|
|
|
|
Find out: Karvy Stock Broking\'s views on banking spaceIn an interview with CNBCTV18, Hemendra, spoke about his outlook on the banking space.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 7:34 am Asian Paints new unit construction to start in Q3India\'s largest paints maker, Asian Paints, expects to start construction of its Rs 735 crore plant in Maharashtra in the OctDec quarter, its top official said on Wednesday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 7:26 am JSW Steel prices warrants at Rs 1,210 eachJSW Steel prices warrants at 1,210 rupees eachSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 6:55 am Reliance may invest in coalbased power plantsIndian energy major Reliance Industries could invest in coalbased power plants due to the surging demand for electricity in the fastgrowing country, the Economic Times reported on Wednesday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 6:55 am Etisalat says in India talks, Reliance Comm surgesAbu Dhabi\'s Etisalat could decide within weeks whether to take a stake in an Indian telecoms operator, its chairman said on Wednesday, after a newspaper said it was in talks with Reliance Communications.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 6:55 am FY10 infra earnings subdued, but order book strong: 3iIn an exclusive interview with CNBCTV18, Anil Ahuja, MD and Co Head Asia, 3i speaks about the infrastructure sector and gives his outlook going forward.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 6:20 am Bianca Jagger: Since we cant buy our planet back...Companies that put people and the environment at risk, must be punished for their crimes.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 6:20 am TVS to relaunch its entry level bike MaxTwowheeler manufacturer TVS Motors is planning to relaunch its entry level bike TVS Max by Juneend, reports CNBCTV18.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:41 am Govt may price domestic coal at global rates: ReportThe government plans to price domestic coal on par with global rates, a move that could lead to higher power tariffs, a Press Trust of India report in the Financial Express said on Wednesday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:33 am Malaysia`s Khazanah heads overseas with ParkwayMalaysian state fund Khazanah\'s $835 million bid for Parkway may signal the start of more focused, major acquisitions abroad to help Malaysia Inc venture beyond its cosy home market.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 5:12 am New project will add 7-8% to total order book: IVRCL Infra - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 4:05 am Tata Nano's mother plant unveiled at Sanand - Commodity Online
Source: Business - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 4:00 am Sensex surges further; RComm, Tata Steel most active - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:57 am Sensex volatile; RCom, ONGC, Bharti, RInfra gainBenchmarks turned volatile with positive bias on Wednesday as negative European markets hurt sentiments. Auto and IT stocks provided support while metals and power stocks showed weakness.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:44 am Why labour unrest is good for China and the worldBEIJING (Reuters) - A rare burst of labour unrest in China has been resolved with hefty pay increases, illustrating how the balance of power in the country's vast factories is slowly but surely tilting towards workers.Source: Reuters: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:38 am Govt discontinues project of training auto drivers before CWGNew Delhi: The Tourism Ministry’s ambitious project to give mannerism training to auto drivers ahead of Commonwealth Games has been discontinued after covering just 10% of them. The project aimed at covering 8,000 auto drivers in the national capital has been “temporarily” discontinued since January this year. No reason has been assigned for the move. Replying to a Right to Information application, Delhi Institute of Hotel Management, one of the institutes which tourism department had entrusted to provide training, said, the programme has been temporarily discontinued. It said the last batch of auto drivers was trained between 4-6 January 2010. The government has spent about Rs51 lakh in training 835 drivers. Under the scheme, Haryana Institute of Public Administration was given umbrella role to design the course and impart training through three Institutes - Delhi Institute of Hotel Management (DIHM), Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) and Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). The course was planned by Union Tourism Ministry in September 2009 under which 8,000 auto drivers were to be trained in spoken English, personality development, stress management, road safety, Commonwealth Games and Yoga among others. Different ministries and civic agencies like Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), New Delhi Municipal Council and Delhi Police had to be roped in for the training. Delhi has an estimated 55,000 auto drivers. The training was to be conducted in batches of 40 persons each and scheduled to be concluded just before the commencement of the Games on 3 October. Shreshtha Vashisht had filed an RTI application asking Tourism Ministry the details of the programme. The application was then forwarded to IIPA, ITDC and DIHM for their responses. A highest of 385 were provided training at IIPA at a total cost of about Rs40 lakh, the reply said. ITDC imparted training to 193 of them in eight batches between 26 October 2009 and 18 January 2010 at the total cost of Rs4.34 lakh. A total of 257 auto drivers were trained in nine batches between 26 October 2009 and 6 January 2010 by DIHM at the total cost of Rs5.43 lakh, the reply said. “The last batch conducted by HIPA at IIPA, New Delhi was from 18-20 January 2010,” the reply by HIPA read. The Ministry of Tourism has released about Rs51.50 lakh to the three institutes for conducting the programme. Under the module, a payment of Rs200 per trainee per day was also provided to offset the wage losses. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:38 am Rupee marginally stronger in choppy tradeMUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee see-sawed on Wednesday afternoon caught between mild gains in domestic shares and a broadly strong dollar overseas which weighed on sentiment.Source: Reuters: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:29 am Reliance Comm: getting proposals to invest in equity - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:28 am Reliance Comm: getting proposals to invest in equityNEW DELHI (Reuters) - Reliance Communications said on Wednesday it has been receiving proposals from time to time from international telecom companies expressing interest in acquiring a strategic equity stake in it.Source: Reuters: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:13 am North Sea safety meeting held after Mexico oil spill - BBC News
Source: Business - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:05 am Hindujas plan up to $1 bln Saudi IPO of PetrominMUMBAI (Reuters) - Hinduja Group plans to launch lubricants maker Petromin's initial public offering in Saudi Arabia to raise $800 million to $1 billion this year, a group official said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:04 am Rupee marginally stronger in choppy tradeMumbai: The Indian rupee see-sawed on Wednesday afternoon caught between mild gains in domestic shares and a broadly strong dollar overseas which weighed on sentiment. At 2:25pm, the partially convertible rupee was at Rs47.11/12 per dollar, stronger than its previous close of Rs46.16/17. The rupee has traded in a range of Rs46.94 to Rs47.29 so far in the session. On Tuesday, the rupee had dropped 1.7% to 47.16/17 in its biggest one-day fall since a 2.6% drop on 12 November, 2008, according to Thomson Reuters data. Indian shares were trading up 0.4% in a choppy session. The euro clawed back some losses however after government sources in Brazil, India, Japan and South Korea said they would not stop investing in the weakening currency. The index of the dollar against six major currencies was up 0.3%. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 47.31, weaker than the onshore spot rate. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both at Rs47.2550, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $5.1 billion. Foreign fund flows into and out of the domestic sharemarket are a decisive factor for the rupee’s moves. In May, the rupee fell 4.3% as foreigners pulled out $2 billion from stocks. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both at Rs47.3750, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $1.8 billion. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 3:02 am Govt may price domestic coal at global rates: ReportIndia's largest coal producer, state-run Coal India, generally sets coal prices lower than international rates, with the government's approval, to help keep raw material costs down for key sectors like power.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:59 am Google sets ‘late fall’ release for ChromeTaipei: Google expects to release its Chrome computer operating system in the “late fall”, a top executive said on Wednesday, as it aims a competitive strike at rival Microsoft’s Windows. The Chrome system will designed initially to work on laptop PCs, Sundar Pichai, Google’s head of the Chrome project told reporters at the Computex PC show. “We will be selective on how we come to market because we want to deliver a great user experience,” he said. “We’re thinking on both the hardware and software levels.” Google is seeking to challenge the dominance of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which currently runs on more than 90 percent of all personal computers currently. Microsoft on Thursday waved off Google’s efforts to develop an open source operating system, saying that software developers would have to create different versions of the same application for different brands. Pichai disputed that contention, saying the similarity in the base core would mean software companies would not have to develop a new version for Chrome. “Chrome OS is one of the few future operating systems for which there are already millions of applications that work,” Pichai said. “You don’t need to redesign Gmail for it to work on Chrome. Facebook does not need to write a new app for Chrome.” Open source software allows tech companies such as Acer to develop their own versions of the software using the skeleton provided by Google to fit their own needs, and its presentation may differ between brands. The Chrome operating system will be centred around the web browser, with all software including high-end applications such as those used in photo and video editing housed in external servers known as a cloud. “We expect a generation of applications, including games, to work inside the browser,” Pichai said. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:56 am Google sets ‘late fall’ release for ChromeTaipei: Google expects to release its Chrome computer operating system in the “late fall”, a top executive said on Wednesday, as it aims a competitive strike at rival Microsoft’s Windows. The Chrome system will designed initially to work on laptop PCs, Sundar Pichai, Google’s head of the Chrome project told reporters at the Computex PC show. “We will be selective on how we come to market because we want to deliver a great user experience,” he said. “We’re thinking on both the hardware and software levels.” Google is seeking to challenge the dominance of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which currently runs on more than 90 percent of all personal computers currently. Microsoft on Thursday waved off Google’s efforts to develop an open source operating system, saying that software developers would have to create different versions of the same application for different brands. Pichai disputed that contention, saying the similarity in the base core would mean software companies would not have to develop a new version for Chrome. “Chrome OS is one of the few future operating systems for which there are already millions of applications that work,” Pichai said. “You don’t need to redesign Gmail for it to work on Chrome. Facebook does not need to write a new app for Chrome.” Open source software allows tech companies such as Acer to develop their own versions of the software using the skeleton provided by Google to fit their own needs, and its presentation may differ between brands. The Chrome operating system will be centred around the web browser, with all software including high-end applications such as those used in photo and video editing housed in external servers known as a cloud. “We expect a generation of applications, including games, to work inside the browser,” Pichai said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:56 am TV, sponsors battle to recoup World Cup costsBrussels: The soccer World Cup has lured companies hoping to boost revenues after two slow years but broadcasters will struggle to make a profit and top consumer goods marketers will have as keen an eye on cost as impact. For the tournament beginning next week, companies from faster-growing emerging markets have come forward as sponsors with money to burn and online and mobile media are expecting large benefits. The massive viewer ratings make the tournament irresistible to broadcasters, but they have paid $2 billion for television rights, up 50% on the last World Cup in Germany in 2006, according to media research group Screen Digest. “The World Cup is more than ever the biggest show on earth... Advertising sells at a premium, but paradoxically it is not always profitable for many broadcasters,” said Vincent Letang, Screen Digest’s head of advertising research. “Many brands have spent enormous amounts to be official sponsors and might bet on online and viral marketing rather than spend millions to outbid competing brands from top (TV) spots.” French broadcaster M6 did not bid for rights to the 2010 competition and rival TF1 has sub-licenced some matches to Canal+ after neither recouped costs for the 2006 World Cup, according to Screen Digest. Letang says TF1 might expect a 20-30 million euro ($24.5-$36.8 million) surge in advertising sales and Britain’s ITV a 30 million pound ($43.8 million) boost. Gains will depend though on the fate of the national soccer teams, given viewers and brands lose interest if the side is knocked out. More For Less Sponsors too have paid more for this World Cup — an 80% increase to some $1 billion, according to Nigel Currie, a director at the European Sponsorship Association. FIFA’s “partners” have paid some $100 million each — Adidas , Coca-Cola, Emirates, Hyundai/Kia, Sony and Visa. Coca-Cola, granted