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Ranbaxy launches Lipitor generic in CanadaRanbaxy Laboratories, India\'s largest drugmaker by sales, has launched a generic version of Pfizer\'s cholesterollowering drug Lipitor in Canada, the company said on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 7:19 am India retail attracts more foreign playersWalMart Stores Inc, the world\'s top retailer, is accelerating its rollout of wholesale stores in India, a crucial growth market that has long frustrated global firms with restrictive rules.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 7:00 am Open offer unlikely for Piramal HealthThere may not be any open offer for Piramal Healthcare, postacquisition of its Healthcare Solutions business by Abbott India, reports CNBCTV18.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 6:36 am KBC sells private banking arm to HindujaBelgian banking and insurance group KBC said on Friday it had sold its private banking arm KBL to Indian familyowned investment firm Hinduja for 1.35 billion euros (USD 1.68 billion).Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 6:04 am Jaypee Infratech falls 12% on debutShares in Jaypee Infratech fell as much as 12% on debut on Friday, after the private sector road builder raised about USD 500 million through its initial public offering earlier this month.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 6:02 am Abbott acquires Piramal\'s Healthcare Solutions businessAbbott has acquired Piramal\'s Healthcare Solutions business (Domestic Formulations) for an upfront payment of USD2.12 billion and an additional USD400 million annually for the next four years.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 5:49 am Gulf Oil to develop 39 acre land in BangaloreGulf Oil is planning to develop a 39 acre land in Bangalore, reports CNBCTV 18. For the development of the land, Gulf Oil has a joint venture with Hinduja Realty Ventures.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 4:58 am Steel prices to remain highly volatile: Tata SonsJJ Irani, Director of Tata Sons said steel prices will remain highly volatile.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 4:44 am Toyota effort criticized by US House panelCongressional Democrats sharply criticized efforts by Toyota Motor Corp to investigate whether faulty electronics are linked to unintended acceleration incidents in its vehiclesSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 4:30 am KBC sells KBL bank to Hinduja for $1.7 bln - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 21 May 2010 | 4:09 am KBC sells KBL bank to Hinduja for $1.7 blnBRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian banking and insurance group KBC said on Friday it had sold its private banking arm KBL European Private Bankers to Indian family-owned investment firm Hinduja Group for 1.35 billion euros ($1.68 billion).Source: Reuters: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 3:41 am Hinduja buys Belgian KBC’s banking arm for $1.68 bnBrussels: Belgian banking and insurance group KBC said on Friday it had sold its private banking arm KBL European Private Bankers (epb ) to firm Hinduja Group for €1.35 billion ($1.68 billion). The divestment is the largest to date by KBC in a restructuring plan required by the European Commission in return for €7 billion of state aid. Hinduja will push further into Europe, adding to its private bank in Switzerland. KBC said the deal would add €1.3 billion to its capital, boosting its core Tier 1 solvency ratio by 1 percentage point to 10.4%. However, it would have to book an impairment of €0.3 billion in the second quarter. KBC’s shares were up 2.4% at 30.5250 by 0900 GMT, outperforming the Stoxx Europe 600 banking index which was down 0.4%. “It is a positive in our view that KBC managed to sell at a higher price than anticipated and this in the currently unsettled equity markets,” KBW analyst Jean-Pierre Lambert said in a note to clients. Lambert said the market had expected a sale at €1.1 billion to €1.2 billion ($1.37-1.49 billion). At the end of 2009 KBL European Private Bankers had €47 billion in assets under management, and €37 billion in assets under custody. The number of bidders for KBL had narrowed in recent weeks to Exor, the investment firm controlled by Italy’s Agnelli family, and Hinduja. The KBL epb brand will be retained and the operation will continue to be headquartered in Luxembourg, KBC said. “With this divestment, we are releasing a significant amount of capital and further strengthening the KBC group, with its focus on its core bancassurance expertise and markets, and with its reduced risk-profile,” said chief executive Jan Vanhevel. Hinduja chairman Srichand Hinduja said his group aimed to provide KBL epb with access to fast-growing markets of the west Asia (middle east), the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere in Asia. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2010, KBC said in a statement. Deutsche Bank and Spencer House Partners LLP advised Hinduja on the deal. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 3:39 am ANALYSIS - Insurers eyeing Hong Kong's yuan hunger face hurdlesHONG KONG (Reuters) - Insurers are lining up launches of yuan-denominated policies in Hong Kong to tap investor expectations of a rising yuan, marking another step in the Chinese currency's trek towards globalisation.Source: Reuters: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 3:37 am Rupee off lows as exporters sell dollars - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 21 May 2010 | 3:37 am Edelweiss Capital Q4 net up 28% - Hindu Business Line
Source: Business - Google News | 21 May 2010 | 3:32 am Sensex cuts some losses but still in red - NDTV.com
Source: Business - Google News | 21 May 2010 | 3:29 am Enforcement directorate to file chargesheet in Satyam case soon"We have completed 90% of investigations into the money laundering and will file a separate chargesheet soon in a local court," a senior official of the enforcement directorate here said.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 3:23 am CPI-M seeks A. Raja's resignation on 2G-spectrum scam - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 21 May 2010 | 3:17 am Rupee off lows as exporters sell dollarsMUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee recovered from its lowest level in six-and-a-half months on Friday helped by dollar selling by exporters but losses in domestic shares and the U.S. unit's gains against some majors continued to weigh.Source: Reuters: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 3:16 am US senate passes sweeping Wall Street billObama's financial reform package aimed at curbing Wall Street excesses blamed for fuelling the 2008 global financial crisis was passed by 59 to 39 votes in the Senate last night.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 3:14 am India eyeing more infrastructure debt fundsNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is considering to launch debt funds of $5 to $11 billion each to help build highways and other large infrastructure projects in addition to a similar fund announced last week, a top government official said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 3:12 am Germany votes on aid, stocks slide on euro worriesBRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - Stocks slid further around the world on Friday on fears Europe's debt crisis and tougher financial regulation will hurt a global economic recovery, as Germany prepared to vote on a massive standby package to stabilise the euro.Source: Reuters: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 3:07 am Jaypee Infratech lists at discount on market weakness - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 21 May 2010 | 3:06 am Rupee off lows as exporters sell dollarsMumbai: The Indian rupee recovered from its lowest level in six-and-a-half months on Friday helped by dollar selling by exporters but losses in domestic shares and the US unit’s gains against some majors continued to weigh. At 2:35pm, the partially convertible rupee was at Rs46.94/95 per dollar, weaker than its previous close of Rs46.81/82. Earlier, the rupee had also turned stronger on the day for a brief period rising to the day’s high of Rs46.76. In early trade, the unit fell to Rs47.33, its lowest since 3 November, 2009, at which point it was down 1.1%. The index of the dollar against six major currencies was up 0.3%. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were at Rs47.17, weaker than the onshore spot rate, suggesting a bearish near-term outlook. The one-month onshore forward contracts were dealt at Rs47.05, providing a good arbitrage opportunity to investors having access to both markets. Indian shares trimmed its losses to about 0.4%, after having dropped over 2% early on the back of rising foreign fund withdrawals and sliding world markets. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both at Rs46.9325, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $5.9 billion. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 3:03 am Piramal Healthcare to remain in pharma biz - chairmanMUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian drugmaker Piramal Healthcare, which sold its pharmaceutical solutions business to Abbott Laboratories Inc, will remain in the industry and invest in remaining businesses, Chairman Ajay Piramal said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 3:01 am Abbott to buy Piramal's branded drugs business for $3.71 bn - Sify
Source: Business - Google News | 21 May 2010 | 3:01 am Fitch: India's 3G auction adds to telecom sector credit woes - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 21 May 2010 | 2:56 am Abbott to buy India Piramal's health unit for $3.7 blnMUMBAI (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc will pay $3.72 billion to acquire India's Piramal Healthcare's pharmaceutical solutions business, as global drugmakers look to boost their presence in emerging markets.Source: Reuters: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 2:53 am Dollar will be major part of India's reserves - RBIKOCHI, India (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar will remain a major component of India's foreign exchange reserves as most of the country's overseas trade is denominated that currency, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 2:50 am Thai PM committed to reconcilation; no poll offerBangkok: Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Friday he was committed to national reconciliation but made no offer of fresh elections, two days after troops quelled the worst political violence in modern Thai history. Anti-government “red shirt” protesters, who rioted in Bangkok and come mainly from the rural and urban poor, have demanded new elections, saying they are disenfranchised by the urban elite. “Let me reassure you that this government will meet these challenges and overcome these difficulties through the five-point reconciliation plan that I had previously announced,” said Abhisit in a TV address to the nation. The plan, first announced on 3 May, offers political reforms, social justice and an investigation into political violence. Before the latest violence, Abhisit had separately offered fresh elections in November, but has since withdrawn the offer, leaving Thailand’s political divisions unhealed. “You can be assured that this government has every intention of moving the country forward, restoring order, making sure that our recovery is well on track, and that we will do so in a transparent manner,” said Abhisit. Troops manned razor-wire roadblocks and searched vehicles for weapons in Bangkok on Friday, while hundreds of troops again swept through the capital’s posh central shopping area, once a barricaded camp for thousands of protesters, searching for weapons and explosives in the now-deserted battleground. Department stores smouldered after Wednesday’s violence. Anti-government “red shirt” protesters say Abhisit lacks a popular mandate after coming to power in a controversial parliamentary vote in 2008 with tacit military support. The red shirts broadly support former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted by the military in 2006 and now living in self-imposed exile to avoid a jail term for abuse of power. Finance minister Korn Chatikavanij said he still expected an early poll, adding