SCHOLAR CLUB

RBI ups key rates, loans won't get costlier for now

2010-04-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

In a bid to tighten money supply and curb rising prices, the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday hiked benchmark rates by 25 basis points each in the monetary policy for 2010-11. However, the good news for borrowers is that this may not lead to an immediate increase in loan rates, though there will certainly be an "upward bias". "Whatever has been done in the policy has reduced the supply. So definitely there is an upward bias in rates. As credit demand increases, there will be a demand-supply gap, and then there is a possibility of interest rates going up," SBI chairman OP Bhatt said. ICICI Bank MD Chanda Kochhar expressed a similar view, saying ‘‘During the year I do see the lending rates going up, but I don’t see any immediate impact on rates as of now.’’ HDFC Bank MD Aditya Puri said lending rates would depend on the demand for funds. ‘‘We do not see any significant change in rates in the near term,’’ he said.

Should gambling in India be legalized?

2010-04-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

Beyond the raging controversy over the finances and ownership of IPL teams, there are long-standing murmurs of betting and match fixing in cricket. Betting is banned in India, but that has not stopped people from indulging in it. Would it not make sense to legalize it? Prohibition never stopped people from drinking — it just made some of the alcohol unsafe. In fact, what a ban does is to drive such activity under ground, with criminal elements, terrorists and the drug mafia all getting involved. Legalizing betting and other forms of gambling would minimize the underworld's role by bringing this activity into the open. The government would also be able to raise revenues through taxation. Some might say the social consequences of gambling -- stories of men gambling away their family's savings -- make it not worth the risk. But if there are regulations in place, this possibility too would be minimized. Should betting and gambling, therefore, be made a legitimate, regulated tax-paying business?

Cos plan 15% hike in pay

2010-04-11T23:48:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year again. While traffic on Job Street is picking up, the decibels on the annual increments are getting louder. After a year of salary freeze and pay cuts, companies are looking to fatten the wallets of their employees — albeit more moderately than the heydays of 2006-07. The performers, however, have nothing to worry about. A dip-stick survey by TOI revealed that headhunters are projecting up to a 15% hike in salaries in India Inc this fiscal. Besides the hikes, here are a few other trends that would stand out. MNCs are no longer the preferred paymasters since the growth story has now taken a desi turn. The wide-eyed obsession of Indian white collar workers for MNCs is a thing of past and the focus is now on domestic companies. And the performers are not going to lose out in the year of the turnaround. Says Sandeep Chaudhary, leader of Hewitts Performance and Rewards Consulting practice in India: ‘‘The growth drivers are domestic consumption and investment. Since the domestic market is insulated from global downturn, it is less volatile. Organisations across all sectors in this field are looking at better salary increase projections for 2010, when compared to actuals of 2009.'' According to a TeamLease survey, the services sector is providing a fillip to salary growth with an average 6% growth, contrasted with the rather low, sub-5% salary growth average for the manufacturing sector. Telecommunication, healthcare and IT in that order have been driving this growth. Energy, automobile and allied and FMCD in that order are the only manufacturing sector industries to drive salary growth at 5% plus levels. A survey by Hewitt Associates also projects salary hikes for 2010 in India at 10.6%, the highest in Asia-Pacific and up 60% from the actual increase of 6.6% in 2009. It further adds that Indian-owned companies are expected to outperform MNCs with a projected average increase of 11.4% as against a 10.2% by the latter. E Balaji, CEO, Ma Foi Management Consultants, also swears by the 10%-plus hike. ‘‘Salaries are likely to be slightly above the 10% mark.”

Industry grows at over 15% in Feb

2010-04-11T23:45:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: Industrial growth maintained the high growth rate of over 15% for the third month in a row in February. Industrial growth, as measured by the index of industrial production (IIP), however, was slightly lower than around 16% of the previous month and 17.6% in December. The high growth is largely due to a strong 16% growth in manufacturing and a low base of 0.2% a year ago, when the Indian economy was still reeling under the impact of the global financial crisis. Consumer durable, which was particularly hit by the global crisis, expanded 29.9% in February while capital goods production rose 44.4%. Among other sectors, mining rose 12.2% and electricity by 6.7%. For the first 11 months of the last fiscal, industrial output rose by 10.1% against 3% a year ago. As many as 14 out of the 17 industrial groups showed positive growth in February. This would help the Indian economy to grow by at least 7.2% as estimated by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO).

Sachin and the art of magic

2010-04-11T23:43:00.000-07:00

Finally, Sachin Tendulkar’s dream sequence came to an end on Tuesday night: he himself would have heaved a sigh of relief after returning to the dugout with nothing more than 11 runs in his kitty.
After all, the way he is batting it almost looks unreal. For most of his fans, of course, it is as close to magic as it can get; but then, don’t we all know that there is not even a thin line between magic and illusion.
The amazing part is that Sachin is batting like the good old times; if anything, in fact, he seems to have gone one level higher now. Instead of blazing all the way, like he used to, he pulls out the big shots only as a weapon of surprise.
Otherwise, he is happy playing the edges, nudges and, quite often, even the second fiddle; the booming drives too have quietly made way for well-timed, well-directed hits. He doesn’t try to convert good deliveries into bad anymore; they come along anyway.
Most importantly, unlike earlier, his innings doesn’t end abruptly, just when he seems to be racing towards a crescendo: this is probably the one critical difference between the Sachin of yore and the Sachin of today. Truly, experience and age have their virtues.
Despite his meager contribution against Kings XI, Sachin would be delighted though: after all, Mumbai Indians won yet again, romping to their sixth triumph. At this stage, all the think-tanks must be wondering how to stop him and his team.
After all, they do look invincible. With Shikhar Dhawan willing to take the attack to the opposition, and Sachin playing the mentor, they have the most effective opening pair here. With Tiwari, Rayudu, Bravo and Pollard to follow, they also have the firepower to go for broke.
Harbhajan Singh, of course, is there with his own brand of batting in times of crises. The only question is: can they sustain it? Especially, when runs dry up from Sachin’s bat.
MI, however, look even more imposing when you look at their bowling: Zaheer. Malinga. Harbhajan. There is experience and variety here. Add Bravo and McLaren and they seem to have an answer for everything.
Only one team matches them in terms of personnel: Royal Challengers. Kallis, Pandey and Uthappa have been in superlative form with the bat; Steyn, Praveen and Vinay have been equally potent with the ball. With the arrival of Pietersen, they appear even more formidable.
But just when you thought the battle was getting thicker at the top, they went and lost to Dhoni’s Super Kings. Caught in a Vijay blitzkrieg, they capitulated easily to open up the table completely. Everybody seems to be in the race again, apart from the luckless Kings XI of course.
Clearly, the IPL has slipped into its most exciting phase; as the teams get their final reinforcements, the contests will only become sharper and tighter.

Generation Next

2010-04-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

India, the world's fastest growing mobile phone market, is on its way to revolutionising its telecom sector. Auction of spectrum for 3G services is a first for the country, and the response last Friday didn't belie expectations. First day, first show saw 12 per cent higher bids than the fixed base price of Rs 3,500 crore. Nine bidders put on the table a total of Rs 12,000 crore, and that's already one-third the officially projected revenue haul of around Rs 35,000 crore. Cash inflow, it seems, may eventually exceed the government's target. Though a very dynamic sector, telecom has yet long been dogged by controversies. Opacity and arbitrariness marked the now-stalled grant of 2G spectrum. The specially designed 3G sale model India's first online auction monitored by auctioneers and telecom authorities provides a welcome contrast. The multi-phase bidding process aims at boosting revenue, allowing for stage-by-stage price escalation based on surplus demand. It's also geared to avoiding cartelisation by bidders. With the world watching India handle one of its most exciting technological makeovers, the bar has rightly been set high on transparency. If our growth story is to remain credible globally, all remnants of a licence-permit approach to business have to be swept away. The government's stakes are high. India's yawning fiscal deficit has to be trimmed to 5.5 per cent of GDP in 2010-11. Revenue from sale of 3G and, subsequently, broadband wireless access will come in handy. Fiscal consolidation plans are also to be buoyed by disinvestment proceeds, and a follow-on public offer in SAIL is the latest big news on that front. The government must continue mobilising resources through reform and modernisation which have multiplier effects on the economy. More so, since its social sector spending will increase with the upcoming food security law. For consumers, 3G's high-end applications will take cellphone use to the next level. High-speed internet, video streaming, calling and conferencing, TV viewing, online movies and games, content download, data sharing and transfer: all of this and more can be facilitated on the 3G platform. Important social and economic benefits will accrue, when 3G-enabled mobile services are geared to health and literacy, dissemination of market information for, say, farmers or banking and other financial transactions. On their part, companies may expect good returns on investment, going by a TRAI report that 150 million cellphone users had subscribed to data and internet services by end-2009. That indicates the kind of demand out there. At the end of the day, however, 3G will be as transformative as its price tag allows it to be. It'll be good for everybody if competition among operators ensures affordability.

Man who inspired Bill Gates dies

2010-04-02T23:48:00.000-07:00

Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, a developer of an early personal computer that inspired Bill Gates to found Microsoft, died on Thursday in Georgia. He was 68. Roberts, whose build-it-yourself kit concentrated thousands of dollars worth of computer capability in an affordable package, inspired Bill Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen to come up with Microsoft in 1975 after they saw an article about the MITS Altair 8800 in Popular Electronics. Roberts, an ex-military man, later went on to careers as a farmer and a physician, but continued to keep up with computer advances: He recently told Gates he hoped to work with new, nanotechnology-enhanced machines, according to son David Roberts. “He did think it was pretty neat, some of the stuff they’re doing with the processors,” said David Roberts, who confirmed Gates rushed to Georgia on Friday to be with his mentor. Roberts died in a Macon hospital after a long bout with pneumonia, according to his family. “Ed was willing to take a chance on us — two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace — and we have always been grateful to him,” Gates and Allen said in a joint statement. “The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things. We will always have many fond memories of working with Ed."

Oilcos may lose Rs 80000 crore

2010-04-02T23:46:00.000-07:00

If the current price of crude at around $85 per barrel continues and government does not hike the petrol and diesel prices, the losses of government-owned IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) may jump over 66% to Rs 80,000 crore in 2010-11 due to under-recovery. According to one estimate, these three fuel retailers lost around Rs 48,000 crore on selling petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene below cost in 2009-10. The firming of global crude had led to upward revision in estimates for under-recoveries to Rs 48,000 crore for 2009-10, from earlier projection of Rs 45,000 crore. In 2009-10, losses were lower as crude prices fell due to slowdown in the global economy. But prices are now firming up with recovery in the world economy, a government official said. According to a company official, IndianOIL, BPCL and HPCL currently sell petrol at a loss of Rs 6.12 per litre and diesel at Rs 4.60 per litre. Sale of Kerosene through public distribution system leads to maximum losses, with an under-recovery of around Rs 18.42 per litre. They also lose Rs 265.27 per cylinder of cooking gas. According to another estimate, if the price of crude jumps to $100 per barrel, losses of oil companies will touch Rs 1,20,000 crore in 2010-11.Refiners, who sell the final products in markets at lower than the cost of production, are worried over indecision on part of government regarding sharing of losses by the crude producing companies like ONGC. In 2009-10, a part of losses on petrol and diesel has to be met by upstream firms like ONGC as per a prescribed formula and the government is supposed to bear the losses on sale of cooking fuels. However, government has provided for only Rs 12,000 crore of the total loss of Rs 20,989 crore on the sale of cooking gas and kerosene in the first nine months of 2009-10. The losses further surged in the fourth quarter as the crude prices increased. But the government is yet to make any payment towards this end. Out of the provisioning of Rs 12,000 crore, IOC would get Rs 7,100.18 crore, BPCL Rs 2,370.77 crore and HPCL Rs 2,529.05 crore.

India's Young Hottest Executive

2010-03-31T20:14:00.000-07:00

When Madhu Kannan, now running India's oldest stock exchange, turned up at the Bombay Stock Exchange at 6.30 a.m. on his first day at work, the guard posted at Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers, where the bourse is housed, stopped him. He did not know that BSE had recruited the youngest CEO in its history, and thought that Kannan, 36, was pulling a fast one (Kannan's predecessor was 45).
"It was tough getting in. It was easier to get the job," chuckles Kannan, who is just one among several top executives finding their youth an advantageâ€” and a burden at timesâ€”as they race into the CEO's room in record time. Others: Rajesh Kamat at entertainment TV channel Colors, Varun Bajpai at SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Management, Tarun Katial at Reliance Media World, Gagan Banga at Indiabulls Financial Services, Akshay Gupta at Peerless MF and Sameer Kamdar at ASK Investment Managers.
Here are some useful words from India's hottest young executives:
R Balakrishnan - Chairman & Chief Creative Officer/ Lowe
"I believe that focus, ability etc. are all hygiene factors. It is finally a lot of luck involved in success...I still don't have an idea how and why the right idea comes, so it is about having the patience and resilience to hang in there till you get lucky."
Prasoon Joshi - Executive Chairman/ McCann Worldgroup India
"Achievers never take themselves too seriously, they take their job and the moment seriously and are constantly practising their craft. They are constant learners and are stupid enough sometimes to not know that things can't work-and they do!"
Santrupt Misra - CEO of Carbon Black, & Director, HR/Aditya Birla Group
"Have a keen interest in things that may not have any relevance to your immediate business. Gain knowledge about different aspects of business; put oneself behind people and harness the power that various people have in the organisation."
Madhabi Puri-Buch - MD & CEO/ICICI Securities
"Seek out difficult assignments. This is where you can add maximum value. Have the stomach to do them differently. More of the same never solved a problem. Create systems and a strong second line so that there is no hesitation to let you move on."
Kamesh Goyal - CEO, India, Middle East & North Africa/Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance
"In my view, the qualities that are required in a person for the top job are a sense of ownership, an ability to learn beyond the area of responsibility and also have an ability to take risks. Good leaders are usually equipped with these traits."
Rajesh Kamat - CEO, Colors; Group COO, Viacom 18
"What compensates for lack of grey hair is the point to prove and passion to prove. You can always find people who want to aspire to get to the next level"
Madhu Kannan - MD & CEO, BSE
"There is absolutely no replacement for high quality relevant experience, right attitude and the willingness to adapt to the changing environment. These are bigger drivers than age"
Tarun Katial - CEO, Reliance Media World
"The work life cycle one would cover in 3-5 years, is now completed in one year"
Rishi Khiani - CEO, Times Internet
"Companies in the forefront of innovation globally (the large Internet companies or the media companies) are the ones with a younger CEO"
Varun Bajpai - Senior Managing Director, Macquarie Capital; also CEO at SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Management
"What matters is the maturity of an individual, the professionalism one operates with and also the competence one brings to the table"

2010-03-26T21:06:00.001-07:00

2010-03-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

Infosys denies reports of tax & duty evasion

2010-03-16T04:01:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: The country's second largest software exporter Infosys on Monday said it has made a total advance tax payment of Rs 1,180 crore for the fiscal 2009-10. "We are among the top tax payers in the software and BPO industry. For fiscal year 2010, our total advance tax payment is Rs 1,180 crore," the company CEO Krish Gopalakrishnan said. Infosys also refuted reports of evasion of taxes and duties, saying it did not claim any tax or duty benefit till its SEZ unit in Chandigarh got approved by the Ministry of Commerce on June 16, 2006 and signing of the customs bond on July 10, 2006. "Therefore there is no question of evasion of taxes and duties (direct and indirect)," it said. "No land has been sold to us by the Chandigarh administration on free hold basis. Infosys signed the land lease agreement as per the provisions of SEZ Rules on April 3, 2009," the company said. The firm has not carried out a series of complex buying and lease deals with the Chandigarh administration to buttress the legality of its SEZ status," Infosys said in a statement. Stating that the land was vacant at the time of filing the application by the Chandigarh administration, the subsequent construction activities have been fully disclosed and the government has also confirmed the same in its inspection report and this fact has been considered by the government before the issuance of the SEZ notification. The SEZ being developed by Infosys has come under the scanner of the revenue department for allegedly breaking some norms. SEZ rules require that land should be vacant for getting approval. The revenue department in the Finance Ministry claimed that it had found some structures on SEZ land even before the approval was given. Infosys added that it continues to invest in its facility in Chandigarh. The cumulative investment by the company in this facility as on December 31, 2009 is Rs 286.85 crore. "Since the start of operations of our Chandigarh Development Centre on September 4, 2006 till December 31, 2009, we have had exports of over Rs 750.40 crore. Exports for the last 12 months ended December 31, 2009 was Rs 374.64 crore. As of December 31, 2009 we had 2,676 employees at our Chandigarh Development Center. The only activity taken up in this development center is for export purposes, itadded

ASHOK VERMA
PGDM II SEM

Scholarships

2010-03-11T02:53:00.000-08:00

Are you thinking of pursuing higher studies? Then you may probably be thinking of financial backing as well. You need not always depend on loans to go in for higher studies. Apart from educational loans, monetary aid is available to students as Scholarships and Endowments. Scholarships enable deserving students to pursue higher education in their sphere of study or go for specialization by providing them necessary monetary assistance as course fee and book grant without having to repay loans. Today scholarships and stipend are available to school students, college students, research fellows etc. The scholarships may be funded by Individual Trusts, Government Institutions, Institutions of Higher Learning like Universities, by Corporate Houses or by Missionaries and Charitable Trusts. The students have to fulfill the eligibility criteria as laid down by the respective organizations or institutions offering scholarships to be in receipt of these scholarships. The eligibility criteria set by institutions may be ones regarding the minimum and maximum age limit of applicants, the academic ability (scholarships are usually given to meritorious students who have performed exceptionally well in academics), exceptional interest in a particular field, research work carried out in that field etc. Scholarships are available in Arts, Humanities, Science, Engineering, Medicine, Law, Sports, Fine Arts
and a number of other fields. While some of the scholarships enable students to pursue studies in India, International Scholarships enable students to pursue higher studies abroad. Some of these scholarships are quite prestigious and being a recipient of it gives adds weightage to one's resume.

Signs of resolution over impasse on women's bill

2010-03-11T02:47:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: The standoff over the Women's Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha ended on Thursday with the government announcing that the proposed legislation would be brought in the House only after consultations with all sections. The breakthrough came after SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD leader Lalu Prasad and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, the three strong opponents of the bill, met finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and DMK leader T R Baalu also attended the meeting. During the meeting, "some sort of assurance was sought on the progress of the Constitution Amendment Bill (Women's Reservation Bill) before bringing it to the Lok Sabha. Government will complete the process of consultations with all concerned," Pranab Mukherjee said in a statement in the Lok Sabha after his discussions. "I think, this assurance would assuage the feelings of all members and the business would be conducted smoothly," he said, when the House re-assembled after two adjournments on the issue. The standoff over the bill prevented normal functioning of the Lok Sabha for the last four days as those opposed to it have been disrupting the House. "I would like to inform members that it has been agreed to conduct smooth business of the House for the remaining period," Mukherjee said. "I would request colleagues to help the Chair to conduct normal business," he said. The statement by the Leader of the House came at 2pm after two adjournments following uproar over the bill. Normalcy was restored soon after and discussion on General Budget, which had got delayed because of acrimony, was taken up. Earlier, after his meeting with Mukherjee, Sharad Yadav said the government had assured those opposing the bill that all sections of the House will be consulted before bringing the measure in the Lok Sabha.

