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Unitech to focus on Mumbai market, debt reductionIn an exclusive discussion with CNBCTV18, Unitech Managing Director Sanjay Chandra has said the companys core focus remains bringing down its debt and concentrate on Mumbai as a market.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 6:35 am RIL ups LyondellBasell\'s nonbinding proposal to $56 bnSources indicate that Reliance Industries (RIL) has updated its nonbinding proposal for LyondellBasell. CNBCTV18 learns that the revised proposal has a significantly higher cash component of USD 56 billion from the earlier offer of USD 2 billion.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 5:58 am Toyota sees 7.5 mn global output in 2010 !Toyota Motor Corp expects a 17 percent increase in its 2010 global production to about 7.5 million units, Japanese media reported on Saturday.Source: Zee News : Business | 26 Dec 2009 | 5:31 am Oil price might rise `reasonably`: Saudi king !Oil prices are stabilising and might even rise "reasonably," Saudi Arabia`s King Abdullah was quoted as saying by a Kuwaiti newspaper.Source: Zee News : Business | 26 Dec 2009 | 5:31 am NMDC aims to raise $4.9 bn through share sale !The government is hoping to raise over Rs.230 billion ($4.9 billion) from the sale of a stake in iron ore miner National Mineral Development Corp.Source: Zee News : Business | 26 Dec 2009 | 5:31 am China revises up 2008 growth on services strength!China has revised up its 2008 growth rate to 9.6 percent, taking it well above the originally reported 9 percent.Source: Zee News : Business | 26 Dec 2009 | 5:31 am Eicher Motors targets 15% mkt share in HCVs in next 3 yrsEicher Motors is betting on growth. It hopes to capture nearly 15% of the market in the next few years. The company has laid out an aggressive expansion plan. The company wants to have a foothold reach in every segment of the commercial vehicle market.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 5:09 am Govt should pay oil cos in cash: ExpertsFormer Petroleum Secretary, SC Tripathi and former Finance Secretary, S Narayan say the government should pay the oil companies in cash and not in bonds.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 4:23 am Oil price might rise \'reasonably\'Oil prices are stabilising and might even rise \"reasonably,\" Saudi Arabia\'s King Abdullah was quoted as saying by a Kuwaiti newspaper.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 3:27 am NMDC share sale may raise $4.9 billionThe government is hoping to raise over Rs 230 billion (USD4.9 billion) from the sale of a stake in iron ore miner National Mineral Development Corp.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 3:27 am Inside story: How they saved SatyamMeet a league of extraordinary gentlemen, the 6 men who saved Satyam.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 3:09 am Saab deal hopes fade, GM presses on with wind downGeneral Motors Co is pressing ahead with plans to shut down Saab as chances of a deal to sell the Swedish brand to Dutch sports car builder Spyker Cars remain remote.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 3:04 am Russia MTS buys local network operator for $110 millionMTS, Russia\'s largest mobile phone operator, has bought telecoms network operator Eurotel for USD110 million, MTS said on Thursday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 3:04 am Goldman, JPMorgan CEOs to appear at crisis hearingA commission created by Congress to look into causes of the financial crisis will question the chief executives of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase Co, Morgan Stanley and other big banks at its first public hearing next month.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 3:04 am Sharma releases 'consolidated' draft FDI policy - domain-B
Source: Business - Google News | 26 Dec 2009 | 2:31 am Market makes merry in Christmas week Sensex at 19 month highThe market bounced back with a vengeance, moved up nearly 4 per cent, a 19-month high during the week due to hectic short-coverings amid positive development. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 26 Dec 2009 | 2:25 am RIL ups LyondellBasell's non-binding proposal - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 26 Dec 2009 | 2:05 am Reliance yet to decide on final bid amount for LyondellBasellReliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is yet to zero in on the final bid amount for its proposed acquisition of the bankrupt petrochemical maker LyondellBasellSource: Business Line - Home Page | 26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Mop up by mutual funds' new offers halves in Aug-NovSource: Business Line - Home Page | 26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am New Year shocker for employeesAll employees, whether in the private or public sector, have been administered a shock — lower take-home pay for the next three months. Consequent to the abolition of the much-hated and cumbersome Fringe Benefit Tax, the Central Board ofSource: Business Line - Home Page | 26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Public sector refining companies gasping for survivalThis was a year best forgotten for the public sector refining trio of IndianOil, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat PetroleumSource: Business Line - Home Page | 26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Central banks keen to stock up on goldSource: Business Line - Home Page | 26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Non-debt capital flows aid rupee rebound against dollar2009 was a mixed year for the Indian rupee. Volatility in foreign exchange markets saw the rupee gain 7.5 per cent against the dollar since the beginning of this financialSource: Business Line - Home Page | 26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am SEBI speeds up case disposalThe Securities and Exchange Board of India appears to be showing some urgency in investigating cases of violations of capital marketSource: Business Line - Home Page | 26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am States clamp down on power exportsReforms in the power sector remain stymied though the path-breaking Electricity Act, 2003 promised to usher in a free market as most States are stubbornly refusing to playSource: Business Line - Home Page | 26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Excise duty exemptions to be phased out graduallyIndia may move to a dual Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime next year, but the Cenvat (excise duty) related exemptions, especially area-based ones, will not be withdrawn at one go for ushering in the new taxSource: Business Line - Home Page | 26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Audience backs Hollywood hits to Bollywood flopsSource: Business Line - Home Page | 26 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am Rahul Bajaj says no 'hamara Nano' for now - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 25 Dec 2009 | 11:21 pm Prayers and silence mark 2004 tsunami anniversaryPhuket: Five years after a massive tsunami triggered deadly tidal waves across Asia, low-key ceremonies Saturday marked the solemn anniversary with prayers and moments of silence for the 230,000 people killed. The devastating 26 December 2004, tsunami struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim. It eradicated entire coastal communities, decimated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches the morning after Christmas. Survivors waded through a horror show of corpse-filled waters. Survivors were among the hundreds of people who returned to the white-sand beaches in southern Thailand on Saturday to recall one of the worst natural disasters of modern times. A moment of silence was observed on Phuket’s Patong Beach, a popular strip of hotels and restaurants, to mark the moment the tsunami struck. Dozens of Buddhist monks in bright orange robes chanted prayers. Onlookers wept and embraced. Giorgio Capriccioli, an Italian who lives on Phuket, carried a bouquet of white flowers into the ocean. He waded knee-deep in water that five years ago was clogged with corpses and cast the flowers adrift to honor the memory of two friends. His wife owns several beach-front shops but decided not to go to work the morning the tsunami struck. “My wife would be dead if it weren’t for the fact that she were pregnant and didn’t go to work that day,” he said at a ceremony that also attracted sun-drenched tourists in skimpy swimsuits, as well as Thai residents. The ceremonies on Phuket were to culminate in the evening with candle-lighting ceremonies and the release of hundreds of light-filled lanterns into the sky. Memorial services were also planned elsewhere in Asia. In the Indonesian province of Aceh on Sumatra island, which was hardest-hit by the disaster, some mosques held prayer services Friday. The tsunami was sparked by an 9.2-magnitude underwater earthquake off Sumatra — the mightiest earthquake in 40 years. More than 8,000 Thais and foreign vacationers perished in Thailand. Coastal communities in Sri Lanka and India lost some 48,000 people between them. Indonesia’s loss of about 167,000 accounted for well more than half of the total death toll. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:56 pm National Mineral Development Corp share sale may raise $4.9 billionThe public offering is likely to take place in March 2010, the report said, citing finance ministry sources.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:13 pm Oil price might rise 'reasonably': Saudi king AbdullahThe Saudi economy was in 'excellent shape' and the global financial crisis had had only a limited impact on the member of the leading G20 countries, King Abdullah added.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:00 pm Paths to prosperityIt's important for India to learn the right lessons from the West's crisis of confidence. We need to link ourselves with parts of the globe that are economically less volatile.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:50 pm Toyota expects 17% rise in 2010 global production: ReportAccording to reports, the figure is at a level similar to Toyota's output in 2005 and represents a decline of one million units from 2007.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:48 pm NMDC share sale may raise $4.9 bln - reportMUMBAI (Reuters) - The government is hoping to raise over 230 billion rupees ($4.9 billion) from the sale of a stake in iron ore miner National Mineral Development Corp, the Times of India said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:29 pm Oil price might rise "reasonably" - Saudi king in paperRIYADH (Reuters) - Oil prices are stabilising and might even rise "reasonably," Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah was quoted as saying by a Kuwaiti newspaper.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:26 pm Toyota sees 7.5 mln parent-only global output '10 - mediaTOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp expects a 17 percent increase in its 2010 global production, excluding units Daihatsu and Hino Motors, from this year to about 7.5 million units, Japanese media reported on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:20 pm China revises up 2008 growth on services strengthBEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday revised up its 2008 growth rate to 9.6 percent, taking it well above the originally reported 9.0 percent after calculating that the service sector had been more productive than previously thought.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 7:27 pm Digital outdoor advertising exists, but is still in its developmental stagesOutdoor advertising in India is set to grow by 17% between 2010 and 2015. DNA asks experts to predict the scenario in India in 2010.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 2:26 pm Knowing when to prepay your home loanThe decision should be made based on the prevailing interest rate and your cash balance.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 2:24 pm How to claim past dividends from mutual fundsWhen you receive the dividend amount, there will be a fund management fee charged for that amount, depending on the number of years it has been pending.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 2:20 pm Centre lists its objections on GST draft paper - Indian Express
