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Interview with Yogen Dalal: Part 1Kamla: This is Kamla Bhatt. Today my guest is Yogen Dalal, who is Managing Director, at Mayfield Fund, a venture capital firm located in Silicon Valley. Mayfield currently manages over $ 2 billion and has invested in 500 companies out of which 100 went public. Mayfield is also active in India and has invested in a handful of companies there. Yogen has been in Silicon Valley since the 1970s and worked with Vint Cerf, the father of internet at Stanford and co-authored the specification for Internet Transmission Control Program or TCP. Yogen was a founding member of the Claris Corporation and Metaphor Computer Systems and prior to that, he worked at Zee Rock’s Park. He’s currently on the boards of Naunce, Revenue Science, Audiofeast and others. Yogen has a PhD from Stanford and has an undergrad degree from IIT, Mumbai. Welcome to the show, Yogen. Yogen: Thank you Kamla. Always nice to talk to you and get your perspectives on the world. Kamla: Today I’m going to get your perspectives and the valley. What is the magic of Silicon Valley? Yogen: Well, the magic is of Silicon Valley is that you have people who want to change the world- people who come with fresh ideas and are who are given the opportunity to live their dreams. But the true magic of Silicon Valley is that failure is not viewed as something negative. If you fail the first time, that means you try to do something that was amazingly difficult and you’re given the second and many times a third and a fourth time. Kamla: Can this magic be re-created in other parts of the world? Yogen: People have tried to do that and in some cases, its been successful but I don’t think there’s any other place like Silicon Valley because Silicon Valley has been built now for over 30-40 years. It’s a culture; it’s a way of thinking. There are so many different people who are all trying to change the world that it’s a melting pot of ideas where one idea leads to another purely by accident. Kamla: So you came here in ’72 and just a year before that the term “Silicon Valley” had been coined. Yogen: That’s right. I think the whole notion was that somebody, a Fred Terman who was the Dean of Engineering at Stanford had this dream that industry and academia work together and many of his students were the ones that helped create what we now think of the Silicon Valley, particularly Hewlett & Packard who were one of the first true entrepreneurs of this Valley along with many other people. And Silicon Valley owes its term for the fact that it really was the electronics capital of the world where chips and semi-conductors and electronics were being designed. Now we think of Silicon Valley as Google and Yahoo and Apple Computer and variety of other companies like Cisco. Kamla: You missed out on Facebook. Yogen: Well, clearly Facebook is the next company being created but the point I was making is that we’ve moved away from Silicon to what we now think of as Internet Media. And the vibrancy of the Valley is that it keeps on re-inventing itself from building electronics to building chips to building routers, now to building experiences that each and every one of us want. Kamla: Let’s stay with the 70s. You were part of Vint Cerf who just became a professor in ’73. He was a fresh grad and you were involved with him in creating TCP. What made you take that fork on the road as Yogi Berra would say, and work with Vint? Yogen: Two things. You know when you meet somebody who is truly remarkable as we’ve discovered he is, he just was inspirational the first day I met him. But I, as an undergraduate of IIT Bombay was fascinated by this whole notion that computers were more than just machines where you solved complex equations and the notion that computers could communicate with each other and that we as individuals, could use computers to communicate with each other was just fascinating. And so when I read all the work he had done on the Arpanet, I knew this was the person that I wanted to hitch my wagon to. Kamla: What has surprised you about the growth of the internet? Yogen: Well, the growth of the internet is that it’s unstoppable. It’s one of these standards that continues to evolve; it’s an organic system, not controlled by any one company. You might say that Google controls one aspect of what people want from search but the fact is that the technology underlines the internet that can be constantly improved upon by any one who knows how to make it better. Kamla: Let’s switch to apple because after Stanford, you went to Xerox Parc and then you went to Apple and you were a part of ClarisWorks where you were with Bill Campbell who is regarded as the coach of Silicon Valley CEOs. What was it like working at Apple because it is one of the companies that had tremendous ups and downs. Yogen: Well, you know I helped Bill start Claris in 1987 which in some ways was a spin-off out of Apple even though in many ways regarded as a wholly owned subsidiary that Apple eventually bought. But Bill Campbell is exactly as everybody says. He is the ultimate coach. He knows how to motivate people. He’s a brilliant marketer and for me, it was the first time in my career that I went from being a purely technologist to somebody who was building products that would have mass market appeal. In this case, application software for the Macintosh. So I’ve just always been a big believer that Apple is one company in the world that will constantly transform the world. Even though it’s had some bad times in the past, it’s managed to survive them because the fundamental notion that the people at Apple know what it is that consumers want has not changed ever since Steve Jobs started at Apple way back in the late ‘70s. Kamla: Are there times when you look at it and wonder what is it that this company is doing right and how is it that they are able to change course and correctc ourse so frequently? Yogen: Well, I think what Apple really stands for is excellence- excellence in terms of the user experience. I mean, they are masters at making sure that all the details are right. So when you as a consumer want to buy something; whether it’s a car or something else you want it to be perfect. You want it to work the way you want it to work and Apple, over the years has just discovered what does it mean to build a wonderful operating system whether it is Mac OS X or build an ipod or build an iphone. So they’ve got people there who truly understand why details matter and why the consumer would be happy with the final product. Kamla: What was your experience like working with ClarisWorks? Yogen: Well, you know Claris Works was an integrated application. We had some brilliant software engineers who wanted to take things like word processing, drawing, and painting and just combine them into one application. And today, ClarisWorks is often, is called I believe, Apple Works. Kamla: It died in the last year. Yogen: It died last year? Well, I think the reason it probably hasn’t survived the new era is that today people are quite comfortable with many of the applications from Microsoft for Macintosh but also the internet and the web has come to play where people are able to get some of these simple applications through their browser. So if you wanted to write a simple document, you don’t even need Microsoft word. You could use Googledocs or a number of other applications straight from your browser. So that need- that