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India launched RISAT-1. All-weather Earth Observation Satellite

               

                  Recently India successfully launched its very first indigenous all-weather radar imaging satellite RISAT-1, that will boost its remove sensing capabilities and facilitate agriculture and disaster management. It is surely a revolutionary move by Indian government.

               In a textbook launch, the 1,858 kg spacecraft, the country’s first microwave remote sensing satellite, was injected in the precise orbit by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C-19) about 19 minutes after a perfect lift off at the end of the 71 hour countdown from the well-known Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, around 90 km from the metro city Chennai.

              PSLV, the workhouse launch vehicle of Indian Space Research Organization, achieved its 20^th consecutive successful flight when it launched RISAT-1, the heaviest satellite ever lifted by it. It is considered as one of the most successful launch in Indian Space Research history. It added another feather of glory on India’s crown in Space Research World.

              RISAT-1, culmination of nearly 10 years of effort by ISRO, has the capability to take images of Earth during day and night, as well as in cloudy conditions, which is a pretty important and interesting feature of it. It is also the main USP of RISAT-1. Till now India depended from a Canadian satellite as existing domestic remote sensing spacecraft cannot take the pictures of Earth during cloud cover.

India to receive $6.25 billion assistance from ADB

 

               India will receive an assistance of USD 6.25 billion from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) over three years for the purpose of various important projects, including those in the most needed power, energy and education sectors.

            ADB’s three-year country operations business plan for India for 2012-2014 will provide lending assistance of USD 6.25 billion to support inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth.

            The lending support will go to key areas like transport, energy, urban development, agriculture natural resource management, finance and education. Prior to this, ADB has approved 159 loans (sovereign and non-sovereign) for India amounting to USD 24.12 billion. India’s association with the ADB dates back to 1966.

            ADB’s lending operations in India commenced in 1986, and New Delhi just completed 25 years of partnership with the Manila headquartered bank. ADB has a number of total 67 members, of which 48 are from Asia only. The US and Japan are the largest shareholders of the bank while India is the fifth largest.

            India needs this type of assistance quite regularly, as they are still a developing nation. And those sectors need to be developed properly to set up the infrastructures for the overall growth. So this will eventually help India a lot.

Laksmi Mittal retains top slot in UK rich list

 

 

             The renowned Indian steel tycoon Laksmi Mittal and his family retained their top slot as UK’s richest for the seventh year in succession. Mittal and his families suffered a huge loss and their worth came down by 4,814 million pounds, but they are still the richest in Britain with a net worth of 12.7 billion pounds, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, which annually releases the worth of Britain’s wealthiest individuals.

                Mittal is marginally ahead with the Russian iron ore magnate, Alisher Usmanov, who takes the 2^nd place with an estimated worth of 12.3 billion pounds. He is closing up the difference day by day, so Mittal have to think out of the box to retain his top slot for the next few years. Indian origin industrialist brothers, Sri and Gopichand Hinduja were the 4^th richest in the list with a net worth of 8.6 billion pounds.

             The newspaper’s research reveals that the rich got richer over the last year, despite a global recession- the combined worth of the country’s 1,000 wealthiest people was 414 billion pounds, which is an increase of 4.7 percent from the last year.

              After Mittal and Usmanov third on the list is Chelsea owner and well-known oil baron Roman Abramovich. He has a net worth of 9.5 billion pounds, and regarding the value of oil market in the recent times he may rise up very soon. The richest woman is former Miss UK Kirsty Bertarelli, with a net worth of 7.4 billion pounds.

Indian Exports grow 21 percent, yet highest ever trade deficit

 

        The Indian exports grew 21 percent and also marginally crossed the exports target at USD 303.7 billion in 2011-12 over the previous fiscal.

         Imports shot up by 32.1 percent to USD 488.6 billion, leaving highest ever trade deficit of USD 184.9 billion, according to the latest data released by the Commerce Ministry.

