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Connect to mythology if you want successIndra King of Gods and Lord of Heaven in constant pursuit of success and wealth. Lakshmi But Lakhsmi prefers the side of Vishnu. Are you Indra chasing success or are you Vishnu with success chasing you. There in lie the answers to who is a leader and ideal leadership qualities.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 12 Jun 2010 | 8:01 am Base rate war: Will pvt banks grab customers come July?On July 1, banks will stop speaking about their PLRs. They will replace it with the new base rate. In an interview with CNBCTV18, MV Nair, Chairman, Union Bank and Former Chairman, IBA spoke on a possible rate war brewing between public sector and private sector banks.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 12 Jun 2010 | 7:26 am Kalanithi all set to fly with 37% in SpiceJet - Stock Watch
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Jun 2010 | 4:13 am Mukesh back in telecoms with Infotel - Financial Express
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Jun 2010 | 4:12 am Nissan begins limited testdrives for Leaf EVNissan Motor Co on Friday kicked off a weeklong testdrive event for its Leaf electric car, saying it had a combined 20,000 orders in Japan and the United States six months before the car goes on sale.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 12 Jun 2010 | 4:02 am Did somebody say \'decoupling\'?There is a growing worry for investors as they head towards the second half of the year will governments\' increased appetite for budget cutting knock the nascent global economic recovery off track?Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 12 Jun 2010 | 4:02 am Fuel price to hike when inflation softens - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Jun 2010 | 3:54 am UAE central bank says banks don't need more supportThe UAE central bank has repeatedly said that banks, which are heavily exposed to state-owned conglomerate Dubai World, are more sound and liquid than a year ago.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 12 Jun 2010 | 3:54 am Basel reforms may be delayed, but not scrappedBanks are to get more time to top up their capital under tough new global rules but their hopes for more fundamental rethink are set to be dashed.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 12 Jun 2010 | 3:20 am UAE cbank says banks don't need more support - paperDUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates central bank sees no need for additional support to national banks at present because capitalisation is adequate, Al Ittihad newspaper said on Saturday, citing an official at the bank.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Jun 2010 | 3:20 am HUL okays share buyback at Rs 280/share - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 12 Jun 2010 | 3:00 am U.S. celebrity money man pleads not guilty to fraudNEW YORK (Reuters) - An investment adviser to celebrities and wealthy New Yorkers pleaded not guilty on Friday to defrauding clients of at least $59 million.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Jun 2010 | 1:50 am Obama, Cameron to discuss BP oil spill crisisBURAS, La. (Reuters) - BP Plc's handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was expected to overshadow talks on Saturday between U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Jun 2010 | 1:15 am FACTBOX - The Gulf BP spill: How much oil is it, anyway?(Reuters) - U.S. government scientists this week estimated that BP Plc's blown-out Gulf of Mexico well is gushing up to 40,000 barrels (1.7 million gallons/ 6.4 million litres) per day into the ocean.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Jun 2010 | 1:07 am China says euro zone woes will hit its export growthBEIJING (Reuters) - Debt strains in the euro zone will take a toll on Chinese exports in the coming months, the Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 12 Jun 2010 | 1:01 am Capital goods power 17.6% industrial growth in AprilIndustrial output continued on the double-digit growth track for the seventh straight month in April, surging by a faster-than-expected 17.6 per cent from a year earlier, the strongest since the 17.7 per cent recorded in DecemberSource: Business Line - Home Page | 12 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am SpiceJet slips amidst stake sale talkThe SpiceJet stock on Friday scaled higher altitude in the early session, but dived down on unconfirmed reports that the Sun TV Networks chief, Mr Kalanithi Maran, was poised to take controlling stake in the company at a substantially lower valueSource: Business Line - Home Page | 12 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Kharif area under pulses, sugarcane, cotton risesThe rising trend in the coverage of pulses, sugarcane and natural fibres continues even as sowing activity for the kharif season is picking upSource: Business Line - Home Page | 12 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am China's loss can be India's gainChina's Trade Minister, on a visit to India in the early 1990s, said: “We have come to India to see what China would become after 15-20 years.” When asked to elaborate, he explained that his country wanted to see what kind ofSource: Business Line - Home Page | 12 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Rs 4,800-cr Infotel buy signals Mukesh Ambani's telecom re-entryArmed with 4G, or fourth generation technologies, Reliance Industries is set to stage a comeback into the Indian telecommunications space after a gap of nearly fiveSource: Business Line - Home Page | 12 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Govt to get Rs 38,543 crore from broadband auctionThe auction for broadband spectrum ended on Friday with the Government set to receive Rs 38,543 crore from selling three slots ofSource: Business Line - Home Page | 12 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Soon, watch TV and browse the Web – at the same timeIn the not-too-distant future, the humble television set could double up as an Internet interface as well. A team of engineers at the Microsoft office in Hyderabad is working on applications that allow users to juggle between TV shows and WebSource: Business Line - Home Page | 12 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Big telcos miss out on broadband spectrumAggressive bidding by the Mukesh Ambani-backed Infotel has resulted in most of the existing telecom players losing out on broadband spectrum. Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar, Tata Communications and Idea Cellular all drew a blank in theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 12 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am StanChart IDR debuts below offer priceThe Indian Depository Receipts (IDRs) of Standard Chartered Bank closed below the offer price on the first day of trading on Friday, when the equity markets wereSource: Business Line - Home Page | 12 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Hind Unilever to buy back shares at Rs 280The Hindustan Unilever board on Friday approved a share buyback at a price of up to Rs 280 a share. This will translate into an outgo of Rs 630 crore through open market purchases , the company said in aSource: Business Line - Home Page | 12 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Ambush marketing gives Nike leg up for World CupAlmost one-third of the online buzz around the World Cup in the month running up to the soccer tournament was focused on Nike, twice as high as rival and official sponsor Adidas AG.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 11:45 pm Google helps build trade case over Web censorshipWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Google Inc is working with U.S. and European officials to build a case that would argue Internet censorship acts as a trade barrier, a top company executive said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 11:06 pm Wall St Week Ahead: Europe, economic data to call stocks' tuneNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock investors will keep a close eye on Europe next week, looking for signs the debt crisis may be stabilizing, while industrial production, housing starts and inflation data may offer more clues on the U.S. economic outlook.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:58 pm Warren Buffett lunch sells for $2.63 mln on eBayNEW YORK (Reuters) - A bidder has agreed to pay $2.63 million for a steak lunch with the billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a charity auction held on eBay Inc's website.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:51 pm Mukesh Ambani back in telecoms with InfotelNEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries made a dramatic return to telecoms, agreeing to buy Infotel Broadband, which was the only company to win a nationwide licence in India's broadband wireless spectrum auction.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:20 pm First StanChart IDR makes a tame debut - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 11 Jun 2010 | 8:12 pm SAIL to focus on value-added steel, global M&As - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 11 Jun 2010 | 8:12 pm Lounge podcast | Of striker and stoppersHello and welcome to the all football edition of the Lounge podcast! We’re buying into the FIFA fever with three football related bytes for you today. First, we have sports writer and critic Dileep Premachandran giving us a quick take on what to look out for this year. Star coach Karim Bencherifa speaks to Lounger Rudraneil Sengupta on what this World Cup means for the African teams. And finally, our book critic Chandrahas Choudhary joins in with two football-related recommendations. Have a great weekend and enjoy the games. We love to hear from you so do write to us at feedback@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 8:06 pm China blows hot -- and cold, in a good wayData point to an economy that's slowing down.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 5:08 pm Water level in reservoirs up in week to June 10Water levels in India\'s main reservoirs rose to 13% of capacity in the week to June 10, up from 11% a year ago, government data showed.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 5:01 pm India one of principal mkts in Asia, says Par Ostberg - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 11 Jun 2010 | 4:51 pm Bloomberg UTV says rebranding has helpedBloomberg UTV, the business news channel, said viewership has risen 25% after it revamped offerings.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 4:49 pm Gitanjali sees lifestyle division leading growthFor Japan and China, Gitanjali is tying up with several groups and retail chains.