|
|
|
|
See 2530% topline growth in FY11: DQ EntertainmentIn an interview with CNBCTV18, Tapas Chakraborti, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DQ Entertainment, spoke about his outlook for the company.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 8:42 am Prism Cement posts FY10 net sales of Rs 251crPrism Cement Ltd has earned a net profit of Rs 251 crore on a net sales of Rs 2840 crore for year ended March 31, 2010Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 8:23 am Kirloskar unit buys 90% stake in S.African firmKirloskar Brothers Ltd said on Thursday the company through its unit Kirloskar Brothers International B.V., Netherlands, has acquired 90% shares of South African company BraybarSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 8:05 am Shopper\'s Stop plans Rs 3 bn QIP in 69 monthsRetailer Shopper\'s Stop is planning to raise Rs 3 billion via a share sale to qualified institutional investors in 69 months, its Vice Chairman BS Nagesh said on Wednesday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 8:05 am Sugar prices could dip further, says Barclays CapitalSudakshina Unnikrishnan of Barclays Capital says sugar prices are likely to dip further from the current levels.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 7:35 am Hindustan Motors: What led to networth erosion?In an exclusive interview to CNBCTV18, TES Vardhan, Group CFO of CK Birla Grou, speaks about what has led to a huge networth erosion for Hindustan Motors.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 6:26 am Orchid Chem signs licensing pact with AlvogenOrchid Chemicals Pharmaceuticals Ltd said on Wednesday it has signed an outlicensing and distribution deal with USbased Alvogen for marketing the Indian company\'s eight oral nonantibiotic formulations in USSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 6:22 am Jagran Prakashan to acquire MidDay\'s print biz: SourcesJagran Prakashan plans to acquire the MidDay\'s print business, reports CNBCTV18, quoting sources. It is likely to pay Rs 200 crore for the same.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 6:12 am Govt invites banks to manage Engineers share saleThe government has invited bids from banks for managing a followon share sale in staterun Engineers India Ltd that is expected to raise up to USD 270 million.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 5:29 am Cement price to stabilise in coming weeks: HeidelbergAshish Guha, MD, Heidelberg says that cement market is expected to stabilise with a positive bias in the coming weeks.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 5:23 am European Stocks Fall on Greece Contagion Concern; Futures Rise - Bloomberg
Source: Business - Google News | 5 May 2010 | 3:58 am Allianz first quarter operating profit rises by a fifthEurope's biggest insurer said operating profit in its main money spinner, property and casualty insurance, was below that of the first quarter of 2009.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:58 am Indian companies M&A deals touch $1.7 bn in AprilNew Delhi: Indian companies’ merger and acquisition deal activity stood at $1.74 billion in April taking the total M&A kitty so far this year to $21 billion. According to the monthly deal report of VCCEdge, the financial research platform of VCCircle.com, the M&A deal value during April stood at $1.74 billion rose 57% over the same period last year. The deal count also witnessed an upward trend and increased to 49 in April compared to 28 in the year-ago period. “On a month on month basis deal value in Apr’10 was substantially lower than that in Mar’10. In terms of deal value, the monthly activity began with slow momentum in February, accelerated in March to reach $14.1 billion. However, this pace could not be maintained and activity recorded a dip at $1.74 billion in April,” the report said. The month of April saw as many as 25 domestic deals worth $815 million, compared to 13 deals worth $603 million in the year-ago period, the report said. Besides, the number of outbound deals more than doubled from eight in April 2009 to 18 this year, the number of inbound deals although remained almost unchanged with five deals in April this year as against seven deals witnessed last year during the same time. Larger deals ($50 million and above) continued their dominance and accounted for 87% of total capital invested in April 2010. DLF- DLF Assets deal, where the country’s one of the largest listed real estate firm DLF hiked its stake in a group company, DLF Assets, to 91.9% for $694 million, was the largest transaction for the month. Apart from the DLF deal, some of the other major M&A transactions in April include Jindal Steel & Power $500 million buyout of Abu Dhabi-based Shadeed Iron & Steel Co and Godrej Consumer Products’ acquisition of Indonesia based PT Megasari Mamsur for $269 million. Meanwhile, a sector wise analysis shows that finance, manufacturing and consumer goods were the most targeted sectors, as these segments attracted deals worth $694 million, $526 million and $303 million, respectively. In terms of deal volume, the most active sector was information technology, which cornered 10 deals followed by consumer goods maker and manufacturing with eight deals each in April 2010. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 3:42 am Gayatri projects bags order worth Rs 2200cr in AP - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 5 May 2010 | 3:40 am Allianz Q1 operating profit rises by a fifthMUNICH (Reuters) - Allianz's operating profit rose by about a fifth to 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in the first quarter thanks to a strong performance in life and health insurance and asset management.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:37 am India to reverse steps but keep control on sugar - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 5 May 2010 | 3:30 am Nifty lingers near 5100; Sterlite, Cairn decline - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 5 May 2010 | 3:29 am Calm U.S. Gulf weather aids spill fight, for nowVENICE, La. (Reuters) - Oil spill workers raced against time in the Gulf of Mexico, hoping to seize on at least one more day of calm in their fight to contain a huge and growing slick before winds turn against them.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:28 am Prism Cement posts FY10 net sales of Rs2.51 billionPrism Cement Ltd has earned a net profit of Rs2.51 billion on a net sales of Rs28.4 billion.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:25 am World stocks hit 8-week low on euro zone worriesThe European Union and International Monetary Fund agreed a 110 billion aid package for Greece at the weekend, but the promise has failed to calm markets.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:20 am Greeks strike against austerity as markets sinkATHENS (Reuters) - Private and public sector workers staged a general strike against Greece's austerity plans on Wednesday, testing the government's determination to carry out draconian budget cuts in exchange for billions in aid.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:18 am SocGen trumps Q1 estimates, sees 2010 reboundPARIS (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale beat forecasts for first-quarter profit, helped by investment banking, and predicted a lasting rebound in 2010.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:15 am ECB Weber - Euro zone faces serious Greek contagion riskBERLIN (Reuters) - There is a serious threat of Greece's problems spilling over to other parts of the euro zone, European Central Bank Governing Council member Axel Weber said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:14 am Hypercity plans to open 3-5 malls in Mumbai this fiscalThe company has obtained an in-principle approval for its QIP of around Rs300 crore.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:12 am Govt to earn Rs 1,000 crore from SJVNL IPO at issue priceThe government will realise over Rs 1,000 crore through stake sale in SJVNL--its first disinvestment this fiscal--at the issue price of Rs 26 a share. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 3:10 am Harvard Business School Names Dean - Wall Street Journal
Source: Business - Google News | 5 May 2010 | 3:10 am ABRL to open 10 hypermarkets, up to 100 supermarkets in FY’11Mumbai: Aditya Birla Retail (ABRL) plans to open 10 hypermarkets and up to 100 supermarkets this fiscal, a top company official said on Wednesday. “We plan to open 10 hypermarkets and up to 100 supermarkets this fiscal,” Aditya Birla Retail’s CEO Thomas Varghese told reporters here. “We expect to break-even by 2013,” he added. The Aditya Birla Group runs its retail business under the brand-name ‘more´. The hypermarkets will come up in existing metros like Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, while the supermarkets will come up in Tier II cities, he added. The investment per hypermarket would be around Rs16 crore, while it would be Rs40 lakh per supermarket, Varghese said. At present, Aditya Birla Retail has 540 supermarkets and six hypermarkets. With the 10 new hypermarkets, ABRL will attain the number two position in the hypermarket segment, he said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 3:10 am ABRL to open 10 hypermarkets, up to 100 supermarkets in FY’11Mumbai: Aditya Birla Retail (ABRL) plans to open 10 hypermarkets and up to 100 supermarkets this fiscal, a top company official said on Wednesday. “We plan to open 10 hypermarkets and up to 100 supermarkets this fiscal,” Aditya Birla Retail’s CEO Thomas Varghese told reporters here. “We expect to break-even by 2013,” he added. The Aditya Birla Group runs its retail business under the brand-name ‘more´. The hypermarkets will come up in existing metros like Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, while the supermarkets will come up in Tier II cities, he added. The investment per hypermarket would be around Rs16 crore, while it would be Rs40 lakh per supermarket, Varghese said. At present, Aditya Birla Retail has 540 supermarkets and six hypermarkets. With the 10 new hypermarkets, ABRL will attain the number two position in the hypermarket segment, he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 3:10 am Indian companies M&A deals touch $1.7 bn in AprilNew Delhi: Indian companies’ merger and acquisition deal activity stood at $1.74 billion in April taking the total M&A kitty so far this year to $21 billion. According to the monthly deal report of VCCEdge, the financial research platform of VCCircle.com, the M&A deal value during April stood at $1.74 billion rose 57% over the same period last year. The deal count also witnessed an upward trend and increased to 49 in April compared to 28 in the year-ago period. “On a month on month basis deal value in Apr’10 was substantially lower than that in Mar’10. In terms of deal value, the monthly activity began with slow momentum in February, accelerated in March to reach $14.1 billion. However, this pace could not be maintained and activity recorded a dip at $1.74 billion in April,” the report said. The month of April saw as many as 25 domestic deals worth $815 million, compared to 13 deals worth $603 million in the year-ago period, the report said. Besides, the number of outbound deals more than doubled from eight in April 2009 to 18 this year, the number of inbound deals although remained almost unchanged with five deals in April this year as against seven deals witnessed last year during the same time. Larger deals ($50 million and above) continued their dominance and accounted for 87% of total capital invested in April 2010. DLF- DLF Assets deal, where the country’s one of the largest listed real estate firm DLF hiked its stake in a group company, DLF Assets, to 91.9% for $694 million, was the largest transaction for the month. Apart from the DLF deal, some of the other major M&A transactions in April include Jindal Steel & Power $500 million buyout of Abu Dhabi-based Shadeed Iron & Steel Co and Godrej Consumer Products’ acquisition of Indonesia based PT Megasari Mamsur for $269 million. Meanwhile, a sector wise analysis shows that finance, manufacturing and consumer goods were the most targeted sectors, as these segments attracted deals worth $694 million, $526 million and $303 million, respectively. In terms of deal volume, the most active sector was information technology, which cornered 10 deals followed by consumer goods maker and manufacturing with eight deals each in April 2010. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 3:10 am S&P says markets more pessimistic on Greece than it isFRANKFURT (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's is not as pessimistic about the chance of Greek default as markets at the moment, but the EU/IMF aid package does not remove the risks facing the country permanently, a senior company official said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:08 am 74K MW power capacity to be added in XIth Plan: ShindeNew Delhi: The government today said that the power generation capacity addition in the XI five-year plan, ending 2012, would be about 74,000 MW, close to the original target of 78,577 MW. “With best efforts, we would add about 12,000-13,000 MW power generation capacity over the likely addition of 62,000 MW in the current five-year plan. This would be at 74,000 MW near to the original target of electricity generation capacity of 78,577 MW,” power minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters at a Ficci conference on energy efficiency. Earlier in its mid-term review, the Planning Commission had reduced power generation capacity addition target by over 20% to 62,374 MW for the current plan period from the original 78,577 MW. In the mid term appraisal report, the Plan panel had stated: “It is anticipated that additional power generation capacity of 45,234MW can be commissioned during the remaining period of the XIth Plan, noting that 19,207 MW capacity was added till 31 December 2009.” Shinde further said, “I purposely took the power generation capacity addition target of 78,577 in XIth Plan considering Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s announcement of ‘power to all´ by March 2012.” “I could have taken 50,000 MW as the target. But we took the challenge and added over 22,000 MW as on today during the first three years of the current five-year plan. I have two years in hand,” he said. During the 10th Plan, 21,080 MW was added against the target of 41,000 MW. Addressing the conference, the minister also said, “The CDM executive board has approved our ‘Bachat Lamp Yojana´ under which incandescent bulbs are replaced by energy efficient CFLs at a cost of Rs15 only.” The CDM is an international organisation for approval of carbon credit projects under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The replacement of all incandescent bulbs in the country is expected to result in saving of 6,000 MW power. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 3:07 am ANALYSIS - Oil spill costs mount for US economy, companies - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 5 May 2010 | 3:06 am Rupee trims fall as exporters step up dollar salesThe rupee retreated from a more-than-1-month low today as exporters sold dollars to take advantage of the sharp rise in the US unit but dollar's gains overseas and share losses continued to weigh.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 3:05 am IOC warns India of sanctions over new lawNew Delhi: The International Olympic Committee has warned India of potential sanctions over government interference in the running of national sports federations. The IOC said autonomy is the fundamental principle in the Olympic Charter and any external interference could result in India’s exclusion from international sports events. Sports minister M.S. Gill said he has the backing of all political parties for proposed new regulations which would limit the tenure of administrators in national sports federations (NSFs) to 12 years. The proposal has been strongly opposed by leading sports officials including Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi, who has been in his position since 1996 and would be forced to retire after his current term if the new rules are enacted. The IOC in a 3 May letter to its Indian member Randhir Singh said the new rules “might regrettably expose the NOC (national Olympic committee) and the Olympic Movement in India to the protective measures and potential sanctions provided in the Olympic Charter.” As well as restricting chiefs of various sports federations to terms no longer than 12 years _ with or without a break the proposed Indian law would limit secretaries and treasurers to eight years, but they would have to take a four-year gap before going for re-election. The IOC said national Olympic committees’ internal operations, decision-making mechanisms, holding of meetings and election arrangements come under the exclusive remit of the NOC, in accordance with its statues and the Olympic Charter. “The same principle also applies to the NSFs.” Kalmadi and other NSF officials met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday to discuss the issue. “The PM told us that he will look into the matter and get back to us,” Kalmadi said. “If you fiddle with the autonomy, you get into trouble. If IOC imposes sanctions it can bring to a standstill all sports activity in the country.” Kalmadi said tenure limits should not have been proposed until after India hosted the Commonwealth Games in October. “The timing (of the sports ministry’s move) was not good,” he said. Along with Kalmadi, the chiefs of Indian archery, cycling, badminton, aero club, volleyball and judo federations would have to go if the new ruling is imposed. Archery federation president V.K. Malhotra told reporters there would be no change before October. “The status quo remains till the Commonwealth Games,” he said. The sports ministry said that the new ruling will come into force when the new elections of various NSFs and IOA are held. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 3:05 am Bajaj Finserv to enter wealth management by Q2 2010: MDThe company launched its construction equipment financing and retail loan against securities businesses from the month of April.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 3:00 am Luxury car market rebound helps BMW swing to profitBMW said on Wednesday that Auto's first-quarter earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) amounted to 291 million ($388 million), higher than the 214 million average estimate in a Reuters poll of 16 analysts.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 2:59 am Gold demand retreats as rupee weakensMumbai: India gold buying retreated on Wednesday afternoon as a weak rupee made the dollar-quoted yellow metal expensive, despite a pick-up earlier in the week when prices tumbled from a five-month high. “I did more than 150 kgs yesterday at about $1,175 (an ounce), and I have booked only 60 kgs since morning as the rupee is weak,” said a dealer with a state-run bullion dealing bank in Mumbai. International gold, which guides the domestic market, was trading at $1,170.35/1,171.15 an ounce as against the previous session close of $1,170.65/1,175.65. It struck a five-month high of $1,191.90 an ounce in the previous session. “Still buying is not in full swing, I have many advanced orders at lower levels below $1,160 level,” said another dealer from a second state-run bank. Gold forfeited its safe-haven status to the dollar on Wednesday, continuing to give up ground after dropping sharply overnight in step with a broad sell-off in commodities and stocks. The Indian rupee weakened to its lowest level in more than a month on Wednesday as broad dollar buying due to fears of a Greece contagion weighed on the euro and other Asian currencies. A weaker rupee makes the dollar-priced yellow metal expensive. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 2:58 am Rupee trims fall as exporters step up dollar salesMumbai: The Indian rupee retreated from a more-than-1-month low on Wednesday afternoon as exporters sold dollars to take advantage of the sharp rise in the US unit but dollar’s gains overseas and share losses continued to weigh. At 2:00pm, the partially convertible rupee was at Rs44.89/90 per dollar after hitting Rs44.9850, its lowest since 31 March, but still weaker than its previous close of Rs44.61/62. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at Rs45.05, weaker than the onshore spot rate. The euro hovered near a one-year low on Wednesday, after tumbling in Asia as fears euro zone debt problems could spread spooked investors, while the dollar benefited from rising risk aversion. The index of the dollar against six major currencies was up 0.4%. Most Asian currencies were weaker compared to the dollar. Dealers said they would monitor the performance of the domestic sharemarket for cues on the direction of foreign fund flows which are crucial to the rupee’s fortunes. Shares were trading dow 1.1%. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both at Rs44.9825, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at a high $5.6 billion. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 2:55 am ABB to buy US software firm Ventyx for over $1 bnZurich: Swiss engineering group ABB is to buy US software company Ventyx for more than $1 billion, bolstering its position in the fast-growing area of renewable energy network management. The deal, the cash-rich ABB’s first billion-dollar buy in over 10 years, will also strengthen its presence in North America. ABB, which had a cash-pile of $7.1 billion at the end of the first quarter, has been looking for acquisition opportunities over the past few years and has taken a more conservative approach to buys, going for smaller deals. This buy did not, however, mark the beginning of a spending spree at the group, a spokesman for ABB said on Wednesday. “The advantage for our shareholders is a cash-generating acquisition in an exciting growth market, with a strong management team, a highly complementary offering and geographic scope, and an attractive return on capital employed,” chief executive Joe Hogan said in a statement. At 0809 GMT, shares in the group traded 0.2% lower, outperforming a 1.1% drop in the STOXX Europe 600 industrial goods and services index. Good Fit Ventyx, which employs 900 people and posted 2009 revenues of about $250 million, is seen growing at a similar pace to ABB, which is aiming for sales growth of between 9% and 12% by 2012, the ABB spokesman said. Ventyx provides software to utilities and grid operators, giving them the information they need to better match electricity generation with consumption, ABB said. The real-time information on electricity demand, pricing and availability enables utilities to generate revenues from smart grids and carbon trading, ABB said. Ventyx’s software can also help to integrate large amounts of unpredictable renewable energies, such as wind and solar power. “The company should fit well with ABB’s power systems offering and appears very complementary. Ventyx addresses some key growth areas in network management, smart grids, renewables, etc,” Kepler Capital Markets analyst Roger Steiner said. But one Zurich-based trader said he thought the buy looked rather pricey at first glance. “In the first moment I thought, that’s too expensive but that’s a software company in energy management and smart grids systems and I think they know this market and know the price for such companies,” he said. ABB, which sells power equipment to utilities as well as to oil and gas companies, said it expected the transaction to be completed in the second quarter. It is buying Ventyx from San Francisco-based private equity company Vista Equity Partners. ABB’s last major deal was in 1998 when it bought Elsag Bailey in a deal worth $2.1 billion at the time. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 2:51 am ABB to buy US software firm Ventyx for over $1 bnZurich: Swiss engineering group ABB is to buy US software company Ventyx for more than $1 billion, bolstering its position in the fast-growing area of renewable energy network management. The deal, the cash-rich ABB’s first billion-dollar buy in over 10 years, will also strengthen its presence in North America. ABB, which had a cash-pile of $7.1 billion at the end of the first quarter, has been looking for acquisition opportunities over the past few years and has taken a more conservative approach to buys, going for smaller deals. This buy did not, however, mark the beginning of a spending spree at the group, a spokesman for ABB said on Wednesday. “The advantage for our shareholders is a cash-generating acquisition in an exciting growth market, with a strong management team, a highly complementary offering and geographic scope, and an attractive return on capital employed,” chief executive Joe Hogan said in a statement. At 0809 GMT, shares in the group traded 0.2% lower, outperforming a 1.1% drop in the STOXX Europe 600 industrial goods and services index. Good Fit Ventyx, which employs 900 people and posted 2009 revenues of about $250 million, is seen growing at a similar pace to ABB, which is aiming for sales growth of between 9% and 12% by 2012, the ABB spokesman said. Ventyx provides software to utilities and grid operators, giving them the information they need to better match electricity generation with consumption, ABB said. The real-time information on electricity demand, pricing and availability enables utilities to generate revenues from smart grids and carbon trading, ABB said. Ventyx’s software can also help to integrate large amounts of unpredictable renewable energies, such as wind and solar power. “The company should fit well with ABB’s power systems offering and appears very complementary. Ventyx addresses some key growth areas in network management, smart grids, renewables, etc,” Kepler Capital Markets analyst Roger Steiner said. But one Zurich-based trader said he thought the buy looked rather pricey at first glance. “In the first moment I thought, that’s too expensive but that’s a software company in energy management and smart grids systems and I think they know this market and know the price for such companies,” he said. ABB, which sells power equipment to utilities as well as to oil and gas companies, said it expected the transaction to be completed in the second quarter. It is buying Ventyx from San Francisco-based private equity company Vista Equity Partners. ABB’s last major deal was in 1998 when it bought Elsag Bailey in a deal worth $2.1 billion at the time. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 2:51 am Kirloskar unit buys 90% stake in South African firmThe company through its unit Kirloskar Brothers International BV, Netherlands, has acquired 90% shares of South African company Braybar.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 2:50 am Winds of changeVolkwagen has named many cars after wind currents to indicate well-bred swiftness and agility, but is their new Polo saloon the gust of fresh air we’ve been waiting for?Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 2:37 am SCENARIOS - BP spill to prompt many new regulationsWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to prompt far-reaching U.S. regulations to prevent similar accidents in the future.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 2:35 am RBI Reference rate for US dollar and EuroThe Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday fixed the reference rate for the US currency at Rs 44.87 per dollar and the single European unit at Rs 58.27 per euro from Rs 44.56 per dollar and Rs 58.72 per euro, respectively, as on May 4. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 2:34 am World Bank approves $292 mn for BangladeshWashington: In order to improve infrastructure and education in Bangladesh, the World bank today approved an additional $292 million for the country. While $257 million would provide long term finance for infrastructure through Investment Promotion and Financing Facility (IPFF) Project, another $35 million is for bringing disadvantaged and poor children back to school through the Reaching Out-of-School Children project (ROSC), a media statement said. Noting that Bangladesh has an enormous investment need in infrastructure, Zafrul Islam, World Bank Acting Country Director for Bangladesh, said, “We expect this additional financing to boost infrastructure funding by over $400 million, leveraging about 100% private resources.” It will be used to increase infrastructure supply in the power sector - renewable energy and energy savings - as well as bridges, ports, container terminals, water treatment plants, waste disposal projects, and others, he said. The additional financing to the IPFF project, amounting to about five times the original project that has been operating since 2006, will build and expand on the project’s successful experience in the power sector, the World Bank said. It has helped boost the national electricity generation capacity by 5% by adding 178 MW electricity to the national grid and two special economic zones Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ) and Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ). The World Bank also extended more support to the ROSC, a project which since 2004 has helped enroll over 500,000 out-of-school children through more than 15,000 Ananda Schools (Learning Centers) in 60 upazilas with high incidence of poverty and low enrollment. “Bangladesh has made significant progress in education over the past two decades,” Islam said. “With nearly 18 million children enrolled in about 80,000 primary schools in the country, the primary gross enrollment rate is over 90%. Importantly, gender parity in primary education has been achieved,” he said. “Despite this impressive progress, considerable challenges remain, for example, high drop-out rates and limited access for the poorest children. That’s why this additional financing to ROSC is so important for the poorest children. It has already demonstrated that it can reduce the number of out-of-school children, especially disadvantaged children,” Islam said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 2:28 am NMDC to fix export deals by JuneSenior officials from the two companies and from the ministry of mines will visit Japan and Korea towards the end of May.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 2:27 am Shopper's Stop plans Rs3 billion QIP in 6-9 monthsRetailer Shopper's Stop is planning to raise Rs3 billion via a share sale to qualified institutional investors.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 2:26 am Chevron reports flaring at Los Angeles refineryThe company declined to describe the nature of the malfunction, but told pollution regulators in regulatory filing on Tuesday that a breakdown at the refinery triggered the plant's safety flare system.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 2:24 am Nafed invites bids for import of 25,000 tonnes of yellow peasAgri-cooperative major Nafed has invited bids for importing 25,000 tonnes of Canadian yellow peas to be delivered by June 20. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 May 2010 | 2:19 am Videocon shares dip after World Bank banMumbai: Shares of Videocon Industries on Wednesday tanked nearly 12% on the BSE, a day after the World Bank barred the company from doing business with it for three years for indulging in fraud and corrupt practices. After opening weak on the Bombay Stock Exchange, Videocon shares fell 11.69% to a low of Rs200. On Tuesday, the World Bank (WB) barred Videocon Industries from doing any business with the bank for three years, beginning 11 January 2010, for violating procurement guidelines. On the National Stock Exchange, the stock plunged 8.12% to a low of Rs208.15. A total of 9,82,177 shares of Videocon Industries changed hands on both the bourses in the early trade. The World Bank has included Videocon in the list of companies that are not eligible for contracts funded by it. The firm was sent a letter of reprimand subsequent to an administrative process permitting the company to respond to the allegations, the World Bank said in its latest update of companies blacklisted for doing business due to fraud and corruption charges. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 2:18 am BMW posts $420 mn Q1 profit, upgrades 2010 outlookFrankfurt: BMW, the world’s leading luxury car maker, posted Wednesday a first-quarter net profit to €324 million euros ($420 million), and upgraded its full-year outlook. The company made a net loss of €152 million in the first three months of 2009. BMW reported core earnings of €291 million on sales of 12.443 billion, compared with a first-quarter 2009 loss of 251 million on €11.5 billion in sales. The net profit figure exceeded an analyst forecast of €247 million compiled by Dow Jones Newswires, but sales were slightly below their outlook of €12.6 billion. For all of 2010, BMW chairman Norbert Reithofer said the group was “aiming to achieve significantly higher group earnings” than in 2009, an improvement from the previous outlook for “notable” growth in earnings. “The BMW Group has made a good start to 2010. We increased earnings significantly in the first quarter and are now back on a growth course on almost all car markets,” a statement quoted Reithofer as saying. “We expect that earnings will grow dynamically over the course of the year,” he added. The company is also aiming for an unchanged core earnings margin of between eight and 10% in 2012. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 2:01 am Orchid Chem in licensing pact with AlvogenMumbai: Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd said on Wednesday it has signed an out-licensing and distribution deal with US-based Alvogen for marketing the Indian company’s eight oral non-antibiotic formulations in US. Under the terms of the agreement, Alvogen would pay certain dossier license fees to Orchid and the two companies would share profits from these products, it said in a statement. “The moment these products go off-patent, we would be one of the few people to launch these products,” K. Raghavendra Rao, managing director, Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, told CNBC-TV18 television channel. “...So the launch is going to be from next year and the eight products would be launched sequentially.” The combined market size of these products in the US is about $8 billion annually, the company said in a statement. “This size is quite interesting and we should be able to make reasonable turnover and profit out of this deal,” he added. Orchid Chemicals is the first-filer for paragraph-IV status for three of these eight products. “This gives us exclusive marketing rights for these products for at least six months post-launch,” he added. The eight products covered under the deal are from the therapeutic segment, the company said, adding “The two companies would share the legal expenses and bio-study costs.” Earlier, on 29 April, Orchid Chemicals said it had settled a patent litigation with Forest Laboratories Inc regarding its generic drug Memantine tablets. At 12:19 pm, shares of Orchid Chemicals were trading flat at Rs152.4 in a Mumbai market that was down 0.95%. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 1:54 am Luxury car market rebound helps BMW swing to profitFRANKFURT (Reuters) - BMW, the world's largest premium carmaker, swung to a stronger-than-expected operating profit in its core Automobiles segment after demand rebounded from an extremely weak year-ago period.