ASIAN
BUSINESS
Tata Motors today said its popular mini commercial
vehicle 'Ace' and passenger variant 'Magic', may soon be launched in South
African, Asean and the West Asian markets.
Tata's mini truck Ace and passenger vehicle Magic,
which together crossed the 1-million sales mark in August, are already present
in 24 countries. "We believe we have much more opportunities. We will be
looking to expand more in South Asia, the West Asia and the Asean (Association
of Southeast Asian Nations) markets," Tata Motors Executive Director (Commercial Vehicles
Business) Ravi Pisharody said here.
"We had the capacity constraint till about March-April. But now we got the expansion going (which will cater to the increased exports)," he added.
The Ace was launched in 2005 with a capacity of 30,000 units annually at its Pune facility. In 2007, the company rolled out the Magic variant to cater to the passenger segment.
Since the success of the vehicles, the company set up a dedicated plant at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand, with a capacity of 5,00,000 units per year.
Total sales of the two vehicles in October stood at 10,59,135, of which domestic sales were at 9,97,133 units and exports at 62,002 units.
"Of the 1 million units, half have come in the last 26 months alone. We look forward for a rosy outlook for this platform and hope to achieve the next 1 million even in a shorter time," Pisharody said.
"We had the capacity constraint till about March-April. But now we got the expansion going (which will cater to the increased exports)," he added.
The Ace was launched in 2005 with a capacity of 30,000 units annually at its Pune facility. In 2007, the company rolled out the Magic variant to cater to the passenger segment.
Since the success of the vehicles, the company set up a dedicated plant at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand, with a capacity of 5,00,000 units per year.
Total sales of the two vehicles in October stood at 10,59,135, of which domestic sales were at 9,97,133 units and exports at 62,002 units.
"Of the 1 million units, half have come in the last 26 months alone. We look forward for a rosy outlook for this platform and hope to achieve the next 1 million even in a shorter time," Pisharody said.
Asian stock markets tumbled Thursday after a ratings
agency threatened to downgrade the U.S. if a solution to the so-called fiscal
cliff isn’t negotiated among lawmakers and newly re-elected President Barack
Obama.
If a deal isn’t reached by Jan. 1, tax increases and
government spending cuts to the tune of $800 billion automatically take effect.
Some economists say such a withdrawal of fiscal stimulus has the potential to
throw the world’s biggest economy back into recession.
Hours after Obama defeated Republican challenger Mitt
Romney in a cliffhanger election, Fitch Ratings said that the U.S. government’s
top ‘AAA’ rating would be at risk if Congress and the president did not
immediately forge an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff. “There are fears that
US lawmakers will repeat the same political divisiveness over key fiscal issues
that led Standard & Poor’s to remove America’s triple-A debt rating in
August 2011,” said analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore in a market
commentary. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index shed 1.7% to 8,822.15. The government
reported that seasonally adjusted private-sector machinery orders, excluding
volatile orders for ships and utilities, fell 4.3% in September.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.4 percent to 21,790.50.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.3 percent to 1,913.68. Australia’s S&P/ASX
200 was 0.8 percent lower at 4,479.60. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan,
Indonesia and mainland China all fell 1 percent or more.
Another blow to investor confidence stems from
corporate America’s less-than-stellar third-quarter earnings reports, said
Lorraine Tan, director at Standard & Poor’s equity research in Singapore.
“Because the market was distracted by the election, it
didn’t really react. But people are now taking a step back and seeing that
earnings weren’t that great,” she said. “With the potential risk to GDP growth
next year, I think people are saying, ‘I’ll take a little money off the table,
because the S&P had a pretty good run.’ " The Standard &Poor’s 500
index is up 10.9% for the year.
ASIAN
MANAGEMENT
Billionaire Julian Robertson is
seeding a new investment partnership that will focus on investing in Asian
equities.
The new partnership, Tiger Pacific Capital LP, will be
headed by Run Ye, Junji Takegami and Hoyon Hwang, according to a statement issued
by Robertson’s firm, Tiger Management LLC. The three were senior members of
Tiger Asia Management LLC, the
hedge fund that was seeded by Robertson and started 2001, which founder Bill
Hwang decided to wind down earlier this year.
Tiger Management, based in New York, didn’t disclose how
much money Robertson and his firm would invest in the partnership. Fraser
Seitel, a Tiger spokesman, declined to comment. Robertson, 80, built Tiger
Management into one of the world’s largest hedge funds by generating average
annual returns of 32 percent, lifting his assets under management to $22
billion by mid-1998. After customer defections and losses cut Tiger’s assets to
$6 billion two years later, Robertson decided to return money to clients and
employ Tiger Management to invest his own fortune in hedge-fund managers,
taking a share of profits in exchange.
Tiger Management has employed at least 40 portfolio
managers and analysts who subsequently formed their own firms and became known
as Tiger cubs. Those he seeded after 2000 with his own capital are known as
“grand cubs.”
Reyl Group has sought to strengthen its presence in
the Asian market with a senior appointment at its Singapore subsidiary.
The firm, which launched an Asian outfit three years
ago, has promoted existing managing director Nicolas Duchêne to the post in
order to help oversee its growth in Asia.
Duchêne replaces Charles Bok, who will focus on
managing and developing his own clientele as a senior executive client partner
at Reyl Singapore.
