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Ludhiana to be developed as ultra modern city: BadalLudhiana, an industrial hub of Punjab, will soon be developed as an ultra modern city, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 2:05 pm Special trains to be run on Cbe-Chennai sectorIn order to clear extra rush of traffic, special trains would be run on Coimbatore and Chennai sector during this month.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 2:04 pm Wills Lifestyle plans to double stores in 2 yrsITC's fashion brand Wills Lifestyle will have 100 stores in the next two years from the present 55, a top official said here on Saturday.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 1:53 pm India's forex reserves drop nearly $8 billionIndia's foreign exchange reserves have dropped $7.87 billion during the week ended Oct 3, on account of market interventions by the central bank to stabilise the rupee.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 1:50 pm Liquor sale rise to Rs 50 croreThe Liquor sale in the month of September this year touched Rs 50 crore in the coastal Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 1:50 pm Reliance Footprint inaugurates first Maharashtra storeReliance Footprint, a format of Reliance Retail launched its 10th store in the country and the first in Maharashtra at Thane near Mumbai.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 1:49 pm TATA keeps Punjab offer for NANO for futureAlthough Punjab Government's offer to TATA Group for NANO could not materialized. Ratan Tata has conveyed that in future the group would increase its investment foot print in the state.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 1:26 pm Angry Lehman investors hold public meeting in SingaporeSINGAPORE (Reuters) - About 600 investors in Lehman -linked derivatives held a public meeting in Singapore on Saturday to protest about the way banks sold them the investment products and to discuss ways to get compensation.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:57 pm Dupont's insecticide Corgen to be launchedDuPont, a science-based products and services company, announced launching of a new insecticide, Coragen, which optimizes the growers' potential.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:55 pm Global financial crisis to affect corporate air travel: NacilMumbai: Corporate air travel in the country is likely to decline in the wake of the financial meltdown in the US and some European economies, a top official said. “The financial crisis in some overseas developed economies is bound to lead to a drop in corporate travel here. This is already visible abroad and will have its impact in India as well. Airlines here will also face a drop in corporate travel,” National Aviation Company of India Ltd’s (Nacil) Chairman and Managing Director Raghu Menon said. India would be no exception to what was happening globally, he told reporters on the sidelines of a function. “I think the same problems afflicting other airlines globally would also affect us,” he said. Another problem confronting airlines was that of non-availability of easy credit, the Nacil official said. “If banks are unable to lend us money that would also be a problem.” However, Nacil’s operations would not be affected by the ongoing financial crisis and there would be no job-cuts, he said. “As far as Air India (of which Nacil is the holding company) is concerned, we have strong fundamentals and I don’t see any question of grounding any of our aircraft,” he said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:43 pm Finance ministry asks DoT to speed up 3G auction processNew Delhi: The Finance Ministry has asked the Department of Telecom to speed up 3G spectrum auction process, so that operators can roll out services as early as possible, and avoid introducing new clauses in the guidelines, which can cause further delays. “The process to complete auction for 3G spectrum and rolling out of services is already much delayed and needs to be speeded up and completed as early as possible, latest by December 2008,” Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Chawla said in a letter to Telecom Secretary Sidhharth Behura. The Finance Ministry has also advised DoT to sort out all the outstanding issues at the earliest and not open fresh issues at this juncture, the letter said. MoF is irked by the proposal of DoT to split 2G and 3G revenues, as it feels this would lead to loss of revenue to the government. Finance Ministry had earlier also expressed its unhappiness when DoT had fixed a reserve base price of Rs2,020 crore for a Pan India 3G licence, saying the value of spectrum is much higher than what DoT has put in the auction. MoF wanted the minimum base price to be raised to Rs 2,500 crore. As for the segregation of revenues, MoF has said it would lead to operators camouflaging 2G revenue to avoid paying the revenue share. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:36 pm Financial crisis, energy security to top IBSA agendaWith the world's leading powers trying to enlist emerging economies in dealing with the global financial crisis, India, Brazil and South Africa are set to focus on their role in evolving a global financial architecture at the third IBSA summit Wednesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:32 pm Wills Lifestyle plans to double stores in two yearsITC's premium fashion brand Wills Lifestyle will have 100 stores in the next two years from the present 55, a top official said here Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:32 pm US works on bank plan, IMF warns of further market fall - Reuters
Source: Google News India - Business | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:30 pm 'Cut in fares only after crude prices stabilise'National air carrier Air India would like to see international crude prices stabilise at a reasonable level before taking a call on reduction in its air fares, a top company official said.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:29 pm G7 agrees crisis requires ‘global’ action: BushWashington: US President George W. Bush said Saturday after crisis talks with finance ministers from the G7 rich countries that all agreed the world financial meltdown required “a serious global response.” “All of us recognize that this is a serious global crisis and therefore requires a serious global response for the good of our people,” Bush said in the White House Rose Garden after the roughly 40-minute meeting. “The United States has a special role to play in leading the response to this crisis. That’s why I convened this morning’s meeting here at the White House and it is why our government will continue using all the tools at our disposal to resolve this crisis,” he declared. Bush was joined by finance ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, as well as International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and World Bank President Robert Zoellick and other officials. With some warning that the crisis may be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Bush vowed no repeat of steps that deepened that crisis, such as enacting protectionist steps that choke off trade. “There have been moments of crisis in the past when powerful nations turned their energies against each other, or sought to wall themselves off from the world,” said the US president. “This time is different: the leaders gathered in Washington this weekend are all working towards the same goals,” he said. “We’re in this together, we’ll come through it together.” Bush hailed international cooperation thus far, and said the Group of Seven would work with an enlarged forum known as the Group of 20 that includes other major economies like China, India and Russia. “As our nations confront challenges unique to our individual financial systems, we must continue to work collaboratively, and ensure that our actions are coordinated,” he said. “We must ensure the actions of one country do not contradict or undermine the actions of another. In an interconnected world, no nation will gain by driving down the fortunes of another,” he warned. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:29 pm Hindalco rights issue undersubscribedThe Hindalco rights issue has been undersubscribed. Promoters and merchant bankers have underwritten shares to reach 90% subscription. The DFI\'s unlikely to have subscribed given the stock price and the market conditions.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:16 pm U.S. works on bank plan, IMF warns of further mkt fallWASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. government pushed on Saturday to finalise a plan to buy direct stakes in American banks as the International Monetary Fund warned markets could drop another 20 percent in a worst-case scenario.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:14 pm Three new universities coming up for NRIs - Hindu
Source: Google News India - Business | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:02 pm Metro gets licence for wholesale business in West Bengal - domain-B
Source: Google News India - Business | 11 Oct 2008 | 11:55 am 'Right time for overseas Indians to invest in India'Overseas Indians should take advantage of favourable exchange rates arising out of the current global financial crisis and invest in India, says M Venugopal.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 11:31 am Gold nosedives after record highs on weak global cuesNew Delhi: After breaching Rs14,000-mark gold prices Sunday tumbled by Rs540 to close at Rs13,460 per 10 gram on the bullion market as investors turned frantic sellers on weakening global front amid melting equity markets. Standard gold and ornaments fell by Rs540 each at Rs13,460 and Rs13,310 per 10 gram respectively. The yellow metal had gained over Rs1,120 in last three days. Sovereign also fell by Rs500 at Rs10,500 per piece of eight gram. Marketmen said selling pressure gathered momentum after the US stocks plunged to over six years low on fears of deepening financial crisis, and investors were forced to liquidate their holdings in other assets to pay margins. “Recent prices rises have caused some profit selling in India, despite the festival month,” said Rakesh Anand of R.K. Jewellers, adding the market completely moving with the global trend and even not withstanding with demand for Diwali festival. Another Delhi-based jeweller Mahesh Verma of Omsons Jewellers said there was heavy selling of old jewellery and bars by retail customers to book profits at higher levels. On the global front, which normally set prices in domestic markets here, gold suffered the most as foreign funds rushed to off-load part of their holdings in precious metals to raise funds to pay for badly hit stock markets. Silver also experienced a free fall and plunged Rs16,00 at Rs18,350 per kg and weekly-based silver by Rs2,340 at Rs18,430 per kg on withdrawal of support from speculators. While in New York silver dropped below $10 an ounce, a two years low level, gold traded in a wide range of more than $100 an ounce following a turmoil in the global financial markets. The gold rose to over two months high of $931 and tumbled to a low of $824 an ounce. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 11:25 am Air India plane makes emergency landingNew Delhi: An Air India flight to London from the Indian capital was forced to turn back and make an emergency landing Saturday, 30 minutes after take-off, an airport spokesman said. “There was a technical problem. The lights of a smoke indicator went off,” Arun Arora, a spokesman for New Delhi’s international airport, told AFP. All 115 passengers and 15 crew members were safe, airline officials said. It was the second such incident this week. On Thursday, an aircraft of no-frills airline GoAir made an emergency landing after a problem was detected with its nose wheel. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 11:12 am India's foreign exchange reserves drop nearly $8 billionIndia's foreign exchange reserves have dropped $7.87 billion during the week ended Oct 3, on account of market interventions by the central bank to stabilise the rupee and heavy selling by foreign funds.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 11 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am India must stop relying on global flows: Uday Kotak - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 11 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am History and hope ride on Kashmir's hi-tech trainBedecked in flowers, it rolled out of the Nowgam railway station near here, looking like a dream. Many hoped the red and green train - the first ever in the Kashmir valley - would be the harbinger of good times in this trouble-torn land.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 11 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am Head women guide Haryana villages to cleanliness awardsIt will be a big moment for two women sarpanches or village heads from Haryana when they receive awards from President Pratibha Patil next week for turning their villages into role models of cleanliness and making them free from the practice of open defecation.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 11 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am India proposes more fiscal measures to infuse liquidity in systemIndia is proposing more fiscal measures, including further cuts in cash reserve ratio (CRR) for banks and in the interest rates to tide over the current turmoil in the financial markets, well-placed sources in the finance ministry and the central bank said Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 11 Oct 2008 | 10:31 am Jharkhand postal department launches e-money order serviceJharkhand's postal department launched e-money order services here Saturday, a day after the 'national postal week' started.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 11 Oct 2008 | 10:30 am India economy will continue to perform well: IMFWashington: Dismissing fears of global financial contagion impacting India, the International Monetary Fund or IMF has said that the country’s economy will continue to perform well. “Overall, we see the Indian economy continuing to perform well,” said Oliver Blanchard, Economic Counselor and Director of International Monetary Fund Research Department recently. Pointing out there will be some impact of the tighter global liquidity conditions on India, he said, “We don’t see major drag from this impact on the country.” According to the projections made by the World Economic Outlook (WEO) released recently by the IMF, India is likely to register a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 7.9% in 2008-09, which may slip to 6.9% in 2009-10. “We are projecting that the growth in India will come down from 8% in 2008 to 7% in 2009. But 7% is still a strong rate of growth,” the IMF official said. A likely 7% growth rate at a time when the world economy is on a downhill path, would reflect India’s internal growth dynamics, he said. Giving reasons for relatively mild impact on India of the ongoing financial turmoil, Blanchard said, “India is still largely a closed economy, has strong internal growth dynamics, from rapid productive growth, from its process of integration into the global economy that is still continuing”. India has registered a growth of 9% during 2007-08 and according to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh it is likely to register a growth of 7.5-8% during the current financial year. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 10:29 am 'High salaries are becoming history' - Sify
Source: Google News India - Business | 11 Oct 2008 | 10:07 am Iran says OPEC seeks stability as oil prices plungeTEHRAN (Reuters) - Falling oil prices will hurt investment and ultimately the consumer if they do not return to a "logical level," Iran's oil minister said on Saturday after crude plunged by 17 percent in a week of turmoil.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 9:56 am WEF Ranking - India Slips To 50th Place - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 11 Oct 2008 | 9:09 am Mining projects await forest department clearance in JharkhandSeveral mining companies, which have been allotted mining blocks in Jharkhand, are not able to start operations in the state as the projects are yet to be cleared by the forest department.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 11 Oct 2008 | 9:02 am Equities markets suffer worst mauling in recent timesWith foreign institutional investors resorting to large scale selling, Indian equities markets suffered their worst ever mauling in recent times and a key index fell 16 percent during the week.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 11 Oct 2008 | 9:02 am Now is the time to act fast - Hindustan Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 11 Oct 2008 | 8:38 am AMW lowers sales target by 9,000 unitsTruck makers Asia Motor Works (AMW), which had earlier set a sales target of 17,000 units for the current financial year, lowered it to 8,000. We will end up at best selling 8,000 units, Mr R.C. Mangal, Senior VicePresident (Marketing), Asia Motor Works, told Business Line.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 11 Oct 2008 | 8:38 am Hindustan Sanitaryware plans acquisitions in EuropeHindustan Sanitaryware and Industries Ltd (HSIL), the flagship company of the Somany Group, is looking for an acquisition in the range of Rs 130 crore to Rs 300 crore in Europe, for which it is in talks with companies focusing on sanitaryware products and bathroom accessories such as highend bathtubs and shower enclosures.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 11 Oct 2008 | 8:30 am No bid price increase for Axon, says Infosys - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 11 Oct 2008 | 8:12 am “Stockings look great when young people wear them”Is it terribly 1980s to wear stockings? What about colours? Are covered toes peeping through open shoes okay? Stockings started out as being a functional accessory, to protect people living in cold climates. Of course, they still serve that purpose in most parts of the world, but stockings have also become a very popular way of accessorizing. Because of the Indian climate, it’s difficult to wear full stockings, except in winters. That said, please avoid meshed or fishnet stockings, even though they are more suited to Indian weather.  Art: Fatema Ratnamwala I think stockings look great when young people wear them for a not-too-formal night out. They can be teamed with a short or knee-length dress, or worn under a short skirt for a dressed-up, layered look. It’s definitely fun, young clothing. It is elegant sometimes to wear a pair with a pattern or design on it, but make sure it’s simple. And only the brave or pre-teens wear colours. For the rest, dark colours are the best. Showing covered toes through peep-toe shoes or sandals is a complete no-no. That’s only cute on school kids. What kind of clothing is appropriate for the gym? Please keep in mind large-sized people. Are there some options for women who only wear Indian clothing? There are plenty of new and improved options in the market when it comes to gymwear. Leading sportswear brands have introduced new materials and technologically advanced fabrics, which look great. Despite that, comfort is important, so while buying gymwear, natural fabrics are best. The simple cotton jersey track pant is the most versatile garment that can be worn in the gym. They also work very well for overweight people and those who are used to Indian clothes. Pick a pair which doesn’t cling, team it with a long T-shirt and you will be in your comfort zone while working out. Going to a gym can be quite a democratizing experience in a way. Everyone is dressed the same. Write to boardroombootcamp@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 8:05 am Heartbreak and banterMuch has been written and said about Manto—a great deal against him than in favour of him,” wrote the tormented Urdu short story writer Saadat Hasan Manto about himself. “An intelligent person would be hard pressed to reach any sensible conclusion on the basis of these reports.”  Naked Voices: IndiaInk, 142 pages, Rs295. But it would be just as easy to interpret these remarks as Manto engaged in his favourite activity, which was embellishing the myth of Manto: his talent, his mercurial and decadent nature, his rejection of polite society, his love of alcohol, and his appreciation of the nobility within the hearts of the fallen and the depraved. In this, he was quite successful. To an extent greater than perhaps any 20th century Indian writer other than moral visionaries such as Gandhi and Tagore, we read Manto the writer with a picture of Manto the man always in mind. Familiar themes and emphases appear in Naked Voices, Rakhshanda Jalil’s new translations of some of Manto’s stories and sketches. There is the banter of men and women as they probe each other’s weaknesses, the always close-at-hand heat of lust, the violence latent in human nature that is brought to a boil by violence in society, the perverse ebb and flow of cycles of retribution in the nightmare world of Partition, and the absurdity of religious demarcations in the higher light of our common humanity. Everything that is distinctive in Manto comes together in one of the stories in this collection called Sahay. A group of friends is splitting up after partition. The lone Muslim among them, Mumtaz, is heading for Pakistan, even though it is “a country that would remain a stranger to him no matter how hard he tried”. Escorted by his comrades to the ship, Mumtaz stares at the horizon for a long time. Finally, taking the hand of one friend, he says, “It’s only an illusion—this meeting of sea and sky—but what a delightful illusion this union is, isn’t it?” In this metaphor, the people of undivided India, too, are being told that they have been living “an illusion”. The story returns over and over to the question of what moral relationship Hindus and Muslims, messily divided now into Indians and Pakistanis, bear to each other on the levels of self, community and nation. The story also sounds, through Mumtaz, what we may take as Manto’s own view of true religion, which is something higher and better “than the sort of thing in which ninety-nine per cent of us are trapped”. While Jalil’s translations are adequate, the quality of the material she has chosen from Manto’s immense oeuvre varies. The timing of the release of Naked Voices is also not propitious, coming only a couple of months after the release of Bitter Fruit, a 700-page omnibus edition of Manto translated by Khalid Hasan and published by Penguin. Bitter Fruit contains at least 50 stories, a selection of Manto’s prose sketches, the only stage play Manto wrote, some autobiographical essays and family reminiscences, and a delightful collection of Manto’s portraits of luminaries of the Mumbai film world of the 1930s and 1940s. Even so, there is some material in Naked Voices that is not present in the larger anthology, suggesting that there is still more to Manto that we do not know. Write to lounge@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 7:54 am Markets see worst weekly slide in two decades - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 11 Oct 2008 | 7:51 am Was ICICI informed of any asset liability mismatch? - Financial Express
