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Food inflation effect: Dabur may raise product pricesDabur India may look at raising product prices selectively, said CFO Rajan Varma. However the company does not plan to raise Chyawanprash prices, despite sugar prices doubling since October 2008.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Sep 2009 | 7:43 am Civil Aviation Min to decide on ESMA in Jet case: KhargeLabour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said Essential Services Maintenance Act could be invoked against striking Jet Airways pilots if the Civil Aviation ministry recommends so but hoped that matter would be resolved before that.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 9 Sep 2009 | 7:26 am We are not under any pressure: Jet Airways pilotsAgitating Jet Airways pilots on Wednesday said that they were "not under any pressure" after airline chairman Naresh Goyal threatened to close down operations due to the ongoing crisis.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 9 Sep 2009 | 7:10 am Jet management pull out all stops to end crisisTalks between Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal and Aviation Minister Praful Patel have so far been inconclusive, even as efforts to urge the striking pilots to get back to work failed. Around 432 of its 760 pilots have reported sickness causing massive flights disruptions and inconvenience to passengers. The Jet authorities are looking at legal options to tackle the crisis. List of flights cancelled | List 2 | Listen to podcast Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 9 Sep 2009 | 6:45 am Opto Circuits to use QIP money for Balance Sheet clean upOpto Circuits will use the QIP proceeds to improve the balance sheet, says its Chairman and Managing Director Vinod Ramnani. He sees a growth of 30% going forward. The current debtequity ratio stands at 0.97. Antique Capital Market, the lead manager for this issue, says that 95% of Optos QIP demand comes from foreign funds.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Sep 2009 | 6:32 am Wipro eyes new biz model firms for buyoutsWipro is scouting for acquisition of leading technology companies with new business model of the future and is evaluating a few candidates for large buyouts, a key company official said. Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 9 Sep 2009 | 6:18 am Kraft looks to slash supplier base to reduce costs!Kraft Foods plans to cut its supplier base in half, a move that would affect over 30,000 cos, as it looks to save more than USD 300mn a year.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Sep 2009 | 6:15 am G20 Summit to evaluate how far we have come: White House!The G20 Summit would be an occasion for the world leaders to evaluate progress made since the last London meet.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Sep 2009 | 6:15 am Upbeat OPEC set to hold output steady at today`s meet!OPEC said they were set to hold output steady at Wednesday`s meeting of the cartel.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Sep 2009 | 6:15 am Global crisis led to record number of reforms: WB!The global economic crisis has encouraged a rash of government reforms that should make it easier to start, run and close businesses around the world, according to a World Bank report released Tuesday night.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Sep 2009 | 6:15 am RCap to allot ESOPs worth Rs 100 cr!Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) company, Reliance Capital, has said it will issue shares under the Employee Stock Option Plan worth over Rs 100 crore.Source: Zee News : Business | 9 Sep 2009 | 6:15 am RIL contract provides no Govt role in gas price fixation: RNRLAnil Ambani group firm Reliance Natural Resources Limited has told the Supreme Court that the government has no role to play either in the utilisation or the fixation of gas price as per its contract with Mukesh-led Reliance Industries Limited.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 9 Sep 2009 | 5:43 am Tata Comm proposes share capital hikeTata Communications has proposed a share capital hike. CNBCTV18 learns that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has said that the government stake in the company needs to be more than 25% to prevent a majority resolution. It adds that if the government doesn\'t invest further, it should seek special voting rights.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Sep 2009 | 5:39 am GMR Infra to list energy arm, raise Rs 1500crGMR Infrastructure is planning to list its holding companies to raise Rs 7,500 crore. The company needs capital to fund projects, says its Group Chief Financial Officer A Subba Rao, adding that the companys internal accruals are not enough to fund projects.\"Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Sep 2009 | 5:08 am Expect margins to dip in Q2, improve thereon: Goa CarbonGoa Carbon margins would decline in the second quarter and improve in the subsequent third and fourth quarter, said its Chairman Shrinivas Dempo. On calcined petroleum (CP) coke prices, Dempo said they continued to remain weak. \"The prices hover around USD 200220 per tonne.\"Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Sep 2009 | 5:00 am Updated Jet flights' status for September 09, 2009Here is an updated list of the Jet Airways flights cancelled due to the ongoing pilots' strike. 134 national and 13 international flights have been cancelled.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:58 am Jet Airways chief says pilots behaving like 'terrorists'Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal warned of stern action against his pilots if they behave like "terrorists" and continue to report sick "in violation of a Bombay High Court order". As per latest reports, Goyal is meeting Aviation Minister Praful Patel to discuss stalemate with pilots in New Delhi. List of flights cancelled | List 2 | Listen to podcastSource: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:50 am Nifty closes flat; oil & gas, banks gain - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:25 am Jet strike goes into day2, mgmt, pilots may meet todayTurbulence at Jet Airways continues for the second straight day because of protesting pilots on mass sick leave. The airline has already cancelled 31 domestic and international flights from various cities today. Yesterday, 200 flights were grounded affecting almost 13,000 passengers. The management and pilots might meet today.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:19 am Mitsubishi resumes operations in VenezuelaMitsubishi Motors Corp has said that it was reversing a decision to shut down its plant in the eastern Venezuelan city of Barcelona.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:18 am DEALTALK - More questions than answers on $14 bln Zain deal - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:12 am Guinness gamer still revved up after 40 hours of GTA IVMumbaikar Chirantan Patnaik recently broke the world record for ‘The longest time spent playing GTA IV’, demolishing the previous record of 28 hours which was held by Jim Patten of the USA. Patnaik played the game for a solid 40 hours, and in this candid interview with Sidin Vadukut, insists that he could have easily gone on for at least another ten, if only his witnesses had not started to doze off. The interview also looks at how Patnaik prepared for his rather unique world record, how it went, and how life has been in the aftermath. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:11 am BSE Sensex provisionally rises 0.4 pctMUMBAI (Reuters) – The BSE Sensex provisionally rose 0.37 percent on Wednesday, led by Reliance Industries and private lender HDFC Bank and taking a winning streak to four days in a row.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:06 am EMC to invest $1.5 bln in India over 5 yearsBANGALORE (Reuters) - EMC Corp, the world's top data storage equipment maker, said on Wednesday it planned to invest $1.5 billion in India over the next five years to mainly expand its research and development infrastructure.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:04 am FACTBOX - India, Malaysia buyers line up for Zain stakeReuters - A consortium of Indian telecom companies and a Malaysian investor are set to buy a 46 percent stake in Kuwaiti telecom firm Zain, marking one of the biggest overseas acquisitions into the Gulf region.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:03 am Kerala to set up Islamic bank shortlyThe Kerala government will set up an Islamic bank in the state, Finance Minister Thomas Isaac told the assembly Wednesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:01 am Sensex volatile, trading in tight rangeA key index of the Indian equities markets was trading volatile, but in a tightly bound range, about 90 minutes before closing bell Wednesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Recession casts shadow on Durga Puja preparationsBe it the artisans of Kumortuli who churn out hundreds of idols at this time of the year or the numerous organisers of community Durga Puja celebrations in Kolkata, everyone is feeling the hard pinch of recession.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am DEALTALK - More questions than answers on $14 bln Zain dealSINGAPORE/KUWAIT (Reuters) - Even after a news conference gave out names of the buyers planning to purchase a 46 percent stake in Kuwaiti telecom Zain, questions still surround the $13.7 billion deal.