• Desi Honchos're Rocking Global Inc.
• Indian banker Makes His Way To Top Of Citibank
• But India Management Beats China: Newsweek
• It's The Season For IIT Alumni To Reconnect
• Henry Ford IV Comes To Himachal With a $300-m Ski Village
• Japanese Banks Sees India As Land Of Rising Sun
• Freedom In The 90s: India Inc Lives The Global Dream
• India Has 94% Of Global Workforce Of Diamond Industry: Gemmology Official
• Manufacturers Prefer India To US In FDI Stakes
• 'India a Better Model Than China'
• Business Intelligence Software Market Up
• ONGC Mittal To Explore Jointly In 22 Countries
• India's Contributor No. 2 To StanChart's Global Profit Kitty
• Indian Industry Eyes Markets In Pakistan And SE Asia
• Medical Tourism: It's Destination Inida
• RIL To Become Largest Global Refinery
• Big Boom In Retail Sector
• The Knowledge Processors
• It's Official: Everyone Loves The 'Made in India' Tag
• 'India, China To Rule Owrld'

• India Emerges As New Auto Hub
• Nokia To Make India Global Network Ops Hub
• Dozen More In Billion Dollar Club
• Who Says 'Made In India' Cars Don't Rock
• All India Villages To Have Telecom Links By 2006
• New Frontiers In Global March
• India Emerges Third-Most Profitable Equity Mart
• India Gets a New Spin On Tourist Circuit
• Your Postman Now Is a BPO Exec
• Indian Inc High On Mergers And Acquisitions
• Laptops Go Mass
• Own Your Airline
• Reliance Makes Huge Gas Find In MP
• Indian Diamonds To Dazzel In Global Market
• A New Consumer India Awakens
• India Eyes 490 Jets In 20 Years
• 'Chinese Economy Vulnerable To Shocks, But India Inspires More Confidence'
• ICICI Bank Is Asia's 2nd Best Retail Bank
• Robust Growth

An increasing number of global car makers are outsourcing their R&D and engineering requirements to India to take advantage of the country's improving capabilities and low costs. Mr Rohan Pusalkar, executive director, Indo Schottle Auto Parts said, "Companies like Bharat Forge have led the way and shown how even difficult and complicated markets like China can become customers. This is specially so in auto parts, where there is higher value addition possibility and assemblies, where there are several stages of manufacturing which necessitate extra handling and use of more labour and have export potential." He further added, "The potential world requirement of auto components that India can cater to is estimated by experts to be more than $30 billion and needs an investment of more than $50 billion in capital equipment and infrastructure. The government on its part needs to be a major catalyst by providing excellent infrastructure setup and transparency in government-related transactions and interfaces." Looking at these cost cutting advantages, many global automakers like BMW and the German auto-maker Volkswagen AG, are moving their manufacturing operations to India. Czech car manufacturer Skoda also intends making its Aurangabad plant in India as its manufacturing and export hub for the South Asian region. General Motors also plans to make India an export base. For Hyundai of South Korea, India is the exclusive hub for exports of its Santro. Maruti Udyog has been a sourcing base for Suzuki Motors for a long time. Japanese and Korean car manufacturers such as Toyota Motors have announced plans to invest over $89 million along with mini-vehicle producer Daihatsu Motor in setting up a factory in India to produce 100,000 small cars per year by 2007 whereas Hyundai and Honda are actively looking to setup a new plant in India.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, August 30, 2005

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Global mobile vendor Nokia plans to open a Global Networks Operation Centre in India by the end of the year, strengthening its focus on one of the world's fastest-growing telecommunications markets. The centre will perform network operation tasks primarily for selected operators in the Asia Pacific region as well as Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of Nokia's managed services offering. The location of the site, which will initially employ up to 100 people, will be unveiled at a later date, company's Executive Vice President and General Manager (Networks) Simon Beresford-Wylie said here. It is the latest investment by Nokia in the vibrant Indian market, continuing a decade-long relationship that started with the first-ever cellular call in India, which was made on a Nokia mobile phone and a Nokia-deployed network. "Given Nokia's strong commitment to its expanding services business, plus the positive experience it has enjoyed in India as both a growth and services market, the decision to locate the operation center in India was an easy one to make," Simon Beresford-Wylie says. "The Networks Operation Centre is a firm step towards further enhancing our global reach to better serve our customers. We are aligning with their needs to keep costs in check and improve the services they provide in an ever-tougher market," adds Bosco Novak, Senior Vice President for Services, Networks, Nokia. Nokia has contracted managed services with 34 clients in 28 countries, and has provided operating services for over 20 operators globally, helping them with the day-to-day tasks of running their networks so they can focus on bolstering their business offerings.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, August 26, 2005

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After hogging the limelight as a storehouse of top-notch management talent, Indians are now setting global company boards ablaze. The latest to hit the headline is Vyomesh Joshi, the high profile head of printer business in Hewlett Packard who joined the Yahoo board last week. Other top guns include Goldman Sachs Partners' Sanjeev Mehra, who sits on the BurgerKing board, Intel Capital's Arvind Sodhani, who is on the Nasdaq board, and Pepsi's Indra Nooyi, who graces the boards of Pepsi and Motorola. It's not just US-based Indians. Residents are also making waves. Our very own hotshot banker, Deepak Parekh, is on the board of Singapore-based telecom company Singtel, besides doing directorial duties in many Indian companies. "Many Indians have an established track record at the highest levels in industry. So, it's a natural progression for them to have board-level seats," Arvind Sodhani, president, Intel Capital, told ET. He is currently on the important management compensation committee in the company board.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, August 24, 2005

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UB, Essar, Murugappa and Asian Paints are among the new entrants. Riding high on the bull run in the stock markets, a dozen business groups have joined the $1 billion market cap club over the last one year. At on Tuesday's market price, this takes the total number of business groups in the elite club to 27 from 15 in August last year. The list of the new entrants includes Vijay Mallya's UB group, the Lalit Mohan Thapar group, the Murugappa Chettiar group, Nicholas Piramal, Essar, Wockhardt, Godrej, the Jaiprakash group, the RP Goenka group, the BK Birla group, the Nusli Wadia group and Asian Paints. The aggregate wealth of 27 business groups with a market cap of over $1 billion appreciated by 68 per cent to $128.87 billion (Rs 561,633 crore), compared with $76.66 billion (Rs 334,089 crore) a year ago. Of these business groups, 13 reaped the benefits of the bull run the most with their market caps doubling in a year. The UB group showed 197 per cent rise in its market value to $1.77 billion (Rs 7,729 crore) from around $600 million (Rs 2,605 crore) last year. The total market value of the Murugappa group appreciated by 184 per cent to $1.26 billion (Rs 5,504 crore), Godrej by 163 per cent to $1.04 billion (Rs 4,540 crore), Thapar by 158 per cent to $1.53 billion (Rs 6,655 crore) and the RPG group by 151 per cent to $1.02 billion (Rs 4,453 crore). Three Indian business groups -- Reliance, the Tatas and Bharti -- have a market cap of over $10 billion each. The Reliance group tops the list with a market cap of $28.20 billion. Even after the split in the group, the Mukesh Ambani wing tops with a market cap of $24.1 billion. The Tata group ranks second with a market cap of $19.89 billion and Sunil Mittal's Bharati group ranks third with a market cap of $13.79 billion. The next in the ladder are the AV Birla group ($6.87 billion), Ranbaxy ($4.83 billion), Shiv Nadar ($4.40 billion), Bajaj-Mukand ($4.34 billion) and the Sterlite group ($4.19 billion). Among individual firms, two UB group companies -- United Breweries Holdings and UB Engineering -- have seen their market prices appreciating by over 1000 per cent over the last one year. Among other group companies, United Breweries gained by 483 per cent to Rs 554.10 (Rs 95.10) and McDowell & Co by 412 per cent to Rs 320.75 (Rs 62.70).

