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Recession hits Aadi sales, advertisers offer value adsThe Aadi festival is Tamil Nadu\'s biggest shopping season. The festival has come to an end and the slowdown seems to have spoilt the party this time around, reports Divya Rajagopal and Sweta Sriram.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 15 Aug 2009 | 9:33 am Indage Vintners in dire straits, pledges 97.9% stakeC.H Unnikrishnan of Mint said, the promoters of Indage Vintners Ltd, one of India\'s earliest wineries, are in dire straits. They have pledged at least 97.9% of their stake in the company.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 15 Aug 2009 | 8:25 am myschool.in.com: Taking edu to the next levelHere is a unique effort by myschool.in.com. It is a k12 community powered by web 18 which strengthens the communication competencies of the school educational system.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 15 Aug 2009 | 8:24 am Will address airline industry\'s valid demands: Praful PatelThe man of the moment, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel speaks to Vir Sanghi on his CNBCTV18 show Tycoons With Vir Sanghvi on the recent turbulence that has crept up with private airlines.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 15 Aug 2009 | 8:05 am IITs only Indian brand to gain global recognition: Rahul BajajBajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj has said that IITs are the only Indian brand to gain global recognition and expressed hope that products manufactured in the country would be widely accepted throughout the world in future.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 15 Aug 2009 | 7:07 am Market turns the corner, Sensex up by 251 pts in the weekThe bull charge continued unabated as the bellwether indices, Sensex and Nifty, kept on their north-bound journey during the week under review following good buying support across the spectrum.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 15 Aug 2009 | 6:51 am Infosys most admired Indian company: Survey!IT bellwether Infosys Technologies has been adjudged as most admired Indian company, ahead of Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Airtel, says a survey.Source: Zee News : Business | 15 Aug 2009 | 6:37 am NASDAQ marks India`s Independence Day !India`s Consul General in New York presided over NASDAQ`s closing bell ceremony as the stock exchange`s electronic board displayed the Indian tricolour at Times Square, to mark India`s 63rd Independence Day.Source: Zee News : Business | 15 Aug 2009 | 6:37 am Air India problems to be solved soon: PMThe government today said it would take steps to solve soon the problems faced by ailing national carrier Air India. "We are giving careful attention to the problems of Air India and will resolve them soon," PM Manmohan Singh said in his Independence Day address.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 15 Aug 2009 | 4:27 am Obama keeps heat on insurance firms in reform pushBIG SKY, Mont. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Saturday U.S. healthcare worked better for insurance companies than for patients, as he pressed his case for a major overhaul that critics say is too expensive.Source: Reuters: Money News | 15 Aug 2009 | 4:25 am Pakistan issues tender to import 75,000 T sugarISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan is seeking to import 75,000 tones of white sugar in a tender that will close on Aug. 29, the state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 15 Aug 2009 | 3:50 am Swedish consortium eyes Volvo cars bid - reportSTOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A consortium dominated by Swedish owners plans to bid for Ford Motor Co's Volvo car unit, a Swedish business daily reported on Saturday without disclosing its sources.Source: Reuters: Money News | 15 Aug 2009 | 3:49 am Nitish Kumar promises better infrastructure, drought reliefBihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hoisted the national flag on Independence Day Saturday and promised adequate relief to people affected by drought, better infrastructure in the state and more measures to curb corruption.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 15 Aug 2009 | 3:33 am Mayawati criticises central government on I-DayUttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Saturday accused the central government of not aiding in the state's development schemes, while pledging to improve the law and order situation and find a 'permanent solution' to the power shortage.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 15 Aug 2009 | 3:33 am Market turns the corner, Sensex up by 251pts in the weekThe bull charge continued unabated as the bellwether indices, Sensex and Nifty, kept on their north-bound journey during the week under review following good buying support across the spectrum.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 15 Aug 2009 | 2:36 am Colonial goes under in biggest US bank failure of the yearColonial became the largest US bank to fail this year after it was declared bankrupt and had the bulk of its assets taken over by rival BB&T, the government banking insurer has said.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 15 Aug 2009 | 2:35 am Bharti IT contract: TCS, Wipro, IBM, Tech Mah short-listed - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 15 Aug 2009 | 2:30 am Apollo to make Dutch designer car tyres in ChennaiApollo Tyres is likely to produce Vredestein brand of wide designer passenger car tyres at its upcoming radial facility at Oragadam near Chennai.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 15 Aug 2009 | 2:25 am Confident Manmohan Singh says India headed to 'new glory' - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 15 Aug 2009 | 2:04 am IITs only Indian brand to gain global recognition: Rahul BajajBajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj has said that IITs are the only Indian brand to gain global recognition and expressed hope that products manufactured in the country would be widely accepted throughout the world in future.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 15 Aug 2009 | 1:52 am PM: Returning to 9 pct growth biggest challengeMUMBAI (Reuters) - Returning to a high growth rate is the greatest challenge facing India, with a weak monsoon making the task harder, but the economy may improve by year-end, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in his Independence Day speech.Source: Reuters: Money News | 15 Aug 2009 | 1:25 am China, ASEAN sign agreement on investmentBANGKOK (Reuters) - China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) took a major step on Saturday to broaden economic cooperation by signing an agreement to promote investment.Source: Reuters: Money News | 15 Aug 2009 | 1:20 am Air India problems to be solved soon: PMThe government on Saturday said it would take steps to solve soon the problems faced by ailing national carrier Air India.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 15 Aug 2009 | 1:14 am Drought status to keep investor mood wary - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 15 Aug 2009 | 1:11 am Confident Manmohan Singh says India headed to 'new glory'Striking a positive note on India's 63rd Independence Day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday asserted that Indians had immense faith and confidence in themselves and the world's largest democracy was headed to a 'new glory'.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 15 Aug 2009 | 1:00 am Returning to 9% growth biggest challenge: PMNew Delhi / Mumbai: Returning to a high growth rate is the greatest challenge facing India, with a weak monsoon making the task harder, but the economy may improve by year-end, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in his Independence Day speech. India’s economy is likely to grow by 6.5-7% in the year to March 2010, a top policy adviser said this week, matching the 6.7% growth in 2008-09, and well below the growth rates of 9% or more in the previous three years. “Restoring our growth rate to 9% is the greatest challenge we face,” Singh said in his annual address from the ramparts of Delhi’s historic Red Fort. “We expect that there will be an improvement in the situation by the end of this year,” he said, after unfurling the Indian tricolour to the sound of the ceremonial 21-gun salute. Monsoon rains in India, Asia’s third-largest economy, are 29% below average so far, raising concerns of weaker farm output and inflation. Economists say a bad monsoon could knock as much as 2 percentage points off growth. With nearly one-fourth of the country reeling under drought, the government has asserted the country has adequate stocks of foodgrains and all efforts would be made to check rising prices and hoarding. “No one will go hungry...we will provide all possible assistance to our farmers to deal with the drought,” the Prime Minister said. In order to mitigate hardships of farming community, the Prime Minister said the government has postponed the date of repayment of loans and additional support has been given to the farmers for payment of interest on short-term crop loans. The PM also appealed to the businessmen and industrialists to join government’s efforts to tackle the difficult situation, arising out of drought, and “fulfill their social obligation.” Singh, leading the Congress party coalition for a second term after a decisive election victory in May, also called for calm in dealing with the H1N1 pandemic. The Prime Minister said the Centre was coordinating with the state governments in controlling the swine flu situation and there was no need for panic and disruption of daily life. Swine flu has claimed 26 lives so far with the maximum number of cases reported from Maharashtra. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:26 am Achuthanandan slams India's globalisation policies on I-DayKerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan criticised the central government's economic and globalisation policies in his Independence Day speech here Saturday while highlighting his Left government's achievements in the state.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am LIC Housing, HDFC cut rates to match banksMumbai, Aug. 14 Housing finance companies are matching banks’ rate cuts in their quest to grow the home loans portfolio.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am Markets this weekProfit booking in auto stocks and pivotals and concerns on weak monsoon dragged the Sensex for the third consecutive session onSource: Business Line - Home Page | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am Rise in contract hiring signals revivalNew Delhi, Aug 14 There has been an jump in the hiring of contract workers in the April-June quarter, which could indicate a possible improvement in the short-term business outlook among entrepreneurs.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am Apollo to make Dutch designer car tyres in ChennaiKolkata, Aug. 14 Apollo Tyres is likely to produce Vredestein brand of wide designer passenger car tyres at its upcoming radial facility at Oragadam near Chennai.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am Steel prices will be under pressure this fiscal: JSW officialMumbai, Aug. 14 The Rs 40,000-crore JSW Group is fast expanding capacity in steel, energy, minerals and mining, infrastructure and cement. Mr Seshagiri Rao M.V.S., Joint Managing Director, JSW Steel and Group Chief Financial Officer, spoke toSource: Business Line - Home Page | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am RBI sees more pressure on food prices as drought loomsHyderabad, Aug. 14 The agriculture situation in the country is “disturbing,” conceded the Reserve Bank of India Governor, Dr D. Subbarao, adding that the central bank is taking serious note of the food priceSource: Business Line - Home Page | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am Money-back, ULIP plans may lose sheenUnit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs) and other investment-oriented products sold by life insurance companies are likely to lose their sheen when the new Direct Taxes Code comes into play from April 2011, say tax experts.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am The long and short of capital gainsThe Direct Taxes Code Bill, 2009 proposes some paradigm changes in the capital gains tax regime but contrary to the belief harboured in certain quarters, the distinction between long-term and short-term assets still endures even though the CodeSource: Business Line - Home Page | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am Merchant bankers see primary market revivalMumbai, Aug. 14 The primary markets may see a revival of sorts following the success of NHPC and Adani Power public issues, say merchant bankers.