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 1:42 am Pepsico ad to inform consumers on sodium cutMumbai: Beverage company Pepsico India will launch an ad campaign over the next few months through their flagship brand Lays potato chips to educate consumers on the firm’s effort to reduce sodium in their salty snack foods. In March, this year, India-born chairman and chief executive Indra Nooyi told an investors’ meeting that PepsiCo plans to cut sodium in its key brands by one-fourth in five years. In 10 years, the company aims to reduce sugar content by 25% and saturated fat by 15% as per its global goals. “We are completely in sync with the global PepsiCo commitments for 25% reduction in sodium levels for all our key foods brands by 2015 and are in the process of working out its implementation in India,” said Deepika Warrier, director of marketing at Frito-Lay India, which makes snack brands, including Kurkure, Lay’s, Uncle Chips, Aliva and Cheetos. “In fact, we are already working on sodium reduced products. Our team already have the products ready,” says Warrier, but is skeptical about its acceptance. “The big challenge is going to be consumer acceptance.” gouri.s@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 1:05 am Deals bounty for Indian IT - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 5 May 2010 | 1:02 am Narco-analysis, brain-mapping illegal: SCNew Delhi: In a major blow to investigating agencies, the Supreme Court on Wednesday declared as “illegal” use of narco-analysis, brain-mapping and polygraph tests on suspects. “We are of the considered opinion that no individual can be forced and subjected to such techniques involuntarily, and by doing so it amounts to unwarranted intrusion of personal liberty,” a bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said. The apex court said that involuntarily subjecting an accused, a suspect or a witness to such techniques violates Article 20 (3) of the Constitution, which prohibits self-incrimination. Further, forcing an individual to such methods of investigation violates the scheme of legal process, it said, adding that even if a person is subjected to such a mode of investigation on consent, the result of the test cannot be an admissible piece of evidence. However, the bench also comprising Justices R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari said if anything obtained by the investigators from such techniques in which a person had volunteered, the agencies can use them for further probe. The court said subjecting a person to such techniques amounts to intrusion of personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. The court further observed that in conducting the polygraphy test, the investigating agencies have to follow strictly the guidelines laid down by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The apex Court had on 25 January, 2008 reserved its order on a batch of petitions challenging investigation techniques like brain mapping, lie detection and narco analysis as being illegal and unconstitutional, especially in cases where accused are opposed to them. Those who had moved the Supreme Court included Santokben Sharmanbhai Jadeja, a woman accused of leading an underworld gang in Gujarat, Tamil Film producer K Venkateswara Rao, fake stamp paper scam accused Dilip Kamath and independent Maharashtra MLA Anil Gote. The Centre had favoured use of technology in the criminal investigation before the Court maintaining that narco-analysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests are integral tools of probe which are legal and valid. The judgement assumes significance as the investigating agencies have been using narco-analysis, brain-mapping and polygraph tests in a number of high-profile cases involving fake stamp paper kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi, Nithari killings accused, Arushi murder case suspects as well as parents of the teenager. The Delhi high court had also recently restrained police from going ahead with naro-analysis test on top Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy in view of the pendency of the legality of such tests in the apex court. On 3 May, a local court had granted Rajasthan ATS (anti-terrorism squad) permission to conduct narco-test on Devendra Gupta, an accused in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast case. During the hearing on the matter, the Centre had submitted that these tests provided some clues to the investigating agencies and did not have any evidentiary value per se. Even the law commission was of the opinion that such a provision was necessary for effective investigation and it would not affect the fundamental rights, it had said, adding “no invasive procedure is involved” in using such mode of investigation like lie detector and the brain mapping tests. It had argued that the use of narco analysis was of particular relevance in the context of terrorist-related cases, conspiracy to commit murder and other serious offences where probe agencies got vital leads for follow up action. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 12:45 am Telenor cuts India capex, paves way for buybackOslo: Ebitda down 10 pct to 7.09 bln crowns vs f’cast 6.68 bln * Cuts capex plan to 13-14 pct of revenue from 14-16% * Analyst sees potential for stock buybacks * Second India launch delayed to Q2 (Add details, analyst quotes) By Oslo: Norway’s Telenor ASA posted higher than expected first-quarter core earnings on Wednesday as economies improve and said it would cut investment spending, paving the way for a resumption of its stock buyback programme. The mobile phone operator said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) fell to 7.09 billion crowns ($1.3 billion), beating an average forecast for 6.68 billion in a Reuters poll of 19 banks and brokerages. “The Nordics are strong and losses are below expectations in India. The stock will definitely rise on this,” analyst Espen Torgersen in Carnegie said. Shares in Telenor, one of the world’s biggest mobile groups with 174 million subscribers, were due to open at 0700 GMT. “Current trends in the Asian and Nordic regions are positive and I am pleased to see that the Telenor Group had a rebound in organic revenue growth,” chief executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas said in a statement. Telenor, which has operations in 14 countries in Europe and Asia, affirmed its 2010 guidance for low single-digit organic revenue growth and said it expected an Ebitda margin of around 28%, compared with 27 to 28% previously. “In addition, we revise our expected capex-to-sales ratio slightly downwards, following the development in (Indian unit) Uninor and lower overall investments during the first quarter,” Baksaas added. Telenor cut its India investments for 2010 to between 2.0 billion crowns and 2.5 billion from 2.5 billion to 3.5 billion and the overall plan to between 13% and 14% of revenue from 14% to 16%. Analyst Tore Tonseth at Argo Securities said this could open the way for a boost in dividends or investments in new regions. “I think they will resume the stock buyback programme,” he said. India Last year Telenor bought into a nascent telecom firm floated by Indian realty Unitech Ltd and launched services under the Uninor brand in different parts of the world’s second-most populous country. India added a record 20.3 million mobile connections in March. The Uninor unit had an Ebitda loss of 974 million crowns in the first quarter, against a 1.0 billion loss forecast by analysts. Telenor repeated its forecast of an Ebitda loss of 4.5 billion crowns to 5.0 billion for India this year. Analysts have long been sceptical about the move into India, where margins are wafer thin and competition intense for hundreds of millions of potential clients. Last week Telenor’s India unit launched a new traffic-based discount plan for mobile calls that could see prices falling, the latest salvo in a price war. Telenor said rules demanding all purchasing orders for telecom infrastructure equipment must be pre-approved by the authorities had resulted in a delay in the second launch phase, planned for the second quarter 2010. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 12:31 am IMF chief sees risk of Greek contagionParis: The International Monetary Fund’s chief said there was a risk of the Greek debt crisis spreading to the rest of Europe, but there was no real threat for big countries, including France and Germany, a French newspaper reported on Wednesday. “There is always a risk of contagion,” Dominique Strauss-Kahn told Le Parisien newspaper. “Portugal has been mentioned, but it is already taking measures and the other countries are in a much more solid situation ... but we should remain vigilant.” Strauss-Kahn said under the terms of the deal the plan will be monitored every three months, but if the measures were not taken the international community “might have to step aside,” although there was no suggestion that would happen. Renewed selling gripped euro zone financial markets on Tuesday as concerns mounted that the record €110 billion EU/IMF rescue package for Greece would not stop a debt crisis spreading to other weak euro zone members. There was no real risk for France and Germany, or other big European countries, Strauss-Kahn said without specifying. The IMF chief said the Greek aid plan had a primary goal to save Greece faced with too much debt and too weak competitiveness. “It was in the edge of bankruptcy and soon it would not have been able to pay its civil servants.” Strauss-Kahn said, in his first interview since the debt deal was struck. He dismissed any suggestions of Greece or any other European country pulling out of the euro zone, calling any such move the “end of the euro.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 12:30 am US questions nighttime Tylenol, Excedrin dataWashington: Tylenol PM and other widely used acetaminophen pain drugs that include a sleep-aid failed to show any significant benefit in a key study, US health regulators have told drugmakers 15 years after industry submitted the data. Patients taking the drugs, most commonly sold as Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol PM and Novartis AG’s Excedrin PM, did not fall asleep significantly faster than those who took only acetaminophen or the sedative, known as diphenhydramine citrate, the FDA said in a letter to the industry earlier this year. “There is an insufficient basis to support the combination of acetaminophen and diphenhydramine as a nighttime sleep aid for relief of occasional sleeplessness when associated with minor aches and pains,” Charles Ganley, head of the FDA’s Office of Nonprescription Products, wrote in a 16 February letter to the Consumer Health Products Association, or CHPA, which represents makers of nonprescription medicines. The letter, obtained this week by Reuters, comes amid closer scrutiny of dozens of other Tylenol products for children recalled last Friday after FDA inspection turned up contaminated ingredients and unsanitary conditions. While the agency’s letter does not raise any safety question with such acetaminophen nighttime drugs, it does call into question data backing up their effectiveness. “The concern ... is that we need an additional study demonstrating that the combination product is more effective than acetaminophen alone and more effective than diphenhydramine alone,” FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said. “There has to be a statistically significant increase in effectiveness of the combination product over either active ingredient alone,” she told Reuters. Impact unclear It is not immediately clear what impact the agency’s decision could have on the combination products, for which the industry initially sought FDA backing in 1995. Such nonprescription products are not big money-makers for the drugmakers but carry significant brand recognition and are widely used. While they have been sold on the U.S. market for years, winning the FDA’s formal backing offers companies stronger ground with which to market their products. “We know then that the ingredients have been accepted as safe and effective, we know the final labeling, we know the final dosages ... there’s much more certainty,” said an industry source familiar with the letters who did not want her name used given the ongoing industry negotiations with FDA. Despite the FDA’s concerns that the initial study does not support the drug, the agency has not raised any safety concerns over the years and the drugs remain on the U.S. market. Tylenol PM is the top-selling nighttime painkiller, ahead of Excedrin PM and Pfizer Inc’s Advil PM, which combines the same sleep aid with ibuprofen. J&J’s version had sales of $94.5 million over a yearlong period through mid-April, ranking it as the fifth largest-selling analgesic brand tablet, according to market research firm SymphonyIRI Group. Excedrin brought in $14.7 million in sales. Advil PM saw $48.6 million over the same period, according to the Chicago-based group, which tracks most drugstores, supermarkets and mass market retailers. 