India’s Growth Fails to Enthuse Deal Activity

M&A activity has failed to ignite this year in India and has performed miserably compared to last year. Despite all the hoopla about India being second fasted growing economy in the world, the M&A activity this year hasn’t even been 50% compared to last year. Considering the fact that 2008 was written off financially, performance should have been better this year, a decline is certainly surprising. Last year, for first three quarters $30bn was spend on M&A activity in India and in comparison this year during first three quarters the figures were meager $13bn. The average deal value also fell by half to $33mn from $67mn last year.

Foreign acquires only accounted for just $3.9bn of all such deals this year, which is only 30% of the total deal value. Again this is lower than last year’s share of foreign acquirers in total deal value, which stood at $15.7bn, five times the present value. Last year, Asian countries had dominated the list of biggest acquirers, four out of ten. This year the figure fell to three out of ten.

Mauritius did the biggest turnaround from being at bottom of top ten foreign acquirers to number one this year with $1.2bn acquisition followed by France, which accounted for a quarter of all outside deals. The United States came third with $379mn worth of acquisitions of Indian companies. Japan which was the biggest foreign acquirer last year slid five places to sixth position this year.

This year, Infrastructure sector was the common target sector for both Indian and foreign acquirers, telecommunication and Electric, Gas & Water sector were in top five target sector for both domestic and foreign acquirers. Pharma sector, which was the biggest target sector for both foreign and domestic acquirers, retained its position but only for foreign acquirers, who invested $1bn this year. Indian acquirers made most of the acquisitions in Oil & Gas sector.

Retail food chain was the pick of foreign acquirers it hardly featured on the acquisition radar of domestic acquirers, but foreign acquirers made investment of $100mn. Similarly, domestic acquirers made acquisition worth $677mn in Business Services sector which was almost disregarded by foreign acquirers.

Clueless Congress Wins Election

Congress Party, which few days back was sulking for allies in post-poll environment and predicting its own lack of numbers to form next government, surprised everyone with election results. Congress party won 201 seats much above its own expectations.

At the end of fifth phase of polling Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi had made admission of his party’s impending failure and his desperation to form government with support from his opposition parties, he even went on to name his Andhra Pradesh opponent Mr Naidu as his next possible ally just before Andhra Pradesh went to elections and Rahul Gandhi hadn’t expected that his party will gain even 29 seats ( that it held in 2004) against 33 that Congress Party won in this election.

Confusion was not only about one state, Congress Party was unsure of its own gambit in Uttar Pradesh, it hadn’t imagined its wildest dreams that the party would end up winning 22 seats, Congress had even second thought about its own ally but was quite sure of stupendous performance by party’s opponents be it Mayawati in UP or Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu.

Congress is now as much surprised at its win in several states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and W Bengal and as it is at the success of Rahul Gandhi’s strategy of going alone in UP. Congress in not basking the glory it hadn’t dreamed for long time.

The Rise and Illusion of Political Kingmakers

This nation of kings/rajas was replaced by the democratically elected representatives but now new political class is emerging all over India. This election has brought up hordes of politicians who now claim to be kingmaker for next government. Every party chief now seem to have become kingmaker in next government or so they claim.

It all started when the communist block leaders claimed that it will be they who will decide who will form the next government and who will be the next prime minister. Since then almost everyday one or the other head of a political party has started making such claims. First, it was Lalu Yadav, who claimed himself as kingmaker for being leader of the Fourth Front and decider of who will be prime minister. Then, it was turn of BJD leader Navin Patnayak, who claimed that he will become kingmaker in next government and it could be any one of his favorites –Prakash Karat or Sharad Pawar could be next PM, hurling more names to all ready overcrowded list of wannabe PMs in this country.

Later, JD(S) chief Deve Gowda felt the need to be in space of kingmakers, though not in condition to play kingmaker himself, Mr. Gowda asserted that his party along with communist parties will play decisive role in next government. Following his footsteps Mr Vaiko perfectly timed his statement with Tamil Nadu reeling under Lankan tamil issue, Mr Vaiko claimed that Tamil Nadu will play decisive role in formation of next government and he would like Ms Jayalalitha to be next PM.

Almost every party, which is in governance or sulking loss of power has suddenly realised that they would be the next kingmaker in Indian politics none the less they fail to realise how narcissist they have become, who continuously fail to recognise not only country’s problem but also to get their politics right.

