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Power shift in global art market
- China has pipped both the traditional leaders of the global art market — the United States and the United Kingdom — to emerge with the largest market share of 33 per cent in the fine arts segment.
- Just five years ago, in 2006, the US commandeered a whopping 46 per cent of the share, the UK 27 per cent, other countries 21 per cent, and China came a pale fourth with a modest 5 per cent share.
- In the art and antiques market too, China has emerged the second after the US, capturing 23 per cent of the pie with the UK at 22 per cent.
- India has also not done too badly as an emerging nation in terms of growth. It has been able to double its growth in fine arts, though its share is still negligible.
- China's fine art revenue at $3 billion in 2010
- According to art experts, it is simply a matter of widening your canvas globally, exposing the world to your art, creating awareness and pushing the envelope to include more and more domestic as well as overseas collectors. The Chinese government has consciously engaged in such an exercise
- Hong Kong and Beijing are also being referred to as major art auction hubs for the globe.
- If India too follows a similar prescription, Copal's Chief Mentor is optimistic that it couldgain a larger share of the market.
- He argues that India, unlike China which offers mostly contemporary artists, has to its credit masters such as Maqbool Fida Husain, Syed Haider Raza, Jamini Roy, Francis Newton Souza, Jogen Chowdhury, Tyeb Mehta, Manjit Bawa along with a host of others, who unfortunately have not had sufficient exposure in the global market.
- Prices of Indian artworks have moved up two to ten times, while topline global artworks have remained stagnant. These prices, however, are nowhere near those commanded by international artists.Hence its undervaluation is only but obvious
- The capital gains tax to be paid on works of art is also considered a liability as it reduces market share from among domestic collectors and investors, both of whom make up the large chunk of buyers of Indian art.
Power utilities allowed to revise tariff
- Paving way for a possible countrywide power hike, the Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, has allowed the power utilities to undertake periodic tariff revision in am attempt to improve the financial condition of the distribution utilities.
- It has also made concrete suggestions for fast track clearances for allocation of coal blocks to the private sector and simultaneous forest and environment clearances to expedite the availability of coal to the power sector.
- This announcement was made at the India Electricity 2011, the 6th International Exhibition and Conference on Power Sector organised by FICCI
- over 80,000 MW of capacity was under construction for being available in the XII Plan (2012-17).
- Capacity addition had been put on a fast track through key measures such as augmentation of domestic manufacturing capacity of power plant equipment, adoption of super-critical technologies, the Ultra Mega Power Plant initiative, liberalisation of the mega power policy, instituting a robust monitoring mechanism and enhancing the availability of skilled and trained manpower.
Mittal, Jindal elected to WSA Executive Committee
The World Steel Association (WSA), a premier global steel industry body, on Wednesday elected ArcelorMittal Chairman Lakshmi Mittal and JSW Steel Vice-Chairman Sajjan Jindal to its 15-member Executive Committee
