|
|
|
|
Tata Consultancy to double Latin America salesIndia\'s top software service exporter, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), sees Latin American sales more than doubling by 2015 as the company targets one of the world\'s fastest growing regions.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 4:32 am Allahabad Bank - India Infoline.com
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 4:05 am Need to revisit development plans in Maoist areas: PM - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 4:03 am Wipro - India Infoline.com
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:54 am Royalties, weak euro hit profits at India's Maruti - Reuters
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:40 am German 2010 GDP growth may be above 2 pct - EconMinBERLIN (Reuters) - The German economy will likely grow stronger in 2010 than the government had earlier expected, with GDP seen expanding by 2 percent or more, Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said in a magazine on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:36 am Sensex revisits 29-month high on FII's buying spree - Hindustan Times
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:27 am Maruti Suzuki Q1 net profit fallsMumbai: Maruti Suzuki, India’s top carmaker, reported a surprise 20% fall in net profit in the quarter to June, hit by high raw material costs, an increase in royalty payments, and a weakening of the euro which hurt export revenues. Maruti said net profit slid to Rs465 crore ($98.9 million) for its fiscal first quarter ended 30 June, from Rs584 crore a year earlier. Additional royalty payments to Suzuki Motor Corp, which holds a 54.2% stake in the company, totalled Rs189 crore. Added falls in “other” income, that made for a net negative impact of about Rs300 crore compared to a year earlier. A Reuters poll had forecast net profit at Rs704 crore for Maruti, which sells roughly half the cars in India but is facing intensifying competition from the likes of South Korea’s Hyundai Motors, the second-largest car maker in India, as well as domestic rivals. “This quarter seems to be a bottom for the company,” said Surjit Arora, auto analyst with Prabhudas Lilladher. “Going forward, we expect margins to improve from here on because sales are still strong. The extra-ordinary other expenses due to royalty payments will most likely not be there in future quarters, though currency fluctuations will have to be watched,” Arora said. The euro also depreciated about 6.5% against the rupee in the quarter, hitting exports which account for up to 15% of Maruti’s earnings. Other recent entrants into the local compact car market are also snapping at Maruti’s heels. Toyota has said it would treble sales next year, while Ford’s Figo, General Motors’ Chevrolet Beat minicar and Volkswagen’s Polo hatchbacks have met with a good response. Maruti shares, worth $8.3 billion, have fallen 13.2% this calendar year, lagging the sector index which has risen 13.4% and India’s main index, which has risen just under 4%. Maruti reached its production limit of 1 million cars in March this year, but is stretching its existing manufacturing capacities to make more cars to meet demand. It is expanding capacity to produce an additional 250,000 cars annually, but that will only be available in April 2012. In the June quarter it sold 283,324 cars, up about a fourth, from a year earlier. Foreign portfolio investments in Maruti have reached the maximum limit of 24%, another reason why the stock has been underperforming. Additional investments by foreign funds will require the company to raise the limit on such investments. Car sales in India have been on a roll, with industry-wide sales up by one-third to 554,566 units in the first quarter of the fiscal year that started in April. For the current fiscal year, car sales are seen rising 12-13%, according to industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:22 am Gold falls by Rs 75 on weak market - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:21 am Sensex revisits 29-month high on FII's buying spreeThe BSE benchmark-Sensex scaled to a 29-month closing peak during the week on rise in metal, capital goods, PSU and auto counters in view of announcement of good corporate results for the first quarter coupled with sustained FII's buying.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:20 am Gur chakku prices up on better offtakeGur chakku prices improved by Rs 50 per 100 kg in the national capital today on restricted supply amid better offtake.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:13 am PM seeks CMs nod for GST implementation - Indian Express
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:09 am Maruti Q1 net profit falls 20 pcThe country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India today reported a 20.25 per cent fall in its net profit for the quarter ended June 30 at Rs 465.36 crore.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:05 am India, EU in new bid to clinch free-trade dealNew Delhi: India and the European Union (EU) are to hold a fresh series of free-trade talks in August in Brussels in a bid to clinch a deal by the end of the year, an official said. Chief negotiators for India and its largest trading partner will meet at the European Union headquarters in Brussels in August as part of a push to conclude negotiations on the India-EU free-trade pact by December. “We hope we will keep that (December) date,” Daniele Smadja, the head of India’s delegation to the EU, said late Friday. “Concluding the FTA negotiations will send a clear signal of engagement on both sides. It would boost both trade and investment between EU and India. We need to seize the opportunity -- a one-in-a-lifetime for both of us.” As part of the drive to wrap up talks, the two sides will meet in Brussels in the last week of August, she said. Around the same time, Indian commerce minister Anand Sharma and the EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht will meet on the sidelines of an international meeting in Vietnam, she added. India and the 27-member EU have been negotiating the market-opening pact since June 2007 to boost bilateral commerce. But progress has been stymied by differences over intellectual property rights and efforts by Brussels to link trade with climate and India’s social sector performance in such areas as child labour. India has opposed incorporation of what it calls “extraneous” non-trade issues into the EU talks. Other issues include the seizure of Indian generic drugs meant for Third World countries as they pass through European ports. India claims developed countries are using the cover of a fight against counterfeit medicines to protect pharmaceutical giants and suppress legitimate generic drugs. So far nine rounds of free-trade negotiations have been completed. India’s trade volume of $80.6 billion with the EU accounts for 21% its exports and 16% of imports. The EU and India set an ambitious target of more than doubling their bilateral trade to $200 billion in the next four years if a free-trade deal is concluded. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:49 am Maruti Suzuki Q1 net profit fallsMUMBAI (Reuters) - Maruti Suzuki, India's top carmaker, reported on Saturday a fall in net profit in April-June, much below forecasts as high raw material costs crimped profits.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:36 am Power sector may turn unviable if losses not checked: PMNew Delhi: The power sector could trip the country’s growth story if states do not check the losses of power utilities that totaled a staggering Rs40,000 crore last fiscal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday . “The power sector is particularly important if we wish to achieve 9% growth...Total loss in 2009-10 is estimated at Rs40,000 crore...Unless corrected, it will make the whole power sector unviable,” Singh told a meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) in New Delhi. He attributed these losses to low levels of tariff for some categories of consumers and high technical and commercial losses. India has one of highest transmission and distribution losses in the world. It lost 30% of the total power produced (over 160,000 MW) in transmission and distribution, which in monetary terms is estimated at Rs45,000 crore for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2010. “I would therefore urge chief ministers to give this problem their personal attention,” Singh said at the meeting, attended by most of the CMs. The Prime Minister said since investment in generation and transmission depends upon the ability of the distribution companies to pay, these losses are simply not sustainable. He said corrective steps needed in this area lie entirely in the domain of the states. Against the target of 78,000 MW in the 11th five year plan period (2007-12), the mid-term appraisal of the plan suggests that the generation capacity in the 11th plan is likely to expand only by 62,000 to 64,000 MW. “Though short of the 11th plan target of 78,000 MW, it will be nevertheless three times the capacity that was added in the 10th plan,” the Prime Minister said. His economic advisory council had on Friday in fact ridiculed the shortage of expansion in power sector during the current plan period. “We would be lucky to get 62,000 MW by March 2012. This rests on large capacities being commissioned in 2010-11 and 2011-12,” says the economic outlook for 2010-11, released by the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:25 am Will stress test result impact Indian markets - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:24 am GM recalls models in China for repairsGM China, the Chinese subsidiary of the US automaker General Motors, is recalling a number of models sold in China due to faulty windshield wiper fluid systems that could lead to engine fires, says a media report.