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Rural BPOs beat slowdown, stand tallUS Presidentelect Barack Obama\'s victory has made Indian outsourcing companies jittery. But rural BPOs might soon become a viable option. Vishwanath Pilla and Arvind Sukumar find out how rural BPOs are not just helping companies to cut costs but are also providing gainful employment to graduates from villages.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Nov 2008 | 1:04 pm Tech Mahindra opens call centre in BritainIn a reversal of the trend of British companies opening call centres in India, Tech Mahindra has decided to open one in Britain.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:19 pm Jaguar Land Rover hires PR firm to boost 'British' statusThe Tata Group owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is hiring a prominent British public relations firm to boost its corporate credentials.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:19 pm Will Zee\'s entry in Tamil Nadu challenge Sun TV?It is the launch of yet another general entertainment channel in Tamil Nadu. This time it is from the Zee stable. Divya Rajagopal finds out if Zee Tamil can challenge market leader Sun Network\'s undisputed position in the state.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:15 pm Yahoo shares plunge after another MS rejection!Shares of ailing internet pioneer Yahoo plunged more than 10 percent Friday after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reiterated that his company was not interested in reviving its takeover bid.Source: Zee News : Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:07 pm 3,600 GM workers to be indefinitely laid off!General Motors Corp says about 3,600 workers will be laid off indefinitely beginning early next year as the automaker slows down production at 10 of its assembly plants.Source: Zee News : Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:07 pm `GM will `take every action` to avoid bankruptcy`!General Motors will take "every action we possibly can" to avoid bankruptcy, president and chief executive Rick Wagoner has said after warning that the US automaker could run out of cash in the first half of next year.Source: Zee News : Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:07 pm Airfares should fall in two months: Praful Patel!Despite Indian carriers accumulating losses worth Rs.100 billion (USD 2.2 billion), Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel sees fares falling over the next couple of months, even as he promises to resolve the current crisis in the industry.Source: Zee News : Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:07 pm ONGC still in quest for acquisitions: ChairmanBeijing: Oil and Natural Gas Corp., or ONGC, is not facing cash flow problems yet and is still looking for acquisition opportunities despite the global financial crisis and the drop-off in prices it helped precipitate, Chairman and Managing Director R.S. Sharma said Saturday. “As a national oil company liquidity is not a problem but the whole business is certainly facing difficulties,” Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of a national oil company forum in Beijing. “It is a good time to buy assets if you have the money,” he said, adding ONGC was looking at possible acquisitions in Africa and Latin America. Like other executives at the forum Sharma dismissed the current price decline as a blip in a long-term trend of rising consumption. “I don’t see that there is falling demand. Its just a short term phenomenon, just a question of sentiment going down.” The national oil companies have warned that $60 crude could actually fuel another spike in prices further down the line if it leads to a suspension of more expensive projects needed to meet expected demand growth. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 8 Nov 2008 | 11:46 am Uttar Pradesh diesel dealers threaten to stop businessDiesel dealers in Uttar Pradesh Saturday threatened to stop business if the state government did not withdraw an entry tax, imposed on them in September.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Nov 2008 | 11:33 am Reduce petroleum prices or face the music: Amar SinghNational general secretary of the Samajwadi Party Amar Singh Saturday demanded that the central government bring down the petroleum prices in the wake of the falling crude oil prices in the international market otherwise the minister will face the music from the public.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Nov 2008 | 11:31 am Jet Airways sacks 25 expat pilotsMumbai: Plagued by mounting losses, private air-carrier Jet Airways has sacked at least 25 expatriate pilots, including captains of Boeing 737 aircraft, a Jet spokesperson said Saturday. The expatriates get between $15,000 to 18,000 salary per month besides perquisites such as five-star hotel accommodation and business class conveyance to their home country. Earlier, around Diwali time, Jet had sacked around 400 support staff but later rescinded its move by taking back all the employees. Another private air-carrier, the Vijay Mallya-run Kingfisher Airlines, had last month, announced a cut in the salaries of its trainee pilots as a part of its cost-cutting measures. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 8 Nov 2008 | 11:27 am India's Narayana Hrudayalaya plans health city in MexicoIndian hospital major Narayana Hrudayalaya plans to set up a health city in Mexico that will also cater to patients from the US.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Nov 2008 | 11:01 am Parle to buy 600 tonnes of apple concentrate from Himachal PradeshLeading food and beverage company Parle Agro announced it will buy 600 tonnes of apple juice concentrate worth Rs.60 million from Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corp (HPMC).Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Nov 2008 | 11:01 am PM leaves for Oman - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 9:21 am Gujarat NRE Coke setting up new plant in APGujarat NRE Coke Ltd is in the process of setting up a onemilliontonne coke making plant near Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Nov 2008 | 8:57 am Qualcomm Inc eyes opportunity in 3G marketTerming India as an important market, the Qualcomm Inc Chairman, Mr Irwin Jacobs, on Friday said the company is eyeing significant growth opportunities in India as the country looks to introduce 3G services.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Nov 2008 | 8:51 am Educomp, Intel launch learning system for schoolsEducomp Solutions Ltd, in collaboration with IT company Intel, has launched Educomp O3 Learning System for oneonone learning in schools. The company said it is planning to deploy the system in a slew of private and publicrun schools.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 8 Nov 2008 | 8:45 am Raja swears by fair play, blames cartel for 'scam' - Indian Express
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 8:07 am Equities end second successive week in the greenFor the second successive week, Indian equities finished in the green Friday with a key index gaining 1.8 percent during the week.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am Emerging powers join forces for finance reformSAO PAULO (Reuters) - Emerging economies staked their claim to a bigger role in the world's financial system on Friday, saying the crisis that has hammered rich countries showed it was time for them to take a seat at the big table.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 7:51 am Reliance Capital unit stops fresh loansMUMBAI (Reuters) - Reliance Consumer Finance, a unit of Reliance Capital Ltd, has stopped giving fresh loans due to the tightening local liquidity conditions, a newspaper report said on Saturday quoting a top company official.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 7:50 am ONGC still in quest for acquisitions - chiefBEIJING (Reuters) - India's state-owned oil company is not facing cash flow problems yet and is still looking for acquisition opportunities despite the global financial crisis and the drop-off in prices it helped precipitate, the firm's chief said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 7:48 am Bourses stay in green; Sensex gains 176 pts - Hindu
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 7:34 am Infosys, Wipro bag top honours in Karnataka IT Exports Awards - Press Trust of India
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 7:25 am Super car Audi R8 @ Rs 1.17 crore - Sify
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 7:14 am Water returns to Saurashtra, farmers followIt's a happy homecoming for the farmers of Saurashtra. Faced with scarcity of water they left their land and profession. But today, thanks to a new water management system employed by the state government, a reverse migration is in progress.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Nov 2008 | 6:32 am Airfares should fall in two months: Praful PatelDespite Indian carriers accumulating losses worth Rs.100 billion ($2.2 billion), Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel sees fares falling over the next couple of months, even as he promises to resolve the current crisis in the industry.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Nov 2008 | 6:32 am Tech Mahindra opens call centre in Britain - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 6:04 am SAIL, Tata Steel stay put, others cut output - Sify
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 5:27 am Modi invites tech industry to Gujarat - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 5:10 am Franklin Bank SSB fails, seized by U.S. authoritiesWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. bank regulators closed Franklin Bank SSB, a Houston-based community bank, on Friday, making it the third-largest and 18th U.S. bank failure this year as slumping home prices and the worsening economic crisis take an increasing toll.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 1:39 am Asia to avoid full-fledged financial crisis - ADBNEW YORK (Reuters) - Asia is expected to avoid a "full-fledged" financial crisis as governments and the corporate sector learned lessons from the previous crisis that hit the region a decade ago, the head of the Asian Development Bank said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 1:27 am Wall St Week Ahead: Stocks eye bleak retail data, Treasury pickNEW YORK (Reuters) - The grim view on consumer spending could get worse next week as investors parse a government report on retail sales and earnings from Wal-Mart Stores Inc, while waiting with bated breath for President-elect Barack Obama's pick for U.S. Treasury secretary.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 1:08 am GM and Ford losses, cash burn direDETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co reported far deeper-than-expected quarterly losses on Friday and said their rate of cash burn had accelerated, as an extended slump in car sales raised questions about the future of the U.S. auto industry.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 1:06 am Obama says will confront economic woes head-onCHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama said on Friday the United States was facing one of its greatest economic challenges and vowed to confront the crisis head-on as soon as he takes office in January.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 1:01 am H2 growth may be slower, says NasscomNew Delhi/Hyderabad, Nov. 7 Software association Nasscom on Friday said that after about 24 per cent revenue growth clocked in the first half of the current financial year, the Indian IT industry may see a slower growth rates in the second half,Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Raja defends 2G spectrum policyNew Delhi, Nov. 7 The Communications and IT Minister, Mr A. Raja, on Friday said that he will resign if allegations made against his decision to allocate 2G mobile spectrum on a first-come-first-served basis was proven wrong.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am ARCIL sees more stressed assets from retail sectorMumbai, Nov. 7 ARCIL, an asset reconstruction company, hopes to acquire stressed assets worth Rs 2,500 crore in the current year, said Mr S. Khasnobis, Managing Director and CEO. Of this, 20-25 per cent will be retail assets, he said.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am DoT plans share lock-in for new telcosNew Delhi, Nov. 7 The Department of Telecom is planning to ban sale of equity shares owned by Indian promoters of new telecom companies for a period of 3-5 years. This means that promoters of companies such as Datacom, Loop, STEL and ByCell,Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Forex reserves shrink by $5.5 bMumbai, Nov. 7 The foreign exchange reserves continued to decline for the sixth consecutive week, falling by $5.532 billion to touch $252.883 billion for the week ended OctoberSource: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Employee cost in top four IT majors up 30% in Q2Chennai, Nov. 7 The slowdown in the US financial service dampened the hiring of employees by top Indian software companies. But employee cost, which contributes the most to expenditure, rose in the second quarter of this fiscalSource: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am IRDA relaxes general insurance normsHyderabad, Nov. 7 If you maintain your car in good shape and make no insurance claim, you can expect more and higher incentives from your insurer.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am More companies opt to trim man hours, cut productionMumbai, Nov. 7 The economic slowdown has begun to hurt companies across industries forcing many top rankers to cut production, opt for reduced working hours and rationalise their workforce.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Truck makers: A worried lot, brace for tough timesBangalore/Mumbai/Chennai, Nov. 7 It is not panic situation yet, but with the economy slowing down, truck and bus manufacturers in the country are revisiting their growth forecast while tapping various resources to overcome theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Gold holdings of five ETFs slip in OctoberMumbai, Nov. 7 With the mutual fund industry facing redemption pressure, the gold holdings of the five listed gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) declined in October as there was profit booking by the large players.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Greenspan sees U.S. GDP down significantly in Q4TORONTO (Reuters) - It is certain that U.S. gross domestic product will be down sharply in the fourth quarter, but hard-hit housing prices may start to stabilize in the first half of next year, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:49 pm Govt rethink on polio oral vaccine - Calcutta Telegraph
