Ambani gas war: Blow to Anil, order favours Mukesh

In what could be a severe blow to Anil Ambani group seeking cheap gas from elder brother Mukesh-led Reliance Industries Ltd, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the government has the last word on pricing and utilisation of national asset.

Giving its verdict on the four-year-old Ambani battle that was intertwined with a bitter public wrangling, a three-judge bench of the court headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said the Ambani family memorandum of understanding (MoU) dividing the gas was not binding, both legally as well as technically.

Immediately after the judgement, RNRL chairman Anil Ambani, who was present at the courtroom, left without taking any questions from the throng of reporters and cameramen.

Stock market responded swiftly to the judgement, with RIL shares shooting up by about 5 per cent to nearly Rs 1,050 and that of RNRL tanked close to 26 per cent close to Rs 50.

"RIL does not have absolute right over gas and price is subject to government approval. . . since the MoU (of the Ambani family) has not been made public, it does not fall in the corporate domain. Under the Production Sharing Contract, it is for the government to evaluate the price of fuel," Justice P Sathasivam said, reading out the verdict.

The court also directed RIL to initiate negotiations with RNRL within six weeks to arrive at a sale agreement within the framework of government policy.

RNRL had contended that it was entitled to 28 mmscmd of gas a day from RIL's eastern offshore KG-D6 fields, at $2.34 per mmBtu, a price 44 per cent lower than the government approved rate of $4.20 per mmBtu.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Balakrishnan who will be demitting office on May 11, also said that the Ambani family MoU can only be a means of arriving at suitable arrangement but cannot be the sole means for a suitable arrangement.

Contrary to speculation that the judgement could be split, the bench held that since the MoU had not been made public, it doesn't fall in the corporate domain.

Concurring with the judgement, Justice B Sudershan Reddy, who replaced Justice P Raveendran after he recused in November 2009 citing conflict of interest, said that the family MoU cannot be taken into consideration at all.

After a bitter public battle over division of Reliance empire, less than two years of Ambani family patriarch Dhirubhai's death, Mukesh and Anil reached a family settlement spelt out by mother Kokilaben in June 2005.

As per the settlement, the energy and petrochemicals business went to Mukesh and the power, financial services and telecom business to Anil.

Accordingly, the scheme of de-merger approved by the Bombay high court in December 2005, paving the way for creation of a new entity -- Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

However, the bitterness between the two brothers did not cease and the two sides were constantly engaged in public and courtroom battles, with gas dispute reaching the flash point. ADAG firm RNRL had sought gas from RIL to power its proposed 7,800 MW electricity plant at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh.

The Bombay high court had last year directed RIL to reach an amicable agreement with RNRL for gas supply as per the family MoU.

Although the Apex Court said that the petition filed by RNRL was maintainable, as the company court had sanctioned the original demerger scheme, it held that the 'gas is government asset till it reaches consumer'.

The court, however, also made it clear that RIL did not have absolute marketing right over gas and in the face of the bench's observation, the Anil Ambani group's claim to over 28 mmscmd of gas for 17 years is likely to go back to the negotiating table.

"The court has asked us to renegotiate. . . that is what we are going to do. The court has given us some time," Reliance Industries executive director P M S Prasad told reporters.

The court earlier said that a suitable arrangement must not be suitable only for RIL, but also for shareholders of RNRL and it's RIL's obligation to look after it.

The Supreme Court held the family MoU as technically not binding on the ground that three million shareholders of RIL-RNRL did not know its contents. The MoU was only among the two brothers and their mother Kokilaben.

When the courts were hearing the matter last year, Anil Ambani had launched public tirade against Mukesh, saying his elder brother had traded their father Dhirubhai's vision for 'corporate greed'.

He had then also said that Mukesh no longer saw a role for their mother Kokilaben in resolving the gas dispute.

The public wrangling also included defamation suit filed by Anil against Mukesh, and Mukesh opposing Anil group firm RCOM's bid to merge with South African telecom giant MTN.

All this happened when the gas supply battle was playing out in courts.

The Apex Court on Friday said since gas is a national asset, public interest has to be looked into first.

"Terms of production sharing contract (between government and contractor RIL) will have  over-riding effect," the court said, adding that the PSC is meant for regulating supply of gas and under PSC it's for the government to evaluate price of fuel.

Govt stand vindicated: Deora on RIL-RNRL case verdict

Oil Minister Murli Deora, who faced flak for intervening in the gas dispute between the Ambani brothers, today welcomed the Supreme Court verdict saying the government stand that gas belongs to the nation has been vindicated.

Immediately after the Supreme Court upheld the government's right to fix price of gas and decide its utilisation, Deora told PTI: "SC verdict upholds the fact that gas belongs to the government and the people of the country and that is what we have been saying."

The court said that the Ambani family MoU seeking to divide gas between Reliance Industries and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd was not binding, both legally and technically.

"I welcome the verdict. No matter what campaign one ran against the government, the nation is supreme," he said without naming Anil Ambani group which had cast aspersions on his ministry for allegedly siding with Mukesh-led RIL.

In the midst of the court battle, the government had also moved the Supreme Court asserting its sovereign right on pricing and utilisation, even as RIL said that it had fixed the gas price at $4.20 per mmBtu as per the government policy.

The government's intervention in the case had made Deora the target of Opposition parties' attack both inside and outside Parliament.

Anil Ambani group had carried front page advertisements in newspapers, accusing Deora's ministry of trying to bailout RIL from its obligation under the Ambani family MoU to supply 28 mmscmd of gas to RNRL at a price of $2.34 per mmBtu.

'First non-Latin web addresses launched'

In a "historic" move to make the world wide web fully live up to its name, the first Internet addresses to use non-Latin characters have been launched for the first time.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have become the first countries to have so-called "country codes" written in Arabic scripts, paving the way for Chinese, Thai and Tamil speakers to surf the web in their own language.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) President Rod Beckstrom described the move, that marks the culmination of several years of work behind the scenes, as "historic", the British media reported.

In fact, more than 20 countries have already requested approval for international domains from Icann. Although some countries, including China, had already developed systems that allowed entire web addresses to be entered in their own language, non-Latin scripts had yet to be properly integrated into Internet infrastructure and so did not work on all computers.

"All three are Arabic script domains, and will enable domain names written fully right-to-left," said Kim Davies of Icann wrote in a blog post.

Before the change was announced, Icann had expressed concerns that the web may split between those who could access Western sites and those who used primarily Arabic languages.

Mobile number portability gets delayed for third time

The government will miss the June 30 deadline to implement nationwide mobile number portability, as telecom public sectors MTNL and BSNL, and a new operator Uninor, are not ready with equipment.

Department of Telecommunications says a new deadline will be finalised after May 15.

"Currently we are awaiting government approval to procure the equipment, after which we will install the gateways. We have already invited tenders worth Rs 8 crore for supply and installation of MNP gateways, as well as testing equipment," a senior MTNL official said.

A BSNL official said the company is yet to install the MNP gateway. BSNL has issued the advanced purchase order but is still to get the equipment.

This is likely to delay the implementation of MNP as testing of equipment after installation would take at least a month.

Apart from the two PSUs, Uninor is not ready with the equipment for MNP, according to a DoT official.

However, the company said, "Uninor's MNP gateway installation is underway. We expect it to be ready as per the timelines prescribed by DoT."

MNP will allow mobile subscribers to change service providers while retaining their numbers. MNP gateway is required to handle porting communication between operators. It has been delayed twice.

Earlier, it was scheduled to be implemented in metros and Category A circles by December 31, 2009. It was deferred to March 31 for a nationwide launch, and then to June 30. "Based on successful completion of the action taken (tests), DoT will decide the dates for MNP implementation, which is expected by June 30," DoT had said.

Germany,France want more supervision to prevent another crisis

Amid growing concerns that the debt crisis in Greece could spread to other heavily-indebted nations in the region, Germany and France have called for reinforcing economic policy coordination and better internal surveillance to prevent a recurrence of a similar crisis.

Just dealing with the Greek debt crisis alone will not be enough to "preserve the success story" of Europe's economic and monetary union, Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a joint letter to the European Commission president and their euro zone partners on the eve of an emergency summit of euro group heads of state and government in Brussels on Friday.

"We need to go further in drawing up lessons from the crisis and in taking all necessary measure to make sure that such a crisis will not happen again," the two leaders said. "It is our duty to preserve the benefits of the euro. This implies that we reinforce the coordination of our economic policies and the internal surveillance mechanism of the euro area so that each country shares responsibility for the stability of the euro," they said.

The summit has been convened to formally endorse the three-year 110 billion-euro financial aid package to rescue Greece from bankruptcy, which was agreed by the finance ministers of the euro zone nations and the International Monetary Fund last Sunday.

Europe's two largest economies Germany and France will shoulder a major part of the bailout burden by paying up to 22.4 billion euros and 16.5 billion euros respectively out of the euro zone nations' share of 80 billion euros while the remainder will come from the IMF.

"This decision will allow Greece to take the necessary measures to put its public finances and its economy back on a sustainable path and ward off threats to the financial stability of the euro area as a whole," Merkel and Sarkozy said.

Expressing their "full support" for the Greek government's tough austerity measures, they said they are convinced that these efforts will allow Greece to address its fiscal and economic challenges and restore market confidence.

They called upon their euro zone partners to consider reinforcing fiscal surveillance within the euro area, including a provision for more effective sanctions against those members who repeatedly violate the group's stability criteria.

