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Govt won`t intervene in Bharti, MTN deal: Report!The government will not intervene in Bharti Airtel`s proposed deal with South Africa`s MTN but will provide legal support if needed, a newspaper reported on Saturday, citing Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.Source: Zee News : Business | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:35 pm Oil falls after touching 7-month high over $70!Oil fell on Friday as traders took profits from a rally to a seven-month high over USD 70 a barrel after US employment data showed a slower pace of job losses.Source: Zee News : Business | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:35 pm Sensex, Nifty hit 10-mth highs as bourses progress rapidly!Indian bourses progressed rapidly with key indices -- Sensex and Nifty -- hitting nearly ten-month highs as investors were heartened by new UPA government`s economic agenda.Source: Zee News : Business | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:35 pm US loses just 345,000 jobs in May!Employers throttled back on layoffs in May and cut the fewest jobs in any month since the financial crisis erupted last fall — raising the brightest hope yet that an economic recovery will take hold later this year.Source: Zee News : Business | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:35 pm Apr-May direct tax receipts up 5.8% !India`s April-May direct tax receipts grew 5.77 percent from a year earlier to 241.58 billion rupees, the Central Board of Direct Taxes said in a statement on Friday.Source: Zee News : Business | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:35 pm Govt may not consider diluting stake in 1st tranche: BHELRavi Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Heavy Electricals, does not see the government diluting stake in the company in the first tranche. This is because the government will consider diluting stake in listed companies like Oil India, HPCL, and other companies where its shareholding stands at 95%97%.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:24 pm Union Bank launches new facility for internet banking usersThe facility, the first to be offered by a public sector bank, enables first time users log in with their new chosen passwords within two days of submission of request.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 6 Jun 2009 | 10:37 am Monsoon advances further - weather officials - Reuters India
Source: Google News India - Business | 6 Jun 2009 | 10:35 am Gold turns weak by Rs 210 on global cuesGold prices today tumbled by Rs 210 to Rs 14,880 per 10 gram in the bullion market on emergence of selling by stockists, triggered by weak global cues.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 6 Jun 2009 | 10:34 am Russia says yuan could be reserve currency in decadeST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - China's yuan could become a world reserve currency after it becomes fully convertible, a process that might take about 10 years, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jun 2009 | 10:30 am Monsoon advances further - weather officialsNEW DELHI (Reuters) - The annual monsoon rain cycle has revived and advanced to more parts, two officials at India Meteorological Department said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jun 2009 | 10:24 am Tata Steel sales volume up 18% in MayNew Delhi: Tata Steel on Saturday said its sales volume surged by 18% to 4.69 lakh tonnes in May on the back of robust demand from auto and construction sectors. In the corresponding month last year, the company’s sales stood at 3.97 lakh tonnes, the steel major said in a statement. During the month under review, Tata Steel saw its saleable steel production surging by 23 per cent to 5.01 lakh tonnes as against 4.08 lakh tonnes. The sale of long products, mainly used in construction industry, increased by 34% while that of flat items, used by auto and consumer durable sectors, increased by nine per cent, over the year-ago period. Tata Steel’s crude steel output for the month went up by 17% to 4.86 lakh tonnes from 4.16 lakh tonnes, while hot metal production rose by 19 per cent to 5.28 lakh tonnes from 4.43 lakh tonnes. The company claimed that one of its steel melting shops in Jamshedpur achieved best-ever May production at 2.18 lakh tonnes. Also, a merchant mill recorded best-ever May production of 30,710 tonnes over 28,505 tonnes the same period last year. The output of its hot strip mill and new bar mill also registered an impressive growth over May 2008, it said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jun 2009 | 10:06 am Record number of devastating disasters in 2008: WorldwatchThe number of devastating natural disasters, those designated as Category 5 based on their financial and human impact, increased to 40 in 2008, the highest number on record, says global green NGO Worldwatch.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 6 Jun 2009 | 10:00 am Suzlon makes final payment for REpowerMumbai: Suzlon Energy said on Saturday it has completed buying Martifier’s stake in Germany’s REpower Systems for €87.6 million ($122 million). In a notification to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Suzlon Energy, the world’s fifth-biggest wind turbine maker, said after the completion of this two-part deal, it now holds 90.72% of shares and voting rights in REpower Systems. “The completion of the purchase of Martifer’s stake in REpower is a major milestone for Suzlon,” Tulsi Tanti, chairman and managing director of Suzlon Energy, said in a statement. The final tranche of shares, accounting for approximately 14.4% stake in REpower, was acquired in a two-part payment plan with a payment of 87.6 million euros on 29 May and an equivalent amount on 5 June. “We continue to pursue our long-term strategy for REpower and are committed to its growth and development,” Tanti said. This follows payments of the first tranche of €65 million in December 2008 and the second tranche of €30 million in April 2009. Ahead of the announcement, shares in the wind turbine maker ended down 4.3% at Rs130.90 in a Mumbai market that closed up 0.6%. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jun 2009 | 9:54 am GM reaches deal to sell Saturn brand to PenskeDETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp has reached a preliminary agreement to sell its Saturn brand to Penske Automotive Group in a deal that could preserve more than 350 dealerships and 13,000 jobs, the companies said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jun 2009 | 9:50 am Tata Steel sales volume up 18% in MayTata Steel today said its sales volume surged by 18% to 4.69 lakh tonnes in May on the back of robust demand from auto and construction sectors.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 6 Jun 2009 | 9:28 am ONGC approves revised plan to invest in Cairn's Rajathan fieldsThe board of ONGC today approved the revised cost estimates for developing the nation's most prolific on-land oilfield in Rajasthan and agreed to invest around $350 million more in the fields operated by Cairn India.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 6 Jun 2009 | 9:16 am Tata Steel sales volume up 18 pc - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 6 Jun 2009 | 9:12 am BPCL open to Oman Oil hiking stake in Bina refineryBharat Petroleum Corporation is reportedly open to the idea of offering equity in the sixmilliontonne Bina refinery to Oman Oil as long as it translates into a premium on sale.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jun 2009 | 8:46 am Eden Gardens renovation awarded to two companiesThe Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has decided to award the contracts for renovation of the Eden Gardens with an eye on the 2011 World Cup to two companies - Burt Hill of USA and VMS Ahmedabad.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 6 Jun 2009 | 8:31 am Himachal to buy anti-hail guns for crop protectionHimachal Pradesh is floating global tenders for purchase of anti-hail guns to protect the fruit crop from hailstorms that are common in the state, an official said Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 6 Jun 2009 | 8:30 am Amul is now India's largest food retail companyMilk giant's annual turnover crosses Rs 6,700 cr.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 6 Jun 2009 | 8:12 am Top 3 Reasons why GM's Bankruptcy will go down in history! - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 6 Jun 2009 | 8:01 am 73 construction companies in Bihar declared 'defaulters'The Bihar government has declared 73 construction companies, including several prestigious firms engaged in road construction in the state, as 'defaulters' after they failed to complete projects on time, officials said Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 6 Jun 2009 | 8:00 am Sensex rises for 13 consecutive weeks, adds 478 pointsThe bulls kept on going for the 13th consecutive week - the longest rally since August 2005 - with a key index adding 3.27 percent from last week amid expectations that the government would push through key reforms.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 6 Jun 2009 | 7:30 am Renault-Nissan Auto India plans in limbo? - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 6 Jun 2009 | 7:28 am Analysis: Air India bailout package may not be enough - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Google News India - Business | 6 Jun 2009 | 7:24 am Suzlon makes final payment for RepowerMUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy said on Saturday it has completed buying Martifier's stake in Germany's REpower Systems for 87.6 million euros ($122 million).Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jun 2009 | 7:18 am Sensex rises for 13 consecutive weeks, adds 478 pointsThe bulls kept on going for the 13th consecutive week - the longest rally since August 2005 - with a key index adding 3.27% from last week amid expectations that the government would push through key reforms.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 6 Jun 2009 | 6:59 am Ahluwalia to continue at revamped Plan panelNew Delhi: The government on Friday reconstituted the Planning Commission, retaining Montek Singh Ahluwalia as deputy chairman of the country’s top planning body. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the chairman of the commission. The government has inducted three new members, including former member of the prime minister’s economic panel, Saumitra Chaudhuri. The other new members are Narendra Jadhav, honorary vice-chancellor of Pune University, and Mihir Shah, secretary of Samaj Pragati Sahayog, a non-profit organization. The government has also retained Abhijit Sen, Syeda Hameed and B. K. Chaturvedi as members. The members who did not figure in the new list are Kirit Parikh, V. L. Chopra, B. Mungekar and B. N. Yugandhar. A close confidant of Singh, Ahluwalia was instrumental in framing India’s response to the global financial crisis and represented the country at important meetings such as at the group of 20 nations. An important task before the new panel would be to undertake a mid-term review of the 11th five year plan aimed at raising economic growth to 9% by March 2012. In the current fiscal to 31 March, the Reserve Bank of India has projected a growth rate of 6%. Also, President Pratibha Patil, in her address to Parliament on Thursday, said: “The current financial year is expected to see a slowing down of growth on account of global recession.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jun 2009 | 6:54 am Fewer US jobs cut; policy-makers say worst pastNew York/London: US employers last month cut the fewest jobs since September and international policy-makers said the worst of the downturn may be over as more positive corporate news popped up around the globe. Data showing US nonfarm payrolls fell by 345,000 in May came amid optimistic signals from the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of Japan. The fall in US jobs was far less both than the expected 520,000 drop and the revised 504,000 reduction in April. “The light at the end of the tunnel just got a lot brighter,” said Nigel Gault, chief US economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. “May’s employment report brings clear evidence that the labor market is beginning to stabilize.” Tempering the optimism, however, the US unemployment rate rose to 9.4% - the highest since July 1983 - due to the job cuts and a surge in new labor force entrants. US stocks closed slightly higher after a choppy day of trading. The Dow Jones industrials average was supported by Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s new $15 billion stock buyback program. European stocks finished higher. Even before the data, policy-makers held out hope for the world economy. “The global economy has not hit bottom yet, but the worst of the slowdown is over,” the International Monetary Fund’s first deputy managing director, John Lipsky, said in Russia. Bank of Japan sources said the central bank was considering upgrading its view on the economy because of improved exports and output. The bank said last month the economy was worsening, but its board is expected to weigh whether to upgrade that view at a meeting on 15-16 June. The IMF is expected to release a report on Monday saying the euro zone does not need new stimulus measures, a euro zone source said. