By 2020, 96% of mobile phones sold in India will be Made in India
By 2020, almost 96 per cent of mobile phones sold in India will be locally manufactured, according to a research report.
India is set to increase its domestic localisation rate, says the report titled 'Indian
Mobile Phone market: Emerging Opportunities for fulfilling India's Digital Economy Dream', released by
Enixta, an artificial intelligence company, and Internet & Mobile Association of India (
IAMAI). In 2016, two out of every three mobile phones sold in India were domestically produced.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Dr.
Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, exuded confidence that in the next 5 to 10 years, nearly 25% of the global economy would be actually determined by the digital economy. He said that the Internet economy was the biggest opportunity in India and had the potential to be bigger than the ITeS industry.
Currently, India is the second-largest
smartphone market in the world in terms of number of users but it is expected to be the biggest market for global smartphone sales in the next few years.
In FY 2019-20, India's smartphone manufacturing industry would be worth Rs 1,20,200 crore, the report claimed. The size of the domestic mobile manufacturing industry in FY 2019-20 is expected to be Rs 1,35,000 crore as against Rs 94,000 in FY 2016-17.
According to the report, there is a high possibility to build local sourcing capabilities for mobile phone components such as battery pack, non-electronic parts, accessories, packaging, etc. though the main electronic components will require a longer tenure to be sourced locally.
The report, which has studied the smartphone market in India from the perspective of consumer's needs and application, depicts a huge potential for increasing the local value addition in the domestic manufacturing industry.
According to the report, the demand for the mobile phones in India is largely met through imports. Much of the domestic mobile phone production in India is limited to assembling/packaging of SKD (semi-knocked down) kits.
This low level of local value addition is due to a weak manufacturing eco-system which in turn stems from limited capabilities across various stages of the manufacturing value chain.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...ally-report/articleshow/59883293.cms?from=mdr
Sapient to double hiring of Indian talent
Capitalising on the huge engineering talent pool that India offers, Publicis.Sapient is looking to double its headcount in the country,
Chip Register, co-CEO, Publicis.Sapient told ET in an exclusive interview.
Register, who was in India recently, said the headcount will be doubled from the current 10,000 in the next 3-5 years. “We will also continue to grow our technology services and the consulting practice,“ said Register. In India, while the
Publicis Groupe has a total of 15,000 employees,
Sapient India has about 10,000 people.
Register added that two other large groups - Publicis Communications and
Publicis Media -can gain by leveraging the
Indian market. “There is a large opportunity there as well,“ he said. Publicis Media is the media planning and buying firm in the group.
Publicis.Sapient will also leverage its group firm SapientRazorfish India presence with more than 7,000 technologists to co-develop the artificial intelligence (AI) tool Marcel.
The company has set a target to complete the project in one year.
Publicis Groupe, the world's third-largest communications group, plans to use Marcel to communicate and collaborate across its global network of agencies through the use of Marcel.
It claims that Marcel is the first predictive, professional assistant powered by AI and machine-learning that will connect 80,000 employees across 200 disciplines in 130 countries. It will be unveiled at VivaTech in 2018.
Register added Marcel will allow people across cultures to commu nicate and have access to diverse solutions and methodologies.
“The function of the AI is to understand where the needs are,“ said Register. The company will however, not sell Marcel to outside clients and will leverage it to better its own offerings. “We are not a product company but it will certainly help our clients,“ said Register.
http://m.economictimes.com/jobs/pub...ing-of-indian-talent/articleshow/59876091.cms
India's job confidence outlook highest in Asia Pacific market: Job Applicant Confidence Index
India's job confidence outlook ranked highest in the Asia Pacific market, with 84 per cent Indian professionals participants indicating that they foresee a good future economic scenario in the country.
A majority of Indian professionals (84 per cent) favourably viewed their job and economic situation in the next six months and assessed it as 'good to excellent', according to the Michael Page Job Applicant Confidence Index Q2 2017.
The Index revealed that as compared to India's 84 per cent, it was 66 per cent among their Asia Pacific counterparts.
The Michael Page Job Applicant Confidence Index Q2 2017, evaluated the responses of 681 senior-level employees in the country across organisations and industries.
It was found that a significant share of Indian professionals surveyed, rated their overall workplace conditions as 'good to excellent', which included present job conditions (63 per cent), future job scenario (76 per cent) as well as current job opportunities within their area of expertise (51 per cent).