Source: Business - Google News | 25 Dec 2009 | 2:15 pm Information & broadcasting seeks 112% more funds from finance ministryAmbika Soni, union minister of I&B, has asked the finance ministry for an allocation of Rs 1,700 crore for the next fiscal.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 2:11 pm IndiaFirst Life eyes Rs 100 croreIdeally a company has to bring down its costs to less than 20% of the premium by the fifth year to achieve a break-even.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 2:07 pm Roadblocks continue for new highway projectsUPA government's initiatives haven't led to awarding of more contracts.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 2:04 pm Exploration and production fillipIn the days to come, analysts foresee upsides for the stock from appraisal and exploration activity.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 2:02 pm NMDC selloff can fetch Rs 23k crIn the biggest disinvestment exercise in 18 years, the Centre is hoping to raise over Rs 23,000 crore from National Mineral Development Corporation.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 25 Dec 2009 | 1:25 pm IT stocks shine at 52-week highAs 2009 comes to a close, almost all IT companies have seen a near doubling in their stock prices from their 52-week low.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 25 Dec 2009 | 1:24 pm Ashok Gupta resigns as ED of HULHindustan Unilever's (HUL) executive director (legal and company secretary), Ashok Gupta, has tendered his resignation.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 25 Dec 2009 | 1:22 pm Uncle Sam gives techies long holidayThe holiday season got sweetened for over 15,00,000 techies who work for firms like Cisco, Intel, HP, Yahoo!, Accenture in the country, with Uncle Sam granting them some additional holidays this year.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 25 Dec 2009 | 1:21 pm Coal India secures two blocks in MozambiqueIt's official now. Mozambique has awarded two coal acreages in its Maotize region with an estimated one billion tonne reserves to Coal India Ltd.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 25 Dec 2009 | 1:20 pm ICICI to raise Rs 1,200cr via bondsThe country's largest public sector lender, ICICI Bank, is raising up to Rs 1,200 crore by issue of bonds.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 25 Dec 2009 | 1:19 pm WorldSpace to stop service from New YearIt's sad news for radio listeners. Satellite radio WorldSpace will go silent in India from New Year.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 25 Dec 2009 | 1:18 pm RIL SEZ, others asked to seek fresh licenceThe Centre has refused to extend the in-principle approvals to as many as 11 SEZ projects.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 25 Dec 2009 | 1:17 pm Bajaj not focusing on small car nowTwo-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) was planning to launch its own small car by 2011 to counter Nano but BAL chairman Rahul Bajaj said that they no longer find it a "good idea".Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 25 Dec 2009 | 1:16 pm Outbound deals to boost M&A in 2010Bangalore: Indian firms are back on the prowl. After a lean period of two years, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by local firms are set to increase by 40% in 2010, a prediction based on deals investment bankers and advisers are working on.  Graphics: Sandeep Bhatnagar / Mint Eleven investment bankers and deal advisers Mint spoke with said Indian firms are mainly searching for overseas targets to boost both growth and resources. This would trigger acquisitions primarily in oil and gas, metals and minerals, technology and telecom, mostly in Africa, Europe and North America, they said. “A lot of Indian companies have strong balance sheets. They have the ability to strike deals,” said Sanjay Thakkar, head, transactions and restructuring, KPMG India Pvt. Ltd. “European companies have taken longer in recovering from the slump. And many European and North American groups are looking at dispensing their non-performing, non-core assets.” Reliance Industries Ltd, for instance, is trying to buy bankrupt Luxembourg-based petrochemicals firm LyondellBasell. Reuters reported this week the deal is unlikely to be finalized in 2009 as LyondellBasell is still evaluating its options. Several Indian IT firms, too, are looking to buy companies in North America and Europe as they try to secure high-value government contracts coming up in those countries. Other companies are looking to South American nations such as Chile and African countries such as Zimbabwe for firms owning iron ore and coal mines. “In the first six months, three-four big-ticket deals ranging upwards of $250 million (Rs1,170 crore) may get announced,” said Ranjan Biswas, partner and national leader, transaction advisory services, Ernst and Young India Pvt. Ltd. “They would be in real estate, infrastructure including power, and housing, oil and gas.” Mergers and acquisitions involving Indian firms had slowed considerably in the past two years from the peaks of 2007 because of an economic downturn. In the first 11 months of 2009, M&A deals in India fell nearly 40% over the previous year to 256, according to data from Grant Thornton, an advisory firm. The fall was sharper in terms of value, declining by around 72% to $8,396.89 million. But India’s economy recovered faster than most developed nations, growing at a better- than-expected 7.9% in the July-September quarter and has seen rising at a similar pace in the latest three months, which has boosted the morale of corporate houses and investors, say experts. Also, many of the country’s top 50 companies by market value have achieved scale in India and are looking to replicate that globally, they said. “There is a strong trajectory and I believe that deal volumes and deal values would be stronger than 2009, but it’s too early to say if it would reach the 2007 level,” said KPMG’s Thakkar. With overseas markets trading at a discount to India and financiers more eager to fund Indian firms, the country is likely to see a spree of cross-border acquisitions, say experts. “One key M&A activity driver will be P-E (price earnings) multiple arbitrage, something which will allow India Inc to buy into the G3 markets (Japan, the US and Europe) without these acquisitions being dilutive,” said Tarun Kataria, managing director and chief executive, global banking and markets, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd (HSBC), India. “The other, of course, is the availability of financing.” Also See | In Vogue (Graphics) Kataria said 75% of HSBC’s pipeline of deals by Indian companies is outbound. He added that most of the deal activity involving Indian firms will be in the range of $200 million to $1 billion, though this could vary considerably if there is any further economic disruption again, such as the Dubai debacle. Late November, Dubai had requested a standstill on $26 billion of debts linked to Dubai World, its flagship financial arm, and its property units Limitless and Nakheel, which are developing three palm-shaped islands in the emirate. Experts says that while Indian companies may be in a position to successfully pull off overseas acquisitions in the current market environment, raising funds could still be an issue. Meanwhile, foreign companies, too, are looking at getting at a foothold in India. “India is an important market for international corporates. We are seeing greater interest from strategic players because exposure to emerging markets such as India is becoming a priority for them,” said Falguni Nayar, managing director, Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. Ltd. The foreign firms, however, may not pick a majority stake but acquire small holdings just enough to give them an entry into Indian markets, she added. According to some other advisers, India’s pharma industry is touted to be the hottest sector in 2010 with regard to domestic, inbound and private equity deals, as foreign firms looking to enter the generic drugs space. “There are too many pharma companies and they need consolidation. Overseas players would be active in acquisitions in this sector,” said C.G. Srividya, partner, specialist advisory services, Grant Thornton. deepti.c@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 12:45 pm I’m like a weaver with just one sari on the loom: Aamir KhanMumbai: On the eve of the release of 3 Idiots, the only film of 2009 with Aamir Khan in a lead role, the actor’s residence at Pali Hill, Bandra, wasn’t exactly bustling with pre-release activity. He had already completed a tour across India, promoting the film, and All is Well, the film’s anthem, was already in advertisements and Top 10 lists of radio channels. Khan spoke to Mint in his study, crowded with books and files and a painting recently painted by and gifted to him by Salman Khan. Edited excerpts: Such a long promotional tour for ‘3 Idiots’ across the country, and that too in disguise. You must be tired?  Silver screen: Khan says cinema and film-making are basically about storytelling, with a different story to sell each time. Shriya Patil Shinde/Mint You do few films. What makes you decide which films you want to be a part of? Why ‘3 Idiots’? I choose films based on my excitement about the script and my level of confidence and faith in the director and producer of a film. At that time, I am the audience. I move towards roles instinctively, there is no great thought behind it. I loved the script of 3 Idiots. I have been very keen to work with Rajkumar Hirani for some time now. The only doubt I had and still have is the age of the character. He’s 22 and my own age is 44 now. The audience will decide whether I’ve been able to pull it off nor not. But the character of Rancho, which I play, is someone who Raju (Hirani) felt was close to who I am in real life. I have taken some bizarre decisions, have followed my own rules. The college life that the film portrays must be very different from the days when you were in college. How much of modern India is present in the film? It’s not much different, actually. The concerns that the film throws up are pretty universal. Most people of that age, say, from 14 to 20, are unsure of themselves. I was one of those people who were very sure and passionate about what I wanted to do from a very young age, and I moved towards it very quickly, unafraid of logic and practicality. But that’s a rare situation. Often, there are parental pressures on young people. This is a film with a message for both parents and youth, but it makes you laugh. Have I learnt something that I want to know? Does a certificate mean I am educated? These are the questions that the film addresses. You are known to rehearse and prepare a lot before your films. Is it ever a disadvantage to be so involved in the script, the promotion and all the other aspects of film-making? I’ve always been like that. It is never a disadvantage. I honestly feel that I prepare less. If you compare me with people around me, perhaps I do more than the norm. But I would like to do more. Do people who work with you understand that? They do. All the films that I have done, we have rehearsed two or three months before filming. I don’t think Kajol had ever done rehearsals before she worked with me in Fanaa. Rehearsing is a way in which you get comfortable in what you’re meant to do. Once you reach that comfort level, you have nothing to worry about. Some scenes don’t need rehearsals, because I and the other actors feel we’re already there. It’s an andaaza (estimation). Tell me about this promotional tour. Was it your idea? Yes, I came up with the idea because this is what the film is. The promotional idea has to be in synergy with the idea of the film. Will it succeed? I don’t know. See, in the film Rancho disappears. The entire story unfolds in a journey that these two friends take, to find where Rancho is. I thought instead of talking about the film, I could mystify it. If I’m not available to describe the film, the connect will be at a more emotional, visceral level. It was a difficult thing to carry out because for me to visit the country and not be recognized is not a joke. So about three months went in deciding where I’ll go, what my get-up will be, etc. Did anything surprise you or jump out at you about India during the tour? The fact that by and large people are extremely warm and hospitable. They want to include you. The diversity of the country that you know exists actually becomes real for you, which is fascinating. How best does one market an artistic product? Obviously, it is different from an ordinary consumer product. Cinema and film-making are basically about storytelling. Each time you’re telling a different story. If I am marketing a toothpaste, I know it’s a product made with certain ingredients, which is going to be repeated. I can’t tell the audience come and watch my film; then there would be no difference between Ghajini and 3 Idiots. I have to convince them that, conceptually, what I am selling you this time is different from what I sold you the last time. Marketing is actually a very heavy word. I am telling you: ‘I have this very unique and lovely story to tell you, come and listen to it’. I must tap into your imagination. You have recently turned producer with your own banner, Aamir Khan Productions Pvt. Ltd. What kind of films can we expect from it? As of now, there are three films—Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Live, Abhinay Deo’s Delhi Belly and Dhobi Ghat, which is incidentally written and directed by Kiran, my wife, in which I am also acting. I choose to produce films exactly the way I select films as an actor. It is not a production company with an agenda to produce a certain number of films every year. I am like a handloom weaver, like the Chanderi weaver I visited. When I saw his house, I realized I am like him. I have one house in which I have got one machine—no, actually, machine is the wrong word—where I have got a (loom) with just one sari loaded on it. I know how to make that sari well. In the last decade, the business of film-making has changed a lot in India. On the one hand there’s corporatization and on the other there are individual banners. The old-time producer seems to be fading out. Is it a good thing? It doesn’t matter because at the end of the day, we are human beings. A corporation is, after all, made up of people. As long as producers are people with an aptitude for telling stories and they are passionate about cinema, they will choose the right scripts. It’s the people that matter, not the structure. What do you consider your best works of the decade? It’s very difficult to choose, but I’d say, Lagaan, Rang De Basanti and Taare Zameen Par. Do you know yet if you’re acting in a film next year? No, I don’t know. I’ll be focusing on my production house now. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 12:45 pm PSUs fail to meet Sebi criterion on directorsTwenty-one out of 43 listed public sector undertakings (PSUs) do not have the required number of independent directors, as stipulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 12:28 pm Festive West high on desi wear apparel exports surge 6 per centFigures released by the Apparel Export Promotion Council on Friday showed that the growth in exports over the previous year, which had been negative through most of 2009, falling to an abysmal low of 17.62 per cent in October, hit a positive 6.04 per cent in November, reports Sumant Banerji.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 12:24 pm Surjit S Bhalla: India's Shining Decade - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 25 Dec 2009 | 12:12 pm Word to your motherIn 1999, Aaron Peckham, a computer science student, decided he wanted to have fun with words. He started Urbandictionary.com . It looked exactly like Dictionary.com , the difference being that all the definitions were funny and written by Peckham and his friends. It snowballed. Youngsters from around the world started contributing words and definitions. With 18 million visitors a month (as of November) and 4.4 million submitted definitions, Urban Dictionary (UD) is the biggest linguistic phenomenon of the decade.  