Duchêne, who joined Reyl Group in 2009, will seek to
bolster links with institutional clients, family offices and high net-worth
individuals residing in Singapore and South-East Asia.
In his new capacity, Duchêne will oversee the Reyl
Singapore team, which is comprised of Asian and European investment
specialists.
Duchêne has local market experience, having spent
three years working in Hong Kong and Singapore for BNP Paribas Private Banking,
where he was responsible for the bank's international wealth planning
activities.
ASIAN
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
The 6th Annual day – Moorchhana 2012 of Asian School
of Business Management (ASBM) is being celebrated with a high note here with
much fanfare.
At the outset, Director of ASBM, Prof. Biswajeet Pattanayak gave the welcome address & said, "Don't lose faith. Don't settle, keep looking until you reach your goal. Quoting Steve jobs, the founder of Apple he added that, Have courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly meant to become. Everything else is secondary."
Speaking on the occasion Guest of Eminence, Shri B. K. Sharma, IPS and Additional Director General of Police, Odisha said " Crime in today's society has crept into our day-to-day culture. And the weapon of knowledge can only alleviate these evils."
Prof. Kumar Bar Das, Vice Chancellor, Fakir Mohan University Guests of Eminence on the occasion also said "Attitude in students plays a vital role to become a good manager besides the education."
A Citation is also presented to Shri Sharma on the eve of the Annual day ceremony for his unparalleled contribution to the society in maintaining law & order.
At the outset, Director of ASBM, Prof. Biswajeet Pattanayak gave the welcome address & said, "Don't lose faith. Don't settle, keep looking until you reach your goal. Quoting Steve jobs, the founder of Apple he added that, Have courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly meant to become. Everything else is secondary."
Speaking on the occasion Guest of Eminence, Shri B. K. Sharma, IPS and Additional Director General of Police, Odisha said " Crime in today's society has crept into our day-to-day culture. And the weapon of knowledge can only alleviate these evils."
Prof. Kumar Bar Das, Vice Chancellor, Fakir Mohan University Guests of Eminence on the occasion also said "Attitude in students plays a vital role to become a good manager besides the education."
A Citation is also presented to Shri Sharma on the eve of the Annual day ceremony for his unparalleled contribution to the society in maintaining law & order.
BANKING
Indian banks are not ready to cut
their loan or deposit rates even after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) pared
the cash reserve ratio (CRR), or the portion of deposits that commercial banks
need to keep with the central bank, releasing Rs.17,500 crore for the banks to
lend to companies and consumers.
Bankers said the 25 basis points
(bps) cut in CRR is too little to move loan rates, and only a repo rate cut by
RBI will give them enough room to reduce borrowing costs for customers.
A basis point is one-hundredth of
percentage point. The repo rate is the rate at which RBI lends short-term money
to banks.
RBI cut CRR to 4.25% from 4.5% last
week. The expectation was that with more money in the banking system, lenders
would be in a position to pare their loan rates. Banks do not earn any interest
on the money they keep with RBI in the form of CRR, so a cut in CRR enables
them to earn more in the form of interest on loans.
But bankers said the CRR cut was too
little to lower lending rates because deposit rates remain high.
UCO
Bank is shedding its corporate portfolio size and focusing on retail and small
entrepreneurs as corporate
business hurts more when economic growth slumps.
The state-run lender has shrunk its corporate assets
by 5% in the September quarter while its retail assets grew 19% with a
conscious effort to rejig the balance sheet. At the end of September quarter,
its corporate assets stood lower at Rs 88,217 crore with retail rising to Rs
33,622 crore. "We are in a transition from corporate to retail
focus," chairman and managing director Arun Kaul told ET on Wednesday.
"We are targeting an overall 16-17% growth this fiscal." The bank's
revenue from corporate banking too dipped 10.5% at Rs 2,314 crore from Rs 2,584
crore while revenue from retail banking grew 18% at Rs 1,045 crore from Rs 887
crore in the last quarter over the previous three months period this year.
The bank's net profit for the second quarter more than
halved to Rs 103.71 crore from Rs 230.75 crore in a year ago period due to
higher provisions against rising bad loans. The lender has booked fresh
slippages worth Rs 1,500 crore during the quarter while one large group in the
oil and manufacturing
sector accounted for Rs 820 crore of it.
BUSINESS
Belying hopes of an early economic revival, industrial
production contracted by 0.4% in September on account of dismal performance of
manufacturing and capital goods sectors, prompting India Inc to press for
interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank.
The industrial output growth rate turned negative in
September after showing 2.3% growth in the previous month. The Index of
Industrial Production (IIP) was at 2.5% in the corresponding period of last
year.
Terming the decline in the Index of Industrial
Production (IIP) as "very disappointing", Planing Commission Deputy
Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the data did not reflect the impact of
recent reforms initiatives which would manifest in the later part of the
fiscal.
Expressing similar views, Prime Minister's Economic
Advisory Council (PMEAC) chairman C Rangarajan said it was disappointing to see
IIP slipping into negative after showing signs of improvement in August and
hoped that things would improve in the coming months.
Meanwhile, the Industry chamber CII stepped up its
demand for 0.5% cut in interest rate by the RBI saying "a complete
sacrifice of growth is not in the interest of the economy".
For the second year in a row, production of apple has
registered a decline in Himachal Pradesh.
