IU's Edit - The thread name has been changed. Please use this thread for all news related to foreign trade and investment.

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24th August 2009

South Africa and India both agree that their bilateral relationship is a strategic one, South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies told a press conference on Monday.

“India is already South Africa’s tenth largest foreign investor,” he highlighted. “Trade between our two countries tripled between 2003 and 2007. We believe that we can do more.”

“We have observed that Indian companies are quite quick to move from supplying products into investing in South Africa,” he stressed. “It is a necessity for us that this happens. There are very significant opportunities in the South African economy for investment in a number of areas. This is something we’d want to encourage.”

He also referred to South African companies investing in India, such as the Airports Company South Africa, which is involved in a joint venture controlling and redeveloping Mumbai Airport.

He admitted that the bilateral Investment Protection Agreement between the two countries, which “we have been working on for some time” is, at the moment, “more-or-less stalled.”

However, “we are undertaking an internal review” of the proposed agreement, which “will be completed within a few weeks,” he assured.

“Then we will re-engage” with the Indian negotiating team.
“South-South trade is assuming a growing and increasing importance,” stressed Davies.

“Already it is touching 36% of global trade,” he said, quoting the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. He added that he believed that as a result of the current global recession, that proportion would soon reach 50%.

Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter

Progress, opportunities, but also issues in India-SA trade relations

24th August 2009

Despite impressive progress, and although there are great opportunities still to be exploited, there remain a number of important issues that have to be resolved to allow bilateral South African and Indian trade and investment to achieve its full potential, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma tells Engineering News Online.

“There are a number of issues,” he says. “The question of connectivity remains an issue,” referring to such matters as sea and air transport links, which remain inadequate.

Nor is there yet an agreement between the two countries to protect their respective investments in each other’s jurisdictions. “We are looking at the bilateral Investment Protection Agreement,” reports Sharma, which has not yet been concluded.

India and the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu), of which South Africa is a member, are also currently negotiating a preferential trade agreement (PTA). Sharma hopes for the “early conclusion of the India-Sacu PTA”.

Regarding opportunities, he argues that these exist in “all sectors where the two countries have competitive advantages”.

In a speech to Indian and South African CEOs on Monday, he cited the fact that, in purchasing power parity terms, India is the fourth-largest economy in the world. Referring to trade between all developing countries, he emphasised that “The countries of the South have trade in excess of $2-trillion. Today, 63% of the world’s growth is from developing countries, 50% from Asia. This is bound to increase.”

Sharma asserted that “both our countries have competitive advantages in many sectors” and identified those sectors in which India has such advantages as information technology, pharmaceuticals, the automotive industry and services. “India is a net exporter of services. But India is also a huge importer of services,” he highlighted. “It almost evens out.”

He pointed out that Indian investment in South Africa now totalled $2,5-billion. He also referred to South African companies investing in India, particularly in the financial sector, although he also cited SABMiller which has the second-largest market share in India. “But we should be doing more."

Bilateral trade, which had been effectively nonexistent before 1994, has now reached $7-billion. No less than $2-billion of this is accounted for by Indian imports of South African gold. He also remarked that “four out of every five diamonds pass through Indian hands”.

He reported that the two governments had established a target of $12-billion in bilateral trade by next year. “Because of the recession, we might not reach it,” admitted Sharma. (Speaking at a subsequent press conference, he assured that the $12-billion target will be achieved before 2012.)

He also highlighted the India, Brazil, South Africa trilateral trade target of $25-billion by 2015 (the three countries form the IBSA group

good to know , India and SA are important economies and far more potential is there to be explored between the two nations.

Bangladesh exports to India to reach $1 bn by 2011

DHAKA: Bangladesh's exports to India will reach at least $1 billion by the end of 2011 as customers in that India now find several of its
neighbour's products attractive, a business leader said on Sunday.

"Our main focus will be the consumers of north-eastern states of India who preferred Bangladesh products including food items, textiles, melamine products and toiletries" said Abdul Matlub Ahmad, President of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"At the moment negotiations are continuing with India to raise export quotas of ready-made garments to 20 million pieces from 8 million now," Ahmad told Reuters in an interview.

Ahmed is also chairman of Nitol-Niloy Group of Industries, a conglomerate.

Bangladeshi manufacturers started to export bricks to India from last week, a new item on the export list.

Initially Bangladesh will export 400 million bricks worth $40 million to the Indian state of Tripura.

Ready-made garments are the principal export of Bangladesh, which accounts more than 80 percent of the total export earnings of the country.

Bangladesh's exports grew 10.3 percent to $15.56 billion in the 2008/09 fiscal year that ended in June, the lowest growth in six years, data showed, reflecting falling demand as a result of the global economic slump.

Ahmad said exports of Bangladeshi products such as processed foods, cement, plastics, sheet glass, dry fish, furniture and stone chips will grow 10-fold in the next two years.

He said that new Bangladeshi products such as melamine and scrap steels were also finding their way into the north-eastern provinces of India.

"Brick export to India opened up a new but strong potential window for Bangladeshi manufacturers and that will enormously help reduce our trade gap with India," Ahmad said.

This will however hit the local real estate sector as prices of bricks had already more than doubled in the past two years, traders said.

Also, the export to India will encourage business people to set up brick manufacturing fields close to the Indian border to make quick cash and would likely pollute the climate through harmful emissions, environmental groups say.

Most brick fields in the country do not have emission control systems.

Bangladesh imports goods -- mainly vehicles, chemicals, food items, fabrics, cotton and machineries -- worth more than $3 billion from India, India buys about $400 million worth of goods from Bangladesh, they said.

ET

Indo-Thai trade estimated to hit Rs 50,000-cr by 2010: Nuntawan

HYDERABAD: Trade between India and Thailand is estimated to reach Rs 50,000 crore from present Rs 30,000 crore by 2010, Director of Trade
Negotiation Nuntawan Sakuntanaga said today.

Addressing the members of Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FAPCCI) at a meeting here, she said free trade agreement between India and Thailand signed in 2003 resulted in creating significant business and increase in the level of two-way trade between the two countries.

There are several opportunities for collaboration in sectors like gems and jewellery, chemicals and petrochemicals, automotive and auto components and Tourism, she said.

Chairman, International Trade and Relations Committee, FAPCCI, Srinivas Ayyadevara said that the enlargement of Free Trade Agreement by adding 3,000 other items will definitely boost the trade and investment between the two countries

ET

India-Africa summit to take up 145 projects worth $9 billion
(http://www.financialexpress.com/news/India-Africa-summit-to-take-up-145-projects-worth--9-billion/589246/)
New Delhi: At a three-day interactive conference with the African continent next week in New Delhi, ministers, businessmen and experts from both sides will discuss 145 business projects worth $9 billion.

External affairs minister SM Krishna will inaugurate the sixth India-Africa Project Partnership conclave on March 14, being jointly organised by the external affairs and commerce ministries, as well as the EXIM Bank and the CII. Ghana’s vice-president John Dramani Mahama will be the guest of honour at the conclave.

The conference that seeks to give a fresh momentum to India’s multifaceted engagement with the African continent will take-off with a CEOs’ roundtable which will put forth an action plan to scale up bilateral trade to $70 billion in the next five years. Also, it is expected to revolve around four linked sub-themes: India-Africa partnership, rural economies, Africa tomorrow and Going Green.

The major focus of the conclave will be on the infrastructure development in Africa. The presence of a strong Indian diaspora in several African nations further improves the ties with African business and trade networks, sources said.

The other focus areas of discussion will be project financing, mining and minerals, agriculture and agro-processing, energy, consultancy, transport connectivity, SMEs promotion, pharmaceuticals and healthcare and human capital formation.

Major Indian investment in Africa is in sectors like manufacturing; non-financial services such as IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) and energy.

Sudan and Mauritius are among the top five investment destinations for India, with both accounting for about 18 % of India's total FDI flow. However, infrastructure in the region still remains a critical area for investment.

In 2009, the delegates from both sides discussed projects worth over $12 billion, the fourth conclave, held in New Delhi in March 2008, and had discussed projects worth over $10 billion.

Sanjaya Baru: Look west policy (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/sanjaya-baru-look-west-policy/387809/)

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has so far received only three visiting heads of state at the Delhi airport — President George Bush, President Vladimir Putin and King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia. That simple fact should have placed Dr Singh’s much-delayed visit to Riyadh last week in perspective.

Saudi Arabia is not just about Islam, oil and dollars. It is India’s civilisational neighbour, a long-time trading partner, now a strategic partner and, as a member of the G-20, an important pole in the emerging multi-polar global order.

In July 2005, Dr Singh chaired a meeting of the Prime Minister’s Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC) which resolved to launch what was then dubbed India’s “Look West Policy”. The starting point of that policy was the launch of negotiations for an India-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) free trade agreement and a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with individual member countries of the GCC, that is, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Dr Singh told the TERC: “The Gulf region, like South-East and South Asia, is part of our natural economic hinterland. We must pursue closer economic relations with all our neighbours in our wider Asian neighbourhood. India has successfully pursued a “Look East” policy to come closer to the countries of South-East Asia. We must, similarly, come closer to our western neighbours in the Gulf.”

In the months that followed, the Indian Navy, under the leadership of Admiral Suresh Mehta, launched its own “Look West Policy” of increased maritime engagement of the Gulf states, inspired by the vision of that famous maritime historian KM Panikkar, whose classic treatise India and the Indian Ocean (1945) underlined the strategic importance for India of the region from the Gulf of Aden to the Malacca Straits. The British Empire, wrote Panikkar, guarded the “jewel in its crown” from three outposts — Singapore, Mauritius and Yemen (Aden and Socotra). Today, free India has a special relationship with all the three countries.

In launching the “Look West Policy”, as a counterpoise to the earlier “Look East Policy” initiated by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in 1992, Dr Singh has revived an ancient relationship with the entire region, including Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. The new relationship is built not just on the post-War and Cold War past, but is based on a new forward-looking equation with the region.

At the Manama Dialogue, organised annually in Bahrain by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), London, India has become an important participant both in the strategic and security policy discussions and in the increasingly important economic dialogue.

If India’s “Look East Policy” was aimed at reintegrating India with the dynamic, rapidly-rising economies of East and South-East Asia, her “Look West Policy” is aimed at strengthening relations with a region that is vital to India’s energy security, and is also a source of employment for over 3.5 million Indians and a source of sizeable foreign exchange remittances. In Saudi Arabia alone, there are over 2 million Indians, the largest expat community in the state, and it accounts for over 20 per cent of India’s oil imports.

If East and South-East Asian economies have emerged as India’s biggest trade partners, overtaking Europe and the United States, the GCC countries aren’t far behind, with Saudi Arabia being India’s fourth-biggest trade partner. Apart from the economic dimension to both these outreach efforts, there is a strategic dimension. India’s engagement with East and South-East Asia is part of her effort to handle the rise of China, and India’s engagement of Saudi Arabia is part of her effort to deal with the rise of militant Islam. India’s own rise is circumscribed to an extent by both these phenomenon.

So, it is not surprising that an Indian prime minister would want to talk about the epicentre of jihadi terrorism, Pakistan-Afghanistan, that threatens Saudi Arabia’s stability as much as India’s. The Saudis fund a substantial part of Pakistan’s defence budget and it is not for nothing that the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto famously dubbed Pakistan’s nuclear weapons as the “Islamic Bomb”!

Both China and Saudi Arabia have become important actors in the “new great game” in Central Asia and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, along with the United States, Russia, Iran and Turkey. Saudi Arabia has become an even more important interlocutor for India with its membership of G-20.

India need not take sides in the struggle for influence within the Islamic world between Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey (with beleaguered Iraq nursing its wounds), but there is no question that India’s strategic interests lie more with the Arab world, and certainly till Iran’s and Israel’s moderates return to power.

As the only G-20 members from their respective regions of South, South-East and West Asia, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia form a new arc of stability with shared concerns about the global economy and the threat of jehadi terrorism. The shifts in power balances and economic fortunes within these two regions to our east and west will have important economic and strategic implications for India.

It is, therefore, understandable that Prime Minister Singh has been invited to inaugurate the first ever IISS Geo-economic Strategy Summit and the Bahrain Global Forum, with a focus on “rebalancing global geo-economic strategies for security, growth and development” by the Kingdom of Bahrain, scheduled for May 2010.

The rise of China and India is shifting the tectonic plates of Asia. Focused obsessively on the “near west” (Pakistan) and the “far west” (US), India neglects the “other west” (West Asia). India must become more active in the community-building efforts in West Asia. Riyadh and Bahrain are good places to begin from.

India to seek higher US market for gems, jewellery (http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=3&sid=&nid=3&rid=264213)

NEW DELHI, March 14 (PNA/PTI) -- The Commerce Ministry will impress upon the US trade office to facilitate increase in imports of gems and jewellery and handicrafts to the US from India, on the back of revival in the American economy.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma would be leaving for Washington on March 16, accompanied by Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar.

"The US is our largest market for labour intensive sectors... and these issues would come up for discussion during Sharma's meeting with US Trade Representative Ron Kirk," an official said.

In 2008-09, exports of gems and jewellery worth USD 24.89 billion, leather USD 3.59 billion and handicrafts USD 1.7 billion to the US had a significant share in India's total shipments worth over USD 185 billion. (PNA/PTI)

U.S., India tighten trade relation
WASHINGTON, March 18 (PNA/Xinhua) -- The United States and India signed an agreement Wednesday to strengthen trade and investment ties, concluding a deal that leaders of the two sides announced last year.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma signed a "Framework for Cooperation on Trade and Investment" in Washington.

This agreement will encourage small businesses in both countries and boost cooperation on clean energy technologies.

"There is almost limitless potential for growth in trade between our two countries," Kirk said, "and that can contribute to economic recovery and job creation in the United States and continued economic growth in India."

"We also intend to use this framework to encourage the development and deployment of clean energy and environmental technologies as well as to support India's infrastructure growth," Sharma said.

Trade between the two economic powers has more than doubled in the last five years to more than 37.6 billion dollars in 2009. Sharma said the possibilities for trade between the United States and India "have not been tapped fully as yet."

U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to double U.S. exports within the next five years, and the administration hopes to use India's fast growing economy to help meet that goal.

Kirk and Sharma announced their intent to finalize the " Framework for Cooperation on Trade and Investment" when they co- chaired the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum meeting in New Delhi in October 2009.

The United States-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF), established in July 2005, is the principal bilateral forum for the two governments to discuss the entire spectrum of trade and investment issues. (PNA/Xinhua)
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=4&sid=&nid=4&rid=264976

Indian customs seizes 1,250 tons of toxic wheat from Australia
NEW DELHI, March 25 (PNA/Xinhua) -- The Indian customs has seized 1,250 tons of "toxic" wheat imported from Australia at the port in the southern state of Tamil Nadu's capital Chennai, local daily The Times of India said Thursday.

The consignment, contained in 50 containers, was found to contain more than permissible levels of pesticide chloropyrifos, said the report, claiming that three clearing agents were arrested on charges of attempting to get clearance for the consignment using fake documents.

"This is the first time that such a huge quantity of imported food grain has been found to have excessive pesticide content. The consignment will not be cleared for import. It will have to be sent back to Australia," Customs commissioner C. Rajan was quoted as saying.

Customs officials took samples of the wheat as soon as the consignment arrived 10 days ago from Melbourne and sent it to the Central Food Technology Research Institute, Mysore in southern India.

"It is the procedure. We take samples and send them to the laboratory for testing the pesticide content. The test revealed that the consignment contained high pesticide levels and hence was not fit for consumption," said Rajan. (PNA/Xinhua) http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=4&sid=&nid=4&rid=266403

Russia sets sights on poultry imports from India
http://www.pna.gov.ph/images/158324813.jpg

MOSCOW, March 27 (PNA/RIA Novosti) - Russia is ready to import poultry from India if the U.S. does not resume its supply, Russian agriculture minister Yelena Skrynnik said Friday after meeting with her Indian counterpart.

The U.S. supplied last year 22 percent of poultry consumed in Russia but was unable to continue this after Jan. 1 when new sanitary requirements came into force in Russia.

Skrynnik said India, a major poultry producer, already expressed readiness to supply its produce to Russia, Turkey and Thailand.

"At the moment, actually this week, we found out that we have excessive stocks of poultry products on our farms so we stopped discussions by now. But theoretically, if we need poultry, we can buy it from India," she said.

Under the new regulations, which apply to both imports and meat processed in Russia, the amount of chlorine in solutions used for processing poultry meat must not exceed 0.3-0.5 milligrams per liter, the level set for drinking water.

The regulations also require that fluid which separates when meat is defrosted must not exceed 4 percent of the bird's total weight.

Chlorine has been used for some 25 years as the primary anti-microbial treatment in the U.S.

Russian-U.S. talks on the issue have continued with the latest round held from March 1 to 3.

Russia's chief sanitary official Gennady Onishchenko said last week a draft agreement on U.S. poultry supplies to Russia is almost ready but such does not mean the supply will resume in the near future. (PNA/RIA Novosti)http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=4&sid=&nid=4&rid=266718

Growing India-Saudi Arabia Ties (http://www.biztechreport.com/story/472-growing-india-saudi-arabia-ties)


http://www.biztechreport.com/images/imagecache/large/india%20saudi%20arabia.jpg

For the first time in almost 30 years, the Prime Minister of India visited Saudi Arabia from Feb. 27 to March 1. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke at length with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz about security, economic, energy and defense issues. By the end of the visit, they had signed 10 different agreements. This is the result of negotiations that began with the king’s visit to India in 2006, where he spoke about creating comprehensive ties between the two countries and was honored as the chief guest at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi. With Prime Minister Singh’s visit, the ties are realized. As an added bonus, Manmohan Singh received an honorary doctorate from King Saud University. “As a result of our interaction, we have agreed to upgrade the quality of our relationship to that of a strategic partnership,” Singh said when he returned to India.

The strategic partnership between the two countries covers economic, trade and investment issues. Also, the agreement covers energy security, research & development investment in renewable energy resources and mutual investment in the upstream and downstream energy activities of both nations. The agreement also includes a pledge for both countries to use space for only peaceful purposes. Finally, the agreement addresses cooperation in dealing with security and terrorism issues. The fact that the agreement was completed at all is a signifier of a new era in South Asian politics.

The prime minister was accompanied by a delegation of ministers, officials and businessmen, who were also busy. There were reports of two private sector agreements reached during the three-day event.

Energy Needs, Again
Saudi Arabia supplies a full 30 percent of India’s crude oil each year. India’s steady growth will no doubt require more energy in the future. India is voraciously reaching out for all forms of energy from nuclear to solar, and will maintain a healthy diet of oil as its economy expands. Securing a steady supply from Saudi Arabia is essential for India’s future growth.

The joint declaration signed by both parties, being called the Riyadh Declaration, speaks a lot about complementary needs and interdependence, which means both countries should invest in each other’s energy infrastructure. There are also some vague references to developing alternative sources of renewable energy.

New Political Era
Despite the two countries’ ancient historical ties, India and Saudi Arabia have found themselves separated by the 20th century’s political climate. Now, however, as circumstances change in the 21st century, both countries find themselves with similar interests and goals. And, as always, one of the most important goals is bilateral trade. India’s post-liberalization, bilateral trade sharply shot up, especially after 2000, and stood at US $25 billion in 2008-09.

India’s Feb output seen up 16 percent y/y (http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010/04/01/story_1-4-2010_pg5_38)

NEW DELHI: India’s industrial output and exports maintained their strong growth pace in February, official figures indicated on Wednesday, boosting expectations the central bank will further tighten its policy in April.

Earlier this month the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) surprised markets by raising key lending and borrowing rates by 25 basis points each, citing intensifying inflationary pressures.

Markets largely shrugged off the data, which reinforced expectations of at least another 25 basis point increase in key rates in April. The latest Reuters poll shows analysts expect rates to go up by another 100 basis points between now and end-December.

India’s exports in February grew 34.8 percent year on year to $16.09 billion after an annual 11.5 percent rise in January, Trade Minister Anand Sharma said on Wednesday. reuters

Cheers:cheers:

India asks for more trade ties with Abu Dhabi (http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/2/124164.htm)

Abu Dhabi, April 5 (IANS/WAM) India Monday asked Abu Dhabi to increase trade between the two countries and allow the India-based International Accounting Institute to set up a branch in Abu Dhabi.

An Indian delegation led by Minister of State for Corporate and Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid met Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, here and underlined the need to develop bilateral relations through increased trade and sharing of information.

The delegation urged Abu Dhabi to promote investments in the field of higher education and sought permission for opening a branch of the International Accounting Institute in the country.

During the meeting, both the leaders hailed the historic ties, especially in the fields of trade and investment due to free market policies pursued by the two nations.

The UAE encourages economic trade, education and tourism with various international companies specialised in these areas to contribute in the building and development process, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan said.

Israel may soon sign free trade agreement with India (http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100526/808/tnl-israel-may-soon-sign-free-trade-agre.html)

INDIA'S MANGO EXPORTS MAY RISE 8.5 PC THIS YEAR
NEW DELHI, May 28 (NNN-PTI) -- Mango exports from India, the world's largest producer of the fruit, is likely to rise 8.5 per cent to over 90,000 tonne in the 2009-10 season on increased demand from the Middle East, an agri-export promotion body APEDA said today.

"We expect overseas sales of mangoes to cross 90,000 tonne in 2010-11 season, driven by higher demand in the Middle East," a senior official with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) said.

India's mango exports are under a per cent of the country's total production of 12.5 million tonnes.

Last year, the country is estimated to have shipped 83,000 tonne of mangoes, including to the Middle East, the US and the UK, he said. Mango season runs from March to July.http://namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=121824

lA6rF-Ecpg4&feature=related

India-UAE trade up 70 percent: Envoy
(http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/India-UAE-trade-up-70-percent-Envoy/articleshow/6007479.cms)

DUBAI:Trade between the UAE and India increased by nearly 70 per cent during 2008-09, showing the growing importance of ties between the two countries, a top envoy has said.

"Bilateral trade (non-oil) between India and the UAE was worth $48.3bn in 2008-09, an increase of 65.8 per cent over the previous year, which shows the growing importance of relations between our two nations, UAE Ambassador to India Mohamed Sultan Al Owais said.

"Increasing transportation links between India and the UAE can only help strengthen the economic and commercial ties between us," he said Wednesday at the launch of the 'flydubai' low cost airline's thrice weekly flight to Lucknow.

"It is important for both the UAE and India that we increase the number of safe, affordable, quality air travel options that connect our countries," he said, adding that flydubai "is an excellent airline, committed to the highest standards of safety, training and maintenance."

"I am confident flydubai will provide an excellent service to the people travelling between Dubai and Lucknow and we look forward to the airline being able to expand services to other Indian cities in the future," the UAE ambassador noted.

Ghaith Al Ghaith, the flydubai CEO who flew on board the inaugural flight, said: "After much anticipation, we are thrilled to make our first entry into India with the start of flights to Lucknow."

The new service, FZ433, will operates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, departing Dubai at 8.30 p.m. and arriving in Lucknow at 1.50 am the following day. The return flight, FZ434, will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, departing Lucknow at 2.35 am and arriving in Dubai at 5.20 am.

Hi Guys!! Finally some movement in trade talks a big step forward in right direction since both countries have a lot to offer to each other. Hopefully this will keep the talks going which will benefit both countries in short as well as long term



New Pakistan trade policy to double India-Pakistan trade

New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) The volume of trade between India and Pakistan is likely to double following the trade policy announced by Pakistan recently which increases the number of items that Pakistan can import from India, said Tariq Sayeed, president, Saarc Chambers of Commerce and Industry, here Thursday. “I expect the trade figures to jump from $2 billion to $4 billion due to the trade policy,” Sayeed told IANS. He is currently in India to attend a conference on south Asian economic integration.

Referring to the domestic criticism from certain quarters that the trade policy was “pro-India”, Sayeed said the detractors had not read the provisions properly. “The policy specifically asks investors to set up manufacturing units in Pakistan”.

For the first time, Pakistan has invited direct investment from India in the manufacture of CNG buses. It also allowed test import of ten-year-old CNG buses from Indian companies, who had committed to opening a manufacturing facility in Pakistan, he said.

Besides, Pakistan had also increased the number of importable items from India by 136, including machinery for mining, cement bulkers and academic and reference books, Sayeed said.

Source:- http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/new-pakistan-trade-policy-to-double-india-pakistan-trade_10075452.html

'INDIA'S AUTO EXPORT MAY GROW 15 PER CENT THIS FISCAL'
NEW DELHI, June 28 (NNN-PTI) The government has said the country's total vehicle export is likely to increase by up to 15 per cent in the current fiscal, as demand from Europe is expected to rise.

"We may see a 10-15 per cent increase in auto exports over and above the last fiscal's export," Joint Secretary in the Department of Heavy Industry Ambuj Sharma told PTI.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the overall vehicle export from India grew by 17.90 per cent at 18,04,619 units in the last financial year, while the same stood at 15,30,594 units in 2008-09.

Sharma said most of the European nations that are growing will lead to an increase in consumer spending and demand for auto sales in those regions.

The European nations are a major destination for the Indian auto industry's passenger car export.http://namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=125228

INDIA'S APRIL SPICES EXPORTS UP 28PC
NEW DELHI, June 28 (NNN-PTI): India's spices exports increased 28 per cent, both in value and volume terms, in April this year over the same month last year, according to the Spices Board.

While in quantity terms exports reached 56,910 tonnes in the month under review, in value-terms, it rose to Rs 525 crore.

In comparison, the country exported 44,595 tonnes worth Rs 412 crore in April 2009.

Shipments for chili, the highest forex earner among the spices, stood at 19,750 tonnes in the month and was valued at Rs 121.46 crore at an average price of Rs 61.5 a kg.

The highest growth in exports was recorded by garlic--a whopping 6,282 per cent in quantity and 4738 per cent in terms of value. In comparison, exports were 5,425 lakh tonnes and valued at Rs 19.47 crore in April last year.http://namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=125214

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Kingdom, India strive to boost energy ties (http://arabnews.com/economy/article148604.ece)

http://arabnews.com/economy/article148647.ece/REPRESENTATIONS/large_620x350/Eco_Kingdom.jpeg
Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad speaks at the International Energy Forum in Riyadh on Monday.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and India have set up a new vision of energy partnership, while New Delhi continues to engage in aggressive oil diplomacy with oil producers to ensure stable energy supply at affordable prices, according to the Indian ambassador in Riyadh.

India's energy demand, which will more than double by 2030, has even prompted Indian companies to own oil producing assets in seven countries, whose cumulative investments exceed $12 billion today.

"India, in fact, will need fossil fuels in all scenarios even if it succeeds in exploiting its full hydropower potential and even if a 20-fold increase takes place in its nuclear power capacity," said Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad, in an apparent reference to the energy supply from the Gulf states.

Ahmad, who writes and lectures regularly on Islam and politics of West Asia, was delivering a keynote lecture at the International Energy Forum (IEF), here Monday.

Noe van Hulst, IEF secretary general, introduced Ahmad to an elite audience composed mainly of senior diplomats, Saudi and IEF officials as well as top company executives.

India is a member of the IEF executive board, together with host country Saudi Arabia, the International Energy Agency (IEA), Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 17 other countries. Riyadh and New Delhi are also members of the IEF's International Support Group.

In his lecture, which focused on global energy security and India's energy diplomacy, Ahmad said that New Delhi, which imports 18 percent of its domestic oil consumption from Saudi Arabia, was engaged in energy diplomacy with an emphasis on stable supply.