Alongside these measures, steps should also be taken to strengthen the regulation of financial markets.

RIL, RNRL gas dispute: What's it all about

In what could seal the fortunes of the gas and power businesses of the two Ambani brothers, the Supreme Court is to deliver a judgment today on the bitterly fought dispute over gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin's D6 block.

The judgment would also set a course for the gas market, impacting government revenue and the power and fertiliser companies consuming the gas.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, whose tenure ends on May 11, had reserved its judgement in the lawsuit after arguments concluded on December 18. The apex court heard the case for 26 days spread over nine weeks, beginning October 20 last year.

What is the fight about?

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited agreed to sell Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Limited 80 mmscmd of gas from the Krishna-Godavari Basin for 17 years at $2.34 per mmbtu - for its Dadri power plant.

With RIL not supplying the gas, RNRL went to court against it for not implementing this part of a family MoU signed when the empire was being carved up between the two brothers.

The Bombay high court ruled in June that RIL should supply gas to RNRL at nearly half the price it had set in an interim order in January.

With the government reacting strongly against the warring brothers' stance over a national resource, it is now left to the Supreme Court to decide the future course of action.

The raging dispute between the brothers revolves around the Ambani family pact under which the gigantic Reliance empire was split and to what extent can this family agreement can decide the price of gas.

The Reliance group was divided with Kokilaben Ambani, mother of the warring Ambani brothers, presiding over the division.

Further complicating the issue is the fact that the government has claimed a share in the gas pie.

A few years ago, gas fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, were won by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries when it bid for areas offered under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).

These gas finds are one of the biggest discoveries in Asia. Although Mukesh Ambani won the contract for the gas fields, Anil who has ambitious mega power plants lined up wants a part of this gas at a lower rate, in line with the family agreement.

RIL was guaranteed free market regime when it bid for these gas fields, and thus the RIL argument is that any attempt to regulate prices would be against the contract.

How Reliance will be hit

Since the time the family pact was drawn, hydrocarbon prices have skyrocketed and thus the price at which Anil Ambani wants gas from RIL has become a major bone of contention.

Even the petroleum ministry frowned at the rate of $2.34 per million Btu at which Anil Ambani wants gas for a period of 17 years.

Earlier, the government had set up a committee to derive the price at which gas from the KG Basin could be given to the Anil Ambani group. The committee, led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee came up with the figure of $4.21 per unit.

Reliance, meanwhile, has refused to supply gas at a lower price. The Mukesh Ambani-led petrochemicals giant said that the company is ready to supply the gas to RNRL at the government-approved price of $4.21 per mBtu.

The Bombay high court had in June asked Mukesh and Anil Ambani to reach an agreement by renegotiating conditions. The court also said they may seek their mother, Kokilaben Ambani's, help in this matter.

The high court passed an order in favour of Anil Ambani-led RNRL and directed RIL to supply 28 million units to Reliance Natural Resources for 17 years at $2.34 per unit, after assigning 12 million units to the National Thermal Power Corporation.

Anil seeks Supreme Court help

Unhappy with the court ruling, RIL moved the Supreme Court against the Bombay high court order. If the deal does not work out, RNRL will have to shell out more money for its gas requirements for its power plants.

Reliance will be hit as it will be forced to sell at least 35 per cent of its natural gas production according to the memorandum of understanding, if it offers gas at a rate lower than the $4.21 rate set by the government.

However, the royalty payable to the government on 35 per cent of the total gas produced will have to be paid at the higher rate of $4.21.

Where does the petroleum ministry come in?

RIL got the right to look for gas in the KG Basin after signing a Production Sharing Contract with the government.

In the PSC, the government gets a share of RIL's KG profits.

Since profits are related to the price, the government says it has the right to vet each contract RIL signs to sell gas. The ministry used this to reject the RIL-RNRL contract, saying it was not an arms-length one.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora hit out at the Ambanis for fighting over a natural resource that belongs to the government and the people of the country.

"I am appalled and disgusted at how these two brothers are fighting over something that belongs to the government and the people of India," Deora said, adding, "It does not belong to them."

The petroleum ministry said that the Ambani family pact be declared null and void. The ministry told the Supreme Court that the Indian government had the sovereign ownership over natural gas and its distribution, and RIL was just a contractor on behalf of the government. The ministry also stated that the family agreement between the Ambanis could not be binding upon the government.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora asserted that the KG basin gas belongs to the government and not to either of the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, who have taken the battle to court.

Anil Ambani accused the oil ministry of doing a volte-face on gas pricing, saying its stand in the Supreme Court was in total variance with what it had said in Parliament.

Stung by the turn of events and to seek protection against what he called the overt and covert attempts and 'partisan and biased approach' of the petroleum ministry to intervene in a commercial dispute with RIL, Anil Ambani wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offering to meet and explain the issues.

Who will be hit?

Reliance started producing gas from the KG basin in early April and expects to produce up to 40 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas by July end and then scale it up to 80 mmscmd by the end of the year.

From this production, the government has allocated 15 mmscmd for fertiliser companies and 18 mmscmd of natural gas for the power sector.

RIL has signed gas sale pacts with 12 urea manufacturers and other power utilities. All the contracts were signed with on the condition that they would be subject to the high court's final order.

The court asked RNRL and RIL, to respond to the plea of private power companies.  The Bombay High Court ruling upholding allocation of gas to RNRL as per the MoU would hit these companies.

Power companies say that gas supply from KG-D6 fields would be affected if the fuel is offered to Reliance Natural Resources Ltd at cheaper rates. GMR Group, Torrent Power and GVK Industries have complained of unfair pricing.

Source : Rediff

Euro crisis may trip fundraising plans

The euro zone crisis could trip the fundraising plans of Indian companies at home and abroad and dent confidence, while euro's weakness will hurt exporters selling in the currency.

Analysts fear the crisis in the euro zone would impact equity markets worldwide, including India, and companies may be forced to defer fundraising plans.

Volatile markets have already forced companies to tread with caution. According to Prime Database, there are 28 companies which have received approval to float IPOs, including Reliance Infratel and Emaar MGF, but have not yet announced their dates. There are another 45 companies that had filed offer documents with the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India, till the end of April.

Prithvi Haldea, CMD, Prime Database, said: "Conditions are not stable. Valuations are not forthcoming. Institutional investors are driving a hard bargain. The euro crisis makes the job difficult. It will impact world markets, including India."

COMPANIES SITTING ON THE FENCE SEBI APPROVAL RECEIVED, APPROVAL STILL VALID
Company	Date of approval	Estimated Issue Amount (Rs crore)
Reliance Infratel Ltd*	11/1/2010	5000
Lodha Developers Ltd	21/01/2010	3000
Ambience Ltd	4/2/2010	1300
Emaar Mgf Land Ltd	18/02/2010	3850
Glenmark [ Get Quote ] Generics Ltd	8/3/2010	570
Oberoi Realty Ltd	9/3/2010	1000
Sterlite Energy Ltd	5/4/2010	5100
*Refiled                                      Source: Prime Database

On Wednesday, the Essar Group called off its $750-million bond issue amid rising investor concern over Europe's debt crisis. Essar Energy, which had raised $1.95 billion on the London Stock Exchange, dropped 7 per cent on Tuesday's conditional trading.

What CFOs are worried about is that the uncertainty in global markets could dent corporate confidence. "The risk aversion is coming back and investors are moving towards caution," said JSW Steel deputy MD & CFO Seshagiri Rao.

Meanwhile, a weaker euro is worrying exporters. The euro tumbled to a 14-month low against the dollar on Thursday, reeling from escalating concerns that Greece's debt crisis may spread to other euro zone states.

The euro fell as low as $1.2737, according to electronic trading platform EBS, its weakest since March 2009, as investors awaited any comment from the European Central Bank on how it was prepared to help prevent contagion from Greece.

The euro has sunk 12 per cent against the rupee, depreciating to Rs 57.90 on Wednesday from the Rs 66 level three months back.

Rajendra Hinduja, CEO, Gokaldas Exports, said it would hit his Europe business in a big way. Europe accounts for 30-35 per cent of its exports, though 40 per cent of which is denominated in euro and the rest in dollars.

What worries him more is that buyers are going slow. That's because even if they buy goods in dollars, they will have to shell out more euros for every dollar, as the currency has depreciated against the US dollar. This creates uncertainty for the future (Gokaldas has order books for three months), as buyers may go slow till there's stability.

What's more, the outlook on the euro continues to be bearish, said Subramanian Sharma, director, Greenback Forex Services. "The stop-losses are getting triggered. People who had gone long on the euro are unwinding their positions," he said.

A weaker euro would also hit IT exports as many companies had pegged their exports to Europe in euro. This would hit profits and companies are trying to counter it by taking hedges. While exporters would take a hit, businesses that import from Europe could gain.

Warren Buffett: A man of many talents

Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, who has till now made only a few investment outside the United States, plans to visit India next March.

Will Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway invest in Indian companies? While the possibility is extremely bright, one problem is that laws limit how much Berkshire can invest in Indian companies.

In the recently held anual meeting in Omaha, Buffett said his company is keen on Indian insurance business. Berkshire's main businesses are in insurance and reinsurance areas.

Interestingly, Buffett revealed his India visit plan in response to a question asked by, Sabrina Chugh, a 12-year-old Indian American at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. Buffett said that he is eyeing India and will make a trip to India in March next year.

The conglomerate's reinsurance business is run by India-origin Ajit Jain, long rumoured to become the successor of the billionaire investor at Berkshire.

