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06/03/2014

Refiners Eye Better Oil Deal Terms on U.S. Boom: Corporate India – Businessweek

India, Asia’s second-biggest energy user, is in talks with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for better terms on oil contracts as surging U.S. output frees up supplies.

Hindustan Petroleum Gas Cylinder

Hindustan Petroleum Corp. (HPCL), India’s third-largest state refiner, is seeking to at least double the interest-free credit period for crude purchases from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to 60 days, B.K. Namdeo, the company’s refineries director, said in Mumbai. Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) wants price discounts for agreeing to contracts that are more than 10 years long, according to Managing Director P.P. Upadhya.

“Discussions are going on, and we expect the extended credit period to be reflected in the new contracts from April 1,” Namdeo said. “There is a surplus in the market, and India should take full advantage of the situation.”

via Refiners Eye Better Oil Deal Terms on U.S. Boom: Corporate India – Businessweek.

Posted in Economics, India alert, oil & gas | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Asia, B.K. Namdeo, Hindustan Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, India, Kuwait, Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd., Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, mumbai, oil contracts, Saudi Arabia

06/03/2014

Stock Market Cheers Potential End of Congress Reign – India Real Time – WSJ

Here’s a recipe to make Indian stocks investors happy: tie the hands of the ruling Congress-led government and hint that the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party will be forming the next government.

India’s benchmark 30-share S&P BSE Sensex hit a record high Thursday of 21513.87 points, marking the third straight session of gains.

As India heads towards national elections, investors have been following the twists and turns of the political world more closely in recent months. The next election will likely have a big impact on whether, when and by how much Asia’s third largest economy will rebound.

The country announced this week that the national polls will begin April 7 and be done by May 16 which has some optimists hoping that uncertainty about who will be leading the world’s largest democracy will be over in a little more than two months.

Some investors have become frustrated by the ruling Congress party because they believe it has stalled reforms and delayed important investments in the close to ten years it has been in power. Instead, critics say, the Congress-party led coalition has focused on populist measures, including a bill to provide almost free food to around two thirds of the population.

One good thing about election season, investors say, is that Congress will not be able to announce any new perks for the poor. The Election Commission of India prohibits parties from launching welfare programs during the election process.

“The uncertainty is now over,” said Sharmila Joshi, an independent research analyst in Mumbai. “The market is (optimistic) that there won’t be any more populist measures.”

via Stock Market Cheers Potential End of Congress Reign – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Economics, India alert, Internal politics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Asia, Bharatiya Janata, Bharatiya Janata Party, BSE SENSEX, Congress, congress party, Election Commission of India, India, Indian National Congress, investors, mumbai

03/03/2014

* India Looks Set to Miss Growth Target – India Real Time – WSJ

Disappointing growth in the September-December quarter means India’s economy will likely fall short of even its reduced target for the year.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation last month projected gross domestic product growth of 4.9% for the fiscal year ending March 31. Until then, the Finance Ministry had been predicting growth of 5% or slightly more — down from a forecast of6.4% earlier in the year.

Data Friday showed India’s economy grew 4.7% in the three months to December, after expanding 4.8% and 4.4% in the first two quarters of the fiscal year. That means the economy would have to grow 5.7% in the current quarter – highly unlikely — to hit the full-year mark of 4.9%.

“The economy appears to be at a standstill, both in terms of investments and consumption,” said Anjali Verma, a Mumbai-based economist at brokerage PhillipCapital. “The numbers have been very tepid, and it’s unlikely we’ll see much improvement soon.”

Some economists already are writing off this quarter, as corporate and government decision makers are expected to delay big projects until after national elections that must take place by the end of May.

Businesses are essentially in a holding pattern until they know the next government’s economic policies.

via India Looks Set to Miss Growth Target – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Economics, GDP, India alert | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Anjali Verma, Asia, December, Economy of India, Finance Ministry, Fiscal year, Gross domestic product, India, India’s economy, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, mumbai

25/02/2014

Indian E-Commerce to Become $8 Billion Industry – India Real Time – WSJ

The outlook for India’s economy may be gloomy for now, but one sector looks set to boom: online retail.

