11 August 2008

India's first bio-diesel pump to start in September

India's first bio-diesel pump to start in September

In winter 2005, Chief Minister Narendra Modi was at the Gujarat Agriculture University campus in Navsari, riding a tractor with a difference - it ran on bio-diesel. Come September, that bio-diesel will be available at a pump for the first time in India. The bio-diesel production, from Jatropha plants, is the brainchild of 40-year-old Dharmendra Parekh, chairman and managing director of Aditya Aromedic and Bio-Energy. Since April, the firm has been producing bio-diesel from the jatropha plant. Registered in 2005 and set up with a capital outlay of Rs 5 crore, the company produces 17,000 litres of bio-diesel per day at its 140,000-sq ft plant located in Tarsadi village on the Navsari-Bardoli highway in Navsari district. The bio-diesel is sold at Rs 38.90 per litre while the price of regular diesel is Rs 39.20 per litre and that of premium diesel Rs 40.40.

The firm has been pre-selling its entire output every day since April. "We don't have to do any marketing. On the contrary I take a deposit of Rs 5,00,000 from all my customers and everyone irrespective of the quantity purchased has to pay the full amount in advance. And the delivery is done only after 20 days," says Parekh. "I have at least five customers waiting in the queue, each of whom has a daily requirement of over 500 tonnes of bio-diesel." Right now, the fuel is supplied from two depots - one at Navsari and other at Mehsana in north Gujarat. The clientele is spread over Ahmedabad, Nadiad, Vadodara and north Gujarat, Mumbai and Delhi. Importantly, diesel vehicles do not need to modify their engines to use bio-diesel. "I have been using my own bio-diesel in my Tata Indica diesel car for the past nine months and it runs very smoothly and also gives me a mileage of 21 to 22 km on the highway," says Parekh, a graduate in computer science and master in bio-informatics. "There is no problem at all even if you keep on changing the fuel from regular diesel to bio-diesel." Parekh also claims that his bio-diesel was much better in quality than most of the premium diesel brands being hawked by the oil majors.

The hardy jatropha plant is resistant to drought and pests. It produces seeds containing up to 40 percent oil. When the seeds are crushed and processed, the resulting oil can be used in a standard diesel engine, while the residue can also be processed into biomass to generate electricity. To ensure a steady supply of jatropha, Parekh has entered into a contract with 1,500 farmers of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. These farmers plant jatropha in the periphery of their fields so that the normal food chain is not disturbed. Over 300 hectares of land have been brought under jatropha cultivation. "In a jatropha plantation you get your break-even within three years and the plant makes money for you for the next 40 years," says Parekh. He has prepared a plantation manual for jatropha farmers. The most important aspect of jatropha is that it can grow on soil otherwise considered a wasteland. Parekh has a huge first-mover advantage in this field. But it's not a smooth ride all the way. "It is a very hard and complicated thing, especially the procurement of raw materials," he says. "You have to plan out each and everything in such a manner that the fuel you produce becomes commercially viable." The company has staff strength of 200. Crude, glycerine and de-oiled cakes are the by-products. The company is now preparing a blueprint to extract biogas from the de-oiled cakes, leaving manure as the last residue. The company plans to use this biogas for power generation.

--------------------------------
Metros, SUVs may have to shell out more for fuel
'Biofuel can ensure India's energy security'


Source: ET

10 August 2008

Mgmt Guru C.K.Prahalad's Dream for India 2022, India's most investor friendly companies

Imagine 14 years into the future. The year is 2022. Independent India turns 75. At least 30 Indian companies are on the Fortune 100 list; India accounts for 10 per cent of global trade; it has a base of 200 million college graduates; and is a chief source of all global innovations. In an exclusive article written specially for Business Today, C. K. Prahalad, who is one of the world’s best-known and most respected management thinkers, lists six possibilities and goes on to show how India could, indeed, achieve them.