it was highly unlikely the government would stay in office for its full term that ends in 2012. Cleaning ladies scrubbed the entrances to Bangkok’s ritziest stores on Friday to remove soot left from burning tyre barricades. Firemen trained a hose on a mass of rubble and twisted metal that was once part of Central World, Southeast Asia’s second-largest department store. Outside the 6 sq-kms ringed-off area, Bangkok’s chaotic traffic clogged roads as travellers were forced around the military zone. Many shops and banks were closed, public transport was limited and a week-long public holiday ensured many of the 15 million residents stayed at home. Finance minister Korn expressed confidence that the economy would pick up fairly quickly if the stability seen over the past 24 hours was maintained. But he acknowledged that tourism, which employs at least 15% of the workforce and accounts for 6% of the economy, would take much longer to recover. “Clearly, with the events that took place the past several weeks and pictures of those events flashing across TV screens around the world, it is going to have a very disastrous impact on tourism as a sector, probably, frankly speaking, for the remainder of the year,” Korn said at a seminar in Tokyo. With an overnight curfew in force for at least two more nights and mopping-up operations continuing under a state of emergency, officials may have their work cut out trying to reassure foreign investors and tourists Thailand is safe. “This has gravely shaken confidence in Thailand. What businesses need now is that the government and security forces restore law and order and existing businesses can resume their operations,” Nandor von der Luehe, chairman of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce of Thailand, told Reuters. “At the same time, the government should ensure that the armed elements do not go underground and start a guerrilla war in Bangkok and around the country. If such a scenario happened, it would drive businesses away from Thailand,” he said. The military crackdown on the nine-week anti-government protest in Bangkok began before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding nearly 100. Erawan Emergency Medical Centre said 52 people had died and 408 were wounded in the latest flare-up since 14 May. Dozens of buildings were torched, including many banks and the stock exchange. The stock market is closed but the central bank said banks inside shopping malls could reopen on Friday. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 2:44 am Mitsubishi accuses GE of breaking antitrust lawMitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd escalated a battle with General Electric Co (GE) over wind turbine technology, filing an antitrust lawsuit and another alleging infringement of a patentSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 2:38 am GLOBAL MARKETS - Stocks slide, euro boosted by short coveringLONDON (Reuters) - Stocks extended losses on Friday as markets continued to fret that the European debt crisis would nip a stuttering economic recovery in the bud but the euro benefited from a flurry of short covering.Source: Reuters: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 2:31 am Dollar will be major part of India’s reserves: RBIKochi: The US dollar will remain a major component of India’s foreign exchange reserves as most of the country’s overseas trade is denominated in that currency, a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday. “Euro is not a significant component in total reserves. Our major reserves will always be in dollars as 90% of trade happens in dollars,” KC Chakrabarty told reporters in Kochi. “How we are going to manage the currency will not be a matter of public debate,” he said. Data released by the central bank on 14 May showed India’s foreign exchange reserves were $276.24 billion, which included foreign currency assets worth $251.47 billion. The central bank does not provide a break-up of various currencies it holds as part of its forex assets. Chakrabarty said the dollar’s rise against major currencies would impact the rupee too and the central bank cannot stop the local currency’s slide. “Dollar is strengthening against all currencies, so it will be strengthening against the rupee also. You cannot stop it,” he said. The rupee hit a six-and-half-month low of 47.33 per dollar on Friday, pressured by rising foreign fund withdrawals and falling stock markets. The BSE benchmark Sensex fell as much as 2% in early trade. So far this month, foreign investors have pulled out $1.3 billion from domestic shares, bringing down net inflows in 2010 to $5.3 billion. Capital flows into and out of the share market are a crucial factor determining the rupee’s fortunes. “If in normal times it happens, then it is a concern,” Chakrabarty said, referring to the volatile movements. “But because of a crisis it is happening, it will adjust to itself. There is no problem.” “But if it remains continuously (volatile) it is a concern.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 2:30 am Ranbaxy launches Lipitor generic in CanadaRanbaxy, majority owned by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo, said Lipitor had a market size of 1.2 billion Canadian dollars in that country.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 2:22 am IRB Infra gets road project in Karnataka from NHAIIRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd said on Friday that the company is the "selected bidder" for National Highways Authority of India's 114km road project in Karnataka.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 2:21 am Belgian group KBC sells private banking arm to HindujaKBL European Private Bankers was put up for sale in the aftermath of the financial crisis, when KBC pledged the sale of private banking and a string of divestments in return for 7 billion it received in state aid.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 2:20 am Century Textiles suspends operations at tyre yarn unitMumbai: Diversified Century Textiles & Industries Ltd said on Friday it is partially suspending production of tyre yarn in stages from 21 May at its Century Rayon plant in Kalyan, a city suburb. The firm is halting production of viscose filament yarn and tyre yarn and production of viscose yarn is likely to fall by about 25% of total installed capacity, Century said in a statement to the BSE. The suspension is due to adverse market scenario and demand slowdown, it said. However, operations of rayon yarn and chemicals would continue unaffected, Century said in the statement. Century Rayon, which makes rayon, tyre cord and chemicals, has an annual production of 25,000 tonnes of textile and tyre yarn. Century Textiles, which also makes paper, denim and cement, said it would closely monitor the situation to restore operations. “The management will closely monitor the situation to restore the operation at appropriate time. Meanwhile, the factory will undertake the preventive maintenance of the tyre cord plant and related equipments”. Suspension of tyre cord operations is an indication that the diversified firm is increasingly focusing on unlocking its real estate business, analysts said. Getting real Century Textiles, which has a large land bank in Worli in central Mumbai, is constructing two buildings for commercial purposes to be completed in 12-15 months. “Century’s core focus has become realty since they are developing the Worli property and is looking at large valuations in realty,” said Kishor P Ostwal, chairman at CNI Research Ltd, that tracks small- and mid-cap stocks. Its textiles and paper divisions reported losses in FY10 while profits in its cement division rose during the year. “They are not doing very well in textiles either. The clear focus seems to be on realty. As and when they get cash flow on realty they may even spin off their cement and pulp divisions,” Ostwal said. The company’s shares, which fell as much as 3.5% earlier in the session, were down 2.98% at Rs440 in a weak Mumbai market. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 2:20 am Build it and they will do it? Retailers' India dilemmaSIRHIND, India (Reuters) - Lush green fields greet visitors to the agricultural heartland in Punjab, some dotted with tall bundles of paddy covered with black tarpaulin, exposed to the sun, the occasional thundershower and rodents.Source: Reuters: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 2:18 am IRB Infra gets road project in Karnataka from NHAI - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 21 May 2010 | 2:15 am Abbott to buy Piramal’s health unit for $3.7 bnMumbai: Abbott Laboratories Inc will pay $3.72 billion to acquire Piramal Healthcare’s pharmaceutical solutions business, as global drugmakers look to boost their presence in emerging markets. Takeover speculation had swirled around Piramal, with media reports highlighting Sanofi-Aventis, Pfizer Inc, and GlaxoSmithKline as possible buyers. Abbott said it will pay $2.12 billion up-front and make annual payments of $400 million for the next four years, beginning in 2011. The US-based company said the deal will make it the largest drugmaker in India. Global demand for generic drugs from Indian drugmakers such as Ranbaxy Laboratories and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, the top two players by sales, and local rival Cipla, is booming as governments battle rising healthcare costs. Emerging markets, where cheaper generic medicines form the bedrock of sales, are the new battleground for the world’s top drugmakers as sales stall in Western markets. “Piramal has got good money for the business,” said Sarabjit Kour Nangra, an analyst with Angel Broking in Mumbai. “Now their growth will depend on how they scale up the residual business.” Shares in Piramal, which the market values at roughly $2.6 billion, fell as much as 9% to the day’s low but pared losses later and were down 0.8%. Abbott India shares rose 7.4%. On Wednesday, Piramal Healthcare denied media reports the founders were selling a stake in the drug maker. Abbott plans to fund the deal with cash on its balance sheet and said the transaction would not change its earnings outlook for 2010. Piramal’s pharma solutions business makes and sells cheaper versions of patented drugs and the unit accounts for more than half of its revenue. Piramal’s other interests include manufacturing for third parties and pathology laboratories. Abbott said the combined sales force would be the largest in the industry in India, and forecast sales in India of more than $2.5 billion by 2020. Canny Buyer The deal underscores Abbott’s reputation as a determined but canny buyer of smaller pharmaceutical businesses. Last September it snatched the drugs unit of Belgium’s Solvay for €4.5 billion -- a price that disappointed Solvay investors who had been looking for more. The Solvay deal gave Abbott a better foothold in emerging markets in eastern Europe and Asia, where the US company has limited sales. The Piramal deal now takes it deep into the key Indian market, which is viewed as a springboard for wider drug distribution in developing economies. This month, Abbott entered into a licensing agreement to commercialize products of India’s Zydus Cadila in 15 emerging markets, in a bid to accelerate Abbott’s growth in emerging markets. Industry forecaster IMS Health predicts leading emerging markets will show annual pharmaceuticals sales growth of 14 to 17% through 2014, against just 3 to 6% a year for developed markets. Abbott was advised by Morgan Stanley. Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo’s $4.2 billion takeover in 2008 of Ranbaxy, demonstrates the possibilities but also the potential pitfalls that global players face when linking-up with Indian rivals. The US Food and Drug Administration said in February 2009 Ranbaxy sold misbranded or adulterated drugs in the United States, the company’s largest market, having earlier banned imports of over 30 generic drugs from the firm. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 2:15 am After Facebook and Youtube, Pakistan blocks Twitter Islamabad: After blocking Facebook and Youtube, Pakistani authorities today further widened the crackdown on websites with blasphemous contents by restricting access to popular social networking website Twitter. Pakistani users were unable to log into Twitter after internet service providers blocked access to the site. When users tried to log into site, there browsers displayed a message that said “this site is restricted.” Over the past two days, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has blocked websites like Facebook and Youtube, citing “sacrilegious contents” on the websites as the reason for the action. The crackdown began after the Lahore High Court issued an order for blocking Facebook over a page hosting a contest for blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Mohammad. Over 450 URLs have been blocked so far by the authorities. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Thursday said that YouTube had been blocked due to “sacrilegious contents” but did not point to specific material on the website that prompted the authorities to block it. The government acted against both Facebook and YouTube after it failed to persuade the websites to remove the “derogatory material,” the statement said. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 2:11 am After Facebook and Youtube, Pakistan blocks Twitter Islamabad: After blocking Facebook and Youtube, Pakistani authorities today further widened the crackdown on websites with blasphemous contents by restricting access to popular social networking website Twitter. Pakistani users were unable to log into Twitter after internet service providers blocked access to the site. When users tried to log into site, there browsers displayed a message that said “this site is restricted.” Over the past two days, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has blocked websites like Facebook and Youtube, citing “sacrilegious contents” on the websites as the reason for the action. The crackdown began after the Lahore High Court issued an order for blocking Facebook over a page hosting a contest for blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Mohammad. Over 450 URLs have been blocked so far by the authorities. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Thursday said that YouTube had been blocked due to “sacrilegious contents” but did not point to specific material on the website that prompted the authorities to block it. The government acted against both Facebook and YouTube after it failed to persuade the websites to remove the “derogatory material,” the statement said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 2:11 am Markets hit 3-month low; foreign withdrawals upMumbai: Indian shares skidded to their lowest level in nearly three months on Friday, as euro zone jitters send world equities lower and raised the prospect of more foreign fund outflows. Financials and energy major Reliance Industries contributed the most to the losses on the main index. By 11:19am, the 30-share BSE index was trading down 1.09% at 16,339.18, with 27 of its components declining. It fell as much as 2% early to 16,187.03, its lowest since 25 February. The 50-share NSE index .NSEI was down 1.1% at 4,894.65. “There is nothing wrong with our economy. The worries are about the rest of the world,” said Arun Kejriwal, director of research firm KRIS. “I am not too sure if it is already time to buy as we do not know how much pain is still in the offing.” India’s economy is forecast to expand more than 8% this year and corporate earnings have mostly been robust, but the outlook for the stock market has been dented by heavy foreign withdrawals as the euro zone crisis sparked a flight away from equities. Road builder Jaypee Infratech made a dismal stock market debut, following the footsteps of state-run Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam a day earlier, with its shares falling as much as 12%. “The biggest casualty of the market turmoil would be the future IPOs. It remains to be seen how things pan out for the ones that are lined up,” Kejriwal said. Data from the market regulator showed foreign funds had pulled out $1.3 billion from stocks so far in May, putting the main index on course for its third weekly fall in four. The funds are still net investors of $5.3 billion in 2010, following record inflow of $17.5 billion last year, and analysts held out hope. “We reiterate that unlike in 2008, the current global troubles have far less potential to hurt Indian companies with well-functioning operational parameters,” Credit Suisse analysts said in a note on Thursday. “As a result, we do not expect substantial earnings downgrade pressures in companies outside metal sectors.” State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, the the country’s leading lenders, shed 1% each, while HDFC Bank was down 0.8%. Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the Sensex, was down 1.2% at 987.85 rupees, after it was forced by cyclone Laia to suspend drilling and shut an oil and gas field off the country’s east coast as a precaution. Metal makers fell as London base metal prices slipped after a slump on Wall Street on concerns euro zone efforts to tackle the debt crisis might fall short. Tata Steel, the world’s eighth-largest steel maker by output, was down 1.6%. Non-ferrous metals producer Sterlite Industries and aluminium maker Hindalco shed 2.86% and 3.2% respectively. Cigarette-to-hotel group ITC bucked the trend and rose 0.3% ahead of its quarterly earnings. In the broader market, losers were more than four times the numbers of gainers on volume of 119 million shares. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 1:58 am Build it and they will do it? Retailers’ India dilemmaSirhind: Lush green fields greet visitors to the agricultural heartland in India’s northwest, some dotted with tall bundles of paddy covered with black tarpaulin, exposed to the sun, the occasional thundershower and rodents. A couple of hours away, workers wearing green hair nets and aprons clean and sort peas, tomatoes and potatoes in a 10,000-sq.ft. facility leased by Wal-Mart Stores, which ships vegetables and fruits to 28 supermarkets and a Wal-Mart wholesale store within hours of being picked in the fields. India’s woefully inadequate storage and processing facilities are in sharp focus as the country battles high food inflation, and with rising chatter about opening up retail to foreign firms such as Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour which have the resources and knowledge to build a supply chain. Waste due to poor post-harvest management, including lack of storage, is estimated at nearly 40% of total output in India, costing about Rs50,000 crore ($11 billion) a year. But it is a tough task, given the poor infrastructure, vast regional differences and laws limiting foreign firms to cash-and-carry wholesale outlets and franchise tie-ups with local partners in the $450 billion retail market. “The challenge is humongous: It is not just about making an investment. It’s also about dealing with the government and farmers,” said Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak Advisors. “Even with all the money in the world it can take years -- maybe 8-10 years for the kind of back-end you need,” he said. Retailers, who see India as a crucial growth market to help offset sluggish growth in western markets, say that building the back-end is not enough. “The supply chain is one of the big challenges,” Raj Jain, chief of Wal-Mart India, told Reuters in a recent interview. “We are willing to invest whatever it takes in the supply chain, the back-end. But that in itself won’t deliver all the efficiencies,” he said, arguing for fully opening up the sector. Euromonitor International forecasts grocery retailing in India will grow at about 17% annually between 2009 and 2014, putting it among the fastest growing markets in the world. Many Layers Even with the deep pockets of the world’s top retailer, India is a tough market to crack, with tiny farms, antiquated processes, and differential policies and taxes in every state. In the village of Haider Nagar in Punjab state, where Wal-Mart sources vegetables such as cauliflower and gourd, the retailer built toilets to prevent soil contamination, and teaches farmers about transplanting and nutrient management and the use of low-cost innovations to get a higher, better yield. Every farmer must keep a book detailing every stage of the process so the life-cycle can be traced and checks maintained. Wal-Mart sends its trucks everyday to pack freshly picked vegetables and fruits in plastic cases and deliver them at the processing centre in Sirhind, about 50 km away, which handles some 20 tons of produce daily. The vegetables and fruits are delivered at supermarkets of venture partner Bharti Retail and the Wal-Mart cash-and-carry wholesale store in Chandigarh city, a couple of hours away. Wal-Mart sources about 35-40% of its produce directly from some 130 small and marginal farmers nearby, Jain said. “Building stores is the easiest thing to do. Keeping them stocked is the challenge,” he said. “Maintaining quality and making sure commitments are kept is tough. We have to win the confidence of the farmers,” he said. That thought is echoed by rival Carrefour, the world’s No. 2 retailer, which has toured the length and breadth of the country to secure supplies of bananas from Gujarat and onions from Nashik, and trained farmers on improving quality of output. “There are many, many layers, with commission agents, wholesale markets, distribution agents which increase time to market and costs,” said Yannick Douville, a Carrefour director. “India has everything, but you need to be smart, you need to work closely with the farmers to get what you want,” he said at an event to set up greenhouses in Palla village near Delhi. The government has unveiled concessional duties and tax exemptions for refrigeration units and allowed external commercial borrowings for cold storage facilities. But it will take more to encourage investment. “Unless there is a big front-end no one’s going to invest billions of dollars in a cold chain or supply chain just to sell to some mom-and-pop stores,” said Technopak’s Singhal. Still, the size and growth potential are too big to ignore. “It is the size of the opportunity that will keep retailers like Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour interested, despite the hazy legal structure,” said Jon Wright at Euromonitor International. “Ultimately, foreign retailers will have to work out whether or not the lack of clear legislation surrounding market entry and operation within India is worth putting up with in the short term, given the long-term opportunities that exist,” he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 1:58 am Dollar will be major part of India's reserves: RBIRBI deputy governor KC Chakrabarty said the euro formed an insignificant portion of India's forex reserves.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 1:56 am Abbott to buy Piramal Healthcare unit for over $2 billionPiramal's Healthcare Solutions business will become part of the company's newly created, stand-alone Established Products Division.