Indian Economy-News & Updates

[bomberman]

Dubai property sales: Indians take 24%:

DubaiIndian investors were responsible for the biggest chunk of real estate sales in Dubai [ Images ] in 2009, a new study has revealed.

The figures, included in FutureBrand's Gulf Real Estate Study, showed that nearly a quarter or 24 per cent of sales by value in the city involved Indian investors.

The data, supplied by DUBAIFocus in association with Dubai Land Department, also reveal that UK property buyers finished second with their 21 per cent share.

Investors from Pakistan and Iran grabbed the third and fourth spot with their 12 per cent and 10 per cent contribution respectively.

Reasons for investing in Dubai was dominated by buyer's search for high quality construction and nearly 19 per cent of the respondents stated this as their highest priority. Innovation (15.6 per cent), building great places to live (6.8 per cent) and the ease to work with developers (6.7 per cent) were also seen as important factors by prospective buyers, according to the research.

However, the need to deliver projects on time just got a 0.2 per cent rating from respondents.

In November, research firm Proleads said some 1,845 projects worth a combined $657 billion were still active in the UAE despite the impact of the global slowdown.

The study of the civil construction industry in the country showed 69 per cent of the total projects were ongoing (not cancelled or delayed).

Source:Dubai property sales: Indians take 24%: Rediff.com Business

Regards:
PHR

 

[RPK]

domain-b.com : Siemens to invest Rs1,800 crore in renewable energy in India


Siemens to invest Rs1,800 crore in renewable energy in India news

02 February 2010

Siemens AG said it plans to invest Rs1,800 crore ($346 million) over the next three years in India, mainly in the renewable energy market, the company said in filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

Europe's biggest engineering conglomerate will be investing Rs500 crore over the next three years to build high end technology wind turbines for the Indian market. The first of these turbines is scheduled to be shipped in 2012.

''Our goal is to strengthen our position as the leading provider of green infrastructure solutions in India's booming market'' said. Peter Loescher, president and CEO of Siemens AG.

Siemens, based in Munich, Germany plans to make India a major centre for value-priced products by establishing six new hubs in India, responsible for the design, development, production and sale of these products for India and for the world market.


The company said that it wants to increase its market share in India to 10 per cent by 2012 and thereby generate a total revenue of about Rs8,500 crore by fiscal 2020 with value priced products from India.

Siemens AG expects the Indian economy to grow at 7 per cent in 2010 and 8 per cent in 2011 and wants to expand its market share to 10 per cent by 2012.


Peter Löscher president and CEO of Siemens AG
"Like many other nations around the globe, India is facing a green revolution. We have the products and solutions for the country and we want to further expand our position as a green infrastructure provider in India," said Peter Löscher, president and CEO of Siemens AG in a statement.

"India is already one of the growth drivers worldwide and will remain so in the future. We've been optimally positioned here for over 140 years and intend to further strengthen our position," Peter Löscher, Siemens' chief executive said in a statement.

The company said in-order to support its growth plans, it will increase its workforce in India from 17,000 to 25,000 by 2012.

Siemens has already invested Rs275 crore for capacity expansion at its steam turbine manufacturing facility at Vadodara, Gujarat. The expansion programme scheduled to be complete by this tear will triple the manufacturing capacity at the factory. (See: Siemens to triple steam turbine capacity in India)

The company had invested Rs30 crore to set up a modern, world-class steam turbine factory at Vadodara, which was operational in January 2007. The setting up of a greenfield factory was announced by the company in 2006 in its 50 years of manufacturing presence in India.

Siemens in India, which comprises 20 legal entities, is a leading provider of industry and infrastructure solutions with a business volume aggregating about Rs11,800 crore.

It operates in the core business areas of Industry, energy and healthcare. With nation-wide sales and service network, 19 manufacturing plants and a network of around 500 channel partners, the company employs about 17,200 people.

 

[EjazR]

Qatar to invest $2bn in India : The Peninsula On-line: Qatar's leading English Daily

DOHA: Qatar, the richest Arab country with the highest per capita income in the world, hopes to invest a whopping $2bn in India, the world's second largest emerging economy.

According to media reports, Qatar which has investments in key sectors worldwide, plans to set up a corpus of $2bn to investment in India in infrastructure and other promising sectors.

During a visit here recently, the secretary-general of the GCC Chambers, Abdulraheem Naqi, told The Peninsula that India was a key trade partner of the GCC and that the cash-rich countries were now increasingly looking towards India to park their investments. The trend has changed after 9/11. We (read: GCC) are looking more towards China, India and Malaysia to make investments, he said. These are the three most important nations in Asia that the GCC countries are now keen to invest in, and not the West any more, said Naqi

 

[Tejas-MkII]

BBC News - India factory output rises at fastest pace for a decade

India factory output rises at fastest pace for a decade

Manufacturing is driving Indian economic growth

India's industrial production has risen at its fastest pace in more than a decade, providing further evidence of the country's strong economic recovery.

