Do Believe the Hype - NYTimes.com

Do Believe the Hype - NYTimes.com: "India today is this unusual combination of a country with millions of people making $2 and $3 a day, but with a growing economy, an increasing amount of cheap connectivity and a rising number of skilled technologists looking to make their fortune by inventing low-cost solutions to every problem you can imagine. In the next decade, I predict, we will see some really disruptive business models coming out of here — to a neighborhood near you. If you thought the rate of change was fast thanks to the garage innovators of Silicon Valley, wait until the garages of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore get fully up to speed. I sure hope we’re ready"

Philipines to become world's Call centre capital :

"India, at one time, held a huge advantage as far as BPO services are concerned. This was primarily due to the low cost advantage that it enjoyed. Not just that, Indians were also considered good speakers of the English language. But the country has now lost its edge to Philippines, especially for voice based customer support. It is in fact believed that Philippines is set to become the call centre capital of the world. What had made the latter an attractive destination is that it has a much stronger affinity with the Americans, attrition rates are much lower than that in India and there are more tax incentives. Plus, the firms in the West themselves want to de-risk their revenues and not depend entirely on India. For instance, of India's total BPO exports, nearly 45% comes from voice-based work. This is expected to be around US$ 5.6 bn this year. However, the Philippines BPO industry will post almost US$ 5.7 bn of pure voice-based revenues in 2010, thereby overtaking India. US controls 65% of the world outsourcing market. Naturally, this is an important market for those dabbling in the BPO space. Although it may not be possible to wrestle the top slot from Philippines anytime soon, India will have to seriously find a long term solution to ensure that it does not entirely lose its edge in the BPO space."

India to become world's fastest growing economy by 2013-15: Morgan Stanley

The two hands to produce count for more than that one mouth to feed, after all. Driven by a sterling demographic dividend, continuing structural reform and globalisation, India is poised to accelerate its growth rate to 9-9.5% over 2013-15, even as China will cool down to a more sedate 9% by 2012 and to 8% by 2015. So finds a new report by Morgan Stanley, authored by Chetan Ahya (managing director for Asia and India economist, who writes a monthly column for ET) and Tanvee Gupta.

India has one of the lowest median ages among the major economies. When an economy prospers, first its death rate and then, its birth rate falls. As this trend proceeds, there is a big bulge in the working age population while the non-working population (the young and the old) shrink as a share of the population. The lowering of the dependent (non-working) population to working age population ratio has twin effects.

One, it allows people to save a large proportion of their income, raising the country’s rate of savings; two, it boosts the number of people who work and contribute to growth. Thanks to structural reform, the additional hands available for work find work. Even with stagnant per capita output, the sheer increase in the number of workers would raise GDP growth. With reform pushing up productivity per worker, GDP would rise even faster.

The report also assumes that less than 5% of those who enter the workforce will be illiterate in India in the next two-three years, and that there would be a big jump in the number of young people, who go to and finish college, making India the largest contributor to the pool of tertiary educated workforce in the world.

All these changes would be supported and complemented by further reform by the government in fiscal consolidation, opening up of retail to foreign direct investment, public sector reform and divestment, and improvement in governance that would reduce transaction costs.


Globalisation gives additional job opportunities, additional capital to augment rising domestic savings and additional know-how. With this happy combination, the report expects India to become the world’s fastest-growing economy. The government’s chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu has been forecasting such a development as well.

“Real GDP growth in China has averaged 10% annually over the past 30 years, compared with 6.2% in India. During this period, China’s GDP grew 16 times to $5 trillion whereas India’s rose seven times to $1.2 trillion. China’s exports (including services) surged 65 times over this period to $1,330 billion while India’s exports increased 22 times to $250 billion” says the report.

China has overtaken Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy. China’s demographic transition pushed up its savings rate above 30% in 1985, while India’s savings rate crossed that level only in 2005. India’s consumption level will now come down, even as China’s will rise.

