India has to compete with China in steel output, says Modi

Stating that India has overtaken the US in steel production, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 1 said the country has to compete with China, which is far ahead. "India has surpassed America in steel production. But, we are still behind China and when I talk about Make in India, we would not accept to stay behind anyone. We have to increase our production," said Modi after inaugurating the modernized and expanded steel unit of Rourkela Steel Plant at Rourkela in Odisha. The Rs.12,000-crore project has more than doubled the plant's capacity to 4.5 million tonnes per annum from 2 mtpa. The prime minister said India can grow with its youth power, which accounts for about 65 percent of the total population. He said if the youth get employment and proper skill development, the country would prosper and move fast in the coming 10 years. He said mineral resources should be properly utilized for development of the people and industries. Modi said trading of mineral resources to other countries may help the economy, but it would not build the future of India. Stating that minerals should have value addition and generate employment, he said the whole world is now interested in investing in the country, which was not the case in the last decade. "We want to invite the world to invest in India and I can assure that they would get highest return compared to other parts of the world," said Modi. Emphasizing the need for balanced development of all states, the prime minister said his focus is on the development of the country's eastern parts, which are lagging behind the western region. "The eastern region should be developed. When the western part of India is developing, we have to concentrate on the eastern region," Modi said. He said the central government has hiked royalty on minerals benefiting Odisha after coming to power, and increased allocation to Rs.25,000 crore in the 14th Finance Commission, which had reached to Rs.18,000 crore in last 60 years. "Odisha must be developed if country has to progress," said the prime minister. He said the coal bearing states, including Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Bihar, would be benefited following the auction of the minerals. He said through a transparent auction of just 20 out of 204 coal mines cancelled by the Supreme Court, the country has earned over Rs.2 lakh crore.

Private silos and freight terminals on FCI radar

Food Corporation of India (FCI) might allow private players to build grain silos along with private freight terminals if land is available with the developer. The corporation will ensure guaranteed capacity and will also pay rent to the investor at a fixed rate for such silos. This was disclosed at a meeting the corporation had with investors for its nationwide programme to develop 20 million tonnes of storage capacity through silos, officials said. At present, of the 71.1 million tonnes of storage capacity available with the corporation, just around 5.5 million tonnes is through silos, run by Adani Agro Logistics Ltd. The corporation already operates two schemes to attract private investment in construction and development of silos, and a third one, along with private freight terminals, is also being thought off. The first one is with 20 per cent viability gap funding and the second one is without viability gap funding through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The non-VGF, scheme is usually operated in those areas where FCI does not have its own land. Officials said according to an preliminary assessment by the corporation, there are 87 depots with rail siding, silos exceeding a capacity of 25,000 metric tonnes can be developed, while there are another 56 locations where silos in excess of 50,000 tonnes of capacity can be developed. "FCI plans to upgrade its storage facilities to modern bulk storage systems through silos and would leverage its existing land assets with private sector expertise to minimise costs through PPP models," the executive director of the corporation's silos division, Abhishek Singh, said at the conference. He said in terms of capital cost, for a silo it is Rs 5,900 per tonne, while in case of conventional storage it is around Rs 6,750 tonne. That apart, there the losses and damages in a silo are far less than conventional storages. Through its silo-development programme, the corporation plans to eliminate entirely storage in covered area plinth, in which grains are kept under plastic sheets, mounted on an elevated platform. As part of its strategy, the corporation plans to develop, large silos in procurement states such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, standalone small silos in mandi yards and medium-sized silos in consuming states like Maharashtra. A draft model concession agreement, along with other necessary bidding documents has been prepared by FCI in consultation with NITI Aayog.'

