Other Briefings
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.
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.
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.
Lehman wipes off US$400 million in Valuation of Indian Companies
Sept. 16 – The ballooning crisis in the U.S. financial market is expected to have more than just an indirect impact on India. The culmination of jittery FIIs spooking Indian markets, the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America and Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy will affect a number of Indian companies.
What's more, if the trouble brewing in AIG turns into a crisis, it could spell worse news for India as AIG has a large array of interests in India ranging from the financial market to real estate.
Over the weekend the 158 year old international Investment bank filed for bankruptcy wiping off Rs 20 billion (US$400 million) from the market valuation of more than two dozen Indian companies in which the U.S. financial major holds equity investments, The Business Standard reported. The Sensex, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share index recovered from a 728-point dive to close 470 points down. The dollar crossed the Rs 46-mark, as the rupee fell for the sixth day in a row. Oil prices also tumbled to below US$93.
The European Union too Wants a Share of India’s Nuclear Power
Sept. 10 – Even as France and the UK plot to get a share in India's estimated US$100 billion nuclear power market, the European Union (EU) announced that it is likely to take a collective decision on nuclear commerce with India. The plan is to tap the opportunity arising from the recent waiver by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to India to carry out nuclear trade.
"European companies are very well placed in India in the field of nuclear energy," European Commission Director General for Energy and Transport, Matthias Ruete said here, hoping the process of inviting technology and machinery would be competitive.
India Bags Nuclear Deal
Sept. 8 – The deal is done. And it’s a big deal for India. It has gained the unique status of being the only nuclear weapons country to be included in global nuclear commerce without signing either the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty—until now a precondition for entering mainstream nuclear trade.
The bitter sweet deal also signaled an ironical twist of fate in India's nuclear history. The Times of India reported that when the NSG “adjusted its guidelines’’ for India after 76 hours of high-voltage drama to waive the precondition and open the door for New Delhi to join the nuclear high table, a delicious piece of irony was enacted—the NSG was formed 34 years ago as a response to India’s 1974 Pokharan test and it was bending its rules to mainstream India’s nuclear ambition.
Indian Economy slows to 7.9 percent
Sept. 1 – India's first-quarter economic growth slowed to 7.9 percent, the weakest in three-and-a-half years as interest rate hikes hit demand, but AFP quoted analysts said long-term prospects still looked solid.
The figure for the three months to June was far below the previous quarter's growth of 8.8 percent and the 9.2 percent expansion logged by Asia's third-largest economy in the first quarter a year earlier.
General Motors to Invest US$200 Million in India
Aug. 29 – Riding on India's automotive high, General Motors Corp said it would invest more than US$200 million in a plant for car engines in India.
The facility, which will be located in Talegaon in western Maharashtra state, will be GM's second vehicle plant in India and will have an annual capacity of 160,000 units that can be expanded to 300,000 units, Reuters reported. The plant will make petrol and diesel engines and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.
