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Embassy of India, Riyadh |
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Issue 4 ♦ February 2005 |
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India Biz News |
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A
snapshot of India’s economic scene |
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Chidambaram
rules out tax on foreign funds Finance Minister P Chidambaram ruled out taxes on foreign
institutional investors (FIIs) while saying that
their funds inflows would be watched.
His statement came a day after the Reserve Bank of India said it
favoured curbs on such inflows. Addressing to the reporters, Chidambaram said "Every country
monitors capital flows. We are also watching capital flows to the
country," "But watching capital flows does not mean curbing,
capping or taxing foreign institutional investors." "Let me tell you there is no proposal
for capping or taxing FII inflows," he said. New guidelines to facilitate increased FDI
through JVs Within a few hours of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, announcing the scrapping of the Press
Note 18 provisions for all future joint ventures, the Government came out
with a set of fresh guidelines for foreign collaborations. The new guidelines
are expected to pave the way for increased inflow of foreign direct
investment (FDI) through joint ventures and technological tie-ups between
international companies and Indian partners. The revised guidelines issued
under the new Press Note 1, which comes into effect immediately, stipulates
that all new proposals for foreign investment or technical collaborations
would henceforth be allowed under the automatic route, subject to sectoral policies regarding limits of equity holdings by
the foreign partners and the strategic importance of the sector and the likes
that are already in place. The guidelines issued state that prior approval of
the Government would be required only in cases where the foreign investor has
an existing joint venture or technology transfer/trademark agreement in the
same field. 'India,
China may outshine US by 2020' The rise of India and China as global players is
heralding an Asian Century in place of a receding American Century, a US
report said. In a far reaching projection, the CIA-commissioned report
compared the rise of the two Asian giants to the advent of a united Germany
in the 19th century and a powerful United States in the 20th century, and
said the event will transform the world's geopolitical landscape, with
impacts potentially as dramatic as those in the previous two centuries. India shining at WEF Two Indian companies — Infosys and Reliance
Industries — are among the 44 global strategic partners, which are
contributing their expertise and resources to the organisation
of the 2005 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). This is
unusual. Infosys and Reliance are now listed along with 42 other strategic
partners, which include names like ABB, Audi, Boeing, BP, Coca-Cola, Computer
Associates, HP, IBM, McKinsey, Microsoft, Nestle, New York Stock Exchange,
and PepsiCo. Ministry to
simplify process for company incorporation Incorporating a company in India will no longer be a
cumbersome process. The Ministry of Company Affairs is looking at further
simplifying the entire procedure that is expected to compress the existing
registration process. Further, the Citizen's Charter of the Ministry also
clearly lays out the timeframe for following such procedure by the designated
offices. According to experts, normally it takes seven to 10 days to
incorporate and register a company. "If the documents are in order a
company can be easily incorporated in a day," Managing Director,
Corporate Professionals (India) Pvt Ltd, said. India adopts product patent regime
In
line with its WTO obligations, India has adopted the product patent regime
for food, drugs and chemicals and embedded software with adequate safeguards
to protect the interests of the common man.
It has effective provisions to ensure availability of products at
reasonable price through compulsory licence; revocation of patents for
non-working in India as well as in public interest; use of invention for the
purposes of Government; acquisition or invention for patents for public purpose; and provides for
parallel import so that the
patented product can
become available at the lowest international price. The adoption of the product patent regime
is hoped to lead to huge movement of outsourcing of research and development
(R&D) work into India. |
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China to take many years to challenge India in
IT: Report A new McKinsey report says it will take China many
years to pose a threat to India in IT services, notably in its bid to grab a
larger share of the global software outsourcing market. In contrast to several foreboding
projections of imminent challenge from China, the McKinsey report speaks of
several problem areas that China will have to tackle in order to challenge
India's IT dominance. The hurdles it will have to cross include the structure
of the industry, fragmentation and inadequate scale. India is 5th
top tourist hotspot India is fast emerging as a major tourist attraction
and has found place among the top ten destinations in 2004. Chicago based
iExplore.com said that India's ranking as a tourist destination shot up from
36 in 2003 to five in 2004, a sharp rise witnessed by no other nation. The ranking was determined on the basis of
vacation packages purchased under its adventure and experimental travellers programmes.