Courtesy: Business Standard: August 24, 2005

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A top Indian banker has been named CEO of Citigroup's international operation, affirming the growing clout of Indian corporate, management and financial honchos who have migrated to the international playing field. Ajay Banga, 45, an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus who joined Citigroup in India only in 1996, will succeed Marjorie Magner, chairman and chief executive of the company's Global Consumer Group, who is leaving after what has been a continuous bloodletting that has resulted in the exit of several top executives. Banga will share his job with Steven Freiberg, who was named CEO of the groups North American operations. Both will report to the Citigroup CEO Charles Prince. The promotion will make Banga the top-ranked Indian in a group that has drawn scores of managers from the Indian talent pool, as have many international banks and multinationals in recent years. It also puts him in line for the very top job. The highest-ranking Indian in Citigroup till his recent retirement was Victor Menezes, who started as a Citibank trainee in 1972 and rose to become the bank's president and senior vice-chairman of Citigroup. He was briefly in line to succeed Sandy Weil as chairman of the group before he was eclipsed. similar trend is noticeable in other financial institutions such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, American Express, and Merrill Lynch. Banga began his business career as a management trainee with Nestle in 1981. He spent the next 13 years in a variety of assignments spanning sales, marketing and general management. He later joinedPepsiCo, in its Restaurants Division and launched Pizza Hut and KFC in India. After joining Citigroup in 1996, he worked in London and Brussels before moving to New York and going on to his current job as executive vice-president of the Global Consumer Group and president of the Retail Banking in North America organisation.

Courtesy: The Economic Times: August 24, 2005

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The sports utility vehicle (SUV), Scorpio, by Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M)was awarded the 'Car of the Year 2003' CNBC Auto Car Auto Awards. This Rs 4.65- 6.19 lakh price range car was a sort of Renaissance in the domestic utility vehicles market with its refreshing, contemporary design and relatively improved build quality. According to automobile manufacturers' data, the premium utility vehicle segment grew at approximately 14 per cent up to June 2002. With the launch of Scorpio, the growth rate from July 2002 to March 2003 rose to about 51 per cent. Between April 2003 and March 2004, the segment grew by 33 per cent. But for a vehicle in its class and size, the Scorpio is a fairly frugal vehicle offering a mileage of about 11 kmpl for a mix of in-city and highway driving.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, August 23, 2005

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India possesses a competitive advantage over China when it comes to the quality of business managers that may well decide who leads in the future in the economic race between the two neighbours, a media report has said. "Though India entered its period of free-market reform only in the early 1990s -- a full decade after China -- it was never as closed to the world. India has long had a large private sector, a network of Western-style business schools and a globe-trotting elite of English-speaking executives," the article published in the upcoming issue of Newsweek said. According to the report, though China had a large number of business firms, "It has too few experienced managers for even the elite firms". Consulting firm McKinsey & Co. estimated that even the relatively small number of Chinese companies trying to expand abroad would need up to 75,000 internationally experienced leaders if they want to continue to grow over the next 10 to 15 years. India, the article noted, now had 600 management programmes graduating 5,000 students a year. China had only 95 programmes, which were struggling to grant degrees. It also helped that Indian businesses, unlike Chinese ones, operated in a basically capitalist democracy for decades. Almost 50 per cent of India's GDP was from its private sector, compared with 33 per cent in China. Indians have also faced the discipline of a stock market for much longer. The Shanghai Stock Exchange was shut down in 1941 and did not reopen until 1984. In contrast, the Bombay Stock Exchange, established in 1875, was the oldest in Asia, the article said. "India has a longer history of businesses," Gabriel Hawawini, Dean of Insead, Europe's top business school, was quoted as saying. "For generations, it has had a culture of family-run enterprises.Moreover, Bakul Dholakia, the Dean of IIM Ahmedabad, said that "What makes Indian business graduates different from others is that about 60 to 70 per cent of the MBAs in India are engineers," blending technical and managerial training." Nandan Nilekani, the CEO of software firm Infosys was quoted as saying that Chinese managers "think large scale, have tremendous drive and are quick at execution, but lack experience dealing with global stock markets, marketing, profitmaking and communicating a vision." However, many experts expect the Chinese to catch up fast, the article said. Partha ghosh, a former principal partner at mckinsey &co. And an adviser to India's Finance Minister, said China was producing the "path-breakers, willing to take on the top challenges of the world, even if the world doesn't know their names. That's something for India's slick managers to ponder."

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, August 23, 2005

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India, home to the world's fastest growing major mobile market, will connect all its more than 600,000 villages through telecoms links by 2006, the junior telecoms minister said on Monday. At the moment, only 540,000 villages are connected. Shakeel Ahmad told a seminar in the eastern city of Kolkata, the industry would connect the remaining 60,000 villages by 2006.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, August 23, 2005

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AFTER setting up the first management school within an IIT in 1993, founder and chairman of infoUSA, Inc, Vinod Gupta is now investing $1m to set up the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Law at IIT Kharagpur through the Vinod Gupta Charitable Foundation. "As India becomes an important player in various sectors of the new economy, intellectual property protection is increasingly important. From products to processes, Indian industry will have to be more and more patent and trademark savvy, going forward. The school of intellectual law will work towards educating lawyers in this specialised area. The fact that it is located within the IIT system will make it relevant for corporates and corporate lawyers who wish to specialise in the patents area," Gupta, who is an alumni of IIT-KgP, told ET. He was in India to announce the setting up of the school and to attend the IIT-KgP convocation ceremony. "The institute will transform classroom knowledge into action by creating relevant corporate situations. It will provide world class legal education leading to a post-graduate degree in law and later doctorate programmes. IITs are recognised as world class institutions and I'm confident that IIT Kharagpur will beckon talented inidividuals to create a winning opportunity out of this challenging new discipline," Gupta said.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, August 22, 2005

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A cellphone rate of 60 paise per minute for both local and STD calls, a monthly rental of Rs 100, SMS at 5 paise per message and no roaming charges: is this a make-believe world for mobile phone users? Whether this is a mere chimera or an actualising Utopia depends on a crucial factor - regulatory intervention. When the country's first cellphone service was launched in Calcutta on August 23, 1995, the call rate structure was a huge deterrent: with an outgoing call rate of Rs 16 a minute and an incoming call rate of Rs 8 a minute and cellphones costing Rs 15,000, there were few people ready to jump on to a new revolution in communications. Ten years on, rates have fallen, new services like SMS have been added and the subscriber base has swelled to over 41 million. Four major decisions have contributed to the phenomenal growth of the Indian cellular industry: the switchover from a fixed cost to a revenue sharing regime with the government in 1999, the introduction of a free incoming call regime, the lowering of tariffs and facilitating low entry through pre-paid services, and segregation of long distance charges as origination, termination and carriage charges. Beginning next year, India is aiming to increase the subscriber base by 3 million every month.

