Economy

By IANS, Hyderabad : Almost all the top names including former president of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam have resigned from the board of Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), promoted by disgraced founder and former chairman of Satyam Computer Services B. Ramalinga Raju. Kalam quit Monday in view of the massive fraud admitted by Raju last week. Former chairman of IT industry body Nasscom Kiran Karnik has also resigned following his appointment to the new board formed by the central government to rescue Satyam Computer Services.

By P. Vijian, NNN-Bernama, Chennai, India : Thirty Indian craftsmen have combined their skills to create the world's biggest gold bangle, weighing 24.5 kg. The bangle, built within three weeks on a frame of four 22-carat rings, was unveiled by GoldPlus, a jewellery division of Titan Industries of Indian conglomerate Tata group, at Erode in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The bangle, measuring 1,830 mm in diameter and 140 mm in width, was designed and manufactured in the GoldPlus factory in Hosur, a popular manufacturing town near Bangalore, capital of neighbouring Karnataka state.

By IANS, Chennai : The domestic auto sector as a whole will be affected by the slowing down of the economy and stock market crash, but the two-wheeler segment may just beat the trend, say analysts. The slowdown will affect sectors like heavy commercial vehicles, thanks to tightening of credit by lenders. However, the two-wheeler segment in contrast is witnessing increased demand as compared to the previous year.

By James Jose, IANS, New Delhi : New York-based pizza chain Famous Famiglia is all set to enter India through the franchise route and is scouting for partners. "We will open our first outlet in about a year and will rely exclusively on our channel partners to expand in the country," Giorgio Kolaj, company co-founder and executive vice president, told IANS in an interview here. "The chain will be opening its first outlet at the Bangalore airport, and will be targeting locations like airports and major metros in the first phase of the entry," he said.

By IANS, Beijing : China Friday raised its growth estimate for 2009 to 9.1 percent from 8.7 percent announced earlier, signifying a stronger economic recovery from the global downturn. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in 2009 had been modified up to 9.1 percent from 8.7 percent announced in January, according to the official Xinhua news agency. NBS said the GDP hit 34.0507 trillion yuan ($5.296 trillion), up 515.4 billion yuan ($76 billion) from the previous figure.

By Arvind Padmanabhan and Rajeev Ranjan Roy, IANS, New Delhi : Water is becoming a scarce commodity in the Indian capital that is home to some 16 million people and the crisis is going to worsen in the coming years, leading to more conflicts and pollution, warns a new study. "The nation's capital is perpetually in the grip of a water crisis, more so in the dry season, when the situation gets particularly worse," says the study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).

By IANS, Hyderabad : The central government has accepted Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's (YSR) proposal to utilise the old airport here for general aviation services and national and international air shows. YSR, who is in New Delhi now, announced this while interacting with officials on the overall development of the aviation sector, said a statement issued by the chief minister's office here Tuesday. The statement also said an aerospace and precision engineering special economic zone (SEZ) would be set up near the new airport.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities Wednesday closed 234 points higher than its previous close, tracking other rebounding global bourses. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,027.12 points, closed at 18,205.87 points, 234.75 points or 1.31 percent up from its previous close at 17,971.12 points. It had risen to 18,227.14 points earlier. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty ended 1.29 percent up at 5,471.85 points.

By IANS, New Delhi : The flow of investment between India and Arab countries has not been impressive and calls for corrective measures, said delegates participating at the India-Arab Investment Projects Conclave here Friday. Calling for adopting corrective measures and improving bilateral ties between India and the Arab countries, the secretary general of the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) Faud Shaker told delegates at the conclave that business opportunities between India and the Arab world were immense.

By IANS, Hyderabad : Satyam Computer Services founder B. Ramalinga Raju, his brother B. Rama Raju and former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas were Friday sent back to jail for one more week by a court here, which, however, turned down a plea by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to record their statements. On the day of hectic developments, the plea of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), seeking permission to question the accused, was not admitted by the court on the ground that it was not filed under relevant provisions.

By IANS,

By IANS, Dubai : The Gulf nation of Qatar will have the second highest per capita income in the world by 2009, next only to Luxembourg, according to a new report. Per capita income in Qatar will cross $100,000 a year, according to the Bahrain-based investment bank Gulf Finance House’s (GFH) Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Economic Outlook for the third quarter of 2008. The report attributed the reason for this rise in income to increased oil and gas revenues.

By IANS Ahmedabad : The National Multi-Commodity Exchange (NMCE) has announced its new CEO and chief operating officer (COO) Friday. Anil Mishra, winner of Bharat Udyog Ratna Award 2003 and Best Coffee Exporter Award 2006, will become NMCE's new CEO and S.S. Vyas, former chief general manager of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), will take charge as the COO.

