Business Today (Dec 14) articles

Cover Story
Fighting the bad times
K. R. Balasubramanyam and Kushan Mitra
Vijay Mallya’s aviation business has landed in a sea of red. Mallya has a survival plan, but he may need to look at drastic options to stay afloat. K. R. Balasubramanyam and Kushan Mitra go into the details.
‘‘We can wipe out our losses in three years”
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Reporter's Diary
The ground reality
BT reporters go incognito across five cities to find out what’s the best deal your money can buy against a developer’s listed price.

Policy Watch
The fight gets real
Puja Mehra
The global crisis has spilled from the international financial system into the real sector. Here’s what the UPA government’s game plan for dealing with it is looking like at the moment.

People
Walking the talk with Obama
Named one of the most powerful women in the world, Nancy M. Barry, 59, the Founder and President of Enterprise Solutions to Poverty and former President of the New York-based Women’s World Banking, is no stranger to the limelight.

Special
Messiah or merchant?
E Kumar Sharma
Vikram Akula has revolutionised Indian microfinance by building SKS—one of the biggest brands in rural India. His critics feel that he has ignored the very people he should be helping.
Poverty's new saviour
“India needs game changers In microfinance
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60 MINUTES
'New house numbers in the US have fallen to lowest since WW II'
United Technologies (UTC), the $54.8-billion (Rs 2,74,000 crore) diversified industrial conglomerate, and its 51-year-old President and CEO Louis R. Chênevert, are no strangers to India.

Money
Coping with an uncertain market
Manu Kaushik
The market meltdown has cleaned up nearly 60 per cent of investor wealth. How are investors trying to cope with their losses? We take a look.
The art of living frugally

Trends
Time for a price cut?
Virendra Verma
Despite a call from the FM, industry leaders say cutting production is a better way to deal with recession.
‘‘Firms in UK and China are looking for investment opportunities”
Ecomomy watch
Ranked
Market meltdown continues
‘‘India remains a robust market’’
Instan tip
Numbers of note
‘Impossible to be risk proof’
The generosity index
The sWaP phone
Heathrow-on-sea
The fight gets real
To be precise
Passports get smart
China’s 10-point bailout
Banking on a change
A spirited upswing

Noted
Ranked
Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani, with a net worth of $20.8 billion, is the richest Indian in the world. Ambani has displaced Lakshmi Mittal, according to a list of the nation’s 40 richest people compiled by the Forbes.

Source:Business Today.
http://businesstoday.digitaltoday.in

Terror Face on Mumbai

TERROR HITS MUMBAI

Pix: What remains of the Taj Terror toll 195
Why did NSG take 10 hours to arrive?
Pix: The face that launched a thousand demons

Target: 5000 lives Salute our Heroes
Bush offers full support• A commando's account
Pix: When terror snuffed out two bravehearts

Dawood provided logistics Zardari, team meet
CWC sidesteps Patil 22 bodies found at Taj
‘Shouldn't Narendrabhai have waited?’

• Many bodies still unidentified Many Questions•
Operation Cyclone 2 3 4 5 6 More
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'He was a brave officer' Pix: Nariman House
• Terrorists will not check in as guests'
Obama backs India

Mumbai terror• We salute our heroes • Commandos speak • Inside the Taj • Latest at the Taj• Taj burns• Modi lashes at PM & Pak• The Crossfire• Crowd cheers NSG• The terror plan• Remembering our Heroes
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Mumbai locals helped us, terrorist tells cops
Shivraj Patil offered to resign at CWC meeting
Sabina, we will miss you. Pay your tribute

Now, arrested terrorist Ajmal says 'kill me'
Ajmal Kasab was arrested by D B Marg Police, his companion Abu Ismail was killed.

