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American Express offloads more Indian employeesAmerican Express has asked some more of its employees in India to leave this month, as part of its global restructuring announced late last year.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:06 pm SBI Q3 net profit up 52 pc; advances grow 29 pc - Times of India
Source: Google News India - Business | 24 Jan 2009 | 11:47 am Obama tries to build support for $825 bln stimulusWASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pledged on Saturday to create jobs, improve healthcare and lay the groundwork for a clean energy future as he sought to build public support for an $825 billion stimulus plan some lawmakers fear is too costly.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 11:40 am Satyam fraud: AP CID arrests two top PwC officials - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 24 Jan 2009 | 11:33 am Kazakhstan signs civil nuclear deal with IndiaCentral Asian republic Kazakhstan Saturday became the fourth nation after the US, France and Russia to sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jan 2009 | 11:31 am Celebrate India's Republic Day with made-in-China tricolour gadgetMade-in-China tricolour gadgets that resemble the Indian flag have flooded the electronics market here two days before India celebrates Republic Day.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jan 2009 | 11:31 am State Bank of India net rises 37%Mumbai: State Bank of India, the country’s top lender, said quarterly profit rose 37%, meeting forecasts, helped by robust loan growth and earnings from trading in bonds whose prices jumped as interest rates dropped. The state-run bank, which along with its associates controls a quarter of India’s loans and deposits, said net profit rose to Rs24.78 billion in its fiscal third quarter ended December, from Rs18.09 billion reported a year ago. A Reuters poll had forecast a net profit of Rs24.7 billion. Treasury income, primarily from trading in bonds and securities, climbed 51.4% to Rs60.04 billion after bond yields tumbled 337 basis points in the quarter as the central bank slashed key rates to lift slowing growth. Bond prices move inversely with yield. State Bank, which has over 11,000 branches across India and abroad, has the lowest cost of funds among the nation’s lenders. The bulk of its funds come from savings bank deposits that carry a cost of 3.5% in annual interest payments, compared with 12.25% the bank charges on loans to its best clients. Shares in State Bank, which the market values at about $13.5 billion, shed 12% in the December quarter, less than the 25% fall in the benchmark index and the 16% drop in the sector index. The shares ended 4.3% lower at Rs1,041.75 on Friday in a Mumbai market that fell 1.6%. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jan 2009 | 11:23 am Declining GDP growth estimates now at 7.1 per cent - domain-B
Source: Google News India - Business | 24 Jan 2009 | 11:16 am ICICI Bank names Kannan as CFO, executive directorMumbai: ICICI Bank Ltd on Saturday named N. S. Kannan as executive director and chief financial officer of the bank from 1 May, replacing Chanda Kochhar after she takes over from K.V. Kamath as chief executive officer and managing director. Kannan is executive director at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd (ICICI Life). He has also been inducted to the board, the bank said in a statement. Madhabi Puri-Buch, currently executive director of ICICI Bank, was named managing director and chief executive of ICICI Securities Ltd from 1 February, after the current managing director and CEO S. Mukherji retires on 31 January. Mint had reported on 5 January about ICICI Bank’s plans to appoint Kannan as CFO of the bank and Puri-Buch as MD and CEO of ICICI Securities. K. Ramkumar, the group’s chief human resources officer, has been elevated to executive director of the bank from 1 February. “He will oversee the operations and credit and treasury middle-office functions currently being overseen by Puri-Buch, in addition to human resources management,’’ the bank said. Pravir Vohra, the group’s chief technology officer, has been nominated as a non-executive director on the board of ICICI Securities, in addition to his executive responsibilities. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jan 2009 | 11:12 am Chidamabarm calls for more stimulus packagesHome minister P Chidambaram on Saturday, said that the Indian economy is not facing recession but is only experiencing a slowdown, which is more pronounced in the manufacturing sector.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 10:39 am SBI Q3 net leaps by 52 pc at Rs 3,713.66 crThe country's largest lender State Bank of India's net profit for the October-December quarter jumped by 52 per cent to Rs 3,713.66 crore.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 10:37 am ICICI Q3 net up 3.4%Mumbai: ICICI Bank, the country’s second-largest lender, reported an unexpected 3.4% rise in quarterly net profit on Saturday, as earnings from fees and bond trading offset slowing credit growth and a rise in bad loans. New York-listed ICICI said net profit rose to Rs12.72 billion in its fiscal third quarter ending in December, from Rs12.3 billion reported a year ago. A Reuters poll of analysts had forecast net profit to fall to Rs10.7 billion. ICICI, hit by investor concerns about its exposure to the global financial crisis in the quarter to September, has slowed lending as it tackles a jump in bad loans. Shares in ICICI, which has a market value of about $8.3 billion, fell 16% in the quarter to December, compared with a 25% fall for the benchmark and a 16% drop in the sector index. The stock closed 3.7% lower at Rs364.30 on Friday in a Mumbai market that fell 1.6%. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jan 2009 | 10:33 am India signs pact with Kazakhstan for uranium supplyNew Delhi: India Saturday signed a civil nuclear pact with Kazakhstan under which the uranium-rich Central Asian country will supply much-needed fuel to atomic plants in the country. India also signed four other pacts, including an extradition treaty, in the presence of President Pratibha Patil and her Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev. Patil oversaw the proceedings of inking of the four pacts as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was indisposed. Kazakhstan will provide uranium and related products under the memorandum of understanding between Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and KazAtomProm. The MoU was signed by NPCIL chairman and managing director S.K. Jain and KazAtomProm President Moukhtar Dzhakishev. The MoU also opens up possibilities of joint exploration of uranium in Kazakhstan, which has the world’s second largest uranium reserves, and India building atomic power plants in the Central Asian country. “These agreements are very important for the stature of our bilateral relations,” Nazarbayev told reporters here. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who led the delegation level talks in absence of Singh, inked the extradition treaty with his Kazakh counterpart Marat Tazhin. Minister of State of Commerce Jairam Ramesh and Kazakh Minister of Trade and Industry Vladimir Shkolnik signed the protocol on the accession of Kazakhstan to the World Trade Organization. An MoU was signed between Indian Space Research Organization and Kazakh Space Agency for space cooperation. ONGC Mittal Energy Limited also signed and agreement with state-run KazMunaiGas. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jan 2009 | 10:21 am Godrej Consumer Q3 PAT dips 7 pc, declares dividend - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 24 Jan 2009 | 9:27 am Weekly wrap: Sensex loses nearly 650 pts - Sify
Source: Google News India - Business | 24 Jan 2009 | 9:15 am More stimulus packages on the anvilThe central government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will jointly work to chart out more stimulus packages for industry, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said here Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jan 2009 | 9:04 am India, Kazakhstan sign nuclear pactIndia and Kazakhstan Saturday signed five agreements, including one on civil nuclear energy.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jan 2009 | 9:02 am Rainfall in Punjab brings cheer to farmersRains that have lashed Punjab and Haryana over the last few days have brought much cheer to farmers in the region as the showers will prove beneficial for the standing wheat crops.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jan 2009 | 9:02 am State Bank of India net rises 37 pct, meets f'castMUMBAI (Reuters) - State Bank of India, the country's top lender, said quarterly profit rose 37 percent, meeting forecasts, helped by robust loan growth and earnings from trading in bonds whose prices jumped as interest rates dropped.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 9:00 am Steve Jobs' death reports 'fake'Reports claiming that Apple chief Steve Jobs had died after a cardiac arrest were 'bogus'.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 8:16 am Auditing the Auditors! - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 24 Jan 2009 | 8:11 am Satyam Computer's HR dept starts employee verificationThe human resources department of Satyam Computer Services has started verification to ascertain the company's headcount.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:48 am Canada's n-industry sees deals worth billions with India - Hindu
