India Malaysia to Achieve Trade Target of USD 15 Billion by 2013

New Delhi: The Union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles, Shri Anand Sharma informed here today that India’s bilateral trade with Malaysia stood at nearly USD 13 billion last year registering a growth of 34% over the previous year. Addressing the members of India-Malaysia CEO Forum, Shri Sharma said, “while we had set a trade target of US$ 15 billion by 2015, I am confident that we will be able to achieve this target definitely by 2013 if not this year. I will be proposing to my counterpart Minister Mustapa Mohamed that we revise this target upwards.”

Recalling his visits to Malaysia in July 2010 and February 2011, Shri Sharma said that he had sought investment from Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Government of Malaysia's strategic investment fund) into Indian infrastructure sector through a collaborative venture with IDFC. Shri Sharma informed that a SPV has been created between Khazanah and a subsidiary of IDFC with an equity base of Rs. 830 crores for financing the national highway construction projects.

The Minister said that during his visits, he identified priority sectors of engagement including Roads & highways, Railways, Airports, IT &ITES, Biotechnology, Tourism, Health Services and JV projects in third countries. Subsequently, the two countries have entered into a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement which was signed in February 2011. The signing of this Agreement has provided considerable momentum to trade and investment on both sides.

Members and the Minister also expressed happiness on the robust investment front. Malaysian investment in India stands at US$ 7.8 billion while Indian investments in Malaysia are in the range of USD 3 billion. Indian investments in Malaysia are growing steadily. At present, there are more than 100 Indian companies including 61 Indian joint ventures operating in Malaysia. In the past three years alone, about USD 2 billion have been invested by our companies making it the 7th largest investor in Malaysia.

The India Malaysia CEO forum is co-chaired by Shri Malvinder Mohan Singh from India and Mr Tan Sri Krishnan Tan Boon Seng from Malaysia.

Nissan to launch 10 new vehicles by FY16

Nissan recently announced the revival of the Datsun brand to develop new car platforms for India, Indonesia and Russia
New Delhi: In a bid to ramp up volumes in the country, Japanese auto major Nissan plans to introduce ten new passenger-vehicles by the end of March 2016.

Of the 10 vehicle models it plans to launch by early 2016, at least two would belong to the Datsun brand. Nissan recently announced the revival of the Datsun brand to develop new car platforms for India, Indonesia and Russia.

“The India market has a very big opportunity. The car population in India is less than 20 per 1,000 people, compared with 200 in Malaysia and 150 in Thailand,” said Toru Hasegawa, corporate vice-president (Africa, Middle East and India), Nissan Motor Company.

Nissan India is aiming to double its vehicle sales in the current financial year from last year's 33,000 vehicles. The company aims to have eight per cent share in the domestic market by 2016.

Apart from small cars under the Datsun brand, Nissan is also looking at introducing a sports utility vehicle in the country. Some of the vehicles slated for introduction may be based on platforms developed by partner Renault, Hasegawa said.

Nissan on Tuesday introduced multi-purpose vehicle Evalia priced between Rs 8.49 lakh and Rs 10.99 lakh. The Evalia has a 1.5-liter diesel engine that Nissan says will deliver 19.3 kilometers to a litre. Hasegawa said Nissan is aiming to sell 2,000 to 2,500 Evalia vehicles each month in India.

Nissan currently manufactures small car Micra and sedan Sunny at its Chennai facility. The plant is owned jointly with Renault S.A. Nissan also imports sports utility vehicle X-Trail, premium sedan Teana and sports car 370Z.

Ramky Enviro wins Unido project

Hyderabad: Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited has bagged a project from United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Austria.

REEL will be working with Kinetrics International Inc., Canada on the project to be implemented for Bhilai Steel Plant.

The project seeks to provide "Sound Environmental Management and Final Disposal of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)" in accordance with the Stockholm Convention.

The project was bagged against stiff competition from established International companies. It envisages setting up of an ultra modern automated plant using Non-combustion technology for the decontamination of PCB Oil, PCB Contaminated Oils, and wastes and used power transformers. This will be the first of its kind in India.

This is a turnkey project where in Ramky Enviro Engineers will be responsible for technology, supply and installation of the project facilities, testing, commissioning and training of plant personnel.

Project will be implemented in Bhilai Steel Plant located in Chhattisgarh State. The tenure of the project is two years. Detailed Engineering and project implementation will be done in-house by REEL.

UNIDO is funding this project under Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The $ 4.2 million project is expected to create capacity for disposal of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in future.

The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Over 150 countries signed the Convention.

Ramky Enviro Engineers is part of the Rs. 7000 crore Ramky Group.

Mahindra & Mahindra opens technical centre in Troy, Michigan

Mumbai: In order to tap into highly skilled automotive talent pool of United States, India's largest utility vehicle and tractor maker has started a technical centre in Troy, Michigan to leverage on the regions design and consulting service resources.

M&M intends to use this centre to support the company's automotive and tractor engineering requirement in India. This new facility will initially employ 25 engineers and has been designed to accommodate double that number in the future.

