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TCS buys Citigroup Global Services for $505mSoftware major Tata Consultancy Services, or TCS, has acquired Citigroup Global Services, which is the Indiabased captive BPO arm of Citigroup, for USD 505 million in an allcash deal, reports CNBCTV18. The former will get nineandhalf year contract from Citigroup amounting to USD 2.5 billion.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Oct 2008 | 1:30 pm US govt withdraws motion against Ranbaxy: An analysisThe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has responded to subpoenas issued against Ranbaxy in July and not against the 30 drugs, CNBCTV18 reports. FDAs move can have a positive impact on restrictions on 30 drugs.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Oct 2008 | 1:22 pm We are not yet a shareholder of Ranbaxy: DaiichiDaiichi Sankyo claims that is not a shareholder of Ranbaxy yet, CNBCTV reports quoting agencies. Daiichi believes that there is a gap in the companys versus markets valuation for Ranbaxy, the agencies said.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Oct 2008 | 11:26 am Fed leads global coordinated rate cut, eases by 1/2 pointWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve led a coordinated round of global official rate cuts on Wednesday, easing by a half-point, as did the European Central Bank, Bank of England and Swiss, Canadian and Swedish banks.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 11:16 am BSE Sensex provisionally falls 2.5 pctMUMBAI (Reuters) – The BSE Sensex trimmed losses on Wednesday to provisionally end down 2.48 percent, helped by local institutional buying and short covering after slumping more than 8 percent at one stage.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 11:09 am Education Bill likely to be tabled in Parliament sessionNew Delhi: The Right to Education Bill, which seeks to make education a right of every child, is likely to be introduced in the ensuing session of the Parliament. The the Group of Ministers have finalized the funding pattern between the Centre and States for implementation of projects recommended in the Bill. “There is no problem in the bill now. A satisfactory solution on funding responsibility (between the States and the Centre) has been achieved. I am quite satisfied,” Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia,also a member of the GoM, said. He, however, did not specify the funding modalities. The GoM, set up to study the bill has discussed all contentious issues, including the extent to which the state governments should contribute to make free and compulsory education available to every child. “Some modifications have been done to the draft bill,” he said. Asked whether the Bill would be introduced in the coming session of Parliament, Alhuwalia said: “Yes I hope so.” The financial requirement for implementing the measures for seven years from 2008-09 to 2014-15 is estimated to be Rs2.28 lakh crore. The legislation would require an additional Rs12,000 crore annually during the remaining years of the 11th Plan as the balance would be met from the ongoing programme of Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan. Mooted in 2006, the bill has been hanging in balance as the funding responsibility of the States and the Centre for the purpose has been the bone of contention. The bill specifies the responsibility of teachers and schools besides provisions for protection of child rights and redressals of their grievances. It also seeks to provide the right to children in the age group 6-14 years to get free education till completion of elementary education in their neighbourhood school. It stipulates duties and responsibilities of the government, local authorities and parents for providing free and compulsory education. Private unaided schools will be under the ambit too as 25% seats will be reserved for poor children in their neighbourhood and the government would reimburse the money incurred. The GoM, headed by HRD Minister Arjun Singh, met at his residence, nearly two months after the Cabinet referred the Bill to it. Apart from the HRD minister and Alhuwalia, finance minister P Chidambaram and Science and Technology minister Kapil Sibal are the other members of the GoM. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 11:06 am Goldman Sachs picks up 3.97 pct stake in ICSAMUMBAI (Reuters) - ICSA India Ltd said on Wednesday it has alloted 1.75 million shares to Goldman Sachs Asia Finance upon conversion of warrants.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 11:05 am Financial crisis weighs on executives' mindsSINGAPORE (Reuters) - The most serious financial crisis in decades has caused business executives and government officials around the world to rein in their expectations for short- and long-term growth and warn that business volatility will be around for some time.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am Mkts recover sharply from day's low; Nifty ends above 3500 - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:59 am Tokyo stocks suffer worst crash in two decadesTokyo: The Tokyo stock market suffered its darkest day since the 1987 stock market crash as the Nikkei dived more than nine percent Wednesday amidst panic-selling over the global financial crisis. The steep fall reflected a sense of desperation among investors that efforts by global authorities to try to calm the worse financial shock since the Great Depression do not appear to be working. The Nikkei-225 index dived 952.58 points, or 9.38%, to 9,203.32, a drop that even Prime Minister Taro Aso described as “beyond our imagination.” It was the third-largest loss in the history of Asia’s largest bourse, surpassing the slump after the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the United States. The last time the Nikkei fell so much was a 14.9% plunge on 20 October, 1987 in the wake of the “Black Monday” crash in the United States. “No one wants to take risks right now,” said Hirokazu Fujiki, a strategist with Okasan Securities. “There’s no near-term bottom in sight.” Reports that auto giant Toyota may miss its earnings forecast added to the market jitters, sending shares in the auto giant down 11.6% to 3,280 yen. Other exporters also suffered a mauling as the yen soared, dimming the outlook for overseas earnings. Sony dropped 335 yen, or 12.3%, to 2,385. The Topix index of all first section shares tumbled 78.60 points, or 8.04 %, to 899.01. The plunge came after Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average sank more than 500 points or 5% on Tuesday to a five-year closing low. “The cause of the freefall did not come from within Japan. Investors were simply determined to pull money out from the stock market,” said Daisuke Uno, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. “I think share prices will continue falling,” he warned. The Nikkei is now at the lowest level in more than five years, having tumbled by more than 30% since the start of August. It is a whopping 76% lower than its all-time peak of 38,915 points struck in December 1989 before Japan’s economic bubble burst. The latest plunge came despite new efforts by global policymakers to try to shore up ailing markets. Uno said that Japan’s central bank, which held interest rates steady a day earlier, appeared to be underestimating the severity of the problems. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:57 am Citi sells India BPO arm to TCS, cuts U.S. mortgage jobsMUMBAI (Reuters) - Tata Consultancy Services said on Wednesday it would acquire Citigroup's back office unit in India for about $505 million in cash, as the U.S. financial giant sheds its non-core assets.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:56 am Power firms can use surplus coal for other projects - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:51 am FEATURE - Pakistani share dealers left in limbo as economy sinksKARACHI (Reuters) - While Pakistan's economy tanks and its rupee strikes record lows, share dealers on the Karachi Stock Exchange have been reduced to watching television, playing video games and thinking about new careers.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:43 am 'BlackBerry to be catalyst for India's progress'BlackBerry will be a major tool in India's quest to become a developed nation by 2020, according to a top official at the maker of the device Research in Motion (RIM).Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:39 am Reliance Globalcom appoints new NLD business head - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:31 am Indian banks well capitalised: FM - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:30 am An all-women car unveiled in gender-sensitive IranIran's state-backed motor manufacturer, Iran Khodro, has unveiled a new car specially designed for women that might take the country's gender sensitivity to new levels.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:17 am US stocks plunge as Fed moves failUS stocks fell sharply again as investors remained unconvinced that new lending avenues created by the Federal Reserve would unblock credit to the struggling US economy.