Underlying the Morgan Stanley forecast is the assumption that India will significantly jack up its expenditure on infrastructure and in plant and machinery. Infrastructure expenditure has gone up from 5.4% of GDP in 2005 to 7.5% in 2009 and is poised to go up to 8% of GDP in 2010. Over 2012-17, the forecast is that India’s infrastructure spend would be $1 trillion as compared with $530 million over the previous five-year period.

Another assumption is on the quantity and quality of the young people coming into the workforce. While India will be the largest contributor to the world’s workforce — all of 136 million people — over the next 10 years (fully a quarter of the entire world’s additional workforce), China will add just 23 million

Indians - the most happiest consumers

As per ET dt 8th May 2010.

In the whole world, Indian consumers are the most confident lot. According to a global survey, consumer confidence in the country reached its highest level since the third quarter of 2007 and India topped the pack of 55 countries with 127 index points followed by Indonesia at 116 and Norway at 115, the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index has found.

“It is amazing that Indians are far more confident about the prospects of their economy than people from any other country. Even the gap between India and Indonesia is a huge 11 points, which goes to show how bubbly Indians are at the moment,” says Piyush Mathur, managing director-South Asia, The Nielsen Company. The rising index shows a rebounding faith in the economy and hope for a more optimistic future. Indian consumers believe that recession would soon be a thing of the past.

Consumer confidence rose in 41 of the 55 countries surveyed. As consumers across the globe started to spend again, they drove the global index up to 92 points (100 = average) in the first quarter. This represents a six-point increase from six months ago and only two points short of the 94-point index mark in the third quarter of 2007, just before the recession hit. Consumer confidence hit an all time low of 77 index points in early 2009, following the collapse of the international financial system.

This new wave of optimism though highlights the disparity between the east and the west. While all global regions posted positive increases in consumer confidence, the pace and extent of economic recovery further widened between the booming Asia Pacific and Latin American countries compared to the sluggish recovery in the United States and western Europe.

Aren't we lucky that we weren't born in China ?

An Interesting article on Urban Rural Divide in China - from Economist

Migration in China

Invisible and heavy shackles

Until China breaks down the barriers between town and countryside, it cannot unleash the buying power of its people—or keep its economy booming

May 6th 2010 | CHONGQING | From The Economist print edition

ON THE hilly streets of Chongqing, men with thick bamboo poles loiter for customers who will pay them to carry loads. The “stick men”, as they are called, hang the items from either end of the poles and heave them up over their shoulders. In a city where the Communist Party chief, Bo Xilai, likes to sing old revolutionary songs, these workers should be hymned as heroes. Yet few of them are even classed as citizens of the city where they live.

Most of the stick men were born in the countryside around Chongqing. (The name covers both the urban centre that served as China’s capital in the second world war, and a hinterland, the size of Scotland, which the city administers.) Since 1953, shortly after the Communists came to power, Chinese citizens have been divided into two strata, urban and rural, not according to where they live but on a hereditary basis. The stick men may have spent all their working lives on the streets of Chongqing, but their household registration papers call them “agricultural”.

The registration system (hukou, in Chinese) was originally intended to stop rural migrants flowing into the cities. Stick men were among the targets. In the early days of Communist rule in Chongqing the authorities rounded up thousands of “vagrants” and sent them to camps (vagrants, said Mao Zedong, “lack constructive qualities”). There they endured forced labour before being packed back to their villages.

Rapid industrial growth over the past three decades has required tearing down migration barriers to exploit the countryside’s huge labour surplus. Hukou, however, still counts for a lot, from access to education, health care and housing to compensation payouts. To be classified as a peasant often means being treated as a second-class citizen. Officials in recent years have frequently talked about “reforming” the system. They have made it easier to acquire urban citizenship, in smaller cities at least. But since late last year the official rhetoric has become more urgent. Policymakers have begun to worry that the country’s massive stimulus spending in response to the global financial crisis could run out of steam. Hukou reform, they believe, could boost rural-urban migration and with it the consumer spending China needs.