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:59 am India gold demand recoils from higher prices - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:55 am Axis fund aims to breakeven in 3 yrs: CEOMumbai: Axis Asset Management Co, which got regulatory approval last week to start operations, plans to launch up to nine products by March and hopes to breakeven in three years, its chief executive said on Wednesday. The company, an arm of private-sector lender Axis Bank, aims to start with two money market funds in October, followed by an equity fund, Rajiv Anand said. The firm is aiming to capture at least a 3% market share in the next five years and secure a place among the top-10 players in the industry, giving it a chance to manage about 700 billion rupees ($14.4 billion) in a rapidly growing industry. “As things stand, we believe we will breakeven in three years time,” Anand told Reuters in an interview at his Mumbai office. “Captive distribution is going to be the key.” The chartered accountant said Axis Bank’s presence in more than 500 Indian cities gave his firm an edge over rivals at a time when distribution costs are likely to mount following abolition of front-end load charged by funds. “There is now huge opportunity specially in Tier II and Tier III cities,” Anand said. “Our ability to build low cost model into these cities is a huge advantage.” The firm joins the likes of Italian bank UniCredit’s arm — Pioneer Global, South Korea’s Mirae Asset, France’s Axa and Japan’s Shinsei who have started operations in India’s fiercely competitive fund industry over the last two years. More than 20 firms, including Credit Agricole and UBS, are considering entry into the 36-member Indian fund market which is forecast by the Boston Consulting Group to manage $520 billion by 2015. The market will become even tougher for fund managers, and particularly hostile to small and new players, as a ban on entry fees charged by mutual funds from 1 August slows growth and raises distribution costs. Axis also plans to launch a tax planning fund, two fixed-income funds and an arbitrage fund, Anand said, adding his firm would have offices in 81 cities in the next two months, helping it start selling products in more than 400 cities. The firm has a 50-member team, including 10 staff on the fund management side. It aims to double headcount by March 2010. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:55 am Asian markets end lower as exporters fall, Europe downBangkok: Asian markets drifted lower on Wednesday as dollar weakness hit exporters while commodity stocks gained on a jump in oil and gold prices. European shares were trading lower. The US dollar was hovering near lows for the year against the euro and a two-month low against the yen after sinking on Tuesday. Oil prices, which jumped more than $3 a barrel overnight, held above $71. Gold kept its nose above $1,000 an ounce after rising above that mark the previous day for the first time since February. Following a string of gains triggered by big merger announcements and the Group of 20’s pledge to maintain stimulus efforts, investors were again doubting the strength of recovery from the global recession. “The market has risen too much in the last few days. The momentum is now very weak. In the coming days the downside risk is very high and the upside risk is low,” said Peter Lai, investment manager at DBS Vickers in Hong Kong. Weakness in the dollar is likely to continue pushing up the price of gold, said Lai, since it makes the precious metal more affordable in other currencies. Gold is often regarded as an investment safe haven and hedge against inflation. The dollar edged up to ¥92.48 from ¥92.26 late Tuesday, while the euro fell to $1.4483 from $1.4488. Automakers and other exporters in Japan and South Korea got hit amid worries that the weaker dollar will erode their overseas earnings. The Nikkei 225 stock average was down 81.09 points, or 0.8%, at 10,312.14, while South Korea’s Kospi retreated 0.7% to 1,607.77. Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest carmaker, was down 1.8% and electronics giant Sony dropped 2.2%. Hyundai Motor Co. shed 5.8% in Seoul. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng declined 218.77, or 1%, to 20,851.04. China’s benchmark Shanghai index recovered losses to gain 15.78, or 0.5%, to 2,946.26. Australia’s main index closed fractionally lower amid news retail sales weakened in July. Miners and other commodity producers got a lift from rising oil and gold prices. Gold miner Newcrest Mining gained 1.5% in Sydney and Thai energy conglomerate PTT PCL rose 1.6% in Bangkok. As trading got underway in Europe, Germany’s DAX was off 0.3%, France’s CAC 40 fell 0.2% and Britain’s FTSE dropped 0.3%. After a long weekend, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 56.07, or 0.6%, to 9,497.34 on Tuesday. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 8.99, or 0.9%, to 1,025.39, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 18.99, or 0.9%, to 2,037.77. Stock futures pointed to losses on Wednesday on Wall Street. Dow futures fell 44, or 0.5%, at 9,452 and S&P futures slipped 5.1, or 0.5%, to 1,020. Benchmark crude for October delivery was down 4 cents to $71.06 a barrel by late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, the contract gained $3.08 to settle at $71.10, pushed higher by a weakening dollar. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:54 am Global crisis led to record number of reforms: World BankThe global economic crisis has encouraged a rash of government reforms that should make it easier to start, run and close businesses around the world, according to a World Bank report.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:52 am ICICIdirect.com starts online trading in currency futuresNew Delhi: ICICIdirect.com, a part of ICICI Securities, today launched its new product for online trading in currency futures. Online trading in currency derivatives would enhance the suite of instruments available for trading and hedging for investors, the company said in a statement. “There is a strong need to hedge currency risk in a transparent and a low cost manner,” ICICI Securities Ltd executive director Anup Bagchi said. For the retail customer it will be one more source of diversification of an asset class, secondly active traders will benefit from the low margin requirements and for the small and medium enterprises and corporates there will be an avenue to hedge at a low cost and in a transparent manner, Bagchi added. The strong correlation that foreign exchange has to interest rates, equity flows and commodities would translate into opportunities to trade currency futures independently or in conjunction with equities. Currently, only futures contracts in currency derivatives have been introduced by the National Stock Exchange. Foreign exchange rates, like any other asset class move depending on various factors like demand supply, interest rate parity, trade and capital flows and speculators taking positions. ICICIdirect.com is a online trading website with a 1.9 million customers Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:52 am Jet pilot strike hits flight schedulesMUMBAI (Reuters) - Jet Airways, India's top carrier, expects to cancel a total of 174 domestic and 32 international flights on Wednesday as services take a hit from a flash strike by pilots for the second day, Chief Operating Officer Hamid Ali told reporters.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:45 am Mahindra Satyam reinstates variable pay for 28000 employeesMahindra Satyam has reinstated the variable pay for 28000 employees which was cutoff due to cost cutting measures. Mahindra Satyam had introduced the variable pay component varying between 10% and 30%, as part of the total pay package in July 2006.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:43 am Markets continue winning streak led by Reliance & HDFC BankMumbai: Indian shares provisionally rose 0.37% on Wednesday, led by Reliance Industries and private lender HDFC Bank and taking a winning streak to four days in a row. The 30-share BSE index provisionally ended 59.32 points higher at 16,182.99, with only 11 stocks gaining. The 50-share NSE index provisionally closed up 0.24% at 4,816.85. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:40 am We are not under any pressure: Jet Airways pilotsAgitating Jet Airways pilots today said they were "not under any pressure" after Naresh Goyal threatened to close down operations.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:35 am Jet Airways plummets 6 pc on BSE as pilot agitation continuesShares of Jet Airways on Wednesday plunged over six per cent in morning trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange as pilots kept away from work for the second consecutive day leading to disruption of services.Source: Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Business' | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:34 am Another financial crisis inevitable, says GreenspanLondon: Another global financial crisis is inevitable because human nature always reverts to “speculative excesses” during a period of sustained prosperity, former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said. “The crisis will happen again but it will be different,” he told BBC Two’s “The Love of Money” television series. “That is the unquenchable capability of human beings when confronted with long periods of prosperity to presume that that will continue,” he said. Greenspan, speaking to the BBC to mark the first anniversary of the fall of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, said Britain will be hit worse than the US by the subsequent worldwide financial crisis and global recession because it has a globally-focused economy. Countries, smarting from the near collapse of the banking system, will struggle to match their stated desire for increased regulation with their other stated need for free global trade. Greenspan stepped down as Fed chairman in 2006 after 18 years at the helm during which he presided over the longest uninterrupted period of economic growth in modern US history from 1991 to 2001. But his record has recently come under harsher scrutiny, with some economic watchers noting it was during Greenspan’s tenure at the Fed that the seeds were sown for the housing and easy credit bubble that contributed to the financial crisis. Greenspan, who has defended his record repeatedly, said financial crises are all different, but they have one fundamental source. “They [human beings] begin to take speculative excesses with the consequences that have dotted the history of the globe basically since the beginning of the 18th and 19th century,” he said. “It’s human nature: unless somebody can find a way to change human nature we will have another crisis.