India is rapidly acquiring world-class cooking oil refineries. New capacity of at least six million tonne annually is coming up by the end of the fiscal, spurred by tax sops. With this fresh impetus, the total edible oil procesing capacity, including vanaspati, is expected to cross 20 million tonne per annum. This is equal to the total existing capacity of all the petroleum refineries in the North and North Eastern states of India!

Kandla port has become the new destination of choice. Attracted by the Prime Minister's promise of zero excise for five years as earthquake relief, several large corporates and MNC's are firming up plans to set up new refineries of at least 1,000 tonne-perday at Kandla port. Theseinclude Cargill India, Liberty Oil Mills, and the Ruchi group, which is already India's biggest player in edible oils.

Other companies interested in Kandla include Gujarat Ambuja Proteins and Gokul Refineries. The Adani-Wilmar combine is simultaneously doubling its refinery capacity to 1,200 tpd in adjacent Mundra. Interestingly, last year, the expansion was focussed on Kakinada, where investment was fuelled by a sales tax exemption.

As a result of this incentive driven expansion, the total capacity on India's west coast is expected to reach 3.5 million tonne per annum by end-2003-04. Added to the 2.5 mtpa capacity on the east coast, including Cargill's new Paradeep refinery of 1,000 tpd, India can soon boast of acquiring 6 mtpa new capacity in just over 18 months.

Unfortunately, demand for cooking oil is stubbornly refusing to keep pace. As a result, Indian e5dible oil plans, particularly the older units, are running at little more than one-third their capacities overall. The maths is simple.

India consumes only 10 million tonne cooking oil per annum, out of which 3 mt, largely derived from domestic oilseeds, is consumed raw. So the refining industry has to fight over the 7 million tonne which needs to be processed annually.

Industry watchers are predicting more troubled times ahead "Large refineries are the death knell for smaller and older players, as they are both technologically and economically unviable in comparison.

Since new refineries are offering cheaper but better quality oil, the small operators will get wiped out soon, they pointed out.

Equally importantly, edible oil refining is now shifting to the coast line.

From being located in the hinterland near consumption or oilseed production areas, they are now being positioned to take advantage of lower freight and easier handling of imported crude.

This is perhaps the wisest and most cost-effective option in the long run, say sources.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, July 16, 2003

Global Internet company Yahoo! on Monday announced the opening of a software development centre in Bangalore, its first such facility outside the US.

The Bangalore centre would focus on product innovation and leading edge technology development for Yahoo! worldwide, Yahoo! Software Development India Pvt Ltd CEO, Venkat Pachapakesan and COO, Bharat Vijay told reporters.

The centre, to be launched next month, plans to have 150 highly skilled software engineers by the end of 2004, they said.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, July 15, 2003

MUMBAI: The State Bank of India plans to raise nearly $2 billion from expatriate Indians through a new deposit scheme, taking advantage of high local interest rates, a senior official said.

The scheme was being launched in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and details like the tenor and the coupon were still being worked out, the official said late Sunday.

"The roadshows for this new scheme will kick off around the world in the last week of July," said the official, who declined to be named. "It aims to take advantage of the positive interest rate differentials between Indian and overseas markets."

The bank offers five per cent to Non-Resident Indians on a one-year rupee deposit. Subtracting the hedging cost of around 2.3 percent, the net return works out to 2.7 percent. A one-year dollar deposit would, in contrast, pay around 1.17 per cent.

The news drove up the rupee in early deals on Monday, boosting sentiment on prospects of the inflows bolstering already high foreign exchange reserves.

India's foreign exchange reserves were at a record high of $82.774 billion on July 4, helped by strong portfolio investment.

At 10:05 a.m., the rupee was quoted at 46.03/04 per dollar, up from Friday's 33-month closing high of 46.1050/1150.

The new scheme coincides with the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds (RIBs), which raised $4.2 billion from expatriate Indians in 1998 and are due for redemption in October.

