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I'm talking about the new one Aduz, saw a 3D interactive CGI demo of the terminal, quite impressive.

I'll post the link here if I can find it.

Malay, I'll reply you later.

Neo
 
India reports highest salary hikes in Asia

NEW DELHI: Salaries in India rose faster than any other major country in Asia this year, even as companies across the region remain under pressure to retain talent and spend more to compensate employees, a global resource company has said.

An annual survey by Hewitt Associates revealed that salaries in India rose an average 13.8 per cent in 2006, with midlevel technical employees and supervisors getting the biggest hikes, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

The momentum will likely continue through next year, it said. The survey covered workers 169 companies in India.

In all of Asia, the company collected information from 1,357 companies. It wasn’t clear if survey also considered wages paid to manual workers in many countries.

The Philippines came second with average salary increase of 8.2 per cent, while in China, salaries rose 8 per cent, slower than last year’s 8.3 per cent.

The survey measured actual and projected salary increases, and compensation practices for five specific job categories _ executives, managers, midlevel staff, clerks and manual workers.

Thailand and Malaysia saw salary hikes of 6.5 per cent and 6.2 per cent respectively, higher than last year. In Singapore, employees were paid 4.6 per cent more in 2006, up from 3.9 per cent a year ago.

Australia, South Korea and Hong Kong reported modest raises.

“Organisations are being driven to increase their spend on compensation as a result of the ongoing attraction and retention challenges we are facing in Asia,” Nishchae Suri, head of Hewitt’s Talent and Organisation Consulting Analytics practice in Asia.

“Many companies are reassessing their personnel strategies and broader business goals to ensure they are getting the most out of their talent and increasing productivity,” Suri said.

With the pressure to retain key talent growing, an increasing number of organisations are ensuring their pay is competitive by closely monitoring market movements.

The survey included the following markets: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=34003
 
I'm talking about the new one Aduz, saw a 3D interactive CGI demo of the terminal, quite impressive.

I'll post the link here if I can find it.

Malay, I'll reply you later.

Neo
All current airports in the country are pathetic compared to western ones. But they are upgrading many airports currently and building new ones too.Mumbai will have two airports in the future.
 
Tuesday, 5 December 2006

India's Sensex hits record high

India's main stock index, the Sensex, has touched a record high on the back of a growing economy.
Bombay's benchmark Sensex index jumped to 14,028.47 points when trading began on Tuesday, topping a previous peak set in November.

India's economy has beaten expectations by growing at an annualised rate of 9.2% during July to September.

The Sensex's recovery marks a change in fortunes for the exchange, which plunged in value earlier this year.

In later trading, however, the Sensex dropped below the 14,000 mark again, closing 63.32 points, or 0.5%, higher at 13,937.65.

Market analyst Rahul Rege said the rising stock index was the result of strong economic fundamentals and more players investing their money in the market.

"Lot of money has flowed in from foreign investors in the last three months..the investor base has widened tremendously, economic growth numbers are positive and corporates have registered good results," he said.

This year, foreign institutional investors pumped nearly $9bn into India.

Asia's fourth-largest economy has grown at an average of 8% in the last three years. But critics say the benefits have not reached the poor fast enough.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6208740.stm
 
All current airports in the country are pathetic compared to western ones. But they are upgrading many airports currently and building new ones too.Mumbai will have two airports in the future.

They are not upgrading it, they are thinking about upgrading it,nothing has started yet.

Well Mumbai is a masterpiece,please everybody to visit it before we built a new one.Its worth it..:rolleyes:
 
They are not upgrading it, they are thinking about upgrading it,nothing has started yet.

Well Mumbai is a masterpiece,please everybody to visit it before we built a new one.Its worth it..:rolleyes:

Well have u visited the new international airport at kochin. Its really a wonderful and beautiful airport in India at present. Its having world class facilities, its the first private(NRI's) and biggest airport in India and the biggest duty free shop in India. Just vist it..!:tup:
 
Well have u visited the new international airport at kochin. Its really a wonderful and beautiful airport in India at present. Its having world class facilities, its the first private(NRI's) and biggest airport in India and the biggest duty free shop in India. Just vist it..!:tup:

Welcome aboard Sajan.
Please introduce yourself in the intro section so we can give you a proper welcome to :pff:

Enjoy!
 
