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FACTBOX - Sizing up AIA and Prudential in AsiaReuters - Britain's Prudential Plc confirmed on Monday it was in talks to buy American International Group Inc's Asian life insurance business (AIA), in aSource: Reuters: Money News | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:36 am Talk of Greek plan, copper lift world stocksLONDON (Reuters) - Equity investors kicked off the new month in a buying mood on Monday, lifted by speculation an EU deal over Greek debt was pending and piling into mining stocks as copper prices rose after the Chile earthquake.Source: Reuters: Money News | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:25 am ANALYSIS - Toning shoes, while hot, could be bad Nike fitSAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - For a shoe brand, there's a lot to love about toning footwear. Potential annual sales of $1 billion and growing, shoes selling at double the average price, and a huge market of walkers looking to shape up.Source: Reuters: Money News | 1 Mar 2010 | 2:20 am Japan finmin sets yr-end deadline to beat deflationTOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's finance minister said he wants the country to pull out of deflation by the end of this year, setting a deadline much earlier than the Bank of Japan's forecast as he ratchets up pressure for further monetary easing.Source: Reuters: Money News | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:29 am Prudential confirms talks to take over Asian AIG unit - BBC News
Source: Business - Google News | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:28 am India to grow 9-10% for 25 years: PMIndia will grow at the rate of 9 to 10 percent for the next 25 years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:25 am MTN says Nhleko to step down as CEO by 2011JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Phuthuma Nhleko, Chief Executive Officer of South African mobile phone group MTN, will step down as CEO and group president in March 2011, the group said on Monday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:16 am Regulator warns against caving in on bank reformMELBOURNE (Reuters) - The global financial system is radically flawed and radical solutions are needed, so regulators must resist attempts to dilute proposed reforms, a top European watchdog said on Monday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 1 Mar 2010 | 1:03 am Toyoda slips into China on damage control missionBEIJING (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda sought to ease quality concerns during a low-key visit to China on Monday, fresh from a gruelling hearing in the U.S. Congress over his company's biggest safety crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:51 am 'MF Hussain denigrated Indian culture' - Express Buzz
Source: Business - Google News | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:15 am Gold to test resistance levelsComex gold futures ended higher on Friday, as an upbeat US economic report revived riskSource: Business Line - Home Page | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am No getting away with gifts without paying taxesCome June 1, the transfer of unlisted shares to partnership firms and closely held companies for inadequate consideration or ‘nil' consideration would be taxable at the hands of the recipient firms/closely heldSource: Business Line - Home Page | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Spices exports in January up 18% in value termsIndian spices exports have grown by 18 per cent in value during January 2010 to Rs 430 crore over Rs 365 crore recorded during January lastSource: Business Line - Home Page | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Market likely to remain within rangeThis week market may remain range-bound. On Friday, the equity market closed with a little more positive undertone. The Budget provisions for 2010 did not disturb the market psyche. Corporate earnings have also not been burdened more than onSource: Business Line - Home Page | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Steel prices set to go up by Rs 600Steel prices are likely to surge again, on the back of the excise duty hike announced in the Union Budget for 2010-11 on Friday. The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, announced during the presentation of the Budget that excise duty for allSource: Business Line - Home Page | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am States told to step up vigil and curb illegal miningThe Mines Ministry has stepped up pressure on State Governments to curb illegalSource: Business Line - Home Page | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am India cautioned of possible Hindu Kush rumbleKiller quakes in Haiti or latest in Chile may appear at least half a way world away but a rumble as if on cue on Sunday in the Hindu Kush may have sent a shiver down the HimalayanSource: Business Line - Home Page | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Rs 27,000-cr revenue dent on tax sops to enclave unitsThe revenue foregone by the Centre in 2009-10 due to tax breaks on export profits of business entities in tax-free enclaves accounted for Rs 26,976 crore, an 18.5 per cent increase from the previous year's Rs 22,759Source: Business Line - Home Page | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Sugar is sweeter with prices moving lowerWhen February began, the cost of sugar (small or S-30) grade at the wholesale level was Rs 4,025 a quintal. At the nearby grocery or kirana store, it could cost upward of Rs 41.50 aSource: Business Line - Home Page | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Saudi Arabia promises to hike crude oil supply to 40 mtSaudi Arabia has assured to increase allocation of crude oil for supply to India from about 25.5 million tonnes per annum to about 40Source: Business Line - Home Page | 1 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Competitive bidding process for allocation of coal blocks - SteelGuru
Source: Business - Google News | 28 Feb 2010 | 10:46 pm Union Budget 2010: Construction services tax to raise cost of apartments - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 28 Feb 2010 | 10:25 pm AIG agrees to $35.5 bln unit sale to UK's Pru: SourcesThe board of AIG approved the sale of American International Assurance (AIA) to Britain's largest insurer, and the sides are working on finalising the terms and financing for the deal.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 28 Feb 2010 | 10:12 pm Feb manufacturing growth at 20-month high - PMIMUMBAI (Reuters) - India's manufacturing industry in February grew at its fastest pace in 20 months, expanding for the third month thanks to expanding output and new orders, a survey showed.Source: Reuters: Money News | 28 Feb 2010 | 10:03 pm AIG agrees to $35.5 bln unit sale to UK's Pru - sourcesNEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group Inc agreed to sell its Asian life insurance unit to Britain's Prudential Plc for about $35.5 billion, in a deal that would help the U.S. government get back billions of its bailout money, sources familiar with the matter said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:22 pm Auto output may skid on tyre shortageThe Union government's notification on February 19 imposing anti-dumping duty of $35-$40 on radial truck and bus tyres from China and Thailand, and restrictions on import, has the industry divided.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 28 Feb 2010 | 6:59 pm Realty experts are hot propertyReal estate consultants and experts in India have become hot property for overseas buyers.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 28 Feb 2010 | 6:55 pm Port traffic rises 13.4% in JanuaryOver half of Indias major ports have registered a double digit growth in January with the total cargo handled by ports registering a 13.4% growth at 51.3 million tonnes compared to 45.2 million tonnes in December 2009, with container volumes registering a 31% growth year on year.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 28 Feb 2010 | 6:46 pm India doesn't have a recall policy: MarutiMaruti Suzuki has said it had "no intention" to hush up the recall of the A-Star mini car in India, but refrained from going public on the issue as the country does not have a recall policy.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 28 Feb 2010 | 6:40 pm Statoil refuses to join ONGC in KG acreageNorwegian oil major Statoil has decided against participating in appraisal drilling operations in a deepwater acreage held by ONGC off the Andhra coast.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 28 Feb 2010 | 6:38 pm GDP needs to grow 8.8% in Q4 to meet 7.2% target in 2009-10As the growth of Indian economy dipped to 6% in the third quarter (October-December), it needs to expand by at least 8.8% in the fourth quarter (January-March) to achieve the projected GDP growth rate of 7.2% in the current financial year (2009-10). Because of poor monsoon, the agriculture growth was negative 2.8% in Q3.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 28 Feb 2010 | 6:35 pm NBFCs rush to become banksNearly 11 years after the last of the two banking licences were issued by RBI to private sector entities, the government has again started the process of allowing the better-managed non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) to graduate to full-fledged banks.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 28 Feb 2010 | 6:30 pm Budget winners: Oil & gas, banking and consumers - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 28 Feb 2010 | 6:03 pm All set for super regulator in financial sector - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 28 Feb 2010 | 2:19 pm Third cohort over, 75% of IIM-A batch placed - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 28 Feb 2010 | 1:21 pm Government turns builder to give Delhi a new lookIn the next couple of years, Indias capital will sport a new look with the government taking its role as builder seriously.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 12:20 pm Market turns bullish on govt's disinvestment targetWants more IPOs, higher discount to retail investors.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 12:18 pm Companies, banks see a turnaround in the capex cycleCorporate banking heads are a happy lot these days. And its not just because of the spurt in credit demand credit growth has improved to 15 per cent from a low 10 per cent in October 2009. Companies are approaching them again with capacity expansion proposals, suggesting a more durable basis for an economic turnaround.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 12:17 pm Pranab may fall short of 3G auction revenueTelecom operators and analysts predict that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will fall short of the Rs 35,000 crore target from the auction of third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) licences by Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore on account of waning investor appetite and heightened risk perceptions.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 12:14 pm Will talk to allies on fuel hike PranabFinance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is open to discussing the fuel price hike with UPA allies — Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and M. Karunanidhi’s DMK — who have appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for its reversal, report Gautam Chikermane and Gaurav Choudhury.