15-year gap In March, J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit, which makes Tylenol PM, submitted additional data after working with the FDA in 2006, company spokeswoman Caroline Almeida told Reuters. The two J&J studies looked at several hundred people and were completed last year. “These data indicate that the combination of an analgesic and sleep-aid provides significantly more benefit for the relief of pain and sleeplessness than either ingredient alone,” McNeil wrote in a 31 March letter to the agency. It was not immediately clear if other makers of nighttime acetaminophen products conducted similar studies. Novartis referred questions to the CHPA, which could not be immediately reached for comment. The FDA’s Burgess said the agency would consider any new industry data. Unlike prescription medications, those sold over the counter can be marketed without going through a formal approval process as long as their main ingredients are on the FDA’s approved list, called a monograph. But if a nonprescription drug does not meet the list’s standards, it must win formal approval before it can be sold on US shelves. Still, the FDA’s 15-year gap comes somewhat as a surprise even at an agency where actions can take years. Burgess cited the agency’s “significant workload in regulating over-the-counter drug products” and the need to prioritize based on available agency resources. She added that the letter did not reflect any other initiatives at the FDA, including Friday’s recall or recent concerns over acetaminophen’s risk of liver toxicity. While the FDA’s timing seems startling, Ganley’s answer was not, the industry source said. Standards have changed since CHPA’s 1995 submission and two studies, not one, are now typical. “This was simply a study that didn’t work. ... I don’t think it surprised anyone,” the industry source said. Tylenol’s and Excedrin’s rival, Advil PM, won its FDA backing in 2005. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 12:29 am US questions nighttime Tylenol, Excedrin dataWashington: Tylenol PM and other widely used acetaminophen pain drugs that include a sleep-aid failed to show any significant benefit in a key study, US health regulators have told drugmakers 15 years after industry submitted the data. Patients taking the drugs, most commonly sold as Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol PM and Novartis AG’s Excedrin PM, did not fall asleep significantly faster than those who took only acetaminophen or the sedative, known as diphenhydramine citrate, the FDA said in a letter to the industry earlier this year. “There is an insufficient basis to support the combination of acetaminophen and diphenhydramine as a nighttime sleep aid for relief of occasional sleeplessness when associated with minor aches and pains,” Charles Ganley, head of the FDA’s Office of Nonprescription Products, wrote in a 16 February letter to the Consumer Health Products Association, or CHPA, which represents makers of nonprescription medicines. The letter, obtained this week by Reuters, comes amid closer scrutiny of dozens of other Tylenol products for children recalled last Friday after FDA inspection turned up contaminated ingredients and unsanitary conditions. While the agency’s letter does not raise any safety question with such acetaminophen nighttime drugs, it does call into question data backing up their effectiveness. “The concern ... is that we need an additional study demonstrating that the combination product is more effective than acetaminophen alone and more effective than diphenhydramine alone,” FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said. “There has to be a statistically significant increase in effectiveness of the combination product over either active ingredient alone,” she told Reuters. Impact unclear It is not immediately clear what impact the agency’s decision could have on the combination products, for which the industry initially sought FDA backing in 1995. Such nonprescription products are not big money-makers for the drugmakers but carry significant brand recognition and are widely used. While they have been sold on the U.S. market for years, winning the FDA’s formal backing offers companies stronger ground with which to market their products. “We know then that the ingredients have been accepted as safe and effective, we know the final labeling, we know the final dosages ... there’s much more certainty,” said an industry source familiar with the letters who did not want her name used given the ongoing industry negotiations with FDA. Despite the FDA’s concerns that the initial study does not support the drug, the agency has not raised any safety concerns over the years and the drugs remain on the U.S. market. Tylenol PM is the top-selling nighttime painkiller, ahead of Excedrin PM and Pfizer Inc’s Advil PM, which combines the same sleep aid with ibuprofen. J&J’s version had sales of $94.5 million over a yearlong period through mid-April, ranking it as the fifth largest-selling analgesic brand tablet, according to market research firm SymphonyIRI Group. Excedrin brought in $14.7 million in sales. Advil PM saw $48.6 million over the same period, according to the Chicago-based group, which tracks most drugstores, supermarkets and mass market retailers. 15-year gap In March, J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit, which makes Tylenol PM, submitted additional data after working with the FDA in 2006, company spokeswoman Caroline Almeida told Reuters. The two J&J studies looked at several hundred people and were completed last year. “These data indicate that the combination of an analgesic and sleep-aid provides significantly more benefit for the relief of pain and sleeplessness than either ingredient alone,” McNeil wrote in a 31 March letter to the agency. It was not immediately clear if other makers of nighttime acetaminophen products conducted similar studies. Novartis referred questions to the CHPA, which could not be immediately reached for comment. The FDA’s Burgess said the agency would consider any new industry data. Unlike prescription medications, those sold over the counter can be marketed without going through a formal approval process as long as their main ingredients are on the FDA’s approved list, called a monograph. But if a nonprescription drug does not meet the list’s standards, it must win formal approval before it can be sold on US shelves. Still, the FDA’s 15-year gap comes somewhat as a surprise even at an agency where actions can take years. Burgess cited the agency’s “significant workload in regulating over-the-counter drug products” and the need to prioritize based on available agency resources. She added that the letter did not reflect any other initiatives at the FDA, including Friday’s recall or recent concerns over acetaminophen’s risk of liver toxicity. While the FDA’s timing seems startling, Ganley’s answer was not, the industry source said. Standards have changed since CHPA’s 1995 submission and two studies, not one, are now typical. “This was simply a study that didn’t work. ... I don’t think it surprised anyone,” the industry source said. Tylenol’s and Excedrin’s rival, Advil PM, won its FDA backing in 2005. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 May 2010 | 12:29 am BSE Sensex drops to 2-month low, below 17,000MUMBAI (Reuters) – The BSE Sensex fell below 17,000 on Wednesday for the first time in two months, dropping more than 1 percent on concerns shaky global investor sentiment could hit foreign portfolio inflows.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 May 2010 | 12:02 am High food prices slow FMCG salesMr Ramesh Viswanathan, Executive Director of fast moving consumer goods company CavinKare Pvt Ltd, hopes the coming monsoon will prove as bountiful as weathermen forecast it willSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 May 2010 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideThe stock decisively penetrated the key support at Rs 2,700 in the last session. Make use of rallies to sell the stock with tight stop-loss at Rs 2,700Source: Business Line - Home Page | 5 May 2010 | 12:00 am Banks show signs of asset quality improvementAs the economy revived in the last fiscal (2009-10), increasing the expectation of asset quality improvement, the financial performances of banks have shown initial signs of asset qualitySource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 May 2010 | 12:00 am Currency policy: Designed to kill?Consider China's and India's balance of payments. Trade balance? China is in surplus. Not small. Upwards of $20 billion with the US every month in boom times and still in the region of $10 billion aSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 May 2010 | 12:00 am Sensex tanks 248 points on weak global cuesIndian stocks came under heavy selling pressure on Tuesday, the Sensex losing 248 points or 1.43 per cent to close atSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 May 2010 | 12:00 am Mumbai grinds to a haltMumbai gasped for breath on the second consecutive day as its lifeline - the suburban railway system - came to a virtual halt with about 1,000 motormen agitating for better pay andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 May 2010 | 12:00 am HCL Tech bags $500-m Merck dealHCL Technologies on Tuesday announced that it has bagged a $500-million contract from pharmaceutical giant Merck andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 May 2010 | 12:00 am Mumbai limps back on track as Railway motormen call off strikeThe 65-lakh-odd commuters who travel into Mumbai every day were relieved when the two-day strike by railway motormen was called off on Tuesday evening and train servicesSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 May 2010 | 12:00 am Tyre-makers seek duty-free import of natural rubberUnder margin pressure due to the rising prices of natural rubber, the end-user industries have asked the Government for duty-free import of two lakh tonnes of rubber through a Government agency, besides a ban on exports.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 5 May 2010 | 12:00 am Ambuja Cements (Rs 116): SellWe recommend a sell in the stock of Ambuja Cements from a short-term trading perspective. It is apparent from the charts that the stock has been on an intermediate-term uptrend since November 2009 low of Rs 82. However, the stock encounteredSource: Business Line - Home Page | 5 May 2010 | 12:00 am Fuel hike rollback not possible now: Pranab - Indian Express
