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The journey gets bumpy for some travel agentsThe bad news just doesnt seem to end for 62yearold Cyrus Korakhiwala (name changed on request), a Mumbaibased travel agent. In the last few months he has seen his margins erode steadily. First, the hike in air fares, amidst stock market crashes and bomb blasts in Indian cities, saw a drastic drop in passenger traffic.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Nov 2008 | 5:26 pm See tough days ahead for dry bulk operators: SCIS Hajra, CMD of Shipping Corporation of India, said we are going to face tough situation in coming months. \"There could be situations when the dry bulk operator start laying up their vessels because it has become difficult for the dry bulk, which are open to the spot market, to even realise their operating cost,\" he said.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Nov 2008 | 3:36 pm Tata Nano rollout may be postponed beyond Mar \'09The Tato Nano launch is likely to be postponed beyond March, reports CNBCTV18 quoting sources.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Nov 2008 | 3:30 pm Elecon Engineering to maintain FY09 sales, profit guidancePrayasvin Patel, CMD, Elecon Engineering, said the company has increased its turnover compared to last year by about 34% on a halfyearly basis. We will be maintaining the turnover projections that we have given, which is Rs 1,100 crore. We would also be maintaining profit levels that we had targeted.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Nov 2008 | 3:10 pm Nooyi, Mukerjea in WSJ's 50 women to watch listThree top executives of Indian origin - PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi, Cisco's Padmasree Warrior and INX Media's Indrani Mukerjea - are in the list of "50 Women to Watch - 2008".Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 2:12 pm Satyam acquires Motorola software unit in MalaysiaLeading IT firm Satyam Computer Services has acquired Motorola's software development facility at Kuala Lumpur in MalaysiaSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 2:11 pm Keventer to start production in Gujarat plantWest Bengal-based agro-food processing firm Keventer Agro Ltd will begin production at its Gujarat plant next month, company chairman M.K. Jalan saidSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 2:10 pm CVRD sees iron ore price cut in 2009One more production cut from an ironore producer even as the Government has reduced the duty on iron ore. CVRD cut its production by 20%, while Rio Tinton and Fortescue will be cutting their production by 10% each. Scrap prices have fallen putting more pressure on iron ore prices, thus for the first time CVRD looks at a price cut coming in 2009.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Nov 2008 | 2:04 pm UPDATE 2-ONGC says conditions unmet in $2.6 bln Imperial bid - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 2:00 pm Sharp decline in NBFC business volumes: Crisil - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:55 pm Corus set to cut production by 30% more - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:45 pm ADB sanctions $800-mn loan for Himachal PradeshThe Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Himachal Pradesh government Monday entered into an agreement under which the bank sanctioned a loan of $800 million to strengthen its hydropower potential, the state government said.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:30 pm Jet signs pact with United Airlines - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:29 pm Indian auto firms see no quick end to growth woes - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:17 pm Exports log lowest growth in five yearsIndian exports registered a 15 percent growth in October, the lowest in five years, said Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) R.S. Gujral here Monday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:02 pm Chaos on Delhi roads during nomination filing, commuters distressedThe traffic situation was grim in the capital Monday, as roads near the deputy commissioner's office in the New Delhi district on Shahjahan Road were blocked by supporters of candidates filing nomination for the assembly elections.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:02 pm Speed up government projects to thwart slowdown: IndustryIndustry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has urged the government to set up a monitoring and implementation agency comprising a few top government officials and private sector managers to speed up public sector infrastructure projects in a bid to confront the current economic slowdown.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:01 pm Keventer to start production in Gujarat plant from DecemberWest Bengal-based agro-food processing firm Keventer Agro Ltd will begin production at its Gujarat plant next month, company chairman M.K. Jalan said here Monday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:01 pm Jet signs pact with United AirlinesNew Delhi: Jet Airways has said that it has forged a frequent-flyer partnership with the United Airlines of the US to boost connectivity on the busy India-US sector. Under the arrangement, frequent fliers of both airlines would be able to earn and redeem points on the entire global network of the United Airlines, which operates over 3,200 flights a day to more than 200 US domestic and international destinations from its five hubs in the US. “While the partnership would boost connectivity on the India-US sector, it would also enable the passengers of both carriers to tap into their respective international networks,” Jet Airways CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said. The premier Indian private carrier, with a 85-aircraft fleet, operates to 64 domestic and international destinations, including New York, Newark and San Fransisco. Jet Airways has similar cooperation agreements with several other major global airlines. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:00 pm Fresh hiring in IT to dip to 2 lakh: NasscomChandigarh: Fresh hiring in IT and ITeS industry is likely to slow down to 2 lakh this fiscal, while salary hike in the sector would be lower by 2.5% next year, IT industry body Nasscom said on Monday. “This year, the new recruitments in IT sector are estimated to be two lakh this fiscal compared to 2.80 lakh people due to global recession,” Nasscom Chairman Ganesh Natarajan said. However, he categorically said there would not be any job cuts at the industry level. “There could be job cuts in one particular company. May be because its business model is not right or some other reasons, but overall the industry would not force any job cuts,” he asserted. On being asked about what was the view of Nasscom on salary hike of employees for next year, he said “while considering the present conditions, the increments in salary packages would be 7.5% next year compared to 9% this year”. “The growth in salary hike has come down from 13.5% last year to 9% this year and we hope it will further dip to 7.5% because the kind of recession we are going through as it is not cyclical rather a serious structural recession and it will stay for some time,“ Natarajan said. IT industry in the country employs about 20 lakh persons directly. However, Nasscom was of firm view that IT industry would continue to grow by 20 to 23% this year compared to 28% growth it attained last year. “We anticipate that we will be achieving $50 billion of IT exports and $13 billion of IT business from domestic market,” he said. With several key markets such as USA showing sign of saturation, Nasscom asked industry to look for other markets for capitalising opportunities in diverse areas of mobile gaming, animation, utility services and new product developments. “The industry should now look at East Europe, South Africa and Latin American countries where the growth opportunities are quite high,” he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:58 pm Reliance Infra buys back 16-lakh sharesReliance Infrastructure Ltd has bought back 16,00,000 equity shares of the company in less than two weeksSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:50 pm India’s first aircraft maintenance facility gets approvalNew Delhi: The first aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in India would come up at Hosur near Bangalore, with its promoter Air Works receiving the approval of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Announcing that it had recently received DGCA approval, Air Works CEO Fredrik Groth said that the company, which already has one hangar at Hosur airport that can house two turboprop ATR-72 size aircraft, would construct two more larger hangars by 2009. “We have plans to pump in $40 million into the project”, he said, adding that the funds would be put into set up the additional hangars, the aircraft painting operations as well as for future engine and components facilities. The company, which claims to be the largest general aviation and MRO firm in India, would provide services like line and base maintenance, aircraft painting, structural repairs, cabin and avionic upgrades. It would also offer component repairs and spare parts sourcing. “We are extremely happy on being recognized for our efforts by DGCA and are now all set to commence operations as India’s first commercial MRO facility,” he said. “We now look forward to performing our services to the airlines of India, which so far have had to either build up in house maintenance capabilities or send their aircraft abroad for servicing,” Groth said. The company would start operations with the existing hangar and soon build two more no later than 2009 end at the Hosur airport, which has a 7,000 feet runway capable of accepting all types of commercial aircraft. Air Works has already announced a joint venture with Air Livery Plc of the UK, as its partner on the upcoming dedicated state of the art paint hangar. Air Works’ General Aviation MRO, Groth said that it was already the largest in India with over 60% market share. Starting with the maintenance and overhaul work on a few DC-3s in the early 1950s, Air Works currently does DGCA approved maintenance on over 75 aircraft including Gulfstream, Bombardier, Dassault, Hawker, Cessna, Beech and others. It had recently announced an authorized service centre agreement with US-based Honeywell to offer MRO services for Honeywell engines TFE 731 and CFE 738 series along with Auxiliary Power Units (APUs), along with navigation and communication equipment. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:48 pm Delphi signs MoU with TNElectronic equipment firm Delphi Automotive Systems inked a pact with the Tamil Nadu government for setting up a Rs 250 crore manufacturing facility at OragadamSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:44 pm TV industry in doldrums, thanks to cine workers-producers spatThe disagreement between the cine workers and producers associations has taken its toll -- production has come to a halt and advertisers have issued a 10-day ultimatum to the channels to telecast fresh programmes if they wanted sponsors to stick with them.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:32 pm Satyam acquires Motorola software unit in MalaysiaLeading IT firm Satyam Computer Services has acquired Motorola's software development facility at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, the company said Monday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:31 pm OUTLOOK-India mentha may extend losses on muted demand - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:31 pm Dutch bank to lend $14 mn to Indian healthcare majorIndian healthcare major Advanced Medicare and Research Institute (AMRI) will get $14 million loan from Dutch financial giant Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (DEG) for capacity expansion, the company announced Monday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:30 pm Mudra Connext appoints Manas Mishra as new EVPMumbai: Manas Mishra has joined as the executive vice president of Mudra Connext, a media agency of the Mudra Group. He will take charge as the national head of Connext, overseeing its operations across 6 cities of India (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai & Kochi) and will be based out of Mumbai. Prior to this appointment he was general manager at Mediaedge:cia as its Mumbai Head. An MBA from NMIMS, Manas has over 13 years of professional experience across Communication Groups like WPP, IPG and Publicis Groupe. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:28 pm Jivox expands footprint, opens sales office in MumbaiMumbai: Spurred by a significant growth in its business, on-line video advertising services provider Jivox India opened a sales office in Mumbai. This is the company’s second sales office in the country, the other being in Delhi, a statement said here. Jivox India also announced the appointment of Vishwanath Shanbhag as its General Manager- Ad Sales. The company has its headquarters in Bangalore, which houses the core sales and marketing team as well as the development team. Jivox’s Director, Asia-Pacific Sales, Kshitiz Randhir Short, said: “Over the past year, we have seen a tremendous growth in our customer base in India. Mumbai, in particular, has seen over a 400% growth in revenue in the past quarter.” “Our opening of a sales office in Mumbai, with an experienced media professional, allows us to efficiently serve our clients,” he added. Recently, Jivox had announced that BigAdda would use Jivox video playing technology to deliver its extensive video assets to a nation—wide audience. Jivox India Managing Director Naren Nachiappan said: “Our product removes the final cost-barrier to video advertising and makes it a very cost-effective platform.” The company, which is California-headquartered, started its India operations in March through a sales and development office in Bangalore and a sales office in Delhi. It provides the only integrated service that allows an advertiser to create, publish and closely monitor and refine the performance of a video advertisement on the Internet. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:14 pm Jivox expands footprint, opens sales office in MumbaiMumbai: Spurred by a significant growth in its business, on-line video advertising services provider Jivox India opened a sales office in Mumbai. This is the company’s second sales office in the country, the other being in Delhi, a statement said here. Jivox India also announced the appointment of Vishwanath Shanbhag as its General Manager- Ad Sales. The company has its headquarters in Bangalore, which houses the core sales and marketing team as well as the development team. Jivox’s Director, Asia-Pacific Sales, Kshitiz Randhir Short, said: “Over the past year, we have seen a tremendous growth in our customer base in India. Mumbai, in particular, has seen over a 400% growth in revenue in the past quarter.” “Our opening of a sales office in Mumbai, with an experienced media professional, allows us to efficiently serve our clients,” he added. Recently, Jivox had announced that BigAdda would use Jivox video playing technology to deliver its extensive video assets to a nation—wide audience. Jivox India Managing Director Naren Nachiappan said: “Our product removes the final cost-barrier to video advertising and makes it a very cost-effective platform.” The company, which is California-headquartered, started its India operations in March through a sales and development office in Bangalore and a sales office in Delhi. It provides the only integrated service that allows an advertiser to create, publish and closely monitor and refine the performance of a video advertisement on the Internet. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:14 pm Aegon Religare launches two new term-plansMumbai: Aegon Religare Life Insurance has announced the launch of two term plans — Aegon Religare Increasing Term Plan and Aegon Religare Decreasing Term Plan. “Our new offerings are based on the premise that as lives and lifestyles change, it is necessary to continuously reassess our insurance cover and needs. The launch of our two term plans are in line with the changing needs of households over time,” Aegon Religare Life Insurance’s CEO, Rajiv Jamkhedkar, said in a press release issued here. The Aegon Religare Increasing Term Plan increases the life cover every year to grow in line with changing lifestyles and increasing incomes. The plan adds 5% of the base Sum Assured amount to the total Sum Assured every year to take care of these changing needs. AegThe on Religare Decreasing Term Plan is tailor—made for customers whose immediate liabilities in terms of loans and mortgages are likely to decline over the years. As their liabilities or principal outstanding on the loan or mortgage reduces with time, the plan reduces the total Sum Assured by 5% of the base Sum Assured amount each year, and therefore the premium amount towards the cover is low. Aegon Religare, a new entrant in the insurance industry, already has a level term plan taking the total count of term plans to three. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:06 pm Tube Investments enters electric bike segmentTube Investments of India (TI), a Rs.17.82-billion multi-product company, entered the nascent electric scooter market with its subsidiary BSA Motors launching five models here Monday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:02 pm G20 vows action on crisis, bigger voice for smaller economies!Major wealthy and emerging nations pledged Sunday "all necessary steps" to boost sagging market confidence and to give a bigger voice to developing countries in global economic affairs.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:02 pm Sensex surges over 190 points in early trade!The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex gained over 196 points and regained the 10k level in early trade on Monday on increased buying by funds, triggered by strong global cues.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:02 pm World oil prices higher after OPEC refuses to rule out more cuts!World oil prices were higher in Asian trade Monday after OPEC refused to rule out further output cuts, dealers said.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:02 pm `AIG nears approval of revised Fed plan`!The board of troubled insurer American International Group was nearing approval late on Sunday of a revised US bailout to replace a previous USD 85 billion rescue, a person familiar with the matter said.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:02 pm Asian stocks surge after China stimulus plan!Asian stocks surged on Monday, after the government announced over the weekend a USD 586 billion stimulus package aimed at countering the impact of the global economic slowdown.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:02 pm PM calls for reviewing role of international financial institutions!As the global financial crisis looks to impact economies worldwide, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for review of the role of international financial institutions to ensure regulation and early warning.Source: Zee News : Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:02 pm Equities surge, key index tops 10,000 mark againIndian equities markets opened strong Monday and steadily gained throughout the day to end in the green with a key index gaining by more than 500 points to breach the psychologically important 10,000 mark once again, thanks to the US markets ending with gains Friday and other Asian markets too showing gains Monday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:01 pm China stimulus boosts equities; Sensex ends up 5% - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:01 pm RPT-Indian rupee faces hurdles to sustain recent rally - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 11:52 am Maruti looks to A-Star to beat year-end blues - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 11:52 am Power Finance to raise Rs300-400 crore via bonds - Livemint