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 11:52 am Inflation to be the trigger for bonds - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 28 Feb 2010 | 11:24 am Pranab Mukherjee | A reformer shows his stripesFinance ministers have wrestled with the problem of a burgeoning fiscal deficit or the burden of accumulated government borrowing in the run-up to almost every budget in the last three decades. It was no different this time. Unlike his predecessors, however, Pranab Mukherjee didn’t duck the issue; he opted to first publicly acknowledge the problem and then sought a course correction—by raising indirect taxes even at the risk of fanning inflation, and putting the brakes on politically sensitive spending such as fertilizer and petroleum subsidies. Watch videos, play the budget game, and find out how the budget affects you. All that and more on Livemint.com’s exclusive Budget 2010 microsite. Click here Purely for this effort, at the risk of sounding gushy, I would argue that not only is he Captain Courageous, but also deserves to stake a claim to being one of the game-changing economic reformers of modern India. Further, he has accepted almost all the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission (TFC), which include economic empowerment of the third tier of government—panchayats (village councils) and urban local bodies such as municipalities—by guaranteeing them a share in the divisible pool of national taxes. This is a big deal. Unlike in the cities where anonymity makes corruption easier, at the third tier there is inevitably a face attached to a name—making it difficult, if not impossible, to elude accountability.  Captain Courageous: Mukherjee did not sidestep the fiscal deficit. Atul Yadav / PTI There is more. In the run-up to the Budget, select sections of the media peppered their daily offerings with stories claiming that the direct tax code (DTC), a singular tax reform effort that would guarantee stability of rates and transparency in the law, was in trouble and that the finance minister was neglecting it. Those stories proved to be unfounded. Mukherjee, much against expectations, effected a major tweak to the direct tax structure, giving back money to the middle class. Most have interpreted this to be a giveaway. We (in an interview given to Mint) have it from the finance minister himself that this is in line with what has been envisaged in DTC to be put in play by April next year. Having already demonstrated intent, it is obvious that the chances of finance minister sticking to the committed date are very high. This would, as Mukherjee said in his Budget speech, be accompanied by the single goods and services tax (GST) legislation. As Capital Calculus has explained before, this would mean moving towards a uniform tax regime for the entire country. Not only does it ensure economic unity of India, it also ensures a level playing field, especially in the context of the fact that the government is rapidly moving towards dismantling import duty protection through free trade agreements (at the moment, there is no way of ensuring imported goods are slapped with countervailing duties in lieu of levies paid by domestic companies). Further, TFC claims that this would stimulate growth so dramatically that the country’s annual income would grow by an additional 1.5 percentage points. Once these two legislations are in place, India would have finished a journey that ironically began towards the end of Mukherjee’s first stint as finance minister in the 1980s. He had sown the seeds of what became the seminal document—put out by finance minister V.P. Singh in 1985 and authored by Bimal Jalan, who later became a governor of the Reserve Bank of India—known as the Long-Term Fiscal Policy. It would also provide India with one of the most sophisticated tax structures in the world, a model that countries with similar disparities may like to emulate. To Mukherjee, personally too this must be a special moment. It was in the Sixth Plan (1980-81 to 1985-86), which overlapped with his tenure as finance minister, that the country evolved its economic reform strategy under the aegis of Indira Gandhi after her return to power in the 1980 general election. At that time, it was more of talk and less of action. Politically, the country, which was still in the embrace of socialism, found it difficult to effect such a dramatic course correction. It is only apt that he returns to close a critical but very important chapter of reforms initiated during his oversight of the economy. Unlike some of his predecessors, he has couched his Budget speech in very modest language (like his July effort, it will take a while to sink in), so consistent with his political style: promise less and deliver more. However, his claim to fame is hinged on one very vulnerable assumption underlying the Budget: inflation. If things go wrong from here (especially if the policy missteps of the last six months in managing food supplies continue), the finance minister risks political attack. More importantly, a politically weakened finance minister would find it next to impossible to stave off various lobbies that are determined to nix the twin tax reform initiatives. It is a moment not just for the Congress, but the entire United Progressive Alliance to back the finance minister. But are the allies listening? Anil Padmanabhan is a deputy managing editor of Mint and writes every week on the intersection of politics and economics. Comments are welcome at capitalcalculus@ livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 11:19 am India says Saudi to lift crude exports to 40 mn tonSaudi Arabia is willing to increase crude supplies to India to 40 million tonne from about currently 25.5 million tonne to meet rising energy needs of the south Asian country, the Indian government said.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 11:11 am Poor response to bid for power equipment dismays govtNew Delhi: India’s efforts to boost domestic hi-tech power equipment manufacturing have suffered a jolt, with just two firms showing interest in locally building so-called supercritical boilers. The US, Japan, Germany, South Korea and Russia have taken the lead in manufacturing supercritical equipment such as boilers and turbines, which improve the efficiency of power plants and are environment-friendly.  Domestic push: An NTPC power plant at Rihand, Madhya Pradesh. The firm floated a Rs40,000 cr tender for supercritical equipment. Nine packages of boilers and turbines are meant for NTPC’s projects and two for Damodar Valley Corp. The tender said the winner would have to set up factories in India to develop the local power generation equipment manufacturing industry. Such projects typically tend to be capital-intensive, with investment running into several thousand crores of rupees. Five companies bid for supplying the turbines, but just two—Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) and state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel)— bid for the boilers. The poor response has disappointed the power ministry. “While we were looking at more response from the industry, we have received only two bids for boilers. We need substantial power generation equipment capacity in the country, given the demand,” power secretary H.S. Brahma said. India expects to add 62,000MW to its current power generation capacity of 153,000MW by 2012. Orders for 42,431.58MW have been placed with Bhel, the country’s largest power equipment maker, which has an annual capacity of 10,000MW. The government plans to set up an additional capacity of 100,000MW by March 2017. Surprisingly, Russia’s Power Machines, involved in a protracted contractual dispute with NTPC over the supply of turbines for the 1,980MW Sipat project in Chhattisgarh, has shown interest in the supercritical turbine offer. L&T, Bhel and joint ventures of Alstom SA and Bharat Forge Ltd, and Toshiba Corp. of Japan and JSW Group are the other bidders. “Even we were surprised by the Power Machines bid,” said R.S. Sharma, chairman and managing director, NTPC. “The techno-commercial bids have been received and we are evaluating them. We expect to call for price offer in May and award the contracts by July.” The lowest bidder for boilers will be given an order for six units. If Bhel is not the lowest bidder, the government will award it the order for the remaining five units, provided it agrees to match the lowest bid. If it does not, the option will be given to others in the order of bid ranking. The same system will be followed for ordering turbines. A Bhel executive confirmed his firm’s bids for the single largest power generation equipment contract in India. Questions emailed to Power Machines and L&T remained unanswered at the time of going to the press. “The new players may want to see how the bid works out,” said Hitul Gutka, analyst at local brokerage India Infoline Ltd. “They are testing the waters.” utpal.b@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 11:05 am Delhi airport’s T3: bags packed, ready to go New Delhi: I would like to sleep.” When you leave for work at 7.30am and return by 11.30pm every day, survive on adrenalin, a dab of rice and vegetable for lunch, sleep for 4 hours and have a mission to complete India’s biggest airport terminal in a world-record time of 37 months, that’s an unsurprising dream.  Which goes where: Lugging at least 1,000 pieces of luggage, airline and ground-handling staff have started the first major trial of India’s most advanced baggage-handling system at Delhi airport’s Terminal 3. Sanjeev Verma / HT. But mechanical engineer I. Prabhakara Rao, 50, can think of no rest until he meets his July deadline to open T3 (Terminal 3), Delhi’s new international and domestic terminal—and the world’s sixth largest—three months before the Commonwealth Games. Larger than the new terminals of Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore combined, T3 cannot afford the just-in-time approach that much of Delhi is taking, with some infrastructure projects unlikely to meet the Games deadline of October. In a country notorious for eternally scrambling to catch up, T3 is the biggest Indian example of the build-and-they-will-come infrastructure philosophy that China has used to spur growth. The original annual traffic projections of 20 million for 2010 were revised to 30 million after Rao, chief executive officer (Airport Development) of Delhi airport developer GMR Group, held at least 120 meetings with various agencies in the travel trade. Just as well: Delhi already handles 25 million people today, despite 9/11 and the slowdown.  Mindful of an opening week fiasco when employees didn’t know how to run the baggage-handling system and flights were finally turned away at Heathrow’s state-of-the-art T5 in 2008, Rao has started detailed tests before commercial flights start landing in July. “I don’t want a (Heathrow-style) T5 fiasco,” says Rao emphatically. “In three months we want everyone to know, be absolutely clear, what needs to be done.” T3: fast and furious  Games rush: (top) Delhi airport’s Terminal 3. Larger than the new terminals of Mumbai, (below) Hyderabad and Bangalore combined, T3 is slated to be completed in a world-record time of 37 months. Photos by Sanjeev Verma / HT So today, at least 100 wide-eyed staff from 10 airlines and ground-handling firms stream in to the cavernous, dusty departure hall. Lugging at least 1,000 pieces of luggage, they start the first major trial of India’s most advanced baggage-handling system. It even has a CT Scan, like those used in hospitals, to check every inch of suspicious luggage. The check-in displays are up and running, announcing PanAm flights—complete with the logo of the defunct American airline—to Paris, Kathmandu and New York. “Things are going well,” shouts Yvonne Kuger, above the din and amid the dust and frenzy around her. A cheerful, calm woman, she’s head of Operations Readiness Airport Transfer, a consulting team from Munich that’s already helped Rao’s GMR group activate the Hyderabad airport and Delhi’s new domestic terminal 1-D. “It’s a tight deadline, but we’ll make it.” Singapore’s gleaming Changi terminal took 70 months to build, Heathrow’s new terminal T5 took at least 65, so wasn’t this seemingly impossible deadline for Delhi a gamble? “I don’t gamble,” says Rao, a lean, intense man who has spent 26 years building everything from power to steel plants. “I am a hardcore project manager.” He says the secret has been intense “planning, planning, planning” of men, materials and machinery. Take materials: At its peak, construction needed 1,000 trucks of stone and mud, driven in silently every night through back roads to the airport, avoiding the main highways.  