New Delhi, October 2
Debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines may resume flight operations on October 5. This was indicated by airline CEO Sanjay Agarwal soon after a meeting with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation here. He said the company would discuss the matter with employees’ representatives and take a decision.

The DGCA had summoned the Kingfisher CEO with a status report on the crisis. Agarwal, who shared the revival plan with the aviation regulator, said that March salaries would be cleared within the next few days and a decision on restarting operations taken on October 4.

He said salaries of half the 4,000 employees had been paid for March and negotiations were on with banks and tax authorities to ensure the remaining employees got their salaries over the next four months. “50% of the employees have received the salary for the month of March. There are people who want to come to work. But there are others who are not letting others join work. That has to be looked into," he claimed.

Meanwhile, the final decision on Kingfisher’s fate will be taken by the government after the DGCA submits its report. Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has already said that Vijay Mallya promoted carrier would not be allowed to operate flights until certified engineers give a go-ahead on a flight’s safety. “Passenger safety cannot be compromised. The DGCA will send a report and a decision will be taken after that,” he said.

He said the airline would be allowed to resume operations only if the regulator finds the company’s plan to repay wages satisfactory. “We can't allow them to fly until their aircraft is certified. Their engineers (who are on strike) are not certifying the aircraft. They can get the planes certified by other certified engineers also. If they are not paying somebody, they (protesters) have the option to leave or take the necessary industrial action,” Singh said.

Sources said Kingfisher was in talks with foreign airlines for investment and the UB group was constantly pumping in money for daily operations of the company.

Seattle, Washington, October 2
Microsoft Corp is launching its own news operation as part of its new-look MSN website when Windows 8 launches later this month.

The world's largest software company is making a "big, multi-million dollar investment" to create a "decent-sized media operation," said Bob Visse, general manager, MSN Product Management Group.

Microsoft sold its 50% stake in news website MSNBC.com in July to longtime partner NBCUniversal, now majority-owned by Comcast Corp.

MSNBC's newsroom at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington is being wound down, while MSN builds up a news team at its nearby Bellevue offices.

MSN will chiefly aggregate news from sources such as Reuters, a unit of Thomson Reuters Corp, the Associated Press and NBC, but it will also produce its own content, Visse said. He did not say how many journalists the news site would employ.

Microsoft's flagship website, which gets about 480 million visitors per month worldwide, is one of the biggest portals on the Internet, alongside Yahoo and AOL, and serves as the gateway to other Microsoft online services such as Outlook mail and Skype online calling.

The site is being radically overhauled for Microsoft's touch-optimized Windows 8 system and Internet Explorer 10, which will be launched on October 26. The new look is designed to appeal to tablet and touch-screen PC users, who can manipulate large icons across the screen and tap on items they want to read.

For the first time, the site will have a uniform look across all its sections, from news and sports to money and job listings.

Microsoft's foray into news reflects the company's growing interest in creating its own content. Last month it hired a former CBS Corporation executive to run a new studio creating original entertainment for the Xbox gaming console. — Reuters

New York, October 2
Contrary to perception that having a criminal record can impede chances of getting a job, more than half (51 per cent) of the companies in the United States have hired such people, a new survey has said.

Also, hiring managers at nearly two-third of the US companies believe that such persons should be upfront and honest about their conviction when seeking a job, it said.

The study said having a run-in with the law can have long-term repercussions for job hunting, but organizations are open to giving people second chances.

The survey, carried out by research firm Harris Interactive on behalf of a leading human capital solutions provider CareerBuilder, was conducted among nearly 2,300 hiring managers across the US.

Asked what job seekers with criminal records should do to make themselves more employable, 68% of the hiring managers recommended being upfront and honest about the conviction and the stress faced by them.

Other suggestions included being willing to work their way up, staying positive and preparing while in prison (by way of taking classes, getting a degree or vocational training).

The hiring managers also asked such people not to apply to jobs where their record would automatically disqualify them. — PTI

Tokyo, October 2
Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn wants to relaunch retro-brand Datsun with a price tag as low as $3,000 (Rs 1.6L) when it hits the road in 2014, a report said.

The company will target drivers in developing nations — India, Indonesia and Russia, offering the barebones model at prices that put it well below current Nissan offerings, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The paper, citing interviews with Ghosn and other executives, said Nissan is aiming for six Datsun models at between $3,000 and $5,000, a price that only a handful of Indian- and Chinese-made cars could compete with.

