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Biz News
March 2008 |
Consulate General of |
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A Monthly News Digest on |
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India to grow 8.75 per cent in 2007/08, says IMF |
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India is expected to grow by 8.75 per cent in the fiscal year ending March 2008, the International Monetary Fund said, but cautioned that inflation risks remain due to rising global food and fuel prices.
Indian policy makers expect growth close to 9.0 per cent in the current fiscal year and the statistics office released the first official estimate for gross domestic product growth for 2007/08.
"India's Economy has been resilient in the face of heightened global uncertainties, slowing US growth and high world oil prices, and is expected to expand by 8.75 per cent this fiscal year as a result of rising productivity and investment," the IMF said in a report summarising its annual consultation on India's economic policy. |
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India-Arab states explore areas of cooperation |
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To boost cooperation with Arab states, India is likely to finalise a memorandum of understanding with the League of Arab States, said Mr N. Ravi, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, while releasing FICCI-IAEF (Indo-Arab Economic Forum) publication.
Mr Ravi said the cooperation approach set out by the MoU laid down the path between India and Arab states to take their economic, political and cultural relations to a new trajectory. http://www.blonnet.com |
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Four Indians among top 10 richest in the world |
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Four Indians have made it to the
global richie-rich top 10 club, the most from any country. Mukesh Ambani,
Anil Ambani and DLF’s KP Singh have joined ArcelorMittal’s L N Mittal in
this exclusive club, according to Forbes magazine’s annual list of
billionaires.
The list is based on closing stock prices and factors in the market crash in January this year which shaved off billions from the net worth of India’s wealthiest. It obviously does not factor the market meltdown in March. If the slump in major emerging markets, including India, were to continue through the year, one might see many tycoons slipping in their rankings. Bill Gates’ reign at the top in the annual listings came to an end this year, as he slipped to the third position with a net worth of $58 billion. The No 1 slot was taken by Gates’ friend and the world’s most famous investor Warren Buffet, whose net worth touched a whopping $62 billion. The Indians are not far behind. LN Mittal, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani occupy the fourth, fifth, and sixth positions with KP Singh taking the eighth slot. Mr Singh recorded one of the biggest jump in rankings from 62 to number 8 this year. His net worth tripled to $30 billion this year. Anil Ambani registered the biggest increase in net worth during the year. He was marginally ahead of his elder brother Mukesh Ambani, having added $23.8 billion to his kitty compared with $22.9 billion by the chairman of Reliance Industries over the past one year. Indian billionaires represent 4.7% of the total number of billionaires around the world, according to the Forbes data. The Economic Times: |
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| Wheat production may touch record level of over 76 million tones | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The country may harvest over 76
million tons of wheat this season, if the current weather conditions remain
favourable for the next three weeks, a top official said.
"If weather conditions remain favourable, wheat production may touch the record level," Union Agriculture Secretary P K Mishra told reporters here today. India has recorded the highest production of 76.37 million tons of wheat in 1999-2000. Mishra, however, said the weather conditions till the third week of March is very crucial for wheat, which requires a mean temperature of 20 degree Celsius. Except in Haryana, the mean temperature in most of the wheat growing states such as Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is normal for the crop, agriculture commissioner N B Sing said. The temperature at some places in Haryana had gone up to 29 degree Celsius for two days last week which may impact the wheat crop, Singh added. Overall, the prospect of wheat output is very good, the Agriculture Secretary said. "We have been monitoring the temperature in the wheat growing areas. It is within the normal, prescribed for wheat crop, although the temperature has increased from what it was two weeks earlier," Mishra said. Commenting on agriculture growth, he said "it will be not less than three per cent when the final figures come. Significant revision has taken place in the past also." Referring to the recent CSO data which has projected agriculture growth rate at 2.6 per cent for 2007-08 fiscal, Mishra said, "probably they have taken into account the last year data of horticulture production." The Economic Times |
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| Indian apparel brands eyeing Chinese mart | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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After sourcing from China, the
Indian apparel brands are set to design a retail road map in the dragon
nation.
