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Ramco secures order from MedsolRamco Systems announced a significant order win from Medsol, a part of Gulf Healthcare International, a pioneer in providing pathology testing services in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 8:45 am IRB achieves financial closure for two highway projectsIRB Infrastructure Developers Limited has achieved financial closure for its PathankotAmritsar highway project and JaipurDeoli highway project.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 8:38 am See longterm benefits from US Healthcare Bill: SuvenIn an interview with CNBCTV18, Venkat Jasti, Chief Executive Officer of Suven Life Sciences, spoke about his outlook for the company.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 8:19 am IPL twist: Kings XI owners in talks for franchisee saleCNBCTV18 has learnt from sources that copromoters Ness Wadia, Priety Zinta and Mohit Burman are looking to exit from the franchise and the team is currently being valued at USD 200 million.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 7:58 am Dell to employ 23000 people in IndiaComputer maker Dell\'s Indian operations are growing at 100%, said its Founder Michael Dell. \"ndia is the fastest growing market for us. We have already started exporting from Chennai plant to West Asia.\"Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 7:34 am To set up 600km BarmerSalya pipeline: CairnCairn India has decided to commission a 600 km BarmerSalaya pipeline between April and June. This will help ramp up production to 1.25 lk bbl/day In the second half of 2010.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 7:34 am Piramal to buy Cipla\'s iPill: SourcesDrugmaker Cipla Ltd is in talks with local firm Piramal Healthcare to sell its emergency contraceptive drug brand, ipill, a senior Cipla official told Reuters on Monday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 7:20 am Axis Bank in talks to buy 5% stake in Max New York LifeAxis Bank is in talks to buy about 5% stake in Max New York Life Insurance, reports CNBCTV18 quoting sources.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 7:14 am Tata Motors offers early conversion to note holdersTata Motors Ltd, India\'s largest vehicle maker, is offering an early conversion of notes into stock through an auction to help reduce the debt on its balance sheet.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 6:45 am IGL to up CNG prices in Delhi by Rs 1.10/kg from April 1Public transport in Delhi gets even costlier with the prices of compressed natural gas (CNG)the fuel used for buses etc on a rise.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 6:14 am Kingfisher to double its fleet strength to 128 planes by 2016Kingfisher Airlines, plans to more than double its fleet strength by adding 67 more aircraft by 2016, according to an investors presentation made by the company.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 23 Mar 2010 | 4:07 am MTN spends $964 million upgrading network for World Cup 2010The company said that as part of the work it had completed network coverage upgrades at all stadiums being used in the tournamment.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 4:02 am Piramal buys drug rights from Cipla for $21mnMumbai: Indian drugmaker Piramal Healthcare has bought the rights for Cipla’s emergency contraceptive drug i-pil for Rs950 million ($21 million), a senior official said, as it seeks to more than double its over-the-counter offerings in three years. i-pill had sales of about Rs310 million a year, Rajesh Laddha, chief financial officer of Piramal Healthcare, told Reuters. Piramal shares extended gains to 4.6% on the news and Cipla added 3.1% in a Mumbai stockmarket. “We have a lot of thrust on the OTC business going forward,” Laddha said, referring to drugs that are sold without a doctor’s prescription. Piramal currently sells OTC drugs worth about Rs1.25 billion a year, and i-pill would add to the revenue but would be neutral in terms of profit in the near term because of interest and depreciation costs, Laddha said. The acquisition will be funded through internal accruals and short-term loans, he said. The OTC market in India is estimated to be worth about $1.8 billion and is growing annually at 18%, Piramal said in a statement. Piramal has been buying brands, including from India-based Khandelwal Labs, PlasmaSelect in Germany and RxElite Inc and Minrad International in the United States. Cipla’s joint managing director, Amar Lulla, had told Reuters on Monday the company was in talks with Piramal for selling i-pill as it wanted to focus on prescription drugs. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:35 am Cairn revises Barmer oil field upwards to 6.5 bn barrels - Sify
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:32 am China's Internet to suffer without Google: Analysts - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:31 am Sensex positive RIL Tata Motors ICICI Bk most active - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:13 am No trademark infringement by Google - EU courtLUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Google has not violated the rights of luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton and two other firms through its service that allows advertisers to buy keywords identical to trademarks, Europe's top court said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:03 am Cairn ups reserves, output goal, shares riseLondon: UK oil explorer Cairn Energy lifted its estimates for reserves at its Indian operation and said the unit’s Rajasthan fields could produce more oil than previously thought. Cairn shares had jumped 8.1% to 409-1/2 pence by 0901 GMT, compared with a 0.6% rise in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index. Cairn raised its estimates of oil and gas in place in Rajasthan to 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) from 3.7 billion boe and said there could be another 2.5 billion boe yet to be discovered. The Edinburgh-based company said the fields had the potential to pump 240,000 boe per day. Previously the company said it hoped to exceed its target of 175,000 boe per day but did not specify by how much. Cairn also reported full-year results on Tuesday. A 59% jump in output after the Rajasthan fields came online in August helped boost underlying net profit for 2009 to $53 million, up from $11 million in 2008. Cairn added it was making progress with the pipeline to bring its crude to market. Currently oil is being transported by road tanker. The main pipeline, which heats the waxy crude to maintain its fluidity, is finished, exploration director Mike Watts told reporters on a conference call, and work on spurs to refinery customers are nearing completion. Crude is scheduled to be pumped through the pipeline during the second quarter, Cairn said. Another buyer, Essar Oil, has also been added to the to list of buyers for Cairn’s oil. Cairn added that the prospects it plans to drill this year in Greenland could contain 4 billion barrels of oil. “These numbers should be taken with a pinch of salt, given there is little data to back them up. However, it does show the potential of the region,” Peter Hitchens, oil analyst at Panmure Gordon, said in a research note. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:03 am Maruti Suzuki manufactures 10 lakh units in 2009-10 - India Infoline.com
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:59 am India spot gold down; bargain-buying may beginMUMBAI (Reuters) - India physical gold prices fell slightly on Tuesday, but traders may resume buying at these levels to stock up for the wedding season that begins from April, dealers said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:56 am Nissan, Daimler in engine tie-up talks - NikkeiTOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co is in talks with Daimler AG to procure large engines from the German firm, the Nikkei business daily said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:55 am Suven gets patent for Alzheimer, Parkinson compound - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:41 am Google risks China's ire with slap to censorshipBEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Google Inc shut its mainland Chinese-language portal and began rerouting searches to its Hong Kong-based site, unleashing a blast of ire from Beijing and prompting concerns over its future business in China.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:39 am India says needs to double infrastructure spendingNEW DELHI (Reuters) - The finance minister called on Tuesday for a doubling of infrastructure spending to $1 trillion in the five years to 2016/17, and said private sector firms would be allowed to sell special bonds to help pay for it.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:35 am Double-digit growth within India's reach: Manmohan SinghPromising a renewed focus on infrastructure that will need $1 trillion in investment during 2012-17, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said India will grow at 8.5 percent next fiscal, accelerating to 10 percent in the medium term.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:25 am Rupee pares most gains as stocks fall brieflyMumbai: The Indian rupee trimmed most of its gains in afternoon trade on Tuesday as shares briefly turned negative after having risen earlier in the day, but losses in the dollar versus major currencies continued to boost. Dealers said the unexpected rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India late on Friday was also underpinning sentiment for the rupee. Last week, the RBI raised rates for the first time since it began cutting in 2008, citing intensifying inflationary pressures and a steady economic recovery. At 2:15pm, the partially convertible rupee was at Rs45.57/58 per dollar, marginally stronger than Rs45.59/60 at close on Monday, when it dropped to Rs45.5975, its weakest since 15 March. A Reuters poll on Monday found that 18 of 20 economists surveyed expect another increase in both the repo and reverse repo rates on 20 April. Shares were trading marginally higher after having turned briefly negative earlier in the session. The euro held its ground on Tuesday after rebounding from a three-week low against the dollar, helped by an improvement in risk appetite following gains in US stocks but still stymied by squabbling over Greece. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at Rs45.71, weaker than the onshore spot rate. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both quoting at Rs45.5975, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $3.7 billion. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:25 am Indian economy to grow 8.5 per cent next fiscal: Manmohan Singh - Sify
