• Tata Steel may invest $3.5 billion in Vietnam JV
• India, a mouse-click away, is growing threat to US
• BSE market cap crosses $1 trillion
• Incredible India by the numbers By Isabelle Chan
• '60,000 IT professionals in US return home'
• Bio-fuel project for Rajasthan

• Indian dairy market to double by 2011
• India to review gas investment in Myanmar
• In India, the newsstands are crowded
• India's economy to dethrone Japan
• Overcoming India's talent crunch By Aaron Tan
• Returning top Indians enrich India's R&D
• OVL finds huge gas reserve in Inran

Which is India's No. 1 crop? Is it rice? Or wheat? Well, neither. The right answer happens to be milk. The country's milk production is estimated to have touched 100 million tonnes (mt) last year, which is higher than the estimated 92 mt for rice and 75 mt for wheat. In value terms, too, a kg of milk is worth more than what Indians pay for a kg of rice and wheat. But despite all this and the fact that India is today the world's largest milk producer, the dairy industry is not considered 'glamorous'. For policy makers, dairying is viewed as a 'subsidiary' activity. This, when milk is one product that generates cash income to farmers almost on a daily basis, unlike sugarcane or wheat. Besides being a source of liquidity and insurance against crop failure, milk is the only crop where the farmer realizes 60-70 per cent of consumer price - against 20 per cent or so in fruits and vegetables. One reason for this 'image problem' suffered by milk has to do with the absence of proper databases with authentic information on the sector.This is a gap that Dairy India 2007 (Sixth Edition) seeks to fill. It was released by Charusheela Sohoni, Secretary to Government of India, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, at a function in Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi, amidst a gathering of dairymen from the public, cooperative and private sectors.A treasure trove of information, this 864-page publication offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date picture about the world's numero uno dairying nation. An invaluable Databank-cum-Management Guide-cum-Directory, it contains over 120 in-depth articles, 260 statistical tables and charts and reference details of 7,000 organizations including dairy plants and farms, equipment and consumable manufacturers, cattle feed and veterinary pharmaceutical manufacturers, chemicals and food additives, project consultants, breeding and fodder seed farms, analytical and disease-diagnostic laboratories, cooperative institutions and government agencies. According to the data provided in Dairy India, private corporates will overtake cooperatives to emerge as dominant players in the country's dairy industry by the year 2011. Out of the 120 mt milk produced, the proportion retained for self-consumption will rise marginally to 48 per cent (58 mt) due to increased rural incomes and living standards. What will change though is the profile of the 62 mt surplus, with the organized sector handling more milk (36 mt) than the unorganized players (26 mt). And within the organized sector, private dairies will handle two times more milk (24 mt) than cooperatives/government dairies (12 mt).The present edition of Dairy India is the sixth, starting with the first one launched in 1983. Founded and conceived by the late PR Gupta, a development journalist and passionate chronicler of the industry, Dairy India has evolved into one of the world's most prestigious publications on dairying. Following his demise last year, it is now edited and published by his son, Sharad Gupta.India Post News Service

Courtesy: www.indiapost.com, May 30, 2007

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After acquiring Corus, Tata Steel has joined hands with Vietnam Steel Corporation(VSC) to build a steel complex with an estimated capacity of 4.5 million tonnes in Vietnam with an investment of $3.5 billion. Vietnam government had mandated VSC to select a foreign partner for the steel project based on the principle that the foreign partner which develops the project would also be entitled to participate in Thach Khe iron ore mining project 30% equity. Tata Steel already has a JV with VSC in rolling mills through NatSteel, its Singapore based subsidiary. Tata Steel along with VSC will undertake the feasibility study for the steel project, following which it will acquire a minimum 65% stake. The steel complex would produce steel plates and sheets, which have not been manufactured in Vietnam, which has to import half its steel product demand, mainly from China. Tata Steel estimates that Vietnam's steel product demand is at 7 million tonnes a year. "The proposed joint venture with Tata Steel for the steel plant shall further strengthen the domestic production of primary steel and lower the dependence of Vietnam on imported billets and slabs," Tata Steel MD B Muthuraman said.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, May 30, 2007

