California International Business Report » India

Paypal suspends payment to India without explanation

editor — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:34:51 +0000

PayPal, the online payment service provider that is a owned by eBay of San Jose, has shocked Indian nationals who rely on the service by suspending payment transactions to and from India for more than a week. Almost nothing was given in explanation for this abrupt action except a vague blog post on their website by Anuj Nayar, a PayPal spokesman:

Personal payments to and from India and transfers to local banks in India have been suspended while we work with our business partners and other stakeholders to address questions they have about the service

PayPal executives have been unavailable for comment on specific reasons why the service was discontinued. There is speculation that this may have something to do with new Indian government rules aimed at preventing money laundering. Last November, the Indian government introduced rules requiring financial institutions and other intermediaries to verify the identity of clients carrying out international money transfers.

Paypal has not just been blocking all their money transfer but has also not letting the Indian account holders withdraw money they already have in their accounts. For the past week, merchants have been unable to withdraw funds in Rupees to local Indian banks. shocking many Indians who have relyed on the service. The blocking started on January 28th and Paypal will only say that it is working to resolve the current situations in “the shortest span of time.”

Clearstone Venture Partners to invest $30 million in India consumer markets

editor — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:29:15 +0000

Venture capital investor Clearstone Venture Partners, which has two offices in California and one in Mumbai, plans to invest $30-40 million in companies focusing on Indiaâ€™s consumer market in fiscal 2008. According to a press release from the company, Clearstone, which has $650 million in committed capital under management, has invested a total of $21 million in three Indian companies with partners since 2006. Clearstone Venture Partners, which plans to focus on Indiaâ€™s high-growth, consumer-driven market, says the sector is not overcrowded with investors,”The market is still underplayed. It can take more investors.â€ said Clearstone Director Rahul Khanna.

Cisco Systems to invest another $100 million in India

editor — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:48:15 +0000

Cisco Systems, the giant San Jose, Calif., networking company, will invest a further $100 million in venture capital initiatives in India. VentureBeatWire reports that that tand he plan was mentioned by Chief Executive John Chambers and follows two years after Cisco announced a plan to invest $1.1 billion in India over two to three years, including $100 million in venture investments. This is an expansion of that plan.

Gap scrambles to contain damage from sweatshop allegations

editor — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 05:35:13 +0000

California clothing retailer, Gap, Inc., is reeling from a report in Britain’s Observer newspaper that found children as young as 10 making clothes for the Gap in a squalid factory in New Delhi. The children said they had been working for up to 15 hours a day and had never been given promised wages for embroidering sequins onto the flowing saris worn by Indian women. An AP report said the children were packed into a filthy room, sleeping on the same floor where they sewed all day. Gap responded by saying the factory was being run by a subcontractor who was hired in violation of Gap’s policies, and none of the products made there will be sold in its stores. “We appreciate that the media identified this subcontractor, and we acted swiftly in this situation,” Gap spokesman Bill Chandler told an AP reporter. “Under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments.”

Falling dollar pushing up India outsourcing costs

editor — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 04:47:33 +0000

Interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Around the globe, the falling dollar is touching everyone in the business world, from Saudi oil princes to U.S. computer-makers, making American goods and services cheaper while raising the cost of foreign products.

One effect that hasn’t received much attention is how the dollar’s relentless drop is throwing a bit of sand into the gears of India’s vaunted technology machine. That movement of technology operations to India is a trend that has emerged as a prime symbol of globalization in recent years.

The reason U.S. companies went to India for technology in the first place was to save money. Workers there in the outsourcing sector earn roughly one-eighth as much as their American counterparts, according to experts on India business. And software development services that might cost $200 to $275 per person per hour in the United States can be purchased from an Indian company for $25 an hour or less, those experts note.

The past year, the dollar has fallen from about 45 rupees to about 39. That 13 percent drop, on top of significant pay increases there, has shaved part of the Indian cost advantage, forcing both buyers and sellers of technology services to adapt. And economists expect the rupee to strengthen over the long term as India’s economy matures.

“We are facing some tough questions. It’s not an easy process,” said GK Murthy, senior vice president with Sierra Atlantic, a Fremont business software services company that does most of its programming in India.

