1> RCom, RIL shares plunge over 4%
Mumbai: Shares of Reliance Communications (RCom) and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) over four per cent in the early morning trade amid exclusive discussion between the ADA Group firm and South African telecom entity MTN coming to an end today.
Shares of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications today dropped 5.89% from previous close of Rs419.80 to touch an intra-day low of Rs395.05. The scrip opened at Rs410 and touched a high of Rs414.70. It was later trading at Rs412.65, down Rs7.15 from the previous close .
Meanwhile, shares of Reliance Industries dropped 4.34% 7 July’s close of Rs2,028.15 to touch a low of Rs1,940.10.
The scrip opened at Rs2,000, which was also its day’s high. It was later trading at Rs1,953.50, down Rs74.65 from last close.
Earlier on 26 May, RCom had announced the start of 45-day exclusive negotiations for a possible deal with MTN.
2> Ambani brothers in tussle over airport hangar case
"If you make me wait, I can make you wait too," that seems to be the latest ploy in the corporate drama between the brothers in the ongoing airport hangar case. CNBC-TV18 reports on the battle for the prime land at Mumbai airport.
It's a long waiting game that the two Ambani brothers are choosing to play for claiming the land at Mumbai's Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The pending airport hangar case case came up for hearing after more than a month at the Bombay High Court today.
On June 2, the -controlled Reliance Transport and Travels Ltd or RTTL, had sought time time to file a rejoinder, but now group who stake claim to the same hangar space have asked for more time to study the rejoinder filed by Reliance TTL.
The two Ambani brothers are fighting for a plot of land that was alloted to RIL in 2000, but went to the RIL subsidiary RTTL after the demerger of the Reliance group of companies.
It is a bright and sunny day at the Bombay High Court, but dark clouds continue to loom over which of the Ambani brothers is entitled to get lease of the alloted land at the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport. One can only hope that July 24, the next date for hearing, provides some much needed answers.
3> Virgin Mobile Launches vBling in India
Virgin Mobile has launched vBling, a new handset designed for the Indian Youth, in India. The new vBling is aimed at providing an affordable, youth oriented mobile phone to the India market.
The phone is available with lifetime validity and prepaid connections. The affordable handset is priced at just Rs. 2,199 and features dual display, FM Radio, speaker phone, 65k color main display screen and supports 32 polyphonic ringtones with a storage capacity of up to 500 contacts.
It also enables you to download ringtones, wallpapers, games etc, through its Vbytes feature.
It weighs merely 72 grams and has dimensions of 85mm x 44 mm x 18mm. The phone will be available through The Mobile Store, Univercell, Croma, Convergem, Big C, Vishal Mega Mart, Vijay Sales and Sangeetha, among the 15,000 outlets and high traffic malls across the country.
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MRF - Tyres with Muscle
CEAT - Born Tough
EBAY - The World's Online Market Place
AMAZON.COM - Earth's Biggest BookStore
TIMESJOBS.COM - If you have a reason, we have the job -
BLOGGER.COM - Push Button Publishing
Microsoft - Where Do You Want to Go Today ; Your Potential Our Passion
Windows XP - Do More with Less
HP-Invent - Everything is Possible
Accenture - High Performance. Delivered
IBM - ON DEMAND
LENOVO - We are building a new technology company.
Apple Macintosh - Think Different.
TCS - Beyond the Obvious
Infosys - Powered by Intellect, Driven by Values;
Improve your odds with Infosys Predictability
WIPRO - Applying Thought
Adobe - Simplicity at work. Better by adobe.
Macromedia - What the web can be.
FORD – Built for the Road Ahead
GM – Only GM.
BMW – The Ultimate Driving Machine
TOYOTA - Touch The Perfection
HYUNDAI - Drive Your Way
HONDA - The Power of Dreams
SKODA – Obsessed with Quality since 1897.
VOLKSWAGEN - Drivers wanted
FIAT - Driven by Passion. FIAT
TATA MOTORS – Even More Car per Car
IBM - I think, therefore IBM.
Dell - Easy as DELL.
Intel - Intel inside.
LEE - The jeans that built America
Master card - There are some things money can't buy. For everything else there's MASTERCARD.
Kotak - Think Investments. Think Kotak.
Sun Microsystems - The Network is the Computer
Ernst and Young - Quality in Everything we Do
Barclays - Fluent in Finance; Its our business to know your business
Standard Chartered Bank - Your Right Partner
CNBC - Profit from it
AT&T - The World's Networking Company
Monster.com - Never Settle
Jet Airways - The Joy of Flying
Lufthansa - There's no better to fly
British airways - The Way to Fly.
Air Canada - A breath of Fresh Air
Sahara - Emotionally yours.