In early March 11 Chinese newspapers (it would have been 13, had not two bottled out) defied party strictures and teamed together to publish an extraordinary joint editorial. It called on China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), which was then about to hold its annual meeting, to urge the government to scrap the hukou system as soon as possible. “We hope”, it said, “that a bad policy we have suffered for decades will end with our generation, and allow the next generation to truly enjoy the sacred rights of freedom, democracy and equality bestowed by the constitution.” Not since the Tiananmen uprising in 1989 had so many newspapers simultaneously cast aside the restraints imposed by the Communist Party’s mighty Propaganda Department, which micromanages China’s media output.

The editorial said that “gratifying” progress had already been made with reform, but the system’s “invisible and heavy shackles” were still causing distress. Reform could inject “more dynamism” into the economy and help counter the effects of an ageing population.

Party leaders resented the newspapers’ boldness. Zhang Hong, a deputy chief editor of the Economic Observer, a weekly newspaper, was stripped of his title (though allowed to keep working) for his role in organising the editorial. Within a couple of hours of its appearance on newspaper websites, the authorities ordered its removal. Hukou reform was fine, but the government did not want to be hassled.

Urban citizens benefit from the hukou system, but those who migrate between cities are also irked by it. In 2003 some Chinese newspapers, independently of one another, pressed for reform after a college-educated migrant was detained by police for failing to produce a required identity document, and was beaten to death. The outcry led to the scrapping of regulations that allowed the police to detain people and deport them to their home towns for similar misdemeanours.

This time, says an editor involved in the hukou editorial, the impact was the opposite. Among many of the party-picked delegates to the NPC, he says, hukou reform became “a taboo topic”. The prime minister, Wen Jiabao, told the session in March that the government would carry out reforms and repeated that requirements would be relaxed in towns and smaller cities. But he offered few details.

The complexity of hukou reform daunts Chinese leaders. It would have a huge impact on crucial aspects of the economy, from the system of land ownership in the countryside to the financing of public services. But the downsides of an unreformed system are much more obvious. The influx of migrants has caught local governments badly unprepared. Budget pressures have made them highly reluctant to spend money on helping the incomers. Registered urban residents are none too keen either. Few want their children sharing classes with kids they regard as country bumpkins.

In a cold classroom

In urban and rural China alike, the first nine years of schooling are supposed to be free. But not for rural migrants. In Beijing, as in other big cities, hundreds of privately run schools have sprung up in recent years to cater for them. At the Xiangyang Hope School in Huangcun township on the southern edge of the capital, the basic fee is 1,100 yuan ($165) a year: a snip for many urban residents, but the equivalent of several weeks’ wages for many migrants. There is an extra charge for heating; children complain that they are cold in the bitter winters. One parent says she is preparing to take her child back to her village, because conditions are better there.

The authorities have tried to muzzle the principal, Luo Chao (a migrant himself). Mr Luo was until recently the headmaster of another school to the north-east of Beijing. He says local officials told him just before the lunar new year holiday in February that the school would be demolished to make way for a private development project, and could not reopen after the break. Officials briefly detained Mr Luo and the head teacher of another condemned migrants’ school to prevent them petitioning higher authorities. Officials promised that the children would be found new places, but Mr Luo says there is no way that the local government-run school would have enough room for them.

In education, the hukou system’s absurdity is particularly glaring. Migrant children, though classified as “agricultural”, usually have no more than one brief exposure to rural life every year when they are taken to their parents’ home towns for the lunar new year festivities. School places in urban areas are so scarce that some pupils will drop out and others, though old enough for secondary school, will have to stay in primary classes. Tens of millions of children of migrant workers are, in effect, forced to stay in the countryside for schooling, looked after by other relatives. If they do move to urban areas with their parents, they may not sit exams for senior high school in the city where they live. They must return to their place of registration.

Until the late 1990s, a child’s hukou could only follow its mother’s. This meant that even a child who grew up in Beijing with a father registered as a Beijing citizen might have to travel hundreds of miles to sit the exam in his mother’s registered home town. Hukou can still affect a student’s chances of getting into top universities, for which each province has a quota of places. The quotas for provincial-level cities like Beijing and Shanghai are disproportionately large. Such privileges fuel a lively black market in highly priced hukousof favoured cities.

