India Indian Economy + Infra Archive

[Gessler]

Cabinet Approves $1.3 Billion Outlay For 'India AI Mission'​

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the 'India AI mission' with an outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore for a period of five years, to give a further push for Artificial Intelligence in India. The announcement was made by Union Minister Piyush Goyal at a cabinet briefing, where he reiterated the need to have a robust environment for promoting the tech in the country.

"The IndiaAI mission will establish a comprehensive ecosystem catalyzing AI innovation through strategic programs and partnerships across the public and private sectors. By democratizing computing access, improving data quality, developing indigenous AI capabilities, attracting top AI talent, enabling industry collaboration, providing startup risk capital, ensuring socially impactful AI projects and bolstering ethical AI, it will drive responsible, inclusive growth of India's AI ecosystem," the government said in a release.

All set to be implemented by the ‘IndiaAI’ Independent Business Division (IBD) under Digital India Corporation (DIC), this mission is set to have eight components including IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre, a dataset platform among others. The government also plans to generate highly skilled employment opportunities with this mission.

As part of building a mega computing facility, the government aims to add AI compute infrastructure of 10,000 or more Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), built through public-private partnership. "Further, an AI marketplace will be designed to offer AI as a service and pre-trained models to AI innovators. It will act as a one-stop solution for resources critical for AI innovation," the government said.

Moreover, the innovation centres will undertake the development and deployment of indigenous Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) and domain-specific foundational models in critical sectors.

As for education in AI, the government plans to roll out IndiaAI FutureSkills, which is conceptualized to mitigate barriers to entry into AI programs and will increase AI courses in undergraduate, masters-level, and Ph.D. programs. Under the mission, the government will also set up Data and AI Labs in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India.

Cabinet approves 'India AI Mission' with an outlay of Rs 10,371.92 cr for five years

The Union Cabinet has approved a Rs 10,371.92 crore 'India AI mission' for five years to promote Artificial Intelligence in India. The mission aims to establish a comprehensive ecosystem for AI innovation, democratize computing access, improve data quality, develop indigenous AI capabilities...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Seems the cost for buying compute time on the cloud is going to get a lot cheaper for Indian AI startups.

 

[Lemurian]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1766058161721483384

 

[Gessler]

India, Europe's EFTA bloc sign $100 billion Free Trade deal​

India has pledged to drop tariffs on industrial products from countries including Norway and Switzerland for $100 billion in investment over 15 years. India's economy is likely to be a major focus in upcoming elections.

India and the four members states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) on Sunday signed an economic pact worth over $100 billion (€91.4 billion). The EFTA's members are Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, none of which are in the European Union. The agreement must be ratified by all five signatories before it can come into effect. Switzerland plans to do so by 2025.

What do we know about the India-EFTA deal?​

Under the deal, India will lift most import tariffs on industrial products from the EFTA in exchange for investment of $100 billion over 15 years, Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said. The agreement was signed after 21 rounds of negotiations over 15 years.

"It is a modern trade agreement, fair, equitable and win-win for all five countries," Goyal said.

Switzerland's government said that New Delhi will lift or partially remove customs duties on 95.3% of industrial imports from Switzerland either immediately or over time. In a separate statement, Oslo said it had achieved near-zero import taxes on most Norwegian goods. "Norwegian companies exporting to India today meet high import taxes of up to 40% on certain goods," Norwegian Industry Minister Jan Christian Vestre said.

"With the new deal, we have secured nil import taxes on nearly every Norwegian good," he said.

Agreement comes as Modi campaigns on economic credentials​

The announcement comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigns for re-election in general elections in May. His campaign has emphasized high GDP growth over the last quarter and his government's plans to turn India into a developed country. Modi is aiming to achieve annual exports of $1 trillion by 2030. In recent years, India has signed trade agreements with Australia and the United Arab Emirates.

India is the EFTA bloc's fifth-largest trading partner after the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and China. New Delhi's Trade Ministry estimated two-way trade with the group amounted to $25 billion in 2023.

