Govt eyes $10bn from BSNL public offer

Govt eyes $10bn from BSNL public offer

The government on Thursday broached plans for the public listing of telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd with its workers, but neither the proposal nor an offer of ESOPs found any takers.
Communications Minister A Raja, who attempted to win the consent of employees union for diluting 10 per cent of BSNL's stake, said that the listing could be in the band of Rs 300-400 a share by the end of this fiscal.

BSNL, India's top telecom firm by subscriber numbers, has a paid up equity capital of around Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) and could achieve a revenue of Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) at the end of this fiscal. As of end-June, BSNL had nearly 73 million wireless and fixed-line subscribers.

"This is the first time I am talking to the BSNL union on the issue of listing after its board took a decision on the same last week. We have explained to the union on how the IPO will benefit the company," Raja said after meeting the workers.

To win the consensus of the three lakh BSNL employees, the company's board offered workers 500 shares each at Rs 10 a share, while the IPO would be in a range of Rs 300-400 per share, the minister said.

The union, however, rejected the ESOP package. "This Esop is a bait.. we will not fall for it," BSNL Employees Union General Secretary V A N Namboodiri said. The union fears for jobs of workers after the IPO, as also about the growth of the company.

BSNL finance director S D Saxena said the conservative valuation was roughly $100 billion. "Vodafone got Hutchison Essar a valuation of $21 billion and this company is 5-6 times bigger," he said.

Merchant bankers have not yet been appointed for the IPO, Saxena said, adding that the process would start now.He said the IPO could happen in six months. "We will not rush into it. We will try to convince everyone. If there is a delay in the issue it is better. The valuation may go up."
But union leader Namboodiri told reporters after meeting Raja that "we are not interested in the ESOP package given by the board. We don't want any IPO in BSNL. We are not convinced with their argument that the IPO is beneficial for BSNL's growth."

BSNL chairman Kuldeep Goyal, however, said there is no timeframe as to when the IPO will happen. "There is no immediate need for it but we are preparing the ground work. . . (and claimed) we are seeing some positive reaction from the union on the issue," although the union rejected the plan outright.Appealing to the workers keep the negotiations on, Raja in a statement said that the IPO will reveal the real value of the company as also help it get Navratna status -- which would give greater financial autonomy to the telecom firm.

At Thursday's price Bharti is valued at Rs 1.61 lakh crore (Rs 1.61 trillion) and RCom at Rs 90,517 crore (Rs 905.17 billion).

SOurce: Rediff

Sensex ends marginally higher at 15,117; Inflation at 12.01%

Sensex ends marginally higher at 15,117
Stocks end flat after choppy session
Markets rangebound; Sterlite, HDFC gain
Markets choppy; Nifty holds 4500

Stocks ended with modest gains on Thursday, marked by alternate bouts of profit booking and buying across the sectors. Investors traded with caution ahead of inflation data, expected after market hours. India’s annual inflation is seen at 12.02 per cent in the week ended July 26, marginally higher than the previous week's 11.98 per cent.

Unsupportive global cues saw the market start off on a negative note. But the indices picked up steam later on gains in the consumer durables space which drove the sectoral index up 2.86 per cent. It was the biggest sectoral gainer. However, profit booking in capital goods and power stocks capped the upside.

Meanwhile, crude oil traded above $119 a barrel after dipping to three-month low to under $118 the previous day, which added to the jittery sentiment. “For the first time in six months, domestic institutional investors offloaded Rs 804.36 crore in the cash segment on Wednesday. The sharp sell-off by DIIs suggested the lack of confidence in the market. We expect a short term reversal in trend on the downside from the high of 4615 seen on Wednesday.As for today, the market is expecting an adverse number on the inflation front, which led to the downside, especially after 2 pm,” said Satish Kannav, technical analyst at Arihant Capital.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex settled at 15,117.25, up 0.29 per cent or 43.71 points after swinging between a high of 15,280.06 and low of 14,992.97 during the day. National Stock Exchange's Nifty ended 0.14 per cent, or just 6.3 points, higher at 4523.85. The index oscillated between 4580.15 and 4493.70.