The relaxation of hukou rules in recent years has been half-hearted. Chongqing last year offered urban hukou to any rural resident who had graduated from senior high school and who was prepared to give up his entitlement to farm a plot of land and own a village homestead. Those are big provisos. Shanghai announced with fanfare last year that seven years’ work in the city—along with the required tax and social-security payments—would entitle a resident tohukou. But rural migrants often work without contracts and do not pay tax or contribute to welfare funds; only 3,000 of Shanghai’s millions of migrant workers would qualify, said Chinese press reports. On May 1st Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province and a magnet for migrants, began phasing out the “agricultural” distinction in its hukoudocuments, but the effect of this is mostly cosmetic. Beijing has been among the slowest to change. One Shanghai urban hukou-holder who has lived in Beijing for well over a decade says he still cannot get registered there.

Moving with the moon

The stick men of Chongqing are certainly not impressed. Several, when asked, said they had no desire to acquire urban hukou, even if it were offered. Their indifference poses a problem. In 2007 Chongqing municipality (the city plus its vast hinterland) and the city of Chengdu, 340km (210 miles) to the north-west in Sichuan Province, were chosen by the central government to pioneer reforms aimed at rebalancing urban and rural development. This would involve turning migrants into genuine urban citizens and exploiting the untapped value of the land left behind.

This was long overdue. For all the hoopla created by the massive city-bound migration of rural residents in the past two decades (the biggest such shift in human history, with 150m moving so far and another 300m predicted to do so in the next 20-30 years), China has failed to reap the full benefits of this rapid urbanisation. Anyone who tries to travel in China around the lunar new year holiday will have an inkling of the problem.

Because they still have rights to a rural homestead and to farm a plot of land, many ruralhukou-holders maintain a vital link with the countryside even after they move. Come the new year, millions rush back to their villages to celebrate with elderly relatives and children left behind on the farm. A recent survey by Renmin University in Beijing found that about a third of migrants in their 20s aspired to build a house in their home village rather than buy one in a city. Only 7% of them identified themselves as city people. Another survey recently quoted in a party journal said that nearly 30% of migrants planned eventually to return to their villages.

Chongqing’s stick men say there are other good reasons for preserving the status quo. China’s one-child policy is more relaxed in the countryside, where two-child families are common. Rural health care is rudimentary, but a scheme introduced in recent years provides subsidised treatment for rural hukou-holders who make a small annual contribution (cheaper than urban insurance). The stick men have to return to their villages for it, but, in common with around half of China’s migrants, they work in the province of their hukou, and the journey is feasible.

The poor integration of China’s rural migrants into city life has big implications for the economy. In the largest cities, where property prices are soaring, few could even dream of getting on to the housing ladder. In smaller urban areas they would stand a better chance, but since they cannot sell the land they farm or even their own houses, many cannot afford it. In effect, their rural land entitlements lock up what could be a huge new source of spending power. They also prevent the consolidation of tiny plots into more efficient farms.

Chongqing, whose leader, Mr Bo, is widely expected to be a star of the new generation of leaders due to take over in 2012, has gone for easy solutions first. In late 2008 it set up a “country land exchange institute” on the fourth floor of a new office building in the city centre. Dong Jianguo, its president (and a senior Chongqing land official), describes this as something like a market for trading carbon emissions. By cutting the amount of land used for building homes or factories and converting it into new farmland, villages can gain credits known asdipiao, or land tickets. These can then be sold to urban developers who want to build on other patches of farmland, usually far away on the city periphery. The aim is to ensure no net loss of tillable fields.

