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Lowe Lintas: Juggling between ads and cinemaIn an inetrview with CNBCTV18, R Balakrishnan, Chief Creative Officer and Chairman of Lowe Lintas, spoke about his latest initiative.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Dec 2009 | 8:08 am Why HUL is getting aggressive with its ad campaignsHindustan Unilever (HUL) is upping the ante in categories where its brands are positioned as challengers. It is showing some aggressive spirits in some of its advertising.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Dec 2009 | 7:17 am Consumers being cautious on spending: UnileverGrowing jobless list for over a year has now eaten American consumers ability to spend. With US consumption being the engine of global growth, the last two years recession has altered the equation forever.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:45 am US stocks rise on surprising jobs figures !Major US stock indices and the dollar were pushed higher Friday after government figures indicated a sharp decline in the pace of job losses in the United States.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:38 am Switzerland halves non-EU work permits!Switzerland has announced that it would halve from next year its quotas of permits for workers from outside Europe, with unemployment and immigration at high levels.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:38 am Regulators shut AmTrust Bank in Ohio, 5 others!Regulators have shut down Ohio`s AmTrust Bank, the fourth-largest American bank to fail this year.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:38 am Obama prods banks to lend more, welcomes job news!President Barack Obama has prodded large US banks to boost lending to Main Street and cautiously welcomed news of an unexpected drop in the unemployment rate.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:38 am Yahoo!, Microsoft ink Web search agreement!Yahoo! and Microsoft have announced that they have finalised the details of their planned Internet search and advertising partnership.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:38 am Fiat says it has recalled 500,000 cars!Italian auto maker Fiat had recalled about 500,000 of its Grande Punto and Grande Punto Abarth models in Europe because of a "possible anomaly" in the steering column.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:38 am Irish PM rejects unions` offer as budget looms!The Irish government has rejected an offer by unions of an unpaid leave deal as part of a plan to slash the public sector pay bill.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:38 am OPEC should maintain output: Arab oil ministers!Arab oil ministers of OPEC said on Friday that the cartel should keep production unchanged when it meets later this month as crude prices are close to the target of 80 dollars a barrel.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:38 am US unemployment dips to 10%!The US labour market witnessed a dramatic improvement in November as the number of jobs lost narrowed to 11,000 and the unemployment rate dipped to 10.0 percent, official data showed Friday.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:38 am GE to buy $345 mn of ads from NBC Universal!General Electric Co. has promised to buy at least $345 mn in advertising from NBC Universal over five years after selling a controlling stake in the entertainment company to Comcast Corp.Source: Zee News : Business | 5 Dec 2009 | 5:38 am RBI rejects Asit C Mehta`s bid for NBFCThe Reserve Bank of India Friday rejected brokerage firm Asit C. Mehta\'s application for starting a nonbanking finance company.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Dec 2009 | 4:20 am Mundra Port says $520 mln JV to set up in SEZMundra Port and Special Economic Zone Ltd said on Friday a joint venture between Alstom and Bharat Forge will set up an equipment manufacturing facility at its special economic zone.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Dec 2009 | 4:19 am Allahabad High Court rules against Reliance Power land buy - reportsMUMBAI (Reuters) - Allahabad high court has quashed an order by Uttar Pradesh government that allowed Reliance Power to buy land for its planned Dadri power project without hearing landowners' grievances, domestic media reported on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Dec 2009 | 3:07 am Total dimissed from phase 11 of South Pars: IranIran said on Saturday it had dismissed France's Total from investing in development of the country's phase 11 of the South Pars gas field.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Dec 2009 | 3:04 am Iran says Total dimissed from phase 11 of South Pars - TVTEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has dismissed France's Total from investing in development of phase 11 of the country's South Pars gas field, state television reported on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Dec 2009 | 2:58 am First look Overdrive checks out the Rolls Royce Ghost - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 5 Dec 2009 | 2:50 am India emerges as UAE s top trading partnerIndia was the UAE's top trading partner last year with non-oil trade totalling USD 32.11 billion, the data by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs has showed.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 Dec 2009 | 2:36 am Rolling Stone to rock first restaurantHungry like the wolf? Rolling Stone is ready to serve you.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Dec 2009 | 2:29 am Apple acquires music service LalaApple Inc has acquired digital music service Lala, as the dominant online music retailer explores new models for selling songs.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Dec 2009 | 2:22 am JSW Energy IPO may not see huge listing gains: Sharekhan - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 5 Dec 2009 | 2:00 am Pakistan trial of Mumbai attack suspects delayedIslamabad: A trial of seven Pakistanis suspected in last year’s attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai was delayed after lawyers went on strike on Saturday to protest against a militant attack near Pakistan’s military headquarters. In the most daring attack since October, on Friday two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a mosque and two other militants fired on worshippers in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, killing at least 40 people. India has been pushing for swift justice against the seven suspects accused of playing a role in the Mumbai rampage which killed 166 people. India blames Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for the Mumbai attacks and has broken off talks with the neighbour, saying Islamabad must first act against militants operating from its soil, including the LeT. A lawyer for one of the seven men charged last month with involvement in the Mumbai attacks told Reuters that the trial would start on 12 December. “There was no proceeding today because of the strike by lawyers in Rawalpindi so that’s why now it was fixed for next Saturday,” lawyer Shahbaz Rajput said. He said the trial was also delayed because the judge was out of town. A Pakistani court indicted the men on terror charges in connection with the Mumbai attacks. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Dec 2009 | 1:59 am Car bomb kills 3 in Pakistan’s PeshawarIslamabad: A car bomb exploded on Saturday near a KFC fast-food restaurant in Pakistan’s main northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least three people and leaving others trapped in a blazing building where many lawyers have offices, officials said. The attack in Peshawar was the latest in a wave that has underscored the resilience of militant networks in the country as the army wages a key offensive against the Taliban in the lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. An attack on Friday on a mosque frequented by army personnel killed 37 people in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Saturday’s explosion damaged vehicles and shattered windows along a wide stretch of a major road. At least three people died and seven others were wounded, police official Gohar Zaman said. Several people were seen clinging to windows in one building that was on fire, shouting for help. Firefighters struggled to put out the flames, while others tried to get into the building using a ladder. “It seems that the explosives were planted in the car, and it exploded through a remote control,” said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the region’s information minister. The exact target of the attack was unknown, but the bomb went off not far from the KFC restaurant, which is well known in the city and has security guards stationed outside. No group immediately claimed responsibility. Attacks by Islamist extremists have killed more than 400 people in Pakistan since October, when the army began an offensive against the Taliban in the south Waziristan tribal region. At least nine of the attacks have been in and around Peshawar, the largest city in the northwest and the main gateway to the border region where many al-Qaida and Taliban are based. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Dec 2009 | 1:27 am Yahoo!, Microsoft ink Web search agreementSan Francisco: Yahoo! And Microsoft announced on Friday that they have finalized the details of their planned Internet search and advertising partnership. The companies hope to implement the deal next year with the approval of anti-trust regulators. “Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010,” the companies said in a joint statement. “Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value and more innovation.” Yahoo! and Microsoft had originally planned to complete their agreement by 27 October but extended talks “given the complex nature of the transaction.” The plan to ink a 10-year Web search and advertising pact was unveiled in July and promises to set the stage for a Yahoo!