Source: Google News India - Business | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:58 pm Social computing empowers the consumer to be a marketerSocial computing is changing the way marketing is done.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:47 pm Has Brand Aamir started melting?Aamir Khan may be losing it - Aamir Khan the brand that is. Or, so many in the ad mad world would have us believe.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:44 pm 'Recession's a good time for brand messages'In his very first interview for a job at an advertising agency, Thomas Xavier, a mechanical engineer, spent the better half of a Saturday sitting across the table talking to R Balakrishnan.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:39 pm Educomp teams up with Intel for O3Educomp Solutions, the Gurgaon-based education firm, has partnered with chipmaker Intel to offer 'O3' learning system, primarily targeting private schools in the country.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:38 pm OVL yet to receive FAS nod to own Russian assetsONGC Videsh Limited or OVL said that the company has not yet received an approval to own Russian assets controlled by foreign government entities. OVL is currently seeking clarity from Russias Federal Antimonopoly Service on the status of the nod. The FAS said that imperial assets were not strategic and hence no nod was required.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:37 pm Lanco sole bidder for Rs 7k cr Patiala plantThe Hyderabad-based Lanco Infratech is all set to bag the contract to build and operate the 1,320-mw super critical power project near Rajpura in Patiala, Punjab.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:37 pm 'Firms say banks are friends only in good times'Banks are moving away from developing industries to being just profit-seeking entities.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:36 pm RBI offers banks forex swapsKeeping in mind the pressure on dollar liquidity of Indian banks, the Reserve Bank of India on Friday announced a special forex swap facility for them.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:36 pm Sun Pharma extends offer to buy Taro sharesSun Pharma has extended its offer to buy outstanding shares of Taro Pharmaceutical Industries to December 19, reports CNBCTV18 quoting Newswire18. Sun Pharmas offer for remaining Taro shares was to end today.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:35 pm Global carriers start low-fare play in local skiesEven as Indian carriers go slow on their international plans, international carriers are swooping in to corner market share with low fares.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:35 pm Corus cuts crude steel output againCorus will cut its crude steel output with OctoberMarch by 30%. The output cut is to align production with European demand, it said. Earlier too, Corus had announced a 20% output cut for the period between October and December.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:29 pm Sebi pardons IOCs breach of corporate governance normsSebi has let off IOC and ONGC for violating corporate governance norms, reports CNBCTV18 quoting sources. The companies say that the appointment of independent directors is not in their control. IOC has said that it is \'vigorously following up\' with the Oil Ministry to appoint independent directors.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:26 pm Slowdown effect: PE funds avoid commercial realty projectsThe global economic slowdown has derailed demand for commercial properties. This implies that private equity funds are now reluctant to fund commercial projects, and they prefer to put in their investments in affordable housing projects and construction companies.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:05 pm RBI throws lifeline to dollar-hungry banks - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:51 pm Ahead of G20, World Bank warns of new danger zoneWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Developing countries are entering "a new danger zone" as the financial crisis spreads to their economies, a World Bank paper prepared for a Group of 20 meeting of finance ministers this weekend says.Source: Reuters: Money News | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:13 pm 5 reasons why Obama win will give Asia relief That’s why the election of Barack Obama comes with many question marks in Asia. Obama’s pledges to protect American trade and calls for tougher labour and environmental rules are stirring anxiety in a region dependent on US growth. Obama also isn’t as well known here as the man he defeated, Republican John McCain. There’s no guarantee Obama, an internationally untested junior senator, will be a great president. Yet, there are many reasons why Asia should relax a bit. Here are five. First, the protectionism myth. It’s important to distinguish between campaign talk and reality. Five years ago, the US could throw its weight around. That was before the humiliation of bailing out Wall Street with taxpayer funds. Tough talk Obama talked tough on trade to woo blue-collar workers away from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, much the way Bill Clinton did when he ran for president in the early 1990s. Once in the White House, president Clinton was pro-trade. Chances are Obama will do the same. Financial systems are symbiotically linked in ways they weren’t in the 1990s. Rather than driving economies apart, the universal nature of the current crisis could actually bring them closer together, like it or not. Second, lessons from the 1930s. Protectionism is no wiser an option today than it was in 1930 when US lawmakers passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. It raised tariffs on many imported goods and deepened the recession. You can bet Great Depression scholars, such as Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, will counsel against steps that do more harm than good. Also, Obama needs to realize the key to stability in Asia is economic growth. Less trade would hold back the region’s development, undermine its democratization and ultimately hurt US growth. Third, debt. Were China, Japan, India or Taiwan to dump large quantities of treasurys, US borrowing costs would skyrocket. Asia can’t live without its key export market. This mutually assured economic-destruction angle limits Obama’s leverage and options. Obama shouldn’t turn a blind eye to labour, environmental or safety standards. Far from it. Yet, he also should go after US executives getting rich exploiting Asia’s poor and environment. When you consider Obama must withdraw troops from Iraq, stabilize Afghanistan, rewrite tax policies and undo any number of president George W. Bush’s screw-ups, will he really have that much time to micro-manage Asian trade? Fourth, China’s mounting woes. The Communist Party’s real problem is how the crisis that began with US subprime loans is undermining the outlook. Tao Dong, Hong Kong-based chief Asia economist at Credit Suisse Group, says growth may slump to 5.8% this quarter. China’s growth hasn’t slipped below 6% since 1990. That may blunt Obama’s rhetoric calling for changes in China’s currency policy. The sense of whiplash in Beijing must be extreme. The wonderful world of capitalism that was supposed to be the answer to all problems isn’t working out as planned. China, flush with $1.9 trillion of currency reserves, is often seen as a possible savior for world growth. A widening gap between rich and poor and tainted-goods scandals make that less likely. As the world wonders if Obama will be less pro-trade, perhaps the focus should be on whether China will become less capitalist. Low bar Fifth, the bar is really low. Bush neglected Asia. When he did engage the region, it was all terrorism all the time. Terrorism will colour Obama’s dealings with Pakistan, yet Filipinos, Malaysians, South Koreans and Thais care just as much about raising living standards. Obama spent time in Indonesia as a child and, unlike Bush, he does understand nuance. The US can’t solve the world’s economic or security concerns without Asia’s help. The go-it-alone Bushism of the 2000s will give way to a more consultative and proactive relationship. Uncertainties abound. Many in Tokyo think a president McCain would have been tougher on North Korea, and therefore better for Japan. Indian leaders, who enjoyed a warming relationship with the US under Bush, may be wary of change. Obama’s pledge to address climate change is another wild card. While Asia is at great risk from the forces of global warming, it won’t be easy to balance rapid growth with reducing pollution. Yet overall, more diplomacy and less muscle-flexing by the US bode well for the fastest-growing economic region. A less quantifiable point is how Obama could improve the US’s image in Asia. The sight of a black man of modest origin leading what’s often viewed as a largely white nation turned heads around the globe. Yustina Amirah, principal of Asisi Elementary School in Jakarta, where Obama studied as a child, spoke for many when she said: “We hope Obama can restore America to become a great nation again.” Respond to this column at feedback@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:34 pm Requiem for loveThe life story of the great 13th century Sufi mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, whose ecstatic poems now have a following all over the world, has the intensity and ambiguity of a great poem. In his youth, Rumi was no more than a brilliant theologian furthering the teachings of Islam in Konya, a small town in present-day Turkey. But then a chance encounter with a mysterious wandering dervish, a much older man called Shams of Tabriz, threw Rumi off the well-trodden path.  Inspired: The whirling dervishes of Turkey are Rumi’s followers. AFP While a traditional biography earns its legitimacy through a judicious interpretation of the available facts, a fictional biography can do so through concentrated attention on one or two vital themes. And, as part of the house of fiction, it invites our judgement on issues such as the quality of its language and its novelistic architecture. Tajadod’s answers to these demands of the form are well-worked. Her main theme is the place of love in Rumi’s world view, and she returns to this question again and again. Although she invents many details, she also holds to essentials—much of her dialogue has its source in the recorded exchanges of Rumi and Shams, and many of Rumi’s verses are braided into her narration. Finally, to give her story a novelistic immediacy, a sense of lived time rather than retrospective scrutiny, she tells us Rumi’s story through the eyes of one of his most loyal disciples, Hesam.  Rumi—The Fire of Love: Overlook/Duckworth, 318 pages, $26.95(around Rs1,300). But later, Hesam is even more puzzled when Shams, who has made many enemies because of his arrogance and inscrutability, asks to be let out from the circle of Rumi’s protection and Rumi agrees instantly. How can lovers agree so simply to separate? Hesam’s interpretation is that Rumi has been fulfilled, as far as possible, by his lover’s presence. Now, to be completed, he needs his lover’s absence, for human nature is such that we always privilege “what we would not have, rather than what we did”. By instigating Shams’ departure, concludes Hesam, “Rumi no doubt sought, through absence and loss, the constant, certain, and multiple presence of his lover”. This idea of love as separation recognizes that love is rooted as much in the imagination, in the idealization of the beloved, as it is in the presence and specificity of a real person. There is a transcendent aspect to love that too much reality can suffocate. Shams leaves, and is never seen again, and thus begins the cycle of composition of the Masnavi, “the crown of mystic literature”. “Now listen to the flute’s lament at being separated from the reed”—the first line of Rumi’s great work suggests that the most beautiful music has its origins in disjunction and suffering. “My life has lasted only an hour but I spent it with Rumi,” says Hesam at the death of his master, and Tajadod’s book very competently gives us a sense of an hour with Rumi. Write to lounge@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:33 pm Repeat telecasts from Nov 10 cause panic among advertisersTalks between production houses, cine workers union inconclusive, no fresh content for broadcasters.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:27 pm Infrastructure rebounds in SeptIndias infrastructure sector grew 5.1 per cent in September 2008, the fastest pace in the current financial year, helped by higher coal and cement production.