Alliances and Fronts for Fortune and Political Bargain

As India goes for polls, political parties are vying for electorate and even more for opponent political parities. Ever since alliances gained prominence in national governance, national parties have weakened. In last five years all the national parties, with exception of BSP, have lost their foothold and political might. This political development has made them increasingly dependent on regional parties.

This election, regional parties have gained a new prominence and notoriety in forming alliances some time multiple and confusing alliances. What is more atrocious about these alliances unlike the previous alliance formations like NDA/UPA, is that they have no agenda and political vision for this country nor do they intend to present the electorate with any vision document.

Parties don’t want to emphasize their development agenda as they are totally unsure of which political block they belong to, political parties such has BJD has created totally new political ideological dimension of “center-right-left” party where as NCP and RJD are toying with both right and left. Parties such as TDP, DMK,AIADMK, and numerous smaller parties with suffixes such as ‘lok dal’, “rastrawadi” and “samajwadi” don’t mind which party governs the nation if they get their political cut.

Then there is Communist block and BSP, who don’t mind anything about any political party if they are non-Congress and non-BJP. They have nothing do with the political ideology of such parties if they are willing to support their next government. No body seems to mind even if alliance partners are fighting each other unless their egos are satisfied. In some states BJP/Congress have to beg smaller parties to be allowed and accommodated with a few seats in such regions for promise of backing government at center.

This election almost every political party is worried about future of the party but not the country. Smaller regional parties have no vision for national development and they are not bothered either as their primary interest lies in the cabinet berth and sops for their region. None of them are interest in socio-economic plan of this country for next five years, which will benefit the nation as a whole and will percolate down to every state and region.

Will TechMahindra’s Satyam be Sundaram?

Tech Mahindra has finally emerged as new owner of Satyam, after competing with Satyam’s biggest strategic investor- L&T infotech. Tech Mahindra’s emergence as new owner of the beleaguered firm is good news for all the stakeholders of the firm, but how good is it for TechMahindra? The bidding details are yet to be out, which makes it unclear about how much liability TechMahindra is going to shoulder about Satyam’s past. But, as the bid price of other major bidders such as Rs 49 of L&T and Rs 20 of Cognizant suggests that TechMahindra has over-bid its rivals in its zeal to enter big league.

At the outset deals propels TechMahindra into league of big information technology companies with vast human resources and big clients. The huge clientele base of Satyam will raise the expertise that TechMahindra has, which at present is largely confined to telecom space at present. TechMahindra will also get it hands on vast and diverse human resource of Satyam therefore boosting its experience in handling large clients and big projects.

This vast human resource pool will also be TechMahindra’s challenge as most of its employees will see it as case of reverse merger and plump posting going into hands of Satyam employee because of their expertise. Similarly, some clients will be wary of new owners who have little experience in non-telecom based projects. How L&T plays with its stake in Satyam will also impact TechMahindra’s success on this deal.

Awaiting the Great Nano Flood of 2010

Potential consumer segments and its conversion to Nano market

Last year Bihar faced flood that it hadn’t seen for fifty years and no one had any clue as what measure would be required to curtail it. yesterday Tata motors launched it people car- nano, which will be available to public by mid this year. Government, public & private institutions seem to be unaware and under-prepared for the NANO flood, which will grip the nation 2010 onwards.

Though nano potential market in India has been sized by many investment firms, but as the product itself is evolutionary, so will evolve its customers. In a country where public transportation has been never been emphasized on the potential is enormous. India young population is filled with such potential, we at the potential buyers which will come into being once Nano hits the market.

Nano is most likely to emerge as second car of choice for the family, where even housewives would demand, from grocery shopping to mall shopping, Nano is going to emerge as the transporting alternative for shopping escapades of upper-class Indian housewives and middle-class families which have long been waiting for second cheap alternative.
A large number of collage going crowd which till now ply on two-wheeler ranging from Rs 50,000 to 1Lac. Soon, a large number of them would be turning towards Nano, this conversion would further flood not only the road but already cramped educational institutions, which may have to invest in parking lots than on labs.

Semi-urban areas are another two-wheeler bastion, which will get dismantled by introduction of Nano car. More are more people are likely to dump three-wheeler autos and expensive SUVs for tata nano, which for some-time will have smooth run in the narrow lanes of small cities. But,

Personal Computers Manufacturers Facing Tough Market Scenario

Personal Computer market in India is facing tough times as the Q3 FY09 sales have dropped by 19% and market is expected to remain muted with no growth for overall FY09.

