A new TV show for SMEs

In line with the increasing importance of SME’s in the Indian economy, the country’s leading business channel CNBC Awaaz in association with Entrepreneur Magazine has launched a new TV show entirely focused on this segment. The show named ‘AWAAZ Entrepreneur’ launched on May 15 will focus completely on SMEs in India.

The business channel aims to reveal the arduous but rewarding journeys of various SMEs and also bring out various ideas, options & solutions available to various sections of our society who yearn to venture out and make it big on their own.

The show will profile SME’s and talk to various stakeholders. The series will also showcase the journeys of eminent industry figures, who have gone through the SME phase and have now transformed into larger businesses. Further, the show will also entertain queries of individuals across the country through an expert.

SEBI Sets Guidelines for Market Makers on SME Exchanges

After allowing exchanges to set up separate trading platform for small and medium size companies, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued guidelines for SME (small and medium enterprises) exchanges with respect to market making activity. Sebi has now made market making process mandatory for SME scripts and has laid down terms for members of the exchange who will be willing to engage in market making activity.

The market makers would bring in more liquidity and continuity in buy/sell activity on the exchange. Market makers would be required to provide 2-way quote for 75% of the time in a day. The minimum depth of the quote shall be Rs 1 lakh. However, investors with holdings of value less than Rs 1 lakh shall be allowed to offer their holding to the market maker in that scrip, provided that he sells his entire holding in that scrip in one lot to the selling broker.

The new Sebi guidelines also limit the number of market makers for a particular script; it has been set to five market makers. Sebi has also set several qualifying criteiras for becoming market maker.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

India to Become an Important Market for Security Equipment Firms

With terrorism reaching a never before levels in the country and with mass transport systems acting as soft targets for criminal and terrorist activities, India is poised to become an important international spender in the global security market as per the latest report by Frost& Sullivan.

As per the report, the country’s homeland security spending is expected to total around $9.7 bn by 2016, with security of airports contributing to around $3.2 bn at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5%t. New analysis by the research firm on Indian Homeland Security Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $800 mn in 2007 and estimates this to reach over $1 bn in 2016.

Among other things, the latest Mumbai terror attacks has led to urgent call for formulation of more developed security measures to protect areas where there is a high level of civilian mobility. Mass transport systems are especially being seen as 'soft' targets for both criminal and terrorist activities. Intelligent and durable surveillance systems within 'rolling stock' are among the key revenue generators in this sector. Other technologies that will increase investment included low TCO, self-diagnosing CCTV systems, automatic wireless image downloads and innovative passenger screening technologies.

The increasing importance of air traffic couple with increase in small- to medium-size airports is also expected to enhance the demand for airport security measures. Key technologies include biometric electronic access control, passenger screening portals and explosive detection systems for baggage, as well as cutting-edge passenger processing systems.

However the report also says that foreign security firms that don’t have JV with a local partner in the country could face slow procurement trends, as an emphasis on developing the indigenous security industry and the prevalent dependence on manpower-intensive security measures could hamper security investment.

Reliance Money Plans to Start Stock Exchange with FTIL

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firm Reliance Money has set its eyes on giving competition to the two premier stock exchanges in the country, viz. Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Reliance Money in collaboration with Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) plans to start its own stock exchange.

Reliance Money has the monetary backing of R-ADAG group; it is also a prominent player in commodity market after picking 10% stake in the National Multi Commodity Exchange (NMCE). The company wants to increase its holding to 26% in near future. Reliance Money’s spot exchange for agriculture commodities is also expected to early 2009. The FTIL group has interests in a currency futures exchange, commodity futures, power exchange and spot exchange for agricultural commodities and plans to set up an exchange for SMEs. It has also set up exchanges overseas.

There is tremendous scope for equity stock exchange in the country that has only 5% of its households investing in equities compared to the global average of around 50%. The equity derivative segment has the biggest scope, with the NSE enjoying a virtual monopoly in the segment with an average daily volume of around Rs 40,000 cr. The spot equity market average turnover doesn’t even match up to half of the NSE derivate average, with the BSE having a daily average volume of Rs 4,000 cr and the NSE having daily average volumes at Rs 10,000 crore in the spot segment.