India, Europe's EFTA bloc sign $100 billion deal – DW – 03/10/2024

India has pledged to drop tariffs on industrial products from countries including Norway and Switzerland for $100 billion in investment over 15 years. India's economy is likely to be a major focus in upcoming elections.

www.dw.com

++++​

Also, it seems the Tory Govt in UK is worried that India may be holding out for a possibly better FTA deal under a Labour govt post UK's general election later this year:

UK negotiators fly to India in last-ditch effort to seal free-trade deal

Exclusive: Team will try to resolve goods and services issues amid fears Delhi is holding out for a Labour government

www.theguardian.com

There has been quite a bit of unusual outreach from the Labour shadow cabinet to India recently. Let's see what gives. One thing's for clear: India isn't in a hurry to seal the UK FTA - it's the Brits (especially Tories) that desperately need a trade deal with a major economy outside Europe post Brexit.

@Nilgiri

 

[Gessler]

Atal Setu - The Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link

 

[dronie]

 

[Gessler]

"Frank Huang, chairman of Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC), revealed in an interview with the Economic Times that the Dholera facility will begin operations with 28 nanometer chips, with plans for future advancements to 22 nm."

Tata's Dholera semiconductor plant may roll out India's first indigenous chip by 2026: Report

The Rs 91,000-crore semiconductor fabrication unit in Dholera, a joint venture between Tata Electronics and PSMC, boasts a manufacturing capacity of up to 50,000 wafers per month.

www.moneycontrol.com

In a few years, we should be in a position to replace most server-grade hardware with locally-manufactured CPUs, NAND-Flash & DRAM in all strategic/sensitive applications.

 

[Gessler]

Indian bonds are set to be added to global indexes. Here’s why it could be a gamechanger​

PUBLISHED TUE, MAR 26 202412:10 AM EDTUPDATED TUE, MAR 26 20241:04 AM EDT
Shreyashi Sanyal@IN/SHREYASHI-SANYAL-7B10941B​

The decision to include Indian government bonds in two prominent global indexes recently is being viewed as a shot in the arm for the rapidly growing country and is expected to bring in billions of inflows. India’s bonds will be added to the JPMorgan Government Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) in June, the Wall Street lender announced in September.

The JPMorgan inclusion is reportedly India’s first ever inclusion in a global bond index. Earlier this month, Bloomberg Index Services’ followed suit, announcing it will be adding Indian government bonds to its Emerging Market Local Currency Government Index from Jan. 31, 2025. Such inclusions, analysts noted, could lead to billions of dollars worth of inflows into India’s rupee-denominated government debt. As demand rises, bond yields fall, supporting the local currency.

Deepak Agrawal, Chief investment Officer of debt at Kotak Mutual Fund, told CNBC he expects the inclusions to generate “stable flows of around $25 [billion] to $30 billion” over the next 12 to 18 months following the rebalancing period starting in June 2024. “Overall we see this as a move in the right direction,” Agrawal added.

Goldman Sachs said it expects India’s bond markets to see inflows “upwards of $40 billion from the time of announcement to the end of the scale-in period, or around $2 billion per month.” JPMorgan has said the inclusion of Indian bonds will be staggered over 10 months, starting from a 1% in June to a maximum 10% weightage in its index in April next year.

Big bump to growth​

JPMorgan’s inclusion of Indian bonds has been hailed as a “milestone event” by Invest India, the government’s national investment promotion agency. “The inclusion will help India realize the goal of a $5 trillion economy by 2030,” the agency said, adding it will help Asia’s third largest economy integrate with the global economy. It will also help India raise more funds, meet growing borrowing costs and grow the investor base for government securities.

“As a consequence of these stable long-term global investments, Indian banks, the largest investors of government securities, will be able to lend more domestically, leading to infrastructure creation and employment generation,” Invest India said. India’s sovereign bond market was valued at $1.2 trillion as of October and is broadly dominated by domestic institutional investors, according to Invest India.

Does this make it easier to invest in India?​

India is quickly becoming one of the world’s fastest growing economies and its government has taken steps this year to boost the economy further, especially with plans on increasing its spending on infrastructure. But layers of protectionism, including certain import restrictions, have highlighted difficulties in doing business in India.

“Index inclusion itself doesn’t make investing [in India] easier,” Kenneth Akintewe, head of Asian sovereign debt at investment firm Abrdn, told CNBC. But Akintewe said that adding Indian bonds to global indexes encourage a much broader set of investors to invest in the country, “which frankly they should have been doing anyway given how strongly the market has performed.”

