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TN may ban stateowned liquor shopsFinding liquor in Tamil Nadu might get difficult as the state government lays foundation for a total ban on the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac). CNBCTV18s Divya Rajagopal reports.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 27 Dec 2008 | 4:00 pm Realty slowdown hits AP govt\'s infra plansThe slowdown in the real estate sector has become a serious challenge to the YS Rajasekhara Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh. It has now threatened to take a toll on the Rs 1.3 lakh croreprogramme to build 30 major and 18 medium irrigation projects. CNBCTV18s Vishwanath Pilla and Arvind Sukumar report.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 27 Dec 2008 | 3:33 pm Govt may boost exporters, employmentgenerating sectorsAccording to CNBCTV18\'s Gautam Broker, the government is ikely to focus on exportoriented employmentgenerating sectors like IT, auto/auto ancilliaries in the second stimulus package. A further stimulus to the housing sector is likely.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:51 pm Have requested Satyam for spl board meet: Vinod DhamVinod Dham, famously known as the father of the Pentium chip, and an independent director on the board of Satyam has said he is working with the Satyam management and board to maximise shareholders interests. I have requested a special board meeting to address the development of the last 10 days, he said.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:24 pm Mexico suspends purchases from 30 US meat plants!Mexico suspended purchases from 30 US meat plants due to sanitary issues, which sent US cattle and hog prices sharply lower on Friday and prompted speculation that the ban was a retaliation against a US labelling law.Source: Zee News : Business | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:10 pm China`s foreign debt soars: State media!China`s foreign debt has increased by more than 18 percent in the first nine months of the year, with short-term debt rising especially fast, according to state media report.Source: Zee News : Business | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:10 pm US stocks lift as auto, oil shares rise!US stocks lifted across the board on Friday, pulled up by automobile and oil shares and defying gloomy retail reports.Source: Zee News : Business | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:10 pm Gazprom warns Europe on gas deliveries!Russian energy giant Gazprom has warned European clients that its gas conflict with Ukraine, conduit for European-bound gas from Russia, could affect deliveries to Europe.Source: Zee News : Business | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:10 pm Retail gasoline prices drift to 58-month low !Retail gasoline prices tumbled on Friday to the lowest level in nearly five years. And while crude futures rose, analysts believed it was a temporary pause in an extended, downward arc as the recession spreads.Source: Zee News : Business | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:10 pm Ex-servicemen demand probe into Chandigarh administrator's projectsA group of ex-servicemen and a farmers association here Saturday demanded a central agency probe into the mega projects initiated by S.F. Rodrigues, the administrator of Chandigarh.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 27 Dec 2008 | 11:01 am After 26/11, artists debate allowing Pakistani performers in IndiaA month after the terror strikes in Mumbai, several artists came together here to pay tribute to all those who lost their lives in the attacks. While some felt India should restrict the number of Pakistanis performing in India in the wake of the strikes, others felt the focus should be on restoring peace.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 27 Dec 2008 | 11:01 am Pakistan to respond to Ajmal Iman’s letter in a ‘few days’Islamabad: Pakistan will respond to the request for legal assistance by Ajmal Amir Iman, the lone gunman captured for the Mumbai terror attacks, in a “few days”, a Foreign Office spokesman has said. Iman, alias Ajmal Kasab, had sought legal aid and the appointment of a lawyer to represent him in a letter sent to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi earlier this week. “Yes, in a few days time the Foreign Office will issue a formal statement about our findings and reply to the letter sent to Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi,” the Foreign Office spokesman told The News daily. “This letter was given by the Indian authorities, where Ajmal Kasab says that he is a Pakistani citizen and seeks counsellor access,” the spokesman said. At this stage, he said, it could not be stated if the foreign minister or some other senior official would make the announcement. “It could come in the form of a statement,” he added. The spokesman also refused to comment on what the government intends to do if Iman is found to be a Pakistani national. “I would not like to comment on this stage (on) which way the proceedings have proceeded so far. It would also be very speculative to respond to what the government proposes to do if Kasab is found to be a Pakistani citizen,” he said. Terming the case of Iman as “unique,” the spokesman said several government agencies are involved in processing the letter after it was received by the foreign ministry. He said it was a unique case because on many occasions, prisoners in Indian jails, who have been verified as Pakistani citizens or those to whom the government wanted access for verification, were denied access. “This is an inter-agency process where not only the Foreign Office but also the ministries of interior and law, Nadra (National Database and Registration Authority) and UN experts are deliberating on the issue,” the spokesman said, when asked about the methodology of processing Iman’s letter. When told that the interior ministry had already brushed aside the chances of Iman being a Pakistan citizen because there were no records of him in Nadra’s national database, the spokesman replied: “What other method do we have for verification but to rely on Nadra?” He said the Foreign Office is also conducting its own investigation and when all agencies, including the interior ministry, send in their findings, Pakistan’s official position on the matter will be made public. Earlier this week, interior ministry chief Rehman Malik said there were no records of Iman in the national database. He also ruled out responding to Iman’s plea for consular access till it was proved that he is a Pakistani national. However, according to NADRA’s own website, its database covers only 60 million of Pakistan’s total population of over 160 million. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 27 Dec 2008 | 10:58 am Fund Collection Through IPOs, FPOs Hits New 5-Year Low - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 27 Dec 2008 | 10:37 am Political tension, heavy selling add to markets' despairA dampened Christmas, increasing political tension between India and Pakistan and slackening investors' confidence triggered a sharp fall in Indian equities markets during the week, with a key index closing 7.6 percent lower than its close last weekend.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 27 Dec 2008 | 10:31 am Bookings on bus to Lahore unaffected by travel advisoryThe New Delhi-Lahore bus service has not been affected by the external affairs ministry's advisory asking Indians not to travel to the neighbouring country, an official said Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 27 Dec 2008 | 10:30 am Satyam Board To Meet On Dec 29 - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:22 am Inflation Eases To 6.61% - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:21 am Advance Tax Collection Declines - TopNews
Source: Google News India - Business | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:21 am Tata Sons, DoCoMo defer open offer for Tata Tele (M)Tata Sons and Japans largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo have postponed their open offer for picking up 20 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), their offer manager said on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:17 am Boost domestic demand: BajajExports are definitely going to be down for most industry sectors in 2009 as compared to 2008, and immediate measures need to be taken to boost domestic demand so that in totality the year to come is not worse than the current one, industrialist Mr Rahul Bajaj has warned.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:15 am Come 2009, TV viewing to become costlierThe Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has amended the Broadcasting and Cable Tariff Order to allow for inflationlinked adjustments in the rates for cable TV services.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:13 am How our regulators mitigated the impact of the credit crisisMeasures on securitisation have been laudable, but credit derivatives need better regulation, says Shiva Iyer, senior vice-president of ABN AMRO Bank.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:13 am Worst is over for airlines: MallyaMr Vijay Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines Chairman, said on Friday that the airline will break even this month even as he claimed that the worst was over for the airline industry.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:11 am 'During a downturn, new ventures hasten recovery'Carl Schramm, president of an organisation devoted to entrepreneurship, has shown the way for many entrepreneurs. He talks to DNA.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:10 am Manning traffic in the virtual worldIn a little corner of the virtual world, the chief executive officer of Sulekha.com provides people with contacts and solutions to everyday problems.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:08 am For SMEs, funding is not just about banksTraditionally, SME's obtained funds from banks for term loans and promoters for working capital. But SMEs complain they do not get adequate credit facilities from banks.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:05 am 'India too may have to reduce carbon emissions'DNA spoke to a global provider of financial services to the world's environmental and energy markets, to gain an insight into the carbon credit market.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:03 am IOC's pipeline network nears 10K kmIndian Oil Corporation, the state-owned oil marketing company, will cross a pipeline network of 10,000 km before the end of calendar 2008.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 27 Dec 2008 | 9:00 am Kingfisher Air may break even this monthAfter months of losses due to soaring aviation turbine fuel prices and plunging air traffic, Kingfisher Airlines expects to break even this month.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 27 Dec 2008 | 8:58 am $2.24 bn blow to private investments in public enterprisesDownturn and rough market conditions in 2008 have caused a loss of $2.24 billion to the value of private investments in public enterprises.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 27 Dec 2008 | 8:56 am Suzlon's rights issue gets CCEA nodIndia's largest wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon Energy's Rs 1,800-crore rights issue will remain suspended indefinitely.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 27 Dec 2008 | 8:53 am 2008 second-costliest year in terms of insurance lossesThe Mumbai terror strikes of 26/11 have been one of the single largest insurance losses for India. But it won't figure in the Top 5 costliest insured losses in 2008.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 27 Dec 2008 | 8:52 am Jammu and Kashmir not impacted by travel advisory against PakistanThe central government's travel advisory asking Indians not to travel to Pakistan has had no immediate effect on movement of people between the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the neighbouring country, officials said Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 27 Dec 2008 | 8:31 am Chhattisgarh not to acquire agricultural land for industriesChhattisgarh's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government said Saturday it would now only provide government-owned or barren land for setting up new industrial units, instead of agricultural land.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 27 Dec 2008 | 7:31 am In winter of discontent, hotels slash New Year pricesGlobal economic recession and the Mumbai carnage have hit New Year festivities so badly that, to attract customers, some major hotels in the capital have cut prices by as much as 20 percent.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 27 Dec 2008 | 7:30 am Diamond industry lays off 100000 workers - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 27 Dec 2008 | 6:45 am 2008: Watershed year for Indian telecomFor a country that stood at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of telecom penetration a decade ago, 2008 was a watershed when India's subscriber base topped 350 million users to make its network the second largest in the world after China, displacing the US.