After playing along with other players, Tata Teleservices has suddenly changed the game by offering a fixed call rate plan. What is the reason for this sudden move, which could affect the revenues of all players, including Tata?
E.A.S.Sarma’s appeal to the Finance Ministry to avoid public anger and work out a relief package for the industries that have been hit by the global financial crisis. Here is the latest open letter to DEA by E.A.S.Sarma (Former Secretary to GOI)
Under pressure from federal authorities, the Swiss bank UBS is closing the hidden offshore accounts of its well-heeled American clients, potentially allowing their secrets to spill into the open.
Read this letter of an IT head outlining how government policies and generous, thoughtless exemptions – all at the cost of the taxpayer have encouraged IT scams
In another hard hitting letter, former Revenue Secretary EAS Sarma has drawn attention to an investment by M/S Lakeside Investment Ltd., which may be an affiliate of the Ramalinga Raju family of Satyam Computers in the Gangavaram Port at Vizag.
A set of six B-school cases has recently become available from Harvard Business School (HBS). The cases, written by Professors Srikant Datar and DavidGarvin together with Carin-Isabel Knoop (4 cases) and James Webber (the remaining 2 cases), are on HBSitself, Stanford, Chicago, Yale, INSEAD and the Centre for Creative Leadership (a reputed specialist institution engaged in "business education")
It is incumbent on mature and dispassionate analysts not to look at the CEC's report through political or ideological spectacles and import into it hidden purposes and meanings, says BS Raghavan
An international network marketing scheme hawking expensive limited edition coins is attracting a huge following. Sucheta Dalal examines this strange quest
Vijay Mallya, the beer king of India had named his carrier services after his popular brand 'Kingfisher', but it appears as if the pilots of this airline are taking their loyalty a bit too seriously!
Users of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networking sites are under threat from fraudsters. So, double check what sites you are visiting and don't reveal personal or sensitive information on the Internet.
The main reason behind the price hike is demand-supply mismatch with traders taking advantage of the market conditions, which unfortunately are not in favour of end-users.
Time magazine in 2009 placed Nandan Nilekani, in its list of ‘World’s most influential people’. The question is can he do justice to the job handed over to him, since dealing with babus and ministers is certainly not a cake walk.
The market regulator said it was necessary to put in place a moratorium before a person can be considered fit and proper again. This applies to Jermyn Capital after Dharmesh Doshi, a close associate of Ketan Parekh, severed his ties from the company only on 30th November 2008.
ICRA, an Associate of Moody’s Investors Service, said it the Union Budget for 2009-10 is expected to provide a thrust to spending in the infrastructure as well as social sectors, and selectively rationalise taxes, while at the same time ensuring that the fiscal deficit does not slip significantly below the level indicated in the Interim Budget.
A decade long delay in implementing the Disinvestment Commission’s suggestions on the bailout of Air India will now cost the government an extra Rs9,000 crore.
Indian Railway, the world's largest rail service, earns 92 paise of every rupee from passengers while spending 36 paise on its 1.4 million employees and just 3 paise on development. Does this means there is no real hope for a better rail service?
After the populist rail budget and economic survey everyone was expecting a stimulus from the finance minister. However, after his ‘lackluster’ budget, everybody, including markets felt let down.
The delicate and fragile Mumbai Skywalks, the ambitious project of MMRDA costs more than the newly inaugurated Bandra Worli Sea Link, on a per square meter basis. Is it an attempt to rob taxpayer’s money?
The battle for buying Great Offshore, the first of its kind in Indian ship building industry, is becoming interesting day by day. After Bharati’s increased offer, it would be interesting to see if ABG matches the same or makes a higher offer.
In a move to turn around the cash strapped Air India, the government is trying to get former top bosses of global carriers like Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, on the board which is likely to be headed by Ratan Tata.
The second largest Indian software company, while reporting higher first quarter net profit, lowered its revenue and earnings guidance for the year ending March 2010 under the Indian GAAP.
Nomura, which bought Lehman Brother's India operations, last year, had more than 100 meetings with LIC before finalising the investment. This shows how serious the Japanese can get when it comes to pure business.
For the first time, after the privatisation of power distribution, consumers in Mumbai will be allowed to choose their electricity supplier. Many of the consumers desperately want to shift to Tata Power from Reliance Infrastructure as the ADA group company has been hiking power tariffs, since last three years.
Following strong protests from consumers and political parties, MERC has stayed its own order. The regulator is also trying to come out with a uniform tariff plan for Mumbai, against its own order issued on 15th June 2009.
Some US consumers were charged $23 quadrillion for buying a pack of cigarettes or dinner. This 17-digit amount is almost 2,007 times more than the national debt of the US!
The NSE’s Rs1.2 billion acquisition of a new office space at Kurla has been in the news since 14th May, but we find that there is still a lot of confusion about details. The exchange refuses to clarify.
TCS, India’s largest software company, reported a better than expected first quarter net profit but said it will remain watchful of a weak global environment while not ruling out shocks and surprises along the way.
They say, “Subah ka bhula sham ko laut aaya to use bhula nahin kehte.” Is Bajaj Auto’s re-entry into volume driven 100cc segment an effort to correct its mistake or the dwindling sales forced it to renew its focus?
After fertilizer secretary Atul Chaturvedi’s comment that any family settlement would not over-ride the sovereign right of government to formulate policies aimed at larger public interest, the government also wants the pact to be declared ‘null’ and ‘void’?
The fight between Ambani brothers couldn’t get murkier. Both brothers do have all kind of support, they want, be it political, financial and other. Yet, the younger brother allegedly wants a level playing field.
MCX-SX, a part of Financial Technologies has already sold 23% stake to the domestic banks and financial institute and now wants to cut down promoter's share to 15% as per the regulatory requirements.
Volkswagon group subsidiary, Skoda Auto had suddenly picked up sales, especially its luxury sedan ‘Superb’ which is giving a sleepless nights for almost all major car makers in India.
Most of the major central banks around the world have by and large implemented the rate cuts and are expected to hold their decisions for few months, before going in for any revision. Will RBI follow the same route?
The ambitious plan of Unique Identification Number (UIN) will comprise personal and demographic detail of each individual and is likely to benefit everybody.
Watch out! The next time you buy your baby a cough syrup or get yourself any medication, make sure to get a proper bill else you could fall prey to the multi-billion clandestine business of spurious, misbranded and adulterated drugs.
Reliance Industries' total revenues also fell 22.6% with the company attributing the downfall to decrease in prices. The downward trend in the refining margins for the company is likely to continue on account of reduction in conversion margins and crack margins during the quarter
Last month, Tata Motors sold its 1.5% stake in Tata Steel to its parent company for about Rs4.6 billion, largely to payback the debt it raised to acquire Jaguar-Land Rover.
The ongoing spat between the Ambani brothers is getting murkier and if one were to believe what the additional solicitor general of India said, then the knock-on effect could possibly be quite unpleasant.
Bhaskar Prabhu, convenor of Mahiti Adhikar Manch, says the Right to Information movement must start from the home, through discussion and financial planning with all family members. He was addressing a Moneylife Foundation workshop on using the RTI Act effectively
Jignesh Shah-promoted MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) has partnered with world renowned index calculator, FTSE, to create new index opportunities for the Indian financial markets
India's largest lender SBI's net profit rose in the first quarter, but at the same time its bad loans are also rising, especially its NPAs grew by 33% to Rs84 billion
From 1st August, mutual fund investors need not pay entry load for their new purchases. With the primary revenue stream from entry loads removed, a number of intermediaries are evolving new strategies to stay in business.
The renewed talks between Bharti Airtel and MTN are taking its own sweet course and time. If extension to the exclusive talk period is of any indication then the structure and terms of the potential transactions are likely to be different from what was proposed before.
Weak monsoons in India have begun to worry economists and the policy makers, who fear it may possibly drag down the country’s resurgent economic growth. According to rating agency CRISIL, laggard monsoon is likely to pose a huge challenge for the agriculture sector
As the dirty Mexican pig influenza ‘Swine flu’ spreads with dangers of throwing life out of gear globally, a mass panic over the flu has begun to grip the country, ironically when almost 60% of the patients diagnosed with it have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.
Four months since it was launched, the new pension scheme has no takers. Is it because lack of tax incentives and awareness or just lack of basic infrastructure?
The spat between the Ambani brothers is getting murkier with each passing day. After Anil Ambani's allegations on the oil ministry doing a volte-face on gas pricing, the ministry has now hit back.
Auto majors are pinning their hopes on new launches in the premium hatchback segment to give the much needed push for reviving the industry in the midst of the economic downturn.
Lower demand and financial pressure were the main reasons for decline in mobile handset sales. Despite this, the smartphone sales have gone up, surprising everyone. Is this the warning for end of low-cost mobiles?
The RBI wants a progressive adoption of technology, both in respect of cash handling and security to counter the growing menace of fake notes in the country.
India, the outsourcing, especially the call centre hub of the world, remains miles behind when it comes to domestic consumers. More than half of the customers discontinued their services after a 'bad' call centre experience.
Paint, once it’s on your walls, furniture and floors, releases gasses for years. We all want our homes to be free of cancer-causing toxins, especially when it comes to the decor we choose. These low-level emissions contain toxins called VOCs or volatile organic compounds. Here is an eye-opener.
First there was the rumour about Dell developing a handheld gaming console. Now it has become clear, that it was not handheld gaming device, but was all about the computer manufacturer entering mobile market.
Fast food joints, hotels and restaurants across Bengaluru city are seeing an upswing in home delivery orders as swine flu wary consumers avoid crowded eating joints.
All accounts of multi-level marketing (MLM) firms, which collect deposits from customers promising high return, would come under the watchful eyes of the central bank. Moneylife reported the issue under the title “Ponzi Scheme: Is RBI Passing the Buck?”
In a stunning development, the AP High Court has once again refused to grant anticipatory bail to leading investment banker Nimesh Kampani in the Nagarjuna Finance case.
According to informed sources, Ashish Chauhan would join BSE only if the exchange buys Marketplace Technologies. However, Chauhan said this company does not belong to him. What is the mystery behind this for which nobody wants to speak openly?
Many a time when you rush to withdraw cash from nearest outlet, it says ATM out of order or the security guard tells you, "No cash in the machine". Hope the new directive from RBI will correct this problem.
Nano—the much publicised Rs1 lakh car has hit a roadblock as large number of people who had booked the car couple of months back are now seen pulling out, thanks to the protracted delays in delivering the vehicle, coupled with high EMIs.
After keeping its desire under wraps for two years, ICICI Bank is yet again looking to unlock values in its units—ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, ICICI Securities and ICICI Home Finance.
As India dithers over a policy on 3G mobile telephony, US-based Motorola wants to test the next level (4G) that could pour cold water on the government's plan to raise Rs350 billion from selling radio frequency for the existing version.
Almost all elements which usually make an epic fight most riveting to watch, are present in the long-playing battle between Ambani versus Ambani. Even the Indian government was forced to urge the warring brothers to show "restraint" ahead of a Supreme Court hearing on 1st September.
First it was Dell, the famous computer maker entering mobile handsets market and now the world’s top mobile maker Nokia wants to get into the netbook markets in order to become a mobile solutions company.
During summer, there were reports that Indian companies suffered a huge loss of about Rs432.1 billion during the year to ended March 2009. We all are spending even more amount on just back-up equipments.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group company has seen its average revenue per share falling by 6% and minutes of usage declined to Rs365 per month, during the first quarter. Is this the reason, why the company wants to target rural market with more and more value added services?
Nokia's "Money" is a new mobile financial service enables financial management and payments from a mobile phone. Mobile payments will be the next step for delivering financial services to hundreds of millions of people, both urban and rural, who are underserved by existing payment means, especially in emerging economies.
Faced with tough competition from other small capacity goods carriers, Bajaj is reviving its focus on three-wheeler segment, which not long ago was its forte.
Tata Motors, the country's largest vehicles maker, is at the bottom in customer satisfaction ranking, which is ruled by companies with foreign origins or links. Out of the total 11 carmakers, another Indian brand M&M was ranked at fourth place.
Although there is an oversupply of crude oil, the demand has also fallen by 2.3 million barrels per day, which may force oil prices to hover in the range of $70-$80.
Increased spending and interest rate cuts helped the Indian economy to grow in first quarter but a deficient monsoon could weigh on the nascent rebound in months ahead.
Uttam Galva steel’s partnership with LN Mittal, will not only mark the global steel magnate’s re-entry into India (after he split with his brothers Pramod and Vinod), but is apparently part of a larger India plan that includes a 2 million tonne Hot Rolled Coil (HRC) project at Goa, where Mittal will be the majority shareholder.
There is some bad news for Toyota lovers. While the wait has increased for Fortuner's delivery, for Corolla Altis and Innova you may have to shell out some extra money.
The global economic storm may be abating, but airlines have not yet found safe harbour. Conserving cash, careful capacity management and cutting costs are the keys to survival for the airline industry, feels IATA
The deal, financed by the Infrastructure Development Finance Co's private equity unit also marks the exit of the world's fifth largest company, BP, from India's renewable energy market
Buying a new vehicle? Apart from the model, think of the manufacturer’s commitment to support the product with spare parts. Veeresh Malik provides a ready guide
Central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi says that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi deliberately protects illegal activities that are publically known.
It’s no secret that the insurance industry has been patiently bearing underwriting losses for a long period. Delayed break-even and expense overruns are just some of the headaches faced by insurance players. At the recently held CII Insurance Summit, industry experts discussed some of these issues at length
At the recently held CII Insurance Summit, industry leaders blatantly exposed the issue of mis-selling of insurance policies and gave insights into how and why this has been carrying on for years.
CIBIL Location Plus will provide comprehensive information like customer identification details and contact addresses along with the reported dates and all the customer contact numbers to member banks.
The Indian logistics industry is set for a higher growth trajectory as a result of several government measures, which are expected to change the logistics landscape in the country.
Earlier in September, we mentioned that the new plans from Tata Teleservices have a potential to start an immediate tariff war. Bharti Airtel is the first to succumb to the tariff plan pressures
Indian bourses underwent a downward correction after the key indices Sensex and Nifty hit fresh 16-month highs amid hints of caution about stretched valuations and fears of liquidity shortage.
Wholesale prices of select edible oils continued to slide for the second week in the national capital on adequate stocks following increased arrivals amid reports state-run STC to import RBD Palmolein to improve supplies.