Personal computer sales for the period Oct-Dec 2008 stood at 1.4mn units down from the 1.7mn units a year ago. Amongst the personal computers desktops witnessed decline of 15% while sales of notebooks declined by 30%. Desktops constitute 70% of the total personal computer market and remaining is held by notebooks. Branded desktops player constitute over 60% of 5.1mn unit desktop computer market in India.

Consumption of personal computers in Oct-Dec quarter was largely led by sectors such as Telecom, Banking, education and e-governance requirement of central and state governments. But, declining demand was witnessed from sectors such as Retail, IT and SME sectors.

As large percentage of hardware component is imported, rising rupee has deteriorated the margins of personal computer manufacturers. MNC biggies such as HP and Lenovo together with Indian major HCL constitute almost half of the desktop market in India, and are facing pricing issues.

Personal computer manufacturers are expected to face rough ride ahead as economic downturn has already affected the individual demand for personal computers, corporates on the other hand are trimming not only expenditure on IT hardware but due to low capex spending in the near future they have restrained the demand for personal computers.

Non-Planned Expenditure for a Successful Political Gambit

UPA is in full swing of unveiling pre-election sops to the people. It first went to declare Rs 30,000 crore tax deductions, which is loss to revenue receipts. Then government announced increased in dearness allowance of Central government employees. A few days before this announcement, UPA was playing parliamentary morality card for not having long-term mandate to fight recession in pre-election time frame.

This is the second time in the row that UPA government is dolling out sops which it claims is part of government’s economic agenda. But, at the same instance it fails to include all such economic programs under budget. Last year every one in the government played itself as pro-farmer but when it came to budgeting it such huge expense government just forgot it as part of budgetary expenditure. A lot of such programs were put under non-planned expenditure out of budgetary provision to make budget look good. This year to government has played the same card by announcing economic sops, which are not part of budget.

UPA Government wants common population to aware only of the populist economic measure but it does not want the people to know the cost, which it will have to pay it in future. It is smartly widening the budget deficit for which it does not want to be held accountable in future.

A few weeks after the budget announcement, government has forgotten its parliamentary principals to announce massive plans to largely rope in voters then to effectively tackle the grim economic scenario. Government’s bet on cutting may not be entirely fruitful if industry does not pass on this cut to the consumers, which has often happened in the past. Pre-election sops are not always successful; a lot depends on underlying economic scenario.

ADB and S&P Stretches Govt on Either Side on Economic Recovery of India

Manmonhan Singh team which has been facing unrelenting question about country’s financial health received a shot in arm from one of the major financial institutions, ADB, about country financial condition. ADB described India’s economy as one with resilience amid global economic downturn. This will help government to ward-off questions relating to economy which government is finding hard to explain.

On the other hand, leading financial rating firm S&P has concluded that Indian economy will grow somewhere between 5.8% and 6.3% in 2009. This is much below the continuous claims of 7% growth by the government. S&P also forecasted that India will be on path of recovery by September this year, if economic scenario doesn’t deteriorate further. This is beyond the expectation and mark set by the government which wanted to reap the benefit of economic recovery during parliamentary polls this year.

Government is facing increasing number of questions for its economic mismanagement. Though, it expects last year’s farm wavier and pay-commission hike, which was not accounted in budget, to go down well with voters. But, opposition is already making case for financial negligence and with economic recovery would not happen as timed by the government; it would be tough for government to use this bait for voters.

Easy Cash Turns Killers for Indian Retail

The retail boom has come to grinding halt in India. Just a few months back Reliance had announced restructuring of its retail business. Then Subhiksha problem appeared, it was unable to finance its operations. Now, Vishal retail has run into trouble. The company is also facing liquidity crunch and is shutting down a large number of shops and cutting its employee numbers to stay afloat.

Easy money had made it possible for Indian retail companies to go for expansion mode straight from incubation. This had become corporate philosophy for expansion programs of major retailing companies. Every company in hurried desire to gain the first mover advantage had indulged in aggressive expansion on borrowed money. Once the liquidity problem stated becoming apparent in Indian market, these companies started facing cash trouble to run their operations. Easy availability of cash had led to more companies becoming overtly dependent on borrowed money to run their operations.

