Tag Archives: India

Jaguar Land Rover Considering Plant in US

Transportation Industry, , ,
Jaguar Land Rover by Land Rover MENA
Jaguar Land Rover by Land Rover MENA

Tata Motors, India’s largest car manufacturer, is looking into building an additional facility in the United States.  High demand for the luxury Jaguar Land Rover is compelling Tata to free-up their production lines to allow for faster production speeds. The company is quickly reaching its maximum production capacity at their UK factories due to the high demand not only for the JLR, but for all the company’s products.

In the next three months a new factory in China will be commissioned to produce more cars. Demand is expected to rise further as new models and high volume compact cars are produced to meet demand.

The Chief Financial Officer of Jaguar Land Rover Kenneth Gregor said:

“The US is a market for premium cars and a very important market. We are exploring our options to expand manufacturing reach globally and yes US could be one of the markets. We would look at it but that is not to say that we have anything concrete to announce.”

New Study Ranks Indian Cities For Business Growth Potential

Emerging Markets, ,

With well over 1 billion people living within its borders it is no wonder that India is a powerhouse of economic development. The non-profit organization Global Initiative for Restructuring Environment and Management recently ranked India’s cities based on such parameters as human capital, energy, water, transport, healthcare, climate, office space availability, city culture and more in order to guide businesses to the best cities to grow their businesses.

Ranked numbers one, two and three were Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai, out of a list of 21. According to a statement which was released along with the study the factors which decided the rankings constitute basic eco-socio-economic elements which are essential to predict the growth of a city.

“While popular destinations such as Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, and Pune continue to occupy top positions, the ranking revealed some unexpected contenders in the top 10 league including Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Kochi, Coimbatore and Nagpur,” the statement said.

Another purpose of the ranking was to establish which cities will continue to develop in the future as today’s largest cities reach their saturation points.

“Rapid and unplanned urbanization in the country over the past few decades has led to unprecedented job demand. Job creation is a crucial answer to this challenge which calls for the pressing need to develop new industrial townships and business districts to ease the pressure from the already saturated business destinations,” the organization’s Chairman Sankey Prasad said.

Freakonomics Author Levitt Says Not to Worry About Sluggish Global Economy

Economy, , , , ,

Steven Levitt, professor of economics at the University of Chicago and renowned author of the provocative and sometimes startling bestseller Freakonomics, told attendees at an economics leadership forum in India that there is no cause for alarm over the poor image of the global economy.

No Fear

There is no reason to fear, Levitt explained, “It doesn’t feel like ‘The End’.”

“The US economy is even growing a little,” Levitt noted, referring to a two percent expansion in the last quarter.

As a matter of fact, “economies around the world have grown so much since World War Two, — unless there’s something horrific on the horizon which I don’t see — people will look back on these days as nothing more than a blip,” Levitt said.

Levitt added that, “We’re certainly not looking at something like the Great Depression.” Levitt also wrote an acclaimed sequel to Freakonomics, called SuperFreakonomics.

Rogue Economist

Proud of his nickname “rogue economist,” Levitt loves to challenge and question prevailing attitudes and assumptions about everyday life. For instance, he believes people are much too worried about terrorism.

Levitt decried the fact that governments spend enormous amounts of money combating terrorism when it is a “minor problem in the larger scheme of things.”

Car Accidents Worse Than Terror Attacks

“We can’t ignore the fact that many more people die in car crashes each year — in fact it really puts to shame (the casualty toll from) terrorist attacks.

“It is only our reaction to terrorism that is so extreme that it makes the problem look bigger than it actually is,” said Levitt.

Levitt was the recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal in 2003, an award given to the most influential economist in America under the age of 40.

First Visit to India

This was Levitt’s first visit to India and mentioned that the chaos he observed truly startled him.

“It’s amazing the country functions at all.”

“But it must be doing something right — the economy is growing like crazy,” he said, referring to the 7.5 percent forecast growth rate for the year.

Elder Pharmaceuticals Increasing Marketing Force

Health Tech, ,

Big Plans for Elder

Elder Pharmaceuticals has big plans.  Over the next two years 35 new products will be launched; the company’s sales and marketing force will expand by 1,000 and further development in rural markets will take place.

Looking at where the company is now – as compared to where it hopes to be in two years – one can immediately see how much growth is intended.  Right now, Elder Pharmaceuticals in India has around 3,500 employees.  A staggering 3,000 of these are in the marketing and sales department.  According to the company’s director Alok Saxena, “there has been a revival in demand across pharmaceutical segments but the real growth story lies in the rural and semi-urban markets which we expect to grow at about 15 per cent annually from the current level.”  But if the company wants to develop in rural areas, it is going to need to “reach out to physicians, specialists, chemists, hospitals, nursing homes, and private healthcare institutions.”  As well, if the company is able to “bolster its field workforce quickly” then its growth plans will be significantly facilitated.

Elder’s Rural Development

Elder Pharmaceuticals has a rural division called Elvista, which has already made inroads into rural and semi-urban markets around the region.  According to Saxena, before the end of next year, it “plans to reach 1,500 villages with populations of below 40,000, 300 villages with populations of 40,000 to 1 lakh and over 75 peripheral villages/towns around Mumbai Metropolitan region.”

So there is much to look forward to. Much promise lies ahead for Elder Pharmaceuticals and Elvista.

Indian Increases: Car Sales Skyrocket

Automobile Industry, ,

There has been an increase in the amount of cars sold in India’s domestic market. Looking at figures for June 2011 as compared to June 2010, there was an addition of 2284 cars sold.  However, according to a report earlier this week by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), perhaps in part due to somewhat tough economic circumstances, the domestic car industry in the country only went up by a mere 1.6 percent last month.  Probably the additional raises in fuel prices didn’t help the matters as well as automobile price increases.

Motorcycle Madness

Motorcycle sales also did really well.  SIAM figures note that there was an increase of 107464 units from last June to this June.  Indeed, looking at the sales of all two-wheeler vehicles, there was an increase of 14.59 percent in the same time period.

India’s Commercial Vehicles

As reported in an article in Indiainfoline, there was also an escalation of domestic sales of busses and trucks.  For example, figures for June 2010, were 52,627 units, whereas for June 2011, they were 62,009.

So taking a look at the whole group of vehicles, sales increased 12.84 percent from June 2010, to June 2011.  Figures for last year stood at 12,07,934 and for this year 13,62,984.