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:22 am Honda says to go it alone as it seeks Asian growthTOKYO (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co will steer clear of cooperating with rival automakers as it seeks to boost its presence in Asia, defying a resurgent trend towards tie-ups in the industry, a top executive said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:15 am Piramal buys drug rights from Cipla for $21mlnMUMBAI (Reuters) - Piramal Healthcare has bought the rights for Cipla's emergency contraceptive drug brand, i-pill, for 950 million rupees ($21 million), a senior official said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:13 am Nissan, Daimler in engine tie-up talks: NikkeiTokyo: Nissan Motor Co is in talks with Daimler AG to procure large engines from the German firm, the Nikkei business daily said on Tuesday. Nissan, Japan’s third-biggest automaker, may supply electric cars and batteries to Daimler, the daily said. Nissan’s French partner Renault SA is already in partnership talks with Daimler and these discussions will likely expand into three-way negotiations, the paper said. Media reports on the three-way negotiations including a possible equity tie-up emerged last week. Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn, who also heads Renault, said only that he was open to an equity exchange. A Nissan spokesman declined to comment on the Nikkei report on Tuesday. Ghosn will brief Nissan executives this week on the details and aims of Renault’s comprehensive partnership talks with Daimler, the Nikkei said. The Japanese automaker will then fully jump into the negotiations, the paper said. One focal point is whether the Nissan-Renault camp and Daimler can reach an agreement before the German automaker’s general shareholders meeting on 14 April, the Nikkei said. Despite talk of Renault and Daimler taking stakes of several percent in each other, the German firm is apparently cautious about forming a capital tie-up, the paper said. Separately, a Nissan spokesman said the automaker had told its suppliers of plans to produce 3.698 million vehicles in the financial year to March 2011. That would mark an all-time high and a 13% rise from the 3.287 million Nissan has projected for the 2009-10 business year. The spokesman noted that Nissan’s guidance to suppliers and production plans disclosed under its financial results are not necessarily the same. Nissan is set to get a sales lift from starting to offer its new Micra subcompact, which it began manufacturing in Thailand this month. Nissan also aims to expand in Russia by launching the Murano sport utility vehicle as its third model there at the beginning of 2011. For the next fiscal year, the automaker plans to increase its manufacturing in Japan by 9.7% to 1.13 million units, the Nikkei said. Shares of Nissan closed up 0.1% on Tuesday while the Nikkei average lost 0.5%. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:08 am Asian shares rise toward 2-mth peak; techs firmTOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares inched back towards recent two-month highs on Tuesday as recovering commodity prices boosted shares of resource firms and as tech stocks drew support from gains in their U.S. peers.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 1:54 am Nintendo to launch 3D-capable DS in 2010-11Tokyo: Nintendo Co Ltd plans to launch a new model of its DS handheld game gear that allows users to play three-dimensional (3D) games without using special glasses. The Japanese firm said the new portable player will be able to play titles created for previous DS models and will be launched in the financial year starting in April. Nintendo, which competes with Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp in video games, declined to give details such as price and launch dates, but said more information will be announced at the E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles in June. Sony plans to release 3D titles for its PlayStation 3 game console in time for the planned release of its 3D TVs in June. That game console can be upgraded to become 3D-capable using a software update. Ahead of the announcement, shares in Nintendo closed up 0.3% at ¥27,970, outperforming the Nikkei average, which slid 0.5%. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 1:52 am Indraprastha Gas to up CNG prices by 1.1 rupees/kgMUMBAI (Reuters) - Indraparastha Gas Ltd, which supplies gas in Delhi and surrounding region, aims to raise retail prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) by about 1.10 rupees per kg from April 1, a senior official said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 1:37 am Markets turn negative; telcos dropMumbai: Indian shares turned negative on Tuesday afternoon, dragged down by leading telecoms companies Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications. At 12:52pm, the 30-share BSE index was down 0.04% at 17,403.65 points, with 17 components losing ground. The 50-share NSE index was up 0.1% at 5,208.95. Markets were trading 0.3% higher in the morning session led by gains in Reliance Industries and banks, supported by firm global markets. Lenders rebounded as investors shrugged off worries over the impact of a tighter monetary stance by the central bank and placed bets on their long-term outlook in growing economy. The banking sector index was up 0.4% at 10,382.95 points. “We have an attractive stance on the sector and think a buoyant economy will offset risk of rising rates,” Goldman Sachs said in a note on financial services sector on Monday. A Reuters poll on Monday showed the central bank was likely to increase rates to a slightly higher level this year than earlier expected after surprising markets late on Friday with a 25-basis-point rise. By 10:26am, the 30-share BSE Index was trading up 0.26% at 17,456.17, with 17 of its components gaining. The 50-share NSE index was up 0.3% at 5,220.70 points. “The market sentiment is definitely not negative from here,” said R. K. Gupta, managing director of Taurus Mutual Fund, pointing out that it was just the timing of the central bank’s rate hike that took the markets by surprise, not the hike itself. He added that he expected fourth-quarter earnings to be robust. Leading private lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank rose 0.2% and 1.2% respectively. Top lender State Bank of India edged 0.2% lower. Energy major Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the Sensex rose 1.1% to Rs1,085.85. Top mobile operator Bharti Airtel reversed early gains and shed 2.2% ahead of the 25 March deadline for its exclusive talks with Zain or the Kuwaiti firm’s African assets. Non-ferrous metals producer Sterlite Industries rose 0.6% on firm copper prices. Aluminium maker Hindalco rose 0.5%, while Tata Steel, world’s eighth-largest steel maker by output, rose 0.8% Top engineering and construction firm, Larsen & Toubro, was up 0.2% as it said its unit had won an order worth 15 billion rupees for constructing hospitals, residential and factory buildings. In the broader market, gainers led losers in the ratio of 1.7:1 in a volume of 91 million shares. Indian markets will be closed on Wednesday for a public holiday. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 1:34 am Jindal to invest $10 bn in Orissa project - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Mar 2010 | 1:20 am Sensex fails to maintain initial gains, up 51 pointsThe BSE benchmark resumed higher at 17,422.51 and shot up further to 17,530.79 on firm Asian cues before quoting at 17,461.26 at 1015 hours, still showing a gain of 50.69 points or 0.29 per cent from its previous close.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 23 Mar 2010 | 1:07 am Rupee gains tracking shares, stronger peers - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Mar 2010 | 1:06 am No decision taken on Indian access to Headley: USNew Delhi: In a surprise development, the US on Tuesday said it has taken no decision to provide Indian investigators direct access to Pakistani-American David Headley, who has confessed to plotting the Mumbai terror attacks. Four days after US assistant secretary of state for south Asia Robert Blake publicly stated here that the Indian investigators will have access to Headley, American ambassador Timothy J Roemer said in a statement that “no decision on direct access for India to David Headley has been made.” Following Blake’s statement and a telephonic discussion with US attorney general and head of the department of justice Eric Holder, home minister P Chidambaram had directed NIA and other agencies concerned in the case to quickly prepare documents necessary to start a judicial proceeding in which Indian authorities could require Headley to answer questions and to testify. Sources in the Home Ministry had on Monday said India is likely to send a team of investigators in April to question 49-year old Headley. Roemer’s remarks also come amid reports that Pakistan was seeking access to Headley. “As the assistant secretary indicated, the US is committed to full information sharing in our counter terror partnership and, in fact, in this case we have provided substantial information to the government of India and we will continue to do so.” “However, no decision on direct access for India to David Headley has been made. The US Department of Justice will work with the government of India regarding the modalities of such cooperation,” Roemer said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 1:02 am Infrastructure investment must be doubled to $1000 billion in 12th Plan: Prime ministerThe prime minister said the 11th Five Year Plan targeted Rs20 lakh crore for infrastructure development, double the amount achieved in the 10th Five Year Plan.