The agreement will help Tata Teleservices to aggressively expand its network presence on the CDMA side with Tata Indicom and on the GSM side under the TATA DoCoMo brand
The compact car segment in India is getting crowded day by day. After Volkswagen and Ford, another multinational car maker is eying India as its manufacturing hub.
South African Mobile Telecom Networks (MTN) affair with India is still very much active, despite the company calling off its much hyped deal with Bharti Airtel
Aggrieved investor files PIL in Andhra Pradesh High Court asking for SEBI to be directed to publish the committee report that has been allegedly suppressed by the market regulator to keep its current chairman away from controversy
Mobile banking in India is still in its infancy, but gaining in popularity. However, the primary question for any consumer remains security of the transactions. Moneylife gives you some basic precautions for safe transactions
BK Modi, who always had a penchant for picturesque sea-facing villas, has eventually managed to strike a ‘steal deal’ by acquiring two pristine islands by investing $200 million.
Seclore's information security management solutions will help Softcell customers enjoy end-to-end information protection for secure outsourcing and document usage control
Leading banks in the country are going all out to capture the festive spirit by substantially lowering home and auto loan rates. Customers will be cheering, but will banks be able to sustain this generosity, given the high cost of funds?
Last month we witnessed two pilot strikes. In both situations other airlines and even the Railways were benefitted while the affected carrier had to suffer massive losses
The recent announcement by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) banning mobile handsets without IMEI numbers from 1st December is not surprising. But the real question is, will the directive be effective to counter the menace of Chinese mobiles?
Earlier in September, we had mentioned that the new plans from Tata Teleservices have a potential to start an immediate tariff war. Reliance Communications is another player to succumb to the tariff plan pressures after Bharti Airtel
The low interest rate options on home loans have often ended up confusing rather than enlightening the consumer. The low home loan interest rates introduced by SBI starting this year are likely to shoot up after the festive season in November
With the second instalment under the Sixth Pay Commission due to be released, several companies and banks are waiting with baited breath to take advantage of the potential demand
The austerity move adopted by the babus got a new dimension when corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid pointed out that even private sector companies should refrain from doling out obscene salaries. But Mr Khurshid should also pay attention to the quasi-government companies, especially the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
The Companies Act, 1956, requires companies to disclose remuneration details of employees earning more than a stipulated amount. Some companies are instead taking the easy way out, falling back on technicalities in the said Act to withhold such disclosures
Revital and I-pill are the best-selling drugs dislodging perennial favourites, cough syrups and vitamins. Pre-sex and post-sex drugs of Ranbaxy and Cipla are selling at a scorching pace
The Sensex is yet to climb the peak of 21,000 and yet several stocks are trading significantly higher than previous highs. Some, on the other hand, are still down miserably
In an attempt to test the waters before launching his own TV channel, ace Bollywood film maker Yash Chopra has forged an alliance with Sony TV to produce a mix of exclusive fiction and non-fiction serials
Indian winemakers and grape growers in Maharashtra may gnash their teeth, but there is little they can do as unseasonal rain has completely destroyed the crop
SEBI likely to ensure that mutual funds are sold by stock brokers off their trading screens. The fund units will be lodged in the demat accounts of unit holders. By Debashis Basu
Nokia couldn’t find a place among seven mobile phone makers in the smartphone category. In overall customer satisfaction, the Finnish giant is just a few points away from the bottom
Last month, Anil Ambani had charged that Mukesh Ambani was trying to make Rs50,000 crore super profits crore from gas. Now Mukesh Ambani has accused his brother of attempting to make a profit of Rs3,50,000 crore over 17 years. The actual figure is a fraction of this
Global pharmaceutical companies are under pressure to maintain market share as their patented drugs are likely to lose value after becoming generic drugs
Consumers across India are increasingly perturbed as they are unable to abundantly butter their toast, thanks to the unprecedented shortage of butter for the past two months fuelled by unrestrained exports to foreign countries
Vested interests in the real estate market are falsely spiking property prices. Developers and broking firms are creating a false bubble by exaggerating the improved market sentiment
The waiting period for Honda Activa has gone up by more than two months due to a labour strike. That has given others like Scooty Pep, Passion Pro and Axis a chance to race ahead during the festive season
European banking and financial group BNP Paribas’ Indian unit BNP Paribas Wealth Management is ready for competition as well as acquisitions, says its country head Sharad Sharma, in an interview with Yogesh Sapkale
The global slowdown has taken its toll on the health of Indian exchanges as well, with BSE and NSE witnessing revenue fall of more than 30% and 23%, respectively
An expert committee report looking into the shortcomings of the Special Frauds Investigations Office (SFIO) submitted in 2006 still lies unpublished. We take a deeper look at some of the recommendations made by the committee.
Low cement prices in AP may be early indicators of over-supply in the industry. While, industry sources expect demand to improve, analysts fear it may worsen.
Aggressive debt-funded land acquisition led to severe liquidity crunch among developers during the slowdown which led to QIP issues. But it is only a short term solution, feels CRISIL
Developers who are planning to raise funds through the capital markets are increasing property prices by 10% -15% in order to get higher valuation for their IPOs
While mobile services providers are busy with tariff cuts, their own health is deteriorating. With the falling ARPU and ARPM, will all these operators survive in the long run?
Suven’s drug discovery in the central nervous system could be the first molecule discovery in India if the company is successful in phase II and phase III studies
UTI Mutual Fund has a new scheme for the girl child - the Kanya Suraksha yojana scheme. But it has learnt from the Rajlakshmi scheme disaster and joined hands with the Bihar government this time
Real estate developers are taking customers for a ride by citing super built-up area rather than actual carpet area of residential properties before a sale
In an exclusive interview with Moneylife, Vetri Subramaniam, Equity Head, Religare AMC, gives his perspective on the current market rally and where the markets are headed. We present to you the first part in a three-part series of the interview.
In an exclusive interview with Moneylife, Nilesh Shah, deputy managing director, ICICI Prudential AMC, gives his perspective on the current market rally and where the markets are headed. Moneylife presents the first in a three-part series of the interview.
Credit ratings and information companies as well as financial institutions feel that there are apparent signs of recovery which will happen, albeit gradually
Gammon Infrastructure is exploring various other options to raise funds to finance its infrastructure projects, ongoing SPVs and future opportunities. The company thinks current market prices are too low
Buddhi Vikram, a PhD student, is in a US prison for allegedly sending threatening mail to the then President George Bush. His IIT alumni association has also failed to take up his case with US authorities
Already under severe pressure due to decontrolled prices, fertiliser companies will have no option but to switch over from gas for fuel and feedstock requirements
Nimesh Kampani made a quiet comeback to celebrate Diwali with his family in India after the Andhra Pradesh High Court quashed the Interpol Red Corner notice against him
In an exclusive interview with Moneylife, Nilesh Shah, deputy managing director, ICICI Prudential AMC, gives his perspective on the current market rally and where the markets are headed. Moneylife presents the final part in a three-part series of the interview.
In an exclusive interview with Moneylife, Nilesh Shah, deputy managing director, ICICI Prudential AMC, gives his perspective on the current market rally and where the markets are headed. Moneylife presents the second in a three-part series of the interview.
In an exclusive interview with Moneylife, Nilesh Shah, deputy managing director, ICICI Prudential AMC, gives his perspective on the current market rally and where the markets are headed. Moneylife presents the first in a three-part series of the interview.
Pankaj Kapoor is the founder of Liases Foras, a real estate research firm. He tells Moneylife that property prices are bound to fall because they have again become unaffordable
The British media in a sting operation had revealed the illegal sale of private medical records sent for computerisation to certain Indian IT companies
Microsoft, the world's largest software company, has released the latest version of its Windows operating system. Here is a review of the much awaited Windows 7
There are two industry bodies created to prevent data theft in India, but one lacks statutory power, while other is interested in sending alerts for virus, malaware and security holes of softwares.
With a total committed capacity expansion of Rs100 billion, Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd (GIPL) promises great action across various sectors in the near future. Moneylife speaks to GIPL’s managing director Parvez Umrigar.
Nokia has been struggling to gain a foothold in the high-end phone market that is now ruled by Apple's iPhone. Is this Nokia's last-ditch effort to derail Apple's future models or it is just trying to cash in on the iPhone's success?
In an exclusive interview with Moneylife, RR Nair, director and chief executive, LIC Housing Finance Ltd, gives his perspective on the home loan scenario and the prospect of affordable houses
Speaking to Moneylife, Mayank Shah, group product manager, Parle Products Pvt Ltd, gives us an insight into the strategies followed by the company to freeze the prices of Parle-G, its flagship product
Expecting good demand from infrastructure and housing projects in India, and markets like Sudan, Africa and Bangladesh, Binani plans to double its capacity to 15MT
After poor returns on the first fund, Osian Art Fund expects its next art fund to perform better, backed by clear regulatory guidelines and extended time period
While the Indian Railways continue to collide killing several people, the ministry is still mulling over the implementation of an indigenous anti-collision technology, patented by the government itself!
In a move that can be termed as a signal to the start of a tight monetary policy, the RBI has hiked SLR to 25% saying that liquidity situation has remained comfortable since last November
SEBI’s move to extend trading hours may be designed to take away business from SGX model, but brokers feel that the move is unlikely to end Nifty trading outside the country.
After suffering huge losses, will ITC discontinue its line of biscuits produced in mass quantity? That is what some analysts believe—but not the company, which continues to invest in these brands
Counterfeiting is a worldwide problem that is increasing and affecting many successful companies in all industries, and the new joint venture hopes to combat the menace
PIL filed by V Narayan Reddy asking SEBI to be directed to publish a suppressed committee report came up for hearing on Monday; SEBI files counter affidavit
Air India's general manager for finance, who should be in the thick of the company's financial matters, does not have information about pay and perks of the company's top bosses
Banks have been advised to maintain provisioning coverage ratio, including floating provisions at 70% by September 2010. What does this signify for banks with less provisioning?
SAT dismissed First Global Stock Broking Ltd's managing director Shankar Sharma’s appeal in a 2001 scam relating to alleged violation of norms and indulging in fictitious trading.
The commission also advised imposition of major penalty against 70 officers; both the lists are dominated by organisations based in and around New Delhi
Regulators are rightly worried about terror funding operations, but what about the potential threat to India's national security from foreign direct investment from suspicious organisations?
During the quarter the lender's fee-based revenues fell significantly on reduced investment and mergers and acquisition activity in the corporate sector
IN Bose, general manager, quality and safety, GE Shipping who also represents India at the International Maritime Organisation talks to Amritha Pillay of Moneylife about initiatives taken by the industry to cut emission and fuel consumption
The absence of a single point database for verification of security interests created by banks and financial institutions accentuates the legal risk in security interest creation, feels the RBI deputy governor
India has topped the consumer confidence index across the world. However work, life balance and increasing food prices remain the country's biggest concerns
Milestone Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd is bullish on the warehousing segment. Ashish Joshi, managing partner for real estate at Milestone, shared his future plans and views with Moneylife
Cement producers in north India expect demand to improve despite fall in prices while analysts believe demand will be unable to meet the oversupply in the market
Government has provided many benefits and tax incentives to the Shipping industry but in vain. Shipping companies have not made a mark in the past decade.
Despite dismal performance of the ball bearing industry, SKF is investing in its two new facilities at Ahmedabad and Haridwar, thus showing revival signs from this sector
Last month, Justice Raveendran had offered to withdraw from the Bench, saying he had equal shares of both RIL and RNRL but the lawyers had said he should continue hearing the case
SEBI’s discussion paper based on the recommendations of its secondary market advisory committee is suggesting some standard clauses as well as dos and don’ts in the structure and format of PoAs By Sucheta Dalal
Inventors, engineers and crackpots have been promising flying cars since the 1920s. They have all been beaten to the punch by Terrafugia, which has already received 49 orders for a $195,000 plane it will not start delivering until 2011
The ministry has had to recast its power capacity projection as new projects have been hit by equipment constraints. Earlier state electricity board debt had delayed the capacity building
The company has received 80% to 90% orders from the private sector. Analysts believe markets gained from Chinese players as the main reason for BHEL’s order book overflowing
Switch on any channel and you will see advertisements of Dove, Fair & Lovely, Pepsodent, Lux etc. HUL has been spending hugely on advertising and marketing. Why is it not leading to topline growth?
The ratings agency says that the RBI's move for higher provisioning coverage norms is likely to enhance the soundness of individual banks and correctly anticipates a rise in credit losses in the future
With intensified competition, mobile service providers have no option but to fall in line with other players and decrease tariffs. Will the increased uncertainty in the sector lead to consolidation?
Weak growth outlook, significant tariff pressure and entry of new players are leading to cautious investment outlook for incumbent mobile service providers
The gravity-based technology that could power transport systems was patented a year ago. However, corporate and government involvement to develop the prototype is still not forthcoming
The Ministry of Environment and Forests has released a draft notification that seeks to ban the use of recycled or biodegradable plastic for packaging foodstuffs
While distressed assets and delinquent accounts continue to erode banks’ profitability, very few favour offloading bad loans to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs)
Meeting to be held to discuss whether the Final Order passed by its two-member committee regarding its investigation of the IPO scam is to published or not
Under severe pressure arising from the tariff war, many mobile operators are trying to push more and more value-added services (VASs) by using their so-called 'power' gained from a huge subscriber base
Exports from Gujarat-based Ultratech Cement and Ambuja Cement have fallen during the July-September quarter. This will add to the current oversupply in the Indian market and depress prices further.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Monday decided to make public orders passed by its two-member committee “in the interest of transparency”
NHAI has already touched the 11km-per-day mark in the first half of the current fiscal; analysts say changes in the model concession agreement will further speed up road projects
Apprehensive of high government borrowings and widening fiscal deficit, bond markets are looking for some respite from PSU divestment funds but see no chance of yields falling significantly
NTT Docomo, the partner in Tata Teleservices' GSM venture, has announced its line-up of 19 mobile handsets in Japan. Can we expect these advanced handsets from Docomo through the Tata channel?
This membership will also help ICICI Bank to provide a platform to the commodity market participants in India and abroad to participate on the global commodity exchange
Extension in market trading hours to impact reconciliation of transactions; computation and dissemination of NAV-related information likely to get delayed; delay in processing of redemption requests also likely
Though private labels are increasingly gaining a strong foothold in the organised retail segment, FMCG companies can avoid this competition by investing in innovation and product differentiation, a survey has said
The market regulator has allowed exchanges to set up a separate trading platform for SMEs; will it be any different from its previously failed attempts at creating exchanges for SMEs?