Source: Google News India - Business | 10 Nov 2008 | 11:51 am Reliance Infra buys back 16 lakh shares in less than 2 weeksMumbai: Reliance Infrastructure Ltd has bought back 16,00,000 equity shares of the company in less than two weeks, a statement said here. The company, a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), was earlier known as Reliance Energy Ltd. Since the commencement of the buy back on 25 March, Reliance Infrastructure has so far bought back 72,60,000 equity shares aggregating Rs711 crore. Shareholders of Reliance Infrastructure have approved buy back of equity shares of the company up to an aggregate amount of Rs2,000 crore, the release said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 11:45 am 'US govt, AIG near deal on new rescue plan'The US administration and battered insurer AIG have reached a deal for a rescue package of USD 150 billion, scrapping the original bailout plan worth USD 123 billion.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 11:44 am Govt notifies 8% export tax on iron ore finesNew Delhi: The Government has imposed an 8% ad valorem duty on the export of iron ore fines, a move expected to give respite to the mining industry, which is reeling under the pressure of lower demand and fall in prices. “In the notification, for the words and figures Rs200 per tonne, the figures and words 8% advalorem shall be substituted,” the Finance Ministry said in a release. Under the new arrangement, an exporter’s tax liability will depend on international prices, instead of the quantity sold in volume terms. On 31 October, the government had announced a fixed levy of Rs200 per tonne on export of iron ore fines, while it had retained the 15% tax on iron ore lumps. According to the notification, the central government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest, makes the following amendment in the notification dated 31 October. The government’s decision to levy a fixed charge on the shipment of a tonne of iron ore fines had met with widespread protests from the mining lobby, which had said that the tax would virtually lead to the closure of many small business houses trading in low grade ore. Commenting on the Government’s move, Federation of Indian Minerals Industries Secretary General R K Sharma said: “This is a short-term move. The Government needs to have a vision and go for a long-term solution.” Sharma added that the mineral—rich countries like Australia and Brazil do not levy export tax on raw material. Earlier, in June policy makers had levied 15% tax on iron ore exports to increase its domestic availability and ease rising input cost pressure on steel producers. At present, iron ore prices have slipped to about $70 a tonne from $150-200 a tonne in March-April, amid the global economic slowdown. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 11:37 am Andhra Bank reduces prime lending rate by 0.75%PTI Hyderabad: State-run Andhra Bank today reduced its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 0.75% to 13.25% with immediate effect. The rate-cut will benefit all PLR-related portfolios including home, education and vehicle loans, the bank said in a statement. The bank is likely to take a call on its deposit rates in the near term, it said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 11:31 am Power Finance to raise Rs300-400 crore via bondsNew Delhi: Power Finance Corp plans to raise Rs3 billion-4 billion through a bond issue in a week’s time, Chairman Satnam Singh said on Monday. “The bond issue will be with a green shoe option,” Singh told reporters. He said compared to the firm’s target of raising Rs200 billion in the current financial year, the firm has already raised Rs120 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 11:30 am Mumbai Monorail Proj to start from Dec 1: LTA M Naik, Larsen Toubro, said the Mumbai Monorail Project will start from December 1. The cost of monorail works out to Rs 2500 crore and LT\'s scope is Rs 1400 crore, he added.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Nov 2008 | 11:14 am Japan, emerging markets, banks in crisis firing lineLONDON (Reuters) - Economic gloom swept through Japan and several emerging nations on Monday, and European banks bore the scars of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 10:47 am India gold prices move up, demand slowsMUMBAI (Reuters) - India gold moved higher on Monday tracking global leads and domestic demand slowed due to higher prices keeping the buyers on the sidelines during the wedding season, traders and dealers said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 10:39 am CESC to put 20 bln rupees to boost distributionKOLKATA (Reuters) - CESC Ltd will spend 20 billion rupees in 3-5 years for strengthening its distribution network, a top official said on Monday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 10:37 am BSE Sensex provisionally ends up 6 pctBANGALORE (Reuters) – The BSE Sensex provisionally ended up 5.98 percent on Monday, joining a global stocks rally after China's massive stimulus plan raised expectations that authorities elsewhere would follow suit.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 10:07 am L&T bags Rs2,460 cr monorail project in MumbaiA consortium of engineering firm Larsen & Toubro and Malaysian company Scomi International has bagged the contract for the monorail project in Mumbai, India's first such project.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 10:06 am Goldman Sachs cuts India 2008/09 growth to 6.7 pctMUMBAI (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs on Monday cut its India growth estimate to 6.7 percent from 9 percent in the year ending March 2009 due to the knock-on effects of the global financial crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 9:56 am India woos Qatar for investment in infrastructureIndia is looking at investment opportunities in Qatar's financial centres and special economic zones (SEZs) even as it opens up its infrastructure sector for investment.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 9:51 am Goldman Sachs lowers India's growth forecastA day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India's growth may come down "somewhat" this fiscal, Goldman Sachs lowered its forecast to 6.7 percent from the earlier 7.5 percent.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 9:51 am Bollywood feels meltdown crunch, begins cost-cuttingDirector Pooja Bhatt has been asked by T-Series CEO Bhushan Kumar to reduce the budget of new film "Kajra Re".Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 9:50 am HSBC's Q3 profits up on year, takes $4.9 bln hitLONDON (Reuters) - Europe's biggest bank HSBC Holdings said its profit in the third quarter was ahead of a year earlier as growth in Asia helped offset almost $5 billion in bad debts on U.S. home loans and asset writedowns.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 9:33 am First Lunar orbit reduction manoeuvre successfulPTI Bangalore: The first orbit reduction manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 has been successfully completed, taking the spacecraft as near as 200 km from the moon, according to space agency ISRO. As part of the manoeuvre which began at 20:09 IST yesterday, the 440 newton liquid engine of the spacecraft was fired for about 57 seconds, a statement by Indian Space Research Organisation said. With this, the nearest point of Chandrayaan-1’s orbit (periselene) from the moon’s surface was reduced from 504 km to 200 km while the farthest point (aposelene) remained unchanged at 7,502 km, a release said. In this orbit, Chandrayaan-1 takes about 10 and half hours to circle the moon once. The lunar orbit insertion manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 was successfully performed on November 8, and the spacecraft entered the orbit around the moon with a periselene of 504 km and an aposelene of 7,502 kms. The health as well as the orbit of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft is being closely monitored from the spacecraft control centre of ISRO telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with crucial support from the Indian Deep Space Network antennas at Byalalu. The spacecraft performance is normal. Further orbit reduction manoeuvres are scheduled in the coming days to take Chandrayaan-1 to its final operational orbit of 100 kms height from the lunar surface. After this, the moon impact probe, one of the eleven scientific instruments (payload) of Chandrayaan-I, will be released to hit the moon’s surface, the release said. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 9:25 am ONGC says conditions unmet in $2.6 bln Imperial bidLONDON (Reuters) - ONGC said regulatory conditions on its $2.6 billion bid for Russia-focused oil explorer Imperial Energy had not been met, despite a Russian regulator approving the deal, knocking 14 percent off Imperial's shares.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 8:55 am Low raw material prices may be boon for textilesEven as the textile industry has listed a litany of woes demanding relief measures to get over the double whammy of decline in demand and the looming menace of largescale layoffs, the domestic industry might take due advantage of the distinct decline in raw material prices.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Nov 2008 | 8:46 am General insurers get IRDA nod to design customised policiesThe insurance regulator has finally given a nod to general insureres to design their own products with effect from January 1, 2009. After the first and second phases of detarification in January 2007 and January 2008 respectively, the last phase of relaxing the policy wordings was to take place in April this year.