Cover Story
Prahalad’s plan

An India that's home to 30 of Fortune 100 companies, the world’s largest pool of technically-trained manpower, and Nobel Prize winners in arts, science and literature? That’s management guru C.K. Prahalad’s dream for India@75, and he’s got a plan how to get there. A Business Today exclusive.
------------------------------------
How to build 30 of the Fortune 100 companies out of India
How to create a trained workforce of 700 million people
How to get a 10% share of global trade

As the celebrations of India @60 wind down and as the national attention is consumed with problems of the moment—price of energy, inflation, debt relief to farmers, political realignment in the states—it is hard to focus attention on the future of India. The urgent is likely to drive out the important. Moreover, it is easy to get carried away by growth statistics of the past five years and feel “we have arrived”.

C.K. Prahalad Leadership, however, is about the future, about hope and change. Leaders must elevate the national debate and focus on the potential of India. A shared view of India@75, for example, can provide a framework for building a multi-stakeholder consensus and making choices that are directionally consistent with that goal. Unless we are clear about the potential, it is very difficult to undertake an arduous journey.

I believe that India has the potential to actively participate in shaping the emerging world order. This demands that India must acquire enough economic strength, technological vitality and moral leadership to do so. Just economic strength and technological maturity is not enough. We know that the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had economic and technological muscle. They failed. Morality is an integral part of leadership. We should emphasise all three dimensions, in equal measure, in India’s march to Her destiny.

For more : Prahalad’s plan
------------------------------------------------
India's most investor friendly companies

Until early this year, it didn’t take much to make you happy if you were an equity investor. India seemed like the flavour of the decade, India Inc.’s flagbearers were snapping up big rivals elsewhere in the world, and Sensex at 25,000 was where we were all headed (gosh, all that seems so awfully long ago now). Cut to today, investors are licking their burnt fingers and swearing never to touch equity again. Not surprising at all. In a stock market that has plunged from 21,000-something to less than 15,000 now, there’s hardly anyone—small or big investor—who hasn’t lost money.

But it’s equally true that equity provides the best returns over the long term. So, if you are in for the long haul, who should you be investing with? Which are the companies that treat their shareholders like kings? Which companies announce their results on time, hold their annual general meetings every year and, most importantly, have a history of paying dividends consistently? As you can probably imagine, there aren’t too many of them. What makes it harder still for companies is our methodology, which makes them jump through some tough hoops (see How We Did It on page 154). For example, to make the cut, a company must have had extraordinary appreciation in its stock price for three years in a row, among others.

The list on the left, then, represents companies that have delivered on our methodology’s demands. You’ll find the Top 10 featured on the pages that follow. As you can tell, these aren’t (minus a handful) the biggest companies in corporate India, but they are—well, in some sense—like Gautam Gambhir: they won’t give you sixes every over, but they score steadily over the long haul. So, if you are betting on stocks for the long term, this is a good list to start with.

More @ India's most investor friendly companies

-------------------------------------------------
Source: Business Today

Numbers of Note: BT

Numbers of note

$9 trillion (Rs 387 lakh crore): Oil revenues Gulf countries will earn by 2020 if the prices remain at $100 per barrel

4.8 million: Vehicles Toyota Motor Company sold worldwide during the first half of this year. General Motors said it sold 4.5 million vehicles in the same period. Toyota came a narrow second to GM in the race to be the largest auto company in the world in 2007

$2 billion (Rs 8,600 crore): Direct revenues likely to be generated by the Beijing Olympics for the host city from sponsorships, licensing, advertisements, ticket sales and broadcasting rights, according to the Beijing Olympic Economy Research Association

€630 million (Rs 4,300 crore): Price at which Unilever sold its Bertolli olive oil business to Spain’s Grupo SOS. Bertolli is one of the best-selling brands of olive oils in the world. People are consuming more olive oil because of health benefits, such as lower cholesterol

325.78 million: Number of telephone connections in India at the end of June 2008, of which the total wireless subscriber (GSM, CDMA & WLL) base stood at 286.86 million

