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Implement reforms, restore
govt credibility: Tata to PM
Govt may ease retail norms to keep IKEA from packing up
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RBI probing alleged HSBC money laundering lapses
India to grow at slowest pace in 10 yrs: Poll
Microsoft to release Windows 8 on Oct 26
Maruti Suzuki stock tanks 9%, mkt cap erodes by
Rs 3,183 crore
Nokia posts steep loss, further loses mkt share to Apple, Samsung
More British Gas jobs for India
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Implement reforms, restore
govt credibility: Tata to PM New Delhi, July 19 Tata’s reaction was apparently to the recent ‘Time’ magazine article that had termed Manmohan Singh as an “underachiever” while UK-based ‘The Independent’ had wondered if he was ‘India's saviour or Sonia's poodle’. "Attacks on the architect of the 1991 reforms, which brought us prosperity, are sad and unfortunate. It's wrong to single out the PM for inflation, low investment confidence and slow growth," Tata said on micro-blogging website Twitter. "All eyes are on the PM here and overseas in what could be his finest hour in leading the country to economic prosperity once again... Now is the moment when our PM must break convention, restore government credibility, place the country on a growth path once again by implementing promised reforms, removing roadblocks to growth and controlling crony capitalism,” he said. Tata has said that Prime Minister must restore government credibility and once again place the country on a growth path by implementing promised reforms. "Now is the moment our Prime Minister must break convention, restore government credibility, place the country on a growth path once again by implementing promised reforms, removing roadblocks to growth and controlling crony capitalism," Tata tweeted. Slamming the Opposition for the “single-minded goal” of toppling the government, he said: "We should also recognise the enormous damage done by political infighting; the single-minded goal of the Opposition to topple the government... the allegations and accusations of corruption and illegal acts have brought almost all government action He said "government action has been too little, too late" as India has lost growth momentum over the past 12 months with investment confidence declining and inflation soaring. “...but to single out and blame the Prime Minister is grossly misdirected,” Tata tweeted, saying he was “depressed to see the attacks on India” and “felt obliged to express my feelings”. Asking Indians to support Manmohan Singh, Tata said: "He deserves the support of the people of India at this critical time. All eyes are on him here and overseas in what could be his ‘finest hour’ in leading the country to economic prosperity again. He will need to act boldly, to be courageous and to do ‘the right thing’. For the sake of the country, we all hope he will." |
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Govt may ease retail norms to keep IKEA from packing up
New Delhi/Mumbai, July 19 India kicked open the door to foreign retailers in January when it removed an investment cap for single brand chains to set up shop but then shot itself in the foot by imposing a requirement that companies had to source 30 percent from small local firms. IKEA and others have balked, and the government's response is being seen as a test case of how well it can revive flagging investor confidence at a time when economic growth has slowed to its weakest in nine years. Signs point to backtracking on the part of the government, with a top official closely involved in framing retail policy telling Reuters that key clauses may be relaxed although the government was still discussing the pros and cons as well as the extent of any relaxation. "We are in the process of finalizing our views about all this," said the official, asking firms to "be a little patient". Analysts are confident there will be an easing of the rule. "The government is in damage control mode. It realizes it has sent out a wrong signal by putting the 30% sourcing requirement for foreign retailers," said Saloni Nangia, senior VP for retail at Technopak consultants. — Reuters
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RBI probing alleged HSBC money laundering lapses
New Delh, July 19 He said the finance ministry would assist the Reserve Bank of India with the required inputs. "HSBC is a regulatory issue. It’s for the RBI to comment. If it needs any input from us it’ll have to tell us," Mittal added. HSBC's India staff have come under the scanner for deficiencies in their role as "offshore reviewers" of the global banking giant's compliance to safety mechanism against money laundering and terrorist financing. A probe by the US Senate's permanent sub-committee on investigations found that HSBC's anti-money laundering (AML) compliance department, which included employees in India, was highly inadequately staffed. Besides, deficiencies were found in the quality of the work done by HSBC's "offshore reviewers in India", who were used for clearing a major backlog of suspected transaction alerts at the bank. GOVT TO “GET TO THE BOTTOM’: India today said it would "get to the bottom" of the alleged violation of safety compliance by HSBC's staff in the country against money laundering and terrorist financing as it was "serious" matter. New Delhi also said it would seek more information from Washington on the probe by the US Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations which found that HSBC's Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Department, that included employees in India, was highly inadequately staffed. "I think this is a very serious matter and we will get to the bottom of it. We need to get some more information from the Americans. We’ll get that very soon. This has been worrying us," home secretary R.K. Singh told reporters here. Singh was reacting to reports that HSBC's India staff have come under the scanner for deficiencies in their role as "offshore reviewers" of the global banking giant's compliance to safety mechanism against money laundering and terrorist financing. "To tackle this, we have set up a Financial Intelligence Unit," he said. Singh said terrorists were using new methods to carry out money laundering to fund their nefarious activities and the security agencies too had to resort to new strategies to catch them. "Any financial institution that does not follow the international guidelines set by the financial action task force makes the entire world vulnerable," he said. — PTI
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India to grow at slowest pace in 10 yrs: Poll
Even as growth falters, the rupee has been hitting all-time lows against the dollar, the government is struggling with bloated fiscal and current account deficits and inflation has remained stubbornly high, giving policymakers less room to manoeuvre. GDP in India is now expected to grow 6.3% during fiscal 2013 and by 7.0% next fiscal, down from 7.1% and 8.0%, respectively, expected in the last survey in April. Growth of 6.3% would be slackest pace of expansion for Asia's third-largest economy since 2002-2003, when it grew 4.0%.