Subhiskha, like other retail companies over-ambitiously expanded everywhere leaving the company totally starved for cash. They didn’t bother either about its cash flows or cash reserves. This left company bewildered about its future and how to manage the current operations. Vishal Retail another darling of markets, followed similar path of growth and couldn’t see the situation getting out of hands.

Easy availability of cash in the market made retail companies short sighted with assumptions that markets would continue to grown and cash would remain available. This hypothetical assumption got translated into the business model, for which companies are paying today.

Will Political Connection Save Satyam & Mr Raju?

SC has finally directed Andhra police to allow SEBI to question Ramlinga Raju. Andhra Police has been scuttling SEBI move to question Mr Raju for almost a month. Mr Raju’s deep connection with both the ruling class and opposition has given him enough time to avoid him falling into the hands of SEBI. Political clout has ensured Mr Raju a breather time, also he is under arrest on complaint filed by a shareholder. Mr Raju has been using this case to avoid falling into hands of central agencies. Andhra Police had raided and seized documents from Satyam’s office. No one really knows what is going to happen to the documents seized. Though, it would be really difficult for Rajus to destroy evidence of money siphoning between Satyam and other Raju owned firms.

Involvement of several Central agencies and state police has further complicated the issue. Several agencies, independent authorities and government ministries are looking into the case, which requires sharing of evidences. India is classic case of right hand not knowing left hand. Considering the fact that Mr Raju would use his political connections to prevent such evidences getting shared by different agencies, chances are there that some cases against him will be weaken in the court of law, the best place for our politicians and Mr Raju himself to absolve himself of some crimes. But, what is yet to be seen as how Mr Raju would evade the US watchdog – SEC.

Irda Allows Overseas Operations of Life Insurance Companies

But keeps hands cuffed from full fledged operations

Irda (Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority) has set new guidelines for opening up of overseas liaison offices by insurance companies. Only those companies, which will meet the guidelines such as solvency rate of 1.5, good financial condition and more, will be allowed to open such liaison offices.

But, Irda has laid many restrictions on insurance companies. Such companies are prohibited from contracting any liability overseas, no agent would be permitted for conducting business hence no such commission would be allowed. Further, such companies would be required to provide information pertaining to their liaison offices, details of complaints and any expenditure incurred, regularly on quarterly basis.

Though Irda has allowed Indian insurance companies to open offices overseas but it has not fulfilled the wishes of insurance companies which were more interested in increasing their presence globally and to raise funds for their companies.

Forex and debt market update for the week ended January 23, 2009

• The Indian rupee closed lower against US dollar as banks bought dollars noting slump in the domestic equity market amid persistent outflow of foreign funds.
• Further Dollar appreciation against global currencies put downward pressure on the Indian unit.
• However dollar sales by exporters capped further losses for the rupee.
• Meanwhile, India's forex reserves fell by $2.58 bn to $252.18 bn for the week ended January 16.
• Liquidity continued to remain comfortable during the week, with call rates ending little lower at 4.05-4.10% on January 23,, compared with 4.20-4.25% on January 16.
• The coming into effect on January 17 of the 50 bps cut in CRR announced by RBI also improved liquidity in the system, the CRR cut released about Rs.20000 cr into the banking system.
• In the gilt market, prices ended marginally lower during the week as uncertainty over the RBI’s interest rate decision at the third quarter review of monetary policy on January 27 prevailed during the week.
• The benchmark 10-year paper closed at 5.72% YTM on January 23, compared to at 5.60% YTM on January 16.
• Yields ended lower after rising earlier in the week as contradictory statements by PM's Economic Advisory Council cemented views on the interest rate cut decision by the RBI made investors confused.
• Inflation coming in higher at 5.60% for week ended January 10 compared with 5.24% in the week before bought in negative sentiments for gilts.
• Further renewed fears of extra borrowings by the government to supplement its expenditures affected market sentiments.
• Losses were further capped as RBI's big gilt buys under its open-market-operations lifted sentiment and prompted buying on the last day of the week.
• Meanwhile after market hours on January 23, RBI announced T-bill auction worth Rs.9000 cr on January 28.

