Bharti fourth quarter net up 21 percent, splits stock

Bharti Airtel Ltd, the country’s largest telecom operator, beat market expectations and posted a 21% rise in its fourth quarter net profit at Rs 2,239 crore. The company, the world’s third largest ‘in-country mobile operator’, also reported a 26% rise in its full year net profit at Rs 8,470 crore.

For the first time, Bharti Airtel declared a dividend of 20% for its shareholders. To give a boost to retail participation in its stock, the board approved a stock-split, to divide its Rs 10 shares into two shares of Rs 5 each. The company’s shares ended up 3.25% at Rs 749.30 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The top line figures for the fourth quarter rose 26% year on year to Rs 9,825 crore. The annual revenue increased by 37% to over Rs 36,000 crore.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Villagers attack Nilachal Power staff in Orissa

The KVK Nilachal Power Ltd, which wants to set up a Rs 4,000-crore, 1,000-mw coal-fired thermal power plant in Orissa’s Cuttack district, postponed its ground-breaking ceremony on Monday after violent protests from villagers facing displacement due to the project.

“The ground-breaking ceremony has been stopped for the time-being,” said Cuttack district collector Kishore Mohanty. The district administration is trying to pacify the villagers, he said. “Once normalcy returns we will allow the company to go ahead with the project work,” headded.

In the run-up to the elections, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has had to toned own his pro-industrialisation speeches in the light of protests over land acquisition in several areas.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Swine flu rattles global markets

The world financial markets held on to an incipient economic recovery even as the World Health Organisation held a meeting of its emergency committee to decide on the level of threat from the swine flu that moved to countries as far apart as Mexico and New Zealand. Despite the announcement of a possible pandemic, the S&P index and the Dow Jones index inched back after a slide, that mirrored a similar drop early in the day in Asian and European markets--the MSCI World equity index shed 0.7% and nervous investors rushed to exit their positions. About the only exception was India where the benchmark Sensex closed 0.4% higher.

For the US markets, General Motors Corp’s plan to cut liabilities by $44 billion has somewhat offset concern the swine flu outbreak will hurt travel, energy and hotel companies.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

India ready to buy 10 dollars billion International Monetary Fund bonds

The government would prefer to buy bonds worth $10 billion as its contribution towards increasing the capital base of the International Monetary Fund by $500 billion announced at the G-20 meeting in London early this month.

India is ready to buy about $10 billion (around Rs 50,000 crore) of IMF bonds, a media report said quoting Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. “If the IMF can issue the securities, it's an easy way for us to make a contribution,” said Ahluwalia, who is in the US to attend the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

Leaders of G-20 countries have committed to increase the resource base of the IMF by half a trillion dollars. India has maintained that it would contribute as per its quota in the Fund. “Since India’s share is close to 2% in the Fund, it results in it contributing $10 billion (2% of $500 billion) to expand IMF’s resource base,” a senior government official said here.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Reliance Industries Q4 net dips 9 percent to rupees 3,546 crore

Reliance Industries (RIL), India’s largest private company by market capitalisation, on Thursday reported a 9.4% drop in its quarterly net profit, on falling fuel demand and thinning crude processing margins.

The company’s net profit for Q4 of FY09 stood at Rs 3,546 crore, compared to Rs 3,912 crore in Q4 of 2007-08 . The profits were aided by a one-time gain of Rs 993 crore in the quarter from interest on cash balance and an insurance claim of Rs 60 crore.

Reliance made a one-time provision of Rs 370 crore towards estimated claims on subsidiaries, it said, without elaborating. Before providing for the claims, profits stood at Rs 3,874 crore. Sales for the quarter dipped 24.9% to Rs 29,073 crore from 38,697 crore.

To read the full article, click here..
The read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited subscriber base grows 5.67 percent in March, highest in two years

The country’s second largest telecom operator, the state-owned BSNL during March registered the highest growth in its monthly subscriber additions in the past two years. Breaking its consistently mode rate growth of over 3% each month, the state-run telco recorded a GSM subscriber growth rate of 5.67% during the month of March.In another boost to its telecom growth, BSNL also saw a growth in its wireline segment, which had been registering a decline for successive quarters.

BSNL’s subscriber growth had been suffering due to lack of capacity expansion,which was choking its growth figures.BSNL added 2.5 million mobile users in March to its subscriber base, taking its total subscriber base to over 46 million.

Its market share too increased marginally to over 16% from the almost flat 15% that it had been recording in the past months.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Reserve Bank of India cuts short-term rates

The Reserve Bank of India has acknowledged that GDP growth for 2009-10 would be a disappointing 6% unless banks substantially increase their lending to industry and the retail sector. For this, banks need to reduce interest rates on loans, it said.

In RBI’s annual policy statement announced on Tuesday, governor D Subbarao therefore slashed by 25 basis points the repo (the rate at which banks borrow from RBI) to 4.75% and reverse repo (the rate at which they park funds with RBI) to 3.25% with immediate effect.