Pay tributes to bravehearts The Terrorists Pak Connection Places targeted
Creation of NSG-like force may require Rs 10,000 cr
It’s the last & final wake-up call

The attitude of tolerance will cost the country heavily, says Gautam Adani, Chairman of Adani Group.
India Inc affected Cos to hold meets at own premises
Institutional responses inadequate Tourism industry shaken

Mumbai attackers were 'well-trained, financed and prepared' (1123hrs)
Mystery woman had accompanied terrorists at Cama (1036hrs)
Terror attacks: 5-star hotels change, perhaps forever (0756hrs)
Nariman House is in danger of crumbling down: Police (0928hrs)

ET updates:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/etupdatelist/2160130.cms

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Source:All leading web links..

India's GDP grows 7.6 % in Q2

India's GDP grows 7.6 % in Q2

Dispelling fears of a major slowdown, the Indian economy grew by 7.6 per cent in the second quarter of current fiscal due to decent performance by the construction and services sectors, though the growth is moderate compared with 9.3 per cent in the year-ago period.For the first half of this fiscal, the economy, measured as gross domestic product, rose by 7.8 per cent compared with 9.3 per cent a year ago, an official release said on Friday.

The government has been projecting the economy to grow between 7-8 per cent this fiscal, while Reserve Bank of India's [Get Quote] projection ranges from 7.5-8 per cent.

While agriculture and allied sectors growth slipped to 2.7 per cent in the second quarter from 4.7 per cent a year ago, mining and quarrying could post a growth of 3.9 per cent compared with 5.5 per cent.

Manufacturing sector, however, show a marked deceleration recording a growth of five per cent, down from a high of 9.2 per cent in the second quarter of previous fiscal.Electricity generation and related sectors, too, recorded a modest growth of 3.6 per cent compared with 6.9 per cent in the year-ago period.

Among those sectors which performed well, construction sector grew by 9.7 per cent in the second quarter, even though it was down from 11.8 per cent in the corresponding period last fiscal.

In services group, trade, hotels, transport and communication rose at the rate of 10.8 per cent, marginally down from 11 per cent in the second quarter last fiscal.Even the financial and related sectors recorded a growth of 9.2 per cent, compared with 12.4 per cent, while growth in the community, social and personal services remained more or less at the same level.

India adviser: GDP growth along expected lines
GDP springs a surprise in 2nd quarter, grows 7.6%
INSTANT VIEW - India's Sept qtr GDP up 7.6 pct y/y - Yahoo! India News
India's July-Sept GDP up 7.6 pct from year earlier - Forbes.com
The Hindu : Business : GDP growth rate slips to 7.6% in second quarter
Deccan Herald - GDP logs modest 7.6% growth in H1 of 2008

India's economic growth falls further to 7.6 percent- Indicators ...
Q2 GDP growth of 7.6% shows resilience of Indian economy: CII
GDP grows 7.6 % in Q2
India's July-Sept GDP up 7.6 pct from year earlier Business News ...


Source:Rediff,All websources.

G20 Summit: The Group of Twenty

G20 Summit: The Group of Twenty

World leaders agree to step up financial oversightG20 leaders vowed to toughen oversight, but stopped short of calling for a global super-regulator on hedge funds.
UN welcomes G-20 declaration IMF welcomes G20 plan
G20 follow-up key to resolve crisis G20 leaders' speak

WASHINGTON: Leaders of the world's 20 largest economies vowed on Saturday to toughen oversight of the troubled financial system, but stopped short of calling for a global super-regulator or new restrictions on hedge funds. At an economic summit hosted by soon-to-depart US President George W Bush, officials faulted regulators and policymakers for not tackling financial problems and agreed on a foundation for reform.

Rich and developing nations alike, many having recently bailed out their banking sectors, blamed credit rating agencies, complex derivatives, banks, accounting standards, executive compensation and regulators. Leaders agreed that "colleges" of international supervisors were needed for all major global financial institutions, such as Swiss-based UBS AG or Goldman Sachs. Financial industry experts said it was significant that the 20 largest economies met to discuss financial markets. However, they called the G20 statement vague and broad.

