Rupee becomes only 5th currency to get a symbol
In keeping with India's growing economic might and its status as a major investment destination, the hitherto humble rupee is all set to get a distinct identity in the form of a new symbol. The Union Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval to the symbol which combines the Roman letter ‘R' with the Devnagri ‘Ra'.

Repo rates increased by Reserve Bank of India
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its first quarter review of the monetary policy, hiked the repo and reverse repo rates by 25 and 50 basis points, respectively. This is the fourth hike in the key policy rates in 2010. The repo rate (the RBI's short-term lending rate to banks) stands at 5.75% and the reverse repo rate (the RBI's short term borrowing rate) at 4.50%. However, lending rates are unlikely to go up before October. The cash reserve ratio (CRR), a portion of deposits that banks have to maintain with the RBI has been left unchanged at 6%. The RBI said that credit and deposit growth will evolve along the projected trajectory, as indicated in the April policy statement, of 20% and 18%, respectively, in 2010-11.

Manufacturing expands for the 16th consecutive month in July 2010
India's manufacturing witnessed an upswing trend in July 2010 on the back of new orders and better export demand, as per a private survey. The HSBC Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) went up to 57.6 in July 2010 from 57.3 in June 2010, marking 16th consecutive month of expansion in manufacturing.

Government approves 18 FDI proposals worth US$ 479.5 million
The government has approved 18 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth US$ 479.5 million. Transcend Infrastructure Ltd (TIL) accounted for FDI inflow worth US$ 412.51 million for setting up communication and broadcasting towers business. The company plans to build, acquire and lease towers for the communications and broadcasting sectors, according to a finance ministry statement. Meanwhile, other proposals which received clearance include Frigorifico Allana for setting up a joint venture, involving FDI of US$ 26.7 million. Others include the proposal of GETIT Infoservices, involving FDI of US$ 20.5 million; the company planned to increase foreign equity and undertake additional activity relating to publishing, the statement added.

Forex reserves jump $1 billion to $283 billion
Foreign exchange reserves rose sharply during the week ended July 23, largely on account of inflows through the portfolio investment route and partly due to revaluation of non-dollar assets in reserves. The country's forex reserves rose by $1,037 million in the week ended July 23. The reserves are at $282.9 billion. The entire pile-up in reserves during the week was on account of the growth in foreign currency assets comprising dollars, British pounds and euro, among others. All other components of reserves, including the value of gold in reserves, special drawing rights, or SDRs - the reserve currency with the International Monetary Fund - and the reserve capital with IMF, remained unchanged during the week.

Exports in June 2010 touches US$ 17.75 billion
The exports touched US$ 17.75 billion in June 2010, posting a 30.4% growth as compared to the corresponding period in 2009. The exports witnessed a positive growth for the eighth consecutive month on the back of good results reflected by major sectors such as engineering, oil, iron ore, chemicals, gems and jewellery.

Personal computer sales rose to 18% in 2009-10
India's personal computer (PC) sales including desktop computers and notebooks rose to18% to touch 8,030,000 units in 2009-10, on the back of demand revival across consumer and office segments. The sale in the notebook segment stood at 2,500,000 units, rising to 65% in 2009-10, while the sales figure for the desktop stood at 5,520,000 units with a growth rate of 5%. The Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT) expects the growth rate of desktop in 2010-11 to be higher at 12%. Households accounted for about 56% of the total notebook sales and registered a growth of 83% in 2009-10 whereas businesses accounted for 44% of the market; it grew at 47% on an annual basis. Printer sales grew 6% to 1,720,000 units, led by laser printers in 2009-10.

Global VCs upbeat on Indian economy: Deloitte
The billion dollar Indian venture capital industry is likely to significantly expand in India, in contrast to US, where it is likely to contract, says a 2010 Global Venture Capital Survey by consulting firm Deloitte. Venture capital investments in cleantech, healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, medical consumer businesses will significantly increase in India, according to the survey. The global survey was conducted in association with venture capital associations in US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, China, India, Brazil and Israel. A vast majority (41%) of survey respondents in India expect the number of venture firms to increase and also anticipate a significant increase in amounts available for investment, in contrast to 62% of the global respondents expecting the venture firms and amounts available for investment to reduce, it says.

Indian carriers to add 60 A380s to fleet over 20 years
Indian airline companies will acquire 50-60 Airbus A380 aircraft, the largest passenger plane flying today, over the next 20 years. This will resultin business of over $15 billion for Airbus, the Europe-based aircraft manufacturing giant. There is tremendous potential for the use of A380 by Indian airlines since traffic here is growing much faster than other parts of the world. Due to strong economic growth, air traffic in India is expected to double in 10 years while it will take 15 years for many other markets.

Government allows cotton exports without licence from Oct 1
The government today allowed export of cotton with effect from October 1 without the required licences even as it needs to be registered with the authorities concerned, said a notification issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which is under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The government has also removed the export duty of '2,500 a tonne on raw cotton which it had imposed on April 9. On the back of steep rise in the prices of cotton and ballooning exports, the registration of cotton export was stopped from April 19 and only those under licence were allowed.