With
the harvest season just over, the state has produced around 1.8 crore boxes — a
quarter less than the average production. Most of the fruit was harvested by
the end of October and even now, the last of the trucks from the high mountain
orchards of tribal Kinnaur are leaving.
Even though production was less, it
didn’t result in the farmers managing to get a good return.
The primary reason attributed for
this was the quality wasn’t mostly upto the mark as a dry summer, which result
in poor size and colour of the fruit, played spoilsport.
Late monsoon showers didn’t help
either, turning the fruit blackish.
Farmers also blame the whole sale
buyers for manipulating the market. They say when the harvest began in July,
bulk buyers, particularly those controlling smaller markets within the state,
artificially jacked up the prices.
In July, prices of an apple box
weighing 22 kg in markets within the state was as high as Rs 3,000 a box. But
by early August the prices plummeted to Rs 1,500, while majority of the fruit
sold at less than Rs 1,000 a box.
Farmers say such prices prevail only
when there is a bumper crop, but this year the output was low and the demand
remained high yet prices remained, largely, low.
Only in late September, when
high-quality apples from the highlands of Kinnaur reached the markets did
prices rise again but by then most of the produce had already been sold.
The state-run companies like HPMC
and HIMFED also procured 11,700 tonnes of apple under market intervention
scheme
Toyota is testing car safety
systems that allow vehicles to communicate with each other and with the roads
they are on in a just completed facility in Japan the size of three baseball
stadiums.
The cars at the Intelligent Transport System site
receive information from sensors and transmitters installed on the streets to
minimize the risk of accidents in situations such as missing a red traffic
light, cars advancing from blind spots and pedestrians crossing the street. The
system also tests cars that transmit such information to each other.
In a test drive for reporters Monday, the presence of
a pedestrian triggered a beeping sound in the car and a picture of a person
popped up on a screen in front of the driver. A picture of an arrow popped up
to indicate an approaching car at an intersection. An electronic female voice
said, "It's a red light," if the driver was about to ignore a red
light.
The 3.5 hectare test site looks much like the
artificial roads at driving schools, except bigger, and is in a corner of the
Japanese automaker's technology center near Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture,
central Japan.
Toyota officials said the smart-car technology it is
developing will be tested on some Japanese roads starting in 2014. Similar
tests are planned for the U.S., although details were not decided. Such
technology is expected to be effective because half of car accidents happen at
intersections, according to Toyota.
BUSINESS
MANAGEMENT
Making sheer mockery and utter violation of prescribed
rules, mighty baboos at Pakistan State Oil (PSO) have allegedly done mega
corruption in a ‘controversial’ locally blended fuel oil procurement agreement
which was signed in May 2012.
The Board Audit Committee (BAC) of PSO has unearthed
this tale of notorious corruption in a locally blended fuel oil procurement
agreement of the state-owned oil giant with M/s Bakri Trading Company Pakistan
Limited (BTCPL).
Exclusively acquired documents of Board Audit
Committee (BAC) of PSO showed that this contract, signed by the top baboo at
the PSO in May 2012, was for five years. This agreement was made without any
tenders and was not presented even in the PSO Board of Management.
Under the functions of the Board approved in 1974 and
under the Code of Corporate Governance (CCG), it is BoM’s responsibility to
provide strategic guidelines, and overview company’s policies and practices to
ensure that transparency is maintained and best corporate principles are
upheld. Again, under CCG, BoM has to overview company’s decision to enter joint
ventures, agreements, and procurement of services and supplies.
FINANCE
The rupee's fall to as low as 55.12 to the dollar has
erased a rally sparked by the government's announcements of a slew of fiscal
and economic reforms in mid-September that took the local currency to as high
as 51.32 to a dollar on Oct 5.
However, the rupee has steadily slipped since that
peak, as investors resumed their focus on an economy set to grow at its slowest
pace in a decade and on little prospects of immediate rate cuts as Reserve Bank
of India retains its focus on inflation.
The trade deficit "is negative on the rupee. The
uptrend in headline WPI into 8 percent has come into radar now. The rupee will
need strong support from the euro to prevent extended weakness beyond
55.10," said Moses Harding, head of asset liability management at IndusInd
Bank.
The partially convertible rupee was at 55.07/09 per
dollar, after it fell to 55.12, a level last seen Sept 13. It had closed at
54.75/76 on Friday.
The rupee now remains at near the levels when the
government raised diesel prices and said it would ease foreign investment rules
into the aviation and multi-brand retail sectors, sparking a rally in domestic
markets.
Still, it remains well above the record low of 57.32
hit in late June.
Traders warn more losses could be in the store, after
the rupee fell past the 100-day moving average, which had acted as major
support in recent sessions.
Retail inflation moved closer to the
double digit mark at 9.75 per cent in October, compared with 9.73 per cent in
September, with a spurt in sugar, pulses, vegetables and clothing prices.
The indices are on base 2010=100, according
to data released by the Central Statistics Office on Monday.
The highest price rise in October was
seen in sugar, which rose by 19.61 per cent year-on-year, followed by edible
oils and fat, which went up by 17.92 per cent, while pulses and cereals were
costlier by 14.89 per cent.
Vegetable prices in the month saw a rise
of 10.74 per cent, while meat, fish and egg rates increased by 12.18 per cent.
Clothing, bedding and footwear prices
were also up 10.47 per cent year-on-year.