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am Taj, Oberoi get Rs 140 cr as terror insurance claims so farMumbai, Aug 14 Indian Hotels Company and the Oberoi Group have received Rs 140 crore as part-payment of the insurance claims on account of the Mumbai terror attacks on Taj Mahal andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am Text of PM's Independence Day addressThe following is the text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address on Independence Day:Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 14 Aug 2009 | 10:30 pm India will get back to 9 percent growth soon: PMIndia will soon return to a high growth path of over 9 percent with the economy expected to completely rebound by the year-end, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 14 Aug 2009 | 10:30 pm Efforts to be made to control rising food prices: PMPrime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday said all efforts would be made to control the rising prices of foodgrains, pulses and other goods of daily use.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 14 Aug 2009 | 10:30 pm NASDAQ marks India's Independence DayIndia's Consul General in New York presided over NASDAQ's closing bell ceremony as the stock exchange's electronic board displayed the Indian tricolour at Times Square.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:55 pm PM gives a new slogan: 'Pani Bachao'Faced with increasing water shortages that is affecting millions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday coined a new slogan for the nation: 'Pani Bachao' (Save Water).Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:30 pm Highlights of PM's Independence Day speechThe following are the highlights of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the nation on Independence Day:Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:30 pm India to soon return to 9 percent growth path: PMPrime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday expressed confidence that the Indian economy will rebound by the end of this year and once again enter a high growth path.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:00 pm Unshackled, Wall Street's cop goes hard on fraudWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wall Street's top cop has a lot to prove and it's been taking no prisoners.Source: Reuters: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 7:41 pm Indian bands break free on the InternetIndian bands no longer need to cut an album to find an audience. Podcasts are helping bands reach out and find listeners. Radio jockey, Ashish Ddavidd (29), is the founder of the Indian Underground Podcast, which he started to discover new bands and publicise their music. Aalap Deboor reports.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 14 Aug 2009 | 6:18 pm JSW Energy plans to raise Rs 3000cr - Calcutta Telegraph
Source: Business - Google News | 14 Aug 2009 | 4:16 pm ASEAN FTA: negative list will protect farmers, industry - Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 14 Aug 2009 | 3:42 pm Insurers ready to tackle expected surge in swine flu claimsSay hospitalisation charges arising from the epidemic will be covered.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 3:28 pm Europe recession over? Far from itDespite Q2 GDP growth in Germany and France, economists say 'double dip' likely.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 3:04 pm Niko says D6 reserves up after 2 new findsNiko Resources, the Canadian partner of RIL in the prolific D6 gas block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, has reported an extension of gas finds in the block.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 3:03 pm Steel firms fear fresh rise in costs due to ChinaIndian steel companies fear raw material prices will soar as Chinese steel majors have increased iron ore purchases over the last few weeks.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 3:02 pm Cement prices on downward spiralCement prices, which had seen a sudden surge in the first week of April and then continued on the uptrend till June, have now started slipping.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 3:01 pm More people flying abroad even as local travel declinesDomestic air passenger nos dropped 11% last fiscal as intl passenger count rose 6%.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm AMD seeks level playing field in govt IT contractsIn talks with the IT ministry to make its policy 'neutral'Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:58 pm A will is vital – here’s how to make it tamper-proofDeath is uncertain. Making a will to pass on your legacy is important even if you are still walking towards financial independence, and more so because assets are not automatically passed on to a spouse. Falaknaaz Syed reports.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:56 pm 'Too early to take action on inflation'Agriculture situation disturbing, says RBI governor, sees pressure on food prices.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:56 pm Canon gambit to step up India playDigital imaging company Canon India Ltd has chalked out a blueprint to boost sales and expand footprint in the country.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:55 pm Managing debt is a balancing actNever bite off more than you can chew—Shraddha (32) and her banker husband live by this rule, which is probably why the couple are relatively debt-free despite servicing a home loan and a car loan — not to speak of their credit card bills. Radhika Pancholi reports.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:48 pm Sensex loses 107 points as investors book profits - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:46 pm First home? Bargain hard, borrow wiselyHome is the most important asset that one builds. But building it on a pile of debt can put you off the track to financial freedom. Making the first roof of your head debt-free is crucial, writes Sandeep Singh.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:19 pm For optimal returns, diversify riskThe critical gateway for financial independence is how you invest. If you keep your eye on your goal and are disciplined, even with modest savings, you can fund your goals, Sandeep Singh tell us how. See graphicSource: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:04 pm Be insured adequately — and in all aspectsSound insurance purchases go a long way in securing financial independence. A family needs sufficient insurance to make sure that lifestyles are not compromised in the event of the death of the earner, say financial planners, writes Falaknaaz Syed. Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:59 pm RIL to supply gas for NTPC's NCR plants - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:48 pm Colgate shares don’t reflect full impact of below-par monsoon With the markets now taking the below-normal monsoon more seriously, a correction was clearly due. In fact, even at current levels, valuations seem stretched at about 24 times expected earnings. But the markets have been comfortable assigning the stock high-valuation multiples given the company’s ability to grow earnings at healthy double-digit rates. Also, the company has maintained a high dividend payout rate. This week, the company announced an interim dividend of Rs8 per share, indicating that last year’s high payout of Rs15 a share may be maintained. Colgate investors have not only enjoyed high dividend receipts in the past, but have also seen high capital appreciation. In the past five years, the stock has risen at a compound annual growth rate of 26.7%, higher than the 25.8% return of the BSE-100 index on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). For a consumer goods company to beat the broad market is commendable, since the sector has generally been a laggard as far as investor returns go. The main reason Colgate stands apart is that its growth has been on the back of high volume growth.  Graphics by Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint The company has been able to take advantage of the under-penetration in the toothpaste segment, and a relatively high proportion of its sales now comes from the rural market. Operating profit grew by nearly 60%, thanks to savings on advertising expenses and other expenditure. But such high growth rates may soon be a thing of the past. With a large number of districts staring at a drought, volume growth will be affected. Back in 2003, the last time the monsoon was below normal, sales had fallen. Back then, rural sales accounted for less than 30% of total sales. Of late, much of the incremental growth has been coming from rural areas and, hence, an impact on rural sales may derail growth. Rural sales now account for 35% of sales. Earnings estimates for this year may need to be revised, which would mean that the stock would be even more expensive than what current consensus estimates suggest. Besides, even net profit margins are likely to get affected next year, since the company’s manufacturing unit in a tax haven will lose some amount of tax exemptions. According to an analyst, the effective tax rate may rise to 25%, compared with about 18% currently. As a result, net profit is likely to remain flat at this year’s levels. While the company has done exceptionally well in the past, near-term challenges and current high valuations could mean that investors would have to settle for a little bit of under-performance for some time. Write to us at marktomarket@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:45 pm Freedom to smile | Satish KalraSatish Kalra is a curious kind of mechanical engineer: He engineers smiles. Having worked for around 30 years in senior management positions with Hindustan Unilever and Ciba-Geigy in India, Switzerland and Singapore, Kalra was drawing a blank on post-retirement plans as he neared the end of a globetrotting career in 2000. He wasn’t interested in spirituality or keen on golf, and a consultancy job didn’t seem appealing enough.  Inspired by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel: India owes more to him than any other leader. Working quietly, efficiently—with no flamboyance or thought for personal glory—he created an ‘integrated and unified’ nation. Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint So, when Kalra met the folks at Smile Train, an international organization that provides free cleft lip/palate operations to children in need, in Singapore by happenstance, he got drawn to the idea of working with a global charity. However, he was sceptical of international charities wanting to work in developing countries. He travelled to China, where Smile Train’s operations had just started, at his own expense. And after being convinced of the charity’s mission and ethics, got on board. He also recalls meeting Wang Li—the first cleft-lipped child that Smile Train was going to be operating upon. A cleft lip is an opening in the upper lip between the mouth and nose. A cleft palate is created when the roof of the mouth has a hole in it. Kalra explains a cleft abnormality in an infant as a “communication error” between chromosomes during a foetus’ development, which results in a condition that affects the lives of around four million children across the world. Being born with a cleft in a developing country is largely a curse. Every baby born with a cleft in Uganda is given the name Ajok, which literally means “cursed by God”. Superstition and myth about cleft-lipped children abound. In India, for instance, there is a common belief that if a pregnant woman wields a knife during an eclipse, she will have a cleft-lipped baby. So strong is this belief that the phrase for a cleft lip in Telugu is grahanam-morri, translating to “eclipse-lip”. In countries such as the US, clefts are corrected right after an infant is born, but in poorer countries where not everyone can afford surgery, they are often not operated upon. This renders the child unable to eat or speak properly and likely to end up facing a life of shame and isolation. Yet, Kalra has no illusions that clefts warrant unique attention. “There are far greater problems than cleft palates in the world,” he observes, adding, “But one has to start somewhere.” He underlines the fact that a surgery which takes only around 45 minutes and costs Rs10,000 to conduct, can change a child’s life dramatically. Over the last couple of years, Megan Mylan’s 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary, Smile Pinki, has helped raise awareness and funds for the cause. But there is still a lot of work to be done. According to Smile Train, India alone sees around 32,600 children born with clefts every year, and since its inception, Smile Train’s India programme has helped at least 197,000 children. While talking about Smile Train’s domestic reach, Kalra is reluctant to take any credit for the organization’s pioneering success. But as his colleagues from the New York headquarters explain, it really has been a one-man show. Kalra spent his first two years without even seeing anyone from the corporate headquarters. He figured out how to build the programme, what type