IT / Telecom / Biotech News

IT, BPO to create 30 million jobs by 2020: Nasscom
After a tough year that saw the IT & BPO industry cutting back on hiring, Nasscom has now given a positive forecast for the next decade. Nasscom estimates that the IT & BPO sector will provide direct employment of 10 million and indirect employment of 20 million by 2020. By 2020, the industry expects to have around 5 million women employees on its rolls. Currently, the industry has around 37% women employees and around 26% of the female employees are chief wage earners.

TCS top IT exporter of FY10; Genpact leads BPO pack
Tata Consultancy Services maintained its pole position in the list of top IT services exporters for 2009-10 (in revenue terms), while Infosys Technologies and Wipro held on to the second and third slot, respectively. According to ranking by Nasscom, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra finished fourth and fifth respectively - there was no change in the pecking order of these five tech vendors when compared to previous year's (2008-09) rankings. The BPO exporters ranking saw quite a bit of a re-shuffle among players but Genpact continued its lead. In another ranking, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant and HCL Tech, in that particular order, were the top five employers for 2009-10. Nasscom has also kept its annual target for the current fiscal unchanged, and accordingly IT and BPO exports are forecast to grow by 13-15% and the domestic IT and BPO revenue at 15-17% during FY11.

HCL Infosystems buys 60% stake in NTS Group
HCL Infosystems on Thursday announced the acquisition of a 60 per cent stake in Dubai-based IT services and solutions company, NTS Group, for an estimated $6.5 million. NTS provides solutions ranging from IT hardware to software services and consulting. Specific areas covered by NTS include computer hardware, enterprise software solutions, infrastructure and networking solutions, e-security solutions and web development services.

Indian IT firms top Europe survey
Indian information technology (IT) service providers Cognizant, TCS and Infosys have topped the latest ranking of service providers in Europe, in a survey done by EquaTerra, an IT advisory service provider. In the Performance and Satisfaction (SPPS) study by EquaTerra for 2009-10, Cognizant has captured the first position, with a 79% score. TCS and Infosys have taken the third and fourth position, with 75% and 74% scores, respectively. The second place was taken by US company Compuctacenter, with 78%. The study evaluates client satisfaction by surveying over 2,000 client relationships from 750 top IT spending organisations across Europe, covering 12 countries. The ranking covers 25 IT service providers in all.

Indian telecom user base up 17.98 million in June
Telecom operators have added 17.98 million new users in June, taking the total telephone subscriber base in the country to 671.69 million. The wireless subscriber base (GSM, CDMA and fixed wireless phones) reached 635.51 million by the end of June, from 617.53 million in May, registering a growth of 2.91 per cent, according to figures released by telecom regulator TRAI. The overall teledensity reached 56.83 per cent.

Tata Communications joins hands with Google
Tata Communications and Google have joined hands to offer the latter's portfolio of business tools in India on a ‘pay-as-you-use' model. The companies would work together on a revenue-sharing model to provide business tools such as e-mail, instant messaging, calendar functionality, video and office presentations over the Internet using the Google Apps software suite, Tata Communications said in a statement.

CordLife may start development unit in India
Singapore-based stem cell bank CordLife is exploring the possibility of starting a development unit in India to work on more applications for stem cells in the treatment of various diseases, including diabetes. The company will partner an Indian hospital or those with necessary medical infrastructure to carry out the development work.

Transgene Biotek acquires US-based Marillion
Transgene Biotek Ltd has said that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Marillion Pharmaceuticals Inc, a US Oncology Biopharmaceuticals company based in Exton, Pennsylvania, in an all-share deal.

Corporate News

Ybrant acquires Lycos for $36 million
Ybrant Digital, a digital marketing solutions company, has acquired Lycos Inc, a search-based internet properties and services company, from Daum Communications of Korea for $36 million.

Australian company MtM looks to set up gear-box unit in India
Australian auto component firm MtM said on Tuesday that it is exploring the possibility of setting up a manufacturing facility in India to meet the growing demand for automatic transmissions. The company recently started supplying automatic gear boxes for the Mahindra Scorpio SUVs to be exported to the US.

With $624 million profits, India is StanChart's biggest market
India has become Standard Chartered Bank's biggest market by profits for the six-month period January-June 2010. Its operating profit before tax from the Indian region was $624 million for the period (the highest from any region), and 19 per cent higher from the same year-ago period ($526 million). This was also the first time that the bank's Indian operations crossed the $1-billion mark in income at $1.011 billion.

Finnish abrasives maker Mirka sets up India unit
Finnish firm KWH Mirka Ltd, maker of abrasives used in automotive sector and for other industrial applications, announced on Monday the setup of a fully-owned subsidiary in India. With a base in New Delhi, the company has already tied up with 10 distributors and appointed 100 distributors across the country. It has also obtained approval from several automotive OEMs such as Maruti Suzuki, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mahindra & Mahindra and Swaraj Mazda.

Solar Semi partners Canadian firm
Solar Semiconductor, a photovoltaic (PV) products company, has announced a strategic partnership with Sonepar, a distributor of electrical and Solar PV products in Canada and worldwide. This strategic partnership will give contractors and installers access to Solar PV kits meeting the Ontario Domestic content requirement.

Ford India begins engine exports to Thailand
Ford India said that it started exporting 1.4-litre and 1.6-litre high-compression petrol engines from its Maraimalai Nagar plant to Thailand. The first batch of engines was shipped out to AutoAlliance Thailand, a sister manufacturing plant.