The diplomacy calls for "substantial, robust and multi-faceted global engagements", said Ahmad.

He pointed out that India imported 40 percent of its domestic requirements from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including the Kingdom.

He said that the most significant development in the consumption of hydrocarbon fuels was the increase in Asian demand in recent years. Ahmad pointed out that China and India together would be responsible for over a third of the world's incremental consumption of oil over the next 25 years.

Referring to the geopolitics of oil, Ambassador Ahmad said that India ranked as the fifth largest consumer of energy in the world today, accounting for 3.7 percent of the world's consumption.

"Our import dependence on oil is 75 percent and likely to reach 90 percent by 2030", he added.

India's total primary energy demand is expected to almost double by 2030, said the diplomat, adding that India needs to sustain an eight to 10 percent economic growth rate over the next 25 years if it is to eradicate poverty and meet its human development goals.

Referring to regional cooperation in the energy sector, he said that India was pursuing two transnational gas pipeline proposals. The first one is the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) project and the second is the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project.

He was optimistic on the implementation of these projects, despite the fact that they have been facing a lot of political and security-related troubles.

On the domestic front, he said that the refining capacity in India will increase from 178 million tons in 2010 to 250 million tons in 2012, with exportable surplus being 100 million tons.

Ahmad also threw his weight behind IEF and applauded the role of the forum, saying that IEF has emerged as the world's largest energy forum with 90 member countries and 13 international organizations.

India, Mozambique to raise bilateral trade to $1 bn
(http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/India--Mozambique-to-raise-bilateral-trade-to--1-bn/691556/)

New Delhi India and Mozambique have decided to renew their strategic political and economic partnership and set a target for bilateral trade at $ one billion by 2013.
India has agreed to provide a line of credit of $500 million for infrastructure projects, agriculture and energy. India will support the establishment of training and planning institutions in Mozambique to support capacity building in the coal industry. India will also support capacity building for the defence and police forces of Mozambique.

It is to be noted that in May 2010, India announced a line of credit of $25 million for rural electrification, and in all, six LOCs amounting to $ 140 million are operational or have been completed. A grant of US $ 4.5 million to provide equipment to build capacities of Mozambique’s police force was also announced.

Both sides have identified specific areas of common interest that will allow the establishment of an India-Mozambique partnership and agreed that high official delegations should meet to discuss ways to build a sustainable and mutually beneficial partnership.

Mentioning that India’s relationship with Mozambique dated back to pre-colonial days, the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said : “We both belong to the same Indian Ocean community and we share common concerns. It is in our mutual interest to ensure the safety and security of sea lanes of communication in the Indian Ocean. Our relations are therefore warm, cooperative and marked by deep mutual understanding and friendship.”

The Mozambique President Armando Emilio Guebuza and Dr Singh on Thursday agreed to build upon the solid foundations of the past, and create a partnership based on the following four pillars -- greater political engagement, deepening economic cooperation, strengthening defence and security cooperation and cooperation in capacity building and human resource development.

“We have agreed to exploit our mutual complementarities in areas of trade and economic cooperation, transportation, railways, mining, coal, agriculture, small and medium enterprises and science and technology,” said Dr Singh

President Guebuza is on a 6-day official visit to India from September 29 and is accompanied by a high powered official and business delegation.

An agreement for avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income was signed between the two countries. Also two MoUs on cooperation in the areas of mineral resources and micro, small and medium enterprises was signed. It was agreed that the Ministerial Joint Commission will meet in the next six months to take the proposals forward.

Mozambique is rich in mineral resources and has large reserves of untapped minerals, ores and coal and will become a major producer soon. Moreover, most of the cashew produced in the country is exported to India. Mozambique also exports pulses to India

Both sides agreed to develop such complementarities to expand trade. It was agreed that greater efforts to diversify and expand trade will be made. India welcomed Mozambique\'s accession to the Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) scheme for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) offered by India to provide greater market access.

India figures among Mozambique’s top 10 trading partners both in terms of import and export. Bilateral trade has grown from $178.15 million in 2005-06 to $220.91 million in 2006-07, $490.18 million in 2007-08, $459.38 million in 2008-09, but dipped marginally to $427.14 million in 2009-10. But even as the bilateral trade marked a dip, the trade balance shifted in favour of Mozambique. Indian exports to Mozambique fell by 16.16% in 2009-10 while Mozambique’s imports into India increased by 115.30%

Noting that India is ranked as the fourth largest investor in Mozambique in 2009 with investments of US$64.17 million in the sectors of energy, mineral resources, agro-industries, transport and communication, food processing, and coconut and cashew processing, both sides decided that greater investment promotion efforts will be made to encourage Indian FDI in Mozambique.

India welcomes the decision of Mozambique to be a partner country at the CII-EXIM Bank India-Africa Conclave in 2011 and considers that this would be a good event to highlight the opportunities of increasing Indian FDI in Mozambique.

It was decided to set up India-Mozambique Coal Partnership keeping in view the potential for growth and optimal utilization of resources in Mozambique for its development. India will establish an apex institute for training in the coal sector and an apex planning institute for the coal industry in Mozambique, which will be open to the countries of the SADC region

Cheaper Indian goods in Canadian market after free trade deal
13 NOV, 2010, 12.38PM IST,IANS

TORONTO: India will join China in filling up Canadian stores with cheaper goods once New Delhi and Ottawa sign a free trade agreement to do away with many taxes and duties.

The prime ministers of the two countries announced the start of talks for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Seoul on Friday.

The two countries aim to push their trade more than three-fold from the current $4.2 billion in the next five years. While main Canadian exports to India include machinery, fertilizers, wood pulp and vegetables, Indian exports comprise garments, metals, precious stones and jewellery, and electrical equipment.

Welcoming the decision, the Toronto Star said, "While it may take many months before the details are worked out, when it does happen Canadians can expect to see more Indian-produced products on store shelves, and perhaps cheaper prices for items already imported from the Asian country.

"The agreement should be a boon for business owners, who could open India-based offices, or simply target consumers in the country. Trade between Canada and India totals about $4 billion - the goal is to boost that to $15 billion."

A free trade agreement is expected to add about $6 billion each to the economies of the two countries.

But more than anything, Canadian banks and insurance companies will benefit immensely from a free trade pact with one of the fastest growing economies in the world. as they want access to the south Asian market.

After the global meltdown triggered by the US which is Canada's main buyer, Ottawa is trying to lessen dependence on its big neighbour by signing free trade agreements with many other nations.

Economics experts here have described the talks with India as an "important development'' for Canada.

Scotching fears that a free trade agreement will lead to more outsourcing of jobs to India, these analysts say this loss, if any, will be more than offset by Indian companies opening offices in Canada and creating jobs.

"But, with every free trade agreement comes worries that Canadians could lose jobs. We've already seen Canadian companies hiring Indian-based call centres to field customer inquires and that outsourcing could continue and even pick up.

After Canada's ban on India after its 1974 and 1998 nuclear blasts, India-Canada relations have picked up after Ottawa reversed this policy by ending India's nuclear isolation at the Nucelar Suppliers' Group in 2008.

Apart from the nuke deal signed in June, Ottawa has also inked major agreements with India in mining, science and education and other fields.

SOURCE (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/Cheaper-Indian-goods-in-Canadian-market-after-free-trade-deal/articleshow/6919130.cms)

India, South Korea target doubling trade by 2014

NEW DELHI: India and South Korea look to doubling their bilateral trade to $30 billion by 2014 as a comprehensive economic partnership agreement between the two countries liberalises tariff regime, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said Thursday.

"As exporters on both sides develop a better understanding of the advantages presented by this agreement through a liberal tariff regime, we should easily be in a position to achieve the trade target of $30 billion by 2014," Sharma said at the India-South Korea Business Forum here.

Bilateral trade between India and South Korea surged 44 per cent to $15 billion in 2010 after the two countries signed a comprehensive economic pact.

The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between India and South Korea was signed in August 2009. The agreement came into force from Jan 1, 2010.

"We view the agreement with the Republic of Korea to serve as an economic bridge between South Asia and the larger east Asian economy, paving the way for a larger regional economic integration across the Asian continent," Sharma said after meeting South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-Hoon here.

India and South Korea Thursday held the first joint ministerial committee meeting here to review of the Economic Partnership Agreement.

"It was decided that the next Ministerial Joint Committee meeting would be convened in Seoul in 2012," according to a joint statement issued after the meeting. The Korean minister is leading a high-level delegation to India comprising of business leaders, professionals and government officials.

Sharma also asked South Korean companies to invest in India's infrastructure sector.

He said foreign direct investment (FDI) flow in India is likely to reach $250 billion in the next five years.

During the last three years, India received over $100 billion FDI.

"I would like to particularly mention that Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project represents a whole range of opportunity for establishing new urban townships, investment regions, logistic hubs in an economically vibrant part of India. We welcome Korean business community to join hands with us in our endeavour to develop this corridor," he added.

source (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/india-south-korea-target-doubling-trade-by-2014/articleshow/7327858.cms)

Exports grow by 36.4% in December to $22.5 bn


NEW DELHI: India's exports went up by 36.4 per cent year-on-year, highest in the last 33-months to USD 22.5 billion in December 2010.

The country's merchandise exports in December 2009 stood at USD 16.4 billion.

However, imports contracted by 11.1 per cent to USD 25.13 billion over the same period last year, resulting in a narrow trade deficit of USD 2.6 billion, according to Commerce Ministry data which released here today.

During the April-December period of the current fiscal, the country's outbound shipment grew by 29.5 per cent to USD 164.7 billion from USD 127.1 billion in the same period last year, the data said.

The imports too increased by 19 per cent to USD 246.7 billion during the first nine-months of the current fiscal from USD 207.3 billion in the same period last year.

The trade gap during the period stood at USD 82 billion. Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar had said that India's export would touch USD 215-225 billion during the current fiscal.

source (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/exports-grow-by-364-in-december-to-225-bn/articleshow/7402842.cms)

India-US bilateral trade rises by 30% in 2010

The Indo-US bilateral trade is expected to increase by more than 30% in the first 11 months of 2010 to touch $50 billion.

The bilateral trade could even touch the magical figure of $50 billion when the statistics for December are available, officials said, adding this reflects the growing trade relationship between the two countries.

According to the latest figures made available by the US Department of Commerce, between January to November 2010, the total bilateral trade between India and the United States was $45,011 million.

This is in comparison to $34,416 million during the same period in 2009; showing an increase of 30.79%. The total bilateral trade in 2009 was 37,607 million(about $37.61 billion), which was a a significant drop from $43,386 million in 2008 mainly because of the downturn in the global economy.

In 2007, the total bilateral trade was $39,042 million.

The figures also reflected a greater increase in India’s export to the US than American export to India; even though both showed signs of increase.

Between January to November 2010, India’s export to the US had stood at $27,398 million as against $19,381 during the same period in 2009; thus showing an increase of 41.36%.

Meanwhile, US exports of merchandise to India grew by 17.2% from $15.03 billion during the period Jan - Nov 2009 to $17.61 billion during the corresponding period in 2010.

Cut and polished diamonds and jewellery are a major item of India’s exports to the US, accounting for 21.5%.

Exports of this item had declined from $5.6 billion in 2008 to $4.6 billion in 2009.

Textiles exports to the US, which account for 23%, fell by 10.3% from $5.42 billion in 2008 to $4.86 billion in 2009.

Iron & Steel products which account for 5.3% of India’s exports to the US, fell by 33.8% from $1.68 billion in 2008 to $1.12 billion in 2009.

Exports of Organic Chemicals fell by 10.2% from 1.46 billion in 2008 to $1.32 billion in 2009.

Exports of pharmaceutical products grew from $1.43 billion in 2008 to $1.66 billion in 2009.

source (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/us-india-bilateral-trade-rises-by-30-in-2010/124380/on)

Oman expects bilateral trade with India to double by 2020

Muscat, Feb 13 (PTI) With the Omani Government focusing on enhancing the bilateral economic cooperation with India in sectors like food, petrochemicals and infrastructure, the two-way trade between the two countries is likely to double by 2020, says a senior minister.
"I hope the trade (with India) will double by 2020", Minister of Commerce and Industry Maqbool Ali Sultan told PTI.
The bilateral trade between the two countries, excluding export of petroleum products to India, during 2009-10 jumped up to USD 4.53 billion from USD 1.98 billion a year ago.
According to sources, host of MOUs for enhancing economic cooperation are likely to be signed between the governments of India and Oman during the forthcoming visit of Oman''s ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said to India later in the month.
Pointing out that there was scope for increasing bilateral trade between the two countries, Maqbool said "we are looking to enhance ties, which are historical...trade is only a part of it."
Several big industrial houses like Tatas, Birla Group and Reliance and public sector companies are already present in Oman, he said, adding the country is looking for increasing bilateral cooperation in the fields of power, energy and food.
Indian companies, according to officials, are setting up manufacturing facilities at free trade zone being developed at the port town of Sohar, about 200 km from capital Muscat.
The companies, the Minister added, can make use of Oman as a manufacturing hub to reach out to markets in the United States and the countries in the Gulf region.
Oman has free trade agreements with the US, he said, adding talks were on to sign a trade pact between the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and India.
The GCC, a grouping of six Gulf countries which are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, controls almost half of the world''s known oil reserves.
On conclusion of Doha trade talks, Maqbool expressed the hope that the trade negotiations are likely to be concluded by the end of 2011.
The Doha talks, initiated by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a group of 153 nations, to open global trade has been going on since 2001.
In the food sector, Maqbool said, Oman has already initiated talks with Mysore-based Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), which is engaged in research in the field of conserving, preserving and processing of food.
Besides trade, the Minister said, efforts would also be made to enhance cooperation in the field of technical, management and medical education

source (http://news.in.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4915926)

India, Japan to sign free trade pact


India will sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) with Japan [ Images ] on Wednesday, setting the stage for free bilateral trade of goods and services.

The pact will be India's [ Images ] third major market-opening pact within an year and will be initialled by Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Seiji Maehara, in Tokyo.

"It is expected that this agreement will promote the liberalisation and facilitation of trade and investment between the two countries and will further vitalise both economies by strengthening reciprocal economic ties in wide-ranging fields," a statement by Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.

As per the the pact, both countries would reduce customs duty on merchandise trade from April, and will eventually eliminate it in the coming 10 years. Around 90 per cent of the USD 12 billion trade would be covered under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

In services, restrictions on movement of professionals such as chefs, accountants, english teachers, doctors and nurses would be eased.

Pharmaceuticals, one of the ticklish areas in the FTA negotiations, has been resolved with Japan agreeing to provide market access to Indian pharma companies in the highly- regulated market.

India has been demanding that the drugs approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) should be allowed in the Japanese market.

However, the Japan had been insisting that pharmaceuticals imports must comply with the Japenese standards.

Certain sectors like automobile and agri products have been kept out of the pact by India, to protect its domestic manufacturers and farmers from the impact of cheap imports.

The CEPA with Japan was finalised last October, during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's [ Images ] visit to Tokyo.

The Commerce Ministry is pursuing similar pact with the European Union which is expected to be signed within 2011.

India, earlier has entered into FTA with Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) and South Korea. India's trade only in merchandise goods, with ASEAN, Japan and South Korea is about USD 85 billion - 16 per cent of the country's total global commerce.

In the absence of progress in the Doha Round of negotiations for a multi-lateral trade-opening deal, countries around the world are entering in the regional and bilateral agreements for liberalising trade.

http://www.rediff.com/business/report/india-japan-to-sign-free-trade-pact/20110215.htm

India's tea exports decline in 2010 (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/137926/indias-tea-exports-decline-2010.html)


Failing to meet the target of 200 million kg tea export set for 2010, shipments of the beverage from India actually declined by 2.4 per cent to 193.3 million kg during the period in sync with dip in production.

According to data released by Tea Board, India had achieved 198 million kg tea exports in 2009. "Tea exports have fallen this time as a result of lower production, particularly of the premium Assam variety, and subdued demand from major importing countries," Indian Tea Association Joint Secretary Sujit Patra told PTI. Former Tea Board Chairman Basudeb Banerjee in November last year had said the Board has set 200 million kg export target for 2010. India's tea output declined by 1.3 per cent to 966.4 million kg in 2010 against 979 million kg in the year-ago period due to a drop in output in Assam, which produces more than half of country's total tea production due to adverse weather and pest attacks. In 2008, India's tea exports went well passed 200 million kg. The fall in exports is indicative of its losing ground to other major producers like Sri Lanka for the orthodox variety and Kenya for CTC tea.

Even, new entrants in the world export markets like, Vietnam and Indonesia are giving Indian tea a run for the money. Meanwhile, exports of tea from India to Pakistan is on the rise and that too by a phenomenal margin. In 2010, India registered exports of 20 million kg tea to Pakistan from just around 5-6 million kg a year-ago. "In Russia also, our exports are rising. This time we are expecting to export about 40-45 million kg. Besides, exports to Iran is also set to be 15 million kg," Patra said. He said the production in the current year is likely to increase compared to last year. "Though exports have fallen in 2010, but with rise in exports to Russia, Pakistan and Iran, I think we will get good results in the current year," Patra added.

UAE replaces US as India's top trading ally
By WALID MAZI | ARAB NEWS
Published: Feb 27, 2011 00:47 Updated: Feb 27, 2011 00:47

NEW DELHI: The US, which had been India's top trading ally until 2007-08, has since been relegated to the third position with the UAE and China assuming first and second positions in trade relations with Asia's third biggest economy, revealed a new survey.

The figures of India's new Economic Survey also pointed out that the country's trade with the UAE in both 2009-10 financial year and the first nine months of current fiscal year were higher than its imports on the back of rising demand for Indian goods rises in the Gulf countries. India recorded bilateral trade surplus with five countries — the UAE, the US, Singapore, the UK and Hong Kong — in 2009-10 and the first half of 2010-11. India's export-import ratio in the case of China was not only low but has been stagnating at around 0.3 percent, said the survey.

The cumulative export growth of the country in April-December 2010-11 stood at 29.5 percent with cumulative exports reaching $64.7 billion during this period, according to the survey.

The exports continued to rise at the rate of 13.6 percent in 2008-09. Current indications are that India will not only achieve the target of $200 billion but surpass it in 2010-11, it added.

Reacting to the Economic survey, CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said: “The survey has proposed a set of very innovative reforms that would go a long way in addressing the concerns on the inclusiveness of the growth process.”

“These include direct transfer of subsidies to the poor through smart cards, creation of public assets as part of the employment guarantee program and the suggestion to create a Land Bank for faster approval of projects,” he added.

The survey, tabled by India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, also revealed that during the first nine months of 2010-11 fiscal, the country's import grew by 19 percent.

Trade deficit increased by 2.4 percent to $82 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal year from $80.1 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year, it added.

The relatively higher import growth compared to export growth in the first half of 2010-11 raised the alarm of a possible unmanageable current account deficit.

With import growth slowing down from October 2010 and exports picking up in November 2010, the fear that the high current account deficit may be due to high merchandise trade deficit is disappearing.

India ranked 21st in world exports in 2009 whereas China ranked first while in commercial services exports it ranked 12th compared to China's fifth.

Experts lauded the suggestion by the survey to accelerate investment in the infrastructure sector by addressing issues such as delays, cost overruns and regulatory and pricing impediments.

“It is believed that these measures would greatly help in mobilizing around $1 trillion that would be required over the next five years,” said Banerjee.

According to the survey, trade policy measures taken by the government and the Reserve Bank of India in 2009-10 and 2010-11 focused on reviving exports and export-related employment besides mitigating the effect of inflation.

The Indian government followed a mix of policy measures including fiscal incentives, institutional changes, procedural rationalization, enhanced market access across the world and diversification of export markets.

Source (http://arabnews.com/economy/article287111.ece?comments=all)

Exports from SEZs up by 47% in Apr-Dec

Exports from special economic zones during April-December this fiscal grew by 47 per cent to Rs 2,23,132 crore (Rs 2,231.32 billion) over the same period last year, Export Promotion Council for SEZs and export oriented units said on Thursday.

During April-December 2009-10, exports from special economic zones stood at Rs 1,51,785 crore (Rs 1,517.85 billion).

According to industry experts, exports are growing due to the increasing demand in the western and new markets like in Asia and Africa.

The shipments from the tax-free enclaves were Rs 2,20,711 crore (Rs 2,207.11 billion) in 2009-10, EPCES said.

Out of the country's total Rs 8,35,264 crore (Rs 8,352.64 billion) exports in 2009-10, SEZs and EOUs contributed 36 per cent.

EPCES also said that 1,40,462 people have been employed during the first three quarters of current financial year.

"Additional investments of Rs 46,860 crore (Rs 468.6 billion) have been made in the first three quarters of the fiscal," it said.

SEZ units are eligible for 100 per cent tax exemption for first five years and 50 per cent for the next five.

The developers of the zones also avail 100 per cent income tax exemption for 10 years. Out of the 582 SEZs approved till now, 130 zones are operational in different parts of the country.

source (http://www.rediff.com/business/report/sez-exports-from-sezs-up-by-47-pc-in-apr-dec/20110224.htm)

Sensitive items imports up 10.8% in Apr-Nov

India's imports of sensitive items, including foodgrains and milk products, has gone up by 10.8% to Rs 46,109 crore during the April-November of the current fiscal, from Rs 41,621 crore a year-ago.

Foodgrains' imports soared to Rs 223.94 crore during the first eight months of this fiscal from a mere Rs 17.29 crore and in the year-ago period, according to the latest official data.

Items such as foodgrains, automobiles, milk and beverages fall in the sensitive category and the imports of these are monitored by the government to see if there is any adverse impact on the domestic industry.
Milk and dairy products' imports increased to Rs 678.66 crore and that of automobiles to Rs 1,426.29 crore during the period under review from Rs 158.42 crore and Rs 693.36 crore, respectively in the year-ago period.

During April-November 2010-11, imports of items such as alcoholic beverages and rubber too, increased by 60.4% and 101.3%, respectively.

As per the data, the increase in imports of edible oils was 11% to Rs 17,978.59 crore over the year ago period. imports of products of small-scale industries like umbrella, locks, toys and glassware, too, went up by 59.5% to Rs 992.77 crore over the same period last year.

"The increase in edible oil imports is mainly due to substantial increase in imports of soyabean crude oil," it said.

However, imports of pulses, and cotton and silk contracted by 20.3% and 27.3% during the period. No reason was disclosed for the contraction.

Food inflation is hovering at 11.49%, week ended February 12, due to spurt in vegetable prices.

Imports of sensitive items amounted to 4.5% of the country's total imports during the period.

The gross imports of all commodities during April-November 2010-11 was Rs 10,14,960 crore compared to Rs 8,59,871 crore during the same period last year.

Imports of sensitive items from countries like the US, UK, China, Korea, Argentina, Germany, Thailand, New Zealand have gone up, while those from Myanmar, Brazil and Canada decreased.

source (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/sensitive-items-imports108-in-apr-nov/127619/on)

WOW!!! WOW!!!WOW!!!

India's exports up by 49.8% to $23.6 bn in February

India's exports went up by 49.8% year-on-year to $23.6 billion in February on the back of increased demand from markets like North America, Asia and Africa.

During April-February, 2011, the country's merchandise shipments grew by 31.4% to $208.2 billion, surpassing the export target of $200 billion for the entire 2010-11 fiscal.

"We have crossed the $200 billion mark... The current forecast for the year is $230-235 billion," commerce secretary Rahul Khullar said.

Imports also went up in February, rising by 21.2% to $31.7 billion, leaving a trade gap of $8.1 billion, Khullar said.

During April-February, 2011, imports grew by 18% to $305.3 billion. During the 11-month period, the trade deficit amounted at $97.1 billion.

"We will end up (the fiscal) closer to $350 billion imports," Khullar added.

The export sectors that performed well during the April, 2010-February, 2011, period include gems and jewellery, engineering, ready-made garments, cotton yarn, electronics, plastics, carpets and pharmaceuticals.

The sectors which saw the maximum imports were petroleum and oil lubricants, gems and silver, vegetable oil, machinery and chemicals

:cheers:

^^ Reaching balanced trade :banana:

^^ yup even with brent crude above $100/ barrel the whole month!!

'India-SA bilateral trade may touch USD 15 bn in FY 12'

MUMBAI: Bilateral trade between India and South Africa is expected to surge by a whopping 50 per cent to around $ 15 billion in FY 12 against $ 10 billion in the current fiscal, a senior South African Minister today said.

"The bilateral trade between both the countries is growing and we have almost touched our target of $ 10 billion for FY 11. We expect to reach $ 15 billion in FY 12," Republic of South Africa Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Elizabeth Thabethe told reporters here.

The minister is here on her last leg of a week-long visit to India heading a business delegation of 35 companies, of which 90 per cent are small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

She said that South Africa has huge potential for Indian investments, especially in sectors like manufacturing, mining, tourism, SMEs and Information Technology in which local talent can be tapped.

The minister emphasised that South Africa is providing incentives worth 200 million rands to companies to invest and set up business in the country that will enhance the local skills and also generate employment.

"We don't want to be just raw material provider that does not benefit our people. We want the Indian companies to set up manufacturing units in South Africa that will add value to the raw materials," she said.

The trade between both the countries should be balanced, she said. Unemployment is a huge issue in South Africa and President Jacob Zuma has set a target to generating five million jobs by 2020.

India and South Africa has skills and technology that can help both the nations and help them accelerate the bilateral trade between them. "It will also help South Africa achieve its employment target," she said.

source (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/india-sa-bilateral-trade-may-touch-usd-15-bn-in-fy-12/articleshow/7835350.cms)

February exports up 49.7 pct y/y: Govt

NEW DELHI: India's exports in February rose an annual 49.7 percent to $23.6 bn, while imports for the month rose 21.2 percent on the year to $31.7 bn, government data released on Friday showed.

India's trade deficit in February remained steady at $8.1 bn compared with $8 bn in January.

Exports in April-February rose an annual 31.4 percent to $208.2 bn. Oil imports for February fell an annual 0.3 percent to $8.2 bn.

source (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/february-exports-up-497-pct-y/y-govt/articleshow/7842277.cms)

WOW!!! WOW!!!WOW!!!

India's exports up by 49.8% to $23.6 bn in February

:cheers:

Carpets? Which state produces carpets?J&K?

Impressive show by exports in FY'11, grow 37% to $246 bn

NEW DELHI: India's exports rose by 43.9 per cent to $29.1 billion in March and ended the fiscal 2010-11 with a growth of 37.1 per cent at $245.9 billion, despite financial problems in Europe.

The trade figures were released here by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma who said exports have done well in the past fiscal.

Exports had suffered in 2009-10 and at a mere $178 billion under the impact of global slowdown and the government had to intervene to help the exporters through different bailout packages

source (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/impressive-show-by-exports-in-fy11-grow-37-to-246-bn/articleshow/8026656.cms)

Awesome! Does this mean our strategy to start focusing on Latin America, Africa and Look East policy is paying dividends??

^^ Yes and no, that's only a bandwagon designed to express sectional interest of India. In reality, India is progressing no matter which side she looks and commerce minister might be dancing hula right now.

OMG!! 43% increase YOY in march :eek:

yup murlee you are right..

now i am sure that you will get 6%+ IIP in march :cheers:

and BTW they beat their own target of $225 billion by nearly 10% !

break up across sectors

India's exports register 37.5% growth in 2010-11: Anand Sharma (http://netindian.in/news/2011/04/19/00012619/indias-exports-register-375-growth-2010-11-anand-sharma)




India's exports grew by 37.5 per cent in 2010-11 to touch $ 245.9 billion, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here today.