         During March, exports fell 5.71 percent to USD 28.68 billion, while imports grow by 24.2 percent at USD 42.58 billion leaving a trade gap of USD 13.9 billion.

        Oil and non-oil imports during the month increased by 32.45 percent and 19.91 percent to USD 15.83 billion and USD 26.75 billion respectively.

         During the entire 2011-12, Oil and non-oil imports grew by whooping 46.88 percent and 26.23 percent to USD 155.63 billion and USD 263.80 billion respectively.

          According to the Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar, the widening trade deficit is posing a serious challenge for the economy. So it is now a serious area of concern. Government needs to think about it to fight back with this challenge.

          The government had set export target of USD 300 billion for 2011-12. Though it is achieved but still there is big reason to worry as the trade deficit is climbing up regularly. Let’s see how our government reacts on it.

IKEA ready to invest Rs 10,500 Crore in India

             

              The famous Swedish furniture and home accessories major IKEA is ready to invest Rs 10,500 crore in India. Yesterday they sought government approval to invest in a single-brand retail ventures.

           In the first phase, it plans to set up 25 stores with an investment of Rs 4,200 crore. It will subsequently pump in the remaining Rs 6,300 crore in the wholly-owned Indian entity that will also undertake manufacturing work and set up various restaurants, cafes, food markets, nursing rooms and publications.

           “IKEA has reaffirmed its commitment to India and also promised to step up sourcing for its global operations,” commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said after his meeting with the company’s global CEO & president M Ohisson in St Petersburg.

            The company is also planning to double sourcing for its global operations to around $1 billion by 2016, the honorable minister added.

             The Swedish firm is among a handful of firms which have so far filled applications to set up 100% single brand retail stores after the government increased the FDI limit from 51% nearly six months ago or so.

            In these store companies are permitted to stock goods from one brand, which is used globally. The entry also comes with the stipulation that at least 30% of the products have to be sourced from Indian micro, small and medium enterprises, which was a major area of concern for IKEA until recently.

             In fact IKEA was expected to be among the first entrants, but the sourcing clause delayed its announcement to happen. The company already works with 70 suppliers and 1,450 sub-suppliers, including many small industries, but still has worries over meeting the mandatory requirements.

             “They have been in touch with officers in the industry department. They had certain clarification and permission has been sought only after the concerns were addressed,” the minister concluded.

Rupee experienced a lifetime low of 57.16

 

           Yesterday the rupee experienced the biggest ever drop in nine months when it closed at an all-time low of 57.16 against the dollar, which is eventually 1.5% lower than its previous close of 56.57. In intra-day, rupee fell to a whooping low of 57.33 following a rush for dollars from various importers after rating agency Moody's downgraded major international banks. 

            Despite the steep fall there was not so much of panic in the markets as the rupee depreciation was partly offset by good news of oil prices continuing to be low. Oil constitutes almost a 3rd of India's import bill and demand from oil companies could subside once the RBI implements a govt. proposal which involves RBI selling dollars directly to the largest bank of India, the State Bank of India which would in turn sell them to various oil firms. Although this would deplete RBI's Forex reserves, it would bring stability into the forex market and may even reverse the sentiment vis-a-vis the rupee.

           “I feel that there has been a bit of overshoot in sentiment which can happen to any market”, said a bank expert. He also added that if there was any improvement in capital flows it could act as a catalyst for the recent trend to reverse. He pointed out that sentiment was causing rupee to weaken although several factors have gone in favor of the rupee in the last two months or so, like the gold imports have collapsed, crude oil prices have cut down and NRI deposits have grown after RBI eased the ceiling on foreign currency deposits. “There is a self correcting element in the market because of the overshoot. An improvement in capital flows, for any reason, could act as a catalyst for the trend to reverse, he added precisely.