The brands like Koutons, Lilliput and Spykar are exploring joint venture and inorganic growth opportunities to tap the Chinese market. The kidswear brand Lilliput is entering China through a newly formed joint venture firm Lilliput Kidswear China. Sanjeev Narula, managing director, Lilliput said, “ The company has identified West Asia and China as focused markets for international expansion. We already source 20 per cent of the merchandise from China and now plans to open 6 stores through the joint venture.” Business Standard |
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India's exports grow 20.47 per cent in January |
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India’s exports showed a healthy
growth of 20.47 per cent in January this fiscal over the same month last
year, but expanded by a single digit figure of 7.66 per cent in rupee terms
due to pricey domestic currency.
Exports increased to 13.14 billion dollars in January 2008 from 10.9 billion dollars a year ago, while imports grew by a huge 63.57 per cent to 22.50 billion dollars, leaving a trade deficit of 9.36 billion dollars. With only two months to go for conclusion of the current financial year, exports during April-January period amounted to 124.19 billion dollars, leaving a balance of 35.81 billion dollars to meet the 160 billion dollar target. “We hope to achieve exports in the range of 150 to 155 billion dollars in the current fiscal,” Commerce Secretary G K Pillai said. Imports for the April-January period of 2007-08 stood at 191.6 billion dollars, registering a growth of 29.63 per cent from 147.81 billion dollars in the year ago period. Trade deficit for the 10-month period amounted to 67.4 billion dollars, higher than the 45.7 billion dollars in April-January 2006-07. Oil imports during January 2008 were valued at 7.7 billion dollars, up 60.8 per cent from the 4.8 billion dollars in the corresponding month last year. For the April-January period of the current fiscal, India’s oil imports stood at 57 billion dollars, which was 16.49 per cent higher than 48.9 billion dollars a year ago. Non-oil imports during the month stood at 14.7 billion dollars, up 65 per cent from 8.96 billion dollars. For the 10-month period, non-oil imports grew by 36.13 per cent to 134.58 billion dollars. |
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Indian PC shipments grow 20 per cent |
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The desktop and notebook market
grew 20 per cent year-on-year, with 6.5 million units shipped into the
country in 2007, as compared with 5.4 million units in 2006, according IDC’s
latest India quarterly PC tracker.
Notebook shipments accounted for more than 27 per cent of the total PC shipments for the first time in a calendar year. Notebook PC shipments touched 1.8 million units, as against 0.98 million units in 2006, which show acceptance of laptops as the preferred choice for first-time PC buyers, according to Kapil Dev Singh, country manager, IDC India. Piyush Pushkal, manager, PC research, IDC India, said: “With consumer desktop shipments reporting flat growth, the higher overall growth of the consumer client PC segment signals maturing of the market. The consumer PC category is shifting from desktop-centric to being notebook-centric.” While the notebook PC market grew 81 per cent in 2007 year-on-year, the desktop PC market grew by 7 per cent as it shipped 4.7 million units in 2007 as against 4.4 million units in 2006. The study said there was a need to encourage development and widespread adoption of communication and convergence to spur future growth. “These low-end notebook PC-type gadgets are not likely to increase PC penetration in India significantly. To increase PC penetration, the ecosystem needs to offer an affordable internet infrastructure, local applications, Indian language content, e-commerce and education. The PC-type gadgets are likely to function only as secondary computing devices in existing PC-owning households,” said Pushkal. Business Standard |
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Bosch to invest US$ 98.74 million in 2008 |
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Bharat Stage 4 and beyond.
“The country is poised to become the hub for low-priced vehicles. We see
this as a good opportunity for our business and we will continue to work
with OEMs towards providing the Bosch Ltd (formerly MICO Ltd), the Indian subsidiary of the Germany-based global automotive products major Bosch Group, has planned to invest around Rs 400 crore during 2008 in India. This is part of the company’s ongoing investment programme for the country. Bosch had during 2005 announced an investment plan of Rs 1,800 crore for the country spread over four years ending 2008. However, the parent company announced in December last year an add-ition of Rs 850 crore to take the total investment in India to Rs 2,650 crore by 2010. Of this, the company has already invested close to 60 per cent. Announcing this at a press conference, here today, V K Viswanathan, managing director, Bosch Ltd, said of Rs 400 crore planned to be invested in 2008, Rs 110 crore will be invested in Bangalore plant including research and development activities. While the balance will be spread among its other plants like Nashik, Naganathapura and Jaipur. Last year also, the company had invested about Rs 400 crore in the country. “Apart from the expansion of common rail production systems, the money will also be invested in manufacturing of gasoline systems components, anti-lock braking system and electronic control units. With this huge investments, in a variety of technologies and products, Bosch will meet its target of providing clean and safe technologies to the Indian market,” he said. He said Bosch is presently working with manufacturers to design diesel engines meeting the stringent emissions legislation in future such as the m cost effective solutions,” he added. Business Standard |
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| Virgin Mobile enters India through pact with Tata Teleservices | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sir Richard Branson on Sunday
launched the Virgin Mobile brand in India through a franchise arrangement
with Tata Teleservices.
