Take advantage of ‘Make-In-India’, President tells Chinese firms
Expressing concern over bilateral trade deficit between India and China, President Pranab Mukherjee invited companies from the communist nation to take advantage of India’s ‘Make-In-India’ initiative, a statement said on June 17. Addressing a Chinese Parliamentary Delegation led by Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the standing committee of National People’s Congress, on Monday, Mukherjee invited Chinese companies to increase their involvement in India’s manufacturing sector. “There is no reason why Chinese companies should not take advantage of India’s ‘Make-In-India’ initiative,” the president said while addressing the visiting delegation at Rashtrapati Bhawan. Stressing that India attached “highest priority” to its relations with China, Mukherjee said bilateral trade between the two countries for 2014 stood at $70.59 billion, an increase of 7.9 percent compared with that in last year. “While India remains committed to exploiting the full potential of its economic cooperation, the trade deficit is a matter of concern. It is good that a high-level group has been set up to examine how the deficit can be reduced,” he said. Responding to Mukherjee, Zhang said he was deeply impressed by the consensus amongst all high-level leaders of India for greater cooperation with China. “India and China are the largest developing countries and emerging markets. They have shown strong energy and vitality in recent times. Friendship between the two countries will not just benefit the people of the two countries but also have a potential impact on the entire region and the world,” Zhang said.
Path to 10% growth not impossible for India: FM Arun Jaitley
Noting that a new aspirational India expects early results and decisive governance, Finance Arun Jaitley has exuded confidence that with the government undertaking economic reforms, policy changes, pumping in money in key sectors like infrastructure, and with a possible good monsoon, the path to 10 per cent growth is not impossible. “This (10 per cent growth rate) is reasonably possible. That is where India’s potential is,” Jaitley told an audience here soon after his arrival in Washington on the second leg of his nine-day US tour to attract American investors. “It is important that we reach that target, but it is more important that we sustain it for a couple of years,” the Finance Minister said in his remarks on ‘Putting India back on track: A pathway to double-digit growth’, at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a top US think-tank. “If we are able to sustain it for a couple of years, then I think, we will be able to have direct benefits as far as India is concerned, more jobs, better economy and hopefully over the next 10 years or so deplete the poverty levels in the segments that are more impacted by it,” Jaitley said giving his overview of his government’s economic policies. “I can’t say as to what figure India’s growth rate would achieve. But I am certainly of the view that the seven-and-a- half per cent growth that we are presently at is not India’s optimum potential. This year, we hope to touch about eight per cent,” he said. Once the impact of all policy changes made by the new Indian government and investments in key areas like infrastructure, agriculture and industry is felt, Jaitley said, “I think there could be a significant growth”. If inflation stays at moderate level, one should logically expect the interest rates to go down, which would directly impact and add to the Indian economy, he said. “Once the cumulative effect of all these plus favorable global winds, I think the journey between eight and 10 per cent is not an impossible journey,” Jaitley said. He said that India reached this seven plus per cent growth rate in the backdrop of a terrible monsoon last year and there was a second round of crop destruction in March this year. The manufacturing sector was almost crawling, and the
growth rate was around five per cent, Jaitley said. “Now with a lot more money being invested in infrastructure and governments even conducting their fiscal policy in order to help the manufacturing sector, there is a significant growth possible as far as this area is concerned,” he said. Goods and Services Tax (GST) has the potential to add at least one per cent to the GDP of India, he said adding that last year, India grew by 7.3 per cent in terms of GDP. “In terms of fiscal deficit, from an all-time high of six per cent plus, we brought it down to four per cent. Our current account deficit, last quarter was 0.2 which is quite an exciting figure for us. Capital formation has improved. Some trickling effect on the infrastructure area has just about started. Power sector has performed quite well,” he said. He said the government still has pending work at hand. “The Land Bill is a difficult challenge…I think, we will have to fight it out and explain the benefits of the land bill because it is intended for the development of India’s rural areas,” he said adding that he is very positive on GST. “We have several other reforms in the pipeline. The bankruptcy court, reducing the number of permissions required for setting up businesses in India, a public procurement law, a law on expeditious execution of disputes relating to big projects,” Jaitley said. The social programmes of the government, including the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, have become mass movements and therefore are producing greater results, he said.