Second rung stocks outperformed the benchmarks. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.45 per cent and 0.32 per cent respectively. Among frontline stocks, Sterlite Industries (4.43%), Tata Motors (4.1%), HDFC (3.37%), HDFC Bank (3.03%) and Grasim Industries (2.49%) chalked up decent gains. BHEL (-2.88%), Bharti Airtel (-2.25%), Reliance Communications (-1.78%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (-1.68%) and Hindustan Unilever (1.47%) were the losers in the 30-share index. Market breadth on BSE showed 1,406 advances and 1,284 declines.

---------------------------------------------
Other Stories:
Inflation just over 12%
FDI in sensitive sectors may go off auto route
Hero Honda hikes 100cc bike prices by up to Rs 850
GDP growth may fall to 7.5-8%: Rangarajan
Raja talks to BSNL workers on IPO, union unrelenting
SEBI plans review of PN rules at its board meet
Pair trading may help you tide over market fluctuations

Source:ET

RBI issues norms for currency futures

RBI issues norms for currency futures

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today issued guidelines on currency futures, and limited the participation to person resident in India as defined in section 2 (v) of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.

According to a release issued by the central bank today, the norms will be effective August 6.
"Currency futures means a standardised foreign exchange derivative contract traded on a recognised stock exchange to buy or sell one currency against another on a specified future date, at a price specified on the date of contract, but does not include a forward contract," the release said.

The standardised currency futures shall have the following features:
a. Only USD-INR contracts are allowed to be traded.
b. The size of each contract shall be $1000.
c. The contracts shall be quoted and settled in Indian Rupees.
d. The maturity of the contracts shall not exceed 12 months.
e. The settlement price shall be the Reserve Bank’s Reference Rate on the last trading day.

The release added that the membership of the currency futures market of a recognised stock exchange shall be separate from the membership of the equity derivative segment or the cash segment. Membership for both trading and clearing in the currency futures market shall be subject to guidelines issued by Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

"Banks authorised by the Reserve Bank of India under section 10 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 as ‘AD Category - I bank’ are permitted to become trading and clearing members of the currency futures market of the recognised stock exchanges, on their own account and on behalf of their clients, subject to fulfilling the following minimum prudential requirements:

a) Minimum net worth of Rs 500 crore.
b) Minimum CRAR of 10 per cent.
c) Net NPA should not exceed 3 per cent.
d) Made net profit for last 3 years.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) also issued a notification on currency futures, and said gross open position of a trading member across all contracts shall not exceed 15% of the total open interest or $25 million, whichever is higher.

"Gross open position of a trading member, which is a bank, across all contracts, shall not exceed 15% of the total open interest or $100 million, whichever is higher," an official release said.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE RBI REPORT
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SEBI REPORT
RBI allows exchanges to offer FX futures
Rs 500-cr net worth must for currency futures play


Source: UTVi, ET

Tata Steel in Fortune Global 500 list for first time, Mkts end off highs

Tata Steel makes it to Fortune Global 500 list for first time

Steel major Tata Steel has for the first time made it to the prestigious Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest corporations, a company statement said on Wednesday. The company ranks 231 in terms of revenue, the statement said. Interestingly, Fortune magazine in its July 21, 2008 issue, had for the first time included Tata Steel in its Global 500 list but the company was ranked 315th in terms of revenue. This ranking was, however, based on the company's total revenues in the first three quarters of the current fiscal and the last quarter of the previous fiscal. Following the announcement of the company's annual results, Fortune has re-ranked Tata Steel. In a clarification on its website, Fortune has said: "Tata Steel's revenue for fiscal year end March 31, 2008 -- released by the company after the Global 500 publication deadline -- was $32.8 billion. Had the information been available, the company would have placed 231 on the list. The company ranked 315th in the listing, based on revenue for the four quarters ended Dec. 31, 2007, of $25.7 billion."