TTSL, which is the second largest CDMA operator with 22 million customers, will sell the youth-based mobile service under the brand name of Virgin Mobile. The financial arrangements between the two companies were not disclosed, but an official said TTSL would be paying Virgin what would be in the nature of a royalty fee. Virgin will not be entering India as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), as feared by some of the existing telecom operators, said Mr Anil Kumar Sardanah, Managing Director, TTSL, at a news conference here. Big investment This is Virgin’s seventh launch globally and its largest investment to date in India, said Sir Richard, noting that the Indian market was very attractive, growing like none other in the world. The Virgin group and TTSL have also jointly established a company ‘Virgin Mobile India Ltd’ to develop the new branded service. The investment details of this company were not disclosed either. To begin with, Virgin Mobile will be launched in 50 cities, and in a year’s time in over 1,000 cities. Specially designed handsets in the Rs 2,000-5,000 range would be offered by TTSL, but customers are free to buy CDMA handsets separately, since Virgin would be offering a SIM-card based CDMA service, the first such offer in India, said Mr Heywood. The Hindu Business Line |
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| European real estate giant enters India | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Global design-focused real estate
development company 'Yoo by Starck' has entered India. As its first project,
the European company is designing a huge residental condominial worth Rs
1,500 crore with Panchshil Realty in Pune.
Yoo by Starck also plans to expand its presence to Gurgaon, Goa, Bangalore and Mumbai with an investment of approximately Rs 1,800 crore in next four to five years. Yoo by Starck Chairman John Hitchcox announced this during a press conference on Thursday in Pune. Yoo, a design marketing and branding development firm, has presence in 21 countries. Yoo is presently constructing 41 projects around the globe at Rs 40,000 crore. "India and China are probably the biggest real estate markets in the world now. As a concept, "branded homes" is fairly unknown in India. Yoo by Strack finds India as an attractive country to design and develop real estate projects," Hitchcox said. The first project named 'Yoo in Pune' is being developed by Panchshil Realty over 21 acres of land. The first phase of this project will have six 30-storie-towers. Panchshil Realty Managing Director Atul Chordia said, "Residential service condominial is a new concept worldwide and hardly anyone has thought of replicating it in India. A service condominial offers much more that what a service apartment offers. At "Yoo in Pune", we will have companies like Oakwood Resorts and Mariott Hotels to provide services. The project would be launched in October this year and it would be completed within 30 months there after." Chordia and Hitchcox jointly said that they would carry on this partnership to other prominent cities in the country. "Although, Yoo does not have direct investments in Pune project, it will act as a joint developer with Panchshil in future projects. It will spend around 25 per cent of the project costs," Hitchcox stated. Elaborating the expansion plans, Chordia added, "After Pune, we are immediately launching a similar scheme in Gurgaon on an 18-acre piece of land. The design part of it has already started. This will be followed by projects in Goa, Bangalore and Mumbai." When asked about Yoo by Strack's investment plans in India, Hitchcox denied to reveal any specific amount. "We are planning projects worth Rs 1,500 crore and more in each of the four cities. We will invest 25 per cent of the over all project cost" he stated. Business Standard |
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| Chinese company plans big-bang India investment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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China’s largest investment in India is slated to
come up in Karnataka with the setting up of Xindia Steels, a joint venture
between the $11-billion Xinxing Group (Shanghai Exchange-listed), China
National Metal Products (part of China Minmetals), Manasara Investments and
the Kelachandra Group, along with Sigma Minmet. The total investment is
expected to be over Rs 8,000 crore over 5-10 years.