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:06 am Stock picking back in vogue as equity herd scattersLONDON (Reuters) - Equity investors will have to dig deeper to unearth stock winners instead of taking a broad-brush view by just picking sectors as the global economic recovery slows and the corporate earnings cycle matures.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:02 am Greece will get second EU/IMF aid tranche - FinMinATHENS (Reuters) - Greece will now get a second aid tranche of a European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout as it has met the conditions set in an austerity plan, its finance minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 1:50 am Gujarat home minister Amit Shah resignsNew Delhi: Facing charges of murder and arrest, Gujarat minister of state for home Amit Shah, a close associate of chief minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday resigned from the state ministry. “As I landed here in Delhi, I have information that Amit Shah’s resignation has reached my residence in Gandhinagar. On return, I will accept it and complete the formalities,” Modi, who is here to attend the National Development Council meeting, said. Asked by reporters whether the resignation amounted to accepting that Shah was guilty, Modi said, “He was accepting it because under the Constitution, certain formalities have to be fulfilled.” He said Shah would fight the issue legally and expressed confidence that judiciary would provide him justice. Shah’s resignation comes a day after CBI charged him with kidnapping and murder of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi in November 2005. Though, Shah has resigned still nothing was clear about his whereabouts. In Ahmedabad, officials in the chief minister’s office (CMO) said Shah’s resignation has been accepted by Modi. The CBI, which filed the chargesheet on Friday before a court in Ahmedabad, has already sent teams for arresting him after he refused to appear before an agency team by Friday’s 1 pm deadline for questioning. Shah had failed to appear before the CBI on Friday for questioning for the second time in two days following summons issued twice. His anticipatory bail plea shortly after he failed to appear was rejected by special CBI court judge GK Upadhaya. His lawyers were planning to approach the Gujarat high court. Attacking the Congress, Modi said, “The case against Shah was a revenge for its loss in the 2007 assembly polls when it had made Sohrabuddin a hero. This was a politically motivated action against Amit Shah and the BJP government in Gujarat to corner it and to put obstacles in development work it was carrying out.” He said, “Shah is completely innocent and the charges against him are fabricated. The CBI is being misused by the Congress against its political rival.” He said the BJP would go to the people along with those fighting the forces of terror. Modi said the Congress and Central government had completely “failed” in all fronts in facing the challenges of Kashmir, Maoists and problems from Pakistan. “The Congress government at the Centre was fully using the CBI to target political rivals after it failed on all fronts,” Modi said. He said, “The government failed on the prices issue and was faced with an unprecedented bandh. Srinagar is on fire and the government came back fully beaten at the Indo-Pak dialogue in Islamabad and the Maoists were replying by bullets in the fight in which innocent people were killed.” CBI has also sent teams to the office and residences of the senior BJP leader in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad and recorded statements of Shah’s staff but could not locate him. The probing agency tightened the noose around Shah, who has been named as an accused along with 14 others including some IPS officers in the chargesheet. Shah has been listed as accused number 13 and the chargesheet notes he has not been arrested. A CBI statement said the 15 accused were booked in the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and for brutally killing his wife. The CBI probe was spread over five states -- Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. About the summons to Shah, the statement said, “He did not appear and hence chargesheet was filed without his examination.” Besides the murder charge, the other charges against all the 15 accused included criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, kidnapping and abducting to murder, extortion and destruction of evidence under various IPC sections. The CBI is conducting a fresh probe into the 26 November 2005 encounter at the behest of the Supreme Court after questions were raised on the Gujarat police’s investigation. Sheikh, an alleged gangster, was killed in an alleged fake encounter by Gujarat police. The accused included IPS officers Abhay Chudasama, DB Vanzara, Dinesh MN and Rajkumar Pandian and eight other policemen. All of them are under arrest. “Yes, we have sent teams,” CBI sources said but avoided a direct reply when asked whether teams have been sent to arrest Shah. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2010 | 1:41 am PM maintains optimistic inflation forecastNew Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday reiterated his prediction headline inflation would ease to 6% by December, a forecast more optimistic than that delivered by his economic advisers a day before. The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council had said inflation would be at 7-8% by the year-end, compared with 10.55% in June, and its chairman recommended strong monetary action to tame runaway prices. Singh’s statement comes amid a growing divergence between the government and the central bank on the need for monetary tightening to cool inflation that has been in double digits for five straight months. New Delhi puts high food prices as the cause and argues normal monsoon rains would cool inflation, while the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) says demand-side factors will continue to keep up pressure on inflation. On Saturday, Singh backed his officials’ view. “The present high rate of inflation is mainly due to food price inflation,” he told a conference of top union and state policymakers gathered to assess the country’s development plans. “The government has taken a number of steps to curb inflation. With a normal monsoon, which is the expectation at present, the rate of inflation will abate in the second half of the year.” The RBI is widely expected to raise rates by 25 basis points for the fourth time since March when it reviews policy on Tuesday and many observers see the main lending rate rising to 6-6.25% by end-December from 5.50%. Singh also called for cutting subsidies and reducing losses at state-run firms to shore up public finances needed for development. “The financing of the plan expenditure has depended far too much on debt. That must change.” India plans to reduce its fiscal deficit to 4.1% of GDP by end-March 2013 from the projected 5.5% for this year and to cut its debt to GDP ratio to 68% by end-March 2015 from around 80%. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2010 | 1:33 am PM maintains optimistic inflation forecastNEW DELHI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday reiterated his prediction headline inflation would ease to 6 percent by December, a forecast more optimistic than that delivered by his economic advisers a day before.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:39 am Tata Consultancy to double Latin America salesTCS, which is owned by India's biggest industrial conglomerate, provides IT, consultancy and outsourcing services in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:21 am ANALYSIS - U.S. investors still cool on Euro banks after testNEW YORK (Reuters) - Valuations on Europe's banking sector may look cheap on paper but don't expect U.S.-based portfolio managers to scoop them up even after stress tests showed a vast majority have sufficient capital.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:01 am Wipro net rises 31% in Q1; finds strong demand across verticalsOvercoming macro-economic challenges,the impact of wage increases and lower price realisation, Wipro Ltd managed to post a 31 per cent increase (year-on-year) in the first quarter profit after tax at Rs 1,319 crore. Revenues for the quarter roseSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Strong monetary tightening needed to tame inflationAhead of the RBI's monetary policy review early next week, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) today called for strong monetary tightening steps from the central bank in the wake of headline inflation being double than theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Penny scrips get into stock-split modeEven as heavyweights such as Bhushan Steel, HDFC, MMTC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Lupin Ltd plan to split the face value of their stocks to make them more affordable for the investors, several companies whose shares are low priced or whoseSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am SBI raises $1 b through overseas bonds issueState Bank of India has raised $1 billion (around Rs 4,700 crore) through a five-year senior unsecured bond issue at a fixed coupon rate of 4.50 perSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Fed's balance sheet: More expansion in store?The latest data – employment, retail sales, housing starts and turnover in the housing market and consumer and business confidence – are