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India is planning to review future investment in Myanmar's energy sector after Yangon said it would sell gas to China. India is unhappy with Myanmar, formerly Burma, as it decided to sell gas produced from A1 and A3 blocks to China, The Financial Express newspaper reported Tuesday. New Delhi has said Yangon overlooked India's interest though India's state-run oil and gas companies hold stakes in the two blocks. China has no stake in the fields. India's state-owned Gas Authority of India Ltd. and ONGC Videsh Ltd. hold 30 percent equity in the A1 and A3 blocks. South Korea's Daewoo International has 60 percent stakes and is the lead operator of the blocks, and the Korean Gas Company holds the rest. GAIL offered to buy gas at $4.759 per million British thermal units at a meeting recently called by Myanmar's energy ministry. The ministry refused to consider India's offer, however. "GAIL is already reconsidering its decision on whether to invest in the A7 and other blocks in Myanmar," a GAIL spokesman said. "We will take a decision on whether or not to review our participation in laying a pipeline to transport gas from A1 and A3 blocks only after ascertaining the views of the foreign ministry," the spokesman said.

Courtesy: www.earthtimes.org, May 29, 2007

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As American business tracks a path to India as a destination of choice, economists and policymakers in US are warning that American workers are losing competitiveness in a global economy. This week Intel's CEO Craig Barrett announced the chipmaker would invest some $1 billion in India. JP Morgan Chase announced it was hiring 4,500 Indian graduates for back office support by 2007. And Bill Gates, the legendary founder of Microsoft, seems to have made India his second home. The creeping uncertainty about the future of the American economy is not just restricted to information technology. In an opinion piece for The Washington Post on Tuesday, Norman Augustine, the former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, who was part of a high-level panel to assess the shortcoming of the American workforce, says, "In the five decades since I began working in the aerospace industry, I have never seen American business and academic leaders as concerned about this nation's future prosperity as they are today."

"Workers in virtually every economic sector now face competitors who live just a mouse click away in Ireland, Finland, India, China, Australia and dozens of other nations." Augustine points to the mouse-click that brings India to Pennsylvania Avenue. "US companies each morning receive software that was written in India overnight in time to be tested in the United States and returned to India for further refinement that same evening," not to mention, call centres in Pakistan or Brazil. And high-end jobs are up for sale to such developing countries, he warns. "The level of foreign direct investment into India continues to rise dramatically," contends Anirban Basu, co-founder and chairman of the economic consultancy firm, The Sage Policy Group in Washington. The Intel announcement is simply the latest in a string of announcements that suggests that interest in India grows by the day, he said. "However, there has been and is a benefit associated with the fact that India has not received large sums of foreign investment," Basu maintained contrarily. "Because of a lack of foreign investment, India has been forced to develop a competitive banking system able to finance domestic firms." Despite the high growth rate and the Indian government's promises to facilitate foreign investment, there continue to be institutional barriers to FDI, which experts hope will fade over time. "India enjoys certain advantages the Chinese do not and over the long haul, assuming India continues to make changes, India will close the investment gap with China," Basu said. "If you compare the American workforce to much of the world, it is quite educated. However, America has glowing shortages in Math and Science," he concedes. "There India has advantages. Indian young people are disproportionately committed to achieving excellence in Math and Science. They understand that Math and Science are principal gateways to prosperity."

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, May 29, 2007

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Obituaries for newspapers are already being written in the United States and much of Europe, with the rise of the Internet and shrinking attention spans listed as the causes of death. Here, more than 150 million people read a newspaper every day -- compared with 97 million Americans and 48 million Germans. Circulation numbers in India are soaring, and advertising is expected to grow by 15 percent this year. The crowded Indian newsstand is a cacophony of scripts: In New Delhi, papers are published in 15 languages, from English and Hindi to more regional tongues, such as southern India's Telugu language. One popular New Delhi newspaper shop offers 117 Indian dailies laid out like an all-you-can-read buffet with Bollywood stars, obscure acronyms, market data, and cricket scores jostling for space in every paper. Swaggering newspaper companies are betting there's more room to grow, especially in rural areas, where readership remains low. They continue to launch new papers and new editions across this country of 1.1 billion people. The optimism is in large part due to India's economy, expected to grow by 8 percent this year, and the rising incomes and education levels that go with it. The newspapers are also flourishing because India's media landscape remains firmly rooted in the ink-stained 20th century, when the Internet and cable TV had yet to realize the dominance they have today in the West. Despite a booming technology industry that's helped fuel economic growth, only 8.5 million of Indians use the Web, according to government figures. And even some who use computers don't see the Internet usurping print.