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 1:54 am 17 die in Andhra as cyclone Laila leaves a trail of devastationHyderabad: At least 17 people were killed and three others were reported to be missing as cyclone Laila left a trail of devastation in coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh damaging road networks and destroying crops. State disaster management commissioner T Radha told PTI that seven people were killed in Krishna district, including five in a wall collapse in Vijayawada city, while four persons lost their lives in Nellore, three in Guntur, two in East Godavari and one in Prakasam district. Two persons were missing in Krishna district and one in east Godavari since Thursday when the cyclone made the landfall in Macchalipatnam area, he said. Giving details, he said five members of a family were buried alive under a wall that collapsed on their hut at Chittinagar in Vijayawada on Friday morning. There was also a landslip in the area but no one was killed. Official sources here said crops suffered extensive damage while road network remained badly battered due to heavy rains caused by the cyclonic storm. The storm was heading towards Orissa on Friday morning from Vizianagaram in north coastal Andhra. Many colonies in Ongole town in Prakasam district -- which bore the brunt of Laila -- remained marooned due to a constant downpour in the last two days. Over 300 Army personnel, besides teams of National Disaster Response Force, have been rushed to Ongole for rescue and relief operations. Andhra Pradesh chief minister K Rosaiah, who planned to undertake an aerial survey in Prakasam district, put off his journey due to bad weather, the sources said. Rosaiah is now reviewing the situation with his Cabinet colleagues and top officials in the state secretariat, they said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 1:45 am Oil pares losses, above $70; euro zone woes lingerSingapore: US oil prices pared sharp losses to trade above $70 on Friday, soothed by a recovery in regional equity markets, but fears about Europe’s debt crisis kept the market on track for its eighth fall in nine sessions. China’s shares rebounded from a one-year intraday low, as bargain hunting in property shares helped offset uncertainties spurred by the European debt crisis. Sydney’s ASX 200 ended down 0.26% after dipping as much as 3.3%. US crude for July delivery fell 72 cents to $70.10 a barrel by 0745 GMT, recouping some of its losses from earlier in the day. On Thursday, trade in the June contract saw the largest intraday move of around $7 since the end of 2008, tumbling nearly 3% on its expiration. London Brent crude was down 31 cents at $71.50 a barrel. The 19-commodity Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global commodities benchmark, fell 1.02% on Thursday to stand at its lowest level since September. “There are signs that the economy may not be as strong as initially believed,” Peter Beutel of trading advisory Cameron Hanover said in a note. “Thursday’s (US) employment figure was disappointing, and more and more observers are talking about a second dip, now.” Tension between France and Germany over a unilateral German ban on some speculative trades on Wednesday and fears that Germany may force out weaker euro zone members rattled world markets, and kept investors on edge. “It’s like the UN, you can’t get anything concrete done. The only thing keeping them on the same page is to prevent a total collapse of the euro,” said Clarence Chu, trader at Hudson Capital. The market will be watching for the German parliamentary vote on the country’s contribution to the European Union/International Monetary Fund support package later on Friday, he said. Oil came under further pressure after industry data provider Genscape said late on Thursday that oil inventories at the key US Cushing, Oklahoma crude oil hub rose by 500,000 barrels in the week to 18 May, to 39.46 million barrel. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported that stocks at the Cushing delivery point rose 900,000 barrels to a fresh record 37.9 million barrels in the week to 14 May. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 1:43 am British Airways posts record £531 million FY lossBA said its revenues for the year to the end of March fell 11% to £7.9 billion but that its costs had come down by around the same amount.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 1:34 am Abbott to acquire Piramal's domestic drug biz for;$ 3.72 bnUS-based Abbott on Friday said that it will acquire India's Piramal Healthcare's domestic formulation business for $ 3.72 billion (about Rs 17,484 crore).Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 21 May 2010 | 1:29 am Abbott to acquire Piramal's domestic drug biz for USD 3.72bnUS-based Abbott on Friday said it will acquire India's Piramal Healthcare's domestic formulation business for USD 3.72 billion (about Rs 17,484 crore).Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 21 May 2010 | 1:11 am Dalai Lama to tweet with Chinese web usersBeijing: The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, will hold his first online chat with Chinese web users via Twitter on Friday, despite efforts by Beijing to silence him on the mainland. The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner will hold an hour-long chat session to be broadcast on the Twitter account of Chinese writer Wang Lixiong, who has long been a critic of Beijing’s policies in Tibet. Wang said in a blog entry that the Dalai Lama -- reviled by Beijing as a separatist -- will respond to about 250 questions submitted by more than 1,100 web users on the mainland, where information about the monk is restricted. Nearly 12,000 people selected the 250 questions by online voting done on a Google Moderator site, which was blocked in China on Thursday, according to Xiao Qiang, who heads the US-based China Digital Times. The Dalai Lama joined Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site, earlier this year. Although Twitter is blocked in China, Chinese users will be able to access the chat with the Dalai Lama, from 1200 GMT, as Twitter allows third-party applications and servers to freely use its data both inside and outside China. This has made Twitter largely available in China, eliminating the need for the virtual proxy networks often used to circumvent the vast web of government Internet censorship sometimes dubbed the “Great Firewall of China”, Xiao said. “The Great Firewall has actually helped the Twitter community to grow in China in a way not seen around the world,” he told AFP by telephone. “This community has a particular political bond, which is anti-censorship. Many Twitter discussions are about Internet freedom and how to circumvent the so called Great Firewall in more sophisticated ways.” An estimated up to 150,000 Chinese have Twitter accounts, with as many as 100,000 of them physically living in the mainland, Xiao said. China has called the Dalai Lama a “wolf in monk’s clothing” and accused him of seeking to split the country, although he has repeatedly said he accepts Beijing’s rule and is only seeking “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet. A decade of dialogue between representatives of the Tibetan leader and China’s communist government has failed to reach any substantive progress. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 21 May 2010 | 12:36 am Asian stock markets tumble amid Europe fearsJapan's Nikkei 225 stock average shed 258.69 points, or 2.6%, to 9,771.62, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.5% at 4,297.00.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 12:32 am South Korea's Asiana voted airline of the year in new surveyMore than 17.9 million air travellers from over 100 countries took part in the 10-month survey between July 2009 and April 2010 to choose their favourite airline.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 21 May 2010 | 12:13 am Day Trading GuideWe re-affirm our sell recommendation on DLF with stiff stop-loss at Rs 280Source: Business Line - Home Page | 21 May 2010 | 12:00 am Gas price hike could raise power tariffs by up to Re 1/unitThe Power Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde, said on Thursday that power tariffs could go up by as much as Re 1 per a (kwh) for projects following the Government's decision to hike gas prices under the administered price mechanism (APM) late onSource: Business Line - Home Page | 21 May 2010 | 12:00 am Hindalco Industries(Rs 156.60): SellWe recommend a sell in the stock of Hindalco Industries from a short-term trading perspective. It is apparent from the charts of the stock that its intermediate-term uptrend that commenced from a multi-year low of Rs 37 recorded in March 2009 gotSource: Business Line - Home Page | 21 May 2010 | 12:00 am Gas price hike boost for ONGC, OIL and GAILThe Government's decision to more than double the price for gas under the administered pricing mechanism (APM) from $1.79/mBtu to $3.82/mBtu until March 2014 is a positive for public sector upstream oil companies, ONGC and Oil India. IncludingSource: Business Line - Home Page | 21 May 2010 | 12:00 am Food inflation inches up marginally to 16.49%The annual food price inflation, based on the Wholesale Price Index, rose 16.49 per cent for the week ended May 8 compared with the previous week's annual rise of 16.44 per cent, with pulses, fruits and milk showing an uptrend. The fuel priceSource: Business Line - Home Page | 21 May 2010 | 12:00 am Road widening projects to get 10-year tax breakHighway widening projects will indisputably qualify for the 10-year tax break under Section 80 IA of the Income-TaxSource: Business Line - Home Page | 21 May 2010 | 12:00 am Unused PSU land to rescue stalled steel projectsIn an innovative move, the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises has formulated a list of state-owned companies that are not using their large land banks. This would be made available for projects delayed due to land acquisitionSource: Business Line - Home Page | 21 May 2010 | 12:00 am Jindal Steel acquires Oman's Shaheed Iron for $464 mJindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) on Thursday announced that it has completed the acquisition of Oman-based Shadeed Iron and Steel Co LLCSource: Business Line - Home Page | 21 May 2010 | 12:00 am Bharti, Vodafone may be the first to break even on 3G investmentsBharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar may well be the quickest to recover their 3G investment going by the current revenues they earn from the various circles where they have boughtSource: Business Line - Home Page | 21 May 2010 | 12:00 am Grasim profits up 15%; earmarks Rs 4,475 cr for cement businessGrasim Industries' net profit for the fourth quarter of the fiscal grew 15 per cent to Rs 654 crore while total revenue was up 11 per cent to Rs 5,475Source: Business Line - Home Page | 21 May 2010 | 12:00 am Fashion gears up for Cannes red carpet finaleCannes, France: At Cannes, the buzz on likely winners of the festival’s top prize Sunday is keeping fashionistas and film-makers alike awake at nights, as brands and movies fight for red carpet limelight. A city studded with high-end jewellers and designer boutiques, sun-kissed Cannes mutates into the world’s capital of luxury once a year when the 12-day festival comes around. The prime time for Gucci, Pucci, Armani and the rest will be the gala close on 23 May when paparazzi and TV networks from across the globe flash celebs sashaying up the red carpet’s 24 steps for the Palme d’Or awards finale. “The red carpet has become a catwalk show,” said Francois Ortarix, spokesman for Swarovski, the Austrian crystal-makers of cutting-edge jewellery and other accesories. The firm this year did “Desperate Housewife” Eva Longoria an 11th-hour favour when she called 15 minutes before stepping up the carpet to say her free €500 gift Swarovski clutch-bag was a little oversize and didn’t match her dress. Ortarix literally ran to her swish hotel suite with a smaller pouch in a different shade. “She even offered to return the other one,” he said. Like other designer labels, Swarovski flies into the festival each year, setting up a showroom in one of the city’s swankiest hotels where movie stars and celebs are offered jewels and accesories on loan. “People the world over watch the red carpet for new styles. It makes our customers dream they too can be as stunning as the stars,” he said. In a showroom nearby looking over the Mediterranean, Lebanese couture supremo Elie Saab has flown in 100-odd evening gowns worth anywhere from €3,000 to 30,000 -- also lent for the night for free, but only to celebs. “Our problem this year is there’re more male than female stars but we don’t do suits,” said spokeswoman Emilie Legendre. Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai, Chinese star Fan Bingbing, Britain’s Helen Mirren and Longoria all stepped out in Elie Saab at Cannes this year. Once loaned, the gowns can never hit the red carpet again. A recent documentary titled “Red Carpet” said members of last year’s Cannes jury that names the winners of the festival awards were paid “€90,000 each to wear an Armani creation for the opening ceremony. At the Oscars, said the movie’s director Olivier Nicklaus, fashion houses lavish sums of up to $250,000 to get a dress in the spotlight. But Elie Saab’s Legendre said their fashion house did not had over cash. “We don’t have muses, we don’t pay. People call, or their agents, asking for a gown. Sometimes the requests are made in Los Angeles, way before Cannes, sometimes it’s a last-minute affair.” The label brings a seamstress for the duration of the filmfest and when necessary finds a hairdreser, jeweller, shoes or bags. “Newcomers to the red carpet also want advice, asking ‘When must I stop, when do I turn to catch the cameras?