Indian Economy-News & Updates

[SpArK]

India's foreign exchange reserves at $313.511 bn as of April 29 - The Economic Times

 

[SpArK]

India's wind energy sector to add 5,000 MW generation capacity per annum by 2015
​

India Energy News
May 6, 2011
Hyderabad, May 6: India's wind energy sector has planned to add over 5,000 MW generation capacity per annum by 2015, a top official of the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA) told PTI.

According to the data supplied by IWTMA, at present India has about 11,000 MW of installed wind energy capacity and the utilization is between 15% to 20%. IWTMA, which has 13 wind turbine and related equipment manufacturers, is bating for policy reforms to expand wind energy generation in India.

D V Giri, chairman of the IWTMA, quoted PTI as saying, 'India has potential of generating about 48,000 mw power through wind energy. With the availability of new technology through powerful and taller masts, the total potential can be pegged at about 1.2 lakh mw.'

D V Giri further said that the cost of production of a MW power would be Rs 50-65 million and is much cheaper than solar energy. He added that in fiscal year in 2008-09, about 1,485 MW capacity was added to the wind energy sector, and in 2009-10 there was a capacity of 1,576 MW.

Copyright 2011 Contify.comAll Rights Reserved
India Energy News

 

[Kevrai]

India and Australia seek to double trade within 5 years

Wed May 11, 2011 11:56pm EDT

* To start talks on free trade agreement

* Uranium trade not discussed

* Two-way trade over $20 bln a year (Adds detail)

CANBERRA, May 12 (Reuters) - India and Australia committed on Thursday to doubling bilateral trade within five years and trade ministers from the two nations signed an agreement to start free trade negotiations.

Two way trade between India and Australia is currently worth about A$20 billion ($21 billion) a year, with the trade balance strongly skewed in Australia's favour because of India's insatiable appetite for natural resources.

"We agreed to double bilateral trade in the next five years," India's Trade Minister Anand Sharma told reporters in Canberra after talks with Craig Emerson, his Australian counterpart. "We are convinced that the Australia-India relationship is robust."

India is Australia's fourth largest export market as it is a heavy importer of gold, coal an copper, and in the nine months to March, it had a trade deficit of A$9.6 billion with Australia.

Australia is also a major destination for Indian students and education services to India are worth more than A$3 billion a year.

India is also keen to buy Australian uranium to help its expanding energy sector, but Australia refuses to sell nuclear material to India because the country has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Emerson said uranium exports were not raised during his meeting with Sharma on Thursday.

India has long complained about Australia's uranium export policy. Australia expects India to build five new nuclear reactors by 2016.

Australia has the world's biggest known uranium reserves but supplies only 19 percent of the world market from three current mines, BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam, Energy Resources Australia's Ranger mine in the Northern Territory, and the Beverly mine, owned by U.S. company General Atomics.

UPDATE 1-India and Australia seek to double trade within 5 years | Reuters

 

[2012]

India's Industrial Output Soars

India's Industrial Output Soars - WSJ.com

NEW DELHI – Robust manufacturing activity drove a sharp rise in India's industrial output in March, adding to expectations that the central bank will tighten monetary policy further to control inflation.

View Full Image

Jayanta Dey/Reuters
Employees work inside a steel factory in Agartala, capital of India's northeastern state of Tripura.

Factory output rose 7.3% in March from a year earlier, a much bigger increase than February's 3.65% rise, government data showed Thursday.

The reading was nearly double the median estimate of a 3.80% rise in a poll of 16 economists.

The strong industrial output print shows Asia's third-largest economy has held up strongly even as the Reserve Bank of India has aggressively tightened policy over the past year. It also could reinforce expectations that the RBI will raise interest rates further as it seeks to cool price pressures.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the sharp rise in output signaled the beginning of a sustained upturn in industrial activity.

"Some improvement has taken place, but I expected a little more," Mr. Mukherjee told reporters.

