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Corporate sales to grow, profits to falter in Q2 FY ‘09: CMIEMumbai: Corporate India is expected to report a 28.4% rise in sales during Q2 FY 09, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said in its monthly report here. Although a tad lower than the 32.5% rise in the June 2008 quarter, sales growth during July-September 2008 is going to be the second-highest quarterly growth in at least the last 11 years. “We expect a growth in Q2 FY 09 to be driven by a healthy 33.9% rise in net sales of the manufacturing sector and 52.6% and 42% rise in the income of the crude oil and construction sectors, respectively,” it said. Sectors like electricity, banking and real estate are expected to grow by less than 25%. Non-financial services like hotels, recreation, health, trading, transport, communication and IT are collectively expected to report a 25.6% rise in sales in the September 2008 quarter, it said. “We believe that the Indian corporate sector will once again fail to translate the impressive sales growth into a healthy profit growth. Corporate India’s net profits are expected to decline by 28% in the September 2008 quarter. The steep fall in profits is atributed to the refineries, which are expected to incur net losses of Rs19,897-crore in the Sepember 2008 quarter,” the report stated. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:26 pm Tata Motors team in Dharwad for Nano project!A Tata Motors team visited Dharwad district on Sunday to inspect the land offered by the Karnataka government for relocating the Nano small car project from Singur in West Bengal.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:24 pm UAE`s leading property financiers in merger talks!Under pressure from a major liquidity crunch facing the region, the two leading real estate financiers in the UAE - Amlak Finance and Tamweel have started merger talks.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:24 pm Xchanging buys India`s Cambridge Solutions for £83 mn !Xchanging Plc, a UK based BPO major, has agreed to buy India`s outsourcing and IT group Cambridge Solutions Ltd for 83 million pounds in cash and shares, the British business services company said in a statement.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:24 pm Govt may table insurance bill in next session of Parliament!The much-awaited comprehensive Insurance Bill, which seeks to raise foreign direct investment cap in private sector to 49 per cent from 26 per cent, is likely to be introduced in the forthcoming session of Parliament.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:24 pm Govt may table insurance bill in next session of Parliament!New Delhi, Oct 05: The much-awaited comprehensive insurance bill, which seeks to raise foreign direct investment cap in private sector to 49 percent from 26 percent, is likely to be introduced in the forthcoming session of Parliament.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:24 pm Subhiksha to foray into east, to open store in Kolkata!Food and grocery retail chain, Subhiksha, plans to expand its wings in the east soon, a top company official said.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:24 pm European leaders vows to fight financial crisis!European leaders vowed after crisis talks on Saturday to do all they could to fend off the financial mayhem that has snowballed out of Wall Street and is now hitting banks in Europe.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:24 pm Credit crisis cost Mittal 16.6 bn pounds!NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal has lost 16.6 billion pounds in the global credit crunch owing to plummeting stock markets in the last four months, media reports said here on Sunday.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:24 pm Steel prices in India set to go down - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:14 pm Will the Tatas' pullout put other SEZs in limbo? - Hindu
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 11:52 am ABN to be integrated before privatisation - DNBAMSTERDAM (Reuters) - ABN AMRO must be integrated with Fortis's Dutch activities before it is taken out of government ownership and privatised, Dutch central bank governor Nout Wellink said on Sunday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 11:42 am Tata's Nano a big crowd-puller at Durga PujaKOLKATA (Reuters) - An outsized model of Nano, the ultra-cheap car from Tata Motors, is pulling crowds of thousands during Durga Puja in West Bengal, after its factory was abandoned by the automaker after farmers' protests.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 11:06 am McDonald's pulled up for overchargingMcDonald's has been pulled up for "unfair trade practices" by a consumer court for overcharging on a coke bottle against the printed price and asked to compensate the consumer.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 11:01 am IBM targeting infrastructure cosPTI New Delhi: Global IT major IBM is targeting the infrastructure companies which are now focusing on information technology to increase their productivity. “As companies have started to look at IT as a necessity, the opportunity we see in this is to serve as a strategic business partner,” said IBM India & South Asia Global Business Services Managing Partner Sandip Patel. At present, the technology spend by Indian construction and steel companies is about 1.5 to 2% of their annual turnover, said Patel. The IT major plans to develop better practices and processes apart from offering IT services that will drive the growth of these companies in a competitive market. “We are partnering with companies in the infrastructure space for supply chain consulting, systems and applications,” adds Patel. The company is also helping the infrastructure and real estate players in HR, sales, marketing finance, accounting, business strategy, supply chain, logistics and procurement. Also, with Indian infrastructure companies expanding their business to the global markets like Middle East, Africa and other growth markets, IBM believes these companies would make use of technology to bring in the best processes and practices to drive growth. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 10:52 am Eight foreign firms among 17 bidding for coal explorationLeading coal miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) has received bids from 17 companies - both national and international - for extracting coal from 18 abandoned underground mines belonging to three of its subsidiaries.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Oct 2008 | 10:31 am LN Mittal loses £16.6 bn in global meltdownLakshmi Mittal has lost 16.6 billion pounds in the global credit crunch owing to plummeting stock markets in the last four months, media reports said here on Sunday.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 10:16 am Amul generates Rs200 cr revenue in 2008PTI Mumbai: The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation has generated a revenue of around Rs200 crore in the last 12 months from the 3,000 Amul parlours across the country, a top company official said. “We have generated a revenue of Rs200 crore in the last 12 months. As we increase the number of our stores, we expect the figures to go up,” Amul’s General Manager (Planning & Marketing) Jayen Mehta told reporters on the sidelines of the All India Management Association (AIMA) held here. There are around 3,000 Amul parlours across the country as of now and the Federation intends to take this to number around 10,000 by next year, Mehta said. “By March 2009, we intend to set up around 5,000 parlours. By the end of the next calender year, our plan is to have around 10,000 parlours,” Mehta said. It also plans to adopt the franchisee route to expand the network and has started the process of selecting franchisees pan-India, he said. Amul parlours offer milk, cheese, butter, ice-creams, beverages, other milk products and pizzas. “Gujarat continues to be the biggest sourcing point for milk. But now raw milk is also being procured from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajashthan, Orissa, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab,” Mehta