International Business
After opening weak, the Asian markets have rebounded into the green. The Hang Seng is now up 19 points at 21,9212. The Nikkei is trading flat at 10,105.
With no new trigger expected on the domestic front, Dalal Street is likely to remain choppy, as investors will continue to offload stocks at higher levels, say analysts.
West Bengal’s assembly elections may be due only in early 2011, but that’s not stopping Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee from preparing to become the state’s next chief minister. She has assigned two economists the task of preparing a blueprint for the economic revival of the state. Both economists are frequent contributors to various newspapers and are known to be votaries of free enterprise.
Subir Roy / New Delhi October 14, 2009, 0:00 IST
Carrying out fresh attacks, Maoists set ablaze a rail office at Banshipur station in Lakhisarai district after taking eight officials hostages and blew up a block office in neighbouring Munger on the second and final day of their two-day shutdown in Bihar.
Subir Roy / New Delhi September 30, 2009, 0:32 IST
Subir Roy / New Delhi July 22, 2009, 0:51 IST
While most feel the world is a safer place now that the financial crisis has been tackled, Sunil Kewalramani lists ten future bubbles in the making.
Seeks 40% lower funding from Asian Development Bank.
Quant funds should be used only for portfolio diversification, and are suited for high net worth investors.
Dubai: Abu Dhabi"s $10 billion bailout of Dubai World will boost confidence and please Nakheel bondholders. But this volte-face won"t restore the credibility lost over recent weeks.
Global semiconductor sales is expected to decline by 11 per cent this year to touch $226 billion, according to research firm Gartner.
Hit by the economic slowdown and low spending by the government on the information technology sector prior to the assembly elections, the personal computer (PC) shipments in the country fell by 19 per cent during the January-March quarter this year.
Despite recent floods in northern districts and subsequent damage to the standing crops, Karnataka, the sixth largest producer of cotton in the country, is likely to increase its cotton output this year by around 15 per cent to a little over one million bales (1 bale = 170 kgs). The state, which produced 900,000 bales of cotton from 390,000 hectares in 2008-09, had earlier set a target of 25 per cent growth in cotton output and 21 per cent increase in area under cultivation at 490,000 hectares.
Will get access to large distribution network in eyecare segment
The Indian Cricket Board today shifted the second one-dayer of the five-match series between India and Sri Lanka to Nagpur after police in Visakhapatnam expressed inability to provide security for the tie in the wake of political crisis in Andhra Pradesh.
While the growth visibility is reasonably good, the offer leaves no meaningful gains for investors in the near-term.
India, the biggest vegetable oils buyer after China, may import record volumes for a second year after a drought in almost half the country damaged oilseed crops, a processors’ group said.
Shobhana Subramanian / New Delhi August 28, 2009, 0:44 IST
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has set up an ambitious target to reduce the T&D (transmission & distribution) losses to 17 per cent by 2011-12.
Dilip Kumar Jha / Mumbai October 13, 2009, 0:49 IST
The country"s largest liquefied natural gas importer, Petronet LNG Ltd, may come out with a $100 million follow-up public offer or a rights issue in 2011-12 to part fund a 1,200-Mw power plant, to be set up at Dahej in Gujarat.
Global FMCG major Procter & Gamble will be bullish on winning consumers in emerging markets of India and China as it eyes increased sales in the two strong economies, its new chief said today.
The International Monetary Fund has welcomed the Chinese decision to invest $50 billion in notes issued by IMF which would help in addressing the issues of the global financial crisis in third world countries.
Union Bank of India (UBI), today said that it has reduced interest rates on its housing and auto loans as a part of a festival offer.
General Electric (GE), which is in contention as the engine supplier for the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) contract of the IAF with three of its engines, is keen on sourcing components from Indian industry.
Ignoring Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress boss Mamata Banerjee’s strong objections, the Union home ministry will continue its anti-Maoist operations in Lalgarh and even expand these to other parts of West Bengal.
Jonathan Weil / September 18, 2009, 0:00 IST
A decade earlier, when the Indian auto market was stagnant and there were not many new models to talk about, there were years when even Maruti Udyog, the market-leader, gave the Delhi Auto Expo a miss. Few manufacturers can afford to do so today.
