India International Political Economy

India’s inflation rate has slowed for the third week in a row offering welcome relief to the Indian economy according to International Herald Tribune.

With inflation at 3.72 percent a year ago, a drop from 12.34 percent to 12.10 percent is significant consider the Indian economy is ripe to overheat.

Consensus is the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will continue tightening the money supply to help continue the inflation down trend.

Despite a second week of India inflation slowing, the Indian economy is still overheated and continues to concern India’s central bank according to AFP.

The Wholesale Price Index is the key cost of living barometer for the Indian economy and has slipped from 12.40 percent to 12.34 percent in the last two weeks.

Nonetheless, India’s central bank is expected to raise interest rates in order to continue cooling the Indian economy.

GIC, the Singapore government sovereign wealth fund investment arm, plans to invest in India’s Arcil, Asset Reconstruction Company of India, through a 10 percent stake according to The Economic Times.

The India investment deal is subject to India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval and Arcil’s CEO S Khasnobis Arcil declined to comment on the move by GIC.

Arcil is India’s largest asset reconstruction company otherwise known as an ARC. [Read more →]

Infosys, the leading Indian outsourcing company, plans an India investment of $753 million dollars to buy Axon Group, a multinational British consultancy, according to AFP.

The Infosys Indian investment comes just after other high profile Indian investments such as that of Tata Motor’s recent purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford.

Axon Group has approximately 2,000 in Australia, North America, Malaysia and Britain. [Read more →]

India’s Ministry of Finance has reported that the Indian economy is experiencing 12.01 percent inflation according to the Gulf Daily News.

The India economic news puts the Indian inflation rate at a 13 year high, and although the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken measures to control inflation, the greater concern is whether or not the measure to fight double digit inflation will start to dramatically impact India’s economic growth. [Read more →]

Kamal Nath, the India trade minister, blast the US as he accused the United States of hurting the worlds poorest according to Guardian UK.

The comments by the Indian trade minister came during the current World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha round of talks in which agricultural tariff and subsidy policies among developed nations continue to cause angst for developing trading nations.

See also: Brazil Government Officials Balk on First Day of Doha [Read more →]

Sovereign wealth fund GIC has announced it will invest in India’s Reid & Taylor $209 million according to Businessweek.

The GIC India investment with take more than a 25% stake in Reid & Taylor and continues to diversify the Singapore sovereign wealth fund’s portfolio.

Reid & Taylor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of S Kumars Nationwide, produces fabrics, apparel and home textiles and is a more than 100-year-old brand. [Read more →]

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the India Central Bank, raised rates according to AFP.

The move by the India government’s central bank comes as India inflation hits over 11 percent which is a 13 year high.

Sharp price increase in food and fuel continues to afflict the India economy and India’s poor masses. [Read more →]

The India government and Singapore plan to sign a bilateral intellectual property rights trade agreement according to Forbes.

The India trade agreement with Singapore continues to help trade relations as Singapore trade ranks as India’s 4th largest merchandise export market and 4th in term of India foreign direct investment with $4.7 billion in Singapore investments. [Read more →]

The India central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, raised interest rates in an effort to fight inflation according to Bloomberg.

The move the Reserve Bank of India to increase the repurchase rate from 7.75 percent to 8 percent is the first rate hike in 15 months.

With increased global monetary tightening, the India economy now joins the list of many economies that expect a slow down as the US economy continues [Read more →]

The India government and India’s Department of Telecom have threatened to ban BlackBerry devices in India according to TMCnet.

The restriction surrounds the India government’s demand to have Research in Motion (RIM), the producer of the BlackBerry device, deliver encryption keys if needed by India’s security services.

The stance by the India government seems highly [Read more →]

India investment in the retail sector has lost the top spot on A.T. Kearney’s Global Retail Development Index according to Reuters.

Key drivers to the dethronement include the absence of competition, strong economic growth, and a rapid increase in spending by the largest demographic of Asia’s youngest consumers.

India investment protectionism and concerns over [Read more →]

India’s retail industry is expected to quadruple by 2011 according to Reuters.

Key drivers of the increase from 4 percent to 16 percent are an increase in competitive pricing as the India government loosens restrictions in hypermarkets, supermarkets and department stores.

Currently, the India economy is dominated by small ‘mom-and-pop’ shops which have expressed high levels of concern should India foreign direct investment in the [Read more →]

SRF Ltd, India’s leading tire cord manufacturer, plans to acquiring Thai Baroda Industries (TBIL) according to The Times of India.

