It has never been so good.
More than 400 M&A deals (over $18 billion in value)
 

Vodafone pays $1.5 billion for a 10 per cent stake in Bharti Tele-Ventures.
 Essar and Hutch take over BPL Mobile and BPL Communication for $2.1 billion.

 Videocon buys out CPT business of MNC Thomson US for $290 million.

 Matrix takes over Belgian company Docpharma NV for $263 million.

 Oracle buys out Citicorp’s controlling stake in i-flex for $593 million.

 Ratnagiri Gas and Power buys GE and Bechtel stakes of Dabhol Power for $305 million.

 Tatas spent Rs 4,500 crore to acquire global businesses. Tata Chemicals takes over Egyptian fertiliser firm SAE for $519 million. Tata Steel acquires Thai Millennium Steel for $400 million.VSNL buys Teleglobe Holdings for $254 million. TCS bags Australian FNS for $26 million.

 Essar Steel buys INI Steel for $100 million and Hy-Grade Pellets and Gujarat Steel for $450 million.

 Vijay Mallya’s McDowell takes over Shaw Wallace for $320 million.

Virtually every week an Indian company is acquiring a company abroad. Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharat Forge, or Wipro are perhaps in a hurry for going global in real sense of the term.

Sales and Profits 2004-5
 A sample of 1,765 companies shows that net profits for the first quarter of 2005-6 has jumped by 46.02 per cent, while sales clocked a 15.01 per cent growth.

Investments and investment intentions

 Foreign institutional investors pumped in a record $10 billion this year.

 The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy reports that during the quarter ended October 2005, 564 projects with investments of Rs 2,11,054 crore were announced-the highest in a decade. Since March, IT and telecom companies have announced investments worth over $9 billion.

 An AT Kearney survey has ranked India the second most favoured destination for FDI, behind China, relegating the US to the third spot.

 The UN Conference on Trade and Development sees India among the “dominant host countries” for FDI in Asia and the Pacific.

Global tech titans’ investments of over $8 billion in the telecom and IT Sectors.

 Advanced Micro Devices signs a “milestone agreement” with SemIndia to bring semiconductor manufacturing facilities to India. The move envisages an investment of $3 billion over four years.

 Bill Gates, on his fourth visit in two years, announced that Microsoft Corp will invest $1.7 billion in India over four years and employ 3,000 more people to strengthen its presence in India.

 INTEL -the tech giant will invest more than $1 billion in five years. Plans include $250 million to be invested in a venture capital fund to help stimulate technological innovation in India and drive the growth of the country’s it industry.

 CISCO- the networking behemoth will invest $1.1 billion, including $750 million for an R&D centre.
Nokia, LG, Samsung and Alcatel are setting up manufacturing units in India to tap into the booming cellular services business.

IT Sector

The Indian IT industry has leapfrogged crossing of the Rs 1,00,000-crore mark in revenues and the direct employment of over 10 lakh personnel in software and services, with indirect employment being two to three times that number. Software and services exports grew by as much as 34 per cent in 2004-5, grossing over $17 billion (about Rs 76,500 crore). The forecast for the year 2005-6 is a further growth of 30-32 per cent. The national market too has seen vigorous expansion of about 25 per cent. The recent NASSCOM-McKinsey study projects a $60 billion (about Rs 2,70,000 crore) export figure in 2010 for the Indian software and services sector.

Consumers’ Economy

While all the information above shows the health of producers’ economy, here are some glimpses of consumers’ economy:

Number of new mobile users added till November 2005 is 23.41 million-highest in a year. Roughly a mobile phone is being sold every second.

45 million PCs have been sold this year that is the maximum in a year. Mutual funds raised Rs 53,982 crore in the first 11 months. And average increment in salaries in private sector was 14% the highest since 1990s.

And GDP

Even the PM is no more hesitant in talking about 8%+ GDP growth. India is huge mass flywheel. It has started moving- from the Hindu growth rate to 6% average, and then 7% for last few years, and now 8%+. Even with a slight increase in productivity of inspired individuals who contribute to the overall GDP, and perhaps by bringing in some innovations in all the individual assignments, the flywheel will get into speed that will be difficult to be stopped.

And finally, a late-year survey of Transparency International showed that corruption actually decreased in India. That itself can boost GDP by several points.