Newsmakers: Alstom, GE win Indian Railways deals, RBI gov on Fed move and more

Alstom bags $3-bn deal to supply locomotives to railways
French engineering company Alstom has won a contract worth around $3 billion to supply India's railways with 800 electric locomotives and set up a local manufacturing plant, a railways spokesman said. The contract is one of the largest awarded to a foreign firm since India last year opened up limited parts of its state-owned railways to 100 per cent foreign direct investment, and comes as the government tries to modernise its vast but outdated rail network.

GE wins $2.6-billion Indian railway deal
General Electric Co has won a $2.6 billion contract to supply India's railways with 1000 diesel locomotives, as the state-owned network looks to foreign capital to help it modernise. The US company will also invest $200 million to build local manufacturing and service facilities, GE said in a statement. "In most of our growth markets, localization is typically a key part of any infrastructure deal we do," Jamie Miller, chief executive officer of GE Transportation, said.

Raghuram Rajan says Fed move will prompt volatility
There will be volatility when the Federal Reserve increases interest rates, the Reserve Bank of India Governor said, arguing, however, that the consequences of inaction would be more severe. "The liftoff has been one of the most widely advertised factors," Raghuram Rajan told an audience in Frankfurt.

Tata Motors global sales rise 13% in October
Tata Motors on 10 November 2015 posted a 13.31 per cent rise in global sales, including Jaguar Land Rover's, at 92,949 units in October. The company had sold 82,026 units in the same month last year. In the passenger vehicles category, the global sales last month were at 61,629 units as against 49,977 units in October 2014, up 23.31 per cent, Tata Motors said.

Started preparations for IPO of Indian unit, says Vodafone
Britain's Vodafone said on Tuesday that it has started preparations to float its Indian unit as it reported a return to earnings growth for the group as a whole in the first half. "We have recently begun preparations for a potential IPO of Vodafone India, subject to market conditions," the mobile operator said. Vodafone added 4.4 million customers in India in the first half of the year, taking its total in the country to 188.2 million.