The strong recovery by the mutual fund industry is reflected in the growth in assets under management (AUM) of debt schemes which have more than doubled within a year to Rs5.68 trillion.
With the increasing threat of global warming, the world is realising that hydrogen energy has the potential to offer a pollution-free alternative to the energy needs of mankind
Doctors and professionals from outside Europe are to be stopped from taking up posts in the UK, as immigration rules are tightened to cut numbers of migrant workers
The Indian government is working on a model real estate regulation bill to provide guidelines to facilitate growth and promotion of a healthy, transparent, efficient and competitive real estate sector in the country
The developer is planning to build 28- 30 million sq ft in Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Goa and Mumbai and is looking to acquire new land for these projects
India Inc’s numbers for Q2FY2010 remained weak, but consumption trends signal a definite revival in the economy, say analysts; growth momentum to continue
While the NSE has been pushing for extension in trading hours to combat the Singapore Stock Exchange’s time advantage, BSE may not lend support given the SGX influence
With lacklustre demand for commercial vessels, Indian shipbuilders are eying orders from the defence sector. But do they have the necessary infrastructure and technical capabilities to handle these orders?
Tthe global wind energy giant will have to reduce the cost of its wind turbines and improve their quality if it has to shore up its financials. The question is: will it be able to turn itself around?
HomeShop18, India’s first 24-hour home shopping channel, has announced that it has raised $23.5 million or about Rs109 crore as growth capital to fund exceptional growth and rapid expansion of its business
The country's largest sugar manufacturer is trying to raise the funds quickly. Is it trying to buy the promoter’s stake in Balrampur Chini Mills, the second largest sugar producer?
SEBI has allowed exchanges to set up independent SME exchange platforms, but doubts persist over how far it will succeed at creating a thriving market in SMEs
The government approved guidelines for satellite transmission of digital broadcasting signals. But does your local cable operator have the necessary infrastructure to carry digital signals?
A year after the deadly terrorist carnage of 26 November 2008, Mumbai’s landmark icons which were bruised and battered by the brutal attacks have not let the aftermath kill their never-say-die attitude
Company officials claim that redemption payment will be done in three to four days, while investors fear that the funds will come in only after 30 days
Praveen Sood, Group CFO, Hindustan Construction Company, talks to Amritha Pillay of Moneylife on his company’s growth prospects and the current economic scenario
Opposing closure of State Bank of Indore for merger with SBI, AIBEA calls nationwide strike on 16 December, after bank management withdraws from a previous commitment not to pursue the matter
Pranay Vakil, chairman, Knight Frank India, highlights 10 home truths that the real-estate industry realised during the downturn that lasted around 18 months
Monopoly position enables international behemoths Visa and MasterCard to levy exorbitant costs on client banks; a domestic payment system would be considerably cheaper
Indiabulls Financial lent Rs225 crore to Dalmia, after he pledged his shares in GTL and GHCL along with some property, together worth about Rs250 crore. Indiabulls has filed a complaint of cheating against Dalmia.
Railway minister Mamata Banerjee’s action to come out with a white paper has come in the wake of her assertion that 'unrealistically high targets' had been set for revenues in the interim budget by her predecessor, Lalu Prasad Yadav
Union Bank's Zaveri Bazaar branch in Mumbai had accounts of Balaji Bullion Bazaar and Balaji Bullion Corp, related with Madhu Koda, where there were cash transactions worth crores which were not reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit
Shopper’s Stop reported a significantly higher profit during the second quarter. Govind Shrikhande, president and chief executive officer, explains to Pallabika Ganguly how he did it.
Despite significant underwriting losses, general insurance companies have been profitable due to their strong investment returns; this over-dependence could lead to volatility in profits
Aiming to enhance the distribution network for mutual funds, SEBI has allowed mutual fund schemes to be routed through stock exchange brokers. Are brokers equipped to handle an entirely different business?
The majority partner in Unitech Wireless feels that its targeted rollout combined with better terms from equipment vendors will reduce the capex requirements to Rs12,000 crore
Shopper’s Stop reported a significantly higher profit in Q2. Govind Shrikhande, president and CEO, explains to Pallabika Ganguly how he did it. Here is the second part of the three-part interview.
Developers who were bullish about special economic zones and information technology parks are now looking to dispose of land acquired for these projects
India’s largest lender offers attractive home loan schemes to generate demand, then loses interest when it comes to processing loan requests. One such complaint against SBI exposes the situation
New initiative will empower shareholders to vote on resolutions at a place of their convenience; voting process to become quicker and more accurate, resulting in cost savings for companies
The slowdown in the Legal Process Outsocuring (LPO) business is likely to lead to consolidation and entry of larger law firms, says research firm ValueNotes
Hathway Cable & Datacom, a multi-system operator, has filed a draft red herring prospectus for its IPO. Akshay Raheja, non-executive director, spoke to Pallabika Ganguly of Moneylife about his investment plans and growth strategies for the company.
While the franchisee model in power supply has helped to significantly reduce losses, there is room for improvement in areas like arrears recovery, bidding process and franchisee monitoring, says an NGO report
In the third part of his exclusive interview with Moneylife, Govind Shrikhande, president and CEO, Shopper’s Stop, explains to Pallabika Ganguly about how his company handles staffing issues and his strategy for category management
Falling yields on government bonds are being mirrored by the corporate bond segment, as sluggish credit growth and low interest rates lead to oversupply of money
Smart grids, which increase the connectivity, automation and coordination between electricity suppliers, consumers and networks, will make the sector more financially viable, says an expert
Edelweiss will have 74% stake in the insurance joint venture while Tokio Marine Holdings will hold the rest. Initially, the proposed venture will have Rs550 crore paid-up equity capital
The notice is said to have been issued following a probe into charges of insider-trading in securities of group company RPL. SEBI is believed to have begun the probe in early 2008, after the issue was raised in Parliament.
Switchover customers could save around 20% on their monthly bill for a consumption of 350 units. Additional savings—depending on various court orders—would just be the icing on the cake
JCB, the unit of UK-based JC Bamford Excavators, believes that demand for excavators in India would perk up as the infrastructure sector is already exhibiting an upturn
While mobile number portability would help harassed subscribers to change their operators, for the mobile services providers it will result in high churn of subscribers
In its quarterly report on commodities, StanChart has said that there is a compelling case for gold and platinum, however it feels the upside of crude oil will be capped
ONGC, with a cash surplus of about Rs18,000 crore, is losing around Rs300 crore in interest revenues annually after it was forced to discontinue the practice of calling for competitive rates for parking its cash.
Slain IPS officer Ashok Kamte’s wife, in her book ‘To the Last Bullet’, discloses incidents that occurred at Cama Hospital which could embarrass the Mumbai police even further.
In this strategic alliance between Aegis and Essar to sell each other’s fuel products through their retail outlets, bulk of the investments for adding such facilities on both sides will be undertaken by Aegis
The RBI governor has said that banks are not utilising resources efficiently and lending rates continue to be 'sticky' and 'non-transparent' to a degree
Bajaj Hindusthan, the largest sugar producer in the country, will be setting up five new coal-based power plants of 80MW capacity each at five locations on the land adjacent to its existing factories
Goyal Financials India flouts SEBI takeover norms by selling stake internally; the company has failed to submit notices and annual reports to members since 2005
Around 10 film titles revolving around the tragedy have been registered and a couple of low-budget movies are ready for release but mainstream filmmakers have stayed away
Gold spurted by Rs220 to Rs18,000 per 10gm, a level never seen before, on seasonal buying and on the back of prices in international markets touching record levels
Both BSE and NSE are planning trading platforms for mutual funds. AMFI is planning to buy 30% stake in each of them, unmindful of a possible conflict of interest
Setting up of the smart grid system would prove beneficial for industries like IT and the renewable energy sector along with power utilities, metering and power equipment providers
Major companies in build-operate-transfer (BOT) road projects believe the March 2010 target could be difficult to meet and the sector could be plagued by problems like late bidding for projects and hitches in land acquisition
According to a survey, mobile VAS, mobile broadband and telecom software companies, as well as companies providing services to telecom companies, are among the favourite sectors for PE & VC investors within the industry
Asahi Fibres’ Board seeks shareholders’ approval for corporate guarantee to its associate company for an amount 20 times its net worth, but a year late
Promoters of Sistema Shyam Teleservices consider preferential allotment to themselves at a steep discount to the market, putting minority shareholders at a loss
We should encourage employees at every level to contribute their ideas to generate sustainable, genuine improvements in productivity, efficiency and profits, says the Infosys chief mentor
Adani Enterprises has received shareholder approval for upsizing the amount to be raised through share sale to qualified institutional buyers to Rs4,000 crore from Rs1,500 crore
Developers like DLF, Unitech, Parsvnath and Emaar MGF have said that they have no exposure in Dubai, while Omaxe has said that it has an investment of Rs40 crore for which it has asked for a refund
Tata Teleservices 'pay-per-call' and 'pay-per-second' offers helped it garner more subscribers in a short period. Is RCom trying to do the same with its new SMS offer?
Just a year after the global downturn derailed Dubai's explosive growth, the city is now swamped in huge debt which may turn out to be biggest sovereign default since Argentina in 2001
SEBI’s recent move to allow trading in mutual fund units through stock exchanges will benefit brokers as they can charge commissions from both buyers and sellers; but it may put small distributors, who are already affected by the ban on entry load, out of business.
During the first half of FY10, the economy rose by 7% on the back of stimulus packages and revival of domestic demand, giving hopes that final figures for the year could be much higher
ISRO is also looking to further scale up the participation of industries in space projects and is even looking at outsourcing some research and development tasks to them
The fiasco of CAT 2009, the qualifying test for India's best B-schools, has left the Indian Institutes of Management red-faced due to the poor planning and preparation that the whole process has exposed
While Dubai grapples with a financial crisis, Indian banks like Bank of Baroda and SBI will be forced to take a deeper look into their exposure to Dubai-based entities
India’s robust Q2 GDP growth may have surpassed expectations, but a closer look reveals that excluding government spending, growth is actually on the lower side
The fiasco of CAT 2009, the qualifying test for India's best B-schools, has left the Indian Institutes of Management red-faced due to the poor planning and preparation that the whole process has exposed
Defamation cases, threatening calls, late-night work and accusations of being against power utility Reliance Infrastructure. Sandeep Ohri, an ordinary citizen, went through all this—and more—to ensure that the electricity distribution monopoly in Mumbai was broken... with lots of support from many activists and NGOs.
Sugar output for the current season may be marginally higher than last year, but will still be short of India's annual requirement of about 23 million tonnes
Wealthy private investor Hemant Gupta alleges misuse of his funds by TeleCanor Global; the company on its part claims malicious propaganda is being spread by Mr Gupta to manipulate its stock price
Vinsura Winery, formerly known as Sankalp Winery, plans to launch the wine made from the best quality Shiraaz or Zenfendel grapes next month priced at Rs1,000 and above
Analysts have said that rising food prices should prompt the government and the RBI to shift their focus on controlling inflation, otherwise manufacturing inflation would also go up
The launch of Uninor’s services is taking place eight months after the Telenor Group finalised the transaction with Unitech Group and made the first investment in Uninor on 20 March 2009
SEBI's board meeting would ensure that with three whole-time members reporting to the chairman or the finance ministry and outside directors who are subject to their regulation, the NSDL issue will be buried
Justice JS Verma says such quasi-judicial orders can only be reviewed and quashed “by a judicial forum with requisite jurisdiction, at the instance of a petitioner with standing to seek relief.”
More than 1,500 consumers have switched over from RelInfra to Tata Power; 3,000 RelInfra connections have been scheduled for switchover and another 2,000 switchover applications are still pending.
Most people are not aware of the right questions to ask when they are offered a slew of investment products and therefore fall prey to get-rich-quick schemes and fly-by-night operators, says RBI deputy governor Usha Thorat.
The use of the mobile phone as an instrument for conducting financial transactions and the potential it has for financial inclusion and growth is being recognised by the apex bank, which has however called for caution in m-commerce adoption
A regional analysis by a staffing services provider shows that employers spread across India's four regions expect hiring plans to rise considerably over the next three months both on a quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year basis
RNRL, the Anil Ambani group company, in an affidavit before the apex court has said that there would be no impact on the government at all and it would suffer no loss whatsoever and RIL would also make a profit of Rs30,000 crore at $2.34 per mmBtu
After selling stake in NDTV Good Times to Scripps Networks, the Prannoy Roy-led TV network is again selling its majority stake in NDTV Imagine to Turner Asia Pacific
Trading of mutual fund (MF) units through stock exchanges is now a reality, but many brokers lack necessary qualifications to actually deal in MF schemes
Ambiguity in the tax structure and inefficient functioning of the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) portal are the two factors that have made it difficult for lawyers to register these arrangements
Trading of mutual fund (MF) units through stock exchanges is now a reality, but many brokers lack necessary qualifications to actually deal in MF schemes
India is one of the fastest-growing aerospace markets in the world, driven by continued economic growth, resulting in growing passenger traffic and domestic aircraft demand
In the automotive industry, where globalisation and diversification proceed in parallel, both VW and Suzuki are planning to establish a cooperative relationship while respecting each other’s independence as a stand-alone entity
The original copy of a record is to be maintained till trial or investigation proceedings have concluded, instead of the current practice of keeping papers only for five years, the market regulator has said
The utilisation rate for land oil rigs has been constantly rising. Analysts believe that the utilisation rate for offshore rigs has also started to improve
LyondellBasell and RIL late last month disclosed a "preliminary non-binding offer" by the Indian company for taking a controlling interest in the world's third largest independent petrochemical maker. Going by industry sources, Reliance Industries' bid could be more than $12 billion
From next year, workers in the IT category will need to have one year’s experience with their employer instead of six months at present, before they can be transferred to the UK
Scooters have not been selling according to Bajaj Auto’s expectations. The company is making hardly 1,000 scooters a month now—mostly for exports—and now wants to focus only on motorcycles
Skywalks, or foot over-bridges, are an effort to give pedestrians much-needed space to walk as more and more footpaths were disappearing across the city. This phenomenon, coupled with the paucity of subways, necessitated the construction of these skywalks
BNP Paribas Real Estate feels that investors should wait and watch the price trend over the next six months, however, for end-users, this is the best time to buy residential property.