In a bid to tide over its financial crisis, Maytas Infrastructure, the listed company promoted by Satyam Computers’ B Ramalinga Raju, has decided to sell part of its shareholding in Cyberabad Expressway Pvt Ltd and Hyderabad Expressway Pvt Ltd to Terra Projects Ltd, a company owned by the Kolkata-based Neco group.
Unmindful of international pressure, a defiant North Korea today conducted a second "successful" and "more powerful" nuclear test, a move that could invite fresh sanctions and punitive action against it.
Amid reports of over half a dozen leaders in the race for the post of Maharashtra Chief Minister, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, but maintained he not was in contention for the top job.
ALL ABOUT STOCKS
In today"s world, popular social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are without a doubt the best way to stay connected with friends and share what is happening right now.
Imagine this scenario. While you are booting your computer or notebook, an advertisement pops up and the screen freezes for some time. The ad could be an audio or a plain visual one. Regardless, it may offer you some product or could even offer the operating system (which enables you to start or boot your computer) free or at a lower cost. Tying you down for a few more seconds, the ad automatically fades away and allows you to continue with the booting process.
Reasons vary from fear-psychosis to retiring debt to growth capital
India and Russia are mulling returning to the rupee-rouble trade arrangement, to end the dependency on the volatile dollar and step up economic interactions.
Rupee dropped, completing the biggest two-day loss in two months, as declines in local stocks spurred speculation capital inflows will slow.
The Indian rupee today depreciated by 33 paise against the US currency in early trade on strong demand from importers for the dollar, which rebounded against other major currencies.
Dancer Prathibha Prahlad bridges worlds, and makes us a lasagna.
FMCG to aerospace products-maker, Godrej Group, has tied-up with Big Synergy and STAR television network to produce and air a reality show from mid-June, which seeks a wider audience from India’s growing middle-class for its lifestyle products.
Tightening her grip over the succession squabble in Andhra Pradesh after the sudden death of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has summoned K V P Ramachandra Rao, the late chief minister’s biggest acolyte, for a meeting on Tuesday at her residence in the national capital.
The manufacturer of Bell helicopters has offered its assistance to Indian authorities in probing into the crash of the Bell-430 chopper which claimed the lives of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy and four others.
The Civil Aviation Ministry tonight set up a four-member committee to probe the cause of Andhra Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy"s helicopter crash in which he was killed.
Non-convertible debentures have some real benefits over fixed deposits.
In the event of Indo-Pak nuclear war, India will emerge as the ultimate winner after wiping off Pakistan, but lose up to 500 million of its own people, a book on former US President Bill Clinton"s presidential years has claimed.
Though the Congress party had allocated Saifuddin Soz a seven-seater helicopter for campaigning in far-flung areas of Jammu & Kashmir, he chose to use road transport. It was only when someone pointed out that the idle chopper was also costing his party a lot that Soz decided to use it to go to Ladakh.
After allotting capacities to 34 developers for generating a total of 716 Mw of solar power, as many as seven developers have come calling to the state for setting up solar panel manufacturing units here.
A consortium would be established for the development of an institute of excellence in science and biotechnology at the Bangalore University campus.
After yesterday"s massive 520 points rally, the Sensex today opened on a flat note. It slipped into the negative for a while and touched a low of 14,078.
The Union government’s move to initiate the process for a separate Telangana state has raised both political and business concerns.
IT giant Wipro today settled the land issue with the West Bengal government for its second unit near Kolkata and would buy 50 acre at Rs 75 crore.
Business Standard / New Delhi August 13, 2009, 0:48 IST
Swine flu today claimed five more lives, four of them in worst-hit Pune alone, taking the countrywide toll to 17, even as authorities in Mumbai shut down schools and colleges for a week and cinema halls for three days to check the spread of the virus.
The country"s second-largest realty firm, Unitech, today said its telecom venture has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 10,000 crore for the next three years to roll out its services across the country.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has rejected a proposal from German firm EADS Deutschland GmbH and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) for setting up a joint venture company for manufacturing, distribution and marketing of products pertaining to electronic warfare, military avionics, radars and defence-related mobile systems. This was done after taking up the matter in six of its previous meetings
Business Standard / New Delhi December 03, 2009, 1:32 IST
Czech luxury car maker Skoda Auto today reported a 52.05 per cent growth in its sales during December last year at 1,113 units.
India"s space agency has in its pipeline eight foreign satellites for launch and is scouting to acquire such spacecraft from abroad to expand capacity in the field of communication transponder back home.