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 27 Dec 2008 | 6:00 am Key milestones in India's telecom industry in 2008Following are key milestones and timeline of developments in India's telecom sector in 2008, when the country's network emerged as the second largest in the world after China's, displacing that of the US:Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 27 Dec 2008 | 6:00 am Winter chill continues to sweep DelhiA day after the national capital recorded the coldest day of the season, weather officials Saturday said the minimum temperatures are likely to come down further next week.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 27 Dec 2008 | 5:30 am Rupee seen ‘decoupling’ from other Asian currenciesThiruvananthapuram, Dec. 26 The much bandied ‘decoupling’ theory may have got its comeuppance in the context of the global recessionary contagion having begun to eat into the vitals of the Indian economy.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am Inflation continues downward biasNew Delhi, Dec. 26 The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation has dipped to a nine-month low of 6.61 per cent for the week ended December 13. This is lower than the previous week’s rise of 6.84 per cent, helped mainly by a recent dutySource: Business Line - Home Page | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am Worst is over for airlines: MallyaBangalore, Dec. 26 Mr Vijay Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines’ Chairman, said on Friday that the airline will break even this month even as he claimed that the worst was over for the airlineSource: Business Line - Home Page | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am Boost domestic demand: BajajPune, Dec. 26 Exports are definitely going to be down for most industry sectors in 2009 as compared to 2008, and immediate measures need to be taken to boost domestic demand so that in totality the year to come is not worse than the current one,Source: Business Line - Home Page | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am Come 2009, TV viewing to become costlierNew Delhi, Dec. 26 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has amended the Broadcasting and Cable Tariff Order to allow for inflation-linked adjustments in the rates for cable TV services.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am Financial tsunami gives hard time for hardware sectorNew Delhi, Dec 26 The year 2008 offered virtually no respite to the IT hardware industry, as falling rupee dented margins of PC manufacturers and, in turn, prompted them to effect multiple-rounds of price hikes on a slew of products.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am Markets this weekMarkets this week have been playing truant. At times even flattering to deceive, on the back of various corporate developments, and some administrative missives from the NSE. On Monday, the BSE index closed at 9,928 down by 171 points. The benchmarkSource: Business Line - Home Page | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am Advance tax collections down 22% in Dec 15 instalmentNew Delhi, Dec. 26 The Centre’s advance tax collections for the December 15 instalment recorded a 22 per cent decline to Rs 42,600 crore as against Rs 54,900 crore collected in the same third instalment last year, provisional data availableSource: Business Line - Home Page | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am Sensex sheds early gains on weak sentimentMumbai, Dec 26 It was a rather disappointing week for the equity market, with benchmark Sensex losing 770 points in four consecutive trading sessions.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am Navratnas can continue to park surplus funds in public sector MFsNew Delhi, Dec. 26 Navratna and miniratna public sector enterprises can continue to park up to 30 per cent of their surplus funds in equity mutual fund schemes of public sector mutual funds.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 27 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am Wall St Week Ahead: 2008 could nail its spot as worst yearNEW YORK (Reuters) - As the U.S. stock market heads into the last week of the year, what was inconceivable just 12 months ago is now a stark possibility: 2008 could be the worst year ever for Wall Street.Source: Reuters: Money News | 26 Dec 2008 | 10:54 pm Chola DBS promoters to infuse Rs 300 cr via pref shares - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 26 Dec 2008 | 10:40 pm Kotak Securities’ maintains accumulate rating on Piramal Healthcare - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 26 Dec 2008 | 10:40 pm After Chandrayaan-1 India planning manned mission to the moon - Khabrein.info
Source: Google News India - Business | 26 Dec 2008 | 10:26 pm Wall St gains on energy stocks and GMACNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced on light volume on Friday as energy stocks climbed alongside oil prices while General Motors rose after its financing arm qualified for government funds, helping it stave off potential bankruptcy.Source: Reuters: Money News | 26 Dec 2008 | 9:41 pm HDFC Bank debt issue - Calcutta Telegraph
Source: Google News India - Business | 26 Dec 2008 | 9:01 pm Oil above $37 on UAE supply cut, thin tradeNEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil climbed in thin post-holiday trade on Friday after the United Arab Emirates said they will deepen supply cuts in line with OPEC's biggest-ever output cut announced last week and the dollar weakened against the euro.Source: Reuters: Money News | 26 Dec 2008 | 8:47 pm Left calls for Satyam\'s Rammohan Rao\'s headSatyam corporate governance issues have attracted its fair share of jabs from political leaders too. Yesterday, left MP Abani Roy in a letter to Mahmohan Singh demanded Satyam\'s independent director Rammohan Rao to be removed from crucial selection committees.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2008 | 8:39 pm Making energy market more competitive - Hindu
Source: Google News India - Business | 26 Dec 2008 | 8:03 pm Royal Enfield clocks doubledigit growth; exports boomEven as the automobile industry is driving through a rough patch and the twowheeler segment barely managing to grow, Royal Enfield has managed to clock doubledigit growth. It has also bagged some plum orders from abroad. CNBCTV18s Sumantra Barooah reports.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:48 pm Pension reforms off the blocks, proposals called for six fundsThe pension regulator today set the stage for opening the business for non-government employees from April by seeking proposals for setting up six pension funds.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:48 pm Banks begin to revalue properties as prices fallWith a sharp dip in property prices, leading banks, including State Bank of India, are reassessing the value of properties against which loans have been granted.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:47 pm Stockmarkets down? Stay invested, say investment expertsGold may glitter but the bourses look like the best long-term bet yet. Ladies! Its time to sell your diamonds and buy gold, says a strategy report from Nomura.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:45 pm No cheer for realtyNew Delhi: Things started to go wrong in 2008 for the Indian real estate industry. Thought the year began on a good enough note with big land deals like the Rs5000 crore BPTP deal in Noida for 95 acres and Rs2,250 crore Adani-HDIL deal in Bandra-Kurla Complex. But by the end of the year, a slowing economy, high cost of construction and land, the global financial crisis and the fast drying up private equity investments spoiled the developer’s party. Click here to watch video With interest rates climbing, even residential buyers abandoned the market. Commercial real estate deals slowed down as well. The lack of demand caused developers to cut prices and hand out discounts to lure back customers. As liquidity too became scarce, developers had to borrow at unprecedented rates of 2% to 4% per month. Some resorted to desperate measures such as selling assets to service their loans. By September developers were feeling the heat. A survey by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Ernst & Young stated 62% of developers and financiers agreed that the Indian real estate industry was in dire straits. A slowdown in sales was recorded across all the sectors of the industry. Residential property took a severe beating and retail suffered as well By the end of the year, the market capital of real estate companies saw a sharp decline. The 14 most prominent listed real estate companies saw erosion ranging between 79% and 95%. DLF Ltd and India Bulls Real Estate recorded erosion in market capitalization by almost 80-85% between 3 December, 2007 and 3 December, 2008. Other major players namely Omaxe Ltd, Parsvnath Developers, Ansal Properties, too saw a decline of nearly 86-90% in the same period. With these developments, the focus of the sector has shifted back to low cost housing. The government too has taken measures to encourage growth by cutting interest rates for loans below Rs20 lakh. However, the outlook for 2009 remains bleak. Experts expect demand to sputter as the over all economy slows down. Developers will also have to accustom themselves to thinner margins and concentrate on developing affordable property. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:34 pm An international headacheTension with India has become a new excuse for Pakistan to stop fighting Al Qaeda terrorists on its border with Afghanistan. A BBC report on Friday said that air strikes against terrorists in Swat and Bajaur areas were scaled back after Pakistan’s jets moved east to the border with India. Ground operations against militants too have been put off. Pakistan’s actions now are a problem for the world. Military and economic aid have ensured a less than lukewarm response to terrorism. And diplomacy has failed. Perhaps, it’s time a blend of diplomatic and military means was used. For starters, the definition of terrorism could be expanded to include the act of states not fighting known terrorists. Pakistan could be handed a list of tasks with deadlines. Failure to execute them could be followed by automatic use of force to take out terrorists in Pakistan by an international force. The vehicle for this task could be a series of interlinked UN resolutions with well-defined trigger points that enable automatic use of military force after diplomacy is given one last chance. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:31 pm NDA yearns for VajpayeeNew Delhi: On Thursday evening, top leaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) got together in New Delhi to celebrate the 84th birthday of former Prime Minister and BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee. The leader who is suffering from indifferent health did not attend the event. But that hardly affected the enthusiasm of the gathering. They praised Vajpayee for his vision and leadership that made the non-Congress, non-Left coalition work. Click here to watch video Vajpayee was the glue that held the NDA together when it was in power. Vajpayee, with his middle-of-the-road approach despite being part of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, appealed greatly to the members of the coalition. In fact break-away factions of erstwhile Janata Dal were in the coalition because of Vajpayee. That was the reason LK Advani, the BJP leader who steered the Ayodhya movement and is seen as a hawk, stepped back to facilitate formation of the coalition. Now with Advani being projected by the BJP as its prime ministerial candidate, the unease among the coalition members was evident. Sharad Yadav, a former socialist who was recently appointed as the Convenor of NDA, wished Vajpayee was still around to guide them in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections. The JD(U) leader, whose party shares power with the BJP in Bihar said: “At this moment, all I would like to say is that, if he’s (Vajpayee) there then the dream we see for the NDA, under the leadership of LK Advani would be accomplished. Though I do not have a deep relationship with Advani, I know both Vajpayee and Advani and both complement each other. I want Vajpayee to be there and under his blessings we win”. Besides the general elections, the non-BJP coalition partners in the NDA were also concerned about the state of their present relationship with the saffron party. For instance JD(U) in Bihar and Biju Janata Dal in Orissa are at logger heads with the local BJP units. But former editor of Organiser, Sheshadri Chari dismisses them as minor issues. He says, “NDA as a group has been intact and now under the leadership of Sharad Yadav, NDA now has a new Convener. We are working in the right direction. As far as issues (between the parties) are concerned they are absolutely local issues which crop up between any two parties” The concern over Vajpayee’s absence raised by Sharad Yadav was, however, not lost on Advani. He quickly pointed out that he was a very close friend of Vajpayee implying that they took many decisions together. But the BJP is taking no chances. It has already detailed senior leaders from the party who will keep in touch with coalition partners individually on strategic issues such as seat-sharing and sort out differences that may arise from time-to-time. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:30 pm Satyam will miss RoC deadlineBangalore/Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services Ltd said it would miss a Monday deadline to submit the minutes of its last board meeting where directors discussed an eventually ill-fated management proposal to diversify and buy two infrastructure firms for $1.6 billion (Rs7,664 crore). Those deals, which were abandoned within 12 hours due to massive investor unrest that has continued to dog the computer services company, have raised many issues of corporate governance, especially in terms of how independent directors agreed to a valuation that would have benefited the family of Satyam chairman B. Ramalinga Raju. Some directors have also since publicly disputed the company’s account of the deal process, especially in terms of the agreed-upon valuation of the two target companies. Meanwhile, Satyam has refused to disclose which audit or consulting firm valued the assets of the two firms, Maytas Properties Ltd and Maytas Infra Ltd. Satyam said on Friday it will ask the Registrar of Companies (RoC) for additional time to submit the minutes of the last board meeting and related documents. The “29th is too tight a deadline. Because of the activities here, we will seek a few days extension,” said G. Jayaraman, head of corporate governance and Satyam’s company secretary. An official of the registrar’s office in Hyderabad, who didn’t want to be named, said that for a deadline extension to be granted, the company must show “serious” grounds, such as a fire or strike. Satyam’s delay in filing the minutes of the crucial board meeting with the registrar came on a day when it was confirmed that one independent director, Mangalam Srinivasan, has resigned from the board owning “moral” responsibility for questioning the deal at the board meeting, but not eventually voting against the proposed transaction. Meanwhile, outside pressure mounted on another Satyam independent director, M. Rammohan Rao, who is also dean of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. Rajya Sabha member of Parliament from the Left’s Revolutionary Socialist Party, Abani Roy, was quoted by PTI as saying Rao should be asked to resign from various government and regulatory committees until he explains his role in approving the Satyam transaction. PTI said Rao is a member of the appointment and selection committees of various government and regulatory positions such as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India and chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Rao did not return Mint’s telephone calls on Friday. The Economic Times and The Times of India had reported news of Srinivasan’s resignation letter in their Friday editions. “Right now, I am not answering any questions”, said Srinivasan, who is in Bangalore, in a phone conversation on Friday. Srinivasan, a US-based director since 1991, becomes the first director to quit in what has become a closely watched test case for corporate governance and apparent self-dealing in India’s corporate world. Indeed, while Satyam’s shares rose 0.4% to Rs135.50 a share in Friday’s trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange when the benchmark Sensex index fell 2.5%, they have lost nearly 41% in value since 16 December when the deal was first unveiled. Satyam’s Jayaraman confirmed that Srinivasan had sent her resignation in an email around 10.45pm on Thursday, and later called to let the company know of her inability to attend a scheduled board meeting on 29 December. Jayaraman said no other Satyam director has resigned. The Monday board meeting is scheduled for 4pm at Satyam’s headquarters in Hyderabad, with some independent directors, such as Vinod Dham, who designed the Pentium computer processor, and Krishna G. Palepu, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, participating through a video link. Satyam has said that the board will discuss a proposal to buy back shares, a move to placate irate shareholders. V.S. Raju, another independent director, said the board also plans to discuss issues from the failed deals proposal and draw lessons from the fiasco. “It is appropriate we discuss what happened, what way we could have taken investors and public into confidence,” he said. PTI contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:30 pm India’s bioterror plans will take some time to get off the groundBangalore: Even as India tries to prevent terrorist attacks such as the one in Mumbai in November, security experts say that despite not facing a biological attack so far, the country musn’t ignore that threat. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has begun preparedness, but concedes more cooperation is needed from companies and communities.  Early days: The biological disaster management guidelines has seen light of day under the guidance of Lt Gen (retd) J R Bhardwaj. Ramesh Pathania / Mint NDMA had in July notified the biological disaster management guidelines, prepared under the chairmanship of Lt Gen (retd) J.R. Bhardwaj, former director general of the Armed Forces Medical Services. “We are lucky that not a single incident has occurred in the continent because non-state actors haven’t tried the capabilities and they don’t have self-protection, but the day may not be far (of acquiring such capabilities),” says Dr Bhardwaj. The eight-member NDMA is chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. NDMA has started the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), which is funded by the World Health Organization, and for which the National Institute of Communicable Diseases is the nodal agency. Modelled after a similar programme run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the IDSP has started taking shape, but will be a while before it reaches many of the 600 or so districts in India, says Dr Bhardwaj. To strengthen the existing eight battalions of the National Disaster Response Force, each consisting of 1,000, two more battalions have been sanctioned. Half of the existing force is specifically trained to deal with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats. NDMA has also asked the state governments to get part of the state forces trained in such areas. At the time of the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2002-03, India had one BioSafety Level-4 (BSL) lab, but now it has two. Since such situations require BSL-3 labs, which can work with indigenous or exotic agents—dozens of these are coming up in medical colleges and defence institutions, according to Dr Bhardwaj. Experts also say that funding hasn’t been a constraint so far. The 11th Plan has allocated Rs10,000 crore for medical preparedness. And 10% of all development plans can also be utilized for disaster mitigation. What is a constraint, though, is a “lack of participation from the people and private sector”, claims Dr Bhardwaj. The fundamental structuring of medical care in the country is such that more than 70% of it falls in the private sector, which is not “committed to community health services” but is confined to “care of individual patients”, says Lt Gen (retd) D. Raghunath, principal executive of Sir Dorabji Tata Centre for Tropical Diseases in Bangalore, and lead author of the NDMA guidelines. The private sector has to be more responsive to national needs and for which a complementary public health system needs to be put in place, notes Dr Raghunath. “Public health has been moribund for sometime and moving that is a challenge.” His worry, for instance, is that if a patient turns up at a private hospital with fever and vesicles on his face, it’s important that it is diagnosed properly to rule out small pox. “Will a private clinic come forward to report it?” he wonders. That’s a challenge NDMA is battling with, even though most big private hospitals have shown interest and offered three days of free treatment in case of an outbreak. “But we need a legal instrument that would ensure they (private hospitals) must do it,” says Dr Bhardwaj. He has written to the government to enact a law. Meanwhile, NDMA has chosen Gurgaon as the model district to sign a memorandum of understanding with private hospitals, laying down clearly roles and responsibilities in the case of an eventuality. “All district collectors need to sign a mutually agreed upon MoU (memorandum of understanding) with their respective hospitals,” insists Dr Bharadwaj. Private sector participation also falls short when it comes to detection readiness. “We have a tough time attracting the companies to manufacture the kits we develop,” says R. Vijayraghavan, director, Defence Research and Development Establishment, in Gwalior. His lab, he claims, has “perfected the rapid detection” of CBRN and stocks 500-1,000 kits for emergencies but can produce more within 6-24 hours. For the livestock, which have seen surprise outbreaks from time to time including bird flu, Venezuelan equine encephalitis and glanderous infection in horses, Indian Veterinary Research Institute in Izatnagar says it is diagnostically equipped to handle any emergency. “We are now stepping up action for vaccines,” says its director S.P.S. Ahlawat. But no measure is effective if people don’t participate. “People should know if their neighbour’s pressure cooker is on all night, it is suspicious…he could be making anthrax spores,” says Dr Bhardwaj. Hence, Rs200 crore has been allocated to bring civil defence into disaster management. NDMA is running a pilot programme in Nagpur, which can become a model for the rest of the country. The Armed Forces have always prepared for biowarfare, but to galvanize government machinery and prepare civilians for bioterrorism is no mean task. “The delay happens, but we’ll do it; we’ve done it in the Army for 40 years,” says Dr Bhardwaj. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:30 pm More plans to boost slowing economyNew Delhi: India on Friday announced fresh measures to aid a slowing economy, including a big push for more roads, almost 100% risk cover on export earnings of small units, and an interest subsidy on home loans for the urban poor. The hope is that these measures would spark building activity and have a multiplier effect on the rest of India’s economy. The government also approved an integrated energy policy that proposes to increase electricity supply at the rate of 5.8% a year to meet energy demands that can sustain an ambitious 9% gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the next 25 years. Click here to watch video India will try and ensure that both tax structures and the regulatory environment in the energy sectors are conducive to this goal, and promised to provide a level playing field to both public and private players. The policy also proposes to make subsidies transparent and better targeted, even as coal pricing and trading will be left to the markets. The cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) approved some 13 highway projects worth an estimated Rs16,326 crore. Many of these projects are already in various stages of bidding. The National Highways Authority of India usually starts an auction as soon as the finance ministry’s public-private partnership approval committee clears a project, but projects are awarded only after a cabinet approval. The new costs include an increase of 20% for projects that were estimated before 2006, and 10% for those made in 2007. Awards of India’s highway stretches to developers had been at a near-standstill after some companies contested the government’s bid guidelines, as well as an increased risk perception among lenders. The government is currently auctioning some 60 projects worth an estimated Rs70,000 crore. There are 66,000km of national highways in the country, representing some 2% of the country’s road network. The Planning Commission expects at least $60 billion (about Rs2.87 trillion) to be spent on highways in the five years to March 2012. CCEA also approved Rs350 crore to the Export Credit Guarantee Corp. of India Ltd to raise risk cover to small and medium exporters from 85% to 95%. At a press conference here on Friday, home minister P. Chidambaram said that for the non-micro, small and medium enterprises sector, the additional 10% support will be limited to exporters of textiles, gems and jewellery, leather, engineering products, carpets, auto parts and chemicals. Banks financing these exporters would now be able to continue financing, even if losses occur in one or two transactions, since a higher risk cover would be made available under the export credit insurance scheme, the minister said. “Global recession is likely to impact in terms of default in payment or delayed realization for exports already made, cash flow difficulties for exporters, (and) difficulty in executing orders in hand owing to lack of additional credit limit,” Chidambaram said. The cabinet panel also approved restoration of water bodies at an estimated cost of Rs6,000 crore. CCEA has also approved 5% interest subsidy for home loans up to Rs1 lakh taken during the 11th Plan period (2007-12) by the urban poor. The total subsidy, which would amount to Rs1,100 crore, is expected to leverage institutional finance of Rs3,870 crore. CCEA also gave its approval to a proposal of Suzlon Energy Ltd to undertake a rights issue of Rs1,800 crore, which the company had “suspended.” narayana.k@livemint.com PTI contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:30 pm A Nobel way to attract talent for science and researchAllababad: Call it the German solution. Indian scientists and policymakers are hoping to replicate a 58-year-old German initiative, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, to attract—and keep—the country’s best young minds into pure science research. At the Lindau meetings, held annually in this Bavarian city, some 25 Nobel laureates from a chosen discipline engage with students and researchers from several countries for a week at a time. “We are trying out a version of the Lindau meetings (annually). Though we’ve been sending nearly 25 students every year to Lindau, it’s vitally important to engage a much bigger audience,” said Y.P. Kumar, who heads the international affairs division at the Union ministry of science and technology.  Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, M.D. Tiwari, Sir Harold Kroto, Florida State University Some scientists say the timing couldn’t be more appropriate. They and government officials have often warned of a crisis in India’s science education, which, if not addressed soon, will hamper India’s ambitions to become a knowledge-based economy. On top of that, “there’s also the obvious financial lure of careers in information technology and management, that takes away our best and brightest,” said C.N.R. Rao, scientist and professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore. Rao, as head of the scientific advisory committee to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has long warned of India’s declining contribution to research papers in high-impact journals as a proxy for the state of affairs. “I think it’s an idea well worth trying. I have been to Lindau as a student and I was certainly inspired... If it worked for me, I’m sure many students here would be inspired, too,” said M.D. Tiwari, director, IIIT-A. Nobel laureates who attended the Allahabad conclave included American scientists Martin Lewis Perl and Jerome Friedman, who have won the Nobel in physics in 1995 and 1990, respectively. The two others were: Sir Harold Kroto, who won the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1996, and Frenchman Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, a 1996 prize winner in physics. “Once you are a laureate, you automatically inherit responsibilities and commitments, whether you like them or not,” said Sir Harold. In fact, most laureates at the conclave said they “felt like the Beatles”, what with children, students and researchers jostling for photo-ops and autographs. “That responsibility essentially means being an inspiration to young people and getting more people to science. Not only in India, but even in the US, it’s hard to attract students to the sciences,” noted Sir Harold, now a professor at the Florida State University. Busloads of schoolchildren, teachers and college students were among the participants from some 139 universities across India and 60 schools in Uttar Pradesh. Shrimad Reddy, a third semester biotechnology student at Hyderabad’s Osmania University, however, said most of Friedman’s talks on particle physics were hard for him to grasp. Still, he said, “I enjoyed the feeling of being there, and having a picture for posterity with a Nobel laureate. Who knows it may be the only one.” Participants to the conclave are invited based on their academic performance. “We called the five top-ranked students from each university and top 1% of the students from the Uttar Pradesh board (based on class X results),” said Tiwari. But organizers said the purpose of the event was only to inspire, and not to teach. Noted T. Ramasami, secretary, ministry of science and technology: “Just last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched INSPIRE (Innovations in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) and one of the innovations is this.” INSPIRE is a Rs2,000 crore programme that started earlier this year and provides a range of scholarships to at least a million school students and researchers, to stick to basic science research. A significant component of the scholarships would be trips to science conclaves. “Allahabad (in Uttar Pradesh) would draw students from the North. So there may be different venues over the year. The point is to ensure that all bright students, above a certain threshold of academic performance, visit at least one conclave,” Ramasami added. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 6:30 pm Satyam says independent director resignsBANGALORE (Reuters) - An independent director resigned from Satyam Computer Services Ltd after it was barred from doing business with the World Bank and came under scrutiny following a botched attempt to buy two companies founded by Satyam's chairman.Source: Reuters: Money News | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:57 pm The year we really came outThe past two decades have seen tremendous progress within the queer rights movement in India. The battle has been fought on several overlapping activist fronts, through organizations such as Sangama (Bangalore), which follows a human rights-based approach, and the Humsafar Trust (Mumbai), which focuses on health-based intervention. This has run in parallel with the continuing legal struggle for the modification of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which effectively criminalizes same-sex relationships. Alongside the activism, there has also been a great deal of social change, especially in cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore. The Gay Bombay parties, Delhi’s Nigah Media Festival and Bangalore’s Gay Running and Breakfast (GRAB) club are just the tip of the iceberg—all big Indian cities today have vibrant, active and diverse queer scenes, the listings for which are easily available on the Web, or in some cases, in the local TimeOut. While developments such as these have taken place at a steady pace over the past two decades, 2008 could be considered the tipping point.  17 November: Gay Israeli couple Yonatan Gher and Omer fly to Tel Aviv from Mumbai with their baby born to an Indian surrogate mother. Jayachandran / Mint This year witnessed queer pride marches held in four different cities. New Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata simultaneously held pride marches on 29 June, while Mumbai followed with its Queer Azaadi march, held symbolically on 16 August, one day after Independence Day. The several hundred participants in each city also included a large number of straight supporters— parents, friends and colleagues of queer people who marched to show solidarity for the cause. For the people who marched, they were empowering experiences, the chance to be a part of and connect with a larger queer community. For the casual observers who witnessed the marches, it was an indication that queerness exists in India, and not just on TV shows or the op-ed pages of newspapers. It was also the year that the case filed to modify section 377 finally drew to a close in the Delhi high court, eight years after its original filing. Developments were closely tracked by activists and the media throughout 2008, and this included the various arguments for the modification of the law made by the lawyers speaking for the petitioners—Naz Foundation India and Voices against 377—as well as the opponents, including the government. The government’s contradictory stance on the issue was well documented. The pre-release hype around one of this year’s biggest film releases, Dostana, and the conversations that the film sparked post-release served the queer cause immensely. In my book, I talk about how, while waiting for political or legal changes, we often fail to notice that real change is already happening all around us. Dostana tapped into this current. Even though the film itself was comic, its release provided India a serious opportunity to talk about queerness at workplaces, colleges and homes. Priyanka Chopra’s matter-of-factness, Kirron Kher’s accepting mother character, the dramatic kiss between lead actors Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham and the film’s ambiguous ending are landmark Bollywood moments. The film’s acceptance by the general public is an indication that queerness, like other differences, can be comfortably imagined within the Indian context. There was, of course, a lot more, and it is heartening to see how the media took up the queer cause and ran with it, throughout this year. The nuanced nature of the coverage was impressive, whether it were well-researched stories that appeared on Tehelka covers, sensitive NDTV reports on the problems queer students face in school, or announcements for the Rajpipla prince Manvendra Singh Gohil’s plans to set up an old age home in India for gay men. To acknowledge and honour the media’s support, the year witnessed the first Queer Media Collective Awards. The year also witnessed several progressive institutional on-the-ground changes. For example, in May, Tamil Nadu became the first state to grant recognition to the transgendered in its official documents. Applications for admission to educational institutions, government hospitals and ration cards in the state now allow one’s gender to be designated as M, F, or T. All this is very feel-good, but I want to be guarded as we enter into 2009. The problems of harassment, blackmail and discrimination continued in 2008. In February, the Mumbai police, accompanied by television cameras, raided a gay party in Thane and made several arrests. In March, a homophobic mob in Kolkata attacked and critically injured three kotis who were peacefully walking in the locality. In November, the police in Bangalore arrested, victimized and mistreated several hijras and Sangama activists. These incidents and hundreds of other unreported acts of physical and emotional violence against queer people, remind us that despite all the hoopla, perhaps the queer struggle is only just beginning in our country. Parmesh Shahani is the editorial director of Verve magazine and the author of Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India (Sage Publications, 2008). Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:27 pm The year when small was big and big wasn’t big enoughNOTE: All “facts” are alleged. They are primarily set forth by a conscious desire to confabulate and illustrate, and are not intended for the noble purposes of the actuary.  Illustration: Jayachandran / Mint From a burning matchstick to the blazing desert sun in Lawrence of Arabia. From an animal bone flipping through the prehistoric sky to a spaceship pirouetting through space in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both cuts dramatically take us through a vast span of space and time in the blink of an eye. From the infinitesimal to the infinite. From small to big. I am wary of propounding any theory as a practising member of a business where, as William Goldman famously said, “nobody knows anything”. But there does seem to be an opportunity for films to be made with limited financial resources that appeal to a certain kind of audience. Bhojpuri films do this well, as do films driven by a genre or high concept (they are being watched in increasing numbers in our cities). I was doing some mental calculations about our blockbuster films—since there is a complete lack of comprehensive data on the film industry despite the entry of large corporations (which makes me wonder what they base their investment decisions on!), this is more of an educated guess. The largest amount that a film distributor has made from a film in India (which is what he receives, net of theatre rentals, taxes, etc.) in recent times is said to be about Rs36 crore. Taking an average of Rs40 per ticket buyer (in multiplexes it would range from Rs40-80, single screens from Rs10-50), that comes to about nine million tickets sold. Even if I am off in my calculation by 100%, the number of tickets sold would still be less than 20 million, or just 0.16% of our population. That’s about a third of the total number of people who use the Internet in India. Not a great indicator of success for a business that is supposed to be for the masses. The Dark Knight, which grossed more than $530 million (around Rs2,650 crore), has probably sold close to 45 million tickets in North America, or roughly 20 times more tickets per capita. Or, to put things in perspective, closer home, the figures quoted for the biggest Tamil films are comparable to those of Hindi films.  