Indian cricket: heaps of money

James Lamont

James Lamont was appointed South Asia Bureau Chief in 2008, having spent four years as the London-based world news editor. Prior to this, he was the FT Weekend news editor and before that he was the Johannesburg-based Southern Africa correspondent. Before joining the FT in 2001, he was editor of Business Report, South Africa's largest financial daily and deputy editor of the Middle East Times in Cairo.

Indian cricket: heaps of money

August 5, 2011 3:58 pm by James Lamont

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India’s cricketers have been deafened by howls of derision after their latest defeat by England in a four match Test series.

Sunil Gavaskar, a former Indian batsman, said his countrymen were playing like “schoolboys”. Geoffrey Boycott, a former English cricketer, called their performance more befitting Bangladesh than a team currently ranked No 1 in the Test tables.

Before we feel too sorry for India’s struggling cricket stars, we should remember that they are paid for success and vicissitude alike. Continue reading »

Posted in India | Permalink

India: Vodafone tax bill takes the stand

August 3, 2011 2:26 pm by James Lamont

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One of the biggest tests of India’s openness to acquisitions by foreign companies got underway on Wednesday in the country’s Supreme Court.

The Delhi-based court’s judges have begun weighing an appeal by Vodafone (VOD:LSE), the UK-listed telecoms group, over a $2.5bn tax bill levied on its purchase of the Indian assets of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa. Continue reading »

India: How low can growth go?

August 2, 2011 1:51 pm by James Lamont

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C. Rangarajan’s step back from India’s ambitious economic growth forecasts may be the first of many. This week, the prime minister’s chief economic adviser said India’s growth in the current fiscal year would fall to 8.2 per cent, from earlier projections of 9 per cent.

Candidly, he admitted the resilience India had shown through the global financial crisis had not withstood rising food prices, falling investment and distracting high profile corruption scandals. Continue reading »

Tags: economic growth, inflation Posted in India | Permalink

Indian cricket: chasing money, not runs

August 1, 2011 4:49 pm by James Lamont

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The bubble-like confidence of Indian cricket has burst in England this summer.

Only weeks after India won the cricket World Cup on home ground, its world-beating team has been out-played in a four-match Test series in England. Key players are absent, and the team looks exhausted from a punishing schedule. Zaheer Khan, a key strike bowler, is out; so is Virender Sehwag, an opening batsman. Continue reading »

Tags: sports Posted in India | Permalink

India: fuel price hike may boost reform

June 27, 2011 3:48 pm by James Lamont

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In a season characterised by paralysis in New Delhi, a fuel price rise is a vital sign.

Corruption has so dominated the narrative out of India this year that economic reform measures have largely been swept aside. Even seemingly straightforward moves to introduce a direct tax code and goods and services tax have run into trouble. Continue reading »

Tags: inflation Posted in India | Permalink

India: cabinet reshuffle afoot

June 24, 2011 3:30 pm by James Lamont

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Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, desperately needs to re-energise an administration wallowing in corruption scandals.

What better way to do that than with an audacious cabinet reshuffle.

To right a severely listing ship of state and give the Congress party even half a chance of wining 2014 parliamentary elections, a major refresh is at hand. Continue reading »

Tags: Indian politics Posted in Asia, India | Permalink

Mauritius and India’s flash crash

June 21, 2011 3:30 pm by James Lamont

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India’s stockmarkets have trodden water for months. A combination of high inflation and rolling corruption scandals involving listed companies has made it listless, yet neither challenge has built up enough power to trigger a precipitous slide.

So a “flash crash” in one of the world’s largest emerging markets inflicted by concerns over bilateral financial ties with a tiny Indian Ocean island came as something of a surprise earlier this week. Continue reading »

Tags: equities, FDI Posted in India | Permalink

India: A queasy feeling about inflation

June 16, 2011 11:50 am by James Lamont

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India’s battle against inflation has earned Asia’s third largest economy the reputation as the world’s most aggressive tightener of monetary policy over the past 18 months.

The Reserve Bank of India has raised benchmark lending rates 10 times since March 2010. More is certain to come, so long as inflation remains untamed. In fact, the next wave of tightening could come within six weeks. Continue reading »

Tags: inflation Posted in India | Permalink

Carstens in India: a winner?

June 10, 2011 8:38 am by James Lamont

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When Agustin Carstens calls on New Delhi on Friday, India’s leaders will take care to be even-handed.

The visit of the Mexican central banker follows on the heels of a courtesy call by Christine Lagarde, France’s finance minister and his rival for the job of president of the International Monetary Fund.

Tags: IMF Posted in India | Permalink

India must tread carefully in Africa

May 30, 2011 1:30 pm by James Lamont

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From Monday’s FT:

India should be no late-comer to Africa. Yet in a modern-day scramble for influence and assets on the continent, New Delhi trails Beijing.

An Indian diaspora is deeply rooted in east and southern Africa. Traders have plied the Indian Ocean for centuries. India, as one of the first colonies to win independence from Britain, gave inspiration to the ambitions of countless African liberation movements and leadership as the world’s largest democracy within the Non-Aligned Movement. Continue reading »

Tags: India-Africa Posted in Africa, India | Permalink

India: Economic planners keep faith with Nehru dream

April 22, 2011 8:21 am by James Lamont

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When Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, introduced his newly independent country’s system of five yearly economic planning, he could only have dreamed of today’s growth rates.

The Planning Commission, a legacy of his leadership, this week targeted growth of 9 per cent to 9.5 per cent economic growth as it put the final touches on the 12th Plan, which will run between 2012 and 2017.

In 1951, when Nehru launched the country’s First Plan, growth was forecast at 2.1 per cent. Continue reading »

Tags: economic growth, GDP, politics Posted in India | Permalink

The Indian world order

April 20, 2011 2:51 pm by James Lamont

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India has published a ranking of what it considers the 50 most powerful countries, called the National Security Index. It’s the first time the index has appeared in four years.

New Delhi is, naturally, near the top of the pecking order. Continue reading »

Tags: national security index, rankings Posted in India | Permalink

Indian cricket prices: a sign of the times

April 20, 2011 9:29 am by James Lamont

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The Indian Premier League has transformed cricket on the sub-continent.

The hoopla – a boisterous mix of sport, Bollywood glitz and the patronage of billionaires – has also transformed the price spectators have to pay to watch the game.

Inflation in India, the highest of any major Asian economy, is as apparent in the stadiums of the nation’s favourite sport as it is on vegetable stalls. Continue reading »

Tags: inflation, sports Posted in India | Permalink

India: teens in the C-suite

April 19, 2011 11:18 am by James Lamont

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Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group and doyen of Indian business, is 73.

But a younger breed of entrepreneur is beginning to break the mould that you have to be old to get to the top in India. Sindhuja Rajamaran, is celebrated in her home country as one of the world’s youngest chief executives. She is 14 years old. Continue reading »

Tags: entrepreneurship Posted in India | Permalink

Marxism in West Bengal: good for growth?

April 18, 2011 12:33 pm by James Lamont

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The sun may be setting on more than three decades of Communist rule of West Bengal, the Indian state where the British East India Company made a mint in the 18th and 19th centuries.

But the leftists shouldn’t be counted out too hastily before 13 May, when the winner of the state election is declared. West Bengal’s economy – under their Marxist management – is growing at a healthy clip. Continue reading »

Tags: economic growth, GDP, Indian politics Posted in India | Permalink

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