A MOTLEY COLLECTION OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC NEWS

India is gearing to become a large pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) destination, with multinational companies such as Merck and Eli Lilly moving projects to India and domestic companies such as GVK Biosciences and Jubilant Organosys investing in providing related services. 
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, D.S. Brar, Chairman, GVK Biosciences, said: "We are providing R&D services to 20 pharma and seven biotech companies. We have already set up pharma KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) centres in Chennai and Delhi. In future, we could enter into collaborations with other companies in drug discovery on a risk-reward sharing arrangement.”

Between October 26 and November 25, India has been the fourth best performing market across the globe. Turkey is the biggest one-month gainer with its stock market index rising by 16.07 per cent on November 25 over the previous month. Russia is the second best at 13.48 per cent, followed by Japan (11.32 per cent) and India (10.78 per cent). Going by the price earning ratio (P/E) as provided by Financial Times, Japan turns out to be the most expensive market in terms of valuation. India is the sixth most expensive market after Japan, Austria, Canada, United States and the Philippines.

The mergers and acquisitions market in India (both by Indian companies within the country and outside and by global companies looking to acquire Indian companies) is witnessing an unprecedented boom, according to Ms Vedika Bhandarkar, Managing Director & Head of Investment Banking, J.P. Morgan India Pvt Ltd. 
In the first nine months of 2005, the total size of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in India was about $13 billion against about $4.5-5 billion for the whole of 2004. The major deals struck this year include Hutchison's acquisition of BPL's mobile business, Oracle's acquisition of i-flex and Vodafone picking up a stake in Bharti. "This year, it is very robust," she told reporters here on Thursday on the sidelines of a CII-organised conference.

After the success of Indian e-preneurs, now it is the turn of tex-preneurs to become global. All set to grab every market opportunity, domestic textile companies such as Grasim, Alok and Oswals are on the prowl. 
While Alok group company Grabal Alok Impex is acquiring 16% equity stake in the UK retail company Hamserd, textile major Grasim is eyeing Pakistan and Bangladesh to expand its viscose staple fibre (VSF) business. 
Grabal Alok seems to have major plans to expand its business internationally. It is setting up “a wholly-owned subsidiary for overseas joint ventures and acquisitions.

With the firm belief that only loads of foreign capital could drive economic growth, India has assured top CEOs of simplifying investment procedures, even as it portrayed infrastructure hiccups like bad roads and ports as an opportunity for wealth creation. 
“We are in the midst of a major overhaul (of investment procedures)... Proposals are under consideration of competent authorities... We would shortly make major announcements in this regard,” department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) secretary Ajay Dua told CEOs at the India Economic Summit 2005. He said the government was looking at redefining control on FDI flowing into the country.

Agilent Technologies said will set up a 200-heads capacity new centre in Bangalore for its life sciences measurement business and to provide customer and sales support for its domestic electronic busniess. "We will be locating our entire life sciences measurements sloutions and products business at Bangalore for which we are setting up a centre there," Agilent Technologies Managing Director Venkatesh Valluri said on the sidelines of the India Business Summit. 
He said the centre would have a capacity to house a "couple of hundred" and would also be the base for the company's domestic sales and customer support for its electronics measurement business.