Faced with global shortage of offshore drilling rigs, the government today decided to give a three-year drilling holiday or moratorium to firms such as state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Reliance Industries.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved a drilling moratorium from January 1, 2008, on 30 exploration blocks -- 16 of ONGC, 13 of Reliance Industries (RIL) and one of Italy's Eni, official sources said.

Companies such as ONGC and RIL have not been able to meet their work commitments for the blocks they had won under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) rounds because of a crunch in availability of deep-sea drilling rigs.


A-36
Credits--www.Business-Standard.com

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on its 1ST DAY Hindustan Media's Rs 270 cr IPO sees very low response

At the end of first day, the IPO of got bids for just 45,600 shares, as against 1.38 crore equities on offer for public, as per the data with the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Only retail buyers bid for the issue. They bid for 45,600 shares, against 49.79 lakh equities reserved for them, thereby getting subscribed 1 per cent, according to the NSE data.

In other categories (QIB and HNIs), the issue remained unsubscribed, as per the NSE data.

HMVL, promoted by HT Media Ltd -- the publisher of leading English dailies the Hindustan Times and Mint -- has entered into the capital market with its IPO priced between Rs 162 to Rs 175 per share. The offer closes on July 7.

The firm plans to raise Rs 270 crore through the IPO and proceeds will be used for expansion and pre-payment of debt.

The publication house has roped in a group of 13 anchor investors, including Reliance Capital Trustee Co and SBI, to whom about 27.78 lakh shares would be allocated at a price of Rs 166 per equity share aggregating Rs 46.10 crore.

HMVL is a 98.85 per cent subsidiary of HT Media. Till November 2009, HMVL's business comprised the printing work for Hindustan, the Hindi daily of the HT Media group.

In November, 2009, the entire Hindi publication business comprising the daily Hindustan and magazines Nandan and Kadambini were transferred by the parent company to HMVL on a slump sale basis. Thus, now HMVL shall run the Hindi business of the HT Media group.

The IPO is based on a 100 per cent book building process and shares offered through the issue are proposed to be listed on the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Edelweiss Capital and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company are the book running lead managers to the issue.

Shares of HT Media today closed at Rs 144.2, down by 1.64 per cent, on the BSE. The trading session of the Dalal Street was choppy and the BSE benchmark Sensex settled 19.51 points lower at 17,441.44.

A-8
Credits--http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

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South Indian Bank has tied up with Bank of New York Mellon to facilitate remittances from the US to India.
V.A. Joseph, the bank's managing director, told that Malayalam superstar Mammootty, the bank's global brand ambassador, would launch this facility at Kochi on Friday.
The South Indian Bank has 580 branches spread across 26 Indian states.

(source : headlinesindia)

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India is set to add 347,463 jobs in the organised sector by the end of the first quarter of this fiscal as the robust turnaround in the economy has encouraged organisations to recruit new employees, says a global manpower consulting firm.
A study by Ma Foi Randstand reveals that 153,564 jobs were created during January-March 2010 and another 347,463 are to be added by June-end.
"The pace of job creation in India, in fact, is little faster than what we envisaged in our study," said Ma Foi Chief Executive K. Pandia Rajan, releasing the study here.
Detailing the city-wise employment trends, Rajan said the national capital region is set to emerge as largest employment opportunity provider with 38,350 jobs, followed by Mumbai (27,650 jobs) and Chennai (11,900 jobs).
The organised sector in India accounts for merely 9 percent of jobs. The government, the public sector and the private sector each contribute to one third of jobs in the organised sector, Rajan said.
The latest projection for job creation during April to June and estimates of actual job creation from January to March 2010 for the organsied sector was arrived at after surveying the employment trends in 650 companies across 13 industry sector in eight major cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune, said Rajan.
The 13 industry sectors from which the data was generated during the survey included banking, financial service and institutions (BFSI), Information Technology and IT Enabled Services (IT and ITES), pharma, healthcare, trade, including consumer retail service, energy, transport, storage and communication, real estate and construction, hospitality, media and entertainment.
The other three industry sectors which were included in the survey were manufacturing of non-machinery and equipments, education, training and consultancy.

(source : headlinesindia)

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Nasdaq listed Cognizant Technology Solutions, a Chennai based IT solutions company, today announced the acquisition of Paris based Galileo Performance, an IT testing and consulting company, for an undisclosed sum.

Galileo offers optimization of business performance to French corporates through IT system measurement, management and testing.

"The acquisition will enable Cognizant to offer testing services to the French market. The addition of French speaking consultants will help us better," Francisco D'Souza, Cognizant's president and CEO said.