"For the first time the figures have reached the $ 200 billion mark, which was the target set for the last financial year and exports have indeed exceeded our expectation," Mr Sharma told journalists.


He said imports for the year stood at $ 350.3 billion and the trade deficit had come down to $ 104.4 billion.


Mr Sharma said engineering exports, the largest component of the country's exports, had crossed $ 60 billion for a growth of 84.76 per cent during the year.


Petroleum products export were in the range of $ 42.45 billion registering a growth of 50.58 per cent. Gems & Jewellery sector, which is a considerable employer of people saw an export of $ 33.54 billion, showing a growth of 15.34 per cent, he said.


Mr Sharma said the drugs & pharmaceuticals sectors, for which India has gained a considerable global reputation, saw total exports of $ 10.32 billion, showing a growth of 15.08 per cent.


He said exports of readymade garments crossed $ 11.1 billion, showing a growth of 4.23 per cent. Cotton yarn fabrics saw an export of $ 5.66 billion, registering a growth of 42.87 per cent.


Mr Sharma said exports of carpet, jute and leather which are the labour intensive sectors assured considerable dynamism in growth. Agricultural exports and allied sectors including tea, coffee, tobacco, spices, cashew, oil meals, fruits and vegetables and marine products crossed $ 12.92 billion. Iron ore exports have gone down by 25 per cent at $ 4.5 billion, he said.

and prediction for future

India's exports to cross $300-bn in FY12: FIEO (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/indias-exports-to-cross-300-bn-in-fy12-fieo/articleshow/8028442.cms)



MUMBAI: The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) on Tuesday said the country's exports would cross USD 300-billion in 2011-12.

"In FY 11, exports touched USD 246-billion and we expect it to reach the USD 300-billion mark in FY 12. Asia, Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region and Africa have been the main contributors to this growth," FIEO President, Ramu Deora, said in a press release issued here.

Also, the signing of Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Asian countries is expected to raise Asia share in our exports to 55 per cent by 2014, he said.

Deora said that engineering, chemicals, pharma and gems and jewellery would be the important sectors contributing to the increase in exports. These exports would be supplemented by traditional sectors, he said.

FIEO expects the exports to grow to USD 500-billion by 2014-15.

Happy to see that iron ore exports have slowed down!

Now guys, Can we become like China in exports in say next 10 yrs?? I feel infrastructure bottlenecks will be a major stumbling block for our exports growth.

Happy to see that iron ore exports have slowed down!


that is because of iron ore export ban from karnataka

murlee, economy should never be export dependent, China is export driven economy- copying the same thing won't do any good.

I din't mean to say that we should become export dependent. I meant abt the volume of goods exported! And what would be the ideal balance between exports and internal consumption for India??

^^ yup if we get around $1 trillion of exports by 2021 then we will also have imports upto $1.5 trillion... so yes total trade may be equal to china's trade today!

I din't mean to say that we should become export dependent. I meant abt the volume of goods exported! And what would be the ideal balance between exports and internal consumption for India??

It would be right and proper to achieve a balanced trade. Exports are mere perks which acts as a catalyst for a country's economy, export led growth is based on demand, suppose if there is a financial crisis in another country they simply cut all the imports to keep their economy and unemployment levels sustainable which eventually hurts the exporter.

Happy to see that iron ore exports have slowed down!

Now guys, Can we become like China in exports in say next 10 yrs?? I feel infrastructure bottlenecks will be a major stumbling block for our exports growth.

Becoming like China has less to do with infrastructure and much more to do with labor laws. As long as it takes 10 years to fire an employee (that's an actual figure!), we're not becoming China.

FTA to help India, New Zealand reach $3 bn trade (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/fta-to-help-india-new-zealand-reach-3-bn-trade/134494/on)



India and New Zealand are likely to conclude a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) next year with the target of trebling bilateral commerce to $3 billion by 2014, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here.

"A free trade agreement will lead to greater economic cooperation," he said, adding it would increase trade and investment opportunities for both sides.

Sharma, who is leading a Ficci business delegation to New Zealand, said through steps like the FTA, the two countries hope to treble their mutual trade from the present level of $1 billion.
He said the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, or CECA (the official name for the FTA), is expected to be finalised by early next year.

Both sides have already completed four rounds of negotiations, which started in 2010.

An official of the India-New Zealand Business Council said that bilateral trade would get boost with the FTA, as happened between New Zealand and China after they opened trade through a similar pact. At present, Sino-New Zealand trade amounts to $10 billion.

Addressing a meeting of the Indian-New Zealand Joint Business Council meeting, Sharma said the two countries can cooperate in several segments including agriculture, pharmaceuticals, dairy products, research and development, tourism and films.

India, which has an investment potential of $200 billion in in the agro-processing and cold chain sectors, can utilise the expertise of New Zealand in the area, he said. "We want New Zealand participation in a greater manner in this sector... Our post harvest losses are very high," he said.

New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser said that his country places importance on strengthening relations with India.

Sharma is also scheduled to meet New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

India-US trade may reach $100 bn in three years

NEW DELHI: Trade between India and the US is expected to grow to $100 billion within two to three years while Indian companies are strengthening their presence in the US across various sectors, a senior Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) official said Tuesday.

"I expect the trade between both the sides to reach around $100 billion within two-three years time," IACC president Gautam Mahajan told IANS, adding that the trade volumes would increase due to the growth of several sectors like food processing, education and infrastructure.

According to Mahajan, corporate India, which is strengthening its presence in the US, is also expected to invest around $10 billion in the next five years to start greenfield projects in sectors such as manufacturing and services.

"Apart from trade, the other rising sector in the bilateral business is that of Indian investments going to the US, which could be around $8 billion to $10 billion in the next five years. This is a new trend altogether because earlier Indian corporates used to buy established companies and now they are going for greenfield projects," he added.

Mahajan was also upbeat about the IACC's upcoming chapter in New York, set to be inaugurated on May 25.

"This new chapter will add impetus to business and trade between both sides," he said.

The start of the new chapter will be followed by a seminar which would focus on emerging sectors like education, infrastructure and small and medium enterprises (SME).

"Around 75 representatives of various companies across sectors would participate in the Summit for US-India Trade and Economics (SUITE) 2011 from the Indian side," he said.

IACC was established in 1968 and currently has 11 chapters across India with 2,600 Indian and American companies as members.

source (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india-us-trade-may-reach-100-bn-in-three-years/articleshow/8221776.cms)

exports up 34% for APRIL(YOY) at $23.9 billion even with such a high base! :banana:

and trade deficit comfortable at $ 8.9 billion!

:cheers:

hey dis s provisional it could go even higher.wow:)

IIP for d month of march shoot up to 7.3% yoy nd much higher 3.65%of february.
nd on inflation side,it came down to 7.7%,18 month low.

WOW.. Nice guys!! String of gr8 news!

India, Australia eye $40-billion trade in 5 years (http://www.rediff.com/business/report/india-australia-eye-usd-40-billion-trade-in-5-years/20110512.htm)



India and Australia on Thursday announced the launch of formal negotiations for comprehensive market opening pact and agreed to double bilateral trade to $ 40 billion in the next five years.

"It was agreed that the first meeting for this purpose (starting of negotiations for comprehensive economic cooperation agreement) would be scheduled by June or July," India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters at a joint press conference with Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson in Canberra, Australia.

The first round of talks will be held in New Delhi , he said. Sharma also said that both the countries have agreed to double their bilateral trade from $ 20 billion at present to $ 40 billion during the next five years.

He said free trade agreement is important to enhance economic integration to enable trade and investments to flourish.

Both sides also discussed the work being done for economic engagement including negotiations on double taxation, social security and film production.

"The FTA will help in removing non-tariff barriers that impede trade and services, facilitating investments and addressing the behind the border restrictions to trade," Sharma said.

"We are also looking at enhanced cooperation with the Australian entrepreneurs in pharmaceuticals and other sectors to increase the share of Indian exports to Australia," he added.

India is Australia's third largest export market. Both the sides also announced the setting up of a CEO's Forum which would be co-chaired by Congress MP and industrialist, Naveen Jindal from the Indian side and Linday Fox from the Australian side.

The forum would provide business guidance and advice to the governments of both the countries, Emerson said.

A joint statement said that both the ministers discussed the ways in which Australian resources and energy exports to India can serve as a crucial motor of Indian economic growth.

"They encouraged business to look beyond the tangible trade in coal, gold, and copper and consider how mining services, expertise and technology sharing could increase productivity on both the sides particularly in the areas of mineral exploration, extraction and benefaction and the development of technologies for natural resources," it said.

The Ministers also mentioned about the cooperation between the two countries in the agriculture sector including agreement to establish a Joint Working group on agricultural cooperation.

"India has a focused objective in the agri sector to modernise further its post harvest technologies and welcomes 100 per cent foreign investment in the agri and food processing sector," the statement said.

Both the ministers also recognised opportunities to broaden and open the education relationship including in the delivery of education and training by Australian institutions in India, it said.

The statement said India and Australia also discussed increasing institutional collaborations in skills development and harmonisation of qualifications frameworks of educational institutes on both sides.

Sharma also called on the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard [ Images ] and discussed issues of bilateral interest. He also met Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd [ Images ] and four other Cabinet Ministers of the Gillard Cabinet and held bilateral talks.

The statement further said that there is scope to expand trade in services in addition to education, hospitality, health, ITeS and tourism.

"There is considerable potential in financial and legal services," it said. Emerson underlined the willingness of Australian financial institutions to participate in banking, insurance, asset management and infrastructure financing in India.

"It was also noted that collaborative efforts in service industries such as architectural services, e-learning, film making and computer aided designing would result in substantive benefits to both sides," the statement added.

Exports from SEZs up 43% in 2010-11 (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/government-and-policy/article2026511.ece?homepage=true)



The country's exports from its Special Economic Zones (SEZs) registered a robust 43 per cent growth in the fiscal 2010-11 at Rs 3,15,867.85 crore, against Rs 2,20,711.39 crore in the previous year, even as the overall export growth was 32.3 per cent in rupee terms.

In a statement issued here, the Export Promotion Council for Export-Oriented Units (EOUs) & SEZs (EPCES) Chairman, Mr Jatin R. Mehta, said the Council was encouraged by the sound performance of its members despite a difficult international economic milieu.

He said the members have been dismayed over new constraints such as the imposition of minimum alternate tax (MAT) and Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) introduced in the 2011-12 Budget. He said that even as the Finance Bill 2011 retained these harsh provisions, the Council would be making its best efforts for withdrawal of MAT/DDT.

He said as on May 11, 2011 378 notified SEZs were functioning across the country out of the 582 approved SEZs so far.

There was a huge rush to set up SEZs across the country after the concept got concretised once the SEZ Act came into being in February 2006.

He said that at the end of March 31, 2011 as many as 133 SEZs are operational out of which 17 are multi-product SEZs and the remaining include mostly IT/ITeS SEZs, engineering, electronic hardware, textiles, biotechnology, gem and jewellery and other sector specific SEZs.

Encouraged by the consistently good show put up by the country's SEZs, the Council's Deputy Director General, Mr O.P. Kapoor, said the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Mr Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, would present EPCES export awards to EOUs and SEZs units for outstanding performance in the year 2008-09 to 48 operational SEZs on Wednesday here.

Some of the awardees include Nokia India Pvt Ltd (Rs 10,317 crore), Rajesh Exports Ltd (Rs 10,453 crore), Sulzon Wind Corpn. Ltd (Rs 1,554 crore), Su-Raj Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd (Rs 1,230 crore), Jindal Saw Ltd (Rs 1,520 crore), Moser Baer India Ltd (Rs 1,316 crore), Hindustan Zinc Ltd (Rs 1,315 crore) and Infosys Ltd (Rs 1123 crore), he said.

Meanwhile, in its latest monograph, Dun & Bradstreet Information Services India Pvt. Ltd has voiced concern that SEZs might be losing their sheen they have turned out to be financially challenging ventures for investors mainly on account of escalating costs, rising interest rates and limited access to finance.

In order to leverage the large pool of skilled workforce, a strong manufacturing base and strong potential to capture increased pie in global trade, it said the Government should play “a more pro-active role in promoting SEZs”.

The Government, it said, should do the “balancing act by providing the necessary support for land acquisition, speedy administration and approvals and also ensuring that the interests of the locals are protected”.

April trade data out....:-)

* Exports up 35% YOY

* Imports up 14% YOY

* Trade deficit at $9 billion

:eek:

Its good news na?? Why this :eek: smiley??

^ i am shocked to see 30%+ growth in exports from last 5-6 months continuously and trade deficit below $10 billion..

its a month old news

its a month old news

delete

they were provisional

i said so at dat time bt ur expression made me think,u coming to know dat for d first time.:)

Google India launches new tools to help Indian businesses go global
Announcement / Corporate June 01, 2011, 19:33 IST

Introduces Google Global Market Finder & Google Ads for Global advertisers - a free online tool for Indian advertisers to find new markets overseas

Continuing with its focus on the Indian SMB sector, Google India today announced the launch of Google Global Market Finder - a free online tool for advertisers to find new markets overseas. The new tool is designed to help Indian businesses expand their business and reach out to potential customers in the international markets. This tool will be available as part of Google Ads for Global Advertisers, a new website and hub for businesses to identify, reach, and engage with customers worldwide.

The new tool will help businesses of all sizes address traditional barriers to international expansion, such as finding the right customers, translating their websites and ad campaigns into local languages, and reaching customers in foreign markets with relevant ads. The Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers will be available to advertisers in 43 languages.
Speaking at the ‘Think Export with Google’ event held by Google, Sridhar Seshadri, Head Online Sales, Google India said, “We have seen tremendous success with the adoption of our AdWords platform by Indian SMBs in the last two years in the domestic market. And with the launch of these new tools for export oriented businesses in India, we want to bring the benefit of Google’s global reach and help Indian SMBs compete at a global stage and overcome traditional hurdles of marketing in the international market.”

“According to the recent foreign trade data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Indian export market has witnessed 37.5% growth in 2010-2011 fiscal year, which is a standing testimony of the huge potential of this space. With this launch, we want to reach out and help all advertisers, especially SMBs, by giving them access to information about the markets that have shown demand for their products. Since the tool determines demand based on the how often the product is searched for online in a particular geography, it is quite accurate in its assessment of demand“ he added.

Global Market Finder (http://translate.google.com/globalmarketfinder (http://translate.google.com/globalmarketfinder/index.html)) helps in identifying new markets with high demand for your products and services. Businesses enter keywords that describe their product or service and select the region they’d like to explore. The Global Market Finder automatically translates those keywords into any one of 56 languages used in the selected region. It then ranks each location by opportunity based on factors like local search volume, suggested bid price, and competition for each translated keyword.

Google Ads for Global Advertisers (http://www.google.com/adwords/globaladvertiser) is a new website where businesses can learn how to expand into foreign markets. It contains tools and tips to help businesses:


Find the right market for their products and services using tools like the Global Market Finder and the Consumer Commerce Barometer.
Translate their website and ad text using Google Translate Web Element and Google Translator Toolkit.
Reach new customers with relevant online ads using services like Google AdWords.
Understand options for international payment, shipping, and customer service.

Google has already helped hundreds of thousands of businesses reach new customers in foreign markets. The Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers website will help even more businesses realize their global potential. These tools are especially relevant for SMEs as they do not have the resources required for in-depth research and insights into unexplored markets.

Sharing his experience, an entrepreneur from Kochi, Mr.Brijith Shaji, Managing Director of Arbrit Safety and Engg solutions- arbritonline.com , a consultancy service on Health and Safety management said, “Initially, for a long time we believed that our customers were limited only to Kerala and the neighboring markets at best. Google AdWords made us realise that there were several other markets whose potential we had never even considered. The AdWords platform enabled us to not only identify this target group, but also helped us to tap other markets in a focused and effective manner. We were able to enhance our business prospects to several new markets both in India and the Middle East. The results have been simply phenomenal as Google AdWords has thrown open a whole new customer universe for us.”

Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford PhD. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Source (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/google-india-launches-new-tools-to-help-indian-businesses-go-global/437451/)

May 2011:-

* Exports at $25 billion(more than 57% growth YOY and 5% growth MOM :cheers:)

* Imports at $40 billion(54% YOY and 18% growth MOM :eek:)

* Trade deficit at $15 billion :(

Imports obviously shot up due to crude prices!

^^ we need to pump up manufacturing. The govt. gave in-principle approval to national manufacturing policy. Let's see how it fares in the future.

^^ yes let us see what happens.

India's exports surge by 57% in May: Rahul Khullar (http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Indias-exports-surge-by-57-percent-in-May-Rahul-Khullar/5175422406)



The country's overseas shipments of goods stood at US$25.9bn last month while imports were at US$40.9bn, he told reporters in New Delhi today.
India's merchandise exports grew by an impressive 57% in May while imports too jumped by 54% in the month, Commerce Secretary, Rahul Khullar said on Friday.

The country's overseas shipments of goods stood at US$25.9bn last month while imports were at US$40.9bn, he told reporters in New Delhi today.

“This is the highest imports figure in the last four years,” the Commerce Secretary said.

The trade deficit for May this year stood at US$15bn, Khullar said.

During April-May 2011-12, India's merchandise exports rose by 45.3% to US$49.8bn. Imports during the first two months of the current fiscal year grew by 33.3% to US$73.7bn.

As a result, the trade gap during April-May 2011-12 stood at US$23.9bn.

not sure crude prices has its hand in high import coz the price of crude are in d same range for quite a while now.v av to wait for segregation of no b4 drawing any conclusion.u may b right coz there is no major industrial thing is happanin so shooting of import could b of high crude prices.well v av to.wait.

cn v reach $ 300 billion mark this year itself?

It looks like it would be possible to reach $300-$320 billion in exports and ~$450-480 in imports for 2011-12.

In two more years our total merchandise trade should cross $1 trillion.

$300 billion is the target by our commerce ministry but we will easily cross it.

and the reason for sudden surge in imports is GOLD AND SILVER imports of $9 billion an increase of 500% YOY :nuts:

The increase in imports in May was due to oil imports rising 18 per cent to $10.6 billion, while the growth in gold and silver imports went up by over six times to $8.96 billion. In April-May, oil imports were $20.3 billion (13 per cent growth), while gold and silver imports were worth $13.5 billion (222 per cent).

source (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/article2093870.ece?homepage=true)

India, Russia mull free trade agreement

Russia and India, moving towards enhanced economic cooperation, on Thursday showed political intent to work towards a free trade agreement regime that will help both the countries realise the full potential of their resources.

The total trade between the two countries currently stands at $8.5 billion. Indian investments in Russia stand at $5 billion while that of Russia in India stand at $3.5 billion.


Russia has also agreed to initiate the consultation with their customs partners — Kazakhstan and Belarus — on the issue.

“The economic cooperation can no longer be limited to purchase of defence equipment or investment in oil and gas. It must extend beyond government to trade and investment. Our common target is to achieve $20 billion in trade by 2015 and this can only be done through broad based extensive business cooperation,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said after a bilateral meeting with Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Elvira Nebullina.

Sharma, who is on a three-day visit to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) 2011, also took up the issue of increased market access for Indian manufacturers in Russia, mainly in the pharma and agricultural products sector.



Making a case for equivalence in quality standards for Indian companies, the commerce minister sought ease of rules for the companies in the pharma sector.


He said that specific steps like setting up production units in Russia, streamlining registration process, sharing of information on drugs imported by Russia, setting up a task force, and market access for drugs that are exported to the US, EU and Japan, need to be taken up. “The Indian pharmaceutical products are of international standards and cheaper than other markets on an average by 30-40 per cent,” he said.


source (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/India--Russia-mull-free-trade-agreement/804970/)

hmm interesting

might work well for india.

these types of ftas may work for india however what concerns me is that the current government always volunteers to have an "economic union" and "common currency" with India's neighboring countries, some of which are considered to be failed states. Consider a similar situation as current Greek crisis... India is a growth engine - nowhere as efficient as germany, no doubt, however will India be stuck in a position to have to constantly bail out such failures?

these types of ftas may work for india however what concerns me is that the current government always volunteers to have an "economic union" and "common currency" with India's neighboring countries, some of which are considered to be failed states. Consider a similar situation as current Greek crisis... India is a growth engine - nowhere as efficient as germany, no doubt, however will India be stuck in a position to have to constantly bail out such failures?

India and China doesn't want to have an unified currency as they don't find any reason to do so. Small countries with weak currencies form economic unions because they are screwed beyond repair- they pay themselves more than they earn, create lucrative investments and banks give out subprime loans without any securities attached, all these will lead to crisis.

After what happened with the euro i personally cant see the concept of a the same currency working for a long time.


what might happen is there might be a sort of super global currency replacing the dollar but this too is a long shot. I am talking over a 20 year period.


If you look at the EU things were just fine when they were a trading bloc with tax free movement of goods. Then they added stuff like immigration etc to the mix which spoilt it topped of by a common currency.

Had they just remained a trade federation, we would be seeing a more prosperous Europe.

India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement likely by March 2012: John Key

NEW DELHI: New Zealand on Monday said it expects to conclude the negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India by March next year with the target of trebling bilateral commerce to $3 billion by 2015.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key , who is on a three-day visit to India, said both the sides have already completed about five rounds of negotiations.

"We expect it to be signed by March 2012," Key said here. However, he added that the conclusion would depend on the quality of agreement and negotiations.

The two countries hope to treble their bilateral trade to $3 billion from the current $1.2 billion.

The negotiations for India and New Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (the official name for FTA) started last year.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma , who visited Auckland in May, had said that the two countries can cooperate in several segments, including agriculture, pharmaceuticals, dairy products, research and development, tourism and films.

The country has already implemented similar agreements with Singapore and South Korea and signed such pacts with Japan and Malaysia.

source (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/india-new-zealand-free-trade-agreement-likely-by-march-2012-john-key/articleshow/9013945.cms)

:|'US wants India to become one of its top 10 trading partner':|

WASHINGTON: Noting that India's growth is good for US, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner today said America wants India to become one of its top 10 trading partner.

"In the United States, we aren't just watching India's rise as an economic power, we support it. We encourage it. And we want to help advance it," Geithner said at a news joint conference with the Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee at the conclusion of the second India-US Economic and Financial Partnership.

"India's growth is good for us, just as our growth is good for India. I mentioned earlier that India is now our 12th largest trading partner; the President's goal is to have India become one of our top 10," he said.

Geithner said the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership reflects their determination to act on this opportunity and fulfill the commitment President Obama and Prime Minister Singh made to the development of the US-India relationship.

"This relationship is strengthened by a shared vision of the world and a dedication to democratic government, free market economies, respect for pluralism," he said.

"During the President's trip to India in November, he saw firsthand how this relationship is benefitting both Indians and Americans.

He heard about how American manufactured solar cells are helping move Indian cell towers off diesel generators and how a drug discovery technology invented and manufactured in the US is helping find new cures in India for deadly illnesses, including dengue," he said.

"Our economic relationship has shown real progress and has sustained growth in bilateral trade and investment. Yet when you consider the sheer size of our respective economies, it's clear that our relationship presents both our countries with vast untapped potential for much greater trade, investment and economic opportunity," Geithner said.

source (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/us-wants-india-to-become-one-of-its-top-10-trading-partner/articleshow/9031861.cms)

The world is flat no doubt, remember these are the same people who put trade sanctions on India years ago. I'm glad the perception about India is changing.

--double trouble--

Exports up 57 % at $25.94 b in May

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00671/TH02_EXPORTS_COL_ep_671939f.jpg

Exports registered an impressive 56.9 per cent growth at $25.94 billion in May as compared to $16.53 billion in May 2010, while exports grew by 45.3 per cent at $49.70 billion in the first two months of the current fiscal against $34.27 billion in the same months in the previous year.

However, imports too registered a 54 per cent growth at $40.91 billion in May against $26.55 billion in May 2010, the highest growth rate in the last four years, thus putting the trade deficit at $14.97 billion ($10.02 billion in May 2010). In the first two months of 2011-12, imports were up 33.3 per cent at $73.74 billion ($55.32 billion) while the trade deficit stood at $23.9 billion ($21.05 billion).

In the first two months of the current fiscal, sectors which registered healthy export growth include engineering 115 per cent, electronics 80 per cent, drugs 68 per cent, petroleum 64 per cent, gems and jewellery 23 per cent, ready made garments 31 per cent, chemicals 44 per cent and leather 21 per cent.

However, few segments like tobacco, iron ore and fruits and vegetables recorded a negative growth.

Similarly, during April-May 2011, imports of electronic goods increased by 61 per cent, chemicals by 9.6 per cent, coal by 19 per cent, transport equipment by 32.7 per cent, ores and scraps by 22 per cent and vegetable oil by 35 per cent. In a statement, Federation of Indian Export Organisations President Ramu S. Deora said: “This is a sign of robust scenario...coupled with effective government initiative.” Though the government has not set an export target for the current fiscal, but industry experts say $300 billion exports could be achieved.

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/article2151063.ece

export up 45% in june, anybody plz post the article.

^^

Exports jump 46% to $29.2 bn in June (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/exports-jump-46-to-292-bn-in-june/140707/on)



Helped by an impressive 46.4% rise in June, exports grew by a hefty 45.7% in the first quarter of the current fiscal despite uncertainties in the US and European markets.

The merchandise exports aggregated $29.2 billion in June, showing 46.4% growth year-on-year.

During April-June quarter, the shipments grew by 45.7% to $79 billion.

"Exports are steady. They are growing satisfactorily," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters here after the release of trade data.

Though most of the sectors posted robust expansion, be it petroleum products, ready-made garments, engineering or pharmaceuticals, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar cautioned saying that news from the largest two markets-- the US and Europe -- "is far from cheerful...Summer is not over.It is still not going to be easy".

The US and Europe together account for about 35% of the country's exports, which stood at $246 billion in 2010-11.

Sharma is looking 25% growth annually so that exports touch $500 billion in 2013-14.

Imports too increased by 36.2% to $110.6 billion, led by $30.5 billion petroleum products, in April-June quarter

Though imports grew by 42.4% to $36.9 billion in June, the trade deficit of $7.7 billion was almost half of $14.9 billion in May, lessening concerns over the country's balance of payment situation.

"Higher imports growth reflects that industry is using imports to fulfill domestic demand," Ficci Secretary General Rajiv Kumar said.

Exports going nuts. Seriously at this pace we will easily cross $350 billion :cheers:

FTAs are going to boost trade even more, hope we beat Japanese exports in the next 5 years.

India ranked 10th in services export worldwide: Report

India achieved 10th rank in export of services worldwide, while emerged as the 20th biggest merchandise exporter in 2010, according to a latest WTO report.
In 2009, the country stood at the 12th and 22nd position globally in services and goods exports, respectively.

In value terms last year, India exported services and merchandise worth USD 110 billion and USD 216 billion respectively, the 'World Trade Report 2011' said.
India's goods exports went up by 31% in 2010, helping the country to expand its market share to 1.4% from 1.2% in 2009.
According to industry experts, increasing demand for Indian goods in new markets like Latin America and Africa are helping in boosting the country's exports.

