Indian Economy: News and Discussion

amit19

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something for guess work ...
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Now Wait for January, Magical January is coming up with more thrill specially Reforms in Economic Front as you have seen never before. Direct Taxation will change forever and much more structural change in banks working methodology. Budget Session after Dhamakedar Winter season
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sorcerer

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Easing FDI norms

Dissection of the slow growth of the Indian economy has revealed that sagging domestic investment and slump in demand has dragged the growth into a downtrend. Domestic investors have been shy and consumers, hesitant to spend. Growth in construction, in turn, felt the pinch caused by the wiping out of black money and sales of automobiles tumbled.

India has reeled under the constant pressure of downturn in GDP growth in 2019-20, leveraging a panic for jobless growth and entering a recession. Since last year, GDP growth witnessed an unabated downswing, from 7 per cent in July-September 2018 to 4.5 per cent in July-September 2019. Paranoia loomed large over the recovery of growth and the country faces public anger over the spiralling of onion prices, blaming it as a failure of government policies.

Nevertheless, there was some respite from foreign investment. While the investment from private and government sectors plunged, investment from foreign sector made a boom. Since the role of foreign investment is not significant in the total investment, it has failed to impart a major compensatory impact on the overall investment in the country. Foreign investment accounted for one-sixth of overall investment in new projects in 2018-19.

Domestic private sector is the core investor in the country. It accounted for 47 per cent of the total investment in new projects in 2018-19. It declined sharply by 21 per cent in between 2014-15 to 2018-19, from 8,460.9 billion rupees in 2014-15 to 5,686.8 billion rupees in 2018-19. Government investment (such as infrastructure and others) slipped drastically from 11,825.7 billion rupees in 2014-15 to 4,411.6 billion rupees in 2018-19, in hopes that the private sector would pour more cash into the sectors vacated by the government. It relied on the success of Make in India, which would have helped the private sector to invest in these sectors after reaping benefits of the scheme. Alas, Make in India failed.

It was only the foreign investment which pitched for high growth. It increased by 147 per cent, going from 825.5 billion rupees in 2014-15 to 2043.1 billion rupees in 2018-19.

This landscape of the investment strategies means that while foreign investors continued to repose confidence in Modi's investment-friendly leadership, the private sector was reined in by suspicion. Even the political row between India and China could not deter Chinese investment, which is a fast-growing engine for foreign investment. Chinese investment increased by over 136 per cent in 2018 over 2017, from USD 165.2 million dollars in 2017 to USD 391.2 million dollars in 2018.

Even during the first half of the current year, when GDP was witnessing a constant slip in growth, such a happening could not dent the zeal of foreign investment. During the first half of 2019 (January–June), foreign investment climbed 25 per cent.

This would mean that foreign investors were not unnerved by the contraction in GDP. Global rating agency Standard & Poor viewed the downswing as a cyclic phenomenon. It said "India remains a growth outperformer on long term basis….. The current slowdown is largely cyclical and the growth is expected to improve on the basis of an uptick in consumption, stable oil prices and strong monetary policies".

FDI Intelligence — a global greenfield investment tracker — said: "manufacturing FDI is on an upward curve". There was a 40 per cent growth in manufacturing FDI in India between 2017 and 2018. Against this backdrop, India should prompt major reforms in FDI policies. Recently, some attempts were made to simplify FDI policies in retail trade. Given the rising role of foreign investment in the absence of domestic investors, India needs major reforms to lure foreign investors. To this end, a lesson from China is imperative to instilling FDI charm in the country.

China has been the second-biggest recipient of FDI in the world. Even then, China apprehended a fall in FDI in pursuance to GDP contraction. GDP in China grew by 6.6 per cent in 2018 which was its slowest pace of growth in the last 18 years. This prompted China to introduce major reforms in its FDI policy.

China decided to adopt a four-pronged strategy in its new FIL (Foreign Investment Law). It will be operative from January 1, 2020. It decided to offer national treatment to the foreign investors, equal rights for government procurement, banning the mandatory transfer of technology and adequate protection to Intellectual Property Rights.

India also opened its door substantially to foreign investors. But, it does not provide national treatment and equal right for government procurement. Both have become essential from the point of view of political sensitiveness in the country due to multi-party dominance and government procurement providing a big market. Banning FDI in multi-brand retail after the defeat of UPA synchronises the political sensitiveness of the policy. In this respect, national treatment augurs well for major security to foreign investors.

In addition, foreign investment is envisioned as a key driver for GVC (Global Value Chain) manufacturing. This is the current trend of global manufacturing dynamism.

After a reduction in corporate tax rates and rationalisation of GST, India is at par with ASEAN corporate tax structures. With the engagement in FTA, opportunities opened for GVC manufacturing between India and ASEAN. To this end, the success story of the Japanese auto industry, overarching India and ASEAN is a case in point.

