India’s Gold Demands Surge 27%

New Delhi: Demands for gold in India surged 27 percent to 256.5 tonnes in January-March 2013 even though the global demands dropped by 13 percent, the World Gold Council said Thursday.

Addressing the media, World Gold Council India managing director P.R. Somasundaram said demands for the yellow metal for both jewellery and investment purposes remained strong in the first quarter of 2013.

“The price fluctuations in gold have only served to reinforce Indian consumers’ appetite for purchasing physical gold,” he said.

Global demands for gold was 963 tonnes in January-March this year, 13 percent lower year-on-year. The global demands for gold during the period under review was valued at $50.5 billion.

In India, the jewellery demand increased by 15 percent to 159.5 tonnes in January-March quarter while investment demand surged by 52 percent to 97 tonnes.

Norwegian Ambassador Eivind S. Homme

New Delhi: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Government Pension Fund Global, is investing $4 billion in India and is focused in the areas of oil and gas, shipping and hydropower, Norway’s envoy to India has said.

Norwegian Ambassador Eivind S. Homme said the Government Pension Fund has a capital of $720 billion and is into petroleum. “The Pension Fund is actually a petroleum fund. It is investing $4 billion in India. The officials were in India last week,” Homme said on the sidelines of an event to celebrate Norway’s Constitution Day Wednesday evening at the embassy premises.

He said Telenor, the country’s telecommunications company, is also investing $4 billion in India. “There are 100 Norwegian companies in India,” said Homme.

He said India and the four-nation European Free Trade Association (EFTA) are set to conclude a trade agreement which would help boost economic relations with the bloc comprising Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

“We hope it will be concluded soon. It will boost economic relations greatly,” said Homme.

Referring to the troubles affecting Telenor after India’s apex court ordered cancellation of telecom licences in 2012 over the 2G scam issue, the envoy said the issues “seem to have been resolved”.

“That also shows that one of our major companies is staying here for the long run and they are serious investors,” he added.

Addressing the Constitution Day celebrations, at which Sudhir Vyas, secretary (West) in India’s ministry of external affairs was the chief guest, Homme said: “We want to be India’s partner in its efforts for high, inclusive and sustainable economic growth to expand our economic cooperation.”

Maharashtra Tourism Minister Chhagan Bhujbal

Mumbai: The current size of the Indian food industry stands at Rs.247,680 crore per annum and is expected to grow at 11 percent to touch a staggering Rs.408,040 crore by 2018, an official said here Tuesday.

In terms of market segments, the Quick Service Restaurants and casual dine-in formats account for nearly three-fourths of the total chain and cafes make up 12 percent, with fine dining outlets, pubs, bars, clubs and lounges comprising the rest.

This is the key highlight of the “India Food Service Report-2013″ of the National Restaurant Association of India, which was released Tuesday afternoon by Maharashtra Tourism Minister Chhagan Bhujbal here.

The report states that the chain and licensed stand-alone industry would contribute around Rs.11,500-11,900 crore in 2013, which will more than double to Rs.25,000 crore by 2018.

This would provide the government an opportunity to generate an additional collection of Rs.17,000-Rs.26,000 crore through closer monitoring of tax collection from the unorganised sector, said NRAI Mumbai chapter head Amit Jatia.

“The Indian food services industry has witnessed strong growth over the past few years and is expected to continue growing at an exponential rate over the next five years. It is expected to touch $28 billion on the back of changing consumption habits of consumers and emergence of new players in the sector,” said Jatia.

However, he lamented that this healthy growth is marred by multiple taxes, high food and commodity costs, shortage of skilled human resources, infrastructure development to help better manage the supply chain and cold storage systems, and multiple licensing issues.

The report also draws awareness to the opportunities and challenges which the Indian restaurant industry has been facing and recommends solutions to overcome them.

The report says that the key growth drivers and emerging trends include increased share of delivery and take-away formats focussing on convenience, experimentation, Indian brands going global, larger focus on value meals, tech-savvy consumers using online, social media, food websites and mobile applications, and growing interest from private equity and venture capital investors in the food industry.

Founded in 1982, the NRAI represents independent and chain restaurant owners and operators in the country with over 1,200 members in 20 cities.

