Starbucks will open its first store in India this August, more than five years after it announced plans to move into the world’s second most populous country. Between September and December this year, the coffee giant expects to open around 50 stores in Mumbai and New Delhi.

It was never meant to be this late, however. Back in 2007, the company said it wanted to reach 40,000 worldwide stores by the end of 2012. However, the recession and overly aggressive expansion put paid to that. Currently, there are ‘only’ 17,250 stores worldwide. According to John Culver, president of Starbucks’ Asian Pacific region:

“We’re going to be very disciplined in how we grow. The rate at which India is growing, the size of the emerging middle class and the growth of disposable income lead us to believe it’s going to be a very large market for Starbucks over time.”

Perhaps the biggest question mark hovering over the move to India concerns local tastes. India is a nation of tea-drinkers, and the world’s biggest tea exporter. It has coffee farms in the south of the country, but an overwhelming majority of Indians prefer tea. However, Culver claims coffee is becoming more popular, especially with young people and a rapidly emerging middle-class.

Also, Starbucks has already performed well in another vast, tea-drinking nation. In October 2011, Starbucks opened its 500th store in mainland China, and the brand has enjoyed massive success. The appeal of Starbucks in such places is down to it being – and here’s a term to make one’s stomach turn like month-old latte – an aspirational brand. Sharon Zackfia, analyst at William Blair & Co, explains:

“It’s probably less what you’re selling than what the brand represents, which is a certain level of status. It’s the first luxury item most people can afford.”

We’ll find out just how aspirational Indians are a few months from now.

First Starbucks in India Opening in August is a post from: The Inquisitr

Wow, that sounds completely preposterous!

I mean, the most expensive trip ever taken was Bill Clinton’s $50 million trip to China, it seems almost unbelievable that Hopey would spend $200 million for every day of his trip to India! That’s probably because it *is* a ludicrous and doubtful claim, one that has spread like wildfire based on a single quote from a single source that is not even linked to the US Government. Factcheck.org explains:

The hard-to-swallow claim originated with a Nov. 2 Press Trust of India article quoting an unnamed “top official” in the government of Maharashtra (one of India’s states). The source was quoted as saying that Obama’s upcoming trip to Mumbai will cost $200 million per day for security and living arrangements, among other things. The story claimed that the president would be accompanied by about 3,000 people, including Secret Service agents, government officials and journalists, and will stay at the Taj Mahal Hotel — the scene of a 2008 terrorist attack.

Of course, truth doesn’t often get in the way of a good story, and British rag the Daily Mail has run the bit of lore as news, inciting their intellectually challenged readers to foam at the mouth in the comments. The government has not disclosed the precise cost of the trip, daily or as a whole. But something Americans would do well to recall is that we are spending almost $200 million a day on the war in Afghanistan. So if you want to get your dander up about reckless spending, there’s something for you to get all righteously indignant about.

Is President Obama’s trip to India costing taxpayers $200m a DAY? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Pakistan police have raided a camp run by a militant group believed to be behind the Mumbai Terrorist attacks and have arrested a number of suspects.

The camp raided was run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group that with a long history of terrorist attacks in Kashmir and believed to be the group that financed and backed the Deccan Mujahideen, the group that claimed responsibility for the attacks.

According to a report in the IHT, a senior Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that a man suspected of being the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks had been arrested. But the same official said later that even though about a dozen people had been arrested in the raid at the camp, the suspect, Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, had not been arrested.

Either way, it’s good to see some action from Pakistan on the matter.

(Img: AP/ IHT)

Pakistan arrests Mumbai terrorist attack suspects is a post from: The Inquisitr

A series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India have killed at least 80 people and injured at least 250.

The attacks occurred Wednesday evening local time at seven locations including a major railway station and two luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal hotel and Oberoi hotel.

Hostages are believed to be being held at the hotels and mixed reports state that Police may be storming one location (as at 1:30pm PST/ 8:30am AEDT). Other reports state that terrorists are locked into gun battles with police.

Foreign expats and tourists are among those believed to be being held hostage, including American, UK and possibly Australian passport holders. Foreign nationals are said by another report to have been specifically targeted, with an unconfirmed report that terrorists at the Taj hotel were seeking guests with British or American passports.

Terrorist attacks have risen in India over the last two years, but Mumbai has been mostly immune from the attacks, beside an attack in 2006 targeting the local rail system that killed 200. As well as being India’s financial capital, Mumbai (previously known as Bombay) is a large center for tech outsourcing firms.

More when we have it.

Update: reported dead include Mumbai’s chief of the Anti Terror Squad Hemant Karkare and Mumbai Police “encounter specialist” Vijay Salaskar.

Mumbai India hit with terrorist attacks is a post from: The Inquisitr