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:59 am Commission scales down 11th Plan growth target to 8.1%New Delhi: The Planning Commission has scaled down the growth rate for the Eleventh Plan ending 2012 to 8.1% from 9% in the wake of the global financial crisis that slowed the pace of economic expansion. “The average rate of growth in the Plan period could be little over 8% (8.1%). This would be below the original plan target of an average of 9% growth..., but it would be better than the 7.8% achieved in the Tenth Plan period,” the Commission said in its Mid-Term Appraisal (MTA) of the Eleventh Plan to be placed before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this evening. The Commission expects the economy to expand by 8.5% in 2010-11 and rise to 9% in the terminal year of the Plan. After getting the full Planning Commission’s clearance, the MTA document will be placed before the Cabinet and thereafter before the National Development Council (NDC) for final approval. Headed by the Prime Minister, the full Planning Commission comprises key cabinet ministers, including finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar, deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and all the full-time members of the plan panel. The Commission had set an average annual growth target of 9% for the Eleventh Plan — beginning with 8.5% in the first year and closing with 10% in the last year of the Plan period. The MTA document said the economy exceeded expectations in the first year of the Eleventh Plan (2007-08)with a growth rate of 9% but the momentum was interrupted in 2008-09 because of the global financial crisis. Following the global meltdown, the growth rate slipped to 6.7% in 2008-09 from over 9% in the preceding three years. In the current fiscal, the growth rate is pegged at 7.2% despite poor contribution from the farm sector, which is projected to shrink by 0.2%, the MTA said. Buoyed by the recovery since the last meeting of the full Planning Commission in 1 September, 2009, the document said, “The economy would be well positioned for transition to a growth rate higher than 9% in the Twelfth Plan period.” In order to achieve high growth rate, the Commission suggested the government should focus on fiscal consolidation and maintain investor-supportive economic environment. Finance minister Mukherjee, too, in the Budget speech last month had said, “The first challenge before us is to quickly revert to the high GDP growth path of 9% and then find the means to cross the double-digit growth barrier.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:31 am India could grow by 8.5% in next fiscal, 9% in 2011-12: Prime ministerThe country should step up the pace of economic expansion to above 10% per annum in the 12th Five Year Plan to generate employment for the youth and remove poverty, Manmohan Singh said.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:30 am FM sticks to his 7.2% growth forecastPranab Mukherjee says the government was on track on its growth prediction for the next year at 8.5%.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:25 am Double-digit growth within India's reach: Manmohan SinghPromising a renewed focus on infrastructure that will need $1 trillion in investment during 2012-17, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said India will grow at 8.5% next fiscal, accelerating to 10% in the medium term.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:20 am Google risks China’s ire with slap to censorshipBeijing/Shanghai: Google Inc shut its mainland Chinese-language portal and began rerouting searches to an uncensored Hong Kong-based site, unleashing a blast of ire from Beijing and prompting concerns over its future business in China. China lost little time in warning Google that its rejection of self-censorship angers the one-party government, which is wary of ceding control over domestic use of the Internet with 384 million users in China. The decision comes amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington over a range of issues, from Internet freedom to the yuan exchange rate, economic sanctions on Iran and US weapons sales to Taiwan. “Google has violated the written promise it made on entering the Chinese market,” said an unnamed official from China’s State Council Information Office, which helps oversee Internet rules, according to the Xinhua news agency. “It is totally wrong in halting (censorship) filtering of its search provider”, said the official. “We firmly oppose politicising commercial issues, and express our dissatisfaction and anger at Google Inc’s unreasonable accusations and practices,” said the official. Google said on 12 January it would no longer censor its China-based Google.cn search portal and was also alarmed by hacking attacks from within China. Google acted on that threat, throwing the burden on Beijing to apply its own censorship filters to keep Chinese users from seeing banned images and words when rerouted to the company’s Hong Kong site, google.com.hk. Google said it intends to continue research and development in China, and keep sales staff there. But the company is likely to be closely watched by officials, possibly emboldened after months of friction with Washington. “I don’t think it’s sustainable for Google to conduct rerouting of traffic,” said Edward Yu, chief executive of Analysys International, a Beijing-based research firm specialising in technology issues. “The thing that makes the government unhappy is this kind of gesture. That Google will not follow (the rules), and that gesture will anger the government so they may set up barriers against Google.” Analysts said it was possible Google’s plans for other services in China, such as its Android smartphone software, could be jeopardised by its move. “Ordinary (Chinese) Internet users won’t be much affected, because the only difference they’ll see is that the burden of censorship has shifted from Google to the government,” said Wang Junxiu, a Beijing-based Internet entrepreneur who has campaigned against online controls. “But Google’s business may take a hit. Advertising may fall, and (Chinese) companies that have invested in joining up with Google innovations and content will be hurt,” said Wang. An impasse seemed likely after Google challenged China’s ruling Communist Party, is wary of any political challenges in the world’s third biggest economy. China gave no ground on the censorship issue in its dealings with Google, the company’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote in a blog post on Monday. But he also wrote that “the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.” Before Google made the move, users of Google.cn saw a warning that content banned by the government could not be viewed whenever they made a search. Searches on the Hong Kong website from mainland broadband lines for sensitive news and discussion about jailed dissidents and banned organisations gave links to sites that google.cn previously did not. However, these pages could not be opened. Google.com can still be accessed from China. While Google is the world’s top search engine, it held only an estimated 30% share of China’s search market in 2009, compared with home-grown rival Baidu Inc’s 60 percent. Google’s decision on Monday, therefore, won’t have an immediate impact on earnings, analysts say. Shares of Google, which have fallen more than 6% since January when it announced plans to stop censoring searches in China, closed Monday’s trading session down $2.50 at $557.60. Shares of Baidu, which have soared more than 40 percent during the same period, finished up $10.07 at $579.72. China requires Internet operators inside the country to block words and images Beijing deems unacceptable. Google.cn used such a filter. Internationally popular Websites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked in China, which also uses its own filtering “firewall” to block Internet users from overseas content banned by authorities. Google said it was “entirely legal” for it to re-route traffic to an uncensored Hong Kong site, which uses simplified Chinese characters and is specifically designed for users in mainland China. A former British colony, Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China and enjoys more freedom, including an uncensored Internet, than mainland China. But Google acknowledged that the Chinese government could at any time block access to the services, which include Google search, news and images. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:15 am Google risks China’s ire with slap to censorshipBeijing/Shanghai: Google Inc shut its mainland Chinese-language portal and began rerouting searches to an uncensored Hong Kong-based site, unleashing a blast of ire from Beijing and prompting concerns over its future business in China. China lost little time in warning Google that its rejection of self-censorship angers the one-party government, which is wary of ceding control over domestic use of the Internet with 384 million users in China. The decision comes amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington over a range of issues, from Internet freedom to the yuan exchange rate, economic sanctions on Iran and US weapons sales to Taiwan. “Google has violated the written promise it made on entering the Chinese market,” said an unnamed official from China’s State Council Information Office, which helps oversee Internet rules, according to the Xinhua news agency. “It is totally wrong in halting (censorship) filtering of its search provider”, said the official. “We firmly oppose politicising commercial issues, and express our dissatisfaction and anger at Google Inc’s unreasonable accusations and practices,” said the official. Google said on 12 January it would no longer censor its China-based Google.cn search portal and was also alarmed by hacking attacks from within China. Google acted on that threat, throwing the burden on Beijing to apply its own censorship filters to keep Chinese users from seeing banned images and words when rerouted to the company’s Hong Kong site, google.com.hk. Google said it intends to continue research and development in China, and keep sales staff there. But the company is likely to be closely watched by officials, possibly emboldened after months of friction with Washington. “I don’t think it’s sustainable for Google to conduct rerouting of traffic,” said Edward Yu, chief executive of Analysys International, a Beijing-based research firm specialising in technology issues. “The thing that makes the government unhappy is this kind of gesture. That Google will not follow (the rules), and that gesture will anger the government so they may set up barriers against Google.” Analysts said it was possible Google’s plans for other services in China, such as its Android smartphone software, could be jeopardised by its move. “Ordinary (Chinese) Internet