Defining moments: (top) Obama; and 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Photographs: MSgt Cecilio Ricardo / Wikimedia Commons and AFP For those unfamiliar with the site, it offers its own definition: “A place formerly used to find out about slang, and now a place that teens with no life use as a burn book to whine about celebrities, their friends, etc., let out their sexual frustrations, show off their racist/sexist/homophobic/anti-religion opinions, and babble about things they know nothing about.” Peckham talks about a generation defining itself. Edited excerpts: When did UD change from being a parody to a more accepted slang dictionary? In spirit, UD is still a parody of a real dictionary. It looks like a reference, but its entries are unresearched and strongly opinionated—I think that’s what makes it so interesting. But the change from emulating Dictionary.com’s appearance to having a recognizable UD logo and style happened around 2003. What do you feel about including slang in serious dictionaries? If a word is in use, I think its definition should be available. If you hear a word on the street, or read it on the Internet, you need a reference that will explain it. I think it’s great when regular dictionaries add slang words. We recently removed the word “slang” from the front page text that describes UD’s mission. It used to say “Urban Dictionary is the slang dictionary you wrote,” and now it says “Urban Dictionary is the dictionary you wrote.” I think that’s closer to UD’s real use—it documents language as it’s really used, whether or not you call the words “slang”. For example, UD has definitions for normal words like cereal and smile. UD’s different from other dictionaries because its entries are written by normal people, whether they’re slang or not. How do you think UD makes language more democratic? Language is owned by the people who speak it—if a dictionary has an alternate spelling or meaning than what your friends use, that doesn’t mean your expression is invalid. UD tries to keep up with that by allowing anyone to write definitions. Readers can vote on which definition is best, and that one rises to the top. So the first definition on every page is the most popular one. Do you try to ensure that the words in UD are relevant to people of other cultures as well? I try to make UD accessible to everyone, but it only focuses on English definitions for now. Some headwords are written in other languages, but the definitions are in English. The process to get a word published involves a panel of randomly selected volunteers, and those volunteers can be from around the world. So hopefully UD reflect how English is used anywhere it’s spoken. Has any word in UD created a controversy? UD has a lot of controversial words. One that’s attracted a lot of attention recently is “teabagger”. I’ve gone to court a few years ago when UD worked with the American Civil Liberties Union as a plaintiff in a case regarding free speech on the Internet. UD defines my name as “everything good”, “very strong marijuana”, and “another way to call a Chinese delivery boy”. That’s great! I want people to find entertaining definitions on UD. When I first started UD I thought I could control what it was used for. But because it’s so open, and so many people use it, it’s been used for things I never imagined—like defining people’s first names. How do you feel about a decade of tracking slang words? Thanks to the Internet, language is growing faster than ever now. And it will continue to grow faster in future, and I hope UD will be there to document it. Phenomenon of the next decade that you want an apt phrase for. It’s hard to predict what we’ll need a phrase for. A month ago, no one would have guessed we’d need the phrase “tiger’s wife mad” to describe “the act of being so angry at someone that you find the item they cherish most and beat them with it”. I’ll be on the lookout for words to describe new everyday phenomena though, and I’ll be featuring them on UD’s front page. DEFINITE ARTICLE Aaron Peckham picks his favourite Urban Dictionary definitions • Wait, shit: What someone would say after realizing what they just said or did was idiotic. • Joke insurance: When two guys have an understanding to laugh at each other’s jokes, no matter how lame the said joke is, therefore lessening the social failure of the joke. • Niteflix: Dreams so complex in plot and rich in production value that they seem like feature-length films. • Rescue chip: A rescue chip is the chip used to fish bits of the first one that broke in the dip. • Procrasturbating: Using masturbation to otherwise occupy yourself while pressing matters await. • Bad economy: An all-purpose excuse that people use during a recession to justify doing things that are below their standard. • Cash pedal: The accelerator pedal in your car during times of high petrol prices. • Life password: The password you use for every website. • I’mma let you finish: Obnoxious way to interrupt someone and steal their moment. Based on Kanye West’s infamous interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when West cut the teen singer off, grabbed the microphone and protested in support of Beyoncé. • Heening: Behaving like an attention grabber. Name taken from the Heene family, whose balloon boy hoax tricked the entire world on 16 October. Blessy Augustine blessy.a@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm CERC tells exchanges to clarify traders' roleThe Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has directed Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Ltd (PXIL) to amend their business rules and by-laws to clarify their members roles.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 11:35 am Crude oil production down 1.5% in November - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 25 Dec 2009 | 11:34 am Ministers' appraisal soon, may trigger Cabinet rejigOver the next month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to review the performance of his ministerial colleagues in their first six months in office. This review exercise could be a precursor to a Cabinet reshuffle, the first since the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government entered its second term in office.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 11:33 am SBI banks on wind powerIndias largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has financed many wind power projects in the country: Now it is setting up a few of them as well.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 11:30 am Germany s s Oliver to expand in IndiaGermany’s premium apparel brand s. Oliver is planning to increase its India presence. The company would open 77 stores in India by the end of 2012 at an expected investment of Rs 60 crore.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:58 am IDPL expands range in reboundState-owned Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which is awaiting Cabinet approval for a rehabilitation package has on its own revamped its operations by launching new products and also trading in 50 other products as it tries to boost sales in a bid to inch back to profitability.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:56 am China revises 2008 growth up to 9 6China on Friday revised up its 2008 growth rate to 9.6 per cent, taking it well above the originally reported 9.0 per cent after calculating that the service sector had been more productive than previously thought.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:53 am Japan passes trillion dollar budget amid debt worriesJapan on Friday approved a record trillion-dollar budget, seeking to aid an economic recovery but also fuelling concerns about its swelling national debts.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:49 am Apple scrip goes through the roof on tablet talkWith a huge Christmas-eve surge in its stock Thursday, Apple has almost reached market parity with Google and Wal-Mart.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:46 am Russia fears gas problems with Ukraine, stops oilMOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has scrapped January oil exports via Ukrainian ports and also said it fears Ukraine will have problems paying for its gas, a sign of a possible repeat of New Year gas rows which have led to supply cuts in Europe.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:29 am The Week in Review for 25 December 2009New Delhi: NTPC has failed to get clearances from the environment ministry for its eight captive coal blocks. The coal blocks were meant to help NTPC lock in a stable fuel supply. About 80% of NTPC’s installed capacity runs on coal and a majority of its coal-fired units are already facing fuel shortages. Reliance Industries Limited claims to have discovered natural gas in its D3 block in the KG basin off India’s east coast. This is RIL’s third discovery in the D3 block, which covers more than 3,000 square kilometres of area. The company says it is still evaluating the potential of its new discovery. Indian officials are slated to go to Oman in January to work out the details of a joint venture agreement on oil. Under the potential agreement, Oman could set up a major crude oil storage facility on India’s coast. The oil will be meant for markets in East Asia, but will help build India’s own storage infrastructure and provide it with emergency reserves. Mergers and acquisitions may not get any easier for India’s phone companies. This week Mint learnt that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI is unlikely to recommend any major changes to mergers and acquisitions norms in the telecom sector. TRAI is concerned large telecom companies will buy out smaller ones based only on the spectrum they hold. It’s expected to submit its recommendations to the government in the third or fourth week of January. One year after the financial crisis, India’s mall developers appear to be back in the game. An industry estimate says 15 new malls have opened in seven major Indian cities in just the last three months. And another 48 malls are slated to open next year. Up to 85% of 640 ongoing mall projects came to halt around the time of the meltdown last year. Good news for private airlines. A study from consulting firm Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said both Jet Airways and SpiceJet could make a full-year profit in 2011. It says Kingfisher’s domestic operations will become profitable in 2011. But things aren’t as good for Air India. According to the study, the carrier will continue to post losses in 2011. Home minister P. Chidambaram proposed a major overhaul of his ministry. Highlighting increased security concerns; Chidambaram said he wanted the ministry’s functions to be divided so that one section can be devoted entirely to internal security. Chidambaram has also said a new national center for counter terrorism would be set up by the end of next year. On Thursday the union cabinet approved a proposal for creating a category of so-called Maharatnas for state-run companies that are performing well. Firms under the new category include NTPC, ONGC and SAIL. Maharatna status lets companies take investment decisions worth up to Rs5,000 crore without consulting the government. The previous limit was Rs1,000 crores. Wholesale food inflation rose 18.65% in the week ending the 12 December, a slight decrease from the previous week. Infrastructure company GVK is talking to Siemens to pick up either a part or a complete stake in Bangalore International Airport Limited. GVK already holds a 29% stake in the airport. Major carmakers revealed they would showcase new cars at next month’s auto show in Delhi. Honda Motor will unveil a new concept small car tailored for the Indian and other developing markets. And rival Maruti Suzuki is going to showcase a concept version of the R3 multipurpose car. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:19 am Another sweetheart gas deal with Qatar unlikelyIndia is looking at Qatar for a ‘sweetheart’ gas deal but Doha appears in no mood to sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) at anything less than $9-11 (Rs 421 to Rs 515) per mmBtu — more than double the domestic gas price.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:07 am India Inc prefers QIPs to overseas securitiesThough the quantum of funds raised via the depository route has shot up in 2009, the corporate sector seems to be veering towards qualified institutional placements as the preferred mode for meeting fund requirements.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 10:04 am Pink slips to rosy outlookWith new outsourcing contracts coming in, the company has called back 2,000 of such people on higher salaries. A slew of recent data releases confirmed signs of turnaround in the economy.