Chicago based NAVTEQ has launched real-time traffic service in Mumbai and Delhi, India with a combined population of 26 million.

The company claims that is its research shows that drivers in India who use traffic-enabled navigation on a regular basis can spend 18% less time sitting in congestion over those that don’t — the equivalent to almost three days saved on the road each year. Additionally, the company’s findings show that drivers with real-time traffic experience reductions in distance traveled as well as increase fuel efficiency.

The latest NAVTEQ map of India is available for more than 2,200 cities throughout India, covers 6.47 million Points of Interest across 1.2 million km of the national road network.

What this means

I will have to try this to believe it. Somehow, I feel that traffic information is unlikely to speed up my movement in the congestion of India’s streets today and that maps won’t prevent me from getting lost. A knowledgeable driver continues to be my major asset as I travel about my native country.

I’ve flown over a dozen airlines to and from India in just the last five years ranging from Singapore Air, Eva Air, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Lufthansa, British Air, Korean Airlines , Malaysian Airways,  KLM, United, and American Air. Since I live in California,  I have not had the chance to fly on Continental from Newark or Delta from JFK. The attraction of flying on a US carrier and consolidating frequent flyer miles is high.  I took the American Airlines non stop flight between Chicago and New Delhi a number of times. Sadly AA never put its best planes or friendliest crews on this segment. Even in Business Class, I received frowns upon asking for water, the seats would not flat and they tried to sell me an $80 device just so I could charge my laptop. (Singapore offers electrical outlets in economy plus!).

My seat neighbor on one incident was  a Dallas exective who was required to fly AA by his company and he said he made the trip 6-8 times a year. And hated it.  Today AA announced that they would stop flying the ORD-DEL segment. Frequent travelers to India won’t miss them, sadly. I sure hope that Delta/United pick up the gates from AA. And here is my vote from Delta non-stops from LAX to DEL.

The New York Times conducted an interesting series of interviews in Shanghai and New Delhi asking Chines and Indians what they think of their own countries and each other’s countries.

As one Indian says in the video, “We have gone from Bhai Bhai (a period of friendship and brotherhood in the 1950′s) to Bye-Bye (from the 1960′s due to the Chinese invasion of 1962 and the long tail of hostility ) to Buy-Buy (or expanding trade).”

Click here to watch the video.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has partnered with India’s  3C Company to open a $400 million property in the Delhi One project by 2014. Four Seasons Delhi will feature 250 guest  rooms plus  180 furnished serviced private condominium homes and will be located in Noida’s Sector 16B across the Yamuna river from the capital city. The company, according to Senior Vice President Christopher Wong, is now looking at Rajasthan, Kerala and Goa for  resort projects. He describes Gurgaon in the Delhi NCR area as a potential future destination for Four Seasons properties.

The company itself does not develop or own hotel properties, rather manages, operates and lends its brand name to hotels owned by other developers. Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts currently operates 85 luxury hotels globally.

What this means: India’s pitifully low hotel room inventory is rapidly rising but there is a long way to go. The cities of Las Vegas and Orlando each have more rooms that the 100,000 guest rooms in all categories across the 28 states of India. We are now seeing development in all categories from foreign and domestic players and this can only be good for business and recreational travelers.

Jones Apparel Group is a $3 billion company, whose brands include Nine West, Gloria Vanderbilt, AK Jeans and more. While 80% of the sourcing for its $800 million  Jones Jeanswear Group is in jeans, the remaining 20% is for women’s tops. Within the top section, of which Vikram Rawal, Director of Production, is the head, India scores high with 80% share in total business. “Ladies blouses are a strong category from India and with the type of value addition that Indian exporters can do, the country is certainly a major sourcing destination for us,” says Vikram. Sourcing from India for the past 10 years, the Division is doing business worth  $85 million from the country of which 80% is in tops. He expects to increase India sourcing by 25 percent according to a story in Apparel Resources.

Vikram’s division is sourcing a major chunk in woven tops, mostly working with exporters from the Delhi-NCR region.  The division also sources some knitwear for its Erika and Energie brands. The quantities which the company offers is good – for brands the average quantities are 5,000 – 7,000 pieces per style and for private labels they are between 20,000 – 40,000 pieces with some orders as high as 200,000 pieces.