Source: Google News India - Business | 11 Oct 2008 | 7:38 am India's central bank says financial system well regulatedA day after Indian equities crashed in line with the global meltdown and on worries over declining industrial growth, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D. Subbarao has said overseas exposures of domestic banks were small and that the country's financial system remained well-regulated.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 11 Oct 2008 | 7:30 am India, US sign 123 AgreementWashington: India and the US Saturday operationalised the “path-breaking” bilateral nuclear deal as they signed the 123 Agreement, with New Delhi insisting that the accord is “legally-binding” on both sides.  Wait ends: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, shake hands after signing the US-India Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, during a ceremony at the State Department, 10 October, 2008, in Washington. Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put the final seal on the agreement at an impressive ceremony held in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department, culminating a crisis-ridden process initiated on 18 July, 2005 in Washington during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit for talks with US President George W. Bush. “Both India and the US Administration have now completed all our internal procedures to be able to sign this path breaking agreement,” Mukherjee said after signing the agreement, paving the way for entry of American companies into the Indian nuclear market after three decades. “Today is an important day for India-US relations, for global energy security and for our common endeavour to promote sustainable development while addressing environmental challenges,” he said at the ceremony held at the State Department. Earlier, Rice said that the 123 Agreement was unprecedented and demonstrates the vast potential for strategic partnership between India and the US. She said the nuclear deal is not just nuclear cooperation. “Today we look to the future, a shared future. Let us use the partnership to fight against terrorism, to try a new socialist agenda for the 21st century. India and the US can do all these together. Now there is nothing we cannot do,” the Secretary of State said. Prime Minister Singh “literally risked his political future” for the Indo-US nuclear agreement and remade his government again with the support he needed, Rice said, referring to the withdrawal of support to the UPA government by the Left parties. The formal signing ceremony of the bilateral agreement could not take place during Rice’ visit to New Delhi last week due to India’s concerns on certain riders in the US Congressional legislation on the nuclear deal, is being held after US President George W. Bush assured New Delhi that the new law makes no changes on fuel supply assurance commitments or the terms of the 123 agreement. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs also gave the go ahead to Mukherjee to sign the agreement after approving the pact initiated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bush in 2005. The signing ceremony was attended among others by India’s Ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen and senior State Department officials. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 7:05 am Ford plans to sell Mazda shares - sourceTOKYO (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co is considering selling its stake in Japan's Mazda Motor Co, a source familiar with the matter said on Saturday, as debt-laden U.S. automakers struggle with weakening auto sales and the global credit crunch.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 5:37 am GM, Chrysler in merger talks - sourceDETROIT/NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors has had talks with smaller rival Chrysler LLC about a merger that would combine the No. 1 and No. 3 American automakers at a time when both are struggling to cut costs and shore up cash, according to a source briefed on the matter.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 5:11 am G7 vows to fight credit crunch but details sketchyWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The world's rich nations vowed on Friday to take all necessary steps to unfreeze credit markets and ensure banks can raise money but they offered no collective course of action to avert a deep global recession.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 1:32 am Gold options point to $1,200 in rocky rideNEW YORK (Reuters) - Options traders are betting that gold will run toward $1,200 an ounce by year end, but it looks like they will have to sweat out some extremely choppy markets before seeing if the prediction pays off.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Oct 2008 | 1:24 am Inflation rate drops on cheaper agri itemsNew Delhi, Oct. 10 The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rose 11.80 per cent during the week ended September 27, below the previous week’s annual rise of 11.99 per cent, data release by the Ministry of Commerce and IndustrySource: Business Line - Home Page | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Forex reserves fall; bank credit risesThe country’s forex kitty got lighter by nearly $8 billion in a single week.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am We must prepare for a tough ride: Singapore PMSingapore, Oct 10 Asian countries cannot avoid the impact of weakening US, European and Japanese economies, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore, said today.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am ICICI Bank loses 28% during intra-dayMumbai, Oct. 10 The country’s largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank, saw its share fall 28 per cent during intra-day trade on Friday to touch a new year’s low of Rs 326.7. At 9.00 IST, the ADR at the NYSE crashed by 23.29 per centSource: Business Line - Home Page | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Stocks plumb new depthsNew Delhi/Mumbai, Oct. 10 It never rains, it pours. For long believed to be “de-coupled” from the world economy, the Indian economy showed that it could be buffeted by the ill-wind blowing through the Western financialSource: Business Line - Home Page | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Not everyone fell with the marketsIf the magnitude of the recent carnage has left you wondering whether anyone at all has been spared, you may be surprised to know that a number of stocks have managed to hold ground amidst thisSource: Business Line - Home Page | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am ‘Gold may touch $1,000 sooner than expected’Chennai, Oct. 10 Gold may hit the $1,000-an-ounce-mark again sooner than expected in view of continuing financial turmoil and investors’ rush for the safety and protection traditionally offered by the yellowSource: Business Line - Home Page | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Infosys net rises 30% in Q2Bangalore, Oct. 10 Infosys Technologies Ltd reported a 30.2 per cent rise in net profit for the September quarter, beating its own and street estimates. It, however, pared revenue outlook in dollar terms for the fiscal due to currency volatilitySource: Business Line - Home Page | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am How much more can FIIs sellMumbai, Oct. 10 FII investments in Indian equities, from the time they commenced buying in India, has amounted to $56 billion as on Friday, SEBI data showed.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Markets This WeekThe continuing financial crisis plaguing the global markets not unexpectedly left its deep scars on the domestic bourses as well on Monday. The Sensex shed some 724 points to close below the psychological 12000-level at 11,801 while the Nifty fellSource: Business Line - Home Page | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Japan to table emergency IMF loan scheme for emerging nations!Japan will propose creating a scheme under the International Monetary Fund to offer emergency loans to emerging nations, assisting their efforts in dealing with the financial crisis, Finance and Financial Services Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm Bailout plan big enough: George Bush!Noting that a high level of anxiety about the financial crisis was worsening the problem, US President George W Bush On Friday said his government`s "aggressive" rescue package will take time to have its impact.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm HDFC Bank overtakes ICICI as most valued pvt sector bank!Battered under an onslaught of rumours continuing for several weeks, ICICI Bank on Friday lost out its place as the country`s most valued private sector bank to HDFC Bank, as its share price fell by about 20 percent.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm ICICI Bank blames `vested interests` for stock plunge!The country`s top private sector lender ICICI Bank on Friday said its financial position remains strong and "vested interests" were continuing to hammer down its share price on the bourses.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm Mexico auctions six bn dollars to fight peso`s fall!Mexico`s Central Bank said it had auctioned six billion dollars on Friday, in two sales of three billion dollars, in the latest move to support the tumbling peso.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm Farmers` stake claim on Nano project land: Officials deny it!The land acquisition row seems to chasing the Tatas` Nano car project even out of Singur as farmers of villages near Sanand, the project`s new address, have staked claim on the plot.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm Reliance gas block has 40 Tcf gas reserves!Reliance Industries` prolific D6 block in Krishna Godavari basin off the east coast contains in-place reserves of 40 Trillion cubic feet, said the firm`s junior partner Niko Resources.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm Barclays to cut 3,000 jobs post Lehman deal: Report!UK banking major Barclays Plc is likely to slash about 3,000 jobs following its purchase of beleaguered Lehman Brothers` North American investment banking and capital markets businesses, a media report said.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm Infosys not to raise bid price for Axon!Infosys on Friday appeared to pull out of the race to acquire UK-based Axon by categorically stating that it would not raise bid price of 600 pence a share for the SAP firm.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm Indian banks` exposure to Lehman not significant: RBI!Most of Indian banks` exposures are to those Lehman Brothers` subsidiaries which have not filed for bankruptcy, the Reserve Bank has said.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm Wall St Week Ahead: For stocks, high anxiety remainsNEW YORK (Reuters) - High anxiety on Wall Street won't subside next week as the deepening credit crunch pushes the global economy into recession and corporate profits increasingly become an afterthought as investors scramble to raise enough cash to weather the credit crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:41 pm Oil drops 10 percent on demand, risk concernsNEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped more than 10 percent on Friday and touched 13-month lows in a global flight from risk amid concerns of a worldwide recession and further signs of slumping energy demand.