"The feel of reading a newspaper is very different," said Hemant Suri, a human resources consultant in New Delhi, as he browsed a newspaper rack. "The Internet cannot substitute." And while cable TV is growing quickly, it's still prohibitively expensive for most Indian families -- especially next to newspapers, which at just a few rupees cost less than a cup of tea. The Indian press currently reaches about 35 percent of the country's adults, reports the World Association of Newspapers. In the United States, 17 percent of people buy a daily newspaper, although most newspapers are shared with at least one person, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Circulation of US papers has dropped steadily, from 63 million in 1985 to 53 million in 2005, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Readership is a higher number because it measures the number of people who read newspapers. In Britain, circulation fell 3 percent between 2001 and 2005, while in Germany, it fell 11 percent over the same period, according to the World Association of Newspapers. In India, however, circulation rose 33 percent from 2001 to 2005, according to India's Registrar of Newspapers. And the potential is huge. In a country where the adult literacy rate is 61 percent, there are still some 300 million literate people who aren't reading newspapers -- yet. Observers expect both the literacy rate and the number of newspaper readers to rise. The low prices also mean it's common for people to read up to four or five newspapers a day. Suri, a New Delhi resident, reads four every day -- and he's the slacker in the family. His grandfather used to read 12. "I read them just to get a flavor of what's happening across the country," he said. "There's a sheer joy of reading a newspaper." Much of the industry's growth has been in English newspapers, which have become status symbols akin to washing machines, foreign cars, and brand-name purses for the legions eager to join the ranks of the urban, new India. "A family might want to buy an English paper because they want to show that they are upmarket and their lifestyle has improved," said Bhupesh Trivedi, who runs the Indian Business Observer websites. Despite the boom-time fever surrounding the print business, few believe Indian newspapers can continue to grow forever. "I have no doubt that the Indian media market will end up mimicking the West in terms of newspapers ending up not growing at all and the Internet becoming big," said Raju Narisetti, who left The Wall Street Journal, where he was editor of the Europe edition, to launch a new business paper in India. "But I think it's 10 or 15 years away." US newspaper executives wanting to lift their spirits might want to chat with Nita Puri and her clients at her stand of 117 newspapers. "My morning coffee doesn't taste good if I don't have a newspaper to read," she said.

Courtesy: www.boston.com, May 29, 2007

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Thanks to the meteoric rise of the rupee in the last two months, the combined wealth of the Indian investors is a trillion dollar now. In Monday's intra-day trade as the rupee hit a new nine-year high against the US dollar, at 40.50, and a strong rally took BSE's market capitalisation to over the Rs 40.50 lakh crore mark, India joined an elite club of countries that boast of $1-trillion market capitalisation. With the country's GDP too at over $1 trillion now, India is among the 10 countries in the world which has a trillion-dollar GDP and market capitalisation at the same time. Both these milestones were achieved due to the appreciation of the rupee, which was hovering around 44.50 during the beginning of 2007. At that exchange rate, India's GDP as well as BSE's market cap would now be about $921 billion. In the last year, investor wealth in rupee terms has jumped 37% to Rs 40.40 lakh crore; in dollar terms, it has shot up 56% to $1 trillion. During the same period, Sensex has gained 36% to its current close at 14,398. While market players said this milestone for India is more psychological in nature, they believe that joining this elite club would also attract greater international attention. ''India is already the fourth largest market in Asia (behind Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai) and the country's GDP growth rate has been second fastest in the world. And now achieving this important milestone would definitely be important when it comes to FII investment,'' said Amitabh Chakraborty, president-equities, Religare Securities.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, May 29, 2007

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India's economy will overtake the Japanese economy by 2025 to rank third in the world after the United States and China in terms of purchasing power parity, Japan's central bank chief predicted on Monday. Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui also urged India to loosen restrictions on capital flows and develop domestic bond markets so as to further integrate itself into the global economy. "Everyone recognises the large and varied influence India is having on the world," he said told a symposium in Tokyo. "If we extend the current (growth) rate, India's purchasing power parity will exceed that of Japan by around 2025 and will rank third after the United States and China," he added.

