Other Briefings
India the cricket crazy nation
April 25 – India is a cricket crazy nation. Work slows down to a snails pace, random people stare into Tv shop windows and everybody stays tuned into the match of the day.
The latest commercial twist to cricket or the Indian Primiere league (IPL) is being played with much gusto in India. 8 Cities are pitted against each other with each city team owned by either a large industrialist or bollywood star. Created as a shorter more exciting way to play cricket and raise money like that of the English Premier League in footbal, the Board of Control for Cricket in India created the Indian Premier League. The eight teams are – 1. Kolkata Knight Riders 2. Chennai Super Kings 3. Mumbai Indians 4. Deccan Chargers 5. Rajasthan Royals 6. Bangalore Royal Challengers 7. Delhi Daredevils 8. Kings XI Punjab.
The teams were given to the highest bidder. While the base price for the auction was US$400 million, the auction fetched US$723.59 million. Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Industries also controlled by him bought the Mumbai Indians for US$111.9 million – the most expensive team.
India’s tea trade turning tech savvy
April 24 – India's tea will soon be auctioned digitally. The Indian tea board, the government regulator on Tea, plans to replace the gravel with the mouse in order to prevent planters who have been hit hard by low tea prices in the last decade. Going digital is expected to regin in an era of fair prices and lower transaction costs.
The latest exchange is being designed by NSE-IT, a branch of India’s national stock exchange that specializes in designing trading platforms. The Tea Board plans to roll out the system in Calcutta, where the first Indian tea auctions began, by December, with the software being introduced to other auction centers over the following three months.
U.S. recession hits Indian IT companies
Infosys Technologies Ltd. Chief Executive Officer K. Gopalakrishnan, center, flanked by Chief Operating Officer S. D. Shibulal, right, and Chief Financial Officer V. Balakrishnan
April 16 – The U.S. recession might not affect the bouyant Indian economy, but India's IT services industry which sources a majority of its work from the west is showing signs of being hit.
On Tuesday, the Indian IT industrys' bellwether company, Bangalore based Infosys posted a lower than expected forth quarter profit. Net profit rose 9.2 percent to 12.49 billion rupees (315.04 million dollars) in the fourth quarter ended March, from 11.45 billion rupees. The profit missed analyst estimates of 12.6 billion rupees.
Avoiding cultural catastrophes
April. 14 – Why do Indians have so many Gods? Why do they nod their heads when they mean 'no' and shake their heads when they mean 'yes'? Is it impolite to take a bottle of wine to your hosts house for dinner? ~ These and several other questions plague the thousands of expatriates posted in India.
Reading volumes of books on India, does not seem to prepare most foreigners who are posted to this vibrant, dynamic, pluralistic country of paradoxes. Nothing it seems can prepare one for the reality that is India.
Profiting from this latent demand are a host of companies that seek to culturally orient expats to the do's and don'ts of India. Each family is given a presentation on orienting themselves to the Indian way of life so that they are culturally aware and do not make any faux pases during their stay. From reading Indian body language, manner of speaking, hierarchy, negotiating business deals, cherishing family bonds, to learning to train household help, expats need to learn it all.
Wal-Mart tip toes into India
April. 8 – Launched amongst mass protests to protect India's mom & pop retail stores, Wal-Mart has shipped its first consignment of Procter & Gamble’s personal-care products to Bharti-Wal Mart, a joint venture for the cash-and-carry and logistics initiatives, the Economic Times reported on Tuesday.
In a desperate bid to enter the US$350 billion retail market in India, the US$340 billion retail giant entered into a 50:50 joint venture with the Bharti group’s retail arm in 2006. While the joint venture will focus on B2B business, the Bharti group plans to launch small-format retail stores shortly. The officials said P&G India is helping Wal-Mart understand the nuances of doing business in India.
India to invest US$300 bn in oil
April. 7 – Foreseeing an energy crisis in the near future, India is expected to spend US$300 billion on oil exploration and production over the next five to seven years M.S. Srinivasan, the Oil Ministry's top official told Bloomberg on Sunday.
The exploration and production business will become a US$5.2 trillion industry in the next five to seven years, Srinivasan told reporters in Mumbai. India, Asia's third-biggest oil consumer, is competing with countries such as Nigeria to attract exploration by global producers as domestic output falls.
The South Asian nation, the world's fastest-growing major economy after China, depends on imports for 70 percent of its oil needs.
Shopping in international markets
April. 3 – After Ratan Tata’s ambitious buy-out of Ford’s Jaguar and Land Rover for US$2.3 billion last week, its time for another ambitious Indian entrepreneur to take center stage. Venugopal Dhoot, Videocon’s 54 year old Chairman who bought French owned Thomson’s picture tube business for US$291 million has emerged as the front runner in bidding for ailing Motorola’s handset unit.
Videocon, an Indian homegrown brand, manufactures appliances and electronics and also has interests in real estate, oil, and power. While they haven’t revealed how much they bid, the company did confirm to Indian media that they had contacted Motorola for the buy-out. "We learnt from a reliable source that they will be selling it and when they do we are sending an expression of interest," Venugopal Dhoot told Reuters. "Motorola's handset business dovetails well with my telecom plans," he says.
Revving up India’s auto Industry
Apr. 1 – Two of India's heavy weight auto makers seperately announced on Monday that they would be pumping in Rs 75 billion (US$1.9 billion) into India's already booming auto sector.
While Ratan Tata controlled Tata Motors pledged to invest Rs 60 billion (US$1.5 billion) into ramping up their existing manufactuing unit and building a vehicle testing facility over 4-5 years at Chakan, near Mumbai, Mahindra & Mahindra promised the Maharashtra government they would invest Rs 15 billion (US$375 million) in addition to to the Rs 25 billion (US$625 million) that they have already earmarked to make commercial vehicles at a greenfield site at Chakan. The total sum of Rs. 40 billion (US$1 billion) will be utilized towards the development and production of all vehicles slated to be rolled out from the proposed Greenfield.
The investment by Tata Motors is the single largest investment by the automobile sector in the state.
