Other Briefings
A booming automobile market
May 16 – The Indian car crazed consumer has never had it so good before. The Indian automobile landscape is sporting the best and the cheapest. And the icing on the cake, is the marriage between technology and price. Automobiles will be powered with the best technology yet sport most consumer-friendly price tags. From a four-wheeler, coming at meagre price of Rs 1 lakh (US$2,350) to the high-speed luxury super bikes that will lighten you purse of Rs 50 lakh (US$120,000). The Indian market is ready to nurture these new age mean machines and get used to the variety in price ranges, reports the Economic Times.
Experts believe that with a wide variety of options, for customers price will become the most important deciding factor and only then can auto makers garner volumes. So the niche bikes are expected to garner annual sales of only 3,000 units annually in India. As far as the Nano story goes, the number of customers opting to drive around in it could be in lakhs. “While the high-priced bikes would satisfy the niche segment, Tata Motors’ product would be commuter-driven.
Renault-Nissan and India’s Bajaj Auto Anounce India’s Second Inexpensive Car
May 13 – Close on the heels of the Tata's US$2,500 Nano announcement, Nissan Motor Co. of Japan and its French partner Renault SA will form a joint venture with Indian motorcycle maker Bajaj Auto Ltd. to produce a minicar in India that will cost as little as $2,500 reported the Wall Street Journal.
The budget car, which would cost 100,000 rupees in India, is so far only known as "Codename ULC." The joint venture would be 50 percent owned by Bajaj Auto, 25 percent by Renault and 25 percent by Nissan, a statement said.
The ULC will be produced at a factory to be built at Chakan, Maharashtra, in western India. It will eventually produce 400,000 units a year, the two groups said. Mr. Ravikumar, Bajaj Auto's vice president in charge of business development said the car will be exported using the global sales network of Nissan and Renault.
India’s Retail Industry Currently Worth US$295 Billion
May 12 – India’s retail industry, both organised and unorganised, is worth $295 billion at present, according to accounting firm Deloitte Haskins and Sells. Breaking up annual sales figures Deloitte says that organised retail grew at a scorching pace in 2007, going to 8 per cent of total retail sales from 5 per cent in 2006, reported the Hindustan Times.
New stores, more spending power and access to credit had led to organised retail’s 50 per cent growth in 2007, said Shyamak Tata, partner at Deloitte who did the research.
Lauching into space history
April 29 – India rocketed into space history on Monday by launching 10 statellites into their orbits some 600 km above earth. India became the second country in the world to achieve the difficult feat, after Russia which had put into orbit 13 satellites in April 2007.
The satellites which mainly belonged to Germany and Canada were carried into space by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle which blasted off from Sriharikota, a space centre off the country's eastern coast near the southern city of Chennai.
The Indian-made Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite, which is fitted with a high resolution camera for recording clear images from space was the main satellite launched, an ISRO spokesman said.
High resolution images and data from the satellite will be used to manage infrastructure and natural resources in the country.
Riding high on this successful mission, the ISRO said its all set to launch Chandrayaan 1, the moon mission, in the third quarter of this year.
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.
