A load of crap from an idle brain

Even though the country as a whole imports more oil than what is produced locally, India is now the top petroleum products exporting nation in Asia.

India is now the largest petroleum products exporter in Asia, surpassing South Korea. According to the data compiled by oil and metal information provider Platts, India’s gross exports currently average 1 million barrels a day, inching past South Korea which exports 0.9 million barrels a day.

With the commissioning of a new refinery by Reliance Industries at Jamnagar and Essar Oil increasing refinery output at Vadinar, India overtook South Korea by mid-2009 and has since then consistently maintained the lead position.

India’s average petroleum products export grew from 0.77 million barrels a day in January 2009 to one million barrels a day in August 2009. In the current year, the average oil products export from India stands at 1.07 million while South Korea exports average 0.88 million.

In fact, India’s refining capacity at 3.69 million barrels a day is the third largest in Asia after China and Japan, which have a refining capacity of 9.6 million bpd and 4.64 bpd respectively. Platts’ compilation is based on the data from individual countries.

“Both Reliance Industries’ Jamnagar and Essar’s Vadinar refineries contribute more than 90 per cent of the petroleum products exports while the rest is by public sector oil companies,” said Ms Vandana Hari, Asia Editorial Director, Platts.

Read the full article here

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Will be back in Singapore on 22nd August.

Meanwhile, hearty National Day wishes to everyone in Singapore and Independence Day wishes to everyone in India.

Hope to have lots of Haleem this time around.   Yay Hyderabad, here i come.

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Its a hat-trick of wins for Saina Nehwal.  After the Indian Open and the Singaporean Open, the defending champion Saina has won the Indonesian Open again in Jakarta.  True, the top seeded Chinese were not in the draw, but it doesnt take the sheen away from the wins of the World’s 3rd ranking player.

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal continued her rampaging form as she completed a spectacular hat-trick of titles by clinching the Indonesia Open Super Series with a three-game triumph over Japan’s Sayaka Sato on Sunday.

Unbeaten for the past three weeks, the top seeded defending champion defeated her unseeded but resolute rival 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 in a rollercoaster encounter that lasted 45 minutes.

This was Saina’s third successive title, having won the Indian Open Grand Prix at home and the Singapore Open Super Series Tournament last week. This is also the 20-year-old world number three’s third Super Series title overall.

Read the rest of the news here

Above picture courtesy: Dhirendra

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2nd tournament win in a row after the India Open Grand Prix win a few days ago.

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal clinched her second Super Series title, winning the Singapore Open with a straight-game triumph over qualifier Tzu Ying Tai in the final on Sunday.

The top seed Indian ace needed just 33 minutes to beat Chinese Taipei’s Tai 21-18, 21-15 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The world No 6, who was the lone Indian left in the fray after others crashed out by the semi-final stage, had bagged her maiden Super Series title last June at the Indonesian Open.

The in-form Saina came into the Singapore Open after winning the India Open Grand Prix Gold title last week.

Rest of the article here

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In Singapore, everyone aspires for the 5Cs – Car, condo, Cash, Credit Card & Club membership.  As countries like India grow economically, its natural for more and more people to have similar aspirations.  But what we are seeing as per this article in Bloomberg is the decline in credit card business in India.

Its normal to see people carrying 4-5 credit cards in their wallets in Singapore.  I remember having read some survey long ago that a Singaporean woman carries more credit cards than men.  So much is the spending power of a Singaporean woman that one of the biggest bank in Singapore, UOB issues a credit card exclusively for women. They even have a punchline “The men dont get it“.

The reason cited by this article is the tightening of the unsecured loan portfolios.  Where does it leave the gen Y now? Will this lack of disposable income affect the growth of the Indian economy?  Afterall, the Indian government is banking on this new generation to push the GDP growth to more than 10% annually. Or is cash the new king?

The number of credit cards being used in India has fallen by around one-third or 35% over the last two years. The sharp drop is being attributed to banks’ move to cut unsecured loan portfolios and defaults.