            Data released by RBI showed that foreign exchange reserves rose by a huge $2 billion to $289.39 billion in the week to June 15 only. The increase in reserves was on account of appreciation of assets in non-dollar currency such as euro and UK pound, dealers said.

India and Japan join hands to intensify cooperation in energy efficiency

             India and Japan join hands to intensify cooperation in energy efficiency and conservation sector as well as environmental issues. It is quite a good move as Japan is one of the most developed countries of the world, so it will eventually helps India a lot in various areas.

            In the 5^th meeting of the India-Japan Energy Dialogue in New Delhi, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano stressed on the need to expand the process of consultation between the public and private sectors to strengthen the bilateral cooperation in the energy sector. India has various drawbacks in the energy sector, so experts are hoping that this move will be able to make the scenario much better.

             The two sides decided to consider the possibility of further cooperation in the establishment of statistics database in the sector concerned. The two sides also decided to closely cooperate in the development of infrastructure in the sector of electricity and energy such as deployment of highly efficient coal-fired power generation, pumped-storage power generation and power transmission systems.

             Japan also agreed to extend its help in India’s National Solar Mission in India. Both the sides will discuss the possibility of contribution by Japan’s ultra modern technologies and products.

Government has to shift digitization deadline to November 1

           The government has to postpone the deadline for digitization by four months to November 1, 2012 as only 25% of set top boxes are placed in Cable TV homes in four major metro cities. This news came on this Wednesday.

             The I & B Ministry had earlier mandated that cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai switch to digital TV by June 30. This was also the Supreme Court order.

             The move could make significant financial losses to many parties, especially the broadcasters, multi system operators and others who have invested in equipment and various awareness campaigns and were also expecting to begin this much awaited digital operation by July. Digitization is expected to benefit the viewer with a wider choice of channels and better quality, both sound-wise and picture-wise. So it was quite a likely move.

             The I & B Ministry said that it had decided to modify the June 30 deadline for a complete switchover to October 31, 2012. A statement by the ministry said: “All the TRAI regulations for digital addressable systems will come into effect from November 1, 2012.

              The delay could be reflected in the ambitious switchover to digital cable services in the entire country by December 2014. A ministry official said: “Only one-fourth of TV viewing houses have access to set top boxes. There was also a delay by TRAI in introducing the tariff order that came in late April instead of January.”

              There were delays in signing interconnect agreements between cable operators and MSOs. Sources said that all MSOs were expected to put in place a consumer redressal system, consisting a complaint centre with toll free consumer care number and web based complained monitoring system, among others. While Delhi and Mumbai are expected to be completely digitized by September, Chennai and Kolkata may take little more time.

             State governments including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had asked for an additional six months time to complete the full switchover into the digitization. But West Bengal had not even indicated a time frame. “All stake holders have been asked to give a written commitment that will be monitored closely,” a senior official said.

Exxon Mobil tops the Fortune 500 list

        

            Oil major Exxon Mobil has beaten Wal-Mart to become the biggest American Corporation in the Fortune magazine’s list of top 500 US companies that also features as many as six entities led by Indian-origin individuals.

               Vikram Pandit run City Group was ranked 20^th on that very list, followed by PepsiCo (41) which is headed by Indra Nooyi.

                Among other major US Corporations run by persons of Indian origin include Motorola Mobility Holdings led by Sanjay K. Jha, which was positioned at the 206^th rank, MasterCard run by Ajaypal S Banga was at the 370^th slot, Cognizant Technology Solutions run by Francisco D’Souza was at 398^th and SanDisk headed by Sanjay Mehrotra was at 430^th.

                Two other petroleum companies- Chevron and ConocoPhillips were ranked in the third and fourth position in the coveted list. Auto giant General Motors jumped three spots in the list, to the fifth position from the number 8^th last year.

                Others in top 10 include General electric (6^th), Berkshire Hathaway (7^th), Fannie Mae (8^th), Ford Motor (9^th) and Hewlett-Packard in the 10^th rank.