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Friday, January 31, 2014
Tatas to exit Indonesia mine for $500m Looks To Cover Losses From Mundra Power Plant In Absence Of Tariff Hikes
Posted by Unknown at 8:36 PM 0 comments
USUAL REVISION Govt revises FY13 GDP growth to 4.5% from 5%
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AS officer's son tipped to be Microsoft's global CEO Hyderabad-Born 46-Year-Old Is A 22-Yr MS 'Insider'
Washington/Bangalore/New Delhi/Hyderabad: Hyderabad -born Satya Nadella, son of an IAS officer who was secretary to former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, is being tipped strongly to become chief executive of Microsoft, according to several news outlets citing sources familiar with deliberations on the matter.
Nadella, 46, is a 22-year Microsoft insider who now heads the company’s $20-billion cloud and enterprise group. If the Microsoft board, which has been searching for a successor to current CEO Steve Ballmer for nearly five months, goes through with his appointment, he will be the topranked chief executive of Indian-origin, comfortably overtaking Indra Nooyi of Pepsico. An announcement is expected as early as Friday.
Microsoft is currently the world’s fourth-largest company by market cap ($312 billion) after Apple ($450bn), Exxon Mobil ($405bn) and Google ($394bn); Pepsico’s is way behind at $124bn.
Nadella grew up in Hyderabad. His father, B N Yugandhar, went on to become a Planning Commission member, and friends recollect him as “a jholawala, a man with an NGO mindset.”
Nadella studied at the Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, the alma mater of other global business bigwigs like Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe Systems, and Prem Watsa, chairman and CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings, who’s known as Canada’s Warren Buffet. He did his engineering from Manipal University between 1984 and 1988, and then went to the US where he received a degree in computer science and an MBA.
WINDOWS OPEN FOR SATYA NADELLA
Born in 1967 in Hyderabad, studied at Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet
Engineering in electronics and communication from Manipal University
MS in computer science from University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
MBA from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business
Started his tech career at Sun Microsystems, joined Microsoft Corporation in February 1992
First MS assignment was as program manager for Windows Developer Relations Group
Now, executive VP, cloud and enterprise, a $20-billion business at the $78-billion Microsoft Nadella’s strength is the variety of roles he’s played in MS, his weakness is in consumer space
Satya Nadella worked briefly with Sun Microsystems, before joining Microsoft in 1992. At Microsoft, he has worked in a variety of businesses, from core enterprise products to online services including Bing, MSN and the cloud platform Azure.
He is part of a large contingent of Indians, numbering in the thousands, who joined Microsoft in the 1990s, leading former honcho Bill Gates to look at India as both a research hub and a market after he recognized the country's potential on both counts. Microsoft’s Hyderabad campus is now the company's largest non-US-base. The company has nearly 5,000 employees in India out of its 100,000-strong workforce.
The variety of roles Nadella has played is now proving to be his strength. Ashlee Vance of Bloomberg BusinessWeek writes that Nadella is one of the most impressive members of the new bunch of senior executives he has seen at Microsoft. “Crucially, he’s more or less Microsoft’s cloud master and has a firm handle on what it takes to run Bing, Office365, Skype, and Xbox Live. Nadella is also well-liked and respected throughout the industry. And he’s enough of a different character from Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates to inject some new life into the company,” he says.
That’s something Microsoft desperately needs. Once the undisputed king of the computing world, the company has lost a lot of ground over the past decade to companies like Google and Apple on account of its failure to anticipate the revolutionary changes that the internet and mobile devices have been ringing in.
The company is now making moves away from its roots as a software maker to focus on hardware and internetbased services. In some areas it has made good progress, such as the cloud platform Azure and to a lesser extent the cloud-based office productivity tools. But in the crucial area of mobile devices, Nadella has a huge task on his hands, and it’s not an area he has much experience with. Less than 2% of smartphones are Windows-based.
Microsoft acquired Nokia’s mobile business recently to try and do a leapfrog in this space. Patrick Moorhead, president at Moor Insights & Strategy and a veteran of the computer industry, says Nadella may face a challenging time in fixing Microsoft's problems in the consumer space.
“Nadella has a lot of experience, but not as much as someone who typically runs a company of the size of Microsoft. He has spent most of his time in the enterprise space, so I think he would need a very strong lieutenant who gets the consumer market,” Moorhead told TOI.
