Indian Economy News & Discussion - Nov 27 2017

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 08 Jul 2020 22:05

A lot of my ultra right wing friends in India are dancing a bhangra that we now have apps to take on Facebook and Whatsapp.

What they don't realize is that it is very very hard to break into what these guys have created. FB while not the very first Social Network was the very first one that was motivated to take over. Myspace/orkut etc were just languishing around so FB had the advantages of first mover.
Network effect. I will use a SN only if my friends are on. How will my friends get on? Only if their friends are on. Not an easy problem and the solution is not easily reproducible. Just patriotism won't cut it. Google+ had so many smart people and so much money backing it and it failed.

Just download count is meaningless. In the beginning everyone might download because they are curious. Real question is how many continue after the initial hoopla. How many continuous users. On G+ I had made an account but stopped going there after a while. Then I checked it after a year I just ONE friend continuously posting pictures of his kids. It was a graveyard. Many heads rolled at G+.

What about the business model? How to make it profitable?
Making the app is easy. The rest is hard.
Steep uphill task. Let's wait and watch before celebrating.

csaurabh · Post by **csaurabh** » 08 Jul 2020 22:50

Agreed. I don't know what all the brouhaha around apps is around. We mostly use western derived apps anyway, not Chinese ones.
App development while having useful applications is not really high tech. While facebook has a market cap four times that of Lockheed Martin I would definitely rather have a Lockheed Martin in India than a facebook. Ditto for tons of small SMEs that have world class technology in laser equipment, engineering software, machine tools, etc. ( Indians are too IT-centric in their understanding of technology ).

That said there are literally thousands of small app-development companies in India. Maybe they know something that we don't? I am sure we should have some BRFites among them.

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 09 Jul 2020 01:33

The article has all decisions of today's cabinet meeting.

Government halts merger of 3 PSU general insurers; to infuse Rs 12,450 crore
ET Bureau|Last Updated: Jul 08, 2020, 11.34 PM IST

New Delhi: The union cabinet has decided to put on hold the proposed merger of the three state-run general insurers even as it approved ₹12,450 crore in capital infusion.

It cleared the extension of the scheme to provide free food under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana till November and other elements of the Atmanirbhar package announced earlier.

The government had in the budget for FY19 announced its decision to merge three general insurance companies – Oriental Insurance Company Limited (OlCL), National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) and United India Insurance Company Limited (UIICL).
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Affordable Rental Houses
The cabinet has also given approval for developing affordable rental housing complexes (ARHC) for urban migrants and poor as a sub-scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban.

It is estimated that 1.08 lakh such houses are ready to be rented out across 107 cities and the government aims to develop 3.5 lakh of them over the next few years. Under the scheme, the existing vacant government-funded housing complexes will be converted in ARHCs through concession agreements for 25 years.
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Other decisions
The cabinet also cleared a number of already announced decisions such as extension of free food scheme and the extension of government contribution of 12% each of the employees’ and employers’ to the provident fund accounts for June-August under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.

Free cooking gas will be provided for another three months beginning July 1 under the scheme for the poor and vulnerable.

The cabinet has approved the scheme for agriculture infrastructure fund to provide debt financing for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ma ... content=20

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 09 Jul 2020 01:45

Good going............

Atmanirbhar Bharat: Centre chalks out strategy aimed at 'self-reliance' in chemical, petrochemical sectors
First Published on Jul 8, 2020 10:26 pm

The Centre has outlines a strategy aimed at achieving 'self-reliance' in the chemical and petrochemical sectors, in line with its call for an 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'. As per the latest proposal, investments in greenfield as well as brownfield projects in the aforementioned sectors will receive certain tax incentives, sources told CNBC Awaaz.

The tax incentive slabs are likely to be as follows: zero corporate tax for the first five years, 75 percent rebate in corporate tax for the next five years, and 50 percent waiver in five years after the first decade. A 10 percent to 20 percent equity capital from the government is also likely.

The government is also looking to amend the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIR) policy to provide more such incentives and relaxations, the report stated.

