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Showing posts from April, 2009

Obama at 100-day mark with packed foreign policy agenda

Tue, Apr 28 10:41 AM Washington, April 28 (DPA) US President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office have been dominated by the economic crisis, but he has gotten off to a fast start in addressing key foreign policy challenges. Days after taking office, Obama fulfilled a campaign pledge by ordering the eventual closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. He has drawn up a timeframe for withdrawing US combat forces from Iraq and reached out, cautiously, to Cuba and Iran. So far, Obama has visited Canada, Britain, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Iraq, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago as part of his offensive to change the face of American foreign policy after eight years of George W. Bush's unpopular policies. Progress on the diplomatic front can move at a slower pace than pushing an economic stimulus package through Congress, and success often depends on how other countries react to the new president. 'States are like big ships. Moving the ship of state is a slow p

From China, The World's New Car Capital

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Robyn Meredith, Forbes.com Half a world away from Detroit, where the Big Three are fighting for survival, car lovers are running their hands over the shiny sheet metal on display at the Shanghai auto show this week. China is the world's bright spot when it comes to car sales. Despite a slowdown in sales, China has even dethroned the U.S. as the world's biggest auto market--every month this year, more cars have been sold in China than in America, where industry sales have plunged by a third in recent months. Global Automakers Race To Shanghai In Pictures: Detroit's Top Car Debuts In Pictures: 20 Cars Of The Future In Depth: America's Top-Selling Cars In Pictures: 10 Cars That Can Save Detroit Because the global economic slowdown has crimped budgets in China too, mainland Chinese car buyers who used to favor foreign brands are more likely to buy Chinese, according to a survey from TNS Automotive China, part of custom research agency TNS. The survey showed that 44% of Chin

Satyam inflated sales by 47.46 billion rupees, says CBI

Tue, Apr 28 12:25 PM New Delhi, Apr 28 (ANI): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said that the fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services inflated sales by 47.46 billion rupees. The CBI said that with the help of cyber forensic techniques, it was able to decipher modus operandi of Satyam corporate fraud. "It happened like this-the accused were hiding some of the invoices that was generated through Excel porting. As a result, the concerned business circles were not aware that such invoices are existing. These invoices were not dispatched to the customers even. In fact these false invoices were generated for purpose of inflating the sales and thus inflating the revenue of the company. As a result of further investigation, individuals who generated and hidden these false invoices have been identified," said Harsh Bahl, a CBIpokesman. The bail application of former chairman of Satyam, Ramalinga Raju and others was dismissed by the trial court on April 25. In early January, Ram

Unemployment Soars Throughout America, Bleak Job Market Predicted for 2009

WASHINGTON-- Rising unemployment spared no state last month, and 2009 is shaping up as another miserable year for workers from coast to coast. Jobless rates for December hit double digits in Michigan and Rhode Island, while South Carolina and Indiana notched the biggest gains from the previous month, the Labor Department said Tuesday. A common thread among these states has been manufacturing industry layoffs tied to consumers' shrinking appetite for cars, furniture and other goods. With tens of thousands of layoffs announced this week by well-known employers such as Pfizer Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Home Depot Inc., the unemployment picture is bound to get worse in every region of the country, economists say. "We won't see a light at the end of the tunnel until 2010," said Anthony Sabino, a professor of law and business at St. John's University. The number of newly laid off Americans filing claims for state unemployment benefits has soared to 589,000, while people

Unemployment rose again last week

Unemployment is continuing to show little sign of improvement, according to the latest government figures. On Thursday, the Labor Department announced that first-time unemployment claims had reached 640,000, up 27,000 from the previous week's figure of 613,000 claims. Initial claims rose the most in Florida, Pennsylvania and California, with the largest declines coming in Michigan, North Carolina and Missouri. The unemployment rate has undermined many workers in areas like personal finance and retirement planning, while also contributing to an elevated loan default rate. Weeks of gains in the stock market have helped fuel the perception that the recession has finally bottomed out and an economic recovery could be imminent. This has been fueled by positive earnings news from a handful of companies in recent days. Still, other parts of the economy such as the foreclosure rate, the loan default rate and retail sales indicate that consumers are not out of the woods yet. Economists have

