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Knowledge |
World Bank Supports India's Elementary Education Program
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The Government of India and the World Bank Have signed a Credit Agreement of US$ 600 million equivalent, for the Second Elementary Education Project, This credit will support the Government of India’s ongoing Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to provide access to quality education for children aged 6 to 14 years.
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The project aims to promote equity by enabling hard-to-reach children to attend school. It will create better learning conditions for all children and provide capacity building and academic support to state and sub-state education structures. In the area of oversight, the project will help monitor learning outcomes and support research and evaluation of quality initiatives.
Total cost of the SSA II is estimated at US$10.7 billion, of which the Government of India will contribute around 55 percent, the States will contribute about 35 percent, and the Development Partners (including the World Bank) approximately 10 percent.
The credit, provided by the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, carries a 0.75 percent service fee and has 35 years to maturity and a 10-year grace period during which no repayment is required.
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Foreign students in India increasing |
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Fresh enrolment of international students in domestic varsities went up from 13,267 in 2004-05 to 14,456 in 2005-06, according to a recent report published by a wing of the Union HRD ministry. A study conducted by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) shows that currently, Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) has the maximum number of international students in India, with 3,000 enrolments, followed closely by the University of Pune with 2,455 international students on its rolls. Pune University also participated in several international education fairs throughout the year, selling the 'Oxford of the East' concept to many a West Asian.
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IT firms teach western clients about Indian culture |
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Leading IT companies like TCS, Wipro, Satyam and Cognizant are not only training their employees about the culture and etiquette of their clients, they are also teaching their clients about Indian work culture and behavioral traits, reported The Economic Times.
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"Cultural nuances carry great weight. So, we have training not only for our employees but also for our clients, so that they can work better with Indian project managers and top executives," TCS Europe director Girish P. Ramachandran says.
The training includes aspects of Indian work culture like an inability to say 'no' to clients. Says Cognizant director K Venkataraman, "Indians are averse to declining requests. Remarks like 'I will try' become a polite way of saying 'It's not possible'. We advise clients to explicitly ask their Indian counterparts what they feel about the feasibility of the task/deadlines and create an environment where they feel comfortable saying 'no'."
According to the clients, Indian managers were not assertive and did not speak out at meetings while Indian executives said the Westerners were too demanding and they did not listen. |
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"We come from a hierarchical culture and it's difficult for us to break out of that. While we tell our employees to be more assertive, we ask clients to include them more in the conversation so that they feel comfortable," says Renu Khanna, who heads management education at Satyam.
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Indian Investment In Europe |
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Indians to spend 15 bn pound to buy homes in UK by 2018: Study |
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Fuelled by the country's rapid economic growth and increasing number of high net worth individuals, residential investment by Indians in the United Kingdom is likely to touch a whopping 15 billion pound over the next ten years, says a report.
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"Indians could potentially own 20,000-30,000 UK residential properties over a 10 year horizon and UK-India cross border Investment is all set to grow to 10-15 billion pound by 2018," the latest Jones Lang LaSalle's report titled 'UK-India Cross - border Residential Investment' said.
The report further highlighted the fact that with no restrictions on Indians investing in UK residential property and strong house price growth, the market would continue to see the current investment size of 0.6-1.2 million pound grow exponentially over the next 10 years.
Indian investors are particularly interested in UK property market as it offers greater transparency, long leases of up to 25 years, long - term income generation capacities are stable, the London Olympics in 2012 being in vicinity.
Beside steel czar Laxmi Mittal, who has bought a number of homes in the past couple of years, there has been a growing tide of lower - profile purchases by Indians.
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Northgate arm Axill buys Reuters’ London data centre
Northgate Technologies through its wholly - owned subsidiary Axill Europe has acquired Reuters’ London - based data centre spread over 8,000 sq.ft.
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The data centre infrastructure consists of server farm, data connectivity, power back up and would enable Northgate to offer data centric services to financial services companies located in the business district.
According to Northgate, there is shortage of space and power crunch in the busy central area of London. With most of the power being diverted to Olympic site and London Cross Rail, this acquisition is seen to be bridging a gap for additional data centre requirement for Axill Europe’s clients.
Northgate currently operates two server farms one in London and another one on Hong Kong offering hosting services and also powering its the company’s Web-based operations, including Globe7 and Sina.com.
Kirloskar acquires German firms
Electrical equipment manufacturer Kirloskar Electric Company on Wednesday has approved the acquisition of two Germany - based manufacturing companies for an undisclosed amount.
The board of directors has approved acquiring of about 95 percent stake in Lloyd Dynamowerke Gmbh&Co (LDW) and 100 percent holding in Lloyd Beteiligungs Gmbh from CMP Fonds I Gmbh, Kirloskar Electric Under the arrangement Kirloskar Electric Company (KEC) would be able to sell LDW’s product under AEG brand name in the Asean (Association of South-East Asian nation).