"This (improvement in India's ranking) is because our exports are doing reasonably well in new markets like Latin America, Middle East and other Asian markets. We are focusing on these markets," CRISIL Principal Economist D K Joshi said.
Apex exporters body FIEO said that the diversification of India's exports basket are also helping in increasing the shipments.
"Slowly, India's rank is going to increase...," Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ramu Deora said.
Engineering and petroleum exports contribute about 40% in the total exports. "Earlier, there contribution was low," Deora said.
New Delhi's services exports share in the world exports increased to 3% in 2010 from 2.6% in 2009.

Further the report said, globally China ranked first in terms of merchandise exports followed by the US and Germany. In services export, the US is on the top slot followed by Germany and UK.

Source : http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/current-affairs/india-ranked-10thservices-export-worldwide-report_567778.html

India, Japan implement economic pact; aim to double trade

NEW DELHI: India and Japan Monday implemented a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA), aiming to provide greater access to each other's markets and almost double the bilateral trade by 2014.

The two countries had signed the CEPA Feb 16 in Tokyo and diplomatic notes were exchanged June 30.

"We have no doubt in our minds that this will usher in a new era of economic engagement, which will bring development, innovation and prosperity in both societies," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said in a statement.

The deal would allow India to use Japanese investments, technology and management practices.

"Japan can take advantage of India's huge and growing market and resources, especially its human resource," the statement said.

Japan has scrapped import duties on 87 percent of goods that it imports from India with immediate effect while India has dropped tariffs on 17.4 percent of goods that it imports from Japan.

"Tariffs will be brought to zero percent in 10 years on 66.32 percent of tariff lines to give sufficient time to industry to adjust to the trade liberalisation," the statement said.

Current bilateral trade between India and Japan is around $12.6 bn. It is expected to touch $25 bn by 2014.

"We expect that CEPA will be instrumental in significantly raising India's current modest share of one percent in Japan's total trade. This will help expand our bilateral trade to $25 bn by 2014," said Rajiv Kumar, secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

With the implementation of the agreement, India is likely to gain greater market access in Japan for various sectors including textiles and garments, pharmaceuticals, marine products, tea, jewellery and organic and inorganic chemicals.

Currently India accounts for just over one percent of Japan's textiles and garments imports worth $33 bn, while pharmaceuticals from India constitute a miniscule 0.09 percent of Japan's $16 bn-plus import market, the FICCI secretary general said adding that "with Japan's tariff set to become zero or substantially reduced for our exports, we can do far better".

Describing the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) as a major step in deepening trade ties, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said the agreement was in line with India's larger vision of an East Asia partnership.

This is India's third CEPA after Singapore and South Korea. It covers more than 90 percent of trade, a vast gamut of services, investment, intellectual property rights (IPR), customs and other trade-related issues.

Reacting to the agreement, Assocham secretary general D.S. Rawat said the lowering of trade barriers would reduce prices of imported products in both the countries that will ultimately benefit consumers.

The major benefits of the agreement would go to the sectors like telecom, finance, automobiles and pharmaceuticals, he said.

source (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/india-japan-implement-economic-pact-aim-to-double-trade/articleshow/9447523.cms)

:cheers:

Japan has scrapped import duties on 87 percent of goods that it imports from India with immediate effect while India has dropped tariffs on 17.4 percent of goods that it imports from Japan.

Not that I'm complaining, but anyone know Why is it that the Japanese are dropping 84% of their tarriffed goods from India while we dropped 17.4% of imports from Japan? Was the current trade regime heavily in favor of Japanese Protectionism and hence they're dropping more to equalize their share with India's? Or is it something else?

Not that I'm complaining, but anyone know Why is it that the Japanese are dropping 84% of their tarriffed goods from India while we dropped 17.4% of imports from Japan? Was the current trade regime heavily in favor of Japanese Protectionism and hence they're dropping more to equalize their share with India's? Or is it something else?

Depends on what's being imported, we don't export heavy machinery and electronic equipments to Japan do we? In any case clearing of tariffs require clearances, it's a bit slow process in India.

Exports to touch $300 bn in FY12: Anand Sharma (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/exports-to-touch-300-bn-in-fy12-anand-sharma/145359/on)



Despite the slowdown in the world economy, the government has set a target of $300 billion for exports this fiscal year.

"In the first quarter [FY12], we have achieved exports of $108 billion and we are hopeful of achieving exports of $300 billion in the current fiscal, as against $246 billion last fiscal," Minister for Commerce & Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of first International Conference on Technical Textiles - TECHNOTEX.

Sharma said, however, that crisis in the world economy is severe and demand in Europe and America is weak as slow recovery, sovereign debt crises remain major concerns.

The minister also said that the Technology Upgradation Funds Scheme (TUFS) that provides Plan support for textiles through interest reimbursement and capital subsidy, will be extended during the 12th Plan period as well.

On 'National Manufacturing Policy', which aims to raise contribution of the sector in GDP from 16 per cent to 26 per cent by 2025, creating 200 million jobs, Sharma said the Cabinet will soon take it up for consideration.

On inflation, Sharma said he is confident that it will come down following good rainfall in August, which is expected to boost crop production.

July exports jump 82% year-on-year

The country's exports in July rose an annual 82% to $29.3 billion, while imports for the month rose 51.5% to $40.4 billion, government data showed on Thursday.

India's trade deficit in July stood at $11.1 billion, it said, while oil imports rose 37.02% from a year ago to $11.45 billion.

India's exports grew a record 37.6% in the 2010-11 fiscal year that ended in March, but last month Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar said that India "would be lucky" to achieve 20% annual exports growth in the current financial year.

Khullar also warned growth in exports is expected to slow down from August-September.

source (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/july-exports-jump-82-year-on-year/145775/on)

exports still strong.For August:

1) Exports up 44% at $ 24.3 billion.

2) Imports up 41% at $ 38.4 billion

3) Trade deficit at $ 14.1 billion

^^ $82.8 bn exports since June 2011. At this rate we can easily cross $320bn by the end of this fiscal.

for 5 months in this fiscal we have reached $ 133 billion, which means that we will easily reach $300-$310 billion.

hardly

exports are down from 29 billion in July to 24 in August. (18% fall month on month) Expect them to fall below 21 for the next month and drop to about 16-18 a month by the end of this fiscal.


If anything the fact that the imports have held up much better than exports is extremely worrying news.

It mean our deficit is going to be big.

$18 billion will mean de growth YOY which is not at all possible since demand is still strong from China, Latin America and Africa. Even software exporters don't see slowdown this fiscal. At the minimum exports will touch $20 billion a month.

well in any case do the math yourself

24 billion exports in August 5 months into a fiscal.

If exports reach 20 billion as they should then your looking at an export target of 270-285 which was my original target for this fiscal.

Why would exports go down without any warning?fall in exports shouldn't be taken as an indicator unless it happens over a period of time. There will always be fluctuations, certain exports like automobiles and serviceable machinery is exported on specific dates so you'll see big change in the numbers.

Why would exports go down without any warning?fall in exports shouldn't be taken as an indicator unless it happens over a period of time. There will always be fluctuations, certain exports like automobiles and serviceable machinery is exported on specific dates so you'll see big change in the numbers.

its a global slowdown

and people like Rahul Khullar have been warning us about it for quite some time now. Infact many global banks have been warning about it as well.

Its not unexpected.


http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00777/TH10_BU_EXPORTS1_ep_777566f.jpg


Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said merchandise shipments in August looked quite good, compared to the same month in 2010-11. However, he said the right approach would be to compare the August performance with that of July when exports had registered a steep increase of 82 per cent. Mr. Khullar said sequentially, shipments were down 17 per cent in August when compared to July. The good annualised showing was on the back of a low-base of comparison. This situation was worrisome and the government should formulate a stimulus package well in time to counter any adverse impact, he added.

During April-August 2011-12, exports have put up a robust annualised growth of 54.2 per cent at $134.5 billion. In the same period, imports expanded by 40.4 per cent to $189.4 billion, while the trade gap stood at $54.9 billion.

“Until now, we have had a good run but we are looking at the difficult times down the road. Advising the Finance Ministry for a package for exporters well in time, he said: “If you want to prevent them, then you better kick in now. The confidence in the U.S. and Europe has deteriorated after June,'' he said.




http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/article2439609.ece

Commenting on the data, Federation of Indian Export Organisations President Ramu S. Deora said exporters might have to see a decline in growth in the third and fourth quarters due to problems in the advanced economies. “This also indicates that the pace of global recovery has been slowing down in 2011,'' he added. The stimulus given by the developed countries disappeared since the middle of 2010, and now the fundamental weakness in the recovery process in the developed economies was visible, he added.

From the article above.


Posted it separately cause wanted to emphasise this point.


I think everybody expected a decline in exports. However there was some debate that imports would also fall. Opposing side said that imports would hold firm, which sadly appears to be the case.

We seem to be on course for running a deficit of $140-$150 billion, which is extremely scary news. Alram bells should be ringing in GOI. Our high trade deficit is going to be a train wreck if not kept in check.

and just to emphasise my point.


(a) India has the third worst balance of net trade in the world second only to the USA and the UK (though according to recent data we have overtaken the Uk) so we very well maybe the second worst.

(b) India as a deficit in trade as a % of GDP is the worst in the G20. (7-8%) All other Brics (Russia China and Brazil) run trade surpluses. which means they export more than they import. Its worrying that even after trying we cant seem to get it below the key benchmark of 5% makes be put a serious downer on the indian growth stories. You run large deficits as a % of gdp for that long a time then you are going to end up in a bad crash.

(c) Our deficit was somewhat contained at the 100-110 billion USD mark but seems to be shooting at an alarming rate in the face of declining exports and resilient imports.


(d) The gap between exports and imports is starting to dwarf the money earned through remittances and long term FDI. Our remittances after some explosive growth are not keeping pace and neither is FDI.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_net_exports

what??? our CAD was around 3.5% for the last fiscal, from where are you getting the figures of 7%?

i think you should check your figures.

India's CAD, which stood at 3.7 per cent of GDP in the first half of last fiscal (2010-11), moderated to 2.1 per cent in Q3 on the back of a pick up in exports.]

source (http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-05-02/news/29496176_1_oil-prices-global-commodity-capital-account)

For the year 2010-11 as a whole, the CMIE has estimated CAD to be 2.5 per cent of the GDP.

source (http://www.indiabiznews.com/?q=node/1268)

^
i am talking trade deficit.

which simply deals with exports and import

your talking about something totally different.


To further elaborate CAD = Difference between exports and imports + Remittances + FDI - other outflows.



Even then having CAD at 3.5% of GDP is extremely unhealthy. Thats is exactly what i mean when i say remittances and FDI are not keeping pace with the difference between exports and imports.


If india had FDI +remittances = trade deficit there would be no problem. But as things stand we dont. By the looks of it we will be running a trade deficit of 150 billion for this fiscal and have remittances and FDI worth around 90 billion. Still giving us a CAD of about 3% of GDP (assuming GDP touches 2 trillion).


Most developing countries like say even Sri Lanka have a net CAD nearing 0. They difference between exports and imports is made up by remittances.

Dude, you are comparing Sri Lanka?? For fast growing countries you don't expect numbers to be at 0.

@ichi bhai look at the broader picture, if CAD stays at less than 4% then there is no problem IMO.

Dude, you are comparing Sri Lanka?? For fast growing countries you don't expect numbers to be at 0.

well china is fast growing and they have CAD in a positive territory. Infact most of the worlds fast growing countries have CAD in a positive territory.


Secondly SL is growing by 6% which though not fast is not too slow either. Even Pakistan is CAD very near 0 for 2010 as their remittances made up for the different between exports and imports. Most south asian nations have their difference between exports and imports made up with remittances.

@ichi bhai look at the broader picture, if CAD stays at less than 4% then there is no problem IMO.

anything more than 2% of GDP is not good for the CAD


Trade balance anything more than 5% is not good. (difference between exports and imports)

brazil, india and south africa among the BRICS have -2%<CAD <-4%.

As you know China and Russia are exceptions due to their mind boggling exports.

So though high CAD is not good but there are in numerous example of EM's which have CAD greater than 2%.

even mexico which is considered as EM runs a CAD of around 2%,

Mexico's Q1 Current Account Deficit $1.38B or 0.5% of GDP (http://www.benzinga.com/news/econ-s/11/05/1111719/mexicos-q1-current-account-deficit-1-38b-or-0-5-of-gdp)

brazil, india and south africa among the BRICS have -2%<CAD <-4%.

As you know China and Russia are exceptions due to their mind boggling exports.

So though high CAD is not good but there are in numerous example of EM's which have -ve CAD.

Brazil has a CAD of 2% of GDP as of now and declining year on year.


but they is balanced out by exporting more than importing. Ie they dont have a trade balance of more than -5% and have a surplus there.


Secondly Brazil is reducing its CAD year on year. While in India its increasing



South Africa CAB is historically in the positive region. Reason they have a negative CAD is because a spectacular fall in commodity prices (diamond etc). But as of 2011 they are on course to having a CAD of less than 2% of GDP with exports increasing.

even mexico which is considered as EM runs a CAD of around 2%,

Mexico's Q1 Current Account Deficit $1.38B or 0.5% of GDP (http://www.benzinga.com/news/econ-s/11/05/1111719/mexicos-q1-current-account-deficit-1-38b-or-0-5-of-gdp)

but as i keep telling you

these countries dont run a trade deficit of more than 5% of GDP do they?


India runs a trade deficit of more than 5% and also runs a CAD more than 2%

^^ you can apply the same logic in India, this year our FDI will grow about 80-100% and remittances are growing in double digits, so they will balance the trade deficit, also let the prices of oil crash. This is will help to reduce the trade deficit.

^^ you can apply the same logic in India, this year our FDI will grow about 80-100% and remittances are growing in double digits, so they will balance the trade deficit, also let the prices of oil crash. This is will help to reduce the trade deficit.

any link on that? I read in the world bank report they will be statis between 55-60 billion.


It will help reduce CAD, trade deficit will widen.

sorry i meant that trade deficit part in CAD will be balanced by high FDI(a huge jump from last year) and high remittances.

If you are saying that remittances will be $60 billion

FDI will be around $ 35 billion

Trade Deficit will be around $160 billion

FII flows will be $ 15 billion

So adjusting some other minor outflows, we will get a CAD of $ 50 billion which will be around 2.6% of GDP which will be unchanged on YOY basis. Which if we can sustain at these levels will be OKAY IMO.

FDI and other info (http://trak.in/tags/business/2011/08/01/indian-economic-growth-2011-12/)

India is the world's largest recipient of remittances. The remittances grew from $49.6 billion in 2009 to $55 billion in 2010.

source (http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-worlds-highest-remittances-india-tops/20101208.htm)

almost 10%+ growth last year

btw these are my calculations

on the top of my head


India trade deficit 2010-2011 trade balance -104 billion USD

FDI 2010-2011 about 20 billion Remittances about 55 billion

GDP 1.7 trillion USD

with out outflows and inflows about 2% of GDP the CAD


India trade deficit 2011-12 fiscal trade balance -140 billion

FDI 30 billion Remittances $60 billion.

GDP 1.95 trillion


Ie our trade balance and CAD is rising at an alarming rate.

net outflows and inflows about 3% of GDP the CAD

source (http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-worlds-highest-remittances-india-tops/20101208.htm)

almost 10%+ growth last year

thats wrong

the world bank report had Indian remittances static form 2009-2012

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTDECPROSPECTS/Resources/476882-1157133580628/MigrationandDevelopmentBrief16.pdf

please increase the FDI figure, it will be greater than $ 35 billion

IMO our CAD will be flat, let us see.

its going to rise

for our CAD to be flat our GDP needs to grow by more or our exports need to maintain themselves.

a lot of people are expecting trade deficit to touch 16 billion next month.




I would like to say i would love to be proven wrong, but if the situation continues along the same path our growth will be down from 7-8% to about 4-5%. A car crash of sorts. Fiscally we need to tighten up in our government budget as well which is running at 5-6% of GDP. Though not as bad as our debt is mostly in rupees. Still another source of worry.

firstly fiscal deficit will be less than 5% this fiscal as our FM is trying very hard, secondly there is no need to worry about debt because savings rate is 34%. Also trade deficit as i said will fall if crude prices crash, also due to booming prices of silver and gold the imports of precious metals have skyrocketed, once these cool down there will be reduction in imports.

firstly fiscal deficit will be less than 5% this fiscal as our FM is trying very hard, secondly there is no need to worry about debt because savings rate is 34%. Also trade deficit as i said will fall if crude prices crash, also due to booming prices of silver and gold the imports of precious metals have skyrocketed, once these cool down there will be reduction in imports.

However, analysts and industry bodies had doubts over the target.
According to a recent report of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), fiscal deficit was likely to remain between 5.05 and 5.1 percent.

The government targets to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2013-14. Fiscal deficit was 5.1 percent in 2010-11 against the budget estimate of 5.5 percent.



Read more at: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/india-hopeful-of-4-6-fiscal-deficit-target-176114?cp



I expected crude prices to fall, but they seem to be holding firm and not crashing.


Need Brent crude below $100 and the rupee to hold to 45 to the USD for there to be a significant fall in the trade deficit.

what is NDTV smoking, fiscal deficit fell to 4.7% last year and 5.1% was the estimate.

source (http://www.rediff.com/business/report/indias-fiscal-deficit-falls/20110531.htm)

hmm the rupee seems to be on a downward spiral against the dollar in the recent weeks.


from 45 to touching 48. A nearly 10% fall.


I dont understand this logic from the RBI. You want to combat inflation. So you raise rates. Then you let the rupee devalue without any intervention and now petrol prices will rise as will other fuel prices.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/energy/oil-gas/petrol-prices-may-go-up-by-rs-3-a-litre-as-rupee-weakens/articleshow/9991088.cms


which means inflation will rise anyway.



The CAD calculation as a % of nominal GDP me thinks are going to top 5% on the negative side.


With will benefit IT and exporters for sure. But i am afraid not by much to cover the deficit.

it is so frustrating, first crude(brent) goes from $80 to $115 and commodities rally 50-60% in just 9-10 months. Then the rupee depreciates 10% in a single week, exports slow down. Horrifying situation, IMO in these times govt. needs support of opposition to cut the fiscal deficit and un useful spending.

India may potentially be facing a shit storm where growth drops to 4%

4% growth is so vajpayee era, is technically impossible.

^^ anything is possible, just imporbable... if the world economy slides again, there are no guarantees that we will get off as easy as we did last time...

it is so frustrating, first crude(brent) goes from $80 to $115 and commodities rally 50-60% in just 9-10 months. Then the rupee depreciates 10% in a single week, exports slow down. Horrifying situation, IMO in these times govt. needs support of opposition to cut the fiscal deficit and un useful spending.

I havent seen any proposals from the govt. for the opposition to support... apart from taking out the subsidies..

but in an environment where inflation is such a worry, that isn't where you cut your expenses!! There are many many places where the holes can be plugged, this is just the easiest one to go for!

I agree that the subsidies need to go at some point, but this is not the time for it!

^^ buddy, when our exports were below $50bn we had 4% growth.

4% growth will be like recession.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5959/indiatradestats.jpg

Ever since trade was liberalised in 1991, total trade has increased over six times in just a decade from FY 2001 to FY 2011. Exports and imports have registered a sharp increase, growing 5.7 times and almost seven times respectively. As a result, India’s trade to GDP ratio in FY 2011 is approximately 30 per cent, well above the sub-20 per cent levels seen in the four decades leading to liberalisation.

Since imports have been growing faster than exports, the trade deficit to GDP ratio has also increased sharply between FY 2001 and FY 2011. A trade deficit in and of itself is not bad, particularly if the imports are channelled towards productive use in the economy. To a large extent, it reflects the unfavourable terms of trade of India’s trade basket, wherein India’s exports are predominantly primary or low-value added products, while intermediates and capital goods comprise a significant portion of imports. This situation will probably change rapidly as the share of engineering goods increases in the export basket and/or intermediates are increasingly manufactured in India.

The sharp increase in exports over the last two years has much to do with new export geographies in Africa and Latin America. However, the OECD countries, particularly in the Eurozone and the US, remain the leading markets for Indian goods and services.
Electrical and non-electrical machinery comprises a significant portion of China’s exports to India. This explains its rapid rise as a leading exporter to India and the increasingly worrisome annual surplus in bilateral trade of almost $20 billion that it enjoys.

Another measure of India’s increasing engagement with the global economy is the nine-fold increase in foreign investment over a decade. While close to half the money over the past two years is “hot” money in the form of portfolio investment, the share of the more stable FDI is also increasing. India today ranks as the 14th most favoured destination for FDI, according to the most recent UNCTAD survey. It could do a lot better if the quality of human and physical capital improved and the regulatory regime was made more investor-friendly.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/statsguru-3-october-2011/451167/

India, Czech Republic bilateral trade may touch $2 b in 2012

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/article2526339.ece

The Czech Republic today said bilateral trade with India is expected to touch $2 billion in 2012 on account of increasing economic engagement between the countries.

The Czech Republic Industry and Trade Minister, Mr Martin Kocourek, who is leading a 50-member delegation here, said there are huge opportunities for businessmen of both nations to increase economic cooperation.

“Our trade has increased almost 10-fold during the last decade and we are likely to reach a new record level of $2 billion in 2012,” Mr Kocourek said at a CII function.

He said both the countries can cooperate in sectors like infrastructure, chemicals, environment and engineering.

In 2010-11, bilateral trade between the nations stood at $885.20 million. While India's exports to the European nation amounted to $208.42 million during the period, its imports totalled $676.78 million.

The Czech Republic mainly exports auto components, machine tools, textiles, printing machinery and equipment for the energy sector to India. Its imports from India include textiles, steel, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and electrical goods.

Exports grow 36% to $25 bn

India's exports grew by 36.3% to $24.8 billion in September

excellent news


exports are holding up better than expected. I am happy to be proven wrong.

India's trade may touch 976.7 bn by 2025: HSBC India

"India trade will grow 156 per cent by 2025 with its trade volumes reaching $976.7 billion and will be among the top five international powerhouses which will drive the world trade growth until 2025," an HSBC statement said.

Further, it said that India's trade pattern is shifting from the traditional markets - the US and Europe - to the regions like the Middle-East, China, and Latin America.

This shift would "open several new options and opportunities for Indian exporters and importers", it added.

During the April-September period, India's exports grew by 52.1 per cent to $160 billion. Imports, too, expanded by 32.4 per cent to $233.5 billion.


source (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Indias-trade-may-touch-9767-bn-by-2025-HSBC-India/articleshow/10393082.cms)

India's trade may touch 976.7 bn by 2025: HSBC India



source (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Indias-trade-may-touch-9767-bn-by-2025-HSBC-India/articleshow/10393082.cms)

thats a dumb estimate imo


our exports are expected to be $270-280 this year and imports about $400


thats nearly $680-700 billion in trade.


your telling me that trade increases, but only 280 billion in nearly 14 years?



or have i missed something while reading this.

lol you are right, looks some goof up by the reporter.

lol you are right, looks some goof up by the reporter.

nope googled around


HSBC predict 967 billion. another source

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/indias-trade-to-sniff-at-usd-1-trillion-by-2025-hsbc_600762.html


which is why i said have i missed something?


they keep saying three times of what it is today. Which implies its something like 320 or something as of now.





The only thing (which escaped my mind earlier) which may not have been reported in this article is merchandise trade and that term does not include services and foreign investment etc.


http://www.wikinvest.com/wiki/Merchandise_Trade


I dont think our newspapers are examining that fact.

Don't you people feel imports will come down eventually? I mean by 2025.

Don't you people feel imports will come down eventually? I mean by 2025.

rather than them coming down exports will catch up at a faster pace.

yes imports will not come down as long as gold,silver and oil remains an appetite for Indian consumers. Also in future we will import various other raw materials like coal, iron ore etc. And if the commodity boom stays than there is no way that imports will come down.

EXPORT GROWS 52% IN APRIL- SEPTEMBER 2011 AT US $ 160 BILLION: COMMERCE SECRETARY

India’s exports for the month of April- September 2011 have registered a growth of 52%, at US $ 160 billion. Interacting with the media persons here today, Shri Rahul Khullar, Commerce Secretary, informed that during the period April-September 2011, while the imports were US $ 233.5 billion with a growth of 32.4% and a trade deficit of US $ 54.9 billion, during the same period. During the interaction, Shri Khullar also informed that India’s imports in September 2011 were US $ 38.4 billion registering the growth of 41.8%. Balance of trade for the month of September 2011 stood at (-) 9.8 billion US $ and cumulative balance of trade for the month of April-September stood at (-) 73.5 billion US $.

During April-September 2011, the following sectors have done well viz., engineering, (US $ 46.4 billion) which registered the growth of 103%; petroleum & oil products, 53% (US $ 27 billion); Gems & Jewellery registered the growth of 23% (US $ 18.5 billion); Drugs and pharmaceuticals 33% (US $ 6.5 billion US $);leather 26% (US$ 2.25 billion) Cotton yarn and fabric made-up 22.5% (US $ 3.4 billion) ; electronics, 67% (US $ 5.7 billion); Readymade garments, 32% ( US $ 6.8 billion).

As regards to imports during April-September 2011, the growth estimates on the following sectors are: POL, 42% (US $ 70.4 billion); Gold and silver 80% (US 31.1 billion),; machinery, 34% (US $ 17.4 billion), electronics, 33% (US & 16.9 billion), Organic and inorganic chemicals 73% (US $ 9.3 billion) and coal 43% (US $ 8.4 billion US $).

The Commerce Secretary clarified that the figures are only the rough estimates and the final figure is subject to change.

source (http://commerce.nic.in/PressRelease/pressrelease_detail.asp?id=2844)

Golden time for India to enter sugar export mkt: Sharad Pawar
sugar producer and biggest consumer, is estimated at 25-26 million tonnes in the 2011-12 marketing year (October-September), as against the annual domestic demand of about 22 million tonnes.

The government is yet to announce the export policy for the current marketing year. The country had exported 2.6 million tonnes in the previous marketing year, of which 1.5 million tonnes was through Open General Licences (OGL), in three equal tranches.

"There is surplus sugar. This is a golden time for India to enter the global market in a big way and get a better price, which will ultimately be provided to cane-growers," Pawar told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Sugar industry body ISMA has been demanding the export of 4 million tonnes of sugar this marketing year to help mills improve their cash flows.

At the current global price of about USD 670-680 per tonne, sugar mills will earn a premium of Rs 3.5 per kg from exports of the sweetener vis-a-vis domestic rates if the government allows overseas shipments

Link (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/golden-time-for-india-to-enter-sugar-export-mkt-sharad-pawar/articleshow/10668473.cms)

India pharma exports to double

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Images/HTEditImages/Images/09_11_buz03.jpg

India is expected to double pharmaceutical exports in the next two years, with the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) eyeing overseas sales worth Rs 1,22,500 crore ($25 billion) by the end of 2013-14. The figure stood at around $10 billion in 2010-11.

To achieve this ambitious target, exports would need to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 34%, which is much above the 15% growth rate in the last five years.

"We will have to explore new markets other than US and Europe to meet the $25-billion export target," said NR Munjal, chairman, Pharmexcil and president, Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association.



At present, the US is India's largest market for pharmaceutical export with a 22% share, followed by the UK (4%) and Germany (3.5%).

"The focus will be on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and we will encourage them to export their products," said Munjal.

There are around 10,500 drug manufacturers in the pharmaceutical sector and around 70% of them are SMEs. However major drug makers such as Dr. Reddy's, Sun Pharmaceutical, Lupin, Ranbaxy, Zydus Cadila dominate the Indian pharmaceutical export market due to their strong marketing network and better knowledge of rules and regulations.