people want is being satisfied in just as simple ways from State-of-the-art methodologies. Kamla: What prompted you to become a venture capitalist? Yogen: As I often tell people, by accident. I was in between careers so to speak after the Claris’ experience and I had known the Mayfield partners and they asked me to come hang out at their offices and help them think about where the world was going and this was in ’91 when Windows had just come world was ready for client server computing which is what I had spent many of my years doing at Xerox and at Metaphor. So I was able to help them think through their strategies and we made some superb investments and eventually they asked me whether I truly wanted to be an entrepreneur and go back out or whether I wanted to cross the line and help entrepreneurs; I didn’t know whether I’d like it or whether I’d be any good at it and I said yes and something I’ve done many times in my life, sort of gone with my instinct on where I think the world was going and what role I might play in it and I’ve never regretted that decision. Kamla: What you didn’t mention was what were these companies that you invested in? Yogen: Ah! The companies that I invested in, in those early days along with my partners were Vantive Systems, which was one of the first companies to do customer resource management, Arbor Software, companies like Pure Software or further down the road companies like TIBCO, BroadVision; these are all what I would call infrastructure software companies that continue to march along the path from client server to web services. Kamla: You have deep knowledge of the network space. IPv6 is round the corner. What that means is, there’s going to be IP addresses available for billions of devices. What that means, I’m guessing is proliferation of devices and experience then becomes the focal point. How are you looking at IPv6? Yogen: See, in many ways the changes that will come with IPv6 is to really enable, as you said Kamla, thousands and thousands of devices to become internet enabled where they would have an address. Well, it’s like saying if you don’t have enough street numbers, you can’t add any more houses to the street and we want to make sure that you can add as many devices as you want to. Now technologically, doing IPv 6 is fine but the question is, what are these IP devices going to do? Are they going to be phones, are they going to be MP3 players? Are they going to be digital picture frames? We just don’t know but the point is to make sure that there are enough street addresses so that the innovators, the entrepreneurs can figure out what these devices might be. And then consumers will benefit from these devices and not only consumers you can think of street lights, traffic signal, every thing is going to be an IP device and the ones that really succeed are the ones like the iphone or the ipod where it meets customer needs – consumer needs. Kamla: I’m curious. Why didn’t you mention the Ad network? Yogen: Ad networks are very very important and I think the world eventually is all about commerce and we know whether we are living in the United States or Europe or China or India that advertising makes the world go round. Most of us sometimes get annoyed by ads but I think we are willing to live with ads because the benefit of that is that the service that we get is for free and so there’s this constant tension between “for free” and “for subscription”. But what the internet has done is, it’s created a very unique mechanism to allow the smallest company to get world wide distribution. All you have to do is type some random phrase in a Google search box and you can find that small company that will satisfy your need. Kamla: So personalisation becomes the key phrase there. Yogen: “Personalisation” is the key phrase that the ad networks and the internet will eventually give you ads that you really want as opposed to ads that are irritating you. Kamla: So that brings up the question of privacy. Yogen: All technology has dealt with the issue of privacy. You know, privacy of what you do, what you don’t do and I think that’s a constant set of hecks and balances that the industry will create to ensure that privacy is upheld. But today, for example if you wipe your credit card, your credit card company knows exactly what you’ve bought. So it that a violation of privacy? Only if the organisation that you’ve trusted misuses that information and I think there is sometimes that concern that companies on the internet aren’t quite as crisp in terms of protecting the consumers’ privacy and I think there will be technology and a variety of other mechanisms, not necessarily legislation which will protect the consumer. Kamla: I want to switch to Judy Estrein, who is an old friend of yours. You have invested in her companies. She was the CTO of Cisco and she has recently published a new book, “Closing the innovation gap” and one of the things that she points out in the book is that the innovation eco system in Silicon Valley is polluted; both in the US and Silicon Valley. She says that the roots of the innovation system have started to rot. What are your thoughts? Yogen: Well, innovation is something that is critical for the survival of not only Silicon Valley but also I would say, inevitably the American economy and so the worry that Judy has trailed in her recent book is expressing through interviews with a number of innovators is that we continue to feed the goose that’s laying the golden egg. That is we have to construct mechanisms to enable innovation to survive. Otherwise, people look for short term gains and profits and don’t spend their careers building truly innovative technologies. So we have to construct a mechanism by which researchers at the greatest Universities are given the freedom to doing the research. When you think about all the stuff we have today, it was done by researchers funded by DOWPA, NSF, at the research labs that I worked with at for years in the ‘70s before any of this really came in to public attention. And siting Judy is basically creating a “call of to action” that govts, Universities, Presidents and that corporations should pay attention to innovation long term and innovation across all disciplines, just not the discipline that’s core to their business needs. Kamla: Tune back in for Part 2 of our conversation with Yogen. This is Kamla Bhatt. This interview was brought to you in association with Live Mint Radio and as always, thank you for tuning in. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 11:09 am Obama promises to lose no time on financial crisisChicago: Promising to lose no time in acting on the economy front, US President elect Barack Obama has assured the nation that his administration will be all geared up to address the financial crisis when it assumes office. Faced with the task of resurrecting a flagging economy, Obama, who assumes office on 20 January, said that he did not underestimate the enormity of the task ahead of him and his administration will hit the ground running on 20 January. In his first weekly radio address since being elected to the US top office, Obama asked the nation to unite in the face of the ongoing economic crisis and expressed confidence that a resilient America will see the crisis through. Asserting that there is not ‘a moment to lose’, Obama said that he is working to put in place a team that is ready to address the issues immediately after he takes office in January. “While we must recognise we only have one President at a time and that President Bush is the leader of our government, I want to ensure that we hit the ground running on 20 January because we don’t have a moment to lose,” Obama said. The senator from Illinois, who held a meeting with his economic advisers days after winning the landmark US election, also asked the nation to unite in the face of the ongoing economic crisis. “We’ve taken some major actions to date, and we will need further actions during this transition and subsequent months. Some of those choices will be difficult, but America is a strong and resilient country,” he added. The first black President elect of the US, who defeated Republican John McCain comprehensively, praised voters for exercising their franchise and said that he would work with President George W Bush in a transition of power. ”This speaks to a fundamental recognition that here in America we can compete vigorously in elections and challenge each other’s ideas, yet come together in service of a common purpose once the voting is done,“ Obama said in his address. “And that is particularly important at a moment when we face the most serious challenges of our lifetime,” he said. He reiterated essentially in his address that the economy and the handling of the loss of jobs will be his first priority when he comes to the Oval Office. Obama argued for urgent actions during this transition and subsequent months, saying that a rescue plan is needed for the middle class in the wake of nearly 1.2 million people losing jobs this year. “The 240,000 jobs lost in October marks the 10th consecutive month that our economy has shed jobs. In total, we’ve lost nearly 1.2 million jobs this year, and more than 10 million Americans are now unemployed. Tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their homes. “First, we need a rescue plan for the middle class that invests in immediate efforts to create jobs and provides relief to families that are watching their paychecks shrink and their life savings disappear,” the president-elect said. Finally, he said that government will move forward with a set of policies that will grow our middle-class and strengthen our economy in the long-term. Earlier, addressing his first press conference after being elected to the office of President, Obama vowed to act swiftly to ease the economic turmoil by focusing on a stimulus package involving job creation and giving tax reliefs. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:50 am India needs $500 bn for core sector in next five years: PM - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:48 am Educomp, Intel to launch learning solution for schoolsNew Delhi: Online learning solutions provider Educomp in collaboration with world’s largest computer chip maker Intel will launch a programme for promoting the use of technology among teachers and school children. Under the programme - Educomp O3 Learning System - every child in school would be provided an Intel Classmate Personal Computer loaded with applications specially designed for the schools, Educomp said in a statement. The company, earlier, had run a pilot project of the programme in eight schools in India. “This year we plan to introduce our O3 programme in around 50-75 schools across India benefitting around 30,000 to 50,000 students,” Educomp Solutions Ltd Managing Director Shantanu Prakash said. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:43 am Educomp, Intel to launch learning solution for schoolsNew Delhi: Online learning solutions provider Educomp in collaboration with world’s largest computer chip maker Intel will launch a programme for promoting the use of technology among teachers and school children. Under the programme - Educomp O3 Learning System - every child in school would be provided an Intel Classmate Personal Computer loaded with applications specially designed for the schools, Educomp said in a statement. The company, earlier, had run a pilot project of the programme in eight schools in India. “This year we plan to introduce our O3 programme in around 50-75 schools across India benefitting around 30,000 to 50,000 students,” Educomp Solutions Ltd Managing Director Shantanu Prakash said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:43 am 'Govt will spend Rs 250 bn to pump-prime economy'The government will pump-prime the economy by investing Rs 250 billion (Rs 25,000 crore) in areas like infrastructure but without worsening the country's fiscal deficit situation.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:42 am From souvenir seller to millionaireRakesh Sardana, Austrian millionaire of Indian origin, prefers to talk less about business and more about times when he was as poor as a church mouse.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:41 am Mercedes, BMW failing to push house salesMercedes, BMW and gold medallions are failing to lure home buyers this season, resulting in a 50 percent dip in purchases in both premium and mid segments.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:40 am The Expat Show - Introductions Welcome to the Expat podcast, the show you should listen to if you’re planning on moving to Delhi. We talk you through everything from finding a home and furnishing it, to the best places to eat, shop and hang out. In this podcast Melissa, Aruna and Ayeshea tell you exactly what it is the show aims to do and a little bit about themselves. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:36 am Telenor deal after value creation: Unitech - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:31 am HDFC lodges FIR against PNB for bungling Rs7.90 crPatna: HDFC Bank has lodged an FIR against the Punjab National Bank for bungling with an amount of Rs7.90 crore. The Exhibition Road branch of the private bank here had deposited Rs4.70 crore on 19 September and Rs4.90 crore on 21 October in PNB’s Exhibition Road branch but was given a receipt for only Rs1.70 crore, deputy superintendent of police Sanjay Singh said citing the complaint. HDFC bank had informed the PNB about the lapses but the public sector bank did not heed it, bank sources said. One person R K Narayan, a head clerk with PNB’s Exhibition road branch, had received the amount but Narayan has not been seen since 22 October, Singh said. “HDFC bank has lodged an FIR against NUB under Sections 120B (Criminal Conspiracy) and 420 (Cheating) of IPC with Gandhi Maidan police station for bungling its amount,” Singh said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:31 am Interview with Yogen Dalal: Part 2 Kamla: How are you fostering innovations through your investments? Yogen: Well, it’s a tricky line you know. Our goal here is to invest our limited partners’ money to make money for them and so successful investments are those that are just a little bit ahead of their time. So that when the company has a product that is ready to be launched, it fits in with the needs of customers, whether they be businesses or consumers. So you know our job is to take risks. So we’re on the cutting edge of figuring out what is likely to be a good outcome but as you know; if you’re a little too early well they tell you about the pioneers who’re the ones with the arrows in their back. Kamla: So how do you keep yourself informed as to what are the new things that are available out there, what is it that people are looking for? Yogen: They always tell you that you have to have a prepared mind