Take men: When construction was at its most frenetic, 37,000 workers were used. To be motivated and productive, they were housed by GMR (20,000 houses are still in use) on the airport premises, with power, food, sewage lines, a village-like Sunday market, even a Sunday movie (motivational films such as Chak De! India). Global solutions The speed of construction at T3 has attracted international attention. Streams of visitors file in and out every day of the sprawling construction site. To take lessons for their own future expansions, officials from Beijing and Singapore come to study how Delhi is throwing up a terminal this fast. Today, French business students are trawling the international and departure terminals, each 1.2km in length with a total of 78 shiny, glass-and-steel aerobridges. T3 is a case study of unforeseen, unique problems and how to fix them. When GMR took charge of Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL), to use its official name, on 4 May 2006, the first thing they had to do was revise their carefully drafted master plan. There was the small matter of a village in the middle of the project area, and it could not be moved. So, a new master plan had to be drawn up—skirting the village. When work finally did start by September 2006, typically Indian challenges emerged. Like the new runway that had to be extended by 800m, thanks to an immovable Shiva statue in the flight path. Incoming aircraft must clear 1.4km of runway before they can touch down. With construction in the final, frenetic phases, the results of using the best in the business are evident. With a skill honed on the world’s highest building, the Burj Khalifa, Chinese workers are fixing the last of the 1 sq. km of glass that will be wrapped around T3. A Singapore company is handling the steel, an American company the aerobridges. The chief contractor is Indian engineering firm Larsen and Toubro Ltd, global veteran of highways, nuclear plants and more. Work now goes on 24/7 as Rao and a multinational team of nearly 25,000 workers, 300 engineers and other specialists race towards the official opening in July. For now, Rao—whose son, an engineer and an MBA (master’s in business administration), does not want to follow in his father’s footsteps—must manage with half the sleep a man his age needs. “There is no choice,” he says. “It just has to be done.” feedback@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 11:05 am Budget signals higher returns on UlipsMumbai: Investors in unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips), could see returns increasing by up to half a percentage point following a proposal in the Union Budget for 2010-11 to cap service tax on such products at 10% of fund management charges, according to insurance industry executives. All the media coverage. On one easy-to-use website. Browse Livemint.com’s Budget 2010 microsite. Click here Investors currently pay 10% on all the cost components associated with Ulips. In his Budget speech on Friday, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee amended the definition of investment management services under Ulips. “The value of the taxable service for any year of the operation of policy shall be the actual amount charged by the insurer for management of funds under Ulip or the maximum amount of fund management charges fixed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), whichever is higher,” Mukherjee said.  The changes, which effectively bring Ulips in line with mutual funds (MFs) on fund management charges, will come into effect after the Finance Bill 2010 is enacted. Ulips are hybrid products in which premiums are predominantly invested in equities and bonds, while a portion of the fund is kept aside for insurance. They are popular with investors and in the first nine months of the current fiscal accounted for Rs35,722 crore of new business premiums. For some private insurers, as much as 90% of premiums come from Ulips. Charges for Ulips primarily include policy administration charges, premium allocation charges, mortality charges, fund management charges, surrender charges, and fund switching charges. Currently, investors must pay a service tax of 10% on all of these components, except on mortality charges. But by limiting this tax component only to fund management charges, investors can expect to get higher returns of up to 25-50 basis points (bps). One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. “This relieves the rest of the components like allocation charges etc., which are akin to the exempted levies like entry and exit load from service tax. This will add 40-50 bps on consumer IRR (internal rate of return) yields,” said V. Srinivasan, chief financial officer, Bharti AXA Life Insurance Co. Ltd. In July last year, Irda capped overall charges on Ulips at 225 bps, with a limit of 135 bps as fund management charges. A Ulip fetching a 10% gross return had to effectively give 7.75% to the investor, excluding service tax and the mortality charges, which typically add up to another 50 bps. This meant the policyholder would finally receive only 7.25% after paying all charges. With a maximum of 10% service tax on fund management charges, which itself is capped at 135 bps, policyholders will effectively receive returns of 7.6-7.65% after paying all charges, assuming the overall returns remain 10%. “The Budget proposal to limit the service tax to fund management charges only in Ulips has removed the anomaly of not having a level playing field for various financial products,” said Rajesh Sud, chief executive officer and managing director, Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd, adding that this would “improve the returns for life insurance policyholders”. Investors in Ulips may earn higher returns following the budgetary move, but would have to pay more than they would to invest in MFs. That’s because the service tax component in MF investments is included within the overall charge, itself capped at 2.25-2.5%, depending on the size of the investment. In Ulips, the service tax is charged over and above the overall permissible charge, capped at 2.25%. “Service tax is levied only on the fund management charges in mutual funds, but this is included within the overall charge in a mutual fund product, which is capped. So, it is not right to say that this budgetary move will create a level playing field for Ulips,” said Rajiv Anand, managing director and CEO, Axis Asset Management Co. Ltd. MF charges include investment management fees (fund management charges) and its service tax, distribution charges, registrar and transfer charges, and custodian charges. The total of all these charges cannot exceed 2.25-2.5% in any MF scheme. Interestingly, in an effort to maintain the profitability of their lucrative Ulips without hurting returns, life insurance companies recently hiked the minimum premium by 30-60%. This move followed the Irda’s move to cap the overall charges on Ulips at 225 basis points. Earlier, apart from paying up to 40% of the premium as agent commission, policyholders were required to pay up to 400 bps as overall Ulip charges. anirudh.l@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 11:04 am Quick Edit | India needs modern retailThe initial belief that runaway food inflation is a temporary result of a failed monsoon is now being challenged by the inconvenient truth that higher support prices to farmers and cash transfers to those who work on projects under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme also have a role to play. President Pratibha Patil did well to suggest this in her recent speech to both houses of Parliament. If food prices are indeed on a permanently high plateau because of higher demand, then public policy to raise food output in India is a must. One obvious way is to promote a second green revolution based on biotechnology, a medium-term goal. The more immediate challenge is to do something about criminal waste, as food rots because of a lack of storage facilities, a tiny food processing industry and an inefficient supply chain riddled with middlemen. There is one answer to all these problems: private investment in modern retail. It seems to have completely slipped off the government agenda. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 11:04 am Irrigation projects in Andhra under PMO scanner Hyderabad: Irrigation projects in Andhra Pradesh (AP) involving a combined outlay of Rs1.8 trillion have come under the scrutiny of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) following corruption charges by opposition parties in the southern state.  Channeling funds: A file photo of the Polavaram irrigation project under way at Khammam and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh. Bharath Sai / Mint The Central Water Commission (CWC) wrote to the department asking for the details, which it said had been sought by PMO. A copy of the letter was reviewed by Mint. An official in the AP irrigation department confirmed that it had received the letter. Officials at the PMO couldn’t be contacted for comment on Sunday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is on a visit to Saudi Arabia. The Congress-led state government has taken up 86 major and medium irrigation projects since 2004-05 under its Jalayagnam (water worship) programme. Only four major and eight medium irrigation projects have been completed, with the remaining 74 still in different stages of development. Till date, the state has spent Rs47,382 crore on irrigation projects and is still to spend Rs1.32 trillion, far higher than its budget for 2010-11 of Rs1.14 trillion. These projects, whose timely execution now appears uncertain, were awarded to several leading Indian infrastructure firms under the EPC model and slated to be completed by 2012. These firms include IVRCL Infrastructures and Projects Ltd, Nagarjuna Constructions Co. Ltd, Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd, Gayatri Projects Ltd, Patel Engineering Ltd, SEW Infrastructure Ltd, Navayuga Engineering Co. Ltd and Mega Engineering Infrastructure Ltd. AP’s worsening finances, against the backdrop of political instability caused by protests for and against the creation of a separate Telangana state, have already damaged the balance sheets of infrastructure firms. Delayed payments from the state government have been affecting the ability of infrastructure builders to raise money for projects. Adding to their woes, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who has spearheaded the campaign for the creation of a Telangana state out of AP, alleged “gross violation” of regulations and “enormous corruption” in awarding EPC contracts under the “garb of Jalayagnam”, in a letter to Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh on 10 October. In the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by Mint, Rao sought a Union government enquiry into the “massive fraud of several thousand crores”. Alleging that the state government may resort to “manipulation and destruction of the records” of EPC contracts, Rao urged PMO to “immediately direct the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) to seize all the records of Jalayagnam contracts to facilitate detailed inquiry.” “PMO has directed the Central Water Commission to immediately look into the matter and obtain all the details pertaining to award of EPC contracts in AP since 2004-05,” said a senior official in the AP irrigation department who did not want be named, “CWC, in turn, has directed the AP government to immediately furnish the details of EPC contracts of irrigation projects, especially those assisted by the Central government funds,” said the same official. Citing the PMO enquiry, CWC’s monitoring and appraisal directorate, in a letter dated 3 February, directed the principal secretary (projects) of the state irrigation department to urgently furnish the details of the EPC contracts. CWC sought from AP government the details of EPC contracts of all the irrigation projects that were being assisted under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP). Telugu Desam party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, who heads the key opposition