"In terms of the substance, it's remarkably bland," said Edwin Truman, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank in Washington, DC. "Even the description of supervisory colleges for large complex institutions is pretty vague," Truman said. "It's not much more than what goes on today." Some financial industry reforms are already in motion. The US and the European securities regulators are taking steps to ensure that rating agencies such as Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, avoid conflicts of interest, provide greater disclosure and differentiate ratings for complex products, such as mortgage-backed securities.

The US and the EU accounting rule makers have also begun working on standardizing global accounting rules and addressing weaknesses in accounting and disclosures for off-balance sheet items. Regulators are already working on central clearing of credit default swaps, sophisticated instruments blamed for exacerbating the credit crisis. The swaps are used to insure against risk that a borrower will default on debt and are often speculatively traded.

CEO PAY RECOMMENDATIONS "Credit default swaps should be processed through central clearing houses," Bush said in a statement after the summit. His comments were a marked departure from the Bush administration's pro-business policies centered on the premise that free markets should police themselves. On corporate executive pay, the group of 20 leaders told their finance ministers to come up with recommendations on compensation practices and said pay incentives should discourage excessive risk-taking. Leaders said the Financial Stability Forum -- an advisory body of rich nations' central banks, regulators and finance ministries -- should expand to include emerging economies. They agreed to assess the best practices of hedge funds and how they could be used to help fix the financial problems. Secretive hedge funds have been a big source of funding for mortgage securities but also criticized for exacerbating the situation by short-selling stocks of troubled banks. Canada's finance minister, Jim Flaherty, expressed disappointment that the G20 didn't directly subject hedge funds to capitalization rules. "Our view is all significant pools of capital that are leveraged need to be subject to capitalization rules in particular," Flaherty said. Leaders poured cold water on the idea of an international super-regulator and said regulation is a national responsibility, an idea applauded by the financial services industry.

"Each country should set up their own regime to deal with systemic risk. Each country has their own customs; creating one global regulator would be extremely difficult," said Scott Talbott, senior vice president at the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents the biggest US banks, insurers and investment services companies. The United States and other nations are taking major steps to restore bank capital, which has shrunk due to enormous write downs of soured mortgages, with some depositors fleeing amid consumer worries about the safety of their money. One summit recommendation was to harmonize measurements of capital at financial institutions and maintain enough capital to "sustain confidence." They also called on international standard-setters to strengthen capital requirements for banks' structured credit and securitization activities. Leaders will meet again by April 30 to review the implementation of the principles and decisions they agreed upon.

Source:ET

Corporate Headlines

Stocks end 151 points lower
Rupee off 2-week lows
'India may face a slowdown in FDI'
FX reserves at $251.364 bn on Nov 7
Oil slips below $58 despite stock rally
Citi lowers India growth forecast
D&B expects RBI to cut rates by 0.50%

'Accumulate' Reliance Petro: Analysts
Religare Hichens sees Rs 1,229 on Titan

Recession spreads ahead of G20 summitThe worst financial crisis in 80 years has weakened the world's major economies and euro zone economy had shrunk by 0.2%.
Sun to cut up to 6K jobs Brazil's Sao Paulo loses 10K jobs
US teetering on $14 trillion debt Oct budget deficit at $237 bn
More >>

RIL-RNRL case: Govt says it will finalise gas price
DoCoMo makes Rs 949 cr open offer for 20% in TTML
Sun Microsystems to cut up to 6,000 jobs
Investing in realty a good hedge against inflation
No Indian company in world's 100 most accountable

Earnings of Sensex cos grow by 10.1% in Q2
MetLife plans expansion; to hire 33,000
TTML open offer at Rs 24.70 a share
RCom adds 1.76 mn mobile users in Oct
Shree Renuka Sugars Q4 net jump two folds