A few reports have said that Tata Motors is eyeing Sumitomo’s stake in Swaraj Mazda. Although Sumitomo has denied these stake sale reports, analysts say that the move by Tata Motors should be looked more as a technology takeover rather than consolidation of its market share
Social soap operas are not working for television audiences any more. The trend is now favouring much more realistic content where viewers can relate to characters and incidents that are being telecast
As population growth and demographic change continue to exert pressure on India's existing urban infrastructure, the country would require a total funding of more than $1 trillion for a radical overhaul in its existing systems
The discussions are being held with infrastructure development and finance major IL&FS, along with some other potential partners for sale of a minority strategic stake by RIL in Reliance Haryana SEZ
The Indian government has chalked up big plans to create long-term sustainable energy solutions through solar power. However, certain modalities need to be ironed out to make the ambitious plan actionable and feasible
CAT 2009, the qualifying test for entry into India’s best B-Schools has left thousands of students unsatisfied with their performance. Some students say they may seek legal recourse if they fail to clear the test
Some investors in an ‘Art Fund’ got ripped off.What is interesting is that there is no regulatory cover for any aspect of this kind of business. What is interesting is that there is no regulatory cover for any aspect of this kind of business.
International M&A activity by companies based in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, and South Africa fell by 62% to $46 billion in 2009 from $121 billion in 2008
The country posted robust industrial production data, just days after the better-than-expected economic growth of 7.9% in the second quarter of this fiscal, reflecting that the economy would sustain the recovery provided that the agriculture sector does not slip too much
The E&Y survey highlights that many businesses are dangerously complacent about cost reduction and are as a result not ready for the eventual economic recovery
An internal presentation of MetLife’s latest offering, MetLife Wealth Plus, claims to provide a cost-effective and liquid avenue for wealth-creation. It gave us a rare peek into how mis-selling occurs in insurance
In an exclusive interview with Moneylife, Virendra Mhaiskar, CMD of IRB Infrastructure Ltd, speaks about his company’s fund-raising plans, real-estate ventures and the state of the road sector in India
A senior citizen and investor is running from pillar to post to receive a deposit receipt from a company, which is busy ‘thanking’ investors through massive advertising
Bajaj Auto, once the undisputed king of two-wheelers, and the maker of a range of famous scooters—that used to carry an entire family—will exit the scooter segment, and will instead concentrate on motorcycle manufacturing. Is this move related to the increasing pressure from competition, which seems to offer much better products than Bajaj Auto?
Philip F Blumberg, chairman and chief executive officer, Blumberg Capital Partners, discusses his company’s investment plans for India in an exclusive interview with Moneylife
Dubai has received $10 billion in financing from fellow emirate Abu Dhabi, which will be used to pay part of the debt held by Dubai World and its property unit Nakheel
The monthly data, released by the government for the second time, shows that potato prices have surged by a whopping 141% over the past eight months, followed by sugar (37%), pulses (32%) and onion prices have zoomed 20%
The draft direct tax code, on which the government has invited comments from the public, has argued for bringing the entire range of savings schemes under the EET mode of taxation
Dabur is looking at expanding its 'Rea' and 'Activ' range, including entry into new formats of packaged food products, which are showing good growth potential
The cement producer is planning to invest Rs2,000 crore to increase its cement output by 2 million tonnes within this fiscal. It will also raise power generation capacity by over four-fold by FY12
Looks-conscious consumers propped up sales of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, who in turn rewarded loyalty by not raising prices of fairness, anti-ageing creams, bathing bars and their likes, although input costs have risen in an economy ravaged by drought and then floods
The Internet search giant has said that it has shared a device with its employees across the globe which combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android, to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities
The downgrade reflects the significant deterioration in BEPL's credit profile on the back of delays in the stabilisation of its particle board and medium-density fibreboard manufacturing facility, which has resulted in cash losses and has had a severe impact on FY09 liquidity
Employees’ and officers’ unions from all banks, except SBI, will be on a day-long strike on Wednesday to protest against the consolidation and privatisation of State-run banks
According to media reports, the bank tried to repatriate the dealer, S Kapoor, immediately to India against his wishes, after it was confirmed that he had informed the UK FSA about alleged irregularities
According to the CBI’s supplementary charge sheet, the accused created fake customers and generated invoices against them in order to inflate revenues of Satyam to the tune of Rs430 crore
Vedanta Group has alleged that NGOs like Survival International and Action Aid are instigating locals to go to hilltops and set up houses where the company has proposed to mine bauxite
This cashless deal (worth Rs10,000 crore) is another case where a family-owned unit has been valued at a fancy price and dumped on a publicly-listed entity. But neither the regulator nor the investor community seem to care By R Balakrishnan
SEBI failed to regulate the Osian Art Fund under its regulations covering Collective Investment Schemes, despite its own advisory against unregulated art funds in 2008
The Delhi High Court was hearing Microsoft Corporation's plea against four different defendants, alleging violation of copyright. The court ruled that Microsoft had selected a court which was so far away from each of the defendants that it was a “harassment for the defendant(s)” to contest the suit itself
Minority shareholders of BGL are crying foul over the move. Next year, the company is planning to go for overseas trading operations in coal and bio-diesel, which could yield huge profits
The tea industry is expected to end year 2009 with a production shortfall of 5 million kg-10 million kg in the domestic market and about 75 million kg-80 million kg in international markets
The total area under wheat cultivation increased to 217.28 lakh hectares during 1st October to 10th December 2009, from 216 lakh hectares in the same period last year.
Sony is tying up with top producers to boost TRPs all through the week, rather than only during weekends. Ajit Thakur, executive vice president and business head of Sony Entertainment Television (SET) discusses with Pallabika Ganguly the new strategies his company is planning to adopt
GE Shipping says it is considering a fleet-age limit of 25 years to phase out its single-hull vessels while SCI says it may convert some of its vessels. While the global deadline for the phase-out is 2010, India is among the many countries which have accepted a deadline of 2015. The phase-out was proposed to curb oil spills
A fresh test will be held in mid-January 2010 for registered students who could not take the test earlier due to technical glitches. The IIMs have decided to continue with computer-based testing in future.
Has the BSE stolen a march over the NSE by taking the lead in extending trading hours? The NSE was planning to start trading at the earliest to catch up with the Singapore market, but the BSE has stolen its thunder
MCGM is exploring ways to raise around Rs2,000 crore through internal loans. It will also explore bond issue and will utilise fixed deposits currently lying with banks. The civic body is trying to overcome a financial crunch created by a projected shortfall in revenue collection and massive expenditure on projects
The infrastructure company has cleared the technical qualification round for building several highway projects worth around Rs20,000 crore in the country
The company, a unit of JM Financial (led by Nimesh Kampani), is looking to invest the fund mainly in residential projects within the next 9 to 12 months
Food price inflation hovered around a decade's high of 19.95%, triggered by a short supply of essentials due to lower farm production, following drought and floods in various parts of the country during the year
Investors, who bought gold from banks, are in a fix as leading jewellery houses are not ready to buy it and the yellow metal cannot be sold back to banks either
The capacity utilisation in the Indian cement industry has fallen to 80% in November 2009 from a high of nearly 100% in March 2009. Analysts believe addition of new capacities and oversupply to be the main reasons for this downward trend
While the Consulate General of the Republic of Djibouti confirmed the news report, Patel Engineering, on the other hand, said that it is in an advanced stage of negotiation for this infrastructure project
When the liquidity crunch began, some of the large NBFCs found themselves squeezed by rising defaults as well as ballooning collection costs, forcing them to scale down operations.
Although the UPA government decided to keep Western multi-brand retail chains off from the country's $450-billion retail market, nobody is complaining. The recession-battered global majors were busy securing existing operations elsewhere
Spot prices of key raw materials—iron ore and coking coal—have strengthened during the past two months. Next year’s contracts are expected to be finalised at higher levels. Ergo, these cost dynamics will lead to higher steel prices
The BSE's new initiative is aimed at mitigating the market risk of a buyer not receiving bonds after having remitted the funds or a seller not getting the payment for bonds
A host of human resources (HR) experts believe that tough economic conditions globally gave a wake-up call to companies during 2009 to curb their extravagant ways in compensation structures and turned them into more thrifty and performance-conscious firms
The total potential opportunity for domestic players in the defence segment is worth $5.10 billion. Out of this, $2.1 billion is the total worth of offsets expected. These bright prospects, however, could be delayed due to problems in JVs with overseas companies
Mukesh Ambani, the only Indian to feature among the top 50 CEOs, is in the same league as Steve Jobs of Apple, Yun Jong-Yong of Samsung Electronics, Russian energy firm Gazprom's Alexey Miller and John Chambers of Cisco Systems
Suzlon repaid the $780 million debt through the proceeds from a 35% stake sale in Belgium's Hansen Transmissions and a new five-year dollar-denominated loan of $465 million from SBI.
After the fiasco, CAT will be subjected to forensic testing. However, experts believe that this move would just be another futile attempt to come out of the mess
The truth of the matter is that each stock exchange is principally acting in its own interests. The interests of its powerless stakeholders can always be taken care of by time and their lack of collective will.
The MSME sector is the second-largest contributor to India’s GDP and the government wants to develop it further by raising Rs1,000 crore for its development
The World Gold Council said recent moves by India and Sri Lanka to acquire gold suggested that central banks are increasingly looking at the yellow metal to diversify their investment portfolios
The agriculture sector, which had a record run during the past two years in terms of foodgrain output, failed to match even last year's production level—much less set a new record—as half of the country was hit by drought
The biggest irony is that nearly two-thirds of these funds were estimated to have come from investors in overseas markets. However, these global markets themselves were in shambles and companies were in dire need of capital, forcing them to beg their respective governments for money
Making a case for reduction in money supply, C Rangarajan, also a former governor of the RBI, said that the apex bank could raise the cash reserve ratio (CRR)
Entertainment World Developers Pvt Ltd (EWDPL), with expertise in developing shopping centres in Tier II cities, is now developing township projects as well. Manish Kalani, managing director, EWDPL, discusses the new projects of the company with Pallabika Ganguly
The Times of India will soon launch a weekly newspaper based on ‘The Speaking Tree’, a spiritual column which is now published in the inside pages of the newspaper
In most of the cases where promoters have increased their stake, the performance growth of these companies has been excellent and was more than matched by a sharp rise in share price
Reliance Industries has said that the potential commerciality of the discovery, named as 'Dhirubhai-44', is being ascertained through more data-gathering and analysis
According to AMFI, the average AUM of the industry has hit an all-time high of Rs8,07,546 crore, an increase of Rs3.86 lakh crore at the end of November
The tyre maker is looking at various opportunities, including acquisitions in the South-east Asian region. However, it has not yet identified potential prospects as the whole process is still at an initial stage
Yahoo! is shutting down its offices, except for 'essential functions', for about a week, as the company searches for new ways to cut costs during the recession
If the proposed cabotage policy to bar foreign flagships in Indian costal trade is implemented, it will be helpful for the Indian tanker segment which already has a lot of tonnage lying idle at its disposal
The BSE Brokers Forum does not see any benefit to any market participant, stakeholder, institution or retail investor due to the move to advance market opening to 9am
The prices for TVS Motor vehicles will not increase from next month. However, by April 2010, analysts believe that the consumer may have to spend more for TVS vehicles
Hawkers and advertisers will feel the pinch due to the increase of their monthly hoarding and hawking charges, as MCGM gears up to usher in a new tariff regime
The US has managed a peek into secret Swiss accounts to uncover tax havens or black money stashed there, while India has only got as far as round-table meetings to ask for its chance
The NSE and the BSE recently launched mutual fund trading platforms. However, after the initial euphoria, trading volumes on both the bourses are on a decline.
An employee from SHCIL's Secunderabad office committed suicide, after saying that she was being stalked by a customer-stockbroker. Did her SOS call to SHCIL’s management fall on deaf ears?
During 2009, a total of 93 funds reached a final close receiving commitments of $40.50 billion, while last year, 228 funds raised an aggregate $134.30 billion
The Urban Land Ceiling Act was repealed in November 2007. However, real-estate developers are still fighting cases related to this repealed legislation in the Bombay High Court
The FII investment of Rs80,500 crore in 2009 is the highest-ever inflow into the country in rupee terms in a single year, and comes a year after these investors pulled out over Rs50,000 crore from India
Steve Jobs was paid his customary $1 annual salary in 2009 by Apple, the makers of iPhone, iPod and Mac computers. But his stake in the company is valued at $1.10 billion
S&P has revised its rating outlook on Ballarpur Industries to ‘stable’ on the back of its operating performance, which is expected to continuously improve, according to the rating agency
With the BSE indicating that it can pose a serious threat and the MCX group waiting to enter the equity space, the NSE now has to gear up for some tough competition
‘UTV Action’, a new action movie channel will be on air from January 2010. It will replace UTV’s ‘Bindass Movies’ channel which airs movies dubbed into Hindi
Jet Airways was eagerly waiting for the government's clearance to raise $400 million through the QIP route from foreign institutional investors to meet its cash flow requirements
Yields on government bonds have witnessed wide fluctuations as participants speculated on the impending rate hike—but the government still remains non-committal on the timing of this move
WorldSpace has declared that it will terminate its radio broadcast services to all Indian subscribers from 31 December 2009. Following its bankruptcy protection filing in October 2008, the satellite radio service provider has had to bid adieu to the subcontinent
The BSE Brokers Forum, which does not see any benefit to any market participant, stakeholder, institution or retail investor due to the move to advance market opening to 9am, plans to take up the issue with the prime minister
The Consumer Complaints Council of ASCI found that 15 advertisers, including RCom and Idea Cellular, Dabur and Elder Pharma and coaching centre Career Launcher, violating the council's code
Salary increments are likely to improve relatively, albeit conservatively in 2010, compared to the single-digit hikes seen across hierarchies, functions and performance levels last year
A strong market rally triggered by the government's encouraging economic growth forecast helped the country's top 10 companies add over Rs70,000 crore to their market capitalisation in the past week
While any changes are expected to take effect from the next fiscal only, the SEBI committee is said to be seriously looking at increasing the open offer size from 20% to as high as 100%
Hackers use their best schemes during holidays to steal people's money, credit card or net-banking information. Following seasonal trends, these thieves create holiday-related websites and other convincing emails that can trick even the most cautious Internet user
China is building 42 high-speed passenger rail lines with a total length of 13,000 km in the next three years, covering more than 90% of the population. By 2012, trips from Beijing to most provincial capitals would only take between one and eight hours. What’s the scene in India?
Developers cited reasons like demand slump, fund shortages and land acquisition problems as the reasons for seeking de-notification of SEZs and for the delay in projects
Indage Vintners has been staring at financial losses for a long time and is not able to pay its suppliers and service providers. Now, CRP, its supplier of ‘bag in box’ packaging, has issued a warning to other suppliers not to have any dealings with Indage.