party in AP, has also alleged large-scale corruption in irrigation projects under the Jalayagnam programme and wrote several letters to the Prime Minister and President. Mint could not verify whether PMO had sought details from the state government in response to the allegations made by Naidu. He had alleged that the cost of several irrigation projects was escalated significantly and designs of irrigation projects altered to benefit the contractors in return for kickbacks. A senior civil servant in the AP irrigation ministry, who did not want to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media, refuted allegations of wrongdoing. “The EPC contracts awarding system that AP had evolved over the last five-and-a-half years’ period is considered the most stringent and robust in the country, leaving no scope to any kind of discretion, which is usually prone to pressures,” the person said. “And many a time, the state government was assisted by the project appraisal agencies belonging to CWC while awarding EPC contracts.” The official conceded that the cost of some projects had escalated significantly after the EPC contracts had been awarded, but he attributed the increase to changes in the scope of the projects to expand the area they had been intended to cover. For instance, the cost of the Sriramsagar Project flood flow canal was revised to Rs4,266 crore from Rs1,331 crore, the cost of the J Chokkarao lift irrigation scheme was revised to Rs9,317 crore from Rs6,016 crore and the Rajiv Bhima Lift Irrigation Scheme raised to Rs1,969 crore from Rs744 crore originally estimated. Changes in the scope of irrigation projects and the resultant cost escalations were being periodically submitted to CWC since the state wants the Centre to fund up to 25% of the project costs under AIBP, the official said. “The AP government has already accorded administrative approvals to these revised estimates and submitted them to CWC, of which some were already cleared by CWC and some were under its appraisal,” the official said. The chairman of a leading infrastructure firm that is executing several irrigation projects in AP under the EPC route said on condition of anonymity that the projects risked being set back further. “If CWC is not convinced of the justification offered by the AP irrigation ministry on cost escalations, then the state government may not receive the required funds under AIBP, which may in turn add to the state’s financial hassles and further slow the execution of irrigation projects,” he said. c.sukumar@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 11:03 am Rs 27000-cr revenue dent on tax sops to enclave units - Hindu Business Line
Source: Business - Google News | 28 Feb 2010 | 10:56 am Greece may take more debt steps as EU visit loomsATHENS (Reuters) - Greece may soon announce new steps to cut its budget deficit, a government minister said on Sunday, amid signs that Athens might be nearing a deal with European Union governments to ease the Greek debt crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 28 Feb 2010 | 10:27 am Spend on IT don t pamper or discriminateSo what’s the message for the information technology sector from the budget last week? I wish I knew, and my guess is that policy-makers do not know much either. I am not talking about hardware but about software and IT-enabled services.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 10:04 am Hold CEOs and boards responsible says BuffettBillionaire investor Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway recorded 61 per cent rise in full-year profit largely due to gains from derivatives investments, has said that CEOs and boards of the companies should be penalised for failing in their job.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am India Inc vying for banking licencesOver a dozen non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), including those of the Tatas, Birlas, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and Bajaj Group, are lining up plans to seek banking licences once the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) comes up with relevant guidelines.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:58 am Commercial rentals likely to head northFinance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has proposed to amend the Finance Act 1994 to include renting of commercial property as a service. The said provision that brings renting of commercial space under the service tax net would be applicable with retrospective effect from June 1, 2007.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:55 am Double whammy for auto buyers pay more from AprilAfter the Budget triggering off a price increase in different auto models, the industry is set to jack up prices again in April due to the implementation of the new emission norms — Bharat Stage IV.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:41 am Govt banks on divestment 3GThe government is banking heavily on disinvestment proceeds and auction of spectrum for third-generation (3G) telecom services to bolster its balance sheet. Nearly 40 per cent of the Centre’s total non-tax income is expected to come in from these two sources.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:39 am Victorian-era law puts judges in a tight spot over conflict of interest New Delhi: A civil law tradition laid down in Victorian-era Britain has put the modern Indian judiciary in a fix. Judges, particularly in the Supreme Court, are withdrawing from cases relating to companies in which they or their family own shares or have other interests. With 20 of the 26 apex court judges owning shares, mutual funds or other market instruments, legal experts fear the registrar’s office may soon struggle to find an acceptable bench to try some of the commercial cases. The tradition began in 1852 when Lord Cottenham of Britain recused, or withdrew, from the Dimes v Grand Junction Canal case as he owned some shares in a company involved in the dispute. Judges have since been expected to recuse from all such cases—even in India, where they are not obliged to do so by law. The issue hogged the limelight in November, when justice R.V. Raveendran of the Supreme Court withdrew from hearing a dispute between the estranged Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil. The reason? His daughter worked with a law firm that helps Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) in its global acquisitions. In the same month, justice S.H. Kapadia recused from hearing the cases of ITC Ltd and Sesa Goa Ltd as he held shares in these firms. Justice Markandey Katju, who owns a stake in RIL, also withdrew from hearing a payment dispute between RIL and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. On 8 February, another Supreme Court judge, V.S. Sirpurkar, recused from a case involving Dutch power firm Brakel Corp. NV and Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, as he held shares in the latter. From the beginning, Supreme Court judges have drawn a distinction between financial and non-financial conflicts of interests when deciding on when to withdraw. They almost certainly withdraw when they have a financial conflict of interest, to avoid allegations of bias. However, in cases of non-financial conflict of interest—such as the judge being a friend of one of the lawyers, or having heard the same case in some other forum—they stay on the bench if the lawyers waive the objection. The concern is not confined to the apex court. A lawyer, who did not want to be named, said no judge of the Bombay high court could hear the cases of a large consumer durables manufacturer recently as they all held its shares. Legal experts say the practice is anachronistic; India today is not the England of 1852. They point out the number of demat accounts with the two depositories—National Securities Depository Ltd and Central Depository Services (India) Ltd—have increased from 2.5 million in March 2000 to 16.3 million now. Naturally, a number of judges, or their families, also own some of these shares. “Should a judge recuse from a case just because he or his family members hold a few shares in a multi-crore-share company?” asked senior Supreme Court lawyer and constitutional expert Rajeev Dhavan. But a judge who does not recuse in such cases could also face allegations of bias. Dhavan suggested: “Well-defined guidelines devised by the judges on financial conflict of interest and recusal would help avoid the controversy.” Ashok Desai, another senior Supreme Court lawyer, agreed with Dhavan. “A clear definition of the financial conflict of interest is necessary,” he said. “If the financial interest is insignificant or remote—for instance, when the judge holds only a few shares of a large company—it would be better for the judge to declare his interest and leave it to the parties to raise or waive objection to his being on the bench.” Withdrawals over financial conflict of interest are common in the US, said Desai. In a 1982 antitrust case involving cement companies, a judge had to recuse because his wife was among hundreds of thousands of shareholders of one firm, owning shares worth $30. Shamnad Basheer, a professor at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, said it was illogical to insist that the most insignificant of financial interests should bar a judge from hearing a case. He called the distinction between financial and non-financial conflicts of interest “arbitrary” to some extent since a judge who owns a share worth Rs10 may still have to recuse himself under this standard. “Why don’t we have a simple test of whether the interest, financial or non-financial, is significant enough to influence the judge?” he asked. “A determination in this regard can be made by a special body comprising senior judges and senior counsels.” Dhavan also suggested that judges could discuss and draw a line between “holding a few shares and being more of an investor” in a company, and “owning substantial shares and being part of a firm’s power structure”. manish.r@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:38 am Cornered BJP woos Dalits and Muslims to retain its relevanceNew Delhi: Fear of being marginalized is driving the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) towards hitherto uncharted territory. The party that rose to the centre stage by championing the cause of upper-caste Hindus is now reaching out to Dalits and backward castes, and sending overtures to Muslims in a bid to expand its support base and retain its political relevance. Some analysts say this is a “Congressification” of the BJP—a mimicking of the strategy that helped its arch foe the Congress party, rule India for much of its independent history and again replace the BJP at the helm of the Union government six years ago.  