The bench consisting of acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court S J Mukhopadhyaya and Justice Ibrahim Kalifula on Monday set aside the earlier order according to which TVS Motors was restrained from using the twin spark technology, which was patented by Pune-based, India's second largest two wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto.
In the oil and gas sphere, Congress' manifesto talks of the intention to improve oil diplomacy and intensify domestic oil exploration and production.
Jet Airways, Kingfisher shift flights to low-cost platforms; experts expect a fare war. "Every year, airlines come up with cheap fares in the summer season, but not like this year. I had never seen airlines offering 50 per cent cash-back offers. Now with Jet Konnect and Kingfisher Red, there are more flights to the routes where LCCs used to dominate," says Bhawna Agarwal, co-founder and head of air business, Yatra.com.
Experts say the biggest expenditure for a retailer is real estate, followed by manpower and sales and advertisement expenses.
In an attempt to reduce costs, India's biggest wine producer, Indage Vintners, has started closing its regional offices, while centralising all sales and marketing activities at its headquarters in Mumbai.
According to Mayank Saksena, head -- transactions, Kolkata, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, "From January onwards, we have been tackling an increase in live enquiries in Kolkata. The rate of enquiries is significantly higher than in cities such as Hyderabad. Chennai, Pune and Bangalore, primarily because Kolkata has a large number of old business houses that have been occupying prime spaces in the central business district."
Industry sources said the carrier owed over Rs 620 crore to BPCL and HPCL, besides Rs 160 crore to IOC. However, Kingfisher Airlines is not the only company with oil dues. Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways and state-owned Air India started this financial year with accumulated dues of Rs 4,000 crore to oil companies and airports, sources said. The three airlines are collectively projected to incur operating losses of Rs 5,000 crore, industry estimates suggest.
After dropping "Kolkata" from Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders, actor Shah Rukh Khan has started discussions with Nokia, Sahara, the Anil Ambani group, and several other companies to sell the team he bought just over a year ago for Rs 300 crore, and exit the business.
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.
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.
Wipro sees a silver lining in Q1; others say recovery by 2009-end.
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.
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.
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.
The buzz refuses to die down even though other PE players, investment bankers and analysts say such an alliance is highly unlikely. Wilbur Ross, meanwhile, is understood to have completed the due diligence of the scam-tainted IT company. When contacted, a company official declined comment.
The aggression shown by corporate houses till not a long ago has given way for consolidation in the backdrop of current economic downturn and the companies in the next fiscal, beginning tomorrow, would need to focus on growing their core businesses and conserving the resources, global consultancy firm PwC executive director Sanjeev Krishnan told PTI.
First-time home buyers have stayed away from the market ever since developers, in a bid to cash in on the market sentiment, focused on launching luxurious projects, bigger in size and priced beyond the reach of average buyers. Property prices across India more than tripled from 2003-07, owing to rising incomes, mortgage availability at inexpensive rates, higher tax benefits and speculators flocking to the market.
Projects like City Centre II, Lake Mall, Terminus Mall, Axis Mall and Avani Riverside mall in Howrah, are already running behind schedule. As retail sales are down by 50 per cent, depending on discount or lifestyle retail categories, and consumers' discretionary spends are also down 15-20 per cent, developers are now cautious about new projects.
Unitech is pinning its hopes on the sub-Rs 5 lakh category of flats to counter the slowdown in the property sector. So are a host of others. Apart from Unitech, others such as Omaxe, Raheja, Tata Housing and Ansal API are planning new projects in the suburbs of satellite towns or smaller cities to target the bottom segment, to generate more cash.
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