India a bright spot in troubled global economy: FM Jaitley
Describing India as a bright spot in an otherwise troubled global economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the new Indian government offers a stable, predictable and transparent policy regime, making the country an attractive destination for investors. Having interacted with top American businesses and corporate leaders over the past five days in both New York
and Washington, Jaitley on Saturday had told reporters the feedback he is receiving is that investors need a stable policy regime and the Indian government is committed to that. “In otherwise troubled time of the global economy, India clearly is a bright spot. As a bright spot, our growth rates are improving. Fiscal discipline is under control.... This year, we are targeting eight per cent growth, which in current global situation appears to be reasonably impressive,” he said. And that is what makes us an attractive destination,” he said. Jaitley, who met investors over the past few days in both New York and Washington, either on a one-to-one basis or collectively, said the meetings were an opportunity to explain to them what has happened in the past one year in terms of the reform programme and all that is in the pipeline. “The government is fairly determined to continue this process so that it can give further boost to our economy,” Jaitley said, adding that the meetings were also an opportunity to understand how investors view India. This would continue over the next three days, during the last leg of his visit to San Francisco, beginning today. “There has been several game changing steps which the government of India has taken in the last one year. We opened up, we made several structural changes, the recommendation of the finance commission which we are implementing has created a huge amount of decentralisation potential,” he said. “The taxation reforms which, we are taking in reducing direct tax rates to 25 per cent, and moving on to the goods and services tax (GST) regime, is probably one of the most important taxation reforms in recent history, subsidy rationalisation and using the DBT mechanism is extremely important, transparency in government’s functioning particularly in areas of natural resources has brought very important results,” the minister said.
GE Aviation to make aeroframes with Mahindra Aerospace in India
GE Aviation would collaborate with Mahindra Aerospace to manufacture aerostructures for Airbus group at this tech hub, the global aerospace firm said on June 17. “We will collaborate with Mahindra Aerospace to produce small, metallic complex structural sheet details and assemblies at its facility near Bengaluru,” GE Aviation’s executive Stefanie Darlington said in a statement from Paris. Both the aerospace firms signed an agreement at Le Bourget on the margins of the Paris Air Show to scale their partnership in manufacturing airframes, components and sub-systems. Mahindra Aerospace, a subsidiary of the $16.9-billion Mahindra group, has an aerostructures plant at Narsapura, 40 km from Bengaluru. Global aerospace firm Airbus has recently approved Mahindra Aerospace and GE Aviation working on single aisle for its new aircraft at the latter’s Hamble facility in Southampton, Hampshire, in Britain. “The agreement takes our partnership to the next stage of creating value for aerospace manufacturers and tier-1 suppliers worldwide,” Mahindra Aerospace and defence sector chief executive S.P. Shukla said. Extending the group’s automotive design and manufacturing expertise to the growing aerospace industry, Mahindra Aerospace acquired a slew of companies to strengthen its capabilities in lower-cost production. “As manufacture of components, assemblies and aerostructures is an integral part of our vision, this agreement makes us part of GE’s supply chain and to leverage our capabilities on assembly work packages for aerospace and defence majors worldwide,” Mahindra Aerospace executive director Arvind Mehra added. GE Aviation, an operating unit of General Electric, provides jet and turboprop engines, components, aerostructures, nacelles and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft.
Cisco announces $60 mn investment in India
San Jose-based technology multinational company Cisco on June 18 said it will invest $60 million in India and also begin manufacturing in the country to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s digital transformation schemes. As part of its investment, the tech major will train 1.2 lakh students for which it has kept aside $20 million. It will spend $40 million to expand its India facility spread over four million square feet, and designed as a campus-as-acity. “We are investing big in India. Cisco is committed to partnering with the Indian government to translate the ‘Digital India’ vision into reality,” John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco, said. “I believe that India’s entrepreneurial spirit, highly skilled workforce and supportive government will accelerate the country’s digital transformation,” he added. Cisco in India has already trained 1 lakh students at 198 academies via its Networking Academy programme since its inception. According to the company, the skill development programme is a cloud-delivered, scalable, high quality programme that helps students learn how to design, build, secure and maintain computer networks. As part of its extended strategy, the tech major that outsources most of its manufacturing said that it was looking to start manufacturing in India. “Owing to this commitment, we have taken the first step towards setting up the manufacturing ecosystem here,” Chambers said. “We will prioritise and soon bring our supply chain together to start manufacturing products like broadband equipment and target defence contracts,” he added. The company, which invests $1.7 billion in India annually and has its second headquarters here, is also going to witness change in leadership as Chuck Robbins will take over as CEO. “The Indian government’s vision for a ‘Digital India’ is truly transformative and will create huge opportunities for the country and its citizens,” Chuck Robbins, the incoming CEO, said. “Cisco believes our renewed local investments, global expertise and world-class innovation will accelerate the government’s vision to create sustainable competitiveness and prosperity. We are deeply committed to partnering with India to achieve its digital vision,” he added.
