Image Day - Bangalore

A seller waits for buyers at a local vegetable market in Bangalore. India's key inflation rate has surged, raising the possibility of interest-rates rising.

> AP Images

Image Day - India's inflation

An Indian customer checks out different varieties of rice at a wholesale market in the old quarters of New Delhi. India has scrapped import duties on edible oil and tightened restrictions on rice exports to rein in inflation that has hit a peak.

> Getty Images

Image Day - "Innovative Britain"

Prince Andrew delivers a speech to Indian businessmen during "Innovative Britain" conference in Mumbai. Prince Andrew is on a week-long visit to India.

> Reuters Pictures

ICICI-Bank arrives in USA

ICICI-Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, has opened its first branch in New York. Under the licence granted by regulators in the country, it will initially provide services to corporate customers, but aims to go into retail banking.

Via Calcutta-Telegraph

Budget of India: 2008

The Indian government is presenting its budget this week, outlining how it hopes to tackle a broad range of challenges in the years ahead.

India's consumers
Sangeeta More, whose husband works in security, doesn't understand numbers, but is busy trying to survive. Stretching her husband's income to feed her family.

While the middle class is relatively immune to such price rises, Sangeeta's family is not so fortunate. "With the high price of wheat it's impossible to buy my regular quantities now, so I have switched to a cheaper cereal," she says.

India's entrepreneurs
Ankit Mehta charges his phone on the way to work, thanks to a small device he has developed. A grant from the government helped him build his prototype. Now he needs money to grow the actual company.

Finding investors to come in at such an early stage is proving tricky. "The government can be the initial risk-taker," says Shashkant Suryanarayanan, who owns a small firm that develops fuel efficient engines.

Oil & Gas:
Earlier this month, India raised retail prices of petrol and diesel by around 4 percent after pressure from oil companies. They have to sell fuel at subsidised rates and had been losing millions of dollars from a surge in global prices.

Following are policy options relevant to the energy sector which Indian analysts believe could feature in Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's speech.

• The oil industry is seeking a series of tax and duty changes related to oil product retailing, exploration activities and natural gas which they say could help reduce fuel prices & attract more investment.


• Cut in duties on retail fuels is the most widely expected move, as it would help arrest retailers' revenue losses due to state-controlled prices.

Power Generation:
Power firms are looking for a cut in import and excise duties on power project equipment that would help lower costs and lead to lower electricity tariffs.

Import and excise duties on power equipment may be halved to 8 percent, while customs duty could be trimmed to 5 percent from 10 percent.

Rural India
One of the ways this government has tried to spread wealth in the countryside is by creating a massive rural employment plan, which guarantees 100 days of work for one person in every poor household. The scheme is now two years old, but many say its performance has fallen short of expectations.

The rural employment guarantee plan is the Indian government's attempt to address some of the countryside's biggest problems - poverty and unemployment.

Via Reuters/BBC

Image Day - Gates of India

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates gestures as he speaks to the media following his visit to the Humayun's Tomb, in New Delhi, India.

India's quest to modernize its military against a backdrop of China's defense growth and an ongoing regional terrorism threat are the focus of current talks.

> AP Images

The $45bn Indian Pie

The US secretary of defence, Robert Gates, arrives in the Indian capital, New Delhi, next week to promote a $10bn jet fighter contract, underlining the country's emergence as one of the world's biggest military markets.


To update its Soviet-era arsenal India says it will need to spend $45bn in the next five years, and it has been courted by western states that are barred by arms embargoes from selling to China, the other expanding Asian military power.

K Subramanyam, a defence analyst, said: "With the Americans you purchase not just weapons but a security relationship." However the rising defence budget, which dwarves spending on education and health, has met mounting criticism.

Praful Bidwai, a prominent columnist, said defence accounted for almost 19% of government spending. "We spend 1% on health and education is 5% -6%."

"[India is] a poor country and we are spending like crazy on guns. A government report last year found that 77% of Indians live on less than 20 rupees per day."

Via Guardian-Unlimited

Disney lifts UTV

Walt-Disney has reached a deal to more than double its stake in Indian TV and movie content maker UTV, the two firms said, underscoring the U.S. entertainment firm's efforts to expand globally.