To cut costs, the company will source parts almost entirely from the country in which the finished product is to be made and sold. And the absence of rigorous safety standards that would be applied to models aimed at the US or European markets will also help keep the price down, the paper reported. "If you go to the US, it's not going to end up being $3,000," Ghosn told the paper in an article published Monday.

The Brazilian-born Ghosn said a future Datsun would be "modern and fresh" and had to appeal to buyers in developing markets because it would make "them feel good and is in their budget". He aqdded the new brand will be one of Nissan's primary "accelerators of growth", in the campaign to grab 8% of the world market by 2016, up from 6% at present.

All of which means boosting sales in emerging economies, which the company expects will account for three-fifths of all sales five years from now, compared with 43% now.

The resurrection of Datsun marks the return of a car with something of a cult following, more than three decades after it was phased out.

Datsun — the first set of wheels for many adolescents, was a big seller especially in the United States where its sporty, two-door hatchbacks became synonymous with fuel-efficiency during the 1970s oil crisis.

Analysts have said the plan to reanimate the brand could help Nissan get around the problem of producing vehicles cheap enough to compete in emerging markets without polluting existing, more expensive marques.

Nissan's move underscores the growing importance of emerging economies, a key battlefield among global carmakers as growth in developed markets stagnates. — AFP

London, October 2
Consumer spending in emerging market powerhouses China and India is expected to triple by 2020 to a combined $10 trillion a year, potentially helping to boost economic growth and corporate profits in the developed world, researchers said Tuesday.

The study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is based on a survey of 24,000 consumers as well as interviews with business leaders. The business strategy consultancy predicts consumers in China and India will spend a combined total of $64 trillion on goods and services in the decade leading up to 2020.

Annual spending on consumer goods will be three times the level spent in 2010, according to The $10 Trillion Prize: Captivating the Newly Affluent in China and India.

"We’re at a turning point in history where relative wealth will shift from the West to China and India, but absolute wealth, including in the West, should increase," said Michael J. Silverstein, a senior partner at BCG and the book's co-author.

Some of the enthusiasm for India, China and other emerging markets has dimmed in recent months due to slowing economic growth, weak progress with structural reforms and political risks. Emerging equities have also not performed as well in recent years as their developed peers.

But the book's authors played down these worries, saying India and China were experiencing the inevitable volatility in emerging economies.

BCG noted that in India, the proportion of middle-class people is expected to grow to 45% in 2020 from 28% in 2010. — Reuters

Chandigarh, October 2
In protest against the Punjab government's decision to go ahead with the eTRIP (virtual information collection centre) for the excise and sales tax department, over 600 steel units in Mandi Gobindgarh have begun an indefinite strike from Tuesday. Having failed to convince the state government against implementing eTRIP, the industry has decided to shut shop till the issue is sorted out.

As many as 350 steel rolling mills, 100 odd steel furnaces and 150 foundaries and forging units have shut shop in Mandi Gobindgarh. These units together produce 5.7 million tonnes of steel per annum and have a collective sales turnover of over Rs 2,000 crore a year. This strike will not just bring industry to a grinding halt in the steel town , but will have a cascading effect on industry throughout the state. The strike will hit infrastructure industry, including bicycle and auto parts manufacturers, nut and bolt industry, handtool makers and agriculture implement manufacturers.

Mandi Gobindgarh Induction Furnace Association president Mahinder Gupta, said the government was reluctant to withdraw eTRIP, which was detrimental to the interests of industry. "Ever since this has been introduced in the state, the supply of iron scrap, the basic raw material for the steel industry here, has come down by almost 50%. The suppliers are generally small traders, who do not have the infrastructure for e-filing of sale receipts. Since the government has rejected our demand to withdraw eTRIP, we are left with no option but to proceed on an indefinite strike," he said.

It is been almost two months since the state government introduced eTRIP, with the aim to bring transparency in intra-state sale of goods. This calls for information regarding intra-state movement of goods (within Punjab) to be furnished by all persons, making sales of Rs 3 lakh or above in a single transaction on the website of the excise & taxation department. In case of iron and steel, information is to be furnished for transportation of goods having a value of Rs 2 lakh and above. Under the new norms, this information has to be submitted by all sellers on "e-TRIP", which is a virtual information collection centre.