Rajan Wadhera, chief executive — technology, product development and sourcing, Automotive & Farm Equipment Sectors, Mahindra Group said, "This new Technology Center will serve as a base for Mahindra to address the engineering demand for our automotive & farm engineering requirements together with our Global Development Center in India. The Troy Center is the latest addition to our 'neural network' of innovation which also comprises of our other research facilities in India, US, China and Korea."

Rajan Wadhera, chief executive — technology, product development and sourcing, Automotive & Farm Equipment Sectors, Mahindra Group inaugurated the facility along with Micheal Finney, president & CEO, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Janice Daniels, Mayor, City of Troy and Prashant Kamat, CEO, Mahindra Engineering, India.

"Mahindra is a global provider for automotive engineering services, and we are thrilled with the company's decision to locate its first North American technical center and new jobs in Troy," said MEDC President and CEO Michael A. Finney. "This investment shows our highly competitive business climate and tremendous workforce capabilities mean real opportunities for leading-edge companies."

"Our number one goal is to help new and existing businesses locate, grow and expand within the City of Troy," Troy City Manager Mike Culpepper said. "This is testimony to the fact that Troy is Michigan's top location for Automotive Research and Development facilities due to the presence of local talent, our business friendly policies, and proximity to important markets in the northeastern United States."

According to Kamat, the technical centre in Michigan will enable M&M to leverage local R&D talent to deliver innovative solutions to its customers in the region.

"We also plan to scale up the Center in due course and will establish a dedicated recruiting department in the US office to meet this goal. We currently have a workforce of about 100 in North America with over 60% comprising US nationals hired locally. Hence, wherever we are located, our priority is to contribute to the local community and economy," said Kamat.

Mahindra & Mahindra already has a significant presence in North America with businesses ranging from IT to tractors to aerospace.

M&M had set up its tractor subsidiary in continent called Mahindra USA way back in 1994, and over the past decade its IT companies, Mahindra Satyam, Tech MahindraBSE 0.73 % and Bristlecone have made deeper inroads in the IT sector providing variety of solutions ranging from Enterprise Business Solutions, Testing, Infrastructure Management Services, network security, Value Added Services and Application Development Maintenance and Support (ADMS) Solutions.

Biocon among world's top pharma employers

Bangalore: Bangalore based biotechnology firm Biocon has been named by 'Science' magazine as one of the top 20 employers in global pharma sector. The 2012 Top Biotech and pharma employers survey, has rankled Biocon in the 19 thposition and it is the only Asian firm to be in the top 20.

"We are in the distinguished company of leading global Biotech companies and we will wear this badge of honour with a sense of leadership and responsibility that will enable us to take greater strides to move up the leader board," said MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

Some of the criteria included loyalty of employees and quality of work done. . "The Biocon employer brand has been growing stronger with each passing year, and our increased success in attracting and retaining top talent in the sector is a testimony to this," said Ravi C Dasgupta, HR Head of the company

US-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals topped the list .

Seychelles, Mauritius keen on attracting Indian investments

New Delhi: Seychelles can be an important partner for India and China, the country’s Minister for Finance, Trade and Investment Pierre Laporte said here on Tuesday.

“We consider ourselves as potential gateways to Africa because of our position in the Eastern African bloc. We could provide opportunities through our geographical location and through the free trade zones to Indian companies to invest in Seychelles,” the Minister said.

He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Indian Ocean Global Forum – Enhancing partnership for trade, infrastructure and resources development’, organised by the Ministries of External Affairs and Commerce and Confederation of Indian Industry.

Laporte said India and Seychelles had recently signed a bilateral investment promotion agreement.

Marc Hein, Chairman, Financial Services Commission, Mauritius, said while a lot had been said about inbound investment from Mauritius into India, in future India should look at using Mauritius as a platform to invest in Africa.

“There are over 900 funds based in Mauritius. A lot of them are servicing India but more and more of them are geared towards Africa,” he said.

The fact that a number of African countries are growing at 6-8 per cent annually is the reason why people should invest there, he said.

“(These are) unusual figures, which were only heard of from Asian tigers. Now such things are happening in Africa,” Hein added.

IVRCL bags orders worth Rs 959 cr

Mumbai: IVRCL said that it has received orders worth Rs 959.04 crore in water, irrigation and power businesses.

The company has bagged an order worth Rs 471.52 crore for the construction of a rehabilitation project from the National Irrigation Board, Kenya.

It has bagged another order for the construction of water tanks, infrastructure and related buildings from Kuwait worth Rs 124.70 crore.

The company’s water division has been awarded orders worth Rs 314.75 crore. One contract is from PHED, Bharatpur, for the construction of a transmission main pipeline for 97 villages, which includes operation and maintenance.

Another order is for a cluster distribution system for 71 villages. The order is from PHED, Jodhpur.

In the power division, IVRCL has got an order worth Rs 48.07 crore for the construction of transmission lines in Bhopal Circle from the Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission Company.

State-run banks asked to settle bilateral trade deals in local currency

New Delhi: The government has directed state-run banks to encourage local currency payments for bilateral trade transactions, a move that will cut down transaction costs and help mitigate currency risks along with spurring regional trade.

