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ICICI Bank rubbishes rumours of US lawsuitThe stock price of ICICI Bank fell around 3.5% today on the back of rumours of being sued by a US Broking company. But the bank shot back with a clarfication soonSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 8:10 am Indraprastha Gas raises CNG prices by up to 26%Indraprastha Gas, which supplies gas in New Delhi and surrounding region, said on Wednesday it would raise retail prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) by Rs 5.6 per kg from Thursday due to an increase in natural gas prices.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 7:26 am Europe remains a cause for concern: InfosysS Gopalkrishnan of Infosys, spoke about concerns emanating out of the European region. He said Europe impact is not visible yet on the IT sector. However, he added, Europe remained a cause for concern. \"The currency volatility remained an important issue.\"Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 7:23 am RelComm may hive off DTH, IPTV biz into new coAnil Ambani promoted Reliance Communication is likely to hive off its directtohome (DTH) and IPTV business into a separate business unit Reliance Digital Works, reports CNBCTV18 quoting sources.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 7:22 am Fortis struggles to find tieup for overseas fundingFortis is finding it tough to tieup for its overseas funding reports CNBCTV18 quoting sources. The healthcare group may now rope in a strategic partner for the Parkway offer as the company requires USD 2.4 billion to make a general open offer for ParkwaySource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 7:14 am MindTree bags UID deal; large revenue inflow seenMindTree has bagged an IT deal from the unique identity project (UID) Aadhaar. Rostow Ravanan, CFO of Mindtree said the UID order was one of the largest orders from the Government of India, however, he added that he could not disclose the value of the project.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 6:15 am Bharti starts hosted contact centre servicesBharti Airtel has partnered Cisco and Indian firm Servion to launch hosted contact centre services in India, the leading Indian mobile phone operator said on Thursday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am ICICI Venture hires former Babcock India chiefICICI Venture, the private equity arm of No. 2 Indian lender ICICI Bank, has hired Manikkan Sangameswaran, former chief of Babcock Brown Infrastructure\'s India unit, to head its infrastructure business.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am Is the new railway policy viable for private players?Ajay Mittal, Group Chairman and MD of Arshiya International said the new railway policy was good, but added that the discount was unreasonable. A 12% discount is not viable for private players as they may not be able make money at current rates, he said.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 5:26 am See 40% topline growth in FY11: Insecticides IndiaIn an interview with CNBCTV18, Rajesh Agarwal, CMD, Insecticides India, speaks about the latest happenings in his company and sector.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 5:20 am Thomas Cook on hunt for German acquisitionFRANKFURT (Reuters) - Travel firm Thomas Cook is still looking for takeover opportunities in Germany and could pay hundreds of millions of euros for the right target, Chief Executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:56 am How revised DTC will impact the common man - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:53 am Food inflation declines to 16.12%, raises hope of further dipA 0.62 percentage point decline in food inflation over 16.74% in the previous reporting week would also ease pressure on the Reserve Bank to take immediate policy measures to tame rising prices.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:46 am M&M sued by US partner for delaying truck launch - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:45 am Duncans surges after 50% stake sale - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:44 am Mindtree jumps after winning Unique ID project - NDTV.com
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:41 am BSE Sensex extends gains to 1 pct on dayMUMBAI (Reuters) – The BSE Sensex extended gains to 1 percent in afternoon trade on Thursday, helped by a rise in European stocks.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:40 am Monsoon rains 8 pct below normal in week to June 16 - sourcesNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's annual monsoon rains in the week to June 16 were 8 percent below normal, sources at the Meteorological Department said on Thursday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:37 am Nifty inching towards 5300 L T Rel Comm JP Asso shine - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:32 am Autos, FMCG to lead growth in FY11MUMBAI (Reuters) - Profit recovery in India will be led by auto, consumer goods and metal firms this year while credit growth at larger banks is likely to be slow as concerns of rising inflation and monetary tightening loom, analysts said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:28 am RBI in favour of deregulating savings rateMumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in favour of deregulating savings bank deposit rates of banks, RBI deputy governor K C Chakrabarty said on Thursday. “We have initiated a debate in the last policy..., the deduction is very clear, clear in favour of deregulating all interest rates, including savings bank. But the decision will be taken, when to do that, after having adequate debate on the issue,” Chakrabarty said on the sidelines of a banking event. He does not expect the savings bank rate to move in a wide range after the deregulation. “This is a highly competitive market. Prices do not vary much. But what will be the rate, what customers will get, will depend on market conditions,” he added. The savings bank rate is at 3.5% and is the only administered rate in the banking system now. The banks offer this rate to the savings bank customers, which form a major part of their low-cost deposit base. The RBI has started to deregulate administered interest rate from 1991 as a part of financial reforms. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:24 am Copper futures down on weak overseas cuesCopper prices fell by Rs 4.40 or 1.32 per cent to Rs 307.95 per kg in futures trade on Thursday on the emergence of selling, sparked by a weakening trend in global markets.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:14 am Autos, FMCG to lead India growth in FY11Mumbai: Profit recovery in India will be led by auto, consumer goods and metal firms this year while credit growth at larger banks is likely to be slow as concerns of rising inflation and monetary tightening loom, analysts said. Advance tax paid by India’s top auto, metals and consumer goods firms jumped in the first quarter of FY11, suggesting robust profits as demand rebounds, while collections from top lenders State Bank of India and ICICI were sluggish. India’s top 100 companies paid Rs12,660 crore as advance tax for the quarter, up nearly a fifth from last year. The positive outlook for companies is also reflected across Asia. A Reuters corporate sentiment survey found that Asian companies were at their most optimistic in five quarters on robust economic growth in the region. Corporate earnings in FY11 are likely to rise by 26.5% led by banking, petrochemicals, metals, IT and auto, UBS said in a note to clients on Wednesday, adding earnings from cement, conglomerates and telecom are likely to fall in FY11. “We do believe profit numbers would be good, sector-specific from autos, metals. Advance tax numbers also suggest that smaller banks will do better than bigger ones,” said Kunal Dalal, head of research at brokerage KR Choksey. Gopal Agrawal, head of equities at Mirae Asset Global Investment Management, is overweight on consumer goods, pharma, auto and auto ancillaries. He is also bullish on any gas-related opportunities in India. “India’s per capita consumption is increasing. We see for the next five years consumption will rise by leaps and bounds. In auto, the trend story continues, demand is very strong. Low cost of production and exports will benefit ancillaries,” he added. Advance taxes paid by Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto zoomed several times, pointing towards a sharp recovery, analysts said. Advance tax numbers are indicative of profits at companies which are required to pay their full-year taxes in instalments over four quarters. In the first quarter, companies are required to pay 15% of their expected taxes -- a smaller chunk compared to the rest of the three-month periods. “(Increase in) advance tax is essentially due to sharp pick-up in the economy and particularly industry,” said D.K. Joshi, principal economist at rating agency Crisil. Not So High However, banking remains an area of concern. Advance taxes paid by banks indicate a mixed bag - foreign banks and India’s top lender SBI paid far less tax than a year ago, while some others like Bank of Baroda and Bank of India paid much higher advance tax. SBI, whose advance tax for the quarter fell 19%, however remained the country’s second biggest corporate taxpayer, after state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Mirae Asset’s Agrawal was neutral on banks due to high valuations, while Geojit’s Mathews said provisioning would be an issue for public-sector banks. Analysts were also underweight on real estate and cement on fears of inflation and high input costs. “In realty, I see signs of inflation still looming, it’s also an interest-rate sensitive sector,” siad Alex Mathews, head of research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services. India’s headline inflation unexpectedly accelerated to 10.16% in May, heightening expectations India’s central bank would raise rates before its scheduled July review. The data came on the heels of April manufacturing output, which grew at its fastest pace in 15 years, indicating strong growth and rising inflationary pressures. “There are risks. Uncertainties are there but recovery is strong,” said Crisil’s Joshi. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:13 am Infosys BPO wins award for digital media outsourcingBangalore-based Infosys BPO has picked up this year's North American Shared Services Excellence Award for best new outsourced services, for handling advertising production work of its client McClatchy's newspapers that include Kansas City Star.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:10 am APEC energy leaders eye Gulf spill impact at meetTOKYO (Reuters) - Crude oil drilling regulations, volatile oil futures and greater use of eco-friendly energy will form the focus of talks between energy ministers and senior officials of the Asia-Pacific region at a meeting on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:10 am EU leaders seek tighter economic policy coordinationBRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders began talks on Thursday on ways to strengthen budget discipline and economic policy coordination, hoping to show financial markets they can see off a euro zone debt crisis.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 3:03 am Double-digit inflation is a worry but not surprising: RBIFinance minister Pranab Mukherjee said food inflation -- which is fuelling overall inflation -- has started coming down a little bit and expected it to ease with a good monsoon and crop.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:54 am Swiss parliament approves UBS-U.S. tax dealZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's parliament backed a Swiss-U.S. tax treaty crucial to the future of UBS AG , ending months of uncertainty over the deal and paving the way for renewed recovery at the Swiss bank.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:51 am India's artificial flower business blooms abroadArtificial flowers look good, do not disturb the environment and do not fade in a hurry, but there's a catch - they cost five to seven times more than fresh ones. Perhaps that is why artificial flowers don't sell well in India, making manufacturers look to Europe and the Middle East for a blooming business.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:47 am Private jet market taking off in big way in ChinaThe private jet market in China is poised to take off in a big way as more and more cash rich businessmen fly in swanky luxury jets for business deals and holidays, most of them opting for the biggest 12 seater ones.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:43 am ICICI Venture hires former Babcock India chiefICICI Venture, the private equity arm of No. 2 Indian lender ICICI Bank, has hired Manikkan Sangameswaran, former chief of Babcock & Brown Infrastructure's India unit, to head its infrastructure business.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:42 am Air India to open engineering base in DubaiChairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav said the airline proposes to put five aircraft on standby in Dubai to solve emergency technical snags.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:39 am India Bharti starts hosted contact centre servicesBharti Airtel has partnered Cisco and Indian firm Servion to launch hosted contact centre services in India, the leading Indian mobile phone operator said on Thursday.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:38 am Prices remain high but India's food inflation drops a tad - Sify
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:37 am EA hopes less is more when it comes to gamesEA had a tough calendar 2009, slashing jobs and narrowing its game portfolio amid an industry-wide slump in video game sales and a continuing transition to digital and casual games.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:36 am Relying too much on e-mail may be bad for businessE-mails and videoconferences might help workers complete tasks more quickly, but they're not necessarily completing them well, according to a new research.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:26 am Australia shares drop 0.7 pct, investors avoid riskAustralian stocks fell 0.7 percent on Thursday, dragged down by the top banks and miners as investors turned to defensive stocks after weak housing data stoked concerns about the U.S. economic recovery.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:13 am RBI in favour of deregulating savings rates - NDTV.com
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Jun 2010 | 2:09 am Parkway: prize for Malvinder and Shivinder Singh?NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Fortis Healthcare is locked in a battle with Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah for control of Singapore-based Parkway Holdings, Asia's biggest listed hospitals firm.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 1:57 am Kotak fund shorts telcos on earning cloudsSingapore: A long-short equities fund managed by India’s Kotak Mahindra has taken short positions on Indian telecom firms as it sees earning weakening from competition and the cost of new licenses, its manager said. India last month raised $14.6 billion through an auction of licenses and bandwidth for third-generation mobile phone services, nearly double the $7.5 billion forecast, raising fears the money to be paid by mobile phone operators would stretch balance sheets and slash earnings. “There is an opportunity to go short in the market in the telecom space,” R Rajagopal, Singapore-based principal fund manager for the Kotak India Dynamic Fund, said on Thursday. “Because of competition and because of the higher bids that have been paid for 3G, we do believe in the quarters to come, the profitability of telecom companies will be affected,” he told Reuters. Most of India’s telecom operators have high debt levels, with the exception of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Bharti Airtel, Fitch Ratings said after the auction results. Rajagopal said the Indian wireless market was overcrowded with 12 firms jostling for a piece of the pie, compared with three or four players in most other markets. He predicted a few would be forced to merge or sell out to stronger rivals. The dollar-denominated Kotak India Dynamic Fund was up 0.39% in the five months to end-May, slightly outperforming India’s benchmark Sensex index which fell 3% over the same period. The fund’s volatility was 4.89% compared with 24.4% for the India market. For 2009, the Kotak fund returned 4.56%, well below the 81% rise in the Sensex. Rajagopal said the fund manages its short positions chiefly through India’s equity futures and options markets, whose average turnover is roughly two-and-a-half times the combined volume on the Bombay and National stock exchanges. Rajagopal said the fund has an overall long bias on India due to the country’s 8%-plus economic growth at a time when most developed economies are struggling, and downplayed the threats posed by rising interest rates and soaring inflation. “Indian corporates have learnt to progress even in very high inflationary periods when these companies borrowed heavily and still kept up the growth pace,” he said. “I believe the experience of this will enable to them to wade comfortably through the levels of high inflation in the periods to come.” Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Jun 2010 | 1:57 am Fortis Healthcare reacts on reports of stake sale to RIL - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 17 Jun 2010 | 1:38 am India, China companies most optimistic in 5 quartersSINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asia's top companies are at their most optimistic in five quarters as robust economic growth in the region outweighs concerns about debt problems in Europe and renewed market volatility, a new Reuters index shows.Source: Reuters: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 1:35 am Oil falls towards $77 on mixed US economySingapore: Oil retreated by 0.8% towards $77 on Thursday, slipping from its highest since early May, as the pace of demand growth was questioned following mixed economic and inventory data from top consumer the United States. US industrial production rose faster than forecast in May, while housing starts fell more than expected. And the nation’s demand for distillate fuel including heating oil and diesel jumped over the past four weeks, while crude inventories posted a surprise increase last week. Renewed concerns about Spain’s credit and banking system toppled the euro from a two-week high against the dollar on Wednesday. The greenback extended gains on Thursday, up about 0.3% against a basket of currencies. European Union leaders hope to agree on ways to strengthen budget discipline and economic policy coordination on Thursday to show financial markets they can manage the euro zone debt crisis. US crude for July fell 65 cents to $77.02 a barrel at 12:32pm, having touched $78.13 on Wednesday, the highest intraday price since 10 May. ICE Brent for August slid 28 cents to $77.86. “The poorer than expected housing data and the unexpected gains in crude inventories are weighing on prices,” said Serene Lim, a Singapore-based oil analyst at ANZ. “Investors will be quite jittery about the euro, and the strength of the dollar will cap gains in oil,” Lim said. A stronger dollar makes imports more expensive for holders of other currencies. Prices also fell after Norwegian offshore oil workers landed a wage deal with energy companies on Thursday, averting a strike that had threatened production in three oil and gas fields in the North Sea. Oil has recovered by about 19% from this year’s low below $65 on 20 May. Some analysts say the rebound responds to a clearer perception that the effect of Europe’s debt crisis on energy demand will be limited. “The true likely importance of European debt concerns has perhaps now been better quantified, and the focus seems to have shifted to threats that might moderate growth in specific regions, rather than fears that the entire global economic recovery will be derailed,” Barclays Capital said in a weekly report. “With economic fears abounding, the second quarter has proved something of a lost quarter for oil prices,” the bank said. Overall oil product demand in the US advanced by 1.9% in the past four weeks from a year earlier, the Energy Information Administration said in a weekly report on Wednesday. Distillate use jumped almost 14% in the same period. But the nation’s crude stockpiles rose unexpectedly last week by 1.7 million barrels on the back of higher imports and lower refinery utilisation, the EIA said. Crude oil stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma pricing point for US crude futures rose by 200,000 barrels to 37.6 million barrels, EIA said. The persistence of abundant supplies at the hub is depressing the price of front-month West Texas Intermediate crude relative to European benchmark Brent, which was trading about 85 cents higher on Thursday, compared with less than a 50-cent premium for Wednesday’s settlement. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Jun 2010 | 1:26 am Food inflation eases to 16.12 pcAnnual food inflation eased to 16.12 per cent for the week ended June 5 as prices of fruits and vegetables, and tea softened.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 1:15 am Inflation within RBI's estimates: KC ChakrabartyRBI deputy governor KC Chakrabarty today said that the policy measures will depend upon the changing economic environment and the current inflation is still within RBI estimates.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 1:11 am It's kick-off time for India IncCorporates take up the cause of football. Despite low returns, some of them have firmly planted their feet in the game.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 1:10 am Banks should not take excessive risks: C RangarajanPrime minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan today said that banks should be discouraged from excessive risk taking to ensure a healthy financial system.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 17 Jun 2010 | 1:09 am Rupee steady; stocks, dollar moves watchedMumbai: The Indian rupee continued to trade largely steady in afternoon session on Thursday tracking a choppy domestic sharemarket and the dollar’s gains against major currencies. At 12:50pm, the partially convertible rupee was at Rs46.56/57 per dollar, little changed from Rs46.55/56 at close on Wednesday when it had touched Rs46.2850, its strongest since 20 May. Shares were choppy tracking mixed Asian shares after the main index had rallied more than 5 percent over six sessions. Most Asian currencies were lower against the dollar. The index of the dollar against six major currencies was up 0.3% and will be monitored for direction during the day, dealers said. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at Rs46.70, 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 Rs46.6275, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $2.8 billion. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Jun 2010 | 1:05 am Food inflation eases to 16.12 pcAnnual food inflation eased to 16.12 per cent for the week ended June 5 as prices of fruits and vegetables, and tea softened. The annual rate of price rise of food items in the previous week was 16.74 per cent.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:52 am RBI for deregulating savings rateReserve Bank of India (RBI) is in favour of deregulating savings bank deposit rates of banks, RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty said today. The savings bank rate is at 3.5 per cent and is the only administered rate in the banking system now.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:31 am Markets seesaw; Reliance gains, techs downMumbai: Indian shares flip-flopped on Thursday as weak Asian markets prompted investors to pause after the main index had rallied more than 5% over six sessions. Traders said the market was facing resistance after its longest winning streak in nine months. Although foreign fund investments have picked up on the back of robust factory output data, double-digit inflation was a concern. “The pain due to Europe’s troubles seems to be priced in. A steep downside from here doesn’t look likely right now. That said, we are not going to rise very fast either,” said R. Ganesh, director of Systematix Shares. By 11:28am, the 30-share BSE index was trading down 0.05% at 17,454.78 points, with 19 of its components declining. The 50-share NSE index was down 0.2% at 5,225.35. Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the Sensex, rose 1.1%. The energy major may foray into the healthcare sector by buying a 26% stake in hospital chain Fortis Healthcare, the Financial Express reported. Fortis, which last week unveiled plans to raise as much as $1.2 billion, is positioning itself for a possible battle with Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah for Singapore’s Parkway Holdings. Shares in Fortis were up 2.4% at Rs155.95. Top outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services dropped 0.6%, while rivals Infosys and Wipro shed 0.9% each. State-run explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp was up 1.1% after the Hindustan Times reported a panel of ministers to look into freeing of fuel prices could meet next week. Foreign funds have been net buyers of Indian equities four sessions to Tuesday, taking their investment so far in June to nearly $588 million. In May, the funds had dumped $2 billion of stocks in the wake of the euro zone fiscal troubles. In the broader market, gainers led losers in a ratio of 1.3:1 on volume of 140 million shares. STOCKS Non-ferrous metals maker Sterlite Industries dropped 0.7% to Rs684.60 as London copper futures fell 1.8%. Cairn India shed 0.6% to Rs306.60, as crude oil prices declined towards $77 per barrel. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:24 am Food, fuel inflation ease in early JuneBy New Delhi: India’s food and fuel price inflation eased in early June, easing pressure on Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to speed up its process of tightening monetary policy. India’s food price index rose 16.12% in the year to 5 June, snapping a two-week rise, and lower than the previous week’s annual reading of 16.74%, government data released on Thursday showed. The fuel price index climbed 13.18%, compared with an annual rise of 14.23% in the previous week. Pressure has been mounting on RBI to raise rates ahead of its July policy review after the wholesale price index rose 10.16% in May, the highest in the G-20 group of leading economies. K C Chakraborty, a central bank deputy governor, said on Thursday the wholesale price-based inflation is not beyond central bank’s estimates, but added domestic inflation is a bigger concern than other global factors. Tight market liquidity due to payments for 3G mobile spectrum purchases and advance tax payments, and worries over Europe’s debt crisis are expected to prevent the RBI from tightening more aggressively. A Reuters survey shows that most analysts do not see the RBI raising rates before the 27 July review, in line with the bank’s earlier stated preference for “baby steps” toward normalization. The RBI late Wednesday said the federal government would buyback Rs10,000 crore ($2.15 billion) of bonds via a multiple price auction on 18 June. The move is expected to improve liquidity with banks after an estimated outflow of over Rs1.36 trillion between late May and June towards third-generation (3G) and broadband spectrum auction and advance tax payments, which have pushed up overnight cash rates. Stubbornly high inflation has emerged as a policy headache for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s coalition government, which has held back on major reforms such as freeing up retail fuel prices ahead of eight state elections due later in 2010 and 2011. Singh has said he expects headline inflation to fall to 5-6% by December. The RBI has raised rates twice, by a total of 50 basis points, since mid-March to tame inflation and is expected to deliver another hike of 25 basis points. The markets have already priced in such a move. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:22 am BP agrees to $20 bn spill fund, cuts dividendWashington: Under intense pressure from US President Barack Obama, BP Plc said on Wednesday it will set up a $20 billion fund for damage claims from its huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill, sell assets and suspend dividend payments to shareholders. The deal gave Obama his most tangible success since the crisis began 58 days ago, with criticism over his handling of the worst oil spill in US history hurting the president in opinion polls as his fellow Democrats gear up for tough congressional elections in November. The fund, which BP will finance partly by selling $10 billion in assets, also eased pressure on the British energy giant, whose share price has withered amid uncertainty over the ultimate cost of cleanup, claims and fines. Obama announced the agreement after White House officials held four hours of talks with BP executives, who emerged to offer an apology to the American people. “I do thank you for the patience that you have during this difficult time,” BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said. “I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies who don’t care. But that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people.” Svanberg’s “small people” comment was the latest in a string of gaffes by BP officials over the spill. After the remark was widely covered on US newscasts, the Swedish chairman issued a statement saying he “spoke clumsily.” Chief executive Tony Hayward, the public face of BP’s response to the disaster and author of a few gaffes himself, will appear on Thursday at a congressional hearing where he will face heavy scrutiny over events leading up to the spill and BP’s cleanup of the mess. An 20 April explosion on an offshore rig leased by BP killed 11 workers and ruptured a deep-sea well. The ensuing spill has fouled 120 miles (190 km) of US coastline, imperiled multibillion-dollar fishing and tourism industries and killed birds, sea turtles and dolphins. While Obama stressed the agreement would not cap BP’s total liabilities, Wall Street appeared to cheer the small dose of clarity the deal provided, driving up the company’s share price by 1.5% in New York. Under the