Thursday, June 9, 2011

India's Superpower Euphiria: Sid Harth

India’s Superpower Euphoria: Sid Harth

Posted on 09/06/2011 by Sid Harth
  • June 9, 2011, 6:11 PM HKT

China Catching Up With India on R&D Investment


Wang Zhao/Getty Images
China is fast catching up with India as a destination for foreign investment in proprietary research and development, and could come to knock India from one of the few economic perches in which it is ahead of its northern neighbor, a study shows.
China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, receives almost four times as much foreign direct investment as India—about $105 billion in 2010. But for years India has been ahead of China on investments into R&D. In the fiscal year ended March 31, total R&D investment into India stood at $11.6 billion, which includes research for both proprietary and third-party use, compared to $9 billion for China, said Praveen Bhadada, a manager at the consulting firm Zinnov, which conducted the study.
But investment into China to fuel new products and innovations is growing at a much faster clip, at 16% a year compared to India’s 11% growth a year.
And China looks set to soon overtake India when it comes to proprietary research and development, with foreign investment for these purposes currently at around $7.65 billion in the last fiscal year, putting the country is within sniffing distance of India’s $7.75 billion worth of investment—largely because of the country’s better infrastructure.
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Death penalty for 10 for ‘honor killings’ in India
By BISWAJEET BANERJEE, Associated Press – 4 hours ago
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — The father and brother of a 20-year-old Indian woman have been sentenced to death for killing her and her husband for marrying within the same Hindu clan, police said Thursday.
Eight other family members also were given the death penalty by a trial court on Wednesday for the killings three years ago in the northern Uttar Pradesh state, said Brij Lal, a top police officer. The defendants can appeal to a higher court.
Judge Rajendra Babu Singh said the punishments should serve as a lesson to all those who kill in the name of saving family honor.
Last month, India’s top court recommended the death penalty for perpetrators of “honor killings,” calling the practice barbaric and feudal.
While there are no official figures, an independent study found that around 900 people are killed each year in India for defying their elders. Most victims are young adults who fell in love or married against their families’ wishes. In some cases, village councils ordered couples killed who married inside their clan or outside their caste.
The 10 defendants were convicted of killing Vijaya and Udaipal Singh, who lived in the same village in Etah, a town 155 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state.
Vijaya Singh’s parents opposed the marriage but she defied them, eloping with her lover and getting married secretly in a Hindu temple. They started living in another village.
Vijaya Singh’s father, Ramesh Pal Singh, her brother and other relatives went to the couple’s home, shot them to death and buried their bodies in a paddy field, the prosecution said. Police arrested the 10 suspects two years ago.
Map