The survey revealed that despite an increase in automation and the recent layoffs in the Indian markets, 73 per cent of the respondents were confident of securing a job within three months.
Additionally, when asked about their outlook for their professional situation in the next 12 months, the participants were positive of acquiring opportunities in their current roles, including better skill development (82 per cent), scope of functions (78 per cent), career promotion (70 per cent).
The skills enhancement (51 per cent), salary (40 per cent) and better work-life balance (34 per cent) continue to be the top three reasons why employees are likely to switch from their current job, the survey showed.
"Indian economy is poised for a robust growth with technological advancements put on the fast track with government initiatives such as 'Digital India'. These factors will create new positions and career opportunities in emerging sectors," Michael Page India managing director Nicolas Dumoulin said.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...dence-index/articleshow/59875174.cms?from=mdr
India's central bank cuts key lending rate to 6 percent
India's central bank Wednesday cuts its key
interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, raising hopes of lower borrowing costs for households as inflation ebbs.
The announcement by the Reserve Bank of India reduced to 6 percent its repo rate, the interest rate the central bank charges on lending to
commercial banks.
India's inflation rate declined to a record low of 1.54 percent in June, while the annual rate of growth in factory output fell to 1.7 percent in May from 8 percent in the same month a year earlier.
Most industrial groups had been pushing for an interest rate cut to help boost the economy by lowering the cost of borrowing.
Central bank Gov. Urjit Patel, who heads a six-member
monetary policy committee, told journalists that the cut in borrowing rates was expected to invigorate investments and provide a push to the prime minister's key scheme to provide housing.
The decision followed the government's shock decision in November to withdraw from circulation the country's highest-value currency bill and a nationwide tax overhaul launched last month.
The central bank is working with the government to resolve stressed corporate borrowings and recapitalize state-owned banks, Patel said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/indias-central-bank-cuts-key-lending-rate-percent-48983477
Medicines in India likely to be costlier due to RCEP trade pact
http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/co...to-be-costlier-due-to-rcep-trade-pact-2520101
I believe if it doesn't help common people, its not worth it. We should look for mutual benefits where poor and common people's interest are taken into consideration positively.
How India’s auto industry is racing to meet 2020 Bharat Stage VI deadline
The year 2020 will mark an important chapter in India’s 67-year-old auto industry. That’s when
automakers will take a giant leap forward and switch to far stricter emission standards that are on par with those in the US, Japan and the European Union.
R.C. Bhargava, chairman of India’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, sees the shift as “natural evolution” for an industry that has come a long way since the pre-Liberalization era.
The move is aimed at curbing emission in a country that has the dubious distinction of being
home to half of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, according to World Health Organization (WTO) report released in June 2016. For Indian automakers such as Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and Tata Motors Ltd, the efforts and capabilities required to leapfrog to Bharat Stage VI—the Indian equivalent of Euro VI, is akin to climbing the Mount Everest. It’s set to change the very DNA of auto companies, making them
accountable for each unit of particulate matter and emission exhaled by automobiles. For car buyers, it would mean driving cleaner vehicles with advanced technology, albeit at a higher price.
What is Bharat Stage?
These are auto emission norms based on the European emission standards adopted in 2000. Each stage places a certain limit on pollutants released, which is controlled by the type of fuel produced by oil companies and the up-gradations and modifications made by automakers in vehicles to control pollutants such as NOx (Nitrogen Oxide) and particulate matter (PM). India has been adopting and enforcing the emission standards in a phased manner. BS III norms, for instance, were enforced across the country in October 2010 after they were first implemented in 13 major cities in April 2010. India now follows BS IV norms which came into effect in the entire country from April this year.
Why is BS VI inevitable?
The implementation of advanced norms is a critical step as India, the world’s third largest emitter after China and the US, is a signatory to Conference of Parties (CoP) protocol on combating climate change. As part of the agreement, by 2030 India has to reduce its carbon footprint by 33-35% from the 2005 levels.
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BS VI norms will address one of the inherent flaws in the European emission standards which permits diesel cars to emit more particulate matter and nitrogen oxide, said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director at the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based think tank.
In diesel cars, the jump to BS VI norms will result in reduction of nitrogen oxide emission by 68% and particulate matter, which has a damaging effect on air quality and human health, by 82%. Similarly, in heavy-duty vehicles like trucks, the shift to BS VI norms would result in reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions by 87% and particulate matter by 67%.