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Nov 2008 | 8:39 am More companies join photovoltaic bandwagonTough economic conditions notwithstanding, the photovoltaic (PV) juggernaut continues to roll.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Nov 2008 | 8:39 am 3G on fast track: Ministries work out compromise formulaWith just two months left for 3G auction, the Ministry of Communication and the Defence Ministry are putting together a plan of action for getting the spectrum vacated by the armed forces in a phased manner.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 10 Nov 2008 | 8:36 am Update: Sensex up 400 pts, maintains 10k levelMumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex gained 445 points at 1:30pm on Monday on aggressive buying by funds, triggered by firming global trend. The 30-share barometer moved up by 445.48 points at 10,409.77 following a significant rise in heavy-weight stocks. The wide-based National Stock Exchange’s Nifty also rose by 137.75 points at 3,110.75. The rally was backed by stocks of metal, capital goods and oil and gas segments following reports of China’s massive economic stimulus package of $586 billion in its biggest move to stop the global financial crisis from hitting the world’s fourth-largest economy. A firming trend in other Asian stock markets led by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which went up by 5.5% and Japan’s Nikkei, which gained 5.20%, also influenced trading. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 8:31 am Fiscal gap a concern for India - FitchMUMBAI (Reuters) - India's large foreign exchange reserves are helping keep its ratings outlook from being downgraded, but a widening fiscal deficit and outflows from its stock market are warning signs, Fitch Ratings said on Monday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 8:04 am India's car sales drop in October, outlook gloomyNEW DELHI (Reuters) - Car sales in India fell for the third time in four months in October, dropping an annual 6.6 percent with festival demand unable to cheer a market struggling with high borrowing costs and a slowing economy, an industry body said on Monday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 7:24 am L&T consortium wins Mumbai monorail orderMUMBAI (Reuters) - Construction and engineering firm Larsen & Toubro Ltd said on Monday that a consortium with Malaysia's Scomi Engineering Bhd had won an order worth 24.60 billion rupees ($520 million).Source: Reuters: Money News | 10 Nov 2008 | 7:16 am L&T gets monorail order worth Rs2,460 crMumbai: Engineering company Larsen and Toubro (L&T) on Mondat said it has received an order worth Rs2,460 crore from the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority for implementing monorail system in the city. The company has bagged the order along with Malaysian Scomi Engineering Bhd, L&T said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Monorail is a system where cars move on a single beam in an elevated corridor. Scomi Engineering is monorail manufacturer, which offers urban transportation solutions by providing the latest monorail electro-mechanical systems and rolling stock, the filing said. The project involves designing, construction, testing, installation and commissioning. The project is to be completed in a tight schedule of 30 months, it added. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 7:08 am China stimulus plan boosts Asian stocksHong Kong: Asian stocks and commodity prices climbed on Monday after China unveiled a nearly $600 billion economic stimulus plan, one of many measures countries are undertaking to limit the economic fallout from the financial crisis. Japanese government bonds and US Treasuries retreated as funds flowed back into riskier assets on hopes for stimulus measures by other major economies, with US President-elect Barack Obama pushing for urgent passage of more fiscal spending in the world’s largest economy. The yen fell as investors embraced the high-yielding Australian dollar after China’s announcement and as financial officials from the Group of 20 economic powers, which include major developing countries, ironed out ways to stimulate growth at a weekend meeting. The damage inflicted by the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression was highlighted late last week by data showing the US jobless rate hitting a 14-year high just as General Motors and Ford Motor Co. said they were fast burning through cash for operations. Japan’s Nikkei share average rose 5.5% in early trade, getting a boost from the gains on Wall Street late last week on some bargain hunting among investors. The market shrugged off data earlier on Monday showing Japan machinery orders matched the biggest quarterly drop on record in the July-to-September period, focusing instead on the hefty Chinese spending measures targeting infrastructure. The Shanghai Composite index jumped 5.3%, helping lift the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan 3.5 percent. South Korea’s KOSPI index pushed up 1.5% after initially struggling to hold gains due to the drag of Hyundai Motor, which lost 4.4%. But Taiwan’s benchmark TAIEX fell, struggling even after the country’s central bank delivered a surprise interest rate cut at the weekend, the fourth reduction in a little more than a month to shield the export-dependent economy. Economists at Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients that Obama’s sweeping election last week meant that another US stimulus package would top its initial estimate of $200 billion and would involve more spending over a longer timeframe. The dollar gained 0.9% to 99.10 yen holding off a 13-year low of 90.87 yen struck on trading platform EBS last month during the height of the sell-off in stocks, commodities and higher-yielding currencies. Financial markets have gradually started to settle down from the sharp October sell-off when many investors rushed to raise cash, hedge funds confronted big redemptions and portfolio managers grappled with the deteriorating economic outlook. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 3:24 am Oil up over 4%, tops $64 on China stimulusPerth: Oil leapt more than $3 to over $64 a barrel on Monday, fuelled by top exporter Saudi Arabia’s plans to cut December supplies to Asia, a weaker dollar and hopes that global economies’ plans to lift growth could avert recession. Saudi Arabia has told refiners in Asia it would cut December supplies by 5%, providing the most visible evidence yet that it is adhering to Opec’s agreement last month to reduce output. US light crude for December delivery rose $2.96, or 4.55%, to $64.00 a barrel, after rising as much as $3.26. London Brent crude rose $1.85 to $59.20. “The proposals made at the G20 meeting and the relief package out of China really helped the markets this morning,” said Mark Pervan, a senior commodities analyst at the Australia & New Zealand Bank. At the G20 group’s annual meet in Brazil, finance ministers and central bank governors representing 90% of the world’s economy vowed to take all necessary measures to get financial markets back on their feet and counter the credit crisis. China went a step further and launched a huge stimulus plan on Sunday worth nearly $600 billion, kicking off what could be a round of big spending or interest rate cuts by leading economies to stave off a recession in many countries China’s solid government spending package to boost domestic demand is “good news” that will help the global economy ride out the financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director said. The US currency weakened broadly after data on Friday showed the US economy shed more jobs than expected in October. But the yen fell against the dollar and euro on Monday as Asian shares were lifted by strong Wall Street gains and by China’s launch of its huge stimulus plan. Oil lost nearly 10% last week and dipped below $60 the previous week, its lowest since March 2007, after a string of dismal economic data from the United States sharpened fears of a protracted global recession and growing US energy stockpiles underscored falling demand in the world’s top energy consumer. Oil’s tumble from July highs has already spurred Opec to rein in supply from 1 November, and some members of the cartel are talking of reducing production further. Opec will cut oil output again if the trend towards lower prices and slowing demand growth are unchanged when the group meets in December, Iran’s Opec Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi told Reuters on Sunday, adding to comments by Venezuela’s oil minister Rafael Ramirez last week that Opec should act again to reduce output by at least 1 million barrels per day (bpd). Iran’s Khatibi added that the credit crisis and economic slowdown could shave as much as 3 million bpd from global crude demand. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 3:13 am ‘Insiders’ take advantage of low stock pricesBL Research Bureau If the frantic selling by foreign institutional investors in October has left you worried about how much lower valuations will go, here is a quantum of solace, for the month also saw many ‘insiders’ step in to buySource: Business Line - Home Page | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am CAT on Nov 16; IIMs set to be richer by Rs 23 croreAhmedabad, Nov. 9 Despite an unfolding global economic crisis, uncertainties about the pay-packets to be offered in the next placement season and the RC Bhargava Committee recommending a regulator to curtail their ‘autonomy’, atSource: Business Line - Home Page | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Staying calm during the stormThe current ongoing financial turmoil in the US and Europe has, no doubt, had its repercussions in Asia. What is surprising is the relative calm which Asia has displayed in responding to the financial crisis. It does not mean any silent gloatingSource: Business Line - Home Page | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Micro finance institutions ride on mobile boomIn an effort to increase the reach of micro-financing into rural India, microfinance institutions (MFIs) are now using mobile phone technologies to make it more convenient and secure for the users. The latest to enter this segment is CashporSource: Business Line - Home Page | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Oil Ministry reworking ‘drilling holiday’ proposalOil and gas companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and ONGC, which have been seeking moratorium to meet their drilling commitments arising due to global rig shortage, will have to wait longer.