Business Ideas
Corruption is rampant in the Indian corporate sector and those at the top indulge the most in it, a majority of private employees surveyed have said.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna today said the government would go by the home ministry’s guidelines on the new visa rules and said differences over such issues should not be discussed in public.
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will sell part of fund management assets to Aberdeen Asset Management Plc for an estimated 84.7 million pounds.
Car maker Toyota Kirloskar Motor today said it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the country"s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), for vehicle finance.
A sell-off in global stocks and disappointing earnings numbers from a few big corporates pulled down the key indices during four out of five trading sessions in the week. The BSE Sensex fell below the 17,000 mark and ended the week down 695 points or 4 per cent to 16,860.
Is the Doha Development Round (DDR) dead, as the anti-globalisation activists claim? Not yet, said trade ministers of the 153 member-countries of the Word Trade Organisation at the seventh Ministerial Conference at Geneva last week. They ended the Conference with a general agreement to recommence the stalled negotiations of the DDR and take it to conclusion by the end of next year. Even such broad agreement was in sharp contrast to the acrimony and bitterness that characterised the earlier failed trade talks at Cancun and Hong Kong.
As with all the bad news from Iraq and Af-Pak, sooner or later the bad news on the climate acquires a stultifying sameness. Only when a surge is in sight — troop surge, storm surge — does one’s news radar jolt awake momentarily. The cause of this deadened state is not an unassimilable surfeit of information, rather, it is a shortage of the right sort of information. Despite the barrage of news and opinion, we don’t know enough to figure out what the right questions are. Without that foundation, our knowledge rests on a bog, into which it is liable to settle with a gentle burp or two of greenhouse gas (or, hot air).
The markets continue to trade weak. The Sensex is quoting at 16,435, weaker by 345 points, and the Nifty is at 4,893, down 114 points. Realty, metal, auto and banking sectors are weak; the FMCG space is the only silver lining.
Business Standard / New Delhi November 12, 2009, 0:04 IST
After bagging the Pune-Satara highway project last week, R-Infra, a unit of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has now bagged the Rs 1,000 crore Kandla-Mundra Road Project from NHAI.
Vinayak Chatterjee / New Delhi January 18, 2010, 0:53 IST
The 92 per cent year-on-year growth reflected the additional revenues from the SEZ refinery numbers
Private sector fuel retailers Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Essar Oil are varying prices of petrol and diesel from state to state to ensure that losses and profits are balanced. This even as they struggle to retain market share in the face of stiff competition from state oil companies, which can sell fuel at less than the cost as they are compensated for this by the government.
Inflation jumped to 4.78 per cent in November, driven by rising prices of essential food items like pulses, fruits and vegetables.
Two-wheeler maker Suzuki Motorcycle India today reported a 20.35 per cent rise in its sales in July at 12,585 units compared with 10,457 units in the same month last year.
The poor, as the Bible has it, will always be with us and, therefore, accepted as part of the human condition. But it isn’t the poverty that is unacceptable; it is destitution, the hopelessness of life at the end of its tether that raises the question, What’s to be Done? And to paraphrase Marx, it isn’t enough to understand why India remains an overwhelmingly poor country after more than 60 years of Independence; the task is to change it. Professor Amit Bhaduri’s The Face You Were Afraid to See: Essays on the Indian Economy (Penguin, Rs 250), which is a sequel to his 1996 book, (along with Deepak Nayyar) The Intelligent Person’s Guide to Liberalization, tells us why and what could be done to get out of the hole we have dug ourselves in.
Engineering services provider Defiance Tech, part of the multi-billion dollar Hinduja Group, today announced expanding its services to the areas of manufacturing and enterprise solutions, eyeing the markets of India, US, Europe and Middle-East nations.
The issue of proposed amendments to the existing Copyright Act, 1957, is becoming a flash point between broadcasters and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), with news broadcasters asking the government to take them into confidence before undertaking any amendment to the law.
- A tear for reality - RIP sweet child - Evidence of Krishna - Old money - Beat it, no more - The ultimate high
Box office collections for major production houses below investment.
With the Dubai World crisis, Indian exporters have again started biting their nails, even as the government assured there would be no impact on the domestic economy.
Linking the Kashmir problem with the Middle East conflict, President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the US to demonstrate "neutrality" and step up efforts to "mediate" on the issue between India and Pakistan.