This proposal has reportedly been finalised by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers and will be implemented after it received the Cabinet nod.

Chemicals and petrochemicals are among India's top five import items, bulk of which the country gets from China. The Centre is also planning to hike duties on imports from China and is in the process of identifying the ones on which dutty would be hiked. The combination of the revised duy structure and a lower tax rate for investments in the sector would help reduce India's dependence on Chinese imports.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/busin ... 25151.html

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 09 Jul 2020 13:25

[b]Gujarat town looks to topple China in global toy supply chain[/b]
Rutam Vora Ahmedabad | Updated on July 09, 2020 Published on July 08, 2020

The manufacturing hub of Morbi known for its tiles and timepieces is making a big play to become the toy factory to the Mattels, LEGOs and Hamleys of the world. It aspires to replace Chinese supplies and become the new playground for multinational toy giants.

Around 150 electronics items and clock manufacturers from Morbi are in talks with firms which source parts or finished products from China for the Indian market. According to Jaysukh Patel, MD of Ajanta-Oreva Group, the world’s largest wall-clock maker, the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and the recent border conflicts with China have prompted factory owners here to explore new dimensions to their businesses and try and get a chunk of the orders going to China.

A natural progression
Patel points out that due to low demand, Morbi’s manufacturers are currently operating at barely 20 per cent capacity. Last year, the industry here operated at less than 60 per cent of its capacity.

“So, we started looking at our strengths and decided to replace China as a supplier for small electronic equipment for consumer appliances, toys and gift articles,” explains Patel.

He said not only are they engaging with toy and gift articles makers but also consumer durable firms such as Hitachi, Samsung and LG for new business.

Clocks and electronic gifts manufacturer Sagar Sutaria of Siddhart Gifts has already laid out plans to foray into moulded plastic toys and soft toys as an immediate extension of his business.

“We are not worried about entering the new segment of toys, because the market is very much accessible as most of the gift article shops sell toys and clocks together. It gives us easy access to the market.

“We will continue to make clocks and start a second line of business with toys and fill in the Chinese shoe,” Sutaria said.

Competing on cost, quality
Can Morbi match China in cost competitiveness? Morbi's businessmen have worked out the economics and are confident they can not only take on the country in cost but offer superior quality too.

“Our capability is not in mobile making or TV or big electronic products. But we are good at smaller products with economies of scale. And thanks to Covid-19, we now have spare labour, spare capacity and spare time — at least for the next one year. We plan to build on it and capitalise on this opportunity,” Patel said. He adds that a letter has been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking government support and protection for this segment of products.

The letter dated July 5 raises concerns on under-invoicing/tax evasion by Chinese companies to dump goods into the Indian market and ruin the country’s MSME sector.

“Indian MSME is competent enough to compete with Chinese products provided we curb the unethical imports of Chinese products. It will be a great assistance and boon to the MSME sector, if we can curb such unethical imports,” the letter stated.

Notably, over the past 50 years, Morbi’s clock industry has updated itself with Japanese and German technologies of quartz for clocks and needled its way into prominence.

“Today, over 90 per cent of India’s clocks are made in Morbi. Raw material supplies of plastics and electronics inputs like PCBs, LCD, etc., are secured for them. So, they may not need to go looking for suppliers,” said Patel.

Morbi has over 300 SMEs operating in clocks, gifts and electronics items manufacturing employing over 35,000 workforce — mostly locally available.

The timing may just be right for the transition to toys.

BusinessLine Link
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ne ... 24734.ece#

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 09 Jul 2020 17:24

Tata Group Emerges As Sole Contender For Air India
https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/tata ... -air-india
With just a month left for submitting the final bid, the sprawling steel-to-salt conglomerate Tata group has emerged as the sole contender in the fray for acquiring India’s state-owned airliner Air India

The Tata group is likely to go ahead with the bid while its joint venture airlines venture, Singapore Airlines, has declined to join the Air India bid due to Covid-19 woes.

The group is currently performing due diligence for the airlines. The last date for bidding is August 31 and the government is not in favour of extending the deadline.

