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New delay for Emirates Airbus 380 !Delivery of a second Airbus A380 to Emirates, the airline of the United Arab Emirates, will suffer a further delay of two months, a French daily reported on Saturday.Source: Zee News : Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:32 pm Tatas cut Land Rover production in UK!Land Rover production is to be cut by a day a week because of the continuing financial crunch.Source: Zee News : Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:32 pm G-8 lacks influence without India and China: Putin!Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said G8, the group comprising eight biggest industrial nations of the world, does not carry enough weight and influence without the presence of emerging economies like India and China.Source: Zee News : Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:32 pm Former BoJ chief to join Matsushita advisory panel: Report !Former Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui, who stepped down in March, is set to become a member of Matsushita Electric Industrial`s advisory panel, a newspaper reported on Saturday.Source: Zee News : Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:32 pm India set to export record quantity of basmati rice!India looks set to export a record quantity of basmati rice in the current fiscal.Source: Zee News : Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:32 pm Microsoft buys European shopping site for $486 mn!Hoping to boost its Internet power, Microsoft has bought Greenfield Online Inc, the owner of European price comparison site Ciao GmbH, for about USD 486 million, the company said in a statement.Source: Zee News : Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:32 pm `No improvement in situation at Singur`!Amid suspension of work at the Nano project site, Tata Motors said in a statement on Saturday that there is no sign of improvement in ground situation in Singur so far. The statement further stated that the conditions are still not conducive for resuming work, and thus no employee will visit the site today.Source: Zee News : Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:32 pm No work at Nano factory for second consecutive dayTata Motors' plans to roll out the world's cheapest car Nano from Singur in West Bengal continued to face trouble, with its workers not attending work at the factory for the second day running Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 30 Aug 2008 | 8:32 am Prime Minister sets goal of training 500 mn technicians by 2020The government will set a goal of creating 500 million trained technicians by 2020, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 30 Aug 2008 | 8:31 am K.K. Birla: a titan of Indian industryLegendary industrialist Krishna Kumar Birla was a man of many facets, with an equal passion for not just expanding his well-known, and much respected, business empire founded by his father, but also towards philanthropy and education.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 30 Aug 2008 | 8:31 am Next hearing of Warner Bros case on 'Hari Puttar' Sep 2The makers of children's comedy 'Hari Puttar - A Comedy of Terrors' continue to be in trouble. Though the release date has been fixed at Sep 19, it will depend on the next hearing of the case filed by Hollywood studio Warner Bros alleging infringement of their copyright of the 'Harry Potter' franchise.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 30 Aug 2008 | 8:30 am Govt brings out notification for Sixth pay commission report - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 8:24 am Tatas say we are assessing Singur - NDTV.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 8:02 am DoT to seek status on portability in 100 days - Sify
Source: Google News India - Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 6:55 am India set to export record quantity of basmati riceIndia looks set to export a record quantity of basmati rice in the current fiscal.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 30 Aug 2008 | 6:32 am Still can't resume work at Nano plant - TataMUMBAI (Reuters) - Conditions are still not favourable to resume work at a plant in Singur which will make the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, Tata Motors said in a statement on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 30 Aug 2008 | 6:31 am Industrialist K.K. Birla passes awayEminent industrialist and former Rajya Sabha member Krishna Kumar Birla died at his Birla Park residence here Saturday after a brief illness. He was 90.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 30 Aug 2008 | 6:30 am SpiceJet posts quarterly loss on jet fuel pricesNEW DELHI (Reuters) - Low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd posted a quarterly loss, hurt by more than 61 percent jump in domestic jet fuel prices, but said capacity reduction and softening crude oil will result in better revenue realisation.Source: Reuters: Money News | 30 Aug 2008 | 6:09 am K.K. Birla dies at 90Kolkata: K.K. Birla, noted industrialist and former Rajya Sabha member died this morning at his residence here after a brief illness. He was 90. The chairman of Hindustan Times and several Birla group of industries is survived by three daughters Nandini Nupani, Shobhana Bhartia, who is vice-chairperson and editorial adviser of Hindustan Times, and Jyoti Potddar. Birla was ailing for the last two weeks and the end came at 7.30am, family members said. His wife Manorama Devi Birla died about a month ago. Son of Ghanshyam Das Birla, Krishna Kumar Birla was born in Pilani, Rajasthan, on 12 October, 1918. He was among the founder members of the Indian sugar industry which he joined in 1940. Birla had established one of India’s biggest business conglomerates and his industrial empire spans key industries such as sugar, fertilizers, chemicals, heavy engineering, textiles, shipping and media. He was a respected parliamentarian, socialite, philanthropist and scholar apart from being an industrialist. Birla was a Rajya Sabha MP for 18 consecutive years. In 1961, he was elected Sheriff of Calcutta and in 1997, he was conferred Doctor of Letters by Pondicherry University. He has headed a number of Chambers of Commerce such as Indian Sugar Mills Association, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC). He established the K.K. Birla Foundation which has instituted annual awards for excellence in Indian literature, scientific research and Indian philosophy. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 30 Aug 2008 | 5:35 am Upgrade, sell or close - fate of Delhi's single-screen theatresThere was a time when going for a film in India meant heading to the nearby single-screen hall, but with the arrival of multiplexes, many of the old theatres are in a pitiable condition, with tattered seats and cracked walls, waiting to be shut down or for a much-needed makeover.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 30 Aug 2008 | 4:31 am Industrialist K.K. Birla deadEminent industrialist K.K. Birla died at his Birla Park residence here Saturday morning after a brief illness. He was 90 years old.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 30 Aug 2008 | 4:30 am US Oil, Gas Producers, Pipelines Brace for Hurricane Gustav - Bloomberg
Source: Google News India - Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 4:20 am Industry tycoon KK Birla dead - IBNLive.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 3:32 am RBI talks growth pain - Sify
Source: Google News India - Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 3:27 am Cabinet clears Companies Bill, 2008 - Sify
Source: Google News India - Business | 30 Aug 2008 | 3:15 am Wall St Week Ahead - More volatility seen with hurricane, payrollsNEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street is set for another volatile week after the Labor Day holiday, as investors track the price of oil, key economic data and continued fallout from the credit crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 30 Aug 2008 | 1:34 am Gustav shutting oil, gas output across GulfHOUSTON (Reuters) - Oil and natural gas companies shut production across the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, moving workers out of the path of Hurricane Gustav ahead of what could be the worst storm in the U.S. offshore oil patch since 2005.Source: Reuters: Money News | 30 Aug 2008 | 1:32 am Day one: 70,000 currency contracts traded on NSEStandard Chartered makes large deals. Nearly 70,000 currency contracts were traded on the National Stock Exchange on Friday, the first day of trading in currency futures, which was inaugurated by the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram. ...Source: Business Line - Home Page | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am Weak manufacturing drags down economic growthGDP growth at 7.9% slowest in the last 14 quarters. New Delhi, Aug. 29 The near halving of manufacturing sector growth in the first quarter of this fiscal has led to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth decelerating to 7.9 ...Source: Business Line - Home Page | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am We expect 8% growth, says ChidambaramMumbai, Aug. 29 The Finance Minister, Mr. P Chidambaram, said the country’s GDP would likely grow close to 8 per cent in the current ...Source: Business Line - Home Page | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am Regulators get leeway on number of independent directorsCos Bill sets minimum limit at 33%. New Delhi, Aug. 29 Regulators such as SEBI and RBI can continue to prescribe the limit for independent director requirement of companies. ...Source: Business Line - Home Page | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am Dip in inflation drives Sensex up 516 pointsMumbai, Aug. 29 The benchmark indices moved up by 3.5 per cent on Friday aided by lower inflation numbers and a positive sentiment in the global markets. ...Source: Business Line - Home Page | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am Markets this weekThe markets opened higher on positive global sentiment on Monday, and there was buying momentum throughout the session. Towards the close, profit-booking pared most of the gains. The Sensex rose 48.86 points to end at ...Source: Business Line - Home Page | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am Rice, oilseeds kharif coverage increasesAcreage under cotton, sugarcane, maize trails. Chennai, Aug. 29 With monsoon picking up momentum towards July-end and early this month, rice and oilseeds seem to have gained. However, pulses, cotton and sugarcane have not been able to make ...Source: Business Line - Home Page | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am UTI MF seeks strategic partnerTo proceed with IPO once market turns favourable. Mumbai, Aug. 29 UTI Mutual Fund is seeking a strategic partner, Mr P. Chidambaram, told reporters on Friday, after a meeting with UTI officials in ...Source: Business Line - Home Page | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am Banks shying away from personal loansHIGH-RISK ASSETS. Coimbatore, Aug 29 Look at the hoardings dotting your route to the office and you might get misled in more ways than one. Take the instance of some banks offering you personal loans. The advertisement hoarding makes it seem ...Source: Business Line - Home Page | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am Non-aeronautical service charges off regulator purviewCabinet clears amendments to airports Bill. New Delhi, Aug. 29 The view of the Ministry of Civil Aviation that the proposed Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) should not regulate non-aeronautical service charges, including charges ...Source: Business Line - Home Page | 30 Aug 2008 | 12:00 am Schools challenge closure order - Hindustan Times ePaper