Courtesy: The Telegraph, August 22, 2005

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For the fast-growing Indian jet set, the fabulous ski slopes of St Moritz in Switzerland may soon be passe with Alfred Brush Ford, great grandson of Henry Ford, keen to invest over $300 million to develop a ski village in the Dhauladhar mountain ranges above Manali in Himachal Pradesh. The Ford proposal to develop a world-class ski facility, designed by experts from Vail, Colorado, has been cleared by the Virbhadra Singh government. The company set up for this purpose, Himalayan Ski Village (HSV), will submit a detailed project report next month. After getting an environmental impact assessment from the Bhopal-based Indian Institute of Forest Managment, the company plans to launch the project next year. The company plans to develop world-class ski-slopes between Kothi and Jagat Sukh, north of Manali, with gondola ski-lifts that will cater to the well-heeled adventure tourists. A 600-room five-star hotel, 300 chalets, food courts, handicraft village, theatre complex, convention centre and even a sanatorium for hospital tourism will come up. The architecture will be on the lines of Bhimakali Temple of Sarahan in Virbhadra Singh's Rampur constituency. The business model of the project envisages three per cent of the total revenue as royalty to Himachal Pradesh - it works out to more than Rs 30-50 crore of what the state government earns from tourism now. The state gets around seven million tourists every year and the number is growing by 25 per cent annually. John Sims, Managing Director of HSV, said their project would set the benchmarks for eco-tourism in India.

Courtesy: The Indian Express, August 21, 2005

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If you thought Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation shutting shop in India signalled a slowdown in Japanese banking activity in the country, then you are mistaken. Quite contrary, in line with its peers in portfolio investment in the Indian equity market, Mizuho Corporate Bank of Japan has been successfully expanding its foothold in India, primarily leveraging on the Indo-Japanese trade relations. It has not only made business for itself, but has also managed to convince almost 60-65 major Japanese corporates to set up manufacturing or marketing base in India. Most of the Japanese corporates earlier used to focus only on China owing to cheap labour costs. Ken Ito, chief executive officer of Mizuho in India, said the number of corporates looking at India had gone up to almost 60-65 against five to six Japanese firms earlier. The list of corporates includes big names in auto sectors such as Honda, Toyota and Yamaha, as well as those in home appliances, pharmaceuticals, communications. While Nissan has already set up its base in India, the other new entrants include Japanese business conglomerate Mitsui Metal, Sanyo, and pharma major Eisai. Japanese Telecom major Nippon Telegraph (NTT) is also in the process of entering the Indian market. For the India corporates, those who are actively involved in imports from Asian countries like Thailand and Singapore, the bank is offering derivative products including currency and interest rate swaps. Loan syndications is major activity for the bank which it had pioneered two years back by aggressively buying the Indian corporate papers in the primary and secondary international bond market. Ito said the bank's portfolio in loan syndications for Indian corporates has gone up to $600 million from $100-150 million two years back. It proposes to open a new branch and is on a hiring spree to recruit Indian professionals. Currently it has a capital base of Rs 150 crore.

Courtesy: Business Standard: August 18, 2005

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The BSE Sensex beat almost all its peers in Asia and Europe to stay on top, resulting in 56 per cent gains from August last year. The continuous inflow from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) seems to have worked wonders for the domestic capital market. While the Sensex is climbing new peaks every day, the Indian capital market has emerged as the third most profitable market in the world, posting 56 per cent gains from its yearly low hit in August 2004. The BSE Sensex beat almost all its peers in Asia and Europe to stay on top, considering the clime from the yearly lows to yearly highs. The only two countries which outdid India on this count were Argentina and Indonesia. Argentina topped the chart posting an annual return of 75 per cent, while Indonesia was next in line gaining 64 per cent. In the past one year, the Sensex hit an all-time high of 7843.77 points, rising from a low of 5022.29. The 2821 points swing resulted in a 56 per cent gain. The Argentina index hit a high of 1619.26 points and a low of 924.11 points in the corresponding period, the difference being 695.15. The Indonesian benchmark index hit an year's high of 1195.55 and a low of 728.35, a difference of 467.20 points. The Mexico and South Korea markets posted 52 per cent and 50 per cent gains from their yearly lows. The Mexican Index had swinged between a high of 14897 and a low of 9789. But based on the current market index, the gains are a notch lower at 50 per cent. The South Korean Index is currently hovering around the yearly high. The index has risen from a yearly low of 751.26 to a high of 1129.92. But if the more recent trends are any indication, the Indian equity market is soon poised for more surprises. Global indices are coming off their yearly peaks while India seems to be holding on to its gains. If we take the take the figures of all the global indices as on 11 August, the gains on Argentina index from the yearly low was lower at 63 per cent. The index had closed at 1509.23, the difference from its yearly low being 585.12 points.

Courtesy: Business Standard: August 18, 2005

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It is fascinating to note that the leaders of Indian big business consciously chose to subordinate their capitalist instincts to a largely nationalist vision on the eve of independence. The doyen of Indian industry JRD Tata had then said, "State control of industries and even ownership of some industries was not to be seen from a narrow capitalist point of view." JRD, like other prominent industrialists like GD Birla and Walchand Hirachand, had argued that state-led investments were the need of the hour if India were to catch up with the other developed industrial economies. This vision became part of a comprehensive Bombay Plan which prominent Indian entrepreneurs prepared for Jawaharlal Nehru. "I quite realise that government help and National Planning are the essential pre-requisites for our goal of industrial emancipation, " Walchand Hirachand had then said. It was this vision that drove the Nehruvian strategy of creating the commanding heights of economy in the public sector in the subsequent decade. While this strategy seemed relevant then, it degenerated in the subsequent decades into a neta-babu regime which sought to stifle Indian entrepreneurship. Surely, JRD and others had not bargained for a degenerative bureaucracy and political class presiding over the worst from of Licence Raj. Indira Gandhi strengthened the licence raj and took it to new heights, much to the chagrin of India's big business, which could not expand capacity without the permission of the government. Indian entrepreneurs truly got freedom from this licence raj only in the early 90s when India made a small but decisive beginning to go global. So the new economic policies brought new freedoms to the Indian entrepreneurs. Indian business became aggressive in this phase.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, August 17, 2005