However, even though the country’s second-largest bank, ICICI Bank, responded by lowering its floating reference rate by 50 basis points to 13.25 % from Wednesday

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Satyam: no layoffs now, but salary cuts possible

Tech Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra on Monday ruled out immediate job losses among the 45,000-odd Satyam employees but added that an integration team “is already in place in Hyderabad to decide on the staff strength” for the acquired company. Speaking at a press conference after the first detailed meeting with the staff of the company taken over by Tech Mahindra last week, he said, “Our immediate plan would be to retain current customers, win back businesses and retain the key 100 associates.”

The plans also include finding a CFO for Satyam, said Vineet Nayyar, CEO of Tech Mahindra. “We are on the lookout for a CFO, who would be decided in the next few weeks.” One of the first tasks of the new incumbent could be asking for a salary cut of at least 10% across all categories, a source close to the company said.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Slumdog creates global interest in Indian goods

Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire has helped rejuvenate global interest for Indian goods such as apparel and jewellery.

According to an e-commerce firm Alibaba.com, which sells products online globally, the movie had bolstered demand for Indian goods significantly in the month of February this year.

There has been 100% growth in the number of searches for domestic products in February 2009 compared with the same month a year earlier, the China based company said.

“February has been a very active month for India-related searches on our website, which we deduced was due to the huge worldwide popularity of the movie (Slumdog Millionaire) and the enormous buzz it generated in the lead up to the Oscars,” Alibaba.com’s senior director (Strategic Business Development Division) Brian Wong said.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Red corridor erupts during phase

Naxal violence rocked Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa today in the first phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections, leaving at least 16 dead, including six BSF personnel, as moderate to brisk voting was reported in 124 constituencies across 17 states and UTs, majority of which lie in the Naxal red corridor.

Shortly before voting began this morning, Naxalites detonated a landmine to blast a bus carrying BSF personnel at Ladup in Jharkhand’s Latehar district. Eight persons were killed and 12 others injured.

Among the dead were six from the BSF. The injured BSF jawans were airlifted to Ranchi and admitted to the Apollo Hospital. “They are out of danger,” said Apollo Hospital superintendent P D Singh.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

India opposes European Union proposal to include animal welfare issues in World Trade Organisation talks

India has opposed a reported move by the European Union (EU) to include animal welfare issues in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations. However, animal activists here, who have welcomed the EU decision, said they would soon petition the commerce ministry asking to hear their concerns on traders meeting out cruel treatment to animals. The activists also want India to agree with the EU on the matter.

Reacting to reports of EU pitching for the inclusion of animal rights in the WTO talks, official sources said these were attempts by developed countries to block exports from developing countries using these new standards. “These are non-tariff barriers to curb exports. It will, in turn, throw many people out of jobs in developing countries,” an official said.

Meanwhile, animal activists in India said they would shortly meet commerce ministry officials in this regard.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Mahindras win bid for Satyam

Tech Mahindra, India’s sixth-largest software exporter, on Monday won the race for a 31% stake in embattled Satyam Computer Services for Rs 1,756 crore, at a bid price of Rs 58 a share.

Venturbay Consultants Private Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of Tech Mahindra, a part of the Rs 33,500-crore Mahindra Group, will acquire over 30 crore shares in Satyam for the 31% stake and an additional 20% through the mandatory open offer to the public.

The Satyam board will now recommend the winner to the Company Law Board for its approval.

The acquisition would catapult Tech Mahindra into the big league of IT services companies, with the likes of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies and Wipro Technologies.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Satyam likely to ask for full bid amount in advance

The Satyam board, which is scheduled to meet on Monday to decide on the technical and financial bids for a 51% strategic stake in the beleaguered IT firm, is likely to ask the successful bidder to deposit in advance the money in an escrow account. According to government sources, even if a successful bidder emerges on Monday, the board would not announce its name. The board will, however, ask the successful bidder to deposit the bid amount for a 31% stake as well as the amount for the remaining 20% to be acquired later through an open offer.

Sources said before announcing the name, the board would intimate the government as the board is a government-appointed one and a final decision regarding the buyer needs to be taken in consultation with the government.

As the bidding process is on, the Satyam board and the top management, in an effort to assure major clients about the continuity in management and that their interests would be protected, held conference calls with key clients over the weekend.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Empowered group of ministers to decide on Reliance Industries Limited gas allocation to power plants

An empowered group of ministers (EGoM) is likely to meet on Thursday to decide on allocation of natural gas from Reliance Industries’ eastern offshore K-G D6 fields to various power plants.

“The Election Commission has given a go-ahead to hold the EGoM meeting at 1 pm on April 9,” a top official said. EGoM headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee would decide which power plant will get how much of K-G D6 gas and when.

Currently, gas-based power plants face a deficit of about 36 million cubic meters per day, while only 18 mmcmd out of K-G D6’s initial 40 mmcmd output has been allocated to them. The meeting was originally scheduled for last month itself but had to be postponed after a senior MP complained to the EC that the ministers’ panel was going to allocate the gas to power plants in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, giving the ruling Congress party in the two states an advantage for making an election promise of giving free power to farmers.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

A chance to touch and uplift lives across the country

E-governance may be the government’s long-awaited redemption for the common man. Ironically though, the government itself may come between the gigantic initiative and its wider spread, but more about this later.

