Indian Economy-News & Updates

[Night_Raven]

Cognizant set to replace Wipro as India's third largest IT company

BANGALORE: IT major Cognizant is all set to replaceWipro to become the country's third largest IT services provider when it announces its results on August 2.

Wipro on Wednesday reported IT services revenues at $1.408 billion for the April-June quarter. This is about $40 million less than Cognizant's April-June quarter revenue guidance of $1.45 billion.

JP Morgan analyst Tientsin Huang, in a report on Cognizant dated July 15, drew a revenue estimate of $1.46 billion for the company in the April-June quarter. Huang expects an upside in revenues because of Cognizant's track record of reporting premium growth in the June quarter and its more favorable regional mix (larger proportion of North America). Cognizant's $1.45 billion April-June guidance is also greater than the lower end of Wipro's July-September revenue guidance of between $1.436-1 .464 billion.

The underlying business fundamentals for the IT sector are healthy as the recently announced strong quarterly earnings ofTCS,IBM and Accenture suggest. Therefore , Cognizant is expected to meet if not beat its guidance. The weakness that Infosys's and Wipro's results exhibit is more a reflection of company-specific issues as against market fundamentals.

Ankur Rudra, IT analyst atAmbit Capital, said that historically Cognizant has given a conservative guidance and has a good record of beating it. "There is a good momentum to their business with some good client wins. They are likely to surpass Wipro's revenues in the April-June quarter," he said.

Srishti Anand, IT sector analyst at Angel Broking, said that they forecast Wipro to grow at 13.5% for the 2011-12 fiscal. Cognizant, which reports on a calendar year basis , is expected to grow at around 29% to $5.92 billion in 2011. "This means that Wipro will not be able to catch up with Cognizant in the foreseeable future," she said.

Given the expectations of a April-June quarter upside, JP Morgan analyst Huang estimates that Cognizant could increase its calendar year 2011 revenue growth guidance to over 31%. "We see very little downside to current guidance of 29% + even if the macro environment deteriorates to the extent it did in late 2008/ early 2009," the report added.

In the April-June quarter of 2008, Cognizant trailed Wipro by $383 million in revenues . Analysts say that Cognizant's focus on faster growth rates and market share gain with lower margins has helped it close the gap with Wipro . It invests significantly higher than its peers in sales and marketing and employs a larger proportion of highly qualified MBAs.

Cognizant set to replace Wipro as India's third largest IT company - The Economic Times

 

[indopak]

 

[SpArK]

Ford to build billion dollar plant in Gujarat
​

MUMBAI | Thu Jul 28, 2011 10:34am IST
(Reuters) - Ford Motor Co said on Thursday said it plans to invest $1 billion to build a factory in Gujarat, doubling its investment in the country as the U.S. carmaker seeks to gain a greater share in the second-fastest growing auto market in the world.

Several global automakers in India such as Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co, Volkswagen and General Motors are lining up new models and boosting investment in the country with a focus on exports.

The planned factory in Gujarat, expected to be up and running by 2014, will employ 5,000 people and is expected to have an initial annual capacity of 240,000 vehicles, the company said.

"We are aggressively expanding in markets around the world that have the most growth potential in order to offer more of the fuel-efficient, high-quality vehicles from our global portfolio that customers in markets like India want and value," Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India, said in a statement.

Boneham said the company currently has four plants under construction in China and one in Thailand, apart from the ones in India.

"These new state-of-the-art facilities will help us reach the goal of increasing worldwide sales by nearly 50 percent by mid-decade to about 8 million vehicles per year," he said.

Ford has been seeing increased demand for its compact Figo model, which it began exporting in August last year. The car maker sold more than 60,000 units, including exports, in the first six months of 2011, a year-on-year growth rate of more than 50 percent.

The company, which also sells the Fiesta sedan, recently said it would invest $72 million to increase production capacity at its engine assembly plant in Chennai to support its sales and export growth plans.

Demand for cars in India is expected to fall more than predicted an industry body said earlier this month, as rising interest rates and fuel prices force consumers to tighten purse strings in Asia's third-largest economy.

Indian car sales, which grew at a breakneck 30 percent in the fiscal year that ended in April, are now expected to grow by just 10 to 12 percent this fiscal year, down from an earlier forecast of 16 to 18 percent, an industry group forecast.

Foreign automakers, however, continued to post rising sales, driven by exports. Many are relatively new entrants to India and have lower bases of comparison.