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India is not just about the Taj. Stung by the mystique of Indian weavers, foreigners are all out to explore the country's textile traditions in the remote areas of Bhuj (Gujarat), Sanganer (Rajasthan), Nuapatna (Orissa) and Pochampalli (Andhra Pradesh). 'Textile circuits' have become one of the unique selling propositions for tour operators who offer their customers something beyond the famous Golden Triangle of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur. A New Zealand-based tour operator selling a South Indian textile tour package for approximately $4,600 has named it 'Silk and Spice'. The company claims that the package is completely sold out for '06 and one can book only for '07. The 28-day trip starting from February 11, '07 includes air transport from Europe to a tour of the three states - Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala - in an air-conditioned bus. Domestic operators are also offering various choices to foreigners. One of the famous circuits in the east is Bhubaneshwar-Nuapatna-Barpali-Sonepur-Bolangir. The package promises to make you familiar with 'ikat' (tie and dye) and 'tasar' silk weaving. Another popular sector offered by domestic tour operators is Mumbai-Bhuj-Jamnagar-Ahmedabad-Udaipur-Jaipur-Agra-Delhi-Mumbai. Priced at around $2,000 for 16 days and 15 nights, the package includes visits to historical places, forts, cultural destinations and other places of entertainment en-route. There is also an increasing trend of fashion students and textile professionals visiting textile clusters of India. Students from LDT Nagold, a Germany-based fashion retail school, and Amsterdam Fashion Institute have tied up with Delhi-based Pearl Academy of Fashion, which organises visits for foreign students to textile clusters, apart from explaining them Indian weaving and processing techniques.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, August 17, 2005

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Chief Secretary of the Gemmological Institute of India, K.T. Ramachandran, said on Tuesday that a highly skilled and trained workforce is necessary in the field of jewellery management, as India is the fastest emerging jewellery markets in the world. He was speaking at the inauguration of the induction programme of the degree course, "BBA in Jewellery Management," at the Manipal Institute of Jewellery Management, a unit of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), here. Mr. Ramachandran said the Indian retail jewellery market for gold jewellery is the largest in the world. On an average, 800 tonnes of gold is utilised every year. The retail jewellery network provides customised jewellery to customers and it is undergoing a change with the emergence of malls, supermarkets and branded stores, he said. Branded jewellery items are on the rise with over 40 brands already in the market, he added. De-beers and Rio Tinto, the world leaders in mining and distribution of diamonds have already pitched their tents in India with a view to extend support to the domestic diamond jewellery market, Mr. Ramachandran said. India is the third largest consumer of diamonds, which only shows the purchasing capacity of the middle-class, Mr. Ramachandran said. With the growth of the jewellery industry in India, infrastructure in terms of technological support and manpower development is the need of the hour, he said. Indian gem industry cuts and polishes 60 per cent of world's rough diamonds by value and 80 per cent of rough diamonds by volume. India cuts and polishes nine out of 10 diamonds sold in the world market. It is estimated that the Indian diamond industry employs over 10 lakh artisans, which is almost 94 per cent of the global workforce of diamond industry. The Indian gem industry has many small and medium scale business houses. There are many modern factories being set up for jewellery manufacturing in the free trade zones around the country, Mr. Ramachandran said. India has not attained a reasonable market share in the jewellery business of the world so far. But the beginning has been impressive. Jewellery export increased from $ 150 million in 1990 to $ 2.76 billion in 2004. India's jewellery exports were up by 42 per cent in 2004 over the last year. K.V.M. Varamabally welcomed the gathering. Vice-Chancellor of MAHE, H.S. Ballal, inaugurated the new course. Vinod Bhat, Registrar of MAHE, was present.

Courtesy: The Hindu, August 17, 2005

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The neighbourhood 'dakiya' is now a BPO worker. India Post has struck major outsourcing deals with Citibank, GE Money, Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom to verify the addresses of their potential customers. The deals are estimated to fetch Rs 3,000 crore for India Post. The outsourcing activities that postmen will now perform include address verification of credit card applicants and customers of post-paid telecom services , besides direct mailing services to target customers in select areas. For free-loaders, those days of enjoying credit cards and mobile phones through fraudulent means will now be over. Once the postman is asked to verify your name and address, it will become rather tough to pull a fast one on him. The very fact that a local person will be doing the verification should be enough to keep dodgy customers at bay. "We have a network of 1,55,000 post offices in every nook and corner of the country, which can be used for carrying out outsourcing work of this scale. Of this total, 1,37,043 are in rural areas and 16,411 are in urban areas. Besides, our postmen know each and every person in their respective areas," a senior India Post official told ET. For credit card and telecom companies, signing up should bring genuine relief. There have been many instances of private finance companies facing problems with bogus customers using fake addresses to take loans. Companies used to contract private agents to verify... address details of customers, but that had serious shortcomings as agents had to depend on second-hand information themselves. In the deal with Citibank and GE Money, India Post will carry out the entire verification process for their credit card services. The companies would be able to make use of the vast experience and contacts of the local postman. That's a unique and individual database. India Post network has postmen on every beat. One beat comprises around 250 households. On an average, a post office serves an area of 21.4 sq km and a population of 5,502. Each postman is expected to know sufficient details about every family in his beat. Add to that his easy access to these households, and you know why he is the most credible source of information for companies that can't afford to go wrong, say officials in India Post. The outsourcing deals with private telecom operators Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom will also operate on similar lines. The two are outsourcing applications received for post-paid connections to India Post, which in turn will channelise them to the respective post offices for verification.

Courtesy: The Times of India, August 17, 2005

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India has displaced the US to become the second-most attractive destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) among manufacturing investors, as per A T Kearney's latest FDI Confidence Index rankings. The rankings are based on an annual survey of chief executive officers, chief financial officers and other top executives of Global 1000 companies, conducted by the Global Business Policy Council of A T Kearney. Telecom and utility investors, for instance, upgraded India from the fifth place to second. At the same time, the US was displaced from the top-most position down to the fourth place, just after Hong Kong. China gained immense ground and swapped places with the US, up from fourth to the first, the survey stated. Overall, India has moved up three notches from the sixth place last year to the third as the most attractive FDI destination. The perception gap between the US and India is, however, fast closing. Against China's index of 2.03, India ranked marginally behind the US at 1.4, against the latter's 1.45. The US National Intelligence Council's study also identifies India as the new economic star of the 21st century along with China. This explains the eight-fold rise in FDI inflows into India over the last decade. The $1-billion Holcim-ACC-Gujarat Ambuja deal is a pointer to the FDI potential India enjoys today. In 2004-05, India attracted higher FDI at $7.5-8 billion, up from $4.7 billion in the preceding fiscal. India witnessed massive growth in M&A deals in the first half of 2005, with aggregate deals valued at $6.9 billion against $2.9 billion in the corresponding period last year, stated PWC. Compared with telecommunications and information technology, majority of the deals in 2003-04 took place in manufacturing. "India has witnessed the second highest growth in M&As after Japan," it added.

Courtesy: Business Standard: August 16, 2005

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India's long-term potential may be greater than China's as the communist giant faces a shrinking work force due to its one child policy, according to a leading American business weekly. "I believe India has a better model than China, and over time will surpass it in growth," Chief Economist William T Wilson of consultancy Keystone Business Intelligence India said. Also experts point out China's lack of innovation in industry and its tendency to be wasteful while marching on the growth path can prove to be a major drawback in the next couple of decades. China 's working-age population will peak at 1 billion in 2015 and then shrink steadily. China then will have to provide for a graying population that has limited etirement benefits. By mid-century, India is expected to have 1.6 billion people - and 220 million more workers than China. "That could be a source for instability, but a great advantage for growth if the government can provide education and opportunity for India's masses," says Business Week online Painting a rosy picture, it said New Delhi is just now pushing to open its power, telecom, commercial real estate and retail sectors to foreigners which could lure big capital inflows. "The pace of institutional changes and the industries being liberalised is phenomenal," it quoted Wilson as saying. For its part China has yet to prove it can go beyond forced-march industrialization. China directs massive investment into public works and factories, a successful formula for rapid growth and job creation. "But considering its massive manufacturing output, China is surprisingly weak in innovation. A full 57 per cent of exports are from foreign-invested factories, and China underachieves in software," it adds.