For now,the Rs 25,000-crore scheme,launched in May 2006, is taking off surprisingly faster than the government apparatus would allow. Mobile service providers are raising capacity for data and picture access in rural India,while IT companies have got into partnerships with states to ride the business opportunity that a 600-million rural population offers.

For its scale and the patronage by PMO, awareness about the project is still low. At a recent meeting of a multilateral institution in New Delhi, nine out of ten delegates from business, medicine, law and education said they had no idea about the programme.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Sonia’s a crorepati but has no car or house in India

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has assets worth around Rs 1.38 crore but has no car or house in her name in the country. She owns an ancestral house in Italy, which has an estimated market value of Rs 18.05 lakh.

The UPA chairperson has Rs 75,000 in cash and deposit of over Rs 28.61 lakh in UCO bank, according to the affidavit filed by her before the district electoral officer.

She also has investments of Rs 20 lakh in mutual funds and holds RBI bonds worth Rs 12 lakhs besides 10 shares of Maruti technical services private limited and 500 shares of Western India Tanneries Limited.

Gandhi has invested Rs 1.99 lakh in National Saving Scheme and has a deposit of Rs 24.88 lakh in personal provident fund (PPF).

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

We need H1-B professionals, says United States government

In the first-ever indication of its stand on H1-B visas popular among Indian professionals, the Obama Administration has informed a court that the US needs this scheme to avoid “competitive disadvantage” the American companies could face otherwise.

A submission in this regard was recently filed by Michael F Hertz, acting assistant Attorney General, in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of three US bodies, nine individuals and two students challenging government’s decision to extend from one year to 29 months the duration of foreign nationals with engineering, science and other technical degrees who can work in the US on student visas.

This was a policy decision by previous Bush government, which was challenged in a lower court in New Jersey last year and was summarily dismissed. The same petitioners approached the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia last month.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

United States March unemployment number highest in 25 years

The US jobless rate rose in March to the highest level in 25 years and payrolls plunged, exposing the economy to the risk of renewed declines in spending that would scuttle a recovery, economists said before a report on Friday.

Unemployment jumped to 8.5% from 8.1% in February, according to the median of 79 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The figures may also show employers cut 660,000 workers from staff, bringing total losses since the recession began to 5 million, the biggest slump in the postwar era. Evaporating jobs and declining pay mean President Barack Obama’s pledge to create or save 3.5 million jobs through tax cuts and government spending may fall short of what’s needed to revive the world’s largest economy. Federal Reserve chairman Ben S Bernanke has conceded joblessness could top10%under a worst-case scenario.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Reliance Industries Limited begins gas production from Krishna Godavari -D6

Finally,the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries has begun gas production from Dhirubhai 1 and 3 discoveries in the KG-D6 block,amidst reports that the company may spend an additional $5.9 billion on developing fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

At peak production of oil & gas, the KG-D6 facility would produce over 550,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company had planned to start gas production from September last year and later at the beginning of this year.

As reported by FE on March 2,the company aims at gas production of 80 million standard cubic meters a day(mmscmd) by December-end instead of an original target of 2011.

An RIL release said the initial production of gas from the Dhirubhai 1 and 3 will be sold to existing fertiliser and power companies, which will substantially cut the government’s subsidy burden.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Need for a neutral reserve to replace dollar, says Prime Minister

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has echoed China’s proposal for a new global currency to replace the dollar, pointing out that moving to a neutral reserve asset has been discussed since the 1970s. However,he said it is too early to discuss the issue at the one-day G-20 summit in London on Thursday,as it needs“a lot of preparation”.

The power to issue money is an indication of the power of a country and no one gives up power voluntarily. So, these are complicated issues, depending on the power balance,” Singh told a British daily. “There are virtuous technical solutions, but these are not issues that can be resolved through technical analysis,”he said.

The subject of an alternative to the US dollar has cropped up as Washington has issued massive amounts of currency to finance bailouts for its domestic financial system. The excess flow has reduced the dollar’s exchange rate against the euro and Japanese yen. Lower dollar rates mean forex reserves of countries like China and India are worthless.Data put out by RBI on Tuesday said India lost $33 billion due to such valuation losses from April to December 2008.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Information Technology savvy Priay Dutt launches e-campaign

Even the Supreme Court has turned down Sanjay Dutt’s plea to contest the general elections, his sister and the Congress candidate from the north-central Mumbai Lok Sabha constituency has quietly launched her e-campaign through her website, blog and facebook apart from traditional outdoor campaign. Priya recently told reporters that her brother and actor Sanjay Dutt would definitely campaign for her.

The daughter of Congress leader and bollywood star Sunil Dutt, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2004 poll from the northwest parliamentary constituency defeating Shiv Sena candidate Madhukar Sarpotdar, is not only pursuing an outdoor campaign but also contacting voters through internet.

Party sources told FE ‘‘Priya wants to reach out to a large number of Internet savvy youths and mobilise their support.’’ Incidentally, the Bharatiya Janata Party has yet to find a candidate to give tough fight to Priya.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com