As more and more Indians use the internet, revenues of e-commerce companies could triple over the next three years to 504 billion rupees ($8.13 billion), according to Crisil Research, a unit of division of Mumbai-based ratings firm Crisil Ltd.

There are around 200 million internet users in India currently and the number could grow to 500 million by 2015, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

Over the last few years, dozens of websites have been launched in India to sell everything from books and appliances, to baby care products and flight tickets.

Online retail companies earned revenues of around 139 billion rupees ($2.24 billion) in the financial year that ended on March 31, 2013, according to the Crisil report. Though this is just 0.5% of the total revenues of brick-and-mortar retail companies, online retail sales have been growing much faster.

Revenue of e-commerce firms grew by 56% annually between the financial year that ended March 31, 2008, and the year ended March 31, 2013, according to Crisil.

The scope for growth in this sector has already attracted a lot of interest from venture capital investors.

Earlier this month, online retailer Jabong.com raised around $100 million from CDC Group PLC, a U.K. government-backed private-equity fund-of-funds that invests in some emerging markets, according to The Economic Times.

Clothing and accessories-seller Myntra.com also raised $50 million, this month.

Foreign companies have also been looking to get a piece of the action in India. Amazon.com Inc. launched its India website in June.

via Report: Indian E-Commerce to Become $8 Billion Industry – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in eCommerce, Economics, India alert | Leave a Comment »

Tags: CDC Group, Crisil, Crisil Research, E-commerce, Economic Times, India, India website, McKinsey & Company, mumbai, Online retail companies, Online shopping, retail companies

20/02/2014

A New Way to Measure Poverty in India – India Real Time – WSJ

How should you measure poverty?

It is a question that has generated enormous controversy in India. The country’s government says that since the mid-1990s, the number of people living below the official poverty line has dropped by more than half, hitting 270 million, or 22% of the population, in 2012.

Still, India continues to rank extremely low in United Nations’ measures of well-being. India ranked 136 out of 186 countries in the 2012 U.N. Human Development Index and 94 out 119 in the U.N. World Food Programme’s Global Hunger Index.

The Indian government sets its official poverty line at 816 rupees per person per month in rural areas and 1,000 rupees per person per month for city dwellers. That works out to about 40 cents a day in the countryside and 50 cents a day in the city.

A new study by the McKinsey Global Institute – the research arm of consulting company McKinsey – says that such a gauge of extreme poverty has its place. But it argues India should focus instead on a more comprehensive measure of what it would take to satisfy a person’s basic needs for food, energy, housing, drinking water, sanitation, healthcare, schooling and social security.

McKinsey calls its new measure an “empowerment line.” It is the level where the report’s authors conclude that India’s citizens can get out of poverty and have the resources to build better lives for themselves, rather than scrape along at subsistence levels. McKinsey set its empowerment line at 1,336 rupees a month – roughly 50% above the government poverty line.

“It’s an expanded definition of poverty and aims to calculate the escape velocity needed to get people sustainably out of poverty,” said Anu Madgavkar, a senior fellow at the institute in Mumbai.

According to McKinsey’s calculations, about 680 million people, or 56% of Indians, now live below the empowerment line. Insufficient and ineffective public programs, poor agricultural productivity and a lack of better jobs all conspire to keep people poor.

via A New Way to Measure Poverty in India – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Economics, India alert, poverty | Leave a Comment »

Tags: India, McKinsey, McKinsey & Company, McKinsey Global Institute, mumbai, Poverty, poverty line, Poverty threshold, U.N. Human Development Index, United Nations

27/01/2014

UPDATE 1-India lifts ban on Airbus A380s, foreign carriers interested | Reuters

India lifted a landing ban on Airbus A380s on Monday, enabling carriers such as Singapore Airlines and Emirates to fly their superjumbos into the world\’s second-most populous nation.

English: Singapore Airbus A380 Français : Un airbus A380 de la compagnie Singapore Airlines. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A380s will be allowed to land at the country\’s four main airports – New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad – which are equipped to handle the planes, a decision welcomed by foreign carriers looking to tap India\’s fast growing air travel sector.