Xindia Steels intends to put up, at a cost of Rs 400 crore in the first phase, a 2-million tonne iron pelletisation project at Koppal in Karnataka. According to Gopi Ramanathan, director, Xindia Steels, the company has acquired Hampi Steel, whose iron ore project had been approved by the Karnataka government high-level committee three years ago, but the project had not taken off. Mr Ramanathan said that as a part of the second phase, a further investment of Rs 8,335 crore would be made to increase the pelletisation capacity, and a steel plant of 2.5-million tonne is being set up. According to him, the demand for steel is projected to touch 200 mt by 2020 and the project would cater to both the domestic and international markets. Mr Ramanathan said the first phase would take 13 months to build. The average sales in phase I are expected at Rs 1,000 crore with a net profit of around Rs 86 crore, rising to Rs 8,750 crore in phase II and a net profit of Rs 800 crore. By the time phase II gets operational, the company hopes to provide direct employment to 4,800 people and indirect employment to some 10,000 people. The promoter of Manasara Investments is Alex PJ, one of the co-founders of telecom software product company Subex. While Xinxing group will hold 35%, China Minmetals will have a 20%, with the balance being held by Indian promoters. The Economic Times |
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Yahoo launches R&D lab in India |
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Strengthening its research activities in India,
leading internet firm Yahoo on Tuesday said it has launched a new research
and development (R&D) lab in Bangalore.
First of its kind in the country, 'Yahoo Labs - Bangalore' would be a centre of excellence for next generation search and advertising technologies, focused on making the Web more relevant and simple for users and advertisers, the firm said in a statement. The internet firm is fighting a $44.6 billion takeover bid from software giant Microsoft since the beginning of February. Interestingly, Yahoo had recently announced plans to cut down its worldwide workforce by 1,000 employees, which was followed by about 40 people being told to quit at its India operations in Bangalore. The move was aimed at reducing its annual expenditure. Meanwhile, founding director of Bell Labs India, Rajeev Rastogi has been appointed as Vice-President and head of the lab. According to CEO of Yahoo! India R&D Sharad Sharma, the research activities in India contribute significantly to the success of the company, globally. "We are excited to have a scientist of Rajeev Rastogi's stature establish Y! Labs - Bangalore, in India. Yahoo! India R&D contributes significantly to the success of Yahoo! globally and Y! Labs - Bangalore will further leverage this momentum in India. We believe Yahoo! Labs - Bangalore will play a critical role in driving the next wave of innovation on the Internet," he said. The Economic Times |
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29 India-based IT companies among world's best 100 |
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Twenty-nine India-based companies have been listed among the best 100 IT service providers in a new survey carried out with a view to assist business heads of major outsourcers identify reliable, innovative and tech savvy partners. The toppers from each of the 10 categories that were identified included four companies each from India and the US and one company each from China and Mexico, said the survey by CyberMedia and Global Services Magazine. They included India's Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Genpact, WNS Global Services, America's EDS, Sitel, EPAM Systems and Computer Sciences Corporation, Mexico's Softtek and China's Neusoft, a release by Global Services Magazine said. "The presence of four companies each from China and Malaysia, and three each from Russia and Brazil serves as a gentle reminder that these countries are emerging as viable outsourcing destinations," it said. The year 2007
reported a total of 436 M&A deals in the services industry. Nearly one-third
of the Global Services survey respondents said that they merged with or
acquired one or more providers. Of these, 11 per cent confirmed acquisition
of a consulting firm. India has emerged as the hub for global delivery with 57 per cent of the employees engaged in delivery centers located in India, followed by 18 per cent in the US. |
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Infosys targeting buyouts in Europe, Japan |
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Infosys Technologies is scanning the markets of
Europe and Japan for acquisitions in the price band of $200-$300 million to
energise its non-linear business strategy as well as to expand its
geographic reach.