Source: Google News India - Business | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:39 am Global cues keep markets edgy, volatility on the riseIndian equities markets were edgy this week as global economic cues remained negative, resulting in high volatility in this week's trade. A key index closed about 7 percent down Friday over its close the previous week.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:30 am Time for Indian IT cos to redefine transparency: HCL Tech - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:24 am China warns of economic distress and long-term illsBEIJING (Reuters) - China must do more to ease public distress as it battles a slowing economy and rising unemployment, a leadership meeting said, warning officials the global slowdown was colliding with the nation's reckless mode of growth.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:01 am US aerospace industry to Obama: Learn from India or perishTaking note of India's stunning successes in space research, the US aerospace industry believes it could become a world leader in space technology and has urged the Obama administration to learn from it.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:00 am 'Bachchanalia' - the Big B as hero, lover, conmanSample this: Indian screen icon Amitabh Bachchan is credited with 135 releases in over 40 years. He played the baddie - be it the 'dada', the don, the killer or the thief - in 35 movies.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jan 2009 | 7:00 am U.S. Democrats unveil $825 bln in stimulus spendingWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats on Friday unveiled their version of a massive economic stimulus proposal that, like its counterpart in the House of Representatives, would provide new emergency spending and tax cuts totaling $825 billion.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 6:23 am Save Aravallis, save north India, plead environmentalistsNorth India will become a big desert if the Aravalli range - one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world - is not protected, say environmentalists, hailing a recent recommendation by a Supreme Court committee in this regard and hoping that court orders would be implemented this time.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jan 2009 | 6:01 am GM to drive in Cadillac - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 24 Jan 2009 | 4:28 am Microsoft CEO sees slow economic rebound - employeesLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer said the U.S. economy likely will not bottom out until about a year from now, and it will return to a slow growth-track only after a few years, according to people who attended a meeting with Ballmer and other executives on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 2:57 am Wall St Week Ahead: Stocks eye Obama, Fed, earningsNEW YORK (Reuters) - With Wall Street in the middle of an earnings free fall, investors will eye any moves from the White House next week to revive banks and craft a recovery plan to salvage the economy from its year-long recession.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 2:50 am Satyam board to unveil funding plan next week - Hindu
Source: Google News India - Business | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:49 am Obama works on stimulus, Britain enters recessionNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama declared his $825 billion stimulus plan "on target" for passage in February as Britain officially entered recession on Friday and Japan expressed frustration it was running out of tools to combat the global financial crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:12 am NHAI may spend only two-thirds of target this fiscalThe National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) may not be able to spend a third of its targeted expenditure of Rs 31,000 crore in the current fiscal.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am The obfuscation of satyamMore than a fortnight after the sensational “confession” of Mr Ramalinga Raju about his shenanigans at Satyam Computer, we are none the wiser on the fraud. There are more questions than answers and with every passing day, the list ofSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am SC asks Vodafone to respond to tax dept noticeNew Delhi, Jan 23 In an oral order the Supreme Court today asked Vodafone International Holdings to answer the show-cause notice that had been issued to it by the Income-Tax (I-T) Department. The apex court has disposed of Vodafone’sSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am Three shortlisted for CEO, CFOHyderabad, Jan. 23 A shortlist of three candidates for CEO and CFO posts, a likely investment banker for Satyam Computer Services, and tying up of funds (including salaries) to run the company for two months, were the key highlights that emergedSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am Banking stocks lose as global, domestic investors sellKolkata, Jan. 23 Banking stocks on Friday declined significantly on selling momentum.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am Ruchi Soya marks year’s first block deal on BSEMumbai, Jan. 23 Lack of investor interest seems to have almost dried up the block dealSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am Westerly waiting to switch on weather in northwestThiruvananthapuram, Jan. 23 A weather-maker western disturbance has parked itself over Jammu and Kashmir and neighbourhood promising to impact the hills and plains of northwest India.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am Satyamites on bench in US asked to ‘look for alternatives’Hyderabad, Jan. 23 The worst fears of Satyamites on bench in the US appear to be coming true as a number of them have been told by their project managers to “look for alternatives” at the earliest.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am L&T raises stake in Satyam to 12% in 2 bulk dealsMumbai, Jan. 23 Larsen and Toubro hiked its stake in the beleaguered IT services company Satyam Computer Services to 12 per cent onSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am SEBI plea to quiz Ramalinga Raju rejectedHyderabad, Jan. 23 A full 15 days after the Rs 7,136-crore financial scam hit Satyam Computer Services, SEBI and SFIO, a top regulator and fraud buster, respectively, have failed to get even an audience with the man behind the fraud – MrSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am Satyam, L&T Info are a good fitLarsen and Toubro (L&T) on Friday tripled its stake in Satyam Computer Services to marginally over 12% by acquiring shares through open market operations.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jan 2009 | 10:04 pm The mobile phone of the future: How will it change your life?Year 2015. You are woken up before the time you have set by a pleasant voice recorded on your mobile phone. What is happening?Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jan 2009 | 10:02 pm How pandits and insurance ads use fear to sellAs Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, says, "The main difference between marketing and fraud is that criminals have to pay for their own alcohol." Be aware.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jan 2009 | 10:01 pm Have you ever had a loan request turned down?Have you been denied a loan or credit card by a bank? Your credit report may be to blame.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jan 2009 | 9:59 pm 'Stocks already reflect most negatives'Mahesh Patil co-head, equity, at Birla Sunlife Mutual Fundspoke to DNA about the challenges faced by a fund manager in these testing times.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jan 2009 | 9:56 pm Pfizer in talks to buy Wyeth for $60 billionPfizer Inc. is in talks to acquire rival drug maker Wyeth in a deal that could be valued at nearly $60 billion (Rs3 trillion), said people familiar with the matter. A combination of these two US pharma giants would redraw the boundaries of the global drug industry, which has suffered from flagging product development and high fixed costs. It would also represent a high-stakes gambit for Pfizer, which has been stung in the past by expensive acquisitions. The two sides have been in discussions for months and a deal isn’t imminent, the people said. Given recent market volatility and overall economic uncertainty, the talks are especially fragile and could collapse, the people warned. Also See Possible Partners (PDF) Pfizer spokesman Raymond F. Kerins Jr. said the firm doesn’t comment on “market rumours and speculation”. A Wyeth spokesman said, “We don’t comment on marketplace rumour.” Joining New York-based Pfizer and New Jersey-based Wyeth would create a behemoth with combined revenue of about $75 billion and a line of blockbuster drugs, including Pfizer’s cholesterol drug Lipitor and Wyeth’s paediatric vaccine Prevnar. Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker by revenue, would likely use a combination of cash and stock for the acquisition. Details on price haven’t been worked out, but Wyeth has a market cap of about $52 billion and premiums in the sector have averaged around 20%. That would put the value of the deal at above $60 billion. If completed, a deal could create billions in cost savings through the combination of back-office operations, research and development (R&D), sales and manufacturing. Like other major pharma firms, Pfizer and Wyeth face the looming expiration of patents on their most lucrative products as well as intense competition from makers of generic drugs. In addition, a tougher regulatory environment in the US and overseas has made it more difficult to win approval for new treatments, forcing firms to narrow their research focus. Those realities have prompted calls for industry consolidation from the investment community. For years, companies have withstood pressure to merge, hoping that new discoveries would allow them to maintain independence. But with drugs generating an estimated $30 billion in sales losing patent protection over the next several years, many analysts have been saying industry consolidation is inevitable. Unlike other sectors of the economy, the pharma industry has historically been buffered from downturns because patients typically don’t stop seeking treatment for major ailments. While there are growing signs that this recession has triggered a decline in prescription-drug consumption among cash-strapped consumers, major companies nonetheless have streams of cash they can use for acquisitions. Pfizer alone had nearly $27 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet at the end of 2008, Goldman Sachs estimated in a recent note to investors. Analysts believe that most of that money is outside the US and Pfizer would suffer a tax hit if the company repatriated the funds. Many in the industry have been waiting to see what Pfizer does before pursuing deals of their own. Pfizer posted a revenue of $48.4 billion and a profit of $8.1 billion in 2007, the most recent year for which data is available. Wyeth’s revenue totalled $22.4 billion and its profit $4.6 billion in 2007. The stocks of both firms have held up fairly well over the past year against the rest of the market. Pfizer’s shares have fallen about 23% while Wyeth’s stock is down 7.5%. The S&P 500 is off 37% over the same period. Combining drug companies doesn’t solve the industry’s short-term need for new drugs, but it would allow the industry to slash R&D spending, which accounts for nearly 20% of sales at many firms. With more scale, drug firms would also be better positioned to acquire biotech firms, which many believe will be a source of future treatments. Many pharma companies have already begun to buy or strike drug-development deals with smaller biotech firms. While promising in the long term, such deals tend to bring too little revenues and profits in the short term to make up for the loss of blockbuster drugs. Since Jeffrey B. Kindler took Pfizer’s helm in 2006, there have been rumours he would seek a major acquisition. Pfizer has been battling generic competition for some of its top drugs, while its best-selling drug, Lipitor, which accounts for one-fourth of its revenue, loses patent protection in 2011. It has had trouble bringing new products to market. Kindler has been cutting costs, firing nearly 15,000 employees since January 2007. A person familiar with the matter said Pfizer is planning to cut as many as 2,400 sales jobs in the first quarter of 2009. The chief executive has also been revamping drug research efforts, shuttering laboratories and selling manufacturing plants. Investors and analysts have grown increasingly frustrated that these steps aren’t enough to return Pfizer to the kind of profitability that made it a stock market star in the 1990s and early 2000s. Since Kindler took over, the Pfizer stock is down 34%, against a drop of 20% for the Dow Jones Wilshire Pharmaceuticals Index. Critics have lambasted Pfizer’s 2006 sale of its consumer business, which included the Listerine, Visine and Lubriderm brands, as well as non-prescription drugs Sudafed and Nicorette. That unit is now helping its buyer, Johnson and Johnson, weather problems in its own prescription drugs business. Of big drug makers, Pfizer has been built through big acquisitions. It gained full control of Lipitor after a $116 billion takeover of Warner-Lambert Co. in 2000. But Pfizer’s deal-making history also suggests the pitfalls of what analysts say is a reliance on big takeovers over strong in-house research and smart licensing. Pfizer bought Pharmacia in 2003 largely for painkiller Celebrex, but sales plunged after a rival drug, Vioxx, was withdrawn in 2004 over heart risks. Wyeth has had struggles of its own in the past year or two, with sales of its new antidepressant Pristiq taking off slowly and a plunge in sales of heartburn drug Protonix after generic competition came sooner than expected. Midstage trial data of an Alzheimer’s drug the firm is developing with Elan Corp. have also disappointed some investors. Nonetheless, analysts have named Wyeth as a likely target because the firm has products and businesses that complement Pfizer’s line-up. It’s not clear what role Wyeth CEO Bernard Poussot would play in the combined firm. Wyeth has already established a foothold in biotechnology. It would also bring with it an animal health business and a consumer health unit whose brands include Advil, Robitussin and ChapStick. Those businesses would help offset the cyclicality and risks of the drug business. wsj@livemint.com Dana Cimilluca and Sarah Rubenstein contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:31 pm EAC’s candle in the windAt a time when every day brings in gloomy tidings, the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC) has cheerful news. It has estimated the Indian economy will grow by 7.5% in 2009-10 (see Page 4). It has pinned its hopes on inter-national growth reviving from mid-2009, something it feels will boost the Indian economy. The projection, released on Friday, is in marked contrast to the pessimism displayed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. In a recent interview to BBC, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn had painted a bleak economic outlook for the world. He said IMF would issue a downward growth forecast for the world economy. Strauss-Kahn mentioned a cut of 0.5-1% in global growth from IMF’s earlier estimates. India, China and Brazil, he said, would “experience very slow growth”. The world would not begin recovery before 2010. EAC has issued a forecast that is not only unrealistically optimistic, but its timing of the recovery too seems to be way off the mark. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:31 pm Merger talk healthy for India units’ share pricesMumbai: The Indian subsidiaries of Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth remained silent on a Wall Street Journal report of a possible takeover of Wyeth by Pfizer. Analysts, however, responded enthusiastically, as did shares of the India units Pfizer Ltd and Wyeth Ltd, in anticipation that a merger would help both entities expand their market reach. Kirit Gogri, a sector analyst with Mumbai-based Quant Broking Pvt. Ltd, said that “since both companies are operating in different disease segments at present, Wyeth’s market presence in the antibiotics and woman health market will certainly help Pfizer to expand to those markets, which have equal potential in the fast growing pharmaceutical market in India”. In India, Pfizer’s portfolio includes oncology, cardiovascular and central nervous system drugs, while Wyeth focuses on antibiotics, gynaecological drugs, vaccines and steroids. On the Bombay Stock Exchange, Pfizer’s stock rose 6.57% to close at Rs514.65 while Wyeth gained 1.12% to close at Rs436.70 on Friday. The two are ranked 23rd and 49th by sales, respectively, in the domestic market. An analyst with a Mumbai brokerage said the actual benefit to investors from the merger is still uncertain. “One should assume that if the deal structure implies a merger of the businesses within the wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer, the investors in the listed entities will not be benefited at all.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:31 pm 'Slumdog' music sales hit high note, movie rides on OscarsFilm exhibitors are hoping to see a surge in box office collections for Slumdog Millionaire on the back of 10 Oscar nominations, the announcement of which coincided with the paid preview of the film across theatres in India Thursday.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:45 pm Maytas Infra on the blockEven as domestic and global software players queue up to acquire beleaguered Satyam Computer Services, the family of founder and former Chairman Ramalinga Raju is in talks to divest management control in Maytas Infrastructure Ltd, a listed company that won the bid to build the Hyderabad metro, among other projects.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:43 pm Congress under pressure as PM heads for surgeryUPA begins jockeying for power; questions on Pranab as FM.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:42 pm L close to open offer for SatyamIncreases stake to 12%, may demand board seat now; iGate Corp also joins race.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:40 pm L&T raises Satyam stake; iGate keen tooMumbai/Hyderabad: Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) has increased its stake in Satyam Computer Services Ltd even as a new suitor emerged for the beleaguered Hyderabad-based IT firm, whose new board is pulling out all stops in its efforts to raise much-needed working capital. L&T, India’s leading private sector engineering conglomerate, has become the single largest shareholder of Satyam by raising its stake to 12%. On Friday, it acquired around 8% of the company’s equity from the market. The software firm has seen at least 78% erosion in its stock price since its former chairman B. Ramalinga Raju confessed to a Rs7,136 crore fraud on 7 January. L&T acquired 39 million Satyam shares at an average price of Rs34.52 per share aggregating about Rs134.73 crore on the National Stock Exchange and another lot of 11.8 million shares from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) at Rs35.07 each for an aggregate value of Rs41.69 crore. This is far less than what L&T had paid in December when it acquired its initial 4% stake in Satyam from the bourses for around Rs400 crore. ‘It’s a big move, but nobody knows whether it’s the right move. There are too many ifs in Satyam.’ Indeed, corporate activities surrounding Satyam Computer are mounting. On Friday, iGate Technologies expressed its interest in the company. iGate Corp., the parent company of iGate Technologies, is reportedly in touch with a few private equity firms for a possible deal. “We would be interested in buying Satyam, assuming we can figure out what their liabilities are,” iGate’s chief executive Phaneesh Murthytold Reuters, adding that he would be deterred if liabilities exceeded $1.25 billion (Rs6,150 crore). According to L&T’s spokesperson D. Morada, the objective behind buying Satyam stock from the open market is twofold. “By acquiring an additional stake in Satyam, we have managed to reduce the average cost of our acquisition substantially. We are also now the single largest shareholder in Satyam and this sufficiently large holding will help to protect our stake in the company.” “It’s a big move, but nobody knows whether it’s the right move. There are too many ifs in Satyam. There are a lot of gaps in Satyam’s disclosures that are not available in the public domain,” said R. Balakrishnan, executive director at Centrum Capital Ltd, an investment bank. According to Balakrishnan, at this moment, “nobody would know what’s the right move” and he “presumes that L&T have done its homework well”. At least two other analysts, attached to Mumbai-based brokerages and who did not want to be quoted, dubbed L&T’s move as “desperate”. L&T will have to take a mark-to-market (MTM) hit in January-March quarter earnings following the sharp erosion in Satyam’s stock price. MTM is an accounting practice of valuing an asset in accordance with its market value and not the cost of its acquisition. L&T started buying the shares after Satyam rolled back its decision to acquire Maytas Infra Ltd and Maytas Properties Ltd, two firms promoted by Raju’s family, after resistance from investors. Investors were not very enthused by L&T’s latest bid to increase exposure. Several foreign institutional investors, including Lazard Asset Management Llc., Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd, Swiss Finance Corp. (Mauritius) Ltd and The Boston Co. Asset Management Llc. have been liquidating their investments in Satyam even as L&T has been hiking its stake. Shares of L&T lost 3.47%, or Rs23.05, to close at Rs640.85 each on Friday while those of Satyam Computer, riding on the huge volume of trade, gained 31.25%, or Rs9.25, to close at Rs38.85 on BSE, even as the exchange’s benchmark Sensex index lost 1.58%. L&T’s board is meeting on 30 January to take into account the company’s October-December earnings. None of its directors is willing to throw light on the latest development in the so-called silent period ahead of the meeting. Incidentally, Life Insurance Corp. of India Ltd, the largest stakeholder in L&T, also holds about 4% stake in Satyam Computer. Roadblock for Sebi Meanwhile, capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) investigation into the Rs7,136 crore scam has hit a roadblock, with a Hyderabad court rejecting its petition seeking custody of Ramalinga Raju, former managing director Rama Raju and former chief financial officer (CFO) Srinivas Vadlamani. The Hyderabad court on Friday sent Raju brothers and Vadlamani to judicial custody till 31 January. Hearing of bail petitions for Ramalinga Raju and Vadlamani was postponed to 27 January, while that of Rama Raju to 28 January. In a related development, the Andhra Pradesh crime investigation department has arrested the general manager of SRSR Holdings Pvt. Ltd, D. Gopalakrishna Raju. SRSR was the company through which Raju and his family held shares in Satyam Computer. The Satyam board, which concluded its two-day meeting on Friday, said the search for a CEO and a CFO has been narrowed down to a shortlist of three and that fund-raising talks are in final stages. A formal announcement on funding “to tide over the ongoing requirements for operational expenses, including salaries and vendor payments”, is expected before 28 January, a company statement said. satish.j@livemint.com PTI and Reuters contributed to this story. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:20 pm PM may be out of action for a monthNew Delhi: The government will negotiate the coming few weeks when the next general elections will likely be announced and when it will present its interim rail budget as well the interim budget with an interim leader. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is set to undergo a bypass operation on Saturday and is expected to be out of action for around a month. The country’s external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee will chair cabinet meetings and hold additional charge as finance minister during Singh’s absence. A political analyst said no Indian Prime Minister has been away from office for such an extended period. “The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has directed that Pranab Mukherjee...is assigned the additional charge of ministry of finance from 24 January until the recovery of the Prime Minister from medical treatment,” said a statement from Rashtrapati Bhavan. Singh has held the finance portfolio after finance minister P. Chidambaram was named the home minister in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, which forced then home minister Shivraj Patil to resign. “Mukherjee will present the interim budget on 16 February in Parliament. This additional responsibility is purely an interim arrangement till the Prime Minister comes back to office,” said a Congress leader, who did not want to be named. According to political analyst and columnist T.V.R. Shenoy, Singh would be the first Prime Minister to be away from work for such a long period. “It is significant now because he is also the finance minister and there are many crucial economic decisions to be taken,” he said. According to an official note from the Prime Minister’s office, “The surgery would be performed by a team of doctors drawn from the AIIMS and the Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai. They would be supported by a team of doctors and technical staff drawn from other departments of AIIMS”. Singh had undergone a coronary artery bypass surgery in the UK in 1990. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:20 pm Vodafone tax case back to square oneNew Delhi: The Supreme Court’s (SC) refusal to intervene in the tax dispute between telecom firm Vodafone and the income-tax (I-T) department on Friday has partially addressed concerns raised by both sides, but has also effectively set the clock back on the issue. The dispute concerns Vodafone Group Plc.’s acquisition of a 67% stake in Hutchison Essar from Hong Kong’s Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. The I-T department is of the opinion that the transaction is taxable in the country. Vodafone disputes this claim. Click here to watch video Friday’s order, delivered by a bench headed by justice S.B. Sinha, said I-T authorities should deal with the fundamental question of whether the transaction falls within their tax jurisdiction. Simultaneously, the order has allowed Vodafone to bypass the department’s grievance redressal mechanism and approach the high court if it disagrees with the department’s tax assessment order. This will allow Vodafone to reduce the time it takes to solve a dispute or have its money locked up through part-payment of a disputed tax demand. “That appears to be the logical interpretation of the Supreme Court order,” said Sudhir Kapadia, partner at audit and consulting firm Ernst and Young (E&Y). Also Read Taxing Times (PDF) Vodafone paid $11.1 billion (Rs54,600 crore today) for a 67% stake of Hutchison Essar (since renamed Vodafone Essar) in 2007. The government approved the deal in May of the same year. Hutchison, the seller, controlled its Indian subsidiary through a cobweb of companies that finally led to a Cayman Islands-registered firm to receive the payment from Vodafone. The I-T department felt the Cayman Islands transaction was essentially a transfer of an Indian asset and said that Vodafone should have deducted tax at source when it paid Hutchison. In 2007, Vodafone received a show-cause notice asking it why it had not done this. Following this, the company approached the Bombay high court. The case was significant on account of the tax amount involved (around $2 billion) and the precedent it could set for taxation of transactions, which involve transfer of Indian assets, but are concluded overseas. The tax incidence makes this “perhaps the highest tax matter in the country”, N.B Singh, chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, had said in December 2008. After the Bombay high court in December dismissed Vodafone’s petition challenging the I-T department’s notice, the company appealed to the Supreme Court in January. The primary question that Vodafone requested the apex court to answer was whether Indian authorities have the jurisdiction to tax a transaction that occurred outside India between parties that do not have a presence in India. The Supreme Court has not ruled on this or set a precedent, which could be used in getting a sense of tax liabilities in subsequent transactions, experts said. Mukesh Bhutani, who heads