The State Bank of India (SBI) raised the amount on behalf of the central government from expatriate Indians to shore up the country's external finances after the United States and other developed countries slapped economic sanctions against the country in retaliation for carrying out nuclear tests.

"We are targeting about 30-35 percent of RIB holders through this new scheme, while the rest will be fresh deposits," the official said.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.com, July 15, 2003

India has become the preferred global hub for software development and Business Process Outsourcing and UK has benefited substantially from tie-ups with Indian IT enterprises, Mike O'Brien, British Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Office has said.

"UK companies realise the benefits of outsourcing from India, which has become the preferred global hub for software development and Business Process Outsourcing," O'Brien said in his Key note address at a one-day joint Symposium on "International Business Perspectives of India: 2003 and Beyond."

O'Brien said tie-ups between the UK and Indian IT enterprises lend the former substantial benefits "Not only in terms of lower costs, but also in the quality and speed of marketing, as well as helping to build new businesses."

Commonwealth Business Council, London Stock Exchange and the Confederation of Indian Industry organised the Symposium attended by leading industrialists from India and the UK yesterday.

Prominent speakers at the Symposium included Rahul Bajaj, Co-Chair, CBC, and Chairman, Bajaj Autos, Anand Mahindra, President, CII, N K Singh, member, Planning Commission, N A Narayana Murthy, Chairman, Infosys, Udayan Bose, Chairman, Lazard India and Richard Heald, Joint CEO, ABN AMRO Rothschild.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, July 02, 2003

Amid the growing opposition to outsourcing of technology jobs in the US to other nations like India, Microsoft is reportedly shifting its customer support work done in Texas and North Carolina to its Indian office.

Although Microsoft has not yet decided how many people will be affected due to shifting of jobs, a union in the US, citing information from current and former workers, claims hundreds of jobs will be lost, Seattle Times reported on Tuesday.

"There may be some impact in the next year on our US sites," the daily quoted Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake as saying.

"We are continually evaluating opportunities in international markets that will allow us to improve the reach of our technical support worldwide," she said.

Further details would not be known until after Microsoft tests a support centre that it opened in April in Bangalore, Drake added.

According to the daily, Microsoft customer-support centres in Sammamish, Los Colinas, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina are likely to be affected by shipping out jobs to India. Each centre employs about 800 people.

The centres are part of the product support services division that replies to calls and e-mails from customers seeking help with Microsoft software.

Microsoft and a host of other global technology giants like Oracle, IBM and Intel have expanded their operations in India in last few years to take advantage of a vast pool of skilled workers and low wages.

German-based IT product major SAP said on Monday that it planned to double its workforce in India to 2,000 in the next three years and move a part of its business process outsourcing operations to the country.

"But given Microsoft's high profile, its overseas expansions have been scrutinised and used as a rallying point for unions trying to organise tech workers," said the Seattle Times.

In addition to the support centre in Bangalore, where it is hiring 150 people, Microsoft is expanding an engineering centre in Hyderabad.

Seattle-based Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, or WashTech, a subsidiary of the Communications Workers of America, disclosed the support centre changes in Microsoft. It claims Los Colinas is losing at least 800 jobs.

"This information completely contradicts Microsoft's public position that the impacts of their focus on sending work abroad is not going to affect its US employees," said WashTech president, Marcus Courtney.

"Clearly, Microsoft is starting to cut its US workforce and send work abroad in order to slash its labour costs." Courtney said his information came from several Microsoft employees and temporary workers.

They estimated more than 800 jobs will be lost because they believe Microsoft is planning to sublease one of two buildings it owns at Los Colinas, in an area of high-tech companies north of Dallas.

Drake of Microsoft, however, said: "There are no plans at this time" to sell or lease either building in Los Colinas and the 800 jobs figure has never been used internally at the company. "There have been no decisions made."

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, July 01, 2003