India's Hero Motors Gets $250 Million Order From BRP-Powertrain

NEW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- India's Hero Motors Ltd. - part of the group that owns motorcycle maker Hero Honda Motors Ltd. (500182.BY) - Tuesday said it has received a $250 million order to supply transmission equipment to Canada-based BRP-Powertrain. "The global recession is putting pressure on large companies. Under (these) extreme conditions, the big companies are looking at sourcing from India," Hero Motors Managing Director Pankaj Munjal told a news conference. The equipment will be supplied over five years from Hero's factory in Ghaziabad, near New Delhi, to BRP-Powertrain, a unit of privately-held Bombardier Recreational Products. -By Rakesh Sharma, Dow Jones Newswires; +91-11-4356-3334; rakesh.sharma@ dowjones.com

List of hotels in Tirupati

TIRUPATI HOTELS (Andhra Pradesh) Kences Hotel, (Fortune Hotel) Tirupati Temple Valley Resort - Tirupati Hotel Bliss - Tirupati Kalyan Residency - Tirupati Ramee Guestline Hotel, Tirupati Peppermint Hotel, Tirupati Sindhuri Park, Tirupati Hotel Mayura, Tirupati Bhimas Residency, Tirupati Tirumala Residency, Tirupati Hotel The Sai Inn, Tirupati Hotel Gopikrishna, Tirupati

IPL New Criket 2009 Schedule in South Africa

Date Match Venue Time April 18 Mumbai vs Chennai Cape Town 4 PM April 18 Rajasthan vs Bangalore Cape Town 8 PM April 19 Delhi vs Punjab Cape Town 4 PM April 19 Kolkata vs Hyderabad Cape Town 8 PM April 20 Bangalore vs Chennai Port Elizabeth 8 PM April 21 Kolkata vs Punjab Durban 4 PM April 21 Rajasthan vs Mumbai Durban 8 PM April 22 Banglore vs Hyderabad Cape Town 8 PM April 23 Delhi vs Chennai Durban 4 PM April 23 Kolkata vs Rajasthan Cape Town 8 PM April 24 Punjab vs Banglore Durban 8 PM April 25 Hyderabad vs Mumba

Power Star Pavan Kalyan Visiting Tirumala

As the local hosts said the Power Star Pavan Kalyan will likely to visit Tirumala on 17-04-2009...

Shriya slaps Man in Tirumala

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Actress Shreya Sharan, who paired with Tamil superstar Rajnikanth in Shivaji slapped a man who allegedly "misbehaved" with her in Tirumala temple on Monday morning. Shreya she had come out of the temple after prayers and was talking to journalists when a man standing behind her in the crowd misbehaved with her. "I think women should stand up for against misbehaviour. Irrespective of being an actress or not, I had to stand up for myself and I think any woman who is a victim of eve teasing and molestation should stand up," she told PTI. The actress' aides pinned down the man, who was identified as Hari, a cleaner at a temple. Shreya has not filed a complaint with the police.

Rate cut puts pressure on banks

The RBI believes that it has to “take calibrated monetary policy actions as necessary and at the appropriate time” to maintain the flow of credit to productive sectors. Cuts in indicative short term interest rates — both lending and borrowing — and Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) have always — albeit in the recent past — gone hand in hand since the economic slowdown hit the nation. However, when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a cut in the indicative short-term rates on March 4, sprang a surprise on the markets by not cutting the CRR – a policy initiative that continues to be debated both in the banking and market circles. Corporate houses and investors alike were without doubt looking forward to a cut in CRR, as such a move would have brought more liquidity into the markets. They were naturally disappointed. However, if the country’s apex bank chose not to effect a cut in CRR, it was because of its understanding that banks had enough funds to lend to their customers and they coul

LIC lost Rs.950 crore in Satyam scam

Cash balance in banks inflated from Rs. 139 crore to Rs. 5,160 crore Company sales were also inflated from Rs. 23,434 crore to Rs. 27,691 crore NBFCs lent Rs. 1,744 crore following mortgage of shares by Raju borthers HYDERABAD: The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is the single largest institutional investor to lose heavily in the Satyam Computers fraud, having coughed up Rs. 950 crore. On the contrary, Allahabad Bank, Union Bank of India, Punjab National bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and the Corporation Bank together lost Rs. 10 crore, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stated in its charge sheet filed in the court on Tuesday. The 80-page document highlighted that ex-Satyam chairman B. Ramalinga Raju and other accused generated 7,561 fake invoices against software services that were not rendered and showed a turnover of Rs. 5,117 crore. The sales of the company were also inflated from Rs. 23,434 crore to Rs. 27,691 crore. The accused inflated the cash balance available in ban