users won’t be much affected, because the only difference they’ll see is that the burden of censorship has shifted from Google to the government,” said Wang Junxiu, a Beijing-based Internet entrepreneur who has campaigned against online controls. “But Google’s business may take a hit. Advertising may fall, and (Chinese) companies that have invested in joining up with Google innovations and content will be hurt,” said Wang. An impasse seemed likely after Google challenged China’s ruling Communist Party, is wary of any political challenges in the world’s third biggest economy. China gave no ground on the censorship issue in its dealings with Google, the company’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote in a blog post on Monday. But he also wrote that “the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.” Before Google made the move, users of Google.cn saw a warning that content banned by the government could not be viewed whenever they made a search. Searches on the Hong Kong website from mainland broadband lines for sensitive news and discussion about jailed dissidents and banned organisations gave links to sites that google.cn previously did not. However, these pages could not be opened. Google.com can still be accessed from China. While Google is the world’s top search engine, it held only an estimated 30% share of China’s search market in 2009, compared with home-grown rival Baidu Inc’s 60 percent. Google’s decision on Monday, therefore, won’t have an immediate impact on earnings, analysts say. Shares of Google, which have fallen more than 6% since January when it announced plans to stop censoring searches in China, closed Monday’s trading session down $2.50 at $557.60. Shares of Baidu, which have soared more than 40 percent during the same period, finished up $10.07 at $579.72. China requires Internet operators inside the country to block words and images Beijing deems unacceptable. Google.cn used such a filter. Internationally popular Websites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked in China, which also uses its own filtering “firewall” to block Internet users from overseas content banned by authorities. Google said it was “entirely legal” for it to re-route traffic to an uncensored Hong Kong site, which uses simplified Chinese characters and is specifically designed for users in mainland China. A former British colony, Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China and enjoys more freedom, including an uncensored Internet, than mainland China. But Google acknowledged that the Chinese government could at any time block access to the services, which include Google search, news and images. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:15 am Sensex rises by 120 points in opening trade on global cuesThe Sensex recovered by over 120 points, 0.69 per cent, in the opening trade today on fresh capital inflows from foreign funds amid moderate gains in global markets.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:12 am Maoists trigger blast, target Rajdhani Express, kill copGaya (Bihar): Passengers on board the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express had a miraculous escape when ten of its coaches and the engine derailed near Gaya station following an explosion triggered by Maoists, police said. The accident took place late Monday night between Kasta and Paraiya stations under Gaya-Mughalsarai section of the East Central Railway, the police said. Rail traffic was disrupted in the section since midnight last night as cranes were engaged to remove the affected bogies, railway sources said. Also Read | Timeline: Red Terror Passengers were taken to Mughalsarai by a rescue train from where a special train was arranged to send them to New Delhi, they said. The explosive planted in the tracks between Kasta and Paraiya stations went off shortly after the train left Gaya station, district superintendent of police Sushil Khopde said, adding a medical team with rescue train was sent to the spot. There was no casualty or serious injury, Khopde said, adding none of the derailed bogies fell on its side which possibly was the reason why no casualty took place. Ten coaches and the engine of the 2445 up Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express jumped the tracks due to the impact of the blast, a handiwork of the Maoists who have called a 48-hour bandh in seven states, including Bihar, starting Monday. Routes of several important trains including New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express were diverted from Mughalsarai to Patna in lieu of Gaya for onward journey, the sources said. Over 42 trains were affected, they said. Important affected trains include New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express, Kalka Express and Shaktipunj Express. Besides, some of the local trains were cancelled due to the ongoing operation in the section. Meanwhile, police recovered a hand bill left by Maoists at the spot claiming the responsibility for the blast. The 48-hour bandh has been called by the CPI (Maoist) in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and three districts of Maharashtra to protest against the ‘Operation Green Hunt’ launched against them. According to the sources, railway engineers were pressed into service for repairing the tracks damaged in the blast. Sanjay Saraogi, a passenger of the D-3 coach, one of the ten derailed bogies, told PTI that none of the passengers were harmed in the incident. “We heard the sound of a blast, but to my knowledge no harm has been caused to the passengers in the affected bogies,” he said from the spot, about 15 km from Gaya station. One Policeman Killed in Maosit Firing In another incident a policeman on Tuesday was gunned down by Maoists in Jharkhand’s Sareikela-Kharsawan district as their 48-hour shutdown entered the second day. The rebels fired indiscriminately on a police patrolling team near Chouka police station in Sareikela around 1.30 am, killing a policeman on the spot, police said. The policeman was identified as Kalicharan Bodra. The Maoists melted away into the forests after a strong retaliatory action by securitymen, police said. Security forces have launched raids in the area even as deployment of forces are in place at strategic locations to keep a strict vigil during the shutdown that ends Tuesday night. The bandh has so far caused cancellation of many trains, including the Ranchi-Delhi Garib Rath, Palamau Express, besides passenger trains for the second consecutive day, railway officials said. Several express trains have been diverted through the Mugalsarai-Gomo route, they said. The Maoists are observing the shutdown in Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Chhatisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and three districts of Maharashtra to protest anti-naxal operations, price rise and arrests of some of their cadres. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:08 am India needs $1 trillion infrastructure spending over 5 yrs: PMNew Delhi: India needs to double its infrastructure spending to $1 trillion in the five years to 2016-17 to achieve 10% annual growth rates and this would require new funding sources, the prime minister said on Tuesday. The country needs to upgrade its creaky and inadequate infrastructure to support growth that is expected to accelerate to 9% by 2011-12, and has said a bulk of this new investment would be from private firms. “We must aim at accelerating the pace of growth to about 10% per annum. This is the growth target we must work toward in the 12th five-year plan (2011/12-2016-17),” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told an infrastructure conference. “It is not something that would happen automatically. We would need continuous improvements in our policy regime and our implementation process.” India plans to spend $514 billion in the five years to 2011-12, and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said this goal was proceeding as per schedule. Mukherjee said the capacity of banks to fund infrastructure projects was stretched and new sources had to be tapped, including allowing private firms to issue infrastructure bonds. “We have still not completely succeeded in exploiting the full potential of insurance and pension funds for deployment in the infrastructure projects,” Mukherjee said. “The availability of equity, both domestic and FDI (foreign direct investment) continue to remain an area of concern.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:04 am European banks brace for safety levyGerman banks could face competitive disadvantage internationally should the government go ahead with a banking levy designed to protect the financial system from future crises, its banking association warned on Monday after members of theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Open interest position rules at an all-time highIndian equity markets have been choppy in 2010, with the benchmark Nifty struggling to show positive year-to-dateSource: Business Line - Home Page | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Govt sticks to 7.2% growth for this fiscalThe Government would stick to its ‘advance estimate' for economic growth at 7.2 per cent for the current financial year, said the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, on the sidelines of the Reserve Bank of India-Organisation for EconomicSource: Business Line - Home Page | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am IRDA advertisement stirs up debateIs it appropriate on the part of a regulatory body to recommend investment in a product that is regulated bySource: Business Line - Home Page | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Clearing of forest trees, a daunting task for Bhilai SteelFor Bhilai Steel Plant, accustomed to investing thousands of crores in projects, marking out trees prior to cutting them for laying a road shouldn't really be anything more than a mere footnote. But, in the forests of Chhattisgarh, dominated bySource: Business Line - Home Page | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideThe stock retreated 2 per cent with above average volume in the last trading session. We re-affirm our sell recommendation with stop at RsSource: Business Line - Home Page | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Freight corridor may have to take route diversionIndian Railways may have to rework sections of the route alignment of its Rs 50,800-crore dedicated freight corridor