said. Urban centres contribute nearly 70% to the company’s revenue while the remaining 30% comes from rural areas. The company is targeting a revenue of around $2.5-billion by 2010, he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 10:12 am Natural rubber production surges 21% in SeptBy PTI New Delhi: Natural rubber production has gone up by 21% in September on the back of conducive climate and higher prices, thus increasing the output so far this fiscal to 3.93 lakh tons -- a growth of 27%. Natural rubber output reached 79,000 tonnes in September against 65,275 tonnes in the same month last year, a senior Rubber Board official told PTI and added that the overall production so far this fiscal has increased to 3.93 lakh tonnes while it was 3.09 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period. Keeping pace with production, consumption also rose marginally to 76,000 tonnes in September from 74,590 tonnes in the same period last year. Similarly, the overall consumption during April-September also increased to 4.44 lakh tonnes from 4.22 lakh tonnes during the same period a year ago. During the period under review, import of natural rubber shot up by 9% to 9,878 tonnes from 9,093 tonnes, while export rose marginally to 1,250 tonnes from 1,166 tonnes. For the 2008-09 fiscal, the Rubber Board has pegged the natural rubber output at 8.75 lakh tonnes and consumption at 8.99 lakh tonnes. Exports and imports are estimated at 50,000 tonnes and 80,000 tonnes respectively for 2008-09. In the 2007-08 fiscal, the production of natural rubber declined 3% to 8.25 lakh tonnes from 8.52 lakh tonnes in the previous fiscal while consumption increased by 5% to nearly 8.6 lakh tonnes during 2007-08, against 8.2 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:57 am OPEC chief says will seek to balance market - paperALGIERS (Reuters) - Supply and demand alone will set oil prices in coming months and OPEC will seek to balance the market at its December meeting after recent declines, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said in remarks published on Sunday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:56 am Why India stands insulated from global crisisThe collapse of the mighty global financial system has triggered a series of chain reactions in India, but the impact is not going to be as widespread as earlier imagined.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:55 am Hindujas eye acquisitions in Europe, SAThe London-based Hindujas are eyeing takeover of technology firms and foundries in Europe and South America and plan to invest Rs.37 billion ($800 million).Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:54 am Book Review: The Dracula DossierWhat if Bram Stoker wrote his classic 1897 horror novel Dracula as a veiled way of telling a story even more horrifying? That’s the premise of James Reese’s new historical thriller The Dracula Dossier. Stoker, the Irish author and theater company manager remembered today for his hugely influential novel about the iconic vampire, is Reese’s narrator. The novel’s other characters include the actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry (megastars of their day), poet William Butler Yeats and Lady Jane Wilde, mother of the acclaimed playwright Oscar. In fact, every major character in The Dracula Dossier, set in 1888, is a real person. But one famous name who never appears is Dracula; in fact, there are no vampires in the book at all. But there is a terrible, seemingly unstoppable fiend washing London in blood, perhaps the most famous real-life killer ever: Jack the Ripper. And, as Reese tells it, Stoker knows who the Ripper is, and he and a small circle of friends are the only ones with any chance of hunting the murderer down. Reese borrows Stoker’s epistolary mode from Dracula (which Stoker in his turn borrowed from Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White), assembling The Dracula Dossier’s narrative from Stoker’s journal entries and his letters and telegrams to various friends, as well as newspaper clips about Jack the Ripper. As it does in Dracula, the method gives the story an authentic period style and a powerful air of urgency. The author introduces the novel with a missive to Reese’s editor, dated 2008, from an insistently anonymous Comte de Ville (whose pseudonym sharp-eyed Dracula fans will recognize), explaining how the dossier came into his hands. The novel then plunges into its atmosphere of eerie violence, with Stoker, on business in New York, recording a strange incident in which he cuts himself badly with an exotic knife he owns, an act he can’t explain: ”Whatever did I mean to do?” Returning to London, Stoker writes more fully about the event to his dear friend Thomas Hall Caine. Now forgotten, Caine was a hugely popular novelist in his day and also the ”dear Hommy-beg” (a childhood nickname) to whom Stoker dedicated Dracula. Caine, from his remote home in the Isle of Man, makes a fateful request of Stoker: to introduce an American doctor, one Francis Tumblety, to his London friends. The doctor is an unsettling figure, imposing yet elusive, to whom Stoker takes an instant dislike. Yet they are side by side during an elaborate ritual meant to initiate them into the stylishly occult Order of the Golden Dawn making Stoker a witness when the ritual goes horribly awry. Tumblety in real life was a slippery con artist on two continents and is still one of the major suspects in the Ripper case. Reese makes him literally a man possessed. But even after the Ripper begins slaughtering prostitutes, Stoker can’t just call the coppers. It seems Caine’s relationship with Tumblety was what the Victorians called ”the love that dare not speak its name” and Tumblety has a stash of letters that could utterly ruin Caine. That may seem to us a weak reason to let the Ripper keep murdering women, but remember that seven years after the events of this novel, Oscar Wilde, at the height of his success as a playwright, was sentenced to two years hard labor for having an affair with a young man. So Stoker, Caine and the flamboyant but doughty Lady Wilde pursue Tumblety themselves. Alas, they have no handy Dr. Van Helsing armed with a bag of sharpened stakes and a store of research to help them just their own wits and courage. Reese has researched the book meticulously, and he makes graceful use of footnotes (purportedly added by the mysterious Comte) to fill out the historical background without slowing down the story. Unlike Patricia Cornwell’s 2002 Portrait of a Killer, Reese’s book is not meant to solve the Ripper case. The Dracula Dossier is fictional, an homage in style and structure to its namesake novel, an engrossing look into the lives of eminent Victorians, and a smashing, scary read. ©2008/THE NEW YORK TIMES Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:53 am Canon India expects Rs1,000 cr revenue in two yearsPTI Mumbai: Imaging technologies provider Canon India has said it expects to double its turnover to Rs1,000 crore in the next two years, from its present Rs500 crore. “We took 10 years to achieve sales of Rs500 crore. But in the next two years, we expect our sales to double,” Canon India Senior Vice President Alok Bharadwaj said. The company closed 2007 with sales worth Rs500 crore and expects to close 2008 with sales of Rs700 cr. Last year, it witnessed a growth of 35%. This year, the company would have a growth of 35-40%, Bharadwaj said. The growth in revenue is largely because the company has added products for more industries and is concentrating on its top 100 corporate clients. “We have formed a separate sales team to cater to our top 100 corporate accounts,” he said adding that Canon has increased the retail points from 2,500 tone up. The rupee has gone up by 14% against the US dollar, he said. “At the beginning of the year, we were buying at Rs41 for a dollar, but now it is Rs47 to a dollar,” he said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:51 am Citigroup goes to court over Wachovia takeoverIn another surprise development in the takeover race for the fourth largest US bank, a New York state court judge has granted an order extending Citigroup's "exclusivity agreement".Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:48 am Credit squeeze hits car salesRetail car sales by the Indian automobile industry have been hit hard by the squeeze on retail financing as banks have stopped hardselling car loans in the current economic climate.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:48 am Premium cars go compact at Paris motor showBy AFP Paris: Fashion companies long ago realized they could make a lot of money from selling top brand-name goods to a wider public, and now, with models like the BMW X1, Audi’s A1, or the Mini crossover, the carindustry is trying to do the same. “It’s called portfolio expansion,” said Christoph Stuermer, an analyst with research firm Global Insight. Car-makers are realizing that the value of a premium brand can be applied to a whole range of things.” BMW unveils X1 premium compact crossover BMW, the German manufacturer long associated with solid and stylish upmarket cars, chose the show in Paris to unveil its X1 premium compact crossover, which is likely to hit the salesrooms some time next year. It resembles a compact sporting estate, but with the deep body sides of a real off-road vehicle, and is pitched at customers who want a vehicle that can tackle rush hour traffic as well as weekends roughing it in the country. From the same BMW group comes the four-by-four Mini Crossover, a pumped-up version of the perennially popular Mini, which is also displayed at the show here and likely to go on sale by 2010. Audi shows the AI which has a smart phone Another German car group with a reputation for safety and style, Audi, has revealed its potential answer to the Mini with the A1, which among its many innovations will let you run the car’s infotainment system with your smart phone. New cars like the Mercedes-Benz which is also rumoured to be working on a baby four-wheel-drive vehicle are likely to be fuel efficient too. The Paris show is this year awash with new smaller cars designed to attract drivers concerned by high fuel prices, pollution and the ongoing global financial crisis. But people who will buy compact premium cars such as the BMW X1 or the Audi A1, which fit in perfectly with the downsizing zeitgeist, will be not primarily motivated by the environment, said Stuermer of Global Insight. “People who buy premium vehicles would automatically expect that they have the very latest technology” and thus they assume these cars will either be hybrids or low on fuel consumption, he said. Good brands denote social prestige These are not people who had big gas-guzzling cars and who now want to be seen to be making an effort for the environment, he said. “They are people with good salaries, not huge salaries but good ones. They want the social prestige of being able to afford a good brand,” he told AFP. At the BMW stand at the Paris car show, which this year was overshadowed by economic storm clouds looming over the industry, a yellow model of the company’s X1 was attracting a lot of attention. It might be small, said BMW’s Christophe Koenig, but it is very definitely “in the premium segment of the market”. In all, 362 models from 25 countries are represented at the Mondial de Paris, a car carnival that takes place every second year and that attracted 1.4 million people on its last outing in 2006. This year, the stands were showing 90 new models and a raft of new green technologies. The Paris motor show is on from 5-19 October 2008. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:39 am Chhattisgarh to set up Rs.1.7 bn jewellery parkChhattisgarh will invest Rs.1.7 billion ($37 million) to set up a gems and jewellery park at its upcoming satellite city Naya Raipur, state Industry Minister Rajesh Munat said here Sunday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:00 am Tata Motors inspects Dharwad site for Nano relocationTata Motors managing director G. Ravi Kant Sunday inspected land in Karnataka's Dharwad district for possible relocation of the Nano small car project but said no decision has been taken yet.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Oct 2008 | 9:00 am Citi wins court order in battle for WachoviaNEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc said it won a court order late on Saturday blocking Wells Fargo & Co. from buying hobbled U.S. bank Wachovia Corp until the court rules otherwise.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 8:55 am Anti-encroachment campaign gains momentum in MunnarKochi: Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan restarted his campaign against land encroachment and illegal structures in Munnar in Idukki district, despite facing opposition from his own party for a similar effort last year. Last week, following a visit to what the government designated as ‘disputed’ lands with cabinet colleagues Benoy Viswam and A.K. Balan, Achuthanandan said that 90 acres of land that were allegedly encroached on by Tata Tea Ltd. will be reclaimed. The cabinet committee on Munnar evictions will meet on Thursday to take a final decision. However, Tata Tea exited the plantation in 2005 and now holds an 18% stake in the Kannan Devan Hills Plantations Co, KDHP, owned and run by workers formerly employed with Tata Tea. “The said 90 acres which the chief minister has identified as encroached land at our Chokkanad estate is not part of the company, which has just 127 acres there. This land is outside the estate extending to other estates,” said T. Damu, director of KDHP. “It is for the government to undertake a survey and identify the surplus land.” Last year, his campaign had faced opposition from local Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, party workers as well as other allies in the ruling Left Democratic Front, or LDF, coalition government. Already, M.M. Mani, the Idukki district unit secretary of the CPM has declared that any attempt to evict poor and marginal farmers and small businesses in the name of a Clean Munnar campaign will be opposed, never mind that it is a government proposal. “It was over 130 years ago that workers came to these places to work in the tea and cardamom plantations. Several of them are on encroached lands and many continue to earn their livelihood from that. Let the government evict large land-grabbers and spare the marginal ones,” he said. C.A. Kurian, former deputy speaker in the Kerala Assembly and leader of the CPI, a constituent of the ruling LDF, has also said that any move to evict small and medium farmers and plantation workers will be opposed. It remains to be seen how the chief minister will go ahead with this drive in Munnar, amidst stiff opposition from constituents in the LDF and his own party, which has framed a guideline for the functioning of the government. In August, the party had officially said that those demanding ‘second land reforms’ were extremists, to which Achuthanandan had responded saying “Opportunists and revisionists fear people with an extreme stand.” The chief minister, who had last year removed a KDHP estate signboard and replaced it with a government one, claims the anti-encroachment drive has so far reclaimed 12,000 acres which will be redistributed among marginal farmers, farm workers and landless adivasis and plantation workers. Twenty eight ‘unauthorized’ resorts, on land meant solely for cardamom plantations under the Cardamom Hill Reserve rules, have been taken over by government and will be run by the tourist department, he added. Achuthanandan also admitted that there had been a slowdown in the work of the anti-encroachment special task force formed last year, led by senior IAS officer Suresh Kumar and Inspector-General Rishi Raj Singh. But opposition from the party and the LDF constituents had seen the drive slacken, forcing Kumar and Raj to opt out. The chief minister said the unit will be strengthened with the induction of Vinson M. Paul, an inspector-general of police in the central zone and that the duties of the unit will be rearranged. The cabinet committee meeting on Thursday will take a final decision on the matter. However, the chief minister has said that marginal farmers and colony-dwellers in the area will not be evicted. At Munnar, he said the drive was against the rich who