สรุปข่าวเศรษฐกิจอินเดียประจำวันที่ 20 พฤศจิกายน 2556

Government plans easier policy, better infrastructure for luxury market

India is looking to create easier landscape for luxury marketers by making policies conducive enough for the market, a senior government official said on Tuesday. India's additional finance secretary KP Krishnan told a conference co-organised by The Confederation of Indian Industry and The Economic Times that there was a pressing need to look at stabilising the rupee, create a conducive policy and taxation environment and address other issues such as infrastructure to put India firmly on the global luxury map. He said India could also play a potentially transformational role in the global luxury market and there was great scope to create Indian luxury brands by linking our heritage and cultural crafts. International luxury fashion brands doing business in the country said India was a big opportunity, but they also pointed out a host of problems they faced here.

(Source; Economic Times)

India gets on the highway to growth in Southeast Asia

As India readies to sign the free trade agreement on services and investment with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), taking bilateral trade relations to the next level of a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, the focus is on the laying out of a massive road connectivity plan to tie the region together to boost economic objectives. To start with, India has proposed extending the trilateral highway project connecting India, Myanmar and Thailand to neighbouring Cambodia and Vietnam. The idea is to set up special economic zones along this highway and provide seamless connectivity through these countries by 2016, by when the projects are expected to become operational. Right now, work is on to repair and strengthen 71 bridges that link this stretch. To ensure greater success of this highway project, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proposed an Asean-India Transit Transport Agreement (AITTA) at the India-Asean Summit in Brunei Darussalam last month. Once the agreement comes into force -likely by 2015- vehicles from association countries will be able to cross international borders without much documentation. Total bilateral trade between Asean and India reached $75.6 billion in 2012, surpassing the target of $70 billion. Now, with the implementation of the India-Asean comprehensive economic partnership, the target for two-way trade has been set at $100 billion by 2015, for which an integrated transport network would be the key.

(Source: Business Standard)

ONGC readies to wade in deep waters alone

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will go solo in developing its most promising deep-water hydrocarbon block in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin with help of consultants as potential international partners like Shell and ConocoPhillips have shied away from taking stakes or providing technological expertise.Sources say ONGC will invite international consultants in the sector such as Aker Solutions, Technip, Pegasus and Worley Parsons soon to place bids for preparing the field development plan (FDP) for its KG-DWN-98/2 block. ONGC’s KG blocks had received interest from international players in the past but delays on the part of the government in approving the proposals stymied their entry. ONGC’s KG basin blocks holds about 4.85 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves (22 million metric standard cubic metres per day of gas at peak production) and indicated oil reserves of around 100 million tonnes. They will be the company’s first significant producing block in the technologically challenging deep-water zone when it comes on stream in 2017-18. As ONGC does not have expertise in developing deep-water fields, it requires assistance in understanding various aspects of production from these zones including environmental impact, geophysics, geology, reservoir and production engineering, infrastructure, well design and construction, completion design, surface facilities, and economics and risk assessment.

(Source: Financial Express)

Food processing industry attracts nearly $1970 millions FDI in 13 years in India

Food processing industry in India has attracted Foreign Direct Investment worth $1970.09 millon from April 2000 to July 2013, according to the latest data published by Department of Industrial Policy and Program, which suggested the potential of the sector, Tamil Nadu according to Governor, Dr K Rosaiah. There was an increase in participation of entrepreneurs, bankers, financial institutions in this sector in Tamil Nadu and there was the need to take advantage of huge investment, Rosaiah said, after inaugurating a conference on +Likning growth drivers of Food processing industries, market, quality with food safety and skill,+ organised by ASSOCHAM, here. Tamil Nadu Government was working sincerely to realize the mission to promote industries, specifically identified as 'thrust areas' in food processing and agro-based industries and providing every support to enhance the level of food processing to increase value addition and thus increase India's share in global food trade, he said.

(Source: Economic Times)

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