“However, the reforms that have led to index inclusion, namely the establishing of the fully accessible route (FAR) component of the government bond market, with FAR securities growing as a proportion of the market and these being index eligible, does make investing easier.” Under the fully accessible route, eligible investors can put money in specified government securities without ceiling limits, paving the way for foreign investors to access Indian bond markets.

Akintewe predicted the additions to such indexes could approximately bring in a “passive flow of $30 billion.” JP Morgan’s bond index inclusion could facilitate about $24 billion in passive inflows between June 2024 and March 2025, Fitch Ratings said in a September note. “Flows could be greater if other indexes also move to include Indian government securities,” the note added.

“This could serve to lower funding costs slightly, and support further development of domestic capital markets, but direct positive effects on India’s credit profile will be marginal in the near term,” the ratings agency said.

Bonds vs. stocks​

Fueled by broad optimism, India’s stock markets hit record highs multiple times this year, with the Nifty 50 index clocking its eighth straight year of gains in 2023.
Monthly inflows into India’s domestic equity funds rose to a 23-month high of $3.2 billion in February, based on data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India, Goldman Sachs said. India also saw foreign inflows of $2.2 billion in the week ending March 15, according to the investment bank.

DBS senior economist Radhika Rao said local currency sovereign bonds were also poised for gains on strong foreign inflows.

The biggest buyers of India’s government debt have so far been institutional investors such as banks, mutual funds and insurance firms — but including Indian government bonds in global indexes means the country will now be able to expand its fundraising avenues.

“It diversifies India’s funding sources, relieves pressure on domestic investors to have to absorb supply, drives funding costs lower, aiding the fiscal position, eliminates the need to have to issues U.S. dollar sovereign debt and encourages further capital market development,” Abrdn’s Akintewe said.

— CNBC’s Clement Tan contributed to this story.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/26/indian-bonds-are-to-be-included-in-global-indexes-is-this-a-gamechanger.html#:~:text=The%20JPMorgan%20inclusion%20is%20reportedly,from%20Jan.%2031%2C%202025.

 

[Jammer]

https://www.financialexpress.com/business/express-mobility-elon-musk-to-visit-india-for-announcing-tesla-investment-plans-this-month-report-3452786/lite/

So its certain that a giga factory is coming up

 

[Gessler]

https://www.financialexpress.com/business/express-mobility-elon-musk-to-visit-india-for-announcing-tesla-investment-plans-this-month-report-3452786/lite/

So its certain that a giga factory is coming up

Yes - it was pretty evident for a while for those following the news.

Just waiting for the official announcement.

Considering that the Giga Mexico seems to have been put on the back burner, it's possible this would become only the 3rd place outside the US to host a Gigafactory after Shanghai & Berlin.

It's possible this would also be the sole manufacturing base for the upcoming sub-$30k Tesla model. Huge opportunity to be tapped both for increasing the competition in local EV market + exports.

 

[Gessler]

This is HUGE!

@Nilgiri

Tata Electronics inks deal with Tesla for semiconductor chips ahead of Elon Musk India visit: Report​

US EV automaker Tesla has signed a strategic deal with Tata Electronics to acquire semiconductor chips for its worldwide operations, according to a report by The Economic Times. The reported deal, which was executed discreetly as per the report, shows Tesla is interested in building a supply chain in India that goes beyond local revenue generation.

This comes in the backdrop of the EV automaker's chief Elon Musk's reported visit to India, where he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is expected to announce potential Indian investments

Moneycontrol couldn't independently verify the report.

"Looking forward to meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India!," Musk had said on April 10 in a post on X.

More:

Tata Electronics inks deal with Tesla for semiconductor chips ahead of Elon Musk India visit: Report

The Tesla chief will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is expected to announce potential investments in India

www.moneycontrol.com

Original report for those with subscription:

ET exclusive: Tata Electronics seals semicon deal with Tesla

The US-based electric vehicle (EV) major is keen to enter India, the worlds fastest-expanding major automotive market. Tesla promoter Elon Musk is reportedly visiting India this month for a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Musk is expected to announce potential Indian investments...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

The 22-28nm fab being built by Tata will ensure India commands a sizeable market share in the medium-end (automotive, IoT etc.) of the semiconductor space across the world.

 

[Gessler]

Looks like Tata Electronics is already preparing plans to upgrade their Dholera fab to 14 nm node in a few years:

https://www.financialexpress.com/life/technology-tata-electronics-prepares-ground-for-high-end-chips-3465109/