had usurped government land that belongs to the landless. ajay.m@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 8:49 am Sugar factories in Maharashtra to go green, courtesy MPCBBy PTI Mumbai: Sugar factories in Maharashtra, a leading producer of sugarcane in India, are all set to embrace new technologies and measures to drastically curb pollution. “As a result of steps initiated by the factories at the behest of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), the rate of effluent production, which is now as much as 400 litres per tonne of crushed sugarcane, would come down to almost 100 litres”, a senior MPCB official told PTI. The 160-odd sugar factories, whose managing directors and environmental and technical experts participated in a series of workshops conducted by the Board, have said the sugar industry, considered the backbone of the cooperative sector in the state, would strictly implement pollution norms. The workshops were conducted at Nashik, Aurangabad, Pune and Sangli. MPCB officials said the factories, often accused of polluting water sources in their region, have decided to treat effluents and use them for irrigation. One of the participants, New Mahesh Sugar Mill in Marathwada region, has adopted an innovative way to make the factory eco-friendly. “The technique devised by them would help reduce by half dissolution of oil and grease in plant water”, the official said. The Board would undertake a follow-up exercise next month over implementation of suggestions given during the workshops, he said. Similar workshops would be undertaken for distilleries in the state, he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 8:09 am Sugar factories in Maharashtra to go green, courtesy MPCBBy PTI Mumbai: Sugar factories in Maharashtra, a leading producer of sugarcane in India, are all set to embrace new technologies and measures to drastically curb pollution. “As a result of steps initiated by the factories at the behest of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), the rate of effluent production, which is now as much as 400 litres per tonne of crushed sugarcane, would come down to almost 100 litres”, a senior MPCB official told PTI. The 160-odd sugar factories, whose managing directors and environmental and technical experts participated in a series of workshops conducted by the Board, have said the sugar industry, considered the backbone of the cooperative sector in the state, would strictly implement pollution norms. The workshops were conducted at Nashik, Aurangabad, Pune and Sangli. MPCB officials said the factories, often accused of polluting water sources in their region, have decided to treat effluents and use them for irrigation. One of the participants, New Mahesh Sugar Mill in Marathwada region, has adopted an innovative way to make the factory eco-friendly. “The technique devised by them would help reduce by half dissolution of oil and grease in plant water”, the official said. The Board would undertake a follow-up exercise next month over implementation of suggestions given during the workshops, he said. Similar workshops would be undertaken for distilleries in the state, he said. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 8:09 am Financial crisis darkens outlook for climate talksBy AFP Paris: Wall Street’s sickness and contagiousness for the world economy are bad news for the already faltering effort to craft a new pact to tackle climate change. Tighter budgets, shrinking corporate profits and worries about jobs could crimp manoeuvering room at upcoming UN talks on toughening curbs on greenhouse-gas emissions, sources say. But so far, the crisis does not appear to be having an impact on investment in clean technology, say these sources. Indeed, some are confident that spending on wind, solar and other renewables may even rise. Running in Poznan, Poland, from December 1-12, the talks are a stepping stone towards a treaty to brake emissions from fossil fuels beyond 2012 and support developing countries in climate change’s firing line. But curbing pollution and stumping up money for the poor entails economic sacrifice. And the financial hurricane that swept through New York last month and now buffets the real economy could sap some of the will to make it. “When growth is strong, it’s easier to handle differences [at the negotiating table] than when growth is weak,” said Jean-Charles Hourcade, director of a French think thank, the International Centre for Research on the Environment and Development (CIRED). Steve Sawyer, secretary general of a Brussels-based industry group, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), predicted some governments might invoke the crisis to tiptoe away from their commitments. EU to not weaken on its pledges Officially, the European Union, which is the most ambitious of the economic powers on climate change says it will not weaken on its pledges. The EU intends to cut its emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020, and to deepen this to 30% if the United States or other big economy follows suit. With President George W. Bush’s authority seeping away ahead of his departure from office, eyes in Poznan will be on an expected “shadow” US delegation, named by the winner of the November election to the White House. Both Barack Obama and John McCain have called climate change a priority. Both favour cutting US emissions by 2020 and deepening them by 2050, and want a cap-and-trade system to achieve this, something which Bush has bitterly opposed. Thirty years ago, a turndown in the world economy drove down the price of oil, sandbagging early hopes for renewable energy, whose fortunes had risen during the second energy shock of the late 1970s. Several experts questioned by AFP were confident renewables would not repeat this rise and fall. Renewables have already got a foothold, which may slip a little in the short-term but would endure in the long-term, they argued. Oil prices may continue to remain high Demand by Asia’s emerging giants and more limited oil supplies would keep oil prices relatively high, thus maintaining an incentive for cleaner sources. In addition, Europe and the United States were now keen on renewables, which are home-procured, for easing their energy dependence on the Middle East and Russia. New, cleaner technologies are therefore a good investment, easing geopolitical worries, creating jobs and reducing carbon emissions, according to this argument. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 8:03 am Financial crisis darkens outlook for climate talksBy AFP Paris: Wall Street’s sickness and contagiousness for the world economy are bad news for the already faltering effort to craft a new pact to tackle climate change. Tighter budgets, shrinking corporate profits and worries about jobs could crimp manoeuvering room at upcoming UN talks on toughening curbs on greenhouse-gas emissions, sources say. But so far, the crisis does not appear to be having an impact on investment in clean technology, say these sources. Indeed, some are confident that spending on wind, solar and other renewables may even rise. Running in Poznan, Poland, from December 1-12, the talks are a stepping stone towards a treaty to brake emissions from fossil fuels beyond 2012 and support developing countries in climate change’s firing line. But curbing pollution and stumping up money for the poor entails economic sacrifice. And the financial hurricane that swept through New York last month and now buffets the real economy could sap some of the will to make it. “When growth is strong, it’s easier to handle differences [at the negotiating table] than when growth is weak,” said Jean-Charles Hourcade, director of a French think thank, the International Centre for Research on the Environment and Development (CIRED). Steve Sawyer, secretary general of a Brussels-based industry group, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), predicted some governments might invoke the crisis to tiptoe away from their commitments. EU to not weaken on its pledges Officially, the European Union, which is the most ambitious of the economic powers on climate change says it will not weaken on its pledges. The EU intends to