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:21 pm Raja favours lock-in for new telecom promotersLicensees threaten legal action, say move violates agreement with govt.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:20 pm RBI offers forex liquidity to Indian banks abroadThe Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will provide foreign exchange liquidity to foreign branches and subsidiaries of Indian banks through currency swaps.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:19 pm Core sector lending norms may be easedThe government and Reserve Bank of India are working on measures that include relaxing norms for non-performing assets (NPAs or sticky loans) and prudential lending to kick-start key infrastructureSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:19 pm Go Dutch on wild, exotic and French holidays this seasonWild things The Jim Corbett National Park has reopened its gates to day trippers for the post-monsoon season and will allow overnight campers from 15 November. Loyalists swear by the 11 forest resthouses located inside the park, especially the one in Dhikala—the century-old building offers the most stunning views over the Patli Dun valley, with the Kanda ridge in the background. Rooms cost between Rs600 and Rs1,300, plus Rs250 for housekeeping charges. Call 05947-251489 for bookings.  Catch of the day: Tackle big fish in the waters around the Andamans At Tiger Camp (www.tiger-camp.com), rooms come for upwards of Rs6,888 (everything else extra) to Rs8,222 (including all meals) for a couple for two nights, three days. Safari, elephant rides costs are additional. Gone fishing You know that picture you nurtured in your head ever since you read Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea? Of the ocean and a giant fish, and pitting your wits against creatures of the wild? Well, you can now reel out the lines and draw in the nets. Monster Fishing (www.theandamans.com) introduce themselves as a bunch of guys who love to fish and will be more than happy to take you along when they go exploring the waters off the Andaman archipelago. They use two spanking-new sport fishers which come with an air-conditioned saloon, a toilet and on-board cooking facilities. The Liv-Ashore package (Rs67,000-76,000 per day for four people) allows you to stay on the islands in three-star accommodation, while Liv-Aboard (Rs60,000-70,000 per day for four people) offers air-conditioned accommodation on board a 35ft boat and access to all those remote spots where the fishing’s great but the going isn’t. What’s more, if you’ve never fished before and don’t have the requisite gear, they’ll fit you out as well with the best equipment available today. They calculate their prices in euros, so do keep a watch on conversion rates. For hard core anglers, the Monsters customize packages off Barren Island (yes, the same one that actually has an active volcano) and near drop-offs that run 1km deep. Call +91-9845015472 or +91-9434263640 for details. Where there’s a wheel You might think low-cost airlines are the greatest thing to happen to travel since Marco Polo, but in a global survey conducted by Budget Travel (www.budgettravel.com) on the Top 10 travel innovations over the past 10 years, they were pipped to the first spot by the ubiquitous strolley. Turns out respondents say these cases on wheels—manufactured now by every self-respecting luggage company and available in every conceivable shape and size—underwent a major design evolution by dropping two wheels and the strap and adopting a retractable handle. Replacing two wheels with flat support made for greater stability, a boon, obviously, for people on the move. Most of the other top-rated innovations are offshoots of the technology boom. Think back to the days of queuing up for railway reservations or paying an agent for airline tickets—and it’s no surprise that online booking makes the No. 2 spot. Online maps and flight check-ins also figure, as does worldwide ATM and Internet access, GPS navigation, cellphones and digital photography. The single “brand” to have a place on the list is TripAdvisor. For all the technological leaps, it seems we still trust people most. Easy exotic For all luxury junkies out there, here’s a deal to thrill. Oberoi Hotels and Resorts has a package going for its Vilas properties in Rajasthan and Agra. Valid from 16 November to 19 December, it offers a two-night stay for two, breakfast, dinner and return transfers to the nearest railway station or airport for Rs65,000 plus taxes (Rs72,000 plus taxes for luxury tents). Enjoy your breakfast ahead of a jungle expedition in Ranthambore and your dinner gazing at the moon-washed Taj Mahal. In between, make sure to pack in a couple of appointments at the spas run by therapists trained at the Spa Academy, Phuket. The participating hotels are Amarvilas (Agra), Udaivilas (Udaipur), Rajvilas (Jaipur) and Vanyavilas(Ranthambore). For more details on the Exotic Vacations package, log on to www.oberoihotels.com, or call 011-23890606, 1-800-11-2030 (toll free). Why don’t you… visit France with a difference?  Lap of luxury: French islands such as Mayotte provide an experience that combines activity and comfort. Accessible around the year, the Lesser Antilles island of Martinique is washed by the Atlantic to the east and the Caribbean Sea to the west. When you can tear yourself away from sporting activities, soak in the Creole culture via food, music and dance. At the other end of the world, New Caledonia in the South Pacific—in the news recently over French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposal to station troops there—boasts of a 1,600km coral reef, virginal coastlines and an extraordinary mélange of endangered birds, animals and vegetation. If you don’t want to travel so far (not even to Réunion and Mayotte in the Indian Ocean), well, there’s always Puducherry for your rue-fix. Write to lounge@livemint.com 3 things to do in | Amsterdam a) Have a beer at Café de Magere Brug:And don’t forget to order ‘bitterballen’, a local delicacy of pureed and deep-fried mystery meat (usually beef), with your Amstel beer. The café, located at Amstel 81, is perched at one end of the Magere Brug (literally, skinny bridge) and has breathtaking views of the Amstel river. The bridge is also affectionately known as the ‘kissing bridge’ among locals as the sides of the bridge appear to kiss when it opens many times a day to allow ships to pass. The bridge is decorated with 1,200 light bulbs that are turned on in the evening, so dusk is the best time to be here.  Easy rider: Earn your entrecôte steak by first touring Vondelpark on a rented bicycle. c) Spend a perfect day: Rent a Mac bike at Leideseplein, the very hip hub of town, and cycle a short distance south to Vondelpark, a 120-acre public space with its own open air theatre, play area, ponds and statues. Spend the day cycling, skating or playing football and usher in the evening with an aperitif at the Vondelpark film museum café. End the day with dinner at L’Entrecôte et les Dames, Van Baerlestraat 47, and choose from entrecôte (a premium cut of beef) or fish—it’s all they’ve got on the fixed price menu, which includes seconds! As told to Nayantara Kilachand Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:16 pm Should banks lend more in current scenario?The reason for the credit crunch is that the incremental credit deposit ratio of banks is as high as 97%. During the June-September quarter, the incremental credit deposit ratio of a number of banks—Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Corporation Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank and Union Bank to name a few—was above 100%. Year-on-year credit growth is as high as 29%, which makes it difficult to talk of banks not lending.  The growth in advances to this sector accounted for one-fifth of all incremental advances to industry between 23 May and 29 August. That means less money left over for other sectors. For example, the incremental credit extended to the infrastructure sector during this period was 8.2% of all incremental credit to industry. It’s true that the real estate sector is having trouble getting funds. But loan outstandings to the real estate sector went up by 11.7% in the three months between 23 May 2008 and 29 August 2008. Forcing banks to lend in the current environment will only result in more bad loans The solution to the problems in this sector lies in bringing down the price of property, rather than in forcing banks to lend. Loan outstandings to NBFCs (non banking finance companies) rose by 7% in the three months under consideration, over a period during which the growth of gross non-food bank credit was 6.4%. The drying up of other sources of finance has forced companies to turn to the domestic banking sector for their funding needs, but forcing banks to lend in the current environment will only result in more bad loans. Reports have come in of a deterioration in asset quality among credit card receivables, but loan outstandings on credit cards went up 9.2% in the three months to 29 August, well above the rate of growth of non-food credit for the banking sector. Write to us at marktomarket@lievmint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm Stripping the spy down to his mannersIt took two years of high-level negotiations to arrange a meeting with Daniel Craig. In an era when MI6 — the agency that employs his best-known character, James Bond — blithely advertises for agents on the Internet, Craig may well be the world’s most elusive pretend spy.  On the run: (from left) Daniel Craig with Bond girl Olga Kurylenko; the actor says he has gone for a leaner and meaner look for the film. Photographs: Karen Ballard The long wait allowed plenty of time for disturbing rumours to marinate. For instance: He is surly and defensive, a reporter-averse utterer of combative monosyllables. Or this, from two women working on his publicity: He has more sexual magnetism than anyone we have ever met. Perhaps nothing short of Craig’s materializing in his snug powder-blue bathing trunks from Casino Royale and offering to shake the martinis himself could have realistically lived up to all that anticipation. But there he was in jeans, his arm in a sling from recent shoulder surgery. He was wearing a thick cardigan that, truth be told, walked a sensitive line between doofusy and stylish. He was, of course, unfairly attractive anyway, in his craggy, lived-in, blue-eyed way, but not so much as to render anyone speechless or unable to operate a notebook. He was polite to a fault. He stood up when his publicist’s assistant brought in a cup of tea. He apologized several times for being 5 minutes late. He acted as if he were not sitting in a soulless conference room, which he was, and as if he had all day to chat about Bond and other interesting topics, which he didn’t (he had an hour). Unlike many movie stars who come to believe the myth of their superiority, Craig, 40, tends to mock his own celebrityhood. Now that he is too famous to go to the movies without being recognized, he said, he might be forced to install a screening room at home. Not. “I could stick it next to the indoor swimming pool,” he said sarcastically. Passing beneath two celebratory posters of himself as James Bond in his publicist’s office, he grimaced and muttered, “That’s my Dorian Gray portrait.” Asked whether he saw himself as a natural leading man, he said, “Fat chance.” And then, “There’s not a skincare product in the world that would have made that happen for me.” When he was cast as Bond, filling the position most recently vacated by Pierce Brosnan, Craig did not seem like an obvious choice. He was an actor’s actor known for his intensity of focus and his wide range of challenging, counterintuitive roles. He has played, among other things, a sharp-lapelled pornography baron from Manchester in the BBC miniseries Our Friends in the North; a college professor pursued by a male stalker in Enduring Love; a builder sleeping with his girlfriend’s sexagenarian mother in The Mother; a drug-dealing businessman in Layer Cake; a killer full of murderous rage and heartbreaking tenderness in Infamous; and the poet Ted Hughes in Sylvia. “Everybody said, ‘Oh, aren’t you afraid you’ll be typecast?’” he recalled, of taking the Bond role. “And I said, ‘Of course I am,’ but if it has to be this — well, that’s not too bad.” ‘They’re two separate movies, but if you were to punish yourself by watching them back to back, you’d see a through line.’ Traditionalists were appalled. The British tabloids, whose writers possibly had not seen Craig in his other films, sniped that he was too short, too blond, too actory, too potentially Lazenby-esque; they spread the rumour that he didn’t know how to drive a stick shift, let alone one attached to an Aston Martin. But from the first scene in Casino Royale (2006), in which Bond brutally kills a man with his bare hands and then coolly shoots and kills his own corrupt boss, Craig proved to be a rare combination of plausibility, physicality and charisma. He got rave reviews, and not just from Bond’s traditional fan base. The latest movie, Quantum of Solace, is full of the usual Bondian big guns, big explosions, big-busted women and big, improbable, high-testosterone stunts, many of them performed by Craig. While he bulked up for Casino — he wanted to “look as if he could kill people just by looking at them,” his personal trainer, a former Royal Navy commando, said recently—in this film he focused on building up his stamina, going for lean and mean over brawn (Craig was recently quoted in The Times of London as saying, “I am not an athlete, although I have always enjoyed keeping fit between bouts of minor alcoholism”). Craig said he had been determined to ensure that the story made logical and emotional sense. Quantum begins moments after Casino ends, with Bond, wielding an enormous firearm, on the island where he has just shot one of the men responsible for the death of Vesper Lynd, the treacherous love of his life. “They’re two separate movies, but if you were to punish yourself by watching them back to back, you’d see a through line,” Craig said. He particularly wanted Bond to have to contend with the emotional repercussions of Vesper’s death. “It was very important that we deal with that,” he said. “I just felt that you can’t have a character fall in love so madly as they did in the last movie and not finish it off, understand it, get some closure. That’s why the movie is called Quantum of Solace — that’s exactly what he’s looking for.” Craig is also appearing in Defiance, based on the true story of the Bielskis, a trio of freedom-fighting Jewish brothers in World War II. Defying the Nazis (and the odds), they set up an unlikely community of tough, armed refugees in the punishing Belarussian forest. Craig plays Tuvia, their complicated leader—sometimes hot-headed, sometimes coolly rational; now seeking revenge, now preaching restraint. The shoot was tough. The actors had to speak Russian in a number of scenes; they also had to live more or less in the woods, in sometimes extremely freezing conditions, for three months. Most of the cast came down with some sort of bronchial flu, Craig said, “but when we started drinking more, it seemed to get better.” The director of Defiance, Edward Zwick, said it was interesting to watch Craig take on the role, with all its ambivalence and inner conflict, in tandem with playing the self-assured Bond. “You see very clearly his ambition as an actor; he refuses to be just one thing,” Zwick said in a telephone interview. “What you have to understand about Daniel is that he is a working actor who considers himself that. He began in the theatre and did all sorts of ensemble work, and in some ways this was a territory in which he’s more comfortable than in being the star who’s out in front of the movie.” He is determined to continue pursuing extra-Bond roles. “I’ve been so fortunate to land this amazing role in a huge franchise,” he said. “It’s set me up in a really good way for life, and that’s wonderful. But I love acting, and I genuinely think it’s an important part of what life is about. I get a kick out of it, and I’m not good at sitting around.” Craig, who has a teenage daughter from an early marriage, genuinely seems more interested in talking about other topics—the books of Philip Pullman; movies he likes—than he does in talking about himself. But he mentioned his longtime American girlfriend, Satsuki Mitchell, with whom he lives in Los Angeles and London. He wears a silver necklace inscribed with a quotation “about taking your heart wherever you go”, he said when asked, sounding suddenly shy. Recently, he said, the two drove up the American West Coast, through to the Pacific Northwest. They ducked into a small-town movie theatre to see the Guillermo del Toro movie Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Someone approached Craig. “Has anyone ever told you you look like Daniel Craig?” the man asked. “No,” Craig answered, and walked on. ©2008/THE NEW YORK TIMES Quantum of Solace released in theatres on Friday. Write to lounge@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm Have you got a ticket to ride?Barely a month ago, for the very first time in my 10 years in Mumbai, I got the upper-deck front seat of a BEST Routemaster. The red double-decker bus was almost empty — it was the day Raj Thackeray was arrested by the police on charges of inciting violence against north Indians. The city was tense and crestfallen. Taxi drivers, mostly north Indians, refused to drive to my office in Dadar, the pulse of Mumbai’s Marathi manoos.  Time travel: (clockwise from above) Visitors Atul Keni and his son, Varad, looking at the replica of a double-decker tram from the 1920s; BEST buses were modelled on London’s double-deckers; a ticket-issuing machine from the British era, with a dial system; and a tram from the pre-independence era, when it was drawn by horses. Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint The burly titan screeched to a halt in front of the bus stop and picked me up. The conductor was kind — I was climbing with a limp due to an ankle injury, and he ensured the bus didn’t start moving before I sat down. The bus trundled through Mahim, turned to the Lokmanya Tilak Bridge and, in 20 minutes, reached Dadar (East), which wore an eerie look. Shop shutters were down, the few people on the street looked glum, and policemen were talking into their wireless walkie-talkies. I always wanted to sit up there and see Mumbai pass by me, but this just wasn’t the day. Yet, being next to the grim driver manoeuvring his giant hand gear and steering wheel was a strangely comforting experience — it felt as if I was protected from stone pelters and rowdy mobs. I was transported to the days when, convinced that I was going to be mauled to death on a local train, I decided to travel only in BEST buses — route nos. 84, 86, 133, 1 and 159 are still very familiar. The BEST bus was a dependable, punctual and safe Mumbai staple (don’t forget the thrill of blocking all cars behind and next to you and taking elephantine strides ahead; and of course, not having to feel bumps from yawning potholes as you do in your Honda City). No wonder then that a young man by the name of Jarvik Panday, a member of the BEST buses fan club, condemned the plans of the BEST authorities to do away with the double-deckers, in a Hindustan Times news report in April 2007. The BEST office now says that there are no plans to scrap the Routemasters, modelled on London’s double-deckers. The official figure of the number of double-deckers plying in Mumbai is 171. But when, in the last week of October, a young man from Patna opened fire from the upper deck of a double-decker at the police in Kurla, it seemed as if the red giants were not immune to modern-day perils. It was time to revisit the BEST story. I first dialled the number of Uttam Khobragade, general manager of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking’s (BEST). “What’s your response to this incident? Are we actually going to see CCTV cameras installed in BEST buses now?” I asked. The manager’s outburst over the telephone took me by surprise: “You tell me. How on earth do you expect us to frisk millions of commuters? It’s impossible!” He denied what the local newspapers had reported the day after the freak incident: After disabled-friendly buses, ads on closed-circuit TVs and buses that run on biodiesel, the BEST authorities’ next big plan is to step up the process of installing CCTV cameras inside one of Mumbai’s safest modes of transport. A few days after Diwali, I took a trip to the Anik Bus Depot in Wadala, where the BEST Transport Museum is located. Little known to Mumbaikars, this museum preserves rare memorabilia and titbits about the colourful — colonial and post-colonial — history of BEST. Although only 15 years old, the walls and floors of the spacious, two-room museum look as aged as the engine, bus and tram replicas, badges and photographs, some of which date back to the early 1920s. It was one of those rare days, the intrepid guide later told me, when he had walked more than two visitors through the museum at the same time. Atul Keni, a resident of Chunabhatti, was visiting with his son Varad. Keni, a loyal BEST commuter, had heard of the museum all his life in Mumbai, but until now, when his son had instructions from his school to visit it, hadn’t actually made the 10-minute trip from his home. Sanjay Chaulkar, a BEST employee for 16 years, and guide and sole staffer of the BEST Transport Museum, is a man who goes about his business with dire purposefulness. He knows the history of each piece by heart, and he doesn’t smile even as he narrates quirky facts: A heavy, steel ticket issue machine installed by the British authorities in the 1930s kept track of every ticket purchased through a dial system, but the machine was scrapped after some Indian conductors started reversing the dials to steal a share of the ticket money; on 16 May 1986, Bal Thackeray forced BEST to replace the Hindi numerals that indicated prices on the tickets with Marathi numerals, and two years later, even the issuing number was changed to Marathi numerals.  Vintage engine: The chassis of a double-decker bus from the 1940s. Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint Chaulkar took us through an engine replica of one of the earliest double-deckers — of the kind that transport superintendent of Travancore E.G. Salter imported for what is now Thiruvananthapuram in 1937, and which was also simultaneously introduced in Mumbai. “The handbrake of this bus was better than the brakes that exist in today’s buses,” he insisted. He explained, through a bus stop model, where it once stood and what the same stop looks like now. He told us about the bunk sightseeing service, wherein a 10-seater car could be hired for Re1 a day in 1928. We cringed at the tram replicas, the first vehicles of The Bombay Tramway Co. Ltd (which became the BEST Undertaking in 1947) which were first drawn on tracks by horses! Chaulkar doesn’t come to the museum often, because he also doubles up as its curator. “I go to the depots and try and look for new things,” the bespectacled man told us before we left. BEST has a staff of 39,000 workers and 3,715 buses are on the streets every day. Chaulkar is a small man with a big task in this organization. “There’s no separate fund to preserve the museum,” Khobragade had told me. Last year, they requested the state government for a change of venue, but the transport department is yet to respond to the request. The freak incident involving the young man from Patna didn’t really matter. The BEST bus has survived Mumbai’s lowest ebbs since 1947, and is one of the city’s treasures — rich in history, experimentation and innovation. On my way out, at the depot, I met a group of drivers getting ready for their evening shifts. One of them looked at my notebook and asked, “Patrakar? (Journalist?)” “Yes,” I said, “I am writing about the Transport Museum.” He was befuddled — did such a thing actually exist inside the depot that he reports to every day? The BEST Transport Museum is open from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Entry is free. sanjukta.s@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm Firms, students turn to tech contests for talent, recognitionBangalore: Moving a model bogie over a table-top railway track at the John F. Welch Technology Centre, or JFWTC, to explain how his fault detection device “trainblazer” can prevent rail mishaps in India, is Vasuki Prasad—a passionate engineer, a persuasive salesman, and as is learnt later, an aspiring entrepreneur, all at once.  Trainblazers: The winning team from the Manipal Institute of Technology at the GE Edison Challenge in Bangalore held on 6 Nov. Jagadeesh NV / Mint Fastrack Developers, as the entity is called, is indeed fast. “We will pair with GE to ensure that this product is installed in Indian railway stations,” he says, stressing that it’s not an academic exercise and his team has taken “customer feedback and industry inputs” from the Konkan and Southern Railways. Vasuki’s team is the winner among 17 pre-finalists at Edison Challenge, a competition that the technology centre has started to get science and engineering students to think out-of-the-box for real world problems. JFWTC posed challenges in its core interest areas—self-cooling engines, locomotives, home energy solutions and early detection for disease management. At least 350 teams from 100 colleges registered for the Rs5,00,000 first prize, Rs2,00,000 second prize, and two Rs1,00,000 third prizes. “This is very encouraging for us and we know it will get better and better,” says Guillemore Wille, managing director of JFWTC, who thinks this is a “unique opportunity” for his centre to engage with universities. Companies that have set up their research and development centres and face difficulties in spotting talent have started graduating from local college fest participation, to organizing national level competitions. “Competitions, at all levels, have a way of motivating students to think and do interesting things,” says P. Anandan, managing director of Microsoft Research India. Public recognition by a prestigious lab or an industry brand can be catalytic in a career, he says. At its annual research symposium, Tech Vista, MSR India gives away three poster prizes of Rs100,000, Rs75,000 and Rs50,000 to PhD students, which is besides the five fellowships, each comprising $20,000 (Rs9.56 lakh), a laptop and $5,000 as overseas travel grant. November will see two more competitions—from Schneider Electric and Cisco Systems Inc. Schneider is seeking innovative solutions from students in energy—low-cost electrification of rural areas, energy use optimization, and web-wireless technologies to measure, monitor and control energy. The prize money for three categories are Rs1,00,000, Rs75,000 and Rs50,000. Cisco, which launched a Global Talent Acceleration Programme, or GTAP, in India in October to fill the ever increasing need for skilled people, is starting Cisco Networking Skills Competition. Winning participants from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Nepal and, Bhutan will participate in the Indian leg of the contest, whose winners would get an opportunity to compete in the Asia Pacific level competition called ‘NetRiders’. Winner will go on a study tour of the Silicon Valley in January 2009. There’s a gap between potential and the actual ability to achieve among students and young engineers, says John Livingston, programme director, GTAP, who says these initiatives can help address them. Each company has a strategic agenda and builds its program to suit its requirement, says Rahul Arya, marketing director of Cadence Design Systems, India, which conducted its fourth edition of a national design challenge in October. “But some synergy will emerge out of this,” says Arya. International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, director S. Sadagopan says that as more companies join the journey, they should ensure that the reach is not confined to “premier institutes in cities like Bangalore or Mumbai or to the colleges that the human resource guys went to”. There’s a tendency to view such competitions “through (prize) money”, but the focus should be on how challenging it is, says Sadagopan. “Often things get done in a hurry when students have exams so it’ll be great if they are planned a year head which give students time to prepare,” he notes. But a handful of companies trying to engage a few hundreds thousand minds through competitive events— isn’t that a drop in the ocean? “Yes, it is,” says Arya, “but like each vote, each drop counts.