Courtesy: The Times of India, August 16, 2005

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The size of Business Intelligence software market in India has grown to 10.55 million US dollars with SAS leading the pack, cornering a share of 23 per cent in 2004, according to research firm IDC. IDC said the business intelligence software market was growing at compound annual growth rate of 27.09 per cent. SAS India has a strong customer base in India with over 150 installations in the country including companies like Novartis, Standard Chartered Bank, Hindustan Lever Ltd, HDFC Bank, Reserve Bank of India. According to IDC, the banking, financial services and insurance dominate the market spends on BI software with 35 per cent of total spend in the country. The telecom sector (21 per cent), manufacturing sector (15 per cent) and services industry (10 per cent), including the ITES sector, are other key spenders on business intelligence software. The study mentions that the Government will be a major adopter of BI with huge amount of unstructured data and there will be a rise demand from medium and large enterprises.

Courtesy: The Economic Times: August 12, 2005

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Deal activity in the first half of 2005 broke out of the flat trend seen since mid-2002. INDATA recorded 277 deals valued at Rs 261.5 billion ($6 billion) between January and June 2004. H1-04 was a good period for corporate finance, and the total deal value was more than twice (235 per cent) that in the first half of 2004 (Rs 111.2 billion, $2.5 billion) and well ahead of the full year total for 2004 (Rs 234.1 billion, $5.2 billion). Average deal value was higher by 42 per cent at Rs 944 million ($21.7 million) compared to Rs 663 million ($14.7 million) in 2004. Strategic investors dominated the deal flow in H1 2005. M&A deals made up 88 per cent by the value of all deals and private equity deals only 12 per cent, compared to 67 per cent and 33 per cent in the whole of 2004. However, private equity majors such as Blackstone and Carlyle have established offices in India and announced substantial investment plans. The finance sector replaced IT as the largest contributor to INDATA in H1 2005, with a total of 36 deals totalling Rs 50.8 billion ($1.2 billion) made up 20 per cent of total deal value. IT still remained the largest contributor in terms of number of deals with a total of 43 deals, but made up only 5 per cent of the total deal value. In contrast to previous years, deal activity in H1 2005 was spread across a wide range of sectors, with telecom (16 per cent), foods and FMCG (13 per cent), cement and building materials (10 per cent), metals (9 per cent), oil and gas (5 per cent), automotive (5 per cent) and pharma and healthcare (5 per cent) displaying healthy levels of activity. The finance sector was the biggest contributor to INDATA in H1 2005. While activity was spread across sub-sectors, 50 per cent of the deal volume in the finance sector was contributed by Mr Anil Ambani's acquisition (through holding company AAA Enterprises) of a 52.03 per cent stake in asset management company - Reliance Capital - for Rs 25.6 billion ($587.8 million). Another notable deal was the merger of the large government-owned financial institution, Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), with its subsidiary, IDBI Bank, in a deal worth Rs 7.6 billion ($174.6 million). A major last minute entry into INDATA was another large bank merger - that of Centurion Bank with Bank of Punjab. Centurion Bank is majority owned by a consortium led by Rana Talwar's Sabre Capital, while Bank of Punjab has been promoted by the Singh family. Following the Rs 3.6 billion ($82.1 million) merger, the combined entity will be known as Centurion Bank of Punjab and will have a network of 235 branches across India. The telecom sector also emerged as a major contributor to INDATA in H1 2005, although with fewer deals. The largest deal in INDATA in H1 2005 related to the telecom businesses of the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications in India. Indian acquirers asserted themselves in H1-05, and were responsible for 48 per cent of the total deal value. In terms of number of deals, Indian acquirers announced 166 out of a total of 277 deals (60 per cent). While the INDATA survey is restricted to corporate finance activity involving Indian targets, the volume of overseas acquisitions by Indian companies can no longer be ignored. sIndian companies continued to acquire abroad continued in H1 2005. There were 43 overseas acquisitions by Indian acquirers in H1 2005 compared to 60 in the whole of 2004. The largest overseas deal was the Videocon Group's acquisition of Thomson's colour picture tube business in China, Poland, Mexico, and Italy for a total of $290 million. The deal was paid for by an issue of shares in two Videocon companies - Videocon International (consumer durables) and Videocon Industries (oil and gas exploration). The other large overseas deal was by pharmaceuticals Matrix Laboratories, which acquired 100 per cent of the Belgian pharma company, Docpharma for $263 million). UBS acted as the advisor to Thomson and Matrix respectively. IT companies were active acquirers with 13 deals worth $89 million.

Courtesy: The Hindu Business Line: August 12, 2005

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ONGC Mittal Energy Limited, the newly-formed joint venture company of ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and the LN Mittal steel group, has identified 22 countries to pursue oil and gas projects relating to exploration, development, production, pipeline transportation and refining of hydrocarbons. These 22 countries have further been categorised under Schedule I and II territories. Ten countries including Azerbaijan, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Liberia, Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Uzbekistan have been put under Schedule I. Here OVL and the Mittal group will work together on an exclusive basis i.e. as ONGC Mittal Energy, except for offers that are made to OVL on a government-to-government basis. For the remaining 12 countries, both the parties would identify projects on a case-to-case basis and work jointly based on mutual consent. Schedule II countries are Angola, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, the UK and the US. The LN Mittal group produces steel in 15 countries across four continents and has experience in trading and transportation of various commodities in over 80 countries. The group has a strong presence in Canada, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, the UK and the US, all of which are hydrocarbon-rich countries. Officials close to the deal said the Mittals were confident of developing good business interests in Angola, a hydrocarbon-rich country where OVL's efforts to get a foothold have not succeeded so far. OVL has been pursuing opportunities in Angola and has recently been shortlisted by Sonangal, responsible for management of oil and gas reserves in Angola, for participation in a refinery project linked to award of suitable equity stake in certain oil blocks there.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, August 11, 2005

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According to DQ Top 20 survey, India is fast emerging as one of the biggest potential laptop markets in the Asia-Pacific region. A look at the year that went by amply demonstrates a spectacular year for notebooks, with growth exceeding 141% as compared to last year's 75%. Industry analysts attribute the buoyancy in the laptop market to the introduction of the newer value price bands, especially for mid-level laptops, and enterprises are now warming up to the idea of providing employees with notebooks instead of a desktop at a marginal 10-20% higher investment cost. Today, there is a range of laptops, branded ones, that fall below Rs 45 K. Here's a glance

Courtesy: The Economic Times, August 11, 2005

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Want to own an aircraft but can't afford to buy one? Opt for fractional ownership - a concept already in place in holiday resorts and condominiums. Club One, India's first fractional ownership airline, today launched its fleet of five fractionally-owned Cessna Citation business jets. Businessmen and high net-worth individuals, keen to sport the 'aircraft owner' tag, will have to shell out anything between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2 crore - a sixteenth to one-fourth the price of an eight-seater Cessna jet. Operating and management costs and overhead expenses will be shared by the owners, with Club One taking over the headache of running the fleet. "We have six clients now and are targeting about 60 by the year-end," Club One managing director Manav Singh said at a news conference. "With increasing hassles of commercial travel, long security lines, departure delays and the uncertainty of commercial flights, many successful people are turning to private aircraft," Singh added. Owners and chief executives of medium-sized firms and high net-worth individuals are Club One's target audience. The concept has proved popular in the US and Singh feels the time has come for it to take off in India, too. "There are lots of high net-worth individuals in this (northern India) industrial belt alone." However, analysts warn that fractional airlines abroad have seen disgruntled clients complaining of higher than anticipated costs, scheduling hassles and availability of aircraft during peak travel days. Robin Pathak, former director with Indian Airlines, said: "It is likely to be a fad with some people ... but the really rich will stick to their own business jets while the wannabes will flirt with the idea, weigh the pros and cons and then stick to old tried and tested airline schedules ... it could take off once the market deepens and greater number of destinations are added to the aviation map."