Towards moderation: A 19 Feburary photo of BJP national president Nitin Gadkari (centre) with party leaders Ananth Kumar (right) and Shivraj Singh Chauhan during the party’s national executive meet in Indore. PTI Newly elected BJP president Nitin Gadkari, speaking at the annual meeting of the party’s national executive recently, sought to enlist the support of Dalits and backward castes that make up a significant chunk of India’s voters. He also called upon Muslims to accept a Ram temple at the site of the Babri mosque—which was razed in 1992 by a mob as the climax of a Hindu nationalist movement led by BJP leaders—in return for another mosque in the neighbourhood. Political observers termed it a turn towards moderation, crucial for a party that has lost two consecutive general elections and a string of state elections and seen its voter base dwindle over the past six years. “It has now become electorally imperative for the BJP to move towards moderation, also made important by compulsions of a coalition era,” said Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president, Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think tank. “What Hindu nationalism fundamentally needs is politics of anxiety, which is much less now than earlier and hence the BJP is not succeeding in polarizing (the electorate) now. In this context, it is moving towards moderation.” Muslims and Dalits have always been crucial for Indian political parties—national or regional. Muslims constitute around 14% of the national population, according to the 2001 census. While there is no accurate estimate of the Dalit population, different studies peg it between 16% and 20%. “It is a democratic fact that to be a mass-based national party, you require a significant base among Dalits,” Mehta pointed out. Saibal Gupta, a Bihar-based political and development analyst, said national parties had realized that a coalition of extremes, which includes all sections of society from Brahmins to Dalits, was the most effective strategy to stay in power. The Congress, he said, had always banked upon this strategy until its decline in the 1990s. “It got breached and unfortunately for them, those kind of coalitions have been forming in different parts of the country. (Chief minister) Nitish Kumar is trying it in Bihar and in Andhra Pradesh, (former chief minister) N. Chandrababu Naidu managed to do it,” said Gupta, founder and member secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute, Patna. But the Congress reinvented itself to storm to power in 2004 at the head of a rainbow coalition called the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). In last year’s election, the party led the alliance to a second term in power. Although it continues to rule with the help of allies, general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is seen as a future prime ministerial candidate, is keen to bring the Congress to power on its own. The party is now making a concerted pitch to regain lost ground in the politically crucial states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which together send 120 members to the Lok Sabha. Smaller parties such as the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal have captured a large chunk of the electorate in these states. “It is tougher for the BJP than the Congress (to be a big tent party). Congress has been, in the last couple of years, able to convey different messages. It has shifted from (former prime minister) Rajiv Gandhi’s techno-managerial orientation to inclusive orientation,” Gupta said. Mehta hoped the BJP’s efforts would at least keep the Congress from becoming complacent. “With both Congress and BJP now vying for the same political space, what it will do is push Congress out of its complacency. But the Congress is still at an advantage compared to the BJP, given that the latter’s geographical base is not that wide,” he said. “It will have to peak in all states where it has a presence simultaneously in order to replace the Congress.” Regional parties are not amused by the new agenda set by the national parties. “(Regional parties) are very much needed in the current political scenario,” said Jose K. Mani, a Lok Sabha member belonging to Kerala Congress (Mani). “Even in the context of development,” he added, “when national parties tend to ignore certain regions, it is the smaller parties which sense the deep-rooted issues of the people.” liz.m@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:33 am CAT scores out, two schools put up shortlistsNew Delhi: The scores of the common admission test, or CAT, written last year by 240,000 aspirants for entrance to the eight Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), were announced on Sunday. The schools in Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and Shillong (IIM-S) also put out their shortlists of candidates who would be considered for admission to their two-year flagship Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme. The test, conducted online for the first time, had been marred by technical glitches and had to be completed in two phases. IIM-A has 960 candidates on its shortlist, its admissions department said in an email reply. They will vie for 385 seats that India’s premier business school will offer in its class of 2012. The numbers include caste-based quotas set aside in all government-run educational institutes. The school has tentatively scheduled the round of personal interview, the next step in the admissions process, in New Delhi 14-18 March, in Kolkata 22-24 March, in Ahmedabad 29-31 March and in Bangalore 5-10 April. IIM-S, which currently has 66 seats, said in excess of 1,000 candidates were on its shortlist. “The number of seats could go up to 120 . We are assessing the hostel, and trying to create new facilities,” said Ashoke Kumar Dutta, director of IIM-S. The schools at Ranchi, which will admit its first batch in June, as well as Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Lucknow and Kozhikode are yet to come out with shortlists, the CAT website said. The website shut down for three hours on Sunday afternoon, citing heavy traffic of candidates checking their scores. Many of the candidates discussed their results online. “Got IIM-A call but no call from IIM-S. Wats happening?? Any guesses?? Unable to open the score page as well,” said a candidate who uses the handle Karthik on Pagalguy.com, an online community of MBA aspirants, students and schools. Another candidate with the handle Ankit9doshi said “IIM-A—960 calls is really less. It means general category (non-reserved) calls must be abt 600. Last year, gen category calls were 609. I thought the batch size was increasing, so they would probably call more people. Anyway best of luck to those who got the coveted IIM-A call.” The online CAT, administered by Prometric Testing Pvt. Ltd, the local arm of the US-based testing company Prometric Inc., was criticized by students and test preparation companies after technical snags led to constant rescheduling. But on Sunday, the reaction was conciliatory. “The question on credibility of having a paper (examination) conducted over multiple days and then giving a common result was very well answered by IIMs,” said Ravi Pokharna, a director at PT Education, a test preparation company. “The results have been scaled for the difficulty level through psychometric equivalence over all testing days, which should be a big relief for all the aspirants,” Pokharna added. aparna.k@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:20 am Airlines to pass on new burden to travellersMumbai: Air travel is likely to become more expensive as domestic carriers deal with the double blow of an expanded service tax regime and a levy on crude imports from 1 April. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget for 2010-11 has proposed a 5% customs duty on crude petroleum, up from zero until now. This will make aviation turbine fuel (ATF), which accounts for almost 40% of an airline’s operating costs, pricier. Also Read | Mint’s Budget 2010 Coverage Service tax on air travel is also being expanded to include domestic travel, and international flights in any class; it was earlier applicable only to international first and business class travel. Airlines, which had been hoping for lower sales tax on ATF across states and special concession for midsize planes in the Budget, will now pass on these new expenses to the travellers. “This is an inclusive Budget with special focus on infrastructure...but as far as aviation is concerned, there has been no major announcement in terms of concessions,” said M. Thiagarajan, managing director at Paramount Airways Ltd. The levy on crude imports and service tax on domestic travel “will only increase the air fares”, he said. Aloke Bajpai, chief executive of travel website IXiGO.com, said there was little for airlines to rejoice about. “It means higher fares and more difficulty for airlines to maintain good load factors,” he said. Federation of Indian Airlines, or FIA, a lobbying group, had urged the finance ministry to lower the prices of ATF, as member airlines had incurred a combined loss of $2 billion (Rs9,240 crore today) in fiscal 2009, and are expected to post similar losses for the current fiscal. The increase in operating costs will reduce margins. Increase in fuel prices could also affect airlines’ growth plans. “It also means capacity addition will need to be cautious, especially since oil is hovering above $80 a barrel, too,” Bajpai said. But some experts said the industry need not worry too much. The Budget, through a rationalization of income-tax slabs, has also enhanced disposable incomes, and this can only augur well for the carriers. “This (expansion of service tax) will not have much of an impact as service tax is on the basic fare and not on the additional surcharges,” said Peter Kerkar, executive director, Cox and Kings (India) Ltd, a leading travel house in India. Kerkar pointed out that on average the basic fare is only around 40% of the total and that the tax on that part “is not very significant”. “Increased disposable income would benefit the travel industry as people’s propensity to spend would go up,” he added. pr.sanjai@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:16 am Year-old alumni help companies recruit the best from B-schools New Delhi: Saurav Arora spent the weekend at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), chatting up directors and teachers, dining out at the canteen—and interviewing students he can hire for his brokerage.  Photo: Hemant Mishra / Mint As the hiring season begins, recruiters are turning up at business schools to skim off the cream of fresh corporate talent being churned out this year. Some of them, such as Arora, are not content with the standard format of campus interviews; they bring their own unique styles to the selection process to ensure that they get their money’s worth. This often involves enlisting the help of previous hires from a particular campus. For instance, Suvojoy Sengupta, a partner heading Booz and Co.’s India operations, has kept himself informed of the goings on at IIM-A, and what the competition is up to, with his team of year-old recruits.  Graphic: Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint “You need to have gathered some data and intelligence before recruitment to narrow down candidates,” he said. By the end of his time on campus, Sengupta, who had also developed a rapport with the teacher in charge of placements, had a good idea of how many job offers were made overall. “Hiring is a two-way match,” said Sengupta, himself an IIM-A graduate. “We want good, smart people...who are willing to make a career with us.” For most recruiters, campus hiring is an expensive, high-stakes and intense process, almost as tiring for the panels of interviewers as it is for candidates—spent supervising hours of interviews, group discussions, psychometric and “culture fit” tests, case-study presentations and summer internship presentations. Devising case-study problems, sifting through applications and putting students on a shortlist precede this. In between, recruiters also worry about getting the best candidates and managing their image, which affects their recruitment slot, on campus. Most companies prepare for hiring by making a couple of advance visits to campus, even though a scheduled interaction with students costs them money. “Cluster One recruiters almost always make one more visit,” said Rohan Desai, a student who is part of IIM-A’s 298-strong class of 2010. The meetings, said Desai, are supposed to be “informal” and “non-evaluative”. Year-old alumni, who generally know the graduating class well, play a key role in keeping firms informed about which students might be worth hiring. They also move around easily, hanging out with students to get fresh “intelligence”. At campuses such as IIM-A, they have access to online software that announces student accomplishments, contest wins and even dorm events. “It is a well-connected network,” said Ravi Srivastava, an Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and IIM-A alumnus and partner at Boston Consulting Group. The international consultancy made the highest number of eight offers to students in the first batch of recruiters at IIM-A this year. It will end up getting roughly 40 fresh graduates from IIMs, IITs and law schools put together. “Word goes around for extremes, someone who has a ‘stud profile’ or a free rider”, said IIM-A student Desai. But the information