From Tata Air Lines and the long-since nationalised Air India to strategic joint ventures with AirAsia Berhad and Singapore Airlines (SIA) for AirAsia India and Vistara, respectively, Tata has been present in the aviation sector.

KL Dubey · Post by **KL Dubey** » 09 Jul 2020 21:44

darshan wrote:Tata Group Emerges As Sole Contender For Air India
The group is currently performing due diligence for the airlines. The last date for bidding is August 31 and the government is not in favour of extending the deadline.

Almost there! I never imagined that Air India would return to the Tatas. This goremint has worked at lightning speed in relation to previous ones.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 09 Jul 2020 22:06

Mod Note

Did some thread cleanup. The discussion on national security or geopolitics associated with homegrown SM/app ecosystem is not relevant to this thread.

Vamsee · Post by **Vamsee** » 09 Jul 2020 22:09

^^^^^
Thanks to Covid-19, large scale protests are not possible at this time. So, this is the best time to implement all the "controversial"

policies.
Under normal circumstances, allowing 151 private trains to run on Indian Railway tracks would have attracted lot of opposition. All the trouble makers can do now is to issue press statements condemning the move.

Nothing like a good crisis. We need more reforms.

--Vamsee

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 09 Jul 2020 22:10

The downside is that so much reform is being implemented to such quietness that we're not tracking it all on this thread and forum.

Vamsee · Post by **Vamsee** » 09 Jul 2020 22:29

Samsung starts manufacturing smartwatches in India

===============

Samsung is also investing in India to produce screens within India. It is a high value item. Recently read somewhere that GoI will come up with a scheme to encourage Fab setup in India.

--Vamsee

Vamsee · Post by **Vamsee** » 09 Jul 2020 22:37

TCS Q1 profit falls 13% QoQ to Rs 7,008 crore, but deal wins remain robust

Consolidated revenue declined 4.1 percent sequentially to Rs 38,322 crore in the quarter-ended June, impacted by all segments, barring banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI). However, revenue increased 0.4 percent YoY.

=============

We can think of IT export revenues as a proxy for our services exports. Although profits are down, the revenues YOY are pretty much intact. If this trend holds for other IT companies, it means that even though our goods exports/imports will take a big hit this year, service exports (and probably imports) will remain stable.

--Vamsee

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 09 Jul 2020 22:41

Consumer facing fabs aren't necessarily the best thing to aim for. They're low labour input (of very high skill level) and very very high capital input. That's not quite the best bang for buck. For domestic consumption needs, it's fine to encourage fabs that aren't quite on the lithographic cutting edge but satisfy broad requirement for domestic chip production. The high end fab business is a niche industry.

Better to aim for a transfer of the entire component manufacture ecosystem - very labour intensive and broad based. Further, it's very sticky in the sense that it keeps the country connected to the supply chain for the long term.

Added: Services exports are not particularly affected by COVID - they were down just 8% YoY in May 2020, and was hardly impacted in April. No June data out yet.

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 09 Jul 2020 22:48

This should really go in the Railway thread but since someone commented above. The new privately run trains initiative of 151 trains is over and above the current trains. This will lead to serious track congestion, esp. in the trains between Bangalore and North which runs on single line section for a good part. I really think they should allow the process of private trains to start after the DFCs become operational. Congestion will ease on certain sections.
Alternatively they should also get rid of trains with poor patronage. Restricting stops of existing trains is also being done to speed up trains.
Today V. K. Yadav Railway board chairman announced that both DFC and the bullet train will not be delayed by COVID -19. However there is a serious shortage of labor especially on the Western DFC. Pre COVID 40,000 people were at work on both DFCs but they have now managed to limp back to 22,000 from a low of 15,000 soon after migrant workers left the construction sites. Most of the laborers coming back were assigned to the WDFC about 7,000 of them. The shortfall is esp. worrying as the shortage is of skilled laborers, NTC machine operators, crane and bulldozer operators, people who are installing OHE and signalling systems and so on. Local labor who do work in concrete batching plants, manual laborers and those fixing rebars etc cannot be expected to be trained esp. in a short period to handle specialized equipment. I would like to believe V. K. Yadav which seems a very optimistic statement but I am more willing to bet that schedules are going to be off by 6 months at least. Perhaps by late September the labor crisis at various sites will ease.