of partners would work best, raised funds and then relentlessly travelled around the country signing up the best hospitals and recruiting the best surgeons. His years in this field have warranted a busy itinerary that calls for travelling the length and breadth of the country, to the most remote locations, and identify local doctors with the potential to become Smile Train surgeons. Leaning over the work desk at his office-residence in a quiet Delhi neighbourhood, dressed in simple formal wear, the self-starter light-heartedly admits to being both the “CEO and chief stamp licker” of the organization. Very mindful of its emphasis on keeping overheads to a bare minimum, he works without any support staff. “Social work requires more than just an altruistic heart,” he says. Kalra brings in the “more”—his business acumen and strong interpersonal skills are assets. Kalra’s latest achievement is a programme called Smile Grants. Smile Train hospitals distribute Smile Grants to special families who are in desperate need. These stipends help the families afford simple transportation to and from Smile Train hospitals; make up for lost days at work due to waiting in the hospital for their children to receive cleft care; and sometimes cover registration fees for their children to return to school. Growing up, Kalra stayed away from medical school because he was terrified of blood. The youngest of six children, he was constantly chided by his siblings—all of whom are doctors—for not following suit. Today, he is somehow in the thick of medical science. Hirji Adenwalla, head of the Charles Pinto Centre for Cleft Lip and Palate in Trichur, Kerala, and a board member on Smile Train’s medical advisory panel, recalls one of his first meetings with Kalra: “He sat with me in my old consulting room, pad and pen in hand, and started making extensive notes. When we met a year later, he spoke to me on equal terms like a cleft surgeon. I was staggered by the information that he had accumulated. I realized then that Smile Train in India was in safe hands.” On his desktop, Kalra shows me numerous pictures and videos of cleft-lipped children before and after surgery. The children who have been operated on beam as they swing and run freely in playgrounds, possibly after years of isolation. Kalra is all smiles: “There is something inherently addictive about working with kids and watching their lives transform. It makes you want to carry on.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:45 pm State units defy BJP central leadershipNew Delhi: Even as the country’s main Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is poised to undertake a crucial brainstorming session next week to revive its political fortunes, the party continues to be buffeted by dissidence among several regional units, including Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. In almost all instances, the central leadership, which has been struggling to manage dissidence within its ranks after the party’s outright defeat in the 15th Lok Sabha elections, has been approached to prevail upon the situation.  In protest: Rajastan BJP MLAs gather outside party leader L.K. Advani’s residence in New Delhi on Friday. Subhav Shukla / PTI They were responding to an informal communication from the central leadership signalling that Raje should step down as leader of the party in the state assembly. After meeting party president Rajnath Singh, the MLAs approached L.K. Advani, former president and current leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha. They were, however, denied an audience. The core group of the BJP, an informal grouping of the top national leaders, had decided on 6 August that Raje should step down as the legislative party leader, assuming responsibility for the defeat in the assembly election in December and the Lok Sabha earlier this year. State party chief Om Mathur and organizational secretary Prakash Sharma had already resigned. “Decisions in the party are taken unanimously and have to be followed by everyone,” Singh said after meeting the legislators. Striking a defiant tone, MLA Rajendra Singh Rathore, who led the Raje supporters in Delhi, told reporters after meeting Singh that the state legislature party can re-elect Raje as their new leader “if a situation like that is thrust upon them”. While senior leaders agree that any road map ahead could prove a non-starter in the wake of state-level defiance, the leadership doesn’t seem interested in any tough action ahead of the organizational election. Election to the post of party president is due next January and state leaders and national executive members from respective states are slated to play a major role in the poll. “A strong central leadership is a must for any plan to be executed. The state leaders need to follow the directions, but unfortunately for the party, it’s not happening as intended,” said party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Regional outfits of the BJP have begun to assert themselves ever since the party suffered its second successive electoral defeat that triggered infighting among the second rung of its national leadership. It started with the Uttarakhand state unit sending back the central envoys, Naqvi and general secretary Thavarchand Gehlot, who had been sent to scale down the dissidence and ensure the continuation of the incumbent, chief minister B.C. Khanduri. The central leadership later capitulated to the demand of the dissidents and state health minister Ramesh Pokhriyal took over as chief minister. Senior party leader Arun Jaitley suffered a similar fate in June when the Karnataka unit, led by chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, declined to patch up with the so-called Bellary brothers, state tourism minister G. Janardhana Reddy and revenue minister G. Karunakara Reddy. Jaitley was rushed to Bangalore to defuse the problem. Jaitley declined comment. The state unit of Punjab also rejected the demand of the central leadership on the urging of Amritsar member of Parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu seeking replacement of Rajinder Mohan Cheema as chairman of the Amritsar Improvement Trust. Another instance of rebellion came from Madhya Pradesh, when the party’s state election committee passed a unanimous resolution against supporting any candidate nominated by the leadership for the state Rajya Sabha by-polls. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan visited Delhi and met Advani and Jaitley “to convey the sentiments of the state leadership”. Party insiders said the BJP’s central leadership wanted either outgoing Rajya Sabha member Hema Malini or actor Smriti Irani to be elected to the Upper House from Madhya Pradesh, which was rejected by the state unit. The defiance of the central leadership is not limited to Punjab, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand. A section of MLAs in Bihar complained several times to the leadership against deputy chief minister Sushil Modi for being too close to coalition partner Janata Dal (United) and state chief minister Nitish Kumar. Eventually, a secret ballot was conducted and Modi was retained. “These are the side effects rejecting Advani as the leader for the next five years. The state leaderships are trying to make a counterpoint as a sign of defiance,” said Bidyut Chakrabarty, professor in the department of political science at Delhi university. “Before trying to rein in the state leadership, the BJP needs to first sort out the central leadership struggle, without which no plan for the road ahead can work for the party.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:45 pm Freedom to express | Arundhati NagStanding in the middle of her messy office on the third level of Ranga Shankara, Bangalore, thespian Arundhati Nag gets ready to clear up some space, promising that my questions will get her undivided attention. “I have a habit of keeping small things because they serve as a reminder of some occasion, or can be used in the future,” she says, pointing to a block of teak wood lying on her table. It was a sample that came when the theatre, a prized landmark of the city, was being built around a decade back.  Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi: I believe his saying: ‘There is enough for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed’. Hemant Mishra / Mint Her office is tucked away in a corner, away from the bustle of rehearsals and ticket counters in Ranga Shankara. But she says she likes to watch who is coming into the theatre, or at least hear the rehearsals from the corridors, and spends little time in the office. Nag, now 53, is the woman behind one of India’s most vibrant cultural spaces—a space for performing arts, meant for promoting new talent and reviving forgotten ones. Ranga Shankara’s circular stage is modelled on the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, founded by Jennifer Kapoor in 1944, and Nag’s passion for the stage and her doggedness have ensured its success. Built on land reserved for civic amenities in a residential area in south Bangalore, Ranga Shankara, which opened its doors in 2004 in memory of Shankar Nag, her late husband, follows an at least “a play a day” policy, six days a week. It may be by amateurs or professionals, in regional languages or in English. It’s not uncommon to see a Kannada-speaking housewife from Bangalore’s traditional Jayanagar area walk into Ranga Shankara to watch a Kannada play with her friends, or Bangalore’s Bengali residents reunite during a Bengali theatre festival. “Every theatre person wants to create that unique space dedicated to drama; some do it in their gardens, I just went a few steps ahead,” Nag says. Nag was born in Delhi, but her family moved to Mumbai when she was 10. Acting and drama came naturally to her. “My mother used to play the tabla as a child. Her grandmother ruled that a Brahmin girl will not be seen on stage, so at the age of 4, she performed from behind the curtains,” she says. At 17, when her acting talents were just about taking shape, she met Shankar Nag, the acclaimed Kannada actor, through theatre. Six years later, the two got married and she moved to Bangalore. “Bangalore had the Kalakshetra, which was open to all kinds of performances. There was no space dedicated to drama, like there was Prithvi or the Shivaji Mandir in Mumbai. Ever since then, building a theatre was a dream that I never shook off,” says Nag. In 1990, Shankar died in an accident. It was so sudden that it took Nag a year to set foot on stage. “A year later, the moment I said my first line, when my sound broke, I knew it was all okay. I knew that the absence of Shankar was not going to destroy me. The last sentence that Shankar and I shared was about theatre and the first act of sanity after his death was theatre,” Nag says. Two years later, Nag, with other members of the theatre community such as Girish Karnad and M.S. Sathyu, created the Sanket Trust. “We used to have weekly meetings of like-minded people, and like all movements, this one also had its share of people drifting in and going out. After several visits to the chief minister’s office, the trust was allotted a plot of land at JP Nagar on a 30-year lease. From then on, I began collecting money from anybody and everybody I was able to convince. I am sure there must have been people who gave me money to stop me from constantly pestering them,” she laughs. The contributions ranged from Rs5 from ordinary theatre lovers to big sums from industrialists. “I spent years convincing CEOs about my dream. I must say some of them were really generous.” While someone donated glass, someone else offered to cut the glass. Ten years later, in October 2004, the complex designed by architect Sharukh Mistry was opened to the public. Performing groups pay the trust Rs2,500 for a show, and tickets are priced mostly at Rs50. “We take a cut of the ticket money only when it’s priced above Rs50, but no ticket here costs more than Rs221,” she says, pointing out that the rent of Rs2,500 barely serves to pay the electricity cost for a day. “We almost never break even; this isn’t a business, it’s public service,” she says. Nag’s only dream for Ranga Shankara: “We should be able to influence the direction that Indian theatre takes from here.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:45 pm Freedom to communicate | Mahesh JayachandraOne day in February, Farah Rahman visited the office of the bureaucrat who oversees the Indian government’s efforts to use computers and the Internet to better service citizens (e-governance it’s called).  