Vance appears to agree: “What Nadella is not is the radical agent of change or the inspirational visionary that some investors and outsiders have been hoping for. He seems likely to keep pushing on Microsoft’s data center-focused cloud journey and unlikely to take any drastic measures around consumer products.”
If indeed Nadella is the chosen one, everybody would be keenly watching to see the steps he takes to get back the consumer mindshare that Microsoft has lost to Apple and Google.
Posted by Unknown at 8:19 PM 0 comments
Saturday, January 25, 2014
STAY CONNECTED MTNL plans affordable Wi-Fi cover for Mumbai
Mumbai: MTNL is keen on launching "affordable" Wi-Fi facilities at airports, railway stations, Monorail, Metro, prominent malls, restaurants, hotels and households in a big way this year. On Friday, it launched "free roaming" (for incoming calls) in Delhi and Mumbai for nearly five lakh local customers.
Union minister for communication & IT Kapil Sibal, who launched the "free roing" at a function in Powai, said MTNL may be merged with BSNL soon and the synergy will be good for the country, facilitating better mobile and broadband services. He hinted that the merger was awaiting a cabinet nod. "Our objective is to turn Mumbai into Wi-Fi mode in nine months," said MTNL executive director Peeyush Agrawal. "We will tie up with coffee houses, restaurants,
hotels, food courts in malls, airports and stations. The Wi-Fi will be completely secured. We will follow all norms to ensure data protection. We plan to introduce unlimited downloads for as low as Rs 50 a month. The pricing is still being worked out," he said.
MTNL plans to increase the customer base by at least 2 lakh (Wi-Fi users) this year. One of the major problems faced by MTNL in Mumbai is cable theft, which has resulted in hundreds of landlines going "dead". "We have introduced a cable theft circuit system. The moment anyone cuts off or tries to steal a cable, the system activates the circuit and rings an alarm at our control room. We can nab the culprit in minutes," he said.
The new version of Akash 4, the cheapest tablet PC, will be manufactured this year and the price may come down to Rs 1,500 for students, Sibal said.
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BJP poised for best ever tally, Modi set to be PM, say polls
For First Time, Cong Seats May Fall Below 100
In contrast, the UPA and the Congress appear to be facing a rout with both polls giving the ruling alliance less than 130 seats and the Congress perhaps less than three digits for the first time ever. With parties like the AIADMK, the TDP, the TRS and the BJD, all of which would be regarded as potential BJP allies, projected to win 50 seats or more between them, the news for the BJP and Modi couldn't get better.
The India Today-CVoter poll predicted that the NDA would win 212 seats on the back of a dominant performance in the Hindi belt and the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. The CNN-IBN-CSDS poll was not very different in terms of the big national picture, though regional details vary between the two polls.
According to the CSDS poll, the NDA will win 211-231 seats if elections were held now and the BJP alone would bag anywhere between 192 and 210, which would make it the party's best showing ever. 'No major impact of AAP outside Delhi'
At the upper limit of this range, the NDA would need just 41 more MPs to support it to gain a majority in the Lok Sabha.
While agreeing on the big picture, including on the fact that the AAP will not have a major impact in terms of seats anywhere other than in Delhi, the two polls have significantly different predictions for key states. In UP, the India Today-CVoter poll projects that the BJP will win 30 of the state's 80 seats, the BSP 24 and SP 20. The CNN-IBN-CSDS poll gives the BJP between 41 and 49 seats, BSP 10-16 and SP 8-14. Both agree that the Congress will decline drastically from the 21 seats it won last time in UP.
Similarly, while the CVoter poll sees the JD(U) getting nearly wiped out in Bihar, with just four seats, the CSDS poll gives Nitish's party anything between 7 ands 13 seats. Both give the BJP the bulk of Bihar's 40 seats but disagree on the distribution of the rest, primarily between RJD and JD(U).
In Tamil Nadu, too, while CVoter poll gives the AIADMK a decisive edge with 29 of the state's 39 seats, the CSDS poll sees Jayalalithaa's party winning between 15 and 23 seats. In Kerala, CVoter suggests the Left has the edge in a close contest while CSDS feels the Congress-led UDF is well ahead.
One of the regional parties on which both polls agree is the Trinamool Congress, with CVoter giving Mamata's party 23 of West Bengal's 42 seats and CSDS saying it could win between 20 and 28 seats. Either way, it would improve on its tally of 19 in 2009 and could end up being the third largest party in the Lok Sabha after the BJP and Congress. Whether Mamata would be able to leverage this gain in seats could be another matter.