cut its emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020, and to deepen this to 30% if the United States or other big economy follows suit. With President George W. Bush’s authority seeping away ahead of his departure from office, eyes in Poznan will be on an expected “shadow” US delegation, named by the winner of the November election to the White House. Both Barack Obama and John McCain have called climate change a priority. Both favour cutting US emissions by 2020 and deepening them by 2050, and want a cap-and-trade system to achieve this, something which Bush has bitterly opposed. Thirty years ago, a turndown in the world economy drove down the price of oil, sandbagging early hopes for renewable energy, whose fortunes had risen during the second energy shock of the late 1970s. Several experts questioned by AFP were confident renewables would not repeat this rise and fall. Renewables have already got a foothold, which may slip a little in the short-term but would endure in the long-term, they argued. Oil prices may continue to remain high Demand by Asia’s emerging giants and more limited oil supplies would keep oil prices relatively high, thus maintaining an incentive for cleaner sources. In addition, Europe and the United States were now keen on renewables, which are home-procured, for easing their energy dependence on the Middle East and Russia. New, cleaner technologies are therefore a good investment, easing geopolitical worries, creating jobs and reducing carbon emissions, according to this argument. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 8:03 am Credit squeeze hits car salesRetail car sales by the Indian automobile industry have been hit hard by the squeeze on retail financing as banks have stopped hardselling car loans in the current economic climate, say auto industry representatives.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Oct 2008 | 8:01 am Hindujas eye acquisitions in Europe, South AmericaThe London-based Hindujas are eyeing takeover of technology firms and foundries in Europe and South America and plan to invest Rs.37 billion ($800 million) to make their automotive and foundry businesses a Rs.300 billion ($6.5 billion) enterprise.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Oct 2008 | 8:00 am Why India stands largely insulated from global financial crisisThe collapse of the mighty global financial system has triggered a series of chain reactions in India, but the impact is not going to be as widespread as earlier imagined. The reasons are numerous.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Oct 2008 | 8:00 am Corporation bank puts Sub-PLR loans on holdBy PTI Mumbai: Manglore-based Corporation Bank has decided to freeze its sub-PLR lending to corporates until liquidity conditions improve and Reserve Bank signals change in its policy stance. The move is primarily aimed at protecting the margins in the wake of a high interest rate regime and rising cost of funds. The lender had seen a sluggish growth in the first quarter of FY 09 owing to provisioning made on account of the depreciation of its bond-portfolio. “Sub-PLR lending is becoming irrelevant in the present context given the tight liquidity and high cost of funds. We have significantly reduced our sub-PLR loans. This would continue till the prevailing liquidity conditions change,” Coporation Bank’s chairman and managing director, B Sambamurthy told PTI here. Corporate lendings contribute around 20% of Corporation bank’s lending portfolio while retail loans make up 25%. Banks used to lend to big corporates coming with top ratings at much lower rates below the prime lending rate (PLR) with a view to woo attract more low-risk borrowings. Many banks, including the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India has reduced its exposure to the sub-PLR loans once liquidity conditions tightened after RBI’s tightening liquidity in a bid to arrest inflation. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 7:41 am UK firm to buy 75 pc stake in Cambridge - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 7:37 am Guessing game in full-swing ahead of 2008 Nobel PrizesBy AFP Stockholm:Ahead of the Nobel season which opens Monday there is a wild guessing game on as to who will bag the Nobel this year. According to the pundits, this year it is the Chinese or Russian human rights activists who are tipped to win the Peace Prize and France’s Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio who is likely to win the Literature Prize. The Nobel committees never reveal the names of the nominees for the prestigious awards, leaving observers to resort to unbridled speculation about who could take the honours. Peace Prize may go to Hu Jia, a Chinese dissident For the Peace Prize, to be announced in Oslo on 10October, Chinese dissident Hu Jia and Chechen human rights lawyer Lidiya Yusupova are seen as strong contenders, as 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “The prize this year will finally go to a Chinese dissident and I believe that the most likely is Hu Jia, perhaps together with his wife,” predicted Stein Toennesson, director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo. Nineteen years after awarding the prize to the Dalai Lama, the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee could choose to send a stinging reminder to the Chinese regime to stick to its vow to improve human rights. Or it could opt to put the spotlight on Russia, according to Janne Haaland Matlary, a political science professor at Oslo University. Yusupova, the former head of the Russian rights group Memorial in Grozny, collated information and statistics about Russian human rights abuses such as torture, kidnapping and executions across Chechnya. Other names circulating as possible laureates are Vietnamese Buddhist monk and democracy activist Thich Quang Do, former French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt and Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya. Literature Prize could go to Le Clezio from Stockholm For the Literature Prize, which will be announced on 9October, Le Clezio’s name appears to stand out this year in Stockholm’s literary circles. “The Nobel statutes say the prize should honour a body of work with ideals, and Le Clezio’s books are teeming with humanity. He straddles several cultures, Latin America, Africa, Europe. All of this appeals to the Swedish Academy,” he said. Among the names tossed about every year include South Korea’s Ko Un, Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa, Americans Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates, Japan’s Haruki Murakami, Italian Antonio Tabucchi, Israel’s Amos Oz, Canada’s Margaret Atwood and France’s Yves Bonnefoy. Online betting site Ladbrokes meanwhile has Italian essayist Claudio Magris as the frontrunner with 3-to-1 odds. Science Prizes to be announced coming week The Nobel Prize season kicks off Monday with the announcement of the Medicine Prize winner, followed by the Physics Prize on Tuesday and the Chemistry Prize on Wednesday. Americans have for decades dominated the science prizes, though last year Europeans prevailed. For the medicine award, fields that could be honoured this year include DNA fingerprinting, cancer research, and the discovery of the AIDS virus, while the Physics Prize could go to work on particle physics, observers suggested. The chemistry committee has in recent years crowned discoveries with practical applications, so the 2008 laureates may have done research now used in the fields of information technology or the environment. The Economics Prize announcement is due on 13October The current financial crisis is not expected to play a role in the prize committee’s deliberations this year, but it could affect future choices. One of the economic doctrines most often prized by the committee -- market liberalism -- is being blamed by many for today’s woes and observers have suggested the committee may in the future turn the spotlight on macroeconomic stabilisation theories or new chaos theories. The Nobel Prizes, founded by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, were first awarded in 1901. Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, died childless in 1896, dedicating his vast fortune to create the prizes. Laureates receive $1.42 million which can be split between up to three winners per prize. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 7:22 am Erosion in business confidence: surveyPTI New Delhi: Global financial crisis has added to the woes of corporate India, which has suffered erosion in the business confidence in recent months, and several firms are forced to put off their investment plans, an industry survey has said. Of the 348 firms included in the FICCI Business Confidence Survey, 56% reported weakening of demand in the first quarter of the fiscal 2008-09. It has put margins under stress. What is worse: it is reflected in the firms’ outlook for the coming six months. “Global financial crisis and weak demand have added hardship for the Indian corporates in a globalised market,” the survey stated. vestments. As much as 57% of the companies surveyed said things have gone “moderately-to-substantially better”. The people in this category accounted for 70% a year ago. India’s gross domestic product is expanding at a lesser pace this year than an impressive 9% in 2007-08. The economy grew by 7.9% in the April-June period of 2008-09. The growth for the year may be between 7.5% and eight per cent. “Other notable trends in the survey include a sharp reduction in the pricing power of the companies... The profit margins of the companies are under severe stress and same is reflected in the firms’ outlook in the coming six months,” it added. SME segment has been the worst affected sector as its interest cost has risen by 3.5% to 5.5% over the last one year compared with 1.5% to 2.5% for larger firms, the Ficci’s Business Confidence Survey said. “Nearly 97% of the participants agreed that it is the SME segment that is facing the pressure most on account of the hardening interest rates,” it said. Companies have demanded that the RBI, in consultation with the government, should look at a scheme that offers productivity linked benefits or incentives to SMEs, it said. Nearly 20% of the companies indicated dependence on retail loans for sales. However, about one-fifth of the comparance in the smooth functioning of the companies, include weak demand, constrained availability of credit and high cost of credit. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 7:17 am Weekly Wrap: Sensex slips 579 pts - Sify
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 7:05 am Tata Motors team in Dharwad for Nano projectA Tata Motors team visited Dharwad district Sunday to inspect the land offered by the Karnataka government for relocating the Nano small car project from Singur in West Bengal.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Oct 2008 | 7:01 am ICICI Bank profits not to be impacted: Jt MDPTI Mumbai: ICICI Bank has asserted that its profitability trends, as reflected in Rs728 crore profit in the first quarter, would not be impacted by overseas subsidiaries for which mark-to-market provision of over Rs415 crore have been made till June. “The impact of profit and loss, whatever, gets restricted to the UK bank...even if there is MTM, it does not impact the profitability of Indian bank,” ICICI Bank’s Joint Managing Director Chanda Kochhar told PTI. Though she declined to talk about the quantum of MTM loss that the bank would make for the quarter ending September, Kochhar said, “as the market moves and spread moves up and down you too take some MTM. It does not mean there is deterioration in credit rating or anything”. ICICI Bank had been the focus of rumours that cast doubt about its financial health, leading to depositors’ queues at a number of its branches, prompting the management to come out with strong statements earlier this week. Asked if trend demonstrated in the first quarter with a net profit of over Rs700 crore would be continued despite any pressure that may be faced in overseas subsidiaries, Kochhar said, “In India absolutely and that was (Rs728 crore profit) was the first quarter performance. The profits in India does not get impacted at all.” Buttressing her argument, CEO and Managing Director K V Kamath said even in the UK subsidiary’s exposure to the American market, that is witnessing an unprecedented financial turmoil impacting the global economy, is limited to just 18%. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 6:49 am Paswan seeks early gas connection for fertiliser unitsNew Delhi: Concerned over the rising fertiliser subsidies, Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has sought early gas connectivity for fertiliser units to augment domestic output and reduce import dependence. According to government sources, the Minister has written to the Empowered Group of Minister on gas, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to give a clear direction to Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) as to when would it complete connection of grids under the Hajira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur pipeline project. “GAIL should give a roadmap as by when would it begin work on the connectivity project and also by when will that be completed,” a source in the Fertiliser Ministry said. “In the absence of connectivity, the gas-sale agreement is not being signed between the potential investors and GAIL, a reason why bankers are not ready to finance the urea projects in the pipeline,” he added. Paswan has warned that India may lose Rs40,000 crore investment in the urea sector if the proposed industries are not provided timely gas connection to run their operations. At present, there are 30 urea units in the country, which require 40 mmscmd of gas against which the supply is pegged at 29 mmscmd. However, if the requirement from the proposed revival of eight sick units as also fresh investments lined up in the sector is taken into account, then the demand would shoot up to 95 mmscmd. India’s fertiliser subsidies are expected to go up to Rs1,19,000 crore in 2008-09 fiscal, against Rs40,338 crore last year. The country imported about 50 lakh ton of urea during last fiscal but this year the import is expected to reach about 80 lakh ton. The demand for urea was 250 lakh ton last year against a domestic production of 200 lakh ton. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 6:32 am Govt may table insurance bill in next session of ParliamentPTI New Delh: The much-awaited comprehensive insurance bill, which seeks to raise foreign direct investment cap in private sector to 49% from 26%, is likely to be introduced in the forthcoming session of Parliament. The draft is being vetted by the Law Ministry and would be moved for Cabinet approval once it is cleared by the arance before the session begins, sources said. Parliament session is scheduled to begin from 17 October. Last month, a Group of Ministers headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had cleared a proposal to hike FDI limit from 26% to 49%. The proposed changes include amendments in the IRDA Act, 1999 and LIC Act, 1956 among others. The UPA regime had proposed raising the FDI cap in its first budget in 2004-05. However, opposition from the Left parties forced the government to refer it to GoM in 2006-end. The government failed to pursue the insurance sector reforms because of the pressure from Left, which were its allies. However after withdrawal of support by the Left, the government took a conscious view to pursue the pending economic reforms, including those in the insurance sector. Following opening of the insurance sector in 2000, about three dozen private companies have started operations in the country. Many of them are constrained by the 26% FDI and have been making a case for raising the foreign investment cap. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 6:23 am Nano in Karnataka will top 100 years of Tatas' ties with stateIf Tata Motors set up their Nano small car project in Karnataka, it will be the icing on the cake for the Tata Group's 100-year-old association with the state, formerly the princely state of Mysore.