Move to revive gas-based power will benefit banks: Moody's

Terming the Indian government's decision last week to allow gas-based power units lying idle to import feed stock through e-auctions as "credit positive", rating agency Moody's on March 30 said the move will benefit banks as they have significant exposure to such plants. "The government approved measures to revive and improve the utilisation of stranded gas based power generation plants in the country. This is credit positive for India's banks because they have significant credit exposure to such plants," the agency said in a statement here. Power plants that use liquefied natural gas (LNG) as fuel have been facing significant availability and pricing challenges because actual domestic production of LNG has been significantly lower than the assumptions made when the plants were set up, Moody's said. According to the government, out of 24,150 MW gas-grid-connected power generation capacity in the country, 14,305 MW of capacity has currently no supply of domestic gas and may be considered as stranded. A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs last week gave the go ahead that will immediately lead to the resumption of power generation to the extent of 14,000 MW. Among the biggest beneficiaries of these measures are IDBI Bank, the State Bank of India and ICICI Bank. Moody's said that importing LNG at prevailing prices has increased generation costs, which has raised prices beyond the reach of buyers. Among Moody's rated banks, IDBI Bank has an especially high exposure to gas-based power plants and would be the key beneficiary of these measures. SBI and ICICI Bank have exposure to the Ratnagiri Power Plant, which is the largest gas-based power plant in the country.

Defence to give $250 bn business in 7-8 years: Government

India's defence sector is expected to provide business opportunities worth $250 billion in the next seven to eight years, a senior industry ministry official said on March 30. If India is going to import $140 billion of defence equipment in the next seven years and homeland security is going to need another $110 billion, this would spell "$250 billion worth of business in the next seven to eight years", said Amitabh Kant, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP). "How quickly we can transform ourselves into a defence manufacturing country is a key challenge to India," Kant said at an industry chamber Assocham event where invitees included Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and Belgian Ambassador Jan Luykx. "We have opened up defence, railways, insurance and medical devices. Other than multi-brand retail, India is the most open economy of the world today. How quickly we can use our defence manufacturing sector... That is a huge area for growth in the future," he added. Kant also said that the government plans to soon implement a

mechanism whereby states will be ranked based on the ease of doing business. "We are commissioning a professional agency to evaluate all the states and rank best and worst performing states," he said. "The real action is in the states," he added.

India to sign international agreement on dry ports

The union cabinet on March 31 gave the nod to the signing and ratifying of an inter-governmental agreement on dry ports that will facilitate and expand international goods transport. The decision was taken by the union cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The approval was given for "signing and ratifying of the inter-governmental agreement on dry ports of international importance", an official statement said.

To be signed at the UN headquarters in New York, the agreement is a follow up of the resolution of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) regarding development of dry ports within its member countries, including India. "This current agreement promotes international recognition of dry ports, facilitates investment in infrastructure, improves operational efficiency of inter modal transport services, establishes guiding principles for development and operation of dry ports and enhances the environmental sustainability of freight transport," the statement said. The agreement will help in connectivity and integration of the Asian highway network, the trans-Asian railways network and other modes by working towards development of dry ports. "There is need to promote and develop an international integrated intermodal transport and logistics system in Asia with its neighbouring regions. The agreement will facilitate and expand international goods transport as a consequence of growing international trade in the region," the statement said. The agreement will also strengthen connectivity and seamless international movement of goods, facilitate increased efficiency and reduce cost of transport and logistics as well as extend reach to inland areas and wider hinterlands.