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:57 am More carriers plan to return to the skiesMumbai: A clutch of small passenger and cargo airlines is raring to return to the skies. The Gurgaon-based MDLR Airlines Pvt. Ltd, that suspended operations in the first week of October, contemplates restarting in January. Similarly, Jagson Airlines Ltd, that got its licence to operate as a regional airline in the early 2009 but never took off, now plans to start commercial operations on 15 February. With the Indian aviation sector expected to fly back to better times, about half a dozen regional carriers and two dedicated cargo carriers are planning to begin operations in the first six months of 2010. Carriers which have been waiting in the wings are taking heart from a revival in passenger traffic, even as the aggregate loss of Indian airlines rose 44% to Rs8,557.37 crore in 2008-09. The projected losses for the current fiscal are no less, but the private domestic airlines are expected to make a combined profit of $250-300 million (Rs1,170-1,404 crore) in the fiscal year ending March 2011, a 22 December report of consulting firm Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa) said. It will, however, take them longer to wipe off losses accumulated in the recent downturn. “We have already got the permission to import one Avro RJ85 aircraft for our regional operations. The plan is to connect Srinagar, Leh, Ranchi, Patna and some other points of Himachal Pradesh from Delhi,” Jagson Airlines’ chief executive officer Koustav M. Dhar told Mint on Friday. Dhar was most recently with MDLR Airlines as its chief operating officer that was flying three Avro jets with 70 seats made by BAE Systems, Inc. “MDLR will be ready for operations in January. Of the three aircraft, one is fully functional and the second will join the fleet soon after minor maintenance,” said Harsh Vardhan, chairman of Starair Consulting Pvt. Ltd, that is advising at least five airlines including MDLR. According to him, four airlines are expected to commercially launch operations in the next six months. Initially, they will start as non-scheduled operators that do not publish timetables. Vardhan, former chief executive of wound-up state-owned feeder airline Vayudoot, advises MDLR, Luan Airways Pvt. Ltd and three other regional airlines. “In three months, Luan Airways lines will start flying based out of Surat,” Vardhan said, adding in next six months, three more regional carriers from Uttarakhand, Orissa and the North-East will start flying. In 2007, the civil aviation ministry introduced a policy for small start-ups to connect small towns, complementing national operators. It has given permission to several start-ups, including ZAV Airways Pvt. Ltd, Star Aviation, MDLR, Jagson Airlines and King Air Pvt. Ltd. An executive at Flyington Freighters Pvt. Ltd, promoted by a Hyderabad-based business family whose members also own the Deccan Chronicle newspaper, said his airline would launch operations in the first half of 2010. Apart from these players, Star Aviation Pvt. Ltd, that was to start operations in early 2009 from Chennai, has recently obtained an initial “no objection certificate” (NOC) from the ministry of civil aviation extending the deadline to start operations till 2 June 2010. Dedicated freight carriers such as Aryan Cargo Express Pvt. Ltd and Quikjet Cargo Airlines Pvt. Ltd too have obtained similar extensions. Aryan Cargo is bringing two Airbus A310 aircraft to support its cargo airline, following the footsteps of Deccan Cargo and Express Logistics Pvt. Ltd, floated by G.R. Gopinath, who started country’s first low-fare carrier Air Deccan. After launching its cargo operations with three A310 planes, Gopinath is bringing six small ATR-72 planes to boost the connectivity to small towns, using Nagpur as hub, according to the data of the ministry of civil aviation. Re-entry of regional airlines is critical for the aviation industry as domestic carriers have been incurring huge losses because of excess capacity and high jet fuel prices. This has forced at least a dozen airlines to postpone their commercial launch. Charles Dhanaraj, an associate professor of management at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Indianapolis, and an expert on the Indian aviation industry, told Mint last week that the sector can fly back in to profitability zone as the economy develops, with an warning that “if it enters into hyper-competitive phase, it will kill the industry itself.” “These carriers are getting over-excited with economic growth. One should not forget several start-up carriers wound up in mid-1990s. When there are a lot of planes with huge capacity in their bellies, where is the market for dedicated freight carriers?” asked a director of a leading private airline, who did not want to be identified. According to him, regional carriers will harm the profitability of Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. But Jagson’s Dhar does not share this pessimism. “There is tremendous potential for regional carriers as the main carriers are focused on metro routes. A regional carrier can claim at least Rs8,000 for a Delhi-Ranchi, Delhi-Kullu or Delhi-Leh ticket while a main carrier cannot dream of getting Rs3,000 for Delhi-Mumbai sector,” he said. Starair’s Vardhan endorses his view: “The loss made by domestic carriers in the last two years was because of over-capacity and they were focusing only metro routes. The small towns continue to be under-served. Also, the industry is now moving to coastal belt and companies are moving near to the raw material sourcing centres in smaller cities”. Meanwhile, among the existing players, Kingfisher Airlines will add more planes to its fleet from early next year as the airline is in the process of settling a dispute on payment default with an international engine maintenance firm. “The engines are coming back for Kingfisher Airlines planes. This would mean that at least 10 more planes would fly from early next year,” a person close to the development said on condition of anonymity. A Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson declined to comment on the matter. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:53 am Bengal political battle takes to the stageKolkata: When the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, began its 32 years of as-yet unbroken rule in West Bengal in 1977, there were several cultural components to the advent. Among them was the jatra (Bengali folk theatre), Maa, maati, manush (Mother, land, people), which became a rage in the rural areas of the state because its Leftist message struck a chord with the people.  Gaining strength: Jatra posters put up in Natun Bazar. Political parties in Bengal are using folk theatre to connect with the rural population. Indranil Bhoumik/Mint The 2011 assembly election could just mark a watershed, with Banerjee gaining strength in recent polls as she tries to bring the CPM’s run to an end. No wonder, then, that the political parties are tightening their grip on jatra, a powerful tool for communicating with the rural population. The plays have forsaken the usual social and mythological themes to deal with issues such as land acquisition, industrialization and exploitation of the underprivileged. Apart from the rewritten Maa, mati, manush, at least six other jatras including Maa, mati, manush kandchhe: Agnikanya aschhe (Mother, land, people weep: the dragon lady comes) and Maa, matir lorai (mother and land struggle) are doing brisk business. The trend has all but drowned out the voices of those who view the politics as a crass innovation. “But this is bad art,” says Sovanlal Dutta Gupta, a social scientist and former professor at Calcutta University. “All forms of theatre in West Bengal are now under the influence of political parties… This, in my view, is unfortunate.” Subtlety is not a strong point of the new jatras. The references are direct—most of them feature clearly identifiable people with just the names changed—and the stories are almost identical: a corrupt government grabbing land, a fearless leader resisting this and eventually seizing power with overwhelming support from the people. “Social themes aren’t selling any more,” says Ranjit Chakraborty of Shilpalok Opera, the troupe behind the Maa, matir lorai. “That people now want jatras like these is evident from our ticket sales.” Since September, Maa, matir lorai has been staged 25-28 times each month, and ticket sales were, on average, 50% higher than other plays produced by Shilpalok Opera lately.  Powerful tool: A man sits next to a jatra poster in Natun Bazar. The plays have forsaken the usual themes to deal with issues such as land. Indranil Bhoumik/Mint Political leaders are now keeping a close tab on folk theatre, though initially the troupes had begun staging the plays on their own, sensing the appetite for them, according to a renowned jatra actor who did not want to be named. The political jatras started in the middle of 2007 after the agitation in Nandigram, he recalls. The West Bengal government had proposed a chemical hub at Nandigram in East Midnapore district, but even before land acquisition notices were issued, local protests forced the government to pull the plug on the project. In the political clashes that convulsed the area, dozens were killed, some of them in police firing. “These days political leaders often sit through our rehearsals, and even suggest changes to the script,” says the jatra performer. “And if satisfied with the rehearsals, they would make sure that the jatra gets a good (run) and makes good money.” Trinamool says it isn’t directly encouraging troupes to stage political plays. The success of the plays is merely a reflection of the support that Banerjee has built up, according to Partha Chatterjee, a party leader. “They are adapting Mamata Banerjee’s writings and ideas,” says Chatterjee, also leader of the opposition in the state assembly. “Our party’s movement is now so popular that people can immediately relate to jatras inspired by Banerjee’s ideas... That’s why they are commercially so successful.” Even ultra-left political groups are actively using folk theatre to spread the message. Lahate miye lalgarh (Bloodstained Lalgarh) in the Santhali language deals with the exploitation of the tribal people in the economically backward areas of the state. Similar plays in Santhali and Bengali dialects are being staged in districts such as East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Birbhum and Malda, almost all of them dealing with the exploitation of the downtrodden. “We are keeping a watch on the content of these plays,” says Surajit Kar Purakayastha, inspector general of police (law and order). “We are suspicious because, on the one hand, we don’t understand the language, and on the other, we understand the political motivation behind these plays.” Even as the Trinamool Congress tightens its grip on jatras, the CPM is hitting back with professional theatre groups. Theatre actor and director Chandan Sen is planning a production on the Maoists, whose violent campaign has been characterized by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the single biggest internal security threat facing India. “The aim is to make a distinction between true revolutionary leaders like Che Guevara and the mercenaries killing people in West Bengal’s tribal areas in the name of class struggle,” says Sen. CPM denies influencing playwrights. “These plays are their own creation,” says Rabin Deb, a CPM state secretariat member. “We are different from the Trinamool Congress, which is using theatre to garner support for their ideology.” After the Nandigram agitation, Banerjee won the support of several leading theatre personalities such as Saonli Mitra, Bratya Basu and Kaushik Sen. They campaigned for “change” during the April-May general election, and are now churning out plays that have strong political themes. Kaushik Sen says however that “we aren’t taking sides. Though we deal with political issues, violence and vandalism that we are witnessing everyday, our plays are unbiased.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:52 am EIL looks to set up gas-based projectsNew Delhi: State-owned Engineers India Ltd (EIL) plans to enter the gas-based power project business as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm and a consultant, positioning itself to take advantage of the expected surge in the domestic output of the fuel. The leading engineering and technical services provider is expected to face competition from other companies in the space such as Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, BGR Energy Systems Ltd, Larsen and Toubro Ltd and even Chinese companies such as China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corp., and Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp., or Sepco. EIL, which plans a partnership with an equipment manufacturer, has decided to enter the business keeping in mind the prospect of gas discoveries and its status as a clean-burning fuel, given the increasingly tight emission norms. “In the gas-based power project business, either it can be a combination of being an EPC player and a consultant or one of these,” said A.K. Purwaha, chairman and managing director, EIL. “Whenever we will be going for a project, we will be going with some partner.” India has a power generation capacity of 152,360 MW, of which 10.8%, or 16,822.85 MW, is gas-based. “We know the proposal of the government and the other players in the gas market... I am very confident that going forward, the demand for natural gas will grow,” he said. “We need to position ourselves to provide optimal solutions to the people. That means you provide a gas-based power project at an optimal cost.” India has recoverable natural gas reserves of 119.55 billion cubic metres and produced 32,847 million cubic metres in 2008-09. Natural gas production from the prolific D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin has started and is expected to reach around 89 million standard cubic metres per day by March 2012. “Gas-based power projects will be the need because coal availability is a big limitation,” said Anish De, chief executive at Mercados Asia, an energy consulting firm. “EIL has good expertise in the design of projects, though they have been in more oil and gas projects, but there is a lot of synergy here.” In a related development, the company plans to refocus on the fertilizer plant business. Though EIL has set up eight fertilizer projects, it has been concentrating on the hydrocarbon value chain and built its expertise in refinery engineering with a raft of projects. These include 47 petroleum refinery projects, seven petrochemical complexes, 250 offshore platforms, 35 oil and gas processing projects, 26 mining and metallurgical plants, and 37 crude oil, gas and petroleum pipelines. “We have got very good strength in hydrocarbons and all its value chain, be it upstream, midstream or downstream,” Purwaha said. “We are looking to enter new areas in line with the government’s policy.” EIL has cash reserves of around Rs1,600 crore and posted a net profit of Rs105.37 crore on a turnover of Rs468.20 crore in the second quarter. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:41 am Some struggles, a lot of hope, for orphansThe 2004 tsunami obliterated Pipit’s village, wiped out her family and swept her through churning waters, cascading debris and hurtling bodies. On her first night as an orphan, at the age of 13, she slept next to a row of corpses. Also See Tsunami Recovery: Numbers Tell the Tale (Graphics) Five years later, she still has moments of sadness, especially during holidays. But like many of Indonesia’s at least 5,200 known tsunami orphans, she is making a life for herself. She has enrolled in university, plays the violin and plans to tackle German. “Most of the time, I don’t think about the tsunami,” said Pipit, who lives in a comfortable orphanage in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province and close to the epicentre of the earthquake that unleashed one of the worst natural disasters in history. “I’m trying to be strong,” said Pipit, who like many Indonesians uses one name. The 26 December 2004, quake registered at least 9.1 on the Richter scale and unleashed towering waves that levelled communities from Indonesia to Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. About 230,000 people died, more than half of them in Aceh on the island of Sumatra. At least $13 billion (Rs60,840 crore) in donations poured in from around the world, nearly half for Aceh. In some Indonesian communities, only the mosque was left standing. They have been rebuilt. Destroyed homes have been replaced by sturdier ones, new schools have gone up and freshly paved roads crisscross the region. There are few visible reminders of the tsunami in Banda Aceh, with one glaring exception: a 5,000-tonne ship that was hurled into a residential neighbourhood roughly 1km inland. It has become a tourist attraction. The emotional recovery of the tsunami’s orphans hasn’t been as complete. Some continue to struggle with loneliness and anger, and flounder in school. Eight-year-old Arif Munandar lives in a picturesque neighbourhood, at the water’s edge and ringed by mountains, that has been completely restored with help from international and Indonesian donors. He lost his parents and two sisters in the tsunami and was later adopted by his mother’s sister, Jamilah. They live in a family compound teeming with aunts, uncles and cousins who share three adjacent houses. Arif has trouble concentrating at school and often gets into scuffles. Jamilah tries to teach him about the Quran, but he doesn’t want to listen. “I don’t know what to do,” she said. In the immediate aftermath, Arif cried for his mother all the time. It took his aunt a month before she worked up the courage to tell him that his parents were dead. At his school, rebuilt by Plan International, a British-based nonprofit organization, 80% of the children lost a family member in the tsunami and about a quarter lost a parent. “Five years later, they’ve almost forgotten it happened,” said Nurhayati, the vice-principal. “They look cheerful again.” Only a handful, she said, are still clearly haunted by it, including Arif. “He’s a loner,” Nurhayati said. “He daydreams a lot.” The count of 5,200 orphans may seem low, considering over 100,000 people died in Aceh. That’s partly because so many children died, and partly because many were taken in by family and left out of the official statistics. Most seem to be coping well, said Justin Curry, psycho-social technical adviser for the American Red Cross tsunami recovery programme. “The great thing about kids is that they are resilient,” he said. “They can handle a tremendous amount.” Many of Aceh’s children had already suffered emotional scars from the province’s 30-year war of independence, which orphaned many children before the two sides agreed to lay down their arms after the tsunami. In some ways, coping with the fallout of war helped Aceh deal with the aftermath of the tsunami, said Peter La Raus, Save the Children’s chief in Banda Aceh. People had already developed extensive family and social networks to help them deal with hardship. “The tsunami was devastating, but they didn’t have to develop a new social network from scratch,” La Raus said. On the other hand, the tsunami was a new trauma layered over that of war, said Curry, of the Red Cross. “You had a population that was living in a chronically stressful situation and then another major stresser occurred,” he said. Some, like Pipit, live in the Muslim region’s many religious boarding schools or orphanages, which proliferated as international aid poured in. At her orphanage, the 93 females, all of them clad in Muslim head scarves, appear to be well behaved and happy, needing only four adults to supervise the two dormitories. The facilities include a basketball and volleyball court, an outdoor cafe and a mosque. Pipit’s close friend, Intan, chose to live in the orphanage, funded by a Turkish non-profit, because she found it more appealing than living with her strict grandmother, who took her in after Intan’s parents died. “I can be independent here,” said the 13-year-old, who also lost a brother and a sister in the tsunami. “I have lots of sisters here. We study together. We travel together. I didn’t have any friends at my grandmother’s.” Her choice is not the one favoured by international agencies such as Unicef and Save the Children. They say it is far better for children to stay with extended family than to live in an institution, where staffing is often thin and close relationships with adults are difficult to forge. The groups have been working with the provincial government to develop closer oversight for orphanages and ensure that children only enter them when absolutely necessary. On the day of the disaster, hundreds of people sought refuge on the second floor of Sekolah Dasar 20 elementary school, near the centre of Banda Aceh. The water rose to within 2ft of them, carrying bicycles, cars and hundreds of dead bodies. Since then, the school has been rebuilt by World Vision, a US-based non-profit. It is decorated with artwork made by tsunami victims, part of a Red Cross programme aimed at letting children express their sorrow. The paintings show cowering children in front of a crushing wave. One student, Haurana Aiman, lost both parents. The fifthgrader appears to have put those memories behind her. She recently scored second highest in a school exam. When she went to her former village, everything was gone: the neighbours, her house, the family photographs. Five years after the tsunami, she says, “I can still remember my mother’s face. She had big eyes. I think I look like her.” Graphics by Sandeep Bhatnagar/Mint Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:39 am Quick Edit | Vignettes of 10 yearsA few random thoughts for the last weekend of this decade. Big changes are inevitable in any 10-year period. The noughties—the name given to the decade that is about to fade out—have naturally been no different. The images say it all: Planes rammed into two towers in New York to puncture the bubble of post-Cold War US overconfidence. Crumbling sheets of Antarctic ice that show that climate change is a reality even if you do not think too highly of Al Gore’s scare stories. Indian and Chinese leaders getting pride of place at international summits in recognition of the growing clout of these two nations. Astonished faces when you say that you are not on Facebook or Twitter. Bleary-eyed kids lining up to buy the latest book on a boy wizard named Harry Potter. Your maid with a mobile phone in her hand and a child in an English school. Stunned bankers leaving their Wall Street offices as the world is days away from financial catastrophe. And the beggar children at your car window as you leave for a final party. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:38 am IPOs, other share offers aplenty tooMumbai: Riding high on liquidity, the primary market is expected to thrive in 2010. At least 63 firms have filed draft offer documents with capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to raise nearly Rs40,000 crore through public floats. Besides, at least 100 listed firms have announced plans to raise Rs1 trillion through placements with qualified institutional investors (QIPs), according to Prithvi Haldea, chairman and managing director, Prime Database, a Delhi-based primary market tracker. Also See Riding High (Graphics) Then, there are at least 31 listed firms that want to raise money through rights issues. Finally, the government is set to kick off its disinvestment programme with follow-on public offers (FPOs) of a few listed public sector units including NTPC Ltd, National Mining Development Corp. Ltd (NMDC) and Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd. In NTPC, the government is divesting a 5% stake to collect Rs11,000 crore. An 8.38% divestment in NMDC, at its current market price, could fetch the government around Rs14,000 crore. This will be followed by initial public offerings (IPOs) of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and RITES Ltd and an FPO for Steel Authority of India Ltd. The government has already raised Rs4,260 crore this fiscal through the divestment of minority stakes in NHPC Ltd and Oil India Ltd, but the plan will gain momentum in 2010. There will be a flood of issues in the primary market next year but investment bankers, who market these issues, do not see any adverse impact. “Abundant global liquidity, coupled with earnings momentum and the continuing emerging markets growth story make Indian equities a compelling investment destination,” said Tarun Kataria, managing director and head of global banking and markets of HSBC Holdings Plc’s India unit. Most of the activity will be seen in the beginning of the year, said S. Ramesh, chief operating officer, Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. Ltd, the investment banking arm of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. “We expect to continue to see robust capital market activity in the early part of 2010 in the form of disinvestment programme of the government, IPOs, and QIPs,” he said. A. Murugappan, executive director, ICICI Securities Ltd, the investment wing of ICICI Bank Ltd, India’s largest private sector lender, agreed. “Primary markets will be buoyant, led by the government disinvestment programme,” he said. “This will also pump up fund-raising activity by the private sector.” Many believe that quality government paper will absorb liquidity and bring back valuations to a reasonable level. “There is tremendous liquidity in the market now, which requires some big IPOs to absorb,” said Ajay Parmar, head of research-institutional, Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd. “Otherwise, the money will chase the same stocks, leading to severe overvaluation.” The Sensex, India’s benchmark stock index, is currently trading at a price-earnings multiple of around 22 times against its historic average of 13.8 times. Experts say a stable secondary market and comfortable liquidity will help companies raise money with greater ease next year than what was seen in 2009. “The success of these primary market issuances will depend on the stability and buoyancy of secondary markets,” said Haldea of Prime Database. “There is no lack of liquidity, so good papers will be bought.” In the fag end of 2007, the Sensex rallied from 17,000 to 21,000 in three months, before the crash in 2008 when an unprecedented credit crunch gripped the global markets in the wake of the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), the main driver of Indian market, sold equities en masse as they needed to send money home. Haldea doesn’t foresee the frenzy of 2007 being repeated next year. According to him, there will be more IPOs but the subscription level will not match that of the year before last. In 2007, when the Sensex rose 47.15%, 100 firms raised Rs34,179.11 crore. In 2008, when the markets fell 52.45%, 37 firms garnered about half that amount—Rs16,904.42 crore—through such issues. This year, the Sensex has risen 80% and 20 companies have offered shares worth Rs19,400 crore through IPOs. According to Kataria of HSBC, the market is fairly valued in the near term. “But I believe earnings will exceed multiples in the months ahead driving the market higher.” Abhay Bhalerao, director, Equirus Capital Pvt. Ltd, a boutique investment bank, continues to see opportunities “but they will come with their own challenges. It’s going to be cautious optimism in 2010.” With most of the global central banks still not in any hurry to raise interest rates and exit the loose monetary policy regime, bankers expect the liquidity situation to remain comfortable at least till the end of 2010. The year of QIPs As the economy started pulling out of the slump, cash-strapped Indian firms chose to raise money through the QIP route this year. Unitech Ltd, India’s second largest real estate firm in terms of market value, took the lead to raise Rs1,621.1 crore through a QIP in March and other firms, mostly in the realty sector, quickly followed suit to meet working capital needs. Overall, 48 QIPs raised Rs33,780.77 crore in 2009. QIPs, in which promoters of listed entities issue shares to institutional buyers without involving the retail investor, had suffered a setback in 2008. Funds raised by this route amounted to Rs3,586.45 crore in 2008, around 80% drop from Rs23,338 crore in 2007, according to Prime Database. Unlike public offers, QIPs do not require any offer document or regulatory clearances and hence money can be raised quickly. Sebi last year changed pricing norms to allow firms to base the floor price for QIPs on the average price of the preceding two weeks, against the six-month average previously. In a bid to boost the primary market, the regulator has also extended the validity of IPO applications from three months to one year. This means that a firm can now wait for up to a year after getting Sebi’s nod for appropriate market conditions before floating its IPO. In yet another policy change to encourage firms to raise money through the primary market, Sebi has allowed allocation of up to 30% shares in a public issue to anchor investors. An IPO with an anchor investor indicates that the company enjoys good reputation and its public offer could be a success. Indeed, such norms have given impetus to primary issues but, at the same time, offered a larger play to institutional investors. Retail investors are still