Tech Mahindra acquires Satyam outbidding L&T

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Tech Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra addresses a press conference called to announce the winning of the bid to buy Satyam Computer Services, in Mumbai on Monday. MUMBAI: The beleaguered Satyam Computer Services has finally found a new owner, after its founder chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju left it in the lurch with his confession of corporate fraud in January this year. Tech Mahindra pipped Larsen & Toubro and Wilbur Ross to the post and is set to initiate the takeover process pending the approval of the Company Law Board which should happen in a week. The final act of the Satyam saga played out on Monday with the government-appointed board of directors selecting Venturbay Consultants Private Ltd., a subsidiary controlled by Tech Mahindra, as the highest bidder to acquire a controlling stake in the IT services company. Share subscription

Making cost-effective telecom base stations

CHENNAI: Wireless and mobile communication has helped India leapfrog in telecommunications, making phone calls affordable. Can the wireless technology help India do a similar feat in Internet access? The broadband access is increasingly becoming a necessity. Though the total number of Internet users is around 40 million, there are only four million broadband subscribers is only four million. Can broadband access in India catch up with the developed world, if not South Korea and Japan? The challenge One of the challenges in the spread of broadband Internet through wireless will be the rapid expansion of wireless base stations (or, towers as they are normally called). The process of building tower infrastructure has been time consuming and expensive. In addition, the equipment used needs air-conditioning and uninterrupted power. A Bangalore-based company, Sloka Telecom, is

U.S. tugboat with 16 crew hijacked

NAIROBI: The head of a Kenyan seafarers’ programme said on Saturday Somali pirates had hijacked an American-owned tugboat with 16 crew in the Gulf of Aden. The hijacking took place as the American captain of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama was still being held hostage on a lifeboat being watched by two U.S. warships. The East African Seafarers’ Assistance Program said maritime industry sources had informed his organisation that the Italian-flagged U.S. tugboat was towing two barges when it was attacked. He said it was unclear if the attack took place off the coast of Somalia or further north near Yemen. More U.S. warships were trying to stop Somali pirates from sending reinforcements to the lifeboat where the American captain was being held for a fourth day hundreds of miles from land, a diplomat said Saturday. The Nairobi-based diplomat, who receives regular briefings on the situation, said the four pirates holding Capt. Richard Phillips in a lifeboat under the close watch of U.S.

China, India will remain the fastest growing economies

KOLKATA: It may be difficult for China to repeat the success story of double-digit economic growth in the foreseeable future because of the ‘heavily-damaged’ consumption markets of advanced economies. Indicating this, the Consul General of China in Kolkata, Mao Siwei, said that China’s economy had just touched the bottom and a recovery was likely to begin by mid-2009, according to a recent World Bank report. However, he also said that Chinese economists were warning that “we should not be too optimistic as the newly-emerging trend of improvement has been largely stimulated by government-influenced investment.” Participating in an interactive session on ‘India and China to drive global economic growth,’ he said that as the two largest developing countries, China and India would remain the fastest-growing economies in the world at a time when the world economy would contract. “This itself is our two countries’ contribution to the world economy,” Mr. Mao said. The session was organi

SBI slashes rates on new SME loans

MUMBAI: State Bank of India on Saturday cut interest rates for new small and medium enterprise (SME) loans and announced a few other measures to improve credit flow to the segment. The bank has slashed the lending rates for new SME loans up to Rs. 5 lakh to eight per cent and those for loans Rs. 5-25 lakhs to 10 per cent, a SBI release here said. The rate reduction will be available for the next two years and will be applicable for working capital and term loans provided they are covered under CGTMSE (Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises), the bank said. After two years, the bank will review the rates according to the prevailing market conditions, the bank said. SBI has also extended the SME Help and SME Care schemes, under which it offers loans at eight per cent to SMEs from April to September 30. Moreover, loans under SME Help will now be available for two years at eight per cent, it said. The bank at present has 12-lakh SME customers. SBI has so far disb

Indian Premier League match schedule calendar details, IPL Teams ...

IPL Season 2 Match Schedule 2009 Schedule and Match Dates The Indian Premier League second season will be DLF IPL 2009. Indian Premier League is established by the BCCI in 2007. The second season is tentatively scheduled between April 10 2009 and May 29 2009. The format of the tournament would remain unchanged from the 2008 season format. The eight franchisees will first play against one another in a league on home-and-away basis. The top four teams will then figure in the two semi-finals and a final You will find the leaked schedule here … I will again verify the same and post here updated with exact dates…