"The move is expected to curb the risk of exchange rate volatility and also ensure closer relations among the banking systems in the two countries," said a finance ministry official, requesting anonymity. Under the proposed mechanism, Indian exporters will be allowed to raise invoices and receive payments in Indian rupees while payments for imports will be made by the partner country's bank in its local currency. The two banks will then settle the transactions among themselves.

For instance, an Indian exporter will raise his invoice in rupees and get paid by his bank in India in rupees after submitting documents. The documents will then be sent to the importer's bank in the partner country which will remit an equivalent amount in the local currency to the Indian bank's branch in the partner country. The Indian bank will then convert it into Indian rupees at a pre-determined exchange rate and remit it to its international services branch in Mumbai for being credited in the vostro account. For importing into India, the same mechanism will be followed in reverse.

"It is an ideal way of reducing banking charges of exporters and importers. While trading in currencies other than the US dollar or the euro, the exporters and importer have to first convert the local currency into the dollar or the euro and then into the Indian rupee. The conversion costs are, therefore, double," points out Ajay Sahai, director-general of Fieo.

To begin with, the mechanism will be put in place in countries where Indian banks have a presence. "We are going to start with a country such as South Africa, where not only Indian banks have a good presence but also our exports and imports are more or less balanced. Gradually, we want to cover all countries," a commerce department official said.

ONGC to invest Rs 11 lakh crore over the next 17 years

Chennai: India’s premier oil exploration and production company, ONGC, intends to invest Rs 11 lakh crore between 2013 and 2030. (In the last 15 years, the company had invested Rs 5 lakh crore.)

Thanks to this, ONGC expects to be producing 130 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent hydrocarbons in 2030. Half of this will come from assets abroad. (Last year, it produced 27 million tonnes of oil and 25 million cubic metres a day of natural gas.)

A ‘perspective plan’ drawn up by the public sector oil major says the company would invest in petrochemicals, LNG re-gasification and alternative energy, so that 30 per cent of its revenues in 2030 comes from non exploration and production activities. It mentions wind, solar and nuclear as the areas of alternative energy it would get into.

A good part of the investments will go into “unlocking domestic yet-to-find reserves”. What this means is, ONGC will step up exploration. “With more than 28 billion tonnes of prognosticated reserves, Indian sedimentary basis has potential. Extra exploratory miles may give desired results,” says ONGC’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Sudhir Vasudeva.

The company expects to add 450 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent hydrocarbons from yet-to-find reserves.

Engineering R&D services mkt to reach $42 bn by 2020

Mumbai: After a lull of almost three years, multinationals are back to spending on engineering research and development (R&D). The impact of this is showing on the Indian captive engineering R&D centres’ growth.

In last one-and-a-half years, about 39 captive centres were set up by MNCs in India. Some of these were MNCs like Hitachi, Panasonic, Ricoh, Faurecia, Peugeot among others, said a study by Zinnov Management Consulting.

According to the study, ‘Engineering R&D: Advantage India’, India is one of the leading offshore destinations in delivering engineering R&D services with a market share of 22 per cent. The market in India is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14 per cent from $14.7 billion in FY12 to $42 billion by 2020 and is also expected to outpace the information technology growth rate in India.

“The period of 2004-08 saw the maximum growth of captive centres in India. At least 15-20 captive centres were being set-up every year. But since 2008, several companies went slow on capex spends, with many putting it on hold. Over the last one year we are seeing spends back, especially to target growth in the emerging market,” said Sundaraman Viswanathan, manager (consulting), Zinnov.

Pari Natarajan, chief executive officer, Zinnov said the current shift to set up captive centres is because of strong focus on emerging nations as target markets across major verticals. For instance, while Europe and North America are currently the leading markets in Aerospace, this is likely to change significantly by 2030, with countries outside these regions expected to own about half the commercial aircraft service.

Even in the telecom sector for that matter, deregulation in India and China is fuelling the future growth prospects of the industry. Similarly, in the medical devices and consumer electronics segments, markets like India and China are expected to lead the consumption, said the study.

Viswanathan added that the captive centres are also growing in maturity. “Several companies are now setting up centres of excellence for specific verticals. From a services provider landscape, earlier they would depend on certification as a selling point. But now they are moving beyond and looking at partnering with business houses and driving decisions,” he added.

Some of the instances where companies are using their India unit for core research include GE, which has been focusing on areas like material design, electromagnetic analytics, among others. General Motors is focused on smart system modelling, vehicle structure and safety and chemical reaction modelling.

While MNC captives today drive the Indian Product Engineering growth story in almost all verticals except Aerospace where service providers have a 76 per cent share, service providers are upping their game and in fact grew faster in FY2012, at 16 per cent CAGR compared to 11 per cent growth for captives. Rather the product engineering business at the top Indian IT services players like TCS, Wipro and HCL Technologies is already a $1 billion business.

“India is well-poised to contribute to Global ER&D as the ecosystem of captive centres, service providers and startups, increasingly work together to drive innovation. As relationships mature, service providers and customers will enter into pricing models based on market outcomes. Further, with emerging nations growing in importance as key markets, MNCs are set to leverage the inherent competencies in India to build products for local and global markets,” said Viswanathan.