"Countries such as Japan and China and regions such as North Africa, West Asia and Latin America offer immense potential for Indian exporters," said a pharma analyst at a global consultancy. "High healthcare expenditure and rising population make these countries a lucrative market for Indian drug exporters."

http://www.hindustantimes.com/business-news/WorldEconomy/India-pharma-exports-to-double/Article1-766513.aspx

October exports growth up by 12.4% on slow demand from developed markets; imports increase by 36.7%

NEW DELHI: India's exports growth slumped in October, as demand slackened from the developed markets, widening the country's trade deficit to a four-year high.

Exports grew 12.4% to $19.9 billion in October from a year ago, much slower than 36.5% in September and 52% in the April-September period, data released on Tuesday showed.

"We have been saying that exports are going to slow down in the second half of the fiscal. It happened a month late, but the chickens have come home to roost," Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said.

The slowdown was across the board, hitting all sectors.

Trade deficit for the month was almost the same as exports at $19.6 billion, as imports increased 36.7% to $39.5 billion.

"It is clearly something to be very worried about. At this rate, our annual trade deficit could reach $150 billion," Khullar said.

The deficit was $93.7 billion in the April-October period, against $72 billion in the year-ago period.

Exports in the first seven months of the fiscal came in at $179.8 billion, representing 46% growth, while imports stood at $273.5 billion, increasing 31% over the same period of the previous fiscal.

While exports in the remaining months of the fiscal are expected to be relatively low, compared with the high growth phase in the first half of the fiscal, high global oil prices and fertiliser imports will check a sharp slowdown in imports, putting pressure on the country's current account deficit and balance of payments.

The current account deficit is likely to be about 3% of GDP or slightly higher this year. But the situation could have been much worse if the performance in the first few months of the fiscal had not been robust, said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Care Ratings.

However, Sajjid Chinoy, India economist at JP Morgan, said, "Rising current account and fiscal deficits do not represent the classical twin-deficits. Net of asset sales, there will still be meaningful fiscal consolidation this year."

The debt crisis in the European Union has started resulting in lower demand from the zone. Export of electronic goods, which go mostly to the region, dropped 18% drop in October.

"That's a clear sign that exports to the EU are slowing down," Khullar said.

Exporters are apprehensive of a further dip in demand from the 27-member bloc that accounted for 19% of India's total exports in 2010-11.

"The crisis in the eurozone will spread in the next couple of months, making exports more difficult," said Fieo president Ramu Deora.

The drop in exports in value terms for engineering, which averaged about $7.73 b in the first six months but dropped to $5 b in October, is also a concern, Fieo said.

source (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/october-exports-growth-up-by-12-4-on-slow-demand-from-developed-markets-imports-increase-by-36-7/articleshow/10660873.cms)

EU, India speed up work on free trade pact






The European Union and India will work "full steam ahead" in talks due to start next week on clinching an ambitious free trade pact ahead of a February deadline, the EU said.
India has been in discussions with the EU, its biggest trading partner, since June 2007 to liberalise trade in goods, services and investment through a free trade agreement.
"The EU and India are working full steam ahead to find solutions which are acceptable to both sides," EU trade spokesman JohnClancy said in a statement on Saturday.
Frustrated by delays in reaching an agreement, European governments threatened in September to break off talks with India on the free-trade deal and set a February 12 deadline to conclude a pact.
Thirteen rounds of talks have already taken place. More work is needed on issues such as tariffs, services and procurement policy, the EU said.
The EU statement said negotiations would begin from Monday and last until December 5. The talks are being held in Brussels, an EU spokeswoman said.
"Intense negotiations will continue over the coming months to effectively solve the remaining core issues between now and the EU-India summit, which is scheduled for February 10" in New Delhi, Clancy said.
Earlier in the week India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma expressed satisfaction with the progress of negotiations.
But Sharma's comments came at the same time as a top German government official expressed concern in Berlin over the "painfully slow" progress of talks.
Germany's head of the Foreign Trade Division, Berend Diekmann, said the EU bloc and India were "far away" from reaching an agreement on a deal and that there was no way a treaty could be signed before the India-EU summit.
"India and the EU are far away from each other as far as the negotiations are concerned," Diekmann was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying.
The two sides originally hoped to conclude a wide-ranging deal by 2010 that could increase bilateral trade to $US237 billion annually by 2015 from about $US92 billion currently.
India and the EU have been at odds over intellectual property rights involving life-saving generic HIV/AIDS drugs and other medicines which are produced by Indian companies.
UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS, has expressed fears that EU proposals for the agreement could make generic HIV drugs unaffordable - something New Delhi has pledged to resist.
High tariffs on cars, chemicals, machinery products, agriculture and wines and spirits in India are the other issues which need to be resolved.
"There are some important issues outstanding, and only an ambitious agreement will bring significant benefits," Clancy said.
The free trade pact would involve slashing of duties on more than 90 per cent of the trade and opening up of mutual markets for services and investment.
India has already implemented free trade agreements with countries such as Japan, Malaysia and South Korea.



http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8376643

'Selling uranium to India will be good for Australian economy'

Julia Gillard / November 20, 2011, 0:58 IST

Prime Minister: I want to outline my approach to a number of issues at the forthcoming Australian Labor Party national conference. First, I want to deal with the question of selling uranium to India. The Labor Party’s current position prevents us from selling uranium to India because it is not a part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The time has come for the party to change this stance. I believe this for three reasons.

First, selling uranium to India will be good for the Australian economy and for Australian jobs.
.........
Second, I believe this will be one way of taking a step forward in our relationship with India. We have a good relationship with India. It is the world’s largest democracy, a stable one and we have worked on our links with India.
............
Third, I believe this change should take place as circumstances have developed in the international community. It made sense when there was a widely supported international strategy to bring India into NPT. But the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement changed the strategy.
................. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/%5Cselling-uranium-to-india-will-be-good-for-australian-economy%5C/456048/

India, Russia galvanize bilateral trade

With Russia’s imminent accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), New Delhi and Moscow are gearing up to take several key steps to further strengthen economic ties and achieve a bilateral trade target of USD 20 billion by 2015.

According to the Hindu, the decision to set up the fund was taken at the 17th session of the Indo-Russian Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Technological, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).

The meeting was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Russian Vice-Premier Sergei Ivanov.

The size of the fund, for setting up projects in Indian states and Russian regions, and other modalities are yet to be worked out by the two sides.

Krishna was here on a three-day visit to finalise the political and economic agenda of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s summit talks here on December 16, with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Several key agreements including those on on energy are expected to be signed during Singh's visit.

"Both sides have agreed on four important sectors to galvanize the bilateral trade and for fructifying cooperation," Ajay Bisaria, Joint Secretary (Eurasia) External Affairs Ministry, told the reporters after the IRIGC-TEC session.

The two countries are plan to form a joint study group to examine the possibility of a comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with the Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan Customs Union.

Under the Customs Union that came into operation in July 2010, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan agreed to remove tariffs and customs controls.

The two sides are also to work on enhancing connectivity through International North-South Corridor linking India with Russia via Iran and Central Asia, to ensure speedy movement of goods and cargo.

Special emphasis is being given to set up a Joint Working Group on Modernisation to boost bilateral and multilateral technological interaction with BRICS.

The meeting noted the progress in areas, including energy (conventional and civil nuclear), IT and telecom, metallurgy, automobile industry, pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, banking and financial services, construction of roads and underground metro, science and technology, tourism.

Cooperation in mining, railways, water transport, aviation and ship building, bio and nano-technologies, production of fertilisers and chemicals, agriculture and textiles have been identified as the promising areas of bilateral cooperation.

The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia have signed a memorandum on cooperation in pharmaceuticals and bio-pharmaceuticals, details of which were not immediately available.

source (http://indrus.in/articles/2011/11/21/india_russia_galvanize_bilateral_trade_and_key_projects_13276.html)

EXPORT GROWS 52% IN APRIL- SEPTEMBER 2011 AT US $ 160 BILLION: COMMERCE SECRETARY



source (http://commerce.nic.in/PressRelease/pressrelease_detail.asp?id=2844)

Man - Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants (POL) accounted for 70.2 Billion $ of our total imports. Remove that (wishful thinking) - and the deficit turns to surplus !!

wont our oil and gas imports go up as more ppl rise above poverty line and start using cars and bikes?^^

Man - Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants (POL) accounted for 70.2 Billion $ of our total imports. Remove that (wishful thinking) - and the deficit turns to surplus !!

As industries grow- petroleum imports grow as well. There are ways to get oil at competitive prices but Indian govt won't allow that.

India needs shale gas.

EU to ease visa rules if India opens its market

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1245/indiaeu.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)


Link (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/nri/visa-and-immigration/eu-to-ease-visa-rules-if-india-opens-its-market/articleshow/10821993.cms)

:popcorn:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2a0lttt.png

source (http://commerce.nic.in/)

Govt Admits Mistake of $9 Billion in Export Data :bash::bash::bash:
Fears about exports being shown on the higher side have come true with the government conceding today that it goofed up and inflated the numbers by USD 9 billion in the April-November period of the current fiscal.

"Every damn number for the last eight months has been revised...," Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said, conceding the crucial balance of trade deficit was also kept under - valued at USD 107 billion instead of USD 117 billion.

There was not only mis-classifications but also "error in double counting and all sorts of things" due to problems in the computer software which was recently upgraded, he said.

Having admitted mistakes, Khullar said that at least now "the notion that the government is deliberately cooking up and telling lies...Has got to stop. How many people will come and tell you that we have goofed up; there was a mistake. I have said it openly there is nothing to hide; there is no shame in admitting that there is something wrong".

However, he said that even after factoring in mistakes, the exports grew by 33.2 per cent between April-November.

The data goof-up was 4-5 per cent of the export billing and on an average it was inflated by USD 1 billion a month, Khullar said.

There were doubts on huge growth in exports which was even shown at 82 per cent in July at a time when the manufacturing was going down.

"Exports are still doing pretty damn well. (Earlier) you thought it (growth) would be 40-45 per cent, now it is down to 33 per cent (during April-November this fiscal)," he said.

For the eight month period, total exports have been calculated at USD 192.7 billion, while imports at USD 309.5 billion (growth of 30.2 per cent).

The fiscal-end trade gap may be USD 150-160 billion, he said.

Explaining the problem, Khullar said there was a misclassification which meant that goods belonging to one category were shown in a different classification.

As a result, exports of engineering goods alone got inflated by USD 15 billion, while those of petroleum and gems and jewellery were under-estimated by over USD 12 billion, he said.

"Because of ongoing controversy of how reliable the numbers are, we have gone back to the books. We did find mistakes. We have figured out that of the total export basket of USD 192.7 billion so far, there has been an error of about USD 9 billion and that now stand corrected," Khullar said.

There was no mistakes in the import data. Though the problem of trade deficit was serious, imports are expected to decline in the coming months.

Casting doubts over the export numbers, Kotak Mahindra had said in a recent study that the official export growth data was much higher than the figures reported by the country's top-500 listed companies.

source (http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=743910)

incompetent congress totally incompetent

$117 billion....

fcuk is going to be hard.

only in the other thread i was saying how good it was exports held up.


anyways going to enjoy my weekend.

Upbeat on India, Saudi Arabia seeks liberal visa regime

4 Jan, 2012, 06.34PM IST, PTI
NEW DELHI: Against economic troubles in Europe and uncertainty in US, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said it sees "huge potential" for stepping up commercial engagement with India.

However, Saudi Arabia which is home to two million Indian workforce, asked the Indian government to relax visa rules to boost bilateral trade and investment.

"We are eager to do more trade with India. Huge potential is present in both the nations as both are emerging economies," Saudi Arabia Commerce and industry Minister Tawfeeq Bin Fouzan Al Rabea said at a Ficci meeting here.

Al Rabea, who is leading a 35-member business delegation, said there are opportunities for bilateral engagement in sectors like infrastructure, IT and education.

With economic troubles affecting the entire Eurozone and the US economy giving uncertain indications, Saudi businesses are looking at India as an alternative investment and trade option, industry officials said.

Al Rabea urged the Indian Government to liberalise visa norms for its people. "... what I heard from some of our colleagues that they get only one month with single entry visa (from Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia). So, I think, we need to do something here and there, to make sure we facilitate the movement of people between the two countries," Al Rabea said.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia gives multiple entry visa for one year. The visiting minister said that about two million Indians are working in different sectors in Saudi Arabia.

The bilateral trade has increased by about 60 per cent to USD 25 billion in 2010.

Addressing the gathering, Ficci President-elect R V Kanoria said that Saudi businessmen can explore investment opportunities in areas like bio-technology, telecommunication and automobile.

"Huge investments are required in infrastructure sector in India. India is going to invest as much as USD one trillion in next five years," Kanoria said.

India's exports to Saudi Arabia mainly comprises Basmati rice, meat, man-made yarn, cotton yarn, chemicals and machinery. Imports largely include crude oil, as India imports a quarter of crude requirement from Saudi Arabia.

"There is big sale of oil to india...Our bilateral trade is increasing and I see this growth continuing and I see more potential for cooperation and trade," the Saudi minister added.


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/11364859.cms?prtpage=1

India's trade with Latin America may reach $50 billion
Jan 2, 2012, 06.14PM ISTNEW DELHI: India's trade with Latin America could go up to $50 billion by 2014 on the back of projected high economic growth in both the regions, said a senior government official.

"The region (Latin America) is going to be a regular source of imports of crude oil, edible oil, minerals, timber and other products which India needs to sustain its high growth. Agribusiness, food processing, energy and mining are the growth areas of Latin America and the Indian companies should target them for trade and investment," said R. Viswanathan, India's ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

At present, the Latin American region accounts for 4 per cent of India's trade. Two-way trade between India and Latin America was recorded $23 billion in 2010. It included $9 billion of India's exports to Latin America and imports of $14 billion.


India targets to increase its exports to Latin America to $20 billion by 2014.

Viswanathan said the region would also offer in the coming years great investment opportunities to Indian companies. "The 2014 World Cup, 2016 Olympics and the $270 billion investment in hydrocarbons by Brazil are the big ticket projects offering unmissable opportunities for Indian companies."

Latin America and the Caribbean region had an estimated 4.3 percent GDP growth in 2011 and it is projected to grow by 3.7 percent in 2012 despite the continuing crisis in Europe, uncertain outlook in United States and the slowdown in the Asian markets.

Both imports and exports of Latin America and the Caribbean region crossed the trillion dollar mark in 2011. Imports increased by 23 percent to $1.038 trillion, while exports increased by 23.1 percent to $1.097 trillion.

India is diversifying its product basket and foreign trade market to shield its economy from uncertainties in Europe and the US. It has increased economic engagement with Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

As part of its market diversification programme, the Indian government is offering various incentives to boost exports to Latin America and the Caribbean.

"There is a unique opening for India at this time. The Latin Americans are disillusioned with Europe and US who are facing crisis after crisis. They are reassessing the China euphoria after their industries and jobs have been hit hard by the flood of cheap imports," said Viswanathan.

Latin America is a large market of 20 countries. India has entered into preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with Chile and the Mercosur bloc, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Viswanathan said Latin Americans were attracted by the large, growing, democratic and non-threatening India which faces political and developmental circumstances similar to theirs.

"They see the value addition of Indian investment to their economies, industries and especially human resource development by the Indian IT and BPO companies who employ 20,000 Latin American youth," he said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Indias-trade-with-Latin-America-may-reach-50-billion/articleshow/11339538.cms

India's trade with Latin America may reach $50 billion

NEW DELHI: India's trade with Latin America could go up to $50 billion by 2014 on the back of projected high economic growth in both the regions, said a senior government official.

"The region (Latin America) is going to be a regular source of imports of crude oil, edible oil, minerals, timber and other products which India needs to sustain its high growth. Agribusiness, food processing, energy and mining are the growth areas of Latin America and the Indian companies should target them for trade and investment," said R. Viswanathan, India's ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

At present, the Latin American region accounts for 4 per cent of India's trade. Two-way trade between India and Latin America was recorded $23 billion in 2010. It included $9 billion of India's exports to Latin America and imports of $14 billion.

India targets to increase its exports to Latin America to $20 billion by 2014.

Viswanathan said the region would also offer in the coming years great investment opportunities to Indian companies. "The 2014 World Cup, 2016 Olympics and the $270 billion investment in hydrocarbons by Brazil are the big ticket projects offering unmissable opportunities for Indian companies."

Latin America and the Caribbean region had an estimated 4.3 percent GDP growth in 2011 and it is projected to grow by 3.7 percent in 2012 despite the continuing crisis in Europe, uncertain outlook in United States and the slowdown in the Asian markets.

Both imports and exports of Latin America and the Caribbean region crossed the trillion dollar mark in 2011. Imports increased by 23 percent to $1.038 trillion, while exports increased by 23.1 percent to $1.097 trillion.

India is diversifying its product basket and foreign trade market to shield its economy from uncertainties in Europe and the US. It has increased economic engagement with Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

As part of its market diversification programme, the Indian government is offering various incentives to boost exports to Latin America and the Caribbean.

"There is a unique opening for India at this time. The Latin Americans are disillusioned with Europe and US who are facing crisis after crisis. They are reassessing the China euphoria after their industries and jobs have been hit hard by the flood of cheap imports," said Viswanathan.

Latin America is a large market of 20 countries. India has entered into preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with Chile and the Mercosur bloc, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Viswanathan said Latin Americans were attracted by the large, growing, democratic and non-threatening India which faces political and developmental circumstances similar to theirs.

"They see the value addition of Indian investment to their economies, industries and especially human resource development by the Indian IT and BPO companies who employ 20,000 Latin American youth," he said.

Source : Link (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Indias-trade-with-Latin-America-may-reach-50-billion/articleshow/11339538.cms)

Source : Link (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Indias-trade-with-Latin-America-may-reach-50-billion/articleshow/11339538.cms)

atleast check before posting... I have posted the same article above:ohno:

Yes i think this is the success stories of Indian market.

@kalkibhagwan- Its out of sheer morbid curiosity I read your message after clearing my cookies since you are on my ignore list (hence I can't even quote your post after logging back in). Its solely because of you being on the ignore list I can't see your posts hence things like this happen.

Please correct your irritating, immature and offensive manner of postings and many good folks here who have put you on ignore will undo their decision, and don't lecture me about posting articles - your mannerisms as well time of joining are not worthy of attention yet for you to preach other veterans on this board about SSC protocols!

Exports for December 2011 up 6.7% at $25 billion

India's December exports rose an estimated annual 6.7% to $25 billion, while imports for the month were at $37.8 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $12.8 billion, Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar said on Monday.

Exports between April-December rose 25.8% to $217.6 billion, Khullar said.

He added that the trade deficit for the full fiscal year that ends in March 31, was estimated between $155 billion to $160 billion.

Indian exporters enjoyed record growth last fiscal year, but have struggled in recent months in the face of economic turbulence in the European Union, which is India's biggest trade partner.


source (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/exports-for-dec-201167-at-25-bn/155344/on)

Exports for December 2011 up 6.7% at $25 billion



source (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/exports-for-dec-201167-at-25-bn/155344/on)

thats nearly 8% of GDP , our trade deficit that is.

assuming our GDP is 1.7 trillion.

assuming remmitances of 60 billion and FDI of 35 billion and all things considered our CAD is going to be in the 3.5 to 4% zone.



bloody hell thats one large gap.

India's global trade to touch $750 bn in FY12


India's merchandise trade is on way to touch $750 billion in the current fiscal, accounting for 68% of the country's $1.1 trillion economy which is fast integrating with the rest of the world.

"We are on course, when it comes to India's overall trade...The two-way trade crossed $600 billion last year and must cross, as per my assessment, $750-760 billion, that is excluding trade in services," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here today.Opening textile fair 'Tex Trends India,2012', he said the country's exports are expected to reach $300 billion.In the nine-month April-December period, the outward shipments aggregated $217.6 billion with year-on-year growth of 25.8%.Likewise, growing by 30.4% imports were $350.9 billion in the same period.

"If you get $80 billion exports in the remaining quarter (January-March, 2012), you are looking at close to $300 billion..And imports may touch about $460 billion," Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said earlier this week.

Referring to the performance of textile exports, Sharma said the shipments are likey to touch $33 billion in the current fiscal. During FY11,textiles sector achieved exports of $26.8 billion.



source (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/india%5Cs-global-trade-to-touch-750-bn-in-fy12/155712/on)

yup

pretty soon in the next 2-3 years we should have a higher gdp and global trade than France and the UK.

I think as far as geo political entities go


in terms of international trade

EU
China
USA
Germany
Japan
France
UK
Italy
South Korea
Canada
India
Netherlands/Mexico


So i think by say 2015 it should be

EU
China
USA
Germany
Japan
India

India's global trade to touch $750 bn in FY12




source (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/india%5Cs-global-trade-to-touch-750-bn-in-fy12/155712/on)

btw

which idiot came up with 1.1 trillion economy?

we are a 1.6-1.8 trillion economy. I could do a better job than these journalists.

btw i stand corrected

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_trade#Largest_countries_by_total_international_trade

as of 2010 india is 13th

but still not much difference between 13th India and 5th France.

so should make it to 5th by 2015.

btw i stand corrected

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_trade#Largest_countries_by_total_international_trade

as of 2010 india is 13th

but still not much difference between 13th India and 5th France.

so should make it to 5th by 2015.

Just look at Singapore, it's smaller than the size of Bangalore and yet trades over $650bn.

Just look at Singapore, it's smaller than the size of Bangalore and yet trades over $650bn.

yup

GIFT in Gujarat should add immensly to India's trade clout. Especially now it's been give a world financial center status - if the Desi politicians don't mess up, we could have a golden goose in our midst.

GIFT in Gujarat should add immensly to India's trade clout. Especially now it's been give a world financial center status - if the Desi politicians don't mess up, we could have a golden goose in our midst.

Banning booze will create lack of enthusiasm among investors. - you are served soft-drinks in the business class :lol:.

Banning booze will create lack of enthusiasm among investors. - you are served soft-drinks in the business class :lol:.

Guj allows foreigners to purchase booze. Its only banned for the locals. Dont see that being an issue.

Its not stopped investment from flowing into Guj.

Guj allows foreigners to purchase booze. Its only banned for the locals. Dont see that being an issue.

Its not stopped investment from flowing into Guj.


It sets a bad example- like state meddling into personal liberties, just like china. One day they may ban something else, it's such a doubtful scenario that something can be banned purely because of moral or religious issues. Foreigners are entitled to buy booze and locals aren't? Why the racial discrimination? :cheers:

It sets a bad example- like state meddling into personal liberties, just like china. One day they may ban something else, it's such a doubtful scenario that something can be banned purely because of moral or religious issues. Foreigners are entitled to buy booze and locals aren't? Why the racial discrimination? :cheers:

our state meddles way to much on various issues. If people dont mind setting up base in shanghai for eg

they are not going to mind guj with this. Especially when they can purchase it, being foreign nationals.

our state meddles way to much on various issues. If people dont mind setting up base in shanghai for eg

they are not going to mind guj with this. Especially when they can purchase it, being foreign nationals.

They are all temporary setups. This is exactly why investors fear investing in India, because state meddles with the free market and personal liberties. Google division exited from China because state hackers were snooping into their servers, checking email accounts of possible anti-communist people and then forcing google to block all the blog links connected to them. Now, Indian government too is becoming a nanny state policing corporations, asking them to remove objectionable materials. They may well be objectionable, it is for the individual to decide what's right not the state.

Foreigners are entitled to buy booze and locals aren't? Why the racial discrimination?

Simply because Gujarat is Gandhi country lol.

It is discrimination for the locals not to have alcohol & I dont think Gandhi would have approved lol....i.e. non-violence.

Its politically sensitive.

GIFT in Gujarat should add immensly to India's trade clout. Especially now it's been give a world financial center status - if the Desi politicians don't mess up, we could have a golden goose in our midst.

Thats all it takes for some corrupt politican(s) to mess things up!

also in terms of GIFT

I think its financial services and It based. What india needs to increase its trade clout is manufacturing. Specially final product manufacturing.

I donot know why there is not strong electronic/ semiconductor manufacturing in India. All LED tvs cost double the price of what they cost in europa. Crap

yup

india needs its own version of Samsung and LG, we have TATA and Mahindra in automobiles.

We have something in software though Infy is not final user mass software like a google and micosoft. But there is something. But the consumer electronics sector is somewhere there is no major Indian player.

LG and Samsung litrally produce everything to do with hardware.

The problem with the Indian electronics industry is the lack of a good ecosystem. The Indian automobile industry is so successful because there are many good parts manufacturers in the country. But the electronics companies in India need to buy parts from China... This is a shame. So before getting an Indian equivalent of Samsung or LG, what we really need are more component manufacturers. I think the government was about to introduce the National Electronics policy to address this issue. Anyone know what happened to this?

ofcourse you just cant have a company overnight

need to build from the bottom. LG and Samsung themselves have come a long way.

In the case of India i feel if conglomerates (which LG and Samsung are) can set up their own industries in India in consumer electronics it will be great.

A Reliance or Tata or Birla or some other group.

Look at google they are not expanding into hardware from their core software business.

All branded clothes, shoes and electronics/ phones cost same as in rich countries.even the cars also. Nothing is going down in terms of prices.

you have options not to buy branded then

i for one never goto McDonalds. Instead i have a place which i know serves hot vada pav, idlee sambar, medhu vada and samosa. Along with a cutting of chai, that is where i go.

A lot of my friends have this off fetish about McDonalds. Food tastes bland to me.

No Ichi bhai, I m not talking about the food. I never go to McDonald's or thy kind of crap in India or here. When I m in no mood to cook then I go to a afghan restaurant which sells durum diner, shoarma or pizza for less than what u pay for a menu at McDonald .

I m talking about branded jeans, shoes, watches, cars,tvs, home theater, phones,girls

Even the Suzuki alto cost here same as in India.

Sometimes on Sunday's I go to gurudwara for "lunger". Million times better than any restaurant

No Ichi bhai, I m not talking about the food. I never go to McDonald's or thy kind of crap in India or here. When I m in no mood to cook then I go to a afghan restaurant which sells durum diner, shoarma or pizza for less than what u pay for a menu at McDonald .

I m talking about branded jeans, shoes, watches, cars,tvs, home theater, phones,girls


yeah but Euro bhai, you have the option to buy regular shoes from Indian suppliers like say Action shoes. Branded goods take advantage of people even in europe. Take a normal t shirt and put a tick mark or three stripes on it and jack the price up 50%.

for me there is no real choice in consumer electronic. What india needs is its own generic brand of electronic goods.

for example when i was in london, the nearby tesco had its own brand of television called technika or some shit like that. It was much cheaper than sony etc. Plus some things will always be expensive. Drugs (and i mean legit ones) and medicines are way cheaper in India.


While Alto is the same price as in the Europe you have a choice to go with the local supplier. Look at Mahindra Xylo which is cheaper, is eating up the market share of the Innova. Similarly XUV 500 will eat up the market share as well.


I remember McDonalds themselves have ridiculously high prices (basically using western rates and then doing currency conversion) as well. Now they are much more in tune with the pricing to lure middle class Indians. They had to import chicken as the supply in India was erratic. Now they have their own poultry logistics chain.


This was entirely the point of letting the retail giants in. They would create the same generic electrical good and develop their own local Indian suppliers.