Source: Google News India - Business | 29 Aug 2008 | 11:36 pm 24X7 Learning to offer training to individuals24X7 Learning Solutions Ltd, an e-learning platform provider to corporates, plans to extend its offerings to individuals to ride the specialised training wave, said Karthik KS.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 11:10 pm Is Tata group better or ITC?The underlying question for the question in the headline is: Is a family-controlled conglomerate better than a professionally-run conglomerate?Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 11:08 pm Macquarie Research Equities' ‘neutral’ rating to ONGC - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 29 Aug 2008 | 11:01 pm Mad market breaking brokerages' backThe lack of a firm trend and falling turnover are hurting brokerages hard. But going by experts, things could get worse before they get better.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 10:58 pm Olympics over, but pharma woes lingerThe woes of the pharmaceutical industry are likely to continue at least for the next couple of weeks, despite curtains being drawn over Beijing Olympics.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 10:57 pm BSNL pins hopes on IPTV to reclaim topAt the end of July, Bharti surpassed BSNL in total telephone subscriber numbers. While Bharti was at 74.4 million users, BSNL had 73.18 million subscribers.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 10:56 pm Yatra.com goes online in the US, UKTravel portal Yatra.com has launched its operations in the US and the UK to combat the security hazards associated with using international credit cards on their domestic travel portal.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 10:55 pm Online recces for financial products risingDigital advertising might be taking baby steps in India, but advertisers in the financial services sector have reasons to cheer.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 10:55 pm 'Opportunity to be the first mover in digital is immense'Reliance ADAG has been one of the most active brands in the country over the past few years.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 10:53 pm Developers look to offload hotel landReal estate developers who had diversified into the hotel sector to de-risk their business are in for rougher times as the sector is now scaling back its expansion plans.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 10:51 pm AppLabs to tie up with systems integration cosWith buyers of IT bundling several services into a single deal, niche or standalone service providers are increasingly looking at partnering with large SI firms to acquire business.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 10:50 pm Spices exports jump 15 pc in April-July - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 29 Aug 2008 | 10:18 pm Researchers take low-cost route, find reserves in Cuddapah basinBangalore: As the hunt for hydrocarbons intensifies with soaring demand, and prices, of oil and gas, even incremental technology for exploration is becoming important. Using one such technology, a low-cost one, a group of researchers at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad has discovered for the first time hydrocarbon reserves in Andhra Pradesh’s Cuddapah district. Applying a so-called geo-microbial method, along with existing biochemical techniques, A.M. Dayal and colleagues have reported in the Indian Academy of Sciences journal, Current Science, that the Cuddapah basin has high reserves of hydrocarbons and is suitable for conventional petroleum exploration. “Whether it’s oil, or gas can be said only after a month when we complete our analysis, but we are sure there are significant reserves in Vengannapalli village in Cuddapah basin,” says Dayal, a senior NGRI scientist. This is the first time, Dayal claims, that results from geo-microbial prospecting in India are being reported, and that too from a basin dating back to the Proterozoic age (geological age, 2,500-570 million years ago), which is unexplored in India. The most explored basins, in India and the world over, are from the Mesozoic age (1,500-600 million years ago). About 54% of oil and 44% of gas in the world are derived from sediments from this age, according to an NGRI paper. “Since there’s been no exploration activity in that basin, we believe it’s an important finding,” says S.V. Raju, senior adviser at the government’s directorate general of hydrocarbons, New Delhi, which entrusts NGRI most of its prospecting studies, based on which it auctions the blocks for exploration. There’s still work to be done, says Raju, as only drilling can prove whether the basin is commercially important, or not, but he agrees that the method and the new data open opportunities for exploration in areas that have been ignored due to poor logistics. “This can now allow us to explore frontier basins in category IV (potentially prospective basins),” adds Raju. Also See Discovering New Sources (Graphic) Geo-microbial prospecting is an exploration method that detects hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria in the sediments. That is, populations of bacteria that consume methane, ethane, propane and butane are identified and tested for the gaseous concentrations. But even though it gives direct evidence of hydrocarbons, it is not a stand-alone technique. So, NGRI researchers used it with other geo-chemical tools, including adsorbed soil gas and carbon isotope analysis. Researchers say the tool has given encouraging results even in the Ganges basin, where the hydrocarbon deposit is very deep owing to thick sediments in the region, which impedes the popular geo-physical method of explorations. “Using microbial method, we have solid indications of hydrocarbon reserves near Purnia in Bihar and around Meerut in Uttar Pradesh,” says Dayal. Even though the microbial method, which forms a part of geo-chemical tools, has been known for some time, geo-physical methods are popular with the industry as they are non-invasive and don’t require sophisticated biology labs. There are only two geo-chemical laboratories in the country today, at NGRI, and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) says Dayal. “This method gives a direct test of hydrocarbon, but it’s not quantitative,” says a senior official at ONGC’s Institute of Biotechnology and Geotectonics Studies at Jorhat in Assam, justifying its lack of popularity with the industry. The official doesn’t want to be named as he’s not authorized to speak to the media. But Dayal believes with this published data, industry will be encouraged to invest in this method, even as he’s begun to conduct research for companies such as ONGC, GAIL (India) Ltd, Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. Ltd and Cairn India Ltd. “Since this is a low-cost method, we can survey a larger area in a given budget.” Bolstered by the new findings, NGRI now plans to take up prospecting in other Proterozoic basins—Vindhyan in central India, and Bhima and Kaladgi in Karnataka. “When the domestic need is so compelling, even small reserves, particularly of gas, can serve the society,” says Dayal. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:39 pm NTK | NMDC eyes Rs35,000 cr revenue by 2015Hyderabad: State-run miner NMDC Ltd will invest Rs22,500 crore (about $5.13 billion) and aim at a revenue of Rs35,000 crore by March 2015, its top executive said on Friday. Chairman and managing director Rana Som said the firm’s capital expenditure plans include a greenfield steel project in Chhattisgarh worth Rs14,000 crore and a pig iron plant with technology from global miner Rio Tinto at Rs1,400 crore. The company, set to merge government-run Sponge Iron India Ltd with itself, proposes to expand its sponge iron capacity from 200,000 tonnes a year to 1 million tonnes in the next 36 months, said NMDC director, finance, K.R. Venkateswarlu. Som said the company will neither dilute equity nor approach financial institutions for debt, as it prefers to remain a debt-free company. On Friday, NMDC’s share rose 4.99% at Rs303.05 on Bombay Stock Exchange on a day that saw the benchmark Sensex gain 3.67%. SpiceJet posts Q1 net loss of Rs102 crore New Delhi: SpiceJet Ltd, that runs low-fare carrier SpiceJet has reported a net loss of Rs102 crore for the first quarter of FY09 compared with a small profit of Rs18.5 crore in the year-ago quarter largely due to increased fuel costs and reduced passengers per flight. “On account of increase in fuel cost, SpiceJet has curtailed its capacity increase foreseeing a subsequent impact of decline in passengers for the current year,” Partha Sarathi Basu, chief financial officer of the company said in a statement, adding the company had received investment of $100 million or nearly Rs440 crore recently. The April-June quarter loss excludes a notional loss of Rs27.2 crore on revaluation of foreign debt on basis of change in the rupee value of such borrowings. The airline’s revenues grew to Rs457 crore from Rs265 crore, an increase of 72% in the said period. Shares of SpiceJet rose 8.76% to Rs27.30 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, whose benchmark index expanded 3.67%. —Staff Writer MARKETS Gammon Infra shares gain on winning order Mumbai: Shares of Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd climbed the most in more than seven weeks in Mumbai after winning an order to build and operate a bridge that may cost an estimated Rs800 crore. The Centre and the Andhra Pradesh government will make a grant of Rs208 crore for the bridge on Godavari river, the Mumbai-based company said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday. —Bloomberg Hindalco hires 10 banks for $1 billion loan Hong Kong: India’s largest producer of non-ferrous metals Hindalco Industries Ltd hired 10 banks to arrange a $1 billion (Rs4,380 crore) loan to refinance debt it took for the acquisition of Novelis Inc., said three people involved in the deal. The Mumbai-based company hired ABN Amro Holding NV, Barclays Capital, Bank of America Corp., Bank of TokyoMitsubishi UFJ Ltd, Calyon Credit Agricole CIB, Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc., Mizuho Financial Group Inc., and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. to arrange the five-year loan, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public. The company has also proposed to offer three shares at Rs96 apiece for every seven held, raising money to help repay the debt used for the Novelis acquisition, the company said on 14 August. —Bloomberg SBI, ICICI named for new IPO payment process Mumbai: Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, on Friday added State Bank of India Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd, the country’s largest lenders, to the list of banks that would implement its new payment process for public issues. On Thursday, the capital markets regulator had named Corporation Bank, Union Bank of India and HDFC Bank Ltd for implementing the new system, which will allow the application money to remain the in the applicant’s bank account till the allotment of shares is accepted. The new system starts from Monday, 1 September. —Staff Writer PHARMA Teva sues Momenta, Novartis units Washington/New York: The world’s biggest generic-drug company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, sued Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Novartis AG’s Sandoz unit to prevent them from selling a copy of Copaxone, its first branded product. Sandoz, the world’s second-biggest generic-drug company, and Momenta are jointly seeking US Food and Drug Administration approval to sell a generic version of the drug, which is used to treat multiple sclerosis. Teva and patent owner Yeda Research & Development Co. claim the copy of the injection would infringe four patents that expire in 2014. —Bloomberg Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:36 pm Indian ships headed for tougher scrutiny as detentions increaseMumbai: Indian ships could be slotted in a higher risk category by international maritime inspection agencies, as 11 vessels from the country have been detained this year for violating safety and environment standards. Typically, maritime organizations classify ships from a specific country under three categories—black, grey and white—based on the track record of ships from the country. Being moved from the so-called safe “white” category to the medium-risk “grey” or high-risk “black” increases the degree of scrutiny, thereby increasing delays and costs for ships. The detentions could also result in losses of up to $35,000 (around Rs15.30 lakh) per day for a ship, and repeated confinements could result in the vessels being banned from international waters. Last year, seven Indian ships were detained for not complying with maritime rules and standards “For instance, Paris has moved India to a white list, a safe group, from (the) grey list, which is a medium risky group in terms of inspection. But India continues to be in the grey list for other nations,” he added, asking not to be identified as he’s not authorized to speak with the media. “This is an alarming situation,” said another person familiar with the development, who didn’t want to be named. “The Directorate General of Shipping has called for an urgent meeting on 4 September with shipping companies.” The 11 ships were detained by inspection agencies known as port state controls, or PSCs, created by nations entering into memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with specific countries to check vessels entering their regions. The Paris MoU, for instance, comprises 27 maritime administrations and covers the waters of the European coastal states and the North Atlantic basin from North America to Europe. The agencies and the inspection procedures are formed in consultation with the International Maritime Organisation, the global regulatory body. Also See Under The Scanner (Graphic) In the previous year, seven Indian ships were detained by these agencies for not complying with maritime standards. Some of the Indian ships detained this year belonged to the country’s largest shipping company state-run Shipping Corp. of India Ltd and India’s largest private shipping company, Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. The Paris agency had detained Great Eastern’s vessel Jag Pahel in Spain, while the Tokyo agency had held back vessels of Shipping Corp. of India and Fleet Management Pvt. Ltd. The Indian Ocean agency had detained vessels belonging to Mercator Lines Ltd and Great Eastern. The other ships were detained by agencies in Iran, China, Spain, Jordan, Korea and the US for reasons ranging from minor defects to more serious faulty mechanisms. The period of the detentions ranged from one day to a week. S.S. Kulkarni, secretary general of the Indian National Shipowners’ Association, said there were allegations that most of the detentions were based on minor defaults. For instance, one of detentions this year was for not placing a sticker of the previous inspection, he added. “One of the deficiencies reported was not very major and, therefore, sorted out immediately. In another case, the company believed the deficiency did not warrant a detention...and has appealed via the Indian (government) flag administration, which has supported the company,” said Anjali Kumar, a spokeswoman for Great Eastern Shipping. “In both cases, the ships sailed out as per schedule and there was no loss of trading hours.” The same DG Shipping executive mentioned earlier admitted that some of the detentions were based on “flimsy reasons,” but added that Indian shipowners have made serious defaults in the past. Ajoy Chatterjee, chief surveyor with the Indian government and additional director general (engineering), also said some of the detentions were wrong. “Therefore, we are taking up this matter with respective administrations to sort out issues,” he said, without disclosing details on the vessels. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:36 pm Foot Notes | Party in LA, lunch down underOlive’s A.D. Singh heads out for a mouthful of Japanese and French cuisine in Australia; and if you are holidaying in the City of Angels, don’t miss out on these experiences The zen of food  Gastronomic opera:The Sydney Harbour has some of the best restaurants in the city Not surprisingly, two of the three Sydney restaurants Singh recommends are Japanese. Guillaume at Bennelong Lunch at Bennelong, the flagship restaurant at the Sydney Opera House, and a day spent walking around the beautiful harbour—a hub for restaurants, pubs and cafés—makes for a perfect day in Sydney. Guillaume does contemporary Australian cuisine with a classical French twist. We had read excellent reviews of it, of course, but even then we were blown away by the quality of the food. The crisp steamed sea bass with ginger foam, the crab ravioli and the foie gras were outstanding. As astounding is the view of the harbour from the restaurant. Tetsuya If Nobu does Japanese food influenced by the West, Tetsuya Wakuda does Western food influenced by Japan. Consistently rated among the top chefs of the world, he offers a 12-course degustation menu that changes frequently. Saby, who has worked with him, though, says one dish is a constant: a slow-cooked Tasmanian ocean trout confit served with konbu (a kind of seaweed), daikon (radish) and fennel. I also remember a superb cold avocado soup. All in all, it was a very memorable dinner. Azuma On our way out, we asked chef Tetsuya where he goes to eat Japanese food and he directed us to Azuma. It looks like a small, quaint place from the outside but seats 100 for a traditional Japanese meal. When you think about it, there’s nothing more hygienic, fresh or organic than Japanese cuisine. We didn’t order off the menu here: Tetsuya called ahead to inform them we were coming and we were treated to the most amazing array of dishes. I particularly remember the prawn teppanyaki, the steamed chicken dumplings and a fantastic bar with the continent’s largest collection of sake and shochu, a distilled spirit. Then there was Yoshi, Neil Perry’s Rockpool, Galileo… so many places to eat at, so little time! I think my biggest takeaway, though, was the ‘less is more’ philosophy behind Japanese food, where you throw out the fussy and complicated and focus on the authentic, pared down taste of the best ingredients. That’s what I’m trying to do at my new restaurant, where Japanese meets the world. As told to Sumana Mukherjee 3 things to do in | Los Angeles Lunch at the Chateau Marmont (click here for picture) If celebrity spotting is on your agenda, the chateau in West Hollywood is one of the most reliable spots that doesn’t require your name to be on the clipboard held by a woman in a size-zero dress on the other side of the velvet rope. Go on a weekday afternoon, ask for an outdoor table and keep your eye out for Meryl Streep or Mary Kate Olsen. Stick with champagne and a light salad, however: Heavier items on the menu are predictable, if a little lacklustre. You’re there to soak up old Hollywood, not garlic butter. Hollywood Bowl(click here for picture) Angelenos spend a large percentage of daily life slowly puttering on the 10 freeway towards the La Brea exit. Naturally, this lends a greater fear of intimacy than learning to tolerate your fellow neighbour when pushed up against his armpit on the A train headed to Brooklyn. From May through September, the Hollywood Bowl is one of the few chances you get to see the creative spirit of this city interact. A legendary venue for unforgettable performances—think Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, and, lately, Rufus Wainwright and Radiohead—the Bowl is the best summer experience the city has to offer. Show up early to picnic high above Los Angeles for a sweeping view of Hollywood and beyond. The Getty Center (click here for picture) Perched in the Santa Monica mountains directly above the 405 freeway, The Getty Center is a curious high-art outpost. Sure, it has many Western art heavyweight works, from Van Gogh’s ‘Irises’ to Hockey’s ‘Pearblossom Hwy, #1’. Angelenos, however, are apt to say that one goes to see the architecture, not the collection. A compound-like collection of rough-hewn, travertine buildings accessible to the public only by monorail, the Getty is LA once removed, a manicured paradise that encourages slow strolls through lush garden and grassy knolls cut to Wimbledon precision. Andrew Harmon, Journalist, Los Angeles Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:35 pm Lower GDP growth sparks rally A look at the sectoral indices provide the clues: the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Bankex and Realty indices were the biggest gainers, which means stocks sensitive to interest rates rallied. One reason was undoubtedly the lower-than-expected inflation numbers reported on Thursday, which provide hopes that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may not further hike interest rates. From that perspective, lower growth may not be such a bad thing, since that’s what RBI is aiming at. The bond market also rallied on the news. So, now that GDP growth is 7.9%, slightly lower than RBI’s full-year forecast of 8%, does it mean there’ll be no more rate hikes? That’s unlikely, says Gaurav Kapur, senior economist with ABN-Amro Bank, because inflation is likely to be in the double digits and RBI will be more worried about inflation than growth at this time. “The RBI will have to act to keep inflationary expectations low,” Kapur said. The GDP data also contains some warning signals. As the chart shows, private final consumption expenditure has held up rather well in the last four quarters, growing at an annual rate of 7.99% in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, compared with 7.64% in the second quarter of the previous fiscal. In the same period, growth rate of gross fixed capital formation has decelerated to 8.96% from 16.72%. Also See Warning Signals (Graphic) A. Prasanna, an economist with ICICI Securities Ltd, says this kind of growth is inflationary. Capital expenditure raises the hope that inflation will be lower in the future as capacity rises and supply of goods increases, as has happened in the cement industry. In that perspective, a slowing in capital expenditure is not good news. The steady growth in consumption, on the other hand, shows demand pressures continue to be strong. These pressures will grow stronger once the pay commission bonanza is disbursed. So, RBI will have to counter the government’s loose fiscal policy. The optimism on the rate-sensitives may, therefore, be premature. Tata Steel exceeds market expectations, factors in risks Tata Steel Ltd’s consolidated results for the June quarter were way above market expectations, with profit before tax and exceptionals being 66% higher than the same quarter a year ago. The company had already reported superlative results for its Indian operations in July, with operating margin rising by 84% on the back of price hikes. The overseas operations, on the other hand, witnessed a 110 basis points annual drop in operating margin, thanks to a 375 basis points jump in raw material costs and power costs as a percentage of operating revenues. A 100 basis points equal one percentage point. UK-based Corus accounts for the majority of Tata Steel’s revenues and profit from overseas operations. The company has done well to limit the drop in profit margin by cutting staff costs, freight expenses and other overheads. This was helped by a rise in volumes and hefty price increases, which more than offset the rise in these overheads. Corus’ volumes rose by an annual 7%, which is heartening considering that a surge in imports from China had led to tepid volume growth for European manufacturers in the second half of the last fiscal year. The high rise in material and power costs indicates the rise in prices of iron ore and coking coal continue to outpace the increases in steel prices. Spot prices have now started softening globally, and if the trend continues, the profit could take a hit in the rest of the year. But an analyst, who attended the company’s conference call, says Tata Steel expects profit on a per tonne basis to be maintained at the June quarter level even in the three months to September. The better-than-expected results, coupled with this outlook for the near term, led to a 5% rise in the company’s share price on Friday. Even after this, the stock trades at less than five times consensus estimates of institutional brokers for the year till March 2009. At current levels, analysts feel most risks are factored in and it’s no surprise that 22 of the 28 analysts tracking the company have a buy rating on the stock, according to Bloomberg data. Write to us at marktomarket@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:33 pm Modernism via an eclectic artistWord is that contemporary Indian art is the next sensation on the international market. So, now’s the time for the West to learn something about where it came from, which the nuanced, storytelling show called Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art helps us to do.  Sati (1943) In India, the emergency was a bruising colonialism that had become as intolerable to artists as to everyone else. From the official British perspective, India had no living art. Western classicism was the only classicism; European oil painting was the only worthy medium. Indian artists had to learn it if they wanted careers, but even then their options were limited. Naturally some people saw things another way. Ernest Binfield Havell, a British teacher and art historian, recognized Indian art as the grand, ancient, still-vibrant phenomenon it was. And as director of the Government School of Art in Kolkata, he encouraged Indian students to bring their own past, transformed, into the present. This mission really took fire, however, in a social circle gathered around the Tagore family in Kolkata. One of its members, the artist Abanindranath Tagore, taught at the Government School and developed a type of painting based on Indian rather than Western models. His uncle, Rabindranath Tagore, opened Santiniketan in West Bengal. Into this venturesome environment came a young painter named Nandalal Bose, first as one of Abanindranath’s prize students, later as a teacher and director of art at Rabindranath’s school. From the start, Bose understood the concepts behind the school: The idea that an aesthetic was also an ethos, that art’s role was more than life-enhancing, it was world-shaping. And he knew that shaping was hard work, the result of accumulating, examining and sorting a wide spectrum of data. He observed and closely emulated Abanindranath’s style, which was based on Mughal and Rajput miniatures, and made a success of it. Bose’s watercolour and tempura Sati (1907), an image of a goddess who set herself on fire to prove her devotion to her husband, Shiva, was quickly adopted as an emblem of a resurgent, self-sacrificial Indian nationalism. In 1909, he spent months copying fifth century Buddhist murals in the caves at Ajanta. Everywhere he travelled, he paid