India's retail industry, which is in the middle of rapid growth, has already scripted success stories fit to be the subject of a Bollywood film.
Private insurers are planning to launch property title insurance covers in India soon. Foreign investment is therefore likely to enter the Indian real estate market.
As real estate investment trusts (REITs) are set to become a reality in the country, small and medium property developers, who constitute 80 per cent of the total realty industry, can now breathe easy.
Call it an impact of the hopes of rate cuts in the country or renewed interest by foreign investors, BSE's Realty Index has outperformed big brother Sensex in the last 11 trading sessions - from the day when the Maharashtra government scrapped the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (Ulcra), which is expected to free 17,000 acres of land in Mumbai.
According to India Retail Report prepared by Images, discount stores are expected to grow 30-40 per cent every year. Of the total organised apparel, footwear and accessory retail market of Rs 26,400 crore (Rs 264 billion), discount retailing already accounts for Rs 11,880 crore (Rs 118.80 billion), or 45 per cent. Analysts said this segment will easily become a Rs 26,000-crore (Rs 260 billion) market in the next three years.
When French Retailer Carrefour enters the Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) cash and carry segment in 2009, it would face tough competition from established players such as Germany's Metro, Bharti-Wal Mart, Reliance, Pantaloon, Wadhawan Retail and others entrants like Tesco and Costco.
In the first of its kind among property consultants, the UK-headquartered Knight Frank Group will launch a $250 million India-focused real estate fund.ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund recently launched its real estate securities fund, which is the first real estate mutual fund in India.
Corporate houses getting into music retail are turning the outlets into multi-product stores that will offer apparel and even perfumes.
Indian business conglomerate Tata Group is mulling a listing at London bourses for a new entity, a British media report has said. But the group's headquarters in India on Monday dismissed any such move.
Hyundai Motors India hopes to export over 250,000 cars next year from India, twice this year's number. Yet, Managing Director H S Lheem said this performance will not be without its problems. In fact, ebullient exports may end up denting the company's bottom line.
Cyber criminals are targeting enterprises and consumers based in tier-III cities. Internet bots (derived from the word web robots) are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. They are used for both commercial as well as malicious purposes.
Carlos Ghosn, the iconic CEO of Nissan Motors and Renault, is on a whistle-stop visit to India on Monday to finalise a joint venture and small-car blue-print with India's second-largest two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto. Renault, Nissan and M&M also have a three-way equity tie-up to make passenger vehicles in Chennai, for which the facility is yet to be built.
Indian IT service providers are increasing their exposure in the healthcare and pharma segments. Multi-million dollar deals in this space by IT firms over the past three-four months only buttress this trend. Healthcare outsourcing has moved away from just undertaking medical transcription and business process outsourcing (BPO) work to core functions such as drug discovery, testing, research and development.
This is the company's third international buyout in the last 12 months. Last year in October, the company had acquired Pinewood, the largest generic firm in Ireland and the biggest supplier of liquid generic products in the UK. Wockhardt had also bought Negma, the fourth largest independent pharmaceutical firm in France in May.
The department of telecom (DoT) on Friday announced a set of rules for granting telecom licences and allocating spectrum that is likely to impact GSM-technology service providers like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, among others.
Even in the face of protests from trade groups, escalating real estate costs and pressure on margins, the march of domestic retail chains continues unabated.
According to a Reliance Retail executive, 20 per cent of the space will be occupied by local vendors selling their agricultural produce, food items and artifacts. Besides, there will be stores for foods and vegetables, entertainment etc.
The two groups have another JV, Wadia BSN, set up in 1996 to launch Groupe Danone's products from its global portfolio. However, nothing has been launched through the JV till date and Danone is in negotiations with the Wadias to dissolve the JV.
As the cavalcade passed Wilson College, screaming girls were spotted holding up 'Marry Me' placards -- only the names changed, with Dhoni, Yuvraj, Mumbai lad Rohit Sharma and RP Singh clearly the favorites judging by the number of 'proposals'.
The best way to invest in the market is through discipline and consistency as no one knows where the market is headed.