ASHOK VERMA
PGDM IIsem

scholar news

2010-02-22T01:23:00.000-08:00

Are you thinking of pursuing higher studies? Then you may probably be thinking of financial backing as well. You need not always depend on loans to go in for higher studies. Apart from educational loans, monetary aid is available to students as Scholarships and Endowments. Scholarships enable deserving students to pursue higher education in their sphere of study or go for specialization by providing them necessary monetary assistance as course fee and book grant without having to repay loans. Today scholarships and stipend are available to school students, college students, research fellows etc. The scholarships may be funded by Individual Trusts, Government Institutions, Institutions of Higher Learning like Universities, by Corporate Houses or by Missionaries and Charitable Trusts. The students have to fulfill the eligibility criteria as laid down by the respective organizations or institutions offering scholarships to be in receipt of these scholarships. The eligibility criteria set by institutions may be ones regarding the minimum and maximum age limit of applicants, the academic ability (scholarships are usually given to meritorious students who have performed exceptionally well in academics), exceptional interest in a particular field, research work carried out in that field etc. Scholarships are available in Arts, Humanities, Science, Engineering, Medicine, Law, Sports, Fine Arts and a number of other fields. While some of the scholarships enable students to pursue studies in India, International Scholarships enable students to pursue higher studies abroad. Some of these scholarships are quite prestigious and being a recipient of it gives adds weightage to one's resume.

current scholar

2010-02-19T22:33:00.000-08:00

Alejandra Arguelles was born in Mexico City and lived in the Los Angeles Area since she was twelve years old. Upon graduation from Manual Arts High School, Alejandra entered the work force. She worked for several years until she realized she needed a higher education in order to achieve her dreams. Alejandra attended Los Angeles Trade Tech College and received her Associates Degree in Accounting before transferring to the University of Southern California. Alejandra hopes that one day in the near future her dream of becoming a CFO will come true.
Rutilio Castor Jr. was born in Los Angeles California, but was raised in Mexico. After graduating from Lakewood High School, he enrolled at Long Beach City College to become a Recording Engineer. After completing his first semester, Rutilio dropped out in order to join the labor force. After years of working at a dead-end job, Rutilio decided to go back to school. He enrolled at Los Angeles Trade-Tech College in the Machine Shop Program. After completing the program, Rutilio took the advice from his English professors and declared English as his major and put all his focus and dedication into being admitted to USC. Rutilio knew that USC would push him to another level and after he was admitted, he realized he had made the right decision. While attending USC, Rutilio plans to obtain a Master’s in Education and become an English Professor. Currently he is working closely with a program called “Colleges against Cancer” which raises funds for the American Cancer Society and cancer awareness. His goal in life is to teach, inspire, and motivate just like his peers and mentors have inspired him to never give up.
Jesus Escobar was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California. Upon receiving his GED at Bell Alternative Education and Work Center, Jesus began his college experience at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) where he developed a passion for learning. At ELAC, Jesus made it his priority to one day become a Trojan and transfer to one of the most renowned schools in the country. At the University of Southern California (USC), Jesus is majoring in Sociology with the anticipation of obtaining a second major in Political Science. He has completed numerous hours of community service, including helping with the construction of homes for needy families and removing litter from the L.A community while working with organizations such as Caltrans and Habitat for Humanity. Upon graduation from USC, Jesus plans to enroll in a postgraduate degree program in the social sciences.
Edgar Escobedo was born in Mexico. At the age of fourteen, he and his brother migrated up north to reunite with their parents in East Los Angeles. Edgar attended Roosevelt High School where he graduated with honors and was offered a scholarship to attend UC Irvine. His migratory status made him ineligible to receive the scholarship earned or to attend any other college or university at the time. Edgar had no choice but to join the workforce where he held several minimum-wage jobs over the years. In 2002 he finally had the opportunity to return to school and resume his dream of getting a fine education. He enrolled in Los Angeles City College where he received his Associates degree in Liberal Arts ten years after graduating from High School. At USC, Edgar is a Policy, Planning and Development major. He plans to attend law school and focus on immigration law.
Christopher Juarez graduated from Alhambra High School in Alhambra California, and attended East Los Angeles College before transferring to USC. In line with his current interests, Chris spent over four years serving on the Alhambra City Youth Commission which is an advisory board to the City Council tasked with ensuring the city is appropriately serving the young citizens’ needs. Chris is a sophomore, currently studying political science and plans to pick up a double major in policy, planning and development. He plans attend law school after graduation and continue his passion for government and civil service with a possible career as a municipal attorney.
Hung Lac grew up in Vietnam and came to Monterey Park in 2002 where he attended Mark Keppel High School. He continued to pursue his academic goal at East Los Angeles College with a major in biochemistry. He recently transferred to USC due to the wide array of potential opportunities that USC offers to science majors and the great help that USC students receive. Hung is determined to achieve his goal of becoming a pharmacist. He plans to continue his education after USC undergraduate as a pharmacy student, possibly in USC School of Pharmacy.

scholar club programe

2010-02-19T22:18:00.000-08:00

The SCholars Club is designed to assist exceptional community college students in transferring to selective colleges and universities. Students interested in participating in this unique program must submit a SCholars Club application by the appropriate deadline.
Ideal candidates for the SCholars Club will meet the following selection criteria:
Student has completed at least one semester (preferably one year) of courses
Student maintains full-time enrollment (enrolled in approximately 4 courses per semester)
Student has minimal withdrawals (Ws) on their academic record
Student’s course selection fulfills IGETC requirements or is enrolled in transferable courses
Once admitted to the SCholars Club, participants attend a Kick-off Breakfast in the Fall at USC that honors their academic accomplishments. This reception introduces SCholars Club participants to the USC campus culture, and is meant to excite students about transferring to a selective, research institution. The reception also provides an opportunity for current USC students who are ELAC, LACC, and LATTC alumni to interact with newly selected SCholars Club participants.
PROGRAM BENEFITS:
Use of USC services
Each SCholars Club participant receives a personalized USC SCholars Program identification card. The card grants participants access to USC’s electronic resources in addition to services offered by USC’s Libraries and Writing Center.
Four- Part Transfer Success Seminar Series
Part One: Why transfer?This orientation session introduces participants to the program’s goals and guidelines. Participants meet program staff and a panel of currently enrolled USC transfer students. Students are asked to bring an outline of their admissions essay to the next session.
Part Two: Why transfer to USC?This workshop details the benefits of attending a highly selective private institution. The session also informs participants about USC’s general admission requirements, USC’s character and mission, and about the unique opportunities afforded to USC students because of its location and rich relationship with the City of Los Angeles. Students receive feedback on their outline, and prepare a draft of their application essay(s) for the following workshop.
Parts Three & Four: How to transfer to USC: applying and funding your USC education. The USC Admission’s Officer assigned specifically to ELAC, LACC, and LATTC respectively, provide information on admission requirements, tips, and guidelines for the application essay(s). In addition, a USC Financial Aid Representative provides information about unique funding opportunities, necessary financial aid documents (FAFSA, CSS Profile), and completing the financial aid application.
Office Hours
Each participant meets one-on-one with a SCholars Program staff member to review the student’s application and to discuss transfer readiness and transfer credits. Questions about the financial aid process are also addressed.
Visit SC: A Day in the Life of a Trojan
This day-long event takes place in the Spring and provides an opportunity for prospective transfer students to experience what it is like to be a “Trojan.” The agenda for this event includes a campus tour, visits to resource centers across campus, participation in a mock lecture, and many other activities that are both educational and enjoyable.
Campus Activities
Participants of the SCholars Club are presented with opportunities to attend several USC events throughout the year to further familiarize them with our campus (e.g. cultural events, sporting events, lectures, etc.).

Scholarship News

2010-02-18T21:13:00.000-08:00

Are you thinking of pursuing higher studies? Then you may probably be thinking of financial backing as well. You need not always depend on loans to go in for higher studies. Apart from educational loans, monetary aid is available to students as Scholarships and Endowments. Scholarships enable deserving students to pursue higher education in their sphere of study or go for specialization by providing them necessary monetary assistance as course fee and book grant without having to repay loans. Today scholarships and stipend are available to school students, college students, research fellows etc. The scholarships may be funded by Individual Trusts, Government Institutions, Institutions of Higher Learning like Universities, by Corporate Houses or by Missionaries and Charitable Trusts. The students have to fulfill the eligibility criteria as laid down by the respective organizations or institutions offering scholarships to be in receipt of these scholarships. The eligibility criteria set by institutions may be ones regarding the minimum and maximum age limit of applicants, the academic ability (scholarships are usually given to meritorious students who have performed exceptionally well in academics), exceptional interest in a particular field, research work carried out in that field etc. Scholarships are available in Arts, Humanities, Science, Engineering, Medicine, Law, Sports, Fine Arts and a number of other fields. While some of the scholarships enable students to pursue studies in India, International Scholarships enable students to pursue higher studies abroad. Some of these scholarships are quite prestigious and being a recipient of it gives adds weightage to one's resume.

RELIANCE CAPITAL SCALE

2010-02-18T03:03:00.000-08:00

Reliance Capital scales up stake in Fame to 11%
Aminah Sheikh/Mumbai - Feb 18,2010 00:26 AM
The Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Capital has scaled up its stake in theatre chain Fame India from 8.13 per cent to nearly 11 per cent. This is subsequent to the demand from the Ambani group company, Reliance MediaWorks, for an explanation from Fame for spurning its takeover suit in favour of rival, INOX Leisure.
Reliance Capital began with a 3.5 per cent stake in Fame India and had been continuously shoring up its stake. However, INOX has already taken a 51 per cent stake in the company and announced an open offer for a further 20 per cent.
Reliance Capital's acquisition has been made at share prices between Rs 44 and Rs 75. Fame's stock closed at Rs 75 today, five per cent up from yesterday's close. This makes Fame five times costlier than its peers in the multiplex industry, based on its price to earnings (PE) ratio. For example, while Fame's PE is 97.79 based on today's price, that of Cinemax and Inox Leisure are 14.53 and 18.76, respectively.
Reliance MediaWorks claimed to have expressed interest in acquiring stake in Fame India at Rs 80 per share, though Fame had said earlier it did not get any formal written offer. Analysts said with INOX already having 51 per cent stake, the scaling up of stake could be Reliance MediaWorks' attempt to make the deal more expensive for INOX.
It is not known whether INOX will increase its open offer price (Rs 51 a share), but sources close to the deal say it may not, as it already has 51 per cent in Fame. The open offer is scheduled in April.
Analysts said if Reliance MediaWorks could increase its stake in the company to 26 per cent through open market operations or an open offer (which would be triggered if they increased it to 15 per cent), the company would secure a position on the board.
Reliance MediaWorks has been crying foul in the last few weeks, claiming it had made an offer to Fame's promoter, Shravan Shroff, to acquire stake at Rs 80 per share and threatened regulatory action against Fame India. However, in an earlier interview to Business Standard, Shroff had clarified, "Reliance MediaWorks never made a written offer to acquire stake in Fame at Rs 80.&"

ASHOK VERMA
PGDM IIsem

The NIIT National Aptitude Test (NITAT)

2010-02-16T02:57:00.000-08:00

The NIIT National Aptitude Test (NITAT) introduced by NIIT in the year 2004 tests the acumen of graduate students in the fields of science, commerce, arts and engineering before they embark on a professional career in the information technology sector.Coming into existence in 1981, NIIT works with the principle of establishing a congenial relationship between people and computers. NIIT provides necessary guidance and assistance to business firms as well as individuals in the field of information technology. NIIT has its presence in more than 40 countries of the world and has become a brand name in as far as software and software technology is concerned.
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The NIIT National Aptitude Test is conducted on an all India basis in more than 100 cities and towns of the country. Some of important centers for NIIT AT are Agra, Allahabad, Amritsar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon.Since its introduction, the NITAT has become a benchmark for those who wish to make a career in IT and ITES. This initiative from NIIT is a positive step from the point of view of students who really wish to have an idea regarding their inherent ability and competence to excel in the field of information technology. The IT industry in general also hopes to benefit from this exercise as more and more capable students will come to the forefront and contribute effectively to the growth of this sector. Eligibility :Students who have successfully passed their 10+2 examinations or are into their engineering degree courses or graduation courses in either science or arts or commerce can take this testType of Test :The NITAT is an aptitude test for 1½ hour’s duration whereby the student has to answer to certain objective type questions.Application for Scholarships :Address :Corporate OfficeNIIT Limited85, Sector 32, InstitutionalGurgaon 122001Phone No: +91 (124) 4293000Fax No: +91 (124) 4293333 Related Link: www.niit.com

‘Market-determined 3G auction soon’

2009-12-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: PM Manmohan Singh on Friday said that 3G telephony spectrum would be auctioned soon, thus ending the uncertainty generated by reported differences between ministries of telecom and defence on vacation of airwaves.

"I am happy that auction of spectrum for 3G and broadband wireless services will be conducted shortly. In a reform initiative, the government has decided that this spectrum will be allocated at market-determined prices rather than administered one," he said at a telecom conference here.

There were reports that auction of 3G spectrum (air waves) could be delayed beyond scheduled January 14, 2010 and FM Pranab Mukherjee was entrusted with the responsibility of resolving inter-ministerial dispute. The Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Mukherjee, had late last month cleared over Rs 10,000-crore package for building alternate network for the defence force to get spectrum vacated for commercial use and the same was to go to Cabinet for clearance.

Singh also predicted that India, which already has nearly 488 million mobile users and adds about 15-16 million users a month, could witness robust growth in the sector given the fact that the economic downturn is showing signs of moderation. Meanwhile, communications minister Andimuthu Raja said that the auction of high-speed third-generation wireless frequencies could be completed by March 2010.

PM also assured that all the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats in the country will be provided high speed broadband connectivity by 2012 to remove asymmetry of information and opportunities to the rural population.
POSTED BY:

PALLAVI SINGH

PGDM III SEM, 'B'

hundai workers insists on strike

2009-12-01T02:34:00.000-08:00

A third strike in nine months loomed large over Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) today with a section of workers saying they will go ahead with a tools-down agitation if the management or the state labour department do not act positively on their demands.
We have given a notice...If we don’t get any positive action from Hyundai management or from the labour department, we will fix the date for going ahead with a strike after December 5,” CITU state general secretary A Soundararajan said.
The CITU-affiliated Hyundai Motor India Employees Union, which has support of about 300 workers, have threatened to go on strike demanding reinstatement of 80 dismissed workers.
Asked if the strike call will not amount to a breach of MoU signed with the management in July, he said: “At that time they told us they would reinstate 80 dismissed employees but they reinstated only 20”.

ASHOK VERMA
PGDM 1sem

Ministry of Human Resources Development

2009-12-01T00:55:00.000-08:00

Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Education administers only those scholarships/fellowships which are being offered by the foreign countries under Cultural Exchange Programmes and other Programmes. The subject fields are generally chosen for those subject fields, facilities for which are available in the donor country and also keeping in view the national needs.
2. On receipt of the offer of scholarships/fellowships from the donor country, the same is advertised in Employment news/Rozgar Samachar, other leading newspapers and through circulars to States/UTs, Universities etc. giving all the details regarding amount of scholarship, age limit, educational qualification, experience etc. Application format is also published in the advertisement. No application form is supplied by the Ministry. The advertisements are published at different times for different schemes according to the time notified by the donor countries. However, tentative months, during which advertisements were published on the basis of offers received form foreign countries on the previous occasions are indicated for convenience. Future dates will depend on offers when received. These advertisements are published by the D.A.V.P. and desiring candidates should submit their applications by the last date indicated in the advertisement. No application is considered which is received after the due date. Offers are open to both employed and unemployed candidates. Employed candidates are required to submit their applications through their Employers with 'No Objection Certificate.' However, advance applications are also considered provided the `NOCs' are submitted to the Ministry in due course.
3. The scholarships/fellowships are awarded on merit on all India basis. The selection is made through a Selection Committee constituted of subject experts. Most of the scholarships are for doctoral and post-doctoral studies. Scholarships are also available at post-graduate level for language study, Fine Arts and some other subjects as being notified in each advertisement. All the details regarding scholarships would be available in the advertisement and the advertisement should be read carefully before submitting the application to this Ministry. Incomplete applications and applications for subjects other than what has been notified, are not considered. The decision of the Selection Committee on selection of candidates, is final. However, decision regarding award of scholarships rests finally with the donor countries. No scholarship is available to study at under-graduate level except language study.
4. Applications of candidates who are residing abroad, are not considered. Candidates who have been abroad for study/specialisation/training either on scholarship or on their own for a period exceeding six months are eligible to apply only if they have been in India for at least two years after their return from abroad on a specified date.
5. Candidates should have adequate knowledge about India and the country for which application for scholarship is being submitted.

'Dubai won’t be allowed to collapse'

2009-11-29T21:25:00.000-08:00

Two weeks before the world took fright at debt-laden Dubai’s growing financial problems, it was clear the UAE’s flashiest, most populous emirate was depressed. The Gulf state was dotted with vacant or half-empty apartments. Imploring signs ran down the front of some of the smartest, tallest new residential buildings: “To Let. Ring xxxx”. At least 20% of the available office space was reportedly vacant. Many restaurants were deserted. Shop attendants at the year-old Dubai Mall, a giant temple of commerce in the prestigious new $20 billion downtown Burj Dubai project, agreed in whispers that “there are fewer shoppers than 2008, much fewer”. Whispers because the local press and public are forced to play down the crisis. A publicist with one of Dubai’s largest companies added sotto voce that malls across the emirate were “markedly more empty”. The Dubai Mall was a case in point. People with big shopping bags were thin across its 1,000 shops. Not so in one of this mall’s most famous and rivetting features, the Aquarium & Underwater Zoo. Visitors continue to throng this at 50 dirhams per head, gawping at its “more than 33,000 aquatic creatures” through “the world’s largest aquarium window”. To an economist, the aquarium’s proud boast of high visitor numbers might say more about the state of Dubai than Dubai’s state. Aquarium staffers say the numbers are proof that “people still want to have fun, particularly for 50 dirhams, though they may not feel like big-time shopping.” So is Dubai going bust or simply changing its USP? Far from bust, insist long-time immigrant residents. Rohit Gupta, who owns and runs a shipping company, says his new neighbours — “Muslims from the UK” — may symbolize the basic reason Dubai will not be allowed to collapse under a mountain of debt some say is more than 100% of its GDP. “Dubai offers Muslims a place to do business, be themselves and relative freedom. This is not about to become another Iceland.” Those who cannily bought homes in the 818-metre Burj, the world’s tallest tower, say Dubai’s premium real estate remains “blue-chip and gilt-edged”. Emaar, in which the Dubai government has a 32% stake, is the emirate’s largest developer, is poised to float its stocks in India and claims it has a healthy balance sheet. That’s unlike Nakheel, which is building the Palm resorts on land reclaimed from sea and has set off the financial panic. Emaar claims it is still on target to launch the Burj in January and there are no money worries to sidetrack this confidence-building boost to Dubai’s image worldwide. An Indian who bought an apartment in the Burj at 2200 dirhams per square foot soon after it was launched in 2004 says “I can still get more than 3,500 dirhams per square foot if I want to sell. But I don’t and I won’t.” Gupta, who has worked out of Dubai for eight years, says this was “my second-best year, business-wise. It’s only the gamblers who have suffered”. Rightly so, perhaps, for a Muslim state that frowns on games of chance.

POSTED BY

PREETI KUMARI

PGDM III SEM

MTNL received highest GSM spectrum for Delhi, Mumbai

2009-11-29T21:24:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: State-run GSM mobile operator MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai, has 12.4 Mhz specturm, the highest amount given to any operator so far. The PSU has got 12.4 Mhz of spectrum on 900 Mhz and 1,800 Mhz band as per the Department of Telecom's list of radiowave allotment to all the GSM operators as on October, 2009. Bharti, Vodafone, BPL and BSNL have got a maximum 10 Mhz in various circles. In Delhi, Bharti and Vodafone have 10 Mhz each, followed by Idea at 8 Mhz. The new operator Etisalat has 4.4 Mhz in Delhi same as Reliance Mobile (GSM) and Aircel. In Mumbai, BPL and Vodafone have 10 Mhz radio waves each while Bharti has 9.2 Mhz. TTSL, Reliance Mobile, Datacom, Idea, Unitech and Etisalat have 4.4 Mhz each. The government has decided to freeze allocation of additional 2G airwaves until the upcoming 3G auctions. The communications ministry has sought the views of telecom regulator Trai on the DoT's internal spectrum panel's report, which was finalised in June. The report has called for delinking spectrum and licence and has sought auction of 2G spectrum.

POSTED BY:

SHUBHAM AGARWAL

PGDM III SEM

SBI to open 23 overseas branches by March

2009-11-29T21:18:00.000-08:00

MUMBAI: The State Bank of India, which enjoys the largest overseas presence among local lenders, is in the advanced stages of opening 23 more branches abroad over the next four months, a top SBI official said. This will take the total number of SBI branches in foreign countries to 160 by March, from 137 presently, enabling the lender to consolidate its position as a financial services conglomerate in the global landscape. SBI currently derives around 12 per cent of its total revenue from the overseas business. "Moving to newer markets is critical for SBI in the backdrop of India's increasing integration to the rest of the world. We will increase our overseas presence to around 160 branches by March," the official told PTI here. The banking giant plans to open 10-11 new branches in Nepal -- the country where SBI has largest foreign presence, by March. This will take its total branch-strength in Nepal to 48 from 37 now. In Washington, where SBI already have a representative office, the bank plans to open one branch shortly that will undertake a mix of business activities, including retail banking, the official said. "The Washington branch will be a full service branch, that will offer all types of banking services to all class of customers including retail banking," the official said. SBI Chairman, O P Bhatt, while receiving a UK delegation in September, said that the bank would set up an administrative office in UK by the end of this fiscal, which will act as a centre to control its European operations. State Bank plans to open over 40 new offices globally in the next one year, including five new offices in UK, Bhatt had said. Presently, SBI has seven branches in UK. Out of the targeted five, the bank expects to open three before March, the official said. Similarly, the bank is also looking at to set up one more branch in South Africa by the end of this fiscal, which would take the total number of offices in that country to four. "With major world economies coming out of recession, there is a significant revival seen in the business confidence in world markets. This would help the banking industry to find new business opportunities," the official said. The banking major also aims to expand operations in Maldives and Mauritius by strengthening its physical presence. It aims to open three branches each in both markets by March, the official said. In Doha Qatar Financial Centre, SBI plans to open a full service branch by end FY10 and is currently awaiting the regulatory approvals, to go ahead with the proposal. Other leading Indian banks having presence abroad include Bank of Baroda, which has 76 branches in 25 countries, Bank of India (29 branches) and ICICI Bank.