Any aspirant in the stock exchange segment will however need approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). For FTIL, the equity exchange would be an extension of MCX-SX, its currency trading exchange, which was launched under a subsidiary. Reliance Money will have to set up a new company. Another issue could be equity holding, SEBI has recently decided to allow a single shareholder to hold a maximum of 15% in stock exchanges, but has not notified this yet. The aspirant companies’ track record will also be key factor in getting regulatory approval. If approved, this will be the first stock exchange after 1994, when the NSE was set up

Even though both sources have not confirmed the development, both are eyeing the possibility of an exchange for small and medium-sized (SME) enterprises, an area which is beleaguered with several failed attempts. Earlier ventures such as the Indo Next under the BSE trading platform, Over the Counter Exchange of India (OTCEI) and Inter-Connected Stock Exchange of India had failed to take off.

Worldwide SME exchanges are flourishing. LSE's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) was established in 1995 to nourish young entrepreneurial British firms. AIM is home to over 1,500 firms of which close to 250 are listings of firms based outside Britain. Obviously, one of the attractions for overseas firms is the laidback regulatory regime.

Telecommunications Post Highest Growth in Service Sector: FICCI Survey

The new FICCI Survey on service sector paints resilient picture of service sector in India. Telecommunication sector topped the survey as the three segments with biggest growth were wireless subscribers, internet subscribers and broadband subscribers; they witnessed growth of 50%, 26% and 87% (y-o-y) respectively. Railways, IT/software services and Entertainment & media were other major sectors that witnessed growth between 15% and 25% (y-o-y).

Organised retail and Housing finance are the two biggest surprises in the survey. Both these segments grew at 12% and 15% respectively thwarting the general assumption that these segments were doomed in the current economic scenario. Both these segments suffered heavily in stock markets citing demand constrains. News that players in Organised Retail have started restructuring their businesses also added to this perception.

Growth in earnings from Foreign Tourists during Apr-Nov period is another surprising revelation of the survey. Earning from foreign tourist grew at 16.5% (y-o-y) despite numerous terrorist attacks that took place in the same period of time, indicating foreign tourists were undeterred by terrorists. The survey covered 31 service sector segments and gauged their performances during Apr-Nov 2008 period over corresponding period of time.

US Worrying Indian Auto Components Manufacturers

Indian auto component manufacturing is going through tough times. Domestic demand has fallen and exports have dried up, manufacturers are finding it hard to stay afloat. As per a new estimate by Federation of Indian Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (FISME), some 4,000 ancillary units are on verge of closure making 200,000 jobs redundant.

With the big three American automotive giants in dock, things are looking bleak for auto component exporters. If two of the big three file for the bankruptcy then many of Indian OEM players would be left in lurch without any payment for their exports. General Motors, biggest export destination for Indian auto components account for USD 500 mn worth of exports. If it goes down, it won’t just hit the small players it will hit big players of the Indian auto components market.

ECGC( Export Credit Guarantee Corp) has already frozen credit risk insurance cover to all auto component manufacturers who supply components to big three in US. This has aggravated the problems of component manufacturers specially the small manufacturers who can’t take risks like large firms and are at inevitable loss of business. According to FISME, almost 25% of SMEs in auto component manufacturing have NPAs and this is expected to increase to 50% in near future. The fact that these SMEs account for almost 50% of India’s total auto components exports speaks about the troubled times ahead for the industry.

Government to Relax ECB Norms

At a time when funding has become increasingly difficult for corporates across the globe for expanding capacity and growing businesses, since global economic slowdown made the lenders apprehensive of funding projects. The government is expected to relax norms, as early as next week, to make it easier for domestic companies to raise money through External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs), in a bid to boost a slowing economy,

Among measures recommended by the committee of secretaries include, permitting realty firms to tap ECBs, relaxing borrowing norms for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), increasing the ECB limit 50 per cent to $750 mn under the automatic route (without RBI’s approval and raising the price ceiling at which overseas loans can be raised.