-Microsoft offensive against Google, the king of the lucrative search and advertising market. Under the no-cash deal, Yahoo! will use Microsoft’s new Bing search engine on its own sites while Yahoo! will provide the exclusive global sales force for premium search advertisers. Microsoft’s tie-up with Yahoo! gives the companies a larger share of the Web search market but analysts are divided on how much it will actually deliver in making inroads against powerhouse Google. Google is the overwhelming leader in a Web search and advertising market which the research firm Forrester estimates will grow by 15% a year to more than $30 billion in 2014 in the United States alone. Forrester analyst Rebecca Jennings was among those who said the agreement, under which Yahoo! will use Microsoft’s new Bing search engine and handle Web ad sales, would boost both companies. “This deal should help convince even the most stubborn budget-holder that spreading their money outside of Google would be beneficial,” she said. “This will create a more viable second-string player in all markets, giving interactive marketers a significant, credible alternative/additional outlet for their search spend,” Jennings said. Analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon Valley’s Enderle Group agreed, saying that many advertisers were “nervous” about Google’s dominance and “would just as soon not do business with Google.” Bing increased its share of the US search market in October, edging up half-a-point to nearly 10%, according to data from online tracking firm comScore. Google also added half-a-point in October to reach 65.4%. Yahoo!, Microsoft’s search partner, saw its market share decline 0.8% in October to 18.0%. November figures have yet to be released. It was the fifth month in a row of modest gains in search share for Bing, which Microsoft unveiled in June accompanied by a $100 million advertising campaign in a bid to challenge search juggernaut Google. Enderle said a combined Microsoft-Yahoo! “gives them enough of a share to be a player.” “At eight percent you’re not really a player. You step up to around 30% and suddenly you’re an alternative,” he said. Chief executive Carol Bartz said the deal will allow Yahoo! to “focus on the things we do best - being the center of people’s lives online with properties like our homepage, mail, finance, news, sports, entertainment, mobile, etc.” Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.com, a website which covers the search industry, said the agreement was a “bargain” for Microsoft, which offered $47.5 billion last year in a takeover bid for Yahoo! “Yahoo!’s giving up on search and they’re not getting any big payment to do so,” he said. “Just look at what they were promised last year from Microsoft.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Dec 2009 | 1:26 am Blast in Russian nightclub kills at least 94Moscow: At least 94 people were killed and 139 injured on Friday when a blast caused by fireworks ripped through a packed Russian nightclub, causing a stampede, the Emergencies Ministry said. The blast tore through the Lame Horse nightclub in the centre of Perm, a city of 1.2 million near the Ural mountains, at 11:15 pm (2015 GMT). “The latest death toll is 94 with another 139 people injured,” a spokeswoman for the local Emergencies Ministry said by telephone. Russian state-run television channel Vesti-24 showed charred bodies piled on top of each other outside the club, where firefighters and investigators heaved debris and black body bags. The blaze follows a train bombing last Friday which killed 26 and injured more than 100 on a train travelling between Moscow and St Petersburg, for which Chechen Islamist militants claimed responsibility. That blast stoked fears that Russia could face a nationwide bombing campaign, but Russian officials played down any links between the train attack and Friday’s nightclub disaster. “We are not talking about a terrorist attack,” Oleg Chirkunov, the governor of Perm region, 1,150 km (720 miles) east of Moscow, told Vesti-24. Detectives said they did not suspect a bomb attack. “A firework blast sparked a blaze,” the Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman said. Blood-covered women in evening clothes were shown lying on stretchers as scores of policemen swarmed around. At least 200 people were dining in the club. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the formation of a government commission to deal with the incident. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sent emergencies minister Sergei Shoigu, health minister Tatyana Golikova and interior minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to the scene to coordinate rescue efforts. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Dec 2009 | 1:26 am Yahoo!, Microsoft ink Web search agreementSan Francisco: Yahoo! And Microsoft announced on Friday that they have finalized the details of their planned Internet search and advertising partnership. The companies hope to implement the deal next year with the approval of anti-trust regulators. “Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010,” the companies said in a joint statement. “Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value and more innovation.” Yahoo! and Microsoft had originally planned to complete their agreement by 27 October but extended talks “given the complex nature of the transaction.” The plan to ink a 10-year Web search and advertising pact was unveiled in July and promises to set the stage for a Yahoo!-Microsoft offensive against Google, the king of the lucrative search and advertising market. Under the no-cash deal, Yahoo! will use Microsoft’s new Bing search engine on its own sites while Yahoo! will provide the exclusive global sales force for premium search advertisers. Microsoft’s tie-up with Yahoo! gives the companies a larger share of the Web search market but analysts are divided on how much it will actually deliver in making inroads against powerhouse Google. Google is the overwhelming leader in a Web search and advertising market which the research firm Forrester estimates will grow by 15% a year to more than $30 billion in 2014 in the United States alone. Forrester analyst Rebecca Jennings was among those who said the agreement, under which Yahoo! will use Microsoft’s new Bing search engine and handle Web ad sales, would boost both companies. “This deal should help convince even the most stubborn budget-holder that spreading their money outside of Google would be beneficial,” she said. “This will create a more viable second-string player in all markets, giving interactive marketers a significant, credible alternative/additional outlet for their search spend,” Jennings said. Analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon Valley’s Enderle Group agreed, saying that many advertisers were “nervous” about Google’s dominance and “would just as soon not do business with Google.” Bing increased its share of the US search market in October, edging up half-a-point to nearly 10%, according to data from online tracking firm comScore. Google also added half-a-point in October to reach 65.4%. Yahoo!, Microsoft’s search partner, saw its market share decline 0.8% in October to 18.0%. November figures have yet to be released. It was the fifth month in a row of modest gains in search share for Bing, which Microsoft unveiled in June accompanied by a $100 million advertising campaign in a bid to challenge search juggernaut Google. Enderle said a combined Microsoft-Yahoo! “gives them enough of a share to be a player.” “At eight percent you’re not really a player. You step up to around 30% and suddenly you’re an alternative,” he said. Chief executive Carol Bartz said the deal will allow Yahoo! to “focus on the things we do best - being the center of people’s lives online with properties like our homepage, mail, finance, news, sports, entertainment, mobile, etc.” Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.com, a website which covers the search industry, said the agreement was a “bargain” for Microsoft, which offered $47.5 billion last year in a takeover bid for Yahoo! “Yahoo!’s giving up on search and they’re not getting any big payment to do so,” he said. “Just look at what they were promised last year from Microsoft.” Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 5 Dec 2009 | 1:26 am Yahoo!, Microsoft ink Web search agreementSan Francisco: Yahoo! And Microsoft announced on Friday that they have finalized the details of their planned Internet search and advertising partnership. The companies hope to implement the deal next year with the approval of anti-trust regulators. “Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010,” the companies said in a joint statement. “Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value and more innovation.” Yahoo! and Microsoft had originally planned to complete their agreement by 27 October but extended talks “given the complex nature of the transaction.” The plan to ink a 10-year Web search and advertising pact was unveiled in July and promises to set the stage for a Yahoo!-Microsoft offensive against Google, the king of the lucrative search and advertising market. Under the no-cash deal, Yahoo! will use Microsoft’s new Bing search engine on its own sites while Yahoo! will provide the exclusive global sales force for premium search advertisers. Microsoft’s tie-up with Yahoo! gives the companies a larger share of the Web search market but analysts are divided on how much it will actually deliver in making inroads against powerhouse Google. Google is the overwhelming leader in a Web search and advertising market which the research firm Forrester estimates will grow by 15% a year to more than $30 billion in 2014 in the United States alone. Forrester analyst Rebecca Jennings was among those who said the agreement, under which Yahoo! will use Microsoft’s new Bing search engine and handle Web ad sales, would boost both companies. “This deal should help convince even the most stubborn budget-holder that spreading their money outside of Google would be beneficial,” she said. “This will create a more viable second-string player in all markets, giving interactive marketers a significant, credible alternative/additional outlet for their search spend,” Jennings said. Analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon Valley’s Enderle Group agreed, saying that many advertisers were “nervous” about Google’s dominance and “would just as soon not do business with Google.” Bing increased its share of the US search market in October, edging up half-a-point to nearly 10%, according to data from online tracking firm comScore. Google also added half-a-point in October to reach 65.4%. Yahoo!, Microsoft’s search partner, saw its market share decline 0.8% in October to 18.0%. November figures have yet to be released. It was the fifth month in a row of modest gains in search share for Bing, which Microsoft unveiled in June accompanied by a $100 million advertising campaign in a bid to challenge search juggernaut Google. Enderle said a combined Microsoft-Yahoo! “gives them enough of a share to be a player.” “At eight percent you’re not really a player. You step up to around 30% and suddenly you’re an alternative,” he said. Chief executive Carol Bartz said the deal will allow Yahoo! to “focus on the things we do best - being the center of people’s lives online with properties like our homepage, mail, finance, news, sports, entertainment, mobile, etc.” Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.com, a website which covers the search industry, said the agreement was a “bargain” for Microsoft, which offered $47.5 billion last year in a takeover bid for Yahoo! “Yahoo!’s giving up on search and they’re not getting any big payment to do so,” he said. “Just look at what they were promised last year from Microsoft.” Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 5 Dec 2009 | 1:26 am Chinese investment in Taiwan stocks ok: MediaChina-Taiwan trade relations have thawed over the past 18 months following a decades-long freeze due to political tensions.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Dec 2009 | 1:16 am China, India oppose foreign climate oversightChina and other major emerging economies will not allow international supervision of their actions to slow climate change to be part of a deal at UN talks in Copenhagen, a top Indian delegate said on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 Dec 2009 | 1:11 am Chinese firm resumes road projects in HimachalWork on two World Bank-funded roads, undertaken by a Chinese firm, has resumed in Himachal Pradesh, nearly two months after the employees of the firm had to go back to China after their visas were revoked, a government official said Saturday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Dec 2009 | 1:04 am Indian markets brush aside Dubai fears, Sensex up 3 percentIndian investors brushed aside fears of a global financial crisis in the wake of the Dubai World debt debacle. Key benchmark indices added nearly 3 percent from their last weekly close.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 5 Dec 2009 | 1:01 am Markets brush aside Dubai fears Sensex up 3 per centIndian investors brushed aside fears of a global financial crisis in the wake of the Dubai World debt debacle. Key benchmark indices added nearly 3 per cent from their last weekly close.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:24 am United Bank gets Govt nod for public issue - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:15 am Markets brush aside Dubai fears, Sensex up 3 per cent - Hindustan Times
