Oct. 27 – Business India magazine has just released its tenth best business schools survey which ranks India’s top institutions. The top ten is as follows with the name of each school also linked to its website.
1) Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
2) Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
3) Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta Continue reading
By Chris Devonshire-Ellis
Oct. 26 – In the latest politically correct movement of stupidity, the State of Orissa is now legally to be known as Odisha following a ruling by the Indian Union Cabinet. The regional language, previously known as Oriya, will now be called Odia.
The move follows prolonged lobbying by the BJP Party, long bent on correcting misnamed cities and states. The confusion arises partly due to the phonetic and dialect differences in pronouncing the English version and the local language version with the BJP determined to revert all names to the ones used locally. Hence Bombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai and Calcutta became Kolkata. Continue reading
Oct. 20 – The New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) has signed an agreement with Sical Iron Ore Terminal (Mangalore) Ltd., a subsidiary of the Chennai-based Sical Logistics to set up mechanized iron ore handling facility.
The port has been handling iron ore fines in 2003 and volumes have been increasing steadily since then. Last year, there were eight million tons handled manually. The new investment mechanized this process and will lead to increased handling capabilities. Continue reading
Sept. 11 – Mercedes-Benz’s Indian arm, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, is tapping into the high potential of the Indian market by launching a localized range of small trucks by 2012 from its Chennai plant.
Wilfried Aulbur, Mercedes-Benz India managing director and CEO, announced this after the launch of the Actros 4841K range of new trucks being manufactured at the company’s facility in Chakan, Pune. There is already an order placed for 100 of the trucks with future orders said to reach up to 250 trucks in the next three years. Continue reading
Sept. 4 – The Nielsen Company in India has just released the results of the first ever Nielsen Upper Middle and Rich (UMAR) survey that sought to decode the behavior of India’s well-heeled.
The UMAR polled more than 18,250 wealthy individuals across 35 Indian cities on their lifestyle and mass and emerging media consumption. The definition of affluence was based on the standards of defining socio economic class and other Nielsen variables.
“The primary reason for conducting Nielsen UMAR was to obtain first of all a realistic estimate of this segment, and secondly, to profile their media and consumption habits. There is no study today in India which provides an accurate estimate of this target group; large scale surveys like the NRS and IRS grossly underestimate this segment as their sampling procedures are directed towards a mass audience and not specifically to this segment,” said Partha Rakshit, Managing Director, South Asia, The Nielsen Company, said in a statement.
Aug. 28 – Japanese automaker Nissan is relocating the production of its supermini, the Micra, to India from the United Kingdom beginning May 2010 as part of its plan to manufacture more models in the country.
According to The Times of India, Nissan plans to invest about US$400 million in India as a way to slim production costs while still maintaining value and quality. “We have decided to manufacture the Micra at our upcoming factory at Oragadam, near Chennai,” Nissan India MD and CEO Kiminobu Tokuyama told The Times of India. Continue reading
Aug. 18 – Bengal is expected to benefit the most from India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement signed recently because of its proximity to Thailand and Myanmar.
At a recent session on “Foreign Investment-Policy and Promotion,” Joint Secretary of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Mr. Gopal Krishna told Indian Express that since Bengal is the most important state in eastern India, a lot of countries will look at it as a gateway of exports.
According to Mr. Krishna, with this agreement, the state will get an access to the US$1.7 billion ASEAN market. He said: “Kolkata is the only metropolitan city in the region. It is also the main trading hub for the entire eastern and north-eastern region.”
Aug. 18 – Ford India has begun exporting cars in bulk from Chennai for the first time; exporting 158 units through Chennai port to Durban, South Africa.
The company plans to export more models. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, data, Ford India between April and June produced 6,752 cars, of which 219 units were exported, through containers in different shipments.
Initially the company is looking at exporting small cars from the middle of next year to countries in the Asia-Pacific and Africa, Mr. Michael Boneham, President and Managing Director, Ford India, told the Business Standard. He added: “We are having discussions and intend to export more in the future, provided the infrastructure is set up at the port.”
Chennai
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