Posted by Unknown at 12:05 PM 0 comments
Friday, January 10, 2014
$4TN TRADE China edges US out as biggest trader?
Beijing: China may have surpassed the United States to become the world's biggest trading nation as its foreign trade crossed the $4-trillion mark in 2013. The final picture will emerge after the US announces its trade figures next month.
"It is very likely that China has overtaken the US to become the world's largest trading country," Zheng Yuesheng, a spokesman for China's customs administration, said while announcing that the country's imports and exports totaled $4.16 trillion last year. US trade came to $3.5 trillion in the first 11 months of 2013, and there is little possibility that it would cross China's level in the last month. China may become the top trader for the first time and stay ahead of the US in total foreign trade by $250 billion once
Washington releases full data for 2013, sources said.
China became the world's biggest goods exporter in 2009. Its imports have also risen steadily.
Chinese foreign trade grew at 7.6% in 2013. The growth rate has fallen short of the government's 8 per cent target. The country's exports rose at an annual rate of 7.9% to $2.21 trillion while imports grew 7.3%. to $1.95 trillion.
China continued to buy less than it sold resulting in a 12.8 per cent rise in trade surplus to $259.75 billion, according to Customs data released on Friday.
The European Union and US accounted to over one-fourth of China's total trade at $559 billion and $521 billion, respectively. Countries in the Association of South East Asia were engaged with China for trade worth $443 billion, up by nearly 11 per cent compared to 2012.
Trade with Japan saw a sharp decline of over five per cent reaching $312.5 billion after a year of acrimonious relationship between the two countries.
Some analyst suspect that a section of Chinese exporters are overstating their shipments in order to bring more funds into the country. Chinese authorities have taken action to curb this trend. The foreign exchange regulator the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said last May it would intensify scrutiny of export voices and impose tougher penalties on firms providing false data.
Posted by Unknown at 10:23 PM 0 comments
Industrial output falls 2.1% in Nov
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Infy narrows gap with peers Revenue Up 1.7% Q-o-Q, Raises Full-Year Forecast To Near 12%
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AAP aims at 1 crore members by Jan 26
New Delhi: The AAP launched a massive volunteer recruitment drive on Friday. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who is also the party convener, said that the party is aiming at induction of at least one crore people by January 26. He also said that the membership fee of Rs 10 has now been waived off completely.
Within three hours of announcing this, almost 50,000 people had joined AAP across India. "The option of joining the party online has been given this time and 47,500 people became members through online registration. Another 1,950 became members through the phone service," said party sources. Till January 7, the party had a membership of almost 2 lakh and a volunteer base of just over 7 lakh. More than half of these people joined the party after the declaration of assembly election results in Delhi on December 8 last year. "Till December 8, the party had 27,632 members and 2.47 lakh volunteers. In the one month after declaration of results, 1.65 lakh people joined as members and another 4.64 lakh as volunteers. We are quite confident of touching the one crore mark in the next few weeks," said sources. The 'mein bhi aam aadmi' drive was launched on Wednesday by Kejriwal with the release of a phone number on which people can register. Senior party member Gopal Rai said that people could register by either calling on this number or messaging on it. Even missed calls on the number would be responded to but only one member will be accepted on one mobile number. "Other than the phone number, people can register online. The form is available on the party website and it can be downloaded and copied. Volunteers can distribute these forms by going door to door or organizing camps. Those who do not have mobile phones can join the party by giving their voter ID information but that will start after January 17," said Rai.
The party was almost entirely dependent on its volunteers and members for its campaign in Delhi. With limited funds and the need to involve as many people in its movement as possible, the party is aiming to induct several lakhs before the Lok Sabha elections. It did away with the membership fee while also admitting that it was not administratively equipped to deal with this influx of people.
Posted by Unknown at 9:38 PM 0 comments
Mhada allots realtor extra 1.7L sq ft area Space Belongs To Adjacent LIG Colony
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Posted by Unknown at 9:24 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
ON THE RISE AGAIN India Inc earnings to hit six-quarter high in Q3
India Inc is expected to post its best earnings growth in six quarters in the October-December (third) quarter of the current financial year on the back of a strong performance by export-oriented sectors and a low base.
