Hotels are not typically equipped to handle terrorist attacks and present ideal soft targets around the world, according to experts. Even the private security guards that the hotels hire do not always have the expertise to use weapons. This is set to change now, hotel officials say.
Since Thursday, several carriers, mainly international, have cancelled their flights in and out of Mumbai due to sparse load factor or the inability of the crew to reach the airport. Amongst the domestic carriers, Kingfisher Airlines combined around eight flights. Air India also clubbed some of its flights in the domestic routes. Jet Airways, JetLite, IndiGo and SpiceJet did not cancel any flight.
For instance, India's largest IT firm Tata Consultancy Services -- which is headquartered in south Mumbai where terror struck -- asked its employees to operate out of any of the offices in north Mumbai until further advice. Similarly, Aegis BPO that has a corporate office in Mumbai has asked its employees in Mumbai to operate from home as they all have broadband connections and BlackBerry(s), said Aparup Sengupta, CEO, Aegis BPO.
In response to liquidity problems faced by the mutual fund industry because of a surge in redemptions, RBI on October 14 announced a 14-day term repo facility to meet liquidity requirements of mutual funds. The facility was further extended till March 31 next year.
The announcement comes in the wake of the consolidation of Future-Axiom's other mobile brands under the brand name 'One Mobile'. The company plans to open 1,500 stores and touch points in the country by December 2009, giving it a reach in 58 cities.
The domestic steel industry had been lobbying for a 10 per cent import duty to discourage imports and provide support to the falling domestic prices. According to steel industry, cheaper steel import was contributing to its sagging sales. Leading steel companies like Steel Authority of India Ltd and JSW have witnessed a 25-30 per cent dip in consumption demand.
The Union government today filed a fresh affidavit in the Bombay high court, which is hearing a dispute over supply of gas from Krishna Godavari basin, stating that any sale price less than $ 4.2 per mmBtu is not compatible with decisions taken by a ministerial panel.
The power major generates about 95 million tones of fly ash from its various units annually. Fly ash is an important raw material for cement business. However, the official did not specify where the projects would come up, or what would be the investment involved in the envisaged cement projects and NTPC's share in the JV.
Within the IT industry, reactions to Barack Obama's historic victory have not been as pessimistic as expected. IT firms have been worried because Obama, as Senator, introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 that gave tax credits for companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US.
The US subsidiary of Sun Pharmaceuticals, Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories, has received a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration.
Most felt that it would take time for the impact to percolate to industry as banks were reluctant to immediately pass on the benefit. Moreover, the volatility in the stock and credit market is expected to stabilise only after a couple of months. Indian companies said the central bank measures won't revive consumer sentiment and also not encourage companies to revive expansion plans that have been put on hold.
A no-holds-barred fight for the control of the most popular television news channel in the North-East has broken out between the husband-wife duo of Matang Sinh and Manoranjana Sinh. Each has charged the other with financial impropriety and mismanagement.
Parsvnath Developers is expected to sack its non-performing staff post Diwali as part of its cost cutting measures. "Non performers have to go. Cost cutting measures will start in 15 to 20 days,'' said Pradeep Jain, chairman of Parsvnath, told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi on Friday.
According to the package, the dues will be cleared in six monthly instalments by March 2009. Current ATF purchases will get 90 days' credit, supported by bank guarantees. Also, jet fuel price revisions will henceforth happen every fortnight. Praful Patel on Thursday admitted in the Lok Sabha that it may take another two months to make the recently-opened third runway at the Delhi airport fully operational.
Sample this. Five cyber-thieves, allegedly part of a network that hacked into the account of a Noida businessman, were nabbed today for a Rs 1.66 crore (Rs 16.6-million) cyber hack. They used Internet banking to transfer the money from the businessman's account with the Punjab National Bank's Noida branch to their own account.
Yes Bank plans 100 bps cut, other private players to wait; public sector may move first. The bank, which currently disburses loans to corporate clients at around 17 per cent, may also pare deposit rates by 50 basis points in December.
The list of end use includes investments in the industrial sector, foreign direct investment in joint ventures or 100 per cent subsidiaries, first-stage acquisition of shares in disinvestment and open offers as well as micro-lending to self-help groups by NGOs.
Protests following the arrest of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Tuesday crippled retail businesses in and around Mumbai, the commercial capital of the country
While 22 per cent of the promoters' stake in Ranbaxy was sold through an off-market transaction, the remaining came from a preferential share allotment. Daiichi Sankyo had earlier picked up more than 20 per cent of Ranbaxy's shares through an open offer. Ranbaxy Chairman and Managing Director Malvinder Mohan Singh said the remaining 12-13 per cent promoter shareholding will change hands in the coming weeks, thereby taking Daiichi's share in Ranbaxy to over 60 per cent.
India Inc, while welcoming the Reserve Bank of India's move to cut the key interest rate, expressed doubts on lenders' response to pass on the benefits to customers.