The Tata Steel registered the biggest year-on-year increase in revenues - a 353.2 percent change - among all the companies on the list. Tata Steel, flagship of the Tata Group's 98 operating companies in seven business sectors, was set up in 1907 as Asia's first and India's largest integrated private sector steel producer. It is now the world's 5th largest steelmaker in terms of revenues. With the recent acquisition of Corus, the combined enterprise has a total crude steel production capacity of around 30 million tonnes with over 82,000 employees working in 27 countries on four continents. Fortune Global 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine owned by the world's largest media group the United States-based AOL Time Warner. The list ranks the world's largest companies in terms of gross revenues. Global retail giant Wal-Mart Stores heads the 2008 list maintaining its number one rank that it had earned last year as well. Seven Indian companies, including Tata Steel, presently figure on the list. They are: public sector oil major Indian Oil ranked 116th, private sector conglomerate Reliance India Ltd ranked 207th, public sector oil major Bharat Petroleum ranked 287th, public sector oil major Hindustan Petroleum ranked 290th, public sector oil and gas major ONGC ranked 335th and public sector bank State Bank of India ranked 380th. Interestingly, except for public sector Oil India which has the highest rank among Indian companies, both the private sector companies finding a place in the list - Reliance Industries and Tata Steel - are ranked above the other four Indian companies in the list who are all public sector entities. This reflects the kind of change that has been taking place in the Indian corporate sector over the last 17 years ever since economic reforms were introduced. Before 1991, no Indian private sector company had ever been included in the prestigious Fortune Global 500 list.

Other stories:
Rally fizzles as investors take to profit booking
It was a case of an intra-day reversal on Wednesday as stocks erased almost all gains after a spectacular rally gave way to profit booking. Overnight, the US Federal Reserve kept key interest rates unchanged and signaled at no further rate hikes in the near term, which sparked a rally across global markets, and India was no exception. Indices got off to a firm start and clocked handsome gains across the board. Expectations that retreating crude prices would ease inflationary concerns and take the pressure off rising interest rates saw investors flocking to interest rate sensitive stocks. Oil prices slid to a three-month low of around $118 a barrel from a record high above $147 in mid-July. However, the rally took a U-turn as sellers stepped in and did damage as they chose to book profits across the board, especially in the recent gainers - banking, auto and realty pack. But market analysts feel profit booking was anticipated given the sharp run-up over the last few days. "Indices have risen nearly 22 per cent from the lows and profit booking was expected at these levels since it had neared key resistance levels of 15500 and 4650. This is likely to continue for a couple of days," said Hitesh Sheth, head of research at Prabhudas Lilladher.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex settled 112.47 points or 0.75 per cent higher at 15,073.54. The index slid from a high of 15,422.82 to low of 15,263.65 intra day. National Stock Exchange's Nifty was up 0.33 per cent or 14.70 points to 4517.55 after touching a high of 4615.90. The low was 4506.25.

"A gap-up opening on the Nifty left an unfilled bearish gap between 4524 and 4557, which was filled on its way down. On Thursday, if 4465 on the Nifty sustains, then it can be concluded that the fall witnessed today was just to fill that bearish gap. In that case, the market will continue its upmove," said Bharat Dalal, fund manager at Dawnay Day AV Financial Services. Investors dumped shares in the midcap and smallcap space with BSE Midcap Index ending just 0.02 per cent higher while the BSE Smallcap Index sagged 0.68 per cent. Biggest Sensex gainers were Maruti Suzuki (6.25%), Tata Motors (4.31%), Bharati Airtel (3.59%), ACC (3.48%), Tata Consulting Services (3.32%) and BHEL (3.21%). Tata Steel (-4.48%), Tata Power (-3.65%), State Bank of India (-3.49%), Reliance Infrastructure (-3.11%) and HDFC (-2.82%) were the losers in the 30-share index. Steel counters declined for a second straight session on fears the steel ministry would not allow them to raise prices after an agreed 3-month freeze lapse on August 8. As the day progressed, market breadth weakened and finally turned negative with 1,444 declines and 1,266 advances on BSE.