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:31 pm Market fallout: early elections?New Delhi: The downturn in stock markets has again fuelled a buzz that the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance government is keen to hold national elections in February, three months ahead of schedule because things can only get worse in the financial markets. A member of the Congress said a decision could only be taken only after assessing the results of six state elections scheduled in the next two months. “The outcome of the assembly polls is crucial in finalizing a date for general elections,” said a Congress general secretary who did not want to be named. “But the elections can take place any time after December.” “The Election Commission (which announces the poll dates) has given us an impression that a February election is possible technically. April-May could be very hot, too,” this person added. “If the party wins the assembly elections in at least three states, it will give us a morale boost to go for parliamentary elections immediately.” The Congress hopes to win at least three states as the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party its main rival in these states, has to weather anti-incumbency in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The polls to elect the 15th Lok Sabha must take place by May. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:51 pm Ahtisaari wins Nobel Peace Prize for pacifying disputesOslo: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president who has spent 30 years ending conflict in troublespots ranging from Kosovo to Namibia and Indonesia. The Norwegian Nobel Committee hailed the 71-year-old Ahtisaari “for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts.” “These efforts have contributed to a more peaceful world and to ‘fraternity between nations´ in Alfred Nobel’s spirit,” committee head Ole Danbolt Mjoes said. Ahtisaari, a quiet, portly man now afflicted by rheumatism, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that his work as the UN special envoy to Namibia had been the highlight of his career. “Of course Namibia is the most important since it took so long,” he said, adding that he was “very pleased” to win the prestigious prize. As the UN secretary general’s special envoy, Ahtisaari guided Namibia towards a peaceful independence in 1990 after more than a decade of negotiations. He also oversaw the 2005 reconciliation between the Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, ending a three-decade conflict that killed some 15,000 people. In Europe, he helped Kosovo, which declared its independence in February, even though his mediation efforts failed to clinch an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo. And in May 2000 the British government appointed Ahtisaari to co-head, with Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, the inspection of IRA arms’ dumps in Northern Ireland. “Throughout all his adult life, whether as a senior Finnish public servant and president or in an international capacity, often connected to the United Nations, Ahtisaari has worked for peace and reconciliation,” Mjoes said. Although he most recently displayed his talents as a mediator in Europe, Ahtisaari cut his diplomatic teeth in Africa. He was appointed Finland’s ambassador to Tanzania in 1973, at the age of 36. He became UN Commissioner for Namibia in 1977 and in 1978 was named the UN envoy to Namibia. In 1994 Finland’s Social Democratic Party nominated him to run for the presidency and Ahtisaari became the first directly elected Finnish president. Made fun of by the press for his large size and his limp, Ahtisaari was ill at ease with the largely ceremonial role of president. With his true passion in foreign affairs, Ahtisaari likened his tour in domestic politics, which lasted until 2000, to “an extramarital affair”. At the end of 2005, Ahtisaari was appointed the UN special envoy for talks on Kosovo, seven years after he played a key role in bringing an end to hostilities in the Serbian province. He recommended independence for the breakaway Serbian province, where there is an ethnic Albanian majority, but his inability to get the two sides to agree was a blow for him. With its decision to hand the 2008 prize to Ahtisaari, the Nobel committee has returned to a more tradition interpretation of the award, after several recent prizes expanded its boundaries to take in environmental work, for instance. Last year’s Peace Prize went to former US vice president Al Gore and the United Nations panel on climate change. Ahtisaari will receive a Nobel diploma, medal and a cheque for $1.42 million at a ceremony in Oslo on 10 December. The announcement of the prize came a day after the Nobel Literature Prize was awarded to French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio. French and German scientists credited with the discovery of the viruses behind AIDS and cervical cancer won the medicine prize, while the physics prize was awarded to Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa of Japan and Yoichiro Nambu of the United States for groundbreaking theoretical work in fundamental particles. Osamu Shimomura of Japan and US duo Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien won the chemistry prize for a fluorescent jellyfish protein that has become a vital lab tool. The Nobel Economics Prize wraps up the awards on 13 October. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:41 pm Infosys cuts revenue guidance on US woesBangalore: Infosys Technologies Ltd has cut revenue and profit guidance in dollars for the year ending March, because of slowing business in the US, its main market, and effectively withdrew from the battle for UK firm Axon Group Plc. by refusing to increase its bid for the company in response to a higher counter-bid from local rival HCL Technologies Ltd. On Friday, Infosys reported better-than-expected numbers for the three months ended September, but some of its gains in rupee terms were based on the local currency’s 8.5% drop against the dollar, the currency in which the company bills most customers, in the three months. “The world has changed in the last few weeks. We are cautious,” said S. Gopalakrishnan, chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys. “Demand continues to grow, but the ramp up is slower.” Infosys, like other Indian software services firms, earns most of its revenue in dollars and spends in rupees. While a stronger dollar helps the company’s cause, in this instance, it is accompanied by a slowdown in business in the US, a result of the credit crisis that began in that country, but has since spread to Europe, even Asia and India. Infosys earned 33.4% of its revenue in the quarter from banks, finance companies and insurers, the worst hit by the slowdown. And 61.5% of its revenue in the quarter came from North America. The firm’s second quarter profit grew by 30.2% to Rs1,452 crore compared with the same period last year in rupee terms. Revenue for the quarter grew 32% to Rs5,418 crore. In sequential (quarter ended September over quarter ended June) terms, Infosys’ revenue was up 11.6% and net profit, 10%, again in rupees. On the back of the falling rupee (the currency was trading at a historical low of Rs49.26 to the dollar on Friday), Infosys increased its revenue guidance in rupees for the year ending March to between Rs21,309 crore and Rs21,731 crore, a growth of 27.7-30.2% over 2007-08. This is higher than the guidance given in July of a revenue between Rs21,278 crore and Rs21,622 crore, a growth of 27.5-29.5%. The company also expects earnings per share to be Rs26.63, a growth of 23.6%. In dollar terms, the company expects revenue to be between $4.72 billion (Rs22,986 crore) and $4.81 billion, a growth of 8.4-12.6%. In July it had estimated revenue to be between $4.97 billion and $5.05 billion, a growth of 19-21%. Earnings in the year ended March will probably be $2.24 a share, missing the low end of the company’s July forecast of $2.32, Infosys said. “The guidance, which factors currency movement and environment in the global economy, is below Street expectations,” said Gaurav Dua, head of research at Sharekhan Ltd, a Mumbai brokerage. Shares of Infosys fell 2.2% to Rs1,226.70 each on the Bombay Stock Exchange on a day when the exchange’s benchmark index fell 7.07% and the information technology sector index by 4.33%. An analyst said it was no longer “about Infosys” because the real impact of the credit crisis on customers of software services companies cannot easily be ascertained. Revenue from banks, finance companies and insurers will go down, said Anil Advani, head of research at SBI Capital Markets Ltd in Mumbai. “It could be retail and manufacturing tomorrow; it is contagious.” Infosys expects customers in the US to move more work offshore to low-cost locations such as India, but the financial crisis that has felled Bear Stearns Companies Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., and led to the sale of Merrill Lynch and Co. to Bank of America Corp., could delay this move. “In the second quarter, we have seen a skew towards offshore,” said V. Balakrishnan, CFO of Infosys. “(But) it is not yet a trend.” Infosys grew revenue from banks, finance companies and insurers by around 3% in the quarter. Revenue from its Top 10 customers, including British Telecom Plc., Goldman Sachs and Citigroup Inc. did not grow, but Infosys added 40 new customers, including five with which it expects to do business of $50 million a year. “We are getting larger contracts and are being invited for bigger projects,” said S.D. Shibulal, chief operating officer of the firm. Infosys, which gets 99% of its business from existing customers, saw its business volume grow by 6%, at the same price. “We are not seeing (any) decline in price, it is flattish,” Gopalakrishnan said. Credit Suisse Group analysts wrote in a 7 October report that Infosys may scrap its plans to buy Axon after HCL offered 650 pence (Rs534.30) a share, or 8.3% more than Infosys’ bid. “After careful consideration, the board of Infosys has concluded that it will not increase the price of its original offer,” Infosys said. “The company is confident that its decision will have no material impact on its strategic plans.” Axon, which specializes in advising clients on how to run business management software, may be less appealing after SAP AG, the biggest maker of such software, said this month that it saw a “very sudden and unexpected drop” in business activity, the Credit Suisse analysts wrote. After taking exits into account, Infosys added 5,927 employees in the quarter to take its total strength to 100,306. The firm said it was on course to hire the 25,000 people it had earlier said it would this year. Bloomberg’sHarichandan Arakali contributed to this story. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:37 pm Me-first attitude won’t rescue banks, economy It now threatens to become the epitaph for the bungled attempts by governments to manage the global financial turmoil. When historians look back at the events of the past few weeks, they will write about the appalling lack of international coordination and cooperation, particularly in Europe. The one bright spot may be the coordinated interest-rate cut by seven major central banks two days ago. But the Federal Reserve-led actions aren’t enough to resuscitate a crippled banking system. When push comes to shove, governments act on an ad-hoc, piecemeal basis and, to the detriment of others, largely out of national self-interest. Take Ireland. Its government last week started the beggar-thy-neighbour ball rolling when it promised to guarantee the deposits and debts of the country’s six biggest banks, giving them a funding advantage over their non-Irish competitors. Greece mimicked the move on 2 October, followed by Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Italy. The world has a systemic problem that requires a broad solution—if not a global approach, at least a pan-European one. First, governments must recognize the need for a comprehensive remedy. Next, they need bucks, big bucks, to recapitalize large swathes of the global banking system— especially in the West—by purchasing worthless securities, making shareholders and creditors pay. For that, as famed American bank robber Willie Sutton said, you go where the money is. Today that’s Asia, home to more than 60% of the world’s foreign-currency reserves. China has $1.8 trillion (Rs87.66 trillion), Japan holds $971 billion and India has $283 billion. After them come Taiwan with $281 billion, South Korea with $240 billion and Singapore with $170 billion. Several individuals, such as Jeffrey Garten, professor of international trade and finance at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut, have argued there’s a need for a global monetary authority. Given the growth in cross-border investment, trade and banking during the past three decades, that makes sense. Right now, that may be a non-starter politically.  Bold move: Spanish economy minister Pedro Solbes (left) talks to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria president Francisco Gonzalez on 6 October. Spain said it was prepared to unilaterally guarantee bank deposits. Susana Vera / Reuters ‘Act rapidly’ “If the banks and finance houses are international, then the regulators and those who protect depositors’ interests must also be able to act rapidly across borders,” he wrote on 2 October in the International Herald Tribune. European governments have shown they can move quickly to rescue small and medium-sized banks. But they seem unwilling or unable to come up with a blanket policy designed to deal with a big bank with a large multi-country presence and to prevent the crisis from spreading. The US units of foreign banks are eligible for assistance under the government’s $700 billion bailout package. Treasury secretary Henry Paulson urged other countries to adopt a “similar” approach. The initial response was underwhelming, with German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck on 25 September saying, “The financial crisis was above all an American problem.” Two weeks later, the UK and Spain seemed to get the Paulson message and announced national bank-rescue programmes. Yet they are only two out of 27 countries in the EU. Spanish plan On 7 October, Spain unveiled a strategy to spend as much as €50 billion euros (Rs3.29 trillion) to buy assets from banks, including foreign banks operating in the country. A day later, the UK said it would invest as much as £50 billion (Rs4.11 trillion) in eight major banks—one of which, Abbey National Plc., is Spanish-owned—and that the Bank of England would provide at least £200 billion of loan. The UK has already nationalized two banks and brokered the sale of a third. European governments are still eschewing an EU-wide strategy. So far, they have agreed only to make supervision in the region more uniform by 2012 and pledged to cooperate in managing crises. They have resisted coming up with a formula for splitting the costs of a major cross-border bailout, if that became necessary. “It is particularly difficult to get agreement among member states who want to preserve control of supervision,” EU financial services commissioner Charlie McCreevy said on 29 September. Last week, France floated the idea of a Europe-wide €300 billion fund similar to the US treasury’s but backed off after it was shunned by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Summit agreement French President Nicolas Sarkozy hosted a summit meeting last weekend for his British, Italian and German counterparts. The best they could come up with was an agreement to relax accounting rules, EU budget restraints and competition guidelines while toughening financial regulations. “Each country must take its responsibilities at a national level,” Merkel said at a press conference after the summit. On 6 and 7 October, EU leaders pledged to “take whatever measures are necessary to maintain the stability of the financial system” and proposed increasing the minimum deposit guarantee to €50,000. Again, though, they failed to reach a consensus on joint action. There was little support for French and Italian suggestions that Europe create an EU bailout fund. Too bad. Because the longer Europe resists a universal approach to the credit crisis, the greater the odds it will be confronted with corporate bankruptcies and demands for bailouts. feedback@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:33 pm Moment of truth has arrived The consequences of Lehman’s fall were apparent within days, yet key policy players have largely wasted the past four weeks. Now they’ve reached a moment of truth: They’d better do something soon—in fact, they’d better announce a coordinated rescue plan this weekend—or the world economy may well experience its worst slump since the Great Depression. Let’s talk about where we are right now. The current crisis started with a burst housing bubble, which led to widespread mortgage defaults, and hence to large losses at many financial institutions. That initial shock was compounded by secondary effects, as lack of capital forced banks to pull back, leading to further declines in the prices of assets, leading to more losses, and so on—a vicious circle of “deleveraging”. Pervasive loss of trust in banks, including on the part of other banks, reinforced the vicious circle. The downward spiral accelerated, post-Lehman. Money markets, already troubled, effectively shut down—one line currently making the rounds is that the only things anyone wants to buy right now are treasury bills and bottled water. The response to this downward spiral on the part of the world’s two great monetary powers—the US, on one side, and the 15 nations that use the euro, on the other—has been woefully inadequate. Europe, lacking a common government, has literally been unable to get its act together; each country has been making up its own policy, with little coordination, and proposals for a unified response have gone nowhere. The US should have been in a much stronger position. And when Paulson announced his plan for a huge bailout, there was a temporary surge of optimism. But it soon became clear that the plan suffered from a fatal lack of intellectual clarity. Paulson proposed buying $700 billion worth of “troubled assets”—toxic mortgage-related securities—from banks, but he was never able to explain why this would resolve the crisis. What he should have proposed instead, many economists agree, was direct injection of capital into financial firms: The US government would provide financial institutions with the capital they need to do business, thereby halting the downward spiral, in return for partial ownership. When Congress modified the Paulson plan, it introduced provisions that made such a capital injection possible, but not mandatory. And until two days ago, Paulson remained resolutely opposed to doing the right thing. But on Wednesday the UK government, showing the kind of clear thinking that has been all too scarce on this side of the pond, announced a plan to provide banks with £50 billion in new capital—the equivalent, relative to the size of the economy, of a $500 billion programme in the US—together with extensive guarantees for financial transactions between banks. And US treasury officials now say that they plan to do something similar, using the authority they didn’t want but Congress gave them anyway. The question now is whether these moves are too little, too late. I don’t think so, but it will be very alarming if this weekend rolls by without a credible announcement of a new financial rescue plan, involving not just the US but all the major players. Why do we need international cooperation? Because we have a globalized financial system in which a crisis that began with a bubble in Florida condos and California McMansions has caused monetary catastrophe in Iceland. We’re all in this together, and need a shared solution. Why this weekend? Because there happen to be two big meetings taking place in Washington: a meeting of top financial officials from the major advanced nations on Friday, then the annual International Monetary Fund/World Bank meeting on Saturday and Sunday. If these meetings end without at least an agreement in principle on a global rescue plan—if everyone goes home with nothing more than vague assertions that they intend to stay on top of the situation—a golden opportunity will have been missed, and the downward spiral could easily get even worse. What should be done? The US and Europe should just say “Yes, Prime Minister.” The British plan isn’t perfect, but there’s widespread agreement among economists that it offers by far the best available template for a broader rescue effort. And the time to act is now. You may think that things can’t get any worse—but they can, and if nothing is done in the next few days, they will. ©2008/The New York Times feedback@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:33 pm Continental crushAnkur Jain swore by wine and vodka until October 2002, when he ordered an ale in Zum Schneider, on the lower East Side of Manhattan. The imported European ale had been specially brewed for Oktoberfest. “It didn’t taste anything like beer. It was light, refreshing, amber coloured, had a spicy-fruity flavour and even left a clove aftertaste. I was sold on it.” He began to visit the well-known Brooklyn Brewery for a few pints every Saturday afternoon. “My office was very close to the brewery and I used to get out early Saturday afternoon, to get a few ‘brewery fresh’ beers after work!,” he says. In 2006, Jain shut his healthcare business in Brooklyn and moved back to India. He set up Cerana Imports Pvt. Ltd in 2007. Now Jain’s importing more than 50 craft beers from Europe. He’s determined to drive beer to its rightful position on the gourmet ladder. Among the beers Jain is bringing is the organic Moinette Biologique; Kriek De Ranke, a cherry-flavoured Belgian “wild beer”; the Trappist Rochefort No 10 (11.3% alcohol, the strongest beer in the world); and the only Trappist beers from the Netherlands. At the time of going to press, Cerana Imports was scheduled to launch more than 20 beers in the broad categories of wheat beers, Trappist ales, farmhouse ales and noveau beers in Delhi. The beers will be launched in Bangalore next and then in Mumbai, where Jain is still sorting out excise and pricing issues. Jain’s discovery of good beer is a familiar story. It’s pretty much what happened when Kingfisher-drinking, machine parts supplier Nikhil Kumar encountered Trappist beer on a holiday in Europe. When Kumar and his wife Lavanya sat in Café Gollem (the first pub in Amsterdam to serve Belgian beer) and sipped a glass of Chimay White, they were hooked.  