Infrastructure major Unity Infraprojects today said its joint venture with Axelia Utility Management Pvt Ltd has bagged two orders totalling Rs 620.76 crore.
Pakistan launched its nuclear weapons programme after its 1971 military defeat to India in order to "augment its inferior conventional forces," a Congressional report has said.
Foreign exchange trading services provider, Alpari today launched its Indian operations by offering its forex trading platform for institutional and retail customers.
Industry body Nasscom today urged the West Bengal government to allot alternate land to information technology (IT) companies Wipro and Infosys, after the Vedic Village fiasco which led to scrapping of the 600-acre IT project at Rajarhat.
To promote traffic of automobiles through the railways, its ministry is considering 15 automobile hubs to be set up on public-private partnership across the country.
Volatility in investments concern for RBI.
The government today lauded Reliance Industries (RIL) chief Mukesh Ambani"s decision to take a pay cut and said that the industrialist has shown a "remarkable sensibility" towards the prevailing scenario with this voluntary step.
- Kishore Singh: Inviting trouble">Kishore Singh: Inviting trouble - dawling/21/37/369834/" class="textMost" title="Kishore Singh: What's the matter, dawling?">Kishore Singh: What's the matter, dawling? - Kishore Singh: Mask and the man">Kishore Singh: Mask and the man - Kishore Singh: The time of our lives">Kishore Singh: The time of our lives - Kishore Singh: Luv's just a label, guys!">Kishore Singh: Luv's just a label, guys! - Kishore Singh: A pain in the rain">Kishore Singh: A pain in the rain
Jaswant Singh / New Delhi August 2, 2009, 0:38 IST
In a strong message, India today asked the developed countries to modify their ‘unsustainable lifestyles’ to significantly cut down carbon emissions by 2020 and to ensure that developing nations had enough resources to cope with climate change while pursuing accelerated development.
The Reliance ADA Group, owned by Anil Ambani, has become India’s third largest business house with market capitalisation of $35.3 billion. The recent stock market surge has enabled this group with six listed companies ranging from power to telecom to movies to add as much as $10.5 billion, a surge of 43 per cent in week during May 15-22, 2009.
The Companies Act does not empower the government to advise India Inc to provide jobs to minorities, but the corporates should take the initiative on their own, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid informed Lok Sabha today.
At least 23 thermal power plants in the country are not complying with the emission norms prescribed by the State Pollution Control Boards, the Lok Sabha was informed today.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh commended the commitments made by Chinese President Hu Jinato during the high-level Climate Change Summit here and said India can learn lessons from China to help save the planet.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured Andhra Pradesh of all help from the Centre to cope with the situation arising out of the massive floods in the state.
Government today renamed its flagship rural job guarantee programme - National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) - after Mahatma Gandhi.
Ahead of the first meeting of the Ganga River Basin Authority (GRBA) in New Delhi on October 5, intensive lobbying is on to build pressure on the Centre and the Uttarakhand government for the resumption of three hydel projects — 600-Mw Lohari Nagpala, 480-Mw Pala Maneri and 381-Mw Bhaironghati — which were suspended under the pressure of environmentalists and VHP leaders.
M J Antony / New Delhi October 28, 2009, 0:42 IST
The government-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) today reported a fall of 52.6 per cent in net profit at Rs 379.09 crore for the third quarter of 2009-10.
Shilpy Sinha / New Delhi September 22, 2009, 0:17 IST
Riding on back of brisk sales in India and China, Korean car major Hyundai Motor Company today said its net profit for the year 2009 zoomed by 104.5 per cent at 29.615 trillion won (about Rs 1,18,950.16 crore) from the previous year.
A Taliban insurgency and the war in neighbouring Afghanistan have put Pakistan"s nuclear arsenal at risk giving rise to a "troubling" situation, an arms control expert who served as former US President George W Bush"s national security adviser has said.
National Security Guard (NSG) commandos deployed at their new hubs in four cities and currently housed in temporary locations will have permanent structures at their earmarked lands by next year.
Have a buffer, start small and then scale up.
India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) need to ensure protection of Indian working-class people in the Gulf country who face problems when their visas are not renewed, a top Central Government Minister said.
Nearly three months after Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) died in a helicopter crash, a meeting of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has been convened on Friday to condole the death of the former chief minister and formally elect the CLP leader.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation"s largest oil firm, will invest Rs 4,650 crore in laying crude oil and petroleum product pipelines over the next three years, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Parasada said today.
