Monthly Archives: March 2011

Indian Businesses Active in Foreign Cooperation

Mar. 31 – Indian businesses have been busy recently signing new cooperations with foreign companies across the world. Here we provide a summary of some of the most important deals Indian companies have signed across several industries.

Ashok Leyland and Nissan unveil first LCV
India’s second largest heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland rolled out its first light commercial vehicle (LCV) Dost together with its partner, the Japan-headquartered automaker Nissan. As the current joint venture between the two companies covers cooperation in manufacturing, technology and power train for LCV production, in the future the two parties will likely expand their JV to include van design and development. Continue reading →

Posted in Automotive, Business, Chemical & Pharmaceutical, FDI and Foreign Trade, Retail | 1 Comment

India Experiencing Negative Real Rate of Interest

Mar. 24 – The government of India should address the fact that the nation’s nominal interest rate is lower than its rate of inflation to strengthen India’s economic fundamentals, Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University, told the Times of India.

Economists call this situation a “negative real rate of interest.” It occurs when money, if sitting in a bank, actually loses value because inflation is making each individual unit of money lose value faster than the bank can add interest to the deposit. Continue reading →

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2011 Budget Proposal May Lead to Price Hike in Luxury Cars

Mar. 23 – India’s auto companies that import parts for their assembled car manufacturing may face a cost increase due to the country’s growing customs duty on pre-assembled parts and the expanded definition of semi-knocked down (SKD) kits.

The recent Indian 2011 budget proposal says that automakers that import pre-assembled components will need to pay a 60 percent customs duty, while the import duty for completely-knocked down (CKD) kits is only 10 percent. At the same time, the new proposal also set up a wider definition of SKD kits: not only is a pre-assembled engine, gearbox or transmission mechanism considered as an SKD kit, but now a body assembly coupled with an assembled engine, gearbox or transmission installed is also counted as an SKD kit. Since those two categories were previously classified as CKD kits, the definition alteration means auto companies that produce with those imported components will bear a higher customs duty. Continue reading →

Posted in Automotive, FDI and Foreign Trade, Regulatory Update | 1 Comment

India Puts Accounting Practices in Line with International Standards

Mar. 16 – The Indian Ministry of Corporate Affairs recently said that it had aligned 35 Indian accounting practices with international standards, marking an important step to bringing International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to India and making financial statements of Indian firms read similarly to those of their international peers. Continue reading →

Posted in Featured, Finance, Tax and Accounting, Legal and Regulatory, Regulatory Update | Leave a comment

India-Taiwan Trade Analysis

By Ankit Shrivastava

Preface
Mar. 14 – Though Taiwan entered the Indian market later than the Japanese and Koreans, it has still managed to attain an unbelievably high rate of growth. With its fast growing economy, India is witnessing a flow in demand for home appliances and Information communication and technology (ICT) products and services. Furthermore, the Indian government is eager to expand the hardware market to match the nation’s advances in software. This opens up many opportunities for strengthening the ties between the two countries as Taiwan’s relative strength in hardware could be meshed with India’s in software. This joint combination up of software and hardware could take place in wireless networks, energy (LED, green power), medical electronics (distant healthcare, equipment), digital (electronic government, virtual classroom) and auto electronics. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Economy and Politics, FDI and Foreign Trade, Featured | Leave a comment

India to Lead Asia’s Salary Increase

Mar. 9 – A recent survey by global human resource consulting and outsourcing company Aon Hewitt shows that India’s 11.7 percent salary rise in 2010 has outpaced all the other Asia Pacific countries and this high increase rate is going to continue over the next few years.

The survey, which included 531 organizations from 18 primary and 30 secondary industrial sectors, forecasts that India will see its salary growth accelerate to a rate of 12.9 percent in 2011, not only because of the optimistic estimation of an above-9 percent GDP growth this year, but also the surging inflation that impacts businesses’ salary budgets. Continue reading →

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India to Use Part of Coal Tax to Improve Power Transmission

Mar. 3 – The Indian government is considering spending part of its estimated Rs.25 billion-coal tax revenue on new power transmission lines, to help power distribution to every state from the clean energy projects.

India started to levy Rs. 50 on every ton of both imported and domestically mined coal, lignite and peat on July 1 last year. According to the Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh at the time, the government was planning to utilize the fund for the development of green energy projects, in order to push the Indian economy towards a low-carbon future. Continue reading →

Posted in Finance, Tax and Accounting, Regulatory Update | 2 Comments

Indian 2011/12 Budget Good for Foreign Investment

Mar. 1 – Finance Minister Pranab Kumar Mukherjee presented the Union Budget for 2011/12 this past Monday. The budget focuses on finding a balance between controlling inflation and maintaining economic growth. Good news for foreign investors comes in the form of no drastic changes in taxation rates, no negative indications, and no major reform agenda.

Under the proposed budget, foreign investors in industries involved with infrastructure development can make US$20 billion in new investments in tax-free infrastructure bonds, which is double the current total limit. That also means renewable energy companies in sectors such as solar power will benefit, as the government pushes for more infrastructural development. Fertilizer production will also be handled as an infrastructure sub-sector. Continue reading →

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