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Dread of job loss keeps workers on the edgeAmid the economic turmoil, a few have lost jobs, but millions of Indian workers are living life on the edge. Each day is a haze of constant anxiety.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Nov 2008 | 5:21 pm Is DLF Fortis Healthcare JV on shaky ground?DLF and Fortis Healthcares potential 26:74 joint venture is on a shaky ground, reports CNBCTV18, quoting sources. DLF and Fortis signed a memorandum of understanding, or MoU, In January 2007 for 15 hospitals. The companies planned to invest Rs 6,200 crore.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Nov 2008 | 4:31 pm Bosch beats slowdown by shifting to nonauto clientsThere is a slowdown in the automobile market, but business for Bosch the world\'s largest automotive supplier is not affected, at least for the time being. So, what\'s helping the component major buck the trend?Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Nov 2008 | 4:17 pm AStar: Maruti Suzuki\'s new launchIndia\'s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki is betting big on its new offering AStar. This made in India car may just add some excitement to Marutis falling sales.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Nov 2008 | 3:11 pm News of stake sale in Dawn Mills not true: Alok IndAlok Industries is likely to sell stake in Dawn Mills Property, reports CNBCTV18 quoting sources. Alok Industries may get Rs 250 crore from Dawn Mills land sale. The company had paid Rs 190 crore for Dawn Mills land in October 2006. On the other hand, management declined to comment on market speculation.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:50 pm Lloyds investors vote on HBOS, face jobs protestLONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds TSB investors are expected to approve its takeover of HBOS and a government bailout plan on Wednesday, but the UK bank's executives face a grilling from unions about the potential for up to 50,000 job cuts.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:43 pm Asian Paints temporarily shuts Gujarat plant - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:39 pm India to have 400000 dollar-millionaires by 2017: Barclays - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:39 pm U.S. prices drop at record pace, China wary of unrestLONDON (Reuters) - China has told police to ensure social stability as its economy slows, U.S. inflation tumbled at a record pace and markets fretted on Wednesday about whether America's stricken car industry would be rescued.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:38 pm SREI foundation inks pact with British educational institutionInstitute for Inspiration and Self Development (IISD), headquartered here and jointly promoted by infrastructure financing major Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd. and Prajna Vidya Bharati Ltd, signed here Wednesday an agreement with the British educational institution, AOC International, for undertaking a number of educational and training initiatives in West Bengal.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:33 pm Infosys targeting rural banks for higher growthSoftware major Infosys Technologies Ltd, which offers its core banking solution under the brand 'Finacle', is targeting regional rural banks to achieve higher growth, a top company official said here Wednesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:32 pm West Bengal to give incentives for employment generationThe West Bengal government will come up with a fresh incentive scheme for industrial units in December focussing on employment generation.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:31 pm Infosys, IBM win Nasscom awards - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:31 pm Infosys, IBM win Nasscom awards for corporate excellenceIndian IT majors Infosys Technologies and IBM India Wednesday won the corporate excellence awards instituted by the industry's representative body Nasscom (National Association of Software and Service Companies).Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:30 pm Chinese team interested in hydropower, infrastructure projects in IndiaA business delegation from China's Yunnan province, which is here to promote bilateral trade between the two countries, Wednesday expressed interest in hydro power development and infrastructure projects in India.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:30 pm Television workers get 40 percent hike, to resume work ThursdayTelevision workers and technicians who had called for a complete boycott of shooting earlier this month will get back to work Thursday following an agreement with the producers over an increase in their wages.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:30 pm Real estate body asks members to lower prices - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:26 pm Real estate body asks members to lower pricesMUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian real estate developers should lower prices given the general slowdown in the economy, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) has said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:21 pm Maruti launches A-Star at Rs 3.46-4.11 lakh - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:20 pm Kingfisher hands out cheques to clear bulk of dues to AAI - Press Trust of India
Source: Google News India - Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 2:02 pm Citigroup to write down $3 bln in Q4 - Fox-PittReuters - Fox-Pitt Kelton said it expects Citigroup Inc to take net write-downs of $3 billion during the fourth quarter, and widened its loss expectation on the company for the period to reflect higher credit costs and write-downs.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:55 pm Bharti Telesoft to expand markets, may delay IPOMacau: Bharti Telesoft, owned by mobile operator Bharti Airtel’s parent Bharti Enterprises, said it plans to expand to 100 cities globally from 70 now as it fights for a bigger market share despite the worsening global financial crisis. But it may push back an initial public offering (IPO), Manoranjan Mohapatra, CEO of the messaging and roaming services provider, told Reuters during the 2008 GSMA Mobile Asia Congress. “The IPO will be a function of the market. We’re now looking at between 24 to 36 months. We’ve got plenty of sources of equity,” Mohapatra said. Bharti Telesoft, which aims for $200 million in revenues in 2011, competes with mobile2win, IMImobile, Cellebrum, among others and sells roaming, messaging, Internet and call management services to clients such as Tata Communications, France Telecom and Egypt’s Orascom Telecom. In November, Bharti Telesoft, which operates in more than 70 countries across the world, including China, the US, Egypt, and Paraguay, entered into a deal with South Africa’s MTN to provide mobile value-added services. No financial terms were announced. Bharti Telesoft’s affiliate, Bharti Airtel, controls around 24% of India’s wireless market. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:45 pm India to raise spending on infrastructureNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is considering ways of increasing investment in infrastructure after the global financial crisis choked inflows in mega projects, a senior official said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:41 pm Short build up in index heavyweights, 2600 crucial for Nifty - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:41 pm Global meltdown forces relook at Indian IT industry forecastBangalore: India’s apex IT industry body Nasscom is taking a relook at the growth forecast of 21-24% for IT and the BPO industry for the current financial year due to the global economic downturn and would come out with a clear position on it in the third week of December. “We have no basis to give a number today. We are doing our research. Why give a knee-jerk (assessment now),” President of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) Som Mittal said Wednesday. In December third week, Nasscom would come out with a clear picture on the impact of global slowdown on India’s IT/BPO industry, Mittal told reporters on the sidelines of a Nasscom organised IT Women Leadership Summit 2008. According to him, the top 10 listed IT companies in India have clocked 25%-plus revenue growth in dollar terms in the first six months of the current financial year over the corresponding period last year. Europe and North America accounted for 90% of revenues of the Indian IT industry, the Nasscom head said. “We are at a downturn which would impact on growth rate, and then there will be three-four quarters where growth rate will be uncertain, lower than 30%, and post-that, we will spring back,” he said. Mittal said hiring by the IT industry in the current financial year would be lower than the previous year, while there could be some company-wise job lay-offs. But such cuts are not an industry-wide phenomenon. There is no net industry job cuts, he added. According to Mittal, 92-93% of the workforce employed by the Indian IT-BPO industry adds value to customers, while the remaining is support staff. Hiring is slowing down because attrition is lower now, while efficiency is getting improved. “But people are back in the campus for (hiring) next year. If they did not have confidence to use those resources next year, then why should they go to campus and create a problem?,” he asked. In the current situation of economic slowdown, Indian companies need to invest in domain expertise and on providing transformational services, Mittal said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:40 pm RBI asks banks to seek refinance credit to fund small units - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:33 pm Oil falls below $54 as economic gloom deepensLONDON (Reuters) - Oil's decline deepened to below $54 a barrel on Wednesday, pressured by economic weakness that will further erode the world's demand for fuel.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:30 pm Rupee ends weaker than 50/dlr for first timeMUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee closed weaker than 50 per dollar on Wednesday for the first time as it was sideswiped by a falling stock market and demand for dollars to arbitrage a gap to offshore non-deliverable forward rates.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:27 pm Maruti says sales shouldn't fall in 2008/09NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Maruti Suzuki India, the country's top car maker, is worried about adverse economic conditions but expects new models to help it beat last year's production and sales volumes.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:15 pm Ess Dee buys majority stake in Vedanta's India Foils - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:15 pm GE to slash $2 bn in costs at finance unitAmerican conglomerate General Electric is planning to slash costs by two billion dollars in 2009 at its finance arm GE CapitalSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 1:00 pm Plan panel to report on project status in 10 days - Hindu Business Line