Profit after tax (PAT) of companies on the benchmark sensex is set to increase 13% year-on-year (y-o-y) to around Rs 55,000 crore during the quarter, estimates made by leading brokerages showed. PAT growth is expected to accelerate to 16% y-o-y in the fourth quarter (January-March) as earnings slowly move up to levels seen during the boom years. Though India Inc's PAT growth will still be lower than the heady 25%-plus increase seen between 2002-03 and 2007-08, it would be closer to the average of the past 10 years. While growth was concentrated among a few sectors in the previous quarters, several sectors are expected to register gradual improvement in growth rates from the third quarter. "Downgrades to sensex EPS (earnings per share) have taken a breather," an analyst at Motilal Oswal Securities (MOSL) said.
The growth trend emerging from the quarterly results suggest that the worst may be over for India Inc in terms of earnings. After a 3% y-o-y degrowth in PAT in the quarter ending June 2013, profits at 143 companies covered by MOSL grew 8% y-o-y in the following quarter.
PAT growth is expected to be 10% y-o-y for these firms during the quarter ending December 2013. But this is still lower than the long-term average growth of 14%. Only around a third of these firms are expected to report a decline in PAT — the lowest level in 11 quarters.
"The worst is over for most of the sectors. The earnings are likely to be above expectations, especially in IT and commodity-related businesses," said Vikram Dhawan, director, Equentis Capital. Deven R Choksey, MD, KR Choksey Shares and Securities, said, "The earnings for the third quarter will be better."
Telecom, cement and automobiles sectors are expected to report growth after several quarters of decline. In fact, telecom, cement, media, real estate and retail are likely to emerge as the sectors logging the highest growth.
Sensex firms are likely to report 13% y-o-y increase in sales to around Rs 5 lakh crore.
Posted by Unknown at 8:55 PM 0 comments
Sensex ushers in 2nd worst new year Index Loses 500 Points In First 5 Sessions On FII OutflowsInvestors Cautious
Mumbai: Sliding in each of the five sessions of 2014, the sensex is now down nearly 500 points, or 2.3%, from its 2013 close, making this the second worst index performance in its history in terms of points loss. The worst was in 2011, when index had lost a little over 800 points in the first five sessions in the new year. In terms of percentage loss, however, 2014 is the third worst in the last decade, BSE data showed.
Market players blame the continuous foreign fund selling for this loss in the index, which is now 800 points below the all-time peak scaled exactly a month ago. In the last three sessions, the pace of selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) has gained pace with the net outflow figure during the period at about Rs 900 crore now. Other than FII selling, brokers said that investors will take a call after the results seasons begins. "By looking at index movement since the beginning of this year, it seems that market participants are now waiting for earning season to start and accordingly they'll plan their bets," said Jayant Manglik, president-retail distribution, Religare Securities. The October-December quarterly results would start with technology Major Infosys announcing its numbers on Friday.
However, not everyone is convinced that the current trend could be something that investors should be worried about. "Usually, towards the end of the (financial as well as calendar) year we see NAV propping by fund managers. So if such acts could help keep the market at an elevated level, after the start of the New Year we could expect some profit taking," said Arun Kejriwal, director, KRIS.
The silver lining behind this slide in the sensex is the emergence of some buying interest in the mid- and small-cap stocks. "Investors have shifted their focus to mid-cap and small-cap counters and rightly so, as these segments have been showing upward momentum and facing negligible impact despite erratic moves in the benchmark index," said Manglik. Kejriwal, who agrees that the current buying in select stocks from these segments augurs well for the market.
BSE data showed that Suzlon Energy, a Rs 2,825-crore market capitalization company, is up 13% during these five sessions while Ashok Leyland, valued at close to Rs 4,900 crore, has gained nearly 7%. Financial Technologies (FTIL) and Multi Commodities Exchange (MCX) have also gained 46.4% and 23.7%, respectively, but there is talk of merger and selloffs in these stocks.
In comparison, Tata Power is down nearly 13% during the same period, while JSW Energy has lost 8.8% and Tata Steel is off 6.8%. Software stocks too are witnessing profit taking after some of the frontline ones hit their life highs recently. On Tuesday, sector leader TCS closed 1.5% lower while Infosys lost 1.7% and Wipro was down 1.4%.
Posted by Unknown at 8:43 PM 0 comments
Did Diageo help Mallya move out 4,000 crore?
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Cold wave freezes north India, fog hits air, rail & road traffic
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Sunday, January 5, 2014
State’s population grew 16% in 2001-11, cars 158% But Experts Say Better Public Transport Crucial Before Any Deterrents
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