India Attains a Very good grade in the Global Investor Study conducted by Morning Star

It’s really proud to say that India has been ranked B in the Morning Star Global Funds Investor Experience Study

India has scored a B Rank which is considered a High grade for an Emerging market.

The Study measures the experience of mutual fund investors in 22 countries in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The Study also analyses and compares mutual fund market places, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. The global study is intended to help investment companies, distributors and regulatory bodies worldwide to continue focus on and enhance best practices for investors.

The Research evaluated countries in four categories: Regulation and taxation, Disclosure, Fees and Expenses, and Sales & Media

Below are the country grades, from highest to lowest scores in alphabetical order.

Singapore   A

United States A

Thailand  A-

India B

Netherlands B

Taiwan B

China B-

Sweden B-

Canada C+

France C+

Germany C+

Japan C+

UK C+

Australia C

Belgium C

Hong Kong C

Italy C

Norway C

Spain C

South Africa C-

New Zealand D-

Singapore and United States were identified as the best markets on the criteria as investor protection, transparency, fees, taxation and investor distribution.

New Zealand scored the worst.

The main points noted by the survey on India are as below:

1. India is not afraid to be different – being the only country in the survey to have banned fund’s front end load charges           
2. India has an excellent Disclosure and is one of only two countries where portfolios are typically disclosed monthly.
3. Sales and Media practices are also good. Indian investors enjoy an open sales system, as the vast majority of fund distributors offer the choice of multiple fund providers. Low investment minimums make Indian funds widely accessible to middle-income buyers. For its part, the media does well in reporting on a daily basis about mutual funds.
4. India’s main drawback is high fund expenses. India is one of only four countries in this survey with equity-fund annual expenses that exceed 2%, meaning that Indian investors pay double what those in the lowest-cost countries are charged. Indian fixed-income and money-market funds are not cheaper.
5. Indian Regulation is a mixed bag. Indian investors face capital controls that limit their ability to invest in foreign securities. On the other hand, India has been actively modernizing its fund laws, and the regulator is proactive in identifying violators of securities laws.

The Study gives a very good impression of the Indian Mutual Fund Industry which is in a transition phase and needs to do a lot ahead.

The above study gives me the confidence that foreign investors will start investment in India in a big way, once the norms for the same are finalised.

IIP Data January 2011 at 3.7%

Industrial growth continued to be sluggish, improving only marginally to 3.7 per cent in January against 2.5 per cent December 2010 and 16.8 percent in January 2010.

Some economists attribute the low numbers to the high base of last year, but others do not agree. However, all point out that industrial growth is not as bad as is shown by these numbers. In January last year, industrial growth stood at 16.8 per cent.

Economists say that other pointers to the economy like exports, non-oil imports and corporate results indicate healthy industrial activities.

India's exports continued to be on the uptrend and expanded by 32.4 per cent to touch $ 20.605 billion in January 2011 from $ 15.557 billion in the same month of 2010. Non-oil imports during January 2011 were estimated at $ 20.734 billion, which was 23.8 per cent higher than non-oil imports of $ 16.754 billion in January 2010.

The slow manufacturing growth could be attributed to volatile capital goods whose production contracted 18.6 per cent in January against huge 57.9 per cent growth a year ago. In December also, capital goods output declined 13.7 per cent.

The consumer goods category continued to be robust, growing 11.3 per cent in January against a mere 0.4 per cent a year ago.

India in Top 10 manufacturers list

India was amongst the top 10 manufacturers in 2010 and together with Brazil and China accounted for a third of the world manufacturing output, up from one-fifth 10 years ago, said a United Nations report .

 
"India is listed as one of the top 10 manufacturers of the world in 2010," the international yearbook of industrial statistics 2011, published by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) said.

 
India along with other leading developing economies such as Brazil and China showed strong performance in economic growth in 2010 and the manufacturing value added of all these countries grew by over 10% last year, the agency said. 

The share of these three countries in world manufacturing output reached 32% compared to 20% 10 years ago, the report, released in Vienna on Thursday, added.

 
World manufacturing value added, or MVA, rose 5.3% in 2010, as per the agency's estimate. 

The MVA of industrialised countries was up 3.4% in 2010. 

India topped developing countries (excluding China) in production of textiles, chemical products, basic metals, general machinery and equipment, and electrical machinery. 

It overtook Brazil in the production of motor vehicles and now ranks second among developing countries after Mexico. 

However, its Asian competitors Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines are ahead in the production of electronic goods such as computers and office equipment, radio, television and other communication equipment.