Chongqing is not the only place trying this out, but it is doing so on a provincial scale. Eleven auctions held so far at the exchange have raised nearly 1.9 billion yuan for dipiaoequivalent to 1,200 hectares (2,970 acres) of farmland. The money has been spent on repaying villages for the cost of creating new farmland, compensating those who do not want to stay and building new, more condensed housing for those who do. Stephen Green of Standard Chartered Bank said in a recent report that the scheme, while falling well short of fundamental reform, had enabled some of the wealth created by the urban land market to trickle down to the countryside.

Two huge constraints impede the government’s efforts to liberate the countryside’s economic potential. The first is confusion over land-ownership. Unlike urban land, which is state-owned but freely traded, rural land is defined as “collectively” owned. It has never been made entirely clear whether officials, or peasants, control collective rights. Officials fear that giving peasants a right to trade their homes and farmland would cut the ties that bind rural hukou-holders to the countryside and lead to the creation of Mumbai-like slums. They sneer at India for its urban squalor.

Chinese scholars are bitterly divided over how to proceed. Opponents of rural land reform say the global financial crisis has proved their point: millions of migrant workers in the cities lost their jobs as export industries slumped, but because they had land to go back to there was no major unrest. In Chongqing, officials at the dipiao trading centre are nervous that any adverse publicity even about their cautious experiment might fuel a backlash. This would complicate their tentative plans for something more adventurous: trial runs of mortgaging rural homesteads. The possible impact of foreclosures on rural stability is the conservatives’ worst nightmare.

Mouths to feed

The other constraint is the Chinese government’s deep-rooted fear that domestically produced grain may be insufficient to feed the country. It has decreed that a minimum of 120m hectares of arable land be preserved for this, a “red line” that officials say is already close to being crossed. Some Chinese experts argue that the line is arbitrary, that efficiencies of scale could considerably boost output and that China could rely more on the global grain market to supplement its needs. But memories of a famine from 1959 to 1961 that killed millions of people, and a fear that relying on imports could threaten China’s security, make officials adamant that the line must not be breached. This means that even if land trading were to be liberalised, many peasants (or migrants with ruralhukou) still could not cash in fully.

Wouldn’t the city be a better idea?

Pu Yongjian of Chongqing University laments that the central government has failed to give the municipality enough leeway to experiment. He says that in 2007, when Chongqing was instructed to carry out trial reforms, it expected to enjoy freedoms similar to those bestowed on the city of Shenzhen, next to Hong Kong, in the 1980s and 90s. Shenzhen was even able to set up a stockmarket, though party conservatives scorned it. “We haven’t got that kind of power, so what’s the point of calling it an experimental zone?” asks Mr Pu.

The groundwork, at least, for more radical change is at last being laid. A nationwide push has begun to issue rural households with certificates stating what land they farm and what residential property they occupy. These, potentially, could be used as proof of ownership should the government eventually decide to encourage a rural property market. The government said in December that it wanted the task to be completed within three years. It will be tough work, hampered by decades of haziness over where boundaries lie.

Chongqing municipality, having got an early start, hopes to finish handing out its certificates next year. But in rural Chongqing, change still seems slow. The village of Shuangxi in the hills north-east of Chongqing city has been designated by local officials as a reform trailblazer. Its peasants were encouraged to give up their land-use rights to a dairy company, which used the fields to produce fodder. All but a dozen households agreed, in return for a share of the rent paid by the company.

Li Longhui, Shuangxi’s party chief, wants to go further. By persuading the farmers to move from their freestanding homes into new three-storey apartment blocks, the village has recovered 33 hectares of land (10% of its total area). Ms Li would like to trade this on thedipiao market, but complains that the price is still too low. So far the local government has borne the cost of Shuangxi’s housing upgrade, its new school and the recreation area where elderly villagers dance to revolutionary songs. Recouping the money, says Ms Li, would mean selling village land for industrial use. That is still heretical.

Stalin tees off plans for a golf course near Chennai’s IT corridor

From The Hindu dt 4th May 2010

Chennai:

The sports city would come up on a publicprivate-partnership model and work would start immediately. A sure-shot way to lure foreign investment is by ensuring that investors don’t get homesick, or so thinks the government. On May 03, deputy chief minister and industries minister MK Stalin informed the Assembly that a brand new golf course of international standards would be established soon.