The Indian unit of Toyota posted a 94 percent rise in June sales, driven mainly by a big increase in sales of its Etios sedan, which accounted for nearly 50 percent of its sales.

Nissan saw sales rise 21 times from a year earlier, with domestic sales at 1,632 cars and exports of 9,072.

In April, General Motors' India unit said it aims to grow at twice the rate of the country's automotive sector in 2011, while Hyundai Motor Co's Indian unit said sales will rise 15 to 17 percent this year.

India, with its near 9 percent economic growth, remains attractive for automakers and global players have increasingly relied on growth in China, India and other emerging economies to offset weak sales in their home countries.

Ford to build billion dollar plant in Gujarat | Reuters

 

[Jon Snow]

Food inflation at 20-month low of 7.33 per cent​

Press Trust Of India
Posted on Jul 28, 2011 at 12:39pm IST

New Delhi: Food inflation fell to its lowest level in 20 months at 7.33 per cent for the week ended July 16 on the back of cheaper pulses, even as other items grew more expensive.
Food inflation, as measured by Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 7.58 per cent in the previous week.
The decline could also be attributed to the high inflation figure of 18.56 per cent for the corresponding year-ago period, a phenomenon dubbed the 'high base effect' in economic parlance.
The latest figure is the lowest since separate data for food inflation was first released in November, 2009.
During the week under review, prices of pulses fell by 8 per cent year-on-year. However, prices of other items went up.
Onions became more expensive by 22.66 per cent and fruits became 13.90 per cent dearer on an annual basis.
Potatoes became 10.55 per cent costlier, while milk was up 9.96 per cent. Vegetable prices were up by 7.59 per cent year-on-year.
Overall, primary articles recorded inflation of 10.49 per cent for the week ended July 16, down from 11.13 per cent in the previous week. Primary articles have a share of over 20 per cent in the WPI.
However, inflation of non-food articles went up to 16.05 per cent from 15.50 per cent in the previous week.
Furthermore, fibres became more expensive by over 28 per cent and oil seeds were up 13.72 per cent. Minerals became dearer by 23.12 per cent year-on-year.
Meanwhile, the index for fuel and power stood at 12.12 per cent.
The moderation in food inflation is expected to come as a relief for the government and the Reserve Bank, who have adopted a series of measures for battling inflationary pressure.
Headline inflation stood at 9.44 per cent in June. The RBI has already hiked interest rates 11 times since March, 2010, to tame demand and curb inflation.
In its quarterly review earlier this week, the RBI raised its overall inflation projection for March, 2012, to 7 per cent from 6 per cent estimated earlier, "in view of the domestic demand-supply balance, global trends in commodity prices and the likely demand scenario."


Food inflation at 20-month low of 7.33 per cent - India News - IBNLive

 

[Night_Raven]

Gujarat is firing on all cylinders .... GM , Tata ; now Ford & Maruti Suzuki coming in to invest too !

Ford to build billion dollar plant in Gujarat
​

MUMBAI | Thu Jul 28, 2011 10:34am IST
(Reuters) - Ford Motor Co said on Thursday said it plans to invest $1 billion to build a factory in Gujarat, doubling its investment in the country as the U.S. carmaker seeks to gain a greater share in the second-fastest growing auto market in the world.

Several global automakers in India such as Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co, Volkswagen and General Motors are lining up new models and boosting investment in the country with a focus on exports.

The planned factory in Gujarat, expected to be up and running by 2014, will employ 5,000 people and is expected to have an initial annual capacity of 240,000 vehicles, the company said.

"We are aggressively expanding in markets around the world that have the most growth potential in order to offer more of the fuel-efficient, high-quality vehicles from our global portfolio that customers in markets like India want and value," Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India, said in a statement.

Boneham said the company currently has four plants under construction in China and one in Thailand, apart from the ones in India.

"These new state-of-the-art facilities will help us reach the goal of increasing worldwide sales by nearly 50 percent by mid-decade to about 8 million vehicles per year," he said.

Ford has been seeing increased demand for its compact Figo model, which it began exporting in August last year. The car maker sold more than 60,000 units, including exports, in the first six months of 2011, a year-on-year growth rate of more than 50 percent.

The company, which also sells the Fiesta sedan, recently said it would invest $72 million to increase production capacity at its engine assembly plant in Chennai to support its sales and export growth plans.