WorldSpace subscribers from India are shocked that the music offered by the satellite radio service will go out of their lives. A number of music buffs want the services to be revived – they are not clamouring for refunds.
Almost 41% of the companies use healthcare cover as a talent attraction and retention tool, while 11% use it to minimise losses arising out of employee health issues
In line with the pickup in business growth, tyre companies are likely to make significant increases in their capex plans in 2010-11, to expand capacity and meet product demand
R Ravimohan, who was handling the proposed acquisition of global petrochemical major LyondellBasell Industries, was rushed to hospital after he suffered a cardiac arrest while taking a walk outside his office
The producers and distributors of ‘3 Idiots’, which collected over Rs100 crore in just four days from its opening, are going to add 12 more prints in the US by Friday and may even add six-seven more prints in India as well
Stocks of the sponsors of golf superstar Tiger Woods have lost $5billion-$12billion in market capitalisation since reports of his alleged extramarital affairs have surfaced
Roche has claimed that its Tamiflu dramatically reduced hospital admissions as well as bronchitis and pneumonia. But a recent investigation by the British Medical Journal and UK’s TV Channel 4 has concluded that such claims are meritless
Sales and profits of textile companies are running at a record high, even though stock prices are down. The markets seem to have missed this phenomenon
Power tariffs in the open market have crashed to Rs2-Rs5 per unit in December from Rs12-Rs14 per unit in June 2009. Seasonal fluctuation leading to low demand is being stated as the reason for these low tariffs
Despite inflationary pressure, there will be no increase in the interest rate on loans in the next six months because of surplus liquidity in the market and rising deposits
The Justice Wadhwa committee, set up by market regulator SEBI to investigate irregularities in IPOs floated during 2003-2005, has suggested the possibility of recovering the amounts and distributing it among the deprived applicants
The Internet search giant has called for an Android press gathering on 5th January. Will it exhibit 'Nexus One', Google's much talked about mobile handset on that day?
In the ‘Trek Study’, willing backpackers who develop travellers' diarrhoea will be paid to attend a clinic and also injected with a new agent to see how they react
Be it reality shows or reality-based soaps, the small screen in 2009 was all about getting close to people's lives, while fairy-tale sagas became history
The finance ministry has not ruled out the possibility of introducing a new identity number like UTN from the next fiscal, in addition to PAN to ensure prompt verification and granting of tax credits to tax payers
Banks are lending idle cash for higher returns to companies for advance tax payments which has sucked up about Rs40,000 crore to Rs45,000 crore from the system
Brokers say they will not boycott trading even if the bourses go ahead with their decision to start trading at 9am from 4th January, as announced earlier this month.
The year 2010, however, holds promise, as corporates will take advantage of the new opportunities, the improving liquidity situation worldwide and the fact that the United States and Europe may witness further consolidation next year.
Attributing the decline in tourism to the global financial slowdown, terror threats and swine flu scare, the tourism minister hopes that some of the measures including the visa-on-arrival scheme and the Commonwealth Games would bring good results in 2010
The Indian government says it is confident that it will clean the Ganga river by 2020 and Rs15,000 crore will be spent for this purpose under the river development fund
High-profile economic offences, particularly the case for alleged money-laundering against former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda and the multi-crore Satyam scam, kept the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on its toes all through 2009
The power producer is implementing projects worth 3,200MW in Maharashtra, 1,320MW in Chhattisgarh and 1,600MW in West Bengal and plans to become an over 11,000MW company by 2015
The 10th Auto Expo will open in New Delhi on Tuesday with over ten global launches and previews of small and green cars by the likes of Honda and Toyota, during the week-long event
The Supreme Court extended its interim order banning mining and transportation of iron ore by Obulapuram Mining Company, owned by the Reddy brothers, in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh
The block was allotted to GMR Energy along with other major power companies in January 2008. Company officials had said that the joint venture had been formed, and the other clearance processes were on
‘Every system is equally bad, but if the top person is committed and passionate about growth, development and investment in his state, then things work better’
Indian bourses started trading an hour earlier from Monday. The real problem, however, is unavailability of a settlement system for brokers and banks before the stipulated time
As usual, Moneylife’s annual study of wealth creators throws up many surprises. It stresses the need to buy cheap & avoid falling into the trap of purchasing ‘popular’ stocks and points out the role of excessive speculation in pushing up obscure stocks
Indian bourses extended trading hours by about an hour. However, the volumes in Nifty futures on the first day were one of the lowest ever in the past few years. Indeed, adjusted for one hour’s extra trade, volumes were 40% of what they should have been
What's in a name, asked William Shakespeare. In today's context, there are a lot of things in a moniker, especially if your name is similar to that of an Internet giant
Everybody hopes that the Teeside plants will not be shut down but it is a matter of market dynamics and Tata Steel cannot continue losing hundreds of millions of pounds to keep the plants operational, says JJ Irani, director, Tata Sons
Facebook has sent a 'cease-and-desist' letter to another website, Seppukoo.com, that deletes profiles, friends and other information on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn for users who provide their account information
Though it has been around for 50 years now, the last decade has so far been the most defining period in the tube’s history. It was during this time when TV gave its big brother Bollywood a run for its money and also set new trends
Industry experts feel that the implementation of MNP will not take place before the 3G auction. This will help certain mobile operators to upgrade and prevent high-value subscribers from migrating
TIAA-CREF, the world's largest private pension system, has sold its holdings in ONGC, PetroChina, CNPC Hong Kong and Sinopec over their investments in war-torn Sudan
GMR group unit GMR Energy is investing around Rs18,000 crore over the next three years to add electricity generation capacity and become a 3,300MW company. Raaj Kumar, chief executive officer and director, GMR Energy, talks with Moneylife’s Amritha Pillay about the coal supply situation in the country
Close to two million auto enthusiasts and business visitors are expected to throng the expo, which is about to witness 50 new launches, including 10 global forays
With the telecom ministry preparing to start 3G spectrum auction for operators, the I&B ministry is getting applications for starting new TV channels virtually on a daily basis even as there are already 500 channels on air
Amar Singh, the 53-year-old leader, who was considered the right hand man of Mulayam Singh Yadav, has resigned as national general secretary, spokesman and member of the Samajwadi Party parliamentary board
In 2006, Osian Art Fund closed with a total corpus of more than Rs102.40 crore, but at the time of redemption it disappointed investors with poor returns. Neville Tuli, chief advisor, Osian Art Fund and chairman, Osian’s-Connoisseurs of Art Pvt Ltd, talks to Amritha Pillay from Moneylife on art funds and art markets in India
Byron Wien has been giving his predictions about the US economy, financial markets and politics every year since 1986. According to critics, he has a good feel for the economy and for politics with a slightly bullish bias and it is this bias which blindsided him when it came to the housing bubble
Google's new mobile handset Nexus One will not be available for consumers in India. In the US, it is being sold only through the Google Web store for $529 without a service plan
ONGC was forced to exit from a gas block in Trinidad & Tobago after its partner Lakshmi N Mittal walked out of the project and its unit OVL would have had to foot the entire $304 million exploration expenditure
Mobile commerce and mobile banking have the ability to get every user into the banking system provided there is a regulatory framework and clear guidelines for banks, mobile operators and end-users
Neville Tuli, chief advisor of the Osian Art Fund, believes that the Fund would have performed better given a longer lock-in period and better market conditions. The fund disappointed investors with poor returns in July 2009
Commercial vehicle makers have hiked or are considering hiking prices of trucks by up to 4% this month to offset rising input costs, even as the segment saw return of demand
Tata Motors DVR shares are trading at a discount of 40%. If this is a case of market imperfection, it is a huge arbitrage opportunity waiting to be exploited
PC World has shut its Indian print edition and will cater to its readers through the Internet, citing higher demand for faster information from readers
These Tata Nanos shown in the image are in a very bad condition, almost 'dumped' on this ground in Kalyan, a Mumbai suburb. We did question the manufacturer, but we have received no answer so far on who has dumped these vehicles, and the reason behind this activity
The steel ministry had expressed concerns on increase in steel prices by domestic firms, including SAIL and Tata Steel, which own captive reserves of iron ore and coking coal
Auto components maker Cooper will foray into manufacturing of commercial vehicles, mainly to compete with Tata Motors' LCV Magic, in the next 18 months
Through Reliance MediaWorks UK, the company will provide services for local film makers and broadcasters, while also catering to Hollywood and Hindi film businesses
With the State-run company’s Farakka, Talcher and Khalagaon units already on the coal shortage list for a long time, its Durgapur unit is a new addition
LN Mittal has expressed concern over the slow progress in the proposed Rs1 lakh crore steel projects in Jharkhand and Orissa, but has ruled out exiting at this stage from these states
The government has assured NRIs that it would work out a solution to the non-delivery of flats sold by Maytas Properties, promoted by relatives of disgraced Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju
The state government has blocked two online trading sites, including bseindia.com, as they were frequently being used by employees and these sites are not required for government work
RIL will file a criminal complaint against a TV channel which alleged that the Ambani brothers had a role to play in the accidental death of the former AP chief minister. The AP incident has once again raised questions about the credibility and responsibility of the media.
All major manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor, Tata Motors, Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto registered healthy jumps, which were further fuelled by the low-base effect of 2008 due to the slowdown in the domestic auto market
Tata Nano, the much talked about ‘lakhtakia’ car, may actually cost you around Rs2 lakh, including registration, insurance, taxes and loan repayment charges
ITC is apparently using its political clout for blocking FDI in tobacco, leaving foreign investment proposals high and dry. Intense lobbying on ITC’s part has even led to a shift in the government’s stance
Well-begun is half done, goes the saying. These stocks have set a scorching pace in the first week’s trading of the New Year. In 2009, many of the stocks that surged in the first week continued their run-up through the year
A number of Tata Nanos were found in a 'dumped' condition at a ground in Kalyan, near Mumbai. The company says that it is not routine procedure to keep cars in such a condition
After receiving a clearance from the Drug Controller General, Pune-based Serum Institute is identifying 50 'completely healthy' adults to undertake Phase-I human clinical trials.
Business hotels are hoping to ring in the good times with more travellers demanding 'smart hotels' with prompt service and good communication systems sans the luxury frills
The Consumer Complaints Council of ASCI has concluded that Airtel’s advertisement is misleading, as the viewer of the TV commercial is led to believe that Airtel Digital TV has superior picture quality because of MPEG4 or DVBS2 technology
Marketing activity for non-mass media promotions has now caused quite a flutter among the movie-making fraternity and has triggered a new race for fresh and more aggressive marketing methods
Dr Reddy's Lab's long-standing patent dispute with Europe's AstraZeneca over a drug to treat heartburn may be resolved out of court following a similar settlement between the European drug maker and Israel's Teva
Activists in Mumbai were outraged over the recent attack on Nayana Kathpalia, convenor of the NGO Citispace. However, several similar attacks on activists in the past still await police action
RIL has raised Rs3,465 crore through sale of treasury stocks for the second time this month amid reports that it has upped its bid to $13.5 billion for Dutch petrochemicals company LyondellBasell
Reliance BIG TV is believed to be in discussions with content providers like Max Broadcasting, Warner Home Entertainment Group and CNN to acquire non-film content for its pay-per-view (PPV) platform
Institutions cannot be built on the reputation of individuals or daily sermons on governance and morality; they have to be based on systems and processes
As part of the UID project, the government plans to introduce a micro-payment platform that would allow for easy transactions in unbanked areas of the country. It will also create a nationwide network of BCs for enabling interoperability
In the last 19 years, out of 13 times when the Sensex closed higher in the first week, on nine occasions it also ended the month in positive territory.
The former deputy governor of the RBI says that the public sector offers a challenging and fulfilling career and the country's young professionals must mull over joining such services rather than being solely focused on lucrative jobs in non-government fields
Industrial growth has gathered pace as factory production rose by 11.7% in November 2009, fuelled by stimulus-backed demand for manufactured goods, particularly consumer goods
The Delhi High Court has held that the office of the CJI comes within the ambit of the RTI law, saying judicial independence is not a judge's privilege but a responsibility cast upon him
The Indian government is envisaging an investment of Rs1 lakh crore in the food processing industry over the next five years, a major chunk of which it plans to attract from the private sector and financial institutions
Though the government had earlier this fiscal decided to compensate state-run oil marketing companies by way of oil bonds, the finance ministry has not issued any bonds during the first three quarters.
Steel giant ArcelorMittal may drop the Rs50,000-crore project in Jharkhand if clearance is delayed inordinately, a company director has said, a view contested by another official who deals with Indian operations
Differences over the number of private players who will be allowed to offer 3G mobile services continue within the government as an empowered ministers' panel failed to reach any consensus
SGX Nifty Futures volumes have been falling even before the NSE extended its trading hours. So the latest move by the Singapore exchange to extend its trading session may not impact NSE Nifty volumes at all.
