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Over 330 mobile towers sealed across Delhi: SourcesOver 330 towers have been sealed across several locations in Delhi, reports CNBCTV18, qouting sources. Sites of leading tower companies have been impacted.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 20 Mar 2010 | 7:57 am SBI won`t raise lending rates: Chairman !State Bank of India won`t raise its lending rates despite a hike in key policy rates by the central bank, its chairman said Saturday.Source: Zee News : Business | 20 Mar 2010 | 6:59 am Bharti board to meet as $9 billion Zain deal nearsBharti Airtel\'s board will on Saturday discuss its USD 9 billion bid for Kuwaiti telecom group Zain\'s African units, a source said, and the two sides may clinch a deal next week.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 20 Mar 2010 | 4:39 am Oil explorer Gulfsands rejects Indian firm`s bid approachGulfsands Petroleum has rejected a takeover approach of around 350 pence per share from an Indian company, ahead of a possible upgrade to its oil reserves which could boost the company\'s valuation.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 20 Mar 2010 | 4:39 am Nine firms to bid for 3G mobile spectrum: GovtNine telecoms firms have applied to bid for thirdgeneration (3G) mobile spectrum in India in an April auction, the government said after the end of the deadline for submitting interest on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 20 Mar 2010 | 4:39 am BPCL seeks more Mayloading crudeBharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL), India\'s secondlargest refiner, has issued another tender to buy Mayloading crude, according to a copy of the tender document seen by Reuters on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 20 Mar 2010 | 4:39 am Amtek Auto group firm to set up 2 m tonne steel plantA group company of auto parts maker Amtek Auto Ltd will set up a 2 million tonne steel plant and an auto parts unit in Orissa, spending 158 billion rupees, the company said on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 20 Mar 2010 | 4:39 am Lotus Notes seeks to bloom againLotus Notes was toppled from its position at the top of the email software market by competition and an ageing user interface. It is now trying to make a comebackSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 20 Mar 2010 | 4:39 am Policy rates hiked: Will banks raise lending rates? - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 20 Mar 2010 | 4:00 am Railways ad goof-up shows Delhi in Pakistan - Press Trust of India
Source: Business - Google News | 20 Mar 2010 | 3:54 am CNG prices up 50 paise to Rs 21.70 per kg - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 20 Mar 2010 | 3:41 am CNG prices up 50 paise to Rs 21.70 per kgIndraprasthan Gas Ltd, the sole supplier of CNG to automobiles in the national capital, today raised the price of CNG marginally by Rs 0.50 per kg. CNG will cost Rs 21.70 per kg with effect from midnight tonight.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 Mar 2010 | 3:34 am Sensex outperforms global indices, gains 2.4 pc - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 20 Mar 2010 | 3:12 am British Airways battles cabin crew strikeLONDON (Reuters) - British Airways said it would fly more than 60 percent of passengers with flights booked for this weekend despite a three-day cabin crew strike that risks hurting the Labour government weeks before an election.Source: Reuters: Money News | 20 Mar 2010 | 3:07 am SBI not to hike lending rates immediately: OP BhattWith a view to arrest inflation, the RBI yesterday upped its repo and reverse repo rates (short term lending and borrowing rates) by 0.25% each to 5% and 3.75%, respectively.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 20 Mar 2010 | 3:02 am SBI not to hike lending rates now: OP BhattThe country's largest lender SBI on Saturday said that it has no plans to hike lending rates immediately, and would wait for further signals from the Reserve Bank to arrive at any decision. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 Mar 2010 | 2:53 am SBI says won’t hike lending rates nowMumbai: The country’s largest lender SBI on Saturday said that it has no plans to hike lending rates immediately, and would wait for further signals from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to arrive at any decision. “There is no plan to hike our lending rates immediately. We will wait till the April policy (of the RBI to take a call (on hiking lending rates,” SBI chairman OP Bhatt told reporters in Mumbai. He noted that there was sufficient liquidity in the banking system currently. The RBI on Friday raised repo and reverse repo rates (short-term lending and borrowing rates) by 0.25% each to 5% and 3.75%, respectively. Bhatt also said, “further monetary tightening is expected in the April policy.” Commenting on SBI’s credit growth, Bhatt said the bank has targeted a credit growth of 20% in the next financial year on the back of improving demand. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 20 Mar 2010 | 2:41 am SBI not to hike lending rates immediately: O P BhattState Bank of India on Saturday said that it has no plans to hike its lending rates immediately and would wait till further signals from the RBI to take a call on the issue.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 Mar 2010 | 2:40 am India to get access to David Headley: USNew Delhi: Indian investigators will be given access to the Chicago man David Headley who pleaded guilty to helping plan the Mumbai attacks, but he won’t be extradited to India on current charges, a US official said on Saturday. The government wants to interrogate Headley, who this week admitted to a US court to scouting targets for the 2008 rampage on Mumbai, which killed 166 people and derailed peace dialogue between India and Pakistan. US assistant secretary of state Robert Blake, on a two-day trip, assured authorities of cooperation in the Headley case. “The other question that has been raised is whether Indian investigators will be allowed access to Mr Headley to learn more about his involvement in the planning of the Mumbai attacks, and the answer to that is yes,” Blake told reporters. Headley has been cooperating with US investigators since his arrest in October and faces up to life in prison. He has pleaded to 12 counts, including conspiring to bomb and murder US and Indian citizens. In an agreement with prosecutors, Headley promised to help investigators and give testimony against others in exchange for a pledge he would not be extradited to India, Pakistan or Denmark. Headley is also charged with plotting a revenge attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in 2005. Home minister P Chidambaram has said India still had “many more questions” about the Chicago man, who spent his childhood in Pakistan, and would not withdraw a request for extradition. Blake did not rule out such a move at a future date if fresh charges were brought against Headley, which would stand outside the plea bargain. Blake also said it was very important for Pakistan to tackle the threat of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based militant outfit whom India blames for Mumbai and whom Headley pleaded guilty to supporting. “(LeT) is a growing concern to the United States, because of the increasing global scope and ambition of LeT,” Blake said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 20 Mar 2010 | 2:25 am Costlier milk pinches Delhiites - Hindustan Times
Source: Business - Google News | 20 Mar 2010 | 2:04 am Doha trade talks are slow: IndiaNew York: Union minister of commerce and industry Anand Sharma said on Friday that progress in concluding global trade talks was behind schedule but that it was up to political leaders to decide if they can meet their own year-end deadline for a deal. Anand Sharma said the Doha round of global trade talks was ongoing but “painstakingly slow.” “It is also clear that the kind of progress which should have been made by March, which everyone was expecting, has not taken place,” Sharma told reporters in response to a question from Reuters. “When it comes to the 2010 deadline, now this deadline was given to us,” he said, referring to the demand by leaders of the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations at a London meeting in April 2009. Sharma was in New York meeting with Indian business executives following a visit to Washington where he signed a framework agreement to strengthen trade and investment ties with the United States. India and the United States have clashed in the eight-year-old Doha round of world trade talks, with New Delhi demanding Washington make deeper cuts in agricultural subsidies and resisting US demands to open its own agriculture, manufacturing and services markets. Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) meet next week for a “stock-taking” of where the talks are after ministers failed to clinch a breakthrough in July 2008. As for the deadline? “If the leaders want to revisit that, the matter is better left to them. As we, the ministers, who were directed to take steps, we have taken steps,” Sharma said without elaborating. “The officials will do the stock-taking. The inputs will be fed into the G-20 and I’m sure the leaders will have the wisdom to intervene where required to close the gaps,” he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 20 Mar 2010 | 2:03 am US group ACORN on verge of bankruptcy: ReportCiting two leaders of the group, the The New York Times reported ACORN is suffering from "mismanagement along with a severe loss of government and membership funds."Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 20 Mar 2010 | 1:13 am Doha trade talks not at their expected stage: Anand SharmaThe minister of commerce and industry said the Doha round of global trade talks was ongoing but "painstakingly slow."Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 20 Mar 2010 | 1:11 am Markets continue onward March: Sensex completes 6-week rallyThe surge continued unabated on Dalal Street for the sixth week in a row, posting its longest winning rally of the year, as the benchmark Sensex as well as Nifty of National stock Exchange flared up by another 2.4 per cent during the week under review. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:56 am British Airways battles cabin crew strikeThe walkout over pay and jobs will disrupt travel for thousands after talks between the Unite union and management collapsed.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:34 am Goldman nominates ex-Wal-Mart CEO to boardRajat Gupat, who has served on the board since 2006, will not seek reelection, Goldman said.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:29 am Sen Dodd urges justice department probe of Lehman accountingThe chairman of the US Senate Banking Committee on Friday wrote to the justice department urging establishment of a task force to probe possible violations of the law at Lehman Brothers and other firms.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:27 am MGM could go it alone if bids disappoint: SourcesThe studio, struggling with $3.7 billion of debt, said in November it was exploring a potential sale of the company.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:26 am Coal India divestment likely by AugCoal India Ltd (CIL) said on Friday that the Government would divest up to 10 per cent stake in the company bySource: Business Line - Home Page | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Telecom majors eye both 3G, broadband wirelessThe potential market for data and video services has driven as many as 11 companies to file applications to bid for the broadband wireless access (BWA)Source: Business Line - Home Page | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Holdings in US Treasuries rise $200 m in JanuaryAfter falling for six consecutive months, India's holdings of US Treasuries rose slightly by $200 million in January thisSource: Business Line - Home Page | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am 10 cos shortlisted for Unique ID projectTop IT vendors, including Wipro, Infosys, TCS, IBM and Accenture, are among 10 companies that have made it to the initial shortlist of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI's) software application developmentSource: Business Line - Home Page | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am FII activity may not signal build-up/drawdown of holdingsThe top of the pops in FII purchases? Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, HDFC and ICICI – in thatSource: Business Line - Home Page | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Repo, reverse repo rates hiked by 25 bpsThe Reserve Bank of India on Friday moved to stem inflationary pressures by raising its key policy rates – repo and reverse repo – by 25 basis points each with immediateSource: Business Line - Home Page | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am DoT asks equipment vendors to transfer tech in 3 yearsTaking a leaf out of the Chinese rulebook, the Department of Telecommunications has made it mandatory for equipment vendors, including Ericsson and Nokia Siemens, to transfer technology to Indian manufacturers within three years of selling gearSource: Business Line - Home Page | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am ULIP stand-off not to affect policyholdersThe buyers of Unit-linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs) need not worry about the stand-off between the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on applicability of mutual fund norms toSource: Business Line - Home Page | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am ONGC, partners bag 17 blocks under NELP VIIIThe Government has approved the award of 33 out of the 36 exploration areas that were bid in the recently-concluded oil and gas auction round under the New Exploration Licensing Policy VIII. It was decided to not to award two on-land blocks, andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Better model convergence on normal monsoon outlookThe latest update from the International Research Institute (IRI) for Climate and Society at Columbia University has retained the outlook of maximum probability for a normal monsoon for India thisSource: Business Line - Home Page | 20 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Wal-Mart to slash US grocery pricesA Morgan Stanley analyst first reported the world's largest retailer's plan, calling it a major setback for other US grocers, and the company confirmed the promotions in an email.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 11:27 pm British Airways staff on strike after talks collapseThousands of British Airways (BA) cabin crew began a three-day strike on Saturday after last-ditch talks on a dispute over pay and conditions collapsed, leaving thousands of travellers facing chaos. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 11:02 pm Parsvnath sells Rs150 crore Satellite plot to GoyalsAuda sold the land to Parsvnath in 2005-06 as part of a Vibrant Gujarat deal.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 10:16 pm Young India prefers Merc, not MarutiRising disposable income, easy access to loans have pushed down the average age of luxury car buyers.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 8:59 pm Wall St Week Ahead: Stocks eye health reform, housing, GreeceNEW YORK (Reuters) - Washington's bid to put finishing touches on healthcare reform this weekend should help lift uncertainty on Wall Street, but there may be some turbulence along the way next week as the recent rally appears to be fraying.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 8:54 pm China tries to cool yuan dispute with U.S.BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday said it was sending an envoy to Washington to try to ease trade frictions as its currency regime comes under fire, warning that threats from U.S. legislators could stifle room for progress.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 8:51 pm For Google stock, China could mark turning pointSAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An exit from China's search market could mark a setback not only for Google Inc's global business strategy but for a stock that has long been synonymous with virtually limitless growth opportunities.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 8:46 pm Doha trade talks not at their expected stage - Anand SharmaNEW YORK (Reuters) - India's minister of commerce and industry said on Friday that progress in concluding global trade talks was behind schedule but that it was up to political leaders to decide if they can meet their own year-end deadline for a deal.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 8:45 pm Lehman accounting tricks possibly illegal: LetterA Lehman Brothers whistleblower warned his bosses that accounting gimmicks the bank used before its collapse may have been illegal, his lawyer said on Friday. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 8:40 pm Nintendo aims to get consoles in schoolsCould Nintendo's Mario be swapping his world of magic mushrooms and ravenous dinosaurs for the staid confines of the classroom? Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 8:08 pm Telecom stocks seem to be recovering after cos file for spectrum - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 19 Mar 2010 | 7:16 pm March 2021: Events to watch out forMarch 2021: Events to watch out forSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 7:00 pm U.S. court orders Fed to release bailout documentsNEW YORK (Reuters) - In a significant victory for news media, a federal appeals court said the U.S. Federal Reserve must disclose records on emergency lending programs to banks bailed out by the government in the financial crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 6:28 pm Satyam fiasco has not dented credibility with clients: PwCPricewaterhouseCoopers Chief Dennis Nally believes the Satyam fiasco has not dented its credibility with clients and inspite of the exodus from the firm the company remains on the growth track.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 6:18 pm Your dream car/bike won\'t get costlier by the RBI rate hikeA hike in policy rates was expected though it was not expected before the policy, Pawan Goenka, PresidentAuto Sector, Mahindra Mahindra, told CNBCTV18 in an exclusive interview.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 5:19 pm 9 players to bid for 3G, no new entrants in frayThe 3G auctions have attracted only existing 2G players -- Aircel, Bharti, Etisalat, Idea, Reliance Telecom, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone and Videocon Telecom -- with not a single new entrant, global or Indian, in the list.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 19 Mar 2010 | 5:06 pm No stay of order on Paramount Airways - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 19 Mar 2010 | 4:34 pm Barroso wants EU to agree loans for GreeceBRUSSELS/ATHENS (Reuters) - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged EU member states on Friday to agree a standby aid package Greece after Athens said it could turn to the IMF for help.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 3:35 pm Dearness allowance hiked by 8%, 50 lakh govt employees to benefit - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 19 Mar 2010 | 3:22 pm Industry surprised by RBI's timingThe Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision on Friday to raise repo and reverse repo rates signal that the central bank is now confident about the growth of the economy.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:39 pm Properties could be our biggest biz: Adi GodrejRiding on India's growth story, the century-old Rs 13,000-crore Godrej group has been undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts as it gets ready to herald a new era where real estate could become its biggest business.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:38 pm India Business The Times of India - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:38 pm OVL-led group's $2bn Venezuela plan gets nodThe Cabinet on Friday approved an ONGC Videsh-led Indian consortium to invest over $2 billion in an oilfield they last month won in Venezuela and cleared award of 33 exploration acreages.