Demand for cars in India is expected to fall more than predicted an industry body said earlier this month, as rising interest rates and fuel prices force consumers to tighten purse strings in Asia's third-largest economy.

Indian car sales, which grew at a breakneck 30 percent in the fiscal year that ended in April, are now expected to grow by just 10 to 12 percent this fiscal year, down from an earlier forecast of 16 to 18 percent, an industry group forecast.

Foreign automakers, however, continued to post rising sales, driven by exports. Many are relatively new entrants to India and have lower bases of comparison.

The Indian unit of Toyota posted a 94 percent rise in June sales, driven mainly by a big increase in sales of its Etios sedan, which accounted for nearly 50 percent of its sales.

Nissan saw sales rise 21 times from a year earlier, with domestic sales at 1,632 cars and exports of 9,072.

In April, General Motors' India unit said it aims to grow at twice the rate of the country's automotive sector in 2011, while Hyundai Motor Co's Indian unit said sales will rise 15 to 17 percent this year.

India, with its near 9 percent economic growth, remains attractive for automakers and global players have increasingly relied on growth in China, India and other emerging economies to offset weak sales in their home countries.

Ford to build billion dollar plant in Gujarat | Reuters

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

BHEL ninth on Forbes' most innovative list​

NEW DELHI: State-runBharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has been ranked ninth most innovative company in the world by US business magazineForbes, the company said in a statement. Bharat Heavy Electricals is the only Indian engineering company on the list and ranked much higher than similar multinational equipment suppliers.

The company spends over 2.3% of its turnover on innovation. It had recorded 31% growth in its intellectual capital in 2010-11. It filed 303 patents and copyrights during the year. Its intellectual capital has gone up to 1,438 patents and copyrights, the statement said.

During 2010-11, the company invested an all-time high Rs 1,005 crore on research and development programmes - 21% higher than the previous year. Commercialisation of products and systems developed by way of in-house research contributed around 18% to the company's total turnover of Rs 43,337 Crore in 2010-11.

Bharat Heavy Electricals is also the only Indian public sector enterprise figuring in 'The Global Innovation 1000' ofBooz & Co, a list of 1,000 publicly-traded companies which are the biggest spenders on research and development activities in the world.

Bharat Heavy Electricals has also won the coveted CII-Thompson Reuters Innovation Award 2010 in the 'hi-tech corporate' category. In addition, the Economic Times Intelligence Group has ranked BHEL number one in terms of filing patents in India.

Forbes list:

http://www.forbes.com/special-features/innovative-companies.html

 

[Night_Raven]

Freescale opens R&D center in Hyderabad's SEZ

HYDERABAD: US based Freescale Semiconductor has set up its India research and development centre in Hyderabad to drive innovation and development of solutions for the company's new platforms.

The company has established its centre here to take advantage of India's cost advantage and easy availability of technically skilled manpower.

Activity at the new facility is expected to deliver solutions that enhance Freescale's platform for applications including data center, security appliances, mobile wireless infrastructure and small business networking among other leading edge technologies.

"This new R&D center underscores our commitment to extending Freescale's market and

technology leadership in the networking space by delivering comprehensive, scalable and

secure solutions that help speed time-to-market and optimize the performance and cost

efficient advantages of our highly advanced Q or IQ and Power QUICC product families," said Senior Vice President & General Manager Dr. Lisa Su.

For more than a decade, Freescale has been driving innovation from its India Design Center. "The R&D in Hyderabad SEZ will continue to power innovative ideas and help foster connected intelligence engineered to change the world," said Ganesh Guruswamy, vice president and country manager, Freescale Semiconductor India Pvt. Ltd.

Freescale Semiconductor designs and manufactures embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing and sales operations around the world.

Freescale opens R&D center in Hyderabad's SEZ - Economic Times

 

[LiberalAtheist]

why don't we spend more for the development of the nation and betterment of our people? why not spend more on healthcare or just turn India into a welfare state?

 

[SpArK]

India-Japan comprehensive free trade pact comes into force from today
​

NEW DELHI: The comprehensive free trade pact between India andJapan has come into force from today, a move which will boost bilateral trade between the countries to USD 25 billion by 2014.

TheComprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will bring immediate gains to exporters of textiles, seafood and spices to Japan, as duties on these products would be eliminated.

It would ultimately result in the removal of duties on almost 90 per cent of the products traded between the countries.