POSTED BY:

PALLAVI SINGH

PGDM III SEM

India, Bangladesh to ink power exchange deal

2009-11-26T06:24:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: India and Bangladesh will sign an agreement for exchanging electricity in off-peak hours and opening gates for cross-investment in the power sector. The deal will be signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit in the second week of December and will require connecting the transmission systems of the two countries, estimated to cost $200 million.

Government sources said the two sides are looking at exchanging electricity for nearly 17 hours a day. The volume of electricity exchanged is expected to be as high as 250 mw in the initial period and could eventually go up to 1,000 mw. Bangladesh has identified four interconnect points but India is finding Behrampur in West Bengal's Murshidabad district and Tripura as more viable sites for establishing the links.

The two points will link Iswardi and Asuganj, respectively, in Bangladesh. The agreement could eventually see Indian companies such as the Tata Group to revive their mothballed plans of setting up power plants in Bangladesh using gas form that country's Bibiyana fields and sell surplus electricity to India. The group had proposed to set up a power plant as part of its $3 billion investment plan that also included fertiliser and steel units.

For Bangladesh, the agreement will help overcome electricity shortages and manage peak-hour demands. It will also open a door for that country to source power from Bhutan and wheel it through the Indian transmission system. Demand for the use of Indian grid in return for allowing a pipeline from Myanmar to pass through its territory was one of the issues that saw a tripartite deal fall through in 2005-06.

A power link between India and Bangladesh will also fill up a gap in the proposed Saarc electricity grid. India already has a power link with Bhutan and is working on ramping up electricity imports to at least 5,000 mw by 2020. Simultaneously, it is also talking to Sri Lanka for an undersea link and Nepal for an overland interconnect that will allow exchange of 250-500 mw initially.

The sources said Bangladesh power secretary Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad was here recently to sew up details of the agreement and finalise the draft agreement. A team of Indian officials was also in Bangladesh two days back for reconnaisance. Joint technical teams will finalise modalities of implementing projects once the deal is signed.

POSTED BY:

PREETI KUMARI

PGDM III SEM

EcoCa set to challenge Tata Nano as the cheapest car

2009-11-26T06:18:00.000-08:00

EcoCa set to challenge Tata Nano as the cheapest car
A little-known company in London is set to challenge Tata Nano as the cheapest car by rolling out a 340 cc two-seater petrol car for as Nano in pics Nano Europa Making of Nanolittle as $2,200 (Rs 1 lakh) that it says will still ensure healthy profit margins for the makers. EcoCa, a small engineering and design company, is now scouting for a joint-venture partner in India to build the car with the same name.

“We have identified India as a lucrative market to achieve our price target of $2,200 which will also help us earn healthy profit margins,” Karman M Naghdi, MD of EcoCa Ltd, told ET. Karman M Naghdi said, “We have identified India as a lucrative market to achieve our price target of $2200 which will also help us earn healthy profit margins. Some Indian carmakers have also evinced keen interest to evaluate the prototype of our cars for performance, fuel efficiency and safety standards.”

While Mr Naghdi refused to disclose the name of any company EcoCa is in talks with, an auto industry executive familiar with the development said Mahindra & Mahindra could be one of the companies. A top M&M official, however, refused to confirm any such development. “We keep getting such proposals for technology and product development which we routinely evaluate,” he said, requesting anonymity.

EcoCa plans to utilise India’s low-cost manufacturing base to keep the price down for both global and domestic markets, said Mr Naghdi. “Some Indian carmakers have also evinced keen interest to evaluate the prototype of our cars for performance, fuel efficiency and safety standards,” he said. Developed with an investment of around 8 million pounds (Rs 60 crore) and inspired by the iconic Volkswagen Beetle, EcoCa comes with convertible roof and automatic gearbox that means no need to change gears.

The prototype is made of lightweight, a high strength ABS plastic, which has good resistance to impact, heat and chemicals. It weighs only 330 kg against Nano’s 635 kg and delivers a fuel efficiency of 27-28 km/litre of petrol against Nano’s 23.6 km/litre under standard test conditions. The car has cleared the frontal crash tests in Europe like the Nano and carries options of front airbags. It has a top speed of 70 kmph, much lower than Nano's 103 kmph. A new car chassis and body could be shelled out in 24 minutes flat under normal production cycle, Mr Naghdi said.

POSTED BY:-

SHILPI KUMARI

PGDM-3rd SEM

Rupee down 8 paise at 46.28 a dollar in early trade

2009-11-26T06:17:00.000-08:00

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee today depreciated by 8 paise to 46.28 against the US currency in early trade on expectations of capital outflows by foreign funds.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit traded 8 paise down at 46.28 a dollar. The rupee ended 17 paise higher at 46.20/21 against the US currency in the previous session.

Forex dealers said expectations of more capital outflows by foreign funds as stock market may open lower in tandem with weak Asian equity markets and demand for the US dollar from importers mainly put pressure on the Indian rupee.

They said, dollar's losses against other currencies contained the fall.

Posted By:

Shubham Agarwal

PGDM III Sem

Oman Oil buys 26% in BPCL project

2009-11-26T06:15:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: State-run Bharat Petroleum has wrested a 50% premium to allow Oman Oil Company to re-enter its Rs 11,397 crore Bina Refinery project.

Oman Oil has returned to pick up 26% equity in the project for an additional Rs 1,220crore, sources said.

The six-million tonne per annum refinery in Madhya Pradesh was originally conceived through Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd, a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum and Oman Oil. The joint venture was formed in 1993 but the Omanian firm did not contribute equity beyond the initial Rs 75 crore.

However, following inordinate delays in the implementation of the project, Oman Oil froze its investment in the company at Rs 75 crore for a 2% stake. It is now paying Rs 15 for a Rs 10 share in BORL and is picking up 26%.

BPCL, which holds 50% stake in the project, provided the unbridged portion of the Rs 4,000 crore equity in form of loan. The state-run firm would get its loan back once Oman Oil makes the payment for its 26% share. It will get the remaining 24% equity through an initial public offering, the dates of which are yet to be finalised, the source said adding BORL has already arranged Rs 6,400 crore loan to achieve financial closure.

Oman Oil's additional investment of Rs 1,220 crore would take its stake in BORL to 26% from present 2%. The project is scheduled for commissioning in early 2010.

Posted By:
Pallavi Singh
PGDM III Sem

fine money of scholar

2009-11-25T00:59:00.001-08:00

ScholarShips.com mission is to assist students in obtaining college scholarships and to help them and their family explore all the many available scholarship opportunities and financial aid information that might help them to achive the goal of going to college. The site provides a database and a proprietary scholarship search engine, that functions with your personal profile to identify and match the scholarships that are most relevant to you. if you want to get this scholarships inform them about yourself in order to get detailed information on available college scholarships and grant opportunities, which are all customized just for you. A good thing is that their scholarship database is updated constantly, that provides students the most extensive, accurate and relevant financial aid search results. Another cool fact is that searching for scholarships at this site is 100% free. Select your year in school, your date of birth, your zip code, a valid email address, create a password and submit it to start searching for the right scholarship for you

history of scholars

2009-11-25T00:59:00.000-08:00

cholarship of the Week:
Scholarships.com History Scholarship
History is one of the most popular college majors, and for a good reason. Instead of reading up on interesting cultures and events during their free time, history majors can do so while earning credit hours. If history is your passion (or at least your major), you’re in luck. Scholarships.com has created a scholarship especially for you. Just concentrate on the past, and we’ll take care of your future.
Students who apply for the Scholarships.com History Scholarship will have the chance to earn $1,000 towards their college education—and it couldn’t be easier. Just respond to the following question in a 250 to 350 word essay (entries that fall outside of this word range will be disqualified): "What has influenced your decision to pursue a career in history?"
Eligibility:
U.S. citizen
Registered user of Scholarships.com
Undergraduate student currently enrolled or a high school senior who plans to enroll in a college or university in the coming academic year
Indicated an interest in one of the following:Art History, History, Natural History
Prize: $1,000 scholarship
Deadline: December 31, 2009

CBI pegs Satyam fraud at Rs 14,000 crore

2009-11-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

CBI pegs Satyam fraud at Rs 14,000 crore

HYDERABAD: Seven months after its first charge sheet in the Satyam scam, CBI on Tuesday filed a supplementary charge sheet against disgraced Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju and nine others, pegging the Satyam fraud at Rs 14,000 crore instead of the Rs 7800 crore that Raju had owned up to in January this year. ( Watch Video )

The additional chargesheet however fails to nail Raju and aides on siphoning of funds from Satyam Computer, instead saying that the investigating agency was planning to file a separate chargesheet on the allegations of funds diversion and income-tax frauds within the next few days.

The 200-page chargesheet filed in the CBI court here, charged the accused of forging board resolutions and unauthorisedly obtaining loans worth Rs 1220 crore from banks as well as inflating Satyam revenues to the tune of Rs 430 crore by creating fake customers and generating fake invoices.

The chargesheet also identifies 1065 properties with a documented value of Rs 350 crore that were acquired by the Rajus with the spoils of the fraud. These include 6,000 acres of land, 40,000 sq yd of housing plots and 90,000 sq ft of built-up property.

CBI has also slapped charges of criminal breach of trust and falsifying accounts by inflating the acquisition price of Nipuna Services Ltd, the ITeS arm of Satyam. It also slapped a criminal breach of trust on them in the declaration and disbursal of dividends of Satyam Computers.

Meanwhile, the Rs 1220 crore unauthorized loans detailed by CBI in the chargesheet are not reflected in the company's books and are over and above the Rs 1230 crore that Raju confessed to Satyam having received from various Raju family owned companies including Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties.

The CBI, which on Saturday arrested Satyam's internal audit head VS Prabhakar Gupta making him the 10th accused, also charged the accused of criminal breach of trust in declaration and disbursment of dividend.
POSTED BY:-
SHILPI KUMARI
PGDM-3rd SEM

Undergrad nets Rs 32 lakh offer from Deutsche Bank

2009-11-24T21:07:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: For someone who aspires for a hole-in-one as an amateur golfer, Adit Mathur has made a Tiger Woodsian debut on the job circuit.

The 20-year-old undergrad of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) is now the toast of Delhi University (DU) as he has teed in an offer from Deutsche Bank for an annual compensation package of Rs 32 lakh ($69,000). Mathur, a resident of Civil Lines in Delhi, will be trained in London next year for a plum posting abroad.

The size of the offer made to a student from DU is what has made the cheerful difference to the ritual of foreign banks picking up students from Indian institutions, as such handsome offers are the perquisite of IITs and IIMs. The highest that a DU student has got in the past is Rs 14 lakh from Lehman Brothers in 2007.

However, that single spectacular difference has disrupted the private life of Adit, who is desperately staying clear of the media glare. The pleasantly surprised son of Prof Anita Mathur, who also teaches in the same college, has been the first pick of first timer Deutsche from DU. An avid sports enthusiast Adit’s father is the COO of GMR Sports which owns Delhi Daredevils.

“It was completely unexpected. I couldn’t prepare much in advance, but brushing up the basics helped a lot,” Adit told ET. He is flying off to London next July for the Graduate Analyst Training Programme, where he will interact with several other students from across the globe.

POSTED BY:
SHUBHAM AGARWAL
PGDM III SEM

Rupee up by 10 paise against dollar

2009-11-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

MUMBAI: The rupee continued its onward march against the US dollar for the third day in row by gaining 10 paise to close at 46.37/38, despite a lower opening in tandem with the stock markets.

The local currency recovered from its initial losses against the American greenback on fresh selling by banks in view of the rising demand from importers amid recovery in the domestic equity markets. The lower opening was also due to the month-end demand for the US currency from importers, mainly oil refiners, coupled with bearish stock market, which opened in the red following weak Asian cues. The stock market also trimmed its deeper fall towards the closing trade.

Following bourses, the local unit ended at 46.37/38 a dollar against yesterday's close, showing a net gain of 10 paise due to selling of dollars by corporates on the back of recovery in the local stocks. The rupee moved in a range of 46.36 and 46.64 during the day.

In a choppy trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex recovered from its initial sharp losses but still ended down by 49.10 points at 17,131.08 points, due to profit- booking at higher levels triggered by sharp fall in Chinese indices and the rest of Asia and a negative opening in Europe.

The dollar was stable in early trade in Asia after losing ground in New York, while Asian shares slipped as investors shrugged off the massive rally on the Wall Street and Europe yesterday driven by better-than-expected US home sales data.

POSTED BY:
PALLAVI SINGH
PGDM III SEM

welcome scholar in india

2009-11-24T01:31:00.000-08:00

Pioneer web publishing company in India publishing an Online Scholarship Directory, Onlne Scholarship Database, Online Scholarship Search Engine for students in India one who wish to study at home or abroad with scholarship, award or educational loan.
We publish informations like How to get scholarships, Where to Apply, Where to Download Scholarship Application Form to get Graduate Scholarships, Post Graduate Scholarships, Medical scholarships Engineering Schoarships Phd scholarships to study in various countires like USA, Canada, London, UK, Australia, Singapore and India.

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Amul Vidya Shree Award for 10th Std- Scholarships India
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A M M Arunachalam Lakshmi Achi Overseas Loan Scholarship India
Abilene Christian University Scholarship India
Bannari Amman Institute of Technology Scholarships India
Bharat Petroleum Scholarship For Higher Studies India

Central Sector Scheme of Scholarships for College Students India
Chacha Nehru Scholarship for Secondary School Students
CSIR Diamond Jubilee Invention Award(CDJIA) for School Children
Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarship 2010
DBT Research Associateship 2009 2010 for Phd Students in India
HDFC Bank Meritus Scholarships for School Students India
Indian Oil Corporation Scholarships Scheme
Indian Oil Sports Scholarships Scheme
Indian Council Of Agricultural Research Award Of National Talent Scholarship
K.C. Mahindra Education Trust Scholarships for Post-Graduate Studies abroad
K.C Mahindra All India Talent Scholarships For Polytechnic students
Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) Fellowship India
MHRD scholarship assistantship for Post Graduate Engineering Students India
MHRD Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students
Maulana Azad National Scholarship Scheme for School Girls Students 11th std
National Scholarship for Persons with Disabilities
NTPC Scholarships Scheme for Engineering Students
National Overseas Scholarships for ST Students 2009 2010
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National Talent Search Examination NTSE 2010 India
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NIIT Bhavishya Jyoti Scholarships
Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme for Minority Indians
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new air charter firm's fare equal to biz class of airlines

2009-11-24T01:28:00.000-08:00

It claims to be the country’s first low-cost air charter operation. It will offer destinations either not connected or with limited connection, but at the same fare you would pay for a business class ticket. All you have to do is to ensure there are three customers travelling together on its Cirrus aircraft (which has three seats).
Aviation enterpreneuer Manav Singh, who owns Club One which offers aircraft on fractional ownership, and Uttam Kumar Bose, former CEO of Air Sahara, today launched Air Car, the country’s first low-cost air charter, with Delhi as a base. Initially, the charters will fly out of Delhi and service cities within a 500 km radius. Said Manav Singh, the chairman, “Air Car is 50 per cent cheaper than any available air charter service currently operating for similar distances and is priced competitively to a business class ticket of an airline.”
While a business class traveller of an airline has to pay around Rs 10,000 for a journey from Delhi to Chandigarh and back , he can charter a three-seater aircraft at Air Car for Rs 60,000 for three people, which amounts to him paying the same fare per passenger. Additionally, Singh adds, the passenger saves on journey time, as he is not constrained to the scheduled flights run by airlines.
And, passengers can commute to places not connected by airlines. Bose, managing director, said: ”Agra, Baddi, Pantnagar, Dehradun, Ludhiana have emerged as new business hubs in northern India. However, airlines do not have flights to such places. Air Car offers them the option to travel faster to these places at reasonable rates.”
Singh sees tremendous potential in the low-cost air charter business. “Nearly 50,000 people travel business class at least once a year in India. Of them, even if 40 per cent shifts to flying with Air Car, the air charter business would grow to having 20,000 subscribers from the current 200 over the next two years. This is a growth of nearly 10,000 per cent.”
To this end, Air Car has already started negotiations with corporate houses and small to medium businesses, to offer travel packages which would enable them to fly to any place in the country against 100 hours of bookings.
Air Car now has two Cirrus SR-22 GTS aircraft and has placed orders for another 10 such carriers. It plans to add two to three aircraft every quarter and expand operations to all state capitals and major towns/cities by 2013. After Delhi, the company plans to launch operations in Maharashtra.
ashok verma
pgdm 1sem

international scholar

2009-11-24T01:17:00.001-08:00

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bharat petroleam scholar

2009-11-24T01:17:00.000-08:00

BHARAT PETROLEUM - SCHOLARSHIP FOR HIGHER STUDIES - FUELLING AMBITIONS

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Inviting Aspiring Scholars !!

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. takes pleasure in announcing Bharat Petroleum Scholarship for Higher Studies and invites applications from students who have demonstrated all around brilliance and have a passion to achieve excellence in their chosen field. .

Welcome to the BPCL Scholarships for Higher Studies.

BPCL is passionate about the 'Generation Next', and thus also supports the various education initiatives at all levels. BPCL scholars are a group of India students who yearly, seek assistance from BPCL in doing their post graduation.

BPCL supports the students, the future of tomorrow, the fuel of tomorrow’s growth with all humility and passion.

Currently we are inviting on-line applications from students who are pursuing higher studies in Universities / Institutes abroad for which firm admissions have been obtained for sessions starting between July 2009 and November 2009.

The last date for submitting applications on-line is 18th July, 2009.

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Project to upgrade Salem hospital apace

2009-11-23T23:22:00.000-08:00

SALEM: Salem is set to become a healthcare hub. The project to convert the Salem Government Medical College Hospital into a Rs. 140-crore superspecialty institution is apace.
“The hospital will be ready in three months,” said Union Minister of State for Health S. Gandhiselvan after inspecting the work on Tuesday. He promised additional funds for it if needed.
Health Minister M.R.K. Panneerselvam and Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam, who accompanied the Union Minister, said the State had finalised the list of doctors and paramedical staff to be appointed here.
Equipment for the hospital is ready. Interior works such as whitewashing, providing air-conditioning ducts, flooring, fixing fire extinguishers, electrical works and medical gases ducts are being carried out in the five-storeyed project, which is coming up on 30,000 square metres. The hospital will have 11 modern operation theatres and 441 beds.
“Trauma and emergency care will be its thrust area as the neighbouring districts of Erode, Namakkal, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and parts of Villupuram witness frequent road accidents,” said a senior physician. The civil construction is over. The State has provided Rs. 40 crore and land.
Sanctioned by the then Union Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, the hospital is among five Government Medical College Hospitals which have been upgraded into the superspecialty status in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh at a combined cost of about Rs. 520 crore.

POSTED BY:

SHUBHAM AGARWAL

PGDM III SEM

No bill from Tatas for Singur so far, says West Bengal

2009-11-23T23:14:00.000-08:00

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Monday said no compensation bill has been received for returning the 1,100 acres that was leased out to Tata Motors in Singur for setting up the mother plant for the Nano project. It also said land taken for a specific purpose by a lessee could not be blocked if the assigned project does not fructify.
It may be mentioned that Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata had said at a press conference in the city on September 1, 2009, that the group did not wish to sit on the Singur land, which was leased out by the West Bengal government, and block the State’s development. Speaking with the State Industry Minister Nirupam Sen sitting beside him, Mr. Tata said the Tatas were willing to hand back the land, if compensation was received for its investments made there. He also indicated an openness to consider an alternative project if it made business sense to the group.‘No talks on land use’
State chief secretary Ashoke Mohan Chakraborty told journalists at the secretariat that the government has not received any formal proposal from the Railways for setting up a project at Singur and the State government too has not held any talks on alternative use for this land. “It is premature to say who will do what at Singur,” he said. On the compensation issue he said: “No compensation bill has been received by the government as per my knowledge.”
Asked whether he held any talks with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), whose senior executives had recently visited the site at Singur, Mr. Chakraborty said, “There is no reason to believe that only BHEL was discussed. The Union Department of Heavy Industries has offered the State government around 300 acres of land which is presently lying unutilised at Durgapur.” He said this land belongs to a DHI-controlled closed company for which the Centre has no revival plans.
Mr. Chakraborty said BHEL, which plans to set up two power plants, has been checking out sites and had also come to West Bengal on this mission. This was a follow-up visit to an earlier meeting with state government officials.