India Shares End Flat Ahead of Factory Data

By SUDEEP JAIN

MUMBAI –Indian shares struggled for direction before closing flat Thursday, as investors remained cautious ahead of Friday’s release of April factory output data.
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index fell 9.39 points, or 0.05%, to close at 18384.90. On the National Stock Exchange, the 50-stock S&P CNX Nifty fell 5.80 points, or 0.10%, to end at 5,521.05.
Trading volume on the BSE fell to 23.45 billion rupees ($524.5 million) from Wednesday’s 25.90 billion rupees. Gainers lagged decliners 1,388 to 1,402, while 137 stocks were unchanged.
“It’s a good sign that foreign institutions are not selling, but retail investors are completely absent from the market due to the recent volatility,” said Sharmila Joshi, head of equities at Fairwealth Securities. A lower-than-expected April factory output reading Friday could act as a negative trigger, she added.
India’s factory output growth in April likely slowed to 5.0% year-on-year from a 7.3% rise in March, according to the median estimate from a Dow Jones Newswires poll of 13 economists.
Of the 30 Sensex constituents, 20 ended lower Thursday.
Auto stocks led losses after data showed local car sales in May grew at their slowest pace in two years.
Tata Motors fell 0.8% to end at 1,020.65 rupees, while Maruti Suzuki lost 0.7% to close at 1,217.25 rupees as it is also hurt by production losses due to an ongoing strike at a plant in northern India. Two-wheeler maker Hero Honda Motors dropped 1.3% to 1,745.50 rupees.
Most banks closed lower as government data showed food inflation in the week to May 28 accelerated 9.01% year-on-year, compared with a 8.55% rise in the previous week. The reading increases the chances of the Reserve Bank of India raising interest rates when it meets to review monetary policy June 16, analysts said.
ICICI Bank shed 0.3% to 1,046 rupees and State Bank of India lost 1.3% to 2,263.15 rupees.
Among other losers, Oil & Natural Gas Corp. closed 1.8% lower at 265.20 rupees and Jaiprakash Associates fell 1.9% to 82.30 rupees.
Capital goods stocks gained ahead of the release of May factory output data. Larsen & Toubro added 1.3% to 1,722 rupees and Bharat Heavy Electricals rose 0.9% to 1,933.20 rupees.
Among non-Sensex laggards, state-owned fuel retailers fell after a ministerial panel postponed its meeting to consider raising fuel prices. The meeting was to take place Thursday.
Indian Oil fell 1.0% to 319 rupees, Bharat Petroleum slipped 1.6% to 612.50 rupees and Hindustan Petroleum shed 2.6% to 371.30 rupees.
HCL Infosystems tumbled 5.7% to 98.60 rupees and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam fell 0.6% to 44.70 rupees after India’s Central Bureau of Investigation filed a case against the companies Wednesday in connection with a probe into some contracts related the Commonwealth Games that India hosted last year.
HCL Infosystems said officials from the investigative agency met some of its executives and that they were cooperating with the probe. Mahanagar Telephone couldn’t be reached for comment.
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UPDATE 2-India’s car sales hit speed bump, seen decelerating further

Thu Jun 9, 2011 4:21am EDT
* May auto sales up 7 pct y/y at 158,817 units – industry data
* Commercial vehicles sales rise 16.16 pct y/y in May
* Difficult to reach FY12 target – exec
* Customers delaying purchases due to high interest rates – analysts
* Maruti shares down 0.9 pct, Tata Motors falls 1.9 pct (Adds details, background, quote)
By Anurag Kotoky
NEW DELHI, June 9 (Reuters) – Car sales in India rose 7 percent in May, their slowest pace of growth in two years, and analysts expect a further decline as higher fuel prices, interest rates and vehicle costs crimp demand in the world’s second-fastest growing vehicle market.
Auto sales, which grew at a breakneck pace of 30 percent in India in 2010, are driven by a burgeoning aspirational middle class that relies mainly on bank loans for its purchases. But consistently rising interest rates are forcing consumers to tighten their purse strings.
“Interest rate is going up, availability of financing is down, prices are rising and sentiment is not very positive among customers. All this put together is impacting final sales,” Sugato Sen, senior director at the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, told reporters.
Petrol prices in India rose by a record 8.6 percent in May, fueling concerns about a slowdown in demand for passenger vehicles, with another likely increase in interest rates also expected to curb buying.
In an effort to battle stubbornly high inflation, India’s central bank has raised interest rates nine times since March last year. It is expected to raise them again this month.
“It was expected in the first half. Customers are delaying their purchases because of high fuel costs and interest rates,” an analyst with an international brokerage in Mumbai said.
Sales in China, the world’s largest auto market, are also expected to slow after the government stripped away most of its incentive policies at the end of 2010.
Industry observers are divided on how fast that market will grow in the coming years, but the consensus view is to expect a 10 percent gain annually till 2015. [ID:nTOE70603Q]
China, with a comparable population to that of India, also enjoyed auto sales growth of 33 percent last year. But the Chinese market sells far more cars: Chinese car sales reached 13.8 million units in 2010, while Indian sales totaled 1.9 million units.