Courtesy: www.indianexpress.com, May 28, 2007

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India's IT services success story has been an inspiration to emerging economies, with many looking to emulate its success. A September 2006 survey report jointly written by KPMG and the Economist Intelligence Unit validated the view of India as "a world apart in outsourcing". For example, companies in India appear to be more open to outsourcing all kinds of business functions compared to their peers in the region. While the rest of Asia cited "cost savings" as the No. 1 benefit of outsourcing, India respondents said "allowing the company to focus on its core competencies" was the main driver. Dane Anderson, CEO of Springboard Research, offered an explanation for this divergent view. "I think a lot of Indian companies are having a hard time keeping up with [the country's] growth. "For example, the latest outsourcing deal between IBM and a large wireless operator indicated that [the latter was] trying to grow with the market but to develop the IT operations to do that was a little hard, so I think that if they can plug in an outsourcing solution, they probably can benefit from that growth a bit faster," said Anderson. But he also pointed to other reasons such as the success of the Indian IT industry in offshoring. Anderson said: "The fact that India has shown the power of outsourcing and offshoring...percolates throughout the country a little better. "And there are also the HR challenges--to keep people and pay people. It's really tough in India now, and if they can even outsource that challenge to a provider, I think that makes it easier for them to cope," he added. According to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) for 2006, India ranked 43rd among 125 countries covered, achieving "remarkably high scores in capacity for innovation and sophistication of firm operations". "This is especially true of the quality of scientific research and the number of scientists and engineers, which are increasingly supplying highly skilled professionals to the private sector," stated the report. Authors of the GCI report also noted that although India was found to have made good use of technology, penetration levels of the latest technologies remain "quite low by international standards, reflecting India's still low levels of per capita income and high incidence of poverty".

Here is a quick look at India's IT profile Mobile phones shipped in 2006: 60 million
Mobile phone subscribers in 2006: 149.6 million
Projected mobile phone subscribers in 2007: 220 million
SMS text messages sent in 2006: 59.8 billion; SMS contributed about 6% of service revenues to Indian mobile network operators
Internet users in 2005: 60 million
Internet hosts in 2005: 143,654
Projected broadband penetration in 2007: 3.2 million households, or 1.6 percent of total households
PCs shipped in 2006: 5 million, 25% year-on-year growth from 2005
Notebook PCs shipped in 2006: 1 million
Average annual salary of IT professionals: 662,310 Indian rupees (US16,209)
Per capita public sector IT spending in 2006: US$1.29
Projected IT spending for 2007: US$16.6 billion, 24 percent increase over 2006. Figure to grow to US$32.6 billion by 2011
Projected SMB IT spending for 2007: US$8 billion, 24 percent increase over 2006
Number of IT workers in software and services in 2006: 1.3 million, 23 percent increase over 2005

Industry revenue growth: The Indian IT and IT Enabled Services (ITES) sector, including domestic and exports segments, is expected to exceed US$47.8 billion in annual revenue in fiscal 2007, an increase of almost 28 percent over 2006

Domestic demand for IT and BPO: Financial services and telecommunications account for over 70 percent of demand in 2004

Revenue from business process outsourcing (BPO): US$148 million in 2000, US$3.5 billion in 2004

Number of graduates every year: More than 400,000 technical graduates, 2.3 million graduates in other disciplines, and over 300,000 post-graduates

Total revenue of top 5 Indian providers for fiscal 2006: US$11.34 billion. As a combined entity, this places them--Wipro, Infosys, TCS, HCL Technologies, and Satyam--as the seventh largest services provider globally, behind CSC's US$4.68 billion in revenue

Sources: Nasscom, Business-in-Asia.com, Wikipedia, ITU, eMarketer, AMI-Partners, Gartner, Springboard Research, ZDNet Asia IT Salary Survey 2006

