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Cement growth to be higher in Q4: Sanjay LadiwalaSanjay Ladiwala, Cement Dealers Association said growth by way of increase in prices and profitability would certainly be higher this quarter, and maybe in the beginning of next quarter. \"In AprilMay, demand is pretty high. But if you take a yearly average, I dont think that is going to hold.\"Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 3 Mar 2009 | 3:22 pm Comparative study of LT and BHELBHEL is better off than LT and is in the most convincing buy list of analysts. BHEL has a better P/E holding than LT. On the other hand, LT has order book problems. It\'s market cap is now half that of BHEL\'s market cap.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 3 Mar 2009 | 3:22 pm Haryana govt refunds Rs 202cr license fee to DLF in FebHaryana government has refunded Rs 202 crore license fee to DLF last month and another Rs 38 crore will be adjusted later with DLF, reports CNBCTV, quoting a government official.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 3 Mar 2009 | 2:35 pm RBI: closely monitoring FX mkt developmentsMUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India is closely monitoring developments in the foreign exchange market and it will curb excessive volatility, Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Shyamala Gopinath said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 1:01 pm Apple tops the Fortune list of most admired cos in the worldApple, for the second year in a row has topped the Fortune list of the most admired companies in the world, but no Indian company has made the cut.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:42 pm MCX eyes global footprint, appoints NYSE exec as advisorMUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX) is looking at expanding its international operations with the help of a recently-appointed top NYSE Euronext executive to its advisory board, it said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:41 pm Satyam to introduce revenue-linked allowances, no variable payCEO of the company AS Murty said the variable compensation policy would be withdrawn from April 1 for all associates across Satyam.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:39 pm HCL Tech signs Rs 393cr, 7yr contract with NICHCL Technologies, has signed a 7year contract with National Insurance Company for Rs 393 crore. Kiran Bhagwanani, Senior VP, HCL Tech said its the largest engagement of its kinds in the insurance sector in India. Going by the complexity of work, about 60% of the work will get completed within the first 18 months, which is the deployment phase.\"Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:38 pm Indian rupee slumps to record low as stocks tumble - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:35 pm Rupee slumps to record low as stocks tumbleMUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee dropped to a record low beyond 52 per dollar on Tuesday, undermined by a slump in the stock market to its lowest close in more than three years as investors became more risk averse.Source: Reuters: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:34 pm Rupee slumps to record low as stocks tumbleMumbai: The rupee dropped to a record low beyond Rs52 per dollar on Tuesday, undermined by a slump in the stock market to its lowest close in more than three years as investors became more risk averse. Dealers said sporadic dollar selling by the central bank (RBI) via state-run banks stemmed the decline, but analysts predicted more weakness for the friendless local unit in the coming weeks. The partially convertible rupee ended at Rs51.95/97 per dollar, 0.11% below Monday’s close of Rs51.90/92, after hitting a lifetime low of Rs52.20 per dollar in afternoon trade. It has fallen 2% so far this week and is down 6.7% so far in 2009. It fell more than 19% last year. “There are only outflows in the market and dollar buying is coming from all quarters, be it companies, importers, banks,” said P.V. Rao, head of currency trading at IndusInd Bank in Mumbai. Capital outflows from the stock market have been a key driver for the rupee’s plunge. The stock index has lost 12.65% this year after more than halving in 2008. Foreigners have sold about $1.8 billion worth of Indian shares so far in 2009, after withdrawing more than $13 billion in 2008, when the rupee fell 19.1%. Traders said the rupee’s sharp fall from Rs49 to Rs52 per dollar in two weeks had blown out option trades, forcing some banks to cover their positions, and arbitrage plays between onshore and offshore derivative markets have only added to the rupee’s woes. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoting at Rs52.29/52.39, weaker than the local spot. Goldman Sachs expects the rupee to remain weak over the next three months due to factors including dollar strength, worsening economic data, weak sentiment due to a high fiscal deficit and a recent downgrade in India’s rating outlook by Standard & Poor’s. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:33 pm India warns developed countries against protectionismIndia Tuesday warned against the dangers of protectionism and asked developed countries not to stop the flow of funds to developing countries due to the global economic downturn.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:31 pm Pfizer ropes in Aurobindo to sell drugs in US, Europe - Hindu
Source: Google News India - Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:30 pm Hindustan zinc cuts silver rates - Hindu
Source: Google News India - Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:30 pm Jammu and Kashmir presents Rs.95-bn interim budgetJammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather Tuesday presented the vote-on-account in the state assembly with a proposed expenditure of Rs.95.03 billion (Rs.9,503 crore) for the first five months of next fiscal.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:30 pm G-20 nations need to act together to improve world economy: US !As US President Barack Obama prepares to attend the G-20 Summit in London next month, the White House has said it is the responsibility of all the major countries to get together to improve the economy of the world.Source: Zee News : Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:28 pm Nikkei dips below its 26-yr low!Japanese stocks fell Tuesday morning as fears over the health of the US financial sector sent the Dow Jones industrial average closing below 7,000 for the first time in more than 11 years.Source: Zee News : Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:28 pm `Obama considers funds to buy bad assets`!The Obama administration is considering a plan to purchase bad loans and other distressed assets by creating multiple investments funds, according to The Wall Street Journal, quoting people familiar with the matter.Source: Zee News : Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:28 pm Canada`s GDP rate shrinks at 3.4%!The Canadian economy contracted at a 3.4 percent pace at the end of 2008, the biggest decline since 1991.Source: Zee News : Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:28 pm Madoff seeks to keep $62 mn assets!Bernard Madoff seeks to keep a penthouse and an additional USD 62 million in assets.Source: Zee News : Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:28 pm Dow Jones finishes below 7K for first time since `97!The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted below 7,000 at the opening bell and kept driving lower all day, finishing at 6,763 — a loss of nearly 300 points. Each of the 30 stocks in the index lost value for the day.Source: Zee News : Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:28 pm `Tata Motors to raise $100 mn`!Tata Motors is in talks to raise about $100 mn by selling a stake in a group firm.Source: Zee News : Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:28 pm Oil prices lower in Asian trade!Oil prices slid in Asian trade as fresh turmoil rocked the global financial sector, analysts said.Source: Zee News : Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:28 pm World Bank order in excess of $100m: Suzlon Energy - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:15 pm FACTBOX - Five facts as stocks fall fast, further and furiouslyLONDON (Reuters) - World stocks fell again on Tuesday following a rout the previous session. Here are five facts to put the state of global equities in context:Source: Reuters: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:15 pm EU can aid euro zone states, recession to deepenBRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) - The European Union pledged on Tuesday to bail out any struggling euro zone members before they turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and said it was strong enough to combat the global financial crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:12 pm Aegis offers to buy Nasdaq-listed BPO firm ICT group - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:06 pm GMR Infra promoter hikes stake to 74.26%Mumbai: GMR Holdings has hiked its stake in GMR Infrastructure, a company it promotes, to 74.26% after purchasing one lakh shares through an open-market transaction. GMR Infra, in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, said the GMR Holdings has purchased its one lakh shares. On 26 February, the promoter purchased 55,000 shares and the next day it bought 45,000 shares, the filing added. Calculated on the basis of closing prices on 26 and 27 February, the purchased shares were valued Rs78.58 lakh. After the aforesaid purchase, the promoter group now holds over 135 crore shares representing 74.26% stake in GMR Infra. Shares of GMR Infra settled at Rs75.30, down 0.59% on the BSE. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:04 pm Networth neutral on Tata Steel - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:01 pm Court stays auction of Gandhi's belongings in USIn an effort to stop Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings from going under the hammer at a New York auction, the Delhi High Court put an interim stay on it Tuesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 pm Close: Markets register lowest close in 3 yearsNew Delhi: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex extended losses to more than 2% on Tuesday, touted to be the lowest closing in three years as withdrawals of foreign funds increased on deepening global economic concerns. Markets witnessed some volatility today and lacked direction for most part of the session. Trading was flat after noon but the index plunged when European shares turned negative on falling bank shares after a brief rebound. Negative sentiment was also picked up from Asian markets that suffered some record lows today after Wall Street tumbled overnight to touch its 12-year low after AIG posted huge quarterly loss and US government agreed to bail the insurer for the third time. All indices slipped to negative with significant selling pressure witnessed among the consumer durables, FMCG, technology, banking, oil and gas and IT stocks. The 30-share BSE index began the day 0.6% lower on financial worries and weak global markets. Sensex lost 179.79 points to end at 8,427.29 and 50-share NSE Nifty lost 52.20 points to close at 2,622.40. Grasim Industries was on top among the three gainers from the BSE pack, it traded up by 2.88% to Rs1,362.05, along with ACC Ltd by 1.26% to Rs530.10 and Jaiprakash Asoociates by 0.88% to Rs63.20. Tata Power led the declining stocks by falling 6.41% to Rs666.05, followed by Reliance Communication Ltd by 4.44% to Rs138.90, ITC Ltd by 3.75% to Rs172, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd by 3.12% to Rs445.15, Housing Development and Finance Corp by 2.95% to Rs1,200.45 and Bharti Airtel by 2.60% to Rs601.45. AIG news nagged the Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei dropped to 26-year low in early trade but later trimmed losses to close just 0.7% down. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 2.3% as HSBC lost almost fifth of its value in market capitalization. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:57 am Water based projects form 65% of order book: IVRCL InfraSudhir Reddy of IVRCL Infrastructure and Projects said irrigation project cycles could be between 2738 months. He further said water based projects form 65% of order book out of which 2025% projects are in Andhra Pradesh.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:56 am European stocks reverse brief gainsLondon: Europe’s main stock markets fell in midday trade on Tuesday, reversing brief gains after huge drops a day earlier on fears about the fallout from the financial crisis. London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares fell 1.47% to 3,572.67 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 fell 0.81% to 3,680.16 points and in Paris the CAC 40 slipped 0.34% to 2,572.61. The FTSE 100 had ended Monday’s session at a six-year low, down more than 5%, as indices worldwide plunged on fears for the fate of some of the world’s biggest financial companies amid the global crisis, traders said. US authorities on Monday announced new rescue funds for insurance giant AIG and British bank HSBC reported a record loss. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:51 am Six Sri Lanka cricketers hurt in Pakistan terror attackLahore: Six Sri Lankan cricketers and their British assistant coach were wounded when gunmen attacked their bus as it drove under police escort on Tuesday to a stadium in the Pakistani city of Lahore, officials said. Lahore Police chief Habib-ur-Rehman said five police were killed in the attack by unidentified gunmen, who fired AK 47s and rockets and hurled grenades at the bus as it slowed at a traffic circle near the 60,000-seater Gaddafi stadium. Witnesses saw gunmen with rifles and backpacks running through the streets and firing on people and vehicles around the massive stadium in the morning attack. “I saw them from the window of my office firing at the police escort first. When the police dispersed after the shooting, they started firing at the bus of Sri Lankan team,” Mohammad Luqman told Reuters.  A video grab shows gunmen firing in the direction of a police vehicle. Six members of the Sri Lankan cricket squad were wounded when around a dozen gunmen attacked their bus as it drove under police escort to a stadium in Lahore on 3 March 2009. Reuters photo The attack highlights Pakistan seeming inability to defeat terrorism spreading inside and outside the country and comes at a time when the United States is putting pressure on the government to do more to fight the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. It had echoes of an attack on Mumbai last November in which 179 people died and which led to the Indian cricket team cancelling its planned tour of Pakistan. “One thing I want to say it’s the same pattern, the same terrorists who attacked Mumbai,” said governor Taseer. Also Read Quotes on attack (PDF) Pakistan’s civilian government has lurched into political crisis less than a year since ex-army chief Pervez Musharraf was forced to quit as president, and the country is braced for street agitation by opposition parties in coming days. “Who would want to invest in Pakistan?” “This is not only an attack on the Sri Lankan team but on Pakistan,” said Shuja Rizvi, director of broking at Capital One Equities Ltd. “Who would want to invest then in Pakistan?” We all dived to the floor to take cover India blamed the Mumbai attack on Pakistan-trained terrorists and the incident sharply raised tension between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The group blamed by India, Lashkar-e-Taiba, came from Pakistan’s Punjab province, whose capital is Lahore. A spokesman for the Sri Lanka High Commission in Islamabad said six players were wounded along with assistant coach Paul Farbrace, a Briton. Sri Lankan and Pakistan media said Thilan Samaraweera seemed to be the worst hit, suffering a thigh injury. The other Sri player admitted to hospital was Tharanga Paranavithana. Reserve umpire Ehsan Raza was also critically wounded, according to Ejaz Butt, chairman of Pakistan’s Cricket Board. It was unclear whether their injuries were caused by bullets, shrapnel or flying shards of glass. Sri Lanka, which had been invited to Pakistan after India pulled out, immediately cancelled the rest of the tour. “We are planning to have them airlifted out from there, and then evacuated to Sri Lanka on the first available flight,” foreign secretary Palitha Kohona told Reuters in Colombo. It was the second day of their second Test match and being played at the venue where Sri Lanka won cricket’s world cup in 1996, beating Australia in the final. Until this series Pakistan had gone without Test cricket for more then a year because of security concerns. In 2002, a bomb exploded in Karachi while the New Zealand cricket team were touring, killing 13 people, including 11 French navy experts. In that incident the New Zealand cricketers were also preparing to drive to the stadium when the car bomb exploded. They called off the tour within hours of the attack. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:49 am Oil rises above $40, but demand worries remainsLondon: Oil rose above $40 a barrel on Tuesday after a 10% slump on Monday but showed no sign of a return to last week’s bull run as global equities extended a fall on worries about the global economy and outweighed Opec’s strong compliance with supply curbs. US crude was up 69 cents at $40.84 a barrel by 4:40pm, after tumbling $4.61 overnight, while London Brent crude rose $1.03 to $43.24 a barrel. European shares fell on Tuesday, with a key index hitting a lifetime low as investors sold out of the banking sector and concerns about the health of the economy weighed on sentiment. Opec oil supply fell in February for a sixth straight month as members enforced a deal to cut output and prop up oil prices, a Reuters survey showed on Monday, but analysts expect more cuts by the producer group when it meets in Vienna on 15 March. “Given the recent weakness in oil prices...we suspect that OPEC cannot afford to do nothing, and will have to put another cut through,” Edward Meir of MF Global wrote in a note. World equities plumbed multi-year lows on Monday and the dollar climbed to nearly three-year highs as a record quarterly loss for US insurer AIG fuelled fears over the financial sector and boosted the greenback’s safe-haven status. The Dow Jones stock index fell below 7,000 for the first time since October 1997 after American International Group reported the biggest quarterly loss in US corporate history at $61.7 billion. Inventory figures on Tuesday and Wednesday will show the impact on demand from the world’s top energy consumer and February unemployment and non-farm payroll data on Friday will shed more light on the state of the US economy. Mixed macro-economic data out of top energy-consumer the United States on Monday showed milder shrinkage in manufacturing and a slight bounce in consumer spending, but the improvement was likely a blip amid a rapidly deteriorating economy. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:47 am Tata unveils the Nano Europa; advances booking dateTata said the European version of Nano would come with airbags and other high-end features, "but it will still be a low-cost car".Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:47 am Satyam to scrap flexi pay, link allowances to revenue - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:43 am Tata unveils Nano Europa at Geneva Motor Show - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:42 am BSE Sensex slides 2 pct to lowest close in 3 yrsMUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex fell 2 percent on Tuesday to its lowest close in more than three years as deepening concerns about the global economic outlook and wobbly regional markets dented investor appetite.Source: Reuters: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:32 am Indian rate swaps steady, buyback auction eyed - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:32 am Tata Motors exhibits Nano's international avatarTata Motors, makers of the $2,500 Nano small car, have decided to offer the world's least expensive passenger vehicle in the international market, the company announced at the Geneva Motor Show Tuesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:32 am Kerala firm develops sight device for weaponsLight Logics Holography and Optics Ltd, a Technopark-based company, Tuesday said it has developed a professional grade holographic weapon sight device that will facilitate sharp and easy aiming of weapons.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:30 am Sensex tumbles to a three-year low - Times of India