However, in urban areas, retail
inflation moderated to 9.46 per cent in October, compared with 9.72 per cent in
September. But, there was no respite in rural India, where inflation rose to
9.98 per cent in October, from 9.79 per cent in September.
“All India provisional General (all
groups) CPI numbers of October 2012 for rural, urban and combined are 126.7,
122.6 and 124.9 respectively,” Minister of State for Statistics and Programme
Implementation (Independent charge) Srikant Kumar Jena said.
In its recent monetary policy review,
the Reserve Bank of India had kept interest rates unchanged primarily because
of the unabated rise in inflation
HUMAN
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
ADP® today announced significant enhancements to
its successful RUN Powered
by ADP® payroll platform that now provides small businesses innovative HR
features that allow clients to store, manage and access employee information
and frequently used forms and reports. RUN Powered by ADP now
integrates a human resource system with an easy-to-use payroll solution that
helps small business owners
better manage employees, mitigate risk and improve cash flow.
"Through our partnership with
nearly 400,000 small business clients, we understand firsthand how challenging
it can be for owners to grow their companies while effectively managing human
resource and compliance challenges," said Anish Rajparia, president, ADP
Small Business Services division, ADP TotalSource® and ADP Retirement
Services. "That's why we've enhanced our innovative RUN Powered by
ADP platform so small business owners can focus on growing their companies and
taking care of their employees rather than on administrative and compliance
issues."
Sage North America today announced that it has entered
into an endorsement agreement with Insperity™ (NYSE: NSP), a leading provider
of human resources and business performance solutions for America's best
businesses, to add a new time and attendance business application to its
industry-leading Sage HRMS solution.
Insperity™ TimeStar™ is a powerful, feature-rich,
timekeeping and workforce management solution built on Microsoft SQL Server®
platform that is completely scalable to fit the needs of any size organization.
It enables employers to collect, analyze and take control of employees'
attendance and labor data -- all online and in real time.
"Time and attendance solutions are a high
priority for businesses and their human resources management objectives for
2013 and beyond," said Johnny Laurent, vice president and general manager
of Sage Employer Solutions. "This offering tracks and optimizes the hours
that employees spend on the job, helping businesses maximize cash flow and
minimize waste."
"This transition is a natural evolution of our
long-standing partnership," said Jim Wacek, Insperity Time and Attendance
division president. "For years, Insperity has served a multitude of
customers using Sage solutions integrated with TimeStar."
The customized employee and manager self-service
functionality allows employers to define the features, workflows, employee
hierarchies, reports and even fields of data that each employee population can
access. The application increases accuracy and efficiency in time and
attendance tracking, resulting in substantial cost savings. Collecting and
analyzing this data in real time creates further advantages in job costing, PTO
tracking and scheduling.
Sage HRMS TimeStar by Insperity is available three
ways -- licensed on premises, as a hosted subscription model with per-employee/per-month
pricing or licensed with a managed hosted service. All three options are
integrated with Sage HRMS. For more information, visit:
www.Insperity.com/TimeStar
INDIA
BUSINESS
Industry body CII has launched the India
Business Forum (IBF) in Egypt with an aim to
promote 'Brand India' and support the activities of its members in the country.
The Ambassador of India to Egypt,
Navdeep Suri, will be the Patron of the IBF, a statement said.
The IBF, which is already operating
in various countries including the UK, the US, China, Singapore and South Africa, will be the
voice of the Indian industry in Egypt by showcasing India and the Indian
Industry and promoting 'Brand India', it said.
A business delegation of CII recently visited Egypt and also formalised an MoU with the Egyptian Business Development Association (EBDA) to enhance cooperation between the two organisations.
A business delegation of CII recently visited Egypt and also formalised an MoU with the Egyptian Business Development Association (EBDA) to enhance cooperation between the two organisations.
The delegation also called on Hatem
Saleh, Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade of Egypt in Cairo on November 5.
The delegation also met officials from Ministry of Communication & IT and
Department of Administration.
Afghanistan is "ripe and ready" for Indian investments in
mining and other sectors, President Hamid Karzai
told business leaders in Mumbai on Saturday at the start of a trip to woo
investors for his war-ravaged country.
"We'd like to welcome you with a red carpet, but
you need to arrive at the red carpet," he told delegates at an Indian
industry event in the financial capital.
"What I'd like to emphasise in particular is that
Indian businesses need not be shy when thinking about Afghanistan. The Chinese
businesses were there long before you came, five or six years before."
India has invested billions of dollars in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime's
ouster in 2001 and has urged private firms to invest there, though many have
misgivings about the security climate after 2014, when most foreign troops will
leave. China is also looking to tap into Afghanistan's mineral reserves.
A consortium led by state-firm Steel Authority of India last year won the rights to
develop a huge iron ore deposit in central Afghanistan and a nearby 6 million
tonne steel plant at a cost of around $11 billion.
China won a huge copper concession not far from Kabul,
as well as oil blocks in the north.
However, both Asian giants have been held back in
Afghanistan by security concerns as well as poor infrastructure in the
landlocked, mountainous country.
India also has to tread carefully in Afghanistan
because of the suspicions of arch-rival Pakistan, which
sees New Delhi's expanding role in its neighbour as a move to encircle it.
Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma
told the meeting with Karzai that New Delhi would look at engaging with Kabul to develop
infrastructure such as highways, power projects, Chahbahar port and energy
security.