and the best way to have a prepared mind is to have an open mind and you start off by spending time reading, living the digital lifestyle, getting a Facebook account before it becomes all the rage, spending time with young students at the leading Universities, by being their mentors, watching what your own children and what their friends do with technology. And then you know, talking to the innovators of the world. I think the worst that anyone can do in our business is to walk into a meeting with a closed, prejudged mind. Kamla: What kind of a digital lifestyle are you leading? Yogen: The digital lifestyle I lead, you know involves of course, you know, having an iPhone and an iPod but more than that you know, I’m a big email user but I spend time surfing the internet. I spend time checking out some of the new methodologies or ideas. You know, whether I do a lot of Facebooking is not critical, the important thing is that I know what it is that people do when they go to Facebook on an every day basis. So an important part of living the digital life style is to set aside time and to include that along with all the other things that you do now in your life. Kamla: Have you asked any of your kids that they include you in their Facebook account? Yogen: Well, you know my kids have Facebook accounts and I told them even though they invited me to be a friend that they were now young adults and that I declined their invitation you know, in order to give them the privacy they deserve. Kamla: This is new! I’ve not heard any father declining. Usually they want to see what their friends are doing. Yogen: Well I know but you know, I think there are so many ways to find that out and deliver digital life style but I’m also just a big believer that you’ll have to let your kids grow up and not be what people often call “helicopter” parents where you’re hovering around them all the time. Kamla: How has your focus changed? What changes have you made when you assess companies or opportunities compared to the dot com boom and the early 1990s when you joined Mayfield? Yogen: Well in the early 1990s we were all technology investors. That’s really what we were about. We were about building the infrastructure for today’s technological marketplace and so you really looked for entrepreneurs who have the entrepreneur drive but have the technological savvy to pull it off. As the technology foundation has become well established, we’re now looking at business innovation. How do you take all that technology that’s out there and innovate from a business model point of view in order to satisfy market needs. For example- today software, the service means that you rent the capabilities that you want rather than buying the software package. So that’s not technological innovation. It is- requires technological savvy but it’s a business model innovation. But more importantly, Internet is the new form of media so most of us have to now think about what does it mean to invest in businesses that are satisfying consumer needs as opposed to business needs. And that’s a whole different game because as you know Kamla, you can’t guarantee that the new movie is going to be a hit or the new restaurant that is opened on the corner of the street is going to be a true success. Everybody wants to satisfy the needs of consumers, but you get flops too. Kamla: Where are you going today that you’ve not gone before? Yogen: Where are we going today- I think that you know, green tech is certainly the big buzz word of today. But it’s a long term market so what we’re looking at is not alternative fields or anything of that nature but how can computing technology that we’re very comfortable with in now somehow make a difference. We’re basically looking at, in the whole green phenomena that’s going to take over the world, where does information technology fit into that? There are other people that can do very successful things, like ethanol and all the variety of other bio-fuels. That’s not our expertise. Our expertise is to playing this market place by encouraging entrepreneurs to know what they do well in communications and computing and apply those methodologies to making the world more green. Kamla: What about the India option? You know, I’ve come across a couple of places where you’ve mentioned that India is a place where companies should set up a development centre. Yogen: Well, it clearly-we’ve always believed that having some cross border activity enable start ups to be more successful because there’s a load amount of talent not only here in Silicon Valley but also in China and in India and other parts of Eastern Europe. So virtually all companies are going to be global not only in their structure but in their market. I think start-ups are not just looking for customers in the US but looking for customers world wide. And I think when countries like India in particular are completely re-structuring their economic foundation, with the creation of a massive middle class, the infrastructure needed to satisfy the needs of this very, very large middle class will rely on information technology. Kamla: I have a product related question. How do you think entrepreneurs should build products? Yogen: We all know that true innovation comes because there’s a passion driving that innovation so if you want somebody who’s willing to leap the charge, who’s got a sixth sense that helps him decide whether they’re going to take door A or door B and in some ways it’s no different that another metaphor I’ve been using when you talk about people who climb mountains. Why do they climb mountains? They don’t climb mountains- you have to have the team but you also have to have the leader. The leader has to have supreme self confidence that they know how to take the team to the finish line. Kamla: But the young start-up often are in a lot of flux. And there is ego involved and you know, if there is more than one co-founder, it becomes a little bit difficult to figure out who’s the leader. What are some of the common problems that you’ve seen time and again with start-ups that can be avoided? Yogen: The most common problem with start-ups is that there isn’t a leader or two that is magnetic in their ability to pull together a team. So the leader has to be brilliant, clearly with an idea but they also have to be able to create a team that will follow them. You want a person who has a sense of their destiny and who is able to attract other people- and I would use the Google metaphor or the Hewlett & Packard metaphor to men in both cases who had a sense of their destiny, and who were able to inspire people to join the journey with them. Kamla: What kind of leader are you? Yogen: What kind of leader am I? Well, I think I may have been a sort of a hard charging leader in my technology days because we made some sort of major inroads into how the world should operate but I would say these days, I’m much more of a collaborative coach-oriented leader. That’s the stage in my life and the stage in my partners. They look to me for that kind of a role in leadership. Kamla: Who mentored you? Yogen: I’ve been fortunate to have some of the most important people in this industry mentor me. From Vint Cerf who was my thesis advisor to Bob Metcalfe, who hired from my first job to David Reddan who ran the product program at Xerox and then of course, Bill Campbell who is known to be the ultimate coach was the president of Claris. And so these people have given me the