Indian Equity Market update for week ended January 23, 2009

• Benchmark Indian equity indices ended more than 5% lower in the week ended January 16, led by flight of foreign funds and weak global sentiments
• Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 2309 cr (US$ 46 bn at current exchange rates) during the week till January 22; meanwhile mutual funds were marginal net sellers of equities worth Rs 116 cr (US$ 3 bn) during the week
• The benchmark BSE Sensex ended 6.96% lower for the week, while the broader S&P CNX Nifty ended 5.3% down.
• Weak Quarter 4 (October-December) results from some companies also led to selling in those stocks.
• All BSE sector indices analysed ended down, with BSE FMCG and Power being the least affected, while BSE Realty and BSE Metal being the worst affected.
• FMCG Index was the least affected down 2.2% for the week, as the sector is seen as a defensive bet in terms of turmoil.
• The second least decliner among sectoral indices was the power index, as sentiment improved after the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission hiked return on equity for power projects to 15.5% from 14% earlier.
• These new norms are especially going to benefit state-owned power companies such as Power Grid Corp which ended up 14% and was top Nifty gainer.Among other gainers, oil and gas shares such as Reliance and ONGC fared better during the week after the government has approved a three-year drilling holiday for deepwater exploration blocks.
• Among laggards, real estate shares were the worst hit on weak results forecast amid uncertain outlook; leading stock in the sector DLF slid more than 17,5% for the week.
• Metal shares fell on weak global cues; Steel Secretary’s statement that consumption of the commodity fell 13.5% YoY in Quarter, reversing a 10-12% growth trend in the past four years hit sentiment for steel companies.

US Presidential Inuaguration and Market Gains

There is high expectation on Mr. Obama to deliver. Markets are banking on his economic proposals to revive the Wall-Street. Not all presidents have succeeded in matching the market expectations. If we look at look at the presidential inauguration since 1980s majority of presidents have given markets a respectable gain a year after their inaugurals.

Bill Clinton is the president who gave markets’ their biggest gain a year after his first presidential inauguration. It was whopping 28.9%, highest for any president sine 1980. he is the only president to have given markets positive gains in both terms as US president. Ronald Regan and George W Bush, are other two presidents who have been president twice. They are also the presidents who gave negative returns to the markets a year after inauguration of their first term. But they succeeded in giving markets a good gain a year after inauguration of their second term.

George W Bush has been the worst performers amongst all presidents since 1980s. Markets have gained only 7.4% a year after his 2005 presidential inauguration. His father George H W Bush had performed better, markets gained over 16% a year after his presidential inauguration in Jan 20, 1989.

It would be interesting to watch how markets perform during these turbulent times.

Forex and debt market update for the week ended January 16, 2009

Û The Indian rupee slid against the US dollar during the week on dollar demand from oil companies and importers
Û FII selling from the local stock market also brought weakness in the Indian rupee
Û Even an unexpected jump in India's industrial production data was unable to revive the rupee, however losses were further capped by dollar sales from exporters
Û Further India’s forex reserves fell by $481 mn to $254.76 bn for the week ended January 9
Û Meanwhile in the call money market, liquidity situation remained adequate, which resulted in call money rate ending steady at around 4.25% for the week, same as in the previous week
Û This being the reporting week for banks for reserve requirements, demand was lower as the banks had borrowed enough in the first week itself,
Û Liquidity was buoyant throughout the week as seen from the huge subscriptions (over Rs 20000 cr daily) at RBI’s twin reverse repo tenders
Û In the government bond market, prices surged during the week on view that RBI would announce Market Stabilisation (MS) bonds in tandem with the scheduled Rs 10000 cr borrowing during the week
Û And as expected, while the RBI conducted auction of three dated securities worth Rs 10000 cr on January 16, it also repurchased Rs 3000 cr of gilt earlier issued under MSS on January 15.
Û Further RBI's choice of gilts sold in auctions on January 16 comforted market participants as all the scripts chosen are liquid and prompted big buying.
Û Inflation coming in at lower than expected figure of 5.24% (48 week low) for week ended January 30 also helped government bond prices
Û Talks of further interest rate cut also helped prices move upwards but comfort from the comments was short-lived as a senior finance ministry official dismissed the talk of more rate cuts.
Û Rise in bonds prices were also trimmed after November industrial production numbers came in unexpectedly stronger.
Û The benchmark 10-year 8.24%, 2018 paper ended at 5.60% yield on January 16, compared to 6.19% yield on January 9Further after market hours on January 16, the RBI announced 10-year state development loans for 8 state governments, worth Rs 6550 cr to be conducted on January 22, it also announced auction of T-bills worth Rs 9500 cr on January 21

