The study ranked Chennai as the top most emerging hub for outsourcing globally, with established expertise in application development and maintenance, finance and accounting, product development, engineering services and testing. The Tamil Nadu government was IT-friendly, and an upcoming Mahindra World City, slated to be the world’s largest IT Park, in Chennai was favourable to its outsourcing climate.

Hyderabad, with relatively low property rentals and favourable government policies, recently attracted investments from BPO majors such as HCL BPO, EXL Services and Genpact and was ranked second in the list. However, recent terrorist attacks in the state have alarmed investors, the report pointed out. Pune gained prominence among outsourcing hubs owing to lower operating costs and attrition rates compared to other metros. Among the 50 global hubs, Chandigarh, which was described as “one of the best planned cities in India” was ranked at nine and Coimbatore at 21. Cebu City in the Philippines, Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Sri Lanka’s Colombo and the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Beijing were also among the ten top outsourcing locations.

Kolkata and Bangalore were emerging as workplaces for application development and maintenance and business analytics, respectively. Tholons CEO & chairman Avinash Vashistha said tier-II centres are gaining prominence as investors become wary of investing in a single city as operations grow. Locations were being gauged for the available skill-sets, and investment decisions were business-driven, he said. Maybe further liberalisation of norms would increase outflow of funds and help to control the liquidity position, but the fact is that India’s investment abroad has already been increasing rapidly

In five years, between 2001-02 and 2006-07, total international assets of India has increased at an annual compound rate of 24.2% against 12.6% annual rise in total international liabilities. The net international liabilities as a result, have gone down by over 40% from Rs 3,37,285 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 1,97,390 crore in 2006-07.

India’s direct investment abroad, of which equity capital and reinvested earnings account for 90%, has increased by more than five times from Rs 19,550 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 1,04,494 crore last year. In 2006-07 alone the direct investment outflows increased by 80% over 2005-06. In contrast, direct investment inflows to India during 2001-02 to 2006-07 has increased by about two and a half times from Rs 1,21,043 crore to Rs 3,15,339 crore.

And if in actual terms, the net inflows of direct investment have more than doubled during this period what is significant is that direct investment outflow from India is growing at a faster rate now and more liberalisation of norms will boost its growth further narrowing down the gap. In fact, the outflow under direct investment had stagnated during the early part of the current decade and only during the last two years after liberalisation of norms of outward investment, it has grown rapidly.

But if India’s direct investment abroad is rising at a higher rate than inflows, the gap between inflows and outflows of portfolio investment has been widening rapidly over the years. Not surprising. For, the recent spurt in stock prices has made Indian bourses most sought-after investment destinations of late.

Total inflows of portfolio investment has more than doubled during the last five years from Rs 1,53,915 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 3,49,841 crore in 2006-07. Investment in equity securities which accounts for about 70% of the total portfolio investment has gone up three times during the period from Rs 90,833 crore to Rs 2,75,812 crore. Total outflow under portfolio investment during the same period in contrast, has increased by only 8% from Rs 3,188 crore to Rs 3,441 crore.

Investment in equity has remained unchanged during the period.
May be RBI’s recent proposals will pave the way for higher portfolio investment abroad. For, although the government had made a case for a liberal dispensation for Indian mutual funds to invest abroad in the past, the enabling approvals for investing in a range of products overseas were yet to be granted.

The biggest component of India’s international liabilities was, however, loan which accounts for 28% of aggregate liabilities in 2006-07. This may be due to ongoing technological upgrading and expansion of domestic industrial activities, RBI has observed. Higher investment demand by Indian companies are reflected in increase of external commercial borrowings.

Source : The Indian Express

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has overtaken NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to become the richest Indian in the world, thanks to the unprecedented boom in the domestic stock market.

Ambani's net worth has soared past 50 billion dollars, making him the first Indian and only the fourth person in the world to have a wealth higher than this amount. The RIL chief is now believed to be next only to software czar Bill Gates of the US, Mexican business baron Carlos Slim Helu and Warren Buffett, regarded as the world's greatest investor.

Based on the closing share prices of various group companies such as RIL, Reliance Petroleum, IPCL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, Mukesh Ambani is estimated to hold shares worth 50.1 billion dollars (about Rs 2,00,000 crore) through promoter holdings in these companies.

The four companies together have a market value of Rs 4,09,325 crore (103 billion dollars). On the other hand, Mittal owns shares worth about 48.4 billion dollars in ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest

steelmaker in terms of revenue, assets and market value. Shares of ArcelorMittal, in which Mittal family holds 44.79 per cent, were trading around 55 euros (77 dollars) in the European market on Wednesday, giving it a market cap of about 108 billion dollars.

While the net worth of Ambani and Mittal are based on the current market values of their group companies, that of Gates, Buffett and Carlos Slim are based on figures for August-end.

Source : Hindustan Times

In the context of meeting the growing demand for coal from the fast growing national economy underground coal production emerges as an opportunity. This was stated by the Ministry of State for Coal Dr. Dasari Narayana Rao while addressing the first ever Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting on “Underground Coal Mining – Challenges and Opportunities” at Hyderabad today.

He said that the demand for coal in the country will increase to above 2000 million tones per year 2031-32 from that of 463.5 million tones in 2006-07. There is a need to make concerted efforts to ensure the energy security of the country. The Government has already started taking necessary initiatives in this regard he said.

Regarding decrease of share of underground coal production to 13 per cent in the total production during 2006-07, from 76 per cent of total production, the Minister said that this was on account of the need to increase production to meet the growing demand from power sector through the easy option of opencast mining. The other factors are difficult underground mining conditions, reserves not being amenable to adoption of underground mass production technology, low mechanization of underground mines, high cost of production etc.

He said that broad strategies to be followed to increase underground coal production including planning new underground mines with mass production systems like continuous miners and long wall technology

wherever feasible, entering into risk or gain sharing agreements with equipment suppliers for guaranteed level of production and maintenance of equipment, training of manpower, creation of infrastructural facilities for ventilation, coal evacuation and transportation etc.