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:12 am Govt likely to relax ECB norms - Myiris.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:11 am Blame inflation, Ravana goes thrice-costlyDussehra organising committees are facing the heat in Chhattisgarh this year as inflation has made more than thrice-costly the effigies of demon king Ravan.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:11 am Indian equities in free fall, key index below 11,000The bloodbath in the Indian equities markets continued on Wednesday with a key index dipping below the psychologically important 11,000-point mark after opening weak.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:10 am Spain creates $41 bn fund to ease credit crunchThe Spanish government announced the creation of a 30-billion-euro fund to buy bank assets to ensure credit flow amid the worldwide financial crisis, EFE reported on Wednesday.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:10 am Britain bails out banks, Hong Kong slashes ratesLONDON (Reuters) - Britain offered to pump up to 50 billion pounds ($87.2 billion) into its biggest retail banks on Wednesday to help them survive the worst international financial crisis since the 1930s.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:09 am Nikkei dives nearly 10 percentNikkei 225 Stock Average on Wednesday nosedived to the lowest closing level since June 2003 in a five-day losing streak on heavy selloffs amid mounting concerns over the global recession.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:09 am Britain announces $87 bn bailout plan for banksThe British government on Wednesday announced a major rescue package for leading banks of 50 billion pounds ($87 billion) to stabilize the banking system.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:09 am Asia-Pacific markets fall sharply on worldwide recession gloomStock markets throughout Asia and the Pacific fell sharply on Wednesday in response to Wall Street's plunge and mounting fears over a worldwide recession.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:08 am Marketing of Durga Puja takes a step forwardDurga Puja organisers have long sold space on their marquees to commercial firms. Now the organisers of one Puja have sold the right to sell space.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:07 am TCS to acquire Citigroup Global Services for $505 mnPTI Mumbai: IT major Tata Consultancy Services today said it will buy Citigroup Inc’s India-based outsourcing arm for an all cash deal of around $505 million. TCS has signed an agreement with Citigroup Inc to acquire all of Citi’s interest in Citigroup Global Services Ltd, the company said in a release. Citigroup Global Services Limited (CGSL) is the India-based captive business processing outsourcing arm of Citi. In addition to the sale, Citi has also signed an $2.5 billion deal through which TCS will provide process outsourcing services to Citi and its affiliates over nine-and-a-half years. This will be provided through CGSL, the release said. The acquisition broadens TCS’s portfolio of end-to-end IT and BPO services in the global banking and financial services sector. “This is a landmark acquisition for TCS, helping us not only acquire new capabilities in the banking domain but also underscoring the importance of our long-term, sustainable relationships with our large customers, including Citi,” TCS CEO and Managing Director S Ramadorai said. Citi’s Chief Administrative Officer Don Callahan said that the transaction would benefit Citi, its customers, employees and TCS. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:07 am Credit crisis to dent growth at India IT firmsBANGALORE (Reuters) - India's top information technology outsourcers should report quarterly profit rose by up to a third, helped by a weaker rupee, but the export-driven industry's outlook will be dented by the global financial crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 10:02 am Parties support bank rescue plan - BBC News
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:55 am India can tide over economic crisis: Kamal Nath - Hindustan Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:55 am India ready to inject more cash into markets - ChidambaramNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is ready to pump more cash into jittery financial markets, the finance minister said on Wednesday, after stocks slumped to a two-year trough and the rupee fell to its lowest in more than six years.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:50 am Mkts too dependent on FII flows: Quantum AMC - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:42 am Govt not to launch overseas dollar bondsPTI New Delhi: Government today ruled out launching of dollar-denominated bonds but indicated that it may further relax overseas borrowing norms and raise FII investment limit in debt instruments to help companies tide over the liquidity crunch created by global financial crisis. “There is no proposal to launch sovereign long-term dollar-denominated bonds as of now,” a finance ministry official said when asked whether the government is planning to hit the overseas market to raise funds. However, the finance ministry is considering further liberalisation of external commercial borrowings (ECB) norms for companies besides raising FII limits in Indian debt market. At present, FIIs are allowed to invest in the Indian debt market up to $8 billion, of which $3 billion can be invested in corporate debts and $5 billion in government securities. Yesterday, the government included mining, exploration and refinery sectors under the ambit of infrastructure so that they can access overseas borrowings more liberally up to $500 million into India for rupee capital expenditure. Infrastructure includes seven sectors -- power, telecommunication, railways, road, sea port and airport industrial parks and urban infrastructure (water supply, sanitation and sewage projects). Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:39 am Markets recover somewhat, key index again above 11,000After opening weak and then suffering almost a free fall, Indian equities markets recovered somewhat by mid-afternoon and a key index once again breached the 11,000 mark after having gone below it during the morning session.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:31 am Regulated economies top competitiveness indexReuters Geneva: Regulated European and Asian countries topped the World Economic Forum’s 2008 Global Competitiveness Index on Wednesday, as the financial crisis started to take its toll on economies. The survey was conducted between January and May this year, so the index does not reflect the latest developments in the financial crisis. But Jennifer Blanke, senior economist of the forum, said the index aimed to take a longer-term view, and on that basis the United States’ ranking was fully justified. The United States remained in first place in the index, its flexible labour markets and innovative businesses well positioned to help it out of the global financial crisis. But Britain, where the financial sector plays a bigger role, dropped out of the top 10 to rank 12th, while relatively regulated economies like Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Japan all featured in the top 10. The index is produced each year by the World Economic Forum, which organizes the annual Davos meeting of business and political leaders. Index measures productivity and not just market share This year the index, combining economic data with a survey of business executives, covers 134 economies. Economies are assessed according to 12 “pillars” of competitiveness, ranging from infrastructure and macroeconomic stability to business sophistication and innovation. These are weighted for each economy to reflect their stage of development. The aim is to assess the factors that determine productivity rather than simply measure market share, the forum says. Forum researchers acknowledge that as in any such exercise, the data are not always up to date, and the survey can be subjective. But the index is closely followed by governments and by companies planning foreign investments. Blanke, justifying issuing the index at a time of financial market turmoil, told a briefing “We are looking at structural factors. We are not looking at the business cycle and we’re also not necessarily looking at shocks, as big as they are.” China, Russia, Brazil moved up while India dropped two places China continued to climb this year, up four places to 30, helped by its large market and strong economic performance, but held back by underdeveloped financial markets, the forum said. Russia also rose sharply, climbing seven places to 51, its big market and oil-fuelled economic performance outweighing institutional weaknesses. Brazil also rose sharply. But among other big emerging economies, India slipped two places to rank 50 with economic problems and unequal access to health and education outweighing the size of its markets and its business sophistication. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:23 am CCCL bags Rs 12K cr Chennai airport expansion projThe Chennai airport expansion plans will finally take off. The Chennaibased CCCL has bagged the Rs 12,000 crore project. CNBCTV18\'s Divya Rajagopal and Taapsi Ramchandani find out how?Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:19 am Royal Orchid not concerned with economic slowdownRising inflation and a globally slowing economy is not that great a concern for the tourism industry. Bangalorebased hospitality player Royal Orchid Hotel is making hay while the going is slow.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:13 am Britain offers 50 bln stg to shore up banksLONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to inject 50 billion pounds ($87 billion) of emergency capital into the country's banks, which have been left reeling by the global financial crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:13 am ONGC to implement its Uranium project soon - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:12 am BT seeks India patent for Computer Telephony SystemBy PTI New Delhi: UK-based telecom company, British Telecom has filed a patent application in India for its invention computer telephony system, which could make a phone call through the Internet more secure, a development that is particularly useful for call centres. BT, which is one of the largest communication companies in the world, has approached the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks for patenting the invention. Admitting the application, the authorities have published the claims made by the company in their Patent Office Journal, giving a public notice. BT has presence in India and has collaborations with five domestic players -- Tech Mahindra, HCL, Infosys, TCS and Wipro. Jointly developed by David Peter Thorpe and Jon Laurence Booton, the CTS has already been granted a patent by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:11 am Essar Oil to reopen its petrol pumpsMellowing crude prices have brightened chances for private companies that had shut petrol pumps earlier this year due to high crude prices and subsidies given by public sector oil marketing companies. CNBCTV18 has learnt from sources that Essar Oil is now looking to reopen its petrol pumps.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:10 am Deutsche Bank appoints M Varma as head, Global Markets, IndiaBy PTI Mumbai: Deutsche Bank has appointed Munish Varma as head of Global Markets India with immediate effect. Varma will be responsible for the bank’s sales and trading businesses in the country, a press release issued here stated. He will report to Gunit Chadha, managing director and CEO of Deutsche Bank in India while regionally, he will report to Loh Boon Chye, head of Global Markets Asia ex-Japan. Varma takes over from Pavan Sukhdev, who takes a sabbatical from Deutsche Bank to focus on his work in environmental economics and conservation with various non-government organizations. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:04 am India’s FDI inflows rise despite global woesNew Delhi: Amidst global financial crisis, India’s foreign direct investment saw an impressive jump of 124% in the first five months of the current fiscal, while the FDI flows in August went up by huge 180%. The country received FDI of $14.6 billion during April-August 2008 against $6.5 billion a year ago. “This (increase in FDI) must be seen in the context of the global economic situation,” Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said while releasing the FDI data. He said that the target for the current fiscal would be met despite a difficult financial environment in the world. The FDI target for 2008-09 is $35 billion, while the actual inflows during the previous year were $24.57 billion. In August alone, India’s FDI was $2.32 billion, a rise of 180% over the corresponding month last year. The manufacturing sector received $5 billion during April-August period, showing a rise of 41% over inflows in the year ago period. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:04 am AI to complete 75% of merger with Indian by MarchAir India has said that the company hopes to complete at least 70 to 75 per cent of the merger (with Indian) by the end of the financial year.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Oct 2008 | 9:00 am Citi selling India back office to TCS for $505 mn - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:57 am GSM players seek clarity on nonvoice revenuesGSMbased mobile operators have approached the Government seeking permission to separate their nonvoice revenues and club it under an Internet Service Providers licence.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:55 am Essar Oil signs pact with IOCEssar Oil signed a Product Sale, Purchase and Infrastructure Sharing MoU with Indian Oil Corporation, having earlier signed similar pacts with the other two PSU oil companies, HPCL and BPCL.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:53 am United Spirits plans to offer shares to grape growersUnited Spirits Four Seasons Wines plans to offer shares of its company to grape growers and enter into such contracts for over 2,000 acres.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:52 am Power ShowNew Delhi: NTPC, PowerGrid, BilPower Ltd., Coal India, NHPC, Power Finance Corporation, Shyam Steel, Suzlon Energy Ltd, Thermax, REC and Rolls-Royce are expected to take part in the 10th India Power Show, an event dedicated to the challenges that the power industry is facing, as it tries to keep pace with development. Dr. Kirit S. Parikh, member, Planning Commission, Government of India informed that business leaders from the public and private sectors along with central and state government officials will discuss how the target of, ‘Power for All by 2012’ can be achieved. Latest technologies, products and services that can help harness power projects speedily, qualitatively and economically would be on display at the three-day exhibition in Mumbai. The 10th India Power Show will be held in Mumbai from 6-8 November, 2008. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:49 am Indiabulls Real Estate Q2 net dips 76% at Rs7.99 cr PTI Mumbai: Indiabulls Real Estate today announced a consolidated net profit of Rs7.99 crore for the second quarter ended 30 September, a 76.60% decline over the corresponding period a year-ago. The company had a consolidated net profit of Rs 34.15 crore in the second quarter ended 30 September 2007, Indiabulls Real Estate said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The consolidated total income of the company rose to Rs143.82 crore in the quarter under review from Rs78.21 crore of the corresponding period last fiscal, it said. On a standalone basis, Indiabulls Real Estate posted a net profit of Rs6.87 crore in the quarter ended 30 September, a 69.82% decline over the corresponding period a year-ago. The company had posted a standalone net profit of Rs22.77 crore in the second quarter ended 30 September in 2007-08. The standalone total income of Indiabulls Real Estate rose to Rs49.61 crore in the latest quarter from Rs 37.34 crore of corresponding period last fiscal. Shares of the company were trading at Rs106, down 19.21% in the afternoon trade on the BSE. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:38 am Fresh tenders mooted for New Delhi station upgradeThe railway ministry has decided to drop a clause in the tender for the New Delhi railway station's modernisation project that bars companies from bidding if they have stakeholders who also own shares in rival bidder firms.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:33 am India’s ONGC eyeing Kazakh oil assetReuters Almaty: Leading Indian explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has shown interest in buying a stake in MMG, a Kazakhstan-based oil production company, a Kazakh government source told Reuters on Wednesday. Gazprom Neft, a unit of Gazprom, had earlier said it wanted to offer Kazakhstan a stake in one of its fields in Western Siberia in exchange for a 49% stake in MMG, also known as MangistauMunaiGas, but its offer has been rejected. On Wednesday, the government source said ONGC had approached the Kazakh side over MMG, which has total oil reserves of 812 million tonnes and recoverable reserves of 194 million tonnes. “ONGC has approached us with an offer to buy this asset,” the source said on the sidelines of an annual oil and gas conference in Kazakhstan. ONGC officials could not be immediately reached for comment. Kazakh oil company KazMunaiGas has received state approval to buy a controlling stake in MMG from Indonesia’s Central Asia Petroleum Ltd. It was yet to close the deal. Speaking to Reuters separately at the conference, another senior Kazakh official said that the Kazakh side was in talks with certain foreign investors but could not name them. “Negotiations are still continuing,” Nurlan Balgimbayev, adviser to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, told Reuters. On Tuesday, an industry source close to the negotiations said that KazMunaiGas had decided against forming a joint venture with Russia’s Gazprom Neft to run MMG and was talking to other potential partners. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:24 am MySpace-HP picture allianceAFP San Francisco: MySpace and Hewlett Packard on Tuesday announced an alliance aimed at getting people to print out more of the billions of pictures digitally stored at the world’s leading social networking website. The US technology titans said the “strategic business relationship” will integrate HP software into MySpace, particularly in photo sections, to make it easier to print comments, messages, blogs, pictures and other content. “Sharing and storing photos online is integral to the social networking experience and one of the most popular activities on MySpace,” said the News Corp-owned firm’s chief executive, Chris DeWolfe. “The MySpace platform is home to approximately four billion images and our users, from teens to grandparents, will now have an easier way to share their digital assets.” Virtual buttons are being installed on MySpace to let users print without leaving profile pages. The alliance will eventually allow people to emblazon images from MySpace on coffee mugs, T-shirts and other items. “We are unlocking content from user profiles, friend’s comments, and photos that were previously only viewable online,” said HP Imaging and Printing Group vice president Vyomesh Joshi. This will help HP to enable MySpace users to experience their content and to tell their story in a whole new way. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:07 am MySpace-HP picture allianceAFP San Francisco: MySpace and Hewlett Packard on Tuesday announced an alliance aimed at getting people to print out more of the billions of pictures digitally stored at the world’s leading social networking website. The US technology titans said the “strategic business relationship” will integrate HP software into MySpace, particularly in photo sections, to make it easier to print comments, messages, blogs, pictures and other content. “Sharing and storing photos online is integral to the social networking experience and one of the most popular activities on MySpace,” said the News Corp-owned firm’s chief executive, Chris DeWolfe. “The MySpace platform is home to approximately four billion images and our users, from teens to grandparents, will now have an easier way to share their digital assets.” Virtual buttons are being installed on MySpace to let users print without leaving profile pages. The alliance will eventually allow people to emblazon images from MySpace on coffee mugs, T-shirts and other items. “We are unlocking content from user profiles, friend’s comments, and photos that were previously only viewable online,” said HP Imaging and Printing Group vice president Vyomesh Joshi. This will help HP to enable MySpace users to experience their content and to tell their story in a whole new way. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:07 am Liberty of London to be among buyers at Wills Fashion WeekPTI New Delhi: UK’s accessory brand Liberty of London will be among the global buyers at the ensuing ‘Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week´ which would showcase creations of top designers inspired by rich Indian heritage. The fashion extravaganza, to open here on 15 October, is aimed at giving a push to the fast-growing Rs300 crore designer wear market by targetting domestic and overseas buyers. “With 36 shows and 79 designers, WIFW brings before the Indian and international clientele five days of absolute fashion and serious business,” Fashion Design Council of India President Sunil Sethi said. UK’s well-known accessory brand Liberty of London would be participating in the WIFW for the first time. Besides, Anthropologie of the US would also be among the overseas buyers seeking designs from India, some of which would be inspired from the cultural heritage of the country. The bi-annual WIFW, the flagship event of FDCI, is patronised by well-known designers and labels like Rina Dhaka, Satya Paul, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Shantanu and Nikhil, Manish Arora, Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna. India’s designer clothing market is estimated at Rs300 crore, whereas the market for branded wear is pegged at Rs8,000 crore, industry sources said. Designers would also be showcasing their contemporary collections including the western office wear. Renowned designer Vivienne Tam will be partnering Hewlett Packard to create ‘an exciting confluence´ of fashion and technology at the show, an HP official said. German car maker Audi, which is due to launch its R8 super sports car in November, will try and leverage the event as a sponsor. ITC’s Wills Lifestyle retains the title of the fashion week. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 8:00 am Britain unveils $437 bn bank rescue as markets panicLondon: Britain unveiled a $437 billion bank rescue on Wednesday as markets around the world bombed over fears that the worst financial crisis in decades has still not been mastered. Tokyo stocks slumped more than 9% and European shares also fell heavily. Central bank moves to increase the amount of available credit did little to calm the panic. Britain announced a £50 billion ($87 billion) part nationalisation of the country’s eight main banks. The Bank of England will also extend a £200 billion ($350 billion dollar) credit line for banks. The British taxpayer will in return get major stakes in HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HBOS, Lloyds TSB, Standard Chartered, Abbey and Nationwide Building Society. Finance minister Alistair Darling said the move by the centre-left Labour government was a bold response to “extraordinary times.” Talks over the public stakes were only completed a few hours before the announcement. “The taxpayers’ interest is being protected. I’m very clear that in return for all this, the taxpayer has got to see some upside,” Darling told Sky News television. The British package followed desperate efforts by other governments. The European Central Bank said it would pump $70 billion into interbank money markets in one-day loans Wednesday, raising the daily amount by $20 billion. The US Federal Reserve said Tuesday it would buy up short-term debt - extending its move into the economy - and central bank chairman Ben Bernanke strongly hinted that a US interest rate cut was on the cards. Japan and Australia pumped billions of dollars into the banking system and Hong Kong slashed interest rates, but there was no stopping the market misery. “These sorts of measures aren’t working anymore,” said Hiroichi Nishi, a broker at Nikko Cordial in Japan. “It’s like you’re trying to pump blood into a heart with clogged arteries.” The Tokyo stock market suffered what amounted to an indiscriminate sell-off, with investors dumping shares across the board, sending the Nikkei down 9.38% - its biggest one-day plunge since the stock market crash of 1987. London’s FTSE 100 index fell 1.64% despite the government billions, Frankfurt stocks opened with a loss of 1.68 percent and Paris was down 3.7%. Australia shed 5.0% and Hong Kong lost 7.0%. On Wall Street, the Dow Industrial average gave up 5.1% on Tuesday to close at a new five-year low. US President George W. Bush discussed the economic meltdown with leaders of Britain, France and Italy, seeking a common strategy ahead of crisis talks between the Group of Seven major economies in Washington on Friday. “I was on the phone with them this morning to ensure that our actions are closely coordinated. We live in a globalised world,” Bush said. “We want to make sure that we’re effective.” The grim toll on the world economy is becoming clearer with as much as $2 trillion wiped off the value of US retirement plans in the last 15 months, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, said in Washington. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 7:59 am Indian firms less optimistic than last year: surveyReuters Mumbai: Business confidence and optimism among Indian companies for the last quarter of 2008 is at an all-time low and primarily led by service companies, a survey by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) showed. The D&B Composite Business Optimism Index for fourth quarter of 2008 fell by 28.1% on year to 138.9 points, the biggest fall ever witnessed in the index, it said in a release on Wednesday. “The crisis of confidence being witnessed across the world’s financial markets is reflected in the deteroriating sentiment of the Indian business community,” D&B’s Chief Operating Officer, Kaushal Sampat said in the release. The survey has been conducted on a sample of companies randomly selected from D&B’s commercial credit information file. The sub-indices such as optimism index for new orders declined by 18 percentage points to 68% while the optimism index for net profit was at 61% as compared to 81% during the same period a year earlier, it said. However, on a sequential basis, the main index rose marginally by 1.8%, mainly due to the low base of the previous quarter and many respondents anticipating no significant change from the current situation, it said adding 46% of the respondents saw inventory levels going up. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 7:58 am ITC to turn waste into wealth across the countryIndia's multi-business conglomerate ITC Limited plans to take its 'Wealth Out of Waste' (WOW) programme across the country, encouraged by its success in Hyderabad, Chennai and Coimbatore, as also in this IT capital, a company official said.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Oct 2008 | 7:02 am Online stores links to mint money for YouTubeSan Francisco: YouTube on Tuesday added links to online stores in a move crafted to pump more money from the hot video-sharing website Google bought nearly two years ago in a $1.65 billion stock deal. “They spent a ton of money on this thing and it is natural they want to make a return,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley said. “The trick is how to do it without scaring users to another property. It is going to be a delicate dance.” Google has bided its time working on ways to “monetize” YouTube without alienating notoriously transient Internet users that could easily switch to Hulu, Daily Motion or other rivals in the online video-sharing arena. “Click-to-buy” links are being discretely placed in control panels below YouTube videos to invite people to visit online shops iTunes or Amazon.com to buy music, books, films or other material related to snippets watched. “This is just the beginning of building a broad, viable ecommerce platform for users and partners on YouTube,” said a message on the website. “Our vision is to help partners across all industries offer useful and relevant products to a large, yet targeted audience, and generate additional revenue from their content on YouTube beyond the advertising we serve against their videos.” Links to online stores are making a US debut on videos of EMI Music artists and of the Spore computer game recently released by Electronic Arts. Such “retail links” will be gradually added to YouTube’s library of music videos, according to the northern California firm. “Our goal is to slowly but surely expand the program to add additional content and product partners, as well as our international users,” YouTube said. “We’re just getting started, so stay tuned.” Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 7:01 am Indian equities in free fall, key index below 11,000The bloodbath in the Indian equities markets continued Wednesday with a key index dipping below the psychologically important 11,000-point mark after opening weak.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am Intel will defend patent rights against AMDSan Francisco: Intel Corp said on Tuesday it has “serious questions” about a deal announced by Advanced Micro Devices to spin off its manufacturing business and focus on chip design, and is ready to defend its patents. Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said that AMD and Intel have a patent cross-licensing agreement under which AMD pays royalties to Intel. “Intel has serious questions about this transaction as it relates to the license and will vigorously protect Intel’s intellectual property rights,” Mulloy said of AMD’s announcement. Mulloy said Intel has asked AMD to make the agreement public but he said it would not, so he was not at liberty to discuss the matter in detail. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 6:22 am Dollar slumps below 100 yen on crisisAFP Tokyo: The dollar slumped on Wednesday below 100 yen for the first time in six months, with investors flocking to the Japanese currency as a safe haven as global stocks suffered historic drops. The yen is backed by the lowest interest rates among the world’s major economies, allowing investors to stock up in times of turbulence on global markets. As Japan’s stock market posted one of its worst-ever falls, the dollar slipped below the key 100-yen point for the first time since 1 April. It rebounded slightly afterwards to 100.15 after a low of 99.58. The yen had traded at 101.38 in New York late Tuesday. “No one knows for certain now what they can rely on,” said Hironobu Hagi, deputy general manager at capital market division of Shinsei Bank. “We’re seeing panic selling. Once players see a sign of selling, everybody tries to jump on the bandwagon,” he said. He said he would not be surprised if the dollar fell as low as 95 yen. “Yen buying is likely to continue for now as there are surely no elements to support the dollar,” Hagi said. The stronger yen was also a major factor driving down stock prices as it makes Japanese exports -- a key driver of the faltering economy -- less competitive overseas. The euro -- beset by growing concerns about the European financial sector in the global financial crisis -- also slipped against the dollar. The single European currency was trading at 1.3566, down from 1.3599 in New York. The euro fell to 135.71 yen from 137.92. Masatsugu Miyata, forex dealer at Hachijuni Bank, said that markets were unimpressed with efforts by the world’s central banks. “They had already priced in moves by central banks and authorities, so markets were relatively unsurprised,” Miyata said. “It’s rather that markets are turning the corner ahead of authorities and expecting them to take measures,” he said. US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech on Tuesday hinted that the central bank would cut interest rates as the outlook for economic growth in the United States worsened. Markets gave a muted response to news that the Fed opened its coffers to companies hit by the credit crunch with a new plan to buy up short-term debt critical for many corporate operations. Markets were looking ahead to a Group of Seven meeting on Friday gathering central bank chiefs and other financial authorities, trying to see if they will draft further action to stem the crisis. They were also watching developments in Europe, where governments have scrambled to save financial institutions from collapse. Reports said French banks Caisse d’Epargne and Banque Populaire will hold talks on a possible merger, which would create France’s largest retail banking group. Against regional Asian currencies, the dollar rose to 1,386.70 South Korean won from 1,329.90 on Tuesday, to 32.45 Taiwan dollars from 32.36 and to 47.55 Philippine pesos from 47.46. It gained to 9,602 Indonesian rupiah from 9,595, to 34.56 Thai baht from 34.43 and to 1.4708 Singapore dollars from 1.4608. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 6:16 am Update: Sensex falls below 11,000 level on weak global marketsMumbai: The benchmark Sensex on Wednesday breached the 11,000 level for the first time since August 2006, with losing little over 730 points in late morning trade following weak global markets on deepening financial crisis. The BSE barometer was trading at 10,965.01 points at 10:45am, a loss of 730.23 points, or nearly 6%, over the previous close. The wide-based National Stock Exchange’s Nifty dipped by 213.90 points, or 5.5%, at 3,392.70 points in late morning trade. Marketmen said melting global markets and depreciating Indian rupee, which fell to nearly six-year low of 48.28 in early trade on Wednesday, dampened the trading sentiments here. Sustained capital outflows by foreign funds weighed on the stock markets, they said, adding that steps by financial sector regulators SEBI and RBI failed to bolster investors’ sentiments. Asian stock markets dipped nearly 5% in early trade, with Tokyo’s Nikkei index dropping below the key 10,000 points level for the first time in more than four years. The US Dow Jones Industries lost more than 500 points to 9,447.11, its lowest close in five years. The BSE benchmark Sensex plunged by over 680 points in early trade. The NSE index Nifty had tumbled by 200.80 points to 3,405.80 with all the heavy-weight stocks trading in the negative zone. Marketmen said apart from sharp losses in the global stock markets, depreciating Indian rupee against the US dollar too dampened the trading sentiments here. Indian rupee fell by 37 paise to Rs48.28 against the dollar in early trade on the Forex market today. Stocks which dragged the BSE barometer down are Larsen and Toubro, BHEL, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Reliance Infra, Rcom, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers, Tata Consultancy, Wipro, Grasim Industries, ACC and HDFC Ltd. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 5:44 am Markets open weak, go into free fallIndian equities markets opened weak Wednesday and slid deep into red half an hour into trading on reports that multilateral funding agency International Monetary Fund (IMF) considers India vulnerable to the global financial meltdown.