PS: The Brahmaputra Mail, New-Delhi to Dibrugarh, ran with electric loco from Delhi to New Jalpaiguri for the first time July 1, before it ran between Delhi to DDU/Mughalsarai under electric traction.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 09 Jul 2020 22:49

US-Based Fund Interups Inc To Submit Bid For Air India; Says It Is A Serious Contender For The Airline

https://swarajyamag.com/insta/us-based- ... he-airline

US-based fund Interups Inc will be submitting its bid for Air India on or before 31 August 2020, unless there is any further extension of the deadline.

Laxmi Prasad, Chairman & CEO, Chief Business Architect, Interups Inc said, "We carry 27,000 plus NRI retirement asset accounts and a group of very ultra-rich Billionaire Group and we are dead serious on our fight to have this airline piece not miss our hands."

csaurabh · Post by **csaurabh** » 09 Jul 2020 22:55

Suraj wrote:Consumer facing fabs aren't necessarily the best thing to aim for. They're low labour input (of very high skill level) and very very high capital input. That's not quite the best bang for buck. For domestic consumption needs, it's fine to encourage fabs that aren't quite on the lithographic cutting edge but satisfy broad requirement for domestic chip production. The high end fab business is a niche industry.

Better to aim for a transfer of the entire component manufacture ecosystem - very labour intensive and broad based. Further, it's very sticky in the sense that it keeps the country connected to the supply chain for the long term.

Most high-tech industries are like that. They require very less but highly skilled labour and high capital investment.
The problem is that if you ignore those industries we are destined to be a technologically backward nation forever, primarily relying on exporting our labour as services to other countries or multinational companies.
Today we are trying to get atma-nirbharta from China, but our real dependency is on the west.

As a thought experiment consider what would be needed to develop the following company in India.
https://www.laserglow.com/product/bypro ... ern-Lasers
This is a Canadian company specializing in laser based projectors.
It isn't even that hard of a technology, but manufacturing it at quality levels and at a scale that makes it profitable is probably really difficult.
Our baniya type industrialists are plain not up the challenge and government is not much better.

Multiply the above company/products by about 10000 and you can start grasping the amount of technological dependence we have on the West.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 09 Jul 2020 23:27

csaurabh: I think you're missing the point of the previous post. It's not a XOR between computer chips and potato chips, and also not a case of wilfully choosing to remain technologically backward.

It's harder to get a high capital input part of a supply chain to move over, and it takes a lot of money laid out upfront - tax holidays etc - for limited immediate benefit. It's far more straightforward to encourage the labour intensive supply chain to relocate progressively, until it picks up its own momentum and encourages more of that supply chain - all the way to the cutting edge, over.

Most of the world depends on a handful of fabs in Korea, Taiwan and US for its let say <14nm technological products. It doesn't make the rest of the world technologically backward.

chola · Post by **chola** » 09 Jul 2020 23:39

Vamsee wrote:^^^^^
Thanks to Covid-19, large scale protests are not possible at this time. So, this is the best time to implement all the "controversial" policies.
Under normal circumstances, allowing 151 private trains to run on Indian Railway tracks would have attracted lot of opposition. All the trouble makers can do now is to issue press statements condemning the move.

Nothing like a good crisis. We need more reforms.

--Vamsee

LOL. I like that thinking. It is uber pragmatic and truthful.

