Indian Economy - News & Updates - Archive

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Intel goes 'deep inside' India to tap rural heartland
The Age, Australia
July 22, 2007

Intel marketing veteran John McClure likes to tell the story of an unschooled Indian farmer who wanted to catch and store rain to water his crops but didn't know how to go about it.

The farmer's daughter figured out a way by researching the subject at an Internet-equipped community centre in their village after school hours and helped him design a "rain-harvesting solution," he says.

That's a simple example of how technology can improve the lives of the 700 million mostly-illiterate people who live in India's vast hinterland, said McClure.

The executive is at the helm of an Intel effort to take computers to the country's 650,000 villages.

"We are focused on getting as deep inside India as possible," the South Asia marketing director said in an interview in the northern Indian desert city of Jaipur.

"It's a frontier we do want to conquer while not missing anything in between," added the 38-year-old.

The world's largest microchipmaker, whose products power eight out of 10 computers sold globally, has tied up with state governments and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) in a programme to spread computer literacy in the countryside.

Intel, which also unveiled a portable personal computer designed for school children Saturday, will provide technology support, educational content and wireless connectivity to 100,000 rural community centres over the next year.

It will also help lay a broadband network across rural India and develop local-language Internet content.

But the rural push is not driven by a sense of charity.

Intel is betting that children in the villages who experience first-hand the benefits of technology will buy a computer when they grow up and take up a job or go into business.

"There's an altruistic element to it but there's also a business element," McClure said. "By investing in these areas -- maybe ahead of the curve -- we will pull more users into the PC purchasing market faster."

India's villages are home to 70 percent of its billion-plus population, yet their contribution to national economic output has declined over the past two decades to as low as 20 percent from more than half.

The countryside is yet to receive its share of the dividend from an investment-, spending- and technology-led economic boom that has produced nine percent growth rates for each of the past three years.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party-led government, which came to power in 2004, is trying to change that by pumping money into rural infrastructure and boosting bank loans.

"To address inclusive growth is incredibly important for the Indian economy to keep growing at a healthy clip," said McClure. "Making technology available in rural areas is a critical element of that."

ICICI Bank, India's largest private bank, is giving computer loans to customers identified by Intel's dealerships while it expands lending in the countryside.

Vijay Chandok, a senior ICICI executive responsible for financing small and medium businesses, said his clients are benefitting from economic growth and depending on technology to boost their prospects.

"The small guy needs technology to make his business easier, faster and more efficient," Chandok said. "Equipment finance is a key proposition here."

India's installed computer base is just 30 million, small for the second-most populous nation in a world where one billion PCs have been sold, said R. Ravichandran, South Asia sales director at Intel.

The market in the year ended March grew to 6.34 million units, up from five million the previous year, and may rise to nine million by 2009, according to industry estimates.

Intel is doing its bit to boost computer sales in India, where it has invested one billion US dollars and hired 3,000 engineers, by promoting computer literacy at schools and catching users early.

It developed the so-called "classmate PC" targeted at schools in the cities in partnership with Indian computer-maker HCL.

"We are helping the country in an area that's extremely important and at the same time, it's a very, very long-term investment for us," said Rahul Bedi, Intel's South Asia corporate affairs director.

"We believe that unless you have social relevance built into business processes, you can't sustain them."

 

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Allow FDI in airline infrastructure: PHDCCI
22 Jul, 2007, 1300 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: The new civil aviation policy should allow foreign direct investment for developing airline infrastructure and encourage larger participation of private players, industry chamber PHDCCI has said.

"As the civil aviation sector is expected to see 25 per cent growth in the next 10 years, civil aviation infrastructure needs faster development through public-private participation mode, to be supplemented by foreign direct investment," PHDCCI President Sanjay Bhatia said in a statement.

He said the new policy should facilitate entry of new private carriers and promote healthy competition to benefit the national economy and air passengers.