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Argentum Motors to buy French automaker |
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Automotive contract maker Argentum Motors said it will acquire majority stake in French automaker Heiliez SA for euro 25 million.Argentum has signed a definitive document agreement for the acquisition of controllinginterest in Heuliez. Heuliez will support Argentum by distributin g argetum products in Europe and Heuliez manufacturing will utilize its facilities to build cars and automotive parts for the global market.
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Sintex acquires 90 percent stake in German firm
Plastic products maker Sintex Industries has acquired 90 percent stake in German - based Geiger Technik for Euro 35.6 million. Geiger isan innovation leader in the automotive components market.
The acquisition offers Sintex a strategic market entrance in Germany which is the capital of the European automotive market.
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European Investment In India |
Retailer Tesco to develop cash and carry business in India
U.K.'s largest retailer Tesco announced that it intended to develop a wholesale cash - and - carry business in India, with an initial investment of up to £60 million ($114 million) in the first two years.
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The new wholesale outlets will be designed for the Indian market and will offer a comprehensive range of fresh food, grocery and non-food products to small retailers, restaurants, kirana stores and other business owners at reasonable price. The business will also provide farmers and other suppliers with an efficient route to market. Initially based in Mumbai, the business will benefit from over a decade of experience of setting up local businesses in international markets, Tesco, one of the world’s leading international retailers, said in a statement.
Tesco is also entering into an exclusive franchise agreement with Trent, the retail arm of the Tata group.
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Fresenius to invest 30m euro in Dabur |
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Multinational drug firm Fresenius Kabi, which has acquired Dabur Pharma, would invest up to 30 million euro in the next 2-3 years in doubling the latter’s active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturing facility in Kolkata, Fresenius Kabi President and CEO Rainer Baule of Fresenius has stated.
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Metso to scale up operations in India
METSO, a Finland - based global infrastructure and technology company, may acquire Indian companies in the business of paper, power and mining.
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For Metso India is one of its fastest growing markets. Already, 40% of the aggregates for the Golden Quadrilateral highway network and all aggregates for Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad airports are from Metso equipment. Over the last four years, Metso minerals in India grew 250%, whereas Metso automation grew 160% and Metso paper witnessed a growth of whopping 1,700%.
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During the last one year, its total investment to India was Euro 41.7 mn which was over 25% of the company’s total global investments. In addition to expanding its factory in Haryana, and foundry in Gujarat, it has been setting up a 49 acre multifunctional industrial facility, Metso Park, at Alwar in Rajasthan.
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Tourism |
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Kerala panel to draw tourism projects on dams, reservoirs |
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The Kerala Government has decided to constitute a high - level committee to formulate new tourism projects covering dams, reservoirs and hydro - electric stations as also to coordinate the functioning of the existing projects.
The Minister for Tourism, Mr. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, said after a meeting of top officials of the Water Resources, Electricity and Irrigation departments here that the dams and the areas in their vicinity were already attracting tourists and the Government had drawn up several projects to convert these places into tourism destinations.
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These projects focus mainly on improving the basic infrastructure in these areas. But the implementation of the projects can succeed only through the coordination of Tourism, Electricity and Irrigation departments.
Integrated heritage plan for Old Delhi proposed
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has drawn up an integrated heritage plan for
Setting up and running a heritage musuem of walled city at MCD.s heritage Haveli at Lahori gate
Setting up and running tourist information centres for heritage toursim of walled city
Setting up and running a centre for field stdudies
Designing and hosting a dynamic website on the walled ciys' cuture, heritage, urban issues, tourism.
Accordingly, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has invited expression of interest from interested consultants, agencies, advsiors to revive and promote the heritage of Old Delhi.
60,000 monuments at nature's mercy, says INTACH
Nearly 60,000 monuments across the country are at nature's mercy with no agency taking measures for their protection, a body working on conservation of monuments said.
Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has prepared a list of nearly 70,000 monuments in the country of which about 60,000 are not looked after by any government or private agency.
The Archaeological Survey of India, the central agency to look after the monuments, is protecting about 7,000 monuments. Besides, archaeological departments of states take care of some monuments.
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Cleartrip.com’s global product |
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Cleartrip.com, one of the leading travel portals in India, launched its international air product. According to a statement, the portal will provide connectivity to any destination worldwide from India.
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The Mumbai - based portal is also offering an inventory of 55,000 international hotels to choose from and will soon be providing flexibility of multiple methods of payment, said the statement. It claims to have introduced certain unique features like customising the flights eliminating the airports a passenger wishes to ignore while travelling and other user friendly initiatives to make the experience convenient for the consumers. |
Travel agents protest airlines move to end commission
Protesting the decision of Indian and international airlines to end payment of 5 percent commission on sale of tickets from October 1, Travel Agents Federation of India threatened to stop selling airline tickets.
Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) National General Secretary Ajay Prakash said that over the past few years, commissions have been slashed from nine percent to seven percent and then to five per cent. "Now the airlines want to take this to the level of zero," Prakash said.
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Urban Development |
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Twenty cities to watch |
A joint study entitled "The Next Urban Frontier: Twenty Cities To Watch." has identified 20 top Indian cities, which though accounting for only 10% of the country’s population, generate as much as 60% of its surplus income and 31% of its disposable income.
Roopa Purushothaman and Rajesh Shukla, have classified these 20 large cities, which accounted for nearly $100-billion of consumption expenditure in 2007-08, in three groups comprising; Megacities, (8) Boomtowns, (7) and Niche Cities, (5)
The eight Megacities that apart from large population also have large consumer markets are: Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune.
The seven Boomtowns that have big population and high expenditure per household are: Surat, Kanpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Bhopal and Coimbatore.
The five Niche cities that are relatively smaller in population but have above national - average household spend are: Faridabad, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Jalandhar.
According to the report, these 20 cities despite impending economic slowdown, for the next eight years (2008-2016), will grow at a healthy rate of 10.1% per annum, compared to other cities growing at 7.9% per annum. In the past three years (2005-08), the top 20 have registered a growth of 11.2% per annum.
The increase in income levels will also have a direct impact on income profiles of households. In the next eight years by 2016, while, the share of middle - income household ($6,000 to $30,000 per annum) in these twenty cities will increase from current 39% to 55%, the share of high-income households (more than $30,000 per annum) will increase three-fold to 13%. The share of very low-income households (below $3,000 per annum)not surprisingly, would come down by half from 16% now to 7% by 2016.
The report has also predicted that, even on conservative basis, in the next 40-odd years by 2050, share of the urban population in India will almost become equal (45%) to that of the rural population (55%). Currently, the ratio is 30:70 in favour of the rural population. This rapid urbanisation will mean an additional 379 - million people in urban India. Interestingly, this would mean adding more than the entire current population of the US to urban India.
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MAYTAS wins Hyderabad Metro |
A consortium of Maytas Infra Ltd., Navabharat Ventures Ltd., Ital Thai of Thailand and IL&FS Ltd. has won the Rs.12,200 crore or $2.87 billion Hyderabad Metro Rail project and will develop the 71km metro network on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis with a concession period of 30 years.
The elevated metro rail project will have three routes - Miyapur to LB Nagar, Jubilee Bus Station to Falknuma and Osmania University to Shilparamam in the city. On completion, the project is expected to ferry around 1.7 million passengers every day. |
Hyderabad to house Infosys' largest facility
One of the major IT hubs in India, Hyderabad is on its way to add another feather to its IT cap with the construction of Infosys' largest facility in Pocharam. This five million sq ft project will be completed by 2018 which will house 25,000 employees, though the first phase, which accommodates 10,000, will be over in three years and will require an investment of Rs.600 crore.
The facility is being built in a 450 acre special economic zone (SEZ) area, of which 447 is allocated by the government. Moreover, apart from varied facilities like a hostel, health facilities, gym, cafeterias, the facility is also ensured of being carbon neutral. According to Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor of Infosys, "The new Pocharam campus would be in conformity with platinum-rated Leeds green campus standards, as it would be carbon-neutral and have facilities like recycling of water and solar heating." Apart from it, SEZs is open to setting up centers in tier II and III cities later. It is also open to evolving a revenue model from training the candidates, which is now an in-house activity.
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Kolkata, Chennai airports modernisation to begin in September |
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The Cabinet committee on economic affairs has cleared modernisation and expansion proposals of the Chennai and Kolkata airports, at an estimated cost of Rs.37.50 billion for which the work is likely to be completed within three years. |
As desired by the state governments led by DMK in Tamil Nadu and the Left front in West Bengal, the entire modernisation would be undertaken by state - run Airports Authority of India.
The modernisation of the Chennai airport will result in an additional passengers handling capacity of 14 million per annum. A second runway will be extended and made suitable for operations of large commercial aircrafts. The modernisation of the Kolkata airport will result in an additional passengers handling capacity of 20 million per year. Apart from extending the second runway, other work on the Kolkata airport will include upgradation of navigation facilities and additional parking space and taxiways.
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Nandan Nilekani to Advise London Mayor |
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India's IT firm Infosys Co-chairman Nandan Nilekani is being drafted in to advise Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, on the business policy of London in the build-up to the 2012 Olympic Games, reported Telegraph.
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Nilekani, who is among a breed of Indian billionaires who have helped drive the country's booming information technology industry in recent years, is to join the Mayor's international council of business advisers, which will advise the Mayor on business landscape of London and the prospective legacy derived from being the Olympics' host in 2012.
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