India bit the bullet on
advancing emission norms last January—an idea that was first mooted in 2015 before the country signed the Paris Climate Change deal. Subsequently, on 6 January 2016, an inter-ministerial group meeting chaired by Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari and attended by heavy industries minister Anant Geete, environment minister Prakash Javadekar (now education minister) and oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, announced that
not only would India skip the intermediary step but also advance adoption by three years to 2020 from 2023. By skipping one stage India will catch up with European emission standards which are currently ahead by five years.
Even as environmentalists welcomed the decision, it set alarm bells ringing in boardrooms at auto companies and sent their product engineering teams into a huddle.
Auto firms, parts makers and oil refiners are estimated to spend between Rs70,000 crore and Rs90,000 crore to comply with BS VI standards.
Given the high volumes and their presence in myriad segments of the automobile market, the leap to stage VI is giving executives at home-grown auto firms like Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra sleepless nights. Unlike the local arms of the global automakers that have parent companies to fall back on,
Indian companies will have to develop solutions ground up with the help of global firms specializing in emission control technologies.
The implementation of advanced norms is a critical step as India, the world’s third largest emitter after China and the US, is a signatory to Conference of Parties protocol on combating climate change
“It’s a massive work.
This change took Europe nine years, we have to do it in three years,” said Timothy Leverton, chief technology officer at Tata Motors Ltd.
Rajan Wadhera, president automotive sector at Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, echoed similar sentiments. “In my last 50 years, I have not seen this kind of challenge. It’s far more difficult than most of the technical transformation that I have seen in my career,” he said. But, he added, Mahindra is bracing for the challenge to ensure all its vehicles are compliant.
For Shekar Viswanathan, vice chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd, upgrading to new emission standards is not a challenge. All the company needs to do is to recalibrate its Euro VI models already selling in other markets, as per the Indian driving cycle. “I think it’s a bigger challenge for companies that have a bigger footprint in India.”
Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has around half a dozen passenger vehicle platforms, 16 models and around 150 variants. C.V. Raman, executive director, engineering, at Maruti Suzuki India, declined to comment for the story.
An email sent to Volkswagen Passenger Cars India Pvt. Ltd remained unanswered.
In an email response, a spokesperson at Hyundai Motor India Ltd said Hyundai as a global company has the technology available and is continuously introducing the same in India and meeting all the requirements. The automaker is geared up towards leading the introduction of BS VI, he said.
Paradigm shift in technology
CSE’s Roychowdhury said the transition to BS VI will bring a “paradigm shift in vehicle technology, particularly, for diesel vehicles,” as it will fundamentally alter the way emission is monitored even as it marks several firsts for the industry.
Here is how: It will require manufacturers, for the first time in India, to maintain service check data even for in-use vehicles and the way they are performing in actual road conditions. Today, the only mechanism we have to check emission from in-use on-road vehicles is a PUC (pollution under check) certificate, which Roychowdhury alludes to as “sham,” owing to its inability to check pollution effectively.
Also, for the first time, India will introduce real driving emission (RDE) standards that will be gauged through an on-board monitoring while the vehicle is being driven. It will monitor real-world emission from the vehicle and ensure that the sophisticated emission control systems fitted in the BS VI vehicles work at optimum efficiency through the life of the vehicle. With innumerable cases of in-road Euro-VI compliant vehicles emitting more than the permissible limit globally, RDE standards will be very helpful in monitoring emission effectively.
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In September 2015, US regulator Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that many Volkswagen cars being sold in America had a “defeat device” —or software—in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested and could change performance to improve results. This allowed the engines to emit nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times above what is permitted in the US. Volkswagen admitted it was guilty of manipulating test results and recalled from all across the world 11 million diesel cars fitted with software which helped in the manipulation.
The RDE in India is being derived from the European emission regulations, said Rashmi Urdhwareshe, director at the Pune-based Automotive Research Association of India, the automotive R&D, testing and certification agency. However, the RDE cycle in India is completely different.
“It’s still under discussion in what ways is it different,” she said, adding that data collection for it is underway.
With the help of the data, the government and the test agencies will be able to firm up an agreeable test cycle for RDE in India. The exercise is expected to be completed in a year’s time. Automakers will develop and calibrate the BS VI vehicles for RDE accordingly.
The emission standards will also mark a shift in the manner in which PM is regulated. Presently, it’s regulated based on mass of PM that comes out per kilometer of distance travelled. To regulate the very fine particles that come out of a vehicle, which are extremely harmful, India will switch to number standards for PM—regulating the number of units coming out.