\”The operation of A380s will help airports to generate more revenue, give more comfortable and luxurious travel to passengers, (and will) liberalise the civil aviation milieu in India,\” the civil aviation ministry said in a statement.

The ban on A380s was imposed due to concerns that foreign airlines could grab a high share of international traffic, hurting state-run Air India.

via UPDATE 1-India lifts ban on Airbus A380s, foreign carriers interested | Reuters.

Posted in Economics, India alert, Transport | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Air India, Airbus, Airbus A380, Bangalore, carriers, Emirates, India, mumbai, New Delhi, Singapore Airlines

20/01/2014

India’s Hardware Mashups Inspire Frugal Technology Abroad – India Real Time – WSJ

In 2009, Vinay Venkatraman was strolling the streets of Mumbai with two colleagues when he saw a group of people tinkering with old computer monitors and turning them into televisions.

After observing the men over three weeks, Mr. Venkatraman and his team found that the workers were stripping the computer monitors, usually brought from the secondhand markets, and inserting T.V. circuits.

They even made T.V. remotes by scavenging components from the scrap market, said Mr. Venkatraman.

“It was really eye-opening as an experience for me,” he said in a recent telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal from his home in Denmark.

India is home to many such master recyclers and re-purposers and Hindi even has a special word it, ‘Jugaad’, meaning “frugal improvisation” which is catching on as a business principle.

The country also boasts of some innovative products such as Mitti Cool, a refrigerator made with clay, and a floating soap, that is less dense than water.

Inspired by those workers involved in what he calls “silicon cottage industries” in India’s financial capital, Mr. Venkatraman, started Frugal Digital in 2010 — a research organization based in Copenhagen and specializing in making low-cost technology equipment.

The nonprofit company makes use of common items such as outmoded mobile phones and clocks to design equipment such as hearing aids and projectors.

Mr. Venkatraman, 34, who grew up in India, graduated from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 2003– the top design school in India — and completed his post graduate studies in Italy.

It was his childhood and experiences of Jugaad in India and while living in Nigeria, that inspired his current venture to help people access basic things though inventive recycling.

via India’s Hardware Mashups Inspire Frugal Technology Abroad – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Economics, Good news, India alert, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Tags: computer monitors, Copenhagen, Denmark, India, Jugaad, mumbai, National Institute of Design, Nigeria, Venkatraman, Vinay Venkatraman

11/01/2014

Seeing India by Luxury Train – India Real Time – WSJ

WHEN WE STEPPED off the train at the small station of Pachora, 250 miles northeast of Mumbai, Lord Ganesha was waiting.

A man costumed as the Hindu god was carried by turbaned attendants and accompanied by folk dancers who whirled to ancient stringed instruments, reedy horns and hand drums. Ganesha sported a pinkish elephant head, complete with trunk and oversize ears, but he blessed us with a very human hand. Locals must have felt like the circus had arrived in town, for despite the early hour, they had come to watch the welcome arranged specially for us.

It was appropriate to be greeted by the god of good fortune: We were a lucky group—passengers taking a 2,000-mile journey from Mumbai to New Delhi on the Maharajas’ Express, one of the most luxurious trains in the world.

Roger Toll

Guests playing elephant polo in the private garden of the Maharaja of Jaipur.

The train’s name conjures images of hilltop forts, bejeweled scimitars and armies on camels and elephants— for good reason. The maharajas (“great kings”) ruled India’s hundreds of princely states from as early as the 1600s to the mid-20th century. In Rajasthan, in particular, the warrior-kings built impressive cities they named for themselves: Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaipur. Their heirs, allying themselves with the British Raj, continued a sumptuous style of living until Indian independence in 1947. (While the princely families lost their power post-Raj, they kept most of their palaces and forts.)