the right to take the World Cup trophy on a global tour, has declared its World Cup campaign will be the largest it has ever mounted. But Emmanuel Seuge, director of sports and entertainment marketing at Coke, said the company was seeking “more for less”, adding that the marketing campaign would be $45 million lower than it might otherwise have been due to savings. Still, the World Cup’s allure is clear, even for companies that have suffered two years of crisis and, for many, lower sales. “It is the world’s most valuable media event,” said Adam Smith, a director at GroupM, the media management arm of WPP, the world’s largest advertising firm by sales. Kevin Alavy, director of futures sport and entertainment at media strategy firm Initiative, said many sports were losing 5% of viewers per year due to a surfeit of choice. “Completely bucking the trend are just a handful of premium events,” he said, naming the World Cup and the summer Olympics. World Cup viewing was likely to be up 5% from 2006. “It brings credibility to our message and access to something very exclusive,” said Coke’s Seuge. Emerging Markets, New Media Push Advertising agencies are arguing that companies need to push their brands now to exploit the recovery in full. Corporations typically spend as much on promotions and marketing as they do on sponsorship, but after a bruising financial crisis, this is in doubt. “The Super Bowl in the United States showed at least that big brands cannot afford to pass on big events,” Letang said. Overall global advertising spending is forecast to grow by 2.9% this year, according to media consulting agency Carat, after a 9.0% drop in 2009. Economic recovery is the main driver, but the four weeks of soccer should lead to a rise, not just a shift, of spending. Alavy said the impact was likely to be less than 1% of an industry worth some $400 billion to $450 billion. “Even a decimal point is pretty significant... Of course, it will be more significant in terms of spending growth.” he said. This World Cup also marks the entry of sponsors from China, Brazil, India and Africa - Yingli, Seara, Mahindra Satyam and MTN — reflecting the faster economic growth of emerging nations. Carat forecasts advertising growth in Asia Pacific will be 6.8% this year and in Brazil 11.6%. This World Cup will also be the first with large-scaled online streaming of matches, such as on Disney’s ESPN. Carat forecasts online advertising will grow by 10.1%. Polished adverts and other World Cup-linked games and promotions will increasingly be viewed through sites such as YouTube, and pushed with “viral” distribution. “(Online advertising) tends to be cheaper and more effective because we can target more. There is less waste,” said Alain Heureux, chief of new media marketing association IAB Europe. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:53 am BP tries again to curb oil spill, stock falls anewVenice: BP Plc forged ahead with its latest effort to curb the flow of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico as its shares fell anew on Wednesday and the US government launched criminal and civil probes into the disaster. Moving on from its failed “top kill” attempt to plug up the undersea gusher, BP embarked on a risky new plan to siphon off some of the oil by first using robot submarines to cut away what is left of the offshore well’s leaking riser pipe, then lower a containment dome over the remaining wellhead assembly. The FBI and other federal agencies are aggressively investigating the spill and “if we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be forceful in our response,” US Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday after meeting with state and federal prosecutors in New Orleans. BP pledged cooperation with the investigations. The BP oil spill that began in April is causing an ecological and economic catastrophe along the US Gulf Coast. BP’s share price has been pounded following the company’s failure to stop the leak over the weekend. In early trading in Europe on Wednesday, BP extended its slide from the previous session and fell about 3%. “There was a sharp drop-off in the US overnight on the news of the US criminal and civil investigation,” said Will Hedden, sales trader at IG Index. “We are coming in line with the selloff in the US” BP has lost more than a third of its market value, or about 46 billion pounds ($67 billion), since the crisis began, reflecting an increasingly gloomy outlook for the company by energy industry analysts. BP shares fell by as much as 17% on Tuesday in London before closing down 13% at 430 pence. In New York, BP’s American Depositary Receipts lost nearly 15% to end the day at $36.52. A source close to the company, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the undersea operations to saw through the riser pipe began late on Tuesday. The source did not say how long this process would take. LAST BEST HOPE The strategy may offer the last best hope of at least curbing the leak before August, when the company expects to finish drilling two emergency relief wells now considered the only option for actually choking off the oil flow altogether. “We’re not talking about capping the well anymore. We’re talking about containing the well,” US Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said on Tuesday. The containment dome, designed with a gasket on the bottom to fit snugly over the leak and seal out seawater, is intended to capture a large portion of the billowing oil and channel it through a hose to a ship a mile (1.6 km) up on the surface. The cap also is equipped with valves to allow operators to inject methanol or warm water that would prevent the buildup of slushy gas hydrates that thwarted an earlier siphoning effort. But sawing off the end of the damaged riser pipe through which oil has been pouring nonstop could increase the flow of crude by 20% until the containment dome is lowered into place. Work also began on Tuesday to cut away a number of smaller, extraneous pipes using a diamond saw operated by one of several robots at the seabed. Allen said it could take 72 hours to get the containment cap operational. As much as 19,000 barrels of oil (800,000 gallons or 3 million litres) a day has been pouring into the Gulf off the coast of Louisiana since the 20 April explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig and killed 11 crewmen. The accident ranks as the worst oil spill in US history, surpassing the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska. Adding to onshore angst over the BP spill, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said shifting winds could drive the surface slick, which mostly has hit Louisiana’s shores so far, closer to the Alabama and Mississippi coasts. The warning coincided with the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season and predictions that this summer’s could be the stormiest since 2005, when Katrina and Rita wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast. Commercial fishing, shrimping and oyster harvests have been shut down for weeks along much of the US Gulf Coast, home to a $6.5 billion seafood industry. While cleanup crews have attacked the oil slick on the surface with skimmers, dispersants and controlled burns, shoreline-protection teams have scurried to block the spread of oil with containment booms, sandbags and other barriers. Scientists and Gulf residents are most concerned about the encroachment of oil into bayous and marshes teeming with shrimp, oysters, crabs, fish, birds and other wildlife. BP will seek to patch up its battered share price by reassuring investors the cost of cleaning up the spill is manageable and will not affect dividends, British media reported on Wednesday. “If our current efforts were to fail and we have to wait for the relief wells to be drilled and had six months of clean-up, we estimate the cost at $3 billion,” BP chief executive Tony Hayward told the Daily Mail. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:53 am GLOBAL MARKETS - Euro up on c.banks comments; stocks, yen fallLONDON (Reuters) - The euro rose on Wednesday after some of the world's biggest central banks said they would not stop investing in the single currency, while world equities and commodity prices fell.Source: Reuters: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:46 am Google sets "late fall" release for Chrome OSTAIPEI (Reuters) - Google expects to release its Chrome computer operating system in the "late fall", a top executive said on Wednesday, as it aims a competitive strike at rival Microsoft's Windows.Source: Reuters: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:22 am Reliance may invest in coal-based power plants: ReportReliance will concentrate on offshore investments for its oil and gas and petrochemical businesses and the company's major focus on the domestic market will be coal-based power.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:22 am Tough choicesPlanning to buy a new car here are few options for you, go for it.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:18 am BP tries again to curb oil spill, stock falls anewVENICE, La. (Reuters) - BP Plc forged ahead with its latest effort to curb the flow of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico as its shares fell anew on Wednesday and the U.S. government launched criminal and civil probes into the disaster.Source: Reuters: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 2:14 am Europe shares slip as BP falls; Portugal Tel risesLondon: European shares fell on Wednesday, with banks under pressure and BP down after the United States launched a criminal probe into the Gulf of Mexico disaster. BP extended its slide from the previous session and fell 1.5%. By 12:37pm, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was down 0.7% at 995.25 points. “There was a sharp drop off in the US overnight on the news of the US criminal and civil investigation,” said Will Hedden, sales trader at IG Index. “We are coming in line with the sell off in the US.” Banks took the most points off the index. HSBC, Banco Santander and Barclays slipped 1.1 to 1.4%. On the upside, Portugal Telecom soared 6.3 percent after Telefonica raised its Vivo bid. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:59 am India to allow Chinese gear after checks - reportNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has agreed to allow import of Chinese telecom gear certified by international security audit firms, the Economic Times reported on Wednesday, to help mobile operators fend off possible delays.Source: Reuters: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:56 am Qantas’ Jetstar in alliance with Air France-KLMSydney: Jetstar, the budget offshoot of Australian flag carrier Qantas, Wednesday announced an agreement with Air France-KLM which the airline hopes will expand its customer base in Europe. The deal, which includes Jetstar, Jetstar Asia/Valuair and Jetstar Pacific, will cover all Jetstar ports and Air France-KLM hubs in Paris and Amsterdam. The partnership will allow passengers to travel more easily to the almost 60 destinations across the Asia-Pacific region that Jetstar serves, including through its growing Singapore hub, Jetstar executive manager commercial David Koczkar said. “It also supports Jetstar’s position as the largest low-cost carrier in Asia Pacific,” he said in a statement. Air France-KLM, which operates more than 200 weekly flights to 22 Asian cities, said the alliance was a strategic move towards improving its reach into the fast growing region. “By joining forces with Jetstar we are offering more choice in destinations between Europe and the Asia Pacific,” said Marnix Fruitema, senior vice president Asia Pacific. The deal is the first the Jetstar group has done outside its parent company Qantas. Jetstar operates close to 2,000 flights each week to 57 destinations across the Asia-Pacific region. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:56 am Qantas’ Jetstar in alliance with Air France-KLMSydney: Jetstar, the budget offshoot of Australian flag carrier Qantas, Wednesday announced an agreement with Air France-KLM which the airline hopes will expand its customer base in Europe. The deal, which includes Jetstar, Jetstar Asia/Valuair and Jetstar Pacific, will cover all Jetstar ports and Air France-KLM hubs in Paris and Amsterdam. The partnership will allow passengers to travel more easily to the almost 60 destinations across the Asia-Pacific region that Jetstar serves, including through its growing Singapore hub, Jetstar executive manager commercial David Koczkar said. “It also supports Jetstar’s position as the largest low-cost carrier in Asia Pacific,” he said in a statement. Air France-KLM, which operates more than 200 weekly flights to 22 Asian cities, said the alliance was a strategic move towards improving its reach into the fast growing region. “By joining forces with Jetstar we are offering more choice in destinations between Europe and the Asia Pacific,” said Marnix Fruitema, senior vice president Asia Pacific. The deal is the first the Jetstar group has done outside its parent company Qantas. Jetstar operates close to 2,000 flights each week to 57 destinations across the Asia-Pacific region. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:56 am Top c.banks not planning shift out of euro - govt sourcesTOKYO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Some of the world's richest central banks will not stop investing in the euro, supporting its reserve status, despite the sovereign debt crisis hammering the euro zone's currency, government sources said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:54 am 15-20% upside for Indian stock markets seen by yearend: HSBC - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:51 am Tata's dream factory churns out carsWhile Tatas might have to tread an arduous path to produce a true people's car, the residents of Chharodi village have already reaped the benefits of Nano!Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:50 am Coal India IPO likely in Aug-Sept - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:45 am Oil prices above 72 dollars as eurozone worries weighOil prices were mixed in Asian trade today, with investor sentiment weighed by continuing concerns over the eurozone economy.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:38 am Prudential deal exit raises prospects for AIA IPOHONG KONG (Reuters) - UK insurer Prudential Plc is pulling out of its bold $35.5 billion takeover of AIG's Asian life insurance arm, ending a 3-month battle with shareholders who had argued the deal was over-priced.Source: Reuters: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:36 am Gold prices hit record high, deter buyers - Sify