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told a conference in St Petersburg that the global economy had avoided the “worst-case scenario” but added: “It is too early to crack open the champagne.” Washington will be in focus next week, when the Federal Reserve names the first batch of big banks given the green light to repay funds from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. In Britain, ranked by the World Bank as the world’s fifth-biggest economy by gross domestic product in 2007, its latest available figures, Prime Minister Gordon Brown reshuffled his government to stave off calls for an early general election. Sterling fell against the euro and the dollar, although it recovered slightly on news that Britain’s finance minister, Alistair Darling, would keep his job. Worries about Eastern Europe were fanned by calls from Polish and Swedish officials for swift action to help Latvia to prevent its economic crisis from spilling over into other countries in Europe. The Baltic state, facing an economic contraction of up to 20% this year, is struggling to avoid a currency devaluation that would hammer exposed Swedish banks and reignite worries over Eastern Europe’s prospects. Positive corporate signs Corporate news offered some indications of a recovery. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, sent a bullish signal about its prospects with its new stock buyback program. “Your balance sheet today is stronger than a year ago,” Wal-Mart chief financial officer Tom Schoewe told attendees at the company’s annual meeting. “How many companies ... could make that statement?” Rio Tinto said it was ditching a planned tie-up with China’s Chinalco that had been driven by fears a prolonged economic slump would make Rio’s debt burden unsustainable. Britain’s Carphone Warehouse, Europe’s biggest mobile phone retailer, said it expected to see signs of a consumer recovery by the end of this year. Japan’s Canon Inc, the world’s largest digital camera maker, revived plans to build a $180 million factory as demand holds firm for its high-end single-lens reflex cameras. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jun 2009 | 5:36 am Imported cigarettes too must carry warningIndia has made it mandatory for imported cigarettes and other tobacco products to carry pictorial warnings on the packs.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 6 Jun 2009 | 5:15 am Wall St ends mixed after US jobless rate jumpsNew York: US stocks flip-flopped throughout Friday’s session, with the major indexes ending split as investors paused to consider conflicting signals in monthly US jobs data. Investors also sold some recent winners to take some profits from the spring rally, which has driven the S&P 500 up almost 40% from its 12-year closing low on 9 March. Trading was choppy as the stock market initially started higher and then drifted lower as investors reassessed the implications of the latest jobs report. The Labour Department reported that employers cut 345,000 jobs in May - substantially less than analysts had forecast - but the US unemployment rate hit 9.4%, its highest since 1983. The data underscored that the US economic picture remained uncertain even after some recent signs of improvement. “There was a mixed bag from the economic news,” said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Ohio-based Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “Initially people saw the 345,000 number and everyone got a little excited, then realized the unemployment rate was worse than expected, and there’s the fact that it’s Friday and the sellers took advantage to take some profits.” The Dow Jones industrial average gained 12.89 points, or 0.15%, to 8,763.13. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 2.37 points, or 0.25%, to 940.09. The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.60 of a point, or 0.03%, to 1,849.42. Grab that umbrella Investors opted to book profits from the market’s recent winners - financial, energy, materials and tech shares. Shares of JPMorgan dropped 2.3% to $34.55 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Citigroup slid 3.1% to $3.46 as it wrapped up its final full week as a Dow component. On Monday, effective at the start of trading, Citigroup will be replaced in the blue-chip Dow average with Travelers. The large insurance company, known for its red umbrella logo, was once one of the crown jewels in the Citigroup empire before the financial giant was rocked by the credit crisis. General Motors, once the world’s largest automaker and long a stalwart among the Dow components, also is being kicked out of the Dow industrials following its bankruptcy filing on Monday, 1 June. So after the weekend, when trading resumes on Monday, GM will be replaced in the Dow by Cisco Systems Inc, which makes the routers that drive the Internet. On Friday, Cisco’s stock jumped 1 percent to close at $19.87 on Nasdaq. In Friday’s session, investors also unloaded some shares of major oil company Chevron Corp, down 0.6% at $69.37, and Newmont Mining, the world’s No. 2 gold producer, down 5.5% at $44.84, to book some profits from the stocks’ recent run higher in sync with the market’s rally and rising commodity prices. Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, a Dow component, added 0.4% to $51.07 after the world’s biggest retailer unveiled a $15 billion stock-buyback plan. As a discount retailer, Wal-Mart is one of the companies expected to thrive in a downbeat economy. Friday’s volume was moderate on the New York Stock Exchange, where about 1.26 billion shares changed hands, below last year’s estimated daily average of 1.49 billion. On the Nasdaq, about 2.32 billion shares traded, above last year’s daily average of 2.28 billion. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jun 2009 | 5:10 am Govt won't intervene in Bharti, MTN deal - paperMUMBAI (Reuters) - The government will not intervene in Bharti Airtel's proposed deal with South Africa's MTN but will provide legal support if needed, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Saturday, citing Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jun 2009 | 4:44 am Tough times prompt transgender job fair in L.A.LOS ANGELES, June 5 (Reuters) - Sydney Dupree came to Los Angeles because, as a young male-to-female transsexual, she found Memphis hostile. She came to the transgender job fair because jobs are hard for her to find, even in Los Angeles.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jun 2009 | 4:41 am Wall St Week Ahead: Stocks eye banks' TARP repaymentsNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks may get a lift next week as regulators are expected to name the first round of banks allowed to repay bailout funds. The move could feed hopes that the banking system is stabilizing further.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jun 2009 | 3:13 am Fiscal prudence can wait, govt to focus on growth, poorNEW DELHI (Reuters) - If the president's parliamentary speech setting out government policy was a pointer, fiscal prudence this year may play second fiddle to growth and populist schemes for the new Congress-led government.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jun 2009 | 3:10 am NBFCs on comeback trail with better rural demandNew Delhi, June 5 Non-banking finance companies, which had slowed down disbursements significantly in the second half of last calendar year, are looking to make a comeback.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:00 am Desi Bt cotton set to blossom in farms this yearNew Delhi, June 5 Seven years after the commercial launch of Monsanto’s Bt cotton, Indian farmers are about to plant the first publicly bred genetically modified (GM) seeds of theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:00 am Bay ‘low’ seen reviving monsoon activityThiruvananthapuram, June 5 The anticipated low-pressure area beat India Meteorological Department (IMD) predictions to materialise on Friday with prospects for intensification.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:00 am Net direct tax collection increases 16.88% in MayNew Delhi, June 5 The Centre’s net direct tax collections grew 16.88 per cent in May at Rs 11,919 crore (Rs 10,198 crore). However, the net collections grew by modest 5.77 per cent in the first two months of the current fiscal at Rs 24,158Source: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:00 am Key executive pay packages zoom at top 3 firmsBangalore/Mumbai, June 5 Compensation packages of key non-promoter executives at the country’s top three IT firms — TCS, Infosys and Wipro — grew faster than the companies’ net revenues for fiscal 2009 over previous year.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:00 am Corporate fund-raising picks upMumbai, June 5 Fund-raising by Indian corporates has picked up significantly with the market looking up in the first two months of the current fiscal.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:00 am Markets this weekBoth the Sensex and the Nifty recorded a nine-month high, closing Monday with the fourth consecutive day of gains. The Sensex closed higher at 14,840, adding 215 points and the Nifty surged 81 points to finsish at 4,529 . Strong Asian markets andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:00 am Bank credit declines second time this fiscalMumbai, June 5 The total bank credit fell by Rs 16,306 crore to Rs 27,35,750 crore during the fortnight ended May 22, 2009, according to the latest figures released by the Reserve Bank of India.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:00 am SC dismisses Mumbai SEZ plea for staying land acquisitionNew Delhi\Mumbai, June 5 The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the Mukesh Ambani-promoted Mumbai SEZ plea for staying the land acquisition process for its project in Raigad, Maharashtra.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:00 am Demat accounts swell on big-ticket IPO hopesMumbai, June 5 New demat account registrations have seen an increase over April and May in likely anticipation of big ticket public sector undertakings IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) following the recent announcements coming from government,Source: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jun 2009 | 12:00 am Rise in direct tax mop-up - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Jun 2009 | 10:46 pm Mumbai SEZ faces heat as SC refuses stay plea - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Jun 2009 | 10:31 pm Reserves up $1.7 b as RBI buys $ - Economic Times