the tax practice at BMR Advisors, said the Supreme Court order has the issue “back at square one”. “But now Vodafone also has the Supreme Court directive that says they can approach the Bombay high court. So, they will not have to go through the entire rigmarole and the high court will have to admit its challenge to the I-T authorities’ decision.” Uncertainty continues to loom over transactions similar to the one between Vodafone and Hutch, Bhutani said. “Most people had expected that the Supreme Court would not just look into the Vodafone plea, but lay down principles in law relating to the taxability of such transactions,” he said. The Supreme Court order, however, provided relief to Vodafone on two important counts. It allows the company to bypass the I-T department’s grievance redressal mechanism if it disputes the assessing officer’s tax demand. “In my view, it would save at least two-three years,” said E&Y’s Kapadia. Also, the I-T department’s grievance redressal mechanism could ask Vodafone to pay a part of the tax demand till the dispute is finally resolved. Generally, a company that disputes a tax demand never gets a “complete stay” on the entire demand, Kapadia said, referring to part-payments that might have to be made on disputed tax demands. The bench, however, gave Vodafone an option to move the high court if it wishes to challenge the tax authorities’ decision. The Bombay High Court, in its December order, drew an adverse inference from the fact that Vodafone had not disclosed its shareholder agreement. On Friday, senior counsel for Vodafone, Fali Nariman, told the Supreme Court bench that the agreement had been given to the tax department and Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran appearing for the Union government. Vodafone’s refusal to disclose this to the Bombay high court was one of the factors that led to the court dismissing the company’s petition. “It is a moral victory for the revenue department. The Supreme Court has not disturbed the high court’s observations that were against Vodafone. Vodafone could be apprehensive that the high court’s negative observations can be used against them by the income-tax authorities,” BMR Advisors’ Bhutani said. According to a Vodafone media statement, “Given the fact that the petition filed by Vodafone involves important questions of jurisdiction, the Honourable Supreme Court of India has asked the Tax Authorities to decide, as a preliminary issue only, whether it has jurisdiction to proceed against Vodafone... Should Vodafone be aggrieved by the order of the Tax Authorities’ preliminary adjudication on jurisdiction, Vodafone has been permitted to again directly approach the High Court.” sanjiv.s@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:19 pm RCom’s Q3 net rises 2.7% on higher income, drop in taxesMumbai: Asharp drop in taxes and a near doubling of income from financial activities helped Reliance Communications Ltd, or RCom, India’s second largest telecommunication services provider, on Friday to report a 2.7% increase in net profit for the October-December quarter. It gained 5.31 million new subscribers and on 30 December launched its Global System for Mobile (GSM) services—based on a popular technology standard for cellphones—with an aggressive pricing strategy, setting up a potential showdown with rivals in future. The firm offers wireless services using a competing technology standard, Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA. The Anil Ambani-owned RCom generated net profits of Rs1,410 crore for the third quarter of fiscal 2009, against Rs1,373 crore for the corresponding period last year. A Mint poll of six brokerages earlier this month had predicted an almost 3% increase in net profit. “The results are below my expectations. Arpus (average revenue per user) have fallen significantly and this fiscal, it has been particularly severe. That is a drag on the numbers,” said Harit Shah, sector analyst with Angel Broking Ltd. who didn’t give out a rating or target price because he wants to review the results more closely. “Let’s see if Arpus become better with GSM roll out. I will not be looking at just the subscriber base but what kind of realizations these subscribers are bringing, how profitable are they.” Also See Steady Rise (PDF) A company official attributed the rise in other income—which grew from Rs98 crore in the corresponding quarter last year to Rs178.42 crore—to savings of Rs63.75 crore generated from a buyback of some of its foreign currency convertible bonds and returns on investment. Other income is an accounting term to describe income not from the core business. RCom has cut prices to break into new markets. The firm entered the GSM technology market in 14 of a total of 22 circles, with new connections going for as little as Rs25 and free talk time of Rs900 across networks. With the move, RCom stole a march over its rivals, becoming the first provider in the country to offer both GSM and CDMA services. The rollout has analysts keenly anticipating its performance for the quarter ahead when revenues from the dual service will become known, especially considering RCom’s price-sensitive ways of grabbing market share. Most—including Shah—agree that the Rs25 new connection and Rs900 talk time offer is merely an entry pitch to attract customers and to cross a regulatory threshold of crossing 0.5 million subscribers in either Delhi or Mumbai. That number makes the operator eligible for an additional 1.8 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum, which will push RCom’s total allocated spectrum to 6.2 MHz. However, RCom’s rivals, particularly Sunil Mittal-controlled Bharti Airtel Ltd, and the India unit of global giant Vodafone, grew faster for the third quarter. Bharti Airtel, India’s largest wireless services provider, announced its results on Thursday, expanding services across rural areas to add 8.2 million users. Vodafone’s subscriber base of 60.4 million at the end of December was shadowing RCom’s 61.4 million. RCom had revenues of Rs5,850 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal, a rise of 20% from Rs4,874 crore sales in the same quarter a year ago. The tax payout in this quarter was a mere Rs15.26 crore, less than 10% of the Rs138 crore paid a year ago. “That is on account of a tax shield available to the company,” was the cryptic explanation the RCom official gave, declining to explain the precise nature or purpose of the tax benefit. Compared with the second quarter of this fiscal year, RCom’s profits declined 8%, as consumers spoke less and chose cheaper plans. And while it added more than 5 million consumers, RCom saw its Arpus dip to Rs251 from Rs271 in the July-September quarter as usage declined to 410 minutes from 423. Arpus typically drop as subscriber base increases. A 12 January Macquarie Research report by analysts Shubham Mazumdar, Nitin Mohta and Tim Smart, has estimated the RCom GSM rollout will imply a “6%, 7% and 12% decline in Bharti’s total revenues, Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), earnings and EPS” for the current fiscal and a “17%, 19% and 54% decline in revenues, Ebitda and EPS” for Idea Cellular Ltd, based on their “worst-case analysis”. “Bharti’s strong subscriber market share position in South Indian states results in lower Arpu dilution impact due to the RCom GSM launch”, the report explains but adds that it “will accentuate the deteriorating financial performance of Idea” as since majority of Idea’s profitable original circles—five of the eight—will see the launch of RCom’s promotional talk time offers. RCom shares closed at Rs160.15, 4.5% lower on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday while the bellwether index Sensex closed 1.58% lower. The results were announced after markets closed for the three-day weekend. Graphics by Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint Bloomberg contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:12 pm UK govt, Tata in talks on aid for Jaguar, Land RoverMumbai: Auto maker Tata Motors Ltd, that owns Jaguar and Land Rover brands, is in talks with the UK government on assistance for the luxury units as sales plummet in their largest markets. UK business secretary Peter Mandelson has held discussions with Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata on Jaguar Land Rover, Mandelson told reporters in Mumbai on Friday without elaborating. The UK government is in close contact with Tata Motors, he added.  Help at hand: UK business secretary Peter Mandelson. B Mathur / Reuters The British government will see how we can help Jaguar Land Rover bring about the financial restructuring it’s seeking, Mandelson said. Tata group is already taking steps that are necessary in this regard, he said. Tata Motors climbed as much as 5.2% to Rs139.75 after Mandelson’s comments. UK sales at Jaguar Land Rover fell sharply last month as consumers refrained from big purchases. In December, sales at Land Rover fell 45% to 1,292 units and sales at Jaguar decreased 9.4% to 924 vehicles. In the US, Jaguar sales dropped 34% and Land Rover sales slumped 46%. Jaguar Land Rover will meet with UK officials next week to discuss increased lending to the British car industry, the unit’s chief executive David Smith said in an interview with Sky News on Thursday. The Indian truck maker bought the luxury units from Ford Motor Co. last year for $2.4 billion. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 5:34 pm The city of extremesAt last, an anthology of writings on Kolkata, and not a moment too soon. Edited by novelist Amit Chaudhuri, Memory’s Gold is a lavishly produced volume into which love and labour seem to have gone in equal measure. From the cover photograph of a rooftop under darkening skies to the elegant Venetian typeface, the look and feel of the book affords quiet pleasure. But with that also comes  Happily, the collection strikes the right notes from the beginning. In his lucid and thoughtful introduction, Chaudhuri positions himself as an outsider who did not grow up or go to school in the city, and who therefore did not pass as “an authentic member of the community” of a city “that lives and writes through its friendships”. Perhaps it is this distance which allows Chaudhuri to anthologize from a wide range of writers and not favour any one coterie, always a danger in books of this kind. Of the 55 pieces in the book, roughly half were written originally in English, starting with the tongue-in-cheek Henry Meredith Parker on the Bengal Civil Service and ending with an Indlish novelist who debuted this year. In between are the usual suspects, such as Nirad C. Chaudhuri (for whom Kolkata was possibly a Dantean Inferno from which he progressed to the Purgatario that was Delhi and the Paradiso that was Oxford), V.S. Naipaul, Sasthi Brata, Jug Suraiya, Amitav Ghosh, Chaudhuri himself, and a clutch of younger writers of both fiction and non-fiction such as Raj Kamal Jha, Ruchir Joshi, Chitralekha Basu and Sarnath Banerjee, whose graphic novel The Barn-Owl’s Wondrous Capers attempts to connect the world of 21st century Kolkata with that of the mid-19th century Hootum Pyanchcar Naksha. But works such as Hootum sit uneasily with the modernist sensibility which informs almost all the pieces featured in this anthology. Modernism in Bengali was a curious mix of bhadralok values and a vigorous engagement with the West, but had little space or tolerance for the vulgar energy and irreverence of the Battala genre of cheap print of which Hootum is the finest example. Nocturnal poets, the Bengal Civil Service and ‘bhadralok’ values— this anthology on Kolkata has something for everyone This strand did not die out altogether in the 20th century, but was only able to survive on the margins and in such enclaves as the little magazine movement and the so-called “Hungry Generation”. In the recent past, it has to some extent been rehabilitated into the mainstream by two remarkable writers, Sandipan Chattopadhyay and Nabarun Bhattacharya. Chattopadhyay features in this anthology in the form of a typical drunk-and-disorderly extract from Kolkatar Dinratri (Days and Nights of Kolkata) but perhaps he would have been served better if one of his louche, amoral short stories had been translated. The absence of Bhattacharya— whose Herbert and Fyataroo stories are narrative hand-grenades lobbed at the heart of the city—is inexplicable, unless it is for permission-related reasons. The other surprising omissions are Samaresh Bose, whose scandalous Bibor is surely one of the most significant Bengali novels in the post Independence period, and Shankar, whose sentimental potboilers have been keeping College Street publishers in the black for almost half a century now.  Memory’s Gold: Penguin / Viking, 538 papers, Rs699 Chaudhuri divides his material into seven broad thematic clusters of uneven length. So while the first, ‘Arrivals, Discoveries’, is primarily 19th century in origin, the second, ‘Exile, Domicile’ enters the domain of a city which has always been at the crossroads of never-ceasing human traffic, but never completely at ease with the shifting currents which ebb and flow around the idea of an essential “Bengali” identity. The new denizens of the nocturnal city are the poets of the Krittibas group, immortalized and self-mythologized in the words of Saratkumar Mukhopadhyay: “After midnight Calcutta is ruled by four young men/ Chowringhee, Bhabanipur to the Shyambazaar delta”. The surprise element in this section is a family photograph at the residence of scholar-writer Sibaji Bandyopadhyay, showing a woman who is already dead reclining in the lap of her husband. Such macabre memento mori were not uncommon in the early 20th century—I have seen a photograph of my grandmother holding a just-dead infant, the only one of her seven children who did not survive. The section called ‘Flanerie’ is somewhat perfunctory (surely more instances of the perambulatory could have been found?) but both ‘Manifestos’ and ‘Visitors’ are full of variety, featuring, among others, a song by Kabir Suman, a Ginsberg opium reverie, Gunter Grass’ harrowing of the soul of the city and P. Lal’s response to it. The last two sections are ‘Forms of Employment’ and ‘Memory’, in which there are classic short stories by Bibhutibhusan and Rajshekhar Basu, as well as more recent accounts as Raghab Bandyopadhyay’s vivid evocation of the Naxal period in his Seventies’ Journal. All in all, an anthology that has something for almost everyone, but which leaves ample scope for debate and good old-fashioned adda. Abhijit Gupta teaches English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Write to lounge@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 5:30 pm Click for kingdomsThere’s trouble brewing in the capital city of Qetesh the Pharaoh. Leather production has dropped precipitously in the city of the Tempest, fuelled by a supply shortage and a sudden demand for sandals, which use copious quantities of the material. “Leather!” cries the harried Pharaoh in a message to his trading partner, the Pharaoh Meridian*. “I want my leather! I’m down to 50 units and I lose 32 an hour!”  Mod happy: Drift City needs external plug-ins installed on your browser. “Damn it to hell,” grunts Pharaoh Qetesh in reply. Qetesh and Meridian aren’t characters in some post-modern alternate history drama, but players—gamers—in a new online multiplayer game called Nile Online. Sometimes playing for minutes a day, or hours at a stretch, the two, along with 2,500 others, pretend to be ancient Egyptian rulers. They juggle trade deals, economic policy and urban planning in their virtual empires along the Nile. The catch? They do all this within the comforts of their Web browser. The browser has recently become the platform du jour for large, community-based online games. They are usually called MMOs, or Massively Multiplayer Online, games—the most popular of which is World Of Warcraft, with at least 11 million players. But browser-based community games are a slightly different breed—they’re mostly free, easy to pick up, and a boon for the time-starved office-goer—and can be played in convenient, broken-up sessions. All you need to do is browse to the game site and register for an account. Almost all of them have strong communities and helpful forums, where wizened players will answer all doubts and queries. While they’ve been around in some form or the other since 2002, browser games are starting to become more complex, more social and better-looking. Also Read Pharaohs in Browserland “Browser games have kind of filled in a significant gap,” says Alok Kejriwal, the CEO of Games2win.com, a flash game portal. “The big game titles have alienated a lot of gamers, needing very high system requirements. People are willing to spend a lot of time playing browser-based games instead, and you’re bound to see them becoming more and more sophisticated.” The most popular browser-based MMOs have user bases exceeding 100,000 players, and apart from handling the complexities of such a huge number of dynamic players in a virtual world, they’re also breaking new ground—making games look more attractive, accessible and creating opportunities for players to work together in completing game objectives. “Browser games are moving away from boring text and becoming better-looking,” says Jeremiah Freyholtz, game designer at Tilted Mill, which runs Nile Online. The title is currently in “open beta”, a stage in game development where the designers invite players to try out the game and point out bugs and inconsistencies. “We (the Nile Online team) are also exploring the idea of server events (e.g., droughts, invasions by raiders or even quests) and larger-scale projects that players can cooperatively work on together, things you’d normally expect to see only in full-scale MMOs.” The sheer variety is also staggering. For the traditional swords-and-sorcery fans, there’s the irreverent and hilarious Kingdom of Loathing (www. kingdomofloathing.com) which, while poking fun at everything under the sun, is also a surprisingly deep and long-lasting role-playing game. Its hand-drawn stick-figure visuals are crude but cute, and there’s a huge world to explore, tonnes of items to collect, monsters to defeat and quests to complete. Also look out for the 28-pound accordion-playing mariachis and the cymbal-clanging monkeys. Empire builders and megalomaniacs should look no further than the aforementioned Egyptian-themed Nile Online (www.playnileonline.com ) or the exotic island setting of Ikariam ( www.ikariam.org ). For more modern realpolitik, t here’s Cyber Nations ( www.cybernations.net ) and Nation States ( www. nationstates.net )—be warned though, both have steep learning curves. No Internet gaming story is complete without mentioning zombies—and thankfully, there’s one based around the lovable, brain nibbling, undead beasts as well— the 32,000-user strong Urban Dead (www.urbandead.com) For the more esoteric, there’s Zon (www.enterzon.com)—a MMO that promises to teach you Mandarin Chinese, and Drift City ( http://drift.ijji.com ), a Korean-based MMO that allows you to race in customized cars around a large city. Most of the MMOs are run by small, independent developers or looser groups