RIL to complete family MoU argument on Thursday
Bharti Airtel to launch iPhone on Aug 22
3G movies still some time away
Equities end off highs; BSE Auto Index up 2.51%
Oil off the boil, falls below $118
Annual inflation seen at 12.02 pc on July 26
HCC consortium bags Rs 1,398 cr project
Direct tax collections jump 47% in April-July
Reliance Power to raise $2.5 bn loan: Sources
Overseas venture capitalists invest Rs 17,000 crore in Indian assets in Q1

Source: ET

They quit good jobs to mint millions..

They quit good jobs to mint millions!

A few good people who decided to quit good jobs for better ideas.

Anand Prakash
He uses handmade paper for a paperless world.
Eight years ago, Anand Prakash, an economics graduate from Delhi University, created a sample card for Rs 100. "It was immediately rejected," laughs the businessman whose turnover this year is slated to be Rs 75 lakh. "I look at a hundred per cent turnover," he grins, "and we've always managed it."
His office in Delhi's busy Shahpurjat area is a riot of colours and handmade paper products. "My next idea is to create spice paper like, say, crushed cinnamon mixed with paper," says the designer-entrepreneur who was recently shortlisted for the young Indian British Council award.
Greeting cards may be an anomaly in today's times but "my forte" insists Prakash "is anything and everything related to paper". It started with greeting cards, but soon Prakash realised that he needed to diversify. So there are paper bags, journals, recipe books, scrapbooks and photo albums created in various materials including a combination of handmade paper and brass.
Though greeting cards are just one among 75 different products, with a thousand-odd designs they remain his favourites. "I treat greeting cards as the canvas on which I unleash my creativity," he laughs. Boutique stores like Full Circle, Handpaper World, Temple Tree and Either Or stock Prakash'z Creations, now also being exported to the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Spain. "I've always got 100 per cent advance for my work," he claims.
As a business model, Prakash's greeting cards business has blossomed into a unique initiative involving the local population in his native Jharkhand. "Daltongunj is one of the poorest districts of the country. But it has a rich source of natural materials that I can use in my work and, hopefully by the end of this year, we would have trained at least 30 people .

For more on this, visit: http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/aug/04sld1.htm

*************************************
Other Rediff articles:

Amar Singh alleges insider trading by RIL
Pay Commission awards may be deferred
New payment system for IPOs by Aug 10
Meet India's youngest MTech from IIT Madras
Sanjay Jha is Motorola Co-CEO
'India can surpass Chinese growth'

Information You Can Use
• TAPMI's PG prog in mgmt• IRMA's PGP in Rural Mgmt
• IIM-A's PGP in Agri-business• IIFT's consultancy symposium
• Degree in homoeopathy• Want a career in banking?
• Interested in pharmacology?• BSc Ed for OBC students
• XLRI's distance edu courses• SP Jain's global MBA• Want to learn stem cell tech?


Source: Rediff.com

Dow up 332 pts, Nasdaq up 64 pts on Fed rate signals, oil retreat

US STOCKS-Wall St rallies on Fed rate signals, oil retreat

* Fed signals in no hurry to raise interest rates
* Oil below $120 helps airlines, retailers
* AIG leads financial stocks higher
* Dow up 2.9 pct, S&P 500 up 2.9 pct, Nasdaq up 2.8 pct (Updates to close)

*************

U.S. stocks soared on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve signaled that it is in no rush to raise interest rates and oil prices tumbled further, spurring the Dow and the S&P to their best day in four months.
The Dow rose more than 300 points.
The Fed, as expected, left benchmark lending rates unchanged at 2 percent, and its accompanying statement soothed investors who had worried that inflation headwinds would force the central bank to drive up borrowing costs in coming months.
Oil prices fell more than 2 percent, closing below the $120 a barrel mark for the first time in three months. That provided further relief on the inflation front and offered hope for consumer spending, which has been pressured by record gasoline prices.