The Maharajas’ Express pays tribute to that regal lifestyle. Nearly half a mile long, the train is a glossy burgundy on the outside. Inside, guests sleep in cabins that feel like upscale hotel rooms, with silk window treatments, carved wood paneling and marble-tiled floors. Travelers feast off fine china and crisp linens in the two dining cars. The staff seems almost to outnumber the guests, which total 88 at full capacity. In the morning, valets brought tea to our rooms. When we trundled through the long line of cars to dinner, staffers folded down our beds, delivered clean laundry and left behind chocolates or a flower. Upon our return from outings, they greeted us with fresh juice or cocktails and cool, damp cloths for wiping the dust from our faces.

via Seeing India by Luxury Train – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Economics, India alert, railways | 1 Comment »

Tags: British Raj, Ganesha, Hindu deities, India, Lord Ganesha, mumbai, New Delhi, Pachora, stringed instruments, Udaipur

11/01/2014

Softer Landings at Mumbai’s New Airport Terminal – India Real Time – WSJ

Travelers arriving at Mumbai’s international airport can soon expect to be rid of the long immigration lines, chaotic baggage claim experience, and hopefully, the stench.

On Friday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated a new terminal at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, which will be operational starting February 12.

The new T2 international terminal will be able to accommodate 40 million passengers per year — nearly a third more than the old terminal, according to a spokesman for GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd., which has been operating the Mumbai airport in partnership with the Airport Authority of India since 2006. The new terminal cost around 55 billion rupees ($890 million) to build, the spokesman added.

The last time a new airport terminal created such a buzz in India was when the T3 terminal was launched at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, with its automatic walkways, aerobridges and a sports bar. The terminal boasted an Indian look partly thanks to its installation of a series of giant hands showing “mudras” or hand gestures that are typical of classical Indian dance forms.

Photo courtesy GVK

The art wall at the new airport terminal, Mumbai.

The new Mumbai terminal may well outdo that, with a 1.9 mile art wall displaying around 7,000 works of contemporary Indian art and lotus-shaped chandeliers at the boarding gates.

The terminal’s design draws inspiration from the peacock, India’s national bird.

via Softer Landings at Mumbai’s New Airport Terminal – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Economics, Good news, India alert, Transport | 1 Comment »

Tags: Airport Authority of India, aviation, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, India, Indira Gandhi International Airport, international airport, international terminal, manmohan singh, mumbai, Mumbai airport

04/01/2014

Tiny Loans for Tiny Homes – India Real Time – WSJ

From what began as a small experiment helping slum dwellers buy homes in Mumbai, Micro Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. has grown into a multi-million dollar business making loans across the country.

The Mumbai-based company, which gives low-income households loans to buy homes, now operates in more than 15 cities, with Coimbatore, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, being the most recent addition just last month.

“Housing finance companies focus on serving the top 3% to 5% of the population because it’s easier and cheaper,” to give big loans to rich people, said Madhusudhan Menon, chairman of Micro Housing Finance. “No one wants [low income] customers who don’t have documentation of their income.”

The lack of home loans to those most in need of them is one of the main reasons more than 90% of India’s acute housing shortage of around 19 million units falls on the urban poor, according to a report released by real-estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle.

For most of the urban poor, owning an apartment with reliable electricity or even a water connection is out of reach even if they have a regular income because banks refuse to give the poor housing loans.

More than 41% of the population of the megacity of Mumbai lives in slums, defined as residential areas unfit for human habitation due to dilapidation, over-crowding, poor ventilation and lack of sanitation facilities, according to government estimates. That figure could be brought down sharply if builders constructed affordable housing for the city’s hardworking poor and housing finance companies gave them long-term home loans.

via Tiny Loans for Tiny Homes – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in Economics, housing, India alert, poverty, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: affordable housing, Coimbatore, Finance, home ownership, housing, India, Jones Lang LaSalle, Loan, mumbai, slum, Tamil Nadu

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

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Refiners Eye Better Oil Deal Terms on U.S. Boom: Corporate India – Businessweek

Stock Market Cheers Potential End of Congress Reign – India Real Time – WSJ

* India Looks Set to Miss Growth Target – India Real Time – WSJ

Indian E-Commerce to Become $8 Billion Industry – India Real Time – WSJ

A New Way to Measure Poverty in India – India Real Time – WSJ

UPDATE 1-India lifts ban on Airbus A380s, foreign carriers interested | Reuters

India’s Hardware Mashups Inspire Frugal Technology Abroad – India Real Time – WSJ

Seeing India by Luxury Train – India Real Time – WSJ

Softer Landings at Mumbai’s New Airport Terminal – India Real Time – WSJ

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