Posted By:

PALLAVI SINGH

PGDM III SEM

Profit-booking takes toll on equity schemes

2009-11-23T20:44:00.000-08:00

Investors have sold units worth Rs 16,507 cr in the past 3 months.
Equity collections have taken a hit since the ban on entry load by mutual funds (MFs) kicked in from August 1. This, coupled with heavy profit-booking, has led to net outflows from equity schemes.
In the three months to October, the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, or the Sensex, rose 13.34 per cent. However, net outflows from equity funds were Rs 4,021 crore, according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi).
This is largely due profit-booking. Investors have sold units worth Rs 16,507 crore in the past three months. “This is not unusual. In a rising market, investors always book profits,” said a fund manager.
What seem to be hurting fund houses are relatively lower collections. That is, fund houses have collected only Rs 12,486 crore in the same period, thereby leading to net outflows.
In comparison, during the boom period of July- December 2007, fund houses had witnessed an outflow of Rs 44,914 crore. But at the same time, they had collected Rs 59,601 crore, leading to net inflows of Rs 14,687 crore. However, while profit-booking has increased substantially this time, collections have not increased. In the initial part of the rally, collections were booming. But now they seem to have slowed down.
Since the stock markets turned around in mid-March, investors have started coming back to mutual funds. As a result, between March and July-end, fund houses collected Rs 23,273 crore. In July itself, they collected an impressive Rs 8,737 crore – the highest during the year. Though profit-booking was also there – Rs 15,844 crore – the higher collections resulted in net inflows.
With the ban on entry load from August 1, collections have fallen sharply and fund houses collected only Rs 4,036 crore in that month. Incremental collections in September and October also have been similar – Rs 4,189 crore and Rs 4,261 crore. And redemptions have been rising – Rs 4,178 crore in August, Rs 5,945 crore in September and Rs 6,384 crore in October. Clearly, distributors are not enthusiastic about equity schemes now.
Said a managing director of a fund house, “Some of the leading mutual fund distributors have started shifting to selling insurance products because of higher commissions. So, even an upfront fee was not helping matters.”
He said both independent financial advisors (IFAs) and banks lacked the incentive to sell. And while smart investors might invest by approaching IFA, new customers were not coming.
PRATEEK MADHUR
PGDM 3 SEM
SEC-A

india china join hands on more represantation in WTO

2009-11-23T01:46:00.000-08:00

The political differences between India and China notwithstanding, the two countries are working in unison at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
India recently supported a proposal by China seeking more representation in the WTO secretariat in Geneva.
“India has co-sponsored a proposal initiated by China and several countries, including South Africa, in the Budget Finance and Administration Committee of the WTO that has called for staff composition of the secretariat that is more representative of the WTO membership as a whole,” South Africa's Head of Delegation to WTO Faizel Ismail said here yesterday.
India and China are also pushing for reforms and more representation for the developing countries in other multilateral organisations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. However, the two neighbours recently saw tension rising on the border issue and Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama's visit to Twang in Arunachal Pradesh.

ashok verma
pgdm 1sem

gurguo comunity scholar

2009-11-23T01:37:00.002-08:00

For A Pilot
By yogisharma, Section GN Posted on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 04:28:55 AM EST
Want to become a commercial pilot? You can realize your dream, provided you meet the minimum requirements, and join a flying academy to obtain a commercial pilot license. With the increase in competition in the airline industry, the career prospects of a commercial pilot are very bright. Today, pilots are earning more salary than ever before, and there are more airlines to hire them.
To become a commercial pilot you must get a Commercial Pilot License (CPL). But before you get a CPL, you must have a Student Pilot License (SPL). There are three pilot licenses, SPL, Private Pilot License (PPL), and CPL.
A CPL allows you to fly for airlines. Once you get an SPL, you can go for Private Pilot License (PPL) or Commercial Pilot License (CPL). But the PPL does not allow you to fly commercially and is generally taken up by those who have a passion for airplane flying.
Eligibility/Admission requirements
Age
For SPL - Not less than 16 years
For PPL - Not less than 17 years
For CPL - Not less than 18 year
Eye Sight
Your vision in one eye must be perfect - 6/6 eyesight. In the other eye, you could have an imperfection of 6/9, which must be correctable to 6/6.
Physical Fitness
You must be physically fit and free of any disease that can hamper normal functioning.Click On "Full Story" For Read These Point Of Story....
Educational Qualification
Class 10 for SPL
10+2 with Maths and Physics with at least 50% marks
Pilot Training Average Fees and Expenses
India
* Rs. 10-18 Lacs depending on the flying academy.
Abroad
* Rs. 18-25 Lacs, depending on the country and flying academy.
Pilot Training Course Duration
India
* Around 2 years
Abroad
* 6-12 months ( It may vary country to country)
Student Pilot License
You must clear a written theory examination in Air Regulations, Aviation Meteorology and Air Navigation and Air Technical.
You must obtain a medical certificate of fitness from doctors designated by the Director General of Civil Aviation. Only two bodies in India Air Force Central Medical Establishment in New Delhi and the Institute of Aviation Medicine, Bangalore are authorised to give you a medical fitness certificate.
You need a security clearance.
You need to take an oral examination and an aptitude test.
You need to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 10,000.
If you clear the medical test and the exams, you will be granted the SPL.
After you get a SPL, you can go ahead and get PPL and CPL. After getting the SPL you can directly go for a CPL. If you want to become a commercial pilot and get a job in the airline industry you need to have a CPL.Private Pilot License
After you obtain the SPL, you will be assigned an instructor to start your flying lessons. You will learn the basics of flying and your instructor will accompany you on flights.
After 15 hours of flying with an instructor, you can fly solo and go cross-country as well.
To obtain a Private Pilot License, you need to fly a minimum of 60 hours. Of this, at least 20 hours should be solo flying and 5 hours should be cross-country flights.
You also need to appear for the written theory examinations in subjects like Air Regulations, Aviation Meteorology, Air Navigation, Aircraft Engines and Seamanship.
You need to obtain the medical fitness certificate from the AFCME or IAM.
You must have passed Class XII or equivalent exam with Physics and Maths.
Training Costs
Rs 3,500 per
To get a PPL, you need at least 60 hours of flying. Thus the total flying expense is around Rs 210000.
Commercial Pilot License
The age range for getting a CPL is between 18 years and 30 years.
You need a minimum of 250 hours of flying to get this license.
150 hours have to be solo flying
25 hours of cross-country flying
10 hours of instrument flying (which means you rely only on the plane's instruments for flying without looking at the horizon or external assistance),
5 hours of flying in the night.
A medical certificate from ACFME or IAM and theory tests in Air Regulations, Aviation Meteorology, Air Navigation, Technical and Planning are other important parts of the process.
You can get the Private Helicopter License if you complete 40 hours of flight training with 15 hours of solo flying. You also need to take written exams on basic aviation subjects.
To get a Commercial Helicopter Pilot License, you need 60 hours of flight training as well as appear for a written exam.
Training Costs
Rs 900,000
For a Commercial Helicopter Pilot License Rs 1300,000
The fees at the premier flying school, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi, Rae Bareilly are above Rs 16 lakh for CPL+PPL. The 18-month CPL course for those who already have a PPL costs around Rs 12 lakh.
Airline Transport Pilot's License
The above mentioned licenses can only allow you to fly as a co-pilot. If you want to take over as captain, you need the Airline Transport Pilot's License, which is the highest aviation license available. Along with clearing written papers, you also need to clock a total of 1,500 flying hours and take medical tests.
Training Costs
Rs.30,000 to Rs.40,000 per hour.
Often, the airline you work for may sponsor the training costs.
Pilot in Indian Air ForceScholarshipsweb sites for more information on scholarshipCareer ProspectsTop Recruiters
Pilot in Indian Air Force
You can also become pilot in Indian Air Force. To join Indian Air Force, you need to take the NDA entrance test after class 12 with Physics

pilot traning scholar

2009-11-23T01:37:00.001-08:00

large number of scholarships are offered by several pilot training institutes to the students on the basis of merit. Scholarships offered by a few institutes have been given below:
Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi, Rae Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh) offers the following scholarships:
Rajiv Gandhi Foundation: A scholarship of rupees 3 Lakhs is offered to 2 women pilots based on their merit cum means for every batch.
Air India scholarships: A scholarship of rupees 4 Lakhs is offered to 2 students on a merit-cum-means basis for every batch.
Indian Airlines scholarships: A scholarship of rupees 4 Lakhs each is offered to 2 students on a merit-cum-means basis for every batch.
JRD Tata Memorial scholarships: A scholarship of atleast rupees 1 Lakhs each is offered to 4 students on a merit-cum-means basis for every batch. Scholarships of up to 10 lakhs a year is offered to the pilot training trainees by the JRD Tata Trust.
Scholarships for SC/ST candidates: A large number of different scholarships are made available to the SC/ ST candidates. A scholarship of rupees 2 Lakhs on training fee is offered. Another 2 lakhs by IGRUE is offered to selected candidates and a few other state government scholarships, etc are offered to the SC/ ST candidates.
The Madras Flying Club, Chennai, Tamil Nadu offers a large number of scholarships as well:
Scholarships for SC/ST candidates: For the SC/ST candidates who have completed their SSC/ 10 + 2 and who wish to take up a pilot training course a large number of government scholarships are made available to them.
Incase if you need to find out about more scholarships which are offered at various institutes and training schools you may visit the following websites.
http://www.scholarshipsinindia.com/civil.html
http://tribal.nic.in/cpladvt.pdf
• www.scholarshipsindia.com

Lyondell deal will up RIL's refining margins: Experts

2009-11-22T23:06:00.000-08:00

Reliance Industries, India's biggest-listed group, is planning to offer USD 10 billion to acquire a controlling stake in LyondellBasell, the bankrupt Dutch-based US petrochemical giant, in what would be one of the largest offshore acquisition by an Indian company, said people familiar with the matter.
The Indian conglomerate controlled by Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man according to Forbes, said on Saturday that it had submitted a preliminary non-binding cash offer to LyondellBasell and it added that it was reviewing a number of global opportunities for growth in its core business.We have to finalise a few points but Reliance is preparing to put USD 10 billion on the table," a person close to the group told the Financial Times. Another one person familiar with the deal said: "USD 10 billion is about right, give or take USD 1 billion".
Experts attached with local and international brokerages view the development as positive. “Over the last couple of years, RIL’s petrochemical business was a cause of worry. This particular move should assuage investor concerns on that business,” said Portfolio Manager PN Vijay.
Vijay said there were some concerns when RIL promoters sold treasury stock and now the management was keeping its word when it had promised some global acquisitions.
“The RIL stock too has been doing well in the last two weeks compared to the battering it received since June. It is still not on our buy list yet because of the huge overhang of the Supreme Court case [relating to gas] but this is surely a positive development.”
‘How you read the deal is a function of the price RIL pays,” said Adrian Mowat of JPMorgan.
“We suspect they will be pretty cautious in the price that they are willing to pay.”
Mowat added that RIL’s refining margins, which were currently under pressure, would improve if the Lyondell acquisition went through.

POSTED BY:- PREETI KUMARI
PGDM IIIRD
SEC-B

Tata DoCoMo launches per second roaming

2009-11-22T21:15:00.000-08:00

Mobile player Tata Docomo on Sunday launched per second billing for roaming across the country to take on rival Airtel, which announced a major cut in roaming charges last week.The company introduced 1 paisa per second for all incoming and outgoing local and STD calls, to any network, to mobile or landline phones, it said in a statement. At the moment operators follow per minute roaming rates and charges vary depending on location and network.The move would intensify the tariff war among the mobile companies on this new turf.Tata DoCoMo had earlier offered the one paisa per second scheme for local and STD calls which was later followed by other operators to grab customers."We are delighted to announce yet another industry defying offer to our subscribers-- a transparent and pack-free roaming tariff plan of 1 paisa per second for all incoming and outgoing call, both local and long distance, to all network and types of phones (mobile or landline)," Tata Docomo President Deepak Gulati said.The company is gearing up to roll out pan-India GSM services this year, the new roaming scheme would be available across the country, Tata Docomo said."When a subscriber is roaming most telecom operators in India charge a minimum of 50-60 paise per minute, even then the call duration is less than a minute. Under the Tata Docomo roaming offer, subscribers will be charged only for what he or she uses-- at 1 paise per second," Gulati added.

POSTED BY:-
SHWETA RANI
PGDM-3rd sem

RIL confirms acquisition plan for LyondellBasell

2009-11-22T21:11:00.000-08:00

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has said it has made a non-binding offer for cash for LyondellBasell, an international chemicals company. Though RIL did not name a figure for the offer, it is reported to be around $12 billion.
In a statement, the Indian energy giant said it has submitted to LyondellBasell, a preliminary non-binding offer to acquire for cash, a controlling stake in it upon its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy pursuant to its plan of reorganisation. It was reviewing a number of global opportunities for growth in its core business, RIL added.
“The offer is preliminary and subject to customary conditions, including conduct of due-diligence, documentation and receipt of creditors support,” RIL added.
If closed, this acquisition deal will be one of the largest by any Indian company overseas.
So far, the largest acquisition of an overseas firm was Tata Steel’s purchase of Corus for $13 bn. LyondellBasell said RIL has made a non-binding cash offer to buy a controlling interest and the offer represented a potential alternative to its previously filed reorganisation plan to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Both Reliance and LyondellBasell did not disclose the size of the offer in their statements.
LyondellBasell is the world’s third largest capitalisation of $55 bn. It had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2009 after it was impacted by high leverage, adverse market conditions & liquidity issues.
LyondellBasell, based in the US but headquartered in the Netherlands, was created in December 2007 when Basell Polyolefins merged with Lyondell Chemical Company.
It is one of the world’s largest producers of polymers, petrochemicals and fuels.
For RIL, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is among the advisors for the deal.
RIL, India’s most valuable private sector conglomerate, has been looking to expand its operations, taking advantage of the current low valuations to delve into the global markets.
Earlier at the company’s annual general meeting, its chairman and managing director (CMD), Mukesh Ambani had said the company was aiming to attain global scale for its conventional energy platform — petrochemicals, refining and oil & gas exploration — and invest in its new businesses such as retailing and alternative energy.

POSTED BY:-
SHWETA RANI
PGDM-3rd sem

Product strategies and business development

2009-11-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

PRODUCT-POSITIONING STRATEGY
The term positioning refers to placing a brand in that part of the market where it will receive a favorable reception compared to competing products. Because the market is heterogeneous, one brand cannot make an impact on the entire market. As a matter of strategy, therefore, a product should be matched with that segment of the market in which it is most likely to succeed. The product should be positioned so that it stands apart from competing brands. Positioning tells what the product stands for, what it is, and how customers should evaluate it. Positioning is achieved by using marketing mix variables, especially design and communication. Although differentiation through positioning is more visible in consumer goods, it is equally true of industrial goods. With some products, positioning can be achieved on the basis of tangible differences (e.g., product features); with many others, intangibles are used to differentiate and position products. As Levitt has observed: Fabricators of consumer and industrial goods seek competitive distinction via product features some visually or measurably identifiable, some cosmetically implied, and some rhetorically claimed by reference to real or suggested hidden attributes that promise results or values different from those of competitors’ products. So too with consumer and industrial services what I call, to be accurate, “intangibles.” On the commodities exchanges, for example, dealers in metals, grains, and pork bellies trade in totally undifferentiated generic products. But what they “sell” is the claimed distinction of their execution the efficiency of their transactions in their client’s behalf, their responsiveness to inquiries, the clarity and speed of their confirmations, and the like. In short, the offered product is differentiated, though the generic product is identical. The desired position for a product may be determined using the following procedure:
1. Analyze product attributes that are salient to customers.
2. Examine the distribution of these attributes among different market segments.
3. Determine the optimal position for the product in regard to each attribute, taking into consideration the positions occupied by existing brands.
4. Choose an overall position for the product (based on the overall match between product attributes and their distribution in the population and the positions of existing brands). For example, cosmetics for the career woman may be positioned as “natural,” cosmetics that supposedly make the user appear as if she were wearing no makeup at all. An alternate position could be “fast” cosmetics, cosmetics to give the user a mysterious aura in the evenings. A third position might be “light” cosmetics, cosmetics to be worn for tennis and other leisure activities. Consider the positioning of beer. Two positioning decisions for beer are light versus heavy and bitter versus mild. The desired position for a new brand of beer can be determined by discovering its rating on these attributes and by considering the size of the beer market. The beer market is divided into segments according to these attributes and the positions of other brands. It may be found that the heavy and mild beer market is large and that Stroh and Budweiser compete in it. In the light and mild beer market, another big segment, Miller and Anheuser- Busch are the dominant competitors. Management may decide to position a new brand in competition with Miller Lite and Bud Light. Disney stores demonstrate how adequate positioning can lead to instant success. 3 Disney stores earn more than three times what other specialty stores earn per every square foot of floor space. Disney has created retail environments with entertainment as their chief motif.
As a customer enters the store, he/she sees the Magic Kingdom, a land of bright lights and merry sounds packed full of Mickey Mouse merchandise. From a phone at the front of each store, a customer can get the Disney channel or article a room in a Disney World hotel. Disney designers got down on their hands and knees when they laid out the stores to be sure that their sight lines would work for a three-year-old. The back wall, normally a prime display area, is given over to a large video screen that continuously plays clips from Disney’s animated movies and cartoons. Below the screen, at kid level, sit tiers of stuffed animals that toddlers are encouraged to play with. Adult apparel hangs at the front of the stores to announce that they are for shoppers of all ages. Floor fixtures that hold the merchandise angle inward to steer shoppers deeper into this flashy money trap. Managers spend six weeks in intensive preparatory classes and training before being assigned to a store. Garnished with theatrical lighting and elaborate ceiling displays, the stores have relatively high start-up and fixed costs, but once up and running, they earn high margins. Six different approaches to positioning may be distinguished:
1. Positioning by attribute (i.e., associating a product with an attribute, feature, or customer benefit).
2. Positioning by price/quality (i.e., the price/quality attribute is so pervasive that it can be considered a separate approach to promotion).
3. Positioning with respect to use or application (i.e., associating the product with a use or application).
4. Positioning by the product user (i.e., associating a product with a user or a class of users).
5. Positioning with respect to a product class (e.g., positioning Caress soap as a bath oil product rather than as soap).
6. Positioning with respect to a competitor (i.e., making a reference to competition, as in Avis’s now-famous campaign: “We’re number two, so we try harder.”). Two types of positioning strategy are discussed here: single-brand strategy and multiple-brand strategy. A company may have just one brand that it may place in one or more chosen market segments, or, alternatively, it may have several brands positioned in different segments.

Spectrum is a tax riddle, says PwC

2009-11-22T19:36:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: The government should clarify taxation rules regarding payments made for acquiring spectrum while working to resolve the issue of 3G spectrum allocation, according to financial consultancy firm PwC. "There is no specific provision in Indian tax laws governing the deductibility of the payments made for acquiring spectrum," a PwC report on the telecom sector said. With the allocation of spectrum, especially 3G being an issue of concern, rules governing the same in the taxation laws also assume significance. "Since, substantial amounts are to be involved for acquiring spectrum, determining its deductibility becomes critical," the firm said. An issue which follows the dearth of tax laws in case of spectrum is whether such payment is in the nature of capital expenditure or revenue expenditure, the firm pointed out. "If such expenditure is capital in nature, whether it is eligible for depreciation? If such expenditure is revenue in nature, whether the deduction thereof is allowable in the year of payment or over the period for which the spectrum is allotted," PwC said.
POSTED BY:
SHUBHAM AGARWAL
PGDM III SEM

IRDA may cap CEO salary at Rs 1.5 crore

2009-11-22T19:34:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: Insurance regulator IRDA is mulling to put a cap of Rs 1.5 crore on the annual salary of chief executive, which could be paid from the policyholders’ fund. Any salary beyond this could be paid by promoters, as per a proposal being studied by IRDA, sources said. “IRDA is examining the CEOs salary with great details and is having discussion with insurers on putting a cap. We are told Rs 1.5 crore could be paid by the company,” a source close to the development said. The sources added that any pay-packet higher than could not come from policyholders’ funds, if the proposal is accepted. In June, IRDA chairman J Harinarayan had said IRDA is mulling to put a cap on the managerial remuneration of insurance firms. He added that there should be a limit on what the policyholders could be charged for paying compensation to the managerial staff. The issue of CEOs salaries assume importance after some countries at G-20 meeting earlier this year had called for limiting their bonuses and tieing their salaries to long-term performance. In India, corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid had said the government does not want to play the regulator by intervening in executive remuneration and the issue should rest with the shareholders and the board of the company. There are more than 40 life and non-life insurance companies operating in the country. The Reserve Bank of India is also set to come out with a guideline to regulate the pay packages of senior executives of both private and foreign banks. The RBI currently clears the pay packages of CEOs of private and foreign banks on case-by-case basis after the compensation committee at each bank approves it. On the other hand, the salaries of CEOs of public sector banks are set by the government.
POSTED BY:
PALLAVI SINGH
PGDM III SEM

2009-11-19T02:55:00.000-08:00

The Madhya Pradesh government today passed Rs 2,300 crore first supplementary budget through voice vote. Of this, the government has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 1,700 crore. A lion’s share of the budget will go to power sector, school education, irrigation, panchayat and roads.
Silencing the Opposition FinanceMinister Raghavji today said, “Only handcart pullers will get Rs 10 crore as welfare fund for them, it had never happened during the previous congress regime.” He said the state was in a better financial condition without imposing additional burden of tax on commoner. “If we compare national and state growth rate, Madhya Pradesh has registered 17 per cent growth vis-a-vis 31 per cent decline in the national growth rate during the year 2006-2007 and 2008-2009,” he said. “When the Congress regime had taken over reigns from BJP-ruled Sundarlal Patwa government in 1992 the state had debt burden of Rs 5,000 crore, which swelled seven times to Rs 35,000 crore when the Digvijay Singh government was voted out of power. However, during the BJP-ruled present government the state burden had gone up only one-and-a-half times to Rs 55, 000 crore (net Rs 47,000 crore),” he added.
Of the total demands of Rs 2,322 crore, power sector will get Rs 500 crore for working capital, Rs 535 crore for school education, Rs 224 crore for irrigation, Rs 205 crore for Panchayat, Rs 163 crore for roads, Rs 79 crore for schedule tribes, Rs 60 crore for women and child welfare, Rs 50 crore for forests, Rs 41 crore for higher education, Rs 25 crore for health, Rs 18 crore for minority welfare, Rs 9 crore for schedule caste and Rs 11.49 crore will go to the horticulture sector.