project to avoid acquiring land from those who are not ready to part withSource: Business Line - Home Page | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company (Rs 95): BuyShort-term traders can consider buying the stock of Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company. The stock had been moving sideways in the range of Rs 75 to Rs 92 since October 2009. On March 22, the stock broke through this sideways consolidation bySource: Business Line - Home Page | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Qatar eyes investment tie-ups in gasQatar is looking at investment opportunities with Indian companies in the hydrocarbon sector. The Deputy Premier, and Minister for Energy and Industry, Qatar, Mr Abdulla Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, said, that besides supplying additional liquefied naturalSource: Business Line - Home Page | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am Sanofi-aventis buys out UB stake in Aventis PharmaIt is a question often put to the Aventis Pharma Chairman, Mr Vijay Mallya, at every other shareholders meeting of the company - when will the clutch of companies, including UB (Holding) Ltd and Mallya Private Ltd, exit the multinationalSource: Business Line - Home Page | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 am L&T bags orders worth Rs. 1500 crore - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 22 Mar 2010 | 11:40 pm Toshiba eyes Gates nuclear alliance, chip plantTokyo: Japan’s Toshiba Corp said it is in talks with a company backed by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to jointly develop advanced nuclear reactors, helping push Toshiba’s stock up nearly 5%. Separately, Toshiba announced that it would restart plans to build a NAND flash memory factory due to a recovery in demand. It will start construction on the plant in July and begin production in early 2011. Toshiba said it was in talks with the Gates-backed firm TerraPower to develop so-called travelling-wave reactors (TWRs), which are designed to use depleted uranium as fuel and thought to hold the promise of running up to 100 years without refuelling. That compares with conventional light-water reactors, which require refuelling once every several years. The Nikkei newspaper, which first reported the news earlier on Tuesday, said Gates could invest several hundred billion yen (several billion dollars) of his own money in the project, with commercialisation likely to take more than 10 years. Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Ohmori said the talks with TerraPower are at an early stage and nothing has been decided. Small-sized reactors like the TWR would make a good fit for emerging markets, said Deutsche Securities analyst Takeo Miyamoto. “If you put a regular reactor like the one used in Japan in some emerging nations, that could sometimes create overcapacity and make it difficult to back that reactor up when you take the unit off line for maintenance,” Miyamato said. “There would be demand for this type of reactor in newly developing countries,” he said. Shares of Toshiba gained 4.7% to ¥471. The benchmark Nikkei average fell 0.4%. Toshiba, which owns US nuclear firm Westinghouse, has already developed a design for an ultra-compact reactor, known as the Super-Safe, Small and Simple (4S) and designed to operate continuously for 30 years. Toshiba plans to start construction in the United States on its first 4S reactor by 2014 after receiving regulatory approval. The reactor would have output capacity of 10,000 kilowatts. Toshiba anticipates that that about 80% of the technologies used in its 4S reactor can be applied to TWRs, which will likely be comparable to many of today’s reactors with output ranging from 100,000 to 1 million kilowatts,the Nikkei said. One hurdle for commercialisation of TWRs is the development of materials that can withstand nuclear reactions for such long periods of time. Separately, Toshiba said it had decided to start construction of its fifth NAND flash memory plant in Mie, central Japan, in reaction to a recovery in demand, driven in part by the growing popularity of smartphones. Toshiba said it has not yet decided on the scale of the investment or output capacity. The Nikkei reported last month that Toshiba would spend about ¥800 billion ($8.9 billion) on the plant. Toshiba had originally planned to start building the factory in the spring of 2009 and for it to be completed this year, but it put the project on hold due to the industrywide slump. Rivals Samsung Electronics Co and SanDisk Corp have also recently become more upbeat on the chip market. “The flash memory industry is in an extremely tight spot right now, and makers simply cannot catch up with demand, as Apple gobbles up the bulk of the supply,” said Kazutaka Oshima, president of Rakuten Investment Management. “The supply shortfall is such that some makers even have to buy semiconductors from other makers from the spot market to satisfy their supply obligations.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 11:11 pm Toshiba eyes Gates nuclear alliance, chip plantTokyo: Japan’s Toshiba Corp said it is in talks with a company backed by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to jointly develop advanced nuclear reactors, helping push Toshiba’s stock up nearly 5%. Separately, Toshiba announced that it would restart plans to build a NAND flash memory factory due to a recovery in demand. It will start construction on the plant in July and begin production in early 2011. Toshiba said it was in talks with the Gates-backed firm TerraPower to develop so-called travelling-wave reactors (TWRs), which are designed to use depleted uranium as fuel and thought to hold the promise of running up to 100 years without refuelling. That compares with conventional light-water reactors, which require refuelling once every several years. The Nikkei newspaper, which first reported the news earlier on Tuesday, said Gates could invest several hundred billion yen (several billion dollars) of his own money in the project, with commercialisation likely to take more than 10 years. Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Ohmori said the talks with TerraPower are at an early stage and nothing has been decided. Small-sized reactors like the TWR would make a good fit for emerging markets, said Deutsche Securities analyst Takeo Miyamoto. “If you put a regular reactor like the one used in Japan in some emerging nations, that could sometimes create overcapacity and make it difficult to back that reactor up when you take the unit off line for maintenance,” Miyamato said. “There would be demand for this type of reactor in newly developing countries,” he said. Shares of Toshiba gained 4.7% to ¥471. The benchmark Nikkei average fell 0.4%. Toshiba, which owns US nuclear firm Westinghouse, has already developed a design for an ultra-compact reactor, known as the Super-Safe, Small and Simple (4S) and designed to operate continuously for 30 years. Toshiba plans to start construction in the United States on its first 4S reactor by 2014 after receiving regulatory approval. The reactor would have output capacity of 10,000 kilowatts. Toshiba anticipates that that about 80% of the technologies used in its 4S reactor can be applied to TWRs, which will likely be comparable to many of today’s reactors with output ranging from 100,000 to 1 million kilowatts,the Nikkei said. One hurdle for commercialisation of TWRs is the development of materials that can withstand nuclear reactions for such long periods of time. Separately, Toshiba said it had decided to start construction of its fifth NAND flash memory plant in Mie, central Japan, in reaction to a recovery in demand, driven in part by the growing popularity of smartphones. Toshiba said it has not yet decided on the scale of the investment or output capacity. The Nikkei reported last month that Toshiba would spend about ¥800 billion ($8.9 billion) on the plant. Toshiba had originally planned to start building the factory in the spring of 2009 and for it to be completed this year, but it put the project on hold due to the industrywide slump. Rivals Samsung Electronics Co and SanDisk Corp have also recently become more upbeat on the chip market. “The flash memory industry is in an extremely tight spot right now, and makers simply cannot catch up with demand, as Apple gobbles up the bulk of the supply,” said Kazutaka Oshima, president of Rakuten Investment Management. “The supply shortfall is such that some makers even have to buy semiconductors from other makers from the spot market to satisfy their supply obligations.” Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 11:11 pm Honda Motor sees boosting sales in India, southeast AsiaTokyo: Honda expects the quick economic recoveries in southeast Asia and India to boost sales even as the automaker lags overall growth in these markets, an executive said on Tuesday. Fumihiko Ike, a Honda Motor Co. executive overseeing Asian markets, excluding China and Japan, said recovery from the global financial crisis that hit late 2008 was coming much faster than expected in India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and other nations in the region. But Honda’s offerings remain mainly aimed at the relatively wealthy, even with a low-priced model targeting Asian buyers that’s expected to go on sale next year. “All automakers will be coming out with products targeting this market,” Ike told reporters at Honda’s Tokyo headquarters. “Our brand image is high, and targets the relatively wealthy.” Honda has fallen behind rivals such as Hyundai Motor Co. of South Korea and Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. in Asian markets. Hyundai especially is seeing enormous growth in emerging markets, outselling Honda in annual sales by about a million vehicles, Ike said. He stressed Honda will stick to its policy of going at it alone, rather than seeking alliances with rivals to boost sales. Alliances are seen as a way to cut costs by sharing parts, boost model lineup and reducing technology development expenses. The key to survival in the industry amid intensifying competition is instead efficiency, and that’s difficult to maintain when automakers from differing backgrounds get together, Ike said. Japanese rival Suzuki Motor Co., a major player in India, has recently announced an alliance with Volkswagen AG, where one advantage is in sharing development costs for green technology. Ike acknowledged Honda won’t have models targeting car buyers in India until next year but the country’s growth would be so great Honda can’t help but see sales growth. “The absolute numbers will be enormous,” he said of the growth expected in India. “They will translate into the equivalent of several southeast Asian nations.