Automobile sales mark healthy growth in 2014-15

Despite high fuel and interest costs, automobile manufacturers closed 2014-15 on a positive note with major companies reporting sales growth during the fiscal ended March 31. Total sales of India's largest passenger car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki grew by 11.9 in 2014-15 and stood at 1,292,415 units from 1,155,041 units sold in the previous fiscal. The company's domestic sales during the year grew at 11.1 percent at 1,170,702 units from 1,053,689 units in 2013-14. Exports during the period under review zoomed by 20.1 percent at 121,713 units from 101,352 units shipped out in 2013-14. However, for the month of March, the company's total sales decreased by 1.6 percent at 111,555 units from 113,350 units sold in the corresponding month of 2014. Chennai-based automobile manufacturer Hyundai Motor's (HMIL) overall sales including exports grew by 10.62 percent and stood at 420,668 units from 380,253 units sold in the previous fiscal. However, for the month of March, the company's total sales decreased by 3.8 percent at 49,740 units from 51,708 units sold in the corresponding month of 2014. According to the company, 2015 outlook seems challenging due to low traction in the market with weak delivery on macro-economic parameters and on customer's sentiments. "We are hopeful that an environment will be created to bring in investment and create employment that will give the required thrust to grow the industry," said Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Hyundai Motor India. Indian automobile major Tata Motors' cumulative sales including exports for the last fiscal were lower by 11 percent at 502,281 units sold from an off-take of 566,695 vehicles in 2013-14. The company's total commercial and passenger vehicles sales including exports for March grew at three percent at 52,479 units sold from 51,184 vehicles off-take during the corresponding month of 2014. Another domestic automobile major, Mahindra and Mahindra's total sales for 2014-15 declined by eight percent and stood at 464,848 units from 507,176 units sold in the previous fiscal. For the month of March, the company's total sales decreased by 12 percent at 45,212 units from 51,636 units sold in the corresponding month of 2014. The company said that it expects the automobile industry to perform better during the current fiscal year. "With factors such as expectation of normal monsoon, settling down of petrol and diesel prices and the likely softening of interest rates, we expect the auto industry to perform better in FY2016," said Pravin Shah, chief executive, automotive division, Mahindra and Mahindra. Commercial vehicles major Ashok Leyland closed the full fiscal last year (2014-15), with a 17 percent growth in sales which stood at 104,902 units up from 89,337 units sold in the year 2013-14. For last month the company's sales grew 24 percent as compared to last year's corresponding period and stood at 12,754 units from 10,281 units sold in March 2014. Indo-American car maker Ford India's  total sales in 2014-15 grew 18 percent to 156,841 vehicles from 132,540 vehicles in the previous financial year (2013-14). "With the economic recovery being slower than anticipated and a high interest rate and inflation environment, customers continue to defer their discretionary spends," said Anurag Mehrotra, executive director, marketing, sales and service, Ford India. Two-wheeler major Hero MotoCorp's sales for 2014-15 increased by 6.2 percent and stood at 6,631,826 units from 6,245,960 units sold in the previous fiscal. According to the company, in fiscal 2014-15 the industry continued to remain sluggish due to the overall market sentiments and the slowing rural economy. Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India's logged 20 percent sales growth during 2014-15. The company sold 4,452,010 units during the last fiscal -- up from 3,721,942 units sold during the corresponding period of the previous year.

De Beers mulls retail expansion in India

Global diamond miner and trader De Beers plans to expand its retail presence in India through its jeweller partners, a top company official said on April 2. "We plan to increase our presence in 27 cities through 200 jewellers from 24 cities and 162 partners across the country, as India is a high growth market for us," De Beers group chief executive Philipe Mellie told reporters here. The Luxembourg-based company has also opened an international institute of diamond grading and research at Surat in Gujarat. The facility, set up at a cost of Rs.60 crore (about $10 million), will grade diamonds and mark them for Forevermark certification. The institute is the group's second facility outside Antwerp in Belgium and will process diamonds valued at $500 million per annum. "We have set up the facility at Surat, as 50 percent of our raw diamonds are polished there. It will also serve our retail partners and drastically reduce grading and certifying duration to six days from six weeks," Mellier said. Eyeing a three percent growth worldwide in 2015, the group company plans to process 100,000 diamonds this year.

PepsiCo inaugurates green-field manufacturing facility in AP

Global beverages company PepsiCo on April 3 inaugurated its new manufacturing facility at Sri City industrial park in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh’s. PepsiCo chairperson and CEO Indra Nooyi and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu took part in the event. The plant was built at an initial investment of Rs 500 crore. The facility will be expanded in phases, entailing a total investment of Rs 1,200 crore. Upon completion, it is set to become PepsiCo's largest manufacturing facility in India. “For the past 25 years, PepsiCo has been investing in the Indian economy and its people. As we move forward into our next 25 years, that commitment is stronger than ever. This plant is an investment in India’s bright future,” said Nooyi. Spread across 86 acres, the first line of the plant started manufacturing on Friday. When it becomes fully operational, it would benefit nearly 33,000 farmers thanks to local sourcing of mangoes and other fruits, Nooyi said. Speaking on the occasion, Naidu said local sourcing of mangoes would immensely benefit the region economically. Complimenting the Sri City management for attracting dozens of companies to set up shop there, Naidu said it could become.  The PepsiCo plant will manufacture fruit juice-based drinks, carbonated soft drinks, and sports drinks, among other beverages. PepsiCo has deployed state-of-the-art technologies with an emphasis on production efficiencies, environment protection and safety. The plant will be PepsiCo’s most water-efficient beverage plant in India and the firm aims to procure LEED certification for this facility, company officials said. LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is a set of rating systems for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of green buildings, homes and neighborhoods. It is developed by the US Green Building Council. PepsiCo has a large manufacturing facility, with seven production lines in Telangana to cater to the markets of the undivided Andhra Pradesh and parts of Karnataka. The company, which has 22 brands in its product portfolio comprising food and beverages, has annual retail sales of about $1 billion. Sitting on a land bank of 8,000 acres, Sri City currently houses 106 companies employing 25,000 directly The GVK group plans to set up a hospital, medical college and a research centre at Sri City with an initial investment of Rs 100 crore, according to officials.