Source: Business - Google News | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:12 am Reuters Summit - Will investors embrace 'risk' trades in 2010NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ferocious appetite for risk-taking in everything from Peruvian debt to global financial stocks will fade fast if, as expected, central banks end their crisis-driven liquidity programs next year.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:05 am Court allows farmers to reclaim Reliance Power's Dadri project landIn what could be a major setback for the Anil Ambani group, the Allahabad High Court on Friday in effect cancelled the acquisition of 2,500 acres of agricultural land for the group's Rs 25,000-crore gas-based Dadri powerSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Telecom regulator may examine mobile tariffsThe Telecom Regulatory Authority of India may look into tariffs being offered by mobile operators based on the cost structure of the telecomSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Increase in demand lifts airline stocksAn upsurge in demand is giving fuel to airline stocks to gain altitude and fly over the turbulent weather that has plagued them for aSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Corus plans to keep some Teesside facilities runningTata Steel Europe (Corus) has decided to keep open some facilities at its troubled Teesside Cast Products (TCP) in contrast to the earlier plan of mothballing the entireSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Govt wants to double rural tele-density in 3 yearsExpressing concern at the digital divide between urban and rural regions, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Friday said that the Government will aim to double the rural tele-density from 20 per cent at present to 40 per cent in the nextSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Telcos must get DoT approval for gear buysIn a move primarily aimed at keeping a watch on Chinese telecom equipment vendors, the Department of Telecom has made it mandatory for mobile operators to take Government approval before purchasing anySource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Mock trials would have saved CAT onlineSandeep P., a graduate from Bangalore who took the Common Admission Test on November 29, wishes his system hadSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Acquisition not set aside: Reliance PowerReacting to the judgment, Reliance Power said that the High Court of Allahabad has not set aside the land acquisition for the DadriSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am GM-Shanghai Auto venture to launch LCV in 2011General Motors (GM) India said on Friday that the first vehicle produced in collaboration with Chinese automaker Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) would be a one-tonne light commercial vehicleSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am NSE worried over poor response to interest rate contractsTepid response to trading in interest rate futures (IRF) contracts, especially among public sector banks, has prompted the National Stock Exchange to consider introducing a market making mechanism to impart liquidity to theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Bangladesh issues re-tender to buy 60,000T wheatThe tender was floated after the authorities had cancelled the results of tenders issued in September and October to import a similar quantity of wheat.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:49 pm US regulators close Greater Atlantic BankGreater Atlantic had $203 million in assets and $179 million in deposits, and Sonabank of McLean, Virginia, will assume the deposits.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:35 pm Dell creates new communications unitDell's consumer business will be combined with its small-and-medium business unit and will be led by Steve Felice.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:16 pm Singapore awards Samsung $258 million contractSamsung C&T is part of the Samsung conglomerate, which controls 15.4% of the company through a number of its affiliates.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:13 pm Alcohol, traders drive Chhattisgarh's illegal diamond miningThe craving for liquor among impoverished tribals and middlemen with bundles of currency notes to oblige them have ensured that illegal diamond mining continues unabated in Chhattisgarh's Raipur district.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:01 pm Bihar to promote litchi liquorTime to get tipsy with litchi -- literally. Bihar has accepted a proposal of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to produce litchi liquor or wine, the first of its kind in India.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:01 pm Chinese investment in Taiwan stocks o.k. - mediaTAIPEI (Reuters) - Chinese investors can buy and sell stocks from Jan. 16 in Taiwan, a historical rival of China that has only recently begun opening economic links to the economic powerhouse, local media said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 10:35 pm Noble Corp lands some new rig contracts, shares upMarathon Oil Corp will keep the Paul Romano deepwater rig in the US Gulf of Mexico until July 16, 2010, for a day-rate of $374,000 to $376,000.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 10:01 pm Bristol, Pfizer to seek apixaban approvalBristol-Myers and Pfizer teamed up in 2007 to develop and commercialize apixaban, which is taken orally.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 10:00 pm Yahoo Microsoft ink Web search agreementYahoo! and Microsoft have announced that they have finalised the details of their planned Internet search and advertising partnership. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 9:47 pm US stocks rise on surprising jobs figuresMajor US stock indices and the dollar were pushed higher Friday after government figures indicated a sharp decline in the pace of job losses in the United States.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 9:28 pm Apple acquires music service LalaSAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc has acquired digital music service Lala, as the dominant online music retailer explores new models for selling songs.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 8:03 pm GM and SAIC to form India-focused partnership - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Dec 2009 | 7:50 pm China, India oppose foreign climate oversight - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Dec 2009 | 7:50 pm GM, Suzuki dissolve Canada joint ventureTORONTO (Reuters) - General Motors and Suzuki Motor Corp have agreed to dissolve their vehicle manufacturing joint venture in Canada, with GM buying Suzuki's stake in the operation, the companies said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 4:59 pm GM Chairman Whitacre shakes up senior managementDETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co Chairman and Chief Executive Ed Whitacre announced a broad shake-up of the automaker's senior leadership on Friday, tightening his grip on the company three days after replacing its CEO.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 3:50 pm December 5: Events to watch out forDecember 5: Events to watch out forSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 3:31 pm HC quashes 'emergency' land buy by Rel Power - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Dec 2009 | 3:20 pm Reliance Power\'s Dadri setback:Farmers can regain proj landIn a setback to Reliance Power\'s Dadri project, the Allahabad High Court has upheld Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act and restored farmers\' rights to protest against the land acquisition.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 3:17 pm Reliance Media World lists at Rs 308, to breakeven in FY11Reliance Media World listed on the on the exchanges today at Rs 308 per share. The company is part of Reliance Mediaworks which was formerly known as Adlabs Films.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 3:09 pm Kraft starts clock on unchanged Cadbury bidLONDON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Kraft Foods made its formal $16.1 billion (9.78 billion pound) offer to Cadbury shareholders, triggering a two-month takeover fight for the chocolate maker and a frosty response from Britain.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 3:06 pm Deepak Parekh to make way for Keki Mistry as HDFC bossHDFC said chairman and CEO Deepak Parekh would step down from executive role. Vice chairman and managing director Keki Mistry would take over as vice chairman and CEO.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 2:59 pm Galleon's Rajaratnam was suspected a decade agoSAN JOSE, Calif. (Reuters) - Federal investigators suspected a decade ago that Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam was trading on inside information but were unable to prove he was breaking the law.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Dec 2009 | 1:26 pm Work on to improve network: Prometric - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:52 pm The soothsayerIt would not be incorrect to say that one of the few economists who came out of the financial crisis with an enhanced reputation is John Maynard Keynes, the English economist who died in 1946.  