Big winners on the day included retailers, banks and airlines, while commodity-related shares extended their retreat along with the drop in price of crude oil and gold.
"The market seems to be reacting somewhat favorably to the idea the Fed will not raise interest rates any time soon. It appears that the Fed has actually taken a little more of a dovish stance, speaking more about the downside risks to growth," said Richard Sparks, senior equities analyst, Schaeffer's Investment Research.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI surged 331.21 points, or 2.94 percent, to 11,615.36, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX jumped 35.59 points, or 2.85 percent, at 1,284.60.The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC rose 64.27 points, or 2.81 percent, to 2,349.83.

Financial shares soared, led by a 12 percent gain in shares of insurer American International Group (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to $29.89. The S&P financials sub-index rose more than 5 percent.

Analysts at UBS upgraded AIG to "buy" from "neutral" on valuation and said the world's largest insurer was well-positioned to absorb further losses and didn't need to raise capital.
Shares of Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's largest consumer products maker whose products range from Pampers diapers to Olay skin-care products, rose after the company posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit. Shares rose 3.3 percent to $67.97.

Planemaker Boeing (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) rose 6.3 percent to $65.20 and lifted the Dow industrials, while an index of retail shares .RLX rose 5.4 percent.
U.S. crude futures ended lower for a second day in a row, with oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico starting to return to normal as Tropical Storm Edouard moved inland after striking the Texas coast.

Early in the session, data from the Institute for Supply Management showing that the U.S. service sector shrank less than expected in July helped set the positive tone in the stock market. The ISM report included a decline in the prices paid index. For details, see [ID:nN05315223].
Trading was moderate on the New York Stock Exchange, with about 1.4 billion shares changing hands, below last year's estimated daily average of roughly 1.9 billion, while on Nasdaq, about 2.33 billion shares traded, above last year's daily average of 2.17 billion.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by about 2 to 1 on the Nasdaq. (Additional reporting by Walter Brandimarte; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Oil falls below $120 as Edouard spares Gulf

Fed leaves rate unchanged at 2 per cent
The Federal Reserve held US interest rates steady on Tuesday, expressing concerns on both economic growth and inflation and offering few clues as to when it might push borrowing costs higher. The 10-1 decision by the US central bank leaves the benchmark federal funds rate target at a low 2 percent, where it has been since April. The Fed had reduced rates by a cumulative 3.25 percentage points since mid-September in response to a sharp housing retrenchment and turmoil in credit markets. "Although downside risks to growth remain, the upside risks to inflation are also of significant concern," the Fed said in a statement.

The announcement closely mirrored a statement issued after the Fed's last meeting in late June. However, the central bank omitted a phrase contained in the June statement that had said risks to growth appeared "to have diminished somewhat." US stocks added to earlier gains, while prices for US government debt securities and the dollar slipped. US short-term interest rate futures pared the implied prospects of rate hikes later this year. Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher dissented from the decision, preferring higher rates. It was Fisher's fifth straight dissent.

"If there is a subtle shift in the risk assessment it is that while acknowledging the downside risks to growth, it notes the upside risks to inflation 'are also (of) significant concern,'" Marc Chandler, global head of strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York, said in a note to clients. "This may have been a sufficient bone to the hawks to prevent others from joining Fisher in dissenting," he said. STILL SHAKY The Fed's decision comes as evidence points to lingering economic weakness from the housing slump, shaky consumer sentiment and tight credit. At the same time, a marked pullback in oil prices, which have slid to around $120 a barrel since cresting above $147 a barrel in July, has eased some of the central bank's worries about inflation. The drop in oil prices had led investors to anticipate the Fed would not need to raise rates soon to combat inflation at the expense of choking off already weak growth, and was a factor pushing equities prices up ahead of the central bank's decision.