INDIA
MANAGEMENT
Taking forward its partnership with Nippon Life,
Reliance Capital Group has begun managing the funds of Japanese financial
services giant for investments in India.
Nippon Life, which holds 26 per cent stake each in
Reliance Life Insurance and Reliance Capital Asset Management Company (RCAM),
has made its first investment in RCAM equity funds as part of an expanded
partnership between the two groups, RCAM said in a statement.
Both Reliance Life and RCAM are part of Anil
Ambani-led Reliance group's financial services arm Reliance Capital.
RCAM said the investment from Nippon Life Insurance
(NLI) has further strengthened their partnership, but did not disclose the
amount.
“NLI is a global Fortune 100 company with over $600
billion assets under management. However, they have minimal investments in
India. We look forward to working closely with them to build their India
portfolio and manage sizeable part of their investments in India in the near
term.
“This first investment is a step forward in that
direction,” RCAM CEO Sundeep Sikka said.
Nippon Life's General Manager (International Planning
& Operations) Yutaka Ideguchi said: “This is a step forward for our
stronger business partnership. We truly appreciate the dedicated efforts and
support by the RCAM team and look forward to their expertise in managing NLI
money in India.”
Credit Suisse today said it has launched the single
family office service in India, a move that will strengthen its product
offering for the ultra-rich people in the country.
"The launch of the Single Family Office service
is a milestone for wealth management in India. The need for managing and
growing family wealth has led to an increase in the importance of a trusted
family office ...," Credit Suisse India CEO Mihir Doshi said.
A single family offices serve one ultra affluent
family, wherein a team of professionals, oversees the entire financial needs of
the family like budgeting, insurance, charitable giving, family-owned
businesses, wealth transfer and tax services.
The family office can also handle non-financial issues
such as private schooling, travel arrangements and miscellaneous other
household arrangements.
"A proactive family office allows a family to
structure its wealth to ensure continuity of values and objectives, while
freeing up family members to pursue endeavours that are most important to
them," Credit Suisse Market Leader Indian Sub-Continent and Non Resident
Indian business Raj Sehgal said. India is home to 158,000 millionaires and this
number is expected to rise by 53 per cent to 242,000 by 2017 according to the
latest research conducted by Credit Suisse in its annual Global Wealth Report.
INSURANCE
Shriram
Life Insurance has launched a new money-back term plan. Like any other term
plan, the policy offers to pay a lump sum payment on the death of the
policyholder. But if the person survives the term of the policy, the entire
premium paid during the policy term will be returned. Officials say the new
plan is a refined version of an existing term plan from the company. "We
already have a money back term plan. We made a few changes to it such as
reducing the surrender charges and lowering the age at entry," said Manoj
Jain, CEO of Shriram Life Insurance.
The most unique feature of the plan is the minimum age
of entry of 12 years. No other Insurance
company offers term cover to a policyholder below 18. The maximum age of entry
is also high at 60 years. "Under the previous money back term plan, the
minimum age of entry was 50 years however, it was observed that the entire
productive life of an individual should be covered and the maximum age at entry
is increased to 60 years now" said Jain. The maximum age at maturity is 70
years.
The customer can also choose from four different rider
options available under this plan - accident benefit, critical illness, total
and permanent disability and family income benefit riders.
Family Income Benefit rider is a unique rider which
provides 1% of the sum assured every month till the end of the policy term or
for 10 years, whichever is higher, if the life assured dies in an accident.
For example, if the sum assured is Rs 20 lakh, the
nominee will be entitled to receive Rs 20,000 every month (in addition to the
lumpsum Rs 20 lakh sum assured) for at least 10 years after the death of the
life assured. "A rider like this helps in maintaining the stream of income
even after the death of the breadwinner and it is important for a customer to
take this rider, especially if he is earning," said Jain.
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS
World trade will stage a modest recovery in 2013, with
businesses more confident than some politicians that slow economic growth will
not spawn protectionism, HSBC said on Monday.
The bank said it expected trade to expand about 5 per
cent next year, picking up to a range of 6-7 per cent in 2014-2016, driven by
ever-closer commercial links between emerging markets. The 2013 projection is
broadly in line with that of the World
Trade Organisation, which expects growth of 4.5 per cent, up from just 2.5
per cent this year. It scaled back forecasts in September because of widespread
economic weakness, especially in Europe.
Lou Jiwei, the
head of China's $482 billion sovereign wealth fund, told Reuters in Beijing he
was worried about rising protectionism in some Western countries.
But James Emmett, HSBC's global head of trade, took a
more sanguine view. "If we look at what we're hearing in the market, and
what our clients are saying to us, this is not a topic that's coming up
regularly," he told Reuters in an interview.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper went so far last week as to say protectionism could push the world economy towards a
prolonged recession.
In its latest forecast, HSBC said it expected the
pattern of global
trade to be increasingly influenced by fast-growing Asian countries and by
'South-South' trade between emerging economies.
India-China bilateral trade, which flourished till
last year, is facing a downturn in 2012 with overall trade declining to $55.6
billion in the first ten months, while trade deficit for India has ballooned to
$23 billion.
According to official figures released here, Indian exports to China totalled to $16.3 billion registering 13.3 per cent decline.
The decline was largely due to fall of Indian iron ore exports, which constituted about 50 per cent of India's exports, Trade Consular of the Indian Embassy here K Nagraj Naidu told PTI.