Mahesh Jayachandra. Photo: Hemant Mishra / Mint Rahman is a petite criminal lawyer from Minnesota whose family moved there from Hyderabad in the mid-1980s. She moved back to India to work with a scientist who had invented a normal 101-key keyboard that could handle Indian languages. *******************************  Yes, I met Mahesh a few months ago, and was impressed with him and felt the product was interesting. But from an investment criteria standpoint there are key gaps that need to be filled. A VC looks essentially at the following four factors while deciding whether or not to invest: team (who is going to execute on the vision); technology (what is unique/different/sustainable); traction (is there any validation ideally from potential customers, partners, advisors) and market (who has the pain, is that market large enough, and the pain point big enough to have the product or service be a “must have” rather than a “nice to have”). Admittedly, there is a catch-22 that most entrepreneurs struggle with, which effectively has to do with the fact that one needs the money to get traction, and often needs the traction to attract capital. In this particular case, the entrepreneur has to create a business plan around the product, which is an extension of the four factors that I mentioned earlier, including sales and marketing strategy (direct/channel and branded vs. white label), target market analysis/research including detailed conversations with potential customers and partners, detailed competitive/alternative analysis and sustainable differentiation, business model/pricing, organization structure necessary to execute and the overall potential and exit for the company. In the US, often engineers and entrepreneurs connect with business school students, who often have real life operating experience, to help with the planning exercise. There could also be advisors or even angel investors from either industry or the public sector with whom the multi-lingual keyboard idea resonates. Those advisors and investors, especially ones with name recognition can lend significant credibility to this venture through their association. Bottom line is that interesting product or technology by itself is only a 20% factor in a venture’s success. The remaining 70% is driven by execution and 10% is sheer luck. In Mahesh’s case, the 20% potentially is there with strong IP protection, but the other pieces need to be put in place. ************************ The way she says it, the officer was disappointed that all she had to offer was a keyboard. He asked for a sample, inspected it, and thrust it back at her. “Keyboards? We have (local language) keyboards,” he said. And then the officer deputed another officer to walk Rahman through what she describes as a shiny new e-governance centre. The entrepreneur Rahman works with is Mahesh Jayachandra, a neurophysician who has both US and Indian patents for keyboards in Indic languages—a group of Indo-European languages including Sanskrit, most modern Indian languages, even some Asian languages. In a show of obvious symbolism, he plans to launch the keyboard, which was ready a few years back, today. Behind the story of the Brahmi keyboard, as Jayachandra has termed his product, is the story of how a neurophysician who hopes to one day build an electrical model of the brain ended up inventing a keyboard. And the story of efforts by several scientists before him to solve a problem that, on the face of it, appears unsolvable. The keyboard The Qwerty keyboard most computers are equipped with has 101 keys. That’s more than adequate to represent the 26 letters of the English alphabet comprising five vowels and 21 consonants. Each letter is assigned a distinct key, which means users do not have to press multiple keys to type a letter.  Mahesh Jayachandra invented the Brahmi keyboard for regional Indian language users, which works by simply arranging the keys in a particular order, and assigning one key for matras and another for halants. Hemant Mishra / Mint Indic languages have far more vowels and consonants. Hindi, for instance, has 11 vowels and 33 consonants. Then there are the squiggles called matras and halants in Hindi that lend an entirely different sound to the letter they are attached to. The matras are attached to vowels and the halants to consonants. Were each letter of an Indic language to be assigned a distinct key, the keyboard would need to have at least 1,500 keys. While users may like to think of it in terms of keys, scientists think of it in terms of Unicode, an international standard applicable across languages where each letter, number or symbol is given a unique numeric value that works across various computing programs. Apart from letters and numbers, anyone working on a local language keyboard in India also has to allow for special characters such as Om (Sanskrit originally but used in almost all Indian languages) and others that are specific to one language. Tamil has one, Marathi a few, and even Telugu has some that serve as small weighing units (they were probably created to weigh the fabled diamonds of Golconda). India thought it had the problem licked when Mohan Tambe came up with the Inscript keyboard in the 1980s. Tambe came up with the idea for the keyboard at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, and perfected it at India’s then freshly minted Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, or C-DAC. Inscript, a phonetic keyboard, forms the basis of most local language keyboards currently in use in the country. Such keyboards, though, require users to perform multiple operations before they can type a particular character. Given the level of complexity involved, it could take anyone between six and nine months to be trained in using an Inscript keyboard. That may not seem like much, and, indeed, one reason why there hasn’t been much progress in developing alternatives to the Inscript keyboard could simply be that many scientists and the government thought they had this particular problem sorted. But there are some who think that the unavailability of a simpler Indic languages keyboard is one of the factors behind the digital divide. And the quest for an alternative has continued. In 2004, researchers from IIT Bombay came up with the concept of a local language keyboard designed on the basis of the structure and usage of languages. In 2007, C-DAC partnered with an Israeli company to create a LooKeys keyboard, where a camera on top of the monitor captured the position of the user’s fingers on the keyboard and read the corresponding letter. In between, in 2006, HP Labs won a Wall Street Journal technology innovation award in the consumer category for a so-called gesture keyboard. Only, it wasn’t really a keyboard. One of the scientists behind it, Shekhar Borgaonkar, department director, HP Labs, says it was created more to address the issue of access than to facilitate typing (one reason why it isn’t a keyboard). The product is simply a tablet on which the vowels, consonants and numbers of the Indic language are arranged. To get a matra derivative, the user simply uses a pen to scribble the matra on top of the corresponding letter. Borgaonkar claims the product has 95% accuracy. This writer tried it out for a few minutes—he isn’t an expert in Hindi—and discovered that the accuracy was closer to 100%. But it isn’t a keyboard. Still, HP hasn’t really pushed the technology because, Borgaonkar says, it doesn’t see much demand for it. The product, however, is available through a test marketing company with which HP has a partnership. Jayachandra’s Brahmi keyboard is a real keyboard. And it works by simply arranging the keys in a particular order, assigning keys for matras and halants, and making use of the Shift key (much like English keyboards do). Nitu Thakur, at St Joseph’s Boys High School (also called the European School to differentiate it from another school of the same name) in Bangalore, was one of its first users. A teacher of Hindi, it took her no time at all to master the keyboard. And she tested it out by typing a question paper for a Hindi examination. “It’s just like typing in English,” she said. Jayachandra has both US and India patents for the keyboard. The patents cover all Indic languages, so apart from several languages spoken in India, he can also look forward to producing keyboards in Sinhalese (spoken in Sri Lanka) should he wish to. Jayachandra thinks no one will be interested in just a keyboard—a CD with the software and a keyboard-shaped sticker with both Hindi and English letters can convert any keyboard into a Brahmi keyboard in minutes. His company, called Brahmi Computing, is looking to launch a computer, also branded Brahmi. The box will come bundled with a Linux-based Hindi operating system, and loads of free software utilities—math, painting, games, astronomy, the works. The scientist Jayachandra is hoping to make enough money by licensing the technology or selling PCs to get back to his first love— electrophysiology. He wants to be the first to build a proper electrical model of the brain. Now 47, Jayachandra is a dark wiry man with a jet-black beard and equally black mane of unruly hair that has been made to submit to some sort of order on the day this reporter meets him. He is dressed in black trousers, a white shirt, a black waistcoat and Oxfords— concessions to the meeting, he confesses. Born in Bangalore to an academically and medically inclined family—his grandfather was a general physician—Jayachandra graduated from the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune in 1985. After spending some time in Bangalore at St Martha’s Hospital and St John’s Medical College, he went to the US to study further (he has an MD and a PhD from the SUNY Health Science Centre, New York). While there, he became interested in the brain, more specifically the cortical column. Over the years, scientists have come to regard the cortical column as the key to the holy grail—building an artificial or electrical model of the brain. The cortical column is just a group of neurons or brain cells located in the cerebral cortex. The cortex is the part of the brain that deals with memory, awareness, thought, consciousness, and language. The cortical column is of interest to scientists because probes can be inserted into it at a right angle. It is also of interest to them because the neurons there have almost similar receptive fields, or area where a stimulus will generate a response from the corresponding neuron. Put simply, the cortical column is like an even or uniform electrical conducting field. Understanding the cortical column and mapping it is at the core of an ongoing effort to build a simulated brain, the Blue Brain Project, the result of a partnership between IBM and Swiss university Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). As the man behind this initiative, Henry Markham, project director at the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL, said in a 2005 article in New Scientist (the same year the initiative was launched): “It will be the first time humans will be able to observe the electrical code our brains use to represent the world, and to do so in real time…” Markham added in the New Scientist article that he and his team hope to use the model to understand how certain malfunctions of the brain’s microcircuits could cause psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and depression. Jayachandra’s interest in the column arises from his belief that chips of the future could be modelled on it. “Think of the cortical column as a chip,” he says. So, when he came back to India in 1999, Jayachandra, who had become interested in computing, built a rudimentary supercomputer and started studying the monkey cortical column. The effort—building the supercomputer, not studying the monkey’s brain—resulted in a company, Peacock Solutions Pvt. Ltd, one of India’s earliest supercomputer companies. It was at the Peacock Solutions stall at IT.com, an annual IT industry jamboree in Bangalore, that Jayachandra experienced his moment of truth. Mornings at IT.com, even today, are meant for business. On most afternoons, the exhibition is thrown open to the public—part of an effort to popularize computers and computing. Jayachandra had some interesting show-and-tells running at the Peacock stall. The audience was impressed but some left muttering that it would have been better in Kannada. Jayachandra thought so too. The challenge For the past eight years, Jayachandra has been working on the Brahmi keyboard. He was ready with the product by 2006, but says he thought it would be best to launch it after he had the patents for it. In 2008, he received US patents 7414616 and 7420543 for the Indic language keyboard. In 2009, he received Indian patent number 230234 for the same. He hasn’t spent the intervening period building an organization because that isn’t what he does. There are a few people like Rahman who work with him. The money for developing the keyboard, much lower than $2 million—“How do you put a value on the effort and time?” Jayachandra says when asked to come up with a number—came from family, friends and IT projects Jayachandra did, in Bangalore, and in Minnesota, where he spent some time raising money, setting up an open-source and local language software company Kalibonca, and practising his rifle shooting (the good doctor is into guns). There has been a smattering of