Indian Economy : News,Discussions & Updates

Gautam said:
There are no friends no enemies in statecraft, there is only one thing : interests, all the rest be damned with - said some wise old man.
We need cheap energy to grow. Hence :
An India-China maneouvre could soon leave world's oil powers toothless
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Too much optimism in this article, even if this block is materialized the suppliers will still remain same(limited) and worst they are organized and have been playing this game from long to make extra money. I dont understand even if buyers unite where do they expect the supply from on their terms? One month without supply and whole GDP tanks of both nations and could barely dent oil suppliers block. Will have limited impact, unless shale doubles the production and there is no shortage of supply even without the OPEC cartel.
 
BlackOpsIndia said:
Too much optimism in this article, even if this block is materialized the suppliers will still remain same(limited) and worst they are organized and have been playing this game from long to make extra money. I dont understand even if buyers unite where do they expect the supply from on their terms? One month without supply and whole GDP tanks of both nations and could barely dent oil suppliers block. Will have limited impact, unless shale doubles the production and there is no shortage of supply even without the OPEC cartel.
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I know and the buyer's block isn't exactly a new idea. Besides India and China have too many differences to make this work anyway. But you have to agree the "Asian Premium" is basically day-light robbery. I wish we could offset our oil consumption with increased use of natural gas. Or maybe adopt EV in a massive way. But there remains many structural issues to solve before any of that happens. Oil import hurts us and hurts us bad, we need to find some kind of road-map to reduce if not remove this pain in the a**.
 
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BlackOpsIndia said:
I dont understand even if buyers unite where do they expect the supply from on their terms?
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Basically it would pit middle east versus Russia versus north america vs (latin america+Africa) as supplier blocs....there are fissures within OPEC itself right now (say Iran vs Gulf countries and Venezuela pressure and Russia staying firmly outside + US ramping up its own production and even exports).

I think it would be good to form buyer blocs, at least we will see if it helps....its never been tried before at this scale. The mere threat of more consolidated bargaining consumer power will make suppliers negotiate, hedge and compete much more.

As more alternatives creep in for base load electric gen + transport (the two spots where vintage energy still holds considerable bulk and sway)...power shifts to the consumers long term even more....so might as well get ahead of the curve now.
 
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Nilgiri said:
Basically it would pit middle east versus Russia versus north america vs (latin america+Africa) as supplier blocs..
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Yeah but I don't know how feasible is Russian oil, both production and transport.

Then there is latin America we should forget about, US is never going to let them live and prosper it should be more than clear by now. Venezuela is too small to ever present a challenge to US interference. US destabilize them at will to keep shale profitable by reducing production of neighborhood.

Middle East is not so rosy either, with sanctions on Iran, unstable Iraq, Syria, Libiya and even Algeria there are again supply side constraints.

All the oil producing unstable expect a few, can be just coincidence? Maybe but there are bigger forces at play, bigger interests and they have proven track record of interfering.

At best we may get it little cheaper nothing much unless SCO becomes the net security provider of Venezuela and African oil producing countries. We need to get our hands dirty if we want oil at cheaper rates. A better option will be to collaborate and double down on solar.
 
Japan’s M3 acquires majority share in Bengaluru-based DailyRounds
Japan’s M3 acquires majority share in Bengaluru-based DailyRounds
1 min read . Updated: 22 Apr 2019, 02:18 PM ISTStaff Writer

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Neuroglia Health owns and operates “DailyRounds” mobile app
  • This move marks M3’s foray into case-based problem-solving community platform and medical test preparation business in India
  • M3 India owns HIPL, which currently runs an online portal that help doctors stay up-to-date with the latest research material and medical news
 
Local brand platform Little Black Book raises $5 million in Series A funding
Sangeetha Chengappa Bengaluru | Updated on April 03, 2019 Published on April 03, 2019
bl03-p12-little-blackbook

Suchita Salwan, Co-founder, LBB

Little Black Book (LBB), a platform to find and shop from local brands and businesses, has raised $5 million in Series A led by Inventus India and IAN Fund. Japanese investors Dream Incubator and Akatsuki Entertainment Technology (AET) Fund and existing investors Blume Ventures and Chiratae Ventures also participated in the round.
The funds will be used to expand the tech and product team with a focus on machine learning for discovery and integration of content.
A web and app based platform, LBB started off as a content and discovery platform for places, services, restaurants, events, weekend getaways, fashion and activities.
Recently, commerce was launched on the platform, which reaches over three million users a month; users are connected to 60,000 local brands and businesses across eight markets including Delhi, NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. The LBB app has seen 6,00,000 downloads.
“We are seeing a 30 per cent month-on-month growth in products sold through LBB, since we launched commerce four months ago. Ninety-five per cent of the local merchants on LBB do not sell on other marketplaces like Amazon, or Flipkart... 60 per cent of the active users log 30 sessions per user per month,” Suchita Salwan, co-founder of LBB told BusinessLine.
Nearly 70 per cent of the content, information and reviews on LBB is generated by its users. Of the 700-900 posts created, only half that are curated by LBB are retained on the platform. Co-founded by Suchita Salwan and Dhruv Mathur, LBB has raised $7.5 million till date.
Rutvik Doshi, Managing Director, Inventus India, said, “What attracted us most to LBB is how they’ve made community a continued narrative in their promise to make local brands and businesses more accessible. They have demonstrated their ability in building a platform that consumers love, while also building a robust monetisation model that’s powered their growth.”
Published on April 03, 2019