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:31 pm Cairn pledges Barmer equityCairn India, which found the decade's biggest onland oilfield in Rajasthan's Barmer district, has finalised a funding arrangement with a consortium of domestic institutional lenders for a loan of Rs 4,000 crore.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:29 pm Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda form life insurance companyThere will be one more life insurance company in the country as Bank of Baroda, Andhra Bank and their British partner Legal & General on Friday announced the formation of their life insurance venture, IndiaFirst.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:27 pm Rin advt stings Tide with high viewershipAccording to the latest data from TAM, which measures television viewership, the Rin commercial clocked 1,431 GRPs (gross rating points) during the eight days when it was on air.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:26 pm SAT upholds 1-year Sebi ban on Shankar SharmaSAT on Friday dismissed the review application filed by Shankar Sharma, VC and joint MD, First Global, against an order by market regulator Sebi that barred him from accessing the securities market for one year.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:24 pm Cabinet clears Bills to penalize unfair practices at institutionsNew Delhi: Four days after it kicked-off reforms in higher education by allowing entry of foreign universities, the government followed up with more legislative proposals aimed at regulating private institutions and preventing administrative abuse of students. The Union cabinet on Friday approved three Bills to prohibit and punish unfair practices in technical and medical educational institutions and universities, establish tribunals to settle disputes in higher education and make accreditation mandatory. “The proposed laws pave the way for stringent punishments against both educational institutions and people indulging in unfair practices in the higher education sector,” Kapil Sibal, Union minister for human resource development (HRD), said after the meeting. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance has been focusing on the higher education sector in its second term. Also Read | $1 bn soft loan from World Bank  Wielding the stick: Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal. Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint “The proposal would provide redress to students and those seeking admission in cases where institutions attempt to adopt unfair practices,” the HRD ministry said in a release. Although Sibal refused to give details on the punishment, a PTI report said duping students by charging capitation fees or failing to keep promises of quality education could attract a fine of up to Rs50 lakh or imprisonment for up to three years. The proposals, cleared by the cabinet, will have to be passed by Parliament. All three Bills are expected to be introduced in the Budget session that resumes on 12 April. The proposal for a regulatory authority for accreditation of higher education institutions is expected to help assess academic quality. “At present accreditation is voluntary. An independent regulatory body is proposed to be established, which would register, monitor and audit accreditation agencies which would in turn accredit higher educational institutions through a transparent process for assessment of academic quality,” Sibal said. Experts welcomed the move, but were not optimistic about the Bills being implemented once they become Acts. “It would be something to wait and see. Educational institutions and specifically those that are in the field to make profit would find newer ways to charge extra money. It will be difficult to determine what is genuine and what is capitation fee. Unfair practices in the education sector are difficult to prove,” said B.B. Bhattacharya, vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University. In separate decisions, the cabinet also approved an 8% increase in the dearness allowance of government employees and pensioners. Another draft law approved by the cabinet seeks the death sentence for hijackers. PTI contributed to this story. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:19 pm Mobile applications business to keep telcos' revenue kitty ringing - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:03 pm $1 bn soft loan from World BankNew Delhi: The World Bank has approved a $1.05 billion (around Rs4,780 crore) soft loan to fund India’s ongoing education projects, particularly those aimed at universal elementary education. However, experts were sceptical about the utility of this loan; they claimed the aim should be to fix flaws in existing programmes, not raise new funds. Of the $1.05 billion loan, the largest ever by the World Bank to fund education, $750 million has been earmarked for the bank’s third loan to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA); the rest will support 200 competitively selected engineering colleges. The money has to be spent in the next two years. “The real focus of this additional financing is on improving quality. More than 50% of SSA resources will be allocated over the next three years for activities to improve student learning such as teacher training, remedial education, provision of free text books and other learning material to enable more activity-based learning,” Sam Carlson, World Bank’s lead education specialist and project leader for SSA, said in a media statement. SSA is the Central government’s flagship programme aimed at universal elementary education across the country. It is implemented jointly with state governments, who contribute 45% of the corpus. According to Praveen Jha, professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the primary challenge in such schemes is correcting flaws in design. Additional bank funding would hardly help, he added. “All Centrally-sponsored schemes, in some sense, have contributed to incoherence in policymaking in states,” Jha said. “The basic design has serious flaws.” States have struggled to find resources to match their commitments in SSA. Moreover, they have also been unable to find enough teachers to implement SSA as there are no permanent jobs on offer. Data complied by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, an independent body that analyses Union budgets, shows that states have struggled to spend even the full quantum of their approved budgets on SSA. For three consecutive fiscal years ended 31 March 2008, states as a group spent 66.2%, 64.5% and 73.5%, respectively, of their approved budgetary allocation on SSA, the data shows. Pramath Raj Sinha, former dean of the Indian School of Business and currently managing director of 9.9 Mediaworx Pvt. Ltd, doesn’t agree with most experts, however. He said the loan would help the cause of SSA. “It will have an impact. The issue of quantity, which is one of the three issues related to education sector, does get affected by funding,” Sinha said. The other issues are quality and access, he added. “It will not obviously improve the quality as funds cannot solve the issue. The disbursement of money is very important and the states have to implement the schemes effectively,” he added. The Central government’s budget estimate of its own spending on SSA in 2010-11 was Rs13,602 crore, almost four times the size of the bank loan. The bank had earlier lent India $1.1 billion in two tranches to provide financial support for SSA. The World Bank’s soft loans for education are to be repaid over a 35-year period with a moratorium on repayment over the first 10 years. Typically, such International Development Association loans carry an interest rate of less than 1%. The real problem with SSA is the way the scheme is structured by the Central government, said M.A. Baby, Kerala’s education minister. “Funding is required, but the yardstick for disbursement of these funds have been faulty,” he said on the challenges of executing SSA. According to Baby, SSA’s success would require proper utilization, local involvement and well-designed projects. The Centre should understand one size doesn’t fit all, Baby added, implying that the scheme would have to factor in local requirements. Jha of JNU agrees and said SSA is a highly centralized scheme where norms are decided in New Delhi. “People sitting in Delhi do not know the various requirements of states,” Baby added. sanjiv.s@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 1:03 pm Only old faces in 3G frayForeign companies, except those already present in India, have stayed away from the auction of third-generation mobile spectrum, or 3G, though two new ones are keen on broadband wireless access (BWA).Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 12:58 pm Oil ministry wants market-linked pricesThe government may link petrol and diesel prices to market prices in 2010-11 and introduce a graded system of subsidy-sharing, with the petroleum ministry taking the view that the Kirit Parikh committee report be made the basis for next years petroleum subsidy mechanism.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 12:57 pm RBI raises repo, reverse repoSurprises market with 25-basis-point rise; banks not to increase rates immediately.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 12:55 pm RBI hikes rates amid price woesMumbai: The Indian central bank sprang a surprise by increasing two key policy rates almost exactly a month ahead of schedule, a sign that it is now less focused on supporting the economic recovery and more concerned about resurgent inflation. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a statement on Friday that it was raising the repo and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points each with immediate effect, to 5% and 3.5%, respectively. These are the rates at which the central bank lends and borrows overnight money from banks. Most economists and bond traders were expecting such an announcement only when RBI was to unveil its new monetary policy review due on 20 April. This is the first interest rate increase since July 2008. RBI had cut interest rates between October 2008 and April 2009 to combat economic weakness. The Friday statement mentioned that inflation was spreading from food to other goods and that the recovery in private demand would further add to inflationary pressures. The wholesale price inflation rate for February came in at 9.9%, above the baseline projection of 8.5% made by RBI in January for the end of the current fiscal. “The Reserve Bank will continue to monitor macroeconomic conditions, particularly the price situation, and take further action as warranted,” the statement said, sending out a signal that further rate hikes are likely in the months ahead.  Graphic: Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint Added A. Prasanna, economist at ICICI Securities Ltd: “I would not call it a desperate measure. The inflation is above RBI estimates and we expect another round of policy rate hike by 25 basis points in the April review.” The increase in the two short-term rates will likely push up the borrowing costs of companies and consumers. But bankers are expected to wait for the next rate hike as well as the move to a new method of calculating lending rates in July before they follow the central bank’s cues. “Banks are expected to wait for the April policy review before they decide on a possible rate action. With the new base rate regime also kicking in on 1 July, banks will wait for some time before they take any decision on a rate hike,” said Prasanna. “The 25-basis point hike will have very minimal impact on banks’ lending rates,” said Rana Kapoor, managing director and chief executive of private sector lender Yes Bank Ltd. Chanda Kochhar, managing director and chief executive of ICICI Bank Ltd, said: “RBI’s move reflects the growing confidence in the recovery of growth in the Indian economy and is in line with RBI’s stated objective of anchoring inflation expectations. We need to wait and see the credit offtake and systemic liquidity to assess the medium-term impact on lending and borrowing rates.” The strong recovery in the current fiscal has emboldened policymakers to start withdrawing the stimulus measures introduced to protect it from the savage global downturn that began in the last quarter of 2008. The government had said on 26 February that it would begin a process of cutting its fiscal deficit—the broadest measure of budget imbalances—and now the central bank has decided to reverse the direction of interest rates. The RBI action came after the equity and bond markets had closed for trading. The yield on the 10-year benchmark government bond ended at 7.83%, after matching Thursday’s three-week low of 7.81%. It had ended at 7.9% on Thursday. The key Sensex index of the Bombay Stock Exchange recorded its sixth straight weekly gain. Coupled with positive global markets, the rally was led by Reliance Industries Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd. Sentiment was buoyed after rating agency Standard and Poor’s upgraded its outlook on India to stable on Thursday, citing an improving fiscal position and on the back of strong economic growth. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 12:55 pm Spotlight Rasna | The Mischief card CAMPAIGN The new set of ads for Rasna focuses on the new generation of children, who are smart and naughty. The ad shows children using their intelligence to win a Rasna drinking competition. What did you think of the ad? Strategy is like underwear. It should be there but shouldn’t necessarily be seen. This is more so while talking to kids. For this reason, I would not use the words “Ghoont Shararat Ki (A sip of mischief)” in the communication as they don’t belong to the vocabulary of a kid. My other issue is with the nature of “shararat”. I feel the emotional payoff for kids is higher if the mischief is directed against a perpetrator of tyranny or authority. That gives the mischief a “purpose”. In this case, the kid gets back at someone who’s innocuous. Other than that, the commercial looks slick. It’s an attention-stopper and a conversation-starter. The compere is inspired casting. The deadpan rhythmic VO delivery combines Queen’s English with khadiboli Hindi nicely. How does this compare with the ‘I love you Rasna!’ campaign of the 1980s?  Lost in translation: The new Rasna ads may fail to convey the message. What should be kept in mind when advertising for children? Before working on any child’s brief, you’ve got to tender your official resignation from adulthood, and become a child again. You’ve got to believe peppermints are better than money because you can eat them. The ability to see the world through the prism of a child’s point of view will reveal useful insights. Kids love an underdog. Kids love to watch kids. Kids have an innate sense of justice. To learn more about how to connect with kids, watch CBeeBies
. Or Vishal Bhardwaj’s Makdee. That’s what I do. As told to Gouri Shah. gouri.s@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 12:23 pm Film Review | LahoreServed with a kick Using a conventional story of brotherly love and revenge set against the backdrop of India-Pakistan sporting relations, Lahore presents a paradox—a message of harmony told through the sport of kick-boxing.  Non-formulaic: Farouque Shaikh’s acting is exceptional. Director Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan uses his experience as a sportsman to inject into the film a dose of reality—politics and politicians in sport, lack of attention to disciplines other than cricket, favouritism in selections—aided by a somewhat clichéd depiction of Pakistani athletes being unsporting. Held together by competent cinematography (Neelaabh Kaul), realistic action sequences and excellent sound editing, the film is, however, a let-down in a number of areas. The acting is amateurish, with the exception of the reliable Farouque Shaikh (as coach). The editing could have been sharper—a series of montages and wasted sequences snip away at the pace. A creditable effort by someone who has never made or even assisted on a film, Chauhan’s sincerity shows, with several moments of promise that just about make up for the shortcomings. Lahore could have become jingoistic but it shows restraint in its non-formulaic ending. See it if you like sports action. Lahore released in theatres on Friday. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 12:22 pm Tata Motors to sell stake in Telcon to partner HitachiMumbai: Tata Motors Ltd, India’s largest auto maker by revenue, is set to sell its 60% stake in construction equipment subsidiary Telco Construction Equipment Co. Ltd (Telcon) to Japanese partner Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Ltd, according to a person familiar with the development, who declined to be named. Discussions have started and the deal is likely to be struck in the next three months if things go according to plan, he added. The Jamshedpur-headquartered firm makes backhoe loaders, excavators, wheel loaders and other construction equipment used for infrastructure projects. It’s a market leader for excavators in India and competes with JCB India Ltd, Escorts Construction Equipment Ltd, L&T Komatsu Ltd and Caterpillar India Pvt. Ltd among others in the space. Tata Motors’ intent of exiting from the construction equipment business comes at a time when rival Ashok Leyland Ltd, the second largest manufacturer of trucks and buses, is eyeing a share in the Rs9,000 crore construction equipment business. It has set up a 50:50 joint venture with John Deere of the US and will roll out products from a facility near Chennai. Telcon has manufacturing units in Dharwad in Karnataka, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and Kharagpur in West Bengal. A senior Telcon official, who declined to be named, said Hitachi has been keen on raising its stake in the company for several years. “Each time they meet the senior officials, they say they want more shares,” he said. A Hitachi spokesman declined to comment for this story. “I cannot answer your question. This information is considered insider information at the Tokyo Stock Exchange,” he said over the phone from Tokyo. In an email response, Tata Motors’ spokesman Debasis Ray said, “Tata Motors has, from time to time, indicated its strategic intent on divestment to deleverage the balance sheet. As and when these are concluded, we will make appropriate announcements.” He declined to give further details. As on 31 December 2009, the consolidated debt of Tata Motors, including the vehicle finance business, was Rs30,600 crore. By selling its stakes in group firms and raising funds through various financial instruments, Tata Motors has been able to pare its debt-to-equity ratio from 6.03 in the quarter ended September 2009, to 4.29 in the quarter ended December 2009. Jatin Chawla, analyst at the research arm of Mumbai-based brokerage India Infoline Ltd, estimated the value of the Tata Motors’ stake at around Rs1,800 crore. Telcon ended fiscal 2008-09 with a net profit of Rs84.7 crore on a turnover of Rs2,143.04 crore. Profit slumped 73% and turnover was down 21% in fiscal 2009 as demand for products contracted in a slowing economy in the wake of the global meltdown. The Telcon official expects the company to end the current year with a Rs2,200 crore turnover. According to him, the industry is expected to see a compounded annual growth rate of 15% in the next four-five years. Telcon was set up as a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors in 1999 after the company spun off its construction equipment division. In 2000, Tata Motors divested a 20% stake in the company to Hitachi with the objective of bringing in newer technologies. Subsequently, the Japanese partner doubled its stake to 40% in 2006 for Rs203.55 crore. Encouraged by the improving performance of Jaguar and Land Rover in the last two quarters and a healthier liquidity position, global credit rating firm Standard and Poor’s upgraded its outlook on Tata Motors to positive from negative. It also affirmed the ‘B’ long-term corporate rating and issue rating on the company’s senior unsecured loans. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 12:15 pm Idea, Aircel apply to join 3G auctionNew Delhi: Idea Cellular Ltd and Aircel Ltd applied on Friday to participate in India’s auction of third-generation (3G) high-speed mobile spectrum on the last day for submissions, joining companies such as Bharti Airtel Ltd and Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) in the race for the limited number of licences that are available.  Graphic: Paras Jain / Mint RCom, Bharti and Idea have also filed their applications for the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auction. BWA technologies enable high-speed data communication over wireless links and provide better coverage than fixed-line broadband systems. Others who applied for BWA spectrum on Friday include Aircel, Spice, Agure and HCL Technologies Ltd, taking the total number of applicants to 11. Qualcomm, Tata Communications Ltd, Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd and Vodafone Essar Ltd applied on Thursday for the three slots of 20MHz across the country. The auctions for 3G spectrum are scheduled to start on 9 April while those for BWA spectrum will begin two days after close of the 3G auction. “One surprising element is the number of applicants for BWA spectrum. It looks like there is going to be an all-out fight for that spectrum at the auction,” a Mumbai-based analyst with a multinational brokerage firm said on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak with the media. “It’s not surprising that none of the international telcos have applied. They were anyway complaining that the policy has been tailor-made for incumbent operators. Most of the new operators have applied as they have the backing of the international ones.” Of the firms that have pan-India licences to operate telecom services in the country, Loop Telecom Ltd and Uninor hadn’t submitted their applications.  Graphic: Paras Jain / Mint Uninor, a joint venture between Telenor ASA and Unitech Wireless Ltd, said it didn’t believe India was ready for 3G. “There will be other opportunities and routes to get into 3G at a stage when the market is really ready for it and the demand makes for a sound business case,” it said in a statement. “We cannot participate in these auctions when we haven’t even received the 2G spectrum that we have already paid for.” Loop Mobile declined to comment. Friday’s submissions take the total number of applicants for 3G spectrum to nine operators for four licences that will allow pan-India coverage. Five of the 22 operating areas, or telecom circles, have five slots of 3G spectrum up for auction. The number of operators that have applied indicates that the price of the air waves will be higher than anticipated, another Mumbai-based analyst said. “We estimate fair value for pan-India 3G spectrum at $7.5 billion (Rs35,000 crore, or $1.7 billion per operator) and $1.8 billion (Rs8,000 crore, or $600 million per operator) for BWA spectrum,” Rajiv Sharma, analyst with HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Pvt. Ltd, wrote in a 19 March report. “Our conservative valuations are based on our view that 3G service penetration will be gradual, given the limited penetration of 3G-enabled handsets.” At present only 30 million subscribers have 3G handsets, according to the HSBC report. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 12:14 pm Quick Edit | Interest rate cycle turns It has been clear quite a while now that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would have to increase interest rates soon. Most expected a rate increase in the monetary policy that is due to be announced on 20 April. The central bank has moved even earlier, raising its main policy rates by 25 basis points on Friday. The latest data for the economy shows the industrial recovery has become stronger, capital spending is robust and inflation is spreading from food to manufactured goods. Given this, RBI was falling behind the curve. Indian interest rates have to move up by at least another 150 basis points before we can say that monetary policy is neutral. The rate hike is part of an overall tightening of policy. The central bank started sucking out liquidity when it increased the cash reserve ratio by 75 basis points in January. Money supply growth in the 12 months to 26 February was 16.4%, down from 19.9% a year ago. India has begun its exit policy in earnest—with the drop in the budgeted fiscal deficit and the rate increase. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 12:04 pm Kumble’s candid cameraAs long as I am in the team, you will have no privacy...’ he would say, pointing to his camera, and we would laugh. It was wonderful,” writes Sachin Tendulkar in the foreword to Wide Angle, bowler Anil Kumble’s coffee-table book. The book is the outcome of pictures Kumble has been collecting for three decades in a cricket coffin box in his Bangalore home. It features around 350 pictures taken by him through his cricketing career. It all began when he was 14. Kumble was leaving for a match in Srinagar and his elder brother Dinesh Kumble, now an entrepreneur and wildlife photographer, handed him a compact camera, telling him that it would help him keep in touch with his memories. Ever since, Kumble has rarely been seen without a camera slung around his neck during his free time with the team. Click here to see photographs from the book “They don’t have a choice but to smile when I click. And protests don’t work,” says Kumble, pointing out that he has been lucky to have been around to capture the careers of great cricketers over three decades. “The press try their best to imagine what happens off the field, here’s what happens,” he adds. Apart from candid pictures of his teammates off the field, Kumble’s book makes a strong statement on wildlife and nature. “I have been fascinated by wildlife all through, but now, I feel the need to do something very concrete in the direction of conservation. It’s a matter very close to my heart,” says Kumble, who was appointed vice-chairman of the State Wildlife Board (Karnataka) in October. “Both Dinesh and I love taking breaks in the forest,” he says, adding that his family is forced into forest vacations because of them. Kumble shared his thoughts and memories on some pictures that feature in the book and told Mint why they are special. pavitra.j@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 11:56 am Private carriers log on to social networking sitesMumbai: India’s private airlines are increasingly turning to social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Orkut to inform passengers, particularly frequent flyers, about promotions and new offers, besides receiving feedback. But experts say their following on these websites is way too low and they lag behind international carriers in using the media imaginatively. Social networking websites allow users to build global communities of people with whom they share interests or activities. Click here to view a slideshow on the social media strategy of airlines such as Jet and Paramount Jet Airways (India) Ltd, the country’s largest airline by passengers, says it has 5,000 Facebook and 1,300 Twitter fans. The airline set up a separate social media division to manage its presence on these platforms. Other airlines, too, have dedicated employees to monitor social media interactions. “Feedback from our valued guests not only helps us enhance our service standards, but also helps us create new product features. We are excited with the huge response,” a Jet Airways spokeswoman said in an emailed statement to Mint. The airline is encouraging passengers to share their views as part of what it calls the first phase of its social media expansion strategy. Most followers are frequent fliers. “Our approach to this medium is very proactive and we respond to every individual feedback or query in a personalized manner... We also did a lot of research through extensive reading of case studies, closely monitoring brands on Facebook and Twitter, and on how they manage these channels, observing followers and their reaction in this medium,” the spokeswoman said. The country’s second largest carrier Kingfisher Airlines Ltd boasts 2,167 followers on Twitter, who are promised regular updates and new offers. As expected, it’s an avenue for complaints and apologies as well. An 11 February Twitter message from the airline read: “Regret yr (your) disappt. (disappointment). This flt (flight) delayed due combination of ATC (air traffic controller)/operational reasons. Overall KFA OTP (Kingfisher Airlines’ on-time performance) among highest for domestic airlines.” India second largest low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd claims more than 1,000 fans across all social networking platforms. The airline is using social networking to promote offers and contests, run customer polls and awareness campaigns, and even disseminate corporate information. SpiceJet is also developing interactive content, such as online games, that it says will be both informative and entertaining. “Our focus has been to leverage these (social media) outlets and engage consumers and get them to interact with the brand. This is strongly supported by our belief that customers don’t want to be mere consumers any more,” SpiceJet’s senior vice-president (marketing) Anish Srikrishna told Mint. The carrier is also present on YouTube and Flickr, which allow the sharing of audio-visual content. “While we are not looking to simply add followers, we are focused on keeping our interaction levels up with the community. SpiceJet’s social media strategy employs a multi-pronged approach—create, interact and engage,” he said. Chennai-based Paramount Airways Ltd uses Twitter and Facebook to inform passengers about new promotions and schemes under Paramount Royale, its frequent flyer programme. “We have a huge fan base on Facebook, Orkut and Twitter,” said M. Thiagarajan, managing director of Paramount Airways, without divulging the number of followers. “As new-age travellers are tech-savvy, we stopped talking through printed materials to our frequent