Monthly Archives: September 2008

The Great Indian Bazaar

Sept. 26 – India's retail sector is estimated to grow to US$450billion by 2015, boosting the market share of organised retail from the current five percent to 14-18 per cent. A government-commissioned report valued the retail market at US$322bn last year. India's indegenious mom and pop stores, which have been battling for customers with the walmarts of the world, will be transformed during the next seven years, according to the McKinsey retail report entitled 'The Great Indian Bazaar'. Continue reading →

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India is Still the Second Most Preferred Destination for FDI

Sept. 25 – India has and will retain its position as the second most-preferred global destination for foreign investment until 2010, lagging only behind China, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) announced in the World Investment Report 2008, released in New York. Continue reading →

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India Will Not Be Affected By the U.S. Downturn

Sept. 24 – In a bid to avoid letting India's soaring economy slip due to the U.S. downturn, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for strengthening "surveillance" of multilateral institutions within India.

"We need to strengthen multilateral surveillance for free market economies to function properly. For that multilateral institutions need to be strengthened," the prime minister told the Hindustan Times on board his special aircraft enroute to the United Nations General Assmebly meeting in New York. Continue reading →

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Pakistan – India Renew Trade Ties

Sept. 23 – India is reworking and strenghtening its ties with its northern neighbors – Nepal and Pakistan.

While India and Nepal recently held landmark meetings to discuss the 1950 Indo-Nepal treaty of Peace and Friendship, a decades-old pact governing bilateral relations, India and Pakistan also recently, reignited talks between the two nations.

Pushing ahead with their peace process, India and Pakistan on Monday finalised modalities to open up the Line of Control (LoC) for cross-Kashmir trade on Monday. Continue reading →

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New Issue of India Briefing Out Now

Sept. 23 – The Autumn issue of the India Briefing magazine is now out. Subscribers can download the entire magazine for free from our website by clicking on this image.

The magazine covers India's changing and growing global stance as a manufacturing hub.Titled "Establishing Manufacturing Operations In India", the magazine features legal, tax, financial and operational guidelines, regulations and approval proceedures to simplify setting up a manufacturing unit for a foreign investor in India. The main article not only covers application proceedures and license approval processes but also tax compliances, labor laws and outlines setting up a manufacturing base in India's special economic zones.

In order to bring a practical focus to the article, we have spiced it up with two market entry case studies, specifically targetting the auto components and electronic products industries, two high growth sectors in India's booming economy. Continue reading →

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India to increase domestic oil and gas production by 40 percent

Sept. 22 – Reliance Industries, India's largest privately held company will start pumping oil and natural gas off India's East Coast from early next year. Although pulling oil from 2,400 metres beneath the cyclone-prone, choppy waters of the Bay of Bengal will be a technological feat for Reliance Industries, the company claims that this is India's ticket to energy independence and Reliance's entry into the club of global energy majors.

Within 18 months, oil and gas production from block D6 of the Krishna Godavari basin will increase India's domestic production by 40 per cent, potentially shaving about US$20 billion from the nation's US$77 billion oil import bill, Reliance officials told the Canadian Press. Canada's Niko Resources Ltd.has a 10 per cent stake in the project. A total investment of US$8.7 billion was spent in developing the block. Continue reading →

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Nepal India Forge Closer Ties

Sept. 18 – Earlier this week, India and her neighbor to the north Nepal agreed to review a decades-old pact governing bilateral relations that has been a source of friction between the South Asian neighbours for a few years now. Prachanda, the present prime minister who led the Maoist insurgency before embracing multi-party democracy led the country's first demecratic delecgation to India. Prachanda as prime minister, held talks with his counterpart Manmohan Singh on Monday, AFP reported.

Known as the 1950 Indo-Nepal treaty of Peace and Friendship, it binds the two countries in a close strategic partnership and forms the basis of security and trade links, allowing landlocked Nepal access to Indian ports for commerce. Continue reading →

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The First Made in India Microprocessor – Launched

Sept. 17 – India launced its first made in India microprocessor for servers, through the world’s largest chipmaker, Intel. The microprocessor was manufactured entirely by a team of 300 Indian's based in Intel's Bangalore research and development centre. This is the first time that work on the 45 nanometre technology was taken up by the company outside its US home base, and was completed in a record wo years. Continue reading →

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