Describing Jain as a 'superstar', Buffett said, "If Charlie (Buffett's partner), I and Ajit are ever in a sinking boat - and you can only save one of us - swim to Ajit (Jain)."

At the age of 25, Buffett began a limited stock market trading investment partnership. Warren was the general partner, and started with $100.

There were seven limited partners who contributed $105,000 towards the stock market trading partnership. The limited partners received 6 per cent annually on their investment and 75 per cent of the profits above this target amount.

Buffett earned the other 25 per cent. Over the course of the next thirteen-year period, Buffett compounded money at an annual rate of 29.5 per cent.

While he's considered the 'world's greatest value investor', there's another side to Buffett.

Although he has gained recognition for his value investing approach to the markets, the fact is that nobody -- over the past fifty years -- has traded and invested with a more diverse group of stock market trading strategies than Buffett.

Perennially ranked among the world's richest men, Buffett is also legendarily frugal, residing in the same house in Omaha, Nebraska, that he bought in 1958 for $31,500.

He is well known for his simple tastes, including McDonald's hamburgers and cherry Coke, and his disdain for technology, including computers and luxury cars.

Buffett's strategy for making money is very clear. "The first rule of investing is don't lose money; the second rule is don't forget Rule No. 1."

Despite a net worth measured in billions, Buffett's base salary, at Berkshire Hathaway, for the past 25 years, has remained unchanged at $100,000 a year.

The 'Oracle of Omaha' or the 'Sage of Omaha' is not only famous for his adherence to the value investing philosophy, but is also a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 85 per cent of his fortune to the Gates Foundation.

His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. In an interview to the New York Times he had once said, "I don't believe in dynastic wealth."

"I don't have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It's like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption.

"If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GDP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing. I don't do that though. I don't use very many of those claim checks.

"There's nothing material I want very much. And I'm going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die."

Buffett was born to Howard and Leila Buffett on August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the second of three children, and the only boy. His father was a stockbroker and four-term United States congressman.

While Harvard university rejected him, Buffett got acceptance from the Columbia University.

After completing his graduation, Buffett returned to Omaha to work at his father's brokerage firm. He married Susan Thompson in 1952, and remained married to her for more than 50 years. They had three children, Susie, Howard and Peter.

Buffett and Susan separated in 1977, remaining married until her death in 2004. Before her death, Susan introduced him to Astrid Menks, a waitress. Buffett and Menks were married in August of 2006.

While it will never be easy for anyone to emulate Warren Buffett, his precious quotes may encourage a few to dream big.

On Corporate America:

"Over the years, Charlie (Mumger, Buffett's partner at Berckshire) and I have observed many accounting-based frauds of staggering size. Few of the perpetrators have been punished; many have not even been censured. It has been far safer to steal large sums with pen than small sums with a gun."

Habit

"Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too hard to be broken."

Confidence

"I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute."

Price conscious

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."

Decision making

"The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage."

Career decision

"It's crazy to take little in between jobs just because they look good on your resume. That's like saving sex for your old age. Do what you love and work for whom you admire the most, and you've given yourself the best chance in life you can."

Investment

"It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price."

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

"Wall Street is the only place that people ride to work in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."

"I'll tell you why I like the cigarette business. It costs a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It's addictive. And there's fantastic brand loyalty."

"I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will."

Tata Power to supply power to R-Infra till Mar

Mumbai electricity consumers do not have to face powercuts for a while. The Maharashtra Cabinet subcommittee chaired by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Thursday intervened to resolve the ongoing dispute between Tata Power and Reliance Infrastructure over power purchase.

It has asked Tata Power to maintain status quo by continuing to supply 460 Mw to Reliance Infrastructure till June at the regulated price of Rs 4.40 per unit "in the larger interest of consumers".

From July till March 2011, Tata Power will have to supply 200 Mw to Reliance at the same regulated price of Rs 4.40 per unit. From April 2011, both would be asked to work out new power purchase arrangements.

Reliance would be asked to open tenders invited by it for power purchase to meet its rising demand.

Chavan told Business Standard, "The subcommittee was unanimous in its decision that Tata Power be asked to maintain status quo till June. Interest of consumers need to be safeguarded."

Tata has been told in no uncertain terms that the company should not sell surplus power through the traded route, but purely through regulatory rates. After meeting requirement of BrihanMumbai Electric Supply and Transport and Tata Power distribution company, the subcommittee has asked Tata Power to supply the remaining available power from its Mumbai generation to Reliance at the rate fixed by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission.

In case of a shortfall after the full allocation of power generated by Tata and Reliance to Mumbai licensees, the subcommittee has asked the latter to cater to its own additional requirement and bear the cost of the same.

Reliance has been asked to submit a detailed action plan on the steps they have taken and propose to take to resolve the issue of power availability and capacity addition in a time bound manner in the best interest of consumers. In case it fails to do so, the subcommittee has warned that a suitable penalty would be imposed on it.

A senior government official, who was present at the meeting, said Tata would not be allowed to sell any power from generating assets created for Mumbai to its trading company in case of shortfall of any of the licensees of Mumbai. Currently, Reliance faces a shortfall of 500 Mw to meet its requirement. To that extent, Tata would be asked to refrain from diverting power from generating assets created for Mumbai.

The subcommittee has been unanimous that MERC would be requested to immediately proceed with necessary steps under the various provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003, to ensure public interest is protected.

The subcommittee has accepted the recommendations made by a five-member panel headed by the state chief secretary to look into the dispute between Tata and Reliance.

The subcommittee says MERC should be requested to urgently address the issue of a mechanism similar to cross-subsidy surcharge to regulate the migration of high-end, luxurious users of electricity.

This needs to be addressed in a manner that ensures the tariff of high-end consumers of one licensee does not reduce at the cost of the tariffs of lower-end consumers of another licensee, thus avoiding cherry picking of high-end consumers.

RCom to offer unlimited local, STD call schemes

Reliance Communications announced a new rate plan - Simply Unlimited Pack - with unlimited talk time on a single monthly recharge for its CDMA pre-paid customers. However, the plan does not support SMS and other value-added services.

Through this new offer, RCom breaks away from the conventional rate metering practice of the Indian telecom industry. At present, pre-paid consumers either pay per call, per second or per minute. This is the first rate plan in the industry in which they would now have to pay once a month.

The local pack offers customers 3,000 minutes of call time every month to any local Reliance phone (Reliance GSM, CDMA or Fixed Line) and 900 minutes of free calls per month to any other network, with a cap of 30 minutes per day for Rs 299.

If customers shoot past the limit, they would have to pay 50 paise for every additional minute. National long-distance calls will be charged at 50 paise per minute.

The Simply Unlimited CDMA National Pack is available for Rs 599, offering 3,000 minutes of call time to any Reliance phone across the country and 900 minutes of call time to any other network, with a cap of 30 minutes a day.

Both plans will be available to consumers within the next three days.

"In India, the national average usage of a consumer is 443 minutes per month. These plans are so made that it will take care of the amount of minutes of calls which most consumers make in a day. Through this, we want to attract the medium usage segment in the country and aims also at the incumbent GSM customers, as they will know exactly how much they are spending every month," said Syed Safawi, president wireless, RCom.

The company has a 100-million customer base, of which 55 million subscribe the CDMA service.

The company claims its plans kill the concept of rate metering, wherein consumers need not count seconds and minutes.

"Consumers will not have to fear running out of pre-paid balance and they can re-charge once in a month. We already have plans for pay per second, pay per minute and now we have introduced pay per month," said Mahesh Prasad, President, RCom.

However, consumers will have to go in for another recharge for SMS, GPRS and other value added services like downloading songs and ringtones. "For services other than calls, consumers will be charged as per rack rates which are prevailing now," said Safawi

In response to the RCom offer, an MTS executive said, "We will come out with a plan which will be much lower than the Reliance offer in a few days."

Industry insiders, while admitting the plan was convenient, said, "Effectively, if you take out the calls from Reliance to Reliance, the new plan effectively means local calls will cost 33 paise per minute. The Tatas, for instance, already have a plan in place that offers Re 1 for 10 minutes talk time — an effective rate of 10 paise per minute."

"While Reliance's all India rates effectively comes to 60 paisa per minute, the Tatas and others offer similar rates."

"The fact that it is a one time monthly recharge, the company is securing ARPU. They are also encouraging higher usage. This plan will be positive if people make a huge shift as minutes of usage and realisations might improve," said Harit Shah, analyst at Karvy Stock Broking.

Nishna Biyani, Telecom Analyst at Prabhudas Liladher, said this plan would not have any significant impact on the earnings of the company. "There is a technological disadvantage because people do not like to change to CDMA plans. Besides, monthly plans with different tariffs for calls within the network are common."

The primary objective of the Simply Unlimited CDMA offer is simplification to the core and extends the Simply Reliance initiative of per second, per minute and per call to per month basis without further reservations on usage, balance etc for Reliance Mobile CDMA prepaid customers.

India, China should talk out differences on telecom equipment

Chinese experts called for consultations between India and China to sort out differences on reported moves in India to stop importing Chinese telecom equipment apparently over fears of inherent security risks.

Any move to sideline telecommunication companies in India for buying equipment from China would amount to violation of the World Trade Organisation norms and smacks of trade protectionism, Chinese academics said and called for consultations between the two countries to find a way out.

Though the Indian government has not made any official announcement in this regard, it has stopped approvals of Chinese telecom gear imports, citing security concerns, Chinese Daily reported on Thursday.