Turkey keen to invest in Make In India: Envoy
Turkish Ambassador Burak Akcapar said on June 16 his country is keen to invest in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make In India campaign, particularly in the manufacturing and construction sectors. “We are looking into the possible opportunities in the context of Make in India but no concrete step has been taken. We are looking forward to receiving information and possible visits from India to explain the objectives to which we can contribute,” Akcapar told the media here. He was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of his book ‘People’s Mission to the Ottoman Empire: M.A. Ansari and the Indian Medical Mission, 1912-13’ at the Oxford Bookstore on Monday. Reiterating his country’s commitment to a strategic and a “warm” relation with India, the envoy said the key areas of focus would be the manufacturing and construction sectors. “Turkey can contribute in many respects to the manufacturing capabilities of India. We have a very strong manufacturing sector. Many things that India imports from the world, we are actually exporting. We are also strong in infrastructure and construction sectors. “Since these two go together there are many opportunities for Turkey in India but we need India to tell its story also to the Turkish business people,” he said. Modi’s likely visit to Turkey either this year or next year will provide the apt chance to discuss its participation in ‘Make In India’, according to Akcapar. “We are looking forward to the honourable prime minister’s visit, if not this year then maybe next year. That will be the right opportunity to discuss all these issues,” he said. Akcapar said Modi’s bilateral visit will be the first by an Indian prime minister to Turkey after a gap of 13 years. In the last four years, five ministerial visits took place and the Indian vice-president visited Turkey after 13 years and the president of India visited Turkey in 2014 after 15 years. In addition to strengthening political and economic ties, Akcapar said Turkey is keen to expand avenues in civil aviation
and tourism and a bilateral visit would further cement the agenda. About the current Turkish investments in India, he said “some companies are operating in infrastructure, manufacturing,
textiles and most recently the Turkish Airlines which is a big player”. “We are eager to expand this investment including in tourism.
India to sign free trade agreement with Eurasian Economic Union
India has confirmed it will sign a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) on June 18 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2015). “We are definitely signing this agreement”, Amit Telang, first secretary in the Indian embassy in Russia, told TASS news agency on June 18. The EAEU is an international organisation for regional economic integration. The member states of the union, which started operating from January 1, 2015, are the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Armenia. The EAEU is aimed at economic development of the member states by coordinating their economic policy and guaranteeing free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce. Apart from India, Vietnam, Iran, Egypt and Israel are negotiating the possibility of concluding free trade agreements with the EAEU.
EU-India summit expected by end of 2015
The next summit between the European Union and India is expected to be held by the end of this year, probably in November, after a gap of nearly three years, according to EU and Indian officials. Manjeev Singh Puri , Ambassador of India to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg, speaking at an event on EU-India ties in Brussels on June 16, said “we hope we will be able to put together the big event that we believe can kickstart at the highest political level before the year is over.” “There are conversations going on that. Politics has an important role to play. It has a leadership thrust ability, it has the ability to push things forward,” he noted. “But I believe that business on the other hand is that engine which results in political leaders and everyone else also looking to move things forward,” he stated. The speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan, will be leading a large parliamentary delegation to Brussels next week to strengthen bilateral parliamentary ties, announced Puri. On his part, Zoran Stancic, European Commission Deputy Director- General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology , said he “fully agrees that the long due summit which hopefully we will have this year could be a good opportunity where our political masters get together.” The event titled ‘Europe, India and Modi - One year on’ was organised by a Brussels-based think tank, Friends of Europe, in association with Europe India Chamber of Commerce and Tata Consultancy Services. The moderator of the event, Shada Islam, Director of Policy at Friends of Europe, lauded the Indian prime minister saying “Modi has been shaking up India and shaking up the world perception of India.” “It is high time that the EU and India get their relationship to a new start. The sooner we get the deal on a free trade agreement, the better,” she said. Speakers also addressed the issue of boosting the EU-India trade and investment flows which are still at a modest 72.5 billion and 5 billion euro respectively. Another topic raised was how to overcome the present stalemate in negotiations on an EU-India Free Trade Agreement. Other speakers at the event included Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services, Shishir Bajoria, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and head of the Bajoria Group of Industries and Luisa Santos, Director for International Relations at the think tank BusinessEurope.