uniformlySource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am India, Turkey dial up growth for VodafoneSmart phones in Europe, and growth in India and Turkey helped British telecom giant Vodafone post its first growth in service revenues in sixSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Growth target and stimulus withdrawal don’t square upPredictably, the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council has drawn up a rosy picture of the economy with growth raring to reach the nine per cent trajectory next year and fiscal consolidation to be on course so that the inflation demonSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Rangarajan panel sees surge in capital inflowsIndia should gear up to receive a veritable tsunami of capital inflows over the next two years, says the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory CouncilSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Special purpose vehicle planned for broadband pushIn a bid to boost broadband infrastructure, the Government is planning to form a Special Purpose Vehicle, to roll out 5 lakh route km of optical fibre network to connect all gram panchayats in theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Kharif sowing revives as monsoon gains strengthWith the monsoon gaining strength across the country, including in hitherto parched areas of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar, there has been a perceptible revival in sowing of most kharifSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am GLOBAL MARKETS WEEKAHEAD - Sweet Europe, sour America?LONDON (Reuters) - Investors are finding themselves with a new kind of balancing act -- one in which they have to juggle with three major regions posing three significantly different circumstances.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 11:59 pm Seven banks fail Europe test, credibility questionedLONDON/MADRID (Reuters) - Just seven European banks failed a health check and were ordered to raise their capital by 3.5 billion euros ($4.5 billion), much less than expected, confirming fears the continent's long-awaited stress test was too soft.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 11:55 pm Banking on monsoon, PM expects inflation to drop by December'With normal monsoon, which is the expectation at present, the rate of inflation in food prices will abate in the second half of the year,' he said.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 11:54 pm BP spill work on hold as storm enters GulfHOUSTON (Reuters) - The approach of a major storm on Saturday forced BP Plc to halt efforts to permanently plug its gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and the system could regain strength after it weakened on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 11:23 pm Tata Consultancy to double Latin America salesLIMA (Reuters) - India's top software service exporter, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), sees Latin American sales more than doubling by 2015 as the company targets one of the world's fastest growing regions.Source: Reuters: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 5:17 pm Rajaratnam assails wiretaps in signature US caseGalleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam is making an allout legal assault to get the first wiretaps used in a widespread probe of insider trading on Wall Street thrown out, but legal experts doubt the defendant will succeed.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 4:52 pm Bombardier wins $55m Delhi Metro car orderBombardier Inc won an order for 40 metro cars worth about USD 55 million from the Delhi Metro Rail Corp Ltd, the world\'s No. 1 train manufacturer said on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 4:39 pm Gas to fuel Reliance profit; subsidies dent ONGCReliance Industries should post a third straight rise in quarterly profit on higher gas output from its field off India\'s east coast and as refining margins show signs of recovery.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 4:39 pm HPCL extends Vizag refinery shutdownStaterun Hindustan Petroleum Corp plans to restart one of its crude units at its southern Indian refinery by midAugust, after a delay of a few weeks, leading to a cancellation of its latest crude tender, its head Arun Balakrishnan said on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 3:55 pm Allahabad Bank to raise Rs 2600cr in FY11Allahabad Bank plans to raise Rs 26 billion in FY11 and expects a 25% credit growth during the year, its Chairman and Managing Director said on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 3:45 pm ITC to invest $4.89 bn over next 710 yearsITC plans to invest Rs 230 billion rupees (USD 4.89 billion) over the next 710 years, of which Rs 90 billion would be in the hotels business, Chairman YC Deveshwar said in a statement on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 3:39 pm AERA to decide on single-till method by AugustThe Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) is expected to take a final view on whether to go ahead with the 'single-till' method to compute airport revenues by next month.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 3:29 pm IOC, BPCL, HPCL face Rs 13,400 crore revenue lossesNo intimation on April-June government subsidy yet, finance ministry may seek parliamentary approval only for the Rs14,000 crore cash compensation nowSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 3:28 pm Prime minister's economic panel doubts GST rollout by April '11The Council's Economic Outlook for 2010-11 has argued that GST implementation by April 2011 is a "formidable task."Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 3:25 pm Allahabad Bank's growth at 15% to Rs 347 croreOther income fell over 19% to Rs298 crore, primarily due a sharp drop of nearly 58% in treasury income to Rs90 crore.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 3:20 pm Your second house is deemed as let, even if notPresently, till your second house gets constructed, you are owning only one house as in respect of second house under construction, you have only booking right.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 3:14 pm EU stress test: Will banks maintain credibility?The results of the allimportant European bank stress tests will be announced later today. Ninety one banks have been tested for extreme potential capital scenarios. CNBC\'s Annette Weisbach reports on how concerned investors are with regard to the stress tests and specifically with regards to banks in Spain.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 3:04 pm Even survivors can require insuranceThe hospitalisation expenses can obviously be taken care of by the mediclaim policy bought by the insured, but in case of critical illnesses, the costs after hospitalisation could also be huge.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 2:54 pm What happens if the taxman finds undisclosed income?You'll have to pay the tax, a penalty of at least 100% of the tax, and interest for the delay. So check your return and be safeSource: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 2:53 pm CESC forays into solar powerThe proposed unit will be set up near Bikaner in Rajasthan and the work for the first phase will be starting within the next couple of months.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2010 | 2:51 pm Tackling inflation should be the immediate focus: PMEAC - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Jul 2010 | 1:58 pm ITC lines up Rs 23K cr investment plan - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Jul 2010 | 1:43 pm Vodafone boosted by smartphone popularityVodafone, the world\'s largest mobile phone network operator, on Friday confirmed its financial outlook for the year, helped by the growing popularity of services for mobile phones such as Apple\'s iPhone and strong demand in emerging markets such as India and Turkey.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 1:25 pm IBM, Tech Mahindra likely to bag Bharti Zain IT dealIBM and Tech Mahindra are likely to bag Bharti Zain IT sourcing deal, reports CNBCTV18 quoting sources. The total deal size is pegged at around Rs 4,500 crore.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 1:22 pm Point and shootThe Polo Grounds in Shillong, the capital of the north-eastern state of Meghalaya, are the scene for the daily game of teer. Archery is one of the most popular indigenous sports and large sums of money are bet on the flight of an arrow. Being such an integral part of the local culture, teer plays a principal role in festivals as well. Twice a day, 60 archers from the Khasi Hills assemble at the grounds in the centre of the town known as “the Scotland of the East” during the erstwhile British Raj. Each archer must belong to a club affiliated to the Khasi Hills Archery Sports Institute (KHASI) and arrows are differentiated by colour. Click here To view a slideshow on a popular sport in Meghalaya, archery, or ‘teer’ Also See Previous photo essays In a semi-circular concrete base and tin-roofed structure, participants gather to shoot at a cylindrical target of tightly woven bamboo matting—about 2ft in diameter—mounted on a metal spike about 25m away. Spectators and protagonists swathed in brightly coloured tartan shawls gather and sip steaming cups of tea while choosing from an array of home-made buns and cakes. Using rudimentary wooden bows and arrows and assuming a squatting position, the archers despatch their arrows towards the target in rapid succession, seemingly without aim. But things looks serious: The first round at 3.30pm is of 4 minutes. The second—an hour later—lasts 3 minutes. During this time the archers fire 30 arrows and 20 arrows, respectively. Thus the maximum number of arrows which can be shot are 1,800 and 1,200. In between rounds, archers amuse themselves and the audience by throwing large darts at a smaller, wine-bottle size bamboo target, and betting among themselves. Bets take place on the last two digits of each round’s tally, that is, as many arrows as are embedded in the target at the end of the time allotted. So if 876 arrows hit the target, the winning numbers are 6 and 76. As darkness falls, candles illuminate the fragile constructions serving as “on course” betting shops where winnings are collected. There are around 1,500 licensed teer counters in Meghalaya, and a few hundred illegal ones across the border in Assam and north Bengal. British photographer Findlay Kember has been living and working in Delhi for the last 10 years. He is a photo editor for Agence France-Presse (AFP). Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 1:13 pm Love’s StardustSource: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 1:05 pm Wipro offers restricted stock options to retain staffWith the attrition rate going up, Wipro has issued restricted stock options to senior staff with effect from July 1. About 8,000-9,000 employees are eligible for these options, the quantum of which will be decided based on the grade, seniority and performance of the employee concerned.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 12:59 pm Telecom service providers may face stiff financial penalty for spywareThe Union law ministry has suggested a penalty on telecom service providers (licensees) equivalent to 100 per cent of their contract value if any equipment bought and installed by them is found to have any spyware or malware.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 12:59 pm North Block reassures Mint RoadPrime minister helps rework June 18 ordinance on regulators committee.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 23 Jul 2010 | 12:57 pm Subroto Mukherjee | Consumers want healthier, fat-free, sugar-free treats, but rarely buy themBaskin-Robbins, the American ice cream brand, is celebrating its 65th year internationally. The Indian operations, which nearly folded up in 2000, are now 18 years old. Graviss Foods Pvt. Ltd, the master licensee for Baskin-Robbins in India, says it is now a Rs60 crore business, growing at 25%. The ice cream is available through 400 outlets in 93 cities. Subroto Mukherjee, chief operating officer at Graviss Foods, talks about Baskin-Robbins early years in India and its future plans. Edited excerpts: Baskin-Robbins was not doing well till some years ago. What has changed since? There was a very tough period and our survival in the market was a question mark. But it was in 2002 that we finally started turning things around. When we came to India in 1993, we were strictly governed by the way Baskin-Robbins International was doing business in their home market. We needed the original wallpapers and equipment. So the cost of investment was huge—close to Rs25 lakh per parlour. In the overseas market, they have large stores and don’t do anything under 250 sq. ft.  Mass appeal: Mukherjee says Baskin-Robbins has become affordable all of a sudden, with luxury brands entering the market and the purchasing power of consumers growing. Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint That’s when we said, this is not going to work. Real estate is very expensive in India, and the investment did not translate into returns. That’s when we came up with the concept of kiosks. We kept rationalizing the model till a franchisee could start a business with as little as Rs8 lakh. The moment you lower the threshold, more and more people try and get into it. We also started looking at other areas such as malls to increase our visibility. Today BR (Baskin-Robbins) is available through as many as 1,800 touch points in the country. We grow at about 25-30% year on year. Almost 65% of our business comes from the parlour business, and the food service and modern trade grow at a healthy 15-20% for us. What are your expansion plans? Parlours are the backbone of our business and will always be growth drivers. We opened 80 stores last year and aim to open 80 this year. If you look at the break-up, 60% of our stores are in the stand-alone category or on high streets. Nearly 40% are in malls with over 50% of those being small 100-125 sq. ft kiosk formats. In certain markets, where getting land is fraught with legal challenges, space constraints and steep rents, we are exploring the option of outdoor kiosks. A place like Park Street in Kolkata, for example, no matter how much you are willing to pay, you will not find a shop, or at Khan Market or Connaught Place in Delhi. How do you break into a place that is on a pagdi system? Which is where these outdoor kiosks come in. It’s a challenge as they have to be weather-proof and the standards have to be maintained, but that may be the way forward to penetrate challenging markets. We also control the Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) nations other than Pakistan. There is also going to be lots of investment in the food service, where you are part of a menu in a restaurant, catering and modern trade. But international ice cream brands such as Haagen Dazs are beginning to edge their way into five-star hotels. In food service accounts, we operate in two areas. We are part of the menu in restaurants where you may see some amount of branding. The other is catering, where we are invisible as a brand. Yes, international brands such as Haagen Dazs and London Dairy are coming in, but they are present only with a select product range. Plus their supplies are erratic. Our challenge will be to do a lot of innovative things with the food service accounts. How do you plan to grow the business locally? We are looking to create a mascot for BR. As a brand, we were the first ones to create the concept of tasting, which was built around the little pink spoon. We will create an avatar of that pink spoon which will be launched in a big way through our new website. There will be an offline launch of the mascot as well. We are also investing a lot of time and resources for developing new local flavours such as kulfi, which will be replicated internationally. We would do four to six new flavours every year and it takes time—close to three months—to get the formulations right. Also, flavour loyalty is a huge thing, so you can’t really play around with that, and your universe is restricted to those 31 displays. We also want to reach out to our consumers. So far, they have to come into our stores for ice cream, but we are looking to launch a standardized home delivery system. Right now, our stores in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi deliver products at the local level. The idea is to control this distribution centrally and give a stronger push. Hopefully, by the year-end, we should have a centralized unit, but need a certain bandwidth (number of stores) before we launch a robust system. Will BR address the new health- conscious consumer? In the next two months we will explore options such as a sugar-free range or a yogurt range. The paradox is that Indian consumers tend to want healthier, fat-free, sodium-free, sugar-free treats, but rarely end up buying them. In evolved markets like Mumbai and Delhi, we may offer products with lower fat and sugar content. But I’m not sure if this would be applicable in tier II and tier III cities, where ice cream is still an indulgence. Are you looking to notch up the brand experience through different formats? We are looking at launching large-format stores similar to BR cafes internationally. These are large-format 450-500 sq. ft flagship stores with lounge seating. These will offer hot beverages and savouries as well. We are hoping this will blunt the competition as Haagen Dazs is planning to have stores that size. Also, the idea is to make our cafes a destination where consumers come and spend time. Each of these will require an investment of Rs50 lakh to set up. We will look to launch three to four of these stores in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. How big is the industry in India and where does BR fit into all of this? If you scroll through the Internet, various industry estimates peg the organized ice cream segment in India at around Rs1,500 crore. BR would be at 4-5% of this market. The category is growing at 10-12% year-on-year and we have been growing at 25% a year. But the per capita consumption of ice cream in India, which has traditionally been minuscule, is growing. In the US, the per capita consumption figure is 24 litres per person a year. It is as low as 200 ml in India. The reduced entry point for your franchisee, critics say, has impacted the premium brand value of BR. Firstly, we never said that we are a premium brand. BR has always maintained that we are affordable premium. But somehow the pricing gives the perception that this is a premium brand. Brands like London Dairy, Ben and Jerry’s and Haagen Dazs have definitely helped us because they have come in at price points of Rs165, which I would call luxury. But yes, you would not see me selling lollies from a push cart at India Gate. I don’t want to be in the mass segment, I want to be a mass-tige brand where people can afford me and enjoy me. Now with all these brands in the luxury segment, and with consumer purchasing power increasing, all of a sudden we have become affordable to consumers. gouri.s@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 12:46 pm Yahoo-Bing alliance: It’s showtime, says Yahoo CTOBangalore: Exactly a year after the Yahoo-Microsoft search alliance was proposed, the Yahoo-Bing combo has begun unfolding integration results. The initial gains in