India Facts
Population: About 1.1 billion
Capital: New Delhi
Language: Hindi is the national language, but English is the preferred language for business.
Demographic profile: 60% of population aged between 15-59 years, more than half are below 25 years
Currency: Indian Rupees
GDP per capita: US$797 (estimate for 2006 made after 2004)
IT industry target: US$60 billion in exports by 2010
Mobile phone subscribers in 2006: 149.6 million
Mobile phones shipped in 2006: 60 million
Internet users in 2005: 60 million
Broadband households in 2006: 2.3 million
Projected IT spending for 2007: US$16.6 billion
Sources: Nasscom, Business-in-Asia.com, Wikipedia, Springboard Research, ITU, eMarketer, IDC
Correct as at May 21, 2007
India is top among emerging markets

Courtesy: www.zdnetasia.com, May 24, 2007

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To address India's rising wage costs and IT manpower shortages, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has, among other measures, established an academic program with more than 300 local institutions. According to S. Padmanabhan, executive vice president for global human resources at Indian IT services company TCS, there is now a rising demand for IT workers as technology and IT services companies establish operations in India. The IT giant has 70,000 employees in over 30 countries. "India is producing 400,000 IT engineers a year, and IT companies hire about 250,000 of them," Padmanabhan told ZDNet Asia. "So, there's now pressure on the universities to produce more graduates." Padmanabhan noted that while tier-one universities such as the Indian Institutes of Technology located across the country have the resources to produce high-quality engineering graduates with little difficulty, lesser-known colleges have their challenges. To address the talent crunch, Padmanabhan said, TCS will establish faculty development programs, student internships, seminars and workshops at the tier-two and tier-three universities. "The whole idea is to bring up the capability of the students, thereby increasing our talent pool," he explained. Part of the strategy to expand the talent pool is to target not only engineering students but those in other majors, too. Padmanabhan said: "We've identified and experimented with a few institutions, handpicked some of their Math and Science students, and put them through a rigorous six-month training program. "An engineering course is usually four years long, while Math and Science courses take only three years to complete." Noting that more still needs to be done, Padmanabhan said TCS is expected to hire an additional 3,000 non-engineering graduates in 2008. Apart from hiring from its own backyard, TCS is also eyeing talent outside Indian shores, particularly in China. "If 400,000 engineers come out of India every year, the equivalent in China is 1.2 million--and they're all of very high quality," Padmanabhan said, adding that TCS will step up its operations in China to take advantage of the abundant talent pool there. "In this industry, it doesn't matter where you do work, whether it's in India, Eastern Europe or China, because we're all well-connected through our global delivery model," he explained. Once TCS expands its talent pool and hires the right people, the next step would be to ensure that the new workers can be deployed to their job scopes immediately. For that, we'll put them through a 42-day training program, which is replicated across our global development centers in China, Brazil and Eastern Europe." Padmanabhan said a uniform staff induction program across its global offices will address the company's business needs. "We'll make sure that everyone has sound engineering principles derived through our experience by working with many international customers," he said. "Then, we'll also make sure they understand the technology required to service our customers in future." Padmanabhan noted that about five years ago, much of the company's work was done on mainframes and Unix boxes, and using the C++ programming language. Today, most of TCS' development work is done on the Java platform, he noted. Signed, sealed, delivered

Snapshot of several outsourcing deals that use TCS' Indian delivery centers.
"Technology's always changing, and we have to keep on upgrading our technology caliber to stay relevant," Padmanabhan said. In addition to hard coding skills, Padmanabhan noted that TCS places emphasis on people and language skills to ensure its pool of quality talent meets the needs of the globalized IT and outsourcing industry. "We'll send them to different parts of the world and expose them to different customers," he added. TCS' efforts have paid off. The company now enjoys the lowest attrition rate of about 10.6 percent in the industry, Padmanabhan claimed. IT job attrition among big Indian companies, he said, is around 14 percent but the rate may be higher in business process outsourcing. Being able to retain talent "is not something that can be achieved overnight", he added. "It has to be well thought through systematically, where we address three aspects of an individual's career: good technology capability, international exposure and opportunities to exhibit their talent, such as music, on campus." TCS has also gained recognition for its human resource development. For example, the company received the 'Investors in People' award for setting standards of good working practices in the U.K. It also won the Dataquest-IDC Best Employer in IT Services in 2005.

