Economic think-tank National Council of Applied Economic Research expects India's Gross Domestic Product growth to decelerate to 8.3 per cent during current fiscal on account of poor external demand, lower capital inflows and rising interest rates.

The GDP growth rate in the current fiscal is expected to decline from a high of 9.2 per cent recorded in 2006-07 "as a result of tapered external demand, lower pace of capital inflows and higher average interest rate", NCAER's macro-economic forecast released on Thursday said.

According to the forecast, the growth rates of agriculture, industry and services are expected to decline to 2.6 per cent, 8.7 per cent and 9.9 per cent respectively from 2.7 per cent, 10 per cent and 11.2 per cent last fiscal.

Export growth rate, the NCAER said, is also likely to slowdown to 15.7 per cent from 17 per cent in the previous fiscal, while imports are expected to decelerate to 18.5 per cent as against 25 per cent.

NCAER's growth forecast is in line with the Reserve Bank of India projections that indicated deceleration in the GDP growth rate to 8.5 per cent as a result of global slowdown.

The International Monetary Fund in its recent forecast indicated that global GDP would decline by about 0.5 per cent in 2007.

The NCAER analysis, however, added it would be for fifth year in a row that India's GDP would be growing at a rate of over eight per cent.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com

Lenovo Group Ltd has signed an agreement with Microsoft Corp to buy Windows, Office and other software suites for its personal computers in a deal worth as much as $1.3 billion.

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A Beijing-based spokesman for China's largest PC maker said on Thursday that the framework agreement, encompassing this fiscal year, had been signed on Wednesday in the United States with an estimated price tag of more than $1 billion.

Details of the purchasing agreement would be finalised later, he added.

"Our projection is the price tag could be as much as $1.3 billion for this fiscal year," the spokesman said.

Lenovo's shares slipped 0.34 per cent on Thursday morning, in line with the market's 0.35 per cent dip.

In November 2005, Lenovo became the first personal computer manufacturer to pre-install Windows on all of its product lines for the Chinese market, where software piracy is rampant.

That agreement followed a Chinese government decree that required all PCs made in China to have licensed operating software installed before leaving the factory, as part of Beijing's efforts to crack down on piracy.

The latest agreement is similar to one inked last year, worth $1.2 billion over a year, to pre-install Microsoft's Windows operating system software on Lenovo's computers.

"Last year's agreement was executed very well," the spokesman said.

Lenovo--one of several Chinese companies trying to craft an international brand--commands a dominant market share in Asia excluding Japan but faces fierce competition from Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard elsewhere.

The Chinese firm is now vying with Taiwan's Acer Inc. for the mantle of world's third-largest PC manufacturer, after Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com