Source:ET,BS,BL etc

Indian tricolour finally lands on the moon

Indian tricolour finally lands on the moon

The Indian tricolour marked its presence on the moon tonight (at 8.31 pm IST) after having flown 3,86,000 km from the earth. The timing of


this proud moment has been specially designed to coincide with Children's Day. The United States, the former Soviet Union and the European Space Agency comprising 17 countries already have their flags on the moon. The Indian tricolour is painted on all sides of the 29-kg Moon Impact Probe which is attached to the main orbiting spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, which was launched on October 22. The inclusion of the MIP as part of the Chandrayaan mission came at the suggestion of former President A P J Abdul Kalam, a former rocket scientist, during the International Lunar Exploration Working Group conference held at Udaipur in November 2004. The Indian tricolour has been hoisted on Mount Everest and Antarctica. And now it is on the moon though it was not hoisted. The flight of the MIP on Friday is expected to be a forerunner to the second Indian moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, which will carry a Russian rover and alander slated for lift-off between 2010 and 2012. The crash landing of MIP will help in assessing future soft-landing technologies.


Chandrayaan project director Mylaswamy Annadurai explained to TOI on Friday that at about 8 pm on Friday, a command will be flashed to the MIP from Isro's telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) at Bangalore for it to detach from the orbiter. "The MIP will separate and with its three instruments, zoom towards the lunar south pole at a velocity of 1.5km per second," he said. "At Istrac's mission control room, we will immediately come to know that the MIP has separated from the orbiter. The MIP's flight path will first take it over the Malapert crater for about nine seconds and then crashland near the Shackleton Crater about 25 minutes after its detachment from the orbiter. Malapert Crater is not far from the Shackleton crater," he added. Annadurai said that after this, the orbiter will fly in the opposite side and thus data will not be immediately available. "The downloading of data from the MIP to the orbiting Chandrayaan and then to the ground station will start once the spacecraft comes over the north pole of the moon. It will take a couple of hours for the data from the MIP to be downloaded and processed," Annadurai said. He said that once the MIP crashlands on the moon, its own survivability and that of the three instruments will be in question. The probe uses solid propellants. "India's physical presence on the moon with the tricolour will be assured," he said.

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ISRO to launch Chandrayaan-II by 2012


Source:ET

Stocks end 151 points lower

Stocks end 151 points lower

Volatility was at its peak Friday as gloomy global economic outlook eclipsed the euphoria over a rally in overseas markets and cool-off in domestic inflation. Equity benchmarks opened on a firm footing but lost ground after the first half-hour of trade. After see-sawing through the day, key indices finally surrendered to losses. “Global worries continue to haunt market sentiment. Even though inflation eased to single digit, it failed to cheer investors. Given the current pessimistic scenario, it looks like the market is not willing to accept any positive news,” said Ajay Parmar, head of research at Emkay Global Financial Services. More so, investors were unwilling to take any bets ahead of the crucial G-20 summit underway in Washington. The G20 summit of industrialised and emerging economies will explore ways to deal with the world's biggest financial crisis. “Investors are not at all confident of carrying positions overnight, which is why there is unwinding happening at higher levels,” Parmar added.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex ended 1.58 per cent or 150.91 points lower at 9,385.42. The index fell to a low of 9,267.49 from a high of 9,836.11. National Stock Exchange's Nifty slipped 1.34 per cent or 38.1 points to 2810.35. The index swung in a range of 2778.80 and 2938.80.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down 1.99 per cent and 1.27 per cent respectively. Biggest losers in the Sensex pack were ACC (-8.95%), Tata Motors (8.49%), Tata Steel (-6.4%), HDFC (4.86%), Jaiprakash Associates (-4.67%) and Larsen & Toubro (-4.36%). Reliance Industries, the heaviest among Sensex stocks, fell for the fourth straight day, losing 1.17 per cent at Rs 1,148.55. Intra-day, the stock fell to a low of Rs 1088.65. In the last four days, RIL has declined by 5.69 per cent. Bharti Airtel (2.99%), Reliance Communications (1.88%), Tata Power (2.02%), HDFC Bank (0.37%) and Hindustan Unilever (0.3%) ended with decent gains. Market breadth remained negative with 1594 declines against 924 advances on BSE. Adding to the gloom, investors were worried about the state of the country's economy after economists lowered their forecasts for India. Many now expect growth to slow to 7 per cent or less in the year to March 2009, sharply slower than 9 per cent and higher growth clocked up in the past three fiscal years. Elsewhere, the Euro zone slipped into recession, third-quarter data confirmed. The quarterly decline was prompted mainly by a technical recession in the Euro zone's biggest economy, Germany, and the third-biggest, Italy. However, the second-biggest, France defied market expectations of a similar fate, growing by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter.