Source: Google News India - Business | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:29 am The Expat show -- Driving in DelhiIn this podcast Melissa and Aruna talk to Sam and Niraj about driving in Delhi. While Sam does a silent protest of no-honk driving, Niraj scorns at the way drivers in Delhi refuse to use the rear view mirror. Listen to the insights of the expats as they get used to the turns of delhi. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:17 am Philippines’ telecom firm eyes acquisitions in IndiaManila: The Philippines’ largest listed company, telecom firm PLDT, said on Tuesday it was eyeing acquisition opportunities in India that could see investments of up to $2 billion. “I think there are opportunities in India that could have an investment range of anywhere between $500 million all the way up to $2 billion,” Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT) chairman Manuel Pangilinan said. “It’s a market where the valuation of telcos has gone down significantly, so if we could take a look at it, it must make sense obviously for us,” Pangilinan said. PLDT is currently “in various degrees of discussions” with several firms in India, he added, but did not disclose details. PLDT, which is owned by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co Ltd and Japan’s NTT Communications and NTT DoCoMo, earlier forecast a smaller rise in core profit this year as a slowing domestic economy hits subscriber growth. Core earnings are expected to rise 5% in 2009 to 40 billion pesos ($819 million) from 38.1 billion pesos in 2008. Last year’s earnings marked an 8% increase over 2007. PLDT, which runs the country’s dominant fixed line business and is also the biggest wireless phone provider, has a market value of about $8.5 billion. The company said 2 billion pesos of this year’s core profit, which strips out currency and derivatives gains, will come from the reduction in the corporate income tax rate to 30% from 35%. That would indicate that without the tax benefit, the company’s bottomline will largely be flat. “The economic conditions are difficult and, second, as you increase the penetration rate, it will of course be a little bit more difficult to gain more subscribers,” Napoleon Nazareno, PLDT president and chief executive, told the briefing. Full-year net profit was 34.6 billion pesos, down 4% from 2007 and below forecasts of 37.2 billion pesos, according to Reuters Estimates. PLDT said 2008 earnings were dragged down by asset impairment charges from earlier investments in information technology and foreign exchange losses. “It’s a good set of results, especially in the current environment,” said Macquarie analyst Rama Maruvada. “The outlook obviously is a little bit challenging, more so because it’s a macro thing, it’s not really an execution issue.” For 2009, PLDT expects service revenues to rise 5% to 150 billion pesos. The company has allocated 27 billion pesos for capital spending this year, up from last year’s 25.2 billion pesos, but officials said the amount can be tweaked. PLDT last month said it raised 5 billion pesos through an issuance of fixed rate notes to fund its capital outlay and officials said there could be more similar debt issues. “We’re trying to shift more of our borrowings to peso-denominated borrowings with respect to capex financing as well as replacing our maturities with debt,” said PLDT treasurer Anabelle Chua. “Over time, it minimises our exposure to forex revaluation,” she said, adding the company has more than $300 million in debt maturing this year. PLDT shares closed up 0.5% at 2,185 pesos on Tuesday, compared with the main index’s 0.2% rise. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:08 am Poll expense on rise - from Rs.104.5 mn to Rs.13 bnSince India's first Lok Sabha elections in 1952 to the last round in 2004, poll expenses have shot up from Rs.104.5 million to Rs.13 billion. And this time, for the April-May exercise, the figure is likely to be even higher, says official data.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:01 am 'Lack of funds, technology challenges for small sector'Despite government efforts to facilitate organised growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the sector continues to face serious constraints such as access to funds, timely financing and technology support, an apex body of management professionals and associations said Tuesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 3 Mar 2009 | 11:00 am HSBC plans to raise GBP 12.5 bn through a rights issueThere are some more worrying news from the global banking spacethis time from HSBC. The bank plans to raise about GBP 12.5 billion in new capital through a rights issue. This announcement came after it reported a 70% drop in net profit in 2008. It also said it was looking at pulling out of its US consumer finance business.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:55 am Ritesh Jain joins Morgan StanleyMorgan Stanley on Tuesday announced the appointment of Ritesh Jain as head of Fixed Income for its investment management business in India.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:52 am Satyam customer base intact in Asia Pacfic - CEOBANGALORE (Reuters) - Satyam Computer Services' client base in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, India and Africa is intact despite the uncertainty about fraud-hit firm's future, its new chief executive officer said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:50 am Merger of RIL-RPL to complete in about 5 months: AdvisorBoards of RIL and RPL has approved a proposal to merge the two entities in an all-share deal, where one RIL share would be issued for every 16 RPL shares.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:40 am New Satyam CEO exudes confidence in SingaporeSatyam has established its Global Delivery Hub, which conducts and research and development activities, including joint-testing and developing high-end applications.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:38 am Markets close in the redIndian equities markets closed in the red Tuesday, with a key index shutting shop 2.09 percent lower.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:32 am Domenico Dolce floored by Scarlett's beautyHollywood divas like Jennifer Lopez, Gisele Bundchen, Madonna, Monica Bellucci, Christina Aguilera, Kylie Minogue and many more wear their dresses but designer Domenico Dolce of the designer duo D and amp;G is smitten by Scarlett Johansson's beauty.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:32 am Australia to reopen dairy exports to IndiaThe Australian and the Indian government agreed Tuesday to resume the trade of Australian milk products for the first time since the suspension of importing goods in 2003.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:31 am Satyam customer base intact, says MurtyBangalore: Satyam Computer Services’ client base in Asia Pacific, West Asia, India and Africa is intact despite the uncertainty about fraud-hit firm’s future, its new chief executive officer said on Tuesday. The government-appointed board of Satyam plans to bring a strategic investor into the company to restore the confidence of its about 50,000 staff and more than 600 customers, including General Electric, Cisco and Qantas Airways. “Our customer base remains intact and all our clients have chosen to stand by us during these challenging times,” AS Murty said in a statement about the firm’s business outside the United States and Europe. Also Read The Satyam Fiasco (Full Coverage) “And, since the beginning of 2009, we have seen a record level of new contracts in the region,” said Murty, who was appointed CEO last month. He is in Singapore to meet staff and customers. Satyam was left struggling for survival after founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju quit on 7 January, saying profits had been overstated for years and assets falsified, but management has since said the company has stabilised. “We have a world-class roster of clients with whom we enjoy remarkably strong relationships,” Murty said. “My immediate priority as CEO is to initiate and cultivate additional measures that will continue to stabilise Satyam.” Separately, Satyam said in a staff newsletter on Monday that it had recently won a significant four-year outsourcing deal from a leading telecom service provider along with another global information technology major. One of the top five insurance companies in the United States had also decided to renew its contract, Satyam said without naming the clients in the newsletter, which was emailed to Reuters on Tuesday. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:28 am Co wellcapitalised; have Rs 500cr in cash: TV18 IndiaNetwork18s board has approved hike in FII limit to 49% and issue of 2.5 crore equity shares inclusive preferential allotment has also been approved, reports CNBCTV18. Bahl pointed the company roughly has Rs 500 crore cash.