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 11:07 pm Honda Motor sees boosting sales in India, southeast AsiaTokyo: Honda expects the quick economic recoveries in southeast Asia and India to boost sales even as the automaker lags overall growth in these markets, an executive said on Tuesday. Fumihiko Ike, a Honda Motor Co. executive overseeing Asian markets, excluding China and Japan, said recovery from the global financial crisis that hit late 2008 was coming much faster than expected in India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and other nations in the region. But Honda’s offerings remain mainly aimed at the relatively wealthy, even with a low-priced model targeting Asian buyers that’s expected to go on sale next year. “All automakers will be coming out with products targeting this market,” Ike told reporters at Honda’s Tokyo headquarters. “Our brand image is high, and targets the relatively wealthy.” Honda has fallen behind rivals such as Hyundai Motor Co. of South Korea and Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. in Asian markets. Hyundai especially is seeing enormous growth in emerging markets, outselling Honda in annual sales by about a million vehicles, Ike said. He stressed Honda will stick to its policy of going at it alone, rather than seeking alliances with rivals to boost sales. Alliances are seen as a way to cut costs by sharing parts, boost model lineup and reducing technology development expenses. The key to survival in the industry amid intensifying competition is instead efficiency, and that’s difficult to maintain when automakers from differing backgrounds get together, Ike said. Japanese rival Suzuki Motor Co., a major player in India, has recently announced an alliance with Volkswagen AG, where one advantage is in sharing development costs for green technology. Ike acknowledged Honda won’t have models targeting car buyers in India until next year but the country’s growth would be so great Honda can’t help but see sales growth. “The absolute numbers will be enormous,” he said of the growth expected in India. “They will translate into the equivalent of several southeast Asian nations.” Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 11:07 pm Google stops China censorship, Beijing condemns moveGoogle stopped censoring Internet search results in China on Monday in a move that was hailed by rights groups but drew an angry reaction from the Chinese authorities. The Internet titan announced in a blog post it had shifted users of its Chinese-language search engine Google.cn to an uncensored site in Hong Kong. Factbox: Google's footprint in China Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:57 pm Mukherjee says to allow pvt firms issue infra bondsNEW DELHI (Reuters) – The government will allow private-sector firms to issue infrastructure bonds to raise funds for projects, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:56 pm RBI open to all options on 10-year bond issuesFinance ministry and central bank officials will meet on March 29 to decide on the borrowing calendar for the first half of 2010-11.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:44 pm Rupee gains 10 paise against dollar in early tradeForex dealers said the rupee strengthened against the US currency largely in line with other firming Asian currencies and dollar selling by banks and exporters.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:36 pm Sensex rises by 120 points in opening trade on global cuesThe Sensex recovered by over 120 points, 0.69%, in the opening trade today on fresh capital inflows from foreign funds amid moderate gains in global markets.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:21 pm Greatship India considers IPO route to raise funds - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:21 pm Rupee gains 10 paise against dollar in early tradeThe Indian rupee appreciated by 10 paise to 45.48 a dollar in early trade today on firm Asian currencies amid increased capital inflows by foreign funds into equities.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:19 pm IIM-I students' salary scales riseThe average annual salary package for students of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) here have risen by roughly by 16 per cent.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:17 pm Nissan eyes green tie-up with Daimler: reportJapan's Nissan Motor, under the control of France's Renault, is in talks with Germany's Daimler to procure large engines and cooperate on the development of green cars, a report said on Tuesday.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:04 pm Qatar offers more LNG to IndiaQatar has agreed to supply four million tonnes more of gas in ships (LNG or liquefied natural gas) to India but wants over $10 per unit, or more than double the $4.20 per unit price set by the government for fuel from the Andhra offshore field being operated by Reliance Industries Ltd.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 22 Mar 2010 | 6:28 pm GDP to grow at 8.5% in 2010-11, says PranabThe country has successfully overcome the effect of the global economic slowdown and the GDP is expected to grow at 8.5% during fiscal 2010-11, plus or minus 0.25%, said Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 22 Mar 2010 | 6:28 pm New leaf: India starts PC exportsThis could be the beginning of India's efforts to cut seriously into a space - PC exports - that has been dominated by China, Taiwan and some South East Asian countries.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 22 Mar 2010 | 6:27 pm India a growth engine for MothercareSome 24 million (240 lakh) babies are born in India per annum, much more than 7 lakh births in UK global retailer $1.5 billion Mothercares home country.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 22 Mar 2010 | 6:26 pm HNI contribution to society is lowThere are accidental philanthropists as well. When New York-based hedge fund manager Michael Pollack was caught in the crossfire during 26/11, he did what mortals do - make a pact with god.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 22 Mar 2010 | 6:24 pm IT companies stuck in 'cost-cutter' rut, 'curbing next leap'The success of top Indian IT services firms like Infosys and TCS may prevent them from achieving the next level of growth, according to Forrester Research.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 22 Mar 2010 | 3:26 pm Infosys to revive eastern India planInfosys already has a development centre in Software Technology Park at Bhubaneshwar, set up in 2000, which now employs about 3,000 software engineers.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 22 Mar 2010 | 3:22 pm Spike in capital costs hurts full service carriersThis is in stark contrast to the situation a few years back when FSCs were trying to push budget airlines out of the market by offering fares that were at par or lower than those of the LCCs on certain routes.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 22 Mar 2010 | 3:20 pm Google ends censorship of Chinese search engineGoogle announced on Monday that it has stopped censoring its Chinese-language search engine Google.cn.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 2:28 pm SC bars Reddy brothers' company from mining in BellaryThe Supreme Court today stayed all further mining activities of Obulapuram Mining Corporation in Andhra Pradesh, belonging to Karnataka minister G Janardhana Reddy and his brother.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 1:30 pm Russia offers N-fuel fabrication, uranium JV, India reluctantIndia and Russia may have discussed far-reaching nuclear and defence cooperation behind the closed doors of Hyderabad House during Vladimir Putins visit on March 12. But according to sources in both establishments, the Russian offer, still being kept under wraps in India, was almost not signed during Putins visit.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 1:28 pm Sahara mulls IPO for new IPL teamLondon soccer team, industrialists want minority stakes, says promoter.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 1:27 pm IPOs to follow IPL: Three teams may sell stakeAt least three of the 10 teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) are planning initial public offerings (IPO) or other forms of stake sales of their clubs. Sources tracking the IPL said they expected a lot of fresh investment activity in the coming months. Gaurav Choudhury reports.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 1:08 pm IPL brand value doubles to $4.13 billion: Brand FinanceQuickfire cricket format Indian Premier League's brand value has more than doubled to $4.13 billion (over Rs 18,000 crore), while Chennai Super Kings has emerged the most valued franchise this year, says a study.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 12:10 pm eBay chief takes home 55 pc less pay in 2009Online marketplace eBay's chief executive John Donahoe took home total pay of $10.1 million in 2009, a 55 per cent drop compared to the compensation received in the previous year.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 11:58 am Citi South Asia head Robinson quits, to join ANZMumbai: Chief executive officer (CEO) of Citi South Asia, Mark T. Robinson, has decided to quit. A senior Citibank official with knowledge of the development said Robinson has put in his papers and is expected to join Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) to head its South Asian operations. The official did not want to be named, citing the sensitivity of the issue.  New endeavour: Mark T. Robinson, a 25-year veteran of Citibank, is expected to head ANZ’s South Asian operations. Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint An email sent to Paul Edwards, group general manager, corporate communications, ANZ, on Robinson’s possible appointment as the South Asia head did not elicit any response. The 25-year Citi veteran’s resignation comes a little over a year after he took over the reins of Citibank NA’s Indian unit from Sanjay Nayar in February last year. Nayar had left the firm to join US-based private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. (KKR) as chief executive and India country head. Robinson was the first foreign-origin CEO of Citi India in nine years. He has been with Citi since 1984. Before his India assignment, Robinson was president of Citibank ZAO, Citi country officer for Russia and division head for Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. ANZ has recently received the Reserve Bank of India’s approval to set up operations in India and offer retail and wholesale banking services. ANZ, which had exited India in 2000 after selling its Grindlays Bank unit to Standard Chartered Plc for $1.34 billion (around Rs6100 crore today), has been trying to re-establish its presence since 2006 as the bank’s senior management has constantly reiterated the importance of setting up operations in India to pursue its objective of being a “super regional bank” focused on Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:54 am RIM launches BlackBerry Storm smartphone in IndiaLeading designer, manufacturer and marketer of BlackBerry moblies, Research In Motion (RIM), has launched its latest smartphone version, BlackBerry Storm2, in India. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:51 am Panel recommends Coke not be allowed to resume operationsIn a major setback to Coca Cola, a Kerala government panel on Monday said the soft drinks giant must pay Rs 216.26 crore as compensation for the "multi-sectoral" loss caused by its plant in Palakkad and recommended that the dysfunctional unit not be allowed to resume operations as it is located in a drought-prone area. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:31 am Accessibility for all could be a future business model for someNew Delhi: George Abraham is an angry man. “Why is it,” he asks rhetorically, “that I can’t issue a cheque without having it countersigned by another person? Or buy a railway ticket without wasting hours at a station?”  Technology matters: George Abraham with his computer and mobile phone, specially made for the blind.Pradeep Gaur/Mint Similar sentiments are repeated across India’s disabled community. At a time when information technology and communications systems are becoming more sophisticated, and electronic devices are proliferating, this 60-million-strong population finds itself increasingly isolated. In India, few of the new systems in the market have accessibility features that allow the visually, hearing or motor disabled to use them. “Technologies of the 1980s and 1990s like DOS (disk operating system)-based systems were character based,” says Kiran Kaja of the UK-based Royal National Institute of Blind People. “It was easy to provide accessibility in them, but current systems are very different.” Touchscreen interfaces come without voice recognition technologies that the blind need; mobile phones are shrinking in size, making it difficult for people with motor disabilities to use them; remote controls have no standardization, requiring disabled users to familiarize themselves with each anew; and most Indian websites aren’t designed to work with screen reading software. As a result, while life has become simpler for the “normal” population, the disabled find themselves facing new obstacles. The problem, according to Javed Abidi, one of the country’s best-known disability activists, is neither technological nor financial but, “lies in a lack of awareness and in blinkered mindsets”. Companies that sell products with built-in accessibility features abroad don’t market them here. “In countries like the US,” he says, “there are laws, section 508 for example, that lay down accessibility standards. We need something similar here.” That already seems to be happening. In 2009, the National Informatics Centre came out with the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites that require all 6,000 or so government websites to adhere to strict accessibility guidelines. These sites now need to have alternative text for all images, icons where possible and need to limit the use of embedded applications that don’t allow screen reader access, etc. A number of government websites are now completely accessible. “Change has been slower coming to corporate sites,” says Shilpi Kapoor of BarrierBreak Technologies, a Mumbai-based accessibility consulting firm, “but the guidelines have been a great first step towards creating awareness”. A National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility is also on the drawing board. The ministry of social justice and empowerment, department of information technology, companies such as Microsoft Corp. and disability experts like Abidi and Kapoor have been involved in drafting it. Industry organizations such as Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry provided suggestions. The policy, which will be released in a few months, lays down accessibility standards for information and communication technologies and electronics. The drafting committee has decided to keep the policy recommendatory. “It’s a strategic decision,” says Abidi. The idea, at least initially, is to create basic standards and make manufacturers aware of them. Implementing these standards is going to involve costs of redesigning and standardizing products, a process that Abidi says is “complicated; and the procedures for which are best evolved gradually”. The advocacy of the last few years has in the meantime already started paying off. A handful of companies have realized the market potential of accessibility and they’re reworking their technologies and business models. They acknowledge that the returns on their investments are not going to materialize anytime soon, but see their efforts as a long-term investment in broadening their markets. Anil U. Joshi, programme director of IBM Corp.’s India human ability and accessibility group, is almost evangelical about the opportunities the new sector holds. “It’s a myth,” he says, “that accessibility is a niche or low-income market.” Neither does he believe that accessibility is only about the disabled. “Not knowing a language is a disability,” he points out. “The elderly and those with low literacy also suffer from disabilities similar to those of the disabled.” Disabilities, Joshi believes, are graded. Instead of viewing accessibility features as a corporate social responsibility add-on to their products, companies need to start looking at their products as catering to various degrees of ability. “There’s a great demand out there for more accessible products,” he says. IBM India has been working on a series of enhanced accessibility products over the last few years, most of which serve multiple purposes. Their Hindi speech recognition technology can be used for educating people with disabilities, and finds application in making ATMs more accessible. It’s currently also been licensed to the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing for transcribing parliamentary speeches. The spoken Web is an effort to create the voice equivalent of the Internet. It consists of a series of voice sites that are created by users over a telephone. These sites can be linked to each other, indexed and searched. People with visual disabilities or low levels of literacy can easily create and browse these sites. The project has been tested in a few villages in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, where it’s been immensely successful. A similar realization is taking place at Yahoo India, where a five-member accessibility team has been working to change the “developer’s mindset”. “Building accessible sites is about going back to the basics,” says Subramanyam Murali, content engineer at the company. “It’s about building functionalities first and then adding the enhancements.” The separation of basic functionality and enhancements has not only made their sites more dynamic, but has “significantly” reduced the bandwidth they require. “It does take an additional 10% effort to design an accessible site,” states Murali, “but it pays off in the long term”. The engineers at Yahoo have also introduced captioning for video on their site, made sure that colour-coded elements on the site are accompanied by text, and created user interface components that comply with the accessible rich Internet applications standards of the World Wide Web Consortium. According to Murali, most Yahoo sites are now screen reader friendly. “Working with assistive technologies has become cool,” he says, smiling. Changes have also made their way to banks and ATM manufacturers, although with a nudge from the Reserve Bank of India, which recently put out a guideline that requires 30% of new ATMs to be accessible. Rakesh Aulaya, spokesperson for NCR Corp., which manufactures ATMs with audio start-up and guide menus, Braille keypads and voice recognition technologies, says that the roll-out so far has been small since banks need to upgrade their software to use these ATMs. But he expects a significant increase in demand over the next few years. “For banks the costs involved are small,” he says, “but the benefits will be high.” Manufacturers associations have supported the introduction of accessibility guidelines, even though they’re unsure about its affordability. “The costs (and returns) of accessibility will vary widely from industry to industry,” says Vinnie Mehta, executive director of the Manufacturers Association for Information Technology. “Larger companies may not require subsidies, but for others government subsidies will be important.” It will be a while before electronic accessibility becomes common, but Abraham agrees that things are improving. Cricket coverage might not have changed, but television channels such as Star Movies and Zee Studio have started subtitling some of their films, and My Name is Khan has become the first Bollywood film to be released with Hindi audio descriptions for the visually challenged. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 9:01 am Facebook co-founder to launch cause-based social networking siteNew Delhi: At 26, Chris Hughes’s list of claims to fame is a lot weightier than the usual quarter-lifer. For one thing, the Harvard graduate co-founded Facebook. For another he’s earned a reputation for being the big guns behind My.BarackObama.com, the online organizing site for Obama’s 2008 presidential candidacy. Now Hughes has his sights set on a new project: what he describes as “an online platform to connect individuals and organizations working to change the world.” His aim is to create a social network that will provide people “with information and opportunities for meaningful action tailored specifically to who they are.” Named Jumo, which means together in concert” in Yoruba, a West African language, the site is expected to fully launch in September or October. Hughes is currently collecting email addresses along with information about the personal preferences of users – ranging from which car they like best to where they are most likely to be on a Sunday. How this will translate into customized opportunities to do good remains to be seen. For now, Hughes’s new venture has already received a large amount of interest. Jumo’s Facebook page, which was launched last week, already has well over 6000 fans — a base that’s steadily building. Jumo is establishing an office in Soho, New York this week and is currently hiring. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 6:48 am ANZ looks to Asia’s rich to fuel growthHong Kong: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group said it will focus on expanding its wealth management business in Asia, eyeing the region’s fast-growing ranks of newly wealthy over broader market share. ANZ would also complete its purchase of Royal Bank of Scotland’s Taiwan unit next month and RBS’s Singapore unit by May, Alex Thursby, chief executive for Asia, said on Monday. “We’re not a high market share player,” Thursby told reporters in a group interview. “Our proposition is built around the top end of the retail banking market. We want the affluent, the emerging affluent space of the retail banking business.” The company said earlier that it had completed its acquisition of RBS’s retail and commercial businesses in Hong Kong, a process it started in August last year to expand its operations across Asia. The acquisitions were part of ANZ’s broader goal of generating a fifth of its revenue in Asia by 2012, a goal Thursby said was still on track with about 14% currently coming from Asia. He added that ANZ was not actively seeking acquisitions in China and the region, focusing instead on growing organically by targeting clients with cross-border banking needs. “We’re not looking to spray everywhere with 54 branches in 54 cities,” said Thursby. “I’ve been a huge believer of organic growth in China, and not buying businesses and not inheriting other people’s issues.” He said ANZ would open a branch in the western Chinese city of Chongqing by the end of the year, and another two branches each in Vietnam and Indonesia within the next two years. In China, ANZ owns 20% of Tianjin City Commercial Bank through a number of strategic partnerships, and 20% of Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank. Unable to compete against deeply entrenched local players in the retail banking space and against private banks in the private banking space, many foreign banks are looking to the wealth management to enter the fast-growing Asian region. Asia is home to 234 billionaires, Forbes magazine said earlier this month, with a combined total net worth almost doubling from a year earlier to $729 billion. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 6:27 am Google may reveal Chinese search engine closure today: ReportLondon: Internet major Google could reveal today the closure of its Chinese search engine, says a media report. In January, Google had said the company was no longer willing to censor its Chinese search and even threatened to pull out of China. “Google could reveal as early as Monday the closure of its Chinese search engine and its plan for the rest of its China operations,” UK daily the Financial Times reported today quoting a person familiar with the situation. The report said the search engine could terminate all its business activities in China. “This would include closing down both its joint venture running Google.cn and its wholly-owned research subsidiary. “More than 300 engineers and another 300 local sales staff in Beijing and Guangzhou would lose their jobs,” the publication noted. As per the report, a complete pull-out by Google would indicate a failure to reach even a basic compromise with the Chinese government. “This could result in a political stand-off, heightening the risk that Beijing could block or disrupt access to google.com within China,” it added. The Financial Times said that a different scenario could see Google maintain a sizeable presence in China. The Internet major could keep its research staff in the country and continue to build search features suited to Chinese Internet users, according to the report. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 5:10 am Shell, Petrochina in agreed $3.1 bn Arrow takeoverMelbourne: Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina convinced Arrow Energy to accept an increased $3.1 billion bid, giving resource-hungry China its first bite of Australia’s burgeoning coal-seam gas industry. The offer, which needs approval from Australian regulators and Arrow shareholders, highlights the growing importance of coal seam gas (CSG) as a key source of energy in the United States and a major target for multinationals in Australia since 2008. In addition to A$4.70 a share in cash, Arrow investors will retain ownership of some domestic and international assets which will be spun out into a new entity to be called Dart Energy. The Shell-Petrochina joint venture will integrate Arrow’s Australian assets with Shell’s existing CSG assets and Shell’s site for a planned Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant on Curtis Island, Queensland, the companies said on Monday. Shell and PetroChina will each own 50% of the gas produced by the LNG plant and the Anglo-Dutch oil major said it was likely to sell its gas to China. Analysts said it made strategic sense for Shell to boost its Australian coal seam gas assets, as it has said such assets are key to its growth plans. The price offered for Arrow was also below what some analysts expected the jv would have to pay. However, with Shell declining to say how much each side was contributing to the bid, or what valuation would be attached to Shell’s assets, analysts said it was unclear exactly how good a deal it was for Europe’s largest oil company by market value. Arrow’s agreement followed two weeks of talks after Shell and PetroChina made an initial offer that investors considered too low. “I can tell you, it was not an easy discussion,” Shell’s local chairman, Russell Caplan, told reporters. Shell’s London-listed “A” shares traded down 0.9% at 0936 GMT, while the sector was down 1.3%. Regulatory Hurdle The deal needs approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board, which is likely to scrutinise it closely after regulators said they wanted to cap state-owned companies’ stakes in Australia’s top resource firms to 15%. The fresh offer came as four employees of mining group Rio Tinto stood trial in China, in a case that has strained Sino-Australian relations in recent months. Arrow Energy shares fell 3.6%, their biggest daily fall in month. The bid was pitched at a 35% premium to Arrow’s last trade ahead of 8 March, when the first offer of A$4.45 a share for the Australian assets was announced. But it was not as high as the A$5 a share that some analysts had expected. Fund managers said it would have been tough for Arrow to press for much more or look for a white knight, because Shell already owns 30% of Arrow’s Australian assets. “The difficulty ... is that there probably aren’t any other bidders, so Shell aren’t compelled to pay the highest prices that people have seen for similar assets in the market over the past 12 months,” said Tim Schroeders, a portfolio manager at Pengana Capital, which does not own Arrow shares. Arrow Energy managing director Nick Davies told reporters he was “reasonably confident” shareholders would approve the revised offer. Shell’s Caplan said he was “pretty confident” of winning Australian approval for the deal, adding circumstances were very different from when the government blocked Shell’s bid for Woodside Petroleum in 2001. The bidders’ plug for the deal is that it brings financial clout, top technology and a secure market to back a multibillion dollar LNG project that will create jobs, “all of which should be a pretty compelling story for the authorities,” Caplan said. Arrow’s biggest shareholder, New Hope Corp, with a 17% stake, had no immediate comment on the bid. For investors who wanted cash upfront, mostly hedge funds who piled in expecting a bigger offer, the deal was disappointing. “But at the end of the day, this is a better offer than the increase in cash would suggest,” Macquarie analyst Adrian Wood said. Rather than getting much more for its Australian reserves, Arrow extracted more for the international spin-off by making Shell give up its rights to a 50% stake in the offshore arm and securing A$45 million in funds for the business. Dart Energy will hold Arrow’s international coal seam gas exploration assets in China, Indonesia, India and Vietnam as well as its stakes in BOW Energy, Apollo Gas and LNG Ltd. Arrow previously valued the international exploration assets at 55 cents a share. At that price, the new offer would be worth A$5.25 a share in total. “In a nutshell, we believe this creates value now and value for the future,” Chairman John Reynolds told reporters. Coal seam gas, or natural gas trapped in coal beds, has attracted global energy companies to Australia looking to export supplies to energy-hungry Asian countries, such as China. Arrow was advised by UBS and Citi. Shell and PetroChina were advised by Rothschild and Morgan Stanley. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 4:41 am Web inventor to lead British research instituteLondon: Britain’s prime minister says the scientist credited with inventing the World Wide Web will lead a new Internet research institute. Tim Berners Lee, who developed a prototype Internet in 1990, will head up Britain’s Institute of Web Science. The institute, which has been given 30 million pounds ($45 million) funding will aim to help Britain develop 250,000 new jobs in the technology sector. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday it will put Britain at the cutting edge of “emerging Web and Internet technologies.” He said the institute would work on opening up government data for public use, such as developing smartphone apps, or interactive maps. Brown pledged to ensure all Britons have access to high-speed broadband by 2020. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 4:22 am
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