Media and entertainment giant Walt Disney has reported 18 per cent growth in net income at $895 million in the fourth quarter, boosted by strong performance of its network business, including cable channels ESPN and ABC family.
The Walt Disney Co and Hong Kong"s government have reached a deal to expand the territory"s Disneyland theme park at a cost of about $465 million, officials announced today.
Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta today said negotiations between India and Russia over price of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov could be concluded within next two days.
Seema Sindhu / New Delhi January 7, 2010, 0:24 IST
US President Barack Obama held his first meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin here today and hoped that talks between them would put bilateral relations "on a much stronger basis".
Chennai-based Kavithalaya Productions, owned by veteran director K Balachander or KB, is in talks with private equity players for its proposed investment plan of Rs 100 crore. Besides, the company is planning to launch a venture capital fund to support upcoming directors in the film industry.
To avoid a repeat of the chaos seen this year in the first few days of the computer-based Common Admission Test (CAT), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are thinking of doubling the testing window period next year to make the process smoother.
Kirtika Suneja / October 23, 2009, 1:09 IST
Jai Arjun Singh / New Delhi October 10, 2009, 0:51 IST
The Indian Space Research Organistaion (Isro) is looking at 25 per cent growth in revenues this fiscal over Rs 1,000 crore attained last year, betting big on satellite launches and carrying space crafts of other countries.
Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Capital today said it plans to enter investment banking space by the end of the current fiscal.
Early signs of a recovery in demand along with measures to improve profitability at Corus indicate that Tata Steel may bounce back into the black
A federal judge implied this week he might go easy on two brokers convicted of securities fraud because they worked within a “culture of corruption".
Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia today filed a complaint with an US agency for alleged infringement of its patents by technology major Apple.
The government needs to provide an augmented fiscal deficit data in the budget to reflect the burden of off-budget items, including oil and fertiliser bonds on the exchequer, suggested a RBI Committee.
Ashish Sinha / New Delhi August 25, 2009, 0:40 IST
Media company News Corporation today said it would restructure its Asian broadcast businesses into three units — STAR India, STAR Greater China and Fox International Channels (FIC).
Are Indians likely to mail five times as many letters this year as they were expected to last year? That"s the question that comes to mind when you see the rise in the deficit for the postal department. From a revenue deficit of Rs 958 crore in the budget estimates for 2008-09, this rose to a whopping Rs 3,825 crore in the revised estimates for the year and an estimated Rs 5,395 crore in 2009-10 budget. It turns out nothing of the sort is happening. The postal department’s receipts fell from a budgeted Rs 6,159 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 5,966 crore in the revised estimates, but this is budgeted to rise again, to Rs 6,136 crore in 2009-10.
During a recent visit to Taipei, an advertising professional, on seeing Times of India’s ‘A day in the life of India’ commercial, posed a curious question to me, “how can a commercial be borne out of such a serious issue that affects your society?” In response I explained how the parody on redtapism, far from trivialising the issue of corruption or brushing it under the carpet, resonated strongly with the voice of India. This voice accepted India with all its shortcomings and subsequently dealt with them in an open, transparent manner.
Drug firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals today said it has raised Rs 413.56 crore through the issue of over 1.87 crore shares to institutional buyers on private placement basis.
Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) company Radico Khaitan, registered a consolidated net profit increase of 55.6 per cent for the quarter-ending June 30, to Rs 10.7 crore as compared with Rs 6.88 crore in the corresponding quarter a year earlier.
Joining the battle being fought in the market for mortgages, India’s second-largest lender, ICICI Bank, has cut rates for home loans from August 20.
A spectacular rally on the back of strong global cues has helped our fund managers rake in the profits last week. However, the Smart Portfolios benchmark BSE 200 declined 5 per cent to 1,684 as against 1,773 the preceding week. The value of benchmark"s portfolio appreciated sharply from Rs 9.45 lakh to Rs 9.95 for the week ended May 29, 2009. However, the net worth is still down marginally (0.52 per cent) since the inception of Smart Portfolios on September 1, 2008.