To produce cheap cars, Toyota Motor Company adopted a unique GVC model for manufacturing auto parts. It embraced India and five other nations of ASEAN for manufacturing different parts, given the competitiveness of each nation. India was selected for manual transmission (large type), Thailand for diesel engine, press parts and axle. The Philippines was chosen for manual transmission (middle type) and switches, Malaysia for engine computer, Indonesia for gasoline engine and Singapore for sales and logistic.

This signifies India's manufacturing ability and potential for certain segments of automobiles in the model of GVC manufacturing. However, this is possible only when India also offers similar or greater incentives to foreign investors.

China, despite being the world's second-biggest recipient of FDI, envisioned that the time is ripe for major reforms to attract foreign investors. India must wake up to the same and inject reforms to infuse foreign investment as an alternative to sagging domestic investment.

http://www.millenniumpost.in/opinion/easing-fdi-norms-390740

Looks like OPINION piece
 

sorcerer

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Your hard disk drive may have been designed in India
By Priyanka Sangani
3-4 minutes
For Western Digital, India has emerged as an important engineering centre, with several products in the hard disk drive and flash drive segments entirely designed and developed here by the data storage solutions firm.

Earlier this year, the company launched the world’s first 1 terabyte micro SD card, which was completely engineered in India, said Ganesh Guruswamy, senior vice-president, Data Storage Products Group at Western Digital.

Similarly, the 512 GB micro SD card, which is the world’s fastest UHS-1 microSD was also developed here.

The nearly $21-billion enterprise has increased its India headcount by almost 10 times to 2,700 over the last five years, 95% of whom are engineers.


The company set up its India operations in 2005, focused mainly on R&D.

“India is an important development centre and the fastest growing market in the consumer segment for us. It will play a significant role from a market perspective in the years to come,” Guruswamy said.

The enterprise segment is likely to grow faster as the pace picks up on government initiatives like Smart Cities. “I was clear that India would not be just about the human capital and that it would play an important role in product development. We have to be responsible to deliver global products independently,” he said.

To make it happen, the company has been actively hiring from the market and top universities over the last few years, said Supria Dhanda, vicepresident and country manager at Western Digital India.

The upward trend in hiring numbers is likely to continue in the next few years as well, Dhanda said.

The company has put in place a dedicated training program for its campus hires in India and this is starting to show results. Over the past year, many patents that it filed were by engineers in their first year on the job.

“Globally, we have 13,750 patents, many of which have been filed out of here,” she said.

The company has set up teams comprising entirely of university hires to do end-to-end product development within the first year – something that would typically take an engineer over two years.

This push on developing talent is an important reason why most new products created by Western Digital have an India connection.

The company is working closely with the government to see how it can bring in products from its global portfolio for smart city and surveillance initiatives.

It will also launch the second edition of the Data Innovation Bazaar, DIB 2020, where it partners with the Startup India and Invest India ventures to find solutions to larger problems, like affordable healthcare, using data.

Western Digital, the largest company in the non-volatile storage segment, has grown significantly through acquisitions, including HGST, which gave it leadership in the enterprise segment, and Sandisk, which was the biggest company in the flash segment.
 

sorcerer

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Forbes 100 most powerful women list
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, HCL Corporation CEO and Executive Director Roshni Nadar Malhotra and Biocon Founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw have been named among the world's 100 most powerful women by Forbes.

The Forbes 2019 list of 'The World's 100 Most Powerful Women' has been topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde in the second spot and Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, ranked third. Also on the list is Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (29).

https://www.indiatoday.in/business/...-women-in-forbes-2019-list-1627966-2019-12-13
 

sorcerer

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After 50% returns, 2020 may be even better for Indian IPOs
India’s market for initial public offerings is expected to gather pace in 2020 after this year’s relatively small crop saw strong gains in the stock market.

The 14 mainboard IPOs this year have risen by an average of more than 50% since listing, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The S&P BSE IPO Index, a gauge of shares in their first two years of trading, has climbed 36% in 2019, compared with a gain of 13% for the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex Index.

“We expect this trend to continue in 2020,” said Satyen Shah, the Mumbai-based head of investment banking at Edelweiss Financial Services LtdNSE 2.20 %. “The year 2019 may look subdued in terms of the number of issues, but most of them were well subscribed and investors made good money.”

Shah said there are 21 companies that have filed documents with market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India for planned IPOs, looking to raise a total of about 300 billion rupees ($4.2 billion). Of these, 11 have already received approval to tap the market as soon as next year, he added.

Companies planning IPOs include SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd., UTI Asset Management Co., Computer Age Management Services Pvt. and Fincare Small Finance Bank Ltd.



The outperformance of recent debutantes is notable given the sluggish performance of smaller Indian shares in general. Gauges of small- and mid-cap stocks are in the red for 2019. With a record-setting rally in larger gauges missing the broader market, investors have been eager to participate in new offerings.

