IGC Receives Business License to Expand Equipment Rental in India

India Globalization Capital, Inc. (NYSE-MKT: IGC) announced that it has received a business license from the state government of Karnataka, India, to expand its infrastructure heavy equipment rental business. Karnataka India is a neighboring state of Kerala, India, where it currently operates. As previously reported, IGC has been planning its India-based expansion for the better part of 2014, including setting up a rental hub, premarketing, identifying, purchasing and reallocating specific heavy equipment. With the grant of the business license, IGC expects to commence operations in this current quarter. IGC rents heavy equipment with trained operators to the construction and agricultural industries in Kerala, India. The current expansion to a neighboring state is strategically planned to take advantage of the high projections and anticipated demand activity in Karnataka, India. IGC has land assets in India that it expects to monetize in order to better finance the expansion. The recently-elected government in India has announced bold plans for developing several sectors including basic infrastructure, the building of smart cities, and the agricultural industry. India is expected to require $1 trillion over the next five years to expand and upgrade its infrastructure. Management of IGC believes that reforms will accelerate on the heels of President Obama's upcoming visit to New Delhi to attend the Republic Day Parade as the chief guest, which is a first for a U.S. leader. "We believe that we have created an attractive model for renting construction equipment, and that this model can be organically expanded as more capital flows into these sectors. The Indian economy and reforms have stalled for the past several years affecting our business there. The recently-elected government in India has embarked on pro business reforms, including steps to attract investments into infrastructure. We are once again excited with the high growth outlook in India," said Ram Mukunda, CEO of IGC. In addition, we continue to move forward in our commitment to becoming a leader in the rapidly-evolving legal cannabis industry. We are making progress in three verticals in the legal cannabis industry including, (i) construction of state-of-the-art facilities for indoor vertical farming that can also be used for growing legal cannabis once marijuana is rescheduled, (ii) setting up, through our impending acquisition of Midtown Partners, the first broker-dealer with a crowdfunding platform to focus equity research, capital markets, and investment banking on the legal cannabis industry, and (iii) progress in specialty pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals using cannabinoids. Mr. Mukunda concluded, "With the new pro-business reforms from the new India government, we believe that India is now poised for significant growth. The time to expand in India is now and we feel we are well positioned there. We are also well positioned as an early mover in multiple verticals in the legal Cannabis industry. We are taking all these steps in order to deliver high shareholder value over time."