More funds from private sector and FDI were needed as airport development in the country has not kept pace with the growth of the economy and passenger and cargo traffic, the statement said.

"The airport infrastructure was developed expecting a growth of 16 per cent in air transport traffic per annum but the actual growth during the last three years has been in the range of 24-28 per cent," it said.

The chamber has sought that the policy should provide a long-term vision beyond 2020. According to the government, the number of aircraft on scheduled operations would increase to 1,000 from current 321 and air passengers would go up to 280 million by 2020 from 95 million at present.

Liberalisation of rules and regulations governing the civil aviation, without compromising on safety and security, and reduction in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices and taxation of ATF and lease rentals are also important, it added.

 

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Civil aviation sector to attract USD 110bn investment by 2020

New Delhi, July 22: The civil aviation sector in the country is likely to attract an investment of USD 110 billion by 2020 for purchasing new aircraft and building airport infrastructure.

''Out of the total investment, 80 billion dollars would be required for the purchase of new aircraft and 30 billion dollars for building up airports' infrastructure,'' Joint Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation R K Singh said in a seminar.

In a bid to promote Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the civil aviation industry, it is proposed to further liberalise the FDI policy particularly in areas of charters, cargo, maintenance and repair operations, flying training and ground handling, he added.

''With the steady induction of new aircrafts, India has the potential to become a regional maintenance hub. Companies like Boeing and Airbus have already committed an investment of 100 million dollars each for this purpose,'' he said.

If India's current economic growth rates were sustained, it would become a trillion-dollar economy by 2009 and also emerge as the world's third largest economy by 2025.

According to industry chamber PHDCCI, the new civil aviation policy that is expected to be announced sometime in 2007 should provide a longer term vision, beyond 2020 for the development of civil aviation infrastructure.

 

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Franklin Templeton Investments launches Franklin India high growth companies offshore fund
Arabian News, UAE
21 July 2007

Franklin Templeton Investments, a global investment management company, has launched a new open-end diversified equity fund called Franklin India High Growth Companies Offshore Fund ("FIHGCF"). The fund, which is now available for investors in the Middle East, seeks to provide capital appreciation through investments in Indian companies/sectors with high growth rates. The New Fund Offer period is from July 15, 2007 to July 25, 2007 during which, units will be available at US$10 per unit (plus applicable load). Ongoing sales will commence on July 30, 2007.

On the rationale for launching the new fund, Mr. Harshendu Bindal, Senior Director, Franklin Templeton Investment Management Limited said, "The changing investment landscape in India along with a growing recognition of the long-term potential has led to increased interest for equities amongst investors. At the same time, a large number of investors are looking for an equity product that focuses on achieving capital appreciation through fast growing Indian companies. To cater to this need, we are now launching Franklin India High Growth Companies Fund. It will adopt a growth style of investing unlike other Franklin equity funds, which follow a blended investment style."

Elaborating further, he said, "In a rapidly growing economy like India, a growth style has performed better and is likely to sustain this performance (albeit with higher volatility) if the economy continues to grow at a rapid pace. Overall, this fund will help us in broad basing our equity product offerings and cater to the growing segment of equity investors looking for a high growth equity offering in their portfolio."

Speaking about the fund's strategy, Mr. Sivasubramanian K.N., Senior Portfolio Manager, said, "The economic and corporate fundamentals continue to be strong and India is projected to become one of the largest economies in the world. Given that Indian companies (enjoying various competitive advantages) are growing at a rapid pace and have the potential to grow at above-average rates in the years to come, FIHGCF's growth-focussed strategy of investing in such stocks will help investors capture the growth potential of corporate India in a comprehensive manner."

He added, "The fund's focus will be on companies offering the best trade-off between growth, risk and valuation. We will be looking for sustainable competitive advantages - proprietary intellectual property, strong management, distribution/cost advantages, or entry barriers specific to the respective sector. The fund will be managed based on a mix of top-down (macro analysis to identify sectors) and bottom-up approach (micro analysis to pick stocks within these sectors)."