INDIA AUTO SALES SLOW
Indian automakers sold 158,817 cars in May, compared with 148,425 vehicles a year earlier, data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) released on Thursday showed.
The growth is the slowest since May 2009, when car sales rose 2.77 percent. They had jumped 30 percent last May.
“If you look at the numbers now, looks like (reaching fiscal 2012 targets) will be difficult,” Sen said.
SIAM expects car sales growth to drop significantly to 16 to 18 percent this fiscal year ending March , after it grew a record 30 percent in 2010 to 1.98 million units, driven by demand from a growing middle class in Asia’s third-largest economy, easier access to loans and a wider choice of models.
Earlier this month, India’s largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki , posted its slowest growth rate in more than two years, with a 1.9 percent rise in total sales to 104,073 units. [ID:nL3E7GV20E]
Indian automakers have also expressed worries about rising commodity prices, with Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra having raised prices on vehicles by an average 1.5 to 2 percent this year.
Tata Motors posted a 10-percent rise in auto sales in May, driven mainly by an 84-percent increase in sales of the Nano, touted as the world’s cheapest car. The model had taken a hit when a few of them went up in flames in 2009.
Sales of trucks and buses, a key barometer of economic activity, rose 16.16 percent from a year earlier to 56,314 units in May, SIAM said.
Shares of Maruti Suzuki were down 0.9 percent by 12:05 p.m. (0635 GMT). Tata Motors fell 1.9 percent. (Additional reporting by Fang Yan in Beijing; Writing by Neha Singh; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan and Jui Chakravorty)
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  • ECONOMY
  • JUNE 9, 2011, 6:23 A.M. ET

India’s Food Inflation Speeds Up

By ABHRAJIT GANGOPADHYAY

NEW DELHI –India’s food inflation rate ticked up in the week ended May 28 after slowing in the previous week, reinforcing the stubborn nature of pricing pressures that may call for further monetary tightening.
The wholesale price index for food articles rose 9.01% from a year earlier, quicker than the 8.55% rise recorded in the week to May 21, according to data issued Thursday by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The index rose 0.6% to 186.7 week-on-week.
Bond prices fell following the data release. The most traded 7.80% 2021 paper fell to 96.85 rupees ($2.17) from 96.91 rupees.
Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist at state-run Bank of Baroda, said the Reserve Bank of India will likely maintain its tightening bias with a 0.25 percentage point-interest rate increase at its June 16 meeting.
Noah Seelam/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesA a young man sat among piles of watermelons in a fruit market on the outskirts of Hyderabad on March 17, 2011.
iinflation06091
iinflation06091
Inflation in Asia’s third-largest economy has become a nagging pain for authorities as it stayed at intolerably high levels for the past two years as food prices haven’t eased due to supply bottlenecks as well as growing demand.
The central bank has raised its lending rate by 2.5 percentage points since March 2010 to tame prices and is widely expected to increase it by up to 1.0 percentage point more by next March.
In the week to May 28, prices of fruits shot up nearly 31% from a year earlier, while those of cereals and milk rose more than 5%. Eggs, meat and fish cost about 7% more than their year-earlier levels, the data showed.
Accelerating non-food inflation is also adding to overall price pressures, prolonging the battle against inflation.
According to the data, prices of non-food articles in the week to May 28 rose 21%, driven by a near 57% jump in the prices of fibers.
The index for primary articles, which consists of food and non-food articles as well as minerals, increased 0.5% to 192.7 in the week to May 28. On a year-on-year basis, prices of primary articles were up 11.52%, quicker than the 10.87% rise posted in the previous week, the data showed.
The persistent price pressures are strengthening inflationary expectations. According to a recent central bank survey of forecasters, the inflation rate is expected to range between 7.0% and 7.9% by the end of March 2012, sharply higher than the central bank’s estimate of 6%.
Authorities are now pinning their hopes on the June-September monsoon rains, which could help boost farm output and drag down food prices.
C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council expects the inflation rate to start moderating slowly until October and ease to 6.5% by March 2012.
However, a spike in global crude oil prices could stoke price pressures. India imports more than 80% of the oil it requires, making the economy vulnerable to global crude price shocks.
Any attempt to pass through higher diesel prices to consumers would fuel further inflationary pressure.
“I think a review of the administered prices, particularly, petroleum products is necessary,” Mr. Rangarajan told reporters, indicating his preference for a fuel price hike.
Any price hike to partly pass on high global crude oil prices to consumers should help India achieve its fiscal targets, he added.
Write to Abhrajit Gangopadhyay at Abhrajit.gangopadhyay@dowjones.com
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IBNLive