flyers. We now interact with them through email and social media.” Gaurav Mishra, chief executive of Delhi-based social media research and strategy company Twenty Twenty WebTech Pvt. Ltd, said Indian carriers were still restricted to the basic uses of social networking. “When you compare the number of passengers flying domestic carriers, the fan base on social media is no comparison,” he said. Indian airlines carried 43.84 million passengers in 2009 compared with 40.77 million in 2008, an increase of 7.5%. “Moreover, there is no significant or structured effort from these carriers to use these platforms.” For instance, Malaysian low fare international carrier AirAsia Berhad distributed almost 900,000 free promotional tickets through Facebook in November—without any advertising. “You grow up with technology. We did not spend a cent to sell 404,000 seats on 11 November 2009 and 489,000 seats on 12 November. All we had done was post the information on Facebook. We have now 178,000 followers on Facebook and 22,000 in Twitter. We are now in Flickr, too,” said Kathleen Tan, regional head (commercial) at AirAsia, which currently has flights to Malaysia and other South-East Asian destinations, and from cities such as Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kolkata in India. Mishra of Twenty Twenty WebTech said building a networking community through social media is particularly useful for Indian airlines, which do not differ substantially in terms of fares. He said there are many ways in which the carriers could enhance the involvement of passengers on these sites. “For example, an airline could give some flying points if they (passengers) post a positive note on Facebook or Twitter,” Mishra added. “Imagine, if an airline discloses a passenger’s identity on a particular flight with his permission through these sites. This will result in a big networking opportunity.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 11:37 am Lounge Podcast | IPL, Love, Sex and Dhoka and summer readsWelcome to the Lounge Podcast. This is your um temporary host Krish Raghav — don’t worry, Anindita Ghose will be back next week. Today, we have a lowdown of the third season of the IPL; a review of Dibakar Bannerjee’s Love Sex aur Dhoka, and a guide through our summer reading list with book critic Chandrahas Choudhury. So first, a short guide to what to expect from the third entertainment extravaganza and incidental cricket league, the IPL with Arun Janardhan. Sanjukta Sharma gives us a review of Dibakar Bannerjee’s Love Sex aur Dhoka, that had been generating a lot of interesting pre-release hype. Finally, book critic and author Chandrahas Choudhury takes us through our summer reading list, for both fiction and non-fiction. That’s it for this week. We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Lounge Podcast. I’m Krish Raghav, thanks for listening. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 11:34 am RBI raises rates to tackle price pressuresMUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday unexpectedly raised interest rates from record-low levels for the first time since it began cutting in 2008, citing intensifying inflationary pressures and a steady economic recovery.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 11:31 am Twin TowersConstruction on The Imperial, a set of twin towers in the heart of south Mumbai, started eight years ago. India’s tallest residential towers, at 827ft, have been designed by Hafeez Contractor. The management—SD Corp. Pvt. Ltd, a joint venture between Shapoorji Pallonji and Co. Ltd and the Dilip Thacker Group—says 65% of the apartments have been sold and are now being handed over to owners so that they can start working on the interiors. The towers are divided into three zones and one celebrated interior designer is responsible for designing each one. Lounge got a guided tour of the property. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 11:11 am Greece’s IMF warning shakes up world marketsGreece’s debt crisis shook world markets again on Wednesday amid speculation that Athens will resort to the International Monetary Fund to resolve its financial woes if EU leaders fail to spell out the terms of a rescue package.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 10:17 am Chinese Vaccine to treat swine flu in IndiaWhile the wait for an Indian swine flu vaccine continues, a Chinese vaccine is headed here. Parenteral Drugs India Ltd, through its subsidiary Parenteral Biotech Ltd, has entered into a supply and distribution agreement with Sinovac Biotech Co. Limited of China for purchase and supply of HIN1 influenza vaccine in the Indian market.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 10:13 am Sectoral funds gain momentumLife insurance companies that had decided to cash in on the government’s focus on infrastructure, disinvestment in public sector companies and buoyancy in certain sectors by launching funds specific to these sectors for their Unit Linked Insurance plans (Ulips) are reaping rich dividends.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 10:11 am NTC to begin sale of 3 properties in AprilNew Delhi: Mill owner National Textile Corp. Ltd (NTC) plans to auction prime property spread over 150 acres of land in Mumbai, Kanpur and Indore, with the exercise kicking off next month. “As the Indian realty market is reviving from the slump, there is need for more land to create housing,” state-run NTC’s chairman and managing director K. Ramachandran Pillai said at a seminar in the Capital on Wednesday. “We plan to begin the process in April by placing notices in major national dailies,” Pillai said. NTC, which has 25 mills in Mumbai alone, has raised Rs4,034.6 crore from the sale of mill assets, according to the latest report by the committee on public undertakings (Copu), a parliamentary panel. It sold five plots for Rs2,200 crore at the height of the property boom in 2005-06. No minimum price has been set for the land that it plans to auction, Pillai said. “This depends on location and the market demand. But we would soon take a decision on this.” Pillai hadn’t responded to queries for further details sent by email till the time of going to presss. The committee’s report also said NTC got 180-350% higher than the base price from the sale of the five properties in Mumbai, primarily because of location and demand. The next round of auctions in Mumbai may not provide as high a return, said Ashutosh Limaye, associate director, strategic consulting, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, a property consultant. “The developers are in no hurry to enter the Mumbai market this time, as it was seen in the previous auction,” he said. “Moreover, NTC mills are not the only ones available in the market for auction. There are other property owners who are willing to offload. Third, cash-starved developers will not be able to pay a higher price for the land.” The land in the smaller towns may generate more demand. “If the land in Kanpur and Indore are located in prime areas, developers will readily give better price,” he said. “Smaller cities are the next destination in terms of housing.” NTC was incorporated in April 1968 with the main objective of managing the affairs of sick textile undertakings, eventually coming to control 119 mills through nine subsidiaries. All the subsidiaries were declared sick by the end of year 2005 under the Sick Industrial Companies Act, 1985. The NTC board subsequently approved industrial and financial reconstruction programmes that included the closure of unviable mills. According to these schemes, 77 mills were to be closed, 40 to be revived and two to be transferred to the Tamil Nadu government. An assets sale committee was constituted for each subsidiary to take decisions regarding the sale of surplus assets. All the nine subsidiaries were merged with the holding company, thus making NTC a single company. devesh@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 10:10 am Google to exit on April 10, says Chinese biz paperUS Internet giant Google will close its business in China next month and may announce its plans in the coming days, Chinese media reported on Friday, after rows over censorship and hacking.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 10:09 am 3G gets thumbs-down as India Inc dials BWABroadband Wireless Access (BWA) has outbid 3G (third generation) services in terms of the number of applications received. The final tally — 11 bidders for BWA and 9 for 3G services, reports HT Correspondent. See graphicsSource: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 19 Mar 2010 | 10:04 am New projects: the best approach One reason for integrating a new project within an existing firm can be because of operational and financial synergies. Another reason could be to subsidize new projects using the cash flows of existing firms. And a third hypothesis is that promoters prefer to house lucrative projects in firms in which they have a large shareholding.  