 

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Indian real estate developer looks to build ties with Quincy
Sunday, July 22, 2007
By Deborah Gertz Husar
Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Indian real estate developer Unnikrishnan Nambisan knows there's plenty of ways to seal a business deal, but building relationships is the key.

"The most important is friendship," said the man known to his friends as Unni.

Nambisan, chairman of UKN Properties in Bangalore, stopped in Quincy last week to visit friends Jim and Mary Benz and start building potential business relationships in the Gem City, which impressed him with its warmth and wealth of educational and business opportunities for people in his native land.

"We have to market Quincy," Nambisan said. "I will start doing it. People will start inquiring about Quincy."

Nambisan made some inquiries of his own in meetings with Mayor John Spring and Charles Bell with the Great River Economic Development Foundation. He's already talking about a return trip to Quincy.

"Next time I probably will come with some business proposals for Quincy," Nambisan said in the midst of what was mostly a pleasure trip to the United States that's taken him to both coasts. "We would like to have some sister city relationship with one of our cities, Mysore, and some business also."

The conversation with Spring touched on everything from hydroenergy and the port authority to the large number of nursing schools in Bangalore and people there looking to further their education in the United States.

"They have a great deal of young people who go into nursing in India. Many would love to come to the U.S. to practice or obtain additional degrees, but they're limited," Spring said. "One of the things that has to be figured out is how we can allow people like that who have the education, have the background, to come to the U.S. to help us with the shortages we have. Nursing is certainly one of them, and the pinch is felt here in our community."

Spring expects this first meeting to lead to further discussions.

"This could lead to a business opportunity, a business exchange, maybe an educational exchange, a social exchange," he said. "I don't know if it will lead to a sister city relationship or anything along those lines — that would require a little more discussion — but I do think anytime you are open to working with people from foreign lands, it affords great opportunities."

Ties between Mysore, a city of 350,000 about 100 miles from Bangalore, and Quincy "would be very fruitful," Benz said, and it's close enough to have many of same attributes as Bangalore, known as the Silicon Valley of India.

Building connections with international communities "really has very little to do with the size of your community," Spring said. "It's more to do with your openness to this globalization and having experts in various fields to assist and aid us in making our community advantageous for the economy of the world."

About 30 Quincy companies already are involved in international trade, Bell said, and he talks with someone from another country or discusses something tied to international trade about once a week. Bell expects those contacts to increase with the development of the port authority and the biodiesel plant in the south Quincy bottoms.

"Transportation is becoming more important. Businesses internationally are placing more importance on economical transportation, especially as fuel prices increase. We're centrally located in the U.S., and we have some very strong logistical advantages people are just becoming aware of, some from marketing efforts we have done," said Bell, a business consultant with GREDF and manager of the entrepreneurship center.

Bell and Nambisan talked about the way the city works with economic development and available incentives for retail, commercial, industrial and residential development.

"We didn't talk about any specific projects. He does seem to have an interest in the Quincy area and seems to like it very much," Bell said. "It appears they have a lot of experience and would have the abilities to develop things well here."

Nambisan also has some familiarity with the area thanks to his sister Sobha Velloday, who lives in Springfield and worked as an engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation for 30 years.

"They have a pretty good knowledge, both he and his sister, of Quincy and downstate Illinois. It was a little different than someone coming from a foreign country that had no previous connections here," Bell said.

Benz, who visited Nambisan in December and January, hopes to build more connections during Nambisan's next visit to Quincy.

"I'm dragging him here, dragging him there. You've got to meet this person, you've got to go here," Benz said. "We really should have an avenue to get some young people in India here. Some people from here should go to India."

Building face-to-face relationships spurs business for Nambisan, from drawing friends to his developments in Bangalore to gaining leads on available properties.

Years ago, for example, Nambisan bought a lot of acreage from farmers near Bangalore and urged them to use the proceeds to buy more land farther away on the city's outskirts.