Mahindra Aerospace to make components for Airbus Group
Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group on June 15 bagged a large aero-components production contract from an Airbus Group company -- Premium Aerotec of Germany. According to the Indian conglomerate, its subsidiary Mahindra Aerospace will manufacture a variety of metallic components that will be fitted into several Airbus aircraft programs as part of assemblies produced by Premium Aerotec. The Premium Aerotec is a subsidiary of the Airbus
Group. It supplies for the development and manufacture of large structures for civil and military aircraft. Under the multi-year contract, Mahindra Aerospace’s will deliver in excess of a million parts per annum. The parts will be produced at the company’s facility at Narsapura, near Bengaluru. “This is our vision to take ‘Make in India’ from policy to reality: Build bridges across cultures, countries and businesses - enable each to focus on its core - and empower each other to rise,” said Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director, Mahindra & Mahindra. The Indian conglomerate said that the deliveries to Premium Aerotec’s facilities in Germany are scheduled to commence this year. Airbus and Mahindra are already global partners in the aerospace engineering domain with Tech Mahindra being one of the global engineering services providers to the Airbus Group. “This announcement marks a new milestone in our journey,” said Klaus Richter, chief procurement officer, Airbus Group. Mahindra Aerospace has led the Mahindra Group’s foray into utility aircraft and aerostructure manufacturing since 2008. The company manufacturers utility aircraft in Australia. The aerostructures business operates out of its facility located at the Narsapura Industrial Estate, Bengaluru. The Mahindra Group is $16.9 billion multinational based in Mumbai. It currently employees over 200,000 people in over 100 countries. It has business interests in many industries like tractors, utility vehicles, information technology, financial services, vacation ownership, agribusiness, aerospace, components, consulting services, defence, energy, industrial equipment, logistics, real estate, retail, steel, commercial vehicles and two-wheeler industries.
Software, hardware industries to partner for ‘Digital India’
Indian software and hardware industries are partnering to make the NDA government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives a reality soon, their officials said. The partnership will create a major force in the Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) industry and the IT landscape to position India among top five economies in the next decade, top officials of the hardware and software industries associations told reporters here on June 15. The partnership between the software and hardware representative bodies - the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) and India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) - is aimed at making India a leading player in the IT and ESDM space over the next decade, they said. “The partnership will enable us to draw a common agenda to guide the industry and the government, frame policies and build an ecosystem for developing ESDM (hardware) and IT (software) products, solutions and brands,” said IESA chairman Vinay Shenoy. With electronics, computing and communication paradigms shifting at a faster pace and from mainframes to the new Internet of Things (IoT), hardware, software and services have converged. The $120-billion IT industry has emerged as a global leader in building and delivering software and IT services and contributing nine percent to the country’s national gross domestic product (GDP), while the ESDM market is projected to growth to $94 billion this year from $76 billion in 2013. “The complimentary strengths of the software and hardware industries offer a huge opportunity to contribute to the country’s economic development in the next decade and reduce foreign exchange outgo,” Shenoy said. As technology innovation requires electronics, computing and communications to converge and deliver a holistic solution to meet the industry demand, Nasscom and IESA will drive the ‘Vision 2025’ to enable hardware and software to jointly contribute 25 percent to the GDP. “Smart cities, defence and IoT have been of interest for both of us. By joining, we are better able to address adevice-infrastructure-application’ and the interplay between them,” Shenoy said. Nasscom president R. Chandrashekhar said India had evolved into a global powerhouse for delivering software and services for customers across geographies and verticals. “In recognition of the transformative impact of IT on the economy and the government’s vision of ‘Make in India’, we believe there is an equal opportunity for India to win the next wave of electronics design led manufacturing,” said the former telecom secretary. IESA president M.N. Vidyashankar said the partners would bring key stakeholders from industry, government, academia and investment community close and identify areas of investment to develop an ecosystem for solutions spanning hardware, software and services to meet local and global needs.