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:55 pm Firms, students turn to tech contests for talent, recognitionBangalore: Moving a model bogie over a table-top railway track at the John F. Welch Technology Centre, or JFWTC, to explain how his fault detection device “trainblazer” can prevent rail mishaps in India, is Vasuki Prasad—a passionate engineer, a persuasive salesman, and as is learnt later, an aspiring entrepreneur, all at once. Trainblazers: The winning team from the Manipal Institute of Technology at the GE Edison Challenge in Bangalore held on 6 Nov. Jagadeesh NV / Mint Fastrack Developers, as the entity is called, is indeed fast. “We will pair with GE to ensure that this product is installed in Indian railway stations,” he says, stressing that it’s not an academic exercise and his team has taken “customer feedback and industry inputs” from the Konkan and Southern Railways. Vasuki’s team is the winner among 17 pre-finalists at Edison Challenge, a competition that the technology centre has started to get science and engineering students to think out-of-the-box for real world problems. JFWTC posed challenges in its core interest areas—self-cooling engines, locomotives, home energy solutions and early detection for disease management. At least 350 teams from 100 colleges registered for the Rs5,00,000 first prize, Rs2,00,000 second prize, and two Rs1,00,000 third prizes. “This is very encouraging for us and we know it will get better and better,” says Guillemore Wille, managing director of JFWTC, who thinks this is a “unique opportunity” for his centre to engage with universities. Companies that have set up their research and development centres and face difficulties in spotting talent have started graduating from local college fest participation, to organizing national level competitions. “Competitions, at all levels, have a way of motivating students to think and do interesting things,” says P. Anandan, managing director of Microsoft Research India. Public recognition by a prestigious lab or an industry brand can be catalytic in a career, he says. At its annual research symposium, Tech Vista, MSR India gives away three poster prizes of Rs100,000, Rs75,000 and Rs50,000 to PhD students, which is besides the five fellowships, each comprising $20,000 (Rs9.56 lakh), a laptop and $5,000 as overseas travel grant. November will see two more competitions—from Schneider Electric and Cisco Systems Inc. Schneider is seeking innovative solutions from students in energy—low-cost electrification of rural areas, energy use optimization, and web-wireless technologies to measure, monitor and control energy. The prize money for three categories are Rs1,00,000, Rs75,000 and Rs50,000. Cisco, which launched a Global Talent Acceleration Programme, or GTAP, in India in October to fill the ever increasing need for skilled people, is starting Cisco Networking Skills Competition. Winning participants from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Nepal and, Bhutan will participate in the Indian leg of the contest, whose winners would get an opportunity to compete in the Asia Pacific level competition called ‘NetRiders’. Winner will go on a study tour of the Silicon Valley in January 2009. There’s a gap between potential and the actual ability to achieve among students and young engineers, says John Livingston, programme director, GTAP, who says these initiatives can help address them. Each company has a strategic agenda and builds its program to suit its requirement, says Rahul Arya, marketing director of Cadence Design Systems, India, which conducted its fourth edition of a national design challenge in October. “But some synergy will emerge out of this,” says Arya. International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, director S. Sadagopan says that as more companies join the journey, they should ensure that the reach is not confined to “premier institutes in cities like Bangalore or Mumbai or to the colleges that the human resource guys went to”. There’s a tendency to view such competitions “through (prize) money”, but the focus should be on how challenging it is, says Sadagopan. “Often things get done in a hurry when students have exams so it’ll be great if they are planned a year head which give students time to prepare,” he notes. But a handful of companies trying to engage a few hundreds thousand minds through competitive events— isn’t that a drop in the ocean? “Yes, it is,” says Arya, “but like each vote, each drop counts.” Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:55 pm Bhel may buy stake in overseas power plants; set up new facilitiesNew Delhi: State-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) said it will pick up 10% equity in power projects abroad that would buy its equipment. “As and when we find the opportunity, we will take equity stakes to sell equipment...while we plan to take 10% equity in overseas projects to land orders, this will be around 26% for domestic projects,” said chairman and managing director K. Ravi Kumar. Equipment maker aims to leverage govt’s disbursement under line of credit of about $1 billion a year Besides setting up manufacturing or servicing facilities in Europe, Oman, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, the company also aims to establish a joint venture in West Asia with a local partner to make valves and other equipment to cater to the growing oil and gas exploration and production market in the region, the official added. Bhel may also start a joint venture in Saudi Arabia to service and repair transformers. “We are scouting for partners for these ventures,” the official said. Bhel has cash reserves of Rs8,000 crore. It posted a net profit of Rs2,859 crore on revenues of Rs21,401 crore in the fiscal year to March and aims to become a $10 billion (Rs47,800 crore)-plus company by 2012. As part of its global push, the company aims to leverage the Indian government’s disbursement under the line of credit, which is around $1 billion a year, to get orders. Bhel currently has orders worth Rs1.10 trillion. Its international projects contributed Rs3,200 crore till date to Rs24,000 crore worth of orders generated in the fiscal year that began in April. The company plans to triple export orders to Rs10,300 crore by 2012, in a bid to hedge against currency fluctuations related to raw material imports, as reported by Mint on 4 November. While organic growth is expected to contribute Rs6,200 crore to the company’s order book by 2012, the remaining Rs4,100 crore will come from acquisitions and joint ventures. This is expected to go up to Rs8,000 crore each (through organic and inorganic growth) by 2017. Bhel’s focus on exports also stems from a concern that its market share in India may come down to 50% from the current 60% in the next five years because of increasing competition from local and overseas companies. “A similar approach was adopted for the Chinese power generation equipment players in India. They were asked by the financial lenders to take equity stakes. Bhel needs to focus on exports,” said Madanagopal, an equity research analyst at Mumbai-based Centrum Broking Pvt. Ltd. “However, this approach of taking stakes will affect their rate of return.” Bhel, which has manufacturing capacity of 10,000MW a year, plans to produce equipment capable of generating 56,000MW a year by 2012. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:55 pm Bhel may buy stake in overseas power plants; set up new facilitiesNew Delhi: State-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) said it will pick up 10% equity in power projects abroad that would buy its equipment. “As and when we find the opportunity, we will take equity stakes to sell equipment...while we plan to take 10% equity in overseas projects to land orders, this will be around 26% for domestic projects,” said chairman and managing director K. Ravi Kumar. Equipment maker aims to leverage govt’s disbursement under line of credit of about $1 billion a year Besides setting up manufacturing or servicing facilities in Europe, Oman, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, the company also aims to establish a joint venture in West Asia with a local partner to make valves and other equipment to cater to the growing oil and gas exploration and production market in the region, the official added. Bhel may also start a joint venture in Saudi Arabia to service and repair transformers. “We are scouting for partners for these ventures,” the official said. Bhel has cash reserves of Rs8,000 crore. It posted a net profit of Rs2,859 crore on revenues of Rs21,401 crore in the fiscal year to March and aims to become a $10 billion (Rs47,800 crore)-plus company by 2012. As part of its global push, the company aims to leverage the Indian government’s disbursement under the line of credit, which is around $1 billion a year, to get orders. Bhel currently has orders worth Rs1.10 trillion. Its international projects contributed Rs3,200 crore till date to Rs24,000 crore worth of orders generated in the fiscal year that began in April. The company plans to triple export orders to Rs10,300 crore by 2012, in a bid to hedge against currency fluctuations related to raw material imports, as reported by Mint on 4 November. While organic growth is expected to contribute Rs6,200 crore to the company’s order book by 2012, the remaining Rs4,100 crore will come from acquisitions and joint ventures. This is expected to go up to Rs8,000 crore each (through organic and inorganic growth) by 2017. Bhel’s focus on exports also stems from a concern that its market share in India may come down to 50% from the current 60% in the next five years because of increasing competition from local and overseas companies. “A similar approach was adopted for the Chinese power generation equipment players in India. They were asked by the financial lenders to take equity stakes. Bhel needs to focus on exports,” said Madanagopal, an equity research analyst at Mumbai-based Centrum Broking Pvt. Ltd. “However, this approach of taking stakes will affect their rate of return.” Bhel, which has manufacturing capacity of 10,000MW a year, plans to produce equipment capable of generating 56,000MW a year by 2012. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:55 pm The curse of the ostrichIndia is a land of unity in diversity. Yet, there is growing intolerance in all spheres. The government’s response to the fight for gay rights—seeking freedom from the absurd colonial hangover of a law that brands homosexuals as criminals—is another example of such intolerance. The sad irony is that legislators of our democracy are united in rejecting a change that recognizes diversity. Both the Centre and Opposition leaders are bent on delaying the Delhi high court case that will decide the fate of gays here. The court reserved its verdict on Friday and asked for further responses to “support” the government’s unscientific claims about religious values, and of homosexual sex causing physical injury. In the midst of all this, it is unlikely that the government noted a UN statement that new HIV/AIDS infections among gays is on the rise in India. The UN says the coverage of prevention services is twice as high in countries that recognize gay rights. India doesn’t even recognize gays. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:48 pm Uday Shankar | A healthy obsession with televisionIt almost sounds too good to be true—a job that involves watching copious amounts of television, while helping to shape the face of public debate in the world’s most populous democracy. But this is indeed the remit of the man I am meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai, one-time journalist and self-confessed television addict Uday Shankar, who now heads Star TV’s Indian operations. Dressed semi-formally in a blue shirt and trousers, Shankar is bang on time and greets me with a warm smile and handshake. He is experimenting with a new detox diet. “We abuse our bodies so much,” he explains when I inquire into his austere choice of cut fruit and Darjeeling tea. “I also like to try out new things. I love to eat fruit…but I am not a health nut,” he laughs. “I like my single malt too.” We take a seat in the lobby lounge, The Bar and Verandah, where the whirring of a blender behind the bar competes with piped music and conversations among other patrons to drown out his voice on my tape recorder. A diminutive man with an acute intellect and keen appreciation of the absurd, Shankar, 47, explains that his “love affair” with television started in the early 1990s, following the liberalization of the medium in India. “I love television,” he says. “I love anything on television. I can watch television for 24, 48, 72 hours...you name it. Without a break.”  