"So now what has happened is they're farming, but their land price has gone up very high. They have not lost anything, and they always think about me," he said.

 

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‘Renewable energy can ease power shortage’

* Solar heaters to be compulsory in new buildings
* Renewable energy contributes about 10,400 MW

Bangalore: If the present rate of growth in India’s economy is to be sustained, the supply of electricity has to meet the demand, Vilas Muttemwar, Union Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy, said here on Friday.

Addressing the valedictory session of “Solar India 2007” conference and exhibition, organised by the World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE), Pune, Mr. Muttemwar said the 9 per cent power shortage in the country could only be bridged through renewable energy.

“Renewable energy has made a contribution of 10,400 MW to the national grid. The target set for the 11th Plan period is to achieve 14,000 MW power capacity through renewable energy,” he said.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has proposed Rs. 500 crore to support the renewable energy industry, which included research and development efforts to improve technology.

The Minister said the country had a “vibrant” solar industry, where solar water heating had emerged an important and widely used technology, contributing to energy saving in the domestic and commercial sectors.

This had been made possible by soft loans to individual households and organisations for installing heaters, and through incentives to encourage its use, he said.

Building bye-laws

The Ministry, in association with the Ministry of Urban Development, was trying to get building bylaws amended by local municipalities to make solar water heater installations mandatory in new buildings.

 

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India to set up first space university
Monster and Critics, UK
Jul 22, 2007, 12:18 GMT

New Delhi - Seeking to groom experts to help grow the country's satellite and rocket programmes, India will set up its first space university in the southern state of Kerala, reports said Sunday.

G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which will set up the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) to meet high technology requirements of ISRO, said the agency had set a 'target' of mid-August.

Nair told the news agency PTI that ISRO came up with the idea of the institute as it was faced with a 'very alarming situation' in terms of attracting the right talent for India's space programmes.

'Students will be taught in propulsion, aerodynamics, navigation, guidance, sub-systems, avionics, control systems and so on,' Nair said. 'So, that way, as soon as they come out of the Institute, they will be usable by us.'

IIST will initially operate from the campus of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, a lead centre of ISRO, and venue for launches. ISRO will later create full-fledged infrastructure for IIST on a site near the Kerala capital in about two years.

For its first batch the institute has already had a good response. Around 150 students are expected to be enrolled in aeronautical and avionics engineering and integrated MSc (Master of Science) in space sciences in the first academic year.

'For the starting batch there are a large number of applicants from (Indian Institute of Technology) IITs,' said Nair.

Many students coming out of India's premier technology institutes like IIT and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) are choosing management or information technology studies, or go abroad for work - thus are not available to the Indian scientific community.

The Bangalore-based ISRO gets more than 70,000 applications annually from students of other institutions. But after the final selection process, only about 200 make the grade, whereas ISRO requires more than 300 scientists for its various space programmes.

Nair said this 'difficult process' actually becomes a real hunt for talent at the country-wide level.

'So we thought we need to plan something unique, catch the students at a young age,' said Nair.

India, on June 21, inducted the Indo-Russian supersonic BrahMos missile into its defence forces. It has also developed, indigenously, all-terrain, short- and long-range ballistic missiles.

ISRO manufactures and launches Indian satellites. Through its commercial arm Antrix Corporation, ISRO undertakes commercial satellite launches for other countries as well.

ISRO plans to send an unmanned mission to the moon in 2008.

 

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India to gain $8 bn on forex reserves
Press Trust Of India / New Delhi July 23, 2007

Due to hardening global interest rates, India is likely to gain $7-8 billion this year on surplus foreign exchange reserves invested by the Reserve Bank in central banks of other countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“During the year 2005-06 (July-June), the return on foreign currency assets and gold, after accounting for depreciation, increased to 3.9 per cent from 3.1 per cent during 2004-05, mainly because of hardening of global short- term interest rate,” said a report on foreign exchange by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The return of foreign exchange invested abroad by the RBI, on behalf of the Union government, fetched around $6 billion between July 2005 and June 2006 as interest.

