Ford Motor launched Figo, a new member in the small car segment.

The company launched its maiden small car in India, the Figo, with an aggressive price tag ranging between Rs 3.5 lakh for the entry-level petrol vehicle, and Rs 5.3 lakh for the top-end diesel variant.

Figo is the second car to be launched this year with an entry price of less than Rs 3.5 lakh - a price segment that has seen little action since General Motors introduced the Spark three years ago.

GM launched its second car in the segment, the Beat, earlier this year. Ford expects to create ripples in the market primarily on its pricing strategy, much the same as GM.

"Without a small car we were out of 70 per cent of the market," said Michael Boneham, managing director, Ford India. "Now that the Figo is here, this is just the start."

The Figo compares favourably with competitors (see table) on pricing and performance, but along with the Beat, its rock-bottom pricing indicates very low margins for the company and an intensification the battle for a slice of the compact car segment.

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India will raise by September more than half of its record $100 billion planned borrowing for the financial year that begins on April 1, a top adviser said on Tuesday, allowing more space for private borrowing as the economic growth picks up steam.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, said the federal government would have no problem in managing its borrowing plan for the 2010/11 fiscal year.

India can raise more funds in the first half depending on the economic circumstances, Ahluwalia told reporters, without mentioning the exact borrowing figure.

Asia's third largest economy is seen expanding over 8.5 percent in 2010/11, accelerating to 9 percent the year after.

Borrowing a higher proportion in the first half of the year would also be cheaper for the federal government, with interest rates on a hardening path along the year on rising inflationary pressures and greater demand for funds.

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Infosys Technologies, India's No. 2 software services exporter, is seeing a rise in outsourcing deal flows due to a recovery in the global economy, a top official said on Wednesday.

Pricing for its services was likely to remain stable, Kris Gopalakrishnan, chief executive officer, told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar.

Infosys and its rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro had seen a sharp drop in demand for outsourcing services and pressure on prices a year ago, as recession crimped investments on IT services by their clients.

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Infosys Technologies is planning to hike salaries for all its employees in Apr 2010, a spokeswoman said on Thursday, Mar 4.

Infosys spokeswoman said, "Yes, we are considering a wage hike in Apr. We expect business to be normal in the coming year and as in a normal year, we give hikes every Apr."

Infosys and other IT firms such as TCS and Wipro had put off their annual wage hikes in Apr 2008 as global recession crimped investments on technology services by their clients.

According to Business Standard report, Infosys was planning 8-12 per cent wage increase.
The report also said TCS and Wipro were also planning salary increases between 8 per cent and 12 per cent for the financial year beginning in Apr on improved business environment.

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India is ranked among the top three investment destinations for private equity (PE) firms in the world, as per a report by consulting firm Bain & Company.

The US, one of the worst affected by the global financial crisis, leads the table as the top investment location for PE funds followed by China, the report said. India recovered sharply ahead of most other economies from the slowdown that hit markets in 2008.

Rapid domestic expansion across several sectors is set to provide ample opportunities for growth-capital investing in the country, said Sri Rajan, head, PE practice in India with Bain & Company. "Given the growth trajectory in India, PE investments will pick up in the coming fiscal but the average value of deals will be lower than that of 2007, which was the boom period for investments. Key sectors that will witness an upswing in future are infrastructure and healthcare," he added.

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Wages in India will rise the fastest in the Asia-Pacific region, going up by a tenth in 2010, a recent survey suggested, another indication local firms are more confident of growth than their regional peers.

A strong rebound in Asia's third largest economy, supported by a focus on building infrastructure and consumer demand, has had firms lining up plans to ride the wave of growth.

This contrasts with last year, when many firms had frozen or cut salaries as demand fell and the economy's expansion slowed to a six-year low.

On an average, salaries went up 6.6% in 2009, the survey by staffing services firm Hewitt Associates said.

"This growth and the fact that 2009 saw a lot of salary freeze and salary cuts, are providing an impetus for healthy increase in compensation for employees," according to the survey released Thursday.

The survey of 465 companies across 20 industries said the heftiest hikes would be in engineering and construction firms which would benefit from India's projected $38 billion spend on infrastructure in the year to March 2011.

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The rupee advanced to the strongest level in more than six weeks on optimism that the government will rein in its budget deficit in the next 12 months.

The currency appreciated for a fourth day after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee unveiled a budget proposal to help shrink the deficit to 5.5% of gross domestic product in the fiscal starting April 1 from a 16-year high of 6.9% in the current financial year. The government plans to improve its finances by raising more money from sales of state assets, according to Mr Mukherjee.

"The rupee has sustained a positive bias since the Budget unveiled plans to cut the fiscal deficit and boost revenues from privatisation," said PV Rao, Mumbai-based head of foreign-exchange trading at IndusInd Bank.

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