What do the results show? The authors say, “Our results suggest that a key motive behind integration is to subsidize and support the new project using the cash flows of an existing group firm. Consistent with this idea, we find that larger and more profitable business groups are more likely to integrate projects, and that the integrated projects are more likely to be from less profitable industries. Within the group, projects are more likely to be housed in larger and more profitable group firms.” In other words, the idea is to subsidize the new venture, using the cash flows from a profitable existing firm. The study also finds that promoters prefer to house good projects in firms in which they have a large proportion of shares. The market usually reacts negatively to announcements of new projects, but the reaction is positive if projects are announced within firms that have high levels of promoter shareholding. That’s because, say the researchers, the market believes that such projects are likely to be profitable. World oil demand’s shift toward faster-growing and less price-responsive products and regions By Joyce M. Dargay, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds; and Dermot Gately, New York University  The authors point out that demand for oil is shifting to developing regions that are growing more rapidly and whose demand is less responsive to higher prices. The upshot: “In contrast to projections to 2030 of declining per capita demand for the world as a whole—by the US Department of Energy, International Energy Agency and Opec (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)—we project modest growth. Our projections for total world demand in 2030 are at least 20% higher than projections by those three institutions, using similar assumptions about income growth and oil prices, because we project rest-of-world growth that is consistent with historical patterns, in contrast to the dramatic slowdowns which they project.” The extra 20 millions barrel per day consumption in the developing world that the authors envisage is, incidentally, about twice the current production of Saudi Arabia. Illustrations by Jayachandran / Mint Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 9:55 am Rapid Fire | Sentiment continues to remain cautious for PIPE deals Mumbai: During the height of the bull run, one-fifth of private equity (PE) investments in India were in listed companies. But the financial crisis saw the value of these investments crash. Now, exits from such funds will be determined by the PE firms’ staying power, says Munish Dayal, partner at Barings Private Equity Partners India Ltd. Edited excerpts: The value of PIPE (private investments in public enterprises) investments in 2007 were eroded during the financial crisis. Have they recovered? Do we see a lot of exits happening in the near future?  Graphic: Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint Would private equity firms look to do more PIPE deals now? Has risk appetite returned? With the benefit of hindsight, the best time possible to do PIPE deals was in March last year when the markets started recovering from the lows and most share prices have doubled from those levels. However, it is never possible to time the market perfectly and that is not a competence that private equity funds bring to the table. Globally, the best PE funds are able to consistently deliver high returns through superior risk management, which is manifested by playing a proactive role in their portfolio companies helping them in the growth process. Our own approach is also in line with these best practices. We recommend exploring PIPE opportunities in industries where a disproportionate share of value creation will be captured by companies which are already listed and valuations are compelling. Would limited partners (LPs) be amenable to PIPE deals now? LPs typically expect the fund to stay consistent with its investment strategy with some leeway to explore investments opportunistically. As long as PIPE is a well-articulated component of the fund strategy, they will be supportive. Are PIPE deals being structured differently? PIPE deals have historically been passive investments where the structure by design does not offer much in terms of downside protection or other avenues for managing risk. Any such structure has to be in the purview of the existing regulatory ecosystem and there haven’t been any significant changes in that. With the Securities and Exchange Board of India mulling a change in takeover norms (increasing the open offer trigger from 15% to 35%), what impact would there be on the PE industry? We see this as enabling more active participation from the PE industry in mid-cap stocks, where many times the constraint of not triggering the open offer as well as having a minimum size of investment excludes several attractive opportunities. Which sectors look most attractive from your point of view to do such deals? The fast-moving consumer goods sector and the banking sector in India definitely qualify for exploring such investments. ravi.k@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 9:37 am Nine firms to bid for 3G mobile spectrum - govtNEW DELHI (Reuters) - Nine telecoms firms have applied to bid for third-generation (3G) mobile spectrum in India in an April auction, the government said after the end of the deadline for submitting interest on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 19 Mar 2010 | 9:15 am Any number that you come up with is probably going to be wildly wrongNew Delhi: The five-day India visit of Harold ‘Terry’ McGraw III, chairman, president and chief executive officer of the global information conglomerate The McGraw-Hill Companies, was packed with meetings with top government officials, ministers, industry leaders and business partners. Between Mumbai and Delhi, the tireless 61-year-old member of the India-US CEO Forum and the United States Council for International Business, attended an Economist Round Table meeting, celebrated the launch of a new building for Crisil Ltd, the ratings agency in which he holds a majority stake, and graced a ceremony to mark McGraw-Hill’s 40-year-old publishing partnership with the Tata group. McGraw, with brands such as McGraw-Hill Education, Standard and Poor’s and JD Power and Associates in his stable, spoke in an interview about growth strategies for the Indian market. Edited excerpts:  Special interest: McGraw aims at providing business-to-business information that is digitally and electronically available. Pradeep Gaur / Mint Recently you talked about increasing the stake in Crisil (a Standard & Poor’s company) from the current 51.5%? How much more are you looking at? This is probably not the best place to negotiate (looks at Crisil’s CEO and MD Roopa Kudva and laughs). We are very pleased with Crisil’s growth. A market like this that is growing at such a rate requires enormous investment and…it is only going to get bigger rapidly. Any investment figure you could share? Any number that you come up with is probably going to be wildly wrong… Everything is going to be bigger and larger than current projections. The Prime Minister has been talking about public-private investment. The notion that it is a decade of innovation, investment and infrastructure is spot-on. How do you plan to increase your presence in India? Education and access to capital are right at the top. Since 2005, Crisil has grown its revenue by 300% and its profit by 500%. Even more important, the ceremony that we had earlier this week, we gave the small- and medium-size enterprises 10,000 ratings— this is from zero in 2005. We will do 10,000 more ratings in 2010 alone. On the education front, we have Tata McGraw-Hill that started in 1970. We are adding about 10-15% titles every year. That part is going well. We are also working on vocational career development initiatives. We are working with CMC Ltd (a Tata company). We have started a pilot project in Delhi in the fastest growing area—retail sales and services. Ten million retail jobs by 2013 are what will be needed. We’ve come up with a three-month programme which will cost Rs10,000 and, at the end of it, you get a job which pays Rs7,000 or Rs10,000 a month. This summer we are going to start two more programmes— one in banking and another in insurance. We have identified 12 sectors in total. Once we know the model is right, then we scale it up big-time. Do you conduct vocational training in other markets? We do, in the United States and other markets but the opportunity is so unique here. The workforce development market right now is estimated to be $1.6 billion (Rs7,280 crore) in India. But Pearson is already here in this space. Everybody knows that this opportunity is gargantuan. It would concern me if we were the only ones who saw an opportunity like that. If you had a market that you could scale and you had a 30% to 40% market share, wow, what a nice business that is. Will you bring your special-interest magazines business to India? That is a smaller part of our business now. We had as many as 60 magazines built on the advertising-led business model. But because of digital and instant access to information content, we have transformed most of them into digital properties. If the business model did not lend itself (to digital), we divested. Today we are focused on business-to-business information that is digitally and electronically available. Only 2% of our revenue comes from advertising now. Take Platts, which was a series of newsletters in the energy and petrochemical area. Its financial contribution was very small. Today it is completely online and we establish all the benchmarks by which oil, gas and petrochemicals trade around the world. Its revenues are quite large and it defines a high-margin business. Is the ‘BusinessWeek’ transaction complete? Yes, it is. From a business standpoint, it was the right thing to do. The fact that it’s been a publication with us for 80 years, tugs at the heart a little bit… But, again, it’s a publication where we were not being able to multipurpose the journalistic effort. Bloomberg (the new owner) could use their (BusinessWeek’s) journalistic capability for Bloomberg news, television and radio. We haven’t heard much on the India-US CEO Forum lately? We had a very robust agenda. The forum was launched by president (George W.) Bush prior to his India visit and President (Barack) Obama reinstated that. We have come up with a tighter agenda—we focus on infrastructure, education, health and clean energy. The fifth category is barriers to doing business—issues such as environment, trade, corruption, government interference and things like that. We have got projects in each one of them. You will be hearing more on these soon. Any specific agenda for your visit? We always like to be involved on the policy side. We are meeting ministers and business leaders. Mukesh Ambani is also working very hard in the education space. He already has a high school and he has decided to build a university. Are you collaborating? We are talking about it. Vocational and professional development and workforce development is what we are really focused on right now. Are you still associated with the National Actors Theatre? It was a very different story. A friend, Tony Randall, a