Posts from — August 2010

Out of 1.83 million resident non-immigrants in America in 2008, about 400,000 were from India said the Department of Homeland Security. The majority of resident non-immigrants were citizens of Asian countries. Examples of the resident non-immigrant population are temporary workers, students, and diplomats who were legally admitted for specific and temporary purposes with long stays.

Last week, India’s Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament  passed a civilian nuclear liability bill that would pave the way for foreign companies to join a nuclear-reactor building spree. This bill caps foreign suppliers’ liability in case of an accident at $320 million.

The bill now goes to the upper house, the Rajya Sabha before being signed into law. The India Expert does not expect major battles at either of these levels.

Nuclear equipment suppliers from the United States, Japan, Canada, France, Russia and India, including Westinghouse Electric and General Electric, have salivated over this nation’s $150-billion nuclear market. While the French and Russian entities have sovereign ownership, the stockholder-owned American and Japanese entities have been skittish about market entry until the liability issue is settle.

The passage of nuclear liability legislation is one more step in the global commercialization of India’s nuclear energy market.

In my book, Doing Business in 21st Century India, published in 2008, I wrote how Korea’s Hyundai Motor Company was making cars in the southern Indian city of Chennai and selling them not only in South Asia but also in Africa and even Europe.

The Financial Times reports that today, even America’s Ford Motor Company is following that example with the success of its recently introduced Figo small car. Joe Hinrichs, head of Ford’s Asia-Pacific and Africa operations said that cars based on the Figo chassis would be exported to over 50 countries during the next five years. The Figo is one of several small models – also including Volkswagen’s Polo and the Nissan Micra – that have sharply boosted car sales in India this year.

Ford unveiled a $500m plan last September to double capacity of its assembly plant in Chennai and to build a new engine plant.

While China is now the world’s largest automobile market, the largest increases in unit sales in 2010 may well come from India.  A strong automotive supply chain drives overall manufacturing capability so continue to watch for multiplier effects for the next several years.

It took 33 years for India to increase its per-capita annual income from $100 to $500, but only five years to double it from $500 to $1,000. It’s not surprising then, that Indian industry reported huge rises in sales in June: cars (34 per cent), refrigerators (32 per cent), air conditioners (50 per cent) and microwave ovens (40 per cent) as reported by Samiran Chakraborty, Head of India Research at Standard Chartered Bank, a British financial institution which recently raised capital in India.

Penetration levels of most consumer goods are still low  – there are 12 cars per 1,000 people, while only 18 per cent of the population owns a refrigerator and 56 per cent owns a TV. India has plenty of spending to do to catch up with even China, where there are 128 cars per 1,000 people and 80 per cent of the population owns a TV.

This assures a long growth curve for most consumer products and the companies that produce and market them. Many western companies who have ignore India thus far should take a close look before it’s too late.

European giant ABB has opened a wind power generator factory at Vadodara in the Indian state of Gujarat.

The new factory will produce up to 100 units of the power generators per month with a rating of up to 2.5 megawats.  ABB discrete automation and motion business head Ulrich Spiesshofer said that the wind power generators will serve the growing need for components in the wind power industry globally.