L&T bags orders worth Rs.1,507 crore
The metallurgical and material handling division of Larsen and Toubro (L&T) on June 22 said it had won fresh orders valued at Rs.1,507 crore in various business verticals. In the international domain, it secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) order from the Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) for a Greenfield alumina refinery development project in Al-Taweelah in the United Arab Emirates. In a statement, the company said the scope of work involved engineering, procurement, fabrication, erection and related works. On the domestic front, another EPC contract was bagged from Steel Authority of India to instal slab caster and suppressed combustion system along with replacement of basic oxygen furnace converter for modernisation of its steel melt shop in Bokaro in Jharkhand. “These orders are clear signs of improved business prospects in the sector L&T operates as well as... increasing presence in the Gulf,” the company said. Operating across 30 countries, L&T has a consolidated revenue in excess of $15 billion.
Millions in India, thousands abroad mark International Yoga Day
It was an unprecedented demonstration of India’s soft power as tens of thousands across the world, besides millions in India, performed yoga on Sunday to mark the inaugural International Day of Yoga (IDY). A record-breaking nearly 36,000 people, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, took part in the main early morning event at Rajpath in the heart of New Delhi. Yoga was performed at events across the world -- from New York to Trinidad and Tobago, from the Maldives to Australia, from Tel Aviv to Moscow, from on board Indian naval ships to the heights of Siachen glacier, at schools and in innumerable residential localities -- to mark the IDY on June 21. The mega event at Rajpath, the ceremonial boulevard and the surrounding green expanse that connects Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace on Raisina Hill, with the World War I memorial India Gate, was replicated across state capitals, cities, towns and rural areas in the country. Modi described the event as the start of a new era for training the human mind for mind-body balance, peace and harmony. Modi, who himself performed the asanas among the crowd of yoga practitioners at Rajpath, said yoga was not only an exercise to make the body flexible but a path for inner development. “It marks a new era of training of human mind for peace and harmony,” said Modi, attired in a full-sleeve loose white shirt and white lowers, with a scarf in the saffron, white and green colours of the Indian flag looped around his neck. Events were held in the morning hours in 192 countries, organised by the Indian missions and yoga centres. As the sun rose on the globe, the yoga events began kicking off, with the eastern-most countries sending in their pictures. India notched two world records on the inaugural IDY at Rajpath -- for the most number of participants in a yoga lesson with 35,985 at Rajpath -- and for the most number of nationalities attending a yoga lesson -- with people from 84 countries participating at Rajpath. In an address at the United Nations, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the IDY was viewed as a perfect platform to bring the world together in a spirit of unity and harmony. She said yoga was not a religion and should not be seen as belonging to any particular religion. “It is a science, the science of well-being, the science of integrating body, mind and soul, the science of actualizing our true potential.” Among those doing yoga at Rajpath were US Ambassador Richard Verma, Nepal Ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyay, Afghanistan’s Shaida Mohammad Abdali and members of the foreign diplomatic corps and foreign nationals studying in India. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung and Delhi’s former top cop Kiran Bedi were among the prominent personalities who joined in doing yoga. Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth were present but did not join. Remarking at the sea of people, Modi said: “Did anybody ever think that Rajpath can become Yogpath?” Modi did all the 35 asanas listed in the Common Yoga Protocol performed on Sunday. A group of yoga experts performed the yoga exercises on a stage, beamed to the crowd on around 25 large screens, with instructions in Hindi and English. Modi is a keen yoga enthusiast on whose proposal the UN last year announced holding of IDY on June 21. The Rajpath event barely escaped the sharp pre-monsoon showers that drenched the capital soon after the yoga exercise ended at 8 a.m. As the event got over, the sky became overcast and strong gusts of wind shook the tree branches along the Rajpath boulevard. Droplets of rain fell -- and in 20 minutes, it began pouring. Strong security arrangements were in place around Rajpath and only those with special invitee cards were allowed in the restricted area. Over 1,400 women training to join Delhi Police did the yoga asanas as did senior citizens. Muslims, some wearing the skull cap, took part with enthusiasm despite it being the fasting month of Ramadan. There was 11-year-old Mohd. Aseem from a government school in Vivek Vihar who said he enjoyed doing yoga. The US envoy said he found the yoga session “excellent”. Burkina Faso envoy Idriss Raoua Ouedraogo, who has been practising yoga for over 27 years and is a teacher, said he was delighted to have been at Rajpath. Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa hailed Modi. “As a practitioner of yoga, I commend PM @narendramodi for his efforts at the UN,” he tweeted. Indian soldiers did yoga at the Siachen glacier, the world’s highest battlefield at 5,400 metres altitude, and in Ladakh and Kargil, besides at all major stations. The Indian Navy, observing “Yoga across the Oceans”, had ships stationed in international waters, from the Mediterranean to the South China Sea, and the crew performed yoga. Later addressing an international conference on yoga here, Modi asked people to embrace yoga for “highest divine perfection” and to combat greed and violence. He said that while yoga may have originated in India, it draws energy from the millions who practise it around the world. Doing yoga regularly helps to reduce greed, violence, cost of healthcare and conflicts within communities and between nations, he said. The Art of Living said some 50 million people across 132 countries did yoga on Sunday with the spiritual group. In Switzerland, IDY was celebrated at Berne, Baden, Basel and Zurich in close collaboration with Yoga Institutes/Indian Associations. In Liechtenstein, it was celebrated at Triesen in association with India Club, Vaduz.
India needs to project its new image, its stability, says US business leader
Recent changes in China has made it less predictable and this gives India a big opportunity to project its stability, a leading US business leader said on June 17. While the conditions for doing business in India have improved and businesses are “thrilled by the shift” in India over the past year, there was still a lingering image problem, Sandra Peterson, the Group Worldwide Chairman of Johson & Johnson said on June 17. Therefore, India has to be more vocal about projecting its stability and image, she said. “You cannot change the image of operating in India over 30 years in just a year,” she said. She was speaking at the Asia Society Policy Institute on “India Under Modi: One Year In.” She said that democracy was “messy” in the US and it was the case in India, but American business leaders don’t make the connection and see India’s democratic process in isolation. Answering question from the audience about corruption, Peterson said that India was not as corrupt as many places and her company operated there under strict codes against corrupt practices. She added that corruption was not at the top of the list of concerns for businesses to operate in India. International Monetary Fund Executive Director Rakesh Mohan said that in the last year, India has overcome the despondency that had marked the previous three years. Institutions abroad were more upbeat about India’s economy, with Citibank being the most optimistic, even more than the Reserve Bank of India or the Indian government, he said. But private investment has yet to pick up, he said. Public sector investments would help lead the private sector out of the slowdown. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who is the president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, announced the formation of a policy initiative task force to create a roadmap for India to join the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). It is to be co-chaired by Ajay Banga, the CEO of MasterCard, and Shyam Saran, the Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board. Rudd said that it was important for both India and APEC for New Delhi to join it and many members favored it. Shivshankar Menon, the former foreign secretary and national security adviser, said that there was a consistency to Indian foreign policy that was reassuring to the world. There was a progression from the National Democratic Alliance to the United Progressive Alliance, and now, to the BJP, with each government adopting the success of the previous government and “putting its gloss on it.” The biggest change under Modi was India adopting a pro-West stance as seen in its “doubling down” in relations with the US and even its building relations with Israel, he said. A former US State Department and National Security Council official, Ashley Tellis, said a welcome surprise for the US was how Modi overlooked the denial of visa to him and has worked to further relations with Washington. There was a consensus with the US on Asian policies based on China not being dominant in Asia, he said. Modi came to the US with the idea that Washington and New Delhi should do things together for the world, a multilateral and not just a bilateral agenda, he said. Indrani Bagchi, The Times of India’s Senior Diplomatic Editor, said that the policy of “benign neglect” of Pakistan was likely to change eventually. She noted that in the past year there has been no major terrorist attack in India and infiltration of terrorists has come down. Modi has used two state leaders to deal with difficult bilateral issue involving neighbors, she said. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Bannerjee was put at the forefront of his successful effort to implement a border agreement with Bangladesh, she said. Navigating the relationship with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa helped Modi deal with Sri Lanka, she added.