Outsourced testing services have been growing significantly as this lowers the cost of quality assurance, software maintenance and ensuring tighter alignment of IT with business objectives and risk mitigation.

(Source : Headlinesindia)

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Saudi Arabia has launched its own car named 'Ghazal-1'. The Ghazal makes history as it is the first indigenously developed car for the Saudi conditions.
The car which is designed to suit the desert conditions in Saudi Arabia is developed by is designed by engineers at King Saud University (KSU). The car is an SUV with a unique design and tough build.
Currently Toyota is the leading car seller in the Saudi - Gulf region.

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Although India has become synonymous with outsourcing, Indian companies created nearly 60,000 jobs in the US between 2004-09 through nearly 500 investment and acquisition deals worth USD 26.5 billion.
This fact was highlighted in a report, "How America Benefits from Economic Engagement with India", released by influential Congressman Jim McDermott in the presence of India's Deputy Ambassador to the US Arun Singh.
The study comes on the heels of US President Barack Obama ending tax incentives to US companies that move jobs outside the country. Instead, his government would route the incentives to those creating jobs inside the US, he had said last year.
"We will stop letting American companies that create jobs overseas take deductions on their expenses when they do not pay any American taxes on their profits," Obama had said.
The report released yesterday investigates one specific aspect of globalisation of the American economy, namely, the United States-India business relationship.
During 2004-2009, 90 Indian companies made 127 greenfield investments worth USD 5.5 billion, and created 16,576 jobs in the US. Greenfield investments are investments made to start a new venture by constructing new operational facilities from the ground up.
The top three destination states for greenfield investments were Minnesota, Virginia and Texas, in that order.
It is noteworthy that the software and IT services sector, which account for bulk of the outsourcing deals, received less than 15 per cent of the total investment. The investments mainly were in mining, manufacturing, and other industries, the report said.
The top three states in terms of jobs created were Ohio, Texas, and California, the report said.
During 2004-09, 239 Indian companies made 372 acquisitions in the United States.
The five US industrial sectors that received the most greenfield investment were Metals; Software & IT Services; Leisure & Entertainment; industrial machinery, equipment & tools; and financial services, accounting for almost 80 per cent of total greenfield investment in the US.
The report, jointly produced by University of Maryland, India-US World Affairs Institute and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, gives a comprehensive analysis of America's economic engagement with India during the period 2004 to 2009.

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In the second such incident within a week, an Indian-owned jewellery shop in the city's Belgrave Road was robbed of goods worth thousands of pounds, a media report said on Wednesday.
Jitendra Vaitha of Bipin Jewellers said he saw how the robbery took place on the CCTVs installed outside and inside the shop.
The gang used a heavy duty cutter to slice through the security shutters of the shop late on Monday night and entered the shop by breaking the toughened glass window with a sledge hammer.
"There were three of them. They cut the grille first and then smashed the window. Then one got in and took goods from the window display," Vaitha was quoted by the Leicester Mercury as saying.
This is the second such incident since robbers on Tuesday drove a van into the entrance of Alankar Jewellers, also on Belgrave Road, in broad daylight and robbed it.
Shop keepers at the jewellery market on Belgrave Road, known as Leicester's Golden Mile, are now apprehensive about security in the area. This is the seventh robbery reported within a year.

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Britain will stop giving aid money to China and Russia, as "it is not justifiable" any longer, the UK government has said.
International Developement Secretary Andrew Mitchell announced a review into how the UK funds overseas development work in around 90 countries.
"The money will be redirected towards those countries where they can make the most difference," he said.
In 2008-09, China received more than £40m, while Russia got £190,000.
Britain's annual bilateral aid budget stands now at £2.9bn.
Mr Mitchell said that, apart from Russia and China, "other country programmes which are less effective will be closed or reduced".

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Lakshmi Venu, the daughter of TVS Motor chief Venu Srinivasan, has joined the board of Sundaram Clayton. The board of directors of Clayton, which met on Monday, inducted Lakshmi Venu, 25, as an additional director and she would be in-charge of strategy for five years.

The heiress of the TVS group is a graduate from the Yale University and holds a doctorate in engineering management from the University of Warwick. Besides, Venu underwent her initial training for three years as a management trainee in Sundaram Auto Components Limited, a subsidiary of Sundaram Clayton, beginning from 2003. Her younger brother, Sudarshan Venu, is at the Wharton School.

"Lakshmi Venu was also deputed to work in TVS Motor, another subsidiary of Sundaram Clayton, wherein she, pursuant to an extensive in-depth induction, has been working in the areas of business strategy, corporate affairs, product design and sales and marketing," a statement from Sundaram Clayton said.