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:34 am 'Mining eating into Goa's cashew yield'Mining in Goa's hinterland is eating into the state's cashew production, growers of the nut say.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:32 am Sweden's SAAB offers advanced radar with Gripen combat jetThe race for an Indian Air Force (IAF) order for 126 combat jets in a deal worth $10 billion just got more interesting with Swedish plane maker SAAB offering an advanced version of a state-of-the-art radar with its Gripen fighter and also the wherewithal to enable its programming here.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:31 am Uttam Galva makes open offer on ArcelorMittal's behalfIndian steel producer Uttam Galva Wednesday made an open public offer to acquire 29.4 percent of its shares on behalf of global steel giant ArcelorMittal at Rs.120 per share amounting to Rs.422.71 crore ($87.26 million).Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:31 am India's farm exports to top $20 bn by 2014: GovernmentExports of agricultural products from India will more than double to top Rs.1 lakh crore (Rs.1 trillion or $20 billion) in the next five years, says an official export promotion agency of the commerce ministry.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:31 am Government issues guidelines on niche tourismTo provide an 'exciting' new face to tourism in India, the government Wednesday issued guidelines on 'niche tourism products' like caravan and heliport tourism.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:30 am POLL - WPI seen down 0.08 pct y/y as on Aug 29MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's wholesale price index (WPI) is forecast to have trimmed its fall to nearly zero in the year to Aug. 29 from the previous week's annual decline of 0.21 percent, a Reuters poll of 11 economists showed on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:29 am Jet chief calls for amicable solution to pilot’s agitationNew Delhi: Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal said he would have no option but to follow “the law of the land” if an action had to be taken against the agitating pilots, while appealing to them to resolve the matter amicably and return to work. “(If) they don’t follow company rules and procedures, I don’t think we are left with any option and will follow whatever the law of the land is,” Goyal told CNBC TV18. He asked the striking pilots to follow the Bombay high court order and cautioned them against the contempt of court. The agitation by Jet Airways pilots to protest the sacking of two of their colleagues entered the second day on Wednesday with the private carrier cancelling over 100 domestic and international flights across the country, leaving passengers stranded. On whether he would close operations, Goyal said, “I will not allow to be held hostage. Whatever has to be done, we will do it. I hope it doesn’t happen.. There are 30,000 employees involved... it is the question their livelihood...” He added, “I hope things go back to normal... that’s my only request to people who are misleading... and go back to normal operations.” Goyal said he has “no difficulty meeting” the pilots to resolve the matter amicably as it will be good for the company, the future of these employees and the reputation of the country. Goyal said the pilots were rostered for duty on Monday after they assured they would not agitate and they agreed to meet the management on Thursday. However, the pilots went on mass sick leave as they knew passengers would be stranded at both domestic and international airports. The pilots of the airline have been reporting sick en- masse since Tuesday. They had warned the management of the agitation from 7 September. The pilots decided to go on mass sick leave from 7 September as the regional labour commissioner is conducting conciliatory proceedings between the pilots and the management of the airline and any strike before the proceedings get over was declared illegal. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:26 am Jet shares crash land as pilot stir continues - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:21 am Oil prices hover near $71 as Opec meetsLondon: Oil prices hovered above $71 a barrel on Wednesday, after rising more than $3 the previous day, as Opec ministers were expected at their meeting in Vienna to maintain official output unchanged. US crude for October delivery was up 8 cents at $71.18 a barrel by 0931 GMT. London Brent crude rose 12 cents to $69.54 a barrel. US crude rose by more than 4% on Tuesday, buoyed by gold rallying above $1,000 per ounce and by a weaker dollar. “It is completely priced in that Opec will leave output unchanged,” oil broker Christopher Bellew of Bache Financial said. “It is going to be gold, the dollar and equities again that will move the market,” he said. Opec oil producers are expected to maintain their existing supply cuts since September of 4.2 million barrels per day, to keep prices around $70 a barrel. Crude prices, although up 50% so far this year, are still less than half their peak struck in July 2008, a level that Saudi Arabia said both producers and consumers were happy with. The producer group will likely call for stricter compliance with existing supply cuts to help drain brimming crude and oil product supplies, near historic highs in the world’s two top consumer markets the United States and China. US Stocks Later on Wednesday, the market will get its first steer on US crude stocks with numbers from the American Petroleum Institute due at 2030 GMT, followed by the Energy Information Administration’s data on Thursday at 1500 GMT. Both have been delayed a day by Monday’s Labor Day holiday. A Reuters poll of analysts showed expectations of a 1.5 million barrel drawdown in crude stocks, a 700,000 barrel increase in distillate supplies and a 1.4 million barrel decline in gasoline inventories. On the fundamental front, Valero, the biggest refiner in the United States, has decided to sack hundreds of workers and idle several major processing units. Traders were keeping an eye out as Tropical Storm Fred formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean on Monday with top winds of 40 mph (65 kph), but did not immediately threaten any land, the US National Hurricane Center said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:20 am Ford Endeavour gets a facelift - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:16 am Jet Airways pilots say not under any pressureNew Delhi: Agitating Jet Airways pilots on Wednesday said they were “not under any pressure” after airline chairman Naresh Goyal threatened to close down operations due to the ongoing crisis. Gireesh Kaushik, president of National Aviators Guild, also held the airline management responsible for the passengers’ woes. “We just want our voice back in the company. We want back our two colleagues who were sacked. It (passengers’ problems) is not due to us. We are trying to bring the situation back to normal,” Kaushik, who arrived here to meet DGCA officials to put forth his union’s views, said. Asked whether they were under pressure after Goyal’s statement that he is ready to close down operations of the airlines, he said “We are not under any pressure.” On the probability of imposition of ESMA, he said whatever they want to impose, they can do it. “We are going in honest direction,” Kaushik said. He said it was not a strike as each one of the pilots have joined the agitation by themselves. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:13 am Three Jet flights cancelled on second day of strikeThree Mumbai-bound flights of Jet Airways were cancelled from here today, leaving passengers at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Airport stranded.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:12 am Wipro eyes firms with new biz models for buyoutsBangalore: Wipro is scouting for acquisitions of technology companies which have new business models and is evaluating a few candidates for large buyouts, a key company official said. “We continue to be active in acquisitions,” the Bangalore-based company’s chief financial officer Suresh Senapaty said. “We are looking at acquisitions which can fill in some of the gaps that we have in our practices, our verticals and our geographies and /or in terms of technologies which are going to be technologies of Horizon 2 and Horizon 3 which means which will be some of value to us... new models of business after two-five years,” he said. Senapaty indicated that Wipro’s acquisitions, whenever they are made, would be large, saying the company generally avoided very small companies because “the impact is not going to be felt.” “We don’t have (acquisition) size restrictions. But it has to fit from a strategic point of view, it has to fit from cultural and financial strategy point of view,” he added. Senapaty said Wipro was currently evaluating a few “candidates” for acquisitions. “We are continuously looking at it,” he said, adding that the company’s M & A (mergers and acquisitions) team was continuously scouting for target companies from a strategic point of view. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:11 am Jet chief calls for amicable solution to pilot's agitationJet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal said he would have no option but to follow "the law of the land" if action had to be taken against the agitating pilots.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:09 am Krishna, Tharoor leave 5-star hotels on Sonia's intervention - Indian Express