Courtesy: www.zdnetasia.com, May 24, 2007

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Not only are more and more top Indian brains in the US returning to India, they are bringing in top R&D which is enriching vital sectors in India. The Indus Entrepreneur Group (TIE) estimates that around 60,000 infotech professionals may have returned in recent years. No region of the United States has been more affected by this trend than Silicon Valley. TIE had reported in 2003 that between 15,000 and 20,000 Indians have returned and Charter member of the organization Vish Mishra told San Jose Mercury News that the trend had continued and about 40,000 more had gone back in the last four years.A growing number of top automotive engineers, are reversing the brain drain, and driving straight India's automotive industry. Business Standard quoted the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) as saying there are already over 250 Indian expatriates who have returned to work on R&D in domestic automobile companies Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Hindustan Motors.SIAM predicts that their numbers will double in two years. Arun Jaura helped the Ford Motor Company launch its popular hybrid car Excape as part of its crack research and development (R&D) team. But after working for nine years in Ford's Michigan R&D centre, Jaura packed his bags and came to India to join Mahindra & Mahindra two years ago. His job: to launch the country's first bio-diesel vehicle under the Scorpio brand and a Mahindra tractor. With two patents and over 26 research papers under his belt, the vice-president of Mahindra & Mahindra's R&D is now working on a combined battery and diesel sports utility vehicle (SUV). "The rich experience gained in the developed world helps in avoiding the mistakes the US and the European Union made and could turn India into a 'Brains Trust of Asia'," Jaura said. Arvind S Bharatwaj took a 50 per cent cut in his salary in General Motors in the US to return to India and now heads the advanced engineering unit of Chennai-based Ashok Leyland. TIE had reported in 2003 that between 15,000 and 20,000 Indians have returned and Charter member of the organization Vish Mishra told San Jose Mercury News that the trend had continued and about 40,000 more had gone back in the last four years. Mishra, who is a senior venture partner with Clearstone Ventures, said the flow of investment capital to India also has expanded, much of it from Silicon Valley VC firms. Clearstone Venture Partners now has an office in Mumbai, as do many other firms that either are based in or originated in Silicon Valley. During the 12-month period that ended in August 2006, Mishra told the paper, VC firms invested 2 billion dollars in early and late-stage companies. The report quotes a study released earlier this year by Anna-Lee Saxenian of the University of California-Berkeley and by Duke University, as saying Indians founded 15 per cent of all Silicon Valley start-ups. The Mercury News says there isn't a single major information-technology company in the United States that hasn't set up operations in India.

Courtesy: www.indiapost.com, May 21,2007

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India's fast growing economy and leaping information technology sector is attracting home more and more Indians from the Silicon Valley and the Indus Entrepreneur Group (TIE) estimates that around 60,000 may have returned in recent years, a media report said on Monday. No region of the United States has been more affected by this trend than Silicon Valley. TIE had reported in 2003 that between 15,000 and 20,000 Indians have returned and Charter member of the organisation Vish Mishra told San Jose Mercury News that the trend had continued and about 40,000 more had gone back in the last four years.