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Jun 2009 | 10:06 pm Flu scare: India to ban import of livestock productsIndia on Friday banned the import of select livestock and its products in the wake of the spread of swine flu.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 5 Jun 2009 | 9:55 pm Bombardier to up local sourcingBombardier Transportation, the Berlin-based railway equipment-manufacturer, is working towards in its metro rail coach factory in Savli, Gujarat.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jun 2009 | 9:38 pm Macro picture of Indian infrastructure shows bright prospectsOne look at the massive infrastructure deficit in power, roads, ports, airports and railways tells us opportunities abound.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jun 2009 | 9:35 pm Credit growth shows declineWhile banking deposits continue to remain firm, credit growth is showing no signs of any pick up yet, Reserve Bank of India data said.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jun 2009 | 9:10 pm Oil falls after touching 7-month high over $70NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil fell on Friday as traders took profits from a rally to a seven-month high over $70 a barrel after U.S. employment data showed a slower pace of job losses.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Jun 2009 | 8:41 pm 'We are seeing more PE deals in power, healthcare and logistics'Axis Bank's private equity arm, Axis PE is set to raise Rs 2,000 crore soon. Alok Gupta, MD and CEO, spoke to DNA.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jun 2009 | 8:41 pm Direct tax kitty up 17% in MayAs a clear indication to the economic revival, the government's direct tax collection in May 2009 recorded a 16.88% jump to Rs 11,919 crore as against Rs 10,198 crore.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 5 Jun 2009 | 8:18 pm GM bets on India for turnaroundBankrupt US carmaker General Motors on Friday listed India among the "very important" markets that held the key to its turnaround and said it hoped to achieve a double digit share by 2010 on the back of higher sales of mini cars.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 5 Jun 2009 | 8:15 pm NTPC marks Rs 1,750 cr for renewable energyNTPC will spend about Rs 1,500-1,750 crore in the next three years to install a renewable energy capacity of 250 mw, said R S Sharma, chairman and managing director.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jun 2009 | 8:14 pm New Pension Scheme:New wine in a whole new bottleThough much has already been written about the scheme, a deliberation on some of its more innovative features and shortcomings might still be in order.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jun 2009 | 8:12 pm NTPC land deal for 5 coal blocks soonNTPC Ltdwill complete the paperwork for acquisition of about 18,500 acres at its five coal blocks in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa by mid-2010.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jun 2009 | 8:12 pm Ford looks at India, China to beat downturn bluesFord Motor Co is banking heavily on its subsidiaries in India and China to tide over the unprecedented crisis that has gripped American automobile manufacturers.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 5 Jun 2009 | 8:11 pm Istanbul airport on scheduleGMR Infra's maiden foreign airport venture in Istanbul is on schedule and will be operational by October.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jun 2009 | 8:11 pm Vedanta plans to raise Rs 10k cr debtVedanta Aluminium, a subsidiary of metal and mining giant Vedanta Resources, is believed to be in talks with banks, including SBI, to raise Rs 10,000 crore debt for part-funding its project in Orissa.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 5 Jun 2009 | 8:04 pm 'Made in India' Metro rolls out - Times of India
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:27 pm Performance appraisal: Govt takes a cue from private sectorThe central government has decided to shed the cloak of secrecy over the performance appraisal of its 3.3 million employees. Taking a cue from the practice followed in most top private companies, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has done away with the confidential nature of the performance appraisal system and has made the process more consultative and transparent.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:19 pm Montek retained as Plan panel deputy chiefPrime Minister Manmohan Singh today reconstituted the Planning Commission. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who served as the deputy chairman of the panel in the earlier United Progressive Alliance regime, has been retained in the same capacity, a Prime Ministers Office release said. This makes Ahluwalia the first person to get the post for a second consecutive term.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:19 pm Pvt firms may train defence personnel for civilian jobsNew Delhi: The government will train and develop skills of defence personnel to facilitate their rehabilitation after they retire, India’s minister of state for defence said on Friday. “Considering the great demand for ex-servicemen in the corporate sector, especially in retail and security sectors, we have decided to train the service personnel when they are still in service,” M.M. Pallam Raju said. An estimated 50,000-60,000 people, mainly from posts below officer ranks, retire from the Armed Forces every year.  Fresh start: Minister of state for defence M.M. Pallam Raju says the ministry is seeking help of private firms for the training programmes. PIB This is Raju’s second consecutive term in the defence ministry. Currently, defence personnel are trained in information technology-related courses, business entrepreneurship, retail management and security-related programmes. Raju said the government was considering to formulate a task force of ex-servicemen for afforestation in certain regions. According to director general of resettlement, B.G. Chatterjee, around 51,000 personnel from the Armed Forces have been given special skill training as a part of the ministry’s resettlement programme for ex-servicemen. “Skill development is the need of the hour to convert the acquired skills of PBOR (personnel below officer ranks) to what is required by the corporate world” Chatterjee said. He said the ongoing skill development programmes in his directorate include lessons in communication, including spoken English, and using computer applications, as well as psychological training for smooth transition from the armed forces to civilian sectors. “Now we are in the process of automating the entire process. We are also compiling the CVs of all those trained to make it easier for the corporates to pick up people they want ,” Chatterjee said. The directorate sends officers to institutions such as Indian Institutes of Management and other top business schools for training. Some of these officers are offered jobs that earn Rs1.2 million to Rs1.4 million a year, he said. “Our people are posted in large numbers in Reliance and Infosys (Technologies Ltd),” Chatterjee said. liz.m@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:17 pm Corporate | BSNL unions remain opposed to public issueNew Delhi: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) employees continue to oppose the plan of bringing an initial public offering (IPO) of the telecom company, two officials from BSNL’s employees’ unions said on Friday. “We remain strongly opposed to the idea of listing the company. Even a sweetened offer will not be acceptable to us,” said V.A.N. Namboodiri, general secretary of BSNL Employees Union, on Friday. The company’s plans for an IPO have been hanging fire for at least a year now. “We have instead demanded Navratna status that will give more autonomy to the company and have written to the prime minister on that,” K. Vallinayagam, general secretary of Federation of National Telecom Organization, another BSNL staff union, said. —Newswire18 ********* Indonesian firms buy out Unitech stake in SEZ Kolkata: Indonesia-based Universal Success Enterprise Ltd and Salim Group have bought out real estate firm Unitech Ltd’s 40% stake in the tripartite consortium formed to develop the petrochemical special economic zone (SEZ) at Nayachar, West Bengal, Universal Success chairman Prasoon Mukherjee said on Friday. He, however, did not disclose the value of the transaction. Universal Success had a 20% stake and Salim Group 40% in New Kolkata International Development Pvt. Ltd that would develop the petrochemical hub in a joint venture with the West Bengal government. —Newswire18 Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:17 pm Energy | Areva offers NPCIL stake in African uranium minesMumbai: The world’s biggest maker of atomic reactors, Areva SA, has offered state-run Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd (NPCIL) stakes in African uranium mines to ensure supplies for fuel-starved plants, NPCIL chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain said. NPCIL is considering investing in as many as four mines, including projects in South Africa and Nigeria, Jain said in a telephone interview in Mumbai. Patricia Marie, a spokeswoman for Areva in Paris, didn’t immediately comment when contacted. Some of the mines that we have been offered stakes in are already producing and some have yet to be developed, Jain said. We may invest up to 26% of the project cost, he said, declining to give more details about the mines or how much the company would spend on the proposed acquisitions. NPCIL is also seeking long-term supply contracts from Kazakhstan, Canada and Brazil as it orders reactors worth at least $14 billion (around Rs66,000 crore) from overseas, Jain said. —Bloomberg ********* NTPC plans JV with NPCIL in three months Mumbai: India’s biggest electricity producer, NTPC Ltd, plans to form a venture with Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd (NPCIL) in three months, chairman R.S. Sharma said in Mumbai on Friday. —Bloomberg Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:17 pm GM Indian unit confident of project fundingNew Delhi: The Indian unit of bankrupt General Motors Corp does not see any concern in funding the powertrain plant it is building even though financing had not been finalised, a top executive said on Friday. General Motors has invested more than $1 billion in production facilities India. Earlier this week, its Asia Pacific President said most of the $200 million needed to complete a new engine factory and other projects was yet to be raised. Karl Slym, president and managing director of GM India, said the powertrain plant was due for completion at the end of 2010 and he saw no issues in raising funds for it. “Our finance will be employed during the period of construction, no issues,” he told reporters at an event to launch a new version of their Chevrolet Spark. “It’s not an unusual situation... As far as funding is concerned, there is no difference in where we are today and where we were when we started investing a billion dollars,” he said. Slym said GM India could tap internal accruals, use its agreements with financial institutions and, if needed, would seek help from other GM companies. As part of the 100-year-old automaker’s historic bankruptcy filed on Monday, the US government is set to own 60 percent of a new and leaner GM. Company executives have said that lower-cost Asia-Pacific operations would be a crucial driver for the “New GM”. “It’s business as usual for us in India,” Slym said, adding GM’s new model launches in India were on track and they would continue to add service outlets in the country. GM plans to launch a new mini car at the end of 2009, will price it at around Rs400,000 ($8,500) in India, said Ankush Arora, a vice president with the Indian unit. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:17 pm Week in reviewNew Delhi: The world’s second largest car maker, General Motors, filed for bankruptcy on 1 June. Considered an event that many thought would never come, GM was the global sales leader for 77 consecutive calendar years from 1931 to 2007. Click here to watch video However, none of its operations outside the US were included in the US court filings and its been reported the India unit of GM will continue operations normally. GM India also plans to introduce three new cars this year and has no plans to reduce its workforce here. Kapil Arora, a partner in the automotive practice at Ernst and Young, gives us some insight. Unicef released a report this week titled the “Impact of the economic crisis on women and children in South Asia” which says that the turbulence in commodity and financial markets followed by the economic crisis has added millions more people to the list of those suffering from chronic hunger in South Asia. The report calls for urgent action by the various governments in the South Asian region, without which it cautions, nearly 20% of the world’s population will sink further into poverty and malnutrition with long term negative consequences for growth and development. Despite previous reports, rescue teams have yet to recover any wreckage from missing Air France flight 447 that came down on Monday as it was flying from Rio De Janeiro to Paris. A Brazilian air force official said debris recovered from the crash site on Thursday was not from the lost Airbus A330. Officials have said that the items recovered were most probably from another ship and the big oil slick that was thought to come from the plane, probably came from another ship passing through the zone. Investigators are still trying to figure out the potential causes of the crash. Just a few days after being sworn in as the water resources minister, five-time MP and Dalit leader Meira Kumar created history in the Lok Sabha when she was unanimously elected as its first woman speaker. While many say she wasn’t the first choice for the post, others see her appointment as a political master stroke. After Congress scored on empowerment by appointing a Dalit woman as the speaker, the BJP played a trump card by appointing six-time MP and veteran tribal leader from Jharkhand, Kariya Munda as the deputy speaker. And while addressing the first session of both Houses of Parliament after the elections to the 15th Lok Sabha, President Patil on Thursday laid the priority list of the government for the next five years. In her address, Patil also mentioned that reshaping of relations with Pakistan would depend on its “sincerity” in preventing terrorist groups from launching attacks against India. US president Barack Obama, in a 55 minute long speech at Cairo University addressed the Muslims of the world and called for a new relationship based on mutual respect and dialogue. He quoted from the Holy Quran, spoke about his own Muslim heritage, and said America would withdraw from Iraq in 2012. He also added that Israel must stop its settlements in the West Bank. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:17 pm GM Indian unit confident of project fundingNew Delhi: The Indian unit of bankrupt General Motors Corp does not see any concern in funding the powertrain plant it is building even though financing had not been finalised, a top executive said on Friday. General Motors has invested more than $1 billion in production facilities India. Earlier this week, its Asia Pacific President said most of the $200 million needed to complete a new engine factory and other projects was yet to be raised. Karl Slym, president and managing director of GM India, said the powertrain plant was due for completion at the end of 2010 and he saw no issues in raising funds for it. “Our finance will be employed during the period of construction, no issues,” he told reporters at an event to launch a new version of their Chevrolet Spark. “It’s not an unusual situation... As far as funding is concerned, there is no difference in where we are today and where we were when we started investing a billion dollars,” he said. Slym said GM India could tap internal accruals, use its agreements with financial institutions and, if needed, would seek help from other GM companies. As part of the 100-year-old automaker’s historic bankruptcy filed on Monday, the US government is set to own 60 percent of a new and leaner GM. Company executives have said that lower-cost Asia-Pacific operations would be a crucial driver for the “New GM”. “It’s business as usual for us in India,” Slym said, adding GM’s new model launches in India were on track and they would continue to add service outlets in the country. GM plans to launch a new mini car at the end of 2009, will price it at around Rs400,000 ($8,500) in India, said Ankush Arora, a vice president with the Indian unit. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:17 pm Satyam saga | SFIO paves the way for legal actionMumbai/Hyderabad: The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), which administers and regulates the functioning of companies, has recommended prosecution against the promoters, the chief financial officer (CFO), the company secretary, the auditors and a few independent directors of Satyam Computer Services Ltd for serious violation of norms under the Companies Act and the Indian Penal Code.  Fraud fallout: B. Ramalinga Raju. Madhu Kapparath / Mint The report, running into 29 volumes and 14,000 pages, was submitted in May. Kamboj could not be contacted. An MCA official said the prosecution will take place only after the ministry approves it. MCA is also discussing this with the law ministry. According to this person, SFIO can prosecute executives for violations of company law, but it needs to move court for punishing criminal offenders. The MCA internal review, a summary of the SFIO report, has touched upon the modus operandi of the fraud, perpetrated over 13 years between 1995 and 2008; manipulation of Satyam’s share price; flotation of a large number of group companies for rigging the share price and purchasing land; and persistent misrepresentation of facts leading to the confession of the largest fraud in Indian corporate history by its promoter. “Investigation reveals that profits of the company have been inflated and the actual position for 2007-08 was a loss of Rs243.38 crore as against reported profit of Rs1,941.86 crore. MCA has ordered SFIO to initiate recovery proceedings against the non-executive directors of Satyam, who received commissions during 2007-08. The commission was wrongly paid to non-executive directors on the basis of profits, and the directors are liable to refund the money,” the report said. Also See The Satyam Timeline (Graphics) It has also found that Satyam’s board of directors, headed by Raju, approved a proposal to pay a dividend of Rs274.38 crore, including tax components of Rs39.86 crore and an interim dividend of Rs66.86 crore in 2007-08, when the company incurred losses. According to the review, the annual returns filed by Satyam with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) provided wrong information on the shareholding pattern of the directors and their relatives. It also filed incomplete balance sheets for fiscal years 2007 and 2008. MCA wants to issue a show- cause notice against company secretary Savita Joshi before initiating prosecution against her. Joshi is a Hyderabad-based practising company secretary and a member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), who certified several documents of Satyam for years. The report said Joshi “has knowingly signed” Satyam’s annual returns, and recommended penal action against her. She was responsible for certifying wrong figures. Joshi said she “never suspected anything wrong going on in the company till the shocking confessions by its founder chairman on 7 January”. “I was associated with the company as a practising company secretary only for certifying the documents prepared and already certified by its secretarial department personnel,” she said. According to Joshi, the ICSI committee that probed the role of company secretaries in the accounting fraud had given her a clean chit. She said she “relied on the documents that were prepared and already certified by the officials of Satyam’s secretarial department while certifying them for submitting to the RoC”. Among other violations of company law, the MCA review said Satyam had not disclosed the market value of unquoted investments, including distinctions between trade and non-trade investments, and the aggregate amount of these investments since 2003. Besides, Satyam had failed to disclose the detailed break-up of audit expenses paid to the auditor from 2003 to 2008. The electronic filing records with RoC show that Satyam has not filed details of employees under the Companies Act since 2003. The government has already ordered prosecution against people liable for not filing the details. SFIO plans to probe financial details of some 123 firms of the Raju family “(S.) Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas, partners of PricewaterhouseCoopers, have failed to exercise their basic audit functions, such as balance sheet verification with bank, and verification of sundry debtors, sundry creditors, which shows that there was dereliction of duties...” it said. The review also said when Satyam shares dropped in June 2006, in order to boost investor sentiment, the company announced a bonus issue and issued bonus shares in October 2006. “This could be the trigger point to the promoters of Satyam as almost all members of the promoters’ group (except Raju, R. Rama Raju, B. Nandini Raju and B. Radha Raju), sold their entire shareholdings by September 2005 and the company could be facing credit crunch on account of falsified financial affairs on continual basis,” it said. Till then, the Satyam promoters were raising funds to meet their financial obligations by way of sale of shares. At the next stage, they had no other option but to pledge the core promoter holding to raise funds, the MCA review added. According to the review, Satyam brought only $50.25 million (Rs237 crore today) of the total $152.70 million raised by the sale of American depository shares (ADS), into India. Both Ramalinga Raju and CFO S. Vadlamani did not give definite answers about the fund utilization and diversions. So, the investigating agency has referred the matter to the Enforcement Directorate, the agency that probes foreign exchange violations. Quoting the SFIO report, the The MCA review said the promoters of Satyam floated a large number of companies and used them for making investments and holding shares of various group companies, and purchasing and holding land for promoters. “...All of these companies were mainly promoted by about 15 individuals related to the Raju family and there were only three-four auditors for all these companies,” the report said. SFIO plans to probe the original source of funds, bank account details and other statements of some 123 companies of the Raju family that were in the land business. S. Bharat Kumar, counsel for the Raju brothers and Vadlamani, said his clients were not served any copy of the SFIO report. “I cannot respond to the charges levelled against my clients under certain provisions of the Companies Act and (the) Indian Penal Code unless I go through the SFIO report copy served (to) my clients,” he said. Prasenjit Roy, marketing director and spokesman of Tech Mahindra Ltd, the firm that has saddled itself with the task of turning around Satyam, expressed his inability to comment on the impact of SFIO’s findings on the financials of both the firms “owing to matter under investigation and also being in the silent period”. Meanwhile, Tech Mahindra has extended the date for approaching the shareholders of Satyam with an open offer to buy an additional 20% from them in accordance with the capital market regulator’s guidelines on substantial acquisition of shares and takeovers. In a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday, Tech Mahindra said it has revised the last date by which the letter of offer would be despatched to Satyam shareholders to 9 June, from 3 June. The company has also revised the last date of withdrawal by shareholders to 26 June, from 27 June. Dates for all other activities of the schedule announced on 22 April remains unchanged, it said. Through Venturbay Consultant Pvt. Ltd, its acquisition vehicle for the Satyam purchase, Tech Mahindra had announced an open offer on 22 April for buying an additional 20% from its shareholders. The open offer followed Tech Mahindra buying a 31% stake in Satyam for Rs1,756 crore through the issue of preferential shares after an auction process conducted by the government-appointed board of Satyam. baiju.k@livemint.com Graphics by Sandeep Bhatnagar / Mint Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:16 pm Producers, multiplexes script end to disputeMillions of Bollywood fans will be able to see the latest films again, after a lobby representing producers and distributors and the association of national multiplex chains ended a 63-day dispute by agreeing on a revenue-sharing formula for all forthcoming films.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:16 pm Mumbai SEZ in danger of being scrappedThe countrys largest special economic zone (SEZ), promoted jointly by Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and his confidant Anand Jain, is in danger of being scrapped. The zone was being set up by a company called Mumbai SEZ Ltd in the Raigad district of Maharashtra.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:15 pm Quick Edit | India’s innovation decadePresident Pratibha Patil quoted Rabindranath Tagore in the last moments of her inaugural speech to the 15th Lok Sabha on Thursday. She said that the “dreary desert sand of dead habit” must be left behind. Tagore used this phrase in his famous poem, Where the Mind is Without Fear. The poem was written in a different context around a hundred years ago, but Patil used an evocative phrase from it to call for a new culture of innovation. And in true Indian government style, she even announced that the next 10 years would be the Decade of Innovation (don’t miss the capital letters). Economists have shown that the true source of sustainable economic growth is innovation. But building a nation’s innovation system is not just about having a few laboratories and a handful of risk-takers. Hubs such as Silicon Valley have shown that innovation succeeds where the mind is without fear—of failure. India will not succeed at mass innovation unless it learns to respect failure, rather than scoff at it. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:06 pm In Left bastion, workers take pay cuts to help firms stay afloatKolkata: During the 1960s and 1970s, West Bengal was notorious for militant trade unionism. Labour unrest was widespread and almost all factory lockouts by employers ended in permanent closure because resolving industrial disputes was so difficult. Now, workers in a state known as the cradle of Communism in India are accepting even five-year pay cuts without a fight, indicating the extent of change in Marxist-ruled West Bengal’s once intransigent trade union movement. Says Kali Ghosh, West Bengal general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu), “We have asked Citu supporters across the state to be patient and lenient with the management until the economy recovers.” The new flexibility in trade unions came to the aid of Nicco Corp. Ltd (NCL), the flagship company of the Kolkata-based Nicco Group and a manufacturer of power and industrial cables that also offers engineering services, which ran into trouble last year. In December 2007, NCL concluded a deal to sell its cable business to Italy’s Prysmian Group, a Goldman Sachs-controlled cable company. Under the deal, NCL’s cable division was to be sold for Rs130 crore and its Rs170 crore of liabilities transferred to a joint venture company in which Prysmian was to have a 60% stake and NCL 40%. The aim of the sale was to rid NCL of its debt and raise resources for its thriving projects division, which offers engineering services. But the deal fell through as Goldman Sachs was struck by the US financial maelstrom in September last year, and on 18 November, Prysmian announced that it was pulling the plug on the joint venture. NCL was in trouble again. It was reeling under a working capital shortage that had started affecting production from August while sales, too, started declining by around Rs5 crore a month as economic growth slowed. What made matters worse was a Rs23 crore net loss that it posted in the quarter to December. In the full year to March, NCL posted a net loss of Rs53 crore, compared with a net profit of Rs6.45 crore in the previous year. Its revenue in the year to March fell 22% to Rs341 crore. In February, NCL approached lenders to restructure its debt, and under the scheme that was agreed upon towards the end of March, all employees, including the chairman, are going to receive 10% of their salaries in shares for the next five years. Told that the company wouldn’t survive unless they agreed to a 10% cut in cash pay for five years, workers readily agreed, says Rajive Kaul, NCL’s chairman. “Giving workers equity interest in the company also meant they would be more committed to reviving the company,” adds Kaul. NCL’s employees have already agreed to work with the management to cut operating costs by up to Rs14 crore a year. The shares that are to be allotted to NCL’s 1,270 workers would have a one-year lock-in, which means they can’t be sold until a year after they are issued. These shares would be held by a trust headed by Kaul—Nicco Restructuring Employees’ Trust Fund—and transferred to employees in instalments. The arrangement will not only result in reduction of staff cost by Rs3-3.5 crore a year, but also help the company draw a fresh working capital loan, and secure an 18-month moratorium on repayment of principal of all its loans. “Our finances will improve dramatically in the quarter starting in July when we start deriving the benefits of the debt restructuring,” says Kaul. “We understand that the working capital situation in Nicco is quite tight and we cannot increase productivity without working capital. So we accepted the management’s proposal for pay cut,” says Barun Das, the general secretary of Nicco Corp. Cable Division Workers’ Union, which is affiliated to Citu. NCL isn’t the only Kolkata-based manufacturing company that has cut wages to stay afloat. In February, 2,500 workers at Hindustan Motors Ltd’s Uttarpara factory near Kolkata agreed to their wages being slashed by Rs400 a month. “No trade union supports pay cuts, but in the case of Hindustan Motors, we didn’t have a choice—if we hadn’t agreed to the pay cut, the factory could have been closed,” says Santashri Chatterjee, president of Citu-affiliated Hindustan Motors Workers’ Union. “We appreciate that car makers across the world are in crisis because of the economic downturn, and Hindustan Motors is no exception.” The company seems to have overcome its financial difficulties, at least for the time being, and reversed the pay cut from May. Says Ravi Santhanam, Hindustan Motors’ managing director, “The level of education and commitment to common good that I have seen among trade union leaders in West Bengal is phenomenal. The 1960s and 1970s were indeed a different era…, but now I put trade unions in West Bengal ahead of other states in which I have worked.” But the unions aren’t entirely happy with the way Hindustan Motors has been run so far. “When global automobile giants started arriving in India in the 1990s, we had told the management that the company should diversify and build an industrial estate using the surplus land at the Uttarpara factory,” says Chatterjee. “They are doing it now whereas they should have done it many years ago. And if they had done it, we wouldn’t have had a situation where workers’ pay had to be cut.” Not just in manufacturing firms, even in government-owned banks, employees on their own are taking initiatives to improve productivity and profits. In at least one Kolkata-based public sector bank, the principal union recently issued a note to all its members advising them how they could offer better customer service and improve productivity. aveek.d@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:06 pm Accidental bat designer eyes Mongoose revolutionLondon: Twenty20 has made a virtue of challenging cricket convention and if an English inventor is right, the next thing to be abandoned will be the long-standing design of the bat itself. Marcus Codrington Fernandez, inspired by a 30-year-old video clip of former England batsman Geoff Boycott, has come up with a new design very much in tune with the devil-may-care attitude of the Twenty20 game. The result is a bat that looks rather like a hefty brick on the end of a very long stick. There is little in the way of shoulder—the bit you need to play those defensive shots against the quicks—but a much larger “sweet” section that can help even mistimed strokes race towards the boundary. Those who remember Boycott as an excruciatingly slow-scoring batsman may consider him an unlikely inspiration for a bat designed for an all-out attack. But if the Mongoose is a success, the Yorkshireman may go down as the patron saint of big hitting. “I got into bat design completely by accident,” Fernandez said as he demonstrated the bat at a public pitch in East London. “I worked in the media for 20 years and then three years ago I had a stroke, which took me out of civilized life for a year. He added: “It was at that point I was watching Geoff Boycott batting on YouTube and it struck me that the bat he was using was identical to the one being used today in Twenty20 games, where the objective is to hit the ball out of the park every time, not to do what Boycott was doing all those years ago. “So, the game seemed to have moved on and was fundamentally different, but the equipment was identical.” Fernandez added: “This bat is designed for Twenty20.” New ideas There have been attempts to introduce new bats before, but they have tended to focus on the use of new materials, notably the aluminium bat used by Dennis Lillee in 1979 and ultimately rejected by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the sport’s guardians. The difference here is that the Mongoose is made with the same materials as any other bat, and MCC has, therefore, given it its blessing. “The MCC (was) extremely encouraging and supportive. They were open-minded and forward thinking in a way many wouldn’t have expected,” the inventor said. While the big-hitting Australian Stuart Law has given the bat enthusiastic backing, and already used it to some effect, Fernandez concedes that the World Twenty20 starting on Friday has probably come too soon for the Mongoose, with the major players already signed up to bat contracts. The buzz surrounding the bat suggests a lot more players will be trying it soon, however, and not just the sluggers. “Interestingly, lots of the pro-players who want to use this bat are the opening batsmen, who aren’t renowned for hitting the ball very hard,” Fernandez said. “They’re looking to hit it harder, to get into the one-day squad, the Twenty20 squad in their teams and they see this as a route forward,” he added. Name choice Using the bat, you certainly do feel that you are middling the ball more often. “I’m not the most powerful of batsmen, so it gives me an advantage,” said Ben Sanders, vice-captain of the London Fields Cricket Club, after testing the bat. “You can mistime it, but it still races away.” His teammate Paul Teasdale added: “It plays really nice. It’s just all middle, so you can toe it and it can still go.” A quick look around the Web shows that the makers have chosen a name that is a headline writer’s dream, not surprising, given the inventor’s media background. “We call it the Mongoose because this bat is small and it’s ferocious,” Fernandez said. “It’s also an underdog. We’re up against 240 years of tradition since the last bat was designed.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:05 pm Delhi’s daredevil spyI once shared a breakfast table with Val McDermid, who turned out to be a somewhat brutal-looking lady with tiny revolvers dangling from her earlobes. She looked like she could perpetrate all the crimes in her novels with one hand, while mopping up her breakfast with the other. During that brief guru-shishya (teacher-student) session I learnt—while being hypnotized by those revolvers—how a career as a small-town hack had fed into her writing. No other genre of fiction, she said, lets the writer peek into so many different kinds of social strata.  Crime files: Vish Puri solves mysteries in the concrete jungle of Gurgaon. Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint Vish Puri, the master detective, is, of course, a caricature and might not have been entirely out of place in an R.K. Narayan novel—that is, if Malgudi had ever needed a private eye. Like most of us in India, he’s got BP and is told by his doctor to avoid salt, chillies and greasy junk, but is chomping away on chilli pakoras on the very first page as he stakes out the “Defcol” (Defence Colony) residence of a suspect. Puri is a serious “capsicum junkie” and every morning he lovingly bathes the leaves of his Assamese chilli plants with a spray gun. He dresses in orthopaedic squeaky shoes, a safari suit and any one of his 14 trademark tweed caps imported from Bates Gentlemen’s Hatter in Piccadilly. Despite his Londonstani hat, Puri hates it when people compare him to Sherlock Holmes, who had merely “borrowed the techniques of deduction established by Chanakya in 300 BC”.  The Case of the Missing Servant: Hutchinson, 312 pages, Rs495. Hall’s India is an ulta-pulta (topsy-turvy) Malgudi gone to seed: People aren’t nice to each other, policemen are likely to be crooks, Puri’s own childhood friend is a mega-corrupt tycoon (and yet remains a best friend), urbanization is chaotic and NCR stands for National Crime Region. Investigations take Puri to sad servant hovels as well as the homes of the newly rich, whose talking automatic toilets sluice and blow-dry the user while telling their bottoms to “have a nice day”. If there’s a problem with the novel, it is perhaps that Hall tries to put a little too much “India” into it, which hampers the narrative progress. The Case of the Missing Servant is essentially written for a Western readership, which needs a lot more explanation to make sense of what’s going on. On the other hand, Hall writes with heart, and he is witty, clever and inventive, which makes this a refreshing addition to the detective genre. Zac O’Yeah is a Bangalore-based Swedish writer of crime fiction. Write to Zac at criminalmind@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:00 pm Cellphones undergo smart wallet testBangalore: Mobile payments company mChek India Payment Systems Pvt. Ltd recently sent some of its staff on a working lunch to a restaurant and when it was time to pay, they didn’t flash a company credit card. Instead, they tapped a mobile phone on a contactless reader. The mChek employees were testing a technology called near field communication (NFC) that could potentially turn mobile phones into smart wallets.  Once fully developed, NFC will allow users to make instant payments by tapping a mobile phone against a reader terminal—similar to how commuters on Mumbai’s suburban railways and buses can swipe prepaid smart cards against fixed or handheld readers to buy tickets. “We are looking at more pilots...”, said Sanjay Swamy, chief executive at Bangalore-based mChek. “In this trial we tested the usability and the viability of the technology.” He didn’t want to reveal the handsets used or the name of the restaurant, but said the firm is now looking for a business model around NFC. “As the single fastest growing mobile phone market in the world, India is well suited to commercial adoption of the NFC technology,” Jeff Semenchuk, executive vice-president and head of growth ventures, Citi Innovation, at Citibank NA, said in an email. “We hope to explore its potential…for our customers in India in the near future.” India has at least 391 million mobile phone connections, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. And with 15 million users added just in March, it’s home to the world’s fastest growing mobile phone industry. Sam Pitroda, chairman of the National Knowledge Commission and widely credited with giving the early push to India’s telecom sector in the 1980s, is an early believer in both the technology and India. His Chicago-based C-SAM Inc., in a tie-up with US-based Discover Financial Services Llc, has already conducted trials with 1,000 customers at retail outlets in Riverwoods, Illinois. The mobile payments firm’s local arm, the Mumbai-based C-SAM India Pvt. Ltd, is talking with various banks in India to begin trials. Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest handset maker, is also carrying out NFC trials in India. The firm has conducted at least 20 trials globally, including one with State Bank of India. G.K. Chakrapani, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd’s director of corporate business development, said the handset maker is evaluating “consumer and ecosystem adoption” from its trials and he’d be able to share details only later. Handset makers such as Nokia play a key role in the adoption of NFC technology. In its current state, the technology works only on select devices. Nokia has at least two models—6131 NFC and 6212 Classic—and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd has some including the SGH-X700n that are NFC-compatible. None of these or other compatible models is currently sold in India. There may be a less expensive option: a patch that can be attached to the subscriber identity module (SIM)—the chip that connects a handset user to a mobile network with a unique number. Smart card firm Watchdata Technologies (India) Pvt. Ltd’s SIMpass is one such, capable of transforming an ordinary handset into an NFC-friendly device. ‘The question in India is who will pay for building the infrastructure.’ As for the readers, point-of-sale terminals that are used for making debit and credit card payments can be made compatible by plugging in an NFC adaptor. The big question in India is who will pay for building the infrastructure, says Nehal Maniyar, vice-president, core products and delivery, C-SAM India. Sorting this out will be a key hurdle off the list. In many of the other nations where NFC experiments are at more advanced stages, the infrastructure costs of setting up the readers is typically borne by transport authorities, retail establishments and banks, while the phones are subsidized by mobile phone operators and handset makers. For instance, in C-SAM’s trial with Discover Financial, Motorola Inc. provided the NFC-compatible phones while Discover funded the NFC readers. It’s easier in countries that already use contactless readers extensively. In Malaysia for instance, Maybank Group, the country’s largest bank, tied up with telecom operator Maxis Mobile Services Sdn Bhd to enable NFC payments across 1,800 retail merchants as well as in transport, highway tolls and even parking areas. Contactless readers such as Visa payWave equipped for debit and credit card transactions are widely deployed in Malaysia’s retail outlets, public transport and highway tolls, making adoption of NFC technology easier. Maxis bundled the service with compliant Nokia 6212 handsets. In India, the lack of such infrastructure in terms of devices and readers may pose initial hurdles, but once crossed, the adoption of the technology could be quick. To draw a parallel, credit card growth in India after Citibank’s local arm introduced the concept in 1990 has to be described as gradual, both because of a lack of infrastructure and as potential users feared misuse and a likely reliance on credit. But over the past few years, the local credit card market has galloped at 30% with the total number of cards in use touching 25.51 million, according to recent Reserve Bank of India data. Even today, the percentage of active cards in banks’ portfolios in India is 56%, much lower than the 80% in Australia and 75% in Singapore, says a study by Edgar, Dunn and Co., a financial services and payments consultancy. Technology research firm Gartner Inc. predicts the number of mobile payment users worldwide will increase 70% over the previous year to 73.9 million in 2009. By 2012, at least 190 million people, or 3% of mobile phone customers globally, will use their handsets for payments, it said. “Momentum in the mobile payment market gathered further in 2008 with a number of high-profile launches of mobile money transfer services in multiple markets, participation of major global institutions in near field communication payment trials, as well as new payment solutions entering the market,” Sandy Shen, a research director at Gartner, said in the statement. “...At the same time, security concerns, an inadequate ‘ecosystem’ and undefined areas in banking regulations remain challenges for mobile payment.” To protect against misuse, Indian regulations require any wireless transaction to be routed through banks, and technology vendors typically incorporate measures such as password protection for each transaction. Shen does not expect NFC technology to be deployed in India in the near future due to the missing infrastructure for contactless payments. “Another big hurdle (in many markets including India) is mobile phone operators and banks have to work together; there is a tug of war going on (on who will spend on infrastructure),” she said in a phone interview. Ajay Adiseshann, founder and managing director of Mumbai-based mobile payments firm PayMate India Pvt. Ltd, also doesn’t believe India is ready for the technology. “In developing countries you need an economical solution, not a capital intensive one. Developing countries will depend on cost effective, SMS and IVR (interactive voice response)...I don’t think NFC will catch on in India or China.” Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:00 pm Cellphones undergo smart wallet testBangalore: Mobile payments company mChek India Payment Systems Pvt. Ltd recently sent some of its staff on a working lunch to a restaurant and when it was time to pay, they didn’t flash a company credit card. Instead, they tapped a mobile phone on a contactless reader. The mChek employees were testing a technology called near field communication (NFC) that could potentially turn mobile phones into smart wallets. Once fully developed, NFC will allow users to make instant payments by tapping a mobile phone against a reader terminal—similar to how commuters on Mumbai’s suburban railways and buses can swipe prepaid smart cards against fixed or handheld readers to buy tickets. “We are looking at more pilots...”, said Sanjay Swamy, chief executive at Bangalore-based mChek. “In this trial we tested the usability and the viability of the technology.” He didn’t want to reveal the handsets used or the name of the restaurant, but said the firm is now looking for a business model around NFC. “As the single fastest growing mobile phone market in the world, India is well suited to commercial adoption of the NFC technology,” Jeff Semenchuk, executive vice-president and head of growth ventures, Citi Innovation, at Citibank NA, said in an email. “We hope to explore its potential…for our customers in India in the near future.” India has at least 391 million mobile phone connections, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. And with 15 million users added just in March, it’s home to the world’s fastest growing mobile phone industry. Sam Pitroda, chairman of the National Knowledge Commission and widely credited with giving the early push to India’s telecom sector in the 1980s, is an early believer in both the technology and India. His Chicago-based C-SAM Inc., in a tie-up with US-based Discover Financial Services Llc, has already conducted trials with 1,000 customers at retail outlets in Riverwoods, Illinois. The mobile payments firm’s local arm, the Mumbai-based C-SAM India Pvt. Ltd, is talking with various banks in India to begin trials. Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest handset maker, is also carrying out NFC trials in India. The firm has conducted at least 20 trials globally, including one with State Bank of India. G.K. Chakrapani, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd’s director of corporate business development, said the handset maker is evaluating “consumer and ecosystem adoption” from its trials and he’d be able to share details only later. Handset makers such as Nokia play a key role in the adoption of NFC technology. In its current state, the technology works only on select devices. Nokia has at least two models—6131 NFC and 6212 Classic—and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd has some including the SGH-X700n that are NFC-compatible. None of these or other compatible models is currently sold in India. There may be a less expensive option: a patch that can be attached to the subscriber identity module (SIM)—the chip that connects a handset user to a mobile network with a unique number. Smart card firm Watchdata Technologies (India) Pvt. Ltd’s SIMpass is one such, capable of transforming an ordinary handset into an NFC-friendly device. ‘The question in India is who will pay for building the infrastructure.’ As for the readers, point-of-sale terminals that are used for making debit and credit card payments can be made compatible by plugging in an NFC adaptor. The big question in India is who will pay for building the infrastructure, says Nehal Maniyar, vice-president, core products and delivery, C-SAM India. Sorting this out will be a key hurdle off the list. In many of the other nations where NFC experiments are at more advanced stages, the infrastructure costs of setting up the readers is typically borne by transport authorities, retail establishments and banks, while the phones are subsidized by mobile phone operators and handset makers. For instance, in C-SAM’s trial with Discover Financial, Motorola Inc. provided the NFC-compatible phones while Discover funded the NFC readers. It’s easier in countries that already use contactless readers extensively. In Malaysia for instance, Maybank Group, the country’s largest bank, tied up with telecom operator Maxis Mobile Services Sdn Bhd to enable NFC payments across 1,800 retail merchants as well as in transport, highway tolls and even parking areas. Contactless readers such as Visa payWave equipped for debit and credit card transactions are widely deployed in Malaysia’s retail outlets, public transport and highway tolls, making adoption of NFC technology easier. Maxis bundled the service with compliant Nokia 6212 handsets. In India, the lack of such infrastructure in terms of devices and readers may pose initial hurdles, but once crossed, the adoption of the technology could be quick. To draw a parallel, credit card growth in India after Citibank’s local arm introduced the concept in 1990 has to be described as gradual, both because of a lack of infrastructure and as potential users feared misuse and a likely reliance on credit. But over the past few years, the local credit card market has galloped at 30% with the total number of cards in use touching 25.51 million, according to recent Reserve Bank of India data. Even today, the percentage of active cards in banks’ portfolios in India is 56%, much lower than the 80% in Australia and 75% in Singapore, says a study by Edgar, Dunn and Co., a financial services and payments consultancy. Technology research firm Gartner Inc. predicts the number of mobile payment users worldwide will increase 70% over the previous year to 73.9 million in 2009. By 2012, at least 190 million people, or 3% of mobile phone customers globally, will use their handsets for payments, it said. “Momentum in the mobile payment market gathered further in 2008 with a number of high-profile launches of mobile money transfer services in multiple markets, participation of major global institutions in near field communication payment trials, as well as new payment solutions entering the market,” Sandy Shen, a research director at Gartner, said in the statement. “...At the same time, security concerns, an inadequate ‘ecosystem’ and undefined areas in banking regulations remain challenges for mobile payment.” To protect against misuse, Indian regulations require any wireless transaction to be routed through banks, and technology vendors typically incorporate measures such as password protection for each transaction. Shen does not expect NFC technology to be deployed in India in the near future due to the missing infrastructure for contactless payments. “Another big hurdle (in many markets including India) is mobile phone operators and banks have to work together; there is a tug of war going on (on who will spend on infrastructure),” she said in a phone interview. Ajay Adiseshann, founder and managing director of Mumbai-based mobile payments firm PayMate India Pvt. Ltd, also doesn’t believe India is ready for the technology. “In developing countries you need an economical solution, not a capital intensive one. Developing countries will depend on cost effective, SMS and IVR (interactive voice response)...I don’t think NFC will catch on in India or China.