Interest rate earnings on foreign exchange reserves was merely 2.1 per cent in 2003-04 and 3.1 per cent a year later.

Analysts said with foreign direct investment expected to cross $20 billion this financial year and rising flow of funds through NRI remittances and Foreign Institutional Investors, India will soon be among the top league of countries with largest foreign exchange reserves. Foreign exchange reserves is already touching $219 billion.

Earlier, the finance ministry had asked the RBI to lend $5 billion for investment in the infrastructure sector for capital imports.

 

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No cap on private sector salaries: FM

Mumbai, July 22: Setting at rest speculation that the government may put a cap on salaries for India Inc, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said there cannot be any legislation on pay packets nor was it desirable.

"The government does not legislate on salaries and the government ought not," he said here replying to a question raised by a Mumbai University research student on whether low remuneration was acting as a disincentive to attract researchers.

Government salaries were no doubt poor as compared to market salaries. In fact, government salaries nowhere in the world match private sector except in Singapore, Chidambaram said during an interactive session with students yesterday.

"I do not think there is any comparison between government salary and salary of the private sector. In fact, to come into the research field it calls for certain attitude. Are you inclined towards academics and research?" he asked.

"Nobel laureate and renowned physicist Sir C V Raman could not have been a great scientist if he had thought he should be paid like IT icons Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji."

"Having said that, I agree that compensation for teachers, professors and researchers should be considerably enhanced. When late Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister, it was recognised through the UGC that the salary of a professor should be equal to a government secretary and I believe today the professor's salary is equal to the secretary," he noted.

"I also agree that you need better laboratories, libraries and access to Internet (for quality research)," the Finance Minister observed.

Chidambaram told the research community: "If you say government should compensate academia (researchers/teachers) as the private sector does for fund or money manager, that simply would not happen as the risks there (in private sector) are much larger, therefore rewards are also much more. Here (research and teaching) risks are lesser and rewards are also lesser, but you get respect, certain position."

"What I suggest that since government has allocated Rs 100 crore each to Punjab Agricultural University and Universities of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, a part of it could be set aside for fellowship and scholarship and endowment chair to attract world-class researchers where high compensation can be given," he noted.

Referring to infrastructure woes, Chidambaram said India needs well-conceived, well-designed projects as the problem was not lack of financial resources. "Money is not a problem for infrastructure in India, but we must focus our attention to designing sound projects."

On whether India should adopt Chinese model for infrastructure development, he said they used banking system to finance their projects, but did not pay attention to asset quality or credit appraisal, and banks were perhaps squeezed.

"We cannot use that model as we cannot compromise the integrity and stability of our financial system in order to build infrastructure."

"The problem is not money," he added. "If that was the problem, squeezing the banks was one of the answers. Then we can accept or reject it. But money is not the problem."

"The problem in India arises India when designing an infrastructure project, we shelve it as we cannot implement it within stipulated time. Besides, the quality of infrastructure agencies is extremely poor," Chidambaram noted.

"We must have sound infrastructure projects, find the right agencies who will do the work without time or cost overrun and maintain high standard of quality."

"We have enough money and we have funding schemes. If viable private-public partnership models are made, money can be provided," the FM said.

"Like for Mumbai city, we have given Rs 1,200 crore grant as an exception under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission for making good drainage system. Five years from now, one has to see how the fund has been used properly," Chidambaram noted.

 

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GE Money aims at $8 bn assets in India by 2010
22 Jul, 2007, 1110 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: Aspiring to quadruple its assets in consumer finance business to $8 billion on the back of a booming retail and mortgage market, GE Money India today said it would become the country's numero uno non-banking finance company by 2010.

GE Money India, a unit of the world's biggest diversified conglomerate GE, could receive fresh fund infusion of close to one billion dollars from its parent to achieve the target.

