Neeraj Thakur And Raghavendra Kamath In New Delhi, Mumbai

Stories by Neeraj Thakur And Raghavendra Kamath In New Delhi, Mumbai

State rescue for Games project likely

State rescue for Games project likely

Rediff.com   6 Mar 2009

Public money to remedy firm's cash flow being mulled. The Games are scheduled for next year and plagued by failing deadlines and other problems. The Delhi Development Authority, nodal agency for implementation, may announce the rescue package by next week, sources in the agency say.

Thomas Cook cuts staff, shuts retail outlets

Thomas Cook cuts staff, shuts retail outlets

Rediff.com   4 Mar 2009

Thomas Cook India, the country's largest travel-related service provider, said it slashed about 7 per cent of its workforce in 2008 and shut a few of the retail outlets as part of a plan to cut cost and boost profits.

Contractors shift from realty to govt projects

Contractors shift from realty to govt projects

Rediff.com   2 Mar 2009

Companies are either taking small government projects alone or bidding for larger ones with consortium partners. The companies, which had 18-75 per cent of their order books in property development, say they are facing payment delays of 20-90 days from some of the private developers, blocking their working capital requirements. Some of them take a week's advance payment from developers to execute their projects.

Daiichi, Ranbaxy team to counter FDA charges

Daiichi, Ranbaxy team to counter FDA charges

Rediff.com   27 Feb 2009

The USFDA has accused Ranbaxy of falsifying data and test results of medicines. A Daiichi Sankyo statement said it takes the issue very seriously. 'Both Daiichi and Ranbaxy have formed a team to solve the issue. Ranbaxy will be responding to the FDA and will continue to cooperate with the agency.' Ranbaxy shares fell more than 18 per cent to Rs 169.85 today on the Bombay Stock Exchange, while Daiichi stock dropped about 10 per cent to yen 1,680 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Reliance Retail struggles to beat slowdown blues

Reliance Retail struggles to beat slowdown blues

Rediff.com   26 Feb 2009

Reliance Retail has added 485 stores in the last one year, taking the total count to 950 and the footprint is now spread across 77 cities (58 in the last one year) across India. While his critics say Ambani may have lost the plot as the progress of his retail plans are nowhere near what he had sought to achieve, others feel the Reliance chief is just being pragmatic given the not-so-conducive environment for expansion in retail.

<I>Slumdog</I>: Big money for Indian companies

Slumdog: Big money for Indian companies

Rediff.com   24 Feb 2009

Fox Star Studio India, the distributor of Slumdog Millionaire in the country, has managed to gross around Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) from the markets, surpassing collections of some of the biggest Bollywood hits of last year such as Rock On.

Apparel retailers may cut summer buys by 20%

Apparel retailers may cut summer buys by 20%

Rediff.com   23 Feb 2009

After a lacklustre winter season sale, apparel retailers are now planning to cut their summer purchases by as much as 20 per cent to save holding cost and reduce pressure on working capital.

How will bidders value Satyam?

How will bidders value Satyam?

Rediff.com   20 Feb 2009

This is one question that's uppermost in the minds of analysts, marketmen and industry experts even as the Company Law Board on Thursday gave the scam-tainted IT firm's stake sale plan the go-ahead.

Retailers mull alliance with foreign cos

Retailers mull alliance with foreign cos

Rediff.com   13 Feb 2009

According to sources in the Future Group, it plans to tie up with international retailers in different segments. "We can certainly look at bringing in foreign capital to our subsidiaries now," said a group official, who did not wish to be quoted. Under the new guidelines, downstream investments by an Indian company that has foreign investment but is owned and controlled by Indians will not be considered as FDI.

DLF stalls 2 of its biggest projects

DLF stalls 2 of its biggest projects

Rediff.com   12 Feb 2009

Facing acute liquidity crunch and poor buyer sentiments, the country's biggest property developer, DLF, has stopped work at two of its biggest mid-income housing projects. The move comes after the developer stalled at least a quarter of its commercial projects.