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideSource: Business Line - Home Page | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Satyam issues pink slips to 200 employeesHyderabad, Nov. 9 Satyam Computer Services, the fourth largest IT solutions and service provider, has reportedly given pink slips to 200 employees in various centres, a few weeks after the company announced its second quarterSource: Business Line - Home Page | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am More companies join photovoltaic bandwagonNew Delhi, Nov. 9 Tough economic conditions notwithstanding, the photovoltaic (PV) juggernaut continues to roll.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Oriental Bank (Rs 148.50): BuyWe recommend a buy in Oriental Bank of Commerce from a short-term horizon. It is clearly apparent from the charts of Oriental Bank of Commerce that following an intermediate downtrend from January peak of Rs 321, it found support at the early JulySource: Business Line - Home Page | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Simbhaoli, Modi Sugar start cane crushingNew Delhi, Nov. 9 Even as the deadlock with the State Government over cane pricing continues, a couple of sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh have started crushing operations for the current 2008-09 seasonSource: Business Line - Home Page | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Loan defaults dog Bindra SrAS Bindra, the father of ace shooter and Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, has defaulted to banks and financial institutions. The money claimed from Bindra is over Rs 75 crore.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 9 Nov 2008 | 7:04 pm Thousands without jobs in carpet export hubThree carpets, wet with chemical-laced water, could be seen on the large, barren field in Sarroi village of Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh, soaking the afternoon sunlight.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 9 Nov 2008 | 7:03 pm FIPB rejects Tata Investment plan for zero coupon bondsThe Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has rejected a proposal by Tata Investment Corporation (TIC) to issue zero coupon convertible bonds (ZCCBs) with detachable warrants to itsSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 9 Nov 2008 | 7:03 pm Firms defer advance tax paymentsInterest charged by govt lower than bank rates.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 9 Nov 2008 | 7:02 pm How representative are our representatives?New Delhi: Omar Abdullah, a politician belonging to the National Conference, represents the Srinagar constituency in the Lok Sabha. The constituency, in Jammu and Kashmir, has around one million voters, of which some 180,000 voted in the last elections. Abdullah won the seat with 98,422 votes, which is about 50% of the votes cast. But he represents less than 10% of the total electorate in his constituency. Abdullah isn’t unique. He is representative of a phenomenon brought about by low voter turnout and the fragmentation of the vote, itself the result of the emergence of regional, even local, parties. In 1951, 53 registered parties contested elections to the first Lok Sabha. In 2004, 230 parties contested the elections. Also See Shrinking Share (Graphic) The situation is worse in the states, according to a study by the Centre for Media Studies, or CMS, a New Delhi-based research firm. The 403-member state assembly of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, has just 12 representatives who won at least 50% of the vote in their constituencies. And 18 representatives in the assembly won less than 30% of the vote. The study also found that at least eight of the country’s biggest states have governments that won less than 40% of the popular vote. “The representative character of elected representatives has been declining consistently. Many states have governments that could not even bag at least 30% of the total votes polled,” said N. Bhaskar Rao, chairman of CMS. “Not even half the Lok Sabha members won with 50% of polled votes, which means they represent hardly 30% of the electorate in their constituency or even less, depending on the turnout.”  The situation is unlikely to change in the coming elections to key states and the Lok Sabha polls scheduled for 2009. According to the Election Commission, the constitutional body that oversees elections, at least 500 new parties have been registered since 2004. “The increase in the number of regional players and voters’ interest in elections, which is different from place to place, are the reasons (for the unrepresentative nature of representation),” said V. Kishore Chandra Deo, a Lok Sabha representative belonging to the Congress party. The chief whip of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Madhusudan Mistry, too, blames increasing choice and lack of voter interest. The emergence of regional and local parties representing the interests of a state or even a particular caste or community within it have changed the mathematics of representation, according to Seshadri Chari, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main national opposition party. “Earlier, Dalits and Muslims used to vote for the Congress. Later, it (this vote) was shared by the BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) and the Samajwadi Party. What was the Congress vote is (now) fragmented into four or five,” Chari said. Some countries get around this problem by mandating that winning representatives have to win in excess of 50% of the vote. That may not work in India, said Deo. “Can we afford a re-election if the candidate has not won 50% plus one. How many elections we will have to declare null and void?” Deo said the real issue was the complete lack of interest in voting among urban areas and among “the affluent class”. Rao added that such people were part of a phenomenon he described as “drawing room democracy”, where the involvement of voters was restricted to opinion polls in papers and television channels. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, a BJP leader who was elected for a third term in 2007 in an election that saw a turnout of 59.77%, has suggested that voting be made compulsory. Chari agrees. “Voting can be made mandatory. But it should not appear to be coercive.” ******* Popular electoral systems First past the post The winning candidate is the one who gets more votes than any other candidate, even if this is not an absolute majority. Countries that use this system include India, Bangladesh, Canada, the UK and the US. Parallel systems The choices expressed by voters are used to elect representatives through two different systems—the list proportional representative system and plurality system—but where no account is taken of the seats won in the first system in calculating the results in the second system. Under a list proportional representation system, each party presents a list of candidates for a multi-member electoral district, the voters vote for a party, and parties receive seats in proportion to their overall share of the vote. Under the plurality system, a second election is held if no candidate or party achieves a given level of votes, typically, an absolute majority (50% plus one), in the first round. Countries that use this system include Pakistan, Japan and Russia. Block vote Electors have as many votes as there are candidates. The candidates with the highest vote totals win the seats. Countries using this system include Kuwait and Mauritius. Single transferable vote The single transferable vote is a preferential system in which the voter has one vote in a multi-member district and candidates who surpass a specified quota of “first preference” votes are immediately elected. In successive counts, votes are redistributed from least successful candidates, who are eliminated, and from successful candidates in excess of what they need to get elected, until a sufficient number of candidates are elected. Voters normally vote for candidates rather than political parties, although a party-list option is possible. Countries that use this system include Ireland and Malta. Two-round system The two-round system is a plurality/majority system in which a second election is held if no candidate or party achieves a given level of votes, most commonly an absolute majority (50% plus one), in the first election round. Countries that use this system include France, Cuba and Iran. Source: Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Sweden Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 6:32 pm China unveils $586 bn plan; joint effort urgedMadrid: Emerging economies will take new measures to tackle the global economic slowdown, finance ministers at a meeting of the Group of 20 nations in Sao Paulo said, as China unveiled a $586 billion package aimed at spurring growth in the world’s fourth largest economy. Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so-called Bric nations, plan coordinated measures to increase trade and capital flows between their economies, Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin said in an interview. Beijing on Sunday announced a $586 billion, or Rs28 trillion, stimulus plan to boost growth in the world’s fastest growing major economy. The funds, equivalent to almost one-fifth of China’s $3.3 trillion gross domestic product last year, will be used by the end of 2010, the Beijing-based state council said on its website. China will adopt a “pro-active fiscal policy” and pursue a “moderately loose” monetary policy, it said. The package, 100 billion yuan ($14.65 billion) spending of which is earmarked this quarter, will go towards low-rent housing, infrastructure in rural areas, as well as roads, railways and airports, the state council said. The government will also allow tax deductions for purchases of fixed assets such as machinery to stimulate investment, a move that will reduce companies’ costs by an estimated 120 billion yuan. Grain purchase prices and subsidies for farmers will be raised, as will allowances for low-income urban households. The government also scrapped loan quotas to help boost lending to small businesses. The stimulus plan may boost China’s economic growth by 2 percentage points next year, said Xing Ziqiang, an economist at China International Capital Corp. in Beijing. UBS AG and Credit Suisse AG before Sunday’s announcement forecast expansion of no more than 7.5% for next year, which would be the slowest in nearly two decades. India, Russia and Brazil have already injected funds into commercial banks and South Korea last week unveiled a 14 trillion won ($10.8 billion) fiscal stimulus plan. “This is a global crisis and demands global solutions,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told delegates on Saturday. “The participation of the developing world is essential.” Finance ministers and central bankers from the G-20 are laying the groundwork for a 15 November heads-of-state summit in Washington. The ministers’ meeting ends on Sunday. The G-20 is ready to act “urgently” to bolster growth as the world’s leading industrialized economies seek to battle the threat of recession, a draft of a statement to be released later on Sunday in Sao Paulo says. “We stand ready to urgently take forward work in action agreed by our leaders to restore and maintain financial stability and support global growth,” the group said in the draft statement seen by Bloomberg News. “We welcome the bold and decisive measures taken in a number of countries to stabilize financial markets and restore the flow of credit.” The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is forecasting that the US, Japan, the euro region and the UK economies will all contract next year in their first simultaneous recession since World War II. With slower growth damping inflationary pressures, central banks are likely to cut borrowing costs further, Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty said. Canada’s central bank joined the US Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England in an unprecedented coordinated interest rate cut on 8 October after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sent credit markets into seizure. The Reserve Bank of India on 1 November lowered its main interest rate for the second time in two weeks while China cut its key interest rate for the third time in two months on 29 October. Calls from IMF and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown for coordinated fiscal stimulus will probably fail to win backing from the group because some countries are concerned about increasing public spending, Flaherty said. “Ideally that would be so—it’s just not likely to happen,” Flaherty said. “Some countries feel that they are more constrained than others.” China’s willingness to stimulate its economy may play an important role in supporting world growth, Flaherty said. China accounted for 27% of global economic growth last year, more than any other nation, the International Monetary Fund said in a April report. Josh Goodman, Shamim Adam, Jens Gould, Svenja O’Donnell, Halia Pavliva, Christian Vits, Ye Xie, Meera Louis in Sao Paulo and Li Yanping in Beijing contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 6:30 pm China unveils $586 bn plan; joint effort urgedMadrid: Emerging economies will take new measures to tackle the global economic slowdown, finance ministers at a meeting of the Group of 20 nations in Sao Paulo said, as China unveiled a $586 billion package aimed at spurring growth in the world’s fourth largest economy. Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so-called Bric nations, plan coordinated measures to increase trade and capital flows between their economies, Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin said in an interview. Beijing on Sunday announced a $586 billion, or Rs28 trillion, stimulus plan to boost growth in the world’s fastest growing major economy. The funds, equivalent to almost one-fifth of China’s $3.3 trillion gross domestic product last year, will be used by the end of 2010, the Beijing-based state council said on its website. China will adopt a “pro-active fiscal policy” and pursue a “moderately loose” monetary policy, it said. The package, 100 billion yuan ($14.65 billion) spending of which is earmarked this quarter, will go towards low-rent housing, infrastructure in rural areas, as well as roads, railways and airports, the state council said. The government will also allow tax deductions for purchases of fixed assets such as machinery to stimulate investment, a move that will reduce companies’ costs by an estimated 120 billion yuan. Grain purchase prices and subsidies for farmers will be raised, as will allowances for low-income urban households. The government also scrapped loan quotas to help boost lending to small businesses. The stimulus plan may boost China’s economic growth by 2 percentage points next year, said Xing Ziqiang, an economist at China International Capital Corp. in Beijing. UBS AG and Credit Suisse AG before Sunday’s announcement forecast expansion of no more than 7.5% for next year, which would be the slowest in nearly two decades. India, Russia and Brazil have already injected funds into commercial banks and South Korea last week unveiled a 14 trillion won ($10.8 billion) fiscal stimulus plan. “This is a global crisis and demands global solutions,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told delegates on Saturday. “The participation of the developing world is essential.” Finance ministers and central bankers from the G-20 are laying the groundwork for a 15 November heads-of-state summit in Washington. The ministers’ meeting ends on Sunday. The G-20 is ready to act “urgently” to bolster growth as the world’s leading industrialized economies seek to battle the threat of recession, a draft of a statement to be released later on Sunday in Sao Paulo says. “We stand ready to urgently take forward work in action agreed by our leaders to restore and maintain financial stability and support global growth,” the group said in the draft statement seen by Bloomberg News. “We welcome the bold and decisive measures taken in a number of countries to stabilize financial markets and restore the flow of credit.” The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is forecasting that the US, Japan, the euro region and the UK economies will all contract next year in their first simultaneous recession since World War II. With slower growth damping inflationary pressures, central banks are likely to cut borrowing costs further, Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty said. Canada’s central bank joined the US Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England in an unprecedented coordinated interest rate cut on 8 October after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sent credit markets into seizure. The Reserve Bank of India on 1 November lowered its main interest rate for the second time in two weeks while China cut its key interest rate for the third time in two months on 29 October. Calls from IMF and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown for coordinated fiscal stimulus will probably fail to win backing from the group because some countries are concerned about increasing public spending, Flaherty said. “Ideally that would be so—it’s just not likely to happen,” Flaherty said. “Some countries feel that they are more constrained than others.” China’s willingness to stimulate its economy may play an important role in supporting world growth, Flaherty said. China accounted for 27% of global economic growth last year, more than any other nation, the International Monetary Fund said in a April report. Josh Goodman, Shamim Adam, Jens Gould, Svenja O’Donnell, Halia Pavliva, Christian Vits, Ye Xie, Meera Louis in Sao Paulo and Li Yanping in Beijing contributed to this story. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 6:30 pm RIL going slow on Haryana SEZs planNew Delhi: The plans of Reliance Industries Ltd, or RIL, India’s biggest private sector company by market capitalization, to set up special economic zones, or SEZs, at Jhajjar and Gurgaon in Haryana may slow due to the global financial meltdown and a fall in demand for such projects. An executive at RIL’s external public relations agency, however, said that work on the SEZs had not begun. A senior RIL executive said the project was going slow and blamed the current business environment, which he described as “bad in all areas”. “At this moment, we have been told not to spend money. Our capital expenditure on the sites have been stopped. The meeting to decide what to do next will happen next week in Mumbai,” said the executive, who didn’t want to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “However, no formal directions have been issued.” The SEZ plans are being executed by Reliance Haryana SEZ Ltd, a joint venture between Reliance Ventures Ltd, a subsidiary of RIL, and the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corp. Ltd, or HSIIDC, the state’s industrial development agency. While Reliance holds a 90% stake in the SEZ arm, the rest is with HSIIDC. Also See Difficult Times (PDF) Mint had reported in July that Reliance Haryana SEZ’s land acquisition plans were facing hurdles, with land owners in the area demanding around three times the amount the company is willing to pay because land prices have increased since late 2006, when it made its offer. The company had acquired 9,500 acres of a targeted 25,000 acres in July. A spokesman representing RIL did not specifically answer questions on the latest update on land acquisition or the deadline for the completion of the project. “With regards to Jhajjar SEZ, we have not begun work, hence there is no question of putting the work on hold,” Manoj Warrier, an executive with Neucom Consulting, a public relations agency working for RIL, wrote in an email. SEZs are industrial enclaves that come with fiscal and other benefits. Companies wishing to set them up have to take initial approval from the government, acquire the land, and then have the SEZ “notified”, which means the units based there are eligible for the fiscal benefits. RIL had originally planned one SEZ at Jhajjar, but after the government capped the size of such zones at 12,500 acres, the company decided to create two adjacent SEZs. The Haryana SEZs are expected to require an investment of Rs25,000 crore and have provisions for a cargo airport and a 2,000MW power plant. “A significant profit for the organization (RIL) is from polymers for which the rates have gone down. The first priority is for traditional business and SEZs are low on priority. Even if we put up the SEZ infrastructure, where is the demand for it from the consumers?” the RIL executive asked. The company has a current polymer production capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per annum of polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride. The outlook for revenues from such products, however, is uncertain, as new polymer capacity comes on stream in West Asia amid a slowdown in global economic growth. RIL posted the smallest profit increase in at least 10 quarters as it earned less from processing crude oil into fuels, although revenue jumped 40% to Rs44,790 crore in the quarter ended 30 September. Net profit for the quarter rose by a modest 7.42% from a year ago to Rs4,122 crore. A Mumbai brokerage recently reduced the profits it expected from RIL’s SEZ projects. In a late-September report, explaining a reduction in the target price set for the share price of the company to Rs2,540 each from the earlier Rs2,780, Enam Securities Pvt. Ltd analysts Ballabh Modani and Parikshit Shah wrote, “The decline is mainly due to a cut in our SEZ valuation from Rs157/share to Rs30/share due to lack of clarity.” The report, published on 22 September when the share closed at Rs2,039.10 each, was written before a steep fall in Indian stock markets. The RIL stock on Friday closed at Rs1,220.75, 40.13% lower from the 22 September price, a period during which the Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark index dropped 28.8%. Explaining the probable reasons for RIL going slow on its SEZs, an analyst at a Mumbai-based domestic brokerage firm, who also did not wish to be named, said gestation periods in the business are long “and so generating revenues from them also takes a long time”. Similarly, a New Delhi-based analyst at an accounting and consulting firm, who asked he or his employer not be named because of business considerations, said, “There is a slowdown in demand from the real estate and the industrial sectors. On the other hand, this being an election year, land acquisition will also be a problem.” Shabana Hussain contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 6:29 pm Audio is a very unforgiving medium, says Kamla BhattNew Delhi: When she was a student in class VIII, Kamla Bhatt visited a film set in Madras (now Chennai) with her father, a producer of Telugu and Tamil movies for the first time.  On air: ‘Life, people and ideas’ is freelance journalist and radio host Kamla Bhatt’s short answer to what her show is about. The description is the single strand connecting her eclectic interests. Nearly three decades later, those early lessons still play out in Bhatt’s life as the one-person team behind The Kamla Show, described as the Internet’s most-popular India-focused radio show. Starting this week, Mint partners Bhatt to start a series of online radio interviews with entrepreneurs and thinkers who have, or are, defining the Internet business. “Life, people and ideas,” is Bhatt’s short answer to what her show is about. The description is the single strand connecting her eclectic interests—from technology to dotcom era start-ups to films and Bollywood. Guests on The Kamla Show, whose episodes can be downloaded individually from the website, include not just the heads of technology companies—Wipro Ltd’s Azim Premji or Arun Sarin, former chief executive of Vodafone Group Plc., for instance—but a range of people from different walks such as percussionist Sivamani, film-maker Shyam Benegal and writer Pico Iyer. One of Bhatt’s first interviewees, Arun Jaura, group chief technology officer of Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, calls Bhatt a “crisp” conversationalist. “She was pretty direct in her questions and was well-versed in the subject...obviously well-prepared,” he says, recalling that she probed deep into environment-friendly technologies in the automobiles business. “She was keen to know how I would bridge the gap between the West and India.” Bhatt interviewed Jaura a few months after he relocated to India following a near-10-year stint in the US with Ford Motor Co. After a master’s in philosophy in international studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in the late 1980s, Bhatt moved to Silicon Valley, where she worked for nearly a decade. “In a way, I worked two jobs there,“ says Bhatt in a phone interview. In her day job, she worked in sales at tech companies in Silicon Valley. In the evenings, she donned her journalist mask, and pursued a media career which, according to her, “really started with the dotcom era.” “I could document first-hand what was happening [during the dotcom boom], and I got a real taste for doing feature based stories—I encountered interesting people, start-up companies—and a lot of Indians were central in this era,” Bhatt says. She remembers an old joke venture capitalists used to ask start-ups: Where is the Indian in your team? Bhatt’s first show began from Mumbai in 2005 when she and her husband moved to India after her brother died in a car crash. The show, News About India mixed a daily news capsule with occasional long-form interviews. In the same year, she introduced another, called Talk News India. A year later, she renamed it The Kamla Bhatt Show, and moved the format almost entirely to interviews. “Initially, it was a challenge for me to see if I could do this every day, but as I went on, I found the magazine format enjoyable,” she says. The show has been syndicated to Podtech, which hosts interviews that can be downloaded to a personal audio player such as the iPod. A typical show, says Bhatt, takes anywhere between a day to a week to complete, right from identifying a person to interview (“We maintain a running list of potential candidates”), to background work and research, warm up interviews (“Some people have a couple of hours, so we can set it up properly”), the actual recording and post-production. She calls herself obsessive and says she spends 5-6 times in editing and post production as if takes for her to conduct an interview; “audio is a very unforgiving medium.” Still, the interviews themselves are minimally edited, and mostly left as is. “The focus of my show is really on conversation,” she says. “For me, it always comes back to ‘life, people and ideas’—telling interesting stories, of innovation, inspiration and motivation.” Mint starts its online radio initiative, available at www.livemint.com/radio, on Monday with an interview of Yogen Dalal, the co-author of the TCP specification, by Kamla Bhatt. Her interviews with Mozilla Corp. chairperson Mitchell Baker and Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, as also other personalities, follow in the coming weeks. Also starting on Monday are two other programmes: The Expat Show, a how-to radio capsule for expatriates moving to India, and Playcast, an audio blog focussed on the gadget universe. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 6:05 pm A challenging time for Indian bankersThis might sound like perverse logic but the fact is, Indian bankers have never had it so good.  