"From the point of non-banking finance company, our target is to be number one or two," GE Money (India region) President and CEO Vishal Pandit said.

The asset size of the company's consumer finance business is worth about $2 billion, which is expected to grow four-fold by 2010, he said.

GE Money worldwide has identified India as the "imagination breakthrough country" -- the country with the highest potential for growth.

The Indian market, Pandit said, was on par with Eastern Europe in terms of potential for growth.

"Achieving this target would mean expanding our branch network from 162 now to about 500-600," Pandit said.

Asked about the funding requirement, he declined to quote any specific numbers, but said the ratio of equity infusion would be one-ninth of the asset value - which works out to a little less than a billion dollar.

Moving ahead, the company would exit the consumer durables finance through mom and pop stores while broadening the reach to high growth and high profitability areas of personal loans, cars, mortgages and private label credit cards programme.

"In India, we have 13 years of experience with proven capability of working with 5,000 retailers. We need to be in the areas of high growth and high profitability, which are personal loan, cars and mortgages," Pandit said.

But consumer durables is not a profitable business any more as recovery from the manufacturer takes about five months, he added.

He said the decision to exit consumer durables finance was taken as servicing the 5,000 retailers was becoming unviable due to lesser margins and increasing defaults, and also a changing pattern in consumer buying habits.

"These days, consumers are not going for loans for purchase of white goods, as they swipe credit cards which gets converted into loans."

The company, which started as a business-to-business service and branched out to the business-to-consumer space, will simultaneously pursue the two streams to propel growth.

 

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PFC's $1bn fund to rope in global majors
22 Jul, 2007, 0406 hrs IST,Ishani Duttagupta & Shantanu Nandan Sharma, TNN

NEW DELHI: Power Finance Corporation’s (PFC) PE fund, which is targeted at last mile energy requirements of power projects in India, is expected to bring into its fold large cross-border funds such as Cornell Capital Partners, Babson Capital Management, Sun Life Financial, AllianceBernstein and Cigna.

Sources said US Power Production had helped set up meetings between the PFC top brass and representatives of various investment companies in Houston and New York City earlier this month. PFC will thus become the first PSU to launch a PE fund in the country.

Confirming that the fund is being set up, PFC chairman VK Garg told ET that the target was to scale it up to $1 billion eventually. “We are targetting $1 billion because of the huge fund requirements of the power sector in India. After all, each ultra mega power project will cost around $4 billion,” Mr Garg said.

He also confirmed that PFC has been in talks with several players overseas, and the final names of the partners for the fund are likely to be announced soon. “We are talking to several players to make the fund really big,” Mr Garg said. While PFC is likely to hold a minority stake in the fund, it will remain the largest investor, sources said.

To begin with, the fund will have a corpus of around $300-500 million, said a source. “We are finalising the financial model of the fund,” Mr Garg added. The interest in picking up a stake in the fund is very high among NRI groups and large investors in the US and UK, the source said.

“The exit route from the PE fund will be through sale of security in the market or to third parties. PFC will leverage the expertise of its technical staff to carry out due diligence of the power projects,” the source added.

 

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Saks planning New Delhi store and major Middle East expansion
Business Intelligence, Middle East
Trevor Lloyd-Jones
Published: 22 July 2007

INTERNATIONAL. From its original stores in Riyadh and Dubai, Saks Fifth Avenue is pressing ahead with a major expansion that will see the opening of three new regional outlets in the next two years, with another to follow in India shortly after.

General Manager of the regional licensee Style Avenue Middle East (SAME), Rusi Motiwalla, said that the Dubai Saks store has continued to perform very well and is seeing 30% growth in 2007, with performance above plan for the third consecutive year. This has encouraged the New York parent company to expand further in the region with the strong partnership that has evolved.

Additionally some of the shareholders in Style Avenue Middle East have India plans for Saks being confirmed. "I am travelling to India constantly and it is a market of great interest," said Motiwalla in an interview for BI-ME.