3 to 5 starred hotels in India have gone down the same route. They have their own farms which they enter in partnership with and use the highest standards there. So the quality is good. Relying on the local nearby markets was again erratic.

My ancestral farm in Dhule was approached for purchase by Holiday Inn in Surat in the guise of a neighbouring farmer who wanted to expand his lot. Obviously we did not sell, but entered a partnership with him and the hotel to keep the proceeds of the land for a small fee. All the output of the farm would be his/the hotels provided we got x amount. Its something like 6000 a month as of now.

Since we are talking about consumer electronics manufacturing, I thought this long story in today's New York Times is very relevant. It talks about why China became a manufacturing powerhouse through the example of iPhone manufacturing. The thrust of the article is move of manufacturing jobs from US to China, but there are lessons for India as well if we want to have any chance of boosting our manufacturing (specially consumer electronics).

It's a very long article, but I'd encourage everyone interested in this topic to read it. It's very well written, in form of an engaging story, in typical NYT fashion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=1&hp


How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

By CHARLES DUHIGG and KEITH BRADSHER

When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.

But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?

Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.

The president’s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.

Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google.

However, what has vexed Mr. Obama as well as economists and policy makers is that Apple — and many of its high-technology peers — are not nearly as avid in creating American jobs as other famous companies were in their heydays.

Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas, a small fraction of the over 400,000 American workers at General Motors in the 1950s, or the hundreds of thousands at General Electric in the 1980s. Many more people work for Apple’s contractors: an additional 700,000 people engineer, build and assemble iPads, iPhones and Apple’s other products. But almost none of them work in the United States. Instead, they work for foreign companies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, at factories that almost all electronics designers rely upon to build their wares.

“Apple’s an example of why it’s so hard to create middle-class jobs in the U.S. now,” said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic adviser to the White House.

“If it’s the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.”

Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

Similar stories could be told about almost any electronics company — and outsourcing has also become common in hundreds of industries, including accounting, legal services, banking, auto manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.

But while Apple is far from alone, it offers a window into why the success of some prominent companies has not translated into large numbers of domestic jobs. What’s more, the company’s decisions pose broader questions about what corporate America owes Americans as the global and national economies are increasingly intertwined.

“Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,” said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. “That’s disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”

Companies and other economists say that notion is naïve. Though Americans are among the most educated workers in the world, the nation has stopped training enough people in the mid-level skills that factories need, executives say.

To thrive, companies argue they need to move work where it can generate enough profits to keep paying for innovation. Doing otherwise risks losing even more American jobs over time, as evidenced by the legions of once-proud domestic manufacturers — including G.M. and others — that have shrunk as nimble competitors have emerged.

Apple was provided with extensive summaries of The New York Times’s reporting for this article, but the company, which has a reputation for secrecy, declined to comment.

This article is based on interviews with more than three dozen current and former Apple employees and contractors — many of whom requested anonymity to protect their jobs — as well as economists, manufacturing experts, international trade specialists, technology analysts, academic researchers, employees at Apple’s suppliers, competitors and corporate partners, and government officials.

Privately, Apple executives say the world is now such a changed place that it is a mistake to measure a company’s contribution simply by tallying its employees — though they note that Apple employs more workers in the United States than ever before.

They say Apple’s success has benefited the economy by empowering entrepreneurs and creating jobs at companies like cellular providers and businesses shipping Apple products. And, ultimately, they say curing unemployment is not their job.

“We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries,” a current Apple executive said. “We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.”

‘I Want a Glass Screen’

In 2007, a little over a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in stores, Mr. Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket.

Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.

People will carry this phone in their pocket, he said. People also carry their keys in their pocket. “I won’t sell a product that gets scratched,” he said tensely. The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead. “I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks.”

After one executive left that meeting, he booked a flight to Shenzhen, China. If Mr. Jobs wanted perfect, there was nowhere else to go.

For over two years, the company had been working on a project — code-named Purple 2 — that presented the same questions at every turn: how do you completely reimagine the cellphone? And how do you design it at the highest quality — with an unscratchable screen, for instance — while also ensuring that millions can be manufactured quickly and inexpensively enough to earn a significant profit?

The answers, almost every time, were found outside the United States. Though components differ between versions, all iPhones contain hundreds of parts, an estimated 90 percent of which are manufactured abroad. Advanced semiconductors have come from Germany and Taiwan, memory from Korea and Japan, display panels and circuitry from Korea and Taiwan, chipsets from Europe and rare metals from Africa and Asia. And all of it is put together in China.

In its early days, Apple usually didn’t look beyond its own backyard for manufacturing solutions. A few years after Apple began building the Macintosh in 1983, for instance, Mr. Jobs bragged that it was “a machine that is made in America.” In 1990, while Mr. Jobs was running NeXT, which was eventually bought by Apple, the executive told a reporter that “I’m as proud of the factory as I am of the computer.” As late as 2002, top Apple executives occasionally drove two hours northeast of their headquarters to visit the company’s iMac plant in Elk Grove, Calif.

But by 2004, Apple had largely turned to foreign manufacturing. Guiding that decision was Apple’s operations expert, Timothy D. Cook, who replaced Mr. Jobs as chief executive last August, six weeks before Mr. Jobs’s death. Most other American electronics companies had already gone abroad, and Apple, which at the time was struggling, felt it had to grasp every advantage.

In part, Asia was attractive because the semiskilled workers there were cheaper. But that wasn’t driving Apple. For technology companies, the cost of labor is minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and managing supply chains that bring together components and services from hundreds of companies.

For Mr. Cook, the focus on Asia “came down to two things,” said one former high-ranking Apple executive. Factories in Asia “can scale up and down faster” and “Asian supply chains have surpassed what’s in the U.S.” The result is that “we can’t compete at this point,” the executive said.

The impact of such advantages became obvious as soon as Mr. Jobs demanded glass screens in 2007.

For years, cellphone makers had avoided using glass because it required precision in cutting and grinding that was extremely difficult to achieve. Apple had already selected an American company, Corning Inc., to manufacture large panes of strengthened glass. But figuring out how to cut those panes into millions of iPhone screens required finding an empty cutting plant, hundreds of pieces of glass to use in experiments and an army of midlevel engineers. It would cost a fortune simply to prepare.

Then a bid for the work arrived from a Chinese factory.

When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant’s owners were already constructing a new wing. “This is in case you give us the contract,” the manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day.

The Chinese plant got the job.

“The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-ranking Apple executive. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”

In Foxconn City

An eight-hour drive from that glass factory is a complex, known informally as Foxconn City, where the iPhone is assembled. To Apple executives, Foxconn City was further evidence that China could deliver workers — and diligence — that outpaced their American counterparts.

That’s because nothing like Foxconn City exists in the United States.

The facility has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. Over a quarter of Foxconn’s work force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day. When one Apple executive arrived during a shift change, his car was stuck in a river of employees streaming past. “The scale is unimaginable,” he said.

Foxconn employs nearly 300 guards to direct foot traffic so workers are not crushed in doorway bottlenecks. The facility’s central kitchen cooks an average of three tons of pork and 13 tons of rice a day. While factories are spotless, the air inside nearby teahouses is hazy with the smoke and stench of cigarettes.

Foxconn Technology has dozens of facilities in Asia and Eastern Europe, and in Mexico and Brazil, and it assembles an estimated 40 percent of the world’s consumer electronics for customers like Amazon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung and Sony.

“They could hire 3,000 people overnight,” said Jennifer Rigoni, who was Apple’s worldwide supply demand manager until 2010, but declined to discuss specifics of her work. “What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”

In mid-2007, after a month of experimentation, Apple’s engineers finally perfected a method for cutting strengthened glass so it could be used in the iPhone’s screen. The first truckloads of cut glass arrived at Foxconn City in the dead of night, according to the former Apple executive. That’s when managers woke thousands of workers, who crawled into their uniforms — white and black shirts for men, red for women — and quickly lined up to assemble, by hand, the phones. Within three months, Apple had sold one million iPhones. Since then, Foxconn has assembled over 200 million more.

Foxconn, in statements, declined to speak about specific clients.

“Any worker recruited by our firm is covered by a clear contract outlining terms and conditions and by Chinese government law that protects their rights,” the company wrote. Foxconn “takes our responsibility to our employees very seriously and we work hard to give our more than one million employees a safe and positive environment.”

The company disputed some details of the former Apple executive’s account, and wrote that a midnight shift, such as the one described, was impossible “because we have strict regulations regarding the working hours of our employees based on their designated shifts, and every employee has computerized timecards that would bar them from working at any facility at a time outside of their approved shift.” The company said that all shifts began at either 7 a.m. or 7 p.m., and that employees receive at least 12 hours’ notice of any schedule changes.

Foxconn employees, in interviews, have challenged those assertions.

Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.

In China, it took 15 days.

Companies like Apple “say the challenge in setting up U.S. plants is finding a technical work force,” said Martin Schmidt, associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In particular, companies say they need engineers with more than high school, but not necessarily a bachelor’s degree. Americans at that skill level are hard to find, executives contend. “They’re good jobs, but the country doesn’t have enough to feed the demand,” Mr. Schmidt said.

Some aspects of the iPhone are uniquely American. The device’s software, for instance, and its innovative marketing campaigns were largely created in the United States. Apple recently built a $500 million data center in North Carolina. Crucial semiconductors inside the iPhone 4 and 4S are manufactured in an Austin, Tex., factory by Samsung, of South Korea.

But even those facilities are not enormous sources of jobs. Apple’s North Carolina center, for instance, has only 100 full-time employees. The Samsung plant has an estimated 2,400 workers.

“If you scale up from selling one million phones to 30 million phones, you don’t really need more programmers,” said Jean-Louis Gassée, who oversaw product development and marketing for Apple until he left in 1990. “All these new companies — Facebook, Google, Twitter — benefit from this. They grow, but they don’t really need to hire much.”

It is hard to estimate how much more it would cost to build iPhones in the United States. However, various academics and manufacturing analysts estimate that because labor is such a small part of technology manufacturing, paying American wages would add up to $65 to each iPhone’s expense. Since Apple’s profits are often hundreds of dollars per phone, building domestically, in theory, would still give the company a healthy reward.

But such calculations are, in many respects, meaningless because building the iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans — it would require transforming the national and global economies. Apple executives believe there simply aren’t enough American workers with the skills the company needs or factories with sufficient speed and flexibility. Other companies that work with Apple, like Corning, also say they must go abroad.

Manufacturing glass for the iPhone revived a Corning factory in Kentucky, and today, much of the glass in iPhones is still made there. After the iPhone became a success, Corning received a flood of orders from other companies hoping to imitate Apple’s designs. Its strengthened glass sales have grown to more than $700 million a year, and it has hired or continued employing about 1,000 Americans to support the emerging market.

But as that market has expanded, the bulk of Corning’s strengthened glass manufacturing has occurred at plants in Japan and Taiwan.

“Our customers are in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China,” said James B. Flaws, Corning’s vice chairman and chief financial officer. “We could make the glass here, and then ship it by boat, but that takes 35 days. Or, we could ship it by air, but that’s 10 times as expensive. So we build our glass factories next door to assembly factories, and those are overseas.”

Corning was founded in America 161 years ago and its headquarters are still in upstate New York. Theoretically, the company could manufacture all its glass domestically. But it would “require a total overhaul in how the industry is structured,” Mr. Flaws said. “The consumer electronics business has become an Asian business. As an American, I worry about that, but there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Asia has become what the U.S. was for the last 40 years.”

Middle-Class Jobs Fade

The first time Eric Saragoza stepped into Apple’s manufacturing plant in Elk Grove, Calif., he felt as if he were entering an engineering wonderland.

It was 1995, and the facility near Sacramento employed more than 1,500 workers. It was a kaleidoscope of robotic arms, conveyor belts ferrying circuit boards and, eventually, candy-colored iMacs in various stages of assembly. Mr. Saragoza, an engineer, quickly moved up the plant’s ranks and joined an elite diagnostic team. His salary climbed to $50,000. He and his wife had three children. They bought a home with a pool.

“It felt like, finally, school was paying off,” he said. “I knew the world needed people who can build things.”

At the same time, however, the electronics industry was changing, and Apple — with products that were declining in popularity — was struggling to remake itself. One focus was improving manufacturing. A few years after Mr. Saragoza started his job, his bosses explained how the California plant stacked up against overseas factories: the cost, excluding the materials, of building a $1,500 computer in Elk Grove was $22 a machine. In Singapore, it was $6. In Taiwan, $4.85. Wages weren’t the major reason for the disparities. Rather it was costs like inventory and how long it took workers to finish a task.

“We were told we would have to do 12-hour days, and come in on Saturdays,” Mr. Saragoza said. “I had a family. I wanted to see my kids play soccer.”

Modernization has always caused some kinds of jobs to change or disappear. As the American economy transitioned from agriculture to manufacturing and then to other industries, farmers became steelworkers, and then salesmen and middle managers. These shifts have carried many economic benefits, and in general, with each progression, even unskilled workers received better wages and greater chances at upward mobility.

But in the last two decades, something more fundamental has changed, economists say. Midwage jobs started disappearing. Particularly among Americans without college degrees, today’s new jobs are disproportionately in service occupations — at restaurants or call centers, or as hospital attendants or temporary workers — that offer fewer opportunities for reaching the middle class.

Even Mr. Saragoza, with his college degree, was vulnerable to these trends. First, some of Elk Grove’s routine tasks were sent overseas. Mr. Saragoza didn’t mind. Then the robotics that made Apple a futuristic playground allowed executives to replace workers with machines. Some diagnostic engineering went to Singapore. Middle managers who oversaw the plant’s inventory were laid off because, suddenly, a few people with Internet connections were all that were needed.

Mr. Saragoza was too expensive for an unskilled position. He was also insufficiently credentialed for upper management. He was called into a small office in 2002 after a night shift, laid off and then escorted from the plant. He taught high school for a while, and then tried a return to technology. But Apple, which had helped anoint the region as “Silicon Valley North,” had by then converted much of the Elk Grove plant into an AppleCare call center, where new employees often earn $12 an hour.

There were employment prospects in Silicon Valley, but none of them panned out. “What they really want are 30-year-olds without children,” said Mr. Saragoza, who today is 48, and whose family now includes five of his own.

After a few months of looking for work, he started feeling desperate. Even teaching jobs had dried up. So he took a position with an electronics temp agency that had been hired by Apple to check returned iPhones and iPads before they were sent back to customers. Every day, Mr. Saragoza would drive to the building where he had once worked as an engineer, and for $10 an hour with no benefits, wipe thousands of glass screens and test audio ports by plugging in headphones.

Paydays for Apple

As Apple’s overseas operations and sales have expanded, its top employees have thrived. Last fiscal year, Apple’s revenue topped $108 billion, a sum larger than the combined state budgets of Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Since 2005, when the company’s stock split, share prices have risen from about $45 to more than $427.

Some of that wealth has gone to shareholders. Apple is among the most widely held stocks, and the rising share price has benefited millions of individual investors, 401(k)’s and pension plans. The bounty has also enriched Apple workers. Last fiscal year, in addition to their salaries, Apple’s employees and directors received stock worth $2 billion and exercised or vested stock and options worth an added $1.4 billion.

The biggest rewards, however, have often gone to Apple’s top employees. Mr. Cook, Apple’s chief, last year received stock grants — which vest over a 10-year period — that, at today’s share price, would be worth $427 million, and his salary was raised to $1.4 million. In 2010, Mr. Cook’s compensation package was valued at $59 million, according to Apple’s security filings.

A person close to Apple argued that the compensation received by Apple’s employees was fair, in part because the company had brought so much value to the nation and world. As the company has grown, it has expanded its domestic work force, including manufacturing jobs. Last year, Apple’s American work force grew by 8,000 people.

While other companies have sent call centers abroad, Apple has kept its centers in the United States. One source estimated that sales of Apple’s products have caused other companies to hire tens of thousands of Americans. FedEx and United Parcel Service, for instance, both say they have created American jobs because of the volume of Apple’s shipments, though neither would provide specific figures without permission from Apple, which the company declined to provide.

“We shouldn’t be criticized for using Chinese workers,” a current Apple executive said. “The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need.”

What’s more, Apple sources say the company has created plenty of good American jobs inside its retail stores and among entrepreneurs selling iPhone and iPad applications.

After two months of testing iPads, Mr. Saragoza quit. The pay was so low that he was better off, he figured, spending those hours applying for other jobs. On a recent October evening, while Mr. Saragoza sat at his MacBook and submitted another round of résumés online, halfway around the world a woman arrived at her office. The worker, Lina Lin, is a project manager in Shenzhen, China, at PCH International, which contracts with Apple and other electronics companies to coordinate production of accessories, like the cases that protect the iPad’s glass screens. She is not an Apple employee. But Mrs. Lin is integral to Apple’s ability to deliver its products.

Mrs. Lin earns a bit less than what Mr. Saragoza was paid by Apple. She speaks fluent English, learned from watching television and in a Chinese university. She and her husband put a quarter of their salaries in the bank every month. They live in a 1,080-square-foot apartment, which they share with their in-laws and son.

“There are lots of jobs,” Mrs. Lin said. “Especially in Shenzhen.”

Innovation’s Losers

Toward the end of Mr. Obama’s dinner last year with Mr. Jobs and other Silicon Valley executives, as everyone stood to leave, a crowd of photo seekers formed around the president. A slightly smaller scrum gathered around Mr. Jobs. Rumors had spread that his illness had worsened, and some hoped for a photograph with him, perhaps for the last time.

Eventually, the orbits of the men overlapped. “I’m not worried about the country’s long-term future,” Mr. Jobs told Mr. Obama, according to one observer. “This country is insanely great. What I’m worried about is that we don’t talk enough about solutions.”

At dinner, for instance, the executives had suggested that the government should reform visa programs to help companies hire foreign engineers. Some had urged the president to give companies a “tax holiday” so they could bring back overseas profits which, they argued, would be used to create work. Mr. Jobs even suggested it might be possible, someday, to locate some of Apple’s skilled manufacturing in the United States if the government helped train more American engineers.

Economists debate the usefulness of those and other efforts, and note that a struggling economy is sometimes transformed by unexpected developments. The last time analysts wrung their hands about prolonged American unemployment, for instance, in the early 1980s, the Internet hardly existed. Few at the time would have guessed that a degree in graphic design was rapidly becoming a smart bet, while studying telephone repair a dead end.

What remains unknown, however, is whether the United States will be able to leverage tomorrow’s innovations into millions of jobs.

In the last decade, technological leaps in solar and wind energy, semiconductor fabrication and display technologies have created thousands of jobs. But while many of those industries started in America, much of the employment has occurred abroad. Companies have closed major facilities in the United States to reopen in China. By way of explanation, executives say they are competing with Apple for shareholders. If they cannot rival Apple’s growth and profit margins, they won’t survive.

“New middle-class jobs will eventually emerge,” said Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist. “But will someone in his 40s have the skills for them? Or will he be bypassed for a new graduate and never find his way back into the middle class?”

The pace of innovation, say executives from a variety of industries, has been quickened by businessmen like Mr. Jobs. G.M. went as long as half a decade between major automobile redesigns. Apple, by comparison, has released five iPhones in four years, doubling the devices’ speed and memory while dropping the price that some consumers pay.

Before Mr. Obama and Mr. Jobs said goodbye, the Apple executive pulled an iPhone from his pocket to show off a new application — a driving game — with incredibly detailed graphics. The device reflected the soft glow of the room’s lights. The other executives, whose combined worth exceeded $69 billion, jostled for position to glance over his shoulder. The game, everyone agreed, was wonderful.

There wasn’t even a tiny scratch on the screen.

David Barboza, Peter Lattman and Catherine Rampell contributed reporting.

^^ nice report....thanks for sharing it....

Another great article in NYTimes on the topic of manufacturing boom in China - second in the series (I posted the first one earlier in this thread). This one talks about the human cost of manufacturing in China.

I agree that the worker conditions in China are much worse than in the West, however, these workers are still much better off than they were in the poor countryside that they left. Afterall, they voluntarily work in these conditions and clearly prefer this life to what they left behind. Many work long hours because they want to make more money - surprise surprise - and not because they are forced! Anyway, I don't mean to defend labor practices in China, but also think it's unfair to judge them on Western standards.

Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?


Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad

By CHARLES DUHIGG and DAVID BARBOZA

The explosion ripped through Building A5 on a Friday evening last May, an eruption of fire and noise that twisted metal pipes as if they were discarded straws.

When workers in the cafeteria ran outside, they saw black smoke pouring from shattered windows. It came from the area where employees polished thousands of iPad cases a day.

Two people were killed immediately, and over a dozen others hurt. As the injured were rushed into ambulances, one in particular stood out. His features had been smeared by the blast, scrubbed by heat and violence until a mat of red and black had replaced his mouth and nose.

“Are you Lai Xiaodong’s father?” a caller asked when the phone rang at Mr. Lai’s childhood home. Six months earlier, the 22-year-old had moved to Chengdu, in southwest China, to become one of the millions of human cogs powering the largest, fastest and most sophisticated manufacturing system on earth. That system has made it possible for Apple and hundreds of other companies to build devices almost as quickly as they can be dreamed up.

“He’s in trouble,” the caller told Mr. Lai’s father. “Get to the hospital as soon as possible.”

In the last decade, Apple has become one of the mightiest, richest and most successful companies in the world, in part by mastering global manufacturing. Apple and its high-technology peers — as well as dozens of other American industries — have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history.

However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems.

Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. Some say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. Under-age workers have helped build Apple’s products, and the company’s suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records, according to company reports and advocacy groups that, within China, are often considered reliable, independent monitors.

More troubling, the groups say, is some suppliers’ disregard for workers’ health. Two years ago, 137 workers at an Apple supplier in eastern China were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iPhone screens. Within seven months last year, two explosions at iPad factories, including in Chengdu, killed four people and injured 77. Before those blasts, Apple had been alerted to hazardous conditions inside the Chengdu plant, according to a Chinese group that published that warning.

“If Apple was warned, and didn’t act, that’s reprehensible,” said Nicholas Ashford, a former chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, a group that advises the United States Labor Department. “But what’s morally repugnant in one country is accepted business practices in another, and companies take advantage of that.”

Apple is not the only electronics company doing business within a troubling supply system. Bleak working conditions have been documented at factories manufacturing products for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba and others.

Current and former Apple executives, moreover, say the company has made significant strides in improving factories in recent years. Apple has a supplier code of conduct that details standards on labor issues, safety protections and other topics. The company has mounted a vigorous auditing campaign, and when abuses are discovered, Apple says, corrections are demanded.

And Apple’s annual supplier responsibility reports, in many cases, are the first to report abuses. This month, for the first time, the company released a list identifying many of its suppliers.

But significant problems remain. More than half of the suppliers audited by Apple have violated at least one aspect of the code of conduct every year since 2007, according to Apple’s reports, and in some instances have violated the law. While many violations involve working conditions, rather than safety hazards, troubling patterns persist.

“Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost,” said Li Mingqi, who until April worked in management at Foxconn Technology, one of Apple’s most important manufacturing partners. Mr. Li, who is suing Foxconn over his dismissal, helped manage the Chengdu factory where the explosion occurred.

“Workers’ welfare has nothing to do with their interests,” he said.

Some former Apple executives say there is an unresolved tension within the company: executives want to improve conditions within factories, but that dedication falters when it conflicts with crucial supplier relationships or the fast delivery of new products. Tuesday, Apple reported one of the most lucrative quarters of any corporation in history, with $13.06 billion in profits on $46.3 billion in sales. Its sales would have been even higher, executives said, if overseas factories had been able to produce more.

Executives at other corporations report similar internal pressures. This system may not be pretty, they argue, but a radical overhaul would slow innovation. Customers want amazing new electronics delivered every year.

“We’ve known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they’re still going on,” said one former Apple executive who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. “Why? Because the system works for us. Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice.”

“If half of iPhones were malfunctioning, do you think Apple would let it go on for four years?” the executive asked.

Apple, in its published reports, has said it requires every discovered labor violation to be remedied, and suppliers that refuse are terminated. Privately, however, some former executives concede that finding new suppliers is time-consuming and costly. Foxconn is one of the few manufacturers in the world with the scale to build sufficient numbers of iPhones and iPads. So Apple is “not going to leave Foxconn and they’re not going to leave China,” said Heather White, a research fellow at Harvard and a former member of the Monitoring International Labor Standards committee at the National Academy of Sciences. “There’s a lot of rationalization.”

Apple was provided with extensive summaries of this article, but the company declined to comment. The reporting is based on interviews with more than three dozen current or former employees and contractors, including a half-dozen current or former executives with firsthand knowledge of Apple’s supplier responsibility group, as well as others within the technology industry.

In 2010, Steven P. Jobs discussed the company’s relationships with suppliers at an industry conference.

“I actually think Apple does one of the best jobs of any companies in our industry, and maybe in any industry, of understanding the working conditions in our supply chain,” said Mr. Jobs, who was Apple’s chief executive at the time and who died last October.

“I mean, you go to this place, and, it’s a factory, but, my gosh, I mean, they’ve got restaurants and movie theaters and hospitals and swimming pools, and I mean, for a factory, it’s a pretty nice factory.”

Others, including workers inside such plants, acknowledge the cafeterias and medical facilities, but insist conditions are punishing.

“We’re trying really hard to make things better,” said one former Apple executive. “But most people would still be really disturbed if they saw where their iPhone comes from.”

The Road to Chengdu

In the fall of 2010, about six months before the explosion in the iPad factory, Lai Xiaodong carefully wrapped his clothes around his college diploma, so it wouldn’t crease in his suitcase. He told friends he would no longer be around for their weekly poker games, and said goodbye to his teachers. He was leaving for Chengdu, a city of 12 million that was rapidly becoming one of the world’s most important manufacturing hubs.

Though painfully shy, Mr. Lai had surprised everyone by persuading a beautiful nursing student to become his girlfriend. She wanted to marry, she said, and so his goal was to earn enough money to buy an apartment.

Factories in Chengdu manufacture products for hundreds of companies. But Mr. Lai was focused on Foxconn Technology, China’s largest exporter and one of the nation’s biggest employers, with 1.2 million workers. The company has plants throughout China, and assembles an estimated 40 percent of the world’s consumer electronics, including for customers like Amazon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Nintendo, Nokia and Samsung.

Foxconn’s factory in Chengdu, Mr. Lai knew, was special. Inside, workers were building Apple’s latest, potentially greatest product: the iPad.

When Mr. Lai finally landed a job repairing machines at the plant, one of the first things he noticed were the almost blinding lights. Shifts ran 24 hours a day, and the factory was always bright. At any moment, there were thousands of workers standing on assembly lines or sitting in backless chairs, crouching next to large machinery, or jogging between loading bays. Some workers’ legs swelled so much they waddled. “It’s hard to stand all day,” said Zhao Sheng, a plant worker.

Banners on the walls warned the 120,000 employees: “Work hard on the job today or work hard to find a job tomorrow.” Apple’s supplier code of conduct dictates that, except in unusual circumstances, employees are not supposed to work more than 60 hours a week. But at Foxconn, some worked more, according to interviews, workers’ pay stubs and surveys by outside groups. Mr. Lai was soon spending 12 hours a day, six days a week inside the factory, according to his paychecks. Employees who arrived late were sometimes required to write confession letters and copy quotations. There were “continuous shifts,” when workers were told to work two stretches in a row, according to interviews.