Oil prices were stable in Asian trade today as dealers weighed recent price falls against a firming US dollar, analysts said.
The government"s high borrowings may not push up interest rates sharply towards the end of this year and are likely to hover around the current levels, Prime Minister"s Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan said.
The government today ruled out any increase in its borrowing programme for the current fiscal and said expenditure needs due to failed monsoon would be met with additional tax and adjustments within the budget.
Anil Ambani group company Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the government’s special leave petition (SLP) on the Ambani gas dispute, saying it had no legal standing to seek any orders and could, at best, only make submissions.
Finance Minster Pranab Mukherjee would interact with economic editors here tomorrow and provide them comprehensive view of the overall economy.
The government and exporters are working together to tackle the imposition of non-tariff barriers (NTB) by developed and developing countries, including the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
The swine flu toll in the city has risen to 75 with four more persons succumbing to the virus, health officials said today.
Consumer durables major LG Electronics today said it will invest Rs 25 crore in promotional activities of its home appliances during the festive season, as it targets a 30 per cent share in the segment by next year.
Industry body FICCI today sought more fiscal sops in the 2010-11 budget to prop up the economy.
Mercedes-Benz India Limited, a leading player in the luxury car market in the country is aiming at a sales volume of 100 units across all its models in the eastern region in 2009 out of which 20-25 units are expected to be sold in Orissa.
Kishore Singh / New Delhi November 3, 2009, 0:30 IST
The country"s second largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor India, today reported 11.03 per cent growth in sales in October compared to the same period a year earlier, at 51,736 units.
Two-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor Company today reported 12 per cent increase in its vehicle sales during October.
US car maker Ford today launched a special edition of its mid-sized sedan Fiesta in the country, priced at Rs 6.44 lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi).
General Motors, the fifth-largest car manufacturer by domestic sales, unveiled the all new Chevrolet Cruze diesel model in the capital today, with an aggressive introductory price ranging from Rs 10.99 lakh to Rs 12.45 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
Car maker General Motors India today said it has offered a new scheme under which customers can exchange their Opel cars for Chevrolet brands.
Car maker Skoda Auto India today reported a 183 per cent jump in its total sales at 1,425 units during November this year as against 504 units in the same month last year.
Terming as "most immature and irresponsible" the UPA government"s handling of the Telangana problem, BJP today said the Centre "should apply its mind" to solve the problem.
A panel probing the July 12 accident at a Delhi Metro construction site that left six persons dead has submitted its report to DMRC chief E Sreedharan.
The Sensex has now re-gained the 17,000 mark and is now at 17,007, up 376 points.
The promoters of DLF Ltd, the country’s largest real estate developer, have said hedge fund DE Shaw may retain a partial stake in DLF Assets Ltd (DAL) as the fund is seeing an improved opportunity in the commercial realty market.
Company launches ‘Cash & Carry’ format.
In contrast, exports during April-October decline 42 per cent.
With the death of a 30-year-old woman, the Swine Flu toll in the city has gone up to 91, health officials said today.
Hyderabad-based biopharmaceutical company Suven Life Sciences Limited announced that its drug discovery collaboration in central nervous system (CNS) disorder with the US-based Eli Lilly and Company yielded a positive outcome with lead declaration leading to a milestone payment to Suven.
Diversified business conglomerate ITC Ltd is targeting a Rs 1,000-crore turnover from its stationery business in three to five years, led by new product launches targeting school children and institutions. It’s current revenue from this business stands at Rs 280 crore.
Cash is the preferred mode of payment for over 95 per cent of retail transactions in the domestic bullion market, a market survey said.
IBM today announced that it has signed a 10-year Information Technology (IT) services agreement with Gujarat-based Sardar Bhiladwala Pardi People’s Co-operative Bank (SBPPCB). The engagement will be in the form of a pay-as-you-go model, which will enable the bank to save up to 50 per cent in its capital expenditure on IT Infrastructure, IBM said in a statement.
Customs duty cut from 7.5% to 2.5%.
India’s largest IT firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is eyeing six-seven deals worth over $100 million in the Latin American region.
Country’s largest IT firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has won the country’s largest State Wide Area Network (SWAN) project from the government of Andhra Pradesh on a five year Build, Own, Operate, and Transfer (BOOT) model.
Unlike many other B-school products, who start their own ventures, make it a success and then sell it off for a tidy profit, Vivek Pahwa, a graduate from Hyderabad’s Indian School of Business, harboured an entrepreneurial dream and lived it.