SAME is the master licensee for the Gulf countries other than Saudi Arabia, where Kingdom Holding is operating Saks in Riyadh.

"We studied a 37,000 square feet unit in Emporium Mall in New Delhi, but it was not possible to make the assortment work in that kind of space. Instead the plan is for a 100,000 square feet unit in the Mall of India, where we have confirmed our interest. Subject to certain conditions and adjacencies, this will be the first Saks in India," said Motiwalla.

He predicts that new Delhi rather than Mumbai will be the centre for most luxury brands entering India, because of the availability of more suitable malls and higher purchasing power.

Saks has recently expanded its original 80,000 square feet (7,435 square metres) of sales space in Dubai with 8,000 square feet (744 square metres) of corporate office space that was relocated out to the new BurJuman office tower.

Another 55,000 square feet of space for Saks in the Bahrain City Centre is due to open in September 2008. The operating company is on the short list for one or two big malls in New Delhi and Doha, Qatar, and it is looking at options in Kuwait.

"New York has been very pleasantly surprised and now with the hype of Dubai starting to generate news in the US, the interest in our operation is growing and reaching a wider audience," said Motiwalla.

He added that the next opening for the group will be the 16,000 square feet Saks for Men store in Jumeirah Beach Residence by the end of this year. "We have expanded the men’s business four times over and the demand has been very great. We have the best men’s advanced selection in Dubai and this is really strong and cutting edge here," he said.

This Bahrain City Centre store has a designated 55,000 square feet with a large kid’s department, partially to cater to visiting Saudis. "We have decided that anything less than 50,000 square feet makes it very difficult to execute [the Saks concept] and being in the City Centre it is a very good location. As a luxury market Bahrain is currently underserved," said Motiwalla.

Saks is also looking at Abu Dhabi for another store, which will be more accessory driven and with higher price points and luxury brands.

Read also the full text of the interview with Rusi Motiwalla on the Middle East and Indian luxury retail markets, featured in The BI-ME Interview section.

 

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A Greener India
By Joshua S. Hill
Canada Free Press, Canada
Sunday, July 22, 2007

Expected to be finished construction in 2010, and set in the exquisitely named Queens Necklace of the South Mumbai Coast, India, the India Towers will mark a new type of ecological friendly development for the ever expanding Asian country.

Standing at 60 stories – 301 meters – tall, the world-class hotel, retail, and residential tower will be one of the greenest skyscrapers throughout all of India. The tower looks as if someone has half twisted a Rubik cube, and left it half done. This circulation design allows for separation of retail, residential style Park Hyatt hotel, serviced apartments, and long-lease & duplex penthouse condominium apartments.

The design was impacted by the climate, the construction site which sits at 3 acres (1.2 hectares) and ‘the desire to create distinctive indoor and outdoor spaces with optimum views, inspirational settings, and personalized contemporary accommodations for all users.’

Some of the green features of this skyscraper are solar shading and natural ventilation rather than compressed air conditioning. Lighting will be produced using a process known as daylighting; essentially, allowing daylight to filter in throughout the entirety of the building using strategically positioned windows and reflective surfaces. In addition, water for the building will be, at least in part, harvested from rain water.

This new development, which has recently begun construction, is just the next in a long line of greener skyscrapers popping up all across the world. The Urbancactus in Rotterdam which places each apartment out with the sun allowing for a greater chance for plants to grow, the CIS Tower in Manchester England which will be able to provide 10% of its own power thanks to over 7,000 solar panels, and the Bahrain World Trade Center Towers, being built in the Kingdom of Bahrain which will be topped with 3 96-foot propellers providing the tower with 1100 megawatts of power per year are three of the greenest towers in construction at the moment. All are making strides towards increasing the amount of dependency they take off the environment, and diminishing the impact they are making around them.

If you’re looking to find out more about such green skyscrapers, then check out the Skyscraper Museum either online, or in person in NYC.