interest, from investors, media and users in the product. In 2007, Kalibonca, named after 19th century London street herbalist Dr Bokanky’s miracle cure, the Kalibonca root from Madras, received a rash of publicity from Indian media for its Hindi keyboard. In February, Jayachandra met Mohanjit Jolly, the head of the local arm of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Jolly was initially enthusiastic and then, says Jayachandra, suggested that the doctor build a team and an organization around his idea. Jayachandra also says that Jolly suggested he get in touch with the Helion Fund, an Indian venture capital firm. Jolly didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. Jayachandra says he decided there would be enough time to meet venture capitalists after he had the product ready. In 2008, Ashish Sinha who runs PluGGd.in, a site that lists and profiles start-ups, reviewed Jayachandra’s efforts positively. Sinha says he was impressed by the Brahmi keyboard, but adds that its success will really depend on Jayachandra’s efforts to forge partnerships with companies such as Microsoft or license the technology out to them. Sinha is a sort of weathervane in the start-up space in India, but even his write-up didn’t induce much interest in Jayachandra—except from one person who thought the doctor’s efforts to build a local language keyboard were an affront to earlier keyboards that had been in existence for at least three decades. That’s a common reaction in the keyboard fraternity. Some of it may have to do with the lack of knowledge of Jayachandra’s patents and products. And some of it may have to do with the fact that some scientists consider the local language keyboard problem solved. In February, after the officer walking Rahman through the e-governance centre was finished, he told her why he thought her product wouldn’t work—the Inscript keyboard was there and worked well. Rahman says the officer then seemed to wrestle with his thoughts till he found exactly what he was looking for. It was a piece of advice for Indians who went to the US and then came back with magic cures for everything—including local language computing issues. “You should go back to the US,” he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:30 pm Swine flu empties Pune's hotelsUp to 50% of the rooms vacant as travellers quit city.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:23 pm High court gives settlement commission a lease of lifeIn a major relief to over 3,000 companies all over India seeking arbitration in tax cases with the Settlement Commission, the Bombay High Court has termed as "unconstitutional" the governments decision to suggest a cut off date of March 31, 2008, for all cases filed before June 1,2007.??In its judgment in response to a petition filed by STAR Television News Ltd, the high court said the choice of March 31, 2008, as the cut-off date for the settlement of all cases filed beforeSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:22 pm IIT-Kgp ties up with US varsity for hospitalThe Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on August 18 with the University of California, San Diego, as a partner for its 350 to 700-bed medical college.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:20 pm Govt borrowing impedes interest rate cut: SubbaraoReserve Bank of India (RBI) governor D Subbarao said the rapid expansion of the government borrowing programme was coming in the way of the central banks monetary policy objective of a lower interest rate regime and called for more independence for the central bank.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:18 pm NTPC faces heat over RIL case delayIndependent directors on the board of state-run generation utility NTPC have put the management on the mat over delay in moving the Supreme Court to protect future gas supplies from the Andhra offhsore field developed by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:08 pm No fresh equity in CIL selloffState-run monopoly Coal India Ltd will not issue fresh equity and only shed government's stake when it hits the market as per terms of getting the Navaratna status.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:07 pm Interest rates likely to come down furtherBanks and financial institutions are likely to reduce interest rates further in the next couple of months, if the economic recovery does not pick up pace.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:04 pm 'Too early to worry over inflationary pressure'Even as fears of a drought loom large over the Indian economy, RBI governor D Subbarao said on Friday that it was too early to raise an alarm over the rain deficit fuelling inflation.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:03 pm LIC Housing, HDFC cut rates to match banks - Hindu Business Line
Source: Business - Google News | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:02 pm RIL discovers gas in Mahanadi basin blockReliance Industries has found natural gas reserves in a well drilled on its NEC-25 block in Mahanadi basin, off the Orissa coast, the companys junior partner Niko Resources of Canada said on Friday.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:02 pm Foreign tourists upbeat on IndiaDespite the economic slowdown and fears of a global pandemic, the domestic tourism industry is cruising along well.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:01 pm RBI sees more pressure on food prices as drought looms - Hindu Business Line
Source: Business - Google News | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:00 pm Rains look to migrate to north-west region - Hindu Business Line
Source: Business - Google News | 14 Aug 2009 | 12:59 pm 'India biz climate better than China'India offers a better business climate as compared to China, concludes a survey of corporate credit risk management in the two countries.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 14 Aug 2009 | 12:58 pm Indian business may need restructuringNew Delhi: The merger of India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd and South Africa’s MTN Group—if and when it happens—will end up being more complicated than everyone expects it to be. That’s because Bharti Airtel will have to restructure its operations in India once (and if) it signs the deal to eventually merge with Johannesburg-based MTN so as to separate its Indian operations from the global entity. This is necessary if it wants to avoid paying licence fees on the merged company’s global revenues, say two senior government officials who did not want to be identified. Executives at Bharti declined comment on the issue. On 25 May, the Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti Airtel and MTN announced that they had restarted negotiations that could lead to an eventual merger. If a merger does happen, the resulting entity would become the third largest telco in the world, after Vodafone Group Plc. and China Mobile Ltd, with nearly 200 million subscribers and $20 billion (Rs96,600 crore) in revenues. The deal entails a highly complex share swap and cash transaction. If and when a merger happens, the merged entity will have to restructure its India-based telecom business and bring this under an Indian entity. To be sure, others, notably Vodafone Group, have done the same thing before. “They would have to restructure their India-based telecom services and have an Indian entity much like Vodafone has in India,” said a senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “That will not be difficult for them to do. They would have already taken this into account before going into discussions of the deal,” he added. “The difference is that Vodafone bought into India, whereas in this case, it is Bharti that is going into another country. It (Bharti-MTN) is exactly reverse of the Vodafone case.” The Vodafone case is actually simpler. In May 2007, Vodafone acquired the 67% stake Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd held in Hutchison Essar Ltd. Subsequently, the firm was renamed Vodafone Essar Ltd. It is this firm that pays the revenue share, according to the same official. It will not be difficult for Bharti to form a subsidiary and transfer the Indian telecom business to this subsidiary, said Girish Vanvari, who heads the mergers and acquisitions and tax practice at audit and consulting firm KPMG. But he is apprehensive of the implications of the move. “Holding companies do not enjoy best valuations.” The transfer of licences to a subsidiary will require several approvals, including those from the department of telecommunications (DoT) and Indian courts, according to a second Indian government official who, too, did not want to be identified. According to DoT, all revenues of a telco, including service tax and interconnection charges, have to be factored into the adjusted gross revenue (AGR). Under Indian law, telcos are given licences and radio waves in return for a revenue share calculated on the basis of AGR. India’s telcos pay between 6% and 10% of AGR to the government, depending on the service areas in which they operate. They also pay between 2% and 5% of AGR as spectrum fee. Last fiscal year, Bharti Airtel paid a total of Rs3,582.17 crore as spectrum and licence fee, up 38.6% from Rs2,583.82 crore in 2007-08. The transfer of the Indian licences to a subsidiary could also raise other issues, said KPMG’s Vanvari. “There will also be the fact that certain tax holidays that can be availed by the telecom operators are not allowed to be transferred.” Bharti and MTN have given themselves till 31 August to close the deal. A critical board meeting of MTN is scheduled for 18 August. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 12:04 pm In crisis, CPM strives to reinvent itselfNew Delhi: In a bid to reposition itself electorally, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, has begun to focus its political energies on domestic issues such as price rise instead of foreign policy. The rearguard action comes as the CPM was thrust into an internal crisis immediately after the humiliating defeat in the 15th Lok Sabha elections, when the party’s strength dropped to 16—the lowest ever—from 43 previously. Three CPM members in separate interviews confirmed that the central leadership had directed its cadre to build momentum on domestic issues. At the same time, it will also enable the CPM to distinguish itself from the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which of late has been attacking the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over what it called its “deviation” from the basic principles of foreign policy the country has followed.  Election aftermath: CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has conceded that the party would be revisiting its ideological stance. Rajkumar / Mint “But now, our priority is to prepare the rectification document and in the next central committee meeting, we will discuss the matter. Discussions on ideological document will be followed,” he said. The CPM politburo is to meet in the first week of September and is then likely to decide on when the central committee would meet. The rectification document details guidelines for the functioning of the party and is issued when a course correction is necessary. During the just concluded budget session of Parliament, the CPM and its Left allies were keen to initiate opposition to the price rise, confining their protests against the government’s foreign policy and trade initiatives to merely seconding the BJP. For a party that had withdrawn support to the previous UPA government over the India-US civil nuclear deal, its opposition to the government’s moves to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and an end-user monitoring agreement (Euma) with the US seemed fairly muted. In fact, a day after the government signed the Asean pact, the CPM politburo issued a routine statement criticizing the move, saying it “reflects the misplaced priorities of the Congress-led government”. The party said, “The FTA has been signed without any discussion about its possible impact in the Indian Parliament.” CPM members in the Lok Sabha merely associated with the Congress MPs from Kerala who raised the Asean agreement issue, saying it would have an adverse impact on the cash crop farmers from the state; in the Rajya Sabha, party politburo member Brinda Karat raised the matter once as a special mention. CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury disagreed: “Our party MPs have raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha, and MPs along with Kerala chief minister (V.S. Achuthanandan) met the Prime Minister to express our concern over the Asean pact. It is not correct to say that the CPM was not keen on opposing it.” Although Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured that he would constitute a group of ministers (GoM) to address the fears expressed by the Kerala MPs, the GoM headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was formed on the eve of India signing the