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Oct 2008 | 5:30 am Rupee falls to nearly six-year low of Rs48.28 against dollarPTI Mumbai: The Indian rupee today declined by 35 paise to its nearly six-year low of Rs48.28 against the US dollar in early trade on sustained capital outflows and rising demand from oil refiners for the greenback amid melting stock markets. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange market (Forex), the Indian currency, which yesterday closed lower by 11 paise at Rs47.93/94 after breaching the 48-mark for the first time since December 2002, plunged by another 35 paise to Rs48.28 against the US dollar. Meanwhile, the Indian benchmark Sensex tanked over 682 points in early trade on selling-spree amid the melting in global stock markets. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 5:14 am US Retirement accounts lose $2 trillion in 15 monthsWashington: Americans’ retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion or about 20 % overall in the past 15 months, Congress’ top budget analyst estimated on Tuesday. The upheaval that has engulfed the financial industry and sent the stock market plummeting is devastating workers’ savings, forcing people to hold off on major purchases and consider delaying their retirement, said Peter Orszag, the head of the Congressional Budget Office. As Congress investigates the causes and effects of the financial meltdown, the House Education and Labor Committee was hearing from retirement savings and budget analysts on how the housing, credit and other financial troubles have battered pensions and other retirement funds, which are among the most common forms of savings in the United States. “Unlike Wall Street executives, America’s families don’t have a golden parachute to fall back on,” said Rep. George Miller, the panel chairman. “It’s clear that their retirement security may be one of the greatest casualties of this financial crisis.” More than half the people surveyed in an Associated Press-GfK poll taken 27-30 September said they worry they will have to work longer because the value of their retirement savings has declined. Orszag indicated the fear is well-founded. Public and private pension funds and employees’ private retirement savings accounts have lost some 20%, overall since mid-2007, he estimated. Private retirement plans may have suffered slightly more because those holdings are more heavily skewed toward stocks, Orszag added. “Some people will delay their retirement. In particular, those on the verge of retirement may decide they can no longer afford to retire and will continue working,” Orszag said. A new AARP study found that because of the economic downturn, one in five workers 45 and older has stopped putting money into a company-sponsored retirement account, Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or other retirement savings account during the past year, and nearly one in four has increased the number of hours he works. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 4:50 am Alcoa’s Q3 profit falls 52%AP Pittsburgh: Alcoa Inc., the world’s third-largest aluminum producer, on Tuesday reported a 52% drop in third quarter profit and said it would conserve cash by suspending its stock buyback program and all non-critical capital projects. Alcoa, the first component of the Dow Jones industrial average to report third-quarter earnings, said results were hurt by sharply lower aluminum prices, weaker demand and a charge from curtailing production at a Texas smelter. As a global economic slowdown crimps demand for virtually every commodity, aluminum prices have dropped 32% from an all-time high of about $3,380 per metric ton on 11 July. Copper, lead, nickel and other metals have also tumbled. Other companies facing the difficult market conditions include Moscow-based Rusal, the world’s top aluminum producer, and Rio Tinto Ltd., the mining giant, which acquired Canada-based Alcan Inc. last year. Alcoa, which manufactures aluminum and uses it to make everything from truck wheels to jet wing parts, posted earnings of $268 million, or 33 cents per share, for the three months ended 30 September. That compared with $555 million, or 63 cents per share, during the same period last year, when results included a net gain of 25 cents per share for Alcoa’s sale of its stake in Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd., also known as Chalco. The latest quarter included a charge of 4 cents per share for the smelter curtailment in Rockdale, Texas, which involved about 660 layoffs. The charge was previously announced. It also included a negative currency impact of 6 cents per share on a sequential basis, tied partly to inter-company loans between facilities in the U.S. and Brazil. Shares of Alcoa fell 51 cents, or 3%, to $16.20 in after-hours trading. During the third quarter, they slid 34%. Revenue edged down 2% to $7.23 billion from $7.39 billion in the third quarter of 2007. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial, on average, expected profit of 50 cents per share on revenue of $7.23 billion. Those estimates typically exclude one-time items. Klaus Kleinfeld, Alcoa’s president and chief executive, said profits were squeezed as aluminum prices and demand declined and costs rose. The company would conserve cash by suspending its stock buyback program and non-critical capital projects, he said. “We will continue to manage for the downturn and take aggressive action to be well-positioned when the market recovers,” he said in a conference call with analysts and reporters. The tighter margins will have a greater impact going forward, though they will be somewhat mitigated by the easing of energy prices and a stronger U.S. dollar, he said. Alcoa’s suspension of its share buyback program and non-critical capital projects were actions taken “to conserve cash and maximize profitability through very adverse economic conditions.” With the sharp decline in metal prices and increasingly soft demand in key markets, Kleinfeld said Alcoa is making targeted reductions and is adjusting manufacturing capacity to meet demand in rapidly changing markets. He said Alcoa was looking at “a host of different options to try to lower our overall costs,” but he declined to specify which capital projects might be suspended. Alcoa expects all of its North American markets to decline this year compared with last year, Kleinfeld said, citing a 14% annual decline in auto production and weakness in the U.S. heavy truck and trailer market. China’s aluminum demand is forecast to grow about 15% this year, down from a previous forecast of 22%, Kleinfeld said. Brazil, the rest of Asia and countries in Eastern Europe will continue to grow, but they are not significant enough to offset declines in the U.S. and in other European countries, he added. “All in all, we project 6% global growth for this year, down 2 percentage points from our previous projections,” he said. In July, Alcoa announced plans to cut more than 1,200 jobs in Mexico and Honduras because of weak demand from the North American auto market. Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Liinamaa, citing deteriorating market conditions, forecast lower aluminum prices and cut Alcoa’s earnings estimates before the company reported Tuesday. “Slowing global growth, risks with the financial crisis and rising aluminum stocks are weighing on aluminum fundamentals,” he wrote in a note to investors. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 4:37 am Touch-screen BlackBerry coming this autumn - RIMReuters Toronto: Research In Motion will roll out a touch-screen model of its BlackBerry smartphone later this autumn, thrusting it into direct competition with Apple’s popular iPhone. RIM said on Wednesday the BlackBerry Storm will be available exclusively to Verizon Wireless subscribers in the U.S. and Vodafone subscribers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand. RIM’s launch of a touch-screen BlackBerry is not a surprise. Technology bloggers and analysts have speculated since early this year that the Waterloo, Ontario-based company was working on such a device. And late last month, Verizon Wireless sent out a promotional e-mail that heralded its arrival. The Storm - the latest BlackBerry aimed at the broad retail market - comes with a touch screen that depresses slightly when it is pressed, RIM said, adding users will feel a soft click as the screen is released. “This clickable interface is like an engineering marvel,” RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said in an interview. “It is revolutionary.” Analysts have said that as RIM continues to push into the broader consumer market, beyond the executives and other professionals that have been its mainstay, it will see increased competition from other handset makers. RIM has consistently brushed off such concerns and its subscriber growth has backed up its confidence. The Storm also comes preloaded with software for e-mail and managing documents, as well as a media player for music, movies and photos. It’s also equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera. RIM did not announce a specific release date for the Storm, nor did it offer details on pricing. The Storm’s planned launch comes shortly after RIM said it will roll out a flip-phone version of the BlackBerry to capture more of the retail market. Launching new, next-generation devices is squeezing RIM’s gross margins because of higher costs. And in order to keep luring new subscribers, the company has to make sure its devices are priced attractively. That has limited the company’s ability to pass along the higher costs of making new devices to its customers. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 8 Oct 2008 | 4:33 am Drinking water for capital: dam projects suffers from fundsWork on a hydel project in Himachal Pradesh that is meant to provide drinking water to the national capital has been advancing at a snail's pace as the hill state is yet to get the promised Rs.3 billion (Rs.300 crores) from the Delhi government for initiating the project.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Oct 2008 | 4:30 am Rupee breaches 48 markMumbai, Oct. 7 The steps announced by the financial market regulators to improve the liquidity in the system on Monday hardly had any positive impact in the forex market on Tuesday.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Bharti Airtel launches DTH serviceNew Delhi, Oct. 7 Bharti Airtel launched its Direct to Home Service on Tuesday, marking the telecom company’s entry into media and entertainment and for which it plans to leverage the parent company’s 80 million subscriber base andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Basmati prices rule lower, seen dropping moreNew Delhi, Oct 7 Farmers who had enthusiastically planted and expanded acreages under basmati rice this year are having to reconcile themselves to lower realisations.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideFresh short-position can be initiated if the stock declines below Rs 465, with tight stop-loss.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Sensex yo-yos, but ends flatMumbai, Oct. 7 The mood in the domestic equity markets remained cautious on Tuesday despite measures by the Securities and Exchange of India and the Reserve Bank of India to boost liquidity. The Sensex and the Nifty closed flat after a choppySource: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Tatas pick Gujarat for NanoGandhinagar, Oct. 7 The Rs 1 lakh dream car ‘Nano’ of Mr Ratan Tata will now roll out from an integrated project near Sanand town in Ahmedabad district, from the same cattle farm for whose establishment during a severe famine in 1900Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am ITC (Rs 174.55): SellWe recommend a sell in ITC from a short-term horizon. The chart of ITC depicts that it has been on an intermediate-term downtrend since its May peak of Rs 232. However, in July, the stock found support at around Rs 160 and made a corrective upSource: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Baltic Dry Index falls sharplyBaltic Dry Index (BDI), an index covering dry bulk shipping rates and managed by London-based Baltic Exchange, dropped to 3,002 last Friday from the peak of 11,000 plus in last May.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Parts suppliers support Nano’s move to GujaratNew Delhi, Oct. 7 Auto component suppliers to Tata Motors’ Nano expressed their willingness to move to Gujarat to help roll out the world’s cheapest car, shrugging off investments made in Singur.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Rupee negative in near-termThe mayhem in the equity markets, tightening credit and the rupee soaring above 47 against the dollar prompted the Reserve Bank of India to cut the credit reserve ratio by 50 basis points on Monday and the Securities and Exchanges Board of IndiaSource: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Web 2.0 is a big myth created by O’Reilly for marketing purposesNew Delhi: Spending on the so-called Web 2.0 technologies—a term used to describe tools, social networks and Internet applications designed to increase communication and collaboration—is estimated to grow at an annual pace of 43% in the next five years, according to a report by market research firm Forrester Research Inc. Click here to listen to the interview At the same time, user-generated content through blogs and wikis (a framework that allows collaborative editing, used most famously in Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia) are powering some of the most popular communities and websites on the Internet. But how do businesses use collaborative technologies? And how will these technologies evolve? Accenture Ltd chief scientist Kishore Swaminathan talks about collaboration among business enterprises, the myth of Web 2.0 and the death of virtual worlds. Edited excerpts: How do you see collaborative technologies developing? I think we are in a fairly early age of collaboration. We are still looking for electronic versions of physical collaboration channels. Email is essentially the electronic form of fax, or regular mail, we use cellphones for conversations when two people are not in the same place and video conferencing, (attempts) to mimic a physical meeting. I think the second generation of collaboration tools like wikis, and Twitter are not fundamentally about electronification of a well known channel. They are fundamentally about how you can increase the reach of a person as well as his/her awareness. Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a good example of this. There is no analogy for Twitter in the physical world...what twitter enables a group of people to do is to stay constantly aware of each other or a bunch of subjects with very short messages at frequent intervals. In the same way, wikis, when collaboration across multiple people happens in the open. People who have things to contribute jump in, and then the other tools such as Twitter are aimed at increasing awareness. And, as these two things begin to converge—short, constant, stream of thought communication in a group, and openness in collaboration—that will result in something very different from what we perceive as collaboration. A report by Forrester in April predicted enterprise spending on Web 2.0 technologies would reach “$4.6 billion globally by 2013, with social networking, mashups, and RSS (Really Simple Syndication—a standardized internet format used to publish continually updated sites like blogs) capturing the greatest share”. Do you see that happening? I am familiar with the Forrester report, and I’ll come right out and say—they have no idea what they’re talking about. There’s nothing called Web 2.0. It is a big myth created by O’Reilly (Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, who is credited with coining the term) for marketing purposes. Web 2.0 is not a technology, but a state of the Web—that I would agree with. Now, within Web 2.0, there are three important technological components, which, while they may enable collaboration, are not fundamentally collaboration technologies. One is the rich Internet applications, such as Adobe’s Air or Microsoft’s Silverlight, that provide a much richer user experience on the Web. The second suite of technologies that generally gets lumped under this is mash-ups. (A mash-up, such as Wikimapia, combines data from different tools and sources to create a single, hybrid Web application.) Mash-ups enable you to get data from both internal and external sources and do some simple data manipulation. The mash-ups market is maturing to the point where it could make a very big dent in enterprise intellectual property. And in the third category are things such as widgets (a chunk of code, performing a specific task or outcome, that can be when required in any web page), and Web services and so forth, essentially providing open standards by which people can publish data that other people can access and use in creating these mash-ups, and applications and so forth. These three are real technological components (that) are going to be big markets. But when it comes to things such as social networks, or tagging, I’m not yet convinced that the enterprises, even a large enterprise, have enough of a critical volume within themselves to make it work for them internally. My speculation would be that sites such as Facebook and Myspace will begin to create enterprise editions, so that enterprises, whether its GM or Accenture, would have rather than building their own internal social network, they would rent out a corporate version, software as a service. I think thats the direction corporations are likely to go. With interoperability and open standards, what will that mean for proprietary software? Open standards do not necessarily mean open source. The open standards essentially mean you can still have proprietary technologies, but they will be inter operable. Obviously, tech companies do not want their products to be commodified, in a sense, by openness—and different companies approach standards in different ways.  