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 4:23 pm Monsoon arrives in city, will be 90% normal, says Met - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 11 Jun 2010 | 4:10 pm Cement companies see wafer-thin margins as prices declinePrices in the south have fallen by Rs20-70 in the last two months to average around Rs165 per 50 kg bag owing to a decline in demand amid the oversupply.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 4:10 pm Loose ends abound in Maran-SpiceJet dealThe stake math doesn't add up for now. FCCB conversions bring down stake of promoter, Goldman.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 4:07 pm Dalal Street divided on inter-meet rate hikeIIP expanded by 17.6% in April compared with 13.5% in March, due mainly to base effect.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 3:59 pm Qualcomm likely to partner Bharti, AircelWhen chip-maker and patent licensor Qualcomm entered the broadband auction two months ago, it set the alarm bells ringing in the Wimax camp.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 3:58 pm Weekly market wrap-up: Investor sentiment still negativeMarket snaps two-week winning streak.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 3:39 pm BWA bonanza: Does the business case justify valuations?The Broadband Wireless Access auction ended after 16 days of hectic bidding. Government revenues came in at a whopping Rs 38,600 crore. In an interview with CNBCTV18, Prashant Singhal, Telecom Analyst, EY and Rajesh Balaraman, Partner, Diamond Consultants gave their perspectives on RIL\'s reentry strategy and the road ahead for broadband.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 3:30 pm Oil spill estimate doubled - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 11 Jun 2010 | 3:05 pm Emerging market telecom MA needs skill, humilityPotential buyers need to pay attention to detail and keep their egos in check to prevent regulatory and political hurdles derailing the richestever phase of emergng markets telecom consolidation.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 3:04 pm Mukesh Ambani makes Rs 4,800 crore telecom forayFive years after exiting telecom business, Mukesh Ambani-managed Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday re-entered the sector by acquiring Infotel Broadband, the only company to have got the all-India broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum. HT reports.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 2:03 pm Irda to change cap on ULIP charges: SourcesThe Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) is likely to change the cap on charges by unitlinked insurance policies (ULIPs), reports CNBCTV18.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 1:45 pm Mukesh redials into telecom, buys InfotelIn a move that has made waves in the telecom sector, $44.6-billion Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday re-entered the telecom space after signing an agreement to buy a 95% stake in Infotel Broadband Services for a value of Rs 4,800 crore.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 11 Jun 2010 | 1:38 pm BWA devices to flood market soon - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 11 Jun 2010 | 1:36 pm Eicher Motors eyes 15% mkt share in HCV segment by 2015Siddhartha Lal, MD and CEO, Eicher Motors, said the company hopes to achieve 15% market share in heavy commercial vehicle segment by 2015. Its current HCV market share stands at 2%.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 1:15 pm Foreign airlines not allowed to fly in A-380 nowIndian airports may be getting ready for the biggest commercial aircraft, the Airbus A-380, but it will be a while before foreign airlines are allowed to operate the superjumbos in India on regular flights.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 11 Jun 2010 | 1:11 pm World Cup gets a younger, neighbourhood versionMumbai: For 14-year-old Aurochit Patnaik, a devout disciple of Spanish and Barcelona central midfielder Xavi Hernandez, and a keen follower of the English Premier League for the last three years, here is an opportunity that sweetly promises to blur reality with television.  Kick-off countdown: Mumbai school students practise for the Friendship Cup, which starts on Sunday and intends to bring the feel of the World Cup tournament being held in South Africa to the city. Shriya Patil Shinde / Mint Patnaik will play in the red Spanish colours, just like Xavi, in the Friendship Cup starting on Sunday that coincides with the Fifa World Cup and intends to bring children closer to the tournament being held in South Africa. The Friendship Cup, like the World Cup that started on Friday, will have 32 teams representing that many countries, divided into eight groups, with a final on 19 June. So Patnaik’s “Spain” will be in Group H, with Switzerland, Chile and Honduras. Each team will play just one knock-out match in its group—unlike the World Cup where every team plays the other before the group leaders advance to the second stage. The other variation is in the names. “Spain” will joyfully be called “Spanish Idiots” and “Switzerland” is “Swiss Chocolate”, but the players will try and get their jerseys as similar to the countries they represent, including, in some cases, getting the name of the sponsor. At a practice session on Thursday at the Goan Sports Association grounds near Churchgate, Patnaik presented a range of teenage contradictions. Dressed in a Brazilian yellow-green jersey bearing the name of Ronaldinho on the back, he says his favourite team was England, but since they could not get that team, he was happy with Spain, which had his favourite player Xavi. “I want to play like him, I want to be him,” says Patnaik, after a busy exchange of headers with a player in Argentine blue-white bold stripes. Also Read The magnificent seven Organized by the Kenkre Football Club, the Friendship Cup invited school children from Mumbai to form their own teams of 10 players, with friends, schoolmates, neighbours or any combination that worked. There are 32 teams in each of the age groups—under-12, under-14, under-16, under-19 for boys —and two girls’ teams—under-16 and open. The players then had to register their teams, picking the country of their choice usually on consensus, though in some cases it did not work to plan. Like Nipun Chauhan, who is rooting for England in the World Cup, but playing for Spain in the Friendship Cup because “at that time it did not strike me to pick England”. Joshua Lewis, chief operating officer of Kenkre Football Club, says since India was not playing the World Cup, “we thought this would be a good way to build hype and hopefully, get more children involved. Children are so excited to see their icons on TV these days”. The tournament is set to a cumulative budget of Rs5 lakh, the winning team would get Rs25,000 and the runner-up Rs15,000. Matches are to be played under floodlights at the Dadar Parsi Colony Gymkhana in central Mumbai from 5-10pm, which several boys say would add to the drama. “You play under lights, with the crowd backing you, it feels like you could be at Old Trafford,” says Chauhan, a X standard student of Bombay Scottish School. Sambhav Jain, dressed in English colours, supporting Argentina in the World Cup and playing for “Germany” in the Friendship Cup, says unlike inter-school competitions, here you can form a team with “the best from each school”. Apart from dealing with the obvious demand that they organize jerseys, parents have become involved, says Lewis, by becoming “managers” of the teams. “You get to scream from the stands in inter-school competitions. Here, you get to be on the field, making substitutions, which is so much more involving.” Several boys have bought official merchandise for jerseys, some have just got them made, as close to perfection as the research from the Internet and the local tailor would allow. Most will have their own names on them, though Yash Mhatre, “probably playing for the Netherlands”, feels otherwise. The student from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (OLPS), Chembur, says he wouldn’t get his name on the jersey because “we don’t want to play for some other country. We want to play for India”. arun.j@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 1:08 pm Volvo to make India hub for enginesSwedish commercial vehicle giant Volvo on Friday said it will make India a hub for medium-duty engines for which the company will make new investments in its local joint venture with Eicher.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 11 Jun 2010 | 1:07 pm Staff first, customers second for HCL bossWithin a month of being hired by HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar, who later rose to become the company's CEO, was asked to leave.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:59 pm RIL enters telecomMumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd or RIL, India’s most valued private firm, said on Friday it will acquire a 95% stake in Infotel Broadband Services, a privately held telecom services company, for Rs4,800 crore, marking the re-entry of Mukesh Ambani into the telecom sector five years after he exited the business in favour of his younger brother Anil Ambani, to settle “ownership issues”. Infotel Broadband, which won a licence to roll out broadband wireless services in 22 circles across India for Rs12,847.77 crore, is managed by Anant Nahata, and will now become an RIL subsidiary. This is Ambani’s first investment in a sector where his younger brother is present, following the scrapping of a non-compete agreement in the last week of May. The two had entered into that agreement during a family settlement in 2005. “We see this as the next wave of value creation opportunity in the wireless broadband space,” Ambani said. Also See Broadband Biggies (Graphic) A Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group or R-Adag official spokesperson said, “As leading telecom infrastructure and content service providers, we look forward to offering our services to RIL and other BWA players, even while we compete for customers in the marketplace through our choice of different technologies.” Some analysts expect RIL may team up with R-Adag in telecom. A 24 May report of Goldman Sachs analysts Nilesh Banerjee and Nishant Baranwal said: “We believe RIL could either potentially seek inorganic growth via alliances with existing operators, or could also seek operational synergies of its retail vertical with R-Adag’s telecom business.” In its statement, RIL said it would adopt an asset-light approach in the new business it had acquired and would move ahead by forging “several strategic relations with a host of leading global technology players, service providers, infrastructure providers, application