The International Monetary Fund this week also sharply downgraded growth estimates for India to 6.1% this fiscal year and 6.5% in the next. India's weakening outlook, along with softening in China, means any global recovery from the present economic slump will not be driven strongly by these two emerging economies — unlike after the financial crisis of 2008 when they saw nearly double-digit growth rates. — Reuters
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Microsoft to release Windows 8 on Oct 26
Windows 8 will be available in 109 languages across 231 markets worldwide, according to LeBlanc. Microsoft has promised to make the new operating system available in August for computer, tablet or smartphone makers to build into hardware. It "is simply the biggest deal for this company in at least 17 years," Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said last week, referring to the time since the launch of the game-changing Windows 95 operating system. "It's the glue; it's the foundation of everything Microsoft is built on." Microsoft reported it has sold more than 630 million licenses of Windows 7, and that the software powers the majority of business desktop computers. Windows 7 went public in October 2009. The latest version of the operating system that is the norm for personal computers will also be used on many smartphones and tablet computers, including Microsoft's own Surface tablet to be launched this year. The Redmond, Washington-based firm has gone on record stating that Surface tablets would hit the market when the Windows 8 operating system became publicly available. Windows 8 allows users readily to store and share personal data among various devices under the "SkyDrive" cloud computing service. Rivals Apple and Google offer such services, which let people store digital data on servers in the Internet "cloud" and access files from devices of their choosing. — AFP
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Maruti Suzuki stock tanks 9%, mkt cap erodes by
Rs 3,183 crore
The stock closed at Rs 1,117.35, down 8.74% over its previous closing price on the
BSE. Suzuki's shares closed down 3.8% in Tokyo to their lowest price since February 2009. —
PTI/Reuters |
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Nokia posts steep loss, further loses mkt share to Apple, Samsung
Helsinki, July 19 Nokia shares, which have lost around 80 percent since February 2011 when the company decided to drop its own smartphone software in favour of the largely untried Windows operating system, were up 10 percent after the results. Nokia reported an adjusted loss per share of 8 euro cents, compared with the market's average forecast of 9 euro cents, and held net cash of 4.2 billion euros ($5.2 billion), compared with the market's estimate of 3.7 billion. "After a seemingly endless run of bad news, these results offer a glimmer of hope for Nokia," said Ovum analyst Nick Dillon. In the three months to June, all three major credit ratings agencies cut Nokia bonds to "junk", while the company warned twice on profits and said it planned to cut one in five jobs. Once the world's dominant mobile phone maker, Nokia was late to embrace smartphones and has lost out to Apple and Samsung in the most profitable part of the market. It's fighting back with its new Lumia range phones running Microsoft software, but they have had relatively little success among consumers, who are choosing Apple's iPhones and phones running Google's Android software instead. Nokia sold 4 million Windows phones in the second quarter — roughly doubling from the first quarter — but still only a fraction of Apple's expected sales of 30 million iPhones or Samsung's 50 million smartphones."I think currently the company is too dependent on Microsoft," Varis said. "What happens if this marriage ends? We would prefer to have a second option to Windows." Nokia forecast its third-quarter loss in the phone business would be just as steep as the second at minus 9.1 percent, an outlook that was worse than analysts had expected. "The third quarter is going to be the most difficult quarter for Nokia," said J.P. Morgan analyst Sandeep Deshpande. "I don't think there's anything fundamentally fixed, and a guide of minus 9 percent again in D&S (Devices and Services) came as a bit of a shock to us. So I'm perplexed by the strength of the (market) reaction," said Lee Simpson, analyst at Jefferies & Co. In the three months to June, all three major credit ratings agencies have cut Nokia bonds to "junk", while the company warned twice on profits and said it planned to cut one in five jobs. — Reuters
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More British Gas jobs for India
London, July 19 The company has announced staff cuts at its offices in Leicestershire while launching a 90-day consultation period with 300 members of staff and employee unions, reports from Leicester said. The company did not confirm how many jobs will be lost or where they will be moved, but trade union Unison said they will be moved to India. — PTI |
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Hero MotoCorp Q1 net jumps NIIT Q1 net profit up 40%
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The chairman of the $100 billion conglomerate also hit out at the Opposition, media and “some members of ruling party”, saying it was “grossly misdirected” to single out the Prime Minister and blame him for the economic woes that the country is facing at present.
Bangalore, July 19
Growth predictions for India have now been slashed in six consecutive quarterly polls. All of the 17 analysts who contributed to this survey and the last downgraded their growth forecasts for this fiscal year and next.
San Francisco, Calif., July 19
Mumbai, July 19