Tata Group today said the British government has not yet contacted it on the possible options to avoid closure of Corus steel plants in Teeside that could result in 1,700 jobs losses.
India"s overall imports of vegetable oil during November 2008 to May 2009 jumped by 70 per cent to 5,043,185 tonnes from 2,973,393 tonnes for the same period of last year, the Solvent Extractors" Association of India (SEA) said in a statement here.
The Cotton Association of India (CAI) envisages a total supply of 343.75 lakh cotton bales as on May 31, 2009.
The global downturn has taken the wind out of the sails of India"s exports, which fell the most in 14 years in April, by 33.2 per cent, over the same month last year, while domestic slowdown led to imports dropping by 36.6 per cent in the same period.
The ‘Jai Ho’ trust by the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ filmmakers has hired a social worker to ensure the welfare of Rubina Ali Qureshi after her father allegedly tried to sell her for nearly USD 300,000.
The Nordic region (Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Sweden), which is now opening up to offshoring as a viable option to sustain its long-established competitiveness, offers an untapped $10 billion outsourced services opportunity for Indian IT companies, said a Nasscom-PricewaterhouseCoopers report.
Latha Jishnu / New Delhi November 26, 2009, 0:28 IST
Adventure tourism operators in Uttarakhand are up in arms against the state forest department for its move to withdraw lease permits for the Ganga beach.
The government on Tuesday said it would not withdraw the fiscal stimulus, provided in the last one year to help the economy deal with the global slowdown, in the current financial year.
Business Standard / New Delhi December 02, 2009, 0:52 IST
Surjit S Bhalla / New Delhi December 5, 2009, 0:50 IST
Which SUV would be the best in the used car market for a price range of Rs 10-15 lakh? The vehicle should be not more than two years old and should not have done more than 20,000 km. My second query is which SUV is good but as a new vehicle in the price range of Rs 15-20 lakh. Diesel is preferable for economy though I don’t drive much (about 100 kilometres in a week). Kindly suggest.
When is Skoda likely to launch the Laura 1.8 TSI Elegance with a DSG?
The country"s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India, today said it is targeting to export one lakh units of its small car A-Star.
In my mind
Honda Motor Co’s withdrawal from Formula One racing in December to save money may give it an advantage over rivals: fresh blood from an elite cadre of engineers to improve its Civic compacts and Odyssey minivans.
The Centre, in an attempt to end the imbroglio over Telangana, today convened a meeting here on January 5 of the eight recognised political parties in Andhra Pradesh for a discussion on the issue, a move welcomed by a grouping of all parties spearheading the statehood stir.
After four days of vehement denial, Force India on Thursday announced that its Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella is joining Ferrari with immediate effect, while also insisting that there was no financial settlement involved in his move.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa of all support for resettlement of the Tamil civilians, displaced due to fighting between security forces and the LTTE in the north.
May look at VRS later
Recently L N Mittal, the world’s top steel maker, announced in London that he may shift his 12-million tonne steel project out of Orissa because of the long delay in land acquisition and local opposition to the project.
The Sensex opened marginally in red this moning but rebounded almost immediately on positive global cues.
Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal has pulled out of a project to develop an oil field in Kazakhstan in partnership with Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and is looking for buyers for its stake in another company in the Central Asian nation.
Real estate firm Parsvnath Developers today reported a net profit of Rs 13.81 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, a 81 per cent decline over the corresponding period a year ago. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 73.96 crore in the same period last fiscal.
Sanjaya Baru / New Delhi October 7, 2009, 0:25 IST
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today regretted that the food processing sector was subject to "multiple levies" and said there is an urgent need to rationalise tax structure to replicate the success of the IT industry globally.
Tata Communications, a leading provider of the new world of communications, together with its supplier, Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer in undersea communication technology, today announced that they have completed the installation, testing and commissioning of the TGN-Intra Asia (TGN-IA) Cable System.
Martin Feldstein / July 25, 2009, 0:22 IST
Frank Sieren & Andreas Sieren / July 11, 2009, 0:03 IST
Offers 2,000 acres in Pune’s Saswad taluk.
The Sensex has erased most of its losses and is now at 17,158, down 68 points. The index has recovered 113 points from the day"s low. The NSE Nifty is at 5,122, down 25 points.
Garments maker Provogue India today said it will buy back shares worth Rs 50 crore from its shareholders through open market route.