India

Will declare my assets today: Ramdev

CNN-IBN
Updated Jun 09, 2011 at 08:50am IST
New Delhi: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has said that he will declare his assets on Thursday evening, after allegations of running a huge empire of Rs 1100 crore.
Ramdev has been accused of grabbing fertile farmland. Local residents including farmers launched a signature campaign against Baba Ramdev, and the Haridwar DM report says no land has been allotted to the baba, a defence that Ramdev had been citing.
Over 200 businesses from broadcasting companies including Aastha TV to food parks are run by his trusted lieutenants Acharya Balkrishna and Mukta Anand, according to reports. There are no specific charges against them that the finance ministry is looking at but a detailed income tax survey is currently being done.
Even Hindu spiritual leaders want Ramdev’s assets probed.
Baba Ramdev has also been accused of stamp duty evasion. Ramdev owes the exchequer Rs 58 lakh, says the Haridwar SDM, in not one or two, but a total of 16 orders. In fact he had ordered attachment proceedings in August last year.
Ramdev’s aide Balkrishna is also under scrutiny. The Uttarakhand Intelligence Bureau confirmed that Balkrishna, the right hand man of yoga guru Baba Ramdev may have violated the Arms Act. The Prime Minister’s office has ordered a probe in the case.
Balkrishna is a citizen of Nepal, but he claimed he was born in Haridwar. His passport number A S 245797 from the Bareilly passport office needs to be investigated under the Passport Act, says the report to the State Police Chief.
Ramdev, however, said that he has always supported law in the country and have never spoken about breaking the law.
He also said that there are many things he has to do before he breaks his fast against corruption and black money. “Till the time my goal is not achieved, I will continue the fast. Whether I live or die, I will support the cause,” Ramdev said.
Doctors advised liquid intake to Ramdev and requested him to end his fast soon after health started deteriorating as his fast for tougher anti-graft laws and bringing back black money from foreign nations, continued in Haridwar.
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Comments (15)


All comments will be published after moderation
from simspta at 14:14, Jun 09, 2011
@vks2004 he is still on anshan. Its Yoga guru who can do that…no one else
from simspta at 14:07, Jun 09, 2011
@justin_pune in fact people like you are in the state of confusion. Its the RSS and people like Baba ji who are true national, not congress, SIMI, IM, etc.
from praveeeeen at 14:06, Jun 09, 2011
Reality bites.
from justin_pune at 13:51, Jun 09, 2011
This baba and RSS cannot become successful in their campaign to divide the country.
from shanthanu4640 at 12:52, Jun 09, 2011
Why action should not be taken on officers who did not implement the SDM’s attachment proceedings against Ramdev? What were they waiting for from August last year? The report also say there are no specific charges against them. Does that mean some charges to be created to hoodwink the public to paint Ramdev with criminal brush? Why this witch hunting when the government is caught in the wrong foot of brutal act against innoscent protesters in the midnight.
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Two held in Nashik building blast case

Police on Thursday arrested two persons, including son of the prime accused who was killed in the explosion. 17:59 PM, Jun 09, 2011

Ramdev’s institutions worth nearly Rs 426 crore

Balkrishna claimed that their oldest trust is Divya Yog Mandir whose capital is Rs 249.63 crore. 17:48 PM, Jun 09, 2011