At present, real estate firms are not allowed to tap the ECB route and NBFCs are allowed to borrow within guidelines specified by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). For the real estate sector, norms could be relaxed only for integrated township projects, realty firms were demanding infrastructure status for real estate apart from using ECB proceeds without restriction.

Earlier in the year in October, the government had permitted companies to use the ECB route up to $500 mn per financial year for rupee expenditure under the automatic route (see table). In addition, the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) was allowed to raise Rs 10,000 cr of tax-free bonds and function as a refinancer for the sector.

Project awards by authorities such as the National Highways Authority of India have come to a virtual standstill because of, among other things, concerns over the viability of projects and high interest rates. Meanwhile, the government has decided to revise upwards cost estimates of 60 highway projects worth Rs 70,000 cr by up to 20%, to help road developers borrow more funds and boost road building activity across the country

The government is also expected to relax the pricing allowed for borrowing foreign exchange loans by raising the spread or premium charged over the international interest rate benchmark, the London Interbank offered rate (Libor). At present, a company cannot pay more than 300 bps over Libor on loans for three to five years and not more than 500 bps over Libor for loans above five years.

FICCI demands additional stimulus, fiscal package, criticizes US move for duty cuts

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) asked the central government for more fiscal measures to tackle the current economic downturn, along with demanding more rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ease liquidity crisis and reduce cost of borrowing. The fiscal relief asked include, cutting the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) further to 4.5%, Repo Rate to 5%, Reverse Repo Rate to 4% and Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) to 22% along with the all important reduction in bank interest rate by 100 bps.

Growth stimulus is now very important according to the industry body, especially with the slow down happening in the domestic economy, and inflation worries subsiding. The industry body has also asked for further rate cuts in home loans, re-imposition of countervailing duty and higher import levies.

For the housing sector the association has sought to raise the upper limit of loans to Rs 50 lakh in the existing Rs 5-20 lakh slab lower rates of interest of 9.25%, besides cutting the rates to 6-7% from 8.5% for home loans below Rs 5 lakh.
For the domestic steel industry, the association has asked for restoration of countervailing duty on imported steel items along with raising import duty to 15 % from the existing 5% to "prevent dumping" of cheaper products in India.

For the textile sector, the chamber asked for deferment of 8th quarterly installments of principal amounts on loans taken by the industry, besides asking for restoration of drawback rates that prevailed before reduction in September 2008.

Earlier this week, FICCI had sharply criticized the US’s move to seek zero duty commitments on sectors such as chemicals from India and other developing countries. The association further said that US-based National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which has been consistently pressing for sectorals, has recently stated that WTO Ministerial Meeting must await consensus on sectoral agreements.

Sectoral talks relate to complete slashing of import duties in 14 identified industrial sectors. These cuts are additional to the proposed formula-based import duty cuts that every country will have to undertake, if the Doha deal is inked. Indian industry is wary of pressure by the US to make sectoral talks mandatory, as it could mean slashing of import duty on key sectors, including chemicals, industrial machinery as well as electrical and electronic goods. This would mean that cheap goods from abroad could flood the domestic market, causing problem to the Indian industry.

Domestic India automobile sales plummet, Exports provide some relief

India’s automobile sales plummeted in November, seeing one of the biggest falls, even as exports spiked by 62% during the month. According to the latest figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), tighter lending by banks and slowing economy have led to auto sales plunging by 18% in the domestic market in the month of November as against the figures in the same month last year.

Category wise, commercial vehicle sales almost halved (50%) in November to 20,637 units from 40,879 units in the same month last year, while passenger car sales dropped comparatively less (20%) to 83,059 units from 1,03,031 units in the same month last year. Demand for passenger cars in India has fell in four of the past five months.
In the two-wheeler segment, two-wheeler sales fell 15% to 5,67,502 units from 6,65,181 units in the same period last year while motorcycle sales fell 20% to 4,31,171 units as against 5,40,553 units in the corresponding month a year ago.