flow is two-way. Alumni are also instrumental in getting a good word across about companies, especially those that are relatively unknown on campuses. Arora of Jaypee was a first-time recruiter at campuses last year. Amid the economic slowdown, his firm emerged as the largest recruiter from IIMs, hiring 53 graduates in a total of 62 recruitments from all business schools. This time around, he is travelling with the team he had hired. “The entire process is driven by alumni,” said Arora, describing students’ comfort with what their peers tell them about his company as “a luxury that last batch didn’t have”. aparna.k@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:14 am Unions set a deadline of 14 days for Corus to find buyerNew Delhi: Four trade unions at Corus Group Ltd, Tata Steel Ltd’s European arm, have joined hands and have asked the management to find a buyer for its Teesside Cast Products (TCP) unit and save 1,600 jobs. The combined body of unions have given a time of 14 days to the Corus management to find a buyer failing which the associations have threatened with an action and may take recourse to industrial action. “At a meeting of the national trade union steel co-ordinating committee (NTUSCC), the steel unions resolved to offer Corus a 14-day period of grace to take a different course of action,” a joint statement by the unions said. “If Corus fails to demonstrate the necessary leadership, statesmanship and progress in the next 14 days, regrettably, we will need to implement alternative plans to safeguard steelmaking across the UK,” it said. The NTUSCC comprises leading officers from trade unions like Community Union, Unite, GMB and Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians represent trade union members within Corus. Tata Steel’s European arm started the process of mothballing some of the mills of its TCP plant about a week back, a move that will render 1,600 workers jobless. “We are giving Corus a window of opportunity to commit to finding a buyer for Teesside. This is a pause for peace to allow Corus to take the initiative because there are 10,000 jobs on the line,” said national officer for Unite Terry Pye. General secretary of community and chairman of the NTUSCC, Michael Leahy said, “This is a genuine olive branch, offered in the interests of all in finding a way forward to save our steel on Teesside.” Unions said the steel committees would meet managing director and chied executive officer of Corus, Kirby Adams, at any time. “We will continue to consult with our members about alternative options, with the interests of Teesside and the future of the UK steel industry foremost in our minds,” the statement said. The committee has decided to meet again on 15 March to assess the progress made by Corus on the issue and to chalk out a future course of strategy. The British trade body Community Union, last week, had threatened to design its proposed industrial action against Corus over its decision to begin partial mothballing of TCP. “As a modern union we will be seeking to make surgical strikes that will cause maximum damage to Tata Corus and minimum damage to our members,” Community Union general secretary M. Leahy had said in an email. The union had said it will be giving its members the opportunity to ballot for industrial action. feedback@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:08 am Unions set a deadline of 14 days for Corus to find buyerNew Delhi: Four trade unions at Corus Group Ltd, Tata Steel Ltd’s European arm, have joined hands and have asked the management to find a buyer for its Teesside Cast Products (TCP) unit and save 1,600 jobs. The combined body of unions have given a time of 14 days to the Corus management to find a buyer failing which the associations have threatened with an action and may take recourse to industrial action. “At a meeting of the national trade union steel co-ordinating committee (NTUSCC), the steel unions resolved to offer Corus a 14-day period of grace to take a different course of action,” a joint statement by the unions said. “If Corus fails to demonstrate the necessary leadership, statesmanship and progress in the next 14 days, regrettably, we will need to implement alternative plans to safeguard steelmaking across the UK,” it said. The NTUSCC comprises leading officers from trade unions like Community Union, Unite, GMB and Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians represent trade union members within Corus. Tata Steel’s European arm started the process of mothballing some of the mills of its TCP plant about a week back, a move that will render 1,600 workers jobless. “We are giving Corus a window of opportunity to commit to finding a buyer for Teesside. This is a pause for peace to allow Corus to take the initiative because there are 10,000 jobs on the line,” said national officer for Unite Terry Pye. General secretary of community and chairman of the NTUSCC, Michael Leahy said, “This is a genuine olive branch, offered in the interests of all in finding a way forward to save our steel on Teesside.” Unions said the steel committees would meet managing director and chied executive officer of Corus, Kirby Adams, at any time. “We will continue to consult with our members about alternative options, with the interests of Teesside and the future of the UK steel industry foremost in our minds,” the statement said. The committee has decided to meet again on 15 March to assess the progress made by Corus on the issue and to chalk out a future course of strategy. The British trade body Community Union, last week, had threatened to design its proposed industrial action against Corus over its decision to begin partial mothballing of TCP. “As a modern union we will be seeking to make surgical strikes that will cause maximum damage to Tata Corus and minimum damage to our members,” Community Union general secretary M. Leahy had said in an email. The union had said it will be giving its members the opportunity to ballot for industrial action. feedback@livemint.com Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:08 am Bangladesh agrees to tri-nation gas pipelineBangladesh has lifted its opposition to a gas pipeline linking India and Myanmar and running through its territory, paving the way for the establishment of a regional gas grid that will feed India’s growing energy hunger. The approval by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s government comes as two other such pipeline projects involving India have become entangled in geopolitical knots. Bangladesh’s change of stance follows the ouster of the Begum Khaleda Zia regime, which has been succeeded by an administration friendlier to India. The neighbouring nation had been stonewalling the 900km pipeline, which will originate in Myanmar and pass through Bangladesh to India. The assent was communicated to India during power secretary H.S. Brahma’s visit to Bangladesh last month, which followed Sheikh Hasina’s state visit in January. “The energy adviser to the prime minister of Bangladesh, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, communicated its (Bangladesh’s) willingness to be part of the pipeline project,” Brahma told Mint. “We have to see what amount of gas reserves we are talking about. I am going to forward our report to MEA (ministry of external affairs),” he added. Questions emailed to the embassy of Myanmar and Bangladesh’s high commission in New Delhi bounced back, while repeated attempts to contact the embassy and high commission yielded no results. India has been seeking gas supplies from Myanmar and Bangladesh, both of which have significant reserves of the fuel. Myanmar has gas reserves of 89.72 trillion cu. ft, of which 18.01 trillion cu. ft can be easily extracted. Bangladesh, on the other hand, has resisted calls until now for the export of natural gas—of which it has substantial reserves of 135.8 billion cu. m—to its larger neighbour, which needs supplies of the fuel for its projects. India has recoverable natural gas reserves of 119.55 billion cu. m and produced 32,847 million cu. m in 2008-09. “If the tri-nation pipeline happens, then there is a very strong possibility of the creation of a sub-regional gas grid,” said Anish De, chief executive at Mercados Asia, an energy consulting firm. “This is a huge statement and if carried out, will have massive social, political and economic ramifications.” While India has been trying to get gas from blocks in Myanmar in which ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of oil and gas explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd, and gas distributor GAIL (India) Ltd together hold a 30% stake, that country has decided to sell the fuel from the areas to China. India’s cabinet committee on economic affairs in February approved the OVL and GAIL proposal to take stakes of 8.35% and 4.17%, respectively, in the pipeline being constructed by China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) to transport gas from the offshore blocks A-1 and A-3 to China. This comes as Indian state-owned firms such as OVL are locked in fierce competition for energy assets with Chinese rivals including CNPC, Sinopec Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp. Ltd. India was able to conclude several deals with Bangladesh and Myanmar in February. State-owned NHPC Ltd signed an agreement with India’s ministry of external affairs last month to fund hydrological studies needed to develop the 1,200MW Tamanti hydroelectric power plant and a 642MW project on the Chindwin river, the largest tributary of the Irrawaddy, Myanmar’s key commercial waterway. The Indian government last December also sanctioned a new 100km highway from Mizoram to the Myanmar border that would provide a road link to the Sittwe port in Myanmar that India is developing. Bangladesh plans to set up two coal-fuelled power projects of 1,320MW each, one of which requiring an investment of around Rs6,600 crore will be offered to state-owned NTPC Ltd, India’s largest power generation utility, to be developed in a joint venture with the Bangladesh Power Development Board. NTPC is also scouting for renovation and modernization and operation and maintenance opportunities in Bangladesh. In addition, a 250MW transmission interconnection between India and Bangladesh is being set up by Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd. utpal.b@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:05 am Despite protectionism, Asean looking at single market by 2015Putrajaya (Malaysia): Southeast Asian nations on Sunday said they are still aiming to set up a European Union-style economic community by 2015 despite concerns that the global slump has led to a rise in trade protectionism. The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, plans to have a free flow of goods, services, investment and skilled labour within five years, although it has fallen short so far in most of the sectors targeted for accelerated integration. “The crisis has somewhat affected our progress...there is a tendency to be more protective,” Malaysian trade minister Mustapa Mohamed told reporters at the end of a two-day meeting of economic ministers from Asean nations, which comprise at least 500 million people. He said satisfactory progress has been made in only four of 11 priority sectors targeted for accelerated integration: tourism, air travel, textiles and the automotive sector. Some countries also failed to meet goals to eliminate non-tariff barriers, harmonize product standards and accelerate custom clearance, he said. But it still has met most of its overall integration targets, and ministers this weekend renewed their commitment to speed up trade liberalization to create the Asean Economic Community as planned by 2015, Mustapa said. “We need to put our house in order,” he said. “We have not been able to achieve a perfect score but we have come a long way. The shortcomings are not fundamental, the (2015) goal is going to be achievable.” Scepticism remains about Asean’s ability to achieve complete economic integration and insure that its diverse membership, which have occasional disputes among themselves, can cohere effectively. A wide