search share in the US market, as shown by July data from comScore Inc. for both the parties, will further improve with time, says Yahoo. “It’s getting to be showtime,” says Raymie Stata, Yahoo Inc.’s chief technology officer (CTO). “The changes will be gradual; people will see improvements in products, though it’ll be hard to parse what is due to transition and what due to ongoing product innovation,” said Stata, currently in Bangalore. He has taken over at a time when critics see Yahoo as a company that’s not only losing market share and revenue, but moving away from technology to being a media company. Stata rebuts this: “I like to describe Yahoo, now, in the past, and the future as a technology company that runs a media business.” And even as comScore data for Asia Pacific in July says Google Inc. remains the favourite in the region, reaching 55% of the population, Stata is happy with Yahoo’s growing user base in Taiwan, Japan and Korea. Barely a month old in his new role, Stata may just as well spring some surprises as he sets about changing the historical CTO role in Yahoo, which also meant the head of engineering in the past. “It’s now going to be a functional role, a technologist should think about technology, not worry about administration.” Experts say Yahoo under-invested in technology infrastructure for a very long time, and accumulated a lot of “technical debt”. Because of this, it became very hard to bring any new consumer-facing product or feature to market, said Sharad Sharma, former chief executive, Yahoo India R&D, and present chairman of Nasscom Product Forum. “Ari Balogh (former CTO) started to fix this during Jerry Yang’s tenure. Carol Bartz (present chief executive) has kept that fix going. Sometime in late 2011, the new technology infrastructure will be in place.” This will allow Yahoo to innovate faster on the consumer side of its business, Sharma added. For now, all eyes are on the Bing-Yahoo changeover. With the transition, Stata says his company will be totally dependent on Microsoft Corp. for the sponsorship results for the advertising aspects of search, but on the technology front, this will allow it to focus on display advertising. The display ad business has been a sore point for the search company, especially as rates of cost per thousand impressions in the entire industry have been on a decline and Yahoo hasn’t figured out a way of dealing with it. Yahoo needs to come up with a plan quickly, says Sharma, though he thinks in the captive search query business alliance with Bing will keep Yahoo viable. Stata remains confident that the revamped Yahoo search, powered by Bing and its own new technologies, including “content optimization”, will create excitement for audiences. In the coming days, as it moves towards “the right media exchange”, content optimization—where instead of showing pre-programmed results, it creates a portfolio of potential results for different users with different combination of arts—is something Yahoo is focusing a lot more on. With no particular strategy on how much content it wants to generate, and how much it wants to aggregate from partners, Stata says Yahoo will keep its options open. Understandably, search and content remain high on Yahoo’s agenda, but it’s another technology space, cloud computing, where its competition is active. But Yahoo’s silence is conspicuous. In fact, Yahoo is seen as too cautious and risk averse. Stata thinks otherwise. According to Yahoo, its Hadoop project, an open-source software framework for handling large data sets in the enterprise segment, is a fairly big commitment. “Our cloud computing effort is for internal consumption, to make us more agile and operationally efficient. Through Hadoop, I would argue that Yahoo has a much bigger impact on enterprise large data computing than Google has,” said Stata. Still, experts say, public cloud initiative is necessary to grow an ecosystem of developers and companies around its platforms. “Even though its impact as argued may be more, monetizing open-source software is still tricky,” said Surya Mukherjee, lead analyst, technology and industry, at research firm Ovum. Yahoo recently announced that it will open up its Yahoo Messenger application programming interface (API). This is an entirely different direction from Google, which is slowly getting into deriving revenue from software licences and subscriptions. Perhaps Yahoo believes that open-source projects and APIs would encourage higher usage, attracting greater ad revenue, added Mukherjee. India remains pivotal in Yahoo’s engineering efforts, and for Stata the association goes back beyond Yahoo—the engineering team of Stata Lab, his email client start-up that Yahoo acquired in 2004, was based here. Today, significant work, in content and advertising, is done out of India, where 200 engineers have now been moved to Microsoft’s new development centre. As Yahoo transforms itself, using its “light weight” application development platforms, it thinks online media users will finally get some personalized experience. “Personalization has been a cliché for long, now it is a reality.” seema.s@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 12:16 pm Vodafone and Essar renegotiate put optionMumbai: Vodafone Plc and the Essar Group have renegotiated an agreement that gives the Indian group the option to sell either the entire 33% stake or a part of it in Vodafone Essar Ltd, India’s second largest telecom firm in revenues. The global telecom firm will pay Essar an additional Rs3,400 crore if it decides to exit the joint venture, but only if the outgo does not exceed $5 billion, thus capping Vodafone’s exposure. The put option held by Essar expires on 8 May 2011. Vodafone disclosed the new deal when it announced financial results in London for the quarter ended 30 June, during which its Indian operations had an operating cash profit for the first time. Vodafone attributed the new approach to “the upfront cost (Rs11,617 crore) of 3G licences.” Valuations in India have been under pressure ever since the entry of new players and aggressive bidding for 3G spectrum put a question mark on the profitability of telecom firms. Spokespersons for Essar Group and Vodafone Essar declined to comment. “If you look at the current market valuation of telecom stocks, this appears to be a win-win situation for Essar because they are guaranteed $5 billion irrespective of market valuation,” said an analyst with a Mumbai-based brokerage. “If and when the sector gets better valuations, Essar has the option of selling the residual (shares over an above what is valued at$5 billion) in the open market.” The analyst did not want to be identified as his firm did not have much information on the new payout cap. Vodafone, on 31 March, had written off Rs15,157 crore in the value of its Indian operations, citing “sharp drop in call rates and intense competition.” Vodafone entered India in 2007 by acquiring 67% of Hutchison Essar for $10 billion. “Service revenue grew by 13.7%, including a 1.5 percentage point benefit from Indus Towers, representing an improvement on the previous quarter,” a Vodafone statement on Friday noted. “Growth was driven by an increase in the customer base, with net additions for the quarter of 8.2 million, and increased usage per customer partially offset by ongoing competitive pressure on mobile voice pricing.” Like Idea Cellular Ltd, which announced its results on Thursday, Vodafone also reported an increase in minutes of usage by customers. “The strong volume (minutes of usage) growth reported by both Idea Cellular and Vodafone points to the trend of incumbent operators re-capturing the competitive advantage from new operators,” said Piyush Choudhary, telecom sector analyst with Mumbai-based brokerage Indiabulls Securities Ltd. Slower growth in European markets means Vodafone has to depend on emerging markets such as India to drive its overall growth. “The challenge for Vodafone is in Europe,” said Emeka Obiodu, senior analyst at London-based technology and telecom consultancy Ovum. “Vodafone’s key strategic agenda should be to nurture their European business back to growth before growth in their Indian operation inevitably stalls.” lison.j@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 12:14 pm The Lounge ShowOn this week’s show, Sanjukta Sharma reviews Priyadarshan’s latest film Khatta Meetha, we take a look at the Delhi Couture Week and how Blues band Soulmate is making waves across the country and Krish Raghav reviews an old favorite of gamers in its new avatar. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 12:13 pm Quick Edit | Computing hopesThey all start out with a bang. But they can end with a whimper. The much-touted idea to deliver low-cost technology suffers one problem: It’s usually tailored to meet its founders’ hopes, not its beneficiaries’ needs. That’s the post-mortem on the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project that started in 2005. Westerners behind the $100 (Rs4,700 today) machine were gung-ho. But in Africa and South America, kids saw it more as a toy. Teachers weren’t trained to use it. The institutions and infrastructure required just weren’t there. We wonder if the same fate will befall the $35 computer the Union government launched on Thursday. India, intent on this idea, rejected OLPC’s offer last year to build an even cheaper laptop. This country has flirted with this idea before (take the “Simputer” a decade ago), but it hasn’t taken off. Now, our latest innovation promises, for instance, to bring Wi-Fi connectivity to students. But do our schools and colleges even have Wi-Fi facilities? Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 11:47 am ED finds Fema violations by Rajasthan RoyalsMumbai: The enforcement directorate (ED) has finalized its investigation report on Jaipur IPL Cricket Pvt. Ltd, owner of the Rajasthan Royals Twenty20 cricket team, and is in the process of issuing a show-cause notice to the firm for alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema), according to two people familiar with the development. A show-cause notice is not an indictment. It only requires the company, and a few related entities in this case, to explain their side of the story. Jaipur IPL has been under the scanner of multiple investigating agencies such as the income-tax department, ED and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for alleged violations of Fema as well as foreign direct investment and income-tax norms. According to the investigating agencies, Jaipur IPL has received money from overseas in violation of Fema norms. ED has found that Jaipur IPL was formed in March 2008, but the initial payment to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was made by Manoj Badale, through his personal account, on behalf of the consortium of investors led by Emerging Media (IPL) Ltd. Badale is a director for the UK-based Emerging Media (IPL). Under Fema, a non-resident Indian (NRI) can remit money to a company against shares through normal banking channels. In this case, the company did not exist when the money was remitted to India. In response to an email sent to Badale, chairman of Jaipur IPL, a Rajasthan Royals spokesperson denied any violation of Fema norms and said the firm had always taken professional advice on its corporate set-up and foreign exchange transfers. “Neither we nor our professional advisers are aware of any violation, although the rules around this are quite complex. There was some issue about the initial deposit required to participate in the auction process back in 2007. Any bidder...needed to make a deposit with BCCI within a given time period, which was only days after the tender documents and clarifications were published,” the spokesperson said. “As we did not have an Indian entity incorporated at the time (as we did not know if we would win or not), we transferred our money from our overseas account directly to BCCI. As we were successful, these were retained by BCCI,” he added. Declining to comment on the likely response to any show-cause notice that may be issued, the spokesperson said an official communication had been received from ED on 16 June and it is “confident that there have been no such violations and this is pure speculation”. “As we have (done) with all government agencies already, we will cooperate with the ED fully. Last month, we have met with the ED to assist them with their enquiries,” he said. According to the spokesperson, Jaipur IPL, formed to run and operate Rajasthan Royals, is fully owned by EM Sporting Holdings, Mauritius. “The corporate structure was established in accordance with the details provided in the bid submission shortly after the bid. It was not established prior to the bid, as we obviously did not know if the bid would be successful. Moreover, the time allotted between the invitation to tender (27 December 2007) and the bid submission date (23 January 2008) would not have allowed sufficient time to incorporate the intended structure with an Indian entity,” the spokesperson said. According to the email, the investors agreed to submit the bid using a consortium, led by Emerging Media (IPL) at that time. The other entities in the consortium were disclosed in the bid submission documents. “Subsequently, on 8 March 2008, an Indian company Jaipur IPL was incorporated, as detailed in the bid submission. We then executed the franchise agreement on 14 April 2008. The ownership of the consortium did not change between the award of the bid on 23 January 2008 and the signing of the franchise agreement on 14 April 2008,” the spokesperson said. The consortium acquired the team franchise for $67 million (Rs315 crore today), the lowest bid for an Indian Premier League (IPL) team. Early in 2009, Jaipur IPL sold an 11% stake to London-based entrepreneur Raj Kundra and actor Shilpa Shetty in a deal that valued the franchise at $140 million. According to agencies probing the alleged violations, during this deal, Jaipur IPL did not comply with RBI guidelines on the transfer of shares to persons living overseas. Under Fema norms, the shares of an unlisted firm should be fairly valued by a chartered accountant. Jaipur IPL declined to comment on the matter saying they “do not comment on matters regarding the valuation” of the franchise, but clarified that it had “obtained approval” for the sale. As a part of investigations, ED recorded the statement of BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan earlier this month and also asked the board to submit documents related to IPL. Srinivasan said BCCI has been cooperating with all the investigating agencies. “Whatever they wanted, we have given to them and if there is something in balance, we are in the process of getting it together (for them). I’ve given my statement to them, I cannot comment more on the questions they asked and what I said, as the matter is still being investigated,” he said. khushboo.n@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 11:46 am Priyanka Vadra, Nita Ambani likely brand ambassadorsNew Delhi: A member of India’s pre-eminent political family and the wife of India’s richest man and a businesswoman in her own right will join two high-powered woman politicians as the new brand ambassadors of the adult literacy programme if the human resource development ministry puts its plan into action. According to the blueprint prepared by the ministry earlier this week, Priyanka Vadra, daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi; Nita Ambani, wife of Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani and co-owner of Mumbai Indians; Supriya Sule, member of Parliament (MP) and daughter of agriculture minister Sharad Pawar; and M. Kanimozhi, MP and daughter of Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi; will be approached for key roles in “Saakshar Bharat”, which will have a specific focus on women. All of them said they have not been approached directly so far.  Icons: (clockwise from top left) Priyanka Vadra, Nita Ambani, M. Kanimozhi and Supriya Sule may be roped in for Saakshar Bharat. The plan reviewed by Mint says they would be requested to campaign for the mission, which was launched in September by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The names of the mission’s ambassadors are likely to be announced on 8 September, International Literacy Day. Saakshar Bharat, aims to make 70 million adults (60 million being women) literate in three years and will be implemented in 365 of the country’s 619 districts. While India’s average overall literacy rate is 65.3%, for females it’s 54.28%. In the targeted districts, female literacy is less than 50%. The scheme has already been rolled out in 167 districts in the first week of April and is expected to cost Rs6,000 crore. Admitting that she hadn’t been informed yet about the ministry’s plan, Sule, an MP from Madha, Maharashtra, said: “I am willing to take up the job. Education is close to my heart and if I can bring some positive change to the adult literacy mission of the country, then I am open to it. It will be a satisfying job.” While Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP, said she would respond when an official request is made, Vadra’s office said it did not have any intimation either. Nita Ambani’s office declined to comment. However, the ministry appears to be optimistic. “We have zeroed in on these icons because we believe that this scheme will be successful if individuals who have sufficiently high profile as well as are committed to the cause are nominated as Saakshar ambassadors,” said a senior ministry official requesting anonymity. The official also said that the ministry wants Ambani and Vadra to be ambassadors at the national level, others will be approached to be goodwill ambassadors at the state level. Some sports personalities will also be roped in later. They will be expected to pro-actively participate in mass mobilization, undertake visits to some villages to influence teachers and learners, and help motivate private firms to contribute to the programme under their corporate social responsibility schemes. The ministry note points out that Ambani can be “very effective in promoting the private sector initiative and mobilization of resources” for the adult literacy mission. “Priyanka (Vadra) is a trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (a not-for-profit organization) and has a mass appeal. She is a symbol of empowered women, but we have to ascertain her interest in accepting the offer. We hope she says yes to the cause of education,” said the official. prashant. n@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 11:45 am Wipro posts 31% jump in profit, lags peers in volume growthBangalore: India’s third largest information technology firm, Wipro Ltd, posted a robust 31% jump in first-quarter profit to Rs1,319 crore on improved business, beating estimates, but volume growth has lagged its larger peers Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and Infosys Technologies Ltd. Wipro, which won 22 customers in the April-June quarter, saw its business volume—a measure of how information technology (IT) firms are winning orders—grow by 4.7% over the preceding three months, against TCS’ 8.1% and Infosys’ 7.6%. But Wipro, announcing its results on Friday, forecast that its core IT services revenue would grow sequentially by 4.1-6.1% in the second quarter to $1.25-1.27 billion (Rs5,875-5,969 crore). The outlook, brokerage CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets wrote in a note to clients, “makes amends, and indicates that demand is firmly on an uptrend”. Wipro sees growth coming from all regions in the next few quarters, including from the sovereign debt crisis-hit Europe, where business had slowed in the latest quarter. “We are seeing traction, decision-making has increased, and there are reasonably good indicators. Discretionary spending is back,” said chairman Azim Premji. Wipro’s “not having any means of concerns. In fact, customers who were asking for price discounts are the one who are giving price increases.” Wipro’s stock was up when the exchanges opened on Friday—the results came in pre-market—but ended slightly lower at Rs412.10 on the Bombay Stock Exchange in a flat overall market. One analyst with a foreign brokerage said the response of investors to Wipro’s results was muted as the firm has been outperformed by its peers. “They have challenges to address, particularly in checking attrition,” said the analyst, who did not want to be named. Premji said that as demand picked up from customers across verticals, the firm added the highest number of billable employees ever in a quarter. Wipro’s attrition in the April-June period increased to 23%, from 8.4% a year ago and 17% in the previous quarter. On 1 July, it promoted 20,000 people in the three to seven year bracket with hikes, and offered shares to some employees to retain them. The firm has also added 4,854 employees, net, to take its total staff strength to 112,925. “Overall demand for IT skills has gone up with a rebound in the economy and uptake in technology spending,” said chief financial officer Suresh Senapaty. “The attrition has gone up also due to many employees leaving for higher studies or business schools.” Indian IT firms are benefiting from an increasing number of orders from US clients as they outsource more to cut costs and stabilise their businesses. Wipro said as demand picks up, it wants to replicate a business strategy of system integration and transformation deals it seeded globally during the downturn of 2008-09. Last year, Wipro won customers such as Unitech Wireless Ltd and British food retailer Morrisons for such contracts. “We want to do exactly (the same) across other sectors, banking and energy. There is change happening across all industries, customers are looking at re-engineering either for cost or their business models for future growth,” joint chief executive Suresh Vaswani said in an interview after the results. The focus on more such deals is also due to the increase in competition for commodity services such as application, development and maintenance. Wipro’s revenue for the first quarter grew 16% to Rs7,236 crore over the year-before period. A Mint analysis of forecasts by 10 brokerages had showed Wipro’s average profit at Rs1,210 crore on a revenue of Rs7,182 crore. Infosys last week raised its revenue outlook and increased its hiring plans to 36,000 people for this year. It forecast an annual revenue growth of 16.3-18.2% for this year, up from its earlier projection of a 9-11% rise. TCS is looking to hire 40,000 people this year. raghu.k@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 11:02 am The Week in Review for 23 July 2010The terms for the goods and service tax (GST) could get diluted. On Wednesday, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed a new structure for the tax that includes major concessions for the states. The concessions include imposing different tax slabs that don’t include petroleum products, alcohol, electricity, and real estate. Under Mukherjee’s proposal, starting next fiscal, there’ll be a 20% tax on goods, a 12% tax for so-called mass items, and a 16% tax on services. Those rates will then start merging until they reach a uniform 16% in three years. The GST aims to replace several indirect taxes and create a common market across the country. It’s scheduled to be rolled out on 1 April 2011. And while the Centre may have made many concessions to states on GST, it’s looking to take control of key aspects of the tax. The draft constitutional amendment proposes to give the Centre veto powers over rates. On the flipside, the Centre will not be able to change GST rates by itself. Another major government’s proposal this week could make acquisitions more expensive for Indian companies. On Monday, markets regulator Sebi suggested an overhaul of takeover regulations that will make life easier for incumbents and harder for corporate raiders. As per the proposed changes, the threshold for open offers will go from 15% to 25%. But once a company crosses that mark it will also have to make an open offer to buy 100% of the company’s shares. Under existing rules, buyers only need to make open offers for 20% after acquiring a 15% stake. Some of India’s most important banks announced their quarterly numbers during the week. HDFC Bank met analysts expectations with its net profit shooting up almost 33.9% to Rs812 crore in the quarter ending June. Net interest income rose 29.4% to Rs2,401 crore. On Wednesday, Yes Bank announced a 56% increase in net profit to Rs156 crore. Its net interest income climbed 67% to reach Rs262 crore. Its numbers were driven by strong credit growth that came largely from 3G auction payments. A new study said the proposed aforestation programme could help suck up more greenhouse gases than previously thought. The report from the Indian Institute of Science says the scheme could offset 10.5% of projected emissions. That’s compared to an environment ministry estimate of 6.4%. The proposed Green India Mission plans to restore and add ten million hectares of forests over the next ten years. A train accident in West Bengal on Monday morning left over 60 passengers dead. The deadly mishap occurred when an express train rammed into the rear of a waiting train at the Sainthia station. Over 150 other passengers were wounded. The Andhra Pradesh high court has granted bail to five of the accused in the Satyam accounting fraud case. Those out of prison include the company’s former MD, B. Rama Raju. Not given bail is his brother and Satyam founder B. Ramalinga Raju. On Friday, the prime minister’s chief economic advisor, C. Rangarajan said inflation was currently the biggest threat to India’s economic growth. Rangarajan also said monetary policy had to be tightened. Ratan Tata is all set to lead a new joint venture to assemble helicopters in India. The head of the Tata group will take over as chairman of Indian Rotorcraft. Tata Sons owns 74% stake of the company and AgustaWestland the remaining 26%. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 10:54 am ITC sees expansion in hotels, consumer goodsKolkata: Addressing shareholders at ITC Ltd’s annual general meeting (AGM), chairman Y.C. Deveshwar said on Friday he saw opportunity for his company to invest as much as Rs23,000 crore over the next 7-10 years to expand the hotels, consumer goods, and paper and paperboards businesses.  Ambitious plans: ITC chairman Y.C. Deveshwar at the press conference. Indranil Bhoumik / Mint “We are investing all the time to build capabilities for tomorrow,” Deveshwar later said at a press conference. “Whether we are able to invest this amount of money depends on our ability.” He said there was scope to invest Rs9,000 crore in the hotels business, Rs8,000 crore in the consumer goods business, and Rs6,000 crore in the paper and paperboards businesses. “I wish these investments happened in five years,” Deveshwar added. In fiscal 2010, the combined revenue of these businesses was at Rs7,600 crore, which was 36.5% of ITC’s net turnover. Following the announcement, the company’s shares gained Rs3.10, or 1%, to close at Rs300.70 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange, while the bourse’s benchmark Sensex index closed 17.83 points, or 0.1%, higher at 18,130.98. ITC could build three hotels in Mumbai, four-five hotels in Delhi and adjoining areas “if it had the land”, Deveshwar said, adding, “What is standing in the way of India’s development is land.” Deveshwar is a director of HT Media Ltd, which publishes Mint. Despite difficulties in securing land, the company is pursuing possibilities of building hotels in Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Goa. Two hotels are currently under construction at Chennai and Kolkata. ITC has been focusing on “super luxury” properties when it comes to investing in physical assets, according to Deveshwar. It would, at the same time, expand in the five-star and budget hotel segments as well. Over 100 hotels at 80 locations in India are currently managed or owned by ITC. “At conservative estimates, India needs 50,000 rooms in the next two-three years,” Deveshwar said at the AGM. Asked if ITC was looking to take its hotels business abroad, Deveshwar said he would prefer to invest in India because the country’s economy was growing faster than most parts of the world. “There’s huge opportunity within the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) space,” Deveshwar said, adding that the sector is expected to “triple in size” to Rs3.55 trillion by 2018. ITC’s non-cigarette consumer goods business is still not profitable—in the quarter till June, it posted a loss of Rs89.25 crore—but the food business, which contributed at least half of the segment’s Rs3,634 crore revenue in fiscal 2010, was expected to turn profitable this year, Deveshwar said. “India’s consumption of paper, paperboards and packaging (materials) is one of the lowest in the world,” Deveshwar told shareholders. “With the spread of education and economic growth, demand is expected to grow manifold.” Asked if the company was looking to enter new business segments, Deveshwar said there