The overall trade figure of $55.6 billion between the Asian nations is a drop of 8.1 per cent year-on-year.
A cursory look at the preliminary trade data shows that exports of different products from India have not been much affected but the main slump is caused by the decline in iron ore exports which was more due to various domestic reasons like restrictions on mining, Mr Naidu said.
Also, exports were partly hit by depreciation of the rupee, which is discouraging the Indian exporter to aggressively market their products in Chinese markets as returns are poor, he said.
Besides, steel consumption in China, till recently regarded as the world's factory for its massive export potential, has come down due to fall in its global markets especially, the EU and the US.
Many Chinese steel factories including the country's biggest factory -- the Bao Steel in Shanghai -- have been closed as a result.
According to official figures released here, Indian exports to China totalled to $16.3 billion registering 13.3 per cent decline.
The decline was largely due to fall of Indian iron ore exports, which constituted about 50 per cent of India's exports, Trade Consular of the Indian Embassy here K Nagraj Naidu told PTI.
The overall trade figure of $55.6 billion between the Asian nations is a drop of 8.1 per cent year-on-year.
A cursory look at the preliminary trade data shows that exports of different products from India have not been much affected but the main slump is caused by the decline in iron ore exports which was more due to various domestic reasons like restrictions on mining, Mr Naidu said.
Also, exports were partly hit by depreciation of the rupee, which is discouraging the Indian exporter to aggressively market their products in Chinese markets as returns are poor, he said.
Besides, steel consumption in China, till recently regarded as the world's factory for its massive export potential, has come down due to fall in its global markets especially, the EU and the US.
Many Chinese steel factories including the country's biggest factory -- the Bao Steel in Shanghai -- have been closed as a result.
LOGISTICS
Siddhi Vinayak Logistics Ltd (SVLL), one of the largest
corporate logistics service providers in the country has tied-up with LOHR
Industrie the worldwide leader in truck and car carrier manfacturers industry.
With this tie-up, SVLL will now possess a supplier
partner who understands the nuances and uniqueness of this industry. In
addition, this tie-up between a global player and one of India’s largest
logistics services provider will contribute to lower maintenance costs,
unplanned downtime and hence lower operating costs for the company.
Trailers from SVLL and LOHR Industrie come with
numerous international features that provide safety and stability to the
consignment. Vehicles in the fleet provide better steadiness and ground
handling that allows drivers to feel more secure and cover additional territories
in a single day.
RC Baid, Chairman, Siddhi Vinayak Logistics Ltd.
stated, “SVLL has for long been a preferred partner for numerous conglomerates
and this tie-up with LOHR Industrie will only strengthen our position in the
market further. This tie-up between two giants in the logistics space will
improve various logistics concepts and the trailer technology currently
available in the country.
Four Soft Limited, a Hyderabad-based transport and
logistics (T&L) solutions provider, has entered into an agreement with TL
Logicom, a Tokyo-headquartered company, which is into transportation,
warehousing, and real estate leasing services and a subsidiary of SBS Holdings,
for the implementation of its web-centric solutions.
Under
the agreement, Four
Soft will implement its advanced web-centric solutions including 4S
eTrans - its multi-modal freight management system, 4S eLog - its extended
warehouse management system and 4S Visilog - its visibility and order
management system, to streamline critical operations at TL Logicom. BalaKrishna
Reddy, head (Asia), Four Soft, said, "The contract will further strengthen
our dominance in the Japanese market and put in place a solid platform for our
overall growth strategy."
Masahiko Kamata, president, TL
Logicom, said, "We required a complete set of integrated software solution
to handle operations covering freight, transportation and warehousing coupled
with real-time updates to those involved in the business globally. We chose
Four Soft's technological expertise, which will enable us in rolling out
enhanced services on a global scale across Japan and globally."
The company's scrip is currently
trading at Rs 9.67, down 3.11% over the previous close of Rs 9.98.
MANAGEMENT
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday said banks
should fix a lower limit for their IBL (inter-bank liability).
“The
IBL of a bank should not exceed 200 per cent of its net worth as on March 31 of
the previous year. However, individual banks may, with the approval of their
board of directors, fix a lower limit for their inter-bank liabilities, keeping
in view their business model,” RBI
said in its final guidelines on liquidity risk management. According
to experts, this would result in banks reworking their exposure limits.
RBI also said banks whose capital to
risk-weighted assets ratio (CRAR) was at least 11.25 per cent (25 per cent more
than the minimum CRAR
of nine per cent) as on March 31 of the previous year, can have a higher limit
of up to 300 per cent of net worth for IBL.
Besides, RBI allowed the limit on
the call money borrowings as prescribed by the central bank for call/notice
money market operations to operate as a sub-limit within the above IBL limits.
At present, on a fortnightly average
basis, such borrowings should not exceed 100 per cent of bank’s capital funds.
However, banks are allowed to borrow a maximum of 125 per cent of their capital
funds on any day, during a fortnight.
Morgan Stanley has launched the sale of its India
private wealth management unit, which manages about $1 billion including loans,
after entering the highly fragmented and competitive market just four years
ago, sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Wealth management platforms are usually sold for about
2 to 3 per cent of the assets under management, although the sources said it
was not yet clear what price tag the unit could fetch. Morgan Stanley has
launched a strategic review of the division, the sources said, a process that
typically ends with a sale.