of dedicated programmers, and support themselves either through advertising (such as Nile Online ), subscriptions or through paying customers who get access to “premium” content not given away free. Browser crashes are rare, but still possible—so make sure you lose nothing work-related when chasing fez -wearing rabbits through a cursed forest, or negotiating trade agreements with a nearby libertarian state. *Pharaoh names have been changed to protect identity. -reporter Don’t bother—there are worlds aplenty within the comforts of your browser Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 5:26 pm Nhai to seek nod for considering bids from individual firmsNew Delhi: Desperate to get highway projects moving, the National Highways Authority of India, or Nhai, has decided to consider clearing bids even for projects in which only a single company has submitted a bid. Road transport and highways secretary Brahm Dutt told reporters on Friday that out of 34 highway projects put up for auction recently, Nhai has received bids only for 16. In six of these, only one company each has placed bids. Dutt said the companies that have submitted bids for these six projects include Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. According to norms, Nhai is not expected to open bids under such circum- stances. However, the highways regulator is likely to take up the issue before the Union cabinet and seek clearance to open these bids, Dutt said. “Encouraging trends now indicate the sector will see at least Rs35,000 crore investment in calendar year 2009,” Dutt said. “Nhai is likely to complete projects worth Rs20,000 crore, against a target of Rs31,000 crore fixed for the fiscal 2008-09.” Nhai has also decided to consider converting toll-based projects, for which they have not received response, into annuity-based contracts to make them more lucrative for highway contractors, Dutt said. In annuity-based contracts, Nhai will pay a sum agreed upon to concessionaires on phased completion of projects. This is opposed to toll-based contracts, where concessionaires levy a usage fee and share revenue with Nhai. In order to encourage private players to invest in highway projects, the government has already approved disbursing the entire viability gap funding—grants that help make projects viable for concessionaires—within the construction period of the project rather than spread it over an extended period. Nhai expects to spend some Rs28,000 crore in the financial year ending March as against a target of Rs35,000. narayana.k@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 5:22 pm HCL’s profit up 12%, prepares for struggleNew Delhi: India’s fifth largest software exporter, HCL Technologies Ltd’s December quarter profit rose 12% on record deals, but officials said the next few quarters would see tougher competition for a shrinking pie of deals.  Shrinking market: HCL chief executive officer Vineet Nayar. Madhu Kapparath / Mint India’s export-oriented software firms have warned of uncertain prospects for four to six quarters. Bellwethers Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Infosys Technologies Ltd have spoken of tough and challenging times ahead, with the latter trimming its annual profit forecast. HCL counts as its clients Deutsche Bank AG, Microsoft Corp., Xerox Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. In the three months to December, the second quarter of HCL’s fiscal year starting July, net income rose to Rs373 crore from Rs333 crore a year ago under US accounting standards. Revenue rose 37.1% to Rs2,491 crore during the the period. The numbers include financials of British software firm Axon Group Plc., which HCL acquired in December. Ahead of the results, shares of HCL, which has a market capitalization of nearly Rs75 billion, closed 4.9% down at Rs107 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 5:19 pm Auctioneer Carritt in trouble, defaults on payment obligationsKolkata:Auctioneer Carritt Moran and Co. Pvt. Ltd has failed to pay tea producers who sold through it in the first week of January, in the first such instance in at least three decades. Carritt—the second largest tea auctioneer in the world—was yet to fulfil payment obligations for Calcutta sale 1 as of Thursday. Producers have been allowed to withdraw their tea from its catalogue “The shortfall was around Rs1 crore. That’s about 22% of Carritt’s total dues (for sale 1),” said an official of the Calcutta Tea Traders Association, or CTTA, which organizes the auctions. He spoke on condition of anonymity. Producers have been allowed to withdraw their tea from its catalogue, said Roshni Sen, deputy chairman of Tea Board of India, the industry regulator. “The decision was taken on request from sellers,” she said. Lots from Carritt’s catalogue are being assigned to other brokers ahead of the next auction—Calcutta sale 4—on 27 January. On Thursday evening, the Tea Board also ordered opening of an escrow account and asked people who have bought tea from Carritt to pay into it. This is aimed at making sure Carritt doesn’t divert money paid by buyers to service its own liabilities, Sen said. Some people, however, might have already paid their dues to Carritt directly, and the money might have been diverted. “So on Tuesday (27 January), when payments are to be made for (Calcutta) sale 2, Carritt might default again,” said the CTTA official. The auctioneer, however, is expected to fulfil its payment obligations for the Siliguri and Guwahati auctions, he added. Carritt, a 131-year-old auctioneer, has been lending to small and medium tea growers, mostly in south India, for many years. The auctioneer had borrowed from private financiers to lend to tea producers. But many of these loans have not been repaid, and according to Carritt’s chairman P.K. Sen, the company was to receive around Rs36 crore from tea producers. Carritt’s own liabilities are believed to be in excess of Rs50 crore, and even after setting off “all assets on its books, there’s a Rs30 crore gap,” said a tea industry official close to the Carritt management, on condition of anonymity. Carritt’s Sen was not available to comment. Calls made to his cellphone were not answered. Lending to tea producers was the only way to expand business during lean years, said the industry official. “A broker typically lends against yet-to-be ready crop, and makes sure the crop is sold through it,” he explained. “Almost all brokers had got into that business, but Carritt is suffering because of bad cash management.” Tea Board’s Sen said: “There were big management deficiencies in Carritt. We are trying our best to salvage the company, but it might have to be closed down.” Carritt, which sells tea worth around Rs1,000 crore a year and earns 1% of that by way of commission, would never be able to pay off its liabilities with income from auctions, she added. The Economic Times newspaper first reported in its Kolkata edition on Friday that Carritt was facing a financial crisis. Even before Carritt collapsed, the Tea Board had asked management consultant Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd to examine if there were systemic risks and suggest measures to improve the tea auction system. Deloitte is expected to submit its report in eight weeks, according to Roshni Sen. “It is unfortunate that a company of such history and class (as Carritt) has come to this state. But I continue to have full faith in the auction system, and the measures adopted by the tea board will strengthen the system and make it more secure,” said Aditya Khaitan, managing director of McLeod Russel India Ltd, the world’s biggest tea company. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 5:18 pm Week in reviewNew Delhi: This week more skeletons tumbled out of the Satyam closet. For one, the company has just 40,000 employees on its payroll and not 53,000 as was claimed earlier. According to the public prosecutor Rs 20 crore were being diverted every month to fictitious employee accounts. Former chairman B Ramalinga Raju has reportedly confessed to buying thousands of acres of land in 400 deals. At a two-day meeting in Hyderabad, the new Satyam board was expected to choose a new CEO and CFO. Click here to watch video In the wake of the Satyam scam, Securities & Exchange Board of India on Wednesday made it mandatory for promoters of listed companies to disclose shares pledged with lenders for personal loans. Sebi chairman, CB Bhave said, “Promoters who pledge shares have to disclose it to the company and the company, in turn, has to disclose it to the stock exchanges. If we get complaints that people are not complying with the regulation, we will investigate those complaints.” On Monday, Mint reported that nearly $15 billion or Rs 73,650 crore worth of promoter shares have been pledged as collateral with lenders. The world almost stood still as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th American President on Tuesday. The ceremony took place on the steps of the Capitol Hill in Washington DC. Braving the cold, large crowds turned out to see the first African American US president’s swearing in ceremony. In his address, Obama recalled the words of George Washington, America’s first president, enjoining Americans against faint-heartedness “in this winter of our hardship”. The new President, who takes office after 8 years of Bush’s administration, hopes to get America back to financial health soon. Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire is the front-runner for the Oscars. The movie with a prominent Indian star cast including Anil Kapoor and Irfaan Khan, was shot completely in India. The film has been nominated for 10 Oscars including best film and best director. The background music score by AR Rehman has been appreciated widely and may just get India its first ever Oscar for music. BMW unveiled its new version of the 7-series this week and hopes to make it available to the public in February this year. Priced at about Rs 93, 00,000 the company says it is has a fuel efficiency of 8.8 kmpl that is 10% more than its predecessor. “I think when we saw a growth from 2007 to 2008 about 4300 to 7500 in luxury segment; I don’t believe the trend will continue in 2009. I personally believe there will be a slight growth in this year,” says Peter Kronschnabl the President at BMW India. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 5:14 pm Tales of crisis, courage and comedyFew times in the recent past have the Indian Armed Forces been held in as high regard as they are right now. The special force operations during the Mumbai terror strike, the anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia and the brouhaha over pay increases have kept the men in uniform continuously in the public consciousness. One cannot ask for a better time, therefore, to launch Soldiering On, a well-produced coffee table book to commemorate 100 years of Sainik Samachar, the Armed Forces’ news journal. Click here to watch video The book carefully and painstakingly chronicles the evolution of the Sainik Samachar from its launch in 1909 as the Fauji Akhbar—through various wars, a partition and a change in India’s status from domain to republic to, finally, its current avatar: A fortnightly published in 14 languages and read by thousands of soldiers and ex-servicemen. Although positioned as a history of the Sainik Samachar, Soldiering On cannot help but become a visual history of the Indian soldier. This means that the book is illustrated with superb pictures infrequently seen outside military circles. The Armed Forces, in the sense of a national unified entity, may only be a few decades old. But as Soldiering On testifies, they have seen their fair share of trials and tribulations. The images in the book, even the ones blurred by age and poor preservation, do justice to these tales. Two things stand out about the book. One is its balanced view of protagonists: The soldier, the politician and the passage of time are given adequate importance. So, for every few pictures of an Indian unit marching through pouring rain in World War I France, there is one of Indira Gandhi speeding up a ramp into a warship, officers trailing behind, and yet another of milling crowds around the Parliament building in New Delhi on 15 August 1947. Second, the compilers of the book throw open the archives of the Sainik Samachar to readers and let them draw their own historical conclusions. This, from the Armed Forces, no less, shows a candour rare in popular Indian historiography. Without resorting to petty revisionism to show the evils of colonialism and the “British yoke”, Soldiering On sets the tone for its stance early on in its preface: “We leave it to our discerning readers to form their own opinion.” Images of Jallianwala Bagh and old Sainik Samachar excerpts denouncing Mahatma Gandhi are left without interpretations or embellishments. History buffs will enjoy how the book depicts the transient nature of our relationships with neighbours. A poignant picture shows Indian armymen bidding farewell to Pakistani counterparts shortly before the partition of both countries. Later ones show both war and friendship attempts between the countries. One of the final few images is that of armed black-helmeted commandos at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel. All this might leave you thinking the book is all grim reportage and gritty soldier profiles. But the Sainik Samachar also carried delightful features by popular writers—Khushwant Singh, Ruskin Bond and Mulk Raj Anand (on Indian classical dancing)—and extremely funny cartoons. If the samples in Soldiering Onare anything to go by, the archives of Sainik Samachar should easily have enough material for a compilation of excellent humour in uniform. Soldiering Onis a classic coffee-table book: Excellent eye candy for a quick flip-through, and plenty of insightful reading when you kick up your heels. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 5:09 pm Economists expect growth to rebound in second half of FY10New Delhi: The economists who advise Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have said in a new report that economic growth would rebound in the second half of the next fiscal and hinted that the government has room to increase spending to support the economy. The Prime Minister’s economic advisory council (EAC), headed by Suresh Tendulkar, expects the Indian economy to expand between 7% and 7.5% in the next fiscal, against the consensus view that growth will be sluggish in 2009-10 as well. Investment bank Goldman Sachs, for example, reiterated in a report released on Friday that India will grow at 5.8% in the next fiscal due to “rapidly falling external demand and slowing investment demand”. PM’s economic advisory council expects the economy to expand between 7% and 7.5% in the next fiscal The Reserve Bank of India has cut interest rates and the Union government has increased spending to bolster growth. The EAC has admitted that the fiscal deficit of the Union government may be around 8% of gross domestic product, or GDP, the value of national output. The finance ministry had budgeted for a deficit of 2.5% of GDP in February 2008. With state governments expected to report fiscal deficits of 3.5% of GDP, the council expects the combined deficit of all levels of government to cross into double digits, one of the highest in the world. Yet, the council has argued that the government can let the deficit rise. “The cost of sticking immediately to the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act is very high. It is neither feasible nor desirable. Given the fact that private investment is sluggish, (higher) fiscal deficit is unlikely to crowd out such investment,” Tendulkar said. The Act is a federal agreement to limit deficits by 2009. Falling crude oil prices will reduce the food and fertilizer subsidies that the government had to pay in 2008 to protect domestic consumers and thus take some pressure off its budget. The EAC also expects inflation to drop and the current account deficit—a measure of external imbalances—to shrink, though the foreign capital inflows needed to finance the latter will be weak. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 4:59 pm Gujarat invites Sri Lanka to develop coastal tourismGujarat's tourism department has sought Sri Lanka's help in developing resorts along its coastline given the island nation's vast experience in running several resorts and spas along its beaches, an official said Friday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 23 Jan 2009 | 4:30 pm Satyam says close to securing funding; L&T ups stakeHYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - Fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd is close to securing funding to pay salaries and other bills, its new board said on Friday, and Larsen & Toubro raised its stake in the outsourcing firm to 12 percent as a rival potential suitor emerged.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Jan 2009 | 3:57 pm Govt lowers growth forecast, blames global slumpNEW DELHI (Reuters) - A top government panel cut its growth forecast for Asia's third-largest economy on Friday, blaming a battering from the global slowdown, and its chief said there was room for more cuts in interest rates.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Jan 2009 | 2:37 pm Samsung reports its first quarterly loss!Samsung Electronics Co, the leading South Korean electronics maker, posted its first quarterly loss, saying Friday that it was 20 billion won (USD 14.59 million) in the red in the final quarter of 2008.Source: Zee News : Business | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:17 pm Satyam Board may decide on CEO, CFO today !The newly-formed board of the scam-tainted IT giant Satyam Computer Services is likely to choose new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to run the firm on Friday.Source: Zee News : Business | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:17 pm Zee News Q3 net up 18.40 pc at Rs 15 cr!Zee News on Thursday said its consolidated net profit rose by 18.40 per cent to Rs 15.12 crore for the third quarter ended December 31.Source: Zee News : Business | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:17 pm Tata Investment to be completed by end of March: DoCoMo !NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it plans to complete by late March a 2.7 billion dollar investment in the mobile- phone business of India`s Tata Group as it seeks to expand into the worlds fastest-growing major wireless market.Source: Zee News : Business | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:17 pm Google profit falls for first time!Google posted the first-ever decline in its quarterly revenue on Thursday.Source: Zee News : Business | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:17 pm Huge amounts of money vanished from Satyam: Parekh!HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, who is also a member of the government-appointed Satyam board, has said large sums of money have either "disappeared" or were non-existent in the company.Source: Zee News : Business | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:17 pm
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