Raja forced staff to favour Swan, Unitech: CBI

Two officers who did not put the file, giving preference to Swan Telecom were transferred. 16:57 PM, Jun 09, 2011

Officials to force feed Ramdev if needed

Baba Ramdev has been advised by the doctors to take glucose but he has refused to do so. 16:55 PM, Jun 09, 2011

Doda cloudburst: 3 feared dead, rescue work on

Flash floods after the cloud burst has devastated Assar-Bagger area, 135 km from Jammu. 16:34 PM, Jun 09, 2011
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National / World News 7:56 a.m. Thursday, June 9, 2011

Fasting guru denies he’s arming followers in India

By MUNEEZA NAQVI
The Associated Press
NEW DELHI — A charismatic yoga guru has pledged to train his followers in self defense and traditional martial arts but said they would never take up arms in fighting India’s endemic corruption.
Indian spiritual guru Baba Ramdev, center, talks to his associates during a public session at his ashram in Haridwar, India, Thursday, June 9, 2011. Ramdev, who began a hunger strike against corruption Saturday, and thousands of his followers were forced from a New Delhi park in a Sunday raid that injured dozens and sparked even more public outrage. He resumed his protest Monday from his ashram and said he was arming thousands of supporters to block any police action to disrupt the fast. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)
A doctor checks the blood pressure of Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev on his sixth day of fast, at his ashram in Haridwar, India, Thursday, June 9, 2011. Ramdev, who began a hunger strike against corruption Saturday, and thousands of his followers were forced from a New Delhi park in a Sunday raid that injured dozens and sparked even more public outrage. He resumed his protest Monday from his ashram and said he was arming thousands of supporters to block any police action to disrupt the fast. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)
Indian spiritual guru Baba Ramdev, center, is surrounded by his security personnel as he returns to his room after a public session at his ashram in Haridwar, India, Thursday, June 9, 2011. Ramdev, who began a hunger strike against corruption Saturday, and thousands of his followers were forced from a New Delhi park in a Sunday raid that injured dozens and sparked even more public outrage. He resumed his protest Monday from his ashram and said he was arming thousands of supporters to block any police action to disrupt the fast. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)
Baba Ramdev, a television celebrity watched by millions of viewers, was on the sixth day of a hunger strike Thursday to demand the return of billions of dollars stashed abroad illegally in tax havens by companies and wealthy Indians.
A police raid forced Ramdev and thousands of his followers from a New Delhi park Sunday, injuring dozens and sparking enormous public outrage.
Ramdev temporarily avoided police by disguising himself in women’s clothing and resumed his protest Monday from his spiritual retreat in Haridwar on the banks of the Ganges river. Government doctors examined him Thursday and said he had lost weight and was dehydrated but his overall health was stable.
News reports Wednesday said the guru was planning to arm thousands of supporters to block any new police action to disrupt the fast, but his office quickly denied it and said he had been quoted out of context.
“We neither support nor intend to take the law in our hand. We don’t mean either training of guns, bombs or practice of killing someone or being violent at any point of time,” a statement said Thursday.
The statement added that the guru only meant that he would train his followers in traditional martial arts to defend themselves better.
Officials said they were forced to break up Ramdev’s weekend protest after tens of thousands showed up at a sprawling New Delhi fairground though only 5,000 had been approved. Police also said the event, billed as a mass yoga session, had taken on a combative tone with “provocative” speeches.
The protest campaign is part of a public push to demand government accountability after a series of corruption scandals such as improper telecoms licensing, illegal land acquisitions and irregularities in staging last year’s Commonwealth Games.
A recent report by Global Financial Integrity suggested at least $464 billion had disappeared overseas since Indian independence in 1947. The illegal flow of cash has swelled to an average of $16 billion a year as the economy has grown in recent years.
___
June 09, 2011 07:56 AM EDT
Copyright 2011, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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