ORAGADAM, India - Land is getting hard to find in a sprawling industrial park in southern India where workers are scrambling to build modern new warehouses and factories for companies betting on the country's economic boom or diversifying their supply chains beyond China.
Businesses in India have traditionally relied on dingy, stuffy low-rise sheds known as godowns for their storage needs, but these are unsuited to the needs of foreign industrial giants whose investment Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to lure. One lure has been spanking new facilities, from ports to highways, added in an $808-billion infrastructure splurge over the last seven years, boosting connectivity and putting the spotlight on previously overlooked plots of land.
During that period, the supply of "Grade A" warehouses rose 336% in Tamil Nadu's capital of Chennai, near the Greenbase park, for the highest growth among the five cities and outperforming the group's average of 55%.Danish wind turbine maker Vestas just added 20% more space to its assembly and warehouse operations at Greenbase, said Raghuraman, adding that though China is the firm's main hub, "They want to make India an alternative.
While developers zero in on big cities and warehouses, Bahrain-based Investcorp is taking the opposite tack by betting on smaller warehouses, said Gaurav Sharma, its India investment head. HONG KONG — Asian stocks advanced Monday ahead of policy decisions this week by Japan’s central bank and the Federal Reserve. Oil prices and U.S. futures rose. Chinese data for January-February were mixed, with property investment falling while other indicators showed improvement. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index jumped 2.4% to 39,639.27. Markets are awaiting a decision by the Bank of Japan on Tuesday on whether to raise its benchmark interest rate for the first time in 17 years.