Shopping online for a New Year gift? Or clicking on that New Year e-greeting link? Be careful this time around as cyber criminals armed with a new set of web threats, including viruses, spam and cyber-scams, would be on the prowl to trap gullible internet users.
Communications Minister A Raja today alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government had distributed free spectrum to operators in what he called “biggest ever scam” that deprived the exchequer of over Rs 1.6 lakh crore revenue.
Sayantani Kar / Mumbai December 8, 2009, 0:28 IST
Siemens, the German engineering giant, says it plans to expand its green energy portfolio to enable ¤25 billion (approximately Rs 1,74,339 crore) savings globally by 2011, with significant carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction from its products and processes in key markets, including India.
The DRDO has developed a rapid and cost-effective "Swine Flu virus H1N1 specific isothermal gene amplification assay" for reliable and early clinical diagnosis of the disease, the Lok Sabha was informed today.
It’s never easy to be in public domain. Members of Parliament (MP) cutting across party lines have realised that. Madhusudan Mistry, a Congress MP from Gujarat, gave his mobile number to the voters of his constituency. “Even in the middle of the night, people, evidently drunk, used to call me to solve their petty personal problems,” Mistry recalls.
To allow pvt companies to compete with DRDO, PSUs to bid for equipment tenders.
While conceding that there had been no major terrorist attack against India since the November 26 attacks last year in Mumbai, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the situation in the neighbourhood was worrying.
Winter session of West Bengal assembly began here today and is likely to be stormy with the ruling Left Front moving a non-official resolution in the House demanding discussion on "Statewide anarchy by Maoists and Trinamool Congress". Announcing to move along with several other resolutions, government chief whip Syed Mohammad Masih told reporters that they had raised the issue in Business Advisory Committee meeting. He alleged that Naxalites and TMC were "unleashing a reign of terror" in the state and the latter was involved in spreading anarchy with their direct or indirect involvement with the former.
Futures prices fell 5-12% in December; trend may continue next year.
The raging controversy over the credit for the story in 3 Idiots escalated today with director Rajkumar Hirani accusing author Chetan Bhagat of “lying” despite agreeing to several conditions including a rolling credit in a contract.
Subir Gokarn / New Delhi November 16, 2009, 0:04 IST
Saksoft Limited, a Chennai-based software services company with focus on the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment, is planning to double its revenues by the end of the 2011-12 financial year, from last year’s Rs 120 crore, through the organic growth route.
Business Standard / New Delhi December 22, 2009, 0:30 IST
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has turned to India’s private sector to arm the police forces with weapons needed to respond to terror attacks like 26/11.
Business Standard / New Delhi August 26, 2009, 0:43 IST
Insurers want mortality charges outside the ceiling
The Life Insurance Council has opposed a proposal in the Draft Direct Taxes Code which says policy holders be taxed at the time of withdrawal of insurance fund. SB Mathur, Secretary General of the Life Insurance Council, said either the proposal be changed to retain the present system of exempting a life insurance holder from tax at the time of withdrawal, or tax should be levied only on the real value of the withdrawn sum. Constituted under the Insurance Act, the council is a forum that connects various stakeholders in the insurance sector.
Insurance companies have asked the government to shift to the new tax regime under the Direct Tax Code only for those policies sold after the proposed Code came into effect from April 2011.
The most probable directional movement in the rest of the settlement appears to be sideways.
Operators may ask for more after studying the viewing habits of subscribers
Baroda Legal & General Life Insurance, an insurance venture promoted by Bank of Baroda, today said it is expecting IRDA clearnace by November-end.
India today announced it has designed a new version of Advanced Heavy Water atomic reactor which will use lesser low enriched uranium along with thorium as fuel and having next generation safety requirements.
Calling for a home-delivered pizza is not as easy as pie.
Casual dining chain Pizza Hut is planning to extend its ‘Enhanced Dine-in’ brand transformation concept to almost a third of its 147 stores across India by next month.
India Inc today cautiously welcomed the RBI"s move to modify the ECB guidelines and said this also indicates a gradual withdrawal of stimulus measures announced to help the industry tide over the global credit crunch last year.
I am 59 years old and wish to retire in February 2010. I want to create a pension fund and also seek regular tax-free returns from mutual funds. I own a house and don"t have any liabilities.