One ironic bit of fallout from the falling dollar: Big Indian software companies are stepping up their hiring of American tech workers, who have suddenly become a lot cheaper to employ. For example, Bangalore technology giant Wipro Technologies recently unveiled a plan for a software development center in the Atlanta area that ultimately could hire 500 programmers.

Full article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/01/BU6USGDH9.DTL&feed=rss.business

Canaan Partners invests in India-based career social networking portal

editor — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:22:35 +0000

Canaan Partners, a $2.4 billion global venture capital firm, today announced it has led a joint investment with The Entrepreneur’s Funds and Miven Venture Partners in techTribe, India’s leading career networking portal. techTribe is a software company that enables current and future Indian technology professionals to enhance their careers through social networking. The investment will be used to expand techTribe’s sales and marketing infrastructure in India and to drive new revenue growth. Alok Mittal, Canaan’s managing director in India, will be named to the techTribe board of directors.

Chief Minister of Indian State of Andhra Pradesh on trade mission in California

editor — Thu, 10 May 2007 04:15:00 +0000

“A popular state leader from India is on a trade mission in California. The idea is to forge new alliances between California’s Silicon Valley and the booming Indian economy. The popular Chief Minister of Andhra Pardesh, India is making a splash in Silicon Valley. Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy comes armed with a trade video touting his southern region of India, and desire for new investment. Chief Minister Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, State of Andhra Pradesh: ‘So the synergy’s we have with California, we want to enlarge for that the synergy’s we have with Silicon Valley, we want to enlarge with that.’ India predicts its demand for semiconductors will be a $35 billion dollar market by 2015. Many Silicon Valley companies are already there and expanding, others are moving in… This is a busy day for the Chief Minster. After networking in Silicon Valley, he went to Sacramento to meet with Governor Arnold Schwazenegger and then back to San Jose for an event tonight with Lt. Governor John Garamendi… Chief Minister Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, ‘The Californians they should try to go into more research and more value added things and try to outsource less important things to developing countries like us and have it be a win-win situation for both.’ Dr. Reddy may not be able to sell his ideas to everyone, but he is eager to sell Andhra Pardesh India to California.”

San Diego Flight Training School signs MOU to train India pilots

editor — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 03:59:00 +0000

“San Diego Flight Training International (SDFTI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Apace Consultants to begin training hundreds of student pilots from India and throughout Southeast Asia. The MOU established a framework in which students bound for India-based airlines will be referred to SDFTI for flight training, using the school’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved commercial multiengine curriculum with additional elements that meet specific requirements of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) commercial pilot license guidelines. ‘Aviation in India is growing at a tremendous rate, but there are not enough instructors or equipment for pilot trainees,’ said Phil Thalheimer, President of SDFTI. ‘We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with Apace Consultants. Our intent is to provide the best personalized training for each and every aspiring pilot.’”

Wine Institute asks for trade talks with India

editor — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:33:00 +0000

“The Wine Institute, which represents more than 1,000 California wineries and related businesses, said Friday it strongly supports a request by U.S. trade representatives for World Trade Organization-sponsored talks to reduce what it called India’s ‘prohibitive duties’ on U.S. wines and distilled spirits. The San Francisco-based wine industry trade association wants the WTO to set up dispute-settlement talks to resolve the disagreement. India, with a population of more than 1 billion people and a rapidly growing economy, is becoming an increasingly important market for international wines and spirits producers, including those from California and the United States. But producers complain that it imposes several layers of additional duties on imports of wine and distilled spirits beyond basic customs duties.”

GlobalRoads opens India facility

editor — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:25:00 +0000

The Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal reports: “GlobalRoads Inc., which focuses on sales automation services and open source for businesses, said Wednesday it launched a new product engineering center in India. Sunnyvale-based GlobalRoads said the center in Hyderabad is expected to employ up to 70 percent of the company’s engineering resources over the next three years” “We strongly believe that all our planned investments in India will help deliver at an accelerated pace on the company’s product and services commitments while enabling economies of scale and desired cost advantages,” company president and co-founder Bradford Newton said in a prepared statement.”