economic gulf divides its six more developed nations—Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and the Philippines—and its four newer members, communist Vietnam and Laos, military-ruled Myanmar and Cambodia. Asean secretary general Surin Pitsuwan stressed the need to fuse the disparate economies into a single market to be competitive. While Asean economies were bouncing back from the global slump, foreign investment, especially from the US, has dipped, he said. An Asean ministerial delegation will tour the US in May to woo investors and expand trade ties but the bloc has not decided whether to join a proposed US-backed Asia-Pacific free-trade region, he added. The proposed Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific comprising 21 economies ranging from the US to Russia was envisaged as an alternative if global world trade talks failed but analysts have said it is premature for progress on such a broad pact. feedback@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 9:05 am ‘Few understand term insurance’I-Genius, Max’s latest endeavour targeted to groom children, seems to be more in the consultancy space. What is the need of integrating consultancy services with insurance? Parents are increasingly focusing on the overall development of their children. More than grooming their children for pursuing lucrative careers, parents are focusing on developing their personalities. We launched I-Genuis keeping this paradigm shift in mind. In addition to enable parents to save for their children, we would also like to help them groom their children. Under I-Genius, we would offer 3,000 scholarships worth Rs2 crore. We would also offer consultancy to parents through a panel of experts free of cost. This consultancy will be available through social media and our helpline numbers. You have only one unit-linked insurance policy (Ulip), but two traditional endowment products for children. For long-term goals for kids, does one need a traditional product, considering they are low on returns and are less transparent?  Do you pass any cost benefits to customers since child Ulips require them to stay invested for a longer term compared with regular Ulips? Are charges low? We have higher loyalty additions since persistency is relatively good in child Ulips. Our fist-year cost of acquiring business is quite high, so we need to deduct that cost upfront. However, we discount these costs in the form of loyalty additions and maturity bonuses. Ulips are long-term products but regular Ulips are often bought or sold for shorter periods. On average, what is the tenure of Ulips sold by Max New York Life? Our average tenure is about 15-18 years. We believe that insurance products are long-term and we sell keeping that in mind. Insurance is still sold as an investment product in India. The popularity of Ulips is a proof. However, people are still underinsured because the focus remains on investment. Comment. To begin with, very few people understand a term plan. In fact, selling a term plan is an uphill task because people want returns from their policy. Plus, what we don’t realize is that the risk of death is much less compared with the risk of not saving enough. For most, there is a large gap between earnings and savings to meet their goals. Insurance covers that gap. Rajesh Sud is the Managing director & CEO of Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd Deepti Bhaskaran deepti.bh@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 8:58 am Higher infrastructure spending buoys cement manufacturingCement dispatches have been robust in the second half of FY10 on account of higher government expenditure on infrastructure and steady rural consumption. We expect demand to hold firm, particularly in India’s northern market, with a growth of over 10% in the next two years. On the flip side, our analysis suggests that cement overcapacity is imminent in the medium term. Also See Building Blocks (Graphics) This, together with rising coal and freight costs, signals a challenging road ahead in FY11. With the southern market at greatest risk of a supply glut, we maintain our preference for north-based firms such as Grasim Industries Ltd, Jaiprakash Associates Ltd and Shree Cement Ltd. Mid-cap companies in the rapid-hardening hydraulic cement universe led the way in terms of dispatch growth for January. While India Cements Ltd’s volumes grew 30% year-on-year (y-o-y), JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd registered an increase of 27%. Orient Paper and Industries Ltd, Shree Cement and Birla Corp. Ltd also logged strong growth rates of 20%, 18%, and 16% y-o-y, respectively. Mangalam Cement Ltd was the only firm in our universe to witness a decline with volumes slipping 16% y-o-y due to a five-day maintenance shutdown at its plant. Among large-caps, the Aditya Birla Group (Grasim and UltraTech Cement Ltd) continued to outpace Holcim (ACC Ltd and Ambuja Cements Ltd). Year-to-date, Shree Cement and Grasim were in the lead with volumes rising 24% and 20%, respectively. With cement dispatches picking up over the last three months, we expect to close FY10 with demand growth of over 11%. Further, with the sustained government thrust on infrastructure spending and a revival in the real estate sector, demand for cement could exceed the traditional correlation range of 1.2–1.3 times gross domestic product to touch 1.4–1.45 times in FY11 and FY12. After declining by Rs15–80 per bag in the third quarter of FY10, cement prices have partially recovered (in the range of Rs10–40 per bag) on account of buoyant demand and logistics-related supply shortages. The price hikes have been spread across regions, barring the south. However, with a large quantum of fresh capacities set to be commissioned in FY11 (30 million tonnes), we expect pricing power to deteriorate after May. The Budget is likely to see a rollback of the excise duty cut from 8% to 10%. We believe cement firms will pass on the duty hike by raising prices in the near term. Over the long term, however, cost rationalization will be the key to preserving profitability. We believe FY11 will be a difficult year for the industry as the risk of oversupply looms large. The southern market would be the hardest hit as a bulk of planned capacities will be commissioned there (53% and 23% of all-India fresh capacity in FY10 and FY11, respectively). This coupled with a demand slowdown due to political turmoil in Andhra Pradesh makes it the most vulnerable to pricing headwinds. Graphics by Yogesh Kumar / Mint feedback@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 8:57 am Understanding an ultra short-term bond fund0-15 seconds Who am I? I am an ultra short-term bond fund. You may remember me better by my old name, liquid-plus. I go by the new name after the Securities and Exchange Board of India issued a circular in January 2009, recommending a change in name. 15-30 seconds What sets me apart? I bear resemblance to a liquid fund, though I am not as “liquid”. Unlike a liquid fund that can’t hold debt papers with a maturity of more than 90 days, I can hold some scrips of longer maturity—up to one year. This helps me earn slightly higher returns, but also makes me a tad more risky. 30-45 seconds Should you buy me? Since I am not a liquid fund, I am more tax-efficient. Dividends from liquid funds are taxed at 28.325%; my dividends bear a 14.163% tax. Investors usually like me for parking their short-term cash, some investors prefer to park a lump sum with me and then opt for a systematic transfer plan to an equity fund. 45-60 seconds What’s my downside? I am more risky than a liquid fund but you may be misled to believe otherwise. Since a portion of my portfolio is marked to market, I get hit when the debt market gets highly illiquid, like in October 2008, when the government stepped in to help us out. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 8:56 am ABB India: too pricey for comfortA company whose stock trades between 29 and 31 times calendar 2010 earnings will have to not just pleasantly surprise analysts but positively amaze them to boost its share price. ABB Ltd’s December quarter results did nothing of the sort, posting revenue and profit below analyst estimates. The stock fell 2% as a result on Friday, in a relatively bullish post Budget market. Also See Booking Losses (Graphics) For the December quarter, ABB’s net revenue was down 13% compared with the year-ago period, while net profit fell a steep 43% to Rs109.6 crore. Part of the reason is a foreign exchange loss during the quarter and an exchange gain during the corresponding quarter of 2008. Nevertheless, profit has declined steeply even after taking this into consideration. Another reason for lower profit despite a relatively better second half for most capital goods manufacturers is the company’s decision to exit the rural electrification business. This is a part of the power systems division, which accounted for 27% of ABB’s revenues in 2009 against 33% in the previous year. During the December quarter, revenue from the power systems business fell 43% compared with the year-ago period and the division went into the red to the tune of Rs39 crore, compared with a profit of Rs66 crore in the December 2008 quarter. The power products division, the largest revenue earner for the company, saw profit decline to Rs39 crore in the December quarter, compared with Rs96 crore in the year-ago period. Other divisions too posted profit declines, although revenue from automation products improved. Operating margins continued to decline, not only year-on-year but also compared with the previous quarter, reflecting strong competition and pricing pressures. The silver lining is that order flow is back. New orders worth Rs2,377 crore were received in the December quarter, 88% higher than in the year-ago period—but the percentage change is exaggerated because there was a significant drop in order inflows in the December 2008 quarter. Order backlog, at Rs8,479 crore, is up 38% since the beginning of 2009 and 1.36 times 2009 revenue. The revival of the investment cycle in 2010 should boost revenue and profit, although margin pressures are likely to persist. But the stock is too pricey for these uncertain times. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 8:56 am Tata Motors’ profit up, free cash flow generation still missingTata Motors Ltd’s luxury car arm Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) is turning around quite smartly. In the September quarter, the JLR business reported a return to profit at the operating level, after incurring a loss in the June quarter. In the December quarter, the company turned profitable even at the pre-tax level.  Photo: Adeel Halim/ Bloomberg; Graphics: Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint This seems to be resulting in higher price realizations as well. Last quarter, average price realizations rose by 8%. According to analysts, when inventory levels were high, the firm would have had to offer discounts to push sales. Now that inventory levels have fallen, discounts have also become lower, leading to better realizations. The company’s chief financial officer, C. Ramakrishnan, pointed out in a conference call with analysts that sales realizations rose because of a change in product mix as well as a shift in the geographical mix of its sales. The increase in volumes coupled with higher realizations has led to the sharp increase in margins. It appears that the company is close to a cash break-even. Cash profit (net profit adjusted for non-cash items such as depreciation) stood at £179 million (Rs1,265.53 crore) last quarter. Based on the company’s disclosures, its quarterly capital expenditure (including product development expenses) is between £140 million and £160 million. Free cash flow generation doesn’t seem to have been achieved yet, though, based on the company’s net debt. Adjusted for the proceeds from its global depository receipts issue in early October, net debt of the company’s core auto business should have come down to Rs22,500 crore. Instead, the company has reported a net debt of Rs23,100 crore. Even though JLR’s performance has improved, free cash flow generation still seems to be some time away. Tata Motors’ shares have been among the best performers lately because of the improvement in the company’s profit. But as Nomura Research Institute Ltd put it in a report earlier this month, “Tata Motors remains the most expensive stock in our coverage universe based on free cash flow generation. Its free cash flow is likely to be negative in FY11. It is trading at 37 times estimated free cash flow for FY12, after building in a strong recovery for JLR.