Source: Business - Google News | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:33 am A fresh startRenault is on the verge of its new innings in India, and opening it for them the stylish Fluence. This time, we hope, they won’t go wrong.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:23 am AT&T caps phone data usage with new wireless plansNew Delhi: In time for the widely expected launch of a new iPhone model, carrier AT&T Inc. is pulling in the reins on data usage by its customers with smart phones and iPads. The sole US carrier of the iPhone is introducing two new data plans, starting 7 June with limits on data consumption. They’ll replace the $30 per month plan with unlimited usage that it has required for all smart phones, including the iPhone. With the change AT&T is adopting a carrot-and-stick approach to assuage the data congestion on its network, which has been a source of complaints, especially in cities such as New York and San Francisco that are thick with iPhone users. The new plans will take effect just as Apple is expected to unveil the next generation of its iPhone at an event Monday in San Francisco. Subscribers who use little data or learn to limit their consumption will pay slightly less every month than they do now, while heavy users will be dinged with extra consumption fees. One new plan will cost $25 per month and offer 2 gigabytes of data per month, which AT&T says will be enough for 98% of its smart phone customers. Additional gigabytes will cost $10 each. A second plan will cost $15 per month for 200 megabytes of data, which AT&T says is enough for 65% of its smart phone customers. If they go over, they’ll pay another $15 for 200 megabytes. With that plan and voice service, a smart phone could cost as little as $55 per month before taxes and add-on fees, down from $70 per month. Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T’s consumer business, said that means smart phones can become accessible to more people. “Customers are getting a good deal, and if they can understand their usage, they can save some money,” de la Vega said in an interview. Current AT&T subscribers will be allowed to keep the unlimited plan, even if they renew their contracts. But all new subscribers will have to choose one of the two new plans. Figuring out which one to choose may not be easy, given that many people have only a hazy notion of the size of a gigabyte and how many they use now. A gigabyte is enough for hundreds of e-mails and Web pages, but it’s quickly eaten up by Internet video and videoconferencing. De la Vega said AT&T is doing its part to educate consumers, by letting them track their usage online. The iPhone contains a data usage tracking tool. The carrier will also text-message subscribers to let them know they’re getting close their limits. Data usage over Wi-Fi, including AT&T’s public Wi-Fi hot spots, will not count toward the limits. The new $25-per-month plan will replace the current $30 plan with unlimited usage that is available for the iPad, the tablet computer Apple Inc. released just a few months ago, though iPad owners can keep the old plan as long as they keep paying $30 per month, AT&T said. Paradoxically, the data caps arrive at time when carriers have started to lift the limits on other forms of wireless use, by selling plans with unlimited calling and unlimited text messaging. That’s not a big gamble, because not many people have the time to talk phone for eight hours a day or spend every waking minute sending text messages. But smart phones can draw a lot of data, depending one where and how they’re used. With the new plans, de la Vega hopes to see high-consumption applications like Internet video being steered toward hot spots, where they don’t clog up AT&T’s cellular network. Consumers have rebelled against the idea of data usage caps on home broadband, at least when the limits are set low enough to make online video consumption expensive. Time Warner Cable Inc. was forced to back away from trials of data caps last year after consumer protests and threats of legislative action. In the wireless world, where data capacity is more constrained, usage caps are more common. Most wireless carriers, for instance, limit data cards for laptops to 5 gigabytes per month. But with intense competition for smart phone users, phone companies have been reluctant to impose similar limits on those devices, although Sprint Nextel Corp. reserves the right to slow down or disconnect users who exceed 5 gigabytes per month. It remains to be seen whether AT&T’s rivals will join it in imposing caps or use their own “unlimited” plans as a marketing advantage. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:20 am AT&T caps phone data usage with new wireless plansNew Delhi: In time for the widely expected launch of a new iPhone model, carrier AT&T Inc. is pulling in the reins on data usage by its customers with smart phones and iPads. The sole US carrier of the iPhone is introducing two new data plans, starting 7 June with limits on data consumption. They’ll replace the $30 per month plan with unlimited usage that it has required for all smart phones, including the iPhone. With the change AT&T is adopting a carrot-and-stick approach to assuage the data congestion on its network, which has been a source of complaints, especially in cities such as New York and San Francisco that are thick with iPhone users. The new plans will take effect just as Apple is expected to unveil the next generation of its iPhone at an event Monday in San Francisco. Subscribers who use little data or learn to limit their consumption will pay slightly less every month than they do now, while heavy users will be dinged with extra consumption fees. One new plan will cost $25 per month and offer 2 gigabytes of data per month, which AT&T says will be enough for 98% of its smart phone customers. Additional gigabytes will cost $10 each. A second plan will cost $15 per month for 200 megabytes of data, which AT&T says is enough for 65% of its smart phone customers. If they go over, they’ll pay another $15 for 200 megabytes. With that plan and voice service, a smart phone could cost as little as $55 per month before taxes and add-on fees, down from $70 per month. Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T’s consumer business, said that means smart phones can become accessible to more people. “Customers are getting a good deal, and if they can understand their usage, they can save some money,” de la Vega said in an interview. Current AT&T subscribers will be allowed to keep the unlimited plan, even if they renew their contracts. But all new subscribers will have to choose one of the two new plans. Figuring out which one to choose may not be easy, given that many people have only a hazy notion of the size of a gigabyte and how many they use now. A gigabyte is enough for hundreds of e-mails and Web pages, but it’s quickly eaten up by Internet video and videoconferencing. De la Vega said AT&T is doing its part to educate consumers, by letting them track their usage online. The iPhone contains a data usage tracking tool. The carrier will also text-message subscribers to let them know they’re getting close their limits. Data usage over Wi-Fi, including AT&T’s public Wi-Fi hot spots, will not count toward the limits. The new $25-per-month plan will replace the current $30 plan with unlimited usage that is available for the iPad, the tablet computer Apple Inc. released just a few months ago, though iPad owners can keep the old plan as long as they keep paying $30 per month, AT&T said. Paradoxically, the data caps arrive at time when carriers have started to lift the limits on other forms of wireless use, by selling plans with unlimited calling and unlimited text messaging. That’s not a big gamble, because not many people have the time to talk phone for eight hours a day or spend every waking minute sending text messages. But smart phones can draw a lot of data, depending one where and how they’re used. With the new plans, de la Vega hopes to see high-consumption applications like Internet video being steered toward hot spots, where they don’t clog up AT&T’s cellular network. Consumers have rebelled against the idea of data usage caps on home broadband, at least when the limits are set low enough to make online video consumption expensive. Time Warner Cable Inc. was forced to back away from trials of data caps last year after consumer protests and threats of legislative action. In the wireless world, where data capacity is more constrained, usage caps are more common. Most wireless carriers, for instance, limit data cards for laptops to 5 gigabytes per month. But with intense competition for smart phone users, phone companies have been reluctant to impose similar limits on those devices, although Sprint Nextel Corp. reserves the right to slow down or disconnect users who exceed 5 gigabytes per month. It remains to be seen whether AT&T’s rivals will join it in imposing caps or use their own “unlimited” plans as a marketing advantage. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:20 am Ho-hum thrumYamaha has been churning out rather good commuter bikes of late, which is why their latest comes as quite a surprise.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:19 am Tata Motors inaugurates Nano factory at Gujarat's SanandTata Motors today inaugurated Nano's manufacturing facility, nearly two years after it was forced to shift the plant out of West Bengal over a land row.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:14 am Asian stocks fall, yen dips as Japan PM quitsSingapore: Asian stocks followed Wall Street down on Wednesday as jitters over the euro zone’s debt crisis prompted investors to keep cutting riskier positions, while the euro steadied after hitting a four-year low. The yen fell broadly after Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said he would resign, reflecting the view that the front runner to replace him, Finance Minister Naoto Kan, is seen as preferring a weaker yen. The sell baton is expected to be passed on to Europe. Financial spreadbetters see Britain’s FTSE 100 opening as much as 1.6% lower and Germany’s DAX falling as much as 1.3%. The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan, which has underperformed world equity markets so far this year, fell 0.9%. Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell nearly 1%, surrendering some early gains. The euro area’s debt crisis has prompted investors to shed riskier investments, including Asian stocks. In the latest investor scare, the European Central Bank said on Monday, a holiday in Britain and the United States, that banks in the bloc could suffer 195 billion euros of write downs by the end of 2011 in a second wave of losses from the global financial crisis. Shanghai shares slipped 1.6%, extending losses for the week, as banks’ fundraising plans weighed on sentiment which also dampened Hong Kong stocks. Bank of China, which is raising yuan 40 billion ($5.9 billion) by selling convertible bonds in Shanghai, said on Tuesday it may consider new fundraising plans. Taiwan stocks fell just over 1.3%, with iPhone maker Hon Hai Precision Industry slumping 4% after the company said it would raise wages at its Foxconn unit in China by 30% following a string of deaths at the plant. The dollar rose as much as 0.9% to 91.78 yen, its highest since 20 May, after news of Hatoyama’s resignation. “The market may become cautious over the possibility of government moves to restrain yen strength because Kan has shown his preference for a weaker yen,” said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief FX strategist in Japan at Barclays Capital. “But given no signs that business leaders have complained to the current government about a higher yen, the chance of Japanese currency intervention remains very low,” Yamamoto said. The euro briefly hit $1.2263, buoyed by its gain against a weak yen. But it later pulled back to $1.2205 after a report that ECB board member Christian Noyer said the exchange rate of the euro against the US dollar was not unusually low. The euro hit a four-year low of $1.2110 on Tuesday after the ECB’s warning of a new wave of bank losses. Traders said euro selling pressure is likely to continue as the market grows more confident that the US economy and its banking system are in much better shape than Europe’s. Oil fell 0.8% to $72 a barrel, continuing a recent slide off the back of a strong dollar and Chinese and European data that raised concerns about the prospects for the global economy. Spot gold fell to $1,223.20 an ounce, down 0.6% from a two-week high hit on Tuesday after the ECB’s report on bank losses. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 1:14 am Tata Motors inaugurates Nano factory at SanandSanand: Tata Motors inaugurated the world’s cheapest car, the Nano’s, manufacturing facility on 2 May, nearly two years after it was forced to shift the plant out of West Bengal over a land row. The new plant at Sanand was inaugurated by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata, who seven years ago dreamt of making an affordable family car for the common man. “When I came here first on an industry visit invited by Gujarat chief minister, I was told that if it (the Nano plant) is not in Gujarat, I will be a stupid. “I am no longer stupid after investing on the plant in Gujarat,” Tata said while inaugurating the plant. Spread over about 1,100 acres, the plant in Sanand has been created at an investment of about Rs2,000 crore. Speaking on the occasion, Modi said: “The revolution brought by Ford in the early 20th century with its small car is being replicated now by Ratan Tata with his Nano.” Every middle-class family’s dream to own a car is being fulfilled at Sanand with the inauguration of the Nano plant, he added. Ratan Tata’s dream of making a car costing only Rs1 lakh crore had to face challenges -- both technical and political--ever since it was conceived in 2003. At a time when input costs were soaring, keeping the cost of production of a comfortable mini car powered by a 623cc engine giving a competitive mileage, was a challenge big enough for the engineers of Tata Motors. While Tatas were able to overcome it, the group was unable to beat political challenge from Trinamool Congress and had to shift manufacturing base from the original location at Singur in West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat in October 2008. Tatas, by then, had already put over Rs1,000 crore in Singur. It delayed not only the original plans for the commercial launch of Nano by about five months, but also affected its availability. Till the time the Sanand facility was ready, the company went ahead with limited production of Nano -- touted as the world’s cheapest car with a factory gate price of Rs1,00,000 (little over $2,000) -- from Pantnagar in Himachal Pradesh. Bookings for the car opened in April 2009 and deliveries began in July that year. It has so far delivered over 35,000 units. However, only the first 1,00,000 customers are assured of getting the car at an ex-factory price of Rs1,00,000. The Sanand facility has the capacity to manufacture 2.5 lakh units annually, which can subsequently be increased to 5 lakh units per annum. Pilot commercial production of Nano at Sanand has already begun. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:53 am Michelin to hire about 200 people in India this yearFrench tyre major Michelin said it will hire about 200 people in India this year as it gears up to start production from its Chennai plant in the next two years.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:49 am Etisalat in talks with several Indian firms; RCom surgesAbu Dhabi/Mumbai: Abu Dhabi’s Etisalat could decide within weeks whether to take a stake in an Indian telecom operator, its chairman said on Wednesday, after a newspaper said it was in talks with Reliance Communications. Shares in Reliance rose as much as 10% after the earlier newspaper report said Etisalat, which is the Gulf region’s biggest provider of telecom services by market capitalisation, was in advanced talks to buy a quarter of the Indian cellular operator for Rs18,000 crore ($3.8 billion). “We are talking to several Indian operators and are evaluating several Indian operators but have not reached a final decision,” Mohammad Omran, chairman of Etisalat, also known as Emirates Telecommunications Corp, told Reuters. Omran declined to comment specifically about the Reliance report and said that Etisalat had not taken any final decisions. “It may take a few weeks or it may take a few months,” he said. A day earlier another media report linked Reliance Communications to possible tie-up talks with South Africa’s MTN. A person close to the Indian firm who declined to be identified said both reports were speculation. Reliance Communications is controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, who recently ended an agreement not to compete in businesses with his long-estranged brother Mukesh, freeing him to bring outside investors into India’s second biggest mobile operator. That surprise announcement has prompted market speculation about the plans of both brothers now that their conglomerates are free to compete on each other’s turf. Two years ago Mukesh Ambani thwarted a planned tie-up between Reliance and South Africa’s MTN by asserting a right of first refusal on the Indian carrier’s shares. If a deal is finalized Etisalat would make an open offer to acquire an additional 20% stake in Reliance Communications from the public, the Times of India said on Wednesday, citing market sources. The equity capital of Reliance would expand by 25% if a deal is done and would reduce the stake of Anil Ambani to about 55% from 67.58%, the paper said. A Reliance Communications official declined to comment. Consolidation Pressure India’s cellphone market is fiercely competitive, with 15 operators locked in a price war that has destroyed margins and prompted talk of consolidation. “We think the Indian market is ready for consolidation,” Omran said. A recent auction of third-generation network radio spectrum was far more costly than expected, with Reliance Communications forking out about $1.8 billion for its licences. Indian carriers are expected to spend billions more dollars building 3G networks. Reliance Communications shares gave up some of their early gains and traded at Rs142.30, up 6.3%, at mid-morning. Etisalat already has a stake in an Indian mobile venture, Etisalat DB Telecom, which launched operations in March. Indian rules prohibit a company from holding a more than 10% stake in two operators competing in the same telecom zone, which might force Etisalat either to sell its holding in the startup or merge it with Reliance Communications. India’s telecom regulator in May recommended ending the restrictions on companies selling out, a move, once accepted by the government, would help paving the way for consolidation in the world’s fastest growing mobile services market. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:43 am Michelin to hire about 200 people in India this yearFrench tyre major Michelin on Wednesday said it will hire about 200 people in India this year as it gears up to start production from its Chennai plant in the next two years.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:41 am Etisalat eyeing stake in Reliance Comm: ReportIf the deal is finalised Etisalat will make an open offer to acquire an additional 20% stake in the No. 2 Indian mobile operator from the public, the newspaper said on Wednesday, citing market sources.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:37 am India and US working together on nuclear proliferationWashington: Praising India’s strong track record in the field of nuclear proliferation, a top US diplomat has said that India has a very important role to play in achieving the goals of US President Barack Obama in this regard. “I think the best thing that we and India could continue to do is follow through on the agreement and then look for other opportunities to demonstrate our shared commitment to curbing the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction and improving the safety and security of existing nuclear material sites,” the under secretary of state for political affairs, William Burns, said. “That was reflected in the proposal that Prime Minister Singh made at the Nuclear Security Summit in April, to set up a regional nuclear security training centre so that India, which has a very, very good record at preventing the proliferation of its materials and at safeguarding its own installations, can contribute to the same kind of high standards of security on the part of other countries that are attempting to build civilian nuclear installations,” Burns said. “We also work together on some of the biggest non proliferation challenges. I mentioned Iran; North Korea is certainly another one. I think we can continue to work together in not only upholding India’s unilateral moratorium on testing, but also working together with regard to the physical material cut-off treaty, which both of us have expressed support for,” he said. So there are lots of opportunities for the two countries to make very clear their continuing commitment to basic principles of nonproliferation, he noted. Burns said building on the success of the civil nuclear agreement, India is contributing constructively to global non proliferation and nuclear security efforts. “India has made clear its opposition to a nuclear-armed Iran, and voted again at the IAEA board of governors meeting last November to hold Iran accountable for its failure to live up to international obligations. At the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in April of this year, President Obama praised India’s leadership in launching a regional nuclear security training centre,” he said. The State Department official said US companies are prepared to support the expansion of India’s civilian nuclear infrastructure, with two reactor park sites already identified. “As Prime Minister Singh argued publicly last week, it is deeply in India’s self-interest for its Parliament to enact liability legislation consistent with international standards, so that it can attract the best foreign investors at the most competitive rates, and build the role and capacity of its own companies,” he said. PTI Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:26 am Low-cost Nano car rolls out from GujaratMumbai: Tata’s Nano, dubbed the world’s cheapest car, will roll out of its new plant in western India on Wednesday, two years after the firm abandoned its first-choice factory due to a violent land row. The plant in western Gujarat state will be inaugurated by the state’s chief minister Narendra Modi and Tata group chairman Ratan Tata later in the day, a company spokesman said. Tata Motors had originally chosen Singur in communist-ruled West Bengal as the main plant to produce the Nano, but had to scrap the nearly complete factory in 2008 over a bitter land ownership dispute. The Nano, which has so far sold 35,000 models, has until now been made at Tata factories elsewhere in India. The Nano, which was launched with great fanfare last July, costs as little as Rs100,000 ($2,150) and is pitched at India’s aspiring middle classes, many of whom currently travel on two-wheelers. India and its 1.2-billion-strong population is a huge draw for carmakers across the world because of its low car ownership and a rapidly expanding number of affluent consumers. Just 13 per 1,000 people own a car in India, compared with 550 per 1,000 in Germany and 495 in France. The new plant in Sanand, Gujarat, has the capacity to manufacture 250,000 units annually, and aims to increase production to 500,000. The Nano has sparked a race to create other low-cost cars for the Indian and other emerging markets. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:21 am Prudential pulls out of bid for Asian insurer AIALondon: British insurer Prudential said Wednesday it was withdrawing from a bid to buy AIA, the Asian arm of AIG, after the US group refused to lower its asking price. Prudential said in a statement it was “in negotiations with American International Group, Inc. (AIG) for the termination of the agreement (the SPA) for the combination of Prudential with AIA Group Limited.” The deal had foundered after AIG turned down Prudential’s request to cut the price tag of $35.5 billion (€29 billion) to nearer $30 billion, following a revolt by the British company’s shareholders. Prudential chairman Harvey McGrath said: “Unfortunately, it has not been possible to reach agreement so we feel it is in the best interest of our shareholders not to pursue this opportunity. “We are therefore withdrawing from the transaction.” The takeover would have been the biggest ever in the insurance sector, transforming Prudential into the world’s top non-Chinese insurer by market capitalisation, ahead of major competitors Allianz and AXA. In its statement, Prudential said it would pay AIG a break fee of more than 152 million pounds (224 million dollars, 183 million euros), plus legal fees of 81 million pounds. The collapse of the deal will place enormous pressure on Prudential’s chief executive Tidjane Thiam, who aimed to transform the 162-year-old British company into an international insurance powerhouse. Thiam, born in the Ivory Coast, but with French nationality, took a huge gamble by making the ambitious bid for AIA only six months into his job at the helm of Prudential. In the statement, Thiam said Prudential would maintain a strong focus on growing its business in Asia. The firm had entered into the potential deal “from a position of strength in Asia and we view the region as offering excellent growth opportunities for Prudential,” he said. But the Financial Times said on Wednesday that some investors were calling for Thiam’s head after his failure to renegotiate the deal. “It will be an early agenda item -- who will be the new CEO,” one major unnamed investor told the paper. The Daily Telegraph reported that AIG had turned its back on Prudential and was instead pursuing other options. Quoting sources, the paper said AIG was exploring talks with sovereign wealth funds, including Singapore-controlled GIC and Temasek, and Qatar Holdings, which could become “cornerstone investors” in AIA ahead of reviving plans for an initial public offering in Hong Kong. The Telegraph said the implosion of the deal had made Prudential a bid target itself. AIG said on Tuesday it would not agree to Prudential’s request to reduce the asking price. In a terse statement, it said that “after careful consideration, the company will adhere to the original terms of its previously announced agreement. “The company will not consider revisions to those terms,” it added. Prudential had agreed in March to the original 35.5-billion-dollar takeover price for AIA but then scrambled to get a reduction as some shareholders, such as asset manager F&C, baulked at the cost. Prudential’s newly listed shares in Hong Kong and Singapore fell Wednesday. Investors marked down the insurer’s Hong Kong share price by 0.47 percent to 63.20 Hong Kong dollars (8.10 US dollars), while the stock was down 10 cents, or 1.20 percent, to 8.22 US dollars in Singapore. Wooing investors, Prudential last week took out secondary listings in Hong Kong and Singapore ahead of a 21-billion-US-dollar rights issue to help fund the deal. Despite the share price falls, one Hong Kong-based analyst suggested there might well be relief that the deal had fallen through. “AIA is three times bigger than Prudential -- it’s too big for Prudential to swallow,” Fulbright Securities general manager Francis Lun told AFP. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:18 am Prudential pulls out of bid for Asian insurer AIALondon: British insurer Prudential said Wednesday it was withdrawing from a bid to buy AIA, the Asian arm of AIG, after the US group refused to lower its asking price. Prudential said in a statement it was “in negotiations with American International Group, Inc. (AIG) for the termination of the agreement (the SPA) for the combination of Prudential with AIA Group Limited.” The deal had foundered after AIG turned down Prudential’s request to cut the price tag of $35.5 billion (€29 billion) to nearer $30 billion, following a revolt by the British company’s shareholders. Prudential chairman Harvey McGrath said: “Unfortunately, it has not been possible to reach agreement so we feel it is in the best interest of our shareholders not to pursue this opportunity. “We are therefore withdrawing from the transaction.” The takeover would have been the biggest ever in the insurance sector, transforming Prudential into the world’s top non-Chinese insurer by market capitalisation, ahead of major competitors Allianz and AXA. In its statement, Prudential said it would pay AIG a break fee of more than 152 million pounds (224 million dollars, 183 million euros), plus legal fees of 81 million pounds. The collapse of the deal will place enormous pressure on Prudential’s chief executive Tidjane Thiam, who aimed to transform the 162-year-old British company into an international insurance powerhouse. Thiam, born in the Ivory Coast, but with French nationality, took a huge gamble by making the ambitious bid for AIA only six months into his job at the helm of Prudential. In the statement, Thiam said Prudential would maintain a strong focus on growing its business in Asia. The firm had entered into the potential deal “from a position of strength in Asia and we view the region as offering excellent growth opportunities for Prudential,” he said. But the Financial Times said on Wednesday that some investors were calling for Thiam’s head after his failure to renegotiate the deal. “It will be an early agenda item -- who will be the new CEO,” one major unnamed investor told the paper. The Daily Telegraph reported that AIG had turned its back on Prudential and was instead pursuing other options. Quoting sources, the paper said AIG was exploring talks with sovereign wealth funds, including Singapore-controlled GIC and Temasek, and Qatar Holdings, which could become “cornerstone investors” in AIA ahead of reviving plans for an initial public offering in Hong Kong. The Telegraph said the implosion of the deal had made Prudential a bid target itself. AIG said on Tuesday it would not agree to Prudential’s request to reduce the asking price. In a terse statement, it said that “after careful consideration, the company will adhere to the original terms of its previously announced agreement. “The company will not consider revisions to those terms,” it added. Prudential had agreed in March to the original 35.5-billion-dollar takeover price for AIA but then scrambled to get a reduction as some shareholders, such as asset manager F&C, baulked at the cost. Prudential’s newly listed shares in Hong Kong and Singapore fell Wednesday. Investors marked down the insurer’s Hong Kong share price by 0.47 percent to 63.20 Hong Kong dollars (8.10 US dollars), while the stock was down 10 cents, or 1.20 percent, to 8.22 US dollars in Singapore. Wooing investors, Prudential last week took out secondary listings in Hong Kong and Singapore ahead of a 21-billion-US-dollar rights issue to help fund the deal. Despite the share price falls, one Hong Kong-based analyst suggested there might well be relief that the deal had fallen through. “AIA is three times bigger than Prudential -- it’s too big for Prudential to swallow,” Fulbright Securities general manager Francis Lun told AFP. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:18 am Rupee gains 11 paise against dollar in early tradeThe Indian rupee appreciated by 11 paise to 47.05 a dollar in early trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange today, helped by gains on the stock market.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:12 am Michelin to hire about 200 people in India this yearRio de Janeiro: French tyre major Michelin on Wednesday said it will hire about 200 people in India this year as it gears up to start production from its Chennai plant in the next two years. The company is investing Rs4,000 crore over a period of seven years on setting up the plant in Tamil Nadu that will produce truck and bus radial tyres. “Our goal is to hire a little less than 200 people this year. They will be sent to Thailand for a three-week course once they come on board with us, after which they will be assigned to one of our overseas facility till the plant in Chennai becomes operational,” Michelin president (Africa, India and Middle East) Prashant Prabhu said. He said the company has already hired about 60 people for its Chennai plant. In November last year, Michelin announced that it would invest Rs4,000 crore on setting up a truck and a bus radial facility in Tamil Nadu scheduled to start operations in 2012. The proposed facility, spread over 290 acres, would be constructed near Chennai and will employ a total of about 1,500 workers from local communities. “By late 2011 or early 2012, we will start bringing wage labourers at the Chennai plant,” Prabhu said, without divulging details. On marketing and sales side, the company will enhance its workforce as its Chennai plant goes on stream, he added but declined to reveal the exact number. Michelin has about 200 people on its sales and marketing team in India. Asked what Michelin plans to do with the 100 acre land at Rajangaon in Pune, which it had inherited from its aborted joint venture with Apollo Tyres, Prabhu said the company is yet to decide on its future course of action. He exuded confidence that the company’s decision to focus on the truck and bus radial tyres in India will pay off. “The rate of radialisation of truck and bus tyres in India is just about 10-15%, which is the lowest for any market of such a big size... It offers a lot of potential for us,” he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:02 am Auto companies continue to remain on fast-trackThe spectacular show by Indian car companies continues with Maruti Suzuki selling more than a lakh cars in May.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Infosys top honchos take home fatter pay packets in 2009-10Top officials of Infosys Ltd took home increased salary in 2009-10 despite the company reporting lower profit of Rs 5,803 crore compared with Rs 5,819 crore in the previousSource: Business Line - Home Page | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Coming, Internet services on Mumbai's busesIf you're a new age Mumbaikar who has abandoned the crowded suburban train for the air-conditioned bus service offered by the BEST Undertaking, there is some goodSource: Business Line - Home Page | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am ‘Environment is not a formality, but a responsibility to people'The issue of environment and development has occupied the centre-stage in India not only because of the failure of the global climate talks in Copenhagen last December, but also in the light of the reported fissures within the Government aboutSource: Business Line - Home Page | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideFresh short position can be initiated if the stock dives below Rs 828 with rigidSource: Business Line - Home Page | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Freak trades aren't all that uncommon!In what was later described as a freak trade, the shares of index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) fell by over 19.5 per cent in the blink of an eye from Rs 1,028 to Rs 840.55 at 12.50 pm on Tuesday, dragging down the bellwether indices andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am MRPL (Rs 67.05): SellInvestors with short-term trading perspective can consider selling the stock of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL). Since June 2009 high of Rs 102, the stock has been on an intermediate-term downtrend. In April 2010, the stockSource: Business Line - Home Page | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Sensex tanks on global cues, freak tradeAs global markets tumbled on a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing data the Sensex closed down 372 points, at 16,572 onSource: Business Line - Home Page | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Nano to roll out from Sanand todayNineteen months after announcing relocation of the Nano plant from Singur in West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat, Tata Motors Ltd is all set to roll out the world's cheapest car from its new abode, 22 km from here,Source: Business Line - Home Page | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Spectrum auctions ‘achieve' monetary targetsThe auctions of the 3G and Wimax spectrums were a huge success. Bids topped estimates. It was a windfall forSource: Business Line - Home Page | 2 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Rupee gains 11 paise against dollar in early tradeThe rupee had closed lower by 80 paise--the biggest single-day fall in 15 months--at 47.16/17 against the dollar in yesterday's trading on a sudden bearish turn in equities.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:57 pm UPA pats itself on economy, stresses aam aadmi focus - Indian Express
Source: Business - Google News | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:56 pm RComm surges 10% on Etisalat stake sale buy reportShares of Reliance Communications on Wednesday surged 10% on the BSE after a media report said the UAE-based telecom major Etisalat was in talks to buy 25% stake in the company.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:52 pm RCom surges 10 pc on Etisalat stake sale buy reportShares of ADAG firm Reliance Communications surged 10 per cent on the BSE after a newspaper report said the UAE-based telecom major Etisalat was in talks to buy 25 per cent stake in the company.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:51 pm Markets tad up led by ONGC, RComMumbai: Indian shares gained 0.4% on Wednesday, led by gains in explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp and mobile carrier Reliance Communications, but euro-zone debt fears kept investors wary. Shares in Reliance Communications rose as much as 10% to their highest level in three weeks, after a newspaper reported that India’s No. 2 mobile operator was in talks with Emirates Telecommunications to sell a stake. The main 30-share BSE index was up 0.35% at 16,635.70 by 10.57am, with 18 components in the positive zone. The index had risen as much as 0.6% earlier in the session and then briefly turned negative. The 50-share NSE Nifty index was up 0.2% at 4,977.75. “The investor mood is fairly cagey now because the overall global scenario is very uncertain and funds are not willing to invest large amounts of money,” said Gajendra Nagpal, CEO of brokerage Unicon Financial. The key stock market index posted its first monthly decline since January, as investors pared their exposure to risky assets in the wake of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. Nagpal said the stock market was not expected to see a sharp surge in the near term due to the lingering worries about the euro zone debt crisis and in the absence of any positive buying trigger. Shares in Reliance Communications were up 6.3% at 148.05 rupees by 11:00am, after the Times of India said that Etisalat was in advanced talks to buy a quarter of the Indian mobile operator for Rs18,000 crore ($3.8 billion). If a deal is finalised, Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat would make an open offer to acquire an additional 20% stake in Reliance Communications from the public, the newspaper reported, citing market sources. Shares in state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp were up 2.2% at Rs1,170.05. An Oil India official said state explorers such as ONGC and Oil India began charging higher gas prices from Tuesday. ONGC Chairman R.S. Sharma had said last week that the company would annually gain about 55 billion rupees in revenue and Rs3500 crore in net profit due to revised gas prices. Shares in energy major Reliance Industries, which has the highest weighting in the benchmark index, were up 0.6% at Rs1,017.60. Reliance could invest in coal-based power plants due to the surging demand for electricity in the fast-growing country, the Economic Times reported on Wednesday. In the broader market, 1,446 gainers led 915 losers on relatively low volume of 86 million shares. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:36 pm BP says US oil disaster cost $1 bnLondon: BP has revealed that the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico had cost it almost $1 billion, sparking a 13% plunge in its shares after the latest attempt to fix the leaking well failed. At its lowest point, the British energy giant’s share price dropped nearly 17% on the day, but it recovered slightly to close at 430 pence, down 13.1%. The sell-off wiped more than $17.6 billion off its market value — its biggest one-day shares fall for 18 years. There was more bad news for BP following the failure of the “top kill” operation to plug the undersea well when US President Barack Obama warned that the culprits of the disaster would be held legally accountable. In a statement, BP said, “The cost of the response to date amounts to about $990 million, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs. “It is too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident.” The group had announced Saturday that the risky attempt to plug the leak by pumping heavy drilling mud into the well had failed to stop the flow of oil. Yesterday’s dizzying share-price drop was the first opportunity that London investors had to react to the news after a British public holiday on Monday. Engineers had spent days pumping heavy drilling fluid into the leaking well head on the ocean floor in a bid to stem the gushing crude and ultimately seal the well with cement. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:29 pm Tata Nano: Windfall for Chharodi farmersTata Motors' Nano plant has come as a boon for Chharodi villagers. Not only their land prices have increased three to four folds, they are earning a lot working as 'land brokers'.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:26 pm Tata Nanos already in resale bazaarAfter the initial hype over Nano dies down, owners are seeking a hard bargain.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:24 pm Monkey enters Delhi Metro, delays services by 15 minutes - NDTV.com
