NEW DELHI WEEKLY ECON OFFICE HIGHLIGHTS AUGUST 20-24, 2007

UNCLAS NEW DELHI 003885 SIPDIS SIPDIS USDOC FOR ITA/MAC/OSA/LDROKER/ASTERN/KRUDD DEPT OF ENERGY FOR A/S KHARBERT, TCUTLER, CZAMUDA, RLUHAR DEPT PASS TO USTR DHARTWICK/CLILIENFELD/AADLER DEPT PASS TO TREASURY FOR OFFICE OF SOUTH ASIA ABAUKOL TREASURY PASS TO FRB SAN FRANCISCO/TERESA CURRAN STATE FOR SCA/INS AND EB/TRA JEFFREY HORWITZ AND TOM ENGLE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAGR EFIN EINV ETRD ENRG SENV IN SUBJECT: NEW DELHI WEEKLY ECON OFFICE HIGHLIGHTS AUGUST 20-24, 2007 ¶1. Below is a compilation of Economic highlights from Embassy New Delhi for the week of August 20-24, 2007. TO QUELL UNREST, U.P. SHUTS DOWN GROCERY CHAINS -------------- ¶2. On August 23, Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister, Mayawati Kumari, ordered all organized grocery retailers in the state to close shop. The order affects only stand-alone stores, not those in malls. Mayawati said the move was necessary to restore order following the ransacking Wednesday of new Reliance Fresh and Spencer's outlets in Lucknow and Varanasi. The Chief Minister subsequently ordered a five-member panel to evaluate the feasibility and impact of organized retail and report back in a month. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, includes a number of target markets, and these closures, if prolonged, will severely hamper the current and future development of organized retail in the state. IBM OPENS GLOBAL DELIVERY CENTER IN CHENNAI -------------- ¶3. IBM inaugurated its newest Indian office in Chennai on August ¶23. The "Global Delivery Center" is IBM's sixth such facility in India, and part of the company's $6 billion investment in India it announced in 2006. The Chennai Center will develop applications for customers around the world. The Center's manager told ConGen Chennai that he expects his facility to grow quickly, from a few hundred employees now to more than 1000 by year's end and 2500 in ¶2008. He estimated that more than half of these employees will require visas to travel to the United States on business at some point during their careers. ¶4. (U) Visit New Delhi's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov/p/sa/newdelhi WHITE