Stargazer: Shankar claims he can watch television for three straight days without a break. He went on to cover politics for the daily newspaper before starting the environment-focused publication Down to Earth. But for all his “love for television” it had never occurred to Shankar to switch careers till his wife suggested it. Although Shankar claims his migration from journalism to management happened “inadvertently”, he concedes that his journalism background proved to be the ideal preparation for a role in management. “As a journalist, every day you walk into a new situation, hear a new story, look at a new set of facts, try to make sense out of them and see where the obvious logical holes exist,” says Shankar, who chooses each word with care. “And once you have done that for several years, frankly, I didn’t find it very difficult to manage the business. I think being a journalist is actually a very good training ground for training to be a chief executive.” He gained his reputation as an astute television head with the launch of Aaj Tak seven years ago, as he steered the Hindi news channel to the top spot in the ratings charts. His success there took him to Star News in 2004, and the simultaneous departures of Peter Mukerjea and Sameer Nair as the respective heads of Star Group and Star Entertainment in early 2007 cleared the way for his ascent to the top job at Star India. Shankar, however, remains close to his origins as a journalist—and an inquiry into his thoughts on the role of the media and standards of journalism across the country today triggers a weighted response. “There are two things you need to distinguish,” he declares, of some decisions taken by the fourth estate. “One is a conscious choice to do certain (dubious) things, and the other one is a lack of competence, or ignorance. I think both those challenges exist in the Indian news media. Not just in television, but in print as much.” Yet, Shankar was head of the newly-launched Aaj Tak at a time when rumours about a “monkey man”, or human predator on the loose, were stoking hysteria in Delhi. The channel’s coverage of the incident included a graphic, depicting the creature as a monster with lights for eyes, which reportedly contributed to the panic. “You have to understand,” says Shankar, leaning forward for emphasis when I ask him how that style of coverage ties in with his thoughts on responsible journalism. “That story happened in the infancy of live television in this country and the tradition of television was very recent. So everyone was groping to come to terms with how to handle the medium and sometimes you went overboard. Our pitch was that people were making mischief. I don’t think these things are particularly dangerous.” Demonstrating faultless courtesy, Shankar pauses to inquire whether my budget might extend to a second pot of tea, joking that if he had known Lounge always insists on footing the bill, he would have picked a day when he wasn’t experimenting with detox diets. We order more tea, and I ask him what he would do if he was granted total power for a day. “I would call every media house and tell them to create a very transparent code of self-governance and tell them to keep it ready,” he says after a moment’s pause for thought. “I would also withdraw all regulation that artificially seeks to restrict media content. All regulation (governing the media) is regressive and is basically to protect people in power.” While Shankar conveys a sense of immense satisfaction with his career, there is one issue that irks him. His appointment to the top job at Star India meant relocating to Mumbai from Delhi and leaving behind his wife and 15-year old daughter—who is studying for board exams. He refers to their absence as “the only disappointment currently in my life”. However, the move enabled Shankar to work in close proximity to the media mogul behind News Corp., Rupert Murdoch—an experience that he describes as “fabulous”—as well as Murdoch’s son and heir apparent, James. “I think he has an amazing mind,” he says of Murdoch senior. “Every meeting with him leaves you recharged and his grasp over fundamentals is outstanding.” In practical terms, Shankar’s tenure at Star India has seen him maintain the group’s lead in television ratings—with Star Plus holding an 8.35% share of eyeballs, against the 7.17% claimed by Colors and Zee’s 5.97% —despite setbacks, including the failure of game show Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain?, starring actor Shah Rukh Khan. Shankar’s Star Plus channel also recently pulled the plug on super-soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi after an eight-year run that topped national ratings and firmly placed Star Plus on the top. “There were questions that were being asked about the leadership and direction of Star in this country. I think we have answered a lot of those questions,” says Shankar, who entirely unselfconsciously describes himself as “very clever”, as well as “a sharp observer and a very quick learner” with the ability to “quietly pick up things that I think are useful in other people”. However, observers have picked up on the irony of his decision to air Paanchvi Paas, an imitation of US-based Fox television network’s Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, given Shankar’s vocal criticism of the copycat culture across Indian television. “By copycat I mean copying the same kind of programming that others are doing,” rebuts Shankar, who relishes the opportunity to air his point of view. “It does not mean that we do not tap into the best in global programming.” “We are not going to be swadeshi or patriotic in a stupid manner,” he asserts, presaging perhaps the future of his brand of television. Curriculum Vitae Uday Shankar Born: 16 September 1962 Education: MPhil in economic history from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi; postgraduate diploma in journalism from Times School of Journalism Current Designation: Chief executive officer, Star India Work Profile: Shankar began his career with ‘The Times of India’ and then helped to start ‘Down to Earth’ magazine. He joined Star News in 2004 after stints with TV Today and Sahara TV. Shankar was promoted as CEO of Star India in October 2007 Reading: Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe’ by Bill Bryson Favourite TV Programme: All the Star shows Favourite Holiday Destination: The Himalayas Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:34 pm US, EU may extend dollar credit to IndiaNew Delhi: India’s depleting foreign exchange reserves are likely to be shored up through a credit line offered by developed nations, such as the US, as part of the plan for a new international financial architecture that is currently being negotiated among G-20 (Group of Twenty) nations in the wake of the global financial crisis. The negotiations for the planned new financial architecture, popularly referred to as Bretton Woods II, are meant to create a structure that will stabilize the financial system and foreign exchange markets of important economies, which have experienced liquidity shortages for companies and crises among financial intermediaries in the last few months, government officials and a minister familiar with the matter said. A foreign exchange expert said the move wouldn’t help much. “I don’t see the logic in it,” said A.V. Rajwade. “You might as well sell your holdings of US Treasury. In any case, for all foreseeable contingencies we have enough reserves.” According to the minister in Union government, who did not want to be named, one of the proposals in Bretton Woods II envisages India being given a credit line by the US or the European Union by treating the country’s existing foreign exchange holdings in dollars or euros as collateral. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would have the option of using the credit line to support its foreign exchange and monetary policy measures, the minister said. The G-20, an informal forum created in 1999 that comprises some of the largest economies in the world, will provide a platform to create a new financial architecture. India’s finance minister P. Chidambaram is to attend a meeting of his G-20 counterparts over the weekend in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Sao Paulo gathering will be followed by a meeting in Washington DC on 15 November of the heads of G-20 countries. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to attend this meeting.  Two’s company: Montek Singh Ahluwalia (left) has been entrusted by the PM with critical work relating to India’s negotiating stance at Bretton Woods II. Raghuram Rajan (right), recently appointed honorary economic adviser to the PM, is expected to help him, according to people familiar with the development. Ramesh Pathania / Mint The move to create a new financial architecture has come out of the contagious effect of problems in the mortgage market in America, which has resulted in the collapse of several financial institutions in the US and Europe and grown into a global credit crunch. In India, the crisis has taken the form of a shortage of money and a sharp fall in the local currency against the dollar. RBI has had to simultaneously combat the rupee’s decline, by about 17% this year, and the liquidity crisis. A consequence has been an 18% decline in the country’s foreign currency reserves to $244.04 billion (Rs11.67 trillion today) between 25 July and 31 October. Suggestions to create a new financial architecture in the wake of the financial crisis have come from people such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. “This is a Bretton Woods moment where we ought to face up to not just the immediacy of the money (issues), but use this as an occasion to make some of the changes that we have needed for a long time and recognized,” Stiglitz said, according to a 6 November report in Reuters. Bretton Woods in the US was where discussions on a new financial architecture took place towards the end of World War II in 1944. Out of the discussions emerged global multilateral institutions such as IMF and the World Bank and an obligation among participating countries to maintain exchange rates within fixed values in terms of gold. The system unravelled in 1971 when the US, facing high inflation and a rising trade deficit, unlinked the dollar from gold. liz.m@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:32 pm Under fire, Raja proposes new telco levyNew Delhi: Faced with criticism that the Union government has lost billions of dollars in potential revenue from auctioning spectrum rights, the Centre has decided to charge a new upfront fee for use of spectrum, estimated to net the exchequer some Rs4,000 crore from payments by the country’s mobile phone service firms. Spectrum refers to the airwaves used by phone firms to carry voice and data signals. The new spectrum fee, described on Friday by communications and IT minister A. Raja as “one-time”, will be levied on phone firms who use more than 6.2MHz of spectrum. This cut-off, to be approved by the Telecom Commission, the government’s apex telecom policy-making body, on 11 November, will see the brunt of the new levy being borne by phone firms on India’s dominant wireless technology platform GSM, such as Bharti Airtel Ltd, Vodafone Essar Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd, who use more than 6.2MHz spectrum in some of their licensed areas. “The commission will also discuss the hike in fee by 1-2% of mobile operators’ revenue for using additional airwaves. In all, the government may get an additional Rs5,000 crore towards increased spectrum charges,” Raja said. As per the proposal, the department of telecom plans to charge a fee of 1% of the telecom firm’s annual gross revenues for spectrum use of between 6.2MHz and 8MHz, beyond which an additional 1% will be levied. Data from early this year shows that Bharti Airtel has been allotted spectrum rights more than 6.2MHz in all licensed areas other than West Bengal and the North-East. Rival Vodafone Essar has crossed that threshold in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, and states such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Other smaller firms have spectrum rights in excess of 6.2MHz only in some areas. An analyst predicted an impact of between 3-5% on the earnings per share of the top phone firms due to the incremental revenue share fee. “The one-time fee can easily be amortized by these companies,” said Kevin Trindad, senior analyst with KRChoksey Shares and Securities Pvt. Ltd. Shares of Bharti Airtel rose 1.65% to Rs650, while the Idea Cellular scrip expanded 4.38% to Rs47.50 on BSE on Friday. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:32 pm Pensioners to get less as govt changes mathMumbai: Tens of millions of workers risk having their monthly pension benefits cut drastically because of a government decision to change how it calculates retirement payments. In a notification dated 1 October, the labour ministry said pensions will now be based on average monthly salaries drawn through the entire period of an employee’s contribution to the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), instead of the last 12 months as has been the practice. Although a notification means the new rules are effective immediately, pension officials are still considering the implications of the change, which could take some time to come into force. The new rules, on the face of it, will apply to those now contributing to the pension fund, resulting in a sharp cut in payouts when they retire. More clarity on whether the change will apply to current beneficiaries and contributors, as well as those who will contribute in the future, can be had only when pension officials themselves study the nuances of the notification. The monthly pension an employee receives after retirement is the product of average monthly income and the number of years of contribution to the scheme, divided by 70. The new system will lower the numerator in this equation, and likely affect retirement benefits for about 8.5% of the 516-million-strong workforce in India, or the 44 million employees who contribute to the pension fund, according to human resources consulting firm Mercer Consulting (India) Pvt. Ltd. “As per the new notification, the pension that an employee receives after retirement could be considerably reduced,” said Gautam Kakar, business leader of retirement benefits consulting at Mercer. The notification comes amid continuing debate on pension reforms intended to maximize returns by engaging fund managers, increasing the cap on equity investments and other measures. “The basic fault lies in the investment guidelines and if the government does not change these guidelines, the gap in pension funds will be large, and they will have to renege on the promise of pension payments,” said U.K. Sinha, chairman and managing director of UTI Asset Management Co. Pvt. Ltd. Between June 2002 and October 2005, when he was joint secretary in the department of economic affairs at the ministry of finance, Sinha was in charge of pension reforms, and was responsible for drafting the Pension Funds Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2005. Even at UTI Asset Management, Sinha has been active in the pensions space, responsible for starting the company’s micro-pension initiative for workers in the so-called unorganized sector. Changing how the government calculates pension payments is one way it can renege on its payments promise. Another, as has been done in countries such as the UK, Italy, Germany and Australia, is to progressively increase the retirement age of employees so the pension fund’s corpus swells, Sinha said. Tapan Sen, secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, the labour union affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said he was not aware of the proposed change. Sen said he was travelling, but would look into it after he returns to Delhi. “We strongly oppose any change in how the pensionable salary is determined,” he said. The new notification has seemingly confounded even the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the body in charge of administering this pension fund. Two regional commissioners of EPFO that Mint spoke with said a workshop has been organized on 8 November for the fund’s officials to discuss and understand the implications of this notification. The commissioners asked not to be named as they are not authorized to speak with the media on government policy. The notification has also done away with a previous clause in the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, which had excluded those earning more than Rs6,500 per month in basic salary from mandatorily contributing to the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF). “The October notification could mean that all Indians, including those earning over Rs6,500 in basic salary, have to contribute to EPF,” said Mercer’s Kakar. Both the pension fund and pension scheme are managed by EPFO. Under existing rules, 8.33% of the basic salary of an employee earning Rs6,500 or less had to mandatorily go towards EPS and 3.67% towards EPF. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:32 pm Growth in credit seen shrinkingMumbai: Banks in India may see a significant drop in the rate of growth of the loans they extend to companies and individuals because they don’t have money to do so despite the central bank’s efforts to infuse liquidity into the system, say some economists and equity analysts. They also warn of defaults by some companies, especially the so-called small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that borrowed in better times. The prognosis comes at a time when Indian companies are already finding it difficult to borrow money from banks although some equity analysts say that the slowing growth in loans is a result of lower borrowing needs of companies brought about by slowing growth in their profits. Also See Liquidity Trap (PDF) Total credit growth for Indian banks on 10 October, on a year-on-year basis, stood at 29.4%, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), higher than the central bank’s desired growth. The gross credit extended by Indian banks is about Rs26 trillion. “The 29% credit growth was very high; going forward, this is set to go down sharply,” said Sharmila Whelan, India economist at the Hong Kong office of foreign brokerage CLSA Asia Pacific Markets, in a telephone interview. According to her, there could also be “a rise in corporate loan defaults in India and other parts of Asia”. Indian companies are better placed to service debt compared with their peers in other regions, said Janmejaya Sinha, managing director of the Boston Consulting Group in India, who added that SMEs remain highly vulnerable. “Some of these SMEs could go bankrupt,” he said. Most SMEs in India take loans at higher rates of interest than large companies, and with their revenue falling as a result of the economic slowdown, their ability to service debt has been compromised.  Long wait: Customers at an ICICI Bank branch in Mumbai. Lending by Indian banks may slow due to a pronounced asset-liability mismatch. Bloomberg State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest bank by assets, however, isn’t worried. On the sidelines of a Mumbai conference on Thursday, organized by industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and industry body Indian Banks’ Association, O.P. Bhatt, chairman of SBI, was reported by PTI as saying credit growth was likely to continue to grow at 29% in 2008-09. “There is a huge demand for credit from the corporate sector as global funding sources have almost dried up. Most corporates have turned to banks for adequate credit,” he said. Following a global credit crunch, central banks across the world cut interest rates, assured credit lines for local banks, and initiated billions of dollars of currency swap lines to keep the system liquid. RBI has cut its key policy rate by 150 basis points in two stages, the cash reserve ratio (CRR) that determines the amount deposited by lenders with the central bank by 350 basis points, and the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR), or the portion of deposits banks have to invest in government bonds by 100 basis points. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. While these measures by the central bank helped reduce local inter-bank lending rates, which at one point had shot up to at least 21%, companies continued to find it difficult to raise money from reluctant lenders, who demanded high interest rates. Many Indian companies had picked up cheaper foreign currency debt in the past few years, especially from London. But while the global credit freeze is showing signs of easing, overseas borrowing rates remain high and it is unlikely foreign lenders will lend to Indian companies in the current economic environment. “It will be hard to replace foreign loans with foreign loans,” said Manisha Girotra, chairperson and managing director of Swiss bank UBS AG’s Indian arm. Locally, banks will limit credit to large companies, she added. That could hurt many small and mid-sized firms, which are looking to substitute large foreign debt with domestic capital. After meeting with finance minister P. Chidambaram on 4 November, India’s state-owned banks decided to slash their prime lending rate (PLR), or the rate at which they lend to their most creditworthy customers, by up to 75 basis points to between 13.25% and 13.5%. Foreign lender Citibank India also decided to cut PLR by 50 basis points to 15%. The government also unveiled measures to help banks reduce bad loans and continue lending to SMEs, including doubling the credit guarantee, or the facility to borrow without collateral, for SMEs from Rs50 lakh to Rs1 crore. Asset-liability mismatch The impending slowdown in credit growth that experts warn of has its roots in the asset-liability mismatch in the banks’ balance sheets. “The likely outcome (of this mismatch) is a pronounced slowdown in lending,” said Saurabh Mukherjea, head of Indian equities at UK-based equity research house Noble Group. According to him, “this lending slowdown is almost certainly likely to coincide with rising non-performing assets (or bad loans)”. This mismatch has been driven by two key factors—growing dependence on short-term liabilities and credit growth running ahead of deposit growth. Over the past three years, said Mukherjea, Indian banks had funded long-term credit using short-term liabilities, with the phenomenon becoming more pronounced in 2007-08, as bankers, expecting interest rates to moderate, took on increasingly shorter duration liabilities. These banks are now left holding a large volume of liabilities that are maturing faster than assets. Given the liquidity squeeze, replacing these maturing liabilities will be an uphill task. Deposits, the cheapest form of financing (liabilities) available for banks, have taken a backseat in the past three years, as “banks funded incremental credit disbursals by eating into their investment portfolio”, said a recent Noble Group report. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:32 pm RBI forex for banks’ foreign operationsMumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday said it will lend foreign exchange to banks with overseas operations to meet their lending requirements, a move that Indian banks have been asking for, and which could ensure adequate funding for their foreign subsidiaries. Mint had reported on 22 October that banks had asked for at least $10 billion (Rs47,800 crore today) in such credit and that this was also a key recommendation of the October report of the liquidity panel trust set up by the finance ministry and headed by finance secretary Arun Ramanathan. The lending will be done through foreign exchange swaps of up to three months using interest rates in the domestic and the overseas markets and the RBI reference rate for the dollar-rupee exchange rate, the country’s banking regulator said in a statement. A currency swap is an agreement between two parties to exchange two currencies on a future date at a specific price. RBI’s latest move will infuse dollars directly into the banks and help strengthen the local currency. Following the central bank’s announcement, banks will buy dollars from RBI at the reference rate plus three-month forward premium and will return dollars to RBI after three months, in case of a swap of three months. As on Friday, RBI’s dollar rupee reference rate was Rs47.76 per dollar. In the forwards market, the three-month forward premium was 57 paise. Additionally, the central bank has also extended a lifeline to banks for funding the swaps by allowing them to borrow through its regular liquidity adjustment facility (LAF), or the window through which it lends to or accepts money from banks, for the corresponding period at the prevailing policy rate. The current policy rate stands at 7.5% after a 100 basis point cut announced last Saturday. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. Banks borrow through the LAF window by pledging government bonds. They are required to invest at least 24% of their lendable funds in government bonds; this portion of their deposits is called the statutory liquidity ratio, or SLR. In view of the tight liquidity conditions, RBI reduced the SLR by 1% to 24% on 1 November. RBI also said on Friday that if a bank did not hold enough government securities to pledge, it would consider relaxing the SLR requirement if the bank approached it. The use of swaps helps banks avail cheaper funds for buying dollars because they can now borrow from the repo window of the central bank at 7.5%. Repo is the rate at which RBI lends to banks. Earlier, banks would convert their rupee deposits raised at a costlier 10.5-11% into dollars. “This will ease the pressure on the domestic liquidity and is a positive for money market yields,” said J. Moses Harding, head of wholesale banking at IndusInd Bank Ltd. However, he warned, this would also push the forward premium higher. Harihar Krishnamurthy, head of treasury at Development Credit Bank Ltd and S.S. Raghavan, head of treasury at IDBI Gilts Ltd said the measures would not impact the forex and bond markets much because they apply only to large banks with overseas operations. “Right now, there is no need for this action as liquidity has improved after RBI’s measures, but this is a proactive step in case liquidity again becomes tight,” said Raghavan of IDBI Gilts, a firm that trades in government bonds. In the last month, RBI has cut the cash reserve ratio, or the amount banks are required to keep with the central bank, by 350 basis points to 5.5%. It has also reduced its key policy rate by 150 basis points to 7.5% and SLR by 100 basis points to 24%. Among state-owned banks, State Bank of India has the largest overseas network. ICICI Bank Ltd is the private sector bank with the largest number of offices overseas. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:32 pm Under fire, Raja proposes new telco levyNew Delhi: Faced with criticism that the Union government has lost billions of dollars in potential revenue from auctioning spectrum rights, the Centre has decided to charge a new upfront fee for use of spectrum, estimated to net the exchequer some Rs4,000 crore from payments by the country’s mobile phone service firms. Spectrum refers to the airwaves used by phone firms to carry voice and data signals. The new spectrum fee, described on Friday by communications and IT minister A. Raja as “one-time”, will be levied on phone firms who use more than 6.2MHz of spectrum. This cut-off, to be approved by the Telecom Commission, the government’s apex telecom policy-making body, on 11 November, will see the brunt of the new levy being borne by phone firms on India’s dominant wireless technology platform GSM, such as Bharti Airtel Ltd, Vodafone Essar Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd, who use more than 6.2MHz spectrum in some of their licensed areas. “The commission will also discuss the hike in fee by 1-2% of mobile operators’ revenue for using additional airwaves. In all, the government may get an additional Rs5,000 crore towards increased spectrum charges,” Raja said. As per the proposal, the department of telecom plans to charge a fee of 1% of the telecom firm’s annual gross revenues for spectrum use of between 6.2MHz and 8MHz, beyond which an additional 1% will be levied. Data from early this year shows that Bharti Airtel has been allotted spectrum rights more than 6.2MHz in all licensed areas other than West Bengal and the North-East. Rival Vodafone Essar has crossed that threshold in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, and states such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Other smaller firms have spectrum rights in excess of 6.2MHz only in some areas. An analyst predicted an impact of between 3-5% on the earnings per share of the top phone firms due to the incremental revenue share fee. “The one-time fee can easily be amortized by these companies,” said Kevin Trindad, senior analyst with KRChoksey Shares and Securities Pvt. Ltd. Shares of Bharti Airtel rose 1.65% to Rs650, while the Idea Cellular scrip expanded 4.38% to Rs47.50 on BSE on Friday. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:32 pm Ashok Leyland in down cycle?The production cut at Ashok Leyland Ltd, India’s second-biggest maker of commercial vehicles, was inevitable, but its severity suggests things are worse than market anticipations.  Perhaps the sharp drop in October sales was a wake-up call. Domestic sales last month at least halved on a year-on-year basis to 2,976 units, way lower than average monthly sales of 5,388 units in the first half of this fiscal year that began in April. While tight liquidity has impacted commercial vehicle dealers and operators, underlying demand is also lower as economic activity slowed. For now, Ashok Leyland said it would halve production till December, but if demand remains at October levels, the current inventory will service it for much longer. Even if it raises production early next year, the increase will only be gradual. Also See Heading South (Graphic) In what’s looks like an awful sense of timing, Ashok Leyland is expanding capacity from 84,000 units to 134,000 a year in this fiscal year. It had originally planned to increase capacity further to 184,000 units by March 2010, but that would now certainly be seen as unnecessary. As things stand, the current capacity of 7,000 units a month is far ahead of demand. Analysts say the company has slowed capital expenditure due to the current downturn. Still, the funds it has spent and the additional capacity will eat into profits. This at a time when halving production and sales will lower absorption capacity of fixed costs. Thankfully, debt levels aren’t high and debt servicing isn’t seen as a risk by the markets. But for operating performance to improve, demand for trucks also needs to improve. And it’s imprudent to assume demand would bounce back to normal once financing becomes easier. For underlying demand to improve, industrial activity has to pick up. In any case, fleet capacity built up in the past years is likely to be used more optimally before truck operators expand fleets. The commercial vehicle industry may have well entered its usual long-drawn down cycle. Graphics by Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint Write to us at marktomarket@lievmint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:01 pm Railways plans belly dancers in Kolkata-Goa-Mumbai package tourChange has come to state-owned Indian Railways. Come January, tourists can experience a world-class luxury package tour with enchanting train hostesses, Russian belly-dancers, multi-cuisine food even a star-studded Bollywood night thrown in for good measure, plus a lot more - all the frills that one normally associates with global tour packages.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:00 pm India opens air space for ASEAN countriesIndia has opened its air space for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-states under an open-sky regime, the government said Friday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:00 pm Rupee completes its best week in 12 yearsMumbai: The rupee completed its best week in more than 12 years on optimism that falling borrowing costs worldwide will boost investor demand for emerging market assets. The currency extended last week’s gains as central banks in the UK, Europe, Australia, South Korea and India added to last month’s interest rate cuts, helping global stocks rebound. Overseas funds bought $543 million (Rs2,590 crore) more Indian shares than they sold in the four trading days through 4 November, according to data released by the nation’s capital markets regulator. “The outlook for equities is much better than what it was at the peak of the global credit crisis,” said K.V. Mallik, treasurer at state-owned UCO Bank in Kolkata. “The climate for investments will improve soon and will help the rupee.” The rupee climbed 3.8% this week to 47.66 a dollar in Mumbai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That is the biggest weekly gain since March 1996, making it the best performer among Asia’s 10 most-active currencies outside Japan. The Bank of England cut its key rate on Thursday to 3%, the lowest level since 1955. The 1.5 percentage-point reduction was the biggest in 16 years. The European Central Bank followed with its second half-point cut in a month. The action in Europe followed decisions last week by the US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan to lower rates. Bank of Korea dropped its benchmark on Friday for a third time in a month. Australia’s central bank had cut rates on 4 November, the third reduction in as many months. The Reserve Bank of India cut interest rates for the second time in two weeks on 1 November. The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index has rebounded 17% since 27 October. The index added 2.4% on Friday. The value of equities worldwide recovered to $31.8 trillion on 6 November, from $29.4 trillion, the lowest since 2003, reached on 27 October, Bloomberg data show. feedback@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:37 pm Receding financial tide is unstoppableThe European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank delivered sharp rate cuts on Wednesday: 50, 150 and 50 basis points, respectively. However, central bankers are still in danger of succumbing to the “Canute syndrome”—failing to keep the receding tide of bank funding from leaving the economy high and dry.  Click here for breakingviews.com Overnight policy rates—3.25% in the euro zone, 3% in the UK and 2% in Switzerland—are low by recent standards. But, the US is at 1%. There will be more cuts in Europe if the financial and economic situation warrants. That looks increasingly likely. Central bankers have abandoned all fear of inflation and all hope that the banks can manage on their own. Banks still won’t lend to each other, even at high rates, and are trying to shrink their lending to the real economy. That retreat is set to intensify in the face of mounting losses—house prices are still dropping sharply in the UK and problems in eastern Europe weigh on the euro zone. The infant recession is both an effect and a cause of credit problems. Higher losses reduce banks’ ability and willingness to lend, and shrinking loans reduce economic activity. But the central bank rate cuts are not primarily anti-recessionary moves to stimulate lending. Along with central bank liquidity and government capital programmes, they are part of an effort to prevent collapse—to keep the financial system running. These cuts are impressive, but aren’t likely to do much. When borrowers and banks both want to get their leverage down, even negative real rates aren’t particularly alluring. When Canute ordered the tides to stop, he didn’t actually think they would obey. The Viking king wanted to make the point that some forces were more powerful than the royal word. The battle between the monetary authorities and the financial tide is more evenly balanced. But the tide is winnng. The authorities will be lucky to get away with a mild recession. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:37 pm Qualcomm looks at India to lift demandNew Delhi: The largest maker of mobile chips, Qualcomm is looking at emerging economies like India to offset the slacking demand in US and other developed markets. It is also betting big on the 3G opportunity in India and is in talks with all the existing and new telecom operators. Irwin Jacobs, Chairman, Qualcomm Inc says, “We think India will in fact be a very important market. Lot of developed countries are slowing down, people will not be turning in their phones for new phones frequently. You’ve a country like India which is just introducing 3G. There’ll be many growing unmet needs in villages as well as cities. I think we’ll be seeing a significant growth here”. Jacobs was speaking at a seminar on ’Diffusion of Wireless Innovation’ in New Delhi, jointly organized by the CII and Qualcomm. Click here to watch video According to a Reuter’s poll, cellphone makers will be seeing the market shrink for the first time since 2001. They are avoiding a build up of large inventories. And most analysts feel emerging markets hold the key to 2009. Qualcomm will continue to invest in India, more so in the area of applications development and would be working closely with application developers. It also expects to increase investments through its VC arm very rapidly. A report by Venture Intelligence finds that 10 investments have been made by corporate VCs this year. Intel Capital, the VC arm of Intel, leads the way with investment in six Indian technology firms. Qualcomm has recently reported a drop in fourth-quarter profit. Its sales this quarter may fall as much as 6% from a year earlier, which would be the first decline since the second quarter of 2001. The company has blamed the credit crisis and slowdown in the economy as the reasons behind the drop. India currently has more than 325 million subscribers and is the fastest growing telecom market in the world. A figure that will touch 500 million before 2010, according to telecom minister A. Raja. The government will be auctioning 3G spectrum in January 2009. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:34 pm CPI joins chorus alleging scandal in spectrum auctionThe Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary D. Raja Friday echoed charges made against union IT Minister A. Raja by fellow Left leaders about graft in the auction of radio frequency to mobile operators.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 7 Nov 2008 | 3:31 pm Honda shows wearable device that helps you walkTokyo: Imagine a bicycle seat connected by mechanical frames to a pair of shoes for an idea of how the new wearable assisted-walking gadget from Honda works. The experimental device, unveiled Friday, is designed to support bodyweight, reduce stress on the knees and help people get up steps and stay in crouching positions. Honda envisions the device being used by workers at auto or other factories. It showed a video of Honda employees wearing the device and bending to peer underneath vehicles on an assembly line. Engineer Jun Ashihara also said the machine is useful for people standing in long lines and for people who run around to make deliveries. “This should be as easy to use as a bicycle,” Ashihara said at Honda’s Tokyo headquarters. “It reduces stress, and you should feel less tired.” To wear it, you put the seat between your legs, put on the shoes and push the on button. Then just start walking around. In a test-run for media, this reporter found it does take some getting used to. But I could sense how it supported my moves, pushing up on my bottom when I squatted and pushing at my soles to help lift my legs when I walked. The system has a computer, motor, gears, battery and sensors embedded in it so it responds to a person’s movements, according to Honda Motor Co. Pricing and commercial product plans are still undecided. Japan’s No. 2 automaker will begin testing a prototype with its assembly line workers later this month for feedback. The need for such mechanical help is expected to grow in Japan, which has one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world. Other companies are also eyeing the potentially lucrative market of helping the weak and old get around. Japan is among the world’s leading nations in robotics technology, not only for industrial use but also for entertainment and companionship. Earlier this year, Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. showed a Segway-like ride it said was meant for old people. Japanese robot company Cyberdyne has begun renting out in Japan a belted device called HAL, for “hybrid assistive limb,” that reads brain signals to help people move about with mechanical leg braces that strap to the legs. Honda has shown a similar but simpler belted device. It has motors on the left and right, which hook up to frames that strap at the thighs, helping the walker maintain a proper stride. That device, being tested at one Japanese facility, helps rehabilitation programs for the disabled, encouraging them to take steps, said Honda official Kiyoshi Aikawa. Honda has been carrying out research into mobility for more than a decade, introducing the Asimo humanoid in 2000. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:57 am
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