close attention to popular forms, urban and rural, Hindu and Muslim, from woodblock prints to palm-leaf manuscripts. He went to China and Japan to study ink-and-brush painting. Steadily and quietly, from all of this he forged an art that was both cosmopolitan and distinctively Indian. It was also a body of work that conscientiously refused to settle on a recognizable style, which is why Bose continues to be an elusive presence in the rare museum surveys of Indian Modernism. The Philadelphia show, organized by Sonya Rhie Quintanilla of the San Diego Museum of Art, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, retains the eclectic texture of Bose’s career while laying it out within a timeline format. The first gallery includes early work influenced by Abanindranath’s moody, spiritualized miniaturism and by the monumental Ajanta-figure type. Later Bose would cook up a highly ornamental version of the Ajanta style in murals done for a private mausoleum called the Kirti Mandir in Vadodara. These paintings of scenes from the Mahabharat now survive primarily in Bose’s full-scale tempera-on-paper studies, which are in the show. In 1930, he designed a series of linocut illustrations for Rabindranath’s children’s book teaching Bengali, and he made a print to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s march to the sea that year protesting the British taxation on salt. The print, a portrait of Gandhi, was an instant hit. Cheap to reproduce, it became the most widely circulated image of the leader of the Indian freedom movement. The two men, who had met at Santiniketan, became friends, political collaborators and spiritual allies, with Bose creating hand-coloured posters of Indian village life for three of the Indian National Congress’ annual sessions that led up to independence in 1947. After Gandhi’s death, Bose continued to teach at Santiniketan. In 1951, he retired but kept producing art, mostly Japanese-inspired, ink nature studies that moved towards abstraction. While the almost self-effacing scope of Bose’s art can make his career hard to grasp, its effect on 20th century Indian art has been important, as demonstrated in a small satellite show called Multiple Modernities: India, 1905-2005, organized by art historian Michael W. Meister and the museum’s curator of Indian art, Darielle Mason, to accompany the Bose survey. It ranges from drawings by Rabindranath, through work by Bose’s fellow modernists in Kolkata and Mumbai, to pieces by contemporary artists such as Atul Dodiya. Dodiya, who has recently set auction records for new Indian art, is represented here by prints of scenes from Ramayan, inspired by Bose. If Bose was ahead of his times, he was also very much of them. Some of his work is now dated. His image of the self-immolating Sati as an ideal of Indian womanhood obviously doesn’t work today. Arpita Singh’s politically ambiguous 1993 oil painting of a pistol-wielding goddess Durga or Bhupen Khakhar’s watercolour “goddesses” of uncertain gender are more like it. But as an example of a polymath artist and teacher who, through diligent generosity, put his talent to the service of the life of his time, he is worthy of prolonged and intensive notice. The Philadelphia show immerses us, wonderfully, in both that life and that time. And it reminds us that every museum of modern art in the US and Europe should be required, in the spirit of truth in advertising, to change its name to Museum of Western Modernism until it has earned the right to do otherwise. Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882-1966)is on view through 1 September, andMultiple Modernities: India, 1905-2005is on view through 7 December at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The show is scheduled to come to India. ©2008/The New York Times Write to lounge@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:33 pm For textile cos, it’s time to put expansions on hold, cut jobsNew Delhi: India’s $52 billion (Rs2.28 trillion) textile industry, the biggest source of employment in the country after agriculture, is showing signs of fatigue. Textile makers, hit by soaring raw material costs and more expensive credit, are cutting jobs and putting expansions on hold as they brace for an export slowdown, the result of a downturn in the global economy. At least 1.5 million people employed in textile units have been thrown out of work since last year, according to an industry association, while new job creation is way behind target. As troubles pile up, the sector, which employs 35 million people, may end fiscal 2009 with growth that is a third the pace it has targeted. HARD HIT (Graphic) This year’s troubles follow the steep appreciation of the rupee in 2007 that hurt the overseas earnings of an industry that makes up about 17% of the country’s exports. While exports rose 9.3% in the year ended March 2008 to $20.5 billion, they were $4.5 billion, or 18%, short of the industry’s target. The rupee’s depreciation against the dollar this year should have pleased exporters, but the benefits of a weaker currency have been offset by the surge in costs and the global economic slowdown. “Half of the country’s entire textile chain—from yarn to garments—are exported. But today almost all companies are reflecting a downhill trend as the industry becomes uncompetitive,” said D.K. Nair, secretary general of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, a lobby group. Soundaraa Knitwears Ltd, a manufacturing unit on the outskirts of textile town Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, supplies a range of garments from baby wear to woven shirts to Europe. Last year, it recorded exports worth Rs25 crore. Export orders have fallen 15% since April, compared with a year ago, forcing the company to fire 50 of its 400 workers. Soundaraa managing partner Yoga Prakash says Europeans hit by a steep hike in oil prices are spending less on clothes, resulting in fewer export orders, while raw material and electricity costs have surged. Cheaper textile producers such as Vietnam and Cambodia are gaining at India’s expense. “People are spending more on their cars with fuel prices going up, than on clothes,” Prakash said. “We just have just not been able to meet order price targets.” Slowing growth The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry said the sector is growing at 4-5% instead of the projected 14-15%. At least 1.5 million people employed in the so-called unorganized sector, which comprises 80% of the total weaving, processing and garment manufacturing units, have lost their jobs since last year, according to the Mumbai-based Federation of Indian Art Silk Industry. The federation represents small and medium companies in the synthetic textiles industry. The industry had been expected to generate 14 million new jobs in the five years to 2012, some six million of them direct employment. But the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry said it’s already trailing behind and had created one million fewer jobs last year. “Even if conditions improve, we won’t be able to achieve this target within five years,” said the group’s secretary-general Nair. Textiles companies had been racing to set up large capacities since 2005, when import quotas were abolished. Now, they are postponing expansion plans as costs rise. Listed company Shree Rajasthan Syntex Ltd, which is located in Udaipur, Rajasthan, has postponed plans to set up a Rs100 crore synthetic fibre mill in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district, with a potential to employ 2,000 people. “The situation is bad... We have not been able to pass on the costs to our customers,” said Vinod Kumar Ladia, managing director of Shree Rajasthan Syntex. Prices of cotton, which accounts for more than half of domestic fibre consumption, have risen by 20-50% in the last one year while the costs of artificial fibres such as polyester, nylon and acrylic that are made from petroleum byproducts have increased as well. Power looms clusters across the country are facing closure, according to Arun Jeriwala, president of the Federation of Indian Art Silk Industry and managing director of Surat-based Quality Silk Mills Ltd, a privately held company that produces 1 million metres of synthetic fabric a month. The hardest-hit textile zones are Surat in Gujarat, which makes up 65% of the country’s artificial fibre production, Maharashtra’s textiles centres of Bhiwandi and Ichalkaranji and Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, Jeriwala said. The price of viscose fibre yarn, which is made from wood pulp after chemical treatment, too has risen from Rs91,000 a tonne to Rs104,000 a tonne since April. Polyester fibre has jumped 20% to Rs85,000 a tonne. Demand for synthetic fabric, which goes into making cheap saris and shirts, is also down 15% from last year. “India’s lower middle class are major consumers of synthetic fabrics. While they are the more conscious section of the society, they have to shell out more to look good now,” said Jeriwala of the Federation of Indian Art Silk Industry. Power costs have surged in states such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, which cut electricity supply to industrial units by 25-35% last month amid a shortfall in generation. Manufacturers are using captive power, which cost more than double what they normally pay for grid power at between Rs3.75 and Rs4.25 per unit. “There are challenges in the sector. First, there are the high power, raw material and real estate costs. And now the demand side is not showing robust growth,” said Unmesh Sharma, an analyst at brokerage firm Macquarie Securities (India) Pvt. Ltd. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:26 pm Dilip Kapur | The French connectionWhat did luxury powerhouse Louis Vuitton (LV) see in a (relatively) small Indian leather goods manufacturer? How did the French brand even think of setting up a factory—its first in Asia and one that will likely end up being its largest in the world—in Puducherry of all places? Why did the intensely private company buy a stake in Hidesign, an Indian company that began as a hobby in 1970s Auroville, India’s French hub? Dilip Kapur, 60, president of Hidesign, the free spirit who began his life as an entrepreneur with Rs25,000 (for a sewing machine, some leather and a worker, all accommodated on a thatched shed on his roof) and who now has a Rs100 crore turnover, can’t answer these questions.  Detail therapy: Hidesign’s straps take as long to design as the rest of the bag, says Kapur. Illustration: Jayachandran / Mint Let’s make some educated guesses anyway. If you were Louis Vuitton, looking to settle down in India after decades of flirting with the country’s affluent set, and you needed someone you could trust, someone in your area of business, a guaranteed good investment, someone with whom you could converse fluently in your language, Kapur’s would be a name that came to mind. For one, Kapur is quality conscious. His Hidesign outlets sell nicely crafted, natural leather goods; I know because I’ve been buying their bags since the company opened its first Indian store in 2000 (before that, Kapur was mostly an exporter). Trendier consumers would say the designs are boring/predictable; I think it’s refreshing that a local brand focuses on quality and detailing rather than on imitating the latest global designs. “You’re a typical customer,” Kapur says, over Sauvignon Blanc at Trident’s Tiffin in Mumbai (his knowledge of good wine has grown exponentially, thanks to his connoisseur French partners). “She studies a lot, reads a lot, travels a lot; like you, she’s very natural,” he says, pointing to my slightly crumpled cotton shirt and messy hair. I tell him I’ll wear a business suit to our next lunch appointment, and he informs me that he changed quickly from a T-shirt to a Just Cavalli navy shirt—purchased by his German wife Jacqueline—for our meeting. Incidentally, Kapur swore off suits after he graduated from Phillips Academy, a private school in the US, but recently Jacqueline bought him one from Gianfranco Ferre for all those meetings he now has to attend. But then, Kapur has always been open to reinvention. In 2000, just as he was beginning to get bored of his rollicking export business, India saved him. “It was one of the best things that happened to me. I think I would have sold the company but then I rediscovered myself and my Indianness.” If you had lived abroad for more than a decade, been married to an American and then a German woman, and grown up at the Auroville ashram, where each of your notebooks came inscribed with the maxim “There’s a great beauty in simplicity”, you would talk this way too. At that point, Kapur decided it was time to retail in India and diversify into the hotel business. Eight years later, he has 45 stores in the country (18 more are scheduled to open in the coming year) and two boutique hotels, both in Puducherry. Kapur and Puducherry have a history. He was born in New Delhi and moved to Auroville when he was