Fw: Cygnus Daily Business Update 26 Apr,10

[G.V.Sandeep]

 

 

 

 

	CygnusDailyBusiness Updates                                                                                    26 April 2010          Headlines India integrating more with rest of Asia Inflation expectations may ease further Govt for discussion on FDI in multi-brand retail Good returns lure farmers to cocoa crop A long drive to global dominance for China carmakers Make phone banking more secure or face penalty Crystal Group appoints E&Y to guide overseas acquisition India loses way on roads IIM Shillong to introduce two new courses Footwear design and dev inst to start four institutes in 2010 World running out of diamonds Glenmark gets US FDA nod to market birth-control pill SMART acquires NextWindow India's wind power draws global majors Bharti Airtel launches Airtel World SIM   More Details:     Global Economy India integrating more with rest of Asia India is now integrating more with the rest of Asia and will play a major role in the Asia's growth. We have a very rapidly growing large economy in the South Asia region, and that is India, and India is now also integrating much more with the rest of Asia. The trade between China and India is growing rapidly. Of course, it is mostly imports from China-but it has grown very rapidly in recent years. So prospects for integration both in the South Asia region amongst themselves and with the rest of Asia have greatly improved and will continue to do so. There are reasons for that increase in food and energy prices, so we are not yet seeing an increase in underlying inflation at the same rate at which we are seeing a rise in overall inflation.     Indian Economy Inflation expectations may ease further India's monsoon forecast may help bring down inflationary expectations further. Earlier the forecast was optimistic. The summer monsoon is likely to be normal this year, allaying fears over an event crucial to the economic fate of the world's second-most populous nation.   Govt for discussion on FDI in multi-brand retail India, would next month initiate discussion on liberalising Foreign Direct Investment in sectors ranging from defence to agriculture and even retail -- a source of political woes for the government in the past. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the nodal agency for framing FDI policies, will come out with six discussion papers in mid-May on overseas investment norms. In its first term, the UPA government had shelved plans to open FDI in multi-brand retail owing to fierce opposition from its then allies -- Left parties -- and petty traders. India, however, allows 51 per cent FDI in single brand retail and 100 per cent in cash-and-carry (wholesale) sector. While transnational companies like WalMart, Carrefour and Indian industry chambers are pitching for opening up multi- brand segment, a Parliamentary panel has proposed a "blanket ban" on entry of corporates into this unorganised sector employing millions of people. Sources in the DIPP said the discussion papers, which would be put in public domain on May 12 or 13, would deal in sectors like retail, defence, pharmaceutical and agriculture.     Industry News     Agri Commodities Good returns lure farmers to cocoa crop Good returns in the past few years from cocoa farming have helped in reviving cultivation of this lucrative cash crop in south India. Officials at the Directorate of Cashew and Cocoa Development (DACCD) , with the government increasing the subsidy for cocoa farming by almost Rs 10,000 per hectare from April 1, 2010, area under cocoa is likely to increase by 30-40 % in the next two years. Currently, 34,000 hectare (ha) is under cocoa cultivation. Andhra Pradesh leads with nearly 14,000 ha and followed by Kerala with 10,000 ha. Good prices of cocoa have prompted farmers to look at cocoa in a different way. In the last one year, around 600 ha has come under cocoa in Tamil Nadu and 1,800 ha in Karnataka. Average price for dry cocoa beans has moved up to Rs 170 per kg in Idukki district, in the last few years. The commodity is in short supply and demand is very good. Procurement prices of cocoa are already high in India as buyers compete for it. Indian demand for cocoa is increasing at a healthy rate of 8% per annum. The Indian chocolate market is believed to be worth around Rs 15 billion and offers great potential for western chocolate manufacturers as the market is still in its early stages.     Automobile A long drive to global dominance for China carmakers The drive to foreign shores is definitely strong in China, but before eyeing foreign roads, Chinese carmakers have to establish themselves at home. Chinese carmakers may have the world's largest market to play in but face many hurdles including a shortage of original models, an overcrowded industry and a lack of overseas acquisition targets before they can challenge for global leadership. One condition that a carmaker must meet before it succeeds globally is a dominant position in its domestic market. When Toyota overtook General Motors as the world's best selling carmaker, for example, its sales accounted for nearly half of the Japanese market. By contrast, China's industry remains fragmented, with more than 70 domestic manufacturers and no dominant producer.   Banking Make phone banking more secure or face penalty Banks will have to soon put in place an additional authentication cover for their credit and debit card customers transacting over phone, or get penalised. Taking forward its efforts to tackle identity frauds in non-branch banking transactions, the Reserve Bank has asked all the banks operating in the country to put in place by next year a system where credit and debit card customers would need to provide an additional password for IVR (interactive voice response) transactions. IVR transactions are done over phone, wherein customers dial bank's customer care number and are prompted by a recorded voice to dial designated digits for different kinds of transactions such as balance enquiry, bill payment etc. The customers would now need to key-in an additional password on their phone, besides the currently prevalent details like card number, date of birth, card issue or expiry date and in some cases a telephonic password.   Chemicals Crystal Group appoints E&Y to guide overseas acquisition Pesticides maker Crystal Group has appointed Ernst & Young to consult it on an overseas acquisition, which may cost up to Rs 40 crore. Crystal group was looking to buy one sick company either in Britain or in an African country in order to get rid of the huge upfront cost needed for any profit-making firm and to market its produce from India in the developing nations in Africa. The target company has to have export registrations, which would facilitate in marketing of products in various parts of the world. Crystal Phosphates, the flagship company of the group, has two pesticides manufacturing plants in Jammu and Haryana with an annual capacity of 4,000 tonnes. The company also imports active ingredients worth around Rs 250 crore from China and formulate them in its plants for marketing in the Indian market. Active ingredients are used to make formulations which are familiar as pesticides. India's pesticides market is now pegged at Rs 6,000 crore. The industry exports Rs 3,000 crore worth of pesticides a year. The group had recorded a turnover of Rs 600 crore last fiscal and aims to clock around Rs 1,000 crore top line in the current fiscal.     