What a fantastic book this is! But you have to read it twice to know that. Repetitio est mater studiorum, after all, as Arthur Schopenhauer reminds us in an essay on reading, before going on to explain that “Any kind of important book should immediately be read twice, partly because one grasps the matter in its entirety the second time, and only really understands the beginning when the end is known; and partly because in reading it the second time one’s temper and mood are different, so that one gets another impression; it may be that one sees the matter in another light.” Everything he says here is valid for this book.
Adventure tourism operators in Uttarakhand are up in arms against the state forest department for its move to withdraw lease permits for the Ganga beach.
Packaging solutions provider Bilcare today said it is planning to raise $35 million (about Rs 170 crore) through the issue of securities.
Jewellery fabrication business worldwide is likely to fall in 2009 on high gold prices with offtake forecast to slip by 15 per cent compared to the year-ago period, a latest report says.
Gold is likely to touch Rs 18,000 per 10 grams during the forthcoming festival season as the demand for the yellow metal peaks around Diwali time, according to a projection by industry body Assocham.
The process of setting up of seven IIMs, 374 degree colleges and 10 NITs has been set in motion with the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) approving the proposals in this regard.
Indian industry is of the view that the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be beneficial for the economy, but the deadline of April 1, 2010, is not realistic, a leading consulting firm said in its survey.
The long-awaited meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers (EC) was recently held in Delhi and, as was perhaps expected, the EC has come out with a recommendation on what can legitimately be called a “Dual Rated Dual GST System”. There were expectations in certain quarters that the dual GST would be a single rated one at the Federal and the State level for both goods and services. This has not been possible and the EC has now come out with a dual rate model for goods. There has been no mention of whether there will be a dual rate for services as well but the understanding and expectation is that services will be taxed at just the one rate, at the Federal and State levels respectively. This article discusses the dual rate dual GST model for goods in some detail.
Shahana Joshi / New Delhi November 11, 2009, 0:34 IST
GE Capital Business Process Management Services has bagged "Asia"s Best Mature Captive Services Delivery" award for credit card operations.
Pearson, the British-based education and education technology company, which recently picked up a stake worth $30 million (around Rs 150 crore) in Educomp Solutions’ vocational business and online tutoring firm, TutorVista, is leveraging these tie-ups to increase its India footprint.
The apex body of IT software and services, Nasscom, today lowered its forecast for the animation and gaming industry for 2012 on account of the global economic downturn.
The country’s burgeoning mutual fund industry is expected to see its assets growing by 29 per cent annually in the next five years, with high household savings rate and low retail penetration attracting foreign asset managers, a report has said.
The defeat of BJP today, especially in Maharashtra and Haryana where it had been part of coalition governments earlier, has come as a severe blow to the party that is already reeling under the Lok Sabha debacle and serious internal discord.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) today obtained a commitment from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) warring leaders that they would stop their infighting even as moves were initiated for a major overhaul of the party’s top brass, which will see the exit of Rajnath Singh as party president in the next three months and likely stepping down of L K Advani as leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
International accounting and consulting firm Deloitte expects that the Indian government will increase excise duty and service tax rates in the upcoming Budget to harmonise them with the proposed Goods and Services tax, which is scheduled to be introduced from next fiscal.
Post the market rally, returns expectations will need to be tempered.
Obliging Manipur government"s request, the Centre has appointed the state-owned National Hydro-electric Power Corporation (NHPC) as the implementing agency for the 1500 MW multi-purpose Tipaimukh hydro-electric project in Manipur, official sources said here today.
The Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Dubai is one of the few Indian business schools to have got an approval from the UAE’s ministry of higher education and scientific research to offer an accredited MBA programme and executive education to companies operating in the UAE. IMT Dubai’s director Farhad Rad – Serecht told Kirtika Suneja how the institute plans to remain different from other B-schools. Edited excerpts
Charging the multinational companies with making several drugs beyond the reach of the poor, visiting Commerce Minister Anand Sharma today asserted it is the Indian generics which have challenged such a "suffocating stranglehold" and made the medicines affordable.
The stock extended gains to touch a high of Rs 150 - up 8% from the day"s low of Rs 139. It finally ended up 4.2% at Rs 148.
The issue today received bids for 5.94 billion shares which is 3.5 times the issue size of 1.68 billion shares.
Amid a hectic rush of investors for subscribing the initial public offer of NHPC, shares of power companies, led by Tata Power, today tanked in afternoon trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE).
IT solutions provider Patni Computer Systems today said it has allotted over 2.11 lakh underlying equity shares to Bank of New York and certain employees under the stock option plan.