Thursday, 7 December 2006

Airbus to tap into Indian market

Airbus predicts the Indian market will soar in coming years
Airbus is to take advantage of India's rapidly expanding aviation market by investing heavily over the next decade.
Its plans involve setting up a training school for pilots and an engineering centre, both of which will be based in India's hi-tech centre, Bangalore.

The news came as Airbus forecast that India would see passenger numbers surge by 7.7% to 2025 - the biggest expansion worldwide, outstripping China.

Airbus predicted India would need 1,100 planes worth $105bn by 2025.

The majority of these - 935 - will be for passengers, while the remaining 165 will be for cargo.

'Strong demand'

Reports put the Airbus investment figure at $1bn (£508m; 752m euros) over 10 years, including $300m for the pilot centre and $250m for an engineering centre.

"Strong demand in India is being unleashed by air transport deregulation, the emergence of a number of new operators, lower fares and a large untapped demand for air travel," Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy told the AFP news agency.

The 7.7% growth in Indian passenger numbers predicted by Airbus is well above the world average of 4.8% and just above China's 7.2% forecast growth.

More than half of the planes in India are currently run by Airbus, the firm said.

The firm's plans in India come after news that it has won a multi-billion dollar deal in China for 150 of its A320 plans, including some to be assembled in China.

Airbus has been developing its A380 aircraft as a rival to Boeing's 747 jumbo plane.

But the programme has been fraught with difficulties and delays have caused some major airlines to cancel or renegotiate orders.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6216688.stm
 
PM seeks states' support for higher growth

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday sought states support for 'difficult' policy changes for attaining ambitious albeit feasible nine per cent growth during the 11th plan, saying agriculture sector was in crisis and there were 'major constraints' on the infrastructure front.

"There are major constraints we have to overcome, many of which require difficult policy changes by the Central and state government," Singh said inaugurating the 52nd meeting of the National Development Council for approval of the Draft Approach Paper to the Eleventh Plan.

Lauding the performance of the economy during the 10th plan, where growth in the last four years, would be over 8 per cent taking India firmly among front ranks of fast growing developing countries, Singh said, "the world has a very favourable assessment of our prospects and this is reflected in the fact that FDI flows are buoyant."

Admitting that inflation had presented a problem, he said, "We are determined to control it within the 5 per cent level", and added that "the Plan must give top priority to redressing the weaknesses in the agriculture sector. We cannot expect inclusive growth if we do not revitalise agriculture."

"Agriculture as a whole is in crisis", Singh said pointing out that growth in the agriculture sector, on which half of the rural population is dependent, has been less than 2 per cent per annum since the middle of the 1990s.

Detailing the road map for the average annual nine per cent growth during 2007-12, Singh said, private sector investment would have to be stepped up for infrastructure sector, which the approach paper has identified as a "major constraint" on achieving the double digit growth.

Stating that roads, railways, ports and airports and the power sector all needed massive expansion and quality improvement, the Prime Minister said, "investment requirement of such expansion are massive and cannot be met from the public sector alone".

He pointed out that public private participation "cannot be a solution if the power sector is financially unviable", and added that the public investment would be used to develop infrastructure in areas where the private sector is reluctant to enter.

"Much of the investment needed for rapid growth will come from the private sector and this calls for maintenance of a sound macro economic framework, an investor friendly environment and a strong and innovative financial sector capable of responding to the needs of new entrepreneurs."
 
GSM subscriber base scales 100-mn mark

NEW DELHI: The total GSM subscriber base in India has crossed the 100 million mark with the addition of 5 million new subscribers in November 2006.

The performance in November surpasses the 4.7 million new subscribers added in October. According to COAI, this places India in the super-elite club of countries boasting of over 100 million GSM subscribers well ahead of expectations.

In terms of the global GSM subscriber base this now places India third after China and Russia. China had 401.7 million GSM subscribers in November 06, Russia 152.2 million and India 100.7 million.