The economy grew at respectable if somewhat subdued 1.9 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, but that growth followed a 0.2 percent contraction in the fourth quarter of last year and a tepid 0.9 percent gain at the start of 2008. Many economists expect the economy to weaken anew in the second half of the year as the boost to consumer spending from government stimulus checks recedes. With the jobless rate at a four-year high and employers cutting jobs for a seventh straight month in July, many observers suggest it is a technicality to insist the economy is not in recession simply because a popular definition, two consecutive quarters of contraction, has not been met. At the heart of US economic malaise is a housing market that has not shown convincing signs of stabilizing. The pace of existing home sales fell to the lowest level since 1998 in June and mortgage applications are at their lowest level since 2000 as buyers remain on the sidelines. A mild silver lining is the recent drop in oil prices. Fed officials have worried that big increases in energy and food prices could set in train an inflationary psychology in which workers and businesses push harder to cover their costs, leading to a broader pickup in prices.

A report on Monday showed inflation jumped 0.8 percent in June, the steepest rise since 1981. The gain over the past year climbed to 4.1 percent, the most since 1991. While so-called core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is viewed by the Fed as a good barometer of the future course of prices, has been better behaved, it also moved up in June. Core prices have risen 2.3 percent over the past year, a bit above the 1.5 percent to 2 percent range that many Fed officials believe is ideal.

Source: ET, Reuters

Sensex up 383 points and Nifty above 4500

Indices soar to day's high in late trade; Sensex up 383 points
Sensex ends 383 pts up on all-round buying

Indices ended at the day's high cheering crude oil's slide to a three-month low of $118 a barrel, easing inflation expectations. Interest rate sensitive sectors like banking, realty and auto stocks spearheaded the rally on speculation that US Federal Reserve will increase interest rates in its policy meet later today. Midcaps and smallcaps were also in demand.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex ended 2.63 per cent or 383 points higher at 14,961.07. The index touched a high of 14,986.63 and low of 14,529.21. National Stock Exchange's Nifty rose 2.45 per cent or 107 points to 4502.85 after swinging in a range of 4515.15 and low of 4376.00.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 1.76 per cent or 1.26 per cent respectively. Biggest Sensex gainers were Maruti Suzuki (7.84%), ICICI Bank (7.78%), Grasim Industries (7.58%), DLF (7.48%), Jaiprakash Associates (7.08%) and HDFC Bank (6.46%). Sterlite Industries (-6.72%), Tata Steel (2.59%) and Ranbaxy Laboratories (2.09%) were the losers. Market breadth on BSE showed 1761 advances and 931 declines, while on NSE, there were 863 gainers and 402 losers.
------------------------------------------
Oil falls below $119
NTPC eyes Indonesian mine
NTPC forays into renewable power
BHEL bags first order to supply 800 MW boilers
Reliance Communications to float $500-million tender for 3G rollout
RBI wants VC investment restricted to select sectors

Source: ET, SIfy

10 emerging careers

10 emerging careers

While the world cries slowdown and news of companies downsizing makes headlines, crystal ball gazing on emerging careers might not be the order of the day.

But such is the Indian growth story that apart from expansion in the sunrise sectors, entirely new opportunities that never existed will also open up for jobseekers.

"According to the International Business Report, 2008, by consultancy firm Grant Thornton International, India alone will make up 30 per cent of the worldwide net increase in employment with 142 million new jobs by 2020," says Sampath Shetty, vice president, permanent staffing, TeamLease Services, a staffing solutions company.

OLM spoke to a host of experts to find out what specific functional area in each of the emerging sectors would be most in demand and why.

Retail
Growth stimulus: "The vast middle class, strong income growth, favourable demographic patterns and organised retailing growth estimated at 40 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next few years are some of the factors that will drive the retail boom," says Rajeev Gaur, COO, TimesJobs.com, an online jobs database.

