2. World's largest diamond bourse opens in Mumbai The world's largest diamond exchange opens in the city's business district Bandra-Kurla Complex ,taking India from a manufacturing to a trading hub and challenging the dominance of traditional centres like Belgium and Israel. Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), spread over 20 acres with nine interlinked nine-storey towers each, has been set up at a cost of Rs.1,100 crore (over 200 million USD). "The objective is to establish necessary infrastructure facilities for the promotion of diamonds, diamond jewellery from India and provide all support and service facilities to the traders, importers, exporters and other stakeholders.
3. India's diamond processing industry accounts for 70-75 % of total diamond exports and employs 850,000 people, making it the largest cutting centre by value and number of employees. The BDB will help make India an international trading centre for gems and jewellery and take the step towards creating a Brand India in the world of diamonds. It has parking space for over 2,200 vehicles, a 12,000-square foot Customs area, another 6,000-plus sq ft area for clearing agents, banks, restaurants, food courts, landscaped areas and other amenities for the staff, visitors, businessmen and clients.
4. New global players enter Indian baby care, food & beverages markets Italian baby care brand Chicco (Artsana) decided to set up shop in India, it planned to devote over Rs 6 crore to brand building just through year one. Japanese company Unicharm that launched its MamyPoko Pants brand of diapers this year. Food and beverage brand Del Monte-Based in the US, it has a global presence and a range of products from packaged,canned and juiced. Del Monte’s entry strategy is product innovation. Japanese brand Yakult too is targeting the more health conscious Indian consumer.
5. After Mahindra's $10 mn, Tata donates $50 mn to Harvard Tata Group has given America's prestigious Harvard Business School a $50 million donation, the largest gift the school has received from an international donor in its 102-year history. Earlier this month Anand Mahindra, head of Mahindra Group, gave $10 million to Harvard where he earned his undergraduate and master's degrees. The funds will be used to build a new academic and residential building on the school's campus in Boston. Harvard said it hopes to break ground for the building, which will be named Tata Hall, next spring.
6. Ahmedabad, B'lore, Chennai among world's fastest-growing cities Three Indian cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chennai - have been listed among the world's fastest-growing cities by Forbes magazine . It also called Gujarat the "most market-oriented and business-friendly" among Indian states. Forbes describes Ahmedabad as "the largest metropolitan region in Gujarat, perhaps the most market-oriented and business-friendly of Indian states."
7. 30 CWG medalists from Haryana to get Maruti cars Thirty medalists of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) from Haryana and two others - SainaNehwal and Sushil Kumar - having connection with the state would get Maruti cars. The 15 gold medalist and SainaNehwal and Sushil Kumar-Maruti SX4 luxury cars of Maruti located in Gurgaon. Seven silver medalist -MarutiDzire Eight bronze medalists -Wagon R cars. The Haryana Government is honouring all the gold medalist players from Haryana with cash awards of Rs 15 lakh, silver medalists with Rs ten lakh and bronze medalists with Rs five lakh each.
8. Biggest Mercedes-Benz deal in a day in Aurangabad 150 gleaming new Mercedes-Benz cars purred out of the company premises with all the paperwork in order. The buyers, known as the ' Aurangabad Group', included top industrialists, businessmen and professionals. The 150 cars which were lovingly grabbed included 13 S-Class, 74 E-Class, 39 C-lass, and the imported variants -- six GL-Class and 18 ML-Class. The total sales figure for the day came to Rs 650 million (Rs 65 crore), making it the single biggest deal of its kind in a day for the company in the country,
9. US withdraws from 2018 World Cup race to focus on '22 US has withdrawn from the race to stage the 2018 football World Cup, instead focussing on their bid to host the 2022 finals. Earlier England had withdrawn their bid to host the 2022 finals, leaving Australia, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and the United States to compete for the 2022 finals. England and Russia, as well as two co-bids from Belgium and Netherlands and Spain and Portugal are in the race to host the 2018 finals. The World Cup was held in Africa for the first time earlier this year with South Africa hosting the event, while Brazil will stage the 2014 finals.
10. Rupee-yuan trade platform sans dollar-peg sought As the Indian rupee and Chinese yuan are largely non-convertible currencies, export and import transactions between the two countries have dollar pegs. The rupees that an Indian buyer pays his bank for Chinese import, are converted into dollars which in turn is converted into yuan with the help of other banks for paying the Chinese seller. A direct yuan-rupee trade would cut transaction time, in fact the transactions could become real time and transaction cost would be lower. China has permitted limited trading of yuan in the Hong Kong offshore market for trade and certain capital account transactions now the talks are being going on for India .