developers, device manufacturers and others.” Significantly, even as RIL decided to acquire Infotel, Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications Ltd or RCom exited the BWA auction a week back as it found the prices too high. Sources at RIL, however, hold a different view. “There is money in data and not in voice,” they said. Telecom has been an area of great interest for the RIL chairman who had incubated the undivided Reliance’s telecom arm (the erstwhile Reliance Infocomm Ltd) that went to his younger brother. Ambani may be looking for his next big project, given that RIL’s businesses will generate cash surpluses of Rs25,000 crore every year and the company needs a vehicle that can utilize the money. According to a Goldman Sachs estimate, RIL will generate $25 billion (Rs1.17 trillion) excess cash between fiscal 2011 and 2014 and needs to figure ways of investing it. RIL’s entry into telecom was the subject of speculation ever since the non-compete agreement was cancelled. A PTI report quoted Anant Nahata as saying: “We were in talks with RIL even before the auction for BWA started.” To be sure, rolling out broadband services will be more challenging than rolling out a telecom network. Bhagwan D. Khurana, a well known telecom expert who had helped RCom roll out its network and put fibre underground across India, said RIL will not set up the network in bits and pieces. “He (Mukesh Ambani) will roll out the network on a national scale before he launches services across the 22 circles,” Khurana said, adding, unlike his telecom venture, this would be more challenging as he’ll have to lease the bandwidth from existing telecom operators. According to analysts, the wireless broadband market may be a better route to enter the telecom sector. “The average revenue per user for mobile services providers has been declining and if RIL were to invest in a fully operational mobile services provider, the valuations would have been higher than what it is paying for Infotel,” said Jaideep Ghosh, executive director at audit and consulting firm KPMG. “By gaining access to wireless broadband, it can not only cater to retail users, but enterprises including other mobile telephony companies as well.” The industry will also keenly watch RIL’s use of technology. Even though the BWA auctions have concluded and spectrum given out, it is not clear yet which technology the operators will use for wireless broadband. The two competing technologies, backed by different corporate lobbies, that are available for operators are Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, or WiMAX and Long Term Evolution or LTE. Among the most vocal supporters of Wimax is chipmaker Intel Technologies, while wireless technology chip maker Qualcomm, which has won BWA auctions for four telecom circles, has been backing LTE. When Mukesh Ambani rolled out telecom services, he had bet on Qualcomm’s code division multiple access technology, going against the multitude of operators who voted for GSM. A former managing director of a multinational telecom company, who was also part of a consortium that was bidding for wireless broadband licence but later walked out, said once voice services are allowed on wireless broadband, Infotel could become a major player in both data and voice. “BWA bid prices have gone beyond initial expectations by any estimate,” said Kamlesh Bhatia, principal research analyst at Indian arm of Gartner Inc. “Beyond the cost of spectrum, roll out of broadband services and the development of a content ecosystem will require a lot of capital. In that context, it is good to have a partner like RIL who will be able afford it.” “As in the case of 3G, return on investment is still unclear at this point,” Bhatia said. Analysts estimate that it will take at least two-three years before telecom operators can hope to generate any significant amount of revenue for 3G. One of the most evident gaps in the current 3G ecosystem is the lack of relevant content but Bhatia said once connectivity is plugged through efficient broadband, this will develop on its own, responding to demand. Mukesh Ambani is moving into creating and buying content in which R-Adag already has a headstart. This includes BIG Flix, an online movie rental business, and Zapak, a video games maker, both of which can be become key components in broadband services. aveek.d@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:54 pm Soccer WC viewership likely to rise 40%The football frenzy is building up with the FIFA World Cup this year expected to grab over 35-40% more eyeballs than the previous tournament held four years ago.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:52 pm HUL buyback at Rs 280 per shareHindustan Unilever (HUL) will buy back its shares at a price not exceeding Rs 280 per share, which is at a premium of 11% over the stock's closing price, Rs 252.50, on the BSE on Friday.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:50 pm Maran to buy 40% in SpiceJetWhile Sun TV chief Kalanithi Maran is almost certain to buy nearly 40% stake in SpiceJet from promoter Bhupendra Kansagra and US investor W L Ross for close to Rs 800 crore, the airline also wants to have its first international flight from Tamil Nadu.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:46 pm BWA auctions fetch Rs 38,543 croreThe BWA auctions finally came to a close on Friday after 16 days of bidding activity by 11 companies.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:40 pm Industry grows 17.6% in AprilIndia's factory output bettered expectations to expand at 17.6% in April, marking a near 20-year high achieved on the back of copious domestic consumer demand, a revival in exports and higher infrastructure spending but also got boosted by a low base effect.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:37 pm Infotel secures pan-India BWA spectrum licenceInfotel Broadband Services emerged as the sole pan-India winner in the auction of broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum. The auction that concluded today yielded revenue of Rs 38,617 crore for the government.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:36 pm Maran set to pilot SpiceJetMedia baron Kalanithi Maran of Sun TV Network Ltd is set to buy 38 per cent stake in Indias second largest low-fare carrier, SpiceJet, from Bhupendra Kansagra and W L Ross, one of the worlds biggest distressed asset specialists.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:35 pm RIL reconnects with telecom after 5 yearsIndias largest private firm to buy 95% in Nahata-owned Infotel for Rs 4,800 crore; to get broadest BWA footprint.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:35 pm April factory output beats expectationsIndustrial output in April grew 17.6% over the corresponding period last year, beating estimates by over three percentage points on the back of strong growth in capital goods. Slow growth in some industrial sectors and Europe’s economic woes may, however, keep the central bank on its current path of gradually nudging up interest rates, economists said.  Graphic: Yogesh Kumar / Mint “All this bodes well for the economy in the coming months,” Citigroup Research’s Rohini Malkani and Anushka Shah concluded in their report on April’s Index of Industrial Production (IIP). Growth was driven primarily by a 72.8% surge in capital goods, besides a robust showing by consumer goods at 37%. Capital goods growth was fuelled by demand in the transportation sector and for machinery. The momentum in manufacturing, which grew 19.4%, was a key highlight of the IIP numbers. Year-on-year IIP growth beat median estimates of 13.5% and 14.3% based on economist polls by Reuters and Bloomberg, respectively. Seasonally adjusted data for April also showed sharp sequential growth. According to Malkani and Shah, IIP for April on a seasonally adjusted basis (removing predictable fluctuations from data) was up 3.4% against a contraction of 0.7% last month. Economists interpreted April’s IIP numbers as an indication that the economy had gained momentum. Still, most are being conservative about the current fiscal’s forecasts. Citigroup Research held to its GDP growth forecast of 8.4% for the current fiscal as did Barclays Capital, which had forecast 8%. According to Samiran Chakraborty, regional head of research (India) at Standard Chartered Bank Plc, in a normal cycle, April’s IIP performance would have indicated full-fledged economic growth. On this occasion, however, weaknesses in the external sector have led to a relatively subdued reaction to the data, he said. The fear of a double-dip recession in Europe and its attendant impact on exports are expected to temper Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) stance on interest rates even though inflation as measured by the Wholesale Price Index hovers around 10%, compared with its fiscal year-end estimate of 5.5%. Most economists, however, expect RBI to gradually continue with its current policy trend of nudging up interest rates. Citigroup Research, in its report, forecast a 25 basis points (one basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point) increase in RBI’s policy rate in its July monetary policy statement. “In the backdrop of the sustained high industrial growth, still high inflation, but sharply decelerating monetary aggregates and already tightening monetary conditions, the policy of calibrated gradual tightening appears well thought out,” Mridul Saggar, chief economist at Kotak Institutional Equities, said. “RBI would probably stay with it.” Another factor that might influence the central bank to follow its current course is the likelihood of the headline growth in industrial activity moderating from June on account of a statistical base effect. Industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) cautioned the headline numbers might moderate soon. According to a media statement on IIP released by Ficci, “This trend of very high growth might moderate from June onwards because of the base effect. After a slow growth during 2008-09, the IIP figures picked up since June 2009.” sanjeev.s@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:26 pm Govt rings up Rs1 trillion from 3G and broadbandNew Delhi: The government rang a triumphant end to the auctions for high-speed, third-generation (3G) mobile and broadband licences, raising in excess of Rs1 trillion, more than three times the budgeted estimate, giving finance minister Pranab Mukherjee the cash he needs to cut the deficit and keep borrowings from going wildly off target. Also See 3G and BWA spectrum auction (PDF) In contrast to the 3G auctions that ended on 19 May, the broadband wireless access (BWA) round ended on Friday with little-known operator Infotel Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd bidding the most for an all-India licence—Rs12,848 crore—and getting snapped up by Reliance Industries Ltd. The government stands to make a total of Rs34,380 crore from the BWA auction and the money that state-run operators Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd pay for spectrum they were allocated early last year. The winners have to make their payments within 10 days of the auction ending. Analysts say the high auction prices may diminish the viability of the broadband services that will be offered. “The prices for BWA licences have gone through the roof. It will be difficult for companies acquiring licences to justify a business case,” said Mritunjay Kapur, managing director of Protiviti Consulting Pvt. Ltd. “On a pan-India basis, a subscriber base of 55-65 million would be required to build a reasonable business case.” Companies are acquiring spectrum with the long-term view of using it in various scenarios, he said. The auction for 3G spectrum netted the government Rs67,715 crore, with the highest bid being made by Bharti Airtel Ltd, which came fourth in the BWA round, behind Infotel, Qualcomm Inc. and Aircel Ltd. India’s biggest phone company complained that prices were too high, a view it had expressed after the 3G auction as well. “A combination of scarcity of slots and the auction format, once again, resulted in extremely high price levels,” Bharti said in a release. “The company has secured BWA spectrum in select circles to experiment with new technologies.” Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Communications Ltd and Vodafone Essar Ltd haven’t won any BWA spectrum. Officials from both companies said they would focus on wireless broadband through existing technologies that they operate as well as 3G that they have won in the earlier auction. “We decided to step away from the current BWA auction when prices went beyond rational levels owing considerably to the artificial scarcity of spectrum, with just two slots available and 11 bidders in the fray,” a Vodafone spokesperson said. Infotel has a connection to Mahendra Nahata of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL), which famously won mobile phone licences with high bids in the 1990s and defaulted on payments. Infotel is promoted by Anand Nahata, son of the HFCL founder. The government eventually had to switch to a revenue-share model to bail out the phone companies that had made huge bids for mobile licences. shauvik.g@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:26 pm Quick Edit | How to be a ladies manCan a good advertising agency overcome the “lost decade”? For those countries that still don’t think sovereign debt is a real concern, or who think the best cure for an anaemic economy is more deficit spending, this is a serious question. Japan, for instance, has such steep public debt figures, now at 180% of its gross domestic product, that the government’s recent attempts to sell government bonds (JGBs) reek of mild desperation. A high-profile advertising campaign now appeals to investors’ masculinity, after appeals to the profit motive have failed. “Women have a thing for men who own JGBs!!... right!?” says the ad. Women prefer men who invest in public bonds because they are a sensible, stable investment, or so goes the argument. If the rest of the world goes Japan’s way, billboards in Times Square and Mumbai may soon be exhorting people to buy government debt because people of the opposite sex will throw themselves at them. Not quite the best way to bolster public finances perhaps. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:25 pm Hunger no moreForty percent of the world’s malnourished children are in India. This is a startling figure for the world’s second fastest growing economy, according to Biraj Patnaik, principal advisor at the Office of the Commissioners of the Supreme Court. It’s also an international embarrassment. India’s social sector statistics do not speak well of a nation that wants to sit on the high table, he says. For example, he sites that the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) ranked India 66 out of 88 on their global hunger index, lagging behind countries like Rwanda, Pakistan, and Nepal. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 12:13 pm Starved across bordersThe international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, opened a photo exhibition titled Starved for Attention earlier this month at The Times Center in New York City. The exhibition is part of a multimedia campaign on the crisis of childhood malnutrition that MSF is spearheading in conjunction with VII Photo, an agency created in 2001 by seven leading photojournalists from across the world. The campaign was conceived two years ago and each photojournalist covered one country as part of the exercise, bringing back frontline photographs and video footage from Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, India, Mexico and the US. MSF estimates that 195 million children worldwide suffer from the effects of malnutrition, with 90% of them living in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The organization has done substantial fieldwork in treating and preventing malnutrition and currently operates 120 nutrition programmes in 36 countries. Click here to view a slideshow on a photo exhibition organised by Médecins Sans Frontières brings together portraits of childhood malnutrition from seven countries. The task for the seven photojournalists—Marcus Bleasdale, Jessica Dimmock, Ron Haviv, Antonin Kratochvil, Franco Pagetti, Stephanie Sinclair and John Stanmeyer—was to capture a new visual identity for malnutrition in order to bring forth the underlying causes of the malnutrition crisis and fuel innovative approaches to combat this condition. Countries that have developed successful programmes to combat malnutrition, such as Mexico, were also included. “We did not only want to highlight the problem of malnutrition; we wanted to showcase innovative and successful strategies and programmes too. Countries such as Mexico, Thailand and Brazil have reduced early childhood malnutrition through direct nutrition programmes that ensure infants and young children from even the poorest families have access to quality foods, such as milk and eggs,” says Jason Cone, communications director, MSF, who also believes that there is growing political will in Asian and African countries to replicate successful programmes such as these. The World Bank estimates that $12 billion (around Rs56,000 crore) a year is needed to scale up effective nutrition programmes to meet current needs. In the case of India, American photojournalist Sinclair turned her lens on MSF’s nutrition programme in Bihar’s Darbhanga district. Sinclair is known for her humanitarian reportage and has won, among other awards, Unicef’s Photo of the Year award in 2007. “The families were all very open and gracious about allowing me to photograph their experiences of commuting to the MSF facilities and receiving treatment for their children,” says Sinclair of her experience of working in Bihar in April. The Starved for Attention campaign and petition is active online. It is a travelling exhibition, with shows planned in Toronto, to coincide with the Group of Eight (G-8) and Group of Twenty (G-20) meetings, and in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to coincide with a major West African health meeting organized by the Corporate Africa Health Foundation. After that, it will show in London, Milan and Rome. The petition drive will last until World Food Day on 16 October, when MSF will develop events in key food aid donor countries (the US, UK, Japan, Canada, Australia and European Union countries) to highlight public support for improving the quality of food aid and supporting initiatives. “The overall objective is to push the main contributors of food aid to cease sending foods that are inappropriate for young children,” says Cone, referring to one of the principal points of the campaign, which highlights how the US is sending substandard food to poorer countries—food that it would not feed its own citizens. For more images, videos and blogs by the photojournalists, log on to www.starvedforattention.org anindita.g@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 11:49 am Hosts SA draw with Mexico in World Cup openerJohannesburg: South Africa and Mexico drew 1-1 in an outstanding opening match as Africa’s first World Cup began on an unforgettable day of passion, emotion and drama in front of almost 85,000 fans at Soccer City on Friday. The hugely entertaining Group A spectacle featured an outstanding opening goal from South Africa midfielder Siphiwe Tshabalala, which will surely be among the best goals of the tournament no matter what else happens in the next month. It ended all-square when Mexico’s 31-year-old Rafael Marquez showed his younger colleagues how it should be done when he punished some poor defending 11 minutes from time. “The draw was a fair result. I think this group is very tough. The team that gets four points will qualify,” said South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira. “I praised my team. We could have won the game but the result was fair. Mexico coach Javier Aguirre added: “Their goal changed the match a lot. I wouldnt say we got nervous but a little bit anxious. We tried to change our play and we managed to draw but it wasnt enough. We have to praise our opponents.” Spirits lifted Despite the hosts failing to win, the whole occasion, which began with a lively opening ceremony, lifted the spirits for millions, saddened by the death of 13-year-old Zenani Mandela, the great grand-daughter of former president Nelson Mandela who was killed in a car crash on Thursday night. Mandela, 91, cancelled plans to attend the match which began after opening addresses from FIFA president Sepp Blatter and South Africa president Jacob Zuma who declared the finals open. South Africa’s players, though, were clearly struck by stage-fright which was hardly surprising given the emotional build-up to the match and the expectations of the crowd. They created so much noise with their vuvuzela trumpets that they almost drowned out the sound of engines from the flypast made by South African Air Force jets before the kickoff. Within two minutes of kickoff, Mexico began to assert their authority when South Africa keeper Itumeleng Khune spilt a cross into the path of Giovani dos Santos, whose shot was deflected away for a corner by home captain Aaron Mokoena. Mexico maintained control for much of the first half with the lively Dos Santos running the midfield and setting up chances for himself, Guillermo Franco and Carlos Vela as South Africa were forced onto the back foot. While Franco and Vela saw shots go over the bar, Mexico did have the ball in the net after 37 minutes but Vela was ruled narrowly offside after pouncing on a header from Franco and forcing the ball over the line. That incident, though, seemed to settle the Bafana Bafana’s nerves. South Africa, who had begun to find some rhythm late in the first half when a cross from Tshabalala narrowly eluded Katlego Mphela and they came out for the second having remembered they had gone 12 matches without defeat under Parreira. With Steven Pienaar exerting more influence in midfield and Mexico unable to retain control, there were no arguments about South Africa taking the lead with Tshabalala’s stunning left-foot shot flying past Oscar Perez high into the Mexico net. Five minutes later Khune denied Dos Santos with a superb save at the other end but just when it seemed South Africa had done enough to gain a valuable victory, Marquez punished some poor defending with the equaliser. Mphela nearly won the game for South Africa a minute from time when his low angled shot hit the outside of the post but ultimately the first drawn World Cup opener since 1986 was, as both coaches later agreed, a fair result. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 11:23 am Global stocks mostly higher after mixed US dataLondon: Global stock markets were mostly higher but a mixed set of US data took the gloss off an otherwise strong showing on Friday, driven by hopes the global recovery remains on track despite the European debt crisis. Asian and European shares posted solid gains earlier after an overnight rally of 2.76% on Wall Street boosted risk appetite, encouraging investors to look for bargains after recent heavy losses. Dealer said, however, that the picture remained very mixed overall. The markets want European governments to take the measures needed to balance the public finances but at the same time fear such steps could undercut growth. US data supports the recovery theme but as on Friday it is not a one-way story -- US retail sales, a key component of growth, fell in May but paradoxically, US consumer confidence improved for June. US employment figures paint a similar picture of mixed progress while Chinese data on Friday showed a slowdown in factory output and investment growth even as inflation picked up, complicating Beijing’s efforts to maintain steady economic growth. In New York, the market opened lower after the May retail sales figures but then recovered some ground on the better-than-expected consumer sentiment. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.39% while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite index was up 0.22% at around 1640 GMT. “The big question is whether the stock market will hold the gains realized from (Thursday’s) huge market rally,” said Frederic Dickson at DA Davidson & Co. “Today’s May retail sales report was disappointing.” US retail sales fell for the first time in eight months in May, dropping 1.2% against market forecasts for a rise of 0.2%. The steep decline in retail sales “confirms the forecast for modest spending growth going forward more than threatens it,” said Scott Hoyt at Moody’s Economy.com. “Consumers will not lead the recovery,” he added. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index rose to 75.5 in June from 73.6 in May, its highest level since January 2008 and a percentage point above forecasts. On the currency market the euro fell back after the US retail sales data, giving up some recent gains as investors preferred the less risky dollar. In late London trade, the euro was at $1.2076, down sharply from $1.2122 in New York late Thursday. Gold finished at $1,220 an ounce, up from Thursday’s close $1,217.50. In Europe, some of the early gains were pared by the finish as investors tracked the uncertain opening on Wall Street but markets were mostly higher. London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed up 0.61% at 5,163.68 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 rose 1.11% to 3,555.52 points but in Frankfurt the DAX slipped 0.14% to 6,047.83 points. Madrid stood out with a gain of 3.95%, led by the banks after Spain’s top lender Santander said it expected to match 2009’s earnings this year, helping ease some concerns over the country’s debt and deficit problems. IG Index analyst David Jones in London said trade was volatile “with US data raising familiar concerns about how solid the economic recovery is.” “A strong finish to trading on Wall Street on Thursday has given a welcome boost to shares in London,” said Anthony Grech, head of research at financial spread-betting company IG Index. The market was helped by a very sharp rebound for British energy giant BP, which gained more than 7% on bargain-hunting after recent heavy losses sparked by its handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 11:20 am Hero family splits in harmonyThe Munjal family, which controls the Hero Group of companies that has origins in Ludhiana, has decided to realign the ownership of its businesses it collectively controls, giving the scions of the automotive-led conglomeration a clear sense of autonomy and ownership in an an atmosphere of harmony.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 11:06 am Dull debut: IDR closes below its issue priceEven as the Sensex traded strong on stable global cues, the country’s first Indian Depository Receipt (IDR) of Standard Chartered closed below its issue price of Rs 104 on its listing day on Friday.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 11:03 am Volvo bets big on India with Rs 288 cr in new truck facilitySweden-based commercial vehicle maker AB Volvo on Friday announced a Rs 288-crore investment in its Indian joint venture Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles Ltd (VECV).Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:59 am April industrial output zooms 17.6%The country’s industrial output grew by 17.6 per cent in April, rekindling the debate whether the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would increase interest rates during its policy review next month, as focus shifts towards inflation-control.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:53 am RBI introduces new 5-year bondMumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday introduced a new benchmark five-year bond worth Rs4,000 crore at a cut off yield of 7.17%. This, according to bond dealers, will address the distortion in sovereign yield curve in which the 6-year bond has a higher yield than the 10-year bond. The yield on the 6-year paper is at 7.6668%, higher than the 10-year paper at 7.61%. The yield on the existing 5-year paper is at 7.41%. According to bond dealers, the inversion of the yield curve is a temporary phenomenon caused by the non-availability of short term papers to trade. With papers made available in this segment, traders expect yield curve to normalize. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:53 am G-20 core agenda is to rejig economic system: CanadaOutlining the core agenda of the G-20 meeting here later this month, Canada said the grouping will work to put the global financial system on a more solid footing to avoid repeat of the economic meltdown.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:52 am The week in review for 11 June 2010The auction for BWA spectrum is over, but has thrown up some surprises. One surprise is the big winner, Infotel, which has won spectrum all across Indian by agreeing to pay nearly Rs13,000 crore. The other big surprise is Infotels’ new owner. Soon after the auction results became public on Friday, Reliance Industries announced it was buying 95% of Infotel for Rs4,800 crore. Friday’s move brings Reliance Industries back in the telecom game after five long years. The company has been out of the sector since the Ambani brothers broke up back in 2005. After more than a quarter of a century, we finally have a judgment in the Bhopal gas tragedy. On Monday a lower court in Bhopal ordered all seven of the accused to two years in jail. It has also fined them Rs100,000 each. The convicted men include Keshub Mahindra, the current chairman Mahindra and Mahindra, who back in 1984 was non-executive chairman of Union Carbide India. Mahindra and the six others convicted men all got bail. And the government may have created new norms for publicly listing companies, but it then spent the week dealing the fallout. After PSU’s started asking for changes, finance secretary Ashok Chawla indicated the government would ease the rules if necessary. The new listing norms make it compulsory for listed companies to float at least twenty five percent of their shareholdings. But PSU’s are worried the resultant glut of new public issues will bring down their share prices. And the new listing norms are also facing challenges from India’s insurance regulator. This week IRDA said it wouldn’t make insurers hike their publicly held stakes to the new twenty five percent minimum unless the government changed foreign investment rules. IRDA wants the foreign direct investment in insurance to be increased to 49% from the current 26%. Some of India’s top private insurers plan public floats in the near future. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:51 am BWA bids net Rs 38,617 cr, RIL buy topsThe government is set to become richer by Rs 38,617 crore by selling broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auction for which concluded on Friday, taking the total collections from the sale of airwaves to offer high-speed, high-volume data services to Rs. 106,336 crore.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:50 am RIL, HFCL scrips zoomThe stock markets cheered Reliance Industries’ foray into telecom, with the company’s share price rising 3 per cent in the wake of the news of its buying Infotel Broadband Services (IBS).Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:47 am Govt looks at banning Mahindra from boardsAmid strong public reaction to the judgment in the Union Carbide case, the government is understood to be looking at legal position to check if Carbide India’s non executive Chairman Keshub Mahindra could be barred from taking directorship in any company.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:46 am Volvo-Eicher to expand production capacityNew Delhi: Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles (VECV), the 50:50 venture between New Delhi: Volvo Group and Eicher Motors Ltd., will invest Rs288 crore in its Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh, for the production and final assembly of the Volvo group’s new global medium-duty engine platform. The plant, which currently produces 40,000 engines annually, will be expanded to increase its output by another 85,000 units and will become operational from 2012. These engines, which will be Euro 3, 4, 5 and 6 compliant, will be of 5, 7 and 8 litres capacity. Of the 85,000 engines, 30,000 engines will be Euro 5 and Euro 6 compliant and will be shipped to Volvo Powertrain’s plant in Venissieux, France. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:46 am High spectrum cost may hit profits, tariffsScarcity of spectrum slots and a high level of competition led to excessively high spectrum prices, telecom service providers said.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:42 am Art to watch out forArtworks by Rabindranath Tagore, V.S. Gaitonde and Bharti Kher are among the highlights of the auction season. The record-setting sale of S.H. Raza’s painting at Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art auction in London on 10 June has, in one swoop, upped the interest in the summer auction season that will see many works by Indian artists go under the hammer. Arvind Vijaymohan, who heads Delhi-based Japa Arts Pvt. Ltd, an arts advisory which offers specialized consultancy services to collectors of Indian art, picks his favourites. Also See Art to watch out for (PDF) PDF by Yogesh Kumar / Mint Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:32 am RIL discovers more oil in Cambay basinMumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India’s most valuable company controlled by Mukesh Ambani, has made its sixth oil discovery in the Cambay basin, the company said in a statement on Friday. “The well flowed at a rate of 415 barrels of oil per day (bopd), the discovery is significant as it is expected to open up more oil pool areas. Leading to better hydrocarbon potential within the block,” RIL said in its statement. The block allocated to RIL in the fifth round of bidding under the National Exploration licensing Policy is located 130 km away from Ahmedabad. The oil-to-yarn conglomerate said the discovery named ‘Dhirubhai-49’ has been notified to the government and directorate general of hydrocarbons and the potential commercial interest of the discovery was being ascertained through additional data gathering and analysis. aveek.d@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:31 am When the cup is in the rainbow nationZinedine Zidane’s face stares out from a giant French tricolour in front of a tea stall in Kerala’s Wayanad district. Argentine and Brazilian flags compete for space atop telephone poles, and wall space traditionally reserved for political slogans has been given over to murals of Latin America’s football heroes. For a month, most parts of Goa will go back to being little Portugal (or Brazil), and in West Bengal, Sony expects to sell 30,000 Bravia LCD television sets. Bhaichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri and the national side may be a world away from the month-long carnival that began in South Africa yesterday, but for millions, life over the next 30 days will be centred around the Jabulani (Bantu for “to celebrate”), a ball whose latex bladder was manufactured in India.  The new powerhouse: European champions Spain are the favourites at the World Cup for the first time, with the best combination of attacking players on paper. Paul White / AP Cricket may be the national sport, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that more people will watch the World Cup in India than they will in England, or the other European countries that have qualified for the event. Starved of top-level football, Indian fans live vicariously, through Brazilian samba beats and Argentine tango. For some, especially children in the metros with their Lampard, Rooney and Gerrard replica shirts, the pulse rate will quicken most when England plays. Despite recent improvement under the stewardship of Bob Houghton, the British coach who once took unfashionable Malmö FF of Sweden to the European Cup final, it could be a generation or more before India can even dream of gracing the biggest sporting stage of all. From being a big player on the continental stage in the 1950s and 1960s, India’s decline since then has been like the financial meltdown of 2008. As Japan, South Korea and the West Asian states moved ahead, Indian football stood still and watched, and then took a few steps backwards. How inept officialdom has ruined the game is a story for another day. Suffice to say that the excuses trotted out about physique, diet and genetics are not even worth the paper they’re printed on. If you want any proof as to their fallacy, just look to the North Korean side that will make a reappearance 44 years after they caused such a stir against Italy and Portugal in 1966. Despite living in Alice-in-Blunderland conditions in a totalitarian state that’s never far from famine, the small group chosen was more than a match for Saudi Arabia and Iran, two of Asia’s traditional powers.  Flaring passions: (from top left) The England team sits on the bench during a friendly match against South African premier league side Platinum Stars. Darren Staples / Reuters; Brazil’s football team. Antonio Scorza; and a fan sports a wig with the colours of the Argentine flag in Pretoria. Ricardo Mazalan / AP Though it can boast of the “People’s Rooney” in Jong Tae-se, North Korea is unlikely to be anything more than also-rans in South Africa. Their predecessors, on whom the wonderful The Game of their Lives was based, shook the world largely because they were complete unknowns. In the era of YouTube and freeze-frame video analysis, the Japan-born Jong and his compatriots will come up against opponents who are all too aware of their bustling and energetic play. If North Korea and the rest of the Asian contingent fall short as expected, who will be celebrating on the night of 11 July? History tells us that a European side has never won the trophy outside of the home continent, but South Africa will throw up playing conditions much to their liking. Traditionally, the World Cup has always been a summer event. This time, it’s bang in the middle of the South African winter. In Cape Town and at altitude in Johannesburg, there’ll be more than a bit of nip in the air—ideal conditions for football compared with an afternoon kick-off in enervating heat. Brazil may have been at the receiving end of a Zidane master class in Germany four years ago, but the only nation to play at every World Cup since 1930 once again start favourites despite the switch to a more pragmatic style under Dunga, the coach who was captain when they ended a generation of pain in 1994. Ageing stars such as Ronaldo and Ronaldinho have been left at home, as has AC Milan’s brilliant young Alexandre Pato. Robinho, who escaped the Eastlands revolution to go back to Santos a few months ago, and Sevilla’s Luis Fabiano will be expected to score the goals, though much will depend on Kaká rediscovering his best form in an advanced midfield role. Maicon, the Internazionale fullback who scored the goal of the season against Juventus, and Barcelona’s Dani Alves offer potent attacking options from the back, but the midfield looks pedestrian, especially in comparison with the magical quartets of 1970 and 1982. Argentina, their great rivals, had a horrendous qualifying campaign, scraping through only with a last-ditch win in Montevideo. Diego Maradona was a controversial appointment as coach, and he blundered through without ever seeming to know what his best XI was. The squad selection generated more debate, with Inter’s Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso both left out. There’s also no Juan Román Riquelme, after irreconcilable differences between playmaker and coach. Maradona has also gambled by picking two over-35s, Juan Veron (La Brujita or the Little Witch) and Martin Palermo, who once missed three penalty kicks in a Copa America game. Despite the imposing presence of Walter Samuel at the heart of the defence, there are plenty of concerns over a backline that Brazil and even Bolivia (6-1 winners in La Paz) carved up in qualifying. Those worries are offset to a large extent by the plethora of attacking riches. Diego Milito, whose goals won Inter the Champions League last month, should start alongside Lionel Messi, though Maradona also has Sergio Aguero (Maradona’s son-in-law), Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain to call on. Javier Mascherano, Liverpool’s bull terrier-like midfielder, will sweep up in front of the back four, while Angel Di Maria, who will command a transfer fee of more than $40 million (around Rs188 crore) if he has a good World Cup, should provide genuine menace down the left flank. The key to emulating the heroes of 1978 and 1986, though, is Messi, unquestionably the best player of his generation. At Barcelona, he has the luxury of playing in a side that has been built to accommodate his rare talent. In the light blue and white of the national side, he hasn’t been indulged in the same way. Maradona may not have a Xavi or Iniesta to pull strings for him in the midfield, but his best chance of glory still lies with the Rosario boy who moved to Barcelona at 13 because they offered to pay for the growth-hormone treatments he needed. Xavi will spend the month in Spain’s colours, as the heartbeat of one of the best all-round sides that Europe has ever seen. Spain were imperious en route to victory at Euro 2008 and they appear to have even more options two years on. The forward line of David Villa and Fernando Torres, if fully fit, is drool-worthy, unless you’re a hapless defender entrusted with marking them. Vicente del Bosque’s side has so many midfield options that Arsenal’s Cesc Fàbregas isn’t even guaranteed a starting berth, while three of the world’s best goalkeepers are in the squad. A defence led by Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol and Sergio Ramos will be tough and uncompromising. The challenge for Spain now is to cope with the pressure of expectation. On paper, there’s no better squad in the competition. But their World Cup scars are many. Four years ago, they romped through their opening-round group before coming unstuck against Zidane and France, who found a special gear that few thought they still possessed. “Everyone is talking about us,” said Torres recently. “Whenever coaches or players are asked for their favourites, they mention Spain. We’ve earned that. In the past we talked about being favourites when maybe we weren’t—this time we really are.” The other European teams from whom much is expected are England and the Netherlands. For England’s so-called golden generation, South Africa means last orders. Since their victory in 1966, the furthest England have gone was the semi-final in 1990. In recent times, despite the Premier League becoming a global behemoth, the team has always lacked the spark of champions. In Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard, they have three genuinely world-class talents, but the absence of a quick-thinking playmaker should mean they fall short yet again. The Netherlands too have an embarrassment of riches in attack, even with Arjen Robben’s fitness a worry, but the better sides in the competition will look at their back four and lick their lips. The same can be said of France and Italy, neither of whom have shown intimidating form in the build-up to South Africa. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal will be dangerous floaters, as will the always talented Danes, but it’s easy to see why the Spanish armada will fly the flag for the Old World. Of the less fancied sides, the US will be the most dangerous. Conquerors of Spain at last year’s Confederations Cup, they are powerful, direct and determined. The African challenge has been hit by Didier Drogba’s injury woe, and neither Ivory Coast nor Ghana look as formidable as they did before the 2006 tournament. Cameroon, typically robust and with Samuel Eto’o one of the world’s finest finishers, offer Africa’s best chance, but it’s a matter of regret that the continent’s first World Cup is being played in the absence of its best side. Egypt have dominated the Cup of Nations in recent times and been by far the most cohesive and accomplished team, but a shock loss to mediocre Algeria sealed their fate. Nearly a million tickets remain unsold in a country that features the prosperity of uptown Johannesburg and waterfront Cape Town alongside the grim realities of township life. The bulk of the profits will go back to Fifa’s already overflowing coffers, but for one month, as the vuvezelas crescendo and the likes of Messi and Kaká further disorient opponents, this most complex of rainbow nations will be at the centre of the sporting universe. Through victory and defeat, jubilation and despair, the eight-panelled ball will hold millions in its thrall. Dileep Premachandran is associate editor, Wisden International. Write to lounge@ livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:22 am Jaspal Bindra | We have taken every acquisition opportunityMumbai: A decade ago, Jaspal Bindra, the then chief executive officer and general manager of Standard Chartered Bank in India, successfully led the acquisition of ANZ Grindlays to make StanChart the largest international bank in India. India accounts for about 25% of the bank’s employee strength, 12% of revenue and at least 20% of net profit, and the pie can grow only bigger.  Charting new plans: Bindra says the IDR issue will make the bank more accountable to clients and investors, giving relations with them a new dimension. Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint In an interview, Bindra, group executive director, discusses life after India depository receipts (IDR) issue for StanChart in India. Edited excerpts: After the acquisition of ANZ Grindlays’ India business, IDR is yet another milestone for the bank. What next? The issue is not about milestones. It’s about how many opportunities have come our way. You have mentioned the two major opportunities. But we also acquired UTI Securities, the American Express banking business, SMBC (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation)… We were the first among foreign banks to set up our operational hub in India, Scope. It’s a very big milestone for us. Now every other foreign company is doing it, but we had done it in 1997-98. It’s really a question of what opportunity comes our way. We hope more doors will open. Despite all these acquisitions, you are still the second largest foreign bank in India, after Citibank, by assets. Don’t you aspire to be the leader? There are so many ways of cutting the matrix... We always felt that being (the) best is better than being big. So, you are the best? If you look at our efficiency ratios and our overall performance, you would think so. In India, we have quite a strong focus on growth in assets, but I would rather be more profitable than big in assets. Globally, we are much smaller in size than many other institutions, but I think we have given evidence to the world that we are about being the best and not about being big. We are the only company of any size in banking, internationally, that has seven years of record income and profit at a stretch through the two crises. I don’t think any banking institution can boast of that. The more noticeable feature that involves our investors and stakeholders is that our share price in 2010 is at the same level where it was before the 2008 crisis. The other companies in (the) banking industry are anywhere between 30% and 85% lower than what their prices were before the crisis. IDR is one way of demonstrating your commitment to India. The other way could be local incorporation. We never had a closed mind to the subsidiary route. In fact, we operate as a subsidiary in many countries. The only reason why we have not converted our India operations into a subsidiary is because there is no real benefit of being a subsidiary so far. If there is some level of incentivization to be a subsidiary, of course we will do it. What kind of incentives will help you make up your mind? We would like as much of a level playing field with a local banks as we could get. Won’t you get a level playing field once you become a subsidiary? So far that’s not the case. Today if I become a subsidiary, I don’t get many branches, etc. There is no provision in the regulations that gives me anything more today than what I have without being a subsidiary. If there is any incentivization, obviously we will be interested. We do not have a closed mind but really there is no reason to become a subsidiary. There is nothing that we cannot do today which we can do when we become a subsidiary. You have 94 branches, the highest among foreign banks. What is the ideal branch network? Five hundred? One thousand? It will be in hundreds. We are not looking at thousands. The exact number is difficult to project because it is a changing field. As new opportunities unfold and tier III and tier IV cities come up, we need more footprints. But between the tier I and tier II cities, we need hundreds of branches. Will the IDR give you special advantages over competition? It’s not right for us to presume that we will get any special treatment from the regulator among foreign banks as the regulations are meant for everyone. But we do believe that when the new norms (on foreign banks in India) come, we will be in a much better position to leverage and act on that than some of the other banks that don’t have our kind of presence. Given a choice, will you acquire a local bank? Oh, absolutely. Every acquisition opportunity that has come in the market we have taken. You did apply for local banks when they were up for sale but you didn’t get any... It’s not like that. They considered some local players and gave them preference, which is fine. We did not make it. Any change in StanChart’s life after the IDR? Oh, yes. It’s a huge step forward. It puts us in a very different perspective with our clients and our investors in India. Our level of disclosures and conversations with them will go to a new height. For instance, the only thing that we speak with mutual funds so far is about distributing their products, but now we will explain to them all our activities. We will tell them about our strategic intent. We will find ourselves accountable to them. The intensity of relationships with some of our client groups—some high networth individuals and institutional investors—will take a new dimension. The employees will be able to participate in stock options, which they could not earlier. Finally, the profile takes a different meaning. Once you are quoted on the stock exchange, you will be in the news for good or bad (reasons). If we do something in Africa, it will make big news in India as it will affect our share price. Our level of responsibility will go up. Have your corporate clients invested in the IDRs? Yes. Did you tell them to do that? Well, whoever asked us, we said yes. What do Indian consumers get from you that they do not get from local banks? I think this question is better posed to the customers than to the bank. I can’t say how we are different from others but the fact that we have a reasonable income and reasonable profitability that justify that there are customers who are making that choice. They have no mandate to come to me. One obvious reason why we should be here is capital. The country is still short of capital and so (the) more the merrier. Look at some of the private banks—74% of their capital is foreign. It’s a kind of academic question but it is proved beyond doubt that the level of creativity in foreign banks is very high. Most of the local private banks have senior bankers who worked with foreign banks. Having said that, I must also say that there is expertise in our state-owned banks. But their branch network is finite outside India and so there is not much of exposure to global banking. And there is the question of performance-related pay which gives a different level of motivation. There is merit in having competition. You are seeing what is happening in the aviation sector. I am sure you will be able to justify why we should not only have foreign banks but also have more foreign banks. Foreign banks account for about 7% of the industry. What is the ideal level? It has been like this for the last 15 years. It’s very difficult to give you a number as it really depends on so many things. It should go up and it is fine as long as it is gradual, for the right reason and in the right areas. Will you spend more time in India now? I live in Hong Kong, but once a month I come to India, China and Singapore and London, where our board meets 10 times a year. I spent three weeks in India last month because of the IDR. My visits are activity driven. Post IDR, any gift for Indian consumers? Scope was a landmark and now we have done the IDR. It’s only the beginning. We haven’t scratched the surface in India yet. If we can make as much in Hong Kong, which is a tiny fraction of India’s economy, potentially the Indian business could be several times bigger than what it is today. The arithmetic is very clear. India has to be a very, very meaningful place for us. tamal.b@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 10:20 am The worth of our cricketersAfter last week’s papers on football, we now take a look at how the game of cricket has been analysed by economists. Very clearly, despite all the recent controversy surrounding it, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has changed the face of international cricket. But, notwithstanding all the financial shenanigans about team ownership in the IPL, is the selection of players above board? In other words, is the auction process watertight and efficient? That’s the question researchers Craig A. Depken and Ramakrishna Rajasekhar have tried to answer in their paper.  