TV Ramachandran, director general, COAI said, GSM has been the primary engine of growth in telecom in India and will continue to be the major contributor to the growth in tele-density in the coming years as well.

He added that the sharp spurt in overall mobile growth was due to forward looking policies of the ministry and enabling regulation.

Among all circles, Category C circles witnessed the highest rate of growth at 6.9%, followed by Category B circles at 6.1%.

Within the Category C circles, the highest growth was recorded by Bihar at 8.5% followed by Assam at 8.4%. Within the Category B circles, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest growth at 9.6% and 6.9% respectively.

Category A circles also witnessed a healthy growth of 5.4% in Nov. 06. AP recorded the highest growth of 6.6% followed by Gujarat at 6.2%.

Metro subscribers also grew by 2.6% over the previous month. Mumbai recorded the highest growth at (4.1%) followed by Delhi (2.9%).
 
Prices of essential drugs may come down

NEW DELHI: With the industry not responding to "voluntary" margin cuts on medicines, the government is once again considering to impose price control on essential drugs.

If the proposal put forward by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) goes through, prices of 354 drugs may come down by around 10-12%.

At present, 74 drugs are under price control. NPPA, which monitors and fixes drug prices, has suggested that prices of 354 drugs covered under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) should be rolled back to the price prevailing six months ago, and cut by a further 10%.

The prices are then proposed to be frozen for a year, and can be increased only with the NPPA approval, sources said.

NLEM includes 354 popular medicines and covers 27 therapeutic segments including drugs such as Paracetamol, Penicillin, Amoxicillin, Ampicillin, Diazepam, Ibuprofen, Quinine, Omeprazol, Decolofen, Calcium and Folic Acid.

NPPA also wants to tighten control over the industry. It has suggested that the industry be allowed a price increase of 7% in a year, and 15% in a three-year period.

At present, prices of control-free (non-scheduled) drugs are allowed to rise by 20% during a 12-month period, and 60% in three years.

NPPA has also said that prices of drugs, which are present in combinations with NLEM medicines, should be allowed to rise by 4% a year and 10% in three years.

In September, the industry had agreed to a proposal to cap margins on 'generic generic' medicines — which are off patent drugs sold without brand names — and would have resulted in a 70% reduction in prices.

But companies did a volte face and sections of the industry did not implement it, despite government reminders.

The new proposal would have an impact of reducing prices by 10-12% of drugs under the NLEM that includes over 7,000 packs covering all segments.

The pharma industry has suggested it was comfortable with a 5% reduction on drugs under NLEM.
 
ICICI Bank may buy Sangli Bank

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India's largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank Ltd on Friday said it will consider the acquisition of Sangli Bank Ltd as part of efforts to enhance its rural branch network.

In a communique to BSE, ICICI Bank said the bank in its board meeting on Saturday will consider the amalgamation of Sangli Bank Ltd with itself.

This is the second bid by ICICI Bank this year after its failed attempt to acquire Satara-based United Western Bank, which was later merged with IDBI Bank a few months ago.

ICICI Bank, which has recently got Reserve Bank of India's approval to open new branches, expects to further bolster its branch network, especially in rural areas through this amalgamation.

"ICICI Bank is expected to pay close to Rs 1 crore per rural branch and close to Rs 50 lakh for branches in remote areas. The acquirer will pay Rs 300 crore for Sangli's branch network, human resource and retail liabilities," a source said.

Sangli Bank has been under the Reserve Bank's scanner ever since its capital adequacy nose dived to 1.64% in 2005-06, well below the apex bank's stipulated 9%, sources said.

"RBI had instructed the bank to neither accept large deposits nor lend large amounts. They were also not given permission to open new branches. It's possible that RBI would have asked ICICI Bank to bail out the ailing bank ," said a banker.

ICICI Bank presently has 640 branches, while Sangli Bank has about 186 branches in seven states. ICICI's current asset size in first half of this fiscal stands at Rs 2,82,300 crore.

On the other hand, Sangli Bank earned a net loss of around Rs 32 crore in 2004-05. The bank has not submitted its 2005-06 account so far.