Courtesy: The Telegraph, August 11, 2005

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Riding on the back of the growing business in the country, the UK-based Standard Chartered Bank's Indian operations now contribute the second largest share to the global bank's profits. Until last year, Standard Chartered Bank Singapore occupied the second position in the global pecking order in terms of contributions to total profits. This time around, the city state has been pushed to third with the bank's Indian operations moving up the profit chart. Hong Kong tops the profit contribution list. StanChart's Indian operation has reported a 23.4% rise in operating profit before taxation to $137m for the first six months ended June 30, '05 compared to $111m in the corresponding period the previous fiscal. The profits registered by StanChart India for calendar year '04 was $195m. Globally, the bank reported a 20% jump in profit before tax to $1.33bn for the first six months from $1.1bn the previous fiscal. In the last calendar year, India was the third largest contributor of profits to the group after Hong Kong ($629m) and Singapore ($254m). For the first six months, the major contributors to the British bank's bottomline have been Hong Kong $360m ($301m), Singapore $104m ($ 129m), UAE $91m ($83m) and Malaysia with $70m ($63m). According to Mervyn Davies, group CEO, StanChart, "We are the largest international bank (in India), we hold top five positions in many of our market segments, and we are the third most profitable multinational. In the first half of '05, our operating profit has exceeded the profits we made for the full year of '01. We are continuing to invest in growing our footprint to benefit from the scale and potential in India."

Courtesy: The Economic Times: August 09, 2005

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Reliance Industries has made a huge gas discovery in a coal block in Madhya Pradesh. The company discovered 3.75 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves under coal seams in the Sohagpur coal bed methane (CBM) blocks in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh, senior company officials said. This is Reliance's first gas find in the CBM blocks. The company has earlier found gas reserves in the deep sea blocks off Andhra Pradesh coast and Orissa coast. The Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance has informed the government, and the directorate general of hydrocarbons (DGH) has approved the in-place gas reserves. "Reliance has made a gas discovery, and we have certified the in-place reserves at 3.75 trillion cubic feet," V K Sibbal, director general of DGH, said. CBM is primarily methane gas (80-95%), which occurs in its natural state in coal or lignite bed seams. Sibbal said Reliance has completed the first exploration phase in the Sohagpur blocks, and is now entering the second phase. "Recoverable reserves would be established only after more test drilling," he said, adding Reliance would drill 12 more development wells in the blocks.

Courtesy: www.business-standard.com, August 08, 2005

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The domestic sugar industry has urged the government to explore the possibility of persuading Pakistan to import sugar from India. India has already accorded most favoured nation (MFN) status to Pakistan. Both countries have identified a list of tradeable commodities, in which sugar is left out. With a view to meeting its domestic needs, Pakistan has already imported 100,000 tonne of sugar from refineries based in Dubai. It is slated to import another 300,000 tonne of sugar. Trade between the two neighbours has suffered a long time owing to political tensions. Now with signs of betterment in relations between the two countries, the domestic industry sees it an opportunity to explore the possibility of exporting sugar to Pakistan. "Pakistan has purchased 100,000 tonne of sugar from Dubai at $366 a tonne. It needs another 300,000 tonne in the current year to meet its needs. In the coming year, it is slated to import 500,000 tonne according to projected estimates. We can supply cheaper sugar to Pakistan through border trade," said SL Jain, executive director of Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) Mr Jain feels the sugar situation in the country has improved and now the appreciation in global prices offers an excellent opportunity for exports. There will be a surplus stock of 4.5 million tonne at the end of the current sugar year in September. The area under sugarcane in the current kharif (summer) season has increased by 336,000 ha to 4.085 million ha as compared with 3.749 million ha in the previous year. Thus, plenty of cane will be available for crushing in the new sugar year, which begins from October, and the sugar output is likely to go up to 18.5 million tonne, he said. He added that India can export about 2 million tonne. The sugar industry said that they have an obligation to export quantities of white sugar equivalent to the amount of raw sugar imported and that this is the right time to export. India can cater in a big way to markets in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and the gulf countries, apart from Pakistan.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, August 08, 2005

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Long renowned as the world's largest maker of cut and polished diamonds, the Indian diamond industry is now gearing up to dazzle the international market with branded jewellery featuring precious stones. Industry experts say Russia, East Europe, the West Asia and China offer a huge market for branded Indian diamond jewellery that currently accounts for a small portion of total exports. "At this moment, Indian brands have no major presence in the global diamond jewellery market," said Mehul Choksi, chairman of Gitanjali Group, one of India's oldest diamond jewellery companies. "This is really very amazing because of the fact that our industry has managed to carve out a niche for itself in the global market in the cutting and polishing business," Mr Choksi said. "Our industry manufacturers as many as 11 out of every 12 diamonds set in jewellery worldwide. Now, domestic players are becoming aware the export potential of branded diamond jewellery to achieve sustainable growth." The Gitanjali Group launched Nakshatra and Asmi - India's two leading diamond brands - in the West Asia last month. The brands have been launched in association with Damas. They will be sold through 50 Damas outlets in Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain and Muscat. "We are planning to launch our brands in other geographical locations like the US, Britain, and China over the next few months." said Mr Choksi. "We will sell our products in the international market through exclusive retail stores and will also have a shop-in-shop arrangement targeting all leading malls and other big stores," he added. The Mumbai-headquartered Gitanjali Group has state-of-the-art diamond cutting and polishing facilities at five locations in India. India's gems and jewellery exports shot up from a meagre $25 million in 1966-67 to a staggering $15 billion in the 2004-05 fiscal ended March 31. The industry contributes about 18 per cent to the country's total exports. Availability of a vast pool of cheap labour, a vast domestic market and the government's liberal policies have helped India to carve out a niche for itself in the diamond cutting and polishing business. De Beers, which runs most of the diamond mines in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, is one of the key suppliers of rough stones to India.

Courtesy: www.deccan.com, August 07, 2005

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The Indian consumer market is on fire. The 200 million middle class is finally coming into its own. Every global marketer - whether they are a Fortune 500 multinational in the US or a Korean chaebol - have their sights trained on India. Domestic firms in India - be it an ITC or a Bharti aren't exactly about to squander their home market advantage.