Source: Business - Google News | 4 May 2010 | 11:59 pm Markets drop to 2-month low, below 17,000Mumbai: India’s main stock index fell below 17,000 on Wednesday for the first time in two months, dropping more than 1% on concerns shaky global investor sentiment could hit foreign portfolio inflows. Asian shares were trading lower after European and US markets fell sharply on Tuesday on increasing concerns the Greece debt crisis could spread to other weaker countries in the euro zone. By 11:19am, the 30-share BSE index was down 1.23% at 16,927.19, with financial issues leading the drop. Twenty-three of its components were trading in the red. The 50-share NSE index was down 1.4% at 5,077.70. The benchmark, which is down more than 3% so far in 2010, hit 16,858.23 in early trade, its lowest level since March 3. “The market is reacting to global cues and will do so for few more days,” said Jigar Shah vice-president of equity sales at brokerage Motilal Oswal. “But a steep downside from here is not likely unless things turn really bad globally.” Investors are worried the euro zone crisis could hit foreign fund inflows, which are a key driver for the market. Foreign funds have pumped $6.5 billion into Indian equities so far in 2010 after a record $17.5 billion inflow in 2009. Top lender State Bank of India shed 1.2%, while rivals ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank dropped 2.3% and 2.7% respectively. Mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp was down 1.8%. Energy giant Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the Sensex, fell 1% to Rs1,010.65. Metal makers extended losses as base metal prices fell. Shanghai copper dropped to near a three-month low following a tumble in London in the previous session. Tata Steel was down 2.5%, while Sterlite Industries and Hindalco shed 4.8% and 2.3% respectively. In the broader market, losers were more than thrice the number of gainers on volume of 187 million shares. The MSCI index of Asia ex-Japan stocks was down 1.8%. Markets in Japan, Korea and Thailand are closed for public holiday. European and US stocks closed sharply lower on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average shedding 2% and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 falling nearly 3%. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 May 2010 | 11:41 pm Temasek gets approval to buy 5% in NSESingapore's state-owned investment house Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd on Wednesday said that it has received regulatory approvals to buy 5 per cent stake in the National Stock Exchange of India.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 May 2010 | 11:33 pm ULIP row: Will IRDA's latest move affect the court battle? - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 4 May 2010 | 11:10 pm Videocon shares dip 12% on BSE after 3-year World Bank banShares of Videocon Industries today tanked nearly 12% on the BSE, a day after the World Bank barred the company from doing business with it for three years for indulging in fraud and corrupt practices.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 May 2010 | 11:05 pm Fears over Greek debt crisis hammer markets and euroAsian stock markets were battered today and the euro sank to a fresh one-year low as investors were jolted by fears that the fallout from Greece's debt crisis could spread. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 May 2010 | 10:57 pm Sensex tanks 268 pts on Greece debt concernsThe Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Wednesday tanked over 268 points to trade below the 17,000- points level in opening trade in line with the meltdown in overseas markets on concerns that Greece's debt crisis could spread to other countries.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 May 2010 | 10:52 pm Rupee at 1-month low, drops 36 paise against dollarThe Indian rupee depreciated by 36 paise to 44.97 a dollar in early trade today, its lowest since March 31, on capital outflows by foreign funds from equities and the dollar's gain overseas.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 May 2010 | 10:49 pm Sensex tanks 268 pts on Greece debt concernsThe Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Wednesday tanked over 268 points to trade below the 17,000-points level in opening trade in line with the meltdown in overseas markets on concerns that Greece's debt crisis could spread to other countries. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 May 2010 | 10:33 pm Cognizant to hire aggressively this year: CEO - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 4 May 2010 | 3:22 pm Goldman fined as settlement talks seen nearNEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc shares held their own on one of Wall Street's worst days in months after a report that it would soon enter talks to settle fraud charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 May 2010 | 2:36 pm Rates may not go up till SeptemberInterest rates on housing and others loans are not likely to increase till September this year. There was an apprehension that money supply would tighten after RBI's April 20 credit policy, which raised the key rates by 25 basis points.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 May 2010 | 2:26 pm HP evaded Rs 1450cr duty: DRIThe Bangalore zonal unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has unearthed the biggest customs duty evasion by any company in India, of the order of Rs 1,450 crore.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 May 2010 | 2:23 pm Welspun to invest Rs 260cr in Saudi coWelspun will invest $58 million (about Rs 260 crore) to buy a majority stake in a pipes manufacturing firm in Saudi Arabia, a move that could help the Indian steel pipemaker grab a wider share of the Middle East market.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 May 2010 | 2:22 pm Indian infotech firms bagging big global dealsThere's more evidence of Indian IT attracting big global deals. On Tuesday, some three contracts were announced, including a massive $500-million, five-year deal between HCL Technologies and MSD.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 May 2010 | 2:20 pm 'I'm a cabin crew every two months'"My whole life has been about changing consumer behaviour," says Tony Fernandes, founder and CEO of AirAsia.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 May 2010 | 2:19 pm Essar Energy raises 1.2bn, lists on LSEEssar Energy, part of the Ruias-led Indian conglomerate Essar Group, listed its shares on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday, after its 1.2 billion IPO the biggest here since December, 2007.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 May 2010 | 2:13 pm Australia's 'super tax' spoils Indian miners' partyAustralia's plan to impose a 40 per cent 'super tax' on the profits of mining companies has sent Indian miners scouting for acquisitions into a tizzy.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 May 2010 | 1:18 pm Govt extends emission norms deadline for two-wheelersThe government extended the deadline for implementing cleaner emission norms for two-wheelers across the country, a move that has come as a big relief for auto manufacturers, especially the countrys largest two-wheeler maker, Hero Honda.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 May 2010 | 1:14 pm Government mulls sugar decontrolIndustry divided on ending last bastion of licence-permit Raj.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 4 May 2010 | 1:10 pm Google to sell digital books by July 2010San Francisco: Google on Tuesday said it will soon begin selling electronic books that people can read on any Internet-connected device including Apple’s hot-selling iPad tablet computers. Google will launch an Editions online digital book shop by the end of July and its virtual shelves will be stocked with in-print works with the permission of publishers owning copyrights. “This e-book service will be device agnostic,” Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker told AFP. Books bought from Google and its partners would be available to any device that has a web browser, from smart phones and the growing number of e-book readers to personal computers. Google books will be able to be read by Kindle readers but will also support the “epub” open standard format backed by the International Digital Publishing Forum and which many publishers now use. The California-based Internet giant in 2006 invited publishers to sell books for reading online. Advances in Web browser technology since then have made the plan feasible. Editions is separate from a controversial Google Book Search project to make all the world’s written works, including out-of-print titles, available online. The move brings another heavyweight contender to the increasingly competitive electronic books market. Apple and Amazon each run online digital book shops. Apple has sold more than a million iPads since it began selling Wi-Fi models in the United States on 3 April and released 3G telecom network enabled models on Friday. Amazon has been enhancing its Kindle digital book devices to take on iPad tablets, which boast electronic reading among an array of features. Google is still awaiting a ruling by a US federal judge pondering the fate of a legal agreement with US authors and publishers that would clear the way for Book Search. Google has dismissed the anti-trust and copyright concerns raised by the US Justice Department and opponents of the agreement and urged US District Court Judge Denny Chin to give it a green light. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 4 May 2010 | 12:32 pm Jaypee Infratech IPO subscribed 1.24 timesThe initial public offer of Jaypee Infratech was subscribed 1.24 times by the end of the issue today, but response from retail investors was lukewarm.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 May 2010 | 12:20 pm ADB to provide USD 300 mn loan to SIDBIThe Asian Development Bank will provide USD 300 million loan assistance to SIDBI for lending to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, Parliament was informed today.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 May 2010 | 12:05 pm Economists turn to cricket to base their theoriesNew Delhi: Over the last decade, as the West Indian cricket team went from weakness to weakness, Rodney Ramcharan watched with particularly befuddled exasperation. A Trinidad-born, American-trained economist at the International Monetary Fund, Ramcharan couldn’t understand why West Indian selectors treated their debutants the way they did. “They didn’t seem to be considering that some guys were playing their first match at Perth”—where the surface is famously difficult—“and some at home”, Ramcharan says. “If you started off well, they gave you a couple of runs in the team, but if you started off against Australia and failed, that was the end.”  