staying away from IPOs. “Even though the IPO market appeared to stage a comeback…subscription levels at the time of IPOs were heavily skewed towards QIBs (qualified institutional buyers), said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equity head of Delhi-based brokerage SMC Capitals Ltd. “While the response from HNIs (high networth individuals) was moderate, the response from retail investors was muted.” Sebi, on its part, has been trying to make public floats attractive for retail investors. For instance, it recently said retail investors, for whom 30% of public floats are set aside, will get shares in book-built FPOs at the floor price, while institutional investors will have to pay more. In the book building process, a public issue has a price band and investors are required to make bids within the range. Sebi has also allowed smaller firms to raise capital through fast-track FPOs by reducing the market cap threshold from Rs10,000 crore to Rs5,000 crore. A Mint analysis of subscriptions to IPOs in the past three years suggests that retail subscription, which used to hover at 50-100 times in some issues in 2007 and 2008, has come down to one to three times this year. According to Haldea of Prime Database, the confidence of retail investors continues to be low. Most of the retail investors who lost money when markets tumbled in 2008 are yet to see profits on their 2007 investments and are not willing to take fresh bets. Also, most of the IPOs in 2009 were listed at a discount to their issue prices, leaving nothing on the table for retail investors. They will get back their appetite for IPOs only after a few public issues get listed at a premium. The broking community hopes that quality government paper will do the trick. Graphics by Sandeep Bhatnagar/Mint anirudh.l@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:37 am Fresh, from the old bakeryThere’s an incomparable aroma of fresh bakes in the air. And among the festoons and thronging crowds that define Mumbai’s largely Catholic suburb of Bandra on Christmas eve, Mint went on a bakery trail. Bakeries such as J Hearsch and Co., tucked in a corner of Hill Road in Mumbai’s Bandra area, are almost a century old. It evokes “the sweet smell of childhood, says a 90-year-old patron who did not want to be named and who has been visiting the bakery since she was a child. Click here to view photographs of some famous bakeries in Bandra Darryl D’monte, 66, convenor of the annual Celebrate Bandra festival, has lived in the neighbourhood all his life. He says these old bakeries are a way of life; an intrinsic part of the neighbourhood culture. While it’s worth rejoicing that these old enterprises have stood their ground over the years, there are some that are sorely missed. “We used to turn to MacRonnell’s bakery in Hill Road for every occasion, be it a wedding, communion or Christmas,” he says of the bakery that shut shop around 25 years ago. With some lament, D’monte says that the new cake shops have pushed some of the older ones off the margin. “Even though the newer ones have a lesser turnover than the old bakeries, they work because of the high profit margins. They cater to upmarket clients and have made a trip to the bakery a privileged amenity,” he says, while “earlier, bakeries were for everyone”. So although D’monte does frequent some new cake shops such as Birdy’s and Croissants, he prefers the charm of the old. “I still like going to A-1 bakery and choosing between the ‘kadak pav’ and ‘naram pav’ (two kinds of breads) ,” he says. “It’s always a tough call.” Photographs by Debasis Mandal / Mint Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:19 am Voices with visionThe Panel  Soumya Bhattacharya is the author of a memoir, ‘You Must Like Cricket?’. His novel, ‘If I Could Tell You’, has just come out. He is editor of the Mumbai edition of the ‘Hindustan Times’. Sanjay Sipahimalani is an executive creative director with Bates 141 Mumbai, and has reviewed books for the ‘Hindustan Times’, ‘The Indian Express’ and ‘Biblio’. Chandrahas Choudhury has been the ‘Lounge’ book critic ever since the magazine’s first issue. His first novel, ‘Arzee the Dwarf’, came out this year to rave reviews. ********* FICTION / POETRY Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul (2001) One objection to Naipaul’s writing has always been that he skips things a novelist should not. It’s almost as if he’s bored of doing the David Copperfield kind of novel, and skips entire swathes of his character’s life. Even then, Half a Life is unputdownable. It brings up timeless subjects as well as Naipaul’s old obsessions; it’s the late work of a master. Naipaul is revered for his craft, he is a writer’s writer, and yet he is not a difficult writer to read. Listen to the weekly Lounge podcast where we bring you a special behind- the- scenes edition of the Lounge decade-ender issue that hits the stands on 26 December, 2009. Kala Ghoda Poems by Arun Kolatkar (2004) Kolatkar’s Jejuri has just been issued by the New York Review of Books Classics and he is likely to end up being the face of Indian poetry, whether that’s deserved or not. His works have been translated into several European languages and he’s had an incredible impact. Even if you were to read Kala Ghoda Poems in vacuum, as a book of poetry about a city, it has few parallels. The Oxford India Ramanujan by Oxford University Press (2004) Running to 200 odd pages, this volume is the distillation of a life’s work. A.K. Ramanujan received the McCarthy Award when he was in his 30s, and deservedly so. The poem The Black Hen that his wife rescued from his computer has 13 short lines, which allude to death and the fear of creative juices drying up. A scholar can easily write a chapter on the poem—it has all the allusions and mythological references. But that doesn’t take away anything from the pleasure of reading it. All of Ramanujan’s poetry has that beauty.  Salman Rushdie. AFP by Salman Rushdie (2005) After a string of indifferent novels, people wondered whether Rushdie’s talent had deserted him. He proved them wrong with Shalimar the Clown. In the sections on Kashmir, he went back to what made him a writer in the first place. It has become fashionable to say that the new Rushdie novel is bad, but his not-so-good also deserves to be in a “best of the decade” list. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra (2006) The breadth of ambition, the high-flown, lyrical English, yet a narrative grounded in the sediments of Hindi—there are many Hindi swear words—make Sacred Games a great book. Despite the bulk (900 pages), it is insanely readable. With some very memorable passages which one can revisit, the book aspires to be the great Bombay novel. It is also a subversion of the concept of the traditional crime novel; and yet it is a serious crime novel. Red by Allan Sealy (2006) Sealy is an underrated writer even though his corpus is amazing—from Trotter-Nama to Everest Hotel, he has written many kinds of books. Written in an unabashedly literary style, Red is a particularly clever and brave work that can be read as art history and literature. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (2006) The remarkable attention to detail and the language make Desai’s second novel a great work. She explores the tension between the aspirational middle class and some of the big themes about India.  Jhumpa Lahiri. Photo courtesy Random House India Unaccustomed Earth: Jhumpa Lahiri, Random House, 352 pages, Rs450. by Jhumpa Lahiri (2008) Lahiri’s last book qualifies because of its lyricism and attention to detail. In her understated fashion she looks at the minutiae of life, her fiction reminding you that a coaster or a table mat can be as important as Rushdie’s Saleem Sinai. Here she has perfected the craft of writing about the American Bengali milieu; you almost admire her for her stubborn refusal to leave home. Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga (2008) In his second published book, which was written before the Booker-winning The White Tiger, Adiga doesn’t take short cuts. The short stories here have persuasive characters and a reader needs to work harder to get to the heart of the book. There is great attention to detail and there is a poise about the writing. There is also a corrosive rage and an unbuttoned-ness that shows Adiga’s comfort level with nasty characters. That is a useful quality to have when writing fiction about India. Six Acres and a Third by Fakir Mohan Senapati (in translation, 2005) The original in Oriya was written about 100 years ago and then revived in this decade. The work should be read for its beauty of technique. Few novels speak in the first person plural and by doing this, the book instantly aligns with the village that it is set in. While Senapati has an eye on colonial rule, his work is not just an indictment of colonialism. It also looks inward at some of the things that bind the people of the village. His style is an offshoot of the Victorian novel. Non-fiction: Bihar is in the Eye of the Beholder by Vijay Nambisan (2000) Nambisan takes a subject like Bihar and manages to avoid all the cliches—of both technique and content. The book is about him and his wife living in a Bihar village, and in that tiny canvas, he brings in big things such as crime and politics. There are beautiful line drawings throughout that he has done himself, and the language is that of a poet.  Urban splendour: Mumbai is the backdrop of some of the best books since 2000. Kunal Patil / Hindustan Times by Suketu Mehta (2004) For a panoramic look at Mumbai, it’s hard to think of any previous work that has equalled this effort. It has ambition, a tremendous structure, and a great set of real characters reminiscent of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. The Imam and the Indian by Amitav Ghosh (2002) A great book because of its breadth and depth, The Imam displays a kind of critical renaissance thinking on subjects as diverse as the Baburnama, the poet Aga Shahid Ali, and books from Ghosh’s grandfather’s shelf. He is a better non-fiction writer. Step Across This Line by Salman Rushdie (2003) An inquisitive mind takes on the great books of the world. In this collection of essays, Rushdie also talks about subjects such as fundamentalism and a U2 concert. The work provides an insight into one of the great public intellectuals of our time. And, through this book, you can also get close to Rushdie—for the first time he writes about his personal reaction to the fatwa. An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World by Pankaj Mishra (2004) Commonly known as “the Buddha book”, it spans genres — memoir, travel writing, history and philosophy. It also has some very original thinking. Mishra manages to connect disparate subjects and makes the connections convincing. It is sad that he doesn’t have the cachet in India that he deserves.  Amartya Sen. Subhendu Ghosh/Hindustan Times by Amartya Sen (2006) One of the reasons you read Sen is that he is a gateway to other authors. He has rigour and doesn’t take short cuts. The style is his own; his is a gentle voice that never knocks you out with a point, and yet is persuasive. The book also displays a great depth of engagement with his subjects. The title is an invitation to a new kind of Indianness. India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha (2007) It’s not easy to capture 60 years of history in a single volume. Unlike many books in this genre, this doesn’t have an ideological slant; everyone can find points of agreement with Guha. It’s a great one-stop history text about India the way it is today. Guha is also a polished stylist and the reader doesn’t get bogged down by details here. Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, his People and an Empire by Rajmohan Gandhi (2007) Biographies of the most famous Indian abound, but this one is epic in its scope. Written by the Mahatma’s grandson in a fluid, beautiful style, this volume is a resource on Gandhi for the young, and one of the most thrilling stories on Indian politics. The Ugliness of the Indian Male and Other Propositions by Mukul Kesavan (2008) Kesavan is the kind of essayist who can string together a series of striking thoughts in sparking prose, which is cerebral yet easy to read. He visits many territories in this book and it’s a joy to read. Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer (2008) Peer has humanized the Kashmir conflict in this very consciously and beautifully crafted memoir. Although he is an insider, he does not let his emotions come in the way of his style. This is the first real look from the inside at the tangled situation in Kashmir and it is difficult to read it without feeling the state’s — and Peer’s — pain. ********* The Process  (Left to right) Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found: Suketu Mehta, Penguin, 600 pages, Rs399. Half a Life: V.S. Naipaul, Picador, 226 pages, Rs225. Sacred Games: Vikram Chandra, Penguin, 968 pages, Rs495. The collective buzz of dinner conversations around us faded as the panellists scrutinized the list and made passionate cases for and against some of the titles. Poet Jeet Thayil’s choice of the collected works of A.K. Ramanujan in translation aroused curiosity because none of the others on the panel had read it. Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss didn’t find favour with three panellists, yet it made it to the list. Uniquely for this list, each vote didn’t matter as much as the case made out for a title. Among the questions thrown up during the conversation: Is Amitav Ghosh a better writer of non-fiction than fiction? Yes, said three panellists. Why is Arundhati Roy an important writer although she is primarily a polemicist? It is her iconic cultural status, said Soumya Bhattacharya. The idea behind this list, as with the other lists in the issue, is to recommend to our readers titles they might have missed out on. The panellists consciously arrived at a selection that is inclusive—there is poetry, translated works, and books by young writers as well as the masters. Sanjukta Sharma Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:19 am I-bankers in recovery mode even as PE deals fail to pick upBangalore: Investment bankers will remember 2009 as the year their industry started in a coma but recovered faster than they had foreseen after last year’s global financial market turmoil. The turnaround was so swift that as the year progressed, bankers’ fees rose by at least 15%, according to Thomson Reuters Corp. and Freeman and Co. This, when private equity (PE) deals, a major source of revenue for investment banks, fell by around 28%. According to data from consulting firm Grant Thornton India Pvt. Ltd, PE deals in India fell to 211 in the first 11 months of 2009 from 294 in the same period the previous year. Also See The Fee League (Graphics) But then, secondary transactions or secondaries, a much talked-about liquidity-creating tool for investors in PE funds in the wake of the global credit squeeze, kicked in. In 2009, the nascent secondaries market contributed about a quarter of the revenues for investment banks. “It’s a complete trot-to-a-gallop year in terms of deal activity,” said Srinivasan Subramanian, head of investment banking at Enam Securities Pvt. Ltd. “In the first four months, there was zero activity. And from June on, both primary and secondary markets started vibrating,” he added. In secondary transactions, investors in PE funds, known as limited partners (LPs), sell their capital commitments or positions in the funds to other LPs. This year saw a renewed vigour in these deals as many LPs were not in a position to meet their commitments to PE funds or wanted to limit their exposure to them. “Secondary was very encouraging this year, bringing in 20-25% business. I have a feeling that secondaries would become more meaningful next year,” said Ranu Vohra, chairman and managing director, Avendus Advisors Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai-based investment bank. “I would attribute a lot of secondary deals to mounting pressure of LPs on liquidity.” Deepak Srinath, co-founder of Viedea Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd, a Bangalore firm, says secondaries can be prompted by several other reasons as well. For instance, Viedea, which has struck three secondary deals this year, is helping a firm sell a stake in a firm it had invested in a few years ago. The investor now wants to sell the stake as its business portfolio does not match that of the investee firm. Secondaries can also be prompted by a fund’s desire to exit from portfolio firms they have been invested in for long. “Investors of deals in 2002-03 are looking for exits due to pressure from their limited partners. This is not to say that these companies are not doing well, but funds have to exit,” said Srinath. A fund typically looks to sell its stake in a company after five-six years as its investors start seeking returns. Another favourite fund-raising tool, as the market rebounded, was qualified institutional placements (QIPs), or the selling of shares to institutional buyers, as the time for structuring and completing these is a quick three-four weeks. From January to November, Indian firms raised about Rs47,419 crore through initial public offerings (IPOs), follow-on public offerings (FPOs), QIPs and rights issues, according to data by SMC Capitals Ltd, the merchant banking arm of New Delhi-based financial services house SMC Global Securities Ltd. Of this, 60.6% came through QIPs. Between January and November 2008, QIPs had accounted for a mere 4.3% of the funds raised from the market. “Undoubtedly, QIPs came to the rescue of cash-starved Indian companies. My guess is that this momentum will continue next year as well as companies will want to grow and will come to the market,” said Enam’s Subramanian. In addition, some public market deals were triggered by high valuations in the private markets. For instance, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a global venture capital firm, bought an 8% stake in Shriram City Union Finance Ltd for Rs120 crore from Indopark Holding Ltd, a subsidiary of Merrill Lynch and Co. “There are times when public market valuations are cheaper than private market valuations and investors will go towards safer deals where exits are also shorter,” said K. Ramakrishnan, executive director and head, investment banking, Spark Capital Advisors (India) Pvt. Ltd. High valuations also continue to sour PE deals. “Private equity investors will compare deals in India with what other markets are offering,” said Falguni Nayar, managing director, Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. Ltd. “Given that India is an attractive investment destination for portfolio investors, valuations are higher, and hence, PE investors are finding it difficult to close deals here.” Graphics by Ahmed Raza Khan/Mint Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:05 am Fantasies of hedge fund investorsHedge Funds and Unconscious Fantasy, by Arman Eshraghi and Richard Taffler, University of Edinburgh Business School Are hedge funds objects of desire? In their paper, Eshraghi and Taffler have a novel take on the rise and fall of hedge funds. They say that instead of being vehicles intended to diversify investments across non-traditional asset classes, hedge funds were transformed “in the minds of investors, into objects of excitement and desire, with their unconscious representation dominating their original investment purpose”. The reason: the glamour, secrecy and exclusivity attached to hedge funds, the star billing they received in the media being partially to blame. The industry, of course, did all it could to build up this image. The authors point out, “The hedge fund industry’s unofficial 2006 Annual Conference, Hedgestock, which took place at a stately home just north of London with the slogan ‘Peace, Love and Higher Returns’ consciously sought to appropriate the trappings of the generation of Woodstock.”  The point is a simple one: investors, even supposedly sophisticated ones who put their money in hedge funds, need to be protected from their own overheated fantasies. Of Bubbles and Bankers: The Impact of Financial Booms on Labour Markets by Tobias Wuergler, University of Zurich Bankers are now being reviled as villains, responsible not just for the financial crisis but also shamelessly appropriating profits and bonuses from the public funds used to rescue them. Do bankers really benefit disproportionately from booms? Do they increase inequality in a country? These are the questions studied by Tobias Wuergler of the University of Zurich. Wuergler shows that, in countries such as the US where deregulation led to the emergence of a vast financial sector, the more skilled and brighter graduates are attracted to the sector, with the result that Wall Street had to employ hordes of mathematicians, information technology engineers and quantitative finance specialists to handle their highly complex products. Asset bubbles are good for bankers because their remuneration is typically a percentage of the value of the transaction. Wuergler quotes a recent empirical study by Philippon and Reshef (2008)—using wage and employment data for the US, they documented that “financial jobs were relatively skill intensive, complex, and highly paid until the 1930s and after the 1980s, but not in the interim period”. That’s because deregulation and consequently financial innovation was pervasive before the 1930s and after the 1980s but not in the intervening period.  Is the remedy to clip the wings of the bankers then? Not so fast, says Wuergler, making a distinction between the good bankers who do the boring work of traditional intermediation and the evil ones who do “bubble intermediation”. Support the former, he says, but curb the latter. Illustrations by Jayachandran / Mint Write to simplyeconomics@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 9:01 am Spot Light | SBI Life InsuranceSimplify: Iyer of Lowe Lintas.Reviewer: Arun Iyer The group creative director for Lowe Lintas also oversees the creative duties for LinFinancial, a division of the agency which handles creative duties for financial brands such as Axis Bank. Campaign The new ad for SBI Life Insurance has a romantic take on a young couple’s dreams for their old age. What did you think of the ad? In my opinion, the SBI Life Insurance ad belongs to the “feel good” category of financial advertising. Simple and entertaining, it leaves one feeling warm towards the brand. The ad has been beautifully shot and the casting and performances are bang on. The play between the husband and wife is quite enviable and I’m sure a number of couples would want their relationship to be like that. The confidence the man shows in his future reflects on to the brand. It is in keeping with the spirit of their old campaign, featuring a group of old men playing cricket, to look at the brighter side of life. All in all, an enjoyable watch.  Feel-good:The acting is spot on; the ad simple and entertaining. should agencies keep in mind when working on ads for this sector? I do not think there is anything radically different that agencies need to keep in mind while advertising for the financial sector. Just that you are dealing with people’s money and their future, so a bit of sensitivity would help. The relationship between people and their money is very complex and personal. It says a lot about who they are, where they come from, and what their ambitions are. So unlike a low involvement category such as engine oil, here emotions run high and it’s very easy to rub a customer the wrong way. Also, the sector is filled with jargon that the common man just does not understand. So, simplification is another thing to keep in mind. What’s your favourite insurance ad? One of my favourite insurance campaigns is “Real life, real answers” for John Hancock. An amazingly insightful campaign that shattered every category code. It highlights some of the deepest insecurities that people have about their future. Simply put, the ads are about people having the most uncomfortable conversations about the future over SMS. Among recent Indian campaigns, the Birla Sun Life insurance campaign for wealth solutions, featuring Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, talking to the camera about their insecurities, was quite nice. They’ve used their celebrities very well and it’s something that everyone can identify with, it really touches a chord. Also, ICICI Prudential’s stance of Jeetey Raho, which is basically you will live longer if you are not stressed about the future, does differentiate it from the other life insurance players. As told to Gouri Shah gouri.s@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 8:49 am Real estate and power companies may rise on the listing horizonAsurge of liquidity and a sharp increase in the secondary markets enabled Indian companies to raise around Rs52,200 crore till November 2009 through fresh equity issues and private placements with institutions. But with many initial public offers (IPOs) trading below their listing price, would this trend continue in 2010, Mint asked A. Rajagopal, a managing director at Swiss bank UBS AG’s local unit. Edited excerpts: What’s the outlook in the fund raising market for 2010? At least for the first half of 2010, we don’t see why the current surge of liquidity would abate. Markets are expected to remain fairly buoyant for fundraising…barring any unforeseen setback, which would make people nervous about equity in general. Right now, we don’t see that happening. So the climate would be buoyant and we would see a lot of IPO happening, specifically in India. A figure of $70 billion being raised over the next three years is doing the rounds. What’s your take? (It’s) not an unfair number. If you look at 2007, equity capital raised was in the order of $32 billion. This year, as we speak, over $20 billion has been raised and I am speaking of only equity and equity-linked instruments. And this year, the first three months were pretty bad. So if you annualize the number, that’s well over, say, $25-26 billion. So $70 billion over the next three years is not a bad estimate at all. What it presupposes is that market conditions would remain buoyant for fund raising. Eighty per cent of IPOs this year are trading below listing price... I am a little surprised that IPOs have performed so poorly. Generally, IPOs do trade well. Historically, if you look at it, that’s the track record. I am pretty confident that going into the new year, that trend will change and both companies and bankers advising them will become a little more cautious. I don’t think one should read too much into that, but that’s had an impact in terms of response from retail investors. So, you say we might see sensible pricing? I don’t think it was a question of insensible prices. We can’t generalize it (because) if you dissect some of those IPOs which did not trade well in the aftermarket, at the time of the IPO, there was pretty good institutional and retail response, although retail response has fallen away in the last couple of IPOs. So there is no reason to believe that at the time of pricing, they were overpriced, because if that were the case then a lot of the IPOs wouldn’t have got a proper response and some of them would have failed. But that did not happen. But let’s not run away from the fact that maybe some of them were overpriced. A combination of factors including some more caution when it comes to pricing, and investors also not assuming that all IPOs would trade well in the aftermarket would help in getting more sensible pricing and better response. Which sectors are expected to dominate? In terms of draft offer documents already filed with Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India), real estate and power companies stand out. I think we would have some more issues coming out of the financial institutions. It necessarily need not be banks (raising) capital like we have seen in the western world, but could be completely new sectors like insurance companies and asset management companies. ravi.k@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 8:44 am Asian stocks miss ‘Santa Claus rally’, decline on salesTokyo: Japanese and Chinese stocks fell back Friday in subdued trade as investors took profits, with many players in the region away for the Christmas holidays. Investors were in a cautious mood despite fresh gains on Wall Street that lifted US stocks to fresh 2009 highs Thursday. Tokyo shares declined for the first day in four as investors locked in gains a day after the market hit a three-month high. Chinese shares were pressured by concerns of possible policy tightening measures, dealers said. Markets in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea were closed for a public holiday. The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s benchmark Nikkei-225 index fell 42.21 points to 10,494.71. The latest reports on Asia’s largest economy, showing a rise in the jobless rate and stubborn deflation, injected a note of caution into the market as the year-end approaches. Turnover was thin at only about 1.2 billion shares, the lowest level for a full trading day in 2009, with many investors away for holidays. “The market gained quite sharply recently, so it was time for a break,” Daiwa Securities SMBC market analyst Yumi Nishimura told Dow Jones Newswires. The dollar’s firmness against the yen limited the market’s downside, however, dealers said. A weaker yen raises competitiveness of Japanese products overseas and boosts repatriated earnings. “Whether the Nikkei can test further upside beyond 10,500 in coming sessions is mostly up to dollar-yen movements,” said Meiwa Securities senior market analyst Masayoshi Yano. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 12.06 points to 3,141.35 on thin trading volume. “The shrinking turnover shows investors are cautious and have little interest in trading before market liquidity returns to abundant levels,” said Li Xianming, an analyst at Ping An Securities. Worries are growing that Beijing will take steps next year to cool the Chinese economy, dealers said. “There are concerns Beijing may take measures early next year, such as raising the reserve requirement ratio to counter inflationary pressure,” said Capital Securities analyst Jacky Zhang. Banks and property developers led the losses. China Merchants Bank fell 1.7% to 16.40 yuan (Rs112.35), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.39% to 5.14 yuan while China Vanke lost 0.6% to 13.22 yuan. However, steel makers rose on hopes for further mergers in the sector after China announced plans to consolidate several iron and steel smelters to create one globally competitive company and two or three domestic leaders. The weighted index in Taipei rose 9.05 points to 7,972.59. Profit-taking reduced early gains sparked by Wall Street reaching a 2009 high overnight, dealers said. “It was no surprise that the pressure pulled the index back to some extent,” Taiwan International Securities analyst Michael Chiang said, attributing the decline to technical factors. In fact, market sentiment has improved after US jobless benefit claims fell to a 15-month low, Chiang said. “Optimism towards global economic fundamentals is gathering steam. I think the market will continue to go higher after digesting the pressure around 8,000 points,” he said. The Stock Exchange of Thailand composite index rose 3.20 points to close at 730.41. Trading was sluggish with most market participants absent, said Sukit Udomsirikul, an analyst at Siam City Securities. Among market bluechips coal producer Banpu rose 4.00 baht (Rs5.59) to close at 576.00 baht, Bangkok Bank was up 0.50 baht to 116.50 baht and Kasikornbank edged up 0.25 baht to 85.00 baht. PTT Plc gained 3.00 baht to close at 241.00 baht, and its subsidiary PTT Exploration and Production rose 1.50 baht to 145.00 baht and Siam Cement rose 2.00 baht to 236.00. feedback@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 8:43 am 13 Telangana ministers quit, Andhra Pradesh still tenseHyderabad: Political uncertainty deepened in Andhra Pradesh on Friday as 13 ministers from the Telangana region in the Congress-run state government resigned to press for a separate state. The ministers asked Congress’ top leaders to specify a time for carving out a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh. In response, Union law minister M. Veerappa Moily, in-charge of Congress affairs in Andhra Pradesh, said, “The Union government has not diluted its stand on Telangana.” “The Union government is not a monarchy. We have to set in the democratic process and that is possible only through consultations and the government of India is always willing to be a facilitator,” he said.  Taking a stand:Union law minister M. Veerappa Moily. Ramesh Pathania / Mint Protests continued for the third consecutive day opposing the Union government’s decision to initiate consultations on the Telangana issue, seen by many as a reversal of the party’s earlier announcement to bifurcate the state. The instances of violence had reduced but in some places pro-statehood protesters continued roadblocks and set ablaze vehicles. The all-party Telangana joint action committee had decided to call off a shutdown on Friday after requests from Christians so they could celebrate Christmas. The committee also decided against a 24-hour shutdown planned for Saturday. It will instead hold rallies and demonstrations across the Telangana region to demand that the Centre provide more clarity on the issue. State-run bus services were restored partially on Friday. However, coal production at the state-owned Singareni Collieries Ltd came to a standstill as mine workers in Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam and Adilabad districts went on strike demanding statehood for Telangana. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has decided to stay away from the Telangana joint action committee following attacks by pro-Telangana students on TDP leaders. After the violent protests on Thursday, the government has airlifted additional police and paramilitary forces from other states and deployed them in the Telangana region, especially at the Osmania and Kakatiya universities, the centre of student protests in favour of Telangana. ‘PTI’ contributed to this story. c.sukumar@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 8:42 am Cong seeks to contain Telangana falloutNew Delhi: The ruling Congress party sought to limit the damage on Thursday as protesters took to the streets in Andhra Pradesh in an immediate political backlash over the Centre’s decision to put the creation of a separate Telangana state on the backburner. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary, Ahmed Patel, assured a delegation of 11 party members of Parliament (MPs) from Telangana who submitted their resignations that there would be no going back on the decision to create a separate state. Patel “assured us that there will be no deviation on the party’s stand on Telangana and there is no going back,” Madhu Yaskhi, one of the MPs, told reporters after the meeting, which took place shortly after they had handed their resignations to Gandhi. The resignations, however, won’t be taken back, Yaskhi said. “Resignations are a small step. We have an obligation to fulfill the aspirations of the people of Telangana,” he said. In Andhra Pradesh, around 70 members of the state assembly cutting across party lines, two opposition Telugu Desam Party MPs and a state minister resigned to protest home minister P. Chidambaram’s statement on Wednesday night that indicated the Centre was backtracking on a 9 December announcement that steps would be initiated to create a separate Telangana state. Chidambaram said the situation in Andhra Pradesh “has altered” since his initial announcement promising the creation of Telangana. “A large number of political parties are divided on the issue,” he said. “There is a need to hold wide-ranging consultations with all political parties and groups in the state.” Soon after Chidambaram’s comments, hundreds of angry pro-Telangana protesters took to the streets, torching and damaging dozens of buses. On Thursday, police with bamboo batons clashed with crowds of protesters as outrage over the delay in creating Telangana erupted into violent demonstrations in several cities across Andhra Pradesh. Advocates of the new state, led by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), staged a general strike that paralyzed much of the region. TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the politician whose 11-day hunger strike to demand the new state forced the 9 December announcement by the Centre, called the delay “a betrayal of the people of Telangana.” “This is an attempt to put Telangana into cold storage. He (Chidambaram) has used the words ‘wide-ranging consultation with all political parties’ without giving any timeframe. How long this will go on?” Rao said about Chidambaram’s statement. Businesses and shops were shut and vehicles stayed off the roads during Thursday’s strike. However, Rao told reporters that organizers agreed to call off Friday’s planned second day of the strike in response to a call from Christian leaders to respect the Christmas holiday. Rao rejected suggestions for the creation of a States Reorganisation Commission to look into the Telangana issue and other demands for the creation of separate states. Such a proposal is “not at all acceptable”, he said. In New Delhi, the Central government said “one-sided” decisions cannot be taken because consensus was required on the issue. Information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni expressed confidence that the people will “accept it” after some time. According to a senior Congress leader based in New Delhi who didn’t want to be named, Andhra Pradesh chief minister K. Rosaiah hadn’t been able to manage the situation and the central leadership may eventually be forced to bring the state under President’s Rule. If President’s Rule has to be imposed, senior Congress leaders at the central level want the assembly dissolved and fresh elections to be held, he said. Meanwhile, Union cabinet secretary K.N. Chandrasekharan arrived in Hyderabad on Thursday and met state governor N.D. Tiwari to assess the situation. Chief minister Rosaiah held an emergency meeting with ministers to take stock of the situation. “The chief minister did not rule out the possibility of President’s Rule following deteriorating law and order situation in the state,” a cabinet minister who did not want to be named said. Mint’s Liz Mathew and AP contributed to this story.feedback@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 8:41 am FX reserves at $283.643 bln as on Dec. 18MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's foreign exchange reserves fell to $283.643 billion as on Dec. 18, from $285.742 billion a week earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its weekly statistical supplement on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 7:57 am Najafgarh drain 11th among highly polluted industrial clusters - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 25 Dec 2009 | 7:45 am Tighter credit won't ease inflation - Pranab MukherjeeMUMBAI (Reuters) - The finance minister said tightening credit would not help ease the country's soaring food price inflation.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 6:54 am Goldman, JPMorgan CEOs to appear at crisis hearingWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A commission created by Congress to look into causes of the financial crisis will question the chief executives of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley and other big banks at its first public hearing next month.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 5:24 am Transport Min: still mulling JAL fund guaranteesTOKYO (Reuters) - The government is still considering guaranteeing funding to Japan Airlines Corp, Transport Minister Seiji Maehara told a regular news conference on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Dec 2009 | 4:25 am Geely will keep Volvo running as it isBeijing: China’s Geely would barely lay a finger on Ford Motor Co’s Volvo if it succeeds in acquiring the Swedish luxury car brand, the firm’s top executive was quoted by state media as saying on Friday. Volvo’s current production, research and development facilities, union agreements and dealer networks will all be left intact, said Li Shufu, the founder and chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the parent of Geely Auto. “If the deal succeeds, nothing will change for Volvo, except the boss turns to Li Shufu,” Li told the official Xinhua news agency. “Volvo and Geely will be two independently-managed brands.” Ford Motor Co said on Wednesday it was nearing an agreement to sell its Volvo unit to Geely, China’s largest private automaker, in a deal that underscores China’s arrival as a major force in the global auto industry. The value of the deal, which Ford said it expects to sign in the first quarter and close in the second quarter of 2010, has been estimated at $1.8 billion — far short of the $6.45 billion Ford paid for Volvo in 1999. Li, 46, said that it had been “more complicated” to negotatiate how to handle intellectual property rights than the deal’s price. He said the Volvo purchase would help Geely develop new energy vehicles, and that Geely would help Volvo reduce production costs and expand in the Chinese market. “The new energy-powered vehicle will be the future of the world’s auto industry,” Li said. “But based on current investment in research and development, China will be left far behind the pace of developed countries,” he said in the English-language article. China overtook the United States this year as the world’s largest auto market, as sales soared after Beijing rolled out a series of incentives designed to stimulate consumer spending at the height of the global downturn. However, there is still a significant technology gap between domestic Chinese automakers and their global rivals, which has led Chinese firms to look overseas for acquisitions of technology and designs as the global auto industry restructures. Beijing Automotive Industry Holding, a domestic rival to Geely, said on Wednesday it will launch an aggressive campaign to develop its brand and move up the ladder after buying car designs from General Motors’ Saab unit. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 25 Dec 2009 | 3:07 am
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