Think tank: Keynes (right) in the 1940s, during the formational days of the International Monetary Fund. AFP Modern macroeconomists who were believed to have won a final victory over Keynes after the global stagflation of the 1970s were neither able to predict the terrible economic downturn of the past two years nor able to offer any compelling policy solutions. Governments saved economies from total collapse by increasing their spending budgets and cutting taxes, the classic Keynesian solution. However, there is more to Keynes than the use of fiscal policy to fight recessions. Robert Skidelsky does well to show in Keynes: The Return of the Master that the man he describes as “the most important economic thinker in the world” had more to offer than an intellectual justification for higher government spending. Keynes believed that we operate in a world of radical uncertainty where the future is essentially unknowable, which is in stark contrast to the belief in academic seminar rooms and investment bank trading floors that there is little about the economic world that a bit of math cannot reveal. His insistence that people allocate savings according to their liquidity preference or that entrepreneurial investment is driven by animal spirits is an early attempt to examine the deep psychological factors that drive economic cycles, something that economists Robert Shiller and George Akerlof have tried to develop in their recent book, Animal Spirits. Keynes–The Return of the Master: Allen Lane, 214 pages, Rs550. Later disciples of Keynes, such as the American economist Hyman Minsky— whose work was all but forgotten till about two years ago—built a more coherent explanation about how economic instability has roots in financial instability, even though the calls of these post-Keynesians for the socialization of investment seem impractical. Skidelsky is better known as the author of the monumental three-volume biography of Keynes, widely regarded as the most authoritative in its class. His new book is elegantly written and persuasively argued, but it has clearly been published in a hurry to meet the requirements of the post-crisis reading market. The first 30 pages on the current crisis read like an overview of what bloggers and newspaper op-ed writers have had to say, and is a bit of a let-down. But the book gets better. The biographical chapter on the many lives of Keynes is one of the best. It shows that Keynes was a man of the world: Cambridge don, investor, civil servant, member of the avant-garde Bloomsbury Group and journalist. Keynes lived in the real world, which is why his economics was driven by practical considerations rather than theoretical elegance. Keynes had a mercurial mind and formidable intellect. We still have much to learn from him—and his contemporaries such as Irving Fisher, Joseph Schumpeter and F.A. Hayek. Skidelsky’s new book is a good starting point to understand Keynes. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha is managing editor of Mint. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:45 pm PM assures of 3G auction on time - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:32 pm RPL Dadri plan gets court rapNew Delhi / Mumbai: The Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group received a setback on Friday when the Allahabad high court struck down a February 2004 notification of the Uttar Pradesh government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav that used special powers to acquire 2,500 acres from farmers for the proposed 7,480MW Dadri power project in Ghaziabad district.  The Dadri power project needs natural gas as feedstock and the two Ambani brothers are locked in a dispute over the price at which the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is to sell gas from its fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin to the Anil Ambani-controlled company Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL), which in turn is to supply gas to the Dadri project being built by group company Reliance Power Ltd (RPL). Anil Ambani has used the provisions of a secret family agreement to argue that his companies have the right to buy this gas from RIL at a 40% discount to the price most other gas buyers will pay. The Allahabad court judgement undermines the basis of the legal challenge in the Supreme Court, said a Mumbai-based sector analyst with a domestic brokerage, who did not want to be identified. An Allahabad high court division bench of justices Ashok Bhushan and Sudhir Agarwal on Friday quashed the Uttar Pradesh government notification of 11 February 2004 made by the Samajwadi Party government, which had inserted a special clause according to which RNRL could acquire the 2,500 acres without any public enquiry. As per the special clause contained in section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act, the state government can do so. The court has now directed the district collector of Ghaziabad to make a detailed enquiry into farmers’ grievances. Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh is considered close to Anil Ambani. Hearing the petition filed in 2008 on behalf of the aggrieved farmers, the court has allowed farmers to file their objections and recover the land taken away through the notification. K.T.S. Tulsi, counsel for the farmers, hailed the high court judgement and said, “The high court has avoided a Singur-type situation and reaffirmed the legal stand that fertile agricultural land cannot be used for industrial purposes until a proper enquiry has been done by the collector that no other alternate land is available for setting up the industry.” Tata Motors Ltd took a decision last year to shelve its small car project in Singur because of protests by local farmers led by the Trinamool Congress, West Bengal’s main Opposition party, denting the image of the Communist-ruled state. “Those farmers who had taken compensation can give it back and reclaim their land. The court ruling has also quashed the ‘urgency’ clause that the state government had been wrongly invoked,” said Rajiv Tyagi, convenor for Sahyog Society, a Ghaziabad-based protest group that opposed the land acquisition. While an email to an RIL external spokesperson seeking comments on whether they see any impact of this verdict on the company’s ongoing case in the Supreme Court remained unanswered at the time of filing the story, RPL’s chief executive J.P. Chalasani told reporters in a conference call late on Friday afternoon that while the company was “still reviewing the judgment, it is clear that land acquisition for the Dadri project has not been set aside and notification under section 4 in relation to acquisition of land has, in fact, been upheld”. Chalasani did not say if the company was considering appealing against the verdict, but added that he found it “surprising and shocking that our corporate rivals are, as usual, distorting the scope and effect” of the high court judgment, spreading “malicious and false information”. However, Tyagi in an emailed statement said that the court “has not only clearly quashed this action pertaining to section 17, but also extended their decisions onto all the other notifications which proceeded thereafter, which can only be interpreted as setting aside of the entire illegal land acquisition process, which was done in the past”. Some lawyers heralded the Allahabad court judgement as “a trendsetting judgement”. “...it would deter the state government to acquire land for public purpose when there exists none. There is a difference between public interest and interest of public companies as public companies may not always serve public interest. By virtue of this judgement, the state governments would be compelled to make a judicious use of special clause (section 17) of Land Acquisition Act,” said Hitendra Mehta, partner at law firm Vaish Associates Advocates. While Chalasani maintained that RPL, which is building the world’s largest gas-based power plant at a single location and spending over Rs25,000 crore, had “in place all approvals and clearances required for the project” and was committed to implementing it, the same Mumbai-based sector analyst with a domestic brokerage stated the Friday ruling was “a clear negative for RNRL” since it puts the land entitlement of Dadri under a cloud. RPL’s shares fell 2.94% to close at Rs150.15 apiece on Friday on the Bombay Stock Exchange while RNRL’s shares closed nearly flat, increasing 0.41% to Rs72.85. The exchange’s benchmark stock index, the Sensex, closed 0.49% lower at 17,101.54 points. manish.r@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:31 pm Setback for Reliance Power's Dadri plantHC quashes use of emergency power for land buys; ADAG firm says its a procedural issue.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:29 pm The Week in review for 4 December 2009New Delhi: The week started with good news for India’s economy. On Monday the government released statistics that show economic activity grew 7.9% in the second quarter. Economists say the growth was driven by a healthy agricultural growth of 0.9% during the quarter. But economists also say agriculture could reduce growth in the current quarter. That’s because Kharif crops, which felt the impact of this year’s poor monsoon, are being harvested now. Weekly food inflation figures were out on Thursday. India’s food price index rose 17.47% in the week ending on the 21 November. Earlier on Thursday, the Prime Minister’s chief economic advisor C. Rangarajan said India’s high food inflation was worrying and that India may have to tighten its monetary policy to deal with it. And the World Bank joined the chorus of concern on Friday, saying excess liquidity in global markets is driving up prices of farm commodities. Auto sales accelerated in November. Maruti sold nearly 88,000 units, an increase of 67% compared to last year. Hyundai Motor’s Indian arm saw its sales go up 29% to more than 55,000 vehicles. And Hero Honda reported a 32% rise in its sales of over 381,000 units. TVS Motor sales also increased, shooting up 23% to about 121,000 units. Two major players are planning to cash in on India’s auto market. General Motors and SAIC of China agreed to create a joint venture that will manufacture and sell vehicles in India. The venture will be a 50-50 partnership. SAIC will invest cash and GM will pool in its Indian assets. Separately, GM will also sell SAIC a 1% stake in their Chinese joint venture, giving SAIC a majority stake in that venture. There was a new twist this week in the battle between ABG Shipyard and Bharati Shipyard for control of Great Offshore. First Bharati Shipyard raised its open offer price for Great Offshore to Rs590 per share from Rs560 per share. Then its rival ABG Shipyard sold its 8.3% stake in Great Offshore. ABG Shipyard’s stake sale will make it easier for Bharati Shipyard to gain a controlling stake in Great Offshore. GlaxoSmithKline and Baxter International have got government approval to conduct human trials of their H1N1 vaccines in India. The drug controller general of India says vaccine makers will begin studies on how the vaccine behaves in the Indian population. It also says India will get a minimum 4 million doses this winter, mostly for healthcare workers treating swine flu patients. Just days before climate talks begin in Copenhagen, environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced a radical change in India’s stance on emissions. Addressing the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Ramesh pledged India would reduce its emissions intensity significantly. Under his plan, India will commit itself a 20-25% cut in its 2005 carbon intensity levels by 2020. Carbon intensity is the ratio of greenhouse gases to every unit of GDP. Just last week, China said it would cut its 2005 carbon intensity by 40 -45% by 2020. Life Insurance Corporation has short listed Accenture for advice on regaining market share and growing faster. LIC still has a 65% market share but has been losing out to private companies in the last few years. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:26 pm HC spanner in Anils Dadri projectAnil Ambani's ADAG-promoted Dadri power project received a setback on Friday when Allahabad high court partially cancelled a notification under which agricultural land was acquired for the proposed 7,480mw project.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:21 pm Godrej Prop IPO band at Rs 490-530Godrej Properties Ltd on Friday set the price band of its Rs 500-crore initial public offer (IPO) at between Rs 490 and Rs 530 per equity share.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:15 pm Farmers ready to give back land moneyWhile Allahabad HC cancelled ADAGs Dadri land notification, counsel for the petitioning farmers, Ashish Pratap Singh, said, The farmers are unanimously ready to refund the amount which they were forcibly given.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:14 pm UIN to expedite fin inclusionImplementation of Unique Identification Number coupled with new technologies will expedite the process of financial inclusion in the country, said Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, while addressing a seminar - Financial Inclusion Summit, 2009 - organised by The Economic Times.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:12 pm Paramounts three aircraft get de-registeredThe Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Friday de-registered three Embraer aircraft which were operated by Chennai-based Paramount Airways.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:10 pm Markets | 7 anchor investors given 42 mn of JSW sharesMumbai: Seven anchor investors were on Friday allotted 42 mn shares at Rs110 each for a total of Rs464.86 crore as part of the initial public offering (IPO) by JSW Energy Ltd. In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, JSW Energy said the anchor investors were Eton Park International Llp, Valiant Mauritius Partners Ltd, Deutsche Securities Mauritius Ltd, Credit Suisse Singapore Ltd, Highfields Capital Management LP, Valiant Mauritius Partners Offshore and Reliance Capital Trustee Co. Ltd. JSW Energy had on Thursday set the pricing of its IPO at Rs100-Rs115 a share, with a discount of Rs5 to retail investors. The company plans to raise about Rs2,700 crore from the IPO to fund its expansion plan to raise generation capacity from the current 1000 MW to 7000 MW by 2012-14. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:10 pm Parekh to step down as CEO of HDFC - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:08 pm A new rail romanceWhat mixes old-world charm with new-age opulence better than a luxury train journey? Indulge in an idyllic week-long journey, ensconced in the comforts of a luxury saloon, while India rolls past. Also See The Carriages Apart from the famed Palace on Wheels, there are two new luxury trains, offering lovers of old-style travel more destinations and choices of routes. Last month, Thomas Cook began the charter of The Indian Maharaja. Its seven-night itinerary takes you to the Taj Mahal, Ranthambore Tiger Reserve and National Park, Lake Pichola, Jag Mandir Palace, and more. In January, Cox and Kings will unveil the Maharajas’ Express, a pan-Indian luxury train with 23 coaches that can accommodate 84 passengers. You can travel like royalty in any of its five deluxe carriages or suite carriages. But if you want to indulge yourself a little more, then the presidential suite is the carriage to check into. There are two restaurants in the train that serve gourmet food—both international and Indian cuisine. Though it’s not mandatory, your dinner jacket would be appreciated. And if you are the sort who gets withdrawal symptoms if you’re away from email and TV, worry not. The trains are fitted with Internet connectivity and satellite television. In the evenings, you can amble over to the observation lounge and play cards with fellow passengers, shop in the boutique or enjoy the view outside while sipping your favourite sundowner. Other than a tour that goes from Mumbai to Delhi via Rajasthan, the Maharajas’ Express also offers a six-night itinerary that will follow the Delhi-Agra-Gwalior-Khajuraho- Bandhavgarh-Varanasi-Gaya-Kolkata route. Prices start at $800 (approx. Rs37,000) per day per person. The presidential suite is $2,500. Christmas and New Year departures cost more. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:08 pm NTPC move under review of panelThe government is to set up a panel of senior officials to examine a proposal pending with the Cabinet Committee on Security allowing state-run generation utility NTPC to scrap a contract to Russian power equipment manufacturer Technoprom Exports over allegations of kickbacks.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:07 pm The moon on saleOwning a piece of the moon isn’t an outrageous metaphor any more. You can have it, and if you do, it would rest in an unlikely place in your house—your bookshelf. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing, Taschen, the publishing house that specializes in books on art and design, will soon bring one of the 12 Lunar Rock editions of Moonfire: The Epic Journey of Apollo 11 to India. Combining the Pulitzer Prize-winning Norman Mailer’s seminal text with previously unpublished photographs from the vaults of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), each copy comes with a unique specimen of lunar rock, ranging in weight from 1.4g to 348g—one of the largest lunar meteorites ever found on earth. Depending on size, the prices are between €60,000 (approx. Rs42 lakh) and €480,000.  Handle with care: A staffer at CMYK holds open a volume of Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy (Random House) that costs Rs32,000. Madhu Kapparath/Mint Indus stocks several other limited edition books such as Walton Ford’s gorgeously illustrated Pancha Tantra and a book dedicated to the fashion maestro Valentino, for Rs76,000 and Rs60,000 respectively (Taschen). Then there’s the store’s pièce de résistance—a signed copy of the biography of Brazilian footballer Edson Arantes do Nascimento, aka Pelé. Priced at Rs1.28 lakh, the 2ft-long book is currently the most expensive book at the store. That will change, however, once the book with the moon rock arrives, packaged in a case made from a single piece of aluminium. Indus’ coup points to a potent market for luxury books in India. Several bookstores dedicated to high-end coffee-table books have emerged over the last few years, indicating a growing customer base. Indus has expanded to two more branches in Mumbai and one at the Taj Residency in Nashik. And three stores—Bookwise, Photoink and CMYK—have opened in Delhi over the last two years.  One of its kind: Prices for the Lunar Rock editions of Moonfire start atRs42 lakh. As a segue to its Tendulkar release, Opus will enter the Indian market with the half-finished Michael Jackson Opus this month. So exclusive are these books that they are delivered directly to the buyer’s home once an order has been placed through bookstores that host dummy copies. CMYK, a Roli Books initiative, will host a copy of the Jackson Opus. Kapil Kapoor, a director with Roli Books, says he was inspired by Opus’ equated monthly instalment (EMI) system to offer a part- payment scheme for books. “The target consumer for a Michael Jackson book is not one who can afford to pay upwards of Rs2 lakh upfront,” he says, adding, “We’re in talks with several banks to set up a monthly payment scheme.” Kapoor isn’t absolutely sure that his plan will work. “When you take an EMI for a car, the bank can seize your car if you default. But we’re finding it difficult to convince lenders that these luxury books can work as a collateral,” he says. While banks may not appreciate the monetary value of these books, stores go the whole hog to perpetuate an aura of luxury. At CMYK, attendants encourage customers to put on handling gloves while browsing through rare books kept on specially designed stands. “This three-volume set on Chinese calligraphy, for instance, is the only copy of the book we have and we don’t want it to look worn out,” Kapoor explains as he leafs through its pages.  Stamped for value: Signed copies of Damien Hirst’s process manuals cost around $150. A selection of his paintings, From the Cradle to the Grave, is priced at Rs48,000. Another Delhi bookstore that specializes in coffee-table wonders, Bookwise, has its staff cling-wrap every book on its shelves. Aarti Walia, who runs the store, says a store executive will gladly unwrap a book if someone wishes to browse through it. She says that the mechanics of unwrapping the book in front of the customer ensures that they are handled with care. “It’s to establish that we care how the books are handled and so far it’s worked.” At both CMYK and Bookwise, readers are served tea and coffee, without charge of course. The Vadehra Art Gallery in Delhi has a reading room with its most valuable art books, around 1,200 titles, apart from a retail space that stocks around 2,000. Poonji Nath, gallery executive at Vadehra, says the reading room provides a chic environment for art and design lovers to browse, with drinks on the house. As Walia puts it: “It’s all for the luxury experience.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:07 pm Ex-Lever exec is MD of ColgateColgate-Palmolive (India) has appointed Mukul Deoras as MD of the company replacing Roger Calmeyer, who has decided to seek early retirement after serving 36 years with the group.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:06 pm Film Review | Paa: A big surprise from Big BIn its outline, there’s little light in the story of Paa. A couple in love parts ways just when the girl, a medical student, discovers she is pregnant; Auro, the film’s protagonist and its emotional centre, is born out of wedlock and with progeria, a degenerative genetic condition that accelerates a child’s ageing process; the child’s death in his early teens is predestined; the father, whom Auro and his mother have not met since he was born, is an idealistic young politician who is struggling to change a corrupt system. The Paa universe is not exactly bright.  