Requirements: "The need would be around 15,000-20,000 people in each of these retail chains. So, in all, the requirements would touch 80,000-85,000 every year in the next three to four years, of which frontline sales staff will be 80-85 per cent," says Vishal Chhiber, head, HR of Kelly Services India, an HR solutions firm.

The remaining jobs, says Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, senior VP HR, Spencer's Retail, "will be in retail-specific areas like visual merchandising, plannogramming (the science of maximising space efficiency in the store) and supply chain management. Retail management graduates and general MBAs will be wanted.

Real Estate/ Infrastructure
Growth stimulus: Growth in infrastructure and real estate developments with gradual opening up of FDI in certain sub-sectors will be the main reasons for the boom. "The percentage of middle class people in metros and Tier-2 cities who are buying their own property has increased from about 35 per cent in 2003 to 60 per cent today," says Prodito Sen, VP marketing and corporate affairs, Alpha G: Corp Development, a real estate developer.

Requirements: "This will recreate a need for civil engineers, a tribe we forgot during the IT boom," says Shabbir Merchant, chief value creator, Valulead Consulting, a leadership development firm. "The requirement is for 1.5 lakh engineers if the land bank we have is to be translated into construction," says Chhiber. Infrastructure projects would need more such engineers.

"Other functions like residential and commercial real estate brokers, real estate appraisers, property mangers and real estate consultants would also be in demand," says Anuj Puri, chairman and country head, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, a property advisor and transaction firm.

Healthcare/Pharma
Growth stimulus: Hospital chains are expanding all over India, even in smaller towns.

Requirement: "An acute shortage of doctors is expected over the next few years, especially anaesthetists, radiologists, gynaecologists and surgeons, particularly neurosurgeons. The need would be for 45,000-50,000 doctors for the 50-odd healthcare companies expected to start operations in India," says Chhiber.

"People with a Masters in Hospital Administration (MHA) will be in demand as they are key elements to a hospital's efficiency," says Vishal Bali, CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals Group. A study by consulting firm Technopak says, "Many big hospital projects have either been delayed or stopped because of this manpower shortage."

"With the rule of thumb being four MHA people per hospital, around 2,000 hospital chains will need 8,000 such people over the next five years," adds Bali.

In pharma, demand will be created in research and development (R&D). The requirement would be for 15,000-20,000 scientists every year. "Another area which would see a demand is pharma regulation and documentation officers," says V Suresh, senior vice-president and national head (sales), Naukri.com, an online jobs portal.

Financial services
Growth stimulus: There will be a lot of new entrants and existing players diversifying with new product lines.

Requirements: "A lot of portfolio managers -- not necessarily fund managers, but those who manage portfolios beyond a certain amount -- will be required. They will be working with banks and financial institutions. The requirement will be for 25,000-30,000 every year," says Chhiber.

Suresh adds, "The salaries in private banking would be 200-300 per cent more than in retail or corporate banking."

Judhajit Das, HR chief of ICICI [Get Quote] Prudential Life Insurance, foresees maximum jobs growth in retail financial services, with 80 per cent of them being in sales and distribution. The biggest employers will be the insurance and banking sector," he says.

Gaur has some numbers: "Over 50,000 new jobs are expected to be created in the banking, financial services, and insurance sector in the current year. Banks are expected to hire 15,000-20,000 people in the next one year."

Hospitality/facilities management
Growth stimulus: With hotel rooms being added across the country at a rapid rate to keep up with growing tourist inflow, hi-tech townships being developed and malls and multiplexes coming up at every corner, people will be needed to service and maintain them.

Requirements: "Over 2.5 lakh rooms will be needed in the next five years to meet the demand from both the domestic and international guests. Over the next two or three years, we will need over 1 lakh more rooms. An average of 1.5 service personnel per room will mean an overall shortage of at least 1.5 lakh people across a whole range of hotel-related jobs in India, especially food production, food and beverage services, housekeeping and front office operations," says Satish Jayaram, principal, Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad.