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:20 am Vedanta expects FY09 profit to shrink by 30%New Delhi: Hit by a slump in demand and falling metal prices, London-listed Vedanta Resources sees its profit plunging by over 30% this fiscal. “We have an impact (of the economic slowdown) on our profitability. Profits will be low by 30% or more for the whole year 2008-09,” Vedanta Resources chairman Anil Agarwal told PTI. The metal and mining major saw prices of all its major products - copper, zinc, lead, aluminium and iron ore - dip by about 60% in the past six months due to the slackening demand amid the global industrial downturn, and it admits the pressure still exists. “Pressure from price side is there. For example, our iron ore prices have fallen to $50 a tonne from the previous $150,” Agarwal said. The London Stock Exchange-listed group saw its revenues declining by 31% at $1.30 billion for the third quarter ended 31 December 2008. Its revenues stood at $1.88 billion in the same quarter last fiscal. Even as the company sees its profit margins taking a dip, it does not plan any immediate production cut. Agarwal, however, said Vedanta would take necessary steps to run the group efficiently. “We have neither reduced production nor intend to do so,” he said, adding that company would be undertaking a number of steps to reduce operating costs. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:19 am Skoda mulls to introduce Yeti in India; To launch new LauraSkoda is mulling to introduce its sports utility vehicle Yeti in India, besides looking at launching an advanced version of its sedan Laura.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:10 am Who could have attacked Sri Lanka’s cricketers?Gunmen attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday, wounding six players, officials said. A senior Pakistani official said the raid bore the hallmarks of the same terrorists who attacked Mumbai in November. India and the United States blamed the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the three-day assault on Mumbai. Following are the major terrorist groups operating in Pakistan who could be behind the attack. Lashkar-e-Taiba Lashkar-e-Taiba or “army of the pure” is one of the largest Islamic terrorist groups in South Asia, based in Pakistan. Security analysts say it is a well-funded and highly organized group that sympathizes with Al-Qaeda. A charity linked to the group was headquartered at Muridke town, outside Lahore, and most LeT fighters were drawn from surrounding Punjab province. Pakistan raided the group and shut down the charity after it came under pressure from India following the attacks in Mumbai in which nearly 170 people were killed. India charged the group’s founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and other senior members Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah for the attack. The group denied it was involved. Tehrik-e-Taliban The Tehrik-e-Taliban is led by Baitullah Mehsud, an Al-Qaeda ally, and has been accused of being behind a wave of suicide attacks that have rocked Pakistan since mid-2007, including one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. The Tehrik-e-Taliban or Movement of Taliban, Pakistan, is a loose umbrella group of factions based in northwest Pakistan. Mehsud is based in the south Waziristan region. He is fighting to establish a puritanical Islamic society based on Sharia law. Jaish-i-Mohammad This group, led by Maulana Masood Azhar, was banned along with Lashkar in 2002 following an attack on the Indian parliament. Like LeT, it carried out suicide attacks in Kashmir, but it has also been named for attacks in Pakistan. In March 2002, a Jaish fighter killed four people, including two Americans, in an attack on a church in Islamabad. A Jaish connection was made to one of the assassination attempts on then president Pervez Musharraf in December 2003, and there was a Jaish presence at the Red Mosque uprising in Islamabad in 2007. Jaish members have also surfaced in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Pakistan said Masood was among those detained following the November attacks on Mumbai, but then denied he was being held. Baluch Groups Several guerrilla groups are waging a low-key insurgency in gas-rich Baluchistan province on the border with Afghanistan. Some have taken responsibility for small attacks in Lahore in the past. A group calling itself the Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of an American working for the United Nations a month ago. The attack on the Sri Lankan team is on a vastly different scale to anything carried out by any Baluch group. Outside Pakistan -- Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers In Sri Lanka, official suspicion will fall on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a rebel group close to military defeat in northern Sri Lanka and which has a long history of carrying out deadly guerrilla attacks. There has been no clear evidence the Tigers have operations or links to Pakistan. Pakistan has good relations with Sri Lanka and has given training and supplied arms to the Sri Lankan military fighting the Tamil Tiger rebels. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 10:00 am Corus was a very very good buy: MuthuramanDespite Corus' poor performance pulling down overall profit of Tata Steel, company managing director B Muthuraman said that the US$12-billion buy was a good deal.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 9:51 am Corus was a very very good buy: Muthuraman Mumbai: Corus’ poor performance pulling down overall profit of Tata Steel notwithstanding, company’s managing director B Muthuraman said that the $12-billion buy was a good deal as its fundamentals were sound. “You don’t buy looking at the short-term, but the long-term future of a company. Corus was a very very good buy as its fundamentals are quite sound,” Tata Steel Managing Director B Muthuraman told PTI here. Tata Steel Group’s EBIDTA margin, a pointer to the health of a firm, stood at only nine per cent for the quarter ended 31 December 2008, as against Tata Steel India’s 31% during the same period. The Indian operation helped the over 100-year-old steel company to post a relatively good show on EBIDTA margin for the nine-month period ended 31 December 2008. Tata Steel had acquired the European firm in the year 2006 for %12 billion. While Tata Steel India clocked 44% margin during the period, Tata Steel Europe stood at only 11%, which is higher than Nat Steel Asia at 4% and 3% in Tata Steel Thailand. Echoing Muthuraman’s statement, an industry official said that Corus was a “good buy” for Tata Steel. “However, it’s poor show on the books has got nothing to do with its fundamentals. It’s a victim of the current global downturn. Even Arcelor Mittal could not by-pass the downturn,“ he said. The cost of production at Corus was higher compared to its peers and the parent firm Tata Steel mainly because of its high labour and administrative costs. The absence of raw material security also burn a hole in its balance sheet. A highly-placed Tata Steel official, however, said that Corus has helped the Group to spread out its geographical diversity and ensured a very good product-mix into its kitty. It has also brought a whole lot of experienced and knowledgeable people into the company. “Besides, the strong R&D team of Corus is a bonus. This helps us to make better products in our Indian operations as well,” he said. The Indian operation of Tata Steel is one of the lowest cost producers of steel having access to captive iron ore and coal mines. Corus, which has 19 million tonne annual capacity, mainly imports iron ore from Brazil to feed its production. The company has recently entered into a five-year agreement with a Brazilian firm to ensure iron ore supply. But, coal prices are still ruling high. Tata Steel Group, which has a combined 28.1 million tonnes per annum steel making capacity, is the sixth largest steel firm in the world. With the acquisition of Corus, the combined raw material security of the Group, however, came down to 22%, down from 80% for Tata Steel alone. Muthuraman said that the Group would provide raw material security to Corus and has, in fact, trying to ensure supply from Riversdale, the coal mine that the Group acquired in Australia. The company has already mentioned that it would spend 20% of its proposed $1.2 billion capex programme in 2009-10 to develop mines overseas. The Group had earlier said that it was looking for mines abroad mainly to feed Corus and targets to achieve 100% self-sufficiency for India and 50% for its European operations and has identified raw material resources in America, Western and Southern Africa and Australia for acquisition. Tata Steel has acquired stake in two coal mines in Mozambique and one in Australia. It also has stakes in an iron ore mine in Ivory Coast and has entered into a joint venture in Oman for limestone mining. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 9:30 am Downturn to be deeper even than IMF forecast: OECDParis: The global economic downturn will be considerably deeper than even the International Monetary Fund forecast a month ago, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s chief economist Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel told Reuters. Further substantial cuts in interest rates by the European Central Bank and Bank of England are totally justified, he said in an interview. These were to be expected in response to the worst spell the economy has suffered since 1946, when military spending plunged after World War Two. “The recession will deepen...there’s no doubt,” he said. “I think this quarter will be the worst quarter of all.” On 28 January, the IMF cut its forecast for global growth to 0.5% in 2009 from an earlier prediction of 2.2%. It also forecast a 2.0% slide in economic output from the world’s most advanced economies as a whole, an equally large downgrading of forecasts it had made in November 2008. Even those drastic revisions failed to reflect the extent of the downturn at this stage, said Schmidt-Hebbel. He is preparing new forecasts for publication at the end of March by the Paris-based OECD, which will be cutting its own predictions from those it made last November. “The shape of it will be a significantly deeper recession than what was forecast by the IMF in January, at all levels,” said Schmidt-Hebbel. “(It will be) significantly deeper and more protracted -- meaning longer than what is embodied in the IMF forecasts of late January.” Last November, the OECD predicted a 0.4% decrease in aggregate economic output this year from its 30 member countries. These include all of the wealthy industrialised countries and a handful of less mature economies such as South Korea, Mexico and Turkey. “The OECD economies will do significantly worse than the world economy because in emerging economy countries like the Indias, Chinas and some others, growth will still be slightly positive in 2009,” he said. Schmidt-Hebbel said the current quarter would probably prove to be the worst one in the international downturn, after an already very bad final quarter of 2008 where US output fell faster than in any quarter for 26 years. The US Federal Reserve has pushed official interest rates close to zero and Japan’s central bank is already at that point, though other central banks still have more leeway. “We are expecting, and forecasting formally, significant further interest rate cuts by the Bank of England, the ECB and a number of other OECD countries with independent central banks, towards very low rates, which I think is absolutely justified by the outlook on inflation and activity for the next one or two years,” Schmidt-Hebbel said. This would be what the OECD would say on rates when it published its new official forecasts at the end of March, he said. Reuters polls show economists expect the ECB to cut its main euro zone rate by 50 basis points from the current 2.0% on Thursday and that the Bank of England too will lower its rate the same day from a current level of 1.0%. Schmidt-Hebbel said interest rate cuts had a limited power to support economic growth. That increased the need to consider less conventional moves, such as direct asset purchases, or “quantitative easing” of credit conditions along the lines being deployed in the United States and now Britain, he said. Schmidt-Hebbel offered one relative note of optimism. “Certainly, this will be the worst recession since 1946 ... but again this is not the Great Depression, when we saw GDP fall by 20 percent in some major economies from peak to trough. Schmidt-Hebbel was presenting a new OECD report on Tuesday in which the OECD said the governments should pursue “double dividend” policies to address both the current crisis and the need for sustainable growth in the longer term. Public investment in infrastructure should be deployed fast with a focus on areas such as school building, said the report. Money should be channelled towards retraining of workers for industries with a future and payroll taxes reduced for low earners in particular, it said. Training auto sector workers so that they could move on from an industry condemned to contract was one example, Schmidt-Hebbel noted. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 9:13 am Raul Castro clears out Fidel’s cabinet, installs his ownHavana: Cuban President Raul Castro replaced several members of his cabinet on Monday, putting his stamp on the government a year after assuming power from his older brother Fidel. In a sign that he is emerging from the shadow of the former president and revolutionary icon, Raul Castro, 77, fired foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque and moved cabinet chief Carlos Lage, two long-time lieutenants in the previous administration. In making his first major cabinet shuffle since assuming power one year ago, the Cuban leader cited the need for greater efficiency and a consolidation of the country’s unwieldy democracy, saying the shakeup would lead to “a more compact and functional structure.” The move most notably replaces 44-year-old Perez Roque, Havana’s chief diplomat since May 1999, with vice minister Bruno Rodriguez. A former journalist for Cuba’s state-run press, Rodriguez was once Cuba’s ambassador to the United Nations. The Mexican-born Rodriguez had been a key player in developing relations with other Latin American countries and was involved in developing ties with the European Union, commentators said. Perez Roque was seen as close to Fidel, acting as his chief of staff for a decade. Lage, 57, retains his post as one of Cuba’s vice presidents of the Council of State, but has been replaced by General Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra as cabinet chief. Both Lage and Perez Roque had been seen as possible successors to Fidel Castro before the aging leader passed the reins of power to his brother. The shuffle affects about 10 cabinet positions, including Cuba’s commerce, farming, fishing and interior ministries. According to Julia Sweig, Director of Latin America Studies at the New-York based Council on Foreign Relations, the move may be important beyond personnel shifts, and could herald further political and economic reforms. Since his inaugural address Raul Castro has stressed the need to reduce the government in tandem with making it more efficient, Sweig told AFP, as if “one was a precursor to the other.” “It may involve the government getting out of the way a little,” said Sweig, who recently returned from a trip to Cuba. “They may go back to the system that existed bs the hallmarks of Fidel’s decades-long rule, even though the former Cuban leader, 82, has remained out of the public eye since undergoing surgery three years ago. Fidel Castro’s presence remains strongly felt throughout Cuba. He remains the titular head of the Cuban Communist Party, and his lengthy written commentaries have been a regular feature of the Cuban press since he left power. Until now Raul Castro treaded gingerly while trying to fill his brother’s outsized shoes during his first year in office, instituting reforms at the margins of Cuba’s institutional communism. He has been much more dynamic in the area of foreign relations, meeting up to a dozen leaders from around the world during his first year in office, including several from an increasingly left-leaning Latin America. He has strengthened relations and trade ties not only with Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador, but Cuba’s communist allies China and Russia. Another area that remains little changed is the domain of human rights, observers said. A report last week by the US State Department found in fact that respect for human rights and basic freedoms deteriorated in during the year that Raul Castro was formally elected the new leader of the communist-run island. Although the report found that Cuba’s 11.2 million inhabitants were more likely to suffer rights abuses under Raul, he has instituted several cautious economic reforms, including provisions allowing private contractors back into Cuba’s transport sector. Raul Castro also has allowed Cubans to buy computers, own mobile telephones, rent cars and spend nights in hotels previously only accessible to foreigners -- if they can afford such luxuries at the average monthly salary equivalent of about $17. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 8:54 am Standard Chartered posts 20% rise in 2008 profitsLondon: Standard Chartered, a bank focused on emerging markets, said on Tuesday that its net profits jumped by a fifth to $3.41 billion (€2.69 billion) in 2008, as it shook off the financial crisis. “To deliver record results in this exceptional environment is a great achievement,” the bank’s acting chairman John Peace said in the earnings statement. “The group has focused on building balance sheet strength and on maintaining high levels of liquidity. We are on a firm footing for the challenges and opportunities that will come during 2009,” he added. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 8:52 am Infosys to absorb all campus hires in JulyIT major Infosys has said that all the 18,000 students selected by the company through campus recruitment from various engineering colleges in the country in 200910 will join the company in July this year.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 3 Mar 2009 | 8:42 am DLF home buyers meet to discuss exit, price reductionMany of the 200 buyers who met regarding DLFs Garden City township project expressed a wish to exit the project, while some hoped to wangle a reduction in prices.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 3 Mar 2009 | 8:39 am New launches help auto sector overcome slowdownThe February vehicle sales numbers brought positive news on Maruti Suzuki, with new launches aiding a revival in sales and exports.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 3 Mar 2009 | 8:29 am Indian IT cos need to shore up their sales teams: GartnerIndian IT companies need to shore up their sales teams as the number of clients showing interest in off-shoring businesses is increasing, a senior executive of a global research firm said.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 8:25 am Obama offers Moscow missile defence deal: reportNew York: US President Barack Obama in a secret letter to his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev has offered to halt deploying its missile defence system in Eastern Europe, if Moscow desists from helping Iran with developing nuclear weapons, a media report said on Tuesday. The letter to Russian President Medvedev was hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago, the New York Times reported. It said the United States would not proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles, the paper said. The officials were quoted as saying while it did not offer a direct quid pro quo, the letter was intended to give Moscow incentive to join the US in a common front against Iran. Russia’s military, diplomatic and commercial ties to Tehran give it some influence there, but it has often resisted Washington’s hard line against Iran. “It’s almost saying to them, put up or shut up,” a senior administration official was quoted as saying. “It’s not that the Russians get to say, ‘We’ll try and therefore you have to suspend.