Factory output rose by 16.8% in December compared with a year earlier, much faster than analysts had expected.

Subdued growth last year as a result of the global economic downturn helped to boost this year's figure in comparison.

The strong growth will strengthen the case for the government to withdraw its stimulus measures, analysts said.

"We are going to see some rollback of fiscal stimulus in the 26 February federal budget," said Rahul Bajoria at Barclays Capital.

"The need to support the manufacturing sector through duty cuts is no longer there."

Rising prices

India's economy is recovering faster than expected - it grew at an annual pace of 7.9% in the three months to the end of September 2009, after growing 6.7% in the year to the end of March 2009.

Government stimulus measures helped to maintain growth during the global downturn - the country's central bank has pumped more than $125bn (£80bn) into the Indian economy since September 2008.

Instead of concerning themselves with securing strong growth, policymakers are now starting to turn their attention to inflation.

Last month, India's central bank increased cash reserve requirements for lenders in a bid to contain rising prices.

It also lifted its inflation forecast for the end of the financial year in March to 8.5%.

 

[jha]

HYDERABAD: Apple's iPad was, it's fair to say, awaited with the kind of breathless anticipation usually reserved by nubile nymphets for rakish Rockers. But even as consumers rave about it, the technoscenti are already looking ahead ─ to a product that could make the iPad seem outdated, and, what's more, is completely Made in India.

India is, of course, regarded as a software superpower but hasn't really made waves in IT hardware so far. That could soon change, thanks to the Adam tablet PC of Hyderabad-based Notion Ink. Adam has generated enormous buzz on tech websites and gadget blogs ever since an early prototype was first demonstrated at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the world's largest consumer tech trade show in January this year. Today, the final product minus the custom user-interface will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where the finest minds of geekdom will be congregating to check it out. But first, we persuaded the company to show it to us at the BVRIT Innovation Centre in Hyderabad, where they are based. .
.
.
.
Enter Adam, the 'iPad killer' made in India - India Business - Biz - The Times of India

 

[Veer]

An Indian now owns East India Company: Creating a new brand for India

London, Feb 14 (IANS) With just around a month to go for the re-launch of the East India Company - the world's first multinational whose forces once ruled much of the globe - its new Indian owner says he is overwhelmed by "a huge feeling of redemption". It's been a long, emotional and personal journey for Sanjiv Mehta, a Mumbai-born entrepreneur who completed the process of buying the East India Company (EIC) in 2005 from the "30 or 40" people who owned it.

Acutely aware that he owned a piece of history - at its height the company generated half of world trade and employed a third of the British workforce - Mehta, now the sole owner, dived into the company's rich and ruthless past in order to give it a new direction for the future.

With a $15-million investment and inputs from a range of experts - from designers and brand researchers to historians - Mehta is today poised to open the first East India Company store in London's upmarket Mayfair neighbourhood in March.

And then there is the inevitable - and daunting - task of launching in India, a country whose resources, army, trade and politics the company had controlled for some 200 years.

It's a task that Mehta has not taken lightly, he told IANS in an interview. "Put yourself in my shoes for a moment: On a rational plane, when I bought the company I saw gold at the end of the rainbow.

"But, at an emotional level as an Indian, when you think with your heart as I do, I had this huge feeling of redemption - this indescribable feeling of owning a company that once owned us."

The formal start of the East India Company is usually dated back to 1600 when Britain's Queen Elizabeth I granted a group of merchants a charter under the name 'The Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies.'

With its own Elizabethan coat of arms - now owned by Mehta - the company was made responsible for bringing tea, coffee and luxury goods to the West and trading in spices across the globe.

By 1757 the company had become a powerful arm of British imperial might, with its own army, navy, shipping fleets and currency, and control over key trading posts in India - where it was known variously as Company Bahadur and John Company. In 1874, the British government nationalised the company, opportunistically blaming the 1857 uprising on its excesses. But the East India Company army, brought under the command of the Crown, retained its all-powerful presence in India.

"When I took over the company, my objective was to understand its history. I took a sabbatical from all other business and this became the single purpose in my life," said Mehta.

He travelled around the world, visiting former EIC trading posts and museums, reading up records and meeting people "who understood the business of that time".

"There was a huge sense of responsibility - I didn't create this brand, but I wanted to be as pioneering as the merchants who created it."

"The Elizabethan coat of arms stands for trust and reassurance, but we are not repeating history. It took me four years to do the brand positioning and put up the milestones."

The 'relaunched' company, with its headquarters on Conduit Street in Mayfair, is set to open a diverse line of high-end, luxury goods in London in March and in India some time this year.