The board of Sundaram Clayton already has other senior family members including Suresh Krishna (chairman of Sundram Fasteners), K Mahesh (CMD of Sundaram Brake Linings), T K Balaji (chairman of Lucas TVS), Gopal Srinivasan (CEO of TVS Capital Funds), besides Venu Srinivasan. Venu will be the eleventh director on the board.

"Venu went through the normal process of induction where she went through as a management trainee. The board thought that with her educational qualification she should be given additional responsibility and she will look after strategy for Clayton and TVS Motor," Venu Srinivasan told TOI.

Venu's mother, Mallika Srinivasan, manages the tractor major, Tafe, Venu Srinivasan heads TVS Motor and Sundaram Clayton with annual revenues in excess of $1 billion. 

vpost : 08

Source : Times of India

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The BSE Sensex (^BSESN : 17530.29 +11.03) was set for solid gains in 2010, driven by earnings optimism and supported by robust economic growth, albeit at a slower rate than last year, a Reuters poll found.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was seen rising 3.6 percent by mid-year and by nearly 11 percent by end-2010 from Tuesday's close at 17,383, according to the median forecast of 20 brokerages and investment houses.

The benchmark was expected to rise to 18,000 points by end-June and end 2010 at 19,250. Forecasts ranged from 13,800-21,500. The year-end figure was up from 19,000 in a December poll.

"Earnings growth will clearly be a driver for the market this year," said Manish Sonthalia, fund manager of portfolio management services at Motilal Oswal, who expects the Sensex to touch 19,000 by end the of the year.

Asia's third-largest economy will expand by more than 7.2 percent in the year to March 2010, with growth accelerating to 8.5 percent in 2010-11 and 9 percent in 2011-12, according to government forecasts.

The Mumbai benchmark stock index rose 81 percent last year after the economy was spared the worst of the global economic downturn, with foreign investors pumping in $17.5 billion. 

For more news, click here

http://in.biz.yahoo.com/100317/137/bav92k.html

vpost : 03

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Isha Ambani: A rich female billionaire from India

Isha Ambani: A rich female billionaire from India

Till date, it was the sons who used to get all the attentions in India but things are changing. Now, like the sons, the daughters are also making their marks. Meet Isha Ambani, daughter of Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries. She is now one of the richest heiresses on Forbes’ list. In 2008, at the age of sixteen, she made it to the number two spot on the list of “Forbes top 10 billion heiresses” with a net worth of $80 million. The number one spot was taken by Vanisha, daughter of Lakshmi Mittal. In 2004, Lakshmi Mittal threw a lavish wedding party for Vanisha, where he spent $60 billion. Vanisha is currently serving as a director on the board of Lakshmi Mittal’s $103 billion steel company, ArcelorMittal.

Isha Ambani is the only daughter of Mukesh Ambani. She now appears in various functions with her father. Isha Ambani follows a simplistic approach towards life just like her father, Mukesh Ambani. She wears simple dresses. Recently, she appeared in a party with her father wearing a simple white kurta with gold and magenta trim, trendy tights, diamond drop earrings and tiny pink bindi. She was looking very beautiful and elegant. I was browsing the Internet reading about her and came across two pictures of Isha Ambani.

This picture was taken when she was sixteen years old. She looks like an ordinary teenage girl. Here are two more pictures of Isha Ambani along with his family.

Isha has a very good academic background. She remained the head girl in the Dhirubhai Ambani School. Like her father, Isha shares kin interest in business, art and sports. Isha Ambani also has very good leadership capabilities. It is only a matter of time that we would see Isha following her father’s foot steps and taking over the Ambani business empire. However, the biggest question remains- Would she be able to live up to everybody’s expectations and take the Ambani business to the next level?

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Today, 26th February 2010, Union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee will present the Finance Budget 2010 - 2011 in Parliament at around 11 am.

Partial rollback of stimulus packages is the most speculated issue in this budget season and thus, all eyes would be on Pranab Mukherjee as he would table the Budget 2010-11 in Parliament.

The Economic Survey released yesterday, suggested an increase in taxes and duties as a part of partial withdrawal of stimulus packages, offered to cope up with the global economic meltdown.

“The broad-based nature of the recovery creates scope for a gradual rollback, in due course, of some of the measures undertaken over the last 15 to 18 months,” said the Survey.

vpost : 01

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For more details, click here

BAJAJ MAJESTY RICE COOKER Review, BAJAJ MAJESTY RICE COOKER Price ...