India's new trade policy merges all export schemes into two

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make in India" initiative in the backdrop and a target of raising India's exports to $900 billion by 2020, a new five-year Foreign Trade Policy was unveiled on April 1 that recasts all external commerce programmes into two schemes. "The new five-year Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-20 provides a framework for increasing exports of goods and services, as well as generation of employment and increasing value addition in the country, in keeping with the "Make in India" vision of the prime minister," Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. "The focus of the new policy is to support both the manufacturing and services sectors, with a special emphasis on improving the ease of doing business," she said during the unveiling of the new policy at the Vigyan Bhavan here. In its blueprint for enhancing exports, she said, the government has now merged all the earlier export promotion projects under two plans - the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) and the Served from India scheme (SFIS) for services exporters. As part of this initiative, the import duty exemption scrips valued at 10 percent of the foreign exchange earned, which are given to service exporters as an incentive, have now been made "tradeable" and can be used for service tax, customs and excise duty payments. "There is no conditionality in any of the scrips issued under these two schemes," Sitharaman said, adding: As a measure to boost special economic zones, units within them will also now be able to avail the benefit of the two merged schemes. The new policy has come at a time when India's merchandise exports continue to log a decent growth, having expanded by just 0.88 percent in the first 11 months of the current fiscal. Declining for the straight third month, India's exports fell by over 15 percent to $21.54 billion in February, even as the trade deficit narrowed to $6.85 billion on the back of declining international crude oil prices. The commerce minister unveils the country's Foreign Trade Policy for five years and a review is conducted annually. The previous policy was for 2009-2014, but neither was a new policy announced in 2014, nor a review conducted. By implementing the new policy, India's share in world trade is expected to double from the present level of three percent by 2020. Indian industry welcomed the new policy in which trade facilitation and enhancing the ease of doing business are the other major focus areas. Hailing it as a path-breaking policy, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the new policy recognises the global challenges faced by the export sector and also identifies the sectors which could emerge as winners in five years. "The new Foreign Trade Policy has put the focus on states as all factors of production are within the ambit of states. "Developing an export strategy, setting up of institutional support of Export Commissioners and formation of the Council for Trade Promotion and Development would involve states in export promotion which was seriously lacking," FIEO president S.C. Ralhan said in a statement.

*"Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry is very happy to see several of its suggestions have been adopted. "

*Concerted and partnership-based efforts of government and business would certainly be able to raise India's share in world exports from the present level of 2 percent to 3.5 percent by 2019-20," A. Didar Singh, secretary general, FICCI, said in a statement here.

*Indian industry is thrilled with announcements pertaining to simplification in procedures. Overall, the focus of the new policy is to support both the manufacturing and services sectors, with a special emphasis on improving the 'ease of doing business'," said industry chamber CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee.

Highlights of Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20:

* Increase exports to $900 billion by 2019-20, from $466 billion in 2013-14 

* Old promotion schemes subsumed under two schemes - "Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)" and "Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS").

* Higher level of rewards under MEIS for export items with high domestic content and value addition.

* Incentives extended to units located in special economic zones (SEZs.

* Export obligation reduced to 75 percent to promote domestic capital goods manufacturing.

* Duty credit scrips made freely transferable and usable For payment of custom duty, excise duty and service tax.

* Mainstreaming of state governments and various ministries in formulating FTP

* FTP will be reviewed after two-and-a-half years.

* Agricultural and village industry products would be supported across the globe at the rates of 3 percent and 5 percent.

* Focus on defence, pharma, environment-friendly products and value-added exports.