Till three months ago, about 80% of the borrowers were accessing money from banks at a rate below their prime lending rate (PLR), at which banks are supposed to lend to their prime customers. Today, only small farm loans and export credit are disbursed at less-than-prime rates (if the bankers are willing to give loans to them) and about 80% of the borrowers are raising money at much above PLR. Even prime borrowers are finding it difficult to get money at prime rates. “We are making money with both hands. Till recently, the firms used to bargain hard to get cheap money. Now, we are dictating terms,” the chief of a large bank told me last week. Also Read Tamal Bandyopadhyay’s earlier columns His jubilation is understandable, but if all bankers get carried away by greed, they may end up digging their own grave as higher interest rates dent borrowers’ capability to repay loans. So, banks will accumulate stressed assets. On the other hand, if the bankers listen to finance minister P. Chidambaram and start giving money to every borrower and every business segment in trouble, they will mis-price the risk. Except for two banks—Allahabad Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd—most of the listed banks have announced handsome growth in their net profits in the July-September quarter. That’s good news. But the bad news is their non-performing or stressed assets have started growing and the deterioration in quality of assets will intensify with economic slowdown and rise in borrowing cost for consumers. A loan turns non-performing when a borrower fails to pay the interest and principal for 90 days, and banks need to provide for such loans. The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of ICICI Bank Ltd, India’s largest private sector lender, rose from Rs9,501 crore in September, from Rs5,932 crore a year ago. For HDFC Bank Ltd, the second largest private bank, gross NPAs have at least doubled, although on a smaller base—from Rs768 crore to Rs1,676 crore. Not too many banks, however, have shown much growth in their net NPAs because they have made hefty provisions to cover such assets. ICICI Bank’s net NPA in September went up to 1.91% of its loans, from 1.43% a year ago. For HDFC Bank, it was 0.60% against 0.40%, and for state-run Indian Overseas Bank, 1.44% against 0.35%. By any yardstick, the NPA growth is not alarming yet but things can get worse as banks will not be able to make large provisions if their profitability comes under pressure. Besides, when credit growth slows, stressed assets as a percentage of loans will automatically go up. Strains are already visible in certain sectors such as airline, real estate and non-banking finance companies. Small and medium businesses are also under considerable stress. They are asking for more working capital from banks not because they want to hoard money when liquidity is tight, but because their inventories are piling up. And, there will be trouble with home loan borrowers and credit card holders. Some of the credit card holders in big cities who had never used their cards to draw cash are now doing that. Typically, the cash withdrawal limit is about 80% of the overall spend limit of a credit card. Consumers are using their credit card to generate cash and meet certain expenses and since most of the them hold more than one credit card with different billing cycles, they are drawing cash through one card and paying it off by using another and taking the credit forward with yet another. This chain will continue for the next few months before they default on repayment. This will intensify as many professionals are seeing their take-home pay packets shrinking as the variable component of their salary is drastically coming down with the business downturn. As a result, some are finding it difficult to meet financial commitments such as equated monthly instalments (EMIs) for auto, mortgages and other personal loans, and using their credit cards to pay. In certain segments such as brokerages, real estate firms and non-banking finance companies, retrenchments have started in a small way. This will intensify the pressure. Banks’ mortgage portfolios, too, are under strain. With interest rates rising by one-third in past few months, in some cases, the EMI of a home loan is not even covering the interest payment. Typically, at the initial stage, EMIs cover mainly interest and a bit of principal and gradually the interest component goes down. Banks are restructuring EMIs as otherwise the length of home loans will become too long. With realty prices coming down sharply, even in case of a default, banks will not be able to recover their money by selling the flats. So, they have a tough time ahead. If they increase the rates further (they can always do that despite a cut in their PLR), borrowers will be under severe stress and defaults will rise. And if money is sold cheap, beside hurting their profits, it won’t justify the risk they are taking by exposing themselves to borrowers who can go bust. Indian banks have not faced such a challenging time before. Tamal Bandyopadhyay keeps a close eye on all things banking from his perch as the Mumbai bureau chief of Mint. Please email comments to bankerstrust@livemint.com. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 5:56 pm Emami offers Parikhs Zandu board positionsKolkata: Having secured 70.34% stake in, and management control of, Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd, Emami Ltd has invited members of the Parikh family, who ran Zandu till now, to join its restructured board as independent directors. Personal-care products maker Emami wrested control of herbal health care firm Zandu last month after the Parikhs sold their 22.8% stake in it, and a public offer to buy 20% more was fully subscribed, largely because of the support of the extended Parikh family. Members of the Parikh family who are currently on Zandu’s board—Girish Parikh, managing director, and D.M. Parikh, executive director—are expected to resign in a couple of months. Zandu’s new board is likely to be headed by Emami’s co-chairman, R.S. Goenka, according to Aditya Agarwal, a director of the Kolkata-based Emami. Zandu is currently headed by Y.P. Trivedi, a parliamentarian and former director of Reliance Industries Ltd, who is non-executive chairman on its board. “They have run the company for 98 years, and have a wealth of experience that we’d like them to share with us,” said Agarwal. “Also, we appreciate the fact that having founded the company and managed it for so long, they must be emotionally attached to it.” It isn’t immediately known if the Parikhs would accept Emami’s offer. Calls made to Girish Parikh were not answered. People who led the hostile takeover battle for Emami—chairman R.S. Agarwal and his son Harshvardhan—are currently in Mumbai, taking stock of things at Zandu. According to Aditya Agarwal, the change in management will take two to three months. The battle for control of Zandu started in May when Emami bought some 24% stake from the Vaidya family, the principal founders of the herbal health care company, and launched an unsolicited bid for 20% more of its shares and management control. Emami, which had priced its public offer at Rs7,315 a share, raised its bid to Rs16,500. That is the price at which the Parikh family eventually sold out its stake after opposing the takeover bid for at least four months. The Vaidyas had sold their 24% stake in May for Rs6,900 a share. According to Aditya Agarwal, Emami paid around Rs700 crore for its stake in Zandu, valuing the company at some Rs1,000 crore. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 5:54 pm EA scouting for outsourcing firms in IndiaHyderabad: The world’s largest game developer, Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), is scouting for Indian partners to outsource game development and reduce costs. Head of Los Angeles-based EA’s worldwide outsourcing operations, Mark Van Ryswyk, said his “company held a series of discussions with Indian game developers specializing in PC and console games to find a suitable partner with right skills.” Van Ryswyk was in India to attend industry event Nasscom Animation and Gaming India 2008, held here last week. Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) is a lobby group. “So far, we haven’t identified any development studio that fits our requirements,” Van Ryswyk said. EA was open to “investing in the right partner to expand their skills portfolio” to match its development requirements, he said. Despite strong revenue growth of 40% to $894 million in the quarter to September, from $640 million in the year-ago quarter, EA reported net loss of $310 million, compared with $195 million last year. After its second quarter results in October, EA announced a cost cutting plan that includes eliminating some 6% of the company’s workforce, which was 9,000 on 31 March. The plan is expected to save the company $50 million. “As part of this cost reduction initiative, we expect to reduce hiring and continue to expand in lower cost locations,” EA’s chief financial officer Eric Brown told analysts in the US earlier this month, after announcement of the company’s second quarter results. Currently, EA has a mobile game development studio in Hyderabad with a headcount of 250. It is also establishing an art-team in the city to work on its global PC and console projects that are currently underway. The company has seen at least 150% growth in sales of its PC and console games in India in the last two years, EA’s country manager Ajay Khanna said, without elaborating. Growing PC penetration and increasing interest in gaming consoles is driving the growth, he said. Nasscom estimates India’s gaming market is worth $212 million. It says the global gaming market will touch $36 billion by 2009. Jayant Sharma, chief executive of Milestone Interactive Software Ltd, the only Indian distributor of Sony Corp.’s gaming consoles, said he expected sales of the PlayStation-branded consoles to double in the current fiscal year to March 2009. Besides Sony, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Nintendo Co. Ltd’s Wii are also sold in the country. India’s gaming development industry is expected to touch $300 million by 2009 and $1 billion by 2012, and is creating a rich talent pool, which leading global players can tap into as part of their efforts to improve competitiveness, said Biren Ghose, chairman of Nasscom’s animation and gaming forum. Work currently outsourced to India is mostly lower-end production and testing jobs. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 9 Nov 2008 | 5:54 pm Pepsi poised to finally escape Damocles' divestment swordAfter 11 years of hanging like a sword on PepsiCo India Holdings Ltd, the governments condition that the company must dilute its equity in fully-owned downstream ventures is close to beingSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 9 Nov 2008 | 4:52 pm
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