Source: Business - Google News | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:16 pm Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank seeks co-op sector's support for revivalSix co-op banks have been asked to lend a helping hand.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:15 pm Apple’s CEO Jobs finds Foxconn deaths “troubling” * * * (Adds comments, details on Adobe, Google) Rancho Palos Verdes, California: Apple Inc chief executive Steve Jobs finds “troubling” a string of worker deaths at Foxconn, the contract manufacturer that assembles the company’s iPhones and iPads, but said its factory in China “is not a sweatshop”. Jobs was making his first public comments about apparent employees’ suicides at a complex operated by the unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry, which also counts Hewlett-Packard and Dell among its clients. At this year’s D8, an annual gathering of A-list technology and media executives in California, Jobs sniped at Adobe Systems Inc’s. “waning” Flash technology, vowed not to get into a search battle with Google, and waxed lyrical about the future of tablet PCs. Jobs also talked about how he conceived of the iPad even before the iPhone. Apple released the iPad in April and it has quickly defined the tablet computer market, selling more than 2 million units in the first 60 days. But a string of deaths at Foxconn’s base in southern China, which critics blame on stressful working conditions, threatens to cast a shadow over the device’s success. “It’s a difficult situation,” Jobs, dressed in his customary black turtleneck and jeans, said on stage. “We’re trying to understand right now, before we go in and say we know the solution.” The iPad’s momentum has helped drive share gains. Apple last week overtook long-time nemesis Microsoft to become the world’s largest technology company by market value — an event unthinkable a decade ago — and Apple’s shares have spent much of 2010 hitting new highs. Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple rose 1.5% on Tuesday to end at $260.8 on the Nasdaq. “For those of us that have been in the industry a long time, it’s surreal. But it doesn’t matter very much, it’s not what’s important,” Jobs said. “It’s not what makes you come to work every morning.” Top Dog Jobs has appeared at the D8 event in previous years, but not since 2007. Much has changed for Apple — and its helmsman — in that period. A pancreatic cancer survivor, the company’s founder underwent a liver transplant a year ago. Since returning from medical leave, the Apple CEO has been everywhere: posing for magazine profiles, responding personally to emails from customers, and lobbing verbal hand grenades in a high-profile spat with software maker Adobe. Jobs got in a few more swipes on Tuesday, saying Adobe had to get its technology up to speed before he will consider its “Flash” technology for iPhones or iPads. Flash-based video and games are found on many Internet sites. Hostility between Apple and Adobe has been brewing for months. Apple has criticized Flash as a buggy battery hog, while Adobe has accused Apple of exerting tyrannical control over developers creating programs for the iPhone and iPad. “We didn’t start off to have a war with Flash or anything else. We just made a technical decision,” he said. Adobe’s Flash multimedia technology allows video and interactive media on the Web. Apple’s iPhone is still the standard-bearer in the smartphone market, but it faces growing competition particularly from handsets running Google’s Android platform. Apple is widely expected to unveil its newest iPhone next Monday, when Jobs delivers his keynote address at its developers conference in San Francisco. But the company’s ascendance has invited scrutiny and criticism. The US Justice Department is making preliminary inquiries into whether Apple unfairly dominates the digital music market through its iTunes store, sources say. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:14 pm Nano plant inauguration: Ahmedabad joins car makers' club todaySanand's Nano plant, which is to be inaugurated today, will eventually employ 10,000 people and produce 700 cars/day.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:02 pm Sensex rebounds, up 106 points in opening tradeThe 30-share index, which had lost 372.60 points in yesterday's trading, bounced back by 106.06 points, or 0.63% to 16,678.09 points.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:56 pm Sensex up 61 points in early tradeBSE's Sensex was trading with a 61-point gain, about an hour into trade. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty was ruling at 4,988.15 points, up 0.34 percent from its previous close.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:34 pm Sensex rebounds, up 106 points in opening tradeThe BSE benchmark Sensex recovered by over 106 points in opening trade on Wednesday, after Tuesday's tumble, on emergence of buying by foreign funds amid a firming Asian trend.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:33 pm Oil prices above $72 as eurozone worries weighSingapore: Oil prices were mixed in Asian trade on 2 May with investor sentiment weighed by continuing concerns over the eurozone economy. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, shed 28 cents to $72.30 a barrel, while Brent North Sea crude for July was up 14 cents to $72.85. “Crude is especially tied to the euro especially during the Asian hours. The picture in Europe is pretty bleak now and the (oil) market in general is quite volatile,” said Clarence Chu, an oil trader with Hudson Capital Energy. “The general trend is that the market is quite volatile. A lot depends on the euro,” he told AFP. While the euro was firmer in Asian trade on 2 May, Chu said investors remained concerned after the European Central Bank (ECB) warned of new bank writedowns, fueling further anxiety over the shaky eurozone economy. The ECB had suggested that eurozone banks might have to reduce the value of their assets by a total of 195 billion euros ($240 billion) by 2011. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:43 pm UAE's Etisalat in talks to buy 25% stake in Reliance CommunicationsA banking source claimed that after acquiring 25% in Reliance Communications, Etisalat will make an open offer to acquire an additional 20% stake from the public.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:56 pm CNG prices to go up from June 8IGL and MGL, natural gas suppliers for automotive and piped cooking fuels, will raise price of CNG by Rs 5.60 per kg and PNG by Re 1 a unit from June 8.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 1 Jun 2010 | 3:46 pm Sensex tanks 373 points on Eurozone fearsThe Indian markets fell on Tuesday, halting its four-day rally as concerns about the European economies turned investors jittery again.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 1 Jun 2010 | 2:08 pm Freak trade pulls down RIL stockIn a freak trade on the BSE, the stock price of index heavyweight Reliance Industries crashed around 20% to Rs 840.55, and pulled the benchmark indices sensex and nifty down by several percentage points for some minutes in Tuesday's mid-session.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 1 Jun 2010 | 2:07 pm Overdrive: Car sales zoom on fast trackMaruti, the country's top carmaker, saw monthly volume crossing the 1 lakh-mark for the first time ever, surpassing the previous monthly sales record in February this year.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 1 Jun 2010 | 2:05 pm Gold hits high at Rs 19,000 for 10 gmsThough Asian markets plunged into a sea of red, the yellow metal continued to surge, touching a new high of Rs 19,050 per 10 grams today.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:56 pm Stage set for BPL census pilot projectNew Delhi: The stage is set for the launch of the census to identify families below the poverty line (BPL) after all the stakeholders signed off on the pilot project covering 90,000 villages to be started next month.  Poverty focus: Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen. Madhu Kapparath / Mint It is the first time that a pilot project is being undertaken ahead of the BPL census to be launched in April 2011. The census, which will cover all of rural India, is significant as it is part of the government’s efforts to push for inclusion through better targeting of subsidies. Progress on the census had been delayed because the state governments had raised objections, particularly with respect to the choice of parameters to identify the poor. At a meeting convened by the rural development ministry on Tuesday, representatives of the Central and state governments approved a plan that will conduct a census of 260 villages across the country. The pilot will, besides testing all the parameters to identify the poor, also explore integration with the government’s ambitious unique identity (UID) project or Aadhaar. “This is in the background of the recommendations of the N.C. Saxena committee which were circulated to the various states and also includes the suggestions received from (economist) Jean Dreze... The pilot project is basically to test the questionnaire,” said Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen, who attended the meeting. By seeking to integrate the process with the UID programme, the government wants to minimize leakages and ensure targeting. It is, however, potentially controversial as it could lead to the exclusion of people from the existing BPL list. The BPL card is used to obtain benefits under the government’s poverty alleviation programmes as well as gain access to cheap foodgrains from the public distribution system (PDS), subsidized health insurance and scholarships. Specifically, the card is a precondition to availing of facilities of social welfare programmes such as the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (national health insurance scheme) and the Indira Awaas Yojana (a housing scheme for the rural poor), as well as various state government programmes. The pilot survey “will provide an all-India comparison and also provide some flexibility to the states for the BPL census”, Sen said. “Some criteria are mindlessly included in the census which leads to absurd results like in the last BPL census. The survey will help to see if some recommendations could actually be used at the ground level.” The government has already earmarked funds for the census by providing for Rs300 crore in the Budget for 2010-11. More funds are expected to be allotted in next year’s budget. The pilot project seeks to cover all eventualities and will include four villages in every agro-climatic region of the country (as is the normal practice with the National Sample Survey). Further, villages in the two poorest and richest districts will be covered. Also, the pilot will, with the help of the Public Health Foundation of India, seek to identify malnutrition levels, which can be used to qualitatively identify the poorest. While India’s apex planning body, the Planning Commission, estimates the level of poverty, the census to identify BPL households is undertaken by the rural development ministry. The ministry carries out a census based on 13 socio-economic parameters to identify BPL families. The Planning Commission’s estimate puts the number of BPL families at 62.5 million, while state governments say the number is closer to 107 million. The rural development ministry had set up a committee under former Planning Commission secretary Saxena to review the methodology of the census and resolve the conflicting estimates. The Saxena panel’s methodology takes a three-pronged approach: to identify those who are to be excluded, to ensure that poor and vulnerable sections are automatically included, then grade these households and find out the poorest among them. According to people close to the development who did not want to be identified, the pilot projects will conduct a census of the entire village to identify the poor and check whether the criteria laid out in the Saxena panel report as well as additional ones, some of which have been proposed by the states, lead to a match with estimates. All indicators suggested by the Saxena panel will be tested by the pilot project to determine what would be the most suitable methodology for the BPL census. By covering the entire rural population, the census is expected to be one of the biggest registrars for the UID project, which seeks to create a national identity for every Indian citizen. An expert, however, believes linking the two might not serve the purpose. “The BPL list is often not very accurate. People who are truly poor sometimes get left out,” said Vijay Mahajan, chairman of Hyderabad-based Basix group, which works to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor. “These errors are very well known, so to use the BPL list as a source for UID is just compounding the same mistakes all over again.” Asit Ranjan Mishra and Karen Leigh contributed to this story. ruhi.t@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:53 pm Manufacturing in May posts fastest growth in two yearsIndias manufacturing sector expanded the fastest over two years in May, guided primarily by a sharp increase in production backed by new orders, even as input costs continued to rise sharply. The seasonally adjusted HSBC Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) climbed to its highest level since February 2008 at 59 in May, up from 57.2 in April.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:50 pm Network sharing will be the order of the dayNew Delhi: Bharti Airtel Ltd, India’s largest phone company, made the highest bid of Rs12,300 crore for high-speed, third-generation (3G) spectrum recently. Chief executive officer Sanjay Kapoor said in an interview that the returns will come when an ecosystem is built. Edited excerpts: Do you believe 3G spectrum deserved such a high price? What’s your horizon for breaking even? We have presented that it is expensive. I cannot say much on the strategy going ahead. We will come out with how we plan to leverage what we have soon. With any new service, the first emphasis is creating the ecosystem of content providers, device suppliers, application providers and the customer experience—that is what we will be concentrating on to begin with. The moment you build traction, the returns follow. To create an ecosystem for something as big as 3G requires a critical mass of operators—one player cannot create an ecosystem. Once the other operators come, they create an ecosystem. A bulk of the 2G capacities will get replaced with 3G capacities, so therefore, the expenses, opex and capex (operating and capital expenditure), will be incremental. Will apps be the real differentiators? The biggest money spinners for 3G, even in the developed world, are a combination of voice and Internet access. In India, it will begin from there as well. Applications will follow. The number of Indians with access to the Internet is dismal, where 60-70% of the so-called broadband users have speeds of less than 256 kbps. The first empowerment will be Internet access and then applications will follow. Things like video have not been money spinners in most parts of the world. It is always a bouquet or a mix of applications that renders the critical revenues that you are looking for.  