Mr. Lai’s college degree enabled him to earn a salary of around $22 a day, including overtime — more than many others. When his days ended, he would retreat to a small bedroom just big enough for a mattress, wardrobe and a desk where he obsessively played an online game called Fight the Landlord, said his girlfriend, Luo Xiaohong.

Those accommodations were better than many of the company’s dorms, where 70,000 Foxconn workers lived, at times stuffed 20 people to a three-room apartment, employees said. Last year, a dispute over paychecks set off a riot in one of the dormitories, and workers started throwing bottles, trash cans and flaming paper from their windows, according to witnesses. Two hundred police officers wrestled with workers, arresting eight. Afterward, trash cans were removed, and piles of rubbish — and rodents — became a problem. Mr. Lai felt lucky to have a place of his own.

Foxconn, in a statement, disputed workers’ accounts of continuous shifts, extended overtime, crowded living accommodations and the causes of the riot. The company said that its operations adhered to customers’ codes of conduct, industry standards and national laws. “Conditions at Foxconn are anything but harsh,” the company wrote. Foxconn also said that it had never been cited by a customer or government for under-age or overworked employees or toxic exposures.

“All assembly line employees are given regular breaks, including one-hour lunch breaks,” the company wrote, and only 5 percent of assembly line workers are required to stand to carry out their tasks. Work stations have been designed to ergonomic standards, and employees have opportunities for job rotation and promotion, the statement said.

“Foxconn has a very good safety record,” the company wrote. “Foxconn has come a long way in our efforts to lead our industry in China in areas such as workplace conditions and the care and treatment of our employees.”

Apple’s Code of Conduct

In 2005, some of Apple’s top executives gathered inside their Cupertino, Calif., headquarters for a special meeting. Other companies had created codes of conduct to police their suppliers. It was time, Apple decided, to follow suit. The code Apple published that year demands “that working conditions in Apple’s supply chain are safe, that workers are treated with respect and dignity, and that manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible.”

But the next year, a British newspaper, The Mail on Sunday, secretly visited a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, where iPods were manufactured, and reported on workers’ long hours, push-ups meted out as punishment and crowded dorms. Executives in Cupertino were shocked. “Apple is filled with really good people who had no idea this was going on,” a former employee said. “We wanted it changed, immediately.”

Apple audited that factory, the company’s first such inspection, and ordered improvements. Executives also undertook a series of initiatives that included an annual audit report, first published in 2007. By last year, Apple had inspected 396 facilities — including the company’s direct suppliers, as well as many of those suppliers’ suppliers — one of the largest such programs within the electronics industry.

Those audits have found consistent violations of Apple’s code of conduct, according to summaries published by the company. In 2007, for instance, Apple conducted over three dozen audits, two-thirds of which indicated that employees regularly worked more than 60 hours a week. In addition, there were six “core violations,” the most serious kind, including hiring 15-year-olds as well as falsifying records.

Over the next three years, Apple conducted 312 audits, and every year, about half or more showed evidence of large numbers of employees laboring more than six days a week as well as working extended overtime. Some workers received less than minimum wage or had pay withheld as punishment. Apple found 70 core violations over that period, including cases of involuntary labor, under-age workers, record falsifications, improper disposal of hazardous waste and over a hundred workers injured by toxic chemical exposures.

Last year, the company conducted 229 audits. There were slight improvements in some categories and the detected rate of core violations declined. However, within 93 facilities, at least half of workers exceeded the 60-hours-a-week work limit. At a similar number, employees worked more than six days a week. There were incidents of discrimination, improper safety precautions, failure to pay required overtime rates and other violations. That year, four employees were killed and 77 injured in workplace explosions.

“If you see the same pattern of problems, year after year, that means the company’s ignoring the issue rather than solving it,” said one former Apple executive with firsthand knowledge of the supplier responsibility group. “Noncompliance is tolerated, as long as the suppliers promise to try harder next time. If we meant business, core violations would disappear.”

Apple says that when an audit reveals a violation, the company requires suppliers to address the problem within 90 days and make changes to prevent a recurrence. “If a supplier is unwilling to change, we terminate our relationship,” the company says on its Web site.

The seriousness of that threat, however, is unclear. Apple has found violations in hundreds of audits, but fewer than 15 suppliers have been terminated for transgressions since 2007, according to former Apple executives.

“Once the deal is set and Foxconn becomes an authorized Apple supplier, Apple will no longer give any attention to worker conditions or anything that is irrelevant to its products,” said Mr. Li, the former Foxconn manager. Mr. Li spent seven years with Foxconn in Shenzhen and Chengdu and was forced out in April after he objected to a relocation to Chengdu, he said. Foxconn disputed his comments, and said “both Foxconn and Apple take the welfare of our employees very seriously.”

Apple’s efforts have spurred some changes. Facilities that were reaudited “showed continued performance improvements and better working conditions,” the company wrote in its 2011 supplier responsibility progress report. In addition, the number of audited facilities has grown every year, and some executives say those expanding efforts obscure year-to-year improvements.

Apple also has trained over a million workers about their rights and methods for injury and disease prevention. A few years ago, after auditors insisted on interviewing low-level factory employees, they discovered that some had been forced to pay onerous “recruitment fees” — which Apple classifies as involuntary labor. As of last year, the company had forced suppliers to reimburse more than $6.7 million in such charges.

“Apple is a leader in preventing under-age labor,” said Dionne Harrison of Impactt, a firm paid by Apple to help prevent and respond to child labor among its suppliers. “They’re doing as much as they possibly can.”

Other consultants disagree.

“We’ve spent years telling Apple there are serious problems and recommending changes,” said a consultant at BSR — also known as Business for Social Responsibility — which has been twice retained by Apple to provide advice on labor issues. “They don’t want to pre-empt problems, they just want to avoid embarrassments.”

‘We Could Have Saved Lives’

In 2006, BSR, along with a division of the World Bank and other groups, initiated a project to improve working conditions in factories building cellphones and other devices in China and elsewhere. The groups and companies pledged to test various ideas. Foxconn agreed to participate.

For four months, BSR and another group negotiated with Foxconn regarding a pilot program to create worker “hotlines,” so that employees could report abusive conditions, seek mental counseling and discuss workplace problems. Apple was not a participant in the project, but was briefed on it, according to the BSR consultant, who had detailed knowledge.

As negotiations proceeded, Foxconn’s requirements for participation kept changing. First Foxconn asked to shift from installing new hotlines to evaluating existing hotlines. Then Foxconn insisted that mental health counseling be excluded. Foxconn asked participants to sign agreements saying they would not disclose what they observed, and then rewrote those agreements multiple times. Finally, an agreement was struck, and the project was scheduled to begin in January 2008. A day before the start, Foxconn demanded more changes, until it was clear the project would not proceed, according to the consultant and a 2008 summary by BSR that did not name Foxconn.

The next year, a Foxconn employee fell or jumped from an apartment building after losing an iPhone prototype. Over the next two years, at least 18 other Foxconn workers attempted suicide or fell from buildings in manners that suggested suicide attempts. In 2010, two years after the pilot program fell apart and after multiple suicide attempts, Foxconn created a dedicated mental health hotline and began offering free psychological counseling.

“We could have saved lives, and we asked Apple to pressure Foxconn, but they wouldn’t do it,” said the BSR consultant, who asked not to be identified because of confidentiality agreements. “Companies like H.P. and Intel and Nike push their suppliers. But Apple wants to keep an arm’s length, and Foxconn is their most important manufacturer, so they refuse to push.”

BSR, in a written statement, said the views of that consultant were not those of the company.

“My BSR colleagues and I view Apple as a company that is making a highly serious effort to ensure that labor conditions in its supply chain meet the expectations of applicable laws, the company’s standards and the expectations of consumers,” wrote Aron Cramer, BSR’s president. Mr. Cramer added that asking Apple to pressure Foxconn would have been inconsistent with the purpose of the pilot program, and there were multiple reasons the pilot program did not proceed.

Foxconn, in a statement, said it acted quickly and comprehensively to address suicides, and “the record has shown that those measures have been successful.”

A Demanding Client

Every month, officials at companies from around the world trek to Cupertino or invite Apple executives to visit their foreign factories, all in pursuit of a goal: becoming a supplier.

When news arrives that Apple is interested in a particular product or service, small celebrations often erupt. Whiskey is drunk. Karaoke is sung.

Then, Apple’s requests start.

Apple typically asks suppliers to specify how much every part costs, how many workers are needed and the size of their salaries. Executives want to know every financial detail. Afterward, Apple calculates how much it will pay for a part. Most suppliers are allowed only the slimmest of profits.

So suppliers often try to cut corners, replace expensive chemicals with less costly alternatives, or push their employees to work faster and longer, according to people at those companies.

“The only way you make money working for Apple is figuring out how to do things more efficiently or cheaper,” said an executive at one company that helped bring the iPad to market. “And then they’ll come back the next year, and force a 10 percent price cut.”

In January 2010, workers at a Chinese factory owned by Wintek, an Apple manufacturing partner, went on strike over a variety of issues, including widespread rumors that workers were being exposed to toxins. Investigations by news organizations revealed that over a hundred employees had been injured by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause nerve damage and paralysis.

Employees said they had been ordered to use n-hexane to clean iPhone screens because it evaporated almost three times as fast as rubbing alcohol. Faster evaporation meant workers could clean more screens each minute.

Apple commented on the Wintek injuries a year later. In its supplier responsibility report, Apple said it had “required Wintek to stop using n-hexane” and that “Apple has verified that all affected workers have been treated successfully, and we continue to monitor their medical reports until full recuperation.” Apple also said it required Wintek to fix the ventilation system.

That same month, a New York Times reporter interviewed a dozen injured Wintek workers who said they had never been contacted by Apple or its intermediaries, and that Wintek had pressured them to resign and take cash settlements that would absolve the company of liability. After those interviews, Wintek pledged to provide more compensation to the injured workers and Apple sent a representative to speak with some of them.

Six months later, trade publications reported that Apple significantly cut prices paid to Wintek.

“You can set all the rules you want, but they’re meaningless if you don’t give suppliers enough profit to treat workers well,” said one former Apple executive with firsthand knowledge of the supplier responsibility group. “If you squeeze margins, you’re forcing them to cut safety.”

Wintek is still one of Apple’s most important suppliers. Wintek, in a statement, declined to comment except to say that after the episode, the company took “ample measures” to address the situation and “is committed to ensuring employee welfare and creating a safe and healthy work environment.”

Many major technology companies have worked with factories where conditions are troubling. However, independent monitors and suppliers say some act differently. Executives at multiple suppliers, in interviews, said that Hewlett-Packard and others allowed them slightly more profits and other allowances if they were used to improve worker conditions.

“Our suppliers are very open with us,” said Zoe McMahon, an executive in Hewlett-Packard’s supply chain social and environmental responsibility program. “They let us know when they are struggling to meet our expectations, and that influences our decisions.”

The Explosion

On the afternoon of the blast at the iPad plant, Lai Xiaodong telephoned his girlfriend, as he did every day. They had hoped to see each other that evening, but Mr. Lai’s manager said he had to work overtime, he told her.

He had been promoted quickly at Foxconn, and after just a few months was in charge of a team that maintained the machines that polished iPad cases. The sanding area was loud and hazy with aluminum dust. Workers wore masks and earplugs, but no matter how many times they showered, they were recognizable by the slight aluminum sparkle in their hair and at the corners of their eyes.

Just two weeks before the explosion, an advocacy group in Hong Kong published a report warning of unsafe conditions at the Chengdu plant, including problems with aluminum dust. The group, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, or Sacom, had videotaped workers covered with tiny aluminum particles. “Occupational health and safety issues in Chengdu are alarming,” the report read. “Workers also highlight the problem of poor ventilation and inadequate personal protective equipment.”

A copy of that report was sent to Apple. “There was no response,” said Debby Chan Sze Wan of the group. “A few months later I went to Cupertino, and went into the Apple lobby, but no one would meet with me. I’ve never heard from anyone from Apple at all.”

The morning of the explosion, Mr. Lai rode his bicycle to work. The iPad had gone on sale just weeks earlier, and workers were told thousands of cases needed to be polished each day. The factory was frantic, employees said. Rows of machines buffed cases as masked employees pushed buttons. Large air ducts hovered over each station, but they could not keep up with the three lines of machines polishing nonstop. Aluminum dust was everywhere.

Dust is a known safety hazard. In 2003, an aluminum dust explosion in Indiana destroyed a wheel factory and killed a worker. In 2008, agricultural dust inside a sugar factory in Georgia caused an explosion that killed 14.

Two hours into Mr. Lai’s second shift, the building started to shake, as if an earthquake was under way. There was a series of blasts, plant workers said.

Then the screams began.

When Mr. Lai’s colleagues ran outside, dark smoke was mixing with a light rain, according to cellphone videos. The toll would eventually count four dead, 18 injured.

At the hospital, Mr. Lai’s girlfriend saw that his skin was almost completely burned away. “I recognized him from his legs, otherwise I wouldn’t know who that person was,” she said.

Eventually, his family arrived. Over 90 percent of his body had been seared. “My mom ran away from the room at the first sight of him. I cried. Nobody could stand it,” his brother said. When his mother eventually returned, she tried to avoid touching her son, for fear that it would cause pain.

“If I had known,” she said, “I would have grabbed his arm, I would have touched him.”

“He was very tough,” she said. “He held on for two days.”

After Mr. Lai died, Foxconn workers drove to Mr. Lai’s hometown and delivered a box of ashes. The company later wired a check for about $150,000.

Foxconn, in a statement, said that at the time of the explosion the Chengdu plant was in compliance with all relevant laws and regulations, and “after ensuring that the families of the deceased employees were given the support they required, we ensured that all of the injured employees were given the highest quality medical care.” After the explosion, the company added, Foxconn immediately halted work in all polishing workshops, and later improved ventilation and dust disposal, and adopted technologies to enhance worker safety.

In its most recent supplier responsibility report, Apple wrote that after the explosion, the company contacted “the foremost experts in process safety” and assembled a team to investigate and make recommendations to prevent future accidents.

In December, however, seven months after the blast that killed Mr. Lai, another iPad factory exploded, this one in Shanghai. Once again, aluminum dust was the cause, according to interviews and Apple’s most recent supplier responsibility report. That blast injured 59 workers, with 23 hospitalized.

“It is gross negligence, after an explosion occurs, not to realize that every factory should be inspected,” said Nicholas Ashford, the occupational safety expert, who is now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If it were terribly difficult to deal with aluminum dust, I would understand. But do you know how easy dust is to control? It’s called ventilation. We solved this problem over a century ago.”

In its most recent supplier responsibility report, Apple wrote that while the explosions both involved combustible aluminum dust, the causes were different. The company declined, however, to provide details. The report added that Apple had now audited all suppliers polishing aluminum products and had put stronger precautions in place. All suppliers have initiated required countermeasures, except one, which remains shut down, the report said.

For Mr. Lai’s family, questions remain. “We’re really not sure why he died,” said Mr. Lai’s mother, standing beside a shrine she built near their home. “We don’t understand what happened.”

Hitting the Apple Lottery

Every year, as rumors about Apple’s forthcoming products start to emerge, trade publications and Web sites begin speculating about which suppliers are likely to win the Apple lottery. Getting a contract from Apple can lift a company’s value by millions because of the implied endorsement of manufacturing quality. But few companies openly brag about the work: Apple generally requires suppliers to sign contracts promising they will not divulge anything, including the partnership.

That lack of transparency gives Apple an edge at keeping its plans secret. But it also has been a barrier to improving working conditions, according to advocates and former Apple executives.

This month, after numerous requests by advocacy and news organizations, including The New York Times, Apple released the names of 156 of its suppliers. In the report accompanying that list, Apple said they “account for more than 97 percent of what we pay to suppliers to manufacture our products.”

However, the company has not revealed the names of hundreds of other companies that do not directly contract with Apple, but supply the suppliers. The company’s supplier list does not disclose where factories are, and many are hard to find. And independent monitoring organizations say when they have tried to inspect Apple’s suppliers, they have been barred from entry — on Apple’s orders, they have been told.

“We’ve had this conversation hundreds of times,” said a former executive in Apple’s supplier responsibility group. “There is a genuine, companywide commitment to the code of conduct. But taking it to the next level and creating real change conflicts with secrecy and business goals, and so there’s only so far we can go.” Former Apple employees say they were generally prohibited from engaging with most outside groups.

“There’s a real culture of secrecy here that influences everything,” the former executive said.

Some other technology companies operate differently.

“We talk to a lot of outsiders,” said Gary Niekerk, director of corporate citizenship at Intel. “The world’s complex, and unless we’re dialoguing with outside groups, we miss a lot.”

Given Apple’s prominence and leadership in global manufacturing, if the company were to radically change its ways, it could overhaul how business is done. “Every company wants to be Apple,” said Sasha Lezhnev at the Enough Project, a group focused on corporate accountability. “If they committed to building a conflict-free iPhone, it would transform technology.”

But ultimately, say former Apple executives, there are few real outside pressures for change. Apple is one of the most admired brands. In a national survey conducted by The New York Times in November, 56 percent of respondents said they couldn’t think of anything negative about Apple. Fourteen percent said the worst thing about the company was that its products were too expensive. Just 2 percent mentioned overseas labor practices.

People like Ms. White of Harvard say that until consumers demand better conditions in overseas factories — as they did for companies like Nike and Gap, which today have overhauled conditions among suppliers — or regulators act, there is little impetus for radical change. Some Apple insiders agree.

“You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories, or you can reinvent the product every year, and make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards,” said a current Apple executive.

“And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China.”

Gu Huini contributed research.

its not just china. Most developing countries face the same issues be in Vietnam or India

India textile sector for eg relies on child labor.

Face and costs of globalisation me must accept. In the next decade imo things will become better for china as they switch to consumption more than production. You just have to read charles dickens books to realise that industrial revolution in UK was not kind on the conditions of the working class either.


IMO the NYT is nothing more than a busy body paper. I think people knew before hand what sort of conditions exist in the developing world.

I donot know why there is not strong electronic/ semiconductor manufacturing in India. All LED tvs cost double the price of what they cost in europa. Crap

Most tech consumables and other goods costs more in India.

Small goods:
Iphone in India costs 50000 Rs = 1000$
Even without a contract - in US it costs anywhere between 649-849$.
With contract the prices start from 199$!!!

Large goods:
Prius - costs 54772$ in India.
It costs anywhere between $23,015 - $39,525 in US.

Ultra Populist Subsidies, Complex and Inept Tax code, opaque Labor Laws and naturally Corruption at all levels implies the average Joe in India pays more for many consumables, almost twice the value in a country that earns 1/10th of US per capita. I guess people would argue what matters more are lower prices of fertilizers, train tickets and farm goods - which justifies the high prices on the others (which naturally get tagged as luxury more or less).

Am pretty sure there is an equilibrium between the two - but to reach that- government will have to undertake drastic reforms in all the above fields - which is not going to happen.

^^ iphone in India costs about 42K with one year contract. As for automobiles - many parts have to be imported, no one in India cares about GPS or Lane departure warning or parking camera mounted at the back, because there isn't enough infrastructure to make use of those features yet.

No Ichi bhai, I m not talking about the food. I never go to McDonald's or thy kind of crap in India or here. When I m in no mood to cook then I go to a afghan restaurant which sells durum diner, shoarma or pizza for less than what u pay for a menu at McDonald .

I m talking about branded jeans, shoes, watches, cars,tvs, home theater, phones,girls

India is seriously obsessed with China,need to get out of that.

As far as manufacturing in India is concerned we are average copy chaaps,we need R&D to rule the world,take this even if USA goes bankrupt, its patents, royalty,hi tech knowledge(which it never shares with anybody) will let it bounce back again.

India does lame manufacturing work, no R&D hence no feel of ownership.US sinks we also sink....

Yes, smaller western Europa and north Europa countries also have small companies with strong R & D and niche products. They call themselves as technology innovator. Here engineers want to be engineers, no mad rush for MBA. Nobody gives a crap to MBA.

We have copy manufacturing and managers only. But recently Indian companies are on buying spree of companies abroad and they are especially targeting these kind of companies which have strong R & D, for ex Mahindra

^^ Leave automobiles etc...We don't have good bolt manufacturers man.No innovation no substance.

During designing, I suggest usage of Hilti anchor bolts whenever the need for strong anchorage is required. Even for such small things we import

Hey hey did u contact sundar am fasteners in Padi,chennai-:)

Hey hey did u contact sundar am fasteners in Padi,chennai-:)

No,do they have products for building technologies??

There must be some supplier in India. Lot of big construction going in India now a days

Bangladesh, India sign $1.5 bn power plant deal (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jzeOiG2j9qSEIBS0OKZUhb9o61yQ?docId=CNG.4063a98d0f04619f2afb024f83ec316a.3d1)

India-China trade hits all time high.

India-China bilateral trade hit a record USD 73.9 billion last year, but the ballooning trade deficit in Beijing's favour rose to over USD 27 billion, raising concern among Indian authorities.The bilateral trade registered a USD 12.2 billion increase in 2011, taking the total to USD 73.9 billion as against USD 61.7 billion in 2010, according to official trade figures for the last year.The trade deficit in 2011, however, piled up to USD 27.07 billion even though Indian exports to China went up to USD 23.4 billion registering a growth of almost 12.26 per cent compared to the same period in year 2010.

"The overall trade figure looks good but the deficit remains a cause for concern," Indian Ambassador to China S Jaishankar said.

He said efforts are being made to improve market access for Indian products in China. "We have some early signs of movement in access to the Indian IT products. But these are early days," he said, referring to various campaigns organised by the Indian Embassy to push IT and Pharmaceutical exports to China.

Most important thing is that the bilateral trade is growing well despite the global economic downturn, he said.Chinese officials have been acknowledging India's concerns over trade deficit and the issue was expected to figure in detail in India-China Trade Ministers talks during the BRICS Commerce Meeting on March 28 in New Delhi.

The Indian exports, mainly composed of primary products and commodity sector, increased despite the decline of iron ore exports, which dominated exports to China for long due to ban on mining in Karnataka and Goa, said K Nagraj Naidu, head of the economic and trade wing of the Indian Embassy.Chinese exports to India continue to surge crossing the USD 50 billion mark. The exports logged USD 50.04 billion registering a growth of 23.51 per cent over 2010.

The share of India-China bilateral trade in China's overall trade increased to about 3.8 per cent compared to 2.06 per cent in 2010.Naidu said India's exports of ores, slag and ash to China have dropped by 11 per cent to 10.45 billion in 2011.

Iron ore which has traditionally been the top item of export has dropped by 14 per cent to USD 9.6 billion in 2011 compared to the USD 11.2 billion exports in 2010.The share of iron ore in the basket of Indian exports to China has dropped to 41 per cent in 2011 compared to 54 per cent in 2010 and 55 per cent in 2009, he said. The drop in iron ore exports could be attributed to the ban on mining in Karnataka, illegal mining in Goa, restriction on iron ore truck movements in Orissa.Also the other reason could be that China is diversifying its spot iron ore purchases away from India, largely in favour of South Africa, Naidu said.India's cotton, yarn and fabric exports to China have seen a growth of 49 per cent reaching USD 3.1 billion in 2011.

While India's concerns over trade deficit remained, Indian officials say that there are encouraging signs about Chinese investments in India even though figures are not available as most of the investments are coming through Singapore and Mauritius. The high volumes of Chinese trade in India is also focussed on infrastructure development specially, telecom and energy generation equipment.Over all trade and investment appears to emerging as a strong binding force for the bilateral ties, according to the officials.India's items of export which have seen positive growth rates include, copper (USD two billion) precious stones (USD 1.1 billion), organic chemicals (USD 999 million) slat, sulphur, earth, stone (USD 514 million) and machinery (USD 478 million).

Under machinery, India's principal exports to China included diesel machines worth USD 47 million and crank shafts worth USD 32 million. India is China?s 16th largest source of imports.

source (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/india-china-trade-hits-all-time-high-of-usd-73.9-billion-in-2011/1/171137.html)

oh man, I'm having noodles tonight.

I remember L&T making noises when it lost to chinese energy suppliers

here are a few articles

L&T cuts plan, Thermax warns as Chinese charge in (http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_l-and-t-cuts-plan-thermax-warns-as-chinese-charge-in_1483495)

Published: Monday, Dec 20, 2010, 3:47 IST
By Varun Sood | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

In the last three months, Chinese power equipment majors have won $15 billion — or Rs70,000 crore — worth of power equipment contracts from Indian firms, setting off a wave of angst in the domestic industry.

So much so, Larsen & Toubro, the country’s largest private largest engineering and construction major, has curtailed its targeted capacity expansion by 33%.

L&T’s power division had planned to ramp up capacity by 50% at its Hazira facility from 4,000 mw to 6,000 mw by 2012, but after the recent multibillion-dollar agreements signed by power producers with Chinese rivals, it has been forced to can the expansion, according to Ravi Uppal, managing director and chief executive officer of L&T Power.

Thermax, the country’s largest private sector boiler manufacturer, has also threatened that it would ‘withhold’ its plan of investing “`5,000 crore over the coming years” unless the government imposes tax on imports from China.

Under the largest China-India power deal, Reliance Power announced in October-end that the company will place a $10 billion order with Shanghai Electric Group Company for getting 30,000 mw capacity of boiler, turbine and generator packages for its coal-based power plants.

Last week, the Essar Group signed an agreement with China Development Bank Corporation, under which the conglomerate would get priority lending for $3 billion when it buys equipment for its power, shipping, and steel business.
Over the weekend, Abhijeet Group and KSK Energy awarded Dongfang Electric Corporation with an order size of $2.7 billion for super-critical units for burning coals power and wind power equipment, respectively.

Leading private sector equipment manufacturers say that cheaper credit offered from Chinese banks for financing these agreements and subsidies provided by Beijing have made companies like Shanghai Electric Group Co emerge as the new power equipment makers of the world.

“Lower interest rate on purchasing equipment from there (China) is making many rush to sign agreements,” said B G Raghupathy, chairman and managing director of BGR Energy, the Chennai-based power sector company.
Worryingly for private players, analysts say this trend would only strengthen in future as Beijing seems to be in no mood to stop subsidising its equipment manufacturers.

“For the short term, Chinese companies have got the contracts, so the government will see to it that the investments made by the domestic players don’t lose out as most of them are in the initial development stage,” said Arvind Mahajan, executive director at audit firm and consultancy KPMG.

“Imposing duties is one step the government could think of. They (government) could also ask the Chinese players to partner with domestic players rather than merely export equipment,” said Mahajan.

Earlier this year, a Planning Commission committee headed by ArunMaira had asked for a 14% duty on Chinese power equipment, a move which would have helped Indian power equipment makers compete globally.

But the advice did not pass muster with the finance ministry, which believed it was “anti competition”, leaving players like L&T, which has invested Rs3,500 crore in setting up a manufacturing plant, in a spot.

“It is rather unfortunate that most companies are going to China for sourcing equipment,” said Uppal, adding that equipment manufactured in China is up to 25% cheaper than in India on account of various direct and indirect subsidies offered by Beijing.

“We have the technical know-how. All the global giants are here,” explained Uppal, whose company has two joint ventures with Japanese-major Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd to manufacture super critical boilers and steam turbine generators.

India aims to expand its power capacity by 100,000 mw over the coming five years, at an investment of Rs500,000 crore. Since the majority of this expansion would be funded by private players, their decision to opt for Chinese equipment manufacturers could result in the Indian exchequer losing Rs180,000 crore, according to MS Unnikrishnan, managing director, Thermax.