tools to think about how you encourage people to make a difference. Kamla: Do you have a sense because you keep talking about the sixth sense... I want to take advantage of that sixth sense of yours and find out where do you think these new centers of innovation would be? Yogen: I think that Silicon Valley be continue to be the centre of innovation. If you just go to Stanford and look at the new $ 400 million engineering court that has been constructed, it will produce some of the most amazing innovation you know, 10-15 years down the road. But I am quite confident that if you look at the history of Silicon Valley, that centers in India and in Beijing will become new centres of innovation after a cycle. It’s really companies like Fairchild and Hewlett Packard that began Intel and all of these other companies. So eventually smart engineers will leave Infosys and Wipro to become entrepreneurs. So what’s been created is a foundation of infrastructure in cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Bangalore at least in India, where the foundation will be laid for a new generation of entrepreneurs. Kamla: I know I said it was the last question but I can’t resist sneaking this question about Jack Gibson. The last time I spoke to you, you were going to become a blogger, now you I see you’ve become one. Tell us about your blogging experience and Jack Gibson. This is the headmaster of Mayo. Yogen: Well you – I didn’t sort of list him as one of my mentors but I would have to say that he is probably the first one of them. He is the renowned principal of the Mayo College during my days there in the mid-60s. That was the man who sort of influenced a generation of students to make a difference to the world and March was his 100th birthday anniversary. And a bunch of his students, including me have constructed a blog site where we’re collecting memories of this incredible man and along with that, three of us impart on using the internet and the digital lifestyle to take his memoirs and to have it re-published as an electronic book. So this is our tribute to a man who deserves to have his memory preserved forever. Kamla: Do you think he’d be surprised by this digital tribute? Yogen: I think he would be. He was clearly a man who was not afraid to look around the corner but I think that he would be amazed if he was looking down how all of us pulled together, without actually being in the same room, at the same time. Kamla: Yogen, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for this conversation. Yogen: Thank you Kamla. I’ve enjoyed this very much and I look forward to many more! Kamla: You were listening to Yogen Dalal, Managing Director of Mayfield Fund, located in Silicon Valley. This is Kamla Bhatt. This interview was brought to you in association with Livemint Radio and as always, thank you for tuning in. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:27 am The Playcast Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:24 am The PlaycastSource: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:24 am The Expat Show - Settling into Delhi: Part 1 Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 10:20 am 19 American banks go bust in ’08New York: Ravaged by the financial turmoil, the world’s largest economy, the US, has this year seen the failure of as many as 19 banks - exactly half the number of all publicly-listed banks in India. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the US regulatory body, which is often appointed as the receiver for failed banks, the number of bank-failures in the past eight years has grown to 46 - which is more than the total of 38 banks listed on the Indian bourses. Nearly half of the failures has been during the ongoing turmoil in the US financial market, with a total of 21 banks having failed since September last year and 19 since January this year, the FDIC data shows. The current year has already seen the highest number of bank failures in the midst of the United States grappling with one of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1930s. Prior to 2008, the highest number of bank collapses was recorded in 2002, when 11 such entities failed. In India, there are a total of 38 banks listed on the stock exchange, which include 18 from the private sector and 20 from the public sector. On Friday, Houston-based Franklin Bank SSB and Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles became the latest bank failures in the US, forcing state authorities to take them under their control. Since August 2008 as many as 12 banks have gone bust - a period when the current financial turbulence began to squeeze the economy. They include Freedom Bank, Alpha Bank & Trust, Meridian Bank, Main Street Bank, Washington Mutual Bank, Ameribank, Silver State Bank, Integrity Bank, The Columbian Bank and Trust and First Priority Bank. Before August this year, seven banks - First Heritage Bank, First National Bank of Nevada, IndyMac Bank, First Integrity Bank, ANB Financial, Hume Bank and Douglass National Bank - had collapsed. Going by the FDIC data, there were no bank failures in 2005 and 2006. On the other hand, only two banks had failed in 2000, the lowest number in last eight years. In 2007, just three banks failed in the country - Miami Valley Bank, NetBank and Metropolitan Savings Bank. The fall of Washington Mutual, the country’s largest savings and loan entity, is one of the biggest bank failures this year. Better known as WaMu, its larger rival JPMorgan Chase agreed to acquire the entity in September. JPMorgan bought deposits and branches of WaMu for about $1.9 billion, in a deal brokered by the Federal administration. Going by the available data, Bank of Honolulu and National State Bank of Metropolis went bust in 2001. Then next year, four banks collapsed - First Alliance Bank & Trust Company, The Malta National Bank, Superior Bank and Sinclair National Bank. In 2003 and 2004, the number of banks which failed stood at seven. They are Southern Pacific Bank, The First National Bank of Blanchardville, Pulaski Savings Bank, Dollar Savings Bank, Guaranty National Bank of Tallahassee, Reliance Bank and Bank of Ephraim. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 9:53 am Emerging economies want larger role in crisis talksSao Paulo: Emerging nations pressed for a stronger role in global financial coordination as key officials, including from India, met on Sinday in Sao Paulo to lay the groundwork for next week’s Washington summit on the deepening economic crisis. Leaders from the main industrialized and emerging economies gathered under the auspices of the Group of 20, which many officials say should become a stronger body that could supplant the Group of Seven wealthy nations that currently serves to coordinate key global policies. The calls for a broader multilateral response came despite caution by Washington, where a lame-duck administration of President George Bush has been noncommittal ahead of the transition to president-elect Barack Obama, who assumes office in January. Opening the gathering, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told finance ministers and central bankers that a “new world financial architecture” is needed to coordinate the response to a deepening crisis. “It’s time for a pact between governments for creation of a new world financial architecture. This is a global crisis and it demands global solutions,” Lula said. He said nations struggling with the crisis must “avoid temptations to take unilateral measures,” and stressed that “new universal mechanisms are needed” that have to be worked out in concert. European leaders have said they hope the Sao Paulo meeting will lay the groundwork for the start of key reforms to be put in motion starting with a 15 November summit in Washington of G20 leaders. The emerging nations meanwhile are demanding a seat at the table in global economic policymaking. The top emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China - want “a reorganisation of the world financial system,” Brazilian Economy Minister Guido Mantega told reporters on Saturday. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 9:37 am Centre intensifies action to tackle fertiliser scarcity - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 9:24 am India-ASEAN trade pact signing on scheduleNew Delhi: Political problems in Thailand are unlikely to come in the way of India signing a trade-opening pact with the 10-nation south-east Asian economic bloc during the India-ASEAN summit on 17 December. “If any country is unable to complete its domestic procedure, it would sign it later. The rest of them will sign on the scheduled date,” a Commerce Ministry official said. While the deal on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) was clinched in August, it was left to be signed at the 17 December summit, which is to be attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Unlike India, where trade agreements do not need Parliamentary approval, ASEAN member-countries require clearance from their Parliaments for the pact that would open the market for goods for 1.5 billion people. Due to the political uncertainty, Thailand is not able to take Parliamentary green signal for the pact. “Thailand will also move further... if their Parliament can’t approve, before the target date, they will tell us. Most likely they will sign,” the official said. Prolonged negotiations on the CECA were completed in August. Differences revolved on the level of opening the politically-sensitive agricultural commodities like tea, palm oil and pepper. While CECA would initially be restricted to goods, negotiations on extending its scope to services and investment would begin in the next phase. ASEAN has emerged as an important economic partner for India with bilateral trade growing to $38 billion in 2007-08. This is set to grow to $50 billion by 2010. Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam make up the 10-nation ASEAN. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 9:10 am RBI cancels licence of Gujarat-based co-operative bank - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 9:06 am Diesel sale to stop from Monday in Uttar PradeshDiesel dealers in Uttar Pradesh will stop business from Monday if the state government did not withdraw the 5 percent entry tax imposed on the commodity in September, the dealers' body warned.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Nov 2008 | 8:01 am United Spirits to expand distillery in AsansolKolkata: Vijay Mallya-owned United Spirits Ltd is likely to invest around Rs50 crore in West Bengal for expanding the capacity of its Asansol distillery. “We have applied to the state excise department for expanding capacity of our Asansol distillery. This may cost between Rs40-50 crore,” USL Chief Operating Officer (East & Nepal) Kaushik Chatterjee said. Apart from the Asansol facility, USL also has another distillery at Serampore. These two have a total manufacturing capacity of two lakh cases per month. Chatterjee, however, declined to divulge what the total capacity of the Asansol distillery would be after expansion. USL has 22 bottling plants in the East. Of these, five are company-owned. An additional two plants were likely to be added before the year-end in Kolkata and Assam, he said. Chatterjee said the company expected a 30% growth in volume in the current fiscal in the East alone. USL had recorded 15% growth in total sales volume in the second quarter ended 30 September, 2008 over the corresponding period last fiscal. The company, which produces over 140 brands in different flavours, had sold around eight million cases in the last fiscal in the East, which, according to Chatterjee, should cross the 10-million mark by the end of this fiscal. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 7:51 am Freebies like Mercedes, BMW failing to push house salesEven freebies like Mercedes, BMW and gold medallions are failing to lure home buyers this season, resulting in a 50 percent dip in purchases in both premium and mid segments, with experts predicting distress sales in six months.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Nov 2008 | 7:30 am Population of employed Asians in US fallsNew York: As the global financial quagmire wiped off over two lakh jobs last month in the US, the number of employed Asians has shrunk by about 34,000, even as the employed population among the blacks and whites rose considerably during this period. According to the latest employment status data of the civilian population by race, released by US government’s Department of Labour, the number of “employed” whites rose by 95,000 during October to 119.4 million. In the same month, which incidentally saw the US moving toward electing its first African-American President Barack Hussein Obama, the number of “employed” blacks or African- Americans rose in the country by 80,000 to 15.8 million. However, the Hispanics or Latinos as an ethnic group seems to have suffered the biggest fall in the employment rate. According to the data, the number of employed Hispanics or Latinos in the US fell by 1,43,000 in October to 20,327,000 persons. The department classifies people as employed if they did functioned as employees during the reference period, pursued their own businesses, professions, or farm work, or operated without pay at least 15 hours in a family business or farm. “People are also counted as employed if they were temporarily absent from their jobs because of illness, bad weather, vacation, labour-management disputes, or personal reasons,” the data say. The monthly data further showed the unemployment rate increased during the month for the Asians as well as for the Hispanics or Latinos, while it fell for the blacks and remained unchanged for the whites. The number of employed Asians fell to 68,70,000 in October from 69,04,000 in the previous month. However, despite a fall in the number of employed people, those of Asian ethnicity have the lowest unemployment rate after whites among the four races. The unemployment rate among Asians rose to 5.5% in October, from 5.2% in September, while the same for Hispanics or Latinos rose to 8.4% from 7.6%. For blacks or African-Americans, the unemployment rate fell to 11% from 11.2%, while it remained unchanged at 3.8 per cent for the whites. Bogged down by one of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1930s, the US saw 240,000 people lose their jobs in October alone with a 14-year high unemployment rate of 6.5%, taking the total job loss figure for this year to 1.2 million. On a year-on-year basis, however, the number of employed people rose among the Asians, while the same declined for the whites, blacks as well as Hispanics or Latinos. Comparing on a year-on-year basis, the number of employed Asians in the US rose by 64,000 people, while for the whites it fell by 10,35,000, for blacks it went down by 238,000 and for Hispanics or Latinos by 329,000 from October 2007 to the levels seen at the end of October this year. Number of overall job losses in the US is expected to rise even further in the months to come, as more companies are announcing plans to cut down their workforce. The last three months account for more than half of the year-to-date figure of 1.2 million. As part of their efforts to tackle the economic turmoil, a number of firms including big names like General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Merck, Ford, Pepsico, General Motors, American Express, and Bank of America have either cut jobs or are planning to slash their workforce. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 7:04 am Apparel exports plummet on weak US demandThe Indian apparel industry is no longer feeling buoyant with exports falling sharply following weak demand in the US. According to industry officials, garment exports are estimated to fall short of the targeted $9 billion by at least $1.5 billion this year.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Nov 2008 | 7:01 am Aviation regulator will be toothless in absence of policy: ExpertsThe Indian government may have cleared the deck for a new regulator for the aviation industry - the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) - but in the absence of a new civil aviation policy, its efficacy remains a question, say industry trackers.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Nov 2008 | 7:00 am PSUs share in BSE market cap rises after meltdown - Hindu
Source: Google News India - Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 6:10 am Tirupur exporters pinching garment orders from the ChineseAfter praying for a Barack Obama win and getting it, there is additional cheer in this knitwear exporting town. Some of the exporters here are pinching orders from their Chinese rivals.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Nov 2008 | 6:00 am Top firms gain over Rs20,000 cr in market capMumbai: Breaking its six-week long losing trend, country’s top 10 club added over Rs20,000 crore to the combined market valuation in the past week, even as Reliance Industries and Infosys suffered losses. The top 10 companies together gained Rs23,273 crore in market cap last week, while country’s most valued firm Reliance Industries alone lost Rs24,063 crore from its valuation. Also IT bellwether Infosys’ valuation declined to Rs6,371 crore in the past week. At the end of Friday’s trade, the total market value of the 10 most valued firms, comprising six from public sector and four private sector entities, stood at Rs10,15,150 crore, up from Rs9,91,877 crore a week ago. Mukesh Ambani-led RIL saw its market value plummeting by Rs24,063 crore in the past week to Rs1,91,664 crore. During the week, the shares of RIL witnessed a slump of over 15%, which brought its valuation down from the crucial Rs two-trillion mark. However, it retained its numero uno position. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel slipped one place to the fourth position in top 10 club, whose gain of Rs189 crore in market cap was offset by state-run NTPC’s gain ofRs 8,781 crore. Country’s largest lender SBI grabbed the fifth spot, overtaking Infosys which suffered a decline in its mcap. Also state-run ONGC showed the highest gain of Rs15,357 crore, followed by SBI’s (Rs8,872 crore) and NTPC (Rs8,781 crore). Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 5:46 am Steel companies under intense pressure due to sluggish demand - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 5:25 am India keen to import LNG from Russia - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 5:19 am Audi launches super sports car - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 5:09 am No-nonsense banker at helm of Pakistan's economyKARACHI (Reuters) - Shaukat Tarin, Pakistan's top economic official, is known as a hard-headed straight-talker who loves a challenge.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Nov 2008 | 5:07 am Government will spend Rs.250 bn to pump-prime economy: Kamal NathThe government will pump-prime the economy by investing Rs.250 billion (Rs.25,000 crore) in areas like infrastructure but without worsening the country's fiscal deficit situation, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has said.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am Pakistan is partner country at India International Trade FairPakistan is the partner country at this year's India International Trade Fair to be held at the sprawling Pragati Maidan exhibition grounds Nov 14 to 27.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Nov 2008 | 4:01 am Punjab's entrepreneurs, farmers, look to eastern EuropePunjab's entrepreneurs and farmers are now looking beyond traditional destination countries like the US, Britain, Australia and Canada and are exploring opportunities in countries like the Czech Republic and Ukraine.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Nov 2008 | 4:01 am It's destination Paris for designer Abhishek DuttaKolkata-based designer Abhishek Dutta has been invited to participate in the autumn/winter edition of the Tranoi fair in Paris next year and he says he has already begun work on the line he will show.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Nov 2008 | 4:00 am Democrats urge Paulson to weigh aid for automakersWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. congressional Democrats urged Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Saturday to consider providing aid to troubled U.S. automakers as part of the Bush administration's corporate bailout efforts.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Nov 2008 | 3:29 am Leading economic powers agree on need to boost growthSAO PAULO (Reuters) - The world's leading economies, including emerging powers like China, agreed on Saturday on the need to take measures to stimulate growth and fight off the threat of a global recession.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Nov 2008 | 3:22 am US budget deficit swells after financial bailout!Just one month into the fiscal year, the US federal budget deficit already has reached USD 232 billion, according to estimates released on Saturday.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:10 am G20 finance ministers begin Brazil meeting on crisis!Officials from the finance ministries and central banks of the world`s key developed and emerging countries began a two-day meeting here today that will look at ways to tackle the global economic crisis.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:10 am US stocks rise after two days of heavy selling!Buyers returned to Wall Street after two days of heavy losses, mindful of the economy`s growing problems but attracted by stocks` lower prices.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:10 am Corus to bring down production by 30 pc,shut 3 blast furnaces!Tata Group-owned world sixth largest steel maker Corus plans to cut production by 30 per cent until the end of March 2009 and temporarily shut down three blast furnaces.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:10 am Jobless ranks hit 10 million, most in 25 years!The nation`s jobless ranks zoomed past 10 million last month, the most in a quarter-century, as piles of pink slips shut factory gates and office doors to 240,000 more Americans with the holidays nearing. Politicians and economists agreed on a painful bottom line: It`s only going to get worse.