Local brand platform Little Black Book raises $5 million in Series A funding
 
Japanese firm opens industrial complex in India
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Biz / Tech
Saturday, April 27, 00:54
An industrial complex, developed jointly by major Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corporation and local businesses, has opened in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

An opening ceremony was held on Friday for the completion of the first phase which spans across 107 hectares.

The area is known as a hub for the automobile industry and high expectations have been placed on the arrival of Japanese firms.

Two Japanese companies have decided to set up there. The machinery manufacturer Yanmar is building an engine factory.

India is posting a growth rate of over seven percent and an increasing number of Japanese firms have been making inroads with an aim to seize part of the colossal market.

There are now more than 1,400 Japanese companies in India, and their numbers have more than doubled over the past decade.

Chennai is drawing attention because in addition to domestic distribution, its huge port could serve as a base for exports to neighboring southeast Asian countries.

Japanese trading houses and banks are developing other industrial complexes, to facilitate the arrival of more Japanese businesses.

Sumitomo's General Manager of the Infrastructure Business Unit, Tsutomu Akimoto, said India has a huge potential for domestic demand because of its large population. He said helping to attract Japanese firms will also lead to business for his company.

Japanese firm opens industrial complex in India- News - NHK WORLD - English
 
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Gautam said:
Japan Means Business: Here's Why Indian Startups Continue To Attract Japan's Top Investors

Awful lot of activity from the Japanese in the economic front. Wonder why ? Yes they are our buddies, quad and all that, but there has got to be more than that. @Nilgiri if you could make things clearer it would be beneficial.
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The biggest thing causing this is India (physical) exports not keeping pace with its economic expansion/maturing...even when including service exports level.

This means current account deficit creates capital account pressure (for surplus there). Before this came through as loans, grants, aid from the more developed/cash surplus countries. Nowadays given India has treaded quite a few paths and developed some good potential and reformed and eased business norms more etc, the preferred route is investment. Hence cash surplus countries like Japan that are somewhat struggling to deploy and make returns in their mature more stagnant economies, really see India as attractive destination.

The article itself does a fairly good job on some of the details w.r.t Japan specifically...so I just add some structural backing to the greater phenomenon reason.
 
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India Ratings lower GDP growth projection for FY20 to 7.3%
India Ratings and Research on April 30 marginally lowered country's GDP growth projection for 2019-20 fiscal to 7.3 per cent mainly due to below normal monsoon prediction and loss of momentum in industrial output. The Fitch group company had earlier projected India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 7.5 per cent.

The key reasons for the downward revision are the prediction of lower-than-normal monsoon for 2019 and continued agrarian distress, and the loss of momentum in the industrial output growth, especially manufacturing and electricity.

Besides, the slow progress on cases referred to the National Company Law Tribunal under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, was another reason cited by the company for lowering the growth forecast.

"Inability to bring the stuck capital back into the production process will have implications for investment recovery," India Ratings and Research said in a release.

Investment expenditure growth, as measured by gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), has, therefore, been downwardly revised to 9.2 per cent for 2019-20 from the earlier forecast of 10.3 per cent, it added.

Following the monsoon forecast, India Ratings and Research estimates agricultural gross value added growth at 2.5 per cent (earlier forecast was 3 per cent) for 2019-20 compared with the 2.7 per cent recorded for 2018-19.

The key support to the gross value added growth in 2019-20 is likely to come from services, followed by industry.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) expects the monsoon to be near normal while private weather forecaster Skymet Weather Services expects the monsoon to be below normal in 2019.

According to IMD, the seasonal rainfall is likely to be 96 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA) with a model error of plus or minus five per cent.

On the prices front, India Ratings and Research expects wholesale and retail inflation to remain benign at 3.4 per cent and 4 per cent in 2019-20, respectively.
India Ratings lower GDP growth projection for FY20 to 7.3%
 
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India's March infrastructure output grows 4.7% year-on-year: Govt
The growth of eight core sectors improved marginally to 4.7 per cent in March 2019 against 4.5 per cent in the same month last year.