This loss, according to Unnikrishnan, was calculated after adding various forms of taxes —- octroi, excise, minimum alternative tax and income tax —- a manufacturer would have paid in India, already the second-largest power equipment market, behind China.

“You are compromising our country by allowing this unbridled import, knowing fully that they are being subsidised (and then financed) cheaper loans from Chinese banks,” said Unnikrishnan. The company has a pact with US-based Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group Inc to make supercritical boilers and subcritical boilers of more than 300 mw. Additionally, it also has joint venture with US-based SPX Corporation to provide pollution control equipments to new power plants.

“The playing field is distorted,” said Sunil Chaturvedi, chief operating officer, capital goods division, Bharat Forge.

Bharat Forge has two joint ventures in the power divison: one with French power engineering company Alstom to build critical turbine generators and the other with NTPC for the balance of power equipment including high-pressure valves and pumps.

However, Raghupathy says things won’t be too worrisome for at least two years because none of the private equipment manufacturers’ joint ventures with foreign partners is functional. “(Nonetheless) we are definitely in trouble if this trend (sourcing to China) continues.”

The industry is also sceptical of the efficiency of Chinese equipment makers, with many saying they remain quality control on their power turbines.

Still, the companies that have placed orders with Chinese companies remain undeterred. “China itself has added 100,000 mw energy in the last year. This was done using the same technology which we are importing,” said an executive at the Nagpur-based Abhijeet Group, which has interests in mining, steel and power.

A spokesperson for Reliance Power declined to comment for the story.

China systematically killing Indian mfring sector: L&T Chief
(http://www.deccanherald.com/content/46221/china-systematically-killing-indian-mfring.html)
Surat, Jan 10 (PTI):
Private sector engineering major Larsen & Toubro has said that China is systematically killing Indian manufacturing sector and sought 25 per cent anti-dumping duty on Chinese goods.

"China has a fixed currency. It is not a market economy like ours. China is systematically killing the Indian manufacturing sector," Naik, who was here for foundation stone laying ceremony of a forgings unit at Hazira told reporters here yesterday.
"There are taxes on goods manufactured locally, but none on imported products (from China). This is an unfair situation for Indian goods. This is why there should be 25 per cent anti-dumping duty on Chinese products," Naik said.
Speaking specifically about power equipment sector, in which L&T is a major player, Naik said, "The Indian power companies, especially those in the private sector, have placed huge orders for power plant equipment with China. We can say that Chinese power sector is virtually working for India."

"It is not good that 80 per cent of our dependence for power plant equipment is on one country, and that too China," he said, adding that China should not be allowed to grow at the cost of Indian companies.
"The day China opens its economy, its prices are bound to go up by 25 per cent," he said.

"But unfortunately we are not taking any steps to stop it," Naik further said.
L&T's special steel manufacturing and ultra heavy forgings unit at Hazira is a joint venture with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), in which L&T holds 74 per cent stake while the latter 26 per cent.

The plant is being set up at an investment of Rs 1,750 crore, and will supply finished forgings for nuclear reactors, pressurisers and steam generators, besides heavy forgings for critical equipment in the hydrocarbon sector, as well as thermal power plants and steel plants. The unit is expected to begin operations between March and May next year.
L&T is also investing over Rs 5,000 crore for setting up facilities to manufacture boilers, turbines, modular fabrications. It is also establishing a ship-building unit and a power plant at its Hazira facility.
"The boiler shop will be opened in March or April this year, which will be followed by the turbine shop in August or so," Naik said.

WTF is indian govt doing abiding by rules of the game when the other side takes advantage of it by changing rules as they please. All these excuses are a way to hide the govt incompetency. Same applies in military hardware. Beg, Borrow or steal, the goal should be to support and grow local economy. China gives a damn what the world thinks, and the world respect it no matter what. We need leaders with spine at the center. Enough of this chamiya led useless govt which is taking all of us down the drain.

The current Govt is the most spineless lot there ever was. There is complete standstill in decision making. Major disasters around India like the recent rain storms/ typhoon winds have decimated lots of areas. Yet the Govt is in supine silly sleep, nary worried about anything. So many major decision are hanging in limbo - from defence to infrastructure to economy and now trade imbalance with China. The circus of NPR and UDAI is a classic. Two agencies duplicating the effort and squabbling over how many fields they get to fill in a form. Railways is in shambles but they don't have the gumption to fire the useless Railway Minister from Mamta's TNC. With this moronic govt and its chalta hai attitude India is becoming a laughing stock , compared to other nations in the immediate neighborhood. The Indian youth are raring to go and I say they are a talented and inspired bunch compared to the geriatric crowd that governs the nation. Wipro's Azim Premji said it right: The biggest enemy of India is the no-decision govt and babucracy that has a stranglehold on every minute decision. Time for this do nothing govt to go.

-duh-old news.

January exports rise 10% to $24.5 bn (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/january-exports-rise-10-to-245-bn/157490/on)

dismal figure for deficit @ $14.7 billion.

Iran turns to India for wheat as palm oil dries up (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/09/us-india-iran-payment-idUSTRE8181DY20120209)

January exports rise 10% to $24.5 bn (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/january-exports-rise-10-to-245-bn/157490/on)

dismal figure for deficit @ $14.7 billion.

yup



Rupee going to fall fast....

India, EU to expedite free trade talks

India and the 27-nation European Union (EU) on Friday agreed to intensify talks to conclude a broad-based trade and investment accord soon and signed two agreements, including on research and innovation cooperation.
The two sides also decided to step up their cooperation in combating terrorism and piracy as they underlined the importance of Pakistan's cooperation "to eliminate terrorism and dismantle terrorist networks".

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held the 12th India-EU Summit with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that focused on a wide swathe of issues, including enhanced economic and security cooperation between the two sides.

The leaders of India and the EU also discussed the broad spectrum of their engagement, including energy cooperation, science and technology, culture, counter-terrorism, piracy and cyber-security.

The EU is India's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade estimated at $107 billion.

The two sides also exchanged views on global issues, including the situation in Syria and Iran and developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

After the talks, India and the EU signed a joint declaration on research and innovation cooperation and a memorandum of understanding on statistical cooperation which have the potential to ramp up economic ties between the two sides.

Referring to the broad-based trade and investment agreement which the two sides have been negotiating for years, Manmohan Singh said that although both sides have made "considerable progress" in negotiations, there still remain complex issues on the way.

"There are complex issues involved, but we have both agreed to expedite discussions so that we can conclude an agreement at the earliest," the prime minister said at a joint press conference with the EU leaders.

"We seek solutions that are practical, mutually beneficial and acceptable to both sides," he stressed.

Barroso stressed that the two sides have taken a "significant step forward" during talks to reach the defining trade agreement and hoped that negotiations should be completed late this autumn. "Our positions are now closer in all areas and the contours of the final agreement are emerging."

"We have, therefore, committed to intensifying these negotiations. I expect the finalization of these negotiations this autumn," he said. "Negotiations on an ambitious and balanced package are now close to completion which is expected to provide a new thrust to bilateral trade, investment and economic cooperation," said a joint statement.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht would monitor the progress of these negotiations for an early conclusion.

Voicing hope for an early economic recovery for the EU, Manmohan Singh also pitched for "greater investment flows in both directions" and underlined that it was a win-win proposition for both sides.

"I conveyed to the EU leadership the importance India attaches to EU's participation in our growth agenda including in infrastructure development, clean energy technologies, innovation, research and skill development," said Manmohan Singh.

Expanding security and counter-terror cooperation figured prominently in the talks, with special focus on enhanced cooperation in cyber security. The two sides also spent some time discussing the volatile situation in Pakistan and its implications for combating terror.

"Leaders stressed that a stable and democratic Pakistan is in the interest of the entire region," said the joint statement. "They agreed that terrorism and violent extremism represent serious threats to international peace and security and on the importance of Pakistan's cooperation with countries in the region to eliminate terrorism and dismantle terrorist networks," it said.

source (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/india-eu-to-clinch-fta-soon-to-combat-terror/1/173083.html)

3-day India Show begins in Lahore today

* 50 prominent Indian companies to exhibit their products at Lahore Expo

* Signing expected on NTBs issue between Indo-Pakcommerce ministers on concluding day

* Expectations high for new era of trade diplomacy

More than 50 prominent Indian companies are exhibiting their products spread around 110 stalls in Lahore Expo Centre from today (Saturday) as part of a three-day ‘India Show’ exhibition.

Federal Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim will inaugurate the India Show at 10:30am at Lahore Expo Centre.

It is a rare event of its kind in Lahore city in a new development of track-II diplomacy in Indo-Pak relations and is expected to open up a new arena of trade ties between the traditional rival neighbouring countries.

The organisers include Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI), Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industries and is supported by Commerce Ministry of Pakistan and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI). The event is aimed at raising awareness about Indian products in Pakistan during Feb 11-13, 2012.

In the India Show exhibition, products would be put on display ranging from manufacturing, services, chemicals, engineering, textiles and apparels, consumer durables, gems and jewellery, cosmetics, handicrafts, auto components, healthcare etc. Three hours in each of the day will remain open for general visitors while the morning hours will remain dedicated to business visitors. Business-to-business meetings during the days of the exhibition would be organised by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) in collaboration with LCCI. One time permission has been granted by government of Pakistan to exhibit Indian goods and services beyond the positive list and counter sale of products.

The LCCI is mainly arranging an inter-active session of the businessmen of Pakistan and India. A high-powered Indian CEOs delegation led by FICCI President RV Kanoria will accompany Indian Commerce, Industry and Textile Minister Anand Sharma during his visit to Pakistan. The Indian CEOs delegation comprising more than 100 business delegates, accompanying the Indian minister, will have business meetings in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.

The Indian commerce minister will be the chief guest at the closing ceremony of the show on February 13.

Signing of at least three agreements on the issue of Non Tariff Barriers (NTBs) is also expected during the visit of Indian Commerce Minister, besides many business deals between the traders and industrialists of both countries.

Since November 26, 2008 both countries, which share 1,280 kilometres long border, experienced worst kind of ties.

Pakistan showed its willingness to give India Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status in October 2011, although formal announcement of the final decision is still awaited due to a controversy at home because many local manufactures have expressed their strong reservations. However, Pakistan and India have finalised three agreements on Non-Tariff Barriers, claimed Indian Joint Secretary for Commerce Arvind Mehta while heading a high-level five-member delegation of Indian regulators to Pakistan in January this year.

On January 26 the visiting Indian joint secretary for commerce said that Pakistan and India have finalised three agreements to remove NTBs presently billed as obstruction for Pakistani exports to India. He said the agreements are expected to be signed during the upcoming visit by the Indian commerce minister next month.

Mehta, who was heading a high-level five-member delegation of Indian regulators, said that these agreements are the Customs Cooperation Agreement to avoid arbitrary stoppages of goods at each other’s ports; Mutual Recognition Agreement for acceptance of certificates of internationally accredited laboratories; and Redressal of Grievances Agreement in case of any disagreement.

He said that both the sides have also finalised a very liberal visa regime that would be in place as soon as the cabinets in the two countries grant approval. He said that the peak tariff line in India for Pakistan is 8.0 percent that is going to be curtailed to 5.0 percent by the year-end.

Over cement export to India, he clarified that NTBs considered to be the major hurdle are not Pakistan specific rather the delay in the clearance was only due to poor infrastructure on both sides of the border. He said that on Indian side a big customs complex with the cost of $30 million is being built and within three months period the new facility would enable the customs officials on both the sides to handle 800 trucks daily. The second gate on Wagah border will be opened soon.

On this occasion Ready, the representative of Indian customs, ensured the Pakistani businessmen that the New Automatic Customs System will enhance the efficiency and transparency and the trade consignments from Pakistan to India would be expedited. He acknowledged that the major problem between the two countries was the lack of institutional and communication framework. To overcome this problem, “We are working on a three-tier solution - daily or local problems at Wagah Attari border will be handled at their own level, one meeting between the customs collectors of both the countries at least once in two months and one meeting of ministerial level regarding policy matters would be held in every six months,” he added.

LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the expo would help jack-up volume of bilateral trade between Pakistan and India as presently a major portion of trade between the two countries in being done through third country. Sheikh said that the LCCI always wants trade with bordering countries for being more efficient in terms of cost and logistics.

Indian commerce minister will be visiting Pakistan to accelerate the positive movements. FICCI hopes that the much-awaited decision to move towards a negative list approach for trade with India will be announced soon. This will be a precursor to granting MFN status to India. At present a large volume of goods are being traded through informal channels via third countries. The MFN status is likely to facilitate direct trade, and benefit both the producers and consumers.

FICCI spokesman says that the organisation has always been at the forefront of improving bilateral economic ties with Pakistan and SAARC region as a whole. FICCI strongly feels that the current environment is filled with positivism and we must strive to seize this opportunity.

Pakistan was separated from India on August 1947 and since then both countries have seen many ups and downs in the relationship including four wars and many efforts to sign peace accords. This indeed is a big step towards promotion of trade ties of both countries while breaking the shell of traditional rivalries.

If all goes well, it is expected that Pakistani products exhibitions would also be arranged in New Delhi and other cities of the India.

^^

http://www.express.com.pk/images/NP_LHE/20120211/Sub_Images/1101446071-1.jpg

In Urdu, if anyone understands

http://www.express.com.pk/images/NP_LHE/20120212/Sub_Images/1101447676-1.jpg

^^

Hundreds of thousands people visited the exhibition. Nice one...

Some pics of the exhibition:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7062/6865621023_6a30c41bc5_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7179/6865619983_26720384f1_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7067/6865619085_5cf9650acf_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7038/6865590005_8cdc4b9f48_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7042/6865591861_1b86137d0f_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7188/6865593999_131ed57804_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7187/6865596039_d990ba75fd_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7193/6865598231_c0eda8a5b4_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7202/6865599909_53525e9e76_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7036/6865601909_c6783b7952_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7207/6865603903_0d33c975cb_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7188/6865605963_53a1dab676_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7041/6865607569_a3501fd7e3_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7059/6865609173_2607d925d0_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7192/6865611009_5f3c1f12ef_b.jpg

Food Court
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7203/6865616513_7eb4df8b10_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7042/6865617959_af8ec4fb45_b.jpg

^^ Thanks Ahmad for the pictures. Nice to see the great turnout...

@ahmad thanks for posting this.

Great to see the pictures Ahmad, thanks for posting them here

Were people buying stuff too?

^^ Thanks all. Atleast 5 lac people visited the exhibition. Don't think so buying facility was there BUT the stall holders were trying people different samples e.g. coffee of India etc. Jewelry & cloth stalls were very popular among the women...

^^^ Nice pics, did you take them ? If yes, just cite yourself, its always a better idea :).

^^ Yes, I myself took all those pics. Thanks for the idea, I will...

Guys - with India recently announcing its paying for Iranian Oil in Rupees instead of Dollar, what does this really entail?
Does it benefit India in any way or worsens the situation (with Rupee at historic lows - I would expect the deal to be more toxic than ever before)

benefits both india and iran

India has the capacity to print money in rupees. No conversion to dollar/euro.

Iran does not want holdings in euros or dollars due to sanctions.

The rupees Iran gets it will buy stuff from India like wheat/other things which it needs to import.

So India gets to even the trade balance in favour of Iran and Iran can skip through the sanctions of the west.


Btw it seems to saudis are shitting a brick when it comes to India and Iran. They are apparently offering India their oil at cheaper rates.
We should tell the saudis point blank that we will pay you only in rupees. Might as well play hard ball.

btw just to sum up

the rupee is not fully convertible. So Iranian banks in India will set up the mechanism.

In essence its a sort of barter system.

Payment for oil with wheat and a whole host of things Iran needs to import.



I did read an article saying that Iran has big plans for a full blown bilateral FTA with india based on rupees. This takes the dollar out of the question and the US sanctions are basically softened. Their plan to so basically have the oil trade in rupees and supply 50% of India's oil an gas needs by 2020-2025. Then use the money gained in rupees to buy stuff such as wheat/iron ore/steel/rice and other stuff they import from countries. All in all they are talking atleast of betting big on India to counter any sanctions. I do believe they planning the same thing with china. Trade in yuan and use the yuan to import stuff from china.

In the long term the plan is export as much oil as possible to china and india. Import as much as possible from these countries. Cut out exports to EU and direct american allies like S Korea and Japan and NATO members like Turkey. Basically cut the west out of all the dealings. China and India should account for (Iran hopes) 80% of all imports and exports. Currently China makes up 30% of all foreign trade and India makes up 16%. So there is a lot more scope in the eyes of Iran for trade with India to expand to about 30% of total Iranian international trade by 2020 with china being about 50%.

If that comes about then sanctions by the EU and USA wont mean anything for the Iranian economy.



So from an Indian POV we should not go down the FTA route. Trade in oil is fair enough as we need the oil in rupees. But lets not sign a FTA or something pissing of other nations.

Printing more rupees - well - never a good idea simply because it increases inflation.
But it does indeed seem like rupee is simply a phantom medium - the real commodities that get exchanged are wheat (to them) and oil (to us).

But it still doesn't add up - wheat futures prices are insignificant compared oil futures! The only way the equation would start to make sense is the wheat transferred would be far in excess in terms of bartering quantity vis-a-vis their oil.

That 1 barrel of Oil = xxx quintles of wheat (Not a factual number). We Import 20% of our crude from Iran - about 372000 barrel of oil. That's a whole lot of wheat - this can't be an equi-barter - something else must balance the massive cost of us purchasing that oil

its not just wheat sigma bhai

its steel and cement chemicals etc. Iran Contruction industry for example is facing big shortages of steel. Iran wants to cut down on reliance of imports as well. They import wheat and many food items from Turkey which is a member of nato.

Iran will sell oil to India in rupees and then have a wish list of what it wants to purchase.
They will use the rupees to purchase all what they want.


What India has is a diversified industrial base. Ie it can produce goods to meet the demands of Iran.

It does not even have to be purchase of goods. They may even decide to buy real estate and infra projects in India with the proceeds.



the point being Iran will be forced to purchase goods from India. Cause they will have only rupees to spend. Its like getting a voucher to a store. You can buy only whats there in the store.


Iran will sell oil to China and India and get vouchers to buy goods from the store of India and China. My guess if that India's exports to Iran will be textiles and generic medicnial drugs in the future.

The India Show at Lahore Expo Center:

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From $100 mn to $100 bn in 20 yrs (http://business-standard.com/india/news/from-100-mn-to-100-bn-in-20-yrs/464741/)

That's some phenomenal growth!

The India Show at Lahore Expo Center:

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Thank you Ahmad for all the pics and info on the expo :)

^^ :D

Being in constant exposure to the Pakistani textile industry, I also see a lot of Indian & Bangladeshi buyers (big buying offices, garment manufacturers, re-exporters and home-textile industry of India) buying huge quantities of merchandise from Pakistan. Ironically, most of the Indian buying happens through agents sitting in Bangladesh.

A lot of American establishments like JCPenny, PVH, Target etc are putting a lot of importance on Pakistani merchandise for their garment fabrics - which then get stitched in benchmarked / approved/nominated garment manufacturing factories in Bangla. And I can say it is only good for Pakistan and its neighbor(s)

From $100 mn to $100 bn in 20 yrs (http://business-standard.com/india/news/from-100-mn-to-100-bn-in-20-yrs/464741/)

That's some phenomenal growth!

No time to rest on our laurels(hard earned),NASSCOM Projects (and has set target of) $300 Billion in earnings in the year 2020.Its a huge market internationally and India still has less then 5% share of the Global Outsourcing Pie. Also the domestic demand too is increasing and is set to become an important source of revenue in the future.

Tata Communications signs F1 global technology association

Tata Communications, a leading provider of The New World of Communications, announced on Thursday a multi-year technology service and marketing agreement with Formula One Management. The agreement will see Tata Communications delivering world-class connectivity to all 20 Formula One race locations over its global network, the largest in the world.

It will also provide hosting and content delivery services to Formula1.com, which is accessed by tens of millions of fans around the globe.

The innovative deal positions Tata Communications corporately as a Technology Supplier of Formula 1™ with category exclusive designations as Official Connectivity Provider of Formula 1™ and Official Web Hosting and Content Delivery Network of Formula1.com.

Formula One group businesses and race locations will now be connected to the Tata Global Network (“TGN”), supported by secure MPLS connectivity. Formula One Management's IT infrastructure and Formula1.com will be co-located and hosted in Tata Communications’ world-class data centres.

“Formula 1 requires fast and secure connectivity, because even a split second of downtime can have huge repercussions for its business, brand and reputation,” said Vinod Kumar, Managing Director and CEO of Tata Communications. “This delivery is at the heart of our organisation and working with one of the world's most highly technical and innovative organisations is an exciting opportunity for Tata Communications. The collaboration leverages our technology leadership and vision for emerging markets and represents a tremendous opportunity for growth and innovation for both companies.”

Bernie Ecclestone, CEO of Formula One group, added: “I’m pleased to welcome Tata Communications into the Formula 1 family and I hope this is the start of a long and successful relationship. Connectivity and content delivery are critical issues for Formula 1 and working with the best in the business is a priority for us. This is a collaboration that will help us stay at the technological cutting edge in these categories."

Tata Communications’ capabilities in video and content delivery networks (“CDN”) will enable uninterrupted, high-quality connectivity to the multi-media portal on Formula1.com. The (TGN) has Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific data transfer capacity of one terabit per second. This capacity will ensure Tata Communications is able to fully support Formula1.com during race weekends, when the site gets on average four million unique visits per weekend, peaking at seven million over some events. Tata Communications’ infrastructure will enable the sport’s official website to instantly scale up to cope with these significant and sometimes unpredictable traffic spikes.

Tata Communications will also provide Formula1.com with a new Managed Security Suite and will apply an additional layer of managed security monitoring to ensure an increased level of protection to Formula One Management's IT infrastructure.

Looking ahead, Tata Communications and Formula One Management will also work in close collaboration on research and development around connectivity and the latest video technologies.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/2/13043.html

^^ Tata has always had a strong presence in F1. They have been providing solutions to Ferrari F1 since long. Now this deal will give them and Indian industry a huge exposure !! :cheers:

January exports up 10% to $25 bn (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/january-exports10-to-25-bn/159236/on)

trade deficit at $14.8 billion and crude oil imports up 27% at $12.3 billion.

Disaster, only saving grace is that in last two months we have got $7 billion of FII flows which will help in reducing the CAD, hope we get $3-4 billion this month.

^^ Well - we got a reasonable successful sale from ONGC - 2.5 billion $!! Not much but should help dent the Fiscal deficit a bit.
* Govt survives a glitch scare, calls ONGC auction a success (http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/03/01/ongc-sharesale-subscription-idINDEE8200IQ20120301)

* Also - 2G and 4G auctions this year should help contain the fiscal deficit further!!

* Fertiliser subsidy has been cut. Another milestone for defict reduction (http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/03/01/india-fertiliser-subsidy-idINDEE8200AD20120301)

Of course, all of this is annual impact - not sure how much impact Sonia Gandhi's Food Security Bill will have on all this = we havent even begun to capture what that beast will do to our fiscal deficit

^^^^ we should cut the food security bill too. we are not that well off to spend so much on social welfare

lol ongc a success?

idiotic FM should see that out of 42.7 crore shares 40 crore was bid by LIC alone, so how was it successful.

He's thinking paring his losses :)
No FII Pariticipation, Website glitch stopped updating bids after 3:20 pm, Govt gave no clarity on Subsidy participation so foreigners steered clear of that migraine!! Best of all - LIC - a government owned institution - bought all the shares of ONGC! And he still calls it "disinvestment"!!:lol:
It does look like an umitigated disaster!!

I especially liked his ending remarks!!


"This (ONGC auction) is the first case. We shall have to analyse and then make an assessment," he told reporters here.

= Give me time to dig a hole so I can stick my head in and all of this will go away! :lol:

:rofl:

a big big shame i must say.

Govt may restrict imports to check current a/c deficit (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/govt-may-restrict-imports-to-check-current-ac-deficit/160903/on)



After raising customs duty on gold, the government today said it may restrict import of certain commodities if current account deficit (CAD) crosses 3.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"Curtail Current Account Deficit to the extent feasible because otherwise India may face problems in the years to come. If we cross Current Account Deficit of 3.5%, we need to see which are the imports which can be curbed without adversely impacting growth," Finance Secretary RS Gujral said at post Budget deliberation organised by CII.

CAD which includes deficit in external trade of goods, services besides net investment income stood at 2.9% of GDP last fiscal.
For the current fiscal CAD as a proportion of GDP expected to be around 3.6% for 2011-12.

"Straightaway, the one which we saw was gold. Roughly about $60 billion worth of gold import has already taken place in 11 months of 2011-12," he said.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget speech last week had said, "One of the primary drivers of the current account deficit has been the growth of almost 50% in imports of gold and other precious metals in the first three quarters of this year."

"So we did increase (customs duty) by 2% a couple of months back. That 2% has been increased to 4%," he said.

The basic idea is to restrict the import of the gold, he said, adding, the savings from them is directed towards financial savings and the real sector rather than being caught up in unproductive gold assets.

On the disinvestment, Gujral said the government expects to mobilise Rs 30,000 crore in 2012-13 from sale of shares of public sector companies.

"We are much more better prepared in the current year for the disinvestment. There are already certain approval from the government, certain companies are in pipeline. Therefore, we are much better prepared," he said.

He also said increase in indirect taxes would have some impact on inflation in the short run.

"Endeavour to be made that it does not lead to higher inflation," he said, adding, but taxes are still lower than 2007 level.

Clarifying on Vodafone issue, Gujral said "we also want to have certainty on taxes. So this is just a clarification."

The Vodafone transaction was not taxed either of the country, it is susceptible to 10% tax in India, he said adding "why should such transaction not subject to any tax."

Meanwhile, Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairman SK Goel said the Department will examine the issue of reducing duty on supply of power from a Special Economic Zone to the domestic area in the light of elimination of duty on coal import.

finally some sense returning, don't know when will appetite for gold die in india

finally some sense returning, don't know when will appetite for gold die in india

I think it's a bad move. It'll discourage traders.

good for savings, will end speculation thus we may see decline in prices. Yes for trader's its bad.

Savings will always be devalued. 100 bucks will be worth 50 in the near future.

Indo-Israel FTA likely to be concluded this year

Hyderabad March 19:

An Indo-Israel Free Trade Agreement is expected to be concluded this year, paving the way for further expansion in bilateral trade between the two countries. Mr Muneer Akbaria, Consul-General, Consulate General of Israel, said discussions between the two countries on the FTA were at an advanced level.

“At present bilateral trade between India and Israel is $5 billion. We expect to increase it by 60 per cent in the next two years,” he told media-persons here on Monday.

The new areas identified for engagement included water technology, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and life sciences.
Desalination tech

He said Israel, which had developed new desalination technologies, could help India in increasing water supply through desalination. “We have five desalination plants in Israel, supplying drinking water to the extent of 50-60 per cent of our requirement. The target is to cover 100 per cent of our drinking water requirement through desalination by 2020,” Mr Akbaria said.

A new desalination technology developed by Israel involves a cost of 50 cents per cubic metre of desalinated water. Also, the country uses 80 per cent of its sewage water for agriculture after elaborating treatment.

Stating that Andhra Pradesh had been a focus area for Israel, he said Israel and the State Government were working towards concluding an agreement for joint research and development on the industrial front.

Israel is also keen on having joint training programmes for the security personnel of the two countries, which faced almost similar security concerns.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/article3013405.ece