By IANS New Delhi : Investment by overseas private equity funds is set to touch $48 billion in India by 2010, from $17.14 billion last year, even as the country has established an edge over China in this industry, says a new study. "Real estate sector is predicted to be the best beneficiary of private equity landscape in India," says the study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

By Tejinder Singh, IANS, Brussels : European Union leaders have agreed that next week’s emergency summit in Washington must lead to a reformed international financial system, declaring: “We cannot fail". Meeting ahead of the Nov 15 summit, leaders of the 27-nation EU agreed to “defend the common vision for restructuring the financial system”, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, current holder of the rotating EU Presidency, told journalists.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : India's angry reaction to President George Bush's suggestion that its middle class was pushing food prices by demanding better food is bringing home the realisation that the blame lies at America's own door. "We Americans are gluttons for energy, as well as for food," noted Dallas Morning News in an editorial Tuesday drawing attention not only to the Americans' huge intake, but also to enormous amounts of food that they waste.

By IANS, Kolkata : The Left Front (LF) in West Bengal called for a 12-hour shutdown across the state Thursday to protest against the price hike in petroleum products, Front chairman Biman Bose said here. "All left parties have decided to call this 12-hour shutdown (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) Thursday in West Bengal protesting against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's decision to allow a hike in the price of petrol, diesel and cooking gas in the country," Bose told a press conference Wednesday.

By IRNA, Tokyo : Japan, the world's second-largest economy, has officially slipped into recession, hurt by weak export growth and steep cuts in corporate spending amid the worsening global slowdown. Japan's gross domestic product shrank at an annual rate of 0.4 percent from July to September after declining a revised 3.7 percent in the previous quarter, the government said Monday. It was the first time since 2001 that Japan's economy has contracted for two consecutive quarters, the definition of a recession.

By T.G. Biju, IANS, New Delhi : Concerned over high prices of sugar, low supplies and fall in output because of drought, the government has asked soft drinks manufacturers and bulk users like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle to buy sugar overseas. "We have told manufactures like Coca-Cola that you should findsome other mechanism," said Minister of State for Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution K.V. Thomas.

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equity markets closed in the green Monday. The 30-share benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, opened at 13,561.92 points and touched a high of 13,793.39 before closing at 13,525.99. It went up by 71.99 points or 0.54 percent compared to its closing figure Friday. The S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange, which opened at 4,002.00 points, closed at 4,030.00 points. It went up by 14 points or 0.35 percent from its previous close.

By IANS, Bhubaneswar : National Aluminium Ltd. (NALCO) Monday said it has suspended operations at its only bauxite mine in Odisha's Koraput district as its mining lease has expired.

By IANS Jaipur : Members of parliament (MPs) from Rajasthan have decided to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking a cut in marble imports as an increase in the import quota was affecting the marble industry of the state. They will also raise the issue of getting their share of water from the Ravi and Beas rivers. The MPs expressed their concern on these issues in a meeting in New Delhi on Friday. They expressed their discontent over increasing the marble import quota to 195,000 metric tonnes from the existing 130,000 metric tonnes.

By IANS,

By Ziaulla Nomani, India is the world's second largest single consumer of gold after China. The consumption of gold in India is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry.

By IANS, Islamabad : Pakistan said Thursday it has decided to resume cross-border trade in Kashmir after weeks of suspension over the arrest of a...

By IANS, Bangalore : Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday said the government was sticking to an estimated 7.2 percent growth rate for this fiscal (2009-10) and 8.5 percent for 2010-11. "I have given some indication in the budget speech and the economic survey. So far as this year is concerned, we are sticking to 7.2 percent GDP (Gross Domestic Product)growth and 8.5 percent for 2010-11," Mukherjee said. The finance minister was talking to reporters on the margins of a workshop on financial

By IANS, Kolkata : Retail asset finance company Magma Shrachi Finance Ltd reported Rs.1.38 billion ($32.8 million) total revenue for the first quarter of the current fiscal against Rs.874 million over the same period last year, a 58 percent increase. Magma Shrachi vice-chairman and managing director Sanjay Chamria said: "We have been successful in enhancing our disbursements significantly leading to healthy increase in our asset base." Assets under management of the company as on June 30, 2008, stood at Rs.80.05 billion.

By DPA Berlin : German consumers, long accustomed to buying cheap food, are up in arms over an explosion in the price of milk and dairy products on supermarket shelves. Triggered in part by a growing demand from Asia, milk has gone up by more than 10 percent in the past week, while butter has risen a whopping 50 percent and cheese is expected to increase 10 percent. German Consumer Affairs Minister Horst Seehofer called the price rises unjustified and said they placed "an undue burden on the consumer".