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 8:55 am Look at MIPs as FDs with a kicker and riskIf you think buying a mutual fund’s (MF) monthly income plan (MIP) will pay you dividends every month, you are mistaken. According to rules laid by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), MFs cannot assure dividends or principal. But if you don’t look at MIPs as avenues to deliver regular dividends and instead treat them as investments that can fetch you higher returns than what your bank fixed deposits would give you over the long term, MIPs can work out for you. Here’s why. The machinations  Graphics: Yogesh Kumar / Mint MIPs try, but not promise, to pay dividends regularly, either monthly or quarterly. To ensure regular payments, it manages its debt component conservatively. The returns kicker comes from its equity investments. Shobit Gupta, head (fixed income), Principal PNB Asset Management Co. Pvt. Ltd says: “The idea is to provide as much security as possible against interest rate volatility.” And here’s where one MIP can drastically differ from the other—in terms of returns as well as risk profile. From investing nothing in equities, MIPs invest up to 25% in equities. The more it invests in equity, the higher is its risk profile. For instance, Birla Sun Life MIP Savings 5 invests up to 5%, Birla Sun Life MIP invests up to 15% and Birla Sun Life MIP 25 invests up to 25% in equities. Others such as HDFC MF prefer to call its conservative option (that invests up to 15% in equities) as a “short-term plan” and its aggressive option (that invests up to 25% in equities) as a “long-term plan”. Do they skip dividends? MIPs may aim to pay regular dividends but they can’t assure you any dividends as per Sebi norms. Since they invest in equity and debt markets, just like any other MF scheme, and can’t have regular returns MIPs skip dividends regularly. Data provided by MF tracker Morningstar tells us that between 2005 and 2007, MIPs skipped dividends for two months in each year on an average. In 2008, when equity markets crashed, two funds, Canara Robeco MIP and DSP BlackRock Saving Manager–Moderate, did not declare a single dividend throughout the year. While the former lost 11%, the latter lost 0.68% in 2008. Only two of the 38 funds in this category have not skipped a single dividend between 2005 and 2009. Quarterly plans have a better track record as they need to distribute dividends only four times a year instead of every month. Of the 38 funds in this category, eight funds have paid dividends in every quarter between 2005 and 2009. Do high dividends matter?  For instance, if you had invested Rs1 lakh in the growth option of HDFC Monthly Income Plan–Long Term Plan at the start of 2007, you would have earned 18.18% returns by the end of the year. But if you had opted to receive quarterly dividends instead, you would have earned 7.39% as dividends. The rest would have come by way of capital appreciation. “Consistency of dividends is more important. It’s not necessary to declare high dividends. As far as possible, fund houses avoid skipping dividends,” says Ritesh Jain, head (fixed income), Canara Robeco Asset Management Co. Ltd. The excess dividends get accumulated and paid out during troubled times when funds fail to earn from the markets. For instance, in 2008, despite bad markets, 19 funds skipped only up to four monthly dividends. What should you do? Look at MIPs more as a long-term product instead of an investment that yields monthly income. If you had invested in a 5-year AAA-rated debt paper on 31 December 2004 and stayed invested in it for five years, you would have earned 6.99% at the end of 2009. MIPs returned 9.04% in the same period. “The kicker in returns came due to their equity investments. Over a long term, they can outperform traditional fixed income instruments,” says Amit Trivedi, CEO, Karmayog Knowledge Academy, a Mumbai-based MF training institute. Watch out for your MIP’s stated asset allocation in its offer document and match it with what the fund actually does. For instance, ICICI Prudential MIP’s offer document says it will invest in equities “between” nil and 15%. This means it can manage its equity portion more dynamically. In troubled times, it can sell a chunk of its equity portion and get into cash or short-term debt. HDFC MIP–Long Term Plan’s offer document says its “normal equity allocation” will be 25%. The fund has consistently remained invested in equities between 20% and 25%. Choose your style. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 8:54 am Higher income will lead to high growthFinance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has made every individual taxpayer richer by at least a few thousand rupees a month, hoping they would oblige by spending more and spur demand and growth. Mukherjee, who said “it has been a long three days,” after presenting the UPA government’s second budget on Friday, spoke to Hindustan Times on a range of issues.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 8:50 am Mukherjee s North Block PhilharmonicIf the end result is an economic symphony that increases the tempo towards a double-digit growth finale and sounds melodious to all constituencies, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget 2010 is a brave statement, writes Gautam Chikermane.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 7:49 am Saudi to almost double crude exports with India"India (is looking) for (the) doubling of crude oil supply by Saudi Arabia," the Indian government said after Indian oil minister Shri Murli Deora met his Saudi counterpart Ali al-Naimi in Riyadh.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 28 Feb 2010 | 6:56 am India will need 50,000 company secretary by 2020: ICSIWith high paced growth in industrial sector, India will need at least 50,000 company secretaries (CS) by 2020, Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) said on Sunday.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 28 Feb 2010 | 6:47 am PF depositors to get 8.5% return for 2010-11!Retirement fund manager EPFO`s key advisory body Finance and Investment Committee (FIC) has recommended 8.5 percent interest on provident fund deposits for 2010-11, the same return given to subscribers for the past five years.Source: Zee News : Business | 28 Feb 2010 | 4:42 am I-T dept alerts tax-payers against sharing financial info!The I-T department has alerted tax-payers against sharing personal financial information like PAN card number and credit cards details on the internet in the wake of a spurt in fake e-mails being sent to people.Source: Zee News : Business | 28 Feb 2010 | 4:42 am Price not reason for poor show of NTPC FPO Fin ministryThe Finance Ministry has said pricing of the recent NTPC follow-on-public offer cannot be blamed for the poor response from retail investors.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 4:27 am Pru talks value AIG unit around $35.5 billionUK\'s Prudential Plc talks with American International Group Inc would value the US insurer\'s Asian arm at around USD 35.5 billion, sources familiar with the situation said on Saturday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 3:45 am UK\'s Pru in talks to buy AIG Asian armPrudential, Britain\'s largest insurer, is in advanced talks to buy the Asian arm of US giant AIG, in what could be one of the largest overseas deals to date for a UK firm, sources familiar with the discussions said on Saturday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 3:45 am Egypt\'s ElBaradei says youth, Web to help changeMohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear agency and a possible Egyptian presidential contender.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 3:45 am Russia 2009 FDI falls to fourth of precrisis levelRussia saw in 2009 a mere fourth of the foreign direct investment (FDI) levels it used to attract in years of booming oil while authorities have said the return to precrisis level until 2013 is unlikely.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 3:45 am Toyota president to brief in China on recallsToyota Motor Corp\'s president will hold a news conference in Beijing on Monday to explain its recent recalls, Kyodo news agency reported, citing an announcement by the automaker\'s local unit.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 3:45 am EU farm chief seeks \'middle way\' as debate heats upThe European Union\'s top farm official said he would seek to combine market forces and support mechanisms for farmers in a debate on the bloc\'s farm policy.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 3:45 am UK Conservative govt would cut corp tax by 2011: SourceBritain\'s opposition Conservatives would cut corporation tax to 25% from 28% with effect from April 2011 at the latest if elected to government this year, a Conservative source said on Saturday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 3:45 am UK govt must be more blunt on cuts: MinisterThe British government needs to be blunter about its public spending plans and will set out further details of cuts in next month\'s budget, Treasury Minister Liam Byrne said in an interview published on Saturday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 3:45 am Buffett: Bailouts not just for CEOsWarren Buffett has said the hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayerfunded bailouts of corporate America will eventually pay off.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 28 Feb 2010 | 3:41 am Indian economy to grow by over 7% this year: PMDespite the global financial crisis, India hopes to achieve a GDP growth rate of seven per cent this year and return to about a nine per cent per annum growth within two years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 28 Feb 2010 | 3:33 am UK’s Prudential in talks with AIG to buy Asian opsLondon: Insurance major Prudential is in talks to buy the Asian unit of American International Group (AIG) for an estimated $30 billion, says a media report. The AIG board, which is nearly 80% owned by the US government, is also considering options of a planned listing of its Asian life insurance unit — AIA. “The board of AIG is locked in talks this weekend to decide whether to sell its huge Asian business to Prudential of the UK for more than $30 billion, or proceed with a planned listing of the unit,” the Financial Times said. The AIG board is expected to take a view on the competing merits of a sale and the estimated $20 billion Hong Kong listing. Quoting sources familiar to the development, the UK daily said an announcement with regard to sale might come in before Monday’s opening of the London market, where Prudential is listed. The US Treasury and the New York Federal Reserve would receive the bulk of the proceeds of any sale or initial public offering as part payment for the $80 billion-plus that AIG owes them. An outright sale of AIA to Prudential could enable AIG to raise more funds than by listing a stake in the unit on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the FT said. “AIG was asking for more than $30 billion for AIA although no decision on the final price had been taken,” FT quoting people as saying. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 28 Feb 2010 | 2:35 am Toyota head to brief in China on quality issuesThe briefing will follow Akio Toyoda's appearance last week in Washington, where he was grilled by US lawmakers for a series of recalls that have tarnished the carmaker's brand and reputation for quality.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 28 Feb 2010 | 1:34 am
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