Business confidence rises, but future scares India Inc.

September 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - Business confidence in India is on the rise, defying the global downturn, says the country's apex business chamber as India pitches here strongly to attract more foreign investment in the core sectors of industry. "Certainly there is a movement in foreign institutional investment and foreign direct investment has also begun to pick up," said Amit Mitra, secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).

July 29th, 2009 LONDON - Gauri Advani, head of India Group at the law firm Eversheds, has joined the board of the UK India Business Council (UKIBC). The council announced Wednesday that Advani is among seven new entrants in its 25-member board following the appointment of former cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt, MP, as the new chair of the UKIBC - the lead British agency promoting bilateral trade, business and investment between India and Britain.

June 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Despite signs of an improving economy, India Inc feels actual recovery will happen only after September, a survey by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has found. According to the survey, conducted by the CII northern region, 96 percent of respondents believe a turnaround would happen only in the second half of 2009-10, thanks to the ongoing global slowdown The survey found 72 percent of respondents expecting the economic growth to be in the range of 5-7 percent this fiscal.

June 3rd, 2009 FDA looking abroad to boost food, drug safetyTOKYO — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has expanded offices around the world and heightened contacts with counterpart agencies in order to improve product safety for Americans at home, a senior agency official said Wednesday.

May 18th, 2009 LONDON - The UK India Business Council Monday welcomed the outcome of the Indian elections, saying it bodes well for the Indian economy. 'The markets have given their verdict - a 17 percent increase in stock prices today,' the group said in a statement.

May 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India Inc's business confidence for the first half of this fiscal has improved 2.4 points to 58.7, though global economic instability and slackening consumer demand remain major sources of concern, says a survey by the Confederation of India Industry (CII). CII Business Confidence Index (CII-BCI) for April-September 2009-10 improved considerably compared to the business confidence in the past six months.

May 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Former US Ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, on Tuesday asserted that it was high time that both India and the US holds discussions on how to deal with a turbulent and chaotic situation in Pakistan. ddressing a conclave on the future of India-US ties in New Delhi, Blackwill also called for enlargement of India's role in Afghanistan as he said the American forces should work out on an exit policy from that country.

April 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Swine flu scare may adversely impact investment and business confidence in India, the research arm of rating agency Moody's said Thursday. 'The swine flu scare will likely weigh on wider economic activity such as household consumption and business investment,' Sharman Chan, an economist with Moody's Economy.com, said.

April 22nd, 2009 KOLKATA - India Tuesday asked Sri Lanka to take international organisations like the UN into confidence while evacuating civilians from the war zone in the island country. Speaking to reporters here, Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee also asked Sri Lanka to distribute the relief materials sent by India through organisations such as the Red Cross.

April 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Thursday launched an India Business Forum (IBF) in China, a lobby to promote bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. The IBF will act as a forum for promoting India-China trade through collective and consensual approach and will also work with the Indian embassy in Beijing and others towards 'building brand India', the CII said in a statement released here.

April 2nd, 2009 NEW HAVEN - Ivy League business school Yale School of Management will Friday organise a seminar on emerging business opportunities in India during the current economic crisis. The seminar will focus on the impact of the global financial crisis on the Indian economy and discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by foreign investors in India.

February 8th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan is the one country that really 'scares' Barack Obama, according to the US President's aides, a newspaper reported Monday. The Guardian said in a report from Islamabad that Pakistan - 'a nuclear-armed country hurtling towards chaos' - may turn out to be the biggest foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration.

January 24th, 2009 MULTAN - Pakistan's Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani said Sunday that his government would take the world into confidence over the Mumbai attacks probe, Geo TV reported. Addressing a gathering here, Gilani said his government would not allow the use of its territory for terrorist acts and that war was no solution to the terrorism issue.

January 24th, 2009 KARACHI - After trouncing Pakistan 2-1, Sri Lanka's captain Mahela Jayawardene said they now aim to beat India on home soil. Before leaving for Colombo, Jayawardene told reporters here Sunday that two emphatic back-to-back wins over Pakistan have raised his players' confidence for the ODI series against India that begins Jan 28.

January 13th, 2009 KOLKATA - Future Generali, the joint venture with the Italian insurance giant Generali, is expecting to touch a premium income of about Rs.10 billion by 2010, a senior official said Wednesday. Future Generali is the insurance joint venture between Future Group of India and Italy-based Generali Group with a 74:26 stake.