“As the state has attracted many multinational companies, it is necessary to provide international-level facilities to increase the visibility of Tamil Nadu as a destination suitable for international investors,” Stalin said. Nationals of Japan, Korea and Singapore were working in Chennai, and golf was a popular sport among them, he said.

Stalin also said that the state-owned sports city would come up near the Rajiv Gandhi Salai (Old Mahabalipuram Road) to upgrade social infrastructure around the IT corridor. The ‘Chennai Sports City Project’ will come up on 1,500 acre of land and house multi-purpose indoor and outdoor stadiums, training schools and sports hostels.

“The sports city will have scope for various international indoor and outdoor sporting events and also a facility for sports medicine. The idea is to create world-class infrastructure for sports,” said Rajeev Ranjan, principal secretary, industries department

Both the golf course and the sports city facilities would be close to the IT corridor, Ranjan said. Stalin also announced a massive expansion plan costing Rs. 320 crore at the Chennai Trade Centre at Nandambakkam. It would get an additional five lakh sq ft of exhibition space, along with facilities like multi-level parking and food court.

The state government has also got about six to eight bids for the financial city project and the bids are set to be opened on Tuesday to identify a partner to develop the first 25 acre of the project at Sholinganallur.

Do you want to walk on waters ?

Chief Minister inaugurates ‘Kodai Thiruvizha':

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Friday inaugurated ‘Kodai Thiruvizha', a festival of food and fun, organised by the Department of Tourism, at Island Grounds."

GDP set to jump fourfold to $4.5 trillion by 2020: Edelweiss- Indicators-Economy-News-The Economic Times

GDP set to jump fourfold to $4.5 trillion by 2020: Edelweiss- Indicators-Economy-News-The Economic Times:

"The economy is set to grow four times over the next ten years to a hefty Rs 205 trillion from Rs 53 trillion in the last fiscal, says a report.
'Driven by a nominal annual growth rate of 13 per cent, GDP is set to quadruple over the next ten years and the country is likely to be a Rs 205-trillion (USD 4.5 trillion) economy by 2020,' financial services company Edelweiss Capital said in its report--'India 2020: Seeing, Beyond,' which was released here today.

The report focuses on three super themes--financial services, private domestic consumption and physical infrastructure.

According to the report, gross domestic savings would grow by 3.8 times from Rs 19 trillion in FY09 to Rs 72 trillion in FY20.

'Over the next 10 years, the incremental financial savings (Rs 172 trillion) will equal four times the total financial services over the past 40 years,' it said.

The report has forecast that domestic consumption expenditure is set to triple from Rs 30 trillion in FY09 to Rs 113 trillion in FY20.

'There will be a movement from essential items of consumption such as food, clothing and footwear, among others, to discretionary items and economic enablers such as healthcare, education, recreation, amongst others,' the Edelweiss report said."

India has the Third largest number of billionaires Next to US and China

India is a land of many contradictions. On one hand you have an economy which is the second fastest growing in the world after China, strong Indian companies with a global footprint, surging stockmarkets and an interesting diversity in terms of culture and languages. On the other hand you have poor infrastructure, lack of significant development in the rural hinterland and a majority of population which depends upon agriculture as means of livelihood. Of the various phenomenon that have put India on the global map, one such factor is the number of billionaires in the country. As the above chart shows, in 2009, India had the third highest number of billionaires after the US and China. Interestingly, India also has the highest percentage of population living below the poverty line as compared to its BRIC peers further accentuating a myriad of stark contrasts in the country. - Excerpts from Equity master

Long hours for brokers starting to-day

Brokers, bankers, fund managers and day traders in Mumbai have reset their alarm clocks to wake up an hour early from Monday to Friday. Some breakfasts, many morning walks and a few school drops will be sacrificed as the country’s two largest stock exchanges start trading at 9am beginning on Monday.
An entire generation of market intermediaries used to the 9.55am-3.30pm slot will have to make some painful adjustments in their personal and professional lives. An extra hour of work a day means almost an extra day a week.