Tsunami
fails to deter tourists, arrivals peak in 2004 If the impact
of the Tsunami tragedy on the Indian tourism environment is any indication, the
sector appears to have acquired a degree of immunity from external shocks.
This can be seen from the fact that despite apprehensions of large-scale
cancellations of tourists visit to the country, no such cancellations have
been reported. Tourist arrivals in the country crossed the 3 million mark,
for the first time, with the total visitors 3367980 in 2004, an increase of
23.5% increase compared to arrivals in 2003. Foreign exchange earnings
through visitor arrivals in 2004 also rose significantly, posting a 36.1%,
over the earnings of the previous year.
Wipro named in neoIT ranking Wipro Technologies, the global IT services
division of Wipro Limited, announced that it has
been named to the annual offshore 100 ranking of top global suppliers by managing
offshore and offshore outsourcing advisory expert neoIT. Wipro has also been ranked as the leader among offshore
call centre firms in the customer and business awards category, according to
a Wipro statement. Govt clears
30 FDI proposals Government approved 30 Foreign Direct Investment
proposals amounting to Rs 3052 million, including the proposal of Japanese
firm Kansai Paints Co to acquire stake in Mumbai-based GoodLass
Nerolac Paints for Rs 1042 million. The proposals,
recommended by Foreign Investment Promotion Board and approved by Finance
Minister P Chidambaram, pertain to sectors like chemicals, agriculture,
telecom, textiles, mines, power, IT and NBFC activities, an official release
said. Auto exports up 32.7% Passenger cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles
fuelled automobile exports to a healthy 32.7% growth in the nine months of
this fiscal with foreign shipments clocking 4,53,591 units as against
3,41,626 in the same period last fiscal. Even though passenger cars and
motorcycles were the big contributors in terms of numbers, commercial
vehicles segment saw the maximum growth, witnessing a whopping 75% increase
at 19,931 units against 11,383 in April-December ‘03, according to figures
released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). Goods
carriers, both in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) and medium & heavy
commercial vehicle (M&HCV) categories, witnessed over 100% growth. Indian IT
firms raised $216-mn in US Information technology (IT) companies founded by Indians
in the US raised over $ 216 million in venture
capital (VC) and private equity financing during the third quarter (Q3)
ending December 2004. Money was raised by 23 technology companies. Seven of
them raising $10 million or more said a report from TSJ Media, a company
tracking venture capital and mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity
involving Indian-founded companies world-wide. |
Some
Important Websites:
Ministry of External Affairs : http://meaindia.nic.in/
Ministry of Finance: http://finmin.nic.in
Ministry of Commerce and
Industry:http://commin.nic.in
Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) : www.ciionline.org
Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) : www.ficci.com
India Trade Promotion
Organisation (ITPO) : www.indiatradepromotion.org
Trade-India.com : www.trade-india.com /
Indian Exporters : www.indianexporters.com
Exporters India : www.indiamarkets.com
/ India Mart : www.indiamart.com
Recent Queries by
Indian Businessmen
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Trade Fairs in India: Calendar of Events
- 2005 |
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Fair |
Products |
Organizer |
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16th International Engineering &
Technology Fair (IETF) 2005 9-12 February 2005 New Delhi |
A biennial showcase of
all that is current and also all that the world can expect from India, providing unique
opportunities for networking with the who's who of government and business in
India. |
Confederation of Indian Industry
(CII) Trade Fair Department, 249 F Sector 18, Phase 4 Gurgaon – 122 015 (Haryana) Tel : +91 124 25014060 / Fax : +91 124 25014080 |
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Tex-Styles India 2005 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi February 26- March 1,2005 |
Home furnishing , fabrics, fibres, yarn, accessories, CAD / |
India Trade
Promotion Organisation – ITPO Tel : +91 11
23318143 Fax : +91 11
23371874 |
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AAHAR - International Food Fair, Pragati
Maidan, New Delhi March 04-08, 2005 |
Processed foods, processing, packing and refrigeration machinery, agricultural
products, hotel, restaurant equipment and supplies |
India Trade Promotion Organisation |
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India
Biz News is a monthly
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