“We are looking at acquiring companies in Germany, France and Japan. These markets have started opening up and we are targeting companies engaged in consulting, BPO, packaged implementation services or IP-based firms as it will help us move up the value-chain considerably,” said Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan. The deal size will be in the range of $200 million to $300 million. “It will be difficult to give a time frame for an acquisition as it is an on-going process. The effort is to find the strategic fit that is in line with our non-linear growth strategy,” he told ET. India’s second largest software exporter has already churned out a roadmap for non-linear growth. Unlike the traditional linear business model, where the revenue is effort-based (more the number of people working, more the revenue), the non-linear business model is based on outcome. So, with high-value services, the companies can demand a premium from its clients. “It is not feasible for companies like us with about 88,000 employees to continue to bet on linear business model. Shortage of talent and rising cost of labour are other adverse effects of this kind of a business model. Currently, we focus on packaged implementation related to SAP and Oracle, where the margins are higher. Besides, consulting and IP-based services are other areas, where the services can be offered at a premium. An acquisition in these areas will help us achieve higher growth momentum,” said Mr Balakrishnan. At present, consulting contributes about 5% of the company’s revenue while package implementation accounts for about 25%. “Application, development and maintenance (ADM) is still our largest services segment. However, efforts are on to move up the value chain and decrease our dependence on headcount. We believe adoption of non-linear growth model is a long term strategy,” he said. According to an analyst, many companies are adopting inorganic growth strategy to move up the value chain. With $2 billion cash and cash equivalents, funding an acquisition is not an issue for Infosys. Consulting, package implementation and IP can help a company to go up the value-chain independent of people addition, he said. Last year, Infosys had taken over Philips’ finance and administration business process outsourcing (BPO) centres spread across India, Poland and Thailand for $28 million. In 2003, it had acquired Expert Information Services in Australia for $22.9 million. The Economic Times |
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India not stealing western jobs: Wipro chief |
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Countering the rancour in the West against outsourcing of jobs, the chairman of IT major Wipro has said India was not stealing their jobs and its businesses were moving into developed countries which did not have enough skilled graduates to compete in the global Economy.
"What is of concern is how serious a shortage of technical talent is building up in the western world. Global Companies are going to where not enough young boys and girls are getting into math, science and engineering. That trend is not being reversed," Azim Premji said.
Premji said that as Wipro expands into other countries, it often has to hire graduates from other disciplines and then send them to its campus in Bangalore to be trained in software engineering and other technical skills.
Premji said the talent shortage makes a mockery of the claim that India is stealing jobs from the West. "Making rhetoric of jobs getting displaced in North America or Europe is not answering the question," he said. "Jobs are getting displaced because there's not enough talent there to fill those jobs."
Premji said that with the company's Canadian operations growing rapidly, it will need more and more skilled graduates here. He said he expected Wipro's Canadian business to grow by 50 per cent a year as it takes on new clients, while hiring more Canadian engineers, executives and technical staff.
"Canada is a focus market for us," Premji said over lunch at an Indian restaurant in Mississauga, just west of Toronto. "We believe we can grow this market quite aggressively."
Until now, Canada has been a small part of the Wipro Empire. Its 500 staff in Toronto, Windsor, Ottawa and Calgary help generate about USD 100 million of the global company's USD 5 billion in annual revenues. The bulk of its staff works with Nortel Networks developing telecommunications switching equipment.
But the Canadian operation has gone from three clients to 20 in the past 18 months while adding 160 staff and setting up a dedicated sales team. Moving beyond telecom, Wipro is also courting Canadian insurance firms and energy utilities. |
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| IT exports from Andhra Pradesh poised to cross US$ 6.25 billion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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IT exports from Andhra Pradesh for 2007-08 are
poised to cross the Rs 25,000-crore mark, up from Rs 18,500 crore recorded
last fiscal, according to Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (HYSEA).
The growth of over 30 per cent is possible due to the all-round development and growth in exports across the IT and BPO segments, Dr Anil Jampala, President of Hysea, said. Addressing a press conference here on Sunday to announce the 16th annual day awards here, Dr Jampala said that the small and medium industries are concerned about the issue of extension of tax concessions under the STPI scheme beyond 2009 and that they are also looking at the Sovereign Fund, which would help SMEs get over the rupee-dollar concerns. Dr Jampala said the Government has agreed to offer land at Kokapet near Hyderabad for a special economic zone. The Hindu Business Line |
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India's top 7 pharma companies |
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: Cipla Laboratories continues to be the largest pharmaceutical company in the domestic market. Cipla has topped the ORG-IMS rankings for the month of November with a market share of 5.42 per cent and sales of Rs 146.32 crore (Rs 1.463 million), edging out Ranbaxy which stood at second position with 5.09 per cent market share and Rs 137.49 crore (Rs 1.374 million) sales. Cipla topped with Rs 152.04 crore (Rs 1.520 billion) sales and a market share of 5.23 per cent, ahead of Ranbaxy, which garnered Rs 148.40 crore (Rs 1.484 million) sales and 5.11 per cent market share, said sources. Cipla overtook Ranbaxy and GlaxoSmithKline India to become the largest pharmaceutical company in the domestic market for the first time in May 2007.
While GSK has maintained its number three position in November, Zydus Cadila (fourth), Alkem Laboratories (fifth) and Sun Pharma (sixth) have moved one rank up from October.