Exports have however been the saving grace this month, total vehicles exports rising by 62% to 146,337 units in November against 90,398 units in the same month last year, led by passenger vehicles, motorcycles, scooters and three-wheelers. Break up among the export figures show that, passenger car exports rose almost twice at 34,607 units compared with 15,464 units in the year-ago period. Two-wheeler exports jumped 52% in November to 89,245 units compared with 59,041 units in the year-ago period. And motorcycle exports rose a similar 51% to 85,549 units from 56,739 units in the corresponding month 2007.

However experts feel that this is not the right period to gauge the automobile sector’s performance. The picture would be clear only by February- March, as by then some impact of the excise duty cut would have been felt and if financing situation improves, sales could pick up.

The fall in sales in India came as a blow to carmakers who were hoping that emerging markets like India, China, Russia and South America would make up for falling demand in developed markets.

Sales have plunged hugely this year across developed markets like the United States, Japan and Europe, as well as emerging economies like China and Russia, forcing automakers to revisit their plans for developing markets.

What’s Wrong with Tata’s Global Footprint Strategy

Tata aggressive stance of acquiring companies globally and developing global presence has gone wrong. Tatas are now painfully recognizing the fact that they in for more trouble for their overleveraged acquisitions of giant steel and niche automotive player. Tata’s Jaguar & LandRover (JLR) unit has already asked for the £1 Bn of loan from the government, there were also news of Tatas picking up money from the market at higher interest rates to keep its JLR unit afloat. Tata Corus is already on cost cutting spree and has asked Dutch government for its staff realization program.

So, what went wrong with Tata’s strategy of developing Global presence and become a world player in almost every spree of its business?

Tata’s core strategy was evading regional and nation business cycles, to implement this strategy Tatas needed to generate revenue from world over and setup manufacturing units to ratonalise the cost. Tatas made assumption that if business cycle in a country/region goes through trough then its companies can survive on demand and revenue from other regions. Tata never thought what would happen if different regions go into recession simultaneously. The thought of global recession never concurred to Tatas as “decoupling theory” was very popular at that point of time.

The other major mistake that Tatas did was it has been unable to accrue production cost benefit from its takeover. It invested in highly niche automotive companies like JLR, which can’t be produced world over thus production cost are difficult to rationalise. The other acquisition, Corus, runs on thin margin and high costs; Corus hasn’t been able to cut costs yet, though it may be able to do it successfully in future but it is taking toll of Tatas.

Mumbai Terror Attack Reveal New Strategy of Terrorists

With new terror strike in Mumbai terrorist have unveiled their new strategy of taking seize of economic hubs, random killing and fighting pitch battles with police force rather than blowing up locations in quick succession.

The strategy seems to be clearly aimed at denting the normal business life by taking seize of economic hub and preventing it functioning, thus causing enormous damage. These prolonged pitch battles are aimed at ruining the economic life and order as they did it in J&K. This has been extremely successful in long run, when frequent terrorist strikes have killed the economy. By taking aim at major business hotels they have already signaled that Mumbai is not going to remain safe place to do business.

Another aspect of their economic terrorism is taking tourists hostage and attacking tourist hotspots like Colaba. India has already entered in bad map of foreign tourist with one after another city becoming unsafe for them. This will have larger impact on tourism and hospitality industry both in Mumbai and rest of the country.

Further, random targeting of civilians at all possible public place is going to play havoc in the minds of citizens will change the mobility pattern of urban population in India. Any future replication of this Mumbai terror attack in other cities is going create major trouble for economic growth of the country.

India to Amend its Trade Mark Laws to Facilitate Technology Transfers

The government has approved amendments to the Indian trademark through Trade Mark (Amendments) Bill 2007. The bill will be introduced in Parliament for its approval. According to the government the amendment will encourage technology transfer through trademark licensing and franchising.

The Trade Mark Amendments Bill is India’s gateway to the Madrid Protocol, once approved the Bill will facilitate India’s joining of Madrid Protocol of trade marks as amendments to the bill make their case stronger in India’s intellectual property rights. India’s entry into the Madrid Protocol will facilitate Indian companies to register their trade marks in the member countries through a single application.