agreement, BP committed to pay $20 billion into an independently managed fund over four years, suspend dividend payments for the rest of the year and pay $100 million to workers idled by the six-month moratorium on deep-sea drilling that the Obama administration imposed after the spill. The $20 billion figure is roughly equal to BP’s average annual profits over the past four years. BP is expected to report net profits of $18.9 billion in 2010, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S consensus estimates. “We will continue to hold BP and all other responsible parties accountable,” Obama said at the White House. “And I’m absolutely confident BP will be able to meet its obligations to the Gulf Coast and to the American people.” The fund will be administered by Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration official who oversaw compensation for executives at companies that received federal bailout funds. Obama had pressed BP to set up a fund administered by a third party after hearing first-hand complaints from Gulf Coast residents that BP’s claims process was too complicated and the company was paying out too little. With thousands of Gulf Coast commercial fishermen largely idled by the spill, Louisiana shrimper Clifton Bartholomew, 21, wondered whether $20 billion would be enough. “If you add it all up together - everybody in shrimping, fishing, the whole industry -- by the time this is all gone I think they’ll need more than $20 billion,” Bartholomew said. BP said in a statement it would cut three quarters of dividends, significantly reduce its investment program and sell $10 billion of assets to create the fund. The commitments are harsher penalties than most investors had hoped for. They had not expected BP to be forced to sell assets and cut investment -- moves that would curb its growth. BP said it would cancel the first-quarter dividend due for payment on 21 June and would not declare interim dividends for the second and third quarters of 2010. The payouts were expected to be about $2.6 billion per quarter, in line with recent quarters. Obama stressed BP was “a strong and viable company, and it is in all of our interests that it remain so.” A study by Reuters Insider analyst Mike Tarsala underscores that point: the United States cannot afford to lose BP’s tax payments, averaging $3 billion per year in the last five years, or its 23,000 US jobs, many of them high-paying industrial positions. BP’s shares gyrated in volatile New York trading, dropping as much as 5% before swinging to positive territory on news of the fund, known as an escrow account. “It’s a step in the right direction for BP but unfortunately I cannot say the same for Tony Hayward because it is going to get tougher for him,” said Fadel Gheit, managing director of oil and gas research at investment firm Oppenheimer & Co in New York “Tomorrow he’s going to be in the hot seat under glaring lights and tremendous animosity and criticism” at the hearing. The BP chief executive will tell lawmakers the entire oil and natural gas industry needs to be better prepared for deepwater accidents, according to his prepared testimony. That is an apparent response to attempts by rival oil companies to distance themselves from BP’s disaster at a hearing on Tuesday. As BP stock saw some relief, shares in Anadarko fell 3.69% and Transocean lost 3.09% in New York. Anadarko is part owner of the blown-out well and Transocean owned the rig that blew up. Back in the Gulf, BP said it started a second system to siphon oil from the leak on Wednesday, a day after a team of US scientists raised their high-end estimate of the amount of crude oil flowing from the well by 50 percent to between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:11 am Bachchans in London for Raavan world premiereLondon: The Bachchans, the first family of Indian cinema, were out in force in London for the world premiere of the Bollywood film Raavan. Abhishek Bachchan, his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and father Amitabh Bachchan attended the showing late on Wednesday, as did the film’s director Mani Ratnam and Oscar-winning composer A. R. Rahman. They were given the red carpet treatment at the British Film Institute Southbank complex next to the River Thames in central London. The film, which stars Abhishek Bachchan and his wife, an actress and former Miss World, will be released in cinemas worldwide on Friday. “India is the largest film industry in the world. We sell twice the amount of tickets that Hollywood does,” Abhishek Bachchan told Sky News television. “They are at a threshold where people have suddenly developed this love for Indian cinema. “But I don’t think it’s going to be this huge rage in the English-speaking world. There is always a language barrier and that is something that has to be respected.” The film is a loose adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana, in which the wife of Lord Rama, Sita, is abducted by a demon. The movie is packed with action scenes, many of which take place in dense jungle. Asked how she handled being thrown into water repeatedly while filming stunts for the movie, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan told the BBC: “It must have made acting easy, don’t you think? Just throw her in there and suffer, and let’s just film that.” Her husband added: “She came out looking as good and we were like ‘Come on that’s so unfair´.” Two versions of the film were made simultaneously -- one in the Hindi language and one in Tamil -- and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan said this made it “even more challenging.” But she said the experience was enjoyable and “very, very close to my heart.” “As an actor there’s so much to do and so much to give to the character in the narrative, so I think we actors are always greedy and hungry and looking for work where we are actually able to enjoy the entire process.” She added that it was also nice for the couple to work with the director, Mani Ratnam, as he was “very, very dear to us.” “The director is my first director, the person I faced the camera with for the first time ever,” she said. “And here we were working together on what we believed is a good piece of cinema.” Amitabh Bachchan came to London after spending time in Paris. “Abhishek and Aishwarya have flown in just this evening after hectic and tiring procedures being conducted for the promotions on Raavan, and it was such a delight to be all together again,” he said in his blog Tuesday. “Took them out to dinner, caught up on events and times, laughed.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:08 am Infosys opens ‘green channel' to woo former staffInfosys Technologies has opened a “green channel” to woo back its former employees as it casts its net wide for experienced mid-level softwareSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Kalindi Rail Nirman (Rs 132.4): BuyWe recommend a buy in the stock of Kalindi Rail Nirman from a short-term trading perspective. It is apparent from the charts of the stock that in December 2009, it encountered a key long-term resistance band between Rs 230 and Rs 240 and resumedSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am New draft of Tax Code seeks to levy wealth tax on firms' ‘unproductive assets'The Centre is looking to drop a proposal to bring financial assets within the scope of the wealth taxSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am RCom looks to selling 26% stake in GlobalcomAfter announcing the demerger of its tower unit, Reliance Infratel, Reliance Communications seems to have set its sights on unlocking value from its undersea optical fibre network and the US networkSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideThe stock surged in the last trading session, in line with our expectation. It advanced 2.3 per cent with good volume. We recommend a buy in theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Take your pick this Friday from Raavan, Raavanan or VillainMani Ratnam's Raavan is blazing a new trail for Indian cinema even while it is two days away from itsSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am High returns lure small investors to join gold rushGiven the volatility in stock markets, the small investor has joined the gold rush this year, particularly with returns being as high as 300 per cent on 4 four per cent margin money in the futuresSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Fortis gets time till July 30 to decide on counter offer for ParkwaySingapore's securities regulator on Wednesday asked Fortis Healthcare to decide by July 30 whether or not it will make a counter offer to Malaysian fund Khazanah's $835-million bid to acquire majority stake in ParkwaySource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Derivative trading at record levelsDespite the turbulence and choppy movement in stock prices over the last few months, trading interest on our bourses has reached recordSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Top ten advance taxpayers shell out Rs 5,131 crAdvance tax payout by the top ten taxpayers for the June 15 instalment, grew 16 per cent, indicating robust profit expectations for these companies for the entire financialSource: Business Line - Home Page | 17 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am StanChart to enter into partnership with China’s AgBankHong Kong: Standard Chartered Bank Plc and Agricultural Bank of China have agreed to a strategic partnership, making StanChart the second global bank to form an alliance ahead of AgBank’s record-breaking initial public offering. Netherlands-based Rabobank signed a similar agreement with AgBank earlier this month and has not ruled out from becoming a cornerstone investor in AgBank. Standard Chartered said in a statement on Thursday that it had signed an agreement with AgBank to explore joint development of business opportunities. Under the agreement, StanChart and AgBank would explore collaboration in retail and wholesale banking products and services, within China and internationally, it said. “The partnership will focus on the increasingly strong intra-Asia and Asia-Africa trade corridors ... while also looking at joint opportunities across ABC’s and Standard Chartered’s domestic Chinese market operations,” StanChart said in the statement. AgBank is seeking to raise more than $23 billion in the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) and will launch the Shanghai portion of its IPO this week. AgBank, China’s third-biggest lender by assets, has said up to 40% of the Shanghai offering, including the green-shoe option, would be placed with strategic investors. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 11:45 pm Sensex opens 44 points higherThe 30-share index, which had gained 50.04 points in the previous session, added another 43.99 points to 17,506.86 in first five minutes of trading.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Jun 2010 | 11:44 pm Inflation not beyond our estimate: RBI deputy governorMumbai: An inter-meeting policy rate hike will depend on volatility and wholesale price-based inflation is not beyond RBI’s estimates, a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday. K C Chakrabarty did not say what he meant by volatility, but his statement came in response to a question on accelerating inflation in recent months and data pointing to a strong growth momentum. “If the volatility is more, if things change fast; yes, there will be more measures, it depends on how the environment is,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference when asked about double-digit inflation. India’s headline inflation unexpectedly accelerated in May, heightening expectations the RBI would raise rates before its scheduled July review despite concerns over Europe’s debt crisis. The benchmark 10-year bond yield briefly rose 1 basis point after the comments to 7.56%. It had closed at 7.59% on Wednesday. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 11:08 pm ArcelorMittal eyeing stake in Indian firm: ReportThe newspaper cited unnamed sources in the Kolkata-based Ramsarup as saying the company was in discussion with global companies, including ArcelorMittal, for selling a strategic stake.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 16 Jun 2010 | 11:05 pm ArcelorMittal eyeing stake in Indian firm: reportNew Delhi: ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, is eyeing a stake in Indian steel and wire producer Ramsarup Industries, the Business Standard reported on Thursday. The newspaper cited unnamed sources in the Kolkata-based Ramsarup as saying the company was in discussion with global companies, including ArcelorMittal, for selling a strategic stake. An ArcelorMittal official declined comment, the paper said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 9:25 pm Asian stocks mixed after flat Wall Street finishTokyo: Asian stocks were mixed in early trading on Thursday amid profit-taking in Tokyo and a muted finish on Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average slipped 0.3% to 10,038.67, as investors moved to lock in gains from Wednesday’s 1.8% jump. The index finished above the key 10,000 level for the first time in almost a month. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 retreated 0.4% to 4,540.80. Meanwhile, Seoul’s Kospi was narrowly in positive territory, up 0.04% at 1,705.98. Overnight in New York, the Dow Jones industrials rose 0.05% to 10,409.46 after BP’s agreement to put $20 billion into a fund for victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill lifted the stock market off lows. The market began the day by falling on news that home construction and applications for building permits slumped in May. The S&P 500 fell 0.06 percent to 1,114.61, and the Nasdaq crept up 0.05% to 2,305.93. In currencies, the dollar weakened to yen 91.23 from 91.37 late Wednesday. The euro stood at $1.2266 from $1.2299. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 9:21 pm It’s not just black or whiteGermany’s annihilation of Australia was the only high point of a rather dour opening few days of the World Cup, a tournament where the vuvuzela has become more of a talking point than the happenings on the field. That German performance was unusual, though, in another way: Six of those who played the game were either foreign-born or had immigrant roots, as were another five members of the squad. Also See The World Cup Quiz What’s the big deal? Well, it’s this: When a national team like Germany, which has all these years been homogenous to the point of insularity, picks 11 members of its World Cup squad who aren’t ethnic Germans, you know football is changing. It raises this question: With national sides importing players, how different is it really from club football?  Rainbow nation: The German team is a multi-ethnic mix; Mesut Oezil (standing) is of Turkish origin, and striker Cacau, who was born in Brazil, was given German citizenship only last year. AP Multi-ethnic national sides are not new; the early trend was for national sides to field players from their former colonies. Spain and Portugal started it in the 1950s and 1960s, the Dutch were more successful in the 1970s and France won a World Cup with it in 1998. The newer trend is for countries, especially in Western Europe, to tap the potential among the immigrant communities with whom they may have no historical or colonial link—and so Zlatan Ibrahimovic plays for Sweden, Hakan Yakin for Switzerland and Khalid Boulahrouz for the Netherlands. It’s the corollary to what happened to English football from the 1970s onwards when the first wave of imports started coming in: Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen for Bobby Robson’s Ipswich, and most famously, Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa in the Tottenham Hotspur team of the late 1970s. That line-up, which also included Glenn Hoddle, evokes the same memories and nostalgia among Spurs fans as, say, the Busby Babes for those Manchester United fans lucky enough to see them. Round about the same time, but with decidedly less long-term success, Indian football saw the entry of the three Iranians, Majid Baskar, Jamshid Nassiri and Mehmood Khabaji, and the Nigerian David Williams. I remember then thinking they were from a different planet. Baskar was the quiet schemer, Nassiri the more exuberant striker, as was David Williams (aside: they had the same effect on us as the Pakistan cricket team that toured India in 1979-80, with the likes of Imran Khan, Majid Khan, Asif Iqbal, Sarfraz Nawaz, Zaheer Abbas…they just seemed a few inches taller and wider than us, even if the difference lay only in their strut). What do the imports bring? Mainly flair. The top leagues all import the flair players. Even in Spain, which has enough flair of its own, the two most high-profile players are an Argentine (Lionel Messi) and a Portuguese (Cristiano Ronaldo). It’s more so in Italy, where Michel Platini and Zbigniew Boniek were followed by the Dutch trinity—Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit—at AC Milan. It’s all good business; racial and ethnic integration, if at all it occurs, is a by-product.  Jumping ship: Portugal midfielder Pepe played for Brazil’s U-21 team before changing his nationality. Reuters So Mesut Oezil, who would otherwise have played for Turkey, was nurtured by the German system to which he has now pledged his international career. That level of integration doesn’t come easy, as Germany is finding out—a debate over whether players should sing the pre-match national anthem has got Franz Beckenbauer into action and the Dutch camp banned Twitter after Eljero Elia was reported to have madeanti-Moroccan statements. Typically, South Africa is leading the way. This is a country where racism doesn’t exist merely to connote hostility between black and white—there has been, in the past couple of years, violent attacks on immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Somalia, and that’s before we get into the more infamous stuff. There were fears leading up to the World Cup that those racial tensions would erupt again. Yet, conversations with South Africans of different hues—and for somereason they all speak a bit more freely when they learn of my nationality—suggests those fears may be misplaced. A peep into any pub when any African team is playing confirms that football could have another reason to be “the beautiful game”. Jayaditya Gupta is executive editor of Cricinfo and is covering the World Cup for their sister website Soccernet. He will be writing for us through the tournament. Write to Jayaditya at extratime@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 1:45 pm Tax code blow for India Inc to softenRules to take care of concerns on Controlled Foreign Corporation provisions.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 16 Jun 2010 | 1:29 pm CPI(M): why burdensome norm for BSNL? - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 16 Jun 2010 | 1:22 pm Mukesh Ambani eyes energy source to power UMPPsRIL may also venture into brown field power plants.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 16 Jun 2010 | 12:35 pm Maran open to SpiceJet's name changeSpiceJet's new owner, Kalanithi Maran, has kept the door open for changing the name of India's second largest low-cost carrier. The public announcement of an open offer issued on Wednesday said subject to the permission of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation/ Ministry of Civil Aviation, the acquirers propose to change the name and registered office of the target company (SpiceJet) upon the successful completion of the offer and acquisition of shares.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 16 Jun 2010 | 12:31 pm Buffett, Gates ask billionaires to give away wealthNEW YORK (Reuters) - Investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced on Wednesday that they are asking hundreds of billionaire Americans to give away at least 50 percent of their wealth to charity.Source: Reuters: Money News | 16 Jun 2010 | 12:25 pm Quick Edit | Expansion opposedThere is no small contradiction in the British public’s ire towards Barack Obama and his criticism of BP. Obama has repeatedly called the company “British Petroleum”, which is a mistake. Since 2000, the initials “BP” have stood officially for nothing and casually for its tagline, “Beyond Petroleum”. Into Obama’s reference, the British media has read an effort to deflect responsibility for the spill towards Britain, and it has protested that BP is, if anything, less British than American. Simultaneously, though, commentators have called upon David Cameron to publicly defend BP, and Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, worried that “a great British company (was) being…beaten up”. The contradiction shows the world is still grappling with the exact nature of large multinationals, especially when it comes to issues of provenance and accountability. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 12:01 pm Reliance Capital to acquire 18 in Bloomberg UTV - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 16 Jun 2010 | 10:30 am Govt appoints panel to help achieve targetsNew Delhi: The government has selected a panel of 20 professionals who could be asked by various ministries to help achieve their annual targets. This is part of a plan that the government unveiled last year to track the performance of government departments against specific targets set by the ministries and vetted by the cabinet secretariat. The professionals are typically corporate strategists and include Visty Banaji, former executive director at Godrej Industries Ltd, Vikram Bhalla of the Boston Consulting Group Inc. and Amrit Pandurangi of PricewaterhouseCoopers Llp. Arun Maira, member of the Planning Commission, said the panel was constituted last week after requests from certain ministries where officials said they would like help in attaining their targets. The choice of utilizing the services of the panellists, who would be paid a retainership of Rs10,000 a day, is left to the ministries. “Now there is a carrot, and we know what we need to do to get the carrot,” Maira said. “We are working with all ministries to shape strategies to help them.” A pilot project, which ran for three months this year, has been successful and the tracking programme is now an annual affair, Maira said. Providing performance incentives has been a key thrust area for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance administration, which is looking to overhaul outdated ways of appraising performance. The Sixth Pay Commission, which recommends pay scales for Union government employees, approved a performance-based incentive scheme in 2008. Ministries came up with targets, called results framework documents, last year. These documents were posted online early this year. “If I were to allocate money from the Planning Commission, I would be swayed by that analysis,” Maira said. Some bureaucrats, however, expressed reservations about consulting the experts. “It’s not as if we don’t know why a particular programme lags or another is unsuccessful,” an official of the science ministry said on condition of anonymity. “Many government projects that lag are due to insufficient cooperation from states. You don’t need a consultant for that.” Pandurangi, who heads the transport and infrastructure practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers, confirmed that he had been appointed to the panel. The first meeting of the people who have been chosen is on 18 June, he said. rahul.c@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 10:18 am Rising divorce rates, new tech options renew interest in same caste unionsMumbai: For six decades, like beacons of hope, Bollywood movies have woven diaphanous dreams of a love so powerful that it knows no class, caste or religion. Again and again, in countless songs, beautiful looking actors and actresses have urged young lovers to overthrow all shackles of social norms and rules.  Hers is not a lone voice to argue that love, when nurtured in familiarity, has a better chance of surviving. No studies have been done to prove this theory, but it has many takers. On Shaadi.com, a matrimonial website, about 83% of profiles have listed their caste details and when the sub-caste option was activated a few months ago, “more than 40% edited their profiles to specify their sub-caste as well”, said Valini D’souza, manager of corporate communications for Shaadi.com portal. Also Read previous stories in the series Murugavel Janakiraman, founder of BharatMatrimony.com, an online matrimonial forum that has at least two million profiles and special interfaces that offer caste-based selection to 451 communities, explained that many factors have conspired for a revival of interest in caste-based marriages: the rising number of divorces, the challenges of modern living, the impatience with differences and unwillingness to change, and the tools of technology—telephones, the Internet, jets and faxes—that expand choices and allow members to look for spouses within their communities.  Step by step: Communities use different ways to help young people choose their spouses from the same caste such as this matrimonial gathering for Mudaliars. For instance, when Shobha Mehta’s son reached a “marriageable age” in New York and asked her to find him a spouse, she sent word to her relatives and friends in the old city of Jaipur, in Mumbai and Delhi. For four months, she looked at “biodatas” of young girls of her community on Shaadi.com, BharatMatrimony.com, exchanged emails, juggled time zones and conversed with the parents over the phone before flying out to meet the “short-listed” candidates. She never looked at profiles outside her community. And when she saw Shital, a shy, soft-spoken 19-year-old, she knew the search had ended. “She had a gentleness to her. I just knew this was it,” said Mehta, fully aware that she had used every tool of modern technology to find a match for her son in the oldest form of marriage. “The children are happy. It is good that the Internet helped bring them together. How does it matter how they came together, as long as they stay married?” she asked. It is this unsubstantiated fear—that divorce rates are rising because of inter-caste marriages—that has led to a renewed interest in caste marriages, said Janakiraman. “It may or may not be true. But I don’t want to take a chance,” said Balraj Oberoi, a 26-year-old Hindu Khatri from Hoshiarpur, who teaches mechanical engineering for a living and is clear that he wants to marry another Khatri. He refused to disclose the name of his college, but said: “If I fall in love with someone, it’s different. But if I don’t find someone like that, then I want to make sure that cultural compatibility is there. After all, we want to live a peaceful life. If the person comes from the same caste, you can take many things for granted—lifestyle, culture, rituals, and customs—everything is the same. Half the problems are solved. There are no nasty surprises later.” Such as the one Pari, a Vaishnav Vania received when she married a Punjabi man. “They had been dating each other for six years, when they decided to tell their families,” said Urvee Majmudar, a 25- year-old first cousin of Pari, who is now looking for her own spouse on Shaadi.com. “Both families agreed to the match and they got married. After that, all the torture began. They are asking her to bring gold, jewellery, cars, electronics and all sorts of things. They don’t feed her either—sometimes she comes to our home at night (on her way to her job at a business process outsourcing firm) and eats with us. This is in an educated family, in Mumbai, behaving like this. It makes me want to cry. But seeing her, I have learnt my lesson. I am not seeing anyone, but even if I was, I would not marry outside my caste. I just don’t want to risk being miserable in a strange way of living…” Like her, young women, in India and abroad, say they are acutely aware of the challenges of a social structure that is intensely patriarchal, that already expects them to play many roles while juggling careers, and that they simply do not want to make marriage any more challenging than it needs to be. “Already, I am struggling with Indian and American identities. There are different social expectations from me inside my family and outside. Why on earth would I make it even more complicated,” asked 27-year-old Ashima Agrawal, a computer engineer in Dallas, who says it would be nice to find an Agrawal man in the US. “Then maybe we could relate to each other better, I think. Isn’t it?” This doubt gnaws at many second-generation immigrants, who struggle at the time of marriage when they have to choose between identities: marry a foreigner and drift away from the culture they came from or marry an Indian chosen by their parents (mostly from the same community) and become bound, ever more closely to their parents and their way of life. And to help these young people, caste-based organizations in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Europe have “youth chapters” that organizes galas, dances, dinners, picnics and parties, places where young men and women of the same caste intermingle. “No one really talks about it like that, but of course we hope it will lead to marriages,” said Harish Dhayal, chairman of the Association of Jats of America. Others, such as the Mahers, a warrior caste from southern Gujarat, have set up a worldwide matrimonial portal for their community. “From conversations in forums online, I noticed that young people lead very busy lives and they don’t have the time to meet like-minded people in a traditional way. So, I decided to add a matrimonial option to the Maheronline website,” said Ram Odedra, a UK-based engineer, who had created the website as a university project. The website has around 4,000 profiles of Mahers, all of them looking to marry another Maher. His website also helpfully details the “who can marry whom” rules of the community, to ensure that Mahers do not inadvertently marry the wrong Maher sub-caste. There are many other communities like the Mahers —some set up community portals online, some print magazines, some print newspapers, some print directories and databases—and each word is a black thread stitching together a community diaspora, here and there, in India and the world. Candidly, community leaders admit that behind all the work is a hope, the hope that the community will live when children marry within its folds. This is the fourth of a five-part series on the changing role of caste in a globalized India. Next: A guide to the contemporary meanings of caste priyanka.p@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 10:15 am The Mint Report for 16 June 2010American mobile phone chipmaker Qualcomm is looking to strengthen its Indian presence. It’s in talks to sell a twenty six percent stake in its Indian subsidiary to a local partner. The Indian ownership will make the subsidiary eligible to apply for an Internet service provider license. ONGC’s overseas subsidiary may have struck less oil than previously thought. We’ve learnt that its biggest acquisition, the Russia-focused Imperial Energy, is expected to see a peak production that’s a little over half the original estimate. When it first made the deal, ONGC’s overseas unit OVL expected a peak production of eighty thousand barrels of oil a day. But a review meeting in March cut that estimate down to forty five thousand barrels by 2015. OVL completed its $2.1 billion acquisition of Imperial Energy back in 2009. Singapore has given Fortis Healthcare a deadline. Securities regulator SIC has given it until 30 July to decide if it wants to make a full offer for Parkway. Fortis currently owns about 25% of Parkway. But it’s also facing competition from Maylasian sovereign fund Khazanah, which recently made its own bid for the Singaporean company. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 10:08 am DrawBridge Illustration: Jayachandran / Mint Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 9:36 am The importance of risk for NasaLet me disclose my biases upfront: I did not dream of going into space as a child. I took it for granted. My father was a (genuine) rocket scientist, and I figured that just as aeroplanes had become commonplace over the course of his life, space travel would become commonplace over the course of mine. People first landed on the moon while I was a teenager, and I turned to other pursuits—journalism, the Internet, start-up companies. But decades later, I discovered space travel was still reserved for a small corps of astronauts and cosmonauts, and a tiny group of wealthy space tourists— six so far. The space business was the preserve of a few governments, plus a number of large cost-plus contractors who lived in symbiosis with their government customers. Then there was Space Adventures, the private firm that arranges space tourist trips with Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, for upwards of $35 million a flight. I invested in Space Adventures, and also in XCOR Aerospace, a rocket maker. As with the Internet, I could see the glimmer of energy that results when commercial start-ups invade a market dominated by large, established organizations. I wanted to know more about space travel (not about start-ups!) and figured six months of space training with Roscosmos, organized by Space Adventures, was the best way to get immersed. After I returned, I had the opportunity to join the Nasa Advisory Council, as chairman of its Technology and Innovation Committee. The council has recently been shaken up, with its membership reduced from 50 to 10 and each member’s role clarified. However, the council’s actual power is limited: Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Agency) is told what to do—and is financed to do it—by the US Congress. We can only advise on what Congress decrees and funds. This shake-up reflects a shake-up at Nasa itself, under the new administrator, Charlie Bolden, appointed by President Barack Obama. And it’s a huge opportunity for Nasa as well as for space exploration and science. Obama has proposed a new budget for Nasa that directs it to focus on longer-term goals, and adds $6 billion more over the next five years (at a time when almost every other agency faces budget cuts). Over the past four decades, Nasa has matured, which has made it so process-ridden and cautious—so responsible—that it has lost much of its energy and innovativeness. With almost every US election cycle, it endured funding cuts, reorientations, and the like. Then Nasa had two large and image-damaging space-shuttle accidents—the Challenger disaster of 1986, followed by the disintegration of the Columbia over Texas in 2003. These catastrophes stripped Nasa of its appetite for risk. The astronauts themselves were eager to return to space, but the bureaucrats were unwilling to send them. This is a persistent challenge for government agencies: They get hammered whenever something goes wrong. People are accustomed to the risks of driving cars or taking planes. But governments are not supposed to kill people. I’m not suggesting that private firms should be allowed to kill people, but they can take risks (with people who understand the risks they are taking), which governments cannot. Of course, they are also incentivized not to take risks; any start-up space company that carelessly kills someone will probably also kill itself. But the industry will survive and prosper. So what does the new Nasa budget do? And how is it relevant to other industries and other governments? The new budget does two things. First, it acknowledges that the so-called Constellation project, which was focused on returning to the moon, is behind schedule, over budgeted, and unambitious. So the budget cancels Constellation— though many of the specific projects and employees that comprised it will live on. The new budget will apply the freed-up funds and resources towards a still-to-be-defined programme aimed at going beyond the moon to asteroids, so-called “near-earth objects” and, eventually, Mars. Obama did not, however, define the goals tightly, leaving that to Nasa—a sensible and modest approach, but a political mistake. It is never a good idea to replace something with vagueness. Politicians and lobbyists who care only about this year’s jobs and next year’s votes jumped all over this lack of a plan. Their scorn has also extended to the second part of the budget, a programme that normally they would have liked: bringing back to the US jobs that currently go to Russians. For the budget proposes contracting with American start-ups to send astronauts and cargo to low-earth orbit—mostly to the International Space Station. For the next few years, Nasa will be buying those services from Roscosmos and sending astronauts up in Russian Soyuzes. But after that, under the new budget, they will be buying from the likes of start-ups SpaceX and Orbital Sciences (and eventually, I hope, XCOR). The government should focus on long-term, risky research (where the risk is to projects, not to people), and the private sector should focus on delivering services that are already well understood and ready to be handled in a routine way. The irony of US politics right now is that normally pro-business Republicans are those most hostile to Nasa’s new budget—which espouses the values of entrepreneurship and innovativeness that Republicans claim to hold dear. Nasa is a typical large organization. Most of its people would welcome a more entrepreneurial environment, but they have been beaten down by years of criticism, constraints, regulations and arbitrary budget cuts. As a system, Nasa is resistant to change, but inside there are thousands of people yearning to experiment and learn from successes and failures. They want the liberation of a grand challenge. They want to take risks with technology, not with people. Look around you. There are lots of organizations like that, waiting to be liberated, their employees yearning to breathe free. ©2010/PROJECT SYNDICATE Esther Dyson is chairman of EDventure Holdings and an active investor in a variety of start-ups around the world. Her interests include information technology, healthcare, and private aviation and space travel Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 9:31 am Game on: Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft wage warLos Angeles: Electronics hardware makers on Tuesday showed off snazzy new devices enabling motion-sensing play and 3D effects, intensifying a battle to introduce video-gaming to a new generation of casual users. Hot on the heels of Microsoft’s full-body motion-sensing Kinect, Japan’s Nintendo Co Ltd on Tuesday took the wraps off a new version of its DS handheld device that can play games and show movies in 3D without glasses. And Sony Corp introduced the “Move” — which like Nintendo’s popular Wii employs a wand-like controller to double as everything from a tennis racket to a baseball bat in games — and promised up to a score of 3D titles soon for its PlayStation 3 console. The launches and demonstrations from the triumvirate of gaming hardware makers at this week’s E3 expo in Los Angeles — the $60 billion industry’s most important annual showcase — set the stage for a pitched battle to bring players beyond the hard-core fanbase into the fold. Analysts said Microsoft made the biggest splash with a seemingly revolutionary platform that employs no controller, and a clear mandate to target casual players. And Nintendo’s move to add a third dimension to its market-leading DS mobile handled device will shore up its market position. The triumvirate that rules the market for gaming devices is stepping up their battle just as the industry is beginning to recover from a two-year slump. Analysts say laggard Sony, the erstwhile consumer electronics leader that has seen Nintendo surge ahead with the well-received Wii, has a potential winner in Move but that the jury was still out. Sony’s Move appeared to mimic a gaming system that Nintendo pioneered with the controller-operated Wii a couple years ago, but Sony argued the precision of its technology — which captures every twist and contortion of arm actions — and the ability to employ combinations of buttons will continue to please hard-core players. “It may well be more versatile than Kinect, but the challenge there is demoing it. Sony does have the biggest challenge ahead of them — they have the furthest to go,” said M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon. “It’s still possible that Sony could knock them off, but they didn’t make the case for doing that this year.” Pivotal Point US industry sales — hardware, software and accessories — are down more than 10% at $4.7 billion this year through April, according to research