The long run: Sanjay Kapoor says 3G will be a catalyst and will expedite the process of consolidation in the telecom sector. Priyanka Parashar/Mint When we launched our app store, we saw that customers from smaller locations consuming and downloading more applications, which tells us that there are opportunities in every nook and corner of the country. Around 17-18% of the applications that have been downloaded are paid applications, which is high by any standards. Are you happy with the result of the 3G auction? Weren’t circles such as Punjab, Maharashtra and Gujarat lucrative enough to go after? The belief is that we are essentially covering the critical mass that we wanted to cover. We would have loved to have a pan-India footprint but given the expense involved, we ended up making choices. Going ahead, there will be opportunities to share networks with other operators, so customers will get our 3G services in areas where we are not present. Sharing will be the order of the day—it’s a matter of time. There is revenue to be made from sharing. Will you launch in December, assuming you get spectrum in September? We have said in the past that the network is by-and-large 3G-ready. The core network, content and application platforms, passive infrastructure, among other things, are 3G-ready. It’s the radio side that needs some enhancement for 3G. Do you see the operators who have won 3G spectrum going sick due to the large debt they have taken on? Will it bring tariff stability? Some of the equations that are coming out in terms of pricing that some operators have paid for these licences seem fairly aggressive. In the process of consolidation, 3G will be a catalyst; it will expedite the process of consolidation. We have said that the market’s propensity to drop prices does not exist today. The 3G exercise has put a further lid on that. With the coming of 3G, will Indian customers also get plans such as those in the US that subsidize handsets? Given the prepaid nature of the market in India and the lack of a system where you can control the credit, there is no possibility of device bundling and discounting. Also, prices prevailing in the market do not leave any room for subsidizing gadgetry. There will be devices and gadgets made available by the operators. The device manufacturers look at India and China closely because the volume story is hidden here. As soon as there is an increase in consumption of broadband, the availability of these devices will increase while their prices will come down. The volumes of these two countries impacts worldwide trends for many devices. What is the bigger challenge—2G competition or 3G rollout? Customers are agnostic to technologies. They are looking at services. The way we sharply segment our customer base, I think we will begin to sharpen our competition base as well. In India, in the 2G segment there are 14 operators, on the wireless broadband side, there are three-four. So, for at least the short term, you will have to segment your competition as well. In the long run, the differences between 2G and 3G will wipe away and by the time consolidation happens, these difference will go away. The long-term survivors will have all types of technology and services. We are agnostic to technologies. The 2G-3G divide is shrinking in our minds. We develop our strategies based on customer behaviour and needs. The fortunate part about India is that the bulk of new customers are coming from rural India, which is still very dismally penetrated compared to other parts of the world. There is a huge amount of unserved markets. Soon after providing voice connectivity, we will be embarking on a journey to provide Internet connectivity. The whole phenomenon of this industry is going to move from persons to the SIM (subscriber identification module) completely. It is believed that by 2020, there will be 50 billion SIMs across the world as the world will move towards machine-to-machine applications—a SIM for your surveillance, car, GPS (Global Positioning System), return path for DTH—any number of applications, including one in your microwave and one in your refrigerator, this is going to be a reality. Time-frames are to be defined. If this is true, then India should be prepared for six-seven billion SIMs in the country. Each person will carry multiple SIMs for multiple applications and it will no more be about the number of SIMs but the number of applications. Most of these businesses will actually move from being a telecom business to a more lifestyle business. If this is true, then we have just touched the tip of the iceberg. We will move to a very different dimension in the future. Verticalization of the businesses, where we started with music, will proliferate into commerce, entertainment, health, advertising, among many other things. There are very few businesses across the globe that can participate in verticals that are out of their traditional domain. This business has the potential of moving from a share of telecom wallet to a share of customer wallet, and the dependency of pure voice among other applications will change. Nobody can tell you what will be the main revenue stream in the year 2020. Do you have to separate 2G and 3G customers? No, we don’t have to, but any company that believes in mining data and understanding customers would always want to know it for their purposes. I would want to know how my returns on 3G are after making the significant investments. From a customer view point, it will mesh up but any organization will mine its data. But the difference in the cost to serve a 2G customer and the cost to serve a 3G customer should be incremental as voice is the stickiest application across the globe. A customer with a 3G device will automatically move to 3G—it will happen by default. What is the shape of the consolidations that we will see? In the long run, only 2G players or only 3G players have not survived. Generally, what we have seen is that operators with combinations of both 2G and 3G have survived in most parts of the world. So clearly, consolidation in India will be led by a bit of technology, but will be largely led by the economics. The economics will make sense for even a large economy like India for no more than five-six operators. When the world has seen survival of three-four operators, India being slightly larger, I would say five-six. But I won’t anticipate more than three of them making money. The balance will always be on the border or on the other side of the border. Eventually, it will be only economics that will decide what sort of consolidations happens—there can be no other way. shauvik.g@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:50 pm Aam aadmi to remain priority: PMA year into his second five-year tenure as head of the United Progressive Alliance government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented a formal report to the people on the year gone by and the expectation of what was to come.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:49 pm Govt tries to plug another tax loopholePanel gives report on capping firms debt-equity ratio for tax purposes.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 1 Jun 2010 | 12:48 pm Hedge funds post worst show since LehmanNew York: John Paulson, Louis Bacon and Andreas Halvorsen navigated the global market turmoil of 2008 with little or no damage. They weren’t as successful last month as the Dow Jones Industrial average had its worst May since 1940. Hedge funds lost an average of 2.7% through 27 May, according to the HFRX Global Hedge Fund index, as the sovereign debt crisis in Europe triggered declines in stocks, the euro and commodities, and the gap in yields between US short-term and long-term debt narrowed. It was the biggest decline since November 2008, when hedge funds lost 3% in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy two months earlier.  Taking a beating: John Paulson’s Advantage fund dropped 6.9% through 21 May, dragging it to a year-to-date loss of 3.3%. Rick Maiman/Bloomberg “Attempting to manage risk in an environment where everything that could go wrong does go wrong seems like a fruitless endeavour,” said Brad Balter, who runs Balter Capital Management Llc, a Boston firm that invests in hedge funds for clients. “The only defence that seems to work in months like these is being in cash.” Paulson’s Advantage fund dropped 6.9% through 21 May, dragging it to a year-to-date loss of 3.3%, according to investors with knowledge of the results, who asked not to be named because the information is private. Halvorsen’s Viking Global fund fell 3.4% in the same span and 2.9% for the year. Bacon’s Moore Global declined 7.7% as of 20 May and 4.8% in 2010, investors said. Representatives of Paulson and Co., Viking Global Investors Lp and Moore Capital Management Llc, the New York-based firms that oversee the funds, declined to comment. Paulson, Halvorsen and Bacon have among the best long-term returns in the industry, each with average gains of 20% or more since they started. Paulson Advantage fund climbed 25% in 2008 while the S&P 500 slumped 37% including dividends, its largest setback since the Great Depression. Viking rose 0.1% that year and Moore Global slid 4.6%, offering investors the type of bear-market shelter they look for in hedge funds. Many of the wagers that hedge funds put on to protect against falling markets didn’t work, Balter said. Their bets on falling stocks didn’t make enough money to counter losses in shares the managers expected to climb. Commodities retreated 8.2% in May, as measured by the UBS Bloomberg CMCI index. Traders who positioned themselves for the US yield curve to steepen, a sign of expected economic growth, suffered losses when the difference between payouts on two-year and 10-year treasury notes narrowed instead. The spread shrank from 269 basis points at the end of April to 252 on 28 May. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percent. SAC Capital Advisors Llc, the hedge-fund firm run by Steven Cohen in Stamford, Connecticut, with about $12 billion under management, lost 2.9% last month through 21 May with its SAC Capital International fund, trimming this year’s gain to about 45, according to people familiar with the firm. Citadel Investment Group Llc, the $12 billion hedge-fund firm run by Ken Griffin, lost about 2% with its biggest funds last month through 21 May, said people familiar with the firm. The funds soared as much as 62% last year as markets rebounded after losing as much as 55% in 2008. feedback@livemint.com Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 11:41 am British Airways mag shows Osama Bin Laden as 'frequent flyer'In an embarrassing turn of events, a staff magazine of British Airways carried a front-page photo of Osama Bin Laden, labelling him as a frequent flyer with the airlines.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 1 Jun 2010 | 10:56 am The long-term effects of short-term emotionsThe heat of the moment is a powerful, dangerous thing. We all know this. If we’re happy, we may be overly generous. Maybe we leave a big tip, or buy a boat. If we’re irritated, we may snap. Maybe we rifle off that nasty e-mail to the boss, or punch someone. And for that fleeting second, we feel great. But the regret—and the consequences of that decision—may last years, a whole career, or even a lifetime. At least the regret will serve us well, right? Lesson learned—maybe. Maybe not. My friend Eduardo Andrade and I wondered if emotions could influence how people make decisions even after the heat or anxiety or exhilaration wears off. We suspected they could. As research going back to Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory suggests, the problem with emotional decisions is that our actions loom larger than the conditions under which the decisions were made.  Illustration: Shyamal Banerjee/Mint I said that Eduardo and I wondered if past emotions influence future actions, but, really, we worried about it. If we were right, and recklessly poor emotional decisions guide later “rational” moments, well, then, we’re not terribly sophisticated decision makers, are we? To test the idea, we needed to observe some emotional decisions. So we annoyed some people, by showing them a five-minute clip from the movie Life as a House, in which an arrogant boss fires an architect who proceeds to smash the firm’s models. We made other subjects happy, by showing them—what else?—a clip from the TV show Friends. (Eduardo’s previous research had established the emotional effects of these clips). Right after that, we had them play a classic economics game known as the ultimatum game, in which a “sender” (in this case, Eduardo and I) has $20 and offers a “receiver” (the movie watcher) a portion of the money. Some offers are fair (an even split) and some are unfair (you get $5, we get $15). The receiver can either accept or reject the offer. If he rejects it, both sides get nothing. Traditional economics predicts that people—as rational beings—will accept any offer of money rather than reject an offer and get zero. But behavioral economics shows that people often prefer to lose money in order to punish a person making an unfair offer. Our findings (published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes) followed suit, and, interestingly, the effect was amplified among our irritated subjects. Life as a House watchers rejected far more offers than Friends watchers, even though the content of the movie had nothing to do with the offer. Just as a fight at home may sour your mood, increasing the chances that you’ll send a snippy e-mail, being subjected to an annoying movie leads people to reject unfair offers more frequently even though the offer wasn’t the cause of their mood. Next came the important part. We waited. And when the emotions evoked by the movie were no longer a factor, we had the participants play the game again. Our fears were confirmed. Those who had been annoyed the first time they played the game rejected far more offers this time as well. They were tapping the memory of the decisions they had made earlier, when they were responding under the influence of feeling annoyed. In other words, the tendency to reject offers remained heightened among our Life as a House group—compared with control groups—even when they were no longer irritated. So now I’m thinking of the manager whose personal portfolio loses 10% of its value in a week (entirely plausible these days). He’s frustrated, angry, nervous—and all the while, he’s making decisions about the day-to-day operations of his group. If he’s forced to attend to those issues right after he looks at his portfolio, he’s liable to make poor decisions, colored by his inner turmoil. Worse, though, those poor decisions become part of the blueprint for his future decisions—part of what his brain considers “the way to act.” That makes those strategies for making decisions in the heat of the moment even more important: Take a deep breath. Count backward from 10 (or 10,000). Wait until you’ve cooled off. Sleep on it. If you don’t, you may regret it. Many times over. Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University and the author of Predictably Irrational (HarperCollins, 2008). Extracted from Harvard Business Review, January-February 2010. © 2010 Harvard Business Publishing Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 9:15 am Microsoft Office productivity suite turns light, agile and fastMicrosoft Inc.’s Office productivity suite is the software you love to hate. Yeah, you can get a lot done with it, but the process can be clunky and painful. Office has a reputation for being slow and bloated. And with the last version, Microsoft blew up most of the programs’ design, dropping familiar menus for a new interface dubbed the Ribbon.  Powerful tool: A file photo of customers at a Microsoft store in the US. The company has released Office 2010 to businesses recently. Roy Scuteri / Bloomberg With Office 2010—released to businesses recently and available to consumers on 15 June—Microsoft has fixed one of those issues. This new version of Office is remarkably fast and—dare I say it?