United Kingdom, Europe protectionist steps to make business process outsourcing pie sour

Even as mounting job cuts, owing to the global meltdown, is pushing several countries to take a hard look at their policies, outsourcing, the obvious one, stares at policymakers in developed economies. In fact, UK and governments in European countries are expected to bring forth more stringent protectionist policies with respect to outsourcing,say industry experts. The obvious fallout: India’s outsourcing operations will face the heat with a dent in profitability.

Peter Redshaw, VP-IAS banking & investment services, Gartner Research, says, “In a bid to generate local jobs, the governments in the UK and Europe are looking at adopting protectionist policies with respect to outsourcing. Expect these policies to be more stringent than the ones coming from the US.”

Says Rodney A Nelsestuen, research director, cross industry research at Tower Group, “It’s a kind of political risk that governments are taking.

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

Massive wealth erosion at top biz houses

In the current calendar year, the wealth of India’s top 25 industrial houses decreased 50.3% to Rs 9.61 lakh crore. As the credit crisis deepens in the US and Europe, investor wealth is rapidly eroding with the Sensex losing 41.9% this year alone. From above 20,000 levels in January, the benchmark index has plunged to 11,800 levels on Monday.

Dinesh Thakkar, CMD, Angel Broking, said, “The markets are near their bottom. So a fur ther correction to the tune of 5% cannot be ruled out. I feel the market will take support at 11,000 and bounce back to achieve a sustained growth of 15 to 20% per annum.” The market capitalisation of Jaiprakash, Sterlite, Essar and Hinduja declined significantly this year. The Mcap of Jaiprakash group dropped the most by 76.34% to Rs 12,171 crore. Among the Jaiprakash group companies, Jaiprakash Associates suffered the most. Sterlite Industries led the fall in its group companies’ M-cap which dipped 63.5% to Rs 41,165 crore.

A lot of wealth that was created in the market upswing is being wiped out in the current market meltdown. As the subprime crisis that originated in the US is spreading to Europe, foreign institutional investors are pulling out money from emerging markets.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit:
http://epaper.financialexpress.com/FE/FE/2008/10/07/index.shtml

United States Senate may take up rescue plan today

Shudders were felt on both sides of the Atlantic after the Dow's historic fall on Monday in the wake of the US House of Representatives rejection of a $700-billion financial-rescue package. As lawmakers in Washington scrambled to save the deal,bank rescues spread in Europe and the London interbank offer rate (Libor) soared.

There were indications on Tuesday that the US Senate will try to salvage the package, but lawmakers won't have a lot of room to negotiate. While they need to tweak the legislation enough to win over reluctant Republicans, they'll risk losing votes from Democrats if they veer too far from the delicate compromise that congressional leaders hammered out with the US treasury.

"They're not going to totally revamp the Bill," said Pete Davis, president of Davis Capital Investment Ideas in Washington, who spoke to House and Senate leaders on Monday."They'll make some minor changes and pass it. This is all about political cover."

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

Casino king ready to gamble big on India

Las Vegas Sands Corporation, operator of Asia’s biggest gambling resort, will consider spending $12 billion to build a strip of casinos in India similar to its project in Macau, chairman Sheldon Adelson said.

“We would like to build a Cotai Strip in India,” US billionaire businessman Adelson told reporters at a briefing in Macau on Thursday. “We would be happy to spend $12 billion there” if India invites the company, he said. Adelson didn’t give details of the potential investment. India now has only one legal casino, in Goa.

The Las Vegas (Nevada) based Sands is investing more than $15 billion to build casinos in Singapore and in Macau, the only place in China where casinos are legal, as gambling revenue growth in its home market slows. The company and rival Wynn Resorts Ltd, also headquartered in Las Vegas, are vying for the casino market in Asia, where economic growth is faster than in the US and Europe.

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