Bloglet on Personal economy
Friday, November 17, 2006
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s net worth is close to USD 1,000,000,000. Does the IT dept. read our website nah just kidding we are all happy for the wealth he has generated for himself as well as for a lot of people like us on Dalal Street. Congratulations Jhunjhunwala !!! Maybe we should celebrate the day your net worth becomes $1,000,000,000 just like INFY did after achieving their first billion in sales a few years ago. And then onwards you can start competing with the net sales of Infosys which is not growing so fast anymore. I’m sure you have a chance of beating them by 2010.
Investment bankers are happy to serve a set of new customers with people having $500,000 to invest. Hmm these are all probably tax-payers but we are all sure that there are more rich people who also have a net worth of more than a million dollars and already invest on their own. However they can’t come into the open because they know Uncle Sam is watching. Does anybody know the amount of bank accounts these people have or the number of applications they file when applying for an IPO, you’ll be surprised. Those were the days when staying rich in the dark was considered the act of a real rich man. The current socio-economic condition will put pressure on these people.
And then there are people talking about shopping big toys like a bimmer (BMW) that costs a hundred and fifty grand USD, or a Rolls Royce that costs USD 600K. And finally a $160 bottle of wine that these rich women are sipping late in the night.
Looks like everyone is talking in terms of USD these days, Rupee is too small a unit of currency. Woh! woh! wait a second now, let’s not get too excited and start calling our currency a dollar….let’s just save the future politician sometime by not giving him an opportunity of renaming the Indian currency to Rupee in the year 2500 AD!!!
I’ve been a regular reader of Businessweek, Forbes and Economist ever since the dot com boom and have watched the number of articles on India, Indians, or Indians in US appear in these business magazines grow rapidly. Every issue now has at least 2 articles related to the India/Indian.
Everyone is excited about India except China, which is claiming that they will NOT let us overtake them economically. Let’s NOT let it happen, We’re a democratic and a truly secular country. Let’s work hard and we’ll be a true free country with freeSpeech and freePress than any other nation on the face of this earth. Jai Hind !!!
posted by Webmaster @ 2:21 AM, ,
Donald Trump’s view on India Today
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Donald Trump, “The Trump”, New York real estate tycoon has a perception of India. In the book that he co-authored with Robert Kiyosaki “Why We Want You To Be Rich?” which is already #1 on NY Times best seller list. In his book he quotes,Do we have a sense of the direction India is going ? Do we know anything about India ?
Here are a few facts to get us going:
India is the world’s largest, oldest continuous civilization.
In the last 10,000 years, India has never invaded any country.
India is the world’s largest democracy.
India is one of the few countries in the world that gained independence without violence.
The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 6,000 years ago.
Sanskrit is the mother of all European languages.
India was the richest country on earth until the 17th Century, when the British invaded.
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India is the largest English-speaking nation in the world.
He also mentions praises the Indians in the same context saying that “38 percent of doctors in the United States are of Indian descent and 12 percent of the scientists as well. They represent the wealthiest of all the ethnic groups in the United States as well as globally.”
However the point he is trying to make is that India is worth looking into at this point of time in the booming economy. Also his eldest children Don Trump Jr. and Ivanka both working for the Trump organization had recently made a trip to India. It must raise your eyebrows if you know Trump’s taste for fine real estate or you are in the real estate business. Considering Trump’s reputation and his real estate holdings in the New York city alone I would not be surprised if he’s planning on investing in Bengalooru or Mumbai or New Delhi or a mix of these. My first guess would be New Delhi and then some day he’ll invest on MG Road Bengalooru. That’ll be the day MG Road will get back it’s lost glory. However mind you, his buildings will not be open for all, they are only for the rich-and-famous, if you’re not rich, you’ll still consider yourself lucky that he’s letting you see his buildings with naked eyes :-)
Tags: Real Estate India, Donald Trump, Trump Tower, Bengalooru Real Estate
posted by Webmaster @ 8:19 PM, ,
India’s retail revolution has finally begun
Monday, November 06, 2006
Reliance group opens 11 stores in Hyderabad on Nov. 3 and will spend $5.5 billion by 2011. Foreign retail giants are banned from direct selling to consumers in India. However retailers are allowed to team up with Indian companies where the foreign company wholesales and sources to the Indian retail partner who can then directly sell to the Indian consumer. The first such partnership is between Infiniti Retail (a Tata group company) and Woolworth of Australia. Rumors are Bharti Enterprises is also in similar talks with Walmart of USA or Tesco of Britain. By the end of November, Bharti will have a foreign partner says Sunil Mittal Bharti’s chairman.
Foreign retailers can’t risk to be late to the party and the Indian govt. does not open up for the FDIs. India’s retail sector is one of the most attractive in the world. India’s expected retail sales this year $250-300 billion. By 2010 that number will be as high as $430 billion and the modern retailers share will rise to more than 15% from about the current 3% this is according to Technopak a Delhi based retail consultancy firm.
Unlike Google, Reliance is not used to doing things secretly and making an announcement overnight. Their retail venture when in the works about a year ago had already created a chain reaction and sleepless nights for the major retailers all over US and Europe. US business is slowing, not just retail but all sectors. So the major retailers are dying to setup retail businesses in India as soon as possible just to avoid a permanent dent in their balance sheets. What does this mean to a consumer? This in general means better products and better prices to the consumer. You can also expect better customer service which hardly exists with the current mom and pop shops unless you are one of their favorite customers for decades. Some mom and pop shops are also on an expansion spree which probably will only work in smaller towns. The main reason I wrote this bloglet was Reliance. Now Reliance has announced that it is going to set up stores across India spending about $5.5 billion in the next 5 years. What does this mean to the stock price? Where will the money come from? What will be the returns? Anyone? Please feel free to comment?
Tags: Reliance Retail, Retail India
posted by Webmaster @ 2:20 AM, ,
