India Travel Diary – Indian M&A Spree, TCS SME Cloud, POST UID Partnership

Department of Post as Strategic Partner for Government UID – The Department of Post today entered into a strategic partnership with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for registration and distribution of unique identification (UID) cards to Indian citizens. The Department of Post has offered to include one-and-a-half-lakh (150,000) post offices for this purpose initially. The UIDAI has floated a request for quotation to finalise the agency that will set up and manage infrastructure for registration and distribution of UID cards at these post offices. “This is not a tactical, but a strategic partnership, where UIDAI will leverage the existing infrastructure of the DoP to reach out to the masses for providing UID,” UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani said while signing the agreement. Access the complete news article on the ET.

Manisha Girotra, CEO UBS India

The Indian M&A Spree– Dealogic’s ranking table reveals that India climbed from 16th to 12th position in global M&A transactions in 2010. Indian companies are transforming into MNCs and are snapping up assets across the globe, changing their market position rapidly. A slew of deals, including JSW Steel’s purchase of a majority stake in Ispat Industries, Reckitt Benckiser’s takeover of Paras and Tata Chemicals’ acquisition of UK‘s British Salt, were announced during the last month of 2010. Some other recent examples are Hindalco acquiring Canada‘s Novelis for $6 billion, becoming the world’s largest aluminium rolling company, Bharti Airtel becoming the fifth largest telco in the world after its $10-billion Zain deal. Manisha Girotra of UBS who was assisting a bidder to take over Patni recalls that in the not-so-distant past, Indian companies were not even considered in the global M&A scene. “Today, my colleagues from the sell side first call the Indian and Chinese teams to check about potential candidates interested in a transaction,” she says, adding that “this gives us a huge kick”. Predicting the trend for 2011, Girotra says cross-border deals in the energy and the mining sectors would be most visible while inbound deals would largely be around healthcare. Access the complete report and transcript of Manisha Girotra’s interview on the Times of India