Courtesy: The Times of India, August 06, 2005

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India's cherished dream of providing a cure-all for British hospital waiting lists may be a step closer to reality, thanks to the UK media's power to make friends and influence patients, with news that an Englishwoman is flying her son out to Delhi for a crucial operation simply on the back of an article on Indian 'medical tourism'in the local paper. Karen Knott, whose 14-year-old ace-swimmer son Elliot, hurt his back eight months ago in an ice-skating accident, told TOI on Thursday that she was travelling to Delhi "with a lot of hope". The mother-son duo, who arrive in Delhi on Tuesday, will pay a total of £6,000, which includes hospital costs, operating fees, board and lodging and return air fare, for the Indian SOS venture. That's just about one-fifth of the cost of comparative private health care for Elliott in Britain. The Knotts'story comes as a badly-needed remedial PR boost to Indian plans to push health care as a growth industry. Just last year, consulting firm McKinsey & Co predicted medical tourism could become a $2 billion-a-year business for India by 2012. But, the sunshine prospects dimmed somewhat after officials at Britain's department of health firmly rejected any "plans" to outsource the UK's harried, patient waiting list despite Indian private hospital groups launching an ambitious lobbying exercise through a Medical Expo in London. Knott said the Indian option had presented itself as viable time-wise and economically after Elliot was told he would have to wait 17 weeks just to have an appointment with a consultant. For months, the teenager has barely been able to stand for longer than a couple of minutes because of spondylolisthesis, a condition in which a vertebra slips out of line in the spinal column and presses on a nerve.

Courtesy: The Times of India, August 05, 2005

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Boeing Co. expects firms in India's booming civil aviation market to buy 490 aircraft over the next two decades as falling ticket prices and growing passenger traffic fuel demand, a top company official said. Dinesh Keskar, Vice-President for Sales, said in an interview on Thursday that passenger traffic was likely to grow more than 20 per cent over the next three to four years. "The demand which we are observing in India is one of the highest growth rates in the world today," Keskar said. "We see a demand for about 490 aircraft for about $36 billion." Authorities say domestic and international traffic will grow 20 per cent a year as the government and private sector invest $20 billion over the next five years, while more than doubling the number of civilian passenger planes to 400. India's average annual air travel is 0.1 trip per person, a fraction of the global average of 2.0, industry figures show.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, August 05, 2005

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China's breakneck pace of growth may not last and the world's seventh largest economy could be vulnerable to external shocks, said Edward Prescott, the Nobel 2004 economics prize laureate. Prescott, who teaches at the Arizona State University and also works for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, compared China's growth with that of Brazil's from the 1960s to the 1980s. "China's spectacular rate of growth may not be sustainable, and the country risks the same shocks that hit Brazil in the 80s," he told an economics conference in Singapore on Friday. "Good things happened in Brazil, but they were hit by shocks and they couldn't handle it in the 80s. And they lost all that ground that they made from the 60s to the 80s," he said. In the early 1980s, several Latin American countries suffered a sharp deterioration in their terms of trade and suffered from a spike in debt servicing costs as oil prices and interest rates rose and as industrial economies went into recession. "At some point, the spectacular growth in China has to stop," Prescott said but declined to predict when that might happen. Prescott, who has warned that Asian banks cannot continue accumulating U.S. dollars forever, said China should avoid buying large amounts of low-interest rate yielding dollars. "The Chinese are saving like mad, but they are not getting a very good return on their savings," he said. Prescott said democratic institutions in India inspire more confidence in that country's growth path.

Courtesy: The Indian Express, August 05, 2005

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Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will be doubling the petroleum refining capacity at its Jamnagar refinery to 60 million tonne per year, with an investment outlay of about Rs 25,000 crore, making it the single largest integrated petroleum refinery in the world. This was announced by RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani at the company's 31st AGM held here on Wednesday after the split between him and his younger brother Anil Ambani. Addressing the shareholders, Mukesh said that the expansion project will not only double RIL's revenues it will also provide several new opportunities in its other core businesses like polyester, petrochemicals and oil and gas. He said that after the expansion project, which is likely to be completed in 2008-09, the refinery will have a crude throughput of over 1.2 million barrels per day, and added that the increased output will primarily be destined for the exports market. Mukesh said that the post quota regime has opened up new growth areas for RIL and to leverage on one of its core strengths of polyester fibre, it will also be increasing its polyester manufacturing capacity to 2 million tonne per year. "Our strategy will be to add new capacities for value-added differentiated polyesters and we are building on a portfolio of about 120 global patents in this domain, like microfilaments, pre-coloured and heavy denier yarns etc," he said. In its petrochemical business Mukesh said that after supplementing its business with the acquisitions of IPCL, NOCIL and SM Dyechem the company continues to explore for more acquisitions in this product category. He added that a new plant to manufacture polypropylene would be added soon at Jamnagar.In the exploration field Mukesh announced that RIL has made ten more oil and gas discoveries in the last financial year, which included three more discoveries in NEC 25, six more in KG D6 and one more in Yemen.

Courtesy: www.newindpress.com, August 04, 2005

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The size of Indian retail market has been estimated at Rs 7,40,000 crore in 2002 as per a study commissioned by the department of consumer affairs, commerce minister Mr Kamal Nath told the Rajya Sabha today. On an average the sector has grown by seven per cent per annum during 1999 to 2002.

Courtesy: The Statesman, August 04, 2005

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ICICI Bank edged past foreign banking majors Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank to emerge as the best retail bank in India, according to the latest issue of 'Asian Banker Journal'. ICICI Bank was second only to HSBC, Hong Kong in the list of top five retail banks in the Asia-Pacific region. ICICI Bank scored over some Asian heavyweights like DBS Bank of Singapore, Citibank (India) and Kookmin Bank of Korea. ICICI Bank's success is attributed to its dynamic executive director Chanda Kochhar who was named the retail banker of the year for 2004. HDFC Bank bagged the award for excellence in retail risk management among all the Asian banks.

Courtesy: Rediff.com: August 03, 2005

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With India all set to become the hub for Knowledge Process Outsourcing, professionals from diverse fields are finding interesting career options in this sector, writes Kusum Makhija.

India is set to become the most preferred destination for Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) as it grows to touch the $17 billion mark by 2010, says the Confederation of Indian Industry. In its recent study-'India in the new knowledge economy'-the CII had said that the services sector would grow at a more than eight percent and its contribution to GDP would be above 51 percent. The study affirmed that India's transition from being a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) destination to a KPO destination was imminent. Areas with significant potential for KPO include pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, technology, legal services, intellectual property, research and design, and development of automotive and aerospace industries. According to the study, India could emerge as a global KPO hub as the business requires specialised knowledge in respective verticals and the country's engineering and technical institutes are geared to address the manpower demand.

Diverse backgrounds

The transition from BPO to KPO is also bringing along with it a sea of opportunities for people with diverse academic backgrounds. These KPOs or Knowledge Process Outsourcing firms are recruiting employees from diverse academic backgrounds right from management to life sciences. For instance, Scope e-Knowledge Center currently has 380 employees, out of which close to 95 percent are engineers, MBAs, professionals with financial background and journalists. "We have engineers both freshers and experienced from various disciplines of engineering, including pharma and life sciences," says Vijayalakshmi Rao, Director, Scope e-Knowledge Center. Scope is focused on the scientific, technical and medical domains.

