Singapore-based Changi airports has signed an agreement with Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd. (BAPL) to invest $2.5 billion or Rs 10,000 crore to develop India’s first privately owned airport. The Durgapur Aerotropolis (airport city), India’s first, will be situated in the Durgapur-Asansol region of Bardhaman district in West Bengal an East India state.

The project will involve setting up of a Greenfield Airport, industrial park, logistics hub, IT park with a supporting infrastructure like housing, tourism, healthcare and social interchange facilities. While the airport will be developed over approximately 300 hectares, the supporting industrial and social infrastructure will be developed over approximately 650 hectares. The airport is expected to be functional in next 2.5 - 3 years and would have the ability to handle A-320 aircrafts.

The plan is part of a bigger idea to set up a health city and a sea port in addition to the airport. Last year, West Bengals Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said the Planning Commission was conducting a feasibility study with regard to the setting up of a sea port on the Shanghai model in West Bengal. (more…)

Who knew that in 1991 ( economic policy), India would come this far and welcome investors with open arms. In the last few years the Nation has changed its policies towards a fruitful object and continues to do so.

I can recall when I was studying economic and business legislations of India that we used to talk about whether the FDI limits would eventually change to bring in more money and a better infrastructure or would Indians be driving on those bumpy roads and suffer in jams with its overgrowing population due to lack of adequate flyovers; will there be enough place at its airports to accommodate the immense increase in air traffic to India or for that matter will there be airlines other than Air India/Indian Airlines/a few more. Today the picture as changed and seems like we have the right people on board to gauge the needs of the hour.

Yesterday, 30th January 2008, the Government of India (GOI) showed how liberal it’s getting in its policies. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) announced the following increases in the FDI limits in 7 sectors. Lets have a look below :

Sector/activity                                                           New Limit (max)        Old Lmit

oil refinery joint ventures with public-sector              49                                      26
oil firms  (1)

ventures involving the trading and marketing of        Deleted a rule
petroleum products. (2)

maintenance, repair and overhaul organisations        100                                   49
(MROs) and flying training institutes, helicopter
and sea-plane services

cargo and non-schedule airlines                                   74

ground handling services
(after requisite security clearances are obtained)`       74

Indian commodity exchanges     (3)                              49

mining and mineral separation of titanium
-bearing minerals and ores (4)                                      100

Credit information companies (5)                                 49

listed credit information companies                              24

Industrial Parks (6)                                                waviers (more…)

 The Asian stock markets have made many rich globally and brought them down too. But then India & China has had some recent up’s that’s made & making many millionaires to billionaires.

Would you like to know some richest Indians who together value $180 billion!

1. Lakshmi Mittal, President of the Board of Directors of Arcelor Mittal, No. 1 again, worth $51 billion

2. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, $49 billion. Courtesy the bull run in the stock market last month net worth of Mukesh Ambani rose to $63.2 billion making him the richest person in the world, surpassing American software czar Bill Gates, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu and famous investment guru Warren Buffett. This video shows who was in the top ten list in the world, before Mukesh passed these guys.

Then watch this video that speaks of the rankings of Mukesh and others in the month of September, 07. The lady shown at the end of the video is Nita, wife of Mukesh who looks after the social and charitable arm of Reliance Industries.

3. Anil Ambani, Chairman, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group -  $45 billion (Brother of Mukesh)

4. Kushal Pal Singh, Chairman, DL F Group, worth $35 billion after the listing of his flagship DLF and is also now the world’s richest real estate developer

The interesting point is that the four 4 together are worth more than 40 richest Chinese combined.

Now talking about Indian cities: lets have a look to see where the wealth lies:

The reports show that Mumbai and Delhi have topped the list. While there are 23 billionaires from Mumbai, Delhi has around 12. Pune and Bangalore has six billionaires each.

(more…)

After an excellent response from many on the last issue on: Setting up Foreign Enterprises in India, we now bring to you an overview of the investment environment in Delhi and Mumbai. I’m sure a lot if you know both cities well, but we dig into the demographics and give you the rundown on the investment environment in these two emerging metropolis’s

Delhi, a city where I grew up in, is very warm and welcoming to everyone. From school to University to work, I have seen it changing into a real cosmopolitan city. It can be compared in many ways to Beijing also as the political head of the nation.

Mumbai rocks! I have spent a few years there to and that time is unforgettable. The city gets to you in many ways, it’s unique culture facing both east and west, and as the financial capital of India it now boasts some of the most expensive real estate in the world. We lift the lid off what is going on and give you a peek at why Mumbai is a city you should be considering having a good look at. It too compares in many ways with Shanghai.

Finally we look at the USD100 billion planned Delhi-Mumbai Corridor, tax incentives, and free trade zones. As India opens up, this is a neat introduction to two of it’s primary cities. We hope you enjoy it – subscription is complimentary and available on the India Briefing homepage

China and Hongkong see India as one great business opportunity.

We generally hear of C&I (in our last write up we abbreviated China and India) trade and routings through HK but have we pondered on the fact that HK can in a few years time take up on its own the trade with India as its better connected with her than China is.

We thought should get you some news with the three in picture. Today’s topic revolves on HK: How in one aspect it’s a literally a bridge between the two nations while in the other a rising competitor against China as regards trade with India.

Check out this video clip. Its quite informative. Here M. Arunachulam, Chairman, AR. International (HK) Ltd. was interviewed by Martin Evan – Jones Editor, Research, HK Trade Development Council where they speak on some real aspects involving the two countries.

The primary highlights of talk are:

- Trade potential between India and China where HK acts as the middleman connecting them

-low connectivity that Chinese businessmen have with India and HK’s great indo networks: lots of Indians based in HK and a handful in China

- Many Indian companies in China but what are the results for vice versa?? HK can catch up there!