Tech talk: Accenture Ltd’s chief scientist Kishore Swaminathan says that the mash-ups market is maturing to the point where it couldmake a very big dent in enterprise intellectual property. That’s one approach to deal with openness and open standards, while still retaining competitive advantage and keeping consumers locked in. The other approach is to...they put themselves in the driver’s seat to define the standard, and even if they deviate from the standard, everybody else has to follow suit. Do you see non-gaming virtual worlds such as Second Life becoming sites of business or places for collaboration? I don’t think non-gaming virtual worlds have much to offer. There are specific components or ideas within virtual worlds that are interesting. But for enterprises, investing or setting up shop in a virtual world is a huge business risk, especially in worlds with proprietary currency, such as Second Life’s Linden Dollars. They add very little value except maybe in building design, or architecture, where it might potentially be useful to have a 3-D avatar walking through a 3-D world. I think virtual worlds will only remain an interesting curiosity, and within a few years, they will all most likely be gone, but some of the ideas they generatedmay survive. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 7 Oct 2008 | 11:28 pm HP to launch 4 notebooks this monthNew Delhi: Computer maker Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday said it will launch three models of notebooks with price ranging from Rs40,000 to Rs90,000. HP would also launch a special edition notebook designed by renowned fashion designer Vivienne Tam. The new models will be unveiled at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week scheduled here from 15 October. “The company is yet to decide the price tag of the notebook designed by Tam but the Pavilion series laptops will be priced between Rs40,000 and Rs90,000 depending upon the model and specification,” HP India (Marketing Head) Shubhodip Pal said here. HP retained top slot in India’s market for notebooks and desktop with a share of 18.7% in April-June of calendar year 2008, according to research firm IDC. The company had posted 113.1-billion dollar revenue for the year ended 31 July, 2008. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 7 Oct 2008 | 7:38 pm Govt mulls overseas dollar bond floatThe government is considering a sovereign long-term dollar-denominated bond overseas to raise funds to ease Indian banks and companies access to liquidity, which has been drying up owing to theSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 7 Oct 2008 | 6:50 pm Modi's Gujarat bags Tata's NanoAfter a controversial stay in West Bengal, Tata Motors today shifted its Nano car project to Northcote Cattle Farm in Sanand, 30 km from Ahmedabad, declaring that efforts would, meanwhile, be made toSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 7 Oct 2008 | 6:49 pm Tatas move to Gujarat, but Karnataka announces Nano panelThe Karnataka government seemed so confident it had bagged the Nano small car project that it announced constituting a committee Tuesday evening to decide on tax concessions to Tata Motors, even as Ratan Tata was holding a press conference in Gandhinagar announcing the project relocation to Gujarat.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 7 Oct 2008 | 5:00 pm Tata Steel bags Deming Application PrizeTata Steel has bagged the prestigious Deming Application Prize-2008 for Total Quality Management (TQM), a company official said here Tuesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 7 Oct 2008 | 4:32 pm Gujarat euphoric over Nano relocationFarmers at Sanand village in Gujarat burst crackers and distributed sweets Tuesday evening, welcoming the Tata Motors' decision to relocate the Rs.15-billion Nano car project to the state.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 7 Oct 2008 | 4:32 pm 'Tata's Gujarat deal will strengthen auto industry'The Indian auto industry has welcomed Tata Motors' decision to set up Nano small car plant in Gujarat, saying the deal has reinforced the confidence of the industry.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 7 Oct 2008 | 4:30 pm Tata`s Nano goes to Gujarat?!Days after Tata Motors officially quit from West Bengal over excessive politicisation of the Singur issue, its chairman Ratan Tata is likely to meet Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to explore new site for relocation of the Nano plant.Source: Zee News : Business | 7 Oct 2008 | 12:27 pm Sensex slips below 12,000 pts again!After bucking global trend in early trade, the BSE Sensex slipped back to negative territory on Tuesday afternoon, trading below the psychological 12,000 mark. The benchmark index had opened more than 300 points higher in the morning after concerted moves by regulators to improve liquidity and stem foreign fund outflows. But shaky world markets weighed on trade and kept investors wary, erasing earlier gains.Source: Zee News : Business | 7 Oct 2008 | 12:27 pm India criticises UN over financial crisis!India has sharply criticised the United Nations and its affiliated organisations for sitting on the sidelines as the current financial crisis unfolded, saying that the IMF remained helpless despite the economic meltdown impacting adversely on the developing nations.Source: Zee News : Business | 7 Oct 2008 | 12:27 pm Big Australia rate cut spurs Asia stocks rebound!Asian stocks outside Japan rose for the first time in four days on Tuesday and the yen fell after a surprisingly large interest rate cut by Australia`s central bank raised hopes that other policymakers would follow suit.Source: Zee News : Business | 7 Oct 2008 | 12:27 pm Lehman sought millions for execs while seeking aid !The now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers arranged millions in bonuses for fired executives as it pleaded for a federal lifeline, lawmakers learned Monday, as Congress began investigating what went so wrong on Wall Street to prompt a USD 700 billion government bailout.Source: Zee News : Business | 7 Oct 2008 | 12:27 pm Indo-American named to oversee US bailout plan!An Indian American Neel Kashkari was appointed to oversee the USD 700 billion US financial rescue plan as stocks plunged more than 6 percent with the Dow Jones index diving to its lowest level in almost five years.Source: Zee News : Business | 7 Oct 2008 | 12:27 pm WB for bringing India in Streeing Group of G7!With the view to solve the economic crisis of the world the Group of Seven (G-7) should be transformed into an expanded Steering Group to include rising economic states like India, the President of the World Bank Group Robert Zoellick has said.Source: Zee News : Business | 7 Oct 2008 | 12:27 pm Rupee recovers after hitting 48 level in early trade!The Indian rupee on Tuesday crossed the 48-mark but later recovered to 47.76/77 a dollar due to selling of greenback by banks and a recovery in local stocks.Source: Zee News : Business | 7 Oct 2008 | 12:27 pm Oil recovers but stays below $90!Crude oil prices remained below USD 90 a barrel in Asia on Tuesday as deepening global financial turmoil and plunging stock markets further raised fears of slowing energy demand, dealers said.Source: Zee News : Business | 7 Oct 2008 | 12:27 pm Citi, Wells Fargo agree to standstill!Citigroup and Wells Fargo on Monday agreed to a standstill of all formal litigation activity - a sign that the banks and the Federal Reserve are working feverishly to reach an agreement over the fate of Wachovia.Source: Zee News : Business | 7 Oct 2008 | 12:27 pm Precision to launch bomb disposal robot at IFSECNew Delhi: Precision Operations Systems, a supplier of security equipment to the armed forces is launching a state-of-the-art advanced EOD robot at IFSEC India 2008, an exhibition that brings together leading players from the security industry. Advance EOD Robot Caliber is used by bomb squads to detect and dispose off bombs. The robot consists of two arms, one of which is a claw (to lift objects and other tools) and the other arm houses twin disruptors, which are used to dispose off bombs. The robot can be fitted with a semi-automatic weapon and has two audio and video communication systems, playing a pivotal role during emergency situations like kidnappings and hostage crisis. Armed with a camera for day and night time operations, it has in-built features that make it possible for an operator to easily see the surroundings during the operation. The robot has a removable track system that helps the robot climb up the stairs. This helps it to function in harsh environmental conditions such as sand, mud and snow. It can be controlled from a wireless command and control unit from a distance of 1km. IFSEC India 2008 will be held from 16-18 October 2008 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 7 Oct 2008 | 10:55 am
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