nearly six years old after his father sold his shoe business, donated the money to the ashram and “happily became a modern sadhu”. Then there’s the comfort factor. Kapur is someone you can relate to. He teaches current affairs to 14-year-olds at the ashram (all of Kapur’s four children have done stints at this school) and worries about the fact that they don’t care for much beyond sports and music. He has just come from a meeting with his store managers where he spent some time explaining that Hidesign did indeed have an exchange policy and that the customer was not their adversary. Unlike most Indian leather sweatshops, Hidesign’s 7.5 acre factory in Puducherry could actually make it to the pages of a magazine. Of course, as Kapur points out, an average Hidesign worker still has only 4 sq. m of space against his European counterpart’s 11 sq. m. Recently, he found himself competing against another international brand, Coach (which also has plans to produce its bags in India), for a job applicant—and winning. “He’s going to be the structural engineer of my bags. He joined us because he would be involved in building an authentic brand rather than just implementing international specifications,” Kapur says. Which brings us to what Kapur gets out of LV’s investment (besides the money to implement his dreams, of course). After all, he already does business in more than 20 countries. For a guy who has always maintained that he was not terribly interested in running a company, he hasn’t done too badly. “When I began, one of my biggest weaknesses and strengths was the fact that I really didn’t care. I didn’t care if the company flopped or if it survived because that was not what was driving me,” he says. It was exactly this attitude, he believes, that allowed him to take risks and do things that he wanted to do rather than things that he thought would work. “It took me many years to realize that doing your own thing is making your own brand.” Now, LV will help him do just that. For one, he’s already learnt the French phrase de rigueur.“In terms of quality, we are only 30-40% of where we want to be,” says Kapur, who will spend the next two years getting the back-end of the business right. In between building two factories and boosting his HR department, he has to figure out a way to improve productivity (a Hidesign bag takes 11 hours to make against a European bag that takes just 3 hours) without compromising on detailing. His two older sons will do their bit. Vikas, a 29-year-old Stanford graduate and lawyer-who-would-rather-not-be-a-lawyer, will spend six months training at Louis Vuitton in Paris before returning to India and working on the development of Hidesign. Akash, 31, a Rhodes scholar, Harvard graduate and soon-to-be published author, is helping his father build a third hotel, a beach resort, in (where else?) Puducherry. Indian Hotels Co., which runs the Taj group of hotels, will manage this property. Kapur’s younger son Milan now studies at the Kodaikanal International School, and Ayesha, his precocious, talented teenage daughter, (you saw her in the 2005 film Black) still studies at the ashram. Jacqueline has her own 12,000 sq.ft lifestyle store in Puducherry and is passionate about the horse-riding school she runs. “She keeps the standards of our hotels from becoming pedestrian and helps me with leather garments but the minute she gets involved in the core, we totally disagree,” Kapur says. “We have lots of fights when we work together.” Sounds like the perfect partnership. CURRICULUM VITAE DILIP KAPUR Born: 20 April 1948 Education: Schooled at Auroville and Phillips Academy, Massachusetts, US. Graduated in international affairs from Princeton University and earned a PhD from University of Denver Current designation: President, Hidesign Work profile: While doing his PhD, he worked at a leather company. He returned to India in 1977 to live in Auroville and started Hidesign a year later What’s on his iPod: Pink Martini, Cesare Amora and lots of hip-hop, courtesy his son, Milan. “I used to be crazy about the Grateful Dead but now find them boring.” Food fetish: “I find it really hard to eat a piece of meat, I don’t like the idea of it, the physical chewing, and you know I’m a leather guy.” Enjoys seafood. “I also love my mother’s old Punjabi hick desserts — ‘gajar ka halwa’, ‘gud ki sewiyan’, kulfi.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:23 pm Marquez on my mindThe girl from the coast stood by my side as we waited for the bus that would take us to the club in downtown Bogotá, which was once attacked by bearded rebels who did not like any structure that was tall and shiny and made of glass and steel, and which had military guards defending it, because such buildings only allowed fat ranchers wearing expensive suits in, and those ranchers were class enemies. With the casual familiarity people display in Latin America, she turned to me, placed her palm in mine, and said in Spanish, “See, my hands are so cold!”  Ancient secrets: La Candelaria, Bogotá’s historic old city, has a great gold museum. Bright sunlight filtered through the rarefied air of the city, set 8,000ft above sea level, and the rays gasped, trying to reach the people deep in the valley, and you felt no warmth by the time sunlight reached you. But what the ambience lacked, the people made up for through their humane warmth, which survives despite their living so close to the precipice, where one sharp turn on the wrong side, and you tumble down the valley. A few months ago, I was in La Candelaria, the part of Bogotá known for its quaint and quiet streets, which occasionally rise abruptly, making it hard to breathe, harder to talk and walk at the same time. You would have thought a poet had got lost on the streets, chasing after his love, and named the meandering lanes after the misty mood of the moment. There, that street is Amora, a friend told me; the other one Agonia, and over there, Fatiga. Love, agony and fatigue—only a poet would think of such names. My friend laughed when I waxed lyrical about these names. As coffee hissed on her percolator, she said: “You foreigners can think of poetry. We live with explosions.” Then she expertly poured out the coffee, before the percolator could live up to her prediction. Bogotá’s reality is complicated, with the threat of an explosion never too far: You realize that because every building you visit requires your passport and there are metal detectors to keep weapons at bay. There are clearly understood rules of staying safe in a country still at war—which areas to avoid, how not to get abducted, where it is safe to go out at night, and how to take taxis (you get a secret code, the driver gets another secret code, you exchange those codes, and only then the driver trusts you, and you trust the driver. Just because a car is yellow and there is a light on its top does not mean it is a taxi, I’m told). Bogotá has lived through a brutal war for many years—by one reckoning it goes back to 1948, when a presidential candidate was assassinated. The violence goes on and the current president, Alvaro Uribe, has initiated a harsh law and order regime that has made the streets safe again. So safe that one night in 2006, while walking back to our hotel, we met three women in swimwear, campaigning for a bunny rabbit as candidate for president. These women were serious: they were telling my Colombian friends that it was time to have some fun, and why not vote for a rabbit for president? Realizing we had no vote in their elections, they smiled and blew kisses at us, trying to convince others that a carrot-munching animal was the best mascot for a bleeding nation. But if discovering Marquezian magic realism is not surprising in Bogotá, nor should it seem strange that Bogotá is an existential city, where you live for the moment, by the moment, and, more important, live up the moment. Take the long drive from the city to its outskirts, to the restaurant that seems like a way-station in a fantasy movie— called Andres Carne de Res, it is an insanely decorated spectacle, where you will end up dancing at some point in the evening. It is Colombia in a microcosm, how it would like to live—without a care, dancing through the night, eating well with nothing remembered the next morning. The New York Times has called it “profound, spellbinding, beautiful, tumultuous, confusing and fattening all at once”. Fattening, I understand easily. I’m sitting with my friend Catalina and she tells me to go easy on the delicious arepas (corn-based bread) and almojábanas (rice-flour fritters) spread out before us, saying the main course is yet to follow. She then insists I should not even try ajiaco, the potato-based soup. “You’ve had ajiaco twice in the past week. Try something new tonight,” she says. I’m touched. It seems she cares for my health. “Let’s all try the Argentine beef,” she adds. Ah! Later that night, at my friend Bill’s suggestion, I try Guatemalan rum (very nice). It is noisy and cheerful. Masked nubile waitresses in tight T-shirts and figure-hugging jeans perform synchronized, impromptu dances on the crowded floor, with large posters of Hollywood starlets and 1950s Americana stuck all over the restaurant. I also see a cross in this temple of hedonism. It is not as incongruent as it might seem. This is the country where senators change votes after receiving gifts from the ruling party, passing crucial constitutional amendments; where you get a better deal on your dollar from a bank than on the street, so awash are the touts with dollars floating around because of Colombia’s drugs- and arms-strengthened illegal economy; and where a nice Catholic woman tells me matter of factly how her younger brother lives with his girlfriend and their kids. Sin is a relative term; politics is absolute. Nothing makes sense at first sight, and then everything does. Write to Salil at detours@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:20 pm Union cabinet clears new Companies BillNew Delhi: The Union cabinet on Friday cleared the Companies Bill, 2008, that calls for stricter disclosure norms, speedier incorporation of companies, more powers to shareholders and streamlining businesses. The new Bill is also leaner with the number of provisions—norms related to different aspects of doing business—being halved to 400. The current Companies Act came into effect in 1956 when Indian firms totalled just 30,000, government data shows. Today, there are more than 700,000 companies doing business in a far more complex and liberalized scenario that has seen a surge in international transactions in recent times. “Self-regulation, shareholders’ democracy and minimal interference by the government, in other words, reducing approvals needed from the government, besides huge penalties for non-compliance are some of the main features of the proposed Bill,” said minister of corporate affairs Prem Chand Gupta. The new Bill will streamline the approval process for mergers and acquisitions, or M&As. For smaller, private and family-owned businesses, there will be a provision for so-called deemed approval. Currently, each M&A needs to be approved by a high court. The new Bill, vetted by the law ministry, is likely to be placed in Parliament that begins a session on 17 October. Under the proposal, partnership firms can have 100 members compared with 20 now, offering scope for expanding their businesses considerably. “This will further facilitate limited liability partnership firms (Llp), the Bill for which is already in the Parliament,” said Gupta. An Llp is an alternative business structure combining the limited liability benefits of a company with the flexibility of partnerships. To enable an individual to start and manage his or her own enterprise, a provision of “one person company” has been introduced in the Bill. Under existing laws, at least two people are needed to start a company. It has also introduced so-called class action suits, through which minority shareholders can challenge the management as a group. “Minority stakeholders will benefit from class action, as also guidelines specified for fair valuation of companies through independent professionals such as cost and work accountants, chartered accountants and company secretaries,” said Sumant Batra, member of the managing committee of industry lobby Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:11 pm RBI expects no respite from rising inflationMumbai: The Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, is unlikely to ease its monetary policy anytime soon because it does not see signs of either a slowdown in consumer demand or a drop in the inflation rate, which has surged to a 16-year high on the back of rising food and fuel prices. “As the inflation rates have hardened beyond tolerable levels, monetary policy would continue to address aggregate demand pressures which appear to be strongly in evidence,” RBI said in its annual report for 2007-08 released on Friday. The central bank follows a July-June financial year. Inflation risks, according to the report, have “increased sharply” and “appear to be persistent”. RBI has raised its policy rate by 125 basis points and banks’ cash reserve ratio, or CRR, the proportion of deposits that commercial banks need to keep with the central bank, by 150 basis points since the beginning of fiscal 2009 to rein in rising inflation and credit growth. ALSO READ One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. But the impact of its monetary measures is yet to be felt. Despite successive rate hikes, bank credit during the current financial year has grown by 25.9% against the RBI’s target of 20%. The inflation rate, measured by wholesale prices, which rose to 12.63% in early August, has declined to 12.40%, but RBI does not see it coming down sharply soon. Some bankers and bond dealers expect RBI to raise its policy rate further or suck out more money from the banking system by raising CRR in October, when it releases its mid-term review of monetary policy. The annual report listed many “upside risks” to inflation, with the outlook on crude oil prices continuing “to be uncertain”. Global commodity prices may remain high even though their “moderation” cannot be ruled out. Supply-side pressure on inflation will continue on account of both “pass-through from international prices” and domestic “demand-supply imbalances” in certain key commodities. Under these circumstances, RBI has reiterated its “determination” to act “decisively, effectively and swiftly”. RBI’s aggressive monetary tightening has demonstrated its resolve to combat inflation. It has pared its growth forecast for the economy for fiscal 2009 from 8.5% to 8%. The annual report, however, said the medium- to long-term prospects for the Indian economy continue to be robust.  