4 July: Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na releases. The small film becomes one of the year’s biggest hits. We are in an era where most “big” films sell themselves by virtue of the money that they have already made, i.e. a film must be good because so many have already been suckered into seeing it (an interesting strategy, because, as mentioned above, those numbers are impossible to verify!). The difference between the current “successes” and the examples mentioned above is that those films were genuinely loved, and audiences kept coming to see them, week after week. There is also more satisfaction in discovering a film through word of mouth, and sharing your excitement with those around you. Put another way, the only way to explain huge film budgets that have been greenlit in recent times seems to be that the people with the money take a view of things diametrically opposite to Surma Bhopali’s “do rupaiya mein saara jungle khareedoge?”, i.e. throw vast sums of money at a film with little hope of multiple earnings, while retaining all the risk that is inherent to our valiant enterprise. Given the fact that it is statistically impossible to sustain the business with those films, we turn back to the first principles—to wit, script is king, etc., etc., (set to a chorus of moaning about the moral weakness of paying stars so much, etc., etc., as if we were forced to pay them; as if they approached us)—and other myths necessary for survival. So we follow the simple principle that an exciting new idea well told may perhaps have a decent chance of convincing enough patrons to part with their money to make the venture viable. In January, within the span of a week, I have two films at opposite ends of the size spectrum releasing. The President is Coming, all fun and frolic with shining Indians and Dubya; our only regret is that a couple of shoes have outdone us as an appropriate goodbye gift to George Bush. Then there’s Chandni Chowk to China, the biggest film that I have personally worked on, with a few bells and whistles of a Hollywood studio as add-ons. I am equally attached to both, and both started with compelling concepts that really excited me. And, when I started work on this essay, it seemed clear to me which film was small and which was big. Until we posted the Chandni Chowk trailer on the Apple site... We’ve literally had several million hits. And, as I opened the Web page and saw us nestled between behemoths like Terminator: Salvation and Star Trek, it struck me—to the vast majority of those who go to the site, we are the small film. Most of those commenting have no idea who the stars of the movie are, but are riveted by the idea of Bollywood Kung Fu! For them, this is the film that affords them the pleasure of discovery, that comes straight out of the blue! I have no idea at all what the Fridays ahead hold, but a parting cut, this time from big to small: In Luis Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou, a sliver-like cloud drifts towards the moon. Cut A woman, who comes out of nowhere, is seized by Buñuel, and her eye forced open. Cut The cloud now divides the moon into two. Cut A razor slices the woman’s eye open. So whether small or big, the films we love make us see with a new eye. Rohan Sippy is a producer and director of Hindi films. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:23 pm Difficult days: low ad revenue, paginationThe year 2008 was one of the most difficult years for the print industry. While input costs, especially the newsprint prices, went up, advertising revenues took a hit. Ashish Bagga takes a peep into the likely trends for 2009.  Greater synergy and consolidation: Living Media CEO Ashish Bagga. * We will also see lower pagination with higher cover prices, resulting in lower circulation. This clearly is a consequence of relatively higher input costs, especially the newsprint, combined with lower advertising to editorial ratio. Cover prices will see an upward trend due to a correction in the business model, which has been largely dependent on the advertising revenue stream. * Valuations will be based on real current profits, and not future earnings. This is a typical trend that emerges when the economy is growing slower and investor and consumer confidence is low. * There will be greater synergies and consolidation across businesses that hitherto were working in silos. Both the scenarios have their pros and cons but when demand is low and business models are under pressure to perform efficiently, it becomes increasingly important to exploit synergies. * Rightsizing of human resource will be another key trend. Both the number of employees as well as the cost of employment will be under review. Also See Fine Print (Graphic) * There will be greater accountability on monies spent/invested by advertisers. Given the demand-supply situation as well as rising media costs, publishers will be accountable to a greater extent on the return on investment to advertisers.  * High engagement media forms, such as consumer and business-to-business magazines, will gain over low engagement print forms, such as undifferentiated newspapers. Magazine publishers with strong print brands will leverage their brands beyond the print across Internet and mobile and will address alternative revenue and profit models. * Market leaders will consolidate their position further but with lower profits despite a higher market share in advertising spends. This will be because of the changing cost and revenue structure as well as the capability of market leaders to tweak pricing and offer value added propositions to wean away market share from the smaller players. * With limited access to cash and the high cost of capital, low investor confidence and strained business models, there will be fewer new entrants or launches from the existing players than before and this trend will continue into 2009-10. Ashish Baggais CEO, Living Media India Ltd. The media company publishes several magazines including India Today and Business Today, along with running news channels such as Aaj Tak and Headlines Today. This is the fifth in a nine-part series. Monday: Rajesh Jain, MD of Netcore Solutions Pvt. Ltd talks about mobile trends. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:19 pm The year of sons, soil and concrete Lieutenant-Commander KRU Todd of the Royal Indian Navy first got wind that prehistoric man had lived in Mumbai when he examined the gravel of the Back Bay on the city’s southern tip nearly 80 years ago. An amateur archaeologist, Todd presented a paper to the Prehistoric Society, East Anglia, in 1932 laying out details of rough tools and flakes that seemed to be approximately 300,000 years old. To marshal his case, though, he had to conduct digs in Kandivali, more than 30km north of the neighbourhood in which he found his initial clues. That’s because much of the material for the top filling of Back Bay reclamation scheme of the 1920s, which created 439 acres of new land between Churchgate and Colaba, had been carted in from Padan Hill in Kandivali.  Illustration: Jayachandran / Mint In the unlikely event that Raj Thackeray and his nativist associates in the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena should take the trouble to read Todd’s papers on prehistoric man, they would probably use his findings to bolster their contention that the sons of the soil have a claim to the city that’s even more ancient than they first imagined. It’s probably too much to hope that these bhumiputras see the irony implicit in the notion that, like the enterprising migrants who have settled here, Mumbai’s very soil has its origins elsewhere. While the MNS’s corrosive assertions about roots—and their vicious attacks on north Indians—have received wide play, another debate about a piece of Mumbai history has gone almost unnoticed by the national press, even though it has profound significance for the city’s future. In September 2007, Mumbai’s elected representatives in the municipal corporation took less than a minute to pass a so-called redevelopment proposal to lease the 139-year-old Crawford Market at Rs1,001 a year for 60 years to a firm named East West. The company was given the right to demolish portions of the historic complex to build three towers with a total area of 65,690 sq. m. of floor space. In exchange, the municipality will get 40% of that space. Civic activists pointed out that the plan will destroy the architectural integrity of the market, which has been accorded the highest level of protection under Maharashtra’s heritage protection regulations. But it’s mainly the integrity of Mumbai’s elected officials that’s been called into question. According to the calculations of Right to Information activist Sailesh Gandhi, East West would make a profit of Rs1,155 crore on an investment of Rs105 crore. Under pressure, the corporation voted in March on a demand that the redevelopment proposal should be reconsidered. Civic activists lined up in the lobby to urge representatives to do the right thing. When the motion was tabled, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena voted against reconsidering the proposal and the Congress stayed neutral. The plan now has to be approved by the heritage committee, but its opinion is not binding on the municipal commissioner, who can pass the proposal if he presents valid reasons.  1 February: Raj Thackeray questions Amitabh Bachchan’s decision to start a school for girls in Uttar Pradesh. Rajanish Kakade / AP Since then, two other decisions on real estate have been welcomed by construction companies, but greeted with horror by people who care about Mumbai. In September, the Supreme Court set aside restrictions imposed by the Bombay high court in 2006 on the reconstruction of approximately 19,000 so-called cessed buildings in southern Mumbai. The residents of these buildings pay a cess to the state housing board to ensure that repairs are carried out, because their landlords have refused to look after their upkeep. Though the state government has offered construction firms liberal incentives to rehouse the residents of these structures, the majority of which were built before September 1940, the Bombay high court had ruled that mandatory open spaces around the buildings had to be maintained. With the Supreme Court lifting these requirements, the residents of skyscrapers that will sprout through southern Mumbai will literally be able to shake the hands of people in neighbouring buildings. As if this wasn’t alarming enough, the municipal corporation at the end of November decided to allow residents of the city’s 30 fishing settlements and 189 gaothans—villages that have improbably held out against the concrete tsunami of urbanisation—to demolish their homes and build taller homes. It seems that the authorities haven’t bothered to study whether the infrastructure of these already-congested neighbourhoods can actually support the increased populations that will move into the new buildings. The events of the past year follow the inexplicable decision in 2006 to allow piecemeal building projects on 600 acres of mill land in central Mumbai and the plan to redevelop the Dharavi slum area even though the government-appointed consultant to the project isn’t sure quite how many families live there and need to be rehoused. In most other cities, this kind of chaos would probably have prompted irate residents to flood into the streets in protest. But in Mumbai, this seems like business as usual. After all, real estate corruption has been around for centuries (though not perhaps from prehistoric times). In fact, one notorious episode involved the area in south Mumbai where Lieutenant-Commander KRU Todd scratched around for clues about the city’s origins. In 1926, the Backbay enquiry committee discovered evidence of financial irregularities in the reclamation scheme and noted that the government’s permission had been obtained through an incomplete presentation. That committee was headed by K.F. Nariman, after whom another stretch of land with the whiff of scandal to it would be named decades later. Naresh Fernandes is the editor-in-chief of TimeOut. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:19 pm 10 Indian MFIs in global top 100 rankingMumbai: Indian microfinance institutions (MFIs) feature the most in a global list of the top 100 firms, as ranked by US-based Microfinance Information Exchange Inc. (MIX). The annual MIX Global 100 Composite Ranking features 10 Indian microfinance institutions in the list topped by Indonesia’s MBK Ventura, which has at least 64,000 borrowers. India’s SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd, with more than 1.6 million borrowers, has slipped from the top slot to second position. Also See Making a Mark (PDF) Cashpor Micro Credit, Sarvodaya Nano Finance Ltd, Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF), Spandana Sphoorty Financial Ltd, Aadarsha Welfare Society and Centre for Rural Reconstruction through Social Action are the other Indian microfinance institutions in the list’s top 50. The MIX list selected the top 100 institutions from a sample of 652 firms based on three key attributes: outreach, efficiency, and transparency. The performance of these institutions was measured for each area relative to other firms in the sample. “Leading the South Asian contingent, India was the only country with 10 or more MFIs in the ranking, seven of which scored in the top 50,” MIX said in the report. “Five other countries posted five or more MFIs, including Cambodia, Bosnia, Colombia, Ecuador and Morocco.” Also See Rankings of Microfinance Institutions (PDF) Indian microfinance institutions in the top 100 averaged above 50% growth in borrowers over the previous year, the report shows. SKS Microfinance more than tripled the number of its borrowers during the year to cross the one million mark. “Top-level efficiency also boosted their ranking, as Indian MFIs in the composite ranking kept costs to less than a quarter of the average, at 1.5% of gross national income per capita, buoyed by low labour costs and high productivity,” MIX said. “The interest rates in select South Asian economies are higher when compared with India. This reflects on the margins of Indian MFIs,” said M.R. Rao, chief operating officer, SKS Microfinance. “Interest rates charged in Sri Lanka are anywhere in the range of 33-36%, while in India we charge an interest rate of 24-25%.” But SKS has decided to go slow on acquiring new customers because of the credit crunch. “We have also decided to go slow on branch expansion considering the existing economic environment... Once the liquidity situation turns we will begin acquiring new customers,” said Rao. India had 216 microfinance institutions with a loan portfolio of up to Rs5,898.2 crore as at end-March, according to the Bharat Microfinance report of Sa-Dhan, an association of development finance institutions. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:18 pm The year we reclaimed our EnglishThere are two books selling on the streets of Mumbai now. Hamish McDonald’s The Polyester Prince, and a cheap paperback of this year’s Booker winner, Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger. The former, a sensationalized tell-all of the rise of Dhirubhai Ambani, is officially banned in India. You could call it a street classic—since 1999 when Australian publisher Allen & Unwin published the book, most copies have been sold at traffic signals. But The Polyester Prince doesn’t seem to excite the street sellers anymore.  Illustration: Jayachandran / Mint About the second, the boys are aggressive. “Booker, Adiga”, they say, pressing its cover against car windows. They know that like Shobhaa De’s books, “Booker” is big, “Booker” will sell. If you were to judge the success of The White Tiger and its author by this prize, it’s the biggest thing to have happened in the Indian publishing world this year. But the importance of this book lies elsewhere. It’s the story of Balram, a voluble, murderous man from the dark hinterlands who makes it in the big, sinister city. His story is told through letters to the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. Adiga’s narrative is shocking—partly in a good way. It is symptomatic of a final breaking-away from a long tradition of Indian English fiction. Finally, we are no longer unapologetic about the way we visualize, think and therefore write about ourselves. Unlike the big names in the 1990s and even 2000s, we have stopped negotiating a language that has to be true to colonial traditions of syntax and imagery and yet capable of faithfully reproducing Indian realities. It is finally about our English and our metaphors. The White Tiger exploded these clichés and stunned many people, certainly the judges of the Booker Prize: “With their tinted windows up, the cars of the rich go like dark eggs down the roads of Delhi. Every now and then, an egg will crack open—a woman’s hand, dazzling with gold bangles, stretches out of an open window, flings an empty mineral water bottle onto the road—and then the window goes up, and the egg is released.” 14 October: Aravind Adiga wins the Man Booker Prize for his debut novel The White Tiger. The merit of Adiga’s book can’t be stretched much beyond this shock value. So The White Tiger is certainly not the biggest or best thing to have happened to Indian publishing this year. In fact, the new beginning that Adiga seemed to represent has been in the making for a few years now, with many young writers holding up new voices and making works of literary value, more sophisticated and universal than Adiga’s. Altaf Tyrewala’s No God in Sight and Anjum Hasan’s Lunatic in My Head immediately come to mind. It’s unfair that he emerged as the torch-bearer. But let’s leave the quibbling aside for now. A better picture of the year that was in Indian publishing emerges when we ask: What really made Adiga stand out? The unequivocal answer is: HarperCollins’ aggressive marketing. For the first time in India, a television commercial promoted a book. Life-size cut-outs of the author stood at the entrance of bookstores. It has been a global trend this year—publishers pushing the boundaries of promotional strategy. YouTube, Twitter and nightclubs were venues where books were launched. Fuelled by and piggybacking on the burgeoning Indian economy in the early part of 2008, publishers thought big—more print runs, bigger promotional budgets and wider distribution. You’re sure to remember Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan? Penguin India was bullish about promoting our first major book, You are Here, long before it actually released in August 2008. We got postcards of its cover with one-liners such as these: “The trouble with my life is that it’s like a bra strap when you put your bra on wrong...” A couple of months before that, Penguin India CEO Mike Bryan told Lounge in an interview that it was one of the books he was most looking forward to in 2008. Global publishers such as Hachette entered the Indian market. Said Thomas Abraham, managing director, Hachette Livre, “With more players and competition, there will be improvements in quality, wider targeting of readership which will thus expand the market, and a better end customer experience.” Popular genres—chick lit, literary fiction, non-fiction, campus flick, the India book—were well-defined. Perhaps for the first time, the publisher considered reading to be akin to watching TV—would you rather watch Indian Idol or read about the drugs-and-masti story of a management student? The author who made the maximum number of appearances on TV and in tabloids was the father of the Indian campus caper himself, Chetan Bhagat. His third book sold over 25,000 copies in a month, his publisher proclaimed. Such democratization has always existed in the US—the market for a Don DeLillo is as sacrosanct as that for Stephen Covey or Bill Bryson. But can we consider a similar approach to be of great consequence in India? Do many book launches and many new genres mean we are evolved readers and publishers? We are a country of 22 regional languages, each with its own literary traditions and popular fiction. Most big publishers are yet to tap the riches of regional language writing. Thanks to Blaft, an independent publisher, we got the eye-opening The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction. The English language publishing industry—Penguin, HarperCollins, Random House and others—reaches out to about 35% of readers in India. According to a study conducted by research consultancy firm Technopak Advisors in October (there is no systematic study on the Indian publishing market), this industry is estimated at Rs13,000 crore. India Perspectives, a monthly produced by the ministry of external affairs, focused an entire issue on the publishing industry in September. Its editor concluded: “Today, over 90,000 books in English and in Indian languages are published annually in India of which only around twenty per cent represent English language book publishing.” One of the most encouraging trends of 2008 has been a boost in serious and engaging non-fiction. The book of the “new India” made way for the India versus China narrative (Bill Emmott’s Rivals, Parag Khanna’s Second World, Arvind Panagriya’s India: The Emerging Giant). Random House India’s AIDS Sutra, an anthology of writings on people living with the disease, is comparable to some of the best works of literary non-fiction in the world. Thanks to a vibrant industry, we were happy bookworms. What do we get next? We’ll find out soon enough whether books are recession-free. Most likely they are. But more importantly, nursing the wounds of a brutal attack from an unknown enemy, struggling through our loss, fears and questions, we’ll turn to books that have survived wars, disasters and recessions—books that always speak to us with urgency, and engages with the beauty and pain of the human condition. Write to sanjukta.s@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:10 pm Kingfisher Airlines set to break even in December: MallyaBangalore: Kingfisher Airlines Ltd expects to break even in December on an estimated revenue of Rs500 crore for the month, according to chairman Vijay Mallya. “All going well, we should break even in December itself,” Mallya said after the annual general meeting of shareholders.  Raising funds: Chairman Vijay Mallya says the airline’s plans to raise $400 million to fund operations remain on track. Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint “I think the worst is over and there’s no reason why private equity investors who had expressed interest when oil was at $100 a barrel shouldn’t be more interested when oil is $36 a barrel,” Mallya said. Kingfisher, India’s second largest private sector carrier by passengers behind Jet Airways (India) Ltd, had reported a net loss of Rs641 crore for the six months to 30 September, following its merger with budget carrier Deccan Aviation Ltd. Kingfisher, which had announced an operational alliance with Jet, plans to launch two flights connecting Mumbai to Hong Kong and Singapore in January, besides flights to Colombo, Male and Dubai from Bangalore. “The fundamentals for the aviation industry are strong but the government has to recognize that the aviation industry is a very important part of India’s infrastructure,” Mallya said, a position long held by India’s private aviation companies looking for tax breaks and other concessions from the government amid a downturn in their business. Airlines have been demanding that aviation fuel be given the so-called declared goods status that will enable it to be taxed at 4% across India, instead of an average of about 26% because of varying taxes in different states. But a committee of state finance ministers has opposed this demand. “We can pass on pretty much majority of the savings and that would be good for the industry, make air travel even more affordable and stimulate an industry that has slowed down considerably,” claimed Mallya. Kingfisher shares rose 0.87% to Rs34.80 n the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:06 pm Few bet on early gains for IPO market in 2009Mumbai: The worldwide financial meltdown left another major casualty in 2008: the market where Indian companies had hoped to raise money by listing their shares on stock exchanges, also known as the “primary” market. While a number of companies had to postpone initial public offerings (IPOs), others that went ahead with plans, including Delhi-based real estate developer Emaar MGF Land Ltd and Mumbai-based Wockhardt Hospitals Ltd had to shelve them amid investor apathy. With many economies slowing and many stock markets producing their worst annual returns in a long time, it appears that 2009, or at least the early part of it, won’t offer any fresh hope as far as new IPOs are concerned. Also see Capital Markets Review (Graphic) “You require a stable and a buoyant secondary market (where listed shares are traded) for the primary market to happen. If the secondary market continues to be the way it is, then the primary market will not work,” said Prithvia Haldea, chairman and managing director of Prime Database, which tracks market data, including issues. His rationale is that when there are no buyers for existing listed stock, there will be no appetite for new stocks.  “The primary market will open up only once the secondary market stabilizes and that too with a lag,” said Sanjay Sharma, managing director and head of equity capital markets at Deutsche Equities India Pvt. Ltd, which was ranked No. 1 by Bloomberg in its 2008 so-called League Tables, a closely watched ranking of those who underwrite domestic, company equity issues, including IPOs and rights issues. According to Sharma, secondary markets’ stability will depend on not just global events but three India-specific factors. “Corporate earnings as estimated by research analysts (are) still uncertain and investors will wait for the December and March quarter numbers before being comfortable on valuations,” he said. “They will also wait to see what happens on the political front (referring to the impending general election) and on the recent geopolitical situation between India and Pakistan.” The next step, he said, will be in convergence of valuation expectations of the issuer and investor, adding: “The investor needs to get a reasonable fix on the earnings as well, before he can decide on a price to pay.” According to data from Bloomberg, 34 Indian companies raised Rs18,300 crore through IPOs in 2008. That is a 45.96% drop from the Rs33,800 crore raised from 89 IPOs in 2007. Of the Rs18,300 crore the IPO of Reliance Power Ltd, the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company in January alone accounted for Rs10,100 crore. Qualified institutional placements, or QIPs, in which promoters of listed entities issue shares to institutional buyers without involving the retail investor, also suffered a setback in 2008. Funds raised by this route dropped 83.26% to Rs3,700 crore in 2008, compared with Rs22,100 crore in 2007, said Bloomberg. While IPOs and QIPs lagged, rights issues became the most favoured route for promoters of companies to shore up capital. Funds mobilized through this method increased more than threefold to Rs29,500 crore in 2008 compared with Rs8,000 crore in 2007. However, even those who raised funds adopting this route, including Tata Motors Ltd and Hindalco Industries Ltd, struggled to pull them through. “It’s not that there was a lack of issuers in 2008. Institutional investors took a bad hit and investible surpluses went down,” said Haldea. In terms of products, the ones with lower time to market would be first to resume, as and when the secondary markets stabilize. IPOs could be relatively subdued even after this, considering that it takes approximately six weeks between price range fixation and listing, which is a long time in such volatile markets. “The type of products that can fly will be those that can be done quickly, like QIPs, fast track follow on and rights offerings. We will also see some private placements with private equity players,” said Deutsche’s Sharma. Some market observers are cautiously optimistic about 2009. Says A. Murugappan, executive director of ICICI Securities Ltd: “India will still show growth and, therefore, foreign investors will come back into India... I am cautiously optimistic that the primary market will improve in the coming year.” A report from Nexgen Capitals Ltd, the investment banking arm of New Delhi-based financial services house, SMC Global, said merchant banking fees from all the IPOs in 2008 was just Rs230 crore, compared with Rs771 crore in 2007. Graphic by Sandeep Bhatnagar / Mint Source: Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:05 pm The experience junkieWhen history looks back on 2008, this will be regarded as the year when travel ditched the sun-n-sand variety of tourism and evolved into an experience-rich genre of its own. Finally moving beyond sightseeing, the consummate Indian traveller sought to think out of his suitcase and make a difference—to himself, to his destination, and to the larger world.  