Nicholas Piramal, which faced raw material shortages for its largest selling codiene based formulations, like Phensydyl, in recent months, slipped three positions to number seven in November.
ORG-IMS, the largest market intelligence company in India focusing on the healthcare sector, tracks sales of Indian pharmas on a monthly basis, through over 3,000 stockists and 6,000 doctors.
"Indian companies are increasing their share in the domestic market mainly due to increased number of high value new introductions, though the number of new introductions have reduced recently," Shailesh Gadre, managing director, ORG-IMS, said in an interview last week.
Ranbaxy's growth has been largely driven by new introductions such as Volix, an anti-diabetes drug launched in January, Oframax-Forte and anti-asthmatic drug Synasma, which it in-licensed from Eurodrug Laboratories.
Ranbaxy's antibiotic Mox (amoxyllin), which was not among the top ten brands a year ago, has grown to become the fourth largest brand in the domestic market with monthly sales at Rs 9.8 crore (Rs 98 million) in November, sources said.
Cipla's growth was powered by positive growth in their existing portfolio, especially its respiratory products. However, GSK has lost market share mainly in its main portfolios such as anti- infectives, dermatologicals and pain management drugs which grew slower than the market for these products, ORG-IMS said.
ORG-IMS named Alkem Laboratories as the only company among the top ten for which both older products (10 per cent) and new introductions (12 per cent) have contributed significantly to value growth.
"Our growth in the domestic market is mainly due to the growth of our anti-infective Taxim and other brands such as Taximo, Clavem, A to Z and Gemcal," explained Vinod Dua, head, domestic business of Alkem Laboratories. Alkem's Taxim is now the third largest brand in the domestic market with sales of Rs 10.3 crore (Rs 103 million), behind Pfizer's cough syrup Corex (Rs 15.2 crore (Rs 152 million)) and Novartis India's pain killer Voveron (Rs 11.6 crore -- Rs 116 million). |
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Indian drug firms top filings with USFDA |
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Indian pharma companies have
filed the maximum number of drug master filings (DMFs) to the US Food and
Drug Administration (US FDA) in October-December 2007 quarter.
The total number of DMFs filed to the US FDA in the last quarter was 187, Indian companies alone filing for 89 DMFs, according to data gathered from analysts and industry sources. Indian DMFs filing accounting for 47.6 per cent of the total DMFs filed in the last quarter. DMFs are confidential, proprietary assets that present to the US FDA the formulae, processes, test methodology, and other data relevant to the manufacture of products used in the composition, packaging and processing of pharmaceuticals or biologics. DMFs filings from the Chinese pharma players to the US FDA amounted to less than 20. Amongst the Indian pharma players, Ranbaxy has filed 13 DMFs to the US FDA in the last quarter, while both Dr Reddy’s and Aurobindo Pharma filed 10 DMFs, add analysts. Ranbaxy is understood to have filed a DMF for cilastatin to the US FDA in the last quarter. Analysts say Cilastatin is not a drug in itself, it is administered along with the antibiotic imipenem, to prevent the latter from being inactivated by the enzyme dehydropeptidase Business Standard |
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Indian Pharmaceutical Industry: In the pink of health |
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R&D is a fast evolving segment of
Indian pharmaceutical industry. Innovation, international partnerships,
collaborations, inflow of funds, clinical trials partnerships and
co-development deals are changing the landscape of R&D. However, the
potential is far greater and to aid the harnessing of this potential, the
Times Group organised the ET Bio-Pharma Development Summit in Mumbai.