"The move is discriminatory and the explanation does not make any sense," said He Weiwen, an executive council member of the China Society for WTO Studies. "India cannot reject Chinese imports citing security reasons.

An import ban is warranted only if the Chinese imports are hurting Indian companies," he said. "It is pure trade protectionism and the Chinese side must seek consultations and a proper way out," said Fu Donghui, managing director of Allbright Law Firm Beijing, a law firm that specialises in trade remedy cases.

The newspaper report said that the Chinese government has already sent a delegation to India for discussions in this regard. It said Indian officials clarified that the government did not carry out any ban, but all equipment providers need to pass through security checks.

"The Indian government has not banned Chinese equipment yet, specifically, but has stopped approving imports. This is not a formal policy yet, but is being carried out through this mechanism," it quoted Kunal Bajaj, a partner at Analysys Mason (India), a strategic consultancy firm.

"The suspension of imports applies to all Chinese equipment in the telecom sector and also to some Israeli-origin equipment. This is not a blanket import exclusion for all foreign equipment," he said.

Spokespersons from Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp told China Daily that they have not got any notices but the company's purchase orders amounting to $150 have not been cleared yet.

It appears that after initial approvals for Chinese telecom equipment in India, which was regarded as far cheaper compared to technology from western countries, Indian officials reconsidered strategy for reasons of security, especially in the border areas after reports that Chinese equipment carried inherent risk of lack of data protection.

Greece crisis to hit India: UBS

International uncertainties such as the debt crisis in Greece would have an impact on equity markets globally, including India, a top financial sector expert said.

"The uncertainty in Greece will impact the Indian equity market as well those of other countries," UBS India CEO and Country Head Manisha Girotra told PTI on the sidelines of a FICCI event.

The global environment will continue to remain choppy for sometime following the debt crisis in Greece, Girotra said, adding that the contagion may spread to Spain and some other countries.

The UBS India chief, however, said that India would not be affected by the crisis in a major way. In India, the growth story "is intact" and the government policies are positive, she said.

"The country has a robust economy and our corporate sector is strong." When asked about if the interest rate regime would be going forward, Girotra said she expected a "gentle tightening of interest rates."

There is optimism of a good monsoon this time, she said. "We expect a good monsoon this year -- this will help in easing of high inflation rate." The prevailing inflation (9.9 per cent) is a reflection of last year's poor monsoon, she said.

Govt to earn Rs 50,000 cr from 3G

The auction of third generation (3G) spectrum is expected to close in one-two days, with the government likely to rake in Rs 50,000 crore from it.

The end of the 3G auction that started on April 9 would set the clock ticking for the auction of broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum. It would start after a gap of two days and is likely to generate a revenue of Rs 10,000-15,000 crore. The government is expected to earn an estimated Rs 60,000-65,000 crore from both 3G and BWA. Its budgeted target was Rs 35,000 crore.

The 23rd day of 3G auction saw bids across India reaching Rs 11,327.44 crore, up 223.64 per cent from a base price of Rs 3,500 crore. The total revenue today reached Rs 45,500 crore.

The highest bid price in Mumbai reached Rs 1,986.69 crore, over six times the base price of Rs 320 crore. Delhi's highest bid reached Rs 1,920.02 crore, a six-times increase from a base of Rs 320 crore. Both Mumbai and Delhi circles have three slots each available for auction. On the 23rd day, both Delhi and Mumbai had five bidders each.

Mumbai and Delhi were followed by Karnataka with the highest bid of Rs 1,072.51 crore. Its base price was Rs 320 crore. It had five bidders with three slots available for auction.

A total of 132 rounds were completed till today. The activity requirement for bidders has been set to 100 per cent from this round.

There are three slots for 3G auction in 17 circles, while in rest of the five circles four slots are available for 3G auction. The auction would continue till the available number of slots is equal to number of bidders in all 22 circles simultaneously.

Six telecom service providers — Bharti Airtel Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular,Tata Teleservices and Aircel — are vying for 3G spectrum in all the 22 circles.

 

Via : BS

Capitalism: A zero-sum game

Stock markets and entrepreneurism are linked and private equity is about taking the start-up to the IPO stage, writes Mukul Pal.

I was at an entrepreneurship workshop conducted by Peter B Zaboji. Peter was a professor at Insead and a corporate restructuring expert. Peter's aim was to implant the entrepreneurship fire in his audience and assist entrepreneurs with a road map to tap private equity.

Peter came with an elite list of speakers, including Piroska Zoli (a silicon entrepreneur) and Imre Hild (a financial innovator from Hungary). I could relate to Imre's idea. He found an opportunity in selling LARE (Life Annuity for Real Estate) to a select Hungarian audience.

Imre saw a need for a financial instrument for war widows who had no one to hand over their real estate assets and, so, needed to commoditise these in their life. The widows would sell their land to the bank for a fixed annuity. This put Imre on the list of successful financial innovators in the region.

Apart from ability to eye an opportunity, bias for action and overcoming fear of failure, one of the ideas that Zoli clearly quantified as a means to create value was that of creative destruction.

He talked about small start-ups (economic value generators) destroying conventional market place, destroying inefficiency, causing innovation and, hence, creating value. Creating destruction is at the heart of human innovation. Creating a substitute destroys conventional demand for the product and recreates the market place.

So, the question to be asked is: What kind of markets do you want to destroy or disrupt today? The idea of creative destruction was introduced as early as 1913 by Werner Sombart. His formulation was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, who was influenced by the image of the Hindu god Shiva, who is presented in the paradoxical aspect of simultaneous destroyer and creator.

It may look strange but what are we speaking about here is a cycle of innovation. An entrepreneur eyes an opportunity and creates and markets a product. Demand creates a market place, the market place becomes bigger, competitors come, margins become thin, organisations become large and then lose their nimbleness.

This is when start-ups start chewing at large organisations' flanks. The cycle of entrepreneurship starts all over again. Creating a new market place is what entrepreneurship is about. And since we don't have access to alien spaces, new markets will always have to be created from the existing market.

Capitalism was always a zero-sum game. Stock markets and entrepreneurism are linked and private equity is about taking the start-up to the IPO stage. And now that behaviourologists have proved that humans have a distorted risk-return equation, should entrepreneurs not take note of when to and when not to take risk? After all, a great innovation can last a generation, but unfortunately an entrepreneur has just a life time.

Via : BS

Glut of MBAs: Where are the jobs?

We not only have an oversupply of MBAs already, but have MBAs whose academic and experience profile actually makes them another "brick in the wall", writes Arvind Singhal.

For the last few years, every MBA placement season sees a flurry of releases from various business schools on the highest and average salaries offered to their newly minted MBA graduates.

Each year, the numbers show a rising trend, and if these numbers are to be taken at face value, India must be facing an incredible crunch of entry-level managerial talent since such compensation levels are aspirational even for mid-career professionals in other functions, such as manufacturing, or professional service providers, such as doctors and chartered accountants.

Sometime later in the year, it would be the "ranking" season when leading business magazines come out with cover stories carrying their rankings of leading business schools in India, adding further glamour to the MBA degree.

Largely unstated are the less-than-stellar overall placement records for most MBA institutes in India, including some that have made it to even the top-10 rankings.

While it may be true that finally most MBAs from the top-10 or even the top-25 ranked institutes find some job and hence they are technically "placed", it is also true that increasingly, many of them are forced to take up jobs that could be easily managed by someone with a basic graduation degree itself.

The plight of those who do not come from the top-25 institutions is probably worse. Indeed, if the glamour and the clamour for an MBA degree continue to grow as it has in the last few years, and with both public and private institutions creating capacity at the same pace as they have been doing recently, it may be an exaggeration, but just barely, that we will see legions of MBAs in the field sales force of pharmaceutical or FMCG companies, on the shop floor of retail outlets, and in different types of BPOs and KPOs.

Hard data supports the onset of this glut of MBAs. In 2000, there were about 600 colleges in India offering about 70,000 MBA seats. By the end of 2009, the number had increased to 1,400 colleges offering about 120,000 MBA seats!

The intake of the top-20 institutes alone has increased from 1,500 in 2000 to over 5,000 in 2009, and is poised to increase further in the next five years as more IIMs come into operation while the current top-ranked ones (IIMs and others) further expand capacity or add new campuses and programmes.

By comparison, the US (whose economy is over 10 times bigger than that of India) has about 1,000 colleges offering about 150,000 MBA seats to both US citizens and to a growing pool of international applicants.

In the entire European Union (EU), whose economy is also over 10 times that of India and which has much more diversity in terms of number of countries and businesses, there are just about 550 colleges offering about 100,000 MBA seats.

Major EU economies such as Germany, France and the UK individually offer between 8,600 and 27,000 MBA seats despite each being significantly larger and more global than India is at this time.

Making it worse is the highly flawed selection criterion of almost all Indian MBA colleges, including the IIMs. The 2010 incoming batch, for instance, has just 6 per cent women, about 94 per cent are engineers with just an isolated representative from arts stream, 33 per cent have no work experience at all and 41 per cent have less than two years of experience.

There is very high probability that even this experience profile will largely have applicants who have worked in the IT sector post-engineering and wish to make a transition out of the IT sector itself.

Harvard's class of 2010 has 38 per cent women, just 32 per cent are engineers, and over 84 per cent have experience of more than two years. ESADE (Barcelona, Spain) has 48 nationalities represented in its class of 180 students with an average work experience of seven years.