Reserve Bank of India governor Y.V. Reddy. (Namas Bhojani / Mint) Rupa Rege, chief economist at Bank of Baroda, said the inflation rate could rise to 14.5% between November and December, adding the rupee’s depreciation, which would make imports more expensive, will also stoke inflation. “Inflation rate will remain in double digits till February 2009. If the oil prices remain relatively benign, we could see RBI move from tightening to neutral policy stance,” said Subir Gokarn, chief economist for the Asia-Pacific at rating agency Standard and Poor’s. RBI does not seem to be in the mood to take any chances. “An overriding priority for monetary policy would be to eschew any further intensification of inflationary pressures,” said the annual report. Another worry for RBI is the fiscal situation. The central bank sees growing stress on the government’s finances because of rising expenditure on account of subsidies, a more than Rs70,000 crore loan waiver offered to farmers and an increase in the salary of government employees. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:10 pm Coimbatore company drums up a new chantCoimbatore: Every morning, before going to his company’s offices to sell metal screens, R. Krushnaswami would visit the Venugopala Swamy temple for a quick prayer. Around 30 years ago, though, an observation he made at the temple, which he would later chalk up to divine providence, pitched the fortunes of RKS Metal Screens into an entirely new direction. Noticing the priests ringing the temple bells themselves, and thinking about the drummers that many temples find too expensive to retain, Krushnaswami wondered if those tasks could be automated. That was the birth of the invention that RKS calls the auto drum bell. RKS Metal Screens now dominates the manufacture of the automatic drumming and bell-ringing machines, doing their duty in thousands of Hindu temples across the world. It has been a story of noisy success, but Krushnaswami would attribute that, too, to God, just as he does the idea of the auto drum bell itself. RKS Metal Screens had started life under a different name, in 1952, manufacturing and selling perforated metal sheets for various uses in heavy industry. It entered—and actually created from scratch—the auto drum bell business only in 1980. Krushnaswami, elusive in person and cryptic in conversation, provides an appropriately mystic origin for his idea. “It would be too long a story to go into now,” he says. “But this was more like a divine revelation, presented to me by the almighty.” The offices of RKS Metal Screens sit in the midst of clusters of lathe shops in an area of Coimbatore called Ganapathy. Even its lobby is striking. On one side of the manager’s office, lined up in serried ranks like earnest little drummer boys, are the red-and-yellow auto drum bells. The drum bell design has changed little over the years—a metal frame with two bells, two cymbals, and a large drum. When it’s switched on, a motor kicks clappers and drumsticks into operation. In perfect rhythm, the clappers ring on the bells and cymbals, and the drumsticks mark out a background tattoo. In the enclosed RKS Metal Screens lobby, the auto drum bell creates a deafening clamour. In the larger spaces of a temple, though, that noise would ring out sharply and clearly—but still very loudly.  Red-and-yellow drummers: Auto drum bells designed for temples in the RKS Metal Screens office lobby in Coimbatore. (Samanth Subramanian / Mint) RKS Metal Screens sells around 300 units a month, many for export to Singapore, Indonesia, Canada, the UK and the US, says N. Manian, a manager at RKS Metal Screens. It is in India, however, that the RKS auto drum bell has truly found fame. Despite competitors having sprung up over the last few years, the auto drum bell of choice remains RKS’—“partly because ours was the first, and people have come to rely on us.” So, when Manian says, for instance, that the RKS auto drum bell can be found in temples “from Kanyakumari to Kargil”, it isn’t just alliterative hyperbole. “During the Kargil War, one unit of troops stationed there prayed at a Kali temple, and they decided to pitch in funds for an auto drum bell,” Manian says. “One of the soldiers was from Coimbatore, so he suggested the RKS brand—and since then, other temples in the area have bought the RKS auto drum bell as well.” The auto drum bell comes in seven sizes, ranging from a 10-inch drum diameter (priced at Rs5,063) to a gigantic 46-inch drum (Rs52,000), and the motors churn out a stream of power between 20W and 3HP. “The medium-sized ones are the most popular,” Manian says. “The Tirupati temple complex has seven of our auto drum bells.” Assembled by hand at the RKS factory on the outskirts of Coimbatore, the auto drum bells face remarkably few maintenance problems. “Only the leather on the skin of the drum wears out a little, or it’s sometimes gnawed through by rats,” says one of the four unfriendly priests at the Venugopala Swamy temple. The auto drum bells often perch on ledges above or outside the garba griha, or the inner sanctum, their switches within easy reach of the priests performing the rites within. The Venugopala Swamy temple has replaced its machine only once, 15 years after it bought its first one in 1980. Its auto drum bell sits in a green chicken-wire cage just outside the main shrine, blackened with grime but still robustly functional. But success seems to have brought with it a measure of headache for Krushnaswami. “Initially, we’d issue advertisements, and a couple of articles appeared in some Tamil magazines,” he says. “But then competitors would come to our store, buy our product, and make it themselves at a lower quality and price.” On a few occasions, Krushnaswami even took competitors to court, for stealing what he says is a proprietary design. “But they would make some slight modification to their version, so the court would have to rule in their favour,” he says. After 15 years with RKS, though, Manian still finds a certain thrill in the success of the auto drum bell. “It’s like Tata Steel—when people think of quality steel, they think first of Tata Steel,” he says. “Similarly, when people think of buying a good auto drum bell for their temple, they think of us. That’s a very satisfying feeling.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:06 pm GDP growth rate lowest in 14 quartersNew Delhi / Mumbai: The Indian economy expanded 7.9% in the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal year—the lowest since the third quarter of 2004-05—compared with 9.2% a year ago, confirming the general apprehension that growth is slowing down. Data on the gross domestic product, or GDP, growth rate, released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) on Friday, however, didn’t hurt the stockmarkets. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex index gained more than 500 points, equivalent to 3.67%, to close above 14,546. At the National Stock Exchange, the Nifty index gained 3.4% to reach 4,360. According to brokers and analysts, stocks gained largely because investors had anticipated a low growth rate. SLOWING DOWN (Graphic) The positive trigger from the US markets, which rose on Thursday, also helped local buying sentiments on Friday. A drop in inflation rate based on the Wholesale Price Index, released after market hours on Thursday, too, came as a positive for the markets. Inflation accelerated at 12.4% for the week ended 16 August, compared with 12.63% the previous week. Lower inflation served to lift investors’ spirits, said Anita Gandhi, head of institutional business at Arihant Capital Markets Ltd. “Investors were expecting inflation to cross 13% this week,” she said. “This rally could continue for some more days.” The CSO data showed the farm sector grew 3%; industry, along with the construction sector, expanded 6.8% and the services sector 10%. Economists said these numbers were broadly in line with their expectations for GDP, which measures a nation’s total income and output. “...the worrying part is the poor performance of the electricity, gas and water supply sector, which grew at only 2.6%. As there are already supply-side constraints to growth, a poor show by this sector doesn’t augur well,” said Dharmakirti Joshi, principal economist with credit rating agency Crisil Ltd. Apart from the industrial sector, the services sector also showed moderation in growth, mainly due to a slowdown in the financial sector, which grew 9.3% compared with 12.6% last year. “This is due to a slowdown in credit growth which came down to around 22% in the first quarter from more than 30% in 2007-08. This sector has certainly shown some loss of momentum,” HDFC Bank’s chief economist Abheek Barua said. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been making bank credit dearer since 2006. It raised the key repo rate, at which it lends overnight to commercial banks, four times in 2006 and twice in 2007. In 2008, it increased the repo rate by 1.25 percentage points in three moves to 9%, raising borrowing costs in an attempt to cool inflation. However, economists don’t expect growth to come down significantly from the current level. “Growth could be more hit next fiscal year due to the recent credit tightening that will affect growth with a lag,” Joshi said. Crisil expects GDP to grow 7.8% this fiscal year. The Prime Minister’s economic advisory council in its economic outlook said GDP will grow 7.7%. A local research unit of Citigroup Inc., meanwhile, lowered its growth forecast for India for this fiscal year from 7.7% to 7.5%, after taking into account the latest monsoon and crop sowing data. On further monetary tightening by the RBI, HDFC Bank’s Barua said: “I would assign lower probability of any rate hike in October.” Joshi said it would be a difficult task for RBI to maintain a balance between growth and inflation with growth slowing down. “Any further monetary tightening has to be very carefully thought out.” asit.m@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:05 pm The vanishing act theoriesNamed one of “25 authors of the future” by Waterstone Books in May 2007, Siobhan Dowd passed away two months later. If she hadn’t fallen prey to cancer, who knows what might have been?  Dowd’s second novel, which was published in late 2007, The London Eye Mystery, is a thriller. Ted and Kat’s cousin, Salim, comes down for a visit with his mother before they relocate to New York. The trouble starts when, as all good tourists do, Salim wants to visit London Eye, the city’s most popular Ferris wheel and observation tower — shaped like a giant wheel that revolves — with capsules that people can get into and enjoy a 360-degree view of the city. The three of them go off to climb the Eye when a stranger offers them a ticket. Instead of waiting his turn in the serpentine queue, Salim accepts the ticket and gets into one of the capsules while his cousins wait on the ground. It turns out to be a long, long wait as Salim disappears almost into thin air. The last glimpse that Ted and Kat have of Salim is when he waves before entering the capsule. It is up to Ted, who is afflicted with Asperger’s Syndrome, and Kat to explain the disappearance as the police and family cannot figure out what could have happened. Ted’s brain ticks over furiously as he comes up with theory after theory that could help solve the mystery. He sets about reconstructing the scene with Kat’s help. But their bafflement only grows as the hours pass. How did Salim disappear from inside a sealed capsule that was 135m from the ground? Among the many theories floated is Ted’s conviction that Salim combusted spontaneously. Their Aunt Gloria (Salim’s mother) believes that he has been kidnapped. The entire family, however, has the unexpressed fear — that Salim is dead. The only clues Ted and Kat can go on are that Salim likes heights and that he has a mysterious friend in London.  