The IPO of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Ltd. was oversubscribed 166 times, the most for an this year. The share sale of railway monopoly Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corp. in October attracted bids of 112 times the offer size, and the stock doubled on the first day of trading.

Company Issue Price (Rs) Gains since listing (%)
IRCTC 320 175
IndiaMart InterMesh 973 117
Affle India 745 100
Polycab India 538 85
Neogen Chemicals 215 64
Amid the nation’s ongoing crisis in non-bank lending, market participants expect a larger number of financial companies to list shares next year in order to raise funds or meet regulatory requirements. Others see public sales driven by large shareholders needing to repay debt, large foreign partners looking to exit investments in a buoyant market and other backers looking to cash out.

“Private-equity investors who have a time horizon for their investments have started selling their shares in the public market,” said V Jayasankar, head of equity capital markets at Kotak Investment Banking.

Venture capitalist and former InfosysNSE 1.31 % Ltd. official Mohandas Pai recently said he expects 10 to 15 internet and tech companies to list in India over the next three years.

“There is a large appetite for good-quality papers at the right price from companies that have good governance, large businesses and leave some value on the table for the investors to make money,” Edelweiss’s Shah said.
 

sorcerer

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Cashless Economy: PhonePe Crosses 5 Billion Transactions, Witness 5 Times Growth In One Year

Digital payments platform PhonePe on Friday (13 December) announced that it has crossed 5 billion transactions on its app.

Bengaluru-headquartered PhonePe crossed the one-billion transaction milestone in November last year and has grown a phenomenal 5 times in just one year, the company said in a statement.

"Our journey over the last 4 years has been incredible, not just in terms of the growth of the platform, but also in realizing the social impact that payments and financial services can create," said Sameer Nigam, Founder and CEO, PhonePe.

The digital payments platform has over 175 million registered users in the country.

"We believe the MSME sector is the core engine of the Indian economy and there is a need to create compelling solutions for MSMEs to thrive," he added.

PhonePe is accepted as a payment option across 80 lakh MSMEs in over 215 cities in India and over 56 per cent of its transactions are now driven by users in Tier II and III cities.

This year, PhonePe introduced new use cases to make a customer's experience on its platform more seamless and convenient including 'Switch', which does away with the need for downloading multiple apps.

Switch allows customers to seamlessly switch between PhonePe and their favourite food, grocery, shopping and travel apps from within the PhonePe app, with just a single tap.

The digital platform also has over 150 million bank accounts linked on its platform. It also has over 56 million saved credit and debit cards on its platform.

PhonePe is accepted at more than 80 lakh merchant outlets.
 

sorcerer

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sorcerer

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Government testing GIMs, its secure messaging app


The government is testing a prototype of an Indian equivalent of popular messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, for secure internal use. Codenamed GIMS or Government Instant Messaging System, the platform is in the pilot testing stage across some states, including Odisha — and is learnt to have been released to the Indian Navy to be tried out on trial basis.

https://indianexpress.com/article/t...esting-gims-its-secure-messaging-app-6169018/
 

sorcerer

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Islands Development Agency to develop Andamans under optical fibre cable project
After remaining defunct for over two decades, the Islands Development Agency has moved in swiftly to develop the Andaman and Nicobar islands as an optical fibre cable project which is expected to be completed by the middle of 2020.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/sto...ptical-fibre-cable-project-1628482-2019-12-15

and LIBERANDOOS never quechen why this island was not developed.....obviously ..as congress was face sitting on them

I see awesome tourism opportunity in the pipeline with increased connectivity...
 

Knowitall

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Government didn't announce the plan unfortunately.
Was really waiting for it. Maybe the government does something in the next few days.
 

Spindrift

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Google wants US Federal Reserve to follow India's UPI example

NEW DELHI: In a thumbs up to the Indian government's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) scheme, Google has written to the US Federal Reserve Board detailing the successful example of UPI-based digital payment in India in order to build "FedNow" -- a new interbank real-time gross settlement service (RTGS) for faster digital payments in the US.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...w-indias-upi-example/articleshow/72611611.cms

:india::india2:
It's just because Google wants to be in control and the wants the data, but that not going to happen for two reasons:
1). Google got in too deep with the CCP and US gov does not like it.
2). US Federal Reserve will not like to loose its monopoly or control any way.
 

Prashant12

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Turbo Aviation to launch low-cost airline next year

Hyderabad-based Turbo Aviation plans to launch a new low-cost airline, TruStar, by mid-2020.





The TruStar fleet will induct 10 ATRs, 10 Airbus A320 and 4 Dorniers.

