สรุปข่าวเศรษฐกิจอินเดียประจำวันที่ 6 กุมภาพันธ์ 2557

Rupee logs first loss in three days

Falling for the first time in three days, the rupee washed out initial gains to end four paise lower at 62.58 on Wednesday on caution ahead of US non-farm payrolls data and sustained capital outflows from Indian markets. The rupee's movement was in contrast to Indian equities. A weak dollar index did not help the currency close in the positive territory as sentiment remained weak, traders say. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit resumed higher at 62.42 a dollar from overnight close of 62.53 and improved further to a high of 62.35 on sustained dollar selling by exporters. It, however, later fell back to a low of 62.62 before settling at 62.58, a fall of four paise or 0.06 per cent. Government securities (G-Sec) prices declined on selling pressure from banks and corporates while, the overnight call money rates ended higher on sustained demand from borrowing banks. The 8.83 per cent government securities maturing in 2023 slipped to Rs 100.78 from Rs 100.96 previously, while its yield moved-up to 8.71 per cent from 8.68 per cent. The 8.24 per cent government security maturing in 2027 dropped to Rs 93.23 from Rs 93.50, while, its yield gained to 9.14 per cent from 9.10 per cent. The 8.28 per cent government security maturing in 2027 also fell to Rs 93.46 from Rs 93.80, while yield climbed to 9.13 per cent from 9.08 per cent. The overnight call money rate ended higher at 8.50 per cent from yesterday's level of 7.20, it moved in a range of 8.50 per cent and 7.90 per cent.

(Source: Business Standard)

Isuzu eyes India as production hub

Japanese carmaker Isuzu intends to develop India as a production hub for premium sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and pick-up trucks to cater to domestic as well as international markets, said Takashi Kikuchi, managing director and president of Isuzu Motors India Pvt Ltd.The company on Thursday opened its first Kerala showroom in Kochi. Kikuchi said Isuzu India will start production from its own facility at Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, by 2016. Currently, the company has a production capacity of 5,000 units at the contract manufacturing facility of Hindustan Motors (HML) in Chennai. The company is importing the CKD (completely knocked down) kits of its SUV, MU-7 from Thailand and assembling them at HML. "In the first stage, our production capacity at Sri City will be 50,000 units per year, which will go beyond 100,000 units by 2020," said Kikuchi. "India is cheapest in manufacturing among south-east Asian countries," he noted and added that the SUVs produced in India will be exported to the Middle East. Isuzu also has plans for higher localization of vehicle parts. "By 2016, our vehicles will be having 70% of the parts produced in India, and we will then achieve 100%," said Kikuchi. The company also plans to open showrooms in Bangalore, Visakhapatnam, Madurai, Theni and Tirupathi in six months' time.

(Source: Times of India)

Govt puts local sourcing rider on foreign suppliers for major deals

The Commerce Ministry has proposed that foreign suppliers of goods to the Centre and public sector units valued over 300 crore be subject to compulsory domestic sourcing obligations fixed at 30 per cent of the value. Sectors where the sourcing obligation could apply include civil aerospace, power (including nuclear), fertilisers, space, railways and other transportation, shipping, mining, steel, special metals, medical equipment, medicine, telecom and electronics. The obligation will be applicable only for procurement for non-commercial purposes by the Government, which is estimated at $100 billion annually. Several other countries, including China, have been benefiting from an offset policy for long. In India, the offset clause can be used for attracting investments acquisition of technology, raw material and assets, and improving the balance of payments, a Commerce Ministry official said. In the draft ‘national offset policy’, which specifies the parameters for imposing offset or domestic sourcing obligations on foreign suppliers, the Commerce Ministry has suggested setting up a National Offsets Authority headed by the Cabinet Secretary to monitor the mechanism. “Since an offset policy already exists for the defence sector, we have excluded it from our proposal. Other sectors could be added to the list if required,” the official told Business Line. The proposal is to be vetted by a Committee of Secretaries headed by the Cabinet Secretary before it is sent to the Cabinet for final approval. Apart from the Ministry of Coal, most Ministries and Departments have supported the proposed policy, the official said. As the proposed policy allows cross-sectoral linkages, the foreign supplier can fulfil domestic sourcing obligation by sourcing from a different sector. Therefore, the number of sectors that can benefit from the policy is much wider than the number of sectors where the policy would be applicable. The benefiting sectors also include social sectors such as education, software and infrastructure development. There is also a negative list for offsets, which include import and export of services and export of agricultural products, mineral and ores.

(Source: The Hindu Business Line)

Bitcoins may help grow world trade, says expert

Central banks worldwide should consider the use of bitcoins as a means to enhance global trade as the virtual currency helps in carrying out business transactions at lower costs, according to a bitcoin expert.  "Use of bitcoins will enable global trade as well as control inflation but the central bankers are refusing to give credence to this fact," Aaron Koenig, Bitcoin Evangelist and Organiser of Bitcoin Exchange in Berlin, said. Bitcoins, the biggest among all virtual currencies, represented 'denationalised money' and was being increasingly used in many transactions, he said adding that many companies were paying salaries to employees in the virtual currency. "Bitcoins epitomises the libertarian approach as its value is entirely determined by the forces of supply and demand and also does away with the role of central banks in shaping the monetary policy of a country," Koenig told reporters here today. "It is natural that no government or central bank will like to relinquish its powers as a result of which bitcoins are not becoming popular. But it will be so (popular) in future," Koenig said. According to him, bitcoins are the safest and quickest means to settle transactions at low transaction costs. He said the only thing which would have to be ensured was that there should be regulations to protect the 'private keys' from getting stolen from the cloud. As far as India is concerned, the Reserve Bank had not declared it as illegal, but issued warnings about the potential financial, operational and security related risks. The apex bank had warned about unintended breaches of anti-money laundering laws by using bitcoins for settling transactions.

(Source: Economic Times)

Visa-on-arrival facility for all but 8 countries from September

India will extend the visa-on-arrival facility to all countries except eight with effect from September. The countries not covered under this single-entry e-visa facility, meant for purposes other than paid employment and education with a one-month time limit, are Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Somalia. The facility is currently available to 11 countries, including New Zealand, Singapore, Luxembourg, Japan and Finland. With Friday's government decision, India expects to become the world's number-one tourist destination, according to a government official. The country's total foreign tourist arrivals in 2013 stood at 6.84 million. Forex earnings from tourism grew 2.2 per cent year-on-year to $18.1 billion. "Both the procedure and the scope of visa on arrival for tourists have been widened to boost tourism," said Rajeev Shukla, minister of state in the Planning Commission. He said the facility could later be extended to business visa seekers. To begin, around 26 airports in the country will have the infrastructure to provide the facility. Tourists will just have to a fill a simple form and pay the prescribed fee, after which they will be issued electronic travel authorisation within three days. On arrival in India, a simple biometric identification will be done at the airport. To extend stay beyond 30 days, the tourist will have to get another visa from the embassy. the home ministry has asked for additional infrastructure and a secure payment gateway for processing of these applications. Currently, a trial run for providing e-visas is underway for 140 countries.

(Source: Business Standard)

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