Banking sources said with the MTN shareholders asking for a higher price than what Bharti had initially offered, the Indian telecom company might now pay 50 per cent of the money in cash and the rest through shares in Bharti Airtel. The sources added that MTN is also believed not to favour signing an 'exclusivity' contract with Bharti Airtel under which it would be bound not to talk to any other competing bidder till the negotiations with them have been concluded.
The all-pervasive mustard blooms, which mark winter landscapes in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, are fast shrinking, and so are the fortunes of the poor dry-land farmers growing the crop. Even the high prices of oil in the market do not translate into gains for these farmers, who have now been exposed to a glut of oil imports, thanks to removal of import duties on edible oils.
Retail prices of pulses have shot up 25-30 per cent in the last one year, forcing the government to ban exports and ease imports of the commodity.
The widely-tracked wholesale price index (WPI), the cause of severe political pangs for the government every Friday, will be released on a monthly basis by the end of this year instead of weekly. In effect, instead of witnessing the release of inflation data for 52 consecutive weeks, the data will be made available only a dozen times a year.
Big retail is fine tuning its strategy to win over critics and corporate social responsibility drives are providing it with the means.ITC and Reliance have already launched projects to recruit street hawkers, the main adversaries of big retail. And now Bharti Mittal has opened a retail innings of its chain, Easy Day, in Ludhiana with something similar.
The rise in raw material costs has caused a 10 per cent increase in the retail prices of fast-moving consumer goods as companies are passing on the rise in costs.
After 14 months of deliberation, the five-member Abhijit Sen Committee on futures trading has failed to reach a consensus on whether to support or oppose the ban on futures trading in all farm commodities. Earlier, the committee had planned to recommend continuation of the existing ban on futures trading in some farm commodities and had included it in its draft report. The government had suspended futures trading in tur, urad, wheat and rice last year.
Datacom Solutions, promoted by consumer electronic goods maker Videocon Industries, is close to roping in South African telecom major MTN group as a partner for its GSM foray in the country. According to sources, Datacom, which was scouting for a partner to bring in investments and technology, has short-listed MTN. Discussions with the South African company are in the final stage and a deal is expected to be signed soon.
Leading steel producers Tata Steel and state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd on Tuesday agreed to hold their prices for 2-3 months after the government's top economic managers spoke out against the rising cost of steel and cement. Essar Steel said it too could look at a similar assurance. Finance Minister P Chidambaram told Parliament that cement and steel producers were acting like a cartel and the govt was looking at legal and administrative measures to deal with them.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday the government has received a proposal from the Prime Minister's Council on Trade & Industry for setting up a $5 billion sovereign wealth fund. The council consists of industry captains. "The council has suggested that there is a need to create a sovereign fund of $5 billon to begin with for financing acquisition of companies abroad," Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha.
India's tennis ace Sania Mirza would undergo surgery on her troublesome right wrist in Miami on Thursday which would put her out of action for at least four weeks. The injury had also forced Sania to pull out of the Sony Ericsson Open last month.
M&S may hold a majority stake in the venture and the final contours of the partnership are being finalised. India allows 51 per cent foreign direct investment in single-brand retail and 100 per cent in cash-and-carry operations. Multi-brand retail is barred for foreign companies and investors. M&S may hold a majority stake in the venture and the final contours of the partnership are being finalised.
According to unconfirmed reports, North India has seen a Rs 3 hike. A Delhi-based dealer said the companies had told him that the price would go up by Rs 5 a bag in a day or two. "The companies raised wholesale prices and we passed on the burden to consumers," said a Mumbai-based dealer who did not want to be named. The present retail price in Mumbai is Rs 274 per bag. Market sources said Chennai had seen a hike of Rs 3.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the farmers' debt relief fund with an initial corpus of Rs 10,000 crore. The scheme, widely seen as a populist measure ahead of the general elections in 2009, will be implemented by June 30, 2008. The farmers will be entitled to fresh agricultural loans from banks after June 30. The CCEA also removed the ceiling of Rs 1000 crore (Rs 10 billion) for investment by power utility NTPC Ltd in joint ventures and subsidiaries in India & abroad.
The Rs 200,000 plus perks hike for regulators proposed in the Sixth Pay Commission is likely to attract good talent. It would be sufficient incentive for both private sector executives and serving bureaucrats to join as watchdogs. The Commission has recommended that the remuneration of chairpersons of regulatory agencies like the Sebi, Irda, Trai, CERC as well as the Competition Commission of India be hiked to Rs 300,000 if they do not avail of perks like cars and housing.
Since most of the States' coffers are depleting the hike in salaries in states is unlikely to match the central government. The payout is likely to be deferred levels. Besides, many states have their own pay commissions. However, state govt employees are assessing whether it is the central pay commission's recommendations that will be more beneficial for them or the state govt's own, as state commission's recommendations are reviewed every 5 years and centre's every 10 years.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has received permission to offer CDMA services across the country (except Delhi and Mumbai) under the crossover technology policy. Under the policy, existing GSM operators are allowed to offer CDMA service and vice versa within the same licence after paying a fee.BSNL is the third company after Reliance Communications (which is in CDMA and wanted to operate GSM service) and Tata Teleservices (similar to Reliance) which has been given licences
There is a need to set up independent regulatory authorities on energy, transport and urban infrastructure at the state level to ensure smooth implementation of infrastructure projects, especially those which are taken up on the PPP (public private partnership) model, said Vinayak Chatterjee, co-chairman of the CII National Council on Infrastructure and chairman of Feedback Ventures Limited.
The fourth quarter of financial year ending March 31, 2008, may hold a mixed bag of results for Indian information technology (IT) companies. On the one hand, IT firms - which hedged themselves taking the view that the Indian rupee would continue rising against the US dollar - will have to bear a negative impact on the portfolio that has been hedged so far. On the other, their top line as well as operating margins (EBIDTA) will get a boost since the rupee has depreciated.
At IIM-Indore, the highest domestic salary offer recorded this year was Rs 26 lakh compared with Rs 18 lakh last year an increase of Rs 44 per cent. At IIFT-Delhi, the highest domestic offer was Rs 25 lakh over Rs 19.20 lakh in 2007 an increase of 30 per cent. At IIM-Bangalore, for instance, consulting firms accounted for 37 per cent of total placements. At IIM -Ahmedabad, a total of 103 offers were made during lateral placements.
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