Dowd’s characters are fleshed out vividly. The fact that Ted has Asperger is not thrust down the reader. The only references made are when the author describes the boy’s uncanny head for figures, his ability to understand unknown weather conditions, and interest in shipping forecasts. It is a surprise for the entire family when Ted comes up with as many as nine theories about Salim’s vanishing act, and the astonishment is sealed when Ted solves the mystery that has foxed everyone. London Eye is pure childlike adventure with a touch of the unusual. It is a far cry from Dowd’s first book, A Swift Pure Cry, a story about 15-year-old Shell, who tries to come to terms with life after her mother’s death. A Swift… deals with teen pregnancy, poverty, wealth and the dominance of the church; London Eye reiterates the fact that Dowd was cut out to be a great storyteller. Unfortunately, time was too short. After her death, the Siobhan Dowd Trust was set up to help disadvantaged children in the UK and Ireland discover and experience the joy of reading. It offers financial support to public libraries, state school libraries (especially in economically challenged areas), asylum seekers, young offenders and children with special needs. Her debut novel was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction prize. The writer is the editor of Heek, a children’s magazine. Write to lounge@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:01 pm Work at Singur plant halted, indefinitelyIn continuation with todays stalling of work, Tata Motors has asked its employees not to report at the Singur site till the company considered the situation safe for resumption of work.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 29 Aug 2008 | 7:00 pm After five-year wait, govt finally approves Companies BillThe government today approved the introduction of a new single, comprehensive law to govern the Indian corporate sector.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 29 Aug 2008 | 6:58 pm Tech Mahindra exit makes biz sense for BTCommunications services company BT Group Inc. might be thinking about in-sourcing its Indian outsourcing. The UK telecom operator is mulling the sale of its 31% stake in Tech Mahindra Ltd, according to the Financial Times newspaper.  Click here for breakingviews.com The possibility raises a simple question. Why would BT, whose own growth is stalling, sell out of a software services joint venture whose profits have tripled in the last three years? With debt of only two times next year’s expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda), the telecom operator isn’t strapped for cash. It has vowed to roll out a high-speed fibre network across the UK, but only if the regulator allows a healthy return. Besides, BT’s share of India-listed Tech Mahindra, which has a market capitalization of $2.2 billion (Rs9,636 crore), would only cover one-quarter of the proposed fibre investment. What’s more, Tech Mahindra needs BT. The two have worked closely together on various projects for the past 20 years. The joint venture, 44% owned by conglomerate Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, still gets around 65% of revenues from BT. BT isn’t saying anything, but one theory is that this happy partnership may eventually be unnecessary for the British operator’s Indian ambitions. In the two years since Tech Mahindra was listed, BT has been scaling up its Indian presence: it acquired a licence to provide fixed-line services and bought i2i Enterprise Pvt. Ltd, a small Internet protocol services group. BT, which refers to India as a future crown-jewel, could eventually do what Tech Mahindra does itself. If selling is the goal, then it might seem odd that BT recently awarded Tech Mahindra two large, five-year contracts worth $1.7 billion. Without these, though, any sign of a BT exit would adversely affect Tech Mahindra’s value. Speaking of value, this might not be a bad time to sell out of Indian outsourcing. BT would book a handsome profit and the sector has recently shown signs of slowing. Investors are questioning the sustainability of recent growth rates. Tech Mahindra’s shares, like those of its rivals, are selling at around half the price-earnings ratio of a year ago. BT might be thinking of getting out while the going is still good. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 6:57 pm Govt asks PFRDA to make pension scheme universalSoon, non-salaried individuals will have the option to save for their retirement with authorised fund managers.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 29 Aug 2008 | 6:57 pm One suit, three waysAll work, no play (click here for picture) This is a serious professional look. You can’t go wrong with a classic suit. This one has pinstripes in purple, or to be more specific, violet — “this season’s colour”, according to Miglio. Let the colour run through the rest of your outfit as well, with a self-patterned pale lilac shirt, a grey and violet striped tie, finished with a pair of brown leather lace-up shoes. Not so serious (click here for picture) “This look is professional, but with a twist. It can be worn by someone in a creative profession, maybe an architect,” says Miglio. The same suit is paired with a striped shirt, over which a wool and cashmere knit sweater is worn. Use a brown leather bag and a pair of brown leather slip-ons. Braving the elements (click here for picture) Stay warm till you get to the boardroom. A black wool and cashmere turtleneck, which goes on under the suit; the outerwear is a protective “elements” jacket to keep out the cold. A leather carry-all, sunglasses with leather details, brown leather lace-ups and a pair of black leather gloves for additional insulation. Products available at Ermenegildo Zegna stores in Mumbai and Bangalore. Prices range from Rs7,100 to Rs1.08 lakh. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 6:55 pm JPMorgan, I-Sec, Citi to advise on Axis Bank share saleMumbai: State-run Special Undertaking of UTI, or Suuti, on Friday hired the investment banking units of JPMorgan Chase and Co., Citibank NA and ICICI Securities Ltd to advise it on the sale of a 21% stake in Axis Bank Ltd, India’s third largest private sector lender. The stake is worth more than Rs5,400 crore at current market price. Suuti was created in 2002 to take over the assured return investment plans of Unit Trust of India (UTI) after the government bailed out the then ailing mutual fund, the country’s oldest. UTI’s stake in Axis Bank, formerly known as UTI Bank Ltd, was transferred to Suuti. Axis Bank shares owned by Suuti will be sold in block deals to institutional investors on local bourses over the next two months, a Suuti executive said, asking not to be named. Suuti owns 27% of Axis Bank, of which 6% has to remain with it because of a lock-in clause. A senior investment banker at one of the three firms selected by Suuti said his unit expects to sell the shares at a premium to market price. The share sale could be at a pre-negotiated price to pre-determined buyers, though the date of disposal would depend on market conditions, said the banker who didn’t want to be named. Axis Bank’s stock price gained nearly 8% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday to Rs723.30, while the benchmark Sensex rose 3.67%, to 14,564.53. Axis Bank shares have lost about 25% of their value this year and the bank is currently capitalized at Rs25,935 crore. The benchmark Sensitive Index of the BSE has fallen 28% this year. The Suuti executive said the stakes owned by Suuti in two other large firms—Larsen and Toubro Ltd, or L&T, and ITC Ltd—will not be sold in the short-term. “We are yet to decide about the stake in L&T and ITC,” he said. The mandate to advise on the sale was given to the three firms after the evaluation of proposals by more than a dozen foreign and local investment banks. The head of advisory services at a large foreign bank operating in India, who did not wish to be named, said the sheer size of the deal drove interest from many investment banks. “It is an important mandate in the current market context.” Some of the bankers who had presented their proposals to Suuti for this deal, but failed to clinch the mandate, had earlier told Mint that the fees quoted by most investment banks were relatively inexpensive—just a few basis points, unlike hefty percentage fees quoted to private clients. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. This is a common trend in government deals, some of the bankers said. Deals clinched from government-run entities find their way to the covers of elegant brochures presented by investment bankers to prospective clients in the private sector. Another state-run entity, Life Insurance Corp. of India, is the second biggest shareholder in Axis Bank with a 10.3% stake. An investment arm of HSBC Holdings Plc., foreign institutional investor Orient Global Tamarind Mauritius Ltd, and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd are large shareholders in the bank with more than 4% each. Other shareholders include arms of CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup Inc. Meanwhile, Union finance minister P. Chidambaram said on Friday that UTI Asset Management Co. may seek a strategic partner. UTI Asset Management cancelled plans earlier this year to sell shares after the benchmark Sensex index posted its worst first-half on record. Archana Chaudhary of Bloomberg contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 6:37 pm Rupee falls as global funds, importers sellMumbai: The rupee declined this month on speculation that importers exchanged the currency for dollars to pay month-end bills. The currency closed at the lowest level in more than 17 months on concerns that slowing growth and inflation near a 16-year high will prompt overseas investors to dump more local shares. The government on Friday said Asia’s third biggest economy expanded in the second quarter at the slowest pace since December 2004. “Sentiment is not supportive of buying the local currency because of widespread dollar demand,” said Shashi Ranjan Giri, a trader with state-owned Allahabad Bank in Mumbai. “The equity market trend is suggesting we may see some more stock sales by overseas investors.” The rupee weakened 3.1% this month. It fell 0.4% on Friday to end at 43.94 against the dollar in Mumbai. The economy expanded 7.9% in the quarter ended June, slower than the 8% median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey. Finance minister P. Chidambaram said the economy will meet the target of 8% growth this year. “Eight percent growth is not to be scoffed at, it is something you ought to be proud of,” Chidambaram told reporters in Mumbai. “There’s a high degree of savings, a high degree of investment.” The government on Thursday said wholesale prices jumped 12.4% in the week ended 16 August from a year earlier, after increasing 12.63% in the previous week, which was the biggest gain since June 1992. India’s average oil import costs swelled to $8 billion (Rs35,040 crore today) a month this year, from $5.5 billion in 2007, trade ministry data showed. Overseas investors sold $7.2 billion more local shares than they bought this year as the benchmark stock index slumped 28%. They were net sellers of local stocks on all, but six of the 17 trading days this month through 27 August. Net equity purchases reached a record $17.2 billion in 2007. The National Stock Exchange India Ltd on Friday started trading in currency futures, the country’s first, to help investors hedge their foreign exchange risks. Futures contracts are agreements to buy, or sell a currency, commodity, or other financial products at a later specific price and date. The total traded volume on the first day was $65.8 million, the bourse said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 6:33 pm 65,000-plus contracts traded on first dayMumbai: Banks and brokerages struck 5,000 contracts of $1,000 (Rs43,800) each in the first 10 minutes after finance minister P. Chidambaram launched currency futures trade on Friday on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).  