Human capital: Sachin Tendulkar scores his first 50 in his debut series in Pakistan, in only his second Test match. Like Sunil Gavaskar, Tendulkar is an iconic example of a cricketer who was blooded, rather than protected, in a tough debut series and still performed admirably. Photo: The Hindu It is the sort of insight that begs to be written up into a paper, and Ramcharan and Aiyar duly obliged, joining a growing band of economists who have started looking to cricket to model their theories. A crude search through a database such as RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) shows a slew of cricket-related papers in late 2000s, but barely any in the 1980s and 1990s; papers on baseball and football, however, appear even from the 1970s. Robert McDonald, a senior fellow in the sports law programme at the University of Melbourne and a contributor to a popular blog called The Sports Economist, recently conducted a more refined search through three other databases: Google Scholar, EconLit (maintained by the American Economic Association) and the International Bibliography of Social Sciences (maintained by the London School of Economics). In the three databases, McDonald found a total of nine cricket-related papers from the period 1980-84, 14 from 1995-99, 54 from 2000-04, and 88 from 2005-09. The numbers are only indicative of broad trends, McDonald cautions, but he agrees that cricket’s obsessive detailing of statistics makes it particularly useful to economists. “Most sports provide a good opportunity for testing economics theories,” McDonald says. “But cricket…is largely a game of individual performances, which could make it a more useful natural experiment than some other sports, where individual performances are vastly more dependent upon the contributions of teammates.” The Ramcharan-Aiyar paper is an example of the unique benefits that cricket can provide an economist; indeed, it was only made possible because, Aiyar notes, “the home-field advantage is much greater in cricket than any other sport”. Titled What Can International Cricket Teach Us About the Role of Luck in Labor Markets, the paper scrutinizes the careers of 790 Test cricketers who debuted between 1950 and 1985. Aiyar and Ramcharan first conclude what every cricket fan knows: that debutants at home do better than debutants abroad. More surprisingly, however, they then prove that a cricketer’s debut average can significantly impact his overall career average, even after discounting for innate talent. In other words, a better job fresh out of college leads to a better career. “If your first job is with McKinsey or Goldman Sachs, your future career would outstrip that of an equally talented person elsewhere,” Aiyar says. The paper posits two explanations for this. In the first, dubbed the “human capital hypothesis”, a debutant who does well in a challenging first job develops a high level of skill—of human capital—that serves him well later. (After batting well at Perth, after all, batting well at the Wankhede Stadium seems far less daunting.) In the second, the market often doesn’t take initial conditions into account when examining a rookie’s performance—the sort of “signal bias” that Ramcharan grumbles about with West Indian selectors. The rise in the volume of cricket-related economics work, McDonald observes, in part reflects the rise of sports economics itself, as a legitimate and useful field of study. “In economics, the curse is that it’s very difficult to have a controlled experiment,” Aiyar says. “In a macro setting, there are constant shocks, or problems with data, or 200 things happening at the same time. The nice thing about sport is that it is so rules-based, and everything is measured so precisely.” So when V. Bhaskar, an economist at the University of Essex, wanted to investigate decision-making within randomized trials, he turned to cricket’s coin toss and the subsequent choice between batting and fielding. “I study how rationally decisions are made,” Bhaskar says. “Cricket has many such strategic decisions, such as when to declare an innings, for example.” More than one economist also mentions the sheer ease of access to cricket statistics via the ESPNCricInfo website and its powerful search engine StatsGuru. Last year, Ajit Karnik, a professor of economics at the Middlesex University campus in Dubai, spent hours on the website to hammer out equations relating the price and value of a player in the Indian Premier League. His paper was subsequently published in the Journal of Sports Economics. Perversely, cricket’s very intricacies, which enable such microscopic levels of detail, can also clutter the path of economists hunting for conclusions. Karnik had to stress-test many, many variables to determine which were relevant to his equations, a process he calls “very painful”. Aiyar and Ramcharan had to carefully weed out all-rounders from their analysis of batsmen, to ensure that their equations reflected only batting prowess and not an all-round utility. Bhaskar and Ramcharan see one other disadvantage: Writing a cricket-related paper means, as Ramcharan says, “you’re going to have to get past a bias in American journals, because the editors and referees don’t know the game that well”. This is not a trivial hurdle—but Ramcharan does revel in the flip side, of studying a sport he plays and loves. “I’m working now, for example, on a project on US banks, and this includes detailed data at the county level—it’s hard to get a good sense of what’s going on,” Ramcharan says. “But you look at Michael Holding’s career, and you actually remember where those deliveries were bowled. There’s a lot of joy in that. It’s not just an abstract thing.” samanth.s@livemint.com Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 4 May 2010 | 12:02 pm Videocon moves World Bank for revoking 3-yr banBlacklisted by the World Bank for alleged corruption and wrong doing, Videocon Industries today said that it has moved a petition to revoke the ban.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 May 2010 | 10:18 am We expect growth to be relatively high: Seth FreemanNew York: Seth Freeman says he’s been “eating, sleeping and thinking India”, probably more than most Indians themselves do. That’s because he manages the EM Capital India Gateway fund based out of the US. The fund, which has been around since 2007, had a harrowing year in 2008, falling by 70%-plus, but made a drastic turnaround and returned 144%-plus in the year ended 31 March. A small fund with just under $300,000 (Rs1.3 crore) in assets, it invests 50% in small and mid-cap Indian companies. Freeman, an American based in San Francisco, spoke in an interview about which sectors he’s bullish on and why foreign institutional investors (FIIs) could make large-cap stocks more volatile. Edited excerpts: What’s your investment strategy? How were you able to beat the indices?  Photo: Shyamal Banerjee/Mint 2008 was a bad year for many funds, but your fund saw an exceptionally large drop. Why? We did worse than many funds for a number of reasons. We didn’t go into cash as many funds did when things went bad. We are also invested in small- and mid-cap companies that can be much more volatile than larger companies. The fund was just trying to get traction in 2008, then Lehman Brothers blew up in October and we got a lot of redemptions. We were forced to sell some good companies at a time when it would have been much nicer to be a buyer than a seller. But we had to sell to cover the redemptions. However, we remained confident in our approach and have a very long-term view. It was depressing, having started the fund at a time when external factors and things going on around the world that had nothing to do with the quality and valuation of Indian companies, with problems stemming mainly from problems in the US and England. We were out there promoting India and quite confident that our approach was a good one, but we were stymied by external events. All we could do was wait. There’s a lot of talk on the Indian market being overvalued. Do you think so? Usually what is being looked at by those asserting the market is overvalued are the major indices and metrics such as aggregate price-to-earnings ratio of the Nifty or the Sensex. But we are not investing in an index or the “market”. We are prudently investing in specific Indian companies that we believe are undervalued and provide our investors the opportunity to achieve superior returns from those companies’ future growth and profits. With diligence, research and networking you can find attractive Indian companies that are undervalued and have substantial growth prospects. What are some of your favourite stocks? Some of the companies we own a lot of people may not have heard of, especially in the US. One is Magma FinCorp Ltd, a non-bank finance company with rural offices all around India financing tractors and trucks for small operators and cars. We also like Nilkamal Plastics (Ltd) that makes low-end plastic furniture and pallets, Rajesh Exports (Ltd), the world’s largest gold jewellery manufacturer, and Financial Technologies India (Ltd), a global company creating new regulated stock, commodities and derivatives exchanges in India, Middle East and Africa. Which sectors are you bullish on? On all sectors really. We expect growth to be relatively big compared to the rest of the world and it will continue to be a domestic consumption growth story. I like domestic FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) companies like Marico (Ltd) and Dabur (India Ltd). There are just so many people who have to buy things. We’re also very bullish on pharmaceutical companies and health sciences companies. Right now there’s a shift that’s happening much faster than predicted. There’s lots of innovation going on in India. They’re not just processing or following designs that were made in the US. Who would have imagined that the largest steel company would be owned by an Indian company or that an Indian car company would own Jaguar? As far as I’m concerned, these Indian companies are just warming up. What’s your view on how Indian markets could perform relative to other markets if the debt problems in the EU persist? It’s unbelievable that the cost of insuring a sovereign bond in Greece is now higher than a sovereign bond from Pakistan. The concern is that people may just view emerging markets generally as riskier. Most investors acknowledge that most emerging markets will have higher growth rates than developed markets for quite some time. The concerns are more along the lines of inflation and currency risk and being exposed to a currency that might get devalued. It just makes investors nervous. Even if the EU fell apart I don’t think it would have an enormous impact on India other than it could cause some short-term chaos and maybe revenue from European countries or companies could be disrupted for a while, but not for the long term. I don’t think the companies or countries that have demand for Indian products or invest in India would change their views on India even if Greece completely defaulted. I think there are larger problems in Portugal and Spain. As a non-Indian, how do you trade in a market that is largely driven by sentiment? There are good underlying fundamentals, but sentiment plays a big role. But shareholding pattern also affects the stocks. FIIs can make a company’s stock more volatile. In the case of the global meltdown period, you had global funds and fund managers pulling out of India, which pulled down stock prices. So sometimes a company that has more FII ownership is made more volatile. Some of the small- and mid-cap companies that don’t have a lot of FII ownership can actually have less volatility and don’t get jerked around by foreign investors. Certainly, you have to make tough decisions based on market fundamentals. But in a country like India you also have to understand sentiment and what’s driving a company, who’s driving the company and also what’s driving the stock price movement. That’s where having an understanding of the local markets and our in-country resources and relationships are very important. vaishali.j@livemint.com Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 4 May 2010 | 8:56 am The future of (Steve) Jobs: The appatarWhat multi-billion dollar techno-baby might be birthed if James Cameron and Steve Jobs had a passionate collaborative affair? No, not a “Titanic Tablet.” But how about an “Appatar”? Sometime in the next two years, appatars will emerge as perhaps the most innovative, and productive, way for people to get value from The Cloud. I’m not quite kidding. Cameron’s brilliantly conceived conceit in Avatar is that technology can and should be a vessel empowering people to experience reality