A still from Paa In treatment and characterization, Paa has a certain breeziness and a brand of humour which, although awkward and laboured in parts, tries to remind us that life is worth living even when it sucks. It reaffirms the same positivity canon that many mainstream Hollywood films exploit while depicting disease and death. Francis Ford Coppola’s Jack and Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump are just two examples. In Paa, there are no ugly, tragic moments. Auro is a happy, normal child—sometimes too grown-up and wise for his age (he has some tacky I-know-it-all lines about India and life in general). There’s no prejudice against him because of his disability (except one incident in school which is shown in flashback). Can a child with the knowledge of his imminent death be so zen? Can children around him in school be so accepting? I was unconvinced. However, Amitabh Bachchan’s performance—he plays the 13-year-old Auro, son of Vidya (Vidya Balan) and Amol Arte (Abhishek Bachchan)—lifts the unremarkable script. There are no intricacies or subplots; and no surprises either—pretty much everything that happens in the story is established in the beginning. Despite my discomfort at the “happy” feel of the film, I got that sigh-inducing uplift during some moments (like when Auro realizes he has a father). Amitabh Bachchan is in character throughout—the character’s impact is not just about great prosthetic make-up and fabricated contortions and body movements. It’s Bachchan’s ability to internalize the moods and impulses of a child with a debilitating disease. Few actors in the Hindi film industry have the courage and commitment to push boundaries. Bachchan Sr obviously immersed himself in preparation for this role, and that kind of ambition and drive is admirable.  But despite the good, Paa should just have been Auro’s story; it should have been a story more deeply committed to the child—and other children like him—and his unique condition. Paa released in theatres on Friday. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:06 pm GM to bring CVs with SAICGeneral Motors on Friday announced plans to enter the commercial vehicle segment in India with Chinese partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC).Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:05 pm Market-determined 3G auction soonPM Manmohan Singh on Friday said that 3G telephony spectrum would be auctioned soon, thus ending the uncertainty generated by reported differences between ministries of telecom and defence on vacation of airwaves.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:04 pm Vodafone cuts roaming charges by over 50%Vodafone Essar, one of the major players in the mobile sector, has finally joined the tariff war in the roaming segment in the world's fastest-growing cellular market.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Dec 2009 | 12:03 pm GM enters into JV with SAIC to sell cars in IndiaBeijing/China: General Motors Co. and its main Chinese partner, Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp. (SAIC), announced a venture Friday to sell vehicles in India, uniting in the two fastest growing car markets in a deal that reflects GM’s reduced status as a global auto maker.  India venture: A GM manufacturing plant in Pune. The venture will sell Chinese-made GM cars and mini-commercial vehicles. Adeel Halim / Bloomberg The deal comes on the heels of GM’s board and CEO Fritz Henderson parting ways Tuesday, the board upset that the auto maker’s turnaround wasn’t moving more swiftly and Henderson frustrated with second-guessing, two people close to the former CEO said. Board chairman Ed Whitacre Jr. has taken over as CEO while a global search is conducted. “We have an outstanding relationship with SAIC,” said Nick Reilly, president of GM’s international operations, in a conference call with reporters. “It seemed to us very sensible and a big opportunity to deepen that relationship and broaden that relationship outside of China.” GM agreed to turn over 1% of Shanghai General Motors to SAIC, which will give the Chinese partner 51% of the company. Reilly said GM valued that 1% at $85 million. He said the transfer will give SAIC the right to approve the joint venture’s budget and the appointment of senior managers. Reilly said bringing in SAIC and its investment meant the Indian venture could develop more quickly. Total investment in the India venture is expected to be more than $650 million , Reilly said. GM was contributing half in the form of factories and a distribution network in India and SAIC would provide the rest, he said, though declined to say whether that would be cash or other assets. The venture also will sell Chinese-made GM cars and mini-commercial vehicles. feedback@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:47 am Sehwag’s genius is beyond dry statisticsCricket purists, I suspect, may have been somewhat relieved when Virender Sehwag was dismissed for 293 on Friday and did not get his third Test triple hundred. Heck, there would have been some major explaining to do about how a batsman with suspect technique could score so many runs so consistently.  Ton-athon: Virender Sehwag acknowledges the crowd after scoring a double century on Thursday during the second day of the third Test match between India and Sri Lanka at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. AP For him to get ahead of Brian Lara, they will have argued privately, would have been a travesty; to beat even Sir Donald Bradman nothing less than blasphemy. I am not so sure, however, whether such thinking is either correct or prudent. Watching Sehwag bat over the past decade, I reckon Lara, Tendulkar, Viv Richards, Gavaskar, Walcott, Weekes, Sobers—all the great batsmen who have adorned this game, including the statistically unimpeachable Bradman— would have doffed their hat in acknowledging his genius. Starting out as a clone of his idol Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag has carved out a path that is so thrilling and different that he is now an original himself. Indeed, what he has achieved so far in his career demands fresh scrutiny because it demolishes some time-held beliefs and establishes a batsman who would book a place for himself in the pantheon of all-time greats without much reason for debate or dispute. For instance, in 72 tests, Sehwag has 6,248 runs with 17 centuries and an average of 52.50, which bears comparison with any player save Bradman in these aspects. Had he played for records and remained not out more often than just four times, his average would have been considerably boosted. Twelve of his centuries have been in excess of 150, four of which graduated into double hundreds and two into triples. The prolific century-making and the extraordinary high scores establish his staying prowess, but really it is his strike rate, a phenomenal 80.40, which marks him out as unique. No other frontline batsman in the history of the game comes anywhere close. Richards, the next best, for instance, has a strike rate of just a shade below 70. But it is pointless spending too much time on statistics, rather on the impact he has had on the game. In the past, too much has been made of the ‘loose’ way Sehwag bats. It had been furiously argued that his back and across movement when playing fast bowlers is crab-like and clumsy, that he uses too much bottom hand and there exposes himself to greater risk, that indeed he simply takes too many risks. But that was mistaking gold for coal. Cricket suffers from an overdose of academic rationalization, and especially when it comes to matters of ‘technique’. For more than a century it has been assumed that there is a certain way and rhythm to bat, and anything that deviates from the fundamentals is intrinsically flawed. Since batting technique got codified, so to speak, at the turn of the 19th century, a sound defence has been touted as mandatory for any player. Sehwag has hit that theory for a six. In his system, unbridled aggression is the key factor. He does not need time to play himself in, is eager to hit every ball, unafraid of any bowler, any condition, any situation. In a sense, he has redefined the grammar and idiom of batsmanship for the modern game. He is unorthodox in approach, yet no less assured of what he is doing. He is uncomplicated in his strokeplay and phlegmatic in his demeanour, but his apparent nonchalance is in fact a fascinating cover-up for a mind that is ticking all the time. He has superb eye-hand coordination, terrific ball sense, brilliant timing and most importantly rarely looks out of control even during extreme bouts of derring-do, as in the 293 against Sri Lanka at the Brabourne Stadium on Thursday and Friday. But all things considered, it is his utter fearlessness that makes him special. He seems to walk out to bat oozing with gallons of adrenaline, and keeps not just spectators in thrall, but also his rivals and batting partners. It is not that he does not play a percentage game, but such is his self-belief that he can pull off the most outrageous stroke without compunction when ordinary mortals would be fretting about getting out. Just where Sehwag stands among the great batsmen who have played this game will occupy the minds of academicians forever, but there is no doubting that he stands alone. In my book, he ranks as the most destructive batsman in the history of the game as yet. The regret that he had missed a third triple ton is only the bane of statistics, not the burden of geniuses. feedback@livemint.com Mumbai-based Ayaz Memon writes on cricket and other matters. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:36 am IAG pays SBI Rs 500 cr premium for non-life JVInsurance Australia Group (IAG) will pay Rs 542 crore for a 26 per cent stake in its general insurance venture, SBI General Insurance Co.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:34 am India to get more nuke reactors from RussiaIndia and Russia will take new steps to reinvent their strategic partnership when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin on December 7, with a civil nuclear cooperation agreement and an extended defence cooperation pact, expected to be the highlight of the meeting.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:33 am Banking still miles away from JalangaSaraswati Das, 32, walks 20 km whenever she has to carry out a banking transaction. The walks have become more frequent of late because membership of the self-help group (SHG) she heads has been growing.