EIC products in India will include fine foods, furniture, real estate, health and hospitality.

"India is the spirit of the East India Company in many ways - it evokes a huge amount of connectivity and emotions," Mehta told IANS. "It's also a major ambition to bring Indian products to the rest of the world. Today there is no single brand name from the East that can stand alongside, say, Hermes or Cartier from the West.

"The East India Company has that ability."

Mangalorean.Com- Serving Mangaloreans Around The World!

 

[shrivatsa]

Progress Update on the Notion Ink Adam Android Tablet | eHomeUpgrade

video

 

[Veer]

Enter Adam, the 'iPad killer' made in India
Sriram Sharma, 14 February 2010, 12:49am IST

HYDERABAD: Apple's iPad was, it's fair to say, awaited with the kind of breathless anticipation usually reserved by nubile nymphets for rakish rockers. But even as consumers rave about it, the technoscenti are already looking ahead ─ to a product that could make the iPad seem outdated, and, what's more, is completely Made in India.

India is, of course, regarded as a software superpower but hasn't really made waves in IT hardware so far. That could soon change, thanks to the Adam tablet PC of Hyderabad-based Notion Ink. Adam has generated enormous buzz on tech websites and gadget blogs ever since an early prototype was first demonstrated at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the world's largest consumer tech trade show in January this year. Today, the final product minus the custom user-interface will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where the finest minds of geekdom will be congregating to check it out. But first, we persuaded the company to show it to us at the BVRIT Innovation Centre in Hyderabad, where they are based.

Never heard of Notion Ink? Its founders are six IITans and an MBA grad. With an average age of 24, they believe India has what it takes to compete with the most innovative tech companies in the world. “We knew that Indian engineers and designers were doing most of the innovative work at Microsoft, Intel, and Apple. We just needed to take the first step," says co-founder Rohan Shravan.

“Current PC technology is like a Hummer on a city road,” quips Rohit Rathi, the youngest of the group at 23, and, along with Shravan, one of four co-founders from IIT Kharagpur. Two are from IIT Delhi while Sachin Ralhan, the eldest at 25, is a childhood friend of Shravan and Rathi and an MBA from IIPM. Apart from Ralhan and Rathi, the other five are all aged 24.

What's so different about their tech? Three years in the making, the Adam tablet is the first device in the world to integrate two breakthrough power saving components - nVidia’s Tegra 2 chip and a PixelQi screen. Together, they help it achieve twice the battery life and performance of the iPad.

“The chip provides an edge over the iPad with its ability to play full high definition videos and Flash on the web browser. It can offer the performance of a computer with the power consumption of a cellphone,” explains Shravan.

Adam’s 10-inch screen integrates many innovations first used in the $100 OLPC (one laptop per child) project. Unlike traditional screens, PixelQI screen has a dual mode, and can be read in bright sunlight like an e-reader. With the backlight off, the company claims that it can increase battery life between charges by a factor of five.

What about the pricing? The company has not yet taken a decision on this crucial aspect, but is clear that Adam will definitely be competitive vis-a-vis Apple's iPad. It expects to start retail sales, at first in the USA, from July onwards.

Notion Ink worked with National Institute of Design’s R&D development campus in Bangalore to build a unique touch interface that runs on Google’s Android mobile operating system. As a startup, it faced many obstacles in filing patents and finding the right engineering talent. “India doesn’t have people working on Android. And the companies that have, charge Rs 1 lakh per resource per month,” says Rohan. “So we came up with a social solution - We opted to train engineers ourselves.”

The company trained and then recruited over 50 engineers at BVRIT in Bachupally, Hyderabad. “We got the infrastructure at their Innovation Center, and the students as well. We knew the technology in and out and started training them. Within two months it started paying off, and we started developing the professional applications for the product we wanted to design.”

The company is working on an application store platform of its own, where users can find a wide variety of content. “It will offer everything from apps, books, video, audio, to magazines, newspapers and comics,” says co-founder Rajat Sahni.

The company sees more and more users reading newspapers on e-readers and tablets in the near future, and has designed a lightweight product that adapts well to this purpose. They showed us a version of how a digital magazine would look on the Adam. “We’ve taken design inspiration from a 400-year tradition - the user interface of magazines!” chuckles Shravan.

The men behind Adam

Rohan Shravan- IIT- KGP (2008)
Rohit Rathi - IIT- KGP (2008)
Sachin Ralhan – IIPM
Mohit Gupta - IIT- KGP (2008)
Anirudh Gupta –IIT Delhi (2007)
Rajat Sahni – IIT Delhi (2007)
Devanshu Agrawal - IIT- KGP (2008)

The writer is editor, Technoholik. Visit the technoholik.com blog for exclusive images and videos of the Adam tablet

Enter Adam, the 'iPad killer' made in India - India Business - Biz - The Times of India

 

[sab]

IT biggies on hiring spree, one lakh people to join workforce

PTI, 14 February 2010, 01:30pm

NEW DELHI: Switching over to robust recruitment mode after a dormant 2009, Indian IT players will hire nearly one lakh people in the coming months amid improving global economic conditions.
Coming after a forgettable year of hiring freeze, layoffs and salary cuts, the recruitment drive in the IT space is led by biggies such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys.