Apparel retailers offer up to 80% discount

Apparel retailers offer up to 80% discount

Rediff.com   12 Feb 2009

Though end-of-season sale is common in the first week of February, what is interesting this time around is the quantum and timing of the offers. Retailers are giving away 20-25 per cent additional discounts, compared to the last year. Also, they began giving discounts at least three weeks before the ususal timing.

Birla Retail eyes 18-fold sales growth

Birla Retail eyes 18-fold sales growth

Rediff.com   11 Feb 2009

The retailer, which runs a supermarket chain under the More brand, is targeting annual sales of $4.5 billion (Rs 22,000 crore or Rs 220 billion) by March 2014 from Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) in the current financial year. The retailer clocked sales of Rs 500 in the previous year. In 2007, the company had talked about a Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) investment plan.

Tata Motors vendors deny payment issues

Tata Motors vendors deny payment issues

Rediff.com   6 Feb 2009

Surinder Kapur, president of the company's 'vendor council,' said it has about a dozen representatives from Tata Motors and an equal number from the vendors. "We supply for about 4-5 per cent of our revenues to Tata Motors and we do not have payment issues," he said. Lumax, which derives about 15 per cent of its turnover by supplying almost half of the lighting solutions for Tata Motors worth about Rs 60 crore a year, said they had not experienced any payment issues.

Low interest in Harshad Mehta's apartment auction

Low interest in Harshad Mehta's apartment auction

Rediff.com   5 Feb 2009

Less than half-a-dozen people have evinced interest in buying the eight apartments owned by the late Harshad Mehta and his family, partly due to a last-minute case filed by the stockbroker's mother, Rasila S Mehta.

The curious case of Jaybharat Textiles

The curious case of Jaybharat Textiles

Rediff.com   3 Feb 2009

Jaybharat Textiles & Real Estate, a textile company that forayed into real estate three years back, today has a market capitalisation higher than Grasim Industries or Tata Motors.

DLF stalls a fourth of its projects

DLF stalls a fourth of its projects

Rediff.com   3 Feb 2009

The Kushan Pal Singh-led realty major has halted construction work on nearly 16 million sq ft of office and retail mall space out of the 62 million sq ft of planned construction. In the office space, the developer has stalled construction on nearly 12 million sq ft of office space out of the 36 million sq ft of space being planned.

PE flows to realty mart may start again

PE flows to realty mart may start again

Rediff.com   23 Jan 2009

Most of the funds have not signed any deals in the past few months as realty prices fell sharply and economic slowdown deepened across the world, which slowed the flow of funds significantly. Red Fort plans to deploy Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) in the current quarter and is in talks with a Mumbai developer. But Bedi says finance is a big issue now as most of the projects have been delayed or are yet to take off.

Incentive cut hurts MICE tourism

Incentive cut hurts MICE tourism

Rediff.com   12 Jan 2009

Companies in the fast moving consumer goods, insurance and entertainment sectors offer the highest number of MICE trips to employees and sales dealers. The trips are offered as incentive to achieve sales target. Under the incentive package employees and dealers are allowed to take their families for the trip making it a much sought after reward.

Reliance Retail plans private label sale to kirana

Reliance Retail plans private label sale to kirana

Rediff.com   12 Jan 2009

The move is expected to give high retail exposure to its products in innumerable kirana stores in the country, without having to spend much on advertising and marketing expenses apart from generating business volumes. When contacted, Reliance Retail spokesperson said: "As a policy, we do not comment on speculation." In a recent reshuffle at the company, Reliance Fresh head Gunender Kapur was made head of private labels business in the company.

What bonds us now is emotional equity:  Satyam CEO

What bonds us now is emotional equity: Satyam CEO

Rediff.com   9 Jan 2009

Ram Myanampati, the interim chief executive officer of beleaguered Satyam Computer Services, on Thursday admitted that he himself is on a shaky ground.