Mar 2, 2009 ... Bajaj Majesty Rice Cooker reviews and Write a Review on Bajaj Majesty Rice Cooker. Product review of Bajaj Majesty Rice Cooker, ...

www.mouthshut.com 

 

vpost : 01

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India's largest IT exporter, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced its third quarter results of FY10. It has reported 12.32% jump in its Q3 net profit of Rs 1,824 crore as against Rs 1,623.9 crore in the previous quarter.  

In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18, Pankaj Kapoor, RBS Equities, speaks about the results and gives his outlook going forward.

Here is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with Pankaj Kapoor on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

vpost : 04

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SBI ties up with India Post 

 

ALLIANCE FOR POSTAL SERVICE: Niranjan Parsha, General Manager, SBI, Kerala circle, and Mervin Alexander, Director of Postal Services, India Post, Kerala Circle, exchanging the agreement signed between them.

Thiruvananthapuram: The State Bank of India has entered into an alliance with India Post, for making available to the public some of its services.

An agreement to this effect was signed on Wednesday. Under this arrangement,

India Post will act as a Business Facilitator/Business Correspondent of SBI and help extend banking services especially in un-banked/under-banked areas.

Select post offices will make available to the public SBI’s deposit and loan products.

 vpost  : 03

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NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday decided to disinvest 10% of its holding in state-owned technical services company Engineers India Limited

(EIL) through a public offer. Post-issue , government’s shareholding in the company would come down to 80.40%.
The decisions was taken by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

EIL is a listed entity with government holding of 90.40% and balance holding with the general public. The decision to disinvest more government holding has been taken as the company at present has less than 10% mandatory public shareholding.

EIL shares closed 5% higher at Rs 1,738 on news of a possible disinvestment of government shares in the company. During the trading session the share also touched an all-timehigh of Rs 1,790 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

At the last closing price, the government could raise Rs 1,000 crore through divestment. 

vpost : 03

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Infosys Q3 Results: $334M Profit; FY 2010 Expected Revenues $4.75B

 

Infosys Technologies announced results for the Quarter ended December 31, 2009. Q3 revenues sequentially grew by 6.8%. Revenues were $1,232 millionNet Income after tax was $334 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. and the

“Global economic recovery seems to be led by the U.S. and the Financial Services, even though IT budgets are expected to be flat in 2010, offshore outsourcing is expected to benefit from this recovery”, says S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and Managing Director.

Business Outlook under IFRS

The company’s consolidated outlook for the quarter ending March 31, 2010 and for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, under IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), is as follows:

For the Quarter ending March 31, 2010, consolidated revenues are expected to be in the range of $1,240 million and $1,250 million; YoY growth of 10.6% to 11.5%.

For the Fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, consolidated revenues are expected to be in the range of $4.75 billion and $4.76 billion; YoY growth of 1.8% to 2.0%.

Expansion of services and significant projects

• During the third quarter, Infosys launched Flypp, an application platform that enables mobile service providers to enhance customer experience with a host of ready-to-use experiential applications across several devices.
• A health insurance major bought Infosys’s iTransform product suite that assists clients in complying with the U.S. Federal Government’s mandates on HIPAA 5010 and ICD 10 standards, efficiently and cost effectively.
• A Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) major bought the ‘Procurement’ module of ‘Supply Chain Visibility’ product suite to cut sourcing cycle times and leakages in procurement spend through better monitoring, compliance and governance mechanisms.
• One of the largest retailing companies selected Infosys as a partner in its Future Store Initiative to advance cutting-edge technologies and innovative shopping concepts. Infosys was chosen for ShoppingTrip360 solution, an innovative managed service that offers retailers and CPG companies insights into real-time shopper and shelf activity.
• A grocery retailer in the U.K. partnered with Infosys to develop a new multi-channel web platform to bring about an integrated, wholesome online experience.
• A leading provider of security testing software solutions engaged Infosys to engineer leading-edge penetrative testing products.
• Infosys is building a Patient Appointment Scheduling System for a provider of medical laboratory tests and services. The system will allow a patient to schedule an appointment at any of the company’s 1,000-plus patient service centers.
• Infosys is helping a leading provider of virtualization, networking and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technologies to design its architecture for Master Data Management.
• A telecom service provider sought Infosys’s help to build and manage its online portals and enhance its online presence.
• Infosys is working with a communications major in the field of wireless 4G development.
• A manufacturer of language translation software engaged Infosys as a Quality Assurance (QA) partner to design, automate and test its next major release of desktop products suite.
• A high tech major engaged Infosys to set up a Center of Excellence (CoE) with focus on multiple QA services for several critical applications.
• An auto major engaged Infosys to implement next-generation Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software in its distribution business.
• A leading turbo machinery manufacturer partnered with Infosys to expand its business through manufacturing engineering, manufacturing process standardization, setting up of manufacturing facilities for turbo machinery remanufacturing.
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IPO details

