The New York Times has an interesting piece today on India’s growing appetite for military weapons.

According to the NYT piece, India wants to spend a humongous amount of money on its military in the near future:

Over the next five years, military analysts expect the country to spend as much as $40 billion on weapons procurement alone, more than its entire annual armaments budget today — upgrading systems as diverse as jet fighters, artillery, submarines and tanks in its largely Soviet-era arsenal.

So what if farmers are committing suicide in the hundreds in the Vidarbha region, starvation deaths are not uncommon and basic infrastructure is abysmal in most parts of the country, India must become a superpower.

At least, that seems to be the mindset these days among many influential decision makers in India today.

And vieing for the $40 billion Indian pie are the Americans, Russians and European defense companies.

India recently called for bids for a $10.2 billion program to upgrade its fighter jets. And you bet, Lockheed, Boeing, Saab and MIG Russian Aircraft are interested.

With a population of 1.2 billion people, India has a lot of mouths to feed.

A lot of mouths, indeed.

India’s total foodgrain production target for 2007-2008 is 221.5 million tonnes, the country’s Minister of State for Agriculture Kanti Lal Bhuria told Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament on Friday.

For pulses, the production target is 15 million tonnes and for oilseeds, it’s 30 million tonnes.

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Wadias may buy out Danone stake in Britannia at a discount, according to Business Standard

Dell profits up 46% in Q2; Revenues Rise 4.8%

Microsoft buys group chat software company Parlano

Indian IT services providers Infosys and Wipro are reported to be slugging it out to acquire Bridgewater, New Jersey-based analytics firm MarketRx.

According to ET, the valuation of MarketRx is $150 million-$160 million, about five times the start-up’s revenues.

The 300-man company, which has offices in the U.S., Europe and India, provides analytics, market research and technology services primarily to pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Founded in 2000, MarketRx’ backers include Sequoia Capital and Andwel Partners.

IIT Delhi alumni Jaswinder Chadha is the CEO of MarketRx.

McGraw Hill has named Deven Sharma president of its tainted financial services division Standard & Poor’s effective immediately.

Sharma replaces Kathleen Corbet, who left to “pursue other opportunities”.

Sharma was previously executive vice president at Standard & Poor’s with responsibility for Investment Services and Global Sales and before that a partner at management consulting firm Booz·Allen & Hamilton.

 
Deven Sharma

The 51-year-old executive, who has been with McGraw Hill since 2002, will have to work hard to repair the tattered reputation of Standard & Poor’s.

Credit rating agencies such as Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch have come under a cloud and are facing strident criticism for failing to adequately discharge their responsibilities in correctly assessing mortgage-backed securities tied to sub-prime loans.

As a recent front-page story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) put it:

[C]redit-rating firms also played a role in the subprime-mortgage boom that is now troubling financial markets. S&P, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings gave top ratings to many securities built on the questionable loans, making the securities seem as safe as a Treasury bond.

Standard & Poor’s and other rating agencies were bullish on mortgage

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