Indian government bonds came off their early highs as expectations of more rate hikes grew. The 7.80% bond due in 2021 fell to 96.85 rupees ($2.17), from 97 rupees before the data.

Economists said a comparison with a relatively high level of production in the year-earlier period is also masking the true level of industrial activity. Indeed, sequential data showed a 17% rise in industrial output from February.

Manufacturing output, which has an 80% weight in the industrial production index, rose 7.9% in March from a year earlier, after a 3.6% rise in February.

However, some economists say industrial production growth could ease as credit becomes more expensive. The RBI quickened its tightening pace May 3, raising the lending rate by a larger-than-expected 0.50 percentage point after eight increases of 0.25 percentage point since March 2010.

Jay Shankar, chief economist at Religare Capital Markets, said the central bank may increase its key lending rate by 0.25 percentage point at next month's policy review, though a 0.50 percentage point move can't be ruled out if the April inflation data, due Monday, throws up any "nasty" surprises.

Inflation was at 8.98% in March, far above the RBI's 8% forecast. High global commodity prices, especially of crude oil, could further stoke domestic price pressures.

Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu said he expects April inflation at 8.5%-8.6%, but stopped short of projecting industrial output growth due to the volatility in the data.

However, there's little evidence that pricing pressures eased in the past month, with data released separately by the government earlier Thursday showing that headline inflation for food and non-food articles for the week ended April 30 rose 0.1% from the previous week.

Raging inflationary pressures have been a common problem plaguing emerging economies such as India and add to the risk of the South Asian economy missing its full-year growth estimates.

"As inflation increases it will compel emerging markets to tighten monetary policy. That will have an impact on growth and investment," federal Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said. He expects that India's exports may touch $275 billion in the fiscal year that began on April 1, lower than the $300 billion estimated by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma.

April merchandise exports grew 34.5% from a year earlier to $23.9 billion, the pace slowing from 43.8% growth in March.

 

[xataxsata]

Hindustan National Glass buys Germany's Agenda glass maker

domain-b.com : Hindustan National Glass buys Germany's Agenda

India Dr Reddy's Q4 net doubles; tops f'cast

UPDATE 1-India Dr Reddy's Q4 net doubles; tops f'cast | Reuters

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd gets US$ 300 million contract to build 1260 MW power plant in Iraq

Bhel deal to deepen India's commercial ties with Iraq

Intel Capital announces US$18mn investment in India

Intel Capital announces US$18mn investment in Indian Companies

Turkish firm Celebi to invest $80-100 m in India

Turkish firm Celebi to invest $80-100 m in India - Money - DNA

BMW to built new factory in India

BMW to expand base in emerging markets, hire 2,000 people - The Economic Times

 

[indopak]

India's April exports seen up 34.4% y/y: Trade secretary
NEW DELHI: India's April exports provisionally rose an annual 34.4 percent while imports rose 14 percent Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters on Thursday.

India's exports grew a record 37.6 percent in the 2010/11 fiscal year that ended in March, as demand soared for engineering goods, oil products and gems manufactured in Asia's third-largest economy .

India will target at least 25 percent export growth in this fiscal year.

India to award Rs 170 bn port projects in FY12
NEW DELHI: India's federal shipping ministry plans to award 24 port projects in FY12 worth about 170 billion rupees, Rakesh Srivastava , joint secretary , shipping, said on Wednesday at an industry event.

 

[indopak]

Finance Ministry to take up 42 FDI proposals next week

NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry will take up 42 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals, including that of BNP Paribas , Tata Steel and PTC India Financial Services, next week.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) headed by Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan is scheduled to meet on May 20 here.

As per the Finance Ministry, 15 proposals are new ones and 14 are those on which decisions were deferred in the previous FIPB meetings.

Besides, 11 companies after amending their earlier requests are seeking the FIPB's nod for bringing in FDI. They include Tata Steel and Star News Broadcasting (Touch Tele Content (I) Ltd).