 

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Indian Railways plans to become world No. 1
22 Jul, 2007, 0519 hrs IST, TNN

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways is drawing up an ambitious Rs 1 lakh crore-modernisation plan spread over the next five years to become the No. 1 railways in the world.

Addressing the National Conference on Rail Technology in New Delhi, a prelude to the first ever dedicated exhibition on railways in India, Union minister of state for railways R Velu said that the amount will be spent on modernisation of railway signalling, track and rolling stock so that modern services could be provided to passengers and freight customers at low prices by bringing down the unit cost.

IR, which gained a cash surplus of more than Rs 13,000 crore in a short span of 30 months, is expecting a quantum leap in the figure at around Rs 20,000 crore by the end of this year. It is also expecting to achieve a fund balance of Rs 16,000 crore and an operating ratio of less than 80% without privatisation, retrenchment and raising of passenger fares.

Mr Velu said that while constructing freight corridors, not only new lines will be constructed but a new technology, new work culture and new perceptions will be brought in.

This modern corridor would be appropriate for 25-30 tonnes axle load, longer double stack container trains.

Once these corridors are constructed, goods trains will run at two to three times their present speed and passenger trains will also run at double the present speed.

 

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Opportunity for Bahrain to tap India's economic rise
Bahrain Tribune - 18/07/2007

(MENAFN - Bahrain Tribune) Bahrain expressed interest to forge bilateral trade ties with India witnessing a heady pace of economic growth, even if the much-awaited GCC-India foreign-trade agreement did not fructify, Indian Ambassador in Bahrain Balkrishna Shetty said yesterday. Bahrain, the financial and business gateway to the GCC region and North Africa, could tap the great Indian economic rise and become its hub for the entire Middle East, just like Singapore was the nucleus of the Indian presence in Southeast Asia.

India was on a roll, surpassing all business forecasts and throwing open a world of investment opportunities. "Bahrain should take advantage of its FTA with the US and attract Indian companies which would grab the opportunity to leverage on Bahrain-US close ties.

Bahrain can enjoy significant productivity gains, a direct result of the global export of manufactured goods and services from India, courtesy its strategic location," Ambassador Shetty said. He was talking on 'Trade opportunities between India and Bahrain', organised by the Rotary Club of Adliya.

Leveraging Indian expertise and improved relations between the nations, he predicted the launch of several joint-venture vehicles between Bahraini and Indian companies in coming years. India's rich information-technology and financial-consultancy services, tourism, healthcare and vast human-resource pool were areas where Bahrain could make big gains besides education, infrastructure and portfolio investment.

Bilateral trade volume between India and Bahrain last year was $532.08 million compared to $343.59 million five years ago. India's oil imports from Bahrain were valued at $237.58 million and non-oil imports $158.67 million in 2006, all amounting to $396.25 million. India stood third in Bahrain's non-oil exports list after Saudi Arabia and the USA.

It exported $135.83 million worth of goods to Bahrain the same year, predominantly in textiles, fruits and vegetables, engineering, iron and steel sectors.

As a result of new opportunities, capital inflows were rising along with foreign direct investment and portfolio investments. By last May, the capitalisation of the Indian stock exchange breached the $1 trillion mark, catapulting it into the big league.

Investments are projected to reach an all-time high by 2012 in power generation ($143 billion), transmission and distribution ($116 billion), roads ($40 billion), coal ($26 billion), ports ($20 billion), refineries ($22 billion), oil and gas ($100 billion) and railways ($15 billion). "It is a misnomer that India excels only in services sector. Our manufacturing skills have skyrocketed."
This was reflected in Indian companies winning the coveted Deming prize of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers for six consecutive years from 2001. India's manufacturing output was increasing at an annual pace of 7 per cent.

"Efforts were also on to create a 200 million workforce in 10 years. We managed to convert our biggest liability, human resources, into the biggest asset. Human resources is the driving tool of India's growth, a vision shared by Bahrain also."