Pratap Bose deep sea fishing in Thailand. Pratap Bose A cushion for the hard life At 52, Gaurang Jhaveri, automobile engineer-turned-investments adviser, has a gory health history: osteoarthritis, two angioplasties and a bypass surgery. Individually, they would have felled a lesser man or at least shackled him to the sofa for the rest of his life. Jhaveri, though, looked at his health issues as a challenge. A year after his bypass, he was standing atop Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest free-standing mountain. “This was the only window I had following my ill health, especially the coronary bypass,” says Jhaveri. “Africa is the grand obsession of my life: I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been to Kenya since my first trip in 1969. On safaris in Kenya and Tanzania, I’d often marvelled at the majestic beauty of Mt Kilimanjaro, which was never far from our sight. Last year, I knew if I didn’t climb it now, I could probably never do it again.” Jhaveri researched hard for a tour organizer who would not baulk at his health issues. He finally signed up with the African Walking Co., affiliated to the London-based African Travel Resource. “What bowled me over was their offer of insurance covering existing conditions. Their promises of an airlift in case of a medical emergency made a difference, too. I’ve done plenty of hardship treks in my youth but I can’t repeat that now,” he says. His family also insisted that his elder daughter Shefali, 19, accompany him on the trek (Kilimanjaro is among the few peaks that do not require mountaineering skills). But before that, Jhaveri had to clear strict fitness tests. “I had to train for three months, since the scant oxygen on the mountain would make the heart beat 170 times a minute. Thankfully, I passed the medical tests with 180 beats/minute and I was allowed to go on the expedition.”  Adventure: Jhaveri overcame a troubled medical history to follow his wanderlust. Always a subscriber to outdoorsy holidays that combine dependable comfort with an element of unexpected adventure, Jhaveri has now set his heart on walking through the sand dunes of the Namib desert in Africa. “It’s a 10-day/100km trail through the world’s oldest desert,” he says enthusiastically. “The wildlife is incredible—here you see the only lion species that have adapted to living in the desert—and the trail ends at what’s called the Skeleton Coast, because there were so many shipwrecks on this part of the Atlantic.” Sophisticate’s choice For Bangalore-based gallerist Shreen Malani, it is the experience of the sophisticated life that is the perpetual quest on her travels. “Whether it’s New York or London or any European capital, my travels are incomplete if I don’t catch at least two plays. I love theatre, especially musicals, and I think I’ve seen every play currently running on Broadway and West End. Shows and performances, from philharmonic recitals to Tom Jones, are another draw—if there’s an artist I like playing anywhere at all when I’m in the city, I’ll make it a point to be there,” says Malani. “The whole idea of old-style glamour excites me, so I make it a point to dress up for theatre, arrive in time for the performance and finish the evening with an excellent dinner that we usually book ahead. I enjoy that whole sense of anticipation, of fitting in—which is why I choose to dress elegantly, like the rest of the audience. If the theatre’s too close to hire a cab, I’ll even carry my dress shoes in a bag and quickly change into them as we enter.” In their 50s, Malani and her businessman husband Ravi, who shares her tastes, make it a point to seek out the environment that most becomes them. They prefer not to stray too far outside city limits and, if they do, it is only for the pleasures of golf and health treatments. “Earlier this year, we’d visited Turnberry in Scotland, said to be the finest golfing destination in the world, with championship courses—my husband and son are enthusiastic golfers—fabulous views of the Ayrshire coast and accommodation that’s a class apart,” says Malani. “The bonus, apart from a superb spa, though, was the range of outdoor activities: fishing, shooting, archery and falconry.” This was how the British gentry lived for centuries and they now package it for travellers to offer them a glimpse of a gracious way of life. Fishing for supper Long before experiential travel became fashionable, Mudra COO Pratap Bose, 45, had spurned by-the-book for out-of-the-box. Most memorably in 2000, he visited Israel for a week, covering Jerusalem, Nazareth, the Golan Heights, the Dead Sea and spending a day with the Bedouins. “We did things and visited places that are no longer accessible now,” says Bose of the trip. For this inveterate traveller, it’s this sense of achievement that makes his handsome budgets worth their weight in gold. “Take fishing. It’s a hobby I have pursued since I was a boy and deep-sea fishing is something I do at any given opportunity. Malta, an archipelago of seven islands in the Mediterranean with a south of France feel, was an excellent experience. I went fishing twice off the Malta bay, a beautiful location made more impressive by the 4-5km long line-up of luxury cruisers and yachts. “But my favourite when it comes to fishing is the waters off Thailand, largely because of the quality of catch,” says Bose. “I must have visited Thailand at least 10-12 times for fishing and I try a new location every time.” Bose makes it a point to engage a deep-sea fishing boat with the best gear and a knowledgeable captain and crew. Fishing can be tiring as it involves sitting for hours in the hot sun and then reeling in fish that can vary in size from 6-7ft to 20ft. The catch of the day is either cooked on board the boat or turned over to the chef at the hotel for dinner. Write to lounge@livemint.com The feel-good life Want more out of your travels? Take your pick Donor travel:Altruism is in. So you can do your bit to save the developing world. “Last March, we organized a donor trip to Honduras. Eleven people visited the Pico Bonito National Park to see carbon offsetting and watershed projects, which are helping combat the destruction of the park’s precious resources, loss of biodiversity and degraded watersheds,” says Jessica Kenney, a marketing associate with Elevate Destinations www.elevatedestinations.com). Think of it as the ultimate guilt trip. Customized holidays:Go where no man has gone before. Or at least, where you can see no man. Whether it’s floating around the Galapagos islands, South America, in a yacht or mountain biking in Idaho, US, if there’s a remote spot in the world, there’s a travel company ready to tailor your trip there. “In New Zealand, you can travel in four-wheel drives, stay in luxe wilderness lodges, swim with the dolphins or spot the seals (but no humans),” says Leisure Ways’ managing director Ashish Chadha (011-25887204). Invest in experience The most luxurious train ride in the world is in South Africa (www.rovos.co.za). There is wilderness safari accommodation in North Island, Seychelles (www.north-island.com), and in central and South Africa (www.wilderness-safaris.com). You could also go polar bear shooting (only with your camera) in Canada or save the turtle in Costa Rica (www.whydontyou.com). If you have the will, they have the way. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:03 pm Car sales are far from buoyant However, auto analysts are anything but sanguine about the prospects of the domestic passenger car segment. An analyst with a foreign brokerage, who didn’t want to be identified, dismisses the automakers’ optimistic assessment saying that it doesn’t make any sense to compare sales with those of the preceding month because it represented a low base. On a year-on-year basis, he expects sales to drop by 15-16%. This may be lower than the decline of about 24% last month, but nothing to get excited about. Not many consumers are in the mood to make big-ticket purchases, given the precarious economic situation. With layoffs and salary cuts on the rise, the number of consumers willing to commit to large EMIs (equated monthly instalments) is dwindling. When car manufacturers report sales for the month of December early next week, they could well be higher than what they achieved in November. Also See South Bound (Graphic) But it’s important to note that sales in November were much lower than market expectations as manufacturers sought to cut inventory with dealers. A month-on-month comparison, therefore, doesn’t make sense. The cut in excise duty may have helped a bit in generating demand but also has a flip side, since the inventory lying with dealers has to be marked down to the new value and the difference will largely have to be borne by manufacturers. The markets, too, seem hardly excited about prospects of auto firms. Shares of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd have risen by about 10% from their lows in the beginning of the month, but that’s more or less in line with the bounce-back in the broad markets. In terms of valuations, most auto shares continue to languish, reflecting the minimal expectations investors have from these firms. Write to us at marktomarket@livemint.com Graphics by Paras Jain / Mint Source: Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:03 pm Bad loans at banks set to rise on low sales, profits How bad can the NPA problem get? A research note by financial services firm Antique Finance Ltd says that the concerns are overblown and that “gross NPAs will reach to 4.7% of the total loans in FY10 from the current level of 2.3% and will peak at 5.0% in FY11.” One way to gauge how much NPAs will rise is to consider what happened the last time we had a downturn. In 2000-01, when GDP growth went down to 4.4% from 6.4% in the previous year, the Reserve Bank of India data show the combined NPAs of public sector banks (in absolute numbers) actually fell a bit. NPAs will reach 4.7% of the total loans in FY10 from the current 2.3% and will peak at 5.0% in FY11 There seems to be no simple correlation between NPAs and economic growth, although during the boom years of 2003-07, bad loans with public sector banks went down by a whopping 26.9%. In 2007-08, however, NPAs rose by 2.9% (again in absolute numbers), a signal that credit conditions had started to decline in the last fiscal year to March. A closer look shows that there was a big difference between priority sector loans and other advances. For non-priority non-PSU sector loans, NPAs among public sector banks rose only in 2001-02, by 4%. While NPAs on account of non-priority sector non-PSU loans went down by 50% between 2000 and 2008, the bad loans of priority sector advances increased by 6.6% over the period. It’s rather obvious that small firms fare the worst during a downturn, not only because credit is usually withdrawn from them but also because they are squeezed by large firms. Priority sector loans are, therefore, a millstone around the necks of public sector banks. Interestingly, the level of NPAs with public sector banks continued to rise throughout the second half of the 1990s. What has been the single biggest change from that decade? Much lower interest rates. In 1998, for instance, almost 80% of bank loans were at interest rates above 14% per annum. In 2007, that percentage was around 30%. Also, the large gains from their bond portfolios in the early years of the current decade helped banks to make bigger provisions to take care of NPAs at banks. A recent study by Citi Investment Research on NPAs concluded that banks are: a) still far from peak NPAs (25%, current 2%), and slippages (6.7%, current 2%); b) deterioration correlates more with Index of Industrial Production than GDP/loan growth; c) one-three year lag between economic slowdown, and NPAs peaking; d) lending