ASHOK VERMA
PGDM 1st SEM

Tata says search underway for successor-WSJ

2009-11-18T07:35:00.000-08:00

Tata conglomerate is looking around the world for a successor to Ratan Tata, the 71-year old chairman of the sprawling salt-to-steel group said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday.
Local and foreign candidates were being looked at to head the group, which includes Tata Motors, Tata Steel , Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Power among its 27 listed companies "We are in the process of formalising a successor to me. We have some outside consultants and a formal search process is on. There are no constraints," Tata, who has steered the group for nearly two decades, said in the interview. The successor could be from within the group or outside, Tata said, adding he hoped the person would carry on the growth path that had been set. All but one of the group's past chairmans have been Tatas, although at the moment no family candidate has been publicly identified to take over the role. "It would certainly be easier if that candidate were an Indian national. But now that 65 percent of our revenues come from overseas, it could also be an expatriate sitting in that position with justification now," Tata said. Tata group's 98 operating companies have annual revenues of $71 billion and 357,000 employees, its website shows. The group, founded in 1868, runs India's top vehicle maker, top software services firm, top private sector power producer and the world's eighth-largest steel maker by output. Ratan Tata has led the group's international expansion. In 2007, Tata Steel paid $13 billion to buy Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus, and Tata Motors paid $2.3 billion to acquire Jaguar Land Rover in 2008. He said the group was still digesting those acquisitions, which had been made harder due to the global financial crisis and economic downturn. The downturn pushed Tata to ask his group companies to undertake a major cost-cutting drive. "Tata Motors was able to extinguish its borrowing of $3 billion through this difficult period, and most people don't realise the magnitude of that task," he said. Tata said the conglomerate model would continue to work reasonably well in India despite falling apart in other parts of the world, saying when the group had tried to shed some business it ran into strong objections from employees and the public.

Neha Verma
PGDM 3rd Sem

RBI proposes fund for urban co-oprative bank

2009-11-18T02:28:00.000-08:00

A panel set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended the setting up of an emergency fund to help urban cooperative banks (UCBs) tide over liquidity problems. In addition, it has proposed that a national-level umbrella organisation be set up to provide ATM, investment banking and cash management services to these entities.A working group headed by RBI Executive Director VS Das has also recommended that the Emergency Fund Facility Scheme can also help banks that fall short of the prescribed capital adequacy ratio.The fund is proposed to be set up through an agreement between UCBs and state governments. The banks could chip in with 0.05 per cent of their assets. This amount would earn interest, said the group.These funds would be available to the participating UCBs as a soft loan (liquidity support) carrying interest, which would be around 200 basis points higher than the rate offered on the contribution. The facility would be available to a UCB for six months to a year. The quantum of liquidity might be capped at 50 per cent of net worth, according to the proposal.While the working group turned down a proposal to set up a revival fund, it said the umbrella organisation to provide services to UCBs could be set up as a non-deposit taking non-banking finance company (NBFC). The company would start with paid-up capital of Rs 100 crore and an authorised capital of Rs 200 crore. The conversion of the umbrella organisation into a banking company could be considered later. It will provide a range of services to UCBs like credit facilities, liquidity to meet short-term mismatches, fund management services, investment banking services, payment and settlement services/gateway, information technology services, ATM network and services, management consultancy, and capacity building services. The non-deposit taking NBFC would have access to borrowings from banks and financial institutions, term deposits from UCBs, bonds and debentures, refinance against financial assets (loans and advances), including securities, and other miscellaneous sources for its working capital.In case of revival fund, the working group said Rs 2,500 crore will be required for UCBs to have a positive net worth

ASHOK VERMA
PGDM 1st SEM

Rural Marketing Strategies Need To Be Customised

2009-11-18T01:59:00.000-08:00

The rural market has changed drastically in the past one decade. A decade ago, the rural market was more unstructured and was not a prioritised target location for corporates. Very few companies, mainly the agro-based ones, were concentrating in these markets. Their were no innovative strategies and promotional campaigns. A distribution system did exist, but was feeble. Illiteracy and lack of technology were the other factors leading to the poor reach of products and lower level of awareness amongst villagers.
Gradually, corporates realised that there was saturation, stiff competition and clutter in the urban market, and a demand was building up in rural areas. Seeing the vast potential of 75 per cent Indians living in rural areas, they started focusing on these unexplored, high-potential areas.
Companies came up with special rural products, like Chic Shampoo sachets @ Re 1, Parle G Tikki Packs @ Rs 2, customised TVs by LG, Shanti Amla oil by Marico. All these brought positive results for them.
Also, campaigns like Project Bharat by Hind Lever, where trials were generated across India in 1999, saw 30 per cent of its total personal products growing to contribute 50 per cent five years down the line. In the first phase, they covered 11.5 million rural households and increased awareness by 41 per cent.
Project Jagruti in the second phase by Colgate Palmolive India was a village consumer contact programme in 2001. It increased penetration of Colgate Dental Cream by doubling the villages from 33,000 to 55,000, reaching to a million houses. Such projects lead to increased penetration of products in rural areas.
As a result, retail outlets have sprung up in practically all the villages that store products of various brands and categories. Also, high congregation areas, like fairs, haats, markets etc. are proving to be an important marketing tool since clusters of target audience can be tapped at the same time and place.
Location plays a big role in marketing. Therefore, if a product is for kids, anganwadis and schools are a good place tap them and their mothers. Similarly, mandis and village influencers act as a catalyst in pushing a brand/product.
The various points that affect rural marketing are:
ReachFor a product to reach six lakh villages, one needs to know that 700 million villages are spread over 3.2 million sq. metre of area. The road conditions are usually poor. It is, therefore, important for the marketer to have a good distribution system.

Obama: Rally the world for climate deal next month

2009-11-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

BEIJING – President Barack Obama, with China's leader at his side, lifted his sights Tuesday for a broad interim accord at next month's climate conference that he said will lead to immediate action and "rally the world" toward a solution on global warming.
Obama and President Hu Jintao talked of a joint desire to tackle climate change, but failed to move off differing positions on an root issue that could block a deal at the 192-nation conference in Copenhagen: how much each country can contribute to curb greenhouse gases and how the world will pay the billions of dollars needed to fight rising temperatures.
Hu said nations would do their part "consistent with our respective capabilities," a reference to the firmly held view among developing nations — even energy guzzlers like China, India and Brazil — that they should be required only to set goals for reining in greenhouse-gas emissions, not accept absolute targets for reducing emissions like the industrialized countries.
Nonetheless, the symbolism of the world's two largest polluters pledging no half measures in an agreement during the Dec. 7-18 conference was an attempt to take the sting out of the admission by Obama and other leaders over the weekend that Copenhagen would be only a way station rather than the endpoint envisioned two years ago when negotiations for a new climate treaty began.
Obama administration officials acknowledge that the Copenhagen talks are not expected to produce a final legal agreement, putting that off until next year. So the administration is hurriedly looking for ways to rescue a process that has gone far off track by building hopes that a significant, though interim and nonbinding, deal will be struck and keep international talks alive. Obama said Tuesday that he wants next month's talks to produce something more than "an agreement to have an agreement" at a future date.
"We need numbers on the table in Copenhagen," said Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, speaking to the top negotiators of 44 nations meeting for informal consultations. He said the agreement should be "concrete and binding on countries committing to reach targets, to undertake actions, and to provide agreed finance."
Obama said the aim of the summit "is not a partial accord or a political declaration, but rather an accord that covers all of the issues in the negotiations, and one that has immediate operational effect."
He said an all-encompassing agreement addressing all the areas for an eventual treaty "would be an important step forward in the effort to rally the world around a solution to our climate challenge."
Obama did not elaborate. But the United Nations and the European Union have called for a fund of at least $10 billion annually in the next three years to help poor countries draw up plans for moving to low-carbon economies, slow deforestation and take emergency steps against the effects of climate change.
The agreement is meant to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which required 37 industrial countries to cut emissions an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, but which made no demands on rapidly growing economies like China's.
The Copenhagen agreement would require developing countries to curb their emissions growth, but it was unclear how their plans would be enshrined in the accord and what would happen if their promises were broken.
White House aides said Sunday that a fully binding legal agreement would be put off until a December 2010 meeting in Mexico City, even though the new agreement must be ratified and in force when the Kyoto pact expires at the end of 2012.
Together, the U.S. and China emit 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, and a new study said the recent growth of emissions during the economic downturn was almost entirely driven by China. Worldwide carbon emissions jumped 2 percent last year, said the study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Geoscience, adding urgency to efforts to rein in pollution that traps the Earth's heat.
In a joint statement, Obama and Hu said Copenhagen should produce an agreement that would "include emission reduction targets of developed countries and nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries."
Obama administration officials are pushing for Copenhagen negotiators to tackle specifics on the major issues such as financing for poor nations, technology cooperation and some commitments among developing nations — though not legally binding — on emission reductions.
That is what Obama was referring to when he said in Beijing that whatever comes out of Copenhagen should have "immediate operational effect," according to administration and congressional officials with knowledge of the administration's preparation for the climate talks.
In Washington, Carol Browner, the White House adviser on energy and climate, said the United States is ready to participate in a commitment by developed countries to help poor countries deal with the impacts of climate change. Browner declined to say how much the United States might contribute, but indicated those details would be worked out in Copenhagen.
U.N. estimates say about $150 billion a year will be needed by 2020.
The summit's Danish hosts and other European leaders understood Obama's comments on his Asian tour as a signal that he will deliver specific pledges of U.S. action on carbon emissions and financing in Copenhagen — even at the risk of moving faster than Congress would let him.
U.S. negotiators have persistently resisted pressure to commit to figures for emissions reductions or financing until Congress completes domestic climate legislation.
The legislative struggle in Congress is now certain to extend into next year. One version, calling for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by mid-century, has passed the House and a similar version recently emerged from a Senate committee, despite solid Republican opposition.
The administration hopes the U.S. position in Copenhagen will be fortified by evidence of some progress in Congress on climate, along other action the White House has taken to promote clean energy and rein in carbon dioxide emissions. In turn, they believe, some additional commitment from developing countries — even in terms of specific goals — could help get a climate bill through Congress, where opponents have repeatedly argued U.S. action alone won't help solve the climate problem.
Loekke Rasmussen said he told Obama and other leaders last week at an Asia-Pacific summit they must come up with hard commitments at Copenhagen, and Obama did not object.
Anders Carlgren, the environment minister of Sweden, said U.S. pledges would likely spur greater promises from developing countries to curtail their emissions growth. Obama could then take those results back to Congress, Carlgren said.
Obama's comments in Asia signaled he is trying to balance domestic concerns with international demands and is in intense conversation with Congress in advance of the summit, said Jake Schmidt, the climate policy director for the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council.
He said it was possible Obama might make a conditional pledge or give a range of emissions targets.
"It's a positive shift in what the administration thinks it can bring to Copenhagen," he said.
___
Max reported from Amsterdam. Associated Press writers Jan Olsen in Copenhagen, Malin Rising in Stockholm, and H. Josef Hebert and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

POSTED BY:

SHUBHAM AGARWAL

PGDM III SEM

Asian stocks mixed amid caution after gains

2009-11-17T23:57:00.000-08:00

HONG KONG – Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday amid investor caution following the recent advance in the region's markets.
Japanese and Hong Kong markets fell while South Korea and Shanghai shares rose. Oil prices extended their climb and gold hit another record high, while the dollar slipped against the yen and the euro.
The sideways trade followed an erratic session on Wall Street and a string of gains in Asia as the weakening dollar increased investor appetite for stocks and commodities like gold and oil.
But after several indexes touched new highs for the year, investors have become worried about the market overheating and started to book profits.
There's a lack of conviction among many investors about the market's direction, analysts said.
"The markets are pretty much stretched," said Belle Liang, head of research at Core Pacific-Yamaichi International. "It's very hard to gauge where the market is going at this moment. You never know when the liquidity will dry up."
Japan and Hong Kong led the region's declines, with Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock average losing 53.13 points, or 0.6 percent, to 9,676.80 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shedding 14.82, or 0.1 percent, to 22,899.33.
Markets in India, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand also fell.
Among higher markets, South Korea's key index rose 1.1 percent to 1,603.97 and Shanghai's benchmark was up 0.6 percent to 3,303.23. Shares in Taiwan and Australia were modestly higher as well.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average rose 30.46, or 0.3 percent, to 10,437.42.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.02, or 0.1 percent, to 1,110.32, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 5.93, or 0.3 percent, to 2,203.78.
U.S. futures pointed to a lower open Wednesday on Wall Street.
Oil prices extended gains, closing in on $80 barrel in Asia after an unexpected drop in U.S. crude supplies suggested demand could be improving.
Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 62 cents to $79.77 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 24 cents to settle at $79.14 on Tuesday.
Gold was trading up 0.1 percent at $1,139.5 after setting another record at $1,144.4
In currencies, the dollar fell to 89.15 yen from 89.24 yen. The euro rose to $1.4900 from $1.4874.

POSTED BY:

SHUBHAM AGARWAL

PGDM III SEM

Oil above $79 after US crude supply drop

2009-11-17T23:55:00.000-08:00

SINGAPORE – Oil prices extended gains above $79 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after an unexpected drop in U.S. crude supplies suggested demand could be improving. Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 35 cents to $79.49 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 24 cents to settle at $79.14 on Tuesday. U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly fell last week, the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday. Crude stocks fell 4.4 million barrels while analysts had expected a rise of 1.2 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. The Energy Information Administration plans to announce its inventory report later Wednesday. Crude prices have zigzagged around $79 a barrel for more than a month as investors mull mixed economic data from the U.S. Home Depot Inc., Saks Inc. and Target Corp. all reported better-than-expected third-quarter results Wednesday. Traders will next be eyeing the holiday shopping season for signs of improving consumer confidence. In other Nymex trading, heating oil rose 0.64 cents to $2.06 a gallon. Gasoline for December delivery gained 1.11 cents to $2.02 a gallon. Natural gas for December delivery jumped 3.8 cents to $4.57 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude for December delivery rose 37 cents to $79.34 on the ICE Futures exchange.
POSTED BY:
PALLAVI SINGH
PGDM III SEM

Finding blue oceans

2009-11-17T21:43:00.000-08:00

Indian companies must create uncontested market spaces in different sectors
As products and services increasingly become commodities in overcrowded industries and companies, profitable growth shrinks and companies are driven to compete primarily on cost. Companies in India today are competing in the global market place where cost arbitration alone is not sufficient to differentiate and sustain the business. Historically, a recession is a time of enormous creativity and breakthrough business launches. If we look at the current Indian information technology industry, the pure outsourcing or offshore development centre business models are not able to deliver sustained growth. It is time for companies in the sector to look into value innovation — the cornerstone of Blue Ocean Strategy.

The long-term solution for creating jobs is in companies creating compelling products and services that take them out of the vicious cycle of commodity completion. Lean times create innovation that is smarter than the innovation that is generated during fatter times. They are smarter because they are based on ideas — not big budgets, research and development, or technological breakthroughs. Therefore, Blue Ocean Strategy is a rising imperative for CXOs.

Blue Ocean Strategy is critical in today’s business climate because prospects in most established market spaces — red oceans — are shrinking steadily. Technological advances have substantially improved industrial productivity, permitting suppliers to produce a plethora of products and services. And as trade barriers between nations fall and information on products and prices becomes instantly and globally available, niche or monopoly markets are beginning to disappear.

The result is that in more and more industries, supply is overtaking demand. This situation has inevitably hastened the commoditisation of products and services, stoked price wars, and shrunk profit margins. If we look at some of the major brands in India, a variety of product and service categories have become more and more alike. And as brands become similar, people increasingly base purchase choices on price. In overcrowded industries, differentiating brands becomes harder both in economic upturns and in downturns.

Swimming in a ‘red ocean’? The question one has to answer is, “Is there is a systematic approach to creating blue oceans?” The authors of Blue Ocean Strategy, Chan Kim and Renne Mauborgne, began looking at companies spanning a 100-year period. During their analysis, it showed that there are no perpetually excellent companies. Consider In Search of Excellence, the first bestselling business book published in 1982. Within just five years, two-thirds of the identified model firms in the book had declined. Likewise, for those sample companies in Built to Last, another blockbuster business book, it was later found that if industry performance was removed from the equation, many of the companies in Built to Last were no longer exceptionally excellent. Therefore, one can safely conclude that there is no perpetually high-performing company and likewise there are no perpetually excellent industries. If we look at the once high-performing telecom industry over a three-year period from 2000 to 2003, it lost half a million jobs and was the cause of tremendous personal financial loss and upheaval. Four trillion dollars of market capitalisation disappeared.

Consider the IT/BPO sector in India. A few years ago, it looked like there was no stopping its meteoric rise and people envied companies in that industry. Today, the reverse is largely true. When companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand, product and services become commodities and there is cutthroat competition. This can be termed as ‘red oceans’.

Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today — the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. It is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored. It is vast, deep and powerful in terms of profitable growth.

Therefore, after extensive analysis of the industry, Blue Ocean Strategy has revealed that the ‘strategic move’, and not the company or the industry, is the right unit of analysis for explaining the creation of blue oceans and the root of profitable growth. Strategic moves are a set of managerial actions and decisions involved in making a major market-creating business offering. The basis of blue ocean systematic methodology is based on a study of over 150 strategic moves from over 30 industries, spanning from 1880 to 2000.

Many opportunities
The principles of Blue Ocean Strategy apply across all types of industries — from consumer product goods, pharmaceutical, financial services, entertainment, agriculture, IT and even government. In India, we have several opportunities to leverage and apply the principles of Blue Ocean Strategy to create uncontested market space.

For example, how do we compete and transform our coffee industry in India? Although India is not a major coffee exporting country, it is still a large producer of approximately 300,000 tonnes a year. Ensuring profitability and success of the coffee growers in the region is of paramount importance, beyond just economic reasons. Prolonged neglect of coffee plantations will result in ecological damage to the Western Ghats as each acre sustains almost 400 to 500 shade-bearing trees. It is time for us to look at the techniques of Blue Ocean Strategy and embrace value innovation.

Then there is India’s success story in the electric vehicle industry where Reva has created a blue ocean for itself as an ‘idea and knowledge company’. Instead of competing against the traditional automobile manufacturer’s product, a red ocean, Reva has focused on the electric vehicle, thereby creating a blue ocean for itself.

The success of the Indian Premier League is yet another example of how a successful blue ocean has been created by reducing spectator time, reducing the emphasis on classic batting and bowling techniques, raising the pace of the game and emphasis on athleticism, increasing the entertainment quotient with Bollywood and cheer leaders. It overall created a unique entertainment experience coupled with loyalty to the city.

We can apply the principles and techniques of Blue Ocean Strategy to transform our healthcare industry via remote healthcare and diagnostics. This can be done by deploying networked MRI’s in Tier II cities and rural India and providing affordable MRI services. We can educate the rural masses in India by looking at a unique way to reach out to them besides traditional brick and mortar institutions. Can we leverage remote education and create collaborative educational communities?

A rich array of companies have created blue oceans across diverse, and unexpected, industry domains from NetJets in jet travel, to NABI in the municipal bus industry, Cemex in Cement, Joint Striker Fighter in defence, and Cirque du Soleil in entertainment.

Whereas Blue Ocean Strategies create new market spaces and change industry dynamics, they are not necessarily initiated by new entrants to an industry. Blue oceans are created by both incumbents and new entrants. CXOs at large and established corporations should find it comforting — startups do not have natural advantages over established companies in creating new market spaces. Large R&D budgets are not the key to creating new market space either. The key is making the right strategic moves. A company that understands what drives good strategic moves will be best positioned to create multiple blue oceans over time, thereby continuing to deliver high growth and sustained profits. Therefore, creation of blue oceans is a product of strategy and as such is a direct result of managerial action, and not the size or age of the firm. CXOs are empowered to leverage the principles and techniques offered by Blue Ocean Strategy to enable transformative moves within their respective organisations

POSTED BY:-
PREETI KUMARI
PGDM IIIRD
SEC-B

Satyam gets notices from 37 companies

2009-11-17T21:19:00.000-08:00

Satyam gets notices from 37 companies
In what could be a major setback for the Mahindras as well as the restatement of Satyam accounts, Mahindra Satyam has received legal notices from 37 companies staking claim to a refund of Rs 1230.4 crore that was allegedly given as a temporary advance to the then Satyam Computer Services.