India to have 1.4 bn mobile subscribers by 2020: Report
India will have at least 1.4 billion mobile subscribers by 2020, resulting in a population penetration of 100 percent, says a report released by Swedish communication technology and services provider Ericsson. According to the report, the growth will primarily be driven by the increasing affordability of devices and services. “Maintaining and improving quality of the user experience is likely to be at the top of Indian operators’ agenda over the coming years,” Chris Houghton, India head at Ericsson, said. “A network with a mix of macro sites, micro sites and small cells will need to be established to manage coverage, capacity and network performance for the best user experience and to meet the growing demand for data services,” he added. The report also observed that GSM/EDGE subscriptions will decline from 780 million in 2014 to around 510 million by 2020. “The GSM/EDGE subscription base is predicted to peak in 2015 and decline thereafter as subscribers migrate to 3G services,” the report revealed. Also, the report claims that WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions will increase from over 120 million in 2014 to around 620 million by 2020 due to the increase in proportion of WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions from 13 percent to 45 percent. On the other hand, LTE subscriptions is scripted to reach more than 230 million by 2020, forming around 17 percent of the total subscription base, as per the report. Currently, GSM/EDGE technology has the widest reach in India, with 95 percent population coverage. The report also unveiled trends of Indian consumers. “On average, Indian smartphone users spend over three hours a day on their smartphones and 25 percent of them check their phones over 100 times a day,” it said. As per the report around one third of the time spent on smartphones is used for apps, primarily chat, social media, and gaming. “There has been an increase of over 20 percent in the overall time spent on smartphones and around a 65 percent increase in app usage since 2012, when Ericsson ConsumerLab measured these parameters,” it said. Interestingly, it also points out that as consumers watch more content, their tolerance for delays will decrease. “Nearly 65 percent of mobile broadband users prefer to stream rather than download videos on smartphones and 4 out of 10 videos played have issues with buffering and stalling.” The report also points out that monthly mobile data consumption is expected to increase 18-fold by 2020 over current levels. “Across all mobile technologies in India, monthly data usage per subscriber is still relatively low, primarily because of a sub-optimal 2G and 3G user experience. This is caused by the inability of 2G networks to support high-bandwidth services, insufficient 3G network coverage, and a lack of relevant local content,” it said.
Investors positive about NDA government: USIBC
With Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here allaying concerns of American investors that India will not make retrospective tax demands, the US-India Business Council (USIBC) said on June 19 the first year of the Narendra Modi government has seen a positive response “from investors across the board”. “The past year has seen a positive affirmation for Prime Minister Modi’s ‘minimum government, maximum governance’ agenda from investors across the board,” USIBC president Mukesh Aghi said at a reception here in honour of the finance minister. “The council and its membership eagerly await the passage of critical legislation in the areas of taxation and the land acquisition bill,” he added. Jaitley had earlier said in an interaction at the Council on Foreign Relations here: “I have no difficulty in saying that any decision which is retrospective, except in some very unusual circumstances, which creates fresh liabilities is certainly not acceptable. “Therefore, ever since the present government has been formed, we said it when we were not in government and therefore we’ve lived up to our word, this government will not legislate anything that is retrospective.” USIBC chairman and MasterCard chief executive Ajay Banga said: “What investors need in return is continued clarity of the rules of the road - especially in areas like taxation, intellectual property, and improved ease of doing business.” “The recent commissioning of Azure Power’s 100 MW solar projects, the largest under the National Solar Mission, in record time is an excellent testament to improvements in the regulatory environment and ease of doing business in India,” said Azure Power chief executive Inderpreet Wadhwa. “Amway is proud of its Rs.550 crore investment in manufacturing in support of the Make in India campaign,” said Amway chairman Steve Van Andel. The finance minister, accompanied by a high-power business delegation, is on a 10-day visit to the US during which he will meet US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and US industry leaders. Jaitley’s itinerary embraces New York, Washington and San Francisco.
DISCLAIMER
This newsletter is compilation of news articles from various business-e-newspapers and in no way is an endorsement or reflection of Embassy of India, Berne views.