´”, she said. “It’s a very intimidating thing to have to do.” With premieres, parties, photo-calls and cocktails, luxury labels are busy throughout the 12-day festival, the movie world’s biggest annual event. Chopard, the legendary Swiss luxury goods firm, hired the rooftop terrace of the Martinez hotel, where suites can cost tens of thosands of euros a night, for the duration of the festival. There it hosts soirees where champagne flows and stars wander in and out. At a mega-party for its 150th anniversary, Lionel Richie flew in to perform for A-listers such as Paris Hilton, Marion Cotillard, Meg Ryan and Naomi Campbell. Chivas whisky, one of 40-odd partners of the festival, treats its best customers to a day in Cannes, including wining, dining, late night partying and a red carpet premiere. So as the Cannes finale looms, the battle has begun to dress the stars who will climb the carpet for the very last day. “We don’t know yet though the rumour-mill is beginning to buzz,” said Legendre. “In the meantime we’re on call here every day from 4pm to midnight in case a star needs a dress.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 11:57 pm India's Ranbaxy launches Lipitor generic in CanadaRanbaxy Laboratories, India's largest drugmaker by sales, has launched a generic version of Pfizer's cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor in Canada, the company said on Friday.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 11:51 pm Army operations continue in smouldering BangkokBangkok: Troops manned razor-wire roadblocks and searched vehicles for weapons in Bangkok on Friday, two days after they ended anti-government protests that descended into the worst violence in modern Thai history. Hundreds of troops again swept through the capital’s posh central shopping area, once a barricaded camp for thousands of “red shirt” protesters, searching for weapons and explosives in the now-deserted battleground. Department stores still smouldered after Wednesday’s violence. Finance minister Korn Chatikavanij expressed confidence that the economy would pick up fairly quickly if the stability seen over the past 24 hours was maintained. But he acknowledged that tourism, which employs at least 15% of the workforce and accounts for 6% of the economy, would take much longer to recover. “Clearly, with the events that took place the past several weeks and pictures of those events flashing across TV screens around the world, it is going to have a very disastrous impact on tourism as a sector, probably, frankly speaking, for the remainder of the year,” Korn said at a seminar in Tokyo. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who the red shirts want to step aside, will address the nation in a live television broadcast at 11:15 am (0515 GMT), a government spokesman said. Cleaning ladies scrubbed the entrances to Bangkok’s ritziest stores to remove soot left from burning tyre barricades. Firemen trained a hose on a mass of rubble and twisted metal that was once part of Central World, southeast Asia’s second-largest department store. Outside the 6 sq-km (2.3 sq-mile) ringed-off area, Bangkok’s chaotic traffic clogged roads as travellers were forced around the military zone. Many shops and banks were closed, public transport was limited and a week-long public holiday ensured many of the 15 million residents stayed at home. A nation divided With an overnight curfew in force for at least two more nights and mopping-up operations continuing under a state of emergency, officials may have their work cut out trying to reassure foreign investors and tourists Thailand is safe. “This has gravely shaken confidence in Thailand. What businesses need now is that the government and security forces restore law and order and existing businesses can resume their operations,” Nandor von der Luehe, chairman of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce of Thailand, told Reuters. “At the same time, the government should ensure that the armed elements do not go underground and start a guerrilla war in Bangkok and around the country. If such a scenario happened, it would drive businesses away from Thailand,” he said. The military crackdown on the nine-week anti-government protest in Bangkok began before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding nearly 100. Erawan Emergency Medical Centre said 52 people had died and 408 were wounded in the latest flare-up since 14 May. Dozens of buildings were torched, including many banks and the stock exchange. The stock market is closed but the central bank said banks inside shopping malls could reopen on Friday. Modern Thailand has never seen such a protracted period of urban violence or teetered so close to full civil conflict. “Thailand has become a nation deeply divided, and although talk of a civil war may still be premature, there is a high risk that civil unrest and political violence will not be contained,” said Danny Richards at the Economist Intelligence Unit. The red shirts want fresh elections, saying Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva lacks a popular mandate after coming to power in a controversial parliamentary vote in 2008 with tacit military support. Abhisit last week withdrew an offer of fresh elections. The red shirts broadly support former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted by the military in 2006 and now living in self-imposed exile to avoid a jail term for abuse of power. Thaksin has been sighted in Paris recently and had planned to hold a news conference there to discuss events in Bangkok, but the French authorities have warned him off. “Given the context of violence in Thailand ... we informed Mr Thaksin, who is on a private trip, that he should avoid making any public displays or statements during his stay on our territory,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bruno Valero said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 11:50 pm Oil falls to $70 on global economy concernsOil prices fell to near $70 a barrel Friday in Asia on investor concern that a financial crisis in Europe could undermine the global economic recovery and crude demand. Benchmark crude for July delivery was down 50 cents to $70.30 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The July contract lost $1.68 to settle at $70.80 a barrel Thursday.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 11:37 pm Rupee depreciates by 12 paise against dollar in early tradeThe Indian rupee depreciated by 12 paise to $47.25 in early trade today on capital outflow by foreign funds from equities and the dollar's gain overseas.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 May 2010 | 11:13 pm Jaypee Infratech falls 12% on debutMumbai: Shares in Jaypee Infratech fell as much as 12% on Friday, making them the second listing in as many days to fall on debut in the wake of the euro zone debt woes that have rocked world markets. The tepid response could dent investor support for new share offerings in Asia’s third-largest economy that is forecast to expand more than 8% this year. On Thursday, state utility Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam had ended its market debut below offer price. Private-sector road builder Jaypee, a unit of construction firm Jaiprakash Associates, had raised $500 million in an initial public offering (IPO) that was 1.2 times covered and priced at the lower end of the Rs102-117 per share range. At 10:10 am, the shares were trading at Rs92.95, down 9%, after having fallen as low as Rs90 in the opening deals. The main Mumbai stock market was down 1.2%. The stock was the second most actively traded on the share market, notching a volume of about 8 million shares. Jaypee is developing a 165-kilometre, six-lane Yamuna Expressway in the Uttar Pradesh at a cost of $2 billion, connecting Noida, near Delhi, with the Agra. The company plans to develop real estate of about 25 million square metres along the expressway. Morgan Stanley India, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, Axis Bank, Enam Securities, IDFC Capital, ICICI Securities, JM Financial, Kotak Mahindra Capital and SBI Capital Markets were managers to the issue. Indian companies have raised about $11 billion through share sales in the domestic market so far this year, compared with $16 billion in 2009, according to Thomson Reuters data. Analysts expect the proceeds to rise to as much as $40 billion in 2010. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 10:56 pm Google premieres Web television gambleSan Francisco: Web search king Google Inc on Thursday showed off a risky attempt to marry the Web to television and reach the $70 billion TV advertising market, chasing a dream that has eluded even archrival Apple Inc. Developers at a conference applauded “Google TV,” and a slew of tech industry titans, including microchip maker Intel Corp and TV maker Sony Corp, sent their chief executives to announce that they had joined the project and that TV sets would be ready in time for Christmas buying. The key to Google TV is an on-screen search box, just like on Google’s Web site.  Google Inc CEO Eric Schmidt introduces GoogleTV, blending web technology and television, in collaboration with various partners, at the company’s annual developer conference in San Francisco, California on 20 May 2010. (From left are Schmidt, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn, Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen, Logitech CEO Gerald Quindlen, Howard Stringer,Chairman, CEO and President for Sony Corporation of America, and Intel CEO Paul Otellini.) Robert Galbraith / Reuters The TV search box accesses Google’s search engine to look through live programs, DVR recordings and the Web, delivering a relatively compact list of results that can be accessed with a push of the button. Internet television has been a minefield for the world’s most creative and deep-pocketed companies, and in a sign of the challenge, embarrassed Google engineers struggled initially to get their TV running, asking the audience to turn off their cellphones, which were interfering with TV remote controls. Web surfers have never left their desktops for the living room, and television watchers have kept their remotes pointed toward familiar territory despite attempts by Microsoft Corp and by Apple, which was the focus of frequent verbal jabs and jokes. Sony will build devices, marketed as Sony Internet TVs, to launch in the United States in the fall -- in time for the 2010 holiday season -- with Intel providing its small Atom processors to run machines. Sony did not release pricing and said it had not decided on plans for the TVs in other markets. Logitech International also will create a Google TV appliance that can work with current high-definition TVs. Television represents an attractive market in which to expand Google’s Internet advertising business, which generated the bulk of its $23.7 billion in 2009 revenue. Walkman creator Sony has seen its dominance in electronics eroded and has been looking for new technology, including 3D, to goose TV sales. “Video should be consumed on the biggest, best and brightest screen in the house. And that’s a TV. It’s not a PC or a phone or anything else in between,” said Google project senior product manager Rishi Chandra. Best Buy Co Inc will sell devices and DISH Network Corp will integrate its satellite television service into Google TV. Chief executives from those companies -- as well as Google, Sony, Intel, Logitech and Adobe Systems Inc -- all appeared on stage at Google’s developers’ conference for the announcement. The move fits with Sony’s strategy to focus more on its content business and to forge alliances rather than try to develop and produce everything on its own, said Mizuho Securities analyst Ryosuke Katsura. “Sony is trying to be asset-light and increase earnings from content distributed online,” he said. “For device development, it is seeking alliances rather than going it alone like it has been doing up until now, and this deal is a part of that move.” Shares in Sony, the world’s No. 2 LCD TV maker behind Samsung Electronics Co, rose 0.4% in afternoon trade in Tokyo, outperforming a 2.7% fall in the benchmark Nikkei average. Tough Task Google executives said previous efforts had failed because they dumbed down the Web for television, were closed to participation by others, and made people choose between using the Web or television. “It’s much harder to marry a 50-year-old technology and a brand new technology than those of us in the brand new technology industry thought,” Google chief executive Eric Schmidt acknowledged to the audience of developers. TV presents a potential new audience for the trove of online videos that Google offers through its website YouTube, which demonstrated on Thursday a new service called Lean Back designed to create automated video playlists for Google TV users. A YouTube spokesman said the content currently available on YouTube would also be available to consumers surfing the web with the browser on Google TV, but that it was still determining what exactly would be on the Lean Back service. It was not immediately clear whether media companies might object to having the online video content that they have offered for PCs available on Google TV, fearing such a move could harm their traditional TV business. A spokesman for video website Hulu, owned by Walt Disney Co’s ABC, News Corp’s Fox and General Electric Co’s NBC, declined comment on Google TV. Hulu and its owners have already blocked its content from other Web TV devices like a set-top box from privately held Boxee and Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console. Chief among the questions hanging over the newfangled televisions is the price. “If this thing costs 900 bucks forget it. This is going to have to be right about where a phone is, 250 bucks,” said Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney in reference to the set top box that Logitech said will bring Google TV to existing high-definition television sets. Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst said consumers could be disappointed if TVs appeared before developers had made many applications for the system. “The basic concept that they are doing is great, but it (parts of it) looked a little half baked to me. Someone like Apple is going to do this, and they are going to do it well,” he said. Apple in 2007 debuted Apple TV, which plays computer-based video on television sets. Its popularity has paled in comparison with devices like the iPhone and iPad. Google’s increasingly tense relationship with Apple was clear throughout the conference. Engineers showed off new versions of the Android mobile phone platform, which competes with Apple’s iPhone. Android also will run Google TV, turning Android phones into controls that can be used in the same room as the television or remotely across the Web. Apple has criticized Adobe’s Flash video product, a popular product which has been left out of Apple’s iPad tablet but was embraced by Google. “It turns out that on the Internet -- people use Flash!,” one Google executive said in a typical joke at Apple’s expense. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 10:39 pm Google premieres Web television gambleSan Francisco: Web search king Google Inc on Thursday showed off a risky attempt to marry the Web to television and reach the $70 billion TV advertising market, chasing a dream that has eluded even archrival Apple Inc. Developers at a conference applauded “Google TV,” and a slew of tech industry titans, including microchip maker Intel Corp and TV maker Sony Corp, sent their chief executives to announce that they had joined the project and that TV sets would be ready in time for Christmas buying. The key to Google TV is an on-screen search box, just like on Google’s Web site. Google Inc CEO Eric Schmidt introduces GoogleTV, blending web technology and television, in collaboration with various partners, at the company’s annual developer conference in San Francisco, California on 20 May 2010. (From left are Schmidt, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn, Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen, Logitech CEO Gerald Quindlen, Howard Stringer,Chairman, CEO and President for Sony Corporation of America, and Intel CEO Paul Otellini.) Robert Galbraith / Reuters The TV search box accesses Google’s search engine to look through live programs, DVR recordings and the Web, delivering a relatively compact list of results that can be accessed with a push of the button. Internet television has been a minefield for the world’s most creative and deep-pocketed companies, and in a sign of the challenge, embarrassed Google engineers struggled initially to get their TV running, asking the audience to turn off their cellphones, which were interfering with TV remote controls. Web surfers have never left their desktops for the living room, and television watchers have kept their remotes pointed toward familiar territory despite attempts by Microsoft Corp and by Apple, which was the focus of frequent verbal jabs and jokes. Sony will build devices, marketed as Sony Internet TVs, to launch in the United States in the fall -- in time for the 2010 holiday season -- with Intel providing its small Atom processors to run machines. Sony did not release pricing and said it had not decided on plans for the TVs in other markets. Logitech International also will create a Google TV appliance that can work with current high-definition TVs. Television represents an attractive market in which to expand Google’s Internet advertising business, which generated the bulk of its $23.7 billion in 2009 revenue. Walkman creator Sony has seen its dominance in electronics eroded and has been looking for new technology, including 3D, to goose TV sales. “Video should be consumed on the biggest, best and brightest screen in the house. And that’s a TV. It’s not a PC or a phone or anything else in between,” said Google project senior product manager Rishi Chandra. Best Buy Co Inc will sell devices and DISH Network Corp will integrate its satellite television service into Google TV. Chief executives from those companies -- as well as Google, Sony, Intel, Logitech and Adobe Systems Inc -- all appeared on stage at Google’s developers’ conference for the announcement. The move fits with Sony’s strategy to focus more on its content business and to forge alliances rather than try to develop and produce everything on its own, said Mizuho Securities analyst Ryosuke Katsura. “Sony is trying to be asset-light and increase earnings from content distributed online,” he said. “For device development, it is seeking alliances rather than going it alone like it has been doing up until now, and this deal is a part of that move.” Shares in Sony, the world’s No. 2 LCD TV maker behind Samsung Electronics Co, rose 0.4% in afternoon trade in Tokyo, outperforming a 2.7% fall in the benchmark Nikkei average. Tough Task Google executives said previous efforts had failed because they dumbed down the Web for television, were closed to participation by others, and made people choose between using the Web or television. “It’s much harder to marry a 50-year-old technology and a brand new technology than those of us in the brand new technology industry thought,” Google chief executive Eric Schmidt acknowledged to the audience of developers. TV presents a potential new audience for the trove of online videos that Google offers through its website YouTube, which demonstrated on Thursday a new service called Lean Back designed to create automated video playlists for Google TV users. A YouTube spokesman said the content currently available on YouTube would also be available to consumers surfing the web with the browser on Google TV, but that it was still determining what exactly would be on the Lean Back service. It was not immediately clear whether media companies might object to having the online video content that they have offered for PCs available on Google TV, fearing such a move could harm their traditional TV business. A spokesman for video website Hulu, owned by Walt Disney Co’s ABC, News Corp’s Fox and General Electric Co’s NBC, declined comment on Google TV. Hulu and its owners have already blocked its content from other Web TV devices like a set-top box from privately held Boxee and Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console. Chief among the questions hanging over the newfangled televisions is the price. “If this thing costs 900 bucks forget it. This is going to have to be right about where a phone is, 250 bucks,” said Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney in reference to the set top box that Logitech said will bring Google TV to existing high-definition television sets. Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst said consumers could be disappointed if TVs appeared before developers had made many applications for the system. “The basic concept that they are doing is great, but it (parts of it) looked a little half baked to me. Someone like Apple is going to do this, and they are going to do it well,” he said. Apple in 2007 debuted Apple TV, which plays computer-based video on television sets. Its popularity has paled in comparison with devices like the iPhone and iPad. Google’s increasingly tense relationship with Apple was clear throughout the conference. Engineers showed off new versions of the Android mobile phone platform, which competes with Apple’s iPhone. Android also will run Google TV, turning Android phones into controls that can be used in the same room as the television or remotely across the Web. Apple has criticized Adobe’s Flash video product, a popular product which has been left out of Apple’s iPad tablet but was embraced by Google. “It turns out that on the Internet -- people use Flash!,” one Google executive said in a typical joke at Apple’s expense. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 10:39 pm Toyota to invest $50 million in electric car plantThe heads of Tesla Motors Inc and Toyota Motors Corp surprised the auto world by announcing a partnership to develop and build electric cars at a recently shuttered auto plant in the San Francisco Bay area.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 10:37 pm Why is an underwater oil pipeline rupture so difficult to repair?Over several days, a blown oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico has turned into an environmental crisis. Photographs of marine life washing up on the shores of America, feathers or scales covered in oil, have been appearing in newspapers around the world. British Petroleum, which owns the well, has attempted to control the upwelling of oil with a dome, but to little effect. On Just to Clarify, we wanted to give listeners a better idea of what happens beneath the surface of the water in an offshore oil rig, and why such ruptures are difficult to control. Our guest on the show is Dr. GP Karmakar, a professor at the School of Petroleum Technology in Gandhinagar. Dr. Karmakar is a specialist in reservoir engineering and well testing, and he has worked previously for the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Source: Home - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 10:32 pm Sensex slips over 332 pts in opening tradeThe 30-share index, which had gained 111.19 points in the previous sessions, plunged by 332.65 points to 16,187.03 in the first five minutes of trading.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 10:18 pm Sensex slips over 332 points in opening tradeThe Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Friday slumped over 332 points in opening trade on brisk selling by funds amid concerns over the eurozone debt crisis.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 May 2010 | 10:18 pm Wall St sinks on euro-zone fears, reform angstUS stocks sank nearly 4% on Thursday on growing fears the euro zone’s efforts to tackle its sovereign debt crisis will fall short, jeopardizing the global economic recovery. Selling picked up speed late in the day and indexes closed around their session lows after the US Senate voted to end debate on the sweeping overhaul of financial regulation, allowing a final vote on the bill later on Thursday or Friday. The S&P 500 finished down 12% from its 23 April, 2010, closing high, signaling a correction and marking the worst day since late April 2009. The index also ended below its 200-day moving average, a sign the momentum downward could build. The correction comes on the back of a stream of negative news out of Europe, from worries over Greece’s debt crisis to Germany’s unilateral decision this week to ban naked short-selling. Banks and commodity-related stocks, which are more sensitive to economic cycles, were among the hardest hit, with the KBW Bank index sliding 5.1%. The S&P Energy index fell 4.4%, while US June oil futures fell 2.7%, or $1.86, to settle at $68.01 a barrel in volatile trade on the day of its expiry. ”The primary mover is coming from Europe. There are still fears of a debt crisis over there and the fact that it could spread to the banking system,” said Bernie McSherry, NYSE trader at Cuttone & Co in New York. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 376.36 points, or 3.60%, to end at 10,068.01. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX slid 43.46 points, or 3.90%, to 1,071.59. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC lost 94.36 points, or 4.11%, to 2,204.01. Dell Inc provided little comfort after the bell when it reported stronger-than-expected profit, but warned of volatile global currencies and components shortages. Its stock fell 3.1% to $13.88 in extended trade. In regular trading, Dell had fallen 4.4% to end at $14.32. May individual equity options and some options on stock indexes will stop trading at Friday’s close and expire on Saturday, which may increase volatility. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility index .VIX, Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge, closed at its highest since March 2009. The VIX ended at 45.79 -- up 29.6%. In a sign of heightened fear, 2.5 million puts have traded across all the exchange traded funds, which is three times the normal and about 51% of the total put volume. Disappointing economic data on the domestic front also contributed to the downdraft. The number of US workers filing new applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week for the first time since early April. The index of leading economic indicators slipped last month for the first time since March 2009, while factory activity in the US mid-Atlantic region accelerated less than expected in May. Large manufacturers’ shares ranked among the heaviest weights on the Dow, with Caterpillar (CAT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) down 4.5% at $58.67 and 3M down 3.5% at $79.62. Uncertainty surrounding the final outcome of the financial reform bill weighed on financial shares and hindered the market overall, McSherry said. “Put it all together and there’s a whiff of fear back in the air. Hopefully, it doesn’t metastasize and get worse.” Analysts said the correction could be healthy for a market that surged as much as 80% from the 9 March, 2009, closing low. But if worries over the recovery’s sustainability persist, it will be difficult for stocks to bounce back. The S&P 500 closed less than 6 points above the intraday low of 1,065.79 hit two weeks ago on Thursday, 6 May, during the worst of the so-called ”flash crash” that has left investors on edge. On that day, the Dow fell nearly 1,000 points late in the day in its biggest ever intraday point drop amid a suspected trading glitch, and then retraced some of that loss to end down 3.2%. In a rare bright spot, shares of healthcare revenue management company Accretive Health Inc and Internet marketing company ReachLocal Inc rose sharply in their market debuts. However, both companies raised significantly less in proceeds than planned. Accretive Health rose 12.9% from its IPO price to close at $13.55 and ReachLocal gained 15.2% to $14.98. From a volume standpoint, it was one of the biggest days of the year with about 15.34 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq -- well above last year’s estimated daily average of 9.65 billion. Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by a ratio of nearly 19 to 1, while on the Nasdaq, more than 11 stocks fell for every one that rose. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 10:11 pm Govt backs off but Posco agitation continues - IBNLive.com
Source: Business - Google News | 20 May 2010 | 9:59 pm Google unveils Internet television planGoogle Inc has unveiled its plan to launch "Google TV", a search technology that will provide an easy and fast way to navigate to television channels, websites and applications, all on televisions.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 9:10 pm Security apparatus can’t be easily fixed The grievous harm successive governments have done to the country’s internal security apparatus over the past half a century, the sheer enormity of cumulative deficits, the institutional decay and disarray that afflicts every limb and organ of the system—all these are simply too great to be repaired within the framework of present governance, and of the timeframe of a single electoral cycle. UPA-II has taken allocations for the ministry of home affairs up from an actual outlay of Rs416 crore in 2008-09 to Rs1,079 in 2009-10, and projects an expenditure of Rs2,001 crore in 2010-11—a staggering increase by any measure. Despite large augmentations in allocations for internal security, a slew of sanctions for increased recruitment in the Central paramilitary forces and the intelligence apparatus, the creation or operationalization of, or capacity enhancement in, a number of new and nascent institutions—the Multi-Agency Centre, the Subsidiary Multi-Agency Centres, the Joint Task Force on Intelligence, the National Technical Research Organisation, coastal security and special forces’ capabilities prominent among these—the actual impact on current risks remains marginal. The Centre is also underwriting massive modernization and upgrade of police capacities in the states, though the response of most states has been less than enthusiastic. Crucially, procedural inflexibilities and corruption continue to undermine the speedy implementation of many of these measures. Ruhi Tewari talks to Amitabh Mattoo, professor of international politics and security at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, about India’s security situation as the UPA government completes the first year of its second term Also See | National Security: India Still Vulnerable Towards end-2009, home minister P. Chidambaram had candidly declared that despite urgent efforts to enhance capabilities across the board, “India remains vulnerable to a Mumbai-style militant attack…” This is an assessment he has reiterated repeatedly thereafter. The minister also disclosed in 2009 that Maoist activities extended across 223 districts (out of a total of 636 districts in the country) in 20 states, though violence was “consistently witnessed” only in 400 police station areas of 90 districts in 13 states. Nevertheless, this is a dramatic rise from 55 districts in nine states in 2003, and 76 districts in nine states in 2004, when UPA-I came to power. Despite some improvement, moreover, another 20 districts are still afflicted by Pakistan-backed Islamist terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, and 67 districts by multiple insurgencies in the North-East. The broad security scenario is certainly worrisome. There have, moreover, been a number of missteps. The boastful incoherence of the Centre’s anti-Naxalite “strategy” produced a disastrous outcome at Chintalnar in Chhattisgarh, though this incident was no more than a culmination of a continuous rash of “lesser” incidents that had resulted, essentially, from the infirmity of the state’s strategies. Ironically, part of the home ministry’s response seems to be to start fudging facts. According to Institute for Conflict Management data, based on open-source monitoring, there had been at least 998 Maoist-related fatalities in 2009. The home ministry’s January monthly report card noted 1,125 Maoist-related fatalities in 2009; surprisingly, the ministry’s annual report for 2009-10 brought this figure down to 908! There has also been a degree of wasteful symbolism and misdirected effort, certainly in the case of the creation of the National Investigative Agency, the dispersal of a number of NSG (National Security Guards) hubs, and ongoing efforts to set up a national counter-terrorism centre “like the US”. There is a manifest propensity to focus inordinately on meta-institutional reform and the creation of new institutions, even while crippling deficits persist on the ground. Most of these new institutions, moreover, cannibalize officers from existing institutions, each of which are in a crisis of leadership. Despite extraordinary efforts to augment recruitment in the Indian Police Service (IPS) from a bottomed-out 36 per year between 1998 and 2001 under the National Democratic Alliance government, up to 130 in 2008 and 2009, and a projected intake of 150 from 2010 onwards, existing deficits will only be met by 2017, by which time requirements can be expected to have risen exponentially! An excessive emphasis on the role of the Centre in all internal security issues, however, is perhaps the most significant distortion in the UPA-II internal security perspective. The effort to construct a monolithic national internal security architecture is enormously misdirected as a response to conflicts that demand the widest possible decentralization of response capabilities and decision-making. As retired IPS officer K.P.S. Gill astutely notes, there is no point in the home minister trying to be a field marshal. The home ministry’s postures and projections have, further, given reluctant states an alibi for continued inaction and neglect, even as the onus of every failure is shifted to Central agencies. This is undermining responses at the level where they are most urgently needed, even as it sets the Centre up for blame in spheres that are far beyond its constitutional jurisdiction and its capacities of response. Ajai Sahni is executive director, Institute for Conflict Management and South Asia Terrorism Portal. Respond to this column at feedback@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 1:45 pm Corporate News | Nacil seeks $1.15 bn torefinance Air India debtMumbai: National Aviation Co. of India Ltd., the owner of state carrier Air India, is seeking to raise as much as $1.15 billion (Rs5,382 crore) to refinance loans that funded the purchase of 21 Airbus SAS planes. The debt will be used to repay loans from a group of Indian banks as Nacil tries to reduce interest payments, according to the company’s website. The government will guarantee the loans, the company said. Nacil is trying to cut expenses after the government ordered the company to improve its operations to win financial support. Bloomberg ********* Wockhardt’s quarterly loss at Rs565 crore Mumbai: Domestic drug maker Wockhardt Ltd on Thursday reported a net loss of Rs565 crore for the quarter ended March. The figure includes derivatives-related losses and non-cash provisions of Rs633 core for impairment of French subsidiary Negma’s goodwill due to the possible threat of generics to its principal product. Currency fluctuation also caused a loss of Rs16 crore. Staff Writer Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 1:45 pm Bombay Dyeing sells Worli building to Axis Bank for Rs 782 croreIn one of the largest transactions in recent times, Bombay Dyeing has sold a four lakh sq feet office building in Worli to Axis Bank for a staggering Rs 782 crore. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 1:28 pm Govt to gain Rs 21,717 crore if Trai's 2G formula gets nodBonanza for government keeps on growing. If DoT accepts Trai's recommendation that telecom operators must pay for excess 2G spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz, then government will get an additional revenue of Rs 21,717.1 crore.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 May 2010 | 1:18 pm JSPL to buy Oman's companyNaveen Jindal-led JSPL will acquire Oman-based Shadeed Iron & Steel Co for $464 million, marking its first overseas presence in the steel sector.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 May 2010 | 1:17 pm 3G spectrum winners chasing own user baseA closer look at the 3G bidding strategies of the winners shows a clear trend, which can be simply encapsulated as 'chase your own subscriber base'.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 May 2010 | 1:14 pm Food inflation up at 16.49%Food inflation rose a tad to 16.49% for the week ended May 8 against an annual food inflation of 16.44% in the previous reporting week, even as analysts saw the index remianing at this level until signs of a normal monsoon get visible on the ground.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 May 2010 | 1:13 pm Sensex rises 111 pointsAfter a huge negative swing on Wednesday, markets ended the day in the green in a choppy session. Sensex closed at 16,519.7 points, up 111.2 points or 0.6%. The index hit a low of 16,419.10 points.