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:00 pm Costuming the First LadyAt a London jewellery trade show last fall, a fast-rising star in the fashion industry purchased Pieter Erasmus’ spring line of intricately designed, crocheted and jewelled necklaces. The client, Ikram Goldman, a Chicago boutique owner, happens to have her own famous client: Michelle Obama. American newspapers credit Goldman as being Obama’s “closest fashion adviser”.  Michelle Obama wearing a necklace from Erasmus’ Nizam line. Mandel Ngan / AFP But on 9 May, he got an email from a good friend, South African fashion journalist Emma Jordan. “You have to watch this!” she wrote, sending him a link to a YouTube video of the First Lady at the highly visible annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner. Obama smiled in a bright magenta Michael Kors dress paired with an elaborate bejewelled necklace: Erasmus’ own design. Erasmus, a South African, had stumbled upon the fashion lodestone. Blogs immediately took notice. “I. Need. This. Piece. Now. It reminds me of something that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Daisy Buchanan would wear along with her flapper-inspired dresses. J’adore!” Fashion blogger Café Fashionista wrote on Cafefashionista.blogspot.com. “We were delighted—this is an understatement—to finally learn more about the stunning statement necklace,” wrote Mrs T at Mrs-O.org, a blog dedicated solely to Obama’s fashion sense. Over cold coffee on a steamy Delhi day, Erasmus says that one week he had been doing much of nothing and the next week, emails were pouring in—media requests, potential clients asking for samples, current clients asking for previews of the upcoming line. “Nothing like this has ever happened to me,” he says.  The seal: After Michelle Obama paired this necklace from Erasmus’ Nizam line with a fuchsia Michael Kors dress, Vogue.com wrote that ‘statement necklaces’ were the season’s biggest jewellery trend. Of course, it has only been three years since the launch of his jewellery line, St Erasmus, though the 39-year-old has been designing since he was in school, doodling dress designs on the back of science books. After moving to London in 1995, he worked on projects for Givenchy, Matthew Williamson and Roberto Cavalli while at Erickson Beamon, and launched his own bag and sandal line in 2002. Five years ago, he moved to India part-time to manufacture the line. One day, bored at his friend’s New Delhi factory, he was sitting with a group of women practising crochet. Let’s throw some crystals in there and see what happens, he thought. St Erasmus was born out of boredom, he chuckles. His necklaces, bracelets and rings are sculptural designs, with semi-precious stones, freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals interspersed with crocheted fabric. He says growing up in South Africa helped inspire his work. There, people take anything and make jewellery out of it. “You take straws, you take buttons, branches, flowers, glass bottles—always made with ‘found’ things,” he says. Erasmus says this gave him the ability to “take something out of context and make it beautiful”. To him, crochet is something his grandmother used to do. But he now sees himself creating something glamorous out of what were once just his grandmother’s doilies. Though he splits his time between London and Delhi, he wants to eventually move to India full-time. When he first came here, he fell in love with the overly ornate Indian designs. He sourced his beads and ideas from Delhi’s Kinari Bazaar and Turkman Gate. But when he took his first jewellery collection back to London, it came off looking too much like “mommy’s stage costume”. He toned down the Indian influence—borrowing rather than imitating. For his latest line, inspired by the 18th century jewellery collection of the nizam’s court at Hyderabad, he did not spend time looking at the court jewellery. Instead, reading about it in William Dalrymple’s books, he felt inspired by “the feel of the harem, the opulence, the tremendous riches...the peacocks...the cardamom smells”. Even with a toned-down look, Erasmus is the first to admit his designs are over the top. He says that to wear his jewellery, people need to have a sense of fun. “You can’t take it too seriously. It is costume jewellery.” He says he loves to see his necklaces being worn with evening wear, as in Obama’s case, or just casually, to wildly dress up a white T-shirt and jeans.  What’s old is new: Erasmus says his designs take his ‘grandmother’s doilies’ and turn them into something glamorous In March, Erasmus had a successful show at Calypso, a fashion boutique in Mumbai which has since closed. But the self-described costume jewellery-maker says Indian buyers are still not comfortable with costume jewellery. He finds good design far more intriguing than the high-price value of materials. But Indian buyers often opt for pieces that retain value over time. “At the end of the day, you can melt down your gold necklace and it’s still worth as much. What are you going to do with expensive costume jewellery?” He does want to move to using more semi-precious material and creating a small section of new lines that use real gold threads and pearls to appeal to his Indian clientele. But even with that concession, he’s still unsure about whether the country is ready to embrace costume jewellery quite yet. “This is not a criticism but the Indian middle class is still emerging. They want Yves St Laurent...not an un-known designer,” he says. Of course, with fans such as Michelle Obama, Erasmus likely won’t be unknown for very long. The price range for Erasmus’ pieces is £25-650 (around Rs2,000-50,000) and they can be purchased directly from his site, www.st-erasmus.org Melissa A Bell blogs at blogs.livemint.com/theexpatblog Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:00 pm Why is Rushdie so important?Just what we need in the dog days of summer: yet another book on Salman Rushdie. Much ink has been spilt on the great panjandrum of Indian literature, much of it academic. In the wake of the now infamous fatwa, Rushdie became a cause célèbre in the media and, less visibly, welcome grist to the scholarly mill. So great was his popularity among post-colonialists and English-lit wonks that by 2003, professors were firmly discouraging their students from penning yet another dissertation on his over-analysed oeuvre.  Cause célèbre: He’s never obsolete. Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg Rushdie’s books are undoubtedly an academic’s delight. Be they brilliant (Shame) or just plain bad (Ground Beneath her Feet), his novels offer multilayered, densely interwoven material, over-stuffed with tropes, symbols and a dizzying array of political and cultural references. What these novels say, however, about his favourite themes—identity, nation, exile, sexuality, and let’s not forget religion—is both debatable, and, more importantly, richly deserving of an open, vigorous debate. What Midnight’s Diaspora offers instead is the scholarly equivalent of a Rushdie fan club newsletter, albeit a very erudite one. Ashutosh Varshney, a well-respected political scientist who has co-edited the book, does little to serve his cause in his promotional interviews, where he sounds alarmingly fawning and disingenuous. “To me, the most interesting thing is that Rushdie is not simply a storyteller but a highly sophisticated intellectual, who can take remarkably insightful positions on politics and history,” he declares in one such outing. Yet it’s Rushdie’s role as a public intellectual—less so, his talent as a novelist—that has been the most controversial. His writings in the immediate aftermath of 9/11—which included a 1 November New York Times op-ed titled, no less, Yes, This is About Islam—were at best unhelpful, or worse, irresponsible, given the anti-Muslim hysteria taking root at the time in the US. And in November 2002, in a Washington Post editorial, he supported the invasion of Iraq, just not for the reasons offered by the George Bush administration. Rushdie is a nominal Muslim and an avowed atheist with little expert knowledge of either international politics, history or Islam. He also has a very specific world view based on his personal background—an upper-class Indian/Pakistani who has spent much of his life in the West—and history, which includes being terrorized by Islamic extremists. Others with greater expertise may respect or even endorse his opinions, but an entire anthology that doesn’t amount to much more than a “quality defence” of the same isn’t particularly insightful or useful. In her book, The Scandal of Pleasure, Wendy Steiner reminds us: “Art’s power comes from its contradictoriness. It both is and is not a part of reality; it both is and is not a representation of reality; it both acts on and is irrelevant to politics and history.” But when artists become enamoured with their own politics, we should be able to rely on our scholars to take them to task. Write to Lakshmi at postscript@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:00 pm Hug, hug, kiss, kiss: multiplex war endsMumbai: As with all good arguments, it featured icy silences and bruised egos, power struggles and temper tantrums. And as in all happy endings, the warring parties made up with a hug and a kiss. In a grand finale that lasted about 14 hours and culminated in a nail-biting finish, the film fraternity resolved its two-month-long stand-off with multiplex owners in the early hours of Friday morning, opening the floodgates for a backlog of cinematic releases, starting with Star Trek, which released on Friday.  It’s showtime: Moviegoers are expected to flock to cinema halls now that the two-month-long stand-off between film producers and multiplex owners over box office takings has been resolved. Ashesh Shah / Mint Up to 40 films, including Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey, starring Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor, as well as Sajid Nadiadwala’s Kambakkht Ishq, with Kareena Kapoor and Akshay Kumar, which had been put on hold since the start of the dispute over revenue-sharing terms on 4 April, are now being lined up for release in the coming months. The Hindi movie release schedule will kick off on Friday, 12 June, with Vashu Bhagnani’s Kal Kisne Dekha, starring Juhi Chawla and Rishi Kapoor, followed a week later by Piyush Jha’s Sikandar, and then New York, Yash Raj Films’ first production of the year, directed by Kabir Khan and starring Katrina Kaif, John Abraham and Irrfan Khan. The film had initially been lined up for a 1 May release. Movie honchos and multiplex owners broke the deadlock after several false alarms at about 2.30am on Friday, with all parties signing a memorandum of understanding. This came after weeks of talks in different locations across the city and often with people conferenced in from across the world, all aided by the intervention of actors, industry veterans and business leaders. Listen to Mukesh Bhatt explaining how the producers and distributors struck the deal The mood on signing was one of relief and happiness, according to Jyoti Deshpande, chief operating officer of production house Eros International Plc., who was present during the talks. “There were hugs and kisses, and everyone was happy that a happy outcome had been reached,” said Deshpande. “Everyone who was involved came together, held hands and reached a goalpost.” The final agreement with multiplex owners will give producers a 50% share of box office takings in the first week, 42.5% in the second and 37.5% in the third, with the final week yielding 30%. The settlement also allows for a 2.5% swing either way in the event the films make above Rs17.5 crore or less than Rs10 crore. In case of the latter, the films are released with at least 500 prints. The terms of the agreement, which are due to be formalized on Monday morning, apply to all releases regardless of budget, as well as to Hollywood films. It also gives producers and distributors the first call in terms of a release strategy. Film-makers Bhatt, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Yash Chopra were among the key mediators, as were actors Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, according to Deshpande, who believes that the agreement leaves the fraternity in a stronger position. The newfound unity could serve as a platform