´ It says the threat has to go away.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 8:16 am Bayer posts 2008 profit of 1.7 bn poundsFrankfurt: The German pharmaceutical and chemicals group Bayer said on Tuesday that its 2008 net profit fell by more than 63%, because the year earlier figure had been boosted by one-off gains. The group reported strong activity at its HealthCare and CropScience divisions, while acknowledging that the hi-tech MaterialScience unit had taken a hit from the global economic slowdown. Bayer’s 2008 net profit came to to €1.7 billion ($2.1 billion), a statement said, down from €4.7 billion in 2007. In the fourth quarter of last year however, net profit jumped by 58% from the same period in 2007 to €106 million, a Bayer statement said. Operating profit before exceptional items, which measures the company’s core activities, gained 2.3% to €6.9 billion, and the statement quoted chairman Werner Wenning as saying that “from an operational standpoint, 2008 was the most successful year in Bayer’s long history.” Group sales rose by 1.6% to €32.9 billion, and Bayer, the maker of Aspirin, said it would propose a dividend of €1.40 per share, an increase of 3.7% from the 2007 figure. In 2009, “we expect further growth in earnings at HealthCare and CropScience, along with a substantial reduction in net debt,” Wenning was quoted as saying. But “a substantial drop in earnings is anticipated at MaterialScience,” the statement added. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 8:16 am Gartner says 17 mn less phones in inventory in Q4Helsinki: Mobile phone sellers lowered their inventories in the fourth quarter by some 17 million cellphones as they expected demand to slow, research firm Gartner said on Tuesday. “Low consumer confidence is forcing distributors and retailers to limit the volume they hold in stock, because the channel cannot afford significant capital investment,” the research firm said. “Efforts to reduce inventory will intensify in the first quarter of 2009 and continue into the second quarter of 2009,” Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said in a statement. “In the second half of 2009, the channel will have to start re-stocking and this will help sell-in volumes. This will not mark the start of a market recovery -- we do not expect demand to stabilise before 2010.” Gartner said top cellphone maker Nokia held 37.7% of the market in the fourth quarter, down from 40.4% a year ago. South Korean vendors won market share, with Samsung Electronics’ stake rising to 18.3% from 13.4, and LG Electronics’ share rising to 8.9% from 7.1%. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 8:14 am India’s growth may slow to 6.5% in 2008-09: KotakMumbai: Kotak Mahindra Bank revised down India’s growth projection for the current year ending March 2009 to 6.5% from 6.8% earlier due to capital outflows, it said in a weekly note. It also revised its growth forecast for the next fiscal year to 5.5% from an earlier forecast of 5.8%. The government forecast the economy to grow at 7.1% in the current fiscal year ending March, while it sees the economy to grow at 7% in the next fiscal year. Downside risks to growth could be limited to a certain extent due to expected consumption push coming in from farm loan waiver, salary hikes for civil servants and dearness allowance to federal employees, economist Indranil Pan told Reuters. The current rate cutting cycle is not yet over, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) might not be providing the market with the next round of policy easing immediately as it is likely to wait and watch for the transmission of previous policy reductions to take effect. The future trend for bonds could be determined by the cut-off at the auction based open market operation purchases of bonds by the RBI on 5 March. Headline inflation is likely to come down close to 3% next week as a small cut in air turbine fuel prices comes into effect, Pan said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 8:11 am US firms eye more offshoring, Indian firms tentative: GartnerMumbai: Recession-hit US companies are tilting towards increasing IT offshoring work but few Indian software firms have been chasing these deals, Gartner’s India research head said. Indian firms need to focus on revamping their sales model to market an ability to help generate cost savings and add value to the client’s operations, Partha Iyengar, vice president and regional research director at Gartner India, said on Monday. “The concern I have is, I see very few companies doing that.” Only two firms had announced a decision to expand sales force, he added. “I had one client telling me ‘I am at a point now where I need to get more offshore plans together, but why aren’t the Indian companies coming and talking to me?” “Why aren’t they getting more aggressive? - That is the question I am getting from clients,” Iyengar said. Indian companies could lose out to global rivals with strong offshoring capability such as IBM, Accenture and other European firms, if they did not move faster, he added. The recession in US, which accounts for more than half the Indian software industry’s revenue, and global financial turmoil has halted the sector’s scorching pace of growth. The crisis caught companies off guard, he said. “The companies are now getting out of the initial panic,” he said. “Now that they are getting to the point of saying, ‘now that we have that settled, what do we need to do to address business imperatives?’, that’s where offshoring comes into play.” Gartner saw an increase in calls from clients looking for offshoring, with 20% to 30% of these from those offshoring for the first time, he said. In February, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) slashed its 2008-09 growth outlook for India’s IT exports to 16-17% from an earlier forecast of 21-24%. “The Nasscom forecast is actually conservative. I am hopeful the actual numbers would be a few percentage points above the forecast,” Iyengar said. Last week, US President Barack Obama pledged to end tax breaks for companies that send US jobs overseas, but Iyengar said, he did not expect a strong backlash as companies did not offshore work to avail of tax breaks. “I would be very surprised if because of this, there’s a reduction of offshoring.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 7:53 am Private equity gets choosy over infra, transportMUMBAI (Reuters) - Private equity firms are going select with investments in transport and infrastructure as corporate margins squash on high costs and slow trade.Source: Reuters: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 7:49 am Gartner: US cos eye more offshoring, Indian firms tentativeMUMBAI (Reuters) - Recession-hit U.S. companies are tilting towards increasing IT offshoring work but few Indian software firms have been chasing these deals, Gartner's India research head said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 7:25 am Taiwan’s TMSC and Intel team up on Atom processorBy New York: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and US computer chip maker Intel Corp. announced on Monday that they have forged an alliance that will allow TMSC to use Intel’s tiny Atom microprocessors. Intel, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, and TMSC described the agreement in a joint statement as “an important step in a long-term strategic technology cooperation between Intel and TSMC.” “The compelling benefits of our Atom processor combined with the experience and technology of TSMC is another step in our long-term strategic relationship,” Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini said. Intel said the agreement with TMSC should “significantly broaden the market opportunities” for its Atom processor, which was unveiled last year and is used in a wide variety of electronic devices, from smartphones to netbooks. The Atom features 47 million transistors and is Intel’s smallest processor. “We expect this collaboration will help proliferate the Atom processor ... and foster overall semiconductor growth,” said Rick Tsai, president and chief executive of TSMC, which operates the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry. The agreement with TMSC is unusual for the Santa Clara, California-based Intel as it tends to tightly control everything from computer chip design to manufacturing. The alliance comes at a difficult time for the semiconductor industry and is aimed at expanding the use of the Atom in electronic devices. Market research firm Gartner expects worldwide semiconductor revenue to drop 24.1% this year to $194.5 billion while another firm, IDC, has forecast that the semiconductor market will erode 22% this year. Gartner also reported on Monday that sales of personal computers are expected to decline by 11.9% to 257 million units in 2009, the steepest drop in the industry’s history. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 7:22 am Sensex registers lowest close in over three yearsThe index registered its lowest closing low of 8,427.29 in more than three years, down by a whopping 180 points despite a firm European opening.