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Oct 2008 | 6:00 am Indian biotechnology sector to touch $5 bn by 2010: reportPTI New Delhi: Indian biotechnology sector is expected to become a $5 billion (around Rs23,400 crore) industry by 2010, says a report “The Indian biotechnology sector has excellent potential and is expected to touch five billion-dollar mark by 2010,” a report jointly prepared by industry chamber CII and consultancy firm KPMG said. “India is ranked among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world and is the third biggest in Asia-Pacific in terms of the number of biotech companies,” it added. Investments in the segment are also growing at the rate of about 38% for the last three years and have touched $560 million in 2006-07. Biopharma is one of the important segments of the Indian biotechnology sector and it constitutes about 70% of the domestic biotech industry. Of the total 325 biotechnology companies in India, more than 40% are in the biopharma sector, the report said. Availability of talent pool in the country is a big advantage for the Indian companies. The sector employs about 20,000 scientists, the report added. The industry has received significant contribution from leading institutes such as All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Centre for cellular and molecular biology (CCMB). The report pointed out that educational infrastructure need to be upgraded to facilitate further progress in the industry, the “India needs to invest in building a strong capability base in order to leverage large opportunities going forward. There are no shortcuts,” report quoted Biocon CEO and MD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw as saying. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 6:00 am Indian biotechnology sector to touch $5 bn by 2010: reportPTI New Delhi: Indian biotechnology sector is expected to become a $5 billion (around Rs23,400 crore) industry by 2010, says a report “The Indian biotechnology sector has excellent potential and is expected to touch five billion-dollar mark by 2010,” a report jointly prepared by industry chamber CII and consultancy firm KPMG said. “India is ranked among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world and is the third biggest in Asia-Pacific in terms of the number of biotech companies,” it added. Investments in the segment are also growing at the rate of about 38% for the last three years and have touched $560 million in 2006-07. Biopharma is one of the important segments of the Indian biotechnology sector and it constitutes about 70% of the domestic biotech industry. Of the total 325 biotechnology companies in India, more than 40% are in the biopharma sector, the report said. Availability of talent pool in the country is a big advantage for the Indian companies. The sector employs about 20,000 scientists, the report added. The industry has received significant contribution from leading institutes such as All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Centre for cellular and molecular biology (CCMB). The report pointed out that educational infrastructure need to be upgraded to facilitate further progress in the industry, the “India needs to invest in building a strong capability base in order to leverage large opportunities going forward. There are no shortcuts,” report quoted Biocon CEO and MD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw as saying. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 6:00 am Bangladesh gets $165 mln ADB loan for energy plans - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 5:50 am Corporation bank puts Sub-PLR loans on hold - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 5:35 am Indian IT giants bidding for British tech consultancy: report - Press Trust of India
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 5:31 am Abhinav Bindra - Samsung’s New Brand Ambassador! - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 5:25 am Airtel launches virtual calling card in CanadaBy PTI New Delhi: After the successful entry into UK and Singapore, telecom major Bharti Airtel today launched its virtual calling card services in Canada, offering a tariff of Rs2.80 for a one minute call to India. “Subscribers in Canada will now be able to call India at 5.9 cents (or Rs2.80) per minute on a toll-free access number. Using the service, the subscribers can also call other countries, as per the list available on Airtel CallHome website,” Bharti Airtel Head of International Calling Cards Arun Bharadwaj said. The company is targeting an NRI and student’s population of 1.5 million. Speaking about the launch, Bharti Airtel President, Enterprise Services, David Nishball said, “We are excited to launch the Airtel CallHome service in Canada after our earlier successful foray into other international markets. With the large NRI population, Canada is a strategic market for us and we see great potential here.” According to industry estimates, the total outgoing traffic to India from Canada is around 180 million minutes per month of which 60 million minutes is through calling cards. The company hopes to increase the share of virtual calling cards here and make Airtel the preferred choice for the Indian community to connect with friends and family back in India, he added. Canada is the fourth country where the Airtel CallHome service is being launched. It was launched in the US in end-2006 and in UK and Singapore in August and September 2008 respectively. Bharti also offers various value added services, including two touch speed dial and renewal facility online among others. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 5:25 am Air India adopts slew of measures to cut costsPTI New Delhi: As a part of its cost cutting steps, national carrier Air India has decided not to entertain requests for upgrading passengers to First Class or allow excess baggage for free. The decisions were taken at a recent meeting to ensure financial discipline in the company, airline sources said. The move came in the wake of huge losses being suffered by the national carrier as well as other Indian airlines, which have already initiated similar steps. Being a state-owned entity, Air India used to get a large number of requests from passengers, including politicians and bureaucrats. From now on, the entitlement for travel on the First Class, even for the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the airline, and all levels of other executives, stand withdrawn, sources said. These top executives would now be allowed to travel only on the Business Class, while the First Class would be meant solely for those travelling on paid tickets. A similar initiative has been taken in regard to requests for allowing excess baggage free of charge, as part of the overall corporate policy to enhance revenue. Sources said these specific moves, along with several other major initiatives to reduce costs, have brought about some “financial discipline” in the company. In another move, Air India has followed other major global players to introduce a “reduced Cruise Mach policy” to fly an aircraft mainly on long-haul flights at a given height on a low speed in order to reduce fuel burn. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Oct 2008 | 5:23 am Nomura to buy Lehman’s India operations - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 5:07 am HM Launches SUV Outlander - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Oct 2008 | 5:01 am European leaders vow to fight financial crisisPARIS (Reuters) - European leaders vowed after crisis talks on Saturday to do all they could to fend off the financial mayhem that has snowballed out of Wall Street and is now hitting banks in Europe.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Oct 2008 | 3:09 am Locals feel let down by Nano pulloutA day after Mr Ratan Tata announced that he was pulling the Nano project out of West Bengal, Singur continued to be engulfed in despair.