rates matter (peak 19%, current 14%), but impact limited; e) credit costs are back-ended, they rise even after the economy bottoms; f) stocks underperform with rising deterioration. At this juncture, banks will be well advised to concentrate on asset quality rather than on growth. Write to us at marktomarket@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 5:03 pm Need To Know | Hyundai Motor India to cut output from MondayMumbai: South Korean car maker Hyundai Motor Co.’s India unit will cut production by a quarter from Monday as a spreading global downturn bites its sales, a senior executive said on Friday. Hyundai expects to sell just 490,000 cars including exports, against a target of 530,000, in 2008 as the industry grapples with falling sales and tighter credit, H.S. Lheem, managing director of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, said. “We have decided to go in for a two-shift production instead of three shifts now as demand has declined,” he told reporters after opening a new showroom in Mumbai. — Reuters ********* HDFC Bank raises Rs1,728 cr via bonds Mumbai: HDFC Bank Ltd said it has raised Rs1,728 crore through the private issue of subordinated debt. On a private placement basis, the bank has issued unsecured non-convertible redeemable subordinated bonds in the nature of debentures, HDFC said on Friday in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. — PTI ********* RBI’s third quarterly review on 27 Jan Mumbai: Amid talks of further easing the monetary policy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday said it will come out with the third quarterly review of monetary policy on 27 January. “D. Subbarao, governor, Reserve Bank of India, will present the third quarter review of monetary policy for the year 2008-09 on Tuesday, 27 January 2009,” the central bank said in a statement. — PTI ********* Nov iron ore sales rise as China buys more Mumbai: India’s iron ore exports in November rose as China increased purchases. Shipments were at 8.74 million tonnes (mt), compared with 4.14mt in October, the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, a group of iron ore miners, said in a statement on Friday. Chinese mills are buying more from India because they want suppliers such as BHP Billiton Ltd and Rio Tinto Plc. to cut prices, said R.K. Sharma, secretary general of the association. This is a way of putting pressure on Rio and BHP, he said over the telephone from New Delhi. — Bloomberg ********* Tata Steel: land issue delaying Vietnam plans Mumbai: Tata Steel Ltd said on Friday a $5 billion (Rs23,950 crore) integrated steel plant it plans to build in Vietnam would be delayed as the location for the project was still being finalized. “The Vietnam government are yet to give us land. They had indicated a plot, but are now changing the location,” Tata Steel spokesman Sanjay Choudhary said. Earlier on Friday, the ‘Business Standard’ newspaper reported the commissioning of the first phase of the plant, which will eventually have a capacity of 4.5 million tonnes a year, would be put back by at least a year to 2011, quoting an unnamed company spokesperson. The paper said the delay was due to the large number of projects proposed for an economic zone in the South-East Asian nation. — Reuters ********* Foreign reserves rise $3.6 bn to $254.1 bn Mumbai: India’s foreign-exchange reserves rose $3.6 billion (Rs17,244 crore) to $254.1 billion in the week ended 19 December, the central bank said. Foreign-currency assets increased $3.58 billion to $245.3 billion, while the nation’s gold reserves remained unchanged at $7.86 billion, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in an emailed statement. India’s special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were unchanged at $3 million and its reserves with the IMF climbed by $16 million to $880 million. The change in foreign-currency assets is partly because of changes in the value of the dollar against the euro, yen and other currencies during the period, RBI said. — Bloomberg ********* Jubilant Organosys may buy back bonds Singapore: Drug maker Jubilant Organosys Ltd said it may buy back convertible bonds it sold in foreign currencies. The company’s board will “explore” opportunities to retire bonds, it said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday, without being more specific. (The promoters of HT Media Ltd, which publishes Mint, and promoters of Jubilant Organosys Ltd are closely related. The companies have no promoter cross-holdings.) — Bloomberg ********* Fund raising: Wockhardt to seek shareholder nod Mumbai: Drug maker Wockhardt Ltd said on Friday it will seek shareholder approval on 19 January to raise up to Rs500 crore through issue of redeemable preference shares. It could be raised from a variety of investors including foreign institutional investors, using options including public or rights issue, preferential allotment or private placement, Wockhardt said in a statement to the stock exchanges. — Reuters ********* US singer and actor Eartha Kitt dies at 81 Washington: Eartha Kitt, the versatile American singer and actress who mesmerized audiences worldwide for over six decades with her sultry voice and sensuality on stage and screen, died on Thursday. She was 81. Kitt, whose outspokenness was a mainstay of her career but also led to a self-imposed exile to Europe in the 1960s and 70s after her stinging critique of the war in Vietnam, won two Emmy television awards and was nominated for two Tony awards and a pair of Grammys. She was being treated for colon cancer at a New York hospital, her friend and publicist Andrew Freedman said. — AFP ********* Govt slams door on foreign-based players New Delhi: The government on Friday slammed the door on foreign-based players such as Prakash Amritraj and Sunitha Rao and made it clear that only Indian citizens would represent the country in international events. “The government has decided that, henceforth, players who are Indian citizens only can avail themselves of government assistance to represent the country in the national teams representing the country,” a government release said here on Friday. The decision leaves the tennis quartet of Prakash Amritraj, Sunitha Rao, Shikha and Neha Uberoi—all US citizens—at a crossroad even though Shikha is believed to be ready to surrender her American passport to continue playing for India. — PTI ********* Advance tax collection for Q3 down 22% New Delhi: Advance tax collections from the Indian companies declined by at least 22% to Rs42,600 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal. In the same period last fiscal, the advance tax collection stood at Rs54,900 crore. For the first three quarters ended 15 December, advance tax collections fell by 2.6% to Rs1.13 trillion from Rs 1.16 trillion in the corresponding period last year, finance ministry sources said. Fall in advance taxes reflect anticipations of lower profits by companies this fiscal. However, direct tax collections were up 11.5% at Rs2.32 trillion till 24 December from Rs2.08 trillion in the year-ago period. — PTI ********* India likely to miss $200 bn export target New Delhi: India is likely to miss the export target of $200 billion (Rs9.58 trillion) by 5-10% this fiscal as exporters face payment defaults, price cut and order cancellations with deepening of global financial crisis. “Feedback from the apex chambers of commerce and different export promotion councils (EPCs) suggests that the target for the current year is unlikely to be achieved,” a top official said. He said with the worsening situation in the global markets, the number of exporters not realizing the dues from buyers in the US and Europe would “increase substantially”. The recession in the key markets, is likely to result in cash flow difficulties for exporters, delay in execution of orders in hand and high cost of insurance cover. — PTI ********* Source: Home - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 4:36 pm E-Agri scheme in Palar basin in Tamil NaduCoimbatore: E-Velanmai (E-Agriculture) Scheme for technology transfer using Information and Communication Technologies to farmers has been introduced in Palar basin of Parambikulam Aliyar Project. The scheme is sponsored by the Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation and Water body Restoration Management (TN-IAMWARM) project and implemented by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Farmers volunteered to get enrolled in the scheme to get technical advice from scientists on agricultural problems by paying a membership fee ranging from Rs50 to Rs300 per year per farmer based on the size of the farm, a university release said today. Vibhu Nayar, project director, TN-IAMWARM, Chennai, along with senior officials attended the function, it said. Stating that the members would be offered technical advice on cultivation and marketing related problems in agriculture, the release said they would be trained in taking digital photos and sending them to University for receiving technical recommendations either through mobiles or e-mail. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 1:14 pm India's Nov oil product sales up 2 pct from year agoNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's domestic oil product sales in November rose 2 percent from a year earlier, reflecting sluggish demand in a slowing economy, official data showed on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 26 Dec 2008 | 12:29 pm Govt to inject $3.39 bn into Amex in lieu of shares: CEONew York: “Credit card firm American Express (Amex), a bank holding company, will receive $3.39 billion from the US government’s bailout package for the financial sector,” company CEO Ken Chenault informed the staff. American Express which has been hit by the financial turmoil, sought to change itself into a bank holding company to increase its access to capital. Further, with the government buying stakes, the company would pay a 5% dividend annually for the first five years and then 9% annually thereafter. “The Treasury Department is making an equity investment in American Express similar to the ones it has been making in some of the largest and best-capitalised US banks,” Chenault said adding: “The Treasury will purchase $3.39 billion in newly issued American Express preferred shares. The proceeds from the sale will further strengthen our capital position.” According to the company chief executive, in return for the stakes, the firm would pay an annual dividend of 5% for the first five years and subsequently 9% annually thereafter. Going by the purchase agreement, American Express can repay the Treasury its original principal amount and retire the shares after three years. “The amount of the Treasury Departments investment in American Express was determined by a formula based on the asset size of companies participating in the program,” he noted. The Federal government had come up with the $700 billion bailout plan, known as Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in October this year to boost the nation’s battered financial sector. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 12:29 pm DoCoMo, Tata open offer for Tata Tele postponedBANGALORE (Reuters) - Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc and India's Tata Sons have postponed their joint open offer for up to 20 percent of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd as it is yet to be cleared by the market regulator, their offer manager said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 26 Dec 2008 | 11:34 am Tata Steel says land delays Vietnam plansMUMBAI Reuters) - Tata Steel, the world's No. 6 steelmaker, said on Friday a $5 billion integrated steel plant it plans to build in Vietnam would be delayed as the location for the project was still being finalised.Source: Reuters: Money News | 26 Dec 2008 | 11:19 am Unitech-Telenor deal to be over by Jan ’09Mumbai: Realty major Unitech on Friday said completion of its deal with the world’s seventh largest mobile operator, Telenor, will be delayed by about a month to January 2009. “Unitech Group and its partner, Telenor, anticipate that not all conditions for closing will be fulfilled before December 2008. Both the parties thus expect to close the transaction during January 2009,” Unitech said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Earlier in October, Unitech had announced the selling of 60% stake in its telecom venture Unitech Wireless for Rs6,120 crore ($1.23 billion) to Telenor. “The company signed a binding agreement with Telenor on 28 October and are now completing all the formalities. Both the parties have made significant progress on the transaction,” the company said. Unitech Wireless has pan-India telecom licences in all 22 circles and plan to launch its services in first half of 2009. The company was awarded pan-India mobile telecom licence for Rs1,651 crore early this year and has got GSM spectrum in 13 circles. The Oslo-headquartered company, Telenor, is a global provider of high quality telecommunications, data and media communication services. Fifty-four per cent of it is owned by Ministry of Industry and Trade, Norway. It has operations in Europe and Asian countries. Shares of Unitech were trading at Rs37.75, up 1.75% on the BSE. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 9:57 am
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