As on March 31, 2005, it had a net worth of Rs 85 crore. The amalgamation, if it goes through, will be in line with the bank's management philosophy of tapping the huge Indian rural market which it feels will be the growth driver for the Indian banking industry.

Industry analysts expect the merger to help the banking major meet its priority sector lending commitments.
 
Trade war: China trounces India 4-1

BEIJING: China has trounced India 4-1 in trade in the first 10 months of this year. It has notched up a trade surplus of $3 billion against India as compared to a trade deficit of $946 million that it suffered in the same period in 2005.

Chinese exports to India shot up 61% to reach $11.58 billion in that period. Indian exports notched a minor rise of 4.49% totalling $ 8.5 billion, according to the latest statistics released by the Chinese Customs for the January-October period.

Chinese exports have grown by close to $4 billion in October as compared to $71.97 billion till October, 2005. Beijing's impressive performance gives a lie to the repeated Chinese complaints about India blocking the entry of Chinese goods.

The latest stats show that the Chinese industry has managed to penetrate new and non-traditional areas and make a massive dent in terms of sales.

It turns out that Indian trade and industry has been far more receptive to Chinese goods rather than energetically taking up the task of selling Indian goods to China.

This despite the number of visits by Indian trade bodies to China, ostensibly to promote Indian goods. Sources here say the Indian delegates are more interested in sourcing cheap Chinese products.

A highlight of the bilateral trade is that the two countries have managed to meet the $20 billion target set for 2008 by October this year.

Bilateral trade reached $20.09 billion in October, indicating a 31% rise from $15.34 billion achieved in January-October last year.
 
Growth leads to CRR hike

NEW DELHI: RBI's decision was based on recent trends in growth rates, which refused to slow down despite the central bank's earlier measures, and inflationary expectations.

A senior banker said that RBI also took the decision based on recent data which put economic growth in the second quarter at 9.2%.

At the same time, credit offtake till November has grown by around 30% on top of an increase of 31.1% a year ago. But, the deposits have not shown similar growth, this has led to tightening of liquidity in the money market.

A banker said, the increase in CRR would further worsen the situation and interest rates are likely to go up by 0.5% across the board.

In a statement, the central bank said the decision to increase the CRR was taken to contain inflationary expectations in the current environment and consolidating gains achieved so far.

The central bank said the objective is to continue to maintain conditions of stability that contribute to sustaining the momentum of growth on an enduring basis. RBI was also worried at rise in the inflation.

As on November 25, 2006 , whole sale price index has gone up t to 5.3% as against 4.5%. But even more worrisome was the rise in the consumer price index which has gone up to over 7% as against around 4% during the same period last year.

The Reserve Bank in the statement also pointed that in its Industrial Outlook, a majority of respondents from private sector expect higher increase in prices.

The banker said that this also forced the bank to take prompt measure to contain inflation even at the cost of affecting economic growth.

The increase in the cash reserve ratio will be effected in two phases by 25 basis points on December 23, 2006 and January 6, 2007.
 
Govt asks Parliament for additional Rs 22k crore

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday sought parliamentary sanction for additional spending of Rs 21,823.92 crore, which will result in a net cash outgo of Rs 11,444.76 crore.

A significant part of the additional fund requirement is to go towards paying higher subsidies for cooking gas, kerosene and fertiliser.

The government already has parliamentary sanction to issue oil bonds worth Rs 14,000 crore to oil companies to sell cooking gas and kerosene below the prevailing international price.

Now, nod has been sought to issue additional bonds worth Rs 5,000 crore. With the latest proposal, the extent of oil bonds that would be issued to the oil marketing companies would go up to Rs 19,000 crore against the cabinet's approval for Rs 28,000 crore this year.

So far, only one trance of oil bonds worth Rs 7,000 crore have been issued to oil marketing companies — IndianOil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.

The finance ministry has also sought permission to provide additional Rs 3,700 crore subsidy to fertiliser companies importing or selling urea and nitrogenous fertiliser.

Another Rs 3,856 crore is proposed to be spent on writing off loans to states. The second batch of supplementary demand for grants tabled in Parliament on Friday has said that gross additional expenditure was estimated at Rs 10,378.64 crore.
 
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