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am An economy in search of policyJudging from the ongoing meltdown of Wall Street and the fluctuations in US policy reactions last week, it becomes clear that one of the most important items on the agenda of Asian emerging economies is the attempt to ring them against the ragingSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Steel imports up 50% in first six monthsIndia will continue to remain a net importer of steel during the current fiscal with demand growing at around 11.2 per cent while growth in production is expected to be around 5.2 per cent, the Minister of Steel, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, said here onSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am States vie for Nano projectBangalore/Dharwad, Oct. 4 The Karnataka Government has moved into top gear on the Nano car project and quickly organised a high-level meeting with the Tata Motors Managing Director, Mr Ravi Kant, at Dharwad on SundaySource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Sub-accounts rising despite amendments to FII normsDespite SEBI trying to encourage foreign funds to come upfront and register as FIIs, the number of sub-accounts has been rising, even after the amendments to the FII regulations were notified thisSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Weekly News Round-upHCL Technologies came ahead in the race for the acquisition of the Axon Group, with the Board of the UK company last Thursday dropping its recommendation of Infosys' 600 pence a share offer. Axon said it would unanimously recommend HCL's 650 pence aSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Rupee falls 17% in six monthsThe rupee, which has depreciated by more than 17 per cent in the last six months, may continue to be under pressure against the US dollar as no major improvement in foreign fund flow is expected in the near future, say bankers andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Soon you can fly and travel by rail on the same ticket in EuropeNew Delhi, Oct. 4 It is now possible to fly to most major cities in Europe and continue your journey by rail or road to smaller towns – all on one ticket, and cheaper to boot. The same facility now also exists for those wanting to fly fromSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Bush looks to sign 123 agreement soon: RiceNew Delhi, Oct 4 The US President, Mr George Bush, hopes to sign the 123 Agreement soon, the visiting Secretary of State, Ms Condoleezza Rice, said here on Saturday.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am IOC-OIL arm to scout for oil assets in CIS, African countriesNew Delhi, Oct. 4 Ind-Oil Overseas Ltd, the Mauritius-based special entity jointly floated by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) for acquiring oil and gas acreages overseas, may look at prospects in CIS and African countries.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Bangalore BPO sold to UK firmWhen most IT stocks have been hammered on the stock exchanges, Bangalore-based IT services firm Cambridge Solutions Ltd has been able to sell its stake at premium of over 30 per cent.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Oct 2008 | 10:31 pm UK firm to buy 75% of Cambridge for Rs 688 crXchanging Plc, the UK provider of back-office services, said today that it had agreed to buy 75 per cent of Bangalore-based Cambridge Solutions Ltd for 83 million (Rs 688 crore) in stock andSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 Oct 2008 | 7:23 pm Baltic index sinks, shipping firms in troubled watersShipping companies are sailing in rough seas with Londons Baltic Dry Index falling sharply in the last three months.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 Oct 2008 | 7:22 pm Plot thickens, Tata likely to return landSingur divided between those who want Tata back and those who just want their land.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 Oct 2008 | 7:20 pm No deal, but no worryIndia and the US were unable to ink the path-breaking civil nuclear agreement today with New Delhi making it clear that it would do so only after President George W Bush signs it into a law, anSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 Oct 2008 | 7:18 pm Condolence meet held in memory of lynched businessmanA condolence meeting was held here Saturday in memory of Lalit Kishore Chaudhary, the managing director of Graziano Trasmissioni India who was lynched Sep 22 by by a group of workers who had been dismissed from service.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 4 Oct 2008 | 6:30 pm Lost and found: Rs.2.9 mn from Uttar Pradesh treasuryTry and figure out this whodunit: Rs.2.9 million was found missing from the state treasury in this Uttar Pradesh town Saturday but was recovered within hours after police questioned three employees, a senior police officer said.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 4 Oct 2008 | 6:30 pm Panasonic launches 103-inch plasma TVJapanese electronics giant Panasonic has introduced its new range of plasma and LCD TVs, including a massive 103-inch plasma TV, in Punjab markets.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Oct 2008 | 3:18 pm Tata plant move may affect India investments, growthMUMBAI (Reuters) - The decision by Tata Motors Ltd to move a factory out of West Bengal after violent protests may affect the broader investment climate in the country, deterring foreign investors and denting economic growth.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Oct 2008 | 2:45 pm Brown to propose $21.2 billion fund at EU summitLondon: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today said he will propose a $21.2 billion fund to help small businesses deal with the international financial crisis when he meets other European leaders in Paris. Brown told reporters he would propose the fund “so that small businesses in our country and the rest of Europe can get money immediately so that they can continue to employ staff and continue to provide services”. He added that he would call for world leaders to “work together to clean up the system, both in America and Europe” by promoting transparency in the financial markets, and put together a timetable for international meetings to agree to changes. Brown arrives today for a meeting with the leaders of France, Germany and Italy, the other members of the European Union’s four biggest economies, to discuss the financial crisis. As lawmakers in Washington wrangled over their own USD 700-billion rescue package, which was finally approved yesterday, European governments have been forced to ride to the rescue of several major European banks this week. Brown’s government announced Monday the nationalization of Bradford & Bingley, coinciding with the €11.2-billion bailout of banking and insurance group Fortis by the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments. A day later, Belgium, France and Luxembourg joined together to inject €6.4 billion into banking group Dexia and in Germany Hypo Real Estate was saved by a government-backed rescue move. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Oct 2008 | 12:48 pm India to import more steel as production slows - officialsNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's steel consumption growth is outstripping production, and with mills operating at full capacity the country will import an increasing quantity of the alloy, top government officials said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Oct 2008 | 12:16 pm Apollo to set up 50 special diabetic clinics in 6 monthsWith India emerging as the diabetes capital of the world, diabetic specialty centers are gaining ground. Apollo is taking this to the next step. It plans a diabetes clinic in every neighbourhood.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Oct 2008 | 12:15 pm SBI sees interest rates having peaked - chairmanNEW DELHI (Reuters) - State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, sees interest rates as having peaked but does not expect them to decline much, as inflation moderates and liquidity is tight, its chairman said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Oct 2008 | 11:48 am ALUS co JV to build construction equipmentsTrucks and buses are passé. The country\'s second largest commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland has now joined hands with US based John Deere to enter the construction equipment space.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Oct 2008 | 11:38 am
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