India to build food parks

The Indian government is offering individual companies up to $10 million in subsidies to help develop “Mega Food Parks” in 10 states throughout the country.

The goal of the program is to better process India’s agricultural production, which has suffered from chronic spoilage due to poor transportation and storage (American Shipper Namaste, India Insider, Feb 24, 2009).

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Special Contribution: Status of Indian Economy

Rajeshwar Parshad Swami
Secretary General
Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI)

At the IBEF Breakfast Session organised during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Mr Kamal Nath, Minister for Commerce and Industry, emphasised that the Indian economy’s fundamentals remained strong and that its growth trajectory would be led by its domestic demand driven growth model.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) channelised investments amounting to Rs 2,155 crore (US$ 439.90 million) in debt instruments during the initial trading days of the current year. Significantly, the government has cleared foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs 1,277.23 crore (US$ 261.29 million) on January 28, 2009.

Further, Ernst & Young has announced that the opportunities for growth in the Indian infrastructure sector continue to be promising. Meanwhile, India’s growth story in the telecom space continues unabated. The country added 113.26 million new subscribers in 2008, the largest globally.

After Satyam: Is Wipro Next?

The fall of Satyam was supposed to have created a big opportunity for Wipro. The Indian outsourcing powerhouse, a member of India’s Big Three (along with Infosys and TCS), might be well-positioned to scoop up customers defecting from scandal-plagued Satyam. Wipro still might do that. But today the news is not good. Wipro’s stock plunged, down over 9% after the company revealed it, like its beleaguered rival Satyam, was on a World Bank blacklist, barred from doing any business with it for several years (B. Einhorn on January 12 BusinessWeek, January 12, 2008). Read full article

Downturn singes India’s wings

There were rumors in the wind that India was somewhat insulated from the global economic crisis. That internal production and demand would prevent slowing global demand from denting the country’s steady progress. But then the numbers came out. October saw a 15 percent decline in exports from India — a 20 percent drop if petroleum is excluded (American Shipper Namaste, 1/8/2009). Read full article

Asia-Europe train to challenge to sea-air services

A weekly freight rail service linking China to Germany will most likely compete with sea-air service when it begins after the Chinese New Year in 2009.
The block train service, headed by DB Schenker in partnership with Chinese and Russian state-owned railways, cuts across five countries to provide and an alternative to ocean and air services between Asia and Europe. The service is expected to target cargo originating in China’s hinterland – in other words, points far from China’s many large seaport (E. Johnson, American Shipper Namaste, December 3, 2008). Read More

What’s Red-Hot And Green All Over?

Eco tech outfits are among the up-and-comers thriving with help from their governments (By Kerry Capell, BusinessWeek, November 12, 2008). Read complete article

India Inc.: A Lesson in Business Design

Ambitious, resourceful, and unencumbered by convention, India offers the world a dramatic demonstration of business design (H. Fraser, BusinessWeek, November 3, 2008)

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India introduced a value-added tax regime in 2005 to simplify taxes across states, but it has brought confusion and frustration to supply chains

India introduced a value-added tax regime in 2005 to simplify taxes across states, but it has brought confusion and frustration to supply chains (E. Johnson, American Shipper Namaste, February 14, 2008). Click on the link for complete Article.