A new Moneylife study has identified consumer durables as the cheapest among 49 sectors. Other cheap sectors are cement, paper & paper products, plastics and packaging
The Internet search engine giant has said that the censorship and increasing cyber attacks on its sites from China may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially its offices in China
In an increasing war for shelf space, FMCG marketers in India are considering out-of-the-box packaging solutions to attract customers and to differentiate their products
Those cement companies which trade their excess captive power and are planning merchant power plants will be able to manage the industry cycle better, say analysts
The Union government will provide final clearance for Vedanta’s bauxite mining project in Orissa only if there is no violation of the Forest Conservation Act
The Indian government should establish dedicated defence-specific SEZs, apart from providing a tax-equalisation subsidy, as the fiscal regime plays a critical role in defence market growth, says a study
Despite the hype surrounding mobile stock trading, especially in the US, Gartner has said that most on-the-go trading is more likely to take place in semi-mobile situations in notebooks and netbooks, instead of mobile handsets
Mutual fund volumes on NSE and BSE are yet to catch up, as only 792 combined orders worth Rs10 crore were recorded between 8 December 2009 and 12 January 2010
The Planning Commission has advised 'sensible' use of funds by the road transport & highways ministry, a day after minister Kamal Nath rebuffed the panel
The Indian government has taken a slew of measures to increase availability of sugar, pulses and other commodities. It hopes that rates of the sweetener, being sold at nearly Rs50 a kg, would start declining in a week
SEBI's move to scrap entry loads on mutual funds may have been well intentioned, but it tripped badly in failing to assess the ground realities and the consequences of its actions
While analysts are celebrating an industrial revival, order inflows for EPC companies have witnessed a 6% decline q-o-q and 14% decline y-o-y in the December quarter–a third consecutive quarter of decline
The US government has got major mobile operators on board to allow people to very easily donate $10, through a text message to the Red Cross, to help with the disastrous situation in Haiti following the major earthquake
With a majority of people going for traditional instruments that are easily available and simple to understand, the investor population is shrinking, says UK Sinha, chairman and managing director, UTI Asset Management Co, in an exclusive interview with Sucheta Dalal. This is the first part of a two-part series
Eros International has appointed Jyoti Deshpande as its group chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director. Kishore Lulla has been appointed as executive chairman of the media group
SAT has adjourned the hearing on a petition by brokerage house First Global's Shankar Sharma against a SEBI order banning him from trading in markets for his alleged role in manipulating prices of certain shares
Rana Sugars has said that the actual utilisation of its cane-crushing capacity would be 27% less than its installed capacity in the ongoing crushing season because of acute shortage of cane
The cheapest vehicle in North America costs about $9,000-$10,000. Half of that amount—over $5,000—is a possible price point for the Nano in the US, a Tata official has said
Moneylife’s study of the pattern of stock picks by mutual funds’ equity schemes finds that stock picks are highly concentrated among a few hundreds with portfolios mimicking each other. The study also underlines the lack of depth and diversity in Indian markets
The MobileStore, which recently acquired consumer durables electronic retail chain X-Cite, will be coming up with new stores in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata
HUL has lost Rs140 crore over the last six quarters in the water-purifier business and is facing tough competition from Tata’s water-purifier brand ‘Swach’
Magma Fincorp Ltd is planning to enter the general insurance business and has bought stake in a credit information company, Experian. Sanjay Charmia, VC and MD and Dhirendra Kumar Hota, AVP and head for MIS budgeting, speak to Moneylife’s Aaron Rodrigues about the company’s plans
Logitech has unveiled a new ‘Anywhere Mouse M905’ featuring dark-field laser tracking that lets you use your mouse on clear glass and high-gloss surfaces
RCF’s plans to set up facilities in South Africa and Mozambique have been delayed, as its partners do not believe that there is any commercial value in fertilisers
The third quarter of FY10 is likely to be one of the weakest quarters for the bottom-line of Indian mobile operators, despite new highs in net monthly subscriber additions
With falling prices and depressed demand for residential properties, many developers are offering huge discounts for ready possession properties in and around Hyderabad
L&T is planning to take over Healthquarters, in line with the company’s plans to enter the general insurance business, said sources close to the developments
Arshiya International Ltd will have three free trade warehousing zones operational by the end of 2010. Ajay S Mittal, chairman and managing director, speaks to Moneylife’s Amritha Pillay about the commercial logic behind such zones
Geojit BNP Paribas has introduced its enhanced online trading platform free of cost for its existing customers after ICICIdirect launched its TradeRacer a few months back
RCF is planning to expand its production capacity at its Thal-based facility. The expansion comes at a time when construction plans for its facilities in South Africa and Mozambique have been stalled
Rural Electrification Corp Ltd (REC) is planning a follow-on public issue to raise funds. P Uma Shankar, CMD, REC, speaks to Moneylife’s Amritha Pillay about the company’s quarterly results and future plans
Amid the raging water crisis in Mumbai, the Lodha Group claims that it will provide two swimming pools, a clubhouse with a waterfront café and 10 acres of waterscape at its ‘Aqua’ project in the city
For a long time, telecom consumers needed clarity on whether they would need to go in for the lengthy process of arbitration to settle a dispute with a service provider. However, a recent judgement delivered by a consumer court makes it clear that users can go to consumer forums to settle their grievances
Organized retail is just 5% of the total retail business in India compared to more than 20% in China and 80% in US of the overall market, pointing to a huge potential for growth
The past performances of global funds have been modest in India. They cannot help Indian funds raise money abroad either because an alliance between a foreign and an Indian fund is of limited value
High interest costs will feature as a permanent expenditure on these companies’ books, leaving almost nothing for shareholders of these cash-guzzling businesses
Toyota Kirloskar is ready to launch its compact car in India. Sandeep Singh, deputy MD, speaks with Moneylife’s Aaron Rodrigues about the company’s India growth plans
Arshiya International has been one of the late—but profitable—players in the private rail freight segment in India. Its CMD Ajay S Mittal talks to Moneylife’s Amritha Pillay on the company’s rail freight business
The just-concluded Infomedia18 rights issue was undersubscribed, requiring promoters TV18 to pump in up to Rs12 crore of the unsubscribed portion of the issue, even as TV18 is haemorrhaging cash
The Network 18 group is India’s most diversified media company. However, the net-worth of several group firms of the company has been completely eroded; they are sick companies, belying their glitzy images and relentless expansions
The road & transport ministry has an ambitious plan of building 20 kilometres of road per day. RPN Singh, minister of state (MoS) for road & transport speaks with Moneylife’s Aaron Rodrigues about the ministry’s plans
The developer has claimed sales figures in the third quarter of this fiscal which are almost equal to the sales figures of entire Hyderabad city for the same period
Binani Cement Ltd has admitted that it has faced heavy pressure on cement price realisation and high input costs. However, the company has reported a modest growth in net sales
The SEBI board is scheduled to meet on 2nd February to discuss the alleged failure of National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) to prevent the IPO scam during 2003-2005
The supply of high-value flats in the city will outstrip demand from March. At present, there is an approximate supply of a million sq ft for the top-end residential market in the metropolis
Travel website makemytrip.com has come out with an ad that states that it is the ‘fastest’ in booking tatkal tickets. How can the portal make such a claim?
US-based Intuit Inc has launched a personal finance software package for Indians. Umang Bedi, MD, talks about the company’s plans for India with Moneylife’s Pallabika Ganguly
Officials from the high-end luxury goods industry are looking at FTWZs as a profitable option. A few of them are positive that price benefits derived from these zones would be passed on to customers
The market fell in January. Based on past patterns, what should we expect? Here is a study of the historical behaviour of the markets over the past 25 years
Hansen stake divestment helped Suzlon retire debt, leading to an overall debt reduction of 15%, but operating profits were down 65% for the December quarter
The airline doesn’t have money to feed us water on board! Plus, carriers are constantly cribbing about being short on funds and have been pressurising the aviation ministry for a bailout. And SpiceJet has created not one, but five TV commercials
Now that trail commission has started going to new distributors, banks and large distributors are scrapping over acquiring clients, which would soon land fund companies in a big mess
The SEBI board met on 2nd February to discuss the alleged failure of NSDL during the IPO scam of 2003-2005. There is no official word yet on what the Board has decided, only selective leaks
Customers who have booked property in Lodha’s much-touted project are still struggling to get possession of their flats. The company, though, doesn’t seem to have any answers
The SEBI Board has finally exonerated NSDL from the depository's alleged failure in preventing the IPO scam as well as in the dubious DSQ Software case
Following the implementation of the new trail commission rules, some fund distributors are getting cleints to sign a changeover without their explicit consent
Increasing competition and loss-making revenue models have been forcing Network18 to go in for cost-cutting measures, including laying off employees. At the same time, the media company has been pumping money into its cash-strapped, loss-making businesses
With an eye on better valuations, NTPC adopted the ‘French Auction’ model for its follow-on public offer. The lukewarm response to the issue is prompting a rethink on this mechanism
Online shop eBay’s popular electronic payment system PayPal seems to have been blocking all personal transactions to and from India. Strangely, it has offered no justification for this decision
Moneylife Knowledge Centre set up by the Moneylife Foundation in Mumbai will supplement the efforts of regulators and providers of financial services at spreading financial literacy and redressing grievances.
Promoters hold 18% and affiliates hold 77.5% of the paid-up equity capital in Asianet, a direct competitor. There are 23 criminal cases pending against the company, its subsidiaries and promoters
The company expects that the Indian government will soon take a decision on the relaxation of the cabotage policy, given its huge investment in the Vallarpadam port project
Sameer Sain had come from Goldman Sachs to make Future Capital Holdings a financial powerhouse. The stock is down 81% after listing at Rs909 in February 2008. Sain has now stepped down as MD & CEO
Mahesh Ramanathan, chief operating officer, Reliance BIG Pictures, discusses film piracy, the fate of Bollywood animation movies, why screen writers in India are underpaid and other issues in an exclusive interview with Moneylife’s Ravi Samalad
A number of investors who invested in the Osian Art Fund through ABN AMRO are still awaiting first payments. As per sources, there are more than 100 such investors
The TV broadcaster alleges that Hathway has not been paying subscription fees since many months and it may have to terminate its content deal with the cable operator
DB Realty’s IPO received just 23,000 applications after the company spent Rs13.50 crore for its ads in The Times of India alone. NTPC’s FPO received just 80,000 applications. This has set the alarm bells ringing for decision makers
Shipping companies plan to replace old vessels with newer ones. But these moves may be affected due to the tonnage tax code and the additional tax on capital gains earned from such phased-out vessels
Hope is the expectation that something outside of ourselves is going to come to our rescue and that we will live happily ever after. Nowadays, one can only hope against hope
Hathway subscribers from these cities and certain parts of Maharashtra would be deprived of viewing 33 TV channels offered by Zee Turner. Hathway’s IPO also received a lukewarm response from investors.
State-run IFCI itself is unsustainable and was bailed out by the government in the past. It has sanctioned a loan of Rs225 crore to an entity which is on the RBI list of wilful defaulters
The gap between planned investments in steel and aluminium projects has widened during 2003 to 2009 due to various issues like land acquisition problems and statutory permissions
The Rs905 crore collected by Axis Bank through its banking channel helped net equity inflows turn positive (Rs980 crore) in January after five months of decline
Axis Bank debited Rs225 as ‘bank charges’ for the sale of its newly launched open-ended equity mutual fund, while Citibank used to do the same for insurance policies. Are the regulators aware of such things?
Total tenders invited by government bodies in the construction and engineering segment during the first ten months of FY10 fell by 33% due to negative growth reported in overall tender inflows
Union textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran has said that there is no unemployment in the sector. However, AEPC claims that nearly 4 lakh jobs have been lost in the industry since April last year
The joint venture project, launched in 2006, has finally received necessary permissions, but the JV partners are not sure about the future of residential space in the planned construction
Investors have been withdrawing money virtually every month for the past 13 months—whether we are in a bull market or a bear market. This gives the lie to the fund industry’s notion that investors are merely booking profits
With a strong presence in the oil exploration business with oil blocks across various countries, the consumer electronics giant wants to focus more on oil and gas business
Toyota is again facing the heat from US regulators. This time, the Japanese carmaker is facing complaints over steering problems with its popular Corolla model. However, an official from the company has said that there are no issues with Toyota’s Indian cars
Videocon’s foray into mobile services has been delayed. Starting with Mumbai and Chennai, the company now plans to roll out its GSM mobile services from March
This is the first part of a three-part series of an interview with Rajkumar Hirani. Here, the award-winning director speaks on how Aamir Khan became a part of the cast in the blockbuster 3 Idiots
With its foray into the asset management space, L&T has taken a bold step even as the mutual fund industry is undergoing one of its most challenging transformations ever
With the central bank of the country mandating all banks to compute interest on savings accounts on a daily basis, account-holders will reap better rewards from their deposits
Home minister Chidambaram claims to have suggested that SBI should have bought Citibank in 2008 when its shares were going at $1. Wonder why he has decided to dedicate his life to harassing tax payers and Naxalites, when we could have easily run billion-dollar hedge funds with his superb sense of timing.
In the second part of this three-part interview series, Rajkumar Hirani speaks on how he convinced Boman Irani to play the part of the dean of a medical college in the cult classic Munnabhai MBBS
Confident that companies are in for a period of calm after the volatility of 2008-09, investors are lapping up risky corporate fixed deposits. Are they underplaying the default risks?
The IT giant had reportedly admitted that one of its employees committed suicide after the company caught him embezzling $4 million in December. However, till date no criminal charges have been filed against the employee.
Raju Hirani is a hotshot director today, having created three hits in a row. But he started in Hindi films on the wrong foot. For his early work in feature films he hardly got paid and he had drifted into making ad films, where he was doing fine, explains Hirani. This is the third part of a three-part interview series.
The power ministry has estimated coal imports of 48 million tonnes in FY10-11, sharply higher than the expected imports of 28mt in the current fiscal, as domestic supply shrinks due to issues like environmental clearance and Naxalite threats
The Korean carmaker is halting sales of its top-selling vehicle in the US and South Korea owing to concerns about sticking door locks. However, this will not affect Hyundai’s India sales, say analysts.
Retail investors and employees have given a ‘thumbs down’ to both the IPOs; DB Realty listed at an 8% discount while Emmbi Polyarns shed 59% on its debut.
Fund companies are in competition to organise lavish junkets for its distributors, hoping to influence them to sell their schemes to the unsuspecting public
Faced with a credibility crisis, mutual fund industry body AMFI has appointed HN Sinor as its chief executive. Industry sources have welcomed the move.
Over the past two years, the markets have been hugely volatile— which is ideal for arbitrage funds. But over this period, of the 12 arbitrage funds, only three funds outperformed and nine underperformed their benchmarks.
While the salaried class got a tax bonanza that will boost consumption, companies will seek to pass on the increase in excise duty or live with lower margins.
Revised income-tax slabs to increase disposable incomes; consumers, who have been feeling the pinch of rising prices, now have something to cheer about.
With an unapologetic emphasis on privatisation and a consumption-led economy, this year’s Budget marks a paradigm shift in the present government’s approach, ostensibly putting India on the cusp of a major change.
The budget provides considerable relief to tax payers by raising tax slabs but the hike in central excise duty on non-petroleum products signals the start of stimulus rollback.
The Budget has extended the tenure of the tax benefit for residential projects, hiked the allocation for slum re-development schemes, and extended the 1% interest subvention for affordable housing
The participants were presented with an enlightening exchange of opinions and detailed analysis of the implications of the Budget proposals for the common man, businesses as well as the entire economy.
A spate of recent suicides among students and the ongoing worry about this mind-numbing phenomenon is a cause of national concern. Over 100,000 Indians commit suicide every year, and the number has only risen over the past two decades, say experts. Worse, over 71% of suicides are by people below the age of 44. While suicides are attributed to acute mental agony, the trauma on those who are left behind is not less. Savita Narayan profiles a Pune-based NGO called Connecting… which helps people cope with the effect of suicide on the survivors
Indage Restaurants & Leisure, although loss-making, is not as over-leveraged as Indage Vintners. Will it also be hurt by the likely liquidation of the parent company?