Unlike BPO companies where being fluent in English is your entry ticket, KPOs lay a lot of emphasis on educational qualification. The work in a KPO is very academic oriented wherein employees have to be fluent in processes with sound academic base of the related field. "We do a lot of database related work for the engineering, chemical, pharma and life science sectors which require people with in-depth domain knowledge and a good understanding of products and processes in these areas," says Rao.

The kind of work employees have to do includes abstraction of technical patents, extraction of legacy technical data, cataloguing and indexing, taxonomy building and database creation and updating. All this requires a basic interest and knowledge in specific domains besides an aptitude for working with data and information.

Companies recruit candidates from diverse academic backgrounds as it gives them an edge to leverage their professional competencies. Says Sanjay Shenoy, VP, HR, Ugam solutions, "We do recruit candidates from different fields due to their functional competencies. Such diversity helps us in getting different perspectives for delivering quality work to our clients."

But are these highly qualified employees, getting their due working in a 24x7 environment? Says G Sindhu, Research Analyst-Engineer and MBA at Scope, "I find my academic qualification very apt for projects involving moderate to high levels of analysis, especially those related to industrial sectors. Other management principles help in planning, organising, scheduling, coordination, team management, project management etc." Unlike traditional BPO sectors where tele-calling processing skills are more important than knowledge, KPO requires specific domain expertise. Says S Suresh Kumar, Assistant Manager (Projects), Scope, "I feel my academic qualifications along with my experience in R&D has been of immense value to my job in Scope. In-depth knowledge in the subject/domain is a prerequisite for the kind of job I am doing since my job involves supervising a large team of chemical engineers who are doing data extraction, indexing and other value added database work for a US based client.

Adds Sanjay Shenoy of Ugam, "The educational qualification is very relevant for the work they handle. We prefer candidates with science background as they tend to perform better in tasks which require data analysis as well as programming. The primary role of an employee is to understand client requirements for programming Online questionnaires and surveys, analysis and tabulation of market research data and coding of open-ended responses." This is the right place for professionals who want to explore their own field. "I joined the KPO industry after completing my BE and was involved in an engineering database creation assignment. I joined MBA. (HR) course, the area of interest changed and when I approached the management about an opening in the HR department, they willingly offered me the job. I am now closely involved in recruitment and development of entry level engineers for the company," says Mabel, Personnel Executive, Scope, e- Knowledge.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, August 02, 2005

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'Brand India' is rising faster than 'Brand China' on a global sliding scale of consumer preferences and perceptions and India's cultural heritage and high-tech skills give it an increasingly strong international appeal, according to a study of 25 countries' brand reputations. The findings, published on Monday, interestingly found that while China may be the workshop of the world, but 'Made in India' remains a more pleasing label than Chinese-branded products. The Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index devastatingly found that the US is increasingly seen as a "culture-free zone" populated by arrogant and unfriendly people. India ranked 18th overall, sandwiched between Egypt and Poland and a significant three places ahead of China. America's bad brand image appears to be driven mainly by hostility and dissatisfaction worldwide with US foreign policy. A spokesperson for the Index said that India was ranked 20 in terms of products, with consumers saying they would most expect "textiles" to be produced in India. In the governance grade, India's leaders brought its position to a dismal 22, with its system of government generally described as "unpredictable". India scored a healthy seven for its overall cultural appeal and five for its cultural heritage. Consumers picked "films" as the cultural activity or product they would most expect to see produced in India. Indian people were described as "hard-working", ranking 18th, while tourism overall was ranked 19 with India seen as a "fascinating and exciting" destination. In the investment/immigration grade, India came in at 21. And most consumers said they had a mental picture of India's current economic and social condition as "developing". The world's favourite brand of nation - perhaps because of its beer, beaches, beautiful sunsets and broad vowels - is Australia. Canada is ranked No 2, despite its acres of frozen, unpopulated land; Switzerland is No 3; the UK comes fourth and Sweden is fifth. The US is number 11, just seven places ahead of India, while Russia and Turkey virtually tied for joint bottom-place of an index that measures the preferences and perceptions of 10,000 consumers in 10 countries, including India.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, August 02, 2005

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The economies of India and China will grow and with the size of their population, will become larger than the US in absolute terms, an American analyst has said. "It is true that both China and India face daunting challenges and much could go wrong. I have been impressed, however, by the extent to which they have identified their challenges and put in place mechanisms to deal with them," founder of the Economic Strategy Institute and Counsellor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration Clyde Prestowitz told The Washington Post. "These economies will grow, and by dint of the size of their population, will become larger in absolute size than the US economy. Thus the weight of influence in the world will inevitably change in their favour," he said in an on-line chat "The US is moving towards a service economy and away from manufacturing, leaving the country in a situation where it won't be able to produce its way out of debt," he said. Asian economies which invest part of their foreign exchange reserves in the US may keep buying US debt but this debt has to be financed. "We have to pay interst or dividends or in some way ultimately give them a return on the assets they have bought. That means a claim on future American income and thus lower standards of living for our grandchildren. Second problem is that our financing requirements now soak up about 80 per cent of available world savings. Once we hit 100 per cent, there is no place to go," Prestowitz said.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, August 01, 2005

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The first quarter corporate results were widely expected to show a slowdown in growth. The reasons are familiar: the effect of a high base, higher raw material costs, lower "other income", the limited scope for top line growth as companies come up against their capacity utilisation limits, and so on. These are reasons that have been cited by the more cautious analysts for a long time, and India Inc has at the end of every quarter beaten their estimates. This time, too, there have been predictions of a slowdown in earnings, with some justification. Of course, the expectations varied widely from sector to sector. For instance, the IT services majors were expected to raise their guidance for the year, consumer products companies were expected to benefit from the end of the price wars and a pick-up in demand, and pharma companies were supposed to do well on account of traders stocking up after the end of VAT-related uncertainties. Other sectors that were expected to improve their performance were the engineering companies, riding on the back of the rise in investment demand; the brokerages, thanks to the bull run in the stock market; hotels, with the increase in tourist and business customers; and cement, profiting from a better pricing environment. On the other hand, cost pressures were expected to adversely impact the automobile segment, and everybody knew that the energy sector would be hit badly by the rising subsidy burden. Banks presented a mixed picture, with opinion divided on the extent to which robust loan growth would offset the drop in treasury income and the impact of the depreciation of their investment portfolio. It was also clear that growth was expected to continue to rule at high levels, and the view was that they would slow down from the giddy pace notched up during the December 2004 quarter. The results, in large measure, bear out the expectations. Top line growth has slowed, and the fat margins of the March 2005 quarter have been whittled away a bit. As expected, the pharma, cement, hotels and engineering sectors have performed much better. The IT sector's results, for the most part, displeased the market, the auto sector saw pressure on margins, while the steel sector disappointed. Needless to add, this picture is far from uniform-some companies have done very well in spite of a slower pace of growth in their sectors. The rapid growth of new industries such as retail is another potent force. And finally, of course, the increasing attraction of India as an offshoring destination, not only for IT services and BPO, but also for some manufacturing operations, is no longer in doubt.

Courtesy: www.business-standard.com, August 01, 2005

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