New FTP to nudge domestic procurement

The new five-year foreign trade policy (FTP) unveiled here on April 1 will nudge procurement of capital goods from indigenous manufacturers under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme by reducing specific export obligation to 75  percent of the normal export obligation. The new FTP was unveiled by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman. According to the government, this will promote the domestic capital goods manufacturing industry. Such flexibility will help exporters develop their productive capacities for both local and global consumption. Measures have also been taken to boost to exports of defence and hi-tech items. At the same time e-Commerce exports of handloom products, books/periodicals, leather footwear, toys and customized fashion garments through courier or foreign post office would also be able to get benefit of Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) (for values upto Rs.25,000). These measures would not only capitalize on India's strength in these areas and increase exports but also provide employment. According to Sitharaman, though exports from special economic zones (SEZ) had seen phenomenal growth, significantly higher than the country's overall export growth, this had been facing several challenges in recent times. To boost exports from SEZs, the government has now decided to extend the benefits of MEIS and SEIS to units located in SEZs. It is hoped that this measure will give a new impetus to development and growth of SEZs in the country. Trade facilitation and enhancing the ease of doing business are the other major focus areas in this new FTP. One of the major objective of new FTP is to move towards paperless working in 24x7 environment.

Indian Inc. welcomes new foreign trade policy

India Inc. on April 1 welcomed the slew of measures announced by the government in its new five-year foreign trade policy. The new policy focuses on simplifying old schemes and procedures under one streamlined policy structure. India Inc. noted that the positive measures like facilitation and enhancing the ease of doing business as mentioned under policy statement as the major focus areas. Hailing it as a path-breaking policy, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the new policy recognises the global challenges faced by the export sector and also identifies the sectors which could emerge as winners in the next five years. "The new policy has put the focus on states as all factors of production are within the ambit of states," FIEO President S.C. Ralhan said. According to Ralhan, the new policy develops an export strategy which inculcates setting up of institutional support for export commissioners and formation of the council for trade promotion involving both the centre and the state governments. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) expressed its satisfaction over the new trade policy stating that many of its suggestions have been adopted in it. "Concerted and partnership-based efforts of government and business would certainly be able to raise India’s share in world exports from the present level of 2 percent to 3.5 percent by 2019-20," FICCI secretary general A. Didar Singh said The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said the Indian industry was thrilled with announcements pertaining to simplification in procedures. "Overall, the focus of the new policy is to support both the manufacturing and services sectors, with a special emphasis on improving the 'ease of doing business'," said industry chamber CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee. Akshay Mathur, head of research and geoeconomics fellow at foreign policy think tank Gateway House pointed that the search for new markets such as Latin America, Africa and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) is obvious and timely. "As India's traditional export destinations such as the US and Europe are still recovering from the financial crisis," Mathur added.

Time to conclude free trade agreement, India tells EU

The Indian government on April 2 urged the European Union to conclude negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement, saying the parties have arrived at the point of compromise that could be upset if EU became over-ambitious. "What is the point at which EU will feel satisfied? In our perspective, we have already arrived at that point and EU should feel satisfied. If EU has more ambitions, which it believes should be satisfied now, we might have some reservations," Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said at a seminar here on the Foreign Trade Policy organised by industry chamber FICCI. "We have not spoken for some time now in a formal sense. Informally, we have been getting messages through public announcements that EU is interested in taking up the process forward. This has been said on our side that we find it very interesting to pursue India-EU BTIA," he added. Negotiations on the FTA, officially dubbed the Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), between India and the 28-nation EU, were launched in June 2007 but have been facing hurdles with differences between both sides on crucial issues. Besides demanding major duty cuts for exporting automobiles to India, the EU wants tax reduction in wines, spirits and dairy products as well as a strong intellectual property rights (IPR)regime in the country. However, the Indian automobiles industry has raised an alarm over the sector being included in the FTA, claiming it will kill investments and technology flow into the country, resulting in under-achievement of the government's automotive mission plan. In May 2013, the parties failed to bridge differences over crucial issues, including data security and visa liberalisation related matters. No formal round of talks have been held since then. Speaking a day after the government unveiled the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20, Kher also said exporters from select

labour intensive sectors will be able to access cheaper credit soon as the government hopes to restart its interest subvention scheme that was discontinued last year due to resource constraints. "The finance ministry has given us the sanction for extending the interest subvention scheme for exports for three years. We are working out the details of the scheme and hope to be ready with it in two-three months," he said.