Hyderabad-based Turbo Aviation plans to launch a new low-cost airline, TruStar, by mid-2020. Turbo Aviation has secured a £100-million ($133.64 million) investment from a UK Business Group for the proposed launch of TruStar — a commuter air service under the UDAN scheme. The TruStar fleet will induct 10 ATRs, 10 Airbus A320 and 4 Dorniers. The company plans to expand its fleet organically with new flying routes in operation.

The aviation company was founded by V Umesh in 2003 and has been steadily growing with its services in aircraft maintenance, ground handling and charter services. Umesh was also instrumental in launching no-frills airliner TruJet in 2015, which is currently the most successful airline operator under UDAN scheme. “We have influential partners now on board who will help us drive the high-demand air-taxi market in India, by connecting new UDAN routes. We are looking to transform the connectivity in the North and Southern sectors to begin with.” Umesh said in a statement.


Turbo Aviation has already signed the partnership deal with the UK Group to speedup TruStar’s launch process. With its countrywide network in both air service and aircraft maintenance, Turbo Aviation possess a huge skillset to make seamless operations around their facilities. “Our new strategic investors will not only bring more firepower and credibility to an emerging market, but also can influence in their respective domain to uplift the under-invested part, ” Umesh said.

TruStar is also adding commercial amphibious aircraft (seaplane) to its fleet.

The Dornier aircraft, which are completely manufactured in India’s HAL facility, will be put into commuter service for the first time in the country. “TruStar will be the first commercial airliner to introduce Made in India ‘Dronier aircraft’ which is a highly versatile light commuter commercial aircraft manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Kanpur,” Umesh added.

Turbo Aviation plans to focus on low operating costs, both due to its new, fuel efficient fleet and high-density cabin configurations. The airline plans to initially connect passengers under already-secured UDAN routes, with future plans to connect passengers all over India and eventually overseas destinations.

https://www.financialexpress.com/in...to-launch-low-cost-airline-next-year/1795872/
 

Suryavanshi

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Turbo Aviation to launch low-cost airline next year

Hyderabad-based Turbo Aviation plans to launch a new low-cost airline, TruStar, by mid-2020.





The TruStar fleet will induct 10 ATRs, 10 Airbus A320 and 4 Dorniers.

Hyderabad-based Turbo Aviation plans to launch a new low-cost airline, TruStar, by mid-2020. Turbo Aviation has secured a £100-million ($133.64 million) investment from a UK Business Group for the proposed launch of TruStar — a commuter air service under the UDAN scheme. The TruStar fleet will induct 10 ATRs, 10 Airbus A320 and 4 Dorniers. The company plans to expand its fleet organically with new flying routes in operation.

The aviation company was founded by V Umesh in 2003 and has been steadily growing with its services in aircraft maintenance, ground handling and charter services. Umesh was also instrumental in launching no-frills airliner TruJet in 2015, which is currently the most successful airline operator under UDAN scheme. “We have influential partners now on board who will help us drive the high-demand air-taxi market in India, by connecting new UDAN routes. We are looking to transform the connectivity in the North and Southern sectors to begin with.” Umesh said in a statement.


Turbo Aviation has already signed the partnership deal with the UK Group to speedup TruStar’s launch process. With its countrywide network in both air service and aircraft maintenance, Turbo Aviation possess a huge skillset to make seamless operations around their facilities. “Our new strategic investors will not only bring more firepower and credibility to an emerging market, but also can influence in their respective domain to uplift the under-invested part, ” Umesh said.

TruStar is also adding commercial amphibious aircraft (seaplane) to its fleet.

The Dornier aircraft, which are completely manufactured in India’s HAL facility, will be put into commuter service for the first time in the country. “TruStar will be the first commercial airliner to introduce Made in India ‘Dronier aircraft’ which is a highly versatile light commuter commercial aircraft manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Kanpur,” Umesh added.

Turbo Aviation plans to focus on low operating costs, both due to its new, fuel efficient fleet and high-density cabin configurations. The airline plans to initially connect passengers under already-secured UDAN routes, with future plans to connect passengers all over India and eventually overseas destinations.

https://www.financialexpress.com/in...to-launch-low-cost-airline-next-year/1795872/
Finally Indian aviation starting to leave a mark.
 

sorcerer

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Sensex hits fresh record high



India's benchmark equity index Sensex on Tuesday hit a fresh record high, while the Nifty was 30 points shy of its all-time high. The gains were in line with upbeat global equities which rose following the US reaching an in-principle trade deal with China and a conclusive victory of the Conservative Party in the UK elections, which will likely pave the way for Brexit.
 

sorcerer

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Sensex hits fresh record high



India's benchmark equity index Sensex on Tuesday hit a fresh record high, while the Nifty was 30 points shy of its all-time high. The gains were in line with upbeat global equities which rose following the US reaching an in-principle trade deal with China and a conclusive victory of the Conservative Party in the UK elections, which will likely pave the way for Brexit.
 

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