Dr Swati Piramal, director, Nicholas Piramal, was the chairperson of the forum, with the keynote speaker being Dr Ted Bianco, director, Wellcome Trust. The highlight of the event was the special address delivered by Kapil Sibal, union minister for science and technology and earth sciences. Dr Piramal delivered the opening address to a house full of delegates. She highlighted the need of innovation in R&D and how India can excel in the same. Her address was followed by an interesting speech made by Dr Ted Bianco, director, Wellcome Trust, UK. He provided an insight into early stage R&D through translational research funding and management of intellectual property arising thereafter. Then, it was time for Mr Sibal’s speech. He termed the new disease pathogens the terrorists of the 21st century and said there was an urgent need to safeguard public health. Malvinder Singh, MD and CEO, Ranbaxy Laboratories, the speaker for the second session, gave a address on the future of generics. He informed that the global bio-generic industry was worth $60 billion today. Indian pharma industry can capitalize on this opportunity and grow to become $100 billion industry in the coming years. He pointed out that having 50 NCEs being produced by 15-20 companies is not economically sustainable. Dr Ganesh Shermon, partner & country head, human capital advisory services, KPMG India, Rajorshi Ganguli, director, HR, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Sanjay Muthal, president, HR, Nicholas Piramal and Shiv Raman Dugal, chairman, Instiute of Clinical Research of India, were the distinguished speakers forming the panel. Various strategies needed to drive excellence in research and cross-functional areas were discussed. The Economic Times |
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Pakistan & Indian petroleum ministers discuss gas pipeline project |
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Petroleum Ministers of India and Pakistan held discussions here on a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline project involving the two countries and Iran, with both sides expressing their keenness to put it on stream.
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora was invited by his Pakistani counterpart Ahsan Ullah Khan to visit Islamabad to sort out various issues outstanding because of which the pipeline is pending, during their meeting held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Deora assured the Pakistani minister that "India is keen" on the 2,775-km pipeline and issues like the transit fees and strategic investment should be sorted out.
Khan, who is accompanying President Pervez Musharraf during his current visit to Britain, insisted that "Pakistan is equally keen that the project is put on stream," said, official sources.
Though New Delhi and Islamabad have reached an understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan, the two nations have not yet arrived at any agreement on payment of a separate transit fee to Pakistan for using its territory.
Three-fourth of the pipeline will be passing through Pakistan which will also use the pipeline for providing gas to its consumers.
The pipeline is to be laid in the three nations separately. Iran would lay a 1,100-km pipeline from the Persian Gulf to the Iran-Pakistan border, while Pakistan would lay a 1,035 km from its border with Iran to the Indian border. India would then pipe the gas to consumption centres.
The total cost of the project was estimated to be over seven billion dollars in 2006.
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Petrochemical sector set for US$ 37.94 billion funding |
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The Indian petrochemical industry is expecting a whopping upstream investment of Rs 80,000-1,00,000 crore in the next three to four years, while the downstream segment would get another Rs 50,000 crore, said a senior official of the Union ministry of chemicals and petrochemicals.
According to the official, “The industry has already received an investment of Rs 50,000 crore in upstream projects and we are expecting more investment.” At present, Companies like ONGC, RIL, IOC, and Essar are the major players who have invested in this segment.
Industry sources said, with the recent introduction of the petrochemical policy, the country is also expecting an investment from global players like Exxon Mobil, SABIC and ELF, among others.
The country’s petrochemical industry is poised for a growth of over 10% over the next five years from 2006.
According to industry sources, at current prices, downstream petrochemical production is expected to increase from current levels of $15-18 billion to $30-35 billion over the next five years. “The country’s major oil Companies are now focused on the development of value added quality petrochemical products at globally competitive prices. The Companies are also trying to use high technologies with innovation of newer applications and products,” said a senior official of a state-run oil company. http://www.financialexpress.com |
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Some Important Websites |
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Directory
of Official Websites of Government of India: www.goidirectory.nic.in ; National
Portal of India: www.india.gov.in ;
Ministry of External Affairs: www.meaindia.nic.in
; Ministry of Finance: www.finmin.nic.in
; Ministry of Commerce & Industry: www.commin.nic.in ; Ministry of
Tourism: www.incredibleindia.org ;
India Brand Equity Foundation: www.ibef.org ; Confederation of Indian Industry
(CII): www.ciionline.org ; Federation
of Indian Chambers of Commence & Industry (FICCI): www.ficci.com ; Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry: www.assocham.org ; Federation of Indian Exporters Organization: www.fieo.com ; India Trade
Promotion Organisation (ITPO): www.indiatradepromotion.org
; Indo-Arab Chamber of Commerce &
Industry: www.iacci.org ; Trade-India.com: www.trade-india.com ; Indian Exporters: www.indianexporters.com ; Exporters
India: www.indiamarkets.com
; India Mart: www.indiamart.com
; Financial Express: www.financialexpress.com
; Economic Times: www.economictimes.com
; Business Standard: www.business-standard.com |
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Edited by:- Mr. Cyril Tigga, Consul (Commercial) & HOC
MRA, Commercial Section Consulate General of India, Jeddah |
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