Hence, we not only have an oversupply of MBAs already, but have MBAs whose academic and experience profile actually makes them another "brick in the wall".

There are no easy solutions except that MBA colleges have to reinvent themselves and their programmes immediately before they add more capacity, and all new aspirants for an MBA programme should keep in mind that an MBA degree from even a high-ranking institute may not translate into a dream job in the near future!

Via : BS

Post Bank of India' seeks professional help

The Department of Posts has decided to hire a professional agency to prepare a roadmap for its proposed banking initiative.

The proposal to set up 'Post Bank of India' is at a conceptual stage, though. Requests for proposal to select an institute to study and design a roadmap for launching a post bank has been issued already, the telecom ministry has informed a parliamentary standing panel.

The ministry said the aim of establishing a post bank is to provide banking services to the rural poor who still do not have modern banking facilities and still have to depend on informal sector for their credit requirements.

The Planning Commission had allocated Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) during the 11th Plan period towards this purpose under the head of 'studies and miscellaneous expenditure relating to setting up of Post Bank of India'.

An appraisal memo detailing the action plan like feasibility studies, including foreign visits has already been approved by the government.

With a network of over 1.55 lakh post offices, the DoP already provides various financial services, including a post office savings bank, postal life insurance, pension payments and money transfer services.

Though capital investment for the bank is yet to be considered, sources say it is likely that the department could rope in public sector banks to pick up some stake in the proposed bank.

Infy pay values tomorrow's heads

Infosys, India's second largest information technology services company, which had seen some top-level attrition last year, has both embarked on a leadership development programme and trying to ensure those targetted are contented with their compensation.

The company, which is gradually entrusting many a critical work such as handling of high-value clients and brand building to second-rung leaders, paid them salaries that beat those of even the founding team members during 2009-10.

During the year ended March 31, Ashok Vemuri, a member of the company's executive council and Senior Vice President heading the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) practice at Infosys got Rs 4.61 crore (close to $1.3 million at an exchange rate of Rs 44.9) of pay.

This meant Vemuri, a former investment banker (he worked with Bank of America and Deutsche Bank before moving to Infosys in 1999) was given average monthly emoluments of close to Rs  3.4 million (Rs 34 lakh), compared with Infosys' MD and CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan's monthly compensation of Rs 8,50,000.

Gopalakrishnan, a co-founder of the company, was one of the lowest paid among the top executives of Infosys, with an annual compensation of Rs 1.01 crore. Similarly, N R Narayana Murthy  co-founder and now chairman and chief mentor of the company, was given annual compensation of Rs 5.61 million (Rs 56.12 lakh). Both Murthy and Gopalakrishnan, however, earn much more in terms of dividends, as they are shareholders in the company, as part of the promoters' group.

In an earlier interview with Business Standard, Gopalakrishnan said the company was trying to fill the vacuum created by the exit of top executives, including a co-founder, Nandan Nilekani, by handing over critical jobs to a new generation of leaders, mostly from the company's executive council.

The annual compensation for 2009-10 shows the second-rung leaders, including Vemuri, B G Srinivas and Subhas Dhar, getting fat salaries.

Srinivas, a Sr VP who heads the manufacturing and product engineering business units at Infosys, was the second-highest paid Infosys executive after Vemuri. He was given annual compensation of close to Rs 4.1 crore ($9,04,239), which includes Rs 16 million (Rs 1.6 crore) under the head of salary, plus other benefits.

Next was T V Mohandas Pai, a director on Infosys' Board and head of human resources, administration and education & research, who received annual compensation of Rs 3.13 crore ($6,98,037) including Rs 3.6 million (Rs 35.9 lakh) towards salary and Rs 25.5 million (Rs 2.55 crore) towards bonus and incentives.

A chartered accountant, he is said to be in the race for the top post after the retirement of Gopalakrishnan towards the middle of 2011.

V Balakrishnan, CFO and member of the company's executive council, was given annual compensation of Rs 2.42 crore ($5,40,423). Srinath Batni, who joined the company way back in 1992 and is now serving as a director on the board, other than heading delivery excellence, got annual compensation of Rs 2.42 crore ($5,39,784).

Chandrashekhar Kakal, member of the executive council and Sr VP heading the enterprise solutions business unit, took home close to Rs 21 million (Rs 2.1 crore) during the year, including Rs 2.8 million (Rs 27.5 lakh) towards annual salary.

Ambani gas dispute: SC set to announce verdict

The Supreme Court, on Friday, will pronounce its verdict on the nation's most talked corporate battle over gas supply, outcome of which will shape the future of flagship energy firms run by brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, who demits office on Tuesday, will give its judgement on the high voltage gas pricing and supply dispute between Reliance Industries and Reliance Natural Resources.

Before the Supreme Court started hearing the case, the two sides engaged in a bitter public battle with the two estranged brothers charging each other with reneging on commitments.

The dispute had also reverberated in Parliament and spilled on to the front pages of newspapers by way of an unprecedented media campaign against the government.

At stake is Reliance Industries' leap to become India's  Exxon -- an energy super major, and the Anil Ambani Group firm's dream of building the largest single-location power plant to become the biggest private electricity generator.

The Apex Court will decide if RNRL is entitled to get 28 million cubic meters a day from RIL's eastern offshore KG-D6 fields, at $2.34 per mmBtu, a price 44 per cent lower than government approved rates.

A day before the judgement, investors appeared to be keeping their fingers crossed, with the shares ending lower.

RIL shares were down about one per cent to close at Rs 1,010.90, while RNRL was down 0.22 per cent at Rs 68.35. Shares of both the companies had taken a beating in the run up to the judgement.

RNRL claims at least one-third of peak output from KG-D6 flows citing a 2005 family agreement that divided Dhirubhai Ambani empire between the two brothers, with Mukesh getting the energy and petrochemical business while the younger one inheriting power, telecom and financial services business.

RIL already is India's largest firm by market cap and is on the verge of becoming the nation's biggest firm by profit this year, but for a judgement where it would have to sell gas at lower rate while paying royalty and taxes at $4.2 per mmBtu.

On the other hand, Anil, who led a front page attack on oil ministry through newspaper advertisements accusing it of siding with his elder brother, may have to rework plans for the ambitious 7,800 MW planned power project at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh if the apex court refuses to give it preferential treatment in supplies and price.

Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, who had after 26 days of hearing reserved a judgement on lawsuits fought by high profile lawyers Harish Salve (for RIL) and Ram Jethmalani (for RNRL) on December 18, is due to demit office on May 11.

Before coming to the Supreme Court, the Bombay high court had ruled that RNRL was entitled to get gas at concessional rates as had been decided in the family agreement.

However in the apex court, the government through the oil ministry impleaded in the case asserting that natural gas was a national property and it cannot be surreptitiously divided through private agreements.

The intervention led to accusations, by Anil D Ambani Group through advertisements and Samajwadi Party in Parliament, that oil ministry was trying to bail RIL out of its commitment.

Oil Minister Murli Deora vehemently denied the charge saying the intervention, decided at the level of a ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was to protect the government's right to approve the price at which a firm can sell gas to customers including itself and also its right to decide on customers keeping national priority in mind.

If the three-judge panel upholds the Bombay high court verdict, RIL will have to supply gas to Anil Ambani group's proposed Dadri power plant at $2.34 per mmBtu, 44 per cent lower than the government set price.

That may not be a problem for RIL unless the court says the government fixed price of $4.2 per mmBtu for KG-D6 should be used for calculation for taxes and royalty. In such a scenario, RIL stands to lose huge revenues over the 17 year contract period.

Also, RIL will have to find new source of gas to meet its obligation as KG-D6 field may not be producing 28 mmcmd for 17 year from the date Dadri is commissioned, which may be at least three years from now.

If, however, the RIL contention that it cannot sell gas at price less than $4.20 per million British thermal unit as set by the government and to customers other than those identified in accordance with the Gas Utilisation Policy, is upheld, Anil Ambani Group will have to rework plans for 7,800 MW Dadri plant.

RIL says it was robbed of its freedom to market gas after RNRL in the run-up for fixation of price of KG-D6 in 2007, sought a GUP.

The apex court heard the case for 26 days since it commenced on October 20. It also witnessed the recusal of Justice R V Raveendran from the Bench after hearing the matter for six days on the ground that he held shares of both RIL and RNRL.

Savitri Jindal among world's 5 richest mothers

Savitri Jindal, Asia's richest woman and the widow of the founder of steel and power conglomerate O P Jindal Group, is the richest billionaire mother with a net worth of $12.2 billion.

Savitri, 60, has nine children, the most of any woman billionaire in a long list of 70 mothers from around the world.

The list compiled by Forbes.com reveals the 70 women around the globe, who will celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday, as billionaires.

Non-executive chair of the O P Jindal Group, a steel and power conglomerate founded by her late husband, Om Prakash Jindal, in 1952, Savitri took over as group head after he died in a helicopter crash in 2005.

During his lifetime the patriarch had handed down operations to their four sons, Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Naveen, who today run independent units.

Savitri is also a Congress MLA from Hisar constituency in Haryana.

There are 70 billionaire moms in the world, and only eight of those women -- including Meg Whitman and J K Rowling-- earned their own way to vast riches.

But none of those self-starters are among the world's 10 richest moms, a group that is dominated by widows and daughters of the very rich.

Christy Walton, the widow of John Walton, son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, tops the list with $22.5 billion.

She is followed by Liliane Bettencourt, 87, of France, whose father founded the cosmetic giant L'Oreal and Birgit Rausing, the 86-year-old widow of the Swedish creator of packaging giant Tetra Laval.