agreement with Asean in Bangkok on Thursday. Karat also said the party has not given up protecting farmers’ interests. “We are going to revive our old movement against the World Trade Organization (WTO). We will organize a seminar in Delhi on 3-4 September,” Karat said. The CPM was part of a broad-based anti-WTO campaign called the Indian People’s Campaign against WTO in 2001. The CPM general secretary, who had vehemently opposed the civil nuclear deal with Washington saying the pact would make India a junior partner of the US, said the communist party had protested because it was convinced that the deal was just a sweetener to pull India into deeper strategic alliance with the US. He argues that Euma, joint military exercises and other defence cooperation are all part of the “deepening ties”. Euma will allow American inspectors to track the end use of US origin high-tech equipment sold to India. When pointed out that the CPM’s protests were muted against Euma, which had been severely attacked by the BJP in Parliament during the budget session, Karat said: “They (the UPA) have won the elections and now they are proceeding with whatever they want to.” Kamal M. Chenoy, professor at the School of International studies at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, and an expert on Left politics, said the CPM had lost the sting in its “anti-imperialism campaign” because the Left’s strength has been reduced in the Lok Sabha from 61 to 24. “The Left always pays emphasis to international alliances and foreign policy. And there has been no change as far as that is concerned. The Left has not altered its politics,” he said. However, another analyst disagreed. Subrata Mukherjee, professor in the department of political science at Delhi university, is certain that the CPM has been caught on the wrong foot. “The party has realized that it has to do something to expand its support base and it has to highlight the issues related to (the) common man’s life. By lying low on such issues (such as foreign and economic policies), the CPM is also buying time,” he said. Mukherjee also feels that the Maoist violence in West Bengal and the state government’s failure to contain that have also shocked the CPM leadership. “That also has forced them to put substantial issues on the back-burner,” he said. West Bengal’s CPM-led Left government has been struggling to combat the Maoist violence in Lalgarh, about 200km west of Kolkata, where Maoists along with other civil rights groups have launched a violent agitation. liz.m@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 12:03 pm Quick Edit | One nation, not twentyLet us admire one thing this Independence Day: India has survived and progressed as a nation despite several predictions to the contrary. The Chinese strategist who this month wrote the controversial article suggesting that India should be broken up into 20-30 states is one of a long line of sceptics and India-baiters, who have been proven wrong. Winston Churchill had said many decades ago: “India is merely a geographical expression. It is no more a single country than the equator is.” There has been no shortage of other dire predictions that India would implode or sink into mass starvation. Yet, the taut relations between regions, castes, religions and linguistic groups are at least partly pernicious. Too many citizens are mired in the sort of poverty and lack of opportunities that can lead to rage. The state is corrupt, inefficient and too easily captured by vested interests. And we live in a dangerous neighbourhood. These are challenges to be met by an inspired leadership and committed citizens. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 12:03 pm NTPC set to intervene in Ambani spatNew Delhi: NTPC Ltd, relying on legal opinion, has decided to intervene in the ongoing dispute before the Supreme Court between Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) over the supply of gas from the former’s gas block.  Battle royale: The Supreme Court on 1 September will hear the gas case between RIL and RNRL. Ramesh Pathania/Mint “NTPC will be moving very fast as it has already got the legal opinion, which is in its favour. It will go to the Supreme Court to intervene,” said a person close to the development. NTPC chairman and managing director R.S. Sharma declined comment. The SLP will challenge the amendment judgement of a division bench of the Bombay high court. RIL amended its petition in the Bombay high court case with NTPC so as to include an earlier affidavit filed by the Union government in the same court, but in a separate case between RIL and RNRL. This RIL affidavit, filed in June, had reiterated the decision of a group of ministers on the $4.20 (Rs202.86) per million British thermal unit (mBtu) pricing and the policy for allocation of gas from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin (mBtu is a measure of gas volume). NTPC contested the RIL amendment, but it was dismissed by the division bench of the Bombay high court. The lawsuit between NTPC and RIL in the high court dates back to December 2005, with the point of contention being the existence and terms of a valid contract between the two. NTPC claims there is one in which RIL promised to supply 12 million standard cu. m a day (mscmd) of gas for the expansion of the state-owned power generator’s Kawas and Gandhar power plants, both in Gujarat, for 17 years at a price of $2.34 per mBtu. RIL claims otherwise. RIL is contesting the claims of RNRL over the supply of 28 mscmd of gas from the offshore block for 17 years at $2.34 per mBtu, 44% cheaper than the government fixed price of $4.20. RNRL is basing its claims on a 2005 family pact between the estranged Ambani brothers, but RIL has held that it cannot give gas to anybody without the approval of the government, the owner of all sovereign assets. The Supreme Court took up the case after both companies had opposed the Bombay high court ruling and filed their petitions. The hearings are scheduled on 1 September. The government had, in a petition filed in the apex court on 18 July, made a case for scrapping the gas supply agreement between RIL and RNRL. Now, NTPC too has decided to intervene. “NTPC has decided to go to the Supreme Court. As the power ministry has supported its decision, it is a matter of formality. It can happen as early as next week,” said another person aware of the development. Hari Shankar Brahma, the power secretary, did not respond to phone calls or to a message left on his cellphone. NTPC’s decision follows the legal opinion from attorney general Goolam Vahanvati and solicitor general Gopal Subramanium, who are India’s top two law officers. Subramanium has criticized the government for jeopardizing NTPC’s case in the Bombay high court. Referring to RIL’s amendment in its plea in the high court in its ongoing dispute with NTPC that the contract between the two firms was scotched by the government’s policy on the pricing and allocation of gas, Subramanium, in his opinion to NTPC, said: “In fact, the said amendment by RIL seems to portray the Central government as the chief architect of the inability of RIL in being able to perform the contract.” NTPC claims its contract with RIL dates back to 2004. The government fixed the price of RIL’s KG basin gas on 12 September 2007. The solicitor general said in his opinion to NTPC that the Union government should take a “carefully uniform and unified stand” to protect public rights and interests following which the government on Thursday decided to form a four-member ministerial panel, comprising finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, law minister M. Veerappa Moily, power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and petroleum minister Murli Deora, to come up with a unified stand. While a spokesperson for the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, of which RNRL is a part, declined to comment, an external spokesperson for RIL did not respond to Mint’s query till the time of filing this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 12:02 pm Jet, Kingfisher looking to South-East Asia for succourNew Delhi: They may have cut flights within the country, but India’s two biggest airlines Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, two of country’s biggest carriers by passengers, plan to expand services into profitable routes to destinations in South and South-East Asia this winter season to tap tourist demand which peaks around then. The move will help the two loss-making airlines utilize their fleets more efficiently. They also stand to benefit from lower jet fuel prices in these markets compared with India. Jet will launch its direct service between Delhi and Hong Kong using its Airbus SAS made A330 aircraft, double its frequency from Mumbai to Bangkok, and also connect Mumbai with Dhaka over the next three months. The Delhi-Hong Kong launch is expected to be on 1 October , said a senior government official who asked not to be identified. This will be Jet’s second daily service to Hong Kong after one from Mumbai, said a Jet official who confirmed the move. “It’s largely because our contribution is much better from the international segment,” added the Jet executive who asked not to be identified, explaining why the company was launching an international flight at a time when its losses are at a high. Jet connects around 20 international destinations directly and has a fleet of 86 aircraft. With corporate traffic slowing and ticket yields (or the amount of prodit the company makes on each ticket) coming under pressure, the Mumbai-based airline group reported a Rs225.31 crore loss for the quarter to 30 June against a net profit of Rs143.38 crore for the year-ago quarter. Jet fuel, India’s civil aviation ministry said last week, was available at Rs24,500 a kilolitre in Hong Kong compared with Rs46,000 in Kolkata. Jet’s rival carrier KingfisherAirlines has also tweaked its strategy on international operations from 15 September by replacing loss-making routes with ones that seem lucrative. “We have canceled all the bookings for Bangalore-London Heathrow from 15 September onwards and also for Bangalore-Colombo,” said a Kingfisher executive who asked not to be identified. These flights are to be terminated. Instead, the airline will launch its first flight between Mumbai and Singapore and Mumbai and Hong Kong from the middle of September. The airline has also applied for permission to fly from Delhi to London but the government hasn’t approved this yet. The airline already has permission to fly to Hong Kong and Singapore. Kingfisher had previously announced announced a flight to Bangkok from Kolkata which started from 14 August. “The launch of this new route marks the first time that Kingfisher Airlines is operating flights connecting India to South East Asia. Besides catering to the leisure market, the launch of this new route means that pilgrims from Thailand coming into India will be able to benefit from the excellent and convenient onward connectivity to Bodh Gaya,” Siva Ramachandran, vice president (global sales) Kingfisher Airlines said in a statement on Friday. Kingfisher Airlines has a fleet of around 73 aircraft and and will use its its wide body A330 aircraft to fly international routes of Hong Kong and Singapore. Both airlines are not inducting any new aircraft into their fleets and have pruned their domestic operations significantly since late last year. An analyst said fares are likely to soften on international sectors were new flights are being added that it was better for airlines to get some revenue from planes which would have otherwise remained grounded. “They believe they can make more money on those routes than using those planes for domestic, long haul to US/Europe or sitting on the ground,” added this London-based aviation analyst who did not wish to be identified. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 11:56 am ICVL may buy stake in US coal producerNew Delhi: International Coal Ventures Pvt. Ltd (ICVL), a company set up by five state-owned firms, is in talks with a leading coking coal producer in the US for acquiring a stake in the company as a precursor to accessing mining concessions in that country. ICVL, owned by NTPC Ltd, Steel Authority of India Ltd(SAIL), Coal India Ltd (CIL), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd(RINL) and NMDC Ltd, is being advised on the transaction, code-named “Project Roy”, by Giuliani Partners Llc, a management consulting business founded by former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani. “We are talking to Giuliani Partners. This coal company is one of the major coking coal producers in the US and is looking for investors,” said a senior CIL executive, who asked not to be identified given the sensitive nature of the issue. He also declined to name the US firm. SAIL chairman S.K. Roongta didn’t deny the move, but said unless there was something “specific” to share with the media, he couldn’t talk on the subject. Questions emailed to Giuliani Partners on Tuesday remained unanswered. There are around six leading coking coal producers in the US. These are Consol Energy Inc., Massey Energy Co., Peabody Energy Corp., Walter Energy Inc., Arch Coal Inc. and PinnOak Resources Llc. While PinnOak couldn’t be contacted and an Arch Coal spokesperson declined comment, questions emailed to the other four firms on Wednesday remained unanswered. ICVL executive Ajay Mathur did not respond to phone calls and to a text message to his mobile phone. ICVL’s mandate is to acquire coal mines abroad. India has 256 billion tonnes of coal reserves, of which around 455 million tonnes (mt) per annum is mined. CIL is targeting a production of 435 mt this year, against 403.73 mt achieved in 2008-09. India imports around 40 mt of coal. Demand is expected to reach around 2 billion tonnes a year by 2031-32, around five times the current rate of extraction, with most of it coming from the power sector. “India does not have substantial good quality metallurgical coal reserves and hence it is prudent to acquire such assets abroad, more so in light of volatility in prices. However, acquiring equity stakes may address supply security concerns in terms of assured quantum, but may not necessarily shield the acquiring company from pricing shocks,” said Dipesh Dipu, principal consultant (mining) with audit and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Cannibalizing target company’s profits for the Indian end-user company may not go down well in the era of shareholders’ interest unless the target company is acquired fully,” he added. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 11:50 am Microsoft touts IE 8 as its champion browserSan Fransisco: Microsoft Corp. is touting freshly launched Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8) as its champion in the competitive Web browser arena, urging holdouts to upgrade from earlier versions of the software.  Netting gains: Microsoft is hoping to leave behind the ageing IE 6 as well as the much maligned Vista after IE 8 is launched in October. Jay Laprete / Bloomberg “The reason to still be on IE 6 at this point is lack of awareness, or the ‘good-enough´ problem that people are satisfied with what they are using,” said Amy Barzdukas, general manager of IE and consumer security at Microsoft. “Particularly in this economy, it is difficult to be cavalier and just say update to IE 8.” Schools, hospitals and other cash-strapped operations could be daunted by the cost of upgrading computer systems to a new software. “IE 6 also tends to be used with pirated versions of Windows XP operating system because newer software is better designed to expose illegitimate copies,” according to Barzdukas. Microsoft reports seeing more XP use in emerging economies such as Brazil and India where piracy rates are higher than in the US. “A drawback to people sticking with IE 6 is that Microsoft’s image can be maligned by software deficiencies that have been fixed in newer versions,” according to Barzdukas. “People can get frustrated with that experience and say Microsoft stinks, or IE stinks, and base that perception on technology released 10 years ago,” Barzdukas told AFP during a visit this week to San Francisco. “We want them to experience the latest.” Microsoft on Thursday released an NSS Labs research report, indicating that IE 8 excels at blocking phishing and malware attacks. In the Microsoft-sponsored testing at a Texas lab, NSS found that IE 8 and an open-source Firefox browser from Mozilla tied for first place when it came to catching “social-engineering” phishing attacks. “Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 were the most consistent in the high level of protection they offered,” the NSS study said. When it came to blocking malicious software, malware, IE 8 caught 81% of the “live threats” as compared with the 54% finish by the second-place Firefox browser. “I think our biggest area of concern in terms of competition is getting people onto a modern browser and protecting people from the bad guys,” Barzdukas said. “We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the other browsers are doing.” Google Inc. leapt into the browser wars last year with Chrome software that industry insiders suspect will mesh with a new operating system the California Internet powerhouse plans to launch in 2010. Apple Inc. has long challenged Microsoft with operating systems and other software customized for Macintosh computers. Barzdukas said her team is “juiced” by competition in the browser market. “I think we have a great opportunity for the industry to evolve what the browser is able to do,” Barzdukas said. Microsoft this month abandoned a plan to strip IE 8 from versions of Windows 7 shipped to the European Union. Microsoft said it will instead present customers with a “ballot” option, allowing them to choose whether to install IE or another browser. The Brussels-based EU executive, which wields broad anti-trust powers, had called on Microsoft to open Windows to different Internet browsers in order to fend off litigation. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 11:38 am Microsoft touts IE 8 as its champion browserSan Fransisco: Microsoft Corp. is touting freshly launched Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8) as its champion in the competitive Web browser arena, urging holdouts to upgrade from earlier versions of the software. Netting gains: Microsoft is hoping to leave behind the ageing IE 6 as well as the much maligned Vista after IE 8 is launched in October. Jay Laprete / Bloomberg “The reason to still be on IE 6 at this point is lack of awareness, or the ‘good-enough´ problem that people are satisfied with what they are using,” said Amy Barzdukas, general manager of IE and consumer security at Microsoft. “Particularly in this economy, it is difficult to be cavalier and just say update to IE 8.” Schools, hospitals and other cash-strapped operations could be daunted by the cost of upgrading computer systems to a new software. “IE 6 also tends to be used with pirated versions of Windows XP operating system because newer software is better designed to expose illegitimate copies,” according to Barzdukas. Microsoft reports seeing more XP use in emerging economies such as Brazil and India where piracy rates are higher than in the US. “A drawback to people sticking with IE 6 is that Microsoft’s image can be maligned by software deficiencies that have been fixed in newer versions,” according to Barzdukas. “People can get frustrated with that experience and say Microsoft stinks, or IE stinks, and base that perception on technology released 10 years ago,” Barzdukas told AFP during a visit this week to San Francisco. “We want them to experience the latest.” Microsoft on Thursday released an NSS Labs research report, indicating that IE 8 excels at blocking phishing and malware attacks. In the Microsoft-sponsored testing at a Texas lab, NSS found that IE 8 and an open-source Firefox browser from Mozilla tied for first place when it came to catching “social-engineering” phishing attacks. “Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 were the most consistent in the high level of protection they offered,” the NSS study said. When it came to blocking malicious software, malware, IE 8 caught 81% of the “live threats” as compared with the 54% finish by the second-place Firefox browser. “I think our biggest area of concern in terms of competition is getting people onto a modern browser and protecting people from the bad guys,” Barzdukas said. “We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the other browsers are doing.” Google Inc. leapt into the browser wars last year with Chrome software that industry insiders suspect will mesh with a new operating system the California Internet powerhouse plans to launch in 2010. Apple Inc. has long challenged Microsoft with operating systems and other software customized for Macintosh computers. Barzdukas said her team is “juiced” by competition in the browser market. “I think we have a great opportunity for the industry to evolve what the browser is able to do,” Barzdukas said. Microsoft this month abandoned a plan to strip IE 8 from versions of Windows 7 shipped to the European Union. Microsoft said it will instead present customers with a “ballot” option, allowing them to choose whether to install IE or another browser. The Brussels-based EU executive, which wields broad anti-trust powers, had called on Microsoft to open Windows to different Internet browsers in order to fend off litigation. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 11:38 am Health ministry issues fresh guidelines for swine flu testingNew Delhi: As swine flu cases continue to rise shraply, the Union health ministry today issued revised guidelines specifying screening and testing module for the patients to contain the disease in the country. The guidelines were finalised at a high-level meeting chaired by the health minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad in connection with the various actions taken by the government for containment and mitigation of H1N1 cases across the country. As per guidelines, all individuals seeking consultations for flu-like symptoms would be screened at healthcare facilities — both government and private — or examined by a doctor and will be categorized under three categories, depending on their health status, as per an official release here. They will be given treatment and isolated as specified in the guidelines. During the meeting, the health minister also discussed various guidelines and protocols developed by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Atlanta, USA and National Health Service, United Kingdom. The meeting was attended by eminent experts from public and private hospitals/ organizations besides senior officers of health ministry and Directorate General of health services, the release said. The pandemic has so far claimed 25 lives across the country. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 11:33 am JSW Energy files draft paper for $620 mn IPOMumbai: JSW Energy Ltd (JSWEL), a power generation subsidiary of Jindal South West (JSW), on Friday filed a draft red herring prospectus with markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India for its proposed initial public offering (IPO) of Rs3,000 crore in equity shares. The company is also considering a pre-IPO placement of equity shares with various investors. If the pre-IPO placement is completed, the issue size offered to the public will be reduced accordingly. The company said that it would use about Rs2,134.83 crore out of the net proceeds from the IPO to fund construction and development projects, while Rs475 crore could be used to repay corporate debts. JSWEL supplies power to JSW Steel Ltd., and to Power Trading Corporation. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 11:19 am 14 August | The Mint reportNew Delhi: NTPC has decided to intervene in the gas dispute between the Ambani brothers. The power generation company will file a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court in the coming days. The SLP will challenge the judgment of the division bench of the Bombay High Court. International Coal Ventures Limited, a company set up by five state owned companies, is looking for mining concessions overseas. It’s in talks to buy a stake in a major coking coal producer in the US, India currently imports about 40 million tones of coal, but that figure is likely to go up rapidly in the coming years. Meanwhile Coal India is talking to the disinvestment department to divest up to 10 percent of government stake in the company. The move comes after an approval from the Coal Ministry. The company also plans to offer shares to people whose land it acquires for mining and to its employees. Former RBI Governor C Rangarajan says India’s economy is likely to grow at 6 to 6.5% this fiscal year. The new head of the Prime Minister’s economic advisory panel told reporters on Friday that while industrial production is showing signs of picking up, exports are not doing well and that the drought will affect growth. India’s political left is attempting a makeover. As part of its new strategy, the CPM is focusing on domestic issues like price rises rather than foreign policy. Part of the reason is to differentiate itself from the BJP, which has been criticizing the UPA’s foreign policy. Indage Vintners was one of the pioneers of wine making in India, but the company is now in trouble. Its promoters, who own about a quarter of the company’s shares, have pledged almost 98% of their stake. Indage has defaulted on salaries to employees and has stopped all expansion work. Pantaloon Retail plans to enter the travel business. It’s launching a division with the brand “Happy Journey” that will sell domestic holidays through its retail stores. The brand will focus on low cost travel products and is expected to roll out fully around Diwali. HSBC will resume mortgage lending in India after lying low for 18 months. The bank plans to cautiously restart growth in consumer finance after the downturn in the housing market. Indians are slowly beginning buy homes again, driven by lower prices and smaller, more affordable projects. Markets lost ground on Friday after the rally the previous day. The Sensex declined 107 points, closing at 15,412, while the Nifty fell 25 points, ending trade 4,580. As the nation prepares to celebrate Independence Day, authorities are taking no chances. Security has been beefed up across the country. Delhi’s Red Fort from where the Prime Minister will address the nation has been turned into an impregnable fortress. Police are also regulating all entrances into the walled city. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 11:08 am RBI cautions banks on interest rate subvention to exportersMumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday said some banks have furnished certificates of extending interest rate subvention, or discount, to exporters even when they actually did not pass on the benefit or delayed doing so. Banks are required to give 2% and 4% interest rate subventions to certain categories of exporters upfront at the time of disbursing the loan and claim it from RBI as reimbursement. “ … banks are advised to ensure strict adherence to the extant instructions and initiate corrective measures to ensure strict compliance to the guidelines. Further, the banks may examine the wrong certification, if any, by the auditors and take appropriate action under advice to us,” RBI said in a notification to banks. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 11:00 am ICVL in talks to acquire stake in US coal producing majorInternational Coal Ventures Limited (ICVL) in talks to acquire stake in US coal producing major, CNBCTV18 quoting sources. This stake buy would help the organization in accessing mining concessions in US.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 14 Aug 2009 | 10:54 am Prestige to focus on electric appliance, capacity expansionS Ravichandran, Managing Director of TTK Prestige, said, We are focusing on capacity expansion of small electric appliances in Uttaranchal. This plant would enable Prestige to manufacture the products that were being outsourced till now, he added. Further, Ravichandran said, the company was not looking at buying other brands.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 14 Aug 2009 | 10:53 am Sensex lifeline: high beeps and pratfalls ONGC (4.5% up) Shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) rose 4.5% on the National Stock Exchange on reports that the government will issue oil bonds for under-recoveries on LPG and kerosene to the downstream oil companies and gas price will be increased to Rs4 per cu. m from Rs3.2 per cu. m. Jet Airways (8.1% up) Shares of Jet Airways Ltd jumped 8.14% after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced that the airline’s share in the country’s aviation market climbed to 26.3%. The company’s market share had earlier declined to 20% from 30% following a cut in domestic capacity. IGL (12.4% up) Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) shares were up 12.44% after the company signed a gas supply purchase agreement with Reliance Industries Ltd for KG Basin gas. Also, the Delhi high court restrained the oil marketing regulator from issuing any licence for launching piped gas supplies. Man Industries (9.7% up) The Man Industries Ltd stock was up 9.75% on the National Stock Exchange on Friday after the firm won a Rs750 crore order, which includes an order worth Rs200 crore from Gail (India) and Rs550 crore from the West Asian and African continent for supply of LSAW pipes. Balrampur Chini (5.4% down) Shares of Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd declined 5.42% to close at Rs119.7 on the National Stock Exchange on Friday as sugar prices came off its highs on speculation that the Indian government may take steps to monitor sugar prices and increase imports. Oil Country Tubular (16.9% up) Shares of Oil Country Tubular Ltd were up 16.97% on Friday. Investment analyst Ashish Chugh recommended the scrip on CNBC-TV18 on reports that the company, which caters to oil drilling and exploration sector and manufactures drill pipes, etc., has repaid all its loans. Maharashtra Scooter (5% up) Maharashtra Scooter Ltd shares were up 5% after CNBC-TV18 reported that its investment net of debt compared with market cap was over four times. The firm’s market cap is around Rs165 crore and the investments net of debt is at around Rs676 crore. The company holds 33.87 lakh shares in Bajaj Auto and Bajaj Finserve. McDowell Holdings (5% up) Shares of McDowell Holdings Ltd rose 5% after CNBC-TV18 reported that investment net of debt compared with market cap was over four times. The firm’s market cap is around Rs90 crore, investment net of debt is around Rs280 crore. The firm holds 96.3 lakh shares in United Breweries (UB) Ltd and 52.6 lakh shares in UB (Holdings) Ltd. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 10:53 am Man Industries gets orders worth Rs 750crMan Industries has got orders worth Rs 750 crore. Commenting on the development, Jagdish Mansukhani, Vice Chairman and MD, Man Industries, said they have the orders from GAIL and some Middle East and South African countries. He added that their revenue growth will be the same at 25%.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 14 Aug 2009 | 10:45 am GM, German govt say Opel deal not imminentFRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) - General Motors and the German government played down hopes on Friday of a quick decision on the sale of the carmaker's Opel unit, and Berlin reiterated its support for Canadian bidder Magna.Source: Reuters: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 10:18 am The week in reviewNew Delhi: A revolution in India’s tax system got started on Wednesday. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee unveiled a draft of the new direct tax regime, which he says will be simpler and easier to understand. The proposed tax code is now open to debate and discussion and could replace the existing income tax act, which is 48 years old. Mukherjee said that the proposed tax regime had many benefits. For instance it promises lower tax rates for individuals and companies. The gas supply disputes involving RIL continued to trouble the government. India’s solicitor general said that the government’s stance was harming the interests of state-run power company NTPC. On Thursday the government decided to put an end to internal disagreements. The ministers of finance, law, petroleum, and power are now going to meet to come up with a unified stance. In the past, the petroleum ministry and the power ministry have taken conflicting positions on the gas dispute. Energy company RIL, owned by Mukesh Ambani, is fighting separate court cases on gas supplies with both NTPC and Anil Ambani-owned RNRL. There was good news for the Indian economy on Wednesday. India’s industrial output rose by 7.8% in June from a year earlier. This is the highest growth in 16 months. Manufacturing output was also up on a year on year basis by 7.3%. Economists say higher government salaries and stimulus spending boosted consumer demand. This raised hopes of revival. But keep your fingers crossed, poor monsoons could play spoilsport. There is countrywide panic over swine flu. Schools and colleges were closed in Pune and Mumbai. In Delhi too some schools were shut. Masks sales are zooming in some cities on a premium. People are avoiding enclosed spaces. According to some observers hysteria over the flu was proving to be more infectious than the viral itself. The UPA government may have swept back to power with a strong mandate, but as hundred days of the new government draws closer the Congress party is going back to the drawing board. Controversial joint statement with Pakistan, soaring food prices and rapid spread of swine flu has put the government on the back foot. Some within the party are calling for a dramatic initiative to regain momentum, while others are suggesting a cabinet reshuffle. CavinKare plans to take on fast-food industry giants like McDonald’s and KFC in India , and then expand overseas. While full-fare airlines lose money and ask for government help, low-cost carrier IndiGo made Rs60 crore in the first quarter. Delhi airport charges could go up for passengers. Mint queries under the Right to Information Act (RTI) reveal that the cost for modernization was not finalized and has already overshot by Rs3,000 crore. It was a volatile week in the stock markets. Markets lost ground on Monday only to partially recover on Tuesday and then again fall on Wednesday. On Thursday, the sensex shot up nearly 500 points, the most it has gained in three weeks. They started out as a joke, but blogs are no laughing matter. They’re now 10 years old, and have grown from a small experiment to become the dominant face of the nternet. 133 million new blogs have come up across the world since 2002. But in India, blogs have evolved much more slowly. Only about 60 million people have access to the Internet, and blogging in regional languages is started only recently. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:51 am Marc Andreessen set to make a comebackSan Francisco: It has been 15 years since Marc Andreessen first developed the Netscape Internet browser that introduced millions of people to the Internet. After its early success, Netscape was roundly defeated by Microsoft in the so-called browser wars of the 1990s. Andreessen appears set for a rematch. Now a prominent Silicon Valley financier, Andreessen is backing a start-up called RockMelt, staffed with some of his close associates, that is building a new Internet browser, according to people with knowledge of his investment. "We have backed a really good team," Andreessen said in an interview earlier this summer. A moment later, Andreessen appeared to regret his comment, saying he was not ready to talk about any aspect of the company. But Andreessen suggested the new browser would be different, saying that most other browsers had not kept pace with the evolution of the Web, which had grown from an array of static Web pages into a network of complex websites and applications. “There are all kinds of things that you would do differently if you are building a browser from scratch," Andreessen said. RockMelt was co-founded by Eric Vishria and Tim Howes, both former executives at Opsware Inc., a company that Andreessen co-founded and then sold to Hewlett-Packard Co. in 2007 for about $1.6 billion. Howes also worked at Netscape with Andreessen. In the last 18 months, the Internet browser has become a battleground again with giants such as Google Inc., Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. battling one another. The renewed interest in browsers is partly a result of the success of Mozilla, a non-profit foundation. The Firefox browser, introduced in 2004, has grabbed 23% of the market, and Microsoft's share dropped to 68%. In the last 18 months, Microsoft and Apple introduced greatly improved versions of their browsers, Internet Explorer and Safari. And Google entered the fray last fall when it released its Chrome browser. Last month, Google said it would build an operating system, also called Chrome, with its principal function being to support its browser. For now, RockMelt is keeping a lid on its plans. A privacy policy on the company's website, which was removed after a reporter made inquiries to Vishria, says that a person could use a Facebook ID to log in to RockMelt. But Brandee Barker, a Facebook spokeswoman, said her company was “not aware of any details about RockMelt and its product”. ©2009/THE NEW YORK TIMES Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:50 am 8% dilution to fetch govt over Rs 12K cr: NMDCRana Som, CMD, NMDC says iron ore royalty could be 10% of value of material. \"Iron ore royalty could be between Rs 140 to Rs 300 per tonne for high grade lumps. Royalty would be borne by customers.\" According to him, an 8% dilution will fetch the government over Rs 12,000 crore.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:40 am QIP funds will help pay debt, buy strategic assets: OrbitOrbit Corporation plans to raise USD 2030 million via a qualified institutional placement (QIP), which opened on Wednesday, at Rs 185 per share. Pujit Aggarwal, its MD, said the company would use the proceeds of the QIP to acquire strategic assets and repay debt. \"The debtequity ratio would fall to 0.7% from 0.9%.\"Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:32 am RBI chief: too early to act on inflationHYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - The outlook for farm output in India is a concern and price pressures could build up at some stage but it is too early to take action on inflation, the Reserve Bak chief said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 14 Aug 2009 | 4:48 am
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