Source: Google News India - Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:57 pm Markets remain under pressureStock markets fell for the sixth day in a row on Wednesday with the benchmark Sensex paring the early gains to close down by more than 160 pointsSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:57 pm Cash is King: Cos that can survive the liquidity crunchStudies of 200003 bear markets show most highly leveraged stocks fell 87.7%; those with least leverage fell 15%. Most metal companies have manageable debt levels; the balance sheet of pharmaceutical companies is mixed. The real estate sector has a weak liquidity position and that for telecom is moderate; it is strong for the oil and gas sector.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:38 pm Maruti sales up, but future unpredictableThe country's largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki India, registered a 4 percent increase in sales in the first seven months this fiscal, as compared to the corresponding period last year, but says it has no idea how it would fare in the remaining five months.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:33 pm Bears prevail again, key index ends below 9,000Despite staying in positive territory throughout the morning, Indian equities markets Wednesday again came under selling pressure to end the day in the red with a key index shedding more than 160 points to stay below the psychologically important 9,000 mark.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:31 pm FICCI calls for public-private partnership to boost educationPublic-private partnership can boost higher education in India and give chance to over 170 million students who are currently left out, the industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) suggested Wednesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:31 pm Time Inc to cut 250 jobs - NY PostNEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc's Time Inc, the world's largest magazine company, is expected to eliminate more than 250 jobs, as part of a larger job cut plan, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:31 pm Maruti's first fully 'Made in India' car in 4 yearsCountry's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India said on Wednesday that it plans to roll out its first completely made in India car in the next four years.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:25 pm Strike costing Bosch Rs 30 lakh a dayStriA ten-day strike by the employees' union has caused a revenue loss of Rs 30 lakh per day to Bosch's Sitapura factory, 20 km from JaipurSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:22 pm BlackBerry co-CEOs in Canada's Business Hall of FameJim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, co-CEOs of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM), have been inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:20 pm BSE Sensex falls for sixth straight sessionMUMBAI (Reuters) – The BSE Sensex dropped 1.83 percent on Wednesday, taking its fall to 16.7 percent over a six-day losing streak, as worries over the deteriorating global economy saw the market surrender initial gains.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:17 pm Bharat Hotels to invest Rs1,200 cr to set up 10 hotelsNew Delhi: Hospitality major Bharat Hotels, which operates seven hotels under the brand name ‘The Grand´ plans to invest Rs1,200 crore over the next three-four years for setting up 10 more hotels, including two abroad. The group has also decided not to renew its franchise agreement with global chain ‘The Intercontinental´. It would rebrand its hotels under ‘The Lalit´ brand, in memoriam of the group’s late founder Lalit Suri. “We are investing around Rs1,200 crore in the next three -four years to open eight more hotels across India and another two in Dubai and Thailand,” Bharat Hotels Chairperson and Managing Director Jyotsana Suri said. The group has an inventory strength of 1,500 rooms at its seven existing hotels at New Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Srinagar, Udaipur and Khajuraho. “Once our 10 hotels become operational we will add another 2,100 rooms and take our inventory to 3,600,” Suri said, adding that the new hotels would come up at various places, including Kolkata, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad, besides the ones at Dubai and Thailand by 2010. When asked about the source of its funding, she said the group would finance through internal accruals and borrowing. The group had clocked a turnover of Rs500 crore last fiscal. “This year the growth in turnover will be either flat or at most 5%,” she added. The group also announced that it would no longer be associated with The Intercontinental, with which it had a franchise agreement to use the brand. “We had the agreement for use of their ‘Intercontinental´ brand name for four of our hotels. The agreement period for our Delhi and Goa hotels have culminated and that of our Mumbai and Goa properties would also expire within 18 months and we are not renewing them,” Suri said. She said that the group would henceforth manage all its hotels under the brand name ‘The Lalit´. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 11:55 am Maruti 800 gears up to meet Bharat Stage IV normsNew Delhi: Dispelling speculation that it will be forced to phase out its oldest model Maruti 800 (M800) due to stricter emission standards, by 2010, Maruti Suzuki India said it is working to make the model compliant with Bharat Stage IV norms. “Work is on to make the M800 compliant with emission norms coming in by 2010. We are not phasing out the model,” Maruti Suzuki India Managing Executive (Office Engineering) I.V. Rao said. Asked if the M800, which redefined personal transportation in India 25 years back, would sport a new engine, he replied in the negative. “There are ways of making the engine compliant with stricter emission norms. Either you work on improving engine combustion or you put in a catalytic converter,” he said, without specifying which method the company was adopting for the M800 to comply with Bharat Stage IV norms, to be enforced by April 2010 in 13 mega cities. As per the Auto Fuel Policy, the 13 mega cities, which have Bharat Stage III emission regulations, will meet Bharat Stage IV standards from April 2010 and the rest of the country will upgrade to Bharat Stage III regulations. The M800, launched in 1983, has undergone many facelifts and has always been a subject of speculation of being phased out after its sales started dropping, and the arrival of models like the Zen and Alto. This fiscal (April-Oct period) M800 sales have gone down by 18% at 32,093 units as against 39,142 units in the same period a year ago. The model’s sales declined by 26.13% during October at 3,307 as against 4,477 in the same month last year. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 11:50 am Centre under pressure to come up with content regulation codeNew Delhi: With the Supreme Court having given four weeks time to the Centre for submitting its guidelines on content regulation on TV, it is under pressure to come up with norms that are acceptable to all stakeholders. A senior Information and Broadcasting Ministry official when contacted by PTI refused to comment on the issue, saying “the matter is in court” and it would not be proper to comment on it. However, official sources said work was going on to prepare guidelines and would be wrapped up soon, as the Supreme Court has now given it a deadline to do so. The apex court Tuesday asked the ministry to submit guidelines for regulating contents of programmes telecast by TV channels on the lines of norms decided by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), a conglomerate of over 200 channels, including Prasar Bharti. Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam had tabled before a Bench of Justices B.N. Aggrawal and G.S. Singhvi, the “draft television content code” framed by the IBF which is aimed at ensuring responsible coverage by TV channels in a manner acceptable to all viewers. IBF had earlier submitted this draft content code to the ministry for its approval. Last month also the Supreme Court had asked Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium whether there was a single day in a year when a family could sit together and watch TV without an assault on their values. With regular intervention of the apex court on the issue, the ministry is under pressure to come up with a fresh set of norms on regulation of content code. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Anand Sharma too, in a meeting convened a couple of weeks back, had asked officials to give priority to the matter. As of now only the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has set up a body led by former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma for registering complaints against objectionable content shown on TV. Common Cause, a NGO, had earlier filed a PIL in the apex court seeking regulatory measures to curb the “growing obscenity, violence and other disturbing” contents being shown by some TV channels. According to the draft guidelines, it would be the responsibility of the broadcasters that nothing is included in the programmes of any television service which is against public interest, national harmony or which genuinely offends good taste and decency. The self-regulatory code seeks to ensure that social issues like institution of marriage should be treated with responsibility, while issues like adultery, promiscuity, sex, obscenity and nudity should not be promoted. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 11:46 am GE to slash $2 bn in costs at finance unitNew York: American conglomerate General Electric is planning to slash costs by $2 billion in 2009 at its finance arm GE Capital, the unit which has been severely hit by the global financial turmoil. In a statement issued, the company announced a new GE Capital organisation structure to drive growth. “With this more efficient organisation, we are projecting approximately $2 billion in savings at GE Capital in 2009. These savings and the continued focus on optimising the portfolio increase flexibility and vantage of opportunities created in the current market and drive value for our shareholders, a statement on GE Reports.com, one of the websites of the company said. The new structure coming into effect from 1 January, 2009, would consist of operational poles in Europe, Asia and the Americas. We also have created two new platforms to take advantage of new opportunities and leverage our expertise, one for consumer-focused international banks and JVs, and another focused on optimising returns on non-strategic assets. The new structure is effective 1 January, 2009, it noted. Meanwhile, UK daily Financial Times in a report published online today said, “General Electric is to shrink GE Capital, its finance arm, in a move that could lead to $2 billion in cost cuts, the sale of $90 billion in highly leveraged assets and thousands of redundancies among its 75,000 employees.” According to Michael A Neal who is the chairman of GE Capital, over the last two months, the firm has acted decisively to improve the funding position. “We reduced our leverage, successfully raised capital, and accessed government programs that level the competitive playing field for us in financial services,” he said. “Through these actions, we have strongly improved our 2009 funding outlook, and continue to reposition GE Capital for long-term performance and to play offense as conditions permit,” Michael A Neal said. It also added that the new organisation would help in lowering costs, operate efficiently and capture profitable, high-margin originations across key platforms and geographies today and as the global economic situation stabilises and begins to recover. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 11:44 am GE to slash $2 bn in costs at finance unitNew York: American conglomerate General Electric is planning to slash costs by $2 billion in 2009 at its finance arm GE Capital, the unit which has been severely hit by the global financial turmoil. In a statement issued, the company announced a new GE Capital organisation structure to drive growth. “With this more efficient organisation, we are projecting approximately $2 billion in savings at GE Capital in 2009. These savings and the continued focus on optimising the portfolio increase flexibility and vantage of opportunities created in the current market and drive value for our shareholders, a statement on GE Reports.com, one of the websites of the company said. The new structure coming into effect from 1 January, 2009, would consist of operational poles in Europe, Asia and the Americas. We also have created two new platforms to take advantage of new opportunities and leverage our expertise, one for consumer-focused international banks and JVs, and another focused on optimising returns on non-strategic assets. The new structure is effective 1 January, 2009, it noted. Meanwhile, UK daily Financial Times in a report published online today said, “General Electric is to shrink GE Capital, its finance arm, in a move that could lead to $2 billion in cost cuts, the sale of $90 billion in highly leveraged assets and thousands of redundancies among its 75,000 employees.” According to Michael A Neal who is the chairman of GE Capital, over the last two months, the firm has acted decisively to improve the funding position. “We reduced our leverage, successfully raised capital, and accessed government programs that level the competitive playing field for us in financial services,” he said. “Through these actions, we have strongly improved our 2009 funding outlook, and continue to reposition GE Capital for long-term performance and to play offense as conditions permit,” Michael A Neal said. It also added that the new organisation would help in lowering costs, operate efficiently and capture profitable, high-margin originations across key platforms and geographies today and as the global economic situation stabilises and begins to recover. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 11:44 am India upbeat about tea exports this fiscalEven in a worsening economic scenario, India is expected to export over 200 million kg tea this fiscal, up from last year's 179 million kg, a union minister said here Wednesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 19 Nov 2008 | 11:34 am Strike costing Bosch Rs30 lakh a dayJaipur: A ten-day strike by the employees’ union has caused a revenue loss of Rs30 lakh per day to Bosch’s Sitapura factory, 20 km from Jaipur, despite the management gearing up to meet production schedules with the help of its supervisory and managerial staff. “The strike by the Mico-Bosch Labour Union is unjustified as the management from day one said that no permanent employee had been retrenched,” Vice-President Ashok Abraham and DGM (Corporate Communication) Sanjay Chakravarty said. “There is a misconception that trainees were retrenched. Actually 68 apprentices completed 2 years’ training, while 150 apprentices’ training period was discontinued due to low production demand of VE pumps,” he added. “Bosch never promised in writing even at the time of appointment of absorbing them in regular services after the completion of the training period,” Abraham said. “Due to low production of VE pumps, about 300 per day as against 1,750, when the unit was in operation before the strike, there would be no apprentice appointments in near future,” Abraham said, adding that the loss has been Rs30 lakh a day. “There has been no anomaly in the pay structure and minimum labour wages as all labour laws are being followed strictly,” he added. “Union leaders might not want to understand the bilateral agreements on the wages,” Abraham said. “We are holding meetings with the Joint Labour Commissioner to find a fast and amicable solution with the union leaders—there is one such crucial meeting with the JLC on 20 November,” Chakravarty said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 11:34 am Govt should also look into CVD now: SAILSK Roongta, CMD of SAIL said that the 5% import duty was welcome, but said that he would have liked it to be at least 10%. Roongta feels the government should now look into restoring the countervailing duty (CVD), which was removed on certain long products and was creating negative protection from imports in respect of certain long products.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Nov 2008 | 11:20 am Sensex reels under economic fears, ends below 9k levelMumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Wednesday fell sharply from day’s high levels to close down by over 160 points as funds tracking weak trends in overseas markets went back to selling mode. Stretching the falling-streak to the sixth day in a row, the BSE bellwether index finally closed lower by 163.42 points at 8,773.78. Relentless selling of the past six days have shaved off a whopping 1762.38 points. As the barometer closed below 9,000 level for the second straight day, consumer goods stocks and banking shares took a a toll on their prices. The barometer had surged nearly 300 points or 3.3% and traded above 9,000 level in early trade before selling pressure emerged pulling down the Sensex steeply. Mirroring the high volatility, the key index oscillated in a wide of range of between 9,236.27 and 8,726.80 points - a a staring difference of over 500 points. Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell by 48.15 points at 2635.00. Marketmen said share prices Japan - which slid into recession after seven years - fell and the yen rose as risk averse investors were worried about the deepening damage to corporate profits and consumer spending. The dampening sentiment in Japan reflected in local bourses as well, they said, adding that aweak opening in London Stock Exchange further fuelled the downtrend. While capital goods shares were the worst hit, banking stocks continued to suffer for the second day. Power, tech and metal counters also came under selling pressure. However, ITC Ltd, Ranbaxy Lab, Mahindra and Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki rose cushioning the the losses to an extent. Among the 30 constituents in the Sensex, 25 scrips recorded losses while five remained in positive zone. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 11:13 am Jack Welch criticises US cos for layoffsAmerican companies came in for sharp criticism from management expert Jack Welch for their "knee-jerk reactions" in indulging in "blanket layoffs."Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 11:02 am Prices will come down in normal course: MontekIn view of declining inflation and recessionary conditions, the Planning Commission expects industry to cut prices in the normal course to battle economic slowdown.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 10:42 am Move to set up single tea e-trading platformKolkata: The commerce ministry is contemplating to set up a single, web-based electronic trading platform for tea from September 2009, Minister of state for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said Wednesday. Launching an electronic auction, Ramesh said the Tea Board was moving towards a system for setting up a single electronic trading platform in the country. He said all the existing auction centres would be converted into distribution and warehousing centres. India has six auction centres at present at Kolkata, Siliguri, Guwahati, Coonor, Coimbatore and Kochi. The minister said the new software, developed by NSE.IT, had plugged all the loopholes which existed in the previous one introduced almost six years ago. Ramesh said price discovery through e-auction would be more fair and the process more transparent. By 27 January next year, all the other five tea auction centres would move to electronic mode, for which NSE.IT would also develop software for payments and settlement system. Ramesh said it was expected that more tea would be routed through the e-auction route when the system was fully implemented. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 10:32 am India to raise spending on infrastructure projectsNew Delhi: “India is considering ways of increasing investment in infrastructure after the global financial crisis choked inflows in mega projects,” a senior official said. Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that the government would draw up an estimate for additional spending on infrastructure projects within the next 10 days. India needs $500 billion investment to upgrade its creaky infrastructure in the five-year period ending March 2012, to sustain a 9% average annual growth in the economy. But the cash-strapped government is now finding it difficult to speed up work on mega projects as inflows from private and foreign sources started drying up after the global credit crisis. “In the plan, we have said we need $500 billion or so out of which $350 billion we will be getting anyway. Even in normal circumstances, there was a gap of funding,” Ahluwalia said. “This year, because of credit squeeze resulting from global downturn, the gap is much larger,” he added. “Since recessionary trend in the global economy will continue into the next year 2009-2010, it is very important that we plan now so that next year we are ready for a major thrust on infrastructure,” Ahluwalia said. On Tuesday, the finance minister said that the government was looking into the problems of export and infrastructure sectors, and a Rs1.06 trillion extra spending plan would provide the stimulus to Asia’s third largest economy. India’s central bank expects economic growth of 7.5 to 8% in the 2008-2009 fiscal year, slower than 9% last year. Ahluwalia said the inflation rate was coming down and companies might lower prices of their products after a fall in demand. “I do not expect prices to be a problem in the six months or so. Inflation rate has already come down, it will come down further,” he said. India’s wholesale price index rose 8.98% in the 12 months to 1 November, sharply below the previous week’s annual rise of 10.72%. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 10:21 am Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district gets Rs32.5 cr grant from DHLNew Delhi: Child survival rates in Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district are one of the lowest in the country. A three-year grant from express and logistics company DHL India will be utilized to bring down these figures. The company joins hands with the Government of India and Unicef to reduce the district’s under five mortality rate to 41 per 1000 live births by 2015. The current rate of under-five mortality in Nandurbar is 75 per 1,000 live births. Over half (58%) of children under the age of three are malnourished. Among women and girls, low literacy rates (45%) and marriage before 18 years (60%) contribute to their poor health status resulting in high maternal mortality rates of over 300 per 100,000 live births. Reducing malnutrition and infant mortality would be focus areas as the grant gets used to strengthen existing government programmes run under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the Tribal Development Department. The project aims to impact the lives of 1.4 million people living in the district. Villagers will be educated on prevention and treatment of common communicable diseases, provide immunization and micronutrients to infants and young children while strengthening the district’s health infrastructure. Village health and nutrition plans will be modernized, village information posts set up, midwives trained and computerized facilities made available at district offices. Vijay Satbir Singh, secretary of Women & Child Development in Maharashtra said, ”working closely with Panchayti Raj Institutions (PRIs), NGOs and government functionaries for planning, implementation and monitoring will help us put in place long-term improvements.” Amadou Diallo, CEO, South Asia Pacific, DHL Global Forwarding while making the grant announcement expressed satisfaction at being able to contribute towards, ”facilitating access to health services.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 10:19 am Indonesia nod for Nalco’s Rs17,000 cr FDI for smelterNew Delhi: India’s second largest aluminium producer Nalco has received a green signal from the Indonesian government for setting up a Rs17,000 crore aluminium smelter and captive power project in the country. “The Indonesian government cleared our FDI proposal in September,” the company’s Director, Finance, B.L. Bagra said. Navratna PSU Nalco had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Indonesia in January this year for setting up a five lakh tonne aluminium smelter and 1,250 MW captive power plant. The company had entrusted consultant M.N. Dastur with the task of doing the feasibility study for the project in April. After it got enough indications that the project would be viable, Nalco sought clearance of its investment proposal from the Indonesian government in August. The feasibility report for the proposed project has been completed last month, following which Nalco now plans to float a global tender to rope in consultant for undertaking the detailed project report (DPR). “The DPR would be taken up by the end of January when the company secures connecting logistics and technical inputs besides details of quality and quantum of coal, which we plan to procure from a local mining company there,” Bagra said. “After getting necessary details of coal available in the Indonesian mine, the company would try for a majority stake in the mining company, which has been alloted the property,” he added. As Nalco does not have bauxite resources in Indonesia, it plans to ship alumina from its Damanjodi plant in Orissa to make aluminium from its proposed smelter, which is likely to be commissioned in about five years time. Both bauxite and alumina act as vital raw materials for producing aluminium. After processing, bauxite ore is changed into alumina which is further refined in smelter to make aluminium. As part of its overseas greenfield expansion, Nalco also plans to invest over Rs8,000 crore in Iran for setting up a 3.3 lakh tonnes aluminium smelter in joint venture with Iranian firm Alpha. At present, the feasibility study for the project is on. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 10:08 am Russia spent $57.5 bn in Sept-Oct to back rubleMoscow: Russia spent $57.5 billion from its foreign currency reserves in September and October to support the declining ruble during the financial crisis, the Central Bank chief revealed on Wednesday. In addition to fluctuations in currency exchange rates, this has caused Russia’s international reserves to fall by $97.6 billion during the period, the Central Bank’s chairman Sergei Ignatyev told the lower chamber of the Russian parliament. Ignatyev also said Russia cut its investments in bonds of embattled US mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the two months, from $65.6 billion to $20.9 billion by 1 November. Russian officials revealed in July that Russia holds $100 billion in US agency debt, a proportion of which is held in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They reassured that unlike the share price for the agencies, their debt remained stable. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 10:07 am Bharat Hotels not to renew contract with InterContinentalInterContinentals contract with Bharat Hotels is expiring shortly for hotels in Srinagar, New Delhi but its unlikely to renew its contract with Inter Continental. Bharat Hotels plans to consolidate its own brand \"The Grand\".Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Nov 2008 | 9:26 am Metlife takes bears head on, launches two new productsAggression is the best form of defence, atleast, that\'s what some corporates seem to think. Even as the insurance sector grapples with the slowdown, Metlife announced its plans to go big on India by launching two new products.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Nov 2008 | 9:15 am US auto woes weigh on global stocksLondon: World stocks and oil fell on Wednesday while government bonds and the yen gained as US automakers begged for a bailout from Washington, adding to evidence that the credit crisis is crippling the real economy. US auto executives warned Congress on Tuesday that their industry was teetering on the brink of disaster as they pleaded for a $25 billion aid package. The bailout proposal for General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler LLC failed to gain traction in the Senate amid doubts over whether the government should be spending yet more taxpayer money on corporate rescues. “There’s a lot of worry about the possible bailout of the Big Three carmakers in the US, since it doesn’t seem to be coming together well at all, and this is keeping investors from buying,” said Katsuhiko Kodama, senior strategist at Toyo Securities in Tokyo. US crude oil fell 1% to $53.74 a barrel, hitting its lowest in almost two years and falling more than $90 from its July record peak. The yield on two-year US Treasuries fell to a five-year low of 1.122% as investors sought safer government bonds. December bund futures rose 55 ticks to hit their highest level since March 2006 while Japanese government bonds also rose. The yen rose to 96.66 per dollar as investors chased the low-yielding currency. The dollar was steady against a basket of major currencies. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 9:08 am Facebook application plan rankles some developersNew York: Facebook plans to start charging for verifying applications built for the social network an optional process that has upset some developers despite the company’s assurances it will bring plenty of positive benefits. Platform program manager Sandra Liu Huang said on Tuesday that Facebook opened the verification process to developers on Monday. The process is meant to increase users’ trust of applications that are posted on the site and to help developers wanting to build a serious business get more visibility with users, she said. Initially, developers file a form to register their application, and after it is reviewed by Facebook, the developers fill out paperwork and submit a $375 annual fee for each application. Students and registered non-profits pay $175 for each application they want verified. Huang said the fee covers costs on Facebook’s end related to reviewing the applications, and it will recur each year along with a fresh application review. Eventually, if Facebook finds that the costs of reviewing the applications declines, it would be open to lowering the reverification fee, she said. Facebook has 48,000 applications in its directory, Huang said, and she expects that several hundred will become verified initially. The benefits of the process will start being seen early next year, she said. Verified applications will sport a special badge and they will also be given more visibility on Facebook _ for example, updates from verified applications will be more visible in users’ News Feeds. But some developers who posted on a developer forum on Facebook’s Web site were upset by the annual verification fee. Mike Knoop, 19, who developed an application that lets Facebook users request phone numbers from their friends, is not opposed to paying a fee to participate but doesn’t like the idea of paying each year. “Because it’s recurring every 12 months, I think that’s going to shut out a lot of the smaller developers that don’t have the initial capital to invest in Facebook applications,” he said. Knoop works as an unpaid moderator for the Facebook’s developer Web forums and said he’s not sure yet if he’ll apply to the program. In a statement late Monday, News Corp.-owned social networking site MySpace said that it reviews each application before it is available to site users “and the cost is nominal so we have no plans to charge developers.” Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 8:57 am Ess Dee Aluminium to buy 90% in India Foils for Rs 120 crAnd in a CNBCTV18 exclusive, sources say that Ess Dee aluminium will acquire 90% stake in India Foils for Rs 120 crores. The deal will be funded via internal accruals. The debt burden of 240 crore will be paid by Ess Dee and Vedanta together. The announcement is likely to be made today.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Nov 2008 | 8:48 am Default Option could be on PFRDA's radar: SwarupPension Fund Regulator, PFRDA, is considering a fifth option for investments of contribution made by Government employees under the new pension scheme.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 8:27 am UK looks to India to help offset economic gloomBritish companies are increasingly looking to India, China and other export markets to compensate for lower sales in Britain and western marketsSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 8:20 am UK structural steel major forms 30 million JV in IndiaBritish structural steel major Severfield-Rowen has entered into a joint venture with a subsidiary of India's O P Jindal GroupSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Nov 2008 | 8:19 am New satellite being developed for rural net connectivity: NairBangalore: India is developing an ‘unconventional’ satellite which would focus on providing internet connectivity to the rural masses and render timely advice on various aspects of agriculture. “It is a fast-track spacecraft for rural connectivity,” Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), G Madhavan Nair said. “You know, if you take the country, even today more than 30,000 villages don’t have proper connectivity. (With) Conventional type of satellites, we cannot meet that requirement”, he said. “So, we have to go for spot beams, high bandwidth type of capacity to be built up. So, that only can make things happen”, he said. Primarily aimed at rural areas, it’s an INSAT-class (three tonne) satellite but the speciality would be that instead of having an all-India beam, it would have spot beams covering different parts of the country, and there would be a control hub by which it would be connected to national network. On the satellite’s applications, Nair, also Secretary in the Department of Space, said: “The communication has to be established. Then, agricultural advices which need to be given to farmers in various aspects, that would be provided through the satellite.” “The spacecraft would be launched by European space consortium, Arianespace, within two years,” he added. On the satellite-based navigation system for the civil aviation sector called GAGAN, being implemented by Isro and the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Nair said the first phase has been successfully completed. “The results are extremely good. We were able to get the accuracies of the order of a few metres, which is sufficient for landing and things like that”, he said. “Now, in the operational phase, we have to establish a number of (reference) stations more. That I think AAI has already submitted a report and the Cabinet has cleared that, around Rs500 crore investment, and we will be starting the work for that. In about two years, that system should be in place”, Nair said. The space segment of GAGAN is in the form of an electronic device that works on two frequencies and well matched with GPS (Global Positioning System). Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 7:00 am RBI offers $11.4 bn at special repo auctionMumbai: The Reserve Bank of India said it would conduct a special 14-day repo auction for $11.4 billion on Wednesday. The reversal will take place on 3 December, it said in a statement. The special repo facility was introduced on 14 October to meet liquidity needs of mutual funds for an allocated Rs20,000 crore. The central bank has increased the facility to Rs60,000 crore to include liquidity needs of non-banking financial companies, and said it would be held every day until further notice. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 6:39 am Boeing to delay jet deliveries -WSJBangalore: Plane maker Boeing is reworking its entire production schedule, adding up to 10 weeks to original delivery dates for all 3,734 jetliners in its order backlog as it tries to recover from a machinists’ strike, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation. Since early November, Boeing officials have been working to bring production lines back up to speed, after they lay dormant during a 58-day strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the paper said. The process, which calls for careful coordination among hundreds of suppliers and tens of thousands of workers worldwide, could take several weeks, the paper added. Boeing officials could not immediately be reached for comments. The company officials have decided against trying to kick the factories into a higher gear to make up the lost ground, fearing such a move might backfire and add to manufacturing woes at the Chicago aerospace company’s jet plants, the Journal said. Boeing is not expected to publicly discuss details of its new schedule, which will include updated financial guidance and projections of how many airplanes it will deliver this year and next, until early December, the paper added. Last week, Boeing pushed back the schedule on the cargo version of its 747 jumbo by as much as nine months. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 6:19 am US CEOs urge for $300 bn fiscal stimulusWashington: Chief executives of leading US companies called for a fiscal stimulus package worth at least $300 billion and urged president-elect Barack Obama to swiftly name his economic team. Dozens of chief executives met at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council event in Washington DC to identify what they think should be priorities for the Obama administration and the new Congress. Wachovia Corp’s Robert Steel and pension fund TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson were among those calling for a fiscal stimulus package to encourage consumer spending in the short term. Overall, chief executives agreed that the US economy could not recover independent of the rest of the world, and they urged the international community to coordinate stimulus plans. A global financial crisis has led several countries into recession, tightened credit markets, raised unemployment and wrecked havoc on consumer spending. Leaders of industry emphasized investment in infrastructure and programs with long-term benefits, and said the United States should favor permanent tax cuts over tax rebates. However, a broad economic stimulus bill, which Obama wants the US Congress to pass promptly, is opposed by many Republican lawmakers and is unlikely to be approved by the current Congress during its short legislative session this week. Obama’s chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, later told the conference that key components of a stimulus package would include tax cuts and what he called investments in “green” infrastructure. “The economy needs it, the American people need it,” Emanuel said. CEOs lamented lack of young talent in science, technology and math, and called for a partnership with the private sector to promote a more competitive workforce. Improving education was the group of executives’ second-highest priority after a global economic stimulus plan. A subgroup of chief executives said the Treasury Department should use funds remaining from the $700 billion financial services rescue plan, and possibly additional funds, to buy illiquid assets from financial institutions, the original intent of the plan. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 5:57 am US CEOs urge for $300 bn fiscal stimulusWashington: Chief executives of leading US companies called for a fiscal stimulus package worth at least $300 billion and urged president-elect Barack Obama to swiftly name his economic team. Dozens of chief executives met at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council event in Washington DC to identify what they think should be priorities for the Obama administration and the new Congress. Wachovia Corp’s Robert Steel and pension fund TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson were among those calling for a fiscal stimulus package to encourage consumer spending in the short term. Overall, chief executives agreed that the US economy could not recover independent of the rest of the world, and they urged the international community to coordinate stimulus plans. A global financial crisis has led several countries into recession, tightened credit markets, raised unemployment and wrecked havoc on consumer spending. Leaders of industry emphasized investment in infrastructure and programs with long-term benefits, and said the United States should favor permanent tax cuts over tax rebates. However, a broad economic stimulus bill, which Obama wants the US Congress to pass promptly, is opposed by many Republican lawmakers and is unlikely to be approved by the current Congress during its short legislative session this week. Obama’s chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, later told the conference that key components of a stimulus package would include tax cuts and what he called investments in “green” infrastructure. “The economy needs it, the American people need it,” Emanuel said. CEOs lamented lack of young talent in science, technology and math, and called for a partnership with the private sector to promote a more competitive workforce. Improving education was the group of executives’ second-highest priority after a global economic stimulus plan. A subgroup of chief executives said the Treasury Department should use funds remaining from the $700 billion financial services rescue plan, and possibly additional funds, to buy illiquid assets from financial institutions, the original intent of the plan. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 5:57 am US officials face fight on international regulationsNew York: Just four days after releasing a formal “roadmap” proposal to move US companies to international accounting rules, US regulators are facing a slew of complaints about the millions of dollars it would cost companies to make the switch. A top US securities regulator said on Tuesday, that the proposed transition toward international accounting rules in the United States should not reduce the amount of information available to investors, even if it requires companies to keep dual sets of books for years at their own expense. “We would not want to reduce the amount of information that is available to US investors,” John White, the director of the division of Corporation Finance for the US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday in response to concerns from corporate finance executives about the cost of switching to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). “Today the US investor gets three years of information,” White continued, saying that if companies transition by 2014, as proposed, they would likely have to report results in IFRS for the two previous years. White’s comments at a Financial Executives International conference in New York stood in stark contrast to concerns expressed by executives at the conference on Tuesday. To make the switch, Griep estimated her company would have to begin running parallel sets of accounting books, in US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and IFRS by January, 2012 - a move that would require more training, technology and other costs for her accounting staff. On Friday, the SEC released its formal proposal for a “roadmap” that would have US companies filing financial results under IFRS by 2014. The release is open for public comment until 19 February. Under the proposed roadmap, in industries where a significant majority of companies use IFRS, some US companies would have the option to file financial results under international rules as soon as 2010. According to the proposal, the SEC estimated that 34 out of 74 industry groups, or a minimum of 110 US companies, would be eligible to file financial results under IFRS by 2010, according to the proposal. The SEC estimated the total cost of transitioning to IFRS for those 110 companies would be $3.5 billion, or about $31.8 million on average. While the SEC said it would be unlikely that all 110 eligible companies would elect to file results in IFRS, General Motors Corp controller Nick Cyrus, said at the conference, that the cost would be prohibitive, especially since international and US accounting rules have not fully converged To account for pension costs or intangible assets, like research and development, some companies may even have to look back as far as 10 or 15 years, Arnie Hanish, executive director of finance and chief accounting officer at Eli Lilly and Co & Co said at the conference. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 5:39 am US automakers warn of catastrophe without bailoutWashington: A proposed $25 billion bailout of US automakers failed to gain traction on Tuesday in the Senate despite pleas from industry that failure to act could result in wholesale liquidation. There is strong sentiment to help General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co, and Chrysler LLC, with loans, but doubts surfaced about the amount requested, whether Detroit companies would be healthy enough to repay it, and a general resistance to spending yet more taxpayer money on corporate rescues. “We’re not there yet,” Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, the Banking Committee chairman said after a four-hour hearing on the auto bailout. “Trying to jam something through would be a mistake.” Dodd and his colleagues grilled Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler, who said he would work for $1 if it would help sway reluctant lawmakers to sign off on a bailout. Nardelli said Chrysler explored bankruptcy and other options before appealing to Washington. He said Chrysler was was fragile, while Wagoner warned of a “catastrophic” shock to the US economy if insolvency struck the industry. Ron Gettelfinger, United Auto Workers president, said inaction by Congress could result in GM, Ford and Chrysler liquidating. The three companies employ nearly 250,000 people and affect millions of other workers in related industries. The executives did not balk at proposed bailout conditions, including Wagoner, who said GM would agree to the government taking an equity stake. GM said it needs between $10 billion and $12 billion in bailout cash, while Chrysler and Ford said about $7 billion each would help them. But executive assurances of loan repayment, transparency, exclusively investing bailout funds in the United States, and promising to pursue fuel efficiency, did not appear to move their allies in the Senate any closer to success. Barring an unexpected breakthrough in talks between Democrats and Republicans, who favor another option also backed by the White House, no votes are expected on the bailout before Thursday or Friday, Senate aides said. Senate Democrats are still short of the 60 votes needed in to overcome procedural hurdles, aides and lawmakers said on Tuesday. Reid was hopeful a deal could be reached with wavering lawmakers but raised the possibility the bailout plan would not succeed during the brief, post-election session. Although they believe the Treasury Department already has the authority to help, Democrats have proposed amending the agency’s $700 billion rescue fund for financial services companies to include auto companies. The White House adamantly opposes that approach, saying the fund is for businesses central to the financial system and for unfreezing credit markets. The administration, and key Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, support amending another law - one passed in September extending $25 billion in Energy Department loans to Detroit to help it retool factories and make more fuel efficient vehicles. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 4:29 am NASA tests ‘deep space internet’Washington: The US space agency NASA has said that it successfully conducted a first test of a deep space communications network modelled on the Internet. “This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet,” Adrian Hooke, NASA’s manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards, said in a statement. The US space agency said Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA spacecraft some 32.4 million kilometers from Earth. NASA said that the software protocol, which must be able to withstand delays, disruptions and disconnections in space, was designed in partnership with Vint Cerf, a vice president at Internet search giant Google. DTN sends information using a method that differs from the normal Internet’s Transmission—Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, communication suite, which Cerf co-designed, NASA has said. Unlike TCP/IP, DTN does not assume a continuous end-to-end connection, NASA said, noting that glitches can happen when a spacecraft moves behind a planet, or when solar storms and long communication delays occur. It said that the delay, for example, in sending or receiving data from Mars takes between three—and—a—half minutes and 20 minutes at the speed of light. NASA said that if a destination path cannot be found, data packets are not discarded but kept by each network node until it can communicate safely with another node. Eventually, it said, the information is delivered to the end user. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 4:06 am Oil below $55 on deep recession fearsSingapore: Oil prices were steady below $55 a barrel on Wednesday in Asia as investors paused to examine the extent of global economic weakness, which has sent crude down more than 60% in four months. Light, sweet crude for December delivery was up 19 cents to $54.58 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore. The contract Tuesday fell 56 cents to settle at $54.39, the lowest since January 2007. Stock markets have served for the past few months as a barometer of investor perceptions about the health of the global economy. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.8% on Tuesday as Hewlett-Packard Co. said fourth quarter and 2009 results will exceed analyst expectations. Most Asian stocks, however, fell on Wednesday. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index fell 1.8%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.3% and the Korea Composite Stock Price Index slid 3.2%. Oil investors have already priced in a recession in developed countries and only evidence of an especially severe or prolonged slowdown may push prices down further, Chu said. Prices have fallen 63% since reaching a record $147.27 a barrel in mid-July. Investors will be watching for signs of slowing US demand in the weekly oil inventories report to be released Wednesday by the US Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration. The report is expected to show that oil stocks rose 1.2 million barrels last week, according to the average of estimates in a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. The Platts survey also projects that gasoline inventories rose 700,000 million barrels and distillates increased 900,000 barrels last week. In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures rose 0.24 cent to $1.14 a gallon. Heating oil gained 1.21 cents to $1.77 a gallon while natural gas for December delivery increased 0.3 cent to $6.52 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, December Brent crude rose 16 cents to $52.00 on the ICE Futures exchange. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 3:57 am Asia stocks fall as economic outlook darkensHong Kong: Asian stocks fell more than 1% on Wednesday and the yen rose, with risk-averse investors fretting about the deepening damage to corporate profits and consumer spending despite a late rally on Wall Street. Market players were also spooked after US automakers gave a dire warning to lawmakers about their outlook while pleading for $25 billion of bailout funds from Congress Oil was steady at $54.34, near a 22-month low, on mounting worries about a deep global economic recession, highlighted by data overnight showing confidence at US home builders plunging to a record low. Japan’s Nikkei average shed 1.8%, driven in part by falling bank shares after No. 1 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group suffered a 61% drop in quarterly profit and a report said Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group aimed to raise $4.2 billion in capital. The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan dropped 1.7% and was back near a four-and-a-half-year low hit last month. Overnight the US S&P 500 gained 1%. Troubles plaguing the banking system have yet to abate despite the efforts of central banks to get credit flowing again and problems have now spread to the real economy, leading to recessions in Japan, Europe and elsewhere. Citigroup’s plans to slash 52,000 jobs underscored the financial sector woes, with shares of the second-largest US bank still falling to a 13-year low on worries its efforts to return to health may not be enough. The US housing market collapse at the heart of the crisis showed signs of deteriorating further, with the National Association of Home Builders index plunging to a record low of 9 in November. At its peak in 2005, the index reached 72. The South Korean won hit a three-week low and the KOSPI index shed 3.6% as market players have kept shedding riskier assets in stocks and emerging markets to minimise losses as year-end approaches. The weakness in emerging market currencies knocked the Philippine peso down and led to suspected purchases by the country’s central bank to prop it up, while the Indonesian rupiah slid to a seven-year low. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.4% on a drop in non-financial shares after authorities lifted a ban on short selling, hitting companies such as supermarket chain Woolworths whose shares had outperformed during the sell-off. The yen climbed as falling stocks spurred selling of higher-yielding currencies as investors shifted funds into the relative safety of the Japanese currency as well as the dollar. Th dollar dipped 0.4% from US trade to 96.55 yen, while the euro was steady at $1.2616. The dollar index, a gauge of its performance against a basket of six major currencies, was a touch higher at 87.158 and held near a 2-1/2-year peak struck last week. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Nov 2008 | 3:31 am US financial rescue `not a panacea`: Paulson!The USD 700 billion US financial bailout programme is "not a panacea" to cure economic woes, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told lawmakers today, amid growing calls for help for other sectors.Source: Zee News : Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am ICICI Bank expects loan growth of 15% in 2008-09!ICICI Bank is hopeful of retaining loan growth rate of 15 percent in the current financial year despite ongoing economic slowdown.Source: Zee News : Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am Global slowdown hurting, layoffs inevitable: Oscar!Admitting that India will have to bear the brunt of global slowdown, Labour and Employment Minister Oscar Fernandes on Tuesday said one has to lay off if there is no market for one`s produce.Source: Zee News : Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am Hewlett-Packard net revenue up 19% in Q4!PC maker Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday reported a 19 percent increase in net revenue at USD 33.6 billion dollar for the fourth quarter this fiscal, driven by its diverse customer base and global reach.Source: Zee News : Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am Citigroup layoffs to have a limited impact on India!Allaying fears of possible job cuts, global financial services giant Citigroup on Tuesday assured that about 52,000 layoffs over the world will have a `limited` impact on India.Source: Zee News : Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am Montek Singh rules out job losses!Amid fears of large-scale lay-offs by companies in the wake of economic upheaval, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said the number of jobs in the country will not go down.Source: Zee News : Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am Govt to inject Rs 50,000 cr in infrastructure projects!In a major initiative to pump prime the economy through public expenditure, the government has decided to inject a whopping Rs 50,000 crore for funding infrastructure projects.Source: Zee News : Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am Pepsi Bottling to slash over 3,000 jobs in Europe, America!Soft drink distributor Pepsi Bottling Group Inc on Tuesday said it would slash about 3,150 jobs across Europe and America as part of its restructuring plan.Source: Zee News : Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am Bailout plan to make recovery faster, help Obama team: Paulson!The 700-billion bailout plan will speed up recovery in the US economy and capital markets, helping the incoming Obama team Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Tuesday.Source: Zee News : Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am Pepsi Bottling cuts outlook, announces restructure!Pepsi Bottling Group Inc, which bottles Pepsi beverages, on Tuesday cut its 2008 profit outlook and announced a restructuring plan that will affect more than 3,000 jobs worldwide.Source: Zee News : Business | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am Panel asks Ministry to cut air fares as fuel prices fallWith the prices of aviation turbine fuel coming down, a committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary, Mr K.M. Chandrasekhar, has asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to examine possibility of cutting air fares.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am ‘Cut prices, not production, to tackle demand slowdown’New Delhi, Nov. 18 Imports of pig iron and certain specified iron and steel items such as semi-finished products, flat and long products would now become dearer. The Government on Tuesday slapped 5 per cent basic customs duty on these items.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Plan panel to identify projects to raise public expenditureThe Planning Commission is working on identifying existing public work programmes that could be stepped up during the course of the current fiscal, as part of the fiscal measure to increase expenditure to revive activity and demand in theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Export sops: Marginal relief for cement cosMumbai, Nov. 18 The export incentives offered by the Government will have little impact on the prospects of the beleaguered cement companies as the benefits are restricted to specific countries that are hardly tapped.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Midcaps fare better than large-caps in recent fallBL Research Bureau Investors are usually warned to stay away from mid- and small-cap stocks in highly volatile markets, as they may be more vulnerable to stock market declines. But they have behaved quite differently in recent tradingSource: Business Line - Home Page | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Difficult to cut prices: India IncNew Delhi, Nov. 18 The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram’s call to India Inc to slash prices of products in order to spur demand was met with lukewarm response from industry captains. Automobiles, real estate, airlines and hotels wereSource: Business Line - Home Page | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am CA banks on Indian demand for growthLas Vegas, Nov. 18 CA, the IT management and security solutions vendor, is betting on strong demand in India and Japan to drive growth even as it seeks to increase revenues from the Asia-Pacific region.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Life in 2050, and a few (un)answered questionsEconomics is a social science and, therefore, an inexact one. It can just help us to understand and improve an imperfect world. In the final diagnosis, it appears that it is just a set of tools. If we are to make the best use of these tools, weSource: Business Line - Home Page | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideFresh short-position can be initiated only if the stock declines below Rs 350 level, with tightSource: Business Line - Home Page | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Kotak Mahindra Bank (Rs 308): SellWe recommend a sell in Kotak Mahindra Bank from a short-term trading perspective. It is evident from the charts of Kotak Mahindra Bank that it has been on a long-term downtrend since its all-time high of Rs 1,435 recorded in early January. TheSource: Business Line - Home Page | 19 Nov 2008 | 12:00 am Steep rate cuts likely next weekRBI, govt discuss measures to infuse Rs 80,000 crore more into banking system.