through the mind and senses of another. You get to be yourself even as you’re someone, or something, else. It’s a great way to get to know the natives—and yourself — better. Jobs’ creatively comprehensive “there’s an app for that” online emporium persuasively argues that a mobile device can have more utility than a Swiss Army knife on psychotropic drugs could have ever imagined. If you need to get something done, you can find something in the App Store that can let you do it. Features are its functionality; functionality its feature. In the Jobsosphere, you have applications without personality. In the Cameroniverse, you have personality prized over application. When you look at the creative trajectory of cloud computing, it’s clear that these different digital design sensibilities must merge. Yes, we want “avatars” that allow us to entertain different experiences — but we also want the utility of concrete accomplishment. Yes, we need “apps” to make us more productive—but we also want emotional resonance. After all, it’s transcendentally human to anthropomorphize the toys and tools we play and work with, e.g., “I love driving my BMW almost as much as I love googling on my iPhone.” That’s why “appatars” are inevitable. They reflect the desire and destiny to marry the functionality we need to employ with the personality we like to express. An “appatar” is designed to give users both kinds of value: effective and affective. This goes beyond customizing or personalizing an object, such as putting decals on cars or selecting ringtones for phone numbers. “Appatars” will be about integrating what you wish to accomplish with who you really are — and having the option to share that sensibility with others. What does that look, and feel, like? With apologies to Cameronian calls for direct neural connectivity, my bet is on Amazonian and Apple-esque “recommendation engines.” Here you have software that contextually examines both individual behavior and social context in order to recommend an action. That offers a terrific platform for appatarian innovation. So here’s an “appatar” or three I’d like: “Nice Michael.” This appatar examines all my gmail, Facebook, and mobile phone interactions, and drafts sms texts, wall posts, and email to send to people who I have somehow neglected. This appatar is semantically attuned to how I express myself when I am being “nice” and “friendly”—as opposed to my usual state of abruptness. Based on how well “Nice Michael” does at communicating the better part of me, I let it send these missives off automatically—cc:ingme, of course—let me know how nice I’m being. When “Nice Michael” really impresses me, I’ll link it to Amazon so it can start recommending gifts. “On-Top-of-It Michael.” This appatar reviews every single Google, Bing, and JSTOR search I’ve done in a professional context and cross-references it with my professional correspondence in both my gmail and MIT accounts. At day’s end, OTOIM has identified colleagues and rivals I need to send papers or comments to on various projects. When linked to Facebook, OTOIM, has me introducing people and facilitating collaborations with people who should be working with one another. “Mischievous Michael.” This appatar draws upon my sense of humor and desire to....On second thought, perhaps this isn’t the best place to discuss that aspect of my professional personality. Avatarian purists will quibble that I’ve left out the Second Life, Halo and World of Warcraft virtual world dimensions. But that misses the larger point: Purism will matter less than hybridization in this multiverse of appatarian opportunity. The essential takeaway is that tomorrow’s virtual workplaces, just like today’s physical ones, will be dominated by technologies with personality and personalities with technology. Managing people is important. Managing apps is important. Managing appatars, however, will soon become essential to business success. There will, in fact, be an appatar for that. Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business, is the author of Serious Play and the forthcoming Getting Beyond Ideas. This article was first published on www.hbr.org (http://blogs.hbr.org/schrage/2010/01/the-future-of-steve-jobs-here.html) on Janurary 28, 2010. All content on this page has been provided by Harvard Business Publishing Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 4 May 2010 | 7:48 am Leadership yoga: Innovation advantages from seeing disadvantageHave you noticed the tectonic plates starting to shift? Values and social purpose are creeping back into the business strategy conversation. Big societal problems are the next innovation frontier, and the best companies are practicing what I call “leadership yoga”—flipping the organization upside down to have their eyes to the ground to see the grass roots, where the next opportunities are starting to grow.  Illustration by: Shyamal Banerjee/Mint ICICI Bank has become a profitable giant and a learning laboratory for the world through technological innovations to serve the visually-impaired (talking ATMs) and remote farmers (banking services through cell phones). For vanguard companies, a desire to address unmet societal needs with the latest technology, not with charity or hand-me-downs, is central to their missions and also helps motivate creativity. Apple began 30 years ago with a social mission bigger than producing cool stuff. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak wanted to make bicycles for the mind, to make affordable computing power available to the masses; the first big markets for Apple computers were in schools. Finding what society needs is relevant in low-tech industries too. Cement company CEMEX’s attention to social needs and local conditions has generated innovations such as anti-bacterial concrete, which is particularly important for hospitals and farms; water-resistant concrete helpful in flood-prone areas; or used tires converted to road surface for countries with rapid growth in road construction. Japanese electronics company Omron encourages its people to find opportunities to serve society through technological innovations. Omron founder Kazuma Tateisi saw the identification and resolution of social needs as Omron’s core competency. Today’s executives quote his frequent exhortation: “Selling products is not enough. I want representatives to bring back needs from the customers—as many as possible, as quickly as possible. That is the other half of a sales person’s job.” Kazuma-san felt that the more Omron contributed to the society, the more problems the society will bring to Omron to solve. When solving problems of disadvantage is at the forefront, five innovation advantages can accrue: Bigger idea pool: a wider search is wider for broader ideas with bigger potential. People search more broadly, see more opportunities, and generate more ideas if they are encouraged to think about the world and not just about their function. If they look closely at society, not just as a market abstraction but as a collection of fellow humans with needs worthy of attention, they see that there is always room for improvement. “Better” is always a moving target. Having more ideas enter the innovation funnel provides more options and more improvements. Greater solutions-orientation: motivation to serve customers and users. When people feel their ideas will contribute to serving society, beyond the quest for revenues and profits, there is an additional motivational boost to focus on new solutions, not just pushing more of what they already know. They care about solving the problem because it is connected with their values, and they are willing to keep working until the problem is solved, not just until they have a product to throw over the transom. They want to engage those who have the problem in defining if the solution works for them. This puts passion and heart into user-directed innovation. * Open innovation: a greater willingness to draw on resources outside the organization, to work with partners, and to share ideas. Open innovation—the sharing of ideas among partners and willingness to draw on other people’s technology in the service of a higher end—relies less on pride of ownership; the important thing is getting the job done. * Less politics, less controversy, greater cooperation. Values and principles provide a basis for cordial internal conversation that elicits cooperation. This makes it possible for innovators to assemble the right team quickly, because others in the organization share a common goal despite the different positions they occupy. Invoking shared values can also wear down opponents and critics, surfacing the underlying interests that negotiations scholars find makes “Yes” a likely answer. Tying projects to enduring principles helps people rise above politics. Putting the good of the wide external community first helps get backing in the internal company community. * Faster execution: shorter communication and feedback loops. The very articulation of societal purpose as a driver of innovation helps shorten mental and organizational loops. Greater awareness on everyone’s part of their role in an end-to-end chain of impact can help bridge the gap between theory and practice. The research lab can come closer to the world of users, and those working with the wider society closer to the developers of new technology. Seeing the world from the bottom up rather than with the detached and distant perspective of headquarters can produce powerful innovation-facilitators. Practitioners of leadership yoga gain flexibility, speed, and new ideas from standing conventional wisdom on its head. Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Confidence and SuperCorp. All content on this page has been provided by Harvard Business Publishing Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 4 May 2010 | 7:35 am `Trade would stabilise Indo-China relationship`!Beijing`s increasing influence in immediate neighbourhood of India has made it a bit nervous, but bilateral trade between the two Asian giants would be the stabilising force in Indo-China relationship,US expert Kaplan said.Source: Zee News : Business | 4 May 2010 | 6:31 am US physicist ‘predicted about SMS in 1909’London: Texting may be a boon in today’s world, but the concept was visualised more than a century ago. And, it was a pioneering American physicist who had predicted about the portable messaging service, like the SMS, via a hand-held device in the Popular Mechanics magazine in 1909, its technology editor Seth Porges has claimed. Nikola Tesla, the physicist and a mechanical engineer, whose name lives on at the electric car maker Tesla Motors saw wireless energy as the only way to make electricity thrive, according to Porges. Telsa wrote in the magazine that one day it would be possible to transmit “wireless messages” all over the world and imagined that such a hand-held device would be simple to use and one day everyone in the world would communicate to friends using it, Porges said. This would usher in a new era of technology, Telsa wrote in the publication. Tesla was able to predict technology which is still in its nascent forms a hundred years later. He talked a lot about his other great passion, which was wireless power. “It has taken a little longer to get off the ground, but work on fascinating wireless conductive transmission is going on right now in research centres at MIT and Intel and other places,” The Daily Telegraph quoted Porges as saying. Porges disclosed Tesla’s prediction at a presentation, 108 years of futurism to industry figures in New York. The magazine, which has nine international editions that is read by millions, has been trying to imagine how the world will look in future years since it was first published in January 1902. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 4 May 2010 | 2:36 am
|