For the full 2018-19 fiscal, the expansion rate of eight infrastructure sectors -- coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity -- remained flat at 4.3 per cent, official data released Tuesday showed.

Coal generation growth was flat at 9.1 pet cent in March 2019. Natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel and cement sectors recorded positive growth rates.

Crude oil production, however, contracted by 6.2 per cent in March. Electricity generation declined by 1.4 per cent during the month under review.

A fall in production of crude oil and refinery products had dragged the growth of the eight core sectors to 2.1 per cent in February.

The infrastructure sector growth will also have an impact on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) as these segments account for about 41 per cent of the total factory output.
India's March infrastructure output grows 4.7% year-on-year: Govt
 
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KKR, GIC betting on India's power sector with $400 million investment: sources
Global investment firm KKR & Co Inc is leading a deal to acquire a controlling stake in India Grid Trust (IndiGrid), in a bet on the country’s rapidly growing power sector, people familiar with the transaction told Reuters.

KKR, together with Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, will acquire up to 57 percent of IndiGrid for about $400 million, the people said. IndiGrid’s current market value is about $332 million.

The deal would mark KKR’s first infrastructure investment in Asia since it set up a team late last year that focuses on the sector in the region.

The pair will invest 20.64 billion rupees ($295 million) for a 42 percent stake in the trust via a preference equity issuance, the people said.

KKR, having applied to become sponsor of IndiGrid, will then acquire a 15 percent stake from its current sponsor, Sterlite Power Grid Ventures Ltd, pending regulatory approval.

The infrastructure investment trust, the first of its kind in India, will separately raise around 4.5 billion rupees ($64.6 million) from other investors including Sterlite Power as part of the equity issue, the people said, declining to be named as the information is confidential.

GIC is contributing $140 million to the deal while KKR is investing the rest from its own balance sheet, according to the people. KKR declined to provide comment for the story. GIC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

India Grid Trust and Sterlite Power Grid Ventures were not available for comment.

India’s power demand grew at about 3.6 percent in 2018/19, lagging overall economic growth.

However the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases aims to double its clean energy capacity to 40 percent of total power capacity by 2030, requiring new grid infrastructure, most of which is expected to be funded by foreign money.

The energy-hungry nation will launch $5 billion of transmission line tenders, beginning in June, to deliver 175 gigawatts of power from renewable sources by 2022, government officials told Reuters last month.

Sterlite Power, a major private transmission developer, created IndiGrid in 2016 to run its asset operations. The trust raised $350 million in an initial public offering a year later.

IndiGrid owns five assets developed by Sterlite and one from a third party and 13 transmission lines.

With the capital injection, it plans to acquire five more electricity transmission assets worth 115 billion rupees from Sterlite Power, which will more than triple its assets under management to 170 billion rupees, according to the people.

KKR will separately acquire a majority stake in Sterlite Investment Managers Ltd, IndiGrid’s investment manager, from Sterlite Power, they said.

KKR hired David Luboff, former chief executive of Macquarie Group’s Asia Infrastructure Fund, as its head of Asia Pacific Infrastructure from the beginning of this year.

It is considering launching an Asia-focused infrastructure fund which could be as large as $1.5 billion, Reuters has reported.
KKR, GIC betting on India's power sector with $400 million investment: sources - Reuters
 
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India's crude steel output falls 1% to 9.412 MT in March: worldsteel
India's crude steel production fell by 1 percent to 9.412 million tonne (MT) during March 2019, according to World Steel Association's (worldsteel) report.

India had produced 9.506 MT crude steel during the same month a year ago, the global steel industry body said in its latest report.

India produced 9.412 MT crude steel in March 2019, down 1 percent from 9.506 MT in March 2018, it said.

This is the second fall reported by India in crude steel production since January.

Before registering a 2.3 rise in crude steel output in February, India had reported 1.9 percent fall in steel production in January.

"Global crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the worldsteel was 155 million tonne (MT) in March 2019, a 4.9 percent increase compared to 147.71 MT in March 2018," the association said.

China's crude steel production during March was at 80.326 MT, up 10 percent from 73.047 MT produced in March 2018, worldsteel said.

Japan's crude steel production remained unchanged at 9.1 MT in March.

The US produced 7.8 MT of crude steel in March, up 5.7 percent, while South Korea reported a 2.8 percent rise in its output at 6.3 MT.

"In the EU, Italy's crude steel production for March 2019 was 2.3 MT. France produced 1.4 MT of crude steel and Spain 1.4 MT," the report said.

While Ukraine produced 2 MT crude steel, Brazil and Turkey produced 2.8 MT and 3 MT, respectively, in March 2019.

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) is one of the largest industry associations in the world with members in every major steel-producing country.

It represents steel producers, national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes. Its members represent around 85 percent of global steel production.
India's crude steel output falls 1% to 9.412 MT in March: worldsteel
 
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