Indian Westerlies

Okay, this is going to be long. So brace for it.  There were two news items recently, and I am going to draw heavily from them for this blog.  1. Today's mint front page article on IT exporters adding revenue with fewer new employees.   2. A robotic threat to outsourcing model, here .  The first one talks about how our IT exporters added more revenue without adding too many employees this year, basically moving towards more earning from higher end projects. The ratio of people with less than three years experience in the IT giants like Wipro, Infosys etc is decreasing, the article no. 1 points out.  The second one is from the last week, and talks about how....wait a sec...let me quote  "Robots and humanoids that automate and deliver information technology (IT) projects at a cost that is less than one-fourth the billing rates of engineers from Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS ) and  Infosys  Ltd are the latest threat to In...

Electronic Bank Realization Certificate (e-BRC) is an initiative towards trade facilitation. It was introduced in the current foreign trade policy (FTP) this year. You can read the detailed circular on e-BRC here .  As the blog is for general public, let me clarify a few things. One of the objectives of FTP is to provide incentives for increasing foreign trade of India in desired direction. Trade facilitation is another objective. Most of the incentive schemes need proof of conducting foreign trade (say exports), and that the foreign trade proceeds were 'actually' realized. (Ok, in simple English, to take incentives under FTP, one needs to prove that he exported, and got the money back for it.) The physical part of movement is captured by what we call as shipping bill, and the money movement part is captured by, to keep it simple, a bank realization certificate, which the banker issues after the proceeds are realized. More about these things here . Incentives ar...

 "On November 12, 2011, the Leaders of the nine Trans-Pacific Partnership countries – Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States – announced the achievement of the broad outlines of an ambitious, 21st-century Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that will enhance trade and investment among the TPP partner countries, promote innovation, economic growth and development, and support the creation and retention of jobs." ... from USTR website .  Now, what's so special about an agreement that US is going to have with few other nations across pacific?  A reading of the same USTR page would tell you this too: "The United States, along with Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam are working to craft a high-standard agreement that addresses new and emerging trade issues and 21st-century challenges. The agreement will include: • Core issues tra...