firm NPD Group. But new technology is expected to drive spending on games. PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates the overall games market — excluding hardware — climbing 6.5% annually on average to $20.7 billion in 2014, from $15.1 billion in 2009. “The success or failure of these technologies will determine the health and growth of our industry over the next three years,” said EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich. On Tuesday, the creator of Super Mario games and the Wii offered a peek at its 3DS. The device comes with two screens — one a touch screen — and three built-in cameras, enabling the machine to snap digital photos in 3D. Nintendo, which has seen growth in sales of its industry-leading Wii slow as rivals slash prices, did not say when sales begin or give a retail price, except that it will hit store shelves sometime before March 2011. Growing competition from Apple Inc’s iPhone, smartphones and social networks is also starting to pose a threat to Nintendo’s DS portable player, analysts said. Electronics makers have high hopes that growing interest in 3D — sparked in part by the sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar” — will power a new era of growth for an industry still recovering from the 2008-2009 downturn. “It looked good and seems promising. Its keeping Nintendo on their game and their game is really good. They own the handheld market. I think this isn’t going to concede this to anyone,” said M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon. Executives are pondering newfangled options for the 3DS. “We have not decided on a specific business model regarding 3D movies running on 3DS. However, for Nintendo and movie studios it can provide a unique business opportunity,” president Satoru Iwata said through a translator. “3DS is expecting to sell a lot in a relatively short time period after the launch, and it will be a unique machine.” The 3DS comes after Nintendo forecast a second straight year of smaller profits, as sales of Wiis slow. It rode strong demand for the Wii and DS to three straight years of record profits through March 2009, but growth slowed last year after Sony and Microsoft cut console prices. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime sought to refute the perception that sales were softening, and that the Wii has lost its luster as rival platforms gain momentum. Calling these notions “false perceptions,” Fils-Aime said more software was sold for the Wii in 43 months on the market than on any platform over the same time frame. We’re not alone Nintendo is not alone in taking the wraps off a hot new gizmo. On Monday, Microsoft said it will begin selling its “Kinect” motion-sensing game system on 4 November. Also on Tuesday, Sony announced that its Move motion-sensing platform — which will compete with the Wii and Kinect — will begin selling on 15 September in Europe, followed a few days later in the United States. And the consumer electronics giant is also making a huge bet on 3D gaming, as it is on making 3D-capable televisions. The company argues it is alone in offering an end-to-end 3D experience, from its televisions to specially designed content via its entertainment division. The company will have more than 20 3D titles available for the PlayStation 3, which has a base of some 35 million users, by March of 2011. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 7:25 am Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to delist shares from NYSENew York: Government-sponsored mortgage purchasers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plan to delist their shares from the New York Stock Exchange. The companies’ regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said Wednesday that it expects Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares to trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, an electronic quotation service. The move to delist the shares isn’t a surprise. The crash in the housing market has pounded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with heavy loan losses since 2007. Fannie shares have been below the $1 average price level for 30 trading days. NYSE rules require a company to take action to boost its shares or delist. The government took over the pair in September 2008 under the authority of a law passed by Congress. So far, taxpayers have poured $145 billion into Fannie and Freddie to keep them afloat and to buoy the overall housing market. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FHA and the Veterans Administration backed nearly 97 percent of home mortgages in the first quarter of this year, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance. Fannie and Freddie were created by Congress to buy mortgages from lenders and package them into bonds that are resold to investors. Together they own or guarantee almost 31 million home loans worth about $5.5 trillion. That’s about half of all mortgages. During the housing boom, the two loosened their lending standards for borrowers and are reeling from the housing bubble bust. Fannie Mae shares closed Tuesday at 92 cents, while Freddie Mac shares closed at $1.22. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 7:07 am Nokia cuts forecasts for key unit, shares plummetHelsinki: Shares in the world’s top mobile phone maker Nokia plunged nearly 11% Wednesday after it slashed its second-quarter and full-year forecasts for its key devices and services unit. “During the second quarter 2010, multiple factors are negatively impacting Nokia’s business to a greater extent than previously expected,” Nokia said in a statement, citing the competitive environment for expensive cellphones and shifts in product mix towards “somewhat lower gross margin” phones. Nokia said it expected sales in the devices and services unit to be “at the lower end of, or slightly below” the €6.7 billion ($8.2 billion) to €7.2 billion range it had previously given for the April-June period. It said the unit’s operating margin would also be at the lower end or slightly below the range of 9 to 12% previously given for the second quarter, and in the full year it would be at the lower end or below its previously given target of 11 to 13%. For the full year, Nokia said it expected its mobile device value market share to fall slightly from 2009. It had previously forecast a slight increase. Shares in Nokia were slammed on the news and by 1230 GMT traded 10.98 % lower at €7.06 on a Helsinki bourse down about 2%. The stock had already been shaken by market whispers of a profit warning that emerged last week. In June 2000, the shares hit an all-time-high of €65 in the midst of the dot.com bubble. Nokia is due to release its second quarter results on 22 July. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 6:39 am Apple, AT&T hit with glitches on new iPhone ordersSan Francisco: Apple and AT&T are facing two major problems taking orders for the newest iPhone model just a week before it hits stores: Buyers reported problems registering their orders and an apparent glitch in AT&T’s website was steering some customers into strangers’ accounts. Troubles in meeting demand for the iPhone aren’t new. But the latest apparent breach and other recent security foul-ups by AT&T could lead to identity theft — and have consequences for both companies. Critics and customers have called for Apple to allow other carriers to serve the iPhone in the US, and the latest problems offer another argument. The computer systems at Apple Inc., maker of the iPhone, or AT&T Inc., its exclusive US carrier, have had various problems every year since the first iPhone launched in 2007. Some customers who tried to buy an iPhone 4 on Tuesday said they were met with error messages on the company websites, and lines formed in stores as clerks tried to get orders into their systems. Japanese phone company Softbank started taking orders earlier in the day, and was also flooded with requests. Softbank spokesman Furuya Katsuhide said that the better-than-expected demand had stressed the company’s systems, which slowed both its website and the reservation process at stores. On Gizmodo.com, a technology website, several readers posted stories of trying to log into their AT&T accounts to upgrade to the newest iPhone and being sent instead into strangers’ accounts. That could set the stage for identity theft scams such as ordering other products under that person’s name. AT&T said it received reports of customers seeing the wrong account information but wasn’t able to replicate the problem and was investigating. But the company said the personal information users were seeing in one another’s accounts didn’t include Social Security numbers, credit card information and detailed call logs. Just last week, AT&T plugged an embarrassing security hole on its website that exposed the e-mail addresses of people who had bought another new Apple product, the iPad 3G. And in January, AT&T acknowledged to The Associated Press that a problem in its network was causing some wireless customers to land in strangers’ Facebook accounts when they tried to check their own accounts using their smart phones. AT&T said it was fixing that glitch. It doesn’t happen often, but the Internet can forget who is who when multiple people log onto a site at the same time. AT&T blamed a “misdirected cookie” for at least one of the problems in January. A cookie is a file websites place on users’ computers to identify them. If the Internet provider fumbles a cookie and sends it to the wrong computer, the person using that computer will see a Web page he or she wasn’t expecting. Apple representatives didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment late Tuesday. The iPhone 4 goes on sale 24 June starting at $199. It will feature a higher-resolution screen, longer battery life and thinner design than last year’s model. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 16 Jun 2010 | 5:38 am Jewellery exports up by 31.24%Gems and jewellery exports rose by 31.24% to USD 2.46 billion in May on the back of jump in shipments of cut and polished diamonds.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 16 Jun 2010 | 4:36 am
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