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 May 2010 | 1:13 pm ‘Maharaja is dying a slow and certain death’State-run Air India is slipping into a “slow and silent decline” and unless drastic steps are taken the airline would slide into a “point of no return”, consulting firm Booz & Co. said in a presentation to the company’s board recently. Tushar Srivastava reports. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 1:12 pm Telecom, oil stocks lead the showWith the auction for 3G spectrum finally over and oil prices hitting a new low, telecom and oil and gas stocks gained momentum on the bourses on Thursday.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 May 2010 | 1:11 pm Delhi's Bengali power forms a Bong ConnectionThe murmurs of a resurgence of Bengali intelligentsia are getting louder on the Capitals Raisina Hill. So, when Tarun Das, ex-chief mentor of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Shekhar Datta, former managing director of Crompton Greaves, invited a few influential Bengali bhadraloks for a laugh and a loaf last Saturday at CIIs Jor Bagh address, everyone readily accepted.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 1:11 pm Grasim net rises 42% to Rs 3096 croreGrasim Industries, on Thursday said its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, jumped by 15% to Rs 654 crore as against Rs 569 crore in the year-ago period.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 20 May 2010 | 1:10 pm SBI on cost-cutting drive, to go slow on branch expansionState Bank of India (SBI) has swung into action to check its rising operating expenses, one of the key factors responsible for dragging down its fourth quarter profits.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 1:10 pm Novartis plans ayurveda debutThe Indian arm of Swiss pharmaceutical major Novartis AG is set to become the newest entrant in the ayurvedic business.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 1:07 pm 2G licence renewal may cost telecom firms Rs 1 lakh crWith the third generation (3G) game over, for now, telecom operators are staring at the possibility of having to pay Rs 1,03,000 crore to the government when their 2G airwave licences come up for renewal, beginning 2014. Eleven telcos, whose licences will expire between 2014 and 2021, will have to pay this 13-figure sum if the government accepts the telecom regulator's proposal of pricing second generation radio airwaves on the basis of prices determined at the just-concluded auction of thirdSource: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 1:05 pm Scientists use synthetic genome to create lifeBangalore: Marking a defining moment in the pursuit of creating artificial life, scientists have shown that a bacterial cell can function with a man-made synthetic genome just as well as it does with a natural one. After demonstrating in the last few years that it was possible to make artificial chromosomes, geneticist J. Craig Venter and his team at the institute named after him in Maryland and San Diego report in Friday’s issue of Science that when the synthetic genome was transplanted into a bacterial cell, by replacing its native genome, the cell behaved normally, making fresh proteins. Also See The Genome Timeline (Graphic) The analogy here is: the cell operates like computer hardware, the genome like software. Venter says his findings prove that life is “basically the result of a software process”. It took 20 scientists over 10 years and $40 million (Rs187 crore) to reach a stage where using four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesizer they could write the genetic code of a bacterium, M. mycoides. S. Sridhar, a geneticist at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi, believes it’s “a crucial milestone” towards creating a synthetic organism. He thinks Venter’s group is halfway towards reaching the ultimate goal of developing synthetic life. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they reach it within the next two years,” says Sridhar. Venter himself seems more restrained. “Having just been successful in the work to construct the first synthetic bacterial cell, the team has not yet begun work to move to different level organisms,” he wrote in an email response when Mint asked how close he was to creating the algae with Exxon Mobil Corp. that is envisaged to take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and produce biofuel. “This is one of the directions that we will move (towards) now that we have the proof of principle that synthetic bacterial cells can be constructed.” The whole assembly of one million base pairs of DNA happened in three steps—the shorter DNA sequences were inserted into yeast where the strings were linked together; the medium-sized strings were then inserted into E. coli, and finally inserted back into yeast. The synthetic genome of M. mycoides was then transplanted into another bacterium called M. capricolum, which “booted up” just right. Scientists say one of the revolutionary aspects demonstrated in this research is that the initial sequence could be represented as a text file on a computer. “That is, any mutation, new genes, watermark features, etc., can be introduced in a text file, and they will make it to the destination cell,” says Mukund Thattai, biophysicist at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore. In the last three years, Thattai has led Indian student teams to the annual synthetic biology competition—iGEM—at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of those winning teams, from the Indian Institute of Technology, in Chennai, is now being funded by a student entrepreneurship award from industry body, Association of Biotech Led Enterprises, to look at photosynthetic marine algae for biofuel. “It’s in a very preliminary stage, nowhere near the speed and scale of Venter, but I want to prepare a team that can run the race with the rest of the world,” says Shrikumar Suryanarayan, chief executive of Biotechnology-Science Cluster, Faridabad. He is mentoring the team as he believes India needs to find its own micro-organism-derived source of biofuel. Once this technique becomes routine, the sky is the limit for applications, say scientists. Venter is also working with drug maker Novartis AG to use the technology to produce flu vaccines as he believes the process could reduce production time by 99%. While this could turn out to be a dream tool for scientists, some worry it might remain the preserve of a few sophisticated institutes, particularly because, as early movers, Venter’s company Synthetic Genomics Inc. owns several patents. Thattai thinks otherwise—it now amounts to some technical/engineering issues, which, if resolved, could make this more widely available. “We believe that this powerful technology does indeed have the promise of being widely used for many positive applications, such as clean water. The only way it will make an impact is if the science and technology can be (made) broadly available and used,” says Venter. But his caution about “wise” use of this tool remains paramount. To his credit, Venter has been driving several ethical, policy and societal discussions, even creating awareness about the inbuilt safety mechanism. Scientists can insert “suicide genes” in the artificial genome so that it doesn’t survive outside the desired environment, be it a lab or a bio-reactor. Graphic by Navin Kumar Saini / Mint Jacob P. Koshy in New Delhi contributed to this story. seema.s@livemint.com Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 12:42 pm BSNL, MTNL say not seeking concessions on 3G paymentState-run telecom firms Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Thursday said they have not sought any concessions from the government on payments they have to make for third generation (3G) spectrum.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 10:51 am Jindal Steel to buy Oman firm for Rs 2,100 crNavin Jindal-led Jindal Steel & Power Ltd said on Thursday that it would acquire struggling Oman-based Shadeed Iron & Steel Co LLC for $464 million (nearly Rs 2,100 crore) in a deal that would give it a foothold in the West Asian market and also give it strategic advantage in its emerging focus on gas-based steel plants. HT reports. In graphics.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 20 May 2010 | 9:59 am Google predicts online search battle on mobilesSingapore: The battle for leadership in Asia’s search engine market will shift from computers to mobile phones as more and more Asians use their handsets to go online, a Google executive said Thursday. Unlike in the United States, Asians have been quick to embrace cell phones as a means to surf the Internet or check e-mails, said corporate development head Charles Rim. “The mobile Internet and the proliferation of usage of mobile Internet is becoming very profound,” he said in a conference organized by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in Singapore. “So in Asia we have already seen that dynamic where for instance in many markets... the mobile handsets overtook landlines.” He said that for Google “the battlefield in terms of search is really going to be a mobile battlefield and that’s really going to be more important and relevant than the PC battlefield.” The search business remains an important one for Google, which is why the California-based Internet giant decided to enter into the highly competitive but lucrative smartphone market. “Why are we getting involved in phones?” asked Rim. “Not because we make a lot of money selling handsets but we want to help the proliferation of cheap handsets, cheap devices that would see more Internet proliferation and we know at Google that feeds back into our search engine,” he said. Google marked its entry into the smartphone market with the launch of its Nexus One device in January, putting it into direct competition with Apple’s ultra successful iPhone. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 6:12 am Pakistan blocks YouTube over ‘sacrilegious’ contentIslamabad: The Pakistani government blocked access to YouTube on Thursday because of “sacrilegious” content on the video-sharing website, signaling a growing Internet crackdown against sites deemed offensive to the country’s majority Muslim population. The move against YouTube came a day after the government blocked access to Facebook because of a page on the social networking site that encourages users to post images of Prophet Muhammad. The page sparked criticism because Islam prohibits any images of the prophet. A Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) official, who declined to be identified, said the action was taken after the authority determined that some caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad were transferred from Facebook to YouTube. The PTA did not point to specific material on YouTube that prompted it to block the site, only citing “growing sacrilegious contents.” The government took action against both Facebook and YouTube after it failed to persuade the websites to remove the “derogatory material,” the regulatory body said in a statement. Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an “immediate” blockade of YouTube. “It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that,” he told Reuters. The regulatory body said it has blocked more than 450 Internet links containing offensive material. It is unclear how many of the links were blocked in the last two days. Access to the online encyclopedia site Wikipedia and the photo sharing site Flickr was also restricted on Thursday. YouTube was also blocked in the Muslim country in 2007 for about a year for what it called un-Islamic videos. Siraj said the blocking of the two websites would cut up to 25% of total Internet traffic in Pakistan. “It’ll have an impact on the overall Internet traffic as they eat up 20 to 25% of the country’s total 65 giga-bytes traffic,” he said. Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. Around 50 people were killed during violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan. The PTA welcomed representatives from the two websites to contact the Pakistani government to resolve the dispute in a way that “ensures religious harmony and respect.” Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 20 May 2010 | 4:08 am
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