Some of the deferred proposals which are on the agenda include those of Park Controls and Communications, Bangalore; NCBG Holdings, Inc, Cayman Islands and Mango Holding, Bangladesh.

In its last meeting, FIPB had cleared 21 FDI proposals amounting to Rs 1,027 crore. In all it had taken up 47 proposals but deferred decisions on 17 applications while rejecting nine.

FDI inflows into the country during April-February, 2010-11, dipped by 29 per cent to Rs 83,687 from Rs 1,17,622 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

 

[indopak]

Tata Housing to invest Rs 2,000 crore on Gurgaon housing project

NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry will take up 42 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals, including that of BNP Paribas , Tata Steel and PTC India Financial Services, next week.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) headed by Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan is scheduled to meet on May 20 here.

As per the Finance Ministry, 15 proposals are new ones and 14 are those on which decisions were deferred in the previous FIPB meetings.

Besides, 11 companies after amending their earlier requests are seeking the FIPB's nod for bringing in FDI. They include Tata Steel and Star News Broadcasting (Touch Tele Content (I) Ltd).

Some of the deferred proposals which are on the agenda include those of Park Controls and Communications, Bangalore; NCBG Holdings, Inc, Cayman Islands and Mango Holding, Bangladesh.

In its last meeting, FIPB had cleared 21 FDI proposals amounting to Rs 1,027 crore. In all it had taken up 47 proposals but deferred decisions on 17 applications while rejecting nine.

FDI inflows into the country during April-February, 2010-11, dipped by 29 per cent to Rs 83,687 from Rs 1,17,622 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

 

[indopak]

Gayatri Projects to invest Rs 9.94 bn in power project

MUMBAI: Gayatri Projects will invest 9.94 billion rupees in a thermal power project in Andhra Pradesh, a top official told Reuters on Friday.

The 1,320 MW (2 X 660 MW) coal-based thermal power project is being jointly developed by a by GEVPL, unit of Gayatri Projects, and NCC Infrastructure Holdings Ltd, a unit of NCC Ltd, its Managing Director T.V. Sandeep Reddy said. The Hyderabad-based company's Jan-March net profit rose 9 percent to 163.95 million rupees, compared with 150.3 million rupees a year ago.

The company's net profit would have been better, but for lower realisation of irrigation revenues in Andhra Pradesh, Reddy said.

The firm clocked a turnover of 14.40 billion rupees in FY11, in line with what Reddy told Reuters in April when he cut revenue projection for FY11 to 14 billion rupees on lower realisation of irrigation revenues in Andhra Pradesh.

Gayatri Projects has orderbook of around 72 billion rupees as on March 31, he added.

Shares of the company closed up 4.87 percent at 214.40 rupees in a strong Mumbai market.

 

[ramu]

Manufacturing revs up as trade deficit looms

India's rise as an emerging market star with seemingly insatiable demand means firms such as South Korea's LG Electronics are doing a booming business, but the country must rev up its manufacturing sector further or risk an unmanageable trade gap and a slowdown in its blistering growth.

The sector has started to catch up with India's world-famous IT and services industry to sate demand for anything from cars to air-conditioners to flat-screen TVs in the homes of hundreds of millions of newly affluent Indians who are ready to splurge.

The potential is vast for the likes of LG, which plans to double its India revenue in just four years pumping out appliances every few seconds at its factory outside New Delhi, products that were seen as rare luxuries before economic liberalisation.

But creaky infrastructure, erratic policies and a shortage of skilled labour mean factory growth has yet to emerge from the shadows of neighbouring China's prowess.

Manufacturing makes up about a third of China's gross domestic product (GDP) compared to a 16 percent share in India, the same as it was 20 years ago. New Delhi has set an ambitious target to raise that figure to 25 percent in a decade.

"Manufacturers are becoming optimistic, but my feeling is that a huge level of manufacturing coming to India has still too many challenges," said LG's Chief Operating Officer Yasho Verma.

