Semiconductor makers need thousands of engineers and technicians, and though India has one of the largest pool of engineers in the world, they do not have experience in the semiconductor manufacturing space.
'Companies like Tesla and others have been given a long rope in India.'
Micron Technology, a global leader in memory and storage, is considering supplying Made-in-India chips from its Gujarat plant to one of its key global clients, Apple, whose vendors assemble iPhones in the country. Micron is setting up an assembly test marking and packaging (ATMP) plant in Sanand, Gujarat. Currently, Apple vendors import chips for manufacturing iPhones. Sources in the know say the aim is to use part of the production to supply to Micron's clients in India directly.
Tesla's plan to manufacture its affordable electric car priced at $25,000 in India and Mexico could materialise sometime in 2025 or thereafter, with Elon Musk declaring that these models would be produced at its existing factories to utilise their full capacity before investing in new manufacturing lines. The company operates factories in Texas and Fremont in the US, Berlin in Germany, and Shanghai in China. By the end of the calendar year 2023, Tesla was manufacturing 1.8 million vehicles annually.
The outward foreign direct investment (FDI) by Indian companies stabilised in 2023-24 (FY24) after witnessing a fall in 2022-23 (FY23). The actual outward FDI inched up slightly to $13.75 billion in FY24 from $13.49 billion in the previous financial year (FY23), according to finance ministry data. This stability came after a sharp fall in outward flows in FY23 from $18.52 billion in 2021-22 (FY22).
India is far behind global competitors such as Vietnam, Taiwan, and Mexico in increasing electronics exports to the US by making the most of Washington's tariff action against China. In 2018, the US imposed a 25 per cent punitive duty on a range of Chinese electronics items. The trade duties led to a sharp fall in Chinese electronics exports to the US from $207 billion in 2018 to $140.2 billion in 2019, down 32 per cent, according to Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) data, which has been analysed by ITC Trade Map.
With high credit growth and healthy asset quality, listed commercial banks are expected to report steady growth in earnings during the fourth quarter ended March 2024 (Q4 FY24). Profits are expected to grow at 9.6 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) and net interest income (NII) by 8.7 per cent in Q4 FY24, according to Bloomberg analysts' estimates. According to Motilal Oswal Securities, while bank credit growth has been robust, deposit growth has also gathered pace.
For the smart phone industry, it has been a lacklustre quarter of CY2024, with sales falling by 3-4 per cent over the same period last year, according to Counterpoint Research projections. However, with the launch of many new models in Q1 of CY24, overall shipments grew year-on-year by 10-12 per cent. In CY23 shipments remained flat, ending the year with 152 million units.
Led by Ola Electric, which registered an industry record of 53,186 vehicles in March, electric two-wheeler (e2W) penetration hit a record at 8.91 per cent - the highest ever for a month (based on Vahan data).
Despite all the noise around India's chance to leverage the China-plus one strategy, India's share of global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows fell from 3.5 per cent in the first nine months of 2022 to 2.19 per cent in the same period in 2023, according to OECD data. The sharp drop of 54 per cent is much steeper than the overall global FDI inflow decline of 26 per cent in the first nine months. FDI inflows to China have fallen dramatically from a share of 12.5 per cent in the first nine months of 2022 to only 1.7 per cent in the same period in 2023.
If Tesla comes in, India's position as a manufacturing hub will rise many notches, as it will become only the second country, after China, to have both Apple as well as Tesla.
Bajaj Auto, India's leading two-wheeler (2W) and three-wheeler (3W) maker, is scaling up its wholly owned finance subsidiary, Bajaj Auto Credit Ltd (BACL), with an investment of more than Rs 3,000 crore planned over the next two financial years, company's managing director Rajiv Bajaj said. BACL has already started commercial operations, Bajaj recently said on the sidelines of the group's CSR identity event. According to rating agency CRISIL, BACL's operations began on January 1 after receiving its licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in August last year.
After a tentative start, quick commerce (q-commerce) is ablaze, with Blinkit and Zepto slugging it out in a market distinct from other competitors. The latest entrant is Flipkart, which is ramping up its infrastructure in around 12 cities where it will launch the service in the next six to eight weeks, taking on existing players such as Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart, and BigBasket, among others. According to data analysed from Sensor Tower by BofA Global Research, the daily active user (DAU) base of Blinkit has grown by 58 per cent between February 2023 and February 2024.
Apprentices get at an average of Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 per month which can double after one year of on-the-job training.
Net foreign direct investment (FDI) in India, inflows minus outflows, declined 38.4 per cent year-on-year to $15.41 billion in the first 10 months of this financial year due to an increase in the repatriation of capital. According to the Reserve Bank of India's data in the March 2024 bulletin, FDI in India was $25.53 billion and outflows were $10.11 billion in April 2023-January 2024. In the same period last year, FDI inflows stood at $36.75 billion and outflows at $11.75 billion.
The exclusive club that dominates the global semiconductor fab scenario is about to get a new member. Taiwan, South Korea, and China control nearly 70 per cent of the global capacity. SEMI, the global industry body for semiconductor and electronics design and manufacturing, projects all fabs collectively will churn out 30 million wafers a month this year.
The new scheme, promoting manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs) by global majors, will give a fillip to companies like Tesla and its upstart rival Vinfast, both of whom have lobbied for lower import duties from the Centre. While Vinfast has already announced an investment of Rs 4,000 crore to set up an electric vehicle (EV) plant in Tamil Nadu, Tesla's next move will be watched carefully. Four years ago, Musk announced that his company would come to India.
'Das is friendly, but he finally does what he does. The quality of engagement is very good.'
The need for money among banks, especially for short-term funds, may turn more intense in the last month of the financial year to feed the demand for capital for tax payments and meet year-end targets. The mobilisation of funds via the certificate of deposits (CDs) has seen a threefold increase to over Rs 60,000 crore in the fortnight that ended February 23 from around Rs 20,000 crore in the fortnight of January 26, 2024, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.
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