Disney will raise its holding in UTV Software Communication to 32.1 percent, the same level as UTV's founders, from 14.9 percent, by acquiring 9.35 million shares for 8.05 billion rupees ($203 million), at 860.79 rupees a share.

"This investment further underlines our commitment to international growth," Walt Disney International Chairman Andy Bird told reporters.

India has the world's third-largest cable TV market, which is forecast to become Asia's most lucrative pay TV market by 2015.

Via Reuters

Desi-Quotes: Nuclear India

"A country like India needs to think about how it's going to diversify its resources, not only for how (to) make sure that the lights turn on when the kids are at home trying to do their homework, but also because they are facing environmental problems, especially in regards to coal that is burned."

Was said in: US keen on nuclear deal

Force India F1

Seen on: YouTube

Sharukh Khan once again comes forward, as the face of an emerging Indian force.

Fast Fisichella

Force India's lead driver Giancarlo Fisichella got up to pace even as the times dropped sharply on the concluding day of the penultimate F1 winter tests here.

Fisichella put in quicker laps Thursday than team mates Vitantonio Liuzzi (Tuesday) and Adrian Sutil (Wednesday), as he did 89 laps with a best of one minute, 20.669 seconds that placed him 11th overall among 16 drivers.

Via NDTV

MacBook -Air for India

Apple has announced, its MacBook-Air will be available in India at an Apple store near you. The MacBook-Air has been talked about ever since it was announced by Apple Chief, Steve Jobs, at MacWorld 2008.

Via Techtree

Image Day - Force India F1

Force India Formula One driver Giancarlo Fisichella of Italy drives during a training session at the Jerez racetrack, in the southern part of Spain.

> Reuters Pictures

Image Day - Reliance Power

Billboard advertising Reliance Power, at the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai. Reliance Power, which last month made India's largest-ever IPO, fell more than 17% on debut, becoming the latest casualty of market turmoil worldwide.

> Reuters Pictures

Image Day - The BSE-Plunge

People watch a giant screen showing the Bombay Stock Exchange index on BSE building in Mumbai, India, Monday, Jan 21, 2008. Indian shares plunged amid a regional sell-off sparked by worries that the U.S. economy may enter a recession.

> AP-Image

Brown in India

Britain and India should step up cooperation in the fight against terrorism and work together to isolate militants, prime-minister Gordon-Brown said on Sunday.

Brown, on his first visit to India as prime minister, said he would like to see India join an international body that fights money laundering and terrorist financing, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force.

"What I would like to see is greater contact between our two countries in winning the battle of hearts and minds, isolating extremist ideologies who try to poison young people," Brown told a news conference.

Aid-Pledge
Brown arrived bearing promises of hundreds of millions of dollars of development aid to combat poverty in India, where 400 million people live on less than $1 a day despite the country's rapid economic-growth.

Britain said that over the next three years it will give India £825 million in development aid, with more than half spent on health and education.

Via Box-UK

India to boost China-relations

Seen on: YouTube

The leaders of India and China are meeting in Beijing in an effort to boost friendlier relations. It's Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's first visit to China, which will discuss strengthening economic-ties, as well border disputes.

India to push Tata-plan

The Indian government is using its decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) from Bangladesh, to push for a speedy-clearance of the Tata Group’s plans to invest in Bangladesh.

A notification has now been issued to allow FDI from Bangladesh through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), commerce-minister Jairam Ramesh, has said.

“The Tata investment would be the single largest FDI in Bangladesh, more than all the FDI the country has received till now,” Mr Ramesh told the Economic Times.

Via Bangladesh Blogger

Ford selects Tata

Ford has selected Tata as the preferred-bidder for Jaguar and Land-Rover, putting India's largest truckmaker in a position to take over the two British iconic-brands.

Buying Jaguar and Land Rover, which date back to Britain's colonial era, would give Mumbai-based Tata a presence outside Asia.

Tata's bid reflects a "new-guard" in automaking, said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Desi-Finance: India goes shopping

It’s an expansive-claim, but the figures bear him out: where else does a retailer find a US$300 billion market that is likely to double by 2011 and almost triple to about US$900 billion by 2015?

It is firmly in the sights of Mittal, whose success in telecoms has taken him into the top ranks of India’s global wealth club and given his Bharti Group the firepower to focus on “organized" retail.