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 10 Jul 2020 01:45

Has this been posted ...

https://twitter.com/dhaval241086/status ... 6179232769

Dhaval Patel @dhaval241086

For the success of Digital India, we must become a big global data refinery -data cleaning, data processing, data innovation and research. Keeping in mind data privacy laws we shall never compromise on the data sovereignty of India.
https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/data ... avi-mumbai
Data Localisation: Hiranandani Group Unveils World’s Second Largest Data Centre At Navi Mumbai

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 10 Jul 2020 02:18

https://ourgovdotin.files.wordpress.com ... change.pdf

WORKING GROUP REPORT ON SOCIAL STOCK EXCHANGE

The Hon’ble Finance Minister’s bold vision of a Social Stock Exchange could not have come at a more opportune time for India. In a country whose policymakers have always striven to create economic prosperity for all, the seeds of a form of capital that would prioritize social returns over financial returns have always been present in the policymaker’s conception of Indian business and enterprise. It is no wonder then that India is the only country in the world to have mandated a Corporate Social Responsibility role for its private enterprises, and that it is also one of the world’s fastest growing impact investing destinations. Yet, much more can and should be done. India’s economic imperative is to feed, clothe, educate and empower more than a billion people, in ways that conserve and grow its natural, cultural and social heritages. It cannot expect to accomplish this lofty objective on the strength of conventional commercial capital alone. If that were possible, India would not be home to over 3 million non-profit organizations who are working tirelessly to close the capabilities gap for hundreds of millions of Indians. These NPOs must receive adequate financial assistance to continue and multiply their stalwart efforts. They represent the core of the Hon’ble Finance Minister’s vision for a new form of enterprise in India, one in which the entrepreneur is an agent of positive social impact more than anything else.

Accordingly, SEBI constituted a working group on ‘Social Stock Exchanges’ (SSE) under the
Chairmanship of Shri Ishaat Hussain on September 19, 2019. The other members of the working group are as follows:
i. Shri TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education; Ex-Director (Infosys)
ii. Ms. Roopa Kudva, MD, Omidyar Network India (BIF )
iii. Shri Amit Chandra, Chairman, Bain Capital (Private Equity firm); noted philanthropist
iv. Dr. Saurabh Garg, Principal Secretary to Government of Odisha
v. Dr. Shamika Ravi, Director of Research, Brookings India; Member, PM’s Economic Advisory
Council
vi. Shri Vineet Rai, - Founder and MD, Aavishkaar Venture Management Services Private Limited
vii. Representative from Ministry of Corporate Affairs*
viii. Dr. Ashima Jain ( Representative from Department of Economic Affairs)
ix. Shri. Hemant Gupta (CEO- BSE Samman)
x. Shri J Ravichandran (Group President, NSE)
xi. Shri Girish Sohani (President, BAIF Research Foundation)
xii. Shri Amarjeet Singh (Executive Director- Securities and Exchange Board of India)
xiii. Ms. Ruchi Chojer (CGM- Securities and Exchange Board of India)
xiv. Shri Jeevan Sonparote (CGM- Securities and Exchange Board of India); Convener
* No formal representative was nominated by Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The second meeting of the working group was attended by Shri Uday Khomane from the office of ROC, Mumbai

ManSingh · Post by **ManSingh** » 10 Jul 2020 03:06

csaurabh wrote:
Suraj wrote:Consumer facing fabs aren't necessarily the best thing to aim for. They're low labour input (of very high skill level) and very very high capital input. That's not quite the best bang for buck. For domestic consumption needs, it's fine to encourage fabs that aren't quite on the lithographic cutting edge but satisfy broad requirement for domestic chip production. The high end fab business is a niche industry.

Better to aim for a transfer of the entire component manufacture ecosystem - very labour intensive and broad based. Further, it's very sticky in the sense that it keeps the country connected to the supply chain for the long term.
Most high-tech industries are like that. They require very less but highly skilled labour and high capital investment.
The problem is that if you ignore those industries we are destined to be a technologically backward nation forever, primarily relying on exporting our labour as services to other countries or multinational companies.
Today we are trying to get atma-nirbharta from China, but our real dependency is on the west.

As a thought experiment consider what would be needed to develop the following company in India.
https://www.laserglow.com/product/bypro ... ern-Lasers
This is a Canadian company specializing in laser based projectors.
It isn't even that hard of a technology, but manufacturing it at quality levels and at a scale that makes it profitable is probably really difficult.
Our baniya type industrialists are plain not up the challenge and government is not much better.

Multiply the above company/products by about 10000 and you can start grasping the amount of technological dependence we have on the West.