The two main indices—the Nifty and the Sensex—staged strong intraday rebound on Friday in choppy trades and extended gains for the second straight day. The Nifty bounced back from an intraday low of 4,766 to close at 4,882 on short-covering in interest rate-sensitive sectors such as auto, banks and realty.
Latent Images Private Limited, which currently operates five ‘IIIrd i’ digital camera retail stores in Hyderabad, is planning to open three gadget retail concept stores under the ‘NowGadget’ brand – one each in Chennai, Bangalore and Kochi – in the next six months.
Micro-blogging site Twitter is close to securing $100 million funding from about seven investors, a move which will make it a billion-dollar entity, says a media report.
Indian Railways has posted double digit growth in revenue earnings in mid June, with total goods earning standing at over Rs 1,500 crore.
Abheek Barua / New Delhi August 3, 2009, 0:35 IST
Even as the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Gujarat look to increase their technology adaptability, IBM has forayed with its market specific products in hardware, software and security services, among other things. With an increasing need for data storage and security among SMEs, IBM is expanding its footprint in the state by offering products like Scalable Modular Server Rooms (SMSR) and Cognos Express, apart from other services.
For promotion of good design practices in country, Indian Design Council (IDC) is likely to come out with design certification mark called "I-Mark" for industry, as a seperate recognition mark for design, an IDC member said here today.
Bihar today sought Rs 23,000 crore as immediate assistance from the Centre to tackle the drought situation in the state.
After declaring 26 districts as natural calamity-hit following insufficient rains in the state, the Bihar government today said it would sought a Rs 10,500-crore Central package to meet the situation.
BJP President Rajnath Singh today said the UPA government should not put the onus of fighting price rise and drought-like conditions prevailing in the country on the state governments as the latter had limited resources.
Cairn India will begin production of crude from its Rajasthan fields in a few days, company Managing Director and CEO Rahul Dhir said today.
India’s current account deficit (CAD) for the second quarter ended September 2009 was almost flat at $12.6 billion, compared to $ 12.57 billion in the same quarter in 2008, on lower net invisible surplus.
Largest such issue in two years; equity dilution pulls down firm’s domestic stock 6 per cent
Sesa Goa’s acquisition of Dempo Group’s iron ore assets in Goa bears a stamp of Vedanta Resources Chairman Anil Agarwal’s signature strategy — buy low-value assets, pump investments into them and work to turn them into cash cows. Vedanta’s previous acquisitions of Hindustan Zinc, Balco, Konkola Copper Mines and the 2007 takeover of Sesa Goa have helped the company multiply the value of its metals business. Along the same line, Agrawal-controlled Sesa Goa aims to scale up its iron-ore trade volume through the Rs 1,750-crore Dempo deal.
NTPC Ltd, the country’s largest power generator, has sought permission from the Ministry of Power to allow it to pay the marketing margin on the natural gas it plans to buy from the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).
The government is considering to divest stake in four PSUs -- NMDC, KIOCL, MOIL and RINL -- administered by the steel ministry, as part of a broader plan to mobilise resources to meet their funding needs.
Business Standard / New Delhi July 16, 2009, 0:41 IST
UNAIDS has welcomed the effort of the Clinton Foundation in association with the major pharmaceutical companies – Pfizer and Matrix – to reduce the prices of antiretroviral drugs for people living with AIDS and tuberculosis.
The country"s largest two-wheeler maker, Hero Honda Motors today reported a 35.88 per cent jump in its sales at 4,15,137 units in August compared to sales in the same month last year.
Despite the global economic slowdown, State Bank of India (Canada), a subsidiary of SBI, saw an overall business growth of 22 per cent in July 2008 to June 2009, although its profit slightly went down, a top bank official said here on Thursday.
Direct-To-Home company Dish TV today said it will raise up to $200 million (about Rs 1,000 crore) through issue of securities in the domestic and international market.
Former BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur died in Mumbai following protracted illness. Affectionately called as ‘Rajbhai’ in the cricket fraternity, the 73-year-old Dungarpur, who was president of the Cricket Board for three years in the late 1990s, was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Former BCCI President Raj Singh Dungarpur passes away.
Tata Motors has threatened to scrap its plan to launch Vista electric cars in the UK if it does not receive a £10 million loan from the British government soon, The Observer reported today.