Indian Equity Market update for week ended January 16, 2009

Û Benchmark Indian equity indices viz. the BSE Sensex and the S&P CNX Nifty ended marginally down 0.88% and 1.55% respectively in a volatile week ended January 16, 2009
Û The week continued to be marred by the Satyam Computer Fiasco, as foreign funds continued their selling spree on weak sentiment for Indian corporate
Û For the week till January 15, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 1558 cr (around US$ 32 bn at current currency rate) in the current week compared to net selling of Rs 183 cr (US $ 4 bn) in previous week
Û Local mutual funds too mirrored FIIs, selling Rs 1361 cr (US$ 28 bn) worth of equities in the secondary market for the week
Û Markets however recouped most losses on value buying and after November industrial production data showed a 2.4% growth
Û Midcap and smallcap shares suffered comparatively more than large caps amid the negative sentiment, falling 3% and 4% respectively
Û Among major sectoral indices analysed on the BSE, it’s Oil & Gas, IT and Auto index bucked the weak trend to end higher
Û BSE Oil and Gas (up 2.7%) was the biggest sectoral gainer led by index heavyweight RIL which rose 5.6% and figured among top Nifty gainers on reports that NTPC will have to buy gas at $4.20 per mn British thermal unit from the company
Û News of a reunion between the two Ambani brothers viz. Mukesh and Anil and rumors that the promoters of RIL have increased their stake to 49% in Oct-Dec also prepped the positive sentiment for the stocks of Reliance as well as R-ADAG stocks.
Û Easing crude oil prices in the international market also helped sentiments for oil retailers
Û Crude oil price fell to US$36.51 a barrel on January 16 compared with around US$$42 a barrel in the previous weej as investors bet economic weakness would curb demand, expecting corporate earnings season to be fraught with bad news
Û The second biggest sectoral index on the BSE was the IT index (up 2.5%), riding on positive sentiment due to a higher-than-expected earnings report from Infosys, as well as on a report that SEZs set up by IT companies like Infosys, Wipro and TCS will be exempt from taxes on profits for the first five years.
Û HCL TECH was the biggest NIFTY gainer (up 10.4%), while Infosys rose 5.3%
Û Hope of demand revival for vehicles on expectation of a further fuel price cut by the government led the Auto shares up
Û Among losers, real estate shares were the worst hit on profit-taking as well as on renewed fears over corporate governance
Û Unitech was the worst affected on Nifty (down 18%) after rating agency Fitch downgraded the company's debt rating due to its continued delay in raising fundsMeanwhile bank shares fell on worries of growing nonperforming assets (NPAs)

Taxing IT to Avoid Financial Trouble

Satyam fiasco has brought out a big question on how to check the business models and financial reporting of the Information Technology companies. Most of the technology companies in India have been enjoying tax exemptions over a decade and have also got exemption for a few years more.

As these companies are not taxed, their financial reporting can easily be fudged by anyone. Any IT company, which does not pay any tax on its revenues, can overstate it to mind boggling proportion without even being worried about the consequences. A simple and symbolic tax could be answer to all such malicious activity as ones these companies would be forced to pay tax on revenue and disclose their financial statement it would become tough for companies to continuously over state their revenues for more than a year.

There is also need to check on the business models of the companies, most of them are under tax exemptions and are now pulling themselves under SEZ status, it has become difficult to keep a tab on their functioning. Government needs to bring in regulation for disclosure of forex revenue generated from such units and the banks where they are parked. This measure will effectively keep a check on the financial activities of such IT firms and will also discourage many fly-by-night operators from posing as Information Technology firms to manipulate their IT SEZ status for retail purposes.

Government Announces Rs 1,000 Bn Investment in Infrastructure

After it announces generating profit from seaports

The government came out with two separate announcements relating to infrastructure industry. The government announced that it has made a profit of US$ 577.4 mn out of revenue through its 12 major ports across the country during 2007-2008. it achieved stupendous growth of 159.8% over the period of last three years.

After pronouncement of its own achievements in the infrastructure sector, government announced to invest Rs 1,000 Bn in infrastructure projects in next 100 days. The Union Minister of State for Industry, Dr Ashwani Kumar, declared the government’s intention to invest in infrastructure projects not only to boost the economy but also to indirectly safeguard the jobs in infrastructure and construction sector.