An issue you may want to ponder over. India has had the engineering presence of cutting-edge firms like Synopsys, Cadence, Qualcomm etc for 15+ years now.

Still India is not known as a a creator or manufacturer of any well established SOC's in any domain ( personal computing, automotive, Vision, Telecom etc. ). Reason: We don't own the IP and may probably never be good creator(s) of IP. A complete lack of technological institution R&D support, venture capital and financing , test facilities will keep India as an under-performer in this field. The current government can not change this overnight.

It is much easier to focus on component manufacturing, though environmental degradation will have to be factored in. Once issue(s) like quality of technological (and economic ) institutions, low per-capita income, are addresses, it might make more sense to get into cutting edge fields.

Also here actual per-capita income matters and not PPP. A lithographic machine that costs $300 million for the world will cost $300 million for India too.

sum · Post by **sum** » 10 Jul 2020 06:16

An issue you may want to ponder over. India has had the engineering presence of cutting-edge firms like Synopsys, Cadence, Qualcomm etc for 15+ years now.

Still India is not known as a a creator or manufacturer of any well established SOC's in any domain ( personal computing, automotive, Vision, Telecom etc. ). Reason: We don't own the IP and may probably never be good creator(s) of IP. A complete lack of technological institution R&D support, venture capital and financing , test facilities will keep India as an under-performer in this field. The current government can not change this overnight.

+++400%

We have literally 0 IP/innovation of our own( very small lab /institution level efforts notwithstanding) except for using our best and brightest to file more and more IP and patents for American and other cos ( Korean, Chinese etc in their ODCs in Bluru/Noida etc)

The way it seems, i think we will be saying the same story even after 50 years since there seems to be 0 motivation or national level goal like the Chinese to leverage the amazing tech access provided so far( more than 2 decade old now) to do anything.
Everyone is sufficient to get into the next highest paying MNC job and stick there. We will forever remain a nation producing the best contractors for foreign countries to swell their IP portfolios ( and then buy those same products back at 100x markup for use within the country)

suryag · Post by **suryag** » 10 Jul 2020 07:03

Needless post edited

Will post with policy asks

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 10 Jul 2020 07:14

Since this is the economy thread , the real question is not whether any thing was done in Bluru or elsewhere . The question is what’s the approach to moving a significant part of supply chain to India ? Bluru has a long history with tech labs but that has not implied the supply chain also moving to India . The latter is a whole set of policy actions in itself .

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 10 Jul 2020 07:48

This is from an agreement signed in the 1950s. Was the Indian government inclined to discount manufacturing all this while in favor of building a services based economy?

India’s trade agreement with China was one-sided to begin with

China would export machinery, but India would export raw materials and unmanufactured ores. That is, barring chemicals and vehicles, India would remain a primary produce exporter to China, a continuing trend this trade agreement contributed to.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 10 Jul 2020 10:56

Covid-19 has enabled a significant reset of India’s structural problems associated with lopsided industrial and trade policies that hamper rather than advance the interests of domestic industries . It’s good to see so much getting updated in so short a time. It’s high time we set up a comprehensive trade plus industrial policy that uses tariffs to block imports (mostly Chinese) while demanding world class economies of scale from domestic industry as well .

csaurabh · Post by **csaurabh** » 10 Jul 2020 11:23

suryag I liked you original post. I think you should revert it.
I think the consensus is that while some ( though small relative to our population ) good engineering/research work is being done in the country, it is usually done under multi-national companies. Which does not really help a lot in nation building.

IMO what we fail to realize is that the industrial strength on the west does not solely rest on giant multi nationals like Cisco, Apple, etc. It also depends hugely on a vast network of industrial small and medium tech companies. These SMEs usually hire locally and have dealers to ship their products abroad. Hence we often get a lop-sided view of technology because our people get hired only in the big multi nationals of the west and are not seeing the big picture. How many of our people work in Koenigsegg (sports cars), Xaar (industrial inkjets), Dantec Dynamics (Laser based instruments), Bolenz and Shaefer (filament winding ), Klima ( Fiber Laser cutters ), Anver (Vacuum holding), Renishaw (metrology probes ), WorX ( X-ray tomography software ), TracVision ( Marine antennas), and so on? I doubt there are many. I could list hundreds more of such companies.