"This type of factory is OK. But if suppose LG decides tomorrow it should have 20 factories in India, then it's a major problem," he said in an interview at LG's plant.

The trade ministry has raised "serious concern" that the current account deficit may become unsustainable as India's trade deficit is set to balloon to $278.5 billion by 2014, a twenty-fold increase over a decade from the $14.3 billion in 2004.

"A large widening of the trade deficit can potentially result in payments difficulties," it said in a recent strategy document. "Such a situation is simply unacceptable because it may jeopardize the entire growth process."

India can no longer rely on a mix of its IT and service sector heft, remittances from its citizens working overseas and capital flows to finance a huge import bill of one of the world's fastest growing economies.

Manufacturing may need to plug the gap and provide jobs for the tens of millions expected to enter the workforce in the next decade who cannot be absorbed in farming or IT and services.

"If India is to achieve its stated goals on GDP growth and more importantly, to generate higher levels of employment for the growing young population, India's manufacturing sector has to enter into a new orbit of even higher growth," said a report by the Boston Consulting Group, which suggested India's manufacturing sector should aim to grow an annual 11 percent.

"If India has to target a high growth of 11 percent for its manufacturing sector over next 15 years, it needs to necessarily focus on growing its exports much faster," it said.

The government in February estimated manufacturing growth in the 2010/2011 fiscal year at 8.8 percent.

NOT PERFECT, BUT GETTING BETTER

Reuters spoke to four executives from manufacturing firms who have set up shop in India. The consensus was that, while things aren't perfect, they're improving rapidly and India is starting to shed its tag as a manufacturing laggard.

A maturing supplier base, the influx of seasoned global firms and an explosion in demand have brought transformation even in the last couple of years to a sector infamous for its red tape, countless licence requirements and pitiful output before liberalisation began in 1991.

"I've been here living in the country for 18 months, I've been coming here for 10 years, and I can tell you in the 18 months I've seen a huge difference," said John Flannery, the India chief executive of General Electric Co.

"The things that we would ask or expect of our supply chain today are quite different than what we could even think about two years ago. So it's changing very quickly," he said.

"You look at the best companies today, the best manufacturing companies today, they're very very sophisticated. And you wouldn't have seen that 5-10 years ago."

Indian suppliers no longer work on the principle of "jugaad" -- a Hindi word for muddling through problems with quick fixes that flourished during the days of the so-called "Licence Raj" -- which had created a culture of short-termism and inefficiency, LG's Verma said.

A more sophisticated supplier base makes it simpler and cheaper for foreign firms to set up factories on Indian soil and even look to India as a major exporter further down the line.

Cars leaving the assembly line of General Motors in India are now up to 98 percent locally produced, designed with the help of 2,000 engineers in the company's Bangalore offices.

Hyundai Motor Co has made India an export hub for its vehicles. From 20 Santros sold to Nepal in 1999, the firm exported 247,102 "Made in India" cars globally last year, the highest number in any country outside the company's native South Korea.

POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURE HURDLES

But India's infrastructure development has not kept pace with the demands of its manufacturing. Power is in short supply, highways are clogged with traffic and ports are too crowded.

The average cost to move a container within India is $945, more than double the $460 it costs in China. Due to restrictions on goods traffic, Hyundai can only ship cars from its Chennai plant to the coast for seven hours at night, said Arvind Saxena, a director of Hyundai Motor India.

"Infrastructure has improved ... but yes, a lot still needs to be done," he said.

LG's Verma would like to see the government adopt China-style policies to foster growth of Indian suppliers.

"The Chinese government has spent a huge lot of money, creating cities where the vendors will be placed, creating infrastructure there," he said. "Those things are not in focus in India."

Companies have also grappled with slow or inconsistent policy decisions from the Indian government. For example, five years ago New Delhi rolled out a policy for so-called Special Economic Zones (SEZs), hubs with long tax holidays that were set up in Beijing's footsteps to spur manufacturing growth.

