Apr. 23 - Ford plans to expand production of the Figo compact car in its Chennai plant in response to strong consumer demand.
The American car company is planning to add 700 more people to its workforce. “We do need to ramp up production to cope with the increasing demand for Figo and so we are starting a second shift from the end of June at our Chennai plant. This will increase our production capacity of the small car by 30-40 percent,” Ford India President and Managing Director Michael Boneham said in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr. 20 - India is considering negotiating tax treaties in nine territories to help curb tax avoidance.
The nine identified territories include: Cayman Islands; Bermuda; British Virgin Islands; Gibraltar, all British overseas territories; Guernsey; Isle of Man; Jersey, all British crown dependencies; Netherlands Antilles, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Netherlands; and Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr. 12 – India is considering opening multi-brand retail to more foreign direct investment with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in talks with the Finance and Agricultural Ministry on the issue.
“The move to open up retail sector is part of the government’s strategy to plug gaps in the existing food supply chain and more importantly, help bring down the difference between farm-gate prices and retail prices,” a high ranking top DIPP official told The Economic Times. Read the rest of this entry »
By Chris Devonshire-Ellis
Apr. 7 - As previously mentioned here and here, the Indian government has simplified some foreign direct investment policies that affect investment coming into the country. These are largely to be welcomed.
Here we highlight the items that are likely to affect the majority of foreign investors into India.
The general sectors now included in the 100 percent FDI automatic route are: Read the rest of this entry »
Apr. 1 – Signaling strong growth for the Indian economy, exports in February expanded by an impressive 34 percent to US$16.09 billion.
Exports grew for the fourth month in a row. In January, exports increased by 11.5 percent to US$14.34 billion. On the other hand, imports amounted to US$25 billion in February, an increase of 66 percent. Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 31 - Standard Chartered Bank is poised to obtain the first foreign company listing in India with its submission of a draft prospectus to the Indian Stock Exchange.
The bank aims to raise US$500 million through issuance of the first Indian Depository Receipt (IDR), a move which will allow Indian investors to buy into the bank in a rupee denominated IDR, a manner similar to the issuance of American depository receipts. The move is important because it is expected to usher in an era of IDRs that could attract strong interest from other multinational companies with a focus on India and Asia. Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 31- The government is scheduled to release a single, consolidated document on foreign direct investment today.
The new document will make it easier for foreign investors to navigate through the intricacies of doing business in the country. Currently, investors have to refer to foreign direct investment rules found in more than 177 Press Notes from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 24 - India said it will soon offer duty-free and quota-free market access to the least developed countries during a World Trade Organization presentation last week.
India will allow 14 least developed countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Cambodia, and some African nations easy access to the Indian market without imposing a tax or quota. Items such as cotton, cocoa, cane sugar and garments will be included in the list of duty-free goods. Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 19 - The Indian government has extended the five-year tax holiday for hotel projects from March 31 to July 31 in an effort to stimulate development in the industry prior to the Commonwealth Games in October.
The five-year tax holiday previously applied to hotels finished and operational from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2010 covering two, three and four-star category hotels and convention centers in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the districts of Faridabad, Gurgaon, Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad. The new extended tax holiday scheme will continue to offer the special tax discount rates in the next five years for hotels finished by the July 31 deadline under Section 80-ID of the Income Tax Act.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 17 - The list of operations that can be carried out independently by special economic zone authorities has been expanded to include establishing space for banking and warehousing services.
Previously SEZ developers were required to get approval for the latter. “It has been decided to further expand the list of default authorized operations…the development commissioners /unit approval committees may allow the developer/approved co-developers duty-free goods and services for these default authorized operations,” said the commerce ministry in statement. Read the rest of this entry »
