Wipro's chairman, said the company chose Atlanta for its first new global software development center after considering 600 locations in the United States.

"We got a little carried away," he said. Wipro weighed the presence of colleges, airline access and retired military personnel with valued technological skills as key factors.

"For a center in the United States and Europe to build efficiencies, it must have a minimum critical mass of 500 people," Premji said, adding that Wipro already has other smaller centers working for individual customers in the United States.

"For the Georgia center, we want it to be broader," he said. "We are looking forward to getting this thing kicked-started as quickly as possible."

Wipro, which is working with Georgia's Board of Regents and its job training program, already has started collaborating with Kennesaw State University and Southern Polytechnic State University. But the company said it has not yet selected the metro location.

"We'll be doing that in the next two to three weeks," Premji said. Wipro also is considering Texas and Virginia for similar centers, and the intent is to have a total of three in the United States.

Wipro already holds a stake in the U.S. market. Earlier this month it bought New Jersey-based Infocrossing Inc. – itself an information technology outsourcing firm.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Georgia Department of Economic Development have been courting Wipro for four years.

The company first came to the attention of economic development officials through Jagdish Sheth, a professor of marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. Sheth serves on Wipro's board, and he has been an advisor to Premji since 1985.

"For the first time, this shows that it's not going to be sufficient to take the work to India," Sheth said. "We have to invest in the United States."

Premji said Wipro clients include about 600 of the Fortune 1000 companies. AGL is one of those clients as is Delta Air Lines, the Coca-Cola Co. and BellSouth, which has been acquired by AT&T.

Wipro has about 6,000 employees scattered around the United States and 80,000 worldwide. The company says its customers are primarily Fortune 1000 companies. Premji said Wipro will have revenue of about $4.5 billion this year.

But metro Atlanta will not become Wipro's U.S. headquarters, at least for now. Despite urging from Sheth, the company recently relocated its U.S. headquarters from California to New Jersey.

"Their North American headquarters ought to be in Atlanta," Sheth said. "It's going to start more Indian companies locating in Atlanta. As many as 10 to 11 large corporations will probably put their North American headquarters in Atlanta."

For example, Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian manufacturing conglomerate, hopes to sell SUVs in this country by 2009. An Alpharetta auto distributor holds the rights to sell the vehicles.

"India's economy is now getting into the next phase," said Ash Thakker, chairman of the Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. "It is truly becoming a two-way type of trade. It's jobs, revenues, goods and services for both India and the United States."

Similar to Japanese and Korean automakers, Indian software companies need to be closer to U.S. markets. Korean automaker Kia, for example, broke ground last year on an assembly plant in LaGrange. Even China – a competitor to India's economic ascendancy – announced in May it would build an electronics factory in Barnesville.

Yet India's entry into the lucrative U.S. market takes a different turn than its fellow Asian tigers.

"Usually, from a historic perspective, manufacturing was the path followed by Japan, Korea and China," Thakker said. "However it was the information technology, and other service-oriented type of economy, that has been launched by India."

Georgia and India are no strangers. In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau pegged the number of Indians in Georgia at 79,169. The Georgia Department of Economic Development is considering opening a trade office in India by 2009.

Wipro's foray into the United States, though, may ultimately harm the overall U.S. economy, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Last week, the think tank reported that 600,000 U.S. jobs disappeared at foreign-owned companies between 2000 and 2005.

"There's no doubt some jobs will be created, but who are they putting out of business with the products they're selling to the U.S. business community?" said institute economist Robert Scott. "For the first time we're seeing the process of in-sourcing eliminating domestic jobs."