But the finance ministry slapped a 18.5 percent duty on book profits in the zones in February's budget, sparking criticism from the trade ministry that the tax would send the wrong signal about India's credibility with investors.

Karl Slym, the head of GM India, cheers what he sees as largely business-friendly policies from the government for auto makers. But some decisions from New Delhi come out of the blue and catch investors unawares, he said.

"Nobody has the chance to be able to respond correctly or be able to manage the situation," Slym told Reuters.

"If you know what the outlook is, what the playing field is, then you can plan accordingly for that. But if you start out playing football on a football field and then all of a sudden you're trying to play on a cricket field then you've got the wrong equipment to be able to perform the best," he added.

Whatever its problems, the four companies interviewed by Reuters remain largely optimistic on India's manufacturing rise. And as global firms look to ride India's 9 percent growth story, Asia's third-largest economy has also flexed its export muscle with the growth of domestic brands.

The trade ministry has set India a target to double its exports by 2014 to help keep the deficit in check. No longer known just for its iconic exports such as textiles and gems, India's manufacturers are becoming household names in sectors such as cars, generic medicines and oil products.

Reliance Industries, owned by tycoon Mukesh Ambani, operates the world's biggest oil refining complex. India's Tata Group is Britain's biggest manufacturing employer.

"The overall long term growth for the country, the capabilities within the country, far outweigh any short-term issues," GM's Slym said. "They're just hindrances."

Manufacturing revs up as trade deficit looms | Reuters

 

[jha]

It's sad Mukesh Ambani lives in such opulence: Ratan Tata

LONDON: Tata group chief Ratan Tata has said he is surprised why fellow tycoon Mukesh Ambani wants to live in the opulence of a billion-dollar home in south Mumbai.

"It makes me wonder why someone would do that," Tata said in an interview published on Saturday in The Times newspaper of London. "The person who lives in there should be concerned about what he sees around him and (ask) can he make a difference," Tata said when asked about Antilla, the 27-storey Ambani home on Altamount Road. "If he is not, then it is sad because India needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways to mitigate the hardship that people have." Expressing concern about the rich-poor gap, Tata said, "We are doing so little about the disparity. We are allowing it to be there and wishing it away."

The tycoon, who bought steel maker Corus and car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover in 2006 and 2008 to become the biggest manufacturing employer in Britain, also questioned the work ethic of British managers, saying they did not "go the extra mile" unlike their Indian counterparts. "It's a work ethic issue. In my experience, in both Corus and JLR, nobody is willing to go the extra mile, nobody. I feel if you have come from Mumbai to have a meeting and the meeting goes on till 6pm, I would expect that you won't, at 5 o'clock, say, 'Sorry, I have my train to catch. I have to go home'."

Stating that things were different back home, Tata added, "If you are in a crisis (in India), it means working till midnight, you would do it. The worker in JLR seems to be willing to do that; the management is not." He said earlier, JLR's entire engineering group would be empty on Friday evenings. But that had changed. "The new management team has put an end to that. They call meetings at 5 o'clock."

Tata also spoke about having had to shift Nano's 85% installed plant from Bengal to Gujarat following Mamata Banerjee's opposition. "In the dead of night, you had to start taking tools out of that factory, build another factory, deliver a car from an interim factory; and do all this in a year. The first thing you (the JLR management) will say is, 'It can't be done, that you will need a court order or police cover.'. Yet we did it."

His comments come as Tata Steel proposes to close part of its plant in the UK, putting at risk 1,200 jobs.

Tata said the UK had a high level of despondency about itself. "I have a greater degree of bullishness about the UK and what it stands for. But nobody seems to want to make the effort to make the UK truly competitive or bring it back to the glory that it was. I think there is a feeling that there is no innovation—there is great innovation in the UK. There is great technology," he said.

