Tag Archive for 'india'

01
Aug

Hyderabad : A Real [ estate ] Update

Infosys is moving to Warangal Highway… Times of India Reports..

After a prolonged controversy over the location for setting up its largest campus in the country in Hyderabad, the IT bellwether Infosys has finally decided to set up two special economic zones instead of a single campus. nfosys has been allotted about 450 acres in Pocharam by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation recently for setting up of a facility. In fact, the IT major had entered into an agreement with the state government for taking its largest campus plans forward in March 2006.

ORR Phase 2 In trouble ? With ORR phase 1 being where it is, I didnt expect Times of India to remind us about the delays in Phase 2.. but anyway, they reported and here it goes..

The second phase of Outer Ring Road project is likely to get delayed as the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority is facing hitches in acquiring land for the project. The phase-II A work, which was supposed to begin from August 15, is not likely to begin at least till this October. The 62-km phase-II A of ORR will extend from Narsingi to Patancheru, and from Shamshabad to Pedda Amberpet.

Of the total 2,050 acres of land required for the project from Narsingi to Patancheru and Shamshabad to Pedda Amberpet, Huda could acquire only 1,350 acres. About 250 acres of land is caught in legal wrangles since farmers have managed to get a stay order from the court. Though some of them have agreed to give away the land, the acquisition procedures are yet to be completed.

Lanco Hills may not be all it was hyped up to be.. Their marketing hype seem to have generated a huge interest in this project.  Buyers were quick to realize that lanco was using the same old trick every other developer used so far.. “Release 10% of your total inventory and claim a successful launch when the 100 people give you a check for 2 Lacs each.. ” Cmon, we know what state those buildings are in today..

Want to buy a park from Huda ?.. Its possible in Hyderabad and particularly if its owned by Huda.. recent reports in Hindu and Eenadu indicate that Huda has gotten so desperate that its now trying to sell open green spaces in hot neighborhoods. What next KBR Park for a Resort ?

29
May

Rupee hits a nine year high at 40.28

Rupee yesterday hit a 9 year high against the dollar at 40.28 and then closed the day at 40.51.  Rupee hit its strongest levels since May 1998 and has been the best performing asian currency this year.

Rupee tested the 40.50 level all of last week before hitting this high.   This while alarming for the Indian exporters may help control the inflation and make imported goods a little more affordable for the general public. The effect of this dollar appreciation is very visible in the ornamental gold price in India.

News indicates that TCS, Infosys and Wipro may be making plans to add a currency clause in their contracts to protect against the currency fluctuation.

23
May

FinMin tightens forex flows into Indian Real Estate

In a series of steps, the finance ministry is clamping down on the flow or foreign funds into the Real Estate Sector. Government firmly believes that the overseas funds are contributing to the asset bubble in India.

Recently the finance ministry barred those setting up integrated townships from raising ECB ( external commercial borrowings ) and made it difficult for small players to raise such borrowings by lowering the ceiling on the interest rates to be paid on such debts.

Today’s Finmin is proposing to impose FDI status for foreign investments in realestate pre-ipo deals. Anything falling under the FDI guideline will have a 3 year lock in period and the investor cannot withdraw before 3 years. RBI is also trying to identify ways to curb the misuse of funds, by proposing new norms to monitor the use of the funds raised for real estate investments.


Technorati : , ,

22
May

Bird of Gold : A Report by mckinsey

Business standard published the excerpts of a report by mckinsey on Indian Consumer and it predicts a great future for indian consumers and an explosive growth in indian consumer’s spending..

Now, experts say golden bird will fly again. A report on the Indian consumer market, prepared by the McKinsey Global Institute, points to explosive growth in consumer spending in the next two decades, taking the market to a jaw-dropping Rs 69.5 lakh crore ($1.5 trillion), four times the present size of Rs 16.9 lakh crore.

Mckinsey predicts that by 2025, there will be 9.5 million households with greater than 10 lakhs in income, 128 million households with 2 to 10 laks in income and 93.1 million households with 1 to 2 laks in income. With growth primarily in communication ( 13.4%) , healthcare ( 15.9%) , education ( 11%) , transport (8.3%), personal products (9.2%), housing ( 6%), food (4.5%), apparel (6.5%) etc.

Read more here


Technorati : ,

03
May

My First Kingfisher Airlines Experience

Recently I travelled from Kolkatta to Hyderabad on Kingfisher A320 Airbus. Thought I should share this experience considering the hoopla that surrounds this airline and its service.

Believe me, service in any airline in India is much better what we get in US. But airlines in India like Jet Airways and Kingfisher claim to be full service. So, I thought I should share my experience so that the chairman can take a note of things that dont work the way he thinks they are working.

As my cab to the airport came to a halt, a man wearing a kingfisher shirt [ Bright red, you will not miss them.. ] came up to me and asked if I was flying kingfisher and took my bags and walked me all the way to the security check point. This service is available for all kingfisher passengers and the check-in lines were very well staffed making it an easy experience. Boarding was good.. it was the only airline boarding the flight by seat no’s in India so far and it made my life easy since I was pretty much in the tail area of the plane [ My company restricts biz class travel to international only.. ]

Good :
1. End to End service and they refer to passengers as guests
2. Leg Space in Economy Class
3. Eye Candy .. [ Mr. Mallya really knows what men want ;-) ]
4. Yana Gupta .. [ Introduces the security features of the plane.. Heck who will not watch the video ?? ]

Attention to detail needed in these areas..

1. Great inflight magazine, lots of pictures, but the friggin thing doesnt have a CrossWord or a Sudoku.. Its a 2 hr flight what am I supposed to do ?

2. Kingfisher Personal Entertainment system was limited. [ I liked the Jet Airways System which has a touch screen feature and covers movies, music, tv shows, book reviews, book summaries etc., and lets you pick anything you want. ]

3. In-flight advertisements on Kids Channel : A kid sitting next to me was pissed off an kept complaining to his dad about the ads.. Barney stopped every 5 mins to show him ads about fidelity..

4. Need to pay more attention to the seat trays.. They were not cleaned well, otherwise the plane was very clean.

Food : Jet Air is the best with linen napkins etc. May be this segment was an exception, but they served an appam and veg/chicken stew in this flight and I am completely lost. Who serves appam and stew to a crowd of Bongs and Hyderabadi’s [ Remember.. this was a flight from Kolkatta to Hyd ]. Also stew is not the best inflight food when combined with turbulence..

Overall it was a good experience.

From gate to plane : The best experience I ever had.
In Plane Experience : Ok, but can be improved with a little more attention to detail.
Food : Long way to go.. Jet wins easily [ may be an exception.. but I will update when I have a better experience ]
Fare : In line with Jet Airways




Badge Farm

  • Firefox 2
  • Textmate
  • Powered by Redoable 1.2
  • Add to Technorati Favorites
  • Feeds burnt by Feedburner
  • Feed

Close
E-mail It
Socialized through Gregarious 42