A decision to this effect has been taken after Arun Ramanathan retired as finance secretary on Thursday. Currently, Chawla is the senior-most official in the finance ministry. In addition, G C Chaturvedi, currently serving as additional secretary in the ministry of health and family welfare, has been appointed as additional secretary in-charge of the financial services department.
The domestic travel and hospitality sectors, which are reeling under the impact of the slowdown and the Mumbai terror attacks, are hoping that the swine flu does not spread to other regions and mar sentiment for travel. Hotel occupancies and tariffs across India have dropped 20 per cent in the last few months, even as foreign tourist arrivals fell by 14 per cent in the first three months of 2009.
The bank expects to still lend at least Rs 30,000 crore, which is close to the loan repayments it gets every year. During 2008-09, the bank's loan book shrank by 3.2 per cent. "We get a lot of repayments every year, which is close to Rs 30,000 crore and even if we keep our balance sheet constant, we will do at least Rs 30,000 crore of lending, if not more," Chanda Kochhar, who takes over as managing director & CEO of the bank on Friday, told Business Standard.
Year 2008 results of India's largest drug maker, Ranbaxy Laboratories, and Wockhardt were also impacted by forex losses. Companies such as Aurobindo and Orchid are also expected to post forex losses, say analysts.
Tata Motors was, till late on Saturday, collating booking numbers it had received from over 30,000 sale points from over 1,000 towns and cities. It will announce the final figure only on April 28. Tata Group insiders said that, till Saturday afternoon, the total bookings could range between 650,000 and 800,000. With more customers likely to join the bandwagon later in the day, the final number could be close to one million.
DLF, which launched a residential project at Shivaji Marg on April 7, managed to sell all the 1,400 apartments on offer. It had priced the West Delhi project at Rs 6,000-7,000 a sq ft and offered an initial discount of Rs 1,000 a sq ft, besides an additional one of Rs 500 a sq ft on timely payments. It also offered an 8.5 per cent discount if a customer paid the entire amount within a month of the initial booking, bringing down the effective price to Rs 4,075 per sq ft.
Tech M's priorities include retaining current customers, winning back business lost as a result of the crisis, retaining key associates, winning new businesses and exploring the best ways to realise operational and structural synergies between the two companies. On the possibility of layoffs and cost-cutting, Vineet Nayyar, Tech Mahindra's vice-chairman and MD, said, "I can't say anything. The company has to be viable and we will work at it. Layoffs will be the last option."
"Other than the induction of the new board members, Tech Mahindra will have discussions with the management to articulate the growth of the company, strengthen the governance part and also focus on cash-flow issues. The current management members, including CEO A S Murty, will continue for some time," said a source close to the development. Tech Mahindra members are also expected to take stock of operations at Satyam.
Calculations based on the latest marketshare figures released by the ministry of civil aviation show that while a merger with GoAir or its acquisition would give SpiceJet a marketshare of 15 per cent, a merger with IndiGo would give it a hold over more than a quarter of the market. SpiceJet's current market share stands at 12 per cent.
They will take stock of the current situation and discuss the way forward. Handing over the share allotment documents to Tech Mahindra is also on the agenda of Monday's board meet, according to a Satyam spokesperson. Tech Mahindra Vice-Chairman, MD & CEO Vineet Nayyar, C P Gurnani, president (international operations), and President (strategic initiatives) Sanjay Kalra have confirmed their participation in the meet.
Analysts are optimistic on absorption of new clients, growth possibilities under Tech Mahindra. For Tech Mahindra, the biggest positive is that the two companies have synergies in service offerings and client portfolio, says Sabyasachi Satpathy, director and co-founder, Mindplex Consulting. Satyam will give Tech Mahindra capabilities in enterprise resource planning, systems integration, as well as vertical expertise in the embedded, manufacturing and insurance space.
The world's biggest drug maker Pfizer Inc has offered about Rs 680 crore to raise its stake in its Indian subsidiary to 75 per cent from 41 per cent. The offer of Rs 675 per share, however, is unlikely to find takers, since Pfizer share price rose 10.02 per cent to close at Rs 685.4 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday, analysts feel.
India TV walks out of News Broadcasters Association after questioning the decision to penalise the channel.
Nearly 80 per cent of the buyers opting for the more expensive variants instead of the base-level car which is priced at Rs 1.23 lakh (ex showroom, Delhi). The trend is based on responses from dealers and banks that took bookings in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Kolkata on Thursday. The Nano CX costs Rs 1.48 lakh and the top-end LX Rs 1.72 lakh.
"Tech Mahindra is way too dependent on one sector, telecom, and one client," said an analyst. Satyam will not only give it access to different business verticals but also key clients. But Tech Mahindra have been concerned over the recent client loss Satyam has witnessed. Another big concern is the liabilities Satyam will have to face due to the 13 US class-action suits, the unresolved Upaid case, as well as lack of clarity on client and employee details.
"The amount payable to the company at the time of booking is Rs 95,000, and the bank would lend this money to the applicant at a less than 10 per cent interest," said S K Goel, chairman and managing director of UCO Bank. He said the scheme offered by UCO was different from that of the State Bank of India, in the sense that UCO would lend any amount less than Rs 95,000 to the customer depending on their need.
On the back of the Satyam episode, the ICAI is planning to seek more power for chartered accountants so that they are not mere qualifiers. In case they see any divergence in the numbers provided by the company, there must be a way to compel a restatement of accounts, according to the ICAI. It has asked its members to 'to be much more vigilant and rely on external information than be dependent on what the management provides.'
IBM's exit leaves the field open for engineering giant Larsen & Toubro, which owns 12 per cent in Satyam, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant Technology and private equity firm Wilbur L Ross. Satyam currently faces 13 class action suits by holders of the company's ADRs in the US. An investment banker close to the deal said IBM was a big name and could, therefore, be vulnerable to more lawsuits.
Nasdaq-listed Cognizant Technology Solutions, which did not complete the due diligence process for Satyam Computer Services, is understood to be back in the race to acquire the troubled software company.
Some banks made it clear that banks have to make commercial decisions. "There is a limit to which we can reduce the deposit rates because of competing investment products such as small savings instruments," said a bank chief. With banks unable to lower deposits rates, lending rates were unlikely to drop significantly. A banker is said to have talked about the fact that companies that are unable to sustain themselves during the present downturn would face many risks.
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