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:10 am G20 summit will not lead to Bretton Woods II: IMF chief!Warning that the G20 summit next week is unlikely to produce radical change in the way the global economy is governed, the head of IMF said that expectations from the summit are over-hyped.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:10 am Jet Airways hands pink slip to expat pilots!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 on Saturday.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:10 am Emerging nations demand big role in meltdown talks !Brazil, Russia, India and China are unifying to demand a big role in negotiations aimed at creating a new global financial order and preventing another economic meltdown, Brazil`s finance minister said today.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:10 am Global meltdown to chop off 1.5-2.5% of GDP: Experts!The global financial meltdown can wipe out India`s economic growth by 1.5-2.5 percent in the next two years, as per the projections of various economic think-tanks before the Planning Commission.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:10 am OPEC president prepared for another output cutback!Current Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) president Chakib Khelil on Saturday refused to rule out another cut in the cartel`s output if the price of crude oil remains below USD 70 per barrel before an OPEC meeting in December.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:10 am Redemption worries on equity funds overdoneChennai, Nov. 8 Worries about the mutual funds suffering huge redemptions in the month of October appear a little exaggerated, especially on the equity side.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Weekly News Round-upBarack Obama emerged victorious over his Republican rival John McCain in the US presidential race on Tuesday and is set to take over as the 44th President of the United States in January 2009. He is America's fifth black senator, and from being aSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Market buoyancy helps phosphatic fertiliser makers to have a good H1Chennai, Nov. 8 Buoyed by market demand and prompt subsidy disbursements by the Government, manufacturers of phosphatic fertilisers have had a good first half in the current year.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Slowdown effect: Container train operators start ‘parking’New Delhi, Nov. 8 Container train operators have started feeling the impact of slowdown. Many operators now prefer to park their rolling stock assets in their own terminals or the Indian Railways’ yards — rather than running emptySource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Generic drug cos await US healthcare policiesMumbai, Nov. 8 Generic drug-makers are keeping their eyes on the President-elect, Mr Barack Obama, and the shape that healthcare policies will take under him, as the US is the world’s biggest market for genericSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Ashok Leyland, labour union in unique understandingChennai, Nov. 8 Workers will not lose wages and will compensate the company when demand picks up once again. This is the arrangement that Ashok Leyland’s workers have entered into with the management, which is grappling with anSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Infrastructure cos fear project delaysChennai, Nov. 8 Till a few months back, players in the infrastructure sector were buoyant. The market was large and there were plenty of projects coming up. What they felt would be the limiting factor was management bandwidth — their ownSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Bank wage talks to resumeMumbai, Nov. 8 The Indian Banks Association, the apex body of 150 banks in India, will resume next month the ninth bipartite negotiations with the United Forum of Bank Unions, the umbrella organisation of nine bank trade unions, on wageSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am PM's council pegs GDP growth at 7% - Times of India
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 10:08 pm When the going gets tough, companies turn spiritualMother Teresa said, I love the light for it shows me the way, yet I endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 8 Nov 2008 | 6:57 pm Jet sacks 25 expat pilotsPlagued by mounting losses, private airline Jet Airways has sacked at least 25 expatriate pilots, including captains of Boeing 737 aircraft, a Jet spokesperson said today.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 8 Nov 2008 | 6:56 pm Chandrayaan-I enters lunar orbitEighteen days after it was fired into outer space, Indias maiden unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan-I, today entered the tricky lunar orbit after scientists successfully carried out a mostSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 8 Nov 2008 | 6:54 pm IMF urges G20 to take more monetary, fiscal actionSAO PAULO (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund wants next weekend's summit of G20 leaders in Washington to discuss additional monetary and fiscal policy responses to the global financial crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 5:15 pm 'Talent is a challenge in the auto service sector'The automobile industry is facing a huge shortage of skilled workers in the after-sales network field, industry leaders said here Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 8 Nov 2008 | 4:30 pm WTO chief urges tough global financial regulationPARIS (Reuters) - The head of the World Trade Organisation urged countries to accept tough new international regulation of finances even if it was an "ideological revolution" for them to share sovereignty on such issues.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 4:27 pm Good news: Banks are willing to lend - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 8 Nov 2008 | 3:42 pm 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 India may resume trade in four commodities futures - regulatorMUMBAI (Reuters) - India may resume futures trade in four suspended agricultural commodities from December as prices soften, while a decision would be delayed on four others, an official with the commodity futures regulator said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:56 pm OPEC says Oran meeting must verify output cutsALGIERS (Reuters) - OPEC's next meeting must confirm that members have made all the oil output reductions they promised before taking any more action on output levels to prop up sagging prices, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:49 pm Parle to buy 600 tonnes of apple concentrate from HPLeading food and beverage company Parle Agro announced it will buy 600 tonnes of apple juice concentrate worth Rs.60 million from Himachal PradeshSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:48 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 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 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 India hastens cotton procurement to support pricesMUMBAI (Reuters) - India has beefed up cotton procurement in Maharashtra to support farmers as prices of the crop, hurt by record output and weak demand, have dipped below the government's intervention price, an official said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Nov 2008 | 12:10 pm 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
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