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:31 am Corus to shut Teesside plant, cut 1,700 jobsLondon: Europe’s second biggest steelmaker, Corus, is to close a plant in northeast England with the loss of 1,700 jobs after failing to secure a long-term partner for the site’s output. Corus, owned by India’s Tata Steel, said on Friday it was mothballing the Redcar blast furnace, Lackenby steelmaking and the South Bank Coke Ovens, belonging to Teesside Cast Products (TCP), at the end of January. The firm said it will keep open some Redcar operations, thus meaning around 600 more jobs will be retained than originally envisaged in May, when it said it may have to suspend operations after a consortium terminated a contract to buy almost 80% of the plant’s production for ten years. Corus has already cut around 4,500 jobs in Britain this year, after shutting plants to offset the decline in global steel demand. “We are acutely aware that this will be devastating news for our employees, our contractors, their families and the local community,” Corus chief executive Kirby Adams said. The latest job cuts equate to 2% of Corus’ total workforce of 80,000 people. The unemployment rate in Britain is currently running at 7.8% and the threat of a further rise in the number of people out of work is hampering recovery across many sectors. Britain’s biggest union Unite called on the government to rescue the plant on what it called a “dark day” for British manufacturing. “The government must now act to save Teesside as decisively as it acted to save the banks last year,” Unite’s joint general secretary, Derek Simpson said. The government said it would do all it could to help workers hit by the closure and to find an alternative use for the plant. “I share the bitter disappointment felt by everyone who is affected by this news,” business secretary Peter Mandelson told BBC television. “We have working with Corus all year to try and find a long-term solution that would save jobs and capacity at this plant.” Trade union Community said the Corus decision was “premature” and would have disastrous consequences for Teesside and the manufacturing base of the north east. “Tata Corus are making a premature decision to close TCP despite having orders on the book to the end of the year. There is still time to save TCP as a going concern,” Community General Secretary Michael Leahy said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:26 am Goldfinger moves to ChinaHave you noticed empty jewellery shops recently? Have you been to a wedding where less gold is on display? And have you looked at small 1g earrings lying at the back of the safe with more respect of late? Think hard, because the inexorable rise in gold prices seems to have finally dented the famed Indian appetite for the yellow metal. China is set to overtake India as the most prodigious buyer of gold in 2009, says GFMS, a metals consultancy. Indians have been put off by gold prices, now over Rs18,000 per 10g in the domestic market, compared with a little over Rs10,000 per 10g two years ago. Meanwhile, the Sensex trades below its December 2007 level. Gold imports this year are expected to be around 400 tonnes, half of what they were five years ago. GFMS estimates that gold demand in India is likely to be 422 tonnes while the Chinese demand will be 432 tonnes. This data does not include central bank purchases of gold; the Reserve Bank of India had bought 200 tonnes of gold in November. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:17 am Maximum City: Then and Now Bombay Then, Mumbai Now: Text by Jim Masselos and Naresh Fernandes, photo research and editing by Pramod Kapoor and Chirodeep Chaudhuri, Roli Books, Rs2,975. Click here to view a slideshow of then-and-now images of the iconic city Culling rare images from sources as diverse as the Tata Central Archives Collection and the Asiatic Society of London, the “then” section of the double-sided book documents the transformation of the once “insignificant cluster of islets” into one of the most vibrant cities of the world. The book includes some extraordinary historical photographs, such as a rare image of the inner chambers of the Parsi Fire Temple in Dhobi Talao (c. 1905) before photography was allowed in the premises. The “now” section has the more dynamic stills—tableaux that capture the pace and populace of the city. Compiled by Anindita Ghose anindita.g@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:10 am DGCA deregisters 3 Paramount aircraftNew Delhi: India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has deregistered three of the five aircraft in the fleet of Chennai-based Paramount Airways Pvt. Ltd, a move that may lead to disruptions from Saturday. This is the second time since last year that the regulator has deregistered aircraft at the behest of lessors owing to defaults in lease payment. GE Commercial Aviation Services (Gecas) last year confiscated three aircraft from Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, the country’s second largest private airline, for this reason. Mint reported in October that Gecas had sought to de-register Paramount’s aircraft and that DGCA was considering the move. Four-year-old Paramount, with a market share of around 2%, largely flies within southern India, using its leased fleet of Embraer 70-75 seater aircraft. “Air traffic control (ATC) has already been informed of the registration numbers of the aircraft today,” said one of two top government officials who confirmed the move, adding that the planes will not be allowed to fly from Saturday. “We couldn’t have stopped them mid-flight today,” he said on Friday. Both officials declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. The second government official said the airline has told DGCA that the aircraft should not be deregistered as the carrier has won a case over lease payments in London against Gecas. “We will not go on hearsay,” the official said. “When the original copy of any such order comes, then we can register them again with the relevant charges.” A Paramount Airways official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that there was an order to deregister the aircraft but reiterated that the airline has won a case over the issue in London. Paramount will present its case to DGCA, this official said, adding that he expects the planes to keep flying. Paramount’s aircraft carrying the registration numbers VT-PAD, VT-PAE and VT-PAF have been deregistered, according to the officials. The three aircraft were part of a lease agreement with Gecas dated 29 July 2005. The airline is currently operating around 20 daily flights after two of its aircraft were grounded in the past three months due to engineering issues, said another airline official who asked not be named as he is not authorized to speak with the media. Gecas’s spokesperson could not be reached for comments late on Friday by email or telephone. DGCA’s spokesperson was not available to comment. tarun.s@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:08 am Salboni thermal power plant's construction to begin mid-2010JSW Energy, a part of the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group, will begin construction of the 1,600 MW thermal power plant in West Bengal's Salboni by the middle of next year, a company official said here Friday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 4 Dec 2009 | 11:00 am Star channel awaits regulatory approvalNew Delhi: Star India’s launch of a stand-alone home shopping television channel has been held up by regulatory hurdles. The channel, named Star CJ Alive and run by Star CJ Network India Pvt. Ltd, a venture of Star India Pvt. Ltd and CJ O Shopping Co. Ltd, which broadcasts a home shopping channel in South Korea, is still awaiting approval from the information and broadcasting ministry. “We are ready with our infrastructure and manpower. Everything is ready to roll,” said Paritosh Joshi, chief executive officer of Star CJ Network. “We will launch our channel within a fortnight of getting the licence from the government.” The delay for the broadcaster comes even as its flagship channel Star Plus lost its clear dominance in the Hindi general entertainment category earlier this year. Rivals Colors TV channel, run by Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd, and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s Zee TV are now also closely contesting for market leadership in the category that has the largest viewership in cable TV homes in India. Star CJ Alive is available for six hours a day on Star Utsav, another Hindi entertainment channel operated by Star India. “We get thousands of calls in a day but the rate of conversion to a purchase is very low as of now. We are only on one channel for a limited amount of time,” Joshi said. Star CJ Alive’s rival, HomeShop18, a venture of the Network18 group, was launched in July last year and has both a TV and online presence. In the three months ending September, HomeShop18 clocked gross sales of Rs46.7 crore, an increase of 91% over the year-ago period, according to information available on the company’s website. It processed 187,000 orders in the quarter, an 87% rise over the year ago, the firm said. “With the backing of a brand like Star and stable financial investments, the delay of the launch should not be too much of a problem,” said Smita Jha, media and entertainment analyst at consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Star India had received government approval for overseas investment in a home shopping channel in October 2008 and announced a partnership with CJ O Shopping in March. Approval to air the channel was sought in May, Joshi said. ishita.r@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 10:46 am Content has been a collective failure from all film-makersMumbai: In his four years with UTV, Siddharth Roy Kapur has practically lived movies. The chief executive officer (CEO) of UTV Motion Pictures has been involved in almost every role, starting with marketing, then in revenue, followed by distribution before taking over as CEO in 2008. His current profile puts him in charge of all aspects of development, production, marketing and distribution, making him an understandably busy man. Kapur speaks about the slow returns at the box office, on experimenting with films and new talent, and their plans for the next year. Edited excerpts:  Quality films: Kapur says UTV has produced films abroad, but its focus now will be more on India. We had films we were proud of like Dev. D, Kaminey and Wake Up Sid, which was a great association with Karan Johar. Dev. D turned out to be a cult film, the kind that a few years ago would not have been made. It was a year of learning for us; some films worked, some did not. In your opinion, what are the reasons for poor box office revenues this year? The main reason probably is content, which has been a collective failure from all film-makers. Then for three months there were no releases, which meant that all the films bunched up. No film could last long at the cinema because of continuous releases. People had too many choices. Finally, ticket prices have gone up so viewers are more careful with what they see. It was also a year that saw the collapse of several big-budget films. For some time people have been dealing with films like a project rather than as an artistic form. Budgets have therefore outstripped growth and revenues. Today, a Rs40 crore film will make little financial sense once you have added the costs of marketing and publicity to it. It will be hard to recover that kind of money. That does not mean we will not make films with larger budgets, but we will rationalize. We were always circumspect with budgets, now we would be even more careful. It finally depends on what a film deserves. Jodhaa Akbar was made in Rs37 crore while Aamir needed Rs2 crore. Has the jubilee era ended? Films these days are more about the opening weekends than sustaining a longer run. That era has gone by because of the growth in exhibition, a wider platform of distribution and to combat piracy. A lot of potential revenue comes from a wider flow of releases. You have to maximize revenue along the time when the promotion of a film is at its fever pitch, before another movie comes out and takes over. Nearly 90% of the revenue comes from the first four weeks of a film’s release. Has the UTV Spotboy