Shipping and logistics company Shreyas Shipping and Logistics Ltd also provides land transportation, warehousing and other value-added services. Vinay Kshirsagar, chief financial officer of Shreyas Shipping speaks with Moneylife’s Amritha Pillay about the trends in shipping, logistics and warehousing
Last year in October, Moneylife had warned that the fraudulent emails in circulation at that time claiming to offer you a tax refund were only test mail and were bound to be refined in the future. Recent scam mails, with the I-T Dept image, the Indian national emblem and other details are proof of what we had predicted
In a bid to create a level playing field between all investor participants, all investors, including QIBs, will now be required to make full payment during new share applications.
The power company had signed an MoU with IWAI in September 2008 for transportation of imported coal to its three power plants using inland waterways. However, there is not much progress on the plan
With its rich pool of talent, technology ‘powerhouse’ India should be the IT incubator for the world. So why is the US still leading in enterprise and innovation?
Ess Dee Aluminium’s proposed merger scheme is stacked heavily against India Foils’ minority shareholders and the recent spurt in trading volumes of India Foils is highly dubious
Prices in the retail market for hot rolled coil have already gone up by almost Rs2,000 per tonne and analysts believe a price hike from April is imminent on account of excise duty hike and jump in raw material contract prices
A land auction at BKC—a prime commercial real-estate destination in Mumbai—which opened today did not attract any bidders because of the high prices quoted by MMRDA
The recent judgement by the apex court will be of great help to businessmen and the same can be relied upon for all the current or future assessments in determining the allowability of bad loans when written off in the books of accounts of the assessee
The promoters of TeleCanor allege that investor Hemant Gupta is trying all the tricks to make an open offer for the company. Mr Gupta powerfully argues otherwise
The present study by NISM is another attempt to assess the performance of CRAs, particularly in the light of the recent significant events in the global financial system and the criticism being faced by CRAs in the USA
This IT solutions and engineering services company has been involved in all kinds of financial manoeuvrings. However, regulators are looking the other way
DQE has shifted its business model from a largely outsourced model to a co-production model and its future growth may depend on continued rollout of IP content in which the company has little experience
The draft document of offer for the new ETF by Motilal Oswal AMC uses a proprietary index. But it does not explain the weightage assigned to the stocks of the underlying index or how the index would have performed in the past
The art house plans an auction this month, proceeds of which would be used to redeem the art fund. However, Osian officials claim that a major chunk of the redemption amount would be paid before the auction
Vijay Wadhwa, promoter of the Wadhwa Group, talks to Moneylife’s Pallabika Ganguly on the trends in the realty sector that are leading to sluggish sales and how his company tided over the recession
While ITNL’s public issue is slated to hit the market tomorrow, its major road project in Chhattisgarh faces legal action. A PIL filed by an RTI activist is pending with the Lok Ayukta
A surfeit of channels, shoddy programming, clueless anchors and financials that would make a Greek cringe. Is the Indian TV industry scripting its own epitaph?
Industry body AMFI acknowledges rampant mis-selling of MF products; puts blame on distributors, ignoring the fact that poorly-performing products of AMCs, aggressively sold with all kinds of incentives, are really the cause of mis-selling
Mercator Lines is planning to increase its presence across various verticals depending on the opportunities available. It plans to improve capacity in its bulk, tanker and dredging segments
Stripped off their legalese, prospectuses of mutual funds are prone to misrepresentations and inadequate disclosures. As a result, the investing community continues to be short-changed. A two-part analysis
A Mumbai civil court has dismissed a defamation suit filed by S Kumar’s unit against the Narmada Bachao Andolan in relation to its Maheshwar Dam project
After buying Germany-based DyStar for €50 million, Kiri Dyes and Chemicals may raise about Rs400 crore through equity and debt for expansion and launching new products
Bond Street seems to have taken the FM’s fiscal consolidation plans with a pinch of salt as bond yields have since surged past 8%, perhaps due to the government’s borrowing programme
The government wants to use e-governance as a tool for better administration. It needs to wake up to the fact that e-governance requires not only technology infrastructure, but also the human will to make it work
Sobha Developers Ltd’s managing director JC Sharma discusses the impact of service tax on the realty sector and his company’s roadmap with Moneylife’s Pallabika Ganguly
The capacity of countries to efficiently move goods and connect manufacturers and consumers with international markets is improving around the world, but much more is needed to spur faster economic growth and help firms benefit from trade recovery, says the World Bank
The stock markets have rallied strongly for the past five consecutive weeks. How will the markets perform this week? Moneylife’s study of similar historical patterns points to a solid trend
For almost three years, there has been a lot of talk on the setting up of a coal regulatory authority. So why is the government still dragging its feet?
An MP from Uttar Pradesh has alleged that the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group had diverted funds raised through External Commercial Borrowings and Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds into stock market operations through Swiss bank UBS. These funds were allegedly moved by the Swiss bank into some dormant accounts and then used for large-scale unauthorised trades
SEBI’s new idea to limit the timeframe for NFOs to 15 days will create even greater problems for the fund industry. But most importantly, it will undermine SEBI’s own agenda of market development by cutting off smaller towns
Aparna Ramchandra profiles an organisation that offers friendship and help to young mothers and children to eradicate malnutrition and infant mortality.
A fresh exercise that completely ignores the fact that large sums of money belonging to individuals, traders and businesses are appropriated by the government and remain impounded with it because of slow, corrupt and inefficient processes
In the ongoing tussle between stakeholders Bajaj Auto and WMDC, the recent HC ruling against Bajaj Auto has given the shares of Maharashtra Scooters a big boost
The Bombay High Court has ordered the Mahad police to submit details of the action taken following the attack on environment activist Sumaira Abdulali, who has been fighting the menace of illegal sand mining
While cement prices have been on the upside over the past few months, analysts suggest that they will start falling from next month with the recently added capacities by various players boosting utilisation levels
Infinity Metals, an export-oriented SSI unit, has been struggling to keep itself afloat after its bank systematically abused the SARFAESI Act and harassed it into near-bankruptcy. Denied justice by the ombudsman, the troubled unit is now left gasping for breath
The insurance regulator has launched an unprecedented advertising campaign, hard-selling ULIPs. Not only is this a misleading action for a regulator, but the ad is also misleading as it fails to provide any concrete evidence of ULIPs’ superior performance
AMCs are sitting on crores of rupees in the form of commissions due to inability of mutual fund distributors to submit KYC documents as per the SEBI mandate
According to a report by Pune-based energy group Prayas, the targets set by the National Solar Mission for 2022 are ‘unclear and challenging’ in comparison to the MNRE targets for 2009
Biswajit Mohanty, an environmental activist, plans to initiate legal action against Vedanta’s refinery in Orissa on the issue of alleged violations of environmental norms. The activist also plans to take legal action on the long-running ‘mining scam’ in the state
The Bombay High Court has ordered India’s oldest wine producer Indage Vinters to wind up. The country’s fledging wine industry calls it a ‘sad’ development, but says that it was bound to happen
SAT, which last week dismissed the review petition of Shankar Sharma, has taken exception to his conduct in not informing the Tribunal about his filing of a civil appeal against a SAT order in the Supreme Court, and dismissal of the same by the apex court
Development of greenfield steel projects in India has virtually come to a standstill. Many of these projects have stagnated due to issues like land acquisition, rehabilitation and political interference
Earlier, the same hackers had also hacked into a number of Indian websites, including that of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, samachar.in, wonderfulindia.com, sptravels.in and mergersindia.com
Mumbai builders are slapping new home buyers with a nasty surprise in the form of value-added tax and service tax. This means that buyers have to pay 12% more on taking possession of their contracted and fully-paid apartments
Gammon Infra is likely to finalise signing of both the immediate 24% and the subsequent 26% stake-purchase deals in Indira Container Terminal from Spain-based Dragados in April
A number of banks are reportedly on the verge of exceeding their group exposure limit in the infrastructure segment. Bankers don’t want SPVs to be part of their group exposure limits
Last year SEBI barred Chimming Trading from accessing the securities market till further orders, as it was prima facie found to be involved in the alleged manipulation of shares of five companies
The AAR ruling affirms that the Indian tax authorities are not in a position to levy capital gains tax on the transfer of shares in an Indian company by a Mauritian tax resident in view of the provisions of the India-Mauritius tax treaty
The feasibility report on the project is almost complete; land acquisition is expected to start soon and is likely to be completed over the next six months
The market regulator’s December 2009 circular on transferring funds back to client accounts periodically has created market-wide confusion. Many brokers have not followed this rule, which was supposed to be implemented by 31 March 2010
With its unique business model and customer focus, Shriram Transport Finance Company (STFC) has grown rapidly in the commercial vehicle (CV) financing space since it started operations over 30 years ago. The company’s managing director R Sridhar speaks with Moneylife’s Sanket Dhanorkar about how and why STFC chose to focus on this segment and what it has learnt over these years. This is the first part of a two-part interview series.
Shriram Transport Finance Company’s (STFC) managing director, R Sridhar speaks with Moneylife’s Sanket Dhanorkar about the company’s funding, expansion and diversification plans. This is the second part of a two-part series
GMR acquired power utility InterGen, based in the Netherlands, at a transaction worth $1.10 billion in 2008. Two years later, not much financial information is available about the acquired company in the public domain
The market watchdog has extended the deadline for implementation of its ‘dealings between a client and a stock broker’ mandate till 30 June 2010 and will leave it to the stock exchages to handle sticky issues
More and more road developers are seeking underwriters for their road projects in order to achieve financial closure faster and bid for more national projects
India's nationalised banks seem set for a major recruitment drive once again to meet growth needs and fresh vacancies that will arise when a large number of employees retire in the next three-four years
The Unilever CEO believes that HUL is still the lion in several categories. He is living in his own world. Over the past decade, HUL has repeatedly tried and failed in a large number of new businesses, which makes it look like an also-ran
DV Ram Kumar, vice president-Food & Agri, Spencer’s Retail Ltd, spoke with Moneylife on the issues facing the food retail business and his company’s growth plans
An analysis of the monthly dispatch figures and the newly-commissioned capacities indicates a clear annual over-capacity of a minimum of 36.27MT in the demand-supply situation
Average assets under management of the 37 fund houses fell 5% in March; JPMorgan Mutual Fund plummeted 24% while Peerless and Edelweiss jumped 150% and 30% respectively
The main effect of a currency revaluation would be a shift of wealth from the Chinese government, the manufacturing sectors, infrastructure investment, and real-estate developers to Chinese households
Stock markets have rallied for the past five consecutive quarters. How will the markets perform in the coming quarter? Moneylife’s study of similar historical patterns points to a 100% negative trend
After SEBI cracking down on entry loads and upfront commissions, IFAs are thinking of charging MF investors a fee; however, a few market watchers feel that investors are not ready to shell out money yet
According to a Websense survey, reputation risk and potential loss of customers emerged as two major concerns amongst IT decision-makers if a data breach was to occur
Nikhil Gandhi, group chairman, SKIL Infrastructure Ltd (SKIL), talks to Amritha Pillay of Moneylife on his company’s stake purchase in Pipavav Shipyard and the group’s expansion plans in the port and power sectors
Except for one month, mutual fund subscriptions since August last year have been consistently beaten by redemptions, which is indicative of the turbulence being witnessed in the industry
Deutsche Mutual Fund is launching an offshore ‘fund of funds’ scheme that will focus on global agri-businesses. Its underlying fund, though, has shown poor performance
Most brands have now realised that the consumer now lives in a virtual world which has helped him discover his voice and trying to throttle him is just not the right solution; it will only backfire
The stock markets have rallied strongly for the past eight consecutive weeks. The historical trend favours a continuation of the rally, but will the market prove it wrong?
Going for a two-wheeler loan? Be ready to shell out more money for down payment and face a thorough background and credit check; lenders are now following strict practices
According to latest data obtained by Moneylife, new SIP registrations have been overshadowed by cancellations and ceased accounts in March, which is supposed to be a boom month for investments
The enabling legislation for PFRDA has failed to see the light of day due to quiet resistance from the Left to the mechanics of the NPS. Meanwhile, the PFRDA continues to walk barefoot without an umbrella Act
Many ‘imported’ food items at our airports have their prices doctored, many of them make it to these high-priced stalls from the grey market, a few are even downright fakes
RBI’s recent circular on cheque alterations—which can result in dishonoured cheques—may contravene certain sections of the Negotiable Instruments Act, say legal experts
With Reliance Venture Asset Management recently funding the reverse logistics service provider RLC Pvt Ltd, experts say that more investments in the form of joint ventures and venture capital could take place in this sector
The industry body has issued warning notices to HSBC, NJ India Invest, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank for not complying with NOC norms and luring investors to change distributors to garner trail commission
The low-cost car segment may be dying a silent death because of the unavailability of the Nano in the open market and the gradual phasing out of the ubiquitous Maruti 800
It sponsors teams, spends billions (of dollars) on advertising and is probably the world’s most well-known brand. But Coca-Cola seems to have forgotten what it takes to service a customer. What’s worse, Coke prefers to maintain a deafening silence—and enter a state of denial—when confronted with what is a major slip-up at its end
Some major tweaks to the NPS in addition to the planned government contribution of Rs1,000 per account are set to provide a much needed leg-up to the nascent pension scheme
While passing an order banning ULIPs late on Friday night, SEBI said the entities have not obtained any registration from the regulator though the ULIPs were in the nature of collective investment schemes like mutual funds
With the new reverse mortgage product, senior citizens have a real possibility of encashing the value of their homes, by getting a regular income from it, while still living in it until the end of their lives
The finance ministry has finally stepped in to resolve the SEBI-IRDA spat, which threatened to destabilise the market. However, instead of directly intervening in the dispute, the ministry seems to have bought some time by telling the sparring regulators to go to court
According to the CEA website, peak-hour deficit has increased from 11.9% in 2008-09 to 13.3% in 2009-10. Experts believe that pent-up demand may be higher than the projected 11%, further worsening the situation
All the major life insurance companies have turned a blind eye to the capital market watchdog’s diktat barring them from selling ULIPs; business continues as usual
The stock markets have rallied strongly for the past nine consecutive weeks. What does the tenth week have in store? Past trends suggest a 100% positive outcome
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that SEBI and IRDA have agreed to “jointly seek a binding legal mandate from an appropriate court” on the ULIPs issue
The e-auction for 3G spectrum, which started on Friday, has seen bids go up by 24% over the reserve bid prices in just three days. There is no time limit or deadline for the closing of the auction
The current rise in steel prices has increased expectations of a re-telecast of the steel opera which played out in 2008, when the steel ministry intervened to cap steel prices. However, no such intervention is likely—at least in the short term—as the government is in a ‘wait-and-watch’ mode
Builders are offering ‘guaranteed’ returns to home-buyers in return for upfront payments even for under-construction properties. This is the second part of a continuing series
The rise of emerging markets, increased focus on new revenue streams, and changing demographic imperatives are likely to increase the number of people working outside their home countries by 50% over the next decade, says PwC
Unable to expand through a combination of advertising and selling through national distributors, the fund house is empanelling smaller distributors now
Mobile operators in India are battling for 3G spectrum—while the world is getting 'hands on' experience on 4G technology. Moreover, going by the telecom minister's statement, mobile operators will have to be ready to shell out more money for 4G even as they roll out 3G networks
Builders are offering ‘guaranteed’ returns—and rebates— to home-buyers in return for upfront payments even for under-construction properties. This is the third part of a continuing series
Arshiya International will start operating its first free-trade warehousing zone in Mumbai by 23rd May; its hubs at Khurja (near Delhi) and Nagpur are likely to be completed by the end of FY11
The Bank has glossed over the pending litigations against it in connection with the 1992 securities scam, in its IDR offer document. However, the market ‘watchdog’ seems least bothered by this astonishing lack of transparency
The Centre is trying to push the New Pension Scheme. However, out of the 23 States which had notified adoption of the Scheme for public sector employees, only 12 have executed the plan so far
As things stand, NSE and its top brass will face a criminal case in a lower court. But before that, the Exchange may approach the Supreme Court for relief
In yet another case of a regulator’s stance being thrown to the winds, HDFC has decided to ignore the Reserve Bank of India’s observations on teaser loans
Team Life Care Co, an authorised corporate agent of Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, is carrying on a multi-level marketing scheme under a sister entity called TLC Insurance (India) Pvt Ltd, in open violation of the law
The National Stock Exchange has suffered three reverses in just one week: The Delhi HC verdict that it falls under the RTI Act; the verdict in the case filed by an ex-employee and finally, an order by the Competition Commission about its predatory practices
The animation and entertainment company claims to be getting huge orders and securing work on big projects. However, a closer inspection reveals that all is not well with the organisation
Various banks and insurance companies are showing growing interest in the new revised reverse mortgage product, based on the bank- insurance company tie-up model
SEBI plans to curb potential round-tripping through FIIs and also increase transparency. If successfully implemented, the move will segregate the opportunistic short-term investors from the committed long-term ones
When the crisis between IRDA and SEBI leads to a panic, will vested interests find an excuse to activate the Financial Stability and Development Council?