Illustration: Jayachandran/Mint Similarly, a 2008 paper by Parker, Burns and Natarajan found that in the first IPL season, player experience, strike rates for batting and bowling, iconic status and being an all-rounder had an effect on player salaries. In their paper, Depken and Rajasekhar look at player valuations from the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons. Apart from asking what determines player salaries and whether the auction process is efficient, they also ask the following questions: whether the attributes of player valuation have changed over time; whether player salaries have been affected by the secondary rounds of auctions introduced in 2009; whether there is any discrimination against non-Indian players in the auction; and finally, whether “the salary cap and other labour market restrictions are having the intended consequence of ‘levelling’ the playing field and dissuading one or a select few franchises from paying higher prices for otherwise equally qualified players”. Their results show that the greater the average number of runs per match and the average number of wickets per match, the greater the player’s salary, with a slight bias in favour of higher wickets. Iconic status and playing in a greater number of matches also increased players’ salaries. As expected, other things being equal, older players got lower bids. This is all perfectly in line with common sense and suggests that the auctions are working just fine. There is, though, one rather inexplicable result: The prices of players at the secondary auctions dropped dramatically. The authors write that “the secondary auction impact suggests that there is something about these players beyond their obvious productivity statistics that made these players less desirable to have on a team”. The world ranking of the national team to which a player belonged made no difference to his salary. Has the value of runs and wickets changed over time? The paper shows that over time, the value of bowlers has increased. Was there any discrimination among players of different nationalities? The researchers find no evidence of that, except for one quirky fact: the only statistically significant impact has been that on players from Sri Lanka. Do different teams pay more for players of the same talent? The only team that seems to be doing so is Kolkata. The authors say that this effect may simply be due to mistakes on the part of the Kolkata management as “the valuation of cricketers in the IPL is arguably a young science”. Write to simplyeconomics@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 9:52 am Motorola, RIM end licensing disputeNew York: Motorola Inc and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd have reached a technology licensing agreement, ending more than two years of litigation with each other, the companies said on Friday. The deal could set the stage for both companies to compete better against rivals such as iPhone maker Apple Inc as the wireless industry moves to the next generation of high-speed mobile data services. Illinois-based Motorola and Canada’s RIM, which have been sparring over technology patents since a previous pact expired in December 2007, said they agreed to a cross-licensing agreement on intellectual property rights, allowing them to use each other’s technology. The pact involves an upfront payment and on-going royalties to Motorola as well as the transfer of certain patents between the companies, they said without disclosing financial terms. The agreement covers several different types of high-speed wireless technologies including Wi-Fi, the popular short-range radio technology, and emerging fourth generation (4G) standards. This could lead the way for both companies to develop 4G products as some of the biggest US service providers are currently working on upgrading their services to 4G. Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, has said that both Motorola and RIM may be among the first to sell 4G handsets in early 2011. Fighting history It is a common practice for technology companies to engage in prolonged legal battles in the hope of gaining the upper hand in negotiations for licensing agreements. For example Apple and smaller rival HTC Corp are currently engaged in a bitter legal battle over patents. While RIM has a strong following among business customers, both the Canadian company and Motorola have lost out to rivals such as iPhone in recent years. The agreement follows a complaint filed by Motorola against RIM in January at the US International Trade Commission to prohibit BlackBerry sales in the United States, traditionally RIM’s most important market. Motorola had complained that most RIM products infringed its patents. The companies have been in court battles with each other since February 2008 due to their failure to renew a pact that had allowed them to use each others’ technology. After the news Motorola shares were up 2.3% at $7.00 on the New York Stock Exchange. RIM’s US shares were up 1.2% at $59.79 on Nasdaq. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 8:21 am Gold drops for 3rd day on selling pressureMumbai: Gold fell for the third consecutive day at the bullion market here on Friday on persistent selling from stockists and speculators amidst weakening trend in overseas market. Meanwhile, silver rebounded on fresh industrial demand. Standard gold (99.5 purity) declined further by Rs85 per ten grams to close at Rs18,640 per ten gram. Pure gold (99.9 purity) also dipped by Rs80 per ten grams to finish at Rs18,735 as against Rs18,815 on Thursday. However, Silver ready (.999 fineness) surged by Rs305 per kilo to end at Rs29,790 from Rs29,485 previously. In New York, Gold for August delivery fell by $7.70 to $1,222.20 an ounce on the COMEX division of the NYMEX. July silver rose 17 cents to $18.35 an ounce. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 8:06 am April factory output soars; inflation eyedNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's industrial output grew at a much stronger-than-expected pace in April, with manufacturing growth matching its fastest pace in at least 15 years, reinforcing expectations the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will lift rates for the third time this year at a policy review late next month.Source: Reuters: Money News | 11 Jun 2010 | 7:21 am What is Wireless Broadband?New Delhi: Wireless broadband is the technology through which high-speed Internet connection can be accessed over the widespread area. Unlike traditional technology, it is preferred where Local Area Network (LAN) wires are not available to access Internet. The difference between traditional dial-up connections and wireless broadband is mainly in speed and mode of connectivity. Through phone line, one can only send and receive up to 56kbps amount of information. In India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) defines broadband as any speed offering upload and download limit minimum of 256kbps. Meanwhile, in many countries the limit of a broadband connection is greater than 2 mbps. The speed allows a person to access much more content and graphic heavy websites simultaneously. Through this technology users can also play games games and do video chat easily. Wireless Internet provides an always-on connection, which can be accessed from anywhere inside the geographical network coverage area. The recently concluded auction of wireless broadband will have far reaching effects on rural India where Internet is either very costly or non-existent. The technology will empower people by opening information gateway to them. It will help in promoting education and health. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 6:33 am Sensex closes above 17K regionThe benchmark Sensex on Friday rose by 143 points to regain the 17,000 points level on the back of surge in RIL, amid robust industrial growth in April.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 11 Jun 2010 | 6:11 am Rupee falls from 1-week peak tracking sharesMumbai: The rupee failed to sustain early gains to a one-week peak on Friday as concerns over the euro zone debt crisis continued to weigh on investor sentiment, but gains in shares averted a sharp slide. The partially convertible rupee closed at 46.84/85 per dollar, off its high of 46.68, its strongest since 4 June and 0.25% above Thursday’s close of 46.96/97. The rupee closed steady on the week. “Today has been a relatively silent day, even other global markets were quiet. Stocks did not react much to the factory data, so rupee too did not rise,” said Naveen Raghuvanshi, an associate vice president with Development Credit Bank. India’s industrial output grew at a much stronger-than-expected pace in April, reinforcing expectations the central bank will lift rates for the third time this year at a policy review late next month. “Dow Jones and Nasdaq futures are higher, if euro too gains to around $1.23 kind of levels, we could see some sell-off in the dollar on Monday and the rupee could open close to 46.50 levels,” he added. Dealers said the inflation data due around 12 p.m. (0630 GMT) on Monday would be watched for cues on likely central bank moves on rate hikes. The wholesale price index based inflation probably rose 9.56% in May from a year earlier. Forecasts from 22 economists ranged from +8.7% to +10.2%. The index rose an annual 9.59% in April. Indian shares logged their first weekly loss in three, but climbed 0.8% on Friday, cheering the rise in world markets and robust factory data, with energy giant Reliance Industries leading the gains. Foreign funds have been net buyers of around $84 million of equities this month, after withdrawing nearly $2 billion in May as the euro zone’s debt jitters hit risk appetite, pulling down the main index by 3.5% and the rupee by 4.3%. “The volumes were lower today as compared to the last 15-20 days as even the global markets were ranged. Guess the rangebound trade between 46.50-47.25 will continue next week,” said a senior dealer with a private bank. Dealers said the dollar’s moves versus majors would be closely watched for direction next week. The euro rose on Friday on the back of higher stocks, but the single currency struggled to extend its short-covering rally versus the dollar ahead of technical resistance, while options barriers also capped gains. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 46.96, 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 closed at 46.9425 and 46.9375, respectively, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $5.95 billion. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 11 Jun 2010 | 6:06 am
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