Head for Belgian: Kumar’s imports made Bangalore happy. Hemant Mishra / Mint In September last year, Kumar—who also runs TD Power Systems Pvt. Ltd, a company that supplies machine parts to power generation companies—set up Nilarya Trading Pvt. Ltd and imported 10 Belgian ales and one Dutch pilsner. Today, he supplies to 70 restaurants and outlets in Bangalore and select restaurants in Mangalore, Mysore and Kabini as well. “At the moment, the imported beer market in Karnataka is just 1%, of that we have a 30% market share,” says Kumar. Now Kumar is working on importing American craft beers. “I am still in talks with four or five breweries and am yet to finalize on what we can expect to bring in,” he says. Even Hoegaarden, that great white Belgian beer which is brewed to a traditional recipe that goes as far back as 1445, is now available in Mumbai, Goa and Delhi, and will soon be available in Bangalore. Last month, beer powerhouse InBev India International Pvt. Ltd launched three of its cult Belgian beers—Stella Artois, Hoegaarden and Leffe—and one German lager, Beck’s. “The reception has been very positive and we can say that we own 20% of the imported beer market with these four labels. The market is so open to variety, I’m thinking of bringing in more labels next year,” says Raja Mukherji, CEO of InBev India International Pvt. Ltd. Agrees Kumar: “There is a lot of space in the market. Most mid-sized cities across the world have at least 30 to 40 varieties to choose from. This is just the beginning.” The history and tradition attached to Trappist and Abbey beers has always generated a buzz. These beers are brewed by monks in monasteries. The monks are under an oath of silence and have one spokesperson for every monastery. The monasteries, which keep their recipes secret, aren’t too keen on business, so most labels depend on word-of-mouth publicity. Of the 11 labels Kumar imports, the ones that move the fastest are Orval, which has a bitter finish, the three Chimay labels (white, red and blue) and Christoffel Bier, which is a pilsner that pours a murky blonde and is quite a hit due to its bottle with a pop-up cap. Kumar believes that experimentation can begin only when people are given options. “It’s a new world, where the beer with a big head is poured into goblets instead of mugs and you find traces of yeast left in your bottle because they are bottle conditioned (the beer ferments in the bottle). All this can be rather puzzling to people who have been drinking clear filtered beer.” Arjun Sajnani, who serves Kumar’s selection at his restaurant, Sunny’s, says all the 11 beers on the menu are hits. “The presence of Belgian beer on my menu adds to its credibility as an international restaurant.” But while Karnataka develops a taste for Trappist, Kumar’s expansion plans in the rest of the country are on hold due to heavy excise duties in other states. “We pay a 100% custom duty charge to bring the beer into the country and that’s why a pint in Karnataka costs more than Rs160. In an ideal world, a consumer shouldn’t be paying more than Rs100 for a good glass of beer,” says Kumar. He adds that pricing gets more challenging in other states. “We were very keen to enter Maharashtra, which slaps close to 125% state excise duty. I’d have to price my product at Rs300 for a pint and there’s no reason for anyone to pay that kind of money”. We’ll drink to that. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:33 pm In the city of upturned dustbinsLast weekend as I whizzed past Nawada (way wilder than Nevada) on one of the capital city’s broad-gauge beauties and inhaled steamy, fresh gobar as the doors opened at Dwarka, I knew I was ready to share my two bits on the Delhi vs Mumbai debate.  Delhi’s new fear: Bombs in dustbins. Mohd. Zakir / HT Riding the metro is the husband’s idea of a Sunday morning fun activity and after a brief tussle (me: Why not take the parents to Jama Masjid instead?; he: Because it’s just two stops, I want them to experience the new New Delhi and for that we must go to the end of the line), we took the blue line to Dwarka Sector 9. “This ride has increased my faith in India,” my father, a businessman who has spent the last 45 years in south Mumbai, said as he hopped off the air-conditioned coach. “Delhi’s roads are of international standard,” my mother kept repeating during her week-long visit. When I pointed out that she had spent most of the week in Lutyens Delhi, she said that she was comparing it to south Mumbai. Mumbaikars who move to Delhi have an unfair advantage. “Have you settled? Must be difficult, it’s so different from Bombay no?” Dilliwallas ask me sympathetically. “One of our friends is from Mumbai and she can’t stop bitching about Delhi. She’s finding it very difficult,” a colleague said. When I announced I was moving to Delhi on Facebook, I got only sympathy from friends in Delhi and Mumbai. We all know Delhi doesn’t have that big city pulse — and Mumbai’s the only Indian city with a real skyline. But for a quintessential Bombay girl, Delhi is the faux-urban gateway to the north Indian badlands. Since I’ve moved, there have been six bomb blasts and as many horrific road accidents. If you decide to help an accident victim here, you must be prepared to be slammed by a speeding bus and end up dead yourself. Mumbai may be a dirty city but in Delhi, everyone fears dustbins. “Look, that dustbin is not upturned. There could be a bomb in it,” I told my mother shortly after we heard there had been a yet another weekend blast in a busy shopping area. In Mumbai we get outraged by the moral policemen who tell our students to cover their legs. In Delhi, a female chief minister has the nerve to say that “one should not be too adventurous” in response to the shocking murder of a journalist driving home from work late at night. Even Raj Thackeray would think twice before making a statement like that. Dilliwallas sprinkle chat masala on everything, eat only chicken and switch to Hindi at the drop of a hat. But this city has the most beautiful open spaces (as a resident of Nizamuddin, I can stroll to Humayun’s Tomb for my morning walk). Movie-goers are not forced to stand to attention to the slow-mo version of the national anthem sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle before the screening of Hellboy II at the neighbourhood theatre. They don’t hate north Indians here. And yes, Mumbai entrepreneur A.D. Singh’s biggest restaurant venture is now in Delhi (and India’s first brewpub will open in Gurgaon). If Mumbai had the Portuguese, Delhi had the Mughals. Delhi may be the city of upturned dustbins, but once it was the Imperial city of India. It was Shahjahanabad. Now, it has more Abida Parveen concerts, more film festivals that screen subtitled movies and better bookstores. And it’s a relief to hear conversations that throb with political sound bites rather than expert views on the stock markets and real estate. But Mumbai’s home. It’s the city with non-violent BEST buses and the best edition of TimeOut; it’s a place where you can see and hear and smell the sea; a filthy, swarming dreamcatcher of a megapolis that lives from one Friday first show to the next. Mumbai’s a migration magnet. I quite like Delhi and I’m settled, thank you, but Mumbai still has my vote. Write to lounge@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:31 pm Recession fears spook markets???? ?? ?? {This is a crisis of confidence not only in equities but in the whole financial system across the globe} Motilal Oswal?? ?? ??Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:28 pm The model to follow is UK banking bailoutThe G-7 finance ministers meeting in Washington on Friday must act decisively to solve the global crisis. With the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging another 680 points on Thursday, there’s no excuse for this gathering to end up as a talking shop. Comprehensive, global action is required.  Click here for breakingviews.com The model to follow is banking bailout put forward by the UK. Adopt something similar globally and the worst of the banking crisis could be brought to an end. The Dow’s dramatic fall is just a symptom of the crisis. The real problem is in the credit markets, which remain gummed up. The UK’s bank bailout offers the best solution so far for un-gumming them. The scheme has a better chance of success. It ensures banks are properly capitalized, guarantees medium-term lending and provides short-term liquidity. There are already signs that other countries are thinking of following suit. Critically, the US seems on the point of redirecting at least some of the $700 billion (Rs34.1 trillion) it was planning to spend on buying toxic assets into directly recapitalizing banks. But we are not even remotely there yet. Even if the US properly recapitalizes its banks—and that’s a big “if”—two key weaknesses in the global financial system will remain. First, some banks elsewhere (especially in continental Europe) will still need shoring up. Second, and even more important, the medium-term lending problem hasn’t been solved in the US and many other countries. Solving this won’t be cheap, given how many banks and investment banks have gorged themselves on short-term wholesale borrowing in recent years. The UK has provided a template that could work: the government won’t actually provide the cash but it will guarantee medium-term borrowing by banks in return for an appropriate fee. The G7 should crack these remaining issues. Ministers should realise that a coordinated, comprehensive, global solution will be much more effective than more piecemeal action. They should also realize they don’t have time to dawdle. Markets won’t stabilize until they act, and in the meantime, more financial giants could tumble. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:23 pm RCom seeks to trademark an iPhone-like brandNew Delhi: In what could trigger a trademark battle, the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-Adag) has applied in India to register a trademark on ‘I PHONE’—a brand name that sounds exactly like Apple Inc.’s popular mobile phone.  Battle of labels: The trademark application comes barely weeks after the launch of the Apple iPhone models in India. The phone has not found many takers in the country despite its high-decibel advertising. Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint A trademark is a word or mark that indicates ownership of a product or service and is legally reserved for use bythe owner. Reliance Communications Ltd, or RCom, a mobile phone services business chaired by Anil Ambani, has applied for the trademark under several registration categories. According to India’s trademarks office’s website, RCom had filed its applications on 27 March 2007—coincidentally a month after Cisco Systems Inc., the world’s biggest maker of computer networking equipment, and the original owner of the iPhone name, settled a case with Apple over the use of the brand. Cisco had registered the name in 2000 and had sued Apple for using the brand name in January 2007. RCom had filed its application a month after the original owner of the brand, Cisco, settled a case with Apple Generally, it takes months to more than a year for the Indian trademark office to go through the applications and open it up for public scrutiny. The RCom trademark application was made public in mid-September and published on the website of India’s Controller General of Patents, Design and Trademark on 9 October. This comes barely weeks after the launch of the Apple iPhone models in India in association with two top mobile service providers, Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Essar Ltd, in late August. Though a rage globally—more than 11 million of different iPhone models have been sold—iPhone has not found many takers in India with prices going up to Rs36,100 despite high-decibel advertising. RCom’s application under class 41 of Indian trademark registrations, sought it under “education, providing of training, entertainment, sports and cultural activities” and class 16 under categories including paper, cardboard and goods made from these, book-binding materials, photographs, stationery, artistic materials, paint brushes and playing cards, among others. Apple spells its brand ‘iPhone’ while RCom proposes to use a capital ‘I’ and has a character-wide gap between ‘I’ and ‘PHONE’. The second word is spelt in capital letters in the class 41 filing. The application for class 16 is ‘i phone’—all in lower case. In addition to class 41 and 16, RCom has also applied to trademark ‘Reliance i phone’ in class 38 that deals in “telecommunication services” as well as under class 9 that concerns “manufacturing and trading in apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of sound or images; magnetic data carriers including but not limited” to fixed wireless phones and terminals. “Filing for trademark registration under different nomenclature is a routine organizational practice to ensure brand-name flexibility on future product road-maps of our company,” an RCom spokesperson said by email. A legal expert said RCom’s attempt could run into roadblocks since the iPhone name is strongly associated with Apple’s product. “If I mention ‘I phone’, it should be associated with Reliance...that’s the kind of evidence they require” to be able to secure a trademark, said New Delhi-based trademark attorney Neil Mason. It is unclear whether Apple has applied or registered the iPhone trademark in India. An Apple spokeswoman in Singapore said she has no comment to offer “at this point”. Any objections to the RCom application has to be made within three-four months, trademark lawyers say. “The fact that Reliance has applied for two (separate applications) possibly means that they have been advised that: ‘Look Reliance I phone at the strength of Reliance will go through’,” said Mason. R-Adag is also locked in a trademark dispute where a group firm applied to register “Reliance Big Bazar”. It was opposed by the country’s largest publicly traded retailer, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, that owns a chain of popular supermarkets branded Big Bazaar. Trademark lawyers say it generally takes about two years to resolve a trademark dispute in India. Meanwhile, the opposing party could move it to a court for a stay or injunction on trademark misuse. R. Jai Krishna contributed to this story. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:18 pm US’ Tyson eyes bigger play in India; in supply talks with Reliance RetailMumbai: US meat processor Tyson Foods Inc. plans to expand its business in India and other emerging markets such as China and Brazil, betting that economic growth will spur consumers to eat more chicken and other non-vegetarian foods, and switch to packaged products.  New focus: Tyson Foods chairman John Tyson hopes with economic growth, consumers in emerging markets will switch to packaged foods. Axel Seidemann / Bloomberg “We will focus more on the international emerging markets as with the growing economy, people will have the desire to consume more protein,” said Tyson. The US firm, which ended 2007 with $26.9 billion (Rs1.31 trillion today) in revenue, is present in India through Godrej Tyson Foods, a joint venture set up in June with Godrej Agrovet Ltd, a unit of diversified Godrej Industries Ltd. The venture, in which Tyson Foods invested $16 million for a 51% stake with Godrej holding the remaining 49%, sells processed chicken under the Real Good brand and ready-to-eat foods under the Yummiez brand. A February report by business advisory Rabo India Finance Ltd—using data from the agriculture ministry—estimated the size of the Indian poultry market, the world’s fifth largest, at $3.1 billion. Godrej Tyson Foods hopes to cash in on India’s unorganized poultry market and tap the potential for packaged meat products. The market will evolve as consumers opt for more hygienic and convenient alternatives such as packaged products rather than buy meat from the neighbourhood butcher’s shop, said Tyson. India’s processed poultry market is estimated at 1% of the total market and is growing at 20% a year, said Pawan Kumar, research analyst for the food and agri business at Rabo India Finance, who expects the expansion of retail chains and increased emphasis on hygiene following avian influenza outbreaks in recent years to drive the growth of the organized poultry market. Tyson owns 60 poultry plants in the US and its chairman said emerging markets need to invest in standardization and technology. “In (the) US and (the) UK, we have a more organized movement of live chicken, and very good equipment for processing chicken, while in the emergingmarkets, more efficiencies are needed in areas like delivery of chicken, poultry farming and others,” he said. The low price of chicken feed in emerging markets is one attraction for the company. Soya bean and corn costs much less in India, Brazil and China, and is also plentiful. The three countries don’t have to import soya bean or corn, Tyson said. Rising prices of soya bean and corn have increased production costs for most meat producers. Godrej Tyson’s revenue is around $50 million yearly and the company hopes to increase this to $200 million in three years, Tyson said. He expects to invest $2-4 million next year to develop products and expand its marketingnetwork. Last month, Tyson Foods said it would sell 20 million shares of common stock and issue $450 million in notes to repay debt and raise money for acquisitions, strategic investments and expansion. “We have a war chest of about $1.5 billion available to us for consideration as opportunities come up in the US and in two-three prime markets.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:18 pm US’ Tyson eyes bigger play in India; in supply talks with Reliance RetailMumbai: US meat processor Tyson Foods Inc. plans to expand its business in India and other emerging markets such as China and Brazil, betting that economic growth will spur consumers to eat more chicken and other non-vegetarian foods, and switch to packaged products. New focus: Tyson Foods chairman John Tyson hopes with economic growth, consumers in emerging markets will switch to packaged foods. Axel Seidemann / Bloomberg “We will focus more on the international emerging markets as with the growing economy, people will have the desire to consume more protein,” said Tyson. The US firm, which ended 2007 with $26.9 billion (Rs1.31 trillion today) in revenue, is present in India through Godrej Tyson Foods, a joint venture set up in June with Godrej Agrovet Ltd, a unit of diversified Godrej Industries Ltd. The venture, in which Tyson Foods invested $16 million for a 51% stake with Godrej holding the remaining 49%, sells processed chicken under the Real Good brand and ready-to-eat foods under the Yummiez brand. A February report by business advisory Rabo India Finance Ltd—using data from the agriculture ministry—estimated the size of the Indian poultry market, the world’s fifth largest, at $3.1 billion. Godrej Tyson Foods hopes to cash in on India’s unorganized poultry market and tap the potential for packaged meat products. The market will evolve as consumers opt for more hygienic and convenient alternatives such as packaged products rather than buy meat from the neighbourhood butcher’s shop, said Tyson. India’s processed poultry market is estimated at 1% of the total market and is growing at 20% a year, said Pawan Kumar, research analyst for the food and agri business at Rabo India Finance, who expects the expansion of retail chains and increased emphasis on hygiene following avian influenza outbreaks in recent years to drive the growth of the organized poultry market. Tyson owns 60 poultry plants in the US and its chairman said emerging markets need to invest in standardization and technology. “In (the) US and (the) UK, we have a more organized movement of live chicken, and very good equipment for processing chicken, while in the emergingmarkets, more efficiencies are needed in areas like delivery of chicken, poultry farming and others,” he said. The low price of chicken feed in emerging markets is one attraction for the company. Soya bean and corn costs much less in India, Brazil and China, and is also plentiful. The three countries don’t have to import soya bean or corn, Tyson said. Rising prices of soya bean and corn have increased production costs for most meat producers. Godrej Tyson’s revenue is around $50 million yearly and the company hopes to increase this to $200 million in three years, Tyson said. He expects to invest $2-4 million next year to develop products and expand its marketingnetwork. Last month, Tyson Foods said it would sell 20 million shares of common stock and issue $450 million in notes to repay debt and raise money for acquisitions, strategic investments and expansion. “We have a war chest of about $1.5 billion available to us for consideration as opportunities come up in the US and in two-three prime markets.” Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:18 pm HCL EAS makes open offer to Axon shareholdersHCL EAS has made an open offer to Axon shareholders, reports CNBCTV18. It has acquired 0.47% equity of Axon. The company will post its offer document to Axon shareholders by October 24.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:17 pm The last shoe has dropped That hope died on Friday. If August industrial production numbers are correct, the malaise has already spread far and wide into the real economy. Most economists are of the view the figure is an outlier, caused in part by a high base. It’s also true the production of commodities such as cement may have been hit by floods. Export growth, growth in non-oil imports and the Purchasing Managers’ Index also lend support to the view the August numbers exaggerate the downside. The big worry, however, has been the fall in electricity output to 0.8%, compared with 4.5% in July. Analysts say there are severe problems, both with hydropower and coal availability, which means it’s unlikely to be a one-off fall. Also, the liquidity crunch has started to take a toll, affecting funding for projects. Also See Flight To Safety (Graphic) If the August numbers are correct, it would mean terrible results by manufacturing companies in the September quarter, which would lead to further cuts in earnings estimates and a deeper de-rating of the market. Incidentally, Friday’s market saw a flight to safety among banks. While investors abandoned private sector banks such as Yes Bank Ltd (down 20.7%), ICICI Bank Ltd (down 19.7%), Axis Bank Ltd and Indusind Bank Ltd, they flocked to public-sector lenders such as Canara Bank (up 3.87%), State Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:00 pm A financial bust is the best time to take risksTo hear Tim Draper tell it, the current financial crisis is yet another opportunity for entrepreneurs to build great, disruptive businesses. The founder and managing director of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), which has notched up successes such as Chinese search engine Baidu.com Inc., Internet telephony company Skype Inc., acquired by eBay Inc. for $2.6 billion (about Rs12,662 crore now), and Hotmail, bought by Microsoft Corp. for $400 million, calls it a “most exciting time”.  