Govt makes e-tendering must for larger orders by oil PSUs

In order to prevent anomalies in awarding contracts, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas has made it mandatory for companies under its ambit to opt for e-tendering for orders above specified thresholds. The government’s move is seen to bring in transparency in procurement of PSUs. In the past, several projects of oil companies faced inordinate delays because of conflicts claims and counter claims by contractors, delay in material supply and additional cost claims by contractors. For the oil marketing companies such as IOC, BPCL and HPCL, e-tendering would be mandatory for purchases worth Rs 5 lakh and above. The limit would be lowered to Rs 2 lakhs and above from April 1, 2016,” an official privy to the latest norms told FE. At the same time, the limit would be Rs 10 lakh and above for ONGC and Oil India, which would be lowered to Rs 5 lakh and above from April 1, 2016, he added. The department of expenditure has already set a limit of Rs 10 lakh and above for e-procurement for all ministries and government departments. This limit would be brought down to Rs 5 lakh and above from April 1, 2016. Till now, ONGC has been awarding contracts worth Rs 1 crore and above through e-tender, while in case of Oil India it is purchasing via e-tenders goods worth Rs 25 lakh and above. On the other hand, IOC comes up with a tender for purchases Rs 5 lakhs and above. In addition, the petroleum ministry has suggest the companies to adopt centralised procurement for similar items, which would enable price advantages. Also, the companies would share price list of bulk item every quarter among themselves to derive maximum price advantage. Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan is taking stringent actions against any irregularities in awarding contracts by the PSUs.  Recently, Shashi Shankar, director (technical and field services) has been placed under suspension pending, disciplinary proceedings against him. The petroleum ministry said a vigilance inquiry relating to finalisation of a tender for procurement has been instituted against Shankar. From now, the PSUs would also strictly adhere to blacklisting of vendors. If any forgery or malpractice are involved dealing with one company, the vendor may be blacklisted by all companies.

India continues to be second most economically confident nation: Study

India continues to be the second most economically confident nation globally on the back of improved performance by industry and services sector, according to a report by global research firm Ipsos. According to the “Ipsos Economic Pulse of the World” study, Saudi Arabia (94%) solidified its position at the top of the national economic assessment in February 2015, followed by India (80%), Germany (76%), Sweden (73%), China (71%), and Egypt (61%). The lowest average global economic assessment this month is in Italy (8%). Close behind are France (10%), Brazil (12%), Spain (12%), South Korea (13%) and Hungary (16%). One in two (50%) Indians believe that the local economy which impacts their personal finance is good, a sharp drop of 5 points. Indians are very hopeful that Narendra Modi-led NDA government will continue making progress on its domestic reforms agenda and encourage investments that will trigger economic growth and create more jobs; with more than six in ten (64%) people expecting that the economy in their local area will be stronger in next six months, a rise of 2 points making India the most optimistic country globally. “The Indian economy is reviving, aided by positive policy actions by the government that has improved investors’ confidence and lower global oil prices. However, India needs to revitalize the investment cycle and fast-track structural reforms to speed up growth further," said Amit Adarkar, Managing Director - India, Ipsos. “India - Asia's third-largest economy is expected to grow faster than China in the next few years backed by strong GDP growth, low inflation and stable development focused government at the center,” added Adarkar.

Taj plans to open 10 new Vivanta hotels

Taj plans to open 10 new Vivanta hotels Hospitality major Taj Group on March 30 said it plans to open 10 new properties of its premium hotel brand Vivanta in the next five years. "Vivanta by Taj is planning to open 10 more hotels in the next five years, two of which would be coming up in Guwahati and Amritsar this fiscal," Veer Vijay Singh, chief operating officer, Vivanta by Taj Hotels and Resorts told reporters. "Rishikesh, Andaman and Nicobar islands and Lakshadweep are some of the other destinations in the pipeline. Internationally, Vivanta by Taj also plans to expand in Middle East and Africa," Singh said. Singh was speaking on the sidelines at the launch of the 30th property of the premium hotel brand in the national capital region. "The Indian hospitality industry is at an interesting stage where demand is burgeoning across the country," said Singh. According to Singh, Vivanta is well poised to capture this growing demand with its broad set of offerings and its culture of service excellence. The company further said that the new property is an ideal option for both business and leisure travellers as well as guests looking for memorable weddings and successful conferences. The new property is strategically located at Dwarka which is in close proximity to the airport and the business district of Gurgaon. The company added that the new property's architecture and interiors have been conceived by the Hong Kong based firm RAD and it features 250 rooms including 17 uniquely designed suites and a luxurious 'Presidential Nirvana' suite.