Our discourse is heavily tilted towards asking the question of why don't we build Microsoft/Apple/Samsung/etc. type of company in India whereas what we actually should be asking is how do we create this gigantic network of small and medium sized highly technically advanced companies in the country that seeps into every small town and village and which is what really defines an industrial nation in my opinion. Outsourcing some development from microsoft or designing a few chips in B'lore barely scratches the surface.

Startup ecosystem suffers from the same problem, there is too much glamour of silicon valley style unicorns based on selling ads or ecommerce instead of trying to build small scale hi-tech companies that can genuinely compete with the west in thousands of such technology categories.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 10 Jul 2020 19:22

Why Amul’s Foray Into Edible Oil Business Is Significant For Indian Economy, Oilseed Farmers

https://swarajyamag.com/economy/why-amu ... ed-farmers
'Janmay', which means fresh or newly-born, will see Amul selling five variants — cottonseed, mustard, sunflower, groundnut, and soybean oils — under the brand across 30,000 stores in Gujarat and Rajasthan tapping its parlours and retail counters.

The producers union will process 200 tonnes of oilseeds every day. The oil will be packaged at Amul’s new modernised plant near Panalpur, in northern Gujarat.

The Banaskantha Milk Producers Union has already bought mustard and groundnut this year through its farmers' networks. It will purchase more of other oilseeds going forward this season, according to Sodhi.

Amul’s foray into edible oils production and marketing is a crucial move complementing the Centre’s “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan” for four reasons.

....

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 10 Jul 2020 21:41

Forex reserves continue to maintain a general upward trajectory, now at $514 billion, up by $6.5 billion last week. In FY2019-20 (ending March 31 2020) the forex reserves grew $65 billion.

Vamsee · Post by **Vamsee** » 10 Jul 2020 22:36

^^^
We are ~ $56.5 Bn behind Russia right now ( $513.2B vs $569.8B). If oil prices stay low, we may overtake Russia and become 4th largest forex holders before the end of this Fiscal year.

--Vamsee

Vamsee · Post by **Vamsee** » 10 Jul 2020 22:48

Exclusive: Apple supplier Foxconn to invest $1 billion in India - sources

The move, the scale of which has not previously been reported, is part of a quiet and gradual production shift by Apple away from China as it navigates disruptions from a trade war between Beijing and Washington and the coronavirus crisis.

“There’s a strong request from Apple to its clients to move part of the iPhone production out of China,” one of the sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

chaitanya · Post by **chaitanya** » 11 Jul 2020 03:10

Default risk for Indian firms drops at fastest pace in decade

The cost to insure against nonpayment by a basket of Indian companies including Reliance Industries Ltd.NSE 2.95 % and State Bank of India dropped by 252 basis points in May and June combined, the most for any two-month period dating back to 2009, according to CMA prices. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government unveiled $277 billion of stimulus in May and the central bank cut benchmark borrowing rates to the lowest since at least 2000 to help an economy that’s facing a contraction after the world's largest lockdown.

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 12 Jul 2020 15:59

https://www.business-standard.com/artic ... 064_1.html
From textiles to furniture, 350 items may face non-tariff barriers

The government is considering import restrictions on more than 350 items, including electronic goods, toys, furniture, and textiles, by putting in place non-tariff barriers to support domestic industry. Steps such as introducing an import-monitoring system for some and mandatory licensing requirements for others are being examined.

The move is in line with the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” objective, to cut import dependence, and encourage production and demand for locally made goods.

Looks like a shot in the arms of the MSME sector. Hopefully GOI sticks to it and generate massive employment that is the need of the hour.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 12 Jul 2020 22:32

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-urjOFKin8

Abhijeet Iyer-Mitra on the Indian economy. Starting at 1:42, he makes some scathing remarks about the Indian IT industry. And at 17:42, he goes into the Indian ceramic industry, says that India has no ceramic industry right now worth mentioning- it's dominated by Bangladesh. Is this accurate?