were no immediate plans of doing so, but healthcare could be considered at a later stage because “running hospitals and running hotels are kind of similar”. aniek.p@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 10:47 am India, Myanmar pacts against crime, restoration of medieval Buddhist templeNew Delhi: India and Myanmar are likely to sign a clutch of pacts during senior general Than Shwe’s five-day state visit to India starting Sunday, a government official said. The two countries are expected to ink a treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters—key to combating transnational organised crime, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and smuggling of arms and explosives. Another accord initialled will see the Archeological Survey of India being tasked with restoration of the famous Ananda Temple in Bagan. The medieval Buddhist temple in central Myanmar is one of the major tourist attractions in the country. The nations will also sign an agreement on small development projects that provide Indian funding for village and town peoples’ uplift programmes and another on science and technology cooperation, the official said on condition of anonymity. The accords reflect the strong ties between New Delhi and Myanmar’s ruling junta. Once a staunch backer of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, New Delhi switched tracks when it realised it needed Myanmar’s help to crack down on northeast insurgents, who were using Myanmar as a base for anti-India operations. An increasing Chinese presence has also played its part in India adopting a pragmatic approach as have discoveries of huge natural gas deposits that New Delhi wants to exploit to fuel its economic growth. Than Shwe’s visit also comes before Myanmar holds its first polls in 20 years, scheduled later this year. This week, the Association of Southeast Nations grouping, in an unusual step, demanded the ruling junta hold free, fair and inclusive elections at its meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam. Such straight talk is rare from the 10-member bloc, of which Myanmar is part, given its policy of not interfering in one another’s domestic affairs. elizabeth.r@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 10:26 am The bubble in the Chinese real estate marketThat housing booms can soon develop into bubbles and become a source of great risk to the economy has been amply proved by the financial crisis. Everybody knows that the crisis started with a housing boom in the US. The Chinese government certainly believes that a similar bubble has developed in its country, which is why it has cracked down hard on its real estate sector. But how big is this bubble? How far have real estate prices gone up in China? These are the questions addressed by Jing Wu, Yongheng Deng and Joseph Gyourko. Here are a few startling facts the researchers have unearthed. Land values, adjusted for inflation and differences in quality, have shot up by nearly 800% since the first quarter of 2003, with half that rise occurring over the past two years. House prices, after adjusting for inflation, have increased by 225% in 35 main Chinese cities, with 60% of that, or 140 percentage points, being the increase since the first quarter of 2007. What’s more, prices have increased 41% (annualized) this year. It’s no surprise then that the Chinese government is so concerned about overheating in real estate. The authors say that the rise in home prices has, however, been less than the rise in income in cities such as Chengdu, Tianjin, Wuhan and Xian. But prices in the coastal markets and in Beijing have outpaced even the high income growth enjoyed in those places. Price to income ratios have reached their highest levels ever in Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Price to rent ratios, too, have risen sharply in many cities, with the ratio rising by almost 75% in the last three years in Beijing. Prices have risen faster than rents in all major cities and the ratio is a very high 45.9 in Beijing. The reason for such a skewed ratio is that home buyers are assuming large capital gains on their purchases. But there’s also a constant flow of migrants from the countryside to the cities, so perhaps there’s a case for assuming that demand for housing is more than the supply of new land. The researchers says that in five of the eight largest Chinese cities, “the net new number of housing units provided since 1999 is at least as large as the net increase in the number of households.” But demand exceeds supply in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shenzhen. Even so, say the authors, while upward pressure on prices is to be expected in those places, the demand-supply mismatch cannot account for the dramatic rise in home prices. Consider also the impact that this real estate bubble could have on the banking sector. From the end of 2008, outstanding loans on residential mortgages have increased by 38% and loans to real estate developers by 50%. While Chinese house owners have higher levels of their own money in their homes than Americans, the fact remains that “even modest declines in expected appreciation would lead to large price declines of over 40% in markets such as Beijing.” And lastly, think about how important the housing market is for China’s economy. The construction industry accounts for “5.7% of Chinese GDP; it employs 14.3% of all workers in urban areas; and it consumes about 40% of all steel and lumber produced in China.” How China manages to deflate its real estate bubble will have significant implications for commodity prices and growth not only in China, but also in the rest of the world. Write to simplyeconomics@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 8:47 am Markets rise to 2-1/2 yr high; up for 3rd weekMumbai: Indian shares logged thirdstraight weekly gain and touched a 29-month high on Friday, as robust US earnings sent the regional markets higher, but closed off highs on caution ahead of European banks’ stress test results. Third-largest outsourcer Wipro rose as much as 4.2% as it posted a forecast-beating, 31-percent rise in quarterly profit and said it was seeing strong business environment, pulling up sectoral stocks early. But, profit sales dragged down shares which closed 0.8% lower at Rs412.10, preventing the stock from breaching Rs451.80, its highest level in a decade according to data from Thomson Reuters. Wipro’s upbeat results had pushed the sector leader Tata Consultancy Services to a record high of Rs850 in the day. TCS closed 0.5% lower at Rs838.50 while Infosys Technologies firmed 0.9%. The 30-share BSE index rose for the third day and closed 0.1% or 17.83 points higher at 18,130.98 -- after hitting 18,237.56 -- its highest level since February 2008. In the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers in a ratio of 1.5:1 in a relatively better volume of 453 million shares. The benchmark gained nearly 1% for the week. Fourteen of its components advanced. It is up 3.8% so far in 2010, as foreign funds invested a net of $8.8 billion into Indian equities. In 2009, they had bought a record $17.5 billion of stocks and helped power an 81% rally. For the year to date, the BSE index has outperformed MSCI’s broader index for Asian markets ex-Japan and emerging markets index .MSCIEF which have declined 4.4% and 1.6% respectively. “Profit booking cannot be ruled out at these levels. Trade next week is likely to be volatile as we have a number of events scheduled,” said R.K. Gupta, managing director of Taurus Mutual Fund. Gupta was referring to Reserve Bank of India’s quarterly monetary policy review on Tuesday, expiry of monthly derivatives contracts on the National Stock Exchange on Thursday and a slew of key corporate earnings. For the week to July 21, Emerging Market Equity funds took in more than $800 million for a second week in a row, GEM Equity Funds absorbed $796 million, data from fund tracker Global showed. The 50-share NSE index , or Nifty, rose 0.1% to 5,449.10 points. At 3:49pm the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.1% in cautious trade. Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO) rose 3.9% on expectations the top mobile operator may post better-than-expected results for the June quarter, dealers said. Financials closed mixed. A top Indian government adviser called for strong monetary policy action to combat high inflation, days before the central bank is set to raise rates for the fourth time this year. Top lender State Bank of India rose as much as 1.1% to a record high of 2,504 rupees. Rival ICICI Bank edged 0.3% higher. Private sector lender HDFC Bank and mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp shed 0.8% percent each. Top-listed biotechnology firm Biocon shed 3.2% after it reported a lower-than-expected 33% rise in quarterly net profit. Cigarette-to-hotel group ITC added 1% after rising 1.6% on Thursday following a 22-percent rise in quarterly net profit. STOCKS Bharat Heavy Electricals rose 1.7% to Rs2,460.45 as the top power and engineering equipment firm posted a forecast-beating 42% rise in its June quarter net profit. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories shed 1.1% to Rs1,364.90, extending losses after the drugmaker said on Thursday consolidated quarterly profit fell a more-than-expected 14.3% following a drop in sales in its key US market. State-run Uco Bank jumped as much as 7.4% to a record high of Rs92.80 as it said is April-June net profit rose 45%. State-run lender Allahabad Bank rose as much as 5.5% to an all-time high of Rs187.95 after it said its June quarter net profit rose 15%. The stock closed 3.9% higher at Rs185.15. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2010 | 6:18 am
|
