Starbucks, the American coffee giant will send a revised application for its entry into the Indian market after its earlier proposal for a franchise opertation was put on hold Reuters is reporting.

Starbucks had proposed to enter the fast-expanding Indian market through a franchise 51 percent owned by its Indonesian franchise V.P. Sharma, with the rest held by India’s Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani.

Starbucks is funneling more resources into international markets and the coffee giant plans to increase the number of international stores by 20 percent per year over the next five years.

“The international business is one of our key growth drivers going forward, and one that investors have not fully recognized,” CFO Michael Casey said on Thursday according to Reuters. Continue reading →

One of the important proposals in the 2007 Indian Union Budget was to allow the institutional investors to short sell their securities. Earlier this was possible only by retail investors due to regulatory restrictions. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) last week has announced that its soon going to implement short selling norms for the institutional investors as well. These rules would apply to both foreign and domestic institutions but only in derivative products to start with.

Increased short selling activity would make the stock market more liquid and increase its efficiency considerably. Once the proposed short selling norms for the prohibited investor class becomes effective, there will be a level playing field in the market. Its quite surprising in this sense that only derivative products are going to be covered in the proposal. There’s one more consideration here as to whether SEBI will stick to these norms or will it withhold them at later period of time against the interest of investors is yet to be seen.

China picture: The old laws passed in 1998 had specific restrictions on the short-selling mechanisms due to fears of rampant speculation, which were removed in 2006. It was only with establishment of China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX) in Shanghai in 2006, the mainland’s first exchange specializing in derivatives trading, which entailed a mechanism for short selling stocks, that this much needed concept took hold and allowed investors to benefit from both rising and falling markets.

Here is a receent article from the China Briefing Blog on rising white-collar salaries in China and India:

Pay increases for white-collar jobs in China and India will rise substantially faster than increases in United States and Europe according to new research from Philadelphia-based HR consulting firm Hay Group. The report states that “Much like their colleagues in Europe, US employees will be seeing relatively modest increases in base salaries when compared to the emerging economies.”

With a predicted 7.9% increase for administrative workers, 7.8% for professionals and 8.9% for senior management, China leads all tables. India saw pay increases of 7.2% across all job categories which looks set to continue through 2007. According to the report, India boasts the second highest pay increase predictions for 2007, with increases of 6.2% forecast across the three job levels. Senior managers can anticipate a real increase of 6.9%, professionals and administrators 5.9% each. Continue reading →

A recent post from China Economic Review about India’s largest ever IPO. Enjoy:

India’s largest-ever IPO went to market this week, a US$2.4 billion float by real estate firm DLF.

The company received bids worth three times the total shares available. Later this month, state bank ICICI plans to raise US$5 billion in offerings in India and the US.

Those of us who follow the stock markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong may not be particularly blown away by a subscription that is three times oversubscribed. It’s par for the course when trading in these parts. But inability to be impressed does not take away from the significance of the achievement. Continue reading →