$7.3 billion (Rs 31,390 crore): The projected increase in spending on security biometrics worldwide by 2013, up from around $3 billion (Rs 12,900 crore) in 2008

73,050 million units: Power deficit faced by India between April 2007 and March 2008, led largely by states like Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh

$90 billion (Rs 3,87,000 crore): The estimated cost of the first phase of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project

$30.6 billion: Is the notional value of the portfolio of risky mortgage debt that Merrill Lynch sold recently for a sum of $6.7 billion to Lone Star Funds

Rs 8,000 crore: Size of the biscuit market in the country
-----------------------------------------------
Other BT articles

Editorial
Dreams for India
The potential to become a far more powerful and prosperous nation existed back then, and it exists now. What it requires, as management guru C.K. Prahalad writes so eloquently in our cover story, is not analysis but imagination.

Deal Watch
Wilbur L. Ross outbid Kingfisher Airlines to acquire SpiceJet
Every month, we bring you a listing of the biggest deals struck by Indian companies in India and abroad. Our partner: global professional services firm Ernst & Young. Here are the deals that were struck in July 2008.

Leadership Spotlight
Risk taker
Cricket has always been his passion. Though N. Srinivasan has been involved with the sport for many years in various administrative capacities, he had kept it away from his business. But this year, he decided to bid for, and bagged, the Indian Premier League’s Chennai franchise for $91 million (Rs 391 crore).

Jobs
Goodbye, appeasement
Rahul Sachitanand
As the reality of a slowdown bites the hitherto fast-growing IT industry, employees and employers need to realign their goals.
It pays to have a career in taxation

Trends
Monsoon worries
Rishi Joshi
Inflation is a bugbear that continues to give mandarins in the economic ministries sleepless nights. The latest figures show it at 11.98 per cent for the week ended July 19. Sub-normal rainfall in large parts of India can push inflation to 14 per cent.
Instant tip / BPOs are getting commoditised: Dougherty
Olympics? What’s that? / Time for fiscal worries
Dip,dip,dip / Doha Round: Dialogue of the deaf
Mumbai expensive? You must be joking / Loan defaults to rise
Geeks get reality ‘cheque’ / Air turbulence continues
At last, some good news on crude prices / Beautiful women decoded
Economy watch / The BT 50 index
Talebearer / Black, white and grey /
To be precise Noted
Just wondering ... / Power, too, now goes green

Money
The mortgage crush
K.R. Balasubramanyam
When interest rates were low, many homeowners overborrowed. But, they are now finding it difficult to cope with the increased monthly instalments. How to survive the interest rate hikes.
A few good stocks
The flexible fund manager
“Follow an asset allocation strategy”
Seniors first
MF Scoreboard

Policy Watch
Renewed thrust on divestment
The government is gearing up to radically alter its approach to disinvestment. With the Left out of the equation, moves are afoot to offload equity in some big PSUs. OIL (Oil India) and hydro-power generator NHPC are on top of the list.

Columns
My lunch with Warren Buffett
Mohnish Pabrai and his friend Guy Spier paid $650,100 to dine with the world’s best-known investor. This is what they took out from their three-hour lunch. A Business Today exclusive.

Features
Did they miss a trick or two?
Rachna Monga
Not since the technology crash of 2000 have an equity fund manager's investment strategy been tested—and the perils of running a concentrated portfolio exposed.
Shadow of a bull / Radioactive opportunity
Meet India’s biotech giant / The great Indian oil rush
Indian companies are waking up to corporate frauds
The last mile chase / The FCCB quandary

Current
On rough terrain
Suman Layak
Even as the world waits expectantly for the Nano, farmers who sold their land for the project now want it back. Will the world’s cheapest car be late coming?
The herald speaks / Eye of the Asian Tiger
Is the red for real? / Spectrum dole-out
Footloose fortune hunter / Bimmer is beaming
Something’s rotten in realty / A good deal for everyone
Still hot on start-ups / How green is My IT?
Same goal, different paths / Playing catch-up
Not Reddy, yet / Too much of a good thing
Beijing and beyond / Mutual benefit



Source: http://businesstoday.digitaltoday.in

Stock,Market Analysis from BusinessLine

Stock,Market Analysis from BusinessLine

STOCKS: Ipca Labs: Buy
Strong performance in branded finished dosages, growth momentum in exports and a strong position in anti-malarial drugs makes Ipca Labs, a medium sized pharma company with Rs 1,100 crore revenues, a good investment option. ...