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 18 Nov 2008 | 7:25 pm Tata’s supercomputer slips in rank, but generates revenueBangalore: Eka, the supercomputer built by a Tata group subsidiary that surprisingly ranked as the world’s fourth fastest machine last year, slipped several notches in the latest rankings of the top 500 supercomputers. The machine, built by Pune-based Computational Research Laboratories (CRL), dropped to No.13 on the yearly list compiled by researchers based on performance tests and released annually at the supercomputing conference held in the US. Roadrunner by International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), Jaguar by Cray Inc., and Pleiades developed by SGI Altix secured the top three slots on the latest list of the world’s fastest supercomputers. Eka was also ousted from the top position in Asia, yielding to China’s Dawning 5000A, which secured the No. 10 rank on the global list. Also See Expected Fall (Graphic) The only consolation for India came from Param-NG, a supercomputer developed by Bangalore-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). At 54 teraflop, or a trillion floating point operations per second, Param-NG was the only other entry from India at No. 69. CRL had been expecting Eka’s slide on the global list. “After proving our system last year for the enterprise, we have channelled our resources to running real life applications, rather than improving our rank,” said N. Seetha Rama Krishna, head of operations at CRL, which serves clients in Europe, the US and the Gulf. Now, I am pushing my guys to work on mission-specific projects, like in the department of space. “Animation is going to be Rs2,000-2,200 crore market in the next two-three years,” says S. Ramadorai, chairman of CRL and chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. He, however, takes pride in the fact that Eka did weather simulation for India’s moon mission, predicting the weather till Chandrayaan’s take-off. CRL is also talking to the ministry of earth sciences for jointly developing applications in climate research, said Ramadorai. Incidentally, C-DAC, too, is pinning hopes on atmospheric sciences, where it intends to earn from research collaborations, changing tack from creating capacity to actually using it for revenue generation. “Now, I am pushing my guys to work on mission-specific projects, like in the department of space or material science,” said S. Ramakrishnan, director general of C-DAC. Traditionally, a stronghold of science and research, highperformance computing, or HPC, has evolved to include mainstream industries such as entertainment, manufacturing, engineering, space exploration and financial services, says Pallavi Kathuria, director, server business group, Microsoft India, which has HPC products in both software and hardware segments. According to IT market research firm IDC, Asia, with India as one of the growth drivers, is the fastest growing HPC market in the world. However, some teething adoption issues remain. “The biggest challenge in the Indian market is integration with IT infrastructure…keeping it competitively priced and getting skilled manpower,” says Microsoft’s Kathuria. But for CRL, the challenge is ground-up. “Unless we involve the research community, unless the industry has a real world problem, or we redefine the problems, for instance, improvement in manufacturing at the nanoscale level, penetration of HPC will take time,” says Ramadorai, who is currently talking to Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd for deploying Eka’s services, among other things, for better power transmission and distribution. Towards that, CRL plans to recruit researchers in international labs and universities to push the boundaries, as basic and applied research remain its two priorities. On its part, promoter Tata Sons is committed to investing more, albeit in phases. “Our next generation machine will not be only a technical benchmark but will demonstrate applications using the full capacity…today no single application uses our existing capacity of 133 teraflops,” said Krishna. How soon the industry yokes together capacity with creativity remains to be seen, but next on the agenda for both CRL and C-DAC is grid computing, though with varying timelines. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 18 Nov 2008 | 7:10 pm Liquidity, asset quality major concernsAs the global turmoil spills into India, eight leading bankers discussed Banking in Tough Times at the Business Standard Banking Round Table.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 18 Nov 2008 | 6:44 pm Govt may cut fuel prices by Dec-endAs the global crude prices have taken a substantial dip, the UPA government is set to slash the domestic fuel prices.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 18 Nov 2008 | 6:39 pm FM asks India Inc to cut pricesA few months after having asked the cement and steel industry to hold prices, the government today said car and two-wheeler makers, airlines, hotels and real estate developers must cut prices in orderSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 18 Nov 2008 | 6:38 pm Sudden stops in emerging marketsAs the Prime Minister said on his way to the Group of Twenty (G-20) meeting last week, although emerging markets bear no responsibility for the current global crisis, they have been hit very hard because of it. But this is not the first time that emerging markets have suffered through no fault of their own—recent research shows that the Asian crisis, too, may not have been their fault.  In other words, contrary to most of the received wisdom about the Asian crisis that laid the blame for the crisis on Asian economies, Calvo said the evidence showed that both the huge capital inflows into these economies and the subsequent outflows pointed to them being passive in the entire drama. While others blamed crony capitalism, high levels of debt or the pegged exchange rates of Asian economies as the reason for the crisis, Calvo said the origins of the crisis did not lie within them. He, therefore, suggested the creation of an emerging market fund that could be used to stabilize an index like the JPMorgan Emerging Market Bond index, whenever its spreads go above a certain level. Note that a proposal currently being advocated by India is to set up a $200 billion (Rs9.94 trillion) emerging market fund, with the US expected to foot the bill. Also Read Manas Chakravarty’s earlier columns In fact, there exists vast literature on “sudden stops” of capital flows to emerging economies. A Bank for International Settlements working paper by Calvo, Alejandro Izquierdo and Ernesto Talvi, titled Phoenix Miracles in Emerging Markets: Recovering without Credit from Systemic Financial Crises, has a list of emerging markets affected by systemic collapse episodes and finds that, for a total of 83 episodes, the average contraction was 7.8%, although there is a large concentration around small drops in output. But research shows that recovery is usually V-shaped, which means the economy gets back to normal within a short span of time. As the researchers point out, “These episodes are characterised by two salient features. First, there is a dramatic collapse in output accompanied by a collapse in credit, but without any correspondingly sharp collapse in either physical capital or the labour force.” Second, recovery to pre-crisis output is swift and “creditless”—output grows back to pre-crisis levels without a significant recovery in domestic or external credit. Thus, although a credit crunch appears to be central for explaining output collapse, recovery can take place without credit. This phenomenon, resembling the feat of the proverbial bird, “rising from its ashes prompted us to call it Phoenix Miracle”. Investment falls together with output, but recovers feebly as output rises, thereby lowering demand for credit. The trouble is, during previous emerging market crises, they could fall back on exporting their way out of them, simply because the developed world was unaffected by the crisis. That comfort no longer exists. Recent data show that US retail sales have fallen for four consecutive months now, with a record drop of 2.8% in October, a clear indication that the US consumer, the Titan holding up the world economy and the lynchpin of the Bretton Woods global economic system, is finally on the brink of collapse. There is, thus, no alternative for emerging markets to prop up domestic demand. Richard C. Koo, chief economist at Nomura Research Institute, Tokyo, in his book The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japan’s Great Recession, outlines the summary of the cycle: “Overconfident private sector triggers a bubble—monetary policy is tightened, leading the bubble to collapse—collapse in asset prices leaves private sector with excess liabilities, forcing it into debt minimization mode. The economy falls into a balance sheet recession—with everybody paying down debt, monetary policy stops working. Fiscal policy becomes the main economic tool to maintain demand—eventually private sector finishes its debt repayments, ending the balance sheet recession. But it still has a phobia about borrowing which keeps interest rates low, and the economy less than fully vibrant. Economy prone to mini-bubbles—private sector phobia towards borrowing gradually disappears and it takes a more bullish stance towards fund-raising—private sector fund demand recovers and monetary policy starts working again. Fiscal policy begins to crowd out private investment. Monetary policy becomes the main economic tool, while deficit reduction becomes the top fiscal priority—with the economy healthy, the private sector regains its vigour and confidence returns.” The world is currently at the “monetary policy stops working” stage. Unfortunately, countries such as India do not have much leeway for fiscal expansion. Manas Chakravarty looks at trends and issues in the financial markets. Your comments are welcome at capitalaccount@livemint.com Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 18 Nov 2008 | 6:22 pm
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