Fuel concerns
Oil marketing companies (OMCs) have an equally important role to play in the big shift as they need to ensure the availability of the requisite grade of fuel well ahead of the deadline. Early introduction of technology would require support from the oil companies for the BS VI fuel availability not only in a select few cities, but across the country, said Maruti’s Bhargava. “Unlike BS III and BS IV that can make do with the inferior grade of fuel, BS VI vehicles simply cannot run on such fuel.”
Officials at OMCs said they are geared up for this.
A director of refineries at one of the oil marketing companies, who declined to be identified, said oil refinery firms including Reliance Industries, Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (a joint venture company of Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd and Oman Oil SAOC, Sultanate of Oman) will be BS VI compliant. “Some of the other refiners will also be partially BS VI compliant and will be able to give quantities for testing in special batches,” he said.
In my last 50 years, I have not seen this kind of challenge. It’s far more difficult than most of the technical transformation that I have seen in my career- Rajan Wadhera, president automotive sector at Mahindra and Mahindra
Automakers are also seeking clarity from the government on whether the 1 April 2020 deadline, is applicable only for manufacturing or both manufacturing and registration of BS VI vehicles.
If it’s the latter, to ensure vehicles are available for registration from 1 April, auto companies will have to start manufacturing BS VI vehicles from the beginning of 2019, said Vishnu Mathur, director general at Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). “There has to be enough clarity on the date of manufacturing and registration,” said Mathur.
Also, if the deadline is applicable for both, oil companies will have to also ensure fuel availability well in advance. The stock has to be ready before 1 April. “If it becomes registration, we have accepted a highly ambiguous target,” Mathur added.
Toyota’s Viswanathan agreed: “At the end of the day, we don’t want a relaxation. We want it only when it’s suddenly sprung on us.” If the timelines are well defined, adhered to not only by the auto firms but OMCs also, the transition will be smooth, he said.
The emission leap is an opportunity for Indian companies and those like Maruti with high volumes, to create an ecosystem for advance emission technology, said Rajeev Pratap Singh, auto sector head at Deloitte Consulting. “With automakers already exporting Euro VI vehicles to so many countries, technical know-how is not a challenge.”
It’s just that they will now have to develop the requisite technologies and capabilities locally as against importing them as the scale is much bigger now, said Singh. India’s car market is expected to reach 4.8 million by 2020, he said.
Come April 2020, India’s automobile market will change in more ways than one, as the industry leapfrogs to the strictest emission norms—Bharat Stage VI—from the current BS IV. In a three-part series, Mint
analyses the impact of the transition on the environment, automakers and their supply chains, and car and two-wheeler buyers.
http://www.livemint.com/Industry/Jm...ustry-is-racing-to-meet-2020-Bharat-Stag.html
India on track to meet 3.2% fiscal deficit target: UBS
The Indian government is on track to achieving the fiscal deficit target of 3.2 per cent of GDP in the current fiscal year, says an UBS report.
The global financial services major said however that balance sheets of states remain "stretched".
The central government's fiscal deficit has already reached 81 per cent of the full-year target in the first quarter (April to June) of 2017-18.
"Accordingly, the cumulative fiscal deficit reached 2.6 per cent of GDP FYTD. That said, we believe the central government will be able to achieve the fiscal target of 3.2 per cent of GDP in FY18," UBS said in a research note.
The Centre's fiscal deficit narrowed from a peak of 6.5 per cent of GDP in 2009-10 (after the global financial meltdown) to 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2016-17 and is estimated to fall further to 3.2 per cent of GDP in 2017-18.
However, the states' fiscal position remains stretched, with the fiscal deficit rising from a low of 1.9 per cent of GDP in 2011-12 to 3 per cent of GDP (including UDAY, a scheme to turn around state electricity boards) in 2016-17.
The report noted that while the pursuit of structural reforms, including a goods and services tax, bodes well for India's sovereign rating (currently at the lowest investment grade), the risk of a worsening consolidated (centre and state combined) fiscal position may act as a deterrent.
UBS said fiscal slippage due to an increase in populist spending by the government (including farm loan waivers announced by a few states) in the run up to the 2019 general elections remains a key risk for the government's fiscal deficit position.
"We believe the government's stretched combined fiscal deficit could crowd out investment both public and private, which tends to have a durable impact on overall growth vs. consumption and poses upside risks to inflation," it added.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...-target-ubs/articleshow/59879028.cms?from=mdr