According to Chhiber, the manpower growth prediction for facilities management is 20-25 per cent. Ashwin Puri, CEO, Property Zone, a firm that develops and manages shopping centres says, "Technical maintenance people need to understand aspects such as provision of adequate power supply, safety issues, water supply, sanitation, signages, and so on. For soft services, hospitality management experience is preferred." A mall will need five to six such managers.

Consulting services
Growth stimulus: With existing businesses growing more complex and numerous startups on the cards, there will be demand for consultants specializing in human resources (HR) and startups.

"Apart from recruitment specialists, another area of demand in the HR space will be 'employer brand specialists' as organisations move away from a me-too approach and actively seeking differentiation," says Merchant.

Requirements: Considering that with every 50-75 people recruited, one HR job gets created, TimesJobs.com estimates that 28,000 more HR jobs will be created in 2008.

Gautam Ghosh, senior manager, HR consultancy Tvarita Consulting, foresees an explosion in demand for start-up consultants and business strategists as more and more consumer-oriented portals mushroom across the country.

Entertainment
Growth stimulus: There would be about two new TV channels every month and 20-25 new FM channels every year.

Requirements: "About 4,000-5,000 people will be directly employed by TV channels every year," says Chibber.

"In radio, the demand would be for production people, anchors, technical and distribution sales professionals: jobs for 2,500 people in the next two years," he adds.

Information Technology
Growth stimulus: "Despite stagnation in the industry, a lot of project-based or contractual hiring and increasing domestic IT requirements would lead to organic growth," says Chhiber.

Requirements: Veerendra Mathur, CEO, Focus Infotech, a strategic IT HR and managed solutions firm, says, "Professionals who have a holistic knowledge and can do multitasking like coding, testing, designing and communicating with clients will be in demand."

"India will need 4.9 lakh professionals in the IT exports market, 11.1 lakh in the domestic IT industry and 20.5 lakh in the ITES-BPO sector by 2012," says Chhiber.

Customer services
Growth stimulus: Companies will put more and more stress on customer service to stay ahead of the competition.

Requirements: According to Chhiber, frontline technicians who have skills required to service and manage customers will be in demand. "About 1.5 lakh trained people every year would be needed," he adds.

Telecom
Growth stimulus: The telecom industry is growing faster in small towns and will also see a lot of organic growth. Jobs will also emerge in telecom when people employed here opt to shift to other emerging sectors.

Requirements: "The employment growth rate in telecom industry is expected to increase by seven per cent to ten per cent every year," says Gaur. "Jobs in demand would be telecom, mechanical, software and telecom test engineers, project managers, network security specialists and operation managers." According to data from FICCI, telecom will see 0.5 million new jobs by 2010 and 1.5 million by 2015.

Ghosh stresses the increasing demand for people who have a blend of two functional skills, like a financial services person with business and marketing skills. "In a dynamic job space in a growing economy," he sums up, "people with the right skill sets will always be sought after."

source: rediff

Stock Analysis from deadpresident

Stock Report and Annual Reports

Reliance Industries - 2007-2008 Annual Report
Eveninger - Aug 4 2008
HCL Tech, DLF, Shriram Transport, Lanco Infratech, India Banking, India Automobiles, Larsen and Tourbo, Jindal SAW
Reliance Petroleum 2007-2008 Annual Report

India Model Portfolio - Aug 2008
Sun TV / India Insurance Sector
Weekly Trace and Track - Aug 4 2008

Weekly Technicals - Aug 4 2008
Hotel Leelaventures, Nagarjuna Constructions, IVRCL, Madhucon Projects, AIA Engineering, Suzlon Energy, Voltamp Transformers, PVR, HT Media
Tata Motors - 2007-2008 Annual Report

IDFC - 2007-2008 Annual Report
For more Annual REPORTS - CLICK HERE
Container Corporation
Television Eighteen
Exide Industries

Bharti Airtel
Most Popular Pages - Aug 2 2008
Top Picks - Aug 2008
IPCA Labs / DLF Ltd /Merck
DIC India / Bata India

Source: Deadpresident blog