Construction India loses way on roads India is likely to build only 12-13 kilometres of road a day in the current fiscal year to end-March 2011 against a 20 km per day target. India had last year set a target of building 20 km (12 miles) of roads each day, as part of its plans to improve infrastructure in Asia's third-largest economy, but achieved only less than half of that due to problems in acquiring land and awarding contracts. Foreign investors have shied away from the sector even though the government has allowed 100-percent foreign direct investment, due to problems in land acquisition and difficulties in collection of toll tax. But, achieving that target will need an investment of about 2 trillion rupees ($45 billion) annually, of which the government expects 60 percent to come from the private sector. India needs to spend $500 billion in the five years to 2012 to overhaul its congested ports and airports, fix its potholed roads and generate more power, to sustain 8-9 percent economic growth. India, with a total length of 3.3 million kilometres of roads, has the third-largest road network in the world.     Education IIM Shillong to introduce two new courses The Indian Institute of Management here will soon introduce two short-term courses in retail management and infrastructure management.  The certificate courses in retail management (CRM) and sustainable infrastructure building and project management (SIBPM) will begin from July this year. Both the courses are of six-month duration and can be taken up both online and on campus. For both the programmes, the maximum number of intake for the campus is 40 and for online 100. Major retailers in food and grocery, fruit and vegetables and ready-made garments segments from India, China and Thailand will constitute the integral part of corporate lecture delivery and project assignment segments of CRM. Similarly, infrastructure companies from India, Germany and Thailand will be part of corporate lecture delivery in the SIBPM.   Footwear design and dev inst to start four institutes in 2010 The Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI), set up under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, will start four institutes this year. Even during the recession, the industry was growing at 15 per cent and after the recession it is very fast. Exports will reach USD seven billion by 2012 from the current USD 3.3 billion. The four campuses to come up at Chennai, Kolkata, Chindwara and Haryana at a cost of Rs 384 crore, would have an intake of 1,500 students. Two design and retail institutions, LDT Nagold of Germany and A R Sutoria, Milan, Italy along with FDDI would design the courses. It is the first time FDDI has tied up with foreign universities to offer the courses.   Gems and Jewellery World running out of diamonds The supply of diamonds in the world is dwindling, the biggest miner of the sparkling gem. The diamond industry, in the past 20 years, has not found new diamond deposits to match the two biggest mines in Africa, which are owned by De Beers, or the Russian mines of Alrosa. De Beers accounts for 40 percent of global rough diamond sales.     Health Care Glenmark gets US FDA nod to market birth-control pill Pharma firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has its US-based subsidiary Glenmark Generics has received approval from US health regulator to market Norethindrone tablets used to prevent pregnancy. Glenmark Generics has received approval from US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for Norethindrone tablets in 0.35 mg strength. The product would be marketed under the trade name 'Heather' and distribution is expected to start immediately. Glenmark is currently the only Indian company to be granted an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) approval on an oral contraceptive product. Norethindrone tablets are oral contraceptive indicated for the prevention of pregnancy. Glenmark also has impending ANDA approvals with US FDA of some more products in various stages of development in the oral contraceptive therapeutic segment.     IT hardware SMART acquires NextWindow SMART Technologies announces the acquisition of New Zealand-based NextWindow (Next Holdings Limited), for integration into all-in-one computers, computer displays and large-format screens. The acquisition reinforces SMART’s own investment in optical touch research and development, and combines the two companies’ significant optical touch patent portfolios. The NextWindow acquisition is expected to have minimal impact on both businesses’ day-to-day operations, offices and company structure. Both SMART and NextWindow are privately held companies. NextWindow supplies optical touch components to manufacturers of PCs and other interactive displays. Its touch components are used in PCs and monitors sold by Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Medion, NEC, Samsung and Sony. The acquisition extends SMART’s current presence in the education, business and government sectors into the broader consumer market. SMART is also expanding its business in Asia, where NextWindow has already been active. In the past year, NextWindow has developed an Asian presence in Singapore, Taiwan and Korea.     Power India's wind power draws global majors It’s the latest and among the fastest growing sectors within global energy today, and has already made its presence felt in India. A long coastline, low installation costs and ready local availability of key raw materials have all made India a favourite destination for offshore wind power, with global majors such as Areva, Siemens and GE queuing up to explore opportunities in the country. High-profile investors such as Vinod Sethi, private equity major Blackstone and new clean technology funds have already invested in offshore wind energy companies planning for India, as this sector is expected to offer electricity tariffs at 40% less cost than that from traditional sources.     Telecom Bharti Airtel launches Airtel World SIM Bharti Airtel announced the launch of Airtel World SIM for international travelers at the onset of the travel season. Enables outbound travelers to retain their local number – calls made on Airtel India numbers are forwarded on the new Airtel World SIM. It costs a fraction of international roaming and customers save upto 85 percent on international calls. Airtel World SIM also offers a single Mobile Number valid across 190 countries -international travelers spared of the inconvenience of carrying multiple SIMs for different countries. It will be initially available to Airtel customers in Delhi, followed by the rest of the country. The Airtel World SIM allows travellers to retain access to incoming calls on their India number, their local-SIM contacts and seamless connectivity in 190 countries.

 

 

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