STOCKS: Parsvnath Developers: Sell
The recent hikes in interest rates and the continuing scenario of unaffordable housing may prove to be an intimidating combination for the real-estate sector and realty developers. While rising cost of home loans can affect demand, higher ...

STOCKS: Praj Industries: Hold
Shareholders with a long-term perspective can continue to hold the stock of Praj Industries, a leading engineering solutions provider to ethanol plants worldwide. The company, whose growth prospects are largely intertwined with the increasing ...

STOCKS: 3i Infotech: Hold
Lowered IT spends by clients on the back of credit crisis-related write-downs and slowing economic growth in the US have created a turbulent environment for Indian software developers. In this context, a very select band of IT companies may be ...

IPOS: Austral Coke: AvoidInvestors can avoid investment in the initial public offering (IPO) of Austral Coke and Projects Ltd., considering the high execution risks and cyclical nature of the business, though prospects for volume growth are bright. ...

INSIGHT: FII activity in 2008 — Still some glimmer of hope

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: Index OutlookVolatility was conspicuous by its absence in the equity markets last week. Trading was almost dull without the wild gyrations. Investors were treading water, buying selectively in beaten down sectors. The sea of red migrated from the trading ...

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: Query Corner: What the charts sayI am holding shares of Idea Cellular purchased at Rs 128. Should I hold these shares at current prices or sell? ...

PETROLEUM: If crude falls further, equities may follow suitStocks, bonds, gold and every other financial asset have been dancing to global gyrations in crude oil prices. In 2008, Indian stocks have moved exactly in the opposite direction to crude prices. The BSE Sensex dropped to its low of 12576 points ...

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS:
Reliance Infra (August 10, 2008)
Unitech (August 10, 2008)
Infosys (August 10, 2008)
Tata Steel (August 10, 2008)
SBI (August 10, 2008)
Reliance (August 10, 2008)
Nifty may cool off after a strong opening (August 10, 2008)

DERIVATIVES MARKETS: Covered calls – here is how to use it

STOCK MARKETS: Baskets of X
E-mail your response before Tuesday to:
STOCK MARKETS: Bull's Eye
E-mail your response by Tuesday to


Source: BusinessLine

For Entrepreneurs, Innovators Benefit...

All of you knew about Venture Capital/Angel Investor.

If dont know about that, Pls read Venture capital - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia / Angel investor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In India, there are numerous VC funds.I have listed few from the site of SEBI.

Entrepreneurs interested to make new ideas into action may visit the following link.

List of Registered Foreign Venture Capital Investors

List of Registered Venture Capital Funds

Other VC websites:

Indian Angel Network

Global Network of Entrepreneurs

India Private Equity

US - India Venture Capital Association

India Venture Capital Association

Welcome to Indian Venture Capital Journal

Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund

VC Circle

Angel Investors, Venture Capital- Angel Group Network

Angel Investor Forum

Source: from SEBI website, own collection.

09 August 2008

Garuda, the car that runs 180 km per litre: Rediff

Garuda, the car that runs 180 km per litre!

A car that offers a mileage of 180 kilometers to a litre of petrol? Yes!