Source:ET

Inflation falls to 8.98%

Inflation falls to 8.98%

India's wholesale price index rose 8.98% in the 12 months to November 1, sharply below the previous week's annual rise of 10.72 percent, government data showed on Thursday. Inflation slipped to single digit after 21 weeks. ( Watch ) The fall was mainly on account of a 3.4 per cent dip in fuel and power prices. Aviation turbine fuel prices dipped by 18 per cent, while naphtha prices fell by 33 per cent. Earlier a Reuters poll showed that the inflation rate was expected to have eased to around 10.4 per cent in early November. The median forecast of 11 economists was for a 10.37 per cent rise in the wholesale price index in the 12 months to November 1, compared with 10.72 per cent a week earlier. Inflation, which was 9.32 per cent on May 31, had surged into double digits in the first week of June after a hike in retail fuel prices.

Last week's marginal increase in the wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation was mainly due to upward movement of prices in primary articles, which has a weightage of 22% in the index. Despite the marginal increase, however, economists expect the downward movement in inflation to continue. Their expectations are rooted in the prices of primary articles dropping after kharif produce enters the market. They also do not expect the liquidity infusion and the cut in interest rates to have any impact on inflation in short term.


Inflation falls to 8.98% for week ended November 1
13 Nov 2008, 1234 hrs IST, Economictimes.com and Agencies
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NEW DELHI: India's wholesale price index rose 8.98% in the 12 months to November 1, sharply below the previous week's annual rise of 10.72 percent,


government data showed on Thursday. Inflation slipped to single digit after 21 weeks. ( Watch ) The fall was mainly on account of a 3.4 per cent dip in fuel and power prices. Aviation turbine fuel prices dipped by 18 per cent, while naphtha prices fell by 33 per cent. Earlier a Reuters poll showed that the inflation rate was expected to have eased to around 10.4 per cent in early November. The median forecast of 11 economists was for a 10.37 per cent rise in the wholesale price index in the 12 months to November 1, compared with 10.72 per cent a week earlier. Inflation, which was 9.32 per cent on May 31, had surged into double digits in the first week of June after a hike in retail fuel prices. Last week's marginal increase in the wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation was mainly due to upward movement of prices in primary articles, which has a weightage of 22% in the index. Despite the marginal increase, however, economists expect the downward movement in inflation to continue. Their expectations are rooted in the prices of primary articles dropping after kharif produce enters the market. They also do not expect the liquidity infusion and the cut in interest rates to have any impact on inflation in short term.
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→ Oil plunges to 22-month low of $55 a barrel"Inflation is expected to come down further due to the lower fuel and steel prices, largely all commodity prices were lower in that week," said Anjali Verma, economist with MF Global. Data released on Wednesday showed industrial production recovered in September from its slowest pace in a decade as consumers spent for the festival season. But analysts said the rebound would be short-lived after the global credit crisis turned on India in October, paralysing money markets and pushing up firms' borrowing costs. Industrial production rose 4.8 per cent in September from a year earlier, well above August's 1.4 per cent. In early August, the inflation rate had hit 12.91 per cent, the highest reading since annual numbers in the current data series became available in April 1995.