New step: Finance minister P. Chidambaram speaking at the inauguration of currency futures trading at the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai on Friday. Photograph: Punit Paranupe / Reuters About 42,098 contracts were of futures expiring in September. Banks contributed 40% of the total gross volume. The first trade on the exchange was made by East India Securities Ltd and among banks, HDFC Bank Ltd carried out the first trade, an NSE release said. The largest trade was by Standard Chartered Bank, constituting 15,000 contracts. Among the first deals struck, Standard Chartered bought 500 one-year contracts at 45 per dollar and Infosys Technologies Ltd sold 100 contracts for September at 43.8375 through ICICI Bank Ltd. “We executed 231 trades in September position,” said V.K. Khanna, general manager, treasury and international banking for Union Bank of India, one of those banks that hit the platform in early morning trade. According to some participants who did not wish to be named, banks that have overseas presence took advantage of the arbitrage opportunity between non-deliverable forward market in Singapore and the newly opened futures market in Mumbai. “The volume size is such that the profit is very thin,” said a senior dealer with a large public sector bank, who also declined being named. At present, only Indian residents are allowed to trade in US dollar. “As soon as the regulators gain experience (in the functions of the market), they would consider how and when it could be further opened up for trading on other currencies as well,” Chidambaram said while launching the trading. He also said foreign institutions and non-resident Indians will be allowed participation in due course. “After this, we need to revitalize the exchange-traded interest rate derivatives market, we need to offer exchange-traded credit derivatives, and we need to strengthen the corporate bond market,” the finance minister said. These three products are high on the priority list of the Union government and Chidambaram sought the support of the regulators to move forward. Emphasizing the importance of the bonds, currency and derivatives markets, he said, “We should work towards removal of entry barriers to domestic corporate players and foreign financial firms in all segments of the financial services industry.” The average daily turnover in the foreign exchange market has increased to $48.1 billion in 2007-08 from $25.8 billion in 2006-07, reflecting large international trade inflows. India is the 17th largest foreign exchange and derivatives markets in the world. According to Ravi Narain, chief executive officer of NSE, 11 banks and about 300 members have registered with the exchange for participating in the currency futures. “Some of them may be completing paper work or other account opening related issues... within 10 days every player will be functional,” Narain said. Brokers expect trading volumes to rise as they are getting inquiries from both retail and institutional clients. “Today we were just checking the set-up,” said Monal Desai, head of institutional equity derivatives at brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd. “We have got lots of enquiries from both retail and institutional clients asking when the facility to trade would be available,” he said. Desai declined to specify the number of clients who made enquiries or the volume his firm traded. anup.r@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 5:31 pm Apollo Sindhoori promoters to sell stake to Aditya Birla NuvoMUMBAI (Reuters) - Apollo Sindhoori Capital Investments Ltd said on Friday its promoters have entered into a share purchase agreement with Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd to sell 56 percent stake to the latter.Source: Reuters: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 4:23 pm GM recalls 857,735 vehicles for electrical problemsDETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp is recalling 857,735 vehicles equipped with a heated windshield wiper fluid system for a potential short-circuit problem, according to federal safety regulators.Source: Reuters: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 4:18 pm India growth at 3-½ yr low, but RBI talks toughNEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's economy grew at its slowest annual pace in 3-½ years in the June quarter but the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) warned inflation had hardened intolerably and signalled no let-up in its tight monetary policy stance.Source: Reuters: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 2:06 pm India stainless steel demand shines amid global gloomNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's stainless steel demand is expected to rise 8-9 percent in the current fiscal year and double in the next five years, as more of the alloy is used to make railway coaches and buildings, an industry official said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 1:48 pm Bharat Petroleum gets $370,000 US technical aidAs part of its ongoing commitment to the US-India Energy Dialogue, the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) Friday awarded a $370,000 technical assistance related grant to oil major Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL).Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 29 Aug 2008 | 1:32 pm India-Asean trade to swell $10bn this year: Kamal NathA day after India clinched the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said bilateral trade volumes are expected to increase by almost $10 billion this year.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 29 Aug 2008 | 1:32 pm Indian household savings fall 4.5 pct in 07/08 - RBIMUMBAI (Reuters) - Savings by Indian households fell 4.5 percent to 7.35 trillion rupees ($168 billion) in 2007/08, led by a fall in bank deposits, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its 2007/08 annual report on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 1:04 pm Kamal Nath: hopeful of 8 pct growth in FY09NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The trade minister said on Friday he expects the economy to expand in excess of 8 percent in the 2008/09 fiscal year, despite growth in the first quarter easing to its slowest pace in 3-1/2 years.Source: Reuters: Money News | 29 Aug 2008 | 12:36 pm TCS develops system for NSDLMumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said that it has developed a new system for National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) that will enable the latter to maintain pension records. “In partnership with NSDL, we have built a pension record system in just six months that is capable of scaling up to meet the needs of this fast-growing economy,” TCS CEO and Managing Director S Ramadorai said. In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the company said the new system would be the central record keeping agency for the government of India’s New Pension System. The benchmark for the new pensions record system are high. It has been built to ensure high availability with disaster recovery. Security has been given primary importance in the system with role—based access controls and public key infrastructure—based solution, the filing added. Shares of the TCS were trading at Rs811, up 2.29% on the BSE in afternoon trade. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 11:39 am HC notices to I&B Ministry, Trai on carriage feeNew Delhi: The Delhi High Court on 29 August sought a response from Information and Broadcasting Ministry and broadcast regulator Trai on a petition seeking regulation of fee charged by MSOs, cable operators and DTH operators to carry the channel on their platform. While issuing notices to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the I&B Ministry, Justice G.S. Sistani expressed the need to have rationality in fixing the charges. “There has to be some rationality. It is not that the court is deciding to frame regulation,” the Court said, when the counsel appearing for Trai contended that the Court should refrain from interfering in the matter. The Court was hearing the petition, filed by Delhi-based news channel Total TV, challenging the validity of carriage fees being charged by DTH operators, distributors, MSOs, cable operators. It approached the court after Prasar Bharati hiked the carriage fee from Rs25 lakh to Rs60 lakh per annum to carry the channel on its DTH platform. It submitted that when Trai has not prescribed any carriage fees to be charged by distributors, the same is to be held as illegal demand and such type of practice should be deprecated and discouraged. The channel questioned the basis for fixing such charge when there were no norms or guidelines laid down by the government. “There are no norms or guidelines regarding demand of carriage fees laid out by the government. On what basis DTH firms fix the carriage fee,” channel said. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 11:37 am Shyam-Sistema gets pan-India CDMA spectrumNew Delhi: Shyam Telecom and Russian major Sistema combined today became the first new telecom operator to get pan-India start-up spectrum to offer mobile services. Communication and IT Minister A Raja has signed the file for allotting CDMA spectrum to Shyam Telecom, which has sold majority stake to Russian conglomerate Sistema Inc. Shyam-Sistema had opted to offer mobile services in CDMA technology and had applied for 21 circles except Rajasthan where the company is already offering services under the brand name Oasis. Shyam-Sistema will be the third private pan-India operator offering mobile services using CDMA technology apart from Anil Ambani group company RCOM and Tata Teleservices. Other new telecom operators like Datacom, Unitech, Loop Telecom and Swan telecom have been alloted GSM radio frequency in six circles and the government is looking at the availability of spectrum in other circles too. Shyam-Sistema has already started rolling out network in various parts of the country and is hoping to start the services soon. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 11:34 am Reliance Money forays into EuropeNew Delhi: Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Money announced its foray into Europe by setting up operations in Ireland and the UK. The company is also looking to tap over two million non-resident Indian population in the region. Announcing the foray, R-Money CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said: “This is our first move to reach out to the large base of over 2 million NRIs and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO)s based in Europe with our unique, cost-effective and efficient bouquet of products and services. Our presence in Ireland and UK will complement our efforts to have a larger role in this region.” Ireland is the first European country where R-Money would start its operations in less than one year of its decision to tap the overseas markets. “R-Money (Ireland) would in turn enter into partnership with appropriate players in other European countries after getting the necessary approval from regulatory authorities in the respective countries,” he added. The company has already forayed into the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Africa and Hong Kong. After foraying into other global markets, broking and distribution firm Reliance Money made the first initiative to to offer its services to retail investors in Europe with a strew of financial products. Bandyopadhyay said that the company aims to generate 50% of its revenues from overseas markets by 2012 and capture a bigger share of the record $195 billion invested in India last year by overseas funds. Through Reliance Money (Ireland), the non-resident Indian entities and PIOs can invest in the Indian market directly through its capital market and portfolio management services for as low as $50,000. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 11:07 am Microsoft to buy online survey firm for $486 millionMicrosoft on Friday announced its first major deal since failing to buy Yahoo Inc, agreeing to acquire Web-based survey company Greenfield Online Inc for about $486 million. The deal gives Redwood, Washington-based Microsoft access to Greenfield’s Ciao.com, a popular price comparison and consumer reviews site in Europe. Its $17.50-per-share offer betters an earlier proposal by media-focused US buyout firm Quadrangle Group to acquire the company for $15.50 a share. Microsoft said it will sell off Greenfield Online’s main business - Internet survey solutions, which accounts for about 75% of the company’s overall revenue. The division sells consumer opinions in the form of survey responses to marketing research companies and end users. Microsoft did not name the buyer. Microsoft and Greenfield expect both deals to close during the fourth quarter of 2008. On August 26, Greenfield had said it had received a $17.50 per share acquisition offer but did not reveal the bidder. The offer represents a premium of about 10%, based on Greenfield Online’s closing share price on August 25. Greenfield said it would pay Quadrangle $5 million as termination fee. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 29 Aug 2008 | 8:30 am
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