Other sectors that would gain from the pact include agricultural products like mangoes, citrus fruit, spices and instant tea, spirits, chemicals, cement and jewellery.

Indian professionals are set to make strong gains under the CEPA, which is the country's third such pact with any country, after Singapore and South Korea, and the first with a developed nation.

"TheCEPA comes into force with effect from today. It will be good for commerce, trade and investment both for India and Japan. It is a part of the building bloc for much large agenda for building a comprehensive economic partnership for East Asia, which coversAsean,China, Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand," Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters here.

Japanese Ambassador Akitaka Saiki said the business communities of the two countries should make the best use of this arrangement.

"This arrangement will definitely facilitate both ways flows of trade and investment," Saiki said.

Under the CEPA, duties will be brought to zero in 10 years on 66.32 per cent of the products traded between the nations.

The exclusion list of Japan (where no duty concessions are proposed) mainly consists of items such as rice, wheat, oil, milk, sugar, leather and leather products.

On the other hand, India will not reduce duties on sectors like auto and agriculture.

Further, the Japanese government shall accord no less favourable treatment to the applications of Indian companies than it accords to the like applications of its own persons for drug registration. This will greatly help Indian pharmaceutical companies.

An official statement said that Indian professionals will be able to provide their services and contribute toward further development of Japan's IT sector.

Furthermore, as part of the agreement, contractual service suppliers and independent professionals engaged in accounting, R&D services, tourist guide and market research and management consulting, now can provide services in Japan.


India-Japan comprehensive free trade pact comes into force from today - The Economic Times

 

[SpArK]

'US firms keen on nuke trade with India' - Hindustan Times

 

[lemurian]

LOL.. Tripura is shown as part of South India.. Idiots...

 

[Vibs]

LOL.. Tripura is shown as part of South India.. Idiots...

Lol. Plus Delhi is still a Union Territory? Thats news to me.!!!

 

[lemurian]

Plus- its not a typo cos the analysis at the top says that south India has 5 states (i.e. including tripura).. makes you wonder whether the idiots bungled up the numbers as well.

 

[gulte]

why don't we spend more for the development of the nation and betterment of our people? why not spend more on healthcare or just turn India into a welfare state?

Given that our tax/gdp ratio hanging around 18%, how the hell we can function as a welfare state and that to in the area of health. Economies like US are having troubles implementing welfare in health owing to their present tax/gdp ratio at around 33%, the only states who are providing health welfare are the countries which healthy amount of working class and tax/gdp ratio more than 45%.

Just take an example of AP where they have implemented arogyasree, where poor can be reimbursed their medical fee's. Now govt coffers are dry and they have watered down whole program.

 

[indopak]

per capita income has grown 120% between FY'05 and FY'11:Government


NEW DELHI: The per capital income in the country has jumped over two-folds between 2004-05 and 2010-11 to touch Rs 54,835 per annum, Parliament was informed today.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Statistics and Programme Implementation Srikant Jena said that Delhi, Chandigarh, Puducherry and Haryana are the top states and union territories with regard to per capital income in 2010-11.

However, the provisional data for 2010-11 from a few states including Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, West Bengal and Gujarat are yet to be released.

"The per capita income at the national level, which was Rs 24,143 in the year 2004-05, stands at Rs 54,835 in the year 2010-11, showing an increase of more than 120 per cent," the minister said.

Jena said there is regional imbalance and disparity among states and union territories with regard to income levels and attributed this to various factors like historical differences, level of industrialisation, natural resource endowments and differences in human capital indocators.

"Per capita income is only an indicator of the disparity and not the cause," the minister said.

As per privisional data for 2010-11 provided by Directorate of Economics and Statistics of respective state governments and the Central Statistical Office, Delhi had the highest per capital income of Rs 1,35,814 annually, followed by Chandigarh at 1,28,634 and Poducherry at Rs 98,719.

Haryana had a per capital income of Rs 92,327 in 2010-11. Among other states Sikkim (Rs 81,159), Tamil Nadu (Rs 72,993), Uttarakhand (Rs 68,292), Punjab (Rs 67,473) and Andhra Pradesh (Rs 60,458) has good income levels. At the bottom of the list are Bihar (Rs 20,069), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 26,051), Manipur (Rs 29,684) and Jharkhand (Rs 29,786).

The minister said the government has been taking several measures to increase the per capita income of states in a balanced manner.