Immediately after these three accomplished mother billionaires is Savitri Jindal.

Savitri is the richest woman in India, and 44th in the world with a net worth of $12.2 billion.

The Jindal Organisation is now a multi-billion dollars business involved in all aspects of steel production, from mining iron ore to manufacturing in 20 factories.

It recently acquired iron ore mines in Chile and Bolivia, as well as rights of oil exploration in Peru.

In London, Jindal lives in Kensington. She is joined by her four sons, all them involved in the business, including Naveen Jindal, an 'irrepressible polo enthusiast'.

"For Whitman, motherhood was not a deterrent to her success, but an aid," Forbes said on its website.

Other self-made millionaires on the list include Rosalia Mera, who along with her former husband launched the Spanish clothing firm Zara, Doris Fisher of the clothing giant The Gap and Guiliana Benetton of the Italian firm Benetton.

Writer JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, also made the list of self-made billionaires along with Elena Baturina of Russia, who made her fortune in construction and Zhang Xin, the CEO the Chinese property development company SOHO China and Yan Cheung, who runs Nine Dragons, which makes paperboard.

Intel, AMD battle again to power super-computers in India

The Indian scientific and research community is keenly watching the battle between arch-rivals and global chipmakers, Intel and AMD, as they launch their high-end server processors which are the lifeblood of high-performance computers.

Intel, for instance, recently launched four- to eight-core Xeon 7500 "Nehalem EX" processors, and AMD unveiled its eight- to 12-core Opteron 6000 "Magny-Cours" chips.

AMD, with its Opteron 6000 "Magny-Cours" processors, is targetting a more mainstream computing space by delivering workload-specific performance, power efficiency, and overall value while delivering more cores and more memory for less money. The company claims its new server platform features the world's first 8- and 12-core x86 processor for the high-volume 2P and value 4P server market.

Intel, on its part, says the new Xeon 7500 processor has made the biggest performance leap in the Intel Xeon processor family, with an average improvement of three times across a range of benchmarks.

High performance computers are used to solve advanced computation problems and are generally used in high-tech industries, by research and development institutes, and manufacturing sector.

The number of organisations with performance computing facility or supercomputers in India has risen from 11 in November 2008 to 15 in December 2009 with two of them featuring in the Top 500 of the latest supercomputers, according to the latest report by the Supercomputer Education and Research Centre of the Indian Institute of Science.

Bangalore ranks first with five supercomputers, followed by three each in Pune and Chennai. Besides, Delhi has two supercomputers whereas Mumbai and Hyderabad had one each, said SERC report.

"We are seeing some manufacturing companies who do a very high-end simulation and factory simulation harnessing the power of supercomputing by installing multiprocessor server clusters. ONGC uses supercomputing systems to gather and analyse huge data gathered during the process of oil exploration," says S Sadagopan, director of IIIT-Bangalore.

The HPC segment, according to Naveen Mishra of Gartner, will see a double-digit growth over the next two years, fuelled by demand from verticals like media, manufacturing, and oil & gas.

"It will be interesting to see how Intel and AMD gear up to the growing HPC requirements in the Indian market. It certainly is good news for firms who want to adopt HPC as this gives them better options. Besides the market also gets competitive with better price and features availability," says Mishra, senior research analyst, Gartner.

Early adopters of supercomputing in India are research organisations like Tata Sons-owned Computational Research Laboratories in Pune with server clusters having processors from the Intel Xeon family of processors. CRL has also been named as the fourth fastest one in the world.

Intel, till date, has been by far the market leader in the server processor segment in India, according to analysts. Even among the 15 supercomputers that India boosts of, a majority are run on Intel processors. AMD, say analysts, has a tough job on hand.

Via : BS

Immigration reforms to begin this year: US President Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama has said that he wants to start working on immigration legislation this year, while seeking the support of Democrats and Republicans in this effort.

Fixing the country's broken immigration reform was one of the major poll promises of Obama, in his run up to the elections in 2008.

More than 11 million illegal immigrants live in the US, besides thousands of legal immigrants having years of painful wait to get the coveted green card.

"Make no mistake, our immigration system is broken. And after so many years in which Washington has failed to meet its responsibilities, Americans are right to be frustrated, including folks along border states," Obama said in his speech at the White House.

"But the answer isn't to undermine fundamental principles that define us as a nation. We can't start singling out people because of who they look like, or how they talk, or how they dress.

"We can't turn law-abiding American citizens -- and law-abiding immigrants -- into subjects of suspicion and abuse. We can't divide the American people that way. That's not the answer. That's not who we are as the United States of America," Obama argued.

The administration, therefore, had been instructed to closely monitor the new law in Arizona and examine the civil rights and other implications that it may have, he said. Asserting that the way to fix the broken immigration system is through common-sense and comprehensive immigration reform, Obama said it meant responsibility from the government to secure the country's borders.

"It means responsibility from businesses that break the law by undermining American workers and exploiting undocumented workers -- they've got to be held accountable. It means responsibility from people who are living here illegally.

"They've got to admit that they broke the law, and pay taxes, and pay a penalty, and learn English, and get right before the law -- and then get in line and earn their citizenship," Obama said.

The US president said he wanted the help of Democrats and Republicans, like the proposal for comprehensive reform presented in the Senate last week, in his efforts to fix the immigration issue.

Google sharpens its image search results

With a clear intent to capture the mobile phone consumer's attention, Google has redesigned its image search results on mobile phones in such a way that the screen's real estate is fully optimised.

So, if you are among the 25 million mobile internet users, then Google Image Search can now provide you with a more streamlined browsing experience. You no longer need to download or install an application. Moreover, Google has enabled a feature called transcoders that delivers a simplified mobile website to the mobile device.

Talking about Google image search, Alok Goel, product manager, Google India explains: "The old interface wasn't awful, but it was more like using a squished down version of the regular browser version of Google Images." Google image results are now delivered as optimised thumbnails (across all handsets and mobile operating systems) and instead of irregular rectangles (dependent on image size) each image thumbnail is now evenly sized.

"Images enlarge on a distraction free black background with auto-fading buttons, and supports a finger-friendlier interface that emphasizes touch and swipe for touchscreen smartphones versus the tap-based interface of the old Google Images Search," adds Goel.

Earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt had announced that Google's future is centred on mobile and it regards the mobile phone as the primary device for how users interact with the world. In an effort to trim down the data usage while browsing the internet on mobile phones, Google transcoders automatically re-format websites.

While transcoding a website for mobile viewing also leads to loss in advertising revenues, Google is not in a hurry to add text-based ads on re-formatted mobile websites. "Re-formatted websites presently do not serve ads as that would further take time to be delivered over GPRS but we are working a revenue model for such websites," says Goel.

Scource: BS

Crude continues to drop

Prices end lower in tandem with US equities
Crude oil ended substantially lower at Nymex on Thursday, 06 May 2010. Prices fell in tandem with US equities as European sovereign debt concerns failed to abate. Prices also fell due to a strong dollar and as energy department yesterday reported a more than expected build up in crude inventories for last week.
On Thursday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for June delivery closed at $77.11/barrel (lower by $2.86 or 3.6%). Prices have shed nearly 7% in the past three sessions. Last week, crude ended higher by 1.2%. For the month of April, crude rose 2.8%. For the first quarter of this year, crude rose by 5.5%. Year to date, crude is lower by 2.6%.
Prices are very much lower as compared to 3 July, 2008 settlement of $145.29 a barrel and an intraday high of $147.27 on 11 July, 2008, an all-time high. However, oil has also gained nearly 146% from a December 2008 nadir. That day prices settled at $33.87 a barrel following an intraday low of $32.40.
A bailout package worth some $146 billion for Greece was announced over the weekend, but it was not enough to restore investors' confidence about the euro-zone countries and the euro and investors again sought gold as a hedge against currency fears. In the midst of financial turmoil and on the eve of key votes in Europe on Greece's bailout package, US stocks almost collapsed today.
In the currency market on Thursday, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six currencies, rose by 0.5%. Most of the greenback's gain came against the euro, which remained weak in the wake of the European Central Bank's decision to keep its target interest rate unchanged at 1%, as expected. News that Greece passed planned austerity measures in a nonbinding preliminary vote failed to help the euro, too.
Among economic reports for the day, The Labor Department in US reported on Thursday, 06 May 2010 that the number of first-time applications for state unemployment benefits fell by 7,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 444,000. Initial claims fell for the third straight week after filings bumped higher in early April due to administrative backlogs and seasonal distortions around the Easter holiday and the end of the quarter.
Separately, the Labor Department in US reported on Thursday, 06 May 2010 that the productivity of U.S. nonfarm businesses slowed in the first quarter from 6.3% to 3.6% annual rate. The 3.6% rise in productivity for the first quarter was better than the 3.1%.
In the weekly inventory report, EIA reported yesterday that crude-oil inventories rose 2.8 million barrels in the week ended 30 April. It included a 1.7 million increase in inventories in Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for Nymex oil. Market had expected crude stocks to increase by 1.54 million barrels. The report also showed that gasoline stockpiles rose by 1.2 million when the expectation was of a modest rise of 200,000 barrels. Refineries operated at 89.6% of their operable capacity.
Among other energy products on Thursday, gasoline for June delivery retreated 6 cents, or 2.9%, to $2.15 a gallon. Natural gas ended lower on Thursday following a report on natural-gas storages. The Energy Information Administration reported an increase of 83 billion cubic feet in the week ended 30 April. Natural-gas futures for June delivery retreated 6 cents, or 1.5%, to $3.92 per million British thermal units.
Crude ended FY 2009 higher by 78%, the highest yearly gain since 1999. It reached a high of $82 earlier in October 2009 and hit a low of $33.98 on 12 February 2009. Crude prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading began at Nymex.
At the MCX, crude oil for May delivery closed lower by Rs 81 (2.2%) at Rs 3,543/barrel. Natural gas for May delivery closed at Rs 178.1, lower by Rs 1.4 (0.8%).