The review is part of the bank's efforts to withdraw
from subscale wealth management operations globally, one of the sources said.
The sources declined to be named because the sale
process is not public.
A Morgan Stanley spokesman declined to comment. The
bank's India unit sale underscores a growing trend of consolidation in Asia's
wealth management industry as private banks struggle to earn profits due to
rising regulatory costs and wafer-thin advisory fees.
India is a particularly difficult market for wealth
managers as cut-throat competition, high staff costs, weak markets and limited
product offerings have squeezed fee revenue.
Many foreign players had scrambled to open up shop in
India a few years back to take advantage of robust economic growth, only to
find themselves struggling.
MARKETING
NewVoiceMedia today announces that it has joined
Marketo LaunchPoint, the most complete ecosystem of compelling solutions for
marketers, to provide its clients with the ability to close the value gap
between marketing and sales. The solution created from NewVoiceMedia's
ContactWorld for Salesforce and Marketo's marketing platform, will improve lead
generation through an integrated telephony system which enables lead
prioritisation and tracking.
Turning potential leads into sales is a difficult and
expensive task. NewVoiceMedia joining Marketo's partner ecosystem will help its
clients by taking the guesswork out of lead generation, and instead make the
process more effective by targeting potential leads when they are interested
and engaged with a business' marketing. The solution will make it easier for
marketers to identify and build compelling cloud services that have been
demonstrated to be complementary and add value to the marketing and sales
process.
It is estimated that a massive 70% of sales revenue is
lost[1] between the marketing and sales stage. The NewVoiceMedia and Marketo
combination enable users to take control and create a closed loop whereby
interested leads generated by marketing are captured instantly, resulting in a
higher rate of sales and giving businesses an insight into what customers want.
The simplicity of the system also means it saves businesses time and cost,
which previously would have been spent following up the wrong leads.
LIN Media (NYS: TVL) , one of the largest
broadcasters in the U.S. with industry-leading television and digital media
properties, today announced the launch of LIN Mobile, LLC ("LIN
Mobile"), a new company that will provide mobile marketing solutions for
clients nationwide.
Leveraging LIN Media's 50-year
history and its strong relationships with local and national advertisers, LIN
Mobile will help clients effectively market their products and services to an
increasingly mobile-centric population by delivering targeted and localized
media across all dominant mobile devices.
Digital industry veteran Kevin
Wassong has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of LIN Mobile and will
report to Robb Richter, LIN Media's Senior Vice President in charge of digital
media. Mr. Wassong is the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of
digital@JWT, the fully integrated digital branding and e-business arm of J.
Walter Thompson, a global advertising agency. Most recently, he was President
of Minyanville Media, Inc., an Emmy Award-winning, next-generation digital
network that creates branded business content to entertain, inform, and educate
investors of all ages. Mr. Wassong is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of
Communications at Syracuse University.
LIN Mobile furthers the Company's
goal to be advertisers' preferred choice for multiplatform marketing
opportunities and provide its customers with a unified digital media strategy
and more sophisticated offerings, including a leading comScore, Inc.-ranked
network, performance marketing technology, and SaaS content management,
engagement and monetization solutions - all under one roof.
ODISHA
BUSINESS
Delay in commissioning of gas pipelines passing
through Odisha seems to have poured cold water over Tata Power's plan to set up
a gas-based power plant in the state.
Tata
Power had proposed a 2,000 MW coal-fired power project at Naraj near Cuttack.
But, mounting protests from green activists owing to the deleterious impact of
emissions from the power station on wildlife at the nearby Chandaka-Dampada
sanctuary had forced the company to switch to gas-based mode. The
company had thereafter submitted a revised application to the state government
for a gas-based plant, presumably banking on supplies from the Surat-Paradip
natural gas pipeline proposed by GAIL India Ltd.
The Surat-Paradip pipeline will
cover a distance of 400 km in Odisha. In addition to this pipeline, the 1100-km
Kakinada-Howrah pipeline, which is under construction, is set to cover 434 km
in the state.
"The gas pipelines are not
likely to be commissioned before 2017. Against this backdrop, Tata
Power may not be keen on gas-based plant. Since the company has
already proceeded significantly on land acquisition and ordered equipment, it
is not in a position to wait for five years”, said an energy department
official.
Tata Power, however, said it is
still keen on the gas-based power plant.
Asked if delay in gas availability
would hurt the project's prospects, a company official said, “All I can say is
that we are going to stick to the revised application that we have submitted to
the state government.”
The company's coal-based plant had
hit a roadblock owing to its proximity to the Chandaka-Dampada wildlife
sanctuary. The plant site was located within a distance of only 1.5 km and
wildlife clearance was mandatory for any project to be located within 10-km
radius of a national park or wildlife sanctuary.
With almost all independent power producers (IPPs)
refusing to offer free power from their coal-based plants proposed in Odisha,
the state government is mulling to drop 'free power' clause from its
comprehensive thermal policy on the pipeline.
“Almost
all IPPs that have signed MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with the state
government are reluctant to offer free power to the state grid. The power
producers say since they have achieved financial closure and already tied up
power sale agreements, they would not be in a position to provide free power.
This has prompted us to revisit the proposed policy on thermal power plants.
There is every possibility that the state government will do away with the
provision for free power”, an official source said. The
state government's letters to IPPs, seeking their commitment on supplying free
power drew a blank.