"The notices have claimed the return of money to 'repay creditors', some of whom include Maytas Properties Ltd and Maytas Infra Ltd", Mahindra Satyam said in a filing to the bourses on Tuesday.

Mahindra Satyam also told the bourses that it had replied to the legal notices on November 14, 2009, stating that the claims were "legally untenable". The company also said that Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju's confession letter dated January 7, 2009, too had made a reference to "a net amount of Rs 1,230 crore arranged to the company by the 37 companies".

Incidentally, after the Satyam scam broke out, Raju's younger brother Suryanarayana Raju too is learnt to have written a letter to Satyam, seeking a refund of over Rs 1,200 crore which he claimed were given by Raju family-owned private companies.

Recently, even Maytas Infra's new owner-- IL&FS-- has written to Mahindra Satyam, giving proof of a transfer of Rs 20 crore through two front companies — Angeerasa Greenfields and Saptaswara AgroFarm — on July 31, 2008, into Satyam accounts through the Hyderabad branch of Axis Bank.

The IL&FS letter is also understood to have asked Mahindra Satyam to show the money as debt in their accounts, which are being restated by KPMG. The Mahindras, incidentally, have got an extension up to June 30, 2010, for submitting the restated Satyam accounts to various regulatory authorities.

It was government-appointed director on the board of Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, Ved Jain, who had disclosed in July that the two companies had given Rs 392 crore and Rs 220 crore respectively to Satyam via privately- owned companies.
POSTED BY:-
SHILPI KUMARI
PGDM:-3rd SEM

RIL outlines growth plan, to scout for acquisitions overseas

2009-11-17T08:13:00.000-08:00

India's most valuable company, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), on Tuesday outlined its growth plan and said it is scouting for oil and gas properties overseas, which will help bring about a better balance between domestic and international operations."Reliance continues to accrue oil and gas properties overseas. These overseas oil and gas initiatives would reinforce the domestic effort. It will also bring a better balance between domestic and international operations as well as between onshore and offshore properties," RIL's Chairman and Managing Director, Mukesh Ambani, told shareholders at the company's 35th annual general meeting in Mumbai.The petrochemical giant currently has 99,000 square kilometres of acreage under exploration in Oman, Yemen, Colombia, East Timor and Peru.Ambani said RIL has also commenced drilling its first offshore exploratory well as an operator in the deep waters of Oman block 18, while the averge production from Yemen's Block 9 has reached a level of 4,200 barrels of oil per day (bpd).

POSTED BY:-
SHWETA RANI
PGDM-3rd sem

Chip designer ARM leads Android alliance

2009-11-17T04:41:00.000-08:00

ARM on Tuesday announced the launch an alliance of 35 tech companies to support development of Android-based products using its widely used chips.

ARM-based chips power the world's most popular smartphones, including--in the U.S.--the Apple iPhone, Blackberry Storm, Palm Pre, and Motorola Droid.
The Solution Center for Android alliance will serve as a resource for designers and developers of ARM technology-based products running on the Android operating system, which is the software on the popular Motorola Droid smartphone and Acer Liquid.
In addition to smartphones, Android powers digital picture frames and smartbooks--what the ARM camp prefers to call Netbooks. ARM-based smartbooks packing processors from Qualcomm, Freescale Semiconductor, and Texas Instruments should begin to emerge in force at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, where Lenovo, among others, will debut its first-ever smartbook design. The Lenovo smartbook is expected to be sold by AT&T.

"Developers require assurance that the components they are using are up to the task," ARM said in a statement. "Android was written for the ARM architecture and Android 2.0 was launched on high-performance (ARM) Cortex-A processor designs."
ARM says the launch of popular products is putting new pressure on the ecosystem that supports ARM. "As we have seen through the recent launches of handsets such as Motorola's Droid and Acer's Liquid, the Android platform represents a fundamental change in the open source ecosystem," Kevin Smith, VP of segment marketing at ARM, said in a statement.
Smith says that ARM now needs to ensure that development solutions are world-class. "ARM is in a position to foster an innovative ecosystem to ensure that device manufacturers have the best development solutions at their disposal," he said.
Analysts agree. "Consumer adoption of smartbooks, smartphones and other 'always on' connected devices is forecast to increase significantly in the next few years," Jeff Orr, a senior analyst at ABI Research, said in a statement provided by ARM. "Manufacturers of these devices need a support structure that enables them to develop cutting-edge devices quickly and affordably."
ARM said that in addition to the support of major device makers, silicon partners and solution providers, the Solution Center for Android comprises more than 35 members of the ARM community, including Texas Instruments, Mentor Graphics, and Archos.

Neha Verma
PGDM 3rd Sem

OBC seeks Rs1000 crore from Government CMD

2009-11-17T01:09:00.000-08:00

Claiming that the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) was in its expansion mode and would open at least 200 new branches every year in the next three fiscals, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Bank T Y Prabhu said the bank had sought capital support of Rs 1,000 crore from the government to implement its expansion plan.
"At present the OBC is having 1,429 branches in the country apart from 59 extension counters with 891 ATMs and it has planned to open at least 200 branches every year in the next three years,&" Prabhu, who was here to open a new branch of the bank, told reporters.
"We have requisited capital support of Rs 1,000 crore from the Government of India and the sanction is expected for the same,&" Prabhu said revealing that very soon the OBC would launch mobile banking system also in which the customers could operate their accounts through their mobiles phones.
Unveiling the expansion plan, the CMD said up to September 30, OBC had attained business growth at the rate of more than 24 per cent and it had been targeted to achieve the business of Rs 200,000 crore by March 2010 by opening more than 100 new branches.

ASHOK VERMA
PGDM 1sem

2009-11-17T00:48:00.000-08:00

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Rupee marginally up by 8 paise at 46.13/$

2009-11-16T21:17:00.000-08:00

The Indian rupee inched higher by 8 paise to 46.13 against the dollar in early trade today, extending gains for the third straight day as the US currency dropped against major units.

Rupee up 20 paise at 46.11/$
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Forex reserves up by $1.023 bn to $285.414 bn
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Rupee down 4 paise at 46.69/$ in early trade
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Rupee down 11 paise at 46.41/$ in early trade
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Rupee rises on growth hopes, rise in stocks
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Rupee weakens by another ten paisa at 46.60/$

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Rupee marginally up by 8 paise at 46.13/$
Dollar selling by exporters also supported the Indian rupee.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local unit edged higher by 8 paise to 46.13 a dollar. Yesterday, the rupee ended 10 paise higher at 46.21/22.Forex dealers said the US currency's losses against other major currencies and dollar selling by exporters, mainly helped the Indian rupee to strengthen.Besides, firming equity markets also supported the rupee, they said.The benchmark Sensex had gained 183.68 points in the last session.

PRATEEK MADHUR

SEC-A PGDM

Search: Keyword Price BS Headlines Author BS Entire Site Web

2009-11-16T21:10:00.001-08:00

The Sensex opened at 17,036 but soon slipped into the negative terrain owing to weakness in the global markets. The index is now at 17,004, down 30 points.

Sensex gains 189 points, led by Maruti Suzuki, SAIL
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Among the Sensex 30-stocks, DLF has slipped 2% to Rs 378. SBI and ICICI Bank are down around 1.5% each at Rs 2,310 and Rs 906, respectively.
Maruti, Reliance Infrastructure and Tata Power are down over 1% each.
Infosys has advanced around 2% to Rs 2,391 and Wipro has added 1% to Rs 645, respectively.
Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Communications, Tata Steel, Sterlite and TCS are firm

PRATEEK MADHUR
SEC-A
PGDM.

Business Development Strategies

2009-11-16T20:41:00.000-08:00

Tools and Advice for the Graphic Communications Industry
The graphic communications market is undergoing tremendous transformation shifting from a manufacturing-based print industry to a service-based communications market. A strategic marketing plan plays a vital role in successful business ventures making this market transformation. How well the plan you develop markets your business, along with the management and financial plans, will ultimately determine your degree of success or failure. Traditional approaches to sales, marketing, and overall business management will show diminishing returns. We must all think and act differently to succeed.
InfoTrends’ Business Development Strategies (BDS) is designed to help document service providers focus on the changing market dynamics and develop a high quality strategic marketing plan for business growth.
The plan will emphasize what marketers dub as the 4 P’s of Marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. In addition, BDS will provide insight into the fifth “P”…People. This service will also help business managers understand the changing skills essential for success in the today’s world of graphic communications.
There are several major areas for your business where BDS can help your organization succeed:
Development of a Strategic Marketing Plan to address the changing customer base and market dynamics
Understanding horizontal and vertical target market opportunity
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Developing a value-added pricing strategy that evades the “low-cost” commodity market approach
Developing promotional strategies to expand awareness and market reach using multi-media technologies
“How to” sales tools that educate direct and indirect customer contact personnel on key horizontal and vertical market and the “key decision” makers in business document outsourcing decisions.
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BDS deliverables are designed to provide clients with timely and informative insights on current and future market trends and developments. Most importantly, this consultative service is focused on helping you take an introspective look at your business and assess options and opportunities for market expansion. Deliverables range from case histories and news to in-depth primary research and market analysis.
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Our consultants serve as an extension of your management, marketing, and research teams by providing knowledge and advice geared to your specific challenges and goals.

Foreign funds pull Sensex above 17,000

2009-11-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

MUMBAI: The stock market benchmark Sensex gained 184 points to close above the 17,000-points level as investors, foreign funds in particular, between their money on Indian stocks amid a smart rally in other markets.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer settled the day at more than a three-week high of 17,032.51, netting a rise of 183.68 points or 1.09% over its last close.

Asian and European markets rallied smartly as dollar weakened against a basket of currencies.

Shanghai Composite gained 2.74%, Strait Times 2.08%, Hang Seng 1.73%, Taiwan weighted 1.66% and Kospi 1.30%. European markets were trading firm in their early trade this afternoon.

The market sentiment was also boosted by sustained capital inflow into equity. Foreign Institutional Investors bought shares worth $774.2 million so far in November, taking the total purchases to $14.8 billion in the current calendar year.

The market, however, came under pressure at the day's higher levels on concerns about rising inflation which stood at 1.34% for October.

Auto stocks attracted continued demand from investors as the sector registered robust sales growth in October.

POSTED BY:

PREETI KUMARI

PGDM III SEM

Gold up to Rs 17,100 on wedding demand

2009-11-16T20:08:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: Gold prices surged by Rs 100 to Rs 17,100 per ten gram in the bullion market here on Monday on sustained buying by stockists and jewellers to meet the marriage season demand and as investors increasingly are moving funds from the dollar into higher-yielding assets.

However, silver held steady in restricted buying at existing higher levels.

The latest price of the precious metal is just a little lower than the all-time high of Rs 17,150. Marketmen said stockists and jewellers continued to enlarge their positions to meet the current marriage season demand amid a rising trend in overseas market.

Trading sentiment remained bullish after gold climbed to an all-time high in overseas market supported by a weakening dollar. The gold in overseas markets rose by 1.1 per cent to 1,130.43 dollar an ounce.

Gold in domestic market has been on a steady advance after the Reserve Bank of India bought 200 tonnes of the precious metal from the International Monetary Fund last month, underlining a strategy of reserve diversification and strong demand for the precious metal.

Analysts said they expected central banks to emerge as net gold buyers for 2009. The yellow metal broke 1,100 dollars an ounce for the first time earlier this month following news that Sri Lanka had joined India in purchasing gold instead of the US currency.

POSTED BY:

SHILPI KUMARI

PGDM III SEM

Satyam scam: SFIO to begin prosecution this month

2009-11-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday said the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) will begin prosecution into the Satyam scam this month.

"During this month, the SFIO will begin the prosecution on those or those areas of company laws that the SFIO is expected to and have been authorised to proceed with," corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid told a press conference here.

He said the agency is "dutifully and diligently" pursuing what it is supposed to do in the Satyam case.

The SFIO, an arm of the corporate affairs ministry, had investigated the multi-crore rupee Satyam accounting fraud and submitted its reports to the government detailing violations of company law by founder chairman B Ramalinga Raju and others.

The investigating agency will initiate proceedings on about 30 charges, mostly under the Companies Act of 1956, while the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be acting on five or six charges involving criminal offences under the penal code, sources said.

The corporate affairs ministry had asked the SFIO to initiate prosecution in the Satyam case after obtaining opinion of the solicitor general, sources said.

POSTED BY:

SHUBHAM AGARWAL

PGDM III SEM

Japan exits recession with 4.8% growth

2009-11-16T20:03:00.003-08:00

TOKYO: Japan’s economy grew at a robust annual rate of 4.8% in the third quarter as stimulus spending and a rebound in exports appeared to bring the country firmly out of its worst recession in the postwar era.

Gross domestic product grew 1.2% in the July-to-September period from the previous three months, or at an annual pace of 4.8%, the government said on Monday. It was the second consecutive quarter of growth for Japan and offered more evidence of a widespread recovery from the global economic crisis.

Last week, the 16-country euro zone said its economy grew 0.4% in the three months to September, the first uptick in six quarters. The GDP in the US expanded at an annual rate of 3.5% in the quarter that ended in September, also partly propelled by stimulus programs.

The reading for Japan, an initial estimate that could yet be revised, beat a 2.9% median forecast of 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Still, the outlook for Japan’s economy remains unclear, with a new government indicating it will slow down stimulus spending just as the recovery starts to gain steam.

“We’re finally seeing a rebound in domestic demand, and a high rate of growth over all. It’s clear that the economy has bottomed out,” Koichi Haji, chief economist in Tokyo, said. “But much of the recovery has been thanks to government spending, so well most likely see growth slow going forward,” Haji said. “It’s too soon to say we’re out of the woods.”

POSTED BY:

PALLAVI SINGH

PGDM III SEM

Bharti Wal-Mart piloting contract farming in Punjab

2009-11-16T04:57:00.000-08:00

Bharti Wal-Mart has initiated a development programme with the farmers of Punjab, which could well turn out to be the precursor to contract farming in the country.
The programme will help farmers grow high-quality vegetables and fruits with assistance from the company at each stage of cultivation. The company also coaches farmers on post-harvest technology after which the farmers sell their produce to the retail company.
“Our associates engage with the farmers at every stage of cultivation,” the Bharti Wal-Mart spokesperson told Hindustan Times. “We also help the farmers with post-harvest practices and help them reduce wastage and improve quality.”
Is this the beginning of contract farming? “Fruits and vegetables are believed to be a key footfall driver in retail stores and large retailers would eventually resort to contract farming to secure availability and consistency in quality and price,” the spokesperson said.
The company said it has launched a pilot programme with 65 farmers in Punjab. “The farmers currently supply 16 vegetables to the stores on a daily basis.”
Bharti Wal-Mart says it is trying to build an efficient supply chain as the current system of mandis is inefficient. “The inefficiency is evident by more than 100 per cent price build up between farmer and consumer,” the company spokesperson said. “It is not just about negotiating better prices with the suppliers, than removing any inefficiency in the supply chain.”

Neha Verma
PGDM 3rd Sem

Oman Oil Company to invest Rs 1,220 cr in Bina refinery

2009-11-16T04:54:00.000-08:00

Oman Oil Company (OOC) will invest an additional Rs 1,220 crore in the Rs 11,397 crore ($2.4 billion) Bina refinery project in Madhya Pradesh, being implemented by Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL).
This fresh infusion of funds will help OOC to increase its stake in BORL to 26 per cent from the present 2 per cent.
An agreement for additional investment by OCC was signed in Nizwa (Oman) on Sunday between Maqbool Bin Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce & Industry and also the Chairman of OOC, Ashok Sinha, chairman & MD of BPCL and UN Joshi, MD of BORL.
According to Maqbool Bin Ali Sultan, “ Oman Oil Company is pleased to join hands with Bharat Petroleum Corporation. This investment is in line with the company’s strategy to grow our investments internationally and successfully positions the company in one of the world’s largest growth markets.”
BPCL’s CMD, Ashok Sinha said “OOC’s decision to increase their stake in BORL to 26% would make BORL a very strong company. The project will considerably enhance availability of petroleum products in Central and Northern parts of the country which are in deficit.”
BORL is a joint venture company of state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and OCC, formed way back in 1993. However, following inordinate delays in the implementation of the refinery project, OCC decided to freeze its investment in BORL at Rs 75 crore for a 2 per cent equity stake.
The 6 million tonnes per annum Bina refinery project is scheduled for commisioing in early 2010.

Neha Verma
PGDM 3rd Sem

WSP strategy for a changing world

2009-11-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

The strategy we have followed thus far to achieve our vision of becoming the outstanding company in our sector and the first choice for clients and staff has resulted in us achieving and often surpassing many of our goals.
Thanks to our efforts, we are in very good shape. We have a strong market position, a sound financial footing, and a diverse business in terms of sectors, skills and geography. With our experienced global management team and excellent, well-qualified and highly motivated staff, we work with a wealth of satisfied clients.
But now we have hit stormy waters with global economic turmoil affecting all markets. To see us safely through this turbulent period we have introduced a short-term strategy, which is outlined in detail in the link provided at the bottom.
With this strategy, and supported by our values which guide us through the difficult times as well as the good, we will emerge from this crisis strong and ready to respond rapidly to improving markets. We’ll then be able to resume our course towards our objective of profitable, diversified growth with a new long-term strategy.

POSTED BY:-
SHWETA RANI
PGDM-3rd sem

CNG hike: OIL, ONGC to gain

2009-11-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

CNG hike: OIL, ONGC to gain

Official sources said the CNG price rise proposal, being prepared for consideration of the cabinet, envisages raising the price of controlled gas from Rs 3,200 per thousand cubic metres ($1.8 per unit) to Rs 4,250 per thousand cubic metres ($2.4 per mBtu) in the first round.

Subsequently, it is to be raised to Rs 7,500 per thousand cubic metres ($4.2 per unit) by 2013 in stages. Government controls the price of gas from fields given to state-run explorers without bidding. Gas from joint venture fields and the quantity bought and marketed by Gail is market-driven and costs between $4.3 and $5.65 per unit.

Next is imported LNG and finally gas from Andhra offshore field of RIL. A ministerial panel had set $4.2 per unit as the price for RIL gas and the Planning Commission wants this to be the benchmark for pricing gas from all domestic sources. The increase in the price of controlled gas is also in line with a 2005 Tariffs Commission recommendation.

Prices were last revised in 2005. State explorers ONGC and Oil India will be the main beneficiaries. ONGC alone could mop up an additional Rs 2,000 crore per year. Producer price for ONGC is proposed at Rs 3,870 per thousand cubic metres from Rs 3,200. The consumer price would be 10% higher. The government too will garner Rs 750 crore more by way of taxes and royalty in the current year.

POSTED BY:-

SHILPI KUMARI

PGDM-3rd SEM

Pranab warns against volatility, asset price bubble

2009-11-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

Colombo: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the world economy is showing signs of recovery, but warned against formation of asset price-bubbles and volatility in the currency market.
"The world economy is showing signs of recovery ... the risks, however, remain and the recovery would be a razor-edge walk, especially because the signs of asset price-bubble and heightened carry-trade activity are re-emerging," he said. Mukherjee, who is on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, made these remarks while delivering the fourth LK Memorial Lecture in honour of Sri Lankan leader Dr Lakshman Kadirgamar. Carry-trade usually refers to speculative trade activities in currencies and commodities. It is feared that speculative capital flows can have adverse implications on the forex and equity markets in the developing nations. The Finance Minister's statement comes just a day after International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn had warned that the surge in capital flows into the developing countries could destabilise local currencies and asset prices. "While capital inflows are generally beneficial, they can raise risks of rapid and potentially destabilising movements of currencies and asset prices...The resurgence of capital flows into emerging markets, including several in Asia, is presenting policy challenges," Strauss-Kahn had warned. Mukherjee said the global output is expected to expand by 3.1 per cent in 2010, wherein the developed countries as a group could grow at 1.3 per cent and the emerging and developing economies could grow by 5.1 per cent.

