UDIT KULSHRESTHA

New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s glitzy campaign to promote India as the world’s next manufacturing hub appeared to receive a major boost last week as the widely-touted “Make in India” publicity drive came to a close in Mumbai.
Investment pledges soared on the final day to hit Rs15.2 trillion — more than triple the amount India has attracted through foreign direct investment since Modi came to office in May 2014. Skeptics, however, have questioned just how much of that cash wi...

Ikea spent 12 years studying India and visited 1,000 homes in major cities to see how its people lived. Today, as a few dozen early shoppers walked through the doors as the emporium opened in Hyderabad, the acid test began of whether the furniture giant understands what Indian consumers want.
“I have no plans to blow a lot of money today, maybe just buy some kitchenware, but this is going to be a destination for me,” said Rajani Venugopal, a businesswoman who waited about an hour and managed ...

Reduction of employment-generating tendency of economic growth has been especially marked in the last 15 years in India.
With one of the fastest growth rates in the world, it might be thought that India is leaving its historical problems of joblessness and privation behind. The growth is enough to lead to a doubling of income every decade. Unfortunately, the data on jobs in India suggest otherwise.
A recent landmark report on the State of Working India by the Centre for Sustainable Employment...

Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s third federal budget, which promised to meet daunting fiscal deficit targets without powering down the economy has been received with a mix of cheer, and disbelief.
Indian stocks have gained more than 5% in the past two sessions as optimism has grown that the central bank will cut interest rates as the Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan’s pre-condition of a contained deficit has been met.
At the same time, critics who feared the government wou...

(Bloomberg) -- The European Union is bracing for President Donald Trump to open another front in his confrontation with the bloc, as the EU’s top negotiator prepares for the U.S. to impose either tariffs or quotas on metals imports from America’s closest allies.
Trump slapped 25 percent tariffs on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum in March, but granted a reprieve to the EU, Canada and Mexico until June 1 for further talks to take place. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom met with...

Ikea plans to expand to about a dozen new markets in the coming years, including branching into South America, as the Swedish furniture giant aims to reach a total of three billion potential customers by 2025.
The company will in the coming years open stores in Chile, Colombia and Peru through a new Ikea franchisee called Falabella as part of its first foray into South America, Inter Ikea said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. Inter Ikea, which owns the Ikea concept and is the worldwide f...

Agra's Shoe Making Industry

Photograph by Udit Kulshrestha—Bloomberg via Getty Images
As part of a government effort to reduce public urination in India, Google is now mapping public toilets on smartphones.
Users can find their nearest clean public toilet by typing in “toilet” or the Hindi word for clean, swachh, into Google Maps on their smartphones, CNBC reports. There are more than 5,100 public toilets in Delhi alone, one of two cities where the feature was first rolled out on Thursday; the other is Madhya Pradesh. T...

The campaign to promote latrines has resulted in a market for toilet-related products and services predicted to double to $62 billion by 2021.
India is on the greatest toilet-building spree in human history, and it’s a windfall for companies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s $20 billion “Clean India” mission aims to construct 111 million latrines in five years. Besides promising to improve the health, safety and dignity of hundreds of millions of Indians, the national hygiene drive has spurred ...

Levy on mobile phones, digital and video cameras, and televisions hiked by up to 10 per cent
India increased the customs duty on some electronics including mobile phones, television sets and microwave ovens in a bid to curb imports and boost local manufacturing.
The levy on mobiles and TVs was raised from 10 to 15 per cent, according to a ministry of finance statement. Duty on digital cameras, video cameras and projectors was doubled to 20 per cent.
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From installing furniture at people’s home to serving food catering to Indian taste, Ikea is doing it all to succeed in India.
Ikea spent 12 years studying India and visited 1,000 homes in major cities to see how its people lived. Today, as a few dozen early shoppers walked through the doors as the emporium opened in Hyderabad, the acid test began of whether the furniture giant understands what Indian consumers want.
“I have no plans to blow a lot of money today, maybe just buy some kitchenwa...

Work & Careers at PayTM, India

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With the 2018 Indian Premier League knocking, a worker measures the length of an unfinished cricket bat at Sanspareils Greenlands (SG), in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. From their cricket balls and bats to protective equipment, clothing, ground equipment and accessories used across sporting disciplines, Sanspareils Greenlands has been a legendary name in Indian sporting gear. (Udit Kulshrestha / Bloomberg)
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SG began in Sialkot in 1931 when brothers Dwarkanath and Kedarnath Anand decided to di...