Infosys Leads In Reducing Carbon Footprint

Bangalore: Indian IT bellwether Infosys became Environmental Tracking (ET) carbon ranking leader in 2013 for its greenhouse gas emissions and disclosure practices. “As part of the selection process, the Environmental Investment Organisation (EIO), a London-based climate change and finance think-tank, ranked Infosys among top five of the 300 large firms it assessed for carbon footprint,” the global software major said in a statement here Monday.

The company’s carbon reduction projects include the first use of radiant cooling air-conditioning in a commercial building; utilising a new technique that involves circulating water in embedded pipes to chill rooms and reduce energy use.

The IT firm had also set up a 250-kilowatt (KW) solar plant on a campus at Jaipur in Rajasthan and a 125 KW solar photo voltaic plant at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. “We have created an innovative way to notify employees leaving a building that they have left their computer on, and a system for them to remotely switch it off using their phone,” Infosys co-founder and executive chairman S. Gopalakrishnan pointed out in the statement.

Similarly, rainwater harvesting in its sprawling 300-acre Mysore campus reduced fresh water consumption by 18 per cent in its first year, saving nearly 300 million litres.

Mysore is about 140 km from this tech hub. “Sustainability has been our core value for several years. We strive to bring solutions to reduce carbon emissions. Focus on environmental innovation has created a new business opportunity for us. We are looking for ways to benefit our global clients through this expertise, providing sustainability services to them,” Gopalakrishnan asserted.

EIO chief executive Sam Gill said while effective greenhouse gas emissions reporting was not an easy task, it was heartening to see some firms demonstrating it could be done. “In light of 62 percent of companies in the ET Global 800 reporting incomplete data, any company ranking within the top ten in their respective region should be viewed as a pioneering leader, raising the bar for others around them,” Gill observed.

‘India’s Economy Will Continue To Reform’

New Delhi: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday ruled out the possibility of early elections and said the government will take more reform initiatives in the next two-four months in a bid to boost economic growth and contain deficit and inflationary pressure.

“We will continue to take small significant steps. We will also take forward some big ideas. India’s economy will continue to reform,” Chidambaram said at The Economist’s India Summit organised here by the UK-based economic magazine.

Chidambaram said the government will push for the passage of major reform regulations, like land and insurance bills, in the ongoing budget session of parliament.

The finance minister said the government would need support from the main opposition party to get the bills passed in parliament.

“There are many more executive actions that have to be taken, some of these executive actions we will take in the next 2-4 months,” Chidambaram said.

In the last one year, the government has taken several initiatives to push forward reform process. The steps include cutting subsidies on petroleum products and liberalising overseas investment norms for retail, aviation and some other sectors.

The finance minister said he was hopeful to keep fiscal deficit below 4.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the current financial year.

In the union budget presented in February, Chidambaram set a target keeping the fiscal deficit at 4.8 percent of the GDP.

He said the budgetary target was a red line that would “never, never be breached.” The fiscal deficit of the centre for 2012-13 is estimated to be 5.2 percent of the GDP.

Referring to the high current account deficit (CAD), Chidambaram said it was more worrying than the fiscal deficit. “CAD is indeed high, it is more worrying than fiscal deficit,” he said.

He said the current account deficit was estimated to be around 5 percent of the GDP in the financial year ended March 31, 2013.

The finance minister said India’s economic growth would be in the range of 6.1 to 6.7 percent in the current financial year.

The country’s economic growth has slumped to the lowest in a decade. It is estimated to be around 5 percent in 2012-13.

Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council headed by C. Rangarajan Tuesday said Indian economy has “bottomed out” and is expected to grow at 6.4 percent in the current financial year. Agriculture is likely to grow at 3.5 percent. Manufacturing by four percent and services sector by 7.7 percent in 2013-14.

Honda To Roll Out Diesel, Petrol Cars Simultaneously

Kolkata:  Japanese auto maker Honda, which has recently entered India’s diesel vehicle segment with the launch of the entry-level sedan Amaze, Monday said it would continue to bring diesel versions of the cars along with petrol which would be rolled out in the next two-three years in the country.