POSTED BY:

PREETI KUMARI

PGDM III SEM

Flying to get dearer as PSU oil firms hike ATF prices

2009-11-15T21:07:00.000-08:00

New Delhi: For the second time this month, state-owned oil firms on Sunday hiked jet fuel prices, this time by 2.4 percent following a spurt in international oil rates. Aviation Turbine Fuel prices in Delhi will be increased by Rs 948 per kilolitre to Rs 40,423 per kl effective midnight tonight, an official of the Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation's largest oil firm, said.
The comes on back of over nine percent hike in jet fuel prices on November 1. ATF rates in Mumbai, the home to nation's busiest airport, will go up by Rs 988 to Rs 41,710 per kl. IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum had for three consecutive fortnights reduced ATF rates mostly because international oil prices had eased and rupee strengthened against the US dollar. In three cuts, jet fuel prices in Delhi came down to Rs 36,188.27 per kl from Rs 39,188 at the beginning of September. On November 1, rates in Delhi were raised by Rs 3,286 per kl to Rs 39,474 per kl, while in Mumbai it was priced at Rs 40,723 per kl, against Rs 37,299.50 per kl previously. After two hikes, the ATF prices are now above the September levels, the official said. The three oil firms revise jet fuel prices on the first and the 16th day of every month based on the average global oil price in the previous fortnight. The jet fuel price in Kolkata has been raised by Rs 1,001 per kl to Rs 48,681 and that in Chennai by Rs 1,033 to Rs 44,526 per kl, the IOC official said

POSTED BY:

SHUBHAM AGARWAL

PGDM III SEM

India could realise 10% GDP growth in decade: Kalam

2009-11-15T21:05:00.000-08:00

Hyderabad: Former President A P J Abdul Kalam today said that India could realise 10 per cent growth rate in GDP in the next ten years with continued impetus on strengthening the economy.
The impact of economic liberalisation and growth measures initiated by the government has started being felt now, Kalam said at the Higher Defence Management Course at the College of Defence Management here. "Though Indian economy is in the ascent phase, the economic growth is not fully reflected in the quality of life of a large number of people. However, there should be progressive reduction in the people below poverty line year after year and reach near-zero by 2020," Kalam said. The mission of transforming India into a developed nation could be achieved by concentrating vigorously on five core sectors-- Agriculture and food processing, education and health care, Information and Communication Technology, quality and reliable infrastructure including power and transport and self reliance in critical technologies, he said. "These five areas are closely inter-related and, if progressed in a coordinated way, will lead to food, economic and national security," Kalam noted.

POSTED BY:

PALLAVI SINGH

PGDM III SEM

India Inc's future belongs to the empires of mind'

2009-11-15T20:59:00.000-08:00

WHAT is common to Exxon, 3M, Intel, Microsoft, McDonalds, Sharp, Boeing and Incyte Genomics? It is strategic knowledge management. Of course, each of them had their own way of knowledge management. Interestingly, all those strategies were highly successful and enabled these global corporates secure the place where they are today.
Explaining the intricacies of these strategies to the representatives of corporate houses here on Thursday at a daylong workshop organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Dr B. Bowonder of the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), said it was the generation and transformation of tacit knowledge in an organisation that enabled it create wealth and capital.
While Exxon adopted the strategy of Knowledge Fencing by choosing not to freely share its knowledge with anyone, 3M chose the Knowledge Mutating strategy in creating the laser transparent adhesives for the DVDs.
Intel assumed the Knowledge Racing strategy wherein it created knowledge so fast that nobody could copy it.
In the case of Microsoft, it was the strategy of Knowledge Co-evolving that made the software giant emerge global leader.
Through this strategy, Microsoft works from hundreds of locations across the globe and evolves knowledge that becomes highly difficult for the competitors to replicate.
According to Dr Bowonder, the strategy of McDonalds was interesting where the company chose the Knowledge Cascading model and has been adopting it to as many franchises as possible in making pizzas and burgers.
While Sharp took the Knowledge Hedging model to insure its innovations and Incyte Genomics chose Knowledge Leveraging model, it was Knowledge Integrating model that was successfully adopted by Boeing. Interestingly, Boeing makes only wings of aircraft on its own and outsources and integrates all other parts of the flight from various players, he said.
To ensure competitive edge, Dr Bowonder advised the Indian corporates to create strong personal agenda for their staff, enhance knowledge diffusion, create the necessary climate for knowledge sharing, stimulate spaces that can facilitate knowledge exploitation, network with knowledge gatekeepers and share successful experiences.
Stating that in an ever-changing world it was the learners who inherit the future, he however, said the studies show that only 30 per cent of the people were found to be active learners while others live in a world that exists no longer.
Dr Bowonder admitted that knowledge is an asset imperfectly traded. Management of such a sticky asset was quite difficult compared to the traditional management practices.
Citing some examples of the most successful Indian corporate houses, Dr Bowonder said leveraging the existing knowledge, Titan has successfully produced speedometers for Ford.
While sharing the knowledge among its operating and designing workforce through field engineering services, BHEL has successfully redesigned its products.
Not disclosing the name of a small corporate that created radar invisible coating for the light combat aircraft, he said the company falls under knowledge creation model.
Adopting knowledge renewing model, Himalaya Drugs has successfully produced herbal-based anti-cancer drug and completed validation and clinical trials. The Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) developed memory drug from `Brahmi' and protected the knowledge by obtaining patents for its efforts, he said.

Mahindra target to sell one lakh used cars by 2014

2009-11-15T08:01:00.000-08:00

COIMBATORE: Mahindra Firstchoice, a multi- brand pre-owned car sales major from the Mahindra and Mahindra group, has set a target to sell one lakh

used cars by 2014, a top company official said. The company, with its 60 outlets across the country, has sold 10,250 used cars last year and expected to sell 18,000 cars this year, Mahindra First Choice CEO, Shubhabrata Saha told reporters here. The company has already sold over 9,000 cars this year. The company was confident of selling one lakh cars by 2014 and would open 300 more outlets by then, Saha said here at the inauguration of the first dealership showroom in the city. Stating that used cars have a market of 1.5 million vehicle in a year, with 20% annual growth, he said there was tremendous potential for the sector, with more people buying used cars.

Neha Verma
PGDM 3rd Sem

US banks failure toll reaches 123 so far in 2009

2009-11-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK: The number of bank failures in the US has continued to increase with a staggering 123 entities going out of business so far this year,

despite the economy witnessing some signs of recovery. The authorities shut down three banks -- Orion Bank based in Naples, Pacific Coast National Bank in San Clemente and Century Bank F.S.B of Sarasota on November 13, taking the count of failed banks to 123 this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), which was named the receiver of the failed banks, took over Orion Bank, with about USD 2.7 billion in assets and USD 2.1 billion in deposits and Century Bank with USD 728 million in assets and USD 631 million in deposits. Meanwhile, Pacific Coast National Bank was also shut down. It had USD 134.4 million in assets and USD 130.9 million in deposits. In addition, FDIC had entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Iberia Bank of Lafayette, Louisiana, to assume all of the deposits of Century Bank, FSB. However, the maximum number of collapses this year took place in July, when 24 banks were closed down, while 20 entities bite the dust last month. Despite the slowly improving economic situation, soaring unemployment rate have resulted in rising defaults, primarily impacting the small and medium banks.

Neha Verma
PGDM 3rd Sem

AB bullish on expansion

2009-11-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

AB bullish on expansion

Andhra Bank plans to achieve Rs 1,30,000 crore business in the current financial year by expanding its branch network across the country, said the bank chairman and managing director, Mr R.S. Reddy.In the quarter ended on September 30, the bank has crossed Rs 1,10,460 crore business and posted a net profit of Rs 274 crore.“We have already ope-ned 125 new branches this year and will continue to focus on rapid expansion,” Mr Reddy told reporters after inaugurating the bank’s 79th branch in Hyderabad at Madhuranagar on Thursday.The chairman said the bank has brought all branches under the core banking service platform.“In Hyderabad, we have now 79 branches, 138 ATMs and 213 delivery channels. With the addition of new branches, our network has increased to 1,547 branches across the country. Of them, 1,015 branches are in Andhra Pradesh alone. We are aiming to expand in other states to garner business on par with AP,” he said.The bank’s Hyderabad (zone-1) has contributed a business of Rs 16,390 crore

POSTED BY:-

PALLAVI SINGH

PGDM-3rd SEM

Gold crosses Rs 17,000

2009-11-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

Gold crosses Rs 17,000

New Delhi, Nov. 12: Gold prices on Thursday crossed the crucial Rs 17,000 per 10 gram level in the bullion market here, buttressed by frantic buying by jewellers for the ongoing marriage season amid a firming global trend.Gold spurted by Rs 170 to Rs 17,150 per 10 gram and silver by Rs 220 to Rs 27,720 per kg here.The yellow metal, which had been on an upward march ever since the Reserve Bank of India purchased 200 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund early this month, got a boost from the firming trend in the global markets, marketmen said.In the international markets, however, gold fell by 0.5 per cent to $1,112.25 an ounce from its record high levels here as a firming dollar eroded demand for the metal as an alternate investment option.Gold and dollar usually move in opposite direction. A rise in dollar makes it a better option for investment than gold.Analysts said that the five-day rally in yellow metal was overdone.Gold, which climbed to an all-time high of $1,123.40 an ounce in early trade, fell in London by 0.5 per cent to $1,112.25. On January 1, gold was trading at Rs 13,650 per 10 gram. It covered a price range of Rs 3,350 in over 11 months with the last Rs 1,000 being covered in just 15 days.Standard gold and ornaments surged further by Rs 170 each to set an all-time high level of Rs 17,150 and Rs 17,000 per 10 gram, respectively.

POSTED BY:-

SHUBHAM AGARWAL

PGDM:-3rd SEM

TCS, Dow Chemicals create jobs in US

2009-11-13T09:34:00.000-08:00

TCS, Dow Chemicals create jobs in US

India's largest software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services on Friday said it will expand its strategic business alliance with US-based Dow Chemicals that will create new jobs in Midland-Michigan.
"Dow Chemical and TCS plan to form an innovative business alliance that will provide critical business services to Dow, its subsidiaries and joint ventures," TCS said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
As part of the alliance, Dow and TCS are planning to build a new service centre at a site near Dow's global headquarters in Midland Michigan, the US. This would result in creation of new jobs.
The companies are planning to build a new facility, which will be a strategic service centre, next year that will accommodate 1,250 employees.
TCS would provide strategic services, which would include invoicing and data management to the US firm.
The said alliance is an expansion of the already existing business partnership between Dow and TCS. IT combines Dow's chemical industry knowledge with the service delivery expertise of TCS.
Earlier in 2006, TCS entered into a partnership with Dow and set up the Mumbai Services Center to support the latter's growth strategy and to provide transactional and operational services to its clients.

POSTED BY:-

PREETI KUMARI

PGDM-3rd SEM

5% disinvestment of NTPC to garner Rs 8,000 cr

2009-11-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

5% disinvestment of NTPC to garner Rs 8,000 cr

The government on Friday said it is expecting to raise about Rs 8,100 crore from the five per cent stake sale in power PSU NTPC through a Follow-on Public Offer (FPO).
"We anticipate more than three times what we got last time (at the time of IPO in 2004)," said disinvestment secretary Sunil Mitra.
In 2004, NTPC had raised about Rs 2,700 crore through the IPO when the government diluted 5.24 per cent of its stake, he said. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)last month had approved the stake sale in NTPC.
After stake dilution, the government's holding in NTPC would come down to 84.5 per cent from the current 89.5 per cent.

POSTED BY:-

SHILPI KUMARI

PGDM-3rd SEM

Dell unveils Android-based Mini 3 smartphone

2009-11-13T06:41:00.000-08:00

Dell said Friday that it's ready to enter the smartphone business with the Android-based Mini 3.
Long rumored to have such a device in the works, Dell said that the first two carriers to sell the Mini 3 will be China Mobile and Brazil's Claro.
The Mini 3 will apparently use OPhone, China Mobile's customized version of Google's Android operating system. "We are excited for Dell to be among the first manufacturers to introduce new technology based on the OPhone platform," an unnamed China Mobile representative said in Dell's press release.
We've got a call out to Dell to seek clarification on the operating system software.

Dell did not provide technical specifications or pricing information for the phone, saying those would be revealed when the device arrives in stores--probably late November for China Mobile and by year's end for Claro. It also did not say when the phone would arrive in the U.S. or other markets.
Michael Tatelman, a Dell sales and marketing executive, told the Associated Press that the phone has a 3.5-inch high-definition touch screen. The Mini 3 sold in China won't have Wi-Fi at the start, but Tatelman said that would come later.
Similarly, Apple's iPhone just made its official debut in China sans Wi-Fi.

China Mobile has more than 500 million customers, and Claro serves more than 42 million people in Brazil as part of the America Movil network, Dell said.
Dell did tout its "existing agreements with other leading global telecom providers," including Vodafone in Europe; AT&T and Verizon in the U.S.; M1 and Starhub in Singapore; and Maxis in Malaysia.
The Texas-based PC maker also played up the Internet connectivity angle of small mobile gadgetry.
"Our entry into the smartphone category is a logical extension of Dell's consumer product evolution over the past two years," Ron Garriques, president of the Dell Global Consumer Group, said in a statement. "We are developing smaller and smarter mobile products that enable our customers to take their Internet experience out of the home and do the things they want to do whenever and wherever they want."
But does the world need a smartphone from Dell? The device will have plenty of company: Android phones have begun arriving on the market in larger numbers in recent months.
Most notably, U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless last week began selling the much-hyped Droid, made by Motorola, and the more modest Droid Eris, made by HTC.

Neha Verma
PGDM 3rd Sem

Start-up compresses air in tanks for energy storage

2009-11-13T06:32:00.000-08:00

BOSTON--While hundreds of other companies are trying to make a better battery, start-up SustainX Energy Solutions is compressing air, an approach it says will let utilities more easily add wind and solar to the power grid.
The president of the company, Dax Kepshire, sketched out the company's technology and product plans here on Thursday. SustainX was spun out of Dartmouth College last year and received $4 million in funding from Polaris Venture Partners and Rockport Capital in August of this year. It now has ten employees.
There are already two compressed air energy storage facilities in the world where air is pumped underground for storage. Utilities make electricity at off-peak times and draw on the stored energy during peak-demand when power is more valuable. It's a method that's getting more attention now as a way to store several hours worth of wind power, which can produce the most at off-peak times.

Traditional compressed air storage uses underground formations to store compressed air which is released when needed to make electricity. Click on the image for a photo gallery of other types of energy storage. (Credit: PG&E)
The primary difference with SustainX's approach is that it doesn't need an underground salt dome or limestone cavern to store the compressed air. Instead, it proposes storing the compressed air in the off-the-shelf tanks. Its technical goal is to cram four megawatt-hours worth of stored energy in a 40-foot long container in two years, said Kepshire. The tank-filled container would be able to deliver one megawatt of power.
In the near term, it plans to build a 100 kilowatt hour pilot system to test the efficiency and then validate the larger model in 2011, Kepshire said.
Its technology is also very different from the existing compressed air storage facilities. With traditional compressed air energy storage, a machine called a compressor compacts air and pumps it underground. To make electricity, the air is released and run through special turbines and a generator to make electricity.
SustainX is designing a system that uses a hydraulic piston to compress air. When the air is released, it moves a hydraulic motor which is attached to a generator to make electricity, Kepshire explained.
The key to making the overall system is to reduce energy loss that happens in the compression and decompression of air, he said. He expects the first pilot system to be about 50 percent efficient but the full system to be more like 70 percent efficient overall.
Compressed air energy storage has a lot of potential because it's relatively inexpensive and because utilities can store many hours worth of electricity. Pacific Gas & Electric is investigating locations for compressd air storage capable of delivering 300 megawatts of electricity for 10 hours, or 3,000 megawatt-hours. By contast, utility-scale battery storage systems in use now deliver one or two megawatts for a few hours.
SustainX has not yet gotten any customers. But Kepshire said the company is targeting utilities looking to use more renewable energy. The company's technology, if it proves efficient enough, can be scaled to stored many hours of energy and deliver large amounts of power, he said.

Neha Verma

PGDM 3rd Sem

Vodafone Lifts Cost-Cutting Goal to $3.3B

2009-11-12T05:36:00.000-08:00

Faced with the weak economy and stiff competition, the mobile services giant is doubling down on stiff budget cuts to boost profits
Vodafone (VOD) is preparing to double its cost-cutting drive to £2bn as it battles against the economic slump and fierce competition and looks to hit the acquisition trail in 2012.
Vittorio Colao, the mobile phone giant's chief executive, said that the original £1bn economy drive, announced in November last year, had been completed a year early "and we have extended this to a further £1bn of cost savings by 2012". The group admitted that job cuts are "inevitable"—it has already axed 500 in the UK this year—but would not be drawn on numbers.
Mr. Colao stressed that the cuts will focus on technology and will look to save through network, sourcing and infrastructure initiatives as well as further reductions in overheads. The group said £500m of the savings would be set aside, and could be used as a potential acquisition war chest "depending on the economic situation".
Mr. Colao unveiled his plans at the group's first-half results yesterday. The original savings, and emerging market operations, helped boost profits by 2.4 per cent to £5.9bn.
The group also confirmed that its guidance for the full year would see operating profit at the "upper end" of the range of £11bn to £11.8bn.
Mr. Colao admitted in May that Vodafone has struggled in the UK, its home market, and yesterday it emerged that revenues fell 5.7 per cent in the first half.
It faces a further setback in the UK after Orange (FTE) and T-Mobile (DT) agreed to merge in September, with the combined group leapfrogging Vodafone and O2 (TEF) to become the market's leading player.
Mr. Calao shrugged off the impending slip from second place to third: "Would I prefer to be the second biggest player? Yes, and we will try to do that, but we are not in a bad position". On the company's UK strategy to build market share, he said, "We have done all the right things" but conceded that "we need to do more".
He believes that offering the iPhone (AAPL) from early next year will help, but gave no indication as to whether the group plans to start a price war with rivals O2 and Orange, which started selling the device yesterday. In the meantime, Vodafone has been looking to its emerging markets to offset revenue declines in Europe. Revenues in Africa and Central Europe rose 34.6 per cent after its full takeover of Vodacom in South Africa. Despite growing competition in India, it posted 20.5 per cent revenue growth there in the first half. While data revenues rose in Europe, these were offset by continuing price pressures and the effects of the downturn.
Data revenue was up 20 per cent overall, to almost £4bn. Mr. Colao said: "I'm a big believer in data, it is a big trend. This is a basic change of human behaviour." About 30 per cent of Europeans use a data connection once a month. "I don't see why that can't be 70 per cent in five years," Mr. Colao said.

POSTED BY:-
SHWETA RANI
PGDM-3rd sem

Annual food inflation rises to 13.7%

2009-11-12T00:29:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: India's annual food inflation, based on wholesale prices, moved up to 13.68% for the week ended Oct 31 from 13.39% for the week before, as per official data released Thursday.

The 52-week average prices of onions were higher by as much as 33.4% and potatoes became costlier by 27.9%, according to the limited data on wholesale price index released by the commerce ministry.

The statistics also showed average prices of vegetables were up 18.6%, pulses 16.83%, rice 15.95%, wheat 5.19%, fruits 7.05% and milk 7.99%.

This was the second week during which data on wholesale price index was issued as per the new guidelines approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, restricting the disclosure of index numbers to primary articles and fuels.

The full data will be available only on a monthly basis as opposed to the weekly release earlier, with Nov 14 set as the date on which the complete wholesale price index numbers will be released for the first time under these guidelines.

The Reserve Bank of India and the government have warned India's annual inflation rate based on wholesale price index for all commodities will rise to 6-6.5% by March, while the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council has pegged the rate at 6%.

POCTED BY:

SHUBHAM AGARWAL

PGDM III SEM

Macy’s Reports Smaller Loss for 3rd Quarter

2009-11-11T23:37:00.000-08:00

The department store operator Macy’s said Wednesday that its third-quarter loss shrunk as inventory controls and a move to adjust merchandise by region paid off. The company also raised its profit and sales outlook for the year.
The profit outlook, however, was not as high as analysts expected, and shares fell $1.57, or 8.1 percent, to $17.86.
Some of the company’s best-performing districts were the original test areas for the locally tailored merchandise. Other bright spots were its growing Internet business and rebounding sales performance at Bloomingdale’s, a sign that affluent shoppers were slowly going back to buying.
The company said that it lost $35 million, or 8 cents a share, in the quarter ended Oct. 31, compared with $44 million, or 10 cents a share, in the period a year ago.
Excluding costs to consolidate several divisions and introduce the localization plan, Macy’s lost 3 cents a share.
Revenue fell almost 4 percent, to $5.28 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year were down 7.5 percent in the quarter. That barometer is considered a crucial indicator of a retailer’s health because it excludes the effects of expansion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast a loss of 7 cents on revenue of $5.25 billion.
Stores like Macy’s have faced big challenges as shoppers — worried about job security and tight credit — keep their focus on basics like food. But chains are starting to see consumers spend a bit more on shoes and home accessories. Still, overall business remains weak.
Macy’s has been shoring up its results with aggressive cost-cutting, including job cuts, lower capital spending and reduced contributions to employees’ retirement funds.
The localization drive seeks to concentrate Macy’s top talent in local markets and stay on top of trends by grouping Macy’s stores into 69 districts, with 10 to 12 stores each. Twenty of the districts — in the Midwest, Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest — were created as pilots in spring 2008. The initiative spread to the remaining 49 districts in the second quarter.
Online sales, including macys.com and bloomingdales.com, rose 21.1 percent in the third quarter and 15.6 percent for the year to date.
Macy’s said it expected sales at stores open at least a year to be down 1 percent to 2 percent in the critical fourth quarter, which translates to a decrease of 2.1 percent to 2.6 percent in the second half of 2009. That was better than the company’s previous forecast of a decrease of 5 percent to 6 percent for that half.

