| Requirements
for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) permission for
grant of foreign currency loans to employees of
Indian corporates working overseas have been done
away with. Till now any such loan, granted by the
Indian companies to the employees of their branches
outside the country, required the RBI clearance;
since these have been treated as loans by a resident
to a non-resident.
The
Central Bank has also raised the limit for exporting
goods by way of gift to Rs 5 lakh (US $ 11000) per
annum from Rs 1 lakh (US $ 2220) at present. This
relaxation is in line with the government’s
liberalisation policy. This notification is good
for all those firms that have overseas ventures
as they can now take care of their employees in
a better way.
The
RBI said Indian firms may grant loans in foreign
currency to the staff of their branches outside
India provided that the loan shall be granted for
personal purposes in accordance with the lender’s
staff welfare scheme/loan rules and other terms
and conditions as applicable to its staff resident
in India and abroad. |
| Engineering
services in India are getting increasingly broad
based and attracting more global initiatives.
First
came the multi-nationals, mostly global auto majors
with their development and R&D units. Then it
was the turn of third-party engineering services
firms to set up units in India. More recently, Indian
firms have started targeting local manufacturers
to help them go global. They first started by supporting
units such as Delphi, Visteon and DaimlerChrysler
in their development efforts. Now they are beginning
to tap the booming automobile and aeronautical manufacturing
sectors, the growth strategy being to continuously
expand and bring design and engineering capabilities
closer to customers to keep up swiftness to respond
to their business and market requirements.
Most
players see themselves contributing significantly
to revenues as the customer mandate for product
design and development lies with the Indian team.
After gaining scale and momentum in their delivery
centres in India, the engineering services firms
are offering their services in India. These companies
are taking on, not only bits and pieces of works
in the development of a new model, but also critical
work right from concept to pre-production.
Using
various tools such as CATIA, Unigraphics, I-Deas,
Pro Engineer, Solid Works and Solid Edge, these
companies are leveraging the best of the talent
India can offer and are working with clients such
as GM, Ford, Nissan, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
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