terrific actor in the United States, wanted to start a national troupe that was going to do the classics—big and expensive productions. We also came up with the idea of the actors explaining the elements of the classics to high school students after the production. But that was in 1991. It had the energy, the smarts and vitality of Tony Randall. Has it shut down? Yes, when Tony died. Tony was the energy. I did a fair bit of theatre in high school and college. And I was a drummer. I heard Shankar Mahadevan at the celebration of the new Crisil building recently. He is wonderful. Has Steve Jobs forgiven you? (McGraw was in the thick of controversy recently for talking about Apple iPad on television prior to its launch.) (Laughs). That was very innocent. I was on CNBC to talk about earnings for my company. And she (the anchor) kept asking if iPad will be helpful to you. I said absolutely. It is one more device and it is a very good one. She said you are doing all these things with iPhone… We have a wonderful relationship with Apple, so I said “well it’s using the same iPhone operating system” not realizing what I was saying… It was completely innocent. But what CNBC did after we left—it said it was the biggest scoop, heard on the channel first… shuchi.b@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 8:56 am Shell makes deep oil strike in Gulf of MexicoAmsterdam: Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it has made a significant discovery of oil 25,000 feet below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico. The company says the deposits were found at the Appotmattox prospect in the Mississippi Canyon of the gulf, an area where other rich deposits were discovered last year. Shell said in a statement Friday it found oil at 25,077 feet (7,217 meters), then drilled an appraisal sidetrack and found more at 25,950 feet (7,910 meters). Shell operates and holds an 80% working interest in the prospect, with the Canadian-based Nexen Inc. holding the remaining 20%. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 6:38 am Daimler to keep stake in EADSFrankfurt: Germany’s Daimler AG said Friday it doesn’t plan to exercise an option to sell its sizable stake in aerospace and defense contractor EADS NV, the Franco-German company. Daimler, based in Stuttgart, is better known for cars and trucks, but owns 22.5% of the voting rights and 15% of the equity in European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., the parent company of aircraft manufacturer Airbus. Its announcement comes amid speculation it was considering selling some of its ownership in EADS. Daimler said that by keeping its investment unchanged, the balance of voting rights between German and French shareholders remained unchanged. Daimler said it would not exercise an option to change the structure of its stake which has been placed in another company that includes investors Deutsche Bank AG, Allianz SE and Credit Suisse Group. A banker familiar with the arrangement said that investor arrangement was not likely to change. EADS is owned by a number of shareholders including the French government, French conglomerate Lagardere SA and Spanish holding company SEPI. Shares of Daimler were down a third of a percent to €34.52 ($46.95) while shares of EADS were up half a percent to €14.76. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 6:25 am Shares post 6th straight weekly gainMumbai: Indian shares rose for the sixth straight week, their longest streak of weekly gains since last June, climbing 0.3% on Friday, led by gains in Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel, and supported by firm global markets. Sentiment was also positive after rating agency Standard and Poor’s lifted its outlook on India to stable on Thursday, citing an improving fiscal position and strong economic growth. The BSE 30-share Sensex closed 0.34%, or 58.97 points higher, at 17,578.23, its best close in two months. Seventeen of its components closed in the green. The benchmark gained 2.4% this week, and but is up only 0.6% so far this year. “There could be volatility in the near term, depending on how things elsewhere in the globe shape up,” said Vaibhav Sanghavi, director of Ambit Capital. “However, things could look good from the long-term perspective on earnings optimism and economic growth.” Sanghavi expects Sensex to settle around 20,000-21,000 by end-2010. A Reuters poll expects Sensex to rise to 18,000 points by end-June and end 2010 at 19,250, driven by earnings optimism and supported by robust economic growth. Foreign funds have poured about $3 billion into Indian equities so far this year -- mostly in the current month, according to data from the markets regulator. But a portion of the funds have been absorbed by primary market offerings. Energy giant Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the main index, rose 1.4% to Rs1,089.80. Top mobile operator Bharti Airtel closed nearly 4% higher at Rs311.85, after data released by an industry body showed on Thursday that it had added 2.9 million mobile users in February, taking its total subscribers to 124.6 million. The stock was also catching up after the recent underperformance. It is still down more than 5% so far this year. Bharti is in talks to buy Kuwaiti firm Zain’s operations in 15 African countries and exclusive negotiations are scheduled to lapse on 25 March. Financials were mixed. Top lender State Bank of India and private lender HDFC Bank rose 1.4% and 0.8% respectively, while top private lender ICICI Bank dropped 0.6%. On Thursday, Standard & Poor’s raised its outlook on 12 Indian banks, including the three above, to stable from negative. There were concerns that monetary tightening could take place earlier than expected after a central bank deputy governor said late on Thursday that the Reserve Bank of India was open to taking policy action ahead of its April 20 policy review. The central bank is reeling under pressure to raise interest rates for the first time since the global downturn, with headline inflation nearing double digits. India’s No.2 software services firm Infosys Technologies slipped 0.4%, after it hit all-time highs in the previous session. Mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp dropped 1.6% after gaining more than 2% over three previous sessions. In the broader market, losers almost matched the gainers in a volume of 412 million shares, slightly lower than that on Thursday. By 10:33 GMT the MSCI’s measure of Asian markets other than Japan was up 0.3%, while in Europe the FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.5%. The NSE 50-share Nfty closed up 0.3% at 5,262.80. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 5:35 am What’s next for Google in China?Shanghai: Two months after Google Inc shook the world with its threat to leave China on censorship and hacking concerns, there are increasing signs that an exit is imminent as the two sides refuse to back down. Google said in January a key condition to staying on in China, the world’s largest Internet market by users, would be an end to rules that require it to self-censor results. Beijing has repeatedly thrown cold water on any such expectation, maintaining that all Internet firms need to abide by local laws. Following are the possible paths the world’s largest search company could take, and the possible reactions from Beijing: Google partially withdraws In addition to its Chinese search site, Google.cn, Google has two research and development centres, hundreds of sales and customer service staff and engineers working on its Android mobile operating system and other initiatives in China. Google could well decide to pull the plug on Google.cn, but leave its other China-based operations intact. The manner in which the company executes such a pull-out would also be of importance to its employees and reputation. If Google goes out with a bang by halting censorship of its China site before shutting it down, hundreds of local employees could be at risk for working for a company that broke local laws. But given the very public nature of its initial threat, many believe such an underhanded withdrawal is unlikely. By being up-front about shutting its China search site, Google -- whose motto is “Don’t do evil” -- could generate positive publicity from sympathetic quarters in the West, including politicians, media and human rights groups. Google fully withdraws Google could decide that China isn’t worth the trouble and completely pull out, including all its R&D and Android support operations. Such a move would put hundreds more out of work, and could jeopardize firms like Dell and Lenovo that were banking on Android-based phones as a major part of their push into the China cellular market. Independent software application developers who were counting on Android phones to carry their programs could also find themselves out in the cold. China warned last week that it would be “unfriendly and irresponsible” for Google to suddenly stop filtering searches, and added the search giant would have to bear whatever consequences might follow. Some say that such words could be a veiled warning from Beijing that Google would not be welcome in China if it leaves the local search market, giving the US search giant no other choice than to pull out entirely. Google stays in china Google could cut a deal with Beijing and work out a plan to stay in China under a face-saving compromise. Many consider this outcome unlikely as Google has stated that freedom from censorship is key to its staying. A condition Beijing is unlikely to bow to given its insistence on direct or indirect control of all media in the country. In giving in to Google, Beijing would also set a dangerous precedent, possibly prompting other popular Web site operators such as Baidu and Sina to request similar exemption from self-censorship laws. Thus the probability of regulators bending rules just for Google is highly unlikely, meaning Google would still have to self-censor at some level if it wanted to stay. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 19 Mar 2010 | 3:27 am
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