You might have  noticed that those annoying phone calls from banks pushing credit cards have stopped. If you haven’t, you may be surprised to know that one crore credit cards have gone out of circulation over the past two years. There were 2.83 cr credit cards in April 2008. It’s down to 1.83 cr in March 2010.

Banks aggressively selling credit cards have became cautious after suffering defaults. While officials didn’t disclose the extent of their losses, the numbers are clearly quite high.

Another article in Moneylife on the same issue mentions that the credit cards have become unprofitable after having suffered huge losses.

Ever wondered why there are fewer calls from telemarketers offering you a platinum, lifetime free credit card? It has nothing to do with the Do Not Disturb (DND) facility from telecom operators. Credit cards have become unprofitable, especially after various banks suffered huge delinquencies in 2005-07, the boom years. Since the bankers or card issuers are not earning much money on credit cards, you now have to really struggle to get one.

A few years ago or before the 2008 recession, people used to receive a lot of marketing calls for credit cards, free for life from any annual fee. Now the trend seems to have reversed. With the slowdown, many people defaulted on their credit card payments. Usually, during a slowdown, the number of defaults goes up rapidly. However, people don’t default on their home or car loans, since there is a danger of the creditor taking possession of the collateral. However, the same is not true for a credit card. Even if the user defaults on his credit card payment, the recovery takes much more time.

Above picture courtesy: Deems

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Some random pictures taken by me over the Easter weekend here in Singapore.

The world’s largest fountain @ Suntec Singapore

Lit up balls in a pool outside Esplanade

A view of the under construction Marina Sands as seen from the roof of Esplanade

Buildings lighting up the night skyline at Raffles

The Esplanade

A view of the Fullerton hotel with the Maybank building in the background

The Merlion spewing water

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Indian hospital chain Fortis Healthcare will buy 23.9 percent of Singapore’s Parkway Holdings  from U.S. buyout firm TPG Capital in an expansion drive into Asia and the Middle East.

The $685 million deal will give Fortis a foothold in Singapore and Malaysia and make it the biggest private hospital network in Asia, it said.

The move continues an overseas acquisition push by Indian companies looking for new markets and know-how. Top Indian mobile carrier Bharti Airtel is in talks to buy the African operations of Kuwait’s Zain for $9 billion.

Fortis intends to move into other parts of Asia and the Middle East, Chairman Malvinder Mohan Singh told reporters.

“Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand are markets we would like to evaluate,” Singh told Reuters in Singapore.

Fortis has no immediate plans to raise its stake in Parkway and planned to work with the Singapore firm in expanding across the region, added Singh, who will be nominated Parkway chairman.

Fortis will be the largest shareholder in Parkway, with a stake slightly higher than the 23.32 percent held by Malaysian state fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd, according to Parkway’s website.

Fortis’ purchase follows its $187 million acquisition in August of 10 hospitals from unlisted Wockhardt Hospitals.

“It makes more sense for Fortis to acquire a strategic stake in Parkway than to go for a full-fledged acquisition as it would mean lower risk as well as lower cost,” said Sapna Jhawar, a healthcare analyst with Mumbai-based Sharekhan.

Full news here

Above picture of Fortis hospital, Noida courtesy: Neytri

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The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Hyderabad built and operated by the GMR group has been declared the 5th best airport in the world and the Number 1 in the 5-15 million passengers category.

Approach road to the airport

Another example why the Government of India has no business running any critical infrastructure in the country.  Look at the shabby airports run by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and then pass through the Hyderabad airport.

The airport air traffic control tower

You will never realise that its situated somewhere in India.  Top class infrastructure with top class service has resulted in RGIA gatecrashing into the hallowed group of airports worldwide. To be even talked in the same breath as Changi, Incheon, Hong Kong etc is an honour and GMR must be roundly applauded for bringing up RGIA to international standards.

This is how the Airports Council International (ACI), an autonomous body representing world airports, adjudged the airports

1.  Incheon, South Korea

2. Changi, Singapore

3. Hong Kong International Airport

4. Beijing International Airport, China

5. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad, India

News source: Economic Times

Pictures source: Blacknwhite, Marie, Vincent Tulio, Bert Roos

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