- Indian hardware industry ?? Heard of it

- Middle East (Dubai in specific) on agenda!  about this statement: “ China should use India to …”

-Improvement in Regulations w.r.t trade with India: lot of streamlining there, thanks to WTO.
 
 Watch it out and lets share then on what you have to say. the question is right up there : the title

2point6billion, today, brings to you a wonderful discussion on the effects of globalisation on India and China by Dr. Pradeep Taneja, and Dr. Salim Lakha, lecturers, University of Melbourne, Australia. This is called :The Melbourne University Up Close, a fortnightly podcast of research, personalities, and cultural offerings.

We first get you a feel of it to run for the rest: a bit of teaser if you like to call it!

China had a head start over India in opening up its economy and attracting foreign companies, foreign investment and therefore creating more employment… 

…It was interesting that last year, of the 3,000 or so graduates from all the IITs in India, only 18 went to work overseas …how Indian graduates who used to earlier live and work overseas for multinational companies, and that has turned around. For example, the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology, in the past, before these new economic policies came into effect…

…the future of China’s economic reforms and these current economic policies will really depend on how these political issues are resolved. I mean, the famous New York Times columnist, who wrote that book [The] Lexus and the Olive Tree, he compares India and China to two cars, driving on two different roads. He says, India is like a car driving on a bumpy road at about 60-70kmph. China is like a car driving on a very nice expressway, very smooth expressway at 130-140 kmph. But the difference is…..

Remember the Chinese Growth Model- will it survive?  on 2point6billion on similar lines..

“….. untenable. I mean, ideologically, it is already very difficult for the Chinese Communist party to continue to justify their economic policies in ideological terms. And I think in the longer term it will become difficult to justify it to the Chinese people, particularly the growing middle classes in China….”

You just cant miss this out. Follow the link and enjoy!

And I will wait to see what you have to say

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has in a bid to offset the tide of the foreign currency inflows that have sharply strengthened the Rupee against the dollar, on this Tuesday the 25th September, 07, lifted some of the curbs on Capital Outflows as a part of ongoing efforts to eventually lift curbs on currency transactions and create a fully convertible Rupee from a partially one {The Committee on Fuller Capital Account Convertibility (CFCAC), gave its report  last year, in September laying down road map for 5 years  to make the Rupee fully convertible hence doing away with RBI approval} There have been relaxations brought in with immediate effects for local companies, mutual funds and individuals to tame the rising rupee.

These amendments were the need of the Hour. The Rupee (risen by around 11% in 2007) closed at a new nine – year high of 39.74 per US Dollar on 25th September, 2007 so that you could now buy one US dollar for only Rs 39.91 which a few years back was available for more than Rs 44. Overall rise in last 15 days was around 2%, thanks to the US Fed rate being cut by 50 basis point and led to FFI’s bringing in billions into the country accumulating the total FDI in the country to $ 11 billion. Hence the said measures.

The Treasury Head of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. said “The purpose is to create a demand for dollars in order to neutralize the large inflows that are coming into the country”.

Thus in view of the above and in consultation with the Government of India, RBI decided to accelerate the implementation of the third phase of the recommendations of CFCAC with regard to the foreign exchange outflows. The measures announced with immediate effect are:   (more…)

It seems that the Chinese consider that Indian software education model is most appropriate for them besides success stories of Indian firms in global outsourcing field that encourages them. There’s enough here to substantiate this.

We have NIIT and Aptech on our agenda for you today. These global IT learning solutions corporations are pioneers in the field of IT education and training.

NIIT was founded in December 1981 while Aptech commenced its business in 1986 , in India, and have since become the attraction for Indians looking for careers in the IT sector. But a replica seems to be in for China for the last few years.

China has over the years become a very important market for NIIT and Aptech. One of their officals had said “Since our business in China is contributing 35-40% to our revenues, for us it’s a very important market. If one ignores China, he has to pay a heavy price.”  The IT education retail market in China is expected to grow between 17-19% annually by 2010!

Since year 2000, Aptech has been operating successfully in China through its joint venture - Aptech Beida Jadebird IT Co. Ltd, an affiliate of Beijing University in China, it has over 250 centers in 57 cities and trained around 4 lac students in all. (more…)

India’s aviation is one of the fastest growing aviation industries in the world. The challenge today for India is to cope up with the growing international and domestic demand. India’s domestic aviation market alone is forecasted to grow at about 20 per cent a year over the next five years.From just four airlines three years back, India today has more than 10 domestic carriers.

The print & the electronic media has always been flooded with the stories like the following:

• Boeing has firm orders for more than 140 aircraft from various Indian airlines, including Jet Airways, Air India and Spice Jet.
• Indian carrier IndiGo orders 100 Airbus A320 aircraft
• Air India considering purchase of A380 super jumbos
• Boeing expects various airlines in India to buy 911 new aircrafts in the next 20 years

Indian airline operators are increasingly connecting India to the world by expanding their regional and global presence. It is estimated that the Indian air travel market will grow at an average 12 per cent per year over the next 20 years, compared to the worldwide average of 4.7 per cent. (more…)

.. Indian scenario

Today India’s foreign exchange reserves are around USD 219 billion and in spite of the fact that Foreign Direct Investments (FDI’s) are on the increase and India’s economy is showing an upward trend, the basic infrastructure still is far from what it should have been for a country of its size and population. Reason: the infrastructure projects – irrigation, power generation, roads, ports, airports, railways, residential and office complexes, health care, education etc. all need a lot of funds. (more…)