Malaysian Airlines - Going Beyond Expectations
Kingfisher Airlines - Fly the good times
Exxon Mobil - Taking on the World’s Toughest Energy Challenges
Chevron Corporation - Human Energy
Reliance industries Limited - Growth is Life
British Petroleum - Beyond Petroleum
ONGC - Making Tomorrow Brighter
IOCL - Bringing Energy to Life
BPCL - Pure for Sure
IBP - Pure bhi. Poora bhi
GAIL - Gas and Beyond
Essar corp - A positive a++itude
Speed - High Performance Petrol
Servo - 100 % Performance. Everytime.
NDTV Profit - News you can Use.
Toyota Innova - All you Desire.
Star Sports - We know your game
5> India's IT-BPO industry seen slowing down in FY09 but growth rate "robust": NASSCOM
NASSCOM or National Association of Software and Services Companies, the consortium that serves as the apex body of the Indian IT software and BPO industry, has projected that India's software and services exports would witness a slowdown in growth and rise between 21-24 percent to around $50 billion in the current fiscal year (FY09).
According to NASSCOM's report titled, "FY08 Revenue Performance and FY09 Forecast for the Indian IT Software and Services Sectors," the IT-BPO sector grew by 29 percent during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008 (FY08) to $40.4 billion but would moderate during the current fiscal year due to the downturn of the US economy, global food and oil crisis and currency fluctuations.
Meanwhile, total revenues from the IT-BPO sector, including from domestic business, would rise between $62-64 billion in FY09, up from $52 billion in FY08, NASSCOM said.
Though India's large pool of English-speaking IT workforce and cheaper wages have kept it ahead of its rivals like China, Philippines and Vietnam, and helped attract business from western firms such as ABN AMRO AAH.AS, Nortel and Airbus, yet, global financial turmoil and economic slowdown in the US have taken their toll on India's IT-BPO sector.
However, Som Mittal, president, NASSCOM, feels that technology spending would recover in the second half of 2008.
"I would request you to focus not just on the number but on the maturity and resilience the industry has shown. In the last eight years, the average growth rate has been 33.7 percent. We have had as much as 50 percent growth in a single year initially. But it is natural for the growth to stabilize as the industry grows," Mittal said to the media, following the publication of the report on Wednesday.
"Never have there been so many uncertainties in the overall world. After what hit us last year - and I would say hit - we were very susceptible to the currency. If the rupee would always depreciate, we would always make money. But we don't know which way the rupee will go," he said.
According to Mittal, the projected growth rate of 21-24 percent in FY09 is "robust" and the sector is "right on target" to achieve the 2010 export goal of $60 billion. However, to continue posting high growth, the sector would need to compete harder by adopting automation and increasing services in other languages, he said.
Since the sector is also facing a talent crunch and high attrition rate, firms would have to increase and improve their training and retention efforts, he said.
"We need to weed out inefficiencies," Mittal said, adding that firms would have to find ways of cutting costs and increasing productivity as well as "opening up new markets and services."
6> Software, BPO industry growth will slow down in 2009: Nasscom
NEW DELHI: The software and business process outsourcing (BPO) industry's growth is expected to slow down considerably next financial year, the organisation representing the Indian software industry says in its annual report released Wednesday.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) report said while the industry clocked a combined growth rate of 28.2 percent in 2007-08, this is expected to slow down to between 21-24 percent in the next fiscal.
But even the projected growth rate of 21-24 percent is "robust" and in sync with the industry target of achieving $60 billion of exports by 2010, Nasscom president Som Mittal told reporters.
He said the industry was "right on target" to achieve the 2010 export goal.
"In the last eight years the average growth rate has been 33.7 percent. We have had as much as 50 percent growth in a single year initially. But it is natural for the growth to stabilise as the industry grows," he said.
The gross revenue from domestic as well as export markets increased to $52 billion in 2007-08 as compared to $39.6 billion the year before.
However, the growth rate fell from around 33 percent in 2006-07.
Exports of information technology (IT) services alone grew by 28.2 percent to gross $23.1 billion, while the BPO sector showed an increase of 30 percent, fetching $10.9 as compared to $8.4 billion the previous fiscal.
Mittal said the industry handled the subprime mortgage crisis in the US well by venturing into industries that were not affected, such as transport, telecom and healthcare.
He, however, admitted that 2007-08 was a "difficult" year because of slowdown in the US economy, the oil and food crises, and currency fluctuations.
Mittal said the full impact of the situation in the US is yet to be felt by Indian companies, and that corporates would have to find ways to cut costs and enhance productivity.
"The cost-cutting measures can have an impact on recruiting process of these companies and the pay-packages offered to fresh graduates," he added.
IT services and the BPO sector has a two million-strong workforce that is increasing by 26 percent annually, the Nasscom report stated.
Mittal brushed aside concerns about the future of outsourcing as it has become a major issue in the run-up to the presidential elections in the US.
"In 2003-04 elections also, offshoring had become a major issue, but the industry has only grown ever since. It is more of an emotive issue. Barack Obama, (the Democratic hopeful) who once voiced his concerns about outsourcing recently acknowledged its importance and referred to it as 'inevitable'," he said