Tata, who is a member of British Prime Minister David Cameron's business advisory group and co-chairman of the UK-India CEO Forum, said India was lucky to have Barack Obama in the US and Cameron in the UK. "Both of them are open to ideas; they are very pragmatic in their views. Each of them feels that India is a land of some opportunity for themselves. I think he (Cameron) is doing something quite far-sighted because we really have long traditional ties with England."

Tata was the only person outside the government to have had two private meetings with the British PM during his first three months in office.

It's sad Mukesh Ambani lives in such opulence: Ratan Tata - The Times of India

 

[Prateek M]

India's real GDP growth likely to grow by 8.8% in FY 12: CMIE - The Economic Times

MUMBAI: India's real GDP growth is expected to grow by 8.8 per cent in FY 12 after having grown a tad faster, at 9 per cent in FY 11, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has said.

"In FY 12, the Indian economy is projected to grow at a brisk 8.8 per cent. The agricultural and allied sector is projected to grow by 3.3 per cent in FY 12, on top of the 5.4 per cent growth estimated in FY 11," the city-based think-tank said in its monthly review.

Growth and inflation would remain high in FY 12, it observed.

Inflation has remained high long enough for even those who were the proponents of growth against low inflation till recently to start worrying about inflation. The Government has effectively backed RBI's 50 basis point interest rate hike on recent policy. This was the seventh hike in interest rates by the Central bank in 11 months.

Inflation climbed down from its peak of 16 per cent year-on-year in January 2010, but it remained in double-digits till July. It has not fallen even much thereafter. Between August 2010 and March 2011, WPI-inflation was between 8.5 per cent and 9.5 per cent.

The Government has expressed fears that high inflation and high crude oil prices may hurt growth. They have therefore expressed solidarity with RBI's hike in interest rates to rein in inflation.

According to analysts, inflation is influenced much more by global commodity price trends and by higher employment caused by new capacities than by the levels of interest hikes announced by the RBI.

 

[Burnz]

Can Maharashtra's Economy reach a Trillion Dollar?

India 1,315,660
Maharashtra 190,310

List of Indian states by GDP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That amounts to 14.46% of Indian Economy.

By PPP, India's Economy is $4 Trillion.

4*14.46%=57.84= $578.4 Billion(PPP)

These figures are a year old. Indian Economy was $1.5 Trillion on 31'st March 2011.

The Growth Rates of Maharashtra in the last few years:

Maha ...... 12.87 .... 13.07... 18.42 ... 18.41 ... 13.49

 

[IND151]

Can Maharashtra's Economy reach a Trillion Dollar?

India 1,315,660
Maharashtra 190,310

List of Indian states by GDP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That amounts to 14.46% of Indian Economy.

By PPP, India's Economy is $4 Trillion.

4*14.46%=57.84= $578.4 Billion(PPP)

These figures are a year old. Indian Economy was $1.5 Trillion on 31'st March 2011.

The Growth Rates of Maharashtra in the last few years:

Maha ...... 12.87 .... 13.07... 18.42 ... 18.41 ... 13.49

Maharashtra can be a trillion dollar economy but for that we have give massive boost to economic growth and have to spend heavily on infra.

chatrapai shivaji maharaj, tumhala manacha mujara !!!!!

 

[jha]

Can Maharashtra's Economy reach a Trillion Dollar?

India 1,315,660
Maharashtra 190,310

List of Indian states by GDP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That amounts to 14.46% of Indian Economy.

By PPP, India's Economy is $4 Trillion.

4*14.46%=57.84= $578.4 Billion(PPP)

These figures are a year old. Indian Economy was $1.5 Trillion on 31'st March 2011.

The Growth Rates of Maharashtra in the last few years:

Maha ...... 12.87 .... 13.07... 18.42 ... 18.41 ... 13.49

Yes..Maharashtra can have a Trillion Dollar economy. But the anti-development brigade can play spoilsport..They did a helluva job in the Nuke power plant..Almost stopped it..