Gold ends higher amid strong dollar

Silver continues to turn pale
Precious metals ended mixed once again on Thursday, 06 May at Comex. Yellow metal ended substantially higher at Comex even as US equities and other commodities like oil plunged as European sovereign debt concerns failed to abate. However, silver prices tripped.
Generally, a stronger dollar pressures demand for dollar-denominated commodities, such as crude oil and gold, which become more expensive for holders of other currencies and also vice versa.
On Thursday, gold for June delivery ended at $1,197.3 an ounce, higher by $22.3 (1.9%) an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was a five-month high level for gold. It hovered around the $1,200 mark for the entire day. Gold for June delivery settled above $1,200 in early December, only to pull back to $1,172 area and dip as much as the $1,050 vicinity in early February. Last week, gold ended higher by 2.3%. For the month of April, gold ended higher by 6%. For the first quarter of this year, gold rose by 1.7%, its sixth quarterly rise. On a year to date basis, gold is higher by 9.1%.
On Thursday, July Comex silver futures ended lower by 2 cents (0.15%) at $17.15 an ounce. This is the lowest price for silver since mid March. Last week, silver ended higher by 2.4%. For the month of April, silver ended higher by 4.1%. For the first quarter of this year, silver rose by 3%. On a year to date basis, silver is higher by 1%.
A bailout package worth some $146 billion for Greece was announced over the weekend, but it was not enough to restore investors' confidence about the euro-zone countries and the euro and investors again sought gold as a hedge against currency fears. In the midst of financial turmoil and on the eve of key votes in Europe on Greece's bailout package, US stocks almost collapsed today.
In the currency market on Thursday, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six currencies, rose by 0.5%. Most of the greenback's gain came against the euro, which remained weak in the wake of the European Central Bank's decision to keep its target interest rate unchanged at 1%, as expected. News that Greece passed planned austerity measures in a nonbinding preliminary vote failed to help the euro, too.
Among economic reports for the day, The Labor Department in US reported on Thursday, 06 May 2010 that the number of first-time applications for state unemployment benefits fell by 7,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 444,000. Initial claims fell for the third straight week after filings bumped higher in early April due to administrative backlogs and seasonal distortions around the Easter holiday and the end of the quarter.
Separately, the Labor Department in US reported on Thursday, 06 May 2010 that the productivity of U.S. nonfarm businesses slowed in the first quarter from 6.3% to 3.6% annual rate. The 3.6% rise in productivity for the first quarter was better than the 3.1%.
Gold had ended FY 2009 higher by 24%. Silver futures had ended 2009 up 50%. The dollar index had lost 4.2% against its counterparts last year.
Last year, after hitting a low at $807.30 per ounce on 15 January 2009, gold futures rallied almost 51% to hit an all-time high at $1217.40 per ounce during early December of 2009 but fell from those levels at the end. Silver futures had hit a low at $10.42 on 15 January 2009 and hit a high at $19.30 per ounce on 2 December 2009. Like gold, silver also ended lower than its all time high level.
At the MCX, gold prices for June delivery closed higher by Rs 449 (2.6%) at Rs 17,763 per ten grams. Prices rose to a high of Rs 17,800 per 10 grams and fell to a low of Rs 17,295 per 10 grams during the day's trading.
At the MCX, silver prices for July delivery closed Rs 161 (0.6%) higher at Rs 27,464/Kg. Prices opened at Rs 27,280/kg and rose to a high of Rs 27,610/Kg during the day's trading.

Wall of worries

The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.Thomas A. Edison.

Don't try to act too smart and curb your bravado as the mayhem triggered by the European debt turmoil shows no signs of abating. Prepare for another shakeout today, at least in the morning trades as risk aversion continues to reign supreme amid growing fears that the ongoing debt problems in Europe will upset the global economic recovery. The key Indian indices are likely to nose-dive at opening bell and the NSE Nifty is expected to test 4950, which is seen as a major support. Hopefully, there will be some recovery as the day wears on and the Nifty will end above the psychological 5000 mark.
Reliance and RNRL will be in focus today as the supreme court is likely to deliver the long-pending verdict in the gas dispute. Nobody has a clue what the final decision will be. But, since Reliance is an index bellwether any sharp movement in it definitely has a bearing on the sentiment. Overall, the trend looks weak unless global markets rebound. Don't take any aggressive bets and just stay put as the global situation is not conducive right now, though for India there aren't too many worries.

Europe's debt crisis and technical glitches in computer-driven trading sparked a massive selloff on Wall Street. The euro slid to a fresh 14-month low against the dollar, and investors fled to Treasuries, gold and other safe-haven investments. The Dow at one point was down almost 1,000 points. The blue chip US index recovered sharply but still ended over 3% down. The fact that the massive drop in the Dow intra-day was largely driven by some technical error should give some solace to the bulls. The monthly US jobs report will be out later today, and if estimates are anything to go by, it should show big improvement. That might potentially change things slightly after the recent mayham.

Coming to European markets, it wasn't such a bad scene though stocks did extend the recent slide after the ECB said it has no plans to buy debt to support countries in the euro zone under fiscal strains. Asian markets are down sharply with the Hang Seng and Shanghai pacing the slide.

Securities and futures regulators in the US say they are working with exchanges to examine 'unusual' trading activity during the day's massive sell-off.

Nasdaq OMX Group said late on Thursday that it will cancel all trades made earlier in the day between 2:40 p.m. Eastern time and 3 p.m. Eastern time which were "greater than or less than 60% away from the consolidated last print in that security at (2:40 p.m.) or immediately prior to that. Nasdaq said no technology or system issues were associated with trading in the afternoon that helped push US markets into an alarming nosedive. Nasdaq said the trades will be canceled "on the participant's behalf," and will affect numerous stocks.

Meanwhile, the Greek parliament has passed the tough Austerity Measures proposed by the government in return for the massive aid package from the EU and IMF. The crucial vote stirred immediate concerns about unrest among the thousands of protesters massed in Athens.

Markets in Europe nose-dived after the European Central Bank disappointed investors hoping for decisive action to contain the euro zone's debt crisis. In the UK, exit poll give Tories 307 seats, labour 255 and Lib Dems 59, leaving no partty in overall control of the House.

Results today: AV Birla Nuvo, Bank of India, Cipla, KPIT Cummins, NIIT, Novartis India, Oracle Financial, Panacea Biotec, Piramal Healthcare, SRF and Torrent Power.

FIIs were net sellers of Rs9.38bn in the cash segment on Thursday on a provisional basis, according to NSE web site. Local institutions were net buyers of Rs3.8bn. FIIs were net sellers of Rs13.89bn in the cash segment on Wednesday, as per the SEBI data.

US stocks plunged anew, but were quite a way off the intra-day lows, as panic gripped Wall Street amid mounting concerns that the European debt crisis is spiraling out of control and will hurt the global economic recovery.
The Dow plunged almost 1,000 points before recovering to close down 348 points, as erroneous trading in Procter & Gamble and several other stocks sparked a massive selloff.
Fears about the spread of the European debt crisis dragged on stocks through the early afternoon. But the selling picked up in intensity and the Dow reached its nadir in mid afternoon. The selling was a result of technical glitches that caused some stocks, including Dow component Procter & Gamble to plunge 37%. The consumer products maker recovered most of that loss by the close, ending just 2% lower.
But the faulty P&G trading was responsible for 172 of the 998.50 points that the Dow Jones industrial average lost at its worst, the biggest one-day point decline on an intraday basis in Dow Jones history. Accenture, 3M, Sotheby's and other stocks may have been impacted by similar problems.
Finally, the Dow ended down 3.2% at 10,520.32. The Dow's biggest one-day point decline on a closing basis was Sept. 29, 2008, when it fell 777.68, which had also been the previous intraday mark. The S&P 500 index slipped 38 points, or 3.2%. The Nasdaq composite dropped 83 points, or 3.4%.
The dollar rallied early versus the euro, with the European currency falling to its lowest level since March of 2009. But by late day, the dollar had turned lower. It also fell versus the Japanese yen.
U.S. light crude oil for June delivery dropped $2.86 to settle at $77.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
COMEX gold for June delivery rose $22.30 to settle at $1,197.30 per ounce.
Treasury prices rallied, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 3.40% from 3.55% on Wednesday.
The US market collapsed some major technical support levels, and could be in for more selling Friday. The key is to get Germany's vote in favor of the Greek aid package from the European Union. If that happens, that could help calm fears and stabilize the market. Friday's big April jobs report could end up being a non-event.
The CBOE Volatility (VIX) index, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, closed at 34.16, its highest finish since May 4, 2009. Earlier, it had spiked as high as 40.71, a 62% jump and its biggest one-day surge since February 2007.
The run from the euro and into the dollar and US government debt was a classic flight to quality. The continued weakness of the euro will continue to be a big drag on the markets as it pummels dollar-traded commodities and also hurts companies that do a lot of business overseas. Europe and Greece, and specifically the fear of contagion, is what's driving the market lower.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment fell to 444,000 last week from a revised 451,000 the previous week. Economists thought claims would fall to 440,000. Continuing claims, a measure of Americans who have been receiving benefits for a week or more, dropped to 4,594,000 from a revised 4,653,000 in the previous week. Economists expected 4,600,000 continuing claims.
The report was released one day ahead of the government's closely watched April jobs report, due out on Friday morning. That report is expected to show employers added 187,000 jobs to their payrolls after adding 162,000 in March, according to economists.
Retailers reported that April sales slowed from March's robust gains, with a majority of those reporting missing expectations.
Freddie Mac reported an $8 billion quarterly loss on Wednesday and also said it needs another $10.6 billion from the federal government. The company was put into conservatorship by the government during the height of the financial crisis in 2008, along with its sister company Fannie Mae.
European shares continued to slide, with the banking sector taking the bulk of the hammering, after the European Central Bank opted against buying bonds of euro-zone governments as it kept its key rate on hold.
Investors pushed stock prices lower on heightened worries that Europe's high budget deficits would lead to a fresh global financial crisis. As Greece looked to a $144 billion rescue from the International Monetary Fund and 15 other nations that use the euro to help cover its debt, some questioned if Portugal and Spain would eventually need to be bailed out as well.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index ended down 1.3% at 247.24, bringing week-to-date losses for the index to 4.9%.
The European Central Bank held interest rates at 1% on Thursday and ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said that the prospect of a default within the euro zone is, for me, out of the question. Trichet also said that the ECB's Governing Council didn't discuss the option of purchasing euro-zone government bonds in the secondary market.
National Bank of Greece shares were up 3.8% and the Greek ASE Composite index rose 1% to 1,678.42.
The French CAC-40 index closed down 2.2% at 3,556.11 and the German DAX index ended the day down 0.8% at 5,908.26. With the UK general election taking place and the FTSE 100 index fell 1.5% to end at 5,260.99.
In the currency markets, the euro took a battering against the so-called "safe haven" Swiss franc