model of making small films worked well enough to continue with it? The model was to make quality films with fresh talent and market them aggressively. Which is why films like Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, Welcome to Sajjanpur and Dev. D worked. There is an equivalent risk with small and big films. You just have to manage them as efficiently as possible. We spent Rs2 crore in making Aamir and the same amount promoting it. We took some calculated risks, which have their upsides and downsides. Like Dev. D, for example, had 16 songs and a familiar story, but it was not marketed as a dull, somber film. We built excitement around the concept. You have to do justice to a film’s potential and plan to make any venture as commercial as possible. Has the economic slowdown rationalized the prices of actors and directors? It’s not yet happened at the speed it was expected. But the process has started and we hope things will go back to normal. Any industry that does its share of films based on concept, franchises, animation, etc., does not need to bank on stars all the time. Is it possible to justify the Rs250 cost of a multiplex ticket against a bad film? No cost can justify a bad film but, in their defence, multiplexes have given the choice to a section of society that did not think it was cool to see movies out of the comfort of their homes. They have brought out families for an experience that is more luxurious and the experience includes more than just the movie. The revenue from multiplex tickets is significant in the scheme of things. What are UTV’s specific strategies for the next year? We don’t have any particular agenda except to build on the existing ones. We want to have as varied a slate as possible, to make the best quality films in every genre that’s commercially viable, to cater to all audiences while encouraging new talent and experimenting with the form of film-making. We also want to open up to markets newer than the 45 countries that we cater to globally and tap the huge South Asian diaspora. UTV has produced films abroad, but our focus is going to be more in India. How many scripts do you get on an average? Are there still any original stories left to be told? We get one or two scripts every day, which go through our development team. We make about 12-14 films a year, so you can do the math. We want to be able to develop stories in-house for which we have a team of six or seven people. There are original scripts and talented writers, but there has been a lack of focused attention in developing that talent. People make films like any other project, without allowing ideas to incubate. We pushed new talent in the form of Dibakar Banerjee (Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!), Nishikant Kamat (Mumbai Meri Jaan), Neeraj Pandey (A Wednesday!) and Anurag Kashyap (Dev. D) in early stages of their careers, working with different styles of films that have told edgy stories with sensibility. Which films from 2009 do you wish you had made and what future projects are you bullish about? Probably Love Aaj Kal and Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani. Next year, I am looking forward to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzarish, Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti, Rajkumar Gupta’s No One Killed Jessica, Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Live and Abhinay Deo’s Delhi Belly both with Aamir Khan Productions. Your other brothers too are in the entertainment industry. Is that a coincidence (Kunal is an actor/director, Aditya is a VJ-turned-actor)? Each of us has made his own path but also influenced the other. We were all interested in theatre, reading and progressed in our respective directions. We do discuss cinema at home, but more of what we have watched, on the craft of acting and film-making. arun.j@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 10:34 am GDP growth will be a volatile ride in the next two quartersClick here to listen to the full interview with Rajeev Malik Mumbai: India’s gross domestic product, or GDP, grew 7.9% for the quarter ended September, the fastest pace in 15 months boosting sentiment in the stock markets and prompting economists to revise growth estimates upwards. However, this road forward is bumpy and volatile, warns Rajeev Malik, economist at Macquarie Bank in an interview with Mint. Edited excerpts: Do you think this kind of accelerated GDP growth is sustainable? Well, that level of growth is not sustainable at least over the next one or two quarters. There were one-off factors which resulted in such an elevated pace of growth. While we do think that India is headed for an 8% GDP growth in the next year, the December quarter will get hit and we will see a bounce back in the March quarter. So it’s going to be bit of a volatile ride. Do you think agricultural growth could be further revised downwards?  Bumpy road: A file photo of a Tata Steel blast furnace in Jamshedpur. Macquarie’s Malik says industrial activity will continue to drive gross domestic product growth in the next two quarters. Santosh Verma/Bloomberg Industry and services would do well, but within services, part of the benefits from the pay commission hike we saw will not be repeated. I would not play up on the expenditure side—what we have seen on private consumption and investment, because much of the improvement is still supported by policy. And that was exactly what policy was meant to do—to boost domestic demand. So we need, more self sustaining elevated growth, and that is still some ways off, which is precisely why the removal of stimulus is going to be done in a gradual (way). Bank credit is not growing fast. What do you think is driving industrial activity? Bulk of the improvement is coming from sectors where the fiscal stimulus has worked. If you look at automobile or two-wheeler sales for example, or infrastructure-related industries, all these have been the key beneficiaries. Don’t forget, even if bank credit (growth) has been decelerating, companies have been able to raise non-bank financing. And finally, the latest loan growth numbers—they inched upwards, but it remains to be seen if it’s a turning point. Will industrial activity lead to an attendant pick-up in services sector? It certainly will. Don’t forget that some of the services on their own are doing well—tourism is a case in point. Trade-related and retail-related activity will be picking up and when loan growth begins to pick-up, finance will be doing better. The outsourcing industry, will incrementally, be doing better. We are still in a transition phase, where partly because of good policy support, things are improving, but at the same time some meaningful improvement is taking place in other sectors. Are you worried that government expenditure accounted for a large part of growth, while private or retail demand is not increasing as fast? The whole idea for an expansionary fiscal policy is for the public sector to offset the softening spending by the private sector. That is precisely why (India took on) the fiscal gamble and, to be fair, it has paid off. So the critical issue is more of private growth has to come through, but it is still early stages which leads me to a related issue—I don’t think RBI (Reserve Bank of India) is going to be aggressive in terms of its tightening policy. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Dec 2009 | 10:06 am Kerala to host IT industry conferenceThe Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Kerala government will jointly organise a two-day information technology conference near here starting Dec 10 to deliberate on India's role in the global IT industry.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 4 Dec 2009 | 9:04 am Haryana seeks quick sanction of nuclear power plantWith a high-level delegation of the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) of India, concluding its visit to Haryana Friday, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has urged it for fast-tracking 2,800 (4x700) MW nuclear power plant so that it could be set up in the state soon.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 4 Dec 2009 | 9:02 am CAT schedule extended by a day only in 20 citiesAfter the online Common Admission Test (CAT) collapsed in several places, creating confusion among thousands of B-school aspirants, the authorities conducting it Friday extended the exam schedule by one day but only in 20 cities.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 4 Dec 2009 | 9:02 am United Bank IPO to hit market by FebruaryState-run United Bank of India (UBI) Friday received the central government's nod for its maiden initial public offering (IPO), which will be launched by the first week of February next year.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 4 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Broadband for 2 5 l villages by 2012 PMPrime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said that 2.5 lakh village panchayats would be connected with broadband by the end of 2012. He said that the country should double its tele-density in next three years. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 8:57 am Challenge is to clock 9 growth FMFinance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday expressed confidence that the country’s growth during the second half of the current fiscal would be strong, given the 7.9 per cent growth registered in the July-September quarter despite a weak monsoon.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 8:46 am India could grow at 8 9 in 2 years WBIndia is likely to return to high growth trajectory of of 8-9 per cent in the next two years, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said on Friday. India’s strong fiscal and monetary policies have helped the country in coming out of the financial crisis.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 8:45 am ED finds evidence of FDI violations by Emaar MGFThe enforcement directorate (ED) on Friday claimed to have found “incriminating documents” pointing to large-scale FEMA violations by the realtor Emaar MGF.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 8:42 am Forex reserves up at 286 723 billionIndia's foreign exchange reserves rose by $ 1.379 billion for the week ended November 27, to $ 286.723 billion compared to $ 285.344 billion in the previous week.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 8:35 am India Inc warms up to climate changeFrom coconut shells and cashew kernels to ice creams, ketchups, tea and soaps. From municipal solid waste to alternate energy. CDM has spawned the development of the Indian carbon market with a robust and diverse portfolio of projects.Gaurav Choudhury & Anupama Airy report.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Dec 2009 | 8:33 am Uttar Pradesh gets Rs.1,400-cr investmentsUttar Pradesh received investments worth Rs.1,400 crore in the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector in 2009, a government official said here Friday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 4 Dec 2009 | 7:05 am
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