By DPA, San Francisco : Facebook, the world's largest social network on the internet, is finally turning a profit, the privately held company said. The Silicon Valley, California, company, which was started six years ago by a student at Harvard University, said late Tuesday that it had reached a positive cash flow for the first time and also passed the 300-million user mark. The stratospheric growth in the site's user base from 150 million at the start of the year, allowed the company to turn a profit earlier than the 2010 date it had previously predicted.

By DPA, Washington: Finance ministers of the world's 20 leading economic powers on Friday stopped short of endorsing a controversial global tax on banks, instead calling for the International Monetary Fund to conduct more research into measures that would hold banks responsible. In a communique released after their meeting in Washington, the Group of 20 (G20) bloc said more work was needed on how to ensure that financial firms "bear the burden of any extraordinary government interventions where they occur."

By IANS, New Delhi : Amity Global Business School, in collaboration with Max New York Life Insurance, Wednesday announced the launch of a post-graduate diploma in insurance and sales management. The programme offers professional training in specialised subjects such as insurance sales practices and management, insurance products, legal and regulatory aspects of life insurance as well as general and marketing management.

By TwoCircles.net News Cambridge, Massachusetts: A roundtable on “Islamic Finance in India” was organized on April 27, 2014 at Harvard Law School at the conclusion...

By IANS/WAM, Seoul: About 70 Korean businessmen will attend the Dubai Economic Forum that begins here June 21. A high-powered economic delegation led by Ahmad Dhaen Al Qamzi, director general of the Dubai government's department of finance, will arrive here Sunday to participate in the forum. More than 70 Korean businessmen from 48 local business associations and companies will join the forum to get the latest information about the investment climate in Dubai as well as Dubai's new policy guidelines for Korean companies.

By IANS, New Delhi : Food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahai is all for foreign investment in agriculture. “If the state government cannot provide enough support to farmers, let them promote third-party investors in farming, specifically foreign investors,” the minister told reporters on the sidelines of a business meet here Monday. "The country needs huge investment in order to realise the full potential of this sector, and state governments must allow foreign investment in agriculture and encourage contract farming," Sahai said.

By IANS,

By Prensa Latina Hanoi : The World Bank's agricultural development proposal for poor countries worsens the crisis of small farmers, ActionAid organization warned Tuesday in Vietnam. Representatives of that organization, which fights poverty worldwide, and activists from other countries, are taking part in a one-day seminar in Hanoi to warn of risks posed by the WB approach.

By IANS Thiruvananthapuram : The Kerala government is keen to find foreign partners for its proposed IT infrastructure company here and for this purpose will participate in the GITEX 2007 meet in Dubai beginning Saturday. A three-member team led by N. Radhakrishnan Nair, CEO of Technopark here, will participate in the Dubai show where world leaders in IT and infrastructure companies are taking part.

By IANS,

Chennai : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa on Saturday urged the central government to instruct Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to restart...

Mumbai, Nov 5 (IANS) Microsoft has entered into a $500-million (Rs.19.7 billion) pact here Monday with Reliance Anil D. Ambani Group (RADAG) to launch Internet protocol television (IPTV) and allied services in India. The IPTV service will be launched in Mumbai and Delhi by March 2008, to be followed by other metros gradually. "Reliance will enjoy exclusive deployment rights for the Microsoft platform in India," said RADAG chairman Anil Ambani.

By IANS, Mumbai : India's capital markets regulator Wednesday proposed to double the investment limit for individual investors in initial public offerings (IPOs) to Rs.200,000 to attract more retail participants into such primary issues of companies. Detailing out the reasons for increasing the limit for retail individual investors, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said the last revision was done five years back to Rs.100,000 from the earlier Rs.50,000.

By IANS, New Delhi : The Oberoi group will pursue expansion plans, officials of the hotel chain said Tuesday, while opening a luxury hotel in Gurgaon in Haryana.

By IANS, New Delhi : Bharti Airtel Monday launched 16 Mbps broadband, the fastest wireline broadband on digital subscriber loop(DSL) in the country, in select cities. "We will be able to offer 16 Mbps broadband to 70 percent of the households in Delhi and NCR (national capital region), Chennai and Bangalore," Airtel Telemedia Services joint president K. Srinivas said. The service, powered by Airtel's Carrier Ethernet Network, will be rolled out in Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata in the next phase, the company said in a statement.

By IANS, New Delhi : India's annual rate of inflation fell to minus 1.30 percent for the week ended June 20, according to official data released here Thursday. The rate of inflation for the week ended June 13 was at minus 1.14 percent. The index for primary articles rose 0.5 percent, while that for fuel and power rose by 0.1 percent while manufactured products grew by 0.05 percent.