POSTED BY:

SHILPI KUMARI

PGDM III SEM

IIMB gets 180 slot zero offers, highest across IIMs

2009-11-11T23:34:00.000-08:00

BANGALORE: The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore has bagged 180 "slot zero" (the first two days) offers for the batch of 348 students for

year 2010, the highest across all IIMs for summer placements. "The entire batch of 348 students, the biggest ever batch at IIMB, was placed within a span of five days by over 150 companies, with as many 180 slot zero offers being made, the highest across all IIMs", Prof P D Jose, chairperson of the placement committee, told reporters. More than 50% of the batch was placed by the end of Slot Zero (the first two days of placement offers). The major recruiters included Goldman Sachs, Citi, HSBC, ABG, Nomura, Bain & Co, Standard Chartered, A T Kearney, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Co, Credit Suisse, Macquarie, Merril Lynch, Morgan Stanley, J P Morgan and Barclay's Capital. Recruiters from Sales & Marketing formed the major chunk (21 per cent) as a result of more number of FMCG companies this time, followed by Investment Banking (19 per cent), finance (16 per cent), consulting (15 per cent), general management (12 per cent), IT (9 per cent) and private equity (three per cent). "There was a welcome jump in Investment Banking this time compared to last year (14 per cent). It was Investment Banking which occupied the top slot last time as far as recruiters were concerned", Jose said. Eighty-nine major offers were made with the highest from Goldman Sachs (13), closely followed by Citi and HSBC (nine each).
POSTED BY:
PALLAVI SINGH
PGDM III SEM

Car sales zoom 34% in October

2009-11-11T23:19:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: Car sales soared 34% in October, the fastest-ever growth in nearly three years as festive fever and cheaper interest rates perked demand.

According to figures released by Siam, sales of passenger cars stood at 1.32 lakh units in October against 99,052 units in the same month last year. The growth in October is the biggest percentage gain since February 2007, when it had jumped 46.5%. October is also the ninth straight month of growth in car sales and follows rise of 21% in September, 26% in August and 31% in July. Total vehicle sales, including two-wheelers, three-wheelers and commercial vehicles, grew by 16% to 10 lakh units against 8.65 lakh units in October last year, Siam said. In car segment, the growth was led by Maruti, Hyundai and Tata — all of which recorded handsome gains. In all, a dozen out of the 16-odd carmakers saw demand going up, including Honda Siel, GM, Fiat and Ford. In the utility vehicle market, M&M continued its strong performance with a sales growth of 39%. A slew of new models, especially in the small car segment, have also boosted demand. Total sales in the seven months of 2009-10 have grown 17%, making India one of the very few markets globally to record double-digit growth. Analysts said growth rates were expected to remain healthy in coming months, though cautioning that a low base would make them appear more healthy-than-normal. Global economic turmoil had started to impact economies across the globe, including India, by this time last year. Motorcycle sales were up 14% in October at 6.1 lakh units against 5.4 lakh units as companies like Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto and TVS recorded gains. Scooter sales were down 13% as segment leader HMSI struggled with a strike at the company's Manesar factory that brought down its production by almost 50%. Commercial vehicle sales, the worst hit during the slowdown phase, were also healthy and recorded a growth of 52% at 42,562 units against 28,019 units last year.

POSTED BY:

PREETI KUMARI

PGDM III SEM

welcome scholar

2009-11-11T22:37:00.001-08:00

Scholarship Quest Helper...
Post Secondary Education is Expensive
Getting into the institute of your choice is tough enough. Then you have to figure out how to pay for it. Where can you get the financial aid you need to be sure you and your family can afford this next step of your education. Planning for the rest of your life is exciting and scary. You had no idea how expensive this was going to be. That’s another scare you have to deal with. Our job is to try to help you find money through scholarships. There are literally thousands of scholarships available. The money can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. The competition for these dollars is tremendous in numbers but surprisingly small in quality. That’s where we come in. We will give you some tips on how to find these scholarships and then how to apply for them in such a way as to give you a competitive advantage.
Our PeopleThe staff at Scholarship Quest have a great deal of experience with scholarships. They are all volunteers who understand the difficulty each student goes through to find the money they need to get an education. Some of them are currently serving on scholarship committees.They understand how tough it is to get the attention of any member of their committees. They process thousands of submissions and they know what stands out for them.
How Much Will This Cost - or - What Are We Selling?Nothing and nothing. That's the straight answer. As you work your way through these web pages you will not find anything to buy and nowhere to send money.So, why does the site exist?All we want to accomplish is to improve the quality of scholarship applications. There are millions of dollars given away in the form of scholarships each year but you would be amazed how difficult it is for these committees to find good candidates.We hope you find the information on this site to be useful. We hope you'll check out some of the links that will take you to further opportunities or more information.
How is our staff paid?All of our staff are volunteers. They are each putting in only a couple of hours per week to help keep our site up and current.We didn't put the site up to make money, only to offer a small amount of support. Hopefully you can find something useful. If you would like us to try to find more information for you, send us a note at info@scholarshipquest.com and we will try to get an answer for you within a couple of weeks.

help scholar

2009-11-11T22:37:00.000-08:00

Preparing the Application
Filling out the scholarship application is a fact of life when seeking scholarships. Unfortunately, there is no generic form or format; each scholarship fund has its own methods and information needs. Some scholarships such as The Annual Signet Classic Scholarship Essay Contest offers no application form at all; submissions are accompanied by a letter with a required set of information.
You should plan to spend 10-15 hours per scholarship application. This estimate includes gathering materials, filling out application, preparing the package and writing a short essay.
Now it's time to add efficiency to your skills because the preparation of scholarship applications is something of a production line process where efficiency will save you time and help you avoid errors.
High Demand Materials
Obtain or create a number of copies of materials that will be requested over and over again. Frequently requested documents might include transcripts, financial aid forms or copies of tax returns, resumes, letters of recommendation or photographs. Your efficiency in preparing scholarship packages will be astronomically enhanced by being able to simply pluck the requested documents from the document holders filed in your scholarship three ring binder.
Multi-Tasking
In most cases, applying for a scholarship means writing an essay. Look for opportunities to use those scholarship essays to fulfill class requirements as well. If you need to write an essay for your government course, you might as well write on the topic of "a current elected public official in the United States, who is acting courageously to address a political issue at the local, state, national, or international level". Then you can submit your homework assignment to "The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest". Or, if you need to read a book and write a report on some aspect of the reading, plan to read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde and submit your book report to the "Annual Signet Classic Scholarship Essay Contest".
We particularly appreciate the requirements of the "The CollegeProwler Essay Competition". This competition requires that you submit up to three college application essays that you have already written and submitted. Now that's a great example of the power of reuse, recycle.
The Scholarship Cover Letter
The application cover letter conveys the package from you to the funding organization. It is one more opportunity to demonstrate professionalism and knowledge of appropriate business etiquette.
If possible, make a determination to whom the letter should be addressed. Be sure you have that individual's name and title spelled correctly. Avoid using either, "Dear Sir" or Dear Madam".
In the body of the letter, express your pleasure at the opportunity to submit your application for the specific award you are seeking. It's always useful to add a sentence praising the work or the mission of the funding organization.
Close the letter by expressing your enthusiasm for participating in the process and always thank the recipient for their time and consideration.
Forms and Documents
The scholarship application form introduces you to the judges. You need to make that introduction as crisp and business-like as possible.
Make copies of the application form so that you can create a working draft. Use that draft to complete the final application form.
Type the application form if at all possible. Don't use fancy fonts; stick with standard business fonts like Times New Roman or Arial. Legibility and neatness are extremely important. Your application can be eliminated if it cannot be easily read.
Put your name on every page of the application. Many funds prefer that applications be free of staples so they are easier to photocopy or distribute. That means there is the potential for parts of your application to become lost. Placing your name on every page gives your application a fighting chance of being reconstituted if a page or two gets waylaid during the process.
Answer every question. If you don't believe that a question applies to you, don't leave it blank – it could be judged incomplete. Don't mark the question N/A, not applicable. The evaluators may have a different point of view on its applicability and can disqualify you for failing to complete the form. Instead, answer the question if you can. If the question is truly not applicable, write a sentence that describes your situation. For example, if the question is, "What is your military history?" it is preferable to write "I have never served in the military" rather than leave it blank or write N/A.
Check, check and re-check for typos. Enlist help in this review. It is very hard to proof read your own material. Inevitably, your mind's eye reads what you thought you wrote, not what actually made it onto the page. A fresh reader will catch the words that you missed and find the spelling problems.
If there is one thing we learned from speaking with funders, it is that simple errors will remove you from the competition much more quickly than listing too few club activities. Even if you are not class valedictorian or community volunteer of the year or a survivor of some horrific circumstances with a heroic story to tell, you can still be in the finalist round by being sure you spelled the name of the scholarship fund correctly and attending to all of the other minor details that will make your application perfectly correct and therefore worthy of consideration.
Place the requested documents in the package in the order that they are requested. This consistency makes it easier for evaluators to locate information. It's also simpler for you to check the documents against the list of requirements.
Do not add documents that have not been requested. There are many scholarship guides in the press that encourage you to add additional materials as a way for you to show your creativity and make your application unique. Judging by the available data, if you create an error-free, neat and timely application package, you will have already distinguished your application as unique. Additional materials:
Give the impression that you think the funders don't really know what they need;
Can disqualify you in some competitions;
Makes your application more difficult to manage and consequently more likely to be eliminated.
Some advice givers swear by the "additional material" strategy. We don't. You are better served by focusing on making your application shine, using the structure requested by the funder.
Do not staple documents together unless directed to do so. It is always reasonable to use paper clips to keep materials tidy. Do not place the application in a special folder unless directed to do so. The place to be creative and innovative is in the preparation of your essay. When preparing the applications, just follow the directions you are given.
Make a complete copy of the application before you send it. Don't skip the transcript or the financial aid statement because you know those are included; it is always important to have a complete record of everything you send the funder in exactly the form it was received by the funder.
Use an envelope that will hold your application without folding it. As a matter of presentation, the application will look better without creases. Send the application "return receipt requested" or use a delivery service like FedEx that allows you to track the package's path and verify who signed for it. In this way you will have proof that the application was received by the organization. If you do

Microsoft's Bing teams up with WolframAlpha

2009-11-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

Microsoft's Bing teams up with WolframAlpha

Microsoft's new search engine Bing, which is seeking to chip away at Google's dominance in Internet search, is teaming up with WolframAlpha, another rival for the Google crown.

WolframAlpha, which was launched in mid-May, announced that starting on Wednesday, Bing would incorporate results from WolframAlpha in answers to certain search queries. "WolframAlpha's knowledge, computed from expertly curated data, will enrich Bing's results in select areas across nutrition, health, and advanced mathematics,

" WolframAlpha said in a blog post. "Bing will be able to seamlessly access the tens of thousands of algorithms and trillions of pieces of data from WolframAlpha, and directly incorporate the computations in its search results," it said.

WolframAlpha, which is named after the man behind the venture, British-born computer scientist and inventor Stephen Wolfram, calls itself a "computational knowledge engine" rather than the traditional search engine. Unlike Google, which takes a query and uses algorithms to scour the Web and return a series of links to relevant websites, WolframAlpha.com takes a query and crunches through its databases to return answers. Bing's tie-up with WolframAlpha is one of several moves Microsoft has made recently in a bid to challenge Google in the multi-billion-dollar search and advertising market.

Microsoft entered into a 10-year Web search and advertising partnership with Yahoo! in July that set the stage for a joint offensive against Google. Since unveiling Bing in June, Microsoft has also begun integrating messages from hot micro-blogging service Twitter into Bing and plans to do the same with status updates from Facebook.

Google dominates online search in the United States with a nearly 65 per cent share of the market followed by Yahoo! with 18.8 per cent and Bing with 9.4 per cent, according to September figures from industry tracking firm comScore.
POSTED BY:-

SHILPI KUMARI

PGDM-3rdSEM

2009-11-11T21:15:00.000-08:00

Today domestic markets are likely to open marginally positive. The opening trade is mostly likely to be subdued as major Asian markets have dived in red after positive opening. The US stock markets closed with moderate gains after some technical resistance that impeded further northward movement of Dow and S&P 500. In the domestic arena lack of supportive news and yesterday's phenomenal gain would invite some profit booking pressures. Domestic markets are likely to trade lackluster with low intensity volatility and negative bias. On Wednesday, the bulls were in command during the trading session as the benchmark indices surged after a choppy start to close at day's high on heavy buying support across the sectoral indices. This led the NSE (__^NSEI__) Nifty to close above the psychological mark of 5,000. Heavy buying was supported by the firm Asian markets that witnessed sharp rally tracking the Chinese factory output that surged to 19 month high in October underlying the economy''''s brisk recovery from the global downturn. Industrial production in the first 10 months was up 9.4 per cent from the same period last year, compared to a rise of 8.7 per cent in the first nine months. Besides this, the inevestors' sentiments were boosted on the financial reforms announced by the government. The market though opened on a flat note and remained choppy at the initial stage but gained the momentum soon to keep on marching forward till the final closing of the session. The IT stocks came with a bang after Nasscom president said that the sector will regain double digit growth from April 2010. The metal stocks are also up with impressive gains. The bank and realty stocks that remained quite subdued earlier in the day, edged higher as the day progressed. The consumer durables stocks are also back in the reckoning. The BSE Sensex (__^BSESN__) closed higher by 409.04 points or (2.49 per cent) at 16,849.60 and NSE Nifty closed up by 122.25 points or (2.50 per cent) at 5,003.95. The » Send to friends
9:48 AM - The US stock market closed higher on Wednesday after a sharp rebound in US dollar that hit a new 15-month low. There were some strong economic data from Asia and also phenomenal earnings report from major European companies brought a lot of charm amongst investor during the opening session. However as the market progressed the rebound in Dollar resisted the surge of stocks. The Dollar index recovered from its early loss of 0.3 per cent to touch the intra day high gain of 0.3 per cent and finally closed with a gain of 0.1 per cent. There were technical resistances for Dow and S&P 500 index which however managed to close with moderate gains. However, Dow was able to log its sixth straight gain and register a new intraday high and closing high for 2009. Financials was the leader of the day gaining 1.4 per cent followed by Materials which logged a respectable gain of 0.9 per cent on the back of strength in the commodity prices. Retailers also had a weak session after Macy''s issued downside guidance.The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) ended with a gain of 44.29 points at 10,291.26. NASDAQ index surged 15.82 points to 2,166.90 and the S&P 500 (SPX) closed higher by 5.50 points at 1,098.51.US light crude oil futures for December delivery closed with a gain of 0.4 per cent at $79.33 per barrel, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

POSTAED BY:-

SATISH CHANDRA

PGDM III

SACTION A

Microsoft exec: Mac OS inspired Windows 7

2009-11-11T21:13:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you take a wrong turning in life and, Wednesday, a slight concussion led my eyes to fall upon the pages of PCR.
It is a little more intelligent than my normal reading matter, but I am very grateful for its interview with Simon Aldous, Microsoft's partner group manager.
He was quoted, for example, as saying: "One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it's very graphical and easy to use."

Perfect harmony?(Credit: CC Esparta/Flickr)
You're waiting for the punchline, right? You know, the one about how he was kidding.
Wait away because he continued: "What we've tried to do with Windows 7--whether it's traditional format or in a touch format--is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics."
I know that such words might cause some entrenched foot soldiers in both of the fanchildren camps to hoot, hiss, sigh and reach for the nearest farming implement.
However, isn't it rather charming to hear someone admit that a competitor's product isn't overly expensive or overly pretentious, but that it has something about it that is good and that real people who buy real products actually appreciate.

Neha Verma

PGDM 3rd Sem

FanSnap--another way to find cheap concert tickets

2009-11-11T21:08:00.000-08:00

Tuesday's post on using Craigslist to buy secondhand concert tickets drew a response from a company called FanSnap, which uses Google search results to aggregate ticket listings from broker sites (such as StubHub and TicketNetwork) and eBay auctions.
FanSnap would argue Craigslist is fine for price-sensitive fans who don't need to go to a particular show and who are willing to meet and negotiate with other individuals, pay cash where necessary, and run the risk of buying a fake ticket. (Although the only time I've ever seen a fake concert ticket was in 1989 on the streets of Manhattan, when I bought a very realistic counterfeit to a Jane's Addiction show at the Ritz.) Fans who want a slightly more convenient buying experience might go with eBay, where they can use PayPal and rely on seller ratings, while fans who absolutely need a guaranteed ticket can go with a broker like StubHub, which offers a toll-free customer service line, money-back guarantee, and other benefits. FanSnap operates on an affiliate-oriented revenue model, so it gets a commission from sites on which sales are made

I ran a search on FanSnap for Pixies tickets, and it found more than 70 listings for the sold-out show this Friday, compared with about 30 listings on Craigslist. (The Craigslist screenshot in Tuesday's post showed only listings that had been added on that day.) Prices were similar to Craigslist--lower in a few cases--and the site has some great design touches, like a seating chart of the venue that maps tickets to particular locations. Craigslist, of course, is purposely and resolutely lo-fi. I still think there's something refreshing about dealing with a real fan, face to face, but I can see reasons why others wouldn't want to.

Neha Verma

PGDM 3rd Sem

Government IT security strategies weak to the bones

2009-11-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

The report comes on the heels of publicly embarrasing hacks against a number of US government department websites, including the New York Police Department.
According to Benjamin Teh, Fortinet's regional director for Asia South and Hong Kong, the approach to IT security of government departments should not be any different from those undertaken in the private sector. Hacking has become sophisticated and motives more sinister. These changes warrant a more holistic approach to IT security that encompasses what experts call blended threat landscape. Obama's use of a Blackberry has also meant that governments need to stay alert beyond their physical parameters.
How can governments address this blended threatscape?
Benjamin Teh
Benjamin Teh: The blended threatscape can be addressed by deploying a consolidated, multi-layered security approach which handles network security from a holistic viewpoint that provides both network and content-level protection. Because consolidated security combines key security functionality into a single device, it is easier to manage, requires lower CAPEX and OPEX investments, and represents a more elegant approach to fighting the threatscape versus pricey, patchy point solutions. This high value proposition may be of particular interest to governments, especially in today’s economy.
Can you provide a state of the security environment in the government sector of Asia?Benjamin Teh: We’d prefer not to comment on the security of any particular governments. However, we are seeing a heightened interest among many Asian governments in fighting cyber activity and keeping their networks safe. Generally, we do advise governments to adopt more of the open system, like Obama is currently doing, collaborating with industry experts and vendors to bring about positive changes with regards to US cyber security strategy.
Is the recent spate of news related to lost data or hacking a result of failure on the governments to provide adequate safely measures to protect confidential data?
Benjamin Teh: The recent security breaches are probably the result of both a hacking community growing in sophistication as well as governments trying to keep up with in the cyber security game. This scenario is further reinforced by US President Obama’s recent revelation that his own presidential campaign online has been hacked. Cybercrime is an evolving animal, so governments, like carriers and enterprises are also evolving to put in adequate safety measures to protect confidential data. In short, the blended threatscape we face today is unprecedented and requires constant monitoring.
Research suggests that hackers look for the lowest hanging fruits when targeting potential victims. What does this suggest about the level of security sophistication available on government websites and networks?
Benjamin Teh: If the recent Obama administration campaign hacking incident is any indication, then most governments around the world today can use more help in better securing their networks. But this scenario is widespread and certainly not relegated to just government networks -- even one of the most world’s most advanced technology tools today, the Google search engine, had its results tampered with by the recent Gumblar web attack, which has infiltrated more than 3,000 websites of late. To further accentuate this situation, I’d like to cite US Senator Jay Rockefeller, who was quoted: “We need to act now - the time to combat cyber terror was yesterday.”

U.S., Asian finance ministers see common goals

2009-11-11T21:06:00.000-08:00

The United States and Asia are inextricably linked and must work together to build a more stable economy, top U.S., Indonesian and Singaporean finance officials wrote in an editorial to be published on Thursday.
In the editorial prepared for the Wall Street Journal Asia, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Singaporean Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that as U.S. households save more, others must take steps to spur domestic growth.
The United States has pushed for a more balanced global economy that is less dependent on debt-powered consumption in the United States. At a meeting of the Group of 20 major industrialized and emerging nations in Pittsburgh in September, leaders endorsed a U.S.-backed plan to rebalance the world economy.
Washington wants China in particular to take steps to strengthen its social safety net to encourage spending at home, and to allow its yuan currency to appreciate more rapidly.
While the editorial did not name China, the finance leaders reiterated the need for currency exchange rates to be established by markets.
"Market-oriented exchange rates in line with economic fundamentals will be essential in assuring the resource and sectoral shifts to match and foster the new patterns of demand," they said.
Geithner was in Japan on Wednesday before heading to Singapore to join a meeting of finance ministers from the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) on Thursday.
The three finance leaders said they would work together at the APEC meeting on finding ways to shift the pattern of global growth to foster more U.S. savings and more growth in surplus countries such as China.
"The events of the last year have shown that our economies are bound together inextricably, and in more complex ways than we previously recognized," they wrote.
"APEC members must forge a partnership of common interests to produce strong and balanced growth among our economies. We must reinvigorate the framework of cooperation to ensure that relations between our nations are as positive and mutually productive in the future as they have been in the past."

POSTED BY:-

SATISH CHANDRA
PGDM III
SACTION A