It's neither a pipedream nor a gadget out of a science fiction flick. Garuda, is a car that has been developed by a group of mechanical engineering students from the Rashtriya Vidyalaya College of Engineering, Bangalore.
The super fuel-efficient, aerodynamic car, say the brains behind the project, will address raging issues like oil crisis, rising fuel costs, environmental pollution, and the desperate need for green technologies.
The car is the result of 'Project Garuda-RVCE Supermileage Car,' which was conceptualised by Nishant Sarawagi, the team leader, and seven of his mates: Bharat, Kayaan, Darshan, Jacob, Gautham, Krishna, and Rakshit.

So what are the distinctive features of this fantastic car?

Read on. . .

-------------------------------------------

Indian CEOs heading Fortune cos

Indian-origin CEOs are establishing their prowess across the globe. It may be raining gold for these globe trotting executives as they head more Fortune-listed American firms but, weak dollar, sub-prime crisis and the looming US recession have taken their toll, as total profit of such entities has more than halved in a year's time.


But they are not the only ones. According to the latest Fortune 500 list of America's biggest corporations, which has been topped by retailer Wal-Mart Stores (six times in the past seven years), cumulative net profit of all these firms fell about 18 per cent to $645.2 billion in 2007.
However, the total turnover of America's Fortune 500 firms rose by about seven per cent to $10.6 trillion.


In the main list, Wal-Mart (revenue of $378.8 billion) is followed by energy giant ExxonMobil (372.8 billion dollars). Others in the top 10 include Chevron, General Motors, ConocoPhillips, GE, Ford, Citigroup, Bank of America and AT&T.


The US business magazine Fortune ranks America's biggest firms based on their full-year revenues in this annual list. Compared to six last year, as many as 10 Fortune firms are now headed by CEOs of Indian origin.

More @ http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/aug/08slid1.htm

-----------------------------------------------

Other Rediff stories:

Murthy’s advice to youngstersLearn English, FM tells techies

RBI Policy: It's just pain, no gainProblems are far from over for BSE

Tatas to invest $2 bn in GSMBig TV bags IPL rights for Rs 137 cr

BSE calls off NMCE dealIndian CEOs heading Fortune cos

Images: The Jaguar XK is 60! A 'clothes bank' that helps millions

Images: The PC mouse's history Book bus tickets on rediff.com

Information You Can Use

Calcutta Univ's mgmt coursesIIAS research Fellowships

Associateship in Nuke PhysicsWant to study engg abroad?

Become a physiotherapistTAPMI's PG prog in mgmt

IRMA's PGP in Rural MgmtIIM-A's PGP in Agri-business

IIFT's consultancy symposiumDegree in homoeopathy

Want a career in banking?Interested in pharmacology?

BSc Ed for OBC studentsXLRI's distance edu courses

SP Jain's global MBA

Source: Rediff

RBI panel suggests interest rate futures :UTVi

RBI panel suggests interest rate futures

To enable banks, FIIs and other players manage interest rate risks, an RBI-appointed technical panel today recommended introduction of futures contracts, initially based on 10-years government bond yield, which should be settled by physical delivery.

RBI's Technical Advisory Committee suggested that as market evolves, exchanges may consider introducing contracts on various other government securities.The group also recommended that these products be exempted from securities transactions tax to ensure symmetry between cash market in government and other securities and interest rate futures.

These proposals are put on RBI's website and the central bank would view feedback on these suggestions from the public before coming out with finale guidelines on IRF.
The RBI had recently issued guidelines on currency futures, which is to be put in place by the month end.
The need for interest rate futures arose because of failure of exchange traded interest rate futures contracts introduced by NSE in 2003.
Earlier, in 1999, the RBI also took initiative to introduce over-the-counter interest rate futures. Taking lessons from experiences of these products, the RBI panel recommended that futures contract initially be based on the 10-year government security yield.
It observed that banks, insurance companies, primary dealer and provident funds who among them carry almost 88% of interest rate risk on account of exposure to government securities need a credible institutional hedging mechanism.

The group also recommended that banks be allowed to be able to trade in interest rate futures against the current practices of permitting them only to hedge their interest rate risks inherent in the balance sheet.