The system was introduced after the excise & taxation department found that of 221,000 registered VAT dealers in the state, only 625 dealers are contributing towards 90% of total VAT collections. The remaining may be avoiding VAT through bogus bills. "This is not an additional tax, we are simply asking the dealers to upload all sales receipts. However, the state government has no intention of harming the industry," said A. Venu Prasad, commissioner, excise and taxation.

New Delhi, October 2
Tata Motors on Tuesday cut prices of its compact car Indica eV2 by Rs 23,000 with the launch of a refreshed version, at a time when other automakers have either raised their product rates or are mulling to do so.

"Tata Motors today launched the refreshed Tata Indica eV2... The Tata Indica eV2 has been made even more economical with a reduction in price by Rs 23,000," the company said in a statement.

The price range now starts at Rs 4,01,162 for the base variant and goes up to Rs 4,87,619 (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the top-end variant, it added.

The company claims that the India eV2, powered by a 1,396 cc common rail diesel engine, gives a mileage of 25 kilometre per litre of fuel.

"The car is also available with an MPFI (Multi Point Fuel Injection) petrol engine to provide customers with a wider choice. Both the engines are compliant with Bharat Stage IV emission norms," it added.

Some of the changes that the company has made in the refreshed version include new exteriors, stylish headlamps, new front bumper, integrated stop lamp and alloy wheels.

Tata Motors' move to reduce prices of one of its existing models by introducing a new variant is in contrast to other car makers including Honda Cars, Maruti Suzuki, General Motors and Audi India, who have wither raised the prices of their vehicles or in the process to do so, mainly due to adverse rupee movement.

Honda Cars India has raised the prices of its three models — Brio, Jazz and City — by up to 2.6% with effect from October 1.

The largest car maker of the country Maruti Suzuki India had also said it would hike the prices of its vehicles and it was working out the details.

General Motors India had said it would increase the prices of all its models to offset the impact of rising input costs and currency fluctuation. — PTI

Madrid/Brussels, October 2
Spain is ready to request a euro zone bailout for its public finances as early as next weekend but Germany has signalled that it should hold off, European officials said on Monday.

The latest twist in the euro zone's three-year-old sovereign debt crisis comes as financial markets and some other European partners are pressuring Madrid to seek a rescue programme that would trigger European Central Bank buying of its bonds.

"The Spanish were a bit hesitant but now they are ready to request aid," a senior European source said. Three other senior euro zone sources confirmed the shift in the Spanish position, all speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said Spain is taking all the right steps to overcome its fiscal problems and does not need a bailout, arguing that investors will recognise and reward Spanish reforms in due course.

Privately, several European diplomats and a senior German source said Chancellor Angela Merkel preferred to avoid putting more individual bailouts for distressed euro zone countries to her increasingly reluctant parliament.

"It doesn't make sense to send looming decisions on Greece, Cyprus and possibly also Spain to the Bundestag one by one," the senior German source said. "Bundling these together makes sense, due to the substance and also politically."

Participants said there were tense exchanges at a eurozone ministerial meeting in Cyprus in mid-September when Schaeuble told his peers Berlin could not take another bailout for Spain to parliament so soon after lawmakers approved up to 100 billion euros to help Spanish banks in July.

Asked about the reports that Germany was urging Spain to wait, a German government spokesman told Reuters: "Every country decides for itself. Germany isn't pushing in one direction or the other."

A spokeswoman for Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said she was not aware of any veto from Germany for an aid request.

"What we are focused on is to get the decisions of the June summit on the banking union implemented. That would send a strong message of confidence to the markets," she said, referring to an EU decision to centralise oversight of the biggest banks to avoid a repeat of a crisis that has some of its roots in the banking system. — Reuters

Chandigarh, October 2
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is organising Invest North, a conclave to showcase investment opportunities in eight states and Chandigarh, in Gurgaon on November 3 and 4.

CII northern region chairman and Fortis Healthcare executive chairman, Malvinder Mohan Singh, said the conclave is being organised in association with the governments of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh, he said.

According to CII, the northern India contributes 25.6% to India’s GDP and accounts for 31% of India’s agriculture production. Malvinder said the “Invest North aims to showcase investment potential, enhance investment climate and attract investments in the se states.”

The BSE, NSE, forex and currency and all commodity markets, expect bullion remained closed today on account of 'Gandhi Jayanti'.