“We bring in the sedan for the dieselisation of the market. We have to go along with the market. And all the models to be launched in the next two-three years will have petrol as well as diesel variants,” Honda Siel Cars India Ltd senior vice president Jnaneswar Sen told reporters after launching its new sedan Amaze here.

The auto major has launched the model in both petrol and diesel variants. It will compete directly with market leader Maruti’s best selling sedan Swift Dzire, along with Tata Indigo and Toyota Etios.

Honda will roll out four more new models, including a new generation Jazz, a compact sports utility vehicle (SUV) and a 7-seater multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) in the next three years.

The company will launch the new Jazz in 2014.

On the launch of the new SUV and MPV, Sen said the company was yet to decide when the two models would be rolled out in the country.

“The compact SUV will be on Jazz platform and the 7-seater MPV will be on the current brio platform. We are looking into these two models very closely,” he said.

He said the firm’s entry into the diesel vehicle segment would give more choice to the customers.

Despite a reduction in the gap between petrol and diesel prices in the country, demands for diesel version cars would still exist, he added.

Currently, the automobile maker’s market share in the passenger car segment is 3.9 percent.

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India’s Inflation At 3-year Low

New Delhi: India’s headline inflation fell below six percent for the first time in more than three years on the back of slower rise in the prices of manufactured and primary articles, boosting hopes for a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India next month, government data showed Monday.

Inflation based on Wholesale Price Index (WPI) fell to 5.96 percent in March, the lowest level since November 2009.

The headline inflation was recorded at 6.84 percent in the previous month and 7.69 percent during the corresponding month of last year, according to data released by the ministry of commerce and industry.

Reacting on the monthly data, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said inflation was slowly coming under control.

“Inflation behaviour is consistent with what the government has been saying that it is slowly coming under control,” Ahluwalia told reporters.

Manufactured products inflation that has 64.97 weight in the WPI index eased to 4.07 percent in the last month of fiscal 2012-13 as compared to 5.16 percent recorded during the corresponding month of previous year.

Primary articles based inflation eased to 7.6 percent in March 2013 as compared to 10.41 percent in the corresponding month of last year.

“The softening of headline WPI inflation to a three-year low can mainly be attributed to cooling down of primary articles (particularly food) inflation,” said Bhupali Gursale, an economist at Angel Broking.

Food inflation fell to 8.73 percent during the month under review as compared to 10.11 percent in the corresponding month of last year. Vegetables became cheaper by 0.95 percent year-on-year. Fruit prices increased at a slower rate of 4.71 percent.

Core inflation has also inched lower to 3.4 percent in March reflecting the decline in commodity prices on a year-on-year basis as well as weak pricing power.

Analysts said the March inflation data would give enough room to the central bank to cut interest rates next month. The Reserve Bank of India is scheduled to announce its annual monetary policy for 2013-14 May 3.

“Owing to the positive trend in inflation, we believe there is scope for a 25 basis points rate cut in the RBI’s annual policy May 3,” Gursale said.

Expressing a similar view, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) president Naina Lal Kidwai said: “Going ahead we expect this trend (decline in inflation) to continue and this should give more space to RBI for considering a cut in the policy rates. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that non-food manufacturing inflation continues to remain under restrain.”

President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) Rajkumar Dhoot said the RBI must cut rates to propel growth.

“While inflation control is one of the main responsibilities of the central bank, ensuring that growth does not fall to a dismal level is also its key task,” Dhoot said.

India’s Industrial Output Rises 0.6% February

New Delhi: India’s industrial output rose at a meagre 0.6 percent in February against an expansion of 4.3 percent in the corresponding month of 2011-12, government data showed Friday.

Barring consumer goods, all other sectors of the industrial output basket declined. The performances of the mining, electricity and consumer non-durables sectors were disappointing, indicating the continuing slowdown in Asia’s third largest economy.

The industrial output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had increased 2.4 percent in January against a contraction of 0.6 percent, which at that time had given indication of a revival.

Earlier on Feb 7, the CSO revised India’s economic growth to 5 percent in the current financial year, the lowest in a decade, due to poor performance of manufacturing, agriculture as well as services sector.