Will gold turn out to be the asset class of choice in the next decade as well?

"Amidst all the madness there was one asset class that remained rock solid right till the end. In fact, it ended each year of the decade higher than the price at which it started the year. Thus, if there is one widely accepted asset class that deserves the title to be the asset of the decade, it is none other than the yellow metal gold. As per a story in LiveMint, Gold witnessed a near fourfold jump in its price over the past decade. It beat other contenders like crude oil and the Indian Sensex, which were up around three-fold, by a handsome margin.

Now, to the question that we are sure would be on most investors' minds. Will Gold outperform in the coming decade as well? We may not like to hazard a guess on that one. But we are fairly certain about is its ability to continue giving attractive returns. As one financial expert rightly put it, 'Gold no doubt is a speculation but it is a speculation on a certainty. And that certainty is the debasement of currencies.' Thus, gold bugs can continue to keep the faith. But do not go overboard with your gold investment."

My recommendation :- Go with Gold ETF, you don't loose on redemtion(but for the brokerage) and it is faster to get it redemed. If it is ornament it has got utility vaue but would attract lesser price while redemption and is little more tougher to get cash in exchange of gold as most of the Jewellery shops would prefer a gold to gold exchange ( old for new ornaments)

Indian Auto Industry Dec'09 performance

"India's auto industry ended 2009 on a strong note with car and two I wheeler makers reporting robust growth in December sales as increas ing economic activity and easy avail ability of loans prompted buyers to rush to dealerships.
December is traditionally seen as a weak month for sales as customers prefer to wait for the new year to make purchases as cars bought in December attract lower resale prices than than those bought a month later.
However, in the past few years car makers have rushed to attract buyers with discounts and other rebates to shore up December sales.
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the coun try's largest car maker reported a 36% jump in sales. The company sold 71,000 units in December, compared with 52,029 units a year ago.
Sales at rival, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, rose 42% to 22,252 units. Mahin dra and Mahindra Ltd clocked the big gest percentage jump, with sales ris ing 122% to 22,754 units.
Tata Motors Ltd did not release its numbers.
The growth was also helped along by the base effect when muted growth in one month leads to the next year's numbers looking stronger then they would have otherwise. Car and twowheeler sales started falling in October 2008 and continued to do so till February.
Smaller players such as General Motors India and Skoda Auto also reported brisk growth. Sales at Gener al Motors doubled to 8,258 units. Sig nificantly, the Spark, its small car, accounted for 4,147 units. It plans to further strengthen its offering in the small car segment with the launch of the Chevrolet Beat at this month's New Delhi Auto Expo. Skoda sold 1,113 units compared with 732 a year ago.
Car makers also benefited from buyers advancing purchases due to price hikes, which several companies have said they plan to do in the next few months. Some, such as Ford India Pvt. Ltd, have already announced an increase in prices from January.
Among twowheeler companies, Hero Honda Motors Ltd ended the year with the company selling"

Indian infrastructure - Ports

"The average turnaround time for ships at Indian ports was 3.85 days in FY09, compared with just 10 hours in Hong Kong"

Investing in Indian Stock மார்க்கெட்

"If the coming decades belong to China and India, then we are going to witness the changing lifestyle of the average Chinese and Indian. In particular, he will be consuming more energy. The primary sources of energy remain hydrocarbons – coal, crude oil and natural gas. Of these, natural gas is the most environment friendly. Little wonder then, the growth rate in demand is going to be the highest for natural gas, from all across Asia and especially from China and India.

So, natural gas producers and transporters are going to create a lot of wealth for themselves and their shareholders. The demand is evident in the off take numbers. But the supply side might also surprise us. In fact, we believe India also has enormous potential in terms of new discoveries"

I also read in to-days ET that India has abundant frozen hydrates in its ocean beds - a source of Natural Gas. This would put India with excess natural gas and hence India would also export the same to Iran.