By DPA, Geneva : Airlines will suffer losses of $4.7 billion in 2009, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Tuesday, downgrading a previous forecast. "The state of the airline industry today is grim," Giovanni Bisignani, the head of the IATA, said. A forecast at the end of last year had predicted a $2.5 billion loss. The IATA also revised its estimate losses for 2008 from $5 billion to $8.5 billion, citing a particularly bad fourth quarter.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index of Indian equities Tuesday, after an hour since opening bell, continued to languish in dull trade, joining other gloomy Asian stock indices.

By DPA, Paris/Frankfurt: The French government bought the manuscript of the autobiography of the legendary Italian womaniser and adventurer Giacamo Casanova for a record price, art advisor Christoph Graf Douglas told DPA Thursday. Douglas said that France paid the German Brockhaus publishing family more than 7 million euros ($9.5 million), a world's record for a written manuscript. The previous record for such a purchase was the 3.6 million euros, including fees and commissions, that was paid for the manuscript of Andre Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism in 2008.

By IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : India's industrial output grew 1.4 percent in April as against a decline of 0.75 percent in March, in what analysts said can be taken as early signs of recovery. Data on index of industrial production (IIP) released by the commerce ministry Friday showed that the growth also came after two successive months of decline and was led mainly by a 7.1 percent increase in electricity generation.

By IANS,

By IANS,

By IANS, Mumbai : The board of directors of the Bombay Stock Exchange has appointed Jagdish Capoor as its new chairman. Capoor is one of the directors of the HDFC Bank. He has also served as the deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India and worked with Export Import Bank of India, National Housing Bank, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) and the State Bank of India. BSE, in statement issued late Wednesday, said the board also discussed the resignations of Shekhar Datta and Jamshyd Godrej as directors of the exchange.

By IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : India needs to double its steel production from the current 55 million tonnes in five years if it wants to bridge the demand-supply gap, Minister of State for Steel Prathap Annayyagari said here Wednesday. "During the last five years, the growth in the demand for steel has averaged to around 10 percent. To meet this growing demand, the steel sector has to double its production in the next five years," Annayyagari said at a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS, Faisalabad (Pakistan) : This was a protest with a difference. Pakistan's elite businesspersons took to the streets against rising prices, brandished placards and shouted slogans too -- but from behind the windows of their airconditioned cars in the scorching summer heat of Tuesday. As temperatures in this industrial city in central Punjab hit 45 degrees Celsius, industrialists came out to voice their protest the government's failure in controlling prices and the fuel hike, probably the first such protest ever in the country.

By IANS Ahmedabad : The government should initiate welfare programmes for diamond workers instead of setting up a development board for the industry, Surat Diamond Industry Association president C.P. Vanani said Tuesday. "The industry has grown over the years on its own and is now well established. A development board for it is not necessary," he told IANS while commenting on the Congress party's election manifesto promise to set up a diamond industry board.

By IANS,

By TCN News

By IANS, New Delhi : State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will extend the broadband Internet facility to all districts and blocks of the country by March 2009, an official statement said here Monday. "Broadband coverage will be extended to 148,000 villages in the next six months from the current 30,000 villages. BSNL provides broadband services in 3,261 cities, which will be expanded to 5,000 cities by March next year," the statement said. Currently, BSNL covers about 95 percent of the district headquarters and about 44 percent of the blocks.

By Neelam Mathews, IANS New Delhi : Japan's All Nippon Airways is increasing its Tokyo-Mumbai service to seven days a week from April 12 from the present six to tap the robust demand on the sector, airline officials say. "We believe there is a strong demand for business travel on this route," All Nippon spokesperson Rob Henderson said, adding that the airline enjoys a 60 percent load factor on the sector despite an all-business configuration.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets reversed intra-day losses Wednesday to close 92 points up even as a Chinese monetary policy change resulted in the weakening of other major Asian markets. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,368.03 points, ended at 17,514.76 points (provisional), up 92.25 points or 0.52 percent from its previous close at 17,422.51 points.

By IANS, Mumbai : After holding steady for most parts of the day, a benchmark index for Indian equities tanked during the last hour of trade Tuesday, ending 164 points lower on negative cues from European bourses. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,760.6 points, shut shop at 16,617.1 points, 163.97 points or 0.98 percent down from its previous close at 16,781.07 points. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4,990.15 points, down 0.87 percent from its previous close.

By IANS, New Delhi : Slowdown in the housing sector in metros seems to have spilled over to small towns, where housing demand fell by 25 percent during February-July 2008 period because of higher cost of borrowing, according to an industry lobby report. The study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said realty transaction has gone down by nearly 25 percent in most of tier II and tier III cities between February and July 2008. These small boomtowns registered a growth of around 22-23 percent in property purchase in the same period last year.

By Xinhua

Beijing : The Chinese government Tuesday regretted the decision of the US to impose new restrictions on high-technology exports to China.