The India investment is estimated at [Read more →]

India’s Bharti Airtel, India’s leading integrated telecom company will likely resume talks to merger with MTN, South African telecommunications giant, according to the Business Standard.

The challenge that the India investment deal faces surrounds India foreign direct investment regulations that restrict a full scale merger.

While India foreign direct investment law allows 51 per cent but since foreign direct investment in [Read more →]

Maxis Communications, Malaysia’s biggest mobility firm, which owns 74 percent of Aircel Cellular, will invest in India according to Reuters.

The India investment deal is expected to be worth as much as $5 billion and will allow Aircel Cellular to build 14,000 additional telecom towers.

The move by Maxis Communications to further in invest in India also includes a plan by Aircel Cellular to [Read more →]

The India Central Bank and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have further ordered banks to raise reserves to 8.25 percent from 8 percent according to Times Online.

The move is another attempt to cool inflation that continues to impact the India economy.

The India economy’s inflation rate is currently at [Read more →]

The India government announced it will cut steel import taxes and has levied steel exports according to Bloomberg.

The move by the India government will cost [Read more →]

RREEF, the Real Estate, Infrastructure and Private Equity alternative investment management arm of Deutsche Bank announced it will invest $1 billion in India according to Bloomberg.

The key driver of the India investment move by Deutsche Bank is the continual growth of the India economy at annual rate of 8.7 percent since 2003.

The India investment deal by RREEF involves [Read more →]

The India government plans to enact more monetary and fiscal measures in order to control the negative impact of inflation on the India economy according to Bloomberg.

Thus far the India government and India’s central bank have already ordered commercial banks to cool lending and raise the cash reserve ratio to 8 percent by May.

The current India inflation rate was [Read more →]

The IMF, the International Monetary Fund, has lowered India’s world gross domestic product (GDP) to 4.6 percent down from 6.4 percent according to The Business Standard.

The adjustment is based on purchasing power parity (PPP) which is a new for the IMF to measure world GDP.

Nonetheless, the India government may see this as a [Read more →]

The Reserve Bank of India has announced that it has underestimated the magnitude if India inflation and it’s impacted the India economy according to MarketWatch.

With surging food prices and riots in countries such as Philippines, Haiti and Egypt, the India government is in high alert in order to contain any social unrest over food prices that continue to challenge the India economy.

The India government key inflationary indicator, the wholesale price index, has soared to [Read more →]

The world’s largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, has announced that it will invest in Brazil’s Gonvarri Brasil according to Reuters.

The ArcelorMittal India investment will take 50 percent of Gonvarri Brasil through a [Read more →]

The Reserve Bank of India is expected to raise interest rate by 5 basis points according to Bloomberg.

The move by the Reserve Bank of India is an effort to help cool the India economy which is currently experiencing inflation of [Read more →]

The India government has announced it will reduce India exports of rice according to VOA News.

The move by the India government falls in line with other rice producing Asian countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia in order to fight inflation and protect domestic supply.

Rice prices have practically doubled over the last twelve months and agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization continue to warn that food prices will [Read more →]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has granted the State Bank of India (SBI) a qualifying full bank license according to Reuters.

The license allows the State Bank of India (SBI) to deliver a full suite of banking services to Singapore.

The move comes as the deadlock has been lifted between the two nations over the 2005 Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).
[Read more →]

The Indian conglomerate Tata has officially acquired Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford according to The Guardian.

The Tata India investment is estimated at $2.65 billion and has been kept quiet on both side of the negotiating table.

The big challenge for Tata is [Read more →]

Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) has announced that India investment in Singapore has doubled in the last two years according to The Statesman.

The key driver of the increase in Indian investment in Singapore is the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) which was signed in 2005.

The number of Indian firms investing in Singapore [Read more →]

India’s Tata Motors continues to drive towards acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford as the company will raise $1 billion according to AFP.

The India investment deal is still pending approval yet a Tata official has stated that “There are absolutely no roadblocks” to a deal.

The India investment deal is [Read more →]

The Cellular Operators Association of India is questioning the legality of the recent announcement by Virgin to launch Virgin mobile in India in conjunction with Tata according to Reuters.

The crux of the India investment issue surrounds the fact that Virgin entered the Indian market as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). In other words, if a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) only rents a spectrum, and does not own, the firm is not permitted to operate in India

The India government is [Read more →]