It was a day of wild swings and yet at the end of it all the Indian indices extended losses for the fourth straight session. "Markets ended on a weak note as the Greek storm continued to wreck havoc across the globe and concerns also escalated on Chinese government’s monetary tightening spree", says Amar Ambani, Vice President Research, IIFL. Sentiment was hit after the Shanghai Composite index in China lost over 4% today. The Nikkei in Japan and the Kospi in South Korea also fell sharply after a day’s break.

The NSE Nifty has slipped over 3.5% or 187 points and the BSE Sensex has lost 3.2% or 570 points in four days. On Thursday, the BSE Sensex lost 100 points to end at 16,988 and NSE Nifty fell 34 points to close at 5,091. Among the 30 components of Sensex, 21 ended in the negative terrain and 9 ended in the green.

Markets in Asia ended in the red; the Nikkei in Japan slipped 3.2%, Australia's S&P/ASX was down 2.1%, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 1% and Shanghai SE Composite dropped 4%.

On the other hand, European indices were trading with a slight positive bias, the DAX in Germany was up 0.3%, the CAC 40 index in France was up 0.2% and the FTSE in the UK was flat.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Pharma index was top gainer; the index gained 1.4%, followed by BSE PSU index up 0.6%. However, the BSE Teck index was the major loser, down 1% and BSE Capital Goods index fell 1%. Even the Mid-Cap index slipped 0.5% and the Small-cap index ended almost unchanged.

Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were Indian Bank, Praj Industries, Fin Tech and Rolta. On the other hand, gainers included Hindustan Copper, Ashok Leyland, Max India and Piramal Health.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) posted a net profit of Rs11.35bn for the quarter ended March 31, 2010 as compared to Rs8.65bn for the quarter ended March 31, 2009. Total Income has increased from Rs60.47bn for the quarter ended March 31, 2009 to Rs64.60bn for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.

Shares of PNB edged higher by 0.2% to end at Rs1044. The scrip opened at Rs1145 it touched an intra-day high of Rs1145 and a low of Rs1025 and recorded volumes of over 0.6mn shares on NSE.

Union Bank of India has posted a net profit of Rs5.93bn for the quarter ended March 31, 2010 as compared to Rs4.65bn for the quarter ended March 31, 2009. Total Income has increased from Rs38.48bn for the quarter ended March 31, 2009 to Rs40.54bn for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.

Shares of Union Bank of India fell 2.1% to end at Rs295. The scrip opened at Rs304 it touched an intra-day high of Rs306 and a low of Rs294 and recorded volumes of over 0.94mn shares on NSE.

Shares of Hindustan Zinc slipped by 1.2% to end at Rs1130 after reports stated that the company has cut price by 5.9% from May 6, 2010. The scrip opened at Rs1138 it touched an intra-day high of Rs1142 and a low of Rs1111 and recorded volumes of over 0.14mn shares on NSE.

Core Projects announced that the company had on April 15, 2010 launched and priced FCCBs for an aggregate amount of US$60mn (with an additional upsize option of US$15mn granted to the Sole Bookrunner being Standard Chartered Bank). The Company has informed that, the upsize option of US$15mn has been exercised by the Sole Bookrunner.

The FCCBs having a maturity of 5 years and 1 day are convertible at an initial conversion price of Rs271.80 per share (to be adjusted from time to time, as may be applicable). The issue of FCCBs is subject to customary closing conditions.

The stock slipped 0.8% to end at Rs250. The scrip opened at Rs252.6 it touched an intra-day high of Rs257.9 and a low of Rs248 and recorded volumes of over 0.15mn shares on NSE.

IRB Infrastructure emerged as the Preferred Bidder for the Project. The company had submitted its Bid with the National Highways Authority of India ("NHAI") for Design, Build, Finance and Operation of Six Lanning of Tumkur - Chitradurga section from km. 75.00 to km. 189.00 of NH-4 (approximately 114.00 km.) in the state of Karnataka under NHDP Phase V on BOT basis (the "Project"). The Project is on Premium basis with the concession period of 26 years and estimated cost of the Project is Rs12bn.

The company has to pay a premium of Rs1.4bn for the Project to the NHAI, in the first year".

The stock slipped by 2.6% to end at Rs274. The scrip opened at Rs284 it touched an intra-day high of Rs284 and a low of Rs272 and recorded volumes of over 0.73mn shares on NSE.

Dow Jones at Wall Street drops 1,000 points over Greek contagion fears

Wall Street plunged today as investors succumbed to fears that Greece’s debt problems would halt the global economic recovery.

The Dow Jones industrials slid almost 1,000 points before recovering to a loss of 465 points, or 3.7 per cent in late afternoon trading in New York, while the broader S&P 500 index was down 42 points, or 3.5 per cent.

The sudden drop was a painful flashback to the worst days of the 2008 financial crisis. Automated selling software intensified the selling while investors watched protests in the streets of Athens on television.

Fears are running high in the financial markets that the Greek government will not be able to implement austerity measures that would enable it to contain its debt problems. And, in turn, that the country’s problems will hurt other economies in Europe and even the US.

The Dow’s gyrations showed the high emotions in the markets. Down 998.50 points in mid-afternoon, it recovered minutes later to a loss of 465.

“The market is now realising that Greece is going to go through a depression over the next couple of years,” said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. “Europe is a major trading partner of ours, and this threatens the entire global growth story.”

The FTSE 100 Index suffered, closing down 80.9 points or 1.52 per cent to 5261 points amid prospects of a hung Parliament as Britain went to the polls and as rating agency Moody’s stoked more concerns over the crisis spreading. UK banks are at serious risk of contagion, according to Moody’s. The sheer size and “vulnerability” of Britain’s banking sector would present a threat to the economy if the UK’s sovereign creditworthiness was called into question after Greece and its banks were downgraded last week, the ratings agency said in a report.

While Portugal is at the forefront of investor concern over the level of its debt, the UK was in greater danger of sovereign contagion from exposure to the Greek banks, Moody’s said.

Banking assets represent the equivalent of more than 400 per cent of GDP in the UK, compared with 150 per cent in Greece.

“Each of the six banking systems, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece, the UK ... faces different challenges, but the contagion risk could dilute these differences and impose very real, common threats on all of them,” Moody’s said.

The warning fuelled concerns that the Greek crisis might engulf other debt-laden eurozone economies, as the euro slid to a one-year low against the dollar.

The euro fell below 1.27 against the dollar. The pound strengthened above 1.18 against the single currency at one point – and then took a late slump against the dollar to 1.48. Investors are treating the greenback as a safe haven until the outcome of the general election and the Greece situation is clearer. Germany’s DAX fell 50.19 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 5,908.26. The CAC-40 in France was 79.92 points, or 2.2 per cent, lower at 3,556.11.

In Asia, the Nikkei in Japan recorded its biggest one-day loss since March last year, falling 3.3 per cent to a two-month low of 10,695 as the markets opened after a public holiday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 221.47 points, or 1.09 per cent, to 20,106 and in Shanghai the Composite index fell to 2,808.3, down 1.7 per cent.

Banks were London’s biggest fallers. Barclays lost 21.05p to 301.7p, HSBC fell 24.2p to 628.4p and Royal Bank of Scotland slipped 2.2p to 48.2p ahead of its latest trading update.

Lloyds Banking Group, which faced protests from its shareholders over pay at the bank’s annual meeting today, saw shares fall 3.5p to 56.6p.

Source : Timesonline