Volkswagen AG will invest US$530mn on building a car plant in Maharashtra and will sign an agreement with the Maharashtra Government to this effect. The assembly plant will begin production in the second half of 2009, Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen said in a Nov. 17 statement after the company's supervisory board approved the plan. The plant will be built at Chakan, near Pune. Volkswagen would manufacture 100,000 vehicles per year at the proposed factory.
The proposed merger of Air India (AI) and Indian will take some more time to see the light of the day. The Government has decided to refer the issue to a Committee of Secretaries (CoS). The panel will be headed by Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi. The decision was taken by the empowered group of ministers (eGoM) looking into the proposed merger of the two public sector airlines.
India's merchandise exports grew by 11.35% last month to US $9.62bn, imports climbed by 36.8% to US $15.83bn, widening the trade deficit to US $6.21bn from US $2.93bn in the same month last year. Crude oil imports stood at US $5.35bn in October compared with US $3.44bn in the corresponding period last year, registering a growth of 55.35%. During the month under review, non-oil imports were estimated at US $10.48bn, up 28.92% over non-oil imports of US $8.13bn in October 2005.
SABMiller Plc plans to spend about US $100mn a year in India on raising capacity. SABMiller has a capacity of 2.29mn hectoliters (1.9 million barrels) at its 10 Indian breweries. India's total beer market amounts to 7.03mn hectoliters, and per-capita consumption is 0.7 liter. SABMiller has so far spent more than US$500mn in India. The expansion will take place in existing facilities and the company will make fresh investments as and when permitted.
Hilton Hotels Corporation will form a joint venture company (JV) in India with DLF Ltd subject to the receipt of formal written approval from the Government. The JV plans to develop and own 75 hotels and serviced apartments over the next seven years. The JV-owned hotels will represent several brands from Hilton portfolio, including Hilton Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites and Hilton Residences. The JV will develop and build these properties, while Hilton will manage them.
Honda Siel Cars India has unveiled the all-new Honda CR-V, a premium variant of its globally popular SUV which will cost at least Rs 2.5 lakh more than the existing offering. The new CR-V will be available in two versions - a six speed manual transmission model and an automatic transmission one. The two models will be priced at Rs 17.7 lakh ( ex-showroom Delhi) and Rs 18.4 lakh ( ex-showroom Delhi), respectively.