“We have not agreed to the state
government's proposal for free power. With input costs escalating, the
promoters of power plants are making limited profits. No project proponent will
agree to offer free power as it will render the power project unviable”, said a
senior official of Ind-Barath Energy Utkal Ltd (IBEUL).
Ind-Barath's first unit with a capacity of 350 MW is set to go into generation from March 2013 with the second unit of equal capacity scheduled to be commissioned by June 2013. The company proposed to set up a 1360 Mw power station at an investment of Rs 6450 crore. It has already invested Rs 2000 crore on the power project.
Ind-Barath's first unit with a capacity of 350 MW is set to go into generation from March 2013 with the second unit of equal capacity scheduled to be commissioned by June 2013. The company proposed to set up a 1360 Mw power station at an investment of Rs 6450 crore. It has already invested Rs 2000 crore on the power project.
RETAIL
A spanner may have been thrown in the government works
on foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. The issue came up in
a public interest suit that alleged the government had allowed 51 per cent FDI
into the multi-brand retail sector without framing rules and regulations and
without the assent of both houses of Parliament. The petition, moved by Supreme
Court lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma, was taken up on October 1.
While replying to the Supreme Court, Attorney General
G Vahanvati had said three amendments had been notified on October 30, enabling
the government to allow FDI into the multi-brand retail sector. The changes
were made to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Transfer of Security by a
Person Resident Outside India) Regulations, 2012. The Supreme Court adjourned
the hearing of the PIL till January 22 next year. While doing so, Justice Lodha
said to Sharma, “Why do you presume that the government will not place the
amendments before Parliament? If the provisions require them to do so, they
will have to do it. Your apprehensions are premature and unfounded. If
Parliament does not approve the amendments, it will be at their [the Centre’s]
own risk and peril.” The bench said the matter was being adjourned to the new
year in the expectation the changes in the Fema (Foreign Exchange Management
Act) would be brought in the winter session of Parliament.
Nokia India and Spice Retail have been directed by a
consumer forum here to refund Rs 11,909 to a customer and pay her a
compensation of Rs 5,000 for selling her a defective mobile phone and failing
to repair it.
The East District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum
gave the order relying on uncontested affidavit of Delhi resident Susham Lata
Bhulania, who said the Nokia service centre had failed to rectify the defects
in her phone.
"Contents of the affidavit of complainant
(Bhulania) are unrebutted, they cannot be ignored and have to be taken as true
regarding defects stated therein and in light of the papers filed in evidence
by complainant, it is sufficient for holding respondents guilty of deficiency
of service. “We allow this complaint. The respondents (Spice Retail and Nokia
India) are directed jointly and severally to pay the cost of mobile handset
which is Rs 11,909. Complainant had been harassed and deprived of the service
of the phone which she had purchased for her use. We allow compensation of Rs
5,000 which includes litigation charges," the bench presided by N A Zaidi
said.
SUPPLY
CHAIN
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is creating a Supply
Chain Finance Program (SCFP) that will bring over $1 billion to help cash-
strapped small and medium-sized enterprises in Asia and the Pacific access
capital that can help them grow.
The ADB is supplying up to $200 million for the SCFP,
which will revolve at least twice a year because of the short-term maturities
involved in supply chains, said ADB press statement received here.
Furthermore, the $200 million is estimated to attract
an additional $300 million, at least, in private sector investment through the
SCFP, it added.
"Many small companies currently face lags of 30
to 180 days between the time they ship goods and when payments are received,
leaving them short of cash flow that forces some to slow production or delay
the processing of other contracts," said Philip Erquiaga, Director General
of ADB's Private Sector Operations Department.
As the city continues to recover
from both Sandy's damage and a follow-up nor'easter, Mayor Michael Bloomberg on
Thursday signed an executive order to enact odd/even gas rationing measures
across the five boroughs.
Starting Friday at 6 a.m. passenger
vehicles with license plates ending in an odd number, a letter or other
character will only be able to fill up at the pump on odd number days.
Those ending in an even number or a
zero will only be able to fill up on even number days.
It will remain in effect until
further notice.
Commercial vehicles, emergency
vehicles, buses and paratransit vehicles, medical doctor plates and vehicles
licensed by the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission are exempt.
The rationing effort will also be in
place in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Mayor Bloomberg says the measure
aims to cut down long gas lines being experienced by drivers here in the city
and beyond.
"This is not a step that we take
lightly. But, given the shortage we will face over the next few weeks, and the
growing frustrations of New Yorkers, we believe it is the right step,"
Bloomberg said. Mayor Bloomberg says a similar
system enacted in New Jersey has cut down wait times from two hours to 45
minutes.
Both the mayor and Governor Andrew
Cuomo say the main problem is getting the fuel from terminals to stations.
Tankers are facing long waits to get
refilled at the terminals and long lines of cars are complicating the process
of distributing the gas to the stations.
______________________________________________________________________
Source of
Information for this issue: Google alert accessed on 12th, 13th Nov 2012
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suggestions in improving this information updating service.
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Compilation
Sabita Sahu
Sabita Sahu
Professional Library
Trainee
Concept, Layout and
Editing
Syamaghana Mohanty
Chief Librarian
Chief Librarian
Information and
Documentation Division, Chanakya Central Library
Asian School of
Business Management
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Barang Khurda Road,
Chandaka
Bhubaneswar-754012
Tel:0674-2374832, 2374833
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