Inflation dips to 8.98%
Source:ET

8 stocks you must buy in small quantities today

8 stocks you must buy in small quantities today

The two most respected names of corporate India, Tata and Birla, failed to raise money from the stockmarket through their respective rights issues (a rights issue is when a listed company offers shares to existing shareholders at a price, which is usually less than the market price of the listed stock).
Eventually, underwriters had to buy the majority of shares. Hindalco Industries, an Aditya Birla Group company, saw just half its Rs 5,000-crore rights issue subscribed to. Tata Motors of Tata Group, too, had the same fate.
The reason? Market prices of these stocks fell much below their offer price in the rights issue, removing the investor incentive of buying. Tata Motors and Hindalco are not the only companies to have seen such a battering.
As we go to press, about 380 out of 600 companies with a market cap of over Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion), have lost more than 50 per cent of their value since January. The Sensex and the Nifty have also lost close to 60 per cent. It is carnage on markets. But, in the rubble, you will find some gleaming diamonds, available at a quarter of what they were worth until a few months ago.
The Indian market has become a victim of a global meltdown. What started as credit crisis in the US has spilled over to the global financial market. Bears are out in full force, with their usual weapon of panic and fear, and have virtually captured every market--from Wall Street to Dalal Street.
If all you saw over the last four years was unbridled enthusiasm, now all you can hear is negativity. The Indian market started witnessing selling pressure from January this year. As the credit crisis started deepening in the West and liquidity became scarce, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) started selling stocks in all the markets, including India.
Anticipation of heavy selling from the FIIs prompted domestic investors to get out. FIIs continue to dump Indian stocks--they have sold stocks worth Rs 52,000 crore, or $12.90 billion, in our markets since January. Apart from the FII play, expectation of slower growth of the economy and corporate earnings, due to deteriorating global outlook and high domestic interest rates, contributed to the market's downfall. Read on. . .

What next? International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its October 2008 report, World Economic Outlook, said that the world economy is entering a major downturn in the face of the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s. It has marked down global growth to 3 per cent for 2009, the slowest since 2002.
The Indian economy is also expected to slow down. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its mid-term review of marcoeconomic and monetary developments, published a professional forecasters' survey, which suggests that the Indian economy will grow at 7.7 per cent in FY09, compared to 9 per cent in FY08. Earnings growth has also started to show a declining trend.
Earnings guidances are being revised downwards, liquidity has become scarce, markets have fallen above 60 per cent, and FIIs continue to sell. In short, the overall condition has turned against equities. So, should you be out of equities?
Outlook Money advised caution when the market was on a dizzying ride--the Sensex was up at around 21,000. Now, as the Sensex crashes to 9044.51, we are breaking out of the pessimistic babble to tell you that this is a good time to start buying stocks.
The current crisis is being termed as once-in-a-lifetime by the Western press. If the crisis is once in lifetime, so are the challenges and opportunities. And as an investor, you should grab the opportunities.
The question you may ask is whether the market will fall further? It surely can. But you need to remember that it's always difficult to catch the bottom. The market may fall further before stabilising, but start buying now. Investors entering at this stage need to hold on to their stocks for the long term.
If you are a short-term investor, stay out of the market at this stage. Buying long-term assets with short-term capital is never a good idea.
Valuations have come down significantly, even for fundamentally sound companies. We are giving you eight such options--take your pick and invest for at least three years. Invest systematically to take advantage of any further price fall.
Methodology: The companies that have been considered for selection are the ones with a market capitalisation of at least Rs 250 crore. Among them, companies with year-on-year (y-o-y) net sales and net profit growth of more than 10 per cent for the last three years and the last two quarters were retained. From this list, only companies that were able to maintain or increase their operating profit margin (OPM) and operating cash flow in the last three years were kept.
The remaining stocks were examined individually based on qualitative and quantitative measures.

Click here to check out the 8 stock picks. . .

Source:Rediff.com