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 12 Jul 2020 23:18

Varoon Shekhar wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-urjOFKin8

Abhijeet Iyer-Mitra on the Indian economy. Starting at 1:42, he makes some scathing remarks about the Indian IT industry. And at 17:42, he goes into the Indian ceramic industry, says that India has no ceramic industry right now worth mentioning- it's dominated by Bangladesh. Is this accurate?

Yes this is true. In the 1960s there was a village outside Lucknow called Chinhat which was a very vibrant center for glazed terracota. The colors used by the artists were extremely bright and the products were common things, cups, glasses, teapots, plates etc. Also they developed the notion of a coffee mug. Till then coffee was drunk in demitasse cups or regular cups with saucers. We used Chinhat pottery for daily use when I was growing up. All of this died and the industry went into oblivion. People simply developed bad taste. Melamine came along and killed what was left. There is a similar ceramics found in North Africa in Tunisia in the village of Hammamet on the Mediterranean which I saw in 1995 when I lectured at the Univ. of Tunis.

https://www.asianage.com/india/all-indi ... ivion.html

Ogale (Pune) was another company that made glassware established 1919 and there was Bengal pottery that made dinner plates and such like. All are gone or have poor visibility. Recently I went to Murano the island off Venice which is famous for blue glass since 600+ years. Went back to Murano after a long time. I doubt the way things are nurtured in Italy and finds encouragement by the local population will have an echo in India. I am sorry but I have traveled so many times over most of India and I observe cost trumps quality. So the voracious appetite for anything shoddy and cheap and the concomitant killing of quality whcih may be available locally. Even Germany has still nurtured its ceramics at the high end the famous Meissen ceramics which I brought back over 40 years ago on one of my first trips to a divided Germany.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/co ... 1PLC001185

A historical fact in 1857 there was a very furious battle that took place at Chinhat which was a prelude to the siege of Lucknow. There is a plaque at the Residency at Lucknow in memory of those killed at Chinhat.

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 13 Jul 2020 00:59

After I posted I went to check all the bone china that I have preserved from 70 years ago. There are the demitasse Wedgewood bone china cups and also yes Hitkari potteries. Two individuals came to India as a result of the horrors of the Partition. They started a cycle factory in a garage but that did not do well. One of he progeny went to Japan and did a course on pottery and ceramics. So they started a factory making bone china pieces. That too is gone though you might buy pieces here and there.

https://qz.com/india/962026/hitkari-pot ... partition/

https://picclick.com/Hitkari-Bone-China ... 28366.html

The article^^^ also says that their main competitor Bengal Potteries that I alluded to in my first post, shut down due to labour unrest. I wonder why, I thought Fiji was idyllic and all people did there was eat breadfruit and do khemta dancing, so it appeared to a 15 year old who went to Fiji IIT in 1970.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 13 Jul 2020 07:40

When he refers to the ceramic industry in India, is he mainly referring to pottery and dinnerware? Then it's very believable that the industry is in the doldrums. But what about the ceramic tile sector? There were producers like Kajaria, Jaipur, Regency, Bhor, Somani, Parry et al. Have these all stopped or hugely reduced their output?

schinnas · Post by **schinnas** » 13 Jul 2020 15:18

Google to invest USD 10B in India Digitisation Fund over next 5 to 7 years.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/busin ... 41381.html

Vamsee · Post by **Vamsee** » 14 Jul 2020 21:51

Piyush Goyal asks industry to setup semi-conductor fabrication plant soon in India

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said the government is mapping the entire land bank available for manufacturing and urged industry to come up with a semi-conductor fabrication plant soon terming it a “missing piece” in India’s manufacturing.

“We are mapping the entire land bank available for manufacturing…We need to have a fab coming to India quickly now. That is a missing piece,” Goyal said at a virtual event organised by the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council.

He also said that televisions, air conditioners and closed circuit televisions have been identified as certain sectors where the level of indigenization can increase in the country.

Vamsee · Post by **Vamsee** » 15 Jul 2020 20:09

Foreign trade data for June 2020 is out