Generating .xml files based on .csv files
Minor stuff:


Remove the last import - etree is not used anywhere.
Merge the two first imports


Possibly speed-improving stuff:


Avoid converting the csv.reader output before returning unless absolutely necessary.
Skip indent unless the output must be readable by a human with a non-formatting editor.
If you need to indent the output, existing solutions are probably very efficient.
Use reader.next() to skip the header line in generate_xml, then you don't need to keep checking the value of i.