Today was supposed to be a good day for the Indian economy. A much-awaited monetary policy announcement—an expected cut in key interest rates—was to buoy confidence and help steer the country back onto a fast-growth track. But three things happened to dash those hopes—and they are broader indicators of the challenge ahead.
India’s finance minster toed the delicate line between populism and economic reforms in presenting his budget today. While there were unwarranted expectations that the budget would be a veritable goodie bag of subsidies and freebies with an eye on the general elections in 2014, realistically that was never going to be true. The Indian economy is groaning under a fiscal deficit of $86.5 billion so far this year and the government is forced to focus on limiting that to 5.2% of the GDP.
There’s no better place than Palika Bazaar, a maze of hundreds of shops in central New Delhi, to get the pulse on India’s mobile market. Quartz ventured here the day after BlackBerry announced its pricing plan on its new Z10 for this key emerging market: a gasp-inducing 43,490 rupees ($804).
While the rest of the world believes that marriages are made in heaven, in India, marriages have always been made in categories. Until a decade ago, there were only two: arranged, where the parents picked the potential spouse; and love, a minority of couples who chose each other. Now, sitting somewhere in between and growing at a phenomenal rate, is a new one—the online matchmaker.
Even in overpopulated India, the Kumbh Mela is a metaphor for a crowded place. And despite the religious nature of the festival, companies can’t help but target all those potential consumers.
The Indian economy has, evidently, run out of steam. The second fastest growing country in the world has estimated that the GDP growth for the current financial year is likely to be 5%. This is a 10-year low; the economy had been growing upwards of 8% from 2008. Now, advance estimates from the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), which accounted for economic activity through November suggests that growth will be far less than what was anticipated.
India’s market regulator has approved liquor giant Diageo’s majority stake in Vijay Mallya’s United Spirits after months of delays and scrutiny. The deal is worth $2.1 billion.
The Jaipur Literature Festival, which starts today, has more than a fair share of heavyweight authors, controversies, media coverage and more than 100,000 visitors. The one thing it lacks, surprisingly, is profitability. In the last six years, the festival has seen 100% increase in attendance every year —starting with 7,000 people in 2006 and 125,000 last year. But the festival has so far been unable to generate enough revenue to cover its costs.
This gold shirt and its $250,000 price tag gave a businessman from Pune, India, his 15 seconds of fame last week. But the garment’s maker wants his role to be indelible.
Indian IT major, Infosys, beat street expectations and announced a jump in revenues of 5.8% (compared to the same quarter last year) to $1.91 billion. The stock posted its single biggest gain in a day in nearly a decade, closing 16.9% higher than yesterday’s close. This is the first time in eight quarters that Infosys has reported a growth in revenues.
India’s Sahara Group would appear to be the envy of the hotel industry after its recent acquisition of the iconic Plaza Hotel and the Dream in New York City. But in reality it’s facing a $5 billion nightmare in India.
India woke up this week to the shocking news of a girl who was gang raped on a private bus in South Delhi. The victim and her friend are still in critical condition. Police have arrested four people accused of the crime, while two are absconding.
In 1995, when KFC opened its first outlet in India, a few curious customers would walk in and look puzzled at what they had ordered: a couple of pieces of colorless, fried chicken. That this was a meal was rather incomprehensible to a population that ate carbohydrate heavy meals three times a day. If at all chicken was consumed by itself, it had to be a fiery, red piece of tandoori. Not anymore. In the last six years, Indian plates and palates have welcomed whole hosts of new dishes and flavors—prime among them is that classic American favorite: fried chicken.
Wal-Mart’s woes in India just got a whole lot worse.
We watched the Republican National convention and squirmed when Clint Eastwood talked to The Chair. We felt chills of excitement when Bill Clinton endorsed Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. We watched the debates. We had our own pro-life, pro-choice arguments. We can’t wait to find out if it’s Obama or Romney who will win. But today, in India, we can only wring our hands at the seemingly sudden realization that we don’t have a vote in the US presidential election.
Kingfisher Airlines, once one of India’s premier airlines, is nose-diving rapidly into corporate annihilation. Almost 6,500 workers have not received pay since March, as the company ran out of cash and efforts to raise debt failed. Yet chairman and founder Vijay Mallya and his son Sidhartha, who was gifted the airline as his 18th birthday present, have been tweeting up a storm about their fabulous lives.