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 7:02 am Toyota unit seeks $2.1 billion Japanese govt-backed loanTokyo: A Toyota Motor Corp financial services unit has applied for about $2 billion in loans backed by the Japanese government, as the financial crisis threatens funding at the world’s top automaker, state TV broadcaster NHK said on Tuesday. With credit markets worldwide in turmoil, Toyota may be the first of a string of Japanese companies with high credit ratings to turn to state-backed loans prior to the closing of books for the business year at the end of March. Credit default swaps on auto makers in Asia and Europe are at steep discounts as investors worry about liquidity and short-term debt maturities at carmakers’ financial services operations. Moody’s implied ratings for Toyota and American Honda Finance Corp, based on credit default swaps, are both many notches lower than the agency’s actual ratings for the two companies. Wholly owned car-loan financing firm Toyota Financial Services has asked the state-backed Japan Bank for International Cooperation for a 200 billion yen ($2.1 billion) loan to help cover rising credit costs in the United States, NHK said without citing sources. Toyota spokesmen said they were checking on the report. Carmakers worldwide are reeling from a collapse in consumer demand since last year that has forced them to cut production and shed jobs. Finance company GMAC, the main lender to struggling automaker General Motors Corp, has been hit by losses in its auto and mortgage units, but won a $6 billion government bailout in December and a ticket to tap lower-cost funding. Toyota faces an operating loss of 450 billion yen for the year to March, as sales tumble in its biggest markets of Japan, North America and Europe. Toyota Financial Services, whose assets totaled 14.3 trillion yen ($147 billion) as of the end of September, provides car leases around the world and home loans and asset management services in Japan. Among other Japanese firms, heavily indebted companies such as chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc have said they are considering seeking emergency government funds under a separate scheme aimed at bolstering non-financial companies. Shares of Toyota fell 0.3% to 3,060 yen, compared with a 1.0% fall in the Nikkei average. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 3 Mar 2009 | 6:08 am Thomson Reuters to debut video news service in JuneNEW YORK (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp will launch a video news service in June for financial professionals who use its terminals, part of a $1 billion plan to appeal to a new generation of customers.Source: Reuters: Money News | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:28 am Auto sales zoom in Feb, but cos wary of bumps aheadMumbai, March 2 The auto sector had cause for cheer in February with sales of cars and two-wheelers on the ascent. The commercial vehicle sector too is showing signs of revival with market leader Tata Motors reporting encouraging numbers.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideWe are bearish on DLF and recommend a sell. ICICI Bank and SBI are testing key support levels. Initiate fresh short position if ICICI Bank declines below Rs 295 andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 am Infosys to absorb all campus hires in JulyKochi, March 2 IT major Infosys has said that all the 18,000 students selected by the company through campus recruitment from various engineering colleges in the country in 2009-10 will join the company in July this year.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 am Auto component suppliers see demand improvingNew Delhi/Chennai/Pune, March 2 It is early days yet, but auto component manufacturers too feel that automobile sales have started looking up resulting in improved delivery schedules for them and a better orderSource: Business Line - Home Page | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 am 16 RPL shares to fetch one of RILReliance Petroleum (RPL) will be merged with Reliance Industries (RIL) with the boards of both companies giving the go-ahead to the move on Monday. The exchange ratio is one RIL share for every 16 of RPL.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 am Creditworthy cos getting loans at sub-PLR ratesMumbai, March 2 Banks are currently swimming in liquidity, literally. However, the demand for liquidity (funds) from trade and industry is muted as the chips are down on the economic front. The upshot of this scenario is that business enterprisesSource: Business Line - Home Page | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 am Zee Entertainment (Rs 100.10): SellWe recommend a sell in Zee Entertainment Enterprises from a short-term horizon. It is apparent from the charts of the stock that it has been on an intermediate-term downtrend from its September 2008 high of Rs 239. The stock has been formingSource: Business Line - Home Page | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 am SBI cuts deposit rates in select maturity slabsMumbai, March 2 State Bank of India (SBI) has cut interest rates on fixed deposits in four maturity slabs between one year and three years by 40 to 50 basis points. Come March 9, the highest interest rate that the bank will offer its depositorsSource: Business Line - Home Page | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 am LS polls in 5 phasesNew Delhi, March 2 The Chief Election Commissioner, Mr N. Gopalaswami, today announced that the five-phase polling to elect the 15th Lok Sabha will begin on April 16.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 am Rupee at new low; may remain weakMumbai, March 2 The rupee continued its free fall against the dollar on Monday and inched close to the 52-level on the back of sustained demand for the US currency, which has been gaining strength in the international currency market.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 3 Mar 2009 | 12:00 am Rupee hits new low as foreign funds pull outThreats of rating downgrade put pressure on currency.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 2 Mar 2009 | 7:05 pm RIL-RPL merger ratio at 1:16'This is about size,' says RIL's chief financial officer.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 2 Mar 2009 | 7:03 pm Trade declines first time in 7 yearsIndias exports and imports have together dipped for the first time in seven years, signalling weakening of domestic and external demand in the backdrop of global economic crisis. Government officials said the sale of Indian goods in overseas markets was likely to see a dip in February as well.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 2 Mar 2009 | 6:44 pm Copyright holders challenge sites that scrape contentWhen the popular New York business blog Silicon Alley Insider quoted a quarter of Peggy Noonan’s Wall Street Journal column in mid-February, the editor added a caveat at the end: “We thank Dow Jones in advance for allowing us to bring it to you.” The editor added “in advance” because Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, had not given the blog permission to use the column. (The Wall Street Journal has an exclusive content partnership in India with Mint.) The excerpt was published with the assumption that it would be permitted under the “fair use” statute of Copyright Law.  New controversy: Some publishers had complained when Google News added advertising to its search results. But some media executives are growing concerned that the increasingly popular curators of the Web that are taking large pieces of the original work—a practice sometimes called scraping—are shaving away potential readers and profiting from the content. With the Web’s advertising engine stalling just as newspapers are under pressure, some publishers are second-guessing their liberal attitude toward free content. “A lot of news organizations are saying, ‘We’re not willing to accept the tiny fraction of a penny that we get from the page views that these links are sending in,’” said Joshua Benton, the director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard. “They think they need to defend their turf more aggressively.” Copyright infringement lawsuits directed at bloggers and other online publishers seem to be on the rise. David Ardia, the director of the Citizen Media Law Project, said his colleagues kept track of 16 such suits in 2007. In 2004 and 2005, it monitored three such suits each year. And newspapers sometimes send cease-and-desist orders to sites that they believe have crossed the line. Some publishers complained last week when Google News, a site that aggregates headlines from thousands of news sources, added advertising to its search results. The courts have not yet said when excerpting from an article becomes illegal copying In another case, which is pending, the Associated Press sued the online news distributor All Headline News last year, saying that it had improperly copied AP articles. The legal disputes are emblematic of a larger question that has emerged from the Internet’s link economy. The editors of many websites, including ones operated by the Times Co., post excerpts from competitors’ content from time to time. At what point does excerpting from an article become illegal copying? Courts have not provided much of an answer. In the US, the Copyright Law provides a four-point definition of fair use, which takes into consideration the purpose (commercial vs. educational) and the substantiality of the excerpt. But editors in search of a legal word limit are sorely disappointed. Even before the Internet, lawyers lamented that the fair use factors “didn’t map well onto real life”, Ardia said. “New modes of creation, reuse, mixing and mash-ups made possible by digital technologies and the Internet have made it even more clear that Congress’ attempt to define fair use is woefully inadequate.” For now, websites are defining it themselves. Sites such as Alley Insider and The Huffington Post are ad-supported businesses that filter the Web for readers, highlighting what they deem to be the most meaningful parts of newspaper articles and TV segments. Alley Insider, according to its editor-in-chief, Henry Blodget, operates under a digital golden rule: “To excerpt others the way we want to be excerpted ourselves.” The post about Noonan’s column, including five full paragraphs, had explicit credits to the author and the newspaper, three links to the source and