Mishra, who is a senior venture partner with Clearstone Ventures, said the flow of investment capital to India also has expanded, much of it from Silicon Valley VC firms. Clearstone Venture Partners now has an office in Mumbai, as do many other firms that either are based in or originated in Silicon Valley. During the 12-month period that ended in August 2006, Mishra told this paper, VC firms invested USD 2 billion in early and late-stage companies. The report quotes a study released earlier this year by Anna-Lee Saxenian of the University of California-Berkeley and by Duke University, as saying Indians founded 15 per cent of all Silicon Valley start-ups. The study also found that 53 per cent of the science and engineering workforce in the valley is foreign-born, and that one-quarter of immigrant-founded engineering and scientific companies set up in the United States during the past decade were by Indians. These companies rang up USD 52 billion in sales and created 450,000 jobs. No wonder, notes the paper, some business and policy leaders are sounding alarm bells about American competitiveness in general and Silicon Valley's future as a technology leader in particular. The Mercury News says there isn't a single major information-technology company in the United States that hasn't set up operations in India. IT companies are attracted by low-cost, highly skilled workforce; 3.5 million white-collar US jobs, along with USD 151 billion in wages, are expected to be outsourced by 2015, with India the top outsourcing destination, the paper says quoting a report by Forrester Research. But these companies also see a market of potentially epic proportions, the paper says. Half of India's 1.2 billion people are younger than 25. That's 600 million people coming into their peak consuming years in an economy fuelled primarily by exploding retail growth. As Amar Babu of Intel India, where 15 per cent of the workforce is made up of Indians who returned from the United States, explained, "Intel views India as a critical research and development site. At the same time, India is a consumption market for IT. A lot of future growth will come from these emerging markets".

Courtesy: www.newindpress.com, May 14, 2007

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ONGC Videsh Ltd, (OVL) on Wednesday announced that the company has made a natural gas discovery with in-place reserves being estimated at around 10 trillion cubic feet in Iran. Previously, OVL had discovered oil in Iran's Farsi offshore block which lies 90-km off Bushehr port. "We have now made a natural gas discovery in the fourth and final commitment well on the block," confirmed a top company official. The company and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) holds 40 percent stake in the 3,500 sq km block, and Oil India Ltd (OIL) has the remaining 20 percent stake in the block. Officials revealed reserves are under appraisal. However, some estimates put the in-place gas reserves at 10 trillion cubic feet and oil reserves at one billion barrels. As per the contract with the Iranian government, OVL cannot take oil and gas found in the block to India. "We have a service contract under which we are paid a pre-fixed return on the investment we make," the official said. A development plan to the Iranian authorities for bringing to production the oil and gas finds in the block will now be presented by OVL. On the expenditure it made during exploration phase, Iran will pay a 35 percent rate of return. But for the development phase, the rate of return is to be determined. Last year, OVL had found oil traces in the first well it drilled in the extant corner of the block. The second well flowed 2,000 barrels per day of oil while the reserve was a little less in the third well. "The oil found is thick and its viscosity is high and recovery may be marginally lower as the oil is heavy (14 degree API)," the official revealed. The fourth and final commitment well was drilled by ONGC's own Kedarnath rig to a total depth of 3,400 metres and targeted the 1966 B Structure 1 (FB) gas discovery.

Courtesy: www.newindpress.com, May 10, 2007

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Rajasthan will be among the few states of the country to launch a bio-fuel project by encouraging the cultivation of plants like jatropha and karanj. "We have decided to establish a bio-fuel development authority that would be manned by 17 people," Rajasthan's Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Kalu Lal Gurjar told IANS here on Monday. Of the 17 posts, nine would be filled with deputations from other departments and eight on a contract basis. An Indian administrative officer would head the department as CEO, said Gurjar. In January, the state cabinet introduced a policy for cultivation, processing and utilisation of bio-fuel plants like jatropha and karanj on 4.84 million hectares of cultivable wasteland with special emphasis on private sector participation. The rural development and panchayati raj department was made the nodal agency for monitoring the policy. As per the policy, 30 percent of the land would be given to private and public sector companies, while 70 percent would be allotted to self-help groups (SHGs). The NGOs and opposition parties including the Congress have opposed the policy as they consider it as a "tactic" to grab land in the villages. "It can be a major land scam as private and cooperative committees and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-supported NGOs would play a decisive role in acquiring land for jatropha and other oilseeds cultivation," said state Congress president B.D. Kalla said. Moreover, Kalla, while describing the wastelands as fields where villagers take their livestock for grazing said, "Allotting the land to private players would disturb the rural lifestyle and leave no area for animals to graze." The government argues that the move will benefit the state's economy. "The Congress is opposing it just for the sake of it," said L.N. Dave, Rajasthan's minister for mines. A local NGO has also criticised the policy saying the government's aim is to allot public land to private players at throwaway prices.

Courtesy: www.newindpress.com, May 08, 2007