—feels light and agile. Those who aren’t fans of the Ribbon will find only minor solace in this new release. Microsoft has extended the Ribbon to all the programs in the suite, including its Outlook email software. While there’s still no built-in way to revert to the pre-Ribbon interface, you can now customize the Ribbon. If a feature’s button doesn’t seem to be in an intuitive place, just move it. As with earlier versions of Office, there are multiple retail editions of 2010. Home and Student costs $150 (around Rs7,000) and comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Home and Business is $280 and adds Outlook to the mix. Office Professional is $500 and includes Publisher and Access. There’s also an academic version of Professional for just $100, but you must be a student or educator to get that price. Unfortunately, there's no upgrade pricing. If you have an older version of Office, you won’t get a break on this one (unless you bought Office 2007 recently; then you may be eligible for a free upgrade). Office 2010 is available in 32- and 64-bit versions. You’ll need to be running a 64-bit copy of Windows 7 or Vista to use the 64-bit version, but Microsoft suggests that most folks install the 32-bit version because of compatibility issues with some plug-ins for Office. I’ve been testing 32- and 64-bit versions of Office on physical PCs running Windows 7 and XP and virtual systems running Windows 7 on a Mac. In all scenarios, Office 2010 is remarkably fast compared with its predecessor. Office 2010 is too sprawling to tell you about everything that’s new, but here are some highlights in the main programs: Outlook The email client is the most dramatically changed part of Office 2010, thanks to the addition of the Ribbon. I’ve never really liked Outlook—it was a necessary work evil—but I really love this version. I find using the Ribbon far more intuitive than Outlook’s previous menus-and-buttons interface. Outlook can now group email threads by conversations, a long-overdue feature that makes it easy to follow discussions involving different people. And there’s the People Viewer, which can show you all email, attachments, calendar entries and other items related to an individual. Finally, there’s the Social Connector, which can import updates from LinkedIn and MySpace. Facebook will be added soon. Word If you use a lot of photos in your word processing documents, you’ll love Word’s new image features. It will now let you grab screen shots from any application on your desktop, showing you thumbnails of what’s running as a quick way of choosing. Once you have those images, you can tweak them easily in improved picture-editing tools. My favourite new feature gives a preview of text or an object before you paste it into place. Excel Office’s spreadsheet program also benefits form the image-editing and copy/paste preview features. It also now gives you more graphical choices, down to the background colours of cells changing based on what happens with data. It offers one-cell graphs, called Sparklines, that can show at a glance trends for that cell over time. PowerPoint Until this version, video has been something of an afterthought for PowerPoint, but new features make it easier to add it to presentations. For example, if you want to add a YouTube video, just click a button and paste in the Web address. Is Office 2010 worth the upgrade cost? If you’re frustrated with the slowness and bloat of past versions, you’ll definitely want to consider it. Ditto if you’re a fan of the Ribbon and want to use it in Outlook. For me, the improvements in Outlook alone make Office 2010 worth having. ©2010/THE NEW YORK TIMES feedback@livemint.com Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:52 am Chinese supercomputer challenges US dominanceSan FranCisco: A Chinese supercomputer has been ranked as the world’s second fastest machine, surpassing European and Japanese systems and underscoring China’s aggressive commitment to science and technology. The Dawning Nebulae, based at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, China, has achieved a sustained computing speed of 1.27 petaflops—the equivalent of one thousand trillion mathematical operations a second—in the latest semiannual ranking of the world’s fastest 500 computers. The newest ranking was made public on Monday at the International Supercomputer Conference in Hamburg, Germany. Supercomputers are used for scientific and engineering problems ranging from climate simulation to automotive design. The Chinese machine is actually now ranked as the world’s fastest in terms of theoretical peak performance, but that is considered a less significant measure than the computing speed achieved on a standardized computing test. The world’s fastest computer remains the Cray Jaguar supercomputer, based at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. In November, it was measured at 1.75 petaflops. In the last year’s ranking, the Chinese had the fifth fastest computer, a system that was based at a National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, China. That machine has dropped to seventh place. The US continues to be the dominant maker of supercomputers, and is the nation with the most machines in the top 500. The US has 282 of the world’s fastest 500 computers on the new list, an increase from 277 when the rankings were compiled in November. But China appears intent on challenging US dominance. A new system, which is based on a microprocessor that has been designed and manufactured in China, is expected later this year. A number of supercomputing industry scientists and engineers said that it was possible that the new machine would claim the title of world’s fastest. “I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of this year they surpass the scientific computing power of the EU countries combined and have a computer system with an achieved performance to reach the No. 1 position on the top 500,” said Jack Dongarra, a computer scientist at the University of Tennessee and one of the researchers who has organized the twice-yearly rankings. Americans designed the first machines that were defined as supercomputers during the 1960s, and the US has rarely been dislodged from its controlling position as technology leader. In 2002, however, the Japanese government’s Earth Simulator set off anxiety in Washington when that system briefly claimed the position. ©2010 / THE NEW YORK TIMES Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:52 am Google phasing out internal use of Windows: reportNew York: Internet major Google is phasing out its internal use of Microsoft Windows operating system due to security concerns, which arose mainly after its China operations were hacked, a media report said. The report by the UK daily ‘Financial Times’, citing several Google employees, said the Internet giant is “phasing out internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns.” The directive to move to other operating systems had begun in January at Google, after its Chinese operations were hacked. The move can effectively end the use of Windows at Google, which employs more than 10,000 workers internationally, the report added. “We’re not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort,” FT quoted a Google employee as saying. Another google employee said that many people have been moved away from [Windows] PCs, mostly towards Mac OS, following the China hacking attacks. New people hired at Google are now given the option of using Apple’s Mac computers or PCs running the Linux operating system. In early January, some new employees were still being allowed to install Windows on their laptops, but it was not an option for their desktop computers, the report added. Windows is known for being more vulnerable to attacks by hackers and more susceptible to computer viruses than other operating systems. In addition to being a semi-formal policy, employees themselves have grown more concerned about security after the China attacks, the report said citing an employee. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 8:00 am EU takes closer look into Unilever, Sara Lee dealBrussels: European Union regulators extended their probe of Unilever’s bid for Sara Lee Corp’s body care business after the Anglo-Dutch company declined to offer concessions to address competition concerns. The European Commission, the EU competition watchdog, said on Tuesday that it would decide by 5 October whether to clear or block the $1.3 billion deal. Its previous deadline was31 May. Unilever shares were down 1.5% to 1,840 pence by 0918 GMT versus a 1% fall in the Stoxx Europe 600 food and beverage index. Unilever said last week it expected regulators to take a closer look that will delay the asset purchase to the fourth quarter of 2010 from a previous third-quarter target. Sara Lee said an extended investigation would delay some share buybacks. The Commission said an initial investigation showed potential competition concerns on several product markets such as deodorants, skin cleansing and fabric care products. “This merger creates significant overlaps in a number of products used by consumers on an everyday basis. We need to make sure that if there are competition concerns these are duly addressed,” Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement. An in-depth investigation does not necessarily mean bad news for Unilever, said antitrust lawyer Bertold Bar-Bouyssiere at DLA Piper. “There have been several cases where investigations have been terminated, sometimes even without a statement of objections. When there are overlaps, competition concerns could be fixed with divestments, which can be done in phase two,” he said. The EU executive unconditionally cleared Oracle Corp’s $7 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems in January after an in-depth investigation. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:51 am China to subsidise hybrid, electric car purchasesBeijing / Shanghai: China said on Tuesday that it would launch a pilot programme in five cities to provide subsidies to buyers of electric and hybrid cars, as the government steps up efforts to cut emissions in the world’s biggest auto market. Residents of Shanghai and Shenzhen, as well as Hangzhou and Hefei in the east of the country and Changchun in the northeast, would receive up to 50,000 yuan ($7,320) in subsidies if they buy plug-in hybrid cars, the ministry of finance said on its website. The maximum subsidy for those who bought fully electric cars was 60,000 yuan, the ministry said. “The handouts could get people interested in green car models now that the government has come up with a concrete plan and real money to back it up,” said Harry Zhao, an analyst with industry consultancy CSM Worldwide. “But it’s unrealistic to expect it to work like magic; like tax incentives did last year.” Beijing’s tax incentives for small cars and subsidies for vehicle buyers in rural areas helped domestic vehicle sales surge 46% last year to 13.6 million units, surpassing the United States as the world’s top auto market. The impact of the new subsidies on green car sales was unlikely to be very large in the short term because of high battery costs and an inadequate charging network, but would make it easier for those interested in cars fuelled by alternative energy to decide to buy such vehicles, analysts said. Hybrid bandwagon Taking cues from the government, the biggest players in the Chinese auto market, from top state auto group SAIC Motor Corp to rising star Geely Automotive Holding, have been ramping up efforts to bring low-emission vehicles onto the roads. SAIC plans to roll out its first hybrid car this year, while Shenzhen-based car and battery maker BYD Co, backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, started retail sales of its plug-in hybrid F3DM in March. The government would also allocate unspecified funding to bankroll the construction of charging stations and battery recovery networks in the pilot cities, the finance ministry added. Instead of handing out subsidies to consumers directly, the government would allocate the money to carmakers, who would then lower the prices of relevant models accordingly, it said, without indicating when the programme would begin. The level of handouts would be reduced after carmakers sold a total 50,000 green cars, it said, without elaborating. The government started to offer subsidies for purchases of cleaner buses in early 2009, as part of another pilot programme in 13 cities. In addition to the new programme limited to the five specified cities, Beijing would also offer nationwide subsidies of 3,000 yuan on purchases of cars with 1.6-litre engines or smaller and that consume 20% less fuel than current standards, it added. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:17 am Asia pickup steaming ahead for Germany’s SAPHong Kong: German software giant SAP AG is seeing a sustained pickup in its Asia business, led by strong demand from the fast growing China and India markets, its top regional executive said. The company saw its Asia software revenue grow 13% in the first quarter, outpacing 10-11% growth for its global software revenue, Stephen Watts, president of SAP Asia Pacific Japan, said on Tuesday. In late April, the company reiterated its previous guidance for 4-8% total revenue growth globally this year, a vast improvement over the 5% decline in 2009 at the height of the global recession. “One, two months ago it was all about cash flow and the bottom line,” he said, speaking about SAP’s clients in the region. “Now the discussions we’re having are about growth again.” Watts said he was “confident” that regional demand would continue to improve this year and that the company’s Asia operations were “busy” in the current quarter, but declined to be more specific. “Certainly if I look across the market, the conversations are more positive; sentiment is picking up,” he said. Asia had been one of SAP’s best performing major regions in recent years, accounting for 15-16% of the company’s global revenue, versus 12-13% six or seven years ago, Watts said. SAP, whose customers include McDonald’s Corp, Audi AG and Apple Inc, counted Australia and Japan as its top regional markets in Asia, but was seeing China fast close in on the pair, he said, adding that China sales were now at about 70% of those for Japan and Australia. “Typically these fast-growth markets are growing two to three times faster than more mature ones,” he said. SAP competes in China with global archrival Oracle Corp, and homegrown players Kingdee International Software group and UFIDA Software, which it is increasingly running up against in the domestic market. Last month, SAP announced plans to acquire Sybase Inc in a deal valued at $5.8 billion, as it moves compete with Oracle. Despite the deal’s large premium, SAP argued that it made strategic sense because it would allow it to benefit from the “explosion in mobile data” especially in the Asia-Pacific region where Sybase had a strong presence. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 1 Jun 2010 | 4:15 am
|