a direct encouragement to users to read the original column. Alley Insider doubtlessly exposed new readers to Noonan’s column, and an unknown number of users followed the links to The Journal’s website. But others probably did not follow the link, meaning that Alley Insider alone—and not The Journal—reaped the advertising pennies from the excerpt. The Huffington Post, the popular news and opinion forum co-founded by the author and columnist Arianna Huffington, is perhaps the star of the excerpting debate. Huffington’s editors are especially adept at optimizing the site for search engine results, so that in a Google search, a Huffington Post summary of a Washington Post or a CNN.com report may appear ahead of the original article. “We want to both drive traffic to ourselves and drive traffic to others,” Huffington said in a telephone interview. Adding that “we are (at) the beginning of developing the rules of the road” online, she said the site’s editors were “constantly talking” about appropriate excerpting conduct. To the extent that the site republishes articles produced by other organizations, “we excerpt to add value”, Huffington said, sometimes by combining articles, videos and trans-cripts. Much of the Web works this way, skimming quotes and photos from other sources while trying to remain within the provisions of fair use. Huffington said The Huffington Post, which had at least 20 million unique visitors in January, received at least 100 requests for links each weekday from reporters, editors and public relations representatives. “Everybody wants to be linked to,” she said. That is true as long as readers follow those links. The prevailing wisdom is that content should roam widely online, but lacklustre digital advertising off late has called that into question. That has fuelled a round of recent commentaries about payment models for online news. Cablevision, the owner of the Newsday newspaper, said on Thursday that it would “end distribution of free Web content”. Hearst, the owner of 16 newspapers, said on Friday that it would charge for some content on its websites. Widespread excerpting would seem to make pay models harder to impose. Even more troubling for news organizations is blatant copying. In December, The Huffington Post’s new Chicago offshoot was accused of copying the full contents of local publications’ concert reviews. Huffington called it a “mistake made by an intern”. Other sites copy content from news organizations using automated syndication feeds. The sites typically display text or show ads around the excerpts to make money. GateHouse’s suit against The New York Times Co. contended that the company was “link scraping” by automatically aggregating articles from GateHouse newspapers, to be excerpted on local news sites operated by The Boston Globe. “They felt that The Globe was benefiting too much from the work of GateHouse journalists,” said Benton of the Harvard journalism lab. The Times Co. denied that it was scraping GateHouse’s site and said its use of GateHouse content did not violate copyright laws. It also said that GateHouse’s websites copied headlines and other text from Times Co. sites. Last month the Times Co. agreed to stop copying GateHouse’s headlines and lead paragraphs. It remains to be seen whether excerpting standards from before the Internet age still apply. Ardia said quoting “is often a sign of respect” online. “The norms are developing outside—or ahead of—the law,” he said. Alley Insider’s partial republication of Noonan’s column, for instance, was edited shortly after it was posted online. The reason, Blodget said, was that the excerpt seemed slightly too long. ©2009/THE NEW YORK TIMES feedback@livemint.com Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 2 Mar 2009 | 6:02 pm HSBC to raise £12.5 billion as subprime losses cut profitLondon: European lender HSBC Holdings Plc. plans to raise £12.5 billion (Rs92,125 crore) in Europe’s biggest rights offering as it eliminates 6,100 jobs and closes consumer lending units in the US after subprime losses cut profit. HSBC, Europe’s largest bank by market value, will sell shares for 254 pence each, with existing investors able to buy five shares for every 12 they already own, the company said in a statement on Monday. The stock fell 9.2% to 446 pence as of 9:03 am in London.  Recession-hit: HSBC headquarters in London. The bank reported a pretax loss of $15.5 billion from North American operations. Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg HSBC said on Monday it would close the unit’s HFC and Beneficial arms in five-seven years. The parent company, which gets at least 75% of profit from emerging markets, must now cope with recessions in some Asian economies. “They face the threat of rising bad debts in Asia going forward and a sore in the US,” said Simon Willis, an analyst at NCB Stockbrokers Ltd in London who has a “sell” rating on the stock. “The rights issue is not a huge surprise and is sensible in the circumstances.” Net income for 2008 fell to $5.73 billion (Rs29,681 crore) compared with $19.1 billion the previous year, the London-based lender said. That was lower than the $13.6 billion median estimate of 10 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. HSBC also cuts its full-year dividend by 29% to 64 cents a share. HSBC reported a pre-tax loss of $15.5 billion from North American operations, compared with a profit of $91 million in 2007. In Europe, pre-tax profit rose to $10.9 billion from $8.6 billion. Profit from Hong Kong fell to $5.46 billion from $7.34 billion, while earnings from the rest of Asia rose to $6.47 billion from $6.01 billion. No executive directors will receive bonuses for 2008, HSBC said in the statement. HSBC will shut most of its 800 branches in the US, chief financial officer Douglas Flint said on a conference call with reporters. The bank will keep its credit card operation in the US, which represents about $50 billion of assets, he said. “In 2003, when we acquired Household, nobody foresaw recession and depression in the US,” he said. “We are playing the ball from where it lies.” While HSBC has set aside at least $53 billion to cover bad loans in the past three years, it has avoided taking UK government funding, unlike Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. and Lloyds Banking Group Plc. The rights offer will push HSBC’s tier 1 capital ratio, a key measure of financial strength, to 9.8%, the bank said in the statement. That’s a 1.5 percentage points increase. “Today HSBC is well capitalized, liquid and profitable,” chairman Stephen Green said in the statement. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase and Co. are leading a group of banks that have underwritten the share sale, guaranteeing they will buy any shares investors may not order. Mark Barton and Andrew MacAskill contributed to this story. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 2 Mar 2009 | 4:24 pm India lifts Chinese toy ban, demands safety guaranteesNew Delhi: India’s government lifted a ban Monday on imports of Chinese toys that had stoked trade tensions between the world’s two biggest emerging economies. But it imposed strict demands for product safety guarantees. India announced the six-month ban in January, prompting Beijing to warn that “bilateral trade relations could be seriously impacted”. The Indian trade ministry, which had made the decision on the grounds of “public health and safety”, announced Chinese toys could be imported -- but needed to be certified as safe according to international standards. Chinese toy imports “shall be permitted” if accompanied by certificates showing they “conform to standards prescribed” by safety bodies such as the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) or the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the trade ministry said in a statement. The imports will have to be accompanied by certificates from laboratories accredited to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, the ministry further stipulated. Chinese toys such as dolls, cars, trains and puzzles make up more than 60% of India’s $500 million toy market and the ban sent prices of toys soaring in local markets as imported supplies started running out. Some Indian analysts had seen the ban as a move to protect India’s struggling toy industry, which employs some two million workers, and the media had dubbed the row the “toy trade war”. The Indian toy sector said it had been pushing New Delhi for higher import tariffs on Chinese toys, which are cheaper than those made locally, but not a full-scale ban. China had warned India to take “cautious and prudent trade remedy measures” at a time when “the world economy faces grim challenges”. But India said the toy ban complied with World Trade Organisation rules and would not be lifted until the government was “satisfied” about the safety of the Chinese products. China’s toy industry has come under close scrutiny since millions of goods were recalled globally last year amid fears they were made with toxic lead paints or had design flaws. Thousands of Chinese toy factories have closed because of tighter safety restrictions and falling demand amid the widening global financial crisis. India’s toy ban came amid mounting trade frictions between the Asian neighbours. China is India’s largest trading partner while India is China’s 10th biggest trading partner. Aside from the toy ban, China’s commerce ministry has complained that India has launched 17 trade investigations since October into Chinese products, including 10 anti-dumping probes, and curbed imports of iron and steel, chemicals and textiles from China. Various countries have been moving to shield domestic industries against the worldwide slowdown but India’s commerce minister Kamal Nath has insisted New Delhi opposes any form of trade protectionism. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 2 Mar 2009 | 1:07 pm
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