India-Briefing News



Government Plans to Alter FDI Policy for JV's (Sep 5)
  Sept. 5 - The Indian government is planning to rework the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy for holding companies. According to the regulations, joint venture companies with foreign equity will need to seek fresh approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) within 90 days while investing in downstream companies like subsidiaries. The FIPB clearance will be mandatory to avoid imposition of penalty by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The government said detailed guidelines for downstream investments by joint ventures with foreign equity will be issued shortly. These companies will be given a three-month grace period for regularising downstream investments, according to the Economic Times. read more


SEBI Mulls Trade in Euro and Yen Futures (Sep 4)
  Sept. 4 - As the dominance of the dollar as global currency drops, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), India's capital market regulator, said it is mulling the introduction of rupee-euro and rupee-yen contracts in currency futures soon. Currently, only rupee-dollar contracts are allowed for trading in currency futures. Sebi is in the process of studying the market for rupee-yen and rupee-euro and the contracts would be launched after considering the outcome of the study, Sebi Chairman C B Bhave told Business Standard. "Now, it is only rupee and dollar in currency futures. Later, we could see more hard currencies. NRIs and FIIs too can be allowed on this platform," Bhave added. read more


Worlds Best and Biggest Woo India (Sep 3)
    Sept. 3 - This is probably the Golden era of India's auto sector. The world's crème de la crème of the global automobile industry are now in India. Following luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rovers arrival in India Mercedes-Benz announced their foray into the Luxury Coach business in India, Audi has already been recieving a favorable response from India's monied millions. Meanwhile Japanese car maker's Indian joint venture - maruti Suzuki, said it wants to shift the bulk of its research and development work on cars with engine capacity of 1200cc or lower to India. However, the hottest news came from General Motors, which already has a long association in India. The U.S. car company made a "clear commitment to India" by opening a second plant in western India, nearly tripling its annual output in the country to 225,000 vehicles a year. read more


Tata's run into Mega Labor Problems (Sep 2)
  Sept. 2 - India has a tough choice to make - Industrialize and attract more foreign Direct Investment or give in to the needs of its farmers to sustain a more sociological state. The recent Tata Motors factory controversy has brought this issue to the threshold.Will India decide to give the land in Singur, North east  India to Tata to manufacture his US$2,500 Tata Nana, or will it favor the farmers who claim the land and with it their livlihood has been usurped? Who wins the fight over the Tata factory is likely to have wide-ranging impacts on India's push to complete a China-like economic transformation that the country's leaders say is needed to lift hundreds of millions of its 1.1 billion people out of poverty, reported The International Herald Tribune. read more


Indian Economy slows to 7.9 percent (Sep 1)
    Sept. 1 -  India's first-quarter economic growth slowed to 7.9 percent, the weakest in three-and-a-half years as interest rate hikes hit demand, but AFP quoted analysts said long-term prospects still looked solid. The figure for the three months to June was far below the previous quarter's growth of 8.8 percent and the 9.2 percent expansion logged by Asia's third-largest economy in the first quarter a year earlier. read more


General Motors to Invest US$200 Million in India (Aug 29)
   Aug. 29 - Riding on India's automotive high, General Motors Corp said it would invest more than US$200 million in a plant for car engines in India. The facility, which will be located in Talegaon in western Maharashtra state, will be GM's second vehicle plant in India and will have an annual capacity of 160,000 units that can be expanded to 300,000 units, Reuters reported. The plant will make petrol and diesel engines and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2010. read more


Kingfisher's Spreading its Wings (Aug 27)
 Aug. 27 - Business tycoon and Indian Richard Branson Vijay Mallya has recieved the green signal from the ministry of Aviation to fly his recently acquired Deccan Air internationally. This marks India's third International flight service, following Air India and Jet Airways. Kingfisher Airlines will to fly to Thailand, Singapore, San Francisco, London and the UAE, amongst other destinations. The airlines is expected to launch their service from Banglore to London, Heathrow on the 3rd of September, the Economic Times reported. read more


India Inc's Shopping Spree (Aug 26)
Aug. 26 - India Inc is on a shopping spree and energy and technology deals seem to be the best buys. Ironically, both these deals are not with American companies, long considered the safest buys by Indian companies investing abroad. Reuters reported that India's ONGC Videsh is finalizing a 1.4 billion pounds (US$2.6 billion) bid for Russia-focused oil explorer Imperial Energy Corp Plc while AFP reported that Indian outsourcing giant Infosys plans to buy British consultancy Axon Group for US$753.1 million (409 million pounds) in a bid to expand its business advisory footprint. read more


India Doesn't Agree with New NSG Conditions (Aug 25)
  Aug. 25 - Rising the heat on India's controversial nuclear deal further, Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, refused to accept any new conditions laid out by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, throwing the deal into limbo. Accepting any new multilateral agreements such as inspections of Indian civilian nuclear sites and cancellation of any waiver if India tests bombs again are not possible for the Indian government, Mukerjee told the 45-nation delegation in Vienna last week. "We have to see what kind of amendments come. Then only we can decide. But we cannot accept prescriptive conditionalities," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee as saying. read more


Venture Capital Investments Double 120 percent in the Second Quarter (Aug 22)
  Aug. 22 - Venture-capital investment in India more than doubled by 120 percent in the second quarter of 2008, a Dow Jones report stated. Venture firms invested US$237.6 million across 17 deals in the three months ended June 30, compared with US$108 million and 12 deals a year earlier, according to data from VentureSource, a unit of Deal Journal publisher Dow Jones. Since the first quarter of 2007, when venture capitalists flooded India with US$436 million across 41 deals, investment had held steady at a quarterly average of roughly US$118 million through the first quarter of 2008. The biggest contributor to this year’s second-quarter jump is the US$70 million, second-round investment in Laqshya Media, a Mumbai provider of out-of-home media advertising services, the Wall Street Journal reported. read more