Exciting times: Draper Fisher Jurvetson founder and managing director Tim Draper says both boom and bust cycles offer great opportunities. Ashesh Shah / Mint DFJ was among the first Silicon Valley venture firms to go global 10 years ago and has investments in 500 companies across its own and affiliate funds. In India, it deviated from the affiliate model to set up a direct presence in September 2007, headed by Mohanjit Jolly, with an allocation of $100 million out of its $600 million global fund. Its 15 investments in India include electric-car maker Reva Electric Car Co. Pvt. Ltd, online travel portal Cleartrip Travel Services Pvt. Ltd and e-waste management company Attero Recycling Pvt. Ltd. Draper, on a three-day visit to India, spoke to Mint about the impact of the current slowdown on venture investing, DFJ’s strategy going ahead, and why the slowdown is the best time for risky bets. Edited excerpts: What has been the impact of the current financial crisis on venture investing globally? We (VCs) have had booms and busts of our own in 2000-01. (Last year) we had the beginnings of a boom, but we didn’t get crazy and now we’ll have a little bit of bust because of external factors. I actually think these times are the most exciting, when people can say here’s a new playing field. Many great businesses have started because of a financial bust, or difficulty in environment, or just because their employer wasn’t doing it right. This is one of those times people are able to stop, reassess and go back to what they really want to be doing with their lives. And some of the most creative are gonna say here’s an opportunity I didn’t do before because the situation was different, but now I got laid off and I can make it happen. If people look at this financial problem as financial opportunity, some great things will happen. We were able to invest through the (dotcom) bust and that’s worked out really well for us. This is a different financial bust than the last one, because we were in the centre of the tornado before. And now we’re on the sidelines watching, but it’s a bigger tornado. Sure, it will affect us and our companies. But as many problems are created, there will be opportunities. Are you looking at an affiliate network in India? We might end up with an affiliate network here that could be sectoral or regional. We did look at (a) biotech India fund and we went pretty far down the road. That didn’t work out, but it might some day. India is a very large geography; it’s tough for a single local team to cover the whole place, so (regional) might not be a bad idea. Will you raise a dedicated India fund? We allocate a pretty big part of global fund to (India). We’ll continue to do that. If it’s a dedicated fund, it’s more likely to be an affiliate than part of DFJ. What sectors excite you these days? I love the communications sector—Hotmail, Skype, all came out of it. I look for the biggest problems and which entrepreneur is going after that. New modes and new forms of energy, those are really interesting, big problems. I’m looking at three-four nuclear power companies. Transportation is a new twist, we’re looking at any alternative transportation. There are a lot of really creative entrepreneurs out there, some have come to us with flying cars. I have maybe six-seven business plans for flying cars. DFJ went global at a time when others thought Silicon Valley was where all the action was. Do you feel vindicated now? I never look at it that way. I look at it more as, maybe, relief. This is a very exciting industry to be a part of. I like to break new ground. I want to make sure we’re pushing the edge in the venture capital business. We’ve tried a lot of new things. We were the first to bet on Internet companies first, to our detriment, to do a public venture capital fund. I came up with viral marketing for Hotmail. Will you continue to take risky bets in such a volatile market? This is the best time to take those risks. Two best times are bottom of cycle and top of cycle. At the bottom, (entrepreneurs) are recreating themselves, working out how to do with less money. At the top of the cycle, it’s about how big we can get and how to get there. Cycles create more opportunities, and the greatest come from tops and bottoms. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 6:59 pm Liquidity trap: fear of failure It goes on to add, “In a liquidity trap environment, banks are unwilling to lend, so the central bank’s newly created liquidity is trapped behind unwilling lenders.” That definition of a so-called liquidity trap succinctly sums up what’s happening in financial markets. The consensus has so far been that banks are unwilling to lend to other banks because they’re scared the other bank might fail. But on Friday, three-month dollar Libor—London interbank offered rate, or the rate banks charge each other for short-term loans—was fixed at 4.81% against 4.75% on Thursday. Until banks are recapitalized, the freeze in credit markets won’t go away After all, you and I will lend money only if our own financial situation is strong. If we are worried about margin calls, or a demand for additional funds to cover positions, why would anybody lend money? Until the banks are recapitalized, the freeze in the credit markets won’t go away. Also, the longer it takes to fix it, the bigger will be the impact on Main Street. Reports on Friday indicated that letters of credit, without which international commerce would come to a shuddering halt, were being dishonoured. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 6:59 pm India still attractive for Babcock & BrownNew Delhi: Despite a global credit crunch, Australian private equity firm Babcock and Brown Infrastructure is optimistic about opportunities in India and has bid for 14 highway projects through ventures with Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Construction Co. Ltd. Apart from highways, B&B is also looking to invest in power, ports and airports The firm, which invests in public works globally, has already closed a $400 million (Rs1,948 crore) emerging markets fund aimed at China and India and is actively scouting investment opportunities in companies formed to carry out specific projects. The firm may eventually increase the size of the fund to as much as $1 billion, said Manikkan Sangameshwaran, managing director of Babcock and Brown India Pvt. Ltd. He outlined the plans as companies worldwide battle a liquidity crisis amid turmoil on the financial markets. Babcock and Brown, which manages assets valued at some $74 billion across 12 listed and seven unlisted funds globally, recently hired several key members of Dutch bank ABN Amro Bank NV’s India team. The 14 projects are currently at a stage called request for qualifications and the company is awaiting the announcement of shortlists of pre-qualified bidders. Apart from highways, Babcock and Brown is also looking at investment opportunities in power as well as airports and ports, Sangameshwaran said. Babcock and Brown is the latest overseas investor targeting the Indian infrastructure market. Companies such as Macquarie Group Ltd and 3i Group Plc. have announced India-specific funds while a number of others invest in India as part of their emerging markets funds. With the so-called public-private partnerships seen as the main means of financing for most infrastructure projects, the Planning Commission estimates that the private sector would contribute almost a third of all infrastructure spending over the next five years. While there are no independent numbers on the unlisted infrastructure funds active in India, a recent report in trade magazine Asian Investor said nearly $18 billion has been “raised globally for investments into infrastructure funds aimed primarily at Asia, with India receiving the lion’s share”. According to private equity and venture capital research service Venture Intelligence, nearly 32% of the $6.7 billion in private equity deployed in the country in the first half of 2008 went into the infrastructure and affiliated sectors. This compares with some 37% of nearly $14.3 billion deployed in 2007. “There are two parts to the story. On the one hand, there was a lot of hype around these funds that were announced, but not all of them have been capitalized to the extent they were announced,” said Vinayak Chatterjee, founder and chairman of project management consultancy Feedback Ventures. “On the other hand, there are not enough bankable projects even for the amount that has been raised.” Babcock and Brown’s Sangameshwaran said the company’s philosophy was to look at sectors that fulfilled certain basic criteria of infrastructure projects, such as essential services, and thus less susceptible to downturns. “Globally we like to hold the majority stake in our projects. Here, we are looking hold anything between 26% and 51% of the projects,” he said. Sanath Vallikapen contributed to this story. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 6:57 pm India's economy, banking system sound - SubbaraoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Indian economy and banking system are sound, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) chief assured the world financial community on Friday, as a global credit crunch intensified and world stock markets tumbled.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Hindalco rights issue to be oversubscribed: KM BirlaKumar Mangalam Birla, Aditya Birla Group, feels Hindalco\'s rights issue was wrongly timed. \"Its a great stock, its a great company with very strong fundamentals. If not the lowest cost producer, its one of the lowestcost producers of aluminium in the world and the intrinsic value of the share is much higher than the rights price.\"Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Oct 2008 | 4:43 pm Cadbury India to triple investments in contract farmingChocolate and confectionary major Cadbury India is betting big on contract farming. The company wants to source all the cocoa for its Indian products from within the country. The company has plans to increase acreage for cocoa cultivation.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Oct 2008 | 3:10 pm Liquidity adequate, global exposure small: ICICI BkChanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank, said the bank has adequate rupee and global liquidity of Rs 12,000 crore. \"We have no international investments, only loans on our balance sheet. We do not use rupee liquidity to fund global activities.\"Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:43 pm India Inc hot on MA trail despite financial crisis: StudyThe global financial crisis may have created ripples across the world, but it does not seem to be stopping cashrich Indian companies from going after acquisitions. This is because target companies are significantly cheaper now than just six months ago. That\'s according to a report by Indusview Advisors.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:20 pm Tyson Foods to double sales; may partner fast food chainsThe USbased meat processor, Tyson Foods, is firming up its plans for the Indian market. Apart from more investments in its joint venture with Godrej Agrovet, it also plans to partner fast food chains and five star hotels to double its revenue.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Oct 2008 | 12:59 pm
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