In its advance estimate of national income, the CSO had drastically cut the gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 5 percent for the year ending March 31, 2013, as compared to 6.2 percent in the previous year.

However, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram later said the GDP growth during the current fiscal would be about 5.5 percent rather than 5 percent that the CSO projected.

The mining output in February declined by a massive 8.1 percent from an increase of 2.3 percent in the corresponding month of last year. It had slumped by 2.9 percent in January, 2013.

While the cumulative mining production was in the negative. The output during April-February, 2012-13, stood at a decline of 2.5 percent.

The electricity sector too did not fare well, falling 3.2 percent from a healthy increase of eight percent in February, 2012. The sector’s output had increased by 6.4 percent last month. Cumulatively, the sector’s output slowed at a four percent growth rate from 8.7 percent achieved during the corresponding period of 2011-12.

However, the manufacturing production registered a growth of 2.2 percent during the month under review. The growth was slower than that achieved in the corresponding month of last year when the output stood at 4.1 percent.

The consumer goods output saw a growth of 0.5 per cent, compared to a 0.4 percent decline in same month last year.

The factory output registered a cumulative growth of 0.9 percent in April-February 2
2012-13 period year-on-year, the data released by the CSO showed.

Segment-wise, high negative growth was reported in biscuits (-26.8 percent), grinding wheels (-34.2 percent), stamping and forging (-24.4 percent), machine tools (- 51.9 percent), earth moving machinery (-20.00 percent) and commercial vehicles (-23.6 percent).

Segment-wise growth was witnessed in Cashew kernels (83.4 percent), apparels (16.00 percent), leather garments (39.6 percent), ship, building and repairs (105.4 percent), conductor, aluminium (66.00 percent) and cable, rubber insulated (188.5 percent).

Fiat Ends Distribution Agreement With Tata Motors

New Delhi: To further develop its brand in India, Italian automobile major Fiat’s Indian subsidiary Wednesday said it has dissolved an agreement with its manufacturing partner Tata Motors for distributing Fiat passenger vehicles sold here.

“The objective behind establishing the National Sales Company (NSC) in Fiat Group Automobiles India (FGAIPL) is to consolidate our position as a key automobile player in the Indian car market,” Enrico Atanasio, director of FGAIPL, said.

The move will provide Fiat cars with exclusive showroom space. At present, Tata and Fiat cars are sold through the same dealership.

In May last year, the Italian automobile manufacturer formed a new company to handle distribution and service activities of its Indian subsidiary by opening new stand-alone dealerships, repair and service centres across major Indian cities.

The company had plans to open 80 dealerships in the country by the end of 2012. Around 25 were expected to come up in north and east India, a similar number in the western region and 30 in southern region.

Fiat and Tata Motors had formed the joint venture (JV) in 2006 under which Tatas were managing distribution and servicing of Fiat cars in India through joint dealerships.

However, even after the dissolution of the distribution agreement, the JV’s manufacturing activities and assets will continue in the same manner. The JV has a manufacturing plant in Ranjangaon, Maharashtra, which produces cars and powertrain engines for both Tata Motors and Fiat.

Pearson Scales Up India Operations With IndiaCan Buyout

New Delhi: British education and publishing conglomerate Pearson Plc Tuesday acquired the stake of Educomp Solutions in their equally-owned joint venture, IndiaCan, for an undisclosed amount, scaling up its operations in India.

With this buyout of Educomp’s 50 percent shareholding, Pearson has become the sole owner of IndiaCan, said a Pearson release.

In 2009, Pearson and Educomp had started IndiaCan Education Pvt. Ltd. to offer vocational training. “Taking complete ownership of IndiaCan represents another milestone for our ambitious plans in India and follows a similar buy out at TutorVista, the Bangalore-based learning services company,” said Bhavneet Singh, president, Global English and informal learning at Pearson India.

“IndiaCan has developed market leading expertise in retail and vocational training and support that will supplement Pearson’s goal to help improve learning outcomes for students throughout India,” he added.

In February, Pearson had acquired 100 percent stake in TutorVista, the Bangalore based education services company with interest in schools, online tutoring and Internet and communication technologies.