The group also recommended participation by FIIs and NRIs in the interest rate futures. However, FIIs may be allowed to take long position in the IRF market, which should not exceed maximum permissible cash market limit, currently pegged at $4.7 billion.

FIIs may also be allowed to take short positions in the market but only to hedge actual exposure in the cash market.

On the accounting treatment of IRF, the committee has suggested that till accounting standard prescribed by the institute of chartered accountants becomes mandatory, which is to be done by 2011, RBI should excercise its powers and mandate uniform accounting treatment for Interest rate swaps and interest rate futures.
***************************************
Dreamworks-ADAG deal nearly complete
We may scrap sugar levy system: Pawar
Wkly Mkt Review: Sensex gains 511 pts
Oil falls to $115 on economic worries
Gold ends near three-month low

Source:UTVi

US mkts end higher (303 pts up) on strong Dollar, Oil drop

Stocks jump as oil prices fall sharply
Oil sinks on stronger dollar to $115 a barrel
Fannie Mae loses $2.3B in quarter as defaults rise
UBS settles $18.6B auction-rate securities case
Insurance weighs on Berkshire Hathaway's 2Q

DJIA 11,734.32 +302.89 +2.65%
S&P500 1,296.32 +30.25 +2.39%
Oil Hits intraday low of $114.61 and settled at $115.15


The precipitous slide, fueled in part by a recovery in the U.S. dollar, has now taken oil prices to around $115 a barrel -- or more than 20 percent below a record set July 11.
A slide in energy prices is a welcome boost in an economy hamstrung by the housing slump and mounting mortgage losses in the financial services sector.

In the near term, consumers and business should feel some respite as energy costs recede, boosting prospects for a range of market constituents, including airlines, retail, industrial and technology sectors.

Financials are also a major beneficiary as investors shift money out of energy stocks in search for bargains elsewhere.

"I think the trend in stocks is up. I do feel that July 15 represented the bottom for stocks and we are going to move higher," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Advisors in Boston.

"I really feel that what investors are looking for right here is signs that the economy is starting to pick up right now."

And as the latest earnings reporting season is fast winding down, investors will have plenty of economic reports to watch next week. Continued...

Source: Reuters, Yahoo Finance.

ET Top stories

ET Top stories

Indices off lows; Sensex regains 15k
Sebi board meet on August 13 /Markets to post moderate gains, players eye SEBI meet
Banks cut rates to pump up car loans
India all set to rule software testing market
Airtel, Vodafone have 3G edge over other players


China strides onto Olympic stage 10 Olympics '08 mega stars
Top 10 Beijing Olympics Sponsors Olympic Protest

IRDA plays peacemaker in LIC stir
Max New York Life gets on track
LIC cap base may swell to Rs 100 cr
HSBC goes slow on retail loans
Bharti AXA plans infusing Rs 645 cr

Forex reserves decline by $1.2 bn
Wall Street ends sharply higher
Gold below Rs 12k, may lose more
India’s tea exports jump 13.5%
Suzlon's Belgian unit eyeing Indian firm: Report
BHEL bags Rs 400 cr contract to set up hydro project in Africa

India world's second-largest wireless market: Study
Raja pulls up BSNL on slow growth of value added service biz
GSM cos hampering entry of Rcom, Tatas in GSM telephony: AUSPI
Top 20 cities hold keys to urban growth
Oil falls below $116 on stronger dollar

Buy UTV for target Rs 1,068: Religare
Subscribe to Austral Coke IPO: Keynote
Emkay assigns buy to Jindal Saw; target Rs 941
Macquarie maintains boutperformb on Bank of India
Edelweiss Capital's bbuyb rating on Mahindra & Mahindra
Religare puts buy on EMCO; target Rs 215
Citigroup downgrades Reliance Communications to bholdb
KR Choksey Shares & Securities assigns bbuyb on Aegis Logistics
IDBI Capital maintains bbuyb rating on YES Bank
Ranbaxy offer open to conspiracy theories


Source:ET