Price Band: Rs 45-50

Net issue size: Rs34.8 crore

Date: January 11- 13 ‘09

BSE-listed Birla Shloka Edutech has come up with a follow-on offer to fund its expansion plans and to meet its acquisition targets in future. It plans to spend over Rs 25 crore to bid for turnkey government projects and to upgrade its products. Post issue, the promoter group stake would fall from 56.7% to 34% at the higher end of the FPO price band.

BUSINESS:

The Rs 104-crore Mumbaiheadquartered company operates in the education sector. It provides multimedia based educational products and services to government and private institutions in the country. Currently, over 100 private schools are using its learning solutions . Birla Shloka has an audio-visual software product called XL@School. It consists of multimedia software for mathematics and science subjects.

The company has also bid for the contract floated by Maharashtra government, which is targeted toward 2,500 schools in phase I. The company has also bid for Madhya Pradesh government’s ICT@school project.

FINANCIALS:

Birla Shloka Edutech runs a thin-margin business as 90% of its revenues currently come from trading of computer hardware and software. Margins are typically in the range of 1-3 % for this business. Its main business activity of providing IT solutions to education sector has comparatively better margins of 15-24 %, but forms a small portion of its total income.

In FY 09, its sales at Rs 104 crore, was up two-and-a-half times the previous year’s sales. Since most of it was trading revenue, its net profit dropped by 18% to Rs 3.1 crore.

Going ahead, the company expects to improve proportion of its main activity since it anticipates winning government projects under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Under this programme, the government aims to achieve universal elementary education of satisfactory quality.

VALUATIONS:

The shares currently trade at a P/E of 27 on BSE. After the FPO, its market capitalisation is likely to increase from Rs 34 crore to Rs 65 crore at the higher end of the price band. This would take its P/E to 43 based on annualised half-year ended September ’09 earnings. Other companies that operate in educational sector including NIIT and Edocomp, command a P/E of around 30.

Birla Shloka is betting on winning contracts from state governments in future. It has a steep competition from bigger established companies, which would make any projections about its future revenue challenging. Investors may avoid the issue. 

vpost : 06

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The initial public offering (IPO) of 11,503,000 equity shares of Infinite Computer Solutions India, a global service provider of Infrastructure Management, Intellectual Property (IP) leveraged solutions and IT services, has opened for subscription. The price band is fixed at Rs 155-165 per equity share.

The company has received a commitment of nearly Rs 28.5 crore from the anchor investors. They have subscribed for 17,25,450 shares at Rs 165 per share.

Anchor investors include T Rowe Price International, Carlson Fund - India, Lloyd George Investment Management, Alden Global (Mauritius), Credit Suisse (Singapore), Bharti Axa Equity Fund, Reliance Capital Trustee and Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Pvt Ltd.

Anchor Investor	Equity shares	% of anchor investor portion
T Rowe Price International Inc A/C T Rowe Price International Discovery Fund	303,000	17.6
Carlson Fund - India	303,000	17.6
Lloyd George Investment Management (Bermuda) Ltd A/C LG India Fund	181,290	10.5
Lloyd George Investment Management (Bermuda) Ltd A/C LG India Plus Fund	121,330	7
Alden Global (Mauritius) Ltd	60,250	3.5
Credit Suisse (Singapore) Ltd	120,500	7
BATSPL A/c Bharti Axa Equity Fund	60,600	3.5
Reliance Capital Trustee Co Ltd A/c Reliance Regular Savings Fund - Balance Option	514,600	29.8
Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Pvt Ltd	60,250	3.5
Total	1,725,450	100

The company will raise about Rs 189.8 crore at the higher end of the band. The issue will close for subscription on January 13, 2010.

The issue consists of a fresh issue of 57,33,600 equity shares by the company (amounts to around Rs 94 crore) and an offer for sale of 57,69,400 equity shares by Whiterock Investments (Mauritius) Limited, Vaibhav Bhatnagar and Sanjay Govil (amounts to around Rs 95 crore).

The issue will constitute 26.17% of the fully diluted post issue paid-up capital of the company. Its outstanding shares will be around 4.3957 crore post issue and the market cap will be at Rs 681–725 crore.

vpost : 04

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