India Inc"s hiring activity is on a recovery path but the month of October, being full of festive holidays, witnessed nearly 4 per cent decline from the previous month, a report by job portal Naukri.com says.
The government should bring petrol and diesel under a uniform VAT structure of 8 per cent as the variation in state tax was putting additional burden of taxation, industry body Assocham today said.
Barely a week after the finance ministry officials met leading state-owned banks to push mergers through buyouts of smaller banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today said the banking system is not yet ready for consolidation.
A V Rajwade / New Delhi December 07, 2009, 0:32 IST
Slumped to $60-65 a tonne from the recent peak of $112-115 a tonne in August.
Shaken by a sudden halt in demand from China, Indian iron ore miners are planning production cuts.
In a measure to control the circulation of counterfeit notes, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed banks to issue bank notes in denominations of Rs 100 and above either over their counters or through automated teller machines (ATMs), only after these banknotes are duly checked for authenticity and fitness by sorting machines.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed banks to keep a watch on transactions of customers with countries like Pakistan and Iran since concerns have been raised about rules there in combating terror funding.
Foreign telecom companies today stayed away from a meeting to discuss the blueprint for 3G (third generation) mobile spectrum auction, while domestic players were riddled with doubts regarding regulation and availability of airwaves.
Investments in mutual fund schemes saw a sharp 68 per cent decline in November to over Rs 45,100 crore over the previous month, as investors preferred to stay away from equity market.
Loan disbursements, which dipped due to economic slowdown, during the nine months ending May 2009, is expected to pick up post-September with an improvement in industrial activities, a top banking industry official said.
The yield on government bonds may continue to move up, on apprehension that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may harden the monetary policy stance soon to manage inflationary expectations.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today filed second chargesheet in the multi-crore rupee Satyam scam against the founder chairman of the company B Ramalinga Raju and others, including recently arrested internal auditor of the company V S Prabhakar Gupta.
Japan will explore the possibility of strengthening co-operation between its universities and those in Maharashtra.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has replaced Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) with Repsol YPF SA, Spain’s biggest oil company, and Malaysia’s Petronas to bid for Venezuelan oil blocks next month.
Essar Oil has bagged three more coal bed methane (CBM) blocks after a panel of secretaries rejected the bids put in by a consortium led by Deep Industries.
India, with exports of over 100 million tonnes of iron ore, must be keenly watching as to how soon the recently sealed joint venture (JV) between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto to combine their mining operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia will cross the regulatory hurdles at European Union Competition Commission and also China’s competition regulator. However, sweetly the JV is now framed to placate raising of market dominance questions, iron ore buyers fear that pooling of knowledge about production volumes and demand by the pair in JV will put them at a distinct disadvantage.
Citibank India today said it has launched a new rewards platform-CitiRewards, targeting customers who hold Citi-branded credit cards.
The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector has emerged as the industry of choice for this year’s management graduates.
USL Wines, a division of United Spirits, part of the United Breweries (UB) group, is set to start exporting its brands.
Bernanke: Ben Bernanke could be in danger of becoming “person of the year” again in 2010 or 2011 – for less positive reasons than this time around. The Federal Reserve boss made the front of Time for his influence and for his possible role in heading off a depression. But he and the rest of the Federal Open Market Committee are in no hurry to lift interest rates despite the recovering US economy and signs of inflation. The risks in this approach are intensifying.
New York bankruptcy court to hear former owner’s updated rescue plan today.
Mahindra & Mahindra gave all its gains and slipped to a low of Rs 813. The scrip finally settled flat at Rs 820. The counter clocked volumes of 239,425 shares as compared to the two-week daily average traded volumes of 277,548 shares.
Invest moderately in equities, and be ready to average down if market falls.
- Mastering money making - Don't be bold on gold - Getting rid of government controls - For the risk-takers - High on expectations - Commodity to the rescue
Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, said it plans to cut about 5,000 jobs in its administration, insurance and mortgage units.
Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren has assured Bokaro Steel Plant (BSP) managing director V K Srivastava that SAIL’s needs would be met by Chiria mines.
That Tata Motors has cut the losses in Jaguar and Land Rover may be good news for Ratan Tata, who has been under fire for buying the luxury car company. Critics had said it was personal hubris rather than good business strategy that had dictated this purchase and it did seem so far that they were right.
Financial services entity Religare Enterprises expects to close its first Rs 600-crore private equity fund, launched in joint venture with UK-based Milestone Capital, by April next year.