for the industry to tackle other common issues, according to Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance BIG Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, whose BIG Cinemas division was the first of the multiplex chains to sign the deal. “I got involved a little late, when people were taking positions without initiating a dialogue,” said Khanna. “I felt that it was imperative that I took a role, because I have been in the industry for a long time. All of us are now going to pull together on subjects like piracy and entertainment tax. If we managed to do this, then the Indian industry is on a good foundation. The mood last night was one of tiredness and relief and joy. It was so late, so we all went straight home after signing.” Khanna said he was confident that the dispute had brought film producers and multiplexes closer together, adding that there was “no rancour” between the parties. “We have all suffered long enough, and it is not good to deprive the audiences of films,” said Deepak Asher, president of the Multiplex Association of India. “It was not a good thing to deprive theatres of movies, but the issue is now resolved, and we can work together as a family to resolve other issues. All parties agreed together and at the same time.” However, a member of the multiplex body, who declined to be named, described the agreement as leaving him “without even his shirt and underpants”. “All of us gave in. Once PVR fell, then everyone fell. They decided to go with BIG Cinemas,” said this person, who added that PVR Ltd, the country’s biggest multiplex chain, had decided to follow the lead of BIG Cinemas and agree to the terms ahead of the remaining chains. Between them, PVR and BIG Cinemas control up to 25% of the market in terms of box office collections, according to Anand Shah, an analyst at Angel Broking Ltd. “When you have a gun to your head, then either you pull the trigger, or you call their bluff. There was a full blown argument about this in the middle of the night. When you start pontificating, they will take your shirt, your underpants, and everything. The terms will make everyone bleed and they will mean fundamental changes to the industry. We will see mergers and acquisitions among multiplexes, and we will suffer badly for the next two years, and then I think emerge stronger,” the person added. In addition to a lengthy pipeline of Hindi language films awaiting release, including Eros International’s Aladin, which will face-off for eyeballs against UTV’s Kaminey on 14 August in time for the Independence Day weekend, audiences are set for a bonanza with a series of Hollywood films also scheduled for screening. These include Terminator Salvation and Transformers, while Fox Star Studios has announced 19 June as the release date for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 26 June for the release of Bride Wars, with Ice Age 3 scheduled for a 3 July release. Shares of BIG Cinema ended up 0.95% at Rs441.80, having hit an intraday high of Rs463.50, while PVR rose 5% to Rs142 and INOX Leisure Ltd, the second biggest chain of multiplexes, closed at Rs68.50, up 5%. neelam.v@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:56 pm Shipping Corp plans to buy seven vesselsBangalore: Mumbai-based Shipping Corp. of India Ltd (SCI) has placed orders for two ships with Cochin Shipyard Ltd and plans to buy five more, an official said. India’s biggest ocean carrier by fleet size and revenues, 80.12% owned by the Union government, is buying these ships to replace its ageing fleet of 10 vessels used for towing, moving anchors and hauling supplies, which have to be withdrawn from service by 2013.  Revamp in order: An ONGC oil drilling platform off Mumbai. SCI is buying support and supply ships to replace its ageing fleet of 10, which is on a five-year contract with ONGC. Bloomberg U.C. Grover, SCI’s director for technical and offshore services, said the contract with Cochin Shipyard, India’s biggest under state-control by capacity and order book, involves an option for building two more similar vessels. Grover did not disclose the value of the contract signed on Thursday for the two vessels, which are scheduled for completion by March and July 2011. At current prices, these vessels could cost $30-35 million (Rs140-165 crore) each to build, depending on specifications. The fleet of 10 is working on a five-year contract with state-run oil explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC). These ships are used as support and supply vessels in offshore oil drilling operations. They are deployed to carry water, food, cement and chemicals to oil drilling rigs and help to position drilling rigs appropriately, thus providing key support to offshore oil exploration. In January, SCI’s board approved the purchase of four such ships that are capable of pulling 80 tonnes, two that can pull 120 tonnes and another that has traction to pull 200 tonnes. The two ships Cochin Shipyard would be building would be able to pull 120 tonnes. Pulling power is a measure to compare the strengths of tugboats. In October 2007, SCI ordered four of these support ships, each with pulling power of 80 tonne and worth about Rs351 crore, at Bharati Shipyard Ltd, India’s second biggest private shipbuilder. “The orders placed with Bharati Shipyard and Cochin Shipyard totalling six ships, along with five more to be acquired as per board approval, would help us maintain market share in the offshore sector even after the current fleet of 10 ships are scrapped by 2013,” SCI executive quoted first said. p.manoj@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:41 pm Sebi allows Ketan Parekh conduits to close F&O positions - Business Standard
Source: Google News India - Business | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:39 pm To raise Rs 300cr through QIP: DHFLKapil Wadhawan, Vice CMD, Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), said the company is raising about Rs 300 crore. We will raise Rs 300 crore additional capital through the qualified institutional placement (QIP) route and up to 1 crore additional shares will be issued to the promoter and the promoter group, Wadhawan said.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:31 pm Mitsubishi Outlander 1st BS IV Certified Premium SUVAutomobile Research Association of India (ARAI) has certified that HMMitsubishi Motors Outlander has surpassed the BS IV (Bharath Stage Four) emission norms with BS III (Bharath Stage Three) fuel.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:24 pm Nakoda Textile plans major capacity expansion by Sept 09Nakoda Textile Industries Ltd (NTIL) has finalised plans for substantial expansion in its texturising capacity from existing level of 1070 metric tones per annum (MTPA) to 28,800 MTPA.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:19 pm West Bengal government calls all-party meet on AilaWith thousands fleeing the coastal areas amid fears of another cyclone, the West Bengal government has convened an all-party meeting on Sunday to discuss relief and rehabilitation in the areas devastated by Cyclone Aila 10 days ago. The main opposition Trinamool Congress announced Friday it would not participate in the meeting.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:01 pm 3i Infotech to merge with BPO armAnirudh Prabhakaran, COO, 3i Infotech, said the company was planning to merge its BPO business into 3i Infotech BPO, a wholly owned subsidiary. In FY09, the BPO service contributed onethird of the companys revenue of Rs 2,300 crore.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 5:09 pm T20 insurance gets bigger and costlierMumbai: Insurance covers for 20-over cricket events are getting bigger. After covering the Indian Premier League, Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd has now won the International Cricket Council’s T20 World Cup account. The state-owned insurer is providing cover to all matches. It is also providing cover to ESPN India for loss of revenues due to match cancellations. The TV channel is covered for a whopping Rs148 crore. ESPN can claim for loss of advertising revenues even if a match is called off midway due to weather conditions, including rain. However, it cannot claim insurance if the number of ad slots are reduced because a match ended without all overs being played. All 15 players of the Indian team are protected with a personal accident cover of Rs2.5 crore each, up from the Rs10 lakh cover earlier. Every player is also covered under an overseas mediclaim policy worth $250,000 each. All 27 matches have an umbrella cover of Rs5-6 crore each for loss of revenues due to weather conditions, Oriental Insurance said the semi-finals and finals could see insurance cover jumping at least 20%. cnbctv18@livemint.com Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 4:45 pm DS Kulkarni Developers\' land bank at Rs 600crSumit Arora, Vice PresidentStrategic Planning and Business Development, DS Kulkarni Developers, said the companys special economic zone (SEZ) plans are still underway. He said the company\'s land bank stands at Rs 600 crore.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 4:34 pm Mukesh Ambani's SEZ project in troubleLeading industrialist Mukesh Ambani's dream project of setting up a special economic zone (SEZ) over 10,000 hectares in Raigad near Mumbai at a cost of Rs.400 billion is in jeopardy as the Supreme Court Friday refused to extend the deadline for land acuisition.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Jun 2009 | 4:31 pm See growth, demand return to industry: WhirlpoolShantanu Das Gupta, VP Corporate Affairs and StrategyAsia South, Whirlpool, said April was better than March, and May is indeed better than April with respect to growth in demand.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 4:25 pm Rahul Khullar is new commerce secretaryDisinvestment Secretary Rahul Khullar has been appointed the new commerce secretary, the government said Friday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Jun 2009 | 3:31 pm G8 crisis consensus may fade as economy recoversLONDON (Reuters) - The world's financial policymakers appear to have steered a course through the worst of the credit crisis, but signs of recovery may now undermine their fragile consensus on policy.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Jun 2009 | 2:44 pm Industry inputs sought to boost food processing sectorThe government has sought the food processing industry's support to set a 100-day target for the sector.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Jun 2009 | 2:41 pm Bharti Axa plans to strengthen branches, expand businessThe promoters of private life insurer Bharti Axa Life Insurance will infuse Rs.100 crore in the next quarter to strengthen the company's branches and expand business so that it can break even by 2012-13, a top official said here Friday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Jun 2009 | 2:41 pm EBITDA at 34% in OctMarch \'09 period: Lakshmi EnergyIS Gumber, Executive Director, Lakshmi Energy and Foods said, last year, EBITDA was about 19%. It has risen for the half year period to about 33%34% which is entirely due to the company\'s nonFCI and power generation business.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 12:36 pm Expect 26% growth in FY10 advances: IDBI BankBK Batra, Executive Director and Head of Corporate Banking, IDBI Bank, seems positive about the banks future growth. We expect 26% growth in advances in FY10.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Jun 2009 | 11:00 am Canon to build new Japan plant after delayTokyo: Canon Inc. said Friday the recent recovery of the digital camera market would allow it to start building a new factory after a seven-month delay brought about by the global economic slump. “A careful review of recent market and economic conditions by the company indicates that the digital SLR (single-lens reflex) camera market is recovering steadily,” the company said in a statement. Construction of the factory in southern Nagasaki prefecture would start in July, and operations would begin in April 2010, said the high-tech photographic and office-equipment maker. The factory, which will produce 4 million cameras annually, will employ as many as 1,000 workers. Construction had been due to begin in January, and the factory was to become operational in December. The start of construction was delayed twice as the global recession battered Japan, pushing companies including Canon to slash jobs and shut factories. Canon, hailed as a success story in Japan’s recovery from the 1990s recession, saw its profits plunge last year. The company has said it is braced for another tough year but expects to stay profitable. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 5 Jun 2009 | 10:08 am
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