Source: Business - Google News | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:06 am Enough food stocks to tackle monsoon deficit: PMNew Delhi: India has adequate food stocks to make up a shortfall in output this year and will step up efforts to mitigate distress of farmers hit by deficient monsoon rains, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday. “We had record production and procurement of foodgrains in both 2007-08 and 2008-09. We thus have adequate food stocks and there is no cause for concern or fear of shortages of foodgrains in the country as a whole,” Singh told a conference. The Congress party-led coalition government, which was re-elected this year on the back of its pro-farmer policies, is under pressure after food prices surged following the worst dry spell in nearly four decades. Monsoon rainfall, a lifeline to India’s $1 trillion plus economy, were a fifth below normal between June and 7 September, but a top weather department official forecast it to narrow to 15-18% by the end of this season. “We have to recognise that most areas of the country will probably still have deficient rainfall and therefore we have to redouble our efforts to mitigate rural distress arising from the after effects of drought,” Singh said. He said the rural job scheme needs to be implemented at a faster pace across the nation, as it would act as a “safety net” for farmers whose crops failed. Last week, the Planning Commission forecast foodgrain output to be lower by 18 million tonnes in 2009-10, and this could propel the annual inflation rate beyond the comfort zone of 4%-5% by end March. The widely watched wholesale price index was down 0.21% in the 12 months to 22 August, distorted by the base effect of last year’s high energy prices and suppressing the rise in food prices. On Monday, the Reserve Bank of India governor D. Subbarao said inflation was becoming a concern sooner than anticipated and the current monetary stance must be unwound, sending bond yields higher. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 3:02 am New players may pay 3% of revenues for 3G spectrumNew players winning spectrum for third generation mobile services will have to pay as much as three per cent of their annual revenues as spectrum charges to the Government.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:55 am Short txt ur messg and save on tariffTaking the mobile tariff war to another level, Tata DoCoMo has announced a scheme wherein its subscribers will have the option to pay for SMS on a percharacter basis.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:44 am Pawar: Monsoon Rains May Continue Longer Than Usual - Wall Street Journal
Source: Business - Google News | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:41 am GAIL may join Myanmar, China pipeline projectGAIL (India) Ltd, which hopes to cross a revenue turnover of Rs 50,000 crore within the next few years, is examining a proposal for investing in building a pipeline from a gas field off Myanmar coast to China.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:40 am India has no worries on food shortages - PMNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has adequate food stocks to make up a shortfall in output this year and will step up efforts to mitigate distress of farmers hit by deficient monsoon rains, the prime minister said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:36 am India o/n rates little changed as cash abundant - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:35 am Orissa highway still blockaded to protest arrest of villagersA road blockade in Orissa launched by hundreds of people, demanding the immediate release of some villagers, has paralysed traffic along national highway number 23 in mineral rich Sundergarh district, police said Wednesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:30 am India rupee drops on choppy stx; dollar moves eyed - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:29 am GLOBAL MARKETS - Stocks slip from 2009 highs; dollar near lowsLONDON (Reuters) - World stocks slipped on Wednesday as investors paused ahead of key U.S. data, having pushed them to 11-month highs the previous day, while the low-yielding dollar held near its 2009 low against the euro.Source: Reuters: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:23 am Rupee drops on choppy stocks, dollar moves eyedMumbai: The Indian rupee was weaker in afternoon trade on Wednesday tracking a choppy sharemarket which failed to provide clarity on fund flows while traders also watched the dollar’s performance versus majors for direction. At 1:50pm, the partially convertible rupee was at Rs48.54/55 per dollar, weaker than its previous close of Rs48.47/48. The rupee has traded in a Rs48.45-48.585 band so far during the session. Shares were choppy as investors booked profits after the market rallied 4.7% over three days and doubled gains on the main index from 2009 lows. The dollar’s broad slide paused after it hit its lowest in a year against the Australian and New Zealand dollars on Wednesday, but it held near its 2009 low on the euro, as investors sold the low-yielding greenback in a renewed shift to riskier assets. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both quoting at Rs48.50 each, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $1.2 billion. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:19 am Toronto film festival line-up reflects economic gloomToronto: The Toronto film festival opens on Thursday with a schedule that reflects the economic gloom of the times with hard-hitting critiques on capitalism and apocalyptic visions of the end of humanity. The glitz and glamour will be toned down and hundreds of parties and other events are expected to be less ostentatious than in past years, said festival co-director Cameron Bailey. “The economic crisis that started around this time last year is reflected in the film festival. Like almost all art organizations, we were affected by the downturn,” he told AFP, bemoaning the “dip in sponsorship” for the event. “There are more apocalyptic visions in this year’s line-up, more than we’ve seen in quite a while,” he noted. Bailey pointed to such films as “The Road” adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer prize-winning book and starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron, who wake up one morning to find the world on the threshold of ruin. Also playing is “Les Derniers Jours du Monde (Happy End)” an apocalyptic tale of people enjoying one last hurrah by French brothers Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu. Chris Smith’s documentary “Collapse” features reporter Michael Ruppert, a man who predicted the current financial crisis while Wall Street was still in denial. President George W. Bush’s impending departure from the White House in 2008 was reflected in Toronto with a string of comedies -- a departure from the more earnest films about the war in Iraq and terrorism that had played in previous years. But the laughter ended abruptly with the sudden collapse of the US subprime mortgage market and resulting global financial crisis. Investment bank Lehman Brothers failed just as the 2008 film festival was coming to a close. “In terms of the economy, there’s been a real crisis,” Bailey said. “It’s not just that money has been lost, but faith has been lost in the marketplace and we’ve seen a lot of successful businessmen go to jail.” There is “uncertainty over the things that we invested our lives in and turned out not to be as solid as we might have hoped.” The downturn is revisited in a number of films on Toronto’s roster, including Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” starring George Clooney as a man who makes a living firing people, Derrick Borte’s “The Joneses” starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny, and Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant,” featuring Matt Damon as a corporate whistleblower. These films “look at the rot inside corporate America” and make a “very powerful and profound statement on the values of the marketplace and how it can really infiltrate and infect human relations,” Bailey said. The filmmakers ask “what it means when you make money your primary value,” he added. Twenty years after his searing indictment of corporate greed in “Roger and Me,” US filmmaker Michael Moore also presents his latest critique of capitalism at the 34th Toronto International Film Festival. The festival is the biggest in North America and has traditionally been a key event for Oscar-conscious studios and distributors because it is attended by a sizable contingent of North American media. Unlike the Cannes and Berlin festivals, Toronto does not award jury prizes. But moviegoers who bought more than 470,000 tickets for the event in 2008 awarded an audience prize for best motion picture to Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” which went on to be a runaway success at that year’s Oscars. This year the festival, which runs until 19 September, will showcase 271 feature films and 64 shorts from 64 countries, including 95 world premieres. The festival opens Thursday evening with Jon Amiel’s “Creation,” which tells the story of Charles Darwin’s work -- while married to a devout Christian -- on his seminal book “On the Origin of Species”. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:12 am Miles to go before NREGA's full potential achieved: PMUrging state governments not to 'fail the poor', Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday said the country had still to realise the 'full potential' of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) whose implementation had been 'uneven across states'.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 9 Sep 2009 | 2:01 am Watch/Listen: Mint in Multimedia 09 SeptemberAudio story: Ground reports from the Delhi and Mumbai airports PR Sanjai from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai (download here) Harshada Karnik from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi Mint Correspondents P.R. Sanjai and Harshada Karnik call in from the Delhi and Mumbai airports and describe the chaos there, in the wake of the strike by pilots from Jet Airways Video story: IPO Realities Prithvi Haldea, CMD of Prime Database, says recent stock market listings like that of NHPC are a dampener for speculators, but good for longer-term investors Audio story: A Brit influenced by India Sir Mark Tully says he does not consider himself to be an Indian at all, but as someone who is highly influenced by India and its people Video story: Luxury Calling Be a part of the global luxury shopping extravaganza tomorrow tomorrow night at Vogue Fashion’s Night Out at DLF Emporio, New delhi Video story: The Mint report Jet Airways is grounded after its pilots go on leave, auto-makers cheer as vehicle sales pick up; mutual fund industry says new regulations are hitting their volumes Slideshow: Karaoke, puppets and women’s lib: the new literacy Click here for slideshow Whether through an all-female newspaper in rural UP, activity based learning methods in Karnataka, or a karaoke approach to learning on national TV, India’s NGOs are thinking out of the box when it comes to combating illiteracy. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 1:56 am RIL contract provides no govt role in gas price fixation: RNRLNew Delhi: Anil Ambani group firm RNRL on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the government has no role to play either in the utilisation or the fixation of gas price as per its contract with Mukesh-led RIL. “RIL has complete marketing freedom for sale of gas within India. The marketing freedom would include within its scope the freedom to sell the gas on such terms and at such price that RIL deems fit and proper,” RNRL said in an affidavit while replying to the petition filed by RIL. Stating that Reliance Industries Ltd has been changing its stance with regard to the MoU (family agreement), Reliance Natural Resources detailed RIL’s response on different occasions and said “this fully exposes RIL’s blatant lie and falsehood.” The two sides had approached Supreme Court challenging a decision by the Bombay High Court on 15 June, which said RIL should provide 28 million cubic metres of gas per day to RNRL at $2.34 per mmBtu and both the parties should sign a necessary agreement for the same within a month. RIL, however, is pleading that it was only a contractor for the gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin’s D6 block and did not have the power to fix the price, while the government has also moved a special leave petition in the case asserting its right on pricing and distribution of natural gas. The apex court has decided to commence hearing on this matter on October 20. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 1:53 am Jet Airways takes action against five more pilotsJet Airways took disciplinary action against five more pilots after they went on mass sick leave to protest sacking of their colleagues.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 1:38 am PM tells states to improve performance in NREGA implementationPrime minister Manmohan Singh today asked the states to improve their performance in the flagship programme of the government.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 1:36 am En masse leave issue: Jet Airways, pilots union to meetA meeting is likely between the Jet Airways management and the pilots union in an effort to end the deadlock.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 1:13 am Jet pilots stir continues, 100 flights cancelledThe agitation by Jet Airways pilots entered the second day with the private carrier cancelling over 100 domestic and international flights.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 9 Sep 2009 | 1:12 am IOB seeks Rs1, 000 crore capital from governmentMumbai: State-run Indian Overseas Bank has sought Rs1, 000 crore of capital from the Union government to maintain its capital adequacy ratio at 12% for the next 3 years, a top official said on Wednesday. The capital would also help the bank maintain its tier I capital adequacy ratio at 8%, S A Bhat, chairman and managing director, told reporters on the sidelines of a banking summit. The lender has no immediate plans to raise further capital, Bhat said. The south India-based bank has restructured loans worth Rs8,200 crore in the current calendar year, but expects 5-10% slippage in restructured assets, he said. “I am afraid of loans given to textile sector and to IT parks,” he said referring to loans recast for these sectors. It also expects loan growth of 20% in the current fiscal with demand picking up as the busy seasons sets in end-September, Bhat said. It is also looking at an income of Rs600 million from selling bank assurance products in the current financial year as compared to Rs250 million a year earlier. The lender had been offering lower deposit rates to curb formation of excess liquidity in the wake of subdued credit demand, Bhat said. “We were aligning our deposit mobilisation in a way that we don’t have excess liquidity.” He also said there was no room to cut deposit rates further as interest rates appear to have bottomed out. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:45 am Obama warns teens of perils of FacebookWashington: President Barack Obama warned American teenagers on Tuesday of the dangers of putting too much personal information on Internet social networking sites, saying it could come back to haunt them in later life. The presidential words of advice follow recent studies that suggest US employers are increasingly turning to sites such as Facebook and News Corp’s MySpace to conduct background checks on job applicants. Taking part in a question-and-answer session with a group of 14- and 15-year-old school students, Obama was asked by one pupil for some advice on becoming US president. “Well, let me give you some very practical tips. First of all, I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life,” Obama said. “And when you’re young, you make mistakes and you do some stupid stuff. And I’ve been hearing a lot about young people who -- you know, they’re posting stuff on Facebook, and then suddenly they go apply for a job and somebody has done a search.” Obama referred several times to “mistakes” he had made when he was at school but offered no specifics. He has previously admitted to drug use when he was younger. A survey in June by careerbuilder.com found that 45% of employers used social network sites to research job candidates and that Facebook, which says it has 250 million users worldwide, was their site of choice. Some 35% of the employers surveyed said they had found content on the sites that had influenced them to reject a candidate. Examples included inappropriate photographs, information about the applicants’ drinking or drug use, or bad mouthing of previous employers, co-workers or clients. The Obama White House frequently uses Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to bypass the media and communicate directly to Americans. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:22 am Marriott sees strong potential in Asia market, to open new hotelsHong Kong: Hotelier Marriott International Inc said on Wednesday it sees a strong Asia market and had signed 21 hotel and resort management contracts in the Asia Pacific region. The hotels with a total of about 7,000 rooms are scheduled to open through the end of 2013, expanding Marriott’s Asia-Pacific portfolio to 154 hotels offering 51,500 rooms in 18 countries by the end of 2013, it said in a statement. Marriott, which operates chains including the Ritz Carlton, Renaissance and Marriott, and other hotel operators have been hard-hit by a global economic slowdown and the H1N1 flu virus, with companies and tourists cutting back on trips and retreats. “It was tough at the end of 2008. But we do see a strong Asia market out there today,” said Ed Fuller, president and managing director, Marriot Lodging International. Asia, as a whole, is a far-faster-paced area than other regions, and the region will grow significantly in leisure and business travel, he told reporters. “It has come back in volume. We continue to see mainland China travelling growing,” he said. Fuller said China is currently the third-largest travelling public in the world and will be the first in 3-4 years. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:19 am World air travel to recover by 2011: BoeingHong Kong: International air travel, battered by the economic downturn, is starting to stabilize and should recover over the next two years as an economic turnaround takes hold, a top executive at aviation giant Boeing Corp. said Wednesday. Passenger travel will somewhat better in the second half of 2009 than in the first half but will still slump between 6 and 8% for the year, said Randy Tinseth, a Boeing vice president for marketing. At the same, there were signs that drop in demand was slowing, with global airlines beginning restore capacity and China and Latin American markets picking up, he said. “We’re already starting to see some improvements in traffic and traffic growth, but we’ve got a long ways to go,” Tinseth told reporters at an Asian aerospace and aviation show in Hong Kong. “We see 2010 as a year of economic recovery and 2011 as a year of air travel recovery,” he added. Over the long haul, Asia will overtake North America as the world’s largest air travel market, growing from a 32% share to 41%, he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:08 am Jet Airways plummets 6% as strike goes into day 2Mumbai: Shares of Jet Airways on Wednesday plunged over 6% in morning trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange as pilots kept away from work for the second consecutive day leading to disruption of services. Shares of Jet Airways fell as much as 6.49% over previous close to Rs245 on the BSE. The Mumbai-based airline has cancelled 31 domestic and international flights from various cities today after 350 of its pilots went on a mass sick leave in protest against sacking of two pilots by the airlines management. On the National Stock Exchange, Jet Airways plunged 6% to Rs242.35. On the volume front, over 3.96 lakh shares changed hands on both the bourses. As 40% of Jet’s pilots went on a mass sick leave on Tuesday crippling the Airways’ service network with cancellation of almost 200 flights, the management of the private carrier retaliated by sacking three more agitators. The scrip had nosedived 13% during Tuesday’s trade but later recovered to close with 3% loss on the BSE. Marketmen said the crisis in the private carrier came at a time when concerns about the prospects of the aviation industry were clouding investor sentiment. Despite the Bombay high court passing a restraining order against the agitation, the pilots’ body, National Aviators Guild (NAG), decided to continue with their agitation. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:05 am ING Vysya Bank raises Rs 230 cr via QIPMumbai: Private sector lender ING Vysya Bank on Wednesday said its private placement of shares with qualified institutional buyers to raise Rs230 crore closes today. The bank has approved to issue 92,70,455 shares at Rs248.10 a piece totaling to Rs230 crore to qualified buyers, ING Vysya Bank said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Shares of ING Vysya Bank were trading at Rs269.40 on the BSE, up 4.87% from previous close. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:03 am Look no further than the Turner ReviewThe Turner Review is a classic analysis of what went wrong with the global financial system and what needs to be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am Country should be spending $100 b on infrastructure: NaikMumbai, Sept.8 His steely resolve to take Larsen & Toubro beyond the competition is obvious. Mr A. M. Naik, Chairman and Managing Director, L&T, speaks of growth in a subdued market.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideDLF is experiencing selling interest at higher levels. Utilise rallies to sell it with tight stop at Rs 447. ICICI Bank was trading choppy and formed spinning top candlestick pattern, signalling indecisiveness.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am Rupee faces resistance at 48The rupee reversed upward from the 49 mark to gain steadily over the past five sessions in tandem with the upward move in Indian equities. Expectation that buoyant stock market will attract greater foreign institutional funds was the ostensibleSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am Chaos reigns at airports as Jet cancels 200 flightsMumbai, Sept. 8 Tuesday was a day best forgotten for passengers flying Jet Airways as chaos reigned supreme across the country with nearly 200 flights cancelled, which included 29 international routes. Mumbai was the worst hit, with 120 flightsSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am Thermal, nuclear power to the rescueNew Delhi, Sept. 8 Despite the deficient rains throwing hydel generation out of gear, a power crisis has been averted with higher thermal and nuclear generation.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am Excel Crop Care (Rs 136.1): BuyWe recommend a buy in the stock of Excel Crop Care from a short-term perspective. It is apparent from the charts that the stock began to trend down after encountering resistance around Rs 170 in late May. It was on a medium-term downtrend till itSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am Interest rates have bottomed out, say bankersMumbai, Sept. 8 Bankers appear to agree that interest rates have bottomed out in the economy and could rise in the coming months on the back of loan growth gatheringSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am Govt keen to clear Bill to hike insurance FDI to 49%Mumbai, Sept. 8 The Government is committed to clearing the Insurance Amendment Bill that will raise the FDI limit in the sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent, said Mr Namo Narain Meena, Minister of State for Finance. He was addressing theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am GAIL may join Myanmar, China pipeline projectNew Delhi, Sept. 8 GAIL (India) Ltd, which hopes to cross a revenue turnover of Rs 50,000 crore within the next few years, is examining a proposal for investing in building a pipeline from a gas field off Myanmar coast to China.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 9 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am Sensex down 78 points in opening trade on profit-bookingThe Sensex slipped by over 78 points today in opening trade on emergence of profit-booking amid weak Asian markets.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Sep 2009 | 11:55 pm Gold up, investors sell dollar to buy other assetsTOKYO (Reuters) - Gold prices rose on Wednesday, hovering just above $1,000 per ounce but below highs marked the previous day, as investors sold the dollar to buy riskier assets such as stocks and commodities.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Sep 2009 | 11:49 pm Acer, HP seen early winners in PC recoverySource: Tech News - Livemint.com | 8 Sep 2009 | 11:22 pm Mahindra Satyam reinstates variable pay for 28000 employees - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 8 Sep 2009 | 10:28 pm Asian social networking sites profit from e-moneySingapore: By selling an array of virtual products from avatar clothes to e-furniture, Asia’s social networking sites appear to have solved the conundrum of how to leverage big profits from their extensive user bases. It’s simple, they say, the money might be virtual but the profits are all too real. Chinese university student Tan Shengrong spends about 20 yuan ($2.90) per month purchasing outfits for her pet penguin avatar or playing games on QQ, an instant message portal on Qzone, China’s most popular social networking site. It might not seem like a hefty sum, but every fen, or cent, is money in the bank for Tencent Holdings, which owns Qzone and saw an 85% increase in its second quarter net profit this year compared to 2008 despite the economic downturn. “They keep growing even though the economy’s bad because they keep making millions from cents from millions and millions of people,” said Benjamin Joffe, head of Internet consulting firm Plus Eight Star. From virtual clothes to e-pets, Asians spend an estimated $5 billion a year on virtual purchases via websites such as Qzone, Cyworld in South Korea and mobile-phone based network Gree in Japan, according to Plus Eight Star. That’s about 80% of the global market for virtual products, it says. “Social networking is just a way to get people together, but if you want revenue you have to sell them something. What they found was that people were happy to pay for content related to emotion, status and entertainment,” said Joffe. Of the virtual sales in Asia, about 80% comes from the sale of such items as equipment for online games such as rods for GREE’s fishing game Tsuri Star 2. The rest comes from purchases for avatars on social networking sites. Such is the success of virtual sales on Asia’s most popular social networking sites that Myspace and Facebook are starting to look with a fresh eye at the potential of virtual money to generate cold hard cash. Qzone’s Tencent Holdings made over $1 billion last year with just 13% coming from advertising revenue. In contrast, Facebook and Myspace depend on advertising to fund most of their revenue. The evolution of virtual money on social networking sites in Asia is partly due to a less developed online advertising market which drove Asian web businesses to seek new ways to profit. Cultural issues are at play too. Gaming is popular among adults in Asia, whereas in the West it tends to be only for kids. East Asian societies are also very status conscious. Players are loath to be the only avatar without the latest gear and Asians are perhaps more willing than counterparts in the West to buy virtual products to update their avatars or social space. Asia’s social networking sites tend to be country specific but they have very active user bases. Qzone had 228 million active user accounts for the second quarter of 2009, although it won’t give out monthly visitor figures. Meanwhile, Cyworld, which says that 90 percent of South Korea’s 20-somethings are members, had 23 million unique visitors per month at the end of the first quarter of 2009. Virtual Rentals Like their Western counterparts, Asian social networking sites allow their users to chat, play games and share photos. There is also some advertising, but the sites earn most of their revenues from their users. Members are represented by avatars and acquire virtual currency from the sites to buy digital goods, game packages or upgrades. The model has taken off abroad but there is still a long way to go until the West catches up with Asia. Habbo, a social networking site for teenagers owned by Finland’s Sulake Corporation, sells virtual clothes and furniture. Meanwhile, games such as Pet Society which is available on Facebook and allows users to raise virtual pets, sells goods such as virtual pet accessories and e-food. Playfish, creator of Pet Society and other social games, says it has 47 million active users per month playing its games. With seven million or so inhabitants, the virtual world Second Life offers a range of e-wares for sale for Linden dollars. Some are mundane and others are controversial such as guns and virtual phalluses with price tags based on the size. Asia is also a playground for a range of virtual business models such as rentals. For example, Cyworld rents background skins of popular South Korean baseball players for limited periods. Such rentals drive repeat sales and tap into trends. Lost in Translation The success of these East Asian sites contrast sharply to the frustrated social media landscape across the Pacific where despite immense popularity, Facebook and Myspace are yet to fully harness the profit potential of their massive user bases. Facebook, the world’s biggest social network with close to 300 million visitors per month, is on track to bring in more than $500 million in revenue this year, mostly from advertising, but its focus is on growing its user base rather than making money. Still, a recent New York Times article suggested signs of an exodus from Facebook as disillusioned users leave due to privacy concerns or complaints of rampant commercialism. Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace has been unusual among the major social networks in turning profitable through advertising sales, although is now undergoing a major overhaul, including ousting its CEO and firing hundreds of staff, in the face of worrying user metrics. Meanwhile, both Facebook and MySpace are eyeing the virtues of virtual money. Facebook, which sells virtual goods mainly in the form of ‘Facebook gifts’ through a credit system, said in March that it was looking at offering a common virtual currency to third-party application developers. At the Web 2.0 Summit late last year, Myspace’s recently-departed chief operating officer Amit Kapur mentioned that that the firm was also seeking to develop a payments and virtual goods system. Meanwhile, Internet entrepreneurs are coming to Asia to pick up on innovative web business models. In June, 32 venture capitalists and Internet entrepreneurs visited Japan and China under the banner “GeeksOnAPlane”, to learn about local success stories such as DeNA, video hosting website Tudou, and gaming website PopCap. “They were all blown away even though some of them already knew about what was going on here,” said George Godula, founder of Shanghai-based consultancy Web2Asia. “They (Asian social networking sites) are quite nimble at finding out business models or ways of how to make money,” he said. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 8 Sep 2009 | 10:13 pm India, Malaysia consortium to buy Zain stakeKUWAIT (Reuters) - A consortium of Indian telecom companies and a Malaysian investor will buy a 46 percent stake in Kuwaiti telecom Zain, an official with major shareholder Kharafi Group said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 8 Sep 2009 | 9:20 pm Third-party management a sunrise biz in hospitalityAs more and more standalone hotel owners get serious about their hospitality ventures, sector professionals are on a roll.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Sep 2009 | 5:48 pm Mercedes-Benz to enter LCVs by 2012Wilfried Aulbur, managing director and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India said on Tuesday that the company has plans to manufacture light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles at its Chennai plant.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 8 Sep 2009 | 4:16 pm A breakdown on handling big failuresHenry M. Paulson Jr, then the US treasury secretary, gave a little-noticed speech in London in July 2008.  Resolution issues: US treasury secretary Henry Paulson. Joshua Roberts / Bloomberg. It’s a little eerie now to read those prophetic words, which were uttered months after the Bear Stearns Companies Inc. collapse. But Paulson never got to the next step. Just two months later, Lehman Brothers Inc. collapsed, sending global markets and our economy into a tailspin. As we approach the anniversary of some of the most cataclysmic failures in our economic history, we appear to be in perhaps no better position to manage the failure of an investment bank, a hedge fund or an insurance company than we were before. Absent any legislation that would prevent another 9/15 (as some people are calling it on Wall Street) from happening, our only options are to throw money at problem companies or arrange shotgun marriages to keep them from failing. That hardly seems like a long-term solution. Timothy F. Geithner, the current treasury secretary, proposed legislation in March that would do exactly what his predecessor talked about— give the government the ability to take over a failing firm such as Lehman Brothers to prevent its collapse from infecting others. Little has happened.  But as the economy has seemingly recovered and President Barack Obama has focused his attention on healthcare and other issues—all of which no doubt merit attention—perhaps the one piece of legislation that could prevent a repeat of what has arguably ruined the lives of millions of people has been left in limbo. “It should be the first priority of both the Congress and the administration,” said Frederic S. Mishkin, a former governor of the Federal Reserve and an economics professor at Columbia. “The public may be upset about bailouts. But by not having the resolution authority, we actually are making it more likely there has to be bailouts.” Geithner’s proposal is part of a legislative effort aimed at reforming the financial services industry. As a result, the measure appears stuck in a bottleneck while treasury, the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) battle over other parts. So what would “resolution authority” look like? It would allow the government to put an investment company into conservatorship, just like Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or receivership, the way FDIC does with traditional banks. The benefit is that it avoids bankruptcy protection, a drastic step that not only spells the end of a financial firm but can lock up trades of various counterparties and freeze markets, similar to what happened after Lehman Brothers filed. Mishkin said he viewed “the shock after Lehman to be worse and more complicated than the one that caused the Great Depression.” Making a resolution authority would be complicated—how do you compensate investors as you close out positions or liquidate assets—and is one reason, in fairness to Congress, that the legislation has not advanced. “Structured correctly, a credible resolution regime could force market participants to realize the full costs of their decisions and help reduce the ‘too big to fail dilemma,’” Mary L. Schapiro, chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, testified over the summer. “Structured poorly, such a regime could strengthen market expectations of government support, as a result fuelling ‘too big to fail’ risks.” But without any alternative, we are likely to be forced to continue the practice of ad hoc bailouts, out of fear that bankruptcy will be a worse outcome. “If you don’t have resolution authority, you have a game of chicken,” Mishkin said, with the financial firms having the upper hand against, us, the taxpayers. “They can basically say to the government, ‘Either you give me the money or you can put me into bankruptcy— and guess what?—you’ll have another Lehman.’” That means, he added, that treasury has little power to press financial firms to get their houses in order. As we approach a different anniversary, that of 9/11, there is still no new building in the place of the World Trade Center, eight years after so many lives were lost and businesses destroyed. Addressing the critical issue of resolution authority in less time could be essential to avoiding another financial crisis. ©2009/ The New York Times Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 8 Sep 2009 | 1:45 pm Jet sacks 3 more pilots, protests to intensifyAll union pilots to go on mass sick leave today, airline cancels 31 flights.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 8 Sep 2009 | 1:27 pm UID to empower the poor: NilekaniThe head of the Unique Identification Authority says its a number, not a card, and the number walks with you.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 8 Sep 2009 | 12:32 pm Heavy commercial vehicle sales see first upturn in 14 monthsGreen shoots of revival emerged after August sales figures for medium and heavy commercial goods carriers (M&HCV) showed their first positive growth since June 2008. The growth, however, is still a small 0.9 per cent (just 6,210 vehicles) over last August and is mainly driven by higher government spending.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 8 Sep 2009 | 12:31 pm Have $1 billion surplus to invest? Join the new clubIts going to be Indias most exclusive super-rich club, with membership restricted to those with a minimum investible surplus of $1 billion.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 8 Sep 2009 | 12:30 pm ‘Chandrayaan’ review gives insights on moon’s originsBangalore: India’s lunar probe ‘Chandrayaan-1’ has thrown up surprises that could offer new insights on the origin of the moon, its topography and minerals, the international partners of India’s space agency, who reviewed data from the spacecraft, said on Tuesday.  Surprise findings: A file photograph of Chandrayaan-1 taking off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. AP / Isro “During the meeting, several discoveries (emerged) that was completely unpredicted,” Carles M. Pieters, professor of planetary science at Brown University, US, said after a two-day review meeting in Bangalore. Pieters was the principal investigator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) moon mineralogy mapper, or M3, that was among the 11 instruments on board ‘Chandrayaan-1’. The international partners didn’t want to disclose the findings as several academic papers based on data from ‘Chandrayaan-1’ are to be published in journals such as ‘Science’ in the next few months. ‘Chandrayaan-1’ was terminated on 30 August after its power systems failed and scientists lost contact, caused by an inadequate thermal system that could not protect some of the instruments on board from the moon’s heat. The end came within 10 months of its mission and at least a year shorter than its intended lifespan in orbit. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, or Isro, claimed the mission had achieved 95% of its objectives. Nearly 40 scientists from Isro and others from Nasa and the space agencies of Bulgaria, the UK and Europe met in Bangalore to review the scientific data sent from ‘Chandrayaan-1’. An Isro scientist who did not want to be named said space faring nations don’t share scientific data on lunar heat and India had built the spacecraft based on book knowledge. “The second time, we will (be) better prepared,” he said. India plans to send a lunar rover on its second mission in 2013, named ‘Chandrayaan-2’, with foreign instruments on board. raghu.k@livemint.com Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 8 Sep 2009 | 11:24 am Airbus says will not change funding for A350Hong Kong: European plane maker Airbus said on Tuesday that it has no plans to change the funding for its A350 wide-body plane, even after the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that European loans for the firm were illegal subsidies under world trade rules. The WTO ruled on Friday that European “launch aid loans” to help Airbus develop the A380 and other top-selling planes violated global rules, according to US lawmakers, but European sources said Washington did not win a sweeping victory.. The findings, which came in a confidential 1,000-plus page ruling, are the latest chapter in a decades-old battle between US manufacturer Boeing and Airbus for dominance of the global aircraft market, a major source of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. The WTO finding could limit Airbus’ options to finance new airliners, including the wide-body A350 due in the next decade. But Airbus has “absolutely no plans to change the funding for the A350 at the moment,” Christopher Buckley, executive vice-president for Europe and Asia Pacific, told Reuters in an interview. “From the Airbus point of view, we strongly believe, like we’ve always done, that reimburseable launch aid is a very good way of launching aircraft programmes,” Buckley said. The Airbus case and the European Union counterclaim about US support to Boeing, the United States’ biggest single exporter, represent the most complex and commercially significant dispute in WTO history. Washington says Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS, received a $205 billion boost from advantageous loans and other perks from France, Germany, Spain and Britain over two decades, giving it an unfair edge. Brussels argues the Airbus loans were fair and says Boeing got big illegal subsidies from US agencies including NASA plus state tax breaks worth some $24 billion. Recovery by 2010 Airbus expects a recovery in passenger and freight traffic volume by 2010, as economies recover and customer confidence returns, Buckley said. “We are seeing some small signs that customer confidence is coming back,” he said. “Hopefully by 2010, the situation will be back to normal.” Earlier, Laurent Rouaud, Airbus’s senior vice-president of market and product strategy, forecasted that worldwide passenger traffic could rise by 4.6% in 2010. Airbus’s outlook is more bullish than Boeing’s, which said earlier that the global aviation market would recover only in 2011 and return to growth in 2012.. Airbus, which has 147 new orders to date, could see two or three important additional orders by the end of the year, Buckley said, declining to provide more details. The firm is maintaining its 2009 sales target of 300 gross orders, he said. But the airline industry could see some more consolidation in the coming months, adding that smaller airlines in the United States could feel the brunt in the winter months. Airbus is not worried that the WTO ruling could affect the $35 billion, 179-plane, US Air Force refueling-fleet deal that EADS, together with its partner Northrop Grumman, hopes to clinch against Boeing, Buckley said. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 8 Sep 2009 | 6:36 am Relief for airlines as fall in traffic slowsHong Kong/Brussels: Airlines and their suppliers are reporting tentative signs that a severe industry recession is bottoming out, sending shares higher on Tuesday. Airbus, the world’s largest producer of passenger jets, said airline traffic had possibly seen “the trough of the recession” and could start to rebound from next year. “In 2009 we believe total traffic is down 2%. In 2010 we may experience a 4.6% growth rate,” Laurent Rouaud, senior vice president of market and product strategy, said at the Asian Aerospace exhibition in Hong Kong. In Europe, Air France-KLM said passenger traffic fell 2.9% in August but its planes were on average 84.8% full, a rise of 1.1 percentage points from the same holiday peak month a year ago. Its shares rose over 6%, helping to push the DJ Stoxx pan-European Travel and Leisure index up 2.6%. The figures came as industry data for July showed airline passenger and freight traffic dropped much less sharply year-on-year than in the first half of 2009. Industry body ACI Europe said after a survey of 106 airports passenger traffic at European airports fell 4.3% compared with July 2008, versus an average 9.6% drop during the preceding six months of this year. Freight traffic - a widely watched indicator of economic health - fell 13.4% compared with July 2008, an improvement on the average 22.4 percent decrease during the preceding six months. “That would fit with our picture,” said economist Cristoph Weil at Commerzbank. “We believe we will see a strong recovery in Q3 and Q4 in the euro area.” Air France-KLM said its cargo business had in August confirmed signs of stabilisation seen in recent months. Ireland’s Aer Lingus said on Monday passenger numbers had risen 7.7 percent year-on-year in August. Economists say the global economy looks to be pulling out of recession, with the OECD predicting a renewal of growth for the United States and euro zone in the third quarter. But, like the airline industry, the broader economy remains on life support and G-20 finance ministers agreed on 5 September to keep stimulus measures in place.. ACI Europe’s numbers were helped slightly by weak comparative figures in July 2008, when the economic downturn first started to bite and passenger data entered negative territory for the first time in six years. But weak comparatives account for only about a fifth of the improvement in freight volumes, ACI archive figures show. Still, Airbus and Boeing are headed for their worst annual order tally in at least 15 years as struggling airlines cancel or defer almost as many planes as they buy. The world’s airlines are expected to post total 2009 losses of $9 billion, with first-half net losses reaching at least $6 billion, according to the International Air Transport Association. Air France-KLM last week announced 1,500 voluntary redundancies, adding to thousands of airline job cuts worldwide. Rouaud however said Airbus was on track to deliver 480 aircraft in 2009 and aircraft financing has been “so far, so good.” Deliveries lag orders by several years but airlines only have to pay for aircraft when they are delivered. The EADS subsidiary is projecting 2009 plane deliveries at least as high as last year’s record 483 aircraft, but has said it will extend recent production cuts if conditions worsen. Even if airlines start to fly out of recession, they will be haunted by big questions on costs, especially fuel, Rouaud said. At $67.90 a barrel, benchmark North Sea Brent crude futures prices have risen 38% since the end of March. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 8 Sep 2009 | 5:33 am Boeing sees global aviation market recovering in 2011Hong Kong: US aerospace giant Boeing Co is confident it can deliver the first of its repeatedly delayed 787 Dreamliners to All Nippon Airways in the fourth quarter of 2010, a senior executive said on Tuesday. The company does not expect the global aviation market to recover until 2011 and return to growth in 2012, however, said Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Boeing and its European rival, EADS’ Airbus unit, have suffered this year as carriers and air cargo operators grapple with the global recession and the credit crisis. “Next year will be a year of economic recovery, 2011 will be a year of airline industry recovery and then in 2012, airlines will probably increase their demand for new airplanes,” he told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Asian Aerospace Expo in Hong Kong. He declined to comment on the World Trade Organization’s ruling that the European Union paid illegal subsidies to Airbus, harming Boeing. The ruling remains confidential, but Boeing has always been promoting a level playing field. Boeing has been chastened by embarrassing production glitches for its revolutionary carbon-composite 787, which is set for a test flight by the end of the year under a new schedule issued recently. The delays have been a blow to Boeing’s credibility and drew criticism from customers. “There is no question that we disappointed our customers,” Tinseth said. “We have to do one thing (and) that’s deliver.” Boeing expects to deliver about 480 to 485 aircraft in 2009 with the current backlog of about 3,400. It will keep production of 737 at 31 units per month but will cut production of long-ranged 777 to five from seven a month from June 2010, he said. China and the Asia Pacific are expected to take the lead in the industry recovery, Tinseth said. China is the focus for Boeing and Airbus as the country’s booming economy demands more planes. The country is expected to take over the United States in a decade to become the largest customer of Boeing, said Rob Laird, vice president of China, East and Southeast Asia sales for Boeing. It is now the second-largest customer of Boeing behind the United States, he added. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 8 Sep 2009 | 5:27 am Barclays fined $4 million over transaction reportsLondon: Britain’s financial watchdog fined Barclays PLC £2.45 million ($4 million) on Tuesday for failing to provide accurate transaction reports and “serious weaknesses” in control systems in two of its divisons. The Financial Services Authority levied the penalty on Barclays Capital Securities Ltd and Barclays Bank PLC. Financial institutions are required to submit transactions data by close of business the day after a trade is executed. The FSA uses this to detect and investigate suspected market abuse like insider trading and market manipulation. The FSA said it discovered discrepancies in Barclays’ data while reviewing a suspected incident of market abuse by a third party. A subsequent review of Barclays’ transaction reporting arrangements revealed that it did not have adequate systems and controls to meet the transaction reporting requirements. It also found a substantial number of errors in the data submitted to the FSA. Alexander Justham, the FSA’s director of markets, said the penalty imposed on Barclays is significantly higher than previous penalties imposed for transaction reporting errors. “This reflects the serious nature of Barclays’ breaches and is a warning to other firms that the FSA will not tolerate inadequate systems and controls,” Justham said. “Barclays’ reporting failures could have a damaging impact on our ability to detect and investigate suspected market abuse.” Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 8 Sep 2009 | 4:03 am
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