Bookings in five-star hotels and inflow of foreign tourists into the country were already running low due to the global economic meltdown. With Wednesday's terror attack, the hotel industry is expected to see a rise in the number of cancellations and also a substantial reduction in tourist numbers since the terrorists have struck at the peak of the tourist season.
Experts predict that the slowdown will last through the first half of 2009 in India, after which a slow revival will begin. As and when that happens, a lot will need to be done to adjust to the new circumstances.
Barack Obama enters his first real moment of global diplomacy in London on Wednesday with a paradox: he is the most popular US president in a generation but you would have to go back more than two generations to find one with fewer cards to play.
Even as most of the 50,000-odd employees at Satyam Computer Services remain concerned about job and pay cuts, 250 to 300 employees working on the Merrill Lynch project have accepted an offer from Bank of America (BofA), the bank that bought the sub-prime meltdown-hit investment bank in September last year.
The minister, however, admitted that manufacturing sector remains a problem area. The manufacturing sector output nearly halved to 5.3 per cent from 10.1 per cent during the first half of the previous fiscal. The other problem areas include electricity, gas and water supply group which too witnessed a deceleration of growth to 3.1 per cent in the first half of 2008-09 compared with 7.4 per cent during the first half of the last fiscal.
The U.S. is mortgaging its future by outsourcing technological inventions in exchange for short-term cash.
It is bad news on the wages front in the wake of global economic meltdown. An International Labour Organisation study says the global economic crisis is expected to lead to 'painful cuts' in the wages of millions of workers worldwide in the coming year.
According to Silicon Alley Insider, Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive, Amazon.com, is working at a company distribution centre in Lexington, Kentucky, this week. His motto is to spend time with hourly employees to see what they do and hear their comments on work.
The Planning Commission may go for a correction in the 11th Five Year Plan targets as it gears up for mid-term assessment of goals next year in view of the global financial meltdown's impact on the economy.
The financial meltdown and heavy taxes on works of art imported or sold in India has caused many art galleries to shut down in recent times.
The Wall Street Journal said the move, which is being closely watched, may be followed by other players at Wall Street. After months of internal debate at Goldman, the paper said the seven top executives at the firm, including chief executive officer Lloyd Blankfein, asked the board's compensation committee to grant them no bonuses.
Industry insiders as well as sector experts said that companies are unlikely to miss this opportunity to rationalise bloated boom-time salaries.
"It would be lucky if we get 6 per cent (growth rate) this year," he said while describing the 7.1 per cent gross domestic product growth rate projection of the Research and Information System for Developing Countries as 'very optimistic'. RIS director-general Nagesh Kumar in his presentation projected an economic growth rate of 7.1 per cent for the current fiscal, even as he pitched for a fiscal stimulus of $50 billion to neutralise the impact of the global slowdown.
UK's leading department store chain Debenhams has so far opened two stores in India alongwith its franchisee partner, Planet Retail.
Unemployed Paul W Nawrocki of New York, hangs a poster around his neck seeking job, giving his resume to everyone, outside the Grand Central Station, 42nd Street New York on November 8, 2008. Employees across the globe are worried with many global giants laying off their staff in big numbers in the wake of the global financial crisis.
The Business Confidence Index formulated by NCAER stood at a seven-year low of 91.4 points in January 2009, plummeting 41 per cent compared to a year ago period. On a quarterly basis, the index lost 24 per cent compared to October 2008. 'This (BCI) is the lowest since January 2002,' the NCAER said in its quarterly review of the business expectations survey. It said the slowdown in the markets appears to be a leading factor in influencing the fall in business expectations.
Financier Bernard Madoff has pleaded guilty to all 11 charges in one of the largest swindles in Wall Street history. He faces as many as 150 years in prison when sentenced.
India Inc on Monday asked the government to pull out all stops to ensure availability of enough money to drive the economy on a high growth trajectory despite the global meltdown.
The IT and BPO services provider's CEO says there are no salary cuts yet, but can't say what will happen three months ahead. According to MphasiS' (interim) Chief Financial Officer, Susanto Banerjee, the company has already been working to so convert its fixed costs, "progressively over the quarters." It is also looking at fixed costs involving infrastructure. "We are thinking of having our future infrastructure on pay-per-use basis," he said.
NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal has suffered a $50 billion decline in the value of shares he holds in the ArcelorMittal following the global financial meltdown, a leading economic daily has claimed.
This happened in a year which witnessed the overall increase in the CPSEs' profits from Rs 89,578 cr a year ago to Rs 91,140 cr. It is not linked to the global financial crisis, which resulted in the loss of jobs of 5 lakh workers during four-month period ending December 2008. The CPSEs' employee strength has been reducing since 2001-02, during which they had a staff of about 20 lakh. The number fell gradually to 16.14 lakh during 2006-07 and further to 15.7 lakh in 2007-08.
India has a better chance of growing independent of the West than any other country in Asia.
Indian economic growth has slowed down drastically to 5.3 per cent in the third quarter of fiscal year 2008-09 as against 8.9 per cent in the same period a year ago.
UTI Asset Management Company, the country's fourth-largest mutual fund, is reviewing its proposed initial public offering in view of the turbulence in the global financial markets and the meltdown in Indian equities. The management is having a rethink on the IPO because of the bearish sentiment prevailing in the markets and a lack of investor appetite, according to a source familiar with the development.
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.
The White House announced on Wednesday that President George W Bush will invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the other leaders of the G-20 countries for a major White House Summit to discuss the Wall Street meltdown.
The prime minister also said that he expects inflation to come down in next two months. He, however, did not rule out 'indirect impact on th eIndian economy' due to the global financial crisis.
The motion was given by Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI), Rupchand Pal and Santashri Chatterjee (both CPI-M) who were sharply critical of the government's "insensitive" attitude to large scale retrenchment and wage cuts and spoke of job losses to the tune of 20 lakhs (Rs 2 million) in the country.
It will take a big change in economic policy and very radical, coordinated action among all advanced and emerging-market economies to avoid disaster.
The investors shouted slogans against Chidambaram, holding him responsible for the crash in the market on Tuesday morning.
C B Bhave, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, said on Monday that the 40 per cent limit on investment through offshore derivative instruments, or Participatory Notes, will be removed.
Democracy and terrorism, the two pet themes of the 2005 summit, were largely left unsaid in the official briefing on the September 25 summit. The omission, observers say, speaks volumes about the realities the US is facing in the global war on terror, in responding to Russia's aggressive manoeuvrings, managing anti-US sentiment in Pakistan, and battling a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan
With the financial meltdown in the US gripping his administration, President George W Bush told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the one person he wanted to spend time with was the Indian leader for his calming and serene effect.
The market, which has been hit by global meltdown, would stabilise within a period of 16-18 months and by July-August 2010 the volume should rise, IMBS chairman and executive director of Indian Bank A Subramanian told reporters. Despite the global meltdown and southward movement of share broking business across the country, he was hopeful that with an improving market IMBS would surpass Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) business in the next two years.
According to travel management companies, travel budgets of financial sector majors have seen a fall of 40 per cent this year compared with the decline in other segments, like manufacturing, which has shrunk by 20 per cent and IT, which has seen a drop of 10-15 per cent. Global travel conglomerates like Radius, which have a formidable presence across the globe because of the travel agents' network, said times are tough as a majority of businesses are shrinking.
Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Power is likely to announce the financial closure of its 3,960-Mw Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP) in a few weeks.
The state-run Oil India Ltd has raised a war chest $1.5 to 2 billion and is eying acquisition of small to medium sized oil producing companies overseas.
The airline is currently conducting the exercise to have 30-50 pilots and 50 cabin crew on board in the next few days. It became the third largest carrier by flying 4,41,000 passengers in November with a market share of 14.7 per cent.
US President-elect Barack Obama has said that his country, in the middle of an economic recession, is in a very difficult spot and the situation is getting worse.
A city which witnesses festivities on New Year eve every year, Delhi is sans 'lights', 'cards', 'gifts' and jubilation this season with five star hotels refraining from bright decorations and advertising festivities to attract patrons.
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