An analysis of the hiring plans announced by various Indian IT companies shows that headcount in the industry is expected to go up by more than 98,000.

According to analysts, increased spending on IT infrastructure and improving overseas markets for outsourcers, are among the main factors for the upbeat hiring prospects.

Diptarup Chakraborti, who is a Principal Research Analyst at global IT research firm Gartner said the industry is back on track with many projects lined up for completion.

"The industry has turned the corner and renewed optimism will bring back recruitment across the globe," he noted.

Last week, the country's largest software exporter TCS said it would increase headcount by 30,000 in next fiscal year while Infosys announced plans to hire 16,000 people this year.

Of the 12 companies which have announced their hiring plans, BPO giant Genpact said it would hire 10,000 people. Besides, IBM is looking at recruiting 5,000 followed by Infosys BPO (2,000), Accenture (8,000) and Mphasis (2,000).

Going by Gartner estimates, the domestic IT market is expected to grow by 19-20% in 2010, a sharp rise against a 2.6% growth in 2009.

"IT companies usually hire to meet their next 18-month requirement. The actual hiring is always higher than the announced hiring as the companies also do lateral hiring besides fresh recruitments," Chakraborti said.

An official at Info Edge, which owns the job portal Naukri.com, said the big bang hiring announcements by the IT companies took off in late 2009.

"As economy started improving the IT infrastructure contracts started moving to India. The jobs in IT industry is gaining pace but for us to have a booming 2008 job market will take some (more) time," Info Edge National Head (Marketing and Communications) Sumeet Singh said.

According to Gartner-EXP Worldwide Survey of global chief information officers (CIOs), the IT budgets are expected to witness marginal increase in global average of 1.3% compared to 2009, which saw the IT budgets declining by 8.1%.

In 2009 the CIOs faced multiple budget cuts, delayed spending and increased demand for services with reduced resources.

This is set to change in 2010, as the economies recover from recession and enterprises transition their strategies from cost-cutting efficiency to value-creating productivity, the survey pointed out.

IT biggies on hiring spree, one lakh people to join workforce - India Business - Biz - The Times of India

 

[idea123]

Indian products have been good but have failed in world market for the lack of proper marketing.
The future of Adams depends upon it marketing skills via Apple's.
I wish them best and Help from India Inc.
Indian MNCs should lead a helping hand.

 

[applesauce]

the ipad is pointless nothing more than a large ipod, as it is right now its a complete failure perhaps when version 2 comes out apple will fix the problems, but being a ipad killer at this moment is pointless cause it does not have a large base yet and the only people getting it are apple fans which would not buy anything else anyways.

 

[Hyde]

good for india........ i watched the video and the operating system is too slow..... nevertheless its a great ahievement for india........ if they can work on improving its speed this its a good invention

 

[MilesTogo]

I don't think it is an invention. There are probably already such high tech gadgets out there and more will come out. Its all about price. India has advantage in terms of cost of skilled as well as unskilled labor relative to the western/developed countries. However, even with this advantage India did not really capitalize as well as China, probably due to lack of infrastructure and poor government support. But I guess now that is fast changing and you will see India exporting goods and services that require heavy capital and technology investments like cars and computers. Let's wait and watch.

 

[sirius_reamus]

Link : Hyderabad airport rated best airport in service quality - Hyderabad - City - The Times of India




HYDERABAD: The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) here has been rated world's number one airport in terms of airport service quality.

"RGIA has been ranked number one in the category of airport handling 5 to 15 million passenger by the Airport Council International, a world body that conducted the survey. We are happy to announce this," RGIA, CEO, P Sripathy said here on Tuesday.

The RGIA handles about 6.4 million passengers annually. The award would be presented to the airport on May 13 at the ACI Asia-Pacific Regional Conference and Exhibition to be held in Hainan in China.

Under the terms of the concession agreement with the government, GMR-operated RGIA was mandated to achieve a minimum rating of 3.5 on a 5 point scale within three years of operation, he said.

"But we have got a rating of 4.4 on the 5-point scale, that too within two years of the operation. This achievement also catapulted the Hyderabad airport to 5th position amongst the best airport in the world for all categories," Sripathy said.

The airport management conducted the survey for the whole year from January to December on quarterly basis during which about 550 domestic and international passengers were given the query form and were asked to rate the services of the airport.

 

[ek_indian]

Congtas to all Indians including me.