Moving on, the troubles in the world economy are taking their toll on India. The services sector is expected to benefit from a weak rupee. But global uncertainty has cut into demand. Provisional data from the Reserve Bank shows services exports increased just 4% in the last fiscal to about $137 billion. Meanwhile, the import of services fe@ll 3.8% to $81.1 billion. The new figures are the worst in a decade with the exception of the 2009-10 period. IT industry lobby group Nasscom says onsite and offshore exports grew a total of more than 16% during the fiscal to about $70 billion.
And in other news, the UPA government has finally bitten the bullet and delivered the pain. On Wednesday, state-run oil companies announced a dramatic hike in petrol prices. Excluding sales tax or Vat, petrol prices across India are up by Rs6.28 per litre. Government-owned fuel marketing companies took losses of nearly 5,000 crores last fiscal because they sold their products at below-market prices.
And switching to telecom, BhartiAirtel could soon get a head start in the upcoming battle for wireless data services in India. On Thursday the company announced it would acquire a 49% stake in Qualcomm India’s broadband venture. Under the deal, Airtel will buy a 26% stake currently owned by two Indian firms. The remaining 23% will come from fresh equity. All in all, the deal will be worth about $165 million. And Airtel is slated to take on the existing debt of $1-1.2 billion only after 2014. BhartiAirtel’s acquisition will allow it to offer broadband services in major telecom circles like Delhi and Karnataka.