CRISIL Equities estimates about Rs40,000 crore will be raised from IPOs in 2010 and the reduction in timeline by 10 days is expected to translate into interest savings of Rs800 crore annually, at an opportunity cost of 10%.
IL&FS Clusters is in talks with the governments of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh for developing industrial infrastructure in these states. At present, the group is working closely with the Karnataka government in the textiles sector
SEBI's counter affidavit clearly stated that more than 50% of the shares of NSE are owned by Government of India or Government companies, thus establishing the Exchange as a public authority in terms of RTI
Inflation concerns are likely to weigh upon the central bank as it hikes key rates in its monetary review. The extent of the hike will indicate the government’s stance on recovery.
Contrary to popular belief, SEBI’s clamp-down on ULIPs may not be of its own doing; the roots of the ongoing turf war can be traced back to the finance ministry’s thought process developed many months ago
Senior citizens who have gone in for reverse mortgages, can approach any bank that offers an improved, amended product—for a switchover to the new reverse mortgage model—which offers higher monthly returns
With just a 25 bps increase in policy rates and CRR, the central bank has moved in line with expectations; a gradual withdrawal from the easy monetary stance emerges from the annual policy review
The Madras High Court has upheld that the New Tiruppur Area Development Corporation Limited is a public authority and will have to provide information under the RTI Act. The is in tune with the High Court order passed against the NSE
Sunil Hitech Engineers Ltd has its presence in the engineering segment and in the power & steel sectors. Sunil Gutte, joint managing director, talks to Amritha Pillay on the company’s order-book expectations and his outlook on the power sector
There is a sudden glut of index funds as more and more fund companies come out with their own flavours. But are investors missing out on the real thing?
The United Stock Exchange hopes to hit the ground running with its currency futures offering. It would be an uphill battle against two established rivals, MCX and NSE, especially since NSE has made a predatory move in making membership free
Central bank wakes up to inordinate delays in payments faced by government pensioners; reprimands bankers and directs them to make good the dues immediately, along with penal interest
Pushed into a corner, AMCs are being forced to come up with unique incentives to boost dwindling sales. Among the goodies—a book on how Google changed the world!
While the SEBI-IRDA battle over ULIPs is still raging, the bank has emailed its high networth customers a twisted interpretation of an erroneous Times of India report asserting that the ULIP issue is now resolved in favour of IRDA
A complaint forwarded to the RBI by a retired government officer regarding SBI’s extensive delays in pension payments gets the central bank to take notice and undertake review of the lender’s systems
Private Treaties, the controversial investment arm of Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, is now housed under a separate company. However, it seems to have too many dubious investments in its books
With captive mines under their belts, SAIL, JSPL and Tata Steel could emerge as the biggest winners due to rising iron ore prices. These companies are well placed to cash in on the subsequent rise in steel prices, while their raw material costs will remain comparatively on the lower side
Finally, the market regulator’s eyes have opened up to the fund houses’ practice of lavishing their agents with expensive junkets; it may introduce strict guidelines to tackle this issue
The Supreme Court has passed strictures dismissing NSE’s appeal in the matter of harassment and defamation of a former NSE employee. The Exchange and its top brass will now face a criminal case in the Mumbai Metropolitan Court
Huge expansions are planned in the hydropower sector to meet India’s soaring energy demand. However, energy studies project these investments in increasing capacity have led to diminishing returns over the past 11 years
There were zero bids from the QIB category for the Tarapur Transformers IPO, while the retail investor category was subscribed 0.79 times on the opening day of this offering, which received a ‘Grade 1’ from CRISIL
By keeping new gadgets limited to certain markets, Apple and Google are openly inviting piracy. The Chinese have already started rolling out ‘original-looking’ fake iPads before the official Apple launch
Though the ash cloud from Iceland grounded European airlines for a considerable period, local travel & tourism companies have yet to figure out the damage that they have suffered
Hydropower projects are being promoted due to their perceived ability to meet peak demand. But there is no current data to show that these projects are doing so—and a couple of big projects are clearly slipping up
The fourth quarter of the last fiscal has reported a dramatic downfall in real-estate sales across six cities. But, driven by speculation, Mumbai property rates are still booming
The mass media is flooded with news about the group’s bid for Federa airport in Dholera special investment region (SIR), completion of the Yamuna Expressway project ahead of schedule and its Rs70,000-crore ambitious expansion plans
After receiving poor retail interest in the recent follow-on public offers of NTPC, REC and NMDC, SJVN has been priced at Rs23-Rs26 to woo retail investors
Index funds are supposed to mimic returns of underlying indices by either tracking the index widely or trying to outdo the indices through active management. SEBI seems to be taking a hard look at them
Builders are offering ‘guaranteed’ returns—and rebates— to homebuyers in return for upfront payments even for under-construction properties. This is the fourth part of a continuing series
The scheme claims to combine benefits of both large-caps and mid-caps by swinging the portfolio in the direction of the more attractive option. If that’s not market-timing, what is?
SEBI has sought clarity and limits on MF exposure to derivatives and has outlined a uniform detailed format for computing derivatives in their half-yearly portfolios
During the past 30 days, the share price of Reliance Industries is falling continuously, despite some good news coming out from the company. What are the reasons?
Several months after the Osian Art Fund period has ended, some investors still await final payment, while a few others are waiting for their first payments
In the first month of FY11, the trend continued to be supported by the availability of retail finance and industry experts see the uptick continuing for the rest of the financial year
Builders are offering ‘guaranteed’ returns—and rebates—to homebuyers in return for upfront payments even for under-construction properties. This is the fifth part of a continuing series
Justice DK Deshmukh of the Special Court—for the third time—has ordered sale of eight flats belonging to Harshad Mehta and his family in ‘Madhuli’ at Mumbai
In an interaction with NGOs working for senior citizens, Susan B Somers, General Secretary of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) highlighted financial issues prevalent in the US and how they have been dealt with
In a letter dated 26th March, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) had notified the villagers that a public feedback meeting would be held to record their suggestions regarding the proposed project, but the villagers have boycotted the meet
The insurance regulator has asked all insurance firms to offer a minimum sum assured on ULIPs if the policyholder expires. It has also extended the lock-in period to five years
The insurance industry is reeling under losses, especially in the health insurance sector. Premiums have gone up—even covers are bound to shrink now as insurers try to shore up margins
Jeevan Suraksha, an insurance broking firm that has tied up with various leading insurance companies, is actively running an MLM scheme in general and life insurance products
The company says that it has no plans to exit the diagnostics space altogether. However, as we had earlier reported, its plans of acquiring smaller labs for growth does not seem to be working
With the government set to garner more revenues than expected from the 3G and BWA auction and its disinvestment programme, it may be able to rein in the fiscal deficit to 5.5%, a level not seen after FY07
The glut of wine globally has affected many Indian farmers. Grape harvesters are now considering the option of either destroying their crop or selling their harvest at a much lower price
The apex court has directed RIL to initiate in six weeks, a re-negotiation with RNRL in terms of the gas sale master agreement so that the rights of RNRL are safeguarded
Vamsi Ayyagari, senior executive producer, Eyeqube, a VFX studio owned by Eros International speaks to Moneylife’s Pallabika Ganguly about the challenges and future of the VFX industry
Maximus Trades Inc (MAXFOREX), a Mauritius-based company which provides a trading platform in foreign exchange through an e-portal, is encouraging high-risk investment through an MLM model
The Baltic Dry Index has been on the upside over the past few days on the increase in demand for Capesize vessels. On the other hand, Indian shipping stocks have not been in tune with the Index
There are just too many soft drink brands in the market and the window to build the brand AND rake in returns is quite short. While viewers may recall the ad, they could connect it with another brand
In the wake of the recent SC ruling, the Union government cannot abandon its own obligation to exercise due diligence and prudence in fixing the price of gas & determine the sectoral and regional allocations, a former secretary to the government of India has said in a letter to the prime minister
The Supreme Court, ruling in favour of A Sebastin, has asked him to file a fresh petition in the Bombay High Court, seeking an early hearing in a case related to his severance from the NSE
Equity funds record redemption of Rs1,133 crore in April compared to Rs196 crore in the corresponding period last year, while debt funds witnessed inflows of Rs1,77,773 crore
In theory, derivatives are supposed to hedge risks in developed markets. Often, they have the reverse effect and they can create a disaster far larger than the problem that they were supposed to cure
In a number of Indian States, it is difficult to find the original title deed of any particular property. For instance, 90% of property transactions in Maharashtra are not even registered
Scores of investors have lost a huge chunk of their portfolios due to the terrible investment strategies of the Portfolio Management Services offered by Kotak Securities
Muddled, disorganised and confused—that’s not your brain after you have had one too many; that’s the state of the law that regulates consumption of alcohol
Asset prices for second-hand vessels in the dry bulk and tanker segments are currently going up. However, industry sources believe that players are in a wait-and- watch mode, and the rise may be a temporary phenomenon
Shareholders of CHI Investments Ltd are unhappy over the RPG Group’s decision to merge four companies with a subsidiary. They feel that the valuations done under the proposed merger are unfair
Fali Poncha, chairman, International Reinsurance and Insurance Consultancy Services (IRICS), speaks to Moneylife’s Aaron Rodrigues and Sanket Dhanorkar on mediclaim, TPAs and other issues facing the health insurance industry
Retired bank employees who want to join a pension scheme will have to refund the entire amount paid by the bank to their provident fund account and the interest accrued thereon, along with their share in the contribution
Despite being under regulatory watch for apparent financial subterfuge, Prithvi Information Solutions appears to be unfazed. Its recent overseas acquisition should raise some eyebrows
While people continue to criticise the services offered by public sector banks, it is the foreign and private players who seem to be attracting the most complaints
The Fine Art Fund Group, which invests in art on a global scale, says that the Indian art market still needs to stabilise from the speculative prices witnessed during 2007-08
Does Mumbai have enough space to accommodate incentive FSI development granted by the government for cluster developments? The numbers just don’t add up
Japanese automaker Honda is rapidly gaining grounds in India either on its own or through its joint venture and has replaced incumbent TVS Motor from third spot in motorcycles category
DP World plans to position the Vallarpadam terminal in competition with other international ports like Colombo and Jebel Ali. However, the group will have to first face issues pertaining to the Indian cabotage policy before starting operations
Both exchanges launched their much-hyped mutual fund trading platforms around the same time last year. Since then, volumes on the BSE have far outstripped those on the NSE
SEBI’s new rule asks mutual funds to disclose a summary of investor complaints, but investors almost never complain directly to AMCs. Most complaints are resolved by mutual fund agents
Many insurance companies are trying to empanel distributors whose earlier core business was mutual funds, especially after the ban on entry load on funds by SEBI
This project—first proposed in 1983— continues to be marred by rehabilitation issues, with the MOEF issuing work-suspension orders and eminent activists demanding compliance with the missive
The recent proposal of the State government to charge 1% for all under-construction properties will be passed on to the consumers, but will the beneficiaries get the money or will it be used for frivolous purposes?
The Banking Ombudsman is not in favour of banks appealing against its decisions; threatens to convert one-off cases into all-encompassing class action suits
When top brokerage firms were approached for opening a trading account, we found that there were differences between the views of official spokespersons and what customer service executives tell would-be clients
A slew of changes in the way funds are created and sold, would come about in the next 12-18 months, asserted KN Vaidyanathan, an Executive Director of SEBI, while speaking to Moneylife in an exclusive interview. This is the first part of the story
Telecom stocks have taken a beating on the bourses. Over the past 52 weeks, Moneylife’s telecom index fell 43% while shares of Idea, Bharti, Tata Tele and RCom have tumbled 38% to 60% from their highs
Rose Valley Chain Marketing System Ltd, a part of the Rose Valley group based in West Bengal, is yet another company on the block brazenly peddling insurance products through multi-level marketing schemes
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