Notwithstanding the massive plunge in the 2009 first quarter private equity (PE) activities in China by 50 percent and in India by 87 percent, the two countries managed to sweep-clean a majority – more than 70 percent - of the PE deals in the Asia-Pacific region!
During the first quarter of 2009, from January to March, private equity firms struck 36 deals amounting to an investment of nearly $526 million. These figures mark a considerable drop from the same-quarter year-before figures of 133 deals totaling $3.9 billion in investment.
Akshaya Prasad, the infrastructure head of financial services bigwig Goldman Sachs, has resigned after his nine-year stint at the company. He has joined private equity firm Greater Pacific Capital, where he has been appointed the co-head of Greater Pacific's India business. 
The liquidity position of the cash-strapped realtor United Ltd is expected to improve, with the company recently raising Rs 1,625 crore at Rs 38.50 per share through qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue. The proceeds from this sale of new shares to qualified institutions will help the country's second-biggest real estate developer repay a part of its more than Rs 8,900-crore debt. 
Despite the fact that the global downturn has virtually hit every sector of the economy, the education sector has largely escaped any major blows; and is beckoning private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) funds! 
